arguings every impure lust and filthy desire all pride and envie all hypocrisie and lying all inordinate love of this world and base Covetousnesse all hardnesse of heart and unrelenting dispositions all peevishnesse and hasty anger all mindfulnesse of injuries and revengfulnesse all blasphemy and irreligion and every motion of soule and body which can withdraw us from thee and is against thy will and commandement II. Gracious Father give us perfect pardon for what is past and a perfect repentance of all our evills that for the time to come we may with pure spirits with broken and contrite hearts with sanctified lips and holy desires serve thee religiously walke humbly with our God converse justly and charitably with men and possesse our soules in patience and holinesse and our bodies in sanctification and honour through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen The prayer of absolution to be said by the Minister alone according to his piety and discretion when he sees cause not frequently OUr Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus the great shepheard and Bishop of our soules that lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world who promised paradise to the repenting theife and gave pardon to the woman taken in adultery he pardon and forgive all your sins knowne and unknowne *** O Blessed Jesus in whatsoever thy servants as men bearing flesh about them and inhabiting this world or deceived by the Devil have sinn'd whether in word or deed whether in thought or desire whether by omission or commission let it be forgiven unto them by thy word and by thy spirit and for ever preserve thy servants from sinning against thee and from suffering thine eternal anger for thy promise sake and for thy glorious Names sake O Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Amen Then devoutly and distinctly say the Lords Prayer Our Father which art in heaven * Hallowed be thy Name * Thy Kingdome 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 trespas against us * And lead us not into temptation * But deliver us from evil For thine is the Kingdom the power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen The Doxology GLory be to the Father of mercies the Father of Men and Angels the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Glory be to the most holy and eternall sonne of God the Blessed Saviour and Redeemer of the World the Advocate of sinners the Prince of Peace the Head of the Church and the mighty Deliverer of all them that call upon him Glory be to the holy and Eternall spirit of God the Holy Ghost the comforter the sanctifying and life-giving Spirit All Glory and thankes all honour and power all love and obedience be to the Blessed and undivided Trinity one God Eternall The Heavens declare thy glory the Earth confesses thy providence the sea manifests thy power and every spirit and every understanding creature celebrates thy greatnesse for ever end ever * All glory and majesty all praises and dominion be unto thee O God Father Son and Holy Ghost for ever and ever Amen Then arising from their knees let the Psalter be read in order as shall be judged convenient that is to say The ordinary portions for every day Morning and Evening prayers and Psalmes particularly chosen for speciall dayes of festivity or of Humiliation respectively After the Psalmes ending with Glory be to the Father c. Read a chapter in the old Testament The chapter out of the old Testament is to be read on Sundaies and Festivals and not omitted without great occasion but on ordinary daies it may suffice after the Psalmes immediately to reade the lesson out of the new Testament After which recite this Hymne to the honour of God saying the verses interchangeably * REjoyce in the Lord ye righteous for praise is comely for the Upright ¶ The word of the Lord is true and all his works are faithfull * He loveth righteousnesse and judgement the earth is full of the goodnesse of the Lord. ¶ By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth * He gathereth the waters of the Sea together as an heape he layeth up the depth in storehouses ¶ Let all the earth fear the Lord let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him * Behold the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him upon them that hope in his mercie ¶ To deliver their soules from death and to keep them alive in the time of famine * Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivereth him out of all ¶ Evill shall slay the wicked and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate * Incline not my heart to any evill thing to practise wicked works with Men that work iniquity and let me not eat of their dainties ¶ Cause me to heare thy loving kindenesse in the morning for in thee do I trust cause me to know the way wherein I should walke for I lift up my soule unto thee * Teach me to do thy will for thou art my God thy spirit is good lead me into the Land of uprightnesse ¶ Gather not my soule with sinners nor my life with bloody men * The poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles ¶ O tast and see that the Lord is good blessed is the man that trusteth in him * O how great is thy goodnesse which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of Men. ¶ Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of Man Thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavillion from the strife of tongues * O love the Lord all ye his Saints for the Lord preserveth the faithfull and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer ¶ Be of good courage and he shall strengthen your heart all you that hope in the Lord. Glory be to the Father c. Or this * SIng praises unto God sing praises sing praises unto our King sing praises For God is the King of all the Earth sing ye praises with understanding ¶ God reigneth over the Nations God sitteth upon the throne of his holinesse * He is our refuge and strength a very present helpe in trouble ¶ Many O Lord our God are thy wonderfull workes which thou hast done and thy thoughts which are towards us They cannot be reckon'd in order * For God is my King of old working salvation in the midst of the Earth ¶ Thou didst cleave the fountaine and the floud thou driest up mighty rivers * The daye is thine the night also is thine thou hast prepared the light and the Sunne ¶ Thou hast set all the borders of the Earth thou hast made Summer and Winter * Give unto the Lord the glorie due unto his name worship
sanctifie all the events of thy providence and the changes of our life that we may for ever love and for ever fear thee and all things may worke together for our Good unto thy glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen The blessing The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communication of the holy spirit of God be with us and with all our Relatives and with all the servants of God this day and for evermore Amen The end of Morning Prayer EVENING PRAYER Throughout the YEARE EVENING PRAYER Throughout the YEARE Say one or more of these Sentences O Lord the hope of Israel all that forsake thee shall be ashamed because they have for saken the Lord the fountaine of living waters O Lord though our iniquities testifie against us have mercy upon us for thy names sake for our backslidings are many we have sinned against thee Seeke the Lord while he may be found call upon him when he is neer There is no peace saith my God to the wicked Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the remnant of the transgression of his heritage he retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in mercie Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabits eternity whose name is holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to renew the heart of them that are contrite After which adde this short exhortation I Beseech you that are present to joyne with me in a humble confession of sins to Almighty God casting your selves downe with all humility before the throne of Grace The Confession I. ALmighty God powerfull and mercifull thou art a jealous God against persevering sinners but a gracious father to the penitent let thy mercifull eares be opened to the petitions of thy servants who with sorrow and shame confesse their sins unto thee II. We have loved the world not thee we have obeyed the desires of our owne hearts not thy holy lawes and Commandements we have often left our dutie undone but cease not to please our senses and to feed greedily upon vanity thou hast commanded us to love our brethren and instead of loving them we have slandered and reproached injured and tempted them envied their good and rejoyced in their calamity III. O Blessed God we are asham'd when we rememberd our owne follies our violent passions our peevishnesse and pride our vaine thoughts and unprofitable words our uncharitable and uselesse conversation we spend our daies in idlenesse and folly our nights in the images and causes of death and though our sins are so many that we cannot number them yet we so little apprehend our owne dangers that we neither leave them utterly nor heartily deplore them IV. But O God thou God of pity and compassion have mercy upon us For thou art our Father mercifull and gracious and thou hast revealed to mankind an infinite mercy in Jesus Christ. For his sake be pleased to give us repentance and to give us pardon and grant that our soules being wash'd in the blood of the holy Lambe and the Baptisme of repentance we may live a gracious a holy and a blessed life in all godlinesse and honesty and sobriety and may die in the love of God in the charity of our neighbours in the Communion of the Church and in a sure and certaine hope of life eternal through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen The prayer of Absolution to be said by the Minister alone according to his piety and discretion when he sees cause OUr Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus the great Shepherd and Bishop of our soules that lambe of God that taketh away the sins of the world who promised Paradise to the repenting theife and gave pardon to the woman taken in adultery he pardon and forgive all your sins knowne and unknowne *** O Blessed Jesus in whatsoever thy servants as men bearing flesh about them and inhabiting this world or deceived by the Devill have sinn'd whether in word or deed whether in thought or desire whether by omission or commission let it be forgiven unto them by thy word and by thy spirit and for ever preserve thy servants from sinning against thee and from suffering thine eternall anger for thy promise sake and for thy glorious Names sake O Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Amen Then devoutly and distinctly say the Lords Prayer OUr Father which art in heaven * Hallowed be thy Name * Thy Kingdome 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 trespasse against us* And lead us not into temptation* But deliver us from evill For thine is the Kingdome the power and the Glory for ever Amen The Doxology GLory be to the Father of mercies the Father of Men and Angels the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Glory be to the most holy and eternall sonne of God the Blessed Saviour and Redeemer of the World the Advocate of sinners the Prince of Peace the Head of the Church and the mighty Deliverer of all them that call upon him Glory be to the holy and Eternall spirit of God the Holy Ghost the comforter the sanctifying and life-giving Spirit All Glory and thankes all honour and power all love and obedience be to the Blessed and undivided Trinity one God Eternall The Heavens declare thy glory the Earth confesses thy providence the sea manifests thy power and every spirit and every understanding creature celebrates thy greatnesse for ever and ever* All glory and majesty all praises and dominion be unto thee O God Father Son and Holy Ghost for ever and ever Amen Then arising from their knees let the Psalme's be said in order unlesse some extraordinary occasion doe intervene in which case let Psalmes be selected according to the occasion or as is afterwards described concluding with Glory be to the Father c. Then read upon all Sundaies and Festivals of the yeare a chapter in the old Testament either in order or by choice After the lesson recite this Hymne * I Will remember the workes of the Lord surely I will remember the wonders of old I will meditate of allthy workes and talke of thy doings ¶ Thy way O God is in the sanctuary who is so great a God as our God * Thou art the God that doest wonders thou hast declared thy strength among the people ¶ Thou even thou art to be feared and who may stand in thy sight when thou art angry * For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup and the wine is red it is full of mixture and he powreth out of the same
our hopes and the perfection of our desires to live with thee in the holinesse of thy Kingdome of grace and glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen II. For Peace O Almighty and most gracious Father who art the fountaine of peace and the Father of Unions we pray unto thee for peace for love and for thy salvation Let a holy peace for ever dwell in our consciences Let peace and holinesse and Gods blessing for ever adorne support and enlarge this family Let there be peace and Union of minds in all Christian assemblies one heart and one voice the same faith and an eternal charity Make warrs to cease in all the world that the peace and the designe of the Gospel may be advanced the lawes of the holy Jesus may be obeyed and his Name be magnified in all the world for ever and ever Amen III. For all Christian Princes and the Ecclesiastical state ALmighty God who rulest in the Kingdomes of men and in all events of the world defend those with thy mercy whom thou hast adorned with thy power lift up the horne advance the just interests of all Christian Kings Princes and states by the power of thy venerable and lifegiving passion *** Give unto all them who serve thee in the ministeries of religion wisedome and holinesse the blessings of peace and great abilities to minister prosperously to the good of soules by the power and aides of thy holy Spirit of wisdome IV. Pardon all our sins take away our iniquities from us all and preserve us from all danger and trouble from need and persecution from the temptations of the Devill from the violence and fraud of all our enemies Keep us O God from sinning against thee and from suffering thy wrath through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen V The collect for the Evening O Almighty Father who givest the Sun for a light by day and the ordinances of the Moone and of the Stars for a light by night vouchsafe to receive us this night and ever into thy favour and protection defending us from all sad casualties and evill accidents ruling and governing us with thy holy spirit that all darknesse and hurtfull ignorance all infidelity and weaknesse of heart all inordinate fear and carnall affections may be remooved far from us that we being justified by the mercies of God in our Lord Jesus may be sanctified by thy spirit and glorified by thy infinite mercies in the day of the glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen VI. For a blessed death O Most gracious and most holy Redeemer who by dying for us becamest the author of life unto us and hast subdued all the powers of hell and the grave taking away the sting of death and breaking in peices the powers of darknesse have mercy upon us now and at the hour of our Death Let thy holy Spirit governe all our words and actions our thoughts and designes our civill entercourse and the duties of religion and grant to us so perfectly to obey his commandements and attend his motions all the daies of our life that we may by holy habits and a constant performance of our dutie waite for the coming of our Lord and be ready to enter with him at whatsoever hour he shall come VII O be mercifull unto us in the day of our calamity and of thy visitation strengthen our faith in the day of our sicknesses trial when the Cloud is thicke the storme is great that we may rely upon thy grace invocate thy mercies hope in thy goodnesse and receive the end of our hopes the salvation of our soules O Let us never descend into the dwellings of the wicked nor into the place of them that know not God but be pleas'd here to guide us with thy councell and after that receive us with thy glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Or this O Eternall God thou fountaine of life and pardon there is no number of thy daies nor of thy mercies be mercifull unto us now and at the hour of our death let not thy servants be arrested with sudden death that we be neither unready in our accounts nor snatched hence with an imperfect duty nor surprised in an act of sin nor called upon when our lampes are untrimm'd let it be neither violent nor untimely hasty nor unblessed but after the ordinary visitation of men having in it an excellent patience and an exemplar piety and the greatest senses and demonstrations of thy eternall mercies Preserve O God our reason and religion our faith and our hope our sense and our speech perfect and usefull till the last of our daies and grant that we may die the death of the righteous and let our last end be like to his free from debt and deadly sin having first discharg'd all our obligations of justice and made competent provision for our relatives that none of ours be left miserable and unprovided in our departure but grant that being blessed by thy providence and sanctified with thy spirit they may for ever be servants of the Lord Jesus II. Thou knowest Lord the secrets of our hearts shut not up thy mercifull eyes and eares unto our prayers but spare us O Lord most holy O God most mighty O holy and mercifull Saviour thou most worthy Judge eternall suffer us not at our last hour for any paines of death to fall from thee but strengthen us with a mighty grace and support us with an infinite mercy giving us perfect measures or repentance and great treasures of charity that at the generall resurrection in the last day we may be found acceptable in thy sight and receive that blessing which thy welbeloved son shall then pronounce to all them that love and feare thee saying Come ye Blessed children of my Father receive the kingdome prepared for you from the beginning of the world * This mercy O most mercifull Father vouchsafe to give unto us and all thy servants through Jesus Christ our Mediator and Redeemer Amen Here may be inserted any of the portions of the prayer of intercession which is at the end of Morning Prayer The Blessing THe Lord blesse you and keep you The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you and give you peace The blessing of God Almighty the Father Son and Holy Ghost be amongst you and abide with you and be your portion for ever and ever Amen The end of Evening Prayer To be added to the foregoing Offices upon speciall occasions immediately before the blessing at Morning or Evening Prayer A prayer before Sermon O Lord God fountaine of life giver of all good things who givest to men the blessed hope of eternall life by our Lord Jesus Christ and hast promised thy holy Spirit to them that aske him Be present with us in the dispensation ofthy holy word and Sacraments grant that we being preserved from all evil by
design it for the production of mankind and didst give it as one of the first blessings of mankind O be pleased to look upon thy handmaid who waits for thy mercy and humbly begs of thy infinite goodness to make me partaker of that blessing which thou didst design to all the sons and daughters of Adam thou O God hast the keyes of heaven and hell of rain and providence of the womb and the grave O let not thy servant feel the curse of dry breasts and a barren womb but make me a joyful Mother of children that thy handmaid may serve thee in increasing the number of thy redeemed ones and may minister blessings to this family into which thou hast adopted me and may bring comfort to my dear husband whom doe thou bless and love and sanctifie for ever II. O God I confess I am unworthy of this or any other favour I am less then the least of thy mercies yet our weakness and unworthiness cannot be the measures of thy mercy thou art good and gracious infinitely gracious essentially good and delightest in shewing mercy to them that call upon thee put their trust in thee O dear God I remember that thou didst releive the sorrows of thy servant Hannah and gavest her the blessing of children thou didst blesse the womb of Elizabeth who was barren thou spakest the word and the rocks did rend and they sent forth a pleasant stream Thy hand is not shortned and thy mercies are not less then ever no less then infinite and why should not thy servant hope that thou wilt hear my prayer and grant the desire of my soul Even so O gracious father let it be as thou pleasest thy wisedom is infinite and thy counsels are secret and the waies and lines of thy providence are like the path of a bird in the aire not to be discovered by our weak sight III. I Know O God that thou lovest to hear our prayers and thou delightest in the humble passionate and resigned desires of thy servants Although O God I desire this blessing with an earnestness as great as any temporal favour yet I humbly submit my desires my interests my content and all that I am or have to thy holywill and pleasure humbly begging of thee that I may cheerfully suffer and obediently doe thy will and choose what thou choosest and observe the waies of thy providence and revere thy judgement and wait for thy mercy and delight in thy dispensation and expect that all things shall work together for good to them that fear thee O let thy holy Spirit for ever be present with me and make me to fear thee and to love thee above all the things in the world for ever and then no ill can come unto thy servant for whosoever loves thee cannot perish Hear the prayer of thy servant and releive my sorrow and sanctify my desires and accept me in the Son of thy love and of thy desires our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen A prayer to be used by an afflicted wife in behalf of a vitious Husband I. O Eternal Father thou preserver of men thou great lover of souls who didst send thy holy Son to die that mankind might be redeemed and sin might be destroyed Thou knowest how intolerable a thing it is that a Soul should to eternal ages be incircled with thy wrath and the indignation of a mighty and an angry God and therefore dost love to doe miracles of mercy because thou lovest not that a sinner should perish Be pleased to give thy handmaid leave to present her humble desires in behalf of a sinner one sinner for another the miserable for him that is ready to perish Lord look down in mercy upon my Husband snatch him from the jawes of Hell suffer him not to perish in his sin but open his eyes with the light of thy word and of thy Spirit that he may espy his danger that he may behold the deformity of his sins the injuriousness of his actions the folly of his pleasures the iniquity of his vowes II. CLeanse his hands and heart from all unrighteousness from bloud-guiltiness from rapine from violence from cruelty O Lord and purifie his soul and body from all impurity from all intemperance from the violence and fury of passion giving him a perfect repentance and a perfect pardon and if it be thy will let me also some way or other cooperate towards the recovery of his precious soul and be pleased to remember the sufferings of thy handmaid not that he may receive evil but that I may find good from thy gracious hands in the day of recompence thorough Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen If she have escaped any violence intended against her by his malice or passion then adde this prayer of thanksgiving O God my God and Father thou hast strangely preserv'd and rescued me from evil thou hast made decrees in heaven for my safety and preservation and for the glory of thy own name thou hast diverted the arrow that was directed against me What am I O Lord and what can I doe or what have I done that thou shouldest doe this for me I am O God a miserable sinner and I can doe nothing without a mighty grace and I have done nothing by my self but what I am asham'd of and yet I have received great mercies and miracles of providence I see O God I see that thy goodness is the cause and the measure of all my hopes and all my good and upon the confidence and greatness of that goodness I humbly beg of thy sacred Majesty to keep and defend me from all evil by thy wise providence to lead me into all good by the conduct of thy divine Spirit and where I have done amiss give me pardon and where I have been mistaken give me pity and where I have been injured give me thy favour and a gracious exchange that I may serve thee here with diligence and love and hereafter may rejoice with thee and love thee as I desire to love thee and as thou deservest to be loved even with all the powers and degrees of passion and essence to eternal ages in the inheritance of Jesus whom I love for whom I will not refuse to die in whom I desire to live and die to whom with thee O gracious Father and the holy Spirit be all honour and glory love and obedience for ever and ever Amen A Mothers prayer for her children I. MOst Gracious and Eternal God Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Father of Men and Angels Father of mercies and God of all comforts thou hast promised to be a Father to a thousand generations of them that love and fear thee be thou a God and a Father to me and the children which thou hast given me Enable me O Lord to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and in the fear of God to the praise of thy holy Name O give me thy grace and favour that
this Psalme * PLeade thou my cause O Lord with them that strive with me for they have laid their net to destroy me without a cause yea even without a cause have they made a pit for my soule ¶ Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoyce over me neither let them winke with the eye that hate me without a cause * For they speake not peace but they devise deceitfull matters against them that are quiet in the land ¶ They rewarded me evill for good to the great discomfort of my soule * Stirre up thy selfe and awake to my judgement even unto my cause my God and my Lord. ¶ Judge me O Lord my God according to my righteousnesse and let them not rejoyce over me * And my soule shall be joyful in the Lord it shall rejoyce in his salvation ¶ All my bones shall say Lord who is like unto thee which deliverest the poore from him that is too strong for him yea the poore and needy from him that spoileth him * Let them shout for joy and be glad that favour my righteous cause yea let them say continually let the Lord be magnified which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servants ¶ Trust in the Lord and doe good so shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed * Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him fret not thy selfe because of him who prospereth in his way because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to passe ¶ For the Lord shall laugh at him for he seeth that his day is comming * Glory be to the Father c. ¶ As it was in the beginning c. Minister The Lord be with you Answer And with thy Spirit Let us pray Our Father which art in Heaven c. The Collect. ALmighty and everlasting God who hatest nothing that thou hast made and lovest not that a sinner should die before thee and before thy Angels there is joy in heaven at the conversion of a sinner thou hast promised pardon to the penitent and salvation to them that persevere O grant that we may never presume on thy mercy or despise the riches of thy goodnesse but that thy forbearance and long suffering may lead us to repentance create and make in us new and contrite hearts that we truly mourning for our sins and forsaking them condemning our selves and justifying thee crucifying the old man and becomming new creatures may obtaine of thee mercy and remission that though we are now worthily punished for our sins by the comfort of thy grace we may be mercifully releived through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen I. The prayer for the Church O Eternal God thou preserver of men and the Great lover of soules have pitty and compassion upon thine afflicted handmaid the Church of England Thou hast humbled us for our pride and chastised us for our want of discipline O forgive us all our sins by which thou hast been provoked to anger and to Jealousie to despise our sorrowes and to arme thy selfe against us II. Blessed God smite us not with a final and exterminating judgement call not the watchmen off from their guards nor the Angels from their charges let us not die by a famine of thy Word and Sacraments If thou smitest us with the rod of a man thou canst sanctify every stroke unto us and canst bring good out of the evil and delightest to doe so but nothing can bring us a recompence if thou hatest us and sufferest the soules of thy people to perish III. Unite our hearts and tongues take away the Spirit of error and division from amongst us and so order all the accidents of thy providence that religion may increase and our devotion may be great and popular and truth may be incouraged and promoted and thy Name glorified and thy servants comforted and instructed that thy holy Spirit may rule and all interests may stoope and obey publish and advance the honour of our Lord Jesus Amen For the Superiour Clergy O Most blessed Saviour Jesus King of Heaven and earth the head and prince of the Catholick Church who hast appointed thy servants Ministers and stewards in the house of thy Father to give bread to the hungry and drinke to them that thirst after the water of life flowing from the Fountaines of our Saviour continue and blesse sanctify and adorne with thy gifts and graces all the Spiritual guides and governours which thou hast appointed over us that they may continue in thy service to comfort the afflicted to instruct the ignorant to confirme the strong to defend and promote thy truth to intercede for thy servants to open the kingdome of heaven to all beleivers and to shut up the disobedient and rebellious in everlasting prisons by the keyes of the Kingdome by thy word and Sacraments by thy power and by thy Spirit remove not the Candlestick from us neither doe thou quench the light of Israel but let thy servants our Bishops and Priests be like burning and shining lights in the Temple of God by a continual never failing never broken succession offering up the daily sacrifice rejoycing in the plenty of peace and the imployments of thy house in holy offices and a daily ministration that thou being for ever pleas'd and for ever glorified we may be thy peculiar people a chosen generation a royal priest-hood clothed with righteousnesse and singing with joyfulnesse Eternall Hallelujahs to the honour of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen For Priests and the Inferiour Clergy MOst Blessed and Eternal Jesu who art a Preist for ever after the order of Melchisedek and hast separated thy servants to minister to thee in holy offices and to convey holy things unto the people give unto all thy servants the Ministers of thy word and Sacraments the spirit of prudence and knowledge of faith and charity of watchfulnesse and holy zeale that they as good helpes in Government may declare thy will faithfully to their congregations and administer the Sacraments purely and devoutly and by their holy life become an example to thy litle flock that so they with cheerfulnesse and joy may render an account of their charge and may by thy mercy obtaine the blessing of thy Preisthood the glories of thy Kingdome O most Blessed and Eternall Saviour who livest and reignest with the Father and the holy Spirit eternal God world without end Amen The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ c. To this office may be added the confession of sins taken out of S. Ephraim the Syrian in the Evening prayer for a family and said immediately before the collect Or else Immediately before the blessing as opportunity shall require or permit may be said the Let any described at the end of these devotions Any of these prayers or psalmes may upon any occasion ordinary or extraordinary be used in any of the other offices In time of VVarre to the foregoing offices may be added these following prayers taken out of a special
woman c from all the violence and fraud of the Spirits of darknesse from the weakenesse of humane nature from the curse and power of evil habits and from Eternal damnation through the mercies of God and the grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen I. For Prisoners under oppression by false accusation by unjust warre for a good Conscience or unreasonable dealings of men by vexatious law-suits and violent injurious bargaines O Almighty God most mercifull most gracious Father who hast glorified thy eternal son and exalted him to be a covenant for the people a light of the Gentiles to open the blind eyes to bring out the prisoners from the prison and them that sit in darkenesse out of the prison-house Thou standest at the right hand of the poore to save his soule from unrighteous Judges thou art a defence for the oppressed and a refuge in due time in the time of trouble O looke upon thy servants who suffer wrong from the violent and unjust usages of our oppressors If it be thy will speedily rescue us from our calamity we submit to thy will and pleasure and adore thy providence and thy wisedome in every dispensation but we begge of thee together with the suffering give us patience and a way for us to escape and sanctify both thy justice in our suffering and thy mercy in our delivery Doe thou judge our cause O Lord defend our persons give good unto our persecutors and not evil give them a love of justice and repentance pardon and holinesse send peace O Lord in all our daies and in al our dwellings let there be no leading into captivity no complaining in the houses of bondage and let not our portion be with persecutors but with the poore and the persecuted with the harmelesse and the innocent with them that doe good and suffer evil for Jesus Christ his sake our Lord and onely Saviour Amen II. O God of mercy extend thy loving kindnesse to all thy servants who are under the same or any other great affliction deliver them O God from all evil from their owne weaknesse and their enemies power blesse them with thy providence sanctify them by thy grace pardon them by thy mercy defend them with thy power conduct them by thy Spirit enrich them with thy wisedome and bring them to all holy and usefull comforts in this world and to never ceasing glories in the world to come through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen THE Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the Communication of the holy Spirit of God be with us and with all our relatives and with all the servants of God for ever and ever Amen An office or forme of prayer for Sailers or Mariners Our Father which art in Heaven c. Versicle O God make speed to save us Answer O Lord make hast to helpe us Glory be to the Father c. As it was in the beginning c. The Psalme * BLessed is he that hath the God of Jacob for his helpe and whose hope is in the Lord his God ¶ Which made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that therein is which feedeth the hungry * The Lord is great and cannot worthily be praised he is more to be feared then all Gods ¶ His dominion is from one sea to the other and from the floud unto the worlds end * Whither then shall I goe from thy Spirit or whither shall I goe from thy presence ¶ If I climbe up into heaven thou art there If I goe down to hell thou art there also * If I take the wings of the morning and remaine in the uttermost parts of the sea ¶ Even there also shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me * They that goe downe to the sea in ships and doe businesse in great waters ¶ These men see the workes of the Lord and his wonders in the deep * For he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind which lifteth up the waves thereof ¶ They mount up to the heaven they goe downe againe to the depths their soul is melted because of trouble * They reele to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits-end ¶ Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble and he bringeth them out of their distresses * He maketh the storme a calme so that the waves thereof are still ¶ Then are they glad because they be at quiet so he bringeth them unto the desired haven * O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse and for his wonderfull workes to the sons of men ¶ O Lord God of hosts who is like unto thee thy truth most mighty Lord is on every side * Thou rulest the raging of the sea thou stillest the waves thereof when they arise ¶ Thou shalt shew us wonderful things in thy righteousnesse O God of our salvation thou that art the hope of all the ends of the earth and of them in the broad sea * They also that dwell in the uttermost parts of the earth shall be afraid at thy tokens thou that makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to praise thee ¶ The Lord hath said I will bring my people again as I did from Basan mine owne will I bring again as I did some time from the deepe of the sea * Glory be to the Father c. ¶ As it was in the beginning c. Or this to be said especially in a storme or danger of Shipwrack * THE Lord is King Ever since the world began hath thy seat been prepared thou art from everlasting ¶ The flouds are risen O Lord the flouds have lift up their voice the flouds lift up their waves * The waves of the sea are mighty and rage horribly but the Lord that dwelleth on high is mightier ¶ Awake awake put on strength O arme of the Lord awake as in the ancient daies in the generations of old * Art not thou he which hath dried the sea the waters of the great deepe that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to passe over ¶ Thou art the God that doeth wonders and hast declared thy power among the people * Thou hast mightily delivered thy people even the sons of Jacob and Joseph ¶ The waters saw thee O God the waters saw thee and were afraid the depths also were troubled * The clouds powred out waters the aire thundred and thine arrowes went abroad ¶ The voice of thy thunder was heard round about the lightnings shone upon the ground the earth was mooved and shooke withall * Thy way is in the sea and thy paths in the great waters and thy footsteps are not knowne ¶ Therefore I will cry unto God with my voice even unto God will I cry with my voice and he shall hearken unto me * Heare me O God in the multitude of thy mercy even in the truth of thy salvation ¶ Take me out of the mire that I
That indetermination of the office may not introduce indifferency nor indifferency lead in a freer liberty or liberty degenerate into licentiousness or licentiousness into folly and vanity and these come sometime attended with secular designs lest these be cursed with the immission of a peevish spirit upon our Priests and that spirit be a teacher of lies and these lies become the basis of impious theoremes which are certainly attended with ungodly lives and then either Atheism or Antichristianism may come according as shall happen in the conjunction of time and other circumstances for this would be a sad climax a ladder upon which are no Angels ascending or descending because the degrees lead to darkness and misery 5. But that which is of special concernment is this that the Liturgy of the Church of England hath advantages so many and so considerable as not onely to raise it self above the devotions of other Churches but to endear the affections of good people to be in love with Liturgy in general 6. For to the Churches of the Romane Communion we can say that ours is reformed to the reformed Churches we can say that ours is orderly and decent for we were freed from the impositions and lasting errours of a tyrannical spirit and yet from the extravagancies of a popular spirit too our reformation was done without tumult and yet we saw it necessary to reform we were zealous to cast away the old errours but our zeal was balanced with consideration and the results of authority Not like women or children when they are affrighted with fire in their clothes we shak'd off the cole indeed but not our garments lest we should have exposed our Churches to that nakedness which the excellent men of our sister Churches complained to be among themselves 7. And indeed it is no small advantage to our Liturgy that it was the off-spring of all that authority which was to prescribe in matters of Religion The king and the Priest which are the Antistites Religionis and the preservers of both the Tables joyn'd in this work and the people as it was represented in Parliament were advised withal in authorizing the form after much deliberation for the Rule Quod spectat ad omnes ab omnibus tractari debet was here observed with strictness and then as it had the advantages of discourse so also of authorities its reason from one and its sanction from the other that it might be both reasonable and sacred and free not onely from the indiscretions but which is very considerable from the scandal of popularity 8. And in this I cannot but observe the great wisdome and mercy of God in directing the contrivers of the Liturgy with the spirit of zeal and prudence to allay the furies and heats of the first affrightment For when men are in danger of burning so they leap from the flames they consider not whither but whence and the first reflections of a crooked tree are not to straightness but to a contrary incurvation yet it pleased the Spirit of God so to temper and direct their spirits that in the first Liturgy of King Edward they did rather retain something that needed further consideration then reject any thing that was certainly pious and holy and in the second Liturgy that they might also throughly reform they did rather cast out something that might with good profit have remained then not satisfy the world of their zeal to reform of their charity in declining every thing that was offensive and the clearness of their light in discerning every semblance of errour or suspicion in the Romane Church 9. The truth is although they fram'd the Liturgy with the greatest consideration that could be by all the united wisdome of this Church and State yet as if Prophetically to avoid their being charg'd in after ages with a crepusculum of Religion a dark twilight imperfect Reformation they joyn'd to their own starre all the shining tapers of the other reformed Churches calling for the advice of the most eminently learned and zealous Reformers in other Kingdomes that the light of all together might shew them a clear path to walk in And this their care produced some change for upon the consultation the first form of King Edwards Service-book was approved with the exception of a very few clauses which upon that occasion were review'd and expung'd till it came to that second form and modest beauty it was in the Edition of M D L II and which Gilbertus a German approved of as a transcript of the ancient and primitive forms 10. It was necessary for them to stay somewhere Christendome was not onely reformed but divided too and every division would to all ages have called for some alteration or else have disliked it publickly and since all that cast off the Romane yoke thought they had title enough to be called Reformed it was hard to have pleased all the private interests and peevishness of men that called themselves friends and therefore that onely in which the Church of Rome had prevaricated against the word of God or innovated against Apostolical tradition all that was par'd away But at last she fix'd and strove no further to please the people who never could be satisfied 11. The Painter that exposed his work to the censure of the common passengers resolving to mend it as long as any man could finde fault at last had brought the eyes to the ears and the ears to the neck and for his excuse subscrib'd Hanc populus fecit But his Hanc ego that which he made by the rules of art and the advice of men skill'd in the same mystery was the better peece The Church of England should have par'd away all the Canon of the Communion if she had mended her peece at the prescription of the Zuinglians and all her office of Baptism if she had mended by the rules of the Anabaptists and kept up Altars still by the example of the Lutherans and not have retain'd decency by the good will of the Calvinists and now another new light is sprung up she should have no Liturgy at all but the worship of God be left to the managing of chance and indeliberation and a petulant fancy 12. It began early to discover its inconvenience for when certain zealous persons fled to Frankford to avoid the funeral piles kindled by the Romane Bishops in Queen Maries time as if they had not enemies enough abroad they fell foul with one another and the quarrel was about the Common Prayer Book and some of them made their appeal to the judgement of M r Calvin whom they prepossessed with strange representments and troubled phantasms concerning it and yet the worst he said upon the provocation of those prejudices was that even its vanities were tolerable Tolerabiles ineptias was the unhandsome Epithete he gave to some things which he was forc'd to dislike by his over-earnest complying with the Brethren of Frankford 13. Well! upon this the wisdome of
24. And that we may be yet more particular the very Prayer for Christs Catholick Church in the Office of Communion beside that it is nothing but a plain execution of an Apostolical precept set down in the Preface of the Prayer it was also used in all times and in all Liturgies of the ancient Church And we finde this attested by S. Cyril of Jerusalem Deinde postquam confectum est illud spirituale sacrificium ... obsecramus Deum pro communi Ecclesiarum pace pro tranquillitate mundi pro Regibus c. To the same purpose also there is a testimony in S. Chrysostome which because it serves not onely here but also to other uses it will not be amiss here to note it Quid autem sibi vult primum omnium In obsequio scil quotidiano perpetuâ—que divinae religionis ritu Atque id noverunt fideles quomodo diebus singulis mane vespere orationes fundantur ad Dominum quomodo pro omni mundo Regibus omnibus qui in sublimitate positi sunt obsecrationes in Ecclesia fiant Sed forte quis dixerit pro omnibus quod ait tantum fideles intelligi voluisse At id verum non esse quae sequuntur ostendunt Denique ait pro Regibus neque enim tunc Reges Deum colebant It is evident by this that the custome of the Church was not onely in the celebration of the holy Communion but in all her other Offices to say this Prayer not onely for Christs Catholick Church but for all the world 25. And that the charity of the Church might not be misconstrued he produces his warrant S. Paul not onely expresly commands us to pray for all men but addes by way of instance for Kings who then were unchristian and heathen in all the world But this form of Prayer is almost word for word in S. Ambrose Haec regula Ecclesiastica est tradita à Magistro gentium quâ utuntur Sacerdotes nostri ut pro omnibus supplicent ... deprecantes pro Regibus ... orantes pro iis quibus sublimis potestas credita est ut in justitia veritate gubernent ... postulantes pro iis qui in necessitate varia sunt ut eruti liberati Deum collaudent incolumitatis Authorem So farre goes our form of Prayer But S. Ambrose addes Referentes quoque gratiarum actiones ... And so it was with us in the first Service-books of King Edward and the Preface to the Prayer engages us to a thanksgiving but I know not how it was stoln out the Preface still remaining to chide their unwariness that took down that part of the building and yet left the gate standing But if the Reader please to be satisfied concerning this Prayer which indeed is the longest in our Service-book and of greatest consideration he may see it taken up from the universal custome of the Church and almost in all the words of the old Liturgies if he will observe the Liturgies themselves of S. Basil S. Chrysostome and the concurrent testimonies of Tertullian S. Austin Celestine Gennadius Prosper and Theophylact 26. I shall not need to make any excuses for the Churches reading those portions of Scripture which we call Epistles and Gospels before the Communion They are Scriptures of the choicest and most profitable transaction And let me observe this thing That they are not onely declarations of all the mysteries of our redemption and rules of good life but this choice is of the greatest compliance with the necessities of the Christian Church that can be imagined For if we deny to the people a liberty of reading Scriptures may they not complain as Isaac did against the inhabitants of the land that the Philistines had spoiled his well and the fountains of living water If a free use to all of them and of all Scriptures were permitted should not the Church her self have more cause to complain of the infinite licentiousness and loosness of interpretations and of the commencement of ten thousand errours which would certainly be consequent to such permission Reason and Religion will chide us in the first reason and experience in the latter And can the wit of man conceive a better temper and expedient then that such Scriptures onely or principally should be laid before them all in daily Offices which contain in them all the mysteries of our redemption and all the rules of good life which two things are done by the Gospels and Epistles respectively the first being a Record of the life and death of our blessed Saviour the latter instructions for the edification of the Church in pious and Christian conversation and all this was done with so much choice that as obscure places are avoided by design as much as could be so the very assignation of them to certain festivals the appropriation of them to solemn and particular days does entertain the understandings of the people with notions proper to the mystery and distinct from impertinent and vexatious questions And were this design made something more minute and applicable to the various necessities of times and such choice Scriptures permitted indifferently which might be matter of necessity and great edification the people of the Church would have no reason to complain that the fountains of our Saviour were stopp'd from them nor the Rulers of the Church that the mysteriousness of Scripture were abused by the petulancy of the people to consequents harsh impious and unreasonable in despight of government in exauctoration of the power of superiours or for the commencement of schisms and heresies The Church with great wisdome hath first held this torch out and though for great reasons intervening and hindering it cannot be reduced to practice yet the Church hath shewn her desire to avoid the evil that is on both hands and she hath shewn the way also if it could have been insisted in But however this choice of the more remarkable portions of Scripture is so reasonable and proportionable to the nature of the thing that because the Gospels and Epistles bear their several shares of the design the Gospel representing the foundation and prime necessities of Christianity and the mysterious parts of our Redemption the summe the faith and the hopes of Christianity therefore it is attested by a ceremony of standing up it being a part of the confession of faith but the Epistles containing superstructures upon that foundation are read with religious care but not made formal or solemn by any other circumstance The matter contains in it sufficient of reason and of proportion but nothing of necessity except it be by accident and as authority does intervene by way of sanction 27. But that this reading of Epistles and Gospels before the Communion was one of the earliest customes of the Church I finde it affirmed by Rabanus Maurus Sed enim initio mos iste cantandi non erat qui nunc in Ecclesia ante sacrificium
there by any such thing as regeneration by the Ministery of the word and begetting in Christ and Fathers and Sons after the common faith as the expressions of the Apostle make us to beleeve certain it is the blessings of Religion doe descend most properly from our spiritual Fathers and with most plentiful emanation And this hath been the Religion of all the world to derive very much of their blessings by the Priests particular and signal ministration Melchisedech blessed Abraham Isaac blessed Jacob and Moses and Aaron blessed the people So that here is benediction from a Prince from a Father from the Aaronical Priest from Melchisedech of whose order is the Christian in whose Law it is a sanction that in grea◠needs especially the Elders of the Church be sent for and let them pray over him that is distressed That is the great remedy for the great necessity And it was ever much valued in the Church insomuch that Nectarius would by no means take investiture of his Patriarchal Sea until he had obtained the benediction of Diodorus the Bishop of Cilicia Eudoxia the Empress brought her son Theodosius to S. Chrysostome for his blessing and S. Austin and all his company received it of Innocentius Bishop of Carthage It was so solemne in all marriages that the marrying of persons was called Benediction So it was in the fourth Councel of Carthage Sponsus sponsa cùm benedicendi sunt à Sacerdote c. benedicendi for married ... And in all Church Offices it was so solemne that by a Decree of the Councel of Agatho A. D. 380. it was decreed ante benedictionem Sacerdotis populus egredi non praesumat By the way onely here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for two parts of the English Liturgy For the benediction in the Office of marriage by the authority of the Councel of Carthage and for concluding the Office of Communion with the Priests or Bishops benediction by warrant of the Councel of Agatho which Decrees having been derived into the practice of the universal Church for very many ages is in no hand to be undervalued lest we become like Esau and we miss it when we most need it For my own particular I shall still press on to receive the benediction of holy Church till at last I shall hear a Venite benedicti and that I be reckoned amongst those blessed souls who come to God by the ministeries of his own appointment and will not venture upon that neglect against which the piety and wisdome of all Religions in the world infinitely doe prescribe 44. Now the advantages of confidence which I have upon the forms of benediction in the Common Prayer-book are therefore considerable because God himself prescribed a set form of blessing the people appointing it to be done not in the Priests extempore but in an established form of words and because as the authority of a prescript form is from God so that this form may be also highly warranted the solemne blessing at the end of the Communion is in the very words of S. Paul 45. For the forms of Absolution in the Liturgy though I shall not enter into consideration of the Question concerning the quality of the Priests power which is certainly a very great ministery yet I shall observe the rare temper and proportion which the Church of England uses in commensurating the forms of Absolution to the degrees of preparation and necessity At the beginning of the Morning and Evening Prayer after a general Confession usually recited before the devotion is high and pregnant whose parts like fire enkindle one another there is a form of Absolution in general declarative and by way of proposition In the Office of the Communion because there are more acts of piety and repentance previous and presupposed there the Churches form of Absolution is optative and by way of intercession But in the Visitation of the sick when it is supposed and enjoyned that the penitent shall disburthen himself of all the clamorous loads upon his conscience the Church prescribes a medicinal form by way of delegate authority that the parts of justification may answer to the parts of good life For as the penitent proceeds so does the Church pardon and repentance being terms of relation they grow up together till they be compleat this the Church with greatest wisdom supposes to be at the end of our life grace by that time having all its growth that it will have here therefore then also the pardon of sins is of another nature then it ever was before if being now more actual and compleat whereas before it was in fieri in the beginnings and smaller increases and upon more accidents apt to be made imperfect and revocable So that the Church of England in these manners of dispensing the power of the Keys does cut off all disputings and impertinent wranglings whether the Priests power were Judicial or declarative for possibly it is both and it is optative too and something else yet for it is an emanation from all the parts of his Ministery and he never absolves but he preaches or prays or administers a Sacrament for this power of remission is a transcendent passing through all the parts of the Priestly Offices For the keys of the Kingdome of heaven are the promises the threatnings of the Scripture and the prayers of the Church and the Word and the Sacraments and all these are to be dispensed by the Priest and these keys are committed to his Ministery and by the operation of them all he opens and shuts heaven gates ministerially and therefore S. Paul calls it verbum reconciliationis and says it is dispensed by Ministers as by Embassadors or Delegates and therefore it is an excellent temper of the Church so to prescribe her forms of Absolution as to shew them to be results of the whole Priestly Office of Preaching of dispensing Sacraments of spiritual Cure and authoritative deprecation And the benefit which pious and well disposed persons receive by these publick Ministeries as it lies ready formed in our blessed Saviours promise erit solutum in coelis so men will then truly understand when they are taught to value every instrument of grace or comfort by the exigence of a present need as in a sadness of spirit in an unquiet conscience in the arrest of death 46. I shall not need to procure advantages to the reputation of the Common Prayer by considering the imperfections of whatsoever hath been offered in its stead but yet a 1 form of worship composed to the dishonour of the Reformation accusing it of darkness and intolerable inconvenience 2 a direction without a rule 3 a rule without restraint 4 a prescription leaving an indifferency to a possibility of licentiousness 5 an office without any injunction of external acts of worship not prescribing so much as kneeling 6 an office that onely once names reverence but forbids it in the ordinary instance and enjoyns it in
no particular 7 an office that leaves the form of ministration of Sacraments so indifferently that if there be any form of words essential the Sacrament is in much danger to become invalid for want of provision of due forms of Ministration 8 an office that complies with no precedent of Scripture nor of any ancient Church 9 that must of necessity either want authority or it must preferre novelty before antiquity 10 that accuses all the Primitive Church of indiscretion at the least 11 that may be abused by the indiscretion or ignorance or malice of any man that uses it 12 into which heresy or blasphemy may creep without possiblity of prevention 13 that hath no external forms to entertain the fancy of the more common spirits 14 nor any allurement to perswade and enâ—ice its adversaries 15 nor any means of adunation and uniformity amongst its confidents 16 an office that still permits children in many cases of necessity to be unbaptized making no provision for them in sudden cases 17 that will not suffer them to be confirmed at all ut utroque Sacramento renascantur as S. Cyprians phrase is that they may be advantaged by a double rite 18 that joyns in marriage as Cacus did his oxen in rude inform and unhallowed yokes 19 that will not doe piety to the dead nor comfort to the living by solemn and honorary offices of funeral 20 that hath no forms of blessing the people any more 21 then described forms of blessing God which are just none at all 22 an office that never thinks of absolving penitents or exercising the power of the Keys after the custome and rites of Priests 23 a Liturgy that recites no Creed no Confession of Faith so not declaring either to Angels or men according to what Religion they worship God but entertaining though indeed without a symbole Arrians Macedonians Nestorians Manichees or any other Sect for ought there appears to the contrary 24 that consigns no publick Canon of Communion but leaves that as casual and phantastick as any of the lesser offices 25 an office that takes no more care then chance does for the reading the holy Scriptures 26 that never commemorates a departed Saint 27 that hath no Communion with the Church Triumphant any more then with the other parts of the Militant 28 that never thanks God for the redemption of the world by the Nativity and passion Resurrection and Ascension of our blessed Saviour Jesus but condemnes the memorial even of the Scripture Saints and the memorial of the miraculous blessings of redemption of mankinde by Christ himself with the same accusation it condemnes the Legends and portentous stories of the most suspected part of the Romane Calendar 29 an office that out of zeal against Judaism condemnes all distinction of days unless they themselves distinguish them that leaves no signature of piety upon the Lords day and yet the Compilers doe enjoyn it to a Judaical superstition 30 an office that does by implication undervalue the Lords Prayer for it never injoyns it and does but once permit it 31 an office that is new without authority and never made up into a sanction by an Act of Parliament an order or Directory of devotion that hath all these ingredients and capacities and such a one there is in the world I suppose is no equal match to contest with and be put in balance against the Liturgy of the Church of England which was with so great deliberation compiled out of Scriptures the most of it all the rest agreeing with Scriptures and drawn from the Liturgies of the ancient Church and made by men famous in their generations whose reputation and glory of Martyrdome hath made it immodest for the best of men now to compare themselves with them and after its composition considered by advices from abroad and so trimm'd and adorn'd that no excrescency didremain the Rubricks of which Book was writ in the bloud of many of the Compilers which hath had a testimony from Gods blessing in the daily use of it accompanying it with the peace of an age established and confirmed by six Acts of Parliament directly and collaterally and is of so admirable a composure that the most industrious wits of its Enemies could never finde out an objection of value enough to make a doubt or scarce a scruple in a wise spirit But that I shall not need to set a night-piece by so excellent a beauty to set it off the better it s own excellencies are Orators prevalent enough that it shall not need any advantages accidental 47. And yet this excellent Book hath had the fate to be cut in pieces with a pen-knife and thrown into the fire but it is not consumed at first it was sown in tears and is now watered with tears yet never was any holy thing drowned and extinguished with tears It began with the Martyrdom of the Compilers and the Church hath been vexed ever since by angry spirits and she was forced to defend it with much trouble and unquietness but it is to be hop'd that all these storms are sent but to increase the zeal and confidence of the pious sons of the Church of England Indeed the greatest danger that ever the Common Prayer-book had was the indifferency and indevotion of them that used it but as a common blessing and they who thought it fit for the meanest of the Clergy to read prayers and for themselves onely to preach though they might innocently intend it yet did not in that action consult the honour of our Liturgy except where charity or necessity did interpose But when excellent things goe away and then look back upon us as our blessed Saviour did upon S. Peter we are more mov'd then by the nearer embraces of a full and an actual possession I pray God it may prove so in our case and that we may not be too willing to be discouraged at least that we may not cease to love and to desire what is not publickly permitted to our practice and profession 48. But because things are otherwise in this affair then we had hop'd and that in very many Churches in stead of the Common Prayer which they use not every man uses what he pleases and all men doe not choose well and where there are so many choosers there is nothing regular and the Sacraments themselves are not so solemnly ministred as the sacredness and solemnity of the mysteries do require and in very many places where the old excellent forms are not permitted there is scarce any thing at all but something to shew there was a shipwrack a plank or a cable a Chapter or a Psalm some who were troubled to see it so and fain would see it otherwise did think it might not be amiss that some of the Ancient forms of other Churches of the prayers of Scriptuâ—e should be drawn together and laid before them that need as supposing that these or the like materials would make better fuel for the
food and raiment the light of thy countenance and contented spirits and thy grace to seeke the Kingdom of heaven and the righteousnesse thereof in the first place and then we are sure all these things shall be added unto us Grant the desires and heare the prayer of thy servants for Jesus Christ his sake our Lord and onely saviour Amen Or this upon the same occasion or in the time of any other judgement ALmighty Father Lord of Heaven Earth we have sinned and thou hast smitten us al our evils that we suffer are drawne upon our heads by our owne impious hands let thy threatnings and thy judgments thy love and thy feare thy promises and thy precepts worke in thy servants an excellent repentance and let our repentance obtaine thy favour and thy favour remove the present evil of Drowth of immoderate raine of Murren of Plague of Warre of Sicknesse from us according to the present occasion sanctify unto us thy rod and support us with thy staffe and restore us to those comforts which we need and which thou hast promised to give to them that love and feare thee that repent of their sins and beg for pardon through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen A shorter forme of Morning prayer for a Family A more private office for the family to be said betimes in the Morning on Sundaies or at any houre of the morning upon the other daies of the weeke In the name of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Our Father c. The morning Hymne * HEarken unto the voice of my cry my King and my God for unto thee will I pray ¶ My voice shalt thou hear in the morning O Lord in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will looke up * Great is our Lord and greatly to be praised his eyes are ever upon the righteous and his ears are open unto their cry ¶ Thy mercy O Lord is in the heavens and thy faithfulnesse reacheth unto the clouds * Thy righteousnesse is like the great mountaines thy judgements are a great deep O Lord thou preservest both man and beast ¶ How excellent is thy loving-kindnesse O Lord therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings * For with thee is the fountaine of life in thy light we shall see light ¶ According to thy name O God so is thy praise to the ends of the earth thy right hand is full of righteousnesse * The Lord the Lord God is mercifull and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodnesse and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin and that will by no means clear the guilty ¶ What is man that thou shouldest magnifie him and that thou shouldest set thy heart upon him * And that thou shouldest visit him every morning and try him every moment ¶ If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes and make thy supplication to the Almighty * If thou wert pure and upright surely now he would awake for thee and make the habitation of thy righteousnesse prosperous ¶ O Lord be gracious unto us we have waited for thee be thou our arme every morning our salvation also in the time of trouble * O send out thy light and thy truth let them lead me let them bring me to thy holy hill unto thy dwelling ¶ O put your trust in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy and with him is plenteous redemption he shall redeem his people from their sins * Then shall their light breake forth as the morning and their health shall spring forth speedily for the glory of the Lord shall be their reward 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 If there be time and conveniency let a chapter be read out of the Sapiential bookes in order viz. The proverbs of Solomon Ecclesiastes the Wisedome of Solomon Ecclesiasticus Then shall follow the Creed To be said by all together I Beleeve in God the Father Almighty maker of Heaven and earth * And in Jesus Christ his onely son our Lord * which was conceived by the holy Ghost borne of the Virgin Mary * suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried* He descended into hell * The third day he rose againe from the dead * He ascended into Heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty * From thence he shall come to judge the quicke and the Dead * I believe in the holy Ghost * The holy Catholick Church the communion of Saints * the forgivenesse of sins * the resurrection of the body * and the life everlasting Amen Minister The Lord be with you People And with thy spirit I. Let us pray O Eternall and most blessed Saviour Jesus thou art the bright morning star and the sun of righteousnesse thou dost enlighten our eyes with thy beauties and our hearts with thy comfort and with the joyes of God thou art the fountaine of health and life of peace and truth of rest and holinesse thou givest to them that want thou comfortest them that suffer thou forgivest them that repent and hearest the prayers of all them that call upon thee we adore thee and praise thy glories and rejoyce in thy salvation and give thee thanks for thy blessing and defending us this night from all the evill which we have deserved every day and from all the violences and snares by which the enemie of mankind would have hurt us or destroyed us unlesse he had been restrained by thy eternall goodnesse and thy almighty power Blessed be God II. We acknowledge O God and Father of our life that we are lesse then the least of all thy mercies and our iniquity is greater then we can bear our thoughts are vaine our words are foolish and uselesse injurious and uncharitable our actions criminall and hatefull our devotion cold our passions violent and unreasonable our duties imperfect our repentance little our holinesse none at all O God our Judge we confesse before thee that we neither know thee as we ought nor have taken care that we might we live in the world to our selves but without just regards of thee and of religion we daily receive thy blessings and yet we provoke thee every day we tremble not at thy judgements though we have deserved them nor fear till the evil day comes upon us we are greedy of doing evill but impatient of suffering any in prosperity we forget thy severity and justice in afflictions we are timorous and amazed dare not relie upon thy goodnesse nor with confidence and love expect the effects of thy mercies and forgivenesse Every thing can tempt us to sin and we fall infallibly but by all the arts of thy Spirit and the methods of thy mercy we are not brought to obey thee as we ought Our state is sad our condition is sinfull our hopes are broken and we
Come and hear all ye that fear God and I will declare what he hath done for my soule * The people that walked in darknesse hath seen a great light and they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death upon them hath the light shin'd * O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse and declare the wonders that he hath done for the children of men * He turneth the wildernesse into a standing water and dry ground into water-springs * He maketh the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyfull mother of Children * For unto us a child is borne unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulders * His name shall be called wonderfull counsellor the mighty God the everlasting Father the prince of peace * Of the increase of his Government and peace there shall be no end * He shall sit upon the throne of David to order his Kingdome and to establish it with judgement and justice for ever and ever * O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse and declare the wonders that he hath done for the children of Men. Minister Glory be to God on high Answer And on earth peace good will towards men Minister Amen Answer Amen Then proceed to the Nicene Creed The collect to be inserted after the first collect of the Morning and Evening prayer and may be said during the twelve daies ALmighty God who hast so loved the world that for our redemption from sin misery thou gavest thy son that he taking upon him our nature and being borne of a Virgin might performe to thee the obedience which mankind owed and pay the price in which we were indebted and teach us what thou wouldest have us to doe and convey to us all the good which thou didst designe for us overshadow us with thy holy Spirit of grace that we may conceive Christ in our hearts by faith relyup on him in a holyhope and expresse him in anexcellent charity that as he was pleased to take upon him our nature so we may be borne againe and be partakers of the Divine nature that conforming to his image following his example and being filled with his Spirit we may grow in the knowledge and love of God and live in righteousnesse that being thy sons by a holy adoption we may partake of the inheritance of thy welbeloved son the firstborne of all the creatures our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Amen Upon Good Friday Instead of the Psalmes of the day read at Morning Prayer Psalme 22. Psalme 25. Psalme 51. Evening Prayer Psalme 81. Psalme 85. Psalme 86. Psalme 88. or any three of them The Collect. O Most Blessed most gracious Saviour Jesus who by thyobedience unto death even the death of the crosse didst become the sacrifice of the world the great example of patience the Lord of life the good shepherd laying downe thy life for thy sheepe and the mediator betweene God and man let thy wounds heale thy blood cleanse thy death make us to live and thy Spirit make us to worke righteousnesse all our daies that we may by thy aide and by thy example obey our heavenly Father with all our powers and all our faculties with our reason and our affections with our soules and with our bodies with our time and with our estate in prosperity and adversity that we may beare our crosse patiently and doe thy worke cheerefully and be ready to benefit mankind with great charity and great industry that being followers of thy life and partakers of thy death we may receive a part in the resurrection of the just to the joyes of God in thy inheritance O most blessed most Gracious Saviour Jesus Amen For Easter day The Psalmes appointed for Morning Prayer Psalme 30. Psalme 45. Psalme 47. Evening Prayer Psalme 57. Psalme 66. Psalme 72. The Hymne to be said after the second lesson at Morning and Evening prayer IN thee O Lord I have put my trust let me never be put to confusion but rid me and deliver me in thy righteousnesse incline thine ear unto me and save me ¶ Be thou my strong hold whereunto I may alway resort thou hast promised to helpe me for thou art my house of defence and my Castle * For thou O Lord God art the thing that I long for thou art my hope even from my youth ¶ Thorough thee have I beene holden up ever since I was borne thou art he that tooke me out of my mothers wombe my praises shall be alwaies of thee * O let my mouth be filled with thy praise that I may sing of thy glory and honour all the day long ¶ Thy righteousnesse O God in very high and great things are they which thou hast done O God who is like unto thee◠* O what great troubles and adversities hast thou shewed me and yet didst thou turne and refresh me yea and broughtest me from the deepe of the earth againe ¶ Thou hast brought to me great honour and comforted me on every side * Therefore will I praise thee and thy faithfulnesse O God playing upon an instrument of musick unto thee will I sing upon the harp O thou holy one of Israel ¶ My lips will be faine when I sing unto thee and so will my soule whom thou hast delivered * Blessed be the Lord God even the God of Israel which onely doth wondrous things ¶ And blessed be the Name of his Majesty for ever and all the earth shall be filled with his Majesty Amen Amen Glory be to the Father c. As it was in the beginning c. The Collect O Most Holy most Glorious Saviour and redeemer Jesu who for our sakes didst descend from the glories of God to the paines and labours of the earth and didst passe from a painfull life to an ignominious death from the bitternesse of death to the darkenesse of the grave and by thy divine power didst raise thy selfe from death to life againe we give thee thanks for thy infinite love to us and all mankind we acknowledge thee to be our Lord and confesse thee to be our God we adore thy Majesty and rejoyce in thy mercies we humbly pray thee to enable us with thy Spirit to beleive all thy doctrines and to obey all thy Commandements that after a holy and a religious life spent in doing honour to thy holy Name we may be partakers of thy holy resurrection passing from death to life from the darkenesses of the grave to the light of Heaven from an imperfect duty to the perfection of holinesse in the fruition of the joyes of God in thy eternall Kingdome O Most holy Most Glorious Saviour and Redeemer Jesu Amen Upon Ascension day Instead of the Psalmes of the day read at Morning Prayer Psalme 15. Psalme 21. Psalme 24. Evening Prayer Psalme 92. Psalme 96. Psalme 97. The Collect. O Blessed High Priest Holy Jesus King of the world and head of the Church who
when thou hadst taken upon thee our Nature and our sin and appeased thy Fathers wrath and perform'd all his will and overcome death and rescued all obedient soules from the hand of the enemy didst ascend to thy Eternall Father and open the Kingdome of Heaven to all beleivers thou hast espoused thy Church unto thy selfe with the eternall circles of thy providence with thy love and with thy care with thy word and with thy Spirit thy promises and thy holy intercession thou hadst a feeling of our infirmities and art our mercifull High Preist makeing intercession for us for ever O be pleased to represent and supply all our wants excuse all our infirmities pity all our calamities pardon our sins and send downe thy holy spirit of grace into our hearts that though we walke upon the earth yet our conversation may be in heaven and there also may be our portion and inheritance for ever through thy mercies O most Gracious Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Amen For Whitsunday Psalmes for Morning Prayer Psalme 87. Morning Prayer Psalme 89. Evening Prayer Psalme 2. Evening Prayer Psalme 45. Evening Prayer Psalme 110. The Hymne to be said after the second lesson at Morning and Evening Prayer * SIng a loud unto God our strength make a joyfull noise unto the God of Jacob. ¶ I will remember the workes of the Lord surely I will remember thy wonders of old I will meditate of all thy workes and talke of thy doings * Thy way O God is in the sanctuary who is so great a God as our God thou art the God that doest wonders thou hast declared thy strength among the people ¶ Vow and pay unto the Lord your God let all that be round about him bring presents unto him that ought to be feared * He shall cut off the spirit of princes he is terrible to the Kings of the earth ¶ Say unto God how terrible art thou in thy workes thorough the greatnesse of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee * Sion heard and was glad and the daughters of Judah rejoyced because of thy judgements O Lord. ¶ For thou Lord art high above all the earth thou art exalted farre above all Gods * Light is sowne for the righteous and gladnesse for the upright in heart ¶ Rejoyce in the Lord ye righteous and give thankes at the remembrance of his Holinesse * The Lord hath made knowne his salvation his righteousnesse hath he openly shewed in the sight of the Heathen ¶ He hath remembred his mercy and truth toward the house of Israel all the ends of the earth have seene the salvation of our God * Give unto the Lord O ye kinreds of the people give unto the Lord glory and strength ¶ For he commeth For he commeth to judge the earth he shall judge the world with righteousnesse and the people with his truth Glory be to the Father c. As it was in the beginning c. The Collect. O Eternall God the Great Father of spirits the great Lover of soules who didst send thy holy Spirit upon thy Church in the day of Pentecost and hast promised that he shall abide with thy Church for ever let thy holy Spirit lead us into all truth defend us from all sin enrich us with his gifts refresh us with his comforts rule in our hearts for ever conduct us with his truth and lead us in the way everlasting that we living by thy Spirit and walking in him may by him be sealed up to the day of our redemption O let thy Spirit witnesse to our spirits that we are the children of God and make us to be so for ever through Jesus our Lord who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the same Spirit one God world without end Amen Upon Trinity Sunday O Blessed ineffable and most mysterious Trinity how admirable are thy beauties how incomparable are thy perfections how incomprehensible are those relations of the three most Blessed Persons which we believe and admire and adore but understand not The Angels are amazed in the unimaginable beauties of that glorious presence and are swallowed up with the Ocean of thy infinity How then can we who are in the lowest order of understanding creatures and have removed our selves further from thee and the participation of thy excellencies by a sinfull life praise thee either according to our duty or thy glories yet be pleased to accept the humblest adorations and with a favourable and a gracious eye behold the lowest worshippings and duty of thy servants We confesse and glory in thy omnipotency thy immensity thy goodnesse thy uncircumscribed Nature thy truth thy mercy thy omniscience O let us also receive thy blessings and gracious influences that we may adore thee with all our powers and possibilities for ever love thee with all our affections for ever serve with our best and earliest and all our industry that being here wholly inebriated with love and busied in thy service and the duties of a holy obedience we may to all eternity rejoyce in the beholding of those glories which are above all capacities above all heavens above all Angels even those glories which streame forth from the throne of the Eternall God the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost to whom be glory and dominion honour and adoration eternally confessed due and humbly paid by all men and all Angels world without end Amen A Collect to be used upon any of the Festivals or Commemoration of the Apostles ALmighty God who hast built thy holy Church upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets Jesus Christ himselfe being the cheife corner stone we blesse and magnifie thy Name thy holy and ever glorious Name for thy great graces which thou gavest to thy Apostles and Prophets and Martyrs in the daies of their flesh and this day we have thy servant S. Paul S. Peter S. James c. here name the Apostle c. in remembrance praising thee for the benefits which the church hath received by his ministery and example we pray unto thee to give us thy grace that we obeying thy doctrine which he taught and publish'd and following his example as he followed Christ we also may with safety and holinesse passe through this vally of tears that serving thee in our generation advancing thy honour and obeying thy lawes we may in the society and communion of Saints and Angels sing eternall Hallelujahs to the honour of thy mercy and of thy majesty through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen An Office or Order for the Holy Sacrament of the LORDS SUPPER An Office or order for the Administration of the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper according to the way of the Apostolicall Churches and the doctrine of the Church of England THE ANTECOMMUNION OUr Father which art in heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdome 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
behold the beautie of the Lord and to visit his Temple ¶ For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion in the secret of his Tabernacle shall he hide me and set me upon a rock * Therefore will I offer in the Tabernacle sacrifices of joy I will sing and speake praises unto the Lord. ¶ The Lord is my light and my salvation whom shall I fear the Lord is the strength of my life of whom shall I be afraid * Examine O Lord and prove me try my reines and my heart ¶ For thy loving-kindnesse is before my eyes and I will walk in thy truth * I have not sate with vaine persons neither will I goe in with dissemblers ¶ I will wash my hands in innocency and so will I compasse thine altar O Lord. * That I may publish with the voice of thanks-giving and tell of all thy wondrous workes ¶ O tast and see that the Lord is good blessed is the man that trusteth in him * Look at the generations of old and see did ever any trust in the Lord and was confounded or did any abide in his fear and was forsaken or whom did he ever despise that called upon him ¶ For the Lord is full of compassion and mercie longsuffering and very pitiful and forgiveth sins and saveth in time of affliction * Ye therefore that fear the Lord beleive him and your reward shall not faile ¶ They that fear the Lord will seek that which is well pleasing unto him and they that love him shall be filled with the law * They that fear the Lord will prepare their hearts humble their souls in his sight ¶ For as his Majesty is even so is his mercy * What shall I render unto the Lord for all the benefits which he hath done unto me ¶ I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord. * Returne unto thy rest O my soule for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee ¶ I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call upon the Name of the Lord. * The Lord hath been mindfull of us and he will blesse us he will bless them that fear the Lord both small and great ¶ Blessed be the name of our God from this time forth for evermore Praise the Lord. Glory be to the Father c. As it was in the beginning c. Then shall the Minister with a loud voice pronounce this Commination THus saith the Lord Jesus I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end the first and the last Blessed are they that doe his commandement that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the City For without are Dogs and Sorcerers Whoremongers and Murderers The Idolaters and the Filthy the Fearful and the Unbeleiving the Hypocrite and the Liars the Drunkards and the Envious the hinderers of Gods word and the Slanderers of their neighbours the Swearers and the Covetous the Impenitent and the Uncharitable shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone And behold I come quickly and my reward is with me to give every man according as his worke shall be I Jesus have sent mine Angel to testifie unto you these things in the Churches I am the root and off-spring of David and the bright morning-star And the Spirit and the Bride say come and let him that heareth come and let him that is athirst come and whosoever wil let him take the water of life freely BUt first cleanse your hands and purifie your hearts repent you truly of all your sins past retaine no affection to any thing that displeases God Resolve against all sin strive against all pray against all watch against all and so shall ye be meet partakers of this holy table But if any of you here present live in any knowne sin of which ye have not truly repented and which you doe not mean presently and utterly to forsake In the name of Jesus Christ I pronounce every such person to be unworthy of these holy mysteries and that he cannot receive them but to his condemnation Judge therefore your selves brethren that ye be not judged of the Lord for it is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God and who is able to dwell with the everlasting burning But if any of you after this severe admonition shall presume to approach these sacred mysteries with an impure and disobedient heart let him know that he pollutes the blood of the everlasting Covenant he eates and drinkes damnation to himselfe not discerning the Lords Body I have given you warning I have discharged my duty ALl you who truly repent you of your sins and are in love and charity with your neighbours and intend to lead a holy life in all godlinesse and sobriety and honesty draw neer and take these holy mysteries to your comfort first make your humble confession of sins to God and meekly beg his pardon for what is past and his grace for the time to come The Confession to be said by all kneeling ALmighty God we miserable sinners doe humbly confesse and are truly sorrowfull for our many and great our innumerable and intolerable crimes of which our consciences doe accuse us by night and by day and by which we have provoked thy severest wrath and indignation against us We have broken all thy righteous lawes and commandements by word or by deed by vaine thoughts or sinfull desires we have sinn'd against thee in all our relations in all places and at all times we can neither reckon their number nor bear their burden nor suffer thy anger which we have deserved But thou O Lord God art merciful and gracious have mercy upon us Pardon us for all the evils we have done Judge us not for all the good we have omitted Take not thy favour from us but delight thou to sanctifie us and save us and work in us to will and to doe of thy good pleasure all our duty that being sanctified by thy Spirit and delivered from our sins we may serve thee in a religious and a holy conversation thorough Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Then the Minister rising up shall pronounce Absolution in the form described at Morning Prayer OUr Blessed Lord and Savior Jesus the great Shepheard and Bishop of our Souls that Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world who promised Paradise to the repenting Theef and gave pardon to the woman taken in Adultery he pardon and forgive all your sins known and unknown *** O Blessed Jesus in whatsoever thy servants as men bearing flesh about them and inhabiting this world or deceived by the Devil have sinned whether in word or deed whether in thought or desire whether by omission or commission let it be forgiven unto them by thy word and by thy Spirit and for ever preserve thy servants from sinning against thee and from suffering thine
eternal anger for thy promise sake and for thy glorious Names sake O Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Amen Then all rising up There shall be made a collection for the poor by the Deacon or Clerk while the Minister reads some of these sentences or makes an exhortatation to charity and almes TO doe good and to distribute forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased Hebr. 13. 16. Blessed is he that considereth the poor and needy the Lord shall deliver him in the time of trouble The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive and he shall be blessed upon the earth and thou wilt not deliver him into the will of his Enemies The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness Psal. 41. 1 2 3. He which soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly and he which soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully Every man according as he purposeth in his heart so let him give not grudgingly or of necessity for God loveth a cheerful giver 2 Cor. 9. 6 7. Make to your selves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations Luke 16. 9. Give almes of such things as ye have and behold all things are clean unto you Lu. 11. 41. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand Come ye blessed children of my Father inherit the kingdome prepared for you from the beginning of the world For I was an hungred and ye gave me meat I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was a stranger and ye took me in Naked and ye cloathed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in prison and ye came unto me Matth. 25. 34 35. Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap Gal. 6. 6 7. If there be none fit to gather the Minister himself shall gather it And when he hath done or received it from the hand of him that gathered it let him in an humble manner present it to God laying it on the Communion table secretly and devoutly saying LORD accept the oblation and almes of thy people and remember thy servants for this thing at the day of Judgement Then shall follow the address to the H. Mysteries the poeple shall come up to the H. Table where it is the custome or neer it where it is most fit to communicate and then The Minister shall say Let us pray O God who by thy unspeakable mercy hast sent thy onely begotten Son into the world that he might bring the wandring sheep into his fold turn not away from us miserable sinners who worship and invocate thee in these Holy Mysteries For we doe not approach to thee in our own righteousness but in the hope and confidence of that glorious mercy by which thou hast sent thy holy Son to redeem miserable and lost Mankind We humbly beseech thee to grant that these mysteries which thou hast ordein'd to be ministeries of salvation to us may not become an occasion of our condemnation but of pardon of our sins of the renovation of our souls of the sanctification and preservation of our bodies that we may become well pleasing to thee our God in the obedience of our Lord Jesus with whom and with thy holy Spirit thou reignest over all one God Blessed for evermore Amen Minister Lift up your hearts People We lift them up unto the Lord. Minister Let us give thanks unto our Lord God People It is just and right so to doe Minister It is indeed truly just righteous and fitting to praise and to glorifie to worship and adore to give thanks and to magnifie thee the great Maker of all creatures visible and invisible the treasure of all good temporal and eternal The fountain of all life mortal and immortal The Lord and God of all things in Heaven and Earth the great Father of his Servants the great Master of his Children The Heavens and the Heaven of Heavens and every power therein the Sun and the Moon and all the starres of the sky the sea and the earth the heights above and the depths below Jerusalem that is from above the Congregation celestial the Church of the first-born written in the Heavens the spirits of the Prophets and of just men made perfect the souls of the Apostles and all holy Martyrs Angels and Arch-angels Thrones and Dominions Principalities and Powers the spirits of Understanding and the spirits of Love with never ceasing Hymns and perpetual Anthemes cry out Night and Day Holy holy holy Lord God of Hosts Heaven and Earth are full of thy glory Hosanna Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest Here beginneth the COMMUNION After a decent pause for short Meditation The Minister shall with a loud voice say Our Father c. And then this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Denunciation LET all corruptible flesh be silent and stand with fear and trembling and think within it self nothing that is earthly nothing that is unholy The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords Christ our God comes down from Heaven unto us and gives himself to be meat for the souls of all faithful people * All the glorious companies of Angels behold this and wonder and love and worship Jesus Every throne and Dominion the cherubims with many eyes and the Seraphims with many wings cover their faces before the majesty of his glory and sing a perpetual song for ever Allelujah Allelujah Globe to God on high and in earth peace good will towards men Allelujah Then shall follow this Prayer of Consecration to be said by the Minister standing I. HAve mercy upon us O Heavenly Father according to thy glorious mercies and promises send thy Holy Ghost upon our hearts and let him also descend upon these gifts that by his good his holy his glorious presence he may sanctifie and enlighten our hearts and he may blesse and sanctifie these gifts That this Bread may become the Holy Body of Christ. Amen And this Chalice may become the life-giving Bloud of Christ. Amen That it may become unto us all that partake of it this day a Blessed instrument of Union with Christ of pardon and peace of health and blessing of holinesse and life Eternal through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen II. Holy and blessed art thou O king of Eternal ages fountain and giver of all righteousness * Holy art thou the eternal and onely begotten son of God our Lord Jesus Christ Redeemer of the world * Holy art thou O Blessed Spirit that searchest all things even the depths and hidden things of God Thou O God art Almighty thou art Good and gracious Dreadful and venerable Holy and merciful to the work of thine own hands Thou didst make man according to thine image thou gavest him the riches and the rest of Paradise
When he fell and broke thy easy Commandement thou didst not despise his folly nor leave him in his sin but didst chastise him with thy rod and restrain him by thy law and instruct him by thy Prophets and at last didst send thy Holy Son into the world that he might renew and repair thy broken image The People shall answer Blessed be God He comming from heaven and taking our flesh by the power of the Holy Ghost of the Vâ—rgin Mary conversed with men and taught us the way of God and the dispensation of Eternal life People Holy Jesus Blessed be God But when for the redemption of us sinners he would suffer death upon the Cross without sin for us who were nothing but sin and misery in the night in which he was betrayed he took bread he looked up to heaven he gave thanks he sanctified it he brake it and gave it to his Apostles saying Take eat This is my body which is broken for you Doe this in remembrance of me Likewise after Supper he took the Cup and when he had given thanks and blessed it he gave it to them saying Drink ye all of this for this is my bloud of the new Testament which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins Doe this in remembrance of me For as often as ye shall eat this Bread and drink this Cup ye shall shew forth the Lords death till he come The people shall answer Amen Minister We beleeve and we confess People We declare thy death and confess thy resurrection Then the Minister kneeling shall say this prayer of Oblation I. WE sinners thy unworthy servants in remembrance of thy life-giving passion thy Cross and thy pains thy death and thy burial thy resurrection from the dead and thy ascension into Heaven thy sitting at the right hand of God making intercession for us and expecting with fear and trembling thy formidable and glorious return to judge the quick and dead when thou shalt render to every man according to his works doe humbly present to thee O Lord this present sacrifice of remembrance and thanksgiving humbly and passionately praying thee not to deal with us according to our sins nor recompence us after our transgressions but according to thy abundant mercy and infinite goodness to blot out and take away the hand-writing that is against us in the book of remembrances which thou hast written and that thou wilt give unto us spiritual celestial and eternal gifts which neither eye hath seen nor ear hath heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to understand which God hath prepared for them that love him thorough Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Then shall follow the reception and distribution of the Holy Sacrament The Minister first receiving and privately saying this short prayer O Blessed Jesus My Lord and my God thou art the celestial food and the life of every man that cometh unto thee I have sinned against heaven and before thee and am not worthy to partake of these holy Mysteries but thou art my merciful Saviour grant that I may religiously thankfully and without reproof partake of thy Blessed body and blood for the remission of my sins and unto life eternal Amen Then reverently taking in his hand the consecrated bread that he means to eat let him say THE Body of our Lord Jesus which was broken for me preserve my body and Soul into everlasting life Amen Then praying a while privately let him receive the Chalice saying THE Bloud of our Lord Jesus Christ which was shed for the remission of my sins cleanse my Soul and preserve it into everlasting life Amen Then let him pray awhile privately and recommend to God his own personal necessities spiritual and temporal and the needs of all his Relatives c. After that let him distribute it first to the Clergy that helps to officiate and after that to the whole Congregation that offers themselves saying the same words changing the person While the Minister of the Mysteries is praying privately the people may secretly pray thus or to this purpose I Beleeve O God and confess that thou art Christ the Son of the living God who came into the world to save sinners whereof I am chief Lord make me this day partaker of thy heavenly Table for thou dost not give thy secrets to thy enemies but to the sons of thine own house Let me never give thee a Judas kiss I confess thee and thy glories I invocate thee and thy mercies I trust upon thee and thy goodness like the thief upon the Cross Lord remember me in thy kingdome with the remembrances of an everlasting love Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof but as thou didst safe to lie in a Manger with beasts and to enter into the house of Simon the leper nor didst despife the repenting harlot when she kissed thy feet so vouchsafe to lodge in my soul though it be a place of beastly affections and unreasonable passions throw them out and dwell there for ever purifie my soul accept the sinner cleanse the leper so shall I be worthy to partake of this Divine Banquet Amen When every of the Communicants hath received in both kinds let the Paten and Chalice if any of the consecrated Elements remain be decently covered and then shall follow these prayers THE POSTCOMMUNION The Minister and People devoutly kneeling shal say the Lords prayer the people repeating every petition after the Minister Our Father which art in heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdome 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 aganist us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil For thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen Then the Minister shall pray this prayer for the Catholick Church I. REceive O Eternal God this sacrifice for and in behalf of al Christian people whom thou hast redeemed with the bloud of thy Son and purchased as thine own inheritance From the fountains of mercy the springs of our Blessed Saviour let all thy people upon whom the name of Jesus is called receive confirmation and increase of grace fruitfulness in good works and perfect understanding in the way of godliness Defend O God thy Church and preserve her from all heresy and scandal from sacrilege and Simony from covetousness and pride from factions and schism from Atheisme and irreligion from all that persecute the truth from all that work wickedness and let not thegates of hell prevail against her nor any evil come neer to hurt her II. Give thy blessing O God to this Nation remember us for good and not for evil be reconcil'd unto us in the Son of thy love and let not thine anger be any longer upon us nor thy jealousy burn like fire Send us health and peace justice
and truth good laws and good government an excellent religion undivided undisturbed temperate air seasonable showers wholesome dewes fruitful seasons Crown the year with goodness and let the clouds drop fatness that we may glorify thy name and confess thy goodness while thou bearest witness to us from heaven filling our hearts with food and gladness III. With a propitious eye a great pity behold the miseries of mankind put a speedy period to all our sins and to all our calamities Hear the sighings of the distressed the groans of the sick the prayers of the oppressed the desires of the poor and needy support the weakness of them that languish and faint ease the pains of them that are in affliction and call to thee for help Take from the miserable all tediousness of spirit and despair Pardon all the penitents reform the vitious confirme the holy and let them be holy still pity the folly of young men their little reason and great passion succour the infirmities and temptations of the aged preserving them that they may not sin towards the end of their lives for Jesus Christ his sake IV. Admit O Blessed God into the society of our prayers and the benefits of this Eucharist our Fathers and Brethren our wives and children our friends and Benefactours our charges and relatives all that have desired our prayers and all that need them all that we have and all that we have not remembred thou knowest all their necessities and all their dwellings their joyes and their sorrows their hopes and their fears the number of their sins and the measures of their repentances O dear God sanctifie them and us let our portion be in the good things of God in religion and purity in the peace of Conscience and the joyes of the Holy Ghost in the love of God and of our Neighbours O gather us to the feet of thy elect when thou wilt and in what manner thou art pleased onely let us appear before thee without shame and without sins through the merits of JESUS Christ our most mercifull Saviour and Redeemer Amen Then shall follow the Eucharistical prayers I. GLory be to thee O God our Father who hast vouchsafed to make us at this time partakers of the Body and Bloud of thy holy Son We offer unto thee O God our selves our souls and bodies to be a reasonable holy and living sacrifice unto thee Keep us under the shadow of thy wings and defend us from all evil and conduct us by thy Holy Spirit of grace into all good for thou who hast given thy holy Son unto us how shalt not thou with him give us all things else Blessed be the Name of our God for ever and ever Amen II. Glory be to thee O Christ our King the onely begotten Son of God who wert pleas'd to become a sacrifice for our sins a redemption from calamity the Physician and the Physick the life and the health the meat and the drink of our souls thou by thy unspeakable mercy didst descend to the weakness of sinful flesh remaining still in the perfect purity of spirit and hast made us partakers of thy holy Body and Bloud O condemne us not when thou comest to judgement but keep us ever in thy truth in thy fear and in thy favour that we may have our portion in thine inheritance where holiness and purity where joy and everlasting praises doe dwell for ever and ever Amen III. Proceeding from glory to glory we still glorifie thee O Father of Spirits and pray thee for ever to continue thy goodness towards us Direct our way aright establish us in holy purposes keep us unspotted in thy faith let the enemy have no part in us but conforme us for ever to the likeness of thy holy Sonne lead us on to the perfect adoption of our Souls and to the redemption of our bodies from corruption and fill our hearts and tongues with everlasting praises of thy name thorough Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen The Blessing The peace of God which passeth all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God and of his Sonne Jesus Christ our Lord and the blessing of God Almighty and Father Son and Holy Spirit be upon you and abide with you and be your portion for ever and ever Amen The end of the Communion Office A form of Administration of the Holy Sacrament OF BAPTISME A FORM OF Administration of the Holy Sacrament OF BAPTISME Pure water being provided and put into the Fount or into a Lavatory of silver or some other clean vessell fit and decent for this sacred action the Minister being vested in an Ecclesiastical habit shall begin with this exhortation Dearly beloved Brethren FOrasmuch as from our first parents we derive nothing but flesh and corruption and that flesh and bloud cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven it is necessary that every man who is reckoned in Adam should be also reckoned in Christ that every one who is born of the flesh be also born again and born of the spirit that every son of man by nature may become the son of God by Adoption be incorporated into Christ intitled to the promises and become heir of heaven by grace and faith in Jesus Christ and that this cannot be done but by being admitted to the Covenant of grace in Baptisme our Blessed Saviour saying that except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdome of God let us humbly and devoutly pray unto God in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that he will be pleased to send down his holy Spirit upon these waters of Baptisme that they may become to this infant all that shall be washed in them a laver of regeneration and a well of water springing up to life eternal and that this infant may be admitted to the Covenant of grace and pardon of mercy and holiness receiving from grace what by nature he cannot have that being baptised in water to the remission of sins he may all his life walk in this Covenant of grace and holiness as a lively member of the holy Church which is the mysticall body of Christ our Head Let us Pray I. O Almighty and Eternal God Father of Men and Angels Lord of heaven and earth whose spirit moving upon the waters at the beginning of the world produced every living and every moving creature thou by the flood of waters did wash away the iniquity of the old world and by preserving to thy self a generation of holy persons whom thou didst bring up from those waters didst consign to us a type of regeneration Look O Lord graciously upon the face of thy Church and multiply in her thy regenerations and the new births of thy Spirit With the abundance of thy grace make thy holy city to rejoice and still open this holy fountain of Baptisme for the reformation and sanctification of all the nations of the world that thy blessed Spirit
sanctifying these waters a new and heavenly off-spring may hence arise full of health and light that humane nature which was made after thy own image being reformed and restored to the honour of its first beginning may be cleansed from all the impure adherencies of sin preserved from the Dominion of it and rescued from all its sad effects that what shall be so born in the wombe of the Church may dwell in the house of God and Reign with thee for ever in the inheritance of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Amen II. OUR Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus who was baptized of John in Jordan who walked upon the waters who converted water into wine who out of his precious side shed forth bloud and water the two Sacraments of life unto his holy Church and commanded his disciples to teach all nations baptizing them with water in the Name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost he blesse and sanctifie by his holy Spirit this water that it may be instrumental and effective of grace of pardon and sanctification Hear us O most gracious God that whoever shall be baptized in this water may be renewed by thy grace justified by thy mercy sanctified by thy Spirit preserved by thy providence and guided by thy word that in this water springing from the Paradise of God the Soul or Souls presented unto thee may be cleansed and purified and that there may be added to thy Church daily such as shall be saved in the day of thy glorious appearing O Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Amen Then the Minister and People arising from their knees the following Gospel shall be read Hear the words of the holy Gospel written by S. Matthew in the third chapter c. Verse 13. to verse 17. inclusively THen cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him * But John forbad him saying I have need to be baptized of thee and commest thou to me And Jesus answering said unto him Suffer it to be so now for thus it becommeth us to fulfill all righteousness Then he suffered him And Jesus when he was baptised went up straitway out of the water and loe the heavens were opened unto him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon him * And loe a voice from heaven saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Hear likewise what S. Mark writeth in his tenth chapter Verse 13. 17. exclusively THE Jews brought children to Christ that he should touch them and his Disciples rebuked those that brought them * But when Jesus saw it he was much displeased and said unto them Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not for of such is the kingdome of God Verily I say unto you whosoever shall not receive the kingdome of God as a little child he shall not enter therein * And he took them up in his armes put his hands upon them and blessed them FRiends in these Gospels you see the actions and hear the words of our Blessed Saviour how he commanded little children to be brought unto him how he rebuked those that would have kept them away how readily he blessed them how kindly he embraced them how he pronounced them capable of and entitled to the kingdome of God how he commanded us to receive the kingdome as infants received it and affirmed that we can no way receive it but by being like them you know also that although Christ commanded them to be brought unto him there is no ordinary and appointed way for Infants to come to Christ and no way poâ—â—â—ble for them to be brought to Christ but by this new birth and regeneration in the laver of Baptisme you see also by the example and words of our Blessed Lord himself that even the most innocent persons ought to be baptized For he himself who knew no sin was yet baptized in the Baptisme of Repentance and so to doe was the fulfilling of righteousness we may therefore easily perceive that the innocence of infants and their freedom from actual sin cannot excuse them from Baptisme and if we remember that although our Blessed Saviour required faith of them who came to be healed of their diseases yet by the * faith of others who came in behalf of such as could not be brought or could not come the sick person was healed we are sufficiently instructed that although Infants have no more actual faith then they have actual sin yet the faith of others can be is by the usual and revealed method of the divine mercy as well imputed to them to the purposes of grace and life as the sin of Adam can be imputed to the purposes of death that as in Adam all die so in Christ all should be made alive we may therefore from these certain evidences conclude that God alloweth in you this obedience and charity in bringing this child to Christ to receive all blessings of which he is capable a title to the promises and adoption to be the child of God a sanctification by the spirit a designation to the service of Christ and putting him into the order of eternal life Therefore as circumcision was the seal of the righteousness of faith and yet minâ—stred to infants eight daies old and commanded so severely that God said the uncircumcised child whole flesh is not circumcisedâ— that soul shall be cut off from his people so Baptisme which is now the seal of the same faith and the same righteousness and a figure like unto the former is to be administred to infants although they have no more actual faith then the children of the Israelites had our Blessed Saviour having made Baptisme as necessary in the new Testament as Circumcision in the Old For because little children can receive the kingdome of God and in infants there is no incapacity of receiving the mercies of God the adoption to be children of God a title to the promises the covenant of repentance and a right to pardon whosoever shall deny to baptize infants when he is justly required is sacrilegious and uncharitable Since therefore the Church of God hath so great so cleer so indubitable a warrant to baptize infants and therefore did alwaies practice it let us humbly and charitably give thanks to God for his great mercies unto us all and with meekness and love recommend this child to the grace of God Let us pray O Almighty and eternal God who hast redeemed us from sin and shame from the gates of hell and the sting of death and from ignorance and darkness by thy holy Son who is that light which lightneth every man that cometh into the world we praise and glorifie thy name that thou hast called us to the knowledge of thy will and the love of thy name and the service of thy majesty which is perfect freedome the freedome of the sons of God II. As thou hast
dealt graciously with us so deal with this infant whom we humbly bring and offer to our blessed Saviour Jesus that he should receive him and blesse him with the blessings of an everlasting love Receive him O most gracious Lord who is thy child by creation make him thine also by adoption into thy covenant of grace and favour let him be consigned with thy Sacrament be admitted into Christs kingdome enter into his warfare beleeve his doctrine labour and hope for his promises that this child witnessing here a good confession may have his understanding for ever brought unto the obedience his affections to the love and all his faculties to the service of Christ and after he hath served thee in his generation he may receive his part and portion in thy glory thorough Jesus Christ our Lord. Then arising from their knees the Minister shall say unto the Godfathers and Godmothers as followeth WEl beloved friends you have brought this child to be presented unto Christ as a servant of his laws and a Disciple of his doctrine ye have prayed that God would receive him and give him a portion in the Gospel and kingdome of his Son ye have heard what promises God hath made on his part and ye beleeve and know all his words are yea and Amen and not one tittle of them shall pass unaccomplished now therefore because it is a Covenant of grace and favour on Gods part and of faith and obedience on ours though God prevents us with his grace and begins to doe for us before we can doe any thing to him yet you under whose power this child is and by whose faith and charity this child comes to Christ in holy Baptisme must also on his or her behalf promise that he will forsake the devil and all his wicked works that he will faithfully beleeve Christs holy Gospel and dutifully keep all Christs Commandements Minister Dost thou abjure and renounce and promise to forsake the Devil and all his wicked works not to listen to his temptations not to be led by the flesh by the vain powers of the world by carnal or covetous desires but thou wilt be the servant of the Lord Jesus Answer I forsake them all and will be a servant of Jesus Minister Dost thou beleeve in God the Father Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth And in Jesus Christ his onely begotten Son our Lord And that he was conceived by the holy Ghost borne of the Virgin Mary that he suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried that he went down into hell and also did rise againe the third day that he ascended into Heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty and from thence he shall come again at the end of the world to judge the quicke and the dead And dost thou believe in the holy Ghost the Catholick Church the Communion of Saints the remission of sins the resurrection of the flesh and everlasting life after death Answer All this I will profess and stedfastly beleeve Minister Wilt thou be baptized into this faith Answer That is my desire Let us Pray O Almighty God who hast given the promise of thy Spirit to us and to our children even to as many as the Lord our God shall call Give thy holy Spirit to this infant that the evil spirits of darkness may not take thy portion from thee nor hurt the body nor deceive the understanding nor corrupt the will nor tempt the affections of this infant but that thy Spirit who bloweth where it listeth no man knows whence he cometh nor whether he goeth may be in this child as the seed of God springing up to life eternal that the kingdom of God which is within and commeth not with observation may early rule and conduct this infant prevent the folly of his childhood from growing up to sins in his youth and may work strongly in him when his weakness his ignorances and temptations are most powerful to prevail upon him that from his cradle to his grave he may be guided by the Spirit of God in the paths of the divine Commandements Admit him O God into the bosome of the Church into the armes of thy mercy into a right of the promises into the service of Christ into the Communion of Saints and give him power to become the Son of God that being buried with Christ in Baptisme he may also rise with him thorough the faith of the operation of God thorough the same our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen Then the Minister of the Sacrament shall take the child in his armes and ask the Name Then naming the child aloud he shall dip the head or face or body of the child in the water saying N. I baptize thee in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Dipping the head at the naming of the holy Trinity If the child be weak or any other great Cause intervene it may suffice instead of dipping to sprinkle water on the face using the same form of words Then shall the priest make the sign of the Cross upon the childs forehead saying WE sign this child with the sign of the Cross and enroll him a Soldier under the banner of Christ to signifie and in ceremony to represent that the duty of this and all baptized persons is manfully to fight under the banner of Christ against the flesh the world and the Divel all the daies of their life and by the power which Christ our Blessed Lord who hath the key of David hath given unto me I admit this child into the Communion of Saints into the bosome of the visible Church the kingdome of Grace and the title to the promises Evangelical and the hopes of glory OUr Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus who when he had overcome the sharpness of death did open the kingdom of heaven to all beleevers and gave unto his Church the keyes of the kingdome that his ministers might let into it all that come to him he of his infinite goodness and truth make good his gracious promises upon this infant that what we doe on earth according to his will he may confirme in heaven by his spirit and by his word to the glory of the blessed and undivided Trinity God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Amen Then shall the Minister adde this Invitation SEeing now dearly Beloved that this infant hath received holy Baptisme and is washed in the laver of regeneration admitted into the bosome of the Church into the Covenant of faith and repentance pardon and holiness let us give thanks to God for these graces and pray that this child may lead his life according to the present undertaking I. WE give thee thanks and praise O heavenly and most gracious Father that it hath pleased thee to call this child to thy holy Baptism to renew him with thy holy Spirit to admit him into the Church to adopt him for thy child and to receive him
west for thou didst send thy most holy Son to die for us and redeem us from all the powers of sin and hell thou knowest whereof we were made and remembrest that we are but dust O doe not visit her sins upon her by a hasty death but manifest thy mercies and thy pardon by giving her a mighty grace that she may live a holy life and be pleas'd to grant this also that those impresses of pious resolutions and religious purposes of fear and love of hope and desire which thy grace in the circumstances of her present condition makes upon her may abide in her soul for ever and in the daies of ease and safety may be as operative and productive of holiness as now they are of a hearty prayer and passionate desires for thy mercies upon her in a safe and blessed child-birth V. LORD bless her child grant it may be born with a right shape and a perfect body with a comely countenance and streight limbs with intire senses and expedite faculties with an excellent power of understanding and sweet dispositions and let thy holy Spirit of grace conduct it to the Sacrament of Baptisme and in safety and holiness from the Cradle to the grave Grant this O Eternal God for his sake who was born of a holy maid and suffered the infirmities of nature and dyed for our sins and rose again for our Justification even our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen An Office of Publick Thanks-giving for Women after their delivery from Child-birth or any great sickness or calamity or fear At the end of the morning prayer immediately before the blessing the woman presenting her self before God on her knees in some convenient place neer to him that ministers begin with this exhortation FOrasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God who hath commanded us when we are afflicted to pray and hath promised to be with us in trouble and hath made good his truth and mercy unto you in standing at your right hand in the day of your sorrow and danger giving you safe deliverance and a living and a hopeful child you shall therefore return to him the sacrifice of a thankful and joyful heart in an humble acknowledgement of the divine mercies and goodness unto you in this great blessing and deliverance from the pain and peril of Childbirth Or else name any other instance in which the Minister is required to give thanks The psalm or Hymn of Thansgiving * THE Lord is my Shepheard I shall not want he maketh me lie down in green pastures he leadeth me besides the still waters ¶ He restoreth my Soul he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his names sake * Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me ¶ I will declare thy name unto my Brethren in the midst of the Congregation will I praise thee * Ye that fear the Lord praise him for he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted neither hath he hid his face from him but when he cryed unto him he heard ¶ O Lord my God I cryed unto thee and thou hast healed me * O Lord thou hast brought up my Soul from the grave thou hast kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit ¶ Sing unto the Lord O ye Saints of his and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness * For his anger endureth but for a moment in his favour is life weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning ¶ I cryed unto thee O Lord unto the Lord I made my supplication * What profit is there in my bloud when I goe down into the pit shall the dust praise thee shall it declare thy truth ¶ Hear O Lord and have mercy upon me Lord be thou my helper * Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing thou hast put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness ¶ To the end that my glory may sing praise unto thee and not be silent O Lord my God I will give thanks to thee for ever Glory be to the Father c. As it was in the beginning c. Or else say the Te Deum VVE praise thee O God we knowledge thee to be the Lord. ¶ All the earth doth worship thee the Father everlasting * To thee all Angels cry aloud the heavens and all the powers therein ¶ To thee Cherubim and Seraphim continually do cry * Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabbaoth ¶ Heaven and earth are full of the majesty of thy glory * The glorious company of the Apostles praise thee ¶ The goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise thee * The noble armie of Martyrs praise thee ¶ The holy Church thoroughout all the world doth acknowledge thee * The Father of an infinite majesty ¶ Thy honourable true and onely Son * Also the holy Ghost the Comforter ¶ Thou art the King of glory O Christ. * Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father ¶ When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man thou didst not abhorre the Virgins womb * When thou haddest overcome the sharpness of death thou didst open the kingdome of heaven to all beleevers * Thou sittest at the right hand of God in the glory of the Father ¶ We beleeve that thou shalt come to be our judge * We therefore pray thee help thy servants whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious bloud ¶ Make them to be numbred with thy Saints in glory everlasting * O Lord save thy people and bless thine heritage ¶ Govern them and lift them up for ever * Day by day we magnifie thee ¶ And we worship thy name ever world without end * Vouchsafe O Lord to keep us this day without sin ¶ O Lord have mercy upon us have mercy upon us * O Lord let thy mercy lighten upon us as our trust is in thee ¶ O Lord in thee have I trusted let me never be confounded Minister The Lord be with you Answer And with thy Spirit Let us pray O Most merciful Saviour and Redeemer Jesus who wert born of a pure and a holy maid who hast felt the calamities of Mankind and knowest how to pity our infirmities and rejoicest in doing and shewing mercy to all that need and to all that call to thee for succour we give thee thanks and praise that thou hast heard the prayers and considered the cries and releeved the necessities of this thy servant and kept her life from the grave still continuing to her a portion in the land of the living and opportunities of serving thee O be pleased to continue and increase and to sanctifie thy mercies to thy servant pardon al her sins pity her infirmities enable her duty keep her from all evil by thy blessed providence let her portion be in the things of God and of Religion in the light of thy countenance and the service of
thy Majesty that she walking humbly and devoutly before thee piously and dutifully to her Relatives doing justice and giving good example to those with whom she shall converse may find the rewards of holiness and the eternal mercies of God in the day of thy glorious appearing O Blessed Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Amen Then shall be added this form of blessing THE Lord bless you and keep you The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you The Lord lift up the light of his Countenance upon you and give you peace The blessing of God Almighty Father Son and Holy Ghost be amongst you and abide with you and be your portion for ever and ever Amen A Prayer to be said immediately after the Womans delivery either by the Priest or by any other in attendance O Almighty Lord and Father who healest every sickness and every disease and art ever gracious and alwaies present to the prayers of them who in the day of trouble call upon thy holy Name thou hast given delivery to this thy servant and made her the mother of a living child still be pleased to continue and renew thy loving kindness unto her keep her from all violent accidents and intolerable pains from colds and feavers defend her by the custody of thy holy Angels of light from all impresses of the powers of darkness give her rest and â—eep a quiet spirit and an easie â—ody Confidence in thee and a daily sense of thy â—â—ercies a speedy restitution of health and strength and a thankful heart to praise thee in the Congregation of Saints and to serve thee with an increasing and a persevering duty all the daies of her life thorough Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Then if there be time and fitted circumstances adde this prayer for the Child O Eternal God who hast promised to be a Father to a thousand generations of them that love and fear thee be pleased to bless this child who is newly come into a sad and most sinful world O God preserve his life and give him the grace and Sacrament of Baptismal regeneration doe thou receive him and enable him to receive thee that he may have power to become the child of God keep him or her from the spirits that walk at noon and from the evil Spirits of the night from all charms and inchantments from suddain death and violent accidents give unto him a gracious heart and an excellent understanding a ready and unloosed tongue a healthful and a useful body and a wise soul that he may serve thee and advance thy glory in this world and may increase the number of thy Saints and servants in the kingdome of our Lord Jesus Amen To God the Father of our Lord Jesus To the eternal son of God the son of man To the Spirit of the Father and the Son Be all honour and glory praise and thanksgiving love and obedience now and for evermore Amen A prayer to be said by a new married wife entring into a family I. O Eternal God the Father of wisedom and mercy thou hast been my guide and my defence all my daies thou didst take me from my mothers womb and didst conduct me thorough the varieties of my life with much mercy and the issues of a loving and wise providence I bless thy name O Lord for all thy dispensations thou hast done all things with infinite goodness and infinite wisedome thou hast kept me from the effects of thy wrath and the evils of my own infirmities thou didst defend me from evils by the guard of Angels and didst lead me into good by the conduct of thy holy Spirit Thou hast alwaies heard my prayer ever being more ready to bless me then I to ask it thou hast said unto me I will never leave thee nor forsake thee be therefore graciously pleased to hear the prayer of thy hand-maid that I may have the aids of an excellent providence and a mighty grace to doe my duty in all my relations in all varieties and changes of the world until my great change shall come II. GIve thy blessing to thy servant my dear husband give him a long life and a confirmed health encircle him with blessings adorne him with thy grace nourish him with content refresh him with a perpetual succession of comforts let the light of thy Countenance be upon him in all his actions and the accidents of his life and grant that he may still more and more increase in the love and fear of thy holy name that despising the things of this world he may hunger and thirst after the things of God and of religion and may have his portion in the gathering together of the Saints in the kingdome of grace and glory III. BLess me even me O my Father and grant that I may in all things doe my duty to thee my God give me a perfect command over all my passions and affections that they being subject to my will and my will guided by reason and my reason by religion I may never suffer any undecency or violent transport but may pass thorough all the accidents of my life with meekness and a sober spirit with patience and charity with prudence and holiness O be pleased to give thy servant a right judgement in all things that I may not be amazed at trifles nor discomposed by every contrariety of accidents nor passionate for the things of the world nor discontent if thou shouldest smite me but that I may with an even and a quiet spirit doe my duty and comply with every variety of thy providence and obey my husband and be amiable in his eyes and useful and careful for his children ever desiring to approve my self to thee in a holy and hearty obedience in piety and devotion in patience and humility in chastity and purity in all holiness of conversation and doe thou give thy holy and blessed Spirit to guide and teach me all my daies that I may overcome all my infirmities and comply with and bear the infirmities of others and charitably pardon their errors and fairly expound their actions and wisely perceive their intentions and with a Christian ingenuity deport my self in all things giving offence to none but doing good to all I can that I may receive pardon from thee for all my sins and a pity for all my infirmities and thy blessing upon all my actions and a sanctification of all my intentions and when my life is done I may have the peace of God and the testimony of a holy Conscience to accompany me to my grave and to consign me to a holy and a blessed resurrection to partake of the inheritance which thou hast provided for thy saints and servants Grant this for Jesus Christ his sake our dearest Lord and Saviour Amen For a fruitful Womb. I. O Most gracious and eternal God Father and Lord of all the creatures thou didst sanctifie marriage in the state of Innocence in the dwellings of paradise didst
I may instruct them with diligence and meekness govern them with prudence and holiness provide for them useful imployments and competent provisions of life and comfort leading them in the paths of religion and justice by example and precepts of holiness never provoking them to wrath never indulging them in their follies never conniving at an unworthy action and that all my children may be thine O preserve them in thy favour or take them away from hence while they are If thou pleasest let them live to a full age but secure to them a full measure of piety and holiness thorough Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen II. TO this end give them grace to obey their Parents that doing the duty they may receive the promise preserve them from sin and shame from youthful follies and youthful crimes Sanctifie them thoroughout in their bodies and souls and spirits that their thoughts may be pure and holy not displeasing or misbecomming the eye of him who is the searcher of hearts let their words be true prudent and ingenuous seasoned with grace and apt to minister grace unto the hearers let all their actions in their whole life be such as becommeth the servants of Jesus holy and useful that they may not be burdens to the publick or to their family but pleasing thee and doing good to others they may increase in the love of God and in favour with men and may have the portion of the meek and humble in this world and of the pure and merciful in the world to come thorough Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen The VViddows Prayer I. O Eternal God most Gracious Lord and my most merciful Father thou art my refuge and my hope my sanctuary and my rock my guardian and protector all my daies I have offended thee and thou hast smitten me I have deserved very much evil and thou hast corrected me with the gentle visitation of a Fathers rod and though thy hand is heavy and thy rod presseth me sore by reason of my own weakness and infirmities yet when I consider how little I suffer in respect of what I have deserved I cannot but adore thy goodness and delight in thy mercies and run for help and comfort support and conduct from that hand which smites me O my God give me patience under thy afflicting hand for my impatience I feare hath provoked thee to anger and hath doubled my owne calamity and since my duty is my proper cure and will make thy hand easy and thy anger little give thy servant a quiet and a râ—signed a humble and a meeke spirit that I may not become my owne tormenter and my sin may not be my owne punishment II. O My gracious Lord doe to me what seemeth good in thy owne eyes I am like clay in the hands of the potter and what am I that I should repine against the acts of thy providence and dispensation Behold O God thy Hand-maid is but a worme before thee shall dust and ashes repine against God Thou art just and righteous in all thy wayes and though thou hast afflicted mee sore yet blessed be thy holy Name I have not lost my hope and I can yet pray and I will trust in thee though I die onely be thou pleased to let this thy heavy hand efforme in me the effects of grace and conforme me to the likenesse of the holy Jesus my dearest Saviour that I may so beare the Crosse that I may never displease him nor dishonour the excellent name of a Christian by which I am called III. I Am O my God by the meanes of thy heavy hand not onely under the discipline of a Child but have also obtained a new title to thy especial providence and protection for thou art the patron of the poore the helper of the friendlesse the father of the fatherlesse and the defender of the widowes and if these be the effects of thy anger and that when thou smitest us thy verystrokes are healing and thy displeasure is medicinal what shall thy servant expect will be the effect of thy pardon and loving kindnesse but yet O my Lord helpe me in my duty and though I have failed in all my relations hitherto by my impatience and murmure by my carelesse comportment and undutifull behaviour towards thee yet now let my sad state of Widdowhood be a state of holinesse and repentance of devotion and a severe religion Let me recollect my years in bitternesse and my soule in sorrow for my sins let me have no affections for the things of this world but let my hope and all my joy my desires and my conversation be in heaven and all my imployment and care be how I may enjoy thee in holy and spiritual unions and adherencies IV. O Lord I know that the way of man is not in himself it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps I have often resolved to live innocently and I have often broken all my holy purposes and I cannot of my self thinke one good thought as of my self but my sufficiency is of thee thou art my strength O preserve thy servant in my single state of Widdowhood that I may never have any thought of change till the day of my great change shall come be thou O God a covering of the eyes unto thy hand-maid let me have no loves but thine no affections but for thy service and since thou hast broken in pieces that holy band of conjugal society which thy holy ordinance did tye between my deare Lord and Husband and thy handmaid give me thy grace dearly to preserve his memory to retaine the impresses and remembrances of that affection and to entertaine no new ones but wholly imploy my time my estate and all my powers in bringing up my children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord in making fair and fitting provisions for them in giving them good example in bearing the burthen of the Lord sweetly in prayers and fastings in almes and piety in reading and meditating in spirituall and Sacramental Communions that when the worke of my life is done I may find pardon and favour and acceptance at the hands of my Lord and a portion among thy saints and servants If there be children of both sexes let the following portion be added V. O My God now thy servant hath taken upon me to speake to my Lord let not my Lord be angry not reject the prayer of his servant interceding and praying for my children the pledges of my deare Lord and Husband preserve them O God in the strictest duty and services to thy self O be thou their God and father let thy providence be their portion thy service their imployment thy Angels their guards keepe them so by thy preventing and restraining grace that they may not by their owne sins provoke thee to anger and jealousy and let not the sins of their forefathers be visited upon them in thy anger and displeasure thou lovest to shew mercy and thou delightest in the
sinke not O let me be delivered from them that hate me and out of the deepe waters * Let not the water-flood drowne me neither let the deep swallow me up and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me ¶ Heare me O Lord for thy loving kindnesse is comfortable turne thee unto me according to the multitude of thy mercies * Who is like unto thee O Lord amongst the Gods who is like thee glorious in holinesse fearfull in praises doing wonders ¶ O hide not thy face from thy servants for we are in trouble O hast and heare us * Our soules are full of trouble and our life draweth nigh unto the grave ¶ O thou that hearest prayer unto thee shall all flesh come O let our prayer enter into thy presence incline thine eare unto our calling Glory be to the Father c. As it was in the beginning c. If there be time and opportunity to read any portions of scripture suitable to the necessity then read If they be pursued by Pirates Exodus 14. from verse 21. to the 20. verse of the 15. chapter If they be in danger of Shipwrack Read Jonah 1. or Jonah 2. or Acts 27. At other times Read Matthew 8. or Matthew 14. or Marke 4. or Luke 8. The Prayer I. O Almighty God and Father of heaven and earth who settest a bound to the sea and restrainest his waves by a heap of sand by mountaines and by rocks by thy word and by thy Spirit saying hither shall thy proud waves passe and no further looke upon us thy servants whose lives are in our hands and we dwell in the shadowes of death night and day we know O Lord and confesse the floods and waves of passion doe frequently overrun us and we are drown'd in the stormes and overwhelmed with iniquity Our Oaths Blasphemies Impieties Irreligious actions are lowder then the fiercest winds and call aloud upon thee for vengeance and many of us in our greatest danger provoke thee with the greattest unreasonablenesse and violence of impiety But O God our God be gracious unto thy people who accuse our selves and confesse our guilt and acknowledge thy justice and beg thy goodnesse and pray to thee for safety and defence for deliverance and for pardon for thy conduct and thy blessing Keepe us O God from stormes and quicksands from Pirats and Rocks from error and impieties from all evil contingencies and all evil actions let our voyage be safe to our persons and to our goods let it be blessed by thy providence and thy holy Spirit that we may returne with comfort and with advantages of trade or successe and thy servants may glorify thee in the land of the living in the church of the first-borne the congregation of thy redeemed ones through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen II. In a storme or danger of Pirates or Shipwrack O Eternal and most holy Saviour Jesus who in the daies of thy flesh and thy infirmity didst command the winds and rebuke the seas and they obeyed thee and thou art now exalted farre above all principalities and powers above all heavens and all Angels and art the King of the world and the great Prince of the whole Creation and thou hast commanded us to come boldly to the throne of grace and hast promised we should find help in time of need looke downe upon thy servants who in the abysse of the seas and the abysse of our trouble invocate the abysse of thy mercies speak peace unto our consciences and command our enemies to be in peace with us or to have no power against us rebuke the winds restrain the violent and injurious thou art our refuge be thou therefore our defence and our security and rescue us from the present danger we know O God that the Devil is a great prince and rules in the aire and in the hearts of the children of disobedience but thou art the King Lord over him and all princes of the world thou art the prince of Spirits and restrainest the Spirits of princes let not the enemy of mankind execute his cruel envy against us nor any of the elements nor any of his instruments be able to doe us any violence III. O refuse not to heare the prayers and to consider the cries and to behold and pity the neede of them that call upon thee that put their trust in thee that have laid up all their hopes in thee and thy infinite and eternall goodnesse we have no strengths of our owne but thou art our confidence be thou also our portion and our guide our defence and our shield a star in the night and a covering by day Strengthen our faith O God and increase our hope that in the greatest danger we may against hope beleive in hope and with faith and love expect the salvation of the Lord and may find thy goodnesse rescuing us from this present feare and defending us in all our difficulties and sanctifying every accident and sweetning every event of providence and consigning us bythese blessings to a finall delivery from all our sins and from the evils which our sins deserve to the glory of God to the salvation of our soules in thy day in thy glorious day O Eternal and most holy Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Amen The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ c. A forme of prayer and blessing to be used over him that in the beginning of a journey by Land or Sea begs the prayers of the Minister of the Church The Prayer O Almighty God most gracious and most merciful who art a God afar off as well as nigh at hand and hast sent thy Ministring Angels to Minister good to them that shall be heires of salvation be thou pleased to send thy holy Angel before this thy servant N. to defend him from the heat of the day and the cold of the night from the arrow that flies at noone and the evil spirits that walke in darknesse from errors falls from precipices and fracture of bones from pirates and robbers from evil intentions and evil accidents from violent weather and violent feares from all impressions of evil men and evil spirits let this journey be safe and usefull to thy servant comfortable to his relatives holinesse to the Lord and glory to thy name through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Blessing THe Lord blesse thee and keepe thee the Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee He keepe thee from all evil by the custody of Angels and lead thee into all good by the conduct of his good Spirit Amen Let the providence and love of God be thy defence and thy security his grace be thy portion his service thy imployment He goe in and out before thee and keepe thee in all thy wayes and lead thee in all his He bring thee back againe in peace and safety and prosper all thy innocent and holy purpofes and when the few and evil daies of thy pilgrimage are ended he of
never heard and know what was never revealed below O grant that she may have aydes that her she never did neede even mighty assistances in proportion to her new and strang erstate that whatsoever is in the darkenesse or in the fire in the secret regions of wrath and the horrible places of torment and fearful exspectations may not afflict or affright the lambe of thy flock the price of thy bloud the child of thy kingdome and the portion of thine owne inheritance Amen V. O sweetest Jesu say unto this soule This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise say unto this foule Feare not for it is my Fathers pleasure to give thee a Kingdome Let this soule dwell in safe and pleasant regions and be supported with the hope of God comforted with a holy conscience rejoyce in a confirm'd pardon be recreated with the visitation of Angels and walke in white whithersoever the Lambe shall goe Amen VI. Give unto this decaying dying body a blessed and a glorious resurrection to this weary and afflicted this penitent and redeemed soule a portion in the blessed sentence of the right hand amongst the blessed children of thy Father who shall receive the Kingdome prepared for them from the beginning of the world Amen VII Remember O God the good things which by thy grace and by the aides of thy holy Spirit thy servant hath done in all his life and remember not his evil deedes which by the weakenesse of the flesh and the temptations of the Devil and the evil contingencies of this world have afflicted and humbled the soule of thy servant remember thy holy Son did die for these and thy holy Spirit was the cause of those and for whom thou hast given thy Son and to whom thou hast given thy Spirit give thy eternal pardon and thy eternal glories thorough Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen After the soule is departed the Minister may say this prayer in behalfe of the living friends and relatives of the dead ALmighty God who governest all things in heaven and earth with infinite wisedome and infinite mercy and bringest good out of evil comfort out of sorrow and after a gentle visitation dost refresh thy children with the light of thy countenance with the blessings of thy providence with the returnes of thy grace and the comforts of thy holy Spirit have mercy upon this family and returne to them all with thy loving kindnesse exchanging their present sorrow into the advantages of holinesse and blessing Be thou now and ever what thou gloriest in a Father of the Fatherlesse a Husband to the Widow a God of comfort to them that mourn◠in secret Grant that thy servant may not weepe as men without hope nor murmure at thy dispensation nor complaine of any thing but themselves nor desire any thing but that thy will be done nor doe any thing but what is agreeable to thy holy word and commandement and grant that when thou smitest any of us it may increase thy feare in us and when thou doest good to any of us in smiting or forbearing in chastising or comforting it may increase thy love in us and let thy holy Spirit so prevail over all our wills and understandings our affections and the outward man our interests and our hopes that we may live in this world pleasing to thee and may goe out of this world with the peace of a holy conscience and may have a joyful resurrection in the last day to a participation of the glories of God thorough Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen The Blessing THE Lord blesse you and keepe you the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you and give you peace The blessing of God Almighty the Father Son and holy Ghost be amongst you and abide with you and be your portion for ever and ever Amen Prayers and devotions to be us'd at the Burial of the Dead The Minister before the Corps entring at the Church doore may begin with one or more of these sentences A Good name is better then precious ointment and the day of death then the day of ones birth It is better to goe to the house of mourning then to goe to the house of feasting for that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart I am the resurrection and the life saith the Lord He that beleiveth in me yea though he were dead yet shall he live And whosoever liveth and beleiveth in me shall not die for ever It is appointed to all men once to die and after death comes judgement I would not have you to be ignorant concerning them which are asleepe that we sorrow not even as others without hope For if we beleive that Jesus died and rose again even so them also which sleepe in Jesus will God bring with him After the Corps is set downe in the body of the Church let Morning or Evening prayer be read according to the time of the day with this difference onely Instead of the usual Psalmes Read Psalme 39. Psalme 49. Psalme 90. For the first lesson read Job 14. or 19. After the first lesson read Psalme 88. For the second lesson read 1 Corinth 15. from verse 12 to the end After the second lesson read Nunc dimittis * LOrd now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word ¶ For mine eyes have seen thy salvation * Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people ¶ To be a light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of thy people Israel Glory be to the Father c. As it was in the beginning c. After the usual prayers are done then the Corps carried being to the grave the Minister shall read this lesson Ecclesiastes 12. REmember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth while the evil daies come not nor the yeers draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them While the sun or the light or the moon or the stars be not darkned nor the clouds return after the rain In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble and the strong men shall bow themselves and the grinders cease because they are few and those that look out of the windows be darkned And the doors shall be shut in the streets when the sound of the grinding is low and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high and feares shall be in the way and the almond-tree shall flourish and the grashopper shall be a burden and desire shall fail because man goeth to his long home and the mourners go about the streets Or ever the silver cord be loosed or the golden bowle be broken or the pitcher be broken at the fountain or the wheel broken at the cistern Then shall the dust retrun
to the earth as it was and the spirit shall returne unto God who gave it People Blessed be God The Minister while they are preparing to interre the Corps shall say this Psalme * THE wicked is driven away in his wickednesse but the righteous hath hope in his death ¶ I said in the cutting off of my daies I shall goe to the gates of the grave I am deprived of the residue of my yeares * I said I shall not see the Lord even the Lord in the land of the living I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world ¶ I have set the Lord alwaies before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be mooved * Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth my flesh also shall rest in hope ¶ For thou wilt not leave my soule in hell neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption * As for me I will behold thy face in righteousnesse when I awake with thy likenesse I shall be satisfied ¶ Thou wilt shew me the path of life in thy presence is the fulnesse of joy and at thy right hand there is pleasure for evermore * Glory be to the Father c. ¶ As it was in the beginning c. When the Corps is in the grave the Minister shall say Forasmuch as it hath pleas'd Almighty God to take to himselfe the soule of our deare brother here departed we lay his body in the ground for out of it was it taken dust it is unto dust it does return but we lay it downe in a sure and certain hope of the resurrection from the grave For the Lord himselfe shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first then those which are alive and remaine shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the aire and so shall we be ever with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words Let us pray * Lord have mercy upon us ¶ Christ have mercy upon us * Lord have mercy upon us Our Father which art in Heaven c. I. O Almighty God with whom doe live the spirits of the just men made perfect we give thee humble thankes that thou hast delivered the soule of thy servant N. N. from the calamities of this life putting a period to his sin and to his paines O be pleased shortly to fill up the numbers of thine elect and hasten thy kingdome and to us thy servants grant that we may die to sin and live to righteousnesse living a holy and a gracious life peaceable and blessed that when we have served thee in our generations we may die the death of the righteous leaving a good name and a faire example behind and our good workes may follow us that being holy in our lives we may be blessed in our death and with this thy servant and all other departed in thy love and feare may lie in the bosome of our Lord till by the trump of God we shall be awakened in the resurrection of the just to reigne with thee in thy Kingdome through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen II. O most blessed Saviour Jesus who art the resurrection and the life and in whose sight the death of thy saints is precious looke upon us thy servants whose life is vanity and our dayes passe away like a tale that it told and as the remembrance of a passenger that stayeth but a night the dayes of our pilgrimage are few and evil and we disquiet our selves in vaine O looke upon us with a gracious eye give us thy holy Spirit of wisedome and peace to guide us in the wayes of God that our affections and our conversation being in heaven and being weaned from this world we may die daily and every day be doing good that laying up a treasure of good workes we may rejoyce in the day of our death and may be freed from the terrors of the day of judgement and the gates of hell may not prevail against us O preserve us from that eternal wrath which shall destroy all thine enemies and let our portion be with the charitable and the merciful on the right hand of the Father where thou sittest and reignest in the glory of God to eternal ages world without end Amen If it be opportune then here may be added one of the prayers for a blessed death at the end of Evening prayer throughout the yeare ending with the usual benediction The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ c. A forme of Devotion TO Be used and said in the daies OF Sorrow and Affliction A forme of Devotion to be used and said in the daies of Sorrow and Affliction of a family or of private persons In the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Our Father c. O God make speed to save us O Lord make hast to helpe us Glory be to the Father c. As it was in the beginning c. The Psalme HIde not thyface far from me O Lord put not thy servant away in anger thou hast been my helpe leave me not neither forsake me O God of my salvation ¶ O my God I cry in the day time but thou hearest not and in the night season I am not silent * But thou art holy O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel ¶ Our Father trusted in thee they trusted in thee and thou didst deliver them * But I am a worme and no man smitten of thee Lord afflicted tormented forsaken ¶ Thou hast filled me with bitternesse and hast made me drunken with worm-wood thou hast remooved my soule far off from peace and I have forgotten prosperity * But O God thou art my God early will I seek thee be not thou far from me O Lord O my strength hast thee to help me ¶ I acknowledge my sin unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid I will confesse my transgressions unto the Lord O doe thou forgive the iniquity of my sin * Thou art my hiding place thou shalt preserve me from trouble thou shalt compasse me about with songs of deliverance ¶ Lord make me to know my end and the measure of my daies what it is that I may know how fraile I am * Behold thou hast made my daies as an hand breadth and mine age is as nothing before thee verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity ¶ And now O Lord what wait I for Surely my hope is in thee * Deliver me from all my transgressions remove thy stroke away from me I am even consumed by the blow of thy hand ¶ When thou with rebukes dost chasten man for iniquity thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moath Surely every man is vanity * Hear my prayer O Lord and give eare unto my cry hold not thy peace at my teares For I am a stranger with thee and
13 But unto thee have I cried O Lord and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee 14 Lord why castest thou off my soul why hidest thou thy face from me 15 I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up while I suffer thy terrours I am distracted 16 Thy fierce wrath goeth over me thy terrors have cut me off 17 They came round about me daily like water they compassed me about together 18 Lover and friend hast thou put far from me and mine acquaintance into darknesse PSAL. LXXXIX A Prophesie of Christs kingdome its perpetuity and eternity and under the type of the successors of David he teachâ—s that God will punish the Christian people if they sinne but the promises to the Church shall never fail I Wil sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations 2 For I have said Mercy shall be built up for ever thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens 3 I have made a covenant with my chosen I have sworn unto David my servant 4 Thy seed will I establish for ever and build up thy throne to all generations Selah 5 And the heavens shall praise thy wonders O Lord thy faithfulnesse also in the congregation of the saints 6 For who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord 7 God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him 8 O Lord God of hosts who is a strong Lord like unto thee or to thy faithfulnesse round about thee 9 Thou rulest the raging of the sea when the waves thereof arise thou stillest them 10 Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces as one that is slain thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm 11 The heavens are thine the earth also is thine as for the world and the fulness thereof thou hast founded theÌ„ 12 The north and the south thou hast created them Tabor and Hermon shall rejoyce in thy name 13 Thou hast a mighty arm strong is thy hand and high is thy right hand 14 Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne mercy and truth shall goe before thy face 15 Blessed is the people that know the joyfull sound they shall walk O Lord in the light of thy countenance 16 In thy name shall they rejoyce all the day and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted 17 For thou art the glory of their strength and in thy favour our horn shall be exalted 18 For the Lord is our defence and the holy one of Israel is our king 19 Then thou spakest in vision to thy holy one and saidst I have laid help upon one that is mighty I have exalted one chosen out of the people 20 I have found David my servant with my holy oyl have I anointed him 21 With whom my hand shall be established mine arm also shall strengthen him 22 The enemy shall not exact upon him nor the son of wickednesse afflict him 23 And I will beat down his foes before his face and plague them that hate him 24 But my faithfulnesse and my mercy shall be with him and in my name shall his horn be exalted 25 I will set his hand also in the sea and his right hand in the rivers 26 He shall cry unto me Thou art my father my God and the rock of my salvation 27 Also I will make him my first-born higher then the kings of the earth 28 My mercy will I keep for him for evermore and my covenant shall stand fast with him 29 His seed also will I make to endure for ever and his throne as the dayes of heaven 30 If his children forsake my law and walk not in my judgements 31 If they break my statutes and keep not my commandments 32 Then will I visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes 33 Neverthelesse my loving kindnesse will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulnesse to fail 34 My covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips 35 Once have I sworn by my holinesse that I will not lye unto David 36 His seed shall endure for ever and his throne as the sun before me 37 It shall be established for ever as the moon and as a faithfull witnesse in heaven Selah 38 But thou hast cast off and abhorred thou hast been wroth with thine anointed 39 Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant thou hast profaned his crown by casting it to the ground 40 Thou hast broken down all his hedges thou hast brought his strong hold to ruine 41 All that passe by the way spoil him he is a reproch to his neighbours 42 Thou hast set up the right hand of his adversaries thou hast made all his enemies to rejoyce 43 Thou hast also turned the edge of his sword and hast not made him to stand in the battell 44 Thou hast made his glory to cease and cast his throne down to the ground 45 The dayes of his youth hast thou shortened thou hast covered him with shame Selah 46 How long Lord wilt thou hide thy self for ever shall thy wrath burn like fire 47 Remember how short my time is wherefore hast thou made all men in vain 48 What man is he that liveth and shall not see death shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave Selah 49 Lord where are thy former loving kindnesses which thou swarest unto David in thy truth 50 Remember Lord the reproch of thy servant how I do bear in my bosom the reproch of all the mighty people 51 Wherewith thine enemies have reproched O Lord wherewith they have reproched the footsteps of thine anointed 52 Blessed be the Lord for ever more Amen and amen Mo. Pr. PSAL. XC Moses prayer God is our everlasting defence he is eternall he hath made our life short and frail a prayer for a holy and a happy life LOrd thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations 2 Before the mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God 3 Thou turnest man to destruction and sayest Return ye children of men 4 For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past and as a watch in the night 5 Thou carâ—iest them away as with a floud they are as a sleep in the morning they are like grasse which groweth up 6 In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up in the evening it is cut down and withereth 7 For we are consumed by thine anger and by thy wrath are we troubled 8 Thou hast set our iniquities before thee our secret sins in the light of thy countenance 9 For all our dayes are passed away in thy wrath we spend our yeares as a tale
thy power and among the diversities of opinions and judgments in this world from all errors and false doctrines and led into all truth by the conduct of thy holy spirit may for ever obey thy heavenly calling that we may not be onely hearers of the word of life but doers also of good workes keeping faith and a good conscience living an unblameable life usefully and charitably religiously and prudently in all godlinesse and honesty before thee our God and before all the world that at the end of our mortal life we may enter into the light and life of God to sing praises and eternall hymnes to the glory of thy name in eternal ages through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen In whose name let us pray in the words which himselfe commanded saying OUr Father which art in heaven * Hallowed be thy Name * Thy Kingdome 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 trespasse against us * And lead us not into temptation * But deliver us from evill For thine is the Kingdome the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen A prayer of Thanksgiving after Sermon if it be convenient by reason of the time or other circumstances I. ALmighty God our glory and our hope our Lord and Master the Father of mercy and the God of all comfort we humbly present to thee the sacrifice of a thankfull spirit in a joyfull acknowledgment of those infinite favours by which thou hast supported our state enriched our spirits comforted our sorrowes releiv'd our necessities blessed and defended our persons instructed our ignorances and promoted our eternall interest * We praise thy name for that portion of thy holy word of which thou hast made us partakers this day Grant that it may bring forth fruit unto thee and unto holinesse in our whole life to the glory of thy holy name the edification of our Brethren and the eternall comfort of our soules in the day of our Lord Jesus II. Have mercy upon all that desire and upon all that need our praiers Ease the paines of the sick support the spirit of the disconsolate heare the cries of Orphans and Widdowes in their calamity and restore all that are oppressed to their rights and sanctify to them all their wrongs pity the folly and pity the calamities of poor mankind in mercy remembring them that are appointed to die comfort and support their spirits perfect and accept their repentance and receive the soules returning unto thee whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood III. Lord pity and pardon direct and blesse sanctify and save us all Give repentance to all that live in sinne and perseverance to all thy sons and servants for his sake who is thy beloved and the foundation of all our hopes Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus to whom with the Father and the holy Spirit be all honour and glory praise and adoration love and obedience now and for evermore Amen If this whole office be said at Morning or Evening Prayer respectively the Collect before sermon here put downe may be used instead of the Usual prayer before sermon ending with the Lords prayer and the Sermon to begin immediately before the blessing The Sermon being ended the prayer of thankes-giving may be said and the congregation dismissed with the blessing set downe at the end of Evening Prayer A prayer when a sick person desires to be publikely prayed for I. O Almighty and most gracious Father who art the fountaine of life and health and pardon hear the prayers of thy servants in behalfe of our Brother or Sister the miserable for the afflicted of sinners for him or her whom thou hast smitten Lord lay no more upon him then thou shalt enable him to beare but give him patience and doe thou thy selfe open a door for his escape even by a holy and a reformed life and a speedy recovery or else by a blessed death as thou in thy infinite loving kindnesse shalt choose for thy glory and his eternall interest II. Lord give unto thy servant a perfect repentance and a perfect pardon of all his sins Remember not the errors of his youth the weaknesse of his spirit the surprises of his life and the crimes of his choice but joyne his present sufferings to the passion his prayers to the intercession and his repentance to the merits of our dearest Saviour Jesus that he may be pardoned and pitied comforted and supported sanctified and saved in the day of recompenses III. Blessed Jesus who hast overcome all the powers of sinne Hell and the grave take from thy servant all inordinate fear of death give him a perfect resignation of his will and conformity to thine restraine the power of the enemy that he may not prevaile against the soule which thou hast redeemed If it be thy will give him a speedy restitution of his health and a holy use of the affliction or if thou hast otherwise decreed preserve him in thy fear and favour and receive his soule to mercy to pardon and eternal life through thy mercies and for thy compassion sake O Blessed Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Amen I. For seasonable weather in time of drowth immoderate raine or scarcity or death of Cattel c. O Lord God whose providence is universal and sufferest nothing to happen in vaine have mercy upon thy servants who have deserved thy wrath and to suffer thy indignation in every expression by which thou art pleas'd to signifie it Thou O God coverest the Heaven with clouds and preparest raine for the earth thou makest the grasse to growe upon the mountains and herbe for the use of men Thou givest fodder unto the cattel and feedest the young ravens that call upon thee Heare us O God who are thy servants and the sheep of thy pasture we have indeed wandered and gone astray but doe thou be mercifull unto us and bring us home to thee Take away thine anger from us Blesse the labours of the husbandman and the fruits of the feild refresh the weary earth with seasonable showers or seasonable weather for thou hast the key of raine and the key of providence thou didst bind up the heavens with ribs of iron and thou didst open againe the sluces of water at the prayer of thy servant Elijah and thy hand is not shortned and thy mercies have no limit II. Open thy hand O God and fill us with thy loving kindnesse that the Mower may fill his hand and he that bindeth up the sheaves his bosome that our garners may be full with all manner of store that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets That our oxen may be strong to labour that there be no breaking in or going out that our hearts may be replenish'd with food and gladnesse that there be no complaining in our streets Give us sufficient for this life