Imatges de pàgina
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mon, as is required. If it be neceffary to ease himself, he may do it by reading the three feveral Offices at three feveral times, or however at twice.

I call them three feveral Offices, for fo they

are:

The Morning-Prayer is the firft, and this in King Edw. VI's Time, ended with the Collect for Grace, which is properly to be used at the beginning of the Day: The other Prayers have been added fince, and are still directed to be omitted, when the Litany is ufed.

2. The Litany is of itself a diftin&t Office, and an excellent one too.. Dr.Comber has obferved, that it is almoft verbatim the fame with that ufed by the Danish, and other Lutheran Churches, Part. 2. p. 307. It is order'd to be faid after Morning Prayer, and therefore cannot in good Senfe be efteemed a part of MorningPrayer. What Interval there fhall be, is, I fuppofe, at the Difcretion of the Minifter. The 15th Canon feems to direct the Singing or Saying of That by itfelf in the Church, on Wednesdays and Fridays.

3. The Communion Office is fo distinct from. the other two, that it is ftill commonly called, Second Service; and there is no Direction at what Time of the Day it fhall be used, only Cuftom has determin'd it to be used in the * Forenoon.

In

* Mafs in Times of Popery was to be celebra ted on Festivals after Lauds; that is, at Nine in the Morning, or foon after; on Working-days

it

In the Time of King Charles I. Dr. Heylin Hift. Sab. Part 2. cap. 4. mentions two Services for the Morning, on Sundays and Holy-days, the one beginning at Six a Clock, the other at Nine, tho now (fays he) by reason of the floth and backwardness of the People, in coming to the Houfe of God, they are in moft Places join'd together.

I remember, that long fince the Reftauration, in the Metropolitical Church of Canterbury, Morning-Prayer was read at Six a Clock every Sunday in Summer, at Seven in the Winter, together with the Prayers for King, Royal Family, &c. as on others Days; at Ten they began the Litany, and, after a Voluntary, proceeded to the Communion-Service and Sermon; and fo it is, or lately was, at the Cathedral of Worce fter. And the Rubric does not peremptorily command the Litany to be used immediately after the Collect for Grace, or the Anthem; but only fays, The five following Collects are to be read here, except when the Litany is read. This is only an Intimation that the Litany may be red here, not a pofitive Direction.

So

it was to begin at Noon; on Fafting-days at Three in the Afternoon; on Saturday in Ember-week in the Evening; on Easter-Eve at the beginning of the Night; and on the Feast of the Nativity before Day, and a fecond Mafs at the ufual time, viz. about Nine in the Forenoon. See Lyndw. in Conftitut. Walteri Linteamina

So that it appears, that the common Practice of reading all three together is an Innovation; and if an antient or infirm Clergyman do read them at two or three feveral times, he is more ftrictly conformable. A Cuftom hath prevail'd in Parish Churches to fing a Pfalm in Metre, between Divine Service and Sermon; and in moft Places between the Litany and Communion-Service: And this is much more agreeable than to run all the Offices into one. And there in an A&t of Parliament to countenance this Practice; I mean, King Edward VI's Act of Uniformity, by which it is made lawful, To ufe in Churches any Prayers or Pfalms taken out of the Bible, at any due Time, not letting thereby, er omitting the Service, or any Part thereof. However, this is much better than to omit any Part of the Liturgy, or to read all three Offi ces into one, as is now in many Places done, without any Paufe or Diftinction.

Perhaps fome would rather advise to leave out the Sermon; but fuck Men (lays Bishop Still.) never well confidered the defign of our Profeffion, nor the way to fupport it, &c. p. 204. Eccl. Cafes, and Or. Brit. p. 230, &c. where he fpeaks admirably well of the Neceffity of Preaching.

Not that a Clergyman is to fhorten, or cur tail Divine Offices, to make room for a long Sermon: He that does this does not Conform to the Liturgy, and fo is falfe to his Promife and Subfcription, and liable to the Cenfures of the Ordinary..

Only in the Office of Vifiting the Sick, (lays B.Sprat,in in his Difcourfe to his Clergy) you are

more

more left to your own liberty. And the Great Bifhop Andrews drew up Forms to be used by the Priest in vifiting the Sick, which have been long fince published. See bis Manual for the Sick, P. 44. Edit. 1674. And Bifhop Taylor's Holy Living and Dying, p. 234. Edit. 1674.

CHAP. IV.

Of the Places of Worship, and the Ornaments thereunto belonging; and likewife of Parishes.

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T first there was only one Church in each Diocefe, viz. at the Place where the Bishop with his Clergy refided, and perform'd all Divine Offices, as at London, Canterbury; from whence, as Neceffity required, Priests were fent out to Preach and Baptize in the remoter Parts of the Diocefe. "Tis probable indeed, that fome other Places of Worship were built here and there, in the time of the British Chriftians; as at Glaftenbury, or Avalon, where King Arthur was buried; at Evesham, and in the Eaft Part of the City of Canterbury, tho' it could not be dedicated to St. Martin, efpecially if built in the Time of K. Lucius; for St. Martin did not die till A. D. 400. and K. Lucius is faid to have lived in the fecond Century..

As all Tythes and Offerings were originally paid to the Bishop, and his Clergy refiding at the Cathedral; fo after other Churches were built and endow'd, yet fome fhare of the Tythes was always refervid for the Bishop and his Family of

Clergy:

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Clergy: Sometimes a third, -fometimes a fourth Part. And farther, every Freeman that occupied Land, was oblig'd, firft on Christmas-day, by the Laws of King Ina, afterwards on St. Martin's-day, by the Laws of Canute, to pay a Cynic-rceat, i. e. Church-Scot, to the Mother-Church, that is, moft probably, to the Cathedral: Upon failure of Payment, the Bifhop was, by Canute's Laws, to have elevenfold Satisfaction; and by another Law of the fame Prince, 40s. 'Tis not unlikely this was the Duty which in other Countries was called Cathedraticum. See Spelm Vol. 1. p. 385, 531, 545, 563.

In fome Places they were obliged not only to pay their Contribution, or Offering for the Maintenance of the Cathedral-Church, but alfo to come thither in Solemn Proceffion, with Banner and Crofs carried before them, and that on fome Day in Whitfun-Week. Thus the Clergy and People of the Afchdeaconry of London, with the Archdeacon or his Official, were to make their Proceffion to St. Paul's on Whitfun-Monday; they of Middlefex on Whitfun-Tuesday; they of Effex on Whitfun-Wednesday; and after Proceffion ended, to pay their Offering at the High-Altar: As appears by a Register now in Poffeffion of the Lord Bifhop of Ely. The Archdeaconry of Oxford was allowed to pay this Duty at the Abby of Eynsham, by reafon of the too great diftance of Lincoln, to which Diocefe Oxford then belonged; and the Offering made on this Occafion, is exprefly called, Quadrantes Pentecostales, alias Smoke-Farthings, as being due from every Houfekeeper that had

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