as lieth in you) quietness, peace, and love among all Christian people; and specially among them that are, or shall be, committed to your charge? Answer. I will so do, the Lord being my helper. The Bishop. Will you reverently obey your ordinary, and other chief ministers, unto whom the government and charge is committed over you, following with a glad mind and will their godly admonitions, and submitting your self to their godly judgments? Answer. I will so do, the Lord being my helper. ¶ Then shall the Bishop say. ALMIGHTY God, who hath given you this will to do all these things, grant also unto you strength and power to perform the same, that he may accomplish his work, which he hath begun in you, until the time he shall come at the latter day, to judge the quick and the dead. ¶ After the congregation shall be desired, secretly in their prayers, to make humble supplications to God for the foresaid things: for the which prayers there shall be a certain space kept in silence. ¶ That done, the Bishop shall pray in this wise. The Lord be with you. Answer. And with thy spirit.* Let us pray. ALMIGHTY God and heavenly Father, which of thine infinite love and goodness towards us hast given to us thy only and most dear beloved Son Jesus Christ, to be our redeemer and author of everlasting life: who, after he had made perfect our redemption by his death, and was ascended into heaven, sent abroad into the world his Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Doctors, and Pastors, by whose labour and ministry he gathered together a great flock in all the parts of the world, to set forth the eternal praise of thy holy name. For these so great benefits of thy eternal goodness, and for that thou hast vouchsafed to call these thy servants here present to the same office and ministry of the salvation of mankind, we render unto thee * This versicle and response were omitted in the edition of 1552. most hearty thanks, we worship and praise thee, and we humbly beseech thee by the same thy Son, to grant unto all us, which either here or elsewhere call upon thy name, that we may show our selves thankful to thee for these and all other thy benefits, and that we may daily increase and go forwards in the knowledge and faith of thee, and thy Son, by the Holy Spirit. So that as well by these thy ministers, as by them to whom they shall be appointed ministers, thy holy name may be always glorified, and thy blessed kingdom enlarged, through the same thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ: which liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Holy Spirit, world without end. Amen. ¶ When this prayer is done, the Bishop with the Priests present shall lay their hands severally upon the head of every one that receiveth orders. The receivers humbly kneeling upon their knees, and the Bishop saying. ECEIVE the Holy Ghost: Whose sins thou dost forgive, RECEIV they are forgiven; and whose sins thou dost retain, they are retained and be thou a faithful dispenser of the Word of God, and of His Holy Sacraments: In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. The Bishop shall deliver to every one of them the Bible in the one hand, and the chalice or cup with the bread in the other hand, and say. TAKE MAKE thou authority to preach the word of God, and to minister the holy sacraments in this congregation, where thou shalt be so appointed.† ¶ When this is done, the congregation shall sing the Creed, and also they shall go to the Communion, which all they that receive orders shall take together, and remain in the same place where the hands were laid upon them, until such time as they have received the Communion. ¶ The Communion being done, after the last Collect, and immediately before the benediction, shall be said this Collect. The words in italics were omitted in the edition of 1552, and this rubric ran thus:-"The Bishop shall deliver to every one of them the Bible in his hand." ↑ The last six words added in 1552. Ꭰ MOST merciful Father, we beseech thee so to send upon these thy servants thy heavenly blessing, that they may be clad about with all justice, and that thy Word spoken by their mouths may have such success, that it may never be spoken in vain. Grant also that we may have grace to hear, and receive the same as thy most holy word, and the mean of our salvation, that in all our words and deeds we may seek thy glory, and the increase of thy kingdom, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. If the Orders of Deacon and Priesthood be given both upon one day: then shall the Psalm for the Introit and other things at the holy Communion be used as they are appointed at the ordering of Priests. Saving that for the Epistle, the whole iii Chapter of the first to Timothe shall be read as it is set out before in the order of Priests. And immediately after the Epistle, the Deacons shall be ordered. And it shall suffice the Litany to be said once. In this Form for the Ordination of Priests, it should be noted, 1st, that there is a public presentation by the Archdeacon of the candidate for the order of Priesthood; 2nd, that the Bishop who is about to ordain, in his address to the people, expressly mentions his intention to "receive this day unto the holy office of Priesthood" the persons preThe particular sented; 3rd, that the Bishop then proceeds to pray to Almighty God for "these thy Order of the Priesthood, specifically mentioned in the Form of servants now called to the office of the PriestOrdination. hood;" 4th, that in the Bishop's public exhortation to the candidates, he first speaks of them as "the Messengers, the Watchmen, the Pastors, and the Stewards of the Lord;" and then interrogates them, "Do you think in your heart that you be truly called (a) according to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, and (B) the order of the Church of Omitted in 1552. "Stewards of thy mysteries,"-Collect for Third Sunday in Advent. England, to the ministry of Priesthood?" 5th, that the Bishop prays to God that those about to be ordained to execute the "same office" which our Blessed Lord's " Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Doctors, and Pastors" anciently received, may "daily increase and go forward in the knowledge and faith of Thee and thy Son by the Holy Spirit.' In the Form under conside Furthermore in the immediate act of ordination a direction is given that "the Bishop with the Priests present shall lay their hands severally upon every one that receiveth orders," the persons being ordained kneeling, and the Bishop using the form set forth at length on p. 33. Here the ancient rite is substantially followed: 1st, in the use of the English form of the words, Accipe Spiritum Sanctum, "Receive the Holy Ghost," by which the grace of the priesthood is by many held to be conveyed; 2ndly, by the power imparted to remit and retain sins; and 3rdly, by the general commission to dispense the Word of God and His Holy Sacraments, in the Name of the Blessed Trinity. Over and above all these details, the explicit belief and general intention of the Church of England is clearly notified in the Preface to the Ordinal. ration, the anOrdination is followed in cient rite of substantially three parti culars. CHAPTER V. THE FORM FOR THE ORDINATION OF BISHOPS, 1549. THE Form of Consecrating of an Archbishop, or Bishop. The Psalm for the Introits at the Communion as at the Ordination of Priests.* The Epistle. THIS is a true saying: if a man desire the office of a Bishop, he desireth an honest work. A Bishop therefore must be blameless, the husband of one wife, diligent, sober, discreet, a keeper of hospitality, apt to teach, not given to over much wine, no fighter, not greedy of filthy lucre but gentle, abhorring fighting, abhorring covetousness, one that ruleth well his own house, one that hath children in subjection, with all gravity; for if a man cannot rule his own house, how shall he care for the congregation of God? He may not be a young scholar, lest he swell, and fall into the judgment of the evil speaker: he must also have a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into rebuke, and the snare of the evil speaker. The Gospel. JESUS said to Simon Peter, Simon Johanna, lovest thou me more than these? He said unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He said unto him, Feed my lambs. He said to him again the second time, Simon Johanna, lovest thou me? He said unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He said unto him, Feed my sheep. He said unto him the third time, Simon Johanna, lovest thou me? Peter was sorry because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus said unto him, Feed my sheep. Or else out of the tenth chapter of John, as before in the Order of Priests. After the Gospel and Credo ended first the elected Bishop, having upon him a surplice and a cope,† shall be presented by two Bishops, being also in surplices and copes, and having their pastoral staves in their hands, unto the Archbishop of that province, or to some other * Omitted in 1552, "at the Communion " being substituted. |