his heart) a right belief in God? Because he has no right, after his departure, to Christian fellowship with the saints in rest; nor here, in this life, to be worthy of the Sacrament. Nor is he well (reputed) a Christian, that will not learn them. Nor has he any right to undertake (stand godfather) for any other man at Baptism, much less at the bishop's hand, (Confirmation,) before he has learned it so well, that he has it perfect." (22nd law of king Canute. Mrs. Elstob's Transl. Pref. xxxv. Spelman, 549.) The Lord's Prayer, with the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds, and sundry prayers for ordinary use, in Saxon and Latin, may be seen in Whelock's Bede, (p. 495. et seq.) Hence Mrs. Elstob has extracted the Lord's Prayer, and the two Creeds, in her preface to the Saxon Homily, (p. xxxii et seq.) Services for the canonical hours, in Saxon and English, may be seen in the Appendix to Dr. Hickes's Letters to a Popish Priest, Lond. 1705. The Athanasian Creed, and some of the hymns, are to be found in MS. (Brit. Mus. MSS. Cotton, Vespasian, A. 1.) in a most magnificent MS. Psalter, in the library of Trinity college, Cambridge, and in other MSS.

24"The mass-priest shall tell, on Sundays, and on mass-days, the meaning of the Gospel, in English, to the folk, and also concerning the Pater Noster, and the Credo, as often as he can." Ælfric to Wulfine. Spelman, 578.

25 Ɖa ic zemunde hu reo lap leden zedeoder ær þýrum areallen pær zeond angel cyn þeah maneza cudon englisc zeppit arædan. Bibl. Publ. Cant. Ii. 2-4. p. 3.) Then I considered how the learning of the Latin language ere this was fallen away

through the English nation: and yet many could read English writing. For the information of these many, however, books do not appear to have been seriously wanting, but only books in the vernacular tongue. The king, accordingly, says, Spide lýrle Feoɲme þaɲa boca piston foɲdam þe hi hiɲa nan þinz ongitan ne mihton· foɲðam þe hi næɲon on hira azen zeþeode apɲitene. (Ibid. p. 2.) Very little knew (they) the use of these books; because they could understand no one thing of them; because they were not written in their own language.

Cum sit una fides, sunt ecclesiarum diversæ consuetudines, et altera consuetudo missarum in sancta Romana Ecclesia, atque altera in Galliarum tene

tur.

Respondit Gregorius Papa.

Novit fraternitas tua Romanæ ecclesiæ consuetudinem, in qua se meminit nutritam. Sed mihi placet, ut sive in Romana, sive in Galliarum, seu in qualibet Ecclesia, aliquid invenisti quod plus omnipotenti Deo possit placere, solicite eligas, et in Anglorum Ecclesia, quæ adhuc ad fidem nova est, institutione præcipua, quæ de multis Ecclesiis colligere potuisti, infundas. Non enim pro locis res, sed pro bonis rebus loca amanda sunt. Ex singulis ergo quibusque Ecclesiis, quæ pia, quæ religiosa, quæ recta sunt, elige, et hæc quasi in fasciculum collecta, apud Anglorum mentes in consuetudinem depone." Bed. Eccl. Hist. p. 81.

SERMON IV.

THE INVOCATION OF ANGELIC AND DEPARTED SPIRITS.

2 THESS. ii. 15.

Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.

CHRISTIANS, mercifully called to the peaceful profession of their holy religion, cannot adequately conceive the sacrifices exacted from their brethren by less happy times. The distant picture of individual struggles, agonizing undoubtedly, but necessarily brief, and leading to "an eternal weight of glory," fills the mind with admiration, rather than with sympathy. Attention fixes upon little more than transcendent services to the best of causes, heroic self-devotion, unfailing faith, and a triumphant entrance into the more distinguished of those blissful mansions which our heavenly Father's everlasting house affords. Contemporaries, however, witnessed the yearnings of a spirit,

a 2 Cor. iv. 17.

abruptly and violently torn from domestic ties. They keenly felt, because they saw, the cruelty of blighting every hope which industry and foresight had encouraged. They shared in the martyr's physical recoil, on the nearer approaches of his distressing fate. Their own spirits were saddened and subdued by that intensity of suffering which threw a stern and frightful gloom around his escape from human life. Daily observation taught them also the real value of advantages thus dearly purchased for the Church of Christ. It impressed upon them, too, the surpassing evils of that pusillanimity, or wavering faith, which induced so many to count life, or even worldly ease, above a steadfast avowal of allegiance to a crucified Saviour. What serious mind, placed in personal contact, as it were, with such varied sources of absorbing interest, could fail of imbibing the highest veneration for those brethren who nobly persevered? How reasonably then, and naturally, no less than politicly, did the primitive Church embalm the memories of her martyred worthies by annual solemnities at their tombs! She could not, indeed, animate and confirm, in any manner more effectually, the faith of her existing children, than by pressing upon their minds the services of