of it, To keep and strengthen him in the true worshipping of Thee, &c. next, we intercede for the Royal Family; and after them for the Bishops and Clergy, the Lords of the Council, and persons in temporal authority; and, lastly, to bless and keep all thy people, to which we subjoin a Petition, to give all nations unity, peace, and concord.

After these Prayers for worldly blessings, we pray for that which is wanting for our souls, To give us a heart to love and dread thee, &c. which we extend to others, as well as ourselves, to comfort and help the weak-hearted, &c.

Having thus considered the souls of men, we proceed to such things as concern their bodies, and we pray for all afflicted in general, To succour all that are in danger, &c. which is closed by a Prayer for Mercy upon all Men, and finally for our enemies, persecutors, and slanderers, &c.

Having prayed for ourselves and others separately, we pray for them and us together, in asking to our use the kindly fruits of the earth, &c. concluding with a Prayer to amend our lives, &c.

To all these several Intercessional Petitions the Congregation signify their assent, by repeating, We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord; and at the close are added some earnest addresses, like the Obsecrations, at the conclusion of the Deprecations, wherein we beseech Christ, by his divinity, and by his humanity, Son of God, &c. Lamb of God, &c. and as he is the Lord Christ, to grant us peace, and have mercy on us, and hear us; so that the whole is closed, as it began, by an address to the Trinity, though not in the same form.

OF THE SUPPLICATIONS.

Our Father which art, &c.

The following part of the Litany is called The Supplications, which were first collected, and put into this form, as we are told, when the calamities of the Southern parts of Europe commenced, from the inroads of the barbarous nations; they were afterwards continued, from the consideration of the perils always attendant on the Church militant; on which account, this part of the Litany is no less seasonable than the former, at all times whatsoever.

These Supplications begin, like other Offices, with the Lord's Prayer; and this is followed by a Sentence and Response, which turn the reflection of David, in Psalm ciii. 10, into a

Supplication," God doth not deal with us after our sins, "neither will he reward us after our iniquities."

The minister then begins to pray alone for the people, giving them warning to accompany him, in their hearts, by the ancient form, Let us pray; words, which were not only an invitation to attend, but served, in the ancient Liturgies, as a mark of transition from one sort of Prayer to another; from what the Latins call Preces, which were alternate petitions, in which the priest and people joined, to Orationes, which were said by the priest alone, the people answering Amen. The minister now proceeds to such a sort of Prayer, which is called, though not intitled, the Prayer against Persecution. O God, merciful Father, that despisest not, &c. It is collected, partly out of Scripture, and partly out of ancient forms, and is still to be found intire, among the offices of the Western Church, with the title For Tribulation of Heart. This Prayer is not concluded with Amen, to shew that the same request is still continued, though in another form; and that what the minister begged before alone, all the people now join to ask in the following alternate Supplications, taken from the Psalms; as O Lord arise, &c. from Psalm xliv. 26, and lxxix. 9. Psalm cvi. 8. O God, we have heard with our ears, &c. from Psalm xliv. 1. After these is added the Doxology, in imitation of David, who would often, in the very midst of his complaints, suddenly break out into an act of praise, as in Psalm vi. 8, and Psalm xxii. 22, as if in firm persuasion that God would hear him. In the same manner, these Supplications go on for Deliverance, and at length conclude, O Lord let thy mercy be shewed, &c. as we do put our trust, &c. which are David's words in Psalm xxxiii. 21.

The whole Congregation having, in the last sentences, addressed the Son, the Priest now calls upon us to make our application to the Father, in a most fervent form of Address, composed at first by St. Gregory, who has been so often mentioned before; We humbly beseech thee, O Father, mercifully, &c. This Prayer was afterwards corrupted by the Romish Church, which had inserted the Intercession of Saints; our Reformers expunged these novelties, restored it to its original form, and made some improvement in it. It is sometimes called, though not so intitled, a Prayer, "for sanctifying our Troubles."

OF THE PRAYER OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM, AND 2 COR. xiii. 14. Almighty God, who has given us grace, &c. and The Grace of our Lord, &c.

When the Litany was a Service by itself, these two final Prayers made a proper termination to it. They have since, as we have seen, been added to the end of the Morning Prayer; so that they always terminate the Service, whether the Litany is interwoven, as is now the practice, with the Morning Prayer, or the Morning Prayer is read without it; but in the former case, they are omitted in the Morning Prayer, and come in here, after some of the Occasional Prayers, which follow next in the Book, have been first read.

OF THE SIX FIRST OCCASIONAL PRAYERS.

ALTHOUGH there seems no need of any additional Prayers to complete so perfect an Office as the Litany; yet, because in that comprehensive form, the various particular matters of supplication can only be barely mentioned, the Church has thought good to enlarge our petitions, in some instances, where the evils are so universal and grievous, that it is necessary they should be deprecated with peculiar importunity. We are told, that Solomon, in that solemn Prayer made by him at the Dedication of the Temple, supposed special Prayers would be made in the Temple, in time of War, Drought, Pestilence, and Famine, 1 Kings viii. 33, 35, 37. The Greek Church has full and proper Offices for times of Drought and Famine, War and Tumults, Pestilence and Mortality, and upon occasion of Earthquakes. In the Western Missals, there is a Collect, Epistle, and Gospel, with some responses, upon every one of these subjects. These are longer than ours; for ours are not a complete Office, but appointed to be subjoined to the Litany, or the Morning and Evening Prayer, every day, while the occasion requires it.

The two first of these Prayers, that for Rain, and that for Fair Weather, were placed at the end of the Communion, in the first book of Edward VI. The next four, namely, the two In the time of Dearth and Famine, that In

the time of War and Tumult, and that In the time of any common Plague or Sickness, were added, for the first time, to his second Book, in which they were all six placed, as now, at the end of the Litany. In the Common Prayer of Queen Elizabeth, and James I. the second of the two Prayers, In time of Dearth and Famine, was omitted; and it was not inserted again till the Review at the Restoration.

OF THE PRAYERS IN THE EMBER WEEKS.

After the above six Prayers follow two, for the Ember Weeks, to be said (one or the other) every day, for those that are to be admitted into Holy Orders.

By the 31st Canon of the Church, it is appointed, That no Deacon, and Ministers, be made and ordained, but only upon the Sundays immediately following JEJUNIA QUATUOR TEMPORUM, commonly called Ember Week. Since the whole nation is supposed, at these times, to be engaged in fasting. and prayer, our Church has provided two forms upon the occasion; of these the first is more proper to be used before, and the other after, the candidates have passed their examination. They were both added to the Common Prayer Book at the last Review.

It is a mistake in those, who suppose these Prayers are to be used only on the three Ember Days, being the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, in every Ember Week; the Rubric plainly expressing, that one of them is to be said every day in the Ember Week. More will be said of the Ember Weeks, when we have to speak of the first of them, which is in Advent.

OF THE PRAYER THAT MAY BE SAID AFTER ANY OF

THE FORMER. O God, whose nature and property, &c.

This Prayer was first added in Queen Elizabeth's Prayer Book, after the Prayer, "In time of any common Plague, or Sickness." At the last Review, the two Prayers for the Ember Weeks, were placed before it, and this Collect was ordered to be placed immediately after; but the Printers, from inattention, placed it last of all; the Commissioners, however, made them print a new leaf, and place it next before the Prayer for the High Court of Parliament; so is the Sealed Book; and such is the true place of this Prayer, though the

printed copies generally follow the first mistake. sent edition it is restored to its proper place.

In the pre

OF THE PRAYER FOR THIS HIGH COURT OF PARLIA

MENT.

Most Gracious God, we humbly beseech Thee for

this Kingdom, &c.

This Prayer was, very properly, added at the last Review.

OF THE PRAYER FOR ALL CONDITIONS OF MEN. O God the creator and preserver, &c.

This Prayer was added at the last Review, before which there was no Intercession, "for all Conditions of Men," except on those days, when the Litany was appointed. It is ordered, by the Rubric, to be used at such times, when the Litany is not appointed to be said; in consequence of ,which, it is now a general practice to read this Prayer in the Evening, as well as the Morning, where there is no Litany; though others have thought, that, being intended as a substitute for the Litany, it should only be read in the Morning Service. This Prayer was drawn up either by Bishop Gunning, or Bishop Sanderson. It is said, that it was originally much longer, consisting of Petitions for the King, the Royal Family, Clergy, &c. which was the cause why the word finally is used towards the close of a Prayer, which is now so short. It is probable, the Compiler intended to comprehend, in this one, the matter of all the intercessional Collects; but, upon consideration, it was resolved to retain the old forms; and so they adopted only so much of this Prayer, as was not contained in the others.

As there is a particular clause in this Prayer, when any one desires the Prayers of the Congregation, it is thought needless, as well as irregular, to use, as some Ministers do, any Collects out of the Visitation Office, which is not a Congregational Service, and runs in terms, that suppose the sick person present.