CHAPTER V. Ken's Manual of Prayers for Winchester Scholars - His Morning, Evening, and Midnight Hymns-The Original Melody of the Hymns - The Court of Charles II. at Winchefter. E may well believe that Ken, having had experience of the temptations to which the Winchefter boys were expofed, would now, as a Fellow of the College, confider how all future Scholars might best be preserved from the fascinating influence of the world, and trained to holiness. This defire prompted him in 1674 to compofe a Manual of Prayers for their daily use. He could not offer a more lafting memorial of his attachment to thofe early scenes of his youth, or a more effectual pledge of his care for future Wykehamists. It is a meffage to them of earneft love: it warns them of the deceitful fnares that furround their path, and allures them to virtue by every holy motive, and by the most eminent examples of early piety recorded in the Scriptures. "Do but confider," he fays, "how welcome a young convert is to God: it was to young Samuel that God revealed Himself, and that at fuch a time, too, when the word of God was precious and very rare, to show how much God honoured a young prophet: and you know that St. John, the youngest of all the disciples, is the only perfon of all the twelve, who was permitted to lean on our Saviour's bofom at the last fupper, as deareft to Him in affection, and who is emphatically called the disciple whom Jefus loved: and this is fuitable to that gracious promife, which God made to encourage all young perfons to serve Him; I love them that love Me; and they that leek me early fhall find Me."* This Manual is full of affectionate counfel, of encouragement and perfuafion, and of prayers fuited to the age and circumstances of the scholars of Winchester, and of all young people. The whole book is a type of his own mind. For the morning, and the noonday, for the evening, and the midnight, he gives them devout ejaculations and prayers, folemn counsel, encouragement and warning. At every turn,-" in "in their own chambers, in school, in hall, in Chapel, on their first waking, at going to bed, before and after reading Holy Scripture, between firft and fecond Peal, when they go Circum, † in temptation, after fin committed, after any bleffing or deliverance, at giving alms,—before, and in, and after Church,”—he expreffes his earnest defire to make them heavenlyminded. Above all, he gives them " Directions for receiving the Holy Eucharift,-the blessed Sacrament, which is the most divine and folemn act of all our religion." In these we have an invaluable record of the true nature of the Holy Eucharist: On the Outward Elements. "I adore Thee, O bleffed Jefus, my Lord and my God, when I confider what the Sacrament is, to which Thou now * Manual, Ed. 1675, p.2. † Ibid. p.4. invitest me, and of what parts it confifts; of an outward and vifible Sign, and of an inward and fpiritual Grace! For Thou, Lord, who knoweft our infirmities, and how little able we are to conceive things heavenly and spiritual, in pity to our dark and feeble apprehenfions, haft ordained outward, and obvious, and visible Signs to represent to our minds Thy Grace, which is inward and invifible; Thou haft ordained Bread and Wine, which is our corporal food, to picture out to our faith the food of our fouls. "On the Inward Parts or Thing fignified. "I know, O my God, that I must look through the outward elements, and fix my faith on that which they fignify, and which is the inward and invisible Grace, even Thy own bleffed Body and Blood, which is verily and indeed taken, and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper. But tell me, O Thou whom my foul loveth, how canft Thou give us Thy flesh to eat? Lord, Thou haft told me that Thy words they are spirit, and they are life, and are therefore not carnally to be understood; Lord, I believe, help Thou my unbelief!* "I believe Thy Body and Blood to be as really present in the Holy Sacrament as Thy divine power can make it, though the manner of Thy mysterious prefence I cannot comprehend. "Lord, I believe that the Bread that we break, and the Cup that we drink, are not bare Signs only, but the real communication of Thy Body and Thy Blood, and Pledges to affure me of it; and I verily believe, that if with due preparation I come to the Altar, as certainly as I receive the outward Signs, so certainly fhall I receive the Thing fignified, even Thy most blessed Body and Blood; to receive which ineftimable bleffings, O merciful Lord, do Thou fit and prepare me: Amen, Amen.† "A Thanksgiving after receiving. God, "O how plentiful is Thy goodness, my Lord and my which Thou haft laid up for those that put their trust in Thy mercy! Was it not Love infinite enough, dearest Lord, to give Thyself for me on the Crofs? Was not that facrifice of Thyself fufficient to expiate the fins of the whole world? What, Lord, couldft Thou, then, do more for me? "All the mighty host of Heaven stood amazed to see the Blood of God fhed, to see their King of glory, to Whom, from the first moment of their being, they had fung their Hallelujahs, nailed to a Cross; and all this to fave finners! Sure, Lord, none of all thofe bleffed fpirits, with all the glorious illuminations they had, could ever have imagined how Thou couldst give Thyself more to us than Thou hadft done. And yet for all this Thou haft wrought new miracles of Love for us, and as if it had not been Love enough to have given Thyself for us on the Cross, Thou hast found out a way to give Thyself to us in the Holy Sacrament, to unite Thyself to us with the most intimate union that it is poffible to conceive, to become the very food, the life, the strength, the support of my foul, to become one with me, to become the very Soul of my foul. “O Lord God, this is fo unconceivable a bleffing, this is so divine an Union, that the very angels, who fo much defire to look into the great mystery of our Redemption, who learn Thy manifold wifdom from Thy Church, and frequent the places of Thy public worfhip,-do croud about our Altar, and with awful admiration contemplate the Holy Sacra * Manual, Ed. 1675, p. 52. It is rather remarkable, that George Whitfield confidered thefe "Directions for receiving the Holy Sacrament" so valuable, that in preparing the "Communion Morning's Companion" for his followers, he adopted the greater portion of them word for word, and also many paffages from Ken's "Practice of Divine Love:" in fact, the Meditations are wholly "extracted from Bishop Ken." A Communion Morning's Companion, by George Whitfield, All his biographers, except Dr. Markland, are inaccurate as to the date of this, his first publication. Hawkins fays it was "compofed and published about the time that Bishop Morley made him his domestic Chaplain, and prefented him to the parfonage of Woodhay," which he intimates to have been in 1669. This is much too early; for it certainly was printed two years after his refignation of Woodhay, and his return to Winchester, when as Fellow of the College he would naturally take a deep interest in the welfare of the Scholars. Wood dates it as late as 1681: but we have now before us a copy published in 1675, a fmall 12m0, which was clearly the second edition."* In the books of the Stationers' Company, Charles Brome, on the 3rd of May, 1680, entered a copy "entituled A Manual of Prayer for the use of the Schollars of Winchester School:" this we may presume was the third edition. The fourth appeared in 1681, and is that referred to by Wood. It is a fmall 12mo, being "for the use of the Scholars of Winchester Colledge, and all other devout Christians.” The next edition we meet with (alfo in 12mo.) is dated 1687 this was after he became a Bishop, and when his opinions were held by all to be a high A.B., late of Pembroke College, Oxford, and Chaplain to the Right Hon. the Countess of Huntingdon, 9th edition, 1782. * In Robert Clavel's "General Catalogue of Books printed since the dreadful Fire of London in 1666 to the end of Trinity Term, 1674,” and at page 15, under the head of "Divinity in large Octavo, price of each 6d.," and quite at the end of the lift, we have the following entry, "A Manual of Prayers and Devotions for the use of the Scollars at Winchefter School, and all young People: Printed for J. Martyn." This |