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If, however, a prayer-book is to be used, most assuredly the one now in use is open to valid and fatal objections. At the very commencement we are met by the unblushing and reiterated assertion of the authority on which it rests, the larger copies commencing thus: An act for the Uniformity of Common Prayer and Service in the Church, and administration of the 'Sacraments. Primo Elizabethæ.' The act affirms that at the time of the death of Edward the Sixth, the Prayer-book was used according to an act of parliament, which act of parliament was repealed by Mary. That statute of repeal is declared void, and of none effect; and then the act of Elizabeth proceeds as follows:

shall

'And further be it enacted by the Queen's Highness, with the assent of the Lords and Commons in this present parliament assembled, and by authority of the same, that all and singular ministers be bound to say and use the mattens, even-song, celebration of the Lord's Supper, and administration of each of the sacraments, and all other common and open prayer, in such order and form as is mentioned in the said book, so authorised by parliament in the said fifth and sixth year of the reign of Edward the Sixth. ... and that if any manner of parson refuse to use the said common prayers,.... or shall wilfully or obstinately use any other rite, ceremony, order, form, or manner of celebrating of the Lord's Supper openly, or privily, or other open prayers than is mentioned and set forth in the said book, for his first offence he shall forfeit the profits of all his benefices for one year, and also suffer six months' imprisonment; .... for his second offence he shall suffer a year's imprisonment, and be deprived ipso facto of all his spiritual promotions; .... his third offence he shall be deprived ipso facto of all his spiritual promotions, and be imprisoned for life.'

And what next presents itself to the reader, in this book of devotion? Another act of uniformity, passed in the thirteenth year, and by the authority, of that most religious' king, Charles the Second; not only re-enacting the use of the Prayer-book, but requiring every clergyman to make this declaration: I, A.

authority as supreme governor of the Church within these our dominions, we from this time prohibit. Given at our Court of Buckingham Palace, this 7th day of December, 1840.

Whenever Lord Melbourne, who is charged with seeking the destruction of the Established Church, really wishes to perform the good work, we humbly advise him to persuade his royal mistress to issue a mandate rigidly exacting prayer without book; and in one week our most excellent Church' would be laid in ruins.

B. do here declare my unfeigned assent, and consent, to all and every thing contained and prescribed in and by the Book, inti'tuled the Book of Common Prayer.'

This supremacy of the king or queen in ecclesiastical matters, from which the Prayer-book derived its authority when first used, and but for which it would not have come into general use, has never been surrendered, but repeatedly exercised in later times. Even the Articles of the Church, by which the faith of the clergy and their flocks is regulated, rested originally upon the authority of his Majesty Edward the Sixth; that supreme governor of the Church being, at the time of their publication in his name, in the fourteenth year of his age. They were drawn up by Cranmer and Ridley at the suggestion of the Council of Regency, reviewed by certain divines whom Cranmer and Ridley thought proper to consult, presented to the council, and published by royal authority, without even the advice of either convocation or parliament. Ten years afterwards, Elizabeth permitted the convocation to reconsider the articles; and at some future time, but whether during the reign of Charles or James is doubtful, there was prefixed to them his majesty's declaration,' which reads thus:

'Being by God's ordinance, according to our just title, defender of the faith, and supreme governor of the Church within these our dominions, we ...... have, with the advice of so many of our bishops as might conveniently be called together, thought fit to make this declaration following: That the articles of the Church of England do contain the true doctrine of the Church of England, agreeable to God's word: which we do therefore ratifie and confirm, requiring all our loving subjects to continue in the uniform profession thereof, and prohibiting the least difference from the said articles

That we are

supreme governor of the Church of England .... That out of our princely care, that the Churchmen may do the work which is proper unto them, the bishops and clergy, from time to time in convocation, upon their humble desire, shall have license under our broad seal, to deliberate of, and to do all such things, as being made plain by them, and assented unto by us, shall concern the settled continuance of the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England now established; from which we will not endure any varying or departing in the least degree.'

If this evidence of the prostration of what is called the Church in these realms be thought insufficient, the reader is referred to two or three other examples. Soon after the revolution, it was thought desirable that the people of England should say some new prayers; and there issued three additional forms from that apostolical college, Whitehall: the first for the fifth of November; the second to be used yearly, with fasting, upon the thirtieth of

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January, 'being the day of the martyrdom of the blessed King Charles the First; to implore the mercy of God, that neither 'the guilt of that sacred and innocent blood, nor those other sins, by which God was provoked to deliver up both us and our king into the hands of cruel and unreasonable men, may at any time 'hereafter be visited upon us or our posterity:* the third to be used on the twenty-ninth of May, because on that day it pleased Almighty God in his inscrutable wisdom, to permit the wicked Charles the Second to regain the kingdom, and become supreme governor of the Church of England. Here is the document by which the millions of Britain are bidden to canonize the first Charles, and give thanks to God on behalf of his anointed ser'vant' the second Charles.

MARIE R.

Our will and pleasure is, that these three forms of prayer and service made for the fifth of November, the thirtieth of January, and the twenty-ninth of May, be forthwith printed and published, and for the future annexed to the Book of Common Prayer and Liturgy of the Church of England, to be used yearly on the said days, in all cathedral and collegiate churches and chapels, in all chapels of colleges and halls within both our Universities, and of our colleges at Eton and Winchester, and in all parish churches and chapels within our kingdom of England, dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick upon Tweed. Given at our Court at Whitehall, the sixth day of October, 1692, in the fourth year of our reign.

By her Majesty's command,

NOTTINGHAM.'

Anne exercised the same prerogative, and sent out her command from St. James's, that her clergy should use the form of prayer appointed for the eighth of March, the day on which she began her reign. And that pattern of all pollution, George the Fourth, issued similar orders to the successors of the apostles from Carlton House, on the twenty-first day of February, 1820. Where were the most reverend the archbishops, and the right reverend the bishops, that this royal profligate, instead of being excommunicated, was even allowed to dictate prayers, and having been by baptism made a member of Christ, received in his last hours the communion of the body and blood of Christ, and was buried in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life? This is the example of pure and undefiled religion which 'our excellent Church' exhibits to the people.

*No political questions should be allowed to emerge in addresses to God, such for example as are interwoven with the history of the Stuarts. The actual introduction of these into our state services, has turned the house of prayer into an exhibition and exasperation of the malignant passions.' Riland.

The authority of the monarch as supreme governor of the Church of England, is very carefully recognized, as that authority flows to the subordinate officers of the Church. When a bishop is to be consecrated, certain other bishops present him to the archbishop, saying, Most reverend father in God, we present 'unto you this godly and well-learned man, to be ordained and 'consecrated bishop.' The archbishop then requires that the Queen's MANDATE' for the consecration be produced, and read; and afterwards that the oath of supremacy be administered; which is this, 'I, A. B. do utterly testifie and declare in my conscience, that the Queen's Highness is the only supreme governor of this 'realm, and of all other her Highness's dominions and countries, as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical things or causes, as ⚫ temporal. . . . so help me God, and the contents of this book.'* This oath is taken by every deacon at the time of his ordination, twice by every priest, thrice by every bishop, and by the archbishops four times.

...

We have been induced, by the Act of Uniformity, which is printed at the commencement of the larger copies of the Prayer book, to expatiate on the authority of the book as derived from the monarch, whatever his character may be. If the reader will now turn over a single page, or having but a small copy of the Prayer-book, will open it at the commencement, he will find several paragraphs concerning the service of the Church' and they relate chiefly to the order in which the Scriptures are to be read, and point out the advantages of the new mode, as compared with that practised before the reformation. About this plan for the public reading of the Word of God nothing would have been said here, but for the outcries which have been recently raised on this subject by some advocates of the Church. These outcries may be, with sufficient accuracy, summed up in the sentence, "The Bible, 'the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible.' So zealous are the religious Tories, aye and the irreligious Tories too, for the word of God, that they cannot rest satisfied so long as children at school are not permitted to have the Bible in its integrity. Selections from the Bible they abhor, as throwing a reflection on those parts which are not selected. Now, how stands the case in the reading of the Scriptures in the churches, not to children, but to the people generally? Of those parts of Scripture which are

*So that every clergyman now ordained swears that in his conscience he believes that Queen Victoria is, in things spiritual, supreme governor of Great Britain and Ireland, Canada, Malta, New Holland, British India, &c.! In virtue of this prerogative she enforces the use of the Prayer-book in England, supports Presbyterianism in Scotland (for we suppose this will be true when this article will be put in print), Catholicism in Canada and Malta, and has to the present time supported idolatry in India.

*

read most frequently in churches, the best translation is not adopted. Many parts of the word of God are omitted, and six books of the Apocrypha are introduced.+ Queen Victoria (we speak of her not as head of the state, but as assuming to be head of the Church) indulges her subjects (not however on Sundays) with the stories of Susanna, and of Bel and the Dragon; but withholds from them, amongst other parts of sacred Scripture, seventeen chapters of that book which opens with this divine declaration, 'Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy.'

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The instructions concerning the service of the Church' are followed by an explanation of ceremonies, why some be abo'lished, and some retained.' This explanation was directed against the Puritans, whose quarrel with the Church related chiefly to the tyrannical imposition of kneeling at the Lord's Supper; of the sign of the cross in baptism; and of the ecclesiastical, or as the Puritans rightly said, the popish vestments. The law of the Church of England in relation to dress, is delivered in two of the canons, the fifty-eighth and seventyfourth, and in directing attention to the important subject of clerical habiliments, the monarch and his clergy were but following the example which had been set by their predecessors. The Council of Vienna (for instance) in the year 1311, prohibited upper garments laced, and of divers colors; and frocks shorter than the vestments; and red and green breeches chequered: and the Council of Trent renewed these prohibitions. Who does not recognize here the indubitable marks of apostolical succession?

Every clergyman of the Church of England is, to the present day, compelled when reading the prayers to be dressed

The psalms we use in our daily service are not taken out of either of the two last translations of the Bible, but out of the great English Bible translated by W. Tyndal and Miles Coverdale, and revised by Archbishop Cranmer for when the Common Prayer was compiled in 1548, neither of the two last translations was extant.. At the last review (i. e. of the Prayer-book) the epistles and gospels were taken out of the new translation, and the lessons, too, since that time have been read out of James the First's Bible.' Shepherd's Elucidation of the Morning and Evening Prayer, p. 124.

The plan of the lessons is this: to begin at the beginning of the year with Genesis, and so on to continue till all the books of the Old Testament are read over, only omitting the Chronicles and other particular chapters in other books, which are left out either for the same reason or else because they contain genealogies, names of persons or places, or some other matter less profitable for ordinary hearers. The Canticles are wholly omitted. Very many chapters in Ezekiel are also omitted upon account of the mystical visions in which they are wrapped up. Why some others are omitted does not so plainly appear, though doubtless the compilers of our liturgy thought there was sufficient reason for it.' Wheatly on Common Prayer, p. 125.