Here we may observe how this good Father pressed upon his hearers the duty of constant Communion, but under caution of coming fitly prepared: otherwise he thought it would not be barely fruitless, but hurtful. That was the standing rule of the Church, the settled principle which they constantly went upon, with respect to both Sacraments. For, whatever high notions they might entertain of the use or necessity of Baptism, yet they never would encourage any person to receive it, before they believed him well qualified for it; but would sometimes keep the catechumens back, for five, or ten, or twenty years, or even to the hour of death, rather than admit them in a state of impenitence, or before they had been well disciplined and proved. Sacraments were a good superstructure: but the foundation was first and principally to be looked to, the foundation of repentance and a good life. Qualifications ought to go before admission: and service before privileges. But I pass on.

66

Chrysostom, in another Homily, reproves the non-communicants, and presses frequent Communion in the manner here following: "In vain stand we at the altar, none come to receive. I speak not barely to persuade you to "receive, but to make yourselves worthy. You are not "worthy [you will say] of the sacrifice, or not fit to re"ceive? Then neither are you worthy of the prayer: do 66 you not hear the Deacon, when he stands up and pro"claims, As many among you as are under penance, with"draw? All that do not communicate, are supposed to "be under penance. If you are of the number of peni"tents, you must not receive: for he that does not re"ceive is under penance. Why does he [the Deacon] "say, All ye that cannot pray, depart? And why do you, "after that, impudently stay? You are not one of those, 66 you will say, but of those who may receive. Have you "then no regard for that, or do you think it a slight privilege? Consider, I beseech you, &c.-Every one that

See Testimonies referred to in Bingham, xi. 6. 1.

"does not partake of the mysteries, is shameless and impudent to stand by all the while.-You sing the hymn "with the rest, and you profess yourself one of the wor

thy, by your not departing with the unworthy. With "what face then can you presume to stay, and yet not partake of the table? You plead, you are unworthy : "you are therefore unworthy to join in the prayers, for "the Holy Spirit descends, not only in the offering of the "elements, but also in the chanting of the hymns s." Chrysostom here pleads for frequent Communion, in a strong affecting way, but still loses not sight of the main point, which was the receiving worthily.

The argument he draws from prayer to Communion has been sometimes misunderstood, and may here deserve to be set right. He does not mean that prayer in general requires the same preparation that the Communion does, or that every one who may properly be admitted to the former may as properly be admitted to the latter also, No: that would run directly counter to the known principles and practice, and standing discipline of the Church in that age: for nothing was more usual than to admit penitents, of the fourth order, to communion in prayers, for two, three, four, or sometimes five years, and all the while to debar them from the holy Communion, as not yet worthy to be admitted to itt. But what Chrysostom meant was, that it

Chrysost. in Ephes. hom. iii. p. 887, 888.

N. B. The Communion hymns are by Goar (Euchol. p. 136.) distinguished into four:

1. “Tμvos åyyeλinós. The angelical. Glory to God on high, &c.

2. "Tμvos Xegovßixos. The cherubical hymn, in Goar, p. 106.

3. "Tμvos Tgiáɣios. Sanctus Deus, sanctus fortis, &c.

4. “Tuvos šπivíxio5. The triumphal hymn. Holy, holy, koly, Lord, &c.

Isa. vi. 3.

But the first and fourth are the most ancient: the second and third are both later than Chrysostom. The three last are but one trisagium in the main, one cherubical, or seraphical hymn, with some variations, additiors, and interpolations made at different times. See Bingham, xiv. 2, 3. xv. 3, 9, 10. Allix. Dissert. de Trisagii Origine. Renaudot. Liturg. Collect. tom. i. p. 228. tom. ii. p. 69.

Concil. Ancyran. Can. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 16, 24. Concil. Nicen. Can. 11,

was very absurd, and even downright impudent, for a man to claim a right to stand by, all the while that the Communion was administering, and to join in those most sacred and mystical prayers and hymns, which were proper to it, and at the same time to pretend that he was not worthy of it: for, if he really was not worthy to receive, he was not worthy to be present during that holy solemnity, or to bear a part in the prayers which peculiarly belonged to it. I know, it has been thought by persons of good learning, that the fourth order of penitents (called ovviorάuevoi, consistentes, in English co-standers, or associates) were allowed to be present during the whole solemnity, while prohibited from receiving, and that Sunday after Sunday, for several years together: which would have been committing that very absurdity which Chrysostom here so strongly remonstrates against. But I take that prevailing notion to be all a mistake, owing to the want of a right understanding the ancient Canons and ancient phrases. Those costanders were allowed to communicate in prayers with the faithful". What prayers, is the question. I suppose the prayers previous to the holy kiss, previous also to the oblation; which were indeed part of the missa fidelium, or Communion Service, (like to our prayer for the Church militant,) but were not the proper mystical prayers belonging to the Communion, and of which Chrysostom is to be understood. The co-standers, being the highest order of penitents, had the privilege to stand in the same place of the Church with the faithful, and to abide there, after the catechumens and lower penitents were dismissed; and they

12, 13. Basil. Can. 22, 30, 56, 57, 58, 59, 61, 66, 75, 82, 83. Concil. Carthag. vi. Can. 11. Concil. Trull. Can. 87.

Εὐχῆς δὲ μόνης κοινωνῆσαι. Concil. Ancyr. Can. iv. Κοινωνῆσαι χωρίς προσPogus. Ibid. Can. vi. So in the Nicene Canons, and Basil's, &c.

All that did not depart with the catechumens, after the Gospel, or with the penitents soon after, communicated in prayer, as appears by the Apostolical Constitutions. Μὴ κοινωνείτωσαν δὲ ἐν τῇ προσευχῇ, ἀλλ ̓ ἐξερχέσθωσαν μετὰ τὴν ἀνάγνωσιν τοῦ νόμου καὶ τῶν προφητῶν καὶ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου. lib. ii. cap. 39. The Council of Laodicea distinctly mentions what prayers preceded the oblation. Can. xix. p. 786. Harduin.

were permitted to communicate in prayer, till the oblation began, and then they also were to withdraw. This I collect, as from several other circumstances, so particularly from hence, that the Deacons just before the salutation of peace, warned all non-communicants to withdraw. The co-standers must of course have been reckoned of that number, being forbid to communicate; and therefore they must have been obliged to withdraw after the preparatory prayers, and before the Communion, properly speaking, began. Chrysostom himself intimates in another Homily, that all non-communicants were warned to departy; and that presently after came on the mystical hymn. About that time the co-standers, as I conceive, withdrew. Neither, indeed, is it credible, that so knowing a person as Chrysostom would have represented it as a flaming absurdity for a non-communicant to be present during the whole solemnity, had the custom of the Church allowed it in the co-standers, who were non-communicants.

It may be objected, that Pope Siricius (about A. D. 385.) allowed or ordered some non-communicants to abide till the whole service was overz: and Sozomen speaks of the custom of the western churches, as obliging the penitents to wait all the time of the Communion Service, in order to receive the Bishop's absolution after it was endeda. These are the principal passages which have led learned men into a persuasion, that the co-standers were used to

* Ἐν τῇ θείᾳ ἀναφορᾶ, ὁ διάκονος προσφωνεῖ πρὸ τοῦ ἀσπασμοῦ· οἱ ἀκοινώνητοι περιπατήσατε. Τimoth. Alex. Resp. ix. 1104. Hard. Οἱ τὴν πρώτην εὐχὴν εὐχό μevos, #gośλdere. Apost. Constitut. lib. viii. cap. 12. Si quis non communicat, det locum. Gregor. M. Dial. lib. ii. cap. 23.

* Μή τις τῶν κατηχουμένων, μή τις τῶν μὴ ἐσθιόντων, μή τις τῶν κατασκόπων, μή τις τῶν μὴ δυναμένων θεάσασθαι τὸν μόσχον ἐσθιόμενον.μή τις ἀνάξιος τῆς Cáons Duoias, &c. Chrysost. Homil. de Fil. Prod. tom. vi. p. 375. Paris.

z Diximus decernendum, ut sola intra ecclesiam fidelibus oratione jungantur; Sacris mysteriorum celebritatibus, quamvis non mereantur, intersint; a Dominicæ autem mensæ convivio segregentur, &c. Siric. Epist. p. 848. Harduin.

Πληρωθείσης τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ λειτουργίας. Sozom. lib. vii. cap. 16. p. 300. edit.

Cant.

be present during the whole solemnity. But they did not observe, that the preparatory service was called the service, or the mass, and that the Communion, properly, began not till that service was ended, and the non-communicants were withdrawn. Gregory Turonensis, of the sixth century, may help to clear this matter: he speaks of the Communion's beginning after the masses or liturgies were ended b. Cyprian, long before, spake much after the same way c. And even Justin Martyr has made mention of the common prayers, as ended, before the Communion began, before the holy salutation: and soon after he takes notice of the subsequent prayers and thanksgivings proper to the Communiond. Those subsequent prayers were what Chrysostom spake of, as altogether improper for any to join in, or to be present at, except the communicants

themselves.

A learned writer of our own observes, that "what in "Chrysostom's time was reckoned a crime, was presently "after accounted a piece of devotion, for the people to "stay and hear the whole solemnity of the service, till the "time of communicating, and then they might depart "without partaking of the Communion: which was 66 plainly a relaxation of the ancient discipline, and a de"viation from the primitive practice e." For this he refers to the Council of Agde of the year 506, and to the first Council of Orleans in 511. I take not upon me to defend what was done in later times, but to clear Chrys

Ubi peractis solemnibus, ad sacrosanctum altarium communicandi gratia accessisset, &c. Gregor. Turon. lib. ix. n. 3. p. 419.

Cumque expletis missis, populus cœpisset sacrosanctum corpus Redemptoris accipere. Greg. Turon. de Mirac. Mattin. lib. ii. cap. 47. p. 1060. Conf. Mabillon de Liturg. Gallican. p. 35, 36, 51.

c Ubi vero solennibus adimpletis, calicem diaconus offerre præsentibus cœpit, &c. Cyprian. de Laps. p. 132. edit. Oxon.

• Αλλήλους φιλήματι ἀσπαζόμεθα, παυσάμενοι τῶν εὐχῶν· ἔπειτα προσφέρεται τῷ προεστῶτι τῶν ἀδελφῶν ἄρτος, καὶ ποτήριον ὕδατος, καὶ κράματος. Καὶ οὗτος λαβὼν, αἶνον καὶ δόξαν τῷ πατρὶ τῶν ὅλων, διὰ τοῦ ὀνόματος τοῦ υἱοῦ, καὶ τοῦ πνεύ μaros roữ åyíov, àvaríμæu. Justin. Mart. Apol. i. p. 95, 96. edit. Thirlb.