'Two attendants on one Lord': reading the scriptures of the Old and New Covenants at Matins and Evensong
Though the two covenants differ in language and form, yet in sentiment and substance they agree: for they are in fact but two different parts of one and the same system, the former being introductory and preparatory to the latter ...
"What is the law," says Justin Martyr, "but the prediction of the Gospel? and what is the Gospel, but the law fulfilled?" "Things there prefigured," says Austin, "are here performed." "Between the two Covenants," says Chrysostom, "there is neither repugnance, nor contrariety of meaning; the difference is merely verbal. I have repeatedly said, that two Covenants, two handmaids, and two sisters, are the attendants on one Lord. Christ is announced by the prophets, Christ is preached in the New Testament. The Old declared beforehand the same things, with the New, and the New interpreted the Old."
Our Saviour "came not to destroy the law or the prophets: he came not to destroy, but to fulfil." ( Matt. v. 17.) He came and accomplished what was prefigured and predicted, he explained more fully the spiritual import of the moral law, corrected erroneous interpretations of it, and supplied whatever was imperfect. Thus the scheme of redemption mysteriously represented in the types and figures of the Old Testament, is more explicitly revealed in the New. The morality also of the Gospel requires higher degrees of excellence than were enjoined by the law, as it prescribes not only rectitude of action, but purity of principle, and forbids not only actual guilt, but all licentiousness of the thoughts or passions.
It is therefore when the two covenants are viewed in connexion, the way in which they ought always to be viewed, that they will most clearly and forcibly exhibit their own excellence and utility.
Two Lessons contrasts with much contemporary practice, in which it is not uncommon for there to be only one reading (as is also the case in Lauds and Vespers in the Roman Liturgy of the Hours). For example, both the CofE's Common Worship Daily Prayer and TEC's BCP 1979 permit one reading at Morning and Evening Prayer
Shepherd's analysis of the significance of two readings, from the Old and New Testaments, at daily Morning and Evening Prayer draws attention to the weakness of the contemporary provision and the theological meaning of the Cranmerian provision. Reading the scriptures of both Testaments together, daily, morning and evening, embodies and draws up more deeply into the truth of the theological affirmation that - in the words of Article VII - "The Old Testament is not contrary to the New: for both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to Mankind by Christ".
As Shepherd demonstrates in his commentary, this is an ancient Christian conviction, rooted - of course - in the New Testament itself. While, of course, the scriptures of the Old Testament do continue to be read in contemporary forms of the Anglican offices of morning and evening prayer (although my own experience of seeing this suggests that New Testament readings tend to predominate when there is only one reading), abandoning the practice of the two Lessons, side by side, is a loss, obscuring the unity of the covenants. Where possible, the Cranmerian practice should be restored, deepening the church's reading of the scriptures of the Old Covenant as a proclamation of the Christ, as, day by day, morning and evening, we heed the 'two attendants on one Lord'.
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