in the Epistle Dedicatory, "That it is a book very excellent in its kind, and worthy, as such, to be recommended to the world; that it is fittest to possess men's minds with that pure and peaceable wisdom which is from above, to excite devotion in the coldest and most careless hearts, nay, to possess with a love of devotion, our too nice and witty age, as being rational, solid, and ingenious in its highest flights." He thinks no book of devotion of any author of the same communion comparable to it, and, reformed from the errors with which it was first composed, he thinks it as fit to possess men's minds with an affectionate and powerful sense of the truths of Christianity, as any book that can be met with, unless any one will except the Exposition of our Church Catechism, composed for the use of the diocese of Bath and Wells.

But before I proceed further in the character of this divine book, I think fit to give some account of its offices, with some directions about the use of them, which those who are not well versed in divine offices, will not otherwise easily find out.

Know then, it consists of twelve offices; one for every day in the week, one for our Saviour's feasts, one for the Holy Ghost, one for Saints, and one for the Dead, which the Author of this reform hath entitled, A Preparatory Office for Death; and one for a Family.

The offices for every day of the week, though indeed they may be used on any other day, are appropriated to their respective days, not only for

the sake of order or method, but for particular reasons, upon which the great Author had his eye in their respective appropriations. This appears from the offices themselves; as in that of Thursday, which is all upon the subject of the Holy Eucharist, and its institution, because on that day our Lord before His passion appointed that holy Sacrament, and commemorative Sacrifice, to be a perpetual memorial or commemoration before God as well as among men, of the great propitiatory Sacrifice He made upon the cross.

The subject of Friday's Devotions is our Saviour's sufferings, and our redemption by them.

Saturday's Office is upon the same subject of our Lord's meritorious sufferings, with a particular respect to the victory He thereby obtained over sin and death, and the power of darkness.

Sunday's Devotions are chiefly upon the subject of our Lord's glorious resurrection, with some Psalms in it which become the Christian Sabbath, upon God's finishing the creation and resting from all the works which He had made.

The Office of Monday, which was the second day of the creation, is all composed in the praise of God for the works of creation, and in celebrating His infinite power, wisdom, and goodness as of the great Architect of the world, Who made it with infinite skill and art, in number, weight and mea

sure.

Tuesday's Office is made in the praise of God, as preserver and sustainer of all that He hath cre..

ated, and particularly as the preserver and guardian of men.

Wednesday's Office is appointed to adore God, as the great Governor and Sovereign of the creation, Who appoints every creature its proper office, and guides all the motions of the universe according to His own infinite wisdom and counsels, so as to bring about His own glorious designs.

The Office of our Saviour is all contrived to set forth His nature, as Mediator and Redeemer, and the praises of His infinite love towards men in undertaking and accomplishing the great work of our redemption.

The Office of the Holy Ghost is all in the praise and adoration of the Holy Spirit of God, the third person in the blessed and undivided Trinity, as He is our Sanctifier, where, after asserting His eternal procession from the Father and the Son, and His equality with them in glory, the Author celebrates His praises in most divine Psalms and Hymns, as the Author of our second birth, and glorifies Him for all His gifts and graces, and comforts to the sons of men. More particularly for illuminating our understandings, and sanctifying our wills, for helping us in our prayers, and assisting us against evil spirits; finally, for being our director, guide and counsellor, for making our bodies His temples, and for finishing the mystery of our redemption; withal, praising our Lord for sending Him in His miraculous effusions upon the Apostles punctually, according to His promise, and shewing how every person,

in the blessed Trinity, as One co-infinite goodness, contributed to our redemption, and graciously agreed to complete our felicity.

In the Office for the Dead, every thing is said, that the subject of death, or our preparation for it can require. There is set forth in most affecting manner, the misery and vanity of man, as mortal; the excellency of his better and immortal part; the happiness of departed spirits; the moderation with which we ought to temper and limit our sorrow for our dead friends; how nearly it concerns us to secure our peace with God before we die ; with many things interspersed concerning the resurrection, and the last judgment, and the impartial and indispensable justice of God in inflicting death without distinction, or respect of persons, upon all sorts, ranks, and conditions of men.

In the Office of Saints are described, in most devout manner, the Sovereign Majesty and glory of God as King of Saints and Angels, the glories of the other state in the kingdom of heaven, the union of Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, and Confessors, and and all the Saints departed, in one happy fellowship with Angels and Seraphims; the wonderful progress from grace to glory; the immense goodness of God, Who rewards such imperfect services and short sufferings with infinite rewards; and the obligation which lies upon us to mention the saints departed with honour, to commemorate and imitate their virtues, to follow their blessed examples, and reverently to obey the Church in observing those

festivals, which she hath appointed to remember their virtues, and recite their sufferings for our own edification, their honour, and the glory of God, to Whom the Church of England, in her excellent Office of Communion, first after the Reformation, did, in most Catholic manner, offer most high laud, and hearty thanks for the wonderful graces and virtues which He had declared in all His saints, and by them bestowed upon His Church from the beginning

of the world.

In the Office for a Family is briefly comprehended all what relates both to the erudition and devotion of a Christian family, and all the stages of human life are fitly represented, with the various dispensations of God toward mankind, from the beginning to the end of all things, in order to our final and perfect restoration. And as families are founded in the society of man and woman, as first instituted by God; one main part of the service proper for a family, turns upon a religious and useful discourse of the evil and good which have been derived to mankind by woman, being part of the reformation of the Office for the Blessed Virgin, said to be written by the same Author; and which in all the former editions was entirely left out.

Every one of these offices hath four parts, the last only excepted, and every one of these parts may, as they are reformed in this book, be performed in single or solitary devotion, in a quarter of an hour or little more, which make but a small part of time in every day to spend in God's service, and may