Penitents.

sins; in all temptations succour us, that no wickedness Form of may get the dominion over us; but that continuing in Receiving the peace and unity of the Church unto our lives' end, we may be made partakers of everlasting happiness with Thy Saints in Heaven, through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. Amen.'

etc.'

Then shall the Minister say,

May the gracious God give you repentance unto life,

• At our annual Convocation at Bishop's Court, Thursday in Whitsun Week, May 16, 1706.

"That the discipline of this Church may not degenerate or fall into contempt, it is thought meet by this Convocation, that the Form above-mentioned be religiously observed (in the mother tongue) in all Churches and Chapels of this Diocese; and that none omit it under penalty of the severest Ecclesiastical Censures.

"That the Minister and Churchwardens, with some of the gravest of the parishioners, shall, bona fide, certify unto the Bishop, that all this was performed after a decent and Christian manner; which certificate, the person who has performed this censure shall be directed by his Pastor to bring himself within seven days (not to send it by any other person) that he may receive the Bishop's blessing, and such spiritual counsel and advice, as may tend to the good of his soul.

-Bp. Wilson's Works, vii. 128 ff. Lib. Anglo-Cath. Theol.

Communion.

Fasting before Communion

A.D. 1550

Fasting before * Martin Bucer, writing to Hooper in November, 1550, says: It is evident that our Lord Jesus Christ, as regards the ministry, and the word, and the sacraments, has prescribed to us, in his own words, only the substance; and has left his Church at liberty to order everything else that appertains to the decent and useful administration of his mysteries. Hence we celebrate the Sacred Supper, neither in the evening, nor in a private house, nor recumbent, nor among men only. . . .1-Gorham's Reformation Gleanings, p. 204, qu. Perry's Notes on the Purchas Judgment, p. 273.

1550

* Peter Martyr, writing to Hooper on November 4, 1550, says: At this day we so administer the Eucharist in the morning time, that after dinner we will not have the communion in the sacred assembly.'-Ibid., p. 206, qu. Ibid., p. 273, note.

1552

'It is best to come to Christ's banquet fasting] Moreover, in that the text saith, that "whiles they were eating, Jesus took bread" and ordained his last supper, some do reason hereof, that the sacrament is not to be received fasting, as the custom now is, but after other meats and drinks, after a certain refection, banquet, or maundy; which, they say, those that be rich should make, to refresh the poor and needy. For the defence of this maundy they allege not only Christ's example, but also where it is written, that the Corinthians indeed kept such a maundy. But Paul reprehendeth them therefore, and disannulleth

1 This and the following extract refer but indirectly to the subject of Fasting before Communion.-ED. 1904.

their custom as an occasion of gluttony, of drunkenness, Fasting before of pride, of contention, and other misbehaviour in the Communion. church, saying unto them: "Have ye not houses to eat and drink in? or else despise ye the congregation of God?" And again: "If any man hunger, let him eat at home; that ye come not together unto condemnation." Nor Christ did not celebrate this sacrament after other meats and drinks, to stablish any such custom, nor to give us any example to do the like; but rather to teach us, that our sacramental bread is succeeded instead of the Jews' Easter lamb, and that their ceremony is now disannulled and abrogated. Therefore the universal church commonly, according to Paul's mind to the Corinthians, useth now to celebrate the Lord's supper fasting, without any maundy, and not after other meats. Notwithstanding, as he doth well which cometh fasting to the Lord's table, so he doth not ill which, by occasion, cometh after that he hath eaten and drunk.'-Roger Hutchinson, Works, p. Parker Soc.

221.

1584

* Cosin, when Dean of the Arches, speaks of the Primitive Church having altered 'the time of the receiving the Sacrament of the Eucharist, being according to the institution usually received after supper, to have it received as it is in the morning fasting.'-An Answer to an Abstract of certeine Acts of Parliament, p. 60, a.d. 1584, qu. Hall, Fasting Reception of the Blessed Sacrament, p. 30, 2nd

ed. 1882.

1638

*As for our Communion there can be no excesse. For the people have warning a weeke at least before to prepare themselves, and they receive alwayes fasting before.-Dr. Featley, Stricturae in Lyndomastigen, Lond.

1 Dr. Daniel Featley was a zealous Puritan, for twelve years domestic chaplain to Archbp. Abbot. He held the rectories of Lambeth, All Hallows, Bread Street, and of Acton, and was the last Provost of Chelsea College.-ED. 1904.

G

Fasting before 1638, being a Supplement to A Case for Spectacles,' by Sir Communion. Humphrey Lynde.

1661

* Mar. 31 [1661] Sunday there was a sacrament and ordination of ministers made in the Cathedral of Christ Church by Dr. Robert Skinner, Bishop of Oxon. Saule Bradley, M.A., Fellow of New College, was one of the persons to have Holy Orders conferred on him; but he having been used to eat breakfasts, and drink morning draughts, being not able to hold out with fasting.

fell in a sonne [swoon] and disturbed for a time the ceremony. At length some cordial being procur'd, it set him up again; yet he could hardly keep himself from a second sonning.'-Wood's Life and Times, Oxford Hist. Soc., vol. i., p. 388.

1667

TESTIMONY OF BP. JEREMY TAYLOR

[The date of Bishop Jeremy Taylor's birth is uncertain; he was baptized on August 15th, 1613, and died in the same month 1667, five years later than the last revision of the Book of Common Prayer.-ED. 1904.]

'Fasting before the Holy Sacrament is a custom of the Christian Church, and derived to us from great antiquity; and the use of it is, that we might express honour to the mystery, by suffering nothing to enter into our mouths before the symbols. Fasting to this purpose is not an act of mortification, but of reverence and venerable esteem of the instruments of religion, and so is to be understood.' -The Life and Death of the Holy Jesus, Part ii., discourse 13, of the Manner of Fasting, § 1.

'Let us receive the consecrated elements with all devotion and humility of body and spirit; and do this honour to it, that it be the first food we eat and the first beverage we drink that day, unless it be in case of sickness or other great necessity; and that your body

and soul both be prepared to its reception with abstinence Fasting before from secular pleasures, and that you may better have Communion. attended fastings and preparatory prayers.'-The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living. Chapter iv. section 10 of Preparation to, and Manner how to receive the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, § 9.

'It is a catholic custom, that they who receive the Holy Communion, should receive it fasting. This is not a duty commanded by God: but unless it be necessary to eat, he that despises this custom, gives nothing but the testimony of an evil mind.'-The Rule of Conscience. Book iii. chapter 4, rule 15. The laudable Customs of the Catholic Church, which are in present observation, do oblige the Conscience of all Christians, § 1.

'It is the custom of the Church of great antiquity, and proportionable regard, that every Christian that is in health should receive the blessed sacrament fasting. The apostles and primitive bishops at first gave it after supper, or together with it; but that soon passed into inconvenience; and some were drunken, and some were empty and despised, and the holy sacrament was dishonoured and the Lord's body was not discerned. . . . [It is] the universal custom of the Church, which in most places from the very days of the apostles prevailed, that the holy eucharist should be given to none but to them that were fasting. . . . It was very reasonable that the Church took up this custom; and, therefore, they who causelessly do prevaricate it, shall bear their own burden, and are best reproved by St. Paul's words, "We have no such custom, nor the churches of God." But sick people and the weak are as readily to be excused in this thing, as the apostles were by Christ, in the case before mentioned.2

1 Bishop Taylor quotes St. Paul's words in condemnation of those who without cause break their fast before communicating.-ED. 1904.

2 The allusion here is to our Lord's excusing the disciples, on account of hunger, for eating the ears of corn on the Sabbath, before finishing their principal morning devotions.-ED. 1904.