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Hereafter shall follow sermons on Fasting, Prayer, and Almsdeeds; on the Nativity, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension of our Saviour Christ; on the due receiving of his blessed body and blood under the form of bread and wine; against Idleness, against Gluttony and Drunkenness, against Covetousness, against Envy, Anger, and Malice; together with many other matters, as fruitful as they are necessary, for the edification of Christian people and the increase of godly living. Amen.
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.
An Admonition to All Ministers Ecclesiastical
Because the Lord requires of the servant whom he has set over his household that he show both faithfulness and prudence in his office, it is necessary that you, above all others, conduct yourselves most faithfully and diligently in so high a function: that is, to read the sacred Scriptures aptly, plainly, and distinctly; to instruct the youth diligently in their Catechism; to minister his most holy Sacraments gravely and reverently; and prudently to choose out such Homilies as are most fitting for the occasion and for the more suitable instruction of the people committed to your charge — with such discretion that, where a Homily may prove too long for one reading, you divide it, to be read part in the morning and part in the afternoon.
And where it may chance that some chapter or other of the Old Testament falls in order to be read on the Sundays or Holy Days, which would be better exchanged for some other chapter of the New Testament of greater edification, it will be well done to spend your time considering such chapters well beforehand, so that your prudence and diligence in your office may appear; so that your people may have cause to glorify God for you, and be the readier to embrace your labours — to your better commendation, and to the discharge of your consciences and their own.