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 The Church. 
 
 The Priest* 
 
 Confession. 
 
 Worship. 
 
 The Sabbath. 
 
 Pharisees and Sadducees. 
 Divers and Strange Doctrines. 
 The Fallibility of Ministers. 
 Apostolic Fears. 
 
 Idolatry. 
 
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 ed about the matters discussed are 
 those of an Evangelical Churchman. They are the only opinions which 
 I can find in Holy Scripture, in the Thirty-nine Articles, in the Prayer- 
 Book fairly interpreted, in the works of the Reformers, or the Writings 
 of the pre-Caroline divines.’ — Extract from Preface. 
 
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SCRIPTURE & THE ERA YER-BOOK IN HARMONY, . 
 
 A GUIDE TO THE STUDY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 
 
 mith a Sftetcb of its Compilation. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. A. R. FAUSSET, D.D., 
 
 Lately Scholar, Gold Medallist, and Senior Classical Moderator, of Trinity 
 College, Dublin ; Rector of St. Cuthbert' s, and Canon of York. 
 
 THIRD AND REVISED EDITION. 
 
 3ton£>on : 
 
 CHAS. J. THYNNE, 
 
 WYCLIFFE HOUSE, 6, GREAT QUEEN STREET 
 LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS, W.C. 
 1903-1904 
 
“Our general aim in this undertaking was, not to gratify this or that 
 party in any of their unreasonable demands ; but to do that, which to our best 
 understandings might most tend to the preservation of Peace and Unity in 
 the Church ; the procuring of Reverence, and exciting of Piety and Devotion 
 in the public Worship of God ; and the cutting off occasion from them that 
 seek occasion of cavil against the Liturgy.” — The Preface to the Book 
 of Common Prayer. 
 
The Right Rev. HANDLEY CARR GLYN MOULE, D.D. 
 
 LORD BISHOP OF DURHAM 
 WHOM TO KNOW IS TO ESTEEM AND LOVE, 
 
 Zbis morfc in its ‘Revised form 
 
 IS BY HIS PERMISSION RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 
 BY HIS OBLIGED SERVANT, 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
GUIDE TO THE STUDY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 
 
 Chapter first 
 
 — — mm ■ ■ ■ 
 
 “ Woe be to the priest, y-born, 
 
 That will not cleanly weed his corn, 
 
 And preach his charge among : 
 
 Woe be to that shepherd, I say, 
 
 That will not watch his foes alway, 
 
 As to his office both belong : 
 
 Woe be to him, that doeth not keep 
 From Romish wolves his sheep, 
 
 With staff and weapon strong.” 
 
 The Welsh Bard, Taliessyn, in the seventh century, quoted by Ussher. 
 
 Our first subject will to briefly treat of 
 the Compilation and Compilers of the 
 Book of Common Prayer. It is a striking 
 remark of a foreigner, Bunsen, “ The fact 
 of that book being a national institution is 
 more important than all its defects, or even 
 
2 Guide to the Study of 
 
 excellencies of detail. It was a great and 
 blessed thought, this placing in the hands 
 of a Christian nation a book impressing 
 religious Gospel truths, not by abstract 
 theological formulas, but by an act of wor- 
 ship, and in language intelligible to the 
 congregation. It must not be forgotten 
 that The English Church and House-Book 
 became, and has remained, at once the 
 most widely circulated, and most practically 
 blessed book of devotion in the Christian 
 world, and the only National one : so much 
 so, that large parts of it are used even by 
 dissenters.” Such being the case, it was 
 to be expected that the history of the 
 national Prayer-book should be closely in- 
 terwoven with the history of the Church, 
 and even of the Nation. The Prayer-book 
 accordingly bears in its history traces of 
 that protracted conflict through which our 
 civil and religious liberties have been 
 carried safe to their permanent establish- 
 ment, as gold refined by the fiery ordeal 
 through which it hife passed. Its language, 
 like that of our authorized English Bible, 
 may truly be called “the well of English, 
 undefiled ; ” and of its style, as well as 
 subject-matter, it may, without irreverence, 
 be said to be “the brook that flows fast by 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 3 
 
 the Word of God.” Its Rubrics (original- 
 ly in red letters) are “written in the blood 
 of martyrs.” Many of its compilers were 
 burnt to death ; and thus became “ torches 
 of truth,” shedding light on the power of 
 its principles to sustain the soul, even in 
 the bitter pains of the dying hour. Never 
 shall be forgotten those glorious words of 
 Latimer to Ridley, at the stake : “ Be of 
 good comfort, Brother Ridley, and play 
 the man ; we shall this day light such a 
 candle, by God’s grace, in England, as, I 
 trust, never shall be put out.” Our Prayer- 
 book is a standing monument that these 
 words were not spoken in vain. 
 
 Let us then remember, the English 
 Church, as an independent national Church, 
 does not date merely from the era of the 
 Reformation, but from at least twelve 
 centuries earlier. By British prisoners of 
 war, — who, having learnt Christ in cap- 
 tivity, brought the Gospel back with them 
 to their countrymen, — or else by some 
 Christian soldiers in the Roman army in 
 Britain, Christianity was introduced ; and 
 Lucius (according to Bede) was the first 
 British prince who embraced it. St. Paul 
 (2 Tim. iv. 21) mentions a Claudia with 
 
4 
 
 Guide to the Study of 
 
 Pudens. Martial states (IV. 13, xi. 54) 
 that a British lady of this name, and sur- 
 named Rufina, married Pudens, a Roman 
 knight. In 1772 a marble was dug up at 
 Chichester which mentions Cogidunus, a 
 British king, surnamed Claudius from the 
 emperor. It mentions Pudens also. Co- 
 gidunus’ daughter, Claudia, was probably 
 sent to Rome for education. There, under 
 Pomponia, wife of Plautius, conqueror of 
 Britain, she may have learned Christianity ; 
 Tacitus (Annals III. 32) says Pomponia 
 followed “ forefgn superstitions” (a.d. 57), 
 possibly Christianity. Rufina was the sur- 
 name of the Pomponian clan (see Rom. xv, 
 30). A British Church was subsequently 
 founded, altogether independent of Romish 
 authority, and comparatively pure from 
 image worship, and the other modern 
 Romish corruptions. British Bishops, viz., 
 those of York, London, and Caerleon, were 
 present as early as 314 a.d. at the Council 
 of Arles in Gaul. In most of its customs 
 (for instance, its time of observing Easter), 
 like the ancient Church of Ireland, it 
 betrays its connexion with the Eastern 
 churches founded by St. John, rather than 
 with the Western or Latin churches 
 Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, and Lupus, 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 5 
 
 in a.d. 429, are said to have introduced the 
 Gallican Liturgy, which, in its characteristic 
 variety, differed materially from that in use 
 at Rome, characterised by uniformity. 
 
 This British Church was, alas ! driven 
 out of most parts of England by the 
 Anglo-Saxon invaders, who were pagans, 
 and who scorned to receive Christianity at 
 the hands of the Britons, whom they had 
 conquered and expelled. Meantime, there 
 had existed, from the second or third 
 century, a pure and independent Church 
 of the Scots (as the Irish were then called) 
 in Ireland. Christianity had been still 
 further extended in that country by the 
 preaching of Succathus, or St. Patrick, as 
 he is commonly called (a.d. 432-465), a 
 Christian missionary from N. Britain. 
 About a.d. 560-590, Columba, passing as 
 a missionary from the Irish Church, 
 founded the Church of the Scots in the 
 Island of Iona, so famous for its order of 
 Culdees (Cultores Dei ?) whose peculiar 
 office was to commit to memory, and 
 teach the exact words of Scripture. These 
 churches knew nothing of transubstantia- 
 tion, communion in one kind, prayers to 
 or for the dead, invocation of saints, or 
 Rome’s supremacy. When, then, the 
 
6 
 
 Guide to the Study of 
 
 heathen Anglo-Saxons had driven British 
 Christianity out of England, missionaries 
 from Ireland and Iona (according to Bede) 
 effected the partial conversion of the 
 Saxons, in which the British Church had 
 failed. Finanus and Diuna were the lead- 
 ing missionaries to Mercia, or the western 
 counties ; Aidan to Northumberland ; Cedd 
 to Essex, Middlesex, and Hertford. 
 Gregory the Great, of Rome, also had sent 
 Augustine the monk (who is not to be 
 confounded with St. Augustine of Hippo), 
 a.d. 596, to attempt the conversion of the 
 Anglo-Saxons to Romish Christianity, not 
 so corrupt then as now. That attempt 
 succeeded in part, mostly in the south. 
 But Augustine, not content with this, 
 resolved to bring the independent British 
 Church, with Dionoth, their president, 
 into subjection to Rome. Having failed 
 to effect this by persuasion, Edelfrid, an 
 Anglo-Saxon king, was the heathen tool, 
 in the hands of Christian Rome, for 
 establishing her supremacy over all Eng- 
 land, by his massacre of twelve hundred 
 British Christians in cold blood at Bangor. 
 
 Subsequently, most parts of Saxon 
 England relapsed into heathenism, but 
 were re-converted by the Church of the 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 7 
 
 Scots. Kent alone was left to Rome. 
 But Rome at last, by wile, brought over 
 all England to subjection. The Confer- 
 ence of Whitby, in Yorkshire, about the 
 middle of the seventh century, conducted 
 by Colman (an Irish Northumbrian bishop) 
 on the side of the Scots and British 
 Churches, and by the crafty Wilfrid on the 
 side of Rome, under King Oswy, and the 
 introduction of the Romish canons, by 
 Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, gave 
 the finishing blow to the independence of 
 the British Church. This Church had 
 partially revived, by the exertions of 
 missionaries from the independent and pure 
 Scots’ Church of Iona. Iona itself also 
 at last succumbed to Rome. Henceforth, 
 England ceased to have an independent 
 national Church ; henceforth, she was con- 
 tent to receive her liturgy from, not only 
 the sacramentary of Gregory, which con- 
 tained much of real devotion, but from the 
 Latin idolatrous mass-book, imposed 
 universally by the imperious Gregory the 
 Seventh, (Hildebrand) in lieu of the British 
 and Scots’ purer worship in their own 
 vernacular language, which men could 
 understand. 
 
 Still gleams of light occasionally broke 
 
S Guide to the Study of 
 
 through the darkness which had set in. 
 Several books of the Bible were translated 
 into the Anglo-Saxon tongue. It is the 
 glory of King Alfred, still greater than his 
 having been the founder of Oxford Uni- 
 versity, that he laboured in translating, 
 with his own hand, portions of God’s 
 blessed Word, especially the Psalms. 
 
 It was about the same time (a.d. 850) 
 that the famous scholar, John Scot Erigena, 
 of Ireland, opposed the novel doctrine of 
 transubstantiation, and vindicated the 
 claims of reason against the pretensions of 
 unreasonable authority. His wit is illus- 
 trated in the following anecdote : — One 
 day, while seated at table opposite Charles 
 the Bald, the latter in jest asked him, 
 “What is the distance between a Scot and 
 a sot?” “The width of this table,” was 
 his ready answer. Though a bold thinker, 
 yet on his knees he showed that it was not 
 the Religion of Christ he refused to bow to, 
 but that of the Pope. “O Lord Jesus,” 
 he would cry, “ I ask no other happiness 
 of Thee but to understand, unmixed with 
 deceitful theories, the Word that Thou hast 
 inspired by Thy Holy Spirit. Show Thy- 
 self to those who ask for Thee alone.” 
 
 William the Conqueror was the first 
 
The Book of Common Prayer g 
 
 King of England who gave Rome a fore- 
 taste of that spirit of resistance to her 
 supremacy which again was evinced under 
 Edward the Third, and more decidedly 
 showed itself in Wyclif, and at last bore its 
 fully matured fruits at the Reformation. It 
 is an utter mistake to fancy that all was 
 unity in this country whilst Rome was 
 ostensibly supreme. But the struggle for 
 liberty from Rome was at first more 
 political than religious ; as, for instance, 
 between Henry the second and Thomas a 
 Becket, of Canterbury ; and between the 
 barons and John. This latter King had 
 become the vassal of Pope Innocent — 
 instead of turning Mahommedan, and be- 
 coming vassal of Mahomet-el-Nasir, as 
 he had originally intended — for he cared 
 little which he did, if only he could keep his 
 throne safe from Philip Augustus. The re- 
 sult, we all know, was that great victory of 
 English liberty, the Magna Char la, wrung 
 from John at Runnymede. 
 
 The next great blow at the Papacy was 
 the statute of Mortmain , in Edward the 
 First’s reign, forbidding bequests extorted 
 by superstitious fear, from dying men, for 
 the good of the Romish Church. The 
 statute of prcemunire , in Edward the 
 
io Guide to the Study of 
 
 Third’s reign, followed up this blow by- 
 forbidding, under heavy penalties, any 
 Papal bull to be introduced into England. 
 “ If the statute of mortmain ,” says Fuller, 
 “put the Pope into a sweat, this of 
 prcemunire gave him a fit of fever.” Oh ! 
 that our present governors would show 
 something of the same spirit of resistance 
 to Papal bulls ! 
 
 However, this political Protestantism of 
 earlier centuries was but the preparation, 
 and would have done but little for the 
 nation without the religious Protestantism 
 of the sixteenth century. But even the 
 religious Reformation, did not begin with 
 Henry the Eighth. That was merely the 
 crisis of various movements of centuries, 
 for a return to primitive Christian truth : 
 and the employment of such an unworthy 
 instrument as Henry the Eighth to bring 
 about that crisis is one of those 
 mysteries of God’s providence of which 
 we now can give no other account 
 than that we see in a thousand instances, 
 God over-ruling evil for good ; just as He 
 used a Nebuchadnezzar and a Sennacherib 
 to fulfil His own purpose. But Wyclif, 
 two centuries before, is to be regarded as 
 “ the rising-sun of the Reformation,” not 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 1 1 
 
 only in England but in all Christendom ; 
 and, as D’Aubigne happily says, “If 
 Luther and Calvin are the fathers of the 
 Reformation, Wyclif is its grandfather.” 
 It was in his time, under Edward the 
 Third, Parliament passed the resolution: 
 “ The Pope is but a man and subject to 
 sin, but Christ is the Lord of lords, and 
 this kingdom is held solely and directly of 
 Christ alone.” 
 
 It was probably the Waldensian 
 doctrines which, passing through Bohemia, 
 reached England, that raised up a 
 Wyclif there ; even as we paid back 
 the debt by giving Bohemia a Huss 
 and a Jerome of Prague. Indeed, we 
 can trace a line of protesters against the 
 gradually advancing corruptions of the 
 truth, beginning with Vigilantius (see 
 Dr. Gilly’s work on him), the opponent 
 of Jerome in the fourth century, and 
 stigmatizer of relic-worship , prayers for 
 and to the dead , asceticism , and clerical 
 celibacy — then seeds of his doctrine scattered 
 in the region of the Pyrenees and Cottian 
 Alps, South Gaul, and Lombardy, where 
 he laboured or visited (proved by Jerome’s 
 statement) — next the precious deposit 
 held by Claude, Bishop of Turin (between 
 
12 
 
 Guide to the Study of 
 
 a. d. 817 and 840) — from him, through 
 many intermediate heroes of the Cross, 
 handed to Waldo in South France, in the 
 twelfth century — and from him to Wyclif. 
 This is an “ apostolical succession ” of the 
 holders forth of the primitive truth ; in 
 them the Lord fulfilled His promise to the 
 true Catholic Church — “ Lo, I am with 
 you alway , to the end of the world.” The 
 pure and independent churches of ancient 
 Britain, Ireland, and Iona, are the early 
 links in the chain which binds our modern 
 Reformation, with Wyclif as its precursor, 
 to apostolic times. The time was propitious 
 to his holy enterprise. The Papacy 
 scandalized the world by the spectacle of 
 two opposing Popes, each claiming infalli- 
 bility ; and perhaps it was to this he owed 
 it that he was permitted to die in peace in 
 his own bed in the parish of Lutterworth. 
 His first serious impressions were owing 
 to a plague, which then devastated Asia 
 and Europe. Alarmed at the thought of 
 eternity, he besought God to guide him. 
 God led him to the Holy Scripture, there 
 to find peace through the Saviour. Having 
 found salvation himself, he sent Gospel 
 preachers, known by the name of “ poor 
 priests,” among the people. In vain the 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 13 
 
 friars opposed them ; the Gospel spread 
 far and wide. Wyclif, however, fell sick, 
 and the friars, gathering round his bed, 
 said, “You have death on your lips, there- 
 fore retract.” He raised himself with 
 difficulty, and fixing his eyes on them, 
 said, “ I shall not die, but live, to declare 
 again the evil deeds of the friars.” 
 
 On his recovery he completed the crown- 
 ing work of his life and laid the founda- 
 tion-stone of the Reformation — the first 
 translation of the whole Bible into English, 
 in 1380. Heretofore the laity knew just 
 as much of Scripture as the miracle-plays 
 taught them, i.e. } burlesque pieces, setting 
 forth some Bible or legend-saint story, and 
 acted as a play in a church as a theatre! 
 a worse use than even this was made of 
 some churches ; St. Paul’s, for instance, 
 in London, had one of its pinnacles 
 made into a prison for the Lollards, as 
 Wyclif’s followers were called in contempt, 
 from either lolium , the Latin for tares, z.e.> 
 heretics ; or else lollen, to sing, i.e., Psalm- 
 singers. 
 
 Still the price of Wyclif s Bible was too 
 high to be within reach of the multitude — 
 four marks and forty pence — equivalent to 
 more than forty pounds of our money. 
 
14 
 
 Guide to the Study of 
 
 Nevertheless an appetite was excited for 
 Scriptural knowledge ; and those who 
 could not procure the volume would give 
 a load of hay for a few favourite chapters, 
 and read them eagerly in private, at the 
 peril of their lives ; and when not using 
 it, they would hide the forbidden treasure 
 under the floors of their houses. As a 
 proof of the excellence of this version, it 
 may be mentioned that it is scarcely now 
 obsolete ; so much has Wyclif done to fix 
 the English tongue by linking it to the 
 immortal hopes of the people. 
 
 His temper was, however, impetuous 
 and might have led him, had he lived 
 under Henry the Eighth, to have de- 
 molished, indeed, the Church of Rome, 
 but to have left little for the solid, re- 
 organisation of the Church of England. 
 And we may admire the wisdom of our 
 gracious God that raised up a Wyclif to 
 pioneer the way, amidst the gross corrup- 
 tions of the reign -of Edward the Thircj* 
 and a Cranmer to reconstruct our spiritual* 
 temple with sanctified learning and calm 
 wisdom out of the really sound materials 
 of the crumbling fabric, tottering to its 
 fall in the reign of Henry the Eighth. 
 The art of printing, introduced into Eng- 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 15 
 
 land first by Caxton, served in this age 
 the same purpose, for the revival of the 
 Gospel, as the miraculous gift of tongues 
 served in the first age of Christianity, for 
 its promulgation. 
 
 Tyndal followed in Wyclif’s steps, as a 
 translator of the New Testament; but, 
 thanks to printing, at a price fortyfold 
 less. It is told of him, that a Romish 
 priest, in disputing with him, said, “It 
 were better to be without God’s law than 
 without the Pope’s.” Tyndal answered, 
 “If God spare my life, I will take care 
 that a plough-boy shall know more of the 
 Scriptures than you do.” He kept his 
 word, when he printed at the printing 
 press of Schoeffer, at Worms, two editions 
 of the New Testament in English, a.d. 
 1525, and soon after circulated them in 
 England. After many copies of the first 
 edition had been distributed, Tonstal, 
 Bishop of London, bought up the rest, and 
 committed them to the flames at St. Paul’s 
 Cros^SL' He thus became Tyndal’s best 
 customer. This reminds one of some Irish 
 rebels, in 1798, who, with characteristic 
 blundering, burnt all the Bank of England 
 pound notes they could get hold of to annoy 
 the bank ! Tyndal, by the help of Tonstal’s 
 
1 6 Guide to the Study of 
 
 money, soon brought out a second edition, 
 much improved. Nor was the persecutors’ 
 fire, which was the Lord’s appointed 
 chariot to bring Tyndal home to Himself 
 (a.d. 1536), able ever after to quench that 
 love of Holy Scripture which has always 
 been England’s palladium of strength, more 
 than her fleets and armies, or even her 
 admirable laws. Tyndal died with this 
 prayer on his lips — “ Lord, open the eyes 
 of the King of England.” 
 
 And now we are come to the reign of 
 Henry the Eighth. So far, we have seen 
 the religious elements of the Reformation 
 already widely spread. Political events 
 were now to be used by a superintending 
 Providence to bring about the desired 
 crisis. Who could have conjectured that 
 the very king who was originally intended 
 to be Archbishop of Canterbury, had his 
 elder brother lived, and who began his 
 reign as a zealous Papist, proud of his 
 powers of theological controversy, which 
 he employed so keenly in a publication he 
 wrote against Luther — whom he called 
 “the Cerberus from hell,” — as to receive 
 from the Pope the memorable title, 
 Defender of the Faith — who, I say, could 
 have foreseen that this very man was to 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 1 7 
 
 deal one of the deadliest blows the Papacy 
 ever received? It is told of the king’s 
 fool that, entering the room just as Henry 
 had received the Pope’s bull, he asked the 
 cause of his joy. “The Pope has named 
 me Defender of the Faith." “Ho, ho ! 
 good Harry,” replied the knavish fool, “let 
 you and me defend one another ; let the 
 faith alone to defend itself.” 
 
 The cause of the rupture between Henry 
 and the Pope afterwards, we all know, was 
 Henry’s affected scruples about, and real 
 wish to get rid of, his marriage with 
 Katherine, his brother’s widow. This, in 
 the Providence of God, led also to his 
 promotion of Cranmer, the leading father of 
 the English Reformation, and of its em- 
 bodiment in the Prayer-book. It was in 
 the year 1529 the king, in travelling, 
 chanced to pass a night at Waltham Cross. 
 Some of his retinue, Fox and Gardiner, at 
 the supper-table of Mr. Cressy, of Wal- 
 tham, got into conversation about the 
 great question of the day, the royal divorce, 
 with a Fellow of Jesus’ College, Cambridge, 
 whom the plague had driven from the 
 University.^ That fellow was Cranmer. 
 He remarked, “There is a shorter way to 
 giving peace to the king’s conscience than 
 
1 8 Guide to the Study of 
 
 by the decisions of the Church. The true 
 question is, What saith the Word of God ? 
 If it pronounces the marriage bad, the Pope 
 cannot make It good.” This remark, when 
 reported to the king, delighted him. 
 “This man,” he exclaimed, in not very 
 courtly phrase, “ has got the right sow by 
 the ear!” Henceforth Cranmer became 
 one of his most honoured advisers. Such 
 seemingly chance circumstances did God 
 employ to call ,out of obscurity the fittest 
 man for directing the course of events for 
 His glory, and the building up of the 
 Church at so perilous a crisis ; requiring 
 such a combination of Christian faithful- 
 ness, learning, and discretion. Surely in 
 all this we may see the finger of God, 
 without whose knowledge not even a 
 sparrow falls to the ground, and who, in 
 His all-wise government of all things, does 
 not recognise the existence of that which 
 we call chance. 
 
 Of his patience, learning, and, above all, 
 Scripture- knowledge, which last gained for 
 him the name of the Scripturist , our 
 Liturgy is a lasting monument. At the 
 death of Warham, he was promoted to the 
 archiepiscopal see of Canterbury. Here, 
 we confess with sorrow, he was betrayed in- 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 19 
 
 to casuistry, which, however much such 
 deviations from honesty may be sanctioned 
 by Jesuits, will not stand the test of God’s 
 Word of truth. He had not as yet divested 
 himself of the equivocating teachings of 
 his Romish creed. Pie took the usual oath 
 of fidelity to the Pope under a previous public 
 protest that he did not admit the Pope’s 
 authority except in so far as it agreed with 
 the Word of God ; and on the 30th of 
 March, 1533, he was consecrated. His 
 influence with the king soon bore good 
 fruit to the cause of the Reformation, w T hich, 
 beginning with the transferring of the 
 Pope’s supremacy, under Thomas Crom- 
 well’s auspices, to the king, was, step by 
 step, under Cranmer, to be perfected at 
 last by the bringing forth of a national 
 liturgy, purified of the superstitious in- 
 crustations of ages ; and, above all, by the 
 restoration of the Bible to its rightful 
 supremacy in all points of faith and 
 practice. 
 
 In 1536 the king put forth ten “ Articles 
 
 TO ESTABLISH CHRISTIAN QUIETNESS,” based 
 largely on the confession of Augsburg, 
 which, though retaining much error, yet 
 grounded justification on Christ’s merits 
 only, and set forth the Scriptures, and the 
 
20 Guide to the Study of 
 
 three Creeds alone, as comprehending the 
 faith of a Christian. 
 
 The year following witnessed the whole 
 Bible translated into English by Tyndal, 
 edited by Coverdale, and published in 
 England under the assumed title of 
 Matthews’ Bible. This title {perhaps 
 from T. Matthews, prebendary of St. 
 Paul’s) was given rather than Tyndal’s 
 name, lest the fact of his having been 
 burnt as a heretic should prejudice men’s 
 minds against it. John Rogers, afterwards 
 the first martyr under Mary, probably 
 revised it. It is told of Cranmer that he 
 was more delighted at having gained the 
 king’s permission that^a copy of this Bible 
 should be set up in every church “than 
 had there been given him a thousand 
 pounds.” Neighbours eagerly joined to- 
 gether to buy a copy among them ; and 
 at the lower end of most churches every 
 Sunday might some good reader be seen 
 reading aloud to numbers eagerly pressing 
 round to hear. This Bible, when revised 
 by Coverdale, and prefaced by Cranmer, 
 was called Cranmer’s Bible ; and from it 
 our Prayer-book version of the Psalms is 
 taken. 
 
 In the same year appeared another book, 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 21 
 
 “The Institution of a Christian Man,” 
 or the Bishops’ Book, which went still 
 further on the path of Reformation. Of 
 the bishops engaged in this, I cannot pass 
 by the famous Latimer without a notice. 
 “ Originally,” he says of himself, “ I was 
 as obstinate a Papist as any in England : ” 
 so much so that he was elected cross- 
 bearer in the Romish processions at the 
 University ; and, upon the occasion of 
 receiving his degree of Bachelor of Divinity, 
 he chose as the subject of his Latin oration 
 an attack on Melancthon and his doctrines. 
 But the God who changed a persecuting 
 Saul into the martyr Paul, was about to 
 mould this Romish bigot into a vessel 
 sanctified for His service. Among the 
 hearers of his oration there was a student 
 named Bilney, an earnest believer in 
 Scripture truth. He perceived Latimer’s 
 sincere zeal, though without knowledge ; 
 so he went boldly to him, and begged to 
 be allowed to make his private confession 
 to him. He was allowed to do so. He 
 stated how distracted with fears and doubts 
 he had been so long as he tried to be 
 saved by the penances imposed by the 
 church, and what peace he had found by 
 simply believing in “the Lamb of God 
 
22 Guide to the Study of 
 
 that takes away the sins of the world.” 
 This confession was, by God’s grace, 
 blessed to Latimer’s conversion. From 
 that time forward he zealously embraced 
 the doctrines of the Reformation ; and 
 never was there a preacher who declared 
 the whole truth with more boldness and 
 simplicity. The very quaintness, which 
 might offend our over-delicate ears, served 
 only to rivet attention in those days, and 
 drive home the point of his discourse 
 to the hearers’ hearts. Written essay- 
 sermons, which were called “ bosom 
 sermons,” such as are some of the tame, 
 pointless, frigidly-proper sermons of our 
 day, would have hardly been tolerated 
 then. Marsden well says, “The dread of 
 enthusiasm ” has too often been “ the 
 paralysis of the pulpit.” Latimer exalted 
 Scripture especially, — “ Let us beware of 
 the by-paths of tradition, and follow the 
 straight road of the Word. It does not 
 concern us what the Fathers have done, 
 but what they should have done.” “ One 
 man with Scripture is to be esteemed more 
 than a thousand without it. The Fathers 
 have both weeds and herbs ; the Papists 
 commonly gather the weeds, and leave the 
 herbs.” In illustration of his forcible, 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 23 
 
 though rude style, I may quote such 
 instances as the following : — “ Do you 
 know the most diligent bishop in all 
 England? I will tell you. It is the devil. 
 He is never out of his diocese. He is 
 ever at home. Ye shall never find him 
 idle, I warrant you. Where the devil is 
 resident, there away with books and up 
 with candles ; away with Bibles, and up 
 with beads ; away with the light of the 
 Gospel, and up with the light of candles at 
 noonday ; down with Christs cross, and 
 up with purgatory pick-purse. Oh ! that 
 our prelates would be as diligent to sow 
 the corn of good doctrine as Satan is to 
 sow cockle and darnel ! ” Again in another 
 sermon he says, “Alas! the devil, by the 
 help of that Italian bishop, his chaplain, 
 has laboured by all means to frustrate the 
 death of Christ and the merits of his 
 passion ! ” On another occasion, when 
 preaching before Henry the Eighth, he 
 showed his holy fearlessness, beginning his 
 sermon thus : — “ Latimer, Latimer, thou 
 art going to speak before the high and 
 mighty King Henry the Eighth, who is 
 able, if he think fit, to take thy life away. 
 Be careful what thou sayest. But, Latimer, 
 Latimer, remember also thou art about to 
 
24 Guide to the Study of 
 
 speak before the King of kings and Lord 
 of lords ! Take heed that thou dost not 
 displease Him ! ” Whatever we may think 
 of Latimer’s style, there can be little doubt 
 that such preaching must have had a 
 powerful effect on the multitude in winning 
 them to the Reformed doctrine. 
 
 So far we have seen the Reformation 
 advancing; but in 1539 the capricious 
 Henry VIII. took a retrograde step. This 
 was the passing of The Act of the Six 
 Articles, upholding transubstantiation, 
 communion in one kind, priestly celibacy, 
 private masses for souls in purgatory, and 
 auricular confession. These Articles had 
 the severest penalties attached to them, 
 burning as a heretic for any breach of the 
 first, and hanging as a felon for the rest. 
 Latimer, Bishop of Worcester, resigned 
 his bishopric on the day they were enacted, 
 and after having come from the House of 
 Lords, threw off his robes, declaring he 
 felt lighter than he had been for a consider- 
 able time. Nothing but the special favour 
 of Henry saved Cranmer from the penalty 
 of these Articles. 
 
 In 1543 another book, “The Necessary 
 Erudition of a Christian Man,” commonly 
 called The King’s Book, came out, in 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 25 
 
 which, in proof that laymen must not read 
 but hear from priests the word of life, there 
 was actually quoted the Saviour’s precept, 
 “ Blessed are they that hear the word of 
 God and keep it.” But at least this proved 
 that the king, who on the same day dragged 
 to death three Papists for denying his sup- 
 remacy, and three Protestant clergymen 
 (of whom Barnes was one) for denying 
 transubstantiation, was not the parent of 
 the English Reformation ; nay, the blood 
 of the Protestant martyrs, Bilney, Bayfield, 
 and many others, proves him to have been, 
 as D’Aubigne says, not its father , but its 
 executioner . 
 
 This blood was not, however, shed in 
 vain. It was the seed which bare blessed 
 fruit at the accession of Edward the Sixth, 
 a.d. 1547, the Josiah of his country. It is 
 told of this excellent prince that, at his 
 coronation, when the three swords for the 
 three kingdoms were brought to be carried 
 before him, he observed that there was 
 one yet wanting, and called for the Bible, 
 saying, “That is the Sword of the Spirit, 
 and ought to govern us in the use of these, 
 for the people’s safety. Without that Sword 
 we are nothing — we can do nothing. From 
 that we are what we are this day. From 
 
26 Guide to the Study of 
 
 that alone we obtain all power, virtue, 
 grace, salvation, and whatever we have of 
 Divine strength.” In his short reign our 
 church was re-organized, with but little 
 difference, as we have it in our own days. 
 Of him Hooker well said. “ He died young, 
 but lived long, if life be action.” 
 
 In Sept., 1548, a Committee was ap- 
 pointed to draw up the Liturgy. That 
 Committee, though not exclusively Pro- 
 testant, included some of the ablest and 
 most pious men of the day, of whom 
 Cranmer and Ridley sealed the truth 
 afterwards with their blood, and others 
 became Confessors to the faith. The 
 book of Archbishop Herman, Elector of 
 Cologne, entitled, “ A Simple and Pious 
 Consultation,” twice published in English, 
 in 1547 and 1548, was much employed by 
 the Commissioners. The main body of 
 their work (the Communion office first, 
 and the daily Services after) was derived 
 from the ancient services (the breviaries 
 and missals expurgated) of their own and 
 other churches ; but they owed much to 
 the reformed Lutheran Liturgy of Nurem- 
 berg. Their aim was not to form , but to 
 reform ; not to innovate , but to renovate. 
 The result of their learned labours was 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 27 
 
 The First Book of Edward the Sixth, 
 which after three days’ public debate by 
 the bishops in the presence of both houses 
 of Parliament, was confirmed by the King 
 and Parliament, and put forth in a.d. i 549, 
 March 7th. 
 
 Some remnants of error and ambiguities 
 of language were to be found in this book, 
 as was to be expected in those emerging 
 from Romish darkness into gradually in- 
 creasing light ; for instance, the Invocation 
 of the Holy Ghost on the elements in the 
 Communion, the use of Vestments, the 
 Eastward position, auricular confession, 
 wafer bread, and prayers for the dead. 
 
 Therefore Cranmer and his brother 
 bishops, with the aid of two resident 
 foreigners, Martin Bucer and Peter 
 Martyr (availing themselves slightly of 
 the liturgies of Pullain and John a Lasco), 
 revised the Prayer-book in 1552 ; and 
 the book thus revised, known as The 
 Second Book of Edward the Sixth, 
 was confirmed in Parliament, and is much 
 the same as that now in use. Laud indeed 
 afterwards tried to introduce into Scotland 
 a liturgy, and the Scotch Episcopalians have 
 a communion office (used only as an alter- 
 native) resembling that of the first rather 
 
28 Guide to the Study of 
 
 than the second Prayer-book. Of the 
 latter, Peter Martyr truly said, “No man 
 could mislike that godly book that had any 
 godliness in him, joined with knowledge.” 
 Not only were forms provided for public 
 devotion, but our Reformers composed 
 forms for the closet and household, in 
 “The Primer of Private Prayer,” still 
 extant, in “order that,” in Jeremy Taylor’s 
 beautiful words, “the religious principle, 
 like Elisha stretched upon the dead child, 
 might give life and animation to every 
 part of the body politic.” 
 
 Moreover, Cranmer put forth (1547) the 
 first Book of Homilies (by Cranmer him- 
 self and his chaplain, T. Becon, Latimer, 
 and others), in this reign to supply the 
 lamentable defect of preaching powers in 
 the clergy of that day. 
 
 The composition of our truly Catholic 
 Thirty-nine Articles will be hereafter 
 considered. Melancthon had pressed on 
 Cranmer the project of a general creed, 
 to be drawn up by a congress of learned 
 men of all nations, which should bind 
 together the Protestant community through- 
 out the world. Cranmer entertained the 
 project heartily (see his letter to Calvin). 
 Calvin (Op. ix. p. 268) declared to him he 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 29 
 
 would not hesitate to traverse “ten seas” 
 to promote such a design. But owing to 
 the mutual divisions of Protestants, pro- 
 bably promoted by the intrigues of the 
 Council of Trent, this desirable attempt 
 failed ; and Cranmer confined himself to 
 drawing up, with Ridley and Martyr, 
 comprehensive Articles for the Church of 
 England only. Their model, except as 
 regards the Sacraments, was the Confes- 
 sion of Augsburg, a strictly Lutheran 
 confession, drawn up by Melancthon, who, 
 it was hoped, at that very time (a.d. 1551- 
 1553), would have accepted the chair of 
 divinity at Cambridge, made vacant by 
 Bucer’s death. It is an additional proof 
 that our Articles were not designed as 
 exclusively Calvin istic that the forty-two 
 Articles of Cranmer, when reduced to 
 thirty-nine by Archbishop Parker, in 1562, 
 were revised with the Lutheran Confession 
 of Wirtemburg. Thus it is plain they 
 were meant as a common ground for all 
 orthodox Protestants to meet on. It is 
 this very catholicity, whereby they strive 
 to include all true Christians of various 
 shades of opinion in minor points , on the 
 one basis of all Protestant essential Scrip- 
 ture-truth, that has provoked the dislike 
 
30 Guide to the Study of 
 
 to them on the part of extreme, though 
 sincere, partizans on both sides. It was 
 therefore the Westminster divines (p. 45) 
 reviewed them (1642), with the express 
 design of making them more determinate 
 in favour of Calvinism. The very title 
 originally prefixed expresses this, wherein 
 their object is stated to be “for the avoid- 
 ing of controversy , and the establishment 
 of godly concord in matters of religion.” As 
 Blunt well states it — “Our reformers did not 
 desire to confine religious opinion so closely 
 as thereby to prejudice religious sincerity ; 
 nor did they expect that the pyramid of a 
 national church would stand firm when set 
 upon an apex instead of a base ; ” for 
 “they knew the ground on which they 
 invited a nation to take its stand must be 
 broad to admit of it.” Instead of calling 
 them, with Milton, “ halting prelates,” we 
 have reason to bless God who guided them 
 amidst such stormy conflicts to the found- 
 ing for us of a church distinguished pre- 
 eminently, if ever church has been, for 
 the sober-minded and unobtrusive, though 
 most earnest, practical piety it inculcates. 
 
 Let not, however, the Spiritual Catholicity 
 of our National Church be confounded with 
 the latitudinarian breadth, by which a party, 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 31 
 
 neither High Church nor Evangelical, 
 would dilute all the distinctive dogmatical 
 truths of Holy writ. We dare not extend 
 our limits, by a spurious charity, so as to 
 be broader than God’s Word has defined 
 them. Such breadth, we confess, is not to 
 our taste. “There is the breadth of a 
 noble river, with its lofty and well-defined 
 banks : and the breadth of a marsh, which 
 is one sheet of mud and water. We are 
 satisfied to be flowing between the banks 
 of the one, though at the cost of not attain- 
 ing the expanse of the other.” 
 
 Edward’s blessed reign was to be a short 
 one ; and its close was such as it had been 
 throughout. Almost his last prayer was — 
 that which ought to be our prayer too — 
 “ O my Lord God, defend this realm from 
 Papistry, and maintain Thy true religion.” 
 At Mary’s accession all was changed. The 
 church was now to be baptised in blood, 
 previous to its permanent establishment. 
 And never did any age of the church pro- 
 duce a more heroic band of martyrs. In the 
 three years, from 1555 to 1558, no less than 
 two hundred and eighty perished in the 
 flames, beginning with John Rogers, and 
 including such honoured names as Hooper, 
 Ridley, Latimer, Rowland Taylor (the 
 
32 Guide to the Study of 
 
 ancestor of the illustrious Jeremy Taylor,) 
 and, above all, Cranmer. It is a curious 
 fact observed that of the martyrs none 
 met their death so courageously as married 
 men, and the parents of many children. 
 
 Who is there who has not engraved on 
 his memory the noble words of the Apostle 
 of England, as Latimer was called, when 
 summoned by Mary, “ I go as willingly to 
 render a reckoning of my doctrine as ever 
 I went to any place in the world ? ” or 
 Ridley’s address to him at the stake, “ Be 
 of good cheer, brother, for God will either 
 assuage the fury of the flames, or else 
 strengthen us to abide it ? ” Alas ! poor 
 Cranmer, we all know, was betrayed by 
 the weakness of a character naturally yield- 
 ing, and the hellish cunning of Popish 
 enemies, to recant. Having failed to 
 shake his faith by threats and a dungeon, 
 they succeeded in seducing him by loading 
 him with indulgences and treacherous 
 promises, in the house of the Dean of 
 Christ’s Church, whilst all the time they 
 had resolved on his destruction. When 
 they had effected his apostasy, they sent 
 him to the flames. “ To conceal his fault,” 
 says Fuller, “had been partiality; to ex- 
 cuse it, flattery ; to defend it, impiety ; to 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 33 
 
 insult over him, cruelty ; to pity him, 
 charity ; to be wary of ourselves in any 
 like occasion, Christian discretion.” He 
 made what amends he could. At the 
 funeral sermon, preached by Dr. Cole, 
 when the Romanists looked for a confession 
 confirming his recantation, he, with deep 
 self-loathings, abjured his apostasy. At 
 the stake he cried, “This unworthy right 
 hand ! ” thrusting it into the fire to be 
 burned first, as with it he had signed the 
 unworthy recantation ; and he died courage- 
 ously confessing the faith of Christ crucified. 
 
 Such was the short but fiery ordeal 
 through which the church passed, in order 
 that it might come forth as gold purified 
 and refined. Had Cranmer, and the others 
 who signed the will of Edward the Sixth, 
 unjustly transferring the crown from Mary, 
 the rightful successor, to Lady Jane Grey, 
 succeeded, the Protestant cause, which 
 they meant to serve by injustice, would 
 probably have prospered less than it did, 
 when watered with the blood of martyrs. 
 Mary also, sincere in her bigotry, by her 
 disinterested restoration of the abbey-lands 
 as well as the first-fruits and tenths to the 
 church, and by her putting a stop to the 
 greedy confiscations of church property by 
 
 3 
 
34 Guide to the Study of 
 
 secular hands, served a useful end in Gods 
 Providence. The restored property was 
 afterwards appropriated by Elizabeth, and 
 remained in the hands of the crown, until 
 Queen Anne generously gave it back as a 
 fund for augmenting small livings, known 
 as the “Queen Anne’s bounty.” Thus God 
 overruled evil for good in the end. 
 
 From the day of Elizabeth’s accession 
 England was lost for ever, as we hope, to 
 Rome. In her procession through the City 
 of London nothing more endeared her to 
 the multitude than her warm acceptance of 
 an English Bible, richly gilt, which was let 
 down from a pageant by a child represent- 
 ing Truth. She kissed it fervently, giving 
 the city greater thanks for that excellent 
 gift than for all the rest. 
 
 Still Elizabeth moved with great caution 
 as the exigency required. Thus, when the 
 court buffoon besought her to “release the 
 four prisoners who had been long bound, 
 so that the people could not see them, 
 Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,” she re- 
 plied, “she must first try to know the 
 minds of the prisoners themselves , who 
 perhaps desired no such liberty.” Her 
 principle, according to Walsingham, was 
 “ to deal tenderly with consciences, but not 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 35 
 
 to suffer causes of consciences to grow to 
 be matters of faction.” And something of 
 the spirit of faction had unfortunately- 
 sprung up among the English Reformers, 
 whilst dwelling as exiles at Frankfort, 
 during the Marian persecution. The Je- 
 suits did not fail to use this for their own 
 purposes. As an instance, it is told of one 
 Faithful Cummins, a Dominican friar, that 
 he assumed the disguise of a nonconform- 
 ing Protestant, and drew much people after 
 him, by readiness in long extempore prayer 
 and by inveighing against Pope Pius the 
 Fifth. Being suspected by the Privy 
 Council, he effected his escape to Rome ; 
 and there told the Pope : “ That his Holi- 
 
 ness litde knew what service he had done 
 by speaking so much against him.” When 
 the Pope asked how, he said, “ By preach- 
 ing against forms of prayer, and calling the 
 English Prayer-book English mass, he had 
 made the Church of England as odious to 
 the multitude, as the mass was to the 
 Church of England ; and that this would 
 be a stumbling-block to that church while 
 it was a church.” Whereupon the Pope 
 rewarded him with two thousand ducats. 
 This, with other similar cases of Jesuit in- 
 trigue, as Giles, Mason, Blagrave, Heath, 
 
36 Guide to the Study of 
 
 etc., though they do not justify, yet give 
 us an idea of the cause of the queen’s ex- 
 treme and impolitic severity against Non- 
 conformists. Still, it must in justice be 
 admitted that, extreme as the Puritan prin- 
 ciple was, it served the important function 
 of purging out thoroughly the remains of 
 Popery, still partially lurking in the Church 
 and nation. It was with this feeling Arch- 
 bishop Grindal ventured to reprove the 
 queen for intolerance in suppressing 
 “prophesying” or preachings, and was 
 suspended in consequence. We may well 
 regret the intolerance of that Act of Uni- 
 formity w’hich consigned Coverdale, the 
 translator of the Bible, and Fox, the author 
 of “ Book of Martyrs,” to an old age of 
 poverty and obscurity. 
 
 A fresh Review of the Prayer-book 
 was entrusted to eight commissioners, ap- 
 pointed by herself, of whom Parker, Cox, 
 and Grindal were leading persons. Slight 
 alterations were made in the Lessons ; and 
 in the Litany this sentence was omitted as 
 too harsh for the language of prayer, 
 though true : “ From the tyranny of the 
 
 Bishop of Rome, and all his detestable 
 enormities, good Lord deliver us.” In the 
 Communion, the present form of words in 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 37 
 
 delivering the elements resulted from join- 
 ing together the clause of delivery used in 
 Edward’s first Prayer-book with the clause 
 substituted for it in his second. Elizabeth’s 
 tendency as to the sacramental “presence,” 
 images in churches, clerical celibacy, and 
 church ornaments, was less Protestant than 
 that of Edward the Sixth. Yet Edward’s 
 Second Prayer-book, with but a few trivial 
 alterations, was re-enacted, as may be seen 
 in the Act 1 Eliz. c. 2, prefixed to all cor- 
 rectly printed Prayer-books. It is a curious 
 fact that the Romanist laity, for the first 
 ten years of this reign, attended our 
 church services as thus reformed, and even 
 the table of the Lord ; and would probably 
 have continued to do so, but for the inter- 
 ference of the Papal authority. 
 
 Having mentioned Parker, I may ob- 
 serve that it was of his consecration as 
 Archbishop of Canterbury that the Papists 
 invented the story that the elect bishops 
 met at the Nag’s Plead Tavern, and were 
 in great disorder, because Kitchin refused 
 to consecrate them ; and that Scory made 
 all kneel down, and laid the Bible on their 
 head, saying, “Take thou authority to 
 preach the Word of God sincerely;” and 
 that this was all the ordination they ever 
 
3 8 Guide to the Study of 
 
 had; and that Neal, Bonners chaplain, 
 saw them through the key-hole. This story 
 was first invented in King James’s time, 
 about forty years after. But the Earl of 
 Nottingham, who had seen Parker’s conse- 
 cration, 17th December, 1559, declared that 
 it was performed in Lambeth Chapel, by 
 the four bishops, Barlow, Coverdale, Scory, 
 and Hodgkins, according to the due order 
 of the Common Prayer-book, the only 
 irregularity being that the Ordinal had not 
 then been legally re-established. And con- 
 temporary documents confirm this state- 
 ment. The confirmation of this election 
 was eight days previous, at the Church of 
 Mary-le-bow, Cheapside. It is possible 
 that the story arose from the various 
 officers engaged at the confirmation having 
 afterwards dined at the Nag’s Head, close 
 by ; but as this is conjecture, it is as pos- 
 sible and probable that the whole was a 
 fabrication from first to last. One of the 
 many marks of the apostasy is the “speak- 
 ing lies in hypocrisy.” 
 
 The second Book of Homilies, written 
 mainly by Jewel, was published in 1563. 
 In the Royal preface to this book a liberty 
 to change a chapter of the Old Testament 
 for a more edifying one in the New was 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 39 
 
 given to the minister. A New Calendar 
 of Lessons came out in 1561. Our present 
 Lectionary is an improvement on this. 
 The Bible, known as “The Bishops’ Bible,” 
 was brought out subsequently by Parker, 
 in concert with other learned bishops, to 
 each of whom a particular portion of the 
 work was allotted. Several revised editions 
 followed the first, from the same hand. It 
 was in the same reign, under a succeeding 
 Primate, Whitgift, that the three Articles 
 in the Thirty-sixth Canon, containing the 
 form of assent to the Prayer-book (now 
 altered), were ordered to be subscribed by 
 all ministers, in order to check the Puritans, 
 and establish uniformity in Divine service. 
 The Act of 28 and 29 Victoria has sub- 
 stituted “the Declaration of assent.” The 
 motto Whitgift chose well expresses his 
 firmness in the midst of opposition, and his 
 conviction of ultimate triumph for the order 
 of the Church — “Vincit qui patitur.” 
 Would that he and the church authorities 
 had endeavoured, like Grindal, his meek 
 but fearless predecessor, to conquer the 
 Puritans by love and patience , rather than 
 by weapons of persecution, which that for- 
 midable engine of spiritual tyranny, the 
 Ecclesiastical High Commission Court, 
 
40 Guide to the Study of 
 
 first established in this reign, put into their 
 hands. But in those days toleration as to 
 religious differences was not only not 
 practised on either side, but not even ap- 
 proved of They had at last a bitter 
 experience of the truth : “ All they that 
 take the sword shall perish with the sword.” 
 
 Whitgift died in the time of James the 
 First, deeply regretted by the king. “ The 
 ruling passion was strong in death ” in his 
 case. His last words, with uplifted eyes 
 and hands, were, “ Pro ecclesia Dei ! Pro 
 ecclesia Dei ! ” 
 
 In James the First’s reign the petition 
 known as The Millenary Petition, pro- 
 fessing to be signed by a thousand of his 
 Majesty’s subjects and ministers (though, 
 in fact, by only eight hundred), was pre- 
 sented. Besides the usual objections to 
 the Prayer-book, it complained of the 
 length of the services, and that the canoni- 
 cal Scriptures ought alone to be read in 
 the church. This was the occasion of the 
 Hampton Court Conference (opened on 
 14th of January, 1603), in which Whitgift, 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, with many 
 others, was advocate for the Church ; 
 whilst on the Puritan side, Dr. John 
 Reynolds, of Corpus Christi, Oxford, was 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 4! 
 
 leader. However, from the first, the king 
 and the Episcopalians seem to have re- 
 solved to yield nothing — perhaps rightly 
 so ; but it is a pity there was not more of 
 a conciliatory spirit exhibited. The king, 
 after having heard both sides, said, that 
 “ the bearing with some blemishes in a 
 Church was better than innovation ; ” and 
 as to the objection made by some to “ rags 
 of Popery” (the white surplice worn), “that 
 no society of Christians ought to separate 
 farther from the Church of Rome than she 
 had departed from herself and her own 
 primitive condition.” “ Doctor,” said he 
 to Reynolds, with a smile, “ they used to 
 wear shoes and stockings in times of 
 Popery ; have you therefore a mind to go 
 barefoot ? ” He, as well as Whitgift and 
 the Episcopalians, stated also that the ab- 
 solution for the sick, so often objected to, 
 refers to church censures in the case of any 
 scandal committed and repented of by the 
 sick man ; so that, “where there precedes 
 not excommunication or penance, there 
 needs no absolution.” Besides other 
 things, he showed the groundlessness of the 
 objection to the phrase in the Marriage 
 Service, “With my body I thee worships 
 since it meant simply, as Scripture saith, 
 
42 Guide to the Study of 
 
 “ giving honour unto the wife.” “As for 
 you, Dr. Reynolds,” added the king, 
 “many men speak of Robin Hood who 
 never shot in his bow. If you had a good 
 wife yourself, you would think all worship 
 and honour you could do her well be- 
 stowed.” Another of the jests of his 
 Majesty, not altogether very dignified or 
 feeling, was when Knewstubs urged that 
 the use of the cross in baptism gave offence 
 to weak consciences ; he replied by ask- 
 ing, “How long would they be weak? 
 Whether forty-five years was not long 
 enough for them to grow strong? Some 
 of them were strong enough , if not head- 
 strong \ as they thought themselves able 
 to teach him and all the bishops in the 
 land.” 
 
 He ended by saying, “If you will not 
 conform, I will harry [i.e. y as with a pack 
 of harriers] you out of the land, or else do 
 worse.” Three changes only were made. 
 They inserted forms of thanksgiving, 
 prayers for special occasions, and the 
 explanation of the sacraments in the 
 Catechism : and the rubric was altered as 
 to the minister of baptism. The Judicial 
 Committee of Privy Council, in Escott v. 
 Martin , ruled that in our Church lay- 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 43 
 
 baptism, though not encouraged, is not 
 disallowed (see page 178). Of the three 
 leading personages of this Conference it 
 was pithily said, “The king was above 
 himself, Bancroft, Bishop of London even 
 with himself, whilst Reynolds fell beneath 
 himself.” It is a story told (if true) of this 
 Dr. John Reynolds that originally he had 
 been a zealous Papist, whilst his brother 
 William was as zealous a Protestant. The 
 two brothers held a discussion, and each 
 maintained his own side so ably as to con- 
 vert the other ; so that John, who had 
 been a Papist, became a Protestant ; and 
 William, the Protestant, became a Papist. 
 This gave occasion to the following 
 distich : — 
 
 “ Quod genus hoc pugnae est ? Ubi victus gaudet 
 uterque, 
 
 Et simul alteruter se superasse dolet.” 
 
 “ What kind of war is this ? When conquered, both 
 are glad, 
 
 And either to have conquered other, sad.” 
 
 After the Hampton Court Conference, John 
 conformed to the Church ceremonies, and 
 died a rejoicing Christian and sincere mem- 
 ber of the Church of England. 
 
 The most important result of this Con- 
 ference Was, THE NEW TRANSLATION OF THE 
 bible, suggested by Dr. Reynolds, and 
 
44 Guide to the Study of 
 
 entrusted to fifty-four of the most learned 
 in the kingdom, of whom he was one. 
 They were divided into six divisions, a 
 separate portion of scripture being allotted 
 to each. Every member of each division 
 was to take the chapters assigned for the 
 whole company ; then all the divisions met, 
 and decided, after examining the work of 
 each, which parts should stand. The work 
 of each division was next submitted to all 
 the other divisions. Lastly, three or four 
 most eminent divines in each university, 
 though not translators, consulted with the 
 heads of houses for reviewing the whole. 
 The work began in 1607, and was completed 
 in three years (1611). No work has more 
 tended to fix the purity and strength of the 
 English language. Surely individual men 
 of the present day should hesitate about 
 their competency to improve on a transla- 
 tion executed with such extraordinary care, 
 as a whole, though particular phrases and 
 sentences might here and there be altered 
 with advantage. “ The Revised Version ” 
 of 1881, as an English translation , is never 
 likely to supersede “the Authorized Ver- 
 sion,” of 16 1 1. As a commentary it is of 
 much value, but certainly not infallible, — 
 for instance, 2 Tim. iii. 16, where the posi- 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 45 
 
 tion of the two adjectives closely joined by 
 the “and” (/cal), forbids taking the one as 
 an epithet and the other as a predicate 
 “every Scripture inspired by God (as if 
 there were any ‘ Scripture ’ not inspired), 
 is also profitable ! ” 
 
 Perhaps I may here mention that 
 Calvinistic doctrines, which some deny 
 to be compatible with our Church’s 
 teaching, were so decidedly held in Oxford 
 University in this reign that a preacher, 
 in 1623, was compelled to recant expres- 
 sions he had used to the contrary, and 
 to maintain that the decree of predesti- 
 nation is unconditional, and that grace 
 sufficient for salvation is not given to 
 all. “Whatever doubts,” says Hallam, 
 “there may be of the Calvinism of 
 Cranmer and Ridley, there can surely 
 be no doubt as to the chiefs of the 
 Anglican Church under Elizabeth and 
 James the First.” Indeed, Whitgift put 
 forth the famous Lambeth Articles, nine 
 in number, to teach ultra-Calvinism, as 
 though the doctrine of our Church. The 
 queen, fortunately, used her prerogative 
 in suspending them, not as incompatible 
 with our Prayer-book, but as discussing 
 subjects dangerous to dogmatize on. 
 
46 Guide to the Shidy of 
 
 How strange, as Marsden well remarks, 
 that, in a few years, the ultra-Calvinism 
 of Whitgift, the persecutor of the 
 Puritans, should have become the heri- 
 tage of the ultra- Puritans, — of Dr. Rey- 
 nolds, who wished at the Hampton Court 
 Conference to have introduced the Lam- 
 beth Articles into our formularies, — and 
 of the Westminster Assembly subse- 
 quently, which actually revised our 
 Prayer-book to make it more decidedly 
 Calvinistic. 
 
 In the interval between Whitgift’s death 
 and the appointment of his successor, the 
 Canons, under which the clergy (not the 
 laity) are now governed, so far as they agree 
 with the laws of the land, were passed by 
 both houses of Convocation (but not by 
 Parliament). They are a hundred and 
 forty-one in number, and were collected 
 by Bancroft, Bishop of London, who pre- 
 sided, out of the Articles, injunctions, 
 and synodical acts passed in the reigns 
 of Edward the Sixth and Elizabeth. 
 The clergy are not, however, as some 
 have fancied, sworn to obey them ; 
 though beneficed clergy, it is true, at 
 institution, swear canonical obedience to 
 the bishop. 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 47 
 
 In the reign of Charles the First, and 
 the year 1637, that notorious abettor of 
 the cruel tyrannies of the Star Chamber 
 and High Commission Court, Laud, 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, made his 
 unfortunate attempt to introduce into 
 Scotland our Liturgy, with certain altera- 
 tions, bringing it into closer agreement 
 with the first and less reformed Prayer- 
 book of Edward the Sixth. These 
 alterations, excepting the substitution of 
 the word Presbyter for Priest, were not 
 much calculated to conciliate men hating 
 Popery. On the 23rd of July, 1637, this 
 Liturgy was first read in St. Giles’s 
 Church, Edinburgh, by the Dean of 
 Edinburgh, amidst such a hideous noise 
 that not a word could be heard. The 
 Bishop of Edinburgh stepped into the 
 pulpit, and tried to appease the tumult ; 
 but scarcely had he begun when a woman 
 named Janet Geddes, threw her folding 
 stool (still to be seen at Edinburgh) at 
 the bishop, who narrowly escaped the 
 blow. All became a scene of confusion. 
 In other churches similar scenes were 
 enacted. The result of this ill-timed 
 attempt led ultimately to the demolition 
 of Episcopacy in Scotland, — to the solemn 
 
48 Guide to the Study of 
 
 League and Covenant (so soon about to 
 be broken, not only by Cromwell, but 
 even by Charles the Second, who took 
 it to win favour), — and to the invasion 
 of England by a Scotch army ; and ulti- 
 mately, Laud and Charles I. were brought 
 to the block, and the Constitution in 
 Church and State was overthrown. How- 
 ever much there may be to condemn in 
 the king and archbishop in their pros- 
 perity, there can be but one opinion as 
 to the flagrant injustice of their execution, 
 and as to their Christian heroism in ad- 
 versity. 
 
 The sacramentarian system, and the 
 exaggeration of the authority of “ the 
 church” (meaning the clergy) were not 
 fully developed in our church until the 
 time of Laud, to whom the Pope showed 
 his gratitude by the offer of a cardinal’s 
 hat. Before that time, the Puritans (a 
 party in the Church, not separatists from 
 it, like modern dissenters, who do not 
 trace their origin to the Puritan non- 
 comformists), whilst disputing with their 
 opponents on ceremonies and church 
 polity, were acknowledged to be in per- 
 fect consent with them on every doctrinal 
 point , the sacraments included. Indeed, 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 49 
 
 the Shorter Catechism of the Westminster 
 Assembly exactly agrees with our own 
 in its view of both sacraments. “Then 
 first,” says Hallam, “ our clergy, like 
 Hector in the spoils of Patroclus, had 
 assumed the celestial armour of authority, 
 but found that, however it might intimi- 
 date the multitude, it fitted them too ill 
 to repel the spear that had been wrought 
 in the same furnace.” Romanism can 
 use this argument with far more weight 
 against others, if it be a sound one. And 
 as to dissenters, experience shows us in 
 Lauds case how it aggravates, instead 
 of healing, dislike to our Church and its 
 Liturgy. 
 
 The attack on the Prayer-book com- 
 menced in April, 1642, by the appointment 
 of the Westminster Assembly of 
 Divines by Parliament to reform the 
 government and Liturgy of the Church. 
 There were but few appointed favourable 
 to the Church : of these Ussher was the 
 most distinguished Episcopalian. The 
 learned Lightfoot was the most eminent of 
 the Presbyterians. Their first act was to 
 unite with Parliament in taking the 
 SOLEMN LEAGUE AND, COVENANT for the 
 preservation of the reformed religion of 
 
 4 
 
50 Guide to the Study of 
 
 the Church of Scotland, and the reform of 
 religion in England and Ireland — in fact, 
 to reduce the Church of England and Ire- 
 land to conformity with the Church of 
 Scotland ; their next, to prepare an ultra- 
 Calvinistic Confession of Faith , which is 
 still the standard authority of the Church 
 of Scotland, and a Directory for the 
 Public Worship of God throughout the 
 Three Kingdoms, setting aside the Prayer- 
 book. The Episcopalian clergy, to the 
 number of sixteen hundred at the lowest, 
 and seven thousand at the highest com- 
 putation, refusing to sign the Covenant, 
 were ejected from their livings. Among 
 these victims of bigotry were Walton, 
 Chillingworth, and the ever-memorable 
 John Hales. Prideaux, Bishop of Wor- 
 cester, died in great want, leaving his 
 children, as he said, “ no legacy but pious 
 poverty, God’s blessing, and a father’s 
 prayers.” Fuller, the Church historian, 
 and Pearson, the expositor of the Creed, 
 were also ejected. Amongst charges 
 brought against Wren, Bishop of Ely, was 
 this absurd one, “that, having been gored 
 by a cow, and desiring to be prayed for in 
 the church, he commanded the prayers to 
 be read, used at the churching of women, 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 51 
 
 for his deliverance from the cow.” Many, 
 in spite of insults from the rude soldiery, 
 persisted in using the proscribed Liturgy. 
 Dr. Hacket was the last of these. One 
 Sunday, when he was reading the Common 
 Prayer in church, a soldier of the Earl of 
 Essex clapped a pistol to his breast, and 
 commanded him to read no further. The 
 doctor, undaunted, replied, “/will do what 
 becomes a divine , and you may do what 
 becomes a soldier .” 
 
 It is told of the Westminster scholars 
 also that they offered up public prayers for 
 King Charles the First within an hour or 
 two before he was beheaded : upon which 
 South, who was one of them, remarks, 
 “They were not only called, but really 
 were kings scholars.” 
 
 Some of the clergy committed to 
 memory the prayers of our Liturgy, and 
 offered them up without book. The emi- 
 nent Bishop Bull, then minister of St. 
 George’s, was sent to baptize the child of a 
 dissenter. He went through the whole 
 office of baptism, which he had committed 
 to memory, with such life and spirit, that 
 all present were extremely affected. After 
 he was done, the father of the child, who 
 was utterly ignorant of our Prayer-book 
 
52 Guide to the Study of 
 
 returned him many thanks, and observed 
 how much more edifying were the prayers 
 of those who prayed by the Spirit, than 
 those who depended on forms. Upon this, 
 Mr. Bull showed him every prayer he had 
 used in our Prayer-book, which had so 
 good an effect that ever after the father 
 and his family attended our church services. 
 Evelyn mentions that Cromwell by pro- 
 clamation forbade any of the Church of Eng- 
 land ministers to preach or administer sacra- 
 ments on pain of imprisonment or exile, 
 after December 25th, 1655; and on that 
 day (Christmas) he went to hear Dr. Wild 
 ‘‘preaching the funeral sermon of preach- 
 ing;” and “so pathetic was his discourse 
 it drew many tears from the auditory.’ 
 Henceforth, blasphemous and unlettered 
 mechanics, of various sects, filled the 
 pulpits. Rude soldiers would suddenly 
 surprise members of the Church of Eng- 
 land at Communion, and hold their muskets 
 at them when going up to receive the 
 Sacrament, and drag them before the 
 marshal, or to prison, saying that the 
 Common Prayer was only the mass in 
 English. The use of the Prayer-book was 
 forbidden, even to the laity and in the 
 domestic circle, by a heavy fine. The 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 53 
 
 Protector charged the judges of assize to 
 suppress ale-houses and the Book of Com- 
 mon Prayer ! Similar scenes were enacted 
 in American New England ; and two 
 brothers, named Brown, of the Church of 
 England — the first champions of religious 
 freedom in America — were expelled from 
 Massachusetts. Many were the prayers 
 then offered in secret, like that in Evelyn’s 
 diary, “The Lord Jesus' pity our dis- 
 tressed Church, and bring back the cap- 
 tivity of Zion ! ” These prayers were at 
 length heard, and the monarchy and church 
 re-established, after Charles the Second’s 
 Restoration, in May, 1660. 
 
 In the March following a Commission, 
 consisting of twelve bishops and twelve 
 Presbyterian divines, was appointed to 
 review the book of Common Prayer. 
 Coadjutors, too, were appointed on each 
 side, including on the Episcopalian side, 
 Pearson, the famed author of the Exposi- 
 tion of the Creed ; and on the Presbyterian 
 side the learned Lightfoot, and the pious 
 Baxter. The last had been offered by the 
 king the Bishopric of Hereford, but de- 
 clined it. He offended the Episcopalians 
 by proposing to substitute a “ Reformed 
 Liturgy,” composed by himself in one 
 
54 Guide to the Study of 
 
 fortnight (!) for the beautiful Liturgy of 
 saints and martyrs of all ages : a proposal 
 wanting in modesty, as in judiciousness. 
 One is reminded of the village carpenters 
 bill to the churchwardens: “To altering 
 the Creed, mending the Commandments, 
 and making a new Lord’s Prayer, i os. 6 d.” 
 
 It was at this Conference that doctrinal 
 objections to the Prayer-book were for the 
 first time alleged. The commissioners met 
 in the Savoy. The chief changes made 
 by Convocation in the Prayer-book were : 
 the insertion in the Litany of a clause 
 against rebellion and schism ; the addition 
 of the Collects for Ember Weeks, for the 
 third Sunday before Advent, for the High 
 Court of Parliament, for All Sorts and 
 Conditions of Men ; and the General 
 Thanksgiving, — the last composed by 
 Bishop Reynolds ; also Forms of Prayer 
 to be used at Sea, for 30th of January, 
 and for 29th of May. 
 
 This was the last revision of the 
 Prayer-book ; and though these changes 
 are unobjectionable in the abstract, the 
 spirit dictating some of them was not con- 
 ciliatory to political and religious dis- 
 sentients, as, for instance, the clause in the 
 Litany against rebellion and schism. We 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 55 
 
 cannot but regret what followed, namely, 
 the passing of the Act of Uniformity, 
 in 1662, so much at variance with the 
 king’s own declaration at Breda in favour 
 of tender consciences. It was notoriously 
 so worded as to offend the consciences of 
 Puritans. Thus, whereas the latter ob- 
 jected to saints’ days, the Anglican party 
 added a few more. A clause was inserted 
 in the prayer for the church militant, giving 
 thanks for departed saints, a desirable 
 insertion to realize the Communion of 
 Saints, and carefully avoiding any mention 
 of them by name. And when reasons 
 were given against the Apocryphal lessons, 
 the bishops inserted the legend of Bel 
 and the Dragon, in contempt of such 
 scruples. Even thus, when some one re- 
 marked to Bishop Sheldon, afterwards 
 archbishop, that he thought the Puritans 
 would conform, Sheldon replied, “ I am 
 afraid they will ! ” His fears were ground- 
 less. The intention of the Act was fully 
 realized. On the 24th August, St. Bartho- 
 lomew’s Day, long known as the Black 
 Sunday, two thousand clergymen, and 
 among them Baxter, resigned, rather than 
 accept its terms. The authors had the 
 satisfaction of having thrust out the 
 
56 
 
 Guide to the Study of 
 
 Puritans, and got in Bel and the Dragon. 
 But as Baxter observes, “The more the 
 bishops thought to cure schism by punish- 
 ment, the more they increased the opinion 
 that they were persecuting enemies of 
 godliness, and become the captains of the 
 profane.” Still we must remember what 
 we owe to the Acts of Uniformity. They 
 are our sole safeguard against schismatical, 
 heretical, or unscriptural services. 
 
 Blessed be God, our lot has fallen on 
 happier times. A revival of real religion 
 has taken place in our beloved Church, and 
 with it a liberality of feeling, combined 
 with a hearty desire for unity among all 
 who love the Lord Jesus in sincerity. 
 There is little pretext for separation from 
 her in the present day. The Romanising 
 party among us shows, it is not of us, by 
 its hatred of the Scriptural xxxix Articles, 
 which it calls, “the 40 stripes save one.” 
 Surely even the cursory view I have taken 
 of her Services, Articles, and history, leaves 
 no reasonable doubt as to the fact of her 
 teaching the whole truth as it is in Christ 
 Jesus. 
 
 Then, as to the liberty she affords tender 
 consciences in her Communion, I can only 
 repeat what a pious Christian who had left 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 57 
 
 the Church and returned said : “I once took 
 the leap, but was heartily glad to come 
 back. There is no liberty in sects com- 
 pared with that of the Church of England.” 
 As to separation, it seldom ends there ; 
 it is generally division on division until 
 there is “old and new connection,” disrup- 
 tions breaking forth from more ancient 
 schisms, so that, as has well been said, 
 “ Division is their sin, and division is their 
 punishment.” 
 
 What a handle do our Protestant divi- 
 sions give to Papists and infidels to say to 
 us when we attempt their conversion, 
 “ First agree among yourselves, and then 
 we will hear you.” Even supposing there 
 were error in some of our ceremonies, 
 seceders should remember the truth ex- 
 pressed by good Bishop Hall, “ Better to 
 bear a ceremony than to rend a church.” 
 As to the use of forms, Rev. C. Simeon’s 
 remark is worthy of attention : “If a 
 
 sensible person were to write down all the 
 prayers that are uttered under the name of 
 extempore prayers in different chapels for 
 one Sunday, he would fall down on his 
 knees and thank God for the Liturgy of 
 the Church of England.” 
 
 As to the national establishment of 
 
58 Guide to the Study of 
 
 religion, the words of Dr. Owen, a Non- 
 conformist, to the Government ought to be 
 remembered : “ If it comes to this, that 
 
 you say you have nothing to do with religion 
 as rulers of the nation , God will quickly 
 manifest that He hath nothing to do with 
 you as rulers of the nation .” 
 
 At the present day there is less reason 
 than ever for being separated from our 
 Church. The Lord is now honouring her 
 Christian labours at home and abroad. 
 Oh ! let us all, ministers and people, pray 
 and strive, under the shadow of her olive 
 tree, for an increased outpouring of His 
 Spirit on ourselves and on her efforts ! 
 Whilst we are zealous for the whole truth, 
 and jealous of any corruption of the 
 simplicity that is in Christ Jesus, let us 
 shrink from the spirit of party, for party’s 
 sake, and seek that the mind which was in 
 Him may also be in us. Time is rapidly 
 hastening forward to eternity ; and a great 
 work is to be done by each of us now, or 
 else never. Let us join together as one 
 man in furthering that everlasting work, 
 whilst there is yet time. “ Oh ! what are 
 thethings we fight for,” exclaimed Leighton, 
 “ compared with the great things of God ?” 
 Let us not allow the devil to turn us aside 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 59 
 
 from the main essentials — the glory of the 
 Redeemer, and the salvation of never-dying 
 souls — to the by-paths of contentiousness 
 and groundless scrupulosity. May the 
 rule of Philip Henry be ours, and then 
 infidelity and Popery will fall to the dust 
 before the Church of Christ in its unity in 
 the truth Henceforth I resolve, by 
 God’s grace, to spend my chief zeal on 
 those great essentials on which all true 
 Christians are agreed, and as to other 
 things, to walk according to the light God 
 has given me, and to give credit to others 
 for doing the same.” 
 
 May we be ever faithful children of the 
 Church of England whilst she is faithful to 
 the written Word of God ; and be prepared 
 and ripened in this nursery on earth, to be 
 transplanted to the heavenly paradise of 
 our God, where the Church triumphant, in 
 faultless unity, shall sing the Redeemer’s 
 praises for ever ! 
 
6o 
 
 Guide to the Study of 
 
 Chapter Second. 
 
 “ Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God. 
 . . . Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine 
 
 heart be hasty to utter anything before God : for God is 
 in heaven, and thou upon earth.” — Eccles.v. i, 2. 
 
 The subject for our consideration is The 
 Book of Common Prayer and its com- 
 pilers — no common book and no common 
 men. Never was there a day in which a 
 clear understanding of the spirit and letter 
 of our beautiful Prayer-book, and the 
 history of its compilation, was more 
 necessary. On one hand, amongst our- 
 selves there has arisen a powerful party, 
 which would have us believe that the 
 Scriptural Prayer-book, handed down by 
 our pious reformers, many of whom sealed 
 their love of the truth and hatred of popery 
 with their life-blood, actually teaches those 
 very Romish doctrines against which it 
 was designed as a protest : and once more 
 we are threatened with, if not unvarnished 
 popery, at least the semi-popery of a 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 61 
 
 sacerdotal caste of sacrificing priests, a 
 ceremonial ritualism as burdensome as “ the 
 beggarly elements” of the Jewish law of 
 bondage ; and, instead of “ the law of the 
 spirit of life in Christ Jesus,” and the 
 precious doctrine of justification by faith 
 only, we are offered an opus operatnm and 
 priest-exalting system of justification by 
 sacraments. On the other hand, we have 
 from without, foes, not only Rome, but, 
 alas ! also many who ought to be brethren 
 in spirit if not in externals, assailing our 
 Prayer-book, and saying of our venerated 
 Church, “ Down with her! down with her, 
 even to the ground!” To meet these 
 assailants each of us ought to be able to 
 give a definite answer to the question, 
 Why am I a member of the Church of 
 England ? With this view, I desire that 
 this treatise may lead us all to a fuller 
 examination of the excellencies of our 
 Prayer-book by the light of the inspired 
 Word. The result I feel confident will be, 
 we shall agree with Dean Comber in think- 
 ing that our Liturgy is so plain that the 
 most ignorant may pray with understand- 
 ing, so full that nothing is omitted which 
 is fit to be asked in public, and so particu- 
 lar that it compriseth most things which 
 
62 Guide to the Study of 
 
 we would ask in private, and yet so short 
 as not to tire any that has true devotion. 
 Most of its language is taken out of Holy 
 Scripture ; like the moon, that shines with 
 the borrowed light of the sun, the Book of 
 Common Prayer reflects the glory of the 
 inspired Word, not presuming to claim 
 juxtaposition as its fellow, but content to 
 be its humble handmaid. Therefore, the 
 true churchman can say, Not only do I 
 thank God I am a Bible-Christian ; but 
 also, in a subordinate degree, I thank God 
 I am a member of the Church of 
 England. 
 
 Having considered already The History 
 of the Construction of the Prayer- 
 book, as it now stands, I now propose to 
 consider in order : 
 
 I. The Ordinary Church Services ; 
 
 II. The Special Services and Offices ; 
 
 III. The Thirty-nine x^ricles, and 
 discipline of the Church. 
 
 The spirit of our Liturgy and prayers is, 
 “ I will pray with the spirit and with the 
 understanding also.” The spirit of our 
 rites, discipline, and formularies is, “ Let 
 all things be done to edification.” The 
 spirit of our Articles is, “ to the law and to 
 the testimony : if they speak not according 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 63 
 
 to this word, it is because there is no light 
 in them.” Lastly, the spirit that animated 
 the fathers of our English Reformation, — 
 authorities often more to be trusted than 
 some of the so-called fathers of the ancient 
 Church, — was a sincere desire that the 
 Church of England’s teaching should be 
 neither high nor low but broad , — broad 
 without being lax, — broad and all-em- 
 bracing as the Gospel — that is, truly 
 evangelical, yet not latitudinarian. All 
 that is precious in the teaching, usages, 
 and worship of the primitive Church is 
 retained. All that is repugnant to Holy 
 writ is rejected. The Church they have 
 preserved for us is the most Catholic — i.e. 
 the most Scripturally comprehensive in the 
 world ; as the Romanist, which arrogates 
 to herself peculiarly the name “Catholic,” 
 is the least Catholic among so-called 
 Christian Churches. 
 
 First, then, in discussing our Church 
 Services, let me briefly state the reasons 
 why forms of prayer are generally to be 
 preferred to extempore praying in public 
 worship. 
 
 The term Common Prayer is as old as 
 Justin Martyr, a.d. 148 ; and does not 
 mean ordinary prayer, but joint prayer, 
 
64 Guide to the Study of 
 
 prayer in which all can join in praying to 
 our common God and Saviour. Now, 
 whilst I admit the advantages of extem- 
 pore prayer for special exigencies, I think 
 that joint prayer is less realised in praying 
 extempore in public worship. The con- 
 gregation may follow after the minister’s 
 words, but they are apt to be left lagging 
 behind ; they cannot well pray with him ; 
 for they can hardly know what he is next 
 about to say, so that they are rather hearing 
 than offering joint prayer with him. Now 
 the promise of the Lord Jesus is, “if two 
 of you shall agree on earth, as touching 
 anything that they shall ask, it shall be 
 done for them of my Father in heaven.” 
 But how can there be an agreement as 
 touching anything they shall ask between 
 the minister and the people when the latter 
 cannot know what the minister is about to 
 pray for ? Or, if, from the minister habitu- 
 ally repeating much the same words or 
 ideas on all occasions, the people can form 
 a good guess of what is coming next, then 
 his prayer practically ceases to be extem- 
 pore ; and the choice is between his form 
 and the form in which many of the holiest 
 men of all ages have addressed our God. 
 Not many would hesitate to which to give 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 65 
 
 the preference. To quote the “ Cautions 
 for the Times ” edited by Archbishop 
 Whately : — “ Let the whole of what is 
 said even by one of the most unexcep- 
 tionable [extempore ministers] be taken 
 down exactly in writing, and printed and 
 published as a Form of Common Prayer, 
 and it would perhaps be found open to 
 more censures than all our Church Services 
 put together.” Simeon says, “If all men 
 could pray at all times, as some men can 
 sometimes , then, indeed, we might prefer 
 extempore to precomposed prayers,” — 
 though not even then, if there is to be 
 common or joint prayer, for the reasons 
 already given. 
 
 Moreover, the minister is likely, in ex- 
 tempore prayer, to forget that it is to God, 
 and not to the congregation, he is address- 
 ing himself : he is but too apt to embody 
 exhortations under the form of prayer, — 
 thus making what ought to be prayer, an 
 oblique sermon. And if in sermons it be a 
 temptation to the minister to seek the 
 admiration of his hearers, still worse is it 
 in his prayer to be tempted to a display of 
 his gift of praying, and, whilst using 
 language of humility before God, to have 
 his mind engaged in seeking for the 
 
 5 
 
66 Guide to the Study of 
 
 happiest mode of expression. Alas ! that 
 we should have to add — such is our frailty 
 — sectarian bitterness will display itself 
 even in prayer in public when unwritten, 
 and the oblique sermon gives place to a 
 lower degradation of this holy service, 
 even to the oblique invective . To some of 
 our readers the story mentioned by Sir 
 Walter Scott will suggest itself. On the 
 approach of Prince Charles to Edinburgh, 
 in the rebellion of 1745, a Presbyterian 
 minister, named McVicar, who bore no 
 goodwill to the House of Stuart, on the 
 following Sunday, in his public prayer in 
 the West Kirk, used words to this effect : 
 “ O Lord, there is a young man come here 
 seeking an earthly crown, do Thou be 
 pleased speedily to grant him a heavenly 
 crown ! ” Few in our days are so fanatical 
 as to utter such a prayer ; but sober forms 
 guard against the possibility of such dangers. 
 
 Perhaps the strongest objection to public 
 extempore prayer, and argument for Scrip- 
 tural forms is, that in the former there is 
 an absence of guarantee for orthodoxy, 
 which the latter so effectually provides. 
 It is a melancholy fact that Calvins Scrip- 
 tural doctrine, in course of time, not only 
 in Geneva, but even in many Presbyterian 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 67 
 
 congregations of England, Ireland, and 
 America, gradually gave place to open 
 Socinianism. This is the true justification 
 of the Black Gown in the Pulpit. It 
 relieves the Church from being responsible 
 if false doctrines be preached from the 
 pulpit. The minister himself is alone 
 responsible and the Bishop who authorises 
 him to preach. 
 
 But in our Church, utter wandering 
 from the faith is an impossibility, so long 
 as her Scriptural liturgy remains as it is. 
 Let a Romanising minister on the one 
 hand, or a Rationalist on the other, in 
 defiance of his own solemn obligations, 
 keep back any leading truth, or broach 
 open heresy, the prayers of the Church, 
 which he must use, are always a standing 
 witness for the truth, so that the evil of 
 the pulpit’s teaching is corrected by the 
 orthodoxy of the reading-desk. 
 
 The ideal of common or joint prayers is 
 realized in our system of responses, which 
 is a happy contrivance for making the 
 whole people feel they have their share in 
 the public service. They keep up the 
 attention, and prevent weariness, if only 
 the people will heartily join in them. The 
 short alternate ejaculation are as quick darts 
 
68 Guide to the Study of 
 
 shot tip to heaven, as Augustine says (Ep. 
 cxxx. io, “Raptim quodammodoy^^:^/^^. ,, 
 Our word ejaculation is derived from this 
 metaphor) ; they give life and spirit to the 
 worship. Thus the Church of England 
 minister conducts the prayer with the 
 people, instead of praying for them. 
 Instead of being only heard by them, he 
 and they join in common worship. 
 
 This EXCLUSION OF THE PEOPLE FROM 
 THEIR SHARE IN THE PUBLIC WORSHIP goes 
 to a more dangerous extreme in the 
 Church of Rome. In her services there 
 are, strictly speaking, no common prayers. 
 The priests say and do all : the people 
 meanwhile gaze about, whisper to one 
 another, and look on private manuals of 
 devotion, which may or may not have any 
 connection with the vicarious prayers and 
 masses v/hich, as their virtual Mediator, 
 he offers before God in their stead. 
 
 From the earliest days forms of joint 
 prayer have been in use. Most of King 
 David’s Psalms were expressly composed 
 for public worship, as the titles indicate. 
 If it be objected that this is a form of 
 praise , which all, even those who reject 
 forms of prayer admit, we may answer 
 with Rev. J. Newton — 
 
The Book oj Common Prayer 69 
 
 “ Crito freely will rehearse 
 Forms of prayer and praise in verse : 
 
 Why should Crito then suppose 
 Forms are sinful when in prose ? 
 
 Must my form be deemed a crime, 
 
 Merely from the want of rhyme ? ” 
 
 The synagogue worship of the Jews, 
 which the Lord sanctioned by His presence, 
 was conducted with similar forms. “ If 
 then,” says the judicious Hooker, “it had 
 been of such dangerous consequence to 
 pray by set form, would God have omitted 
 to warn His people of it when He foresaw 
 His churches would use them for 1300 or 
 1400 years ? ” 
 
 But the question of the lawfulness of 
 forms is for ever set at rest by our Lord 
 having given the best form ever com- 
 posed, as a model to us, the Lord’s 
 Prayer. Nay, farther: The Lord Jesus 
 not only sanctions hereby their use, but 
 seems to imply that forms are specially 
 suited for joint prayer ; whilst such words 
 as the sense of each one’s individual wants 
 suggests are adapted for closet prayer. 
 For, observe, St. Matthew, vi. 6, the 
 Lord first uses the Singular number when 
 He gives directions for private prayer, 
 “ Thou , when thou prayest, enter into thy 
 
7o 
 
 Guide to the Study of 
 
 closet, and, when thou hast shut thy door, 
 pray to thy Father, which is in secret.” 
 Then, when He passes from private to 
 public or joint prayer, he adopts the Plural 
 number, and gives a form , which he did 
 not in the former, “ But when ye pray, use 
 not vain repetitions. After this manner 
 pray ye, Oun Father which art in heaven.” 
 This fact applies the superiority of forms, 
 according to our Lord’s view of the exig- 
 encies of joint worship. 
 
 Accordingly wehaveachainof testimonies 
 that liturgies were the usage of the 
 churches from the earliest ages. Liturgy 
 is a word of Greek derivation, meaning a 
 public or people s service ; for instance, 
 Charity (Phil. ii. 30). It was not, as 
 Romanists appropriate it, applied to the 
 Communion office only ; but besides this, 
 including all parts of the public worship 
 (Bingham ; Acts xiii. 2). Only when 
 mystical was prefixed to Liturgies did it 
 mean the Eucharistic office. Owing to 
 persecution, the Liturgies of the early 
 churches were preserved only by memory 
 till the end of the third century, after which 
 they were committed to writing. The 
 principal ancient Liturgies are : the 
 Oriental, which though wrongly ascribed 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 71 
 
 to St. James, is yet older than the Council 
 of Chalcedon, in 451 a.d., and resembling 
 in order and substance what prevailed in 
 the second century in Justin Martyr’s time ; 
 the Liturgy of St. Mark ; the Roman, 
 derived from ancient sources as far back as 
 the second century, and completed by 
 Gregory the Great, 590 a.d. ; the Gallican, 
 referred to by Irenaeus,, and supposed to be 
 parent of the Ancient British Liturgy . 
 If these be compared together they will 
 be seen to have a mutual affinity, though 
 not in all respects alike. 
 
 Before the Reformation different Latin 
 Service books were used in different places 
 throughout England ; whence we read of 
 “the Uses of Salisbury, York, Bangor, 
 Hereford,” and others. These were full 
 of Romish superstitions. When, then, our 
 Reformers had first given the people the 
 Bible in their own tongue, their next care 
 was to give one uniform Liturgy, purged 
 of all superstition, since, as they say in the 
 Preface Concerning the Service, “ There 
 was never anything by the wit of man so 
 well devised, or so sure established, which 
 in continuance of time hath not been cor- 
 rupted.” The Book they produced was 
 not composed for the occasion by them- 
 
72 
 
 Guide to the Study of 
 
 selves — for ours is a religion reformed, , after 
 having been for centuries deformed , and 
 not then first formed — but most carefully 
 selected from ancieiit Liturgies handed 
 down from the early ages of the church. 
 Not that they sought antiquity for anti- 
 quity’s sake, as though whatever is old 
 must therefore be good, — a fond fancy, 
 which deludes many of our modern divines. 
 But, whilst they avoided this extreme, they 
 did not rush into the opposite, that what- 
 ever is old is therefore bad. They thought 
 respect, not worship, was due to the piety 
 of the ancient church : they found some 
 things good, some evil, and some indiffer- 
 ent, and therefore they retained all that 
 could serve for the edification of the church, 
 and which, being otherwise unobjection- 
 able, it was undesirable to have rooted out, 
 after it had taken firm hold of men’s minds 
 by the associations of long usage. If we 
 are told that all this is a remnant of popery 
 we reply with Hooker, “ We are not of 
 them that think it always imperfect re- 
 formation that doth but shear and not flay.” 
 “We were not,” says Jeremy Taylor, “ like 
 children, when they are affrighted with fire 
 in their clothes : we shook off the coal 
 indeed, but not the garments ; lest we 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 73 
 
 should have exposed our church to that 
 nakedness which the excellent men of our 
 sister churches complain to be among them- 
 selves.” As for Popery, our prayers, ex- 
 cepting those composed by our Reformers 
 out of Scripture, are of a date long before 
 Popery, which is mediaeval, not primeval. 
 The creeds of the ancient church prove 
 this, they being the Deppsitum or Trust of 
 the church, i.e., the casket in which the 
 precious pearl of an orthodox faith has been 
 conveyed unimpaired through the lapse of 
 ages to ourselves. They are pure from 
 the leaven of Rome’s heresies, which sub- 
 sequently crept in ; and they are “ the form 
 of sound words ” which we are taught to 
 “hold fast ” (2 Tim. i. 13). 
 
 It is a most delightful thought that, in 
 our public service, we join in prayers once 
 used by those martyrs and holy men of 
 various ages of the church who have now 
 passed to their rest. They have left behind 
 the goodly heritage of those beautiful 
 prayers with which they, in their .day of 
 trial, stirred up their faith and love towards 
 our common Saviour. Must not this 
 thought make us realize the Communion 
 of Saints ; as well as also the thought that 
 we are using the same words as all our 
 
74 Guide to the Study of 
 
 brethren of the Church of England through- 
 out the world ? Moreover, if detained at 
 home by sickness, we can offer the same 
 prayers, and join in spirit with the hun- 
 dreds of thousands who worship in the 
 sanctuary. 
 
 If it be objected that a form of prayer 
 necessarily produces formality, we can 
 only say, the formalism is the fault not of 
 the prayer, but of the worshipper ; and is 
 as sure to accompany the extempore prayer, 
 wherever the heart is unrenewed. Whether 
 it be dew or rain will make little difference 
 where it falls on a soil stony and barren. 
 Robert Hall admitted that formalism is by 
 no means the necessary consequence of 
 forms. “We cannot doubt,” he says, 
 “ that multitudes have used forms of devo- 
 tion with great and eminent advantage.” 
 The grace of prayer is quite independent 
 of the gift of prayer. The grace of prayer, 
 which is what God values, does not depend 
 on fluency of words, but devotion of heart ; 
 it accompanies every sincere worshipper, 
 whether he do or do not use forms. 
 
 Familiarity with the words will not prove 
 a hindrance, but the greatest help to our 
 devotion. For as having to take no 
 h ought of the words, which are provided 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 75 
 
 ready for us, we can give our souls wholly 
 to the thought of our several wants sug- 
 gested by the familiar forms of the 
 Liturgy. 
 
 As to the objection that we use “ vain 
 repetitions,” we answer, it is founded on a 
 misunderstanding of Christ’s words, 
 / 3 aTTo\oyr/GrriTe — “ Do not use the unmean- 
 ing verbosity of fools.” He did not object 
 to repetitions in general, but to unmeaning 
 repetitions, such as the heathen priests of 
 Baal used. It is quite sufficient for us to 
 remind the objectors that our Lord Him- 
 self in Gethsemane “prayed three times, 
 using the same words ; ” it was repetition, 
 but not vain repetition. Just so, long be- 
 fore Him, many of the Psalms intended for 
 public worship, by repetitions call back the 
 mind to the main subject. For instance, 
 Psalm cvii. repeats four times the same 
 words, “ O that men would therefore praise 
 the Lord for His goodness, and for His 
 wonderful works to the children of men ! ” 
 Similar repetitions are found in Psalm 
 cxxxvi., which also was used in public 
 worship. 
 
 So universally has the common sense of 
 mankind felt the undesirableness of public 
 worship being dependent on the varying 
 
7 6 Guide to the Study of 
 
 competency, or incompetency, of ministers, 
 some sincere, and many, alas ! not so, with 
 their variable frames of feeling, that 
 liturgies were adopted by all the Reformed 
 Churches. The Presbyterian Church of 
 Scotland is the only national church in 
 Christendom which joins with English dis- 
 senters in rejecting them. (Indeed, of 
 these latter, if the Wesleyans followed their 
 founder, they w T ould use the liturgy which 
 John Wesley abridged from our Prayer- 
 book for that purpose). Nay, further, in 
 this respect the present church of 
 
 SCOTLAND IS AT VARIANCE WITH ITS 
 
 founders. Both Luther and Calvin 
 framed for their churches forms of public 
 worship, and the liturgy now used at 
 Geneva is an expansion of that which 
 Calvin left. From 1557 to 1564 a.d. the 
 Church of Scotland used without objection 
 the English Book of Common Prayer. In 
 1564 John Knox introduced into Scotland 
 the order of Geneva, as used by the Marian 
 exiles in that city ; and this liturgy was re- 
 tained in Scotland down to 1636, when 
 Archbishop Laud’s violent attempt to 
 enforce his new Service Book drove the 
 Scotch into the hatred of all forms. 
 
 So surely are extreme Anglicans the 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 77 
 
 promoters of that very dissent which they 
 oppose so bitterly. If you pull the pen- 
 dulum too far on one side it will by re- 
 action rebound as much too far on the op- 
 posite. The third law of mechanics holds 
 good, “ Action and re-action are equal, and 
 in opposite directions.” 
 
 Laud’s worship of forms is no justi- 
 fication of the Presbyterian hatred of 
 them. There are many of whom the 
 Church of Scotland may be proud who long 
 for a return to the liturgy of their church’s 
 first founders. The late Duke of Argyll 
 attributed the decay of Presbyterianism to 
 the superior power the Episcopalian service 
 has in engaging the affections when con- 
 trasted with the system of leaving the most 
 devotional parts of the service at the mercy 
 of the individual minister who conducts it. 
 Dr. Cumming wrote thus: “ There is a 
 mediocrity among clergy as among laity. 
 For the great mass, therefore, I believe, 
 that the resumption, if the word may be 
 used, of that which is not rescinded, viz., 
 the liturgy I now edit, by the Church of 
 Scotland, would be attended with great 
 good. It could by no possibility do mis- 
 chief, and would, I believe, be generally 
 acceptable.” An able writer remarks, “If 
 
78 Guide to the Study of 
 
 the clergy and people of Scotland could be 
 satisfied (and we see no reason why they 
 should not) that formal prayer should not 
 transgress the limits Coleridge assigns, viz., 
 ‘pure glass to see heaven through, not 
 dyed in the gorgeous crimsons of the 
 drapery of saints and saintesses,’ then we 
 believe it might be re-introduced with an 
 universality of consent that would silence 
 the tongue of Jenny Geddes herself.” 
 
 I will only, in conclusion, before entering 
 on the Service itself, give the opinions of 
 two men who will command the respect of 
 our dissenting brethren, John Wesley and 
 Robert Hall. The former says, “ I know 
 of no liturgy in the world, ancient or 
 modern, which breathes more of solid, 
 scriptural, rational piety than the common 
 Prayer of the Church of England.” The 
 latter says, “ The evangelical purity of its 
 sentiments, the chastened fervour of its 
 devotion, and the majestic simplicity of its 
 language, combine to place it in the very 
 first rank of uninspired compositions.” 
 So true is this, that an eminent noncon- 
 formist missionary, Dr. Morrison, who had 
 laboured long in preaching the Gospel in 
 China, on his return bore his testimony to 
 the English Prayer-book before a large 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 79 
 
 assembly , of his brethren in Liverpool, in 
 some such words as these : “I was asked by 
 the Christian converts, on the eve of my 
 departure, to leave as a parting gift of 
 Christian affection a form of prayer in 
 Chinese, of my own composing. I wrote 
 one after much meditation, and then read 
 it over ; but, when I reflected on the 
 momentous importance of the occasion, I 
 was dissatisfied with it. Again I sat down 
 and tried once more, and then a third time ; 
 but still could not please myself. At length 
 I took up the English Book of Common 
 Prayer, and selecting some passages from 
 its beautiful prayers, I put them together, 
 and translated the whole into Chinese. 
 Then indeed I was fully satisfied, and that 
 prayer was blessed to the souls of many.” 
 
 In treating of the Service, what I desire 
 to establish is, that formalism, sacer- 
 dotalism, and the doctrine of a human 
 mediating priesthood, are alien to the 
 whole spirit of the Prayer-book, and for 
 the most part are irreconcilable with even 
 the letter of it. Evangelical truth flows 
 throughout, as through the garden of the 
 Lord, fresh from the Scripture-fount of 
 living waters. All the great doctrines of 
 the Gospel are interwoven with its various 
 
80 Guide to the Study of 
 
 parts; “The greater portion,” as Jeremy 
 Taylor says, “being taken out of Scripture, 
 and the rest agreeing with Scripture.” 
 Remove from the Prayer-book every 
 passage of Scripture, and what would you 
 leave but a few pages ? and those the 
 heavenly compositions of saints and 
 martyrs, all breathing the spirit where 
 they vary from the letter of Holy 
 Writ. Besides the Psalms, Hymns, 
 Epistles, and Gospels, chosen so admir- 
 ably from Scripture to suit the several 
 sacred seasons, in the order of the first 
 lessons almost the whole Old Testament is 
 read through once every year ; and in the 
 second lessons, with few exceptions, the 
 whole New Testament is read through 
 three times. 
 
 Improvements might be made, no doubt; 
 the Apocryphal lessons, now used on week 
 days, might well give place to portions of 
 the inspired Word omitted in the present 
 order. But of the Church of England 
 Service as a whole we may ask, what 
 church in Christendom pays such respect 
 in public worship to all Scripture, or brings 
 so much of it before the people ? To say 
 that improvements are possible, is only to 
 say it is human : the few that are desirable 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 8f 
 
 could soon be made, without re-constructing 
 the whole. As believing evangelical prim 
 ciples to be the only scriptural principles, I 
 can ex animo endorse it as it stands. As 
 a whole , Dr. South’s opinion of any attempt 
 to re-construct it holds good — “ Let us but 
 have our Liturgy continued to us, as it is, 
 till the persons are born who shall be able 
 to mend it or make a better, and we desire 
 no greater security against either the alter- 
 ing this, or introducing another.” 
 
 Order of Church Service. 
 
 It is a curious fact, that the oft-quoted 
 passage of the younger Pliny’s letter to 
 Trajan contains a tolerably exact descrip- 
 tion of all the parts of a regular Church 
 Service. He says that “ the Christians 
 are accustomed to meet on a stated day 
 before dawn.” This evidently alludes to 
 the first day in the week, the Christian 
 Sabbath ; the reason for the early hour of 
 meeting was their fear of persecution. He 
 adds, they were wont “carmen Christo, 
 quasi Deo, dicere secum invicem.” Now 
 this word carmen by no means is to be 
 limited, as might be supposed, to the 
 Psalms of David or Christian hymns ; the 
 best Latin writers use it for any formula. 
 
 6 
 
82 Gtiide to the Study of 
 
 And when the words dicere to repeat (not 
 canere to sing), and “ secum invicem,” 
 which evidently refers to alternate re- 
 sponses , are taken into account, I hardly 
 know a more happy description of a 
 Christian Litany than this of a heathen of 
 the first century: — “The worshippers re- 
 peat a form of prayer to Christ, as God, in 
 alternate responses.” What a striking 
 testimony to the early Church’s belief in 
 the Godhead of Christ ! Then follows a 
 passage, which with equal clearness points 
 to their repeating next, in the order of 
 their service, The Ten Commandments : 
 “ They bind themselves by a sacramental 
 oath , not to commit the crimes of theft, 
 robbery and adultery, not to break their 
 word, or keep back a trust.” The words 
 “by a sacramental oath,” imply that the 
 Ten Commandments were considered as 
 with ourselves, as having some connexion 
 with the Communion of the Sacramental 
 Supper. Then comes a plain allusion to 
 the Communion : “ After this is all over, 
 they have the custom of withdrawing, and 
 meeting together again to take bread.” 
 The Communion was at that time cele- 
 brated as a separate rite, at a different 
 hour. Catechumens, or those under the 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 83 
 
 course of instruction for baptism, were ex- 
 cluded, and none but the baptised were 
 admitted. The fancy of one Catholic 
 Apostolic Liturgy is a dream almost 
 abandoned by the self-styled Anglo- 
 Catholics themselves. But this general 
 plan, stated by Pliny as existing in the 
 first century, pervades all ancient liturgies, 
 however varied in details , and still is pre- 
 served in the order of our Prayer-book. 
 
 Morning Prayer. 
 
 The following Rubric prefaces the 
 Service : “ Here is to be noted that such 
 Ornaments of the church, and of 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 Authority of Parliament, in the second 
 year of the Reign of King Edward the 
 Sixth.” Mr. j. T. Tomlinson shows that 
 the vestments and other “Ornaments” of 
 the first Prayer-book were illegal from the 
 date of the passing of the Act of 1559. 
 That act, by restoring the Second Prayer- 
 book, restored the Rubric in its forbidding 
 the vestments. The Injunctions of the 
 same year (1559) called for the surplice, 
 and not for the vestments ; the visitors 
 
84 Guide to the Study of 
 
 demanded the surplice and defaced the 
 vestments, and the Visitation Articles of 
 the Bishops never once require the vest- 
 ments to be worn.” Sandys interprets the 
 words, “ Be in use” that we shall not be 
 forced to use them, but that others in the 
 meantime shall not greedily convey them 
 away, but that they may remain for the 
 Queen. No case has been produced of 
 the Mass Vestment worn from Elizabeth’s 
 day until the Oxford movement. The 
 new Rubric in 1662- still provided that the 
 Surplice and Hood as specified in 1559 
 shall be retained and be in use, and adds 
 the very significant words, “ At all times of 
 their ministrations.” 
 
 Our public prayer is intended to be 
 daily prayer : even as the first disciples 
 “continued daily with one accord in the 
 temple.” Wherever practicable, it is 
 desirable, though not so as to supersede 
 private or family prayer, nor to be carried 
 out in slavish obedience to the letter, but 
 in conformity with the spirit of the ordin- 
 ance. The words read and say , in the 
 Rubrics, imply, that in ordinary churches, 
 intoning the whole service is not the 
 intention of the Prayer-book : this practice 
 was limited to cathedral and collegiate 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 85 
 
 churches. Queen Elizabeth’s fifty-third 
 Injunction proves this. 
 
 The Service opens with Scripture declar- 
 ations of God's willingness to receive every 
 penitent, in order to compose and prepare 
 the mind for addressing God in prayer. 
 Then follows the Church s exhortation to 
 repentance. In this the ends of public 
 worship are admirably summed up : “To 
 acknowledge our sins before God, (in the 
 General Confession) to render thanks for 
 the great benefits we have received at His 
 hands (in the Thanksgivings), to set forth 
 his most worthy praise (in the Psalms, 
 Hymns, and Doxologies), to hear His 
 most holy Word (in the Lessons, Epistles, 
 Gospels, and Sermon, if a Scriptural one), 
 and to ask those things which are requisite 
 and necessary, as well for the body as the 
 soul ” (in the Litany, Collects, and Prayers) : 
 “ To confess our sins before God we 
 ought at all times” to do, but “ most 
 chiefly when we assemble together.” 
 Then the people and minister together join 
 in obeying the call to repentance by that 
 general confession, which is well called the 
 Pipitome of the whole Gospel. It breathes 
 the very spirit of such penitence, as Bishop 
 Beveridge gives expression to, — “ I do not 
 
86 Guide to the Study of 
 
 only betray the inbred venom of my heart 
 by my common actions, but even I poison 
 my most religious performances also with 
 my sin. I cannot pray but I sin : I cannot 
 hear or preach a sermon but I sin : I can- 
 not give an alms or receive a Sacrament 
 but I sin : nay, I cannot so much as confess 
 my sins, but my very confessions are still 
 aggravations of them : my repentance 
 
 needs to be repented of, my tears want 
 washing, and the very washing of my tears 
 needs still to be washed over again with 
 the blood of my Redeemer.” This will be 
 the feeling of every true believer in using 
 this confession, “ There is no health in 
 us,” i.e., not only no soundness , but no 
 salvation. 
 
 It is a general confession, as opposed to 
 the auricular confession of Rome, which 
 blasphemously gives to erring man the 
 judicial power belonging to the Almighty 
 Heart-Searcher alone. At the same time 
 whilst we join aloud in the general confes- 
 sion, which applies to all alike, let each 
 confess secretly to the God, who knows the 
 secrets of hearts, his own special sins. 
 Thus he will have his share in the Gospel 
 absolution (i.e. } loosing , Matt. xvi. 19) that 
 follows. 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 87 
 
 Absolution. 
 
 This is pronounced by the priest alone, 
 i.e., not by the people and priest together, 
 as in the general confession, but by the 
 priest unaccompanied, as being the authori- 
 tative declaration of the ministerial office : 
 and as in the confession he joined with the 
 people in kneeling, so in pronouncing the 
 absolution he stands, whilst the people 
 kneel ; because he is proclaiming authorita- 
 tively, as a minister (which he is called 
 just afterwards), God’s pardon to those that 
 truly repent, himself included, if penitent. 
 God’s pardon to the penitent believer has 
 gone beforehand : the minister declares to 
 all such present ( who they are he knows 
 not) that pardon as authoritatively sealed, 
 Wheatley, and but too many in the present 
 day, have tried to represent it as effective, 
 or conveying at the very instant the very 
 forgiveness itself. If so, why then does 
 the minister end it by saying, “ Wherefore 
 let us beseech Him to grant us true repent- 
 ance and His Holy Spirit?” Surely these 
 would be needless to pray for, if the priest 
 had absolutely then and there, by his ipse 
 dixit, conveyed the forgiveness desired ? 
 The form is plainly declaratory : “ Almighty 
 
88 Guide to the Study of 
 
 God, who desireth not the death of a sin- 
 ner,” is not in the Vocative, but in the 
 Nominative case, before “ pardoneth and 
 absolveth,” the “He” being resumptive. 
 It is not a prayer, but a general declaration 
 of Gods mercy, and a particular assurance 
 to every one that is penitent , “He par- 
 doneth and absolveth all them that truly 
 repent, wherefore let us (not merely you, but 
 myself the minister also) beseech Him to 
 grant us true repentance ” (as the only sure 
 pledge that we are pardoned and ab- 
 solved). If we are asked, why then, if the 
 minister be not a judge or a mediator of 
 absolution, do we limit this absolution to 
 the office of a priest ? we answer, because 
 God in His Word has committed to His 
 ministers especially, the office 'of authori- 
 tatively declaring Gods forgiving mercy to 
 the truly penitent. The minister is not 
 God’s instrument of forgiving, but his 
 authoritative mouthpiece to declare a for- 
 giveness, on the condition of penitence, 
 and faith in Christ, already vouchsafed by 
 God. 
 
 Here I may introduce notice of the two 
 other forms of absolution in the Prayer- 
 book, since this is a rite on which the 
 Sacerdotalists have laid much stress, as 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 89 
 
 favouring their views. The second form 
 occurs in the Communion Service. As the 
 first was a declaration , this is a benediction 
 or prayer for God’s blessing: “Almighty 
 God, who hath promised forgiveness to all 
 that turn to Him, have mercy on you.” 
 
 The third form is in the Visitation of the 
 Sick : “ By Christ’s authority committed to 
 me, I absolve thee from all thy sins.” As 
 the former two were public , and to the 
 congregation in general so this is to the 
 individual Christian in private, the minis- 
 terial declaratory and applicatory seal of 
 assurance that God has pardoned him in 
 particular , if a penitent believer in Christ. 
 The Divine authority of the ministry to de- 
 clare God’s willingness to forgive believing 
 penitents is put forward to the individual, 
 not as though the minister blasphemously 
 claimed God’s prerogative of forgiving sins, 
 but as an assurance to the heart of the sinner 
 that God , who alone can judge of his sincerity , 
 has directly Himself already forgiven him, 
 if a penitent believer in the Lord Jesus. 
 Penitence and faith, where they exist in 
 any one, ensure God’s forgiveness at once , 
 without needing the interposition of any 
 human priest. Therefore the minister, in 
 absolving, can only be declaring that for- 
 
90 Guide to the Study of 
 
 giveness which God has already granted ; 
 for he pronounces those alone absolved, 
 who are believing penitents ; and these God 
 has surely forgiven at the very moment of 
 their turning to Him with faith in Christ. 
 Thus the minister’s absolution can only be 
 the authoritative seal declaring to the heart 
 of the timid penitent the pardon granted 
 by God at the instant of believing penit- 
 ence. Some have supposed that this form 
 only referred to absolution of offences 
 against the Church, but the words “all thy 
 sins ” exclude such a limitation. However, 
 that it is not the Romish absolution, we are 
 sure, from the fact that the Council of 
 Trent anathematized our Reformers for 
 maintaining that the priest’s absolution was 
 not judicial , but declaratory : a doctrine 
 which, as we know the Reformers main- 
 tained, they would not have deliberately 
 contradicted in their services. Indeed it 
 was the two foreign Reformers, Bucer and 
 Martyr, who suggested its introduction, 
 and it was “directly levelled against 
 Popery .” (Seeker, Serm. vol. vi.) See 
 
 below Visitation of Sick. They retained 
 the language of Scripture as to ministerial 
 absolution, even though it might seem to 
 favour the Romish view, leaving it to other 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 91 
 
 parts, and the general tenor of the Prayer- 
 book, to counteract the possibility of error 
 in this. He who objects to this, quarrels, 
 not with the Prayer-book, but with Scrip- 
 ture. Passages in the latter also, seeming 
 to sanction the Sacerdotal-absolution-view, 
 need to be explained, so as not to contra- 
 dict the great body of the New Testament, 
 which is decidedly opposed to Sacerdota- 
 lism. The priest who claims power to 
 judicially absolve, must prove his claim as 
 Christ did, by miraculously healing : “ That 
 ye may know that the Son of Man hath 
 power on earth to forgive sins, He saith to 
 the sick of the palsy, Arise, take up thy 
 bed, and go unto thy house.” Our Re- 
 formers did not affect, as some wish, by 
 putting the said passages out of view, to 
 be wiser than God ; they left both classes 
 of Scripture statements to speak for them- 
 selves, feeling sure that He who inspired 
 both, meant both alike for edification. 
 Each sect, on its little mole-hill, sees but 
 one side of the Spiritual building ; the 
 Church of England, standing on its com- 
 prehensive catholicity, views the whole 
 Scriptural truth from every side. In her 
 services she revolves the entire Bible, 
 turning to view every aspect, thus practi- 
 
92 Guide to the Study of 
 
 cally saying, “ All Scripture is given by 
 inspiration of God, and is profitable.” 
 
 The Lord’s Prayer and Psalms. 
 
 After confession of our sins, and having 
 heard the authoritative declaration of God’s 
 forgiveness of penitent believers, if we be 
 such, as it is charitably presumed we are, 
 the prayer of adoption follows fittingly, 
 whereby we address God, now reconciled 
 to us through Christ, as “ Our Father, 
 which art in heaven.” “ This is one of the 
 chief beauties of Scripture,” says Luther “its 
 possessive pronouns.” How delightful the 
 appropriation ! This God is our God for 
 ever and ever ! Then having laid hold by 
 faith of our privilege of sonship, we natur- 
 ally proceed to praise , asking God first to 
 “open our lips” (for, as Bishop Sparrow 
 says, “our mouths are silenced only by sin, 
 and opened only by God ”), and inviting 
 one another also to the joyful service in the 
 Ninety-fifth, commonly called the invitatory 
 Psalm, which seems to have been used by 
 the Jewish Church in going up to the 
 sanctuary, thus forming a link between our 
 services and theirs. 
 
 The ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY PSALMS 
 are read through every month : and well 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 93 
 
 they may ; for they breathe the very spirit 
 of Christ, and have been not inappro- 
 priately termed “ the Saviour’s Manual 
 of Devotion ” whilst on earth. Luther 
 styled the Psalter “a little Bible”; the 
 Lord Jesus is to be found in every Psalm, 
 in some one or other of His gracious and 
 glorious offices. The “ Gloria Patri ” at 
 the close of each is the seal of their trans- 
 ference from the Jewdsh sanctuary to our 
 more spiritual Christian services. The 
 version used is Bishop Coverdale’s being 
 thought better for chanting, as more musical. 
 Perhaps it would be well, in any future 
 revision, to adopt the Authorized Version, 
 for the sake of uniformity and accuracy. 
 
 The placing of psalms and hymns before 
 and after the Scripture lessons is a happy 
 contrivance, to relieve the graver parts of 
 the service by intermingling joyful praises, 
 and thus to prevent weariness. The colon 
 in the middle of each verse is not for 
 punctuation of the sense, but merely for 
 the musical division in chanting. The 
 principle on which Llebrew poetry is con- 
 structed is not, like all other poetry, made 
 to depend on the recurrence at regular 
 intervals of the same rhythmical sounds , 
 but “parallelism,” or the correspondence 
 
94 Guide to the Study of 
 
 of the same ideas in parallel clauses. This 
 parallelism of ideas causes Bible poetry to 
 Ipse less by translation into all languages 
 than secular poetry. A good illustration is 
 Isaiah lv. 7, — “ Seek ye the Lord while He 
 may be found \ call ye upon Him while He 
 is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, 
 and the unrighteous man his thoughts , and 
 let him return to the Lord, and He will 
 have mercy on him, and to our God , for He 
 will abundantly pardon : ” wherein there is 
 a beautiful correspondence of the parallel 
 ideas expanded in the ascending climax. 
 (Seek, call ; while He may be found, while 
 near; wicked, unrighteous ; way, thoughts ; 
 Lord, our God; mercy, abundantly pardon.) 
 The earliest instance on record is the 
 prophecy of Enoch, Jude 14, 15; and 
 Lamech’s vain-glorious boast of impunity 
 in Polygamy and double murder, Genesis 
 iv. 23, 24, made, perhaps, in mockery of 
 the former, both being in poetic parallelism. 
 Enoch warns that lawless and infidel age 
 of God’s coming judgment; Lamech, sets 
 the warning at defiance, making God’s very 
 forbearance in the case of Cain a ground 
 of boasting of his impunity in perpetrating 
 twice Cain’s dreadful crime. Poetry was 
 the earliest form of composition, as easiest 
 
The Book oj Common Prayer 95 
 
 to be borne in the memory, before writing 
 was known, or at least whilst writing 
 materials were as yet scanty. 
 
 To revert to the Lord’s Prayer (given 
 to us as both a form and a model of prayer), 
 though repeated oftener now than when 
 the three parts of our service were kept 
 distinct ; the spiritual worshipper will re- 
 gard its repetition, not as a burden, but as 
 an always fresh delight. “ In the front of 
 our prayers,” says Hooker, “ it serves as a 
 guide, and added to the end of some prin- 
 cipal parts, as a complement, which fully 
 perfecteth whatsoever may be defective in 
 the rest.” Alas ! that amongst our Romish 
 brethren, it should be so perverted to 
 superstition ! It is a strange instance of 
 man’s making the best things become the 
 worst, when corrupted (“corruptio optimi 
 pessima ”), that the very prayer, given to 
 guard us against all vain repetitions, is the 
 one which most men, and perhaps our- 
 selves, have most often abused into a vain 
 repetition ! It shows us at least the pre- 
 scient Wisdom, which withheld the sacred 
 writers from doing that which would have 
 been so natural to them otherwise, but 
 which, we see from this instance, would 
 have been so perverted to superstition, 
 
96 
 
 Guide to the Study of 
 
 namely, — leaving us in the inspired volume, 
 creeds, formularies of prayer, and a definite 
 Church polity in detail. 
 
 The Doxology, “ For Thine is the king- 
 dom,” etc., observe, is omitted where our 
 offices are not acts of thanksgiving. 
 
 The “ Amen ” throughout the Prayer- 
 book, when in Roman letters, is to be said 
 by the same person or persons by whom 
 the previous words were uttered ; when in 
 Italics, by the people only. 
 
 Te Deum. 
 
 The noble hymn following the First 
 Lesson, “We praise Thee, O God,” 
 (rather as the Latin Te Deum Laudamus , 
 We praise Thee as God), said to have 
 been composed by Ambrose for the 
 baptism of Augustine (others say, by 
 Hilary of Arles, 440), is perhaps the 
 closest approach ever made to inspiration. 
 It is first mentioned in the rule of Caesarius, 
 Bishop of Arles, the fifth century, and is 
 ordered to be sung every Sunday at 
 Matins. The first part of the Te Deum 
 is an act of praise ; the second a co 7 ifession 
 of faith ; and the third a prayer, resting on 
 both. How sublimely are the three 
 persons of the adorable Trinity, and their 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 97 
 
 gracious offices, in succession brought 
 before us ! The thrice holy God is invoked 
 as the Lord of Sabaoth, i.e ., not Sabbath, 
 as the unlearned might fancy, but Lord 
 of the heavenly hosts. One class of these 
 hosts, in Hebrew, Saba, the sun, moon, 
 and stars, were the earliest objects of 
 idolatrous worship, whence this class of 
 idolaters are called Sabeans. Our God is 
 Lord of them all. Then the hymn 
 enumerates the various intelligences that 
 evermore praise our God, heaven and 
 earth, Cherubim and Seraphim (see 1 Cor. 
 xi. 10), angels and men, apostles, prophets, 
 martyrs above, and the holy Church 
 throughout the world below. But that 
 part is sweetest to us sinners, which appeals 
 to the once-lowly Christ, now King of 
 Glory, the coming Judge and present 
 Saviour, who^ by having overcome the 
 sharpness of death, has opened the king- 
 dom of heaven to all believers. We 
 recognise His power not only to save from 
 guilt but also to keep us from the power of 
 sin, “Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this 
 day without sin” (Jude 24). So in the 
 Third Collect, for Grace. A believer was 
 expressing to another his deep sadness at 
 so often losing the joy of his Lord. “ Why 
 
 7 
 
9 8 
 
 Guide to the Study of 
 
 should you lose it?” “Because,” he re- 
 plied, “ I always have lost it.” “Can you 
 not trust it to Jesus, just as you first trusted 
 in Him for the salvation of your soul?” 
 The result was, light and joy broke into his 
 mind, and he experienced permanently, 
 “ Nothing is impossible with God.” Still 
 though the believer is no longer in the 
 flesh, but in the spirit, the flesh is yet in 
 him ; and so John Wesley, after having so 
 long preached the doctrine of sinless per- 
 fection, at the close of his earthly career, 
 was fain to cry, in this hymn’s closing- 
 words, “ O Lord, in Thee have I trusted ; 
 let me never be confounded.” 
 
 The succeeding Canticle from the Apo- 
 crypha (an imitation of the 148th 
 Psalm, as what Shadrach, Meshach, and 
 Abednego might have sung in the fiery 
 furnace), and the Te Deum , are the only 
 two uninspired hymns in our daily service. 
 The words in the former, “ O ye spirits and 
 souls of the righteous,” etc., are not an in- 
 vocation of saints, but an ascription of 
 praise to God, just as David calls on 
 creatures, which he kneiv could not hear 
 him, — “fire and hail, beasts and all cattle,” 
 to praise the Lord. 
 
 The best rule in this, as in all other parts 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 99 
 
 of the service, is, for the minister not so 
 much to read ’ as to offer up , the prayers 
 and praises, with the spirit and with the 
 understanding : — 
 
 “ I’ll read, as though I ne’er should read again, 
 And, as a dying man to dying men.” 
 
 Creeds. 
 
 The Creed rightly follows the Scripture 
 lessons and psalms, for “ faith cometh by 
 hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” 
 (Romans x. 17.) Heretofore, the plural 
 “we” was used. But faith is personal and 
 individual So it is “/believe.” Of the 
 three Creeds (a term derived from the 
 first word in the Latin form, Credo , “ / 
 believe”) observe, that they are not de- 
 signed so much as a summary of the Chris- 
 tian faith, but rather as a test of orthodoxy 
 on particular points, which were perverted 
 by false teachers in the age or country for 
 which the Creed was drawn up. This 
 explains why, in the Apostles’ Creed, the 
 atonement and other doctrines are omitted. 
 This was not because the framers did 
 not hold them, but because they were not 
 the matter of dispute ; not because these 
 tenets were universally unknown , but be- 
 cause universally acknowledged. The very 
 
ioo Guide to the Study of 
 
 word symbolum , anciently applied to the 
 Creed, implies a watchword, by which 
 soldiers can distinguish friend from foe in 
 battle. This fact is especially to be kept 
 in mind in reading the clauses of the 
 Athanasian Creed. These might seem 
 to us to venture too deeply in detail into 
 defining the mysteries of the Godhead. 
 But these clauses rather deny particular 
 heresies of that day, as to the Godhead and 
 Manhood of Christ, Arianism, Euty- 
 chianism, Nestorianism, and others (which 
 are as possible to start up now as then), 
 than affirm, save in so far as there is 
 Scripture warrant for definite affirmations. 
 The practical truth needful to ourselves is, 
 in Seekers words, “As in all acts of faith 
 we are to believe in each Person, so, in all 
 acts of worship we are to adore each, never 
 considering one even while addressed dis- 
 tinctly, as separated or separable from the 
 other two” As to our Lord Jesus, there 
 are four necessary truths to be believed (in 
 opposition to the corresponding four 
 heresies). I. His Deity ; II. His 
 Hiimanity. III. The union of both in 
 the one God- man. IV. Their distinctness 
 in their unity. The four words, truly 
 (aXr/Om), perfectly (reA<W), indivisibly 
 
The Book of Common Prayer id 
 
 (aSicuperw), distinctly (aovyyyTws y), comprise, 
 respectively, the decisions of the four great 
 Councils — Nice (a.d. 325), against the 
 
 Arian heresy : Constantinople (a.d. 381), 
 against the Apollinarian ; Ephesus (a.d. 
 431), against the Nestorian ; Chalcedon. 
 (a.d. 451), against the Eutychian, 
 
 (Hooker’s Eccl. Pol., v. 54.) 
 
 The Apostles Creed is Historic ; the 
 Nicene Creed , Dogmatic ; the Athanasian 
 Creed, Polemic. The necessity of guarding 
 truth against heresy, according as it mani- 
 fested itself, gave birth to creeds ; that 
 necessity still exists as much as ever. The 
 Apostle’s precept is, not merely “Hold fast 
 sound words,” but, “ Hold fast the form of 
 sound words.” The Nicene Creed, drawn 
 up at the Council of Nice, a.d. 325, and 
 completed at the Council of Constantinople, 
 a.d. 381, was intended as a guard against 
 heresies of the day, which denied that 
 Jesus was very God of very God, i.e., real 
 God himself, as also begotten of God. (To 
 express this meaning, the “of” ought to be 
 emphasized in reading.) The Nicene Creed 
 (325 a.d.) ended with “ I believe in the 
 HolyGhost.” The Constantinopolitan (a.d. 
 381) added “Who proceedeth from the 
 Father.” Reccared, a King in Spain, added 
 
102 Guide to the Study of 
 
 “and the Son.” The Council of Toledo 
 (a.d. 589) sanctioned this. But the Oriental 
 Churches still reject it. The orthodox 
 word, Homo-Ousion “of one substance or 
 essence with the Father,” differs from the 
 Arian Homoi-Ousion “of like essence” by 
 but one letter ; yet the gulf between is that 
 which separates the Creator and the 
 creature. The “one Catholic and Apos- 
 tolic Church ” spoken of in it answers in 
 the Apostles’ Creed, to “the Communion 
 of Saints” (not found in the Nicene Creed 
 as being identical with “the one Catholic 
 Church ”), i.e., not some one outward 
 visible Church, which, indeed, would not 
 be an object of faith , but of sight ; much 
 less is it the idolatrous and un-Catholic 
 Church of Rome ; which, says Seeker, is 
 “no more the Catholic Church than one 
 diseased limb, though perhaps the larger 
 for being diseased, is the whole body of a 
 man ; ” but the Church, made up of all 
 true believers, joined in the inward spiritual 
 fellowship of the Holy Ghost ; and there- 
 fore the words, “ I believe in the Holy 
 Ghost,” go immediately before “the Holy 
 Catholic Church ; ” because it is the living 
 fellowship, that is, joint participation of the 
 Holy Ghost, which constitutes the true 
 
The Book 0/ Common Prayer 103 
 
 Catholic Church, not any one outward 
 machinery of a visible Church. So St. 
 Paul’s definition, “All that in every place 
 call upon the name of Jesus Christ our 
 Lord, both theirs and ours “all that 
 love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.” 
 (1 Cor. i. 2; Eph. vi. 24.) The phrase, 
 “Communion ofSaints,” implies the equality 
 of all, in this fellowship, as all alike 
 pardoned sinners, therefore it would be a 
 contradiction for one to pray to the other. 
 Moreover, we do nofiput first in the Creed, 
 “ I believe in the Holy Catholic Church ; ” 
 but, “ I believe in God the Father Al- 
 mighty, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son 
 our Lord,” and “ I believe in the Holy 
 Ghost;” and then “I believe in [The 
 Western Creeds omit in] the Holy Catholic 
 Church ” becomes the first fruit of our be- 
 lieving fellowship with the Father and Son 
 by the Spirit. The word Church , Kirk is 
 from KupiaKr/y brought from Constantinople 
 by the Goths to our Anglo-Saxon fore- 
 fathers. Much error arises from claiming 
 for the visible Church, which is a mixed 
 community, bad and good, the graces and 
 glories which belong to the mystical Church 
 alone. When we read of any duty which 
 the Church is bound unto, the Church 
 
104 Guide to the Study of 
 
 concerned is a sensibly known company ; 
 but the everlasting promises belong to the 
 mystical Church. (Hooker, E. P., iii. i.) 
 
 The damnatory clauses in the Athanasian 
 Creed are, of course, to be understood with 
 the limitations, of which God alone is judge, 
 such as the varying opportunities and 
 capacity of knowing the whole truth which 
 each may enjoy ; but the general need of 
 worshipping “the Trinity in unity, and 
 unity in Trinity,” for salvation, is as certain 
 as that the Lord of life hath said, “He 
 that disbelieveth shall be condemned.” 
 The word Trinity means threefoldness — 
 three persons in one God. It is not a 
 term from Scripture, but is found first in 
 a letter of Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, 
 to Autolycus, in defence of Christianity, 
 towards the latter end of the second 
 century of our era. 
 
 It cannot be uncharitable to repeat in 
 substance what He hath said : “If any 
 man shall take away from the words of 
 this prophecy God shall take away his part 
 out of the book of life.” The word “ keep ” 
 implies not the case of one accepting the 
 faith for the first time, but of one having 
 once accepted it and so bound to keep it 
 under the penalty of perdition for apostasy. 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 105 
 
 (Heb. x. 38, 39; Mark xvi. 16.) The 
 Athanasian Creed was known as the Psalm 
 “ Quicunque,” its opening word, and is 
 found in Psalters of the seventh and eighth 
 centuries. 
 
 The Athanasian Creed is so called 
 because it breathes the spirit of that 
 champion of the Trinity ; just as the 
 Apostles’ Creed is so called, not because 
 composed by the Apostles, or in their age, 
 but because in accordance with their 
 teaching. 
 
 Canon Swainson (“The Nicene and 
 Apostles’ Creeds, with an account of the 
 sermon on the faith commonly called the 
 Creed of St. Athanasius ”) proves by 
 exhaustive quotations from the fifth to the 
 ninth centuries that the Athanasian Creed 
 is a summary of definitions gradually 
 gathering in the Church for ages as the 
 faith settled into scientific form under 
 the influence of repeated controversies. 
 Separate clauses are found in Vincentius 
 of Lerins, in the Councils of Toledo from 
 589 to 963 a.d., the Creed of Leo III., the 
 Confession of Deneberht, Bishop of Wor- 
 cester in 7 98, and the Council of Arles 
 813. Alcuin, preceptor of Charlemagne, 
 gathered these together in his De Trinitate. 
 
io6 Guide to the Stiidy of 
 
 A summary, which is our so-called “ Creed 
 of Athanasius,” was made between 860 
 and 870, which at once gained favour by 
 its antithetical swing and fitness for chant- 
 ing. It was issued under Athanasius 
 name by Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims, 
 Theodulf, Bishop of Orleans, /Eneas of 
 Paris, and Ratram of Corby. It is more 
 exact about the Incarnation of Christ 
 than Athanasius’ genuine writings ; and it 
 never once has the testing word of the 
 Nicene age, “ consubstantial” (o/moovcnos). 
 
 The descent of Jesus into Hell, in the 
 Apostles’ Creed, is a dogma stated distinctly 
 in Scripture: “Thou shalt not leave My 
 soul in hell,” i.e ., not the hell of torment, 
 but the Greek ( 'AS^, Hades, and the 
 Hebrew Sheol, “ the unseen place of the 
 departed spirit.” This was the old use of 
 the English word hell, which is kindred in 
 meaning and derivation to hole, hollow. 
 
 Of all three Creeds, let us remember the 
 Church of England, in her Eighth Article, 
 distinctly asserts, that their claim on our 
 belief rests on this alone, that “they may 
 be proved by most certain warrants of 
 Holy Scripture.” 
 
 It is an interesting story of Luther, that 
 in his earlier days, when he was on a sick 
 
The Book of Common Prayer io 7 
 
 bed, brought near the gates of death, and 
 his inward peace through Christ gave way 
 to gloomy fears of judgment to come, it 
 was a sentence of the Creed that restored 
 his tranquility. An old monk at his bed- 
 side simply repeated this clause, “ I believe 
 in the forgiveness of sins.” These words 
 proved balm to his soul. “We are to 
 believe, ” said his friend, “not merely that 
 there is forgiveness for David or Peter. 
 The will of God is, that we believe there 
 is forgiveness for our own sins.” Luther 
 laid hold of forgiveness for himself, and 
 henceforth had peace. 
 
 The custom of turning to the east at 
 the Creed is of doubtful origin. It was 
 the heathen custom so to build their 
 temples, as may be seen in the Druid 
 remains at Keswick. Virgil represents 
 ./Eneas as praying thus. The Christians 
 in this, as in some other points, accom- 
 modated themselves to heathen prejudices : 
 though God expressly condemns as 
 “abomination,” the turning the face 
 towards the east, the practice of sun- 
 worshippers ; in opposition to whom, He 
 caused the holiest place of His temple to 
 be in the west, so that His worshippers 
 facing westward were a continual protest 
 
ioB Guide to the Study of 
 
 against idolatry. (Ezekiel viii. 1 6.) Christ’s 
 rubric directs us, “Where two or three are 
 gathered together in My name, there am I 
 (not at the east , but) in the midst of them.” 
 
 Of another kindred superstition, the 
 lighting of candles on the communion- 
 table in broad daylight, Archbishop 
 Leighton well says, “It is an affront done 
 both to the sun in the heaven, and to the 
 Sun of Righteousness in the church. 
 
 Following the recitation of the Apostles’ 
 Creed more prolonged praying is prefaced 
 by a beautiful ejaculatory prayer of the 
 minister for the people, “ The Lord be with 
 you ! ” and of the people for the minister 
 during their joint prayers, “ And with thy 
 spirit ! ” Then, after our affections have 
 been warmed by Psalms of praise, and our 
 minds instructed by Holy Scripture, and our 
 faith confirmed by the public confession in 
 the Creed, we now enter on general and 
 particular supplication, with introductory 
 ejaculations for the Lord’s mercy, called 
 from the Greek Church Kyrie Eleeson, 
 and “the Lesser Litany.” 
 
 Collects. 
 
 The Collects come next under our notice, 
 so called because, as their name implies, they 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 109 
 
 collect into a short prayer the essence of 
 some portion of Gods Word. This term is 
 never, throughout the Prayer-book, applied 
 to a mere thanksgiving. Brevity and com- 
 prehensiveness are their chief excellence. 
 The attribute given to God in the opening 
 of each, beautifully harmonizes with, and 
 is made the ground of our pleading for, 
 the main petition : precept and promise go 
 hand in hand: above all, the Lord Jesus, 
 in His glorious person and various offices, 
 is made all in all. The short and frequent 
 prayers, with the often breathed out Amen. 
 “ So be it,” at the close of each, give a life, 
 variety, and earnestness, which no one 
 lengthened prayer, whether a form or 
 extempore, can ever have. The Collects are 
 mostly taken from liturgies 1300 years 
 old; and a few are the compositions of 
 our pious Reformers : as, for instance, 
 the beautiful collect for All Conditions of 
 Men, by Bishop Sanderson (1661) and 
 the General Thanksgiving, by Bishop 
 Reynolds. In the former, which is used 
 when the Litany is not read, the true 
 notion of the Catholic Church is implied ; 
 first, in the wider sense, “all who profess 
 and call themselves Christians ; ” secondly, 
 in the perfect sense, “ we pray for the good 
 
no Gitide to the Study of 
 
 estate of (this) Catholic Church, that it 
 may be so guided by God’s good Spirit,” 
 that all its members in name may realize 
 the true ideal of the Catholic Church, and 
 “be led into the way of truth, and hold 
 the faith in unity of spirit [which must 
 come first (Eph. iv. 3), and then will 
 follow unity of body], in the bond of peace, 
 and in righteousness of life.” It then 
 closes with touching prayers for the suffer- 
 ing fellow-members of this Catholic body, 
 commending them to the goodness of our 
 common Father and Head. The Collects 
 for Peace and Grace precede the Litany, 
 and go together as two main essentials, 
 which ought to be the object of all our 
 prayers, and which God has joined in- 
 separably. 
 
 The words, “ Let us pray,” used before 
 some of them, are to call back the wander- 
 ing thoughts, as in ancient services the 
 deacon used often to say to the people, 
 CKTevearrepov Ser/OcopLev, “ let US pray more 
 earnestly,” — a needful spur to our de- 
 votions ; for, as the old hermit said 
 (Melancthon on Prayer), “ There is nothing 
 harder than to pray." 
 
 As to the epithets “gracious and re- 
 ligious,’’ which in prayer we give to our 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 1 1 1 
 
 monarchs, we give them these in their 
 official capacity, as heads of a Christian 
 people, after Paul’s example, who addressed 
 even a heathen governor as “most noble,” 
 or literally, “most excellent Festus.” 
 
 Anthems. 
 
 The Anthems, which follow the three 
 Collects, take their name from the Greek 
 avrlipaom i.e., hymns sung in parts respon- 
 sive to one another. The Psalmody is a 
 most important element in public worship. 
 Indeed, Luther attributed much of the 
 success of the Reformation to it. “After 
 theology,” says he, “ I give to music the 
 nearest place and highest honour.” Bishop 
 Jewel’s testimony also is striking, in his 
 letter to Peter Martyr, March 5, 1560: 
 “ The practice of joining in church music 
 has very much conduced to the success of 
 the Reformation in England. You may 
 now see sometimes at St. Paul’s cross, 
 after the sermon, six thousand persons, 
 old and young, boys and girls, all singing 
 together and praising God. This sadly 
 annoys the mass-priests and the devil ; for 
 they perceive that by these means, the 
 sacred discourses sink more deeply into 
 the minds of men, and that their kingdom 
 
1 1 2 Guide to the Study of 
 
 is weakened almost at every note.’ 5 The 
 simultaneous singing of all gives a slight 
 foretaste of the harmonious praises above, 
 loud as the sounds of “ many waters or 
 many thunderings.” There is no doubt, 
 that modern dissent owes much of the 
 attractiveness it has with many to its 
 congregational singing. Oh, that the 
 members of our congregations would 
 generally join in the responses, as well as 
 in the singing ! It is as alien to the 
 general spirit of Protestant joint-worship 
 for the people to depute to a choir the 
 office of praising God in their stead , rather 
 than of leading the joint praises of all, as 
 it undoubtedly is to leave the priest, as in 
 the Romish system, to offer vicarious 
 prayers to God for the people, instead of 
 with them and as their leader. If all that 
 could were to join in, we should find a heart- 
 stirring vividness in our beautiful service, 
 such as cannot be in the usually listless 
 mode of conducting it. 
 
 The closing prayer before the blessing, 
 or rather benedictory prayer (the latter 
 taken from 2 Cor. xiii. 14), is one out of 
 St. Chrysostom’s Liturgy. It forms a 
 most appropriate conclusion to our prayers, 
 renouncing all claims of merit in them, and 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 1 1 3 
 
 acknowledging, first, that it has been by 
 the gift of Gocls grace we have made our 
 common or joint supplications. It then 
 pleads Christ’s promise to be present 
 “ where two or three are gathered together 
 in His name.” Perhaps there are but few 
 gathered together for joint prayer ; but the 
 Lord J esus is there : and, as Cecil says, 
 “The consciousness of His presence 
 annihilates the largest congregation, and 
 dignifies the smallest.” Next, it claims 
 the fulfilment of His promise as to the 
 desires and petitions of His servants, add- 
 ing that most important clause, “as may 
 be most expedient for them ; ” ending with 
 a request for what cannot but be safe to 
 ask, whatever else may not, “ in this world 
 the knowledge of His truth, and in the 
 world to come life everlasting.” Pascal’s 
 acknowledgment to God is similar: “We 
 know not what we should ask, and I can- 
 not wish for one thing more than another, 
 without presumption, and without setting 
 up myself as a judge, and making myself 
 responsible for those consequences, which 
 thy wisdom has determined properly to 
 conceal from me. O Lord, I know that 
 I know but one thing : that it is good to 
 follow Thee, and evil to offend Thee. 
 
 8 
 
1 14 Guide to the Study of 
 
 After that, I know n£t what is better or 
 worse in anything.” So in our Litany 
 we pray, not merely “in all time of our 
 tribulation,” but also “in all time of our 
 wealth,” or prosperity, (the very state, of 
 all others, which we most desire), “good 
 Lord deliver us.” The history of St. 
 Chrysostom’s life is a commentary on his 
 prayer. He learnt in the school of afflic- 
 tion the folly of those earthly desires, 
 which his previous prosperity might have 
 fostered. Nothing but a spirit chastened 
 by trials could have dictated the resigna- 
 tion to God’s will as to earthly goods, and 
 the singleness of aim towards heavenly 
 blessings, which breathe throughout the 
 prayer. Famed for eloquence, to which 
 he owed not only his title Chrysostom (his 
 proper name being John), from the Greek 
 Xpvcroo-ToiuLo?, Golden mouthed , but also the 
 Archiepiscopal See of Constantinople under 
 the Emperor Arcadius (a.d. 397), he found 
 that the same gift, which was the cause of 
 his rise, was also the occasion of his fall. 
 His fearless preaching brought on him the 
 displeasure of the Empress Eudoxia, and 
 ultimately, exile. His last words were 
 those of thanksgiving : So£a tm 0e<« iravrwv 
 eveKev, “Glory be to God for all things.” 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 1 1 5 
 
 A fitting close to the life of the author. 
 “ Let my last end be like his ! ” The 
 heathen satirist Juvenal, x. 314, uncon- 
 sciously imbibed the Christian sentiments 
 (akin to Chrysostom’s prayer) so widely 
 diffused in his age : — 
 
 “ Permittes ipsis expendeie Numinibus, quid 
 Conveniat nobis rebusque sit utile nostris ; 
 
 Nam pro jucundis aptissima quseque dabunt Di ; 
 Carior est illis homo quam sibi.” 
 
 “Suffer the gods themselves to decide what is 
 fitting for us, and profitable for our interests. For in 
 place of what is pleasing, the gods will give what is 
 most suitable for us. More dear is man to the gods 
 than he is to himself.” 
 
 Evening Service. 
 
 The evening service differs little from 
 the Morning Service, except in its hymns 
 and collects. As in the Morning Service 
 intensity and vigour are the characteristics, 
 so throughout the Evening Service there 
 breathes a tranquil spirit, which is well 
 embodied in the aged Simeon’s soothing 
 hymn, after his active day was past, and 
 the shades of life’s evening, cheered by 
 the assurance of Jesus’ salvation, were 
 gathering around him, “ Lord, now lettest 
 Thou (i.e., Thou dost let) Thy servant 
 depart in peace, according to Thy word ; 
 
1 1 6 Guide to the Study of 
 
 for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.” 
 As our hymn beautifully expresses it : — 
 
 “ When the soft dews of kindly sleep 
 My wearied eye-lids gently steep, 
 
 Be my last thought, how sweet to rest 
 For ever on my Saviour’s breast.” 
 
 The 67th Psalm, which may be substi- 
 tuted, connects growth of religion at home 
 with anxiety for its diffusion abroad as a 
 necessary consequence ; “God be merciful 
 unto us, and bless us, that Thy ways may 
 be known upon earth, Thy saving health 
 among all nations .” God’s mercy restored 
 to His people Israel shall bring blessing 
 to all peoples. Thus only shall we 
 and all the earth have true peace. The 
 rise or fall of a missionary spirit is the 
 truest spiritual thermometer, both in the 
 case of a Church and of an individual soul, 
 of the growth or decline of Christian piety. 
 For “he that watereth (others) shall be 
 watered also himself.” 
 
 It is in the same spirit, that, whereas in 
 the morning second collect for Peace, we 
 pray for external peace : “ Defend us Thy 
 humble servants in all assaults of our 
 enemies ; ” in the corresponding evening 
 collect we pray for internal peace : “ Give 
 us that peace which this world cannot 
 
 l 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 1 1 7 
 
 give ; that our hearts may be set to obey 
 Thy commandments,” etc. 
 
 In the beautiful prayer for the clergy 
 (from KXfjpog, the lot or inheritance of the 
 Lord, first so used in Tertullian’s De 
 Monog, 12) and the people, the attribute 
 given to God, “ Almighty and Everlasting 
 God, who alone workest great marvels ,” 
 refers to the miraculous conversion of souls, 
 wrought by the outpouring of the Holy 
 Spirit on the Day of Pentecost : and thus 
 we in humble confidence plead God’s 
 manifestations of grace in past days, as 
 the grounds of our prayer, that He will 
 now also pour the healthful spirit of His 
 grace and continual dew of His blessing, 
 on both ministers and people, without 
 which the Word read and preached will 
 profit neither, as to salvation. The word 
 “ Curates ” is not here used in its present 
 restricted sense, which arose in the days of 
 non-resident rectors, with deputy-curates, 
 but in its original sense of all who have the 
 cure, i.e., care of souls. 
 
 Human wisdom could hardly have de- 
 vised services more calculated to enlist the 
 sympathies of man, in every age and clime. 
 Perhaps no more remarkable instance of 
 this can be given than the moral transfor- 
 
1 1 8 Guide to the Study of 
 
 mation that has taken place in the island 
 of Pitcairn. Nine of the mutineers of the 
 ship Bounty settled here with Otaheitan 
 wives. Seldom has such abandoned 
 wickedness, in the same compass, been 
 perpetrated, as on this spot. However, 
 Providence so ordered it, that a Bible and 
 Prayer-book were saved from the ship. 
 With these alone, John Adams, the only 
 mutineer who survived the terrible scenes 
 of murder and debauchery which had been 
 enacted, having- been awakened by God’s 
 grace, organized one of the purest and 
 most guileless Christian communities on 
 the face of the globe. 
 
 The Litany. 
 
 Was a distinct service from the morning 
 service down to the time of the Reforma- 
 tion : morning service being read at six or 
 seven, and the Litany at ten. It is mainly 
 taken from that of Gregory of Rome. It 
 was originally used in processions of 
 minister and people, to avert particular 
 judgments of God, as, for instance, the 
 plague that visited Rome in Gregory’s time 
 (a.d. 590). The word itself means a sitp- 
 plication to appease divine wrath ; but 
 
The Book oj Common Prayer 1 1 9 
 
 gradually it grew into regular use in public 
 worship. 
 
 Our Litany consists of four parts : In- 
 
 vocation, Deprecation, Intercession and 
 Supplication. In the first, we invoke the 
 several persons of the blessed Trinity. 
 The opening words, “ O God the Father, 
 of heaven,” ought to be read with a comma 
 and pause after “Father”; as we do not 
 mean that God is Father of heaven, rather 
 than of earth , but that he is our Father, 
 and that heaven is his peculiar throne. 
 
 In the second part, we pray for deliver- 
 ance from all evils, and among these, from 
 “deadly sin”: not meaning the Romish 
 distinction of mortal and venial sins, but 
 those presumptuous sins peculiarly calcu- 
 lated to provoke God to give us over to 
 a reprobate mind and everlasting death. 
 This part closes with thrilling appeals to 
 our Saviour in particular, conjuring Him 
 “ By thine agony and bloody sweat, by 
 Thy cross and passion, by Thy precious 
 death and burial, by Thy glorious resurrec- 
 tion and ascension, Good Lord, deliver 
 us.” 
 
 Rev. C. Simeon mentions the case of a 
 Mr. Graham, the brother of the then Sir 
 James Graham, who was first awakened to 
 
120 Guide to the Study of 
 
 spiritual religion by the thought of that 
 prayer in this part of the Litany, “ From 
 thy wrath, and from everlasting damnation , 
 Good Lord, deliver us.” 
 
 In the third part, we intercede for all men 
 of every rank, for our monarch, our clergy, 
 our whole Church, and even our enemies, 
 for those suffering under the various vicis- 
 situdes of life, and for ourselves, summing 
 all up in the comprehensive prayer, “ That 
 it may please Thee to give us true repent- 
 ance (Acts v. 31), to forgive us all our sins 
 ( i.e ., commissions), negligences (i.e., omis- 
 sions), and ignorances, and to endue us 
 with the grace of Thy Holy Spirit, to 
 amend our lives according to Thy Holy 
 Word.” Then, as if we would take heaven 
 by force, we pour forth ejaculatory prayers 
 in quick succession, like troop after troop, 
 gathering up all in one, the prayer the 
 Lord himself taught us, the summary of 
 all heavenly desires, even as the burning 
 glass gathers in its focus the sun’s scattered 
 rays of light and heat. 
 
 From this to the close is supplication, to 
 which we are invited by the introductory 
 “ Let us pray.” After having prayed for 
 deliverance from all evil, and having 
 pleaded before God the past deliverances, 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 1 2 1 
 
 “ which our fathers have declared unto us,” 
 that He hath wrought “in their days, and 
 in the old time before them,” as our ground 
 for hoping for His aid at the present time 
 — as if our prayers were already heard, we 
 burst forth into the Doxology, “Glory to 
 the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, now and 
 for ever,” which, as was once beautifully 
 said, comes injiere like a gleam of sunshine 
 or a star of hope, appearing in a cloudy 
 sky. Truly there is no exigency in the 
 vicissitudes of man’s earthly trial that is 
 not provided for in our Litany. Nor can 
 we wonder at the remark of a child of 
 seven years : “ ‘ Have mercy on us miser- 
 able sinners’ particularly suits me; I do 
 love the Service of the Church ; no prayers 
 express my heart so well.” 
 
 It is told of a pitman in Durham, that, 
 being found reading the Litany one day, 
 he was asked why he loved the Prayer- 
 book. He answered, “One sentence in 
 this book, if there were none other, would 
 be sufficient to save the world. ‘ O holy, 
 blessed, and glorious Trinity, Three 
 Persons and One God, have mercy on us 
 miserable sinners.’ Oh ! sir, what I have 
 experienced in those words ! I have felt 
 the sweet drawings of a Father’s love, the 
 
122 Guide to the Study of 
 
 cleansing power of a Saviour’s blood, and 
 the sanctifying influences of the Holy 
 Spirit’s grace, and I have felt my whole 
 soul entwined, as it were, in the sacred 
 Three.” 
 
 We read in that beautiful biography 
 by Isaac Walton, that when the pious 
 George Herbert was on his death-bed, 
 he was asked by the clergyman visiting 
 him, “What prayers he should offer up 
 with him?” His answer was, “Oh! sir, 
 the prayers of my mother, the Church 
 of England : no other prayers are equal 
 to them. But at this time, I beg of you 
 to pray only the Litany, for I am weak 
 and faint.” Thus we have the testimony 
 of the child, the peasant, and the scholar, 
 alike to the universal adaptation of the 
 Litany to all the wants of man. Truly 
 we may say : — 
 
 “ Prayer is the simplest form of speech 
 That infant lips can try : 
 
 Prayer the sublimest strains that reach 
 The Majesty on high.’’ 
 
 This beautiful ideal of prayer is most 
 happily realized in the Litany, as indeed 
 in the whole of the public services. They 
 are full, yet not verbose — fervent without 
 fanaticism — solemn, yet without the 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 123 
 
 affectation of solemnity. Of the count- 
 less vicissitudes of mans state, health, 
 sickness, wealth or poverty, life, the 
 dying hour, and the judgment day, 
 dangers by land or sea, the captive and 
 the freeman, the mother and the infant 
 child, “ the fatherless children and 
 widows, and all the desolate and op- 
 pressed ; ” no one person or state but 
 has the balm of prayer applied to the 
 peculiar wound or peril, whether of body 
 or soul. Lord grant us grace to be 
 deeply thankful for such privileges ! 
 May we study our noble liturgy, not 
 for party purposes, but for devotion, 
 that this may be the ground of our 
 predilection. 
 
 “ I love my Church of England, for she doth love my 
 Lord ; 
 
 She speaks not, breathes not, teaches not, but from 
 His written Word. 
 
 Her voice is like my Saviour’s voice, compassionate 
 and kind, 
 
 She echoes all His precepts pure, she tells me all His 
 mind. 
 
 “ I love my Church of England, for she doth lead me on 
 To Zion’s city, fair and bright, where Christ the Lord 
 hath gone. 
 
 She follows in the steps of Him — the Life — the Truth — 
 the W ay : 
 
 The Morning star ; to light my feet from darkness into 
 day,” — Rev. J. A. Page. 
 
124 
 
 Guide to the Study of 
 
 Chapter Cbtrt». 
 
 “ Without some ceremonies, it is not possible to keep 
 any order or quiet discipline in the Church. . . . 
 
 Some [persons] be so new-fangled, that they would 
 innovate all things, and so despise the old, that nothing 
 can like them, but that is new. . . . They ought 
 
 rather to reverence them for their antiquity, if they 
 . . . be more studious of unity and concord than of 
 
 innovations and new-fangleness, which (as much as 
 may be with true setting forth of Christ’s religion) is 
 always to be eschewed. . . . Moreover, they be 
 
 neither dark nor dumb ceremonies, but are so set forth, 
 that every man may understand what they do mean, 
 and to what use they do serve. . . . [On the other 
 
 hand] St. Augustine in his time complained that (cere- 
 monies) were grown to such a number, that the estate 
 of Christian people was in worse case concerning that 
 matter than the Jews were. . . . Christ’s Gospel 
 
 is not a ceremonial law (as much of Moses’ law was), 
 but it is a religion to serve God, not in bondage of the 
 figure or shadow, but in the freedom of the Spirit ; being 
 content only with those ceremonies, which do serve to 
 a decent order and godly discipline, and such as be apt 
 to stir up the dull mind of man to the remembrance of 
 his duty to God .” — Preface “ Of Ceremonies .” 
 
 I now pass to the second division, namely, 
 the Special Services of the Church, of 
 which the Communion Service stands 
 first. Indeed, it may be regarded as the 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 125 
 
 connecting link between the ordinary 
 and special services, as originally in- 
 tended to be an ordinary service, Iwhich 
 the first portion of it is even now ;dbut in 
 the days when weekly communions were 
 uncommon, being used in its integrity 
 only at special times. The elder Blunt, 
 in his interesting “ Sketch of the Re- 
 formation in England,” has made it ap- 
 pear probable that the Litany and Com- 
 munion Service, as now read together, 
 were never distinct services, though many 
 have thought otherwise. The morning 
 service, however, is admitted by Blunt to 
 have been, at first, at a distinct time from the 
 second service, which was made up of Litany 
 and Communion. The Morning Prayer 
 was originally at a very early hour, 
 answering to orisons. Internal evidence 
 of this exists in the collect, “O God, who 
 hast safely brought us to the beginning 
 of this day, defend us in the same,” etc. 
 As the term “ Liturgy” was often applied 
 peculiarly to the Communion Service by 
 the Ancient Church, so this service was 
 the first prepared in English by our Re- 
 formed Church ; both regarded it as of 
 paramount importance. It is grounded 
 on the Use of Sarum. Originally, it was 
 
126 Guide to the Study of 
 
 intended that the Communion, or joint 
 partaking of the Lords Supper, should 
 take place every Lord’s day. Our 
 custom of still using the first part of the 
 service regularly is a trace of the original 
 design. It is for this reason also, the 
 minister repeats it from the LorcCs table , 
 and not at the reading-desk. 
 
 Priests not Sacrificers : no Visible 
 Altar. 
 
 It is a most important fact, that the 
 Prayer-book throughout excludes the word 
 Altar, which is a watchword of the 
 Sacerdotalists. This fact proves that they 
 are no true Churchmen who represent the 
 Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper to be a 
 sacrifice, though the Prayer-book knows of 
 no altar and no sacrifice, save the “ full, 
 perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, 
 and satisfaction ” of Christ on the Cross ; 
 and the spiritual “ sacrifice of praise and 
 thanksgiving,” which is not peculiar to the 
 minister , but is offered continually by every 
 true Christian. For, as Chrysostom says, 
 “ Though all priests are not saints, yet all 
 saints are priests.” (See i Peter ii. 9, and 
 Rev. i. 6.) As to the term priest, let us 
 remember, it is not used by us as by 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 127 
 
 Rome, as the translation of sacerdos, “ a 
 sacrificer,” but in its original sense of 
 presbyter, “an elder,” from which the 
 term is thus formed, presbyter, prester, 
 priest. The Greek term for a sacrificing 
 priest ( lepev? , Hebr. coken), is never once 
 found throughout the New Testament 
 applied to a Christian minister exclusively , 
 though it is applied 136 times to the 
 Aaronic priests, who were types of Jesus, 
 our one sacrificing High Priest for ever. 
 God expressly saith of Him because 
 “He continueth ever (not dying as the 
 Aaronic priests) ; He hath a priesthood 
 which passeth not from one to another ” : 
 <X7 rapafiarov. Uninspired writers would 
 naturally have applied the familiar term 
 Hiereus to ministers ; their not doing so is 
 the Holy Spirit’s prescient warning against 
 Sacerdotalism in the Christian Church. 
 Sixteen times the term is used of our Great 
 High Priest who delegates not His office to 
 another (Heb. vii. 24). Five times it is 
 used of odl believers without distinction of 
 clergy and laity (1 Pet. ii. 5, 9 ; Rev. i. 6, 
 v. 10, xx. 6) ; these offer spiritual not 
 literal sacrifices. Rom. xv. 16 “That I 
 should be the minister of Jesus Christ to 
 the Gentiles, ministering (Greek minister- 
 
128 
 
 Guide to the Study of 
 
 ing in sacrifice) the Gospel of God that 
 the offering up of the Gentiles might be 
 acceptable/’ refers to spiritual Gospel 
 ministrations ; the Gentile converts won 
 by him being his “offering.” Therefore, 
 that often misapplied passage in Hebrews 
 v. 4, “No man taketh this honour unto 
 himself, but He that is called of God, 
 as was Aaron,” is a warning to the 
 sacerdotal party, lest, like Korah and his 
 companions, who were but ministering 
 Levites, and yet presumptuously grasped 
 also at the sacrificing priesthood of Aaron 
 (Num. xvi. 9, io), they also take to them- 
 selves the honour that belongs to Christ 
 alone in our dispensation, namely, that of 
 sacrificing priests. 
 
 The following changes in the second 
 Prayer-book of Edward VI. (1552), as 
 contrasted with that of 1549, are decisive 
 against Sacerdotalism. 
 
 (1) “Altar” was struck out. 
 
 (2) The “Communion Table” should 
 stand in the body of the church, or chancel. 
 
 (3) The officiant should stand “at the 
 north side” of the Table, and not as in 
 1549, “afore the midst of the altar.” 
 
 (4) Mixing water with the wine omitted. 
 
 (5) Crossings omitted. 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 129 
 
 (6) Invocation of the Spirit on the 
 elements omitted. 
 
 (7) Usual bread substituted for un- 
 leavened round wafers. 
 
 (8) Romish vestments forbidden ; see 
 remarks on the Ornaments Rubric before 
 Morning Prayer. 
 
 (9) Declaration against the Corporal 
 Presence added after the Act of Uniformity. 
 
 (10) Prayer of oblation placed after the 
 consumption of the elements. 
 
 (11) Prayer for the Dead omitted, and 
 “ Militant here on earth ” added before the 
 prayer for Christ’s Church. 
 
 (12) Reservation of the elements for- 
 bidden. 
 
 Note, in 1552, when “ altar” was ex- 
 punged, the Table sometimes stood (down 
 to the time of Laud) east and west, as is 
 proved by the certificate of Canterbury 
 Cathedral in 1565, and in every case the 
 clergyman faced southward, not east- 
 ward. 
 
 “High places ’’are condemned fifty-six 
 times in Holy Scripture, the one altar alone 
 being sanctioned. We have but one altar, 
 the Lord Jesus (Heb. xiii. 10). Sacer- 
 dotalists fall under the condemnation. 
 (Hos. viii. 1 1 ), “because Ephraim hath 
 
 9 
 
130 Guide to the Study of 
 
 made many altars to sin, altars shall be 
 unto him to sin.” 
 
 Appropriately the Communion service 
 begins with the Lord’s Prayer ; for, when 
 about to approach our Father’s table, to be 
 fed with heavenly food, we naturally, in the 
 words which His only begotten Son hath 
 taught us, beg Him, “ Give us this day our 
 daily bread.” We then, after a prayer for 
 cleansing, not of the mere outward man, 
 but of the thoughts of the heart, by the 
 Holy Spirit, read the Ten Commandments 
 of the law, which acts as our schoolmaster 
 to bring us to Christ ; therefore the law is 
 put first, and the gospel follows as its 
 fulfilment : and each commandment we 
 convert from a law of condemnation and 
 bondage to the Gospel law of the spirit of 
 life and liberty, by claiming God’s promise 
 under the new covenant to write this law 
 upon our hearts : “ Lord have mercy on 
 us, and incline our hearts to keep this 
 law;” and again, “ write all these Thy 
 laws in our hearts , we beseech Thee.” 
 Thus that is effected by the law of the 
 Spirit of life in Christ Jesus making us free 
 from the law of sin and death (Rom. vii. 
 23, 4 ; viii. 13), “that the righteousness of 
 the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 13 1 
 
 not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” 
 The law and the Gospel are shown to be 
 in harmony, pointing to the same Saviour : 
 and to holiness attainable in degree even 
 here if we will yield ourselves up to the 
 enabling Spirit (Rom. vi. 6-22), 
 
 Collect, Epistle and Gospel. 
 
 The close and mutual connexion be- 
 tween all three, and the beautiful adaptation 
 of one to the other, often lost sight of in a 
 hasty reading, will richly repay careful 
 study. The Gospels furnish the facts ; the 
 Epistles, the inspired commentary on those 
 facts ; and the Collects as the name 
 implies, gather together in a brief summary, 
 and apply to ourselves the spiritual truths 
 in both, by prayer to Him who alone can 
 make the word “ profit ” us, “ being mixed 
 with faith,” in the hearing of it. Thus 
 take the Collect for the seventh Sunday 
 after Trinity : the Gospel, Mark viii. 1, 
 sets before us Jesus feeding four thousand 
 with a few loaves and fishes ; the Epistle, 
 Rom. vi. 19, exhorts us to yield ourselves 
 up wholly and willingly to God, having 
 our “ fruit unto holiness, and the end ever- 
 lasting life.” But lest we should think we 
 can do so of ourselves, it tells us “eternal 
 
132 Guide to the Study of 
 
 life is the gift of God ” — the same God and 
 Saviour who fed the four thousand with a 
 few loaves — being alone able to feed our 
 souls, and perfect strength out of our 
 weakness. Then the Collect sums up and 
 applies the truths in both : “ Lord of all 
 power and might (who canst therefore help 
 us who have no power), who art the author 
 (and therefore able), and the giver of (and 
 therefore willing to give us) all good 
 things : graft (as the wild olive cannot rid 
 itself of its wild and barren nature, but 
 must have a fruitful scion grafted on it) in 
 our hearts (not merely outwardly) the love 
 of Thy name (for by nature we love self\ 
 and if thou hast already grafted in us this 
 love of Thee, which is the root of true 
 fruits of holiness), increase in us true re- 
 ligion, nourish us with all goodness (as 
 Thou didst feed the bodies of the four 
 thousand), and of thy great mercy keep us 
 in the same (for believers “commit the 
 keeping of their souls unto Him in well- 
 doing, as unto a faithful Creator,” 1 Peter 
 iv. 19, and are “ kept by the power of God, 
 through faith unto salvation,” 1 Peter i. 5), 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 The Epistles and Gospels are chiefly 
 taken out of the Lectionaries of Jerome 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 133 
 
 and others, as early as the fourth century. 
 How delightful the thought, that we walk 
 through the same green pastures of the 
 Word in which Christians for fourteen 
 hundred years have gone before us ! Like 
 them, we mark the beginning of our year, 
 not by the material sun, but by Jesus the 
 Sun of Righteousness. The four Sundays 
 in Advent are a solemn preparation for the 
 due commemoration of the rising of that 
 Sun over our benighted world : the lessons 
 and services refer to both the first and 
 second Advent, the glory of the second 
 being typified, in the way of contrast, by 
 the humiliation of the first. The Jew 
 looked so to the foretold glory of the second 
 coming, as to lose sight of the equally-fore- 
 told humility of the first coming. We are 
 more in danger of the other extreme, of 
 not giving that due prominence to the 
 second in our view of God’s great plan, 
 which Scripture gives it. It is remarkable 
 that our Lord and His Apostles, in their 
 teaching, do not dwell on that motive, 
 which would have been so natural to unin- 
 spired man, namely, the uncertainty how 
 soon death may come, but the speedy and 
 sudden second coming of the Lord (an in- 
 cidental proof, that the New Testament 
 
134 Guide to the Study of 
 
 has not come from mere man). It was 
 this great truth which formed the consola- 
 tion of Christians in early ages of persecu- 
 tion. In “The Teaching of the Twelve 
 Apostles” (80-110 a . d .), the prayer is, 
 “ Gather Thy Church from the four winds 
 into Thy kingdom. Let grace come, and 
 let this world pass away. Hosanna to the 
 Son of David.” But when faith waned, 
 Tertullian (200 a . d .) prayed, “We beseech 
 for a delay of the end.” 
 
 Our several holy seasons, Christmas 
 (from Saxon mass, a festival), Epiphany, 
 Lent, Good Friday, Easter, and Ascension, 
 the last preceded by three days of earnest 
 prayer, called Rogation days (Litany days : 
 dating from Mamertus, Bishop of Vienne, 
 460 a.d. ), are a beautiful contrivance to 
 bring before us the whole cycle of the 
 Lord’s birth as man ; His manifestation 
 (e 7 ri(f)dveia) to Jew and Gentile (a Greek 
 couplet quaintly writes, “ One swallow does 
 not make spring, but the three swallows 
 from the east made the spring of all pious 
 souls.” Matt. ii. 1-12); His passion (i.e., 
 in the ancient use of the term, suffering), 
 and death ; resurrection (Easter, from the 
 Saxon osier , a rising) ; and final triumph 
 for us, when he went up to heaven, and 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 135 
 
 planted the blood-red banner of our salva- 
 tion at the right hand of God. Then 
 follows Whit-Sunday, or White Sunday 
 (called from the white garments the persons 
 baptized on this day used formerly to put 
 on, Anglo-Saxon, Hwita Sunnan daeg), 
 which brings before us the fruit of the 
 Lord’s ascension, namely, the out-pouring 
 of the Holy Spirit on the Church. It 
 answers to the Jewish Pentecost, or Feast 
 of Weeks. The giving of the law written 
 on stone on Sinai then having its antitype 
 in the writing of the new law on the heart 
 by the Holy Spirit. Then the whole of 
 God’s revelation is summed up in the ser- 
 vice for Trinity Sunday, when we worship 
 God as the Father, reconciled to us by the 
 Son, and imparted to us by the Holy 
 Spirit ; adoring the Trinity in unity, and 
 unity in Trinity. After having com- 
 memorated in the previous festivals the 
 leading events , our Church properly adds 
 here a special day to commemorate the 
 great leading doctrine of Christianity, the 
 Trinity. Thus half the year is occupied 
 with the great specific facts of redemption 
 in systematic order, which must be better 
 than a haphazard treatment of them, de- 
 pendent on the caprice of the individual 
 
136 Guide to the Study of 
 
 minister. The remainder of the year is 
 left for the more general truths of Christian 
 doctrine and practice. In the former por- 
 tion we commemorate Christ’s living among 
 us ; the latter portion instructs us how to 
 live after His example. Thus these suc- 
 cessive sacred seasons are our landmarks 
 to distinguish times (Hooker). 
 
 Besides the special Sundays, other days, 
 called holydays, are marked out as holy, 
 
 i. e. } on them we are to meditate on leading 
 events in the life of our Lord, and His 
 apostles and disciples, as recorded in Scrip- 
 ture. We add a day, on which we meditate 
 on what Revelation tells us of Michael and 
 all angels, ministering spirits sent to 
 “ minister for,” not to be invoked by, them 
 that are “heirs of salvation” (Heb. i. 14). 
 W e do not presume to place these institu- 
 tions of man’s appointment on a footing 
 with divine ordinances (remembering Colos. 
 
 ii. 16, “Let no man judge you in respect 
 of a holy day ”) ; nor do we wish for a 
 slavish and superstitious observance of 
 them, as in the Romish Church ; nor do 
 we retain her lying legends of spurious 
 saints, abhorring her invocation of these or 
 of angels or any save God in Christ, as 
 nothing better than heathenish demon or 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 137 
 
 demi-god worship, twice forbidden (Rev. 
 xix. 10, xxii. 8, 9). In our Calendar some 
 of the names have been retained as mere 
 notes of time, to which the people were 
 used in that day, when there were no 
 Almanacks, but for no other reason. In 
 the case of those for which special services 
 are appointed, we only obey the sacred writer, 
 who tells the Hebrews, “ Be not slothful, 
 but followers of them, who through faith 
 and patience inherit the promises ; ” and 
 again, “ Remember (not pray to) them who 
 have spoken unto you the word of God 
 (referring to James the Less, the first 
 Bishop of Jerusalem, who had been mar- 
 tyred immediately before) ; whose faith 
 follow, considering the end of their con- 
 versation, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, 
 to-day, and for ever” (vi. 12, and xiii. 7). 
 We begin with St. Andrew’s Day, because 
 he was the first that came to Christ and 
 followed him (John i. 40, 41). We medi- 
 tate on his faith, and that of others, only in 
 so far as it leads ns to Christ (1 Cor. xi. 1), 
 and tends to the glory of Christ ; we restrict 
 these special services to Scripture person- 
 ages. We end with All Saints’ Day, in 
 which we dwell on that delightful truth, 
 that we are “ knit together as God’s elect 
 
138 Guide to the Study of 
 
 in one communion, in the mystical (i.e. y 
 spiritual) body of the Son of God,” and 
 pr ; ay that by God’s grace we may with 
 them come to the same unspeakable 
 joys. 
 
 Fasting. 
 
 We feel no apology necessary for that 
 which was the practice of our Lord and 
 His Apostles. Accordingly, in the Prayer- 
 book, Ember weeks, in which four times 
 a year we are to fast and pray for those 
 about at that time to be ordained, — three 
 Rogation days — all Fridays — and the forty 
 days of Lent (the Saxon term for Spring : 
 as it is in this season forty days of fasting, 
 in imitation of Jesus’ forty days’ fast in the 
 wilderness, are set apart to prepare for the 
 due commemoration of the Lord’s death 
 and resurrection) — are appointed as suitable 
 seasons for this spiritual exercise. At the 
 same time, our Church does not impose 
 these fasts as a positive obligation, but as 
 a general recommendation, to be carried 
 out according to the discretion of each 
 man’s conscience ; whereas Rome imposes 
 a slavish yoke (a mark of the apostasy, 1 
 Tim. iv. 3 ; 1 Cor. viii. 8), making it as 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 139 
 
 deadly a sin to eat meat on a fast day as to 
 swear or to steal ; and whereas our Church 
 (Homily xvi.), on the express authority of 
 the Council of Chalcedon, in 451 a.d., 
 makes fasting consist in abstinence from 
 all meat and drink for a time, Rome con- 
 veniently allows men to eat as costly fish 
 as they please with impunity, but every 
 morsel of butcher’s meat they eat brings 
 deadly sin into the soul. The State, in 
 Edward the Sixth’s reign, it is true, ordered 
 the eating of fish on fast days ; but this 
 was, as the ordinance expressly states, for 
 the encouragement of the fisheries . Our 
 
 Church, in her collect, regards fasting as 
 in no wise meritorious, but a mere means 
 to an end, the degree in using which, each 
 man can judge for himself, and not for 
 another. “ Give us grace to use [not 
 merely on fast days, but at all times] such 
 abstinence , that our flesh being subdued to 
 the Spirit [the end we aim at in fasting], 
 we may ever obey Thy godly motions in 
 righteousness.” Bacon quaintly says, “A 
 horse too delicately fed casteth his master ; 
 again, if kept too hungry, he fainteth in the 
 midst of the journey.” So a mean is to be 
 had in ordering the body. We live not to 
 eat, but we eat to live , 
 
i 40 Guide to the Study of 
 
 Commination Service. 
 
 Here I may notice the Service for Ash 
 Wednesday, called the Commination, or 
 threatening of God’s law against the im- 
 penitent. It was the custom in the ancient 
 Church, when any member caused scandal 
 to religion by notorious sin, that he should 
 be expelled the congregation until he gave 
 proofs of penitence. This power of cutting 
 members off from communion is clearly 
 given by our Lord to the Church, and was 
 exercised in the case of the incestuous 
 Corinthian, alluded to by Paul in his second 
 Epistle to the Corinthians. Penitents in 
 such cases put on sackcloth, and lay on 
 ashes, in token of sorrow, whence the name 
 Ash Wednesday is derived (as Ember 
 days, from embers, or ashes also) ; and 
 then were admitted once more into com- 
 munion. As an instance, the Emperor 
 Theodosius was for eight months refused 
 admittance into the church by Ambrose, 
 the Bishop of Milan, on account of his 
 cruel massacre of his Thessalonian subjects. 
 The Emperor pleaded the case of David. 
 “ Imitate him,” said the fearless Bishop, 
 “ in his penitence, as you did in his sin ; ” 
 nor was it until he had penitently humbled 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 141 
 
 himself, that he was admitted to com- 
 munion in public worship and the Supper 
 of the Lord. 
 
 It is made an objection by some, that we 
 suffer those who are not spiritual believers 
 to communicate. To this we answer, that, 
 if we were to imitate some by presuming 
 to judge hearts, we should be disobeying 
 the Lord’s command in the parable, to “let 
 both tares and wheat grow together to the 
 harvest,” when the Lord himself shall 
 make the everlasting distinction. However 
 desirable in the abstract, to attempt to en- 
 force a too searching discipline in a dis- 
 ordered world has been attended with more 
 evils than those which it was intended to 
 correct. All we can do, we do, by the 
 rubric that sanctions the minister’s exclud- 
 ing from the Lord’s Table notorious evil 
 livers, doers of wrong to their neighbour, 
 and those who bear malice, unless they 
 repent. 
 
 In the absence of the ancient discipline, 
 which degenerated into Popish absolution 
 and penance in time, our Church provides 
 a substitute in the Commination Service. 
 In it we affirm by our “Amen,” our belief 
 that God’s lav/ curses all the impenitent 
 and ungodly, as it is written in the 27th 
 
142 Guide to the Study of 
 
 chapter of Deuteronomy. By this we do 
 not uncharitably pray God’s curse to de- 
 scend on others, but we set our seal by our 
 Amen, “Truly it is so,” to that which is 
 the truth of God, whether we assert it or 
 not. We say — “ Cursed is — aref not 
 “Cursed bed There is a want of plain 
 speaking as to hell and judgment, rather 
 than too great harshness on these points. 
 As a dying hearer of Mr. Newton said to 
 him : “ Sir, you often told me of Christ and 
 salvation ; why did you not oftener remind 
 me of hell and danger ? ” Thus, whilst our 
 other services are chiefly framed for 
 believers, this proclaims the terrors of the 
 law to unbelievers. But we do not stop 
 here. The curses of the law are to lead us 
 to the blessings of Christ. If we wound, 
 we also heal. I know nothing in the 
 Prayer-book more awfully warning, and yet 
 more sweetly comforting to the penitent 
 Christian, than the exhortation of the 
 minister which follows. For the law, with 
 its curses, hath no terror to the believer ; 
 for “ Christ hath redeemed us from the 
 curse of the law, being made a curse for 
 us.” Therefore we turn with penitential 
 psalms and confession of sins to him, and 
 not to an earthly priest. And so we receive 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 143 
 
 in prayer the assurance of His Spirit in us, 
 in the words of the closing blessing, that 
 the “ Lord will bless us and keep us, the 
 Lord will lift up the light of His countenance 
 upon us, and give us peace now and for 
 evermore.” 
 
 Communion Oblations. 
 
 To return to the Communion Service. 
 After the Creed, with the reading of verses 
 urging the people to liberal offerings, called 
 therefore the Offertory, we pray for the 
 Church militant here on earth. These 
 words (deliberately added in 1552) plainly 
 exclude prayers for the dead, which had 
 been in the first Prayer-book of 1549, 
 “ Grant unto thy servants departed hence 
 thy mercy and everlasting peace, that we 
 and they may be altogether set on thy 
 Son’s right hand.” We pray for the living 
 soldiers of the cross ; for the departed we 
 give thanks. So also in the Burial of the 
 dead. No prayer for the dead occurs in 
 Scripture. No proof exists that Onesi- 
 phorus was dead when Paul wrote 2 Tim. 
 i. 16 — 18. The phrase “the house of 
 Onesiphorus,” implies that he was alive ; 
 for we do not call a house after the name of 
 one deceased. 
 
144 Guide to the Study of 
 
 The phrase, “For Jesus Christ’s sake, 
 our only _ Mediator and Advocate ,” is im- 
 portant, as excluding the Virgin Mary and 
 saints, invoked by Rome, in this part of 
 the service, as mediators. The “ oblations ” 
 spoken of in this prayer, besides the “ alms,” 
 refer, not as many think, to a eucharistic 
 offering, or sacrifice of bread and wine 
 presented by the minister to God, but 
 simply those “ other devotions ” or offerings 
 “ of the people ,” spoken of in the rubric, 
 and alluded to in the verse, “If we have 
 sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great 
 matter if we shall reap your worldly things,” 
 for the maintenance of their ministers and 
 other charitable purposes, besides the “ alms 
 for the poor ” ? In an iron chest in a Kent 
 parish is a document signed by King Philip 
 and Queen Mary giving the Rector to- 
 wards his stipend the “oblations” of four 
 Holy days every year ( Clerical Reminis- 
 cences, by Senex. Seeley, 1880, see also 
 Dean Howson’s Alms and Oblations , 
 Stock). The “ oblations,” or devotions, 
 come in such close connexion after the 
 “ alms,” both received in the same “ decent 
 bason,” that the former cannot refer to the 
 bread and wine. Certainly the general 
 tenor of the service shows the word is not 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 145 
 
 used of a sacrificial oblation. The plural 
 oblations , as devotions also, confirms my 
 view. If there were a literal oblation of 
 bread and wine, it would have been in the 
 singular. 
 
 Nor can any fresh oblation be reconciled 
 with Heb. ix. 25, “Nor yet that he should 
 offer Himself often, for then must He often 
 have suffered since the foundation of the 
 world. But now once in the end of the 
 world hath He appeared to put away sin 
 by the sacrifice of Himself.” As Christ’s 
 suffering was once for all (as Scripture 
 says), His offe 7 'ing was once for all, and 
 cannot be repeated. The bread and wine 
 provided by the parishioners are dis- 
 tinguished in the rubric from the voluntary 
 offerings of communicants called “Alms and 
 Oblations,” — these Alms and Oblations 
 “the priest shall humbly present and place 
 upon the Holy Table.” But “the bread and 
 wine the priest shall place upon the Table,” 
 not “present.” How carefully the idea of 
 a sacrificial oblation of the elements is 
 guarded against ; as also in the marginal 
 rubric. “If there be no alms or obla- 
 tions ; ” therefore the bread and wine are 
 not oblations. 
 
 Then follow three solemn addresses. 
 
 10 
 
146 Guide to the Study of 
 
 The two former ought to be used much 
 oftener than they are. So little known are 
 they, that on an occasion when a clergyman 
 used one in full as a notice for sacrament, 
 he was afterwards thanked by one of his 
 hearers for his excellent discourse! In the 
 third, when it is said by unworthy receiving 
 “we eat and drink our own damnation,” 
 not discerning the Lords body, i.e., not 
 distinguishing by faith the bread which is 
 the pledge of the Lord’s body, from a 
 common meal, eternal damnation is not 
 meant, but a temporal condemnation, or 
 judgment , such as God was provoked to 
 inflict on those Corinthians, who were 
 guilty of excess at the Lord’s Table, and 
 were punished with sickness, as Paul tells 
 us (1 Cor. xi. 39-32). 
 
 Archbishop Whately well observes as to 
 the words “those holy mysteries ,” applied 
 to the elements of bread and wine, that 
 “mysteries” is not used in the sense of 
 something mysterious, hidden from the 
 masses, and reserved to the privileged few 
 (like the heathen mysteries, to which the 
 Sacerdotalists would assimilate the Lord’s 
 Supper), but “ symbols and outward 
 pledges ” and means of a grace inward and 
 spiritual, as well as memorials of His past 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 147 
 
 dying love. Those who wish to be armed 
 at all points against sacerdotal and sacra- 
 mentarian errors, cannot be too well 
 versed in the Archbishop’s writings on 
 these topics. The same expression occurs 
 in the last prayer before the closing 
 hymn : “We most heartily thank Thee, 
 for that Thou dost vouchsafe to feed us, 
 who have duly received these holy 
 mysteries , with the spiritual food of the 
 most precious body and blood of Thy 
 Son;” in which “spiritual food” is the 
 explanation of “mysteries”- — i.e ., the 
 
 visible elements are pledges and symbols 
 of our being spiritually fed by the body 
 and blood of Christ, through faith. The 
 prayer next makes our real incorporation 
 and communion with the mystical or 
 figurative body of Christ, the Church 
 (i.e., not some section of the visible 
 Church, with some one form of govern- 
 ment, but “ the blessed company of all 
 faithful people,” i.e., all true spiritual 
 worshippers) flow as the consequence of our 
 living personal appropriation of the once 
 for all sacrificed body and blood of Jesus. 
 
 Communion, Absolution. 
 
 Then follow confession, absolution, and 
 
148 Guide to the Study of 
 
 consolation from the written Word. If 
 we want a comment on the meaning of the 
 Exhortation, “If any requireth comfort 
 who cannot quiet his own conscience, let 
 him come to the minister, that by the 
 ministry of God’s holy Word he may 
 receive the benefit of absolution, together 
 with ghostly counsel or advice” — words 
 which have been made into a plea for 
 auricular confession, we see in this public 
 office what the minister’s province is, in 
 the case of his being privately consulted 
 by any one with a distressed conscience. 
 Observe, it is said, that it is by the ministry 
 of the Word the distressed penitent is to 
 receive absolution. This is exactly what 
 the minister does in the public office : the 
 people first confess their sins to God, and 
 not to the priest, in that most thrilling 
 outpouring of the broken heart, which 
 begins with, Almighty God, Father of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ,” and which ought 
 to be our frequent companion in the closet, 
 as well as at the Lord’s table. The 
 minister then prays God’s pardon in their 
 behalf, assuring them of it on the grounds 
 of God’s promise, through Christ, to the 
 penitent believer. Then he follows this 
 up by the ministry of God’s Holy Word, 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 149 
 
 i.e., quoting the Scripture as the only 
 ground of comfort, “ Hear what comfortable 
 words our Saviour Christ saith unto all 
 that truly turn to Him : Come unto Me 
 all that travail and are heavy-laden, and I 
 will refresh you.” If our Reformers had 
 really intended private confession and 
 absolution, they would have provided 
 a form for private absolution. Their not 
 having done so, shows the view just given 
 the correct one. Sacerdotalists have no 
 authority whatever for using the Absolution 
 in the Visitation of the Sick, in the case of 
 one in health privately asking it. 
 
 The Communion of the flesh and 
 blood of Christ, 
 
 Then follows the sublime thanksgiving, 
 as our Saviour “gave thanks” before He 
 brake the bread. “ It is very meet, right, 
 and our bounden duty, that we should at 
 all times and in all places give thanks unto 
 Thee, O Lord, Holy Father, Almighty, 
 everlasting God (adding, on festivals, 
 special reasons for thankfulness in ap- 
 propriate Prefaces), therefore with angels, 
 and archangels, and with all the company 
 of heaven, we laud and magnify Thy 
 glorious name, evermore praising Thee, 
 
150 Guide to the Study of 
 
 and saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of 
 hosts, heaven and earth are full of Thy 
 glory : Glory be to Thee, O Lord most 
 High!” So very important is this hymn 
 of thanksgiving, called, from the thrice 
 repeated Holy, “ Tersanctus,” that the 
 whole service has been named from it the 
 Eucharist, or giving of thanks. In it we 
 soar to heaven itself, and breathe its pure 
 air, and join our notes of praise with the 
 hosts that are before the throne. Then, 
 lest the raptures of that hymn should cause 
 us to forget we are sinful dust and ashes, 
 we hasten to prostrate our souls before 
 God, declaring “ we do not presume to 
 come to this Thy table trusting in our own 
 merits, but in Thy manifold mercies.” 
 The non-literal, yet real, that is, spiritual 
 communion of the believer’s human nature, 
 body as well as soul ’ with the perfect 
 humanity of the Lord Jesus, in His death 
 for us, is emphatically appropriated (even 
 as He hath Himself declared so strongly, 
 St. John vi. 53, “Except ye eat the flesh 
 of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, 
 ye have no life in you ”), in the words that 
 follow, so precious to realise, “ Grant us, 
 therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh 
 of Thy dear Son, and to drink His blood , 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 1 5 1 
 
 that our sinful bodies may be made clean 
 by His body, and our souls washed with 
 His most precious blood , and that we may 
 evermore dwell in Him and He in us.” 
 “ The blood is the life ” : therefore we 
 rightly look to His blood to be the means 
 of recovering our forfeited soul (or life — 
 Ty^)- The eating and drinking Christ’s 
 flesh and blood and so having eternal life 
 is a continuous , not merely an occasional 
 process. “ Flesh ” used throughout St. 
 John vi. is never in Scripture applied to 
 the Lord’s Supper. “ Body ” is always 
 employed. “Flesh” implies His human 
 nature as “put to death in the flesh.” 
 Not till upwards of a year afterwards was 
 the Lord’s Supper instituted ; so that 
 many Roman Catholics, as Cajetan, admit 
 that John vi. does not treat directly of the 
 sacrament. It treats of the spiritual 
 reality , of which the Lord’s Supper is the 
 sacramental expression. “ Me ye have 
 not always,” necessitates the fact of His 
 literal body being absent, as “ Lo, I am 
 with you always,” implies His presence by 
 His Spirit. Hooker (bk. v., ch. 55), “If 
 His majestical body may at once be in 
 many places, then hath the majesty of His 
 estate extinguished the verity of His 
 
152 Guide to the Study of 
 
 nature.” His body “the heavens must 
 receive until the times of restitution of all 
 things” (Acts iii. 21); the words “in 
 remembrance of Me,” presuppose bodily 
 absence. 
 
 The Lord presciently guarded against 
 the literal and carnal view of His words 
 (John vi. 63) ; “It is the Spirit that 
 quickeneth ; the flesh profiteth nothing ; 
 the words that I speak unto you they are 
 Spirit, and they are life. (See 1 Cor. x. 
 3 ; Acts iii. 21.) Another prescient warn- 
 ing against the foreseen deadly error 
 prefaces the only mention of the Lords 
 Supper in all the Epistles, 1 Cor. x. 14, 
 Dearly Beloved, flee from idolatry. “The 
 cup we bless, is,” not the blood , “ but the 
 Communion of the blood of Christ.” 
 
 The Consecration prayer adopts the 
 form of words which Christ Himself used : 
 it pointedly speaks of “ one oblation of 
 Christ once offered ” (the reading own for 
 one belongs to Laud’s Scotch Liturgy), in 
 opposition not only to the Romish oft- 
 repeated sacrifice of the mass, but also to 
 the Sacerdotal notion that the Lord’s 
 Supper is, somehow or other, notwithstand- 
 ing that “ Christ by one offering hath 
 perfected for ever them that are sanctified ” 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 153 
 
 (Heb. x. 14), a sacrifice. On the ground 
 of that offering, once offered, God promises, 
 — “ Their sins and iniquities I will 
 remember no more. Now where re- 
 mission of these is, there is no more 
 offering for sin." (Heb. x. 17, 18.) Our 
 Lord’s words quoted, “ Drink ye all of 
 this,” are our authority for not denying 
 the cup to the laity, as Rome does (Council 
 of Constance). 
 
 Next, we receive the elements kneeling, 
 a posture which well becomes beggars re- 
 ceiving so great a gift. An express rubric 
 guards against our supposing any adoration 
 of the elements as thereby intended. The 
 form of words in administering is well 
 suited to draw the soul of the individual 
 into personal communion with his Saviour : 
 ‘.‘The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 which was (not is) given for thee (i.e., 
 Christ’s body once offered for thee on the 
 cross, not His glorified body now in heaven ) 
 preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting 
 life. [A source of error is in stopping at 
 “This is my body.” It ought to be read 
 as a whole. This is my body which is given 
 for you.”] “Take (not receive passively) 
 and eat this in remembrance that Christ 
 died for thee, and feed on Him in thy 
 
154 Guide to the Study of 
 
 heart (not with thy mouth) by faith (the 
 only means of feeding really and spiritually) 
 with thanksgiving.” This is one of the 
 chief beauties of our occasional services, 
 that lest we should feel ourselves lost in 
 the crowd of worshippers, they bring the 
 precious promises of Christ home to each 
 individual. So we can, each of us, by 
 faith in the promises specially applied to 
 ourselves, realise the truth, — 
 
 “ Thou art as much His care, as though beside, 
 Not man nor angel lived in heaven or earth : 
 Thus sunbeams pour alike a glorious tide, 
 
 To light up worlds, or wake an insect’s mirth.” 
 
 Then follows the Post Communion, 
 consisting of the Lord’s Prayer, well suited 
 now to those who have been receiving 
 “ the children’s bread.” A prayer in which 
 we dedicate ourselves, our souls and bodies 
 afresh wholly to our God, to be a reason- 
 able [rational], holy, and lively sacrifice 
 (Romans xii. i. As Leighton well says, 
 “ God will have nothing unless He have 
 the heart ; and not even this, unless He 
 have the whole of it.”) A glorious hymn, 
 beginning with the angels’ words at Jesus’ 
 birth, “ Glory be to God in the highest,” 
 (called the Gloria in excelsis, used as early 
 as Athanasius’ time,) just as the Lord 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 155 
 
 Himself concluded His last Supper with a 
 hymn, probably the Lesser Hallel, Psalms 
 cxv. — cxviii. Lastly, the Benediction that 
 dismisses the faithful communicant with the 
 peace of God as his abiding portion. He 
 has indeed experienced, and he alone , the 
 truth of Hooker’s words, “the real presence 
 of Christ’s body is not to be sought for in 
 the Sacrament , but in the worthy receiver 
 of it.” 
 
 Coleridge has remarked in his own 
 thoughtful way, “ This Sacrament is a 
 thing sui generis : one party condenses it 
 into an idol ; the opposite party evaporates 
 it into a mere figure.” On the one hand, 
 there is no mysterious virtue in the bread 
 and wine themselves. The rubric at the 
 end of the Communion distinctly says : 
 “No adoration ought to be done either 
 unto the Sacramental bread or wine there 
 bodily received, or unto any corporal pre- 
 sence of Christ’s natural flesh and blood.” 
 The words “any real and essential 
 presence” (1552) were changed to any 
 “ corporal presence” (1661). This con- 
 demns the teaching of the Sarum and 
 Roman Missals, and rejects “any” 
 corporal presence in the elements. “ The 
 Sacramental bread and wine remain still 
 
156 Guide to the Study of 
 
 in their very natural substances : and the 
 natural body and blood of Christ are in 
 heaven, and not here ; it being against the 
 truth of Christ’s natural body to be at one 
 time in more places than one.” Christ’s 
 real presence is spiritual : not that His 
 body is present after the manner of spirits; 
 but His sacrifice is food for our spirits. 
 The bread and wine are received by our 
 body, Christ crucified ages ago is received 
 into the soul by faith now. The Romish 
 heresy of Transubstantiation throws a 
 doubt on the reality of Christ’s body (for 
 how can His “ natural body ” subsist under 
 the accidents of touch, taste and sight 
 appertaining to bread and wine and not to 
 a human body) ; the very error of the 
 Docetse, who maintained Christ’s body 
 was only a seeming one, not a real one. 
 This is one of the marks of Antichrist 
 given by St. John (1 John iv. 3). On the 
 other hand, the faithful receiver does more 
 than commemorate the sacrifice of the 
 body and blood of Christ : he receives in 
 that Sacrament not an empty sign, but a 
 means of grace, a pledge that he has a 
 living share or fellowship in Christ’s body 
 and blood offered for him on Calvary, 
 which the word “Communion” itself im- 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 157 
 
 plies ; and he receives fresh grace of the 
 Holy Spirit to aid him in a more entire 
 appropriation of Christ as his Saviour and 
 his God (1 Cor. x. 16). 
 
 Lastly, to that denomination which calls 
 its members Friends , whilst habitually 
 disobeying, though through ignorance, the 
 Saviour’s command, “ Do this in remem- 
 brance of Me,” we say, remember Christ’s 
 express words, “Ye are my friends, if ye 
 do whatsoever I command you.” This is 
 an error that arises, not from misinterpret- 
 ing, but from evading the plain words of 
 Scripture. 
 
 Baptism. 
 
 Next, I proceed to what has been a 
 fruitful theme of discussion — the other of 
 the two Sacraments instituted by Christ — 
 the Sacrament of Baptism. ' As to adult 
 baptism, there is little dispute among 
 Scripture Christians ; for the Lord has 
 clearly marked Baptism as the sacramental 
 beginning of the Christian life when He 
 saith, “ Go ye, and teach (or, as it is in the 
 original, make disciples of) all nations, 
 baptizing them (the persons) in (or literally 
 into) the name of the Father, and of the 
 Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching 
 
158 Guide to the Study of 
 
 them to observe all things whatsoever I 
 have commanded you ; ” which latter 
 words imply that instruction in all Christ’s 
 truth, by whomsoever imparted, is the 
 necessary complement of Baptism. But 
 in the case of infant baptism, the disputes 
 are many. First of all, many deny the 
 Sacrament of Baptism to infants altogether. 
 To these our Church brings forward the 
 Lord’s own words, “Suffer the little children 
 to come unto Me,” — not, indeed, in direct 
 proof of infant baptism, but as conclusive 
 evidence that the Lord did not, like the 
 objectors, regard their infancy as incapaci- 
 tating them from a share in His covenant 
 mercy, the first seal of which is Baptism. 
 And though there are no express instances 
 of infant baptism in the New Testament, 
 which was to be expected, as the conversion 
 and baptism of adults were the more im- 
 mediate object of the first preachers of the 
 Gospel, as is the case with missionaries to 
 the heathen in our day : yet there are 
 many indirect allusions, as in the baptism 
 of the whole households of Lydia, the 
 jailor of Philippi, and others, which pro- 
 bably included some infants. So also the 
 words of St. Peter, Acts ii. 39, “ Repent 
 and be baptized . ... For the promise is 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 159 
 
 unto you and to your children , and to all 
 that are afar off.' 5 Again (1 Cor. vii. 14 :) 
 “ The unbelieving wife is sanctified by the 
 husband ; else were your children unclean, 
 but now are they holy 55 — i.e., they are al- 
 ready regarded by God as included in the 
 covenant of salvation and sanctification made 
 with the believing parents. This being so, 
 they of course, may receive also the visible 
 seal of the grace of God, who already re- 
 gards them with favour. Above all, the 
 analogy of circumcision, by which the 
 Jewish parent sealed his male child as a 
 sharer in God’s covenant with His people, 
 makes it certain that the privilege which 
 was granted to the Jew under the twilight 
 of the law, must of course belong to the child 
 of the Christian under the glorious light of 
 the Gospel ; unless, indeed an express 
 Scriptural prohibition of infant baptism be 
 produced, which none can allege. It is 
 truly no common privilege that our children 
 should afterwards, with the first dawnings 
 of reason, learn that they have had already 
 their interest in Christ’s covenant visibly 
 sealed, though without their knowdedge, 
 and that they may strongly plead it before 
 God with good success. All baptized 
 children (whatever disputes there may be 
 
160 Guide to the Study of 
 
 as to the nature and extent of baptismal 
 regeneration) have a visibly ratified title 
 as being joined to the Church, to apply in 
 after years to the Holy Spirit, the foun- 
 tain of grace, who deigns to dwell (as 
 Holy Writ asserts) in the Collective 
 Church, as His earthly “Temple.” “The 
 kingdom of grace,” it has been beautifully 
 said, “ consisteth of children in age or 
 manners — of them, and such as they are ; 
 and the kingdom of glory shall be filled 
 with infants blessed by Christ, and with 
 men become as little children.” 
 
 But any solid objection to infant baptism 
 is obviated by the institution of sponsors, 
 or Godfathers and Godmothers — i.e., 
 fathers and mothers in bringing the 
 children to God. Seeing that the infants 
 cannot themselves have the repentance 
 and faith which are requisite, in order that 
 baptism may not be thought to act as a 
 mere charm by its own inherent power, 
 independent of the state of mind in the 
 recipient, sponsors — i.e., sureties — engage 
 in the child’s name, as far as one can answer 
 for another, that when he comes to age, 
 he will both repent and have faith. Of 
 course, if in after years he does not make 
 good his promise, the sponsors are free 
 
The Book oj Common Prayer 161 
 
 before God, if only they have done their 
 part by faithful admonition. Moreover, 
 when it is said in the Catechism the 
 children “ promise both ” repentance and 
 faith “by their sureties,” the word promise 
 implies that fulfilment of the conditions is 
 future, and therefore the grace given at 
 infant baptism can only be given condition- 
 ally. 
 
 We do not allow parents to act as 
 sponsors, since they cannot undertake a 
 higher responsibility than what God has 
 already laid on them ; but we desire to 
 have additional security, that if either of 
 the parents die, or neglect their Christian 
 duty, the child may not suffer thereby. 
 
 When the parties have arrived at the 
 font (which is so called because it was in 
 fountains and streams the first Christians 
 used to baptize,) the minister asks, “ Hath 
 this child been already baptized, or no ? ” 
 as, from the very nature of the thing, one 
 needs only once to be incorporated by 
 baptism into the Church. Note that the 
 clause in the Nicene Creed, “ I believe in 
 one baptism for the remission of sins,” was 
 inserted to guard against an error, which 
 in that day had been maintained by many 
 (including Basil,) namely, that it was 
 
 n 
 
1 62 Guide to the Study of 
 
 necessary to re -baptize lapsed Christians 
 on their return to the orthodox faith. 
 This was the question before the 
 Council of Constantine (a.d. 381), as also 
 whether baptism was to be repeated in the 
 case @f those baptized by heretics. They 
 decided that one baptism was valid once 
 for all, and added this seventh canon to the 
 Nicene Creed. Even this addition was 
 not received at the Council of Ephesus. 
 The word for , moreover, does not imply 
 that remission of sins is the invariable 
 consequence of baptism ; but that baptism 
 is intended to be the visible seal and con- 
 firmation of remission ( already granted) 
 to the penitent believer. Cyril says this 
 clause stood thus in the Creed of Jerusalem 
 the oldest Church : “ One baptism of re- 
 pentance for the remission of sins.” So 
 St. Luke iii. 3. So Epiphanius. 
 
 He then, in an address, lays down that 
 most, fundamental truth, that all men are 
 conceived and born in sin, and that there- 
 fore, in Christs words, “ None can enter 
 the kingdom of God except he be regener- 
 ate and born anew of water and the Holy 
 Ghost.” Herein the Saviour expressly 
 lays down the connexion of regeneration 
 and baptism as His design. Therefore He 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 163 
 
 joins water and the Spirit under the one 
 preposition (e£), “ Of water and the Spirit,” 
 not, “ Of water and of the Spirit.” There- 
 fore our Church rightly throughout sets 
 forth the doctrine of baptismal regenera- 
 tion. If her language be strong on this 
 point, it is no stronger than that of Scrip- 
 ture ; for instance (Titus iii. 5), “According 
 to His mercy He hath saved us by the 
 washing of regeneration, and the renewing 
 of the Holy Ghost.” If any be offended 
 with her, they must also take offence at 
 Scripture. They who scruple at the strong 
 words as to regeneration in our service 
 must also, to be consistent, scruple at St. 
 Paul’s strong words, “ By one spirit we are 
 all baptized into one body;” and, “As 
 many of you as are baptized into Christ, 
 have put on Christ.” 
 
 But do not confound with this Scriptural 
 doctrine of baptismal regeneration, as the 
 designed effect of that sacrament, when not 
 frustrated by the unworthiness of man, what 
 is altogether distinct from it, and which is 
 a most dangerous error of many, in common 
 with Rome, namely, the notion that regene- 
 ration inseparably accompanies baptism. 
 Few maintain this in the case of adults, 
 the voice of scripture (Acts viii. 13-21 ; 
 
164 Guide to the Study of 
 
 Simon Magus) and our Church (Art. xxv.) 
 being emphatically against it. But in the 
 case of infants, many, alas ! represent this 
 sacrament as acting like a charm, tying 
 down regeneration, by the Holy Ghost 
 inseparably and invariably to it ; thus 
 making one of the most wonderful acts of 
 Omnipotence to be wholly at the will of 
 man, quite independent of the state of mind 
 of all the parties. The parents, sponsors, 
 and minister, all may be infidels at heart ; 
 not one real, heartfelt prayer may have 
 been offered by any present, as no doubt 
 has happened sometimes, and the child it- 
 self may grow up in utter godlessness, 
 never showing a spark of grace (and St. 
 John saith, Epist. i. 3. 9, “Whosoever is 
 born of God doth not commit sin, for his 
 seed remaineth in him ”) ; and so it may die 
 as it has lived. Yet that child, according 
 to this theory, has been regenerated by 
 the Holy Spirt of God. 
 
 It would, indeed, require unequivocal 
 and overwhelming proofs to establish the 
 truth of such an outrage, both to faith and 
 reason, as maintained either in Scripture 
 or in our Prayer-book. But the proofs 
 alleged can admit of a much more probable 
 explanation. The marks of regeneration 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 165 
 
 given in the first Epistle of St. John, and 
 elsewhere, as well as in our Prayer-book 
 (a “ death unto sin, and new birth unto 
 righteousness”), will not admit of the re- 
 generation alluded to being a mere change 
 of external relation, as some would say, to 
 get out of the difficulty ; it can only mean 
 an inward change of heart. But it is a 
 principle of the apostles, in their epistles 
 to charitably presume that those called 
 Christians were Christians, though, alas ! 
 we know “ they are not all Israel who are 
 of Israel.” So St. Paul addresses all the 
 Romans as “saints,” and to all the 
 Corinthians he says, with evident allusion 
 also to baptism, “Ye are washed , ye are 
 sanctified, ye are justified in the name of the 
 Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” 
 Yet we know this could only have been a 
 general assumption of charity, as Paul 
 mentions many at Corinth to whom none 
 will maintain this language was applicable. 
 In the same manner, not merely this 
 Baptismal Service, but all our services 
 (take the Burial Service, the collects for 
 Epiphany, Sexagesima, and third Sunday 
 after Trinity, as striking instances,) are 
 drawn up as for believers. Indeed, seeing 
 that the Bible clearly sets forth that the 
 
1 66 Guide to the Study of 
 
 “prayer of the wicked is an abomination 
 to the Lord,” and that none but spiritual 
 believers can offer real prayer, it would be 
 a palpable self-contradiction to draw up 
 prayer for those who, as unbelievers, have 
 not the will nor power to pray. 
 
 Yet, just as Paul in other passages shows, 
 that he did not mean his charitable pre- 
 sumption to be pressed, as though every 
 one addressed as a Christian were 
 really and savingly one ; so our Prayer- 
 book, in very many passages, implies 
 that, though all are there called re- 
 generate in baptism, yet many still need 
 the new birth, or regeneration. If then, 
 we pronounce of children after baptism, 
 “ Seeing now this child is regenerate ” (as 
 Mr. Faber well says, “ This is an official 
 generic declaration ”), it is a charitable 
 assumption of repentance and faith on the 
 part of the infant hereafter, which God 
 alone can by His prescience judge of, but 
 which we, in charitable hope, are bound for 
 the present to presume, nothing appearing 
 to the contrary, and it being taken for 
 granted that the parents and sponsors offer 
 the prayer of faith, as the fact of their pre- 
 senting the child for baptism seems to 
 imply. But, as Archbishop Ussher well 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 167 
 
 puts it, “ Though we, in the judgment of 
 charity , do judge this of every particular 
 infant, yet we have no ground to judge so 
 of all in general ; or, if we judge so, it is 
 not any judgment of certainty — we may be 
 mistaken .” Again : “He that hath said 
 of infants, that to them belongs the king- 
 dom of God, knows how to settle on them 
 the kingdom of heaven.” The Church 
 cannot see the hidden workings of the 
 Holy Ghost, nor read the hearts of parents 
 and sponsors. She goes on the pesump- 
 tion that they are true believers : and 
 nothing is too high in the way of blessing 
 to expect for the child of a believer. She 
 relies on the faithfulness of the sponsors in 
 afterwards discharging their office ; and 
 believing that the child will fulfil the en- 
 gagements made by the sponsors for it, 
 when it comes of age, has such a vivid 
 a 7 iticipation of the child’s promised faith 
 and repentance, that she feels charitably 
 warranted to act on the assumption of these 
 two requisites, and to appropriate, in faith 
 and trust, for the infants, the gift of the 
 regenerating Spirit promised in answer to 
 prayer. Archbishop Musgrave, in his 
 charge, 1849, says, “It has been proved 
 that our reformers, almost without excep- 
 
i68 
 
 Guide to the Study of 
 
 tion, in the reigns of Edward the Sixth, 
 and especially of Queen Elizabeth, held 
 the peculiar doctrines of Calvin as to 
 Election and Predestination, and Final 
 Perseverance. That all the baptized 
 should be spiritually regenerated, was in 
 their view, utterly impossible ; therefore 
 they could not intend, in the formularies 
 they drew up, to express such belief.” 
 Canon Mozley’s Primitive Doctrine of 
 Baptismal Regeneration demonstrates that 
 the literal interpretation in the case of all 
 the baptized is opposed to plain facts. 
 The hypothetical one of charitable pre- 
 sumption is justified by Scripture and 
 Reason. The Reformers mostly held 
 Predestination , which is Grace under 
 another name. They held the Elect alone 
 are regenerate ; which is fatal to the literal 
 theory that all are regenerated in baptism. 
 
 Our Twenty-seventh Article distinctly 
 makes the spiritual benefit of baptism to 
 be “by virtue of prayer to God (yi Divinae 
 invocationis 1 ).” It makes the case of 
 1 It has been claimed that this means the consecra- 
 tion prayer, Sanctify this water to the mystical wash- 
 ing away of sins,” in forgetfulness of the fact that the 
 latter words were only added in 1661, whereas the 
 words of the Article date from a hundred years before 
 the prayer alluded to. 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 169 
 
 infant baptism no exception. It may be 
 objected, that this makes the regeneration 
 of the child in some measure dependent on 
 the faith of ministers, parents, and sponsors. 
 But surely, even in the Romish view, the 
 regeneration of the child must depend on 
 the parents bringing it at all to baptism ; 
 and in the whole analogy of life do we not 
 see the spiritual, as well as temporal, pro- 
 sperity of children made much to depend 
 on their parents ? If the faith and prayers 
 of the sponsors, parents, and ministers, 
 have nothing to do with the regeneration 
 of the child, why do we ask the sponsors 
 those solemn questions, and call on them 
 to pray to God for His Spirit to regenerate 
 the child ? But our church judges, with 
 St. Peter, that “baptism doth save us, not 
 the putting away of the filth of the flesh 
 (i.e., not a mere outward application of 
 water), but the answer of a good conscience 
 toward God.” (T7 -epco-nuia, “an interroga- 
 tive trial — ” Hooker. It is possible the 
 custom of interrogating the candidate at 
 baptism is alluded to by the apostle here.) 
 Therefore she demands as a condition, an 
 answer of faith from the sponsors in the 
 name of the child, to the interrogatories 
 she puts, just as she makes it a necessary 
 
170 Guide to the Study of 
 
 condition of regeneration in adult baptism, 
 that the adult shall himself make the 
 qnswer of a good conscience to the same 
 solemn queries. Acts viii. 36-38, “ If thou 
 believest, thou mayest be baptised,” belief 
 must go first. So Acts ii. 38, “ Repent 
 and be baptized,” repentance must come 
 first. So Cornelius ; the Holy Ghost came 
 first on him, then baptism followed (Acts 
 x. 44-48). The question is not, Do ye 
 believe? but, Dost thou believe ? It is the 
 child who replies by sponsors, “ All this 
 I steadfastly believe.” So in the other 
 questions and answers the Church will not 
 admit to baptism unless on the supposition 
 of antecedent grace. If grace has been 
 given before baptism, it cannot be for the 
 first time given in baptism. Let it not be 
 said that the absence of sponsors in private 
 baptism, proves that their engagements for 
 the child are not deemed a necessary con- 
 dition ; for private baptism is only adminis- 
 tered where the likelihood of the child’s 
 death would make it impossible for the 
 child afterwards to fulfil the engagements, 
 or for sponsors to make them in their be- 
 half. But if the child survive, the engage- 
 ments of the sponsors for it are required to 
 be given at its admission into the congre- 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 17 1 
 
 gation, as at the ordinary public baptism. 
 She says in her Article, the grace to be 
 obtained is “by virtue of prayer to God,” 
 as a necessary instrument to bring down 
 the blessing. Having then called on all 
 present to pray, and having so prayed, can 
 you blame her for charitably presuming 
 that all did that which they seemed to do, 
 and that the child would fulfil its part here- 
 after, now that all possible security has been 
 taken? If then she, after baptism, says, 
 “ Seeing that this child is regenerate,” she 
 pronounces the very same of adults when 
 baptized ; though her own Twenty-fifth 
 Article saith, that it is “in such only as 
 worthily receive the sacraments, they have 
 a wholesome effect.” This she does, not 
 that she shuts her eyes to the fact that, as 
 Hooker says, “All do not receive the 
 grace of God, which receive the sacra- 
 ments of His grace,” but that she 
 imitates the language of the epistles of 
 Paul, who treats all members of the 
 visible Church as Christians in charit- 
 able presumption ; and she pronounces 
 of all abstractly , that baptism is the 
 means of new birth to those who worthily 
 receive it, but does not take on herself to 
 decide particularly when baptism is re- 
 
172 
 
 Guide to the Study of 
 
 ceived by the adult or infant worthily, 
 and when not. 
 
 , To return to the service itself. More 
 spiritual prayers were never written by man. 
 Of the second Collect, which has been used 
 in the English Church above nine hundred 
 years, the Rev. C. Bridges observes : “ It 
 is an eminent, and in my judgment, an un- 
 exampled specimen of pleading ; taking 
 hold of four distinct titles of God succes- 
 sively, and perhaps in a climax — ‘ Almighty 
 and immortal God, the aid of all that need, 
 the helper of all that flee to Thee for 
 succour, the life of them that believe, and 
 the resurrection of the dead/ Then she 
 brings forward Christ’s receiving in His 
 arms and blessing the little children as our 
 warrant, to ‘doubt not, but earnestly believe 
 He will likewise favourably receive this 
 present infant.’ Then follows a prayer for 
 the Holy Spirit to regenerate the child. 
 Next the sponsors engage four things in 
 answer to the minister, on behalf of the 
 child, repentance, faith, willingness to be 
 baptized, and a resolution of future holiness. 
 Answering to these four engagements, 
 follow four short and fervent prayers, that 
 God will fulfil in the child these four 
 promises just made for it.” 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 173 
 
 Then, in the prayer of Consecration, we 
 humbly plead the Lord’s own command to 
 baptize, as the ground of our hope, that 
 the water and blood, which flowed from 
 His riven side, as a type of baptism and 
 the forgiveness of our sins, shall be made 
 effectual to the mystical washing away of 
 this child’s sin in the waters of baptism. 
 This prayer seems to take the view sug- 
 gested by one of the Fathers, that as Eve 
 was formed from the opened side of the 
 sleeping Adam, and was called Isha (He- 
 brew) i.e. } taken from man (Ish) ; so the 
 Church, the bride (Eph. v. 25, 26, 30-32), 
 is formed out of the riven side of the second 
 Adam, the Lord, the heavenly bridegroom, 
 whose death and burial answers to the first 
 Adam’s “deep sleep.” St. John certainly 
 calls our particular attention to the fact of 
 the water and blood that flowed from His 
 side, as though significant of some great 
 spiritual truth (John xix. 34, 35) ; and 
 again, in \ John v. 6, “This is He that 
 came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ, 
 not by water only, but by water and blood.” 
 This may allude to the two sacraments, 
 Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, respec- 
 tively ; but more , I conceive, to the two 
 great parts in the believers salvation — i, 
 
174 Guide to the Study of 
 
 the atonement by Christ’s blood , which is 
 his justification ; 2, the operation of the 
 Holy Spirit, so often compared to living 
 water , which, both beginning and carrying 
 on the work in the believer, is his sanctifi- 
 cation. These two, like the water and the 
 blood from Christ’s side, though insepar- 
 ably joined, and flowing from the same 
 source, are yet distinct. 
 
 The prayer here is not meant to endue 
 the water with a mystic virtue, as if the 
 water were not available for baptism with- 
 out it ; nor has the Saviour, in instituting 
 water as the sign, deemed it necessary to 
 bless it specially, as He did the bread and 
 wine for the Lord’s Supper ; but merely 
 for reverence, to set the water apart for the 
 sacred use in this sacrament. 
 
 Then the child’s name is given, which is 
 called its Christian name, to imply that, 
 with its new name received in baptism, 
 it henceforth is to bear a new character, 
 even that of the Christian, “ the noblest 
 style of man.” So much so, that hence- 
 forth the surname, as its derivation im- 
 plies, is but a superadded name, and the 
 Christian name is the name. Our fathers 
 accordingly used to write the former with 
 a small letter, but the Christian, as being 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 175 
 
 the chief name, with a capital. So Saul 
 the Persecutor, when baptized, became 
 Paul the Apostle. 
 
 Then follows the Baptism, with the form 
 prescribed by Christ Himself : “ In the 
 name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost;” 
 and as the word for “ in ” ought to be trans- 
 lated into , and as “name,” in Hebrew usage, 
 means not merely an outward appellation, 
 but chiefly an inward character , it is im- 
 plied, that the child is presumed to be 
 baptized into a living participation of the 
 love of the Father, the grace of the Son of 
 God, and the sanctification of the Holy 
 Spirit ; and thus to be incorporated with 
 all true members of Christ’s mystical body, 
 in being made “partaker of the Divine 
 nature, having escaped the corruption that 
 is in the world through lust.” Moreover, 
 the Singular “into the named not names , 
 of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, im- 
 plies the unity in the Trinity, that they are 
 one in essence as in name. The mode of 
 baptism, if practicable, is to be by im- 
 mersion, as more significantly setting forth 
 the three things — the plunging the person 
 into water, answering to the death — the 
 being under water, answering to the burial 
 • — and his rising again, answering to the 
 
176 Guide to the Study of 
 
 resurrection of Jesus Christ. For, as Me- 
 lancthon says, “ Baptism is not a type of 
 death, but that through death we pass into 
 life.” However, under peculiar circum- 
 stances, as in the case of the jailor at 
 Philippi and his household, who, it is not 
 likely, were baptized by immersion, at 
 midnight ; and in cold climates like ours, 
 so different from Judaea, where immersion 
 would not be attended with the great 
 danger of life that its invariable use would 
 be with us, affusion, or pouring of water on 
 the person, is permitted. This, too, has a 
 spiritual significance, as answering to the 
 throwing of earth on a deceased person 
 (since we are “ buried with Christ by bap- 
 tism into death ”) ; and also to those Scrip- 
 ture passages which speak of “ the blood of 
 sprinkling ,” and of “the heart being 
 sprinkled from an evil conscience, and the 
 body washed with pure water.” 
 
 Nov/ that God is presumed to have made 
 the child his own, the minister then 
 receives it into the congregation, signing it 
 with the sign of the cross on its forehead, 
 even as generals in the East used to mark 
 soldiers as their own ; and as the word 
 sacrament means literally the oath of a 
 soldier to his general, so the baptized, with 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 177 
 
 Christ’s mark on the forehead, which has 
 been always regarded as the seat of shame, 
 is reminded that “ hereafter he shall not 
 be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ 
 crucified, but continue Christ’s faithful 
 soldier and servant to his life’s end.” Those 
 who object to this use of the cross, found 
 once only in all our services, may almost 
 with as much justice object to the “ mark,” 
 “seal,” and “name, ’’which the servants of 
 Christ in Revelation are said to bear on 
 their foreheads, and of which it is a lively 
 figure. Then follows, along with the 
 thanksgiving of faith, the prayer of adop- 
 tion, i.e., the Lord’s Prayer, which we all, 
 old and young can now truly use, as 
 members of one holy family, unless by our 
 unworthiness we have made what God in- 
 tended as a sacrament of grace, a bare and 
 empty sign. 
 
 In fine, we may truly say, with Hooker, 
 “ Blessed for ever and ever be that mother’s 
 child whose faith hath made him the child 
 of God. The earth may shake, the pillars 
 of the world may tremble under us, the 
 countenance of the heavens may be ap- 
 palled, the sun may lose his light, the moon 
 her beauty, the stars their glory ! but con- 
 cerning the man that has trusted in God, 
 
 12 
 
1 78 Guide to the Study of 
 
 what is there in the world that shall change 
 his heart, overthrow his faith, alter his affec- 
 tion towards God, or the affection of God 
 to him ? ” 
 
 N.B — The rubric before the office of 
 Private Baptism, “ The minister of the 
 parish, or in his absence, any other lawful 
 minister ,” first worded so at the Hampton 
 Court Conference, under James I., seems 
 to exclude lay baptism. But the Judicial 
 Committee does not disallow it (see p. 39). 
 As to the Scripture authority, the decision 
 rests on this : Were our Lord’s words, 
 “ Go ye, baptizing,” etc., addressed to 
 ministers only ? Luke xxiv. 33, implies 
 that others were with the eleven. The 
 “disciples” include others besides “the 
 Twelve” in John xx. 19, 20, 25, compare 
 vi. 66, 67, which shows that John 
 
 distinguishes “disciples” from “the 
 Twelve.” 
 
 Churching. 
 
 In connection with baptism, I may notice 
 the Thanksgiving of Women after 
 Child-birth, commonly called their 
 Churching. Holy Scripture often speaks 
 of the travails of child-birth as the greatest 
 of pains, and the joy of safe delivery as the 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 179 
 
 greatest of joys ; and since the pain is 
 part of the primeval curse of sin, “In 
 sorrow thou shalt bring forth children,” 
 what can be more fitting than that the 
 mother, who has been safely carried 
 through such anguish to such joy, should 
 publicly, in the church, before all, testify 
 her heartfelt gratitude to a merciful God 
 and Saviour? It is not intended, like the 
 Levitical purification, to cleanse the woman, 
 as though she were ceremonially defiled, 
 now that the Gospel releases believers by 
 the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus, from 
 not only all ceremonial, but also all moral 
 defilement ; but she comes, in the spirit of 
 Heb. ii. 12, saying, “ In the midst of the 
 church will I praise Thee.” For great 
 mercies call for great thankfulness. This 
 service, like all our others, presumes she is 
 a believer who “gives thanks always for 
 all things to God ; ” and who, in her safe 
 delivery, remembers the pains the Father’s 
 holy Child, born of the Virgin Mary, en- 
 dured to save her from eternal death, and 
 make her the child of God. “ When Thou 
 tookest upon Thee to deliver man, Thou 
 didst not abhor the Virgin’s womb.” Thus 
 the pain of child-birth is converted from a 
 curse into a spiritual blessing. Therefore 
 
180 Guide to the Study of 
 
 the rubric directs that if there be a celebra- 
 tion of holy Communion, she should receive 
 it, as a seal of her faith, joy and thank- 
 fulness. 
 
 Adult Baptism. 
 
 Of the service for Adult Baptism, I 
 need only remark that, down to the time 
 of the restoration of Charles II., in a.d. 
 i 66 i, actually our Church had no such 
 service. The slow growth of the mission- 
 ary spirit among our fathers for so many 
 years is shown by the fact that our office 
 for adult baptism was not provided until 
 1 66 1, when, as the preface to the Prayer- 
 book says, it was deemed “useful for the 
 baptizing of natives in our plantations, and 
 others converted to the Faith.” Owing to 
 the neglect of infant baptism during the 
 disturbances of the Commonwealth, many 
 had grown up to man’s estate unbaptized, 
 and for them such a service was required. 
 Blessed be God, we are awaking to a sense 
 of our responsibilities to our heathen 
 brethren ; and this service is now being 
 used by our missionaries in every quarter 
 of the globe, and the Lord is “ daily adding 
 to the Church such as shall be saved.” 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 1 8 1 
 
 Catechism. 
 
 It is a significant circumstance, that 
 the Catechism immediately follows the 
 Baptismal Services. By this it is im- 
 plied, that to baptize a child, and then 
 leave him untaught in Christian truth, 
 would be to make his baptism nothing 
 worth, and to but half obey the Saviour, 
 who saith not only, “ Go make disciples 
 of all nations, baptizing them,” etc., but 
 also adds, “ teaching them to observe all 
 things whatsoever I have commanded you.” 
 
 As Bucer ( De Regno Christi, ', ii. 9) re- 
 marks, “ They make themselves guilty of 
 an impious sort of child-stealing, who, hav- 
 ing consecrated their children to the Lord 
 in baptism, by neglecting to train them 
 up in His service, do all in their power 
 to rob Him of them, and make them 
 slaves of Satan.” Therefore the Church 
 desires', in obedience to her Lord, to 
 “feed the lambs.” This she does in the 
 form of question and answer, called a 
 Catechism, a word implying, in its Greek 
 derivation(?x°?> from which the English 
 echo), instruction conveyed orally by fre- 
 quent repetition . The Gospel of St. 
 Luke presupposes previous catechetical 
 
1 82 Guide to the Study of 
 
 instruction on the part of Theophilus, 
 “ That thou mightest know the certainty 
 of those things, wherein thou hast been 
 instructed” — (/car^x^w, instructed orally, 
 catechised ). In the ancient Church there 
 was a special officer for the purpose, 
 called a Catechist ; and those under in- 
 struction were called Catechumens. 
 Under Popery, religious instruction was 
 almost wholly neglected. “My Lord 
 Understandings house,” says Bunyan, 
 “was too light for the Prince of Dark- 
 ness ; so he built a high wall, to darken 
 all the windows.” “Very few,” in the 
 words of our thirty-third Homily “ were 
 taught the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, and 
 Ten Commandments, otherwise than in 
 Latin.” Our Reformers lost no time in 
 publishing these three in English, and 
 next a short catechism, which was an 
 expansion of these, probably by Bishop 
 Poynet, in 1552 ; and a larger in 1570, 
 by Dean Nowell, who draws from Poynet. 
 Nowell’s was approved by Convocation, 
 1571. Bishop Overal completed the 
 Catechism in the reign of James I., by 
 the addition of that portion which con- 
 cerns the Sacraments. Luther tells us 
 of himself, that he had more delight in 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 183 
 
 catechising than in any other ministerial 
 duty ; nothing contributed more to the 
 enlargement of the Reformation. 
 
 Our Catechism is not to be viewed as 
 a complete summary, so much as a sketch 
 of Divine truth : from the standing-point 
 of one baptized indeed, but still a babe 
 in knowledge. The faithful minister will 
 enlarge on the Catechism in his instruc- 
 tion, proving and illustrating it by draw- 
 ing continually from the pure waters of 
 life in the Written Word. The Catechism 
 teaches the child (note the article : “I 
 was made a member of Christ, the child 
 of God, and an inheritor,” etc.) : 1. — 
 His privileges on one hand, and responsi- 
 bilities on the other (repentance, faith 
 and obedience), as one baptized and bear- 
 ing the Christian name. 2 — (Faith) The 
 Creed, and its essence, as consisting in 
 belief in the Three Persons of the Trinity, 
 and Their respective offices in man’s 
 salvation. Redemption by the Son of 
 God is set forth as an universal gift, but 
 sanctification by the Holy Ghost as ex- 
 clusively belonging to the elect , of whom 
 the person catechised professes to be one. 
 In this, as in the baptismal service, it is 
 presumed that the baptized professor is a 
 
184 Guide to the Study of 
 
 real believer, though we know this can 
 only be the charitable assumption of hope, 
 rather than the assurance of infallible 
 certainty. 3. — (Obedience) The Ten 
 Commandments, and their spiritual es- 
 sence, summed up in the duty to God, 
 and to man ; which two latter questions 
 and answers were drawn up by Bishop 
 Goodrich. 4. — The Lord’s Prayer, and 
 
 its beautiful explanation. 5. — The nature 
 and obligations of the two Sacraments. 
 Prayer, the Sacraments, and the Word, 
 are God’s appointed means. 
 
 Thus the child’s baptism , privileges , and 
 responsibilities form the introduction , upon 
 which all that follows is based. The 
 Creed then sets forth the doctrines of 
 faith. Next, the Ten Commandments 
 lay down the practice. Next — since the 
 Catechism regards man as fallen and 
 corrupt, and therefore unable to practise 
 even what he knows to be right, of him- 
 self, “ without God’s special grace,” which 
 is to be “ called for at all times by dili- 
 gent prayer ’ — there follows the model of 
 perfect prayer, the Lords prayer. Lastly 
 the sacraments are set forth as the special 
 means and visible seals of grace ordained 
 by Christ. These are said to be “gener- 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 185 
 
 ally,'' not universally or invariably, “ neces- 
 sary to salvation.” Ordinarily , we have 
 no warrant for presuming that He, who 
 hath commanded their use, will give 
 sacramental grace to those who wilfully 
 neglect them. But let us not be too 
 hasty in tying down the working of His 
 gracious Spirit to sacraments, as though 
 He never could be gracious to any save 
 in and by them. Experience and charity 
 both teach us, whilst valuing our own 
 privileges, to be gentle in our judgments 
 of others. Simon Magus was still in the 
 gall of bitterness after baptism. The dying 
 thief went to Paradise without either bap- 
 tism or the Lord’s supper. To the question 
 on the inward grace in baptism, the answer 
 is, “We are hereby ( viz ., by a death unto 
 sin and new birth unto righteousness) 
 made children of grace.” “Whereby” 
 immediately afterwards occurs ; therefore 
 “hereby” is not unintentional. The 
 comma ought to be after “grace;” “An 
 outward and visible sign of an inward and 
 spiritual grace, given unto us.” The grace 
 is not always given ; it is the sign which is 
 given to all recipients ; the grace also to 
 believers alone. ( Statutory Prayer-Book , 
 Tomlinson and Wright.) “ There comes 
 
1 86 Guide to the Study of 
 
 no danger from the want of the 
 sacraments, but only from the contempt 
 of them.” — Archbishop Ussher. As to 
 the phrase, “ the body and blood of Christ 
 are verily and indeed ( i.e ., in the real 
 and highest sense) taken and received 
 by the faithful in the Lord’s Supper,” 
 mark, it is not said the very body of Christ, 
 but the body of Christ is verily taken ; 
 nor is it said it is verily taken by all , but 
 only by the faithful; whereas the Jews 
 of old had but types and shadows > Christian 
 believers have realities — not the literal 
 body of Christ, as it is now in glory ; for 
 Christ was not in His glorified body 
 when he instituted the Lord’s Supper — 
 but the spiritual benefits of His crucified 
 body, which is verily and indeed present 
 to the touch, sight, and taste of faith. 
 The separation of the body and blood of 
 Christ implied in the separate partaking 
 of bread and the wine can hold good only 
 of His crucified body. “ The bread which 
 we break is (not the body, but) a partak- 
 ing of the body of Christ ; likewise the 
 cup of blessing is (not the blood of 
 Christ, but) a partaking of the blood of 
 Christ,” Article xxviii. So i Cor. x. 1 6, 
 “ the cup we bless, is it not the communion 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 187 
 
 of the blood ? the bread we break, is it 
 not the communion of the body of 
 Christ ? ” Thus the Catechism says what 
 the Twenty-eighth Article sets forth, that 
 “ the body of Christ is taken only after a 
 heavenly and spiritual manner, and the 
 mean whereby it is received and eaten is 
 faith.” Bishop Cosin thus illustrates 
 Christ’s words : “ ‘ Take, eat : this is 
 
 my body.’ Suppose a testator to put 
 title deeds in the hands of his heir, saying, 
 
 ‘ Take the house which I bequeath,’ there 
 is no man would think these written 
 parchments are that very house, which 
 is made of wood and stones, and not of 
 parchment ; yet no man would say that 
 the testator spake falsely or obscurely. 
 The heir verily received the house when 
 the title deeds were given him, but not 
 the very house itself : just as the true be- 
 liever receives verily Christ’s body in 
 receiving the bread, but not his very 
 body.” Dr. Stephens tersely expresses 
 the truth, “ Christ’s body is given by 
 God, not by the priest ; taken by faith, 
 not by the hand ; eaten by the soul, not 
 by the mouth.” The benefits are defined 
 to be “the strengthening and refreshing 
 of our souls (not our doolies) by the body 
 
1 88 Guide to the Study of 
 
 and blood of Christ ; as our bodies are by 
 the bread and wine” (literally eaten and 
 drunk). The Westminster Confession of 
 the Church of Scotland uses substantially 
 as strong language as ourselves : “A 
 
 sacrament is an holy ordinance, instituted 
 by Christ, wherein, by sensible signs, 
 Christ and the benefits of the new cove- 
 nant are represented, sealed, and applied 
 to believers.” Mr. J. T. Tomlinson, in 
 his Misprinted Catechism , shows that a 
 comma intervenes between “grace” and 
 “given unto us.” So “Sacrament” means 
 an outward and visible sign of an inward 
 and Spiritual grace , ( the sign being) given 
 to us. It is no sacrament if not used , i.e. 
 given by Christ’s ministers and received 
 by Christ’s people, Also a Sacrament 
 is a gift from God to us, whereas a Sacri- 
 fice is a gift offered from us to God. 
 Therefore a Sacrament is not a Sacrifice. 
 
 Thus this, as every other of our formu- 
 laries, goes on the principle that a spirit- 
 ual body can recognize only spiritual 
 members. If any use them in insincerity, 
 the sin is altogether his own. Lord, 
 grant us ever to think, speak, and act, in 
 accordance with so high and heavenly a 
 calling! Wearing Christ’s uniform, may 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 189 
 
 we not prove traitors to the great Captain 
 of our salvation ! 
 
 Confirmation. 
 
 Confirmation follows naturally in order 
 after the Catechism, which prepares for 
 it. The Church of England retains it as 
 an edifying ordinance, though not what 
 Rome makes it — a sacrament : to be 
 which latter, it should have had some 
 material sign, instituted by Christ Him- 
 self, which it has not. Two instances in 
 the Acts of the Apostles sanction its use. 
 In the eighth chapter we read, that after 
 Philip the Deacon had baptized many 
 converts in Samaria, Peter and John 
 the Apostles were sent from Jerusalem 
 to “ lay their hands on them, that they 
 might receive the Holy Ghost.” Again, 
 in the nineteenth chapter, after John the 
 Baptist’s former disciples had been 
 baptized at Ephesus in the name of the 
 Lord Jesus, St. Paul laid his hands on 
 them, and then the Holy Ghost came 
 on them. And though the extraordinary 
 gifts imparted formerly are no longer to 
 be looked for, yet we may humbly trust 
 God will give the much more important 
 ordinary graces of the Spirit, in answer 
 
190 Guide to the Study of 
 
 to prayer, to those who, at the age of 
 discretion, renew in their own name the 
 baptismal vows made for them in their 
 infancy. 
 
 The rubric requires a sponsors attend- 
 ance for each young person to be con- 
 firmed : the Church designs him to be 
 witness of the youth taking on himself 
 the responsibility undertaken for him 
 by sponsors heretofore. Thus Confirma- 
 tion supplies that personal profession of 
 repentance, faith, and obedience, which 
 was unavoidably wanting, by reason of 
 their tender years, in those baptized 
 whilst infants. The aim is, that young 
 disciples should “ in their own person 
 confirm the promise made for them in 
 baptism,” and that the bishop should 
 confirm their souls and exhort them to 
 continue in the faith.” 
 
 St. Paul, in Heb. vi. 3, seems to regard 
 the doctrine of baptisms and laying on of 
 hands as elementary parts of Christian 
 knowledge. We read of none but apostles 
 administering the rite; we, therefore, assign 
 it to bishops, the highest order of our 
 Church. Indeed, it seems natural that 
 children, having been admitted by baptism 
 into the Church by the lower order of 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 191 
 
 ministers, should be afterwards sealed as 
 members by the highest, venerable, as 
 chosen by the Church to be fathers in 
 God. In the Greek Church, the term for 
 this rite was o-(ppayi$, or sealing, as in the 
 Latin Churches the term Confirmation 
 implies a strengthening in the faith of 
 those already admitted heirs to the privi- 
 leges. Thus, it is a natural consequence 
 of Baptism, and an introduction to the 
 Supper of our Lord, which should be 
 received as soon as possible by all that are 
 confirmed. 
 
 The ancient Waldensian and the 
 Lutheran Churches have retained it, and 
 many eminent Reformers approved of it. 
 At no time can it be more important to 
 lay hold of our youths than at that age 
 when the affections are warm, their judg- 
 ment not yet matured, and therefore liable 
 to be misled by the dazzling picture of the 
 world’s vanities, which the devil spreads 
 before them, so as to forget that they are 
 the Lord’s by their baptismal dedication in 
 infancy ; and are therefore so to live to 
 His glory here, that they may reign with 
 Him for ever hereafter. Therefore we 
 pray for the sevenfold graces of the Spirit, 
 spoken of in Isaiah xi. 2, as resting in all 
 
192 Guide to the Study of 
 
 their fulness on the divine Son of David, 
 the rod of the stem of Jesse, to descend 
 also. on His youthful disciples, “the spirit 
 of wisdom and understanding — the spirit of 
 counsel and ghostly strength, the spirit of 
 knowledge and true godliness, and that 
 the Lord may fill them with the spirit of 
 His holy fear.” If the bishop prays, 
 “Almighty God, who hast vouchsafed to 
 regenerate these Thy servants by water 
 and the Holy Ghost,” it is after they have 
 professed repentance , faith , and obedience. 
 
 How solemn the scene, when the bishop, 
 himself perhaps advanced in years, and 
 now approaching the haven of rest, lays 
 his hands on the heads of those who are 
 soon about to launch forth on the troubled 
 sea of life, and offers that beautiful bene- 
 dictory prayer, “ Defend, O Lord, this 
 Thy child with Thy heavenly grace, that 
 he may continue Thine for ever ; and 
 daily increase in Thy Holy Spirit more 
 and more, until he come unto Thy ever- 
 lasting kingdom.” Many clergy will con- 
 cur in the following testimony of the 
 late Rev. T. Robinson, of Leicester, the 
 pious author of Scripture Characters : “I 
 particularly value, and have reason to 
 esteem the season of confirmation as my 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 193 
 
 choicest seed-time.” His experience has 
 been that of every faithful minister. 
 
 Marriage. 
 
 As the Lord’s precepts on marriage, in 
 Matt, xix., are brought into immediate 
 connexion with His receiving into His 
 arms and blessing little children, so our 
 Marriage Service follows naturally that 
 for the Confirmation of young disciples. 
 Whilst, then, we reject the Romish idea 
 of its being a sacrament, which, neverthe- 
 less, with strange inconsistency Rome 
 forbids to her priests, our Church regards 
 holy matrimony as an “ honourable estate, 
 instituted of God in the time of man’s 
 innocency, signifying unto us the mystical 
 union that is betwixt Christ and His 
 Church.” Considering the momentous 
 interests at stake to two immortal souls 
 in this all-important step in life — the 
 foundation of our strongest domestic ties, 
 and the ultimate basis of society itself — 
 we do not think we can too carefully 
 guard this holy institution with the sanc- 
 tions of religion. By the precepts of the 
 written Word, the exhortations of the 
 minister, and the prayers of the whole 
 Church, we seek that God’s grace may 
 
194 Guide to the Study of 
 
 enable the contracting parties to fulfil the 
 solemn compact they undertake in the 
 sight of God and His congregation. None 
 who read the Bible aright will think 
 marriage a mere civil contract, even though 
 man’s law may allow parties to be legally 
 married before a registrar. But let us 
 remember also, that our religious services 
 are not mere forms, but, like all our 
 services, are drawn up for those who 
 profess to be believers, not only in name, 
 but in spirit and in truth. The minister 
 should omit no part, but read the whole 
 of this most devotional service ; and all 
 present, but more especially the contracting 
 parties, should hear and pray, with the 
 earnestness that becomes those who feel 
 the impossibility of real happiness, here or 
 hereafter, without God’s abiding presence. 
 
 It is told of the pious Philip Henry, 
 that his advice to his children on this 
 momentous step in life was, “ First please 
 God, then please yourselves, and your 
 choice will be sure to please me.” Another 
 divine says, “ When a believer marries an 
 unbeliever, the miseries that ensue are 
 endless. Be they as kind as they may, 
 they live in two separate worlds. There 
 is a great gulf between them, which can 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 195 
 
 only be passed by the grace of God. They 
 cannot share the same pleasures or sorrows, 
 nor walk in the same path. Better to wed 
 the daughter of believing Abraham than 
 the heiress of Dives.” Every Christian 
 finds the snares of the world and the devil 
 quite enough to struggle with on his way 
 to heaven, without adding to his difficulties. 
 But oh ! how blessed is such a union as 
 our Marriage Service contemplates — a 
 union of two sincere believers — not to 
 pass merely a few transient years in a 
 disordered world, but a union “in the 
 Lord,” a marriage which the Saviour 
 blesses with His presence, as He did that 
 of Cana, a union for eternity. Philip 
 Henry quaintly says, “The presence of 
 Christ at a wedding will turn the water 
 into wine; and He will come, if He be 
 invited by prayer.” 
 
 The use of the ring has been made an 
 objection, by those who wish to find faults, 
 or to make them where they are not to 
 be found. It is a decorous and ancient 
 custom, in token that, as a ring was 
 formerly used as a seal, the delivery of 
 it to the woman by the man is a pledge 
 and seal of the lasting bond of love that 
 is henceforth to bind them. Its hiero- 
 
196 Guide to the Study of 
 
 glyphical meaning among the Egyptians, 
 moreover, is eternity ; and two believers, 
 when joined together, may be assured that 
 not even death shall break, but rather 
 strengthen and purify, the everlasting tie. 
 
 In the words, “with my body I thee 
 worship,” “worship” is used in the sense 
 of due respect , not, of course, adoration , 
 which would be blasphemy ; though, in- 
 deed, some of the popular love-songs so 
 fashionable in the world abound in fulsome 
 compliments, which imply abject prostra- 
 tion before a frail creature, inconsistent 
 with the worship due to God alone. But 
 in our service the word merely implies 
 such deference as is spoken of in Luke xiv. 
 10 : “Then shalt thou have worship in the 
 presence of them that sit at meat with thee.” 
 
 Lastly, the closing rubric implies, that 
 the parties are supposed to be real 
 Christians, when it urges them to receive 
 the holy communion either at the time of 
 marriage or at the first opportunity after. 
 No advice could be better for these who 
 find their strongest tie to one another in 
 their common fellowship with the same 
 Lord and Saviour, and who resolve, like 
 Joshua, “As for me and my house, we will 
 serve the Lord.” 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 197 
 
 Visitation of the Sick. 
 
 Next after the Service of holy Matrimony 
 comes that for the Visitation of the Sick. 
 So strangely in life’s changing scene does 
 sorrow alternate with joy ! and they who 
 so lately vowed mutual love, in sickness as 
 well as in health, are called on to minister 
 to the sufferings of those dearest to them 
 on earth. It would be well if, in our 
 greatest joy, we would always remember 
 sorrow may come in a moment — like the 
 Eastern emperors, who thought it not 
 unseasonable to choose their tombstone on 
 the day of their coronation. There may 
 be something morbid, no doubt, in this 
 instance ; yet the Christian should feel 
 continually the uncertainty of all earthly 
 things. And when sickness does come, 
 let him not regard it as a messenger of 
 wrath, but a blessing in disguise, appointed 
 by a Father’s love, to make His child 
 partaker of His holiness. As Archbishop 
 Leighton remarks : “ The Church is God’s 
 jewellery, His working-house, where His 
 jewels are polished for His palace ; and 
 those which He means to make most 
 resplendent He has His tools oftenest 
 upon.” In Baxter’s autobiography we 
 
198 Guide to the Study of 
 
 read, “Weakness and pain helped me to 
 study how to die. That set me on study- 
 ing how to live, and that on studying the 
 doctrines, from which I must fetch my 
 motives and comforts.” 
 
 Our Church therefore remembers St. 
 James’ precept, “Is any sick among you? 
 Let him call for the elders of the Church, 
 and let them pray over him.” And, though 
 the anointing which the apostle speaks of, 
 used for the purpose of miraculously healing 
 the sick in that day, has been laid aside, 
 now that the extraordinary gifts of the 
 Holy Spirit have been withdrawn; yet 
 the ordinary grace which God gives to 
 body as well as to soul, in answer to the 
 prayer of faith, is as necessary to the 
 sufferer on a sick bed now as ever. There- 
 fore a form of Visitation of the Sick has 
 been drawn up ; not that any one form 
 can meet the countless variety of cases 
 which a clergyman will meet in his ex- 
 perience (indeed the sixty-seventh canon 
 gives a preacher the liberty to vary as he 
 thinks most needful) ; but this form may 
 serve for actual use in many cases, and in 
 others serve as a model how to conduct 
 the visitation of the sick. 
 
 No Christian duty can be more profit- 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 199 
 
 able to clergyman or layman, than this. 
 None ever tried it that did not acknow- 
 ledge, “It is better to go to the house of 
 mourning than to the house of feasting.” 
 It exercises that active sympathy which 
 St. Paul says should subsist among 
 believers, so that, if one member suffer, 
 all the members suffer with it. It soothes 
 the sufferer with the consolations of the 
 Gospel, and brings down the joy of the 
 Holy Ghost in answer to fervent prayers. 
 The Lord Jesus Himself, when He shall 
 sit on the throne of judgment, shall make 
 this one of the tests of the sincerity of 
 Christian love, “ I was sick, and ye visited 
 Me.” 
 
 The Visitation Service does not speak 
 smooth things, saying, Peace, peace, where 
 there is no peace ; but probes the sick man 
 faithfully, urging him to strict self-examin- 
 ation, both in his relations to God and to 
 man. In relation to God, it propounds to 
 him, one by one, all the Articles of the 
 Creed, to test whether he be resting on a 
 scriptural hope of acceptance with God 
 through Christ, by the Holy Spirit’s in- 
 ward work on the heart. In relation to 
 his fellow-man, it urges him to forgive 
 those who have wronged him, and ask 
 
200 Giiide to the Study of 
 
 forgiveness of those whom he hath 
 wronged. Opiate divinity is ill-suited to 
 sinners sleeping unconscious at the edge 
 of the burning pit. 
 
 If he feel his conscience troubled with 
 any weighty matter, he is urged to confess 
 it for the easing of his conscience. This 
 is, of course, an exceptional case. When 
 such an one, with sincere penitence, has 
 sought God’s pardon through Christ, the 
 Church, to give him assurance if he be 
 fearful, directs the minister to pronounce 
 him absolved, in the name of the Father, 
 Son, and Holy Ghost (i.e., to declare the 
 pardon which God has already granted, 
 upon his penitence and faith) ; of course 
 his pardon will depend on the condition of 
 his sincere repentance and faith, of which 
 not the minister, as Rome represents, but 
 God alone can judge. The minister hopes 
 that he is a penitent believer, and on that 
 charitable presumption , declares the pardon 
 God has already given. It is expressed 
 in the first person, “ / absolve thee,” in 
 order to give the greater seal of assurance 
 to the heart of the penitent by the authori- 
 tative declaration of the minister, which he 
 pronounces, not on his own authority, but 
 as standing in Christ’s stead, and proclaim- 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 201 
 
 ing Christ's pardon granted beforehand. 
 Still, even this ministerial declaration is 
 not an infallible ground of confidence 
 before God in our Church’s eyes ; for in 
 the very next collect, as though the 
 minister’s declaration was incomplete, it 
 being not infallibly certain how far God 
 sanctioned it, the minister prays : “ Open 
 Thine eye of mercy upon this Thy servant, 
 who most earnestly desireth pardon ; im- 
 pute not unto him his former sins ; take 
 him into Thy favour through the merits of 
 Thy most dearly beloved Son Jesus 
 Christ.” This indicative form of absolu- 
 tion in the first person was not introduced 
 till as late as the twelfth century : and it 
 was not it, but the deprecatory form, which 
 was believed to reconcile the sinner to 
 God. However, the Protestant Confes- 
 sions of Augsburg, Bohemia and Saxony 
 retained it, and Calvin approved of it. 
 The Levitical priest was said to cleanse 
 the leper ( KaOapiei avrov 6 lepev ?, Lev. xiii. 
 6, lxx.), when he only pronounced him 
 clean : so our presbyters only declare that 
 forgiveness which God has beforehand 
 granted to the penitent believer the 
 moment he turned to Him with penitence 
 and faith : “Our Lord Jesus Christ, who 
 
202 Guide to the Study of 
 
 hath left power to (not in) His Church to 
 absolve all sinners who truly repent and 
 believe, of His great mercy forgive thee,” 
 etc. It is not in, but to His Church, i t e. t 
 to the whole body, lay and clerical, not to 
 the clergy alone (2 Cor. ii. 10). The 
 minister, as the Church’s representative, is 
 authorised to “ absolve,” i.e., to declare 
 forgiven all sinners whom God has already 
 forgiven upon their penitence and faith, 
 which He alone can discern. 
 
 Confession and Absolution. 
 
 Auricular or secret confession was not 
 known in the primitive Church. After 
 the Decian persecution, the Penitentiary 
 was to hear confession, and determine 
 whose offences should be publicly acknow- 
 ledged. This office was abolished by 
 Nectarius, owing to a scandal. Till the 
 1 2th or 13th century Morinus, a Roman 
 Catholic, proves that absolution was preca- 
 tory , “ May God absolve thee.” The in- 
 dicative form, “/ absolve thee,” then intro- 
 duced, was designed for remitting Church 
 censures . Our first Absolution, added in 
 1552, is declaratory , i.e.> declaring that 
 God pardoneth and absolveth all that truly 
 repent and believe His Holy Gospel. The 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 203 
 
 absolution in the Communion vs> precatory. 
 That in the “Visitation of the Sick ” was 
 ordered in the first Prayer-book to be used 
 in all private confessions. Our Reformers 
 deliberately expunged this, and instead of 
 the word, “that of us he may receive 
 absolution,” were substituted, “by the 
 ministry of God's Word he may receive 
 absolution.” This absolution is immedi- 
 ately followed by a prayer for the Divine 
 pardon. It is designed only for the sick ; 
 and only for the sick whose conscience is 
 troubled with a weighty matter, who 
 humbly and heartily desire it. 
 
 Whilst other occasional services are 
 imposed, this is optional. The 67th Canon 
 leaves a preacher at liberty to instruct the 
 sick with this form or otherwise, as he 
 shall think most needful. The lepers are 
 commanded in Leviticus to show them- 
 selves to the priests ; but these do not 
 make men clean, but declare their clean- 
 ness. Rome invests priests with judicial 
 power, and requires all to appear at their 
 tribunal, and confess their sins, that the 
 priests may judge them. Our Church 
 allows members to consult the pastor ; 
 this confession is not secret , nor necessary , 
 nor entire. The 25th Article denies 
 
204 Gtiide to the Study of 
 
 Penance to be a Sacrament; the 22nd 
 asserts the Romish doctrine to be grounded 
 on no warranty of Scripture, but rather to 
 be repugnant to the word of God. The 
 1 549 book exhorts the penitent to confess 
 his sin secretly ; the 1552 book exhorts 
 him to open his griefs, but leaves out the 
 word secretly. The first book exhorts him 
 to receive absolution of us, as the ministers 
 of God and the Church ; the second book 
 exhorts him that by the ministry of Gods 
 holy Word he may receive absolution. 
 The first book exhorts those contented 
 with the general confession not to be 
 offended at those who practise auricular 
 confession ; the second book leaves out 
 this exhortation. Rome requires full 
 details of sin ; the first Prayer-book of 
 Edward made confession the exception. 
 Rome requires the confessor to keep the 
 seal of secret confession. 
 
 Our “Visitation of the Sick” implies 
 the presence of others besides the minister 
 and the penitent. The first book directed : 
 “After confession, the priest shall absolve 
 him after this form ; ” but the second 
 book : “ The priest shall absolve him 
 
 after this sort,” i.e., need not use the exact 
 form. Also, the second book omits, “ The 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 205 
 
 same form of absolution shall be used in 
 all private confessions.” The second 
 Book of Homilies, on James v. 16, “Con- 
 fess your faults one to another,” remarks : 
 By this the priests are as much bound to 
 confess to the lay people as the lay people 
 to the priests. Who is the true priest, but 
 He which is the priest for ever, after the 
 order of Melchisedec ? We ought to 
 acknowledge none other priest for deliver- 
 ance from sins but our Saviour, who, being 
 our sovereign Bishop, doth with the 
 sacrifice of His body and blood, offered 
 once for ever upon the altar of the Cross, 
 most effectually cleanse the spiritual leprosy, 
 and wash away the sins of all those that 
 with true confession of the same do flee 
 unto Him. If any find themselves 
 troubled in conscience, they may repair to 
 their pastor, or some other godly learned 
 man, and show their trouble to them, that 
 they may receive at their hand the com- 
 fortable salve of God’s Word ; but it is 
 against true Christian liberty that any be 
 bound to the numbering of his sins, as in 
 the time of blindness and ignorance.” 
 
 The Prayers respectively for a Sick 
 Child , a Sick Person when there is small 
 hope of recovery . One at the Point of 
 
206 Guide to the Study of 
 
 Departure (in which case the Sixty-seventh 
 Canon directs the passing bell to toll), and 
 One Troubled in Conscience , illustrate the 
 parental care our Church takes of her 
 children of every age and in every state. 
 
 Lastly, the Communion of the Sick is 
 not intended as the Romish Viaticum , or 
 provision for the soul’s last journey, to be 
 a kind of passport to heaven ; but for 
 the comfort of the sick believer , who longs 
 to realize by this appointed seal, communion 
 with Christ, and also with all His living 
 members. To prevent it being a private 
 eating, three, or at least two, persons must 
 communicate with him. “To offer the 
 Communion,” says the Rev. H. Blunt, “to 
 those who need to be alarmed rather than 
 comforted , would be, not charity , but the 
 utmost cruelty .” Indeed it is a desperate 
 hazard for any to put off till a sick bed, 
 and “To the mercies of a moment leave 
 the vast concerns of an eternal scene.” 
 It is in health, we ought to sow, and in 
 sickness reap ; not to begin sowing when 
 we ought to be reaping ; not, like the 
 foolish virgins, to be looking for the oil 
 of grace then first, when the cry startles 
 the ear of the slumberer, “ Behold the 
 bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 207 
 
 Him.” How blessed such a sick bed as 
 G. Herbert’s! “ I do not repine,” said he, 
 “ But am pleased with my want of health. 
 My heart is now fixed on that place where 
 true joy is to be found. I praise Him that 
 I have endeavoured to die daily, that I 
 may not die eternally.” 
 
 In the case of believers, our rubric gives 
 the clearest declaration that their faith 
 is the only mean by which they receive the 
 body of Christ ; and that we can eat the 
 body and drink the blood of our Saviour, 
 without necessarily receiving the Sacrament 
 of His body and blood. “ If a man,” it 
 says, “by any just impediment do not 
 receive the Sacrament of Christ’s body and 
 blood, the curate shall instruct him, that 
 if he do truly repent him of his sins, and 
 steadfastly believe that Jesus Christ hath 
 shed His blood for his redemption, 
 earnestly remembering the benefits he hath 
 thereby, and giving him hearty thanks 
 therefore, he doth eat and drink the body 
 and blood of our Saviour Christ profitably 
 to his soul’s health, although he do not 
 receive the Sacrament with his mouth.” 
 Let me add the words of the twenty- 
 seventh Homily : “ For this is to stick 
 fast to Christ’s promise, made in this 
 
208 Guide to the Study of 
 
 institution — to make Christ thine own ; 
 and to apply His merits unto thyself. 
 Herein thou needest no other mans help, 
 no other sacrifice or oblation, no sacrificing 
 priest, no mass, no means established by 
 man’s invention.” Truly we have deep 
 cause for thankfulness to God, for having 
 preserved to us in our Church formularies 
 such unequivocal protests against Sacer- 
 dotalism. Long may she continue true 
 to her evangelical purity of doctrine ! 
 
 Burial Service. 
 
 The Service for the Burial of the 
 Dead comes next in natural order after the 
 Visitation of the Sick — a service most 
 beautiful, sublime, and consolatory — one 
 which it is difficult to hear or read without 
 emotion. From the earliest ages of the 
 Church of God, but especially since the 
 Gospel of Christ has brought life and im- 
 mortality to light on earth, a decorous 
 respect has been paid to the bodies of 
 those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 
 This has been so, because we believe that 
 the bodies of believers are the temple of 
 the Holy Ghost, and, though that temple 
 be taken down for a time, it is only with a 
 view to its more glorious re-building at the 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 209 
 
 resurrection, when it shall bear the image 
 of God even with greater perfection than 
 Adam bore it in his innocency. Therefore, 
 as Stephen’s body, in which Christ had ex- 
 hibited such a noble triumph of faithfulness 
 to death, devout men carried to his burial, 
 after he had fallen asleep ; so the bodies of 
 all believers, at death, are committed to a 
 place of rest, from which they shall awake 
 again. Hence the name cemetery has been 
 given it, which means in Greek, a place of 
 sleep. And it has been beautifully said, 
 “ the grave is appointed by God to the be- 
 liever as his place of robing for heaven, the 
 attiring-room for this corruption to put on 
 incorruption, and to become fit for heavenly 
 blessedness.” This is the distinguishing 
 truth peculiar to Revelation. Some 
 heathen philosophers made one out of 
 their many guesses, that the soul might 
 possibly live after death. But none ever 
 dreamed of the possibility of the body being 
 restored. So that, when St. Paul preached 
 the resurrection at Athens, they laughed 
 him to scorn, saying, “What will this 
 babbler say ? ” Blessed be God, we Chris- 
 tians “speak that we do know.” And as 
 Enoch to the men before the flood, Elijah 
 to the men after the flood ; so the Lord 
 
 H 
 
2iO Guide to the Study of 
 
 Jesus, having gone up to heaven in the 
 body , is to us a sample of the coming glori- 
 fied state of the body, to assure our faith 
 and animate our hopes. Is it fitting, then, 
 that, after the example of some, we should 
 have what Hooker well calls “ dumb 
 funerals, in the manner of which, what one 
 thing is there, whereby the world may 
 perceive we are Christian men ? ” Our 
 Church has judged very differently ; and 
 whilst avoiding Romish mummeries, has 
 not neglected to provide us with a soul- 
 elevating service, not for the benefit of the 
 dead, whose day of trial is for ever past, 
 but for the comfort and edification of the 
 living. 
 
 This service goes on the presumption 
 that all who live and die in communion 
 outwardly with Christ and His Church, 
 are real members of Christ. To these 
 latter alone, in the strictest sense , its joyful 
 assurances apply ; in a lower sense, the 
 minister need have no scruple in reading it 
 over all, save those whom the rubric ex- 
 cepts, “ the unbaptised and excommuni- 
 cate,” as the language of hope and charity , 
 whilst judgment is left in the hands of 
 God. 
 
 1 he service begins with three sentences 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 2 1 1 
 
 of Holy Writ, read by the minister, walk- 
 ing before the corpse into the church. 
 First, we have the Saviour Himself, lest 
 the mourners should be daunted by the 
 terrible appendages of death, the coffin, the 
 pall, and the grave, re-assuring them with 
 the declaration that He is the resurrection 
 and the life embodied — therefore, believers 
 need fear nothing : “I am the resurrection 
 and the life ; he that believeth on Me, 
 though he were dead, yet shall he live, 
 and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me 
 shall never die.” Next, we have a voice, 
 in answer, as it were, issuing from the dead 
 man himself — a voice of confident assur- 
 ance with which Job cheered his faith : “ I 
 know that my Redeemer liveth, and that 
 He shall stand at the latter day upon the 
 earth ; and though, after my skin, worms 
 destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I 
 see God ; whom I shall see for myself, and 
 mine eyes shall behold, and not another.” 
 Lastly, we have put into the mouth of the 
 mourners the scriptural acquiescence in 
 God’s will, however trying be the loss of 
 earthly goods, and earthly friends, remind- 
 ing us not to set our affection on such 
 perishing things, but on the enduring things 
 above : “ We brought nothing into this 
 
212 Giiide to the Sfoidy of 
 
 world, and it is certain we can carry noth- 
 ing out ; the Lord gave and the Lord hath 
 taken away.” Thus, as the first sentence 
 calls forth our faith , so the second calls 
 forth our hope , and the third our patience , 
 which has her perfect work, when we can 
 even now say, “ Blessed be the name of 
 the Lord.” 
 
 Then follow appropriate Psalms ; next, 
 that most awakening chapter, sometimes 
 called Paul’s Gospel, i Cor. xv., which sets 
 forth the resurrection as the very end for 
 which we have been baptized (v. 29), and 
 which, when accomplished, shall enable the 
 believer triumphantly to trample on Death, 
 and cry, “ Thanks be to God, which giveth 
 me the victory, through our Lord Jesus 
 Christ.” When we come to the grave, and 
 the coffin is about to be lowered into its 
 narrow resting-place, the minister, in the 
 people’s name, gives vent to the natural 
 feelings of holy sorrow, in words from Job ; 
 “ Man that is born of woman hath but a 
 short time to live, and is full of misery,” 
 etc. Then, as he proceeds, feeling more 
 the nothingness of man’s life, he cries out, 
 with a trembling earnestness that will take 
 no denial, “Yet, O Lord God most holy, 
 O Lord most mighty, O holy and most 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 213 
 
 merciful Saviour, deliver us .not into the 
 bitter pains of eternal death.” This 
 passage was taken from a German hymn 
 of Luther, composed as a paraphrase on 
 one in the ancient Church. Then, “ we 
 commit the body to the ground,” “earth to 
 earth, ashes to ashes, and dust to dust ” ; 
 whilst the clay thrown thrice on the hollow 
 coffin startles the ear with the terrible 
 reality of death, we are comforted by the 
 words that follow, “in sure and certain 
 hope of the resurrection to eternal life 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 
 
 In this we do not say, “in sure hope of 
 his resurrection,” but “ of the resurrection ” : 
 though indeed, this, as also the verse 
 quoted from Rev. xiv. 13, “Blessed are 
 the dead which die in the Lordf leave the 
 impression that we charitably trust our 
 sleeping brother or sister shall share the 
 blessedness and resurrection of all who die 
 in the Lord. But the hope we express as 
 to the departed may vary in its degrees 
 from that of charity and sympathy, to that 
 of joyful assurance. We hope only, we do 
 not dare to judge. 
 
 These words imply a plain protest against 
 purgatory, and also that the dead in 
 the Lord need not our prayers, as being 
 
214 Guide to the Study of 
 
 already “blessed and at rest.” Scripture 
 is our standard, and it gives no sanction 
 to prayers for the dead, Articles vi., xxii. 
 The soul’s salvation by Christ would be 
 imperfect if purgatory were still needed. 
 But “ the blood of Christ (the true purga- 
 tory) cleanseth from all sin” (i John i. 7). 
 “ He hath perfected for ever them that 
 are being sanctified” (Heb. x. 14). The 
 gulf between Dives and Lazarus would 
 otherwise not be “ fixed ” if there were 
 possibility of escape. Also their case 
 would be hard who had no friends to pray 
 for them ! 
 
 Then follows a prayer of thanksgiving, 
 which is distinguished from the succeeding 
 prayer, termed a collect — a name never 
 applied to a thanksgiving. How strong 
 must be the faith in the unseen world, and 
 how vivid the assurance of Christ’s speedy 
 return, “to be glorified in all that believe,” 
 when the survivors not only do not despair, 
 but render hearty thanks to God for that it 
 hath pleased Him to deliver their sleeping 
 brother or sister out of the miseries of this 
 sinful life, taking comfort in the thought — 
 contrary to the notion of those who would 
 persuade us that the spirit is in a state of 
 unconsciousness till the resurrection — 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 215 
 
 that our God is the Almighty One, “with 
 whom to live the spirits of them that de- 
 part hence in the Lord, and with whom 
 the souls of the faithful, after they are de- 
 livered from the burden of the flesh, are 
 in joy and felicity.” As M. Vinet so 
 beautifully says — 
 
 “ Ils ne sont pas perdus, ils nous ont devances.” 
 
 So our own poet — 
 
 “ Thus star by star declines, 
 
 Till all are passed away, 
 
 As morning high and higher shines 
 To pure and perfect day ; 
 
 Nor sinks those stars in empty night, 
 
 But hide themselves in heaven’s own light.” 
 
 Nay, farther, we pray the Lord “shortly 
 to accomplish the number of His elect, 
 and to hasten His kingdom, that we, with 
 all that are departed in the true faith of 
 His holy name, may have our perfect 
 consummation and bliss, both in body and 
 soul, in His eternal glory.” There is a 
 vague mode of speaking common, as 
 though the believer’s soul went into con- 
 summated glory at death. Scripture im- 
 plies the opposite : and this prayer, follow- 
 ing in the steps of Holy Writ, implies that 
 the consummation of bliss is reserved for 
 the time of the Lord’s coming again, to 
 “ make our body of humiliation conformed 
 
216 Guide to the Study of 
 
 to the body of His glory.” For this the 
 Church on earth, as well as the Church in 
 the Lord’s presence, prays continually ; 
 for, whatever may be the bliss of the de- 
 parted spirit, it is in an anomalous state, 
 until the restoration of the man in his 
 integrity, body as well as soul and spirit. 
 This is indeed to realize the communion of 
 saints, and the patient looking and waiting 
 for the Lord’s coming again, which the 
 Saviour and His apostles continually in- 
 sist on, as the mark of the true Christian. 
 Herein the Church militant expresses its 
 communion of hopes with the Church 
 expectant above — both alike waiting for 
 Jesus’ appearing when both together shall 
 be the Church triumphant: even as in 
 Rev. vi. 10, we read, “the souls under the 
 altar,” like the saints on earth, cry out 
 “How long?” They are told to “rest 
 yet for a little season,” until the full 
 number of “their brethren be fulfilled:” 
 “ God having provided,” as Heb. xi. 40 
 expresses it, “ some better things for us, 
 that they without us should not be made 
 perfect.” 
 
 The service closes with a summary of our 
 prayers, therefore termed the “ Collect,” in 
 which, whilst we still observe that 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 217 
 
 “charity” which “ hopeth all things,” we 
 guard against misconstruction, by praying 
 to be “ raised from the death of sin unto 
 the life of righteousness,” as the necessary 
 condition of our “resting in Him, as our 
 hope is our (sleeping) brother doth.” 
 
 O yes ; “without holiness no man shall 
 see the Lord.” What a grand spectacle 
 was the dying scene of that great and judi- 
 cious champion of our Church — -Hooker! 
 Seeming to be wrapt in contemplation, he 
 was asked the subject of his thoughts. “ I 
 have been meditating the number and 
 nature of angels, and their blessed obedi- 
 ence and order, without which, peace could 
 not be in heaven. I have lived to see this 
 world is made up of perturbations, and I 
 have been long preparing to leave it. And 
 though I have loved God in my youth, 
 feared Him in my age, and laboured to 
 have a conscience void of offence toward 
 God and man, yet if Thou, O Lord, be 
 extreme to mark what I have done amiss, 
 who can abide it ? I plead not my right- 
 eousness, but the forgiveness of my un- 
 righteousness, for His merits who died to 
 purchase pardon for penitent sinners.” 
 After a short rest he added, “God hath 
 heard my petitions. I am at peace with 
 
218 Guide to the Study of 
 
 all men, and He is at peace with me ; and 
 from that blessed assurance I feel that in- 
 ward joy which this world can neither give 
 nor take from me.” 
 
 To take an humbler instance : — A poor 
 but pious widow at Olney, who had ac- 
 companied the remains of many a dear 
 friend to their last resting-place, and 
 heard read over them our consolatory — 
 nay, triumphant — burial service, told her 
 minister, — “ I often go into the church- 
 yard, and walk round my father’s house, 
 and cast many a wistful look at it. I see 
 one and another called home ; and I say, 
 
 ‘ My dear Father, when shall my turn 
 come ? ’ ” Ah ! Christian friends, if you 
 wish to be ready for the call when it does 
 come, pray that you may be found, like 
 Hooker, clothed with the righteousness of 
 Christ, and not in the filthy rags of any 
 fancied goodness of your own. Pray that 
 you may have now the spirituality which 
 all our services presume to belong to those 
 who use them, even “the death unto sin, 
 and new birth unto righteousness.” 
 
 Thus we have traced the several services 
 answering to all the successive events in 
 the Christian’s life on earth, from the cradle 
 to the grave. There is thus no one of the 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 219 
 
 vicissitudes of human life, whether of 
 joy or sorrow, but is hallowed by religious 
 associations, which our beautiful services 
 have woven round each. We do not make 
 Ghurch Ordinances to be ends , but means 
 to ends. They are the pole on which the 
 healing serpent needs to be raised, not the 
 serpent itself. They are the vessels, which, 
 to the spiritual, contain the oil of grace, and 
 ought to be used, not for their own sake, 
 but for the grace they contain. 
 They are the scaffolding used in rearing 
 the temple of God : let us not pull that 
 scaffolding down, so long as it serves the 
 purpose designed, in a hasty spirit of reck- 
 less innovation. I yield to none in willing- 
 ness to feel, like Robert Hall, “ He who is 
 good enough for Christ is good enough for 
 me ; ” or with one greater, — “ Grace be 
 with all them that love our Lord Jesus 
 Christ in sincerity.” But our divisions for 
 mere trifles are the great reproach of Pro- 
 testantism, and stumbliug-block to the 
 advance of Christian truth. It is just be- 
 cause there is no essential difference 
 between the Church of England and 
 orthodox dissenters that their separation 
 from us becomes unjustifiable, and perhaps 
 sinful. If there were something clearly 
 
220 Guide to the Study of 
 
 wrong in our doctrines, then separation 
 from us would be a duty ; but if there be 
 not, then it is a sin — -for separation , if not 
 a duty , is a sin. They who, on trifling 
 scruples, break the unity of the existing 
 Church, tear asunder the seamless coat of 
 the Lord Jesus, which his enemies were by 
 divine interposition, constrained to spare. 
 Oh ! may the Lord dispose us all to outward 
 as well as inward unity ! When the latter 
 is fully realized by all who hold to the one 
 Head, the former will soon follow : Then, 
 and not till then, shall Jesus’ prayer for His 
 disciples to the Father be fulfilled, “that 
 they may be made perfect in one, that the 
 world may know that Thou hast sent Me.” 
 Many, however, of our dissenting 
 brethren, though they have inherited 
 secession from their fathers, are one with 
 us in heart and spirit. Venn mentions the 
 case of a friend, who, at the age of fifty, 
 after an honoured ministry, turned aside to 
 contentions, and instead of aiming his 
 blows, as heretofore, against sin and Satan, 
 began to level objections against the Church 
 of England, and drew up a paper of his ob- 
 jections. However, by God’s grace, he did 
 not leave the Church, dissuaded chiefly by 
 the advice of a dissenting minister, who 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 221 
 
 frankly laid before him the disadvantages 
 which he would have to encounter, and as- 
 sured him, if he were himself in the Church, 
 he should thank God for it, and remain in it. 
 
 A clerical friend of mine was present at 
 one of the meetings for prayer and Scrip- 
 ture-reading of Christians of various de- 
 nominations, which the late pious Lady 
 Powerscourt used to hold in her house. 
 The 1 20th Psalm was their subject that day. 
 When the 5th verse came to a dissenters 
 turn to comment on, he said : “ This verse 
 seems to me to be strikingly prophetical of 
 the Church of England, trammelled as she 
 is with the yoke of carnal ceremonies, so 
 that we may imagine one in her communion 
 exclaiming, ‘Woe’s me, that I sojourn in 
 Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of 
 Kedar ! ’ ” A Churchman present, after 
 the other was done, said : “ Our Christian 
 brother seems to me to have taken the 
 passage in too limited a sense. Perhaps 
 my own experience may throw light on 
 the subject. I left the Church of England 
 for some scruples, to join the Baptists ; 
 but I was not long among them before I 
 had good reason to cry, ‘ Woe’s me, that I 
 sojourn in Mesech ! ’ I then tried the 
 Wesleyans ; then the Independents ; then 
 
222 Guide to the Study of 
 
 the Plymouth brethren ; but in each case 
 successively I was constrained to say, “ O, 
 that I had the wings of a dove, then would 
 I flee away and be at rest.’ At last I 
 gladly returned to the Church, as the dove 
 flew back to Noah’s ark, when she found no 
 rest for the sole of her foot elsewhere. There 
 are, to be sure, many unclean beasts there : 
 still Noah, the Comforter, is there — and 
 where Noah is, I am well content to be.” 
 Still, whilst we cannot but deprecate the 
 evils of gratuitous separation, we must 
 thankfully acknowledge that God has over- 
 ruled even this in part for good, by pro- 
 voking us to a holy rivalry in Christian 
 good works. If it had not been for Wesley 
 and others, there might have been the 
 form of orthodoxy still, but it would pro- 
 bably have been cold and lifeless : and 
 though some have preached Christ of 
 contention, I, for one, at the risk of being 
 called a low-churchman, am not ashamed 
 to say, with Paul, “Notwithstanding — 
 Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice 
 yea, and will rejoice.” If, now, all that 
 love the Lord Jesus do not go hand in 
 hand to heaven, they will join hands and 
 hearts for ever when we arrive there. 
 Berridge quaintly said, “ The Lord washes 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 223 
 
 His people’s hearts here ; in heaven He 
 will also wash their brains.” As Hooper, 
 at the stake, said to his brother martyr, 
 with whom he had often disputed 
 as to the use of the white surplice : 
 “ Brother, we have been two in the white, 
 but we shall be one in the red.” It is a 
 truer unity to go to heaven under different 
 names, than when, with the same name, 
 one goes to heaven, the other to hell. 
 Henceforth, may we “endeavour to keep 
 the unity of the Spirit in the bond of 
 peace ; ” and so, beginning by seeking 
 unity of spirit, we shall end by forming 
 one body. Augustine’s rule was, “ In es- 
 sentials unity , in dubious points Liberty , 
 and in all things charity In the words 
 of the hymn, therefore — 
 
 “ Come, let us join our cheerful songs 
 With angels round the throne ; 
 
 Ten thousand thousand are their tongues, 
 
 But all their joys are one. 
 
 “ ‘ Worthy the Lamb that died,’ they cry, 
 
 ‘ To be exalted thus,’ 
 
 ‘Worthy the Lamb,’ our hearts reply, 
 
 ‘ For He was slain for us .’ 
 
 “ Let all creation join in one , 
 
 To bless the sacred name 
 
 Of Him who sits upon the throne, 
 
 And to adore the Lamb ! ” 
 
224 
 
 Guide to the Study of 
 
 Chapter fourth. 
 
 “It is evident unto all men diligently reading 
 Holy Scripture and ancient authors, that from the 
 Apostles’ time there have been these orders of 
 ministers in Christ’s Church : Bishops, Priests, and 
 Deacons .” — The Preface to the Form of Ordaining 
 and Consecrating. “ No man shall draw the article 
 aside any way but shall submit to it in the plain and 
 full meaning thereof ... in the literal and grammatical 
 sense. . . The Articles do contain the true doctrine 
 of the Church of England, agreeable to God’s 
 Word .” — Royal Declaration prefixed to Thirty -nine 
 Articles in 1628. 
 
 Ordination Services. 
 
 I propose in this chapter to discuss our 
 Ordination Services and our Thirty- 
 nine Articles. It would seem superfluous 
 to state, what common sense might sug- 
 gest to all, that the Church being a visible 
 society, organized for spiritual ends, of 
 necessity requires officers to superintend 
 its operations for the attainment of those 
 ends. But, alas ! there are to be found 
 men who cast overboard in religion the 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 225 
 
 good sense which guides them in worldly 
 affairs ; and whereas they admit the need 
 of authority in families, societies, and 
 kingdoms, they would have the members 
 of Christ’s Church on earth be as sheep 
 without any visible shepherd. Surely 
 South’s witty remark is applicable to the 
 maintainers of such extravagancies : 
 “ They have all the confusion of Babel 
 without the tongues. ” 
 
 It was the same writer, I think, who, 
 when some fanatic said that “God has no 
 need of our learning,” replied, “ Neither 
 has God need of our ignorance.” Especi- 
 ally is a learned ministry requisite in the 
 present day, since the original word of 
 inspiration is in languages unintelligible to 
 the unlearned, and the gift of miraculous 
 tongues has ceased, God leaving men to 
 the use of ordinary means. True piety 
 may be found in connexion with the 
 absence of learning, as learning also is 
 found often unaccompanied by religion. 
 Leighton well said, “ There could not be 
 too much learning, if it were but sanctified 
 adding, as he pointed to his books, “one 
 devout thought is worth them all.” But 
 we would wish to guard the jewel in a 
 good casket. 
 
 *5 
 
226 Guide to the Study of 
 
 It was in this sense, as referring to the 
 proper machinery of a visible Church, that 
 the elder Archbishop Magee made his 
 antithetic remark, “ Romanism is a Church 
 without a religion ; Dissent is a religion 
 without a Church.” Not that we deny 
 their membership in the visible Church ; 
 but we deny their outward organisation to 
 have that perfect adaptation which enters 
 into our full ideal of a Church. The 
 kernel is more precious than the husk, but 
 yet the husk is necessary to the kernel, to 
 shield it from hurt, and to promote its 
 growth, until the fruit is ripe ; and then the 
 husk is no longer needed. Just so, whilst 
 we regard the inward life of piety as the 
 main thing, we cannot expect, in the 
 ordinary course of God’s dealings, to 
 preserve and expand this without an out- 
 ward and well-governed visible Church. 
 When the end of all visible Churches has 
 been fully attained, then these latter shall 
 be dispensed with, and not till then : 
 “ when that which is perfect is come, then 
 that which is in part shall be done away.” 
 Therefore St. John writes, Rev. xxi. 22, 
 “ I saw no temple therein,” i.e. y in the 
 heavenly city. 
 
 We do not, however, deny that there 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 227 
 
 are other true and lawful ministries on 
 earth besides our Episcopal order, though 
 less perfect. All we maintain is, not that 
 episcopacy is necessary to the being of a 
 Church, but that it is desirable for its well- 
 being. Accordingly the Preface of our 
 Ordination Service states, “It is evident 
 unto all men diligently reading Holy 
 Scripture and ancient authors that from 
 the Apostles’ time there have been these 
 orders of ministers in Christ’s Church : 
 bishops, priests, and deacons.” This is 
 calmly to assert that our threefold order is 
 that which is most in accordance with 
 Scripture and with antiquity. We do not 
 here, as in the Sixth Article, appeal to 
 Scripture alone, just because we are not 
 asserting a truth necessary to salvation , 
 but one the expediency of which rests on 
 experience and the usage of the Church, as 
 set forth in Scripture and ancient authors. 
 This is very different from what many 
 assert, namely, that where these orders are 
 not, there is no true Church. To such we 
 would say, in behalf of those of our dissent- 
 ing brethren who are manifest to all men 
 as led by the Spirit of God, even as St. 
 Peter said of the believing Gentiles at the 
 Council of Jerusalem: “God, which 
 
228 Guide to the Study of 
 
 knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, 
 giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He 
 did unto us, and put no difference between 
 us and them, purifying their hearts by 
 faith. Now, therefore, why tempt ye 
 God ? ” “ Forasmuch as God gave them 
 
 the like gift as unto us who believed on 
 the Lord Jesus . Christ ; what was I, 
 that I could withstand God ? ” Acts xi. 
 17, xv. 8-10. When we acknowledge 
 such men as Bunyan, Robert Hall 
 and Chalmers to have been Christians, 
 dare we deny that they were members 
 of Christ’s Church even though the 
 visible section to which they belonged 
 was less perfectly constituted than our 
 own ? 
 
 It is a remarkable fact that in the con- 
 troversies with the Puritans in Elizabeth’s 
 reign, it was these latter (Cartwright 
 especially) that claimed exclusive Scriptural 
 prerogative for their elders and deacons ; 
 whilst the Episcopalians — Jewel, Whitgift, 
 Hooker, and others — contented themselves 
 with urging that the government by arch- 
 bishops and bishops is allowable by Scrip- 
 ture , besides being sanctioned by antiquity , 
 without ever taking up the ground of its 
 exclusive claims, or making the validity of 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 229 
 
 sacraments depend on its apostolical 
 succession. Whitgift ( Defence of Answer 
 to Admon , p. 520) thus writes: “The 
 usurper of the office has to answer for his 
 intrusion, but the sacrament is not thereby 
 defiled.” Bancroft, afterwards Bishop of 
 London, and Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 in 1 589, was the first to assert the inherent 
 right of the government by bishops, jure 
 divino . These latter pretensions are in 
 our day called high-church principles. To 
 me the only height these pretensions seem 
 to have is the pride which “goes before 
 a fall ” ; rather than having any solid 
 though humble foundation of Scriptural 
 safety. It is to lower , rather than to raise 
 the authority of the Church, to suppose 
 that its Head, in constituting it into a 
 society, left its members no power to vary 
 some of its regulations, so as to meet the 
 various exigencies which might arise. In 
 Lord Bacon’s words, “Those who allow 
 that the laws of a State require altering 
 from time to time, but would have every- 
 thing relating to a Church unalterably 
 fixed for ever, might as well maintain that 
 though houses and castles require to be 
 kept in repair, chapels and churches will 
 last for ever without any repair at all.” 
 
230 Guide to the Study 0/ 
 
 One chief excellence of our Church is that 
 it can admit without danger such changes 
 as altered circumstances may require. 
 “In these our doings (her Preface says) 
 we condemn no other nations, nor prescribe 
 anything but to our own people only.” 
 Again, the Thirty-fourth Article states, 
 “It is not necessary that traditions be in 
 all places one and utterly like ” ; and as to 
 lawful ministers, the Twenty-third (part of 
 which is verbatim the same as the Augs- 
 burg Confession) says, “ we ought to judge 
 those lawfully sent which be chosen to this 
 work by men who have public authority 
 given unto them in the congregation to 
 call and send ministers into the Lord’s 
 vineyard.” Men may quibble as they 
 please ; but the plain sense of this to most 
 readers will be that it does not limit a 
 lawful ministry to those episcopally or- 
 dained, or exclude non-episcopal Churches 
 from being true Churches in all essentials 
 of a Church, though irregularly formed at 
 first, and continuing in a less perfect order. 
 The necessity for episcopal ordination, even 
 in ministering in the Church of England y 
 was not invariably imposed until after the 
 Restoration. (Strype, Ann ., v. ii. B. i. ch. 
 7, and B. ii. 11.) But even this does not 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 231 
 
 impose the same necessity as indispens- 
 able to constitute foreign Churches true 
 Churches. The Fifty-fifth Canon of 1604 
 desires us to pray for the Church of Scot- 
 land (then Presbyterian, though possibly 
 an Episcopal Church was prospectively 
 intended) in the bidding prayer. We are 
 in justice, as well as charity, to mark the 
 difference between valid and regular 
 ordination ; ours is both, theirs is the 
 former, and not the latter. The Twenty- 
 fifth Article declares that ordination is not 
 to be counted for a sacrament ; if not, then 
 it must be a tradition or ceremony : and 
 these the Thirty-fourth Article pronounces 
 “not necessary to be in all places one and 
 utterly like.” Therefore Episcopal ordina- 
 tion is not absolutely necessary, however 
 desirable, in “every particular or national 
 Church.” Whitgift writes (. Defence of 
 Ans. to Admon , p. 21 1), “ Any one certain 
 form or kind of external government, per- 
 petually to be observed, is nowhere in the 
 Scripture prescribed to the Church.” 
 Jerome says that a bishop and a priest 
 or presbyter, is all one ; and IWhitgift, 
 Ussher, and many others, have main- 
 tained that they are the same order , only 
 differing in degree . To settle this 
 
232 Guide to the Study of 
 
 question it would be well first to define 
 terms. 
 
 For many years, it is well-known, the 
 Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, 
 with the bishops at its head, employed 
 German missionaries having Presbyterian, 
 and not Episcopal ordination. This was 
 in the true spirit of our Catholic church, 
 when Episcopally-ordained ministers were 
 not procurable. 
 
 Lastly, how different from the narrow- 
 minded views of “ the visible Church ” of 
 extreme Anglo-Catholics is the Nineteenth 
 Article, which defines it to be “a congrega- 
 tion of faithful men, in the which the pure 
 Word of God is preached, and the sacra- 
 ments be duly ministered according to 
 Christ’s ordinance in all things requisite to 
 the same.” (Observe, when we say The 
 visible Church, it is as when we say “ The 
 State ” — “ The magistrate ” — meaning, 
 Each particular Church.) This puts the 
 preaching of the pure Word as the first 
 essential to constitute a visible Church : 
 which at once cuts off Rome from being a 
 true member of the visible Church, not- 
 withstanding its Episcopal government. 
 And yet Romanising “ Anglo-Catholics ” 
 make the latter so much more important 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 233 
 
 than purity of doctrine that they allow 
 idolatrous Rome to be a sister-branch of 
 the Catholic Church, but separate from it, 
 and give over to “ the uncovenanted 
 mercies ” all un-episcopal Protestant 
 Churches, however orthodox. I am con- 
 vinced of the Scriptural character of our 
 threefold order — bishops, priests, and 
 deacons ; but as the arguments for it from 
 Scripture are scattered intimations , rather 
 than positive precepts or proofs, and as our 
 Church polity is at best an adaptation , not 
 a transcript , of the New Testament model, 
 we dare not unchurch those who have all 
 other marks of true Church membership, 
 save Episcopacy. “ I conceive,” says 
 Bishop Cosin, that the power of ordination 
 was restrained to bishops rather by 
 apostolical practice, and the perpetual 
 custom of the Church, than by any absolute 
 precept of Christ or His apostles. 
 
 It is a striking proof of the inspiration 
 of the New Testament that its writers 
 should have been kept back from doing 
 that which would have been so natural to 
 them if not guided by the Holy Ghost, 
 namely, laying down positive rules (such 
 as they had always been familiar with in 
 the Old Testament) for a threefold order 
 
234 Guide to the Study of 
 
 of sacerdotal or sacrificing ministers, 
 answering to the Mosaic threefold order — 
 Levites, Priests, and a High Priest. 
 
 As to the apostolical succession of 
 ministers, it is an undoubted fact, as as- 
 serted of the Christian ministry generally, 
 i.e.y in other words, at no time, since Christ, 
 has the Church been without a continuous 
 ministry, which, like the institution of the 
 Lord’s Day and the Lord’s Supper, is a 
 standing proof, linking the whole Christian 
 Church of our day, through successive 
 ages, with the Church constituted first by 
 the Lord Jesus and His apostles. But 
 as to this or that individual minister, it 
 would be impossible to prove he has re- 
 ceived his episcopal orders in an unbroken 
 line from the apostles. Nor is there Scrip- 
 ture warrant for asserting that, unless he 
 can prove such an unbroken succession, the 
 sacraments administered by him lose their 
 validity. The great authority, Hooker, 
 admits that there may be sometimes, as in 
 the case of Beza, just and sufficient reason 
 for allowing ordination made without 
 bishops : “Men may be extraordinarily but 
 allowably admitted in two ways into 
 spiritual functions in the Church. One is, 
 when God doth of Himself raise up any 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 235 
 
 one ; another is, when necessity doth con- 
 strain us to leave the usual ways of the 
 Church, which otherwise we would willingly 
 keep.” “Therefore we are not simply 
 without exception to urge a lineal descent 
 of power from the apostles by continued 
 succession of bishops in every effectual 
 ordination.” Accordingly, at the Reforma- 
 tion, liberty was often granted to foreign 
 ministers possessing only Presbyterian 
 orders to take part in the service of our 
 Church. An Act passed in the thirteenth 
 year of Elizabeth, a.d. 1570 (c. 12), re- 
 cognises the validity of Presbyterian and 
 foreign orders, requiring only that those so 
 ordained, in order to hold ecclesiastical 
 offices in our Church, should subscribe to 
 the Articles in presence of the bishop. 
 Whittingham, Dean of Durham, 1577, was 
 cited by Sandys, Archbishop of York, on 
 the ground of his having only Genevan 
 Presbyterian orders. Hutton, Dean, after- 
 wards Archbishop, of York, who presided 
 at the Queen’s Commission, defended him, 
 saying, “It would be ill taken by the 
 godly at home and abroad, that we allow 
 of popish massing priests in our ministry, 
 and disallow of ministers made in a re- 
 formed Church.” It would be well if the 
 
236 Guide to the Study of 
 
 same spirit of love always prevailed, and 
 that Christians, in St. Augustine’s words, 
 “should take heed, lest with the tempest 
 of strife the brightness of charity be 
 darkened.” 
 
 Let not my dissenting brethren, however, 
 mistake me as though I were arguing that 
 it is immaterial what orders of ministry 
 we have. I see in the New Testament 
 that the threefold orders, which have been 
 the usage handed down from the age of 
 the Church nearest the apostles, were, as 
 we might have expected from so ancient a 
 custom, not only not opposed by the 
 scattered hints as to Church government, 
 in Holy Writ, but rather favoured and 
 sanctioned by them. 
 
 Three fold Orders, Deacons, Presby- 
 ters, Bishops. 
 
 The order of deacons ( servants , ministers, 
 from SiaKoveiv, to serve) we find alluded to 
 by St. Paul in many passages ; even grant- 
 ing “ the seven ” spoken of in Acts vi. 
 were ordained primarily for the distribution 
 of alms. And though Presbyters (i.e., 
 elders) are called also bishops (the latter 
 term implying the office, the former the 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 237 
 
 dignity ), yet there was undoubtedly an 
 order above them, namely that of the 
 apostles. Thus the office of bishop was 
 older than the name “ bishop.” In Scrip- 
 ture the office of the apostles is only once 
 called a “bishopric,” namely, in Acts i. 20, 
 when another is elected to succeed the 
 traitor Judas in his forfeited bishopric. 
 Elsewhere the name bishop (i.e., overseer) 
 is applied to the second order, i.e., presby- 
 ters, exclusively. 
 
 The apostles, we grant, left no successors 
 behind in their peculiar function of being 
 witnesses to the resurrection, with a special 
 inspiration, which enabled them to impart 
 miraculous gifts to others. But Timothy 
 at Ephesus, and Titus in Crete, discharged, 
 for as long as need required , that office of 
 supervision, which became a permanent 
 one in the case of those afterwards called 
 bishops of particular new Churches. This 
 temporary duty of Timothy and Titus was 
 part of their office as “evangelists” (2 
 Tim. iv. 5 : “ Do the work of an evan- 
 gelist ”), a missionary office then existing 
 for the foundation of Churches, and con- 
 solidation of those already formed (Eph. 
 iv. 11). Thus the evangelist overseer was 
 perhaps the transition stage between the 
 
238 Guide to the Study of 
 
 apostles of the Church at large and the 
 bishops , afterwards attached permanently 
 to particular Churches. It was in St. Pauls 
 latest Epistles that Timothy in Ephesus, 
 and Titus in Crete, were entrusted by St. 
 Paul as Vicars Apostolic, with power to 
 ordain bishops or elders, and deacons, in 
 their respective dioceses. 
 
 Moreover' from the evident superiority 
 James held over the other apostles at 
 Jerusalem, as is shown in the council 
 noticed in Acts xv., it is reasonably in- 
 ferred he was the first bishop of that city, 
 the mother Church of Christendom : which, 
 by the way, utterly overthrows the Romish 
 figment of St. Peter’s and Rome’s suprem- 
 acy. Rome, being the daughter of the 
 Church of Antioch, and that again the 
 daughter of the Church of Jerusalem, cannot 
 be “the mother of all Churches,” unless a 
 grand-daughter can be mother of her grand- 
 mother. 
 
 One fact of history is certain, that all 
 the records we have from ancient writers 
 concur in establishing that this threefold 
 order was the universal organization of 
 the Church from the age next after the 
 apostles downwards ; and this equally 
 among heretics, as, for instance, the Arians, 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 239 
 
 and orthodox Christians. It was not an 
 opinion so much as broached, earlier than 
 the fourth century, that bishops and pres- 
 byters should be considered on a level, and 
 that there should be no order above pres- 
 byters and deacons. It was /Erius, a 
 presbyter-monk, and a semi-Arian, who 
 first maintained Presbyterian principles 
 throughout Pontus and Cappadocia in that 
 century, and was therefore regarded as a 
 heretic. Even Calvin and Beza admitted 
 the antiquity and importance of the office 
 of bishop, as primus inter pares ; and re- 
 gretted the necessity, as they thought, 
 which made them dispense with it. It 
 is fair however, to state that in the 
 ancient Churches of Ireland and Iona, 
 the bishops seem (if we are to judge 
 by their great numbers) to have been 
 mere presbyter-bishops, but under the 
 control of a presbyter-abbot (Bede, Eccl. 
 H; 3 > 4 ). 
 
 “ The teaching of the Twelve Apostles,” 
 which internal evidence shows to date 
 somewhere between 80 and no a.d., 
 mentions two classes of ministers: (1) 
 Itinerant and temporary, — the apostles, 
 and the prophets, and evangelists ; s (2) 
 local and permanent-bishops, i.e ., pres- 
 
240 Guide to the Study of 
 
 byters, and deacons. In Philippians i, 1, 
 bishop-presbyters and deacons only are 
 mentioned. See also in the Epistle of 
 Clement of Rome, 95 a.d. The ministry 
 of special gifts of the Spirit preceded the 
 ministry of order. (1 Cor. xii. 28; Eph. 
 iv. 11.) “Pastors and teachers” became 
 ultimately the ordinary and stationary 
 ministers. “ The episcopate was formed, 
 not out of the apostolical order by locali- 
 zation, but out of the presbyteral order by 
 elevation ” (Bishop Lightfoot). “ Bishops 
 are superior now to Presbyters, more owing 
 to custom than to any ordinance of the 
 Lord” (Jerome on Tit. i. 5). 
 
 The destruction of Jerusalem, which had 
 been the original abode of Christians and 
 their centre of unity, and the death of the 
 authoritative teachers of the Gospel who 
 had been the associates of the Lord Jesus, 
 were the occasion of the development of 
 episcopacy between 70 and 100 a.d. See 
 Bishop Lightfoot’s essay on episcopacy 
 in Appendix to his commentary on the 
 Philippians. Deprived of personal and 
 local ties of union, and in danger of schism, 
 Christians naturally adopted, in Gentile 
 Churches of Asia Minor where John 
 ministered, episcopacy, which already had 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 241 
 
 a precedent in James’ presidency (Acts xii. 
 17, xv. 19, xxi. 18) over the elders and 
 Jewish Church at Jerusalem. Timothy 
 and Titus, whose superintendence was 
 general and occasional, form the connect- 
 ing link between the apostles and the 
 bishops, whose office was local and per- 
 manent. By the beginning of the second 
 century Episcopacy was fully established. 
 Ignatius, second Bishop of Antioch, writing 
 to Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, says, “ Let 
 nothing be done without thy consent.” 
 The term “ Catholic Church ” occurs first 
 in Ignatius’ letters to Smyrna. Tertullian 
 is the first to assert sacerdotal claims for 
 the ministry. * Victor, Pope of Rome, 
 marks a new era claiming universal 
 obedience for the Roman See. 
 
 “ Bishop ” was the name of a Gentile 
 office; the “Presbyters” or elders apper- 
 tained to the Jewish synagogue. As the 
 appointment of deacons issued in St. 
 Stephen’s martyrdom and The subsequent 
 persecution, so the persecution in which 
 St. James was martyred issued in the 
 scattering of the Twelve and the adoption 
 of the Presbytery (Acts xi. 30). The 
 “ angels ” of the seven Churches seem to 
 be ideal personifications of the several 
 
 1 6 
 
242 Guide to the Study of 
 
 Churches rather than individual bishops or 
 regular Church officers. 
 
 That no human priest now offers literal 
 sacrifice is proved by Hebrews vii. 24. 
 “But Jesus, because He continues ever, 
 hath a priesthood which passes not from one 
 to another .” Whatever Hebrews xiii. 10 
 (“We have an altar”) means, it cannot 
 mean the Lord’s Table, nor an actual altar ; 
 for the context shows that the heart is 
 established by grace and not by altar meats 
 (v. 9). The sacrifice of the Christian is 
 “praise and doing good” (v. 16). The 
 whole body of Christians are the sacerdotal 
 priests (1 Pet. ii. 5, 9; Rev. i. 6, v. 10). 
 The minister’s function is representative , 
 without being vicarial , He is the mouth- 
 piece and the delegate of a spiritually 
 priestly race. To conclude, in Lightfoot’s 
 words, “If the facts do not allow us to 
 unchurch other Christian communities 
 differently organized, they at least justify 
 our jealous adhesion to a polity traceable 
 to apostolic times.” 
 
 That bishops often have abused their 
 powers is no argument against the institu- 
 tion. Presbyteries, too, have often abused 
 theirs. Lord Digby truly told the Long 
 Parliament, “ If we extirpate episcopacy, 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 243 
 
 I am confident that, instead of every bishop 
 we put down in a diocese, we shall set up 
 a pope in every parish.” The abuse of a 
 principle is never a just argument against 
 its use. It was a sensible remark of the 
 French ambassador, Rosni (afterwards 
 Duke de Sully,) to James I., as to our 
 solemn and decent order of Church discip- 
 line : If the reformed Churches in France 
 
 had kept the same advantage of order and 
 decency, I am confident there would have 
 been many thousand Protestants in that 
 country more than there are.” And 
 though Rome makes the Scriptural 
 machinery of a well-ordered Church 
 government subservient to the teaching of 
 unscriptural doctrine, this so far from being 
 an argument against , is rather one for our 
 applying such an admirable engine to its 
 legitimate purpose, the maintenance of a 
 due discipline in connection with a sound 
 faith. Unless therefore, .dissenters can 
 bring unequivocal proof from Scripture 
 that Episcopacy is essentially and neces- 
 sarily contrary to Bible teaching, they 
 should hesitate about the lawfulness of 
 separation from the national Church, on 
 the grounds of mere preference for another 
 form of Church government. The Lord 
 
244 Guide to the Study of 
 
 Jesus gives no sanction to fastidious 
 separation. Though he declared against 
 the laxity of doctrine and practice in the 
 Jewish teachers, yet He remained in com* 
 munion with the Jewish Church, and taught 
 the same to His disciples (Matt, xxiii. 2, 3) 
 “ The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses’ 
 seat : all, therefore whatsoever they bid 
 you, observe; but do not after their works.” 
 And though I do not mean to say any 
 visible Church rests, as to its external 
 polity, on the sam ^positive Divine authority 
 as the Mosaic Church, yet I do think no 
 slight objections to doctrine or discipline are 
 enough to justify separation from the 
 Church of England, the original and apos- 
 tolical depositary of the Christian religion 
 in this country, planted long before the 
 corruptions of popery. 
 
 Listen to a testimony that must have 
 weight with dissenters, Baxter — “ I am 
 persuaded that all the arguments of all the 
 papist doctors have not been so effectual 
 to make papists here as the multitude of 
 sects among ourselves.” “ Suppose,” said 
 another, “you could not remain in the 
 Church of England without doing what 
 God forbids, or omitting what God posi- 
 tively commands, then you ought to 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 245 
 
 separate from it. But blessed be God it 
 is far otherwise. And therefore I have 
 been from my youth a member and 
 minister of the Church of England ; and I 
 desire not to separate from it, until my 
 soul separates from my body.” Men 
 ought to tolerate much before they make 
 a schism in Christ’s visible body. Fault- 
 finding is easy : and there are blemishes 
 to be found in every visible Church. It is 
 unreasonable to expect perfection in the 
 ordinances of fallible men. That in the 
 main they should be agreeable to Scripture 
 and edifying to the people, is all we can 
 fairly expect. These two requisites are to 
 be found in our Church, in as great a de- 
 gree at least as in any existing visible 
 Church. May the Lord open the eyes of 
 all to the need of unity — not unity in error 
 such as is Rome’s boasted unity (that of 
 “the blind leading the blind, and both 
 falling into the ditch ”) — but unity in the 
 truth, and love of Christ — unity beginning 
 by the inward oneness of the Spirit, and 
 manifesting itself by the outward oneness 
 of the body. 
 
 To return to the Ordination Services. 
 No man can be ordained a deacon of our 
 Church without notice being read in the 
 
246 Guide to the Study of 
 
 parish Church to which he belongs, and 
 without public invitation to any who can, 
 to substantiate any charge against the 
 candidate before the bishop, disqualifying 
 him for the office of deacon. If unfit men 
 therefore, are ordained, the blame rests 
 with the laity who brought no objection, 
 rather than with the Church discipline 
 which took every reasonable precaution. 
 “Alas,” writes the Rev. T. Scott, the well 
 known commentator, “ men will entrust 
 their immortal souls to such men, as no 
 one of them would employ even to take 
 care of his sheep.” 
 
 Besides the candidate has to produce 
 testimonials of good conduct for three 
 years previous, signed by three beneficed 
 clergymen, and also from the college where 
 he was educated. He must be twenty- 
 three years of age ; twenty-four is required 
 for priest’s orders, and thirty for the office 
 of a bishop. The archdeacon also, in the 
 face of the congregation, declares to the 
 bishop that after inquiry and examination 
 he thinks the candidates “ meet, for 
 their learning and godly conversation, to 
 exercise their ministry duly to the honour 
 of God, and the edifying of His Church.” 
 
 The title “ Reverend Father in God,” 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 247 
 
 addressed to the bishop, is objected to as 
 opposed to the Lord’s words in Matt, xxiii., 
 “ Call no man your Father on earth : for 
 One is your Father, which is in heaven.” 
 But this can only mean that slavish pro- 
 stration of mind which the Jews showed to 
 their rabbis, and the modern Papists show 
 to the Papa or Pope. To be sure, Anglo- 
 Catholics claim something of the same 
 kind for bishops ; but this is only when the 
 bishops agree with their own opinions. 
 When they disagree, Romanisers without 
 scruple brand bishops as heretics, and, if 
 they could, would excommunicate them. 
 St. Paul’s words to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 
 iv. 1 5) prove that our Lord’s precept is not 
 to be understood literally , and that we 
 have an apostle’s authority for using the 
 term of respect “Father” towards our 
 bishops. He says, “ Though ye have 
 many instructors in Christ, yet have ye 
 not many fathers ; for in Christ Jesus I 
 have begotten you through the Gospel.” 
 The candidate takes the oath of supre- 
 macy ; not that we give our Sovereign 
 “the ministering 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 the Holy Scriptures by 
 
248 Guide to the Study of 
 
 God Himself” (Article xxxvii.), namely, 
 “ to rule all States, ecclesiastical or tem- 
 poral.” We also hereby abjure the Pope’s 
 daring claim of unlimited control over our 
 Sovereign and her subjects. 
 
 The Candidate then solemnly declares, 
 not as a fanatic that is led by imaginary and 
 sensible impulses, but as one having the 
 silent witness of the Spirit of Christ in his 
 heart, his “ trust that he is moved by the 
 Spirit of God to take upon him this office 
 for the promoting of God’s glory and the 
 edifying of His people” — a declaration 
 which gives all the guarantee the Church 
 can ask, if true, — but if false, one that shall 
 rise in awful judgment against the unfaith- 
 ful pastor, when the Lord, “ the chief Shep- 
 herd,” shall say, “ Where is the flock that 
 was given thee — thy beautiful flock ? ” 
 (Jer. xiii. 20). The candidate also declares 
 that he thinks he is truly called, according 
 to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, to 
 this ministry. (For God makes it a mark 
 of false teachers, “ I have not sent these 
 prophets, yet they ran,” Jer. xxiii. 21. 
 And St. Paul asks, “How shall they 
 preach, except they be sent ? ” Rom. x. 1 5. 
 Many a one is called according to his own 
 will, and that of man, but not “ according 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 249 
 
 to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ”) 
 Above all, that he unfeignedly believes in 
 all the canonical Scriptures of the Old and 
 New Testaments. They are called canoni- 
 cal, as being the Canon or Rule of the 
 Church’s faith. These Scriptures he en- 
 gages “diligently to read” to the people; 
 and moreover, “to search for the sick, 
 poor, and impotent of the parish,” for the 
 relief of their temporal and spiritual wants ; 
 and to “form and fashion the life of him- 
 self and his family according to the doctrine 
 of Christ, so as to be an example to the 
 flock ; ” finally, to obey “ the godly admoni- 
 tions of his ordinary ” — - i.e ., the superior to 
 whom the regular jurisdiction belongs, who 
 is usually the bishop. Then the candidate 
 receives the office of deacon, by imposition 
 of hands, in the name of the Holy Trinity; 
 and the bishop, also delivering a New 
 Testament to him, adds, “Take thou 
 authority to read the Gospel, and preach 
 in the Church of God.” 
 
 Let me add, as to preaching, George 
 Herbert’s answer to those who would have 
 ministers rather to preach the good sermons 
 of others, than the less able ones they can 
 compose themselves : “Though the world 
 is full of such composures, yet every man’s 
 
250 Guide to the Study of 
 
 own is fittest, readiest, and most savoury 
 to him.” But, without care, study, and 
 prayer, our sermons will be comparatively 
 profitless. This holds good, as much in 
 extempore as in written sermons. It is 
 told of Simeon, that a young clergyman 
 consulted him, saying, “I do not know 
 how it is that I find I do not preach extem- 
 pore as I would wish. I suppose it must 
 be owing to want of faith." “ Ah, dear 
 friend,” replied Simeon, “justification is by 
 faith , but extempore speaking is by works." 
 At the same time, the prayer of faith alone 
 can crown our works of preparation with 
 success in the pulpit. And the minister s 
 life must be a living commentary on his 
 sermons: The sermon seldom lasts more 
 
 than an hour ; his life preaches all the week. 
 
 After the deacon has passed the proba- 
 tion of a year in that office, he is admissible 
 to the Priesthood. This latter term, 
 though in derivation the same word as 
 presbytery, has, unfortunately, become 
 equivocal. Strictly, Priest means simply 
 a presbyter, i.e., elder, originally chosen 
 with regard to age (like our word alderman , 
 which at first meant merely an eldermari)> 
 but afterwards implying rather the dignity 
 of the office than the age. When corrup- 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 251 
 
 tions crept into the church, and a false 
 expediency-principle led Christians to re- 
 present their ministers as sacrificers, like 
 those of the Jews and heathens, instead of 
 preachers of the Gospel, which was all 
 that the New Testament warranted, the 
 original meaning of the word Priest was 
 forgotten, and the new sense was given it 
 of “ a sacrificer,” who acted as mediator 
 between God and man, with the power of 
 forgiving sins, and offering sacrifice in the 
 Lord’s Supper for the people. Let us 
 ever remember, the Church of England 
 uses the word Priest, not in the latter 
 sense, but in its strict meaning, presbyter , 
 or elder of the Church. “ Sacrifice,” says 
 Hooker, “is no part of our Church’s 
 ministry.” Preaching is the peculiar func- 
 tion of the Gospel minister (1 Cor. ix. 13, 
 14), as waiting at the altar and sacrificing 
 was that of the ancient Jewish priest ; the 
 Romish and Anglo-Catholic “ priest ” has 
 usurped the office of Him who is “ a High 
 Priest for ever,” and who “has by one 
 offering perfected for ever them that are 
 sanctified.” “This man, because he con- 
 tinueth ever, hath a priesthood zvhich passeth 
 not fro 7 n 07 ie to ariotherC Margin Lleb. 
 vii. 24. 
 
252 Guide to the Study of 
 
 The charge of the bishop to the candi- 
 date is most impressive, and ought to be 
 often read and prayed over by all ministers. 
 Their office, it states to be, as “ messengers, 
 watchmen, and stewards of the Lord, to 
 teach and premonish, to feed and provide 
 for the Lord’s family ; to seek for Christ’s 
 sheep that are dispersed abroad, and for 
 His children who are in the midst of this 
 naughty world, that they may be saved 
 through Christ for ever.” Then it reminds 
 them of “how great a treasure is com- 
 mitted” to them, even “the sheep of 
 Christ, bought with His death, His Spouse, 
 and His Body.” “If, then, it shall happen 
 the same Church, or any member thereof, 
 to take any hurt by your negligence, ye 
 know the greatness of the fault, and also 
 the horrible punishment that will ensue. 
 Wherefore, never cease your labour, care, 
 and diligence until you have done all that 
 lieth in you to bring all unto agreement in 
 the faith and ripeness of age in Christ.” 
 Then they are urged to show themselves 
 dutiful and thankful to the Lord, who hath 
 placed them in so high a dignity. For, as 
 Bishop Wilson remarks, “ A pastor should 
 act with the dignity of a man who acts by 
 the authority of God ; ” “ not as lords over 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 253 
 
 God’s heritage, but ensamples to the flock.” 
 “Non magisterium ,” says Bucer, “ sed 
 ministerium : ” their true dignity consists 
 in seeking, not their own, but Christ’s 
 honour, and the salvation of souls. 
 
 As they cannot have the mind and will 
 of themselves, they are urged to pray 
 earnestly for God’s Holy Spirit. Even as 
 it was said once to a faithful and successful 
 minister, “You would not reap as you do 
 in the pulpit, if you did not sow in the 
 closet.” Especially does the bishop urge 
 them to be studious in learning the Scrip- 
 tures, and for this purpose, “to forsake 
 and set aside (as much as they may) all 
 worldly cares and studies, to apply them- 
 selves wholly to this one thing, and draw 
 all their cares and studies this way.” It 
 was a favourite saying of Felix Neff (the 
 devoted pastor in the High Alps), “There 
 are three books which a minister ought to 
 read daily, the book of nature, the book of 
 the human heart, and the Bible.” St. 
 Paul’s words, 1 Tim. iv. 15, ought to be 
 continually before that minister who 
 “ wants to make full proof of his ministry,” 
 in the Spirit of the bishop’s charge : “ Give 
 thyself wholly to these things ” (i<tOi ev 
 tovtois — “ Be in these things : ” Let your 
 
254 
 
 Guide to the Study of 
 
 very being be in them). Much in this spirit, 
 Neff, shortly before his death, said, “ I feel 
 as if I should wish to preach these things 
 even in Paradise ! ” 
 
 The candidates then solemnly declare 
 their persuasion that the Holy Scriptures 
 contain all doctrine necessary for salvation, 
 and their determination to teach nothing 
 but what may be proved by Scripture. 
 Here, then, we have in opposition to 
 Romish and Tractarian tradition, our 
 Church setting forth the Bible as the only 
 rule of faith, which was the chief pillar of 
 the Reformation. The Candidate then 
 promises, the Lord being his Helper, 
 “with all faithful diligence to drive away 
 all erroneous and strange doctrines con- 
 trary to God’s Word,” and “both publicly 
 and privately to warn the sick and the 
 whole alike, as occasion shall be given ; ” 
 also to be “ diligent in prayers, and read- 
 ing the Scriptures, and in such studies as 
 help to the knowledge of the same, laying 
 aside the study of the world and the 
 flesh.” 
 
 Then follows the bishop’s prayer aloud, 
 succeeded by secret prayers of the people 
 in silence ; then, in alternate responses, a 
 hymn, which has been attributed to St. 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 255 
 
 Ambrose, entreating for the gift of the 
 Holy Spirit, that, as the candidate has 
 been given the will , so he may receive the 
 power , to perform, and that so God may 
 accomplish the work He has begun in 
 him. 
 
 I cannot refrain from quoting the beauti- 
 ful prayer of the Waldenses, in an ordina- 
 tion of five pasteurs, at La Tour, which is 
 a good comment on our own corresponding 
 prayer : “ Lord, these Thy servants, pre- 
 senting themselves before Thee in deep 
 humility, acknowledging their utter in- 
 ability to do anything of themselves, but 
 feel that Thy strength is made perfect in 
 their weakness. O merciful God, be en- 
 treated for them. Great God, our Saviour 
 Jesus Christ, it is for the souls which Thou 
 hast redeemed with Thy blood — it is for 
 the Church which Thou hast called Thy 
 Spouse, and which must appear before 
 Thee pure and without blemish. Holy 
 Spirit, descend upon these Thy brethren, 
 as Thou didst formerly upon Thy Apostles. 
 Spirit of strength, sustain them ; Spirit of 
 light, illumine them ; Spirit of holiness, 
 durify them ; Spirit of prayer, teach 
 them to pray, as Thou commandest 
 them.” 
 
256 
 
 Guide to the Study of 
 
 Form of Ordaining. 
 
 In the act of ordination the bishop and 
 the priests present lay their hands severally 
 upon the head of each candidate, according 
 to the mode St. Paul implies he used in or- 
 daining Timothy, namely, by putting on of 
 his hands (2 Tim. i. 6), with the laying on 
 of the hands of the presbytery (1 Tim. iv. 
 14) — thus proving the scriptural sobriety 
 of our Church in associating presbyters 
 with bishops in ordaining, as if the power 
 of ordination was not inherent in bishops 
 by exclusive Divine right. The Bishop at 
 the same time says, “ Receive the Holy 
 Ghost for the office of a priest ; whose sins 
 thou dost forgive, they are forgiven,” etc. 
 In this the Church, at the risk of these 
 words being abused, as they have been by 
 some, prefers not to be wiser than her Lord 
 but simply to use his very words employed 
 in His commission to the eleven Apostles 
 ( and those with them) after his resurrec- 
 tion. If it be said, this commission was 
 limited to the apostles in its full sense of 
 the miraculous discerning of spirits, which 
 enabled them to judge of the sincerity of 
 the penitent, and absolve or condemn ac- 
 cordingly, we admit its limitation to the 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 257 
 
 twelve ; but in His ordinary operations, the 
 promise of the Holy Ghost’s presence was 
 given to the church of our age, and of every 
 age, ever since the Lord Jesus said, “ Lo, 
 I am with you always to the end of the 
 world;” “I will pray the Father, and he 
 shall give you another Comforter, that he 
 may abide with you for ever.” In the or- 
 dination words of our bishops, we by faith 
 plead Christ’s words in confident prayer, 
 that He who by these words first fitted His 
 Apostles for their work, may also, by the 
 same Holy Ghost, qualify our ministers for 
 the same important function, including 
 therein the authoritative ministerial declar- 
 ation of God's forgiveness to the believing 
 penitent. The words that follow explain 
 how the absolving power is to be exercised : 
 “ Be thou a faithful dispenser of the Word 
 of God and of His holy sacraments .” It is 
 by the Word preached, and the sacraments 
 as the seals, consciences are eased. God 
 has promised to give His Holy Spirit to 
 them that ask Him. Here, as elsewhere, 
 our Church goes on the charitable presump- 
 tion (as she is bound, not being a judge of 
 hearts) that all have done their part, as they 
 profess to have done — that during the 
 Ember week, which always precedes the 
 
 '7 
 
258 Guide to the Study of 
 
 Ordination Sunday, the whole Church has 
 prayed for the outpouring of the Spirit — 
 that the candidate is truly moved by the 
 same Spirit, as he says, to take on him the 
 office — that the bishop and whole congre- 
 gation are sincere in their prayers. It 
 would be an utter want of faith, presuming 
 all this, to doubt God’s answer to prayer, 
 or to hesitate, in humble trust to appropri- 
 ate the Lord’s own words, “ Receive ye 
 the Holy Ghost.” The bishop, in using 
 these words, does not pretend to impart 
 the Holy Ghost, but assures the faithful 
 candidate of the assistance of the Holy 
 Spirit which God promised and also 
 prays that it may be given him for the 
 effectual discharge of his ministerial 
 duties. It is remarkable (St. John xx. 
 22) that the Lord’s word’s, “ Receive ye 
 the Holy Ghost,” did not impart the 
 Holy Ghost at that time , but gave the 
 promise of it (Luke xxiv. 49), which was 
 not fulfilled till the day of Pentecost. So 
 the same formula at ordination is in- 
 tended to be partly promissory , partly 
 precatory. 
 
 The Roman Catholic authority on 
 ordinals, Morinus, has preserved nineteen 
 ancient Latin ordinals, and Martene 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 259 
 
 eighteen, all mutually differing. Out of 
 these thirty-seven (a.d. 560 to 1300) only 
 two, and these the latest (one of the two 
 only in the margin), contain the words, 
 “ Receive ye the Holy Ghost ; Whosoever 
 sins,” etc. Therefore they are not abso- 
 lutely needed for a valid ordination, for they 
 were not used for the first 1,200 years. 
 Compare Luke xxiv. 33, 36-39, 47, 49, 
 which explain John xx. 19, 20, 22, 23, as 
 a commission, given not to the eleven 
 alone, but also to “ the disciples with them.” 
 It is the Charter of the whole Christian 
 Church, not of the ministry exclusively. 
 The occasion in Luke xxiv. and John xx. 
 is the same, and Jesus’ commission (to 
 preach authoritatively remission of sins in 
 His name) and promise (of the Holy 
 Spirit) are the same, though expressed in 
 different words, and His audience the 
 same. 
 
 Next, the bishop delivers the whole 
 Bible into the hands of the candidate, as it 
 was only the Hew Testament in the case of 
 the deacon ; thus proving that the ministry 
 of the Word is his chief function. In this 
 our Church walks in the steps of the 
 Church in its purest days, when, at the 
 Council of Nice a.d. 325, the^Bible was 
 
260 Guide to the Study of 
 
 elevated on a throne in the midst, to be 
 the arbitrator of all points at issue. What 
 a contrast to Rome’s ordination wherein 
 the paten and chalice are handed with the 
 words, “ Receive thou power to offer 
 sacrifice for the living and for the dead,” 
 etc. Oh ! we want a Bible-loving, Christ- 
 honouring ministry. The Church, in her 
 Prayer-book, has taken all the precautions 
 she could ; the fault lies with the individuals 
 of the laity and clergy. “ Religion,” says 
 Hooker, “without a spiritual ministry is 
 unable to plant itself.” “Nothing,” says 
 another, “is more indecent than for a 
 dead preacher to speak to dead sinners 
 the living truths of the living God ! ” Can 
 we wonder if God does not honour such a 
 ministry by the conversion of souls? It 
 was a memorable speech of Archbishop 
 Williams, who had held the high office of 
 Lord Keeper, “ I have passed through 
 many places of honour, both in Church 
 and State, more than any of my order 
 in England for some time ; but were I 
 assured that by my preaching I had 
 converted but one soul unto God, I 
 should herein take more comfort than 
 in all the honours ever bestowed on 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 261 
 
 The Consecration of Bishops and 
 Archbishops 
 
 It is needless to repeat the arguments 
 already given in favour of Episcopacy. 
 We merely ask, with Hooker, “ If pastors 
 were subject to pastors in the apostles’ 
 times, is there any commandment that this 
 subjection should cease, and all succeeding 
 pastors should be equals ? ” Granting, 
 then, there is no positive Divine command 
 for the perpetual maintenance of Episco- 
 pacy, is it not presumptuous to break in 
 upon the ancient order, sanctioned by 
 Scriptural examples, by the analogy of 
 civil government, and the unbroken usage 
 of the Church in all ages ? 
 
 Ordination and government are the 
 chief functions of bishops, as being pastors 
 of the Church’s pastors. Anciently, they 
 were aided by colleges of presbyters as 
 their council, of which the Chapters of 
 our Cathedrals “ are as glasses, wherein 
 the very face of apostolical antiquity is yet 
 to be seen.” (Hooker). 
 
 When the Christian Church became 
 commensurate with the Roman Empire 
 for the sake of order, the bishops of 
 metropolitan cities took rank above all 
 
262 Guide to the Study of 
 
 bishops of the various dioceses in their 
 provinces, under the name of Archbishops 
 and Primates. 
 
 Service for Consecration* 
 
 The service for consecration of bishops 
 breathes throughout the same spirit of 
 dependence for grace from above, and 
 honour done to Holy Scripture. The 
 bishop-elect, in addition to promising the 
 same, as a candidate priest, engages to be 
 faithful in ordaining, “to be a maintainer 
 of quietness, love, and peace, as well as 
 a corrector of the unquiet, and to be gentle 
 and merciful to the poor, needy, and 
 strangers.” The Bible is delivered to him 
 also, as in the ordination of a priest, as the 
 true symbol of the ministerial office of every 
 grade. The archbishop adds, “ Think 
 upon the things contained in this Book. 
 Be to the flock of Christ a shepherd, not a 
 wolf ; feed them, devour them not. Hold 
 up the weak, heal the sick, bind up the 
 broken, bring again the outcasts, seek the 
 lost. Be so merciful that ye be not too 
 remiss ; so minister discipline that you 
 forget not mercy, that when the chief 
 Shepherd shall appear, you may receive 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 263 
 
 the never-fading crown of glory, through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord.” 
 
 This service, like the Ordination services 
 for priests and deacons, closes with the 
 Holy Communion, as the seal of the vows 
 just made. It is fellowship with Christ 
 alone can keep our overseers from making 
 oversights. His grace can make them 
 successors in the holiness which is infinitely 
 more important than succession in the seat 
 of the apostles. It was the inconsistent 
 lives and lifeless preaching of the clergy 
 (with shame we confess it !) as much, if 
 not more than dislike to Episcopacy and 
 liturgies, which led to dissent in most 
 cases. Perhaps the best proof of this is 
 the decline of Methodism in those parishes 
 where our Church, by awaking to its re- 
 sponsibilities, has left little reason for the 
 existence of dissent. Sheep, if not fed, 
 will stray. I do not justify separation, for 
 it is a great evil ; but if we wish to avoid 
 it, let us, ministers and people of the 
 Church, give no just occasion for it. And 
 as Episcopacy and liturgies can never be 
 proved, however excellent, to be indispens- 
 able to salvation, let us no longer look 
 coldly on those who love the same Saviour, 
 and with whom we hope to spend an 
 
264 Guide to the Study of 
 
 eternity when names of division shall have 
 ceased for ever, and all shall be one in 
 Christ. 
 
 XXXIX Articles. 
 
 I now come to the Church’s authorized 
 standard of doctrine, The Thirty-nine 
 Articles. Whatever possibility there may 
 be of putting a Romish construction on 
 passages in our formularies — just as 
 passages of Holy Writ also are susceptible 
 of misconstruction, if not compared with 
 other passages and the general tenour — 
 there would seem to be no possibility of 
 mistaking the evangelical plainness of the 
 Articles. The royal declaration prefixed 
 guards against any but the “usual literal 
 and grammatical sense ” being taken of 
 each Article, “in the plain and full mean- 
 ing thereof” ; common sense and honesty 
 have long since condemned the “ non- 
 natural sense,” which some Romanisers 
 attempted to impose, in order to get rid 
 of the condemnation the Articles contain 
 of their then Romish tendencies. Since 
 that time, these tendencies have naturally 
 ripened into their full fruits ; several have 
 gone to their own place, and have found 
 Rome the only spot of rest at the bottom 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 265 
 
 of the inclined plane, on which they had 
 been in vain striving to poise themselves. 
 Tractarianism has been well characterised 
 as “ a halting between the premisses and 
 the conclusion.” “They went out from 
 us, but they were not of us ; for if they 
 had been of us, they would, no doubt, have 
 continued with us ; but they went out, that 
 they might be made manifest that they 
 were not all of us.” 
 
 To those still remaining, who retain 
 such tendencies, I would say, if you 
 honestly wish to know the real teaching 
 of the Church of England, and not to 
 serve as a “recruiting depot for Rome,” 
 do not fix on isolated passages in our 
 Church Services which you think favour 
 so-called “high-church,” i.e ., clergy-exalt- 
 ing, principles, held in common with the 
 Church of Rome, and constituting the 
 sacerdotal and sacramentarian system ; but 
 judge of the Church’s real meaning in these 
 passages of her formularies, by her own 
 authoritative interpretation of her doctrine 
 in her Articles. This was the very purpose 
 of these Articles, to leave no ambiguity as 
 to her true teaching — (see the Title pre- 
 fixed to them). They were intended as a 
 plain protest against those Romish errors 
 
266 
 
 Guide to the Study of 
 
 from which the reformed Churches had 
 just escaped ; and though the Romish 
 Council of Trent, which began in a.d. 
 1545, did not conclude before a.d. 1564, yet 
 the leading dogmas of that council were in 
 the hands of our reformers before drawing 
 up our Articles — for instance, those on 
 Scripture and original sin were decided 
 on at Trent in a.d. 1546 ; those on justifi- 
 cation, baptism, and confirmation, in a.d. 
 1 547 ; those on the Eucharist and penance 
 in a.d. 1551. In opposition to these, 
 therefore, Archbishop Cranmer, with 
 Ridley, drew up forty-two Articles, which, 
 upon a subsequent revision by Parker, 
 Cox and Grindal, who used the aid of the 
 Protestant Confession of Wurtemburg, were 
 reduced to the present thirty-nine, and were 
 agreed upon in a convocation of the arch- 
 bishops and bishops and whole clergy, held 
 in London, under Queen Elizabeth, in a.d. 
 1562. These Thirty-nine Articles, then, 
 are our touchstone for testing orthodoxy, 
 and our watch-light for warning off those 
 shoals on which so many have made ship- 
 wreck of their faith. Let any one com- 
 pare them with the confessions of other 
 Reformed Churches, with which their spirit 
 is in such close unison — let him also take 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 267 
 
 into account the acknowledged Calvinistic 
 opinions of almost all the compilers of our 
 Articles and Liturgy, as Jewell, Nowell, 
 Cox, etc. — and he can have little doubt 
 but that sober and earnest evangelical 
 principles are the truest Church principles. 
 
 As the elder, Bishop Ryle strongly 
 though quaintly put it, “ Away with the 
 old rubbishy opinion that the Church of 
 England occupies a middle position, a via 
 media between dissent and Rome. Cast 
 it away, for it is false. You might as well 
 talk of the Isle of Wight being midway 
 between England and France. Between 
 us and Rome there is a gulf — and a broad 
 and deep gulf too ; between us and orthodox 
 Protestant dissent there is but a thin 
 partition wall. Between us and Rome the 
 differences are about essentials ; between us 
 and dissent the division is about things in 
 which a man may err, and yet be saved.” 
 Accordingly, whilst the Nineteenth, 
 Twenty-third, and Thirty-fourth Articles 
 speak in such a tolerant tone of points at 
 issue between us and other orthodox 
 Protestant communities, in the Twenty- 
 second Article we do not hesitate to use 
 such strong language of Romish errors as 
 this : “ Purgatory, Pardons, Worshipping 
 
268 Guide to the Study of 
 
 and Adoration as well of images as of Re- 
 liques, and also Invocation of Saints, is a 
 fond thing, vainly invented, and repugnant 
 to the Word of God.” Again, in the 
 Thirty-first : “ The sacrifices of masses for 
 the quick and the dead” are called “ blas- 
 phemous fables and dangerous deceits .” So 
 Homily XIV. pt. 3, declares that images 
 are but “ great puppets and babies for old 
 fools” ; and that “no image can be made 
 of Christ but a lying image, for Christ is 
 God and man.” And as to Gregory’s de- 
 fence of them as “laymen’s books,” “ either 
 they be no books, or false and lying books, 
 the teachers of all errors.” Surely 
 this is unequivocal calling of things by their 
 right names (as old Latimer would have a 
 spade called a spade ), so much more 
 honouring to God and charitable to men’s 
 souls than that spurious liberalism, falsely 
 called charity, which forgets God’s warn- 
 ing (Isaiah v. 20) : “Woe unto them that 
 call evil good, and good evil ; that put 
 darkness for light, and light for darkness.” 
 Nevertheless, there are some among us 
 who go so far as to cut off all non-episcopal 
 Churches, however orthodox, whilst they 
 authenticate the claims of every episcopal 
 Church, however false and soul-destroying 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 269 
 
 its doctrine may be. Such is not the spirit 
 of our Articles. Thier characteristic is 
 Christian moderation between too great 
 laxity in tests of orthodoxy on the one 
 hand, and too great exclusiveness on the 
 other ; which latter might have the effect 
 of losing to her the services of many pious 
 clergymen of tender conscience. For these 
 Articles, in all their details, are binding on 
 every clergyman, who must subscribe to 
 them ; but laymen, whilst they should 
 study them as the Church’s statement of 
 doctrine, yet, as not being required to 
 subscribe to them, are not justified in 
 separation because they may not agree 
 with every particular. 
 
 Of course I could not, in the limits of 
 this work, discuss the several Articles ; but 
 I just slightly notice a few of them, to make 
 it clear how purely evangelical is their 
 teaching. There are, we know, some who, 
 whilst they reject the idea of putting 
 tradition on a level with Scripture, yet 
 contend that our Church of England’s Rule 
 of faith is Scripture interpreted by tra- 
 dition. This theory imposes on individual 
 Churchmen two burdens, instead of the one 
 which Rome lays on us. Rome only asks 
 us to admit the infallibility of the Church 
 
2 jo Guide to the Study of 
 
 (meaning herself), and to leave all judg- 
 ment of Scripture to her, taking our faith 
 on trust ; whereas they require us to use 
 our own private judgment, and then to 
 take the Church’s interpretation of Scrip- 
 ture, even if contrary to our private judg- 
 ment ; though they do not maintain, as to 
 be consistent they ought, that the Church 
 is infallible. Thus they oblige us to 
 believe, not only that the doctrines of the 
 Church are true , but also that they are 
 contained in Scripture , whether our private 
 judgment can find them there or not. 
 Now, what says the Church of England? 
 Read and ponder over her Sixth Article : 
 “ Holy Scripture containeth all things 
 necessary to salvation ; so that, whatsoever 
 is not read therein, nor may be proved 
 thereby, is not to be required of any 
 man, that it should be believed as an article 
 of the Faith, or be thought necessary to 
 salvation.” 
 
 But, say some, does not the Church 
 receive the three Creeds, the Nicene, 
 Athanasius’, and Apostles’? Yes, saith 
 our Eighth Aricle ; but the reason is, not 
 on the authority of the Church, but, “ for 
 they may be proved by most certain 
 warrants of Holy Scripture.” Indeed, the 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 271 
 
 Council of Nice itself went on the same 
 principle, when it placed a Bible on a 
 throne in the midst, as the only umpire of 
 controversy. The Church in her creeds 
 teaches , but she refers each individual 
 Christian to prove her teaching, by ap- 
 plying to it the touchstone of Scripture, 
 even as the Bereans are praised in Acts 
 xvii., because, after hearing Pauls preach- 
 ing, with all readiness of mind, “they 
 searched the Scriptures daily, whether those 
 things were so.” In the happy illustration 
 of Cautions for the Times'. “Just as the 
 moon reflects the light of the sun to those 
 to whom he is not directly visible, so the 
 Church serves in communicating light 
 borrowed from the Word of God, to those 
 who might have failed to obtain it thence 
 directly. But were a Church to leave its 
 true place, and stand between the Scrip- 
 tures and the people, the result must be 
 darkness and eclipse.” 
 
 Rome’s principle is well illustrated in 
 Erasmus’ story of the dying man, of whom 
 the devil asked, “ What is your Creed ? ” 
 The poor man, afraid that were he to say 
 what it was, he might be caught in some 
 heresy, replied, “ I believe what the Church 
 believes.” But the devil urged him again, 
 
272 Guide to the Study of 
 
 “ What does the Church believe ? ” The 
 man replied, “The Church believes what 
 I believe.” This was a believer after 
 Rome’s own heart, who swallowed the 
 whole dose at a draught, on the Church’s 
 word, without examination of the more- 
 
 r • O 
 
 dients. But certainly such a believer St. 
 Peter did not contemplate, when he said, 
 “ Be always ready to give an answer to 
 every man that asketh you a 1'eason of the 
 hope that is in you.” 
 
 If it be said we have received the New 
 Testament by the tradition of the Church, 
 and are therefore bound to accept all the 
 Church’s interpretations of it, and additions 
 to it , we answer : We thank the Church 
 for her testimony to the volume of inspira- 
 tion handed down to us, but until she can 
 prove herself also inspired, we decline to 
 accept her interpretations, except so far as 
 she can prove them to our judgments from 
 the inspired volume : just as we thank the 
 Jews for their testimony to the Old Testa- 
 ment, which they have preserved for us ; 
 and yet we do not feel ourselves therefore 
 obliged to accept their interpretation of it, 
 in which case we should have to be Jews, 
 not Christians. 
 
 The harmony of the Old Testament 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 2 73 
 
 with the New is asserted in the Seventh 
 Article ; for that in both (though with dif- 
 ferent degrees of clearness) everlasting 
 life is offered to mankind by Christ, as the 
 only Mediator. St. Paul (Heb. iv. 2), 
 expressely says, “ Unto us was the Gospel 
 preached, as well as unto them ” (the Israel- 
 ites in Moses’ days.) No doubt the Mosaic 
 covenant, as a national one, could only be 
 established on temporal sanctions ; for 
 nations, as such, have only a temporal, not 
 an eternal existence. But Moses all 
 along takes for granted the promise of a 
 Messiah, handed dowm from their fore- 
 fathers, to whose death the sacrifices of the 
 law pointed ; and the eleventh chapter of 
 Hebrews clearly proves the truth of the 
 Article, “ that they are not to be heard, 
 which feign that the old fathers (as in- 
 dividuals) did look only for transitory 
 promises.” The Law is the Gospel in bud; 
 the Gospel is the flower fully expanded by 
 the Son of Righteousness, who came not 
 to destroy the law and the prophets, but to 
 fulfil.” Now, therefore, we Christians are 
 “ delivered from the law, that we should 
 serve in newness of spirit , and not in the 
 oldness of the letter .” This effectually 
 
 guards against antinomianism. The moral 
 
 18 
 
274 Guide to the Study of 
 
 law is binding on us Christians, not as 
 forming part of the letter of the Mosaic 
 covenant, in which case the ceremonial and 
 civil law also equally should bind us — a 
 dangerous tenet held by the extreme Puri- 
 tans, as to the civil law, which the Article 
 opposes — but as being founded on the 
 eternal principles of divine truth, which 
 were all binding on the patriarchs before 
 the written law of Sinai, and of which the 
 Gospel is the full development. The 
 moral precepts of the Mosaic law are still 
 useful as a rule of life, if not restricted to 
 the mere letter , but understood in their 
 spiritual comprehensiveness. Love to 
 Christ will not only reveal, but enable the 
 believer to fulfil, this spirit of the law. 
 Therefore it is written, “ Love is the ful- 
 filling of the law.” 
 
 So far, as to our Rule of Faith. 
 Next as to man’s fallen state. The 
 Ninth Article states that “ original sin 
 is the fault and corruption of the nature 
 of every man, naturally engendered of 
 Adam, whereby he is very far (in the 
 Latin, quam longissimd- — as far as pos- 
 sible) gone from original righteousness, 
 and is of his own nature inclined to 
 evil ; and therefore, in every person born 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 275 
 
 into this world, it deserveth God’s wrath 
 and damnation.” Then, as to justifica- 
 tion, the Tenth Article states man’s 
 utter inability to prepare himself, by 
 his own natural strength and good works, 
 to faith and calling upon God.” Next, the 
 Eleventh Article states, that “we are 
 accounted righteous before God, only for 
 the merit of our Lord jesus Christ by 
 faith and not for our own works or deserv- 
 ings.” This article o [justification by faith 
 only is well called by Luther, “ the Article 
 to test a standing or fallen Church.” 
 Another of his terse and forcible sayings 
 is, “ Works do not justify, but the justified 
 man works.” Bishop Horsley says of it, 
 “ It was the doctrine of the Reformation ; 
 but it is also far more ancient — it was the 
 doctrine of the whole College of Apostles ; 
 it is more ancient still — it was the doctrine 
 of the prophets ; it is older than the 
 prophets — it was the religion of the patri- 
 archs.” 
 
 The Twelfth and Thirteenth 
 Articles represent good works as only “ the 
 fruits , which spring out necessarily of a 
 true and lively faith, whilst “works done 
 before the grace of Christ and the inspir- 
 ation of His Spirit, however good they 
 
276 Guide to the Study of 
 
 seem in the eyes of man, are not pleasant 
 to God, forasmuch as they spring not of 
 faith in Jesus Christ; yea, forasmuch as 
 they are not done as God willed them to 
 be done, we doubt not but they have the 
 nature of sin.” The Fourteenth Article 
 shows the impiety and arrogancy of the 
 Romish notion of works of supererogation, 
 i.e. y meritorious works, over and above 
 what God requires, by quoting Christ’s 
 words : “ When ye have done all that are 
 commanded to you, say, We are unprofit- 
 able servants.” 
 
 In fine, the Seventeeth Article traces 
 our salvation to “ the everlasting purpose 
 of God by His counsel secret to us, decree- 
 ing to deliver from damnation those whom 
 he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, 
 and to bring them by Christ to everlasting 
 salvation, as vessels made to honour.” 
 The steps are successively traced, — first, 
 “ they are called by God’s spirit working in 
 due season;” then, “through grace they 
 obey the calling — they be justified freely — 
 they be made sons of God by adoption (so 
 then, it was not in and by baptism neces- 
 sarily they were made sons of God) — they 
 be made like the image of His only begotten 
 Son — they walk religiously in good works, 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 277 
 
 and at length, by God’s mercy, they attain 
 to everlasting felicity.” “ The sweet com- 
 fort of the consideration of our election in 
 Christ to the godly ” is then set forth ; and, 
 on the other hand, the danger to the un- 
 spiritual of “ having continually before 
 their eyes the sentence of God’s predestin- 
 ation and to guard against such a mistake, 
 we are told to receive God’s promises, as 
 generally set forth in the Scriptures, and do 
 H is will, as we find it expressly declared in 
 His Word.” 
 
 Whilst I do not deny the possibility of 
 a different view being conscientiously taken, 
 to me this Article seems decidedly to teach 
 moderate Calvinism. (Not that our 
 Church’s doctrine is based on Calvin’s 
 authority, as he was not, in the days of our 
 Reformers, so well known in England as 
 afterwards. Bullinger’s Decades were 
 much more of an authority with them. 
 But much in our Articles is found in 
 common with what Calvin’s Institutes teach, 
 though in a modified, less dogmatical, and 
 more Scriptural form.) It is the doctrine 
 of Augustine, more than a thousand years 
 before Calvin. It is the doctrine of St. 
 Paul (Rom. viii. and Eph. i.). God, who 
 fore-ordains the end, is represented also as 
 
278 Guide to the Study of 
 
 fore-ordaining the means to that end. His 
 purpose is set forth as “secret to us,” and 
 therefore none should presume. Assurance 
 of salvation is inseparably connected with 
 a “religious walk in good works” out- 
 wardly , and with the inward working 
 of “the Spirit of Christ mortifying the 
 works of the flesh, and drawing up the 
 mind to high and heavenly things.” And 
 the effect of all this is, not as some mis- 
 represent it, such a false confidence as led 
 Oliver Cromwell^ on his death-bed, if the 
 story be true, to ask his chaplain, “ Are 
 you sure that, when one has ever been in 
 a state of grace, he cannot finally fall 
 away ? ” “Yes, your Highness.” “ Oh ! 
 then I am safe : for I am sure I was once 
 in a state of grace.” No, the effect of true 
 assurance is, according to our Article, not 
 merely to confirm the believers faith of 
 salvation, but also to “kindle fervently his 
 love towards God.” Where there is no 
 true love, no fruits of love, there can be no 
 well-grounded assurance. 
 
 The Eighteenth Article condemns as 
 accursed that spurious and unbelieving 
 liberality, “ that every man shall be saved 
 by the law or sect which he professeth, so 
 that he be diligent to frame his life accord- 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 279 
 
 ing to that law, ’—a dangerous and common 
 error, maintained by Hobbes in his Levi- 
 athan, and by the writer of the often-quoted 
 lines (Pope) — 
 
 “ For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight, 
 
 His can’t be wrong, whose life is in the right.” 
 
 This is true enough, but not in the poet’s 
 sense. No man’s “life is in the right,” 
 however amiable it may appear in man’s 
 eyes, until his life is, like Paul’s, “by the 
 faith of the Son of God.” “ Holy Scrip- 
 ture,” saith our Article, “doth set out 
 unto us only the name of Jesus Christ, 
 whereby men must be saved.” Men are 
 accountable for their judgment, where they 
 have an opportunity of knowing the truth, 
 as well as for their practice. It is well said 
 of the infirmities which, alas ! still cling to 
 believers, when compared with the ami- 
 abilities of the unconverted, which flow not 
 from a ' life of faith, “Better a diamond 
 with a flaw, than a common pebble without 
 one.” In fact, the whole life of the un- 
 believer is one great flaw, because it has 
 not as its principle that faith without which 
 it is impossible to please God (Heb. xi. 6). 
 The Article does not deny the possibility 
 of salvation in a sect where the individual’s 
 error is really involuntary ; but by the sect,” 
 
280 Guide to the Study of 
 
 if he be not resting on Christ only. Who- 
 soever, owing to his error being involun- 
 tary, may be saved in an unscriptural sect, 
 shall be so, not by , i.e ., because of, his creed, 
 but in spite of it, and by the alone merits 
 and blood of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Most of the remaining Articles, besides 
 condemning particular Romish heresies, 
 treat of tiie constitution and discipline 
 of the Church, and the true nature of 
 Sacraments. Of these latter I have 
 already treated. The Twenty-fifth 
 Article terms Sacraments not only badges 
 of profession, but rather sure witnesses and 
 effectual signs of Grace and God’s good 
 will towards us ; and in such only as 
 worthily receive them they have a whole- 
 some operation.” Hooker (Bcc/. P., v.) 
 says, “ All receive not the grace of God 
 who receive the Sacraments of His 
 grace.” Baptism does not create a man 
 or child the child of God, but authorita- 
 tively declares him so (John i. 12, 13; 1 
 Pet. i. 22, 23), presuming his repentance 
 and Faith. 
 
 Of the former, I may add to what I have 
 already said, that the Articles of our 
 Church give no sanction to the notion of 
 “one visible Catholic Church possessing 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 281 
 
 infallibility.” The mistake of Rome and 
 of Tractarians is, they confound between 
 visible local Churches, and the one spiritual 
 Church the mystical body of Christ. They 
 wrongly claim for the former, or rather for 
 someone of the former (to whose outward 
 standard they would force all others to 
 conform), those promises (“ Lo, I am with 
 you alway, even unto the end of the world,” 
 and, “The Spirit of truth shall guide you 
 into all truth”), which belong to the latter. 
 The Spirit of truth is with each visible 
 Church in exact proportion as it realizes 
 the ideal of the spiritual Church, and fulfils 
 the definition of the Article, by being a 
 congregation of faithful men, in which the 
 pure Word of God is preached, and the 
 sacraments be duly administered according 
 to Christ's ordinance in all those things 
 that of necessity are requisite to the same ” 
 — which last clause excludes the uncharit- 
 ableness of those who deny the validity 
 of sacraments, unless celebrated by those 
 episcopally ordained. The Nineteenth 
 Article declares how several Churches 
 have erred (and several partiailar fallible 
 Churches can never make up one universal 
 infallible Church) ; and the Twenty-first, 
 how general councils may err, and have 
 
282 Guide to the Study of 
 
 erred, as being composed of men, whereof 
 all be not governed with the Spirit and 
 Word of God (and the mere majority of 
 members never proves the truth of a 
 decision) : so that their decrees have no 
 authority, ‘‘unless it may be declared that 
 they be taken out of Holy Scripture.” 
 Rogers’ Essays well expose the folly of 
 those “hybrid Protestants, who claim 
 infallibility for some Church unknown — 
 neither the Roman nor Anglican, and 
 certainly not the Scotch — some ‘ visible 
 Church,’ which is not to be seen ; some 
 ‘Catholic Church,’ which excludes all 
 Christians except Episcopalians ; some 
 ‘ undivided Church,’ which embraces the 
 communions of the reciprocally excom- 
 municated (the Roman, Greek, and 
 Anglican) ; some ‘ Primitive Church,’ of 
 uncertain date.” 
 
 All that the Church of England claims 
 in her Twentieth Article for the church 
 is, “authority in controversies of faith,” i.e. y 
 that men, in forming their judgment, shall 
 pay deference to her views ; not that they 
 should surrender their judgment and 
 conscience to her, as though she could not 
 err. That Article adds, that she is a 
 “witness and keeper of Holy Writ,” not 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 283 
 
 its infallible interpreter, but a probable and 
 authorized guide; nay, more, that she 
 “ ought not to decree anything against ,” 
 or even “ besides , Holy Writ.” Of this, 
 each man must seriously and prayerfully 
 judge for himself, remembering that his 
 right (which implies duty) of private 
 judgment gives him no right to abuse it ; 
 for “there are many things that a man 
 has a right (i.e. , the power ) to do, which it 
 would not be right [correct) for him to do.” 
 (Archbishop Whately.) Each Church has 
 also authority to define the terms of her 
 own communion, always subject to appeal 
 to Scripture. 
 
 As to Vincentius Lirinensis’ rule for 
 finding the Catholic faith, “ Quod semper, 
 quod ubique, quod ab omnibus traditum 
 est ” — “What has been held at all times, 
 and in all places, and by all Christians ; ” 
 as Rogers puts it, “ Nobody knows what 
 everybody has said : what has been affirmed 
 everywhere is remembered nowhere ; and 
 the only thing to which all time has testified, 
 is perpetual changes. So that it would be 
 a difficult problem to solve, ‘ Given the 
 Catholic faith, to find it ! ’ ” Wearied, 
 therefore, as we are, of the uncertainty of 
 extracting the one system of Catholicism 
 
284 Guide to the Study of 
 
 from “that undigested heap and fry of 
 authors, which they call antiquity, consisting 
 of whatever time has brought down in his 
 huge drag net” (Milton). “ The apostles 
 shall be our omnes , their writings our ubique 
 and their times our semper .” The fathers 
 are valuable witnesses of historical facts 
 illustrating Scripture truth : for instance, 
 to the Lord’s day being observed as the 
 Christian Sabbath ; the baptism of infants ; 
 and, above all, the canon of the New 
 Testament. “ Little else,” says Jeremy 
 Taylor, “descends to us by universal 
 tradition save this, that the Bible contains 
 all the will of God for our salvation.” 
 This universal tradition ought, surely, to 
 supersede all partial traditions. “ Going 
 from it to the fathers,” says Evans, “is 
 like Adam’s expulsion from Paradise, to 
 ground full of thorns and thistles, whence 
 food can only be extracted by labour, and 
 what is unwholesome must be carefully 
 separated from what is nutritious.” 
 
 As to Traditions and Ceremonies of 
 particular Churches, our Thirty-fourth 
 Article, in a truly catholic spirit, states, 
 that “it is not necessary that in all places 
 they should be utterly like ; and that each 
 particular or national Church hath author- 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 285 
 
 ity to ordain and change its own cere- 
 monies, so that all things be done to 
 edifying.” At the same time, it gives a 
 warning, which ought to be carefully 
 weighed, “Whosoever through his private 
 judgment, willingly and purposely , doth 
 openly break the traditions and ceremonies 
 of the Church, which be not repugnant to 
 the Word of God, offendeth against the 
 common order of the Church, and hurteth 
 the authority of the magistrate, and wound- 
 eth the consciences of the weak brethren.” 
 Nothing but what is clearly repugnant to 
 the Word of God, in Church ordinances, 
 can warrant the serious responsibility of 
 individual secession. Remember, Satan’s 
 motto is, “ Divide and conquer.” Oh ! let 
 us beware, lest by our gratuitous schisms 
 we be unawares helping Satan’s schemes. 
 
 Lastly, if there be any who object to 
 the establishment of a national creed by 
 legislative enactments, on the ground that 
 “Christ’s kingdom is not of this world,” we 
 answer, though it be not of (Greek, sprung 
 from ; e*) this world, yet it is in this world, 
 and is intended to act on nations, as well 
 as individuals. “The Church establish- 
 ment,” Lord Eldon well remarks, is formed, 
 not in order to make the Church political, 
 
286 
 
 Guide to the Study of 
 
 but to make the State religious. The 
 word of prophecy also leads us to expect 
 that “kings shall be the nursing fathers 
 of Zion, and their queens her nursing 
 mothers.” “ Happy is that people that is 
 in such a case ; yea, happy is that people 
 whose God is the Lord.” 
 
 I rejoice to believe that there are many 
 dissenters, who feel that the Established 
 Church, with all her alleged faults, is the 
 best guarantee for their own liberty of 
 conscience. Sir Joseph Napier, once M.P. 
 for Dublin University, told me that he 
 became intimate in the House of Com- 
 mons with a member for a large manu- 
 facturing town, a dissenter. One day my 
 friend asked the latter, “ How comes it to 
 pass that I see you, though a dissenter, so 
 often voting with the Church, in Church 
 questions?” The dissenter replied, “I 
 will candidly tell you. My reason is, be- 
 cause I think the Church Establishment is 
 so bound up with the religious liberties 
 and sympathies of the country, that it 
 affords the best security for the continued 
 freedom of all denominations of Christians.” 
 Perhaps, too, the Articles have shed a 
 reflected light on many a separate com- 
 munity, preserving them unconsciously, by 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 287 
 
 their plain doctrinal statements of truth, 
 from falling into dangerous heresies, which 
 their own want of any, or at least so clear, 
 formularies, might have otherwise exposed 
 them to. Let me add my belief, that 
 there is no bulwark so effectual against 
 the encroachments of Rome on our civil 
 and religious rights as the Church Estab- 
 lishment. 
 
 May she become more and more the 
 rallying point of all true Christians ! and 
 may our God pour upon us the spirit of 
 Truth first, then Love , and, as the fruit 
 of both, Unity ! 
 
288 
 
 Guide to the Study of 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Absolution, in Morning Prayer, Communion, and Visita- 
 of Sick. Declaratory not judicial. By Priest alone 
 — why? 87-148, 200-205. 
 
 Adoration of Elements forbidden, 153. 
 
 Advent, begins the religious year. Second, as well as 
 first, 133-134, 215-216. 
 
 Alms and Oblations, 144- 145. 
 
 Altar, none in the Church of England : Lord’s Table ; 
 where to stand, 126-128. 
 
 Amen, in Italics and not so, 96. 
 
 Anthems, in. 
 
 Apostolical succession : Historic Episcopate. Episco- 
 pacy necessary to the well bemg though not to the 
 being of a Church, 224-244. 
 
 Apocrypha, when read, 80. 
 
 Articles XXXIX. Via Media (Bishop Ryle). Their 
 title shows design. Anti-Romish, 28-30, 264-267. 
 
 Assent, form of, 40. 
 
 Athanasian Creed : authorship ; definitions whence 
 
 damnatory clauses, 104- 105. 
 
 Augustine the Monk, 6. 
 
 Authority of Church not lightly to be rejected. Article 
 XXXIV., 284. 
 
 Baptism of Infants : regeneration : charitable presump- 
 tion (Mozley). Our Calvinist-Reformers could not 
 intend invariable baptismal regeneration, 157- 177, 
 280. 
 
 Benedicite : not invocation for worship, 98. 
 
 Bible Translations. Authorized and Revised. Promi- 
 nence of Scripture in services. Our Rule of Faith 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 289 
 
 the Bible, not the Bible and the Church. Article 
 VI., 13/14, -43-45, 79-80. 
 
 Bishops : origin (Lightfoot) : at first Presbyters. Argu- 
 ments for three orders, 236-244, 261. 
 
 British Church at first independent of Rome. How it 
 lost independence, 4-7. 
 
 Burial of the Dead, Service. Opposes Purgatory ; also 
 intermediate unconsciousness, 208-217. 
 
 Calvinism, 45, 46, 276-278. 
 
 Catechism, Five parts. Authorship, 181-188. 
 
 Catholic Church one (Hooker) ; Visible and Invisible. 
 Communion of Saints contradicts invocation, 63-102, 
 103,109-110,280-285. 
 
 Churching of Women, 178. 
 
 Claudia, Pudens, 3, 4. 
 
 Clergy, derivation of : Curates. “Prayer for/ 5 117. 
 
 Collects : meaning ; sources. All conditions of men : 
 General Thanksgiving. Interconnection of Collect, 
 Epistle and Gospel. Whence taken, 108, 131-136. 
 
 Commination Service : not cursing our neighbours. 
 What then ? 140-143. 
 
 Common Prayer : what ? Realized best in our Church, 
 
 6 4 _ 79 - 
 
 Communion Service, origin. Not in one kind only as 
 Council of Constance, 124-125, 153. 
 
 Communion of the flesh and Blood of Christ, 150- 153. 
 
 Communion of the Sick : reservation of elements for- 
 bidden, 197-206, 207. 
 
 Confession, General : auricular, 87-91. 
 
 Confirmation. Not a Sacrament ? 189-192. 
 
 Covenant, Solemn League and : Directory of Public 
 Worship. Episcopalian, clergy ejected, 49-53. 
 
 Cranmer, 17-19, 33. 
 
 Creeds, origin : Apostles and Nicene. Four words ex- 
 press the decisions of four early Councils as to the 
 Person of the Lord Jesus. Rest on the Bible, not 
 on the Church. Article VIII., 99-107. 
 
 Culdees, Iona. Difference from Rome. Irish (Scots) 
 Church, 5. 
 
 19 
 
290 
 
 Guide to the Study of 
 
 Daily Service,* 84. 
 
 Deacons : absolution, 87-88, 236, 245. 
 
 Dead, Prayers for ; rejected; Unscriptural ; Prayers only 
 for Church Militant. Purgatory, 143, 213, 214. 
 
 Deadly Sin. Not Rome’s mortal sin, 119. 
 
 “ Eastward position ” : unscriptural, but permitted by the 
 late Lambeth judgment, 108-128. 
 
 Ecclesiastical High Commission Court, 47. 
 
 Edward VI.’s First and Second Prayer Books : dates, 27- 
 28,128-129. 
 
 Elizabeth : Reformers opposed her cross on table, 31- 
 
 37 - 
 
 England’s Church and House Book (Bunsen). When 
 and how Christianity was propagated in Britain. 
 When Rome gained the mastery, 1-3, 6, 7, 8. 
 
 Epiphany, Easter, 134. 
 
 Establishment, National Church (Owen), 57, 285-286. 
 
 Eve’s formation from Adam’s opened side typical, 173. 
 
 Evening Service, 115. 
 
 Faith needed for Salvation. The Old and New Testa- 
 ments agree, 272-273, 278. 
 
 Fasting: Council Chalcedon. True Views, 138-140. 
 
 Forms of Prayer sanctioned by our Lord, 69. 
 
 God, of God, 101. 
 
 * The matter of daily prayer had been fought and settled in a 
 court of law ; for in 1859 an action was brought before the 
 Master of the Rolls for judgment on the ground that a patron 
 of a living had refused to pay the stipend of a clergyman 
 because, in neglecting to hold daily service, the latter had not 
 obeyed the injunctions of the Book of Common Prayer. It 
 was decided by the Master of the Rolls that, according to the 
 direct and literal interpretation of the rubrics of the Book of 
 Common Prayer, daily prayer was not required by the law. 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 291 
 
 Hampton Court Conference. Millenary Petition, 40. 
 Hebrew versification : parallelism, 93, 94. 
 
 Henry VIII. no Protestant The Bishop’s Book. The 
 Six Articles. The King’s Book, 16-24. 
 
 Hobbes’ Error, that a life may be good, however false the 
 Faith. Article XVIII., 278. 
 
 Holy Days, 134, 135- 
 Homilies : Authorship, 28, 38. 
 
 Images r adoration, 268. 
 
 Immersion the rule, sprinkling the exception, in Baptism, 
 
 175, 176. 
 
 Infallible Church : a false idea. What authority has the 
 Church? Articles XIX., XX., XXI., 270-272, 280, 
 281-284. 
 
 Intoning : “saying” Prayers is the rule, 84. 
 
 Justification: Articles X., XI., XII., XIII., XIV., 275- 
 276. 
 
 Lambeth Articles. Nine. Whitgift. Ultra-Calvinism 
 rejected, 45> 46, 5°- 
 
 Latimer, 21, 23. 
 
 Laud, introduced Prayer Book into Scotland. Issue, 47, 
 48- 
 
 Lay Baptism, 178. 
 
 Lent, 134-135, 138. 
 
 Lessons from Scripture. So in Jewish Synagogue, 80. 
 
 Litany : origin. Four parts. O God the Father, of 
 Heaven, 118-121. 
 
 Liturgies (Gallican). Uses of Salisbury. Our Liturgy, 
 whence? Help toward Communion of Saints, 70- 
 72. 
 
 Lord’s Prayer, Repetitions, 69-70, 75-76, 92. 
 
292 
 
 Guide to the Study of 
 
 Marriage Service. Not a Sacrament. Rome’s incon- 
 sistency, 193. 
 
 Masses, blasphemous fables, 268. 
 
 Mixed Chalice : Lambeth Judgment permits, but Edward 
 VI.’s second Prayer Book omits, 128. 
 
 Morning Service, 85. 
 
 Mortmain. Praemunire, 10. 
 
 Mysteries : Symbols of the Lord’s body. His mystical 
 body, 146, 147. 
 
 Nag’s Head : fiction, 37-38. 
 
 Name baptized into, 175. 
 
 Nowell’s Catechism, 182. 
 
 Oblations: after “Alms,” and Plural. Not Eucharist 
 Oblation, 143-145. 
 
 Offertory, 143. 
 
 Ordinal : Morinus on recency of present form, “Receive 
 the Holy Ghost,” and Romish form, 258-260. 
 
 Ornaments Rubric : Romish Vestments forbidden, 83, 
 127. 
 
 Pliny’s letter on Primitive Christian Worship, 81-83. 
 
 Predestination. Reprobation. Article XVII., 276-278. 
 
 Priest :* not sacerdotal : Presbyter. Distinguished from 
 
 * When the Revision was completed the “ Annexed Book ” was 
 signed on December 20, 1661, by four bodies of clergy who had 
 taken part in the work, viz., the Bishops of the Province of 
 Canterbury, the Lower House of Convocation of Canterbury, 
 the Bishops of the Province of York, and six clergy acting as 
 delegates for the Lower House of Convocation of York. Each 
 of these four bodies in signing described the book in Latin : 
 “Librum Precum Publicarum, Administrationisque Sacramen- 
 torum, aliorumque Rituum Ecclesiae Anglicanse, una cum forma 
 et modo ordinandi, et consecrandi Episcopos, Presbyteros, et 
 Diaconos,” &c. The formulae vary slightly, but the description 
 of the Ordinal is the same in all four cases. These formulae and 
 signatures form part of the Annexed Book, which as a whole 
 received the sanction of Parliament in 1662, and then became 
 the Prayer-book of the Church of England, and the witness 
 which they give to the true meaning of the word “priest” is as 
 authoritative as it is clear. 
 
The Book of Common Prayer 293 
 
 Bishop (Jerome), 'iepetfs never applied to Christian 
 Ministers, 126-129, 242, 250, 251. 
 
 Protestant : not merely negative. An Apostolical Suc- 
 cession, 10-16. 
 
 Psalms. Parallelism, 92-94. 
 
 Real Presence : Where? Under Elizabeth the present 
 combined form of administering introduced. Post- 
 Communion Rubric. John VI., 37, 150- 154, 205- 
 208. 
 
 Reformation ; its precursors ; its history, 8-38. 
 
 Responses, Value of, 67-68. 
 
 Sabaoth, Lord of ; Sabean worship, 82. 97, 67, 68. 
 
 Sacrament. The Lord’s Supper not a Sacrifice. Figura- 
 tive Sacrifices. The one real Sacrifice once for all, 
 never to be repeated. Heb. ix. 10. Words of ad- 
 ministering imply it is Christ’s body of Calvary, not 
 His glorified body, 184-188. 
 
 Saints’ Days, 136. 
 
 Sanctification prayed for as attainable, not perfection yet, 
 97-98. 
 
 Savoy Commission, 54-56. 
 
 Scot, Erigena : opposed Transubstantiation, 8. 
 
 Secession : Schism, 56-59, 219-223, 285. 
 
 Supererogation, Works of : Article XIV. disproved by 
 Christ’s words, 276. 
 
 Te Deum. Author. Three Parts, 96. 
 Transubstantiation, 1 55- 1 57. 
 
 Tradition, one only Universal fulfilling Vincentius Liri- 
 nensis’ rule, 272, 283, 284. 
 
 Trent Council : relation to XXXIX. Articles, 265-266. 
 Trinity Sunday. Two parts of our Religious Year, 235- 
 236. 
 
 Unity, 222, 223. 
 
 Uniformity, Act of : effects, 55-56. 
 
294 Guide to Book of Common Prayer 
 
 Visitation of Sick : Rome’s extreme unction not St. 
 James’s, 197-198. 
 
 Westminster Divines : Charles I., Laud, 47-49. 
 
 Whitby Council : Wilfrid, 7. 
 
 Whitsunday. Pentecost, 135. 
 
 Wyclifs Work. Tyndal’s. Matthew’s Bible. Cran- 
 mer’s. Bishops, 13-20. 
 
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