viding themselves into two parts, and finging by turns. Sect. IX. Ever fince which time it has been thought fo reasonable and decent, as to be univerfally practifed. What Theodoret writes, that Flavianus and Diodorus were the first that ordered the Pfalms of David to be fung alternately at Antioch, feems not to be meant of the first institution of this custom, but only of the restoring of it, or else of the appointing fome more convenient way of doing it. Ifidore fays, that St. Ambrofe was the first that introduced this cuftom among the Latins; but this too must be understood only in relation to fome alterations that were then made; for Pope Cæleftine, as we read in his life, applied the Pfalms to be fung alternately at the celebration of the Eucharift. This practice, lo primitive and devout, our church (though there is no particular rubric to enjoin it) ftill continues in her fervice either by fing ing, as in our cathedral worship; or by faying, as in the parochial. For in the former, when one fide of the choir fing to the other, they both provoke and relieve each other's devotion: they provoke it (as Tertullian remarks) by a holy contention, and relieve it by a mutual fupply and change for which reafons, in the parochial fervice, the reading of the Pfalms is alfo divided between the minifter and the people. And indeed did not the congregation bear their part, to what end does the minifter exhort them to praije the Lord? or what becomes of their promife, that their mouths fhall fhew forth his praife? To what end again is the invitatory (O come, let us fing unto the Lord, &c.) placed before the Pfalms, if the people are to have no fhare in praifing him in the Pfalms that follow? ufed in 85. Nor does the ufe of Mufical Inftruments in the Mufical Inoffinging of Pfalms appear to be lefs ancient than the custom ftruments itfelf of finging them. The firft Pfalm we read of was finging of fung to a Tymbrel, viz. that which Mofes and Miriam Palms, fang after the deliverance of the children of Ifrael from Egypt. And afterwards at Jerufalem, when the Tem uple was built, Mufical Inftruments were conftantly ufed at their public fervices". Moft of David's Pfalins, we fee by the titles of them, were committed to mafters of mufic to be fet to various tunes; and in the hundred and fiftieth Pfalm efpecially, the prophet calls upon the people 7 Hift. Eccl. l. ii. c. 24. 9 Sonant inter duos Pfalmi et Hymni, et mutuo provocant quis melius Deo fuo cantet : Talia Chriftus videns et audiens gaudet. Tert. ad 10 Exod. xv. 20. 11 2 Sam. vi; 5. r Chron. xv. 16. 2 Chron. v. 12, and xxix. 25. Chap. III. to prepare their different kinds of inftruments wherewith to praife the Lord. And this has been the conftant practice of the church, in moft ages, as well fince, as before the coming of Chrift 12. Organs used in When Organs were first brought into ufe, is not clearly known: but we find it recorded that about the year 766, churches. Conftantius Copronymus, Emperor of Conftantinople, fent a prefent of an Organ to King Pepin of France 13; and it is certain that the ufe of them has been very common now for several hundred of years; Durand mentioning them several times in his book, but giving no intimnation of their novelty in divine fervice. to be re peated ftanding. The Pfalms §. 6. When we repeat the Pfalms and Hymns we ftand; that, by the erection of our bodies, we may exprefs the elevation or lifting up of our fouls to God. Though another reafon of our standing is, because some parts of them are directed to God, and others are not: as therefore it would be very improper to kneel at thofe parts which are not directed to him; fo it would be very indecent to fit, when we repeat thofe that are. And therefore because The Gloria ath thefe parts, viz. thofe which are, and those which not directed to God, are fo frequently altered, and mingled one with another, that the moft fuitable pofture for each of them cannot always be ufed: ftanding is prefcribed as a posture which best suits both together; which is also confonant to the practice of the Jewish church recorded in the Scripture. For we read, that while the Priests and Levites were offering up praifes to God, all Ifrael flood. And we learn from the ritualifts of the chriftian church's, that when they came to the Pfalms, they always fhewed the affection of their fouls by this pofture of their bodies. §. 7. At the end of every Pfalm, and of every part of the hundred and nineteenth Pfalm 16, and all the Hymns," peated at the end of (except the Te Deum; which, because it is nothing elfe"" all the almoft but the Gloria Patri enlarged, hath not this DoxoPfalms and logy annexed,) we repeat Glory be to the Father, &c. a cuf Hymns. tom which Durandus would have us believe was inftituted by Pope Damafus, at the request of St. Jerom" but for 14 2 Chron. vii. 6. 15 Vide Amal. Fort. lib. 3. cap. 3. Durand. Rational. lib. 5. cap. 2. 16 See the order how the Pfalter is appointed to be read. 17 Durand. Rational. I. 5. c. 2. n. 17. fol. 214. this there appears to be but little foundation. In the east-Sect. IX. ́* ern churches they never used this Glorification, but only at the end of the last Pfalm, which they called their Antiphona, or Allelujah, as being one of thofe Pfalms which had the Allelujah prefixed to it's: but in France, and feveral other of the Western churches, it was used at the end of every Pfalm 19: which is ftill continued with us, to fignify that we believe that the fame God is worshipped by Chriftians as by Jews; the fame God that is glorified in the Pfalms, having been from the beginning, Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, as well as now. So that the Gloria Patri is not any real addition to the Pfalms, but is only used as a neceffary expedient to turn the Jewish Pfalms into Chriftian Hymns, and fit them for the use of the Church now, as they were before for the ufe of the Synagogue. Pfalms. §. 8. The prefent divifion of the Book of Pfalms into The courfe several portions (whereby two separate portions are affixed obferved in to each day, and the circle of the whole to the circuit of reading the the month) feems to be more commodious and proper than any method that had been used before. For the divifion of them into feven portions called Nocturns, which took up the whole once a week, (as practifed in the Latin church,) feemed too long and tedious. And the divifion of them into twenty portions, to be read over in fo many days, (as in the Greek church,) though lefs tedious, is too uncertain, every portion perpetually fhifting its day: whereas in our church, each portion being conftantly fixed to the fame day of the month, (except there be proper Pfalms appointed for that day, as all the former Common PrayerBooks expreffed it,) the whole courfe is rendered certain and immoveable: and being divided into threefcore different portions, (ie, one for every morning, and one for every evening fervice,) none of them can be thought too tedious or burdenfome. In all the old Common PrayerBooks indeed, becaufe January and March have one day above the number of thirty, (which, as concerning this purpofe, was appointed to every month,) and February, which is placed between them both, hath only twenty-eight days; it was ordered, that February should borrow of either of the months (of January and March) one day and fo the Pfalter which was read in February, began at the last day of January, and ended the first day of March. And to know what Pfalms 18 Caffian. Inftitut. 1. 2. c. 8. Strabo de Reb. Ecclef. c. 25. K3 : 19 Caffian. ut fupra. were 1 Chap. III. were to be read every day, there was (pursuant to another rubric) a column added in the calendar, to fhew the number that was appointed for the Pfalms; and another table where the fame number being found, fhewed what Pfalms were to be read at Morning and Evening Prayer. But this being found to be troublesome and needlefs, it was ordered firft in the Scotch Liturgy, and then in our own, that in February the Pfalter fhould be read only to the twenty-eighth or twenty-ninth day of the month. And January and March were inferted into the rubric, which before ordered that in May and the reft of the months that had one and thirty days a-piece, the fame Pfalms fhould be read the last day of the faid months, which were read the day before: fo that the Pfalter may begin again the first day of the next month enfuing. The Pfalms to be used according to the tranf. lation in the great Bible. they follow §. 9. The Pfalms we ufe in our daily fervice are not taken out of either of the two last translations of the Bible, but out of the great English Bible, tranflated by William Tyndal and Miles Coverdale, and revifed by Archbishop Cranmer: for when the Common Prayer was compiled in 1548, neither of the two last translations were extant. It is true indeed, that at the last review the Epiftles and Gofpels were taken out of the new tranflation: and the Leffons too, fince that time, have been read out of King James the First's Bible. But in relation to the Pfalms it was noted, that the Pfalter followeth the divifion of the Hebrews, and the tranflation of the great, English Bible fet forth and used in the time of King Henry the Eighth, and King Edward the Sixth. The reafon of the continuance of which order is the plainness and smoothness of this tranflation: for the Hebraifms being not fo much retained in this as in the late tranflations, the verses run much more mufical and fitter for devotion. Though, as the old rubric informs us, this tranflation, from the ninth Pfalm unto the hundred and forty-eighth Pfalm, doth vary in numbers from the common Latin tranflation. SECT. X. Of the Leffons. The Lef- OUR hearts being now raifed up to God in praifing and fons, why admiring him in the Pfalms; we are in a fit temper the Pfalms, and difpofition to hear what he fhall fpeak to us by his word. And thus too a refpite or intermiffion is given to the bent of our minds: for whereas they were required 20 See the order how the Pfalter is appointed to be read. to to be active in the Pfalms, it is fufficient if in the Leffons Sect. X. they hold themselves attentive. And therefore now fol low two chapters of the Bible, one out of the Old Teftament, the other out of the New, to fhew the harmony between the Law and the Gofpel: for what is the Law, but the Gospel forefhewed? what the Gofpel, but the Law fulfilled? That which lies in the Old Testament, as under a fhadow, is in the New brought out into the open fun things there prefigured are here performed. And for this reafon the firft Leffon is taken out of the Old Teftament, the second out of the New, that fo the minds of the hearers may be gradually led from darker revelations to clearer views, and prepared by the vails of the Law to bear the light breaking forth in the Gospel. : 99 Leffons. §. 2. And here it may not be amifs to obferve the great The antiantiquity of joining the reading of Scriptures to the public quity of devotions of the church. Juftin Martyr fays, "It was a "custom in his time to read Leffons out of the Prophets "and Apoftles in the affembly of the faithful" " And the council of Laodicea, held in the beginning of the fourth century, ordered "Leffons to be mingled with the "Pfalins22. And Caffian tells us, that," It was the "conftant cuftom of all the chriftians throughout Egypt "to have two Leffons, one out of the Old Testament, and "another out of the New, read immediately after the "Pfalms; a practice, he fays, fo ancient, that it cannot be "known whether it was founded upon any human infti"tution23" Nor has this practice been peculiar to the Chriftians only, but conftantly used alfo by the Jews ; who divided the books of Mofes into as many portions as there are weeks in the year; that fo, one of those portions being read over every fabbath-day, the whole might be read through every year. And to this anfwers that expreffion of St. James's, that Mofes was read in the Synagogues every fabbath-day. And that to this portion of the Law they added a Leffon out of the Prophets, we may gather from the thirteenth of the Acts, where we find it mentioned that the Law and the Prophets were both read in a Synagogue where St. Paul was prefent26, and that the Prophets were read at Jerufalem every fabbath-day?. §. 3. For the choice of thefe Leffons and their order, |