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For like as we are compelled by the Chriftian verity: to acknowledge every Perfon by himself to be God and Lord; So are we forbidden by the Catholic Religion: to fay, There be three Gods, or three Lords.

The Father is made of none: neither created nor begotten.

The Son is of the Father alone: not made, nor created, but begotten.

The Holy Ghoft is of the Father and of the Son: neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.

So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Ghoft, not three Holy Ghofts. And in this Trinity none is afore or after other: none is greater or less than another;

But the whole three Perfons are co-eternal together: and co-equal.

So that in all things, as is aforefaid: the Unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped.

He therefore that will be faved: muft thus think of the Trinity.

Furthermore, it is neceffary to everlasting falvation: that he also believe rightly the Incarnation of our Lord Jefus Chrift.

For the right Faith is, that we believe and confefs: that our Lord Jefus Chrift, the Son of God, is God and Man; God, of the Substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds: and Man, of the Subftance of his Mother, born in the world;

Perfect God, and perfect Man: of a reafonable foul, and human flesh fubfifting;

Equal to the Father, as touching his Godhead: and inferior to the Father, as touching his Manhood.

Who although he be God and Man: yet he is not two, but one Chrift;

One; not by converfion of the Godhead into flesh: but by taking of the Manhood into God;

One altogether; not by confufion of Subftance: but by unity of Perfon.

For as the reasonable foul and flesh is one Man: fo God and Man is one Chrift;

Who fuffered for our falvation: defcended into hell, rofe again the third day from the dead;

He afcended into heaven, he fitteth on the right hand of the Father, God Almighty: from whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

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At whofe coming all men fhall rise again with their bodies: and fhall give account for their own works.

And they that have done good, fhall go into life everlafting: and they that have done evil, into everlafting fire. This is the Catholic Faith: which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be faved.

Glory be to the Father, &c.
As it was in the beginning, &c.

THE LITANY.

Here followeth the LITANY, or General Supplication, to be fung or faid after Morning Prayer upon Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and at other times, when it fhall be commanded by the Ordinary.

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God the Father of heaven: have mercy upon us miferable finners.

The Litany] Litany fignifies an humble, and earneft fupplication. Thefe forms of prayer (wherein the people are more exercifed than in any other part of the fervice, by continual joining in every paffage of it) are thought by fome to have been brought into the church about 400 years after Chrift, in times of great calamity, for the appeafing of God's wrath. True it is that they are very feasonable prayers in fuch times; and therefore were by Gregory and others ufed in proceffions for the averting of God's wrath in public calamities; but it is as true that they were long before that time, even in the firft fervices that we find in the church, ufed at the communion fervice, and other offices, as ordination of priests, &c.; where we find the deacon miniftering to the people, and directing them from point to point what to pray for, as it is in our Litany; and the people are appointed to anfwer to every petition, Domine miferere," Lord have mercy."-Sparrow. Prefixed to the Litany and fuffrages in Henry's Primer, A. D. 1546, is the following advertisement:-"As thefe holy prayers and fuffrages following are fet forth of moft godly zeal for edifying and ftirring of devotion of all true faithful Chriftian hearts; fo it is thought convenient in this common prayer of proceffion, to have it fet forth and used in the vulgar tongue, for stirring the people to more devotion; and it fhall be every Chriftian man's part reverently to use the fame,

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O God the Father of heaven have mercy upon us miferable finners.

O God the Son, Redeemer of the world: have mercy upon us miferable finners.

O God the Son, Redeemer of the world: have mercy upon us miferable finners.

O God the Holy Ghoft, proceeding from the Father and the Son: have mercy upon us miferable finners.

O God the Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son: have mercy upon us miferable finners.

to the honour and glory of Almighty God, and the profit of their own fouls. And fuch among the people as have books, and can read, may read them quietly and foftly to themfelves; and fuch as cannot read, let them quietly and attentively give audience in time of the faid prayers, having their minds erect to Almighty God, and devoutly praying in their hearts, the fame petitions which do enter in at their ears, fo that with one found of the heart, and one accord, God may be glorified in his church." In the first book of King Edward, the Litany was placed between the communion-office, and that of baptifmm; and was a diftinét fervice, to be tfed at fome diftance of time from the morning prayer; as is the cafe even now in feveral cathedrals, and college chapels in the univerfities. In the reigns of the fame king, and Queen Elizabeth, it was performed preparatory to the communion fervice, as appears by their injunctions in Sparrow's Collections, to the following effect "That immediately before high mafs or the time of the communion of the facrament, the priests, with others of the quire, fhould kneel in the midft of the church, and fing or fay plainly and diftinctly the Litany which is fet forth," &c. In the notes at the end of Edward's prayer-book, 1549, are the following direc tions, by which it appears, that the performance of the Litany was left, in fome meafure, to the difcretion of the minifter: "Alfo upon Chriftmas-day, Eafter-day, the Afcenfion-day, Whitfunday, and the Feaft of the Trinity, may be ufed any part of holy fcripture, hereafter to be certainly limited and appointed, in the ftead of the Litany. If there be a fermon, or for other great caufe, the curate, by his difcretion, may leave out the Litany, Gloria in Excelfis, the creed, the homily, and the exhortation to the communion.” With refpect to the place in which the Litany was performed, the royal injunctions (which are ftill in force) enjoin, that it fhall be faid or fung in the midst of the church, at a low defk before the chancel-door, anciently called the falled fool."-Sparrow's Collections. It is appointed in the ru brics to be read Wednesdays and Fridays, (the days kept in the Greek church as more folemn fafts) because the bridegroom was then taken from us, being fold by Judas on Wednesday, and murdered on Friday.-Spar row's Rationale. Finally; for the original of our Litany, we are indebted in a great measure to the liturgical labours of Gregory, who compofed, out of all the litanies extant, his feven-fold Litany, (fo called because he or dered the church upon this occafion to make their proceffion in feven claffes) to which our own form bears a great refemblance. It is worth remark, perhaps, that by the 15th canon of our church, it is ordained, that when ever the Litany is read, every houfholder dwelling within half a mile of the church is to come orfend one at the leaft of his houfhold fit to join with the minifter in prayers; and that the neighbourhood might not excufe

O holy, bleffed, and glorious Trinity, three perfons, and one God: have mercy upon us miferable finners.

O holy, bleffed, and glorious Trinity, three perfons, and one God: have mercy upon us miferable finners.

Remember not, Lord, our offences, nor the offences of our forefathers, neither take thou vengeance of our fins: fpare us, good Lord, fpare thy people, whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood, and be not angry with us for ever.

Spare us, good Lord.

From all evil and mischief, from fin, from the crafts and affaults of the devil, from thy wrath, and from everlasting damnation,

Good Lord, deliver us,

From all blindness of heart; from pride, vain-glory, and hypocrify; from envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableness,

Good Lord, deliver us.

From fornication, and all other deadly fin; and from all the deceits of the world, the flesh, and the devil,

Good Lord, deliver us.

themselves through ignorance of the time of the performance of the fervice, it was cuftomary to toll a bell during this fervice, both to notify its celebration, and to inform the people that the communion office was coming on. This beautiful part of our ritual confifts of invocations to God for compallion, because we are miferable, and for pardon, because we are finners; 2dly, of deprecations for deliverance from the evils to which we are liable, and the fins to which we are prone; 3dly, of obfecrations, (the two paragraphs, beginning with " By the mystery," &c.) or appeals to the Redeemer, through his merits and fufferings; 4thly, interceffions or prayers for all orders and degrees of men, (1 Tim. ii. 1;) 5thly, of petitions for mercy, by addreffes to Chrift in his divine and propitiatory character; and 6thly, fupplications for deliverance from trouble, and enemies fpiritual and carnal; and for fanctification and Spiritual improvement from our adverfities and afflictions.

O holy, bleffed, and glorious Trinity] After this invocation, the two following ones occur in Henry's Primers: "Holy Virgin Mary, mother of God our Saviour Jefus Chrift; pray for us. All holy angels and archangels, and all holy orders of bleffed fpirits; pray for us. All holy patriarchs and prophets, apoftles, martyrs, confeffors, and virgins, and all the bleffed company of heaven; pray for us."

From all evil and mischief] The Eaftern and Western churches, (whofe litanies, like our own, were amplified paraphrafes upon that petition in the Lord's-Prayer, "Deliver us from evil") began their litanies with the deprecations.

From lightning and tempeft; from plague, peftilence, and famine; from battle and murder, and from fudden death, Good Lord, deliver us.

From all fedition, privy confpiracy, and rebellion; from all falfe doctrine, herefy, and fchifm; from hardness of heart, and contempt of thy Word and Commandment, Good Lord, deliver us.

By the mystery of thy holy Incarnation; by thy holy Nativity and Circumcifion; by thy Baptism, Fasting, and Temptation,

Good Lord, deliver us.

By thine Agony and bloody Sweat; by thy Crofs and Paffion; by thy precious Death and Burial; by thy glorious Refurrection and Afcenfion; and by the coming of the Holy Ghost,

Good Lord, deliver us.

In all time of our tribulation; in all time of our wealth; in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment, Good Lord, deliver us.

We finners do befeech thee to hear us, O Lord God, and that it may please thee to rule and govern thy holy Church univerfal in the right way;

We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.

That it may please thee to keep and ftrengthen in the true worshipping of thee, in righteousness and holiness of

From fudden death] That is, unprepared death. At the conference in Charles IId's time, it was propofed by the Prefbyterians that the words "and unprepared" fhould be added to " fudden;" but the Epifcopalians objected to it.

From all fedition, privy confpiracy, &c.] Between those words, and "from all falfe doctrine," &c. were inferted in all the primers and prayer books, till Elizabeth's time, thefe words," From the tyranny of the bishop of Rome, and all his abominable enormities." In this deprecation alfo, the words "rebellion and fchifm," were added at Charles Ild's review. By thine agony, &c.] The obfecration of the Greek church is very Energetic: δια των αγνώςων παθηματων σε; By thy unknown or inconceivable sufferings."

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In the true worshipping of thee, &c.] In this, and the two following interceffions, we pray for the orthodoxy, piety, and profperity, of our fovereign, the first conftituted authority in our country, agreeably to St. Paul's injunétion, 1 Tim. ii. 2. The fourth interceflion for the royal family was not framed till James Ift's time; because after the Reformation no Proteftant prince had children, till James fucceeded to the throne.

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