THE BOOK OF

COMMON PRAYER,

AND ADMINISTRATION OF

THE SACRAMENTS,

AND OTHER

RITES AND CEREMONIES

OF

The Church,

ACCORDING TO THE USE OF THE

PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH

IN THE

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

TOGETHER WITH

THE PSALTER,

OR

PSALIES OF DAVID.

NEW-YORK:

Published from the Stereotype Plates of the Auxiliary New-York Bible
and Common Prayer Book Society, and to be had at their Depository,
Protestant Episcopal Press Buildings, No. 46 Lumber-Street, in rear
of Trinity Church.

PRINTED AT THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL PRESS,
No. 46 Lumber St.

1829.

New-York, July 2, 1826

I Do hereby certify, that this Edition of the Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, &c., (having been compared with a standard Book, and corrected by the same,) is permitted to be published, as an Edition duly compared and corrected by a suitable Person appointed for that purpose, as the Canon directs.

Added ed.

5-16-41 TABLE OF CONTENTS.

1 The Ratification of the Book of that are baptized, and come to

Common Prayer.

2 The Preface.

$ The Order how the Psalter is

appointed to be read.

4 The Order how the rest of the
Holy Scripture is appointed to
be read.

5 Tables of Lessons of Holy Scrip-
ture, to be read at Morning and
Evening Prayer throughout the
Year.

6 The Calendar.

7 Tables and Rules for the Move

Years of Discretion.

Dead.

23 The Thanksgiving of Women after Child-Birth, commonly called, The Churching of Women, 24 Forms of Prayer to be used at Sea.

able and Immoveable Feasts, to-25 A Form of Prayer for the Visitgether with the Days of Fasting ation of Prisoners.

and Abstinence throughout the 26 A form of Prayer and ThanksYear.

8 Tables for finding the Holy-Days.
9 The Order for Daily Morning

giving to Almighty God, for the

Fruits of the Earth, and all the other Blessings of his merciful Providence.

10 The Order for Daily Evening 27 Forms of Prayer to be used in

Prayer.

Prayer.

Families.

11 Prayers and Thanksgivings up-28 Selections of Psalms, to be used

on several Occasions, to be used
before the two final Prayers of
Morning and Evening Service.
12 The Collects, Epistles, and Gos-
pels, to be used throughout the
Year.

13 The Order for the Administra-
tion of the Lord's Supper, or Ho-
ly Communion.

14 The Ministration of Public Bap-
tism of Infants, to be used in the
Church.

instead of the Psalms for the

Day, at the Discretion of the Minister.

20 The Psalter, or Psalms of David. 30 Articles of Religion, as established by the Bishops, the Clergy, and Laity of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, in Convention, on the twelfth Day of September,

in the Year of our Lord 1801. 31 The Form and Manner of Making, Ordaining, and ConsecraBishops, Priests, and Dencons. 32 The Litany and Sufrages. 33 The Order for the Administration of the Lord's Supper, or Holv Communion.

15 The Ministration of Private
Baptism of Children in Houses.
16 The Ministration of Baptism to
such as are of Riper Years, and
able to answer for themselves.
17 A Catechism; that is to say, an
Instruction to be learned by eve-34 The Form of Consecration of a

ry Person before he be brought to be confirmed by the Bishop. 18 The Order of Confirmation, or Laying on of Hands upon those

Church or Chapel. 35 An Office of Institution of Ministers into Parishes or Churches.

3

THE

RATIFICATION

OF THE

BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER.

By the Bishops, the Clergy, and the Laity of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, in Convention, this 16th Day of October, in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.

THIS HIS Convention having in their present Session, set A Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, do hereby establish the said Book: And they declare it to be the Liturgy of this Church; and require, that it be received as such by all the Members of the same: And this Book shall be in Use from and after the first Day of October, in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninety.

4

T is

IT a most invaluable part of that blessed liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, that in his worship, different forms and usages may without offence be allowed, provided the substance of the faith be kept entire; and that, in every Church, what cannot be clearly determined to belong to Doctrine must be referred to Discipline; and therefore, by common consent and authority, may be altered, abridged, enlarged, amended, or otherwise disposed of, as may seem most conveni. ent for the edification of the people, "according to the various exigencies of times and occasions."

The Church of England, to which the Protestant Episcopal Church in these States is indebted, under GOD, for her first foundation and & long continuance of nursing care and protection, hath, in the Preface of her Book of Common Prayer, laid it down as a Rule, that "The Particular Forms of Divine Worship, and the Rites and Ceremonies appointed to be used therein, being things in their own nature indifferent and alterable, and so acknowledged, it is but reasonable that, upon weighty and important considerations, according to the various exigencies of times and occasions, such changes and alterations should be made therein, as to those who are in places of authority should, from time to time, seem either necessary or expedient."

The same Church hath not only in her Preface, but likewise in her Articles and Homilies, declared the necessity and expediency of occasional alterations and amendments in her Forms of Public Worship; and we find accordingly, that, seeking to "keep the happy mean be tween too much stiffness in refusing, and too much easiness in admit. ting variations in things once advisedly established, she hath, in the reign of several Princes, since the first compiling of her Liturgy in the

time of Edward the Sixth, upon just and weighty considerations her thereunto moving, yielded to make such alterations in some particulars, as in their respective times were thought convenient; yet so as that the main body and essential parts of the same (as well in the chiefest materials, as in the frame and order thereof) have still been continued firm and unshaken."

Her general aim in these different Reviews and Alterations hath been, as she further declares in her said Preface, "to do that which, according to her best understanding, might most tend to the preservation of peace and unity in the Church; the procuring of reverence, and the exciting of piety and devotion in the worship of God; and, finally, the cutting off occasion, from them that seek occasion, of cavil or quarrel against her Liturgy." And although, according to her judgment, there be not "any thing in it contrary to the Word of God, or to sound doetrine, or which a godly man may not with a good conscience use and submit unto, or which is not fairly defensible, if allowed such just and favourable construction, as, in common equity, ought to be allowed to all human writings;" yet upon the principles already laid down, it cannot but be supposed, that further alteration would in time be found ex