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THE ORDER FOR

MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER

DAILY TO BE SAID AND USED THROUGHOUT THE YEAR.

HE Morning and Evening Prayer shall be used in the accustomed Place mined by the Ordinary of the Place. And the Chancels shall remain as they have done in times past.

And here is to be noted, that such Ornaments of the Church, and of the Ministers thereof, at all times of their Ministration, shall be retained and be in use as were in this Church of England, by the Authority of Parliament, in the Second Year of the Reign of King Edward the Sixth.

The second part of this important Rubric-the Interpretation | largeness and straitness of the church and choir, so that the Clause to the Ritual Law of the Church of England-is fully explained and illustrated in the Third Section of the Ritual Introduction, p. lxv.

The first part of it is still exactly in the form in which it was printed in the Prayer Book of Queen Elizabeth's reign [A.D. 1559]. In the Second Prayer Book of Edward VI., it stood in this form: "The Morning and Evening Prayer shall be used in such place of the Church, Chapel, or Chancel, and the Minister shall so turn him, as the people may best hear. And if there be any controversy therein, the matter shall be referred to the Ordinary, and he or his deputy shall appoint the place, and the chancels shall remain as they have done in times past.” In the Prayer Book of 1549 the rubric at the head of Morning Prayer was, "The Priest being in the quire, shall begin with a loud voice the Lord's Prayer, called the Pater noster."

The "reading-desk" was not invented until after the rubric had taken its present form, and the "accustomed place" was the "pue" (beginning then to be so called) in which the Clergy and singers sat, and which was ordinarily situated on either side of the chancel. In the Advertisements of 1565, it was directed "that the Common Prayer be said or sung decently and distinctly, in such place as the Ordinary shall think meet for the

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people may be most edified." [Cardw. Docum. Ann. i. 291.] Such lawless bishops as Scambler of Peterborough, who knew no rule but "sic volo, sic jubeo," forbade the service to be said in the chancel at all, under the singular plea used against it by the foreigner Bucer, that such a practice was "Antichristian." Thus the erection of reading-desks in the nave became common, the "clerks were reduced to one, the authorized mode of Divine Worship died out in a vast number of churches during the seven. teenth and eighteenth centuries, and instead of the chancels remaining as they had done in times past, they were too often looked on either as a kind of lumber-room, to be cleared out once a quarter for the administration of the Holy Communion; or as a part of the church where the most comfortable and honourable seats were provided for the richer laity. Such customs have tended to obscure the sense of the rubric, and are recalled to memory only for the purpose of explaining how it came to be so disregarded in modern times. In Griffin v. Dighton, Chief Justice Erle decided (on appeal in 1864) that the chancel is the place appointed for the Clergyman and for those who assist him in the performance of Divine Service; and that it is entirely under his control as to access and use, subject to the jurisdiction of the Ordinary.

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The Order for Morning Prayer] The word "Order” in the sense here intended has almost passed out of use. It simply means regulation or ordinance, according to its derivation from the Latin word ordo. Morning Prayer was called by the ancient popular name of " Mattins" (abbreviated from Matutina), in the original English Prayer Book of 1549; and that name is still retained in the three Tables of Proper Lessons and Proper Psalms, and also in the Elizabethan Act of Uniformity.

THE SENTENCES.

The ancient Mattins of the Church of England began with, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," (and the sign of the Cross,) followed by an inaudible recitation of the Lord's Prayer by the Priest who officiated. Then was said, "O Lord, open Thou my lips: And my mouth shall shew forth Thy praise." This opening of the service was retained in the 1549 Prayer Book, but the Lord's Prayer was directed to be said "with a loud voice," instead of secreto. In the 1552 Prayer Book, these Sentences, with the Exhortation, Confession, and Absolution, were prefixed to Morning Prayer, but not to Evening Prayer. This addition was suggested, probably, by the second reformed Breviary of Cardinal Quignonez, in which the ancient Confession and Absolution, hereafter given, were placed at the beginning of Mattins. But other reasons are also apparent

for the change. In the first place, the full effect of the dissolution of Monasteries was making itself felt by ritualists, and a penitential prefix to the service was considered more appropriate for a mixed congregation than the previous mode of opening it, which was suitable for communities professedly spending nearly their whole time in the religious portion of a Christian's duty. And, in the second place, a relaxation of the rule about private Confession made it expedient to place a public Confession and Absolution within the reach of all, day by day.

The Sentences themselves (which had nearly all been previously in use as Capitula, during Lent) are a reproduction at the beginning of Divine Service of the Invitatories which were prefixed to the Venite in the ancient Mattins. In both cases the object is to give the key-note to the service which is to follow. In the Salisbury use two such Sentences, with a Versicle and Collect, were prefixed to Mattins on Easter Day. These were still ordered to be "solemnly sung or said" in the same place in the 1549 Prayer Book; but on the appointment of the Sentences now in use, the former were directed to be used instead of Venite, and are printed before the Easter Collect. It was in this light that the Sentences were viewed by Bp. Andrewes, who suggested some others in the following note: "Adde huc, quod ad invitandam pœnitentiam egregia sunt misericordiæ et longanimitatis encomia. Ps. lxxviii. 38. Jer. iii. 7. 12. Heb. iv."

B

Dan. ix. 9, 10.

Jer. x. 24.
Ps. vi. 1.

Matt. iii. 2.

Luke xv. 18, 19.

Ps. cxliii. 2.

1 John i. 8, 9.

God: for he is gracious, and merciful, sins, and to cleanse us from all un-
slow to anger, and of great kindness, righteousness.
and repenteth him of the evil,

To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him: neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us.

D1

See the above sentences.

Ps. xxvi. 4.

Gen. xvii. 1.

Matt. vi. 14.

Jer. iii. 13.

Isa. iv. 7.

Joel ii. 13, 14.

Ps. lxxxvi. 5.

EARLY beloved brethren, the Phil. iv. 1. Scripture moveth us in sundry places to acknowledge and confess our Lev. v. 5. manifold sins and wickedness, and that Josh. vii. 19. we should not dissemble nor cloak Prov. xxviii. 13. them before the face of Almighty God John xv. 22. O Lord correct me, but with judge- our heavenly Father, but confess them ment; not in thine anger, lest thou with an humble, lowly, penitent, and Ps. li. 3. 17. bring me to nothing. obedient heart, to the end that we may Matt. iii. 2. Repent ye; for the Kingdom of obtain forgiveness of the same, by his Heaven is at hand. infinite goodness and mercy. And although we ought at all times humbly Ps. xxxviii. 18 to acknowledge our sins before God, 14. yet ought we most chiefly so to do, Joel i. 14. when we assemble, and meet together, to render thanks for the great benefits that we have received at his hands, to set forth his most worthy praise, to hear his most holy word, and to ask those things, which are requisite and necessary, as well for the body as the soul. Wherefore I pray and beseech you as many as are here present, to

I will arise and go to my Father, and will say unto him; Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.

Enter not into judgement with thy servant, O Lord; for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive our selves, and the truth is not But, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our

in us.

Luke xviii. 13,

2

1

Hos. xiv. 1, 2.

Chron. vi. 18— Ps. c. 4.

21. vii. 16.

2

XXXV. 18.

8,

Chron. xvi. 5. 9. Ps. cxlix. 1.

* xcv. 2.

Deut. xxxi.11, 12.

Acts xiii. 44.

Chron. vii. 13. Matt. vii. 6. 11.

Isa. lvi. 7.

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Ordinary days: "When the wicked man." "I will arise." "If we say."

Sundays, other holy days, and Eves: "To the Lord our God." There is a well-known traditional practice of singing one of these Sentences as an anthem; "I will arise" being very frequently so used. Such a practice seems to be in strict keeping with their character as Invitatories, and in analogy with the use of the Easter Sentences referred to; as also with such a use of the Offertory Sentences in the Communion Service.

Read with a loud voice] This is an ecclesiastical or technical phrase, the explanation of which is to be found in a Rubric before the Te Deum in the previous editions of the Prayer Book: "Then shall be read two Lessons distinctly with a loud voice." "Then shall the Lessons be sung in a plain tune, after the manner of distinct reading; and likewise the Epistle and Gospel." It is the clara vox of older ritualists, and presupposes a musical intonation, with or without inflection, to be the customary way of reciting Divine Service.

In Bishop Cosin's revision he appended to the word "minister" the following note:-"That is, he who at that time ministereth or celebrateth Divine Service;" and although it was not deemed necessary at the time to print this note, it is valuable to us now as showing the technical meaning which was attached to the word Minister, when used in the Rubric. He also added Isaiah lv. 6, 7, and 1 John i. 9, the latter verse being adopted, but not the former; and "or more" after "some one" in the Rubric.

Some may consider that the terms of the Rubric, both here and before the Offertory Sentences, strictly limit the recitation of them

to the clergyman officiating. There is, however, no ritual principle by which they are so limited.

THE EXHORTATION.

There is an analogy between this Exhortation and some which were used, at the Holy Communion and in Lent, in the ancient services of the Church of England. There is also a trace of similarity between it and the opening of Pullain's L'Ordre des Prières Ecclésiastiques, printed for the use of the German refugees at Glastonbury, in 1552. The words of the latter are, "Mes Frères, qu'un chascun de vous se présente devant la face du Seigneur, avec confession de ses fautes et péchez, suyvant de tout son cueur mes [pa]rolles." But there is too little resemblance between our Exhortation and these to give any critical ground for supposing that it was founded upon any of them; and it must be concluded that those who revised the Prayer Book in 1552 were entirely responsible for its composition.

It has been called a short homily on Divine worship; and may also be taken as following up the general Invitatory, as it was followed formerly by the Venite. It was probably inserted here under the impression that the people at large were extremely ignorant of the true nature of Divine worship at the time. Five principal parts of worship are mentioned in it. (1) Confession of sin; (2) Absolution; (3) Thanksgiving and Praise; (4) The hearing of God's Word; (5) Prayer for spiritual and bodily benefits. In this structure also it bears some analogy to the Venite.

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The Minister celebrating Divine Service is directed to "say” this Exhortation, "saying " being the ritual term for reciting on one musical note, or "monotoning," as distinguished from 'singing," which is reciting with musical inflections, and from "reading," which is a general term, including both methods. If the Exhortation is said from memory, and with the face turned towards the congregation, it becomes much more expressive of the intention with which it was placed here, than when said as a mere This book was also printed in Latin, perhaps before it came out in French. The French edition seems to be very rare.

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Ps. xxxviii. 3.

Luke xviii. 13.

of- Prov. xxviii. 13.

Hos. xiv. 1, 2.

Ac- Ps. xxiii. 3.

we have done those things which we Isa. ix. 12, 13. ought not to have done; And there is Gal. v. 17. no health in us. But thou, O Lord, i. 1-5. have mercy upon us, miserable fenders. Spare thou them, O God, Joel ii. 17. which confess their faults. Restore Jer. iii. 22. thou them that are penitent; cording to thy promises declared mankind in Christ Jesu our And grant, O most merciful for his sake; That we may hereafter John xv. 8. live a godly, righteous, and sober life, To the glory of thy holy Name. Eph. iii. 20, 21. Amen.

unto Lord. Father,

li. 12.

Matt. 1. 21.

Acts x. 36, 43.

2 Cor. i. 20.

1 John i. 9.

John xvi. 23. 24.

Titus ii. 11, 12.

form for passing away a few seconds, while the congregation is settling into a devotional frame of mind.

The concluding words, "after me," were erased by Bishop Cosin, for what reason is not apparent, and were restored by the Committee of Revision. They define the manner in which the Confession is to be said; as also do the words "humble voice," which represent the submissa vox of old rubrics.

THE GENERAL CONFESSION.

After the Minister, all kneeling] Bishop Cosin erased the word "after" in this Rubric, and substituted " 'with;" but the original word was carefully restored, showing that a distinction was intended between the two words in their ritual use. "After the Minister" means, that each clause is to be said first by the Minister alone, and then repeated by "the whole congregation" alone-i. e. while the Minister remains silent, as in the case of a response after a versicle. "With" the Minister means simultaneous recitation by him and the congregation together, and is ordered in the Rubric before the Lord's Prayer. The word "all" was also one of Bishop Cosin's additions, and is illustrated by his note in another volume: " Kneeling is the most fit gesture for humble penitents; and being so, it is strange to see how in most places, men are suffered to sit rudely and carelessly on their seats all the while this Confession is read; and others that be in church are nothing affected with it. They think it a thing of indifferency forsooth, if the heart be right." This sitting posture during public confessions was one of the abuses that scandalized the Puritans; and they sought to have a Canon passed, enjoining all to kneel. The eighteenth Canon does indeed direct that "all manner of persons then present shall reverently kneel upon their knees when the general Confession, Litany, and other prayers are read. . . . testifying by these outward ceremonies and gestures, their inward humility."

....

The gesture of kneeling here and elsewhere is not only a mark of personal humility and reverence, but also one of those acts required of every one as an individual component part of the body which forms the congregation; and to neglect it is to neglect a duty which is owing to God and man in this respect, as well as the other. We have no right to conspicuous private gestures in a public devotional assembly; nor are the gestures which we there use (in conformity to the rules of the Church) to be necessarily interpreted as hypocritical because our personal habits or feelings may not be entirely consistent with them. As the clergy have an official duty in church, irrespective of their personal characters, so also have the laity. It may be added, that a respectful conformity to rules enjoining such official duties, may often lead onward to true personal reverence and holiness.

As far as present researches show, the general Confession appears to be an original composition of some of the revisers of 1552; but its principal features are, of course, represented in con

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All the phrases of the Confession have, however, a Scriptural ring; and it was very likely compiled almost verbatim from some old English version of the Bible, or else freely rendered (according to the habit of the day in sermons) from the Vulgate Psalms, and other Scriptures indicated above in the margin.

The manner and spirit in which a general confession of sins may be made personally and particularly applicable, is pointedly set forth in a Rubric which precedes the Confession to be used on board ship when there is danger of shipwreck: "When there is imminent danger, as many as can be spared from necessary service in the ship, shall be called together, and make an humble Confession of their sin to God, in which every one ought seriously to reflect upon those particular sins of which his conscience shall accuse him, saying as followeth." That a confession so made can be otherwise than acceptable to the Good Shepherd and Physician of our souls it is impossible to doubt. That further and more detailed confession is also at times necessary, the provisions made by the Church for her penitents, and the private habits of all pious Christians, make equally certain.

The "Amen" is part of the Confession, and is to be said by both minister and people, as is indicated by the type in which it is printed.

1 Archd. Freeman's "Principles of Divine Service," i. 320.

2 Cor. i. 3.

The Absolution or Remission of sins to be pronounced by the Priest alone, standing ; the people still kneeling.

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Ezek.xviii. 31,32. 2 Pet. iii. 9.

John xx. 21, 23. Luke xxiv. 47.

mer, at end of

Litany.

[LORD God, which dost not suffer Marshall's Prisinners to perish and die in their works, but rather wilt that they shall convert and live, we humbly pray Thee to forgive us now while we have time and Cf. Greg. Sabb. in space

xii. lect. mens i.

LMIGHTY God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who desireth not the death of a sinner, but Ezek. xxxiii. 11. rather that he may turn from his wickedness and live; and hath given power and commandment to his Ministers to declare and pronounce to his people, being penitent, the absolution, and remission of their sins: He par-... Misereatur vestri omnipotens Deus, Salisbury Use. Acts ii. 38. xiii. doneth and absolveth all them that et dimittat vobis omnia peccata vestra:

2 Cor. ii. 10. v. 18-20. Isa. xliii. 23.

Ps. lxxxvi. 3.

38, 39.

THE ABSOLUTION.

by the Priest alone, standing] This Rubric stood in the form "by the Minister alone," until 1661. Bishop Cosin altered it to "by the Minister alone standing, and all the people still kneeling," and his alteration subsequently developed into the existing words before the revision was completed. The reason for inserting the word "standing" was that some of the clergy had been accustomed to read it on their knees, although, as Bishop Andrewes wrote, "because he speaks it authoritativè, in the name of Christ and His Church, the Minister must not kneel, but stand up," and this posture was observed by the majority. The other three words, "the Priest alone," have a history which fixes their meaning. At the Savoy Conference of 1661, the Presbyterians' 11th "exception" to the Prayer Book was to the effect that as the word "Minister" was used in the rubric before the Absolution, and not "Priest," or "Curate," therefore it should be used instead of those words throughout the book. To this it was replied by the Church of England Commissioners that it would be unreasonable to use the word Minister alone, for "since some parts of the Liturgy may be performed by a Deacon, others by none under the order of a Priest, viz., Absolution, Consecration, it is fit that some such word as Priest should be used for those officers, and not Minister, which signifies at large every one that ministers in that holy office, of what Order soever he be." The word "Minister" had formerly been used as identical with " Priest," as may be seen by the 32nd Canon, which forbids Bishops to "make any person, of what qualities or gifts soever, a Deacon and a Minister both together in one day." This distinctive meaning had now passed away, and "Ministers" was colloquially the name for Dissenting preachers, and for Clergymen of every Order. By the insertion of the new word, therefore, the whole Rubric was intended to enjoin, not only that the congregation are not to repeat the Absolution, as they have repeated the Confession, but also that it must not be said by a Deacon. If a Deacon says Morning or Evening Prayer, in the presence of a Priest, the latter should say the Absolution, and if no Priest is present, the Deacon should make a pause, to give opportunity for the offering up of a short secret prayer by himself and the congregation, and then pass on to the Lord's Prayer.

The Absolution was composed by the Revisers of 1552, evidently with the old form of Absolution, which was used in the Prime and Compline Services, before them. There is also some similarity between the opening words and those of a Prayer which was placed at the end of the Litany in the Primer of 1535; and which again, from the prayer, "forgive us now while we have time and space," seems to have been founded on the ancient Absolution, with its "spatium veræ pœnitentia," though the first part is identical with a Lenten Collect of St. Gregory's Sacramentary.

Some phrases, a good deal like those of our Absolution, are also found in the form of prayer got up by John à Lasco, or Laski, a Polish refugee, for the German congregation which he was

ved to gather together at Austin-friars in London; but the

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likeness is not such as to make it probable that the English form was derived from his Latin one, though it does rather indicate that both were in part derived from some such originals as those printed in the text above.

Two questions have been raised with respect to this form of Absolution. First, whether those who composed it, and placed it where it is, intended it for an Absolution of penitent sinners, or merely for a declaration of God's mercy. Secondly, whether, irrespective of their intention, it is so constructed as to be effective for the remission of sins.

(1) The first question is all but decided by the title. Here, in the Communion Service, and in the Prayers to be used at Sea, the same word, "Absolution," is used for designating two different forms; and in the Visitation of the Sick, the third form in use by the Church of England is spoken of in the direction "the Priest shall absolve him." It seems beyond all probability that this designation could have been used of all three forms without any verbal distinction, and yet that a real difference of meaning lay hidden under the use of it, and that to such an extent as to make it in one place contradictory of itself in another place. What the word "Absolution" in the rubrical title so far proves, is confirmed by the addition made to it at the Hampton Court Conference of 1604, when it was altered to the 66 Absolution, or remission of sins," clearly showing what opinion the Divines there assembled held respecting the intention with which the form was inserted fifty-one years before. It is still further confirmed by a note of Bishop Andrewes (one already quoted), in which, after saying that the Absolution is pronounced authoritativè, he adds, "For authority of Absolution, see Ezek. xxxiii. 12. Job xxxiii. 23. Num. vi. 24. 2 Sam. xii. 13. John XX. 23." An examination of these passages of Scripture will show that Bishop Andrewes (one of the most learned theologians and Scriptural scholars that the Church of England has ever had) must certainly have supposed that this was intended for an actual Absolution; and that, in his opinion, it was such.

(2) The Absolution itself is constructed on a similar principle to that on which Collects are formed; and as the precatory part of a Collect is sometimes very short and condensed', so here the actual words of Absolution are only "He pardoneth and absolveth all them that truly repent, and unfeignedly believe His holy Gospel." The preceding portion is a statement of the antecedent reasons-God's mercy, and the delegation of His authority-for pronouncing Absolution; and what follows is an authoritative exhortation to follow up the words of temporary confession and absolution with prayer for perseverance and final pardon. The words which thus form the essence of the Absolution are of a declaratory kind, while those in the old Morning and Evening Services of the Church were precatory, as may be seen from the original Latin form printed above, and its English translation in the note below; but the change has rather strengthened than weakened the force of the form adopted. Nor must we be led

1 See "Introduction to the Collects, Epistles, and Gospels."

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