COMMON PRAYER And Administration of the Sacraments ACCORDING TO THE USE OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TOGETHER WITH The Psalter or Psalms of David London PRINTED BY EYRE AND SPOTTISWOODE Printers to the Queen's most Excellent Majesty FOR E. & J. B. YOUNG & CO. NEW YORK KC 4902 HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY CERTIFICATE. I CERTIFY that this edition of the Book of Common Prayer has been compared with a certified copy of the Standard Book, as the Canon directs, and that it conforms thereto. (Signed) January 1893. SAMUEL HART, Custodian of the Standard Book of Common Prayer. LONDON: PRINTED BY EYRE AND SPOTTISWOODE, QUEEN'S PRINTERS. TABLE OF CONTENTS. 3. Concerning the Service of the Church, with the Order how the Psalter and the rest of the Holy Scripture is appointed to be read. 4. Tables of Proper Lessons of Holy Scripture. 5. The Calendar, with Tables of Lessons of Holy Scripture. 6. Tables and Rules for the Movable and Immovable Feasts, together with 7. Tables for finding the Holy-days. 8. The Order for Daily Morning Prayer. 11. Prayers and Thanksgivings upon several Occasions. 12. A Penitential Office for Ash-Wednesday. 13. The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, to be used throughout the Year. 14. The Order for the Administration of the Lord's Supper, or Holy 15. The Ministration of Public Baptism of Infants, to be used in the The Ministration of Private Baptism of Children, in Houses. 17. The Ministration of Baptism to such as are of Riper Years, and able 18. A Catechism; that is to say, an Instruction, to be learned by every Person before he be brought to be confirmed by the Bishop. 19. The Order of Confirmation, or Laying on of Hands upon those that are baptized, and come to years of Discretion. 20. The Form of Solemnization of Matrimony. 23. The Order for the Burial of the Dead. 21. The Thanksgiving of Women after Child-birth; commonly called, THE RATIFICATION OF THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. & By the Bishops, the Clergy, and the Laity of the Protestant This Convention having, in their present session, set forth A Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, do hereby establish the said Book: And they declare it to be the Liturgy of this Church: And require that it be received as such by all the members of the same: And this Book shall be in use from and after the First Day of October, in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninety. F PREFACE. TT is a most invaluable part of that blessed liberty worship different forms and usages may without offence be allowed, provided the substance of the Faith be kept entire; and that, in every Church, what cannot be clearly determined to belong to Doctrine must be referred to Discipline; and therefore, by common consent and authority, may be altered, abridged, enlarged, amended, or otherwise disposed of, as may seem most convenient for the edification of the people, "according to the various exigencies of times and occasions." The Church of England, to which the Protestant Episcopal Church in these States is indebted, under Gon, for her first foundation and a long continuance of nursing care and protection, hath, in the Preface of her Book of Common Prayer, laid it down as a rule, that "The particular forms of Divine Worship, and the Rites and Ceremonies appointed to be used therein, being things in their own nature indifferent and alterable, and so acknowledged, it is but reasonable that upon weighty and important considerations, according to the various exigencies of times and occasions, such changes and alterations should be made therein, as to those who are in place of authority should, from time to time, seem either necessary or expedient." The same Church hath not only in her Preface, but likewise in her Articles and Homilies, declared the necessity and expediency of occasional alterations and amendments in her Forms of Public Worship; and we find accordingly, that, seeking to "keep the happy mean between too much stiffness in refusing, and too much easiness in admitting variations in things once advisedly established, she hath, in the reign of several Princes, since the first compiling of her Liturgy in the time of Y A |