men They are an universal declaration of things Heavenly working in those whose hearts God inspireth with a due consideration and disposition of mind whereby they are made fit vessels both for receipt and delivery of whatsoever Spiritual perfection There is nothing necessary for man to know which the Psalms are not able to teach They are to beginners a familiar introduction to those who are entred into the way of Religion a mighty augmentation of vertue and knowledge and to the most perfect a strong confirmation Heroical magnanimity exquisite Justice grave moderation exact wisdom Repentance unfeigned unwearied Patience the mysteries of God the sufferings of Christ the terrours of Wrath the comforts of Grace the works of Providence over the world present and the promised Joys of the next all good necessary to be known done or had are laid up in this Store-house no grief incident to man's soul or sickness to the body but a remedy may be found for it in the Book of Psalms As the Holy Scripture exceeds other writings in verity so the Book of Psalms exceeds other Sacred Scriptures in variety The Psalter is the common treasury of all good arguments and instructions the summary pith and breviary of the whole Bible therefore as the Church esteemed nothing more generally necessary for the Worship of God then the Word of God so she judged no parcel of the Word more full and fit then the Psalms But it is to be wished that we could all endeavour to make our lives conformable to those Holy patterns who were the Pen-men of these Psalms and that the Psalmists infusions and effusions may find in us the Psalmists spiritual affections to go along with them that when we say or sing over these Psalms we may not speak against our sense knowledge or conscience nor blame the Psalm or Church for enjoyning it to be used when we our selves perhaps are in fault He who would make a right and good use of the Psalms read over in private or publick must endeavour to form his Spirit to the affection of the Psalm if it be the affection of love which runs through the Psalm it is to be read with the same affection if of fear the same Spirit of fear should be imprinted upon the Soul if of desire it should be carried on with the like transportation if of gratitude to God the Soul should be lifted up with praises and come with affections that way enflamed If the Psalm carries in it the Spirit of Prayer and Supplication of Praise or Eucharist he who dares to read it must still conform and bring down his Spirit to the Psalm and whatever affection is in any Psalm the heart is to comply with that affection that by this means the often repeating of the Psalms may not prove a ridiculous piece of Pageantry we should strive to say the Psalms with the same Spirit with which they were inspired who composed them and accommodate our selves to them in the same manner as if we our selves had been the composers or as if they had been purposely composed for our use by exciting up in our selves the same affections which we may discern to have been in David or others at the same time when they composed them We are to love when they love fear when they fear hope when they hope praise God when they praise him weep for our own sins and others when they weep beg what we want with the like Spirit wherewith their petitions are framed love our enemies when they love theirs pray for ours when they pray for theirs have zeal for Gods glory when they profess it humble our selves when they are humbled and lift up our Spirits to Heaven when they lift up theirs give thanks for Gods mercies when they do delight and rejoyce in the benefits of the Messias and beauties of the Church when they do relate the wonderful works of God in the creation of the World and deliverance of his people with the like admiration and praise as they do and where-ever there is mention of punishments inflicted on rebellious sinners and rewards and favours bestowed upon the obedient we are to tremble where they tremble and to rejoyce where they rejoyce we are to walk in Gods Sanctuary as they walked and to wish to dwell in it as they wished And wherever the Psalmist as a Master teacheth exhorteth reprehendeth and directeth we are to suppose him speaking to every one of us and we should answer him in such due manner as he requires And at the beginning of every Psalm we should beg of God that affection which the Psalmist had when he composed it and desire to attain the same guift and spiritual savour which he felt Was this course as constantly used as the reading over the Book of Psalms we should in time be of the Psalmists temper and devotion and the usage of the Psalms would not seem so strange as perhaps they may to some for want of observing this good rule prescribed by the Ancients It is a course which the devouter Christians ever observed and they found it hugely advantageous for the heightning and enflaming of their devotions Some scruples may be made by some persons against the reading of Scripture in general and against the Psalms in particular the most devotional part of Scripture for they were most of them composed by David the Type of Christ and the best fitted and qualified of any man to set down a formulary of Devotions in which are contained the most remarkable things which concern Christ or Christianity and which may well enough be used by all who are sincerely Christian either as forms of Prayers or Praises of which they consist for the most part Indeed some Psalms seem to have no propriety of the Spirit of Christianity being spent in calling down vengeance upon Gods and the Psalmists enemies which is contrary to the Gospel-temper Luk. 9.54 55. but herein lies our great mistake for David the Psalmist of Israel by whom the Spirit of the Lord spake 2 Sam. 23.2 could not have in him the least malignity or revenge in the penning of his Psalms not of those of the severest character for in those Psalms he did not so properly pray as a petitioner that God would bring such and such Judgments upon obstinate sinners as he did predict and denounce as a Prophet the just Judgments of God which would inevitably fall upon such sinners Such Psalms are Prophesies and Predictions not properly Prayers and they may easily be accommodated to the Christian affection Spirit and temper All Texts of Scripture in either Testament of this seemingly-severe temper and nature may be safely admitted into the very bowels of our Souls if they could be permitted also to perform the work which they are designed for that is to melt us into contrition to mortifie us to reform us to bruise our Souls to purge all dross out of them to refine and prepare them for holy duties Besides the Jews
to bless our gracious Queen CATHERINE James Duke of York and all the Royal Family Endue them with thy holy Spirit enrich them with thy heavenly grace prosper them with all happiness and bring them to thine everlasting Kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen A Prayer for the Clergy and people ALmighty and everlasting God who alone workest great marvels send down upon our Bishops and Curates and all Congregations committed to their charge the healthful Spirit of thy grace and that they may truly please thee pour upon them the continual dew of thy blessing Grant this O Lord for the honour of our Advocate and Mediator Jesus Christ. Amen A Prayer of St. Chrysostom ALmighty God who hast given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplications unto thee and dost promise that when two or three are gathered together in thy Name thou wilt grant their requests Mat. 18.20 John 14.13 Fulfill now O Lord the desires and petitions of thy servants as may be most expedient for them granting us in this world knowledge of thy truth and in the world to come life everlasting Amen 2 Cor. 13.14 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 EXPLANATION Touching the variety of Service Anthems and Hymns to be sung by way of Antiphony or Response I have spoken something before and therefore shall say nothing in this place Indeed here I might have inserted the Anthems which are daily used in the Cathedral and most eminent Churches but I consider'd it to be needless in regard persons upon enquiry may meet with them bound up all together The forementioned Prayers I have not here Scriptur'd out because most of them as to the matter and substance of them will fall within the Litany which I shall warrant by Scripture sufficiently But here let it be noted that we pray in particular for Kings in pursuance of that precept of the Apostle 1 Tim. 2.1 2 3. which is pressed and urged with this reason that we may lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty which can hardly be done if Kings and eminent persons in Authority do not help towards it Good Kings promote Religion wicked Kings persecute it Josiah and Hezekiah did increase true worshippers as Jeroboam did increase and multiply false and Schismatical ones A good King is a very great blessing but so unhappy are we that we cannot know the worth of him unless it be in the want of him We pray for the Church which is excellently described by Bishops Curates and the people committed to their charge all which make up a Church rightly constituted and Ignatius the Disciple of St. John the Evangelist tells us that there can be no truly constituted Church without a Bishop By Curates here are not meant Stipendiaries but all Ministers to whom the Bishop hath committed the cure and care of Souls For the right constituting of a Church and for the preserving of it when it is constituted and settled we pray for the healthful Spirit of Gods grace to be poured down upon all who profess Christ and embrace Christianity with sincerity The terms wherein we pray may seem strange in regard we present our prayers to the Almighty and everlasting God who only worketh great marvels but this expression hath a peculiar reference to Gods sending down of his holy Spirit upon the Apostles whereby they were enabled to speak in all Languages the wonderful works of God Act. 2.11 and to consirm that Doctrine by Miracles which they taught the world The Prayer of St. Chrysostom who lived about the fourth Century is grounded upon Mat. 18. v. 19 20. and may be met with word for word in his Liturgy We begin and end the Morning Service with the Apostle as we begin the Exhortation in an Apostolical stile so we conclude the Prayers with an Apostolical Prayer and conclude most of our Prayers and Collects with this clause Through Jesus Christ our Lord because there is no coming to God but by Christ what we ask as we ought in his Name God will give us for his sake He is our Jacobs Ladder by whom our Prayers ascend to God and Gods blessings descend to us all good things come from God the Father through Jesus Christ our Lord. RUBRICK Here endeth the Order of Morning Prayer throughout the year EXPLANATION The Morning Prayer intended in this order is that which I have before explained which did usually begin at six in the morning and doth still in the Cathedral Churches where the Canonical hours are punctually observed Now every Canonical or greater hour did contain so many lesser hours from six in the morning to nine was the first hour from nine to twelve was the third from twelve to three afternoon was the sixth from three to six was the ninth c. RUBRICK The Order for Evening Prayer daily throughout the Year EXPLANATION THe Evening Service is exactly the same with the Morning as the Jews had their daily Sacrifice a Lamb for the Morning and a Lamb for the Evening Exod. 29.38 so we Christians in a more Spiritual sense have the same Sacrifice to offer up to God by Christ continually in the Morning and in the Evening only here are two Collects to be taken notice of which are not in the Morning Service as also the Hymns and Psalms after the first and second Lesson After the first Lesson Magnificat S. Luk. 1.46 Cantate Domino Psal 98. After the second Lesson Nunc dimittis S. Luk. 2.29 Deus misereatur Psal 67. After this the Creed the lesser Litany the Lords Prayer and the following Responses all to be ranked and placed in that order as they stand in the Evening Service without either Scriptural Notes or Explanation After this follows the Collect for the day and then two other Collects proper for the Evening Service RUBRICK The second Collect at Evening Prayer for Peace O God from whom all holy desires all good counsels and all just works do proceed Jam. 1.17 2 Cor. 3.5 Isa 26.12 Give unto thy servants that peace which the world cannot give 2 Thes 3.16 John 14.27 that both our hearts may be set to obey thy Commandments Psal 40.8 Psal 37.31 Psal 119.36 Deut. 5.29 and also that by thee we being defended from the fear of our enemies may pass our time in rest and quietness through the merits of Jesus Christ our Saviour Amen Psal 3.5 6 7. Psal 4.8 Luk. 1.73 74 75. RUBRICK The third Collect for aid against all perils LIghten our darkness we beseech thee O Lord Psal 18.28 Psal 91. and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night for the love of thy only Son our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen EXPLANATION Out of the 91 Psalm this Prayer may be enlarged as there shall be occasion in our private Devotions in which Psalm there is mention of the
may act their parts over us and we may live peaceably and quietly under them For all persons any ways afflicted for enemies persecutors and slanderers and we are to beg of God for them the same good things as we would beg for our selves 4. Giving of thanks wherein we are to bless God for all mercies already received vouchsafed to our own persons to all who relate to us to the Church and State whereof we are members to all mankind We are to give unto God the retribution of thanks for all spiritual blessings for giving us his Son and holy Spirit for affording all means to bring sinful men from their vitious courses unto himself for suffering us to be born within the pale of the Church to be brought up in Christian Religion where we have the advantages of the Word Sacraments and all the means of eternal life put into our hands We are to render to God our thanks for his patience and long-sufferance in waiting for our repentance for his calls and invitations outward by his Word inward by his Spirit to bring us to repentance for his good great and gracious work wrought upon any of us in bringing us clear off from prophane worldly and carnal courses to lead Godly and Christian lives We are also to praise God and to give him the retribution of our thanks for temporal blessings for the peace and prosperity of the Church and Nation for all remarkable deliverances vouchsafed to either for all the good things of this life in general and in particular for health food raiment friends all preservations and deliverances and for all mercies whatsoever which cannot easily be enumerated Vnder all the forementioned heads the main body of the Service constantly used in our Christian Assemblies is contained which Service is to be concluded with the Priests blessing and benediction without which the Assemblies cannot well be dismissed or dissolved These few considerations I thought good to recommend unto you not so much to instruct the knowing as to inform the ignorant who either enter not Gods house at all but it may be are worse imployed when they should be there which is an evil they consider not of and so they offer God no Sacrifice at all or else they enter it without any devotion or reverence which is another evil that they consider not of and so they offer to God a Sacrifice of fools or being entred it may be do not understand their own offering which they are to offer up and so they offer to God they know not what serve him they know not how nor wherefore But to correct those evils that persons may come to the house of God come as they should come and knowingly and understandingly do what there is fit to be done I have presented these considerations to those who do evil in Church-Assemblies and consider not when they do it These Christian Reader with the following Notes made upon our Service-Book I freely offer to thee hoping that thou wilt as kindly accept them as I do freely offer them and I pray God to direct thee and to give thee a right understanding in all things Farewell RUBRICK The Order for Morning Prayer daily throughout the Year EXPLANATION Note 1. THat Prayer is a devout ascent of the Soul to God whereby we petition him for such things as we need both for our support and duty and we ought to be frequent in this devout exercise because it is not only the great duty but the greatest priviledge of a Christian commanded by Christ's Precept and commended by Christ's Example who was frequent in Prayer not so much for himself as for our benefit and instruction Note 2. That Prayers especially publick in the Church-Assemblies are to be ordered set and prescribed because in the Church which ought to be the School of comliness things are to be done decently by observing every due and proper Scheme and Figure which the action shall require and according to the order and appointment of Ecclesiastical Governours 1 Cor. 14.40 It is much to be wondred at that any persons of sober judgments and well ground in Religion can imploy their time so ill as to devise and study objections against prescribed Prayers in the publick Service of God Because set forms were prescribed by God in the Old Testament Numb 6.23 24 25. Deut. 26.5 Christ in the New not only enjoyned a set form to be used by his Disciples Luk. 11.2 but he whose every action should be our instruction used one himself It was also the practice of the Jews from the time of Ezra and long before constantly to use set forms of Prayer by way of Liturgy neither did they use them only as a necessary provision for the Ignorant but as a secure hedge and fence to their Religion by this means to keep all mixtures and corruptions out of their Church and they had 18 Prayers or Benedictions set and composed according to the matter and form of which some say the Lords Prayer was instituted and it is very probable that in imitation of the Jews the Pagans might use set forms at their Sacrifices and most certainly they did which forms were first approved of by the Priests before they were used and when they did use them they read them out of a Book that they might neither stray in the matter of their Prayers nor offend in the manner And that the Church of Christ hath in all ages used a prescribed and set Form I think is not to be question'd After Christs ascension and before the Holy Ghosts descension they continued all with one accord in Prayer and Supplication Act. 1.14 which Prayer was certainly in a set form for as yet the Holy Ghost was not come down upon them neither were they qualified for Prayer above the ordinary rate of other men and when the Holy Ghost did come down with his extraordinary gifts those gifts continued not long and therefore an early provision was made for set forms to be constantly used to supply the defects of them which Liturgies as ours is were framed up according to St. Paul's prescribed pattern 1 Tim. 2.1 consisting 1. Of Supplications for the averting of all hurtful things sins and dangers 2. Of Prayers for the obtaining of all good things which they wanted or stood in need of 3. Of Intercessions for others for Kings and all in Authority for the whole Church 4. Of Thanksgivings for mercies already received in all which they prayed not only for themselves but in a greater diffusion of their charity for all mankind And all were prescribed 1. That the people might the better joyn with the Minister and say Amen to the Prayer 2. That the peoples wants might be the better enumerated the people themselves be the better edified all absurdities in Prayer might be avoided and all might with one mind and one mouth glorifie God Rom. 15.6 RUBRICK At the beginning of Morning Prayer the Minister shall read with a loud voice
if we perform our parts God in Christ will never fail in his To pray to God in Christ daily for his mercy to continue in the most melting state of humility and meekness always remembring that all the good we do or can attain to in this life or the next is not to be imputed to us or to any thing in us but is wholly to be acknowledged the purchase of Christ who hath by his passion and sufferings alone delivered us from the punishment of our sins which punishment is the deprivation of Gods grace here and of the vision of God hereafter For all the strength which any Christian hath to resist any sin is but a consequent of Gods being reconciled to us in Christ and for his sake not imputing to us our trespasses The Resurrection of the body That is I believe that this flesh of ours which by the curse of God inflicted on sin goes down to the Grave shall most certainly be raised again out of the Grave though it be the punishment of all mankind by reason of Adam's fall to be mortal and to dye yet this punishment is removed and allayed by Christ in respect of all his faithful Servants the bitter and noxious part of death is taken away so far as concerns them the sting of death is plucked out and the Grave is turned into a place of repose and rest where their bodies shall sleep until they are awakened unto bliss That power which raised up Jesus will raise up us also God who fetched all out of nothing by his word can by the last Trump call all of us out of the dust and restore our bodies again to us however they may be changed or transmuted Christ is risen as the First-fruits the heap will follow Christ is risen as the Head the body will follow and if it should not be so our bodies which are both the instruments and co-partners of all sin and of all righteous actions and sufferings would be left unpunished and unrewarded Now the belief of the Resurrection of the body should teach us to keep our bodies in a rising condition not by uncleanness drunkeness worldly-mindedness or floth to nail our hearts and to fasten our affections to the Earth but by purity sobriety heavenly-mindedness and an holy industry to fit our bodies for that Heavenly and Divine condition to which after the Grave we hope to be advanced And to pray to God for this perfection and bliss not only for our selves but for all others who are already entred into Gods rest that souls and bodies joyned may dwell together in the heavenly and endless life of bliss and glory And the life everlasting This is the chief good and last end which we gain by being in the Church and true Members of it Life everlasting all men on earth have life but it is not everlasting life the damned in Hell shall have that which is everlasting but it shall be death rather then life for they shall be tyed perpetually unto torments only the true Members of the Church shall attain to life everlasting an inheritance purchased for them by Christ and yet is it also notwithstanding that purchase Gods free donation if we begin with God and continue Members of his Church this will be our end Everlasting life The life we lead here is finite short and feeble but the life which shall follow the Resurrection of the body will be infinite everlasting an endless state in endless bliss to every true penitent believer and of endless woe to all contumacious provokers How should this teach us seriously to weigh and soberly to consider these two distant states and to be careful not to forfeit our interest in the one nor for a little transitory joy honour and gain or ease for a few minutes here to incur the danger of the other How should this teach us so to use and improve that moment of life which we have here that it may be made a foundation of Eternity God hath set before us life and death and seems to have left either of them too to our own option and choice And if it be so then if we will not accept of the terms and conditions upon which life is offered us we must of necessity for our despising life fall into death Certainly men as men were neither created nor decreed absolutely to Heaven or Hell for Heaven is our crown not our fate our reward not our destiny so neither is Hell our fate or destiny but our punishment God who made us rational men provided also for us rational rewards and rational punishments so that if we miss of Heaven happiness and bliss and Hell become our portion it will be for our own default it must be our own wretched contempt which deprives us of the one and brings us to the other There is an Eternity of joy to be had upon a very rational and easie obedience and an Eternity of misery belongs only to those who fall in love with those things which will inevitably make them miserable God made not death for man but he created Paradise for him the everlasting fire was prepared first for the Devil and his Angels and ungodly men by their own words and works made it to become their portion they did as it were commit a Riot upon Hell and invade Lucifer's peculiar And it is a sad thing to consider how foolish men will strive more vehemently for a sad portion in the burning Lake and endure more for Hell then for Heaven take more pains for Eternal death then for Everlasting life Now although all is true which is expresly contained in the Creed and we may say Amen give our free and full assent to the truth and certainty of it and that there is an Everlasting life is as true as any Article in the Creed beside yet it is to be presumed that there are two sorts of wicked men who shall never come to this life everlasting 1. Wicked Infidels who believe contrary to the Faith of Christ 2. Wicked Believers who live contrary to it They who would have life everlasting must have it upon those terms and conditions upon which it is offered that is not only upon the condition of a sound Faith but also of a sincere obedience as it is written If thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments Mat. 19.17 RUBRICK And after that these Prayers following all devoutly kneeling the Minister first pronouncing with a loud voice The Lord be with you Ruth 2.4 Answer And with thy Spirit 2 Tim. 4.22 Minister Let us pray Psal 95.6 Lord have mercy upon us Christ have mercy upon us Lord have mercy upon us Luk. 18.13 Mat. 15.22 Mark 10.47 48. Psal 123.3 EXPLANATION The forementioned Prayers delivered in the very Scripture phrase are Christian Salutations very well becoming the people of God and passing reciprocally betwixt Priest and People The like in ordinary use among us are God save you God speed you God bless you
our blessed Saviour repeated one Prayer three times Mat 26.44 and he questionless could have altered had he thought it either necessâ—â—â—â— or convenient Such short ejaculatory â—rayers as these come nearest to the pattern given by our Saviour who gave to his Disciples a short form and in all the Holy Bible we meet not with any example or pattern of a very long Prayer Solomon's Prayer used at the Dedication of the magnificent Temple which he built to God is the longest we meet with in Holy Scripture And saith holy Augustine the business of Prayer is rather done by sighs groans and fervency of heart then by multiplicity of words RUBRICK Then shall the Priest and the People with him say the Lords Prayer OVr Father which art in heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy kingdom come Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil Amen Luk. 11.2 3 4. For the often use of this Prayer in our Liturgick Offices and the meaning of it see before The Versicle Priest O Lord deal not with us after our sins Answer Neither reward us after our iniquities Psal 130.3 Let us pray Why this is so often used see before O God mercifull Father that despisest not the sighing of a contrite heart Psal 51.17 nor the desire of such as be sorrowful mercifully assist our prayers that we make before thee in all our troubles and adversities whensoever they oppress us and graciously hear us that those evils which the craft and subtilty of the devil or man worketh against us be brought to nought and by the providence of thy goodness they may be dispersed that we thy servants being hurt by no persecutions may evermore give thanks unto thee in thy holy Church through Jesus Christ our Lord Psal 20. Psal 86.7 O Lord arise help us and deliver us for thy Names sake Nehem. 1.9 10 11. Ezek. 20.9 Ezek. 36.12 O God we have heard with our ears and our fathers have declared unto us the noble works that thou didst in their days and in the old time before them Psal 78.3 4. Psal 43.1 O Lord arise help us and deliver us for thine honour Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Foly Ghost Answ As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end Amen Why this is used and so often see before From our enemies defend us O Christ Psal 25.15 16 17 18 19. Graciously look upon our afflictions Pitifully behold the sorrows of our hearts Mercifully forgive the sins of thy people Favourably with mercy hear our Prayers O Son of David have mercy upon us Luk. 18.9 Both now and ever vouchsafe to hear us O Christ John 14.13 14. Graciously hear us O Christ graciously hear us O Lord Christ Priest O Lord let thy mercy be shewed upon us Answ As we do put our trust in thee Psal 33.22 Note All the forementioned Prayers with the Responds are short lively active and spirited Prayers uttered with fervency which are most available with God when they come from devout and righteous souls Jam. 5.16 it is the short Prayer which pierceth Heaven God looks not at how much we pray but how well we pray how heartily and sincerely we pray Such were the Prayers of the most devout Christians in ancient times whose hearts fired with zeal and devotion did passionately send forth short Prayers as the hottest Springs send forth their waters by ebullitions See before Let us pray WF humbly beseech thee O Father mercifully to look upon our infirmities and for the glory of thy Name turn from us all those evils that we most righteously have deserved and grant that in all our troubles we may put our whole trust and confidence in thy mercy and evermore serve thee in holiness and pureness of living to thy honour and glory through our only Mediatour and Advocate Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Note the fulness of this Prayer and by this judge of all the rest Herein we pray that God would in mercy pardon the sinful frailties and infirmities of our lives and the imperfections of those very Prayers wherein we beg that pardon This we beg not for our merits for we can merit nothing at his hands but upon the account of his mercy And we pray further that he would divert from us all the evil of punishment which our evil of sin might move him justly to inflict upon us and that whatever calamities befall us in this world for our own defaults yet we may repose confidence in his mercy and not distrust him though he kill us however we may have cause enough to distrust our selves but that we may be awakned and warned by the punishments which he is pleased to inflict upon us to walk more warily for the future to make our actions more holy and our lives more pure that so we may bring good to our selves and honour and glory to him and all this as we do all other things convenient and needful for us we beg not through the mediation and intercession of any Saint or Angel but through our only Mediatour and Advocate Jesus Christ our Lord. A Prayer of St. Chrysostom ALmighty God who hast given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplications unto thee and dost promise that when two or three are gathered together in thy Name thou wilt grant their requests Fulfill now O Lord the desires and petitions of thy servants as may be most expedient for them granting us in this world knowledge of thy truth and in the world to come life everlasting Amen 2 Cor. 13.14 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 Here endeth the Litany And be it noted that the Litany is no distinct Service properly for a Service consists of Psalms Lessons Creed Thanksgivings and Prayers distinct only it is a distinct Form and many times made use of as a fit preparative to other ensuing Offices Formerly notice was used to be given by the tolling of a Bell when it was to be said The accustomed days for the saying of it are Sundays Wednesdays Fridays the three days of Rogation and other Fasting-days appointed to be observed in times of Plague Famine War and other general calamities and it is a devotional piece of Service very suitable to all such times The usual place for saying of it where it can be done conveniently is in the midst of the Church and just before the Chancel-door the Ministers turning their faces towards the Altar or Communion-Table when they say it For saith Chrysostom it is fit that the Minister who officiates in Prayer should put on the outward garb and deportment as well as the inward mind of a Supplicant and therefore he
our solemn Service and Sacrifice to him we ought in the first place to make Confession of our sins to which necessary and important duty we are not only moved and invited by the Word of God in many places and by many urgent motives and reasons but we are also by the same Word instructed how to perform it We are not to dissemble our sins before that God from whom we cannot hide them but we are to confess and acknowledge our manifold sins and wickednesses with humble lowly penitent and obedient hearts to the end that we may obtain forgiveness of the same by Gods infinite goodness and mercy This is a duty which ought to be done by every private Christian at all times in the â—loset and in the secret hambers but chiefly and most solemnly is to be done by all Christians when they are met together in Christian Assemblies that having done this first they may be the better disposed to do other things which are also then and there fit and necessary to be done 1. To render to God a tribute of thanks for mercies received 2. To render him a tribute of praise in the best expressions 3. To hear his Word with all attention due reverence and devotion 4. To beg humbly of him all necessary things which we want either for our souls or bodies for our support or duty All which things cannot be well done nor done with any good success by those who would endeavour to hide their sins from God and decline to make sincere confession of them with a purpose to forsake them For he that covereth his sins shall not prosper but he that confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy Prov. 28.13 Fourthly Thus far our considerations as to our affairs in the Temple and the house of God are right and being well entertained by us and often and seriously thought upon may rectifie many evils and disorders which by fools and inconsiderate persons are too frequently there committed Now having seriously considered all that is before mentioned and having resolved to do it too upon serious consideration then it will in the next place concern us when we are all present together with pure hearts and humble voices to make our approach to the Throne of Gods heavenly Grace and to confess all meekly kneeling upon our knees 1. That God is Almighty able to help us and a most merciful Father willing to hear us 2. That we are grievuous sinners who have neglected to do our duty and have not refrained to do whatsoever is contrary to it 3. That our condition is sad and deplorable that there is nothing either in us or from us which can minister to us any relief but that upon our unfeigned repentance our departing from sin and amendment of our lives and serious resolutions to live better for the future Grace is to be had from the Throne of Grace by the Mediatour of Grace Jesus Christ. For as God delights not in the sin of any man but would have all men come to repentance so neither is he pleased with the death of any penitent sinner but hath given forth his promises of pardon and forgiveness to be authoritatively conveyed by the mouths of his Ministers to all who have received the Grace of true repentance which we are constantly to pray for and are acted on by his holy Spirit to lead holy and pure lives that so by living exactly according to the measures of Grace received here which is Glory begun we may come to Glory hereafter which is Grace complete and all through Jesus Christ unto whose Throne we may come boldly yet humbly not trusting to our own merits but relying upon Gods mercies through Christs merits that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help us in time of need Heb. 4.16 Fifthly Having thus seriously composed our selves by a deep consideration of our sins both confessed and acknowledged and by the consideration of our wants to be supplied and of the greatness and goodness of that God to whom we are to make our addresses for the pardon of our sins and the supply of our wants Then it is very well worthy our consideration and upon consideration we may resolve within our selves that we cannot come with a better and more acceptable Prayer to be offered up unto the Throne of Grace than that which the Mediatour of Grace himself hath taught us saying When ye pray say Our Father which art in heaven Luk. 11.2 in which Prayer before we offer it up we may do well to take notice both of the method and of the matter contained in it The method of the Prayer is this 1. There is a Preface shewing whom we pray to We pray to God who is a Father and so willing who is in Heaven and so able to help us who is ours in Christ and so by a warrant and commission given us from Christ we may with the more confidence make our addresses to him As he is a Father we pray to him in hope as he is ours a common Father we pray to him in hope and as he is in Heaven we pray to him in fear humility and devotion 2. There are Petitions shewing what we pray for and in what order First we pray to God as it is fit we should for those things which concern his Glory and by which his Name may be hallowed and glorified Next we pray for those things which concern our good of Glory Grace and Nature We pray that Gods kingdom may come that his power and dominion may appear all over the world we pray that his will may be done by us men on earth as it is done by the Holy Angels in heaven and that we may all live in all holy obedience to his commands We pray that God would give us daily bread all things needful both for our souls and bodies for our support and duty whilst we live here In the next place we pray against the evil of sin past that God would in mercy pardon it and incline us to have the like pity and compassion one of another we pray against the evil of sin to come that God would by his grace keep us from it we pray also against the evil of punishment external internal eternal that God would keep it from us by his mercy This is the summe of the Dominical or Lords Prayer Sixthly Being thus as it were refreshed and enlivened by this Prayer we are next to proceed in very good order to the more solemn Service and Worship of God desiring his assistance to open our lips that we may praise him in the bâ—st manner â—or without Gods grace we can do nothing and it is most certain that the Devil will be then most ready to hinder us when we are most dâ—sirously bent to serve and praise God â—aving therefore petitioned God in the Dominical Prayer meekly kneeling upon our knees and having joyntly craved his assistance in what is farther to be done it follows
agreeable to right Reason and Religion that we should begin our Service to God with Confession of our sins that having first confessed our sins and implored God's pardon for them we may the better pray unto him and praise him for other things So David began with Wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin Psal 51.2 and then he says Open thou my lips O Lord and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise ver 15. because sin doth shut up our mouth and God pardoning sin opens it that we may chearfully pray unto him and praise him And whereas Confession of sin is enjoyned to be said of the whole Congregation after the Minister it is for these reasons 1. Because the Minister is the peoples mouth to God-ward in Prayer both to go before them and to instruct them as in Preaching he is Gods mouth to the people 2. By this means the Church like a careful Mother makes provision so far as she can that none of her untoward children should dissemble their wickedness the humble and penitent confession whereof is made so necessary an introduction to her Divine Offices Now this Confession is to be made kneeling because it is the fittest posture for Penitents that by the outward lowliness of our bodies we may the better express the inward humility of our minds All Holy men we meet with in Scripture were for this posture of kneeling at their devotion David Psal 95.6 Solomon 2 Chron. 6.13 Ezra chap. 9.5 Daniel chap. 6.10 Christ Luk. 22.41 Stephen Acts 7.60 Paul Acts 20.36 God would not have us when we come before him to worship him to offer to him and to receive from him to be as if we had no joynts in our knees he expects more from us then from the Pillars of our Churches Every day we begin our Service with a Psalm which invites us to it Psal 95.6 And the first Christians ever used to begin their Service in this manner saying Before all things let us fall down and worship the Lord who made us This was the first voice heard and the first thing done in the Primitive Church We daily utter the same voice and daily invite our selves to do the same thing and shall we never do it for all this what is this but to mock God nay to mock and abuse our selves for God will not be mocked he knows our misdemeanours in his Service and how to apportion out punishments in his own due time such as we deserve As Augustus the Emperour said to one who came rudely into his presence to petition I wonder how we two come to be so familiar so if we do but observe how rudely and with what unmannerly behaviour some persons come into Gods presence to beg pardon of him for their sins it may raise more wonder to think how God and they come to be so familiar RUBRICK The Absolution or Remission of sins to be pronounced by the Priest alone standing the people still kneeling ALmighty God Gen. 17.1 the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 15.6 who desireth not the death of a sinner but rather that he may turn from his wickedness and live Ezek. 33.11 1 Tim. 2.4 and hath given power and commandment to his Ministers to declare and pronounce to his people being penitent the absolution and remission of their sins Luk. 24.47 Joh. 20.23 2 Cor. 5.19 He pardoneth and absolveth all them that truly repent and unfeignedly believe his Holy Gospel Act. 10.43 Luk. 24.47 Act. 3.19 Rom. 1.16 Wherefore let us beseech him to grant us true repentance and his holy Spirit 2 Tim. 2.25 Act. 11.18 Luk. 11.13 that those things may please him which we do at this present Heb. 11.6 Rom. 8.8 and that the rest of our life hereafter may be pure and holy Ephes 1.4 Joh. 5.14 Rom. 6.6 so that at the last we may come to his eternal joy Heb. 12.14 Mat. 5.8 through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 5.21 Rom. 6.23 RUBRICK The People shall answer here and at the end of all other Prayers Amen Nehem. 5.13 1 Chron. 16.36 1 Cor. 14.16 EXPLANATION The Absolution is as to every part of it grounded upon Scripture Remission and Absolution are two names which signifie one and the same thing a loosing from sin wherein the Soul is held bound as in a prison Psal 142.7 Psal 119.32 Sin is as a yoke burden chain fetter which loads binds and holds fast the Soul Lam. 1.14 Psal 38.4 Psal 73.6 Absolution helps to remove this yoke to lighten this burden to loose this chain Sin is a debt Mat. 6.12 Luk. 11.4 Mat. 18.27 by Absolution and Remission we are acquitted and discharged from this debt The Heathens looked upon the characteristick A when set alone as a propitious letter because it noted amongst the Romans the Absolution of a Criminal whereas the characteristical letter C was the mark of a condemned person but in Christianity let C for Confession be placed before A for Absolution it alters the case very much Some persons indeed have been very much offended at the word Absolution and therefore prevailed to have the word Remission stand by it to be its Interpreter into milder sense those persons I conceive to be like some people which I have read of who fearing their Tygers called them by more gentle names that they might not be devoured by them But some scruple may again be made why the Priest alone should pronounce this Absolution and that in the standing posture when all the people are still upon their knees Which scruple may easily be removed from those who can distinguish the Priest and a Minister in his Office from an ordinary person not invested into Holy Orders For the Priest especially when in his Office and officiating is in Christ's stead and acting in one part of his Commission given to him by Christ which is to absolve penitents Mat. 16.19 John 20.23 Neither doth he absolve by way of declaration only but by way of authority Jam. 5.14 15. which authority is absolutely and originally in God who is only able to forgive sins by the highest and most unquestionable authority Mark 2.8 Yet there is by the Charter of the Church a subordinate delegate power derived from God by Christ to the Priests and Ministers for to remit or to retain sin John 20.22 23. The Priest remits or retains sin as a Civil Magistrate pardons or condemns a Malefactor not by any power originally in themselves but by a power delegated from God And to shew by what power he acts the Priest pronounceth the Absolution standing and when the Confession of sin is serious from the heart unfeigned such as God requires and will accept of the Priest's Absolution is without question as effectual as if God himself did pronounce it from Heaven Heaven waits for and expects the Priest's sentence on Earth and if the person to be absolved by an hypocritical and feigned repentance make not the key to fail in such cases
what the Servant binds or looses here on Earth the Lord himself ratifies and confirms in Heaven Mat. 18.18 19. Now in the Absolution to be pronounced by the Minister or rather after it this clause is added Wherefore let us beseech him to grant us true repentance and his holy Spirit and may seem to be added for these reasons following 1. To shew that as Repentance is a necessary disposition to pardon so that it is also a necessary consequent of it for he who is pardoned ought to be as much a penitent if he truly understands himself as he who seeks pardon as we are daily liable to sin so for our own safety we are to secure and keep our selves within the state of pardon which we cannot do but by continuing in a state of Repentance besides the sad remembrance of sin though pardon'd ought to be always grievous to us 2. Because after a sin is pardoned and remitted the Devil is most busie to tempt the sinner either to commit the same sin again or a worse therefore as in the Lords Prayer we are taught to pray first to have our sins forgiven and next not to be led into temptation so here no sooner is Absolution and Remission of sins declared and pronounced by the Priest as a great priviledge and favour granted to all sincere Penitents and sound believers but the same pardoned persons are invited and stirred up in their own defence to pray for a continued Repentance and assistance of Gods holy Spirit that they may be secure from all Satans temptations for the future and make the grace of Pardon already granted a new obligation to more holy living that so we may not only please God in our present Devotions but also in our future life for most certain it is that every lapse after pardon is the greater sin John 5.14 2 Pet. 2.20 But we are to note in the last place that the people are enjoyned to answer Amen as at the end of this so of every Prayer in the Service-Book because Amen if pronounced as from the heart is an Indication of the peoples assent to the preceding Prayer and an affirmation that the thing prayed for is good and necessary for them and a tollification of the peoples votes and desires to obtain it It hath ever been used at the end of Prayers and pronounced with a loud voice carrying in it devotion zeal and fervency it is the last acclamation of our prayers in the pronouncing of which the Primitive Christians were wont to raise up their bodies as if they had a desire to carry their bodies as well as their souls up to Heaven RUBRICK Then the Minister shall kneel and say the Lords Prayer with an audible voice the People also kneeling and repeating it with him both here and wheresoever else it is used in Divine Service OUr Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name Mat. 6.9 thy kingdom come thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven ver 10. give us this day our daily bread ver 11. and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us ver 12. 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 ver 13. EXPLANATION They must certainly be vain and wicked acted on by some wild and extravagant spirit who to make way for their own crude and humane breathings not fit sometimes to carry the name of Prayers would thrust the Lords Prayer quite out and allow it no place in the publick Divine Service which is as the Salt of the Sacrifice and that which should season all our Liturgick Offices Certainly as men may use other Prayers so they ought not to be restrained nor to restrain themselves from the use of this which is a Prayer used by the Church of Christ all the world over dictated at first by the supreme wisdom of our great and eternal Mediator Jesus Christ who presents our Prayers unto God and perfectly knows our Fathers mind It is the most complete Prayer which can be made summing up all the most lawful requests which can be imagined the epitome mirrour rule of all other Prayers in a wonderful brevity of words including so great plenty and variety of matter as if it would make a Camel to pass through a Needles-eye It contains in it more histories and mysteries then words it is the most methodical emphatical divine Prayer that ever yet was or shall be composed for all the parts of it cohere with an admirable symmetry it is exactly made in measure and proportion all of it is full of Torches which enlighten each other not all the wits on Earth nor Angels in Heaven were ever capable of dictating the like There is as much difference betwixt this and Prayers of man's composing as betwixt the Tabernacle and Pattern upon the Mount the Tabernacle was Earthly framed by man the Pattern Heavenly formed by God so this Prayer is all over coelestial and divine whereas our Prayers are at the best but humane and framed up by man's industry Neither is there any man so knowing or so religious who is not subject to many failings in the composure of his Prayers they are subject to imperfection to excess to disorders to many irregularities we cannot possibly be without some errour in this business either we want or exceed are too short or too long or raise our thoughts out of rank and place when we speak our own Prayers but in saying the Lords Prayer if our hearts go along with the prayer we cannot fail to speak well we omit nothing we speak nothing superfluous we are not extravagant we cannot be impertinent in our words Therefore having framed up Prayers according to what is possible for us to do and having well considered the defects of them we have recourse to this most absolute Prayer of Christ for the perfecting of all the imperfections in our own Certainly we who are Christians ought to say this Prayer because Jesus Christ hath put it into our mouths and made it to be the abridgment of all Prayer wherein are summed up all lawful requests He hath given it to be a rule and guide for us to pray by and an exact form for us to pray in It is a Prayer of universal concernment in respect of things contained in it persons using it times when and places where it may be used All the Churches of the Christian World pronounce it and it must needs be a great consolation to us to keep our part in this great consort we may say it in prosperity and adversity in Peace and War in health and sickness in life and at the hour of death young and old rich and poor noble and ignoble Princes and Peasants may all pronounce it together Therefore not without good reason is it so frequently used in our Liturgick Offices because it is so large for matter so short and
read and approved of as our own Comments upon a Text of Scripture which it is to be presumed we would not have to be taken for Canonical Scripture They who are most against the reading of them cannot but confess our Sermons and Tractates to have as little of the Spirit of infallibility and Sanctification as the Apocryphal Books So far as they are consonant to the Word of God they are Canonical though not Proto-Canonical There is truth in them and we are to embrace truth wherever we meet with it for it is Gods whoever speaks it or writes it we read them not to confirm us in matters of Faith but to instruct us in life and manners because they contain in them many excellent moral precepts for the regulating of our lives and well ordering of our conversations Again some part of the Canonical is not enjoyned to be read publickly in the Congregation not because the Authority of it is undervalued but because it is not so useful for Edification nor so fitted to the understandings and capacities of the people as those portions of Scripture are which are enjoyned to be read those necessary parts of Scripture which God hath made easie the Church desires should be made familiar and frequently read to the people Therefore she orders the Psalms to be read over once every month most part of the Old Testament once a year the New thrice and hath so sorted the Lessons Prayers Psalms Epistles and Gospels for some Festivals that they edifie as much as any ordinary Sermons if people were but so wise as to consider the wise directions of the Church and to value her prudence as much as they do their own foolish humors Now the Lessons are taken one out of the Old another out of the New Testament that by frequent reading of them we may observe the Harmony of both for as the Cherubins of Glory looked each upon other and both closed with their wings over the Mercy-seat so the Two Testaments look each upon other both upon Christ who is the supplement of the one and the complement of the other in the one promised in the other exhibited the Law being an hidden Gospel and the Gospel a revealed Law The Patriarchs Prophets Evangelists Apostles wrote by the same Spirit pointed at the same Messias were saved by the same Faith and this may very much confirm us in the truth of the Scriptures when we read that exactly fulfilled in the New Testament which was so punctually foretold in the Old Besides it may be a means of converting the Jews as well as confirming us Christians for they may in time embrace Christ's Gospel with us when they see us embrace Moses and the Prophets together with them But in taking Lessons first out of the Old Testament and then out of the New the Church observes the method of the Holy Spirit who first published the Old then the New first the precepts of the Law then of the Gospel and by this method we are taught to go forward in our knowledge from smaller things to greater from the lowest to the highest for the Law is as a Paedagogue teaching the first Rudiments the Institutions of highest perfection are contained in the Gospel The Minister is to read the Lessons distinctly with a sober grave and audible voice and he is to turn himself towards the people when he reads because he is upon an office directed to them whereas in Prayer he looks another way towards the more eminent part of the Church where use to be placed the Symbols of God's more especial presence with whom the Minister in Prayer hath chiefly to do For the same reason we may suppose that the Christians in former times used to pray with their faces Eastward because in the Chancel which was the East part of the Church stood the Holy Table where the highest of Religious Services were usually performed and the Sacrament of Christ's body and bloud was administred which is the special sign of God's mysterious presence The Jews at the reading of the Law and other Scriptures looked toward the people but in Prayer toward the Mercy-seat or principal part of the Temple Psal 28.2 and Christians may in all probability do the like in imitation of the Jews for as their Mercy-seat was a type and figure of Christ so the Holy Table and the Sacred Mysteries there performed are representations of him in a more special manner Neither did the Jews nor do the Christians this out of any superstitious conceit that God cannot or will not hear our Prayers unless we look Eastward when we pray as the Jews looked toward the Oracle or Mercy-seat for we know God is Omnipresent every where present yet for all this Christ directed us by his form of prayer to look towards Heaven when we pray because it is the Throne of God Te Deum Laudamus WE praise thee O God we acknowledge thee to be the Lord Psal 67.3 Psal 99.34 Psal 148.1 All the Earth doth worship thee the Father everlasting To thee all Angels cry aloud the Heavens and all the Powers therein Psal 148.2 To thee Cherubin and Seraphin continually do cry Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabaoth Heaven and Earth are full of the Majesty of thy Glory Isa 6.3 Rev. 4.8 Isa 66.1 Jer. 23.24 The glorious company of the Apostles praise thee The goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise thee Rev. 4.10 11. The noble army of Martyrs praise thee Rev. 6.9 10. The holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge thee Psal 67.2 The Father of an infinite Majesty Psal 93.1 Thine honourable true and onely Son Mat. 17.5 Luk. 1.32 Heb. 1.3 4 5. Also the Holy Ghost the Comforter John 14.26 Thou art the King of Glory O Christ Rev. 17.14 Psal 24.8 Luk. 19.38 Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father Rom. 1.4 Isa 9.6 Luk. 1.35 John 8.58 John 17.5 When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man thou didst not abhor the Virgins womb Philip. 2.6 7. Mat. 1.25 When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death thou didst open the kingdom of Heaven to all believers John 14.2 3. John 17.24 Heb. 9.8 9 10 11. Heb. 10.19 20. Thou sittest at the right hand of God in the glory of the Father Act. 2.33 Heb. 10.12 Heb. 12.2 We believe that thou shalt come to be our Judge Rom. 2.16 Act. 1.11 Act. 17.31 We therefore pray thee help thy servants whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious bloud 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Psal 74.2 Make them to be numbred with thy Saints 〈◊〉 in glory everlasting Colos 1.12 John 17.22 O Lord save thy people and bless thine heritage Govern them and lift them up for ever Joel 2.17 Psal 28.9 Day by day we magnifie thee Psal 96 2◠Psal 145.2 And we worship thy Name ever world without end Psal 61.8 Vouchsafe O Lord to keep us this day without sin Psal 17.5 Gen. 20.6 O Lord have mercy upon us have mercy upon us Psal 123.3 O Lord
expectation of Christ's coming to Judgment should teach us to be constant in making up our accounts against his coming as persons daily expecting a righteous though a gracious Judge to sit upon us He is one who will come in flames of fire and in great wrath to take vengeance on his Adversaries and upon all who do not obey the Gospel one who will not only sift our actions but search our very hearts and reins who will not suffer any one sin to be carried along under the disguise of Religion or on confidence of his favour but will come from his Throne of Mercy in Heaven and sit upon his Throne of Justice here upon the Earth to judge all his provokers one who will not be moved with passions bribes flatteries to punish or reward according to any other method or rule but only this of every man according to his works Rom. 2.6 This one would think should bring us to a pious awe of him restrain us from sin keep us in good courses and make us work out our Salvation with fear and trembling I believe in the Holy Ghost who is God a distinct person in the Godhead from the Father and the Son and proceeding from both In respect of Nature the Father is holy and the Son holy the Father is a Spirit and the Son is a Spirit but in regard of Office the third person in the Trinity is eminently stiled the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit He is stiled the Holy 1. From the holiness of his Nature 2. From the holiness of his Office whose special Office it is to make the Church holy The Father sanctifies by the Son and by the Holy Ghost the Son sanctifies from the Father by the Holy Ghost the Holy Ghost sanctifies from the Father and the Son immediately by himself Again he is stiled the Spirit 1. In regard of his Nature which is spiritual 2. In regard of his procession from the Father and the Son being as it were inspired and breathed from both 3. In regard of his operation and manner of working for he inspires and breaths into us holy motions and desires to good things and is the Fountain and Spring of all spiritual life in us This Holy Spirit is holy in himself pure from all sin pollution corruption hypocrisie partiality and that most eminently and he is the Author of all holiness and purity in us which he works in us by two ways of dispensation 1. Outward 2. Inward His outward dispensation was in most eminent manner when he descended visibly upon the Apostles filled them with Graces and furnished them with Powers to plant preserve and govern the Church of Christ over the World The Powers which he invested the Apostles with were these 1. To preach the Gospel 2. To baptize those Nations which embraced it 3. To confirm those whom they had baptized 4. To admit those to the Sacrament of Christ's body and bloud whom they had confirmed 5. To exercise the powers of the Keys in Censures in punishing the pertinacious and casting those out of the Church who would not conform to the rules and orders of it that so they might be ashamed and be made to reform their wicked lives and be capable of being received in again by Absolution upon their sincere repentance evidenced by their Reformation 6. To ordain others and to commit the same powers to them which the Holy Ghost had settled in themselves and so to continue a settled Ministry by succession unto the end of the world In respect of all these forementioned donations the Holy Ghost is stiled a Paraclete by which word we are to understand 1. An Advocate 2. A Comforter 3. An Exhorter and Instructer Now the Holy Ghost is to be considered as an Advocate 1. In respect of Christ 2. In respect of Christians Now the Holy Ghost is Christ's Advocate in pleading his cause against the incredulous world by a threefold conviction John 16.8 1. Of Sin and that great crime of not receiving Christ but rejecting him who was testified and demonstrated by the coming down of the Holy Spirit after his Ascension to be a true Prophet 2. Of Righteousness to convince the world that Christ was a righteous person and unjustly crucified as appeared by his Assumption into Heaven and participation of his Father's Glory 3. Of Judgment to convince all men that Christ who was judged in the world shall judge the world and pass sentence upon the Devil the Prince of this world who was the first contriver of his death and upon all who side with him and take his part Again as the Holy Ghost is Christ's Advocate so is he also the Advocate of all Christians 1. In settling a Ministry to pray and intercede for their several Congregations and enabling them to form a Liturgy to be continued in the Church to that end thereby helping our infirmities and teaching us to pray as we ought 2. In sanctifying those Prayers which the Church daily offers up to the only true God by the only true Mediator Jesus Christ that so they may be offered up with acceptance to the Father by Christ our Mediator Again as the Holy Ghost is an Advocate so is he also a Comforter for by power and abilities bestowed upon men the comfortable news of the Gospel the promises of pardon and grace are divulged to those who want comfort Lastly the Holy Ghost is our Exhorter and Instructer in exhorting us to Repentance to fly from sin and the wrath to come and to walk worthy of the great vocation and calling of our Christianity unto which we are called and by exercising all external means which belong to his Titles and Offices for the working of all manner of sanctity in our hearts and by using all inward means secret preventions incitations over-shadowings and all other assistances which are absolutely necessary to beget and continue holiness in our hearts All which do attend upon his outward ministrations before-mentioned and constantly go along with them to hollow them to all worthy receivers and obedient disciples Now to believe in the Holy Ghost is to acknowledge the truth of all that is before made mention of and to accommodate our practice accordingly and to conform to this Faith 1. By submitting our selves to those Spiritual Pastors whom the Holy Ghost hath set over us as they themselves are to be careful of that Flock whereof the Holy Ghost hath made them Overseers 2. By not intruding into and usurping upon the Sacred Function and Ministry nor meddling in it without a lawful call and such as may justifie it self to be from Heaven 3. By obeying all the several Powers which the Church is invested with 4. By devout hearing the Word 5. By due preparing our selves for Baptism and bringing others to it 6. By fitting our selves for Confirmation 7. By examining our selves that we may come fitly prepared to the Lords Supper 8. By fearing the Church-censures and if we are at any time under them by
Psal 129.8 2 John 10. which are not to be thought idle Complements whereby we take the name of God in vain but Christian and commendable civilities and duties which were commonly used and practised by Christians in the time of the Apostles 2 John 10 11. In the Liturgies of St. James Basil Chrysostom and the Aethiopians the Priest was wont to say Peace be unto you to which the People replied And with thy Spirit In the old Liturgy of Spain called Mozarabe because the Christians were mingled with Arabians the Priest said The Lord be with you the People answered And with thy Spirit the Priest again said Help me brethren in your prayers and the People answered The Father Son and Holy Ghost help thee Petrus Damianus wrote a whole Book upon this argument intituled The Lord be with you It was used in the Latine Church ever since their Liturgy was composed by Damasus and supposed to be deduced out of the Greek Church into the Latine it is of very ancient use and is one of the first Formula's of devotion used in the Christian Church at first it belonged only to the Ministers of the lower Order and when the Bishop did officiate he used in place thereof Peace be unto you but in the Braccarian Council it was decreed that the Bishop and Presbyter should use one and the same form and determined the form to be this The Lord be with you adding this As it is used in all the Orient which shews the custom to be changed since Chrysostom's time or else we must reject a great part of his Works for counterfeit Epiphanius saith that this form of Salutation was derived from our Saviour's first greeting of his Apostles after his Resurrection John 20.19 However it did anciently denote a transition from one part of the Service unto another as it is here applyed by our Church for the very same purpose These mutual and reciprocal Salutations were prudently and Christianly made a part of the publick Service to continue that agreement and love which ought to be between Pastor and People and the very order of it shews that it is the Ministers office to begin and the peoples duty to correspond in all good affections and kindness when the Minister is as Paul the people should be as Galathians chap. 4.15 not only reverence his place but also love his person The Pastor cannot wish a better wish then this The Lord be with you neither can the people make a fitter reply then this And with thy Spirit To note that he is to offer up a spiritual Service and Sacrifice unto God and to do it ardently and affectionately which he cannot do unless God be with him by his Grace and holy Spirit to aid and assist him Now Christ hath promised to be with his Apostles and their successors unto the end of the world Mat. 28.20 to be with his Church in her devotions in the midst of us or amongst us when we offer up our Services to him but if our Spirits be not right fixed so as to intend and mind what we are about how can God be with us How can God be with our Spirits if our Spirits are not with God How can God be in the midst of us when we are not in the midst of our selves Therefore this clause Let us pray is very often repeated in the Service upon any noâ— table transition from one eminent part of Service to another to fix us to our devotions and to make us the more intent upon what we do for we are apt to be dull enough in Sacred duties unless we are frequently call'd upon to mind seriously what we are about It was anciently the Deacons office to pronounce it and therefore he was said to preach or to proclaim the Service for it was his office by loud voice or proclamation to warn the people in several parts of the Service what was done or to be done that accordingly they might order themselves both in their hearts and in their bodies suitable to that which was done or performed by Christ's Ministers that so all things might be done with good order and due reverence The Heathens in their Religious Offices had a custom not much differing from this for they had their Preachers and Proclaimers of their Service for the same purpose to regulate the carriage and behaviour of the people and to prevent confusion The three following Versicles Lord have mercy c. were called by the Ancients the Lesser Litany and they are fitly placed before the Lords Prayer because in our resort to him in Prayer it is very expedient that we first implore the â—ercy and assistance of the Trinity to whom we pray RUBRICK Then the Minister Clerks and People shall say the Lords Prayer with a loud voice See before pag. 18 19. OVr Father great in Creation gracious in Love rich in Inheritance which art in Heaven the Glass of Eternity the Crown of pleasure the Store-house of felicity Hallowed be thy Name in us by us upon us in our words actions lives that it may be to us Honey in the mouth Melody in the ear Jubilee in the heart Thy Kingdom come of Power to defend us of Grace to sanctifie us of Glory to crown us Let it be to us pleasant without mixture calm without disturbance secure without loss Thy will be done not ours as in Heaven by the holy Angels so on Earth by men that we may hate what thou hatest love what thou lovest and do nothing but what is pleasing unto thee Give for every good gift is thine we have nothing from our selves but crave all from thee us as necessity makes us pray for our selves so charity for others this day all the time of our living here our which we have a lawful and just title to daily what is sufficient for our necessity not superfluity to supply our wants not our wantonness bread what is necessary for our bodies or our souls Victual Doctrinal Sacramental bread And forgive us our debts whatever sins we have committed against thee our neighbour or our selves As we forgive our debtors who have injured us in our bodies goods or name And lead us not suffer us not to be led into temptation of the world the flesh the Devil But deliver us from evil present past to come Amen So be it The Doxology is here and elsewhere omitted because in St. Luke's Gospel it is not any part of the Prayer Luk. 11.2 3 4. and Mr. Calvin doth acknowledge it not to be extant in any Latine copies it was supposed to be added by the Greek Church but never used in the Latine However our Bible in St. Matthew received it and no Minister is restrained from the use of it in Divine Service RUBRICK Then the Priest standing up shall say O Lord shew thy mercy upon us Answer And grant us thy salvation Psal 85.7 Priest O Lord saze the King 1 Sam. 10.24 1 Tim. 2.2 Psal 21.1 Answer And mercifully
hear us when we call upon thee Psal 4.1 Psal 30.10 Psal 109.26 Priest Endue thy Ministers with righteousness Answer And make thy chosen people joyful Psal 132.9 Priest O Lord save thy people Answer And bless thine inheritance Psal 28.9 Priest Give peace in our time O Lord 2 King 20.19 Psal 122.6 Answer Because there is none other that fighteth for us but only thou O God 2 Chron. 20.12 Exod. 14.14 Nehem. 4.20 Isa 31.4 Priest O God make clean our hearts within us Answer And take not thy holy Spirit from us Psal 51.10 11. EXPLANATION The forementioned Prayers are all agreeable to Scripture of Divine derivation and because they are most what taken out of the Book of Psalms the Priest is ordered to stand up at the reading of them they are short and in that respect conformable to Scripture pattern and Primitive practice The interchangable way of praying is used here and often elsewhere in our Divine Offices which is agreeable to Primitive practice also and the end of it is to refresh the peoples attention to teach them their part in the publick Prayers to unite their affections and to keep them in a league of perpetual amity In these Prayers we pray first for the King next for the Ministers of Christ Priests and Deacons and in the last place for the People and in all we follow that excellent pattern which was set us by the Royal Prophet David Psal 132.1 9. And although it may be our good happiness to live in a time of Peace yet we pray constantly for Peace in our time in the same sense as we pray in the Lords Prayer for daily bread when we have it by us we pray that it may come where it is not and that it may continue where it is we pray also for the blessing of peace as well as for peace it self And although we pray in express terms for peace in our time yet we do not forget posterity only we dare not presume that it shall remain with us with her wings clipt for ever as we ask for bread this day and yet we neglect not to morrow only we follow the rule of our Saviour who forbids us anxiously to take care for to morrow And whereas it is added in the foregoing Prayers Because no other fighteth for us but only thou O God our meaning is that we fear not War but hope for an eternal Peace of God to defend us we acknowledge him our Shield our Watch-Tower and our Keeper Psal 18.2 Psal 121.4 Psal 127.1 Psal 73.25 and that there is none that holds with us but Michael our Prince Dan. 10.21 that is Christ Though Angels and men may fight in our quarrel yet they all do it but as God's Instruments God only fights for us as principal Agent He it is who teacheth our hands to War and our fingers to fight Psal 18.34 And in regard that without Christ's assisting us with his holy Spirit we can do nothing for he is first and last we can neither begin nor end well without him therefore as we begin so we end with God First we desire God to be with us and with our Spirit and in the last place we desire of God that he would not take his holy Spirit from us RUBRICK Then shall follow three Collects The first of the day which shall be the same that is appointed at the Communion The second for Peace The third for Grace to live well And the two last Collects shall never alter but daily be said at Morning Prayer throughout all the year as followeth all kneeling The second Collect for Peace O God who art the author of peace and lover of concord 1 Cor. 14.33 2 Cor. 13.11 in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life John 17.3 whose service is perfect freedom Luk. 1.74 John 8.32 36. Rom. 6.18 1 Cor. 7.22 Defend us thy humble servants in all assaults of our enemies Psal 31.3 4 5. that we surely trusting in thy defence may not fear the power of any adversaries Psal 125.1 Psal 118.8 9 10 11. Psal 62.6 7 8. through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord Act. 4.12 Amen The third Collect for Grace O Lord our heavenly Father Mat. 6.26 Almighty and everlasting God Gen. 17.1 Gen. 21.33 who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day Psal 22.9 10. Psal 3.5 defend us in the same with thy mighty power Psal 62.2 and grant that this day we fall into no sin neither run into any kind of danger Mat. 6.13 Psal 19.12 13. 2 Thes 3.3 Psal 17.5 Gen. 20.6 but that all our doings may be ordered by thy governance to do always that is righteous in thy sight Psal 17.5 Prov. 20.24 Psal 5.8 Psal 119.5 through Jesus Christ our Lord John 14.13 Amen EXPLANATION Collects are so called because they are Prayers in short sums containing much matter in few words like so many choice Flowers gathered and collected out of the Scriptures Garden and bound up in little Posies to be offer'd and presented to God by Jesus Christ The first Collect here mentioned for the day is always fitted to the day and framed for the most part in reference to something remarkable in the Epistle and Gospel for the day which the Collect is set before The second Collect is for Peace because we cannot well pray nor offer up an acceptable Sacrifice to God without Peace where there is no Peace there is no Piety Godliness nor Honesty therefore we pray for Peace that the rest may be preserved 1 Tim. 2.1 2. The third Collect is for Grace to live well because if there be no Peace with God by holy life there can be none with man There is no peace to the wicked Isa 48.22 Peace and Truth Isa 39.8 Peace and Righteousness Psal 85.10 Peace and Holiness Heb. 12.14 are joyned by God in Scripture and by us should not be parted Our Religion if truly Christian is pure and peaceable Jam. 3.17 RUBRICK In Quires and places where they sing here followeth the Anthem Then these five Prayers following are to be read here except when the Litany is read and then only the two last are to be read as they are there placed A Prayer for the Kings Majesty O Lord our heavenly Father high and mighty King of Kings Lord of Lords the only Ruler of Princes who doest from thy throne behold all the dwellers upon Earth Most heartily we beseech thee with thy favour to behold our most gracious Soveraign Lord King CHARLES and so replenish him with the grace of thy holy Spirit that he may alway incline to thy will and walk in thy way endue him plenteously with heavenly gifts grant him in health and wealth long to live strengthen him that he may vanquish and overcome all his enemies and finally after this life he may attain everlasting joy and felicity through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen A Prayer for the Royal Family ALmighty God the fountain of all goodness we humbly beseech thee
terrours by night and of the Pestilence walking in darkness and therefore Evening and Night Prayers are certainly a good defensative against both What remains of the Evening Service is the same with that of the Morning and concludes in the same manner Hereunto is added by way of Appendix these following Paraphrases 1. A Paraphrase upon Psal 95. Vers 1. THe great God of Heaven is he from whom all our deliverance and strength doth come O let us uniformly joyn in praising and glorifying his Name Vers 2. Let us make our daily constant addresses to him with all the acknowledgments and expressions of thankful hearts Vers 3. For he is the Supreme God of Heaven and Earth the only super-eminent Monarch over all Powers and Dignities to whom Angels in Heaven are Ministers and the mightiest Princes upon the Earth are Vice-gerents Vers 4. The bowels and bottom of the Earth are in his disposal and so are the loftiest and stoutest Hills by which it is also intimated that the meanest and lowest men or creatures on Earth are particularly ordered by his providence in all that befalls them here and the mightiest men in the world are bounded and governed by him Vers 5. It is he that framed the whole Orb of the Sea and dry Land and so contrived them the one within the bowels of the other that they should not incommode each the other but both together make up one useful Globe for men and all other creatures to inhabit Vers 6. O let us joyntly adore praise and pray unto him and make the members of our bodies partners and witnesses of the real devotion of our hearts let us joyn inward and outward reverence together in the most submiss and lowliest gestures thereby signifying and expressing the sincere humility of our Souls which is a tribute most justly due to him who is the great Lord and Creator of all Vers 7 8. And although we have often rebelled against him and so have often deserved his dereliction and as often smarted for it yet if now at length we shall be wrought upon by his calls and warning and perform unto him sincere obedience he is most ready to accept us to take us into his care and protection and to secure us from all our enemies Vers 9. But let not us like our provoking fore-fathers who being delivered by him sinned yet more against him after we have so liberally tasted of his power goodness and long-sufferance and after his many gracious calls afforded us to Repentance rebell against him and provoke his wrath by imitating them in their ingratitude and impenitence Vers 10 11. For fourty years together wherein for their sins God detained and perplexed them in the wilderness they did frequently provoke God to indignation and made him resolve that they were a stupid Idolatrous people preferring the worship of false Gods and Devils before the obedience and worship of him the only true God of Heaven and Earth therefore being as it were tired out with their continued provocations God obliged himself by an Oath irreversibly that of the many thousands which came out of Aegypt only two persons who were grown up to be men should enter the Land of Promise O let not us follow them in their sins lest we follow them also in their punishments and so fall short of Heaven as they did of Canaan 2. A Paraphrase upon Benedictus Luk. 1. vers 68. Vers 68. ALl glory honour and praise be unto the great Lord and gracious God of his chosen people and select inheritance for he hath performed his promise so often made to them by his gracious Visitation in bringing them out of Aegypt formerly by a temporal deliverance which did pre-figure a greater deliverance to be wrought by Christ the promised Messias who is shortly to be born Vers 69. Of David's Family and invested with all power honour glory dignity and triumph to be a King Ruler and eminent deliverer of his people whose Kingdom is not Secular but Spiritual Vers 70 71. Of whom honourable mention is made by all the holy Prophets of God speaking of him as with one mouth from the beginning of that age which was before the coming of the Messias unto this present time The end of whose coming is to save us from all our spiritual enemies sins and dangers by taking upon him our nature and in it performing perfect unsinning obedience by dying upon the Cross for us and by giving us precepts and rules by their own inward goodness most agreeable to our reasonable nature for the purifying of our affections and for teaching and instructing us to lead pure lives Vers 72. By all which God hath made good his signal promise of mercy made to the holy Fathers and Patriarchs wherein both themselves and their Seed were highly concerned Vers 73. Especially that great and gracious Covenant of mercy which he made to Abraham and his Seed in a Spiritual sense and ratified and confirmed by the Sanction of an Oath Vers 74 75. Namely that he would give us power ability and grace in and from the Messias revealed to obey and attend him in a sincere performance of all duties to God and man and chearfully and constantly to persevere therein being by him rescued and secured from all dangers of enemies without us though not altogether from those which may be founded in our selves in our own negligences and miscarriages Vers 76. And thou Child meaning John the Baptist shalt be a wonderful person and extraordinary Prophet of God for thou shalt foretell Judgments on the Nations if they repent not speedily and in a signal manner shalt point out Christ being his immediate fore-runner and shalt preach Repentance and amendment of life thereby to fit and prepare men for him Vers 77. Teaching all men that in Christ there is a possibility for sinners to obtain Salvation and to have their sins pardon'd upon their Repentance and New life Vers 78. Which is a special act of compassion and signal mercy in God through which mercy the Messias who is called the Day-spring by the Prophets is come from Heaven to visit us and to abide amongst us Vers 79. And to shine forth to blind ignorant mortals and obdurate worldlings who lived in a state of sin and death and to bring them and us into the way of Sanctity and Holiness which leads to Salvation and life eternal 3. A Paraphrase upon Psal 100. Vers 1 2 O Let all the people in the world bless worship and praise and offer up their Prayers and Supplications to the great God of Heaven let them resort daily to his Sanctuary and constantly attend his Service and account it the most estimable and delectable task and the most renowned and most glorious imployment which they can possibly undertake Vers 3. For this is the only way to converse with the great and glorious and omnipotent Creator of all things to whom we owe all that we have and all that we are to him we
all men and deserves to be celebrated in the most solemn manner with all the Instruments of Musick used in the Service of God and all are little enough to express the Glory of the work and the infinite advantages designed to us by Christ thus entring upon his Regal Office in order to subdue all the world to the power of the Gospel which is the Scepter of his Kingdom For this we should praise him in our contemplations and actions words and works lips and life being all of us as so many spiritual Temples of God and Timbrels of the Holy Ghost Vers 8 9 10. All the habitable world the very Heathens who have been long under the servitude of their false Idol worships shall now be redeemed from that slavery of sin and Satan the Idol Oracles and Temples shall all be destroyed and the Doctrine of the true God and practice of Piety Justice and Charity shall be set up in their stead and thereby a most happy joyful Reformation be wrought amongst men which certainly deserves all the acknowledgments of humble and thankful hearts and lays obligations upon us to ascribe all glory to God in all the Churches 6. A Paraphrase upon Nunc dimittis Luke 2. Vers 29. O Lord seeing thou hast in great mercy fulfilled thy gracious promise revealed to me touching the Messias I am heartily content now to dye Vers 30. And needs must I dye happy and contented who have seen with mine eyes the Messias and Saviour of the world the great means and glorious instrument of man's Salvation Vers 31. Whom thou hast so long promised and now exhibited to be seen by all which Salvation thou hadst ordained from everlasting to be made known in due time to all Nations and to make them partakers of it Vers 32. That there might be a light afforded to the Gentile world to reveal to them Gods righteousness and that way of living which is to God most acceptable who after he hath reformed the Religion of the Jews teaching them substantial Duties instead of Ceremonial observances was to bring in the Gentiles to embrace the same Religion and so to bring much glory and honour to all of that Nation and of all Nations in the world who would receive him for which unspeakable mercy all Nations in the world are to ascribe all glory to God Father Son and Holy Ghost in all the Churches 7. A Paraphrase upon Psal 67. Vers 1. THe great and good God of Heaven pardon our sins supply our wants bestow his blessings both spiritual and temporal upon us behold us with favour and acceptance and for ever continue them unto us Vers 2. This may be a means of propagating the fear worship and Service of the true God to all the Heathen world when they shall see and consider the eminent miraculous acts of thy providence O God over us in delivering us from great dangers and distresses which have been upon us when they shall behold the wonderful order and means which thou observest in governing of thy Church as well in regard of thy Word and Laws as thy Works and Miracles Vers 3. This universal Reformation and acknowledgment of the one true God of Heaven and Earth is a mercy so much to be wished for and desired by every pious man that I cannot but give my suffrage to it and most affectionately call upon all to joyn in this wish and to beseech God that his Kingdom may be enlarged and that all the Nations in the world Jews and Gentiles may joyn in the Service and Worship of him Vers 4. And it must needs be matter of infinite joy and exultation to all Nations when they shall be admitted to so high an honour as to be ruled and directed by God to be governed by his most righteous way of Justice in the Kingdom of the Messias by Laws and Statutes so admirably good and agreeable to our interests and by the administration of his works of providence so admirably wise and just that all the world both in prudence care of and love to themselves are obliged with joy to submit to the setting up of this Kingdom in their hearts Vers 5. And it would be an happy and blessed thing if all the world would be duly sensible of it and all joyn to acknowledge worship serve and obey the true God and so partake of this great mercy and be induced to magnifie his Name for it Vers 6. For his mercies are continually afforded to all rain from heats fruitful seasons and peculiar acts of his providence are such as may oblige the most Heathen men in the world to acknowledge bless and give up themselves to the obedience of him And it is our duty continually to pray unto him that he would bestow his Benediction both upon us and upon all that which he hath so richly afforded us Vers 7. And our prayer shall be that the God of Heaven would crown us with his blessings and that all the most barbarous people in the world may be brought in to acknowledge and worship him and to pay all uniform obedience and subjection to him To whom be glory for ever Amen The Creed of St. Athanasius RUBRICK Vpon these Feasts Christmas-day the Epiphany St. Matthias Easter-day Ascension-day Whitsunday St. John Baptist St. James St. Bartholomew St. Matthew St. Simon and St. Jude St. Andrew and upon Trinity Sunday shall be sung or said at Morning Prayer in stead of the Apostles Creed this Confession of our Christian Faith commonly called the Creed of St. Athanasius by the Minister and people standing Quicunque vult WHosoever will be saved before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholick Faith Heb. 11.6 Jude vers 3. Heb. 10.23 By Catholick Faith we are to understand the Faith of the Church Universal which is opposed to the Faith of Hereticks Jews Turks and Pagans Which Faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled without doubt he shall perish everlastingly Ephes 4.5 Jude vers 20. Act. 15.9 John 3.18 Mark 16.16 Faith may be diverse in respect of the subject or believers but not in respect of the object or thing believed for there is but one Faith Ephes 4.5 Therefore this Faith is to be kept whole we are not to divide Christ 1 Cor. 1.13 and this Faith if kindly received and embraced purifies the heart and therefore it is to be kept undefiled Act. 15.9 and upon this account is it stiled the most holy Faith Jude vers 20. Therefore St. Augustine hath expresly declared That a good life is not only inseparable from Faith but that Faith it self is a good life To believe in God and Christ is to do the declared will of the one and the commands of the other It is not enough to profess like Christians and to live like Heathens to be Christians in name and Heathens in manners to profess to know God and in our works to deny him Tit. 1.16 And the Catholick Faith is this That we
sedition privy conspiracy and rebellion from all false doctrine heresie and schism from hardness of heart and contempt of thy Word and Commandment Good Lord deliver us We are caution'd and advised by the holy Scriptures to fear the Lord and the King and not to have any thing to do with those who are seditious and given to change Prov. 24.21 for such persons are of very unhappy tempers and plot mischiefs secretly Psal 17.12 are unquiet in themselves and will not suffer others to live quietly by them their hearts are not stablished with grace but are of unstable minds carried about with divers and strange doctrines Heb. 13.9 sound doctrine they regard not but after their own lusts heap to themselves Teachers having itching ears which ears they turn from the truth that they may be turned unto fables 2 Tim. 4.3 4. they have in them evil hearts of unbelief hardned through the deceitfulness of sin so that they depart from the living God Heb. 3.12 13. contemn his Word and slight his Commandment Now from these persons and from the evil of their doings that we may neither act evil with them nor suffer evil from them do we pray to be delivered By the mystery of thy holy Incarnation by thy holy Nativity and Circumcision by thy Baptism Fasting and Temptation Good Lord deliver us Christ's Incarnation Nativity Circumcision Baptism Fasting and Temptation we meet with 1 Tim. 3.16 Mat. 1.25 Luk. 1.35 Luk. 2.21 Mat. 3.16 Luk. 3.21 Mat. 4.1 2 3 4 5 6. By thine Agony and bloudy sweat by thy Cross and Passion by thy precious death and burial by thy glorious Resurrection and Ascension and by the coming of the Holy Ghost Good Lord deliver us These we also find expresly mentioned in the holy Scriptures Christ's Agony and bloudy sweat Mat. 26.37 38. Luk. 22.44 his Cross and Passion Philip. 2.8 Heb. 12.2 his precious death and burial Mat. 27.58 59 60. his glorious Resurrection Mat. 28.6 his Ascension Luk. 24.51 and the coming down of the Holy Ghost Act. 2. and By all these or Through all these we pray for deliverance The meanest Grammarian would tell us that here is no swearing or conjuration in the case their eyes must look through very strange Spectacles who can spie out an oath here By is no more then Through and in these prayers we do no other then desire God to aid us by applying to us the fifteen benefits here rehearsed These passionate strains are no forms of Oaths they are only a compendious recapitulation of the History of the Gospel and an acknowledgment of the chief means of our Salvation We read the like expressions 1 Pet. 2.24 Isa 53.5 By in these places is no sign of an oath only it notes the instrumental cause of a thing Zanchy confessed that in the Liturgick Offices of the Roman Church these two things pleased him very much First that they did conclude their Pravers Through Jesus Christ our Lord Secondly that they did enumerate in their Prayers all the acts and offices of the Mediator adding By thy Cross and Passion c. And it was undoubtedly to very good purpose that the 〈◊〉 Fathers of the Greek 〈◊〉 after they had recounted in their Liturgies all the particular pains as they are set down in the story of Christ's Passion and by all and every one of 〈◊〉 petition for mercy did after all 〈◊〉 up with this expression By the unknow◠〈…〉 thy Body and agonies of thy Soul â—ave mercy upon us save us and deliver us In all time of our tribulation in all time of our wealth in the hour of death and in the day of judgment Good Lord deliver us In regard we are liable to many sorts of temptations which may befall us either in a prosperous or adverse estate we pray unto God that he would deliver us from every evil work and preserve us unto his Heavenly Kingdom 2 Tim. 4.18 that he would be assistant to us in the hour of death and destroy the dread and fear of it in us by vertue of the death of him who died that he might destroy death and him who had the power of it Heb. 2.14 15. We pray also that a gracious sentence may be passed upon us at the last Judgment implying withall that we may so lead our lives as not to fall under the other more dreadful one The summe of what is here prayed for is contained in the petitions of our Saviour's Prayer mentioned Mat. 6.13 We sinners do beseech thee to hear us O Lord God and that it may please thee to rule and govern thy holy Church universal in the right way 1 John 1.8 9 10. Mat. 28.20 We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. Thut it may please thee to keep and strengthen in the true worshipping of thee in righteousness and holiness of life thy servant Charles our most gracious King and Governour 1 Tim. 2.1 2 3. Psal 72.1 2. Psal 80.17 We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. That it may please thee to rule his heart in thy faith fear and love and that he may evermore have affiance in thee and ever seek thy honour and glory Psal 21. We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. That it may please thee to be his defender and keeper giving him the victory over all his enemies Psal 21. Psal 132. We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. That it may please thee to bless and preserve our gracious Queen Catherine James Duke of York and all the Royal Family Psal 89.29 Psal 45. Gen. 49.10 We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. That it may please thee to illuminate all Bishops Priests and Deacons with true knowledge and understanding of thy Word and that both by their preaching and living they may set it forth and shew it accordingly Deut. 33.8 9 10 11. Psal 132.9 Act. 20.28 1 Cor. 9.27 1 Tim. 4.16 1 Pet. 5.2 3 4. We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. That it may please thee to endue the Lords of the Council and all the Nobility with grace wisdom and understanding Exod. 18.21 Prov. 11.14 We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. That it may please thee to bless and keep the Magistrates giving them grace to execute justice and to maintain truth 2 Chron. 19.6 Rom. 13. We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. That it may please thee to bless and keep all thy people Psal 28.9 We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. We may read in Tertullian Clement Bishop of Rome Eusebius Ambrose Cyril and others many early presidents of praying for the Church Emperours Kings the Royal Seed Bishops together with the inferiour order of Priests and Deacons and for all things indeed and persons which we pray for in this Litany and Litanies were undoubtedly of very ancient use being at first composed to be solemnly used for the appeasing of Gods wrath in time of publick evils and for the procuring of his mercy in common benefits this may be easily
proved out of Irenaeus Prosper Tertullian Jeront Ruffin Augustine Cyprian Basil and other Writers of no inferiour note And they have Scripture sufficient to warrant the use of them for there is nothing in them prayed for or against which is not grounded upon the Word of God The first Litanies indeed were short but upon occasions were enlarged by Mamercus Bishop of Vienna by Sidonius Apollinaris Bishop of Averna and by Gregory the Great who framed up that which was called the Great Litany not only upon the score of Reformation but because much affliction and trouble vexed the world in his time and Rogations and Litanies were judged meet remedies either to prevent or to avert such dangers After-times might bring Prayers and Rogations into the Litanies which were not fit to be placed there nor could easily be digested by good-meaning Christians but the Litany used by us is reformed from those abuses and there is nothing in it which can be justly liable to any exception It is admirable and notable both for the matter and method of it wherein is an excellent particular enumeration of all Christians wants whether private or common The contents of it are innocent and blameless and the composure most artificial both to raise up devotion and to keep it up It directs our Prayers to the right object the Trinity it contains in it deprecations against all evil whether of sin or punishment from which we desire to be delivered through the holy actions and passions of Christ the only meritorious cause of all our good It contains in it also petitions for good things in the putting up of which a very sit order is observed First we pray for the Church Universal the common Mother of all Christians Secondly we pray for our own National Church to which next the Universal we owe the greatest observance and duty After this we pray for the principal Members of it the King the Bloud-Royal the Clergy the Nobles and Magistrates in whose welfare the peace of the Church doth chiefly consist Herein we follow Davids method Psal 132. and the Apostles prescribed rule 1 Tim. 2.1 2 3. and we have many early presidents of the Christian Church for our so doing as may easily be proved out of the Ancient Liturgies and Fathers In particular and in distinct terms we pray for Bishops Priests and Deacons because they were the three Orders of the Clergy eminently distinguished in the first Ages of the Christian Church as appears clearly out of the Epistles of Ignatius and Clement who were both of them Scholars and Disciples to the Apostles And this distinction of Bishops Priests and Deacons doth directly answer to that of High-Priests Priests and Levites under the Law and the very Heathens themselves by the light of Nature had the like distinction amongst them called as they are stiled by the Apostle 1 Cor. 12.28 29. Teachers Helpers Governours as under the Mosaical Law and dispensation the Priests were to teach the Levites to help the Sons of Aaron of the Prelatical Order to govern and the same distinction of Priests to teach Deacons to help and Bishops to govern hath been ever observed in the Church of Christ through all Antiquity as may be proved from the Records and Registries in all the Churches Now whereas we pray That God would illuminate all Bishops Priests and Deacons our meaning is this that he would give the beginning of Light to the false and the increase thereof to the true that all may be like John Baptist burning and shining lights burning in zeal and devotion shining in works of charity and mercy sound in doctrine and exemplary in life That it may please thee to give to all Nations unity peace and concord Psal 122.6 Psal 133.1 Rom. 14.19 We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. To pray that all the world might be at peace about them was ever one clause used in the publick Prayers of the Primitive Church as we find in Tertullian Clement Eusebius Ambrose Cyril and other eminent writers of Antiquity That it may please thee to give us an heart to love and dread thee and diligently to live after thy Commandments Deut. 5.29 Psal 119. Eccles 12.13 We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. That it may please thee to give to all thy people increase of grace to hear meekly thy Word and to receive it with pure affection and to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit Jam. 1 21 22. 1 Pet. 2.1 2. Luk. 8.15 Heb. 4.2 We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. We are to pray for good life and that we may be practitioners of the good Word of God as well as hearers of it otherwise our profession will but aggravate our condemnation and if we profess like Christians and live like Heathens we shall be the more inexcusably punishable 2 Pet. 2.20 21. That it may please thee to bring into the way of truth all such as have erred and are deceived 1 Pet. 2.25 Jam 5.20 Psal 119.176 We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. We meet with the like forms of Prayer in the Clementine Constitutions and our Church never erred more grosly and dangerously then when the untoward Members of it left off to say this Prayer That it may please thee to strergthen such as do stand and to comfort and help the weak-hearted and to raise up them that fall and finally to beat down Satan under our feet Isa 35.3 Rom. 11.20 Isa 42.3 Jer. 8.4 Rom. 16.20 We beseech thee to hear us good I ord That it may please thee to succour help and comfort all that are in danger necessity and tribulation Heb. 13.3 Psal 146.7 8 9. We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. In this Litany we pray particularly for those who most especially need our Prayers that is for all those whom the Law looks upon as miserable persons and were it not to avoid tediousness I could fetch almost every Paragraph of it out of the Ancient Fathers and Liturgies That it may please thee to preserve all that travail by land or by water all women labouring of child all sick persons and young children and to shew thy pity upon all prisoners and captives We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. When we pray for all who travail by Land or by Water our meaning is that God would be assistant to all who travail in the way of a lawful calling and that he would seasonably oppose those in their vitious courses who do not and turn them out of the ways of sin into the ways of safety When we pray for all women labouring with Child we pray only for their safe deliverance if they be honelt women we pray that God would give them patience to undergo the pains and perils of Child-birth if otherwise we pray that God would also give them the grace of Repentance that as their Conceptions have been sinful so their Productions may be salutiferous and the pains of the Body may work a deep
sorrow upon the Soul and a Repentance not to be repented of That it may please thee to defend and provide for the fatherless children and widows and all that are desolate and oppressed We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. We pray for those whom God himself hath especially declared in Scripture that he will be careful of and kind to and the intimations of his will and pleasure are the best directions for our Prayers neither can we pray more suitably to the mind of God for his pity and compassion to be extended to any then to those miserable persons whom he hath expresly nominated in his Sacred Scriptures to be the proper and fit objects of his compassion and protection so that he is pleased to stile himself the Father of the fatherless the Husband of the widow the Helper of the helpless and the Friend of the friendless the only succour and sure refuge to all miserable and distressed persons who being destituted of the world six their sole dependance upon him That it may please thee to have mercy upon all men We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. When we pray that God would have mercy upon all men we pray for his general mercy to be extended to all in the same sense as he wills all to be saved 1 Tim. 2.1 2 3 4. and in the same sense as he is pleased to distribute out his mercies to all Mat. 5.45 That it may please thee to forgive our enemies persecutors and slanderers and to turn their hearts We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. In praying for our enemies we observe that special command given by our Saviour the observing of which commandment brings us up to the perfection of our Christianity and makes us most like unto God Mat. 5.44 45. And because there is no inordinate lust in our corrupt nature so hard to be mortified as hatred is therefore did Christ in his Sermon upon the Mount administer something expresly towards the mortifying of this wicked passion wherein he doth not only take off the edge of our Revenge but he turns it quite the contrary way teaching us to love our enemies to bless those who curse us to do good to those who hate us to pray for those who despitefully use us and persecute us to love those for Gods sake whom perhaps for their own sake we cannot love The holy Apostle St. Paul teacheth the same Rom. 12.20 21. as Justin Martyr said to Trypho the Jew Ye persecute us and we pray for you Such like forms of Prayers may be met with in the writings of the Primitive Fathers the Liturgies and Constitutions of the Ancient Church Ignatius in his Epistle to Polycarp and the Church of Smyrna Tertullian and Cyprian in their Treatises of Christian Patience have written very notably upon this argument In all which may be observed the charity of the Church of Christians towards the very enemies of that Religion which she professeth There is not any thing in this Litany but may be met with in ancient Writers and ancient Liturgies ascribed to Chrysostom Basil St. James and in the Catholick Collect mentioned in the Constitutions which are father'd upon Clemens Romanus the places I could cite word for word only in regard I am writing to English People I have made it my design to write all in English such as it is and not so much as to dip into any other Tongue or Language That it may please thee to give and preserve to our use the kindly fruits of the earth so as in due time we may enjoy them Psal 104.27 28. Psal 65.9 10 11 12 13. Mat. 6.11 We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. From the Litanies or Rogations then used upon their common Perambulations came the three days before the day Anniversary of our Lords Ascension to be called Rogation-days and the Sunday before Rogation-Sunday wherein the Church prayed especially and most seasonably that it would please God to give and preserve to their use the kindly Fruits of the earth so that in due time they might enjoy them For unless God give them and preserve them when given and preserve them to our use and give us grace to use them as we ought to do we can neither enjoy them him in them nor our selves That it may please thee to give us true repentance to forgive us all our sins negligences and ignorances and to endue us with the grace of thy holy Spirit to amend our lives according to thy holy Word 2 Tim. 2.25 26. Jer. 5.24 25. Mat. 3.8 Mat. 6.33 We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. This petition in very good order follows the former for unless that be granted to us which we petition for in this prayer all the earthly blessings before prayed for may never ripen to maturity they may be blasted in the springing of them the Canker Locust Caterpillar or any thing else however contemptible may be sent on Gods errand come armed with his displeasure and ravish these blessings out of our hands before we can come to the reaping of them One sin God he knows we are guilty of many unrepented of may bring a curse upon our blessings like the Frogs and Flies Locusts and Caterpillars into Aegypt or the Worm into Jonah's Gourd and quickly deprive us of all those blessings of increasing Nature which we yet hold by no other tenure then that of a defeasible expectation and if it shall please God to be so mercifull unto us as to give us these good things to enjoy and to forgive us our sins which is a greater mercy then all besides yet that we may not abuse them to luxury and intemperance when we have them but use them soberly that we may reap the good and God the glory we pray for the grace of Gods holy Spirit that all these blessings may be sanctified to us and that they may be as so many new obligations upon us to amend our lives and to live as becometh those who have received from God the great donor such obliging favours Son of God we beseech thee to hear us Mat. 9.27 Luk. 1.35 Son of God c. O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world John 1.29 Grant us thy peace John 14.27 John 16.33 Rom. 5.1 O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world John 1.36 Have mercy upon us Mark 10.47 48. O Christ hear us O Christ hear us Lord have mercy upon us Lord have mercy c. Christ have mercy upon us Christ have mercy c. Lord have mercy upon us Lord have mercy c. These repetitions are warrantable by Scripture and therefore cannot be by men of Reason and Religion judged vain it is an argument of zeal and devotion and ferventy in prayer when our petitions are doubled by which we express our desires We meet with the like re-duplications frequently used in the Primitive Church David used often repetitions Psal 136. Psal 119. Psal 107.
was betrayed by Judas on a Wednesday was crucified on a Friday and was laid in the Sepulchre on a Saturday And the Church enjoyned these days to be quarterly observed as Fasting-days for these following reasons 1. That Christians might be as devout as the Jews who observed four several and solemn times of Fast in the year Zechar. 8.19 2. Because these are the First-fruits of every Season which we rightly dedicate to the service and honour of God that beginning every Season so devoutly we may learn to spend the whole year accordingly and that by this means we may procure Gods blessing upon the Fruits of the year arising out of the Earth which are at these Seasons either sown sprung up come to ripeness or gathered into Barns 3. That we may call our selves yearly to a strict account for our sins committed every Season and sadly and seriously repent of them 4. That we may implore Gods mercy to our bodies in freeing us from those common distemperatures which usually are predominant at these four Seasons 5. That we may procure the greater blessing upon the Ministers received into Holy Orders at these four Seasons of the year by Prayer Fasting and imposition of hands Now the forementioned weeks are called Ember weeks from an old Saxon word Enthber which denotes Abstinence or say others from the word Ember now commonly in use which signifies Ashes for Ashes were a ceremony frequently made use of in times of Fasting and carried with it significancy sufficient from which ceremony the first day of the Lent-fast was termed Ash-wednesday of which it is probable I may say something more in proper place A Prayer for the High Court of Parliament to be read during their Session MOst gracious God we humbly beseech thee as for this Kingdom in general so especially for the High Court of Parliament under our most religious and gracious King at this time assembled That thou wouldst be pleased to direct and prosper all their consultations to the advancement of thy glory the good of thy Church the safety honour and welfare of our Soveraign and his Kingdoms that all things may be so ordered and settled by their endeavours upon the best and surest foundations that peace and happiness truth and justice religion and piety may be established among us for all generations These and all other necessaries for them for us and thy whole Church we humbly beg in the Name and Mediation of Jesus Christ our most blessed Lord and Saviour Amen Note No persons can be offended at this Prayer who are not enemies to all goodness and rather desire that debauchery and wickedness should overspread a Nation to the shame and dishonour of it than piety and vertue to advance its reputation A Collect or Prayer for all conditions of men to be used at such times when the Litany is not appointed to be said O God the Creator and Preserver of all mankind we humbly beseech thee for all sorts and conditions of men that thou wouldest be pleased to make thy ways known unto them thy saving health unto all nations Psal 67.1 2. 1 Tim. 2.1 2 3 4. More especially we pray for the good estate of the Catholick Church Gal. 6.10 Psal 122.6 that it may be so guided and governed by thy good spirit that all who profess and call themselves Christians may be led into the way of truth and hold the faith in unity of spirit in the bond of peace and in righteousness of life Ephes 4.3 Finally we commend to thy fatherly goodness all those who are any ways afflicted or distressed in mind body or estate Heb. 13.3 * * This to be said when any desire the prayers of the Congregation especially those for whom our prayers are desired that it may please thee to comfort and relieve them according to their several necessities giving them patience under their sufferings and a happy issue out of all their afflictions And this we beg for Jesus Christ his sake Amen A Prayer that may be said after any of the former O God whose nature and property is ever to have mercy and to forgive receive our humble petitions Psal 103.13 and though we be tied and bound with the chain of our sins yet let the pitifulness of thy great mercy loose us for the honour of Jesus Christ our Mediatour and Advocate Amen Note Touching the preceding Prayers and following Thanksgivings may it be observed that extraordinary dangers should of themselves invite us and stir us up to extraordinary Prayers and extraordinary deliverances from those dangers should equally move us to extraordinary thankfulness as we are to pray to God for the blessings we would obtain so we are to praise him when they are obtained when God opens his hand to gratifie us we should open our mouths to glorifie him It is the Apostles prescribed method to begin with Prayer and to end with Thanksgiving 1 Tim. 2.1 indeed where the concernment is National a provision in such cases is usually better made by fixing set days to be solemnly and religiously observed but it many times happens that the calamities inflicted and mercies received are only Provincial or peculiar to some one County Town City or Vicinage so that they may not reach the cognizance of the Supreme Magistrate therefore are these Prayers and Thanksgivings composed that they may be ready upon all occasions for us to have recourse to when there are no set days indicted for such a purpose THANKSGIVINGS A General Thanksgiving ALmighty God Father of all mercies 2 Cor. 1.3 we thine unworthy servants do give thee most humble and hearty thanks Psal 116.12 13. for all thy goodness and loving kindness to us and to all men 1 Tim. 2.1 * * This to be said when any that have been prayed for desire to return praise particularly to those who desire now to offer up their praises and thanksgivings for thy late mercies vouchsafed unto them We bless thee for our creation preservation and all the blessings of this life but above all for thine inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ for the means of grace and for the hope of glory And we beseech thee give us that due sense of all thy mercies that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful and that we may shew forth thy praise not only with our lips but in our lives by giving up our selves to thy service and by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days Luk. 1.74 75. Tit. 2.11 12. through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory world without end Amen Note This Thanksgiving is not only warrantable by more Texts of Scripture then I have cited but it is so excellent both for matter and method that all Churches and Writers can hardly shew a better form so full of matter and that comprized in so few words This needs no vindication because no persons in their