5. In the Confirmation Service :

(1) The Catechism was separated from the Order of Confirmation:

(2) The first rubric explaining the End of Confirmation was now appointed to be read as a Preface to the Service:

(3) This was followed, in place of the Catechism, by the enquiry of renewal and ratification of the Baptismal Vow.

6. In the Marriage Service :—

(1) A form was appointed for the publication of Banns of Marriage.

(2) The Order following the last Blessing, Then

shall begin the Communion, was omitted. (3) The final rubric that the new married persons, the same day of their marriage, must receive the Holy Communion, was altered to a declaration that it is convenient so to do, or at the first opportunity after marriage. 7. In the Order for the Visitation of the Sick:

(1) The beautiful petition for the Sanctification of Sickness was inserted in the Prayer before the Exhortation :

(2) The words, If he humbly and heartily desire it, were added to the rubric respecting Abso lution:

become necessary, and may be always useful for the baptizing of natives in our plantations, and others converted to the faith." First Preface to the Prayer-Book. Plantation denotes a colony; literally a planting, from the Lat. plantatio. Bacon's thirty-third Essay is Of Plantations, and among other advice he says, p. 141; "Let not the government of the plantation depend upon too many counsellours, and undertaken, in the countrie that plunteth, but upon a temperate number."

(3) The Final Benediction, and the Occasional Prayers were inserted:

(4) The Form of Service for the Communion of
the Sick was more clearly directed to begin
with the Proper Collect, Epistle, and Gospel,
and then to pass to the part of the Public
Office beginning, Ye that do truly, &c.

8. In the Order for the Burial of the Dead :-
(1) The first rubric was added respecting persons
unbaptized or excommunicate, or who had
laid violent hands upon themselves :

9.

(2) The Psalms and Lesson were appointed to be read in the Church according to the rubric of 1549:

(3) In the Prayer at the grave the name of the deceased was omitted.

Occasional Offices:

(1) Forms of Prayer were supplied to be used at Sea1:

(2) Forms of Prayer were also inserted for the 30th of January and the 29th of May, while that for the 5th of November2 was altered.

10. Review of the Alterations. Thus as to all its distinctive features, the Book remained the same Book of Common Prayer. Some particulars of small consequence were amended; such as the language, which was made more smooth by verbal changes and slight transpositions; some rubrics were expounded for the direction of ministers, to whom "the customary manner" of former years was unknown 3; and the se

1 See the First Preface to the Prayer-Book.

2 These three special services were removed from the Prayer-Book by a Royal Warrant, of the 17th of January, 1859. The only State Holyday now retained is the Day of the Sovereign's accession.

3 Compare the First Preface to the Prayer-Book: "Most

lected portions of Scripture were taken from the last translation. Some new Services were also added which had become necessary from the circumstances of the time; such as that for Adult Baptism, to meet the case of converts from Anabaptism at home, and from heathenism in the "Plantations ;" and that for use at Sea, to meet the requirements of the rapidly increasing trade and navy of the country.

APPENDIX.

Attempted Revision in the Reign of William III. A.D. 1689.

1. Since the Year 1662 the Book of Common Prayer has remained in the state to which it was then brought, the Sealed Books being preserved, and presenting the exact form of words in which it was signed by the Members of Convocation, and ratified by Parliament.

2. Efforts of Tillotson and Stillingfleet. In the year 1668, however, Tillotson, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, and Stillingfleet, afterwards Bishop of Worcester, joined with Bates, Manton, and Baxter in an endeavour to prepare the terms in which a Bill for the

of the alterations were made, either first, for the better direction of them that are to officiate in any part of Divine Service; which chiefly done in the Calendars and Rubricks; Or secondly, for the more proper expressing of some words or phrases, that were either of doubtful signification, or otherwise liable to misconstruction: Or thirdly, for a more perfect rendering of such portions of holy Scripture, as are inserted into the Liturgy; which, in the Epistles and Gospels especially, and in sundry other places, are now ordered to be read according to the last Translation."

Comprehension of Dissenters might be proposed to Parliament, but the Commons utterly refused the project1. Again, in 1681, Stillingfleet proposed to allow an alteration, or freedom of choice, in such particulars as the use of the surplice, the sign of the cross and sponsors in baptism, kneeling at the Holy Communion, and the reading of Apocryphal Lessons. But the tem per of the times would not allow of the acceptance of these concessions.

3. Accession of William III. After the accession of William III. arrangements were made for the meeting of Convocation, and a Commission was issued, Sept. 17, 1689, to ten bishops and twenty divines, to prepare such alterations of the Liturgy and Canons as might most conduce to the good order, edification, and unity of the Church of England, and to the reconciling as much as possible of all differences."

4. Appointment of Commissioners. The Commissioners commenced their labours on the 3rd of October, having before them all the objections and demands which had been offered at various times by opponents of the Prayer-Book, and especially at the Savoy Conference, and prepared an elaborate series of alterations3, intended fully to meet those demands. But though carefully prepared, they were not even offered to Convocation. It was quite certain that they would be rejected by the Lower House, and the

1 See Cardwell's Conferences, p. 394.

2 The Commission included some well-known names: Stillingfleet, Patrick, Tillotson, Sharp, Hall, Beveridge, Tenison, Fowler, Grove, and Williams were subsequently raised to the Episcopal bench. Cardwell's Conferences, p. 412.

66

3 They are now accessible in the form of a blue book, being a Return to an Address of the House of Commons March 14, 1854," and ordered by the House to be printed, June 2, 1854.

Upper House, lacking nine of its ablest members1, was powerless to control the clergy, who were disposed to sympathise with Sancroft and his nonjuring brethren. Hence Convocation was prorogued without any actual revision of the Prayer-Book or the Canons2.

1 Archbishop Sancroft, with 8 bishops and 400 clergymen, were ejected from their benefices for their conscientious objection to take the oath of allegiance to King William during the lifetime of James II. On this account they were called Non-jurors. They denied the Episcopal commission of those who occupied the place of the deprived Bishops during their lifetime, and not only ministered privately among those who held their opinions, but ordained presbyters and consecrated bishops. Dr Gordon, who died in November 1779, is supposed to have been the last nonjuring bishop. See D'Oyly's Sancroft, II. p. 34, note.

2 For the temper of both parties of the Clergy at this time, see Macaulay, III. pp. 450-495.