HAVING given to the children of the ST. ANN'S SOCIETY a series of Exercises on the Bible in the discharge of my duties as honorary Chaplain, I wished to give them another series on the PrayerBook, to show its intimate connexion with the Bible. Intense occupation made me slow with the MS., and Mr. Bailey produced his comprehensive work, "The Liturgy compared with the Bible." It seemed to me, then, desirable to extend my plan; to combine the evidence for the scriptural nature of the Prayer-Book with evidence of its antiquity; and that such a work might be very useful in attaching our young members to their mother Church. I was encouraged in this idea by a remark of Mr. Field (now Bishop of Newfoundland), in his first report as Inspector of Schools, that there was no work of instruction on the Prayer-Book in our National Schools. I lay no claim to authorship: I have merely desired to be useful; simply bringing down to the minds of young children, the information supplied by Bingham, Palmer, Wheatley, Shepherd, Short, Cardwell, and others. I have given no references, because they would be useless to my intended readers. THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, J &c. ST. PAUL says, "I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also;" and it were well to have our understandings fully awake to the Scriptural language, the antiquity, and the value of those Liturgical forms which we use in our Book of Common Prayer. 1. When was our Book of Common Prayer first set forth by authority? By Edward VI., in the year 2. By what authority? 1549. That of the Church in Convocation; and of the Sovereign. 3. That was called the "First Book of Edward:" when was the Second Book, nearly in our present form, issued and authorised? In the year 1551. 4. Are there any well-known names amongst the compilers of our Prayer-Book? Archbishop Cranmer, the great leader in the work, and in that of the Reformation; and Bishop Ridley: both martyrs in the time of Mary. 5. Why was it necessary to publish an English Book of Common Prayer? Because, amongst other heretical practices, the Church of Rome (under the control of which the Church of England had fallen) had her public services in the Latin tongue. 6. Was this habit of praying in a language not generally understood, contrary to the word of Scripture? Yes; St. Paul is very clear upon this point. "Except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak unto the air. In the Church, I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue. Let all things be done unto edifying. If there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the Church; and let him speak to himself, and to God." 1 Cor. xiv. 9. 19. 26. 28. 7. Do you remember a remarkable circumstance connected with the first miraculous gift of tongues? "How hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?" Acts ii. 8. 8. And was this habit of praying in a tongue not generally understood contrary, also, to the practice of the early Church? Yes; there are large passages in Origen (3 C.), and in Basil (4 C.), which mention every * tongue praising of God; and that the Gospel being spread to many nations, God was in every nation praised in the language of that nation. 9. Give me a distinct passage from Origen. "The Grecians," he says, 86 use the Greek language in their prayers; and the Romans, the Roman; and so every one in his own dialect prays to God, and gives thanks as he is able; and the God of all languages hears them that pray in all dialects, understanding their different languages as well as if they all spake with one tongue." 10. And were the Scriptures so read, also, in the vulgar or common tongue ? 1. Yes; Theodoret says, (5 C.) "that every nation under heaven had the Scriptures in their own tongue.". 2. In a very early age (3 C.) readers were specially ordained for the instruction of the people. 3. The early fathers of the Church frequently preached upon the portions of Scripture read out, and referred to them constantly in their sermons. 11. How came the Roman Church to have any authority in this country? Pope Gregory, in 596, sent over a priest named Augustine, and others, to convert the Saxons, appointing Augustine Archbishop of Canter bury. 12. Were there, then, no Christians in England before that time? O yes; Christianity had been spread throughout the island before the Saxon invasion. Eusebius (4 C.) and Theodoret (5 C.) speak of Apostolic preaching in Britain; Tertullian (2, 3 C.) of its Christian worship; and about the close of the third century there were martyrs to testify to the truth by their blood, St. Alban's taking its name from a martyr who suffered there A.D. 303. 13. And were there independent Christian Bishops in Britain? There were English Bishops present at the Councils of Arles (4 C.), York, London, Lincoln; Sardica (4 C.); Ariminum (4 C.); and there were Bishops in Wales after the Saxon invasion, who refused to acknowledge the authority of Augustine-among them, St. David's, St. Asaph, Bangor, Llandaff, Hereford, and Worcester. 14. Before we proceed, I would call to mind, that we usually date our Reformation from the time of Henry VIII.: Was there no attempt towards an English Service in his reign? The Litany was rendered into English, and published in 1544; and in the following year the Lord's prayer, the commandments, hymns, and collects. The Title. 15. The title speaks of the Sacraments and other rites and ceremonies of the Church: What Church? |