St.

expression, one baptism for the remission of sins." Cyprian, about seventy years before the council of Nice, held a provincial council in Africa, in which it was deemed that heretics should be re-baptized before reception into the bosom of the church. The Nicene divines intended to reprobate this dogma, by the words " One baptism."

Having cleared up these obscurities, we may observe, that in this creed we meet with the fatally celebrated phrase of "consubstantial with the Father." The contests which arose between those who maintained the Saviour to be "of the same substance," and those who held him to be" of the like substance with the Father," entailed an endless succession" of bickerings, banishments, and homicides," on the ancient church.

Beyond this, there is little to remark on the Nicene Creed. The original Greek partakes of the coarseness of the times, and the Latin more so. This symbol has been retained long since the occasion has passed away, to which its composition was owing; but this is little to be regretted in one respect, since it has been made the subject of some of the most splendid compositions of which the music of the church can boast.

The Preface, or the prayers introductory to the consecration of the sacrament, are sublime in both languages: but here, in spite of the Latinity, it is impossible to deny that the original is rather weakened than elevated by the translation. It is one of the finest parts of either Catholic or Protestant devotion. The commencement is singularly beautiful; if that term may be applied to words so solemn and majestic.

V. SURSUM CORDA.

R. Habemus ad Dominum.
V. Gratias agamus Domino Deo
nostro.

R. Dignum et justum est.
Vere dignum et justum est, æquum
et salutare, nos tibi semper et ubique
gratias agere, Domine Sancte Pater
Omnipotens, æterne Deus: Per Chris-
tum Dominum nostrum, per quem
majestatem tuam laudant Angeli, ador-
ant Dominationes, tremunt Potestates,
Coli Cœlorumque Virtutes ac beata
Seraphim sociâ exultatione concele-
brant: Cum quibus et nostras voces,
ut admitti jubeas deprecamur, supplici
confessione dicentes, Sanctus, Sanctus,
Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth:
Pleni sunt cœli et terra gloriâ tuâ.
Osanna in excelsis: Benedictus qui
venit in nomine Domini: Osanna in
excelsis.

P. Lift up your hearts.

A. We lift them up unto the Lord.
P. Let us give thanks unto our
Lord God.

A. It is meet and right so to do. It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty, that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks unto thee, O Lord, Holy Father, Almighty, Everlasting God: Through Christ, our Lord, through whom the Angels praise thy majesty, the Dominations adore thee, the Powers tremble, the Heavens and the Virtues of the Heavens, and the blessed Seraphim celebrate thee with one exultation amongst whom we intreat that our voices may be admitted, humbly confessing thee, and saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth, Heaven and earth are full of thy glory: Hosanna in the highest: Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest.

Et ideò cum Angelis et Archangelis, cum Thronis et Dominationibus, cumque omni militiâ cœlestis exercitus hymnum gloriæ tuæ canimus, sine fine dicentes, Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth: Pleni sunt cœli et terrâ gloriâ tuâ. Osanna in excelsis: Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini: Osanna in excelsis.

Therefore, with Angels and Archangels, with Thrones and Dominations, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious name, continually praising thee and saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts; heaven and earth are full of thy glory; glory be to thee, O Lord most high.

We decline the task of criticising these productions: we merely observe, that whatever may be gained in doctrine, by omitting the pageant of the celestial hierarchy-" the Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers"-something, it will easily be admitted, is lost in poetry.

Instead of pursuing the regular service of the mass, we shall now turn aside to some of the least unpoetical portions, which we find scattered throughout the services set aside for particular days. One of the most celebrated is the hymn for the great feast of Corpus Christi, a composition of St Thomas Aquinas. We select the following stanzas.

Our translation is a loose one; we have no time to be more literal; but of this the reader may be assured, that it is difficult for any version not to excel the original.

The first stanzas of the hymn to the Holy Ghost, appropriated to the feast of Pentecost, contain a touch of poetry, and a few lines of something resembling pathos, which are far more worthy to be cited.

Veni, Sancte Spiritus,
Et emitte cœlitus

Lucis tuæ radium.

Veni, pater pauperum,
Veni, dator munerum,
Veni, lumen cordium.
Consolator optime,
Dulcis hospes animæ,
Dulce refrigerium;
In labore requies,
In æstu temperies,

In fletu solatium!

*

Come, Holy Ghost! One ray of love
From that perennial fount above,
Shoot down into my breast;
Come, father of the fatherless,

Whom none, but thou, console or bless,
Hearts' hope, hearts' light, hearts' rest.
Thou art our souls' most loving guest,
Of all her comforters the best,

Her stay and solace here;
Rest to the weary and the poor,
Who suffer long and travail sore,
With none but thee to cheer!

*

For our last example, we shall select the Service of the Dead. There is no feeling of the human heart which so naturally inclines it to religion, as the hopeless regret for the departed; and the wisdom of our reformers may be questioned, if not their orthodoxy, in rejecting the most affecting, the most pathetic, the most poetical, and, what is more, the most pious and devout service which human lips can utter to the Deity. The pure and unmixed love of God will never be so fervent, as that reliance on his Providence, which is mingled with human feelings. This is the true secret of the fervent piety of Fenelon, and the mystics of his and all religions. Filled with ardent benevolence to mankind; or, as is a more common case, with passionate regret for departed friends, or equally passionate regard for living ones; they mingle this feeling in their prayers, and call it all love of God. The observation is any thing but new; we believe it to be unquestionably accurate. Even in the barbarous jargon of the Catholic service, it is difficult, it is impossible, to hear without emotion this pious prayer, and much more to utter it :

"Suscipe sacrificium, Domine, quod tibi pro animâ matris meæ offero; eique gaudium sempiternum in regione vivorum concede; meque cum illa, felicitati sanctorum conjunge."

46

Accept, O Lord, this sacrifice which I offer for the soul of my mother; grant that she may partake of everlasting joy in the Land of the living, and that I may rejoin her in the happiness of thy saints!"

What would this have been in the beautiful style of the Common Prayer?

According to its usual system, the Catholic church has intermingled ideas of horror and alarm with this consoling service. It delights in representations of future torments; and this is not peculiar to that church. When religion is turned into a state-engine, its object is terror. To comfort the miserable, to animate the desponding, to console in the misfortunes of life, by holding out hopes of the future; none of these are the designs of state-theology. To alarm, to agitate, and thereby domineer; to govern this world by means of the next; has always been its favourite end. For this purpose, nothing could be better adapted than the celebrated dirge " in commemoration of all the faithful departed," well known to all who have attended to this species of literature, and peculiarly familiar to the musician, as the ground-work of Mozart's Requiem.

We are fortunate, in being able to borrow a much better version than any we could have executed ourselves. It is Roscommon's; and has only the defect, almost inseparable from translations out of this liturgy, of giving an incorrect idea of the original, by excelling it.

Dies iræ, dies illa,
Solvet sæclum in favillâ,
Teste David cum Sybillâ.
Quantus tremor est futurus,
Quando judex est venturus,
Cuncta strictè discussurus!
Tuba mirum spargens sonum
Per sepulcra regionum
Coget omnes ante thronum.
Mórs stupebit et natura,
Cum resurget creatura,
Judicanti responsura.
Liber scriptus proferetur,
In quo totum continetur,
Unde mundus judicetur.
Judex ergo cum sedebit,
Quicquid latet apparebit ;
Nil inultum remanebit.
Quid sum miser tunc dicturus,
Quem patronum rogaturus,
Dum vix justus sit securus?
Rex tremendæ majestatis,
Qui salvandos salvas gratis,
Salva me, fons pietatis.
Recordare, Jesu pie,
Quod sum causa tuæ viæ;
Ne me perdas illâ die.

The day of wrath, that dreadful day,
Shall the whole earth in ashes lay,
As David and the Sybils say.

What horror shall invade the mind,
When the strict judge, who would be kind,
Shall have few venial faults to find!

The last loud trumpet's wond'rous sound
Shall through the rending tombs rebound,
And wake the nations underground.
Nature and death shall, with surprise,
Behold the pale offender rise,
And view the judge with conscious eyes.
Then shall, with universal dread,
The sacred mystic book be read,
To try the living and the dead.

The judge ascends his awful throne,
He makes each secret sin be known,
And all with shame confess their own.
O then! what interest shall I make,
To save my last important stake,
When the most just have cause to quake.
Thou mighty formidable King,
Thou mercy's unexhausted spring,
Some comfortable pity bring!

Forget not what my ransom cost,
Nor let my dear-bought soul be lost,
In storms of guilty terror tost,

Quærens me sedisti lassus,
Redemisti, crucem passus :
Tantus labor non sit cassus!
Justæ judex ultionis,
Donum fac remissionis
Ante diem rationis.
Ingemisco tanquam reus,
Culpâ rubet vultus meus :
Supplicanti parce Deus.
Qui Mariam absolvisti,
Et latronem exaudisti,
Mihi quoque spem dedisti:
Preces meæ non sunt digna,
Sed tu bonus fac benignè,
Ne perenni cremer igne.
Inter oves locum prœsta,
Et ab hædis me sequestra,
Statuens in parte dextra.
Confutatis maledictis,
Flammis acribus addictis,
Voca me cum benedictis.
Oro supplex et acclinis,
Cor contritum quasi cinis;
Gere curam mei finis.
Lacrymosa dies illa,
Quâ resurget ex favillâ
Judicandus homo reus:
Huïc ergo parce, Deus!
Pie Jesu Domine,
Dona eis requiem.

Thou, who for me didst feel such pain,
Whose precious blood the cross did stain,
Let not those agonies be vain.

Thou, whom avenging powers obey,
Cancel my debt, (too great to pay,)
Before the sad accounting-day.
Surrounded with amazing fears,
Whose load my soul with anguish bears,
I sigh, I weep; accept my tears.
Thou, who wert moved by Mary's grief,
And, by absolving of the thief,
Hast given me hope, now give relief:
Reject not my unworthy prayer,
Preserve me from that dangerous snare,
Which death and gaping hell prepare.
Give my exalted soul a place
Among thy chosen right-hand race;
The sons of God, and heirs of grace.
From that insatiable abyss,
Where flames devour, and serpents hiss,
Promote me to thy seat of bliss.

Prostrate my contrite heart I rend,
My God, my Father, and my Friend,
Do not forsake me in my end.

Well may they curse their second breath,
Who rise to a reviving death;
Thou great Creator of mankind,
Let guilty man compassion find.

We would willingly return to some of the less terrific portions of this service, but our space, already too much occupied with extracts, forbids it.

The rest of our remarks will be less laudatory: the farther we advance, the less matter we find for praise.

66

-a

Turn over the next page after this affecting service, and we find ourselves knee-deep in puerilities: a receipt for making holy water, by exorcising the creatures of water and salt in the name of the holy Trinity :-a benediction of the paschal lamb, which contains an almost whimsical request for a blessing on the creature of flesh, quam nos famuli tui ad laudem tuam sumere desideramus," which we may interpret " bless this creature on which thy servants desire to dine in thy honour:"benediction of the wax candles, and sundry blessings for various occasions; one on the launching of a ship, another on a new house, a new bed, a field for the building of a church; which latter, by the bye, is not expunged from some reformed liturgies. The grasping disposition of the church left nothing unvisited by curse or benediction. It met its votaries at every turn; by their fire-sides and in their beds, as well as at their daily occu