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Jefus, receive my fpirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this fin to their charge. And when he had faid this, he fell asleep.

BEHO

The Gofpel. St. Matt. xxiii. 34.

EHOLD, I send unto you prophets, and wife men, and fcribes; and fome of them ye fhall kill and crucify; and fome of them fhall ye fcourge in your fynagogues, and perfecute them from city to city; that upon you may come all the righteous blood fhed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel, unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye flew between the temple and the altar. Verily I fay unto you, all these things fhall come upon this generation. O Jerufalem, Jerufalem, thou that killeft the prophets, and ftoneft them which are fent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your houfe is left unto you defolate. For I fay unto you, Ye fhall not fee me henceforth, till ye fhall fay, Bleffed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord.

ME

St. JOHN the Evangelift's Day.

The Collect.

ERCIFUL Lord, we befeech thee to caft thy bright beams of light upon thy Church, that it being en

Deflate] Rather by you defolate. "Your city fhall be destroyed, and be left defolate by you as a people."

St. John] This evangelift was the moft beloved of all our Lord's difciples; John xiii. 23. After ftaying fome time with the bleffed Virgin in his houfe at Jerufalem, (to whofe care fhe was committed by our Saviour; John xix. 27) probably till her death; he then travelled to preach the gofpel in Afia; but fome fay fhe accompanied him to Ephefus. Act. Eph. tom. ii. c. 21. That he preached in Afia Minor, however, the beft writers of antiquity allow; as alfo, that he probably founded the feven churches mentioned Rev. i. 4. From Ephefus he was carried prifoner to Rome, on account of the doctrines which he taught, fome think by a malicious accufation of Ebion, others of Apollonius, A. D. 92. There he was condemned to be thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil; but being miraculously preferved, came out from thence alive. Afterwards he was banished into the island of Patmos, one of the Sporades, where he wrote his Revelations. He was afterwards recalled thence by Nero, and then returned to Ephefus.

hightened by the doctrine of thy bleffed Apoftle and Evangelift Saint John, may fo walk in the light of thy truth, that it may at length attain to the light of everlafting life, through Jefus Chrift our Lord. Amen..

THA

The Epistle. 1 St. John i. 1.

HAT which was from the beginning which we have heard, which we have feen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life; (for the life was manifefted, and we have feen it, and bear witnefs, and fhew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifefted unto us;) that which we have feen and heard, declare we unto you, that ye alfo may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jefus Chrift. And thefe things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. This then is the meffage which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we fay that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jefus Chrift his Son cleanfeth us from all fin. If we fay that we have no fin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confefs our fins, he is faithful and juft to forgive us our fins, and to cleanfe us from all unrighteoufnefs. If we fay that we have not finned, we make him a liar, and his Word is not in us.

He wrote his three epiftles to confute Bafilides, and other heretics who denied the divinity of our Saviour. Laft of all he wrote his gofpel, to fupply the omillions of the other Evangelifts, fome few years before his death: He furvived till the reign of Trajan, and died above 90 years of age.

The Collect for St. John's Day] This prayer, for heavenly illumination, was more fimple in its compofition before the laft review. It now prefents a play upon the word light, which rather offends against the rules of chafte compofition. The epittle for this day was altered at the Reformation, from the xxxth chap. of Ecclefiafticus, to the present one. The introitus was pfalm xi.

Cleanfeth us from all fini. e. Ratifies the covenant of pardon to the fincerely penitent; fce Levit. xvi. 30.

The Gospel. St. John xxi. 19.

ESUS faid unto Peter, Follow me. Then Peter turn

ing about, feeth the difciple whom Jefus loved, following, which alfo leaned on his breaft at fupper, and faid, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? Peter feeing him, faith to Jefus, Lord, and what fhall this man do? Jefus faith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me. Then went this faying abroad among the brethren, that that difciple fhould not die: yet Jefus faid not unto him, He fhall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? This is the difciple which teftifieth of thefe things, and wrote thefe things, and we know that his teftimony is true. And there are alfo many other things which Jefus did, the which if they should be written every one, I fuppofe, that even the world itfelf could not contain the books that fhould be written.

The INNOCENTS' Day.

The Collect.

Almighty God, who out of the mouths of babes and fucklings haft ordained ftrength, and madeft infants to glorify thee by their deaths; Mortify and kill all vices

Till I come] Till the deftruction of Jerufalem; which John outlived accordingly.

The world itself, &c.] This is a very ftrong hyperbole, in the common manner, however, of Eaftern phrafeology; of which we find repeated inftances in the facred writers; compare Numbers xiii. 33; Deut. i. 28; Dan. iv. 11; Ecclef. xlvii. 15. The expreflion is ufed by St. John to convey fome, though an indefinite idea, of the multiplicity of miracles, figns, and wonders, performed by our blessed Lord.

The Collect This prayer, for ability to live an innocent and holy life, was compofed at the review in Charles the Ild's reign. Before that time it ran thus: "Almighty God, whofe praise this day the young Innocents, thy witneffes, have confeffed and fhewed forth, not in fpeaking, but in dying; mortify and kill all vices in us, that in our converfation, our life may exprefs thy faith, which with our tongues we do confefs, through Jefus Christ our Lord." The introitus was the lxxixth pfalm. With respect to this and the two preceding holy-days, and their arrangement, Sparrow has thefe obfervations: "Immediately after Christmas-day follow as attendants upon this high feftival, St. Stephen, St. John, and Innocents, not because this was the very time of their fuffering, but because

in us, and fo ftrengthen us by thy grace, that by the innocency of our lives, and conftancy of our faith even unto death, we may glorify thy holy Name, through Jefus Chrift our Lord. Amen.

The Epiftle. Rev. xiv. 1.

Looked, and lo, a Lamb ftood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred and forty and four thoufand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: and they fung as it were a new fong before the throne, and before the four beafts, and the elders; and no man could learn that fong, but the hundred and forty and four thoufand, which were redeemed from the earth. Thefe are they which were not defiled with women, for they are virgins: thefe are they which follow the Lamb whitherfoever he goeth: thefe were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God, and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile; for they are without fault before the throne of God.

THE

The Gospel. St. Matt. ii. 13.

HE angel of the Lord appeared to Jofeph in a dream, faying, Arife, and take the young child, and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word; for Herod will feek the young child to destroy him. When he arofe, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod; that it might be ful

none are thought fitter attendants on Christ's nativity, than the bleffed martyrs, who have laid down their lives for him, from whose birth they received fpiritual life. And there being three kinds of martyrdom; ift, in will and deed, which is the highest; 2d, in cvill, but not in deed; 3d, in deed, but not in will: in this order they attend; St. Stephen firft, who "fuffered both in will and deed; next St. John, who fuffered martyrdom in will, but not in deed, being miraculously delivered out of the burning cauldron, into which he was put before Port-Latin, in Rome; laftly, the holy Innocents, who fuffered in deed, but not in vill, vet are reckoned amongst the martyrs, because they fuffered for Chrift.”—Rationale, 124.

filled which was fpoken of the Lord by the prophet, faying, Out of Egypt have I called my Son. Then Herod, when he faw that he was mocked of the wife men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and flew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coafts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wife men. Then was fulfilled that which was fpoken by Jeremy the prophet, faying, In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.

The Sunday after Christmas-Day.
The Collect.

Almighty God, who haft given us thy only-begotten

Son to take our nature upon him, and as at this time to be born of a pure Virgin; Grant that we being regenerate, and made thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by thy Holy Spirit, through the fame our Lord Jefus Chrift, who liveth and reigneth with thee, and the fame Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

Slew all the children] Macrobius de Jocis Augufti, Saturnalia, lib. C. 4, relates a witty and farcaftic fpeech made by Auguftus, when he heard that Herod had deftroyed one of his own fons in his indifcriminate flaughter of the infants. "Cum audiffet, niter pueros, quos in Syria Herodes rex Judæorum, infra brimatum jufiit interfici filium quoque ejus occifum; Melius eft Herodis porcum (1) effe quam filium (vov.) "It would be better to be Herod's hog than his fon." The point of the remark, as it turns upon a play of words, is only obvious in the Greek; in which language Auguftus was well killed, and ufually expreffed himself.-Sec. Sueton. in Vit. Aug.

The Collect It was a cuftom amongst the primitive Chriftians to obferve the octave, or eighth day after their principal feafts with great folemnity; and upon every day between the feaft and the octave, as alfo. upon the octave itfelf, they ufed to repeat fome part of that fervice, which was performed upon the feaft itfelf. In imitation of which cuftom, this day generally falling within the octave of Chriftmas-day, the collect then ufed is repeated now. Before the Reformation, the gofpel was Luke ii. 33 to 41. At that time the firft of Matthew was appointed, including the genealogy; the first seventeen verfes were omitted at Charles's review. The introitus was the cxxift pfilm,

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