First Office of Instruction

Offices of Instruction

The First Office

¶ After the singing of a Hymn, shall be said by the Minister and People together, all kneeling, the following Prayer, the Minister first pronouncing,

Answer.

The Lord be with you. And with thy spirit.

Let us pray.

LORD of all power and might, Who art the author and giver of all good things; Graft in our hearts the love of thy Name, Increase in us true religion, Nourish us with all goodness, And of thy great mercy keep us in the same; Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

¶ Then, the People being seated, the Minister shall ask them the Questions which follow, the People reading or repeating the Answers as appointed.

Question. What is your Christian Name?
    Answer. My Christian Name is ——.
    Question. Who gave you this Name?
    Answer. My Sponsors gave me this Name in Baptism; wherein I was made a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.
    Question. What did your Sponsors then promise for you?
    Answer. My Sponsors did promise and vow three things in my name: First, that I should renounce the devil and all his works, the pomps and vanity of this wicked world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh; Secondly, that I should believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith; And Thirdly, that I should keep God’s holy will and commandments, and walk in the same all the days of my life.
    Question. Do you not think that you are bound so to do?
    Answer. Yes, verily; and by God's help so I will. And I heartily thank our heavenly Father, that he hath called me to this state of salvation, through Jesus Christ our Saviour. And I pray unto God to give me his grace, that I may continue in the same unto my life’s end. 

¶ Then the Minister shall say,

YOU said that your Sponsors promised and vowed that you should believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith. Recite the Articles of the Christian Faith as con-tained in the Apostles’ Creed.

¶ Then, all standing, shall be said the Apostles' Creed by the Minister and People.

I BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth:
    And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord: Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary: Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell; The third day he rose again from the dead: He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty: From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
    I believe in the Holy Ghost: The holy Catholic Church; The Communion of Saints: The Forgiveness of sins: The Resurrection of the body: And the Life everlasting. Amen.

¶ Then, the Minister, turning to the People, shall ask the Question following, the People responding.

    Question. What do you chiefly learn in these Articles of your Belief?
    Answer. First, I learn to believe in God the Father, who hath made me, and all the world.
    Secondly, in God the Son, who hath redeemed me, and all mankind.
    Thirdly, in God the Holy Ghost, who sanctifieth me, and all the people of God.
    And this Holy Trinity, One God, I praise and magnify, saying,

Then shall the minister and People

GLORY be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
    As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

¶ Here may be sung a Hymn, after which the Minister, turning to the People, shall say,

YOU said that your Sponsors promised and vowed that you should keep God’s holy will and commandments. Tell me how many Commandments there are.
    Answer. There are Ten Commandments, given in old time by God to the people of Israel.

¶ Then shall the Minister say,

Let us ask God's help to know and to keep them.

Answer.

The Lord be with you. And with thy spirit.

Let us pray.

¶ Then shall be said this Prayer by the Minister and People together, all kneeling.

O ALMIGHTY God, Who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men; Grant unto thy people, That they may love the thing which thou com-mandest, And desire that which thou dost promise; That so, among the sundry and manifold changes of the world, Our hearts may surely there be fixed, Where true joys are to be found; Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Then shall the Minister repeat the Ten Commandments, and after every Commandment the People shall say the response. But NOTE, That where so instructed, the People may repeat the Commandments, the Minister saying the response. And NOTE further, That the part of the Commandment which is inset may be omitted.

    I. Thou shalt have none other gods but me.

    Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

    II. Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down to them, nor worship them;

for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, and visit the sins of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and show mercy unto thou-sands in them that love me and keep my commandments.

    Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

    III. Thou shalt not take the Name of the LORD thy God in vain

for the LORD will not hold him guiltless, that taketh his Name in vain.

    Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

    IV. Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath-day.

Six days shalt thou labour, and do all that thou hast to do; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God. In it thou shalt do no manner of work; thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, thy cattle, and the stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it.

    Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

    V. Honour thy father and thy mother;

that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

    Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

    VI. Thou shalt do no murder.

    Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

    VII. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

    Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

    VIII. Thou shalt not steal.

    Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

    IX. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

    Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

    X. Thou shalt not covet

thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his servant, nor his maid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is his.

    Lord, have mercy upon us, and write all these thy laws in our hearts, we beseech thee.

¶ Then shall the Minister say,

GRANT to us, Lord, we beseech thee, the spirit to think and do always such things as are right; that we, who cannot do any thing that is good without thee, may by thee be enabled to live according to thy will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

¶ After this, the People being seated, the Minister, turning to them, shall ask the Questions which follow, the People reading or repeating the Answers.

    Question. What does our Lord Jesus Christ teach us about these Commandments?
    Answer. Our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us that they are summed up in these two Commandments: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy mind, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength; this is the first and great Commandment. And the second is: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
    Question. What then do you chiefly learn from the Ten Commandments?
    Answer. I learn two things from these Commandments; my duty towards God, and my duty towards my Neighbour.
    Question. What is your duty towards God?
    Answer. My duty towards God is To believe in him, to fear him, And to love him with all my heart, with all my mind, with all my soul, and with all my strength:
    I., II. To worship him, to give him thanks: To put my whole trust in him, to call upon him:
    III. To honour his holy Name and his Word:
    IV. And to serve him truly all the days of my life.
    Question. What is your duty towards your Neighbour?
    Answer. My duty towards my Neighbour is To love him as myself, and to do to all men as I would they should do unto me:
    V. To love, honour, and help my father and mother: To honour and obey the civil authority: To submit myself to all my governors, teachers, spiritual pastors and masters: And to order myself in that lowliness and reverence which becometh a servant of God:
    VI. To hurt nobody by word or deed: To bear no malice nor hatred in my heart:
    VII. To keep my body in temperance, soberness, and chastity:
    VIII. To keep my hands from picking and stealing: To be true and just in all my dealings:
    IX. To keep my tongue from evil speaking, lying, and slandering:
    X. Not to covet nor desire other men's goods; But to learn and labour truly to earn mine own living, And to do my duty in that state of life unto which it shall please God to call me.

¶ Then shall be sung a Hymn, after which the Minister shall say as followeth.

KNOW this; that you are not able to do these things of yourself, nor to walk in the Commandments of God, and to serve him, without his special grace; which you must learn at all times to call for by diligent prayer. What is the prayer that our Lord taught us to pray?    Answer. The Lord's Prayer.
    Minister. Let us pray, as our Saviour Christ hath taught us, and say,

¶ Then shall be said by the Minister and People together, all kneeling,

OUR Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.


THE grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore. Amen.