THE grace of our Lord Jefus Chrift, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghoft, be with us all evermore. Amen. THE THANKSGIVING of WOMEN after CHILD-BIRTH, COMMONLY CALLED The Churching of Women. The Woman, at the ufual time after her delivery, fhall come into the Church decently apparelled, and there fhall kneel down in fome convenient place, as hath been accustomed, or as the Ordinary shall direct: And then the Frieft fhall fay unto her, FOR OMCs to give you fale deliverance, and hath ORASMUCH as it hath pleafed Almighty God of preferved you in the great danger of child-birth; you shall therefore give hearty thanks unto God, and fay, The grace, &c.] This bleffing was added to the fervice at the laft review. By the LVIIth canon it is enjoined, that the ceremony of burial fhall conclude with a short peal, to notify that the laft duties had been paid to the departed. The fame canon ordains, " that when any one is pafling out of life a bell fhall be tolled;" and another peal used after the party's death. The paling bell is however now obfolete; and the custom of the nolling or knell alone obferved. Churching of women] The birth of man is little lefs than a miracle; and left the frequency fhould diminish our fenfe of it, the woman who hath received this wonderful mercy is ordered to come to church and offer up her publick praifes: the original of which is from the law of Mofes, (Levit. xii.) which commands all women after they had borne a child, to come to the house of God within a certain number of days, and with a facrifice to praise God for this great mercy. And though nothing but fin makes any perfon unclean under the gofpel, and fo the ceremonial reafon be ceafed; yet the obligation to make a publick acknowledgment of fo eminent a favour remains ftill. And therefore the blefled Virgin (who was not defiled by Chrift's birth) obferved this holy rite, and in all ages Chriftian mothers have followed her example; yea in the Eaftern church they bring their child in their arms, as fhe did, to prefent it to God, and there they do this after forty days: But in the Weftern church there is no time fet down by any law, only the mother is to come as foon as the is able, and the accustomed time is after one month; neceffity and modefty oblige them to stay so long at leaft, and if they be not recovered then, they muft forbear longer, fince they cannot praife God for a mercy before they have received it. The place to do this in is the church, and thence Then fhall the Prieft fay, Pfalm cxvi. Dilexi quoniam. AM well pleased: that the Lord hath heard the voice of my prayer; That he hath inclined his ear unto me: therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. The fnares of death compaffed me round about: and the pains of hell gat hold upon me. I found trouble and heavinefs; and I called upon the Name of the Lord: O Lord, I befeech thee, deliver my foul. Gracious is the Lord, and righteous: yea, our God is merciful. The Lord preferveth the fimple: I was in mifery, and he helped me. Turn again then unto thy reft, O my foul: for the Lord hath rewarded thee. And why? thou haft delivered my foul from death: mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord: in the land of the living." I believed, and therefore will I speak; but I was fore troubled: I said in my hafte, All men are lyars. it is called Churching of Women, and it muft be done fo publickly, firft, for God's honour, whofe work of creation and his preferving the poor woman ought to be publickly owned. Secondly, to fatisfy the woman's duty, who is bound to let God's goodness be fhewed forth, that others may learn to truft in him. Thirdly, and by this means many are brought to join in God's praises for fo public a mercy, which all men and women are concerned to own with gratitude, and therefore to do this in a private house is abfurd and contrary to the main end of the office.-Comber. The title in Edw. VIth's firft book is," The order of the Purification of Women." At the first review it received its prefent form: in the first rubric the form ran, "Convenient place nigh unto the quire door, and the prieft ftanding by her," &c. This was altered in 1551 to "convenient place, nigh unto the place where the table ftandeth." In 1662 it was arranged as we now fee it. Decently apparelled i. e. as the cuftom and order was anciently, with a white covering or veil; and we find that as late as the reign of James Ift, an order was made by the Chancellor of Norwich, that every woman who came to be churched fhould come thus apparelled: an order, it feems, fo well founded upon the practice of the church, that a woman refufing to conform with it was excommunicated for contempt.-Wheatly. Pfalm Till the laft review the cxxift pfalm alone was directed to be used. What reward fhall I give unto the Lord for all the benefits he hath done unto me? I will receive the cup of falvation: and call upon the Name of the Lord. I will pay my vows now in the prefence of all his people: in the courts of the Lord's houfe, even in the midft of thee, O Jerufalem. Praise the Lord. Glory be to the Father, &c. Or, Pfalm cxxvii. Nifi Dominus. EXCEPT the Lord build the house: their labour is Except the Lord keep the city: the watchmen waketh but in vain. It is but loft labour that ye hafte to rife up early, and fo late take reft, and eat the bread of carefulness: for fo he giveth his beloved sleep. Lo, children and the fruit of the womb: are an heritage and gift, that cometh of the Lord. Like as the arrows in the hand of the giant: even fo are the young children. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they fhall not be afhamed, when they speak with their enemies in the gate. Glory be to the Father, &c. As it was in the beginning, &c. Ο T Then fhall the Priest fay, Let us pray. Lord, have mercy upon us. UR Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, As it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trefpaffes, As we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; But deliver us from evil. Amen. Minifter. O Lord, fave this woman thy fervant; ALMIGHTY God, we give thee humble thanks for that thou haft vouchfafed to deliver this woman thy fervant from the great pain and peril of child-birth; Grant, we beseech thee, most merciful Father, that fhe, through thy help, may both faithfully live, and walk ac cording to thy will in this life prefent; and alfo may be partaker of everlasting glory in the life to come, through Jefus Chrift our Lord. Amen. ¶ The Woman that cometh to give her thanks must offer accustomed Offerings; and if there be a Communion, it is convenient that she receive the holy Communion. O Lord, &c.] This I obferve, because it seems to be the remain of a very ancient cuftom; for Euf. in Hift. l. ii. c. 17, tells us, that the primitive Chriftians in the finging of their hymns, had this ufe; that one began and fung in rhyme, the reft hearing with filence, only the firit part, or angsrikiria, the ends of the pfalmi or hymn, all the reft joined in a fong together with him. Agreeable to this, fays Clem. Conft. I. ii. c. 57, was the ufage in his time and before. After the readings of the Old Teftament, fays he, let another fing the pfalms of David, and let the people anfwer ra angos, the extremes or ends of the verfes. What the reafon of this ancient custom was, I will not peremptorily determine; whether it were only for variety, which much pleafes and delights, and is a great help againft wearinefs; which thofe primitive Chriftians, (who continued in facred exercises from morning to night) had need of. For which caufe, fays Eufeb. in the place above cited, they ufed all decent and grave variety of rhymes and metres in their hymns and pfalms. Or whether it were to avoid the inconvenience of indecorum and confufion, which the people (ufually not very obfervant of decency) were guilty of in their joint finging: and yet to referve them apart in thefe offices; that it was fo appointed, that they fhould only fing the extremes or ends of the verfes. Or what elfe was the caufe, I leave it to others to judge. ọ Almighty God, &c.] The commencement of this prayer, till the laft review 1662, was "O Almighty God, which haft delivered this woman thy fervant from the great," &c. The woman, &c.] The rubric in Edward the VIth's first book ran thus: "The woman that is purified muft offer her crifome, (or white vefture put upon the child at baptifm) and other accuftomed," &c. This was omitted at the first review of Edward's prayer-book. Bb OR, DENOUNCING OF GOD's ANGER AND JUDG. MENTS AGAINST SINNERS. With certain PRAYERS to be used on the first Day of Lent, and at other times, as the Ordinary fhall appoint. ¶ After Morning Prayer, the Litany ended according to the accustomed manner, the Priest shall, in the ReadingPew or Pulpit, fay, RETHREN, in the primitive church there was a godly difcipline, that, at the beginning of Lent, fuch perfons as flood convicted of notorious fin were put to open penance, and punished in this world, that their fouls might be faved in the day of the Lord; and that others, admonished by their example, might be the more afraid to offend. A Commination] In Edward the VIth's firft book the title and rubric are as follow:-"The firft day of Lent, commonly called Afh-Wednefday. After matins ended, the people being called together by the ringing of a bell, and affembled in the church, the English litany fhall be faid, in fuch wife as in the end of this book is fet forth, and in the accustomed places appointed by the King's injunctions; which ended, the prieft fhall go into the pulpit and fay thus." At the firft review of the prayer-book this rubric was fomewhat altered at the fuggeftion of Bucer, and the words "divers times of the year" introduced; which included one of the three Sundays next before Éafter; one of the two Sundays next before Pentecoft; and one of the two Sundays next before Christmas. The title and rubric were fettled as they at prefent are, in 1662. Pulpit, &c.] It is certain that the pulpit was at first designed, not only for preaching, but for any thing else that tended to the edification of the people. There the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments, were formerly appointed to be read to the people in English on every holy-day in the year, when there was no fermon to hinder it: and there alfo at the beginning of the Reformation, whilft the Romish mafs was continued till the English liturgy could be prepared, the epiftle and gofpel for the day, with a leffon out of the New Teftament in the morning, and another out of the Old Teftament in the afternoon, was read to the people in the English tongue. However, reading-pews having been generally brought into ufe before the Reftoration, it was not then thought proper to confine the ufe of this office any longer to the pulpit, but to al low it to be faid as the minister should think proper, either there or in the reading-pew. Brethren] This preface fhews the reafon and occafion of compofing this office, viz. To fupply the want of primitive difcipline, that every man may judge himself, fince the church now judgeth fo few offenders. In the primitive church all manifeft finners, adulterers, drunkards, blasphe mers, &c. were presently excommunicated, and not received into the church again, till by fome years of penitence and mortification they had |