EDITORS' PREFACE.

IT is a singular fact that, in despite of the enormous pains taken at the last Revision of the Prayer Book to secure an exact preservation of the Authorised Text, not a single copy of that Book can now be obtained which gives the Statutory Text, with only such alterations as have been prescribed by subsequent legislation, or by Royal Orders in Council. Not one such Book has ever yet seen the light, or can now be procured, "either for love or money!" The King's printers have, indeed, provided a very accurately printed copy of "the Book of 1662;" but this does not contain any of the later alterations required by law; and even this was nowhere available until the year 1892. This discreditable state of things is the more inexcusable, because a. photo-lithographic replica of the Original Manuscript, which was "annexed" as a schedule to the last Act of Uniformity, has been provided, so that we are now able to go behind the printed copies to the very Book which alone was subscribed by every member of the "Sacred Synods" of York and Canterbury, December 20th, 1661, and enacted by the King in parliament, May 19th, 1662. Even the "Sealed Books" are inferior in authority, and must be pronounced spurious where they depart (as in one or two instances they do) from this MS. "BOOK ANNEXED."
    The "SEALED BOOKS" were so called because the Great Seal of England was attached to them; and they were further vouched by Royal Commissioners appointed to correct those printed copies with the pen, each of whom had to sign his name to a formal certificate, that it was a "true and perfect copy" of the "Original." These "Sealed Books" were then deposited at each of the Law Courts, at Westminster, the Cathedrals, the Tower, and other leading centres, in order that a handy reference might be forthcoming for the prosecution of Nonconformists, who, at the Restoration, remained in possession of some two thousand benefices in the Established Church. No doubt, for this purpose, these "Sealed Books" were "good and available in the law" as the last Act of Uniformity (13 and 14 Car. II., c. 4) prescribed. But seeing that their being "true and perfect copies" is a question of fact, it would be absurd to affect to believe that where they depart from the "Original" MS. they possess any sort of authority, literary or otherwise.

THE PSALTER. — The most remarkable instance of this failure in accuracy, is the PSALTER taken from the" Great Bible" of Henry VIII., which, though bearing the name of "Cranmer's Bible," was really due to old Myles Coverdale, the deprived Bishop of Exeter, a "consummate master of rhythmical prose." Dr. Dowden, Bishop of Edinburgh, in his "Workmanship of the Prayer Book", says," The Psalter of 1539 is the mellowed product of the whole mediæval period, and there is just enough of the influence of the New Learning perceptible in it to make us aware by what a hairbreadth's escape it stands apart from the ordinary modish type of 16th century English." Bishop Dowden quotes many testimonies as to the unique literary excellence of Coverdale's style, and adds, "Those who were concerned in the issue and correction of these Books were, as guardians of the legal text, certainly blameworthy in not adhering to the text of the MS. Prayer Book attached to the Caroline Act of Uniformity." . The reason why the Prayer Book version of the Psalms differs so much from the "Authorised" is, that it was taken for the most part from the Septuagint (Greek) version, which was current in Our Lord s time. Conscientious pains had been taken by the translators of the "Great Bible' of 1540-41 to discriminate, by a difference in type, the words of the inspired text from the translators' insertions, some of which arose from the use made in that Bible of the Latin Vulgate. Similarly in the Authorised Version of the Bible, the interpolations which have been deemed necessary or desirable by the translators to complete the sense were denoted by being printed in Italics. The extent and importance of those additions in the Psalter will be seen at a glance by the reader, who will notice the square brackets [] by which the translators' insertions are indicated in this volume: yet from 1662 downwards not one single copy (including even the" Sealed Books") recognised in the slightest degree what had cost so much labour and pains to preserve for the English reader! As the Committee appointed by York Convocation reported in 1892, "The Sealed Books at best can only be regarded as the ANNEXED .BOOK at second hand; they ceased to have any importance as soon as access to that authoritative Book became free (i.e.,1891). It may further be noticed, that there is not an absolute agreement between the several copies (some thirty in number) of the Sealed Books." (York Journal of Convocation, 1892. Appenclix, p. xxi.)
 

PRAYER OF Consecration. — Another instance of the failure of the "Sealed Books" is in the Rubric preceding the PRAYER OF CONSECRATION in the Communion Office. Before the last .revision, the officiating minister, kneeling at the north side of the table, was merely directed by the Rubric in these words:­

(2.) KALENDAR. — "PAPISTS' CONSPIRACY" was made a red-letter day, and a special service was drawn up for it by Bishop Cosin, by order of Convocation, in 1661. This Synodical Service was published in 1838, by the Hon. and Rev. A. P. Perceval, in parallel columns with the service as actually printed in modern Prayer Books. This last-named service had been altered in 1689 by the sole authority of the Crown, so as to include references to the Revolution of 1688, which references were not only distasteful to the Jacobites, but later on, to Dr. Sacheverel, and the"Divine Right" Tories also. On January 17th, 1859, in reply to addresses from both Houses of Parliament, a royal warrant was issued forbidding the services for November 5th, May 29th, and January 30th, to be any longer printed with or annexed to the Book of Common Prayer. This warrant appeared in the London Gazette for January 18th, 1859. There is, however, no authority for omitting the red-letter title of "Papists' Conspiracy" from the Kalendar in its due place on November 5th; and the Canons, which still require every clergyman to preach against popery four times a year, might still be most seasonably complied with on that National anniversary.

(3.) DIVISION OF INTRODUCTORY PORTION OF MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER. — A carefully-marked DOUBLE BLACK LINE separates the merely introductory portion of the Morning and Evening Prayer from the Service proper, which begins (as in 1549) with the Lord's Prayer. If the language of the Exhortation be carefully noted, it will be seen that "confession and absolution" are not regarded in it as the special purpose of our "assembling and meeting together," but only as most suitable preparation for the objects named. Historically, this preparatory introduction (resembling in spirit the washing of the priest's feet in the Levitical Ritual) had a separate origin, and the statutory line of demarcation might fitly, on week-days, indicate an appropriate shortening of the Daily Service. Nevertheless, the "Sealed Books," no less than the modern printers, have suppressed all trace of those interesting landmarks in their "true and perfect" (?) copies.

(4.) "THIS WORD SACRAMENT" IN THE CATECHISM.— A much more grave alteration was the suppression of the comma after the word "grace" in the definition of the meaning of "this word Sacrament" in the Catechism. As now illegally printed, the definition implies that grace is always "given" in every "Sacrament," even to a Simon Magus, or any other unbelieving hypocrite or perjured person! Whereas, as the contemporary Latin version of Dean Durel witnesses, it is the "sign" and not the grace (signum gratiæ quod datur), which is invariably "given" in the due administration of every Sacrament. The very important theological issues involved are fully described in a pamphlet entitled "The Misprinted Catechism," published by the Church Association. But, as showing the absolutely unwarranted nature of this printers' alteration, it might be mentioned that the true text is uniformly found not only in the Annexed Book, and in all the "Sealed Books," but the same reading is found in every Prayer Book which has the slightest pretension to an official character, as in the earliest text, viz., the Letters Patent of King James, as given in both editions of Rymer's "Foedera;" the two editions of 1603 (O.S.), which were the earliest printed containing this part of the Catechism' in "the Durham Book" of 1619, now in Bishop Cosin's Library. marked "D. iii. 5;" in "Sancroft's Prayer Book." now in the Bodleian (dated 1634). which was used by the Committee for preparing the Revision of 1661; also in the Black Letter Book of 1636 (photo-zincographed by Government), in which Convocation "marked up " all their alterations in 1661. It is found also in the MS. annexed to the Irish Act of Uniformity (17 and 18 Car. ii. c. 6. Ireland); in the Scotch Liturgy of 1637; and in the Manx translation made by Bishop Phillips in 1610. So that they are without excuse.

(5.) LIST OF CONTENTS. — Closely connected with this last mentioned item is the alteration in the table of "The Contents of this Book." which. in the Statutory MS. reads: "19. The Catechism. with the Order for the Confirmation of children." The Confirmation Service itself begins at the foot of the same page on which "The Catechism" ends with the words."he shall confirm them in manner following."
    Both these arrangements are departed from in all modern Prayer Books. thereby concealing the fact that Confirmation is the intelligent voluntary ratification by the candidate of the promises made in his name at his baptism. Before the Reformation. mere infants in arms were customarily presented for Confirmation; and the Reformed Office differs essentially from the mediæval in its view of both Baptism and Confirmation.

(6.) ALTERATIONS IN PUNCTUATION OF EPISTLES AND GOSPELS. — In the Good Friday "Epistle." Heb. x. 12 is incorrectly punctuated."after He had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down," instead of "for sins for ever,
sat down;" and in the Epistle for Trinity Sunday "they are and were created." is wrongly substituted for the statutory punctuation of Rev. iv. 11... they are, and were created."
    In the Gospel appointed to be read at the Consecration of Bishops. the words of St. John xx. 23." Whose soever" sins ye remit. are twice printed as one word, which is not only unwarranted by the Authorised Version of both Bible and Prayer Book, but tends to conceal the fact that the original Greek has the plural (.....). and that it is to classes of men, not individual men that this ministerial remission of sins by the Holy Ghost is pledged. This has an important bearing on the doctrine of Auricular Confession. The Ordinal too (which had a separate history) had a separate title page, which the privileged printers have suppressed.
    In all the above instances, it may be disputed whether the doctrine involved be true or false; but that makes it only the more important that the Statutory Prayer Book, which is the title-deed of both parties, should not be tampered with and. garbled, either by printers or ecclesiastics. Many minute variations are purposely passed over as they are exceedingly numerous as well as trivial, and many would appear to be mere survivals of archaic spelling, or of a punctuation systematic, no doubt, but belonging to a system which has ceased to be familiar. It is in no spirit of pedantry that the instances selected and enumerated above have now been restored to the form which "this Church and Realm hath received" by its official organs, but of which the bad faith of the "privileged" custodians has hitherto robbed both Church and State.
    On the other hand. the wording of the ANNEXED BOOK has been departed from in such matters as .the Rubrics relating to the publication of banns, and the administration of oaths during the Ordination Service; both of which changes were necessitated by later legislation, though not formally embodied (as they should have been) by any corresponding official alteration of the text. Nor. where the MS. itself contains clerical errors, as in the substitution of "depriving" for "depraving." in section 9 of the 1 Elizabeth, c. 2, or the omission of "is" in the words "for thus it written," in the Gospel for the Epiphany. have we reproduced such manifest errors. Our object has been. not a mere slavish reproduction,
but to rectify certain unwarranted departures. from the Authorised Text, which have been relied upon for inculcating doctrines and practices foreign to the Spirit of the Church of England.
    Square brackets have been used throughout to indicate additions made to the Statutory or Authorised Text.