SECT. VIII. Of the COLLECTS, EPISTLES, and
GOSPELS.

1. WHAT was the original title of this division of the Book of Common Prayer?

In the first Prayer-book of Edward VI. the title of this division ran thus:-"The Introits, Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, to be used at the celebration of the Lord's Supper, or Holy Communion, through the year; with Proper Psalms and Lessons, for divers feasts and days."

2. What were the Introits, and why so called; and what change in the disposition of the Psalms and Lessons accompanied their discontinuance?

According to the early offices, and prior to the revision of the Liturgy in 1552, a Psalm, followed by the Kyrie eleëson and the Gloria in excelsis, was said or sung before the collect for the day, while the priest, having repeated the Lord's Prayer, and the collect for Purity" afore the middes of the Altar," was entering within the rails. Here the Psalm in question, selected with reference to the service of the day, was called the Introit (Lat. Introitus). When the Introits were discontinued, the Psalms were re-arranged; and those which were selected as appropriate for certain days, were transferred, with the Lessons, to the Calendar at the beginning of the Prayer-book.

3. What are the essential characteristics of a Collect; and what are the advantages resulting from the use of such forms in public worship?

Collects are brief, but comprehensive and impressive prayers, generally directed to God through Christ, but sometimes to Christ himself, embodying some distinct temporal or spiritual benefit, and assigning the motive for asking it. For the introduction of short collects into public worship, instead of one unbroken prayer, the following among other reasons may be assigned. They throw a

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variety into the service, which keeps alive the attention, and prevents distracted thoughts, and coldness of devotion; they excite religious fervour by frequent appeals to the Almighty, urged through the merits and mediation of the Redeemer; they are in accordance with the practice of the primitive Christians, who adopted it from the Jews; and they are framed after the example of Christ himself, who prescribed a short form as the standing model for the use of his disciples.

4. What is the probable origin and meaning of the word Collect?

It is difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain the exact import of the word Collect. As many of those now in use are collected out of the portion of Scripture appointed for the Epistle and Gospel of the day, or bear upon the particular duty therein enforced or illustrated, it has been thought to indicate their nature in this respect. Other Ritualists however suppose that they are so called from their use in a collected assembly of worshippers; or because several petitions are comprised in a brief summary. Possibly it may be, that, as a whole, they form a copious collection of prayers for every possible blessing that man can ask or wish.

5. Can you in any way account for the obscurity in which the import of the word is involved; and point out the source from which the Collects now in use are derived?

The obscurity in which the origin of the name is involved may be owing to the great antiquity of the collects themselves. Fortyfour of those in our Prayer-book are found in the Sacramentary of Gregory, who adopted them from formularies of still earlier date; most of the remainder assumed their present form at the last review in 1662; and twenty-four were entirely re-composed, but with an evident regard to models furnished by primitive formularies.

6. What was the object of the compilers of the Prayer-book in removing some, and new-modelling others, of the collects in use before the Reformation?

In replacing some of the old collects by new ones, it was the main object of the Reformers to purge away the corruptions of the Romish Church, as well as to supply deficiencies and amend imperfections. Thus twelve of the new collects were for Saint's days, which supplied the place of others of an unscriptural tendency, expressing a reliance upon the merits of the saint commemorated, invoking his aid, and imploring his intercession.

7. Adduce prayers from the antient offices upon which the Collects for the first and second Sundays in Advent, and that for Christmas day, were probably derived.

The Collect for the first Sunday in Advent was probably built upon the following prayer in the Sacramentary of Gelasius :- -Preces populi tui, quæsumus, Domine, clementer exaudi; ut qui de adventu Unigeniti tui secundum carnem lætantur, in secundo, cum venerit in majestate sua, præmium æternæ vitæ percipiant: per J. C. D. N."- Gregory has a collect for Christmas day, from which the collect now used is not indeed translated, but which it closely resembles. It is this: Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui hunc diem per incarnationem Verbi tui, et partum beatæ Mariæ Virginis consecrasti, da populis tuis in hac celebritate consortium ; ut qui tua gratia sunt redempti, tua sint adoptione securi: per eundem J. C.-In the Liturgy of St. James, there is a prayer from which that part of the collect for the second Sunday in Advent, which is not taken immediately from the Epistle, may have been derived :Δέσποτα ζωοποιέ, καὶ τῶν ἀγαθῶν χορηγὲ, ὁ δοὺς τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τὴν μακαρίαν ἐλπίδα τῆς αἰωνίου ζωῆς, τὸν κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν, κ. τ. λ.

8. Cite one of the old collects for a Saint's day which rests on the Intercession of the Saint commemorated.

In the Romish Church the following is the Collect for the feast of St. Andrew:-Majestatem tuam, Domine, suppliciter exoramus, ut, sicut Ecclesiæ tuæ beatus Andreas Apostolus extitit prædicator et rector, ita apud te sit pro nobis perpetuus intercessor: per D. N.

9. Whence does it appear that the Epistles and Gospels subjoined to each Collect were early assigned to the days on which they are still read; to whom has their selection been attributed; and on what principle do they appear to have been selected and arranged?

It appears from the antient Fathers that it was always customary to read portions of the New Testament before the Communion; and from the fact that the same Gospels and Epistles, which are appropriated to the days on which we now use them, are similarly appointed in all the western offices, and that they have been selected as the subject of antient Homilies, it is more than probable that they have been so employed for twelve or fourteen hundred years. Some have thought that they were selected and arranged by St. Jerome. They are the most practical passages in the New Testament, and so disposed as to carry on the Gospel history somewhat connectedly, with an illustration from the Epistles of the lesson which the narrative suggests.

10.

From what version of the Scriptures were they taken in the early editions of the Liturgy; and when was the present translation substituted?

In the earlier editions of the Prayer-book, the Epistles and Gospel were taken from the Great Bible; but at the last revision in 1662, in consequence of the many defects in that translation, the present authorized version was substituted.

11. What was the Gradual; and on what authority is the practice of praising God before and after the Gospel, which still very generally prevails, grounded?

Formerly, and still in the Romish Church, a Psalm was sung after the Epistle from the steps of the pulpit, and thence called the Gradual. In most of our Churches, the Rubrical order of the first Prayer-book of Edward VI., to repeat the words "Glory be to thee O Lord," before the Gospel, is still observed; and in some few of

them, the words, "Thanks be given to God," are also used after it. Both are prescribed in the Scottish Liturgy.

12. Is any pre-eminence implied, in the Gospel above the Epistle, by the posture and order in which they are respectively read?

Since all Scripture is given by inspiration of God (1 Pet. iii. 16.), the Gospels have no higher authority than the Epistles; but they are read in a standing and sitting posture respectively, with a view to evince a higher degree of reverence for our Lord than for his Apostles. Probably the custom arose out of the Arian heresy, which rejected the divinity of Christ. For a like reason it may have been determined to read the Epistle before the Gospel; in order that the teaching of the servants may prepare the way for that of their Lord.

13. Would you give the preference to the Collect, Epistle, and Gospel, for the Sunday or the Saint's day, when they concur?

In the event of the concurrence of a Saint's day with a Sunday, the Epistle and Gospel for the Saint's day should perhaps have the preference, except on the Great Festivals. Both Collects should be used at Morning and Evening Prayer.

14. Which of the Collects, omitted after the preceding Epiphany, are to be read to supply the deficiency, when there are more than twenty-five Sundays after Trinity?

When there are more than twenty-five Sundays after Trinity, the Rubric does not expressly direct which of the Collects omitted after the Epiphany are to be employed, but the choice is left to the discretion of the minister. Some read those next in course after that last read at the preceding Epiphany; but it is better perhaps to read the last, or two last, if requisite: since not only, if the Sundays after the next Epiphany are full, the same services are quickly repeated, but the collect for the last Sunday after Epiphany is well adapted to precede that for the Sunday next before Advent.