our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful, and that we may fhew forth thy praife, not only with our lips, but in our lives; by giving up ourselves to thy fervice, and by walking before thee in holiness and righteoufnefs all our days, through Jefus Christ our Lord; to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghoft, be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

T For Rain.

God, our heavenly Father, who by thy gracious providence doft caufe the former and the latter Rain to defcend upon the earth, that it may bring forth fruit for the ufe of man; We give thee humble thanks that it hath pleafed thee, in our great neceffity, to fend us at the last a joyful rain upon thine inheritance, and to refresh it when it was dry, to the great comfort of us thy unworthy fervants, and to the glory of thy holy Name, through thy mercies in Jefus Chrift our Lord. Amen.

T For Fair Weather.

Lord God, who haft juftly humbled us by thy late plague of immoderate rain and waters, and in thy mercy haft relieved and comforted our fouls by this feafonable and bleffed change of weather; We praise and glorify thy holy Name for this thy mercy, and will always declare thy loving-kindnefs from generation to generation, through Jefus Christ our Lord. Amen.

T For Plenty.

Moft merciful Father, who of thy gracious goodness haft heard the devout prayers of thy Church, and turned our dearth and scarcity into cheapnefs and plenty; We give thee humble thanks for this thy special bounty; befeeching thee to continue thy loving-kindness unto us, that our land may yield us her fruits of increafe, to thy glory and our comfort, through Jefus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For Rain] This and the enfuing fix prayers were compofed and introduced into the Litany in the reign of James I. and authorized and confirmed by the Act of Uniformity in the time of Charles II. They are for the moft part borrowed from the ancient Greek and Latin liturgies, bnt greatly amplified and improved.

For Peace and Deliverance from our Enemies. Almighty God, who art a strong tower of defence unto thy fervants against the face of their enemies; We yield thee praise and thanksgiving for our deliverance from thofe great and apparent dangers wherewith we were compaffed: We acknowledge it thy goodness that we were not delivered over as a prey unto them; befeeching thee ftill to continue fuch thy mercies towards us, that all the world may know that thou art our Saviour and mighty Deliverer, through Jefus Chrift our Lord. Amen.

For reftoring Public Peace at home.

Eternal God, our heavenly Father, who alone makeft men to be of one mind in a houfe, and ftilleft the outrage of a violent and unruly people; We bless thy holy Name, that it hath pleafed thee to appeafe the feditious tumults which have been lately raised up amongst us; most humbly befeeching thee to grant to all of us grace, that we may henceforth obediently walk in thy holy commandments; and leading a quiet and peaceable life in all godlinefs and honefty, may continually offer unto thee our facrifice of praife and thankfgiving for these thy mercies towards us, through Jefus Chrift our Lord. Amen.

¶ For Deliverance from the Plague, or other common Sickness.

Lord God, who haft wounded us for our fins, and confumed us for our tranfgreffions, by thy late heavy and dreadful Vifitation; and now in the midst of judgment remembering mercy, haft redeemed our fouls from the jaws of death; We offer unto thy fatherly goodness ourfelves, our fouls, and bodies, which thou haft delivered, to be a living facrifice unto thee; always praifing and magnifying thy mercies in the midft of thy Church, through Jefus Chrift our Lord. Amen.

Or this.

WE her, that the

E humbly acknowledge before thee, O moft merciful Father, that all the punishments which are threatened in thy law, might juftly have fallen upon us, by

reafon of our manifold tranfgreffions and hardness of heart: Yet feeing it hath pleafed thee of thy tender mercy, upon our weak and unworthy humiliation, to affwage the contagious fickness wherewith we lately have been fore afflicted, and to restore the voice of joy and health into our dwellings; We offer unto thy Divine Majefty the facrifice of praife and thanksgiving, lauding and magnifying thy glorious Name for fuch thy prefervation and providence over us, through Jefus Chrift our Lord. Amen.

THE COLLECTS, EPISTLES, AND GOSPELS, To be ufed throughout the Year.

NOTE, That the Collect appointed for every Sunday, or for any Holy-day that hath a Vigil or Eve, fhall be faid at the Evening Service next before.

The first Sunday in Advent.

The Collect.

ALMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may caft

away the works of darknefs, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in

The Collects, Epiftles, and Gofpels] Moft of our collects are very ancient, as appears by their conformity to the epiftles and gofpels, which are thought to have been felected by St. Jerom, and introduced by him into the Lectionary; on which account the collects themselves are by fome attributed to him. Certain it is, that Galafius bishop of Rome, A.D. 492, arranged the collects which were then in ufe, and added several of his own; and that Gregory the Great again corrected, amplified, and increafed them in number. The Sacramentarium of this great man, which contains most of our collects, was freely ufed by our reformers, with admirable judgment, in purging, altering, and improving the collects as they ftood in their corrupted ftate in the Romish miffals; and the reviewers in Charles's reign put the final polifh to them, by fubjecting them to another vigorous fcrutiny. The epiftles and gofpels were appropriated to the days whereon they are now read in very early times, as appears from the ancient liturgies. In all the editions of the common-prayer (except the Scotch one) from the publication of the bishop's bible in Queen Elizabeth's reign, to the review in Charles IId's reign, they were taken from that edition of the fcriptures. But at the Savoy conference in 1661, the Preíbyterian Commiflioners fuggefting that there were many defects in Elizabeth's verfion, the Epifcopalians determined that the epiftles and gofpels fhould be taken from James's bible, and the verfion in common ufe. It may be here well to remark, that the rubric in Edward's book, A.D. 1549,

which thy Son Jefus Chrift came to vifit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he fhall come again in his glorious Majefty, to judge both the quick and dead, we may rife to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghoft, now and ever. Amen.

This Collect is to be repeated every day with the other Collects in Advent, until Christmas Eve.

rims thus: "The introits, collects, epiftles, &c." Thefe introits are pfalms appropriate to the subject of the collects, epiftles, and gofpels, and prefixed to them. Their ufe is of great antiquity; and their name received from their being fung or faid whilft the priest was making his introitus, or entrance within the rails of the altar. In the fecond edition of Edward's prayer-book they were omitted, but no reafon appears why that thould be the cafe. I have pointed out the different introits directed to be ufed on the different Sundays and feftivals; and it may perhaps be worth while to remark, that by the adoption of the metrical verfion of them on the days of their occurrence, for the firft or fecond pfalm, the congregation would have at leaft one hymn (which is feldom the cafe now) applicable to the particular service of the day.

Vigil or Eve We learn, both from holy writ and profane teftimony, that the primitive Chriftians were under the neceffity of meeting during the aight, and before the dawn of day, to celebrate the fervices of their religion, in order to avoid the obfervation and malice of theirenemics and perfecutors. After a time the necefhty for this precaution ceafed in confequence of the Chriftians being tolerated in their worship; but the ancient practice having been found of good effect as a preparation for the due obfervation of the enfuing folemnity, the church continued thefe vigilia, vigils or watchings, for feveral centuries. At length, however, the custom introduced a variety of diforders and irregularities, which occafioned the abolition of the watchings; though the feafts were retained under the ancient name of vigils. In Collier's Eccl. Hift. v. ii. 203, we find that the vigil at night after AllHallows day was kept by watching, ringing of bells, &c. all night long, fo late as 1545, when Henry VIII. wrote to Cranmer to abolith it altogether.

The Collect This noble collect, for converfion from fin, was com pofed at the Reformation, and introduced into the liturgy in the frit prayer-book of Edward Vith. It breathes throughout the fpirit of piety and fublimity; and is remarkable for the beauty of its imagery, and the elegance of its antithefis. It may be proper to obferve in this place, that the practice of the peopic repeating the doxology, "Glory be to thee, O Lord," before the reading of the goipel, is borrowed from the ancient Greek church. In the Divina Miffa, attributed to Chryfoftom, previously to the Evangelii lectio, or reading of the gofpel by the pricft, the decon announced the portion of fcripture which was appointed for that purpose, and the people immediately exclaimed in chorus, O Ao coi, Kegit, “Glory be to thee, O Lord." King Edward's first book enjoins it, and the Scotch Litany retains it. No rubric, however, directs the practice at prefent; fo that it may be confidered rather as a traditional, than as a regularlydained one. The introit for this Sunday was pfalmi..

The Epistle. Rom. xiii. 8.

WE no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another, hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou fhalt not commit adultery, Thou fhalt not kill, Thou shalt not fteal, Thou shalt not bear falfe witnefs, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this faying, namely, Thou fhalt love thy neighbour as thyfelf Love worketh no ill to his neighbour; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of fleep: for now is our falvation nearer, than when we believed. The night is far fpent, the day is at hand; let us therefore caft off the works of darknefs, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honeftly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkennefs, not in chambering and wantonness, not in ftrife and envying: But put ye on the Lord Jefus Christ, and make not provifion for the flesh, to fulfil the luftsthereof. The Gofpel. St. Matt. xxi. 1.

WHEN

THEN they drew nigh unto Jerufalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives,

But to love one another] A beautiful example of the philanthropy of the Christian fyftem. Good-will to man, indeed, makes fo prominent a part of the evangelical scheme, that we may venture boldly to affert, no way of life can be pleafing to God, and no views of faith confiftent with the intention of Chrift, which are not characterised by charity and philanthropy.

For now is our falvation nearer, &c.] And we fhould love our neighbour, and fulfil every Chriftian duty, under the full perfuafion of the fhortnefs and uncertainty of life.

The Gofpel] The refpectful pofture of ftanding during the recitation. of the golpel is of great antiquity. In the collection of conftitutions by Ebnaffalus is one that directs the congregation to stand in folemn filence, whilft the pricft or deacon is reading the gospel. In the Greek liturgies the deacon who read the gofpel, previously to his reading it, called out to the congregation, Στάθητε, ακέσαμεν το αγιο ευα γελια. " Stand up, and let us liften to the holy gofpel." But though it appears, that at the time of the compilation of thefe liturgies, the deacons read the gospel, yet this was not the practice in the earlieft ages of the church; for we find, from the patriarch Gabriel, that this part of the facred rites was performed by the priest alone. This cuftom is retained in our church, when there happen to be a priest and a deacon at the altar at the fame time; the latter in that cafe reads the epiftle, and the former the gospel. For an account of the forms and ceremonies attending the reading of the gospel, vide Renaudotium, Lit. Orient. tom. i. p. 212.