The Prayer Book Explained

by Percival Jackson

CHAPTER XIII.

THE SERVICE OF PRAYER.

If we have understood the Method of Praise which, in these Services, uses ancient forms in an ordered variety, we shall be prepared to find similar order, and similar use of variety, in the Prayers. The Map of the Services on p. 28 should be examined afresh, in order that we may grasp the unity of the Prayers, as well as the unity of the Praises.

There is the Lord's Prayer set for prayer (see p. 16), at the beginning of the Prayers, to strike the keynote. Verses and Responds follow next, asking for such things as will be again asked for, in the Collects which are to come after them. The Collects may be divided into two classes, viz.,

1. Those for spiritual needs—First, Second, and Third Collects.

2. Those for physical needs, and earthly relations.

Worship-Forms used in the Prayer Service.

See Table of Worship-Forms (p. 21).

The Preces are Interjectional. The Collects are of the Amen form. The Anthem should be {128} Antiphonal. The Litany, when used, contains examples of four of the Worship-forms. Thus, the attention of worshippers is arrested, and their unity of heart and voice maintained.

Another purpose is served by the mutual relation in which these forms stand to one another. We shall show, in the Chapter on the Litany, that a Collect may be preceded by a Verse and Respond, which anticipate briefly the prayer of the Collect. Thus the Verse and Respond, which are Interjectional, belong to the Collect. This tie between Interjectional prayers and Amen prayers is very remarkable in the Morning and Evening Services. Six couplets of Interjected prayers, which for the sake of distinction are called Preces, anticipate the petitions of the six (or more) Collects which follow. They correspond Couplet and Collect, Couplet and Collect; and, being grouped so that all the couplets come first, the whole prayer Service is made one.

The Anthem is used to strengthen this unity. Unfortunately the Revisers stopped short of making an Antiphoner, or Anthem-book; but we may suppose that the provision made here for Anthems was intended as a promise of such a book. Our Hymn Books, which were recognised, when, in 1879, shortened Services were permitted, contain a good number of suitable hymns admitting antiphonal arrangement. They should supply some grave thought of God's help, or Christ's mediation, or our dependence on Him. The Anthem is a bond of union, not a musical interruption. (See Chap. xiv.)

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THE PRAYER SERVICE.

I. Preces and Collects. Morning and Evening Rubrics.

The directions concerning the Services are to be found in the Rubrics: which are placed either (1) in the Prefaces and Tables at the beginning of the Prayer Book; or (2) at the beginning or end of a Service; or (3) at some break or pause in the Service. By the correction of mistakes, the later Revisions have left very little ambiguity; but some instances remain, which may usually be interpreted by the analogy of other parts of the Book. A plain instance is the omission of a direction that the Sermon is to be preached from the pulpit: but it is directed that after it the Priest shall return to the Lord's Table.

Bishop Cosin who took a leading part in the Revision of 1661-2, and had been preparing notes for it for about 40 years, made the remark: "the book does not everywhere enjoin and prescribe every little order, what should be said or done, but take it for granted that people are acquainted with such common, and things always used already."

The two Services, which are here considered together, are still printed together as parts of the same Chapter (see p. 25): and the Morning Service has always had rubrics which applied to both Morning and Evening: (see Rubrics, about the use of Gloria Patri after Canticles, cf. p. 4: and about the First Lessons).

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Before 1662 a rubric, after the Canticles at Evensong, referred back to Mattins for directions &c. about the rest of the Service. The Second and Third Collects, being different from the Morning Collects, were, of course, printed in full: everything else was read from the Morning Service.

In 1662 the Evening Service was for the first time printed out in full.

The words of the Evening rubric about the Collects were retained, and not made like the Morning rubric: also the words all kneeling, which were, at that time, added to the Morning rubric, were, through forgetfulness, not added to the slightly different Evening Rubric. The word all includes the Minister; for the people are already kneeling.

The Rubrics after the Collects.

The amendment of rubrics in this part of the Services, which was effected in 1662, completed the directions for continuing the Service after the Collects. Until that time, the prayers for the Sovereign, for the Royal Family, and for the Clergy and People, were printed after the Prayer, We humbly beseech thee, in the Litany; and were followed by the second of our Ember Week prayers, and the Prayer of S. Chrysostom. But it was plain that the Services were not to end with the Third Collect: for, at the end of the Communion Service, six Collects were printed, as they still are, with the provision that they may be said "after the Collects" of Morning and Evening Prayer. Moreover, the inclusion, in the Preces, of prayers for the Sovereign and for the Clergy implied that Collects for {131} them would follow. We may infer that these Services used to end much as they do now. It was therefore a useful improvement to make the rubrics complete, and to print the prayers in this place. Perhaps the six Collects after the Communion Service would be more used, if they had, at the same time, been printed with the Occasional Prayers and Thanksgivings.

At the same time, a Rubric was inserted here providing for an Anthem, or musical prayer, to be sung (in places where there are singers), between the Three Collects and the other Prayers.

The Lord's Prayer as set for the Service of prayer.

We have before explained that the Doxology is not added here, but the
Lesser Litany is prefixed to it. The thoughts will now be different
from those which occupied our hearts at the beginning of the Praises.
The following may be suggested:

Hallowed be Thy Name . . . . . . Ask for Reverence.
Thy kingdom come . . . . . . Devotion.
Thy will be done . . . . . . Obedience.
Give us our daily bread . . . . . . Support, Health,
Teaching, Communion.
Forgive us . . . . . . Forgiveness.
Lead us . . . . . . Guidance.
Deliver us . . . . . . Deliverance.

Then the Priest is directed to stand up: thus reminding us again that we are approaching the Majesty on High. The people, though still kneeling, {132} are included in his priestly action, and take an equal share of the petitions, which form the Preces (=prayers L.). Each verse is to be said by the Minister, and its Respond by the People.

A. The Preces.

These interjected prayers do not follow exactly the order of the Collects and Prayers, which are to come next to them. The second couplet belongs to the two prayers, for the King and for the Royal Family: the third and fourth couplets belong to the prayer, for the Clergy and People. The first, fifth, and sixth couplets belong to the first, second, and third Collects respectively. The Great Breviary of 1531, according to the use of Sarum, had the 5th of these couplets as an Antiphon for our 2nd Morning Collect for Peace, to be used at Lauds, and also as an Antiphon at Vespers, for our 2nd Evening Collect for Peace. The Student will find that this using of the old materials is characteristic of the Revision of 1549. All the Preces are from the Day Hours. With the exception of the Couplet just mentioned, they are verses of the Psalms: First Couplet from the 85th Psalm, verse 7: Second, from the 20th, v. 9: Third, from the 132nd, vv. 9 and 16: Fourth, from the 28th, v. 9: Sixth, from the 51st, vv. 10 and 11. The First couplet is that which anticipates the First Collect.

The Second couplet agrees with the Vulgate (Latin), and Septuagint (Greek) Versions of the Psalms. Our Bible and Prayer Book Psalms follow {133} the Hebrew division of the verse: Save, Lord: let the King hear us when we call. The couplet in this place, being taken from the Sarum Service, as a prayer for the King and people, was left in its old form, when the correction was made in the Psalms.

In the Third couplet 'endue' means 'clothe.'

In the Fifth couplet the Respond appears to allege the want of earthly helps as the reason why we ask God to give us peace. Since it is obviously impossible that this is the meaning, it will be well to enquire what other meaning there may be. The last verse of the 4th Psalm has the same thought; I will lay me down in peace, and take my rest: for it is thou, Lord, only, that makest me dwell in safety. If the word only be omitted, the reason appears at once to be that God's protection suffices to assure us of safety. The introduction of the word, only, adds the thought that no other protection would suffice. The same two thoughts are united in the Respond Because there is none other that fighteth for us, but only thou, O God. It is as though we said, 'Give us Peace, because thou hast the power; and we trust no other power.'

This couplet was the Antiphon, in the Day Hours, to both the collects for Peace; and must be taken as including both peace from "the assaults of our enemies," and "that peace which the world cannot give." It is suitable both to a time of External Peace, and also to a time when war, with Peace for its object, is raging round us: the assaults, also, of temptation are at times disturbing to our peace, in the sense which is involved in this couplet.

The Sixth Couplet belongs to the Third Collects {134} which ask for spiritual guidance, and spiritual light—Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

B. The Collects.

The Books formerly used in Church.

In a passage of the Prayer Book Preface of 1549, which was not struck out until the last Revision in 1662, it was said that "by this order the Curates shall need none other books for their public service, but this book and the Bible." The simplification of the Services has made it possible for everyone to find his way easily through the Prayer Book. The progressive inventions of printing, and of fine paper, have made it possible for him to have the books always with him.

Before the reign of Edward VI. the Services, though printed, were not contained in one book. Before the invention of printing the books were of necessity numerous. We may mention some of them.

A book of Lessons—Legenda; of Antiphons—Antiphonarium; of Psalms—the Psalter: these were required for the Day Hours. As an abbreviation of them, sufficient for practical purposes, the Breviary was arranged. A portable form of it was called Portiforium. The Breviary was printed in four volumes on the Continent, but in England had only a Winter Volume and a Summer Volume.

For the Occasional Services,—the Services which mark the great events of a Christian's life, beginning with Baptism and ending with Burial, they had the Manual.

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For the Holy Communion, they had the Missal; including (1) the Gradual, which was an Antiphoner, or book of the musical parts of the Service; (2) the Lectionary, or book of the Epistles; (3) the Evangelistarium, or book of the Gospels; and (4) the Sacramentary. The Sacramentary contained, amongst other things, the Collects.

We have already referred to the combination and simplification of the
Breviary Services, which have given us our Morning and Evening Prayer.
We must now observe that many of our Collects come from the
Sacramentaries.

Three celebrated Sacramentaries.

Three of the Sacramentaries deserve here special mention.

I. Gregory the Great, who was Pope of Rome from 590 to 604, was the author of one of them. The English Church owes him gratitude for sending missionaries to this country at a time when the older British Church was deficient in missionary zeal: and we must here notice our debt to him for a number of our best-known collects, as well as other improvements in the Services. Canon Bright gives a list of 32 or 33 taken from Gregory's Book. Some of them may perhaps have been added after Gregory's time; for it is often difficult to distinguish between the original passages of an ancient Service-book and the additions which were quickly made to it.

Twenty-eight Collects in that list are in our book amongst the Epistles and Gospels. Besides these there are: one in the Baptism Service—Almighty and {136} immortal God: the first part of We humbly beseech thee in the Litany: O God, whose nature and property in the Occasional Prayers: Prevent us, O Lord at the end of the Communion Service.

II. The Sacramentary of Gelasius (who was Pope of Rome 492 to 496) had provided much material which Gregory adopted. From this ancient source we have our Second Collect, for Peace in the Morning Service; and the Third Collect, for Grace: the Second Collect, for Peace in the Evening Service: the Third Collect, for Aid: the Collect for the Clergy and People: Assist us mercifully, at the end of the Communion Service: the Confirmation Collect, Almighty and everlasting God: a Collect in the Visitation Service: O Lord we beseech thee, in the Commination: and 21 of those which are placed with the Epistles and Gospels.

III. We go back still further for seven of the Sunday Collects, which are taken from the Sacramentary of Leo the Great (Pope of Rome, 440 to 461).

Thus, five-sixths of our Sunday Collects are from these three Service-books: although we do not purpose here to say much of the Collects used in the Communion Service, and ranking as the "First Collects" of Morning and Evening Prayer, we think it useful to note their derivation from the 5th and 6th centuries. Even those which are not so derived owe their form and manner to the same models.

This last remark applies to all the prayers which have the Collect form. We may suppose that, in the years which preceded Leo the Great, the Collects were being made. Perhaps the dignity of their {137} diction grew by the survival of the simplest and best; by the falling away of superfluous words; and of words of effort: in any case the absence of small auxiliary words, in Latin sentences, contributed much to their tone of modest dependence on God, as well as to their poetic force.

To take an illustration, our Second Collect at Mattins is translated from the following Gelasian Collect: Deus auctor pacis et amator, Quem nosse vivere, Cui servire regnare est, protege ab omnibus impugnationibus supplices tuos; ut qui defensione tuâ fidimus, nullius hostilitatis arma timeamus: Per &c.

These 27 Latin words are equivalent to the 51 English words which we use. We do not, however, suggest that the tone has been altered in the translation. On the contrary, our Translators had so learnt the right tone of the old prayers, that they not only translated them and the tone, into a language of a very different sort; they also composed new prayers, in English, which rank with the old ones, and have the same great excellences. The Collects for Easter Eve, and Christmas Day, may be taken as good examples of this.

What then are the characteristics which we must expect in a Collect?

1. It has three simple parts: (a) the Name of God; (b) what we ask; (c) our appeal to Christ's advocacy.

2. It makes no effort to instruct the congregation, but speaks with simplicity and directness, to Him who knows all things.

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3. It asks for grace and help for our souls, whereby we may do what is right.

Other prayers imitate Collects in one or more of these respects; and may be called Collects, though not satisfying all the conditions.

The Three parts of a Collect.

Our Lord taught us (St John xiv. 13, 14; xv. 16; xvi. 23-26) to ask God in His name. A Collect is a prayer made on that model. It has three parts:

(a) God is addressed; and (b) petition made, (c) in the Name of Jesus.

(a) God is addressed. This may be expressed in one word, or expanded into a sentence. It is always the reason for our prayer, that God is able and willing to hear us: every name of God when named by His children is an appeal to Him.

When we expand the address, we do so in order to include a claim, to be heard because some quality in God has a special relation to that which we are about to ask. Because God loves peace, we can ask Him for Peace: because He is merciful, we can ask Him for forgiveness: because He gave at Pentecost, we can ask Him for the same gift on Whitsun Day. Thus the name of God at the beginning of a Collect often includes some title upon which we build our hope.

(b) What we ask. This may be simple, or complex: it is Simple when we ask for something without saying anything of the means, or the results, {139} of our obtaining it: Complex, when we ask for some thing in order that we may also have something else.

(c) Appeal to Christ's Advocacy. Our claim upon God is "in the name" of Jesus Christ. Here again we vary the thought in agreement with the petition: sometimes it is His mediation, sometimes His might, or His love, which we mention: but not haphazard—the words are chosen to suit what has been asked for.

One variety of this part deserves special mention—when we claim the
Saviour's advocacy, by words which recognise Him as One of the Blessed
Trinity. When His Godhead is thus mentioned, an ascription of praise
is often added.

Origin of the word 'Collect.'

It is impossible to speak with confidence about the origin of the word Collect. We find in old Services both Collecta and Collectio. It might be conjectured that these were references to Books of Collects bearing those names as their titles. But the explanations which have been offered for a thousand years, though very various, do not include that as a possibility. Some derive it from people,

(1) collected for worship: (2) collected in the unity of the Church: (3) having collectedness of mind.

Others from:

(4) the sense collected from Scripture: (5) the desires collected from the congregation.

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Canon Bright[1] decides in favour of (1) as the explanation of Collecta, and (5) as that of Collectio, preferring the former as the source of our English word Collect.

Canon Bright quotes Alcuin the Northumbrian boy, the York Scholar (735-804), who became the most learned man in Europe, and the friend, adviser, and teacher, of the great Emperor Charlemagne. Alcuin derived the word from Collecta, an assembly for worship.

The Morning and Evening Collects.

The First Collect is the Collect of the Day. The Preface (last rubric before the Table of Lessons) orders that the Collect "appointed for the Sunday shall serve all the week after, where it is not in this Book otherwise ordered." The Book 'orders otherwise' for Saints' Days, and at such special times as Christmas, Ash-Wednesday, Good Friday, Easter Even, but has omitted, by some accident, to provide for the two days after Ascension Day, for the week days between The Epiphany and the First Sunday after, and for the three days after Ash-Wednesday.

A rubric at the beginning of the Collects, Epistles, and Gospels provides that the Collect for a Sunday, or for a Holy Day having a Vigil or Eve, shall be said at the Evening Service next before.

We have said something of the source of these Collects: their detailed consideration belongs to a {141} book on the Communion Service, or on the Epistles and Gospels.

The Second Collect, both at Mattins and Evensong, is a Collect for Peace. Both are taken from the same chapter of Prayers for Peace in the Gelasian Sacramentary.

The Morning Collect, desiring that our trust in God, and our fearlessness, may be strengthened by continual knowledge of God's protection, addresses Him as the author and lover of peace, and also as the One whom we know and serve, and thereby have life and freedom.

Standeth our eternal life. Notice the phrase standeth in as a substitute for is. We could not have said whose knowledge is eternal life, because of the momentary doubt whether it referred to the knowledge which God has, or to the knowledge which we have of Him. By the use of an idiom not now in common use, we express the belief taught by the Saviour's words S. John xvii. 3.

Notice also the phrase whose service is perfect freedom: here the Latin original has whom to serve is to reign. Our eagerness to do God's Will is, on the one hand, a service or bondage to Him; but, on the other hand, it is what makes us masters of ourselves, and, in the spiritual sense, kings (1 Cor. iv. 8; Rev. i. 6).

The prayer for defence from external assault has for its real motive the attainment of trust and fearlessness.

The Evening Collect for Peace asks more plainly for spiritual peace; in relation to (1) the tumults {142} occasioned in our consciences by disobedience to God's commands, (2) the tumults occasioned in our lives by outward interference. For (1), we appeal to God as the author of good and holy desires within us: for (2), we appeal to Him as the counsellor who helps us against our enemies. For both, we appeal to Him who enables us, and others, to do what is just.

The Third Collect in the Morning is styled a Collect for Grace. Because He is Almighty and Everlasting; because He is our Father and our God and Lord; and, in particular, because He has brought us to the beginning of the day; we ask Him to keep us from harm, and sin, and danger, as the day goes on.

The corresponding Evening Collect is styled a Collect for Aid against all Perils. Accepting the figure suggested by the close of the day, we ask God to defend us from the perils and dangers of darkness. The light which we seek is evidently inward and spiritual light; the defence, in like manner, a defence from spiritual perils, though not excluding the others: cf. Psalm xviii. 28: xxvii. i.

C. The other Prayers.

The change from the Three Collects to the Three Prayers which follow may be softened by the Anthem, (or Hymn), which comes between. The spiritual gifts, desired in the Collects, are the qualities which guide the lives of men. When we pray that we may have a good King, or a good Bishop, or a good People, we have evidently passed from the general to the particular; from that which is within us to that which is external.

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The Prayer for the King was inserted in 1559.

Health and wealth=To be hale or whole, and to be well. They are Saxon words which include all prosperity of body and condition.

The Prayer for the Royal Family was inserted in 1604. The persons
mentioned by name have been the Consort of the Sovereign, the Queen
Dowager, and the next King and Queen. Thus in Queen Anne's reign,
Princess Sophia was mentioned until she died, eight months before the
Queen.

The Prayer for the Clergy and People. This is, in the Gelasian Sacramentary, a prayer in a Monastery; or, in a private house. Afterwards, the persons for whom it was said, were "an abbat or his congregation"; then Bishops and their congregations; and finally, Curates (i.e. the Clergy in charge of parishes) were introduced in 1544. In Titus ii. 11 The grace of God bringeth salvation, the word 'healthful' is translated differently, but the phrase is the same as here.

the continual dew of thy blessing: see Ps. cxxxiii. 3, where the consecration of Aaron suggested Hermon (=consecration), and called up thoughts of the dew and the clouds, running and floating from its sides. So the blessing received from on high is received in order to be transmitted to others.

The phrase who alone workest great marvels seems to be justified by the consideration that much is asked for in the prayer—God's spirit, and the dew of His blessing, for all the Clergy, and for all the People.

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A Prayer of S. Chrysostom is so called because it comes to us from the Liturgy of S. Chrysostom. It is said to be older than A.D. 900 but not so old as to have been composed by S. Chrysostom himself (354-407). It addresses Christ as Almighty God, and reminds Him of His present gift of grace, and of His ancient promise. The two blessings claimed are—for this life, the knowledge of God's truth—for the life to come, the knowledge of God Himself (S. John xvii. 3).

2 Cor. xiii. This Benediction is not merely the ending of the worship in church: it is also the link between the Church Service and the Service of God which we perform outside. We go out of church to do our work with grace, and love, and fellowship, in the Name and Power of the Holy Trinity.

The more solemn part of the Holy Communion, in the Clementine Liturgy, S. Basil's, S. Chrysostom's and other Eastern Liturgies, began with this Benediction.

The occasional Prayers and Thanksgivings. Like the six Collects after the Communion Service, these may be used before the Prayer of S. Chrysostom in the Morning and Evening, and (with one exception) also when the Litany is said.

There are 11 Prayers: the first two were made in 1549: the next four in 1552: the first of the Ember prayers, in 1661: the second, in a slightly different form, was a prayer in the Ordination Services of 1549, where it still stands. The ninth is from Gelasius' Sacramentary. The Prayer for Parliament appeared in the last Revision (1661), but had been printed before, in Special forms of Service.

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The Prayer for all conditions of men first appeared in 1661. There are eight Thanksgivings: the first, fourth, and sixth, were printed in 1661: the rest in 1604. In the first of these, if the petition were Send us, we beseech thee, such weather, the Prayer might be very frequently used during the spring and summer. Having these, we seem to want other, occasional prayers, and thanksgivings. The spread of Emigration, the enlargement of our Navy and Army, the multiplication of Municipal bodies, and other developments of the National life, demand occasional prayers in the Service, and especially, perhaps, a prayer to be used at times of anxiety for those at sea.

[1] See his Ancient Collects, Appendix: and his Paper in S.P.C.K. Prayer Book Commentary "On the Collects."

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