93 IV. stands dost promise that when two or three be gathered together in CHAP. Thy Name, Thou wilt grant their requests; fulfil now, lect with Lord, the desires and petitions of Thy servants, as may be its rubric most expedient for them, granting us in this world knowledge of Thy truth, and in the world to come life everlasting. Amen. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, 2 Cor. 18. and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all ever-2B. of more. Amen. Scotch Liturgies. I O God heavenly Father, whose gift it is that the rain doth fall, the earth is fruitful, beasts increase, and fishes do multiply; send us, we beseech Thee, in this our necessity, such moderate rain and showers, that we may receive the fruits of the earth, to our comfort, and to Thy honour, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. For Rain, if the time require. last.] in [Omitted Edw. VI.] For fair Weather. O Lord God, which for the sin of man didst once drown all the world, except eight persons, and afterwards of Thy great mercy didst promise neber to destroy it so again; we humbly beseech Thee, that although we for our iniquities have worthily deserved this plague of rain and waters, yet upon our true repentance, Thou wilt send us such weather, whereby we may receive the fruits of the earth in due season, and learn both by Thy punishment to amend our lives, and for Thy clemency to gibe Thee praise and glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. In the time of Dearth and Famine. God heavenly Father, whose gift it is that the rain doth fall, the earth is fruitful, beasts increase, and fishes do multiply, behold we beseech Thee, the afflictions of Thy people, IV. CHAP. and grant that the scarcity and dearth (which we do now most justly suffer for our iniquity) may through Thy goodness be mercifully turned into cheapness and plenty, for the love of Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with Thee and the Poly Ghost, be praise for ever. Amen. [2 B. of Edw. VI. Or thus. God merciful Father, who in the time of Eliseus, the prophet, didst suddenly turn in Samaría great scarcity and dearth into plenty and cheapness, and extreme famine into abundance of victual; have pity upon us that now are punished for our sins with like adversity, increase the fruits of the earth by Thy heavenly benediction; and grant that we receiving Thy bountiful liberality, may use the same to Thy glory, our comfort, and relief of our needy neighbours, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.] In the time of War. O Almighty God, King of all kings, and Governor of all things, whose power no creature is able to resist, to whom it belongeth justly to punish sinners, and to be merciful to them that truly repent; Save and deliver us, we humbly beseech Thee, from the hands of our enemies, abate their pride, assuage their malice, and confound their devices, that we being armed with Thy defence, may be preserved evermore from all perils, to glorify Thee which art the only giver of all victory, through the merits of Thy only Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. In the time of any common Plague or Sickness. O Almighty God, which in Thy wrath, in the time of King Babid, didst slay with the plague of pestilence threescore and ten thousand, and yet remembering Thy mercy, didst save the rest, have pity upon us miserable sinners, that now are visited with great sickness and mortality, that like as Thou didst then command Thine Angel to cease from punishing, so it may please Thee to withdraw from us this plague and grievous sickness, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. O God, whose nature and property is eber to have mercy, and to forgibe, receive our humble petitions; and though we be tied and bound with the chain of our sins, yet let the pitifulness 94 I of Thy great mercy loose us, for the honour of Jesus CHAP. · Christ's sake our Mediator and Advocate. Amen. A Thanksgiving for Rain. IV. thanks kingJames, in the for I O God our heavenly Father, who by Thy gracious probí- All these dence dost cause the former and the latter rain to descend upon givings the earth, that it may bring forth fruit for the use of man, we added by gibe Thee humble thanks that it hath pleased Thee in our great- not extant est necessity, to send us at the last a joyful rain upon Thine mer litur= 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. A Thanksgiving for fair Weather. O Lord God, who hast justly humbled us by Thy late plague of immoderate rain and waters, and in Thy mercy hast relicbed 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 loving kindness from generation to generation, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. A Thanksgiving for Plenty. ℗ most merciful Father, which of Thy gracious goodness hast heard the debout 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 this 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. A Thanksgiving for Peace and Victory. O Almighty God, which art a strong tower of defence unto Thy serbants against the face of their enemies, we yield Thee praise and thanksgiving for our deliberance from those great and apparent dangers wherewith we were compassed; we ac= knowledge 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 gies. CHAP. art our Saviour and mighty deliverer, through Jesus Christ our Lord. IV. Amen. A Thanksgiving for Deliverance from the Plague. O Lord God, which 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 libing sacrifice unto Thee, always praising and magnifying Thy mercies in the midst of the congregation, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Or this. We humbly acknowledge before Thee, O most merciful Father, that all punishments which are threatened in Thy law, might justly have fallen upon us, by reason of our manif ld transgressions and hardness of heart: yet seeing it hath pleased Thee of Thy tender mercy, upon our weak and unworthy humiliation, to assuage the noisome pestilence 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. 95 IV. (A) Catechising part of the evening office. The want thereof the cause of CHAP. heresies. Judgment of the synod of Dort. Sermons were, in the primitive Church, part of the evening office. Evening prayer, why so called. An ancient evening hymn. (B) The doxology of the Pater Noster, why omitted in our service. (C) A necessary rubric added by the Scotch liturgy. (D) Athanasius's Creed, falsely so called, yet ancient, and extant in anno 600 after Christ. (E) Litanies ancient; in the Western Church long before Mamercus. Reformed by Gregory the Great; ours whence derived; the gesture proper for it. (F) Wednesdays and Fridays, why days of fastings. Stations, what, and why so called. Tertullian cleared. (G) Forgiving our enemies, a peculiar of Christianity. The Jewish and Romish practice contrary to it. (H) Repeated prayers most powerful. (I) The thanksgivings for rain, &c. a necessary reformation. A An order for evening prayer.] Though evening service varieth not much from that of the morning, yet doth it afford something which obligeth our consideration. For (what is too much forgot) I must remind you that there is an evening service before evening prayer. "The curate of every parish, or some other at his appointment, shall diligently upon Sundays and holy days, half an hour before evening prayer, openly in the church instruct and examine so many children of his parish sent unto him as the time will serve, and as he shall think convenient, in some part of the Catechisma." The same rule is observed by the Belgic Church"; and so did the Palatine divines advise at the synod at Dort, that it should be an afternoon exercise, with this positive resolution: non dubitamus, cur tot hæreses, et nova dogmata locum passim inveniant, causam vel maximam esse, catechiza * Rubric after Confirmation. b Canon 68. e Act. Synod., p. 31. |