church to such superstitious adherence to apostolical precedents, is manifest in the extreme care with which the ancient Christians affected to transmit the unrecorded traditions of the apostles. The Jews before them had made the Scriptures of none effect by their traditions. They had traditions which they held sacred as a revelation fresh from heaven, and by which they totally annulled what heaven had actually revealed. So the Christians had their traditions, which they transmitted with the utmost care, and often appealed to them as authority for usages about which the written revelations of God are silent. Tertullian specifies many ceremonies connected with baptism and the Lord's supper, for which he claims no scriptural authority, but tradition; such as renouncing the devil and his pomp and his angels, various responses, trine immersion, the mingling of milk and honey with the wine, offerings for the dead, commemoration of martyrs, refusing to fast or bend the knee on the Lord's day and on Whitsunday, the extreme care of the communicants that no particle of the sacred elements be lost, and the sign of the cross, used on all occasions. After this enumeration he adds, "If for these and similar rites you seek for the authority of Scripture, you will find none; tradition is the sole authority confirmed by custom, the observance becomes a rule of faith.*

Basil the Great, in answer to the inquiry, who has left any written directions respecting the use of the form of invocation in the blessing of the elements, replies that nothing is recorded respecting it, and proceeds to say, "We do not content ourselves with the instructions of the apostle or of the gospel, but we premise and subjoin other things as of great force in this solemnity, which have been received from unrecorded instructions."†

6. Gradual formation of liturgies.-Böhmer cites this passage as shedding light upon the darkness that overshadows the origin of liturgies. The apostles of the Gentiles, he supposes, would naturally organize the churches which they might form of converts from paganism, after the general pattern of the church at Jerusalem, and yet the forms and ceremonies would be more or less modified

* Harum et aliarum ejusmodi disciplinarum, si leges expostules Scripturarum, nullam invenies; traditio tibi prætenditur auctrix; consuetudo, confirmatrix; fides, observatrix.—TERTULL. De Coron. c. 4.

† Οὐ τούτοις ἀρκούμεθα ὧν ὁ ἀπόστολος ἢ εὐαγγέλιον ἐπεμνήσθη, ἀλλὰ καὶ προλε γομεν καὶ ἐπιλέγομεν ἕτερα, ὡς μεγάλην ἔχοντα πρὸς τὸ μυστήριον τὴν ἰσχὺν, ἐκ τῆς ȧypápov didaoxarías napañaßóvtes.—Ep. 27, De Spirit. Sanct.

according to the circumstances of the people, and peculiar mental habits of the apostle or evangelist by whom the church was founded. In this manner a general agreement would prevail in all the churches in connection with minor diversities. The rites and ceremonies of the original organization would at first be perpetuated by tradition, and by degrees be committed to writing.

The modifications and additions, which from time to time each church should make, would be gradually blended with the original draft, and soon come under the fictitious sanction of apostolical authority.

7. Arbitrary forms of written prayers.—It is conceded that when first bishops began to substitute written for oral prayers, each was at liberty to indite his own. It was only necessary that he should write his prayers as one writes his sermons for delivery; and these prayers might naturally be incorporated with the ritual of religious worship.

Such is a brief outline of the theory which has been proposed to account for the gradual substitution of a liturgical form of worship for the free and informal worship of the primitive church. But whatever may have been the origin of liturgies, to claim for them the authority of the apostles, and the usage of the apostolical churches, is altogether an unauthorized assumption.

8. Model of ancient liturgies.-The most ancient liturgy extant is that of the Apostolical Constitutions, which is of no higher antiquity than the third or fourth century. From this the ancient liturgies, both of the Eastern and Western churches, may have been formed as early as the fifth. This is the highest antiquity which Palmer claims for them,' and the utmost that even the credulity of the Oxford Tractarians ventures to claim in favour of their antiquity, is, that one, (that of Basil,) may be traced with tolerable certainty to the fourth century, and three others to the middle of the fifth century.8

9. Number and diversity. The number and diversity of the ancient liturgies plainly indicate that the ancient churches were continually tampering with their rituals as with their creeds, and that they were far from regarding them as some sacred thing on which none must lay a rude and sacrilegious hand. We have the liturgy of Antioch, of Basil, of Chrysostom, of Alexandria, of Rome, of Milan, of Africa, of Gaul, of Spain, of Ephesus, &c. &c.

10. Comparative summary.—The Oxford liturgists have made a

comparative summary of these liturgies or services, which were appointed to be used at the celebration of the Lord's supper, and which they find to have resembled one another in the following points :

"1. All of them direct that, previous to communion, those who intend to communicate shall exchange the kiss of peace.'

"2. In all of them, the more particularly solemn part of the service commences with words exactly answering to the English, 'Lift up your hearts,' &c., as far as 'Holy Father, almighty, everlasting God.'

"3. All contain the hymn, 'Therefore with angels and archangels,' &c., with very trifling varieties of expression.

"4. Also, they all contain a prayer, answering in substance to ours, for the whole state of Christ's church militant.'

“5. And, likewise, another prayer, (which has been excluded from the English ritual,) for the rest and peace of all those who have departed this life in God's faith and fear;' concluding with a prayer for communion with them.

"6. Also, a commemoration of our Lord's words and actions in the institution of the eucharist, which is the same, almost word for word, in every liturgy, but is not taken from any of the four Scripture accounts.

"7. A sacrificial oblation of the eucharistic bread and wine. "8. A prayer of consecration, that God will make the bread and wine the body and blood of Christ.'

"9. Directions to the priest for breaking the consecrated bread.

"10. The Lord's prayer.

"11. Communion.

"These parts are always arranged in one of the four following orders :

Roman Liturgy.

1. Lift up your hearts, &c.

2. Therefore with angels, &c.

3. Prayers for the church on earth.

4. Consecration prayer.

5. Commemoration of our Lord's words. 6. The oblation.

7. Prayers for the dead.

8. Breaking of bread.

9. The Lord's prayer.

10. The kiss of peace. 11. Communion.

Oriental Liturgy.

10. The kiss of peace.

1. Lift up your hearts, &c.

2. Therefore with angels.

5. Commemoration of our Lord's words.

6. The oblation.

4. Consecration prayer.

3. Prayers for the church on earth.

7. Prayers for the dead.

9. The Lord's prayer.

8. Breaking of bread.

11. Communion.

"Thus it appears, that the four original forms, from which all the liturgies in the world have been taken, resemble one another too much to have grown up independently, and too little to have been copied from one another. They were probably all constructed upon the basis of the form prescribed in the Apostolical Constitutions; or, at all events, were composed in conformity with some model of the third or fourth century. The prayers for the dead, which they all contain, are unscriptural, and, therefore, unwarranted and vain; some expressions in the consecration of the elements are obvious departures from primitive doctrine; and the appropriation of false titles, introduced after the composition and use of the forms themselves, is as plainly opposed to Christian simplicity and truth. But, together with these defects, we recognise in these ancient formularies much that is truly pious and devotional."

§ 4. OF ANCIENT CREEDS.

1. Their antiquity and use. The confession of faith belonged in the ancient church to the ceremonials of baptism, but the creed having become a part of the ritual of public worship in modern liturgies, it may with propriety be classed among the several parts of public worship.

Some confession of faith appears to have been required from the earliest institution of the church, as a condition of baptism and membership with the church. The confession was, in the age of the apostles, apparently very brief and simple, consisting merely in a general profession of faith in Christ, upon which, without further probation or trial, converts to Christ under the preaching of the apostles, appear to have been baptized. "See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of

God." On this confession of faith the Ethiopian eunuch was baptized. Acts viii. 36-38. Some other traces of a confession of faith which was made at baptism, Neander supposes to be found, 1 Pet. iii. 21; to which Guericke adds 1 Tim. iii. 16, and vi. 12.

In process of time these confessions were drawn out far more in detail, and especially such articles were introduced as were most directly opposed to the prevailing errors of the times among Jews, pagans, and heretics, rather than such as might comprise the most important doctrines of the Christian religion. This polemic character of the ancient creeds is worthy of special notice, in order to a right understanding and just appreciation of them. By a confession framed in direct opposition to the errors of the age, the weak in faith were to be fortified against heresy and defection. It was, also, a compend of the articles of revealed faith, to guide both believers and unbelievers in their examination of the word of God. Some by this, without the Scriptures, were first made acquainted with the doctrines of the Christian religion. To the believer, it was at the same time the symbol of his profession, like the article of agreement or bond that binds one to the fulfilment of the conditions of a voluntary compact. Such appear to have been the uses and intents of the confession of faith in the ancient church.

2. Meaning of symbols.—The meaning of the word symbol has been the subject of much discussion. Neander understands it to mean "a sign," a mark, token, or evidence, and in proof of this interpretation refers to Tertullian, who first uses the word in this sense, when he says that baptism, which by its nature should be a symbol of life, sumbolum vitæ, becomes, to those who receive it without a right disposition, a symbol of death, sumbolum mortis. He refers to Firmilian also, who uses the term to designate, not the confession of faith, but the formula of baptism,* and adds, "Perhaps this word was originally nothing more than a designation of the formula of baptism, and became subsequently transferred to the confession of faith." The definition of Rufinus, of the fourth century, and Maximus Taurinensis of the fifth, are given in the margin.† "By symbols, in the doctrinal sense of the word, but neither in its

* Baptismus cui nec symbolum trinitatis, nec interrogatio legitima et ecclesiastica defuit.

† Symbolum-græce indicium dici potest et collatio.-RUFIN. in Sym. Apost. CYP. Opp. Ap. p. 198.

Symbolum tessera est et signaculum, quo inter fideles perfidosque secernitur.— MAX. TAUR. Hom. in Symb. p. 239.