PRELIMINARIES: BOOK II
Short-Title Catalogue 13675. Renaissance Electronic Texts 1.1.
copyright 1994 Ian Lancashire (ed.) University of Toronto

 Edited to 2003 American English by Curtis I. Caldwell on 31 March 2003 - 26 November 2003

The Elizabethan Homilies 1623

STC 13675

VOLUME 2.1

Copy-text: Certain Sermons, ed.
Mary Ellen Rickey and Thomas B. Stroup
Gainesville, FL: Scholars' Facsimiles

1968.

Version 1.0, Edited and encoded by Ian Lancashire
Data input: Claire Smith

CCH
Department of English
University of Toronto

Renaissance Electronic Texts Series 1
Center for Computing in the Humanities

THE SECOND TOME

OF

HOMILIES,

OF SUCH MATTERS

AS WERE PROMISED

and entitled in the former part of

Homilies.

Set out by the authority of the late Queens Majesty:
and to be read in every Parish Church agreeably.

LONDON

Printed by John Bill, Printer to the Kings most
Excellent Majesty. 1623.

The Table of
Homilies Ensuing.

I. Of the right use of the Church.

II. Against peril of Idolatry.

III. For repairing and keeping clean the Church.

IV. Of good works. And first of Fasting.

V. Against gluttony and drunkenness.

VI. Against excess of apparel.

VII. A homily of Prayer.

VIII. Of the place and time of Prayer.

IX. Of Common Prayer and Sacraments

X. An information of them which take offence at certain places of Holy Scripture.

XI. Of alms deeds.

XII. Of the Nativity.

XIII. Of the Passion for Good Friday.

XIV. Of the Resurrection for Easter day.

XV. Of the worthy receiving of the Sacrament.

XVI. A Homily concerning the coming down of the Holy Ghost, for Whitsunday.

XVII. A Homily for Rogation week.

XVIII. Of the state of Matrimony. 
[King was replaced with more generic "ruler" where use of King did not fit the United States circumstance.] [The original language was significantly different in vocabulary and style than other homilies in this collection. I conjecture it was written much earlier.]

XIX. Against Idleness.

XX. Of Repentance and true Reconciliation unto God.

XXI. A Homily against disobedience and willful rebellion. 
[Specific references to English royalty were deleted where necessary. King and Prince was replaced with more generic "ruler" where use of King and Prince did not fit the United States circumstance. Revision is still necessary. This homily was written shortly after repression of a rebellion. It defends the "divine right of kings", and rails against the Pope for interference in sovereignty of nations. Many of the abuses challenged in the Reformation, such as withholding Scriptures from the people, or prayers only in Latin,  have since been corrected and no longer are issues.]

An Admonition to
all Ministers Ecclesiastical.

For the Lord requires of his servant, whom he has set over his household, to show both faithfulness and prudence in his office, it shall be necessary that you above all others behave yourselves most faithfully and diligently in your high function, that is, aptly, plainly, and distinctly to read the sacred scriptures, diligently to instruct the youth in their catechism, gravely and reverently to minister his most holy sacraments, prudently also to select such homilies as be most appropriate for the time, and for the more agreeable instruction of the people committed to your charge, with such discretion, that where the homily may appear too long for one reading, to divide the same to be read part in the morning, and part in the afternoon. And where it may happen that one or another chapter of the Old Testament falls in the order to be read upon the Sundays or Holy Days, which were better changed with some other of the New Testament of more edification, it shall be well done to spend your time to consider well such chapters before hand, whereby your prudence and diligence in your office may appear, so that your people may have cause to glorify God for you, and be more ready to embrace your labors, to your better commendation, to the discharge of your consciences and their own.