Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 2.djvu/471

SIGNING WITH THE CROSS.

Ancient Church.	Hermann. (After the Exorcism.)	Old Latin ap. Luther and Danish.	Edward VI. First Book (before Exorcism).	Reformed.
No. 1.	No. 2.	No. 3.	No. 4.	No. 5.
Miss. Bobio, 1100 years old.—Receive the sign of the Cross on the forehead and the heart. Be ever faithful. Enter the Temple of God. Worship God the Father Almighty, and Jesus Christ His Son, (who shall come to judge the quick and dead, and the world by fire,) with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. Constantinop. Let the Cross of Thy only-Begotten Son be stamped upon his heart and his thoughts, that he may flee the vanity of the world, and all the evil attacks of the enemy, and follow Thy commandments. Sarum. I give thee the seal of our Lord Jesus Christ, that thou mayest remain in the Catholic Faith, and live for ever and ever. Amen. St. Cyprian Ep. [..] ad Thibaritan. "Let the forehead be guarded, that the 'Sign of God' be kept safe." De lap[..] c. 2. "The forehead pure, through 'the Sign of God,' could not endure the crown of the devil, but reserved itself for the crown of the Lord."	Take the figure of the Holy Cross on thy forehead, that thou never be ashamed of God and Christ thy Saviour, or of His Gospel: take it also on thy breast, that the power of Christ crucified may be ever thy succour and sure protection in all things. The Lord be with you and with thy Spirit.	Receive the Sign of the Holy Cross both on the* forehead and the breast. * Thy Dan.	* Receive the Sign of the Holy Cross, both in thy forehead and in thy breast, in token that hereafter †thou shalt not be ashamed to confess ‡thy faith in Christ crucified, and manfully to fight under His banner against sin, the world, and the devil, and to continue § His faithful soldier and servant unto his life's end. Amen. Present English (after Baptism). * We receive this child into the congregation of Christ's flock, and do sign him with the sign of the Cross, in token, &c. † he shall. ‡ The faith of. § Christ's. Hooker, B. v. "The Cross is for us an admonition no less necessary than for them to glory in the service of Jesus Christ, & not to hang down our heads as men ashamed thereof, although it procure us reproach and obloquy at the hands of this wretched world."	Nothing. Genevese (Calvin). "We are not ignorant that in other places very many other ceremonies are used, which we deny not to be very old. But since they were devised either by the will and wilfulness of man, or, at best, on some slight ground; lastly, since they were devised and introduced without the Word of God, and so many superstitions have also flowed from them, we thought, without any scruple, that they ought to be abolished and done away, that the approach to Jesus Christ may not henceforth be closed to any one." T. Cartwright ap. Hooker, B. v. c. 65 § 6. ed. Keble. "This use of crossing, as it was brought in upon no good ground, so the Lord left a mark of His curse of it, whereby it might be perceived to come out of the forge of man's brain, in that it began forthwith, while it was yet in the swaddling clouts, to be superstitiously abused."