Pour forth in our hearts, Almighty GoD, the pure and serene light of Thy truth; that we may have no portion in the dark'ness of sin, who have merited to know and to fear the eternal 'life.' The third :-'Hear us, O GOD of our salvation, and 'exclude from the consent of our will all evil concupiscence; 'that since we know Thee to be the true light, we may not be entangled by any chains of the world.' Fourth Prayer :'Let our prayers, O LORD, ascend to Thee, and repel all wicked'ness from Thy Church.' Fifth Prayer:- Grant to us, LORD, 'we beseech Thee, to lay aside perverse dispositions, and ever 'to love holy justice.' Mozarabic. First Prayer :- Give, O LORD, fortitude to Thy 'people against all adversities, and enrich Thy servants with 'the gift of peace; that according to the abundance of their 'quiet, they may with one voice celebrate Thy praise in Thy 'temple, and, forgetting the ills of their life, may ever offer glory and honour to Thy Majesty.' Second Prayer :- For'give, O LORD, the wickedness of our hearts, for which every one that is godly maketh his prayer to Thee in an acceptable 'time; and give us understanding, through the prayers which 'we offer, and instruct us in the path of this life, along which 'we journey.' Third Prayer:-Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O LORD, in the hearts of Thy servants, the joy of the righteous 'which is in Thee, that Thy praise, which becometh well the 'just, may expel all depravity from our senses.' These specimens may serve as an example of the infinite richness of such supplications. We will now continue the ordinary course of the Sundays. First Sunday in Lent. Our Collect is scarcely more than a distant imitation of the Roman and Sarum: GOD, Which 'purifiest Thy Church by the yearly observation of the forty 'days' fast, grant to Thy servants that the things which by abstinence they endeavour to obtain from Thee, they may through good works achieve.' Mr. Palmer quotes an Ambrosian Collect, which hardly bears a stronger resemblance to that of our Prayer-book. We can find no variation in the French or German Liturgies. The Commissioners, besides diluting the prayer, think fit to prefix what they call a sermon or homily, containing about ten lines, and in which they say: -It is most earnestly recommended to all persons, but more 'particularly to all Churchmen, to observe that time religiously, 'not placing fasting or devotion in any distinction of meats, 'but spending larger portions of their time in prayer,' &c. Second Sunday in Lent.-The Collect is almost a verbal translation; in the Gospel we follow the Sarum, which here curiously differs from the Roman, use. The latter reads the Transfiguration from S. Matthew; and some of the most striking' discourses of Italian preachers have been delivered on this day. But it is remarkable that Durandus explains our Gospel, and makes no allusion to the Roman: so does Sicardus. And this also was the case in the greater part of the Churches of Germany. Third Sunday in Lent.-Except that the epithet in 'hearty desires' is added, and that the object of God's defence, against all our enemies,' is subjoined, ours is a literal translation of the Sarum Collect. This Sunday is, by Latin liturgists, said to set forth to us more especially the doctrine and the duty of Confession, its key-note being that passage in the Gospel:'When the devil was gone out, the dumb spake.' In the Mozarabic Office, though both Epistle and Gospel are entirely different, the idea is evidently the same; the raising of Lazarus involving the doctrine of absolution in Loose him and let him go;' and the Benediction in Lauds brings out this idea very strongly. Fourth and Fifth Sundays in Lent. Here again our Collects are almost verbal translations of the Sarum. It may well be asked why, when everything else on Passion Sunday directs us more immediately to the subject on which from that day forward our thoughts are to be employed, the Collect should in no respect differ from those of the other Sundays in Lent. 6 The Parisian Missal substitutes another in its place :-'0 GOD, Who by the Passion of Thine Only-Begotten Son, and by 'His humiliation, even unto death, hast destroyed the pride of 'the ancient enemy: grant to Thy faithful people that they may both worthily remember that which He endured for us, ' and may by His example patiently bear all adversity; Who 6 liveth,' &c. Even the Commissioners of William the Third saw the propriety of a Passion Collect, as well as Epistle and Gospel. O Almighty GOD, Who hast sent Thy SON CHRIST, to be an High Priest of good things to come, and by His own Blood 'to enter in once into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal 'redemption for us; mercifully look upon Thy people, that by the same Blood of our Saviour, Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot unto Thee, our consciences 'may be purged from dead works, to serve Thee, the living GOD, that we may receive the promise of eternal inheritance, through JESUS CHRIST, our LORD.' Palm Sunday.-The Collect is again a mere translation; but it must be confessed that the arrangement of the Gospels for the following week is the great blot in the ritual of our Prayer-book. Let us compare their arrangement in ours, the Roman, the Mozarabic, and the Ambrosian books. ROMAN. AMBROSIAN. ENGLISH PRAYER-BOOK. ... In the same way let us now take the Epistles: ENGLISH PRAYER-BOOK. ROMAN. MOZARABIC. S. Matt. xxviii. 1–7. It must not be thought, however, that the Roman is by any means the exact norm of the provincial uses of the Western Church in this week. Retaining the ancient use, it here has a Prophecy on the Wednesday, on the Friday, and twelve on the Saturday. Many German Missals have a prophecy for every day of the week; the Aquilæan agrees with them. As it may well be imagined, the Church seems to have, so to speak, exerted herself that her prayers for Holy Week should be worthy of the season. Departing a little from the strict classification with which we commenced, we will here give a few specimens of some of the most beautiful. Unfortunately, the Mozarabic, Ambrosian, and Eastern rites are so completely sealed books to most students, that we need not apologise for a few somewhat lengthened quotations; and truly glad shall we be if anything that we shall say shall incline them to explore for themselves those treasures of liturgical composition. We will venture to assert, that if the Chaplains of the Archbishop of Canterbury would condescend to give but one week's attention to such books as these, we should be spared the remarkable compositions which on every state fast or festival inundate the English Church. How magnificent, for example, is this Collect from the Mozarabic Breviary, at Matins for Monday in Holy Week: 'Arise, O LORD, not from sleep, not from place, not from time, O infinite and eternal Watch; that since many persecute, many harass Thy little flock, Thou, our Redeemer and Defender, wouldest be present as our Hope in the storm, our Shelter in the heat, and tread under foot the fierceness and the evil councils of them that rise up against us, and scatter the collected thousands of them that surround us.' Or again this, at Sexts, on the same day : 'CHRIST, the Son of GOD, Who, in the extremity of Thy Passion, hadst gall and vinegar given Thee to drink by the Jews, grant to us that by this, 1 But the Epistle and Gospel "in the Winter Church for the Baptized," are Romans i. 1-7, and S. John iii. 1-13. the bitterness which Thou didst taste for us, we may be made joyful by drinking of the river of Thy pleasures; to the end that both the bitterness of Thy death may increase the sweetness of our love, and the power of Thy resurrection may manifest to us in its perfect beauty the promised glory of Thy face.' Or again: let us turn to the glorious Missa in the Missal of the same Church, for Easter-day : : 'Let the heaven rejoice, and let the earth be glad let the sea laugh, let the sun shine out; calm weather has returned, the pestilence is at an end; the tempest has ceased, the darkness has vanished, the Cross has purged the atmosphere, the Blood has purified, the Sun has healed the earth; thus did crucified GOD redeem man. But if we regard the immutability of His Majesty, it was by gifts, not by labour. Because when He, devising the means of redemption, had grieved over our loss, He assumed the body of cur vileness, not because He could in no other way assist us against the tyranny of our fallen adversary, but to the end that the oracles of the Prophets might by this miracle of love be fulfilled. All the more certain knowledge, then, have they that are set free, that death wrought its work in the offence of the first transgressor, not through the weakness of man's frame, but through the exceeding vileness of sin that the cause of destruction was not frailty, but deliberate will: that the origin of punishment was the decay, not inherent in the work, but wrought by the crime: that the condition of the guilt was brought to pass, not by sense but by consent (non sensus statuit, sed consensus): that the sin of the fall arose from the contumacy of the world, not from the negligence of the Creator. Let me ask thyself, now that the LORD has redeemed us, in what part of thy frame did the devil first destroy thee? Was there any flaw in it as it came from the hands of its Maker, which brought to pass its destruction? In thy members thou hadst certainly been stable, hadst thou not been unstable in keeping the commandments. The tempter obtained possession of thy soul in which was the pre-eminence of thy dignity. Thou seest that it was the act not of thy LORD, but of thyself, that thou didst perish. I will say it, O Almighty God, confessing the depravity of the old man, yet not ungrateful for our present state of liberty; he could never have been subject to captivity, had he not been lord of his own liberty. And in this, then, O merciful Judge, confessing both the pre-eminence of Thine own power, and the iniquity of our own transgression, we pray and beseech that henceforth we may neither be able nor willing to sin any more.' This Missa is an excellent example of the antithetic style of the Mozarabic prayers: it is curious also to observe how the sentiments appear to have been influenced by the teaching of Faustus of Riez and others who, from the Augustinian party, received the name of Semi-Pelagians. Take another example from the same book: it shall be the Illation for Easter Monday: 'It is meet and right that we should render thanks to the Almighty FATHER, and to Thine only Son, our LORD JESUS CHRIST, Who, descending from heaven, ceased not to humble Himself until He found the fugitive servant whom He was seeking, not that having found, He might destroy him, but, setting him free from the chains of diabolical damnation, that He might re-create him as His own possession. Wherein the free-will of Him that descended vouchsafed to endure a voluntary death, not an unavoidable necessity. For He was not unwillingly drawn down, Who descended into hell by the path which the descending Saviour trod. He rose then the third day, alive from the dead, because He alone was found free among the dead. He accomplished the saying of the Prophet, uttered so long before, "After three days He will quicken us; the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight." According to which prefiguration, Jonah also, after his three days' imprisonment, was set free from the whale's belly; that the mystery of the Trinity might be manifested as co-operating in that which the Person of the SON alone undertook. Yes: He arose alive from the dead, because He was not obnoxious to destruction Who was free from sin. Nor could death hold Him captive Who was not buried by the death of transgression. Yes: He arose alive from the dead, who visited the place of death by the right of a Redeemer, not through the wickedness of a sinner. Death stood aghast at the Advent of the Almighty,-fearing its own death, and trembling with the terror of its own destruction; admired the LORD of Life, and feared Him as mighty whom it acknowledged as innocent; feared Him as the avenger, Whom it could not claim as the debtor. Because it is written, "O death, I will be thy death; O grave, I will be thy destruction." All these things, then, which were thundered forth of old time by the oracles of faithful Prophets, having been now accomplished, not only the heaven of heavens, with the whole army of the blessed angels, but the love of Thy faithful people here in exile, exults together with the seraphim in the hymn of due praise, saying: R. Holy, Holy,' &c. At the risk of wearying our readers, we cannot refrain from quoting the Post-Pridie of the same Office, as one of the finest in the Mozarabic ritual. 'Doing this, Most Holy FATHER, we set forth the death of Thine OnlyBegotten Son, by which we are redeemed, as He commanded us to do, till He Himself shall come. We have proclaimed that He died for our sakes: do Thou bestow on us the dignity of dying together with Him. We believe that He rose again; do Thou grant that we may rise from our daily falls. We believe and proclaim that He will come again to judge the world; do Thou grant us to have such a conversation, that we may merit to find that terrible Advent propitious to us. And we humbly beseech Thee that Thou wouldest accept and bless this oblation, as Thou didst accept the gifts of Thy righteous child Abel, and the sacrifice of our Patriarch Abraham, and that which Thy chief priest Melchisedec offered to Thee. Here, we beseech Thee, let Thy benediction invisibly descend as of old time it descended on the sacrifices of the Fathers. Let the sweet smelling savour ascend in the sight of Thy Divine Majesty from this Thy glorious altar by the hands of Thy angel, and let Thy HOLY SPIRIT come down upon these mysteries and sanctify both the oblations and the vows of Thy people that offer, that whoever may partake of this body may receive spiritual medicine to heal the wounds of the heart, to expel every thought of vanity from the mind, to eradicate hatred, to implant perpetual charity, which covers the multitude of sins.' Compare with these lengthened supplications the singularly short, and, to modern apprehension, cold Collects in the Ambrosian rite: this for example at Sexts, on Good Friday :- Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty and merciful GOD that, as the con'demnation of Thy Son was the salvation of all, and the atonement ' for the rebellious, so, through Thy mercy, a common worship 'may be paid to it by all that believe. Through,' &c. |