As to those passages of Scripture, which refer prayer to the influence of the Spirit, they can only be fairly interpreted to speak of the heart rather than the head, and to indicate the mind with which we pray, not the words which we employ.

15. Produce instances of set forms of common prayer in the primitive Church; and mention the reputed authors of the earliest Liturgies on record.

Not only had the primitive Church many forms in constant use from the earliest days, such as those for the administration of Baptism and the Eucharist; but Justin Martyr speaks of their Kovai evxai (Apol. 1. c. 65.), and so early were Liturgies introduced, that four of them are mentioned under the names of St. Mark, St. Peter, St. James, and St. John.

16. To whom is the Saxon Church said to have been indebted for a Liturgy?

Liturgies rapidly multiplied; and it is affirmed by the Venerable Bede, in his Ecclesiastical History, that one of the first acts of St. Austin, after the conversion of the Saxons, was the compilation of a Liturgy, from the best formularies then in existence.

17. By what compilation was this Liturgy generally superseded in England?

It was at length superseded by the book of Offices, which Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury (A. D. 1078.), put forth secundum usum Sarum; and which was immediately adopted, with little variation, by most of the Churches in the kingdom.

18. Had any change taken place in the public offices of devotion, which called for a return to primitive usage, at the time of the Reformation?

Gradually, and more or less in different places, they became defaced by the innovations and corruptions of the Romish Church, which, at the Reformation, it was necessary to expunge; and thus the Breviaries, Missals, and Rituals were set aside, and the Book of Common Prayer substituted in their place.

19. What do you mean by the Roman Breviary, and what are the corruptions by which it is defaced?

The Breviary, so called perhaps from its being an abbreviation of various antient service-books, corresponds in some sort with our Offices for Morning and Evening Prayer. Among the corruptions introduced into it, independently of its being in Latin, are the Intercession of saints and angels, Litanies of the Virgin Mary, Lessons taken from the Legends of Saints and Martyrs, Prayers for the dead, and for the liberation of souls from Purgatory.

20. What is the Missal; and the nature of the service of the Mass?

The Missal contains the daily services of the Mass, which is regarded as an expiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead, and involves the doctrine of Transubstantiation. It is the basis, however, of our Communion service, and many of its prayers belong to the earliest and purest ages of the Church.

21. What do you suppose to be the origin of the word Missal?

Of the term Missal the derivation is uncertain: but it is built in all probability upon the words, Ite, missa est; with which the deacon dismissed the catechumens and excommunicated persons from the congregation, before the celebration of the Lord's Supper.

22. Give the meaning of the term Ritual; and state a glaring instance of corruption in that of the Church of Rome.

The particular ordinances of a Church constitute its Ritual; such as those of Baptism, Confirmation, Matrimony, &c. For Extreme Unction, which is a part of the Latin Ritual, there is no warrant in Scripture.

SECT. II. Of the History of the PRAYER BOOK.

1. WHAT was the object of the Compilers of the Book of Common Prayer; and upon what principles did they proceed in the undertaking?

In compiling the Book of Common Prayer, it was not the object of the reformers to introduce innovations, but to exclude errors and corruptions; and to this end they retained those portions of the antient formularies which were sanctioned by the Scriptures, and by primitive usage, rejecting only what savoured of ignorance and superstition, and had originated in the doctrines and practices of the Romish Church.

2. What great point was conceded by Henry VIII.; what was the motive assigned for the publication of the King's Primer; and what was the date of its appearance?

Henry VIII, though by no means favourable to the Reformation, had yet so far assented to the general wish of the nation, as to permit the use of the English Language in public worship; and accordingly the King's Primer was put forth in the year 1545, that his subjects might have " a determinate form of praying in their own

mother tongue."

3. Give a brief summary of its contents.

It contained the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Decalogue, a Litany closely resembling that now in use, the Venite and Te Deum, and other hymns and collects; together with several excellent prayers intended for private and family devotion.

4. What was the first step taken in the reign of Edward VI. towards a general reform in the public worship of the Church?

In the beginning of the reign of Edward VI, an Act was passed requiring the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper to be administered in

both kinds, followed almost immediately by an office for the celebration of the Holy Communion.

5. By what was this step succeeded; and what is the date of the First Prayer Book of Edward VI?

A commission was issued, appointing certain bishops and divines, with Cranmer and Ridley at their head, to draw up a complete series of Offices for the public service of the Church; and the result was the publication, on the 4th of May, 1549, of the First Prayer Book of Edward VI.

6. What did it contain; and did the Offices for Morning and Evening Prayer commence in the same manner as those now in use?

This book contained not only the public offices for Sundays and Holydays, but for Baptism, Confirmation, Matrimony, Burial of the Dead, and other special occasions; together with that for the Holy Communion already mentioned, considerably improved. The Morning and Evening Services commenced with the Lord's Prayer.

7. Under what sanction was it put forth as containing the authorized formularies of the English Church?

The whole book so constructed was sanctioned by the common assent of Parliament and Convocation; so that its use was approved and enforced both by the Civil and Ecclesiastical authorities of the realm.

8. Why was it submitted to revision almost immediately after its publication?

From prudential motives, arising out of the natural attachment of the people to the tenets in which they had been brought up, the compilers of this first Prayer book had not gone to the very root of the Romish corruptions; and an opinion to this effect expressed by Convocation in the year 1550, being in accordance with the known sentiments of the king himself, it was submitted to immediate revision.

9. By whom was Cranmer assisted in the revision; and what erroneous tenets of the Romish Church were removed?

This revision, conducted by Cranmer, with the assistance of Peter Martyr and Bucer, who, though foreigners, then filled the chairs of Divinity at Oxford and Cambridge respectively, produced the Second Prayer-Book of Edward VI: from which Prayers for the dead, and the office for Extreme Unction, were excluded, while several important additions and alterations were introduced.

10. What were the alterations, additions, and improvements, to which you allude?

The most important were certain rubrical and other emendations, the sentences at the commencement of Morning and Evening Prayer, with the Exhortation, general confession, and Absolution ; the introduction of the Decalogue into the communion service, and the omission of all that implied the corporeal presence of Christ in the Sacrament; and the addition of the Ordinal.

11. When, and by what authority, was this Second book ordered to be used?

To this book an Act for the Uniformity of Divine worship was prefixed, which came in force on the feast of All Saints, in the year 1552.

12. What were the principal occurrences connected with the history of the Prayer-book during the Marian persecution?

During the persecuting reign of Queen Mary the Roman worship was restored, and the Protestant Liturgy suppressed; and an unhappy contest between the English exiles in Germany and Switzerland, in which Calvin and Knox bore a prominent part, led to consequences which were severely felt long after the eventful crisis in which it originated.

13.

What was the date and manner of its restoration on the accession of Elizabeth?

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