they both tend to the fame end, and only differ a little in Sect. V. the form.

SECT. VI. Of the Collect, Epiftle, and Gospel.

IT is evident, that long before the dividing of the Bible of the Colinto chapters and verfes, it was the cuftom both of the left, &c. Greek and Latin churches to read fome felect portions of the plainest and most practical parts of the New Testament, firft for the Epiftle, and then for the Gospel, at the celebration of the holy Eucharift 1, in imitation perhaps of the Jewish mode of reading the history of the Paffover before the eating of the Pafchal Lamb 2.

82

83

read first.

§. 2. As for the antiquity, matter, and fuitableness of Why the the feveral Collects, Epiftles, and Gospels, I have already Epifle is fpoken at large. I fhall only make this one remark more, that as our Saviour's disciples went before his face to every city and place, whither he himself would come ; fo here the Epistle, as the word of the Servant, is read first, that it may be as a harbinger to the Gospel, to which the laft place and greatest honour is referved, as being the word of their great Mafter. And for this reason I suppose it was ordered by the advertisements published in the feventh year of Queen Elizabeth 84, and by the twentyfourth of our prefent canons, that the principal Minifter, at the celebration of the Communion, should be affifted with a Gofpeler and Epiftler agreeably; i. e. with one Mi- Epiftler and nifter to read the Epiftle, and another to read the Gofpel, Gofpeler, as is ftill generally the cuftom in cathedral churches; pointed. which was also provided for by the rubrics in King Edward's first book, which orders that the Prieft, or he that is appointed, hall read the Epiftle in a place affigned for that purpofe, (which from the modern practice I take to be on the South fide of the Table ;) and that immediately after the Epiftle ended, the Priest, or one appointed, (which, as appears from the next rubric, might be a Deacon,) fhall read the Gospel.

why ap

§. 3. The cuftom of faying Glory be to thee, O Lord, Thecuftom when the Minifter was about to read the holy Gofpel, and of faying, of finging Hallelujah, or faying, Thanks be to God for his Glory be to holy Gospel, when he had concluded it, is as old as St. Lord, &c. Chryfoftom 5; but we have no authority for it in our pre

81 Juft. Mart. Ap. 1. Clem. Conft. Apoft. lib. 2. c. 56, 57.

82 Buxtorf. Lex. Chald.

83 Luke x. 1.

84 In Bishop Sparrow's Collection,

page 124, 125.

85 Liturg. S. Chrys.

fent

thee, O

of what an

tiquity.

Chap. VI. fent Liturgy. The firft indeed was enjoined by King Edward's firft Common Prayer-Book, and fo the custom has continued ever fince; and I do not find how it came to be left out of the rubric afterwards. It certainly could have nothing objected against it, and therefore it is reftored in the Scotch Liturgy; which alfo ordered, that, when the Presbyter fhall fay, So endeth the holy Gospel, the People fhall anfwer, Thanks be to thee, O Lord. In our own Common Prayer-Book the Priest has no direction to fay the Gospel is ended; the reafon of which fome imagine to be, because it is ftill continued in the Creed that followeth.

Standing up at the Gospel,

why com

86

§. 4. In St. Auguftine's time the people always stood when the Leffons were read, to fhew their reverence to God's holy word 6: but afterwards, when this was manded. thought too great a burden, they were allowed to fit down at the Leffons, and were only obliged to ftand (as our prefent order, which was firft inferted in the Scotch Common Prayer-Book, now enjoins us) at the reading of the Gospel 7, which always contains fomething that our Lord did speak, or fuffered in his own perfon. By which gefture they fhewed they had a greater respect to the Son of God himself, than they had to any other infpired perfon, though speaking the word of God, and by God's authority.

after the

SECT. VII. Of the Nicene Creed. Whyplaced As the Apostles Creed is placed immediately after the Epifle and daily Leffons, fo is this after the Epiftle and Gofpel; Gospel. both of them being founded upon the doctrine of Christ and his Apostles. As therefore in the foregoing portions of Scripture we believe with our heart to righteousness, fo in the Creed that follows, we confess with our mouth to falvation.

An account

of it.

§. 2. This is commonly called the Nicene Creed, as being, for the greatest part, the Creed that was drawn up by the firft general council of Nice, in the year 325, but enlarged by a fuller explication of fome articles about the year 381, efpecially in relation to the divinity and proceffion of the Holy Ghost, in order to a more particular confutation and fuppreffion of the Arian and Macedonian he

86 Auguftin. Serm 300. in Ap. pend. ad tom. v. col. 504. B.

87 Conft. Ap. 1. 2. c. 56. Niceph.

1. 9. c. 18. Ifid. Peluf. 1. 1. Ep. 136. Soz. 1. 7. c. 19:

refy.

refy. For which reafon it was enjoined by the third Sect. VII. council of Toledo to be recited by all the people in Spain before the Sacrament, to fhew that they were all free from herefy, and in the ftricteft league of union with the Catholic church 88. And fince in this Sacrament we are to renew our baptifmal vow, (one branch of which was, that we would believe all the Articles of the Chriftian Faith,) it is very requifite that, before we be admitted, we should declare that we ftand firm in the belief of those articles.

SECT. VIII. Of the Rubric after the Nicene Creed.

tions.

AFTER the Creed follows a rubric of directions, in- The rubric ftructing the Priest what he is to publifh, or make of direcknown to the people. I do not find any fuch rubric in the firft Common Prayer-Book of King Edward VI. and in all the reft quite down to the Restoration, a declaration of the Holy-days only was ordered to be made after the Sermon or Homily was ended.

§. 2. This is the first thing our rubric mentions now, Why the viz. that the Curate fhall declare unto the people what holy-Curate is to bid Holydays or fafting-days are in the week following to be obferved. days. The first reafon of which was, left the people fhould obferve any fuch days as had been formerly kept, but were laid afide at the Reformation: and therefore the Bishops enquired in their vifitations, whether any of their Curates bid any other days than were appointed by the new calendar 59. This danger is now pretty well over; there being no great fear of the people's obferving fuperftitious holydays. But there is ftill as much reafon for keeping up rubric, fince now they are run into a contrary extreme, and, inftead of obferving too many holy-days, regard none; which makes it fit that the Curate fhould discharge his duty, by telling them beforehand what holy-days will happen, and then leaving it upon his people to answer for the neglect, if they are paffed over without due regard.

the

of the Com

§. 3. And then alfo (if occafion be) fhall notice be given of When to the Communion: though by another rubric, juft before the give notice firft exhortation, this is fuppofed to be done after Sermon. munion. For there it is ordered, that when the minifter giveth warning for the celebration of the holy Communion, (which he fhall always do upon the Sunday, or fome Holy-day immediately preceding,) after the Sermon or Homily ended, he shall read

88 Can. 2. tom. v. col. 1009. E.

T

89 Archbishop Grindal, Art. VIII. 1576, for the whole Province.

the

Chap. VI. the exhortation following. The occafion of this difference was the placing of this rubric of directions, at the last review, before the rubric concerning the Sermon or Homily. For by all the old Common Prayer-Books, immediately after the Nicene Creed, the Sermon was ordered; and then after that the Curate was to declare unto the people, whether there were any holy-days or fafting-days in the week following, and earnestly to exhort them to remember the poor, by reading one or more of the fentences, as he thought moft convenient by his difcretion. This was the whole of that rubric then. All the remaining part was added at the Restoration, as was also the rubric above cited just before the Exhortation. Now it is plain by that rubric, that the warning to the Communion was intended to be given after the Sermon ; and therefore I fhould have imagined that there was no defign to have changed the places of the two rubrics here, but only to have added fome other directions concerning the proclaiming or publishing things in the church and that confequently the placing of them in the order they now ftand, might have been owing to the printer's, or fome other miftake; but that I obferve in the next rubric the Priest is ordered to return to the Lord's Table, which fuppofes that he has been in the Pulpit fince he was at the Table before; and therefore inclines me to believe that the rubrics were tranfpofed with defign; and that the intent of the revisers was, that when there was nothing in the Sermon itself preparatory to the Communion, both this and the other rubric fhould be complied with, viz. by giving warning in this place, that there will be a Communion on fuch a day, and then reading the exhortation after Sermon is ended.

What

not.

§. 4. At this time alfo Briefs, Citations, and Excommuthings to be nications are to be read. But nothing is to be proclaimed or published, and what published in the church, during the time of divine fervice, but by the Minifter: nor by him any thing but what is prefcribed in the rules of the Common Prayer-Book, or enjoined by the King, or by the Ordinary of the place. All this was undoubtedly added, to prevent the cuftom, that ftill too much prevails in fome country churches, of publishing the moft frivolous, unbefitting, and even ridiculous things in the face of the congregation.

SECT.

SECT. IX. Of the Sermon.

Sect. IX.

defign of it.

SERMONS have been appointed from the beginning The antiof Christianity", to be ufed upon all Sundays and quity and Holy-days, but especially when the Lord's Supper was to be administered. For by a pious and practical difcourse fuited to the holy Communion, the minds of the hearers are put into a devout frame, and made much fitter for the fucceeding myfteries.

by Bishops.

§. 2. This province indeed, in ancient times, was gene- Formerly rally undertaken by the Bishops, who, at first voluntarily, performed and afterwards by injunction, preached every Sunday, unlefs hindered by ficknefs: but however, in the abfence of the Bishop, this duty was performed by Presbyters, and by his permiffion in his prefence 92.

§. 3. The reafon of its being ordered here, is because Why order the first defign of them was to explain fome part of the ed here. foregoing Epistle and Gospel 93, in imitation of that practice of the Jews mentioned in Nehemiah viii. 8. For which reason they were formerly called Poftillis (quafi poft illa, fc. Evangelia) because they followed the Gospel.

§. 4. The Homilies, mentioned in the rubric, are two of the Hobooks of plain Sermons, (for fo the word fignifies,) fet out milies. by public authority, one whereof is to be read upon any Sunday or Holy-day, when there is no Sermon. The first volume of them was fet out in the beginning of King Edward VI's reign, having been compofed (as it is thought) by Archbishop Cranmer, Bishop Ridley, and Latimer, at the beginning of the Reformation, when a competent number of Minifters, of fufficient abilities to preach in a public congregation, was not to be found. The fecond volume was fet out in Queen Elizabeth's time, by order of Convocation, A. D. 1563. And that this is not at all contrary to the practice of the ancient church, is evident from the teftimony of Sixtus Sinenfis, who, in the fourth book of his library, faith, "That our countryman "Alcuinus collected and reduced into order, by the com"mand of Charles the Great, the Homilies of the moft "famous doctors of the church upon the Gofpels, which "were read in churches all the year round." He fays,