A. An order for evening prayer.] Though evening service varieth not much from that of the morning, yet doth it afford something which obligeth our consideration. For (what is too much forgot) I must remind you that there is an evening service before evening prayer. “The curate of every parish, or some other at his appointment, shall diligently upon Sundays and holy days, half an hour before evening prayer, openly in the church instruct and examine so many children of his parish sent unto him as the time will serve, and as he shall think convenient, in some part of the Catechism.” The same rule is observed by the Belgic Church; and so did the Palatine divines advise at the synod at Dort, that it should be an afternoon exercise, with this positive resolution: non dubitamus, cur tot hereses, et nova dogmata locum passim inveniant, causam vel maximam esse, catechizationis neglectum: “we are confident that the neglect of catechising is the main cause of so many heresies and novel doctrines which infest the Church.”
I wish they of the Presbyterian inclination would more listen to these their friends, and if not for conformity’s, yet for Christianity’s sake, not suffer preaching so totally to usurp and justle out this most necessary office; that as an inmate to expel the right owner, the afternoon sermon hath not that countenance of authority in our Church which catechising hath, this being settled by express rule, that only tolerated or entering in by remote implication ; and though late custom hath invested it with an honour commensurate with and equal to that of the morning sermon, sure I am it was of minor reputation in the Apostolic and next succeeding ages. So that Mr. Thorndike demands “to see what place these afternoon sermons had in the public service of the ancient Church.” If by Church he intendeth the Catholic and universal Church, or the greatest and most considerable parcels of it, that place I conceive cannot be found, nor is there any mention thereof any where, Czesarea of Cappadocia, and Cyprus only excepted: of these Socrates thus: Cesaree Cappadocie, et in Cypro, die Sabbatis et Dominica semper sub vesperam, accensis lucernis, presbyteri et episcopi Scripturas interpretantur : “at Cesarea of Cappadocia, as also at Cyprus on the Sabbath and Lord’s day, always at candle-light in the evening, the presbyters and bishops interpret the Scriptures.” And this I take it is the reason why St. Basil (who was bishop of that Czesarea) preached so many homilies (evidently the second, seventh, and ninth of his Hexaemeron) at the evening. Now as this testimony of Socrates chalketh out the place of the afternoon sermon to be the same with that in the morning, viz. after the reading of the Scriptures, so doth it imply that the custom was nowhere taken up but there; and that in other places preaching at evening service was but occasional and arbitrary, not stated as parcel of the office.
Let it not be thought that I here endeavour to disparage that ordinance of preaching, an ordinance so often instrumental to the conversion of souls. No, my only design is‘to commend the other duty to more frequent practice: a duty without whose pre-elementation sermons themselves edify very little.
Evening prayer.] The office catechistical being past, evening prayer is to begin. But why not afternoon, rather than evening prayer? I answer, because then the sun, and consequently the light, begins to decline. It seems the Greek Church had two services in the afternoon, one at our three, their nine, and another at the close of the evening, as appeareth by the council of Laodicea, can. 18, decreeing, περὶ τοῦ, τὴν αὐτὴν λειτουργίαν τῶν εὐχῶν πάντοτε, Kal ἐν ταῖς ἐννάταις, καὶ ἐν ταῖς ἑσπέραις ὀφείλειν γίνεσθαι; “that the same service of prayers ought to be made use of both at the ninth hour and at evening.” This “at evening” was at candle lighting, whence the prayers appropriated to it were λυχνικαὶ εὐχαὶ, as the psalms λυχνικοὶ ψαλμοὶ, or ὕμνοι τοῦ λυχνικοῦ, “ candle-light hymns:” the reason is, because when the candles were first lighted their mode was to glorify God with an hymn, one form whereof is still extant in these words:
φῶς ἱλαρὸν ἁγίας δόξης ἀθανάτου πατρὸς, οὐρανίου, ἁγιοῦ, μάκαρος ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστὲ ἐλθόντες ἐπὶ τοῦ ἡλίου δύσιν ἰδόντες φῶς ἑσπέ- ρίνον, ὑμνοῦμεν πατέρα καὶ υἱὸν καὶ ἅγιον πνεῦμα Θεοῦ. Αξιος εἶ ἐν πᾶσι καιροῖς ὑμνεῖσθαι φωναῖς ὁσίαις υἱὲ Θεοῦ, ζωὴν ὁ δίδους διὸ ὁ κόσμός σε δοξάζει: “blessed Jesus Christ, Thou cheerful brightness of the holy immortal glory of the heavenly and holy Father; when the sun is set, no sooner do we behold the evening light to shine than we glorify the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Son of God, giver of life, Thou art worthy at all times to be praised with holy voices, therefore the whole world doth glorify Thee.”
This is that eucharistical hymn whereof St. Basil thus: ἔδοξε τοῖς πατρᾶσιν ἡμῶν, μὴ σιωπῆ THY χάριν τοῦ ἑσπερινοῦ φωτὸς δέχεσθαι, ἀλλ᾽ εὐθὺς φανέντος εὐχαριστεῖν, λέγοντες αἰνοῦμεν πατέρα, καὶ υἱὸν καὶ ἅγιον πνεῦμα Θεοῦ: “our fathers thought meet not silently to pass by the benefit of this evening light, but, as soon as it appeared, presently they gave thanks, saying, Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.” He that desireth to see more of this particular may resort to the same fountain whence I had it, the late learned primate de Symbolis, which being so excellent a piece, and so undoubtedly his, I cannot but wonder why Dr. Barnard in his first and second catalogue of his works omitted it.