Chap. holy Table, in regard of the Offering fhe is there to make. XIII. They need not fear Popery in this, fince in the Church of Rome "She is to kneel at the Church-door 39. So that the reason, I prefume, of their altering the rubric was not to give the Ordinary a general power to change the accustomed place, where there was no occafion; but because in fome places the churches were fo inconveniently built, that by the interpofition of a Belfry between the church and the chancel (as I have obferved elsewhere *,) the Minister could not be heard out of the chancel into the church; therefore the Ordinary should, in fuch cases, have power or authority to allow the Woman to be churched in fome other place. Juft as I have fhewed" he has power, in the fame cafe, to order the Morning and Evening Prayer to be read where he pleafes. But where there is no fuch impediment, or at least where the Ordinary has not otherwife enjoined, there to be fure this office is to be performed, even by virtue of this rubric, at the Communion Table or Altar. In what be performed. §. 5. In what part of the fervice this office is to come part of the in, the rubric does not fay: but by fome old Articles of fervice to Vifitation, which the Bishops used to make the fubjects of their inquiry, it appears to have been used juft before the Communion-office 42: and no one, I believe, will deny, that it is more regular there, than when it interrupts the ordinary fervice, as it does when it is used either just before or just after the general Thanksgiving; or than when it is performed in the midst of the hurry and noise of the people's going out of church, as it is when it is deferred till the whole fervice is done. All the difficulty that lies against confining it to be used juft before the Communion-office, is that no Woman could then be churched but on a Sunday or a Holy-day, when that office is to be read. But to this it may be anfwered, that if she could not, the inconvenience would not be great: and therefore fince most of the other occafional offices of the church are supposed to be performed on Sundays and Holy-days, why should not this? If I judge right from the rubric at the end of this office, it is fo fupposed; for it is there faid, that if there be a Communion, it is convenient that the Woman receive it. Now there can never be a Communion, but when the Communion-office is read; and 39 Proceedings of the Commiffion- 42 Bp. of Norwich's Articles 1536, as cited in the additional Notes of Dr. Nichols, page 66. therefore therefore fince the church fuppofes there may be a Com- Sect. I. munion, when the Woman is churched, fhe feems to make no doubt but that fhe will come to be churched on fome Sunday or Holy-day when that office is appointed: though if the come upon an ordinary week-day, the Communion may be adminiftered if the defires to receive, and then the may be churched regularly at the Holy Table, before the Communion-office begins. SECT. II. Of the Devotions. face. 1. It is a common defect in all other Liturgies, that The Prethey have no Prefaces to introduce the feveral offices, and to prepare the parties concerned to do their duties with understanding. But it is the peculiar care of the church of England to inftruct us how to do every duty, as well as to affift us in the doing it. Hence the daily prayers begin with an Exhortation, as do moft of the other offices of the church. Even this fhort one is not without a fuitable Preface directed to the Woman, whereby the Priest first excites her to a thankful acknowledgment for the mercy fhe has received, and then directs her in what words to perform it. Pfalms. II. The Pfalm appointed on this occafion, in all the The Common Prayer-Books till the laft review, was the cxxift*, Pfal. cxxi. which with the cxxviiith was also prescribed by the office ufed in the church of Rome. But neither of these is so very apt to the cafe, as thofe are which we have now. The firft of which, though compofed by David upon his recovery from fome dangerous ficknefs, is yet, by leaving out a verfe or two, which makes mention of the other fex, eafily enough applicable to the cafe of a Woman, who comes to give her thanks for fo great a deliverance. §. 2. The other more regards the Birth of the Child, Pfal. cxxvii. and is very feasonable to be used whenever it is living, to excite the parents to the greater thankfulness. And as the firft is moft proper, when we refpect the Pain and Peril which the Mother has gone through: fo the last ought to be used when an heir is born, or a Child bestowed on those who wanted and defired one. Nor may it lefs aptly be used when thofe of meaner condition are churched: for by enlarging on the bleffings of a numerous family, it * The Scotch Liturgy orders the cxxist, or the xxviith. obviates Chap. obviates the too common murmurings of those wretches, who think themfelves oppreffed by fuch an increase. XIII. The Wo man to re peat after the Mini fter with an audible voice. The Lord's Refponfes. §. 3. And here by the way the Woman fhould obferve, that he is to fay the following Pfalm of Thanksgiving, i. e. fhe is to repeat it with an audible voice, as he does the daily confeffion, after the Minifter. For the Pfalm is properly applicable to her alone; and the Minister reads it, not upon his own account, but only to instruct and lead the Woman, by going before her, and, as it were, putting into her mouth what words fhe muft fay. III. The Pfalm being over, the Minifter gives notice Prayer and that another part of duty, viz. Prayer, is beginning: in which, by the ufual form, Let us pray, he calls upon the whole congregation to join: and that the addrefs may be humble, it is begun with the fhort Litany, Lord have mercy upon us, &c. That it may alfo be effectual, it is continued in the Lord's Prayer, (to which the Doxology was added at the last review, by reason of its being an office of thanksgiving) and that all may bear a part, two or three fhort Refponfes are added for the Woman's fafety and defence 43 The Prayer. The Woman for merly to offer her Chrifum, IV. And at last the whole office is clofed with a fhort and pious Collect, confifting of a devout mixture of Prayer and Praise, so peculiarly fuited to the present occafion, that it needs no enlargement to fhew its propriety *. SECT. III. Of the last rubric. THE office being thus devoutly performed, the rubric gives notice, that the Woman that comes to give her Thanks muft offer accustomed Offerings. By the first Common Prayer of King Edward VI. the Woman that was pu and why. rified was to offer her Chrifom and other accustomed Offerings. And by a rubric in the fame Book, at the end of the public office of Baptifm, The Minifter was to command, at the time of Baptifm, that the Chrifom be brought to the Church, and delivered to the Priests, after the accustomed manner, at the Purification of the Mother of every Child. The Chrisom, I have formerly had occafion to fhew 44, was a White * In all former books, the Collect began thus: 0 Almighty God, which baft delivered this Woman, Sc. 43 Pfalm lxxxvi, 2. lxi. 3. lxii. 1. 44 See Chap, VII. Se&t. III. p. 360. Vefture Vesture or Garment, which was put upon the Child at Sect. III. the time of its Baptifm, as a token of innocency, and which took its name from the Chrifom, or Ointment, with which the Child was anointed when the Chrisom was put on. Thefe, I have obferved, it was the custom anciently for the new-baptized to appear in at church during the folemn time for Baptifm, to fhew their refolution of leading an innocent and unfpotted life for the future, and then to put them off, and to deliver them to be laid up, in order to be produced, as evidences against them, fhould they afterwards violate or deny that faith which they had then profeffed45. And this, I fuppofe, was the defign of our own church at the beginning of the Reformation, in ordering the Woman to offer the Chrifom when the came to be churched. For if the Child happened to die before, then it feems fhe was excufed from offering it; and indeed there was then no occafion to demand it, fince it would be of no use to the church when the Child was dead. And therefore in fuch case it was cuftomary to wrap the child in it when it was buried, in the nature of a fhroud 45. And from this practice I The word fuppofe the name of Chrifoms had its rife in the Weekly in the Bills of Mortality, which we may ftill obferve among the Weekly cafualties and diseases: though it is not now used to de- Bills, note children that die between the time of their Baptifm had its rife, and their Mother's being churched, as it originally figni- and what fied; but, through the ignorance of Parish Clerks, and it should those that make the report, is put for children that die be- fignify. fore they are baptized, and fo are not capable of Christian burial. Chrifoms whence it §. 2. But to return to the rubric. The Liturgy having Accufbeen altered in the fifth year of King Edward, the use of tomed Of the Chrisom at the Baptifm of the Child was then difcon-ferings, what they tinued; and in confequence thereto, the order for the are. Woman's offering it at her churching was then left out: fo that now she is directed only to offer accustomed Offerings *, i. e. those Offerings which were customary besides * In the Scotch Liturgy the order for Offerings is entirely left out; the whole of the rubric being this that follows: The Woman that cometh to give her Thanks, it is convenient that he receive the boly Communion, if there be any at that time. 45 See Chap. V. Se&. XVIII. XIX. pages 232, 233, &c. 46 Gregory's Pofthumous Works, Chap. XXII. p. 108. the XIII. Chap. the Chrifom, and which, when the Chrifom was in ufe, was diftinguished in the rubric by other accustomed Offerings. By which undoubtedly is to be understood fome offering to the Minifter who performs the office, not under the notion of a fee or reward, but of fomething fet apart as a tribute or acknowledgment due to God, who is pleafed to declare himself honoured or robbed according as fuch offerings are paid or withheld 47. We fee under the Law, that every Woman who came to be purified after Childbearing, was required to bring fomething that put her to an expences: even the pooreft among them was not wholly excufed, but obliged to do fomething, though it were but fmall. And though neither the kind nor the value of the expence be now prefcribed; yet fure the expence itself fhould not covetoufly be faved: a Woman that comes with any thankfulness or gratitude fhould fcorn to offer what David difdained, viz. of that which cofts nothing. And indeed with what fincerity or truth can fhe fay, as fhe is directed to do in one of the Pfalms, I will pay my Vows now in the prefence of all his people, if at the fame time fhe defigns no voluntary offering, which Vows were always understood to imply? The Wo man to receive the Commu'nion, if there be ⚫ne. §. 3. But, befides the accustomed offering to the Minifter, the Woman is to make a yet much better and greater offering, viz. an offering of herself, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively facrifice to God. For the rubric declares, that if there be a Communion, it is convenient that he receive the holy Communion; that being the most folemn way of praifing God for him by whom the received both the prefent, and all other God's mercies towards her and a means alfo to bind herself more strictly to spend those days in his fervice, which, by this late deliverance, he hath added to her life. fion and CHAP. XIV. OF THE COMMINATION. The INTRODUCTION. The Occa- THE Preface which the church has prefixed to this Defign of office will fupply the room of an Introduction. It inthis office. forms us, that in the primitive Church there was a godly 47 Malachi iii. 8. 48 Leviticus xii, 6, &c. Difcipline; |