, by the variety of customs
in different Churches, and asks Pope Gregory "why one custom of masses
is observed in the Holy Roman Church and another in the Church of the
Gallic Provinces". "My brother knows," replied Gregory, "the custom of
the Roman Church in which he was brought up. But my pleasure is that
you should, with great care, select whatever you think will best please
Almighty God wherever you find it, whether in the Church of Rome, or in
the Church of Gaul, or in any other Church, and then plant firmly in
the Church of the English that which you have selected from many
Churches.... Choose, then, from each individual Church things pious,
religious, righteous, and having, as it were, collected them into a
volume, deposit them with the minds of the English as their custom,
their Use."

[11] Art. XIX.

[12] "I protest," wrote Archbishop Cranmer, "and openly confess that,
in all my doctrine, whatsoever it be, not only I mean and judge those
things as the Catholic Church, and the most holy Fathers of old, with
one accord, have meant and judged, but also I would gladly use the same
words which they used, and not use any other words, but to set my hand
to all and singular their speeches, phrases, ways, and forms of speech,
which they did use in their treatise upon the Sacraments, and to keep
still their interpretation."

[13] See Preface to the Prayer Book.

[14] The Edict of the Diet (or Council) of Spires.

{21}

CHAPTER II.

THE CHURCH'S BOOKS.

For the purpose of these lectures, we will select two:--

(1) _The Bible_, the possession of the whole Church.

(2) _The Prayer Book_, the possession of the Church of England.

(1) THE BIBLE.

And notice: _first, the Church; then, the Bible_--first the Society,
then its Publications; first the Writers; then the Writings; first the
Messenger, then the Message; first the Agent, then the Agencies.

This is the Divine Order. Preaching, not writing, was the Apostolic
method. Oral teaching preceded the written word. Then, later on, lest
this oral teaching should be lost, forgotten, or misquoted, it was
gradually committed to {22} manuscript, and its "good tidings"
published in writing for the Church's children.

It is very important to remember this order ("first the Church, and
then the Bible"), because thousands of souls lived and died long before
the New Testament was written. The earliest books of the New Testament
(the First and Second Ep