even the observance of the anniversary of the day has ever been required by parliament; whereas special acts were duly passed for that purpose with respect to them, though without determining any thing as to a formulary, already composed, or hereafter to be composed, and then invariably to be read. Yet, by the consent of its own rulers, the event has been made a subject of public rejoicing in the Church for nearly three centuries. The custom, we are told in Strype's Annals (vol. ii. p. 452), commenced as early as 1576, and he reprints under that year a short prayer, which the clergy regularly offered up on the 17th of November, the first day of Elizabeth's reign. That it did thenceforth continue to be maintained is evinced by two documents given in Wilkins (vol. iv. p. 370), dated the 12th and 14th of July, 1603. In the first of them the privy council request of archbishop Whitgift, that the 5th of August may become an annual holiday, as in Scotland, on account of "the preservation and delivery of his Majesty from the traiterous and detestable attempt of the Earle Gowrie, his brother, and other complices;" in the second, the archbishop thinks "it fit the same order be observed in this action, as was used upon the 17th of November in our late sovereign's time." The 24th of March was nevertheless also set apart every year in honor of James 1., “being the day of his highnesse entry [accession] to this kingdome," and a copy, printed in 1605, of the service published expressly to celebrate it, remains in existence. This, except in the prayers suitable to the occasion, constituted the foundation of a similar form of public thanksgiving, which, in obedience to a mandate of James 11. subsequently proceeded from the bishops, and is still, after several modifications, in use among us. For he thought "fit to revive the former laudable and religious practice," which had for this reason been omitted by Charles II., because his own reign being computed to begin from the day whereon his father suffered, its commencement fell rather on a "day of sorrow and fasting," and one that was, indeed, enjoined to be so regarded.

In the reign of William III. the accession day a second time ceased to be kept, but no other cause can be assigned for this discontinuance than the fact, that large additions, to perpetuate the memory of his arrival in England, had been made to the usual form for the 5th of November, which additions were possibly deemed sufficient to render a distinct service unnecessary. When Anne came to the throne, the festival was permanently restored, and in the second year of her reign a form of thanksgiving drawn up, copied from the earlier ones, and varying not much from that

we now have. Having been slightly altered under each of the first three Georges, and, of course, by the Church, the year 1761 saw it at length settled, in every respect, such as it is at present, exclusive of changes dependent on the circumstances of the state. By a proclamation dated February the 7th, 1704, Anne simply ordered the inauguration service, though united to the Prayer Book, to be printed, published, and read, and consequently a separate royal injunction to that end accompanied it. The same document did not contain a joint notice of the four services before October the 7th, 1761, and then the one here referred to was put on an equal footing with the three others, being commanded like them to be annexed. From the foregoing remarks it is evident, not merely that the last form "depends altogether on the royal authority," but that they severally need, what from the time of Charles II. they have uniformly had, the public sanction of the same authority, at the beginning of every reign, to give them proper effect.

8. The services yet remaining, and which ought, it may be said, to have been found here, are those connected with the Ordinations and Consecrations. To compensate, however, for the absence of the Ordinal, the chief variations between the several editions of it will now be enumerated. It was first published, (such publication, let it be remembered, having received beforehand the sanction of parliament,) in March, 1550a; in 1552, Edward's second act of Uniformity confirmed it, and it was a third time confirmed in 1662. Still it was not identically the same book at each of these three times. Gibson, in his Codex (p. 117), instructs us, that the first edition resembled the second, "except the Introites, and the putting of the Pastorall Staff in the hands of the Bishop, with some other circumstances." He afterwards mentions in detail the most important differences between our present ordination services, and those formerly existing, whereby it appears, that in 1550 the elected bishop was to have upon him " a Surpless and a Cope," when presented, and that the two bishops presenting him were to be similarly habited," and having their Pastorall Staves in their handes;" that the bible, instead of being delivered to him, was to be laid upon his neck; that the deacons were every one to have upon him " a plain

a. This edition is very scarce, and does not exist either in the British Museum, or in the Public Library at Cambridge. The Bodleian has a copy "in good clear black-letter

a reprint. In Burnet's time, (Hist. Ref. part III. preface, p. iv.) there was one in the archiepiscopal library at Lambeth, where it, doubtless, still continues.

Albe," and so the priests; that the bishop also was not only to give the priests"the Bible in the one hand," but " the Chalice or Cup with the Bread in the other hand." All these directions were omitted in the edition of 1552. In that of 1662, the changes principally consisted in delaying the ordination of deacons for two years longer, from twenty-one until twenty-three years of age; in inserting words into the form, whereby the Holy Ghost was communicated to a priest or bishop, that the essential distinction between those offices, in opposition to the contrary opinion of the presbyterians, might be the more clearly marked; in re-arranging the first part of the service for ordering priests; in fixing the days proper for consecration, and in again defining the dress with which the elected bishop was to be presented to the archbishop.

9. The impression of the Prayer Book here followed was published by the Queen's printers during the course of last year. The Bible, with which it has been sometimes compared, is the splendid quarto edition issued from the Pitt Press in 1837.

10. The date on the margin at the top of each page, and directly under what belongs to the heading, refers to all the text until another such date is met with: the date within brackets refers to the word or passage opposite to it, also included within brackets, and to every succeeding word or passage so included, until a fresh date within brackets occurs. That the distinction between these two classes of dates might be as complete as possible, and to diminish, if not to avoid, the chance of confusion, the former, or leading dates, have moreover been printed with larger figures than the others. To ascertain the year, when any part of our common Ritual first began to be used in the church, should no date be placed immediately against that part, the reader has only to guide his eye upward on the page, and see what date comes just before, according as he wants one with or without brackets. Thus, to instance p. 31, the leading date all through is 1552, whilst not only the words of the rubric, which are within brackets, must be ascribed to the year 1662, but also the latter part of the sentence from St. John. So the leading date throughout p. 32 is 1552, except as regards the rubric preceding the absolution, which, in its present form, was inserted no earlier than 1662: the words within brackets in the absolution itself, as well as the addition to the ensuing rubric, belong likewise to 1662, the last date on the page within brackets. Every word or passage, too, continued to pertain to the Liturgy without intermission, from the period assigned to it on the margin, and did not merely exist therein at that precise time, due allowance

being made for the fact, that copies even of the same year do not in all cases exhibit readings exactly alike.

11. But, lest any person, from what has now been said, should inadvertently imbibe a wrong notion respecting the antiquity of the vast proportion of our public prayers and services, and one which this publication is by no means designed to convey, it seems absolutely requisite to impress upon the reader's attention, that it takes notice solely of our English protestant Ritual; nor does it purport to contain even a slight reference, either to the Liturgies, or to the Primers, which preceded it. The really high original, then, of our Prayer Book is left untouched; its connexion with the piety, and with the outward devotional acts of former days, is passed over without observation, as are also the decided claims, which it possesses, to be looked upon as representing, on the whole, the sentiments, and, embodying, (provided a version from other languages, however close, may rightly be said to embody,) almost the very words, wherein the favor of the Deity was wont to be supplicated by our remote spiritual ancestors. In order to acquire an intimate knowledge of this subject, recourse must be had to Palmer's "Antiquities of the English Ritual," a book readily procurable by every student. From the preface to his work (p. iv.) one quotation alone shall be added:-" The great majority of our formularies are actually translated from Latin and Greek Rituals, which have been used for at least fourteen or fifteen hundred years in the Christian Church; and there is scarcely a portion of our Prayer Book, which cannot in some way be traced to ancient offices." (See also Jeremy Taylor, vol. vii. p. 292.)

12. With respect to the marks accompanying the dates, whether such dates are printed on the margin or among the notes, it should be constantly borne in mind, that the star is employed to indicate every part, great or small, important or unimportant, which at any time owed its introduction to members of our Church, though, in numerous cases, particularly as to minor points, we have no farther testimony to the correctness of this assumption, (if all that concerns the last review is excepted,) than the information we are able ourselves, by a diligent inspection, to elicit from the various copies of the Prayer Book. The dagger denotes, that the passages and prayers, to which it has been prefixed, were either expressly sanctioned, or interfered with, (but scarcely in any trifling instance composed,) by some other authority, and then, under the influence of that other authority, incorporated into our public services.

happened from a persuasion, that the words to which they refer ought most probably to be classed among mere typographical errors; or, relying on what is recorded above, regarding the variations between impressions of the same year, that we may be indebted for many of them to the printer himself, and to the want of all proper supervision, rather than to deliberate design on the part of a competent ecclesiastical power. It is only on the former supposition, that we can account, in any reasonable manner, for the absence from every edition of our Prayer Book but the first of a passage belonging to the Communion service, which passage, notwithstanding such absence, has met with due attention in our Churches down to this day. In the edition of 1549, after the gospel was given out, "the clearkes and people" are required to answer, "glory be to thee, O Lorde." (See p. 103, n. c). In the four subsequent editions these words, and the rubric prefacing them, are omitted; but why, Wheatley (p. 280) acknowledges himself perfectly at a loss to discover.

13. No difficulty, it is presumed, can easily arise in relation to the notes on the Prayer Book itself. Nevertheless, to guard, as much as may be, against mistake, it must be mentioned, that the dates there found shew when the original words and passages were introduced, and that such words and passages all uniformly continued in use from that time until the year occurring on the margin of the text against what were substituted for them, unless a remark is added to the contrary. If, as sometimes happened, a part underwent more alterations than one, the several forms are arranged consecutively under each other. In this case also the first existed in force until the next appeared, and that until the third, should there be a third, or until the date on the margin. Instances of a second substitution, prior to the final one, may be seen on pp. 108, 109, 113, and 117, as regards a whole exhortation, a portion of an exhortation, and a rubric.

14. The collations with the sealed Prayer Book, which are printed at the end of the Appendix, were esteemed indispensable to the completeness of the present work. For, as the last act of

a This omission in the fifth edition is the more surprising, since the Scotch Prayer Book of 1637, which was certainly much consulted in 1601, has the following continuation of the rubric before the Nicene creed, And then the people all standing up shall say: Glory be to

thee, O Lord. At the end of the Gospel, the Presbyter shall say: So endeth the holy Gospel. And the people shall answer: Thanks be to thee, O Lord. The last two directions are met with in no other of our Liturgies.