tant is by some persons considered as an innovation, though no Rubric can be more clear or express than that by which it is enjoined; and the Clergy who use it are censured as verging towards Rome by men, who, though calling themselves Churchmen, are verging fast towards dissent.[1]
The question of the Offertory may, as it appears to me, be settled as to the law (the expediency I have no wish to discuss,) by a simple reference to the Rubrics, taken in connexion with the history of the Book of Common Prayer, and those occasional forms which, from time to time, have been issued. It isasserted that the sentences are not to be read, nor the collection made, except when the Holy Communion is administered. Why the collection should be more appropriate at that time than on ordinary occasions, I cannot imagine. The Rubrics in the present book, taken in connexion with those in former books, appear to decide the question. That the Reformers intended a weekly collection, whether there were or were not a Communion, is certain: for in the Liturgy of 1549, the first of King Edward, the Offertory was expressly appointed to be read before the congregation dispersed.[2] At the close of the service there is also a
- ↑ Such objectors probably never attend divine service except on Sundays, or they would know that the Prayer for the Church Militant is always read on holy-days in all Churches and Chapels in which the festivals of the Church are observed. Every town, therefore, in the kingdom testifies of the practice on festivals, and why should the Sunday be excepted, when the Church places both on the same footing!
- ↑ "While the clerks do sing the Offertory, so many as are disposed shall offer to the poor man's box. Then so many as shall be partakers of the Holy Communion shall tarry still in the Quire, or in some convenient place nigh the Quire. All other (that mind not to receive the said Holy Communion) shall depart out of the Quire, except the ministers and clerks." Rubric, 1549.
