CHAPTER XV.

PRAYERS AND THANKSGIVINGS.

§ 84. Their History.-These eleven Prayers and eight Thanksgivings were with one exception composed in English at and since the Reformation; and, after appearing from time to time in various parts of the Prayer Book, were in 1662 collected and put in the place which they now occupy. The chronology stands as follows:

:

The two prayers for Rain and for Fair Weather were composed for the First Prayer Book 1549, and placed at the end of the Communion Service. In 1552 they were removed to the end of the Litany.

The second Ember Collect was composed for and placed in the service for the Ordination of Deacons, 1550.

The following were composed for the Second Book, 1552, and placed at the end of the Litany :—

The first prayer in time of Dearth, "O God, heavenly Father."

The second, "O God, merciful Father," omitted in 1559, 1604.

The prayer in time of War.

The prayer in time of any Common Plague or Sickness, This collect and those for dearth were

doubtless suggested by the calamitous sweating sickness and severe scarcity which occurred in 1551 (Str. E. M. II. i. 491, 494).

The prayer, "O God Whose nature and property," translated from the Sarum Use (having been originally taken from the Gregorian Sacramentary), was placed at the end of the separate Litany of 1558, and appeared in the same part of the Prayer Book Litany of 1559.

The following seven thanksgivings first appeared in 1604-For Rain, Fair Weather, Plenty; For Peace and Deliverance from Enemies; for Restoring Public Peace at Home; two for Deliverance from the Plague or other Common Sickness.

The following four first entered the Prayer Book in 1662, viz. :

The first Ember-week Collect. It occurs in Cosin's Private Devotions, 1627, and was probably his composition.

The prayer for Parliament. It first appeared in a Fast-day service in 1625.

The prayer for All Conditions of Men.

composed for this book by Dr. Gunning.

It was

The General Thanksgiving, composed for this book by Dr. Reynolds, bishop of Norwich.

§ 85. Notes:

In

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common plague," common sickness," mon means prevalent and epidemical.

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com

"Bishops and Pastors of Thy flock." By the figure hendiadys bishops and pastors here denote the same persons. For Pastor see Catechism, St. Peter's Day Collect, Litany before 1662.

"Whose nature and property is" (cui proprium est). "High Court of Parliament." When the members of a body assemble with the proper formalities for the legal exercise of their functions, a court of that body is constituted. Other public bodies besides Parliament hold their courts.

"Most religious.” This title expresses the

Sovereign's official connection with the established religion of the nation. In this country the Sovereign reigns "by the grace of God; at his coronation he is ceremonially consecrated to his office; he has a royal chapel where his chaplains celebrate regular worship; he is by legal obligation a member of the Church by law established; he is prayed for by name in the usual offices of public worship; and in various other ways he has official duties and privileges in the national Church. The early Roman Christian emperors of the East were commonly addressed by councils and the ecclesiastical magnates as copiXéσTаTOL, or by some equivalent epithets. St. Athanasius addressed the Emperor Constantius, Arian though he was, as θεοφιλέστατε Αὔγουστε, “ religiosissime Auguste" (Apol. ad Const. § 24).

The two Ember Week Prayers. The first, founded on 1 Tim. v. 22, asks that the bishops may be guided in their choice, and for grace to those who are called (1 Tim. iv. 16). The second, founded on this latter text, is entirely for those about to be ordained.

$86. The Doctrine recognised by them.-They imply in the fullest manner God's providential government, both in the world of nature and in the world of

mankind. The laws of the universe are such so long as the Almighty is pleased to uphold them, in no way excluding His immediate personal interposition. Atmospheric changes and the course of epidemics may have their laws, which are to us in a great measure inscrutable, but they are not independent of God's will. The faults and errors of man may make them more disastrous in their action, without originating them.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE CHURCH'S YEAR.

IT will be convenient to consider this in two divisions, the Sunday Year and the Saints' Day Year.

§ 87. The Dominical or Sunday Year. The general arrangement of the entire Dominical Year, substantially that of our present Prayer Book, with the name for each Sunday, occurs about the seventh century, in the so-called Lectionary of St. Jerome (D.C.A. 962).

The year commences with the first Sunday in Advent, and closes with the twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity.

Advent Sunday is always the Sunday which comes nearest (whether before or after) to St. Andrew's Day, November 30th. It is, therefore, a moveable day, falling on November 27th at the earliest, and on December 3rd at the latest.

The number of Sundays in Advent is always four; the number in Lent six; the number after Easter five. The numbers after Epiphany and after Trinity vary, owing to the variation of Easter.