RELIGIOUS ceremonies at Burial are to be traced up to the earliest ages of mankind, being as universal among polytheist nations, like the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, as among people to whom the true knowledge of God was preserved, as the Patriarchs and the Jews. But the Resurrection of our Lord so changed the feelings of the world respecting death that, doubtless, new ideas were soon connected with the ceremonies of Burial. The Body of the Saviour had conse crated the earth as a place of rest for their bodies in the eyes of His people, and when devout men carried Stephen to burial they carried the body as of one who had "fallen asleep," even as the graves of the departed soon came to be called in general "cemeteries" or sleeping-places.

These new ideas respecting the state of the departed soon crystallized around the great central act of early Christian worship, and the Catacombs give evidence that the Holy Eucharist was an accompaniment to the burial of martyrs at least, while Saints' Days are a never-fading memorial of its celebration year by year at their tombs on the anniversaries of their deaths. Nor did such an association of the Eucharist with Burial belong only to the martyrs, as may be seen by St. Augustine's words respecting the burial of his mother Monica : "And, behold, the corpse was carried to the burial: went and returned without tears. For not even did I weep in those prayers which we poured forth unto Thee, when the Sacrifice of our Ransom was offered for her, as the manner is, while the corpse was by the side of the grave, previous to being laid therein."2

we

That such was the custom of the Church may also be seen by the ancient Sacramentaries of the Primitive Church, in which there are Collects and Prefaces for the celebration of the Holy Communion, "In die depositionis defuncti." The ancient Lectionary of St. Jerome,3 also, which is so frequently referred to in this volume in connection with our system of Gospels and Epistles, preserves to us another relic of the primitive rite of Burial in the selection of Scripture passages which were used. There are nine of these lections, 'In Agenda Mortuorum," all of which were found in the PreReformation Burial Services of the Church of England, and four of which have been used in the later system of the Prayer Book. The following columns shew how these portions of Scripture have been handed down to our Burial Office from the Primitive Church :

Book of Common Prayer.

Funeral Epistle. Funeral Lesson. Funeral Anthem. Funeral Gospel [1560]. Funeral Gospel.

In medieval times a great multitude of ceremonies gathered round the rite of Burial, as round all other rites of the Church, but the celebration of the Holy Eucharist was always the chief part of them. And when those rites were translated and abridged at the Reformation, provision was made for a continuance of this primitive custom by placing at the end of the Service an introit-"Like as the hart desireth the water-brooks," etc.-the existing Collect based on the Sunday Gospel at burial, and an Epistle and Gospel, the whole being headed, "The Celebration of the Holy Communion when there is a Burial of the Dead." In the Latin Prayer Book of 1560 the old title was translated with an addition, "Celebratio cœnæ Domini, in funebribus, si amici et vicini defuncti communicare velint," and so were the Epistle and two Gospels, the alternative one being John xxv. 24-29. The

English Service underwent several alterations through the influence of the Puritans, who were extremely averse to any service at the burial of the dead. "They would have no minister," says Cosin, "to bury their dead, but the corpse to be brought to the grave and there put in by the clerk, or some other honest neighbour, and so back again without any more ado. [COSIN, Works, v. 168. See also HOOKER, Eccl. Polit. V. lxxv. 1, 4.] And the best of them wished to restrict the ceremonies to exhortation and preaching only. They objected to the Psalms, and these were given up till 1661; and as they had a peculiar aversion to the celebration of the Lord's Supper on any but very rare occasions, so its celebration at funerals was very distasteful to them, and was ignorantly associated by them with the Roman doctrine of purgatory. Thus this practice was also much discouraged. When the Psalms were again printed in the Office, after a hundred years' suppression, the Gospel and Epistle were not; and the funeral Communion had almost passed out of memory in the first half of this century, the only relic of it being the funeral offertory, which still retained its hold upon the Church in Wales. But even this was deprived of its primitive character by being appropriated for fees by the clergyman, clerk, and sexton. however, sound reasons why the pious, ancient, and primitive custom should be observed. [1] The Holy Eucharist is essentially a sacrificial act offered up for the departed as well as for the living. The petition in the Prayer of Oblation, "humbly beseeching Thee to grant that by the merits and death of Thy Son Jesus Christ and through faith in His Blood, we and all Thy whole Church may obtain remission of our sins and all other benefits of His Passion, is one which includes the departed members of Christ's whole Church, or it would be only a petition for a portion of the Church; and "all other benefits of His Passion" seems especially to apply to the departed, as "remission of our sins" applies to the living. "So that the virtue of this Sacrifice (which is here in this prayer of oblation commemorated and represented) doth not only extend itself to the living and those that are present, but likewise to them that are absent, and them that be already departed, or shall in time to come live and die in the faith of Christ." At no time could this benefit be so appropriately sought, as when for the last occasion the body of the deceased Christian lies in front of the Altar.

There are,

[2] A funeral Eucharist is also an act of communion with the departed, by which we make an open recognition of our belief that he still continues to be one of God's dear children; that the soul in Paradise and the body in the grave are still the soul and body of one who is still a member of Christ, still a branch (as much as those who remain alive) of the true Vine. [3] The Holy Communion being the special means by which the members of Christ are brought near to their Divine Head, it is to it that the surviving friends of the deceased may look for their chief comfort in bereavement. By it they may look to have their faith strengthened in Him Who has proclaimed Himself to be "The Resurrection and the Life:" and by the strengthening of their faith they may hope to see, even in the Burial of their loved ones, the promise of a better resurrection when that which has borne the image of the earthly shall also bear the image of the Heavenly, when death shall be swallowed up in victory, and when God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes in the joy of a reunion before His Presence.

§ Prayers for the Departed.

There are few persons who have not felt the want of prayers which they could use with definite reference to a departed relative or friend while the body of the deceased was yet waiting to be carried to the grave. To ignore the departed at such a season, when we are praying to our heavenly Father in the Communion of Saints, is repugnant to Christian feeling; nor can those who have a vivid sense of the intermediate state feel any hesitation in praying for a continuance of His mercy to the soul which has just entered upon it.

Although there is no direct command in Holy Scripture respecting prayers for the departed, there are several indirect

pieces of evidence that the use of them was habitual to Christians of the Apostolic age, as it had been to the Jews,1 and as it was to the Christians of the Primitive Church after the Apostles. St. Paul offers a prayer for Onesiphorus in the words, "The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day." [2 Tim. i. 18.] That Onesiphorus was not then living seems to be proved, [1] by the omission of his name from the salutation, which shews that he was neither at Rome nor at Ephesus: [2] by the manner in which St. Paul speaks of his association with him as belonging to that which was long past and gone by: [3] by the salutation sent to the household of Onesiphorus, as if he were not now one of that household [4] by the direction of the prayer towards the Day of Judgement, and not to the time of grace and probation. In another Epistle St. Paul enjoins on the Ephesians that they should offer intercessory prayer as well as prayer for themselves: "praying always with all prayer and suppli cation in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. [Eph. vi. 18.] This inclusive phrase is one which brings to mind the sense in which it is used on "All Saints'" Day, of the departed in Christ, and also the passage of Scripture respecting our Lord's Resurrection, in which it is said also that "many bodies of the saints which slept arose. [Matt. xxvii. 52.] Every primitive Liturgy that exists contains prayers for the departed, and the works of early Christian writers make innumerable references to the habit as one which was evidently as familiar to them as that of praying for the living. Some specimens of such primitive intercessions will be found in an earlier part of this volume, in the notes to the Liturgy. In short, it may be said that no one ever thought of not praying for the departed until in comparatively recent times; and when the question whether such prayers were lawful or not in the Church of England was brought before a court of ecclesiastical law, Sir Herbert Jenner, the judge, proved, and decided, that they were constantly recognized by our holiest divines since the Reformation.

Having been led attentively to consider the question, my own opinion is on the whole favourable to the practice, which indeed is so natural and so comfortable, that this alone is presumption that it is neither unpleasing to the Almighty nor unavailing with Him.

a

"The Jews so far back as their opinions and practices can be traced since the time of our Saviour, have uniformly recommended their deceased friends to mercy; and from a passage in the Second Book of Maccabees it appears that (from whatever source they derived it) they had the custom before His time. But if this were the case the practice can hardly be unlawful, or either Christ or His Apostles would, one should think, have in some of their writings or discourses condemned it. On the same side it may be observed that the Greek Church and all the Eastern Churches, though they do not believe in purgatory, pray for the dead; and that we know the practice to have been universal, or nearly so, among the Christians little more than a hundred and fifty years after our Saviour. It is spoken of as the usual custom by Tertullian and Epiphanius. Augustine, in his Confessions, has given a beautiful prayer, which he himself used for his deceased mother, Monica; and among Protestants, Luther and Dr. Johnson are eminent instances of the same conduct. I have accordingly been myself in the habit for some years of recom mending on some occasions, as after receiving the Sacrament, etc. etc., my lost friends by name to God's goodness and compassion through His Son, as what can do them no harm, and may, and I hope will, be of service to them. Only this caution I always endeavour to observe-that I beg His forgiveness at the same time for myself if unknowingly I am too presumptuous, and His grace lest I, who am thus solicitous for others, should neglect the appointed means of my own salvation." 2

It has been thought, therefore, that the following Collect from the ancient Vesper Office for the Departed will be

1 The books of Maccabees were probably written in the century before our Lord, and the habit of the Jews is shewn by what is recorded of Judas Maccabeus: "When he had made a gathering throughout the company to

the sum of two thousand drachms of silver, he sent it to Jerusalem to offer a sin-offering, doing therein very well and honestly, in that he was mindful of the resurrection: for if he had not hoped that they that were slain should have risen again, it had been superfluous an 1 vain to pray for the dead. And also in that he perceived that there was great favour laid up for those that died godly, it was an holy and good thought. Whereupon he made a reconciliation for the dead, that they might be delivered from [2 Mace. xii. 43-45.]

sin."

Diary of a Lady of Quality, p. 196.

acceptable to many, as one that may be incorporated with their private or their household prayers, together with suck. Psalms as the 42nd, 121st, and 130th:

O GOD, Whose nature and property is ever to have mercy and to forgive, receive our humble petitions for the soul of Thy servant whom Thou hast [this day] called to depart out of this world: and because Thy servant did hope and believe in Thee, we beseech Thee that Thou wilt neither suffer him to fall into

the hand of the enemy, nor forget him for ever; but wilt give Thine holy angels charge to receive his soul, and to transport it into the land of the living, there to be found worthy to rejoice in the fellowship of Thy saints; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Who ever liveth and reigneth with Thee in the Unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

DEUS, cui proprium est misereri semper et parcere; te supplices deprecamur pro anima famuli tui (vel famulæ tuæ), quam hodie de hoc sæculo migrare jussisti; ut non tradas cam in manus inimici, nec ob

liviscaris in finem; sed jubeas illam ab angelis sanctis suscipi, atque ad regionem vivorum perduci; et quia in te speravit et credidit, sanctorum tuorum mereatur societate lætari. Per Dominr m nostrum Jesum Christum Filium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, Per omnia sæcula sæculorum.

§ The Right to the Use of the Service.

A question not unfrequently arises, whether this Office must necessarily be used over all persons buried in conse crated ground, provided they do not belong to one of the three classes mentioned in the first Rubric. There are [1] cases in which clergymen would rather avoid saying the Service over ill-living and ill-dying parishioners, and also [2] in which the survivors, being Dissenters, would prefer the omission of the Service, such omission being also in known agreement with the principles and wishes of the deceased. The only law of the Church on the subject, besides the Rubric, is the following:

"CANON 68.

"Ministers not to refuse to Christen or Bury.

"No Minister shall refuse or delay to christen any child according to the form of the Book of Common Prayer, that is brought to the Church to him upon Sundays or Holy Days to be christened, or to bury any corpse that is brought to the Church or Churchyard, convenient warning being given him thereof before, in such manner and form as is prescribed in the said Book of Common Prayer. And if he shall refuse to christen the one, or bury the other, (except the party deceased were denounced excommunicated majori excommunicatione, for some grievous and notorious crime, and no man able to testify of his repentance,) he shall be suspended by the Bishop of the diocese from his ministry by the space of three months.

This Canon of 1603 thus imposes a penalty on the clergyman for refusing to bury any person not excommunicated; does not impose it for delay unaccompanied by refusal; and says nothing about omission by mutual consent of the clergyman and the friends of the deceased. The Rubric was added (at the suggestion of Bishop Cosin) in 1661. Bishop Gibson, in his Codex, evidently takes for granted that the Service is to be said over all except those mentioned in the Rubric, and his opinion is reproduced by Burn and later writers. But, until recent times, many persons were buried in private grounds, such as gardens, orchards, and fields; and probably a case had never arisen in which the omission of the Service was desired when the body of the deceased was brought to consecrated ground. Sir John Nicholl says [Kempe . Wickes], "Our Church knows no such indecency as putting the body into the consecrated ground without the Service being at the same time performed:" but this dictum must have been uttered in forgetfulness of the law of 1821, which directs that suicides (felo de se) shall be buried there without Service, and which seems to be in accordance with the practice indicated by the first Rubric, in which there is no prohibition of burial in consecrated ground.

An Act of Parliament [5 Geo. IV. c. 25] empowers the Irish Clergy to omit the Service in certain cases other than those defined by the Rubric, and the preamble assumes that the Clergy are bound to use it in every case which is not excepted

by the Statute or the Rubric. The question seems never to have been fairly raised, and no judicial decision has defined the exact duty of a clergyman in respect to it. The nearest approach to such a definition is contained in an opinion given by Dr. Lushington on September 7, 1835, in which he says, "I think when the friends of the deceased apply to the clergyman to abstain from performing the funeral Service, on the ground that the deceased when alive was a dissenter, the clergyman may comply with such request." In Lancashire, Roman Catholics have constantly been buried without any Service in the Church or Churchyard; while, on the other hand, at the burial of Robert Owen the socialist, and of the infidel Carlile, the clergymen thought it their duty to say the Service, in the face of a strong protest against its use on the part of the relatives.

There are cases of notorious wickedness or infidelity, in which it might be the painful duty of the clergyman to refuse, on that account, to use the Office. In such cases it would not probably be difficult to obtain the assent of the survivors to such a course, if the reasons for taking it were solemnly told to them beforehand. Should it be impossible to obtain such an assent, there are few clergymen who would not be prepared to abide the consequences. But in the majority of cases, even where the life has been notoriously evil, there is still room for the charitable hope that the sinner has not been utterly forsaken by God's mercy in his death.

But three classes are distinctly excluded from the right to the use of this Office by the first Rubric-[1] the unbaptized, [2] the excommunicate, and [3] those who have laid violent hands upon themselves." Each of these cases should be noticed in some detail.

[1] The unbaptized. Many infants and even adult persons die, of whom it is quite certain that they have not been baptized; and in such cases the law is clear. But it is an ancient rule of the Church that while conditional baptism should be administered to a living person, of whom it is uncertain whether or not he has been baptized previously, in the case of deceased persons, in a Christian country, their baptism is to be taken for granted unless there is proof to the contrary. Archbishop Longley once wrote to a remonstrant, "that the Service of the Church of England for the Burial of the Dead is intended for those who have been made members of the Church of Christ by Baptism, and that to use that Service over the unbaptized would be an anomalous and irregular proceeding on the part of a minister of the Church of England." A strict observance of the Rubric tends very much to impress upon parents the necessity of Holy Baptism for their children.

44

1

66

[2] The excommunicate. The Rubric of 1661 is to be interpreted in accordance with the Canon of 1603 and hence a person excommunicate" must mean one denounced, excommunicated majori excommunicatione, for some grievous and notorious crime, and no man able to testify of his repentance.' A formal absolution before death by the authority which has passed the sentence of excommunication is not, therefore, of absolute necessity to admit the use of the Office: an opening being left for the exercise of the charity of the Church towards even one excommunicated from its fold, if his repentance before death can be credibly shewn to have taken place. While discipline is so little exercised as at present, there is seldom any occasion for taking this part of the Rubric into consideration; but it is possible that a revival of discipline may take place to the extent, at least, of excommunicating open and notorious evil livers, when it might sometimes become necessary to decide whether this charity of the Church could be exercised or not.

It is clear that sentence of excommunication is contemplated by the Rubric, and that it does not include those who have deserved it, but upon whom it has not been actually pronounced. 2

[3] Suicides. Suicides are divided by the common law of the land into two classes-those who have committed felony by a wilful murder of themselves, and those who have killed themselves while in a state of insanity. The first are held fully responsible for the consequences of their act; their property being forfeited to the Crown, and their bodies ordered to be buried in a churchyard or cemetery without

1 Letter to a Unitarian preacher at Tenterden, May 20, 1865.

2 Sentence of excommunication was very frequently pronounced in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and there are entries in Parish Registers of those who have died and been buried as excommunicates. Lord George Gordon was excommunicated towards the end of the last century.

any religious rite, and between the hours of nine and twelve at night. The second are considered to be in no degree responsible for their act, and the law does not impose any penal consequences upon it.

Such a distinction does not seem to be contemplated by the Rubric, which speaks inclusively of all "who have laid violent hands upon themselves.' Yet Christian charity requires that some distinction should be made, and such a distinction was implied, at least, by the ancient canons on the subject. Thus the Council of Bracara, or Braga, in Spain [A.D. 563], enjoins, "Concerning those who by any fault inflict death on themselves, let there be no commemoration of them in the Oblation. . . Let it be enjoined that those who kill themselves by sword, poison, precipice, or halter, or by any other means bring violent death upon themselves, shall not have a memorial made of them in the Oblation, nor shall their bodies be carried with Psalms to burial." This Canon was adopted among the Excerpts of Egbert, in A.D. 740, and is substantially repeated among some Penitential Canons of the Church of England in A. D. 963, and indicates the general principle of the canon law on the subject. This principle certainly indicates that a distinction should be made between those who "by any fault" cause their own deaths, and those who do so when they are so far deprived of reason as not to be responsible in the sense of doing it by "any fault," wilfully and consciously. And the Rubric being thus to be interpreted by a law of charity, the responsi bility of deciding in what cases exceptions shall be made to its injunction is, by the nature of the case, thrown upon the clergyman who has cure of souls in the parish where the suicide is to be buried.

Numerous writers have laid it down that the verdict of the Coroner's jury relieves the clergyman from this responsibility, and that if that verdict is "Temporary Insanity" he is bound to disregard the fact that the deceased person has laid violent hands upon himself. But to adopt such a rule is to throw up the discipline of the Church and to place it in the hands of a secular tribunal; one, moreover, which is apt to be influ. enced by secondary, motives and feelings in this particular matter which are quite irrespective of the religious question. If the same jury were to be asked, quite independently of the question of forfeiture, whether the suicide was a person over whom they themselves could pronounce the words of the Burial Service, the reply would often be in the negative, and that the verdict of Temporary Insanity was one of charity towards the living rather than of justice towards the dead. There cannot be a doubt that many men would return such a verdict under the feeling that the self-murder was a great crime indeed, one for which the suicide deserved punishment if it had been possible to punish him, and one from which others ought to be deterred; but that not being able to punish him for his crime, they would not punish his family by adding to their sufferings. The question of the verdict is, therefore, legally and morally distinct from that of the Rubric; and though the two are analogous, yet they must be judged by separate persons and by separate standards. are the deputies of the State, to decide whether or not the suicide was a felon by the laws of the State. The priest is the deputy of the Church, to decide whether the benediction of the Church can rightly be dispensed in the case of one who has taken away life contrary to the law of God.

The jury

In coming to this decision the verdict of the jury should have respectful attention, though it is not to be considered as an invariable law for the clergyman. It is not often, perhaps, that any circumstances within his own knowledge will compel him to act in a way that seems to be discordant with it; nor need he seek out information to disturb his mind on the subject. But if circumstances have come to his knowledge which make it plain that there was no such insanity as to deprive the suicide of ordinary moral responsibility, then he is to remember [1] that he is a "steward of the mysteries of God," who has no right to misapply the blessings given him to dispense; and [2] that the scandal, and encourage. ment to suicide, which result from a too easy compliance, are in themselves great evils which it is his duty, as it is within his power, to prevent. In this case, as in the previous one of excommunication, a solemn explanation of the painful necessity might often win the sorrowful acouiescence of conscientious survivors.

It may be as well to state that the "Coroner's Warrant" for the burial of a body over which an inquest has been called is simply a discharge of the body from the custody of the Crown. In ordinary cases it is unconditional, and imposes no obligation of any kind as to interment. In a case of felo de se it orders burial in the manner stated above.

Here is to be noted] For a full interpretation of this Rubric, see the preceding Introduction to the Service.

either into the Church, or towards the Grave] This clearly authorizes the Priest to read the whole Service at the Grave if, in his discretion, he should think it advisable to do so. In bad cases of infectious disease, it would be more proper that the body should not be taken into the Church; and there are many cases (with modern habits of delaying funerals for a week) in which it is not right to take it there when the Church is, or is about soon to be, occupied by a congregation. shall say, or sing] The first of these beautiful processional Anthems is traceable to the ancient Inhumatio Defuncti, and was also a Compline Antiphon "in agenda Mortuorum" in the Antiphonarius of St. Gregory. The second was used in the Vigiliae Mortuorum or Dirge of the Sarum rite. MERBECKE'S Common Prayer Noted, they are arranged as

In

novissimo die de terra surrecturus sum: Et in carne mea videbo DEUM Salvatorem meum. V. Quem visurus sum ego ipse et non alius: et oculi mei conspecturi sunt. Et in carne mea videbo DEUM Salvatorem meum.

Behold, Thou hast made my days as it were a span long and mine age is even as nothing in respect of Thee; and verily every man living is altogether vanity.

For man walketh in a vain shadow, and disquieteth himself in vain he heapeth up riches, and cannot tell who shall gather them.

And now, LORD, what is my hope truly my hope is even in Thee.

:

Deliver me from all mine offences and make me not a rebuke unto the foolish.

I became dumb, and opened not my mouth : for it was Thy doing.

Take Thy plague away from me: I am even consumed by means of Thy heavy hand.

When Thou with rebukes dost chasten man for

Responses and Versicles, the divisions being made where the musical points stand, in the text above. The Response is also commenced again, with an "etc.." after the Versicle, from which it would appear that it should be repeated by the Choir. The second was thus arranged in the Primer of the fourteenth century:

R. I bileeue that myn azenbiere lyueth and I am to rise of the erthe in the last day, and in my fleish I shal se God my Sauyour.

V. Whom I my self shal se and noon other and myn yzen ben to se.

R. And in my fleishe I shal se god my Sauyour.

these Psalms following] In the ancient Burial Office of the Church of England a number of Psalms, exiv. xxv. cxviii. xlii. cxxxii. cxxxix. exlviii. cxlix. cl., together with the seven Penitential Psalms, or, instead of them ["vel saltem

sin, Thou makest his beauty to consume away, like as it were a moth fretting a garment: every man therefore is but vanity.

Hear my prayer, O LORD, and with Thine ears consider my calling: hold not Thy peace at my tears. For I am a stranger with Thee and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.

O spare me a little, that I may recover my strength before I go hence, and be no more seen. Glory be to the FATHER, and to the SON and to the HOLY GHOST;

:

generation to another.

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth and the world were made: Thou art GOD from everlasting, and world without end. Thou turnest man to destruction: again Thou sayest, Come again, ye children of men.

For a thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday seeing that is past as a watch in the night.

As soon as Thou scatterest them, they are even as a sleep and fade away suddenly like the grass.

In the morning it is green, and groweth up: but in the evening it is cut down, dried up, and withered. For we consume away in Thy displeasure : and are afraid at Thy wrathful indignation.

Thou hast set our misdeeds before Thee; and our secret sins in the light of Thy countenance.

For when Thou art angry all our days are gone we bring our years to an end, as it were a tale that is told.

The days of our age are threescore years and ten; and though men be so strong, that they come to fourscore years yet is their strength then but labour and sorrow; so soon passeth it away, and we are gone.

But who regardeth the power of Thy wrath: for even thereafter as a man feareth, so is Thy displeasure.

O teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

Turn Thee again, O LORD, at the last; and be gracious unto Thy servants.

O satisfy us with Thy mercy, and that soon: so shall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life. Comfort us again now after the time that Thou hast plagued us and for the years wherein we have suffered adversity.

Psalmum"], the De Profundis, Psalm cxxx. It may be doubted whether all these Psalms were used at every burial. In the Prayer Book of 1549, after the two prayers which followed the placing of the corpse in the grave, came this Rubric, "These Psalms, with other suffrages following, are to be said in the Church, either before or after the burial of the corpse :" the Psalms being exvi. cxxxix. cxlvi. At the Holy Communion, Psalm xlii., "Like as the hart desireth the water-brooks," was used as the Introit. Singular to say, no Psalms were printed in the Burial Service from 1552 to 1661, nor did the Introit appear in the Latin Office for the celebration of the Holy Communion at funerals. They appear to have been omitted in deference to the scruples of Bucer, who objected to prayers for the dead. [Cosix's Works, v. 498.] At the last revision, in 1661, the Psalms xxxix. and xc. were inserted, and thus the Office regained its ancient and primitive character.

NOW

1 Cor. xv. 20.

OW is CHRIST risen from the dead, and become the First-fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in CHRIST shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: CHRIST the First-fruits; afterward they that are CHRIST'S at His coming. Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to GOD, even the FATHER; when He shall have put down all rule, and all authority, and power. For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For He hath put all things under His feet. But when He saith all things are put under Him, it is manifest that He is excepted, Which did put all things under Him. And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that GOD may be all in all. what shall they do which are baptized for the dead? if the dead rise not at all, why are they then baptized for the dead? And why stand we in jeopardy every hour! I protest by your rejoicing, which I have in CHRIST JESUS our LORD, I die daily. If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners. Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of GOD. I speak this to your shame. But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and, with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die. And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some

Else