After each of which Prefaces shall immediately be sung or said :—

Therefore with Angels and Archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify Thy glorious name; evermore praising Thee, and saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts, heaven and earth are full of Thy glory: Glory be to Thee, O Lord most High. Amen.

Then shall the Priest, kneeling down at the Lord's Table, say in the name of all them that shall receive the Communion, this Prayer following:

We do not presume to come to this Thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in Thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under Thy Table. But Thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of

Thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink His blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by His body, and our souls washed through His most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in Him, and He Amen.

in us.

After this prayer of humble access, there is a solemn silence for a while, during which the priest sets the bread and wine in "order" on the altar. This ceremony ought to remind you of our blessed Saviour's being stretched and nailed on the Cross without opening His mouth. In the mean time offer up secretly the following prayer:

Most merciful God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, having in remembrance the passion of Thy dear Son, His death, and resurrection from the dead, His return into heaven, and His future second appearance, when He shall come with glory and power to judge the quick and the dead, and to render to every man according to his works. We give thanks unto Thee, O God Almighty, not as we ought, but as we are able, and

fulfil His institution. We beseech Thee that Thou wilt look graciously on the gifts now lying before Thee, O Thou self-sufficient God; and accept them to the honour of Thy Christ and send down Thy Holy Spirit, the witness of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus, on this sacrifice, that He may make the bread the body of Thy Christ, and the cup the blood of Thy Christ that all who partake of it may be confirmed in godliness; may receive remission of their sins; may be delivered from the devil and his wiles; may be filled with the Holy Ghost; may be worthy of Thy Christ, and may obtain everlasting life Thou, O Lord Almighty, being reconciled to them, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

When the Priest,1 standing before the Table, hath so ordered the Bread and Wine, that he may with the more readiness and decency break the Bread before the people, and take the Cup into his hands, he shall

1 "The offering is the same, whether a common man, or Paul, or Peter offer it. It is the same which Christ gave to His disciples, and which the priests now minister. This is no wise inferior to that, because it is not men that sanctify even this, but the same who sanctified the one sanctifies the other also. For as the words which God spake are the same which the priest now utters, so is the offering the same.... This is His Body, as well as that."- St. Chrys. Hom. ii, in 2 Tim.

say the Prayer of Consecration, as followeth :

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who of Thy tender mercy didst give Thine only Son Jesus Christ to die upon the Cross for our redemption; who made there (by His one oblation of Himself once offered) a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world; and did institute, and in His holy Gospel command us to continue, a perpetual memory of that His precious death, until His coming again; Hear us, O merciful Father, we most humbly beseech Thee; and grant that we receiving these Thy creatures of bread and wine, according to Thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ's holy institution, in remembrance of His death and passion, may be partakers of His most blessed Body and Blood:1

1 "Dost thou wish to see the excellence of this priestly

* Here the

Priest is to take

the Paten into

who, in the same night
that He was betrayed,
*took Bread; and when his hands:
He had given thanks,
†He brake it, and gave Bread:
it to His disciples, say-

+ And here

to break the

*The Son of Man is lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have eternal life.

The Lamb of God, the Son of the Father, is broken and divided; He is divided, but not diminished; He is always eaten, but not consumed; but sanctifies all who are partakers of Him.

service? Picture to thyself Elijah with all the multitude of the people standing by around him; with the sacrifice lying on the stones; and all the rest standing in silence and breathless attention, while the Prophet alone is praying: then on a sudden the fire falling from heaven upon the sacrifice. Here is a miracle, and one most striking and awful. But pass from thence to what is being done now. Here thou shalt see not only miracles, but miracles beyond all wonder, overpowering. The priest stands bringing down not fire, but the Holy Ghost. He is long praying, not that a material flame may fall from above to devour what lies before him, but that grace, coming down on the sacrifice, may inflame the souls of all, and make them brighter than any silver purified in the fire. Who then can think lightly of this most tremendous mystery? Who, but he that is either an idiot, or a madman?"-St. Chrys, on the Priesthood, serm. iii, c. iv.