[224-*] In the chancel of Bengeworth Church, Gloucestershire, is a table of the commandments, with the letters cut in box-wood. This has the date of 1591 upon it. [226-*] These are engraved in vol. xx. of the Archæologia, and, from the general style and mouldings, appear to have been constructed in the latter part of the fifteenth century. [230-*] The symbolical turning towards the east whilst pronouncing the Creed is adverted to by St. Cyril. In the Apostolical Constitutions, book ii. sect. xxviii., the attendants at public worship are enjoined to pray to God eastward. The custom of turning to the east at prayer is noticed by many of the early fathers of the church, and among them by St. Basil, who remarks, “As to the doctrines and preachings which are preserved in the church, we have some of them from the written doctrine; others we have received as delivered from the tradition of the apostles in a mystery. For, to begin with the mention of what is first and most common, who has taught us by writing that those that hope in the name of our Lord should be signed with the sign of the cross? what written law has taught us that we should turn towards the east in our prayers?.... Is not all this derived from this concealed and mystical tradition?.... We all, indeed, look towards the east in our prayers.”--Basil, Epist. ad Amphiloc. de Spiritu S. Whiston’s translation in Essay on the Apostolical Constitutions. [231-*] Funeral Monuments, A. D. 1631, p. 701. [232-*] Printed in Strype’s Life of Parker. In the same paper the communion table is noticed as standing in the body of the church in some places, in others standing in the chancel; in some places standing altarwise, distant from the wall a yard, in others in the middle of the chancel, north and south; in some places _the table was joined, in others it stood upon tressels_; in some the table had a carpet, in others none. [235-*] “The position of the table had now become the token of a distinct and solemn belief as to the nature of the eucharist, and was therefore treated as a question of conscience and an article of faith.”--Cardwell’s Documentary Annals, vol. ii. p. 186, note. The extracts given from the injunctions have been principally taken from this work. [240-*] The unostentatious and laudable practice of bestowing alms to the charity-box has long fallen into disuse in most churches; but within the last few years charity-boxes have been set up in some of our churches, and this commendable custom is again gradually reviving. [242-*] Neal’s History of the Puritans, vol. iii. p. 170. [244-*] Cardwell’s Conferences, p. 272. [250-*] Hickeringill’s Ceremony-Monger, (pub. 1689,) p. 63. OXFORD: Printed by T. Combe, Printer to the University.--May 10, 1841 _Published by J. H. Parker, Oxford._ SECOND EDITION. In the Press, with many additional Wood-Cuts,