It is curious that Cosin makes no reference to the main accusation levelled against him: that he" purged out' ministers,' and put in priests,' of purpose to bring in Mass." This is, no doubt, what he would have liked to do; but Mr. Lathbury clears him of this charge:

It

"I have the editions of the following years, 1604, 1605, 1609, 1615, 1622, 1625, 1633, 1636, 1637, 1639, and 1649, with some others. is clear that there was no design in the matter. And it is probable that the word 'priest' or 'minister' was substituted by the printer at his own discretion, or as a matter of indifference."'

It is not improbable that Cosin was responsible for the change made about this time in the Prayer for the Royal Family. This prayer, as first used in James I.'s reign, opened with the words," Almighty God, which hast promised to be a Father of Thine Elect and of their seed"; but, since King Charles had no issue when the State Prayers were revised early in his reign, the invocation was altered to its present form, "Almighty God, the fountain of all goodness." The change first attracted wide attention when it appeared in the ill-fated Scottish Prayer Book of 1637, of which Fuller said in his Church History that the Scots "charged Archbishop Laud as the principal and Dr. Cosins for the instrumental compiler thereof." By the Eng

1 Prynne's Brief Survey, p. 99. accusation.

2 History of Convocation, p. 270.

3

Burton makes the same

3 It is now known, of course, that it was, in the main, the work of the Scottish Bishops, Maxwell and Wedderburn.

lish Puritans it was denounced as an attempt to rid the Prayer Book of the word " elect," which "disturbed the favourers of Popish Arminianism." In vain Laud pointed out that, in the original invocation, no reference was intended to God's election in the sense taught by Calvin and that no attempt had been made to remove the word from other collects, such as that appointed for All Saints' Day: another charge was laid up for the great indictment which was to bring the hated prelate to the scaffold on Tower Hill.

But the forefront of all Cosin's offences was the compilation of his Book of Devotions. How he came to undertake this work is explained to us, on Cosin's authority, by the diarist Evelyn :

"At the first coming of the Queen into England, she and her French ladies were often upbraiding our religion that had neither appointed nor set forth any hours of prayer or breviaries, by which ladies and courtiers, who have much spare time, might edify and be in devotion, as they had. Our Protestant ladies, scandalized it seems at this, moved the matter to the King, whereupon his Majesty presently called Bishop White to him and asked his thoughts of it, and whether there might not be found some forms of prayer proper on such occasions, collected out of some already approved forms, that so the Court

1 October 1st, 1651. Jeremy Collier, in his Eccl. Hist. of Great Britain (Lond. 1841), viii. 26, says that it was written at the request of the Countess of Denbigh, the Duke of Buckingham's sister. This lady being then somewhat unsettled in her religion and warping towards Popery." The two accounts are not inconsistent.

ladies and others (who spend much time in trifling) might at least appear as devout, and be so too, as the new-come-over French ladies, who took occasion to reproach our want of zeal and religion. On which the Bishop told his Majesty that it might be done easily and was very necessary; whereupon the King commanded him to employ some person of the Clergy to compile such a work, and presently the Bishop naming Dr. Cosin, the King enjoined him to charge the Dr. in his name to set about it immediately. This the Dean told me he did, and, three months after, bringing the Book to the King, he commanded the Bishop of London to read it over and make his report; this was so well liked that (contrary to former custom of doing it by a chaplain) he would needs give it an imprimatur under his own hand."

1

The howl of denunciation with which this book was received by the Puritans, and the remarkable popularity which it enjoyed for many generations amongst Englishmen of the opposite school of thought, render a somewhat full account of it necessary here. It falls into

In

1 Five editions were published before Cosin's death. 1681 Dean Granville recommended it as a 'book which hath been, is, and will be, in reputation among the more devout and knowing Christians (notwithstanding all the prejudice that some have against it) and is made good use of not only by a multitude of understanding and well grown Christians, but by sundry eminent and godly divines of the Church of England" (Letters, Surtees Society, p. 65). The tenth edition was issued in 1719, an eleventh in 1838, and the last in the Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology (1845). It is pleasing to recall that the saintly Bishop Armstrong of Grahamstown spoke of it as most valuable (Memoir [1857], p. 44).

three main divisions, the first being introductory, with a Preface, tracing all Christian prayer to the Lord's Prayer and stating the objects which the compiler had in view these were to discourage the use of

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extemporal effusions of irksome and indigested prayers... that when we speak to or call upon the awful Majesty of Almighty God, we might be sure to speak in the grave and pious language of Christ's Church, which hath evermore been guided by the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost; and not to lose ourselves with confusion in any sudden, abrupt, or rude dictates, which are framed by private spirits and ghosts of our own.. The second is, to let the world understand that they who give it out and accuse us here in England to have set up a new Church and a new Faith, to have abandoned all the ancient forms of piety and devotion . . . that these men do little else but betray their own infirmities. . . . The third is that they . . . whom earnest lets and impediments do often hinder from being partakers of the Public, might have here a daily and devout order of Private Prayer not employing themselves so much to talk as to practice religion..

This introductory section also contains a Kalendar and a Table of Feasts and Fastingdays, both of which had a marked influence on the revision of the Prayer Book in 1661. The second part of the book aimed at instruction, its more important features being a fairly full explanation of the Commandments (with a view to self-examination), and various lists, such as The Precepts of the Church, The Sacraments of

the Church, The Theological Virtues, The Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Ghost, The Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy, The Beatitudes, The Deadly Sins with the Contrary Virtues, and The Four Last Things. But the main portion of the book is devotional, though even here short didactic sections are interspersed. The Devotions are grouped under eight heads: (1) Those intended for daily use, founded on the ancient Hours of Prayer. (2) The Collects from the Prayer Book, with liturgical notes on the various seasons of the Christian Year. (3) Eucharistic devotions. (4) Penitential devotions, with a view to auricular confession and sacramental Absolution. (5) Prayers for the King and Queen, reminding us that the manual was intended primarily for use in Court circles. (6) Prayers for the Ember Seasons, one of which was inserted in the revised Prayer Book of 1661. (7) Devotions for use in sickness. (8) Miscellaneous prayers and thanksgivings (e.g. for parents and children).

The only detail which need delay us, before passing on to consider the special objects of the Puritan attack, is the spirited rendering of the Veni Creator, "Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire," which has found its way into the Prayer Book and is one of the most popular hymns with our modern congregations at Whitsuntide. It is a singularly happy piece of translation, sacrificing mere accuracy to the expression of the original ideas in an English version which is a noble specimen of the vernacular and yet in some subtle way suggests its Latin origin.

1