the heathens, and those prolix prayers which are mentioned in the Gospels-which were among the Pharisaic exhibitions of the day, and were among the three things to which the Jews annexed the promise of a long life. Their counterparts in the modern services of the Synagogue clearly show their analogy to the rehement. "outpourings" and repetitions of one miserable idea, which mark a certain class of devotees in the present age.

It is an utter anomaly, that after the regularly prescribed prayers, the minister should be left at liberty to ascend his pulpit and commence a tirade, half precatory, half doctrinal, without any proper form, from the wandering conceptions of his own misguided mind-that his too frequent effervescence on these occasions should be permitted to start out as a contrast with the sober piety and chastened zeal which pervade the Liturgy—that the Church of England should be placed in the Janus-like character of otherwise requiring, but here dispensing with, an established formulary. We must not, however, heap too many observations on those made by Bishop Mant.

It is difficult to imagine the permanent existence of a church, not intended to be affected or changed by outward circumstances, without such directories to devotion; such a wholesome, but coercive discipline. Amidst the various rites and ceremonies revealed to the Hebrew legislator on Mount Sinai, certain forms must have been in use, of which we discover distinct vestiges in the Pentateuch. In Numb. x. 35, 36; Ps. lxviii. 1; cxxxii. 8, we find apparently extracts from liturgic services; and from the injunction in Numb. vi. 22-26, we may reasonably suppose, that neither the tabernacle nor the temple was left unprovided with some fitted to every occasion: indeed, were every other datum wanting, the solemn benediction on Gerizim and the commination on Ebal would naturally suggest the idea to our minds. To particular festivals were attached particular services; and at the end of certain prayers, as we may collect from the historical books of the Old Testament, the people responded as in our Church. Besides, as the Gentile world had their religious forms and services fixed and established by long usage, the hypothesis that the Jewish nation, selected by God to become the depository of true religion upon earth, divinely led by him for that purpose into Canaan, should at the same time have been without a liturgical system, is too

*Beracoth. lv. i.

† This is shown by Porphyry περὶ ἐμψύχων ἀποχῆς. Clemens Alexandrinus, in the sixth book of his Stromata, intimates the same respecting the Ægyptians: he cites two of their books on Psalmody, one πɛpi θυμάτων distinct from that which treated of μοσχοσφραγιστικά, one περὶ ἀπαρχῶν, one περὶ εὐχῶν, one περὶ πομπῶν· and another on matters relating to festivals. In Jamblichus vii. 5, and in many pages of Plato's Cratylus, the same fact appears. In the laws of Manu, in the ZendAvesta, and in the religious works of the Mohammedans, proof exists, that such also was the practice of the East.

preposterous to be admissible. Unless they were furnished with one, whence arose the various forms in use among the modern Jews? Can they be convicted of falsehood or error in averring that they were chiefly derived from those of their forefathers? if not, is it possible that the primitive christian church, to which in the Dominical prayer* our Saviour gave a formulary, which still exists in detached passages of the Jewish writings, should not in its incipient state have had some liturgical helps to maintain it in "the unity of the Spirit and in the bond of peace ?" May we not even collect its classification from 1 Tim. ii. 1'?

In demonstration of our Saviour's conformity to such, St. Luke iv. 16-20, and of St. Paul's, Acts xiii. 14, 15, 27, may be advantageously adduced. And as the Jewish responses may, so may those of the first Christians, be taken in evidence, (of which we are certified by St. Paul's inquiry, How should the unlearned reply AMEN to him, who officiates in an unknown tongue?) and by the eucharistic formula (Acts iv. 24-31,) in which the whole congregation (ópo@vpadov) joined, after St. Peter's sermon; for had not the words been regularly prescribed, it would have been impossible for the whole audience to have uttered them at the same time. Without such a discipline, a rising church could scarcely have continued in its orthodoxy; and the various christian churches would have soon ceased to resemble each other in doctrine and institutions. They would have been as divided as the several sects of our day.

In our Saviour's time this formulary may have been found with some few variations in the Jewish liturgies: at present we collect it in parts from the different works, The present collection is taken from Schoettgen.

Пáтeρýμâv, ó év тoîs ovpάvois, D'DWIN Mish. Sot. ix. 13.

ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου·

ἐλθέτω ἡ βασιλεία σου

γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημά σου,

Passim apud Rabbinos.

.1 .Seder Tephill. vi קדש את שמך

ויתיקר שמיה בארצא כמה ואיהו יקירא לעילא: *is ev obparo eal drl ons ms

Sohar.

.1 .Mechilta xxxii מי שברא יום ברא פרנסתו .11 .Targ. in. Ps. xxv ושבוק לכולהון חובי הבא נמי כאן בעבירות שבין אדם למקום כאן בעבירות שבין אדם לחברו: .2 .Rost. Hashana, xvii .2 .Talc. Rob. cxxxix בא העת להביאו לידי נסיון

Passim apud Rabbinos à veteri Fodere.

In this prayer the opeλérai are the 'N", which word at the same time means debitores and peccatores-id est-ii, qui in nos peccant. The Doxology has the usual Jewish ascriptions to God- the kingdom,

שהגדולה והגבורה),and the glory והחוד,the power or mightiness הגבורה

.is of very common occurrence לעולם עד or לעולם .9 .Dan. ix

15 ) whose is the greatness, and the power, and the kingdom.-Bammidbar Rabba (p. 18. f. 234. 4.) Cf. 1 Chron. xxix. 11,

That there were primitive liturgies, those apocryphal collections which claim the names of St. Peter, of St. James, and other apostles, are collateral intimations; because, if a genuine Liturgy had not existed, there would have been no plea for these forgeries; the ascription of them was not confined to the apostles, but apocryphally extended even to Adam, to St. John the Baptist, and other eminent personages, as we may see in the codex Nazaræus. In the Coptic, in the Arabic, and in the Greek Liturgies, there are, however, frequent and extraordinary coincidences* with that of our own Church: whole passages and whole prayers are common to all, which we cannot but conclude to have been portions of the earliest formularies of the christian church. The selection of lessons we know to have been derived from the Levitical church, and to have been sanctioned by our Saviour's practice. The appointment of the first lesson has been attributed to Ezra (Neh. viii. 8), but the adaptation of those now in use has been referred to the fifth century. Without entering into the research of ordinances, which may be antitypically retraced to types, and which thus exhibit their antiquity, we have undeniable authority in favour of liturgical services regularly established; and can show that articles or compendia of faith, sacerdotal ordination, and other institutions, were indubitably coëval with the apostles.

If then the wisdom of the law sanctioned by ancient usage has made these the bulwarks of our Church, is it credible that the same law should have given a latitude, which would annul much of the efficacy of its enactments? Is it conceivable that the minister's supplications should be confined within reasonable limits in ninety-nine instances, and should be allowed to expatiate into extravagance in the hundredth? Is it consistent with the polity of a well-ordered ecclesiastical establishment to permit the imagination of the supplicating preacher to set it at variance with itself? to have an opportunity of confounding, of neutralizing, if not of destroying that fixed faith, that unity of solemn

As the Syriac, Coptic, and Arabic mostly agree, we will take the former as the specimen of the latter.

These, to which many more might be added, are sufficient to exhibit

the analogy,

feeling, that mixture of the reason with the heart's devotion, which it is its acknowledged object to produce? If we be enjoined to pray with the understanding, that injunction is infringed by public extemporaneous prayer; for it is impossible that an audience, unless previously acquainted with the matter of the petitions, should be able rationally to concur with them; because, whilst the minister is proceeding in his extemporaneous career, the audience can have no time to reflect, but either must assent to him without reflection, or, if they exercise their mental powers, must necessarily lose a very great proportion of his words. But having been, on the other hand, well and long acquainted with the matter of fixed prayers, they will have settled their judgment upon them, before they enter the House of God.

Many of these objections may equally be applied to the introduction of unauthorized hymns.*

From the indiscriminate admission of these productions, great mischief has occurred to the Church, for by them the minds of many have been sectarianized. They are easy vehicles for the conveyance of the doctrines of the composers, and therefore dangerous; nor is it any thing uncommon to hear hymns sung, whose spirit is directly contrary to that of the prayers. From their metrical nature they are apt to fasten themselves on the memory more readily than sober truth or common sense. The disgusting, the confident, the familiar, the amatory structure of many cannot fail to vulgarize religion, and invest it with the grossest conceptions; whilst others are so void of sense, that the Deity is dishonoured by the application of them to his worship. The instance given by Mr. Kennedy, which, in comparison of others which we might quote, is innocent, will fully exemplify our remarks.

Christ's soldiers have their uniform,

Their regimental dress;

'Tis lily-white, turned up with red;

"Tis Christ's own righteousness.

But, although in Clemens Alexandrinus, and some of the Greek fathers, we here and there discover a hymn; it was merely a private composition, and not intended for public service. Every one doubtless knows, that the Hebrew psalms were divided into five books, and that they had several titles, to which St. Paul's ψαλμοὶ, ὕμνοι, καὶ ᾠδαὶ πνευματικαὶ apparently referred. Some of these, according to the Jewish commentaries, were appointed for the daily service of the temple, some for the sabbath, some for the passover, some for the other festivals, some for those who were on their road to the temple on these occasions.

The hymns in the New Testament and first Fathers, were clearly psalms: Josephus against Apion calls the psalms ὕμνους εἰς τὸν Θεόν The uvos which was sung by our Saviour and his disciples, as they went to the Mount of Olives, was not such an one, as those which disgrace our churches: it was the Hillel, and consisted of the 116th, 117th, and 118th psalms, which formed the latter part of the service, after the passover had been eaten; the 113th, 114th, and 115th psalms having preceded the festival according to immemorial custom.

Thus, it is evident, that the restriction in the fifty-fifth canon is' is of a most salutary tendency; that it should be peremptorily enforced by the competent authorities, and that every true friend to the Church should feel indebted to Bishop Mant's exertions, for having again brought it before the public attention.

Dr. Henry Middeldorpf's Account of the Seidelian MS. of the New Testament in the Gymnasial Library at Frankfort on the Oder. THE Gymnasial Library at Frankfort on the Oder, possesses a MS. of the New Testament, a comparison of which with the critical apparatus in Mill, Bengel, Wetstein, and Griesbach, proves it to be the Seidelian, which Wetstein and Griesbach have in the Acts of the Apostles and the Catholic Epistles marked No. 42, in the Epistles of St. Paul No. 48, and in the Apocalypse No. 13. Ludolph Küster, in his edition of Mill's New Testament, and Bengel quote it, after their manner of designating MSS., as Codex Seidelianus.

The history of the MS. is somewhat obscure: at least we can only explain it by conjecturing the manner, in which the Library at Frankfort possessed it. Andreas Erasmus Seidel had brought three codices of the New Testament from the East; of which two, probably by the liberality of La Croze, came to John Christopher Wolf,* at Hamburgh, who had already possessed them some years, when, in 1723, he edited the third part of his Anecdota. They contain the four Gospels with some lacunæ, and are known under the name of Wolf's Codices.† Wetstein quotes them as G and H, in his Variantes; and Wolf, in the third volume of his Anecdota, gave extracts from both. The MS. G he sent to Richard Bentley, through

The religious hymns of the Gentiles were equally fixed. At Athens they were immutable. The old Doric hymns are noticed by Pausanias; and Porphyry (Supra, iv. 10,) has preserved that, which the Egyptians used at their funerals. Clemens Alexandrinus (Strom. ii. 633,) affirms, that all the Egyptian hymns were selected from the books of Thoth or Hermes Trismegistus; and in Sanscrit works we find many regularly appointed for religious worship.

Consequently, we may argue from general practice, more particularly from that of the Jews, and the example of our Saviour and his disciples, that the primitive Christians allowed to themselves no arbitrary latitude in this portion of divine service, and probably made use of the Book of Psalms.

*Wolf. Anecdota Græca, vol. iii. præf.: "Codex uterque liberalitate amici (certainly, La Croze) integerrimi-ante aliquot annos ex Bibliothecâ nobilissimi A. E. Seidelii sub hastâ vendita ad me pervenit. Is autem utrumque ex oriente, in quem cum legati auctoritate profectus erat, secum attulit. Alterius illorum videtur meminisse D. E. Iablonsky Præf. ad Bib. Heb. 37."

Wetstein Prolegg. p. 40, T. 1. Michaelis, Introd. to the New Test. pt. i. p. 699.