end of the century. (b) The Book of Acts was compiled, not to tell what should be believed and done in the future, but to place on record what was believed and done in the past, as directed by the Divine teaching of the Great Forty Days, and the after guidance of the Holy Ghost; having not been penned until the Church had been in full working order for thirty years; while (c) The Epistles are evidently for the most part mere casual communications, making only incidental allusions to a settled Church system, and designed chiefly to meet new heresies or solve local difficulties, propounded as they arose by brethren at a distance, who had already had the benefit of full Apostolic teaching about Creeds, Sacraments, Priesthood, Ritual, &c., and therefore needed no Levitical Code of Instruction like the Jews of old. (S. Luke i. 4; Acts i. 3; S. John xiv. 26.)

14. Facts speak quite as eloquently as words; and just as we judge from results, that "Preaching Christ" meant announcing Baptism as the one appointed mode of union with Him; so we infer from the facts of Early Communion, Infant Baptism, Sunday instead of Saturday, Female Communicants, Canon of Scripture, &c., being universally established Church usages; that these things were all the result of Apostolic deliberation, and through them, of Divine appointment, notwithstanding the entire absence of Scripture testimony. (Acts viii. 5, 12, 13; 35—9; xi. 20, 1, and ii. 41; xvi. 32, 3.)

15. At the beginning of the 2nd century, Pliny, writing from Asia to the Emperor Trajan, describes Christians as a strange sort of people, who were accustomed to assemble very early in the morning on a day appointed, for Eucharistic and Sacra

mental worship of Christ as God, and then to separate; meeting again at a later period of the day for the Agapè.

16. Thirty years later, Justin Martyr omits the Evening Agapè altogether from his Apologia, or Defence of Christianity, but describes the Holy Eucharist in full, as the special act of worship, and the "Breaking of Bread" as the one grand purpose for which the disciples came together on the first day of the week. (Acts xx. 7.)

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17. This rule has prevailed universally ever since; and, coupled naturally with it, the practice of Fasting Communion; on the principles (a) That reverence should seek to provide a new tomb" for the Body of Christ. (S. Matt. xxvii. 60.) (b) That the first food of the day should be the best, and the best, first; (c) That mind and body being thus as it were sublimated, are better able to "discern the Lord's Body" when in that condition

than in any other. (Bishop Jeremy Taylor's "Holy Living," iv. 10., § 9.)

18. The English Liturgy is based on this rule. (a) No Rubric occurs, requiring a change from PreReformation usage. (b) The first Rubric requires intending Communicants to "signify their names to the Curate at least some time the day before." (c) Vigil or Eve Collects are to be said "at the Evening Service next before" the Sunday or Holy Day in whose Communion Service they severally occur. (d) The Sermon, which has always noen a feature of Morning Service, and is wholly unpǝqided for at Evensong, is appointed to follow the Nicene Creed, an integral portion of the Communion Office. (e) The First Book of 1549 requires Communion of the Sick to be ministered "Afore Noon."

19. This uninterrupted stream of Catholic doc

G

trine and practice is just what might have been expected by anyone exercising his common sense upon the subject. For the Eucharist superseded the Passover. What the Passover was to the Jew of old, the Eucharist is to the Christian now, viz., the commemoration of a special Deliverance from Bondage; the grand difference between them being, that the one was effected by a Night Exodus, and the other by a Morning Resurrection. Now the Jewish commemoration naturally took place at night, to synchronize with the Egyptian Deliverance; and it would be but natural to expect that the Christian commemoration should in like manner be timed to correspond with the Early Resurrection.

20. The modern practice of Evening Communion, therefore, must be set down as a flat heresy, "to be rebuked openly" (Art. 34), inasmuch as it is the outcome of private judgment which opposes itself to all evidence and authority; and a very stupid as well as foolish heresy, too, since its false symbolism suggests a positive untruth, and it is in itself as ludicrous an anomaly as would be the practice of Morning Passover.

FOUR OLD TESTAMENT TYPES.

(a) Tree of Life. Gen. ii. 9; Rev. ii. 7; xxii. 2, 14; S. John vi. 54.

(b) Paschal Lamb.

Exodus xii. 5; Heb. ix.

14; 1 Pet. i. 19; 1 Cor. v. 7.

(c) Manna in Desert. Exodus xvi. 15; Ps. lxxviii. 21; Cv. 40; S. John vi. 32, 58; 1 Cor. *. 3.

(d) Elijah's Cake. I Kings xix. 6.

Vide also Melchizedek's Feast, Gen. xiv. 18, Heb. v. 6; and Jacob's Ladder, Gen. xxviii. 12, 13; S. John i. 51; Heb. i. 14.

FOUR PRELIMINARY RUBRICS.

I. NOTICE TO THE CURATE.

(a) That he may (1) inquire about character, &c. (Rubrics 2 and 3); and (2) know how much bread and wine to provide (Canons 26-8).

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(b) "Curate" = Parish Priest; the Lawful Minister" (Art. 23) who has the "Cure," i.e. the care or charge of spiritual things in the Parish; whether Rector (Ruler) or Vicar (Vicarius, Deputy).

(c) In the Prayer for Clergy and People at Mattins and Evensong, and the Church Militant Prayer, all Three Orders of the Ministry are included in the phrase "Bishops and Curates.'

(d) The common acceptation of the term, as meaning an unbeneficed Priest or Deacon, is quite of recent origin.

2. DISCIPLINE OF THE KEYS.

"Notorious evil-livers" to be "repelled" or excommunicated, until (1) Repentance, (2) Amendment, (3) Compensation or Reparation. (S. Matt. xvi. 19; xviii. 15-18; 1 Cor. v. 5, 11, 13; X. 16—18; xvi. 22; 2 Cor. ii. 6—8; 1 Tim. i. 20.) Thus S. Ambrose (as related in Homilies, p. 183) repelled the Emperor Theodosius at Milan, A.D. 390, on account of a massacre at Thessalonica; and refused him Absolution until after a penance of several months.

=

"Offended" Scandalized (Ob, Fendo, To put stumbling-block in the way). S. Matt. xviii. 7, 17.

"Advertize" = Warn, Caution, Admonish. Acts

XV. 20, 21.

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"Naughty" Good for naught, Nasty. Jer. xxiv. 2; S. Jas. i. 21.

N.B. Augh, Ough, are merely conventional modes of giving visible expression to the guttural "Ach" (German), "Ech" (Welsh), of which the only audible trace now left in English is the H aspirate. In different counties this guttural was "avoided" or got rid of in different ways; of which, eight are preserved in the couplet,

"Though naughty cough and hiccough plough me through,

3. QUARRELLERS

O'er life's rough lough my course I'll still pursue." ΤΟ BE "REPELLED UNTIL PENITENT AND RECONCILED.-S. Matt. V. 21-6.

"Ordinary" = Bishop of Diocese, or his deputy, the Archdeacon, Oculus Episcopi. "Canon"; No. 113 (A.D. 1603).

4. POSITION, &C., OF THE ALTAR OR HOLY TABLE. (a) At the Reformation, according to ancient Catholic usage, the Altar stood fixed permanently at the extreme East end of the Chancel, thus :