and relieve them, according to their several necessities, giving them patience under their sufferings, and a happy issue out of all their afflictions; and this we beg for Jesus Christ his sake. Amen.

A

THANKSGIVINGS.

A General Thanksgiving.

LMIGHTY God, father of all mercies, we, thine unworthy servants, do give thee most humble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and loving-kindness to us, and to all men ; [*particularly

been prayed for de

* This to be said to those who desire now to offer up when any that have their praises and thanksgivings for sire to return praise. thy late mercies vouchsafed unto them.] We bless thee for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all, for thine inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And we beseech thee, give us that due sense of all thy mercies, that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful, and that we show forth thy praise, not only with our lips but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to thy service, and by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

For Rain.

God, our heavenly Father, who, by thy gracious providence, dost cause the former and the latter rain to descend upon the earth, that it may bring forth fruit for the use of man; we give thee humble thanks that it hath pleased thee, in our great necessity, to send us, at the last, a

G

joyful rain upon thine inheritance, and to refresh it when it was dry, to the great comfort of us thy unworthy servants, and to the glory of thy holy Name, through thy mercies in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For Fair Weather.

Lord God, who hast justly humbled us by thy late plague of immoderate rain and waters, and in thy mercy hast relieved and comforted our souls by this seasonable and blessed change of weather; we praise and glorify thy holy Name for this thy mercy, and will always declare thy lovingkindness from generation to generation, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For Plenty.

Most merciful Father, who, of thy gracious goodness, hast heard the devout prayers of thy Church, and turned our dearth and scarcity into cheapness and plenty; we give thee humble thanks for this thy special bounty, beseeching thee to continue thy loving-kindness unto us, that our land may yield us her fruits of increase, to thy glory and our comfort, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For Peace and Deliverance from our Enemies.

O Almighty God, who art a strong tower of de

fence unto thy servants against the face of their enemies; we yield thee praise and thanksgiving for our deliverance from those great and apparent dangers wherewith we were compassed; we acknowledge it thy goodness that we were not delivered over as a prey unto them; beseeching thee still to continue such thy mercies towards us, that all the world may know that thou art our Saviour and mighty Deliverer, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For restoring Public Peace at Home.

Eternal God, our heavenly Father, who alone makest men to be of one mind in a house, and stillest the outrage of a violent and unruly people; we bless thy holy Name that it hath pleased thee to appease the seditious tumults which have been lately raised up amongst us; most humbly beseeching 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 godliness and honesty, may continually offer unto thee our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving for these thy mercies towards us, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For Deliverance from the Plague, or other common Sickness.

Lord God, who hast wounded us for our sins, and consumed us for our transgressions, by thy late heavy and dreadful visitation, and now, in the midst of judgment remembering mercy, hast redeemed our souls from the jaws of death; we offer unto thy fatherly goodness ourselves, our souls and bodies which thou hast delivered, to be a living sacrifice unto thee, always praising and magnifying thy mercies in the midst of thy Church, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Or this.

E humbly acknowledge before thee, O most merciful Father, that all the punishments which are threatened in thy law might justly have fallen upon us, by reason of our manifold transgressions and hardness of heart; yet, seeing it hath pleased thee of thy tender mercy, upon our weak and unworthy humiliation, to assuage the contagious sickness wherewith we lately have been sore afflicted,

and to restore the voice of joy and health into our dwellings, we offer unto thy Divine Majesty the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, lauding and magnifying thy glorious Name for such thy preservation and providence over us, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

THE

COLLECTS, EPISTLES, AND GOSPELS,

TO BE USED THROUGHOUT THE YEAR.

Note, that the Collect appointed for every Sunday, or for any Holyday that hath a Vigil or Ece, shall be said at the Evening Service next before.

FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT.

The Collect.

LMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness; and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that, in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty to judge both the quick and dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and Amen.

ever.

Collects.]-With reference to all the numerous Prayers contained in the Liturgy under the name of " Collects," the observations that follow occur in the valuable work entitled, "A Rational Illustration of the Book of Common Prayer, &c." By Charles Wheatley, M. A., &c. &c.

"The reason why these Prayers are so often called Collects is differently represented. Some ritualists think, because the word Collect is sometimes used, both in the vulgar Latin Bible, (Lev. xxiii. 36.; Heb. x. 25.) and by the ancient Fathers, to denote the gathering together of the people in religious assemblies, that, therefore, the Prayers are called Collects, as being repeated when the people are collected together. Others think that they are so named upon account of their comprehensive brevity; the Minister collecting into short forms the petitions of the people, which had before been divided between him and them, by versicles and responses; and that, for this reason, God is desired in some of them, to hear the prayers and supplications of the people. Though I think it is very probable, that the Collects for the Sundays and Holy days bear that name upon ccount that a great many of them are collected out of the Epistles and Gospels."

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

Ο

WE no man any thing, but to love one another:

for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 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 sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand; let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

W

The Gospel. St. Matth. xxi. 1.

And

THEN they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her; loose them, and bring them unto me. if any man say aught unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them: and straightway he will send them. All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. And the disciples