provided for our sustenance, but to bestow it upon ourselves and upon the needy, to show ourselves by invocations and hymns thankful to him for our birth, our health, and all that he has made, and for the vicissitudes of the season.

The Catholic and Episcopal rendering of this passage makes the author say that, in all our offerings, ἐφ ̓ οἷς προσφερόμεθα πασίν, we praise him, öon divaus, with the utmost fervency of devotion. This, however, is a mistaken rendering of the verb, pоopéρoμaι, which, in the middle voice, means not to offer in sacrifice, or to worship, but to participate, to enjoy. So it is rendered by Scapula, Hedericus, Bretschneider, Passow, etc. The passage relates, not to an act of sacrifice, nor of public worship, as the connection shows, but to deeds of piety toward God, and of benevolence to men, done according to their ability; by which means they offered the best refutation of the groundless calumnies of their enemies, who had charged them with an atheistical neglect of the gods. The declaration is, that for all their blessings they express, according to their ability, thanksgivings to God, and testify their gratitude by deeds of charity to their fellow-men.

3

"Having, therefore, exhorted you, öon dúvauis, according to our ability, both by reason and by a visible sign or figure, we know that we shall henceforth be blameless if you do not believe, for we have done what we could for your conversion." He had done what he could: by various efforts of argument and exhortation, and by visible signs he had laboured according to his ability to bring them to receive the truth. The exhortation was the free expression of his heart's desire for their conversion. Can there be any doubt that the phrase denotes the same freedom of expression in prayer? These passages appear to us clearly to illustrate the meaning of the phrase in question, as used by our author, and to justify our interpretation.*

If one desires further satisfaction on this point, he has only to turn to the works of Origen, in which this and similar forms of expression are continually occurring, to denote the invention, ability, and powers of the mind. Origen, in his reply to the calumnies of Celsus, proposes to refute them, "according to his ability."* In his preface he has apologized for the Christians "as well as he could." These Christians sought "as much as possible" to pre

* Όση δύναμις, lib. 6, g ii. vol. ii. p. 694 ; so, also, κατὰ το δύνατον, 8 12, p. 638. † Karà rηy naрovoar divav, Præf. lib. Contr. Cels.

serve the purity of the church. They strove to discover the hidden meaning of God's word, "according to the best of their abilities." In these instances the reference is not to the fervour of the spirits, or the ardour of the mind, but to the exercise of the mental powers. The act performed is done according to the ingenuity, the talents of the agents in each case.

From Irenæus and Tertullian we derive no additional information respecting the religious worship of the primitive Christians; but Tertullian, at the close of the second century, briefly describes the worship of the African church:-" We meet in public assembly to pray for the emperor, for his ministers, for the public welfare, for universal peace, and the delay of the end of the world, pro mora finis. We meet to read the Sacred Records, and, as circumstances may require, to stir up our minds by way of remembrance or admonition; especially by the Sacred Scriptures, we confirm our faith, we quicken our hope, we establish our confidence, and, by renewed application, encourage ourselves to keep the Divine law. In the same assemblies we offer also admonitions, we institute examinations, and administer the Divine censure, [the religious discipline of the church;] for with great caution such examinations are made, as though under the eye of God, and in view of the future judgment, whether any one has so offended as to require him to be excluded from the fellowship of our prayers, from our public assemblies, and from all communion within sacred things. Certain elders preside who have obtained this honour, not by purchase, but by the testimony of their lives." Tertullian then explains what provisions are made by charitable collections for orphan children, for the poor, the aged, the afflicted, and the persecuted, as specified above, p. 74; he describes the mutual affection of the brethren and their community of goods, and the purity and simplicity of their love-feasts; and, in this connection, gives us a further insight into their mode of religious worship. "No one takes his seat at the table until prayer has been offered to God. They eat only sufficient to satisfy their hunger, and drink enough to slake their thirst. They partake of these provisions in remembrance that God is to be honoured by night as well as by day, and converse as in the audience of God.

* "Oon divaμis, Contr. Cels. lib. 3, vol. ii. p. 482.

† Lib. 6, 2, p. 630. Comp. in Comment. in Math. öon dvvaus, tom. 17, vol. iii. p. 809; xarà to dúvarov, tom. 16, vol. iii. p. 785; xarà divapur, tom. 17, vol. iii. p. 779, vol. iv. p. 6; xarà tǹv napovoar divaμv, tom. 17, vol. iii. p. 794; also CLARKSON'S Discourse on Liturgies, pp. 247-374, Select Works, London, 1846.

After this, lights are brought in, and water for the hands; then any one present is requested to sing a song to God, either from the Sacred Scriptures or from the suggestions of his own mind, de proprio ingenio. After this the festival is concluded by prayer.'

Here, at the end of the second century, we recognise still the mutual fellowship and communion of the first converts to Christianity, perpetuated by the same familiar rites of sacred worship-prayer, the reading of the Scriptures, mutual exhortation and encouragement in their religious life, psalms and spiritual songs. On another occasion he informs us, that as in this instance, the Christians sometimes began their religious assemblies before nightfall, and continued them into the evening; in other instances they assembled at the dawn of day for social worship.

The testimony of Tertullian is opposed to the theory of a liturgical form of worship in the primitive worship. "We Christians pray," he says, "without a monitor, because from the heart," sine monitore quia de pectore.

Much ingenuity has been employed to reconcile this expression with the use of a prayer-book; but, viewed in connection with the freedom and simplicity in which worship was at that time conducted, its real import is sufficiently obvious. He justifies, indeed, the use of the Lord's prayer, but seems to intimate that to God alone belongs the right of prescribing forms of prayer. "God alone," says he, "can teach us how he would be addressed in prayer." But he adds, "Our Lord, who foresaw the necessities of men, after he had delivered this form of prayer, said, 'Ask, and ye shall receive;' and there are some things which need to be asked, according to every one's circumstances; the rightful and ordinary being first used as a foundation, we may lawfully add other occasional desires, and make this the basis of other petitions."

The writings of Irenæus, Clement of Alexandria, Minucius Felix, and Cyprian, and even the voluminous works of Origen and Eusebius, afford little additional information respecting the forms of worship that prevailed in the second and third centuries. They indicate no essential departure from the simplicity of primitive worship. They give no intimation of any liturgical forms of prayer for Christians, with the exception of the Lord's prayer, and this, as may appear under another head, was not a prescribed liturgical form, but an example of the appropriate spirit and subjects of prayer, however and by whomsoever offered.

We will only add, on this subject, that the attitude of the primi

tive Christians forbids the supposition that they used written prayers. The attitude of the suppliant was with eyes uplifted and hands outspread,* or kneeling with head inclined and eyes closed, to shut out from the mind every disturbing object, or, as Origen expresses it, "closing the eyes of his senses, but erecting those of his mind."

We are far from affirming that the free, familiar, confiding spirit of the early Christians is utterly inconsistent with the use of a liturgy; but surely such a spirit does find utterance rather in the unstudied suggestions of the occasion than in the frigid, formal dictations of a prayer-book. When we take into consideration, also, the customary attitude for prayer, in connection with the absence of all historical evidence of a liturgy previous to the third century, we must conclude that it was unknown in the church previous to that period.

§ 2. OF THE SECRET DISCIPLINE OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH.

DISCIPLINA ARCANI.

In an historical survey of the rites of public worship observed by the primitive Christians, we arrive at a period, antecedent to the use of a liturgy, when an important change was introduced into their public worship by the division of it into parts or lessons, known subsequently as the missa catechumenorum and the missa fedelium-the mass, or service, for the catechumens and for the faithful, the baptized or believers. The origin of this innovation and the causes which gave rise to it are involved in great obscurity, and have been the subject of much controversy. Christianity in the beginning confessedly had no mysteries to conceal, or none which, with "prudent reserve," should be withheld from the ignorant, the irreligious, the uninitiated. Nothing like this secret discipline, which reserved certain topics of religion exclusively for baptized believers, and excluded all others, was known in the age of the apostles, or that which immediately followed. But it became customary at an early period to celebrate the ordinances of religion with an air of profound mystery. The church became a secret society, whose rites, in connection with certain doctrines, were concealed with the strictest caution from the uninitiated.

* Illuc sursum suspicientes Christiani manibus expansis, quia innocuis, capite nudo, quia non erubescimus; denique sine monitore, quia de pectore oramus.

Not only were unbelievers of every kind excluded from them, but even candidates for admission to the church were kept in profound ignorance of the peculiar ordinances and doctrines of the church. These were themes upon which the private professor and the public teacher were strictly forbidden to touch. Not a hint was allowed to be given nor a whisper breathed on these topics. Even the preacher, when led in public discourse to speak of the sacraments and of the higher doctrines of the Christian system, contented himself with remote allusions, and dismissed the subject by saying, The initiated understand me—ἴσασιν οἱ μεμνημένοι. The fathers never allowed themselves to write on these mysteries, except in enigmatical and figurative expression, lest they should seem, in their own phraseology, to be giving that which is holy unto dogs, or casting pearls before swine.

He reflects se"No one knows

Neither the apostolical fathers nor their immediate successors make any allusion to this secret discipline. Tertullian is supposed to refer to it in the passage cited in the margin. verely upon the irregularities of certain heretics. who is a catechumen; who a believer. They all come and hear and pray alike; and even if the heathen chance to come in, they give that which is holy unto dogs, and cast their pearls, such as they are, before swine."* He proceeds to complain that even the women venture to assume the sacred functions of the ministry, and that they observe no order in their ecclesiastical appointments, so that "the same one is to-day a bishop; to-morrow, something else; one day a presbyter; another, a layman." From this connection, the inference is that Tertullian has reference to these disorders, rather than to any improper attendance upon forbidden mysteries. It would seem, however, that about the beginning of the third century, the churches of Africa began to attach a mysterious solemnity to the distinguishing doctrines and rites of the Christian religion, and to withdraw them from the notice of the irreligious and unbelieving. Neander supposes this mysticism to have had its origin in the Alexandrian church. The theology of Clement and Origen, of this church, was deeply tinged with it. From the African churches, this secret discipline spread to those of the East and the West, and was gradually developed in the course of the third century, and matured in the fourth. Mosheim, in his Commentaries, has sketched, with

* Imprimis quis catechumenus, quis fidelis, incertum est. Pariter adeunt, pariter audiunt, pariter orant; etiam ethnici si supervenerint, sanctum canibus, et porcis margaritas, licet non veras, jactabunt.-De Præscrip. c. 41.