their substance into antiquity, their value and importance increases. When their text has been traced to the primitive ages, and we are enabled to bring the sentiments of ancient divines in confirmation of their doctrines, we may receive a satisfaction and confirmation in faith, which cannot perhaps be so fully and completely derived from primitive evidence in any other way. For it was chiefly, if not only, in the mystical liturgy of the eucharist, that the primitive church spoke without reserve of all the sublimities of Christian faith. When the catechumens and infidels, who were permitted to hear the lessons and sermon, had been dismissed, there was no longer any thing to impede the disclosure of those profound truths, which the faith of the ignorant and undisciplined could not yet receive. It was then, that in the fulness of faith and love and confidence, the brethren offered up prayers to God, and saluted one another with the holy kiss. Then the bishop, having prepared the bread and the cup, addressed the people, and exhorted them to "lift up "their hearts," and "give thanks" to their heavenly Father. After which he offered thanksgiving and blessing to God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, for all his goodness and mercy to the human race; and, having consecrated the elements, concluded the thanksgiving and prayers with a doxology, to which all the people answered, Amen. This order varied a little in the different liturgies, but its parts are found in all, as the reader will perceive by the following pages. All this, however, was only heard and known by the baptized or perfect Christians; for it was a remarkable part of the primitive discipline to conceal and made one with it. They are also called Jacobites from Jacob Baradæus, an eminent leader of this sect in the sixth century. The orthodox (termed Melchites or Royalists by their opponents, from their attachment to the emperors of the east) have always adhered to the profession of the catholic faith, and the communion of the patriarch of Constantinople. The Monophysites and the orthodox in the patriarchate of Antioch, have long agreed in using liturgies bearing the venerable name of the apostle James; who, according to universal tradition, was the first bishop of Jerusalem. The Monophysites still retain their ancient liturgy. The orthodox have in the course of ages received the liturgies of the Greek or Constantinopolitan church into common use, so that now their ancient liturgy of St. James is only read on one day in the year, namely, the feast day of that Apostle. The Monophysite liturgy of St. James is written in the Syriac language, the orthodox in Greek. A liturgy of St. James has been used from a very remote period in the churches of the Syrian Monophysites. Barsalibi, archbishop of Amida, a Syrian Monophysite, who lived in the eleventh century, testified its use in the Syrian church by a commentary which he wrote upon it b. According to Abraham Echellensis c, the Syrians or Monophysites all assert that St. James wrote a liturgy; and this he confirms by the testimony of Joannes Maron, (who in the sixth or seventh century d,) Dionysius 1 Liturg. Orient. s on He bedjesu de Scriptoribus Chaldaicis. p. 135. d Hoc est principium Litur bishop of Amida, and Jacobus Edessenus; who affirm that their liturgy had descended to them from the age of the apostles, and that St. James was its author. A liturgy of St. James has also been used from a remote period by the orthodox of Jerusalem and Syria. In the twelfth century Theodore Balsamon, orthodox patriarch of Antioch, said that the liturgy of St. James was used in Jerusalem and Palestine on the great feast days; though it appears from the context, that the liturgies of Constantinople had by that time come into general use at Antioch. The use of this liturgy in the church of Jerusalem was mentioned about the same time by Marcus, orthodox patriarch of Alexandria, in his questions to Theodore Balsamon. He inquired, whether the liturgies read in the parts about Alexandria and Jerusalem, and said to have been written by the holy apostles James and Mark, were to be received or notf. In the ninth century, the emperor Charles the Bald, in an epistle to the clergy of Ravenna, giæ D. Jacobi Apostoli, quæ omnium liturgiarum antiquissima est, ideoque juxta illius ordinem suas instituerunt cæteri. Joannes Maron cited by Abraham Echellensis not. in Hebedjesu p. 138. In speaking of “ cæteri,” he alluded to the authors of the other liturgies used by the Syrian Monophysites, which are very numer ous. e • Σημείωσαι ἀπὸ τοῦ παρόντος κανόνος, ὅτι πρῶτος ὁ ἅγιος Ἰάκωβος ὁ ἀδελφόθεος, ὡς πρῶτος ἀρχιερατεύσας τῆς Ἱεροσολυμιτῶν ἐκκλησίας, παρέδωκε τὴν θείαν ἱερο τελεστίαν, ἥτις παρ' ἡμῖν ἀγνοεῖται, παρὰ δὲ τοῖς Ἱεροσολυμίταις καὶ τοῖς Παλαιστιναίοις ἐνεργεῖται ἐν ταῖς μεγάλαις ἑορταῖς. Theodor. Balsamon not. in Can. 32. Concil. in Trullo. Bevereg. Pandect. tom. i. p. 193. 1 Αἱ περὶ τὰ μέρη τῆς ̓Αλεξανδρείας, καὶ τῶν Ἱεροσολύμων ἀναγινωσκόμεναι λειτουργίαι, καὶ λεγόμεναι συγγραφῆναι παρὰ τῶν ἁγίων ἀποστόλων Ἰακώβου τοῦ ἀδελφοθέου, καὶ Μάρκου, δεκταί εἰσι τῇ ἁγίᾳ καὶ καθολικῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ, ἢ οὔ; Marcus Alexandrin. cited by Renaudot. Lit. Orient. tom. i. lxxxviii. Ρ. said, "The liturgy was celebrated before us accord 66 ing to the rite of Jerusalem, whose author was "James the apostle 5." The most important testimony to the antiquity of an orthodox liturgy of St. James, is contained in the thirty-second canon of the council in Trullo held at Constantinople A. D. 691. The two hundred and twenty-seven bishops there assembled, commanded that water should be mixed with the wine of the eucharist; according to the ancient custom of the church, which was transgressed by the Armenians. And they fortify this decree by the authority of a written liturgy of St. James. "For James, brother (according to the flesh) "of Christ our God, to whom the throne of the "church of Jerusalem was first committed, and Basil, archbishop of the church of Cæsarea, whose "fame has extended throughout the whole world, delivering to us the mysterious liturgy in writing, "have appointed, &c.h" 66 g Celebrata etiam sunt coram nobis Missarum officia more Hierosolymitano auctore Jacobo apostolo. Carolus Calvus Epist. ad Cler. Ravennat. Η Καὶ γὰρ καὶ Ἰάκωβος ὁ κατὰ σάρκα Χριστοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἡμῶν ἀδελφὸς, ὃς τῆς Ἱεροσολυμιτῶν ἐκκλησίας πρῶτος τὸν θρόνον ἐνεπιστεύθη, καὶ Βασίλειος ὁ τῆς Και σαρέων ἐκκλησίας ἀρχιεπίσκοπος, οὗ τὸ κλέος κατὰ πᾶσαν τὴν οἰκουμένην διέδραμεν, ἐγγράφως την μυ στικὴν ἡμῖν ἱερουργίαν παραδεδω κότες, τελειοῦν ἐν τῇ θείᾳ λειτουρ γίᾳ ἐξ ὕδατος καὶ οἴνου τὸ ἱερὸν που τήριον ἐκδεδώκασιν, Canon XXXII. Concil. in Trullo. Bevereg. tom. i. p. 191. I have not cited the tract ascribed to Proclus, archbishop of Constantinople, who died A. D. 446. and which speaks directly of St. James's liturgy, for doubts are entertained of its genuineness by Fabricius, Simon, and Leo Allatius. There is certainly nothing in this tract, as far as I can perceive, which proves it spurious. But had Proclus really written it, it is not credible (considering the interesting nature of its contents) that no notice should have been taken of it by the succeeding ecclesiastical writers. Yet it appears never to have been cited by any writer till about the time of the council of Florence; and the silence It appears, therefore, that the Monophysites and the orthodox of the patriarchates of Antioch and Jerusalem have, from a very remote period, agreed in ascribing their liturgies to St. James the apostle, who was frequently entitled first bishop of Jerusalem. This fact affords some reason for thinking that they esteemed their liturgies to be very much alike. It is also probable that the Christians of this patriarchate commonly ascribed their liturgy to St. James before the council of Chalcedon, A. D. 451. For a complete separation took place at that time between the orthodox and the Monophysites; thenceforward each side regarded the other as heretical, and accordingly they held no communion. It is highly improbable that either party, under these circumstances, would borrow from the other a title for their liturgy. All must therefore have received this title from their predecessors who lived before the council of Chalcedon. However, though there is reason to think, that the Christian churches in the patriarchate of Antioch referred their liturgy to the apostle James before the council of Chalcedon, I am not prepared to contend that they had long done so; much less am I disposed to vindicate the genuineness of St. James's liturgy; that is, to maintain that he was either its author or writer. It will appear, however, in the sequel, that I am far from denying the apostolical antiquity of this liturgy in some respects. Before I proceed to deduce the common origin of the Monophysite and orthodox liturgies of St. James from actual comparison, I must endeavour to esta of nine hundred years (it must be confessed) throws a serious doubt on the genuineness of this tract. |