Chap. IV. have spoke before", and need only obferve here, that the ancients annexed it to every office, to fhew both their esteem of that, and their mean opinion of their own compofures, which receive life and value from this divine. form. deal not, &c. Pr. O Lord, §. 3. After this, we proceed to beg deliverance from our troubles: but because our confciences presently fuggeft, that our iniquities deferve much greater, and that therefore we cannot expect to be delivered, fince we fuffer Anfw. Nei. fo juftly; we are put in mind that God doth not deal with ther reward us after our fins, nor reward us according to our iniquities*°. And therefore we turn these very words into Supplication, and thereby clear his Juftice in punishing us, but apply to his Mercy to proportion his chaftifements according to our ability of bearing, and not according to the defert of our offences. us, &c. The prayer §. 4. The way being thus prepared, the Prieft now beagainft Per-gins to pray for the People alone: but left they fhould fecution. think their duty at an end, as foon as the refponfes are over, he enjoins them to accompany him in their hearts ftill by that ancient form, Let us pray; and then proceeds to the prayer against Perfecution, which is collected partly out of the Scripture, and partly out of the primitive forms, and is ftill to be found intire among the offices of the Western Church, with the title, For Tribulation of Heart42. Anfw. O name's fake. It is not concluded with Amen, to fhew that the fame Lord, arife, request is continued in another form and what the Priest &c. for thy begged before alone, all the People join to ask in the following alternate Supplications taken from the Pfalms +3. When our enemies are rifing against us to deftroy us, we defire that God will arife and help us, not for any worthinefs in ourselves, but for his name's fake, that he his power to be known++. Pr. O God, 44 may make §. 5. Whilft the people are praying thus earnestly, the we have priest, to quicken their faith by another divine fenheard, &c. tence45, commemorates the great troubles, adverfities, and perfecutions, which God hath delivered his church from 39 Chap. III. Sect. VI. page 123. 41 Let us pray.] In ancient Litur- in all ages; and fince he is the fame Lord, and we have Sect. IV. the fame occafion, this is laid down as the ground of our future hope. For the wonderful relations which we have heard with our ears, and our fathers have declared unto us, of God's refcuing this particular church at firft from Popery, and of his delivering and preferving it ever fince from faction and fuperftition, from fo many fecret feditions and open rebellions, fully affure us that his arm is not fhortened. thine And therefore the people again fay, O Lord, arife, help Antw. O us, and deliver us for thine honour: which is no vain repe- Lord, arife, tition, but a teftimony that they are convinced they did &c. for wifely to afk of this God (who hath done fo great things honour. for his people in all ages) now to arife and help; that fo the honour he hath gotten by the wonders of his mercy may be renewed and confirmed by this new act of his power and goodness. the Father, &c. §. 6. To this is added the Doxology in imitation of Glory be to David, who would often, in the very midft of his complaints, out of a firm persuasion that God would hear him, fuddenly break out into an act of praife. And thus we, having the fame God to pray to, in the midst of our mournful fupplications, do not only look back on former bleffings with joy and comfort, but forward alfo on the mercies we now pray for: and though we have not yet received them, yet we praise him for them beforehand, and doubt not, but that, as he was glorified in the beginning for paft mercies, fo he ought to be now for the prefent, and shall be hereafter for future bleffings. §. 7. But though the faithful do firmly believe, that The followthey fhall be delivered at the laft, and do at prefent rejoice ing rein hopes thereof; yet because it is probable their afflic fponfes. tions may be continued for a while for a trial of their patience, and the exercise of their other graces; for that reason we continue to pray for fupport in the mean time, and beg of Christ to defend us from our enemies, and to look graciously upon our afflictions; pitifully to behold the forrows of our hearts, and mercifully to forgive our fins, which are the cause of them. And this we know he will do, if our prayers be accepted; and therefore we beg of him favourably with mercy to hear them, and do befeech him, as he affumed our nature, and became the Son of David (whereby he took 46 Pfalm vi. 8. and xxii. az, &c. N Chap. IV. on him, our infirmities, and became acquainted with our griefs) to have mercy upon us. fying our troubles. And because the hearing of our prayers in the time of distress is so defirable a mercy, that we cannot ask it too fervently nor too often; we therefore redouble our cries, and beg of him as he is Chrift, our anointed Lord and Saviour, that he would vouchsafe to hear us now, and whenever we cry to him for relief in our troubles. And, to fhew we rely on no other helper, we conclude thefe Supplications with David's words in a like cafe, O Lord, let thy mercy be fhewed upon us, as we do put our truft in thee. To him, and to him only, we have applied ourfelves; and as we have no other hope but in him, so we may expect that this hope fhall be fulfilled, and that we fhall certainly be delivered in his due time. The prayer §. 8. The whole congregation having thus addreffed for fancti- the Son; the priest now calls upon us to make our application to the Father (who knows as well what we fuffer, as what we can bear) in a moft fervent form of addrefs, compofed at firft by St. Gregory above one thousand one hundred years ago 48, but afterwards corrupted by the Roman church, by the addition of the Interceffion of Saints*, which our Reformers have left out, not only restoring, but improving the form. The prayer 2 Cor. xiii. 14. SECT. V. Of the Prayer of St. Chryfoftom, and THE Litany, as I have already obferved, was formerly of St. Chry- a diftinct fervice by itself, and was used generally foftom, and after Morning Prayer was over; and then these two final prayers belonged particularly to this fervice. But it being now ufed almoft every where with the Morning Prayer, thefe latter collects, being omitted there (after fome occafional prayers, which fhall be fpoken of next) come in here; and how fit they are for this place may be feen by what is faid of them already. 47 Pfalm xxxiii, 21. 48 Sacram. S. Greg. tom. ii. col. 1535. B. 49 Miff. Sarifb.no 90 APPENDIX SECT. I. Of the fix firft Occafional Prayers. to Prayers. THE ufual calamities which afflict the world are fo Appendix exactly enumerated in the preceding Litany, and the common neceffities of mankind fo orderly fet down Chap. IV. there; that there feems to be no need of any additional The fix firft prayers to complete fo perfect an office. But yet because Occafional the variety of the particulars allows them but a bare mention in that comprehenfive form; the church hath thought good to enlarge our petitions in fome inftances, because there are fome evils fo univerfal and grievous, that it is neceffary they should be deprecated with a peculiar importunity; and fome mercies fo exceeding needful at fome times, that it is not fatisfactory enough to include our defires of them among our general requests; but very requifite that we thould more folemnly petition for them in forms proper to the feveral occafions. Thus it feems to have been among the Jews: for that famous prayer which Solomon made at the dedication of the Temples, supposes that special prayers would be made there in times of War, Drought, Peftilence, and Famine. And the light of nature taught the Gentiles, on fuch extraordinary occafions, to make extraordinary addreffes to their gods 5. Nor are Chriftians to be thought lefs mindful of their own neceffities. The Greek church hath full and proper offices for times of Drought and Famine, of War and Tumults, of Peftilence and Mortality, and upon occafion of Earthquakes calfo,ca judgment very frequent there, but more feldom in this part of the world. In the Western Miffals there is a Collect, and an Epiftle and Gofpel, with fome refponfes upon every one of thefe fubjects, feldom indeed agreeing with any of our forms, which are the fhorteft of all; being not defigned for a complete office, but appointed to be joined to the Litany, or Morning and Evening Prayer, every day while the occafion requires it; that fo, according to the laws of Charles the Great, "In times of Fa"mine, Plague, and War, the mercy of God may be im"mediately implored, without staying for the King's "Edict 52" 501 Kings viii. 33, 35, 37. 51 Lactant. Inft. 1. 2. c. 1. p. 115. 52 Capitular. lib. 1. cap. 118. N 2 §. 2. added. Appendix §. 2. The two firft of these prayers, viz. thofe for Rain to and for Fair Weather, are placed after the fix collects at Chap. IV. the end of the Communion Office, in the first book of When firft King Edward VI. The other four were added afterwards to his fecond book, in which they were all fix placed, as now, at the end of the Litany. But in the old Common Prayer Book of Queen Elizabeth and King James I. the fecond of the prayers in the time of Dearth and Famine was omitted, and not inferted again till the Restoration of King Charles II. in the Em SECT. II. Of the Prayers in the Ember-Weeks.: The prayers THE Ordination of Minifters is a matter of fo great ber-Weeks. concern to all degrees of men, that it has ever been done with great foleninity: and by the thirty-firft canon of the church it is appointed, That no Deacons and Mi nifters be made and ordained, but only upon the Sundays immediately following jejunia quatuor temporum, commonly called Ember-Weeks. And fince the whole nation is obliged, at these times, to extraordinary Prayer and Fafting; the church hath provided two forms upon occafion, of which the first is moft proper to be used before the candidates have paffed their examination, and the other When add-afterwards. They were both added to our ed. When firft added. Our Common Prayer-Book at the last review; though the fecond occurs in the Scotch Liturgy, juft before the Prayer of St. Chryfoftom, at the end of the Litany. As to the original, antiquity, and reafon of these four Ember Fafts, and the fixing the Ordination of Minifters at those times, I fhall take occafion to speak hereafter; and fhall only obferve farther in this place, that it is a mistake in those who imagine that these prayers are only to be ufed upon the three Ember-days, i. e. upon the Wednefday, Friday, and Saturday in every Ember-Week; the rubric expreffing as plain as words can do, that one of them is to be faid every day in the Ember-Weeks, i. e. beginning (as it is expreffed in the Scotch Liturgy) on the Sunday before the day of Ordination. SECT. III. Of the Prayer that may be faid after any THIS ferted |
