new life in the kingdom of heaven, unto us, and to the holy church of Christ our Lord, here and in every land, both now and evermore. He signs the oblation with the right thumb, crosswise, from the lower part to the upper, and from right to left, so as to form a slight fissure in it, through which it may be intincted, or soaked, with the (symbol of the) blood.* And, having disposed the whole for the communion, he bows down; then, arising and signing himself in the forehead, says, GLORY be to thee, O Lord, who hast created me by thy grace. Glory be to thee, O Lord, who hast called me by thy mercy. Glory be to thee, O Lord, who hast constituted me the medium of thy gift; and for all thy benefits towards my weakness be ascribed to thee praise, honour, confession, and adoration, now and evermore. The deacons approach, and he signs each of them in the forehead, saying, CHRIST receive thy ministry, Christ make thy face to shine, Christ preserve thy life, Christ renew thy youth. RESPONSE.-CHRIST receive thy oblation. Each having returned to his place, and the priest having inclined, he rises, and proclaims, THE grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communication of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. The priest, having signed himself, elevates his hand over his head, as in the air, the people performing the same act. *This has been explained as denoting the re-union of the body and blood of our Saviour after his resurrection. The bread and wine consecrated separately, are considered to express the humanity in the state of death; the elements re-united, to symbolize the Redeemer's risen life. I need not say, that neither the rite nor the explication has scripture-warrant. After a brief exhortation from the deacon, the priest breaks the (symbol of the) body, and says, FORGIVE, O Lord, by thy clemency, the sins and transgressions of thy servants, and sanctify our lips by thy grace, that they may give the fruit of praise and thanksgiving to thy Godhead, with all thy saints in thy kingdom. And make us worthy, O Lord God, that without spot we may ever stand before thee, with pure heart and open face, and with confidence towards thee, mercifully given to us; so will we together call upon thee, saying, PEOPLE. OUR Father, &c. PRIEST.-LORD God Almighty, who art good and full of mercy, we beseech and supplicate the clemency of thy goodness: lead us not into temptation, but deliver and save us from the evil one and from his hosts; because thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, the strength and the empire in heaven and in earth, world without end. PEOPLE.-Amen. PRIEST.-Peace be with you. PEOPLE. And with thy spirit. PRIEST.-Let the Holy be given to the Holy. Spirit. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen. The mysteries are then administered. When the deacon comes to bear the vessel, he says, We pray that peace may be with you. PRIEST. The grace of the Holy Spirit be with thee, and us, and with those who shall receive this. DEACON, receiving the vessel.-Bless, O Lord! PRIEST. The gracious gift of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ be mercifully fulfilled in all. + Brethren, receive the body of the Son, crieth the church, and drink ye of his cup in the house of his kingdom. PEOPLE.-Glory be unto him for his unspeakable gift. DEACON. PEACE be with you. PRIEST.-IT is meet, just, and right, O Lord, in all days, times, and hours, to confess, adore, and laud the fearful name of thy majesty; because thou, Lord, by thy grace, hast enabled us who are mortal men, and weak of nature, to sanctify thy name with the heavenly hosts, to partake of the mysteries of thy gift, and to delight ourselves with the sweetness of thy words. Wherefore all glory and thanksgiving to thy most high Godhead be ascribed evermore. BENEDICTION. OUR LORD Jesus Christ, whom we serve, whom, in these illustrious, holy, enlivening, and divine mysteries, we feel and honour, make us meet for the bright glory of his kingdom, and for gladness with his holy angels; and give us confidence before him, to stand at last at his right hand. And upon our whole congregation may his compassions and mercies be outpoured, both now and evermore. Amen. END OF THE NESTORIAN LITURGY. THERE is another form of benediction, which, as well as a few occasional prayers or collects, we have not inserted. On reading this Liturgy, it will be sufficiently evident that if the basis of it formed the general plan of the Christian sacramental worship at Edessa and other places in the second century, the formulary itself was not committed to writing till the days when the matutinal light, the prisca fides, the true apostolical theology, was over shadowed by anti-evangelic doctrine and practice; or that, if sound in its original state, it has since been subjected to many alterations for the worse. The Godhead of the Messiah is set forth, as might be expected, according to the Nestorian idea; and though the great truth of the atonement is enthroned as a master-principle throughout, while a deep sense of the unworthiness and helplessness of the worshipper pervades the entire composition, and both the privilege of forgiveness and the necessity of sanctification are held as revealed and actuating truths; yet the true office of FAITH, as the condition of pardon and acceptance, is not recognised with sufficient gospel clearness. The confidence of the communicant is directed to repose in the fact of receiving the eucharistic elements, as the instrument of justification, rather than in the atoning work of the Redeemer himself. Such appears to be the great and irreparable defect, not only of this, but of too many other Liturgies; while, as it regards those of the Nestorians and Jacobites, the presence of various human devices, less gross indeed than some which have been the bane of the Greek and Occidental churches, contributes to throw over their services a gloom unknown in any age to those who worship the Father, through the Son, according to the simple but sublime prescriptions of his own word. The principles which thus blemish and corrupt these ancient rituals, may tend, indeed, to magnify the functions of an imaginary priesthood; but in that proportion they efface from the rituals themselves the impress of real Christianity. SYRIAN ECCLESIASTICAL LITERATURE. THE author had purposed, in relation to this subject, merely to append to the present work a translation of the Mimro of Ebed Jesu, a bibliographical poem, or catalogue in metre, of many theological works then extant in the Syrian tongue, whether versions from the Greek fathers, or productions of native divines. Finding, however, that the books enumerated by Ebed Jesu were chiefly Nestorian, and serving mainly to illustrate the literature of that particular community, the idea was laid aside, and a more comprehensive inquiry instituted into the names and works of the principal authors of the oriental churches at large, whether Nestorian, Jacobite, or Maronite. Nothing further has been attempted here than to set down, as far as was practicable in chronologic order, a simple list of authors' names, with the subjects of their principal labours. By calling into use the information extant on the interesting pages of Photius, the Bibliothèque of Du Pin, the ecclesiastical historians, and, above all, the Vatican and Florentine collections of the Assemanni, a man of judgment and leisure could indite biographical notices of many of these writers, and exhibit the general character of their most remarkable works. But ours are not times in which an undertaking like this would meet with adequate attention. A glance at the achievements of these oriental fathers will suffice to dissipate a too general idea, that the churches of the East have been at all times, as now, immersed in ignorance and superstition. But such was not the case. Destitute of most of the advantages of |