given to Archbishop Parker, Bishop Grindal, and others; "to peruse the order of the Lessons, throughout the whole year, and to cause new Calendars to be printed." In pursuance of which the present Table of Sunday Lessons was prepared, and came out the same year. We may then consider it as Archbishop Parker's; and surely not one among the Reformers might be more thoroughly depended on for a sound practical view of things. Farther than this, we have no direct information. We must be guided, therefore, entirely by the internal evidence of the Lessons themselves.
The series begins from Septuagesima Sunday, because it was the custom of the early Church to read the Book of Genesis in Lent.[1] Let us examine them in their order, ending with the 6th Sunday after Epiphany in the following year. We shall find, if I mistake not, that the selection may be accounted for on this supposition, viz. That the arrangers desired to exhibit God's former dealings with His chosen people collectively, and the return made by them to God, in such manner as might best illustrate His dealings with each individual, chosen now to be in His Church, and the snares and temptations most apt to beset us as Christians.
Certainly, there does exist a very wonderful analogy between these two cases, that of the Jewish nation delineated in the Bible, and that of a baptized Christian, as known by daily experience: an analogy most striking in itself, most clearly pointed out more than once in the New Testament, and very serviceable, if rightly understood, in many great points of faith and practice. This analogy arises out of the fact, that Christians severally are, what the Jews collectively were, partakers of an especial Covenant.
It is to be supposed, that the Great Enemy has his peculiar way of dealing with souls placed in such a relation, as with parents, children, subjects, and others, according to their several relations. To exhibit such his purpose and proceedings, and to exemplify also the counteracting methods of Providence, seems to be one especial purpose of the historical portions of the Old Testament: in which the prophetical are here included.
To give an instance of what is here meant. One of the most prevailing temptations to unbelief and careless practice is the daily experience we have, of Christians behaving so very differently from what one should expect, à priori, in God's elect. It does
- ↑ See Wheatley on the Common Prayer, ch. iii. sect. x. §. 4.
