Q. Why are the people required to repeat the Lord's prayer with the minister? A. Here, and wheresoever else this prayer is used, the whole congregation are required to join with the minister, partly that the people ignorantly educated may sooner learn it; and partly to signify how boldly we may approach the Father, when we address him in the Son's words. Q. What is proper to be observed concerning the use of this prayer? A. That the offering up of this prevailing supplication, with true devotion, and zeal of heart, affords to God that glory, to the weakest man that aid, and to the most perfect Christian that solid comfort, which is unspeakable. VII. Of the Responses. Q. What follow after the Lord's prayer? A. The responses, consisting of prayers and praises. Q. Why are they called responses? A. From the people's answering the minister; which is agreeable to a very ancient practice of the Jews, who used to recite their public hymns and prayers alternately; and many of the Fathers assure us that the primitive Christians imitated them therein; so that there is no old liturgy, wherein there are not such short and devout sentences as these. Q. Should not all the congregation join the minister with an audible voice in the responses? A. Yes; for the beauty and solemnity of the service is entirely lost when the people leave the repeating of the responses to the clerk; and in this case also they do not perform their part in the solemn worship of God, but are as culpable for their neglect herein, as the minister would be for the neglect of his duty. Q. What is the design of these responses? A. To quicken and invigorate the people's devo tion, and, by a grateful variety, to engage their attention, too apt to wander, during the performance of sacred offices; for since they have their share of duty, they must wait till their turn come, and prepare for the next response; whereas, when the minister does all, the people naturally grow listless, as if they were wholly unconcerned in the service before them. Q. Whence is the first response taken? A. The first response, viz. "O Lord, open thou our lips, and our mouth shall show forth thy praise," is taken from the fifty-first psalm, and is fitly placed here with respect to those sins we lately confessed; for if we are as sensible of our guilt as we ought to be, it will be needful for us to desire such evidences of our pardon, as may free us from the terrors which seal up our lips, and then we shall be in a suitable disposition to praise God heartily in the following psalms. 2. How do we proceed next? A. Having a good confidence that our pardon is granted, in imitation of David, after confessing his sins, declaring his distress, and imploring pardon and deliverance, we turn our petition into praises, our sighs and groans into songs of thanksgivings; rising up in token, that we lift up our hearts to adore and magnify the eternal and ever blessed Trinity, ascribing glory to the Father, who grants us absolution; to the Son, through whom it was purchased and obtained; and to the Holy Ghost, by whom it is sealed and dispensed. Q. Why is the Gloria Patri so called? A. From the two initial words in Latin, in which language they signify, "Glory be to the Father," &c. It is sometimes called the lesser Doxology, in contradistinction to the angelical hymn, or great Doxology, which begins, "Glory be to God on high," and is by our church appointed to be said in the office for the holy communion, and may likewise be used at the end of the hymns and psalms by the minister and people instead of the other. Q. How was the Gloria Patri used in the primitive church? A. It was the custom from the beginning of christianity, as the ancients relate, to give "glory to the only Father, with the Son, and the Holy Ghost." Q. By whom was this orthodox form corrupted? A. By the Arians, who attempted to change it into "Glory be to the Father, by the Son, in the Holy Ghost." Q. What was the consequence of this corruption? A. In consequence of this, the church enlarged the old form, and annexed it to their liturgies, saying," Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, now and ever, world without end." And so the Greek church still uses it; but the Western church, in a council,* added these words, " it was in the beginning," to show that this was the. primitive faith, and the old orthodox way of prais ing God. Q. How do we proceed next? as A. The penitential part of the service being com pleted, we proceed to the eucharistic: as an introduction to which, the minister, addressing the congregation, exhorts them to praise the Lord; and the people, to show their obedience to the pious exhortation of the minister, and to evince their desire to join with him in praising God, immediately answer, "The Lord's name be praised." Q. Is it not an impropriety to divide our prayers into such small parts and versicles? A. No; for though there be an alteration and division in the utterance, yet the prayer is but one continued form; and though the church requires that the minister speak one portion, and the people the other, yet both the minister and the people ought mentally to offer up and speak to God, what is vo Concil. Varense. chap. iii. tom. ii. col. 729. aily offered up and spoken by each of them respectively. Q. What rule must both the minister and people observe, that they may be the better enabled to do this? A. To take care that they do not confound and disturb each other, by beginning their several portions too soon. The minister's first versicle must be finished, before the people utter a word of the second; and the people must have time to finish the second before the minister begins the third, &c. so that both the minister and people may have time deliberately to offer every portion, and to make all of them together one continued act of devotion. VIII. Of the Anthem, commonly called the Venite Exultemus. Q. What follows after the responses? A. In the morning service an anthem, commonly called, the Venite Exultemus, except on those days. for which other anthems are appointed; and except also, when it is used in the course of the psalms, on the nineteenth day of the month.* Q. Whence is this anthem taken? A. Partly from the ninety-fifth, and partly from the ninety-sixth psalm. The first of which was designed originally for the public service, on the feast of tabernacles, as some, or on the Sabbath-day, as others think; and the latter was composed upon the occasion of bringing the ark to the city of David. Q. By whom has the first of these psalms been used in public worship? A. By all the Christian world, as the liturgies of St. Chrysostom and St. Basil witness for the Greek *This order is given to avoid repetition. † Grotius was of the former, and Calvin of the latter opinion. church, and the testimony of St. Augustine for the African, and all the ancient offices and capitulars. for the Western. 2. What does St. Ambrose say of it? A. That it was the custom of the church in his time to begin their service with it;† for which reason in the Latin office it is called, The Invitatory Psalm; it being always sung with a strong, loud voice, like the sound of a trumpet, to hasten those people into the church, who were in the cemetery or church-yard, or any other adjacent parts, waiting for the beginning of prayers.‡ 2. Why is this anthem, as it now stands, placed here? A. Because it is a proper introduction to the psalms in general, which immediately follow; for in the repetition of it, the people mutually exhort and encourage each other to the performance of psalmody in an acceptable method. 2 How should this anthem be performed? A. In a very cheerful, but solemn manner; that our whole demeanour may express that inward devotion of our souls, so necessary to render our praises pleasing and acceptable to God. IX. Of the Psalms. Q. What follows after the anthem commonly cal led the Venite Exultemus? A. "A portion of the psalms, as they are appointed, or one of the selections of psalms set forth by this church;" which order of the service is not only agreeable to reason and the nature of things, but is conformable to the practice of the primitive church. Q. Why do the psalms follow next? * Serm. 176. de verb. Apost. c. i. Durand. de Divin. Office, Rational. |