Trinity.

Isa. vi. to

V. II.

Gen. xviii.

Gen. i., ii. to

V. 4.

Rev. i. to v. 9.

Eph. iv. to

beginning of the fourteenth century, who first fixed its celebration to this Sunday.1

The Jews, living among idolatrous nations, were especially enjoined to remember the unity of God: hence the mystery of the Trinity was not clearly delivered to The Lessons. them. Yet portions of the Old Testament receive their full interpretation from this doctrine, and are therefore read on Trinity Sunday:-the song of the Seraphim; the appearance of Jehovah to Abraham, when three men stood by him; and the work of the Word of God, and of the Spirit of God in creation, and the phrase, Let us make man. In the Lessons from the New Testament, the vision is read of the Eternal One, the seven Spirits before His throne, and Jesus Christ, the Saviour and the Judge: St. Paul's seven unities-one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism—one God and Father of all: and the baptism of Jesus, with the testimony of the voice from heaven, and the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the beloved Son. The Epistle and Gospel are the same that were read in the old Offices on the Octave of Pentecost, the last day of the more solemn time of baptism, to which the Gospel refers. Yet they are well suited to the festival, under its more modern name of Trinity Sunday: for the three Persons of the Godhead are mentioned in the Gospel; and the portion appointed for the Epistle contains the Hymn of the Angels, with its threefold ascription of praise to God.

V. 17.

Matt. iii.

The Collect

The Collect is continued from the old Offices :

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui dedisti famulis tuis in confessione veræ fidei æternæ Trinitatis gloriam agnoscere, et in

1 In the twelfth century the feast of Trinity was kept by some Churches on the Octave of Whitsun Day,

and by others on the Sunday next before Advent. See Guericke, pp. 160 sч.

potentia majestatis adorare Unitatem: quæsumus ut ejusdem fidei firmitate ab omnibus semper muniamur adversis.1

Trinity.

after

The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels for the Sundays Sundays after Trinity are taken in the order in which they stood Trinity. in the Sarum Missal. The Gospels are selected from the parables, miracles, and conversations of our Lord the Epistles are a series of exhortations to the practice of Christian virtues, and after the first five Sundays are taken in order from St. Paul's Epistles.2

The Collects.

The following are the originals of these Collects :— Deus, in te sperantium fortitudo adesto propitius invocationibus First. nostris; et quia sine te nihil potest mortalis infirmitas, præsta auxilium gratiæ tuæ, ut in exequendis mandatis tuis et voluntate tibi et actione placeamus.3

Sancti nominis tui, Domine, timorem pariter et amorem fac nos habere perpetuum ; quia nunquam tua gubernatione destituis, quos in soliditate tuæ dilectionis instituis.*

Second.

Deprecationem nostram, quæsumus, Domine, benignus exaudi; Third. et quibus supplicandi præstas affectum, tribue defensionis auxilium.

Protector in te sperantium Deus, sine quo nihil est validum, Fourth. nihil sanctum; multiplica super nos misericordiam tuam, ut te rectore, te duce, sic transeamus per bona temporalia ut non amittamus æterna.

Da nobis, quæsumus, Domine, ut et mundi cursus pacifice Fifth. nobis tuo ordine dirigatur, et ecclesia tua tranquilla devotione lætetur.

1 Miss. Sar. In die Sanctæ Trinitatis, col. 451.

cessary in ordained teachers, that they should be enriched in all utter2 One exception to this course ance and in all knowledge; and the occurs at the 18th Sunday, which Gospel, relating how our Lord siWheatly supposes to have been lenced the most learned of the Jews often one of the Dominice vacantes, by His questions and answers, teaches or Sundays following the Ember how false opinions are to be condays, which had no proper Office futed by the right understanding of because of the ordinations that were Scripture. held at those times. And when an 3 Miss. Sar. Dominica i. post Epistle and Gospel were appointed festum Sanctæ Trinitatis, col. 459. for this Sunday, they were adapted 4 Our present Collect was comone such solemnity. The Epistle posed in 1661, instead of a translation mentions the spiritual gifts of a of the Latin. Christian, which are especially ne

Bandays after
Trinity.

Sixth.

Seventh.

Eighth

Ninth.

Tenth.

Eleventh.

Twelfth.

Thirteenth.

Fourteenth.

Fifteenth.

Sixteenth.

Seventeenth.

Deus, qui diligentibus te bona invisibilia præparasti; infunde cordibus nostris tui amoris affectum, ut te in omnibus et super omnia diligentes promissiones tuas, quæ omne desiderium superant, consequamur.

Deus virtutum, cujus est totum quod est optimum; insere pectoribus nostris amorem tui nominis, et præsta in nobis religionis augmentum: ut quæ sunt bona nutrias, ac pietatis studio quæ sunt nutrita custodias.

Deus, cujus providentia in sui dispositione non fallitur, te supplices exoramus, ut noxia cuncta submoveas, et omnia nobis profutura concedas.1

Largire nobis, quæsumus, Domine, semper spiritum cogitandi quæ recta sunt propitius, et agendi; ut qui sine te esse non possumus, secundum te vivere valeamus.

Pateant aures misericordiæ tuæ, Domine, precibus supplicantium; et ut petentibus desiderata concedas, fac eos quæ tibi placita sunt postulare.

Deus, qui omnipotentiam tuam parcendo maxime et miserando manifestas; multiplica super nos gratiam tuam, ut ad tua promissa currentes cœlestium bonorum facias esse consortes.2

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui abundantia pietatis tuæ et merita supplicum excedis et vota; effunde super nos misericordiam tuam, ut dimittas quæ conscientia metuit, et adjicias quod oratio non præsumit.

Omnipotens et misericors Deus, de cujus munere venit ut tibi a fidelibus tuis digne et laudabiliter serviatur; tribue nobis, quæsumus, ut ad promissiones tuas sine offensione curramus.

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, da nobis fidei spei et caritatis augmentum ; et ut mereamur assequi quod promittis, fac nos amare quod præcipis.

Custodi, Domine, quæsumus, ecclesiam tuam propitiatione perpetua et quia sine te labitur humana mortalitas, tuis semper auxiliis et abstrahatur a noxiis, et ad salutaria dirigatur.3

Ecclesiam tuam, quæsumus, Domine, miseratio continuata mundet et muniat; et quia sine te non potest salva consistere, tuo semper munere gubernetur.

Tuae nos, Domine, quæsumus, gratia semper et præveniat et sequatur; ac bonis operibus jugitur præstet esse intentos.

1 This Collect was simply translated until 1661.

2 The phrase, running the way of thy commandments, may obtain thy

gracious promises, was inserted in 1661.

3 The Epistle was appointed in 1549, instead of Gal. v. 25-vi. 10.

Da, quæsumus, Domine, populo tuo diabolica vitare contagia, et Sundays after te solum Deum pura mente sectari.1

Trinity. Eighteenth.

Dirigat corda nostra, quæsumus, Domine, miserationis operatio, Nineteenth. quia tibi sine te placere non possumus.2

Omnipotens et misericors Deus, universa nobis adversantia Twentieth. propitiatus exclude; ut mente et corpore pariter expediti, quæ tua sunt liberis mentibus exequamur.

first

Largire, quæsumus, Domine, fidelibus tuis indulgentiam placatus Twentyet pacem; ut pariter ab omnibus mundentur offensis, et secura tibi mente deserviant.

second.

Familiam tuam, quæsumus, Domine, continua pietate custodi ; ut Twentya cunctis adversitatibus te protegente sit libera, et in bonis actibus tuo nomini sit devota.3

third..

Deus, refugium nostrum et virtus, adesto piis ecclesiæ tuæ pre- Twentycibus, auctor ipse pietatis; et præsta ut quod fideliter petimus

Absolve, quæsumus, Domine, tuorum delicta populorum; et a Twentypeccatorum nostrorum nexibus quæ pro nostra fragilitate contrax-fourth. imus tua benignitate liberemur.4

Excita, quæsumus, Domine, tuorum fidelium voluntates; ut Twenty divini operis fructum propensius exequentes pietatis tuæ remedia fifth. majora percipiant.5

The Saints'

Days

New Collects composed.

The Lessons.

Conversion of St. Paul.

2

The arrangement of the Collects follows the order of the old Missal: when the course for the Sundays and fixed festivals of the ecclesiastical year, beginning with Advent, has been completed, the Collects are given for those Saints' days, the position of which will continually vary with respect to the Sundays.1 The Commemorations of the Apostles, and the Virgin Mary, and John the Baptist, have been selected from the number of real or fictitious saints, in whose honour proper Services were held; and for these it was necessary to compose a series of almost entirely new Collects, since the old Collects were mainly prayers for the saints' intercession. The Epistles and Gospels that had been read on these days were generally retained; and proper first Lessons appointed from the Books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, or from the Apocryphal Books of Ecclesiasticus and Wisdom. Only four chapters are now read from the Apocrypha on these days. For some few, which have their own proper history, second Lessons are appointed. The following Collects were partially retained in the English Prayer Book:

3

Deus, qui universum mundum beati Pauli Apostoli tui prædica

after Trinity, is ended in the new
Lectionary by continuing the course
of Lessons from the Prophets to this
Sunday, and assigning to it the
Lessons for the Sunday next before
Advent. These are Eccles. xi., xii.;
Haggai ii. to v. 10; and Malachi
iii., iv. See the Rationale and notes
upon these chapters in A Companion
to the Lectionary, by Rev. W. Ben-
ham, Lond. 1873.

1 This part of the Sarum Missal
was commonly headed with a pic-
ture of the crucifixion of St. Andrew,
and the title, ‘Incipit proprium festi-

vitatum Sanctorum secundum usum ecclesiæ Sar. In vigilia Sancti Andrea Apostoli,' col. 657.

2 The oldest of the feasts of the Apostles is that of St. Peter and St. Paul, which was in use by the end of the fourth century. The feasts of the other Apostles are of later institution. Guericke, pp. 187 sq.

3 The opinion of praying to saints got entrance, but had not the full growth for an article of faith till after 1335:' see Twysden, Histor. Vindication, ch. IX. § 21, pp. 214 sqq. (Camb. 1847).