Nor  is  the  Holy  Spirit,  as  some  fear,  at  all  dishonoured
by  this  statement,  in  respect  of  His  Office  as  the  Lord  and
Giver  of  Life.  Rather  we  may  shew  from  the  Primitive
Liturgies",  and  from  that  of  our  own  Church  as  it  was
originally  formed  from  them,  that  the  honour  of  God's
Spirit  in  the  Holy  Sacrament  is  no  way  so  effectually
vindicated  as  by  appealing  to  ecclesiastical  Tradition.
The  Primitive  Liturgies,  with  the  exception  perhaps  of
the  Roman,  agree  in  distinctly  invoking  God  the  Holy
Ghost  to  descend  upon  the  sacred  elements,  and  prepare
them  to  be  the  communication  of  Christ's  Body  and  Blood
(and  therefore  of  life  supernatural)  to  the  faithful.  JS.  g.
the  Alexandrian  Liturgy,  denominated  from  St.  Basil,  (the
very  words  of  which,  in  not  a  few  cases,  may  be  satis
factorily  traced  back  at  least  to  his  own  time,)  appoints
this  supplication  to  be  used  immediately  after  the  com
memoration  of  the  words  of  institution1.  "  We  therefore,
also,  remembering  His  holy  sufferings,  His  rising  again
from  the  dead,  His  ascension  into  heaven,  His  sitting  on
the  right  hand  of  Thee,  Who  art  God  and  Father,  and
His  glorious  and  fearful  coming  again,  offer  unto  Thee
Thine  own,  out  of  Thine  own  gifts.  And  we  supplicate
and  beseech  Thee,  merciful  and  gracious  Lord, — we  Thy
sinful  and  unworthy  servants, — and  worship  Thee,  that  by
the  good  pleasure  of  Thy  goodness,  Thy  Holy  Spirit  may


11  Which,  in  those  points  wherein  they  agree,  are  equivalent  to  a  genuine
formulary  of  the  first  age.  See  Palmer's  Dissertation  on  Primitive  Liturgies,
prefixed  to  his  Oriyines  Liturgicce,  and  Tracts  for  the  Times,  No.  63.
x  S.  Basilii  Op.  ed.  Bened.  t.  iii.  p.  678,  9.
364        Eucharistical  Invocation  of  the  Holy  Ghost.
