THE DEAD all loud and unseemly complaints, and to turn them into BURIAL OF prayers and devout meditations. Ps. xc. composed by Moses while the children of Israel were dying in the wilderness, shews us what thoughts befit a funeral; that we should consider our own lot, and apply the instance of mortality before us to the improvement of our own condition. The lesson is called St Paul's Gospel; it The Lesson. includes the fullest account of the resurrection that is to be found in Scripture, and hence is fitted to allay sorrow for the departed, and to prepare us freely to follow when God calls. at the Grave. The corpse was carried into the church with thanks- The Anthems giving; it is carried thence to the grave in silence: the preparation then made for laying it solemnly in its 'bed of rest' must strike those who survive with serious apprehensions of their own mortality. The Church therefore employs this interval with a meditation on the shortness, and misery, and uncertainty of life, together with an acknowledgment of our dependence upon God our Saviour for support under the pains of temporal death, and deliverance from eternal death. The casting of earth upon the body was accounted an The Burial. act of piety by the heathen1. And although it is not done by the priest himself, as in the Greek Church, and in our own previous to 1552, yet the ceremony is explained by the words which accompany the action, to denote that the body of our brother is committed to the earth, to be mingled with the dust, and so to wait in certain hope of the resurrection2. And the comfort of 1 Cf. Hor. Od. 1. 28. 36, 'Injecto ter pulvere.' 2 The declaration, that it hath pleased God to take unto Himself the soul,' was objected to by the Presbyterians in 1661, on the BURIAL OF hope of future blessedness is strengthened by the anthem THE DEAD. (Rev. xiv. 13) from the apostolical revelation, which assures us that the dead in Christ are blessed, for they rest from their labours. The Prayers. The prayers which conclude the service are mainly compositions of our reformers, and differ from those in the medieval offices most widely in having respect only to the living, instead of the dead', whose doom is already certain. The former seems to respect the whole company, being a thanksgiving for the deliverance of a Christian from the miseries of this sinful world, and a prayer that the number of the elect of God may shortly be accomplished. The latter is peculiarly designed for the comfort of the relations and friends of the deceased, collecting it from chosen sentences of Scripture, expressing charitable hope for our brother, and turning our thoughts from it is founded upon the Scriptural The form is much altered in the earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; looking for the general Resurrection in the last day, and the life of the world to come, through our Lord Jesus Christ; at whose second coming in glorious majesty to judge the world, the earth and the sea shall give up their dead; and the corruptible bodies of those who sleep in him shall be changed, and made like unto his own glorious body; according to the mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself.' 1 On the prayers for the dead used by the ancient Church, see Bingham, Antiq. XV. 3, §§ 15, 16. 2 These expressions of thankfulness and hope were objected to by the Presbyterians in 1661 (above, p. 125), but the bishops simply replied, that it is better to be charitable, and hope the best, than rashly to condemn :' Cardwell, Conf. pp. 333, 362. 'We are often ING OF unnecessary grief to the more useful exercises of repent- CHURCHance, in order to our joyful meeting in the kingdom of WOMEN. God1. SECT. VI. The Thanksgiving of Women after Child-birth ; commonly called, The Churching of Women2. This service of Thanksgiving is of very ancient use in the Christian Church, and is derived from the Jewish rite of Purification3, whence it was called The Order of the Purification of Women (1549); but this title was altered in 1552, in order to prevent any misconstruction that might be put upon the word. Our service is mainly derived from the mediæval office : : Ordo ad purificandam mulierem post partum ante ostium ecclesiæ 4. Primo sacerdos et ministri ejus dicant psalmos sequentes: ps. Levavi oculos meos. ps. Beati omnes. Gloria Patri. Sequatur : said to hope that which we do only wish or desire, but have not particular grounds to believe; only we are not sure of the contrary, or that the thing is impossible :' Bennet, Paraphr. p. 236. These clauses are altered in the American Prayer-Book:-'We give thee hearty thanks for the good examples of all those thy servants, who, having finished their course in faith, do now rest from their labours' and the words, as our hope is this our brother doth,' are omitted. 1 Take away this (service of psalms, and prayers, and thanksgivings) which was ordained to shew at burials the peculiar hope of the Church of God concerning the dead, and in the manner of those dumb funerals what one thing is there whereby the world may perceive that we are Christian men?' Hooker, Eccl. Pol. v. 75, § 4. 2 The Occasional Offices being arranged in a natural order, it may seem strange that this Thanksgiving should be placed after the Burial Service, which forms the natural close of the series. The reason of this is apparent from the custom of an earlier period, and which is still recognized in the rubric, with regard to Baptism. As in the Roman ritual, that sacrament was administered to infants within a few days of their birth; and the direction was continued in 1549, that the chrisoms should be brought to church at the purification of the mother of every child. This service, then, followed after that of Baptism; but it was not placed in that part of the Prayer-Book, in order that the series of offices concerning the child should be uninterrupted. 3 Comp. Levit. xii. Luke ii. 22. 4 Manual. Sar. Maskell, Mon. Rit. I. pp. 38 sq. The Mediaval Office. ING OF CHURCH Kyrie eleison. Pater noster, Domine salvam fac ancillam WOMEN. tuam. Deus meus sperantem in te. Esto ei Domine turris fortitudinis. A facie inimici. Domine exaudi orationem meam. Et clamor meus ad te veniat. Dominus vobiscum. Oremus. Review of the present Service. The Rubrics. Oratio. Deus qui hanc famulam tuam de pariendi periculo liberasti, et eam in servitio tuo devotam esse fecisti, concede ut temporali cursu fideliter peracto, sub alis misericordiæ tuæ vitam perpetuam et quietam consequatur: Per Christum Dominum. Tunc aspergatur mulier aqua benedicta: deinde inducat eam sacerdos per manum dextram in ecclesiam, dicens: Ingredere in templum Dei ut habeas vitam æternam et vivas in sæcula sæculorum. Amen. The address was prefixed when the office was translated into English, according to the custom of our reformers, of adding a few words to shew the meaning of the services to those who were to join in them. The Psalms were appointed in 16611. Ps. cxvi. composed by David upon his recovery from some dangerous sickness, is applicable to any deliverance from peril: this therefore concerns the woman, as Ps. cxxvii. has more reference to the birth of the child, and is suited to excite the parents to thankfulness. The service of praise is followed by a simple form of prayer,-the lesser Litany, with the Lord's Prayer2, and versicles culled from the Psalms, after the ancient model, summed up in a short collect of prayer and thanksgiving3. The rubric does not allow any private use of this service: it must be said in the church. But no direction is given to what part of the public service it is to be added. Probably it was intended to be said before the Communion Office: custom has, however, sanctioned its insertion 1 In the earlier Prayer-Books, Ps. cxxi. was retained from the old service. 2 In 1661 the Doxology was added to the Lord's Prayer, since this is a service of thanksgiving. 3 Before 1661 the Collect was more simply translated from the old form,-'0 Almighty God, which hast delivered,' &c. 4 It was said immediately before Mass, according to some Visita MINATION. before the General Thanksgiving at Morning or Evening THE COMPrayer1. SECT. VII. A Commination, or Denouncing of God's anger and judgments against sinners, with certain Prayers to be used on the first day of Lent, and at other times, as the Ordinary shall appoint2. This addition to the ordinary service on Ash-Wednesday is a memorial of the solemn public penitence, which formed so distinct a feature in the discipline of the early Church3. It is called a Commination, from the opening tion Articles of the Bishop of Norwich (1536): Nicholls, Addit. Notes, p. 66. The rubric of the earlier Prayer-Books implies that this custom was retained: in 1549, the woman was directed to kneel 'in some convenient place nigh unto the quire door;' and in 1552, when the Holy Table, prepared for Communion, might possibly not be in the chancel, the woman was directed to kneel 'in some convenient place nigh unto the place where the table standeth.' But, as it appears, the custom of communicating had passed away, the service was read in the readingpew; and hence the rubric (1661) directs the woman to kneel 'in some convenient place, as hath been accustomed.' 1 The American rubrics assume that this Thanksgiving will be commonly inserted in the Morning or Evening Prayer; and either the whole service may be used, or the Lord's Prayer may be omitted, or the concluding prayer only may be said, at the discretion of the minister. The Psalm, as in other parts of this Prayer-Book, is supplied by 'a Hymn,' or selected verses from the 116th Psalm: the Lesser Litany is omitted, also the Doxology at the end of the Lord's Prayer. The accustomed offerings 2 This title was added in 1661. See Bingham, Antiq. XVIII. ch. i. and ii.; Guericke, sect. xix. pp. 93 8qq. |