CHAP. gobernance, to do always that is righteous in Thy sight, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

III.

of

[Scotch Liturgy, "After this collect ended followeth the litany, and if the litany be not appointed to be said or sung that morning, then shall be next said the prayer the king's majesty, with the rest of the prayers following, at the end of the litany, and the benediction."]

A

CHAPTER III.

III.

(A) Morning and evening prayer agreeable to the Jewish and Christian CHAP. practice. The three hours of prayer in the temple. The six of private devotion. (B) Where morning and evening prayer are to be said. Why the place left arbitrary to the bishop. (C) What meant by "chancels shall stand as they have done." (D) Ornaments in cathedrals. (E) The surplice defended and primitive practice set down. (F) A discourse concerning the translations of the Bible, where the obstacle was, that our liturgy was not reformed in this particular. (G) To begin with confession ancient. (H) What meant by the word 'alone' in the rubric of absolution. (I) The Lord's Prayer why pronounced in a loud voice. (K) The primitive practice concerning Amen. (L) The versicles and responds, canonical Scripture, approved by Bucer. (M) The original of the doxology, its antiquity. (N) Hallelujah, at what times to be used. (0) The invitatory what, and why devised. (P) The number of lessons in the Romish Church. Our manner of reading them most conformable to antiquity. The contents of the chapters, of what use. (Q) The primitive custom before every lesson. (R) The benefit of mixing psalms or hymns with lessons. (S) Te Deum, how ancient. (T) Benedicite ancient. (V) Benedictus and other hymns vindicated, used by the Dutch Church. (W) The Creed anciently no part of the liturgy; how employed; why called the Apostles'. The Catholic Church a phrase as ancient as Ignatius. Reason why so called. The variety of symbols whence derived; why the Creed pronounced standing. (X) The Lord be with you,' whence derived. Difference betwixt it and 'Peace be to you.' (Y) 'Let us pray,' an ancient formula. (Z) Lord have mercy upon us,' &c., called the lesser litany. (AA) 'O Lord, shew Thy mercy upon us,' &c., are canonical Scripture. (BB) Collects, why so called.

·

Morning and evening prayer.] Prayer ought to be made as oft as occasion requireth; as there is daily occasion, so there must be daily prayer. Our daily sins exact a daily confession; our daily wants teach us, as our Saviour prescribed us, to say, "Give us this day our daily bread;" the Lord's mercies are "new every morning," so should our prayers and thanksgivings be; new in practice, though the same in form.

III.

CHAP. Upon this account were the diurnal sacrifices of the temple: upon this account did the primitive Christians practise it; sacrificia quotidie celebramus, "we daily offer sacrifices to God,” saith Cypriana: ἡμέρας ἑκάστης τῷ τούτων δεσπότῃ τοὺς ὕμνους προσφέρομεν, saith Theodoret. Yea not only daily, but twice a day, at morning and evening, according to the order of our Church, τοῦτο ἴσασιν οἱ μύσται, πῶς καθ ̓ ἕκαστην ἡμέραν γίνεται, καὶ ἐν ἑσπέρᾳ καὶ πρωΐᾳ, saith Chrysostom"; "all the faithful can bear witness of this," how it is observed in the morning and evening service. And to the same purpose Epiphanius, Εωθινοίτε ὕμνοι ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ ἁγίᾳ 72 Εκκλησίᾳ διηνεκεῖς γίνονται καὶ προσευχαὶ ἐωθιναὶ: Λυχνικοί τε ἄμα ψαλμοὶ καὶ προσευχαί. “Μorning prayers and hymns are continually used in the holy Church, as also evening prayers and hymns:" what these morning and evening hymns were, shall be seen afterwards. As for the hour of morning prayer with us, it is nine in the forenoon, agreeable to the primitive practice of the Greek Church especially, derived either from the miraculous descent of the Holy Ghost at that hour upon the Apostles, or from the Jewish custom of assembling for the performance of religious duties at that hour, their third; whereof instances there are enough in Holy Scripture; this in all probability of divine establishment; not so, I conceive, the next or sixth in order of canonical hours, this being added by private devotion: at which hour, after dinner, devout people resorted to the temple to offer up their more peculiar supplications, in reference to their private and proper wants. So "Hannah rose up early after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk, and went into the temple, and prayed unto the Lord," 1 Sam. i. 9, whence old Eli mistook her to be drunk; ἀπὸ τοῦ καιροῦ τῆς ἡμέρας, Kai yàp yν тò μεonußpivov, saith St. Chrysostom", "from the heat of the day, for it was about noon." So the prophet David, “At morning, and evening, and at high noon-day will I rise up to praise thee." In conformity to which the ancient Christians preserved the same observation; though satisfied I am not, that it was a universal practice, because Clemens Alexandrinus restrained it to some, τινὲς ὥρας τάκτας ἀπο

νέμουσιν εὐχῇ τρίτην, ἕκτην, καὶ ἑννάτην, “ some allot set hours CHAP. for prayers, the third, sixth, and ninth."

B Except it shall be otherwise determined by the ordinary, &c.] The first Reformation putting a positive restraint, and that general, upon all divine offices to the chorus or choir, Bucer, whose judgment was called in to aid by Archbishop Cranmer, in order to a future reformation of our liturgy, justly faulted it, wishing quam primum corrigi, that with all expedition it might be mended; for oportet ut sacra omnia populus audiant, percipiantque religione summa: "fit it is that all holy offices the people should both hear and mind with all possible devotion:" and this they could not do in such churches where the high Altars were disposed very distant from the nave or body of the church by the interposition of a belfry, as in many places it happened. Thereupon in the next liturgy, order was given for the service to be used in such places of the church, &c. as "the people might best hear," and if controverted, the ordinary to determine the place. Now the last reformers in Queen Elizabeth's time, observing that in many churches the edification of the people might be secured, and the ancient practice observed, restored the service to its former station, leaving notwithstanding an overruling power in the ordinary to dispose it otherwise, if he saw just cause so to do. Whereby it appeareth that the bishops lately enjoining the service to be said at the holy table, or in the chancel, did not innovate, but held to the rubric, and that the officiating in the desk was a swerving from the rule, unless where it was able to shew episcopal dispensation expressly to warrant it.

And the chancels shall stand as they have done.] In the beginning of the Reformation under King Edward the Sixth's reign, Altars were taken down "upon good and godly consideration," as King Edward's letter to Bishop Ridley imports. But as there is no constat that all Altars were then taken down, for the letter speaketh but of most part, not of all the churches in the realm, so is it dubious whether they were taken down by public order or popular tumult, for the consideration might be "good and godly," yet the way of proceeding therein not approvable: but taken down they were, and by way of concomitancy, probably in many places the

III.

III.

CHAP. steps of ascent were levelled also, set so as some were notwithstanding left in their former state: about which much strife and contention arising in several places, some eager to pull them down, others as earnest to continue them; the 73 wisdom of the Church interposeth to part the fray, ordering in this rubric no alteration to be attempted therein: which notwithstanding, the people in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, began to be unquiet again in this particular, so as she was enforced to restrain them by a new order in these words: "Also that the steps which be as yet at this day remaining in any our cathedral, collegiate, or parish churches, be not stirred nor altered, but be suffered to continue; and if in any chancel the steps be transposed, that they be not erected again, but that the place be decently paved"." By which words evident it is authority had no design to end the dispute by closing with either party, but by stating things in their present posture.

The minister shall use such ornaments, &c.] In the latter end D of the Act for Uniformity there was reserved to the queen a power to make some further order with the advice of her commissioners, &c., concerning ornaments for ministers; but I do not find that she made any use of that authority, or put her power into exercise further than is expressed in her advertisements of the seventh year of her reign, by which it is ordered, that in "cathedrals the chief minister officiating at the Communion shall wear a decent cope, with gospeller and epistoler agreeable."

Shall use a surplice.] Of civil concernment and politie E necessity it is, that men be distinguished into several, not only degrees, but sorts; to these sorts, custom, hitherto uncontrolled, hath rationally assigned such vestments as set a peculiar mark upon them, distinguishing each from other. If, amongst the rest, sacred institution hath separated some to serve at the Altar, why should not they be known by their livery to what profession they belong, as well as others? and if so, why may not also some attire be allotted them, select from the ordinary, when they are called to officiate in holy administrations. Religio divina alterum habitum habet in ministerio, alterum in usu communi, saith Jerome"; "divine

Orders Oct. 10; 3 Eliz.

h Comment. in Ezech., lib. xiii. c. 44.