Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts; shut not thy merciful ears to our prayer; but spare us, Lord most holy, O God most mighty, O holy and merciful Saviour, thou most worthy Judge eternal, suffer us not, at our last hour, for any pains of death, to fall from thee.

Then while the earth shall be cast upon the Body by some standing by, the Priest shall say.

FORASMUCH as it hath pleased Almighty God of his great mercy to

take unto himself the soul of our dear brother here departed, we therefore commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile body, that it may be like unto his glorious body, according to the mighty working, whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself.

I

Then shall be said or sung,

HEARD a voice from heaven, saying unto me, Write, From henceforth blessed are the dead which die in the Lord: even so saith the Spirit; for they rest from their labours.

Then the Priest shall say,

Lord, have mercy upon us.

Christ, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us.

OUR

UR Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingThy will be done in earth, As it is in heaven.

dom come.

Give us

this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; But deliver us from evil. Amen.

Priest.

ALMIGHTY God, with whom do live the spirits of them that depart

hence in the Lord, and with whom the souls of the faithful, after they are delivered from the burden of the flesh, are in joy and felicity; We give thee hearty thanks, for that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our brother out of the miseries of this sinful world; beseeching thee, that it may please thee, of thy gracious goodness, shortly to accomplish the number of thine elect, and to hasten thy kingdom; that we, with all those that are departed in the true faith of thy holy Name, may have our perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul, in thy eternal and everlasting glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Collect.

MERCIFUL God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the resurrection and the life; in whom whosoever believeth shall live, though he die; and whosoever liveth, and believeth in him, shall not die eternally; who also hath taught us, by his holy Apostle Saint Paul, not to

be sorry, as men without hope, for them that sleep in him; We meekly beseech thee, O Father, to raise us from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness; that, when we shall depart this life, we may rest in him, as our hope is this our brother doth; and that, at the general Resurrection in the last day, we may be found acceptable in thy sight; and receive that blessing, which thy well-beloved Son shall then pronounce to all that love and fear thee, saying, Come, ye blessed children of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world: Grant this, we beseech thee, O merciful Father, through Jesus Christ, our Mediator and Redeemer. Amen.

THE

HE grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore.

Amen.

NOTE.

Nature and

FUNERAL rites have formed a part of the religious services of all ages and nations. religion unite in prompting mankind to pay this respect to the remains of the dead. Among the ancient heathens, funeral ceremonies were performed with the most costly splendour. The Jews paid the most solemn respect to the departed, committing the body to the tomb with long processions and every display of sorrow. To be deprived of sepulture was regarded as the height of misfortune (Psalm lxxix. 2; Jer. xxxvi. 30), and to see it performed with becoming pomp and solemnity a mark of the greatest affection. (Gen. xxiii. 3, 4, 7.) The respect paid to the body of our crucified Lord was imitated by the early Christians in the care with which they sought the remains of martyred saints, and committed them to the grave, assembling around the place of sepulture in considerable numbers, and uniting in solemn prayer and praise to the Author of their faith. In the services first used, the principal feature was psalmody. To this was usually added a discourse referring to the life and character of the deceased, the reading of some appropriate portion of Scripture, and occasionally the Communion. Other observances were gradually introduced, and with them many superstitions. The office of our own Church is decent, edifying, and pathetic. The only objections which can be made to it owe their whole force to the dege neracy of the times. When Christians paid due regard to the holiness of their calling, and discipline came to the assistance of example, every word of this service had its applicability and pathos. But now that so many bear the name, who are known to live in open enmity to God, and whose deaths are unattended with any sign of spiritual repentance, the indiscriminate or unmodified use of this service has often been considered by thoughtful-minded men as of doubtful propriety. The prohibitions of the Rubric are a defence against the more obvious inconsistencies: but now that excommunication is almost unknown as a part of Church discipline, the persons who, when this office was compiled, would have been regarded as separated from Communion, and, therefore, not entitled to the privileges and honours which it bestows, are confounded with the most spiritual, and spoken of in the same language. These objections, however, rest chiefly on two or three short passages in the service; and as the expressions alluded to are only rendered objectionable by the decline of discipline, the real value and excellence of the office itself admit of no dispute.

As faith is the victory which overcometh sorrows of every kind, as well as the world, the triumphs of Jesus Christ over death are announced at the beginning of the service. The expectation of His approach has been the comfort of holy men in all ages; and they who now own His sway, feel when they hear His words that it is not for them to sorrow as men without hope. The Psalms which follow are pathetic and supplicatory. In the first edition of the Liturgy, the 116th, 139th, and 146th were used. They were left out in the next edition, and no others inserted till the Restoration. The sublime discourse of St. Paul on the mystery of the resurrection is so animating— so noble in its appeals to both faith and reason, that it can hardly fail to inspire the most sorrowful heart with hope.

In the first edition of the Liturgy, supplications for the dead followed the lesson, and similar prayers were inserted in other parts of the service, but they were expunged in the revised edition. Originally the whole of the service was performed in the open air; but as this often subjected

the persons attending to great inconvenience, it was thought better to have the former part read in the church. The service at the grave begins very appropriately with admonitions to the mourners to remember the universal mortality of man. These are followed by a solemn consigning of the body to its parent earth, and that by a simple usage of very ancient origin. But this also is accompanied with a declaration of fervent hope; and the prayers which succeed teach the hearts of all present to place their trust in the power of Christ-to look forward to the days of refreshment and restoration-to keep themselves in the purifying communion of the Holy Spirit, that they may surely follow their departed brother to the blessed abodes which they trust he has already entered.

Thus there is a tone of earnest joy in the whole of this beautiful and sublime service. Thanks are rendered to God for His having removed the departed from this world of sin and sorrow. The heart is awakened to the voice from heaven, declaring the blessedness of them that die in the Lord; and it responds to the call by praying that the Almighty may shortly accomplish, or complete, the number of His chosen people, and hasten the longed-for glories of His kingdom. This cheerful spirit characterised all the ancient funeral services. "Precious," it was remembered, "in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints ;" and St. Chrysostom therefore says, "What mean our hymns? Do we not glorify God, and give Him thanks, that He hath crowned him that is departed, that He hath delivered him from trouble,-that He hath set him free from all fear?" But how evident it is, that, if we would thus convert the day of sorrow into a season of triumph, and express ourselves in the language of thankfulness and hope, it ought to be our constant effort to secure the diffusion of pure Christianity,-to imbue those we love with its living truths,-to drink deep of its truths ourselves; so that, whether we mourn, or are mourned over, the movements of natural grief may speedily give way,-not to the distractions of the world, nor to a presumptuous and ill-founded expectation of safety, but to the conscious possession of Divine peace.

THE

THANKSGIVING OF WOMEN AFTER CHILD-BIRTH,

COMMONLY CALLED,

THE CHURCHING OF WOMEN.

¶The Woman, at the usual time after her Delivery, shall come into the Church decently apparelled, and there shall kneel down in some convenient place, as hath been accustomed, or as the Ordinary shall direct: And then the Priest shall say unto her,

FOR

ORASMUCH as it hath pleased Almighty God of his goodness to give you safe deliverance, and hath preserved you in the great danger of Child-birth; you shall therefore give hearty thanks unto God, and say,

I

(¶ Then shall the Priest say the cxvith Psalm,)
Dilexi quoniam.

AM well pleased: that the Lord hath heard the voice of my prayer; That he hath inclined his ear unto me: therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.

The snares of death compassed me round about : and the pains of hell gat hold upon me.

I found trouble and heaviness, and I called upon the Name of the Lord : O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.

Gracious is the Lord, and righteous: yea, our God is merciful.

The Lord preserveth the simple: I was in misery, and he helped me. Turn again then unto thy rest, O my soul: for the Lord hath rewarded thee.

And why? thou hast delivered my soul from death: mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.

I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

:

I believed, and therefore will I speak; but I was sore troubled : I said in my haste, All men are liars.

What reward shall I give unto the Lord : for all the benefits that he hath done unto me ?

I will receive the cup of salvation : and call upon the Name of the Lord. I will pay my vows now in the presence of all his people : in the courts of the Lord's house, even in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord. Glory be to the Father, &c.

As it was in the beginning, &c.

Or, Psal. cxxvii. Nisi Dominus.

XCEPT the Lord build the house their labour is but lost that

Ex build it.

Except the Lord keep the city : the watchman waketh but in vain.

It is but lost labour that ye haste to rise up early, and so late take rest. and eat the bread of carefulness: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.

Lo, children and the fruit of the womb are an heritage and gift that cometh of the Lord.

Like as the arrows in the hand of the giant : even so are Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate. Glory be to the Father, &c.

As it was in the beginning, &c.

OUR

the

young children. they shall not be

UR Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. come. Thy will be done in earth, As it is in heaven. day our daily bread. that trespass against us.

Thy kingdom
Give us this

And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive them And lead us not into temptation; But deliver us from evil For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory, For ever

and ever.

Amen.

Minister. O Lord, save this woman thy servant ;

Answer. Who putteth her trust in thee.

Minister. Be thou to her a strong tower;

Answer. From the face of her enemy.
Minister. Lord, hear our prayer.

Answer. And let our cry come unto thee.

Minister. Let us pray.

ALMIGHTY God, we give thee humble thanks for that thou hast

vouchsafed to deliver this woman thy servant from the great pain and peril of Child-birth; Grant, we beseech thee, most merciful Father, that she, through thy help, may both faithfully live, and walk according to thy will, in this life present; and also may be partaker of everlasting glory in the life to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Woman, that cometh to give her Thanks, must offer accustomed Offerings; and, if there be a Communion, it is convenient that she receive the holy Communion.

NOTE.

THIS Office is commonly regarded as answering to the rite of purification in the ceremonies of the Law. But such a view of it is neither correct nor necessary. It is simply a service of thanksgiving, and contains no allusion to any of the analogies even which might be discovered between the two rites. The Greek Church favoured the notion of its answering to the Jewish ordinance by appointing the woman to appear in the Church the fortieth day after her delivery. It was called "The Purification" in the old English service-books before the Reformation; and in the first edition of the Liturgy the office was entitled "The Order of the Purification of Women."

The arguments for the devout performance of this service are obvious to the least thoughtful minds. If we owe deliverance from danger-the recovery of health and strength after sickness—