Full text of "A rational illustration of the Book of common prayer of the Church of England : being the substance of every thing liturgical in Bishop Sparrow, Mr. L'Estrange, Dr. Comber, Dr. Nichols, and all former ritualists, commentators, or others, upon the same subject ;collected and reduced into one continued and regular method, and interspersed all along with new observations"

Ml I

SOCIETY:OF
S = JOHN THE
EVANGELIST

Orecit O

RATIONAL ILLUSTRATION

or TIII:

BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER/

01 TIII:

CHURCH OF ENGLAND:

BEING

THE SUBSTAXCK OF EVERY THING LITURGICAL

BISHOP SPARROW, MR. L'ESTRANCJE, DR. COMBER, DR. NICH<>!,>.

AND ALL FORMER RITUALISTS, COMMENTATORS,

OR OTHERS, UPON THE SAME SUBJECT;

MII i.i;< n:n v.\i> i;i:irn-:i> INTO ONI: <O.\'|-IM i:n A.\D i;i:<;[i.\i: .MKTH'M',
\M> [NTER8PEBSED \I,I. ALONG WITH XEW OKSERVATIOXs.

97499

( IIARLKS WIIEATLY, ]\I. A.

vi< \i; OF i:i;i:\r \M> i - i I:\KIX PKI.IIAM i.v

Ostendas finpuln ccrnnoiiifis rt rilutn colcndi.

OXFORD:

AT THE UNIVERSITY PR 1

MDCX:CXLVI.

LIBRARY ST. MARY'S COLLEGE

TH K PKKKACE.

IN :i former edition of this book which \a- printed in folio, I was at
a luss in what manner 1 was to address the reader; i. e. whether
to bespeak his candour as to an entire new book, or whether
only the continuance of it as to a new edition of an old one. I called
it indeed the third edition in the title-page ; though I think I had but
little other reason for doing so, than my having twice published a
treatise upon the same subject before. For scarce a fifth part of what
1 then offered to the world was printed from either of the former
editions ; nor had so much of them, as I have mentioned, been continued
entire, had I foreseen how little I should have confined myself to the
yest. But when it first went to the press, I had no other design than
to have reprinted it exactly from the second edition ; except that I had
yielded to the request of the booksellers, who being encouraged by the
quick sale of two large impressions in a smaller volume, were willing
to run the lia/ard of one in a larger size. This was all the alteration
I proposed : nor did I think of any other, till the introductory discourse,
the whole first chapter, and great part of the second, were worked oft'
from the press ; which therefore, for the most part, stand just as they
did before, and not in the method into which I should have thrown
them, had I known from the beginning what alterations I should have
made. However the reader will have no reason to complain ; since
though the form would have been different, the arguments notwith-
standing must have been much the same : and they sure will appear to
a better advantage by standing entire, and in the light they are set by
the authors themselves, from whom I have borrowed them ; than if
they had been broke into comments and notes, and produced in parcels,
as the rubricks would have required : which was the method I after-
wards thought fit to pursue :: . For when I observed at the close of

* I desire that what I have said may he principally understood of the introductory
discourse \\ hich is almost verbally transcribed from Dr. Bonnet's Brief History of the
joint I'se of preeom posed set Forms of Prayer) and of the three first sections of the
second chapter ; for the first of which I am partly obliged to bishop Beveridge's
discourse on the Necessity and Advantage of Publick Prayer; for the second, to Dr.
Cave's Primitive Christianity; and for the third, to Mr. Roberts's excellent sermon
at the primary visitation of the late bishop of Exeter, at Oakhampton. The two

a 2

iv THE PREFACE.

the second chapter (which is upon the general rubrick concerning the
Order for Morning and Evening Prayer) that I had taken no notice in
what part of the church divine service should be performed (the
appointment of which was yet the principal design of the first part of
that rubrick) ; I not only found it necessary to add a new section to
supply that defect ; but taking the hint, to examine how I had managed
the rubricks in general, I perceived that I had been equally deficient in
most of them ; and that consequently to make the work truly useful,
the like additions would be necessary through the whole.

The occasion of this defect in the two first editions was owing to a
neglect of those parts of our offices in all who had writ upon the liturgy
before me : for as I never, till the third edition, attempted any farther
than to give the substance and sum of what others had treated of more
at large ; it could not be expected that the epitome or abridgment
should give more light than the books from whence it was taken
supplied. However, as I considered the price of my own book would
then be very considerably advanced ; I thought it but reasonable to
make the purchaser what amends I was able, by putting it into his
hands as complete as I could.

To this end I applied myself, in the first place, to the comparing our
Liturgy, as it stands at present, with the first Common-prayer Book of
king Edward VI. and with all the reviews that have been taken of it
since ; from whence, together with the history of compiling it, and of
the several alterations it has undergone from time to time, I easily
foresaw the rubricks would be best illustrated and explained. Nor
have I found myself disappointed in the advantage I proposed : for I
do not remember that I have met with a difficulty through the whole
Common-prayer, but what I have been enabled, by this means, in some
measure to remove.

And whilst I was upon these searches, it came into my mind, from
the extravagant prices which the old Common-prayer Books have borne
of late, that it would not be unacceptable to the curious reader to note
the differences between them : wherever therefore I met with any
variations, I have also been diligent to transcribe them at large, and to
give the reason of the several changes ; another improvement which I
thought would be looked upon to be so much the more useful, as it
furnished me with occasions of inquiring into several ancient usages of
the church, and of shewing how far we have advanced to, or gone back
from, the primitive standard, since our first reformation.

These are the two principal alterations which I observed : and though
these perhaps may seem but slight at first mentioning, yet I can assure
the reader, that from my first laying the design, I found that, instead

following sections of that chapter are pretty much in the method I afterwards ob-
served, and so for the most part is the whole first chapter; for the first division of
which (roiicrnung the tables and rules) I must not forget to repeat the acknow-
ledgments I have more than once made to the learned Dr. Brett.

THE PREFACE. *

of what I Imcl at first undertaken, which was only the supervising a
few sheets as they were worked off, I had got an entire new work upon
my hands, and that I was to prepare for, as well as to correct from, the
additions I perceived were necessary to he made almost
in i very pai;v, and where the old matter was continued, it was to be
often transposed, and to he worked up again in different parts of the
hook. So that neither of my former editions was from the time
above mentioned of any other use to me in the compiling of this, than
any of the authors that lay open before me : except that what was
Buttered in different books, which treat some of them of one thing,
and some of another ; I generally found ready collected in my own,
which therefore for the most part saved me the trouble of new weaving
the materials which others had supplied. Not that I took any ad-
vantage from hence to spare myself the pains of reading over again the
several authors themselves ; for I do not know that there was a single
piece on the subject, how inconsiderable soever, but what I gave a fresh
review, and with the utmost care, that not a hint should escape me,
which I judged would be any ways worth observation. And yet I dare.
affirm, that the whole that I borrowed from all who have writ professedly
upon the Common-prayer, does not amount to near a fourth part of
what the following sheets contain. Nor will it seem incredible, that
every thing that is pertinent to my own design should be reduced into
so narrow a compass as I have mentioned, when it is considered that
though the authors I made use of were numerous, yet the matters they
treat of are generally the same ; that some of them have printed the
Liturgy itself, as well as their explanations and comments upon it ; that
they are most of them but small ; and that in the two that are
voluminous (Dr. Comber and Dr. Nichols) scarce an eighth part of
either of them comes within the limits I confined myself to. The bulk
of the former consists in large paraphrases and practical discourses,
which I wholly passed by : and if the latter has done nothing in a
practical way ; yet the repetition of his paraphrases, where the same
forms return in different offices, together with his enlarging upon
subjects that a reader would never think to look for in a comment
upon the Common-prayer, have very much contributed to swell his
work with materials that I judged might be spared, without any danger
of its being thought a defect: especially since the omission of them
made room for the enlarging upon other points much more pertinent
to the subject of the book ; and which indeed make the principal part
of the whole, though most of them are touched upon but lightly, if at
all, in any former direct exposition of the Liturgy. To name all the
particulars would be more ostentatious than useful ; and therefore I
shall only observe in general, that wherever I knew any point I was to
mention handled more particularly by authors who have made it their
principal view, I always had recourse to them, and took the liberty of
borrowing whatever contributed to the perfecting my scheme.

vi THE PREFACE.

In such cases I have generally given notice in the margin to whom I
have been beholden ; though there is one thing perhaps in which I
have been deficient, and that is, in not using sometimes the ordinary
marks of distinction, when I have taken the words as well as the
thoughts of my author : for it was always my rule when I could not
mend an expression, not to do it an injury by changing it : and yet as
I was frequently forced to transpose the order of his sentences, and to
blend and mix with them what my own thoughts supplied, it often
came to pass, that when the paragraph was finished, I questioned
whether the author from whom most of it was taken would acknowledge
it to be his own.

And thus I have given the reader an account, as well of my first
attempts on this subject, as of the farther progress I made upon it
when it came the third time to the press ; which I have done, not so
much for the sake of acquainting him with the old editions, as of
informing him more distinctly what it is he may look for in the new
ones. It will be a needless caution I suppose to add, that I shall stand
to nothing that I have said before, any farther than it agrees with the
contents of the last : the particulars indeed are but few, as far as I can
remember, where my notions are changed : but where they are, it is
but common justice to take my sentiments from what I deliver upon
maturer judgment ; and not to expect I should always vindicate an
error or mistake., because I once advanced it in a juvenile performance.
I should have very ill bestowed the pains I took to review my original
papers (which was more a great deal than it cost me at first to collect
and compile them ; and which took up as many years as it would have
done months, had they been only reprinted as they were before) if they
did not come out with some improvements at last. Not that I am so
vain as to think they are at last without faults and imperfections ; I
am sensible there are many; I can only plead that none willingly
escaped me, and that wherever any escaped unwillingly, nobody could
have been more industrious to find them. For in order to this, I not
only during the tedious delay that I then created to the press, examined
the sheets upon every occasion that called the matter of them fresh to
my mind ; but also importuned the assistance and corrections of such
learned friends as I knew were in no danger (except from too favour-
able an indulgence to the author) of overlooking the slightest mistakes.

And this I take to be a proper place to explain myself in relation
to one passage particularly, which I know has been thought to need
the greatest amendment, though I have let it stand without making
any. And indeed an explanation of it is so much the more needful,
aa it is not only judged to be indefensible in itself, but also to be
inconsistent with what I have said in another part of the book. The
pu^age I mean is concerning the Absolution in the daily Morning and
Evening Service, which I have asserted to be " an actual conveyance
" of pardon, at the very instant of pronouncing it, to all that come

THE PREFACE. vii

" within the terms proposed 1 ." And again, that it " is more than
" DECLARATIVE, that it is truly > . insuring and conveying

" to the proper subjects thereof the very absolution or remission
-olf l> ." This has been thought by some, from whose judgment
I >hould be very unwilling to differ or recede, not only to carry the
point higher than can be maintained, but also to be irreconcilable
with my own notions of Absolution, as I have described them upon
the office for the I'isilfithn of the Sir/,-, where they are thought to be
more i-op-i.-tent with Scripture and antiquity. I have there endea-
voured to shew that there is no "standing authority in the Mii-i
" of the Gospel, to pardon and forgive sins immediately and directly
" in relation to God, and as to which the censure of the Church had
"been in no wise concerned' 1 ." And again, "that no absolution
" pronounced by the Church can cleanse or do away our inward guilt,
" or remit the eternal penalties of sin, which are declared to be due
" to if by the sentence of GOD, any farther than by the prayers
" which are appointed to accompany it, and by the use of those ordi-
" nances to which it restores us, it may be a means, in the end, of
" obtaining our pardon from God himself, and the forgiveness of
" sin a* it relates to him d ." These passages, I acknowledge, as they
HIT separated from their contexts, and opposed to one another, seem
a little inconsistent and confusedly expressed : but if each of them are
read in their proper places, and with that distinction of ideas which I
had framed to myself when I writ them, I humbly presume they may-
be easily reconciled, and both of them asserted with equal truth. I
desire it may be remembered that in the latter place 1 am speaking
judicial and unconditional absolution, pronounced by the Minister
in an indicative form, as of certain advantage to the person that
receives it. By this I have supposed the Church never intends to
cleanse or do away our inward guilt, but only to exercise an external
authority, founded upon the power of the keys ; which, though it
may be absolute, as to the inflicting and remitting the censures of the
Church, I could not understand peremptorily to determine the state
of the sinner in relation to GOD. And thus far I have the happiness
to have the concurrence of good judges on my side ; so that it is only
in what I assert on the daily absolution, that I have the misfortune
not to be accounted so clear. But, with humble submission, I can
Bee nothing there inconsistent with what I have said on the other.
The absolution I am speaking of is conditional, pronounced by the
Prie>t in a declarative form, and limited to such as truly repent and
wtfcignetUy believe Gorf'.s- holy Gospel. This indeed I have asserted to be
effective, and that it insures and conveys to the proper subjects thereof
the very absolution or remission itself : but then I desire it may be
remembered that I attribute the effect of it not to a judicial, but to a
ministerial act in the person who pronounces it : but to such an act
however as is founded upon the general tenor of the Gospel, which
a Page 99. b Page 10^. c Page 371;. d Page 381.

viii THE PREFACE.

supposes, if I mistake not, that GOD always accompanies the ministra-
tions of the Priest, if there be no impediment on the part of the
people. And therefore when the Priest, in the name of GOD, so
solemnly declares to a congregation that has been humbly confessing
their sins, and importuning the remission of them, that GOD does
actually pardon all that truly repent and unfeignedly believe; why
may not such of them as do repent and believe humbly presume that
their pardon is sealed as well as made known by such a declaration ?

I am sure this notion gives no encouragement either of presump-
tion to the penitent, or of arrogance to the Priest : I have supposed
that, to receive any benefit from the form, the person must come
within the terms required : and such a one, though the form should
have no effect, is allowed notwithstanding to be pardoned and ab-
solved. And the Priest I have asserted to act only ministerially, as
the instrument of Providence; that he can neither withhold, nor
apply, the absolution as he pleases, nor so much as know upon whom
or upon how many it shall take effect ; but that he only pronounces
what God commands, whilst God himself ratifies the declaration, and
seals the pardon which he proclaims.

It is true indeed, it does not appear by the ancient Liturgies, that
the primitive Christians had any such absolution to be pronounced,
as this is, to the congregation in general. But yet, if they had abso-
lutions upon any occasion, and those absolutions were supposed to
procure a reconcilement' with GOD ; (neither of which, I presume,
will be thought to want a proof ;) I see no reason why they may not
be usefully admitted (as they are with us) into the daily and ordinary
service of the Church. For allowing that the persons they were
formerly used to, were such as had incurred ecclesiastical censure ;
yet it is confessed that the forms pronounced on those occasions
immediately respected the conscience of the sinner, and not the out-
ward regimen of the Church ; that they were instrumental to procure
the forgiveness of GOD, whilst the ecclesiastical bond was declared
to be released by an additional ceremony of the ^imposition of hands c .
If then absolutions, even in the earliest ages, were thought to be
instrumental to procure GOD'S forgiveness to such sins as had deserved
ecclesiastical bonds ; why may they not be allowed as instrumental
and proper to procure his forgiveness to sins of daily incursion,
though they may not be gross enough, or at least enough public, to
come within the cognizance of ecclesiastical censures ? If it be urged,
that the ancient absolutions were never declarative, but either inter-
cessional, like the prayer that follows the absolution in the office
appointed for the Visitation of the Sick, or optative, like the form in
our Office of Communion : I think it may be answered, that the effect
of the absolution does not at all depend upon the form of it, since the
promises of GOD are either way applied, and it must be the sinners'

Sv Dr. Marshall'* Penitential Discipline, page 93, &c. See also the forms of
Absolution in his Appendix, Numb. 4, 5, 6, 7.

THE PREFACE. ix

embracing them with repentance and faith, that must make the appli-
cation of them effectual to himself.

I hope this explanation will justify my notions upon the daily abso-
lution, as well as reconcile them with what I have said upon the other.
I shall add nothing more in defence of them, than that they seem fully
to be countenanced by the form itself, (as I have shewed at large
upon the place,) and particularly by the inhibition of Deacons from
pronouncing it f : which to me is an argument that our Church de-
signed it for an effect, which it was beyond the commission of a
Deacon to convey. Not that I would draw an argument from the
opinion of our Church, where that opinion seems repugnant to Scrip-
ture or Antiquity : but where it does not appear to be inconsistent
with either, I think her decision should be allowed a due weight.
Wherever I have found or suspected her to differ from one or the
other, the reader will observe I have not covered or disguised it ; but
on the contrary perhaps have been too hasty and forward, and too
unguarded in my remarks. But TRUTH was what I aimed at through
my whole undertaking ; which therefore I was resolved at any hazard
to assert just as it appeared to me. It is not at all indeed unlikely
that in so many points as the nature of this work has led me to con-
sider, some things may appear as truths to me, which others, who
have better opportunities of inquiring into them, may find to be
otherwise : and therefore I can only profess that I have not advanced
any thing but what I have believed to be true* and that if I um any
where in an error, I shall be always open to conviction, let the person
that attempts it be adversary or friend ; since if truth can be attained
to by any means at last, I shall not value from whom or from whence
it proceeds : though I cannot but say, the satisfaction will be the
greater if it appear on the side which our Church has espoused,
notwithstanding the discovery may possibly demand some retractations
on my own part, which in such case I shall always be ready to make,
and think it a happiness to find myself mistaken.

In the mean while, I request that where I am allowed to be right,
I may not meet with less favour, because I have shewed myself falli-
ble ; and particularly I would importune my reverend brethren of
the CLERGY, (upon whose countenance the success of this work must
depend,) that if the Rubrics especially have been any where cleared,
and with proper arguments enforced, they would join their assistance
to make my endeavours of some service to the CHURCH. For it will
be but of very little use to have illustrated the rule, unless they also
concur to make the practice more uniform. And indeed I would
hope that a small importunity would be sufficient to prevail with
them, when they see what disgrace their compliances have brought
both upon the Liturgy and themselves ; since not only the occasional
offices are now in several places prostituted to the caprice of the
people, to be used where, and when, and in what manner they please ;
f See page 103, &c.

WHEATLY. b

x THE PREFACE.

but even the daily and ordinary service is more than the Clergy
themselves know how to perform in any church but their own, before
they have been informed of the particular custom of the place.

But I would not presume to dictate to those from whom it would
much better become me to learn : and therefore I shall only observe
farther with regard to the citations I have had occasion to make, that
I have but very seldom set down any of them at large, because I was
willing to avoid all unnecessary means of swelling the book. Besides,
I considered, that though I should cite them ever so distinctly, yet
those who understand not the language they were written in, must
take my word for the meaning of them at last : and those who
are capable of reading the originals, I supposed, would turn to the
books themselves for any thing they should doubt of, how careful
soever I should have been in transcribing them ; so that I thought it
sufficient to be exact in my references, as to the tome and page and
marginal letter, and then to insert a general table of the ecclesiastical
writers, which should once for all shew the editions that I have useds.
The reason of my adding the times when the writers nourished,
was, that my less learned reader might gather from thence the anti-
quity of the several rites and ceremonies I had occasion to treat of,
by consulting when those authors lived who are produced in defence
of them.

& If I have any where made use of a different edition, I have taken care to specify
it in the citation itself.

MAY 10, 1722.

[xi]

An Alphabetical Index of tfie Ecclesiastical Writers cited in the

following book ; with the times when they four ished,

and the editions made use of.

Almin, A.D. 780. De Offic. Divin. Paris. 1610.

Ambrose, A.D. 374. Opera, ed. Bened. Paris. 1686.

Arnobius, A.D. 303. Adv. Gentes. Lugd. Bat. 1651.

Atlianasius, A.D. 326. Opera, ed. Benedict. Paris. 1698.

Atlu-na-oras, A.D. 177. Legatio by Dechair. Oxon. 1706.

Aiigustin, A.D. 396. Opera, ed. Benedict. Paris. 1679.

I'IIIM! the (ireat, A.D. 370. Opera. Paris. 1638.

Ilfrnard, A.D. 1115. Opera. Paris. 1640.

Canons called Apostolical, most of them composed before A.D. 300. By Coteler,

Antwerp. 1698.

Cedrenus, A.D. 1056. Histor. Compend. Paris. 1649.
( hrysostoin, A.D. 398. Opera, ed. Savil. Eton. 1612.
Clemens of Alexandria, A.D. 192. Opera. Paris. 1629.
( K-inens of Rome, A.D. 65. Epistohe by Wootten. Cant. 1 718.
Codex Theodosianus, A.D. 438. Lugd. 1665.

Constitutions called Apostolical, about A.D. 450. By Coteler. Antwerp. 1698.
Cyprian, A.D. 248. Opera by Fell. Oxon. 1682.
< \ ill of Jerusalem, A.D. 350. Opera by Mills. Oxon. 1703.
Dionysius of Alexandria, A.D. 254. Epist. adv. Paul. Sam. Paris. 1610.
Dionysius, falsely called the Areopagite, A.D. 362. Opera. Paris. 1615.
Durandus Mimatensis, A.D. 1286. Rationale. Lugd. 1612.
Diirantus. De Rit. Eccles. Cath. Rom. 1591.
Epiphanius, A.D. 368. Opera. Paris. 1622.
Euagrius Scholasticus, A.D. 594. Eccles. Histor. Paris. 1673.
Eusebius, A.D. 315. Opera. Paris. 1659.

Gennadius Massiliens, A.D. 495. De Eccles. Dogmat. Hamb. 1614.
Gratian, A.D. 1131. Opera. Paris. 1 60 1.
Gregory the Great, A.D. 590. Opera. Paris. 1675.
Gregory Nazianzen, A.D. 370. Opera. Paris. 1630.
Gregory Nyssen, A.D. 370. Opera. Paris. 1615.
Hierom or Jerom, A.D. 378. Opera, edit. Ben. Paris. 1704.
Ignatius, A.D. 101. Opera by Smith. Oxon. 1709.
Irenseus, A.D. 167. Adv. Haeres. by Grabe. Oxon. 1702.
Isidore Hispalensis, A.D. 595. Opera. Paris. 1601.
Isidore Peleusiota, A.D. 412. Opera. Paris. 1638.

Justin Martyr, A.D. 140. Apol. i. by Grabe. Oxon. 1700. Opera. Paris. i6i<j.
Lactantius, A.D. 303. Opera by Spark. Oxon. 1684.
Micrologus, A.D. 1080. De Eccles. Observ. Paris. 1610.
Minucius Felix, A.D. 220. Octavius by Davis. Cant. 1712.
Nicephorus Calistus, A.D. 1333. Eccles. Histor. Paris. 1630.
Optatus Milevitanus, A.D. 368. Opera. Paris. 1679.
Origen, A.D. 230. Opera Latine. Paris. 1604.
Paulinns, A.D. 420. Lib. contr. Felic. Paris. 1610.
Faulus Diaconus, A.D. 757. Opera. Paris. 1611.
Polycarp, A.D. 108. Ep. ad Phil, by Smith. Oxon. 1709.
Pontius Diaconus, A.D. 251. Vita S. Cypr. before St. Cyprian's Worki. Oxon.

1682.

Procius, A.D. 434. De Trad. Div. Lit. Paris. 1560.
Ruffinus, A.D. 390. In Symbolum at the end of St. Cyprian's Works.

Socrates, A.D. 439. Eccles. Histor. Paris. 1668.

Sozomen, A.D. 440. Eccles. Histor. Paris. 1668.

Synesius, A.D. 410. Opera. Paris. 1631.

Tatian, A.D. 172. Orat. ad Gr. by Worth. Oxon. 1700.

Tertullian, A.D. 192. Opera by Rigaltius. Paris. 1675.

Theodoret, A.D. 423. Opera. Paris. 1642.

Theodosius Junior. See Codex Theodosianus.

Theophilus Antiochen. A.D. 168. Ad Autolyc. by Fell. Oxon. 1684.

Theophylact. A.D. 1077. Commentarii. Paris. 1631.

COUNCILS.

By Labbee and Cossart, in 15 Tomes. Paris 1671.

Agathense, A.D. 506.
Aurelianense i. A.D. 511.
Bracharense i. A.D. 563.
Calchutense, A.D. 787.
Carthaginense 3. A.D. 252.
Carthaginense 4. A.D. 25 ^.
Constantinop. 2. Gen. A.D. 381.
Constant. 6. Gen. See Qwni-sext.
Eliberitauuni, A.D. 30.;.
Gerundense i. A.D. 517.
Laodicenum, A.D. 367.
Milevitan. i. A.D. '402.

Neocaesariense, A.D. 315.
Nicenum i. Gen. A.D. 325.
Orleance i. See Aurelianense i.
Placentinum, A.D. 1095.
Quini-sextura in Trullo, A.D. 692.
Rhemense 2. A.D. 813.
Sardicense, A.D. 347.
Toletanum 3. A.D. 589.
Triburiense, A.D. 895.
Trullan. See Quini-sextum.
Vasense r. A.D. 442.
Vasense 2. A.D. 529.

A RATIONAL

NATIONAL ILLUSTRATION

OF THE

BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER.

AN INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE,

SHEWING THE LAWFULNESS AND NECESSITY OF A NATIONAL
PRECOMPOSED LITURGY.

MOST of the objections urged by the Dissenters against the introduce.
Church of England, to justify their separation from it, being
levelled against its form and manner of divine worship pre-
scribed in the Book of Common Prayer, &c. are, in the following
Discourse, answered, as fully as its brevity would permit. So
that, though the principal design of this book be to instruct
such as are friends to our Church and Liturgy ; yet it is not
impossible but that, by the blessing of God, it may in some
measure contribute to the undeceiving some that are enemies to
both, (such I mean as are disaffected to the former, upon no
other account than a prejudice to the latter;) especially could
we, by first convincing them of the Lawfulness and Necessity of
National prccomposcd LITUIIGIES in general, prevail with them
to take an impartial view of what is here offered in behalf of our
own. To this end therefore, and to make the following sheets
of as general use as I can, I shall, by way of INTRODUCTION,
endeavour to prove these three things; viz.

I. FIHST, That the ancient Jews, our Saviour, his Apostles,
and the primitive Christians, never joined (as far as we can
prove) in any prayers, but prccomposed set forms only.

II. SECONDLY, That those precomposed set forms, in which
they joined, were such as the respective congregations were
accustomed to, and thoroughly acquainted with.

III. THIRDLY, That their practice warrants the imposition of
a National precomposed Liturgy.

I. FIRST, I am to prove that the ancient Jews, our Saviour,
his Apostles, and the primitive Christians, never joined (as far

WHEATLY. B

2 THE LAWFULNESS AND NECESSITY OF

introduct. as we can prove) in any prayers, but precomposed set forms
only. And this I shall do by shewing,

1. First, That they did join in precomposed set forms of
prayer.

2. Secondly, That (as far as we can conjecture) they never
joined in any other.

3. First, I shall shew that the ancient Jews, our Saviour, his
Apostles, and the primitive Christians, did join in precomposed
set forms of prayer.

1st, To begin with the Jews, we find that the first piece of
solemn worship recorded in Scripture is a hymn of praise, com-
posed by Moses upon the deliverance of the children of Israel
from the Egyptians, which was sung by all the congregation
alternately ; by Moses and the men first, and afterwards by
Miriam and the women a : which could not have been done, un-
less it had been a precomposed set form. Again, in the expia-
tion of an uncertain murder, the elders of the city which is
next to the slain are expressly commanded to say, and conse-
quently to join in saying, a form of prayer, precomposed by God
himself b . And in other places of Scripture we meet with seve-
ral other forms of prayer, precomposed by God, and prescribed
by Moses ; which though they were not to be joined in by the
whole congregation, are yet sufficient precedents for the use of
precomposed set forms. But farther, the Scriptures assure us,
that David appointed the Levites to stand every morning to thank
and praise the Lord, and likewise at even& 9 which rule was ob-
served in the temple afterwards built by Solomon, and restored
at the building of the second temple after the captivity 6 . Lastly,
the whole book of Psalms were forms of prayer and praise, in-
dited by the Holy Ghost, for the joint use of the congregation ;
as appears as well from the titles of several of the Psalm s f , as
from other places of Scriptures.

Innumerable proofs might be brought, both ancient and
modern, that the Jews did always worship God by precomposed
set forms : but the world is fully satisfied of this truth, from the
concurrent testimonies of Josephus, Philo, Paul Fagius, Scaliger,
Buxtorf, and Selden in Eutychium. The reader may consult
two learned men of our own, viz. Dr. Hammond (who both proves
that the Jews used set forms, and that their prayers and praises,
&c. were in the same order as our h Common Prayer) and Dr.
Lightfoot, who not only asserts they worshipped God by stated
forms, but also sets down both the order and method of their
hymns and supplications 1 . So that there is no more reason to

a Exod. xv. i, 20, 21. b Deut. xxi. 7, 8. c Numb. vi. 22, &c. chap. x. 35, 36.
Deut. xxvi. 3, 5, &c. ver. 13, &c. d i Chron. xxiii. 30. e Neh. xii. 44, 45, 46.
* JSee Psalm xlii. 44, &c. Psalm iv. 5, 6, &c. Psalm xcii. s i Chron. xvi. 7. 2 Chron.

;,o. Ezra iii. 10, n. h View of the Directory, p. 136. and his Oxford

i Dr. Lightfoot's Works, vol. i. p. 922, 942, 946.

Papers, p. 260. vol. i.

, \TION'A!, l'UK('i>\ir(Xi:D LIT! , 8

doubt of their having and usini; a preoomp .tied Liturgy,

than of our own having and using the J'ook of Common Pravi r,

iiul of its consisting- of prccomposed set forms. \Ve shall

.'ore proceed in the next place to inquire into the practice of

our Saviour, his Apostles, and the primitive Christians.

And, 1st, for our Saviour; there is not the least doubt to l>e
made, but that lie continued always in communion with the
.Jewish Church, and was xealous and exemplary in their public
devotions; and consequently took all opportunities of joining in
those precomposed set forms of prayer, which were daily used
in the Jewish CongregatidlM, as the learned Dr. Lightfbot has
largely proved k . And we may be sure, that had not our Saviour
very constantly attended their public worship, and joined in the
devotions of their congregations, the Scribes and Pharisees, his
bitter and implacable enemies, and great zealots for the temple-
service, would doubtless have cast it in his teeth, and reproached
him as an ungodly wretch, that despised prayer, &c. But nothing
of this nature do we find in the whole New Testament; and
therefore, had we no other grounds than these to go upon, we
might safely conclude, that our blessed JSaviour was a constant
attendant on the public service of the Jews, and consequently
that he joined in precomposed set forms of prayer.

And, idly, as to the Apostles and our Lord^s otber Disciples,
their practice was doubtless the same till our Saviour's ascension ;
after which (besides that they did probably still join as before in
the Jewish worship 1 , which consisted of precomposed set forms)
it is plain that they used precomposed set forms in their Christian
'iblies, during the remainder of their lives.

A* the primitive Christians also did in the following ages: as
will appear,

1. From their joining in the use of the Lord's prayer.

2. From their joining in the use of Psalms.

3. From their joining in the use of divers precomposed set
forms of prayer, besides the Lord's prayer and Psalms.

i . They joined in the use of the Lord's prayer. And this is
sufliciently evident from our Saviour's having commanded them
so to do : for whatever dispute may be made about the word
ovrws, in St. Matthew vi. 9, which is translated not exactly,
but paraphrastic-ally, after tins manner, but ought witb greater
accuracy to be rendered so, or >7/.v m ; yet if we should grant
that our Lord in this place only proposed this prayer as a di-
rectory and pattern to make our otber prayers by, we should

k Ibid. vol. ii. part ii. p. 1036, &c. 1 Sri- Acts iii. i. 15. xvii. 2. m In

which signification it is always used in the Septnagint Version of the Bible, Bf

' y comparing Numb. vi. :?. xxiii. 5. Isa. viii. I r. xxviii. 16. xxx. 15. xxxvii.
1 sonu! other places, with Numb, xxiii. 16. Isaiah xxx. i:. xxxvii. 21. liii. 3.
For in the former texts, ovrca Xtya 6 Kvptos, thus saith the Lord, bears the same
sig-niikation as retSe \fyei d Krpios, this saith the Lord, in the latter.

B 2

THE LAWFULNESS AND NECESSITY OF

introduct. still find afterwards, upon another occasion, viz. when his Disci-
ples requested him to teach them to pray, as John had also taught
his Disciples, he prescribed the use of these very words ; ex-
pressly bidding them, When ye pray, say, Our Father*. I sup-
pose nobody hath so mean an opinion, either of St. John's or
our Saviour's Disciples, as to think they were ignorant how to
pray : therefore it is plain they could mean nothing else by their
request, but that Christ would give them this peculiar form, as
a badge of their belonging to him ; according to the custom of
the Jewish Doctors, who always taught their disciples a peculiar
form to add to their own ; so that either our Saviour instructed
them to use this very form of words, or else he did not answer
the design of their requests.

But it is objected, that " if our Lord had intended this prayer
" should be used as a set form, he would not have added the
" Doxology, when he delivered it at one time, as it is recorded
" in St. Matthew, and omit it, when he delivered it upon another
" occasion, as in St. Luke."

But to this we answer, That learned men are very much di-
vided in their opinions, concerning the Doxology in St. Matthew ;
some thinking it is, and others that it is not, a part of the original
text. Whether it be or be not, we need not here dispute, but
argue with our adversaries upon either supposition.

For, ist, if they think it is not a part of the original text, then
their objection is groundless : for there is nothing found in one
Evangelist, but what is also found in the other ; and the form,
as to the sense of it, is exactly the same in both : for though one
or two expressions may differ, yet the Syriac words, in which
we know our Lord delivered it, are equally capable of both
translations.

But, 2dly, if they think the Doxology is a part of the original
text; we answer, The addition of it is as good an argument
against the Lord's prayer being a directory for the matter of
prayer, as it can be against its being an established set form of
prayer. For we may say, in the language of our adversaries, if
Christ had intended his prayer for a directory for the matter
of prayer, he would not have given such different directions, or-
dering us to add a Doxology to the end of our prayers at one
time, and omitting that order at another. If therefore the ad-
dition of the Doxology be (as they must grant upon their own
principles) no objection against its being a directory for the
matter of prayer ; then certainly it is no objection against its
being an established set form. For the difference of our prayers
will be every whit as great in following this pattern, by some-
times omitting and sometimes adding a Doxology at the end of
our prayers, as it can possibly be, by using the Lord's prayer,
n Luke zi .1, 2, &c. o Dr. Lightfoot, vol. ii. p. 158.

A NATIONAL PRECOMPOSED LITUHGY. O

sometimes with, and at other times without, the Doxology. The lotroduct.
utmost therefore that can be concluded from the Doxology 's
being a part of the original text in St. Matthew, is this: That
our Ldrd, though he commanded the use of the Lord's prayer,
does not insist upon the use of the Doxology, but leaves it in-
different ; or at most, orders it to be sometimes used, and some-
times omitted, as our established Church practises. But the
other I'-sscntial parts of the prayer are to be used notwithstand-
ing; it being very absurd to omit the use of the whole, because
the latter part of it is not enjoined to be used constantly with
the rest.

But it is farther objected, 1st, That, " supposing our Saviour
" did prescribe it as a form ; yet it was onlyjfo?- a time, till they
" should be more fully instructed, and enabled to pray by the
" assistance of the Holy Ghost." And to urge this with the
greater force, they tell us, 2(lly, " that before Christ's ascension,
" the disciples had asked nothing in his name?, whereas they
" were taught, that after his ascension they should offer up all
" their prayers in his name 1 !. Now this prayer, say they, having
" nothing of his name in it, could not be designed to be used
" after his ascension." Accordingly they tell us, 3dly, " That
" though we read in the Acts of the Apostles of several prayers
" made by the Church, yet we find not any intimation, that they
" ever used this form 1 ? 1

Whatever resemblances of truth these objections may seem
to carry with them at first sight, if we look narrowly into them,
we shall find them to be grounded upon principles as dangerous
as false.

For, ist, If, because our Saviour hath not in express words
commanded this form of prayer to be used for ever, we conclude,
that it was only prescribedyor a time; we must necessarily allow,
that whatever Christ hath instituted without limitation of time
does not always oblige ; and, consequently, we may declare
Christ's institutions to be null without his authority; and at
that rate cry down Baptism and the Lord's Supper for temporary
prescriptions, as well as the Lord's prayer.

In answer to the second objection, we may observe, that to
pray in Christ's name, is to pray in his mediation ; depending
upon his merits and intercession for the acceptance of our
prayers ; and therefore prayers may be offered up in Christ's
name, though we do not name him. And as for the Lord's
prayer, it is so framed, that it is impossible to offer it up, unless
it be in the name of Christ : for we have no right or title to call
God our Father, unless it be through the merits and mediation
of Jesus Christ ; who hath made us heirs of God, and joint-heirs

P John xvi. 24. q John xiv. 13. and chap. xvi. 23. r Chap. i. 14. ii. 43.

iv. 24. vi. 6. viii. 15. xii. 12. xiii. 3. xx. 36.

6 THE LAWFULNESS AND NECESSITY OF

jntroduct. with himself. And therefore Christ's not inserting his own name
""in his prayer, does by no means prove, that he did not design it
for a standing form.

And, 3dly, as to the [objection of the Scriptures not once inti-
mating the use of this prayer, in those places where it speaks of
others ; we might answer, [that we may as well conclude from
the silence of the Scripture, that the Apostles did not baptize in
the name of the Father, Son*rmd Holy Ghost, as that they did
not use this prayer ; since they had as strict a command to do
the one as the other. But besides, in all those places, except
two 5 , there is nothing else mentioned, but that they prayed ; no
mention at all of the words of their prayers; and therefore there
is no reason why we should expect a particular intimation of the
Lord's prayer. And as for those prayers mentioned in the afore-
said places, I do not see how they can prove from thence, that
they were offered up in the name of Christ.

But, lastly, it is objected, that " the words of this prayer are
" improper to be used now ; because therein we pray that God's
" kingdom may come now, which came many ages since, viz. at
" our Saviour's ascension into heaven."

But in answer to this, I think it sufficient to observe, that
though the foundations of God's kingdom were laid then, yet it
is not yet completed. For since we know that all the world
must be converted to Christianity, and the Jews, Turks, and In-
fidels still make up the far greater part of it, we have as much
reason upon this account to pray for the coming of God's king-
dom now as ever. And if we consider those parts of the world
which have already embraced Christianity, I cannot think it im-
proper to pray, that they may sincerely practise what they be-
lieve; which conduces much more to the advancement of God's
kingdom, than a bare profession does without such practice.

Since therefore, from what has been said, it appears that our
Saviour prescribed the Lord's prayer as a standing form, and
commanded his Apostles and other Disciples to use it as such ;
it is not to be suspected, but that they observed this command;
especially since the accounts which we have from antiquity do
(though the Scriptures be silent in the matter) fully prove it to
have been their constant custom ; as appears by a numerous
cloud of witnesses, who conspire in attesting this truth : of which
I shall only instance in a few.

And first, Tertullian was, without all doubt, of opinion that
Christ delivered the Lord's prayer, not as a directory only, but
as a precomposed set form, to be used by all Christians. For he
says, '"The Son taught us to pray, Our Father, which art in
" heaven ;" i. c. he taught us to use the Lord's prayer. And
speaking of the same prayer, he says, u " Our Lord gave his new

Acts i. 74. and i v. 24. t Adr. Prax. c. 23. p. 5 1 4. A. u De Orat. c. i. j>. 1 29. A.

A NATIONAL PEECOMPO8KD LI 7

" Disciples of the New Testament a new form of prayer." 1 ' He
calls it, " " The prayer appointed by Christ/ 1 and *" The prayer
41 appointed by Law/ 1 (for so the word lf'itb:ia must be render-
iid " the ordinary" (i. e. the usual and customary) u prayer,
" which is to be said before our other prayers; and upon which,
H as a foundation, our oilier prayers are to be built :" and tell
that >' ' the use of it was ordained by our Saviour." 1

.1, St.Cvprian x tells us, that M Christ himself gave us a
" form of prayer, and commanded us to use it ; because, when
' we speak to the Father in the Sou's words, we shall be more
'easily heard;" and that ""there is no prayer more spiritual
" or true than the Lord's prayer." And therefore he most
earnestly 1 ' exhorts men to the use of it as often as they pray.

>;n, St. Cyril of Jerusalem calls it, c " the prayer which
" Christ i^ave his Disciples, and (1 which God hath taught us."

About the same time Optatus takes it for granted that it is
commanded 1 -'.

After him, St. Chrysostom calls it, t "the prayer enjoined by
" laws, and brought in by Christ."

In the same century St. Austin tells us 5 " that our Saviour
" gave it to the Apostles, to the intent that they should use it;
" that he taught it his Disciples himself, and by them he taught
" it us; that he dictated it to us, as a lawyer would put words
" in his client's mouth ; that it is necessary for all, i. e. such as
" all were bound to use; and that we cannot be God's children,
" unless we use it."

Lastly, St. Gregory Nyssen says, hu that Christ shewed his
" Disciples how they should pray, by the words of the Lord's
" prayer." And Theodoret assures us, that i " the Lord's prayer
'* i> a form of prayer, and that Christ has commanded us to use
" it." But testimonies of this kind are numberless.

If therefore the judgment of the ancient Fathers may be relied
on, who knew the practice of the Apostles much better than we
can pretend to do; we may dare to affirm, that the Apostles did
certainly -use the Lord's prayer: and if it be granted that they
used it. we may reasonably suppose that they joined in the use
of it. For. besides that it is very improbable that a Christian
assembly should, in their public devotions, omit that prayer
which was the badge of their discipleship ; the very petitions of
the prayer, running all along in the plural number, do evidently
shew, that it was primarily designed for the joint use of a con-
gregation.

u De Orat. c. i. p. 1-29. A. x Ibid c. ix. p. 133. B. y De Orat. r. ix. p. 133. A.
* DeOrat. Domin. p. 139. a Ibid, b Ibid. p. 139, 140. c Cat.vh. 31 \ stag. 5. . 8
p. -298. lin. 12, iVc. d Ibid. . 15. p. 300. lin. 24 *-' De Schism. Don. .list. 1. 4. p. 88.
f Hoin. II. in 2 (.'or. torn. iii. p. 553. li 157. torn. ii. i-ol. 543. B. et

, Serin. 58. torn. v. col. 337. D. K. !). Ornt. D.miin. Unit. I. tom. i.p. 712. B.

i Ha?ret. Kabul, lib. 5. m. iv. p. 3 i 6. B.

8 THE LAWFULNESS AND NECESSITY OF

introduct. That the Christians of the first centuries used it in their assem-
""" blies, is evident from its being always used in the celebration of
the Lord's supper 1 , which for some ages was performed every
day m . And St. Austin tells us in express words, that n "it was
" said at God's altar every day." So that, without enlarging
any more, I shall look upon it as sufficiently proved, that the
Apostles and primitive Christians did join in the use of the
Lord's prayer ; which is one plain argument that they joined in.
the use of precomposed set forms of prayer. Another argument
I shall make use of to prove it, is,

2. Their joining in the use of Psalms. For we are told, that
Paul and Silas, when they were in prison, prayed and sang
praises to God. And this we must suppose they did audibly,
because the prisoners heard them, and consequently they would
have disturbed each other, had they not united in the same
prayers and praises.

Again, St. Paul blames the Corinthians, because, when they
came together, every one had a psalm, had a doctrine?, &c.
Where we must not suppose that he forbad the use of psalms in
public worship, any more than he did the use of doctrines, &c.
but that he is displeased with them for not having the psalm all
together, i. e. for not joining' in it; that so the whole congrega-
tion might attend one and the same part of divine service at the
same time. From whence we may conclude, that the use of
psalms was a customary thing, and that the Apostle approved
of it; only ordering them to join in the use of them, which we
may reasonably suppose they did for the future ; since we find
by the Apostle's second Epistle to them, that they reformed
their abuses.

Thus also in his Epistle to the Ephesiansq, the Apostle ex-
v horts them to speak to themselves with psalms, and hymns, and
spiritual songs, singing and making melody in their liearts to the
Lord. And he bids the Colossians r teach and admonish one
another in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, tinging "with
grace in their hearts to the Lord. From all which texts of Scrip-
ture, and several others that might be alleged, we must necessarily
conclude, that joint psalmody was instituted by the Apostles, as
a constant part of divine worship.

And that the primitive Christians continued it, is a thing so
notorious, that it seems wholly needless to cite any testimonies
to prove it : I shall therefore only point to such places at the
bottom of the page 5 , as will sufficiently satisfy any, that will
think it worth their while to consult them.

1 Cyril. Hieros. (as before quoted in notec andd, page foregoing) Hieron. adv.
Pelag. lib. 3. cap. 5. torn. ii. p. 596. C. August. Epist. 149. torn. ii. 001.505.0.
m Cyprian, de Orat. Dom. p. 147. Basil. Epist. 289. torn. iii. p. 279. A.B. n Serra.
58. cap. 10. t. v. col. 342. F. o Acts xvi. 25. P i Cor. xiv. 26. Q Chap. v. 19.
* CoL iii. 16. B Plin. Epist L 10. Ep. 97. p. 284. Oxon. 1703. Euseb. Eccl. Hist.

A NATIONAL PRKCOMI'OSKD LITURGY.

The practice therefore of the Apostles and primitive Christ- introduct
ians, in joining in the use of psalms, is another intimation, that
they joined in the use of precomposcd set forms of prayer. For
though all psalms be not prayers, because some of them are not
spoken to God ; yet it is certain a great part of them are, be-
cause they are immediately directed to him ; as is evident, as
well from 'the psalms of David, as from several Christian hymns 1 :
and, consequently, the Apostles and primitive Christians, by
jointly singing such psalms in their congregations, did join in the
use of prccomposed set forms of prayer. It only remains then
that I prove,

3. That they joined in the use of divers prccomposed set forms
of prayer, besides the Lord's prayer and psalms.

And ist, as to the Apostles, we are told that Peter and John,
after they had been threatened, and commanded not to preach
the Gospel, went to their own company, and reported all that the
chief priests and ciders had said unto them. And when they
heard that, they lift up their voice to God with one accord, and
said. Lord, t/iou art God u 9 &c.

Now in this place we are told, that the whole company lift up
their ro'ur with one accord, and said, (i. e. they joined all together
with audible voices in using these words,) Lord, thou art God, &c.
which they could not possibly have done, unless the prayer they
used was a precomposed set form. For whatever may be said
in favour of joining mentally, with a prayer conceived extempore;
I suppose nobody will contend, that it is possible for a considerable
congregation to join vocally or aloud, as the Apostles and their
company are here said to have done, in a prayer so conceived.

But some may object, that " though it is affirmed, that the
" whole company lift up their voice, and said the prayer here
" mentioned ; yet it is possible that one only might do so in
" the name of all the rest, who joined mentally with him, though
" not in an audible manner. 11 To this we answer, That the
Scripture never attributes that to a whole congregation or mul-
titude, which is literally true of a single person only, except in
such cases, where the thing related requires the consent of the
whole multitude, but could not conveniently be performed or
done by every one of them in their own persons. But I suppose
no man will pretend, either that it was impossible for the Apo-
stles and their company to lift up their voice, and say the prayers
recited in the context, or that God could not hear or understand
them when speaking all together.

lib. 5. c. 28. p. 196. A. Just. Mart. Epist ad Zen. et Seren. p. 509. A. Cyril. Hieros.
Catech. 13. . 3. p. 180. lin. 9, &c. Catech. Mystag. 5. . 17. p. 300. fin. 34, &c.
Socr. Hist. Keel. 1. 2. c. IT. p. 89. A. Athana*. ad Marcellin. Epist. . 27. t. i. par. 2.
p. 999. B All these, and many others, mention the Church's using psalms in the
public assemblies, as a practice that had universally obtained from the times of the
Apostles, t As St. Ambrose's Te Deum, and the like. u Acts iv. 23, 24.

10 THE LAWFULNESS AND NECESSITY OF

introdact. But that which puts the matter out of all doubt is the follow-
ing consideration, viz. that the company is not barely said to
have lift up their voice, but to have lift it up [6/zo0i7xa6oz>] with
one accord, or all together ; which adverb is so placed, that it
cannot be joined to any other verb than fipav ; and nothing is
more evident, than that this adverb implies and denotes a con-
junction of persons : and consequently, since it is here applied to
all the company, and particularly to that action of theirs, viz.
their lifting up their voice ; it is manifest that they did all of
them lift up their respective voices, and that they could not
be said to have lift up their voices in that sense, which this ob-
jection supposes, viz. by appointing one person to lift up his
single voice for them all. For if they did so, then the histo-
rian's words must signify, that the whole congregation lift up
their voice together, by appointing one man to lift up his parti-
cular voice in conjunction with himself alone: which is such
nonsense, as cannot, without blasphemy, be imputed to an in-
spired writer. So that it is undeniably plain, that the persons
here said to have been present, uttered their prayer all together,
and spake all at the same time; and consequently, that the
prayer must be a precom posed set form.

If any person should be so extravagant as to imagine, that
" the whole congregation was inspired at that very instant with
" the same words.; and, consequently, that they might all of
" them break forth at once, and join vocally in the same prayer,
" though it were not precomposed ;" we need only reply, that
this assertion is utterly groundless, having neither any show of
reason, nor so much as one example in all history to warrant it.

But it may perhaps be objected, that " the Apostles and their
" company could have no notice of this unforeseen accident ;
" and therefore could not be prepared with such a precomposed
" set form of thanksgiving ; and that it was uttered so soon
" after the relation of what had befallen the Apostles, that if it
" had been composed upon that occasion, it seems impossible that
" copies of it should have been delivered out for the company to
" be so far acquainted with it, as immediately to join vocally in
" it." To which we answer, (i.) That since we have evidently
proved, from their joining vocally in it, that it must have been a
precomposed set form ; it lies upon our adversaries to answer
our argument, more than it does upon us to account for this
difficulty : for a difficulty, though it could not be easily accounted
for, is by no means sufficient to confront and overthrow a clear
demonstration. But, (2.) this difficulty is not so great as it
may at first appear : for there is nothing in the whole prayer,
but what might properly be used every day by a Christian con-
gregation, so long as the powers of the world were opposing and
tnreatening such as preached the Gospel, and the miraculous

. ATIOXAI, I'RKCOMl'OMil) i 11

gifts of the Holy Ghost were continued in the Church: so that i"troduct.
those who think thu prayer to have been conceived anil used on
that emergency only, and never cither before or after, do, in
reality, beg the question, and take that io. ' which they

cannot prove. For the Scripture says nothing like it, nor do
tin- circumstances require it ; and therefore it is very probable
that it was a standing form, well known in the Church, and fre-
quently used, POD offered : and consequently, upon this
occasion, (on which it is manifest it was highly seasonable and
proper. 1 they immediately brake forth, and vocally uttered, and
jointly >a'u I it, and perhaps added it to their other daily devotions,
which, we may very well suppose, they used at the same time,
though the historian takes no notice of it.

There remains still another objection, which may possibly be
made, vi/. that " the holy Scriptures, when they relate what was
" spoken, especially by a multitude, do not always give us the
" very words that were spoken, but only the sense of them : and
" accordingly in this instance, perhaps the congregation did not
" jointly offer up that very prayer, but when they had heard
" what the Apo*tlcs told them, they might all break out at
' one and the same time into vocal prayer, and every man utter
" words much to the same sense, though they might not join in
" one and the same form." But to remove this objection, we
need only reflect upon the intolerable confusion such a practice
must of necessity cause: for that they all prayed vocally, has
been evidently proved : if therefore they did not join in the same
prayer, but offer up every man different words, though to the
same sense; it must necessarily follow, that the whole company
would, instead of uniting in their devotions, interrupt and dis-
tract each other's prayers.

How much more reasonable then is it to believe, . that the
Apostles and their company, who then prayed all together
vocally, upon so solemn an occasion, did really use the same
prayer, and join in the same words ? And if so, then the argu-
ment already offered is a demonstration that they joined in a
prccomposcd set form of prayer, besides the Lord's prayer and
psalms.

And that the primitive Christians did very early use precom-
posed set forms in their public worship, is evident from the names
given to their public prayers; for they are called the common
prayers*, constituted prayers*, and solemn prayers' 1 '. But that
which puts the matter out of all doubt, are the Liturgies ascribed
to St. Peter, St. Mark, and St. James; which, though corrupted
by later ages, arc doubtless of great antiquity. For besides

x Koival (vxaL Ju>t. 31 art. Apol. I. c. 85. p. 124. 1. 28. Y Ei>x<d irpo(rraxOf(ffat.
.Origen. cont. (.'els. 1. 6. p. % ii2. Aug. Vindel. 1605. z Preees solennes. Cypr. De
Laps. p. 132.

12 THE LAWFULNESS AND NECESSITY OF

introduct. many things which have a strong relish of that age, that of St.
""James was of great authority in the Church of Jerusalem in
St. Cyril's time, who has a comment upon it still extant a, which.
St. Jerom says was writ in his younger years b : and it is not
probable that St. Cyril would have taken the pains to explain it,
unless it had been of general use in the Church ; which we can-
not suppose it could have obtained in less than seventy or eighty
years. Now St. Cyril was chosen Bishop of Jerusalem either in
the year 349 or 351 ; to which office, it is very well known, sel-
dom any were promoted before they were pretty well in years.
If therefore he writ his comment upon this Liturgy in his younger
years, we cannot possibly date it later than the year 340 ; and
then allowing the Liturgy to have obtained in the Church about
eighty years, it necessarily follows that it must have been com-
posed in the year 260, which was not above 160 years after the
apostolical age. It is declared by Proclus c and the sixth gene-
ral Council 01 , to be of St. James's own composing. And that
there are forms of worship in it as ancient as the Apostles, seems
highly probable ; for all the form, Sursum corda, is there, and in
St. Cyril's comment. The same is in the Liturgies of Rome and
Alexandria, and in the Constitutions of Clemens e , which all
agree are of great antiquity, though not so early as they pre-
tend : and St. Cyprian, who was living within an hundred years
after the Apostles, makes mention of it as a form then used and
received f , which Nicephorus does also of the Trisagmm in par-
ticulars. We do not deny but that these Liturgies may have
been interpolated in after-times : but that no more overthrows
the antiquity of the groundwork of them, than the large addi-
tions to a building prove there was no house before. It is an
easy matter to say, that such Liturgies could not be St. James's
or St. Mark's, because of such errors or mistakes, and interpo-
lations of things and phrases of later times. But what then ?
Is this an argument that there were no ancient Liturgies in the
churches of Jerusalem or Alexandria ; when so long since as in
Origen's time h , we find an entire collect produced by him out
of the Alexandrian Liturgy ? And the like may be shewed as to
other Churches, which by degrees came to have their Liturgies
much enlarged by the devout additions of some extraordinary
men, who had the care of the several churches afterwards : such
as were St. Basil, St. Chrysostom, and others. So that, not-
withstanding their interpolations, the Liturgies themselves are a
plain demonstration of the use of divers precomposed set forms

Catech. Myst. 5. p. 295 301. b Catalog. Scriptor. Eccles.t. i. p. 317. n. 123.
c De Trad. Div. Liturg. ap. Bonam. de Rebus Lfturgicis, 1. i. c. 9. p. 157. d Can.
32. Concil. torn. vi. col. 1 158. B. e L. 8. c. 12. torn. i. p. 345. E. f De Orat.

Domin. p. 152. e Hist. Eccles. 1. 18. c. 53. torn. ii. p. 883. B. h Orig. in Jerem.
Horn. XIV. vol. i. p. 141. edit. Huet. Rothomag. 1668.

A NATIONAL PRECOMPOSED LITURGY. 18

of prayer, besides the Lord's prayer and psalms, even in the first introduct.
and second centuries.

And that in Constantino's time the Church used such pre-
composed set forms, is evident from Eusebius, who tells us of
Constantino's l composing a prayer for the use of his soldiers;
and in the next chapter k gives us the words of the prayer;
which makes it undeniably plain, that it was a set form of words.
If it be said, that " Constantine\s composing a form is a plain
" evidence, that at that time there were no public forms in the
" Church ;" we answer, that this form was only for his heathen
soldiers ; for the story tells us 1 , that he gave his Christian sol-
diers liberty to go to church. And therefore all that can be
gathered from hence is, that the Christian Church had no form
of prayers for heathen soldiers ; which is no great wonder, since
if they had, it is very unlikely that they would have used it. But
that the Church had forms of prayer is evident, because the same
author calls the prayers which Constantine used in his court
('EKKATJO-UZS 0eo Tpoiiov, according to the manner of the Church m
of God) c^xas v0(Tfjiov^ authorized prayers : which is the same
title he gave to that form which he made for his heathen sol-
diers". And therefore if by the authorized prayers, which he
prescribed to the soldiers, he meant a form of prayer, as it is
manifest he did ; then by the authorized prayers, which he used
in his court, after the manner of the Church of God, he must
mean a form of prayers also. And since he had a form of prayers
in his court, after the manner of the Church, the Church must
necessarily have a form of prayers too.

It is plain then, that the three first centuries joined in the use
of divers precomposed set forms of prayer, besides the Lord's
prayer and psalms : after which, (besides the Liturgies of St.
Basil, St. Chrysostom, and St. Ambrose,) we have also undeni-
able testimonies of the same . Gregory Nazianzen says, that
" St. Basil composed orders and forms of prayer P." And St.
Basil himself, reciting the manner of the public service, that was
used in the monastical oratories of his institution, says ( ), that
" nothing was therein done but what was consonant and agree-
" able to all the Churches of God." The Council of Laodicea
expressly provides 1 *, " that the same Liturgy or form of prayer
" should be always used, both at the ninth hour, and in the
" evening." And this canon is taken into the Collection of the
canons of the Catholic Church ; which Collection was established
in the fourth general Council of Chalcedon, in the year 451 s ;

i De vita Constant. 1. 4. c. 19. p. 535. B. k Ibid. c. 20. p. 535. C. 1 De vita
Constant. 1. 4. c. 18. p. 534. D. m Ibid. c. i ;. p. 534. A. n Ibid. c. 19. p. 535. B.
" S.v St. Chrysost. Homil. XVIII. in Ep. 2. ad Corinth, torn. iii. p. 647. Concil.
Carthag. 3. can. 23. torn. ii. col. 1170. De Concil. Milev. 2. can. 12. torn. ii. col.
1540. E. P Orat. 20. in Basil. <l Epist. 63. torn. ii. p. 843. D. r Can. 18.
Concil. torn. i. col. 1500. B. s Can. i. Condi torn. iv. col. 756. B.

14 THE LAWFULNESS AND NECESSITY OF

introdnct. by which establishment the whole Christian Church was obliged
to the use of Liturgies, so far as the authority of a general Council
extends.

It were very easy to add many other proofs of the same kind,
within the compass of time, to which those I have already pro-
duced do belong 1 ; but the brevity of my design only allows me
to mention such as are so obviously plain as to admit of no ob-
jections. To descend into the following ages, is not worth my
while ; for the greatest enemies to precomposed set forms of
prayer do acknowledge, that in the fourth and fifth centuries,
and ever after, till the times of the Reformation, the joint use
of them obtained all over the Christian world. And therefore
I shall take it for granted, that what has been already said is
abundantly sufficient to prove, that the ancient Jews, our Sa^
viour, his Apostles, and the primitive Christians, did join in the
use of precomposed set forms of prayer. I shall now proceed to
prove,

2. Secondly, That (as far as we can conjecture) they never
joined in any other. And first, that the ancient Jews, our Sa-
viour, and his Apostles, never joined in any other than precom-
posed set forms, before our Lord's resurrection, may very well
be concluded, from our having no ground to think they ever did.
For as he that refuses to believe a matter of fact, when it is
attested by a competent number of unexceptionable witnesses,
is always thought to act against the dictates of reason ; so does
that person act no less against the dictates of reason, who be-
lieves a matter of fact without any ground. And what ground
can any man believe a matter of fact upon, but the testimony of
those, upon whose veracity and judgment in the case he may
safely rely ? But what testimonies can our adversaries produce
in this case ? They cannot pretend to any proof (either express
or by consequence) within this compass of time, of the joint use
of prayers conceived extempore, because there is not the lowest
degree of evidence, or so much as a bare probability of it. And
therefore they ought of necessity to conclude, that the ancient
Jews, our Saviour, and his Apostles, never joined in any other
prayers than precomposed set forms, before our Lord's resurrec-
tion. It only remains therefore that I shew, that there is no
reason to suppose that they ever joined in any others afterwards.

And here as for our Saviour, we have no particular account of
his praying between the time of his resurrection and that of his
ascension ; and therefore we can determine nothing of his joining
therein. But as for the Apostles and primitive Christians, we
may conclude, that they never joined in any other than precom-
posed set forms after our Lord's resurrection, by the same way

* See Dr. Bennet's History of the joint Use of precomposed set Forms of Prayer,
from chap. viii. to chap. xvi.

A NATIONAL PKECOMPOSED LITURGY. 15

of reasoning, as we concluded they never did before his resur- introdoct
rection. For unless our adversaries can bring sufficient au-
thorities, to prove that they joined in the use of prayers con-

! extempore, we may very reasonably conclude they never
did.

I know indeed there arc some objections, which our adver-
saries pick up from words of like sound, and, without considering
the sense, or how the holy penmen used them, urge them for
solid arguments : but these my time will not permit me to
examine, nor is it indeed worth my while. I shall only desire it

he considered, that nothing more betrays the badness of a
cause, than when groundless suppositions are so zealously opposed
to evident truths".

I shall however mention one thing, which is of itself a strong
argument, that the Apostles and primitive Christians did never
join in any other than precom posed set forms of prayer, viz. The
difference between precomposed set forms of prayer, and prayers

ived extempore, is so very great ; and the alteration from
the joint use of the one, to the joint use of the other, so very re-
markable ; that it is utterly impossible to conceive, that if the
joint use of extempore prayers had been ever practised by the

lies and first Christians, it could so soon have been laid
aside by every church in the Christian world ; and yet not the
least notice to be taken, no opposition to be made, nor so much
as a hint given, either of the time or reasons of its being discon-
tinued, by any of the ancient writers whatsoever : but that every
nation, that has embraced the Christian faith, should, with a per-
fect harmony, without one single exception (as far as the most
diligent search and information can reach) from the Apostles 1
days to as low a period of time as our adversaries can desire,
unite' and agree in performing their joint worship by the use of
precomposed set forms only. Certainly such an unanimous prac-
tice of persons, at the greatest distance both of time and place,
and not only different, but perfectly opposite, in other points of

on, as well as their civil interests, is, as I said, a strong ar-
gument, that the joint use of precomposed set forms was fixed by
the Apostles in all the churches they planted, and that, by the
special providence of God, it has been preserved as remarkably
as the Christian sacraments themselves.

Much more might be added, but that I am satisfied, what has
already been said is enough to convince any reasonable and un-
prejudieed person ; and to those that are obstinate and biassed it
is in vain to say more. I shall therefore proceed to shew,

II. SECONDLY, That those precomposed set forms of prayer, in
which they joined, were such as the respective congregations

u For further satisfaction see Dr. Bennet's Discourse of the Gift of Prayer, and
his History of the joint Use of prei-omposed set Forms of Prayer, chap, xviii.

16 THE LAWFULNESS AND NECESSITY OF

introduce, were accustomed to, and thoroughly acquainted with. And upon
~~ this I shall endeavour to be very brief, because a little reflection
upon what has been said will effectually demonstrate its truth.

And, 1st, as to the practice of the ancient Jews, our Saviour,
and his disciples, it cannot be doubted, but that they were ac-
customed to, and well acquainted with, those precom posed set
forms which are contained in the Scriptures : and as for their
other additional prayers, the very same authors, from whom we
derive our accounts of them, do unanimously agree in attesting,
that they were of constant daily use ; and consequently the Jews,
our Saviour, and his disciples, could not but be accustomed to
them, and thoroughly acquainted with them.

The matter therefore is past dispute till the gospel- state
commenced ; and even then also it is equally clear and plain.
For it has been largely shewed, that the Apostles and primitive
Christians did constantly use the Lord's Prayer and Psalms;
whereby they must necessarily become accustomed to them, and
thoroughly acquainted with them.

But then it is objected, that " their other prayers, which made
" up a great part of their divine service, were not stinted imposed
" forms, but such as the ministers themselves composed and
" made choice of for their own use in public." But this may
likewise be answered with very little trouble ; because the same
authorities, which prove that they were precomposed set forms,
do also prove that the respective congregations were accustomed
to them, and thoroughly acquainted with them. For since the
whole congregation did with one accord lift up their voice in an
instant, and vocally join in that prayer which is recorded in the
fourth chapter of the Acts ; since the public prayers, which the
primitive Christians used in the first and second centuries, were
called common prayers, constituted prayers, and solemn prayers ;
since the Liturgy of St. James was of general use in the church
of Jerusalem within an hundred and sixty years after the aposto-
lical age ; since the church in Constantine's time used authorized
set forms of prayer; since the council of Laodicea expressly pro-
vides, that " the same Liturgy be constantly used both at the
" ninth hour and in the evening;"" I say, since these things are
true, we may appeal to our adversaries themselves, whether it
was possible, in those and the like cases, for the respective con-
gregations to be otherwise than accustomed to, and thoroughly
acquainted with, those precomposed set forms of prayer, in which
they joined.

We own indeed, that, by reason of the ancient Christians in-
dustriously concealing their mysteries, copies of their offices of
joint devotion might not be common. And therefore (except
the Lord's prayer, which the catechumens were taught before
their baptism, and the psalms, which they read in their Bibles)

A \\VTIONAL PRECOMPOSED LITUUi.Y. 17

none were acquainted with their joint devotions before they were introduce
bapti/ed ; but were forced to learn them by constant attendance
upon them, and by the assistance of their brethren. But the
forms, notwithstanding, were well known to the main body of the
congregation : and those very persons, who at first were strangers
to them, did, as well as others, by frequenting the public assem-
blies, attain to a perfect knowledge of them ; because they were
daily accustomed to them, and consequently, in a very short time,
thoroughly acquainted with them ; which was the second thing I
was to prove. I come now in the last place to prove,

III. THIRDLY, That the practice of the ancient Jews, our
Saviour, his Apostles, and the primitive Christians, warrants the
imposition of a national prccomposed Liturgy : and this I shall
make appear in the following manner.

1. Their practice proves that a precomposed Liturgy was con-
stantly imposed upon the laity. For that, without joining in
which it was impossible for the laity to hold church-communion,
was certainly imposed upon the laity. Now their practice proves
that it was impossible for the laity to hold communion with
either the Jewish or Christian church, unless they joined in a
precomposed Liturgy ; because the joint use of a precomposed
Liturgy was their particular way of worship : and consequently
as many of the laity as held communion with them must submit
to that way of worship ; and as many as submitted to that way
of worship had a precomposed Liturgy imposed upon them.

2. Their practice shews that a precomposed Liturgy was im-
posed on the clergy, i. e. the clergy were obliged to the use of a
precomposed Liturgy in their public ministrations. For since
the use of such a Liturgy was settled amongst them, it was un-
doubtedly expected from the respective clergy, that they should
practise accordingly. For any one, that is in the least versed in
antiquity, must know how strict the church -governors were in
those times, and how severely they would animadvert upon such
daring innovators, as should offer to set up their own fancies in
opposition to a settled rule. So that it is no wonder, if in the
first centuries we meet with no law to establish the use of Litur-
gies ; since those primitive patterns of obedience looked upon
themselves to be as much obliged by the custom and practice of
the church, as they could be by the strictest law. But we find
that afterwards, when the perverseness and innovations of the
clergy gave occasion, the governors of the Church did, by making
canons on purpose, oblige the clergy to the use of precomposed
Liturgies ; as may be seen in the eighteenth canon of the council
of Laodicea : which, as I have shewed, enjoined, that " the same
" Liturgy should be used both at the ninth hour, and in the
" evening :" which is as plain an imposition of a precomposed
Liturgy, as ever was or can be made. Thus also the second

WHEATLY. C

18 THE LAWFULNESS AND NECESSITY OF

introduce, council of Mela enjoins, x that " such prayers should be used by
~ " all, as were approved of in the council, and that none should
" be said in the church, but such as had been approved of by the
" more prudent sort of persons in a synod :" which is another as
plain imposition of a precomposed Liturgy as words can express,
even upon the clergy.

But though neither clergy nor laity had been thus obliged, yet
one would think that the practice of all the ancient Jews, our
blessed Saviour himself, his Apostles, and the whole Christian
world, for almost fifteen hundred years together, should be a suf-
ficient precedent for us to follow still. We may be sure, that
had they not known the joint use of Liturgies to have been the
best way of worshipping God, they would never have practised
it : but since they did practise it, we ought in modesty to allow
their concurrent judgments to be too great to be withstood by
any person or society of men ; and consequently that their prac-
tice warrants the imposition of a precomposed Liturgy.

And if of a precomposed Liturgy, it does for the same reason
warrant the imposition of a national precomposed Liturgy : for
it appears, from what has been said upon my second head, that
the precomposed Liturgies of both Jews and Christians were
such as the respective congregations were accustomed to, and
thoroughly acquainted with ; and therefore their practice war-
rants the imposition of such a precomposed Liturgy, and conse-
quently of a national precomposed Liturgy. For upon suppo-
sition that it is expedient for the congregations to be accustomed
to, and thoroughly acquainted with, the Liturgies which they
join in the use of; it is^ plain that a whole nation may as well
have the same Liturgy, as each congregation may have a distinct
one. And the clergy of a whole nation may as well resolve in a
synod, or require by a canon made to that purpose, that the
same Liturgy shall be used in every part of the nation, as leave
it to the liberty of every particular bishop or minister to choose
one for his own diocese or congregation. Nor is such an impo-
sition of a national precomposed Liturgy any greater grievance
to the laity, than if each pastor imposed his own precomposed
Liturgy or prayer conceived extempore on his respective flock ;
because every precomposed Liturgy or extempore prayer is as
much imposed, and lays as great a restraint upon the laity, as
the imposition of a national Liturgy. Nor, again, is the Synod's
imposing a national Liturgy any grievance to the clergy; since
it is done either by their proper governors alone, or else (espe-
cially according to our English constitution) by their proper
governors, joined with their own representatives. So that such
imposition, being either what they are bound to comply with in

x As before quoted in notes o, r } p. 13.

A NATIONAL PRECOMPOSEU LITURGY. 19

point of obedience, or else an act of their own choice, cannot for introduct.
that reason be any hardship upon them.

Since therefore (to draw to a conclusion) this imposition of a
national precomposed Liturgy is warranted by the constant
toe of all the ancient Jews, our Saviour himself, his Apo-
and the primitive Christians ; and since it is a grievance to
neither clergy nor laity, but appears quite, on the other hand, as
well from their concurrent testimonies, as by our own experience,
to be so highly expedient, as that there can be no decent or uni-
form performance of (iod"s worship without it; our adversaries
themselves must allow it to be necessary.

And if so, thev can no longer justify their separation from the
Church of England, upon account of its imposing The Book (if
Common Prm/cr, &c. as a national precomposed Liturgy ; unless
they can shew, that though national precomposed Liturgies in
general may be lawful ; yet there are some things prescribed in
that of the Church of England, which render it unlawful to be
complied with : which that they cannot do, is, I hope, (though
only occasionally, yet) sufficiently shewn in the following illus-
tration of it. From which I shall now detain the reader no
longer than to give him some small account of the original of
Tin- Book of Common Prayer, and of those alterations which
were afterwards made in it, before it was brought to that
perfection in which we now have it. And this I choose to do
because I know not where more properly to insert such an
account.

An Appendix to the Introductory Discourse, concerning the Ori-
ginal of The Book of Common Prayer, and the several
Alterations whlcli were aftenoards made in it.

BEFORE the Reformation, the Liturgy was only in Latin, being HOW the
a collection of prayers made up partly of some ancient forms used stood be.
in the primitive church, and partly of some others of a later Reformation,
original, accommodated to the superstitions which had by various
means crept by degrees into the Church of Rome, and from
thence derived to other churches in communion with it ; like
what we may see in the present Roman Breviary and Missal.
And these being established by the laws of the land, and the
canons of the church, no other could publicly be made use of: so
that those of the laity, who had not the advantage of a learned
education, could not join with them, or be any otherwise edified
by them. And besides, they being mixed with addresses to the
saints, adoration of the host, images, &c., a great part of the
worship was in itself idolatrous and profane.

But when the nation in king Henry VIIFs time was disposed ^e^re-
to a reformation, it was thought necessary to correct and amend JfJjjJ j al

c 2

20 OF THE ORIGINAL OF THE

Appendix these offices : and not only have the service of the church in the
induct. English or vulgar tongue, (that men might pray, not with the
matters in spirit only , but with the understanding also: and that he, who
king Henry occupied the room of the unlearned, might understand that unto
' which he was to say Amen; agreeable to the precept of St.
PaulY;) but also to abolish and take away all that was idolatrous
and superstitious, in order to restore the service of the church to
its primitive purity. For it was not the design of our Reformers
(nor indeed ought it to have been) to introduce a new form of
worship into the church, but to correct and amend the old one ;
and to purge it from those gross corruptions which had gradually
crept into it, and so to render the divine service more agreeable
to the Scriptures, and to the doctrine and practice of the primi-
tive church in the best and purest ages of Christianity. In
which reformation they proceeded gradually, according as they
were able.

And first, the z Convocation appointed a committee A.D. 1537,
to compose a book, which was called, The godly and pious insti-
tution of' a christen man; containing a declaration of the Lord's
Prayer, the Ave Maria, the Creed, the Ten Commandments, and
the Seven Sacraments a , &c. which book was again published
A. D. 1540. and 1543, with corrections and alterations, under
the title of A necessary doctrine and erudition for any christen
man: and, as it is expressed in that preface, was setftirthe by
the King, with the advyse of his Clergy ; the Lordes bothe spirit-
uall and temporally with the nether house of Parliament, having
both sene and lyked it very well.

Also in the year 1540, a committee of bishops and divines
was appointed by king Henry VIII. (at the petition of the Con-
vocation) to reform the rituals and offices of the church. And
what was done by this committee for reforming the offices was
reconsidered by the Convocation itself two or three years after-
wards, viz. in February 1542-3. And in the next year the king
and his clergy ordered the prayers for processions, and litanies,
to be put into English, and to be publicly used. And finally, in
the year 1545, the king's Primer came forth, wherein were con-
tained, amongst other things, the Lord's Prayer, Creed, Ten.
Commandments, Venite, Te Deum, and other hymns and col-
lects in English ; and several of them in the same version in
which we now use them. And this is all that appears to have
been done in relation to liturgical matters in the reign of king
Henry VIII.
The Book In the year 1547, the first of kins: Edward VI. December the

of Common J ^''

Prayer com-

P'[ ed l " g e y i Cor. xiv. 15,16. z For what relates to the authority of the Convocation, in

Edward VI? tnis and the two f<)ll <> win P paragraphs, see bishop Atterbury ; s Rights of an English

Convocation, id edit, from p. 184 to p. 205. a Strype's Memorials of Archbishop

Cranmer, p. 5 2 54.

BOOK OF COMMON I'll AVER. 21

second, the b Convocation declared their opinion, nullo rcclamante. Appendix
that the Communion ought to be administered to all persons introduce,
under loth kinds. Whereupon an Act of Parliament was made-, ""
ordering the Communion to be so administered. And then a
committee of bii-hops, and other learned divines, was appointed
to compose an uniform order of Communion, according to the
rules of Scrljitnre, (ind the use of the primitive Church. In order
to this, the committee repaired to Windsor;castle, and in that re-
tirement, within a few davs, drew up that form which is printed
in bishop Sparrow's collection . And this being immediately
brought into use tho next year, the same persons being em-
powered In a new commission, prepare themselves to enter upon
a yet nobler work ; and in a few months' time finished the whole
Liturgy, bv drawing up public offices not only for Sundays and
Holidays, but for Baptism, Confirmation, Matrimony, Burial of
the Dead, and other special occasions; in which the foremen-
tioned Office for the holy Communion was inserted, with many
alterations and amendments. And the whole book being so
framed, was set forth by the common agreement and full assent
both of the Parliament and Convocations provincial; i. e. the two
Convocations of the provinces of Canterbury and York.
The committee appointed to compose this Liturgy were,

1. Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury ; who was the
chief promoter of our excellent Reformation; and had a prin-
cipal hand, not only in compiling the Liturgy, but in all the steps
made towards it. He died a martyr to the religion of the Re-
formation, which principally by his means had been established
in the Church of England ; being burnt at Oxford in the reign
of queen Mary, March 21, 1556.

2. Thomas Goodrich, bishop of Ely.

3. Henry Holbech, alias Randes, bishop of Lincoln.

4. George Day, bishop of Chichestcr.

5. John Skip, bishop of Hereford.

6. Thomas Thirlby, bishop of Westminster.

7. Nicholas Ridley, bishop of Rochester, and afterwards of
London. lie was esteemed the ablest man of all that advanced
the Reformation, for piety, learning, and solidity of judgment.
He died a martyr in queen Mary's reign, being burnt at Oxford,
October 16, 1555.

8. Dr. William May, dean of St. Paul's, London, and after-
wards also master of Queen's College in Cambridge.

9. Dr. John Taylor, dean, afterwards bishop of Lincoln. He
was deprived in the beginning of queen Mary's reign, and died
soon after.

10. Dr. Simon Heynes, dean of Exeter.

b See Strype's Memorials of Archbishop Cranmer, p. 157, 158. c Page 17.

LIBRARY ST. MARY'S COLLEGE

22 OF THE ORIGINAL OF THE

Appendix ii. Dr. John Redraayne, master of Trinity College in Cam-,
introduct . bridge, and prebendary of Westminster.

~ 13. Dr. Richard Cox, dean of Christ Church in Oxford, al-
moner and privy -council lor to king Edward VI. He was de-
prived of all his preferments in queen Mary's reign, and fled to
Frankfort ; from whence returning in the reign of queen Eliza-
beth, he was consecrated bishop of Ely.

13. Mr. Thomas Robertson, archdeacon of Leicester.
And confirm- Thus was our excellent Liturgy compiled by martyrs and
Sriiament > . f confessors, together with divers other learned bishops and di-
vines ; and being revised and approved by the archbishops,
bishops, and clergy of both the provinces of Canterbury and
York, was then confirmed by the king and the three estates in
parliament, A.D. 1548 d , who gave it this just encomium, viz.
which at this time BY THE AID OF THE HOLY GHOST,
with uniform agreement is of them concluded, set forth, &c.
But after- But about the end of the year 1550, or the beginning of 1551,
StteVto the some exceptions were taken at some things in this book, which
Buce^and were thought to savour too much of superstition. To remove
Martyr. these objections therefore, archbishop Cranmer proposed to re-
view it : and to this end called in the assistance of Martin
Bucer and Peter Martyr, two foreigners, whom he had invited
over from the troubles in Germany; who not understanding the
English tongue, had Latin versions prepared for them : one
Alesse, a Scotch divine, translating it on purpose for the use of
Bucer ; and Martyr being furnished with the version of Sir John
Upon whose Cheke, who had also formerly translated it into 6 Latin. What
^Te^ie^ed liberties this encouraged them to take in their censures of the
and altered. fl rgt Litt, r gy 5 and how far they were instrumental to the laying
aside several very primitive and venerable usages, I shall have
properer opportunities of shewing hereafter, when I come to
treat of the particulars in the body of the book. It will be suf-
ficient here just to note the most considerable additions and
alterations that were then made : some of which must be allowed
to be good ; as especially the addition of the sentences, exhorta-
tion., confession, and absolution, at the beginning of the morning
*and evening services, which in the first Common Prayer Book
began with the Lord's Prayer. The other changes were the re-
moving of some rites and ceremonies retained in the former
book ; such as the use of oil in baptism ; the unction of the sick;
prayers for souls departed, both in the Communion-office, and in
that for the burial of the dead ; the leaving out the invocation of
the Holy Gliost in the consecration of the Eucharist, and the
prayer of oblation that was used to follow it ; the omitting the
rubric, that ordered water to be mixed with wine, with several

d Second and third of Edward VI. chap. i. e Strype's Memorials of Archbishop
Cranmer, p. 210.

BOOK OF COMMON' I'll AY KK.

other less material variation-.. The habit* also, that were pro-
scribed by the former book, were ordi -reil by this to be laid introduce.
aside ; and, lastly, a rubric: was added at the end of the Commu-
nion-nflire to explain the reaxm of kneeling at the Sacrament.

book thus revised and altered was again confirmed in par- Ami ;uMin
hament A.I). 1 ";;") i , who declared, that the- alterations that were A"" JiTpar- 7
made in it proceeded from curiosity rather than ant/ \corthy cuuxi '.
JJut both this and the- former act mad.- in 154^, were repealed n,,th which
in the ,'irst vear of (jiieen Mary, as not being agreeable to tht pg o t J^J*
Komish superstition, which she was resolved to restore.

Hut upon the accession of queen Eli/abcth. the act of repeal But the se-
was reversed ; and, in order to the restoring of the English MT- i^B
vice, several learned divines were appointed to take another
review of king Edward's Liturgies, and to frame from "Ml* S 'JS
both a book for the use of the Church of England. The names
of those who, Mr. Cambden f says, were employed, are these that
follow :

Dr. Matthew Parker, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury.

Dr. Richard Cox, afterwards bishop of Ely.

Dr. May.

Dr. Hill.

Dr. James Pilkington, afterwards bishop of Durham.

Sir Thomas Smith.

Mr. David White-head.

Mr. Edmund Grindall, afterwards bishop of London, and then
archbishop of Canterbury.

To these, Mr. Strype says*-', were added Dr. Edwin Sandys,
afterwards bishop of Worcester, and Mr. I'd ward Guest, a very
learned man, who was afterwards archdeacon of Canterbury,
almoner to the Queen, and bishop of Rochester, and afterwards
of Salisbury. And this last person, Mr. Strype thinks, had the
main care of the whole business ; being, as he supposes, recom-
mended by Parker to supply his absence. It was debated at
first, which of the two books of king Edward should be received;
and secretary Cecil sent several queries to Guest, concerning the
reception of some particulars in the first book ; as prayers for
the dead, the prayer of consecration, the delivery of the sacra-
ment into the mouth of the communicant, &c. h But however,
the second book of king Edward was pitched upon as the book
to be proposed to the parliament to be established, who ac-
cordingly passed and commanded it to be used, i.ith one altera-
tion or addition of certain IcMon.v to be used on every Sunday in
the fj ear , and the form of the Litany altered and corrected, and
two sentences added in the delivery of the sacrament to the com-
municants, and none other, or others*

In liis History of Q. Elizabeth. s Strype's Annals of Q. Elizabeth, p. Si, 83-

nt supra.

OF THE ORIGINAL OF THE

Appendix The alteration in the Litany here mentioned was the leaving
introduct. out a rough expression, viz. from the tyranny of the Bishop of
~~ Rome, and all his detestable enormities, which was a part of the
last deprecation in both the books of king Edward ; and the
adding those words to the first petition for the queen, strengthen-
in the true worshipping" of thee, in righteousness and holiness of
life, which were not in before. The two sentences added in the
delivery of the sacrament were these, The body of our Lord Jesus
Christ, which was given for thee, or, The blood ofour-Lord Jesus
Christ, which was shed for thee, preserve thy body and soul to
everlasting life: which were taken out of king Edward's first
book, and were the whole forms then used : whereas in the
second book of that king, these sentences were left out, and in
the room of them were used, take, eat, or drink this, with what
follows; but now in queen Elizabeth's book both these forms
were united.

Though, besides these here mentioned, there are some other
variations in this book from the second o'f king Edward, viz.
the first rubric, concerning the situation of the chancel and the
proper place of reading divine service, was altered ; the habits
enjoined by the first book of king Edward, and forbid by the
second, were now restored. At the end of the Litany was added
a prayer for the queen, and another for the clergy. And
lastly, the rubric that was added at the end of the Communion-
office, in the second book of king Edward VI. against the
notion of our Lord's real and essential presence in the holy Sa-
crament, was left out of this. For it being the queen's design
to unite the nation in one faith, it was therefore recommended
to the divines to see that there should be no definition made
against the aforesaid notion, but that it should remain as a spe-
culative opinion not determined, in which every one was left to
the freedom of his own mind.

And in this state the Liturgy continued without any farther
alteration, till the first year of king James I. when, after the

i. conference at Hampton court, between that prince with archbi-
shop Whitgift of Canterbury, and other bishops and divines on
the one side; and Dr. Reynolds, with some other Puritans on
the other ; there were some forms of thanksgiving added at the
end of the Litany, and an addition made to the Catechism con-
cerning the sacraments ; the Catechism before that time ending
with the answer to that question which immediately follows the
Lord's Prayer. And in the rubric in the beginning of the Office
for private baptism, the words lawful minister were inserted, to
prevent midwives or laymen from presuming to baptize, with one
or two more small alterations.

And the And in this s.tate it continued to the time of king Charles II.

" who, immediately after his restoration, at the request of several

BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER.

of the Presbyterian ministers, was willing to comply to another Appendix
review, and therefore issued out a commission, dated March 25. introduce.
1661, to empower twelve of the bishops, and twelve of the viewed ufter
Presbyterian divines, to consider of the objections raised again st^f '
the I/itur^v, and to make such reasonable and necessary altera-
tions as they should jointly agree upon : nine assistants on each
side being added to supply the place of any of the twelve princi-
pals who should happen to be absent. The names of them are
as follow :

On the Episcoparian side.

Principals.

Dr. Fruen, archb. of York.
Dr. Sheldon, bp. of London.
Dr. Cosin, bp. of Durham.
Dr. Warner, bp. of Rochester.
*Dr. Kim:, bp. of Chichester.
Dr. Henchman, bp. of Sarum.
Dr. Morley, bp. of Worcester.
Dr. Sanderson, bp. of Lincoln.
Dr. Luiu'V, bp. of Peterborough.
Dr. Walton, bp. of Chester.
Dr. Stern, bp. of Carlisle.
Dr. Gauden, bp. of Exeter.

Coadjutors.

Dr. Earles,dean of Westminster.
Dr. Heylin.
Dr. Hackett.
Dr. Banvick.
Dr.. Gunning.
Dr. Pearson.
Dr. Pierce.
Dr. Sparrow*
Mr. Thorndike.

On the Presbyterian side.

Principals.

Dr. Reynolds, bp. of Norwich.
Dr. Tuckney.
Dr. Conant.
Dr. Spurstow.
Dr.Wallis.
Dr. Man ton.
Mr. Calamy.
Mr. Baxter.
Mr. Jackson.
Mr. Case.
Mr. Clark.
Mr. Newcomen.

Coadjutors.
Dr. Horton.
Dr. Jacomb.
Mr. Bates.
Mr. Rawlinson.
Mr. Cooper.
Dr. Lightfoot.
Dr. Collins.
Dr.Woodbridge.
Mr. Drake.

These commissioners had several meetings at the Savoy, but
all to very little purpose ; the Presbyterians heaped together all
the old scruples that the Puritans had for above a hundred

* I do not meet with this name either in the copy of the commission that was
printed in 1661, in the account of the proceedings of the Commissioners, or in that
copy of it which Dr. Nichols has printed at the end of his preface to his book upon
the Common Prayer; nor in that which Mr. Collier gives us in his Ecclesiastical
History i. But Mr. Baxter inserts it in the copy of the commission that he has
printed in the narrative of his own lifek, and Dr. Nichols mentions him in his intro-
duction to his Defence of the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England : and
there are not twelve principal Commissioners on the Church side without him : and
therefore I suppose he was left out of the copy of the commission in 1 66 1 , by the
printer's mistake, and that from thence Dr. Nichols and Mr. Collier might continue
the omission. *

i Vol. II. p. 8 76.

k Page 303.

26 OF THE ORIGINAL OF THE

Appendix years been raising against the Liturgy, and, as if they were not
introduce, enough, swelling the number of them with many new ones of
""their own. To these, one and all, they demand compliance on
the Church side, and will hear of no contradiction even in the
minutest circumstances. But the completest piece of assurance
was the behaviour of Baxter, who (though the king's commission
gave them no farther power, than to compare the Common Prayer
Book with the most ancient Liturgies that had been used in the
Church^ in the most primitive and purest times ; requiring them
to avoid, as much as possible, all unnecessary alterations of' the
Forms and Liturgy, wherewith the people were altogether ac-
quainted, and had so long received in the Church of' England)
would not so much as allow that our Liturgy was capable of
amendment, but confidently pretended to compose a new one of
his own ; and, without any regard to any other Liturgy what-
soever, either modern or ancient, amassed together a dull, tedious,
crude, and indigested heap of stuff; which, together with the rest
of the Commissioners on the Presbyterian side, he had the inso-
lence to offer to the bishops, to be received and established in the
room of the Liturgy. Such usage as this, we may reasonably
think, must draw the disdain and contempt of all that were
concerned for the Church. So that the conference broke up,
without any thing done, except that some particular alterations
were proposed by the episcopal divines, which, the May follow-
ing, were considered and agreed to by the whole Clergy in Con-
vocation. The principal of them were, that several lessons in the
calendar were changed for others more proper for the days 5 the
prayers upon particular occasions were disjoined from the Litany,
and the two prayers to be used in the Ember-weeks, the prayer
for the Parliament, that for all conditions of' men, and the general
thanksgiving, were added: several of k the collects were altered,
the Epistles and Gospels were taken out of the last translation of
the Bible, being read before according to the old translation :
the office for baptism of tlwse of riper years, and the forms of
prayer to be used at sea, were added k . In a word, the whole
Liturgy was then brought to that state in which it now stands ;
and was unanimously subscribed by both houses of Convocation,
of both Provinces, on Friday the 2oth of December 1661. And
being brought to the house of lords the March following, both
houses very readily passed an act for its establishment ; and the
earl of Clarendon, then high chancellor of England, was ordered
to return the thanks of the lords to the bishops and clergy of
both provinces, for the great care and industry shewn in the
review of it.

The com. Thus have I given a brief historical account of the first com-
piling of our

k For a more particular account of what was done in this review, see the Preface
to the Common Praver Book.

dOOK OP COMMON 1R. \VI-M. !

piling the Hook of Common Prayer, and of the several reviews AP P HT
that were afterwards taken of it by our bishops and Convoca- intnxiuct.
tions: one end of which was, that so "whosoever will may Liturgy, &c.

as hi>hop Sparrow shews on a like 1 occasion) tl
" notorious slander which some of the Roman persuasion have^
" endeavoured to cast upon our church, viz. That her reforma-
" tion hath been altogether lay and parliamentary? For it
appears bv the proceedings observed in the reformation of the
service of the rhurch, that this reformation was regularly made
by the bishops and clergy in their provincial synods; the king
and parliament only establishing by the civil sanction what was
there done bv cn'lcs'infstical authority. " It was indeed," as my
lord bishop of Sarum has excellently well observed 01 , " con-
" firmed by ihe authority of parliament, and there was good
" reason to desire that, to give it the force of a law ; but the au-
" tliority of [the book and] those changes is wholly to be derived
" from the Convocation, who only consulted about them and
' made them. And the parliament did take that care in the
" enacting them, that might shew they did only add the force of
" a law to them: for in passing them it was ordered, that the
" Book of Common Prayer and Ordination should only be read
" over, (and even that was carried upon some debate ; for many,
" as I have been told, moved that the book should be added to
" the act, as it was sent to the parliament from the Convocation,
" without ever reading it ; but that seemed indecent and too
" implicit to others,) and there was no change made in a tittle by
" parliament. So that they only enacted by a law what the
" Convocation had done." And therefore, as his lordship says
in another place", "As it were a great scandal on the first general
" councils to say, that they had no authority for what they did,
" but what they derived from the civil power ; so is it no less
" unjust to say, because the parliament empowered (I suppose
" his lordship means approved) some persons to draw up forms
" for the more pure administration of the sacraments, and enacted
" that these only should be lawfully used in this realm, which is
" the civil sanction ; that therefore these persons had no other
" authority for what they did. Was it ever heard of that the
" civil sanction, which only makes any constitution to have the
" force of a law, gives it any other authority than a civil one ?
" The Prelates and other Divines, that compiled [these forms],
" did it by virtue of the authority they had from Christ, as
" pastors of his church ; which did empower them to teach the
" people the pure word of God, and to administer the sacraments,
" and to perform all holy functions, according to the Scripture,
" the practice of the primitive church, and the rules of expediency

1 Preface to his Collection of Articles, &c. towards the end. m Vindication of

Ordinations of the Church of England, p. 53, 54. n P. 74, 75.

28 OF THE ORIGINAL OF THE

App to" ta " anc * reason ; an d this they ought to have done, though the
introduct c i v il power had opposed it : in which case their duty had been
" to have submitted to whatever severities and persecutions they
" might have been put to for the name of Christ, or the truth of
" his gospel. But on the other hand, when it pleased God to
" turn the hearts of those which had the chief power, to set
" forward this good work ; then they did, as they ought, with all
" thankfulness acknowledge so great a blessing, and accept and
" improve the authority of the civil power, for adding the
" sanction of a law to the reformation, in all the parts and
te branches of it. So by the authority they derived from Christ,
" and the warrant they had by the Scripture arid the primitive
" Church, ^these prelates and divines made those alterations and
" changes in the ordinal ; and the king and the parliament, who
" are vested with the supreme legislative power, added their
" authority to them, to make them obligatory on the subjects."
These excellent words of this right reverend prelate are a full
and complete answer to the Romanists' cavil of the lay original of
our Liturgy. And I cannot but wonder, that others, who have
wrote exceeding well on the Common Prayer Book, have not
been careful to obviate this objection ; but have indeed rather
given occasion for it, by intimating as if the Book of Common
Prayer had been compiled by some persons only by virtue and
authority of the king's commission : whereas it was indeed a
committee of the two houses of Convocation, and the book
was revised and authorized by the whole synod, and in a syno-
dical way, before it received the civil sanction from the king and
parliament.

And for this reason I have given a true account of this matter,
that others who are led away by Erastian principles, and think
that the civil magistrate only has authority in matters of religion,
may be convinced that this is not agreeable to the doctrine of
our church ; who declares in her twentieth article, that the
Church (that is, the ecclesiastical governors, the bishops and
their presbyters; for there maybe a church where there is no
Christian civil magistrate) hath power to decree rites and ceremo-
nies, and authority in matters of faith : and affirms again in the
thirty-seventh article, that where we attribute to the Queen's
Majesty the chief government, we give not to our Princes the
ministering either of God's word, or of the Sacraments ; but that
only prerogative, which we see to have been given always to all
godly Princes in holy Scripture by God himself; that is, that
they should rule all estates and degrees committed to their charge
by God, whether they be ecclesiastical or temporal, and restrain
with the CIVIL sword the stubborn and evil doers. Our Liturgy
was therefore first established by the Convocations or provincial
Synods of the realm, and thereby became obligatory in foro

BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 29

canscicntifc; and was then confirmed and ratified by the supreme A Pi| p o ndI *
magistrate in parliament, and so also became < >l )ligatory in Jbro introduct.
ch'it't. It IIMS therefore all authority both ecclesiastical and civil.
As it is established bv ecclesiastical authority, those who separate
themselves and set up another form of worship are schismatics ;
and consequently are guilty of a damnable sin, which no toleration
granted by the civil magistrate can authorize or justify. But as
it is settled hv act rf parliament, the separating from it is only
an offence against the state; and as such may be pardoned by
the state. The act of toleration, therefore (as it is called) has
freed the Dissenters from being offenders against the state, not-
withstanding their separation from the worship prescribed by the
Liturgy : but it by no means excuses or can excuse them from
the schism they have made in the church ; they are still guilty of
that sin, and will be so as long as they separate, notwithstanding
any temporal authority to indemnify them.

And here I designed to have put an end to the Introduction ;
but having in the first part of it vindicated the use of Liturgies
in general, and in this Appendix given an historical account of
our own ; I think I cannot more properly conclude the whole
than with Dr. Comber's excellent and just encomium of the lat-
ter; bv which the reader will, I doubt not, be very well enter-
tained, and perhaps be rendered more inquisitive after those ex-
cellencies and beauties which are here mentioned, and which it
is one chief design of the following treatise to shew. In hopes
of this, therefore, I shall here transcribe the very words of the
reverend and learned author :

" Though all churches in the world," saith he , " have and
" ever had forms of prayer, yet none was ever blessed with soturgy.
" comprehensive, so exact, and so inoffensive a composure [as
" ours] ; which is so judiciously contrived, that the wisest may
" exercise at once their knowledge and devotion ; and yet so
" plain, that the most ignorant may pray with understanding:
" so full, that nothing is omitted which is fit to be asked in
" public ; and so particular, that it compriseth most things
" which we would ask in private ; and yet so short, as not to
" tire any that hath true devotion : its doctrine is pure and pri-
" mitive ; its ceremonies so few and innocent, that most of the
" Christian world agree in them : its method is, exact and na-
" tural ; its language significant and perspicuous ; most of the
" words and phrases being taken out of the holy Scriptures, and
" the rest are the expressions of the first and purest ages ; so
" that whoever takes exception at these must quarrel with
" the language of the Holy Ghost, and fall out with the church
t in her greatest innocence : and in the opinion of the most im-
" partial and excellent Grotius, (who was no member of, nor had
" any obligation to, this church,) the English Liturgy comes so
o Dr. Comber's preface, p. 4. of the folio edition.

30 OF THE ORIGINAL OF THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER.

Appendix near to the primitive pattern, that none of the reformed churches

Jntroduct. " can compare with it P.

" And if any thing external be needful to recommend that
tc which is so glorious within ; we may add that the Compilers
" were [most of them] men of great piety and learning ; [and
" several of them] either martyrs or confessors upon the resti,
" tution of Popery ; which as it declares their piety, so doth the
" judicious digesting of these prayers evidence their learning.
" For therein a scholar can discern close logic, pleasing rhetoric,
" pure divinity, and the very marrow of the ancient doctrine and
" discipline ; and yet all made so familiar, that the unlearned
" may safely say Amen 9.

" Lastly, all these excellencies have obtained that universal
" reputation which these prayers enjoy in all the world : so that
" they are most deservedly admired by the eastern churches,
" and had in great esteem by the most eminent Protestants
" beyond sea r , who are the most impartial judges that can be
" desired. In short, this Liturgy is honoured by all but the Ro-
" manist, whose interest it opposeth, and the Dissenters, whose
" prejudices will not let them see its lustre. Whence it is that
" they call that, which the Papists hate because it is Protestant,
" superstitious and popish. But when we consider that the best
" things in a bad world have the most enemies, as it doth not
" lessen its worth, so it must not abate our esteem, because it
" hath malicious and misguided adversaries.

" How endless it is to dispute with these, the little success of
" the best arguments, managed by the wisest men, do too sadly
" testify : wherefore we shall endeavour to convince the enemies,
" by assisting the friends of our church devotions : and by draw-
" ing that veil which the ignorance and indevotion of some, and
" the passion and prejudice of others have cast over them, re-
" present the Liturgy in its true and native lustre : which is so
" lovely and ravishing, that, like the purest beauties, it needs no
" supplement of art and dressing, but conquers by its own at-
t; tractions, and wins the affections of all but those who do not
" see it clearly. This will be sufficient to shew, that whoever
" desires no more than to worship God with zeal and knowledge,
" spirit and truth, purity and sincerity, may do it by these
" devout forms. And to this end may the God of peace give us
" all meek hearts, quiet spirits, and devout affections ; and free
" us from all sloth and prejudice, that we may have full churches.
" frequent prayers, and fervent charity ; that, uniting in our
" prayers here, we may all join in his praises hereafter, for the
" sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

v (irotius Ep. ad Boet. q i Cor. xiv. 16. * See Durel's Defence of the Liturgy.
THE END OF THE INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE.

a CHAP. I.

OF THE TABLES, RULES, AND CALENDAR.

PART I.
OF THE TABLES AND RULES.

SECT. I. Of the Rule for finding Easter.

THE proper Lessons and Psalms being spoken to at large in
other parts of this treatise, there is no need to say any thing ~~
particularly concerning the Tables that appoint them. I shall
therefore pass them by, and begin with the Rule for folding Rule for

: which stands thus in all Books of Common Prayer

printed in or since the year 1752 : Easter-day is always the first

Sunday after the full Moon, which happens upon or next after

^t'tifi/-/irst day of March ; and if the full Moon happens

> a Sunday, Easter-day is the Sunday after.

. 2. To shew upon what occasion the rule was framed, it is upon what
to be observed, that in the first ages of Christianity there arose ruiTw^

vut difference between the churches of Asia and other
churches, about the day whereon Easter ought to be celebrated.

The churches of Asia kept their Easter upon the same day Easter dif-
on which the Jews celebrated their passover, viz. upon the four-
uenth day of their first month Nisan (which month began at
the new moon next to the vernal b equinox) ; and this they did
upon what day of the week soever it fell; and were from thence
called Quartodecimans, or such as kept Easter upon the four-
it en tii day after the <J>ao-is, or appearance of the moon: whereas
ther churches, especially those of the West, did not follow
this custom, but kept their Easter on the Sunday following the
Jewish passover ; partly the more to honour the day, and partly
to cUiUpguish between Jews and Christians. Both sides pleaded

" In this edition, after the example of all others published since the year 1752, this
i-h.-ijitiT is printed with the alterations necessary to adapt it to the itetc Calendar^
7V;/jv, and Rules, which were ordered to be prefixed to all future editions of the
"Book of Common Prayer, by the Act 24 Geo. II. intitled, An Act for regulating the
ucnnent of the year ; 'and for correcting the calendar. b Josephus, Aitfiq.

Judaic, lib. 3. cap. 10.

Ordered to
be eyery
where ob-
served on the
same day by
the council
of Nice.

83 OF THE TABLES AND RULES.

Chap. I. apostolical tradition : these latter pretending to derive their
practice from St. Peter and St. Paul : whilst the others, viz. the
Asiatics, said they imitated the example of St. John c .

This difference for a considerable time continued with a great
deal of Christian charity and forbearance ; but at length became
the occasion of great bustles in the church ; which grew to such
a height at last, that Constantine thought it time to use his in-
terest and authority to allay the heat of the opposite parties, and
to bring them to a uniformity of practice. To which end he got
a canon to be passed in the great general council of Nice, " That
ff every where the great feast of Easter should be observed upon,
" one and the same day ; and that not on the day of the Jewish
" passover, but, as had been generally observed, upon the Sunday
" afterwards/' And d that this dispute imight never arise again,
these paschal canons were then also established, viz.

1. " That the twenty -first day of March shall be accounted
ct the vernal equinox.

2. " That the full moon happening upon or next after the
" twenty-first day of March shall be taken for the full moon of
" Nisan.

3. " That the Lord's day next following that full moon be
" Easter-day.

4. " But if the full moon happen upon a Sunday, Easter-day
" shall be the Sunday after."

. 3. Agreeable to these is the Rule for finding Easter, which
we are now discoursing of. But here we must observe, that the
Fathers of the next century ordered the new and full moons to
be found out by the cycle of the moon, consisting of nineteen
years, invented by Meton the e Athenian, and from its great
usefulness in ascertaining the moon's age, as it was thought for
ever, was called the Golden Number ; and was for some time
usually written in letters of gold. By this cycle, I say, the Fa-
thers of the next century ordered the moon's age to be found
out ; which they thought a certain way, since at the end of nine-
teen years the moon returns to have her changes on the same
day of the solar year and month, whereon they happened nine-
teen years before. For which reason the cycle was some time
afterwards placed in the calendar, in the first column of every
month, in such manner as that every number of the cycle should
stand against those days in each month, on which the new
moons should happen in that year of the cycle. But now it is
to be noted, that though at the end of every nineteen years the
moon changes on the very same days of the solar months, on
which it changed nineteen years before ; yet the change happens
about an hour and a half sooner every nineteen years than in

Euseb. Hist. EccL 5. c. 23, 24. p. 193, &c. Vide et 1. 4. c. 14. d Eusebius in
Vita Constant. 1. 3. c. 18. e Blondel's Roman Calendar, part I. lib. 2. c. 5.

OF Till-: TAHLKS AND BULKS.

the former,- which, in tho time that the Golden Number stood Parti,
in the calendar, had made an alteration of about live days.

5. 4.. Bv this means it happened that Kaster was kept some- l " l<t " WM

* . , , keptBome-

tinies sooner and .sometime* later than the rule seemed to direct, timeH sooner
and :he Fathers of the Nieene council intended. For it is
manliest that they designed that the first full moon after
vernal equinox should be the paschal full moon: (for otherwise dirocl -
they knew that the resurrection of our blessed Lord could not
be commemorated at the time it happened :) but then, for want
of better skill in astronomy in those times, they confined the
equinox to the twenty-first of March ; whereas it hath since been
. . ered not only that the moon's cycle of nineteen years com-
plete was too long-, but also that the Julian solar year, which
they reckoned by, exceeds the true solar one by about eleven
minutes every year ; which had brought the equinoxes forward
eleven or twelve days from the time of the Nieene council.
Hence it must often have happened, that the first full moon
after the twenty-first of March hath been different from the first
full moon after the vernal equinox ; and that they who have ob-
served Faster according to the letter of the Nieene canons, and
the rule for finding the paschal full moon by the Golden Num-
ber as placed soon after in the calendar, have not always ob-
served it according to the intent of those Fathers. But yet as
soon as ever the canons were passed, the whole catholic church
was very strict in adhering to them ; and so tender of the au-
thority of them, that about two hundred years after the Nieene
council this following table was drawn up by Dionysius Exiguus,
a Koman ; w herein are expressed all those days,
on which the first full moons after the twenty-
first of March happen in all the nineteen years
of the lunar cycle: which was so well approved
of, that, by the council of Chalcedon holden a
little after, it was agreed that the Sunday next
following the paschal limits answering the Golden
Numbers, as they are expressed in this table,
should be Faster-day ; and that whosoever cele-
brated Faster on any other day should be ac-
counted an heretic.

According to this table was Faster observed
from the year of Christ 534, or thereabouts, till
the year 1582 : at which time pope Gregory
XIII. reformed the calendar, and brought back
the vernal equinox to the twenty-first of March.
So that the lloman church keeping their Easter
from that time on the first Sunday after the first
full moon next after the twenty-first of March,
observed it exactly according to the use of the
primitive church. And in the year 1752, the

WHEATLY. D

The Paschal Limits
answering the Gold-

en Numbers, ac-

cording to the Ju-

lian account.

Golden

The Paschal

Numb.

Limits.

;

April 5.

."March 25.

Aj>ril 13.

April 2.

.March :2.

April ro.

March 30.

April 1 8.

April 7.

March 2-.

1 1

April 15.

April 4.

.March -24.

April i :.

April i.

March 21.

April 9.

.March 29.

April 17.

3 OF THE TABLES AND RULES.

Chap. I. like reformation was made in our calendar, by ordering the third
~~ day of September in that year to be called I\\Q fourteenth, thereby
suppressing eleven intermediate days, and bringing back the ver-
nal equinox to the twenty-first of March, as it was at the time of
the Nicene council.

SECT. II. Of the Tables for finding Easter.
AFTER the Rule for finding Easter is inserted an account when
the rest of the movable feasts and holy-days begin ; and after
that follow certain tables relating to the feasts and vigils that are
to be observed in the Church of England, and other days of fast-
ing or abstinence, with an account of certain solemn days for
which particular services are appointed. But these, and every
thing relating to them, I shall have a more convenient oppor-
tunity to treat of hereafter ; and therefore shall pass on now to
the Tables for finding Easter.

J?Aie?andria When the Nicene council had settled the true time for keep-
was at first ing Easter in the method set down in the first section of this
g?v P eToce chapter, the bishop of Alexandria (for the Egyptians at that
dt^tfother time excelled in the knowledge of astronomy) was appointed to
churches. g- ye not j ce o f Easter-day to the pope and other patriarchs, to
be notified by them to the metropolitans, and by them again to
all other f bishops. But this injunction could be but temporary:
for length of time must needs make such alteration in the state
of affairs, as must render any such method of notifying the time
of Easter impracticable. And therefore this was observed no
longer than till a Cycle or course of all the variations which
might happen in regard to Easter-day might be settled,
terwlrds" 2> Hereupon the computists applied themselves to frame
drawn up. such a Cycle : and the vernal equinox being fixed by the council
of Nice, and Easter-day by them also appointed to be always the
first Sunday after the first full moon next after the vernal equi-
nox ; they had nothing to do, but to calculate all the revolutions
of the moon and of the days of the week, and inquire, whether,
after a certain number of years, the new moons, and consequently
the full moons, did not fall out, not only on the same days of the
solar year, (for that they do after every nineteen years,) but also
on the same days of the week on which they happened before,
and in the same ordinary course. Because, by calculating a table
for such a number of years, they might find Easter for ever ;
viz. by beginning again at the end of the last year, and going
round as it were in a circle.

The cycte^ And first a Cycle was framed at Rome for eighty-four years,
and generally received in the Western church ; it being thought
that in that space of time the changes of the moon would return
to the same days both of the week and year in such manner as
they had done beforeS. During the time that Easter was kept

f See pope Leo's Epistle to the Emperor Marcianus, Epist. 64. & See the bishop of Wor-
cester's Historical Account of Church -government, p. 67. and Bede Hist.l. 5.0. 22. infin.

OF Till: TAM.I.S AND KM 35

according to this Cycle, Britain was separated from the Koman Part ^
empire', and the British churches tor sonic time after lliat sepa-
ration continued to kei -p their Easter by this table of eighty-four
JJut soon after that separation, the- elinreh of Koine and
,.1 others di.siovered great deficiencies in this account, and
lore left it for another, which was more per feet : not but
that also had its defects, though it has been continued i
since- in the (ireek church, and some others; and till very lately
in our own 1 '.

The Cvclc I mean was drawn up about the year 457, by
r/V/n,--;//.v* or ] T irtfjrinu*\ a native of Aquitain, an eminent BUL- Victoria p*
thcmatician : who, observing that the ( 'ycle of the Sunday letter nu ' u
counted of twenty -eight years, and consequently that the days
of the week have "a complete revolution, and begin and go on
again every twenty-eight years, just in the same order that they
did twenty-eight years before, and that the Cycle of the Moon
returned to have her changes on the same clays of the solar year
and month, whereon they happened nineteen years before, but
not on the same days of the week: Victorius, I say, having ob-
served this, and endeavouring to compose a Cycle, which should
contain all the changes of the days of the week, and of the moon
also, (which was necessary to find Easter for ever;) he multiplied
two Cycles of nineteen and twenty-eight together, and from
thence composed his period of five hundred and thirty-two years,
from him ever after called the Victorian Period. And in this
time he supposed the new moons would fall out on the same days
both of the month and week, on which they happened before,
and in the same orderly course. So that this day (be it what day
it will) is the same day of the year, month, moon, and week, that
it was five hundred and thirty-two years ago, or will be five
hundred and thirty-two years hence ; i. e. if this calculation has
no defect in it, as it was then thought to have none, or so little as
would make no considerable variation. And when the first full
moon after the vernal equinox, or March 21, happens on the
same day both of. the month and week, it did any year before;
Easter-day must also fall on the same day on which it happened
that year : so that Easter, according to this computation, must
go through all its variations in five hundred and thirty-two
years ; forasmuch as the moon and the days of the week have all
their variations in that space.

h This alteration of the cycle to find Ka>ti-r VMS the cause that the Uritons, who

.count, dillered from .- in the time of celehrati;;^- this

i. For though both kept it on ;i Sunday, according: to the rule of the council

of Nice ; yet they differed as to tin- particular Sunday. This upon the coining in of

Augustin the monk, first archbishop of Canterbury, caused souu- : this

nit, [Hist. Keel. 1. 3. c. 25. 1. 5. c. 23.] '
it may be seen that the Britons never were Quartodecii...
them to be.

D 2

36 OF THE TABLES AND RULES.

Chap. I. .3. This calculation was thought to come much nearer to

This cycle the truth (as indeed it did) than the former table of eighty-four

by t the ished J ears f r which reason it was generally followed in a little time.

church. And the fourth council of Orleans, A. D. 541, decreed, that 1

" the feast of Easter should be celebrated every year according to

" the table of Victorius ; and that the day whereon it is to be

" celebrated every year should be declared by the bishop in the

And after. time of divine service on the feast of Epiphany.'" However in

wards adapt- .. . * ". J

edtotheca-a little time it was thought more convenient to adapt these

service book, tables to the calendar, so that every one, who had a book of

the divine offices wherein this calendar was placed, might know

the day whereon Easter should be kept, without any farther

information.

StheGofdeS ^ U ^ ^ ie wn k table being of too great a length to be inserted

Number and into one book of divine offices, it was found more advisable to

Letters being place the Golden Number, or Cycle of the moon, in the first

calendar! the column of the calendar, and the Dominical Letters in another

column ; in such manner that the Golden Number should point

out the new moons in every month . by which means it would

be easy to find out the fourteenth day of the Easter moon, or

the first full moon after the twenty-first day of March, and then,

by the Dominical Letter following that day, to be assured of the

day whereon Easter must be kept.

find Easte* ' ^" ^ n ^ ^ rom ^ nese * wo columns was drawn up a Table to
for ever erro- find Easter for ever ; that so at any time, by only knowing the
tables' to find Golden Number and the Dominical Letter, it might be seen at
one view (without any trouble or computation) what day Easter
would happen on in any year required. But that table being
founded on this erroneous supposition, viz. that the Golden
Numbers, as fixed in the calendar, would for ever shew the day of
the new moon in every month, which they have long since failed
to do, it is laid aside, and others substituted in its place, whereby
to find the paschal full moon and Easter-day till the year 1900;
when the Golden Numbers most be shifted (according to the
tables prepared for that purpose k) to make them continue to
answer the ends for which they stand in the tables and calendar.
But it does not fall within our present design to consider tables
which are calculated for so distant a time.

SECT. III. Of the Golden Number.

The Golden I PASS on now to the table of movable feasts for Jifty-tzvo years,
ber * where it may be expected I should speak of three things therein
mentioned, viz. the Golden Number, the Epact, and the Domini-
cal Letter ; and of these the first that offers itself is the Golden
Number : of this therefore in the first place.

By whom . 2. And this, as we have already hinted, was invented long
invented,and . Can ^ Condl ^ ^ ^ tfi.E. * See the four last tables ia the Book of

Common Prayer.

OF THE TABLES AND RULES.

whycalled

before our Saviour's nativity by Meton the Athenian, from p ar t I.
whence it was styled the Mctoiiic Cycle; till afterwards it
changed its name, being, cither from it* great usefulness in
ascertaining the moon's age, or else from its being written in
letters of gold, called the (lolde n Xumbcr ; though sometimes,
for the fir*t of tli MS, it is called the Cycle of the Moon.

. Q. The occasion of this Cycle was this : It having been

* D . . J of it, and how

served that at the end of nineteen years the moon returned to brought into
have her changes on the same days of the solar year and month 11 '
whereon thev happened nineteen years before; it was thought
that by the use of a cycle, consisting of nineteen numbers, the
time of the nr.c moons every year might be found out, without
the help of astronomical tables, after this manner: viz. they ob-
served on what day of eaeli calendar month the new moon fell
in i ach year of the cycle, and to the said days they set respect-
ively the number of the said year. And after this method they
went through all the nineteen years of the cycle, as may be seen
in the calendar of most Common Prayer Books printed before the
year 1752.

. 4. And by this method the new moon could be found with why now
accuracy enough at tfye time of the Nicene council, forasmuch as uTft'out of
the Golden Number did then shew the day (i.e. the Nuchthe- thecalendar -
ineron) upon which the new moon fell out. And hereupon is
founded the rule of the Nicene council for finding Easter, as has
been already shewed. But here it is to be observed, that the
cycle of the moon is less than nineteen Julian years, by one hour,
twenty-seven minutes, and almost thirty-two
seconds : whence it comes to pass, that although
the new moons fall again upon the same days as
they did nineteen years before, yet they fall not
on the same hour of the day, or Nuchthemeron,
but one hour, twenty-seven minutes, and almost
thirty-two seconds sooner. And this difference
arising in about three hundred and twelve years
to a whole day ; it must follow that the new
moon, after every three hundred and twelve
years, would fall a whole day (or Nuchthemeron)
sooner. So that for this reason the new moons
were found to fall about four days and a half
sooner now than the Golden Numbers indicated.
And though this might have been rectified for
the present, by shifting the Golden Numbers to
the days on which the astronomical new moons
now happen ; yet it has been ordered by the late
Act for correcting the Calendar, that the column
of Golden Numbers, as they were prefixed to
the respective days of all the months in the

The Paschal Limits
answering the Gold-

cu Numbers, ac-

cording to the new

account.

Golden

The Paschal

Numb.

Limits.

April 13.

April 2.

March 22.

April 10.

March 30.

April 18.

April 7.

March 77.

April 15.

April 4.

March 24.

April 12.

April i.

March 21.

April 9.

1 6

March 29.

April 17.

April 6.

March 26.

88 OF THE TABLES AND RULES.

iChap. I. calendar, shall be left out in all future editions of the Book of
~~ Common Prayer. And accordingly the Golden Numbers have
now no place in the calendar but against the twenty-first of
March and the eighteenth of April*, and some of the interme-
diate days, where they stand only as the paschal terms, (for a
limited time 1 ,) shewing the days of the full moons, by which
Easter is to be governed through all the several years of the
moon's cycle ; as is expressed in the table annexed.

TO find the . 5. I shall add no more on this head, than to shew how we
be of n a ny m " may find the Golden Number for any year. And this is done by
adding one m to the given year of Christ, and then dividing the
sum by nineteen. If after the division nothing remains over,
then the Golden Number is nineteen ; but if any number remains
over, then the said remainder is the Golden Number for that
year. For instance, I would know the Golden Number for the
year 1758, which by this method I find to be 1 1 ; for 1758 and
I, (i.e. 1759,) being divided by 19, there will remain n. And
thus much for the cycle of the moon.

SECT. IV. Of the Epacts.

The lunar THE Lunar year consists of twelve lunar months, i. e. of twelve
comp h utTd. months, consisting of about twenty-nine days and a half each.
In which space of time the Moon returns to her conjunction
with the sun ; that is, from one new moon to the next new
moon are very near twenty-nine days and a half. But, to avoid
fractions, the computists allow thirty days to one moon, and
twenty-nine to another : so that in twelve moons six are com-
puted to have thirty days each, and the other six but twenty-
nine days each. Thus beginning the year with March, (for that
was the ancient custom,) they allowed thirty days for the moon
in March, and twenty-nine for that in April; and thirty again for
May, and twenty-nine for June, &c. according to the old verses :
Impar luna pari, par fiet in impare mense ;
In quo completur mensi lunatio detur.

For the first, third, fifth, seventh, ninth, and eleventh months,
which are called impares menses, or unequal months, have their
moons according to computation of thirty days each, which are
therefore called pares luna>, or equal moons : but the second,
fourth, sixth, eighth, tenth, and twelfth month, which are called
pares menses, or equal months, have their moons but twenty-nine
days each, which are called impares lunce, or unequal moons.

* The twenty-first of March and the eighteenth of April are properly the paschal
limits, because the full moon by which Easter is governed must not fall before the
former or after the latter day : so that March the twenty-second is the earliest day,
and April the twenty-fifth (which, if the eighteenth should be full moon and a Sun-
day, will be the Sunday following) the latest day upon which Easter can fall. And
upon this is framed the Table of the movable feasts according to the several days that
Easter can possibly fall upon.

1 Till the year 1899 inclusive. m The reason of adding one is, because the aera
of Christ began in the second year of the cycle.

OF THE TABLES AND EUL! >. 39

. 2. Now these twelve months of thirty and twenty-nine days Parti.
alternate, making up but three hundred fifty-four days in all ; The occasion
the whole lunar year must consequently he eleven days shorter of
than the solar year, whieh consist* of three hundred sixty-five
So that supposing the new moon to be on the first day
of March in any year; in the next year the new moon will hap-
pen eleven days before the first of March, viz. on February
eighteen. Therefore, to know the age of the moon on the first
of March that year, we add an Kpact, i. e. an interealar number
of eleven days; the lunar month being that year eleven days be-
fore the solar. Then again, at the end of the next year, the
new moon will fall eleven days sooner than it did at the end of
the foregoing year, vi/. on February the seventh ; for which
reason we add eleven days more for the Epact of the next year,
which makes it twenty-two. The year after this the moon will
fall short of the time whereon it happened in the foregoing
year eleven days more ; whieh being added to twenty-two, the
Epact of the year past, the whole will make thirty-three, that is
one whole moon and three days over: so that in that year we
compute thirteen moons, vi/. twelve common moons of thirty
anil twenty-nine days alternate, and an interealar one of thirty
, and take the otld three days for the Epact of the next
and then proceed in the same manner again, by adding
eleven at the end of every year ; always observing, when the
number rises above thirty, to add an interealar moon to that year,
and to retain the remaining number for the Epact of the next.

. 3. Thus have we nineteen Epacts, answering to the Golden HOW the
Numbers, and following one another in course, by the adding o
eleven days every year in the following man-
ner ; i i . 22. 33. 14. 25. 36. 17. 28. 39. 20.
31. 12. 23. 34. 15. 26. 37. 18. 29. In which
cycle of Epacts, as I have noted them in the

numbers 33. 36. 39. 31. 34. 37. the figures
that have a dot or tittle over them are not
put as belonging to the Epact ; but only de-
note that in those years there is an intercalar
or thirteenth month of thirty days added to
the year before; but the Epacts for those
years are 3. 6. 9. i. 4. 7. And after the
Epact of 29, (which makes the last intercalar
month,) the cycle begins again at 11. But
this is so only in the Julian account ; for ac-
cording to the new reckoning, though the
years of the Golden Number agree, the
Epacts are different; as may be seen by

A Table of Epacts.

Golden
Numb.

Old

Style.

New

Style.

J 7

the adjoining table, in which both are exhibited in one view.

Golden
Number.

Chap. L

How to find
the Epact.

The use of
the Epact
to find the
moon's age.

Why the
Epacts
shew the '
moon's age
truer than
the Golden
Number.

4U OF THE TABLES AND RULES.

. 4. The readiest way to find the Julian Epact is by the
Golden Number; for if the Golden Number be 3, or a number
to be divided by 3, the Epact is the same. If it be any other
number, as 4, 5, 7, or 8, consider how many numbers it is more
than the last number to be divided by 3, and add so many times
II to it, casting away 30 as often as there is occasion, and it
gives the Epact. And the Julian Epact being known, it is easy
from thence to find the Epact according to the New Style :
namely, if the Julian Epact be greater than it, subtract n from
it; if less than IT, add 30 to it, and from that sum subtract n,
and the remainder will be the Epact required. Or in still fewer
words, the difference of the Epacts of the Old Style from the
New is equal to the number of days taken away from the Old.

. 5. By the Epact we discover the true astronomical moons
very near, i. e. within a day over or under, which may be suffi-
cient for common use, and no cycle can be found nearer. The
method of doing which is this : if we would know how old the
moon is on any day of a month, we must add unto that day the
Epact, and as many days more as there are months from March
to that month inclusive 11 ; which if it be less than 30 shews the
moon's age ; if it be greater, subtract 30 from it, and the age of
the moon remaineth ; i. e. whatever number remains after the
whole has been divided by 30, so many days old is the moon : if
nothing remains, the moon changes that day. Thus for instance,
if we would know what the age of the moon will be the second of
November in the year 1758, we must inquire after this manner :
the Epact for that year is 20 ; to 20 therefore we must add 2,
the day of the month, and 9 more, the number of the month in-
clusive from March ; which three numbers being added together,
make up the number 31 ; from which if we subtract 30 (the
moon having so many days in November, that being an unequal
month) there will remain i, which will appear to be the age of
the moon on that day.

. 6. The reason why the Epacts shew the moon's age truer
than the Golden Number did, is because the Golden Number
being affixed to the calendar could not be removed to other days
than those against which they stood, unless by public authority.
But the Epacts not being so affixed, have been changed from
time to time by the computists, as they saw occasion to make
such alterations, in order to make their computations agreeable
to the course of the moon in the heavens. For though in the
space of nineteen years the moon returns to have her conjunction
with the sun on the same days; yet those conjunctions fall out

n The reason of which is, because the Epact increaseth every year eleven dayg,
which being almost one day for every month, therefore we add the number of the
month from March inclusive. But this is to be understood only of the months that
follow March, and not of those that go before it.

OF THE TABLES AND RUI T>. 41

about an hour and a half earlier in the succeeding nineteen Part I.

years than they (lid in the foregoing; which, as has been calcu-
lated, makes a whole day's difference in a little more than three
hundred and twelve years. Therefore the computists have once
in a little more than that time changed the old course of the
Eparts, and substituted another in its room: to which cause it
is <i\vmg that they still notify tlie new moons to us according to
the real conjunction of the luminaries in the heavens, and have
not failed us, as the Golden Numbers have done.

SECT. V. Of the Cycle of the Dominical Letters, commonly
called the Cycle of the Sun.

Tin: Cycle of the Sun is very improperly so called, since i
relates not to the course of the Sun, but to the course of
Dominical or Sunday letter, and ought therefore to be called the
Cycle of the Sunday letter.

. 2. The use of the cycle arises from the custom of assigning The^of
in the calendar to each day of the week one of the first seven
letters of the alphabet: A being always affixed to January tho
iir:, whatever day of the week it be ; B to January the second,
(' to January the third, and so in order, G to January the
seventh. After which the same letters are repeated again: A
being affixed to January the eighth, and so on. According to
this method, there being fifty-two weeks in a year, the said letters
arc repeated fifty -two times in the calendar. And were there
just fifty-two weeks, the letter G would belong to the last day of
the year, as the letter A does to the first ; and consequently that
letter which was at first constituted the Sunday letter (and the
same is to be understood of the other days of the week) would
always have been so; and there would have been no change of
the Sunday letter. Uut one year consisting of fifty-two weeks
and an odd day over ; hence it comes to pass, that the letter A
belongs to the last, as well as to the first day of every year. For
although every Leap-year consists of three hundred and sixty-six
days, i. e. of two days over fifty-two weeks, yet it is not usual to
add a letter more, viz. 13, at the end of the year ; but instead
thereof to repeat the letter C, which stands against February
the twenty-eighth, and affix it again to the intercalated day,
February the twenty-ninth . By which means the said seven
letters of the alphabet remain affixed to the same days of a leap
year, as of a common year, through all the whole calendar both
before and after. The letter A then thus always belonging to
the last day of the old year, and first of the new, it thence comes
to pass, that there is a change made as to the Sunday letter in a

In the common almanacks the letter F is set against the twenty-fourth and twenty-
fifth, the twenty-fourth having been formerly accounted the intercalary day : but our
church at present seems to make the twenty-ninth of February the intercalated day,
as shall be shewed hereafter, when I treat of the time of keeping St. Matthias's day.

OF THE TABLES AND RULES.

Chap. I. Pbackward order ; i. e. supposing G to be the Sunday letter one

~ year, F will be so the next, and so on.

A single . 3. Now were there but this single change, Sunday would be

the Sunday denoted by each of the seven letters every seven years, and so

common & the cycle of the Sunday letter would consist of no more than

do"bie7nVin seven years. But now there being in every fourth or leap year

leap years. two j a y s a b ove fifty- two weeks ; hence it comes to pass that there

is every such year a double change made as to the Sunday letter.

For as the odd single day above fifty-two weeks in a common

year, makes the first Sunday in January to shift from that which

was the Sunday letter in the foregoing year, to the next letter to

it in a backward order; so a day being intercalated every leap

year at the end of February, and the letter C being affixed to

the twenty-ninth, as well as to the twenty-eighth day of that

month, does also make the first Sunday in March to shift from

that which was the Sunday letter in February, to the next letter

to it in a retrograde order. So that if in a leap year F be the

Sunday letter for January and February, E will be the Sunday

letter for all the rest of the year, and T) for the year following.

why the By reason of which double change in every fourth or leap year,

oftwenJy-^it comes to pass that the cycle of the Sunday letter consists of

eight years. f our times seven years, i. e. it does not proceed in the same

course it did before, till after twenty-eight years : but after that

number of years, its course or order is the same as it was

before.

HOW to . 4. To find out the Sunday letter for any year of the Julian

Dominical cycle, we must do thus : to the year of our Lord we must add 9,
(for the sera of Christ began in the tenth year of the cycle,) and
then divide the sum by 28. If any of the dividend remains, the
said remainder shews the year of the cycle sought ; if nothing
remains of the dividend, then it is the last or twenty-eighth year
of the cycle. And the Dominical Letter according to the New
Style is at present, and will be for some years to come, the third
in a backward order of the letters from the Julian q : as may be
seen by the annexed Table of the Julian cycle of the Sun, and of
the corresponding Sunday letters in the new account.

P Bede expressed the retrograde order of the Dominical Letter in this verse,
G randia F rendet E quus, D um

C emit B elliger A. rma.
q Till the year 1800, when it will be the second.

OF THE TABLES AND RULES.

For it is to be observed with respect
to these two tables or r/yrA-.v, that the
former or Julian table would serve For
. but that the latter will serve
onlv for the pn sent century *: to explain
tlu" reason of this we must take notice
again, that as the Julian solar year
ha> hcc-n i'ound to be too long by about
three quarters of an hour in four years,
or a whole day in about one hundred
and thirty -three years, or three days
in four hundred years ; it hath been
contrived to suppress three days in
every four hundred years : which is
ordered to be done by making only
those hundredth years of our Lord,
which may be divided into even hun-
dreds by 4, to be bissextile or leap
years ; and all other hundredth years,
which cannot be so divided, (which
are also leap years in the Julian ac-
count,) to be deemed common years. In
consequence of which the year of our
Lord 1800, not being divisible into
even hundreds by 4, will be a common
year with only one Sunday letter ; and
a-> the like will happen three times in every four hundred years,
it will require a table of Jour hundred years to shew all the
changes of the dominical Letters that can happen according to
the new account 8 .

r See a rule to find the Sunday letter New Style, both for this century and the next,
in the table for finding Easter day till 1899. s The editors have been favoured

with a copy of such a table, drawn up by \V. Rivet, of the Inner Temple, esq., which
tht-y have printed on the next page, believing it will be acceptable to the reader.

A TABLE Of the ( 'y.-lr of

ran i.

the Sun.

Year of

Julian year of
l)itun- our
nical Jx)rtL
Let ten.

D..mln.

New

Oil

(il- 1756

E 1757

I) 1758

c 1759

11 A 1760

(; 1761

F 1762

i: 1763

1764

1765

1766

(, 1767

1768

1769

1770

1771

f 7

1772

E D

V '773

K 1774

1> 1775

C B

1776

1777

1778

2 4

1779

1780

1781

1782

i/3

OF THE TABLES AND UULES.

A GENERAL TABLE,

Shewing, by inspection, all the DOMINICAL LETTERS that have
been since the correction of the Julian Calendar by pope
Gregory XIII. which took place from the ides of Oct. 1582, or
that can occur in any future times.

F. E. D.

C B

A. G. F.

ED 1

C. B. A.

E. B.C.

G. F.E.

B. A. G.

D. C. B.

isSj.

1612
40
68
06

44
7 2

2O
48
76

52
80

5<i

4
32
60

36
64
92

1708
3 6
64
02

40
68
06

16
44

48
76

52
80

28
56
84

1/04
32
60

1804

32
60

68
06

20
4 6

7 6

24
52
80

28
*6
8 4

1904
32
60

8
36
64

68
06

44
72

20
48
76

y u

By the Julian calendar the Dominical Letters for the year
1580 were C B, for 1581 A, and for 1582 (the second year after
bissextile) the letter G. Consequently as October in that year
began on a Monday, the fourth of that month must be Thurs-
day ; and the next natural day, which was reckoned the fifteenth
(ten days being then dropped) was Friday ; the sixteenth nominal
day of course was Saturday, and Sunday falling on the seven-
teenth, the Dominical Letter then changed to C : and from that
day all subsequent Dominical Letters take their revolutions.

On this plan the foregoing table was formed ; wherein observe,
the years 1700, 1800, and 1900 are not particularly expressed,
they being accounted as common years, that have but one Do-
minical Letter each ; viz. c for 1700, E for 1800, and G for 1900.
All the years expressed in the table are bissextile, or leap years,
and have two Dominical Letters placed at the head of their re-
spective columns; as for the years 1600, 1628, 1656, and 1684,
the Dominical Letters were B A, and so of the rest.

The letters for the first, second, and third years after every
bissextile, are the three single letters placed under the double

OF TIIK TABLES AXD BUI.K>. 45

letters, in the same column with the bissextile they immediately Part I.
follow. For example, as the Dominical Letters for 1600 were "~
B A, so the Dominical Letter for 1601 was t;, for j6o2 F, and
for 1603 E. So for 1796 the Dominical Letters will be C B;
consequently 1797, 1798, and 1799 must have A, G, and r : and
the letter for 1800 (which is to be accounted a common year)
will be K; therefore iSoi, 1802, and 1803 must have the subse-
quent letters D, r, and H ; and then 1804, being bissextile, will
c-ome umler the- letters A G : and from thence e*GCjJburtk year
will be leap year to 1896 inclusive.

The Dominical Letters of each century expressed in the table,
will be the same again after a revolution of four hundred years;
wherefore, if you divide any given hundredth year by 4, and no-
thing remains, it is a bissextile hundred ; and the whole century
from thence will have the same letters throughout as the seven-
teenth century, beginning from 1600. If one remains, it will be
governed by the eighteenth century ; if two, by the nineteenth :
and if three, by the twentieth century, beginning from 1900.

EXAMPLES.

If the Dominical Letter for 2484 be required ; divide 24 by 4,
and nothing will remain ; therefore look in the seventeenth cen-
tury for 1 684, and you will find it under B A, which must be the
Dominical Letters for the year required.

So for the year 8562 ; let 85 be divided by 4, and the re-
mainder will be i ; wherefore the Dominical Letter may be found
in the eighteenth century, being the same as for 1762, viz. c.

If it be required to know the Dominical Letter for the year
5400 ; divide 54 by 4, and the remainder will be 2, denoting it
to be the second after a bissextile hundred, and consequently
the given year must have the same letter as the year 1800 ; from
which the nineteenth century begins, viz. E, the fourth single
letter after the bissextile year 1796".

Lastly, if the Dominical Letter for 3503 be required ; as 35
divided by 4 leaves 3, it will be the same with 1903, which will
be found to be D by counting from 1896, the bissextile next pre-
ceding it ; as 1900 will be a common year.

And since, after dividing the hundreds in any given year of
our Lord by 4, there will remain either o, I, 2,* or 3, so any
question of this kind will be resolved by finding in the table the
Sunday Letter or Letters of the corresponding year in such of
the four centuries, as is analogous to that of the question pro-
posed.

46 Otf THE CALENDAR.

CHAP. I. PART II.
OF THE CALENDAR.

THE INTRODUCTION.

Chap. I. I. HAVING said what I thought requisite in order to explain

The columns the Tables and Rules before and after the Calendar, I shall now

the d mo 8 nth P rocee( l to treat, in as little compass as I can, [of the Calendar

and week, itself. It consists of several columns ; concerning the first of

which, as it only shews the days of the monthjin their numerical

order, I need say nothing ; and of the second, which contains the

letters of the alphabet affixed to the several days of every week,

I have already said as much in the former part of this chapter,

as was necessary to shew the use and design of their being

placed here.

The column II. The third column (as printed in the larger Common
&c? e " Prayer Books) has the Calends, Nones, and Ides, which was the
method of computation used by the old Romans and primitive
Christians, instead of the days of the month, and is still useful to
those who read either ecclesiastical or profane history. But this
way of computation being now grown into disuse ; and this
column being also omitted in most small editions of the Common
Prayer Book, (though without authority,) there is no need that I
should enter into the particulars of it.

T^ 6 columns jjj Neither is there occasion that I should say any thing here
concerning the four last columns of the calendar, which contain
the Course of Lessons for morning and evening prayer for ordi-
nary days throughout the year ; since the course of lessons both
for ordinary days and Sundays, &c. will come under consideration
in a more proper place hereafter.

The column IV. So that nothing remains to be treated of here, but the
Column of Holy-days ; and as many of these too as are observed
by the Church of England, I shall speak to in the fifth chapter.
But then as to the Popish Holy-days retained in our calendar, I
shall have no fairer opportunity of treating of them than in this
place. And therefore, since some small account of these has
been desired by some persons, I shall here insert it, to gratify
their curiosity.

Of the Romish Saints -days and Holy -days in general.

The reasons THE reasons why the names of these Saints-days and Holy-
why the po- ' 1-111 ri i

pish holy- days were resumed into the calendar are various. Some of them

taTed'ino'u'r being retained upon account of our Courts of Justice, which

dar ' usually make their returns on these days, or else upon the days

before or after them, which are called in the writs, Vigil. Fest.

or Crast. as in Vigil. Martin ; Fest. Martin ; Crast. Martin ;

OF THE CALENDAR. 47

and the like. Others are probably kept in the calendar for the Part I.
sake of such tradesmen, handicraftsmen, and others, as are wont"
to celebrate the memory of their tutelar Saints : as the Welchmen
do of St. David, the Shoemakers of St. Crispin, &c. And again,
Churches being in several places dedicated to some or other of

Saints, it has been the usual custom in such places to have
JIW.v.s ,, r Fairx kept upon those days: so that the people would
probably be displeased, if, either in this, or the former case, their
favourite Saint's name should be left out of the calendar. Be-
.sidcN, the histories which were- writ before the Reformation do
frequently speak of transactions happening upon such a holy-day,
or about such a time, without mentioning the month; relating
one thing to be done at Lammas- tide, and another about Mar-
t in max, &c., so that were these names quite left out of the ca-
lendar, we might be at a loss to know when several of these

ictions happened. But for this and the foregoing reasons
our second reformers under queen Elizabeth (though all those
days had been omitted in both books of king Edward VI. ex-
i-epting St. George's Day, Lammas Day, St. Laurence and St.
;//, which were in his second book) thought convenient to
restore the names of them to the calendar, though not with any

(! of being kept holy by the Church. For this they thought J^ 01 ke P*
prudent to forbid, as well upon the account of the great inconve-
niency brought into the church in the times of Popery, by the
observation of such a number of holy-days, to the great prejudice
of labouring and trading men ; as by reason that many of those
Saints they then commemorated were oftentimes men of none of
the best characters. Besides, the history of these Saints, and
the accounts they gave of the other holy-days, were frequently
found to be feigned and fabulous. For which reason, I suppose,
the generality of my readers would excuse my giving them or
myself any farther trouble upon this head : but being sensible
that there are some people who are particularly desirous of this
sort of information, I shall for their sakes subjoin a short account
of every one of these holy-days as they lie in their order : but
must first bespeak my reader not to think that I endeavour to
impost* all these stories upon him as truths; but to remember
that I have already given him warning that a great part of the
account will be feigned and fabulous. And therefore I presume
he will excuse my burdening him with testimonies; since though
I could bring testimonies for every thing I shall say, yet I can-
not promise that they will be convincing. But, however, I pro-
mi>e to invent nothing of my own, nor to set down any thing
but. what some or other of the blind llomanists superstitiously
believe.

SECT. I. Of the Romish Saints-days and Holy-days in January. Januarys.^
LVCIAN (to whose memory the eighth day of this month was fessor and

48 OF THE CALENDAR.

Chap. I. dedicated) is said by some to have been a disciple of St. Peter,
~~and to have been sent by him with St. Dennys into France,
where, for preaching the Gospel, he suffered martyrdom. Though
others relate that he was a learned presbyter of Antioch, well
versed in the Hebrew tongue, taking a great deal of pains in
comparing and amending the copies of the Bible. Being long
exercised in the sacred discipline, he was brought to the city of
the Nicomedians, when the emperor Galerius Maximianus was
there ; and having recited an apology for the Christian religion,
which he had composed, before the governor of the city, he was
cast into prison; and having endured incredible tortures, was
put to death*.

13. Hilary, . 2. Hilary, bishop of Poictiers in France, (commemorated
confessor, on the thirteenth of this month,) was a great champion of the
catholic doctrine against the Arians; for which he was perse-
cuted by their party, and banished into Phrygia about the year
3565 where, after much pains taken in the controversy, and many
troubles underwent, he died about the year 367.
is.prisca, . o Prised, SL Roman lady, commemorated on the eighteenth.

Romanvirgin I ."* i i ni i c !

and martyr, was early converted to Christianity: but refusing to abjure her
religion, and to offer sacrifice when she was commanded, was
horribly tortured, and afterwards beheaded under the emperor
Claudius, A. D. 47.

bsho ab and * 4' Fabian was bishop of Rome about fourteen years, viz.

martyr. 5111 from A. D. 339 to 253, and suffered martyrdom under the em-
peror Decius.

21. Agnes, . e. Agnes, a young Roman lady of a noble family, suffered

Roman vir- * J , 6 .'* 7 J . 11

gin and mar- martyrdom in the tenth general persecution under the emperor
Diocletian, A. D. 306. She was by the wicked cruelty of the
judge condemned to be debauched in a public stew before her
execution ; but was miraculously preserved by lightning and
thunder from heaven. She underwent her persecution with
wonderful readiness, and though the executioner hacked and
hewed her body most unmercifully with the sword, yet she bore
it with incredible constancy, singing hymns all the time, though
she was then no more than thirteen or fourteen years old.

About eight days after her execution, her parents going to
lament and pray at her tomb, where they continued watching all
night, it is reported that there appeared unto them a vision of
angels, arrayed with glittering and glorious garments; among
whom they saw their own daughter appareled after the same

why painted manner, and a lamb standing by her as white as snow; (which is
, the reason why the painters picture her with a lamb by her side.)
Ever after which time the Roman ladies went every year (as they
still do) to offer and present her on this day the two best and
purest white lambs they could procure. These they offered at
t Euseb. Histor. Eccl. 1. ix. c. 6. p. 351. C.

OF Till: CALENDAR. 49

St.Agnes's altar, (as they call it,) and from thence the pope Part II.
gives orders to have them put into the choicest pasture about the ~~
city, till the time of sheep-shearing come; at which season they
are dipt, and the wool is hallowed, whereof a fine white cloth is
spun and woven, and consecrated every year by the pope himsdf,
for the pulls which he u>ed to send to every archbishop; and ^original
which till they have purchased at a most extravagant price, they th^t' P aiu.
cannot exercise any metropolitical jurisdiction.

. 6. Vincent, a deacon of the church in Spain, was born at ^ e ^ c n e ^.
Oscard, now Hue/xa, a town in Arragon. He was instructed inspa'nand
divinity by Valerius, bishop of Saragosa ; but, by reason of an 1 " 1
impediment in his speech, never took upon him the office of
preaching. He suffered martyrdom in the Diocletian persecu-
tion about the year 303, being laid all along upon burning coals,
and, after his body was broiled there, thrown upon heaps of
broken tiles.

SECT. II. Of the Romish Saints-days and Holy-days in

February.

BLASSIUS was bishop of Sebaste in Armenia, reported to have February 3.
been a man of great miracles and power, put to death in the bishop aLd
same city by Agricolaus the president, under Diocletian the mi
emperor, in the year 289. His name is not put down in some
editions of the Common Prayer Book, but it occurs in the most
authentic.

. 2. AgatJia, a virgin honourably born in Sicily, suffered mar- <. Agatha, a

to T -rx t J ^ T" l Sicilian vir-

tyrdom under Deems the emperor at Catanea. Being very beau-ginandmar-
tiful, Quintianus, the praetor or governor of the province, was tyr *
enamoured with her : but not being able to work his ill design
upon her, ordered her to be scourged, and then imprisoned, for
not worshipping the heathen gods. After which, she, still per-
sisting constant in the faith, was put upon the rack, burnt with
hot irons, and had her breast cut off. And then being remanded
back to prison, she had several divine comforts afforded her:
but the praetor sending for her again, being half dead, she
prayed to God to receive her soul; with which petition she
immediately expired; it being the fifth of February, A. D. 253.

. 8. Valentine was an ancient presbyter of the church ; he 14. vaten-
suffered martyrdom under Claudius at Rome. Being delivered oud'martyr!
into the custody of one Asterius, he wrought a miracle upon his
daughter; whom, being blind, he restored to sight; by which
means he converted the whole, family to Christianity, who all of
them afterwards suffered for their religion. Valentine, after a

year's imprisonment at Home, was beheaded in the Flaminian-
Avay about the year 271, and was enrolled among the martyrs of
the church ; his day being established before the times of Gre-
gory the Great. He was a man of most admirable parts, and

WHEATLY. E

50 OF THE CALENDAR.

Chap. I. so famous for his love and chanty, that the custom of choosing
The original Valentines upon his festival (which is still practised) took its rise
of choosing from thence.

Valentines.

SECT. III. Of the Romish Saints-days and Holy-days in March.
David 1 arch DAVID, to whose memory the first of this month was formerly
bishop of dedicated, was descended from the royal family of the Britons,
being uncle to the great king Arthur, and son of Xantus prince
of Wales, by one Melearia, a nun. He was a man very learned
and eloquent, and of incredible austerity in his life and conversa-
tion. By his diligence Pelagianism was quite rooted out, and
many earnest professors of the same converted unto the truth.
He was made bishop of Caerleon in Wales, which see he after-
wards removed to Menevia; from him ever since called St.
David's. He sat long, viz. sixty-five years, and (having built
twelve monasteries in the country thereabouts) died in the year
642 : being, as Bale writes out of the British histories, a hundred
and forty-six years old. He was buried in his own cathedral
church, and canonized by pope Calixtus II, about five hundred
years afterwards. Many things are reported of him incredible ;
as, that his birth was foretold thirty years beforehand ; and that
he was always attended by angels who kept him company; that
he bestowed upon the waters at Bath that extraordinary heat they
have; and that whilst he was once preaching to a great multitude
of people at Brony, the ground swelled under his feet into a little
hill ; with several other such stories not worth rehearsing.
2. Cedde, or . 2. Cedde was, in the absence of Wilfride archbishop of
of 1 Lkh b fieid. P York, who was gone to Paris for consecration, and gave no hopes
of a speedy return, enforced by Egfrid king of Northumberland
to accept of that see. But Wilfride being returned, Cedde was
persuaded by Theodorus archbishop of Canterbury to resign the
see to him : after which for some time he lived a monastics] life
at Leastingeag; till, by the means of the same Theodorus, he was
made bishop of Lichfield, under Wolf here, king of Mercia, v/hom
he is said to have converted. He died March 2, A. D. 672.
7. Perpetua, . ^. Perpetua was a lady of quality, who suffered martyrdom
nian martyr.- in Mauritania, under the emperor Severus, about the year 205.
She is often very honourably mentioned by Tertullian and
St. Austin ; the last of whom lets us know that the day of her
martyrdom was settled into a holy-day in his time ; and remarks
of her, that she gave suck to a young child at the time of her
sufferings.

13. Gregory . 4. Gregory the Great, who stands next in the calendar, was
descended from noble parents. He very early addicted himself
to study and piety, giving all his estate to the building and
maintaining of religious houses. He was consecrated pope about
the year 590, but vigorously opposed the title of universal bishop

OF THE CALENDAR. 51

(which the bishops of Constantinople' did then, and the bishops Part II.
of Home do now assume) as blasphemous, antichristian, and"
diabolical. Among other his glorious and Christian deeds, his
memory was annually celebrated here in England, for his devout
charity to our nation, in sending Austin the monk, with forty
other missionaries, to convert the Saxons, (who had testified their
desire to embrace Christianity,) which in a short time they hap-
pily achieved. Having held the popedom fourteen years, he died
about the year 004, leaving many learned books behind him,
which are still extant.

. 5. Kdicard was descended from the West Saxon kings, and 18. Edward,"
the >on of king Edgar, who first reduced the heptarchy into westsaxons.
one kingdom : after whose death, in the year 975, this Edward
succeeded to the crown at twelve years of age, but did not enjoy
it above two or three years. For paying a visit to Elfride his
mother-in-law at Corfe-castle, in Dorsetshire, he was by her order
stabbed in the back, (whilst he was drinking a cup of wine,) to
make way for her son Etheldred, his half-brother. His favour to
the monks made his barbarous murder to be esteemed a martyr-
dom ; the day of which was appointed to be kept festival by pope
Innocent IV. A. D. 1245.

. 6. licitcdict was born in Norcia, a town in Italy, of an 21. Benedict,
honourable family. Being much given to devotion, he set up an abbo1
order of monks, which bears his name, about the year 529. He
wa< very remarkable for his mortification; and the monks of his
own order relate, that he would often roll himself in a heap
of briers to check any carnal desires that he found to arise in
himself. St. Gregory" tells us of a very famous miracle wrought
upon his account, viz. That the Goths, when they invaded Italy,
to burn his ceil ; and being set on fire, it burnt round him
in a circle, not doing him the least hurt: at which the Goths
being enraged, threw him into a hot oven, stopping it up close:
but coming the next day, they found him safe, neither his flesh
scorched, nor his clothes singed. He died on the twenty-first of
March, A. 1). 542.

SI.CT. IV. Of the Romish Saints-days and Holy-days in April.

RICHARD, surnamed dc Wic/tc, from a place so called in Wor- Ap rii 3 . nu
cestershire, where he was born, was brought up at the universities of"hiSS P
of Oxford and Paris. Being come to man^s estate, he travelled to ter -
Bononia ; where having studied the canon law seven years, he
became public reader of the same. Being returned home, he
was, in the vacancy of the see of Chichester, chosen bishop by that
chapter : which the king opposing, (he having nominated an-
other,) Richard appealed to Rome, and had his election confirmed
by the pope, who consecrated him also at Lyons, in the year

u Greg. Dial. lib. iii.

52 OF THE CALENDAR.

Chap. I. 1245. -^ e was VG1 T muc h reverenced for his great learning and
""diligent preaching, but especially for his integrity of life and
conversation. Strange miracles are told of him : as that, by his
blessing, he increased a single loaf of bread to satisfy the hunger
of three thousand poor people ; and that in his extreme old age,
whilst he was celebrating the eucharist, he fell down with the
chalice in his hand, but the wine was miraculously preserved
from falling to the ground. About seven or eight years after
his death, he was canonized for a saint by pope Urban IV.
A.D. 1261.

4. Ambrose, . 2. St. Ambrose was born about the year 340. His father
MUM? f was prastorian prefect of Gaul, in whose palace St. Ambrose was
educated. It is reported, that in his infancy a swarm of bees
settled upon his cradle; which was a prognostication, as was
supposed, of his future eloquence. After his father's death, he
went with his mother to Rome, where he studied the laws, prac-
tised as an advocate, and was made governor of Milan and the
neighbouring cities. Upon the death of Auxentius, bishop of
Milan, there being a great contest in the election of a new bishop,
this good father, in an excellent speech, exhorted them to peace
and unanimity ; which so moved the affections of the people, that
they immediately forgot the competitors whom they were so
zealous for before, and unanimously declared that they would
have their governor for their bishop. Who, after several endea-
vours by flight and other artifices to avoid that burden, was at
last compelled to yield to the importunities of the people, and to
be consecrated bishop. From which time he gave all his money
to pious uses, and settled the reversion of his estate upon the
church. He governed that see with great piety and vigilance for
more than twenty-years, and died in the year 396, being about
fifty-seven years old : having first converted the famous St. Au-
gustine to the faith ; at whose baptism he is said miraculously
to have composed that divine hymn, so well known in the church
by the name of Te Deum.

19. Aiphepe, . 3. Alphegc was an Englishman of a most holy and austere
oVcniTter? life, which was the more admirable in him, because he was born
of great parentage, and began that course of life in his younger
years. He was first abbot of Bath, then bishop of Winchester,
in the year 984, and twelve years afterwards archbishop of Can-
terbury. But in the year 1012, the Danes being disappointed of
a certain tribute which they claimed as due to them, they fell upon
Canterbury, and spoiled and burnt both the city and church :
nine parts in ten of the people they put to the sword, and after
seven months miserable imprisonment, stoned the good archbishop
to death at Greenwich ; who was thereupon canonized for a
saint and martyr, and had the nineteenth of April allowed him as
his festival.

OF THE CALENDAR. 53

. 4. St. George, the famous patron of the English nation, was Part II.
born in Cappadocia, and suffered for the sake of his religion, a 3 . saint

11 i^.- i / i i l forge, mar-

A. 1). 290, under the emperor Diocletian, (in whose army hctyr.
had before been a colonel,) being supposed to have been the
.1 that pulled down the ediet against the Christians, which
Diocletian had cruised to be affixed upon the church doors x .
The legends relate several strange stories of him, which are so
common, they need not here he related: I shall only give a
short account how he came to be so much esteemed of in
England.

When Hobert duke of Normandy, son to William the Con- goj*JJJJJ
(jiieror, was prosecuting his victories against the Turks, and lay- of the Eng-
ini; su'i^e to the famous city of Antioch, which was like to be
relieved by a mighty army of the Saracens ; St. George appeared
with an innumerable army coming down from the hills all in
white, with a red cross in his banner, to reinforce the Christians;
which occasioned the infidel army to fly, and the Christians to
possess themselves of the fbwn. This story made St. George
extraordinary famous in those times, and to be esteemed a patron,
not only of the English, but of Christianity itself. Not but that
St. (ieorjje was a considerable saint before this, having had a'
church dedicated to him by Justinian the emperor.

i-. V. Of the Romish Saints-days and Holy-days in May.
The third of this month is celebrated as a festival by the^ayj^n-
church of Home, in memory of the Invention of the Crow, which the cross.
is said to be owing to this occasion. Helena, the mother of
Constantine the Great, being admonished in a dream to search
for the cross of Christ at Jerusalem, took a journey thither with
that intent: and having employed labourers to dig at Golgotha,
after opening the ground very deep, (for vast heaps of rubbish
had purposely been thrown there by the spiteful Jews or hea-
thens,) she found three crosses, which she presently concluded
were the crosses of our Saviour and the two thieves who were
crucified with him. lUit being at a loss to know which was the
POM of Christ, she ordered them all three to be applied to a
dead person. Two of them, the story says, had no effect; but
the third raised the carcass to life, which was an evident sign to
Helena, that that was the cross she looked for. As soon as this
was known, every one was for getting a piece of the cross ; inso-
much that in Paulinus's time (who, being a scholar of St. Am-
brose, and bishop of Nola, flourished about the year 420) there
was much more of the relics of the cross, than there was of the
original wood. Whereupon that father says, " it was miraculously
" increased ; it very kindly afforded wood to men's importunate
" desires, without any loss of its substance."

* See Lactantius de Mortibus Persecutorura.

54 OF THE CALENDAR.

Chap. I. . 2. The sixth of this month was anciently dedicated to the
6 st John memor y f St. John the evangelist's miraculous deliverance
Erang. ante from the persecution of Domitian : to whom being accused as an
eminent asserter of atheism and impiety, and a public subverter
of the religion of the empire, he was sent for to Rome, where he
was treated with all the cruelty that could be expected from so
bloody and barbarous a prince ; for he was immediately put
into a caldron of boiling oil, or rather oil set on fire, before the
gate called Porta Latina, in the presence of the senate. But
his Master and Lord, who favoured him when on earth above
all the apostles, so succoured him here, that he felt no harm
from the most violent rage ; but, as if he had been only anointed,
like the athletse of old, he came out more vigorous and active
than before : the same divine Providence that secured the three
children in the fiery furnace, bringing the holy man safe out of
this, one would think, inevitable destruction ; and so vouchsafing
him the honour of martyrdom, without his enduring the torments
of it. t

i9.Dunstan, .3. Dunstan, of whom we are next to speak, was well ex-
acted, being related to king Athelstan. He was very well
skilled in most of the liberal arts, and among the rest in refining
metals and forging them ; which being qualifications much above
the genius of the age he lived in, first gained him the name of a
conjurer, and then of a saint. He was certainly a very honest
man, and never feared to reprove vice in any of the kings of the
West Saxons, of whom he was confessor to four successively.
But the monks (to whom he was a very great friend, applying all
his endeavours to enrich them and their monasteries) have filled
his life with several nonsensical stories : such as are, his making
himself a cell at Glastenburg all of iron at his own forge ; his
harp^s playing of itself, without a hand ; his taking a she-devil,
who tempted him to lewdness under the shape of a fine lady, by
the nose with a pair of red-hot tongs ; and several other such
ridiculous relations not worth repeating. He was promoted by
king Edgar, first to the bishopric of Worcester, soon after to
London, and two years after that to Canterbury. Where having
sat twenty-seven years, he died May 19, A.D. 988.

ae.Augustin, 4- Augustin was the person we have already mentioned, as
bfchoTof sent ty pope Gregory the Great to convert the Saxons, from
Canterbury. w hence he got the name of the apostle of the English. Whilst
he was over here, he was made archbishop of Canterbury, A. D.
596. He had a contest with the monks of Bangor, about sub-
mission to the see of Rome, who refused any subjection but to
God, and the bishop of Caerleon. Soon after this difference,
Ethelfride, a pagan king of Northumberland, invaded Wales,
and slaughtered a hundred and fifty of these monks, who came
in a quiet manner to mediate a peace : which massacre is by

I HK CALENDAR. 55

writers (but without just grounds) imputed to the instiga- Part n.
tion of Austin, 'ui revenge for their opposition to him. After he ~~
had sat some time in the see of Canterbury, he deceased the
twentv-sixth of Mav, about the- year 610.

-,. licdc was born at Yarrow, in Northumberland, A. D. B 7 e ' ( v e encrable

and afterwards well educated in Greek and Latin studies,
in which lit- made a proiicicncy beyond most of his age. lie is
author of several learned philosophieal and mathematieal tracts,
as al>o of comments upon the scripture: but his mosf. valuable

is his Kcclesiastieal history of the Saxons. Being a monk,
he studied in his cell; where spending more hours, and to
better purpose-, than the monks were wont to do, a report was
raised that he never went out of it. However, he would not
leave it for preferment at Rome, which the pope had often in-
vited him to.

His learning and piety gained him the surname of Venerable. HOW he got
Though the common story which goes about that title's being ve'
given him, is this : his scholars having a mind to fix a rhyming
title upon his tombstone, as was the custom in those times, the
poet wrote,

!I \( s; NT IN FOSSA,
BED.E OSS A.

Placing the word OSSA at the latter end of the verse for the
rhvme, but not able to think of any proper epithet that would
stand before it. The monk being tired in this perplexity to no
purpose, fell asleep ; but when he awaked, he found his verse
filled up by an angelic hand, standing thus in fair letters upon
the tomb :

11 AC SUXT IN FOSSA,
BED.E VEXERABILIS OSSA.

. VI. Of the Romish Saints-days and Holy-days in June.

\i < MKDE was scholar to St. Peter, and was discovered to be June i.
a Christian by his honourably burying one Felicula, a martyr.
He was beat to death with leaden plummets for the sake of his and martyr '
religion, in the reign of Domitian.

:. llnnjfacc was a Saxon presbyter, born in England, and s- Boniface,
at first called Winfrid. He was sent a missionary by pope Mem?, nd
Gregory II. into Germany, where he converted several countries, martyr '
and from thence got the name of the apostle of German)). He
was made bishop of Ments in the year 745. He was one of the
most considerable men of his time, (most ecclesiastical matters
going through his hands, as appears by his letters,) and was
also a great friend and admirer of I>ede. Carrying on his con-
versions in Frisia, he was killed by the barbarous people near
Utrecht, A.I). 755.

.3. \..Alban was the first Christian martyr in this islaml, it^

56 OF THE CALENDAR.

Chap. I. about the middle of the third century. He was converted to
~~ Christianity by one Amphibalus, a priest of Caerleon in Wales,
who flying from persecution into England, was hospitably enter-
tained by St. Alban at Verulam in Hertfordshire, now called
from him St.Albans. When, by reason of a strict search made
for Amphibalus, St. Alban could entertain him safe no longer, he
dressed him in his own clothes, and by that means gained him
an opportunity of escaping. But this being soon found out, ex-
posed St. Alban to the fury of the pagans ; who summoning him
to do sacrifice to their gods, and he refusing, they first miserably
tormented him, and then put him to death. The monks have
fathered several miracles upon him, which it is not worth while
here to relate.

. 4. Edward king of the West Saxons being barbarously

wa?dkfng of murdered by his mother-in-law, was first buried at Warham

Saxons?* without any solemnity; but after three years was carried by

duke Alferus to the minster of Shaftesbury, and there interred

with great pomp. To the memory of which the twentieth of

June has been since dedicated.

SECT. VII. Of the Romish Saints-days and Holy-days
in July.

July 2. visi- ABOUT the year 1338, there was a terrible schism in the
r- e church of Rome between two anti-popes, Urban VI. and Cle-
men t VII., the first chosen by the Italian, the other by the
French faction among the cardinals. Upon this several great
disorders happened. To avert which for the future, pope Urban
instituted a feast to the memory of that famous journey, which
the mother of our Lord took into the mountains of Judaea, to
visit the mother of St. John the Baptist ; that by this means the
intercession of the blessed Virgin might be obtained for the re-
moval of those evils. The same festival was confirmed by the
decree of Boniface IX., though it was not universally observed
until the council of Basil : by decree of which council in their
forty-third session, upon July I, 1441, it was ordered that this
holy-day, called the Visitation of the blessed Virgin Mary, should
be celebrated in all Christian churches, that " she being honoured
" with this solemnity, might reconcile her son by her interces-
" sion, who is now angry for the sins of men ; and that she
" might grant peace and unity among the faithful.'"

^Translation . 2. St. Martin was born in Pannonia, and for some time

bfshop^nd"' lived the life of a soldier, but at last took orders, and was made

confessor. Bishop o f Tours in France. He was very diligent in breaking

down the heathen images and altars, which were standing in his

time. He died in the year 400, after he had sat bishop twenty-

six years. The French had formerly such an esteem for his

memory, that they carried his helmet with them into their wars,

OF THE CALENDAR. 57

cither as an ensign to encourage them to bravery, or else as a Part II.

sort of a charm to procure them victory. His feast-day is cele-~~

bralecl on the eleventh of November. The fourth of this month

is dedicated only to the memory of the translating or removing

of his body from the place where it was buried, to a more noble

and magnificent tomb; which was performed by Perpetu us, one

of his successors in the sec of Tours.

. 3. S'u //////// was first a monk, and afterwards a prior, of the i^swithun,
convent of \Vinchestcr. Upon the death of Helinstan bishop of winch ster,
that see, by the favour of king Ethchvolph, he was promoted to 1 "
succeed him in that bishopric, A.D. 852, and continued in it
eleven years, to his death. He would not be buried within the
church, as the bishops then generally were, but in the cemetery,
or churchyard. Many miracles being reported to be done at
his grave, there was a chapel built over it ; and a solemn trans-
lation made in honour of him, which in the popish times was
celebrated on the fifteenth of July.

. 4. Margtirct was born at Antioch, being the daughter of an 20. Margaret,
heathen priest. Olybius, president of the East under the Ro- martyr at

i j ,. J . . . v i Antioch.

mans, had an inclination to marry her; but finding she was a
Christian, deferred it till he could persuade her to renounce her
religion. Hut not being able to accomplish his design, he first
put her to unmerciful torments, and then beheaded her. She
has the same office among the papists, as Lucina has among the
heathens ; viz. to assist women in labour. Her holy-day is very
ancient, not only in the Roman, but also in the Greek church,
who celebrate her memory under the name of Marina. She
suffered in the year 278.

. 5. By the first Common Prayer Book of king Edward VI., 22. st. Mary
the twenty-second of July was dedicated to the memory of St. Wagda
Mury Magdalene. In the service for the day, Prov. xxxi. TO, to The Epistle
the end, was appointed for the Epistle; and the Gospel was an
taken out of St. Luke vii. 36, to the end. But upon a stricter
inquiry, it appealing dubious to our reformers, as it doth still to
many learned men, whether the woman mentioned in the scrip-
ture, that was appointed for the Gospel, were Mary Magdalene
or not; they thought it more proper to discontinue the festival.
However, as I have mentioned the other parts of the service, I
will also give the reader the Collect that was appointed, which
he will observe was very apt and suitable to the Gospel.

Merciful Father, give us grace that we never presume to sin The Collect.
through the example of any creature: but if it shall chance us at
any time to offend ihy divine Majesty, that then ice may tndy re-
pent and lament the same, after the example ofMary Magdalene,
and by a lively faith obtain remission of all our sins, t/irough the
only merits of thy So?i our Saviour Christ. Amen.

. 6. St. Ann was the mother of the blessed Virgin Mary anda6.st.Awv

OF THE CALENDAR.

mother to

August
Lammas
day.

Chap. I. the wife of Joachim her father. An ancient piece of the sacred
g^ nea 'gyj set down formerly by Hippolytus the martyr, is pre-
served in NicephorusY. u There were three sisters of Bethlehem,
u daughters of Matthan the priest, and Mary his wife, under the
" reign of Cleopatra and Casopares king of Persia, before the
" reign of Herod, the son of Antipater : the eldest was Mary,
" the second was Sobe, the youngest 1 s name was Ann. The
" eldest being married in Bethlehem, had for daughter Salome
" the midwife : Sobe the second likewise married in Bethlehem,
" and was the mother of Elizabeth ; last of all the third married
66 in Galilee, and brought forth Mary the mother of Christ.'* 1

SECT. VIII. Of the Romish Saints-days and Holy-days in

August.

THE first day of this month is commonly called Lammas-day,
though in the Roman church it is generally known by the name
of the feast of St. Peter in t fie fetters, being the day of the com-
memoration of St. Peter's imprisonment. For Eudoxia, the
wife of Theodosius the emperor, having made a journey to Jeru-
salem, was there presented with the fetters which St. Peter was
loaded with in prison ; which she presented to the pope, who
afterwards laid them up in a church built by Theodosius in
honour of St. Peter. Eudoxia, in the mean time, having ob-
served that the first of August was celebrated in memory of
Augustus Caesar, (who had on that day been saluted Augustus,
and had upon that account given occasion to the changing of
the name of the month from Sextilis to August,) she thought it
not reasonable that a holy-day should be kept in memory of a
heathen prince, which would better become that of a godly
martyr ; and therefore obtained a decree of the emperor, that
this day for the future should be kept holy in remembrance of
St. Peter's bonds.

The reason of its being called Lammas-day, some think was a
fond conceit the popish people had, that St. Peter was patron of
the Lambs, from our Saviour's words to him, Feed my lambs.
Upon which account they thought the mass of this day very be-
neficial to make their lambs thrive. Though Somner's account
of it is more rational and easy, viz. that it is derived from the old
Saxon plapmasjye, i. e. loaf-mass, it having been the custom of
the Saxons to offer on that day an oblation of loaves made of new
wheat, as the first-fruits of their new corn.

. 2. The festival of our Lord's transfiguration in the mount
is very ancient. In the church of Rome indeed it is but of late
standing, being instituted by pope Calixtus in the year 1455
but in the Greek church it was observed long before.

Why so

called.

6. Transfi-
guration of
our Lord.

y Niceph. lib. ii. cap. 3. vol. i. p. 136. A.

(>! Tin-: cALi:\i)Ai;. 59

. 3. The seventh of August was formerly dedicated to the Part II.
nu-mory of Afra, a courtc/an of Crete; who being converted to, N ameof
Christianity by Narcissus bishop of Jerusalem, Milletvd mar-
tyrdom, and was commemorated on this day : how it came
Is to he dedicated to the mime of Jesus, I do not
find.

. 4. St. Laurence was by birth a Spaniard, and treasurer ofio. st. Lau-
the church of Rome, being deacon to Sixtus the pope about the [u'u-on"? "
\\'hen his bishop was haled to death by the soldiers |, l l JJJyr. and
of \alerian the emperor, St. Laurence would not leave him, but
followed him to the place of his execution, expostulating with
him all the wav, " () father, where do you go without your son ?
" N >ui never \\ere wont to offer sacrifice without inc." Soon
alter which, occasion being taken against him by the greedy
pagans. Tor not delivering up the church-treasury, which they
thought was in his custody, he was laid upon a gridiron, and
broiled over a lire : at which time he behaved himself with so
much courage and resolution, as to cry out to his tormentors,
that " he was rather comforted than tormented; 11 bidding them
withal " 4 turn him on the other side, for that was broiled
" enough." His martyrdom was so much esteemed in after-
times, that I'ulcheria the empress built a temple to his honour,
which was either rebuilt or enlarged by Justinian. Here was
the gridiron on which he suffered laid up, where (if we may be-
St. Gregory the Great, who was too credulous in such kind
of matters) it became famous for many miracles.

. 5. St. Au<rnxtln was born at Togaste, a town in Numidia inas. st.Au.
Africa, in the year 354. He applied himself at first only UfSiopof
human learning, such as poetry and plays, rhetoric and philo- Hippo *
sophy ; being professor at Home first, and afterwards at Milan.
At the last of these places St. Ambrose became acquainted with
him, who instructed him in divinity, and set him right as to some
wrong notions which he had imbibed. He returned into Africa
about the year 388, and three years afterwards was chosen
bishop of Hippo. He was a great and judicious divine, and the
voluminous writer of all the fathers. He died in the year
430, at seventy-seven years of age.

. 6. The twenty-ninth of this month, as Durandus says, was 39- Behead-
formerly called Festum collcctlonls S. Johan. Baptlstcc, or the j n hn Baptist.
feast of gathering up St. John the Baptist's Relics ; and after-
wards by corruption, Festum decollation'} s> the feast of his be-
heading. For the occasion of the honours done to this saint
are >aid to be some miraculous cures performed by his relics in
the fourth century: for which reason Julian the Apostate ordered
them to be burnt, but some of them were privately reserved.
His head was found after this, in the emperor ValenVs time, and
reposited as a precious relic in a church at Constantinople.

60 OF THE CALENDAR.

Chap. I. SECT. IX. Of the Romish Saints-days and Holy-days in

September.

sept. i. GILES, or JEgid'ms, was one who was born at Athens, and

idcon- bot came into France, A. D. 715, having first disposed of his patri-

fessor. mony to charitable uses. He lived two years with Caesarius

bishop of Aries, and afterwards took to an hermitical life, till he

was made abbot of an abbey at Nismes, which the king, who

had found him in his cell by chance as he was hunting, and was

pleased with his sanctity, built for his sake. lie died in the

year 795.

7. Eumir- . 2. Eunurchus, otherwise called Evortius, was bishop of Or-
of 1 Qrieaus? P leans in France, being present at the council of Valentia, A. D.

375. The circumstances of his election to this see were very
strange. Being sent by the church of Rome into France,
about redeeming some captives, at the time when the people of
Orleans were in the heat of an election of a bishop ; a dove
lighted upon his head, which he could not, without great diffi-
culty, drive away. The people observing this, took it for a sign
of his great sanctity, and immediately thought of choosing him
bishop: but not being willing to proceed to election, till they
were assured that the lighting of the dove was by the immediate
direction of Providence, they prayed to God that, if he in his
goodness designed him for their bishop, the same dove might
light upon him again, which immediately happening after their
prayers, he was chosen bishop by the unanimous suffrages of the
whole city. Besides this, several other miracles are attributed
to him; as, the quenching a fire in the city by his prayers; his
directing the digging of the foundation of a church, in such a
place, where the workmen found a pot of gold, almost sufficient
to defray the charges of the building; his converting seven
thousand infidels to Christianity within the space of three days;
and lastly, for foretelling his own death, and in a sort of prophe-
tical manner naming Arianus for his successor.

8. Nativity of . 3. The eighth of this month is dedicated to the memory of
virgfoMary. the blessed Virgin 9 s nativity, a consort of angels having been

heard in the air to solemnize that day as her birthday. Upon
which account the day itself was not only kept holy in after-
ages ; but it was also honoured by pope Innocent IV. with an
octave, A. D. 1244, and by Gregory XI. with a vigil in the year
1370.

14. Holy- . 4. The fourteenth of this month is called Holy -cross -day, a
pday * festival deriving its beginning about the year 615, on this occa-
sion : Cosroes king of Persia having plundered Jerusalem, (after
having made great ravages in other parts of the Christian world,)
took away from thence a great piece of the cross, which Helena
had left there : and, at the times of his mirth, made sport with

OF TUT. CALENDAR.

that and the holy Trinity. Ilcraclius the emperor giving him Part II.
battle, defeated the i-ncmv, and recovered the eross : hut bring-"
ing it hack with triumph "to Jerusalem, he found the gates shut
against him, and heard a voice from heaven, which told him,
tlia the King of kings did not enter into that city in so stately
a manner, but meek and /ore///, a)id riding upon an </.v.v. With
that the emperor dismounted from his horse, and went into the
citv not only afoot, but. barefooted, and carrying the wood of the
CTOS8 himself. Which honour done to the cross gave rise to this

festival.

6. <;. Lambert was bishop of Utrecht in the time of king 17. Lambert,

, . i I j / i i j Mshou and

lYjiin I. But reproving the king s grandson for Ins lewd amours, martyr,
he \\as, by the contrivance of one of his concubines, barharously
murdered. Being canoni/cd, he at first only obtained a comme-
moration in the calendar ; till Robert bishop of Leeds in a gene-
ral chapter of the Cistercian order procured a solemn feast to his
honour, -V. 3). 1240.

. 6. St. Cyprian was by birth an African, of a good family *< Saint
and education. Before his conversion he taught rhetoric; butbSKJpof
bv the persuasion of one Caecilius, a priest, (from whom he had and martyr,

irnamej he became a Christian. And giving all his sub-
stance to the poor, he was elected bishop of Carthage in the
year 248. He behaved himself with great prudence in the De-
cian persecution, persuading the people to constancy and perse-
verance : which so enraged the heathen, that they made procla-
mation for his discovery in the open theatre. He suffered martyr-
dom September 14, A. D. 258, under Valerianus and Gallienus,
having foretold that storm long before, and disposed his flock to
hear it accordingly.

But the Cyprian in the Roman calendar celebrated on this The Cyprian
day, as appears by the Roman Breviary, is not the same wi
St. Cyprian of Carthage, but another Cyprian of Antioch, who of
a conjurer was made a Christian, and afterwards a deacon and
a martyr. He happened to be in love with one Justina, a beau-
tiful young Christian ; whom trying, without success, to debauch,
insulted the Devil upon the matter, who frankly declared he
hail no power over good Christians. Cyprian, not pleased with
this answer of the Devil, quitted his service, and turned Christ-
ian. But as soon as it was known, both he and Justina were
accused before the heathen governor, who condemned them to
be fried in a frying-pan with pitch and fat, in order to force
them to renounce their religion, which they notwithstanding
with constancy persisted in. After their tortures they were be-
headed, and their bodies thrown away unburied, till a kind
mariner took them up, and conveyed them to Rome, where they
were deposited in the church of Constantine. They were mar-
tyred in the year 272.

62 OF THE CALENDAR.

Chap. I. . 7. St. Jerom was the son of one Eusebius, born in a town
3 o. st. jerom, called Stridon, in the confines of Pannonia and Dalmatia. Being
falser Ind" a ^ ^ P re g nant parts, he was sent to Rome to learn rhetoric
doctor. under Donatus and Victorinus, two famous Latin critics. There
he got to be secretary to pope Damasus, and was afterwards
baptized. He studied divinity with the principal divines of that
age, viz. Gregory Nazianzen, Epiphanius, and Didymus. And to
perfect his qualifications this way, he learned the Hebrew tongue
from one Barraban a Jew. He spent most of his time in a mo-
nastery at Bethlehem, in great retirement and hard study ; where
he translated the Bible. He died in the year 422, being four-
score years old.

SECT. X. Of the Romish Saints-days and Holy-days in

October.

October i. REMIGIUS was born at Land en, where he kept himself so close
Sshopof' to his studies, that he was supposed to have led a monastic life.
Bhemes. After the death of Bennadius, he was chosen bishop of Rhemes,
for his extraordinary learning and piety. He converted to
Christianity king Clodoveus, and good part of his kingdom ; for
which reason he is by some esteemed the apostle of France.
After he had held his bishopric seventy-four years, he died at
ninety-six years of age, A. D. 535. The cruise which he made
use of is preserved in France to this day, their kings being usu-
ally anointed out of it at their coronation.

$. Faith, . 2. Faith) a young woman so called, was born at Pais

ma?tyr? nd de Gavre in France. She suffered martyrdom and very cruel
torments under the presidentship of Dacianus, about the year
290.

9. st. Denys, .3. St. Denys, or Dionysius the Areopagite, was converted to
Siopand" Christianity by St. Paul, as is recorded in the seventeenth of the
Acts. He was at first one of the judges of the famous court of
the Areopagus, but was afterwards made bishop of Athens,
where he suffered martyrdom for the sake of the Gospel. There
are several books which bear his name ; but they seem all of
them to have been the product of the sixth century. He is
claimed by the French as their tutelar saint, by reason that, as
they say, he was the first that preached the gospel to them. But
it is plain that Christianity was not preached in that nation till
long after St. Dionysius's death. Among several foolish and in-
coherent stories, which they relate of him, this is one : that, after
several grievous torments undergone, he was beheaded by Fescen-
nius the Roman governor at Paris; at which time he took up
his head, after it was severed from his body, and walked two
miles with it in his hands, to a place called the MartyrVhill, and
there laid down to rest.
13. Trans- . A The thirteenth of this month is dedicated to the memory

lation of king * - T

OF THE CALENDAR. 63

of kinu Edxvard the Confessor's translation. He was the youngest Part IL
of king Ethelred ; but, all his rider brothers being dead, or Edward the
fled away, he came to the crown of Kngland in the year 1042. Confe " or -
Hi- principal excellency was his gathering together a bodv of all
tlu ..ost useful laws, which had been made by the Saxon and

h kind's. Tin- name of Confessor is supposed to have been
given him bv the pope, tor settling what was then called Romc-
scot ; but is now better known by the name of Peter-pence. The
monks have attributed so many miracles to him, that even his

ents are by them reputed holy. His crown, chair, staff,
spurs, &c. are still made use of in the coronation of our English
k i 1 1 L

. r r Ethcldrcd was daughter of Anna, a king of the East- * 1- Ethel-
angles, who was first married to one Tonhert, a great lord in
Lincolnshire, \-c. and after him to king Egfrid about the year
671, with both which husbands she still continued a virgin, upon
pretence of great sanctitv. And staying at court twelve years,
and continuing this moroscness, she got leave to depart to Col-
;am abbey, when- she was a nun under Ebba, the daughter
of kino Ktheifrida, who was abbess. Afterward she built an
abhcv at Ely, which she was abbess of herself, and there died
and was buried, being recorded to posterity by the name of
St. A miry.

. 6. Crispinns and CriNpian-us were brethren, and born at *$. Crispin,
Rome : from whence they travelled to Soissons in Erance, about
the \i-ar ^o}, in order to propagate the Christian religion. But

e thev would not be chargeable to others for their main-
tenance, they exercised the trade of shoemakers. But the

nor of the town discovering them to be Christians, ordered
them to be beheaded about the year 303. From which time the
shoemakers made choice of them for their tutelar saints.

i. XI. Of the Romish Saints-days and Holy -days in

November.

Tin: second of this month is called All-Souls day, being ob- NOV. a. AIL
serxed ill the church of Home upon this occasion. A monk S
having visited Jerusalem, and passing through Sicily as he re-
turned home, had a mind to see mount ./Etna, which is conti-
nually belching out fire and smoke, and upon that account by
ftmne thought to be the mouth of hell. Being there, he heard
the devils within complain, that many departed souls were taken
out of their hands by the prayers of the Cluniac monks. This,
when he came home, he related to his abbot Odilo, as a true
story ; who thereupon appointed the second of November to be
annually kept in his monastery, and prayers to be made there for
all departed souls: and in a little time afterxx^ards the monks got
it to be made a general holy -day by the appointment of the

64 OF THE CALENDAR.

Chap. I. pope; till in ours and other reformed churches it was deservedly

"~ abrogated.

Leonard, . 2. Leonard was born at Le Nans, a town in France, bred
onfensor. ^ j n dj vm i t y unc ] e r Remigius bishop of Rhemes, and afterwards
made bishop of Limosin. He obtained of king Clodoveus a fa-
vour, that all prisoners whom he went to see should be set
free. And therefore whenever he heard of any persons being
prisoners for the sake of religion, or any other good cause, he
presently procured their liberty this way. But the monks have
improved this story, telling us, that if any one in prison had
called upon his name, his fetters would immediately drop off,
and the prison doors fly open : insomuch that many came from
far countries, brought their fetters and chains, which had fallen
off by his intercession, and presented them before him in token
of gratitude. He died in the year 500, and has always been
implored by prisoners as their saint.

. 3. St. Martin's account has already been given on July 4.

. 4. Britius, or St. Brice, was successor to St. Martin in the
bishopric of Tours. About the year 432, a great trouble befell
him : for his laundress proving with child, the uncharitable peo-
ple of the town fathered it upon Brice. After the child was
born, the censures of the people increased, who were then ready
to stone their bishop. But the bishop having ordered the infant
to be brought to him, adjured him by Jesus the son of the living
God, to tell him whose child he was. The child being then but
thirty days old, replied, " You are not my father." But this
was so far from mending matters with Brice, that it made them
much worse; the people now accusing him of sorcery likewise.
At last being driven out of the city, he appealed to Rome, and,
after a seven years' suit, got his bishopric again. This story is
told of him by Gregory Turonensis, his successor in his see at
Tours.

.5. Machutus, otherwise called Maclovius, was a bishop in
Bretagne in France, of that place which is from him called St.
Maloes. He lived about the year 500, and was famous for many
miracles, if the acts concerning him may be credited.

. 6. Hugh was born in a city of Burgundy, called Gratiano-
polis. He was at first a regular canon, and afterwards a Carthu-
sian monk. Being very famous for his extraordinary abstinence
and austerity of life, king Henry II. having built a house for
Carthusian monks at Witteham in Somersetshire, sent over Re-
ginald bishop of Bath to invite this holy man to accept the place
of the prior of this new foundation. Hugh, after a great many
entreaties, assented, and came over with the bishop, and was by
the same king made bishop of Lincoln : where he gained an im-
mortal name for his well governing that see, and new building
the cathedral from the foundation. In the year 1200, upon his

i$. Machu-
tus, bishop.

17. Hugh,
bishop of
Lincoln.

OF THE CAI.KNDAU. 65

return from Carthusia, the chief aiul original house of their Part I L
order, (whither lie had made a voyage,) he fell .sick of a quartan""
ague at London, and there died on November the seventeenth.
Hi* hoilv was presently conveyed to Lincoln, and happening to
be brought thither when John king of England and William
of Scots had an interview there, the two kings, out of re-
lo his sanctitv, assisted by some of their lords, took him
upon their shoulders, and carried him to the cathedral. In the
\ear I22O, he was canoni/ed at Rome; and his body being taken
up Octobrr ;, I2&2, was placed in a silver shrine. The monks
have a.M-ribed several miracles to him, which I shall omit for
brexitv, anil only set down one story which is credibly related of
him, vix. That coming to Godstow, a house of nuns near Oxford,
and seeing a hearse in the middle of the choir covered with silk,
and tapers burning about it, (it being then, as it is still in some
parts of England, a custom to have such monuments in the
church for some time after the burial of persons of distinction,)
he asked who was buried there ; and being informed that it was
fair Rosamond, the concubine of king Henry II. who had that
honour done her for having obtained a great many favours of the
for that house, lie immediately commanded her body to be
d up, and to be buried in the churchyard, saying it was a
place a great deal too good for a harlot, and therefore he would
her removed, as an example to terrify other women from
such a wicked and filthy kind of life.

. 7. Edmund was a king of the East-Angles, who being as- 20. Edmund,
saulted by the Danes (after their irruption into England) for their Martyr,?

->ion of his country, and not being able to hold out against
them, offered his own person, if they would spare his subjects.
But the Danes having got him under their power, endeavoured to
make him renounce his religion : which he refusing to do, they
first beat him with bats, then scourged him with whips, and
afterwards, binding him to a stake, shot him to death with their
arrows. His body was buried in a town where Sigebert, one of
his predecessors, had built a church ; and where afterwards (in
honour of his name) another was built more spacious, and the
name of the town, upon that occasion, called St. Edmund's
Bury.

. 8. Ca'cilla was a Roman lady, who refusing to renounce aa. ccuia,
her religion when required, was thrown into a furnace of boilingm2tyr! nd
water, and scalded to death : though others say she was stifled
by shutting out the air of a bath, which was a death sometimes
inflicted in those days upon women of quality who were criminals.
She lived in the year 225.

. 9. St. Clement I. was a Roman by birth, and one of the 33. sucie-
first bishops of that place: which see he held, according to the bishop of
best accounts, from the year 64 or 65 to the year Si, or

WHEATLY. F

66 OF THE CALENDAR.

Chap. I. abouts ; and during which time he was most undoubtedly author
~ of one, and is supposed to have been of two very excellent epi-
stles, the first of which was so much esteemed of by the primitive
Christians, as that for some time it was read in the churches for
canonical scripture z. He was for the sake of his religion first
condemned to hew stones in the mines ; and afterwards, having
an anchor tied about his neck, was drowned in the sea.

. io. St. Catherine was born at Alexandria, and bred up to
n letters. About the year 305 she was converted to Christianity,
which she afterwards professed with great courage and con-
stancy; openly rebuking the heathen for offering sacrifice to
their idols, and upbraiding the cruelty of Maxentius the empe-
ror, to his face. She was condemned to suffer death in a very
unusual manner, viz. by rolling a wheel stuck round with iron
spikes, or the points of swords, over her body.

SECT. XII. Of the Romish Saints-days and Holy-days in
December.

NICOLAS was born at Patara, a city of Lycia, and was after-
bish pof wards, in the time of Constantine the Great, made bishop of
Lyda. m Myra. He was remarkable for his great charity ; as a proof of
which this instance may serve. Understanding that three young
women, daughters of a person who had fell to decay, were
tempted to take lewd courses for a maintenance, he secretly
conveyed a sum of money to their father's house, sufficient to
enable him to provide for them in a virtuous way.

s.conception .2. The feast of the Conception of the Virgin Mary was in-
vgta b Ma 8 ry! stituted by Anselm archbishop of Canterbury, upon occasion of
William the Conqueror's fleet being in a storm, and afterwards
coming safe to shore. But the council of Oxford, held in the
year 1232, left people at liberty whether they would observe it or
not. But it had before this given rise to the question ventilated
so warmly in the Roman church, concerning the Virgin Mary's
immaculate conception ; which was first started by Peter Lombard
about the year 1160.

12. Lucy, .3. Lucy was a young lady of Syracuse, who, being courted

ma?tyr and by a gentleman, but preferring a religious single life before mar-
riage, gave all her fortune away to the poor, in order to stop his
farther applications. But the young man, enraged at this, ac-
cused her to Paschasius, the heathen judge, for professing Christ-
ianity ; who thereupon ordered her to be sent to the stews : but
she struggling with the officers who were to carry her, was, after
a great deal of barbarous usage, killed by them. She lived in
the year 305.
16. o sapi- . 4. The sixteenth of December is called O Sapient la, from

tl.tia.

^ Cave's Historia Literaria.

OK T1IK I Al. KXiiAK. 67

tin- hc^imiii)" 1 of an anthem in the Latin service, which used to Part 11.
be sun- in tlic church (for the honour oi' Christ's advent) from
this day till Clirislin::

. 5. AY/7V.s/Vr succculeil Miltiades in the papacy of Koine, -._.>
A. 1). 314. He is said to have been the author of several rites ii*P of
and ceivin-.nies of the Honiisli church, as of asylums, unctions,
palls, corporals, initr, I le died in the year 334.

CHAP. II.

OF T,HE FIRST RUBRIC.

THE INTRODUCTION.

Chap. II. TT AVING done with the Tables, Rules, and Calendar, I should
~ il now proceed in order to the daily Morning and Evening
Service : but the First Rubric, relating to that service, making
mention of several things which deserve a particular consideration,
and which must necessarily be treated of somewhere or other ; I
think this the properest place to do it in, and shall therefore take
the opportunity of this rubric to treat of them in a distinct
chapter by themselves.

The Rubric runs thus:

1[The ORDER for MORNING and EVENING PRAYER,

daily to be said and used throughout the year.

The Morning and Evening Prayer shall be used in the accus-
tomed place of the church, chapel, or chancel ; except it shall be
otherwise determined by the ordinary of the place ; and the
chancels shall remain as they have done in times past.

And here it is to be noted, that such ornaments of the church, and
the ministers thereof, at all times of their ministration, shall be
retained and be in use, as were in this church of England, by
the autJiority of parliament) in the second year of the reign of
'king Edward the Sixth.

These are the words of the rubric, and from thence I shall
take occasion to treat of these four things, viz.

I. The prescribed times of public prayer; Morning and
Evening.

II. The place where it is to be used; in the accustomed place
of the church, chapel 9 or chancel.

III. The Minister, or person officiating.

IV. The Ornaments used in the church by the minister.
Of all which in their order.

6 r it >C of CC re- SECT. I. Of the prescribed Times of Public Prayer.

scribing set MAN, consisting of soul and body, cannot always be actually

ii FIRST RUBRIC. GQ

i_ Part II.

engaged in the- immediate service of God, that being the privi

of angels and souls freed from the fetters of mortality, time* for the

, , . f* , . . performance

So long as we are here, we must worship (rod with respect to ,,r cuvim-
our present state; and therefore must of necessity have some"' 1
definite and particular time to do it in. Now that men might
not he left in an uncertainty in a matter of so great importance-,
people of all ages and nations have heen guided by the very dic-
tates of nature, not only to appoint some certain seasons to ce-
lehrate their more solemn parts of religion, (of which more here-
after,) but also to set apart daily some portion of time for the
performance of divine worship. To his peculiar people the Jews why the
(iod himself appointed their set times of public devotion; com- cSSce* "\Jere'
manding them to offer up tico lambs daily, one in tlie morning, and ^nUtS th '
the other at eren\ which we find, from other places of scripture b , ninthhourB -
were at their third and nintk hours, which answer to our nine
and three ; that so those burnt offerings, being types of the great
sacrifice which Christ the Lamb of God was to offer up for the
sins of the world, might be sacrificed at the same hours wherein
his death was begun and finished. For about the third hour, or
nine in the morning, he was delivered to Pilate, accused, ex-
amined, anil condemned to die 1 '; about the sixth hour, or noon,
this Lamb of God was laid upon the altar of the cross d ; and at
the ninth hour, or three in the afternoon, yielded up the ghost c .
And though the Levitical law expired together with our Sa- The
viour; yet the public worship of God must still have some cer-
tain times set apart for the performance of it: and accordingly
all Christian churches have been used to have their public deva-jJ*JJjy ilf
tions performed daily every morning or evening. The apostles reason.
and primitive Christians continued to observe the same hours of
prayer with the Jews, as might easily be shewn from the records
of the ancient church f . But the church of England cannot bewhynot
so happy as to appoint any set hours when either morning or the c'hu?ch 7 of
evening prayer shall be said : because now people are grown S o England '
cold and indifferent in their devotions, they would be too apt to
excuse their absenting from the public worship, from the incon-
veniency of the time : and therefore she hath only taken care to
enjoin that public prayers be read every morning and evening
daily throughout the year; that so all her members may have op-
portunity of joining in public worship twice at least every day.
But to make the duty as practicable and easy both to the min-
ister and people as possible, she hath left the determination of
the particular hours to the ministers that officiate ; who, con-
sidering every one his own and his people's circumstances, may

a Exod. xxix. 39. Numb, xxviii. 4. b Acts ii. 1:5. and chap. iii. i. c Matt.
xxriii. 1-26. i John xix. 14. e Matt, xxvii. 46, 50. ( Constit. A post. 1. 8. c, 34.
Tertull. de Jejun. c. 10. Cypr. de Orat. Domin. Basil, in Reg. fus. Disp. Int. 37.
Hieron. in Dan. 6. Rup. de Divin. Offic. L i. c. 5.

imninv CT

70 OF THE FIRST RUBRIC.

Chap. II. appoint such hours for morning and evening prayer, as they shall

""judge to be most proper and convenient.

AH priests . 2. But if it be in places where congregations can be had, and
to say the tlic curate of ike parish be at home, and not otherwise reasonably
eyeriiTgser- hindered, she expects or enjoins that he say the same in the parish
either d oplniy church or chapel where he minister e thy and cause a bell to be tolled

a rivatei ch ' OT ^ ereun ^9 a convenient time before he begin, that the people may
in their come to hear God's word, and to pray with him. But if, for want

families. . i i

oi a congregation, or some other account, he cannot conveni-
ently read them in the church ; he is then bound to say them
in the family where he lives : for by the same rubric, all priests
and deacons arc to say daily the morning and evening prayer,
either privately or openly, not being let by sickness, or some other
urgent causes. Of which cause, if it be frequently pretended, the
Scotch Common Prayer requires that they make the bishop of the
diocese, or the bishop oftlie province, the judge and allower. The
occasion of our rubric was probably a rule in the Roman church,
by which, even before the reformation and the council of Trent,
the clergy were obliged to recite what they call the canonical
hours, (i. e. the offices in the Breviary for the several hours of
day and night,) either publicly in a church or chapel, or privately
by themselves. But our reformers not approving the priests
performing by themselves what ought to be the united devotions
of many ; and yet not being willing wholly to discharge the
clergy from a constant repetition of their prayers, thought fit to
discontinue these solitary devotions; but at the same time or-
dered, that if a congregation at church could not be had, the
public service, both for morning and evening, should be recited
in the family where the minister resided. Though, according to
the first book of king Edward, this is not meant that t any man
shall be bound to the saying of it, but such as from time to time,
in cathedral and collegiate churches, parish-churches, and chapels
to the same annexed, shall serve the congregation. Though
these words in that book immediately follow the first part, of the
rubric which relates to the language in which the service is to be
said ; the two other paragraphs discoursed of in this section, being
the first inserted in the book that was published in 1552.

SECT. II. Of Churches ; or Places set apart for the perform-
ance of Divine Worship.

THE public worship of God, being to be performed by the
joint concurrence of several people, does not only require a place
conveniently capacious of all that assemble together to perform
tnat wors hip; but there must be also some determinate and
fixed place appointed, that so all who belong to the same con-
gregation may know whither they may repair and meet one

g The Rubric at the end of the preface concerning the Service of the Church.

OF Till: KIUST limit 1C. 71

her. This reason put even the heathens, who \vere guided Sect. II.
lie light of nalure, upon erecting public place* lor the honour The uni .
oi' their gods, and lor their own convcniency, in meeting together uceofthT

iy their religion* MTVICCS and devotions. And the patriarchs, Athens.
by the same light of nature, and the guidance of Clod's holy

, hail altars' 1 , mountains 1 , and groves k , for that pui |
In the wilderness, where- the Israelites themselves had no sett led Jewi.
habitation, they had, by God's command, a moving tabernacle J .
Anil as soon as they should be fixed in the land of promise, Clod
appointed a temple to be built at Jerusalem m , which David in-
tended ", and Solomon performed". And after that was demo-

i. another was built in the room of itP, which Christ himself
owned for ///.v house of prayer % and which both he and his apo-
stles freijiiented as well as the synagogues. And that the apostles Apostles.

him had churches iixed, and appropriate places for the
joint performance of divine worship, will be beyond all dispute,
'if we take but a short survey of the first ages of Christianity.
In the sacred writings we find more than probable footsteps of

determinate places for their solemn conventions, and pecu-
liar onlv to that use. Of this nature was that V77pov, or upper

. into which the apostles and disciples (after their return
from our Saviour's ascension) went up, as into a place commonly
known, and separate to divine use r . Such a one, if not the
. was that one place wherein they were all asssembled with
one accord upon the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost
visibly came down upon them 5 . And this the rather, because
the multitude (and they too strangers of every nation under

n) came so readily to the place upon the first rumour of so
strange an accident ; which could hardly have been, had it not
been commonly known to be the place where the Christians used
to meet together. And this very learned men take to be the
meaning of the forty -sixth verse of the second chapter of the
Act*; : They continued daily with one accord in the ton pie, and
breaking bread, K.O.T OLKOV (not, as we render it, from house to

. but) at home, as it is in the margin, or in the house, they
eat their meat :cith gladness of heart ; i. e. when they had per-
formed their daily devotions at the temple, at the accustomed
hours of prayer, they used to return home to this upper room,
there to celebrate the holy eucharist, and then go to their ordi-
nary meals. And Mr. Gregory proves that the -upper rooms Jso
often mentioned in scripture, were places in that part of the
house which was highest from the ground, set apart by the Jews

il as Christians for the performance of the public worship
ami devotions l . However, this interpretation of the text seems

11 <ic:;. xii. i (it-u. x:. k (J^n. _\\ . 1 Kxod. x.\

ln IVut. xii. 10, M. n i (Jhron. xvii. i, 2. chap. xxii. 7. chap, xxviii. 2.

o i Kings vi. i> K/.ra iii. S, &c. q Mutt. xxi. 13. r Acts i. 13. s Acts ii. i.
* Observations upon scripture, chap. 23.

OF THE FIRST RUBRIC.

Chap. II. to be clear and unforced, and the more probable, because it fol-
lows the mention of their assembling together in that one place
on the day of Pentecost, which room is also called by the same
name of house, at the second verse of that chapter. And it is
not at all unlikely, but that, when the first believers sold their
houses and lands, and laid the money at the apostles' 1 feet > to sup-
ply the necessities of the church ; some of them might give their
houses (at least some eminent room in them) for the church to
meet in, and to perform their sacred duties. Which also may
be the reason why the apostle so often salutes such and such a
person, and the church in his house u , which seems clearly to in-
timate, that in such or such a house (probably in the virepuov, or
upper room of it) was the constant and solemn convention of the
Christians of that place for their joint celebration of divine wor-
ship. For that this salutation is not used merely because their
families were Christians, appears from other salutations of the
same apostle, where Aristobulus and Narcissus, Sec. are saluted
with their household*. And this will be farther cleared by that
famous passage of St. Pauly, where taxing the Corinthians for
their irreverence and abuse of the Lord's supper, one greedily
eating before another, and some of them even to excess ; What!
says he, have ye not houses to eat and drink in ? or despise ye the
church of God ? Where that by church is not meant the assembly
meeting, but \he place in which they used to assemble, is evident
partly from what went before, (for their coming together in the
church 2 : , is explained by their coming together into one place* , plain-
ly arguing that the apostle meant not the persons but the place,)
partly from the opposition which he makes between the church
and their own private houses : if they must have such irregular
banquets, they had houses of their own, where it was much fitter
to have their ordinary repasts, than in that place which was set
apart for the common exercises of religion, and therefore not to
be dishonoured by such extravagant and intemperate feastings,
which was no less than despising it. For which reason he en-
joins them in the close of the chapter, that if any man hunger 9
he should eat at home. And in this sense was this text always
understood by the ancient fathers b .

Andprimi- Thus stood the case during the times of the apostles: as for
tiaL. " the ages after them, we find that the primitive Christians had
their fixed and definite places of worship, especially in the second
century ; as, had we no other evidence, might be made good
from the testimony of the author of that dialogue in Lucian, (if
not Lucian himself,) who expressly mentions that house or room

u Rom. xvi. 3, 5. I Cor. xvi. 19. Col. iv. 15. Philem. ver. I, 2. * Rom. xvi. 10,
II, 14. 2 Tim. iv. 19. Y I Cor. xi. 22. z I Cor. xi. 18. a I Cor. xi. 20.

fc August. Quaest. 57. in Leviticum, torn. iii. col. 516. F. Basil. Moral. Reg. 30. c. I.
torn. ii. p. 437. A. Chrysost. in i Cor. xi. 22. Horn. 27. torn. iii. p. 419. lin. 40.
Theodoret. in eundem locum, torn. iii. p. 175. A.

OF THE FIRST RUBRIC. 73

wherein the Christians were wont to assemble together . And s-ct. II.
Justin Marl vr expressly affirms, that " upon Sunday all Christ-"
' ians (whether in town or country) used to assemble together
"in one place' 1 ;" which could hardly have been done, had not
thai place- been fixed and settled. The same we find afterwards

,-ral places of Tertullian, who speaks " of their coming into

44 the cLnrch and house of (iod^ T which he elsewhere 1 " calls the

D -. i. e. of tin- Holy Spirit; and there describes

cry form and fashion of it. And in another places, speak-
ing of their going into the water to be baptized, he tells us,
" Thev weiv wont fii>,t to go into the church, to make their
" solemn renunciation before the bishop/' About this time, in
the reign of Alexander Severus, the emperor, (who began his
reign about tlie vear 222,) the heathen historian tells us h , that
when there was a contest between the Christians and vintners
about a certain public place, which the Christians had challenged
for theirs ; tlie emperor gave the cause for the Christians against
the vintners, saying, " It was much better that God should be
" worshipped there anv ways, than that the vintners should
it." If it be said, that " the heathens of those times

:. -rally accused the Christians for having no temples, and
t; charged it upon them as a piece of atheism and impiety ; and
" that the Christian apologists did not deny it ;" the answer de-
pends upon the notion they had of a temple; by which the
Gentiles understood the places devoted to their gods, and where-
in the deities were inclosed and shut up; places adorned with
statues and images, with fine altars and ornaments 1 . And for
such temples as these, they freely confessed they neither had
nor ought to have any, for the Tut'K GOD did not (as the hea-
thens supposed theirs did) dwell in temples made with hands;
he neither needed, nor could possibly be honoured by them : and
therefore they purposely abstained from the word temple, which
is not used by any Christian writer for the place of the Christian

iblics, for the best part of the first three hundred years.
But then those very writers, who deny that Christians had any
temples, do at the same time acknowledge that they had their
meeting places for divine worship ; their conrenticnla, as Arno-
bius calls them k , when he complains of their being furiously
demolished by their enemies.

. 2. It cannot be thought that in the first ages, while the Tbelr
flames of persecution raged, the Christian churches should be sumptuous
very stately and magnificent : it were sufficient if they were such Scent!** 11

c Philnjmtr. vol. ii. p. 776. Anistelod. 1687. d Apol. I. . 87. p. 131. c De

Idol. c. 7. p. 88. D. f Ah\ Valentin, c. 3. p. 251. B. S De Corona Milit. c. 3.
p. 102. A. h JE\. Latnprid. in Vita Alex. Sever. 0.49. apnd Hist. August.

JScriptor. p. 575. Lugd. Katav. 1661. ' Minutins Felix, c. 10. p. 61. Arnob. adv

Gentes, ad initium 1. 6. p. 189, ttc. Lactant. Institut. 1. 2. c. 2. p. nS. * Arnobius
adv. Gentes, ad finem 1. 4. p. 152.

74 OF THE FIRST RUBRIC.

Chap. II. as the condition of those times would bear ; their splendour in-
~~ creasing according to the entertainment Christianity met withal
in the world ; till, the empire becoming Christian, their temples
rose up into grandeur and stateliness : as, amongst others, may
appear by the particular description which Eusebius gives of the
church of Tyre ] , and of that which Constantine built at Constan-
tinople in honour of the apostles m : both which, the historian
tells us, were incomparably sumptuous and magnificent.

3- I sna U not undertake to describe at large the several
parts and dimensions of their churches, (which varied according
to the different times and ages,) but only briefly reflect upon
such as were most common and remarkable, and are still re-
tained amongst us. For theform andfashion of their churches,
it was for the most part oblong, to keep the better correspondence
with the fashion of a ship ; the common notion and metaphor
by which the church was wont to be represented, to remind
us that we are tossed up and down in the world, as upon a
stormy and tempestuous sea, and that out of the church there is
no safe passage to heaven, the country we all hope to arrive at.
It was always divided into two principal parts, viz. the nave or
^is wfa n "s kody of the church, and the sacrarium, since called chancel,
called. from its being divided from the body of the church bv neat rails,
called in Latin cancelti. The nave was common to all the
people, and represented the visible world ; the chancei was pecu-
Aiways stood liar to the priests and sacred persons, and typified heaven: for
end of the which reason they always stood at the east end of the church,
wby. ' an towards which part of the world they paid a more than ordinary
reverence in their worship; wherein, Clemens Alexandrinus 11
tells us, they had respect to Christ ; for as the east is the birth
and womb of the natural day, from whence the sun (the fountain
of all sensible light) does arise and spring ; so Christ, the true
Sun of righteousness, who arose upon the world with the light of
truth, when it sat in the darkness of error and ignorance, is in
scripture styled the EAST: and therefore since we must in our
prayers turn our faces toward some quarter, it is fittest it should
be towards the east ; especially since it is probable even from
scripture itself, that the majesty and glory of God is in a pecu-
liar manner in that part of the heavens, and that the throne of
Christ and the splendour of his humanity has its residence thereP.
In this chancel always stood the altar or communion table:
which none were allowed to approach, but such as were in holy

1 Eccles. Histor. 1. 10. c. 4. p. 377. m De Vita Const, lib. 4. c. 58, 59. p. 555.

n Strom. 1. 7. p. 724. C. In Zechariah iii. 8. and chap. vi. 12. the Messsiah is

called the BRANCH ; and in Luke i. 78. the DAY-SPRING : in all which places
the original words signify the EAST, and are so rendered in all other versions of the
Bible. P See Mr. Gregory's Notes and Observations upon scripture, chap. 18.

p. 71, &c. and p. 4, 5, of his preface, with some other parts of his works printed
at London 1665.

OF T1IK riHST RUBRIC. 1 >

or( K . . it were the Greek emperors at Constantinople, who Sect.IIL

to go up to the table to make their offerings, but"
were imrm , 'lately to return hack again 1 !.

& 4. But though the Christians of those times spared no con- The use of

, v i ,. i images for-

venient cost in founding and adorning public places tor the bidden in the

-hip of God ; careful not to run into a Wb

curious and over-nice sunerstition. No images were worshipped,

much as used in churches for at least four hundred years

and therefore certainly, might things be carried

1)\ a fair and impartial trial of antiquity, the dispute about this

be at an end. Nothing can be more clear

that the Christians were frequently challenged by the

i or having no images nor statues in their churches, and

<^\iu} apologists never denied it, but industriously

themselves against the charge, and rejected the very

iits of any such thing with contempt and scorn ; as might be

abundantly shewn from TertuHian, Clemens Alexandrinus, Ori-

Minutius Felix, Arnobius, and Lactantius. But I shall only

f them, and that is Origen, who, amongst other things,

plainly tells his adversary (who had objected this to the Christ-

that the images, that were to be dedicated to God, were

o be carved by the hands of artists, but to be formed and

>:ied in us by the word of God ; viz. the virtues of justice

and temperance, of wisdom and piety, &c. that conform us to

the image of his only Son. " These," 1 ' says he, " are the only

formed in our minds; and by which alone we are

" persuaded it is fit to do honour to him, who is the image of the

" inr'isiblc God, the prototype, the archetypal pattern of all such

" images r ." Had Christians then given adoration to them, or

but set them up in their places of worship, with what face can

we suppose they could have told the world, that they so much

abhorred them ? But more than this the council of Illiberis,

that was held in Spain some time before Constantine, expressly

!es against them; decreeing 8 , that " no pictures ought to

'' be in the church, nor that any thing that is worshipped and

red should be painted upon the walls :" words too clear to

be i-vaded by the little shifts and glosses which the expositors of

that canon would put upon it. The first use of statues and

pictures in the churches was merely historical, or to add some

y and ornament to the place, which after-ages improved

into superstition and idolatry. The first we meet with upon

good authority is no older than the times of Epiphanius, and

then too met with no very welcome entertainment ; as may

appear from Epiphanitis's own Epistle to John then Bishop of

q Conril. Trull. Can. 69. torn. vi. col. r 174. B. r Contr. Cels. 1. 8. part. 2.

p. 521. E. s Can. 36. torn. i. col. 974.

76 OF THE FIRST RUBRIC.

Chap. II. Jerusalem*: where he says, that coming to Anablatha, a village
"~ in Palestine, and going into a church to pray, he espied a curtain
hanging over the door, whereupon was painted the image of
Christ, or of some saint; which when he had looked upon, and
saw the image of a man hanging up in the church, contrary to
the authority of the holy scriptures, he presently rent it, and
ordered the churchwardens to make use of it as a winding-sheet
for some poor man's burying. This instance is so home, that
the patrons of image-worship are at a loss what to say to it,
and after all are forced to cry out against it as supposititious:
though the famous Du Pin, who is himself of the Romish com-
munion, and doctor of the Sorbon, allows it to be genuine, and
owns that one reason of its being called in question, is because
it makes so much against that doctrine 11 . More might be pro-
duced to this purpose : but by this, I hope, it is clear enough,
that the primitive Christians, as they thought it sufficient to
pray to God without making their addresses to saints and angels,
so they accounted their churches fine enough without pictures
and images to adorn them.

Decency in 8. . And though these afterwards crept in asrain, and

churches re- , *' , ' ! - t * i /

quisiteand became the occasion or idolatry in the times ot popery ; yet our
ary ' church at the reformation not only forbad the worshipping
them, but also quite removed them ; as thinking them too false
a beauty for the house of God. But though she would not let
religion be dressed in the habit of a wanton, yet she did not
deny her that of a matron : she would have her modest in her
garb, but withal comely and clean ; and therefore still allowed
her enough, not only to protect her from shame and contempt,
but to draw her some respect and reverence too. And no man
surely can complain, that the ornaments now made use of in our
churches are too many or too expensive. Good men would
rather wish that more care was taken of them, than there gene-
rally seems to be. For sure a decency in this regard is con-
formable to every man^s sense, who professes to retain any
reverence for God and religion. The magnificence of the first
Jewish temple was very acceptable to God x ; and the too
sparing contributions of the people towards the second was
what he severely reproved y : from whence we may at least infer,
that it is by no means agreeable to the Divine Majesty, that we
turn pious clowns and slovens, by running into the contrary
extreme, and worshipping the Lord, not in the beauty, but in the
dirt and deformity, of holiness. Far from us be all ornaments
misbecoming the worship of a Spirit, or the gravity of a church;
but surely it hath a very ill aspect for men to be so sordidly
frugal, as to think that well enough in God's house, which they

t Epiphan. torn. ii. p. 317. u Hist, of Ecclesiast. Writers, vol. ii. p. 236. * i Kings
ix. 3. 7 Haggai i. and ii.

OF THi: MUST Ki'HllIC. 77

could not endure even in the meanest olHces of their own. Hut Sect. II.
to return to my fir>t

6 6. When churches are built, they OUffht to have a greater niun-he to

... 11 i- lu- colisi-

value and esteem derived upon them by some peculiar eonse- niu-i by a
cratiru : tor it is not enough barely to devote them to the pub-SSoot*

r\ices of religion, unless they are also set apart with the thcm to God *
solemn rites of a formal dedication. For by these solemnities
the founders surrender all the right they have in them to (iod,
and make (iod himself the sole owner of them. And formerly,
any lands or endowments to the service of God,
gave it in a formal writing, sealed and witnessed, (as is now
usual between man and man,) the tender of the gift being made
upon the altar, by the donor on his knees. The antiquity of
such dedications is evident, from its being an univcral custom
amongst Jews and Gentiles : and it is observable that amongst
the former, at the consecration of both the tabernacle and
temple, it pleased the Almighty to give a manifest sign that he
then took possession of them 2 . When it was first taken up by
Christians is not easy to determine ; though there are no foot*

of any such thing to be met with, in any approved writer,
till the reign of Constantine ; in whose time, Christianity being
become more prosperous and flourishing, churches were every
where erected and repaired; and no sooner were so, but, as
Eusebius tells a us, they were solemnly consecrated, and the
dedications celebrated with great festivity and rejoicing. The
rites and ceremonies used upon these occasions (as we find in
the same author b ) were a great confluence of bishops and
strangers from all parts, the performance of divine offices,
singing of hymns and psalms, reading and expounding the
scriptures, sermons and orations, receiving the holy sacrament,
prayers and thanksgivings, liberal alms bestowed on the poor,
and great gifts given to the church ; and in short, mighty ex-
pressions of mutual love and kindness, and universal rejoicing
with one another. And these dedications were always con- The original
stantly commemorated from that time forward once a year, and wakes." n
solemnized with great pomp, and much confluence of people;
the solemnity usually lasting eight days together : a custom
observed with us till the twenty-eighth year of Henry VIII.
when, by a decree of convocation confirmed by that king, the

of dedication was ordered to be celebrated in all places
throughout England on one and the same day, viz. on the first
Sunday of October*. Whether that feast be continued now in
any parts of the kingdom, I cannot tell; for as to the wakes
which are still observed in many country villages, and gene-

z Exod. xl. 34. i Kings viii. 10, 1 1. a Hist. Eccl. 1. 10. c. 3. p. 370. b Ibid.
et de Vit:i (Dust. 1. 4. c. 42, 43. p. 546, &c. c Niceph. Cal. Hist. Eccl. 1. 8. c. 50.
torn. i. p. 653. B. d See Bp. Gibson's Codex, p. 276.

78 OF THE FIRST RUBRIC.

Chap. II. rally upon the next Sunday that follows the saint's day whose

""name the church bears, I take them to be the remains of the

old church holidays, which were feasts kept in memory of the

saints to whose honour the churches were dedicated, and who

The name of were therefore called the patrons of the churches 6 . For though

saSts'given all churches were dedicated to none but God, as appears by

aes< the grammatical construction of the word church, which signifies

nothing else but the f Lord's house ; yet at their consecration

they were generally distinguished by the name of some angel or

saint : chiefly that the people, by frequently mentioning them,

might be excited to imitate the virtues for which they had been

eminent ; and also that those holy saints themselves might by

that means be kept in remembrance.

Great re- .7. Though I have already been so long upon this head, yet

reveremie I cannot conclude it, till I have observed what respect and
churches by 6 reverence those primitive Christians used to shew in the church,
as ths s l emn pl ace f worship, and where God did more pecu-
liarly manifest his presence. And this we find to have been
very great. " They came into the church (saith St. s Chrysos-
" torn) as into the palace of the great King, with fear and
66 trembling ;*" upon which account he there presses the highest
modesty and gravity upon them. Before their going into the
church they used to wash, at least their hands, as Tertullian
probably intimates b , and Chrysostom expressly tells us i, carry-
ing themselves while they were there with the profoundest
silence and devotion. Nay, so great was the reverence they
bore to the church, that the emperors themselves, (who other-
wise never went without their guard about them,) when they
went into the church, used to lay down their arms, to leave
their guard behind them, and to put off their crowns ; reckoning
that the less ostentation they made of power and greatness there,
the more firmly the imperial majesty would be entailed upon
them k . Examples, one would think, sufficient to excite us to
use all such outward testimonies of respect as are enjoined by the
church, and established by the custom of the age we live in, as
marks of honour and reverence : a duty recommended by Solo-
mon, who charges us to look to our feet, when we go into the
house of God 1 , being an allusion in particulai to the rite of
pulling off the shoes used by the Jews, and other nations of the
East, when they came into sacred places" 1 ; and is as binding

e See the constitution of Simon Islip 1362, in bishop Gibson, p. 280. . or in
.Mr. Johnson's Collection of Ecclesiastical Laws. f From KvpiaK^j (which signifies
the Lord's house) comes Kyre, and by adding letters of aspiration, Chyrch or Church.
T In Ep. ad Hebr. c. ix. Horn. 15. torn. iv. p. 515. lin. ult. h De Oratione, c. n.
p. 133. C. ' In Johan. 13. Horn. 72. torn. ii. p. 861. lin. 23. k Codex

Theodos. lib. 9. Tit. 45. leg. 4. torn. iii. p. 363. 1 Eccles. v. I. nx Exod. iii. 5.
Josh. v. 15.

OF TIM. KlUsT UUB1UC.

us to look to <ur>elvcs by uncovering our heads, and &**. III.
:ii; all other external testimonies ({' reverence and devotion.

. III. Of the Muiisti'r.v 9 or persons qffciftfttg in I)i\
Sen

i: tiling mentioned in this rubric are the Minister* ; Theneces-
by whom we are to understand those who, being taken from tHtine com-
/ rit (I for men, in things pert a \in n^ to Gorf ? qnBfy **
..'lic/t no man takcf/t to liiinxclf, Ind he that -is f
i)f(, l-'.ron " , for the ministerial ollicc is of so high a

nothing but a divine commission can qualify any

eutioii of it. The ministers of religion arc the first, from
reprc>cntalivcs of God Almighty: they are to publish his laws, the offS'
and i ! pardons, and to preside in his worship. God has ltaelf '

:itted to them the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whose-
bliix they remit, they shall be remitted: whosesoever sins
;, they ahull he rctu'incd. They are the stewards of the
i>fGod, and the dispensers of his holy word and sacra -
: i;: a word, they are the ambassadors of heaven: and on
ministrations the assistances of the holy Spirit and all the
od life depend. All these characters and powers
jd to them in Scripture; and consequently do .suffi-
ciently demonstrate the dignity of their office, and are a plain
.:enl that none but God himself can give them their com-
m. For who dares, without the express orders of heaven,
uiu!c;t..\. an office which includes so many and such great par-
ticulars? Should any one take upon him the character of an
-sador; should he offer terms of peace to enemies; pre-
tend to naturali/e foreigners, and grant pardons, without a
commission from the supreme magistrate; as all his acts would
be null and void, so he would be highly criminal, and liable to
the severest punishment. The application is so easy, that the
heathens would never venture to officiate in religious mat-
without a supposed inspiration from heaven, or a previous
initiation by those, whom they thought entrusted by the Deity
for that purpose.

Among the Jews none could approach the presence of God, secondly,
but such as were particularly appointed by him. When

'luted offerings and sacrifices, and the other positive
of his worship, he at the same time set apart a peculiar order of
men to be the administrators of them. So that the persons
who were to minister were equally of divine institution with the
ministrations themselves. Thus Aaron and his sons, and the
Levites, were consecrated by the express command of God to
s, and had all of them their distinct commissions from
s. n : and no less than death was the penalty of invading

n Heb. v. 1.4. o Lev. viii. Numb. iii. 5, &c.

80 OF THE FIRST RUBRIC.

Chap. II. their office?. Nay, God was more than ordinary jealous of this
""honour, and vindicated it even at the expense of several
miracles. Thus, when Corah and his company (though Levites,
and consequently nearer to the Lord in holy matters than the
rest of the congregation) usurped the priest's office; God
Almighty miraculously destroyed both them and their asso-
ciates : and their censers were ordered to be beaten into broad
plates, and fixed on the altar, to be everlasting monuments of
their sacrilege, and a caution to all the children of Israel, that
none should presume to offer incense before the Lord, but the
seed of Aaron, who alone were commissioned to this office q. So
also Uzzah was by the immediate hand of God struck dead on
the spot for touching the ark, though he did it out of zeal to
hinder it from falling ; to shew that no pretence of doing God
service can justify meddling in holy things r . Saul, for offer-
ing sacrifice, (though he thought himself under a necessity of
doing so,) lost his s kingdom ; and king Uzziah, attempting to
burn incense before the Lord, was judicially smitten with
leprosy, and so excluded for ever after, not only from all sacred,
but even civil society f . A plain argument, that the sacerdotal
is not included in the regal office, nor derived from thence, but
that, on the contrary, it is of a distinct nature and institution.

And, as St. Jerom rightly observes u , " What Aaron and his
66 sons and the Levites were in the temple ; such are the bishops,
" presbyters, and deacons in the Christian church.'" These are
appointed by God, as those were ; and therefore it can be no less
sacrilege to usurp their office. Nay, it must be far greater ; be-
cause the honour of the ministry rises in proportion to the dig-
nity of their ministration ; and therefore as it cannot be denied,
but that realities are more valuable than types, and that heaven
is better than the land of Canaan ; so the sacraments of the
Gospel are certainly to be preferred before all the offerings and
expiations of the law.

And if we would but consider our Saviour's example, we
f) n( j that, though he wanted no gift to qualify him for this
saviour. o ffi ce , as having the divine nature inseparably united to his
human, and giving sufficient evidence of his abilities, when but
twelve years old ; and though the necessities of mankind called
loudly for such an instructor ; yet he would not enter upon his
office, till he was externally commissioned thereto by the visible
descent of the Holy Ghost upon him, and by an audible voice
from heaven, proclaiming him to be the Messiah, when he was
about thirty years old. All the former part of his life he spent
in a private capacity; doubtless to teach us, that no internal

P Numb. iii. 10. and xviii. 7. <1 Numb. xvi. r 2 Sam. vi. 6, 7. s t Sam. xiii.
1 1 Chron. xxvi. 16, &c. u Sub fine Epistolae ad Evagrium.

OF THE FIRST RUBRIC. 81

qualifications, no 'good end nor intention, can warrant a man's Sect. III.
any holy function, without a divine commission.

And we may observe that, though our Saviour had many fol- Fourthly.

* . ii- from the

lowers, yet none of them presumed to preach, or baptize, or per- practice
anv other sacred office, till they were particularly com- "{IM? OI
med hv him. He fir^t ordained twelve, that they might be
Kith him ; ami that lie m'i-ht send them Jitrth to preach, and to have
fiower to In-ul .v/YA-w.v.sr.v, and to cast out devils* ; and afterwards
the other .s, ; < /////, which went out upon a like errand, were espe-
cially appointed hv him >'. So likewise, after his resurrection,
when he advanced the eleven to be apostles, he did it in a most
soL inn manner: tir.st breathing on them, and communicating to
them the Holy Ghost; and then, after he had assured them of
his own authority, he gave them the power of the keys, and
authority to exercise all the holy offices in the Christian church,
and to convey the same authority to others; promising them
that he would be always with them and their successors, even to
the cud of the world ; and ratify and confirm what was done in
his name, and agreeable to this commission. From whence it is
plain, that it was our Saviour's express will and intention, that
all those, who are ministers in his church, should either me-
diately or immediately derive their authority from him. And
accordingly we may observe, that, in the beginning of Christ-
ianity, all those who officiated in divine matters received their
commission either from Christ himself, or from apostolical hands,
and very commonly from both. The seven deacons were consti-
tuted by the apostles 7 ; and St. Paul and St. Barnabas ordained
elders in every church which they planted a . The other apostles
used the same method, as did also their successors after them,
as is sufficiently evident from scripture and antiquity ; which
abundantly proves the necessity of a divine commission, in. order
to the being a minister in the Christian church.

. 2. If it be asked, who may be truly said to have this divine The neces-
commission ? we need not doubt to affirm, that none but thosescopalo?-"
who are ordained by such as we now commonly call bishops, can dinatlon *
have any authority to minister in the Christian church. For
that the power of ordination is solely lodged in that order, shall
be proved from the institution of our Saviour, and the constant
practice of the apostles. That the powei of ordination lodged
in the apostles was of divine institution, I suppose no one will
question, who reads these words of our Saviour to them, after
his resurrection : ./s my Father sent me, so send I you b ; and, Lo 9
I am with you always, even unto the end of the world c : from
whence it is evident, first, That it was by a divine commission,
that our Saviour ordained or sent his apostles. Secondly, That,

* Mark iii. 14, 15. y Luke x. i. z Acts vi. 6. Acts xiv. 23.

* John xx. 21. c Matt, xxviii. :o.

WHEATLY. G

82 OF THE FIRST RUBRIC.

Chap. II. by virtue of the same commission, the apostles were at that time
~~ empowered to ordain or send others. And, thirdly, That this
commission to ordain was always to continue in the Christian
church, and to remain in such hands as the apostles should con-
vey it to. From whence it naturally follows, that whoever has
a power to ordain, must derive it from the commission which
our Saviour received from God, and gave to his apostles, and
was by them conveyed to their successors. The only way then
to know in whose hands this commission is now lodged, is, to
inquire what persons were appointed by the apostles to succeed
Threedistinet them in this office. Now it is plain to any one who will read the
apart S to e the scripture without prejudice, that there were three distinct orders
apOTties. of ministers in the Christian church, in the apostles' days, which
were designed to continue to the end of the world. For besides
those two, which our adversaries allow, viz. deacons, and pres-
byters or elders, (which latter are also sometimes called bishops,)
we read of another order, which were superior to, and had au-
thority over, both these: such as were the apostles, and Timothy
and Titus, and others. For it is plain from the epistles St. Paul
wrote to the two last mentioned, that they presided over the
presbyters. They had power to enforce them to their duty, to
receive accusations against them, and judicially to pass sentence
upon them : which abundantly proves their superiority. And
several others were constituted by the apostles to the same office :
such were St. James surnamed the Just, and Epaphroditus, who
were termed apostles or bishops by all antiquity : such doubtless
were those whom St. Paul calls Apostles of the Churches, and
joins with Titus d : and such also were those Angels of the
churches, mentioned in the book of the Revelation.

Some indeed have been pleased to tell us, that " these were
" extraordinary officers, and so of temporary institution only. 1 "
But this is said without any ground or plausible pretence. That
they were sometimes sent upon extraordinary messages, and had
a power, upon an occasion, to do extraordinary things, such" as
miracles, &c. is very true : but then the same is to be said of the
other orders as well as this. Philip was only a deacon, and yet
God employed him in several extraordinary matters. And
working of miracles was so common in the beginning of Christ-
ianity, that ordinary Christians were frequently endued with
this power e . So that, if this were an argument for the tempo-
rary institution of one order, it must be so too for all the rest;
which they, who make the objection, dare not say, and therefore
acknowledge there is no force in it.

But they farther urge, that u Timothy was an evangelist; be-
" cause St. Paul bids him do the work of' an evangelist f . v But to

d i Cor. viii. 23. e Mark xvi. 17, 18. Acts x. 46, and xix. 6. i Cor. xii. 10, 28.
f 2 Tim. iv. 5.

THE FIRST RUBRIC. 83

this xvi- answer, that an evangelist was no distinct oilicer at any Sect. IlL
tiiiu- in the Christian church. For the proper notion of an evan- ~"

in tlu- Acts and St. Paul's Kpistles is, one wlio was emi-
iirntlv qualified to preach the gospel, and had taken great pains
in. r l'hus Philip was called an evangelists, who was
no more than a deacon ; and could only preach and bapti/e, and
had not tin- power of laying on of hands, which Timothy had :
and therefore the office of Philip was far inferior to that of Ti-
niothv. Whence it is evident, that allowing Timothy to ho an
, vet his power o\er presbyters did not accrue to him
upon that account. Nor does Timothy's being an evangelist
prove the office of ruling and ordaining presbyters to be peculiar
to an evangelist; any more than Philip's being called an evan-
gelist proves the ollice of preaching and baptizing to be so.

in what has been said therefore it plainly appears, that
there were three distinct orders set apart to the ministry by the
apostles. Our next inquiry then is, to how many, or to which
of these, the power of ordination was committed. Now that the
-t order (vix. that of deacons) had not this power, is by all
confessed : and that the highest order (of which Timothy and
Titus were) had it, we are assured by the express testimony of
St. Paul. The only question then is, whether the second order Presbyters
(vi/. that of presbyters) was ever invested with this power. The^SS-d"
affirmative of which question can never be proved from scripture JJ^werof

Iltiqility. For, ordination.

First, It is frivolous to argue from the community of names,
to the sameness of office. For any reasonable man will grant,
that the words bishop and presbyter being promiscuously used,
and mere presbyters being frequently called bishops in scripture,
doc> not prove, that therefore all the powers, which belong to
those we now call bishops, were ever lodged in those presbyters.
The only method then, to prove that the power of ordination be-
to presbyters, is, to shew, that whoever were in scripture
called b\ the name of presbyters or bishops were invested with
power : which can never be done. For if presbyters or
- had the power of ordination lodged in them, for what
reasons can we suppose that St. Paul should leave Titus in Crete
on purpose to ordain elders In every city, (as he tells him he
did' 1 ,) when we know that that island had been converted to
Christianity long before Titus came thither; and therefore
doubtless had many presbyters among them, to preach and
administer the sacraments to the inhabitants ? Nor,

Secondly, Can this be proved from that often quoted passage 1 ,
where St. Paul exhorts Timothy not to neglect the gift that was in
/'?//, tc/iich icas given him by prophecy, icitlt the laying on of the

S Acts xxi. P. h Titus i. 5. i I Tim. iv. 14.

G 2

84 OF THE FIRST RUBRIC.

Chap.il. hands of the presbytery . For, allowing that Timothy's ordination
is here spoken of, (which yet many learned men have questioned,)
it is manifest that the apostles themselves were often called by
the name of presbyters. And so the presbyters here mentioned
may very probably be the apostles. We are sure that St. Paul
was one of them, and that he ascribes the whole of Timothy^s
ordination to his own laying on of hands k : and therefore the
utmost that can be deduced from this text is this, viz. That one
or more of such as were mere presbyters might lay on their
hands in concurrence with him, to testify their consent and ap-
probation ; as is the custom at this day in the ordination of a
presbyter, and has been sometimes done at the consecration of a
bishop 1 . Nor,

Thirdly, Can it be inferred from any of the charges or di-
rections given by St. Paul in his epistles to either bishops or
presbyters, that they had ever any thing like the power of ordi-
nation : which makes it more than probable, that wherever the
word bishop is found in scripture, as applied to an ecclesiastical
officer after our Saviour, the middle order is always meant m .
For though the apostles are sometimes called presbyters and
deacons, yet they are never called bishops. Their office is once
indeed called eTuo-KOTrr), i. e. a bishopric" : but wherever we meet
with eTrtcrKOTrofc, i. e. bishops, either in the Acts of the Apostles,
or the Epistles, we may very well understand the middle order,
which we now call presbyters. And as for those whom we now
call bishops, they were, in the first age of the church, styled
apostles. For so St. Paul, speaking to the Philippians concern-
ing Epaphroditus , calls him his brother and companion in labour,
UIJL&V 8e airooToXov, but your apostle ; (for so the word ought to
be rendered, and not messenger, as in our translation ;) an office
which it is probable St. Paul ordained him to, when he sent him
with this epistle: for which reason, he charges them to receive
him in the Lord with all gladness, and to hold such in reputation P.
And Epaphroditus is accordingly, by all antiquity, reckoned the
first bishop of Philippi. So that the apostolical office was not
temporary, but designed to continue in the church of Christ.
And therefore the apostles took care to ordain some to succeed
them, who were at first called by the same name, though they
afterwards in modesty declined so high a title ; as is expressly
affirmed by Theodoret, who tells us<l, " That formerly the same
" persons were called both presbyters and bishops ; and those
" now called bishops were then called apostles : but in process

* 2 Tim. i. 6. 1 Vid. Bevereg. in Can. Apost. I. p. n. ad fin. col. 2. m And
therefore in the Syriac version of the New Testament, the word MffKoiros is usually
rendered by presbyter, and t-mffKoir}) by presbyteratus. Vide Bevereg. in Can. Apost.
2. p. 13. col. r. n Acts i. 20. Chap. ii. 25. See also 2 Cor. viii. 23. Gal. i. 19,
in both which places, by the original word cwrJ<rTo\o/, are to be understood those we
now call bishops. P Phil. ii. 29. <1 In I Tim. iii. i. torn. iii. p. 473. D.

OF TIII: MUST RUBRIC. 85

" of time the name of apostle was left to those apostles strictly Sect. IV.
*< so called, and the name of bishops ascribed to all tin* i
And Pacianus, a writer in the fourth century, allirms tin- same
tiling 1 ". So that, granting mere presbyters to be scripimv-
j)s, which sonic have- so earnestly contended for; yet no-
thing can from thence be inferred, to prove them to have- equal
power with those we now call bishops, who are successors of a
higher order.

And to what has been said, we might, for farther proof, add
the joint testimony of all Christians for near fiftecMi hundred
vcars together ; and challenge our adversaries to produce one
instance of a valid ordination by presbyters in all that time. It
seems therefore verv strange, that, if presbyters ever had the
power of ordination, they should so tamely give up their right,
without any complaint, or so much as leaving any thing upon
record, to witness their original authority to after-ages. In
short, we have as much reason to believe that the power of ordi-
nation is appropriated to those we now call bishops, as we have
to believe the necessary continuance of any one positive ordinance
in the gospel.

And now, (to sum up all that has been said in few words,) a
com mission to ordain was given to none but the apostles, and
their successors. And to extend it to any inferior order, is
without warrant in scripture or antiquity. For every commission
is naturally exclusive of all persons, except those to whom it is
given. So that, since it does not appear, that the commission to
ordain, which the apostles received from our Saviour, was ever
granted to any but such as must be acknowledged to be of a
superior order to that of presbyters, which superior order is the
same with that of those we now call bishops ; therefore it fol-
lows, that no others have any pretence thereunto ; and conse-
quently none but such as are ordained by bishops can have any
title to minister in the Christian church.

SECT. IV. Of the Ministerial Ornaments.

THE second part of this rubric is concerning the ornaments o/whatoma-
the church^ and the ministers thereof, at all times of their ministra
tions: and to know what they are, we must liave recourse to the rubrlc '
Act of Parliament here mentioned, vi/. -in the second year of the
reign of king- Edward the Si.cih ; which enacts, That all and
singular ministers, in any cathedral or parish-church ^ fyc. sluilf,
after the feast of Pentecost next coming, be bonndcn to say the
mattenS) ercmn*r .vo//^-, eyr. and the administration of the sacra-
went*, and all the common and open prayer, in such order and

r Parian. Kjiiso. Harreloncns. ad Sempronianum de Catholico Nomine. Ep. i.
apud Bibliothec. S. S. Pat rum torn. iii. col. 431. Paris. 1589.

86 OF THE FIRST RUBRIC.

Chap, IL form as is mentioned in the said book, (viz. first book of
""Edward VI.) and not other or otherwise. So that by this act
we are again referred to the first Common Prayer Book of king
Edward VI. for the habits in which ministers are to officiate;
where there are two rubrics relating to them, one prescribing
what habits shall be worn in all public ministrations whatsoever,
the other relating only to the habits that are to be used at the
Communion. The first is in the last leaf of the book, and
runs thus :

In the saying or singing of matt ens, or even-song, baptizing
and burying, the minister in parish-churches and chapels an-
nexed to the same shall use a surplice. And in all cathedral
churches and colleges, archdeacons, deans, provosts, masters,
prebendaries, and fellows, being graduates, may use in the choir,
besides their surplices, such hoods as pertain to their several
degrees which they have holden in any university within this
realm, but in all other places every minister shall be at liberty to
use any surplice or no. It is also seemly that graduates, when
they do preach, should use such hoods as pertaineth to their
several degrees.

And whenever the bishop shall celebrate the holy Communion

JL c/

in the church, or execute any other public ministration ; he shall
have upon him, beside his rochette, a surplice, or alb, and a cope,
or vestment, and also his pastoral staff' in his hand, or else borne
or holden by his chaplain.

The other rubric that relates to the habits that are to be worn
by the minister at the Communion, is at the beginning of that
office, and runs thus :

Upon the day, and at the time appointed for the ministration of
the holy Communion, the priest that shall execute the holy ministry,
shall put upon him the vesture appointed for that ministration, that
is to say, a white alb plain, with a vestment or cope. And where
there be many priests or deacons, there so many shall be ready to
help the priest in the ministration, as shall be requisite. And shall
have upon them likewise the vestures appointed for the ministry ,
that is to say, albs with tunicles.

These are the ministerial ornaments enjoined by our present
rubric. 13ut because the surplice is of the most general use,
and what is most frequently objected against ; I shall therefore
speak more largely of that, and only give a short account of the
rest.

The BUT- I. As to the name of surplice, which comes from the Latin

Jo Siied7 superpelliceum, I can give no better account of it, than what I
can put together from Durand, who tells us it was so called, be-
cause anciently this garment was put super tunicas pellicas de
pellibus mortuorum animalium facias, upon leathern coats made
of the hides of dead beasts ; symbolically to represent that the

OF THE FIRST KUBlMi . 87

offemv of niir first parents, which brought us under a necessity Sect. IV.'
of wearing garments of ^in, was now hid and emeivd by the
iid that therefore we an- clothed with the em-
blem of innoci !!< . Ihit v- hew came the name, the thing

inly is good.
! r if it be thou;;-ln nccc-sary for princes and magistrates tOTheanti-

di-imct habits, in the execution of their public offices, to jffii wd
piv>ene an awful respect to their royalty and justice; there i s dccenc y flt -
tin. -on for a different habit when God's ambassadors

publielv officiate. And accordingly we find that, under the Law,
the .Jewish priests were, by God's own appointment, to wear
red vestments at all times 1 : but at the time of public
they were to have, besides those ordinary garments, a
white linen cpkod". From the Jews it is probable the Egyptians
learned this custom to wear no other garments but only of white
linen, looking on that to be the fittest, as being the purest cover-
ing for those that attended on divine service x . And Philostratus
tells us, that the Hrachrnans or Indian priests wore the same
sort of garments for the same reasons >. From so divine an
original and spreading a practice, the ancient Christians brought
them into use for the greater decency and solemnity of divine
service. St. Jerom at one and the same time proves its ancient
;iiul reproves the needless scruples of such as oppose it.
* ^Vllut offence/' saith he, " can it be to God for a bishop
" or priest, &c. to proceed to the communion in a white gar-
" ment 7 ?" The antiquity of it in the Eastern church appears
from Gn ixian/en, who adviseth the priests to purity,

because " a little spot is soon seen in a white garment a." And
it is very probable that it was used in the Western church
in the time of St. Cyprian : for Pontius, in his account of that
father's martyrdom, says, that " there was a bench by chance
" covered with a white linen doth, so that at his passion he
" seemed to have some of the ensigns of the episcopal honour b . r>
From whence we may gather, that a white garment was used by
the clergy in those times.

. 2. The colour of it is very suitable ; for it aptly represents The coiourof
the innocence and righteousness wherewith God's ministers u ' whywhlte -
ought to be clothed . And it is observable, that the Ancient of
days 1 '- is represented as having garments white as snow ; and that
when our Saviour was transfigured, his raiment was white as the

s Purami Kntional. 1. 3. c. i. numb. 10, n, 12. t Exod. xxviii. and xxix.

KxcxL xxviii. 4 . i Sain. ii. 18. x Apul. in Apol. part. I. p. 64. Paris. 1635.

Viil. Ilu-ron. in Ezek. xliv. 17. torn. iv. p. 476. D. y Philostr. Vit. Apol. Tyan.

L 3. c. 15. p. 106. Lipsi.T 1709. z Adv. Pelag. 1. i. c. 9. torn. ii. p. 565. F. G.

a Orat. 31. torn. i. p. 504. A. b Pont. Diac.'in Vita S. Cyprian. ]>.'</ ],;-.

operilms Cyprian. c Psalm cxxxii. 9. d Daniel vii. 9!

OF THE FIRST RUBRIC.

Why made
of linen.

The shape
of it.

Chap. II. light* ; and that whenever angels have appeared to men, they
have always been clothed in white apparel f .

.3. The substance of it is linen, for woollen would bethought
ridiculous, and silk would scarce be afforded : and we may ob-
serve, that under the Jewish dispensation God himself ordered
that the priests should not gird themselves with any thing that
caused sweats; to signify the purity of heart that ought to be in
those that were set apart to the performance of divine service ;
for which reason the Jewish ephods were linen* 1 , as were also
most of the other garments which the priests wore during their
ministrations". The Levites also that were singers were arrayed
in white linen^, and the armies that followed the Lamb were
clothed in fine linen 1 ; and to the Lamb's wife was granted, that
she should be arrayed in fine linen clean and white ; for the fine
linen is, i. e. represents, the righteousness of saints m .

.4. As for the shape of it, it is a thing so perfectly indif-
ferent, that it admits of no dispute. The present mode is cer-
tainly grave and convenient, and, in the opinion of Durand,
significant; who observes, that as the garments used by the
Jewish priesthood were girt tight about them, to signify the
bondage of the law ; so the looseness of the surplices, used by the
Christian priests, signifies the freedom of the gospel n .

. 5. But neither its significancy nor decency will protect it
from objections : for first, some tell us, " it is a rag of popery :"
an objection that proves nothing but the ignorance of those that
make it : for white garments (let them be called what they will)
were of use among the most primitive Christians. Nor need our
adversaries do the church of Rome a greater kindness, or wound
the protestant religion more deeply, than by granting that white-
garments and popery are of the same antiquity.

They tell us, secondly, that " it has been abused by the
" papists to superstitious and idolatrous uses." But to this we
answer, That it is not the priest's using a surplice, that either
makes their worship idolatrous or superstitious, or increases the
idolatry or superstition of it. For the worship of the Roman
church is idolatrous and superstitious, whether the priest be
clothed in white, or black, or any other colour. All therefore
that our adversaries can mean is this, viz. that the surplice has
been worn by the papists, when they have practised idolatry and
superstition : and this we grant : but then it does not follow,
that a surplice of itself is either unlawful or inexpedient. For
white garments had, in this sense, been abused to superstitious

e Matt. xvii. i. t Matt, xxviii. 3. Mark xvi. 5. Acts i. 10. Rev. vi. ir.

vii. 9. xv. 6. xix. 8, 14. S Ezek. xliv. 18. h i Sam. ii. 18. * Lev. xvi. 4.
Ezek. xliv. 17, 1 8. k 2 Chron. v. 12. ' Rev. xix. 14. ni Rev. xix. 8.

n Rational. Divin. Offic. 1. 3. c. 3. numb. 3. fol. 67.

Objections
answered.

OF THE FIRST RUBRIC. 89

and idolatrous uses, before Daniel represented God himself as Sect. IV.
wearing such garments; and before our Saviour wore them ; ~~
and before the angvU and saints were represented as clothed
with them ; and before they became the ministerial ornaments
of the primitive times. Hut surely, if such an abuse made them
unlawful or inexpedient, it cannot be conceived, that the primi-
mirch, and the inspired writers, nay, God himself, would so
plainly countenance them.

II. Next to the surplice, that which is of most frequent use in or the hood.
the celebration of divine service is the hood, or the habit de-
noting the- degree which the person officiating has taken in the
university. This in Latin is called cnpuiinm or cucullus ;
though of the two names the latter seems to be the more proper
and ancient. For the cucullnx was a habit among the ancient By whom
Romans, being a coarse covering for the head, broad at one end
for the head to go in, and then lessening gradually till it ended
in a point .

. 2. From the Ilomans the use of it was taken up by the why used
old monks and ascetics; who, as soon as they began in the nfonka, &c.
church, made choice of this habit as suitable to that strict re-
scrvedness which they professed. ' For when this was drawn
over their faces, it at once prevented them from gazing at others,
or being stared at themselves. And as the several orders of
monks grew up, there was hardly any one of them but had the
hood or cowl, only a little varied in the cut or fashion of it. But
generally it was contrived so, that in cold or wet weather it
might be a covering to the head; or at other times, when they
pleased, they might let it fall back behind them, hanging upon
their neck by the lower end, after the same manner as it now is
generally used with us.

.3. After this it came to be used by the several members of JJJjHf^jJ 10
cathedral churches and colleges, though they were not allowed and un'iver-
to have the same sort of hoods as the monks. And from these 81tie8 \
the universities took the use of it, to denote the difference of de-
grees among their members ; varying the materials, colour, and
fashion of it, according to the degree of the person that wears it.
And that these academical honours (which always entitle those
they are conferred upon to the greater respect and esteem of
the people) might be known abroad as well as in the univer-
sities; the church enjoins (both by this rubric and herP canons)
that every minister, who is a graduate, shall wear his proper
hood during the time of divine service, but forbidding all that
are not graduates to wear it, under pain of suspension; allowing
them, in the room of it, to wear upon their surplices some decent
tippet of black, so it be not

o Martial, lib. 5. Epigr. 14. lin. 6. Juvenal. Sat. 8. v. 145. P Can. 17, 75, 58.
<1 Can. 58.

OF THE FIRST RUBRIC.

Ofthero
chette.

Of the

chimere.

Of the alb.

Chap. II. HI. The next ministerial ornament the rubric above cited en-
joins is the rochette, a linen habit peculiar to the bishop, and
worn under what we call the chimere. The author of the acts
of St. Cyprian's martyrdom says, that that father went to his
execution in this pontifical habit 1 ; but whether this seems pro-
bable, I shall leave the reader to judge : however it is certain
the use of it is ancient, it being described by Bede in the seventh
century 3 . In the following ages the bishops were obliged, by
the canon law, to wear their rochettes whenever they appeared
in public 1 : which practice was constantly kept up in England
till the reformation ; but since that time the bishops have not
used to wear them at any place out of the church, except in the
parliament house, and there always with the chimere, or upper
robe, to which the lawn sleeves are generally sewed ; which be-
fore and after the reformation, till queen Elizabeth's time, was
always of scarlet silk ; but bishop Hooper's scrupling first at the
robe itself, and then at the colour of it, as too light and gay for
the episcopal gravity, it was changed for a chimere of black
satin.

IV. The other things prescribed and enjoined by the fore-
mentioned rubrics (though now grown obsolete and out of use)
are the alb, the cope, the tunicle, and the pastoral staff. The
alb was a very ancient habit worn by ministers in the admin-
istration of the communion, and appears, by the description given
of it by Durand x , to have been a kind of linen garment, made
fit and close to the body like a cassock, tied round in the middle
with a girdle, or sash, with the sleeves either plain like the sleeves
of a cassock, or else gathered close at the hands like a shirt
sleeve ; being made in that fashion, I suppose, for the conveni-
ency of the minister, and to prevent his being hindered in the
consecration and delivery of the elements, by its being too large
and open. They were formerly embroidered with various colours,
and adorned with fringes? ; but these our church does not admit
of, though it still enjoins a white alb plain.

V. Over this alb, the priest that shall execute the lioly ministry,
' (i. e. consecrate the elements,) is to wear a vestment or cope z ;

which the bishop also is to have? upon him when he executes
anj; public ministration. This answers to the Colobinm used by
the Latin, and the SCIKKOS used by the Greek church. It was at
first a common habit, being a coat without sleeves, but afterwards
used as a church -vestment, only made very rich by embroidery
and the like. The Greeks say, it was taken up in memory of

Of the vett-
mentorcope

* Vid. Baronius's Annals, ann. 261. . 40, 41. s Bede de Tabernac. citat. ab

Almario, in Biblioth. Patr. 1. 10. p. 389. t Decretal. 1. 3. tit. i. cap. 15. u See
Hody's History of Convocat. p. 141. x Dnrand Rational, lib. 3. cap. 3. fol. 67.

See also Dr. Watts, in his Glossary at the end of his edition of Matthew Paris.
y Durand ut supra. z See also Can. 24.

OF T1IK I HIST lirBKH . 91

that mock robe which was put upon our Saviour. How true this Sect. IV.
he I shall not iii(|iiire, hut only observe, that it seems prc- ~
-.1 to none hut the bishop, and the priest that consecrates
the elem( nts at the sacrament. Thus the twenty-fourth canon of copes, when

. . 7 . , / i i wid by whom

burch only orders, that the- principal mvnuUr (wlicn the to be worn.
holv communion is administered in all cathedral and collegiate
ehmv n decent cnpc* end be icifh an cpistlcr and

ler <t-n\ab/t/, according to the advertisements published,
anno 7 Kli/abetha-: \\hich advertisements order, that at all other
> co/iex be //.sr</, .';/// surplices*.

VI. The priests and deacons that assist the minister in the Of the
hution of the elements, instead of copes, are to wear tuniclcs,

which Duranil 1 ' descrihes to have been a silk sky-coloured coat
made- in the shape of a cope.

VII. The pastoral staff (though now grown out of use) is yet or the pas-
another thing expressly enjoined by the above-cited rubric. It

is peculiar indeed to the bishop alone, but expressly ordered to
n-d bv him, as an ensign of his office, at all public adminis-
trations. It was made in the shape of a shepherd's crook, and
:\>r many ages, even till after the reformation c, constantly
given to the bishop at his consecration, to denote that he was
then constituted a shepherd over the flock of Christ d .

These are the ministerial ornaments and habits enjoined by -n^e habits,
our present rubric, in conformity to the first practice of our ?o'cE?* e
church immediately after the reformation; though at that time and Bucefc
they were so very offensive to Calvin and Bucer, that the one in
iters to the protector, and the other in his censure of the
English Liturgy, which he sent to archbishop Cranmer, urged
very vehemently to have them abolished ; not thinking it tolerable
to have any thing in common with the papists, but esteeming
v thing idolatrous that was derived from them.

However, they made shift to accomplish the end they aimed
at, in procuring a farther reform of our Liturgy: for in
review that was made of it in the fifth of Edward VI, amo
other ceremonies and usages, these rubrics were left out, and
the following one put in their place:

And here It is to be noted, that the minister, at the time of the
Communion, and at all other times in his ministration, shall use
neither alb, vestment, or cope; but being archbishop or bishop, he
shall hare and :cear a rochet tc ; and briny a priest or deacon, he
shall hare and wear a surplice only e .

But in the next review under queen Elizabeth, the old rubrics But restored
were again brought into authority, and so have continued ever JJSSnEu-

iabeth.

a lip. Sparrmv's Collection, p. 125. b Rational. 1. 3. c. 10. fol. 73. c See the first
ordinal, compiled A. I). 1540. d Durand, 1. 3. c. '15. fol. 77, &C. c Rubric

before the beginning of Morning Praver, in the second Common Prayer Book of
king Edward VI.

92 OF THE FIRST RUBRIC.

- IL since ; being established by the Act of Uniformity that passed
soon after the Restoration.

VIII. I must observe still farther, that among other orna-
ments of the church then in use, there were two lights enjoined
by the injunctions of king Edward VI. (which injunctions were
also ratified by the act of parliament here mentioned) to be set
upon the altar, as a significant ceremony to represent the light
which Christ's gospel brought into the world. And this too was
ordered by the very same injunction which prohibited all other
lights and tapers, that used to be superstition sly set before
images or shrines f , &c. And these lights, used time out of
mind in the church, are still continued in most, if not all,
cathedral and collegiate churches and chapels, so often as divine
service is performed by candle-light ; and ought also, by this
rubric, to be used in all parish churches and chapels at the
same times.
Church or- IX. To this section we might also refer the pulpit-cloth,

naments .. . . i

enjoined. cushions, coverings for the altar, &c., and all other ornaments
used in the church, and prescribed by the first book of king
Edward VI.

SECT. V. Of the place appointed for the reading of Morning" and

Evening Prayer.

or the place THE reader may observe, that, in the second section of this
iog e andeven- chapter, I have only treated of churches in general, and the
t^beTaid* i8 necessl ty of having appropriate places for the performance of
divine worship, and have not taken any notice of the particular
place in the church, ivhere morning and evening prayer is to be
used. The appointment of which was yet the chief design of the
AH divine first part of our present rubric. For in the first book of king
foraedat r " Edward VI. all the rubric relating to this matter was only one
choir. the a ^ tne beginning of morning prayer, which ordered the priest,
being in the choir, to begin, with a loud voice , the Lord's Prayer,
called the Pater-noster, with which the morning and evening
service then began. So that then it was the custom for the
minister to perform divine service (i. e. morning and evening
prayer, as well as the communion-office) at the upper end of
the choir near the altar ; towards which, whether standing or
kneeling, he always turned his face in the prayers; though
whilst he was reading the lessons he turned to the people.
This practice Against this Bucer, by the direction of Calvin, most grievously
declaimed ; urging, that " it was a most antichristian practice
<c f or t } ie p r j es t to say prayers only in the choir, as a place pecu-
" liar to the clergy, and not in the body of the church among
" the people, who had as much right to divine worship as the

f Sparrow's Collection, p. 2, 3.

OF THE FIRST 111' III: I < . 93

themselves." lie therefore strenuously insisted, >< tliat Sect. V.
44 the reading divine service in the chant-el was an insufferable
" abu:sc. and ought immediately to he amended, if the whole
" nation would not he guilty of high treason against (i<<
This terrible outcry (however M-nseless anil trifling) prevailed so And altered
that when the Common Prayer Hook was altered in the complaint.
fifth vear of king Edward, this following rubric was placed in
the room of the old one; vi/. The Morning and Krcii'ing
PraijiT x/iu/l be itjsnl in .such places oj' the church, chapel, or
chancel, and the minister ahull turn ///;/?, r/.v the people may best
hear. And if there be am/ controrer.sy therein, the matter xhull
f erred to the ordinary, and he or hi* dcpufij shall appoint
the jtlacc^.

This alteration caused great contentions, some kneeling one Which

ne another, though still keeping in the chancel: whilst contentSS)
others left the accustomed place, and performed all the services
in the hodv of the church amongst the people. For the
appeasing oi' tin's strife and diversity, it was thought fit, when
the English service was again brought into the church, at
the accv-ssion of queen Elizabeth to the throne, that the rubric Tin the old
should be corrected, and put into the same form in which we
now have it; vix. That \\\vMormng and the Evening Prayer
shall be used In the accustomed place of the church, chapel, or
chiuieel ; by which for the generality must be meant the choir
or chancel, which was the accustomed place before the second
Common Prayer Book of king Edward. For it cannot be sup-
posed, that this second book, which lasted only one year and a
half, could establish a custom. However, a dispensing power
was left to the ordinary, who might determine it otherwise, if he
saw just cause.

Pursuant to this rubric, the morning and evening service was The original
again, as formerly, read in the chancel or choir. But because p^nTor 1
in some churches the too great distance of the chancel from the dei
body of the church, occasioned sometimes by the interposition of
a belfry, hindered the minister from being heard distinctly
by the people ; therefore the bishops, at the solicitations of
their inferior clergy, allowed them in several places to super-
sede their former practice, and to have desks, or reading-pews,
in the body of the church, where they might, with more ease to
themselves, and greater convenience to the people, perform, the
daily morning and evening service. Which dispensation, begun
at first by some few ordinaries, and recommended by them to
others, grew by degrees to be more general, till at last it came
to be an universal praciice : insomuch that the convocation, in

P Vide Bucer. Cons. c. i. p. 45 7. h Rubric before the beginning of morning

prayer, in the second book of king Edward.

I IBBARY ST. MARY'S COLLEGE

94 OF THE FIRST RUBRIC.

Chap. II. the beginning of king James the First's reign, ordered, that in
""every church there should be a convenient seat made for the
minister to read service in\ And this being almost threescore
years before the restoration of king Charles II. (at which time
the last review of the Common Prayer was made.) it is very
probable, that when they continued this rubric, they intended
the desk or reading pew should be understood by the accustomed
place for reading prayers. And what makes this the more
likely, is a rubric at the beginning of the communion, which
expressly mentions a reading pew, and seems to suppose one in
every church. It is true indeed, another rubric at the begin-
ning of the Communion-office (which orders the table, at the com-
munion-time^ to stand in the body of the church or chancel, where
morning and evening prayer are appointed to be said) seems to
have an eye to the old practice of reading prayers in the choir.
But this rubric being the same that we have in king Edward's
second Common Prayer Book, may perhaps have slipt into the
present book through the inadvertency of the reviewers, who
might not probably just then consider, that custom had shifted
the place for the performance of the daily service into another
part of the church. Though were it certain that this rubric
was continued in the last review, to authorize the old way of
reading the prayers in the choir, in such places as had still
retained that custom ; yet since the ordinaries have a dis-
pensing power, and they have approved of the alteration that
has been made in the introducing of desks ; it seems as regular
now to perform divine service in them, as it was formerly to do it
in the chancel or choir.

Chancels to . 2. The occasion of the latter part of this rubric relating to
theyTave chancels, was also another of Bucer's cavils; who, in his censure
e *" times of our Liturgy, in the same place that he complains of the
reading prayers in the choir, inveighs as vehemently against the
separation of the choir from the body of the church. This too
he calls " an antichristian practice, tending only to gain too
" great reverence to the clergy, who would hereby seem nearer
" related to God than the laity. That in ancient times churches
" were built in a round form, and not in a long one like ours,
" and that the place for the clergy was always in the middle ;
" and that therefore our division of the chancels from the
" churches was another article of treason against God." This
objection discovering an equal share of ignorance and ill-nature,
seems to have obtained no greater regard than the raillery
deserved. For in the review of the Liturgy of the fifth of king
Edward, instead of an order to pull down the chancels, as un-
doubtedly this mighty reformer expected, a clause was added at

i See Canon 82.

OK Tin: nui>i-:i: mi; .MOKMNC; A\I> EVENING ru YYK.K. 95

the end of the first rubric to prevent any alteration, c \pres>ly Sect. V.
enjoining, that the clmmrlx ts/nm/d rcmnln ax they had done in""
time* jHtst. There was afterwardfi indeed a >Teater occasion for
the eontinuanee of this rubric ; when a tumultuous rabble,
d bv tlie complaints that they had found had been
made bv this >amc Hucer. and his director Calvin k , proceeded
to demolish both chancels anil altar>, pullino- down the rails
and frames that divided them from the rest of the church, and
divesting them of all the ornaments that but seemed to intimate
them to be more than ordinary sacred. But this will fall more
:,v under my consideration hereafter, when I come to treat
of the Situation of the- altar, to which the rubric in the beginning
of the Communion-office will lead me.

CHAP. III.

01 THE ORDER FOR MORNING AND EVENING
PRAYER DAILY THROUGHOUT THE YEAR.

Tin: INTRODUCTION.
THAT the primitive Christians, besides their solemn service on Whether
Sundays, had public prayers every morning 1 and evening, daily,
:! ready been hinted upon a former occasion 1 : but a learned
gentleman is of the opinion, that this must be restrained to churcb '
times of peace; and that during the time of public persecution
thev were forced to confine their religious meetings to the
Lord's day only" 1 . And it is certain that Pliny n and Justin
Martyr , who both describe the manner of the Christian
worship, do neither of them make mention of any assembly
for public worship on any other day : so that their silence is a
negative argument that in their time there was no such assem-
bly, unless perhaps some distinction may be made between the
general assembly of both city and country on the Lord's day,
and the particular assemblies of the city Christians (who had
better opportunities to meet) on other days: which distinction
we- often meet with in the following ages, when Christianity was
come to its maturity and perfection. However, it was not long
after Justin Martyr's time, before we are sure that the church
observed the custom of meeting solemnly on Wednesdays and

k .Mr. Calvin (who \v;is hefoiv thought by some to have offered his assistance too
oliirioiisly tor carrying on the reformation in England, and who with relation to our
church had used some very hard c\pre>>io:is, not so well becoming the mouth of a
divine) warns .Martin I'.ncer, in a letter he sent to him just before his coming into
Sagland, against being the author or approver of middle counsels : by \\hich words he
plainly strikes at the moderation observed in the English reformation. Dr. Nichols's
Introduction to his Defence of the Doctrme and Discipline of the Church of England.
1 Chap. 2. sect. i. p. 69, 70. m Mr. Bingham's Antiquities, Iniok 13. ch. 9. sect. i.
vol. v. p. 281, &c. " L. 10. Ep. 97. o Apol. i. c. 87. p. 131. and c. 89. p. 132.

96 OF THE ORDER

Chap. III. Fridays, to celebrate the communion, and to perform the same
service as on the Lord's day itself, unless perhaps the sermon
was wantingP. The same also might be shewed from as early
authorities in relation to the festivals of their martyrs and the
whole fifty days between Easter and Whitsuntide 9. Nor need
we look down many years lower, before we meet with express
testimony of their meeting every day for the public worship of
God. For St. Cyprian tells us, that in his time it was customary
to receive the holy eucharist every day : a plain demonstration
that they had every day public assemblies, since we know the
eucharist was never consecrated but in such open and public
assemblies of the church r .

The order of . 2. That these daily devotions consisted of an evening as

their morn- *,, . < _ . . <=>

ing and even -well as a morning service, even trom at. Cyprian s time, the
learned author I just now referred to s endeavours to prove.
However, in a century or two afterwards, the case is plain ; for
the author of the Constitutions not only speaks of it, but gives us
the order of both the services 1 . The morning service, as there
described, began with the sixty-third, which was therefore
called the morning psalm. Immediately after which followed
the prayers for the catechumens, for those that were possessed,
for the candidates for baptism, and the penitents, which made
the general service on the Lord's day, and which were partly
performed by the deacon's TT/XXJ^COI^O-I?, or bidding of prayer,
something like our present Litany, but only directed to the
people, and instructing them for what and for whom they were
to offer their petitions ; and partly by the bishop's invoca-
tion over them, pronounced as they bowed down to receive
his blessing before their dismission. After these were dis-
missed, followed prayers for the peace of the whole world, and
for all orders of men in the church, with which the communion-
service was begun on the Lord's day, and at which none but
those who had a right to communicate were allowed to be pre-
sent. After this followed another short bidding prayer for
peace and prosperity the ensuing day; which was immediately
succeeded by the bishop's commendatory prayer, or morning
thanksgiving 11 ; which being ended, the deacon bid them bow
their heads, and receive the bishop's solemn benediction ; which
after they had done, he dismissed the congregation with the
usual form, Depart in peace : the word for dismissing every
church assembly.

This is the order of the morning service, as described by the
Constitutions; to which the evening service, as there also set
down, is in most things conformable. The prayers for the

P Tertull. de Orat. c. 14. Q Tertull. de Idololat. c. 14. de Coron. Mil. c. 3.

r Cypr. de Orat. Doinin. p. 147. s Bingham, ut supra, . 7. p. 302. t Const.
Apost. 1. 8. C. 37. " EvxP"-fa 'Op8piinr), Const. 1. 6. c. 38.

FOR MORNING AND I.VKMM; PRAYER. 97

catechumens, the po^-s^ed, the candidates for baptism, and the Sect. I.
penitents, were all the same ; so also were those for the peace
of the world, and the whole state of the catholic church. So
that all the difference bet \\een them was this, vi/. that they
he hundred and fortv-fir.st psalm at evening instead of the
sixtv-third, which they used in the morning; and instead of the
bidding prayer for peace and prosperity, and the bishop's com-
mendatorv prayer in the morning service, two others were used
in the afternoon more proper to the evening, and which for
that reason were called the ci' cuing bidding prayer, and the
iTt'nin^- t/iftnksgiriHg. The bishop's benediction, too, at the
conclusion of the whole, was different from that which was used
in the forenoon : but excepting in these two or three parti-
culars, both services were one and the same ; and in the
evening, as well as the morning, the congregation was dismissed
with the constant form pronounced by the deacon, Depart in
jh'ucc. The reader, that is curious to see more of these forms,
may consult the learned Mr. Bingham, who transcribes most of
them at large, and compares the several parts of them with the
memorials and accounts that are left us by other ancient
writers of the church : in which place he also takes occasion to
shew, that though in the form in the Constitutions there is but
one psalm appointed either at morning or evening ; yet from
other rituals it is plain, that it was customary in most places to
recite several of the psalms, and to mix lessons along with
them, both out of the Old Testament and the New, for the edi-
fication of the people x . But this is what I have not room to
do here ; and indeed there is the less occasion, as it will come
in my way to sr>eak of these points more largely hereafter, as
the order of the service I am now entering upon will lead me.

SECT. I. Of the Sentences.

PRAYER requires so much attention and serenity of mind, that why placed
it can never be well performed without some preceding prepa- nlng o
ration: for which reason, when the Jews enter into their syna- 8ervlce "
gogues to pray, they remain silent for some time, and meditate
before whom they stand/: and the Christian priest, in the pri-
mitive ages, prepared the people's hearts to prayer by a devout
preface*. The first book of king Edward indeed begins with
the Lord's Prayer : but when they came to review it after-
wards, and to make alterations, they thought that too abrupt a
beginning, and therefore prefixed these sentences, with the fol-
lowing exhortation, confession, and absolution, as a proper in-
troduction, to bring the souls of the congregation to a spiritual
frame, and to prepare them for the great duty they are just

x See Mr. Bingham's Antiquities, vol. v. book 13. chap, n, 12. y Buxtorf.

Synag. Judaic, cap. 10. p. 194. Basil. 1661. z Cypr. de Orat. Dom. p. 152.
WHEATLY. H

The choice
of them.

The design
of the ex-
hortation.

Do OF THE OEDER

Chap. III. entering upon. The sentences are gathered out of scripture,

~" that so we may not dare to disobey them ; since they come

from the mouth of that God whom we address ourselves to in

our prayers, and who may justly reject our petitions, if we

hearken not to his word.

. 2. As to the choice of them, the reverend compilers of our
Liturgy have selected such as are the most plain and the most
likely to bring all sorts of sinners to repentance. There are
variety of dispositions, and the same man is not always in the
same temper. For which reason they have collected several,
and left it to the discretion of him that ministereth, to use such
one or more of them every day, as he shall judge agreeable to
his own, or his people's circumstances.

SECT. II. Of the Exhortation.

THE design of the exhortation is to apply and set home the
preceding sentences, and to direct us how to perform the follow-
ing confession. It collects the necessity of it from the word of
God ; and when it hath convinced us of that, it instructeth us in
the right manner, and then invites us to that necessary duty^
for which it hath so well prepared us. And for our greater
encouragement, the minister (who is God's ambassador) offers
to accompany us to the throne of grace, knowing his Master will
be glad to see him with so many penitents in his retinue. And
he promises that he will put words in our mouths, and speak
with us and for us ; only we must express the humility of our
minds by the lowliness of our bodies, and declare our assent to
every sentence by repeating it reverently after him.

SECT. III. Of the Confession.

THE holy scriptures assure us, that sin unrepented of hinders
. the success of our prayers a ; and therefore such as would pray
effectually have always begun with confession b 5 to the end that,
their guilt being removed by penitential acknowledgments, there
might no bar be left to God's grace and mercy. For which
reason the church hath placed this confession at the beginning, of
the service, for the whole congregation to repeat after the
minister, that so we may first be witnesses of each other's con-
fession, before we unite in the following service. And this, as
we learn from St. Basil; is consonant to the practice of the
primitive Christians ; " who (he tells us) in all churches, isnme-
" diately upon their entering into the house of prayer, made
" confession of their sins to God, with much sorrow, concern,
" and tears, every man pronouncing his own confession with his
" own mouth c ."

The confes-

thfpTaytrsf

a Isa. i. 15. John ix. 31. b Ezra ix. 5, 6. Dan. ix. 4, 5. c Basil, ad Clerum
Neocasariens. Ep. 63. torn. ii. p. 843. D.

FOR MORNlXCi AX1) I \1.\IV. i'KAVKR. 99

. 2. As to thr i'on.i itself, it is blamed by our sectaries for Sect. IV.
too general : and yet it. is >;> particular, as to contain all An objectlon

.ins with an acknowledgment of our answered -

original corruption in the wicked devices and dcx'trcx of onr
, and then descends to actual guilt, which it divides into
MII~ ofomi inn and commUsion, under which two heads all sins
whatever inuM. ncce.v>arily be reduced. So that every single
:,, who maL KTal confession with his lips, may at

Miie time mentally unfold the plague of his own heart, his
particular sins, \\hatever they he, as effectually to God, who
searches the heart, as if he enumerated them in the most ample
form. And indeed had this form been more particular or
express, it would not so well have answered the end for which it
was designed: for a common confession ought to be so con-
trived, that every person present may truly speak it as his own
case ; whereas a confession drawn up according to the mind of
the objectors, would be but little less than an inquisition, forcing
those that join in it to accuse and condemn themselves of those
sins daily, which perhaps they never committed in their lives.

SECT. IV. Of the Absolution.

THE congregation being now humbled by the preceding con- HOW season-
fession, may justly be supposed to stand in need of consolation. jSe. 1 " 1 "
And therefore since God has committed to his ambassadors the
ministry of reconciliation 11 , they can never more seasonably exer-
cise it than now. For this reason the priest immediately rises
from his knees, and standing up, as with authority, declares and
pronounces for their comfort and support, that God, who desires
not the death of a sinner, but rather that he may turn from his
wickedness and live, pardoneth and absolvcth all them that truly
repent, and utifeignedly believe his holy gospel.

. 2. Now whether this be only a declaration of the condition of what be-
or terms, whereupon God is willing to pardon sinners; O r nefitoreffe(
whether it be an actual conveyance of pardon, at the very instant
of pronouncing it, to all that come within the terms proposed,
is a question that is often the subject of dispute. With the
utmost deference therefore to the judgment of those who are of
a different opinion, I beg leave to declare for the last of these
s : not that I ascribe any judicial power or authority to
the priest to determine the case of a private man, so as to apply
God's pardon or forgiveness directly to the conscience of any
particular or definite sinner ; (my notion as to this will be seen
hereafter 6 ;) nor do I suppose that the priest, when he pro-
nounces this form, can apply the benefit of it to whom he

<1 i Cor. v. 1 8, 19. | e See chap. 2. concerning the Order for the Visitation of
the Sick, sect. 5. For the consistency of my notions in both these places, I must beg
the reader to turn at the same time to what I have said in the preface.

100 OF THE ORDER

Chap. III. pleases; or that he so much as knows upon whom, or upon how
~~many, it shall take effect : but all that I contend for is only
this, viz. that since the priest has the ministry of reconciliation*-
committed to him by God, and hath both power and command-
ment (as it is expressed in this form) to declare and pronounce to
his people, being penitent, the absolution and remission of their
sins ; therefore when he does, by virtue of this power and com-
mandment, declare and pronounce such absolution and remission
regularly in the congregation ; those in the congregation that
truly recent and unfeignedly believe God's holy gospel, (though
the priest does not know who or how many they are that do so,)
have yet their pardon conveyed and sealed to them at that very
instant through his ministration; it being the ordinary method
of God with his church, to communicate his blessings through the
ministry of the priest.

I am sensible that this is carrying the point higher than
many that have delivered their judgments before me. Even the
learned translator of St. Cyprian's works, who contends that
this is an authoritative form, yet explains himself to mean
nothing more by authoritative, than that it is " an act of office
" warranted by God, and pursuant to the commission which the
" priest hath received for publishing authoritatively the terms of
" pardon at large and in general, and then for pronouncing by
" the same authority, that when those terms are fulfilled, the
"pardon is granted S." But this explanation seems only to
make it an authoritative declaration, and not to suppose (as, with
submission to this gentleman, I take both the rubric and form
to imply) that it is an effective form, conveying as well as de-
claring a pardon to those that are duly qualified to receive it.
My reasons for this I shall have another occasion to give imme-
diately : for though what this learned gentleman asserts does
not come up to my notion of the form ; yet it is a great deal
more than another learned author is willing to allow ; who does
not seem to think the form to be authoritative in any sense at
all, or that there is any need of a commission to pronounce it.
For " it may be asked,"" saith the reverend Dr. Bennet upon
this place, " whether a mere deacon may pronounce this form of
" absolution : and to this," saith he, " I answer, that in my
" judgment he may." The reason that he gives for it is, that he
" cannot but think it manifest, that this form of absolution is
" only declaratory : that it is only saying, That all penitent
" sinners are pardoned by God upon their repentance : and
" consequently that a mere deacon has as much authority to
" speak every part of this form, as he has to say, When the
(e wicked man turneth away from his wickedness, &c. which is the

* i Cor. v. 1 8, 19. s See Dr. Marshal's preface to his translation of St. Cyprian.

II .Mouxixc; AND i:vi:xi\(; I-KAYKK. 101

"first of the- sentences appointed to he read before morning Sect. IV.
" praver : nav, that a mere deacon lias as imirli authority to ~~
" pronounce this I'oriu, as he has to preaeh a sermon about
vntance. And that therefore it MVHIS to be a vulgar
" mistake, which makes tin- deacons deviate from their rule, and
" omit either the whole, or cl^e a part, of this form, or perhaps
<c exchange it for a collect taken out of some other part of
' the Liturgy ."

Hut now, with submission to the learned doctor, I beg leave to Designed
observe, that this form is expressly called by the rubric, 7 'he church to be

fntion or Itcmixxiun ofXin-?. It is not called a Declaration o
Absolution, as one would think it should have been, if it had
been designed for no more; but it is positively and emphatically
called Till] Absolution^ to denote that it is really an absolution
of sin< to those that are entitled to it by repentance and faith.

Again, the term used to express the priest's delivering or de-
fclaring it, is a very solemn one : it is to be pronounced (saith the
rubric) by the priest alone. A word which signifies much more
than merely to make known, or declare a thing: for the Latin
proninicio, from whence it is taken, signifies properly to pro-
nounce or give sentence: and therefore the word pronounced,
here used, must signify that this is a sentence of absolution or
remission of sins, to be authoritatively uttered by one who has
received commission from God.

Hut farther, if the repeating this absolution be no more than
saying, That all pcn'itcnt sinner* arc pardoned by God upon their
repentance^ as the learned doctor affirms; I cannot conceive to
what end it should be placed just after the Confession ; for as
much as this, the doctor himself tells us, is said before it, viz. in
the first of the sentences appointed to be read before morning
or evening prayer, When the wicked man tnrneth aicayfrom his
wickedness, &c., and there I think indeed more properly : for
such a declaration may be a great encouragement to draw men
to confession and repentance ; but after they have confessed and
repented, the use of it, I think, is not so great. It is indeed a
comfort to us to know that God will pardon us upon our re-
pentance : but then it must be supposed that the hope of this
pardon is one chief ground of our repentance : and therefore it
cannot be imagined that the church should tell us that after the
Confession, which it is necessary we should know before it, as
being the principal motive we have to confess.

All that I know can be said against this (though the doctor
indeed does not urge so much) is, that " after the minister has
" declared the absolution and remission of the peopled sins, he
" goes on to exhort them to pray and beseech God to grant them

>' Dr. Bennet on the Common Prayer, j>. : 7.

102 OF THE ORDER

Chap. III. " true repentance, &c. which repentance is necessary, it may be
~" " said, beforehand, in order to their pardon; because God par-'
" doneth and absolveth none but those who truly repent. And
" therefore since the minister here exhorts the people to pray for
" repentance, after he has pronounced the absolution and remis-
" sion of their sins ; it may be thought that the absolution does
" not convey a pardon, but only promise them one upon their
" repentance." But in answer to this, we may grant in the first
place, that one part of repentance, viz. the acknowledging and
confessing of our sins, must be performed before we are pardoned ;
since, unless we acknowledge that we have transgressed God's
laws, we do not own that we stand in need of his pardon. And
for this reason the church orders the people to make their
confession, before she directs the priest to pronounce the Abso-
lution. But then there are two other parts of repentance, which
are as necessary offer our sins are forgiven us, as they are before;
and they are contrition and amendment of life : for first, contrition
(by which I mean the lamenting or looking back with sorrow
upon our sins) is certainly necessary even after they are forgiven,
us: since to be pleased with the remembrance of them, would
be (as far as lies in our power) to act those sins over again, and
consequently, though God himself should at any time have de-
clared them pardoned with his own mouth, yet such repetition
of them would render even that absolution ineffectual. And,
secondly, as to endeavours after amendment of life, if there be
any difference, they are certainly more necessary after our former
sins are forgiven than before ; because God's mercy in pardoning
us is a new obligation upon us to live well, and is what will en-
hance our guilt, if we offend afterwards. And therefore our
being pardoned, ought to make us pray the more vehemently for
repentance, and God's holy Spirit ; lest, if we should return to
our sins again, a worse thing should happen unto us. From all
which it appears, that though repentance be a necessary dispo-
sition to pardon, so as that neither God will, nor man can, ab-
solve those that are impenitent ; yet, in some parts of it, it is a
necessary consequent of pardon, insomuch as that he who is par-
doned ought still to repent, as well as he who seeks a pardon :
and if so, then the praying for repentance after the minister has
declared a pardon, is no argument, that such declaration does not
convey a pardon.

But, secondly, the design of the church in this place is, not
only to exhort the congregation to repentance, by declaring to
them that God will forgive and pardon their sins when they
shall repent, but also to convey an instant pardon from God, by
the mouth of the priest, to as many as do, at that time, truly
repent, and unfeigncdly believe his lioly gospel ; seems evident
from the former part of the absolution, where the priest reads his

FOR MOllXINt. AND 1 \I N'I\ KR. 103

nission before lie executes his authority. For thi.s part Sect. IV.
would he wholly needless, if no more was intended by tin- A'
Jution than \vhat Dr. Beimel tells UN, vi/. " a lure declaration,
" thru all ])eiiitent sinners aiv pardoned by God upon their re-
tor since, as he himself confi -ssi-s, tluiv is no more
contained in Mich a declaration than what is implied in the first
of the sentences before morning pravcr; it will he very difficult
to account whv the eliureli should uglier it in with so solemn a
proclamation of what poiecr and enmmtindment God has given to
his mini-UTS. Hut since the eliureli has direeted the priest to
make known to the people, that God lias green poicer (ind com-
viundment to his ministers to declare and pronounce to his people,
being penitent, the absolution and remission of their sins; it is
verv reasonable to suppose that, when in the next words the priest
declares that God pardonetJi and abtctvctk <dl those who tndy re-
pent, and utifeignedlij believe his holy gospel, he docs, in the intent
of the church, exercise that power, and obey that commandment,
which (iod has given him.

But, lastly, the persons to whom this absolution must be pro-
nounced, is another convincing proof that it is more than merely
declarative. For if it implied no more than that all sinners are
pardoned by God upon their repentance ; it might as well be
pronounced to such as continue in their sins, as to those that
have repented of them : nay, it would be more proper and ad*
vantageous to be pronounced to the former than to the latter:
because, as I have observed, such a declaration might be a great
inducement to forward their conversion. But yet we see that
this form is not to be pronounced to such as the church desires
sJtonld repent, but to those who liavc repented. The absolution
and remission of sins, which the priest here declares and pro-
nounces from God, is declared and pronounced to his people
being penitent, i. e. to those who are penitent at the very time of
pronouncing the absolution. For as to those who are impenitent,
the priest is not here said to have any power or commandment
relating to them ; they are quite left out, as persons not fit or
proper to have this commission executed in their behalf. From
all which it is plain, that this absolution is more than declarative,
that it is truly effective; insuring and conveying to the proper
subjects thereof the very absolution or remission itself. It is as
much a bringing of God^s pardon to the penitent member of
Christ's church, and as effectual to his present benefit, as an au-
thorized messenger bringing a pardon from his sovereign to a
condemned penitent criminal, is eflectual to his present pardon and
release from the before appointed punishment.

It is indeed drawn up in a declarative form ; and, considering
it is to be pronounced to a mixed congregation, it could not
well have been drawn up in any other. For the minister, not

104 OF THE ORDER

Chap. HI. knowing who are sincere, and who are feigned penitents, is not
allowed to prostitute so sacred an ordinance amongst the good
and bad promiscuously ; but is directed to assure those only of
a pardon who truly repent, and unfdgnedly believe God's holy
gospel. But then to these, as may be gathered from what has
been said, I take it to be as full and effective an Absolution as
any that can be given.

Not to be . 3. And if so, then the question the learned doctor here in-
by a deacon, troduces, must receive a different answer from what he has given
it. For deacons were never commissioned by the church to
give absolution in any of its forms : and therefore when a deacon
omits the whole or part of this form, he does not deviate from
his rule, as the doctor asserts, but prudently declines to use an
authority which he never received ; and which he is expressly
forbid to use in this place by the rubric prefixed, which orders
the Absolution to be pronounced by the priest alone. I am very
readily inclined to acknowledge with the doctor, that the word
alone was designed to serve as a directory to the people, not to
repeat the words after the minister, as they had been directed to
do in the preceding Confession ; but silently to attend till the
priest has pronounced it, and then, by a hearty and fervent
Amen, to testify their faith in the benefits conveyed by it. But
then as to what the doctor goes on to assert, that " the word
" priest does in this place signify, not one that is in priest's
" orders, as we generally speak, but any minister that officiates,
" whether priest or deacon ;" I think I have very good reason to
dissent from him. For the signification of a word is certainly
to be best learnt from the persons that impose it. Now though
it be true that in king Edward's second Common Prayer Book,
(which was the first that had the Absolution in it,) and in all
the other books till the restoration of king Charles, the word in
the rubric was minister and not priest ; yet in the review that
followed immediately after the restoration, priest was inserted
in the room of minister, and that with a full and direct design to
exclude deacons from being meant by it. For at the Savoy con-
ference, the presbyterian divines (that were appointed by the
king to treat with the bishops about the alterations that were
to be made in the Common Prayer) had desired that, as the
The words word minister was used in the Absolution, and in clivers other
'"Sunder* places ; it might also be used throughout the whole book, in-
elusive of stead of the word priest . But to this the bishops' answer was
deacons. ver y peremptory and full, viz. It is not reasonable that the word

i See the exceptions against the Book of Common Prayer, . u. p. 6. in a quarto
treatise, intitled, An Account of all the Proceedings of the Commissioners of both Per-
suasions, appointed by his sacred Majesty, according to Letters Patents, for the
' Review of the Book of Common Prayer, &c. London, printed in the year 1661. and
in Mr. Baxter's Narrative, p. 318.

FOR MORNIXC AM) EVENING PRAYER. 105

ininixtcr should be only used in the Liturgy : for si/tec *</ic parts Sect. V.
off /if Liturgy may lie per fanned !/ a deaeon, others Iiy none under "

.der of 1 1 prlfxt, \\7.. Absolution^ Consecration ; 'it I* jit that

some xnclt word //.v jtrlext should lie used for those o///rr.y, and not

\chleh signifies at large erery one that inln /.sYrr.v in the

r lie be k . And agreeable to this

aiisurr, when they came to make the ncce>^irv alterations in
the Liturgy, they not only refused to change pric.st lor minister,
hut also threw out the- word minister, and put priest in the room
of it. even in this rubric before the- Absolution. So that it is
Undeniably plain, that bv this rubric deacon* arc expressly forbid
to pronounce this form ; since the word priest in this place (if
interpreted according to the intent of those that inserted it) is
expressly limited to one in jiricsfs orders, and docs not compre-
hend any minister that (if/ic'iatcs, iclietlier priest or deacon, as Dr.
Bennet asserts. I therefore could wish that the doctor would
take some decent opportunity to withdraw that countenance,
which I know some deacons are apt to take from his opinion,
which has much contributed to the spreading of a practice which
cldom or never known before. The doctor indeed, in the
conclusion of the whole, declares that " lie is far from desiring
* any person to be determined by him : and entreats the deacons
" to consult their ordinaries, and to follow their directions, which
" in such disputable matters (as these) are the best rule of con-
" science/ 1 JUit. as to this it should be considered, that the rubric
being established by act of parliament, the ordinaries themselves
(whom the doctor advises the deacons to consult about it) have
no power to authorize them to use this form, any otherwise than
by giving them priest's orders: since their authority reaches no
farther than to doubtful cases 1 , and this, I think, appears now to
be a clear one.

. 4. The priest is required to pronounce the Absolution The priest
standing, because it is an act of his authority in declaring the the^pSfpilTto
-will of God, whose ambassador he is. But the people are to knee1 '
continue knee/ing, in token of that humility and reverence, with
-which they ought to receive the joyful news of a pardon from God.

SECT. V. Of the Rubric after the Absolution.
IMMEDIATELY after the Absolution in the morning service,
follows this general rubric :

If The people shall answer here, and at the end of all other

prayers, Amen.

The word here enjoined to be used is originally Hebrew, and Amen, what
signifies the same in English, as So be it. But the* word itself has !t 8ignlfie8<

k See the papers thr-.t passed between the commissioners appointed by his Majesty
for the alteration of the Common Prayer (anm-xetl to the afore-said accoiint) p. 57, 58.
1 ee the preface concerning the Service of the Church.

106

OF THE ORDER

Chap. III. been retained in all languages, to express the assent of the person

~~ that pronounces it, to that to which he returns it as an answer.

As it is used in the Common Prayer Book, it bears different

significations, according to the different forms to which it is an-

nexed. At the end of prayers and collects, it is addressed to

God, and signifies, "So be it, O Lord, as in our prayers we

" have expressed." But at the end of Exhortations, Absolu-

tions, and Creeds, it is addressed to the priest, and then the

I meaning of it is either, ci So be it, this is our sense and mean-

" ing :" or, " So be it, we entirely assent to and approve of what

i " has been said."

HOW regard- . 2. When this assent was given by the primitive Christians

primitive at their public offices, they pronounced it so heartily that St.

Christians. j erom compares it to thunder : " They echo out the Amen,"
saith he, "like a thunder-clap m :" and Clemens Alexandrinus
tells us, that " at the last acclamations of their prayers, they
" raised themselves upon their tip-toes (for on Sundays and on
" all days between Easter and Whitsuntide they prayed stand-
" ing) as if they desired that that word should carry up their
" bodies as well as their souls to heaven 11 ."

Why printed 3- In our present Common Prayer Book it is observable,
iTand 1 * nat ^ ne Amen is sometimes printed in one character, and some-

sometimes in times in another. The reason of which I take to be this : at

Italic*

end of all the collects and prayers, which the priest is to repeat
or say alone, it is printed in Italic, a different character from
the prayers themselves, to denote, I suppose, that the minister
is to stop at the end of the prayer, and to leave the Amen for
the people to respond : but at the end of the Lord's Prayer, Con-
fessions, Creeds, &c., and wheresoever the people are to join
aloud with the minister, as if taught and instructed by him what
to say, there it is printed in Roman, i. e. in the same character
with the confessions and creeds themselves, as a hint to the
minister that he is still to go on, and by pronouncing the Amen
himself, to direct the people to do the same, and so to set their
seal at last to what they had been before pronouncing.
The people .4. By the people's being directed by this rubric to answer
the prayer* Amen at the end of the prayers, they might easily perceive that
they are expected to be silent in the prayers themselves, and
only to go along with the minister in their minds. For the min-
ister is the appointed intercessor for the people, and consequently
it is his office to offer up their prayers and praises in their be-
half : insomuch that the people have nothing more to do than to
attend to what he says, and to declare their assent by an Amen
at last, without disturbing those that are near them by mutter-
ing over the collects in a confused manner, as is practised by

m Hieron. in 2 Prooem. Com. in Galat. n Stromat. 1. 7.

FOR MORXINU AN'D BVENtXG rKAYKK. 107

too many in most congregations, contrary to common -ense, as Sect. VII.

well . \ and good m ,

i . VI. Of 'the Lord'* Prayer.
\ v hath hitherto been dour is, for the most part, nit her a lord's Pray-

i c i i cr, how pro-

preparation to prayer, than prayer itself: but now we begin ,,,. r ;it the
he Lord's Prayer, with which the of lice itself began in the bcglnnlng *
first I,- K)k of king Kdward VI. Hut our reformers at the- review
of it (as has alreadv l)een observed) thought it proper to add
whai now precedes it, as judging it perhaps not so decent to call
(iod Our Father, before we 'repent of our disobedience against
him. The necessity of using it T have already proved ; and
shall now only observe, that its being drawn up by our glorious
Advocate, who knew both his Father's sufficiency and our wants,
:ssure us, that it contains every thing fit for us to ask, or
at her to grant. For which cause it is, and ought to be,
added to all our forms and offices to make up their defects, and
to recommend them to our heavenly Father ; who, if he cannot
deny us when we ask in his Son^s name, can much less do so
when we speak in his icords also P.

. 2. The Doxology was appointed by the last review to berheDoxo-

in this place, partly, I suppose, because many copies of St. ISetTmes

Matthew have it, and the Greek fathers expound it ; and partly, JoSfeUmes

use the office here is a matter of praise, it being used mime- omltted -
diately after the Absolution. Ikit since St. Luke leaves it out,
and some copies of St. Matthew, and most of the Latin fathers;
therefore we also omit it in some places, where the offices are not
direct acts of thanksgiving.

. 3. Here, and wherever else this prayer is used, the whole The people
congregation is to join with the minister in an audible voice ;
partly that people ignorantly educated may the sooner learn it ; j
an 1 partly to signify how boldly we may approach the Father,
-when we address him with the Son's words. Though till the
last review there was no such direction ; it having been the
custom till then, for the minister to say the Lord's Prayer
alone, in most of the offices, and for the people only to answer
at the end of it, by way of response, Deliver us from evil. And
the better to prepare and give them notice of what they were to
do, the minister was used to elevate and raise his voice, when he
came to the petition, Lead us not Into temptation, just as it is
done still in the Roman church, where the priest always pro-
nounces the conclusion of every prayer with a voice louder than
ordinary, that the people may know when to join their Amen.

SKCT. \lI.-Ofthc Responses.

IT was a very ancient practice of the Jews to recite their The design
public hymns and prayers by course: and many of the

o Introduction, p. 3, 4, &o. i> Cyprian, de Orat. p. 139, 140.

108

OF THE ORDER

v. OLord,
nt

Chap. III. assure us, that the primitive Christians imitated them therein :
so that there is no old Liturgy wherein there are not such short
and devout sentences as these, which, from the peopled answering
the priests, are called responses. The design of them is, by a
grateful variety, to quicken the people's devotions, and engage
their attention : for since they have their share of duty, they
must expect till their turn come, and prepare for the next
response ; whereas, when the minister does all, the people na-
turally grow sleepy and heedless, as if they were wholly un-
concerned.

2. The responses here enjoined consist of prayers and
praises: the first, O Lord, open thou our lips, and our mouth,
s ^ ia ^ shew forth thy praise, are very frequent in ancient Litur-
gies, particularly in those of St. James and St. Chrysostom, and
are fitly placed here with respect to those sins we lately confessed:
for they are part of David^s penitential psalm q, who looked on
his guilt so long, till the grief, shame, and fear, which followed
thereupon, had almost sealed up his lips, and made him speech-
less ; so that he could not praise God as he desired, unless it
pleased him, by speaking peace to his soul, to remove those ter-
rors, and then his lips would be opened, and his mouth ready to
praise God. And if we be as sensible of our guilt as we ought
to be, it will be needful for us to beg such evidences of our
pardon, as may free us from the terrors which seal up our lips,
and then we shall be fit to praise God heartily in the following
psalms.

.3. The words that follow, viz. God, make speed to save
W5 . 5 Zor J, make haste to help us, are of ancient use in the
western church. When with David we look back to the innu-
merable evils which have taken hold of us, we cry to God to save
us speedily from them by his mercy ; and when we look forward
to the duties we are about to do, we pray as earnestly, in the
words of the same Psalmist 1 ", that he will make haste to help us
by his grace ; without which we can do no acceptable service.

. 4. Arid now having good confidence that our pardon is
granted; like David 5 , we turn our petitions into praises: stand-
~* n g U P to denote the elevation of our hearts, and giving glory to
the whole Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, for the hopes
we entertain.

In the primitive times almost every father had his own Doxo-
logics, which they expressed as they had occasion in their own
phrases and terms ; ascribing glory and honour, fyc. sometimes to
the Father only, and sometimes only to the Son; sometimes to the
Father through the Son, and sometimes to the Father with the
Son ; sometimes to the Spirit jointly with both, and sometimes
through or in the Spirit to either ; sometimes through the Son to

q Psalm li. 15. r Psalm Ixx. i. s Psalm vi. 9. cxxx. 7.

v. ocod,
make speed

wake haste

v. Glory be

'thbegJf-
ning,&c.

FOR MORNING AND EVENING. PRAYER. 109

the Fut fur with the Holy Ghost, and sometimes to the Father and Sect. VI L
Holy (ihn.\-t with the Son. For they all knew that there v
three distinct, but undivided, Persons, in one eternal and infinite
ic iui ; and therefore whilst they rendered glory from this
principle of faith, whatever the form of Doxology was, the mcan-
ul design of it was always the same. But when the Arians
to wrest sonic of these general expressions in countenance
and vindication of their impious opinions, and to fix chiefly upon
that ton n, which was the most capable of being abused to an
heretical sense, vix. Glory to the Father, by the Son, in the Holy
Ghoxt ; this and the other forms grew generally into disuse; and
that which ascribes glory to the Holy Ghost, as well as to the
Father a)id the Son, from that time became the standing form of
the church. So that the Doxology we meet with in the ancient
Liturgies is generally thus : Glory be to the Father, and to the
Son, and to the Holy Ghost, now and ever, world without end :
and so it continues still in the offices of the Greek church : but
the western church soon afterwards added the words, As it was
in the beginning, not only to oppose the poison of the Arians,
who said, there was a beginning of time before Christ had any
beginning, but also to declare that this was the primitive form,
and the old orthodox way of praising God 1 .

5. z. Having now concluded our penitential office, we begin v - Praise ye

, * , & . . , ! ... & the Lord.

the office of praises ; as an introduction to which the priest ex- R. The
horts us to Praise the Lord : the people, to shew their readiness
to join with him, immediately reply, let the Lord's name be
praised ; though this answer of the people was first added to the
Scotch Liturgy, and then to our own, at the last review.

The first of these versicles, viz. Praise ye the Lord, is no other or the Hai
than the English of Hallelujah ; a word so sacred, that St. John lel
retains it u , and St. Austin saith the church scrupled to translate
it x ; a word appointed to be used in all the Liturgies I ever met
with : in some of them upon all days of the year, except those of .
fasting and humiliation ; but in others only upon Sundays and
the fifty days between Easter and Whitsuntide, in token of the
joy we express for Chrises resurrection y. In our own church,
notwithstanding we repeat the sense of it every day in English ;
yet the word itself was retained in the first book of king Edward
VI., where it was appointed to be used immediately after the
versicles here mentioned,yrom Easter to Trinity Sunday. How
it came to be left out afterwards I cannot tell; except it was
because those who had the care of altering our Liturgy, thought
the repetition of the word itself was needless, since the sense of
it was implied in the foregoing versicles : though the churcli

t Concil. Vasens. c. 3. torn. ii. col. 727. E. u Rev. xix. I, 3, 4, 6, &c. x De
Doctrina Christiana, lib. ii. cap. 1 1. torn. iii. col. -25. B. 7 August. Ep. 119. ad

Jan. cap. 15. et 17. Isidor. de Eccl. Otfic. lib. i. c, 13.

110 OF THE ORDER

Chap. III. always took it for something more than a bare repetition of
"" Praise ye the Lord. For in those words the minister calls only
upon the congregation to praise God ; whereas in this he was
thought to invite the holy angels also to join with the con-
gregation, arid to second our praises below with their divine
Hallelujahs above.

objection g. 5". Some have objected against the dividing of our prayers
into such small parts and versicles : but to this we answer, That
though there be an alteration and division in the utterance, yet
the prayer is but one continued form. For though the church
requires that the minister speak one portion, and the people the
other ; yet both the minister and the people ought mentally to
offer up and speak to God, what is vocally offered up and spoken
by each of them respectively.

SECT. \HI.-Ofihe Ninety-f/th Psalm.
TheVenite THE matter of this psalm shews it was designed at first for

Exultemus. IT \ n r> t i'

the public service ; on the feast of tabernacles, as some 2 , or
on the Sabbath-day, as others think a : but St. Paul judges it fit
for every day, while it is called to-day^ , and so it has been used
in all the Christian world; as the Liturgies of St. Chrysostom
and St. Basil witness for the Greek church, the testimony of St.
Augustin for the African , and all its ancient offices and capi-
tulars for the western. St. Ambrose saith, that it was the use
of the church in his time to begin their service with it d : for
which reason in the Latin services it is called the Invitatory
Psalm; it being always sung with a strong and loud voice, to
hasten those people into the church, who were in the cemetery
or churchyard, or any other adjacent parts, waiting for the be-
ginning of prayers 6 : agreeable to which practice, in the first
book of king Edward it is ordered, to be said, or sung, without
any (i. e. I suppose without any other) invitatory.

Why used in . 2. Our reformers very fitly placed it here as a proper pre-
ifc place. p ar atory to the following psalms, lessons, and collects. For it
exhorts us, first, to praise God, shewing us in what manner and
' for what reasons we ought to do it f ; secondly, it exhorts us to
pray to him, shewing us also the manner and reasonsS. Lastly,
it exhorts us to hear God's word speedily and willingly h , giving
us a caution to beware of hardening our hearts, by an instance of
the sad event which happened to the Jews on that account 1 ,
whose sin and punishment are set before us, that we may not
destroy our souls, by despising and distrusting God's word as
they did k. For which warning we bless the holy Trinity, saying,
Glory be to the Father, $c.

z Grotius in Psalm xcv. a Calvin in Psahn xcv. b Heb. iii. 7, 15. c Serm.
176. de verb. Apost. c. i. torn. v. col. 839. E. d Serm. de Deip. e Durand. de
Divin. Offic. Rational. 1. 5. c. 3. numb. n. fol. 227. f Ver. J 5. g Ver,

6, 7. fc Ver. &. i Ver. 8^.11. k Ver. 10, u.

II MORNING AND EVENING PR AVER. Ill

SECT. IX.- Of 'the Psalm*.

AND now, if we have performed the foregoing parts of the Li- Sect IX.
turgy as we ought, we shall be fitly disposed to sing the
of David with his own spirit. For all that hath been

, lo was to tune our hearts, that we may say, O God our
v nrc m/<///, :..r \c\ll ,v///' and give praise*. For having con-
d humbly, begged forgiveness earnestly, and received the
news of our absolution thankfully; we shall be naturally filled
with contrition and lowliness, and with desires of breathing up
our souls to heaven. And this, St. Basil tells us m , was a rite
that in his time had obtained among all the churches of God :
" After the Confession," saith he, " the people rise from prayer,
" and proeeed to psalmody, dividing themselves into two parts,
" and singing by turns." For the performance of which we can
have Eogreater or properer assistance than the Book of Psalms,
which is a collection of prayers and praises indited by the Holy
Spirit, composed by devout men on various occasions, and so
suited to public worship, that they are used by Jews as well as
Christians. And though the several parties of Christians differ
in many other things ; yet in this they all agree. They contain
variety of devotions, agreeable to all degrees and conditions of
men ; insomuch that, without much difficulty, every man may,
either directly or by way of accommodation, apply most of them
to his own case.

.2. For which caifse the church useth these oftener than any used oftener
other part of scripture. Nor can she herein be accused of no- otSr^it of j
velty : since it is certain the temple-service consisted chiefly o f 8cripture -
forms taken out of the Psalms n ; and the prayers of the modern
Jews also are mostly gathered from thence . The Christians
undoubtedly used them in their public service in the times of the
apostles P ; and in the following ages they were repeated so often
at the church, that the meanest Christians could rehearse them
by heart at their ordinary workA

. 3. But now it is objected, that "it cannot reasonably be whether all
" supposed that all the members of mixed congregations can be
" fit to use some expressions in the Psalms, so as to make
" their own words; because very few have attained to such a" 8esome
" degree of piety and goodness, as David and the other Psalmists the
" make profession of : and that therefore the Book of Psalms is
" not now a proper part of divine service."

To which it is answered : That so long as men continue in a
wicked course of life, they are not only unfit for the use of the

1 Psalm cviii. i. m Basil. Ep. 63. torn. ii. p. 843. n i Chron. xvi. i 37.

xxv. i, -2. o Buxtorf. Synag. Judaic, cap. 10. Pi Cor. xiv. 26. Col. iii. 16.
James v. 13. q Vid. Chrys. Horn. 6. de Poeniten. torn. v. col. 741. D. in a Latin
edition, printed at Paris 1588.

OF THE ORDER

Chap. III. Psalms, but of any other devotions : they are not only uncapable
~of applying such passages in the Psalms to their own persons;
but they cannot so much as repeat a penitential Psalm, or even
the confession of sins in the Liturgy, in a proper and agreeable
manner: since he that does this as he ought, must do it with
resolutions of amendment. But then as to those who have sin-
cerely repented, and in earnest begun a virtuous course of life ;
no reason can be given why they may not unite their hearts and
voices with the church, in rehearsing these Psalms. For we may
very aptly take a great part of the Psalter as the address of the
whole church to almighty God ; and then no doubt but every
sincere member of this body may perform his part in this pious
consort. Every true Christian may, and must say, that the
church, whereof he professes himself a member, is all glorious
within, (i. e. adorned with all manner of inward graces and excel-
lencies,) though no Christian that is humble will presume to say
so of himself. Perhaps the very best men do not think such
elevated expressions fit to be applied to their single lives, or per-
sonal performances : but yet any sincere Christian may very well
join in the public use of these parts of the Psalter, when he con-
siders that what he says, or sings, is the voice of the church uni-
versal ; and that, as he has but a small share of those virtues
and perfections, which are the ornament of the church, the body
of Christ; so his tongue is but one, among those innumerable
choirs of Christians throughout the world. And there is no
reason to doubt but that David did in some Psalms speak as the
representative of the church, as in others he expresses himself in
the person of Christ : and therefore a devout man may also as
well use these Psalms in his closet, as in the church ; if so be he
consider himself, notwithstanding his retirement, as one of that
large and vast body, who serve and worship God, according to
these forms, night and day. But to return :

' 4" ^ e custom ^ sm gi"g or repeating the Psalms alter-
nately, or verse by verse, seems to be as old as Christianity itself.
Nor is there any question to be made but that the Christians re-
ceived it from the Jews; for it is plain that several of the
Psalms, which were composed for the public use of the temple,
were written in amceb crick, or alternate verse*. To which way of
singing used in the temple, it is probable the vision of Isaiah al-
luded, which he saw of the seraphim crying one to another, Holy,
holy, holy, #c. s That it was the constant practice of the church
in the time of St. Basil, we have his own testimony : for he
writes *, that the people, in his time, " rising before it was light,
" went to the house of prayer, and there, in great agony of soul,

r As the cxxivth and cxviiith, &c. s Isaiah viii. 3. t Ep. ad Clerum Neo-

caesariens. Ep. 63. torn. ii. p. 843. D. Videet Const. Ap. 1. ii. c. 57.

FOR MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER. 113

" and incessant showers of tears, made confession of their sins Sect. IX.
" to God ; and then rising from their prayers, proceeded to ""
" singing of psalms, dividing themselves into two parts, and
" Muring by turns/ 1 Ever since which time it has been thought
isonable and decent, as to be universally practised. What
ioret writes", that Fhivianus and Diodorus were the first
that ordered the Psalms of David to be sung alternately at An-
tioch, seems not to be meant of the first institution of this
custom, but only of the restoring of it, or else of the appointing
some more convenient way of doing it. Isidore says x , that
St. Ambrose was the first that introduced this custom among
the Latins ; but this too must be understood only in relation to
some alterations that were then made ; for pope Caclcstine, as
we read in his life, applied the Psalms to be sung alternately at
the celebration of the eucharist. This practice, so primitive
and devout, our church (though there is no particular rubric to
enjoin it) still continues in her service either by singing, as in
our cathedral worship, or by saying, as in the parochial. For
in the former, when one side of the choir sing to the other, they
both provoke and relieve each other's devotion : they provoke it
(as Tertulliany remarks) by a holy contention, and relieve it by
a mutual supply and change: for which reasons, in the parochial
service, the reading of the Psalms is also divided between the
minister and people. And indeed did not the congregation
bear their part, to what end does the minister exhort them to
prui a c the Lord ? or what becomes of their promise, that their
months shall sh civ forth his praise? To what end again is the
invitatory (0 come, let us sing unto the Lord, <*c.) placed before
the Psalms, if the people are to have no share in praising him in
the Psalms that follow ?

. 5. Nor does the use of musical instruments in the singing Musical
of psalms appear to be less ancient than the custom itself of j^JJ" 6111
singing them. The first Psalm we read of was sung to a tym- singing of
brcl, viz. that which Moses and Miriam sang after the deliver- ps '
ancc of the children of Israel from Egypt z . And afterwards at
Jerusalem, when the temple was built, musical instruments
were constantly used at' their public services a . Most of David's
Psalms, we see by the titles of them, were committed to masters
of music to be set to various tunes : and in the hundred and
fiftieth Psalm especially, the prophet calls upon the people to
prepare their different kinds of instruments wherewith to praise

ic Lord. And this has been the constant practice of the

Hist. Eccl. 1. ii. c. 24. * Isidor. de Offic. 1. i. c. 7. 7 Sonant inter duos

Imi et liymni, et mutuo provocant quis nielius Deo suo cantet : Talia Christus
ens ct audii-iis gaudet. Tert. ad Uxor. ad finem, 1. 2. p. 172. B. z Exod. xv. 20.
2 Sam. vi. 5. I Chron. xv. 16. 2 Chron. v. 12. and xxix. 25.
WHEATLY. I

114

OF THE ORDER

organs used

The psaims

Chap. III. church, in most ages, as well since, as before the coming of
~ Christ b.

When organs were first brought into use, is not clearly known :
but we find it recorded that about the year 766, Constantius
Copronymus, emperor of Constantinople, sent a present of an
organ to king Pepin of France : and it is certain that the use
of them has been very common now for several hundred of years;
Durand mentioning them several times in his book, but giving no
intimation of their novelty in divine service.

. 6. When we repeat the psalms and hymns we stand; that,
by the erection of our bodies, we may express the elevation or
lifting up of our souls to God. Though another reason of our
standing is, because some parts of them are directed to God, and
others are not : as therefore it would be very improper to kneel
at those parts which are not directed to him ; so it would be
very indecent to sit, when we repeat those that are. And there-
fore because both these parts, viz. those which are, and those
which are not directed to God, are so frequently altered, and
mingled one with another, that the most suitable posture for
each of them cannot always be used : standing is prescribed as a
posture which best suits both together ; which is also consonant
to the practice of the Jewish church recorded in the scripture.
For we read d , that while the priests and Levites were offering
up praises to God, ail Israel stood. And we learn from the
ritualists of the Christian church e , that when they came to the
Psalms, they always shewed the affection of their souls by this
posture of their bodies.

.7. At the end of every Psalm, and of every part of the hun-
dred and nineteenth Psalm f , and all the Hymns, (except the Te
Deum ; which, because it is nothing else almost but the Gloria
Patri enlarged, hath not this doxology annexed,) we repeat
Glory be to the Father, &c. a custom which Durandus would have
us believe was instituted by pope Damasus, at the request of
St. Jerom s : but for this .there appears to be but little foun-
dation. In the Eastern churches they never used this glorifi-
cation, but only at the end of the last Psalm, which they called
their Aniiphona, or Allelujali, as being one of those Psalms
which had the Allelujah prefixed to it h ; but in France, and
several other of the Western churches, it was used at the end of
every Psalm ' ; which is still continued with us, to signify that

b Basil, in Psalm, i. torn. i. p. 126. B. Euseb. Histor. Eccles. lib. 2. c. 17. p. 57. C.
Dionys. Areop. de Eccles. Hier. c. 3. p. 89. D. Isid. Peleus. 1. i. Ep. 90. p. 29. A.
c Aventin. Annal. Bojorum, 1. 3. f. 300. as cited in Mr. Gregory's Posthumous Works,
2 Chron. vii. 6. e Vide Amal. Fort, lib. 3. cap. 3. Durand. Rational.

The Gloria

hymns

p
fi

49.

ib. 5. cap. 2. f See the order how the Psalter is appointed to be read. S Durand.
National. 1. 5. c. 2. n. 17. fol. 214. h Cassian. Institut. 1. 2. c. 8. Strabo de Reb.

Eccles. c. 25. i Cassian. ut supra.

FOIl MOKXIXC. AND KVKM\<; I'KAVKIl. 115

ME bi-lievc that the same God is worshipped by Christians as by Sect. IX.
Jews; the same God t'"at is glorified in tin- Psalms, having been~
from the beginning, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as \\vll as
now. So that the Gloria Patri is not any real addition to the
INnlms, but is only used as a neeessary expedient to turn the
A Psalms into Christian hymns, and fit them for the use of
the elmreh now, as thev weiv before' for the use of the syna-
gogue 1 .

. S. The present division of the Book of Psalms into several '^^"J*
portions (whereby two separate portions are afiixed to each clay, r ) t ' ai 1 1 ^* the
and the circle of the whole to the circuit of the month) seems to 1 "*'
be more commodious and proper than any method that had been
used before. For the division of them into seven portions called
noc turns, which took up the whole once a week, (as practised in
the Latin church,) seemed too long and tedious. And the
division of them into twenty portions, to be read over in so many
days, (as in the Greek church,) though less tedious, is too un-
certain, every portion perpetually shifting its day : whereas in
our Church, each portion being constantly fixed to the same day
of the month, (c\rrrj)f there be proper Psalms appointed for that
day* as all the former Common Prayer Books expressed it,) the
whole course is rendered certain and immovable : and being
divided into threescore different portions, (i. c. one for every
morning, and one for every evening service,) none of them can be
thought too tedious or burdensome. In all the old Common Prayer
Books indeed, because January and March have one day above the
number of thirty ', (which, as concerning this purpose, was ap-
polntcd to crery month,) and February, which is placed between
them both, hath only tic cnty -eight days ; it was ordered, that
February should borrow of either of the months (of January and
March) one day : and so the Psalter winch was read in February-,
began at the last day of January, and ended the first day of
March. And to know what Psalms were to be read every day,
there was (pursuant to another rubric) a column added in the
calendar, to shew the number that was appointed for the Psalms ;
and another table where the same number being found, shewed
what Psalms were to be read at morning and evening prayer.
But this being found to be troublesome and needless, it was
ordered first in the Scotch Liturgy, and then in our own, that in
Februaru the Psalter should be read only to the twenty -eighth or
twenty-ninth day of the month. And January and March were
inserted into the rubric, which before ordered that in May and the

5t of the months that had one and thirty days a piece, the same
hns should he read the last day of the said months, which were
the day before : so that the Psalter may begin again the
first day of the next montli ensuing.

. o. The Psalms we use in our daily service are not taken T he p^aims

J to be used

I 2

116 OF THE ORDER

Chap. III. out of either of the two last translations of the Bible, but out of
tne & reat English Bible, translated by William Tyndal and

thetransia- Miles Coverdale, and revised by archbishop Cranmer : for when
the Common Prayer was compiled in 1548, neither of the two
last translations were extant.

It is true indeed, that at the last review the Epistles and Gos-
pels were taken out of the new translation : and the Lessons too,
since that time, have been read out of king James the First's
Bible. But in relation to the Psalms it was noted, that the
Psalter followeth the division of' the Hebrews, and the translation
of' the great English Bible set forth and used in the time ofking
Henry the Eighth, and king Edward the Sixth^. The reason
of the continuance of which order is the plainness and smoothness
of this translation : for the Hebraisms being not so much retained
in this as in the late translations, the verses run much more
musical and fitter for devotion. Though, as the old rubric in-
forms us, this translation, from the ninth Psalm unto the hundred
and forty-eighth Psalm, doth 'vary in numbers from the common
Latin translation.

SECT. X. Of the Lessons.
The Lessons, OUR hearts being now raised up to God in praising and ad-
miring him in the Psalms ; we are in a fit temper and disposition
j- o near what he shall speak to us by his word. And thus too a
respite or intermission is given to the bent of our minds : for
whereas they were required to be active in the Psalms, it is suf-
ficient if in the Lessons they hold themselves attentive. And
therefore now follow two chapters of the Bible, one out of the
Old Testament, the other out of the New, to shew the harmony
between the law and the gospel : for what is the law, but the
gospel foreshewed ? what the gospel, but the law fulfilled ? That
which lies in the Old Testament, as under a shadow, is in the
New brought out into the open sun : things there prefigured are
here performed. And for this reason the first Lesson is taken
out of the Old Testament, the second out of the New, that so
the minds of the hearers may be gradually led from darker reve-
lations to clearer views, and prepared by the vails of the law to
bear the light breaking forth in the gospel.

The antiquity . 2. And here it may not be amiss to observe the great
of lessons. ant jq U j t y o f joining the reading of scriptures to the public de-
votions of the church. Justin Martyr says, " It was a custom
" in his time to read lessons out of the Prophets and Apostles in
" the assembly of the faithful 1 ." And the council of Laodicea,
held in the beginning of the fourth century, ordered " lessons
" to be mingled with the Psalms m ." And Cassian tells us, that,

k See the order how the Psalter is appointed to be read. 1 ApoL I. cap. 87.

p. 131. m Can. 17. Concil. torn. i. col. 1500. B.

FOR MORXIXC. AND EVKN'INV, I'UAYI 117

" It was the constant custom of all the Christians throughout s.-ct. X.

\|)t to have two lessons, one out of the Old Testament, and
"another out of the New, read immediately after the IVsalms;
" a practice,"" he says, "so ancient, that it cannot he known whe-
" ther it was founded upon any human institution 11 /" Nor has
this practice been peculiar to the Christians only, but constantly
also by the Jews; who divided the books of Moses into a>
many portions as there aro weeks in the year; that so, one of
those portions being read over every sabbath-day, the whole
might be read through every year . And to this answers that
expression of St. JamesP, that Moses was read in the ^ijini^-i^ues
ci-cnj sabbath-day. And that to this portion of the law they
added a lesson out of the prophets, we may gather from the
thirteenth of the Acts, where we find it mentioned that the Law
and the Prophets were both read in a synagogue where St. Paul
was present'!, and that the Prophets were read at Jerusalem
// sabbath-day r .

. 3. For the choice of these lessons and their order, the The order of
church observes a different course. For the first lessons on or- "o^Sr or'di.
clinary days she observes only this; to begin at the beginning o f nar y da y s -
the year with Genesis, and so to continue on till all the books
of the Old Testament are read over; only omitting the Chroni-
cles (which are for the most part the same with the books of
Samuel and Kings, which have been read before) and other par-
ticular chapters in other books, which are left out, either for the
same reason, or else because they contain genealogies, names of
persons or places, or some other matter less profitable for or-
dinary hearers.

The Song of Solomon, or the book of Canticles, is wholly s ong of Solo*
omitted ; because, if not spiritually understood, (which very few ^it'ted!! 7
people arc capable of doing, especially so as to put a tolerably
clear sense upon it,) it is not proper for a mixed congregation.
The Jews ordered that none should read it till they were
thirty years old, for an obvious reason, which too plainly holds
amongst us.

Very many chapters in Ezekiel are omitted, upon account of Ezekiei, why
the mystical visions in which they are wrapt up. Why some omittedf
others are omitted does not so plainly appear, though doubtless
the compilers of our Liturgy thought there was sufficient reason
for it.

After all the canonical books of the Old Testament are read isaiah, why
through, (except Isaiah, which being the most evangelical
phet, and containing the clearest prophecies of Christ, is not
read in the order it stands in the Bible, but reserved to be read

n Cassian. de Inst. Mon. lib. i. cap. 4. o See Ainsworth on Gen. vi. 9. f Acts
xv. ?i. q Ver. 15. r Ver. 27. See also Prideaux's Connection, vol. ii. pp.

198. 288. Oxf. edit. 1838.

118

OF THE ORDER

whatac-

The first

Chap. in. a little before and in Advent, to prepare in us a true faith in

""the mystery of Christ's incarnation and birth, the commemo-

ration of which at that time draws nigh;) after all the rest,

* Sa ^' l SLI PPty ^ e remamm g P art f tne year, several books of
the Apocrypha are appointed to be read, which, though not
canonical, have yet been allowed, by the judgment of the church
for many ages past, to be ecclesiastical and good, nearest to
divine of any writings in the world. For which reason the books
of Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Tobit, Judith, and the Maccabees,
were recommended by the council of Carthage 8 to be publicly
read in the church. And Ruffinus testifies 1 , that they were all
in use in his time, though not with an authority equal to that of
the canonical books. And that the same respect was paid to
them in latter ages, Isidore Hispalensis u , and Rabanus Maurus*
both affirm.

In conformity to so general a practice, the church of England
still continues the use of these books in her public service :
though not with any design to lessen the authority of canonical
scripture, which she expressly affirms to be the only rule of
faith: declaring y, that the church doth read the other books for
example of life and instruction of manners, but yet doth not
apply them to establish any doctrine. Nor is there any one
Sunday in the v whole year, that has any of its lessons taken out
of the Apocrypha. For as the greatest assemblies of Christians
are upon those days, it is wisely ordered that they should then be
instructed out of the undisputed word of God. And even on
the week-days, the second lessons are constantly taken out of
canonical scripture, which one would think should be enough to
silence our adversaries ; especially as there is more canonical
scripture read in our churches in any two months (even though
we should except the Psalms, Epistles, and Gospels) than is in a
whole year in the largest of their meetings. But to return :

. 4. The course of the first lessons appointed for Sundays is
different from that which is ordained for the week-days. For
from Advent Sunday to Septuagesima Sunday, some particular
chapters out of Isaiah are appointed, for the aforesaid reason.
But upon Septuagesima Sunday Genesis is begun ; because then
begins the time of penance and mortification, to which Genesis
suits best, as treating of the original of our misery by the fall of
Adam, and of God's severe judgment upon the world for sin.
For which reason the reading of this book was affixed to Lent,
even in the primitive ages of the church 2 . Then are read for-
ward the books as they lie in order ; not all the books, but
(because more people can attend the public worship of God

s Cap. 27. t Ruffin. in Symb. u De Eccles. Offic. lib. r. c. u. x Pe Instit.
Eccles. 1. 2. c. 53. 7 In her "sixth Article. z Chrysost. torn. i. Horn. 7. p. 106. et
torn. ii. Horn. i. p. 10. edit. Paris. 1609.

FOR MORNING AXD EVENING PRAYER. 119

upon Sundays than upon otlicT days) such particular chapters ' Sect. X.
arc selected, as arc judged most edifying to all that are present. ~~
And if any Sunday be (as some call it) a privilege ; I day, i. C. if
it hath the history of it expressed in scripture, such as Easter-
da\ . Whitsunday, &c. then are peculiar and proper lessons
appointed.

. $. Upon saints'-days another order is observed: for upon The first
them the church appoints lessons out of the moral books, such ^SSSfJUjn.
as Proverbs, KceK -siasies, Kcclesiasticus, and Wisdom, which,
containing excellent instructions of life and conversation, arc fit
to be read upon the days of saints, whose exemplary lives and
deaths are the causes of the church's solemn commemoration of
them, and commendation of them to us.

. 6. Other holy-days, such as Christmas-day, Circumcision, For other
Epiphany, &c. have proper and peculiar lessons appointed boly " day8 '
suitable to the occasions, as shall be shewn hereafter, when I
speak of those several days. I shall only observe here, that
here have been proper lessons appointed on all holy-days, as
well saints^-days as others, ever since St. Austin's time a :
though perhaps they were not reduced into an exact order till
the time of Musaeus, a famous priest of Massilia, who lived
about the year 480. Of whom Gennadius writes, that he
particularly applied himself, at the request of St. Venerius
a bishop, to choose out proper lessons for all the festivals in
the year b .

. 7. As for the second lessons, the church observes the same The order of
course upon Sundays as she doth upon week-days ; reading
the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles in the morning, and
the Epistles at evening, in the same order they stand in the
Ne\v Testament ; except upon saints'-days and holy-days, when
such lessons are appointed, as either explain the mystery, relate
the history, or apply the example to us.

. 8. The Revelation is wholly omitted, except the first andTheReve-
last chapters (which are read upon the day of St. John the tedMdwhy.
Evangelist, who was the author)' and part of the nineteenth
chapter (which containing the praises and adoration paid to
God by the angels and saints in heaven, is very properly
appointed to be read on the festival of All-Saints). But,
except upon these occasions, none of this book is read openly
in the church for lessons, by reason of its obscurity, which
renders it unintelligible to meaner capacities.

. 9. And thus we see, by the prudence of the church, the The antiquity
Old Testament is read over once, and the New thrice (i. c. ex-Si^SSt
cepting some less useful parts of both) in the space of a year, method -
conformable to the practice of the ancient fathers : who (as

a August, in Procem. Ep. Johan. b Gennadius de Viris illustribus, cap. 79.

120

OF THE ORDER

Chap. Ill, our reformers tell us) so ordered the matter, that all the whole
"Bible, or the greatest part thereof, should be read over once
every year : intending thereby that the clergy, and especially
such as were ministers in the congregation, should (by often
reading and meditating in God's word) be stirred up to godliness
themselves, and be more able to exhort others by wholesome doc-
trine, and to confute them that were adversaries to the truth :
and further, that the people (by daily hearing the holy scriptures
read in the church) might continually profit more and more in
the knowledge of God, and be more inflamed with the love of his
true religion. Whereas in the church of Rome this godly and
decent order was so altered, broken, and neglected, by planting
in uncertain stories and legends'*, with multitude of responds -\ ,
verses^, vain repetitions, commemorations^, and synodals^; that,
commonly, when any book of the Bible was begun, after three or
four chapters were read out, all the rest were unread. And in
this sort the book of Isaiah was begun in Advent, and the booh of
Genesis in Septuagesima ; but they were only begun, and never
read through : after like sort were other books of holy scripture
used. Moreover, the number and hardness of the rides called the
Pie-\-\-, and the manifold changings of the service, was the cause,

Legends,
what they
were.

Responds,
what they
were.

* Uncertain stories and legends."] By these are to be understood those legendary
stories, which the Roman breviaries appoint to be read on their saints'-days : which,
being almost as numerous as the days in the year, there is hardly a day free from,
having idle tales mixed in its service. Nor is this remarkable only in their lessons
upon their modern saints ; but even the stories of the apostles are so scandalously
blended with monkish fictions, that all wise and conscientious Christians must
nauseate and abominate their service.

-{ Responds.] A respond is a short anthem, interrupting the middle of a chapter,
which is not to proceed till the anthem is done. The long responses are used at the
close of the lessons.

Verses, what. J Verses.~\ By the verses here mentioned are to be understood either the versicle
that follows the respond in the breviary, or else those hymns which are proper to
every Sunday and holy-day ; which (except some few) are a parcel of despicable
monkish Latin verses, composed in the most illiterate ages of Christianity.

Commemo- Commemorations .] Commemorations are the mixing the service of some holy-
rations.what. ^y Q j esser no t e) w jth the service of a Sunday or holy-day of greater eminency, on
which the less holy-day happens to fall. In which case it is appointed by the ninth
general rule in the breviary, that only the hymns, verses, &c. and some other part of
the service of the lesser holy-day be annexed to that of the greater.

|| Synodals.'] These were the publication or recital of the provincial constitutions
in the parish-churches. For after the conclusion of every provincial synod, the
canons thereof were to be read in the churches, and the tenor of them to be declared
and made known to the people ; and some of them to be annually repeated on
certain Sundays in the year d.

f-f- Pie.'] The word pie some suppose derives its name from 7nVa, which the
Greeks sometimes use for table or index ; though others think these tables or
indexes were called the pie, from the parti-coloured letters whereof they consisted ;
the initial, and some other remarkable letters and words being done in red, and the
rest all in black. And upon this account, when they translate it into Latin, they
Pica letters, call it pica. From whence it is supposed, that when printing came in use, those
from whence | tfc w hj cn were o f a moderate size were called pica letters e.

c In the preface concerning the sen-ice of the church. d See Dr. Nichols in his
notes on the word synodak in the preface concerning the service of the church,
e See Dr. Nichols, as above, upon the word pie.

Synodals,
what they
were.

Pie, why
so called.

-so called.

FOR MORNING AND KVKNINi; 1'KAYKR. 121

that to turn the book only was so hard and 'intricate a matter, Sect. X.
that many time a there wax more business to find out what should"
le rend, than to rend if when it was found out.

These inconveniencies therefore considered^ here Is act forth
sue// tin order, whereby the Name shall be redn .v.srJ. And for a
readiness 'in this matter , here Is drawn out a calendar for that
purjH.xCi which /.y plain- and envy to be understood ; wherein (so
much //.y maif be) the reading of holy scripture Is so set forth,
that till things should be done 'in order, without breaking one
piece from another. For this cause be cut off anthems, re-
spond*, inritutoricM, and such like things, as did break the
cont'ninal course of the reading of the scripture.

Yet, because there Is no remedy, but that of necessity t/i<
must be some miles ; therefore certain rides arc here set forth,
whleli as they are feic hi number, so they are plain and easy to
be understood. So that here yon have an order for prayer , and
for the reading of the holy scripture, much agreeable to the mind
and purpose of the old fathers, and a great deal more profitable
and commodious than that which of' late was used. It Is more
profitable, because here arc left out niany things, whereof some
arc untrue, some uncertain, some rain, and superstitious; and
nothing Is ordained to be read, but the very pure word of God,
the holy scriptures, or that which Is agreeable to the same ; and
that, In such a language and order, as is most easy and plain for
the understanding both of the readers and hearers : it ?.? also
more commodious, both for the shortness thereof, and for the
plainness of the order, and for that the rules be few and easy.

. 10. The scripture being the word of God, and so a declara-
tion of his will ; the reading of it or making it known to the
people is an act of authority, and therefore the minister that
reads the lessons is to stand. And because it is an office The posture
directed to the congregation, by all the former Common Prayer e f r ! he
Books, it was ordered, that (to the end the people may the better
hear) In such places where they do sing, there shall the lessons be
sung In a plain tune, after the manner of distinct reading : and
li/icwise the Epistle and the Gospel. But that rubric is now left
out, and the minister is only directed to read distinctly with an
audible voice, and to turn himself so as he may best be heard of all
surh as are present: which shews, that in time of prayer the
minister used to look another way ; a custom still observed in
some parish-churches, where the reading-pews have two desks ; Reading-
one for the Bible, looking towards the body of the church to t
people; another for the Prayer Book, looking towards the east
or upper end of the chancel ; in conformity to the practice of
the primitive church, which, as I have already f observed, paid

t Page 74.

OF THE ORDER

Chap. III. a more than ordinary reverence in their worship towards

""the east.

The naming . ii. Before every lesson the minister is directed to give no-
sons, &c. tice to the people what chapter he reads, by saying, Here begin-
neth such a chapter ', or verse of such a chapter, of such a book :
that so the people, if they have their Bibles with them, may, by
looking over them, be the more attentive. The care of the pri-
mitive church in this case was very remarkable. Before the
lesson began, the deacon first stood up, calling out aloud, Let us
listen, my brethren ; and then he that read invited his audience
to attention, by introducing the lesson with these words : Thus
saith the Lord h . After every lesson the minister with us is also
directed to give notice that it is finished, by saying, Here endeth
thejirst or second lesson ; which is the form now prescribed in-
stead of the old one, Here endeth such a chapter of such a book,
which were the words enjoined by all our former Liturgies.
The posture . 13. As for the people, there is no posture prescribed for

of the people. , * . * . r , .

them ; but in former times they always stood, to shew their re-
verence. It is recorded of the Jews in the book of Nehemiah*,
that ivhen Ezra opened the book of the law, in the sight of the
people, all the people stood up. And in the first ages of Christ-
ianity those only were permitted to sit, who by reason of old
age, or some other infirmity, were not able to stand throughout
the whole time of divine service k . And it is very observable, that
another ceremony used by the Christians of those times, before
the reading of the lessons, was the washing their hands 1 , a cere-
mony said to be still used by the Turks, before they touch their
Alcoran, who also write thereupon, Let no unclean person touch
this 1 *: which should excite us at least to prepare ourselves in
such a manner, as may fit us to hear the word of God, and to
express such outward reverence, as may testify a due regard to
its author.

SECT. XI. Of the Hymns in general.

Theanti- THE use of hymns among Christians is undoubtedly as old as
SS f the times of the apostles" : and we learn both from the observa-
tion of St. Augustin , and from the canons of the church P, that
hymns and psalms were intermingled with the lessons, that so by
variety the people might be secured against weariness and dis-
traction.

The reason. 2. But besides antiquity, reason calls for this interposition
Sem e a s fter f f hymns, in respect to the great benefit we may receive from

the lessons.

h Chrysost. in Act. 9. Horn. 19. i Chap. viii. 5. fc August. Serm. 300. in

Append, ad torn, v. col. 504. B. 1 Chrys. Horn. 53. in Joan. torn. ii. p. 776. lin.

3, 4. m Mr. Gregory's Pref. to his Notes and Observations upon Scripture, p. 3.

n Matt. xxvi. 30. Col. v. 16. James v. 13. Serm. 176. torn. v. col. 839. D.

P Concil. Laod. Can. 17. Condi, torn. i. col. 1500. B.

When first
added.

FOR MOIIMXC AND EVENING PRAYER. 123

the word of God : for if we .daily bless him for our ordinary moat Sect. XII,
and drink, ho\v much more art- we bound to glorify him for thc~~
food of our souls !

. 3. That we may not therefore want forms of praise proper
for tlu- occasion, the church hath provided us with two after
each lesion, both in the morning and evening service; leaving it
to the discretion of him that ministereth, to use those which he
thinks mo*t convenient and suitable; though in the first Com-
mon Prayer Hook of king Edward VI. there was only one pro-
vided for a lesson; the hundredth, the ninety-eighth, and the
sixty-seventh psalms not being added till 1552. The Te Deum
and the /tcncdicitc indeed were both in the first book ; but not
for cho'uv, but to be used one at one time of the year, and the
other at another, as the next section will shew.

SECT. XII. Of the Hymns after the first Lessons.
HAVIXG heard the holy precepts and useful examples, the com- Hymns after

. . J ' i-i the first

iortable promises and just threatenmgs contained in the first lesaons.
lesson, we immediately break out into praising God for illumin-
ating our minds, for quickening our affections, for reviving our
hopes, for awakening our sloth, and for confirming our resolutions.

I. For our supply and assistance in which reasonable duty, the TheTeDeum
church has provided us two ancient hymns; the one called TVcfte, why
Dcmn, from the first words of it in Latin, (Te Deum laitdamus,* 11

We praise t/iee, God;) the other Benedicite, for the same
reason, the beginning of it in Latin being Benedicite omnia opera
Domini Domino; or, O all ye works of the Lord, bless ye the
Lord. The former of these is now most frequently used, and the
latter only upon some particular occasions.

. 2. The first (as it is generally believed) was composed by The original

o. \ i / II f o A i i oftheTe

ot. Ambrose tor the baptism or St. Augustm** : since which time Deum.
it has ever been held in the greatest esteem, and daily repeated in
the church : so that it is now of above thirteen hundred years
standing. The hymn itself is rational and majestic, and in all
particulars worthy of the spouse of Christ ; being, above all the
composures of men uninspired, fittest for the tongues of men and
angels.

II. The other was an ancient hymn in the Jewish church, and or theBene-
adopted into the public devotions of the Christians from thesoV'ofthe
most early times. St. Cyprian quotes it as part of the holy SentX.
scriptures r : in which opinion he is seconded by Ruffinus, who tiquity '
very severely inveighs against St. Jerom for doubting of its di-
vine authority ; and informs us, that it was used in the church

long before his time, who himself lived A.D. 39O S . And when

Q St. Greg. lib. 3. Dial. cap. 4. mentions Dacius bishop of Milan, A.D. 560. who,
in the first book of the Chronicles writ by him, gives an account of this. " See also
St. Bennet Reg. cap. 1 1. r De Orat. Dom. p. 142. s Ruffin. 1. 2. adv. Hieron.

OF THE ORDER

Chap. Ill, afterwards it was left out by some that performed divine service,
the fourth council of Toledo, in the year 633, commanded it to
be used, and excommunicated the priests that omitted it*. Our
church indeed does not receive it for canonical scripture, because
it is not to be found in the Hebrew, nor was allowed in the
Jewish canon ; but it is notwithstanding an exact paraphrase of
the hundred and forty-eighth psalm, and so like it in words and
sense, that whoever despiseth this, reproacheth that part of the
canonical writings.

The subject . 2. As to the subject of it, it is an elegant summons to all
God's works to praise him ; intimating that they all set out his
glory, and invite us, who have the benefit of them, to join with
these three children (to whom so great and wonderful a deliver-
ance was given) in praising and magnifying the Lord for ever.

Whenproper . 3. So that when we would glorify God for his works, which

to be used. u . , , T 1,1

is one mam end of the Lord s day ; or when the lesson treats of
the creation, or sets before us the wonderful works of God in
any of his creatures, or the use he makes of them either ordinary
or miraculous for the good of the church ; this hymn may very
seasonably be used. Though in the first Common Prayer Book
of king Edward VI. Te Dcum was appointed daily throughout
the year, except in Lent, all the which time in the place of Te
Deum, Bejiedicile was to be used. So that, as I have already ob-
served, they were not originally inserted for choice ; but to be
used at different parts of the year. But when the second book
came out with double hymns for the other lessons ; these also
were left indifferent at the discretion of the minister, and the
words, Or this Canticle, inserted before the hymn we are now
speaking of.
of the Mag- uj. After the first lesson at evening pra?/er, two other hymns

mficat, or the . - i ^ J '/ ' ., .

Song of the are appointed, both of them taken out of canonical scripture
gin Mary, the first is the song of the blessed Virgin, called the Magnificat,
from its first word in Latin. It is the first hymn recorded in the
New Testament, and, from its ancient use among the primitive
Christians, has been continued in the offices of the reformed 11
churches abroad, as well as in ours.

For as the holy Virgin, when she reflected upon the promises
of the Old Testament, now about to be fulfilled in the myste-
rious conception and happy birth, of which God had designed
her to be the instrument, expressed her joy in this form ; so we,
when we hear in the lessons like examples of his mercy, and are
told of those prophecies and promises which were then fulfilled,
may not improperly rejoice with her in the same words, as hav-
ing a proportionable share of interest in the same blessing.

t Can. 14. Concil. torn v. col. 1 710. C. D. u See Durell's View of the Reformed
Churches, page 38.

FOR MORNING AND EVENING 1'UAYEK. 125

IV. But when the first lesson treats of sonic great and tern- Sect. XIIL
poral deliverance granted to the peculiar people of (iod, we have O f the nine-
thc ninetv-cighth psalm for variety; which, though made on OC^JJjSf*
casioii of some of David's victories, may yet be very properly ap-
plied to ourselves, who, being God's adopted children, are a spi-
ttcl, and therefore have- all imaginable reason to bless
God for the same, and to call upon the whole creation to join
with us in thanksgiving. This was one of those which, I have
already observed, was first added to King Edward's second Com-
mon Prayer.

Si ( r. XIIL Of the Hymns after the second Lessons.

HAVINC; expressed our thankfulness to God in one of the Hymns after
above-mentioned hymns for the light and instruction we have lewns?
received from the first lesson ; we are fitly disposed to hear the
clearer revelations exhibited to us in the second.

I. As to the second lesson in the morning, it is always taken of the Be-
out either of the Gospels or the Acts 5 which contain an histori- song?"' '
cal account of the great work of our redemption : and therefore Zacharias *
as the angel, that first published the glad tidings of salvation,

was joined by a multitude of the heavenly host, who all brake
forth in praises to God ; so when the same tidings arc rehearsed
by the priest, both he and the people immediately join their
mutual gratulations, praising God, and saying, Blessed be the
Lord God of' Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people ;
and hath raised up a might ij salvation for us in the house of his
servant David, fyc. being the hymn that was composed by good
old Zacharias, at the circumcision of his son, St. John the
Baptist x , and containing a thanksgiving to God for the incar-
nation of our Saviour, and for those unspeakable mercies, which
(though they were not then fully completed) were quickly after-
wards the subject of the whole church's praises.

II. For variety the hundredth psalm was also appointed byoftheium-
king Edward's second book, in which all lands and nations are dredth ^ 8alra -
invited and called upon to serve the Lord with gladness, and come

before his presence with a song\ for his exceeding grace, mercy,
and truth, which are so eminently set forth in the Gospels.

III. After the second lesson at evening, which is always outortheNunc
of the Epistles, the Song of Simeon, called Nunc Dimittis, is Dl

most commonly used. The author of it is supposed to have
been he whom the Jews call Simeon the Just, son to the famous
llabbi Hillely, a man of eminent integrity, and one who opposed
the then common opinion of the Messiah's temporal kingdom.
The occasion of his composing it was his meeting Christ in the
temple, when he came to be presented there, wherein God ful-

x Luke i. 57. y V. Scultet. Exercit. Evang, 1. i.e. 61. and Lightfoot's Har-

mony on the place.

126 OF THE ORDER

Chap. III. filled his promise to him, that he should not die till he had seen

" the Lord's Christ 7 .

And though we cannot see our Saviour with our bodily eyes,
as he did, yet he is by the writings of the apostles daily pre-
sented to the eyes of our faith : and therefore if we were much
concerned for heaven, and as loose from the love of the world as
old Simeon was, and we ought to be ; we might, upon the view
of Christ in his holy word, be daily ready to sing this hymn,
which is taken into the services of all Christian churches in the
world, Greek, Roman, and reformed, and was formerly very
frequently sung by saints and martyrs a little before their
deaths.

Of the sixty- IV. Instead of it sometimes the sixty-seventh psalm is used,

pslim. (being one of those that was introduced in king Edward's second
Liturgy,) which being a prayer of David for t the coming of the
gospel, is a proper form wherein to express our desires for the
farther propagation of it.

N. B. It ought to be noted, that both the sixty-seventh and
hundredth psalms, being inserted in the Common Prayer Books
in the ordinary version, ought so to be used, and not to be sung
in Sternhold and Hopkins, or any other metre, as is now the
custom in too many churches, to the jostling out of the psalms
themselves, expressly contrary to the design of the rubric :
which, if not prevented, may in time make way for farther inno-
vations and gross irregularities.

SECT. XIV. Of the Apostles" Creed.

THOUGH the scriptures be a perfect revelation of all divine
truths necessary to salvation ; yet the fundamental articles of our
faith are so dispersed there, that it was thought necessary to collect
out of those sacred writings one plain and short summary of
fundamental doctrines, which might easily be understood and
remembered by all Christians.
Whyfso . 2. This summary, from the first word in Latin Credo, is

commonly called the Creed ; though in Latin it is called Sym-
bolum, for which several reasons are given : as, first, that it is an
allusion to the custom of several persons meeting together to
eat of one common supper, whither every one brings something
for his share to make up that common meal, which from hence
was called Symbolum, from the Greek word (ruppaXXtiv , which
signifies to throw or cast together: even so, say some a , the
apostles met together, and each one put or threw in his article to
compose this symbol.

Another signification of the word is fetched from military

z Luke ii. -26. a Ruffin. Expos, in Symb. Apost. ad calcem Cyprian. Oper. pag.
17. Cassian. de Incarn. Dorn. 1. 6. c. 3. pag. 1046. Atrebat. 162$.

FOR MOKN1 10 1'HAVi 127

all'airs, where- it is used to denote those mark>, HgfM, or watch- Sect XIV
wonK cVe. wherehv the soldiers of an annv distinguished anil ~
knew eaeh other: in like manner, as some think '', bv thi- Civnl
the true sokliers of Jesus Christ were distinguished from all
others, and discerned from those who were only false and hypo-

i pretenders.

But the most natural signification of the word seems to be
derived from the pagan symbols, which were .seeret marks,
words, or tokens communicated at the time of initiation, or a
little before, unto those who were consecrated or entered into
their reserved or hidden rites, and to none else ; by the declara-
tion, manifestation, or pronunciation whereof, those more devout
idolaters knew each other, and were with all freedom and liberty
of access admitted to their more intimate mysteries, i. c. to the
seeret worship and rites of that god whose symbols they had
received ; from whence the multitude in general were kept out
and excluded : which said symbols those who had received
them were obliged carefully to conceal, and not, on any account
whatsoever, to divulge or reveal c . And for the same reasons
the Apostles' Creed is thought by some to have been termed a
symbol, because it was studiously concealed from the pagan
world, and not revealed to the Catechumens themselves, till just
before their baptism or initiation in the Christian mysteries ;
when it was delivered to them as that secret note, mark, or token,
by which the faithful in all parts of the world might, without any
danger, make themselves known to one another d .

. 3. That the whole Creed, as we now use it, was drawn upTheanti-
by the apostles themselves, can hardly be proved: but that the qu
greatest part of it was derived from the very days of the apo-
stles, is evident from the testimonies of the most ancient writers 6 ;
particularly of St. Ignatius, in whose epistles most of its articles
are to be found : though there are some reasons to believe, that
some few of them, vi/. that of the descent into hell, the commu-
nion of saints, and the life everlasting, were not added till some
time after, in opposition to some gross errors and heresies that
sprang up in the church. But the whole form, as it now stands
in our liturgy, is to be found in the works of St. Ambrose and
Kufh'nus f .

. 4. It is true indeed the primitive Christians, by reason they when first
always concealed this and their other mysteries, did not in their
iblies publicly recite the Creed, except at the times of bap-
tism ; which, unless in eases of necessity, were only at Easter

b Rutfm. ut supra. Maxim. Taurincns. Homil. in Symbol, ap. Biblioth. Vet. Patr.
. A^ripiiin. 1618. turn. v. p;.. c v.;^ instances of these sym!>ols in the

lord chief justice Kind's Critical History of the Creed, chap. I. p. 1 1, Vr.
this proved by the same Author, p. ?o, &c. e Vid. IrenaHim, contr. lia'res. 1. i. c.
2. p. 45. Tertull. le Yin;. \ eland, c. i. p. 175. A. De Prescript. Hivreticor. c. 13.
p. 206. D. f In their Expositions upon it.

128

OF THE ORDER

The place of

the Creed in

the Liturgy,

Tobere-

Chap. III. and Whitsuntide. From whence it came to pass, that the con-

~~stant repeating of the Creed in the church was not introduced

till five hundred years after Christ; about which time Petrus

Gnapheus, bishop of Antioch, prescribed the constant recital of

the Creed at the public administration of divine service ?.

. tf. The place of it in our Liturgy may be considered with

i i i i P i i

respect both to what goes before, and what comes after it.
That which goes before it are the lessons taken out of the word
of God : for faith comes by hearing h ; and therefore when we
have heard God's word, it is fit we should profess our belief of
it, thereby setting our seals (as it were) to the truth of God >, espe-
cially to such articles as the chapters now read to us have con-
firmed. What follows the Creed are the prayers which are
grounded upon it : for we cannot call on him in whom we have not
believed^. And therefore since we are to pray to God the Father,
in the name of the Son, by the assistance of the Holy Ghost, for
remission of sins, and a joyful resurrection ; we first declare that
we believe in God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and that
there is remission here, and a resurrection to life hereafter, for all
true members of the catholic church ; and then we may be said
to pray in faith.

6. Both minister and people are appointed to repeat this
Creed ; because it is the profession of every person present, and
ought for that reason to be made by every one in his own per-
son ; the more expressly to declare their belief of it to each
other, and consequently to the whole Christian world, with whom
they maintain communion.

.7. It is to be repeated standing, to signify our resolution to
stand up stoutly in the defence of it. And in Poland and Lithu-
ania the nobles used formerly to draw their swords, in token that,
if need were, they would defend and seal the truth of it with
their blood J .

. 8. When we repeat it, it is customary to turn towards the
east ? tnat so whilst we are making profession of our faith in the
blessed Trinity, we may look towards that quarter of the
heavens, where God is supposed to have his peculiar residence
of glory m .

Reverence to . 9. When we come to the second article in this Creed, in
which the name of JESUS is mentioned, the whole congregation
make obeisance, which the church (in regard to that passage of
St. Paul, That at the name of JESUS every knee should bow ) ex-
pressly enjoins in her eighteenth canon : ordering, that when in
time of divine service the Lord JESUS shall be mentioned, due and
lowly reverence shall be done by all persons present, as it has been

standing.

with their

e Theodor. Lector. Histor. Eccles. p. 563. C. h R om . x. 17.
k Rom. x. 14. 1 See Durell's View, &c. sect. i. . 24. page 37.

Gregory, as quoted in note?, p. 74. n PhiL ii. 10.

i John iii. 33,
m See Mr.

FOR MO u MM: AND KVKNIM; I-KAYKU. 129

accustomed; testifying by these outward ceremonies and gestures s.-n. XV.
tltc'tr inward humility^ Christ Ian resolution, and due acknowledg-~~
incut, that the Lord .1 i:srs CHUIST, the true eternal SonofGod, /.v
the only Saviour of the world, in wJiom alone all the mercies,
"/mvv, and promises of God t(t mankind for tliix life, and the life
to conu; art- fit Hi/ and wholly comprised.

SECT. XV. Of St. Athanasiuss Creed.

Win. i - n MI this Creed was composed by Athanasius or not, is The creed of
matter of dispute: in the rubric before it, as enlarged at thenwius.*

u, it is only said to be commonly called the Creed of St.Atha-
nas'uis : but we arc certain that it has been received as a trea-
sure of inestimable price both by the Greek and Latin churches
for almost a thousand years.

<$. 2. As to the matter of it. it condemns all ancient and The cruph-

i /n 11 T i which some

modern heresies, and is the sum of all orthodox divinity. And make
therefore if any scruple at the denying salvation to such as do**
not believe these articles; let them remember, that such as hold
any of those fundamental heresies are condemned in Scripture :
from whence it was a primitive custom, after a confession of the
orthodox faith, to pass an anathema against all that denied it.
Hut however, for the ease and satisfaction of some people who
have a notion that this Creed requires every person to assent to,
or believe, every verse in it on pain of damnation; and who
therefore (because there are several things in it which they can-
not comprehend) scruple to repeat it for fear they should ana-
thematize or condemn themselves ; I desire to offer what follows
to their consideration, vi/. That howsoever plain and agreeable
to reason every verse in this Creed may be; yet we are not re-
quired, by the words of the Creed, to believe the whole on pain
of damnation. For all that is required of us as necessary to sal-
vation, is, that before all things we hold the catholic faith : and the
ealholic faith is by the third and fourth verses explained to be
th'ut, that ice worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity:
wither confounding the persons, nor dividing the substance. This
therefore is declared necessary to be believed : but all that fol-
lows from hence to the twenty-sixth verse, is only brought as a
proof and illustration of it; and therefore requires our assent no
more than a sermon does, which is made to prove or illustrate a
text. The text, we know, is the word of God, and therefore
necessary to be believed: but no person is, for that reason,
bound to believe every particular of the sermon deduced from it,
ii}X)ii pain of damnation, though every tittle of it may be true.
The same I take it to be in this Creed : the belief of the catholic
faith before mentioned, the scripture makes necessary to salvn-

o i John ii. 22, 23. v. 10. 2 Pet, ii. i.
WHEATLY, K

130 OF THE ORDER

Chap. III. tion, and therefore we must believe it : but there is no such ne-
~cessity laid upon us to believe the illustration that is there given
of it, nor does the Creed itself require it : for it goes on in the
twenty-sixth and twenty- seventh verses in these words, So that in
all things as is aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity, and the Trinity
in Unity, is to be worshipped : he therefore that will be saved, must
thus think of the Trinity. Where it plainly passes off from that
illustration, and returns back to the fourth and fifth verses, re-
quiring only our belief of the catholic faith, as there expressed,
as necessary to salvation, viz. that One God, or Unity in Trinity
and Trinity in Unity, is to be worshipped. All the rest of the
Creed, from the twenty-seventh verse to the end, relates to our
Saviour's incarnation ; which indeed is another essential part of
our faith, and as necessary to be believed as the former : but that
being expressed in such plain terms as none, I suppose, scruple,
I need not enlarge any farther.

why said on .3. The reasons why this Creed is appointed to be said upon
mention!! in those days specified in the rubric, are, because some of them are
the rubric. more p ro per for this confession of faith, which, being of all
others the most express concerning the Trinity, is for that reason
appointed on Christmas -day, Epiphany, Easter-day, Ascension-
day, Whit-Sunday, and Trinity-Sunday; which were all the days
that were appointed for it by the first book of king Edward : but
in his second book it was also enjoined on Saint Matthias, and
some other saints'' -days, that so it might be repeated once in
every month.

SECT. XVI. Of the Ver sides before the Lord^s Prayer.
The good THE congregation having now their consciences absolved from
melThod'of s ^ n > their affections warmed with thanksgiving, their understand -
our service. m g s enlightened by the word, and their faith strengthened by a
public profession, enter solemnly in the next place upon the re-
maining part of divine worship, viz. supplication and prayer, that
is, to ask those things which are requisite and necessary, as well
for the body as the soul.

p r . The . 3. But because they are not able to do this without God's

Jrith you. help, therefore the minister first blesses them with The Lord be
with you ; which, it must be observed too, is a very proper salu-
tation in this place, viz. after a public and solemn profession of
their faith. For St. John forbids us to say to any heretic, God
speed P ; and the primitive Christians were never allowed to
salute any that were excommunicated n. But when the minister
hath heard the whole congregation rehearse the Creed, and seen,
by their standing up at it, a testimony of their assent to it ; he
can now salute them as brethren and members of the church.

P 2 John 10, ii, 'i Capital. Carol. Mag. 1. 5. c. 42.

FOR MOHNING AND EVENING PKAY1 131

Hut because he is their ivpivsentaii\e aiul month to God, they Baet x\ I.
return his salutation, iiiunediately replying, And icit/t thy x/)iri/
both which >entence* aiv taken out oi' holy Scripture 1 , and ",^1^
together with that salutation, Peace be with you, (which

illy UM-d by tlie bishop, instead of The Lord be withyou*,)
haw been of very early use in the church 1 , especially in the
eastern part of it, to which, as an ancient council says 11 , they
re delivered down by the apostles themselves: and it is ob-
l>le that they always denoted (as here) a transition from one
part of the divine service to another..

. 3. Tn the heathen sacrifices there was always one to cry, Pr. utua
lhn fi'itc, or to bid them mind what they were about. And in pn
all the old Christian Liturgies the deacon was wont to call often
upon the people, Krera>s Se?]0G>/xei>, Let us pray earnestly ; and
then again, (KreveaTtpov, more earnestly. And the same vehe-
mence and earnest devotion does our church call for in these
words, Let us pray ; warning us thereby to lay aside all wander-
ing thoughts., and to attend to the great work we are about :
lor though the minister only speaks most of the words, yet our
alt'ei lions must go along with every petition, and sign them all at
last with an hearty Amen.

. 4. But bein<r unclean like the lepers recorded by St. Luke*, Pr. Lord,

, ,T ^11- have mercy

before we come to address ourselves to God, we begin to cry, upon U8 .
Lord, hare mercy on us ; lest, if we should unworthily call him
()t?r Father, he upbraid us as be did the Jews, If I be afaflier,
:chcrr /.y mine honour? ? And it is to be observed, that the church
hath such an awful reverence for the Lord's Prayer, that she
seldom sutlers it to be used without some preceding preparation.
In the beginning of the morning and evening service, we are pre-
pared by the confession of our sins, and the absolution of the
priest ; and very commonly in other places by this short litany :
whereby we are taught first to bewail our unworthiness, and
pray for mercy ; and then with an humble boldness to look up
to heaven, and call God Our Father, and beg farther blessings
of him.

As to the original of this form, it is taken out of the Psalms z ,
where it is sometimes repeated twice together ; to which the
Christian church hath added a third, viz. Christ, have mercy upon
us, that so it might be a short litany or supplication to every
person in the blessed Trinity : we have offended each person, and
are to pray to each, and therefore we beg help from them all.

It is of great antiquity both in the eastern and western
churches; and an old council orders it to be used three times a

r Ruth ii. 4. i Thess. iii. 16. 2 Tim, iv. 22. Gal. vi. 18. s Duraud. Rational.
lib. 4. c. 14. . 7. fol. in. t Chrys. in Coloss. i Horn. 3. torn. 4. p. 107. lin. 3, &r.
Isid. Peleus. 1. i. Ep. 122. p. 44. A. uConcil. Bracar.s. cap. 3. toin. v. col. 740.15.
x Luke xvii. 12, 13. y Mai, i. 6. z Psalm vi. i. li._i. cxxiii. 3.

K 2

132 OF THE ORDER,

Chap. Ill . day in the public service a . And we are informed that Constan-
" tinople was delivered from an earthquake by the people's going

barefoot in procession and using this short litany b .

T^ecierk^ N. B. The clerk and people are here to take notice not to re-
not to repeat peat the last of these versicles, viz. Lord, have mercy upon us 9
after the minister. In the end of the Litany indeed they ought
to do it, because there they are directed to say all the three ver-
sicles distinctly after him ; each of them being repeated in the
Common Prayer Book, viz. first in a Roman letter for the priest,
and then in an Italic, which Denotes the peopled response. But
in the daily morning and evening service, in the office for solem-
nization of matrimony, in those for the visitation of the sick, for
the burial of the dead, for the churching of women, and in the
commination, where these versicles are single, and only the se-
cond printed in an Italic character, there they are to be repeated
alternately, and not by way of repetition : so that none but the
second versicle, viz. Christ, have mercy upon us, comes to the peo-
ple's turn, the first and last belonging to the minister.

SECT. XVII. Of the Lords Prayer.
The Lord's THE minister, clerky and people, being prepared in the manner

y that we have described above, are now again to say the Lord's
Prayer, with a loud voice. For this consecrates and makes way
for all the rest, and is therefore now again repeated. By which
repetition we have this farther advantage, that if we did not put
up any petition of it with fervency enough before, we may make
amends for it now, by asking that with a doubled earnestness.
, who . 2. By the clerks in this rubric (which was first inserted in
the second book of king Edward) I suppose were meant such
persons as were appointed at the beginning of the reformation,
to attend the incumbent in his performance of the offices ; and
such as are still in some cathedral and collegiate churches, which
have lav-clerks (as they are called, being not always ordained)
to look .out the lessons, name the anthem, set the Psalms, and
the like c : of which sort I take our parish clerks to be, though
we have now seldom more than one to a church.

SECT. XVIII. Of the Versicles after the Lord's Prayer.
Theversicies. BEFORE the minister begins to pray alone for the people, they
are to join with him (according to the primitive way of praying)
in some short versicles and responsals taken chiefly out of the
Psalms, and containing the sum of all the following collects.

To the first, O Lord, shew thy mercy upon its, and grant us
thy salvation*, answers the Sunday collect, which generally con-
tains petitions for mercy and salvation. To the second, O Lord,

a Concil. Vasens. 2. Can. 3. torn. iv. col. 1680. C. b Paul. Diacon. 1. 16. c. 24.
c See the Clergyman's Vade Mecum, p. 202, 203. d Psalm Ixxxv. 7.

FOH MORXIXT. AX1) EVi:\l\(. I'KAYER.

save the king; and incrcifidli/ hair ?/.y iclicn tec ml! upon. / . XIX.

.m>\\cT the pravers lor the- king ami royal family. To the "~
third, Undue ///// ministers ic'ith ri-htconmess t and make /////
i-/,.wn pcrtji/e joufnl^ : and the fourth, O Lord, AY/IV th// /leoji/e,
U /A///r inheritance f ; answers the 1 collect for the clergy
and people. To the iit'th, (live peace in otir time, () Lord,
licctutsc there iv none other that /i^htctk for us, but on/// ihon, ()
(iil ', answer the daily collects tor peace : ami to the last, ()
make clean our hearts within v/.v, find take not thy ho///
from us' 1 , answer the daily eolleets tor grace.

. 2. Against two of these ver>icles it is objected, that the A
church enjoins us to pray to God to give peace 'in, our time, for""
this oild reason, vi/. beeau.se there y'.y none other that Ji^hteth for
nx hut only (tod. But to this we answer, that the church by these
words does by no means imply, that the only reason of our de-
siring peace, is because wo have none other to fight for us, save
God alone ; as if we could be well enough content to be engaged
in war, had we any other to fight for us, besides God : but they
are a more full declaration and acknowledgment of that forlorn
condition we arc 1 in, who are not able to help ourselves, and who
cannot depend upon man for help; which we confess and lay
before Almighty God, to excite the greater compassion in his
divine Majesty. And thus the Psalmist cries out to God, Be
not Jar from me, for trouble is near ; for there is none to help k .

. ]. The rubric which orders the priest to stand up to say why the
these vcrsicles, (which was first added in 1552,) I imagine toto stand Sp
have been founded upon the practice of the priests in the Romish JenXSes.
church. For it is a custom there for the priest, at all the long
prayers, to kneel before the altar, and mutter them over softly
by himself: but whenever he comes to any vcrsicles where the
people are to make their responses, he rises up and turns himself
to them, in order to be heard : which custom the compilers of our
Liturgy might probably have in their eye, when they ordered the
minister to stand up in this place.

r. XIX. Of the Collects and Prayers in general.
Hi, to UK we come to speak of each of the following prayers in The prayers
particular, it may not be amiss to observe one thing concerning ?* ^many
them in general, vi/. the reason why they are not carried on in
one continued discourse, but divided into manv short collects,
such as is that which our Lord himself composed. And that
might be one reason why our church so ordered it, vi/. that so
>he might follow the example of our Lord, who best knew what
kind of prayers were fittest for us to use. And indeed we cannot

<' Psalm xx. vi-rst; tin- last, according to the (Jri-ck translation. 1 IValm cxxxii. 9.
5 Psalm xxviii. 9. h i Chruii. xxii. <j. i Psalin li. 10, u, k IValin xxii. u.

134 OF THE ORDER

Chap. III. but find, by our own experience, how difficult it is to keep our
""minds long intent upon any thing, much more upon so great
things as the object and subject of our prayers ; and that, do
what we can, we are still liable to wanderings and distractions :
so that there is a kind of necessity to break off sometimes, that
our thoughts, being respited for a while, may with more ease be
fixed again, as it is necessary they should, so long as we are ac-
tually praying to the Supreme Being of the world.

But besides, in order to the performing our devotions aright
to the most high God, it is necessary that our souls should be
possessed all along with due apprehensions of his greatness and
glory. To which purpose our short prayers contribute very
much. For every one of them beginning with some of the attri-
butes or perfections of God, and so suggesting to us right appre-
hensions of him at first ; it is easy to preserve them in our minds
during the space of a short prayer, which in a long one would be-
too apt to scatter and vanish away.

But one of the principal reasons why our public devotions are
and should be divided into short collects, is this : our blessed
Saviour, we know, hath often told us, that whatsoever we ask the
Father in his name, he will give it us * ; and so hath directed us
in all our prayers to make use of his name, and to ask nothing
but upon the account of his merit and mediation for us :
upon whjch all our hopes and expectations from God do wholly
depend. For this reason therefore (as it always was, so also
now) it cannot but be judged necessary, that the name of Christ
be frequently inserted in our prayers, that so we may lift up our
hearts unto him, and rest our faith upon him, for the obtaining
those good things we pray for. And therefore whatsoever it be
which we ask of God, we presently add, through Jesus Christ our
Lord, or something to that effect; and so ask nothing but ac-
cording to our Lord's direction, i. e. in his name. And this is
the reason that makes our prayers so short : for take away the
conclusion of every collect or prayer, and they may be joined all
together, and be made but as one continued prayer. But would
not this tend to make us forgetful that we are to offer up our
prayers in the name of Christ, by taking away that which rc-
fresheth our memory ?

why called 2. The reason why these prayers are so often called col-
coiiects. lects is differently represented. Some ritualists think, because
the word collect is sometimes used both in the vulgar Latin
Bible m , and by the ancient Fathers 11 , to denote the gathering
together of the people into religious assemblies ; that therefore
the prayers are called collects, as being repeated when the

1 John xiv. 1 3. and xri. 24. m Dies Collects, Lev. xxiii. 36. Collectionem,

Heb. x. 25. n Collectum celebrare. Passim apud Patres.

FOR MORNIWG KNING PRAYER.

people are collected together". Others think they arc >o named Sect-
upon account of their comprehensive luvvitv; the minister col-
Ig into short forms the petition* of the people, which had
heen divided between him and them by vehicles and

: and for this reason (rod is desired in some- of them to

'l/i- /miyer.s nnd stipplicnt'tons nfthc />('<>/)/<'. Though I think

it IN very probable that them/A rAv//>r ///< Sunday* ntni //o///-//////.v

hi-ar that name, upon account that a great many of them arc very

evidently collected out of the Kpistles and Gospels.

SECT. X X. Of the three Collects at Morning and Evening

Prayer.

Tin: next thing to be taken notice of is the rubric that The rubric
follows the versicles after the Lord's Prayer in the morning i!5rdi he

ice, vix. Prayer.

f Then xhatt follow three Collects : the first of the Day, which
sit all be the same that is appointed at the Communion ; the
second for Peace ; the third for Grace to live well. And the
two last Collects sJwll never alter, but daily be said at Morning
Prayer throughout all the year, asfolloweth ; all kneeling.

There is much the same rubric in the evening service ; only
whereas the third collect for the morning is intitled,yor grace to
I'lt-c :cell ; the title of that for the evening IB, for aid against all
penis.

I. The first of these collects, viz. that of the day, which is or- or the collect
dered to be the same that is appointed at the communion, will fall f01
under my particular consideration, when I come to treat of the
several Sundays and Holy-days, which will naturally lead me to

take notice of the several collects that belong to them.

II. The second collects, for peace, both for the morning andorthecoiiects
evening service, are, word for word, translated out of the sacra- for peace>
mentary of St. Gregory ; each of them being suited to the office

it is assigned to. In that which we use in the beginning of the
day, when we are going to engage ourselves in various affairs,
and to converse with the world, we pray for outward peace, and
desire to be preserved from the injuries, affronts, and wicked de-
signs of men. But in that for the evening we ask for inward
tranquillity, requesting^;?* that peace which the world cannot give,
ns springing only from the testimony of a good conscience; that
so each of us may with David be enabled to say, / will lay me
in pence, and take my rest ; having our hearts as easy as
our heads, and our sleep sweet and quiet.

III. The third collects, both at morning and evening, arenrthecoi.
framed out of the Greek euchologion. That in the morning l 2* e f . OT

n A populi collectione, Collects appellari coepernnt. Alcuinus. Sacvnios om-

nium petitiones compemliosa Invvitate colli^it. Walafrid. Strain).

136

OF THE ORDER

Chap. in. service,^' grace, is very proper to be used in the beginning of
the day, when we are probably going to be exposed to various
dangers and temptations. Nor is the other, for aid against all
perils, less seasonable at night ; for being then in danger of the
terrors of darkness, we by this form commend ourselves into the
hands of that God, who neither slumbers nor sleeps, and with
whom darkness and light are both alike.

against all
perils.

Anthems,

Their ori-
ginal and
antiquity.

Why to be
sung here.

This the

SECT. XXI. Of the Anthem.

AFTEII the aforesaid collects, as well at morning prayer as at
evening, the rubric orders, that in choirs and places where they
sing, herejblloweth the anthem. The original of which is probably
derived from the very first Christians. For Pliny has recorded
that it was the custom in his time to meet upon a fixed day be-
fore light, and to sing a hymn, in parts or by turns, to Christ, as
God q : which expression can hardly have any other sense put
upon it, than that they sung in an antiphonical way. Socrates
indeed attributes the rise of them to Saint Ignatius, who, when
he had heard the angels in heaven singing and answering one
another in hymns to God, ordered that, in the church of Antioch,
psalms of praise should be composed and set to music, and sung
in parts by the choir in the time of divine service r ; which, from
the manner of singing them, were called avrifytova, antiphons, or
anthems, i. e. hymns sung in parts, or by course. This practice
was soon imitated by the whole church, and has universally
obtained ever since.

. 2. The reason of its being ordered in this place is partly
perhaps for the relief of the congregation, who, if they have
joined with due fervour in the foregoing parts of the office, may
now be thought to be something weary ; and partly, I suppose,
to make a division in the service, the former part of it being per-
formed in behalf of ourselves, and that which follows being
mostly intercessional.

. 3. And therefore since it is now grown a custom, in a great
many churches, to sing a psalm in metre in the middle of the
service ; I cannot see why it would not be more proper here,
than just after the second lesson, where a hymn is purposely
provided by the church to follow it. I have already shewed the
irregularity of singing the hymn itself in metre : and to sing a
different psalm between the lesson and the psalm appointed, is
no less irregular. And therefore certainly this must be the
most proper place for singing, (if there must be singing before
the service is ended,) since it seems much more timely and con-
formable to the rubric, and moreover does honour to the singing-
psalms themselves, by making them supply the place of anthems.

q Plin. Epist. L io.Ep.97. p, 284. edit. Oxon. 1703.
cap. 8. p. 313. D.

r Socrat. Hist. Eccl, lib. 6.

FOR MORNING AND EVEXIXC PRAYER. 137

SECT. XXII. Of the Prayer for the A'in:
AW. have been hitherto only praying for ourselves ; hut since

i i / // " I -i The prayer

\\c are commanded to prayjbr alt men* t we now proceed; in obe-rorUttttof.

dicnce to that command, to pray lor the- whole church ; and in
rst place for the king, whom, under Christ, we acknowledge
to In- tin- supreme governor of this part of it to which we belong.
And since the .supreme King of all the world is (iod, by whom
all mortal kings reign ; and since his authority sets them up, and
his power only can defend them; therefore all mankind, as it
\\rre by common consent, have agreed to pray to God for their
rulers. The heathens ottered sacrifices, prayers, and vows for
their welfare : and the Jews (us we may sec by the l Psalms)
always made their prayers for the king a part of their public de-
votion. And all the ancient fathers, liturgies, and councils fully
evidence, that the same was done daily by Christians: and this
not only for those that encouraged them, but even for such as
opposed them, and were enemies to the faith. Afterwards in-
<!<<<!, when the emperors became Christian, they particularly
named them in their offices, with titles expressing the dearest
affection, and most honourable respect; and prayed for them in
as Joval and as hearty terms as are included in the prayer we
are now speaking of: which is taken almost verbatim out of the
Sacramentary of St. Gregory, but was not inserted in our Liturgy
till the reign of queen Elisabeth ; when our reformers observing Wh
that, by the Liturgies of king Edward, the queen could not be service. "
prayed for, but upon those days when either the Litany or Com-
munion-office was to be used, they found it necessary to add a
form, to supply the defect of the daily service.

SECT. XXIII. Of' the Prayer for the Royal Family.
TIIKKK is as near an alliance between this and the former The prayer
prayer, as between the persons for whom they arc made. And fam!!^. r 5
we may observe that the Persian emperor Darius desired the
Jewish priests to pray not only for the king, but his sons too u ;
and the Romans prayed for the heirs of the empire, as well as
the emperor himself x . The primitive Christians prayed also for
the imperial family y ; and the canons of old councils both at
home and abroad enjoin the same 7 . In our own church indeed whm added
there was no mention made of the royal family till the reign of to
king James I. because after the reformation no protestant prince
had children till he came to the throne. But at his accession,
this prayer was immediately added ; except that the beginning
of it, when it was first inserted, was, Almighty God, which hast

s i Tim. ii. 1,2. t Psalm xx. and Ixxii. " Iv/ra vi. 10. * Tacit. Annal.
1. 4. y Li tun;. S. Kasil. z Excerpt. Kghvrti, Can. 7. t>j>clm. torn. i. p. 759.

'l. Kin-incus. 2. Can. 40. torn. vii. col. 1285. ('.

138 OF THE ORDER

Chap. m. promised to be a father of thine elect , and of their seed : but this,
~~I suppose, being thought to savour a little of Calvinism, was
altered about the year 1632 or 33, when (Frederic the prince
elector palatine, the lady Elizabeth, his wife, with their princely
issue, being left out) these words were changed into, Almighty
God, the fountain of all goodness.

SECT. XXIV. Of the Prayer for the Clergy and People.
The prayer HAVING thus made our supplications for our temporal go-
S r d t peopief y vernors, that under them we may have all those outward bless-
ings which will make our lives comfortable here ; we proceed, in
the next place, to pray for our spiritual guides, that with them
we may receive all those graces and inward blessings which will
make our souls happy hereafter. We are members of the church
as well as of the state, and therefore we must pray for the pro-
sperity of both, since they mutually defend and support each
when first other. That we might not want a form therefore suitable and
good, this prayer was added in queen Elizabeth's Common
Prayer Book, out of the Sacramentary of St. Gregory, in con-
formity to the practice of the ancient church, which always had
prayers for the clergy and people a .

The meaning . 2. And because to gather a church at first out of infidels,

workes^eai an d tnen to protect it continually from its enemies, is an act of

marvels. as g rea t power, and SL greater miracle of love than to create the

world ; therefore in the preface of this prayer we may properly

address ourselves to God, as to him who alone worketh great

marvels : though it is not improbable that those words might be

added with a view to the miraculous descent of the Holy Ghost

upon the twelve apostles on the day of Pentecost.

curates; who .3. By the word curates in this prayer, are meant all that
they be. are en t rus t e d with the cure or care of souls, whether they be the
incumbents themselves, who from that cure were anciently called
curates ; or those whom we now more generally call so, from as-
sisting incumbents in their said cure.

SECT. XXV. Of the Prayer of St. Chrysostom.

Theprayerof WHERE ancient Liturgies afforded proper prayers, the com-
^ hrysos ' pilers of ours rather chose to retain them than make new ones :
and therefore as some are taken from the western offices, so is
this from the eastern ; where it is daily used, with very little
difference, in the Liturgies both of St. Basil and St. Chrysostom ;
the last of which was the undoubted author of it. It is inserted
indeed in the middle of their Liturgies; but in ours, I think
more properly, at the conclusion. For it is fit, that, in the close

a Synes. Ep. n. p. 173. B. Excerpt. Egberti, Can. 8. Spelm. torn. i. p. 259. Concil.
Calchuthens. Can. 10. torn. vi. col. 1816. A.

FOR MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER. 189

of our prayers, we should first reflect on nil those groat und

, requests we have made, and then not, only renew our XXVI.
9 i hat God may grant them, but also stir up our hearts to
hope he will. To Which end \ve address ourselves in this pr

ond Person in the glorious Trinity, our blessed Saviour,
and remind him of the gracious promise he made to us when
on earth, that ic/iere /:eo or three are ^nthered together in /ii\
name. In- \cnnld be there in the midst of thcm b , and therefore if
MI but prevail with him to hear our desires and petitions , we
know that the power of his intercession with God is so great,
that we need not doubt but we shall obtain them. But however,
since it may happen that we may have asked some things which
he may not think convenient for us ; we do not peremptorily
desire that he would give us all we have prayed for, but submit
our prayers to his heavenly will ; and only request that he would
fulfil our desires and petitions as may be most expedient for us :
begging nothing positively, but what we are sure we cannot be
too importunate for, vi/. in this world knowledge of his truth,
and in the world to come life everlasting. This we may ask
peremptorily, without fear of arrogance or presumption ; and yet
this is all we really stand in need of.

. 2. Neither this nor the following benedictory prayer is at when first
the end of either the morning or evening service, in any of the"' 1
old Common Prayer Books; which all of them conclude with
the third collect. But the prayer of St. Chrysostom is at the
end of the Litany, from the very first book of king Edward ;
and the benedictory prayer from that of queen Elizabeth ; and
there also stood the prayers for the king, the royal family, for
tlu* clergy and people, till the last review. And I suppose,
though not printed, they were always used, as now, at the con-
clusion of the daily service. For after the third collect, the
Scotch Liturgy directs, that then shall follow the prayer for the
AVJ/ ',? majesty, with the rest of the prayers at the end of the
Litany, to the benediction.

SECT. XXVL Of 2 Cor. xiii. 14.

THE whole service being thus finished, the minister closes it
with that benedictory prayer of St. Paul, with which he con-
cludes most of his Epistles: a form of blessing which the Holy
Spirit seems, by the repeated use of it, to have delivered to the
church to be used instead of that old Jewish form, with which
the priest under the law dismissed the congregation . The
reason of its being changed was undoubtedly owing to the new
revelation made of the three Persons in the Godhead. For
otherwise the Jews both worshipped and blessed, in the name
of the same God as the Christians ; only their devotions had
b Matt, xviii. ?o. c Numb. vi. 23, &r.

140 OF THE LITANY.

Chap. IV. respect chiefly to the Unity of the Godhead, whereas ours com-
~~ prehend also the Trinity of Persons.

Not a bless. . 2. I must not forget to observe, that the form here used in
our daily service is rather a prayer than a blessing ; since there
is no alteration either of person or posture prescribed to the
minister, but he is directed to pronounce it kneeling, and to in-
clude himself as well as the people.

CHAP. IV.
OF THE LITANY.

THE INTRODUCTION.

AFTER the order for the morning and evening prayer in our
^orA iltany. present Liturgy, as well as in all the old ones, stands the Con-
fession of our Christian Faith, commonly called the Creed of
Athanasius^, which hath already been spoken to : and then
followeth the Litany or general Supplication to be sung* or said
after morning prayer, upon Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays,
and at all other times when it shall be commanded by the ordinary.
The word Litany, as it is explained by our present Liturgy,
signifies a general supplication ; and so it is used by the most
ancient heathens, viz. " for an earnest supplication to the gods
64 made in time of adverse fortune 6 ; and in the same sense it is
6: used in the Christian church, viz. for a supplication and common
" intercession to God, when his wrath lies heavy upon us f ."
Such a kind, of supplication was the fifty-first Psalm, which
may be called David's litany. Such was that litany of God's
appointing in Joels, where, in a general assembly, the priests
were to weep between the porch and the altar, and to say, Spare
thy people, O Lord: (in allusion to which place, our Litany, re-
taining also the same words, is enjoined, by the royal Injunctions
why sung in still in force* 1 , to be said or sung in the midst of the church, at a
Ihediurch* low desk before the chancel door, anciently called the failed
stool 1 .) And such was that litany of our Saviour k , which he
thrice repeated with strong crying and tears^.

The antiquity . 2. As for thc^orwi in which they are now made, viz. in short
thi"?orm. ta requests by the priests, to which the people all answer, it ap-

d The words commonly called the Creed of Athanasins were added at the Restora-
tion. e IIoAAa Se KO.\ airtvtiuv xp vff *y SeTrcu AiTdb/cuep. Horn. II. V. &i\us
AtTOfeue TOKTJCCS M^TIV <rvi*(f>pa.a'a(rOat. Ilesiod. Theog. f Airapeta 5e eo"Ti irapd-
KXyaris irpbs Oeby, /cat iKtffia 5i' opyijv fTTKpepofj.fi/rjv. Symeon. Thessal. Opnsr. de
Haeret. Joel ii. 17. * l Injunctions of Edward VI. and of queen Elizabeth,
A.D. 1559. in bishop Sparrow's Collect, pp. 8 and 72. i See a note of bishop
Andrews, in Dr. Nichols's Additional Notes, p. -22. col. I. k Luke xxii. 44.
1 Heb. v. 7.

OF THE LITANY. 141

to be very ancient; for St. Basil tells us, that litanies
read in the church of Neocaesarea, between Gregory Thau-
iiKitur-us"s time and his own 1 ". And St. Anihro>c hath left a
form of litany, which bears his name, agreeing in many tilings
with this of ours. For when miraculous o-ifts began to ci ;.
they wrote down several of those forms, which were the original
of our modern office.

.3. About the year 400 they began to be used in procession,
the people walking ban-foot, and saying them with great devo-
tion ; by which means, it is said, several countries were delivered
from great calamities". About the year 600, Gregory the Great,
out of all the litanies extant, composed that famous sevenfold
litany , by which Rome was delivered from a grievous mor-
tality P; which hath been a pattern to all the western churehe.-,
since; and to which ours comes nearer than that in the present
Jtomun Missal, wherein later popes had put in the invocation of
saints, which our reformers have justly expunged. But here we
must observe, that litanies were of use before processions, and
remained when they were taken away. For those processional
litanies having occasioned much scandal, it was decreed, " that
" the litanies should for the future only be used within the walls
<w of the church 9 ;" and so they are used amongst us to this day.

. 4. In the Common Prayer Book of 1549. (i. e. in the first why said on
book of king Edward) the litany was placed between the com- w^dSays,
munion office, and the office for baptism, with this single title, an
The Letauy* ami /s'////}v/^v,'.v, and without any rubric either before
or after it. But at the end of the communion office the first
rubric began thus : Upon Wednesday* and Fridays the English
L'ttiuiif .shall be said or sung in all places , after such form an Is
appointed l>ij the King's Majesties Injunction*: or as it shall be -
otherwise appointed by his Highness. What this^rw was I
shall mention presently from the Injunctions themselves : but first
1 must observe, that Wednesdays and Fridays are here only
mentioned, which were the ancient fasting-days of the primitive
fhiirch s : the death of Christ being designed on the Wednesday,
when he was sold by Judas, and accomplished on the Friday,
when he died on the cross 1 . As to Sunday, 1 find no direction
relating to it ; though I conclude from two other rubrics, which

m Basil. Ep. 63. ud Neoca?sar. n Vid. Nireph. Hist. 1. 14. c. 3. torn. ii. p. 44.7.
A. o It was called Litunia afptifonnis, or tin- .sevenfold litany, l>ecanse he ordered
the rhurrk to make their procession in seven classes : vi/.. first the clergy, then the
laymen., next the monks, alter the virgins, then the married women, next the widow*,
last oi 'all the poor and the children. Vide Greg. lili. 1 1. lip. 2. and Strain) de Offic.
Ktvles. c. 28. P Paul. Diac. 1. 18. et Hala-ns in Yit. (Jre^. Q Concil. Colon iens.
i So the word was spelt in all the old Common Prayer Hooks. Clem. Alex.

Strom. 7. e. 744. B. Tertnll. de Jejun. c. 2. p. 545. A. Epiphau. adv. Hares. 1. 3.
torn. i. p. 910. 1. t Petrus Alexandrians, ap. Albaspinanun, 1. i. Obs. 16. p. 35.

col. i. E.

OF THE LITANY.

Chap. IV. dispense with the use of it on some particular Sundays, that it was
"*" generally used on all the rest. For among the notes of explication
at the end of that book, the two last allow that upon Christmas-
day, Easter-day, the Ascension-day, Whitsunday, and the feast
of' Trinity, may be used any part of Iwly scripture, hereafter to
be certainly limited and appointed instead of the Litany. And
that if there be a sermon, or for other great cause, the curate by
his discretion may leave out the Litany, the Gloria in Excelsis,
the Creed, the Homily, and the Exhortation to the Communion.
But in the review of the Common Prayer in 1552, the Litany
was placed where it stands at this time, with direction at the
beginning, that it should be used on Sundays, Wednesdays, and
Fridays, and at other times when it shall be commanded by the
Ordinary. And the order for Sunday has continued ever since ;
I suppose partly because there is then the greatest assembly to
join in so important a supplication, and partly that no day might
seem to have a more solemn office than the Lord's day.

what time 6. <. The particular time of the day when it is to be said

of the day ,., c L/V' X- 1 I' UJ

it is to he seems now different from what it was formerly: m king Ld-
ward's and queen Elizabeth's time, it seems it was used as pre-
paratory to the second service. For by their Injunctions" it
was ordered, that immediately before high mass, or the time of
communion of the sacrament, the priests with others of the quire
should kneel in the midst of the church, and sing or say plainly
and distinctly the litany which is set forth in English, with all the
suffrages following. And even long afterwards it was a custom
in several churches to toll a bell whilst the litany was reading, to
give notice to the people that the communion service was coming
on x . And indeed till the last review in 1661 the litany was
designed to be a distinct service by itself, and to be used some
time after the morning prayer was over ; as may be gathered
from the rubric before the commination in all the old Common
Prayer Books, which orders, that after morning prayer, the people
being called together by the ringing of a bell, and assembled in the
church, the English litany shall be said after the accustomed man-
ner. This custom, as I am informed, is still observed in some
cathedrals and chapels y : though now, for the mt>st part, it is
made one office with the morning prayer ; it being ordered by the
rubric before the prayer for the king, to be read after the third
collect for grace, instead of the intercessionai prayers in the
daily service. Which order seems to have been formed from the
rubric before the litany in the Scotch Common Prayer Book, which
I have transcribed in the margin 2 . And accordingly we find

u Sparrow's Collections, pp. 8, 72. x Heylin's Antidot. Lincoln, cap. 10. sect. 3.
p. 59. y As at Worcester Cathedral and Merton College in Oxford, where morning
prayer is read at six or seven, and the litany at ten. z Here followeth the Litany
to be used after the third collect at morning prayer, called the collect for grace, upon
Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and at other times, when it shall be commanded

OF THE LITANY.

that, as the aforementioned rubric before the commination office Introduce

>\v altered, both the morning prayer and litany are there"
supposed to IK- read at out- and the same time.

.6. By the fifteenth canon above mentioned, whenever the <>" "mur
Litanv is read, every Itouscliolder duelling within half a mile qffoi&SflL
the ehureh, If to come or send one at the least of his houscludd Jit Ll
to -jitin with, the minister in jtrut/trs.

. 7. The ywM^;v, whieh the minister is to use in saying the The minuter
Litany, is not prescribed in any present rubric-, except that, as it to
is now a part of the morning service for the days above-men-
tioned, it is included in the rubric at the end of the siiffr,,
after the second Lord's Prayer, which orders nil to kneel in that
place, after which there is no direction for standing. And the
Injunctions of kino- Mdward and queen Eli/abeth both appoint,
that the priests, with others of' the choir, shall kneel in the midst
of the church, and sing or say plainly and distinctly the Litany,
which is set forth in English, with all the suffrages following,
to the intent the people may hear and answer, fyc. 3 - As to the
posture of the people, nothing need to be said in relation to
that, because whenever the priest kneels, they are always to
do the same.

. 8. The singing of this office by laymen, as practised i
several cathedrals and colleges, is certainly very unjustifiable, st
and deservedly gives offence to all such as are zealous for rcga^
larky and decency in divine worship. And therefore (since it is
plainly a practice against the express rules of our church, crept
in partly through the indevout laziness of minor canons and
others, whose duty it is to perform that solemn office ; and
partly through the shameful negligence of those who can and
ought to correct whatever they see amiss in such matters) it
cannot surely be thought impertinent, if I take hold of this op-
portunity to express my concern at so irreligious a custom.
And to shew that I am not singular in my complaint, I shall
here transcribe the words of the learned Dr. Bennet, who hath
some time since, upon a like occasion, very severely, but with a
great deal of decency, inveighed against this practice : though
I cannot learn that he has yet been so fortunate as to obtain
much reformation.

" I think myself obliged (saith he b ) to take notice of a most
" scandalous practice, which prevails in many such congrega-
" lions, as ought to be fit precedents for the whole kingdom
" to follow. It is this ; that laymen, and very often young
" boys of eighteen or nineteen years of age, are not only per-
" milted, but obliged to perform this office, which is one of the

by tin- Ordinzuy, uiul without the omission of any part of the other daily service of
the church 011 those days. a See bishop Sparrow, as in page 142, note . b Upon
the Common Prayer, page 94.

144 OF THE LITANY.

Chap. IV. " most solemn parts of divine service, even though many priests

" and deacons are at the same time present.

" Those persons upon whom it must be charged, and in whose
" power it is to rectify it, cannot but know that this practice
" is illegal, as well as abominable in itself, and a flat contradic-
" tion to all primitive order. And one would think, when the
" nation swarms with such as ridicule, oppose, and deny the dis-
" tinction of clergy and laity ; those who possess some of the
" largest and most honourable preferments in the church, should
" be ashamed to betray her into the hands of her professed ene-
" mies, and to put arguments into their mouths, and declare by
" their actions that they think any layman whatsoever as truly
" authorized to minister in holy things, as those who are regu-
" larly ordained. Besides, with what face can those persons
" blame the dissenting teachers, for officiating without episcopal
" ordination, when they themselves do not only allow of, but
" require the same thing ?"

SECT. I. Of the Invocation.

The invoca. WE have a divine command to call upon God for mercy in
the time of trouble ; and all the litanies I have seen t begin
with this solemn word, Kvptc lA^qow, Lord have mercy upon us.
So that this invocation is the sum of the whole litany, being a
particular address for mercy, first to each person in the glorious
Trinity, and then to them all together. The address being
urged by two motives, viz. first, because we are miserable ; and
secondly, because we are sinners : upon both which accounts we
extremely need mercy.

why repeat- .2. The design of the people's repeating these whole verses

whSeVon. after the minister is, that every one may first crave to be heard

elation. j n j^ g QWn wor( j s ; which when they have "obtained, they may

leave it to the priest to set forth all their needs to Almighty God,

provided that they declare their assent to every petition as he

delivers it.

SECT. II. Of the Deprecations.

Thedepreca- HAVING opened the way by the preceding invocation, we now
begin to ask : and because deliverance from evil is the first step
to felicity, we begin with these deprecations for removing it.
Both the eastern and western church begin their litanies after
the same manner d , theirs as well as ours being a paraphrase
upon that petition in the Lord's Prayer, deliver us from evil.

The method . 2. But because our requests ought to ascend by degrees;

of them. b e f ore we as k for a perfect deliverance, we beg the mercy of
forbearance. For we confess we have sinned with our fathers,
and that therefore God may justly punish us, not only for our
c James v. 1 3. d Liturg. S. Chrysost. et S. Basil.-~Miss. sec. Us. Sarisb.

OP THE LITANY. 145

own sins, but for theirs also, which we have made our own by S* 01 - H-
imitation: for which reason we beg of him not to rcninnhcr, or""
take vengeance of us for them, especially since he has himself so
dearly purchased our pardon with his own most nrcciuiix blood.
Hut however if we cannot obtain to be wholly spared, but that
lie may see it good for us to be a little under chastisement;
then we beg his correction may be short, and soon removed, and
that he icuuld not be angry icith us for ever.

And the sum of all that we pray against being deliverance
from the evils of sin and punishment, we begin the next peti-
tion with two genera! words which comprehend both : for r;v7
and mischief signify wickedness and misery : and as the first is
ranged by the crofts and assaults of' the Devil, so the second is
brought upon us by the just wrath of God here, and completed
vei'lasting* damnation hereafter: and therefore we desire to

* O

be delivered both from sin and the punishment of it ; as well
from the causes that lead to it, as the consequences that fol-
low it.

After we have thus prayed against sin and misery in general,
we descend regularly to the particulars, reckoning divers kinds
of the most notorious sins, some of which have their seat in the
heart or mind, and others in the body. And first we begin
against those of the heart, where all sins begin, and there re-
count first the sins concerning ourselves; and, secondly, those
concerning our neighbours. Of the former sort are blindness of
heart, (which we place in the front as the cause of all the rest,)
and prtde t vainglory, and hypocrisy, which are united together
in this deprecation, as vices which generally accompany one
another. Of the other sort are envy, hatred, and malice, and all
unehantablencss ; in which words are comprehended ail those
sins which we do, or can, commit against our neighbour in our
hearts.

l-Yoin the heart sin spreads further into the life and actions,
and thither our Litany now pursues it, beginning with that
which St. Paul reckons first among the works of the flesh 6 , but
which is notwithstanding the boldest and most barefaced sin in
this lewd age, viz. fornication, which is not to be restrained to
the defiling of single persons, but comprehends under it all acts
of uncleanness whatsoever. But though this be a deadly sin,
yet it is not the only one, and therefore we pray to be delivered
from all other deadly .v /'//.?. by which we understand not such as I)eadl v !u .

. ., , **! i i ' what it slg-

are deadly by way of distinction, or as they stand in opposition ni&**.
to venial sins, (for there arc no sins venial in their own nature,)
but such as are those which David calls presumptuous, and begs
particular preservation from f , or those which are most heinous

e Gal. v. 79. 1 Psalm xix. 13.

WHEATJLY. L

146 OF THE LITANY.

Chap. rv. and crying above others. For though every sin deserves damna-
tion in its own nature, yet we know that the infinite goodness of
God will not inflict it for every sin. But then there are some sins
so exceeding great, that they are inconsistent even with the
gospel -clemency, and immediately render a man obnoxious to the
wrath of God, and in danger of eternal damnation. And these
are they which we pray against, together with all other sins,
which we are apt to fall into through the deceits of our three
great enemies, which we renounced in baptism, the world, the
flesh, and the Devil.

When the cause is removed, there are hopes the consequences
may be prevented : and therefore, after we have petitioned
against all sin, we may regularly pray against all those judg-
ments with which God generally scourges those who offend him ;
whether they are such as fall upon whole nations and kingdoms,
and either come immediately from the hand of God> as lightning
and tempest, plague, pestilence, and famine ; or else are inflicted
by the hands of wicked men, as his instruments, as battle and
murder : or whether they are such as fall upon particular per-

why we pray sons only, as sudden death; such as happens sometimes by vio-
^ lence, as by stabbing, burning, drowning, or the like ; or else on
a sudden and in a moment's time, without any warning or ap-
parent cause. And though both these kinds of death may some-
times happen to very good men, yet if we consider that by such
means we may leave our relations without comfort, and our af-
fairs unsettled ; and may ourselves be deprived of the preparative
ordinances for death, and have no time to fit our souls for our
great account; prudence as well as humility will teach us to
pray against them.

Having thus deprecated those evils which might endanger our
lives, we proceed next to pray against such as would deprive us
of our peace and truth ; as well those which are levelled at the
state, as is all sedition, privy conspiracy, and rebellions, as those
which portend the ruin of the church, as all false doctrine , heresy,
and schisms. And then we conclude with the last and worst of
God's judgments, which he generally inflicts upon those whom
neither private nor public calamities will reform, viz. hardness of
heart, and contempt of his word and commandment : for when
people amend not upon those punishmejits which are inflicted
upon their estates and persons, upon the church and state ; then
the patience of God is tired out, and he withdraws his grace, and
gives them up to a reprobate sense, the usual prologue to de-

e Rebellion, schism.'] Both these words were added in the review after the restora-
tion of King Charles II., to deprecate for the future the like subversion of church
and state to what they had then so lately felt. After privy conspiracy in both
Common Prayer Books of king Edward VI. followed, from the tyranny of the bishop
of Rome, and all his detestable enormities : but this has ever since been omitted.

OF THE LITANY. 147

struction and damnation, from which deplorable state, good Lord Sect. II.
deliver us.

And now to be delivered from all these great and griev<

. is a mercy so very desirable, that it ought to be begged by
the most importunate kind of supplication imaginable : ami Mich
are the two next petitions, which the Latins call Obsecrations, in
which the church beseeches our dear Kcdeemer to deliver us
from all the evils we have been praying against, by the mystery of
his holy incarnation, fyc. i. e. she lays before our Lord all his
former mercies to us expressed in his incarnation, nativity, cir-
cumcision, baptism, and in every thing else which he has done and
suffered for us; and oilers these considerations to move him to

our requests, and to deliver us from those evils.

And though we are always either under or near some evil,

for which reason it is never unseasonable to pray for deliverance ;

yet there are some particular times in which we stand in more

especial need of the divine help : and they are either during our

or at our deaths. During our lives we particularly want
the divine assistance, first in all times of tribulation, when we
are usually tempted to murmuring, impatience, sadness, despair,
and the like : and these we pray against now, before the evil day
comes : not that God would deliver us from all such times, which
would be an unlawful request; but that he would support us
under them whenever he shall please to inflict them. The other
part of our li ves which we pray to be delivered in, is all time of
our wealth, i. e. of our welfare and prosperity, which are rather
more dangerous than our times of adversity : all kinds of pro-
sperity, especially plenty and abundance, being exceedingly apt to
increase our pride, to inflame our lusts, to multiply our sins, and,
in a word, to make us forget God, and grow careless of our souls.
And therefore we had need to pray that in all such times God
would be pleased to deliver us. But whether we spend our days
in prosperity or adversity, they must all end in death, in the hour
of which the Devil is always most active, and we least able to

him. Our pains are grievous, and our fears many, and
the danger great of falling into impatience, despair, or security :
and therefore we constantly pray for deliverance in that im-
portant hour, which if God grant us, we have but one request
more, and that is, that he would also deliver us in the day of
judgment ; which is the last time a man is capable of deliverance,
MIR e if we be not delivered then, we are left to perish eternally.
How fervently therefore ought we to pray for ourselves all our
life long, as St. Paul prayed for Onesiphorus h , that the Lord
would grant unto us that we may find mercy of the Lord in that
day !

h 2 Tim. i. 18.
I 2

148 QF THE LITANY.

SECT. III. Of the Intercessions.

Chap. IV. IF the institution of God be required to make this part of our
The Jnter ' Litany necessary, we have his positive command by St. Paul, to
cessions. make intercession for all men 1 ; and if the consent of the universal
church can add any thing to its esteem, it is evident that this
kind of prayer is in all the Liturgies in the world, and that every
one of the petitions we are now going to discourse of are taken
from the best and oldest litanies extant. All therefore that
will be necessary here, is to shew the admirable method and
order of these intercessions, which are so exact, curious, and na-
tural, that every degree of men follow in their due place ; and,
at the same time, so comprehensive, that we can think of no
sorts of persons but who are enumerated, and for whom all
those things are asked which all and every of them stand in
need of.
The method S. 2. But because it may seem presumptuous for us to pray for

and order of * . J ? u * 1

them. others, who are unworthy to pray for ourselves, before we begin,
we acknowledge that we are sinners : but yet, if we are penitent,
we know our prayers will be acceptable : and therefore in humble
confidence of his mercy, and in obedience to his command, We
sinners do beseech him to hear us in these our intercessions, which
we offer up, first, for the holy church universal, the common
mother of all Christians, as thinking ourselves more concerned
for the good of the whole, than of any particular part. After
this, we pray for our own church, to which, next the catholic
church, we owe the greatest observance and duty; and therein,
in the first place, for the principal members of it, in whose wel-
fare the peace of the church chiefly consists : such as is the king 9
whom, because he is the supreme governor of the church in his
dominions, and so the greatest security upon earth to the true
religion, we pray for in the three next petitions, that he may be
orthodox, pious, and prosperous 15 . And though at present we
may be happy under him ; yet because his crown doth not render
him immortal, and the security of the government ordinarily de-
pends upon the royal family, we pray in the next place for them
(and particularly for the heir apparent) that they may be sup-
plied with all spiritual blessings, and preserved from all plots and
dangers 1 .

The Jews and Gentiles always reckoned their chief priests to
be next in dignity to the king m ; and all ancient Liturgies pray
for the clergy immediately after the royal family, as being the
most considerable members of the Christian church, distinguished

i i Tim. ii. i. k In king Edward's Liturgies the first petition for the king was
only this : That it may please thee to keep Edward the Sixth, thy servant, our kiny and
governor. 1 This petition was not added till king James the First's time, for a

reason given in the section upon the prayer for the royal family in the daily service,
m Alex, ab Alex. 1. a. c. 8.

OF THE LITANY. 149

here into those three apostolical orders of bishojts, jir'n .s7x, and Sort. III.
<//.v , though in all former Common Prayer Hooks they u
(I the bishops, pastors, and ;////*/*/</* nf the church, except in
eh Liturgy, which lor jMtxturx had inrsbifters.

Next to these follow those who an- eminent in the state, vi/..

//// lords of the council tntd (ill the nubility, who hy reason of

their dignity and trust have need of our particular prayers, and

uluavs prayed lor in the old Liturgies by the title of Ihe

\choU- pal

Alter we have prayed for all the nobility in general, we pray

i'li of the nobility and gentry as arc magistrates, or more

inferior governors of the people, according to the example of the

primitive Christians, and in obedience to the positive command of

St. Paul, who enjoins us to pray^or all that are in authority n .

After these we pray for all the people, i. c. all the commons of
the land, who are the most numerous, though the least eminent;
and unless they be safe and happy, the governors themselves
cannot be prosperous, the diseases of the members being a trouble
to the head also.

And though we may be allowed to pray for our own nation
first, yet our prayers must extend to all mankind ; and therefore
in the next place we pray for the whole world, in the very words
of ancient Liturgies, viz. that all nations may have unity at home
among themselves, peace with one another, and concord, i. e.
amity, commerce, and leagues.

Having thus prayed for temporal blessings both for ourselves
and others, it is time now to look inward, and to consider what
is \\anting for our souls : and therefore we now proceed to pray
for spiritual blessings, such as virtue and goodness. And, first,
we pray that the principles of it may be planted in our hearts,
i.hc love and dread of God, and then that the practice
of it may be seen in our lives, by our diligent living after his
commandments,

Hut though we receive grace, yet if we do not improve it, we
shall be in danger of losing it again ; and therefore having in
the former petition desired that we might become good, we
subjoin this that we may grow better : begging increase of grace,
and also that we may use proper means thereunto, such as is the
weekly hearing God's word, &c.

From praying for the sanetification and improvement of those
within the church, we become solicitous for the conversion of
those that arc without it; being desirous that all sJiould be
brought into the icay of truth icho have erred or arc deceived.

But though those without the church are the most miserable,
yet those within are not yet so happy as not to need our
prayers ; some of them standing in need of strength, and others

n I Tim. ii. 2.

150 OF THE LITANY.

Chap. IV. of comfort : these blessings therefore we now ask for those that
~~ want them.

Having thus considered the souls of men, we go on next to
such things as concern their bodies, and to pray for all the
afflicted in general ; begging of God to succour all that are in
danger, by preventing the mischief that is falling upon them ; to
help those that are in necessity, by giving them those blessings
they want ; and to comfort all that are in tribulation, by support-
ing them under it, and delivering them out of it.

And because the circumstances of some of these hinder them
from being present to pray for themselves ; we particularly re-
member them, since they more especially stand in need of our
prayers, such as are all that travel by land or by water, and the
rest mentioned in that petition.

There are other afflicted persons who are unable to help them-
selves, such as are fatherless children and widows*; who are too
often destitute of earthly friends ; and such as are desolate of
maintenance and lodging ; or are oppressed by the false and cruel
dealings of wicked and powerful men : and therefore these also
we particularly recommend to God, and beg of him to defend
and provide for them.

And after this large catalogue of sufferers, as w^ell in spiritual
as temporal things; lest any should be passed who are already
under or in danger of any affliction, we pray next that God
would have mercy upon all men.

And then, to shew we have no reserve or exception in our
charity or devotions, we pray particularly for our enemies, perse-
cutors, and slanderers ; who we desire may be partakers of all
the blessings we have been praying for, and that God would
moreover forgive them, and turn their hearts.

After we have thus prayed first for ourselves, and then for
others, we proceed to pray for them and Ourselves together:
begging, first, whatsoever is necessary for the sustenance of our
bodies, comprehended here under the fruits of the earth-

And then, in the next petition, asking for all things necessary
to our souls, in order to bring them to eternal happiness, viz.
true repentance, forgiveness of all our sins, &c. and amendment of
life. Which last petition is very proper for a conclusion. For
we know that if we do not amend our lives, all these inter-
cessions will signify nothing, because God will not hear im-
penitent sinners. We therefore earnestly beg repentance and
amendment of life, that so all our preceding requests may not
miscarry.

And now having presented so many excellent supplications to
the throne of grace ; if we should conclude them here, and leave
them abruptly, it would look as if we were not much concerned
whether they were received or not : and therefore the church

OK THK LIT \\V. 5

has appointed us to pursue them .still with vigorous inipor- itcfc IV.
tunities, and redoubled entreaties And for this reason we now""
call upon our Saviour, whom we have all this while been pray-
ing to, and beseech him by his divinity, as lie is the San of God,
and consequently abundantly able to help us in all these things,
that he would hear //.v : and then afterwards invocate him by his
humanity, beteeobing bun by his sufferings for us, when he
became the I.uinh of God, and was sacrificed to take away the dm
of the world, that he would grant us an interest in that peace,
which he then made with God, and the peace of conscience fol-
lowing thereupon ; and that he would have mercy upon us, and
take- away our sins, so as to deliver us from guilt and punish-
ment. And lastly, we beg of him, as be is the Lord Christ^ our
anointed Mediator, to hear us, and favour us with a gracious
answer to all these intercessions.

Finally, that our conclusion may be suitable to our beginning,
we close ii]) all with an address to the whole Trinity, Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost, for that mercy which we have been begging in
so many particulars : this one word comprehends them all, and
therefore these three sentences are the epitome of the whole
Litany ; and considering how often and how many ways we need
mercy, we can never ask it too often. But of these see more in
the former chapter, sect. xvi.

SECT. IV. Of the Supplications.

Tin: following part of this Litany w e call the supplications, The original
which were first collected, and put into this form, when the bar- cations apF
barous nations first began to overrun the empire about six hun-
dred years after Christ : but considering the troubles of the
church militant, and the many enemies it always hath in this
world, this part of the Litany is no less suitable than the former
at all times whatsoever.

.2. We begin with the Lord's Prayer, of which we have The Lord's
spoke before , and need only observe here, that the ancients Prayen
annexed it to every office, to shew both their esteem of that, and
their mean opinion of their own composures, which receive life
and value from this divine form.

.3. After this, we proceed to beg deliverance from our p r>0 Lord,
troubles: but because our consciences presently suggest, that <u ' al '
our iniquities deserve much greater, and that therefore we
cannot expect to be delivered, since we suffer so justly ; we arc AM. Neither
put in mind that God doth not deal with us after our sins, nor r " aldu3>

rd us according to our iniquities P. And therefore we turn
these very words into supplication, and thereby clear his justice
in punishing us, but apply to his mercy to proportion his

' Chap. iii. sect. vi. page 122. p Psahn ciii. 10.

OF THE LITANY.

Chap. IV. chastisements according to our ability of bearing, and not

~~ according to the desert of our offences.
The prayer . 4. The way being thus prepared, the priest now begins to

against per- T i i i

secution. pray for the people alone : but lest they should think their duty
at an end, as soon as the responses are over, he enjoins them to
accompany him in their hearts still by that ancient form, Let us
pray^ ; and then proceeds to the prayer against persecution,
which is collected partly out of the scripture, and partly out of
the primitive forms, and is still to be found entire among the
offices of the western church, with the title, For tribulation of
heart 1 .

AIIS. o Lord, it i s no jh concluded with Amen, to shew that the same request

arise, &c. for . .9 '

thy name's is continued in another form: and what the priest begged before
alone, all the people join to ask in the following alternate suppli-
cations taken from the Psalms s . When our enemies are rising
against us to destroy us, we desire that God will arise and help
us, not for any worthiness in ourselves, but^/or his name's sake,
that he may make his power to be known l .

PX.O cod, . c. Whilst the people are praying thus earnestly, the priest,

we have , i t j F i i

heard, &e. to quicken their faith by another divine sentence", commemorates
the great troubles, adversities, and persecutions, which God hath
delivered his church from in all ages ; and since he is the same
Lord, and we have the same occasion, this is laid down as the
ground of our future hope.

For the wonderful relations which we have heard with our
ears, and our fathers have declared unto us, of God's rescuing
this particular church at first from popery, and of his delivering
and preserving it ever since from faction and superstition, from
so many secret seditions and open rebellions, fully assure us that
his arm is not shortened.

AM. o Lord, And therefore the people again say, O Lord, arise, help us,
thine'htnou /. and deliver us for thine honour : which is no vain repetition,
but a testimony that they are convinced they did wisely to ask
of this God (who hath done so great things for his people in all
ages) now to arise and help ; that so the honour he hath gotten
by the wonders of his mercy may be renewed and confirmed by
this new act of his power and goodness.

dory be to 6. To this is added the Doxology in imitation of David, who

*&c. Father ' would often, in the very midst of his complaints, out of a firm

persuasion that God would hear him, suddenly break out into

an act of praise x . And thus we, having the same God to pray

to, in the midst of our mournful supplications, do not only look

q Let us pray.'} In ancient Liturgies these words often served as a mark of transition
from one sort of prayer to another, viz. from what the Latins call preces, to what they
term orationes : the preces were those alternate petitions, which passed conjointly be-
tween the priest and people : the orationes were those that were said by the priest
alone, the people only answering Amen. r Miss. Sarisb. s Psalm xliv. 26. and
Ixxix. 9. t Psalm cvi. 8. u Psalm xliv. i. x Psalm vi. 8. and xxii. 22, &c.

OF THE LITANY. 153

luck on former blessings with joy and comfort, hut forward also Sect. IV.
on the mercies we now pray for: and though we have not yet
ived them, yet we praise him for them beforehand, and
doiiht not, hut that, as he vra& glorified in the begitmilig lor past
SO he <>u-ht to he now lor the present, and shall he
lien-after for future blessings.

. 7. Hut though the faithfid do firmly believe, that they
be delivered at the last, aiul do at present rejoice in hope
thereof; yet because it is probable their afflictions may be con-
tinued for a while for a trial of their patience, and the exercise
of their other graces; for that reason we continue to pray for
support in the mean time, and beg of Christ to defend us from
our enemies, and to look grucif/ush/ upon our afflictions ; piti-
fully to bcliold the sorrows of our hearts, and mercifully to
forgive our si tiff, which are the cause of them.

And this we know he will do, if our prayers be accepted ; and
therefore we beg of \\\m favourably with mercy to hear them, and
do beseech him, as he assumed our nature, and became the Son
of David (whereby he took on him our infirmities, and became
acquainted with our griefs) to have mercy upou us.

And because the hearing of our prayers in the time of distress
is so desirable a mercy, that we cannot ask it too fervently nor
too often ; we therefore redouble our cries, and beg of him as he
is Christ, our anointed Lord and Saviour, that he would vouch-
safe to hear us now, and whenever we cry to him for relief in our
troubles. And, to shew we rely on no other helper, we conclude
these supplications with David's words in a like caseX, O Lord, let
thy mercy be shewed upou us, as we do put our trust in tliee. To
him, and to him only, we have applied ourselves ; and as we
have no other hope but in him, so we may expect that this hope
shall be fulfilled, and that we shall certainly be delivered in his
clue time.

. 8. The whole congregation having thus addressed the Son ;The P raytr
the priest now calls upon us to make our application to the fJfng'Sw"
Father (who knows as well what we suffer, as what we can bear) troubles -
in a most fervent form of address, composed at first by St. Gre-
gory above one thousand one hundred years ago 2 , but afterwards
corrupted by the Roman church, by the addition of the inter-
cession of saints a , which our reformers have left out, not only
restoring, but improving the form.

SECT. V. Of the Prayer of St. Chrysostom, and 3 Cor. xiii. 14.

THE Litany, as I have already observed, was formerly a dis- The prayer
tinct service by itself, and was used generally after morning s^o'i^Md
prayer was over; and then these two final prayers belonged 3Cor ' xiii<I <-

y Psalm xxxiii. n. z Sacram. S. Greg. torn. ii. col. 1535. B. a Miss, Sarisb.

154 OF THE OCCASIONAL PRAYERS

Chap. IV. particularly to this service. But it being now used almost every

where with the morning prayer, these latter collects, being

omitt ed there (after some occasional prayers, which shall be

spok en of next) come in here ; and how fit they are for this

place may be seen by what is said of them already.

APPENDIX TO CHAP. IV.

OF THE OCCASIONAL PRAYEES AND THANKSGIVINGS.

SECT. I. Of the six first Occasional Prayers.

Appendix HPHE usual calamities which afflict the world are so exactly
to JL enumerated in the preceding Litany, and the common ne-

1 cessities of mankind so orderly set down there ; that there seems

Icca8ionai rst to be no need of any additional prayers to complete so perfect
prayers. an o ffi ce> jj u t y^ because the variety of the particulars allows
them but a bare mention in that comprehensive form ; the
church hath thought good to enlarge our petitions in some in-
stances, because there are some evils so universal and grievous,
that it is necessary they should be deprecated with a peculiar
importunity ; and some mercies so exceeding needful at some
times, that it is not satisfactory enough to include our desires of
them among our general requests; but very requisite that we
should more solemnly petition for them in forms proper to the
several occasions. Thus it seems to have been among the Jews :
for that famous prayer which Solomon made at the dedication
of the temple b , supposes that special prayers would be made
there in times of war, drought) pestilence, and famine. And the
light of nature taught the Gentiles, on such extraordinary occa-
sions, to make extraordinary addresses to their gods c . Nor are
Christians to be thought less mindful of their own necessities.
The Greek church hath full and proper offices for times of
drought and famine, of war and tumults, of pestilence and mor-
tality, and upon occasion of earthquakes also, a judgment very
frequent there, but more seldom in this part of the world. In
the Western Missals there is a Collect, and an Epistle and
Gospel, with some responses upon every one of these subjects,
seldom indeed agreeing with any of our forms, which are the
shortest of all ; being not designed for a complete office, but
appointed to be joined to the Litany, or Morning and Evening
Prayer, every day while the occasion requires it; that so, ac-
cording to the laws of Charles the Great, (( in times of famine,
" plague, and war, the mercy of God may be immediately im-
(e plored, without staying for the king's edict* 1 ."

b j Kings viii. 33, 35, 37. c Lactant. Inst. L 2. c. I. p. 115. d Capitular,

lib. i.e. 1 18.

AND THANKSGIVINGS. 155

. a. The two first of these prayers, viz. those for rain and svu ill.
for fair weather, are placed after the six collects at the end of when em"
tlir ( 'ommunion Office, in the first book of king Kdward VI. The 8dded *
other four were added afterwards to his second book, in which
A r ere all six placed, as now, at the end of tin- Litany. Hut
in the old Common Prayer Book of queen Kli/aheth and king
James I. the second of the prayers in the time of dearth and Jo-
t/tine was omitted, and not inserted again till the restoration of
king Charles II.

SECT. II. Of the Prayers in the Ember-Weeks.

THE ordination of ministers is a matter of so great concern to The prayers
all degrees of men, that it has ever been done with great so- wMto.
lemnity ; and by the thirty-first canon of the Church it is
appointed, That no deacons and ministers be made and ordained^
bnt only upon the Sundays immediately following jejunia qua-
tuor temporum, commonly called Ember- Weeks, And since the
whole nation is obliged, at these times, to extraordinary prayer
and fasting ; the church hath provided two forms upon the oc-
casion, of which the first is most proper to be used before the
candidates have passed their examination, and the other after-
wards. They were both added to our Common Prayer Book at when added.
the last review ; though the second occurs in the Scotch Liturgy,
just before the prayer of St. Chrysostom, at the end of the
Litany.

As to the original, antiquity, and reason of these four ember
fasts, and the fixing the ordination of ministers at those times, I
shall take occasion to speak hereafter; and shall only observe
farther in this place, that it is a mistake in those who imagine
that these prayers are only to be used upon the three ember-
days, i. e. upon the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday in every
ember-week ; the rubric expressing as plain as words can do,
that one of them is to be said every day in the ember-weeks,
i. e. beginning (as it is expressed in the Scotch Liturgy) on the
Sunday before, the day of ordination.

SECT. III. Of the Prayer that may be said after any of the

former.

THIS prayer was first added in queen Elizabeth's Common Whea IM
Prayer Book, and not by order of king James I. as Dr. Nichols ad<
atlirms. When it was first inserted, it was placed just after the
prayer in the time of any common plague or sickness, (that being
then the last of the prayers upon particular occasions,) but at
the review after the restoration, the two prayers for the ember-
weeks were inserted just after that, and the collect we are speak-
ing of ordered to be placed immediately after those prayers.
The printers indeed set it in the place where it now usually

156 OF THE OCCASIONAL PRAYERS

Appendix stands, viz. between the prayers for all conditions of men and the

10 IV general thanksgiving: but the commissioners obliged them to

ap ' strike it out, and print a new leaf, wherein it should stand just

wrong before the prayer for the parliament. But notwithstanding this,

placed in all .. f n j . . ,. P

the editions m all the following impressions, this order was again neglected.

of the Com- , - , . * i 11 T

mon Prayer, and the prayer that we are speaking of has, in all editions ever
since, been continued in the same place, viz. just after the prayer
for all conditions of men. But as no edition of the Common
Prayer is authorized by act of parliament, but such as is exactly
conformable to the Sealed Books 6 ; we cannot justify ourselves
in using it after that prayer, since the Sealed Books assign it a
quite different place.

SECT. IV. Of 'the Prayer for the High Court of Parliament.
7 he J? ra i er fc THOUGH the ancient monarchs of this kingdom, Saxons and

for the high . &

court of par. Normans, coming in by conquest, governed according to their

liament. .,, J . 2 . J .

own will at first ; yet in atter-times they chose themselves a
great council of their bishops and barons, and at last freely con-
descended to let the people choose persons to represent them :
so that we have now had parliaments for above four hundred
years, consisting of bishops and barons to represent the clergy
and nobility, and of knights and burgesses to represent the
commons. But these being never summoned but when the king
or queen desires their advice, de arduis regni negotiis, and they
having at such times great affairs under their debate, and happy
opportunities to do both their prince and country service ; it is
fit they should have the people's prayers for their success. And
accordingly we find not only that the primitive Christians prayed
for the Roman senate 1 , but that even the Gentiles offered sacri-
fices in behalf of their^ public councils, which were always held
in some sacred places. In conformity therefore to so ancient
and universal a practice, this prayer for our own parliament was
added at the last review.

SECT. V.Oft/ie Prayer for all Conditions of Men.

when first BEFORE the addition of this prayer, which was made but at

the last review, the church had no general intercessionjfar all

conditions of men, except on those days upon which the Litany

was appointed. For which reason this collect was then drawn

up, to supply the want of that office upon ordinary days; and

therefore it is ordered by the rubric to be used at such times,

when the Litany is not appointed to be said: consonant to which

whether to it is now, I believe, a universal practice, and a very reasonable

fhe U after. n one, I think, to read this prayer every evening, as well as on such

noons.

e To understand what is meant by the Sealed Books, sec a clause toward the end
of the Act of Uniformity. f Tertull. Apologet. s Al. ab Alex. Gen. Dier. 1. 4.
c. ii. Aul. Gell. 1. 14. c. 7.

AND THANKSGIVINGS. 157

mornings as the Litany is not said : though Dr. Bisse informs tfm. VI.
us 11 , that "bishop Gunning, the supposed author of it, in the"
" college whereof lie was head, suffered it not to be read in the
" afternoon, because the Litany was nc\er read then, the place
" of which it was supposed to supply." I know this form has
been gene-rail \ ascribed to bishop Sanderson: but the abo\e-
mentioned gentleman assures me, that it is a tradition at St.
John's in Cambridge, that bishop Gunning, who was for some
time master there, was the author, and that in his time it was
the practice of the college not to read it in the afternoon. And
I have heard elsewhere, that it was originally drawn up much
longer than it is now, and that the throwing out a great part of
it, which consisted of petitions for the king, the royal family,
clergy, &c. who are prayed for in the other collects, was the oc-
casion why the \von\Jinally comes in so soon in so short a prayer.
It is not improbable, that the bishop might have designed to
comprehend all the intercessional collects in one : but that the
others who were commissioned for the same affair, might think
it better to retain the old forms, and so only to take as much of
bishop Gunning's as was not comprehended in the rest.

. 2. There being a particular clause provided in this prayer, collects out
to be xuhl ic hen any desire the prayers of the congregation, it is Soi h offici u "
needless as well as irregular to use any collects out of the Visita-
tion Office upon these occasions ; as some are accustomed to do,
without observing the impropriety they are guilty of in using
those forms in the public congregations, which are drawn up
to be used in private, and run in terms that suppose the sick
pecson to be present.

SECT. VI. Of the Thanksgivings.

PRAISE is one of the most essential parts of God's worship, by
which not only all the Christian world, but the Jews and Geta-
tiles also paid their homage to the Divine Majesty ; as might be glving '
shewed by innumerable testimonies : and indeed considering how
many blessings we daily receive from God, and that he expect*,
nothing else from us in return but the easy tribute of love
and gratitude?, (a duty that no one can want leisure or ability to
perform,) it is certain no excuse can be made for the omission of
it. It is pleasant in the performance* 1 , and profitable in the
event ; for it engages our great Benefactor to continue the mer-
cies we have, and as well inclines him to give, as fits us to
receive more k .

. 2. Therefore for the performance of this duty the reverend These forms
compilers of our Liturgy had appointed the Hallelujah, theJhS
Cloria Pafri, and the daily psalms and hymns. But because added '

h Beauty of Holiness in the Common Prayer, page 97, in the notes. i Psalm

cxlvii. i. k Psalm Ixvii. 5, 6, 7.

158 OF THE SUNDAYS AND HOLY-DAYS,

Chap. V. some thought that we did not praise God so particularly as we
""ought to have done upon extraordinary occasions, some parti-
cular thanksgivings upon deliverance from drought, rain, famine,
war, tumults, and pestilence, were added in the time of king
James I. And to give more satisfaction still, by removing all
shadows of defect from our Liturgy, there was one general
thanksgiving added to the last review for daily use, drawn up (as
it is said) by bishop Sanderson, and so admirably composed, that
it is fit to be said by all men who would give God thanks for
common blessings, and yet peculiarly provided with a proper
clause for those who, having received some eminent personal
mercy, desire to offer up their public praise : a duty which none,
that have had the prayers of the church, should ever omit after
their recovery, lest they incur the reprehension given by our
Saviour to the ungrateful lepers recorded in the Gospel, Were
there not ten cleansed ? but where are the nine ] ?

CHAP. V.
OF THE SUNDAYS AND HOLY-DAYS,

AND THEIR SEVERAL

COLLECTS, EPISTLES, AND GOSPELS.

THE INTRODUCTION.

THE Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, to be used (at the celebra-
tion of the Lord's Supper, and holy Communion, as it was said in
all the old Common Prayer Books) throughout the year, standing
next in order in the Common Prayer Book, come now to be
treated of: but because they are seldom used but upon Sundays
and Holy-days, it is necessary something should be premised con-
cerning the reasons and original of the more solemn observation
of those days in general. And first,

I. Of Sundays in general.

ONE day in seven seems from the very beginning to have been
sanctified by God a , and commanded to be set apart for the ex-
ercise of religious duties. All the mysteries of it perhaps are
beyond our comprehension : but to be sure one design of it was,
that men, by thus sanctifying the seventh day, after they had
spent six in labour, might shew themselves to be worshippers of
that God only, who rested the seventh day, after he had finished
the heavens and the earth in six. .

Saturday, . 3. The reasons why the Jews were commanded to observe
j?Jish e sab. the Seventh-day, or Saturday, in particular for their Sabbath,

iLukexvii.ij. a Genesis ii. 3.

AND THBItt COLLECTS, EPISTLES, AND GOSPELS. 159

were peculiar and proper to themselves : it was on this day God Introduce
had delivered them from their Egyptian bondage, and over-
wbelmed Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea: so that no day
could be more properly set apart to celebrate the mercies and
of God, than that, on which he himself chose to confer
upon them the greatest birring they enjoyed.

$. 3. But the deliverance of Krael out of Egypt by the min- U, u rt n e d ^' d * hy
is try of Moses, was only intended for a type and pledge of a spi- the christ-
ritual deliverance which was to come by Christ: their Canaan "
also was no more than a type of that heavenly Canaan, which
the ri (1 reined by Christ do look for. Since therefore the shadow
i.s made void by the coming of the substance, the relation is
changed ; and God is no more to be worshipped and believed in,
as a God foreshowing and assuring by types, but as a God who
hath performed the substance of what he promised. The Christ-
ians indeed, as well as the Jews, are to observe the moral equity
of the fourth commandment, and, after six days spent in their
own works, are to sanctify the seventh : but in the designation
of the particular day, they may and ought to differ. For if the
Jews were to sanctify the seventh day, only because they had on
that day a temporal deliverance as a pledge of a spiritual one;
the Christians surely have much greater reasons to sanctify the
first, since on that very day God redeemed us from this spiritual
thraldom, by raising Jesus Christ our Lord from the dead, and
begetting us, instead of an eartldy Canaan, to an inJieritance in-
corruptible in the heavens. And accordingly we have the con-
current testimonies both of Scripture b and Antiquity , that the
Jirst day of the week, or Sunday, hath ever been the stated and
solemn time of the Christians meeting for their public worship
and service.

. 4. In the East indeed, where the Gospel chiefly prevailed Saturday,

IT,., J . l why and how

among the Jews, who retained a great reverence for the Mosaic observed by
riu s, the Church thought fit to indulge the humour of the Ju-
dai/ing Christians so far, as to observe the Saturday as a festival
day of devotions, and thereon to meet for the exercise of religious
duties; as is plain from several passages of the ancients d . But
however, to prevent giving any offence to others, they openly
declared, that they observed it in a Christian way, and not as a
Jewish Sabbath e . And this custom was so far from being uni-
versal, that at the same time all over the West, except at Milan

b Acts ii. i. xx. 7. i Cor. xvi. 2. Rev. i. 10. c S. Barnab. . 15. Ignat. ad

Ugnet, . 9. p. 23. Just. Mint. Apol. i. c. 89. p. 132. Tert. de Coron. Mil. cap. 3.
p. 102. A. Plin. 1. 10. Kpist. 97. Orig. in Exod. xv. Horn. 7. toin. i. p. 49. F. et
alilii. d Athanas. liumil. de Sement. torn. ii. p. 60. A. Socrat. Hist. lied. 1. 6.

c. 8. p. 312. D. Concil. Laod. Can. 16. 5 1. t. i. col. 1500. 15. et 1505. B. c Athanas.
ut supra. Concil. Laod. Can. 29. torn. i. col. 1501. C.

160 OF THE SUNDAYS AND HOLY-DAYS,

Chap. V. in Italy f , Saturday was kept as a fastg, (as being the day on
~ which our Lord lay dead in the grave,) and is still, for the same
reason, appointed for one of the fast days in the ember-weeks
by the Church of England ; which, in imitation both of the East-
ern and Western churches, always reserves to the Sunday the
more solemn acts of public worship and devotion.

II. Of our Saviours Holy-days In general.
our savi- BUT besides the weekly return of .Sunday, (whereon we cele-

our's Holy- , _. .. ', . /. i '

days in ge- brate God s goodness and mercies set forth in our creation and
redemption in general,) the church hath set apart some days
yearly for the more particular remembrance of some special acts
and passages of our Lord in the redemption of mankind 5 such
as are his incarnation and nativity ', circumcision, manifestation to
the Gentiles, presentation in the temple ; \\\sjusting, passion, re-
surrection, and ascension ; the sending of the Holy Ghost, and
the manifestation of the sacred Trinity. That the observation
of such days is requisite, is evident from the practice both of Jews
and Gentiles : nature taught the one h , and God the other, that
the celebration of solemn festivals was a part of the public exercise
of religion. Besides the feasts of the passover, of weeks, and of
tabernacles, which were all of divine appointment, the Jews cele-
brated some of their own institution, viz. the feast of purim 1 and
the dedication of the temple*, the latter of which even our blessed
Saviour himself honoured with his presence 1 .

Christians . 2. But these festivals being instituted in remembrance of
Mre Jewish some signal mercies granted in particular to the Jews; the
feasts. Christians, who were chiefly converted from the heathen world,
were no more obliged to observe them, than they were concerned
in the mercies thereon commemorated. And this is the reason
that when the Judaizing Christians would have imposed upon
the Galatians the observation of the Jewish festivals, as neces-
sary to salvation ; St. Paul looked upon it as a thing so criminal,
that he was afraid the labour he had bestowed upon them to set
them at liberty in the freedom of the Gospel had been in vain m :
not that he thought the observation of festivals was a thing in it-
self unlawful, but because they thought themselves still obliged
by the law to observe those days and times, which, being only
shadows of things to come, were made void by the coming of the
substance.

. 3. As to the celebration of Christian festivals, they thought
themselves as much obliged to observe them as the Jews were to
church! n the observe theirs. They had received greater benefits, and there-

f Paulin. in Vita Ambr. S Tnnocentii primi Epist. ad Decent. Eugubin. c. 4.

Concil. torn. ii. col. 1246. D. Concil. Elib. Can. -26. torn. i. col. 973. D. Plat,

de Legibus, lib. 2. torn. ii. p. 653. D. ab Hen. Steph. Paris. 1578. i Esther ix.

k i Maccab. ir. 59. 1 John x. 72. m Gal. iv. 10, ii.

AND THEIR COLLECTS, EPISTLES, AXD GOM 1 ; 1G1

fore it would have been the highest degree of ingratitude to have
Ih-i-ii Ic-ss /ealous in commemorating them. Anil according
find that in the very infancy of Christianity sonic certain days
yi-arly set apart, to commemorate the resurrection and tu-
tu of Christ, the coming of the Hull/ (Itiost, &c. and to
glorify God, by an humble ami grateful acknowledgment of th
memcs granted to them at those times. Which laudable and
religious custom so soon prevailed over the universal church, that
in live 1 hundred years after our Saviour, we met t with them dis-
tinguished by the same names we now call them by ; such as
F.pijilminj) Ascension-day, Whit-Sunday, &e. and appointed to
he observed on those days on which the Church of England now
them".

III. Of Saints-days in general.

besides the more solemn festivals, whereon they werenowthey
wont to celebrate the mysteries of their redemption, the primi- served by the
live Christians hud their memorial martyrum, or certain days set Kir'ist
apart yearly in commemoration of the great heroes of the Christ-
inn religion, the blessed apostles and martyrs, who had attested
the truth of these mysteries with their blood : at whose graves
they constantly met once a year, to celebrate their virtues, and
to bless God for their exemplary lives and glorious deaths; as
well to the intent that others might be encouraged to the same
patience and fortitude, as also that virtue, even in this world,
might not wholly lose its reward : a practice doubtless very an-
cient, and probably founded upon that exhortation to the He-
brews, to remember those "who had had the rule over them, and :c/t<>
hud tpoken unto them the word of God, and had sealed it with
their blood . In which place the author of that epistle is
thought chiefly to hint at the martyrdom of St. James, the first
bishop of Jerusalem, who, not long before, had laid down his life
for the testimony of Jesus. And we find that those who were
eyewitnesses of the sufferings of St. Ignatius, published the day
of his martyrdom, that the church of Antioch might meet to-
gether at that time to celebrate the memory of such a valiant
combatant and martyr of Christ P. After this we read of the
church of Smyrna's giving an account of St. Polycarp's martyr-
dom, (which was A.U. I47*!,) and of the place where they had
entombed his bones, and withal professing that they would as-
semble in that place, and celebrate the birthday of his martyr-
dom with joy and gladness r . (Where we may observe, by the
way, that the days of the martyrs' deaths were called their birth-

n Const. Apost. 1. 5. c. 13 1. 8. c. 33. o Heb. xiii. 7. P Act. Mart. Ignat.
. 7. i'. 52. q Pearson. Dissertat. Chronologic, part. ^. a cap. 14. ad 20. r Ec
vies. Sinyrn. Kpist. ilc Mart. S, Polycarp. . 18. p, 73. et Euseb. Histor. Ecd. 1. 4.
<' 5- p. 135. A. B.

WHEATJ.Y. M

162 OF THE SUNDAYS AND HOLY-DAYS,

Chap. V. days ; because they looked upon those as the days of their nati-
~" vity, whereon they were freed from the pains and sorrows of a
troublesome world, and born again to the joys and happiness of
an endless life.) These solemnities, as we learn from Tertul-
lian s , were yearly celebrated, and were afterwards observed with
so much care and strictness, that it was thought profaneness to
be absent from the Christian assemblies upon those occasions *.

IV. Of the Festivals observed by the Church of' England.

what fes- THE following ages were as forward as those we have already
chur S ch h of spoken of, in celebrating the festivals of the martyrs and holy
obs^v"! men of their time. Insomuch that at the last the observation of
holy-days became both superstitious and troublesome ; a number
of dead men's names, not over eminent in their lives either for
sense or morals, crowding the calendar, and jostling out the fes-
tivals of the first saints and martyrs. But at the reformation
of the church, all these modern martyrs were thrown aside, and
no festivals retained in the calendar as days of obligation, but
such as were dedicated to the honour of Christ, &c k or to the
memory of those that were famous in the Gospels. Such as
were, in the first place, the twelve apostles, who being constant
attendants on our Lord, and advanced by him to that high
order, have each of them a day assigned to their memory. St.
John the Baptist and St. Stephen have the same honour done to
them ; the first because he was Christ's forerunner ; the other
upon account of his being the first martyr. St. Paul and St.
Barnabas* are commemorated upon account of their extraordi-

St.Paul and * St. Paul and St. Barnabas were neither of them inserted in the table of holy-days
St. Barnabas, prefixed to the calendar, till the Scotch Liturgy was compiled, from whence they
why not for- were taken into our own at the last review : nor were they reckoned up among the
tableVfholy- ^ a Y s tnat wer e appointed by the act, in the fifth and sixth year of king Edward VI".
days. to be observed as holy-days ; though it is there expressly enacted, that no other day

but what is therein mentioned shall be kept, or commanded to be kept, holy. How-
ever, the names of each of them were inserted in the calendar itself, and proper ser-
vices were appointed for them in all the Common Prayer Books that have been since
the Reformation. And in the first book of king Edward they are both red-letter holy-
days : though in the second book (in which the other holy-days are also printed in
red letters) the Conversion of St. Paul is put down in black, and St. Barnabas is
omitted. But this last seems to have been done through the carelessness of the printer,
and not through design ; proper second lessons being added in the calendar
against the day. The reason of their beiug left out of the table of holy-days, was,
because if they fell upon any week-day, they were not to be observed as days of ob*
ligation, or by ceasing from labour, nor to be bid in the church. Their proper offices
might be used, so they were not used solemnly, nor by ringing to the same, after the
manner used on high-holy-days. The reason why these were not high-holy-days, I
suppose, was, because the Conversion of St. Paul did always, and St. Barnabas did
often, fall in term-time ; during which time and the time of harvest, i. e. from the
first of July to the twenty-ninth of September, it was ordained in convocation by the
authority of king Henry VIII. in 1536, that no days should be observed as holy-
days, except the feasts of the apostles, of our blessed Lady, and St. George, and such

s De Coron. Mil. c. 3. p. 102. A. t Euseb. de Vit. Const. 1. 4. c. 23. p. 536. C
Basil. Ep. 336. torn. iii. p. 228. E. u Chap. III.

AND THEIR COLLECTS, EPISTLES, AND COS I !().'$

nary call ; St. Mark and St. Luke for the service they did Christ-
ianitv hv their (iospels; the JIolv Innocents, heeause tluv are
the first that suffered upon our Saviour's account, as also for the
rreater solemnity of Christmas ; the birth of Christ being the
of their deaths. The memory of all other pious persons
is celebrated together upon the festival of All-Saints : and that
the people may know what benefits Christians receive by the
ministry of angels, the feast of St. Michael and All Angels is for
that reason solemnly observed in the church.

. 2. Designing to treat in this chapter of all these days sepa- HOW >,* oi>-
rately, in the order that they lie in the Common Prayer Book,"'
I shall say nothing farther of them in this place ; but only shall
observe in general, that they were constantly observed in the
Church of Kngland, from the time of the Reformation till the
late rebellion, when it could not be expected that any thing that
earned an air of religion or antiquity could bear up against such
an irresistible inundation of impiety and confusion. But at the
ation our holy-days were again revived, together with our
ancient Liturgy, which appoints proper Collects, Epistles, and
Gospels, for each of them ; and orders the curate to declare unto
the JH-O/)/C, on the Sunday before, what holy-days or fasting-days
arc in the week following to be observed*. And the preface to
the Act of Uniformity intimates it to be schismatical to refuse to
conn- to church on those days. And by the first of Elizabeth,
which is declared by the Uniformity -Act to be in full force, all
\persons, having no lawful or reasonable excuse to be absent, are
obliged to resort to their parish-church on holy-days, as well as
Sundays, and there to abide orderly and soberly during the time
of ilirinc service, upon pain or punishment by the censures of the
church, and also upon pain of twelve pence for every offence, to
be /<;// by distress.

. 3. In relation to the concurrence of two holy-days together, ofconcur-
we have no directions either in the rubric or elsewhere, which
nm>t give place, or which of the two services must be used.
According to what I can gather from the rubrics in the Roman
Breviary and Missal, (which are very intricate and difficult,) it
is the custom of that church, when two holy-days come together,
that the office 1 for one only be read, and that the office for the
other be transferred to the next day ; excepting that some corn-

king's judges did not u*e to sit in judgment in Westminster-hall*. The
days in the terms in which the judges did not use to sit were the feasts of the Ascen-
sion, of St. John Baptist, of All-Saints, and of the Purification. Jiy the feasts of the
apostles I suppose the twelve only were meant : and therefore St. Paul and St. Bar-
nabas were excluded. But as they are inserted now in the tahle of holy-days, which,
with the whole Liturgy, is confirmed hy the Act of Uniformity , they are hoth of them
days of equal obligation with the rest.

* See Sparrow's Collect, p. 167, 168. and Heylin's Miscellaneous Tracts, p. 17.
y Rubric after the Nicene Creed.

IIRDADV CT UADV'C mi I

164 OF THE SUNDAYS AND HOLY-DAYS,

Chap. V. memoration of the transferred holy-day be made upon the first

day, by reading the hymns, verses, &c. which belong to the

holy-day that is transferred. But our Liturgy has made no such
provision. For this reason some ministers, when a holy-day
happens upon a Sunday, take no notice of the holy-day, (except
that sometimes they are forced to use the second lesson for such
holy-day, there being a gap in the column of second lessons in
the calendar,) but use the service appointed for the Sunday ;
alleging that the holy-day, which is of human institution, should
give way to the Sunday, which is allowed to be of divine. But
this is an argument which I think not satisfactory: for though
the observation of Sunday be of divine institution, yet the ser-
vice we use on it is of human appointment. Nor is there any
thing in the services appointed to be used on the ordinary Sun-
days, that is more peculiar to, or tends to the greater solemnity
of the Sunday, than any of the services appointed for the holy-
days. What slight therefore do we shew to our Lord's institu-
tion, if when we meet on the day that he has set apart for the
worship of himself, we particularly praise him for the eminent
virtues that shined forth in some saint, whose memory that day
happens to bring to our mind ? Such praises are so agreeable to
the duty of the day, that I cannot but esteem the general prac-
tice to be preferable, which is, to make the lesser holy-day give
way to the greater ; as an ordinary Sunday, for instance, to a
saint's day ; a saint's day to one of our Lord's festivals ; and a
lesser festival of our Lord to a greater : except that some, if the
first lesson for the holy-day be out of the Apocrypha, will join
the first lesson of the Sunday to the holy-day service : as ob-
serving that the church, by always appointing canonical scrip-
ture upon Sundays, seems to countenance their use of a canoni-
cal lesson even upon a holy-day, that has a proper one appointed
out of the Apocrypha, if that holy-day should happen upon a
Sunday. But what if the Annunciation should happen in Passion-
week ; or either that or St. Mark upon Easter-Monday or Tues-
day ? or what if St. Barnabas should fall upon Whit-Monday or
Tuesday ? or what if St. Andrew and Advent-Sunday both come
together ? In any of these concurrences I do not doubt but the
service would be differently performed in different churches.
And therefore I take this to be a case, in which the bishops
ought to be consulted, they having a power vested in them to
appease all diversity, (if any arise,) and to resolve all doubt
concerning the manner how to understand, do, and execute the
things contained in the Book of Common Prayer z .

z See the preface concerning the service of the church.

AND THEIR COLLECTS, EPISTLES, AXD GOSPELS. 165

\.-Ofthe Vigils or Eve. Introduce.

Iv tin. 1 primitive times it was the custom to pass great part ofvigii*, Mh y
the night that preceded certain holy-days in religious exercises 80
and devotion ; and this even in those places which were set
apart for the public worship of God. And these exercises, from
their being performed in the night-time, came to be called
r/^'/Vw 1 , vigils or watchings.

. 2. As to the original of this practice, some are inclined
found it upon the several texts of scripture literally understood
where watching is enjoined as well as prayer; particularly upon
the conclusion our Saviour draws from the parable of the ten
virgins: IVatcli therefore, for yc know neither the day nor the
hour :c/icrcin the Son of man corneth*. But others, with greater
probability, have imputed the rise of these night-watches to the
necessity which Christians were under of meeting in the night,
and before day, for the exercise of their public devotions, by
reason of the malice and persecution of their enemies, who en-
deavoured the destruction of all that appeared to be Christians b .
And when this first occasion ceased, by the Christians having
liberty given them to perform their devotions in a more public
manner, they still continued these night-watches before certain
festivals, in order to prepare their minds for a due observation
of the ensuing solemnity c . But afterwards, when these night-
meetings came to be so far abused, that no care could prevent
several disorders and irregularities, the Church thought fit to
abolish them : so that the nightly watchings were laid aside,
and the fasts only retained, but still keeping the former name
<of vigils d .

. 3. The festivals that have these vigils assigned to them which festi
:by the Church of England 6 are, the Nativity of our Lord,T%i)
;thc Purification of the blessed Virgin Mary, the Annuncia-
tion of the blessed Virgin, Easter-day, Ascension-day, Pen-
itecost, St. Matthias, St. John Baptist, St. Peter, St. James,
|8t. Bartholomew, St. Matthew, St. Simon