THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER: ITS HISTORY AND CONTENTS. BY THE REV. COLEMAN IVENS, CURATE OF WHITTON, LINCOLNSHIRE. AUTHOR OF BIBLE HISTORY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, LONDON AND GLASGOW: WILLIAM COLLINS, SONS, & COMPANY. 1877. 138. i. 442. PREFACE THE Compilation of the Manual on the Book of Common Prayer, the author has found by no means an easy task. In a work of such narrow compass, there was constant difficulty, what to insert, and what to omit. His chief aim has been to make the work useful; and where other writers could speak on the subjects treated of better than himself, he has thought it advisable to quote their observations, which occur, for the most part, in the notes to the text. The author, as will be seen, has availed himself freely and fully of Wheatley's Rational Illustration of the Book of Common Prayer, which has been equally useful to others who have not acknowledged their obligations to it. He has also consulted and occasionally quoted from Blunt's Annotated Book of Common Prayer, The PrayerBook Interleaved, Blunt's Key to the Prayer-Book, Procter on the Common Prayer, Humphry on the Common Prayer, Bailey's Liturgy compared with the Bible, Hook's Church Dictionary, and Short's History of the Church of England. He has found the Liturgies of Edward VI., published by the Parker Society, of very great use throughout the whole of his task. The author is not aware of any other book on the Liturgy which treats of its contents so fully at so moderate a price, and he trusts that his labours may avail in the diffusion of knowledge on this important subject, so that those who use the Prayer-Book as a manual of devotion may pray with the spirit and with the understanding also (1 Cor. xiv. 15). September 1877. C. IVENS. |