all that we are or have is due to thee from whom all is received and therefore we do not impute any thing to our selves or our own acquisition In this Faith we pray and confide that what we pray for shall be granted RUBRICK Then likewise he shall say O Lord open thou our lips Answ And our mouth shall shew forth thy praise Psal 51.15 O God make speed to save us Psal 70.1 Answ O Lord make hast to help us Psal 40.13 RUBRICK Here all standing up the Priest shall say Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost Isa 42.8 1 Cor. 10.31 Rom. 11.36 Answ As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end Amen Priest Praise ye the Lord Psal 146.1 Answ The Lords name be praised EXPLANATION The forementioned Versicles with the Responses are Canonical Scripture and taken most-what out of the Book of Psalms by which we acknowledge our dependance upon God and that we are unable of our selves to perform any Religious duty well unless God enable us They are used interchangably by Minister and People to testifie mutual Love to strengthen affection to stir up devotion to kindle and enflame it one in another to oblige us to greater attention and this praying by way of Response is grounded upon the Scripture and conformable to the practice of the earliest and purest times of Christianity And for the form of giving glory to God Father Son and Holy Ghost it is very ancient by which we avouch our Doctrine and Faith of the Trinity against all opposers as we have received from Christ and his Apostles so we baptize believe and give glory to God Father Son and Holy Ghost and this we do not without Scripture-warrant Mat. 28.19 Rom. 11.36 It is the Christians Hymn and shorter Creed some who professed Christianity had corrupted this form of giving glory to God and had framed up another form in favour of their own new opinions and perswasions in Religion differing from that of the Ancient Christians both in words and sense but the ancient form which was before and is still used was again restored upon the restauration of which those words were added As it was in the beginning c. that is in the first beginning of the true Religion professed and solemnly owned by the name of Christian Now certainly very meet it is that we should give glory to God because it is appropriate to God alone Psal 115.1 It is his peculiar right which he lays claim to Isa 42.8 for he is the King of Glory The Heavens declare it Psal 19.1 the Angels chant it Luk. 2.14 Seraphims resound it Isa 6.3 and man is no less obliged to it then those coelestial Spirits are No place on earth is more proper for it then God's house where every man should speak of his honour and there is no better posture to do it in then standing for by it we shew our chearful readiness to give glory to God and our pious resolution to stand fast in the Faith of the Holy Trinity And for those words Praise ye the Lord they are the same with Hallelujah set at the end of the five last Psalms in the Psalter and used in this place to be as an impression invitatory to the following Psalms and the following Response The Lords name be praised is according to what we find written Psal 106.48 RUBRICK Then shall be said or sung this Psalm following except on Easter-day upon which another Anthem is appointed and on the nineteenth day of every month it is not to be read here but in the ordinary course of the Psalms PSAL. 95. Ver. 1. O Come let us sing unto the Lord let us heartily rejoyce in the strength of our salvation 2. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving and shew our selves glad in him with psalms 3. For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods 4. In his hand are all the corners of the earth and the strength of the hills is his also 5. The sea is his and he made it and his hands prepared the dry land 6. O come let us worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker 7. For he is the Lord our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand 8. To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts as in the provocation and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness 9. When your fathers tempted me proved me and saw my works 10. Fourty years long was I grieved with this generation and said It is a people that do err in their hearts for they have not known my ways 11. Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end Amen EXPLANATION With this Psalm the ancient Church used to begin her Service it was the invitatory Psalm with which they usually began before the Congregation was well met together at the hearing of which all hastned to Church and it is very well appointed to be used in this place before all other Psalms because it is the fittest to conform us to the right use of all the rest and to furnish out Gods Service with all due reverence Glory be to the Father c. is added at the end of this and of every Psalm that we may reduce that to practice which is the scope of every Psalm that is Give Glory to God RUBRICK Then shall follow the Psalms in order as they are appointed And at the end of every Psalm throughout the year and likewise at the end of Benedicite Benedictus Magnificat and Nunc dimittis shall be repeated Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost Answ As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end Amen EXPLANATION The Psalter was anciently divided into several portions called Nocturns by which division the Psalms were read every week and this was a custom peculiar only to the Latine Church for in the Syrian and Greek Churches the Psalter was read over every twenty days Our Church allows a months space for the reading over the Book of Psalms and her meaning is that they should be read in publick according to ancient practice by way of Response Now the reasons why the Psalms are so frequently read over and why in this manner I conceive to be these Because the Psalms do contain in them the choice and flower of all things profitable which may be met withall in the Holy Scriptures and do more movingly express them by reason of the Poetical form wherein they are written No part of Scripture doth more admirably set forth all the considerations and operations which belong to God nor so magnifie the Holy meditations and actions of Divine
worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Vnity 1 John 5.7 Revel 4.8 Mat. 28.19 Rom. 11.36 Neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance The Jews and Turks have a Faith such as it is for they worship one God and many of them keep that Faith whole and in a sense undefiled for as they believe one God so they live according to what they believe The meer Pagans and Heathens have a Faith too for they worship more Gods then one they will rather admit of too many then none at all few Atheists are to be met with amongst any of these as Atheism stands in direct opposition to a Deity Yet all Jews Turks and Pagans may be termed Atheists and Infidels in opposition to the Christian Religion in regard they all deny the Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Godhead which all sound Christians do believe worship and adore For there is one person of the Father another of the Son and another of the Holy Ghost But the Godhead of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is all one the Glory equal the Majesty co-eternal Such as the Father is such is the Son and such is the Holy Ghost Mat. 28.19 1 John 5.7 Heb. 1.3 John 10.30 Philip. 2.6 The doctrine of the Trinity of Persons in the Unity of Godhead and Divine Essence is the peculiar doctrine of Christians and that which remarkably distinguishes the Christian Religion from all other Religions in the world Though all the world besides opposed it yet Christians have ever believed and embraced it and as they have believed so they have been baptized and have always given glory to God one in Essence Father Son and Holy Ghost three in Person always acknowledging in the blessed Trinity and unspeakable Deity one substance in work not divided in will agreeing in omnipotence and glory equal The Heathens especially the Platonists had some broken notions of this admirable Mystery which ought to be the subject of our adoration and devotion rather then of our curiosity and search The Jews had many dark adumbrations of it but it was only cleared and revealed to Christians God the Father in the Creation of the world God the Son in the Redemption of mankind God the Holy Ghost in the Sanctification of the Church To search too far into this Mystery is rashness to dispute it is folly to deny it madness to believe it is true piety and to know it is life The Father uncreate the Son uncreate and the Holy Ghost uncreate Gen. 1.2 3. The Father incomprehensible the Son incomprehensible and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible 1 Tim. 6.16 The Father eternal the Son eternal and the Holy Ghost eternal Deut. 33.27 Psal 90.2 God a self-being gave being to the Creatures he was himself without beginning gave a beginning to time and to the world in time he made something of nothing and of that something he made all things God who created the world was himself uncreated and as uncreated so incomprehensible for if he could be comprehended he should not be God and as incomprehensible so eternal that is God from everlasting before all time and to everlasting when time shall be no more And yet they are not three eternals but one eternal As also there are not three incomprehensibles nor three uncreated but one uncreated and one incomprehensible So likewise the Father is Almighty the Son Almighty and the Holy Ghost Almighty And yet they are not three Almighties but one Alighty So the Father is God the Son is God and the Holy Ghost is God And yet they are not three Gods but one God So likewise the Father is Lord the Son Lord and the Holy Ghost Lord And yet not three Lords but one Lord 1 John 5.7 Revel 1.8 Revel 4.8 1 Cor. 8.5 6. God is potentially one personally three one in Essence three in Subsistence in the diversification of Names as the Scripture hath made the distinction three but in Nature Substance and Essence one so the holy Fathers of the Church have forced themselves to speak because they knew not how to speak better nor more clearly in so deep a Mystery neither had they spoken so much I suppose had not the enemies to Christianity extorted it from them and forced them to speak out where they had a mind to be silent When the great doctrine of the Trinity which is the peculiar doctrine of Christians was opposed they thought themselves obliged to defend it and in such terms too as to declare their own meaning though perhaps not to all capacities very intelligible For as it follows in this Creed the meaning of the Church so far as she can express her meaning is this For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every person by himself to be God and Lord So are we forbidden by the Catholick Religion to say there be three Gods or three Lords Revel 4.8 Heb. 1.3 Rom. 11.36 1 John 5.7 Christians only defended that form of Baptism instituted by our Saviour and that Faith into which they were baptized viz. into the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Mat. 28.19 and if in their own defence they have used expressions not so candidly received and embraced by all that read them they are not to be blamed for it but their opposers who forced them to make use of what expressions they could in their own defence They chose rather to be accounted fools for Christ then to betray and yield up that form of Christ's Institution by which they were initiated in Baptism to be his Disciples The Father is made of none neither created nor begotten His name is I am which shews him to be a self-being Exod. 3.14 and the Heathen Aristotle dyed with an expression in his mouth not much differing when he called upon the Being of Beings to have mercy on him And other Heathens both Poets and Philosophers taking their Light perhaps from the Sacred Scriptures have used terms equivalent to shew God the Father who is the original principle of the Deity to be a self-being by whose bounty and benefit all things are as he himself is by and from himself and by the benefit of none The Son is of the Father alone not made nor created but begotten John 1.14 18. The Son of God who is also very God in respect of his Divine Nature not a Son by way of Eminence but by Essence not by Priviledge or Prerogative but by Nature and Substance was of the Father alone not differing from him in respect of Deity but in respect of Personality He was not made for he was in the beginning before any thing was made and all things were made by him John 1.1 2 3. neither was he created for he was before all creatures his goings forth have been from everlasting Mic. 5.2 He was before the world was In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God John 1.1 We
Psal 136. 1 Chron. 16.41 and to the practice of Primitive Christians to appeal to and to magnifie the mercies of God upon all needful occasions and to beg his mercy of pardon particularly for those sins which we are guilty of and for which we stand in need of pardon The like allocations are to be met with in all the Liturgies extant O God the Father c. O God the Son Redeemer of the world have mercy upon us miserable sinners As we have deviated from the Law of Creation so from the Law of Redemption which is the greater deviation and renders us the more inexcusably guilty therefore do we petition our Redeemer the only begotten Son of God whom he sent into the world not to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved John 3.16 17. Gal. 3.13 Gal. 4.4 5. Heb. 2.9 1 Pet. 1.18 19. that he would have mercy upon us and procure unto us pardon for those breaches which we have made against the Law of our Redemption O God the Son c. O God the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son have mercy upon us miserable sinners As we have sinned against the Law of Creation and Redemption so against the rule of Sanctification which was set us when we were dedicated to God in Baptism and consecrated to Gods service by the Holy Spirit therefore do we petition God the Holy Ghost who was sent down after the Son went up to comfort us John 14.16 to teach and instruct us John 14.26 and to confirm the truth of Christ and the verity of Christian Religion John 15.26 and to seal all those who sincerely embrace it unto the day of complete Redemption Ephes 4.30 that he would pardon those sins whereby we have grieved him and those many offers and tenders of grace which he hath made unto us and we have obstinately rejected and refused O God the Holy Ghost c. O holy blessed and glorious Trinity three Persons and one God have mercy upon us miserable sinners As we have broken the Law of Creation transgressed the Law of Redemption and violated the sacred rules of our Sanctification and so have made our selves unhappily guilty by our miscarriages and misdoings against all the three Persons in the Godhead therefore do we petition them all to have mercy upon us and to pardon our misactings O holy blessed c. Remember not Lord our offences nor the offences of our fore-fathers neither take thou vengeance of our sins spare us good Lord spare thy people whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious bloud and be not angry with us for ever This is agreeable to Scripture wherein we pray that God would make good his promise to us and remember our sins and iniquities no more Heb. 10.17 that he would not punish the fathers sins upon the children in the same sense as he himself hath threatned in the second Commandment Exod. 20.5 We read of the like form of prayer Ezra 9.7 Nehem. 1.6 Joel 2.17 and we plead the price of our Redemption mentioned 1 Pet. 1.19 to move God to remove his anger from us that it may not rest upon us according to those pious expressions which we meet with Psal 85.4 5 6. From all evil and mischief from sin from the crafts and assaults of the devil from thy wrath and from everlasting damnation Good Lord deliver us The summe of this petition is contained in the Lords Prayer and all the rest of the petitions in this Litany may easily be reduced to it From all blindness of heart from pride vain-glory and hypocrisie from envy hatred and malice and all uncharitableness Good Lord deliver us This is all agreeable to Scripture which mentions in express terms the very sins which we here pray to be delivered from Blindness of heart Ephes 4.18 Pride 1 John 2.16 Vain-glory Gal. 5.26 Hypocrisie Mat. 6.5 Envy hatred malice and uncharitableness Fphes 4.31 From fornication and all other deadly sin and from all the deceits of the world the flesh and the devil Good Lord deliver us We have Scripture-warrant for all that is contained in this petition touching Fornication 1 Cor. 6.18 and other deadly sins 1 John 5.16 Now they which are usually accounted of as deadly sins though by the general practice of them they may seem otherwise are these Pride which is opposite to Humility Covetousness which is opposite to Liberality Luxury which is opposite to Chastity Envy which is opposite to Gentleness Gluttony which is opposite to Temperance Anger which is opposite to Patience Sloth which is opposite to the devout and earnest serving of God These are called the seven deadly sins not because we judge any other sin in its own nature to be venial and not deadly but because they are so deeply rooted in our nature that it is a very hard matter to mortifie them and therefore do we pray to be delivered from them and from the deceits of the world the flesh and the Devil the grand Enemâ—es of our Christianity which we renounce and bâ—d dâ—hance to in our Baptism For to be intangled with the world is to be drawn from God 1 John 2.15 and to live after the flesh and to be carnal minded is death and to be at enmity with God Rom. 8.6 7. and to be taken in the Devils snares is a very dangerous thing and a very great blessing and happiness to be freed from them 2 Tim. 2.26 From lightning and tempest from Plague Pestilence and Famine from battel and murder and from sudden death Good Lord deliver us When we pray to be delivered from lightning and tempest our meaning is that we may be delivered from the dangers of the whole year arising many times and falling upon us by Lightning in Summer and by Tempest in Winter and when we pray to be delivered from sudden death our meaning is that we may not die such a death as God hath threatned to and usually inflicts upon the wicked Psal 50.22 Psal 73.18 Prov. 1.27 but that we may die comfortably with renewed Faith Repentance Reconciliation and setting of our houses in order that our death may neither be untimely nor unprovided for but that it may be after the common manner of men having nothing in it extraordinary but piety We desire that we may not be snatched away suddenly nor perish and come to fearful ends that we may not die like Absalom Judas Corah Dathan Abiram Ananias and Sapphira all which died fearful and unusual deaths but that we may die comfortably as Jacob Moses Joshua David who leisurably ended their lives in peace and prayer for the mercies of God to come upon their posterities For however there is no condemnation to the Elect and those who are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 yet it may so fall out that some of the Elect themselves may die with more scandal less joy of conscience and enjoy less joys of Heaven then other of their brethren From all
also the Earth Land and Sea Grass Herbs Plants and Trees Beasts Birds and Fishes he made Man to praise him and glorifie him in all and for all to magnifie God in all his works and never to distrust him who hath proved himself thus Omnipotent And in Jesus Christ his onely Son our Lord I believe also in the second person of the Godhead the Word and Wisdom of God who is stiled Jesus to note him a Saviour which name was given him by an Angel together with the meaning of it Mat. 1.21 He is also stiled Christ which is an appellative title of office and dignity given to him for three purposes 1. To note him an anointed King to judge govern defend us and to save us from danger 2. An anointed Prophet to teach instruct us and to save us from errour 3. An anointed High-Priest to offer up himself for us and his prayers for us to make Intercession to the Father for us and to save us from sin He is God the Father's Onely Son not by Creation as men are nor by Adoption as good men are nor by Office grace and favour as Kings and Judges are but by Nature as none other are save only himself he is God of the substance of his Father before all Worlds God of God very God of very God and a distinct person in the Godhead from the Father Mat. 28.19 John 1.1 He is also Our Lord 1. In respect of Creation for he hath dominion over us as he is God 2. In respect of Redemption for he hath dominion over us as he is God and Man It was God the Son not God the Father nor God the Holy Ghost who did personally pay the ransom of our sins purchase our freedom from the slavery of Satan by his own bloud and by the everlasting efficacy of the same bloud once shed doth wash and nourish us not as his Servants but as the Sons of God our heavenly Father As he is Jesus we are to sue and seek to him for Salvation for there is no Salvation in any other Act. 4.12 as he is Christ we are to pay all subjection to him as a King to hear and obey him as a Prophet to rest upon his Sacrifice Satisfaction and Intercession as a Priest As he is Gods only Son we are to pay him that honour which we pay to the Father and as he is our Lord we are to quit Sin and Satan and to pay to him our real Service Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary In this Article is declared how the Son of God became the Son of man in order to make satisfaction to God for man's sin to reconcile God to man and to work about man's Redemption to put him into a salvable condition and to render him again capable of those fruitions which he in Adam had deprived himself of by his disobedience In this Article is to be noted more particularly 1. The mystery of Christ's holy Incarnation 2ly His holy Nativity and Circumcision together with his Baptism Fasting and Temptation This Son of God who was very God begotten and not made being of the same substance with his Father by whom all things were made for us men and for our Salvation came down from Heaven and was conceived and incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary and was made Man and as he was made Man in her so he was born of her God became Man and yet remained God he took our Humane nature yet did not lay aside his Divine and Mary became a Mother and yet remained a Virgin still Christ of her took our Humanity without the loss of her Virginity He was conceived without sin that he might cleanse and sanctifie our sinful conceptions He was born without sin that he might sanctifie the birth of us who are born in sin and with sin and as he was sinless from his birth so the life which he lived here on earth was a sinless and innocent life that by the sinlesness and obedience of his life he might make some kind of amends for the sinfulness and disobedience of ours Yet he was Circumcised though nothing was superfluous in him that so amends might be made in that part by him for Original sin by which it is propagated And he was Baptized though nothing in him was unclean that he by his Baptism might sanctifie the element of Water and make it by the Holy Spirit joyned to it virtual to cleanse us not only from Original guilt but as we are fitly capable from all actual pollutions And he was tempted by all those ways of Temptation which we are liable and exposed to that he might in his own person overcome the Tempter and grand Seducer and teach us by his example how to behave our selves successfully and to the best advantage in all our Temptations By the same Holy Spirit whereby he was conceived in the blessed Virgin Maries womb is he to be conceived in our hearts which hearts we are to keep as pure and undefiled as the holy Virgin was in order to his conception we are to prepare Virgin hearts for Christ to be conceived and born in and for the Holy Ghost to overshadow by which Virgin hearts is not to be meant an absolute sinless purity and innocence which only Adam in his created estate and Christ could yield but a renewed purity and recovered Virginity by Repentance joyned with sincere resolution and holy purposes of amendment of life and humility typified in the temper of New-born babes For these are the only due qualifications which can fit and prepare the Soul for the Holy Spirit to overshadow it and for Christ to be favoured in it As Christ took our nature upon him and was pleased to be born of a pure Virgin without the help of man which shewed him to be the true Seed of the woman that should break the Serpents head Gen. 3.15 so we are to pray for Gods regenerating grace that we may be made his children by Adoption and Grace and be daily renewed and changed in our Spirits by his Holy Spirit As Christ was Circumcised and by that bloudy ceremony made obedient to the Law for us so we are to pray for the true Circumcision of the Spirit that our hearts and all our members being mortified from all worldly and carnal lusts we may in all things obey Gods blessed will As Christ was Baptized not to be cleansed by the waters but to cleanse the waters that they might cleanse us so we are to come to his Holy Baptism to be washed in those streams the Fountain whereof he himself hath opened and consecrated not so much for the cleansing of our bodies and putting off the filth of the flesh 1 Pet. 3.21 as for the sprinkling of our hearts from an evil conscience Heb. 10.22 that our hearts being pure our actions may be pure also And when we are thus cleansed we ought to take special care and heed that we
his Resurrection appeared unto men so should we and walk exemplarily before them in heavenly living We should continue in a sanctified state of perseverance in Godly living till by Gods mercy we are taken up to bliss We should depend upon Christ for our Justification and Sanctification which are both of the effects of his rising We should also hasten our Resurrection as he did his and not so immerse our selves with sorrow and humiliation the Grave of mortified Souls as to hinder any actions and vital performances of the new and regenerate life As Christ dyed and as we are baptized into the death of Christ so we are to beg of God for his grace that we may continually mortifie our corrupt affections and being buried with him may pass through the grave and gate of death to our joyful Resurrection He ascended into Heaven and fitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty that is after his Resurrection when he had made his appearance several times to his Apostles to confirm them in the truth of it whom he had chosen for the publication of it unto the world after he had given them many sure proofs and evidences that he was risen after he had talked with them about the affairs of his Church which should be planted and governed by them and of many things concerning the Gospel and his Kingdom and how both his friends and his enemies should be dealt withall after he had eaten and drank and familiarly conversed with them thereby to give them all possible assurance of the truth of his Resurrection of his Power and Godhead and that he was indeed the undoubted Messias after that he had instructed them to tarry at Jerusalem to wait for the coming down of the Holy Ghost and how to prepare themselves for his reception after he had reproved them for their curiosity and shewn their vanity in expecting a Kingdom which he never intended to set up then in the presence and sight of them all he was taken up by Angels from the earth in a bright shining cloud which inclosed him so that they could see him no more Act. 1.2 3 4 5 6 7 8. He carried up our nature which he had assumed in which he suffered and which he had raised out of the Grave up on high above all Heavens Ephes 4.10 offer'd it up to the Father as an acceptable oblation who placed it on a glorious Throne at his right hand And as he descended on purpose to do us good to bestow and scatter his graces amongst us so he ascended also upon a good design for us that he might send down the Holy Ghost upon his Apostles and by that means supply all our wants and do what was necessary to be done for the planting and governing of his Church The place he ascended from was Mount Olivet the place he ascended to was the highest Heavens The time of his Ascension was sourty days after his Resurrection the truth of it appears from the evidence of those who saw it and are able to give a good testimony of it the manner of it was glorious and the end of it hugely advantageous and beneficial to us But the practical Use which we are to make of Christ's Ascension and Session at the Father's right hand is this 1. As we believe that he is ascended into the Heavens corporally so we are spiritually in hearts and minds to ascend after him and to dwell continually with him in Divine meditations carrying heavenly minds in earthly bodies seeking minding savouring things above at the right hand of God where Christ sits Colos 3.1 where Christ our treasure is there should our hearts be also 2. Seeing he hath withdrawn his corporal presence we are to content our selves with his spiritual not to hang on his bodily presence the presence of his Manhood as it was visible to the eye but to acquiesce in his spiritual presence the presence of his Godhead and the presence of his Manhood too united to his Godhead yet no otherwise present then spiritually and by Faith for though his Godhead be every where yet his Manhood in a corporeal and natural sense cannot be every where but only where it is placed at the right hand of God Let us spiritually see him ascending cordially believe in him absent wait and hope with patience for his coming again and by his secret mercy feel and enjoy him spiritually present with us And seeing he sits at Gods right hand and is exalted with great triumph into his kingdom in Heaven whereby is noted his Reign and his being invested with all power in the union of his Regal and Priestly Office by virtue of which he gives commands to his Church intercedes with God for his Church and that so powerfully as actually to bestow that grace and pardon which he intercedes for making continual Intercession with God who is his Father and ours This should teach us to give up our selves obediently to be ruled by him in all his holy institutions and commands and to be guided by all those whom he hath placed in his Church under him to rule over us This should also teach us to depend upon his Intercession to offer up all our prayers and praises to God in and through him only This should teach us to be in a readiness to receive all Grace that shall flow from him and to make the holiest use and best advantage of it Lastly This should teach us to have recourse to him in all temptations and to persevere in despight of all assaults to the contrary to have our eye upon him in all that ever we do to improve those Talents well which he bestows upon us for as he is gone to Heaven he will return again from Heaven to judge the world From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead The very same Jesus Christ who is gone up to Heaven in glorious manner shall come one day from Heaven again in as glorious a manner to judge us Act. 1.11 His going up to Heaven was not an absolute departing from us only he went to take possession of that Kingdom of his which he shall exercise to the end of the world and then he shall return again to judge all men without respect of persons all that are dead and all that shall then be found alive all Nations of men in their order and every man of every Nation shall give up their accounts to him and shall receive according to what they have done in the flesh be it good or bad To those who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality shall be given the reward of eternal life but to those who are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness the retribution shall be indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish shall be upon every Soul of man that doth evil but glory honour and peace to every man that worketh good Rom. 2.7 8 9 10. Now the
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
read that he was saith Ambrose but we never read when he was not begotten of his Father before all worlds but the manner of his begetting or his generation who can declare Isa 53.8 The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son neither made nor created nor begotten but proceeding John 14.26 John 15.26 How the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son we are not able to say need not to search only because revealed we ought to believe it so far as it is revealed The Holy Ghost's procession is as ineffable as the Son's generation I know not how saith St. Augustine to distinguish betwixt that and this for as both are credible so both are ineffable So there is one Father not three Fathers one Son not three Sons one Holy Ghost not three Holy Ghosts Ephes 4.6 John 3.16 Ephes 4.4 And in this Trinity none is afore or after other none is greater or less then another But the whole three Persons are co-eternal together and co-equal John 10.30 Philip. 2.6 1 John 5.7 So that in all things as is aforesaid the Vnity in Trinity and the Trinity in Vnity is to be worshipped Rom. 11.36 1 John 2.22 23. Revel 4.8 Isa 6.3 He therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity That is The Christian Religion which offers Salvation to all who shall embrace it obliges those who will become Proselytes to it to believe God to be as he hath revealed himself to be in his holy Word that is God Father Son and Holy Ghost Mat. 28.19 God Father Word and Holy Ghost 1 John 5.7 Three and yet but one three Persons and yet but one God This Mystery of the Trinity saith Bernard is to be embraced by Faith not searched into by Reason I believe saith he the eternal and blessed Trinity though I understand it not and apprehend that by Faith which I cannot comprehend by Reason Many of the Fathers have undertaken to give us some adumbrations of this Mystery which yet cannot be seen clearly and therefore ought not to be examined curiously Tertullian hath shadowed it forth by the same Sun in its body beams and light Lactantius by the same water in its Fountain Spring and River Augustine by the same Soul in its understanding memory and will Basil by the three distinct colours in the Rain-bow Jerome by the same hand arm and fingers Meletius by three fingers And the Hand which appeared to Belshazzar upon the wall Dan. 5.5 was a hand with three fingers say some Expositors upon the place Humane eloquence saith St. Augustine hath laboured much in this Mystery but wanted words to express it Yet however Reason cannot instruct us to know what is hid it should direct us to believe what is revealed in Scripture concerning this Mystery Hereticks have endeavoured to break this mysterious knot which they were not able to untie yet they themselves have been broken and this Mystery is preserved Ignatius Scholar to St. John the Evangelist hath defended it in his Epistles so hath Vincentius Lyrinensis in his Golden Treatise so have Tertullian and St. Augustine in their Books written of it so Athanasius in his most excellent Treatise entituled God the Word incarnate and more eminent writers which I forbear now to mention We read Psal 50. ver 21. some men who were far enough from being good men charged by God himself who did so far mistake God and themselves too that they thought God like themselves when they were not themselves I know that place is properly applicable to men of the most vitious lives and putrified manners to such as deny God at least in their practises yet it may after a sort be applyed to those also who mistake him upon another account and presume to be too familiar with him only because they are not well instructed to know their distance who discourse of God and of Religion as of common things and by so doing draw contempt and irreverence towards both To advance the reputation of Religion and to gain it that respect and reverence which it ought to have we must advance the reputation of God first and shew him to be such a one as is rather to be admired and adored then to be drawn into a low esteem by our over-much familiarity This Creed serves now for such a purpose it being framed up not so much to advance our knowledge as to edifie our reverence that we may have more humble and reverend conceits of God and of Religion too when we shall see how much fools we are though we may take our selves to be very wise men and that all the knowledge we have of God in respect of that which we cannot know is but ignorance This Creed may serve to check that pride which is so radicated in our natures that we presume to be acquainted with all the ways methods and operations of God with all Religion and all that is Religious whereas though revealed to us by the Creatures and the Scriptures we know very little of God himself The greatest part of what we know of him is but the least part of what we know not of him There is nothing in God but what is very mysterious he was not God if he could be comprehended not only the mystery of Godliness which takes up the latter part of this Creed is a great mystery 1 Tim. 3.16 but the mystery of the Godhead which takes up the former part is also a very great mystery Now this should beget in us fear and reverence that we have such a God to do withall upon all good occasions who when he is brought the clearest down to our understanding is yet above it The more he reveals himself to us the more is he hid from us he cloaths himself with light yet we can see nothing but the dark side of him that which reveals other things to us hides him from us He is not far from us Act. 17.27 yet he is out of our reach He makes his approaches to us and yet is unapproachable 1 Tim. 6.16 He is visible in his works Rom. 1.19 20. and yet invisible in himself 1 Tim. 6.16 He gives himself several names and this amongst the rest I am that I am Exod. 3.14 as to shew him a God unchangable so to shew him a God unspeakable The three great works wherein he was most manifest are Creation Redemption and Sanctification wherein we admire three and are to adore but one we may discover three Persons and yet we must pay our Devotions and Adorations but to one God In the Creation we have three Persons creating yet but one Creator The creation of the matter is ascribed to the power of the Father the disposition of the form to the wisdom of the Son the preservation of the whole to the love of the Holy Ghost The Persons are three and yet inseparable acting by a strange order in these three great works yet acting inseparably In the first of Genesis where
the Creation is set down briefly yet fully too we have Elohim a noun plural to note the three Persons creating joyned to Bara a verb singular to note but one Creator Gen. 1.1 So when the great World was epitomized in Man the little Let us make implies more then one in his Image notes one and no more Gen. 1.26 27. More Persons and one God all joynt Creators together yet but one Creator Ye have the Father creating Act. 4.24 Job 38.4 Ye have the Son creating Heb. 1.2 10. John 1.3 Ye have the Holy Ghost creating Job 26.13 Ye have all three creating Psal 33.6 Lord notes the Father the Word notes the Son the Breath notes the Holy Ghost three and yet but one The Father creating by and from himself the Son creating by himself but from the Father the Holy Ghost creating by himself but from both All joynt Creators and all but one whence we may learn to give glory to all in all and for all Rom. 11.36 Indeed this doctrine of the Trinity is a very deep point the search of it is too high for any mans reason none of the wisest Heathens unless the Platonists and some few others could ever gain so little as a happy guess at it in broken notions and those notions I suppose they had from our Scriptures wherein we find it so clearly revealed that unless we will renounce our Scriptures and in so doing our Christianity too we must give up our Faith to the assent of this doctrine of the Trinity though we cannot sound the depth of it The works of God are wonderful it is not at all to be admired if we find so great a wonder in God himself who is stiled wonderful Isa 9.6 We who acknowledge a God must acknowledge this withall that he can be something and can do something which is above our capacities and comprehension That ever any men should become Atheists or Antitrinitarians upon this score so as to doubt of God or the Trinity or to deny them only because they cannot fathom the depth of these mysteries is to me a very strange thing I should rather think that Atheism and Antichristianism and Antitrinitarianism if I may so term it should arise from the mean conceits which men have of God and then do they conceive meanly of him when they think they can comprehend him and bring him within the narrow circle and compass of their capacities Thus far I thought good to deliver touching the first part of this Creed the doctrine of the Trinity which we must believe or else we cannot rightly believe that which follows after now it follows in good order thus Furthermore it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe rightly the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 John 4 2 3. For the right Faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God is God and Man 1 Tim. 2.5 John 1.14 1 Tim. 3.16 Philip. 2.6 7. What Christ the Son of God undertook to heal cure and save that he assumed and what he designed to leave in their ruines he refused therefore he passed by the fallen Angels took not their nature but took the nature of fallen Man the Seed of Abraham by way of Assumpsit and Incarnation John 1.14 Gal. 4.4 Heb. 2.16 Now we must note that in Christ are two Natures the Divine and the Humane and as be hath two Natures so he had upon the matter two Nativities also the first he had before all Worlds from God and the Father incorporeal and eternal the latter he had from the holy Virgin in the end of Ages corporeal and temporal according to his Deity he is consubstantial to God and the Father according to his Humanity he is consubstantial to Man and his Mother as Man he was capable of sufferings as God he could not suffer as Man he might be circumscribed as God he is boundless and without limits or dimensions as God he could not be made as Man he was made as God he was heavenly as Man earthly as God invisible and intelligible as Man visible as God incomprehensible as Man he might be comprehended Thus was he whole Man and whole God that the whole Man might be restored and reformed by him and the injur'd Deity reconciled and satisfied Therefore was the Word made Flesh John 1.14 He who was the Word and not made before all time was made and became Flesh in time made Flesh and manifest in the Flesh As Man he came to us in the Flesh that as the Word he might heal and restore that Flesh and Nature which he assumed was made and was made manifest in Here was no mocking of us in the case but a real making of him the holy Virgin in whom he was made did conceive him and not deceive us Neither was the Word made Flesh by being converted into it either the Word into the Flesh or the Flesh into the Word for the Deity cannot be changed into any thing nor any thing be changed into it Nor was he made as men are said to be made Friends who had formerly been at enmity only by way of reconciliation so as to continue still two distinct Persons as well as two distinct Natures but his two Natures were made up into one Person so that the Word did not stand by as a looker-on only whilst he suffered in the Flesh but contributed very much to the price and merit of his sufferings Neither was the Word made Flesh God made Man by such a composition as that a third Person should be made out of both these Natures God and Man which should neither be God nor Man But he was made by an Assumption Heb. 2.16 by taking the Manhood up to the Godhead both his Natures being preserved without confusion and his Person entire without division He was so made Flesh that he still remained the Word he took what before he was not without changing what before he was he increased what was ours without the least diminution of what was his own we were the better by this making he was never the worse for it this great Mystery of Godliness was no detriment to his Godhead nor the honour done to us the Flesh any injury at all to him the Word This Incarnation of the Son of God is a Mystery equal to that of the Trinity and therefore they who deny the one will not believe the other whereas all sound Christians do firmly believe both God of the substance of the Father begotten before the worlds and Man of the substance of his Mother born in the world Perfect God and perfect Man of a reasonable soul and humane flesh subsisting Heb. 1.2 3. John 1.18 Mich. 5.2 Gal. 4.4 Mat. 1.25 Equal to the Father as touching his Godhead and inferiour to the Father as touching his Manhood John 10.30 John 14.28 Philip. 2.6 7. Who although he be God and Man yet he is not two but one Christ 1 Tim.
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.
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