which may teach us to acknowledge our sins truly and thoroughly, and to be pricked with a lively repentance of the same, and with true faith to apprehend and retain remission of them in Christ our Lord, that dying to sins daily more and more, we may serve and please thee in a new life, to the glory of thy name, and edifying of thy congregation. For we acknowledge that thou justly requirest these things of us, wherefore we desire to perform the same. Vouchsafe thou, O father of heaven, which hast given us a will, to grant us also that we may study to do those things with all our hearts which pertain to our health, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Hear ye the Gospel. John iii. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that all which believe in him should have life everlasting. Or 1 Tim. i. This a sure saying, and worthy of all embracing, that Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners. Or John iii. The father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hands; he that believeth in the Son hath life everlasting. Or Acts x. All the prophets bear witness unto Christ, that all that believe in him receive remi-sion of their sins through him. Or I John ii. My little children, if any have sinned, we have a just advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, and he is an atonement jor our sins. When the pastor hath showed to the people one of the said Gospels, he shall say further: Because our blessed Lord hath left this power to his congregation, that it may absolve them from sins, and restore them into the favour of the heavenly father, which being repentant for their sins do truly believe in Christ the Lord. I, the Hear what comfortable words our Saviour Christ saith to all that truly turn to him. Come unto me all that travail and be heavy laden, and I shall refresh you. So God loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, to the end that all that believe in him should not perish, but have life everlasting. Hear also what St. Paul saith. This is a true saying, and worthy of all men to be embraced and received, that Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners. Hear also what St. John saith. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ the righteous: he it is that obtained grace for our sins. [Our blessed Lord, who hath left power to his church to absolve penitent sinners from their sins, and to restore to the grace of the heavenly father such as truly believe in Christ, have mercy upon you, pardon and deliver you from all minister of Christ and the congregation declare and pronounce remission of sins, the favour of God, and life everlasting, through our Lord Jesus Christ, to all them which be sorry for their sins, which have true faith in Christ the Lord, and desire to approve themselves unto him. After this, where clerks or scholars shall be, they shall sing somewhat in Latin taken out of the holy Scriptures, for an entrance or beginning. sins, confirm and strengthen you in all goodness, and bring you to everlasting life.] Dr. Jacobs describes the confession of the Order as an "adaptation of that in the Consultation, and the absolution of the former: as a "free rendering" of that in the German version of the latter." A comparison of the forms as they stand above will probably suggest that these terms are somewhat misleading. It is clear that the forms: in the Consultation were used in the composition of those in the: Order: but it is also clear that they were used with discrimination.. The resemblance of the confession of the Order to that of the Consultation consists in its adoption of striking, but unessential, phrases the portions of the form of the Consultation which are discarded constitute a much more important element of its contents. So again, while the absolution of the Order follows at first the model of the formula in the Consultation, it departs from it at the most important point in favour of the kindred formula supplied by the Sarum Missal. The difference in the number and position of the "comfortable words" has already been noted; but here it is clear that the general idea is derived from the Consultation, and the use of the passage "Come unto me," etc., may have been suggested by the application which is made of the words in one of the exhortations of the Consultation.2 To the insistence, in the general directions of the Consultation, on the importance of admonishing the people to give heed to the words "given for you" and shed for you," rather than to the presence of the words "which was given for thee," "which was shed for thee," in the forms of administration contained in that composition, Dr. Jacobs is 1 Op. cit. p. 242. The resemblance of the absolution in the Order to the English version of the Consultation is perhaps more marked than its likeness to the German. 2 See The Workmanship of the Prayer Book, by John Dowden, D.D., Bishop of Edinburgh, 1899, p. 26. inclined to attribute the introduction of these words into the English forms of administration in the Order of the Communion.1 There is nothing in the Consultation answering to the prayer "in the name of all them that shall receive the Communion," which in the Order immediately precedes the communion of the people. This prayer seems to be in the main an original composition: but its opening phrases perhaps owe something to a prayer preparatory to communion, which appears in some early editions of the Roman Missal, and which is retained (as an Oratio ante Missam) in the Roman Missal of the present day. The prayer in question begins as follows: "Ad mensam dulcissimi convivii tui, pie Domine Jesu, ego peccator de propriis meritis nihil praesumens, sed de tua confidens misericordia et bonitate, accedere vereor et contremisco."2 The benediction after communion, again, seems to be independent both of the Consultation and of the forms which lie behind it. - The language of the formula is, of course, in the main scriptural: but no previous instance seems to be found of the employment of the precise form in which the words of scripture are here combined, or of the use for the same purpose of any formula very closely resembling that which ends the Order of the Communion. 1 Jacobs, op. cit. p. 242. He refers, however, to the Nürnberg Order, which was doubtless known to Cranmer, as the source to which the use of the words is really to be traced. 2 See Further Studies in the Prayer Book, by John Dowden, D.D., Bishop of Edinburgh, 1908, pp. 336-8. INDEX. References in Roman numerals are to the pages of the Introduction, references in Arabic numerals to those of the Appendices. forms. Entries in Italic type indicate Liturgical Absolutionem et remissionem, xvi, 31. sung in English in 1547, 30. Aldrich, Robert, Bp. of Carlisle, ix, xii, xiii. Aless, Alexander, xlii, 7. Almighty everlasting God, the Father, 49. Ave in aeternum caelestis potus, 41. Barlow, William, Bp. of St. David's, ix. Bonner, Edmund, Bp. of London, ix. Burnet, Gilbert, Bp. of Salisbury, xii. Cambridge, Somerset's letter to, xx. Capon [or Salcot] John, Bp. of Salisbury, ix. Cardwell, Edward, xxvi, xxvii. Cassel, Order for, of 1539, 48. suppressed at St. Paul's, 1548, xx. Chambers, John, Bp. of Peterborough, xii. Chertsey, xix, xxii. Christ Church, Oxford, Changes at, in 1548, xx sqq. Christie Miller, Mr., xxvi, xxviii, xl. Communicantes et diem, 36. Communion in both kinds, Art for, vii sqq. Communion, Order of the :- changes involved in its introduction, xiv sqq. use of, xix sqq. how prepared, xxiii, xxiv. classification and differences of copies, comparison of readings, 3 sqq. on sale at Frankfort, March, 1548, xli. text of Latin version, 10 sqq. text of German version, 19 sqq. Confession, change as to, xvii. Confitemini Domino, 31, 33. Confiteor, 31. use of, before communion, xv. Consecration, form of, repeated, xvi. 66 Consultation دو of Abp. Hermann, xxiv, xliii, 47 sqq. Convocation of Canterbury, proceedings in, in 1547, x sqq. Corporis et sanguinis tui, 40. Coverdale, Miles, Bp. of Exeter, xix, xli, xlii. Cox, Richard, Dean of Christ Church, xx sqq. Cranmer, Thomas, Abp. of Canterbury, Apostles', substituted for Nicene, 32. |