A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

To preching, and to scole eke of clergie.”

And so a sermon is called “Expositio auctoritatis.”

The custom of taking a text for a sermon is probably coeval with that of preaching set discourses; and it is needless to remark, that the use of texts as authority in doctrinal points is of the very essence of true theology, and was ever the custom even of those who, professing the name of Christians, denied the truth of Christ. Even the most abominable and shameless heretics quoted Scripture for their worst tenets. A simple Christian, therefore, may well be on his guard against receiving everything for which a text is quoted, remembering that the “inspired writings are an inestimable treasure to mankind, for so many sentences, so many truths. But then the true sense of them must be known; otherwise, so many sentences, so many authorized falsehoods.”

THANKSGIVING. Giving of thanks is an essential part of Divine worship, as St. Paul expressly declares to St. Timothy, (1 Tim. ii. 1,) and has ever formed a part of the service both of Jews and Christians. In our own Book of Common Prayer there are many forms of thanksgiving, particular and general: as especially the general thanksgiving, which was added (being composed, as is conjectured, by Bishop Sanderson) at the last review, and appointed for daily use; and the eucharistic hymn, always used in the holy communion, sometimes with an appropriate preface, and introduced with the versicles,

“Let us give thanks unto our Lord God.

“It is meet and right so to do.

“It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty, that we should at all times and in all places give thanks,” &c.

But there are, besides, particular thanksgivings appointed for deliverance from drought, rain, famine, war, tumult, and pestilence; and there is an entire service of thanksgiving for women after child-birth, (see Churching of Women,) and certain days on which we commemorate great deliverances of our Church and nation, are marked also with a solemn service of thanksgiving. (See Forms of Prayer.)

THANKSGIVING, THE GENERAL. The general thanksgiving may perhaps, to some, appear superfluous, after we have thanked and praised God in the use of the psalms and hymns. But it was inserted at the Restoration, because others complained it was wanting.—Abp. Secker.

After the general intercession, there follows likewise a general thanksgiving. For though in the psalms and hymns after the lessons, with the several doxologies interspersed, we have everywhere “set forth God’s most worthy praise,” yet it seemed meet also, in a distinct and appropriate form of thanksgiving, “to render thanks for the great benefits we have received at his hands,” which, according to the first exhortation, we therefore do, beginning with that original blessing, “our creation,” then “preservation,” attended with all these secondary benefits and “blessings of life,” “but above all,” because the greatest of all, “our redemption,” attended with all “the means of grace and hope of glory,” thus ascending gradually through the long scale of blessings received at God’s hand, from temporal to spiritual, from the first to the last, from our coming forth to our returning to him again.—Dr. Bisse.