A Commination,
or Denouncing of God's Anger and Judgements against Sinners,
With certain Prayers, to be used on the first Day of Lent, and at other times, as the Ordinary shall appoint.

The occasion and design of this office. THE preface which the Church has prefixed to this office will supply the room of an introduction. It informs us, that in the primitive Church there was a godly discipline; that at the beginning of Lent, such persons who stood convicted of notorious sins were put to open penance, and punished in this world, that their souls might be saved in the day of the Lord; and that others, admonished by their example, might be the more afraid to offend. How and in what manner this discipline was inflicted, I have formerly had occasion to shew; so that I have nothing further to observe in this place, than that it was anciently exercised in our own as well as in foreign churches. But in latter ages, during the corruption of the Church of Rome, this godly discipline degenerated into a formal and customary confession upon Ash-Wednesdays, used by all persons indifferently, whether penitents or not, from whom no other testimony of their repentance was required, than that they should submit to the empty ceremony of sprinkling ashes upon their heads. But this our wise reformers prudently laid aside as a mere shadow or show; and not without hearty grief and concern, that the long continuance of the abominable corruptions of the Romish Church, in their formal confessions and pretended absolutions, in their sale of indulgences, and their sordid commutations of penance for money, had let the people loose from those primitive bands of discipline, which tended really to their amendment, but to which, through the rigour and severity it enjoins, they found it impracticable to reduce them again. However, since they could not do what they desired, they desired to do as much as they could: and therefore till the said discipline may be restored again, (which is rather to be wished than expected in these licentious times,) they have endeavoured to supply it as well as they were able, by appointing an office to be used at this season, called A COMMINATION, or denouncing of God’s anger and judgments against sinners: that so the people being apprized of God’s wrath and indignation against their wickedness and sins, may not be encouraged, through the want of discipline in the Church, to follow and pursue them: but be moved by the terror of the dreadful judgments of God, to supply that discipline to themselves, by severely judging and condemning themselves, and so to avoid being judged and condemned at the tribunal of God.

§. 2. How often, and upon what occasions to be used. But besides the first day of Lent, on which it is expressly enjoined, it is also supposed in the title of it to be used at other times, as the Ordinary shall direct. This was occasioned by the observation of Bucer: for it was originally ordered upon Ash-Wednesdays only; and therefore in the first Common Prayer Book it had no other title but The first day of Lent, commonly called Ash-Wednesday. But Bucer approving of the office, and not seeing reason why it should be confined to one day, and not used oftener, at least four times a year, the title of it was altered when it came to be reviewed; from which time it was called A Commination agamst Sinners, with certain Prayers to be used diverse times in the Year. How often, or at what particular times, we do not find prescribed; except that bishop Cosin informs us, from the Visitation Articles of archbishop Grindal for the province of Canterbury in the year 1576, that it was appointed three times a year; viz. on one of the three Sundays next before Easter, on one of the two Sundays next before Pentecost, and on one of the two Sundays next before Christmas; i.e. I suppose the office was appointed yearly to be used on these three days, as well as on Ash-Wednesday. For that Ash-Wednesday was then the solemn day of all, and on which this office was never to be omitted, may be gathered from the Preface, which is drawn up for the peculiar use of that day. And accordingly we find that in the Scotch Common Prayer a clause was added, that it was to be used especially on the first day of Lent, commonly called Ash-Wednesday. However, in our own Liturgy, the title stood as above till the last review, when a clause was added for the sake of explaining the word Commination; and the appointing of the times, on which it should be used, left to the discretion of the Bishop, or the Ordinary. So that the whole title, as it stands now, runs thus: A COMMINATION, or Denouncing of God’s Anger and Judgments against Sinners, with certain prayers to he used on the first day of Lent, and at other times, as the Ordinary shall appoint. The Ordinaries indeed seldom or never make use of the power here given them, except that sometimes they appoint part of the office, viz. from the fifty-first Psalm to tne end, to be used upon solemn days of fasting and humiliation. But as to the whole office, it is never used entirely but upon the day mentioned in the title of it, viz. The first day of LENT.

This office to be said after the Litany ended. The Litany, when properly ended. THIS rubric was, in all our former Common Prayer Books, expressed a little differently from what it is now: After Morning Prayer, the People being called together by the ringing of a Belly and assembled in the Church, the English Litany shall be said after the accustomed manner; which ended, the Priest shall go into the pulpit, and say thus, [the People sitting and attending with reverence.*] This I have formerly had occasion to shew was owing to the Litany’s being a distinct service by itself, and so used sometimes after Morning Prayer was over. But it now being made one office with the Morning Prayer, and so both of them read at one and the same time, the rubric only directs, that after Morning Prayer, the Litany ended according to the accustomed manner, this office shall ensue; i.e. after the whole Litany has been concluded as usual, with The general Thanksgiving, the Prayer of St. Chrysostom, and The Grace of our Lord, &c., and not (as I have observed some to bring it in) immediately after the Collect, We humbly beseech thee, O Father, &c. For till the three forementioned prayers have all of them been used, the Litany is not ended according to the accustomed manner. For the Thanksgiving being to be used before the two final prayers of the Litany, must certainly make a part of the Litany. And if the prayer of St. Chrysostom, and The Grace of our Lord, &c., be the two final prayers of that office, then sure this office cannot be concluded without them. But what I think clearly puts this matter out of doubt, are four words that immediately follow The Grace of our Lord, &c., viz. Here endeth the Litany; from whence, one would think, any man might conclude that it is not ended before.

§. 2. To be said in the reading-pew or pulpit. The name of a reading-pew was never mentioned in our Liturgy till the last review, (the reason of which I have largely given before;) for by this rubric, till the Restoration, the Priest was to go into the pulpit, and say the following Preface and Exhortation. And indeed that is a place not improper for the office, since the Denouncing of God’s Judgments is as it were preaching of his word. And it is certain that the pulpit was at first designed, not only for preaching, but for any thing else that tended to the edification of the people. There the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments, were formerly appointed to be read to the people in English on every holy-day in the year, when there was no Sermon to hinder it: and there also at the beginning of the Reformation, whilst the Romish Mass was continued till the English Liturgy could be prepared, the Epistle and Gospel for the day, with a Lesson out of the New Testament in the morning, and another out of the Old Testament in the afternoon, was read to the people in the English tongue. However, reading-pews having been generally brought into use before the Restoration, it was not then thought proper to confine the use of this office any longer to the pulpit, but to allow it to be said as the Minister should think proper, either there or in the reading-pew.

I. The Preface. To bring the minds of the congregation into a serious composure, the office is introduced with a grave and solemn preface; by which the Church informs them, in the first place, of the ancient discipline, and then proposes to them the best means to supply it. The ancient discipline, she tells them, was to put those to open shame, who by any notorious sins had given public scandal and offence. By which means both the souls of those that sinned were often rescued from damnation, and others also, being admonished by their example, were deterred from incurring the same danger or punishment. But as this discipline is now lost through the degeneracy of the times, and even beyond retrieval as affairs stand now, she proposes that the congregation would supply it to themselves, by hearing the curses which God has denounced against impenitent sinners; by which means, as in a glass, each one will be able to discern his own sins, and the curses he is exposed to; the serious prospect of which will be apt to awaken them from their thoughtlessness and security, and to put them upon flying from such imminent danger, by having recourse to a speedy repentance.

II. The Sentences. The original of repeating the curses, in the manner we now use them, was a positive ana divine institution, which twice enjoined it by Moses, and in obedience to which we find Joshua afterwards most religiously observed it. And Josephus also reckons it amongst those things which the Jews always used to perform. And though the circumstances in the Jewish manner of reciting these curses were purely ceremonial, yet doubtless the end for which this duty was prescribed was truly moral. For to publish the equity and truth of God, and to profess our belief that his laws are righteous, and the sanctions thereof just and certain, is an excellent means of glorifying God, and a proper method for converting of sinners. So that it cannot be unfit for the Gospel-times, nor at all unsuitable to our Christian worship; especially when the necessities of the Church require the sinner should be warned and brought to repentance. Christ indeed hath taken away the curse of the Law, by being himself made a curse for us; but this is only with respect to those that truly repent; for as to all others the curse stands in full force still. It is therefore fit, that all should declare their belief of the truth and reasonableness of these curses: the good man, to own what his sins had deserved, and to acknowledge his obligation to our Lord for redeeming him; the bad man, to awaken him from his security and ease, and to bring him to repentance before it be too late.

§. 2. Amen, what it signifies at the end of these sentences. For this reason all the people, as those sentences are read, are to answer and say, at the end of each of them, Amen. The end of which is not that the people should curse themselves and their neighbours, as some have foolishly imagined; but only that they should acknowledge they have deserved a curse. For it is not here said, Cursed be he, or may he be cursed; but, Cursed is he, or he is cursed, that is guilty of any of these sins. And consequently any one that answers Amen, does not signify his desire, that the thing may be so, as he does when he says Amen to a prayer; but only signifies his assent to the truth of what is affirmed, as he does when he says Amen to the Creed. It is used in this place in no other sense than it is in several parts of the New Testament, where it is translated Verily, and signifies no more than Verily it is true. The man that says it, verily believes that idolaters, and all those other kinds of sinners that are mentioned in these sentences, are all exposed to the curse of God; and his believing this is the cause of his repentance, and begging pardon for his sins; since he must be a desperate sinner indeed, that will not fly from such vices, for which he affirms with his own mouth so great and heavy a judgment to be due. In short, these curses, and the answers that are made to them, are like our Saviour’s woes in the Gospel; not the causes or procurers of the evil they denounce; but compassionate predictions of it in order to prevent it. And one would indeed think, when we consider that this manner of answering was originally appointed by God himself, people should be cautious how they charge it with being a wicked or foolish institution. But to proceed.

III. The application. Having heard to what sins the curse of God is due, the Church has too much reason to conclude, that we are all of us guilty of more or fewer of them, and consequently all of us in danger of God’s wrath, except we repent. To excite us therefore to so necessary a duty, that so we may escape those dreadful judgments, she hath collected a pious and pathetical discourse, to set home the foregoing denunciations to our conscience. It is all of it gathered from the holy Scriptures, that it may be more regarded, as coming directly from the word of God; and is so methodical and apt to the occasion, that the fault must be in the hearers, if the delivery of it be not attended with a happy effect.

I. Psalm 51. AFTER so serious and rational a discourse, the Church may justly suppose that we are all resolved to repent; and therefore, to assist us in so necessary a duty, she hath prepared such penitential devotions, as will be very suitable to our pious resolutions: and that they may be said with a greater humiliation and reverence, all the people are to kneel upon their knees, and the Priests and Clerks to kneel in the place where they are accustomed to say the Litany. And here they are to begin with David’s Litany, viz. Psalm 51, the most solemn and penitential one of all that he composed.

II. The Lord's Prayer, &c. After this follow the lesser Litany, the Lord’s Prayer, and Suffrages, of which we have often spoken before.