PREFACE TO THE SEVENTH EDITION. (continued 28)

The valley of the Great Salt Lake is a territory of considerable extent, enclosed on all sides by high rocky mountains. The Lake itself is nearly 300 miles in circumference, with islands rising from its surface to an elevation of some thousand feet: its shores are covered in some places with the finest salt, and its water is as buoyant as the waves of the Dead Sea. Portions of the land are desert; but a vast expanse is wonderfully fertile, and abounds in all facilities for pasturage and cultivation. Here the Mormons have now firmly fixed themselves, and made, since 1848, continual progress. Further settlements have been established, and several cities founded: that of the Great Salt Lake itself has a plot of several acres, destined to support a temple whose magnificence shall far exceed the splendour of the former Nauvoo edifice. Relying on the inexhaustible resources of the region to sustain innumerable inhabitants, the principal endeavour of the rulers is to gather there as many immigrants as possible, professing the same faith. They calculate that thus, established in an almost inaccessible retreat, with numbers continually augmenting, they will soon be able to defy external enmity, and rear upon a lasting basis their ecclesiastical republic. Missionary agents are despatched to almost every portion of the world to make fresh converts and facilitate their transit to America. In England these endeavours have been followed by no slight success: it is computed that at least as many as 30,000 persons in this country belong to the community, and nearly 20,000 have already, it is said, departed for the Great Salt Lake. This settlement itself has now, by the name of “Utah,” been admitted to the United States’ Confederacy; but it seems, from a report of the judges sent there by the recent President, that the authority of the federal government is virtually set at nought; the laws and their administration being always found accordant with the pleasure of the Mormon rulers.

A printed “Creed” presents the following summary of their opinions, but omits some rather material points:—

522“We believe in God the eternal Father, and his Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.

“We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgressions.

“We believe that through the atonement of Christ all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.

“We believe that these ordinances are: 1st, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 2d, Repentance. 3d, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins. 4th, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Spirit. 5th, The Lord’s supper.

“We believe that men must be called of God by inspiration, and by laying on of hands by those who are duly commissioned to preach the gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.

“We believe in the same organization that existed in the primitive church, viz. apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, &c.

“We believe in the powers and gifts of the everlasting gospel, viz. the gift of faith, discerning of spirits, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, tongues and the interpretation of tongues, wisdom, charity, brotherly love, &c.

“We believe in the word of God recorded in the Bible. We also believe the word of God recorded in the Book of Mormon and in all other good books.

“We believe all that God has revealed, all that he does now reveal; and we believe that he will yet reveal many more great and important things pertaining to the kingdom of God, and Messiah’s second coming.

“We believe in the literal gathering of Israel, and in the restoration of the ten tribes; that Zion will be established upon the Western continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth a thousand years; and that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisaical glory.

“We believe in the literal resurrection of the body, and that the dead in Christ will rise first, and that the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years are expired.

“We claim the privilege of worshipping Almighty God according to the dictates of our conscience, unmolested, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how or where they may.

“We believe in being subject to kings, queens, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honouring, and sustaining the law.

“We believe in being honest, true, chaste, temperate, benevolent, virtuous, and upright, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul,—we ‘believe all things,’ we ‘hope all things,’ we have endured very many things, and hope to be able to ‘endure all things.’ Everything virtuous, lovely, praiseworthy, and of good report we seek after, looking forward to the ‘recompence of reward.’”

A rather more specific outline of some points of their belief is given by one of their “apostles.” According to him, the “saints” believe that all mankind, in consequence of Adam’s sin, are in a state of ruin: from this, however, they are all delivered by the sacrifice of Christ, and are made secure of everlasting happiness, unless they commit any actual sin. Infants, therefore, being irresponsible, will be eternally redeemed; and such among the people of the earth as have not had the benefit of revelation will receive a mitigated punishment. The rest, in order to be saved from endless ruin, must comply with four conditions:—(1.) they must believe in Christ’s atonement; (2.) they must repent of their transgressions; (3.) they must receive baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, administered only by one authorized of Christ; and (4.) they must receive the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost—this ordinance also being, like that of baptism, only to be administered by duly authorized apostles or elders. All who comply with these conditions obtain forgiveness of their sins and are made partakers of the Holy Ghost—enjoying, too, the gifts of prophecy and healing, visions and revelations, and the power of working miracles.

Among the prominent opinions, not included in these statements, are their doctrines of the materiality of the Deity, and of the two-fold order of the priesthood, viz. the Melchisedekian and the Aaronic. They are also charged by their opponents with the practice and the sanction of polygamy; and evidence is not unplentiful of their allowance of something closely similar; and in their various publications very peculiar doctrines on the subject of marriage are propounded. Their standard books, however, specially denounce the crime.

In England and Wales there were, in 1851, reported by the Census officers as many as 222 places of worship belonging to this body—most of them however being merely rooms. The number of sittings in these places (making an allowance for 53, the accommodation in which was 523not returned,) was 30,783. The attendance on the Census Sunday (making an estimated addition for 9 chapels from which no intelligence on this point was received) was: Morning, 7,517; Afternoon, 11,481; Evening, 16,628. The preachers, it appears, are far from unsuccessful in their efforts to obtain disciples: the surprising confidence and zeal with which they promulgate their creed—the prominence they give to the exciting topics of the speedy coming of the Saviour and his personal millennial reign—and the attractiveness to many minds of the idea of an infallible church, relying for its evidences and its guidance upon revelations made perpetually to its rulers,—these, with other influences, have combined to give the Mormon movement a position and importance with the working classes, which, perhaps, should draw to it much more than it has yet received of the attention of our public teachers.

MORTAL SIN. (See Deadly Sin.)

MORTIFICATION. Any severe penance observed on a religious account. The mortification of sin in believers is a duty enjoined in the sacred Scriptures. (Rom viii. 13; Col. iii. 5.) It consists in breaking the league with sin; declaration of open hostility against it; and strong resistance to it. (Eph. vi. 10, &c.; Gal. v. 24; Rom. viii. 13.)

MORTMAIN. This is where lands are given to some spiritual person or corporation and to their successors; and because the lands were never to revert to the donor, or his heirs, and by that means the services and other profits due for the same were extinct, therefore it was called a gift mortua manu.

The first statute against mortmain was that of Magna Charta, (9 Hen. III. c. 36,) which declares, “that if any one shall give lands to a religious house, the grant shall be void, and the land forfeited to the lord of the fee.” The next was the 7 Edw. I. stat. ii., commonly called the statute “De Religiosis,” which restrained people, at the time of their death or otherwise, from giving or making over any lands or rents to churches or religious houses, without the king’s leave first obtained. This is called the statute of mortmain; but being evaded, the 13 of Edw. I. was passed, and afterwards by the 15 Rich. II. c. 5, it was declared, “that it was within the compass of the statute of Edward I. to convert any land into a churchyard, though it be done with the consent or connivance of the ter-tenant, and confirmed by the pope’s bull.

This last statute extended only to bodies corporate, and, therefore, by the 23 Hen. VIII. c. 10, it is enacted, “that if any grants of lands or other hereditaments should be made in trust to the use of any churches, chapels, churchwardens, guilds, fraternities, &c., to have perpetual obits, or a continual service of a priest for ever, or for sixty or eighty years, or to such like uses or intents, all such uses, intents, and purposes shall be void; they being no corporations, but erected either of devotion, or else by the common consent of the people; and all collateral assurances made for defeating this statute shall be void, and the said statute shall be expounded most beneficially for the destruction of such uses as aforesaid.”

Though the prohibition by the statute of mortmain in the Magna Charta was absolute, yet a royal charter of licence (18 Edw. III. stat. iii. c. 3) afforded relaxation of the restraint, and by the 17 Car. II. c. 3, the following relief was granted:—“Every owner of any impropriations, tithes, or portion of tithes, in any parish or chapelry, may give and annex the same, or any part thereof, unto the parsonage or vicarage of the said parish church or chapel where the same do lie or arise; or settle the same in trust for the benefit of the said parsonage or vicarage, or of the curate and curates there successively, where the parsonage is impropriate and no vicar endowed, without any licence of mortmain.

“And if the settled maintenance of any parsonage, vicarages, churches, and chapels united, or of any other parsonage or vicarage with cure, shall not amount to the full sum of £100 a year clear and above all charges and reprises, it shall be lawful for the parson, vicar, and incumbent of the same, and his successors, to take and purchase to him and his successors lands and tenements, rents, tithes, or other hereditaments, without any licence of mortmain.” This dispensing power was carried so high in the reign of King James II., that by the 1 Wm. III. sess. ii. c. 2, it was enacted, that no dispensation, by “non obstante,” to any statute shall be allowed. By the 7 & 8 Wm. III. c. 37, and 2 & 3 Anne, c. 11, certain relaxations were again made; but by the 9 Geo. II. c. 36, further restraints were imposed, which render it impossible for the Church of England to augment poor livings, under the provisions of 17 Car. II. c. 3, already recited.

By 12 & 13 Vict. c. 49, s. 4, grants of land for sites of schools, not exceeding five acres, made by owners or tenants 524in tail are valid, although the grantor die within twelve months.

MORTUARY, (Mortuarium,) in the English ecclesiastical law, is a gift left by a man at his death to his parish church, in recompence of personal tithes omitted to be paid in his lifetime; or, it is that beast, or other cattle, which, after the death of the owner, by the custom of the place, is due to the parson or vicar, in lieu of tithes or offerings forgot, or not well and truly paid by him that is dead.

Selden tells us, it was usual anciently to bring the mortuary along with the corpse, when it came to be buried, and to offer it to the Church as a satisfaction for the supposed negligence and omission the deceased had been guilty of in not paying his personal tithes; and from thence it was called a corpse present.

A mortuary is not properly due to an ecclesiastical incumbent from any but those of his own parish; but by custom, in some places, they are paid to the incumbents of other parishes, when corpses are carried through them. The bishops of Bangor, Landaff, St. David’s, &c. had formerly mortuaries of priests, abolished by 12 Anne, stat. ii. c. 6. And it was customary, in the diocese of Chester, for the bishop to have a mortuary, on the death of every priest dying within the archdeaconry of Chester, of his best beast, saddle and bridle, and best gown or cloak, hat, and upper garment under the gown. By 28 Geo. II. c. 6, mortuaries in the diocese of Chester were abolished, and the rectory of Waverton attached to the see in lieu thereof. By the 21 Hen. VIII. c. 6, mortuaries were commuted into money payments, which were regulated as follows:—“No parson, vicar, curate, parish priest, or other, shall for any person dying or dead, and being at the time of his death of the value in moveable goods of ten marks or more, clearly above his debts paid, and under the sum of £30, take for a mortuary above 3s. 4d. in the whole. And for a person dying or dead, being at the time of his death of the value of £30 or above, clearly above his debts paid, in moveable goods, and under the value of £40, there shall no more be taken or demanded for a mortuary, than 6s. 8d. in the whole. And for any person dying or dead, having at the time of his death of the value in moveable goods of £40 or above, to any sum whatsoever it be clearly above his debts paid, there shall be no more taken, paid, or demanded for a mortuary, than 10s. in the whole. The Welsh bishoprics and the diocese of Chester were excepted from the operation of this statute, and therefore subsequent acts were passed with respect to them.

MOTETT, in Church music, a short piece of music highly elaborated, of which the subject is taken from the psalms or hymns of the Church. It somewhat resembles our anthems. The derivation is from the Italian Mottetto, a little word or sentence; originally signifying a short epigram in verse; and afterwards applied as now defined, as the words of the Motett properly consist of a short sentence from Holy Scripture.—Jebb.

MOTHER OF GOD. (See Mariolatry, Virgin Mary, Nestorians.) “The Virgin Mary,” says Pearson on the Creed, “is frequently styled the Mother of Jesus in the language of the evangelists, and by Elizabeth, particularly, the Mother of her Lord, as also, by the general consent of the Church, because he which was born of her was God, the Deipara: which, being a compound title, begun in the Greek Church, was resolved into its parts by the Latins, and so the Virgin was plainly named the Mother of God.”

We admit that the Virgin Mary is the mother of God; but we protest against the conclusion that she is, on that account, to be treated with peculiar honour, or to be worshipped; for this expression is used not to exalt her, but to assert unequivocally the Divinity of her Son: He whom she brought forth was God, and therefore she is a bringer forth or mother of God.

The term was first brought prominently forward at the Council of Ephesus, (A. D. 431,) the third of those four general councils, the decisions of which are authoritative in the Church of England; and it was adopted as a formula against the Nestorians. The Nestorian controversy originated thus. In the year 428, Nestorius was bishop of Constantinople, and he had brought with him from Antioch, where he had before resided, a priest named Anastasius, his chaplain and friend; this person, preaching one day in the church of Constantinople, said, “Let no one call Mary mother of God, for she was a woman, and it is impossible that God should be born of a human creature.” These words gave great offence to many both of the clergy and laity; for they had always been taught, says the historian Socrates, to acknowledge Jesus Christ as God, and not to sever him in any way from the Divinity. Nestorius, however, declared his assent to what Anastasius had said, and became, 525from his high position in the Church, the heresiarch.

When the heresy had spread into Egypt, it was refuted by St. Cyril, bishop of Alexandria, in a pastoral letter, which he published for the direction of his people. “I wonder,” he says, “how a question can be raised, as to whether the Holy Virgin should be called mother of God; for if our Lord Jesus Christ is God, how is not the Holy Virgin, his mother, the mother of God? This is the faith we have been taught by the apostles.” He next proves that he who was born of the Virgin Mary is God in his own nature, since the Nicene Creed says that the only begotten Son of God, of the same substance with the Father, himself came down from heaven and was incarnate; and then he proceeds, “You will say, perhaps, is the Virgin, then, mother of the Divinity? We answer, It is certain that the Word is eternal, and of the substance of the Father. Now, in the order of nature, mothers, who have no part in the creation of the soul, are still called mothers of the whole man, and not of the body only; for surely it would be a hypercritical refinement to say, Elizabeth is mother of the body of John, and not of his soul. In the same way, therefore, we express ourselves in regard to the birth of Emmanuel, since the Word, having taken flesh upon him, is called Son of Man.” In a letter to Nestorius himself he enters into a fuller explanation: “We must admit in the same Christ two generations: first, the eternal, by which he proceeds from his Father; second, the temporal, by which he is born of his mother. When we say that he suffered and rose again, we do not say that God the Word suffered in his own nature, for the Divinity is impassible; but because the body which was appropriated to him suffered, so also we say that he suffered himself. So too we say he died. The Divine Word is in his own nature immortal. He is life itself; but because his own true body suffered death, we say that he himself died for us. In the same way, when his flesh is raised from the dead, we attribute resurrection to him. We do not say that we adore the man along with the Word, lest the phrase ‘along with’ should suggest the idea of non-identity; but we adore him as one and the same person, because the body assumed by the Word is in no degree external or separated from the Word.”—Conc. Eph. part i. v. 8. “It is in this sense,” he says afterwards, “that the Fathers have ventured to call the Holy Virgin mother of God, not that the nature of the Word, or his Divinity, did receive beginning of his existence from the Holy Virgin, but because in her was formed and animated a reasonable soul and a sacred body, to which the Word united himself in hypostasis, which is the reason of its being said, ‘he was born according to the flesh.’”

It was jealousy for the Lord Jesus Christ, and anxiety to maintain his honour, and to assert his Divinity, which influenced the Fathers at the Council of Ephesus, and not any special regard to the creature through whose instrumentality he was brought into the world. And the decisions of that council, because they can be proved to be scriptural, the Church of England accepts. The council vindicated this title, not because it was a high title for Mary, but because to deny it is to deny that he is God whom she brought forth. The heresy of Nestorius related to the incarnation or junction of the two natures in Christ, which he affirmed not to be a union, but merely a connexion; whereas the object of the Council of Ephesus was to assert “the real and inseparable union of the two natures in Christ, and to show that the human nature, which Christ took of the Holy Virgin, never subsisted separately from the Divine person of the Son of God.”

To the use of the term, however, though we contend for its propriety, divines of the Church of England are not partial, because, by the subtilty of the Romish controversialists, it has been so used, or rather misused, as to make it seem to confer peculiar honour and privileges upon the Virgin Mary. The primitive Christians, like ourselves, were contented with speaking of the Virgin as “the mother of my Lord;” and this phrase sufficed until, as we have seen, heretics arose who understood the word Lord in an inferior sense, and then it became necessary to assert that God and Lord, as applied to our blessed Saviour, are synonymous terms. And sound theologians will still occasionally use the term Mother of God, lest Nestorianism should be held unconsciously by persons who wish to be orthodox, and people forget the great truth expressed by St. Paul, that “God purchased the Church with his own blood;” and that Christ is “over all, God blessed for ever.”

The Council of Ephesus caused the Nicene Creed, and several passages out of St. Cyprian, St. Basil, Athanasius, Gregory Nazianzen, and many others, to be read in council. And from them they gathered, 526and therefore pronounced, that according to the Scriptures, as interpreted by the catholic Church, Christ, though he have two natures, yet he is but one person, and by consequence that the Virgin Mary might properly be called Θεοτόκος, because the same person who was born of her is truly God as well as man: which being once determined by an universal council to be the true sense and meaning of the Scriptures in this point, hath been acknowledged by the universal Church ever since, till this time.—Bishop Beveridge.

MOULDING. An ornamental form given to angles and edges of masonry or wood-work, and carried uniformly along a considerable extent. The use of mouldings must commence with the earliest attempts at ornament in masonry or carpentry. The Saxon mouldings, so far as we can collect from existing specimens, were extremely rude and simple; but with the Norman mouldings the case is precisely the reverse, so far, at least, as simplicity is concerned: for though the mouldings themselves may be resolved into a very few forms and combinations, they were often either treated as if themselves broken and mitred together at various angles, as in the case of the chevron and embattled mouldings; or they were themselves decorated with forms not of their own nature, as the medallion, beak head, and other like mouldings, which are however, strictly speaking, rather decorations of mouldings, than themselves mouldings. It would far exceed our limits to describe the several mouldings of the succeeding styles. We must be content with saying, in general, that in the Early English they reached their greatest complexity and depth, and that they gradually became less numerous, and shallower, to the Perpendicular; the happy mean being reached in this, as in almost everything else, in the Geometrical. The particular mouldings, which may be said to be distinctive of a style, are chiefly the ogee, in several of its forms, of the Decorated; the scroll of the Decorated, with the later Geometric; the wide and shallow casement or hollow of the Perpendicular. The hollows, in the Early English, usually separate single mouldings, in the Decorated groups of mouldings. The earlier mouldings, as Norman and Early English, generally occupy the planes of the wall and of the soffit; the later, especially Perpendicular, the chamfer plane only. To be at all appreciated, the subject of mouldings must be studied in the “Oxford Glossary,” or in Paley’s “Manual of Gothic Mouldings;” and to be mastered, it must be pursued, pencil in hand, in our ancient ecclesiastical edifices.

MOVEABLE and IMMOVEABLE FEASTS. The feasts kept in the Christian Church are called moveable and immoveable, according as they fall always on the same day in the calendar in each year,—as the saints’ days; or depend on other circumstances,—as Easter, and the feasts calculated from Easter. The Book of Common Prayer contains several tables for calculating Easter, and the following rules to know when the moveable feasts and holy-days begin:

“Easter Day, on which the rest depend, is always the first Sunday after the full moon which happens upon, or next after, the twenty-first day of March; and if the full moon happens upon a Sunday, Easter Day is the Sunday after.

“Advent Sunday is always the nearest Sunday to the feast of St. Andrew, whether before or after.

Septuagesima Sunday is Nine Weeks before Easter.

Sexagesima Eight

Quinquagesima Seven

Quadragesima Six

Rogation Sunday is Five Weeks after Easter.”

Ascension Day Forty Days

Whit Sunday Seven Weeks

Trinity Sunday Eight Weeks

MOYER’S LECTURE. A lecture established by Lady Moyer. The following is an extract from the will of the Lady Moyer, or, as she is therein styled, “Dame Rebecca Moyer, late of the parish of St. Andrew, Holborn, in the county of Middlesex, widow.”

“My now dwelling-house in Bedford Row, or Jockey Field, I give to my dear child Eliza Moyer, that out of it may be paid twenty guineas a year to an able minister of God’s word, to preach eight sermons every year on the Trinity and Divinity of our ever-blessed Saviour, beginning with the first Thursday in November, and to the first Thursday in the seven sequel months, in St. Paul’s, if permitted there, or, if not, elsewhere, according to the discretion of my executrix, who will not think it any encumbrance to her house. I am sure it will bring a blessing on it, if that work be well and carefully carried on, which in this profligate age is so neglected. If my said daughter should leave no children alive at her death, or they should die before they come to age, then I give my said house to my niece, Lydia Moyer, now wife to Peter Hartop, Esq., and to her heirs after her, she always 527providing for that sermon, as I have begun, twenty guineas every year.”

There is a list of the preachers of this lecture at the end of Mr. John Berriman’s “Critical Dissertation on 1 Tim. iii. 16,” (which is the substance of the lectures he preached,) down to the year 1740–1: and in a copy of that book in Sion College library, there is a continuation of the list in MS., by Mr. John Berriman, to the year 1748. In the year 1757, they were preached by Mr. William Clements, librarian of Sion College, but he did not publish them till 1797. In the year 1764, or thereabouts, the preacher was Benjamin Dawson, LL.D., who printed them under the title of “An Illustration of several Texts of Scripture, particularly wherein the Logos occurs, 1765.” Dr. Thomas Morell, author of the “Thesaurus Græcæ, Poeseos,” is supposed to have been the last. Mr. Watts, librarian of Sion College, (to whom the reader is indebted for the information here given,) heard him preach one of them in January, 1773. One of these lectures Dr. Morell published, without his name, in April, 1774. It was written against Lindsey, and entitled “The Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity justified.” In the “Gentleman’s Magazine for 1804,” p. 187, mention is made of a Mrs. Moyer, who “died at Low Layton, February, 1804, the widow of Benjamin Moyer, Esq., son of Lawrence Moyer, merchant, who succeeded as heir of his uncle, Sir Samuel Moyer, a rich Turkey merchant, sheriff of Essex in 1698; Bart., 1701; died, 1716. His widow Rebecca, sister of Sir William Jolliffe, Knt., founded the lecture for a limited number of years.” This does not, however, appear to have been the case, no limitations being mentioned in Lady Moyer’s will. But since there is no compulsory obligation in the will to perpetuate the lecture, the probability is that, in course of time, (perhaps immediately after Dr. Morell’s turn expired,) the property fell into other hands, and the lecture was no longer continued.

MOZARABIC LITURGY. The ancient liturgy of Spain; the name Mozarabic signifying those Christians who were mixed with, or lived in the midst of, Arabs, or Moors. Mr. Palmer considers that this liturgy was derived at a very early age from that of Gaul, which it much resembles. It was abolished in 1060 in Arragon, but was not for some time afterwards relinquished in Navarre, Castile, and Leon. Cardinal Ximenes founded a college and chapel in Toledo for the celebration of this rite: the only place perhaps in Spain where it is preserved.—Palmer’s Origin. Liturg.

MOZECTA, MUZECTA, MOZZETTO. An ecclesiastical vestment, like the bishop’s colobrium or tunicle, worn by the canons in certain cathedrals of Sicily.—Peiri Sicilia Sacra.

MULLION, more correctly Monial. The upright bars dividing a traceried window into lights.

MUSIC, as connected with the Church service, is sometimes used in a peculiar and technical sense, to signify the accompaniment of a band of instrumental music, as violins and wind instruments, not the organ only. A service in music abroad is understood in this sense. These kind of accompaniments are foreign to the genuine spirit of the Church of England, which, as a general rule, recognises the organ only. Charles II. introduced the foreign style of music into his chapel, which, however, was but short-lived. Evelyn in his Memoirs, (Dec. 22, 1662,) speaking of the service at the Chapel Royal when he was present, says, “Instead of the ancient, grave, and solemn wind music accompanying the organ, was introduced a concert of 24 violins between every pause, after the French fantastical light way, better suiting a tavern or a play-house than a church.” The only stated musical service in the Church was that performed annually a few years since at the feast of the sons of the clergy at St. Paul’s. The instrumental accompaniments are now laid aside. At what are called musical festivals the service is so accompanied.

MUSIC TABLE. A sort of Lectern, with three sides, round which the choir were placed, in the middle of Bishop Andrewes’s chapel; as appears by the plan given in Canterbury’s Doom, 1646.

MYNCHERY. A nunnery. A corruption of ministere, or minster.

MYSTERY. (From μύειν τὸ στόμα, to shut the mouth; hence μυστήριον, mystery.) Something secret, hidden from human comprehension, or revealed only in part. The term is applied both to doctrines and facts. By the usage of the Church it also denotes that inscrutable union in the sacrament of the inward and spiritual grace with the outward and visible sign. Hence in the early Church the sacraments were denominated “mysteries,” and the term derived a still greater force, from the secrecy which was observed in the administration of those ordinances. More especially, however, was the holy communion thus designated, as we learn from the ancient Fathers, who speak repeatedly of 528the “sacred” and “tremendous mysteries,” in allusion to this sacrament. With this application, the term appears in our own Communion Office, where Christ is said to have “instituted and ordained holy mysteries, as pledges of his love, and for a continual remembrance of his death.” We are also exhorted so to prepare ourselves, that we may be “meet partakers of those holy mysteries;” and after their reception, thanks are rendered to God, that he has vouchsafed to “feed us who have duly received these holy mysteries, with the spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of his Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ.”

MYSTERIES. (See Moralities.)

MYSTIC. Sacredly obscure.

MYSTIC RECITATION. Several parts of the Greek liturgy are ordered to be said μυστικῶς, that is, in a low voice, or whisper, like the secreto of the Roman offices.—Jebb.

MYSTICAL. Having a hidden, allegorical, or secret meaning. In the baptismal offices we read, “Sanctify this water to the mystical washing away of sin:” from which it would be absurd to infer that the mere physical application of water can remove sin; and yet, on the other hand, the fact that the remission of sin is associated with baptism, rests on Scriptural authority. There is, therefore, a secret operation of God’s grace in cleansing the soul linked to the sacramental application of water to the body; and the concurrence or co-existence of these the Church regards as a “mystical washing away of sin.”

Again: in the Communion Office, the faithful recipients are said to be “very [true] members incorporate of the mystical body of Christ.” Now, how the Church can constitute “the body of Christ,” will appear to any one an inscrutable mystery, if he will but divest himself of the familiarity of the terms. As to the fact, it is indisputable; but the manner is beyond our full comprehension, partaking in some measure of the nature of allegory, and being strictly mystical. It is worth while to add, that the Church does not recognise the notion of an invisible Church, as constituting this “mystical body,” composed of those only who shall be finally saved; for she goes on to pray for the assistance of God’s grace, “that we may continue in that holy fellowship,” &c., a petition somewhat irrelevant if such an hypothesis be adopted.

MYSTICS. A party which arose towards the close of the third century, distinguished by their professing pure, sublime, and perfect devotion. They excuse their fanatical ecstasies by alleging the passage of St. Paul, “The Spirit prays in us with sighs and groans which cannot be uttered.” They contend that, if the Spirit prays within us, we must resign ourselves to its motions, and be guided and swayed through its impulse by remaining in a state of mere inaction. The principles proceeded from the known doctrine of the Platonic school, which was also adopted by Origen and his disciples, that the Divine nature was diffused through all human souls; or that the faculty of reason, from which proceed the health and vigour of the mind, was an emanation from God into the human soul, and comprehended in it the principles and elements of all truth, human and divine. They denied that men could, by labour or study, excite this celestial flame in their breasts; and therefore they disapproved highly of the attempts of those who, by definitions, abstract theorems, and profound speculations, endeavoured to form distinct notions of truth, and to discover its hidden nature. On the contrary, they maintained that silence, tranquillity, repose, and solitude, accompanied with such acts as might tend to extenuate and exhaust the body, were the means by which the hidden and internal word was excited to produce its latent virtues, and to instruct them in the knowledge of Divine things. For thus they reasoned: Those who behold with a noble contempt all human affairs; who turn away their eyes from terrestrial vanities, and shut all the avenues of the outward senses against the contagious influences of a material world, must necessarily return to God when the spirit is thus disengaged from the impediments that prevented that happy union; and in this blessed frame they not only enjoy inexpressible raptures from their communion with the Supreme Being, but are also invested with the inestimable privilege of contemplating truth undisguised and uncorrupted in its native purity, while others behold it in a vitiated and delusive form.

The number of the Mystics increased in the fourth century, under the influence of the Grecian fanatic, who gave himself out for Dionysius the Areopagite, disciple of St. Paul, and probably lived about this period; and by pretending to higher degrees of perfection than other Christians, and practising greater austerity, their cause gained ground, especially in the Eastern provinces, in the fifth century. A copy of the pretended works of Dionysius was sent by Balbus to Louis the Meek, in the 529year 824, which kindled the holy flame of mysticism in the Western provinces, and filled the Latins with the most enthusiastic admiration of this new religion. In the twelfth century, these Mystics took the lead in their method of expounding the Scriptures. In the thirteenth century they were the most formidable antagonists of the Schoolmen; and, towards the close of the fourteenth, many of them resided and propagated their tenets in almost every part of Europe.

Among the Mystics of that time we may notice the Dominican John Tauler, of Strasburg, A. D. 1361; Henry Suso of Ulm, A. D. 1365; and especially John Ruysbroock, called Doctor Ecstaticus, A. D. 1381, who of all the Mystics was the most dreamy and enthusiastic. Among Protestants there have been and are many Mystics, but they have not formed a sect.—Mosheim. Gieseler.

NAG’S HEAD FABLE. (See Consecration of Bishops.)

NAHUM, THE PROPHECY OF. A canonical book of the Old Testament. Nahum is the seventh of the twelve lesser prophets; a native of Elkoshai, a little village of Galilee, the ruins of which were still to be seen in the time of St. Jerome. The particular circumstances of this prophet’s life are altogether unknown.

Authors are divided as to the time when Nahum prophesied, some fixing it to the reign of Ahaz, others to that of Manasseh, and others to the times of the captivity. St. Jerome places it in the reign of Hezekiah, after the war of Sennacherib in Egypt, which the prophet speaks of as a thing passed.

The subject of Nahum’s prophecy is the destruction of Nineveh, which he describes in the most lively and pathetic manner; and this prophecy was verified in the siege of that city by Astyages in the year of the world 3378, before Christ 622.

NAME. (See Christian Name.) The Christian name is given us in baptism. All things being prepared for the baptism of the child, the minister is now to “take it into his hands,” and to ask the godfathers and godmothers to “name” it. For the “Christian name” being given as a badge that we belong to Christ, we cannot more properly take it upon us, than when we are enlisted under his banner. We bring one name into the world with us, which we derive from our parents, and which serves to remind us of our original guilt, and that we are born in sin: but this new name is given us at our baptism, to remind us of our new birth, when, being washed in the laver of regeneration, we are thereby cleansed from our natural impurities, and become in a manner new creatures, and solemnly dedicate ourselves to God. So that the naming of children at this time hath been thought by many to import something more than ordinary, and to carry with it a mysterious signification. We find something like it even among the heathens; for the Romans had a custom of naming their children on the day of their lustration, (that is, when they were cleansed and washed from their natural pollution,) which was therefore called “Dies Nominalis.” And the Greeks also, when they carried their infants, a little after their birth, about the fire, (which was their ceremony of dedicating or consecrating them to their gods,) were used at the same time to give them their names.

And that the Jews named their children at the time of circumcision, the Holy Scriptures, (Gen. xxi. 3, 4; Luke i. 59, 60; ii. 21,) as well as their own writers, expressly tell us. And though the rite itself of circumcision was changed into that of baptism by our Saviour, yet he made no alteration as to the time and custom of giving the name, but left that to continue under the new, as he had found it under the old dispensation. Accordingly we find this time assigned and used to this purpose ever since; the Christians continuing from the earliest ages to name their children at the time of baptism.—Wheatly.

NANTES, EDICT OF. An edict of toleration, promulgated by Henry IV. of France in 1598, which restored the Protestants to all the favours which had been granted them in former reigns, and gave them the liberty of serving God according to their conscience, and a full participation in all civil rights and privileges. This edict was, at the instigation of the Jesuits, revoked by Louis XIV. in the year 1685.

NARTHEX. (Gr. and Lat.) This name is given by ancient writers to a part of the fabric of the Christian church. There was the exterior or outward, and the interior or inward, Narthex.

The exterior narthex, which we may call the ante-temple, consisted of the whole circumference of the outward courts, including the vestibulum or porch, and the atrium or area before the church.

The interior narthex, or ante-temple within the church, (the only part properly so called,) was the first section or division of the fabric, after entering into the church, and was peculiarly allotted to the monks 530and women, and used for the offices of rogations, supplications, and night watches. Here likewise they placed the dead corpses, whilst the funeral rites were performing. This lower part of the church was the place of the Energumens and the Audientes; and hither Jews, heathens, heretics, and schismatics were sometimes allowed to come, in hopes of their conversion by hearing the Scriptures read and sermons preached.

Dr. Beveridge and others seem to place here the font or baptistery, as in our modern churches. But it is certain that, for many ages, the baptistery was a distinct place from the body of the church, and reckoned among the Exedræ, or buildings adjoining to the church.

This part of the church was called Narthex, because being long, but narrow, and running across the front of the church, it was supposed to resemble a ferula, that is, a rod or staff; for any oblong figure was by the Greeks called νάρθηξ, Narthex.

NATIONAL COVENANT. (See Confessions of Faith.)

NAVE. The central passage of the church, extending from the west end to the transept or choir. The derivation of this word has been a matter of dispute. Some very plausibly derive it from νάος, others from navis, a ship, since the nave resembles the hull of a ship turned upside down; and refer both this term and νάος also to the ancient Phœnicians, whose original temples were said to be their vessels thus reversed. At all events it is remarkable that both the old French nef, the Italian and Spanish nave, and the Latin navis, all signify a ship as well as the nave of a church. (See Churches and Cathedral.)

NAVICULA; ship, or ark. A vessel formed “like the keel of a boat,” out of which the frankincense was poured in Bishop Andrewes’ chapel, and Queen Elizabeth’s chapel. Canterbury’s Doom, 1646. See Hiereugia Anglicana, pp. 4, 5, and 9.

NAZARENES. Christian heretics, so called. This name was originally given to all Christians in general, because Jesus Christ was of the city of Nazareth. But afterwards it was restrained to a sect of heretics, who affected to assume it rather than that of Christians. Their religion was a strange jumble of Judaism and Christianity: for they were Jews by birth, were circumcised, kept the sabbath, and other observances of the Mosaical law; and at the same time received the New Testament as well as the Old, acknowledged Jesus Christ to be the Messiah, and practised the Christian baptism. Theodoret indeed pretends they honoured Jesus Christ only as a just and good man; and he places the beginning of their heresy about the time of Domitian. St. Augustine makes them the successors of those whose obstinacy in the like opinions was condemned by the apostolical Council of Jerusalem.

The Nazarenes (as well as the Ebionites) were descended from those Christians, who left Jerusalem a little before the siege, and retired to the country about Jordan, called Perea; whence they are sometimes called Peratics. There were some of them remaining in the time of St. Augustine. They dwelt about Pella in Decapolis, near the river Jordan, and at Berea, a city of Lower Syria. They perfectly understood the Hebrew tongue, in which they read the books of the Old Testament.

These heretics, keeping the mean between the Jews and the Christians, pretended to be friends alike to both: nevertheless, the Christians treated them as abominable heretics, and the Jews detested them more than the other Christians, because they acknowledged Jesus Christ to be the Messiah. Epiphanius says, they cursed and anathematized them three times a day in their synagogues.—Broughton.

NEHEMIAH, THE BOOK OF. A canonical book of the Old Testament. Nehemiah was born at Babylon during the captivity, and succeeded Ezra in the government of Judah and Jerusalem; whither he came with a commission from Artaxerxes Longimanus, authorizing him to repair and fortify the city in the same manner as it was before its destruction by the Babylonians.

Nehemiah was a Jew, and was promoted to the office of cup-bearer to the Persian king; and the opportunities he had of being daily in the king’s presence, together with the favour of Esther the queen, procured him the privileges he obtained for building the city, and the settlement of his country. When he came to Jerusalem, he finished the rebuilding of the walls in fifty-two days, and dedicated the gates of the city with great solemnity. Then he reformed some abuses, which had crept in among his countrymen, particularly the extortion of the usurers, by which the poor were so oppressed, as to be forced to sell their lands and children to support themselves and their families. Then he returned to Persia, and came back again with a new commission, by virtue of which he regulated everything relating both to the state and religion of the Jews. The history of these transactions is the subject matter of this Book of Nehemiah.

531Nehemiah died at Jerusalem, having governed the people of Judah for about thirty years.

NEOLOGIANS. German Rationalists are so designated; from νέος, new, and λόγος, doctrine. They are distinguished from mere deists and pantheists, by admitting the principal facts of the Bible, though they attempt to explain away what is miraculous, while they treat the Scriptures with no more of reverence than they would show to any other ancient book, and regard our Lord himself as they would regard any good and wise philosopher.

NESTORIANS. (See Mother of God.) The followers of Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, who lived in the fifth century. They believed that in Christ there were not only two natures, but two persons; of which the one was Divine, even the Eternal Word, and the other, which was human, was the man Jesus; that these two persons had only one aspect; that the union between the Son of God and the Son of man was formed in the moment of the Virgin’s conception, and was never to be dissolved; that it was not, however, an union of nature or of person, but only of will and affection; that Christ was therefore to be carefully distinguished from God, who dwelt in him as in his temple; and that Mary was to be called the mother of Christ, and not the mother of God.

This heresy was condemned by the fourth general council, that of Ephesus, A. D. 431; in which all are anathematized who refuse to call the Virgin Mary the mother of God. For a full account of this people, see Mr. Badger’s Nestorians and their Rituals.

NEWEL. The central column round which the steps of a winding stair are disposed. They are sometimes designed with considerable taste, and carefully executed.

NICENE CREED; sometimes called the Constantinopolitan Creed. This creed was chiefly composed by the orthodox fathers of the first general Council of Nice, A. D. 325, to define the Christian faith, in opposition to the heresy of Arius. As sanctioned by this assembly it ended with “I believe in the Holy Ghost.” The remainder was added by the second general council, held at Constantinople, A. D. 381, in which the heresy of Macedonius, with regard to the Divinity of the Holy Spirit, was condemned. In the fifth century, the Western churches added to this creed the words filioque, in conformity with the doctrine, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son, as well as from the Father.

The Church for three hundred years had been content to profess in her creed, that Christ was the Lord; comprehending, under this title, the highest appellations given to him in Scripture, without stating minutely, or scrutinizing too narrowly, a doctrine proposed rather to us as an object of faith than of understanding. Happy had it been for the Christian world, if this moderation of the Church had been suffered to continue; but Arius, a discontented priest of Alexandria in Egypt, either having conceived a different opinion, or wishing to bring himself into notice by the assertion of a novelty, took upon him to maintain that Christ was not a Divine person, in the highest sense, but a creature, superior indeed to human nature, but not a partaker of the supreme Godhead.

The publishing of this opinion raised a violent ferment and schism in the Church. Constantine the Roman emperor summoned a council at Nice, in Bithynia, to settle this dispute; and there, in the year 325, Arius’s doctrine was condemned in an assembly of 300 bishops, and that creed framed, which from the name of the city was called the Nicene Creed. And here it is necessary to observe, that the meaning of the three creeds of our Church, and all creeds that can be composed on gospel principles, is nothing more than a declaration of the sense in which we accept the profession made in our baptism. By baptism we are admitted into the Church of Christ; by the command of Christ we are baptized “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” This is the condition, by which alone we can partake of the Christian covenant; this is the mark by which alone we are distinguished from the professors of every other religion upon earth.

When we repeat a creed, therefore, we do no more than declare our repeated assent to the conditions of the baptismal covenant; and it would be sufficient to do this in the very words that Christ enjoins, “I believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,” if explanations had not been demanded, to show what we mean by this declaration. Creeds then do not, properly speaking, contain articles of faith, but an explanation of the sense in which we understand the primary position of our religion. And this view of the matter will show us the reason, why no creed is prescribed in Scripture; why all creeds ever have been, and ever must be, the composition of men.—Dean Vincent.

The three creeds, which are the three barriers of the faith of our Church, extracted from the Holy Scripture in the 532purer ages of Christianity, though variously expressed, are yet the same in substance; agreeable to each other; and all agreeable to the word of God, and approved all along by the Catholic Church. In these forms she calls upon her members to declare their belief to be consonant to that of the Church universal. The Apostles’ Creed, as the plainest and shortest form, is appointed for common and daily use. The Athanasian, for festivals which relate more immediately to our Saviour; or which are placed at such convenient distances from each other, as that none may be wholly ignorant of the mysteries therein contained. And the Nicene Creed is to be repeated whenever the eucharist is administered according to the institution of our Lord, whose eternal generation, Godhead, incarnation, sufferings, and exaltation, are therein summarily contained and acknowledged.—Archdeacon Yardley.

It is called “the Nicene Creed,” because it was for the most part framed at the great Council of Nice. But because the great Council of Constantinople added the latter part, and brought it to the frame which we now use, therefore it is called also “the Constantinopolitan Creed.” This creed began to be used in churches at the Communion Service immediately after the Gospel, in the year of our Lord 339. [The introduction of it in this place is, however, more commonly referred to Peter the Fuller, bishop of Antioch, about A. D. 471.] Afterwards it was established in the churches of Spain and France, after the custom of the Eastern Church, by the Council of Toledo, and continued down to our times. The reason why this creed follows immediately after the Epistle and Gospel, is the same that was given for the Apostles’ Creed following next after the lessons at morning and evening prayer. To which the canon of Toledo hath added another reason for saying it here, before the people draw near to the holy communion; namely, that the breasts of those who approach to those dreadful mysteries, may be purified by a true and right faith.—Bp. Sparrow.

The creed is a summary of the doctrine of the gospel, and here is placed next to it, because it is grounded upon it. In the gospel we “believe with our heart unto righteousness;” in the creed we “confess with our mouth unto salvation” (Rom. x. 10); for all the people ought to repeat the creed after the minister. It doth more largely condemn all heresies than the Apostles’ Creed: wherefore it is fitly enjoined to be recited by all before the sacrament, to show that all the communicants are free from heresy, and in the strictest league of union with the Catholic Church; as also to prepare themselves for worthy receiving, by exercising that faith, of which they have so much use at the Lord’s table, as the Council of Toledo ordained in the year 600 [589]. So that every one must openly profess and firmly embrace all these articles, before he can be fit to receive; yea, and while he repeats them with his lips, he must resolve to show forth in his life, that he doth sincerely believe them, by strictly living according to them.—Dean Comber.

As in the Morning Prayer, so in the Communion Service, for the same reason, after reading the Scripture, we recite the creed: only then we have that of the ancient Latin Church; here that of the ancient Greek.—Abp. Secker.

Besides the general reasons for repeating the creed, the rehearsal of our faith before the receiving of the holy communion is founded on these two special grounds:—1. It is meet that all should first profess the same faith, who partake of the same mysteries; for surely, if “no stranger, nor uncircumcised person,” could eat of the passover, that typical sacrament, (Exod. xii. 43, 48,) much more no stranger to the Christian faith, nor unbeliever, should partake of the real sacrament of the Lord’s supper. 2. As the acknowledgment of the articles of our Christian faith is part of the vow made at our baptism, so ought the same acknowledgment to be repeated at the Lord’s supper, wherein we renew that vow.—Dr. Bisse.

Add to this, that every solemn confession of our faith must be looked upon as giving glory and honour to God, in recognising his essence and attributes, and the blessings which flow from those sources on mankind: and hence it, in a peculiar manner, befits this holy service of thanks and praise. In this we imitate the most ancient liturgies of the Church; which, when this holy sacrament was celebrated, had an eucharistical form, wherein God’s power and goodness were acknowledged in the creation, preservation, and redemption of the world. Thus we, though in a shorter form of undoubted authority, confess to the holy and undivided Trinity, and distinctly own the Divinity of each person. We commemorate the creation of the world by “God the Father Almighty.” We acknowledge Jesus Christ to be our “Lord;” to have been “begotten” from all eternity, to be “of one substance with the Father,” and with him Creator of all 533things: that “for our salvation he came down from heaven, was made man, suffered, and died” for us. We commemorate his resurrection, ascension, and sitting at God’s right hand: express our expectation of his second coming; and declare that “his kingdom shall have no end.” We confess to God, that he hath inspired the prophets; that he hath built a Church on the foundation of the apostles; that he hath appointed baptism for the remission of sins; and given us leave to “look for the resurrection of the dead” and an happy eternity.

What more glorious hymn than this can we sing to the honour of God? Is it possible to mention anything else that can so much redound to his glory? May not this our service be well styled the eucharist, when we thus give praise and glory to Almighty God for the wonderful manifestation of his attributes, and the inestimable blessings he hath bestowed upon us? Let not any one therefore think, that repeating the creed is barely a declaration of his faith to the rest of the congregation: for, besides that, it is a most solemn act of worship, in which we honour and magnify God, both for what he is in himself, and for what he hath done for us. And let us all, sensible of this, repeat it with reverential voice and gesture; and lift up our hearts with faith, thankfulness, and humble devotion, whenever we say, “I believe,” &c.—Archdeacon Yardley.

The Nicene Creed is properly sung in all choirs. Bishop Beveridge says, “We stand at the creeds; for they being confessions of our faith in God, as such they come under the proper notion of hymns or songs of praise to him.” The rubric sanctions, that is, enjoins in choirs, the custom: and such has been the usage of most choirs since the Reformation; an usage kept up throughout the Western Church, according to Mr. Palmer, since the year 1012. It is not adapted to chanting, like the Psalms. In our Prayer Book it is divided, like the Apostles’ Creed and the Gloria in excelsis, into three paragraphs, of which the central one has special reference to God the Son.—Jebb.

NICOLAITANS. Heretics who arose in the Christian Church during the time of the apostles, (as appears from Rev. ii. 6, 15,) and are taken to be the fathers of the Gnostics. Some of the ancient fathers affirm that Nicolas, one of the seven first deacons, was the founder of this sect; that being blamed by the apostles for keeping company with his wife, whom he had left before to live in continence, he invented this brutal error to excuse his proceeding, and thought that impurity was a necessary means to attain to eternal happiness: others say that the holy apostles, reproaching him for being jealous of his wife, who was very handsome, he sent for her, and in a great assembly gave her leave to marry whom she pleased: upon which some libertines framed a heresy of their own, and unjustly called it by his name. They denied the Divinity of Christ by an hypostatical union, saying, the Divine inhabited, but was not united to, the human nature; they held that all pleasures were good, and that it was lawful to eat meats offered to idols. Becoming too much known by this name, they assumed that of the Gnostics, and divided themselves into other sects, called Phibionites, Stratiotics, Levitics, and Barborites.

NIPTER. (Gr. In Latin, pediluvium.) The ceremony of washing feet. This is performed by the Greek Christians on Good Friday, in imitation of our Saviour, who on that day washed his disciples’ feet with his own hands.

In the monasteries, the abbot represents our Saviour, and twelve of the monks the twelve apostles. Among these the steward and porter have always a place; the former acts the part of St. Peter, and imitates his refusal to let Jesus wash his feet; the latter personates the traitor Judas, and is loaded with scoffs and derision. The office used on this occasion is extant in the Euchologium.

NOCTURNS. Services anciently held during the night. In the Breviary, the Psalter is divided into portions, the first of which consists of fourteen Psalms, the second of three, and the third of three. These all form a part of the Sunday office of matins, each of which portions is called a nocturn. These were designed to be read at these nightly assemblies, with other services appointed in order for the various nights.

NOETIANS. Christian heretics in the third century, followers of Noëtus, a philosopher of Ephesus, who pretended that he was another Moses sent by God, and that his brother was a new Aaron. His heresy consisted in affirming that there was but one person in the Godhead, and that the Word and the Holy Spirit were but external denominations given to God in consequence of different operations: that as creator he is called Father; as incarnate, Son; and as descending upon the apostles, the Holy Ghost.

This heresiarch, being summoned to appear before the assembly of the Church of 534Ephesus, to give an account of his doctrine, made a very catholic profession of faith; but he had no sooner gained a dozen followers, than he began publicly to teach and spread his opinions. He was excommunicated by the Church of Ephesus, and after his death denied ecclesiastical burial.

Being reprehended by his superiors, he is said to have replied, “What harm have I done? I adore one only God; I own none but him. He was born, suffered, and is dead.”

NOMINALISTS. At the restoration of the study of logic in the eleventh century, many disputes took place, trivial in their origin, but important on account of the colour which they gave to religious controversy, concerning the objects of logic. Agreeing that the essential object of logic was the discussion of universals, as distinguished from particular or individual things, two parties were formed on the question whether universals are words and names only, or things and real essences. Those who declared them to be only names and words, and who of course, therefore, determined that logic was only conversant with words, were called Nominalists, and basing their philosophy on that of Aristotle, were principally supported by the talent and authority of Roscellinus. Those who held that universals were real existences, and so that logic was conversant with things and realities, were called Realists. They supported their hypothesis on the authority of Plato. Johannes Scotus Erigena, in the ninth century, had taught this doctrine, but without leaving behind him any school of avowed followers. The controversy with the Nominalists was commenced in the eleventh century, and in the thirteenth the greater part of the schoolmen were Realists.

NOMINATION. This is the offering of a clerk to him who has the right of presentation, that he may present him to the ordinary. (For form of Nomination, see Curacy.)

The nominator must appoint his clerk within six months after the avoidance, for, if he does not, and the patron presents his clerk before the bishop hath taken any benefit of the lapse, he is bound to admit that clerk.

But where one has the nomination, and another the presentation, if the right of presentation should afterwards come to the queen, it has been held, that he that has the nomination will be entitled to both, because the queen, who is to present, is only an instrument to him who nominates, and it is not becoming the dignity of a queen to be subservient to another; but the nominator should name one to the lord chancellor, who, in the name of the queen, should present to the ordinary.

And as the presentation, so the right of nomination, may be forfeited to the queen. It is true, if the patron, upon a corrupt agreement unknown to the nominator, presents his clerk, this shall not be prejudicial to the nominator within the statute of simony; but if the nominator corruptly agrees to nominate, his right of nomination shall be forfeited to the queen.

NONES. A term employed in the Roman calendar, inserted in all correct editions of the Prayer Book. The nones were the fifth day of each month, excepting in March, May, July, and October, when the nones fell on the 7th day. They were so called from their being the ninth day in each month before the ides.—Stephens’s Book of Common Prayer, notes on the Calendar, p. 270.

NONJURORS. Those conscientious men who refused to renounce their oath of allegiance to King James II., and to transfer it to the Prince of Orange. What was at first a necessary separation from the Church of England, degenerated, after a time, into a wilful schism. The history of the Nonjurors is written by Lathbury (London, 1845).

NORMAN. The highest development of Romanesque architecture in England, which succeeded the Saxon at the Conquest, and admitted the pointed arch which marks the Transition, about 1145. It must be observed, however, that many buildings, generally called Norman, and which agree with the Norman style in all essential particulars, except in the accident of their being built before 1066, must, architecturally, be classed with this style. The Norman is so absolutely distinguished from all Gothic orders by the round arch, that it is needless to enter into its differentials. Several of its peculiarities will be found under the heads Buttress, Capital, Cathedral, Mouldings, Pier, Pillar.

NORTH SIDE. In the rubric immediately preceding the office for the Holy Communion, the priest is directed to stand at the north side of the table. As this work is not a Dictionary of the English language, it might seem beside our purpose to offer any explanation of those words, which are sufficiently clear, though they have been perplexed by the unreasonable scruples of some of our generation. Johnson gives the following as one of the definitions of side, “any part of any body opposed to any other part:” another is, 535“right or left.” The north side then is that which is opposed to the south; viz. the left side to those who look to the east, where the holy table is placed. By a side is meant that which is lateral, as contradistinguished from that which is opposite or vertical. A side is the short end of the table, and so the Scotch liturgy understood the word, “the north side, or end thereof.” The table usually in English churches stands at the end of the chancel: the exceptions are so few as clearly to prove a rule; and it must be obvious to common sense, that when placed differently, the priest’s position there should be the same relatively to the church as if the table stood at the east; that is, at the left side of those who look towards the chancel from the body of the church. Universal custom has been in conformity with the plain meaning of the rule; and the priest always has stood at that which formed the north or left side of the square table. Had the intention of the compilers of the liturgy been different, the rubric would have been worded in some such way as this, “the priest standing at the north-west corner, or angle,” or “left angle.” An angle, or corner, is not a side; and could never be so interpreted, unless the table were placed diagonally. The following authorities are explicit.

“The design is, that the priest may be the better seen and heard, which, as our altars are now placed, he cannot be, but at the north or south side. And as Bishop Beveridge has shown, that whenever in the ancient liturgies the minister is directed to stand before the table, the north side of it is always meant.”—Wheatly.

“This seems to have been ordered, for the purpose of avoiding the fashion of the priest’s standing with his face towards the east, as is the Popish practice.”—L’ Estrange.

As to the words in the rubric preceding the Collect for the Queen, the priest standing as before, Mr. Collis observes, that these mean “not standing as he rehearsed the Commandments; for if that were designed nothing would have been said here. But standing as before, namely, as he stood at the north side of the table, before he was ordered to turn to the people. When the Commandments are read by him, he directs himself to the people; when he comes to the collect, he directs himself to the Almighty by prayer.”

NOTES OF THE CHURCH. The necessity of devising some general notes of the Church, and of not entering at once on controversial debates concerning all points of doctrine and discipline, was early perceived by Christian theologians. Tertullian appeals, in refutation of the heresies of his age, to the antiquity of the Church derived from the apostles, and its priority to all heretical communities; Irenæus, to the unity of the Church’s doctrines, and the succession of her bishops from the apostles; St. Augustine, to the consent of nations; St. Jerome, to the continued duration of the Church from the apostles, and the very appellation of the Christian name. In modern times, Bellarmine the Romanist added several other notes, such as,—agreement with the primitive Church in doctrine; union of members among themselves and with their head; sanctity of doctrine and of founders; continuance of miracles and prophecy; confession of adversaries; the unhappy end of those who are opposed to the Church, and the temporal felicity conferred on it. Luther assigned as notes of the true Church, the true and uncorrupted preaching of the gospel; administration of baptism, of the eucharist, and of the keys; a legitimate ministry, public service in a known tongue, and tribulations internally and externally. Calvin reckons only truth of doctrine and right administration of the sacraments, and seems to reject succession. The learned theologians of the Church of England adopt a different view in some respects. Dr. Field admits the following notes of the Church: truth of doctrine; use of sacraments and means instituted by Christ; union under lawful ministers; antiquity without change of doctrine; lawful succession, i. e. with true doctrine; and universality in the successive sense, i. e. the prevalence of the Church successively in all nations. Bishop Taylor admits, as notes of the Church, antiquity, duration, succession of bishops, union of members among themselves and with Christ, sanctity of doctrine.

Palmer, from whom this account is abridged, takes, as notes of the Church, what the Nicene, or Constantinopolitan, Creed gives, as the Church’s attributes, “One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic.”

NOVATIANS. A Christian sect, which sprang up in the third century; occasioned by the jealousy which Novatian, a priest of Rome, conceived upon seeing Cornelius raised to the episcopate of the Roman Church, to which he himself aspired. Enraged at the disappointment, he endeavoured to blacken the character of Cornelius, by charging him with a criminal lenity towards those who had apostatized during the persecution of Decius. He 536maintained, that such persons ought indeed to be exhorted to repentance, but never to be absolved by the Church, reserving their absolution to God alone, who had the power and authority to remit sins. Hence he was led to deny, in general, that the Church had the power of remitting mortal sins, upon the offender’s repentance. And at last he went so far as to deny that apostates could ever hope for pardon even from God himself: a doctrine which so terrified some of those who had lapsed and repented, that, in despair, they quite abjured Christianity, and returned to Paganism.

The followers of Novatian added to this original heresy of their master another, which was the unlawfulness of second marriages; against which they were as severe as against apostates; denying communion for ever to such persons as married a second time after baptism, and treating widows who married again as adulteresses.

As these heretics pretended that the Church was corrupted by the communion it granted to sinners, it is no wonder they rebaptized those they gained over to their sect. In baptizing, they used the received forms of the Church, and had the same belief concerning the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in whose name they baptized. St. Cyprian rejected their baptism, as he did that of all heretics; but it was admitted by the eighth canon of the Council of Nice.

The Novatians put on the external appearance of great piety and purity; and though they did not refuse the title of Novatians, they assumed the proud appellation of Catharii, that is, the Pure, or Puritans; and like the Pharisees among the Jews, they would not suffer other men to come near them, lest their purity should be defiled thereby.

The schism which Novatian had formed in the Roman Church was not confined to Rome, nor to Italy, nor even to the West. It made its way into the East, and subsisted a long time at Alexandria, in several provinces of Asia, at Constantinople, in Scythia, and in Africa. The Novatians abounded particularly in Phrygia and Paphlagonia. Constantine seems to have favoured them a little by a law of the year 326; which preserves to them their churches and burying-places, provided they never belonged to the Catholic Church. But in a famous edict about the year 331, he sets them at the head of the most detestable of all heretics, forbidding them to hold public or private assemblies, confiscating their oratories or churches, and condemning their leaders to banishment. It is pretended this edict had not the designed effect as to the Novatians, by means of Acesius their bishop, who resided at Constantinople, and was in great esteem with the emperor, on account of his virtuous and irreproachable life. The Novatian sect was entirely extinct, or at least reduced to a very inconsiderable party, about the middle of the fifth century.

NOVEMBER, FIFTH OF. (See Forms of Prayer.)

NOVICES, in countries where monachism prevails, are those persons who are candidates, or probationers, for a religious life. The time of their probation is called the Noviciate; after which, if their behaviour is approved, they are professed, that is, admitted into the order, and allowed to make the vows, wear the habit, &c.

The novices among the Jesuits are disciplined in a very peculiar manner. To make them the better understand the nature and extent of the obedience they owe to their superiors, they have certain emblematical pictures in their chambers or studies. For example: in the middle of the canvass is a boy stooping down with a piece of timber on his shoulders, with this motto, fortiter, upon it. He has a harp in his hand, to intimate the cheerfulness of his submission. On the right hand is a little dog in a rising posture, to show that the novice is to obey with despatch and expedition. His breast is open, to show that his superiors have his heart as well as his limbs at their service. His mouth is represented shut, to show that there must be no grumbling or contesting the point with his superiors; and his ears are stopped, to intimate that he must submit to orders however unacceptable to that sense.

If a novice breaks through any part of this submission, he has a penance enjoined him according to the nature of his misbehaviour. For instance, if he discovers a haughty disposition, he is ordered to go into the infirmary and perform the coarsest offices to the sick and decrepit. If he refuses to do as he is bid, or murmurs at it, he is brought into the refectory at dinner or supper time, and obliged to confess his fault upon his knees before all the company.

NUMBERS, THE BOOK OF. A canonical book of the Old Testament. It is the fourth book of the Pentateuch or Five Books of Moses, and receives its denomination from the numbering of the families of Israel, by Moses and Aaron; who mustered the tribes, and marshalled the army 537of the Hebrews, in their passage through the wilderness.

A great part of this Book is historical, relating several remarkable events which happened in that journey; as, the sedition of Aaron and Miriam; the rebellion of Korah and his companions; the murmurings of the whole body of the people; Balaam’s prophecy; the miraculous budding of Aaron’s rod, &c. It gives likewise a distinct account of the several stages of journeyings through the wilderness. But the greatest part of this Book is spent in enumerating the several laws and ordinances, not mentioned in the preceding books; such as, the office and number of the Levites; the trial by the waters of jealousy; the rites to be observed by the Nazarites; the making of fringes on the borders of their garments; the law of inheritance; of vows; of the cities of refuge, &c.

The Book of Numbers comprehends the history of about thirty-eight years, though the most part of the things related in it fell out in the first and last of these years, and it does not appear when those things were done which are related in the middle of the Book.

NUMERALS. The designation of twelve priests, in the cathedral of Nola (inferior to the canons).—Jebb.

NUNS. Those women who devote themselves, in a cloister or nunnery, to a religious life. (See Monks.)

There were women, in the ancient Christian Church, who made public and open profession of virginity, before the monastic life, or name, was known in the world; as appears from the writings of Cyprian and Tertullian. These, for distinction’s sake, are sometimes called ecclesiastical virgins, and were commonly enrolled in the canon or matricula of the Church. They differed from the monastic virgins chiefly in this—that they lived privately in their fathers’ houses, whereas the others lived in communities. But their profession of virginity was not so strict as to make it criminal in them to marry afterwards, if they thought fit.

In the following ages, the censures of the Church began to be inflicted upon professed virgins who should marry; and these censures seem to have grown more severe, in proportion to the esteem and value Christians set upon celibacy and the monastic life. Yet there never was any decree for rescinding or making null such marriages.

Some canons allowed virgins to be consecrated at twenty-five years of age, and others at sixteen or seventeen; but time quickly showed, that neither of these terms were so conveniently fixed as they might be. Other canons, therefore, required virgins to be forty years old, before they were veiled, as may be seen in the Councils of Agde and Saragossa. And the imperial laws decreed, that, if any virgin was veiled before that age, either by the violence or hatred of her parents, (which was a case that often happened,) she was at liberty to marry. Hence appears a wide difference between the practice of the ancient Christian Church in this matter, and that of the modern Church of Rome.

As to the consecration of virgins, it had some things peculiar in it. It was usually performed publicly in the church by the bishop. The virgin made a public profession of her resolution, and then the bishop put upon her the accustomed habit of sacred virgins. One part of this habit was a veil, called the sacrum velamen; another was a kind of mitre, or coronet, worn on the head. In some places the custom of shaving professed virgins prevailed; as it did in the monasteries of Syria and Egypt, in St. Jerome’s time: but the Council of Gangra strongly condemned this practice, accounting that a woman’s hair was given her by God as a mark of subjection. Theodosius the Great added a civil sanction to this ecclesiastical decree: whence it appears that the tonsure of virgins was anciently no allowed custom of the Church, however it came to prevail in the contrary practice of later ages.

As the society of virgins was of great esteem in the Church, so they had some particular honours paid to them. Their persons were sacred, and severe laws were made against any that should presume to offer the least violence to them. The emperor Constantine charged his own revenues with the maintenance of them; and his mother Helena often entertained them and waited upon them at her own table. The Church gave them also a share of her own revenues, and assigned them an honourable station in the churches, whither the most noble and religious matrons used to resort with earnestness to receive their salutations and embraces.

The ancient names of these virgins were Nonnæ, Moniales, Sanctimoniales, and Ascetriæ. The term Nonnæ (from whence our English word nuns) is, according to Hospinian, an Egyptian name signifying a virgin.

In the Romish Church, when a young woman is to be professed, that is, to be made a nun, the habit, veil, and ring of 538the candidate are carried to the altar, and she herself, accompanied by her nearest relations, is conducted to the bishop. Two ancient venerable matrons attend upon her as bridewomen. When the bishop has said mass, the archpriest chants an anthem, the subject of which is, that she ought to have her lamp lighted, because the bridegroom is coming to meet her. Then the bishop calls her in a kind of recitative, to which she answers in the same manner. Being come before the prelate, and on her knees, she attends to the exhortation he makes to her with regard to a religious life, and in the mean time the choir chants the Litanies. Then the bishop, having the crosier in his left hand, pronounces the benediction. She then rises up, and the bishop consecrates the new habit, sprinkling it with holy water. When the candidate has put on her religious habit, she again presents herself before the bishop, and sings on her knees, Ancilla Christi sum, &c., i. e. “I am the servant of Christ.” Then she receives the veil, and afterwards the ring, by which she is married to Jesus Christ; and, lastly, the crown of virginity. When she is crowned, an anathema is denounced against all who shall attempt to break her vows. After the communion, the prelate gives her up to the conduct of the abbess, saying to her: “Take care to preserve pure and spotless this young woman, whom God has consecrated,” &c.—Broughton.

NUNC DIMITTIS. The first words in Latin of the Song of Simeon, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace,” appointed as one of the hymns to be used after the second lesson at even-song. It was used in this place in the most ancient times. It is found in the Apostolical Constitutions. And even at the present day this hymn is repeated at evening prayer in the patriarchate of Constantinople. The hymn occurs in the Latin office for compline, from which, and from the vesper service, our office of Evening Prayer was compiled.

After the second evening lesson out of the Epistles of the holy apostles, this hymn is most commonly used. The author of it is supposed to be that holy doctor whom the Jews call Simeon the Just, son of the famous Rabbi Hillel, a man of eminent integrity, and one who opposed the then common opinion of the Messiah’s temporal kingdom. The occasion of composing it was his meeting Christ in the temple when he came to be offered there, wherein God fulfilled his promise to him, that he should not die till he had seen the Messiah: taking Jesus therefore in his arms, inspired with joy and the Holy Ghost, he sang this “Nunc dimittis:” and though we cannot see our Saviour with our bodily eyes as he did, yet he is, by the writings of the apostles, daily presented to the eyes of our faith; and if we were as much concerned for heaven, and as loose from the love of this world, as old Simeon was, and as we ought to be, we might, upon the view of Christ in His holy word by faith, be daily ready to sing this hymn; which was indited by the Spirit, recorded in holy writ, and is adopted into the public service of all Christian Churches, Greek and Latin, Reformed and Roman, and used to be sung in extraordinary by divers saints and martyrs a little before their death.—Dean Comber.

This hymn, called from the Latin beginning of it “Nunc dimittis,” expresses the gratitude of good old Simeon, “a just man and devout,” as we read in St. Luke ii. 25–32, “and waiting for the consolation of Israel; to whom it was revealed that he should not die till he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” Accordingly, “he came by the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, he took him up in his arms, (image to yourselves the scene, I beg you,) and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace,” that is, in comfort, “according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared” to set “before the face of all people.” And the following sentence hath a strong appearance of being designed by the Holy Ghost to intimate, (whether the speaker of it perceived the design or not,) that, contrary to the expected and natural order of things, Christ should first “be a light to lighten the Gentiles;” then, afterwards, “the glory of God’s people Israel.” To perceive the fitness of Simeon’s thanksgiving for our use, it needs only to be remembered, and ever should in repeating it, that we also “have seen the Lord’s salvation.” For though we have not yet beheld our Saviour with our bodily eyes, to that of faith he is exhibited continually in the gospel history and sacraments: we may meet him in his Church; we may converse with him in our private meditations. And this we should think happiness enough for us here, whatever else we want or suffer; and be always prepared, and always willing, to “bless God,” and “depart in peace.”—Abp. Secker.

This hymn comes very properly after the second lesson, which is always taken out of the New Testament, wherein is 539contained and delivered to us that gospel, the enjoyment and participation of which is the ground and foundation of the whole hymn. It should be added, that this hymn is addressed to God; and since it may be used as the personal address of every devout Christian, no one should repeat it after a careless manner; but consider to whom it is repeated, and utter the whole after a suitable manner.—Dr. Bennet.

NUNCIO. An ambassador from the pope to some prince or state; or a person who attends on the pope’s behalf at a congress, or at an assembly of several ambassadors. A nuncio, in fact, is the pope’s ambassador, as the internuncio is his envoy extraordinary. A nuncio has a jurisdiction, and may delegate judges in all the states where he resides, except in France, where he has no authority beyond that of a simple ambassador. Sometimes a nuncio is invested with the functions of a legatus natus. (See Legate.)

OATHS. “As we confess that vain and rash swearing is forbidden Christian men by our Lord Jesus Christ, and James his apostle, so we judge that the Christian religion doth not prohibit, but that a man may swear when the magistrate requireth, in a cause of faith and charity, so it be done according to the prophet’s teaching, in justice, judgment, and truth.”—Article xxxix. The first oath mentioned in the Holy Scriptures is that of Abraham, Gen. xiv. 22, 23.

The Oath of Allegiance is as follows:—“I, A. B., do sincerely promise and swear, that I will be faithful, and bear true allegiance, to her Majesty, Queen Victoria. So help me God.” This is taken by Protestant dissenting ministers, when licensed by the civil magistrates; as is also the following:

Oath of Supremacy:—“I, A. B., do swear, that I do from my heart abhor, detest, and abjure, as impious and heretical, that damnable doctrine and position, that princes excommunicated or deprived by the pope, or any authority of the see of Rome, may be deposed or murdered by their subjects, or any other whatsoever. And I do declare, that no foreign prince, person, prelate, state, or potentate, hath or ought to have any jurisdiction, power, pre-eminence, or authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within this realm. So help me God.”

OBADIAH, THE PROPHECY OF. A canonical book of the Old Testament. This prophecy is contained in one single chapter, and is partly an invective against the cruelty of the Edomites, who mocked and derided the children of Israel, as they passed into captivity, and, with other enemies their confederates, invaded and oppressed these poor strangers, and divided the spoil amongst them; and partly a prediction of the deliverance and salvation of Israel, and of the victory and triumph of the whole Church over her enemies.

The time when this prophecy was delivered is wholly uncertain. The Hebrews believe, that this prophet was the same with the governor of Ahab’s house, mentioned in the First Book of Kings, who hid and fed the hundred prophets, whom Jezebel would have destroyed. Some say he was that Obadiah whom Josiah made overseer of the works of the temple. But most writers make him contemporary with Hosea, Amos, and Joel.

OBIT. An office performed at funerals, when the corpse was in the church before it was buried; it afterwards came to be performed on the anniversary of the death of a benefactor. Thus, in many of our colleges, the obit or anniversary of the death of the founder is piously observed. (See Commemoration.) The obiit Sundays (once a quarter) at St. George’s at Windsor, were celebrated formerly with great magnificence, and are to a certain degree still. In Kennet’s Register, p. 765, (as quoted in the Hiereugia Anglicana, p. 211,) there is the following notice. “1662, Sept. 10.—This day was published the service that is performed in the King’s Free Chapel of St. George, in the castle of Windsor, upon Obiit Sunday in the morning, (that is, the Sunday before every quarter day,) and at the offering up of the achievements of the deceased Knights of the Garter.

The Rubric. The service is the same that is appointed in the Book of Common Prayer, until you come to the Psalm for the day of the month, instead of which you have these proper Psalms, xxi., cxlvi., cxlvii. After the Psalm the junior canon upon the place cometh out of his stall with the verger before him, and readeth the lesson at the desk, which is taken out of the forty-fourth chapter of Ecclesiasticus. After the lesson Te Deum laudamus is sung. After the Te Deum is ended, they all depart out of the quire in the body of the church to sermon. After sermon is ended, the canons go to the altar, and the quire go to their stalls, and the communion service beginneth. The Epistle is taken out of the twenty-third chapter of Deuteronomy; the Gospel in the fifth of St. John, beginning at the twenty-fourth and ending at the thirtieth verse. After 540the sacrament (which is always on the Obiit Sunday) is ended, and the blessing given at the altar, the canons go to their stalls, and these following prayers are read:

Priest. O Lord, save the king.

Quire. And mercifully hear us when we call upon thee.

Collect. O Lord, our heavenly Father and merciful Saviour, we praise and thank thee, O Lord, &c.

God save our gracious sovereign, and all the companions of the most honourable and noble Order of the Garter.

Here endeth the obiit service.

The verse and response, O Lord, save the queen, &c., are used daily after the anthem in St. George’s Chapel.—Jebb.

OBLATION. An offering to God.

In the office for the holy communion we pray God to “accept our alms and oblations.” The word oblations was added to this prayer for the Church militant here on earth, at the same time that the rubric enjoined, that, if there be a communion, “the priest is then,” just before this prayer, “to place upon the table so much bread and wine as he shall think sufficient.” Hence it is clearly evident that by that word we are to understand the elements of bread and wine, which the priest is to offer solemnly to God, as an acknowledgment of his sovereignty over his creatures, and that from henceforth they may be peculiarly his. For in all the Jewish sacrifices, of which the people were partakers, the viands or materials of the feast were first made God’s by a solemn oblation, and then afterwards eaten by the communicants, not as man’s, but as God’s provision, who, by thus entertaining them at his own table, declared himself reconciled and again in covenant with them. And therefore our blessed Saviour, when he instituted the sacrament of his body and blood, first gave thanks, and blessed the elements, i. e. offered them up to God as the Lord of the creatures, as the most ancient Fathers expound that passage; who for that reason, whenever they celebrated the eucharist, always offered the bread and wine for the communion to God upon the altar, by this or some such short ejaculation, “Lord, we offer thine own out of what thou hast bountifully given us.” After which they received them, as it were, from him again, in order to convert them into the sacred banquet of the body and blood of his dear Son. Consonant to this, in the First Common Prayer of King Edward VI., the priest was ordered in this place to set the bread and wine upon the altar. But at the second review, to conciliate the ultra-Protestants, this ancient usage appears to have been thrown out. It was however restored at the last review of the Prayer Book in the reign of Charles II., when it was ordered that the bread and wine should be placed solemnly on the table by the priest himself. Whence it appears that the placing of the elements upon the altar before the beginning of the morning service, by the hands of a lay-clerk or sexton, as is sometimes the irreverent practice, is a profane breach of the aforesaid rubric.—Mede. Wheatly.

The English liturgy is not without a verbal oblation, which occurs at the beginning of the prayers and commemorations. After the elements have been placed on the table, and thus devoted to the service and honour of God, the priest prays to God thus: “We humbly beseech thee most mercifully to accept our alms and oblations, and to receive these our prayers, which we offer unto thy Divine Majesty.” Here three species of sacrifice or oblation are verbally offered: first, the “alms,” which St. Paul describes as a sacrifice well-pleasing to God; secondly, the “oblations,” namely, the creatures of bread and wine; thirdly, the “prayers,” which, according to St. John, are offered with incense on the heavenly altar, and of which the holy Fathers speak as a sacrifice and oblation to God.—Palmer.