pose a new Prayer Book, but retained substantially the one to which they had been accustomed, omitting only what they deemed objectionable, and improving it by additions from the Liturgies of the Greek Church, and occasionally from modern sources. It is interesting to trace the general resemblance of all these forms of prayer, as far as we can carry up our researches; but the enquiry would be foreign to the practical design of this Tract; and I refer those who wish to pursue the study to Wheatley's Rational Illustration of the Prayer Book, to Dr. Brett's Collection of Ancient Liturgies, and, above all, to the recent publication of Mr. Palmer, of this University, who seems to have exhausted the subject. I will only observe, for the information of those to whom it may be new, that two forms of administering the Sacrament were in use in the short reign of Edward the Sixth. The first, which was authorized by Parliament in 1548, was thought by Bucer and Peter Martyr to savour too much of superstition, and in deference to them it was revised in 1551, and underwent material alterations. It was the second form that was re-enacted on the ac

cession of Elizabeth, with no other change than the accompanying the delivery of the bread and wine with the sentences enjoined in both, and the omission of the rubric against the notion of our Lord's real presence in the elements. King Edward's first book more closely resembled the ancient liturgies, in retaining an oblation of the bread and wine to the Almighty previous to their consecration; an invocation for the descent of the Holy Ghost upon them to make them in power and effect the body and blood of Christ; and in intercessions for all the members of the Catholic Church, comprehending those who had departed in the faith and fear of God as well as the living. The prayer for the illapse of the Spirit was thrown out upon prudential considerations, since a bad use of it had been made, through misconstruction, in favour of transubstantiation; but it is still obscurely intimated under the general terms, "Grant that we, receiving these thy creatures of bread and wine, &c." which expresses the thing prayed for, without specifying the manner of its becoming what we desire, that is, through the immediate operation of the Holy Spirit. There was also a

direct commemoration of the Lord's passion, rejected probably because it might be interpreted as favourable to the notion of an actual sacrifice; but the substance of it still appears interspersed in the Exhortation, and in the Postcommunion, and prayers for the dead are altogether omitted, though there can be no doubt that the primitive Church recommended them to the Divine favour. The abuse of the practice had been the occasion of such pernicious superstition, that we cannot regret its abolition, especially since, though our feelings may incline us to pray for our departed friends, reason holds out no encouragement to expect that our prayers can effect any change in their condition. In the dark ages it became intimately connected with a belief in Purgatory, one of the worst tenets of Romanism, which it is generally supposed to countenance; yet, as appears from the ancient liturgies, it positively contradicts the absurd and impious doctrine of the supererogatory merits of the saints, the main support of that doctrine, since these very saints, not even omitting our Lord's Virgin mother, were themselves included in the prayer; for the notion now so prevalent, that the dead in Christ pass at death into

heaven itself instead of into paradise, which derives no countenance from Scripture, is comparatively modern. The Romanists are aware that these prayers for the saints are unfavourable to the tenet of purgatory; for in Pius the Fifth's reformed missal they are dropped, and an intercession through their merits and mediation is substituted. It is well known, that even this does not satisfy them; but that many direct addresses to Saints may be seen in their Breviary, and in their most recent manuals of devotion. Prayer originally was offered up only for those who, having departed in the faith and fear of God, were secure of salvation; purgatory not having been yet invented, they were not supposed to suffer; but not being admissible into the Divine presence till the judgment day, nor reunited with the body, they enjoyed only an imperfect happiness, which it was supposed might be increased through the prayers of the faithful. The second book is also distinguished by the important addition of the Ten Commandments, with the preceding Collect, which had been long in use, though not in the Communion service; and this declaration of God's law, though peculiar to our liturgy,

is with reason approved, both as most appropriate to those who are about to confess their transgressions of it, and as likely to produce a beneficial effect upon the congregation.

66

Our present service opens, according to the general practice of our Church, with the Lord's prayer, and the Collect is particularly suitable, being a petition for purity of heart, the very quality, the supposed want of which keeps back so many persons of tender conscience from the holy table. We therein beseech, through Christ our Lord, the Almighty," who as such is able to grant whatever we ask, "to cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of his holy Spirit ;" and since we acknowledge, that unto him "all hearts are open and all desires known," we thereby declare both that he knows how far we are sincere in this petition, and that he is acquainted with our infirmities and besetting temptations. But we do not rest in this inward purity as our chief good; we declare that we regard it only as the means to a higher end, the perfect love of God, and the worthily magnifying his holy name. The first can only be shewn, the second only done, by obeying his commandments. By reciting them here, as