But that which pleases me most is the fancy of St. Hilary, expounding the Psalter to be meant the key of David,' spoken of by St. John in his Revelation: and properly enough: for if we consider, how many mysteries of religion are opened to us in the Psalter, how many things concerning Christ, what clear vaticinations concerning his birth, his priesthood, his kingdom, his death, the very circumstances of his passion, his resurrection, and all the degrees of his exaltation, more clearly and explicitly recorded in the Psalter than in all the old prophets besides, we may easily believe that Christ, with the key of David in his hand, is nothing else but Christ fully opened and manifested to us in the Psalms in the whole mystery of our redemption. "Omnes penè psalmi Christi personam sustinent," saith Tertullian; "Almost all the psalms represent the person of Christ." Now this key of David opens not only the kingdom of grace, by revelation of the mysteries of our religion, but the kingdom of heaven too; it being such a collection of prayers, eucharist, acts of hope, of love, of patience, and all other Christian virtues, that as the everlasting kingdom is given to the heir of the house of David, so the honour of opening that kingdom is given to the first prince of that family; the Psalms of his father David are one of the best inlets into the kingdom of the Son. Something to this purpose is that saying of one of the old doctors, "Vox psalmodiæ, si recto corde dirigatur, in tantum omnipotenti Deo aditum ad animum aperit, ut intentæ animæ vel prophetiæ mysteria vel compunctionis spiritum infundat;"

"The saying or singing of psalms opens a way so wide for God to enter into the heart, that a devout soul does usually, from such an employment, receive the grace of compunction and contrition, or of understanding prophecies."

Upon such premises as these, or better, the church of God, in all ages, hath made David's Psalter the greatest part of her public and private devotions; sometimes dividing the Psalter into seven parts, that every week's devotion might spend it all.

Sometimes decreeing that it should be said day and night.' Otherwhile enjoining the recitation of the whole Psalter before the celebration of the blessed sacrament; and, after some time, it was made the public office of the church.'

It was the general use of Christendom to say the Psalms antiphonatim,' by way of verse and answer,' saith Suidas; and so ancient, that the Religious of St. Mark in Alexandria used it, saith Philo the Jew; and St. Ignatius, or else Flavianus, and Diodorus, brought it first into the church of Antioch.

And for the private devotions, that they chiefly consisted of the Psalms, we have great probability from the strict requiring it of the clergy, and particularly from them who came to be ordained, great readiness of saying the Psalter by heart. It was St. Jerome's counsel to Rusticus: and when St. Gregory was to ordain the bishop of Ancona, his inquiry concerning his canonical sufficiency was, if he could say David's Psalms without book; and for a disability of doing it, John the priest was rejected

from the bishopric of Ravenna. But this, I conceive, more relates to their private than to their public devotions: for I cannot think but that, in respect of the public liturgy, it was enough for bishops and priests to read the psalm; the requiring ability to remember them was to engage them to a frequent use of so admirable devotions in their private offices.

But the Psalms were not only of use to the church, as they lay in their own position and form, but the devout men of several ages drew them into collects, antiphonaries, responsories, and all other parts of their devotions. They made their prayers out of the Psalms; their confessions, their doxologies, their ejaculations, for the most part, were clauses or periods of the Psalter. St. Jerome made a collection of choice versicles, and put them together into their several classes, and that was much of his devotion; the collection is still extant under the name of "St. Jerome's Psalter." St. Athanasius made an index of the several occasions and matters of prayer and eucharist, and fitted psalms to each particular; that was his devotion; the Psalms entire as they lay, only he made titles of his own. I have seen, of later time, a short hymn of some eight verses, which are, indeed, choice sentences out of several psalms, set together to make a compendium of liturgy or breviary of our necessity and devotions, collected by St. Bernardine: it is a very good copy to be followed. But if we look into the old liturgies of the eastern and western churches, and, where we will, almost into the private devotions of the old

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writers, we may say of them in the expression of the prophet, "Hauriebant aquas è fontibus Salvatoris," they drew their waters from the fountains of our blessed Saviour," but through the limbecks of David.

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But the practice of this devotion I derived from a higher precedent, even of Christ and his apostles: for before the passion immediately they sung a psalm," saith the Scripture; "Hymno dicto," saith the vulgar Latin, having recited or said a psalm." But, however, it was part of David's Psalter that was sung; it was the great Allelujah, as the Jews called it, beginning at the 113th psalm, to the 119th exclusively; part of that was sung. But this devotion continued with our blessed Saviour as long as breath was in him; for when he was upon the cross, he recited the 22d psalm ad verbum,' saith the tradition of the church; and that he began it, saith the Scripture, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" The whole psalm is rather a history than a prediction of the passion; and what Tertullian saith of the whole Psalter, is particularly verified of this, “Filium ad Patrem, id est, Christum ad Deum, verba facientem repræsentat;" "It represents the Son's address to his Father, that is, Christ speaking to God." Against the example of Christ, if we confront the practice of Antichrist, nothing can be said greater in commendation of this manner of devotion: for bishop Hippolytus, in his oration of the end of the world, saith, that in the days of Antichrist, "Psalmorum decantatio cessabit," 66 they shall then no more use the singing

or saying of psalms;" which when I had observed, without any further deliberation I fixed upon the Psalter as the best weapon against him, whose coming, we have great reason to believe, is not far off, so great preparation is making for him.

From the example of Christ this grew to be a practice apostolical, and their devotion came exactly home to the likeness of the design of this very book: they turned the Psalms into prayers.

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Thus it was said of Paul and Silas, Acts, xvi. They prayed a psalm;" so it is in the Greek; and we have a copy left us of one of the prayers or collects, which they made out of the bowels of the second psalm; it is in the fourth chapter of the Acts, beginning at the twenty-fourth verse, and ends at the thirty-first.- And now I have shown you the reasons of my choice, and the precedents that I have followed. This last comes home to every circumstance of my book. I only add this, that since, according to the instruction of our blessed Saviour, God is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth; no worshipping can be more true or more spiritual than the Psalter, said with a pure mind and a hearty devotion. For David was God's instrument to the church, "teaching and admonishing us," as our duty is to each other, " in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs ;" and the Spirit of Truth was the grand Dictator of what David wrote: so that we may confidently use this devotion as the church of God ever did, making her addresses to God most frequently by the Psalms: so Prudentius reports the guise of Christendom.