provisions of an act passed in the 58th year of George III., by which the bishop of any diocese is empowered to direct the performance of a third or additional service in the several churches or chapels within his diocese, under the circumstances therein mentioned." There is no statutory or rubrical direction, as to the precise spot from which the sermon is to be delivered. As to the pulpit, the 24th of Elizabeth's Injunctions (g) directs "That the church-wardens at the common charge of the parishioners in every church, shall provide a comely and honest pulpit, to be set in a convenient place within the same, and to be there seemly kept for the preaching of God's Word ;" and the same provision is contained in the 83rd Canon. Where the serdelivered. mon is to be the sermon. A species of introductory prayer is often delivered immediately Prayer before before the sermon, but this is totally unauthorized. "This prayer of the minister before the sermon, be it of what sort or size it will, is not only contrary to the intention of the Church, but also to the law of the land." (h) 99 " In the 55th Canon, (i) however, is contained a "bidding Prayer, which, or one to a similar effect, is to be used before all sermons, lectures, and homilies, and to be concluded by the Lord's Prayer. SECTION IV. The Remainder of the Book of Common Prayer. "Bidding" prayer. F the various Services, Rites, or Ceremonies for which Other portions provision is made in the Book of Common Prayer, there now remain for consideration the portions subjoined :— 6 SEALED BOOKS. 17. The order of Baptism, both public and private. (g) See post, part iii, chap. iii. (4) Bisse, Common Prayer," 186-8. (i) See post, part iii, chap. v. of the Common Prayer. As to these, the greater part, viz. the subjects of Baptism, Confirmation, Matrimony, Visitation of the Sick, Burial, and the Ordination Service, together with the Administration of the Holy Communion, will be more conveniently dealt with in the next chapter, these being or resembling Rites or Sacraments. With regard to the rest, few remarks need be made. Sections 14 and 15 of the contents of the 1549 Book have already been considered in connection with the introductory part of the Services. (k) The other portions are the following :— (k) See ante, pp. 80-85. 1549. I. Purification of Women. 1552. The Thanksgiving of Women after Childbirth, commonly called the Churching of Women. The woman shall come into the church, and there shall kneel down in some convenient place, nigh unto the place where the table standeth; and the Priest, standing by her, shall say these words, or such like, as the case shall require. Forasmuch as it Then shall the SEALED BOOKS. The Thanksgiving Purification of of Women after Child- Women. birth, commonly called, The Churching of Women. The woman at the usual time after her delivery, shall come into the Church decently apparelled,(kk) and there shall kneel down in some convenient place, as hath been accustomed, or as the Ordinary shall direct: And then the Priest shall say unto her, Forasmuch as it bath pleased Almighty God of his goodness to give you safe deliverance, and bath preserved you in the great danger of childbirth, you shall therefore give hearty thanks unto God, and say, (¶ Then shall the Priest say Psalm cxvi. Dilexi quoniam.) ¶ Or Psalm cxxvii. Nisi Dominus. The Service itself is the same in all three Books, except that in the two earlier the Lord's Prayer ends with "And lead us not into temptation," and the word "priest" is used through (kk) See Gibson's Codex, 451. As to the time for performing this service, see Mant, "Horæ Liturgicæ," p. 51; and as to the place, see Jebb, "On the Choral Service," p. 532; and Cardwell's "Conferences," p. 362. A Commination. The Psalter. Prayers to be used at Sea. out, instead of "minister." The concluding rubric also varies, SEALED BOOKS. The woman that cometh to give her thanks, must offer accustomed offerings, and if there be a Communion, it is convenient that she receive the holy Com munion. SEALED BOOKS. A Commination, or Denouncing of Gods anger and judgements against sinners, with certain prayers to be used on the first day of Lent, and at other times, as the Ordinary shall appoint. After Morning Prayer the Litany ended according to the accustomed manner, the Priest shall in the reading Pew or Pulpit, say. The Service is literally the same in all the three editions, with the exceptions that the closing benediction is not found in the two earlier Books, and that in lieu of the last rubric but one the First Book directs, "Then shall this Anthem be said or sung. III. The Psalter. IV. The Order of Prayers to be used at Sea. Both these are absent from the earlier editions of the Common Prayer, and were added in 1662. CHAPTER IV. RITES AND SACRAMENTS. SECTION I.-Explication of Terms. "Rite." T is very difficult, if not absolutely impossible, Definition of to frame such a definition of the term "rite," as will suffice to separate it from "service" on the one hand, and "ceremony" on the other. In Martin v. Mackonochie, when in the Arches Court, (1) it was contended, on behalf of the defendant, that the three terms are co-extensive in meaning, and interchangeable. Sir Robert Phillimore, however, denied this proposition, and after a careful examination of authorities, he came to the conclusion that a rite and a ceremony are but portions or elements of a service, and also that there is a legal distinction between the two, in that "the former consists in services expressed in words, the latter in gestures or acts preceding, accompanying, and following the utterance of these words." (m) Even this seems to leave something wanting. A rite, both in True import of common language and as employed by theologians, usually im- the term. ports something more than mere words occurring in the course of a service. The words to constitute a rite must have a defi nite doctrinal signification, and they must amount, if not to an () L. R. 2 Adm. & Eccl. 129, 130. |