angels; and after these didft by him create this vifible world, and all things that are therein. For thou art He, who haft fixed the heaven like an arch, and stretched it out like a canopy; who by thy fole will haft hung the earth upon nothing; who haft established the firmament, and prepared the night and the day, bringing light out of thy treafures, and darkness to overshadow it, that the living creatures of this world might take their repofe. Thou haft appointed the fun to rule the day, and the moon to govern the night, and haft implanted in the heavens a choir of stars to the honour of thy glorious majesty. Thou haft created water for drink and for cleanfing, and the vital air both for breathing and speaking. Thou madeft fire for our confolation in darkness, and for the relief of our neceffities, that we might be warmed and enlightened by it. Thou didst divide the fea from the land, making the one navigable, and the other a bafis for our feet to walk on; the former thou haft replenished with small and great animals, the latter with tame and wild beasts, and winged fowl which fly in the open firmament of heaven: Thou haft also furnished the earth with various plants, crowned it with herbs, beautified it with flowers, and enriched it with feeds.

Neither haft thou only created the world, but Man likewife the inhabitant thereof, exhibiting him the most beautiful ornament of that beautiful creation. For thou faidft to thine own Wisdom, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the fea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth. Wherefore thou madeft him of an immortal foul and a mortal

G 4

body:

body; the foul out of nothing, the body out of the duft of the ground; this endued with five senses and a power of motion, that with reason and a faculty of diftinguishing between good and evil, juft and unjust.

Thou, O Almighty God, didft alfo by thy Christ plant a garden eastward in Eden, adorned with every plant that was fit for food; into this rich and magnificent habitation didst thou put man, having imprinted a law in his nature, that he might thereby have within himself the principles of divine knowledge. And when thou hadst placed him in this Paradife of pleasure, thou didst allow him the privilege of enjoying all its delights, only forbidding him to tafte of one tree, and promifing him immortality as the reward of his obedience: But when he had tranfgreffed this command by eating of the forbidden fruit, thou didst justly drive him out of Paradise, and yet in thy goodness didst not abandon and defpife him, though he had destroyed himself; for he was the work of thine own hands: But thou, who hadft given him dominion over all things, didft appoint him to procure his daily food by labour and the fweat of his face, thy providence concurring to produce, augment, and bring all things to maturity and perfection. And having fubjected him for a while to a temporary death, thou didst promise to restore him to life again, loofing the bonds of that death, and giving him affurance of a refurrection to life eternal.

Nor was this all; thou didst likewife multiply his pofterity without number, rewarding as many of them as were obedient unto thee, and punishing thofe who rebelled against thee. For thou art the creator and governour of men, the author of life,

the

the fupplier of our wants, the giver of laws, the rewarder of those that keep them, and the avenger of those that tranfgrefs them: Who didft bring a flood upon the world because of the multitude of the ungodly, but didft deliver righteous Noah from it with eight fouls in the ark, the last of the foregoing and first of the fucceeding generations. Thou art he, who didft preferve Abraham from the idolatry of his fore-fathers, and didft appoint him to be the heir of the world, manifefting unto him thy Chrift. And when men had corrupted the law of nature, and efteemed the creation fometimes the effect of chance, and fometimes worthy of honour equal to thine, who art the God of all; thou didst not fuffer them to wander on in error, but didst raise up thy holy fervant Mofes, and by him didft give a written law to ftrengthen the law of nature, and didft fhew that the creation was thy work, and that there were none other Gods befides thee.

For all these things glory be to thee, O Lord Almighty: Thee thine everlasting armies adore, the innumerable hofts of angels, arch-angels, thrones, dominions, principalities, authorities, powers, the cherubim also and fix-winged feraphim, with twain of which they cover their feet, with twain their heads, and with twain they fly faying, together with thousand thousands of arch-angels and ten thoufand times ten thoufand angels crying inceffantly with uninterrupted shouts of praise,

Here the People fhall join with the Priest, and say, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Sabaoth; heaven and earth are full of his glory: Bleffed is he for evermore. Amen,

After

FOR

After this the Prieft fhall fay,

OR thou art truly holy, most holy, holiness itself, the highest, and moft highly exalted for ever. Holy alfo is thine only begotten Son Jefus Christ our Lord and God; Who miniftring to thee his God and Father in all things, not only in the various works of creation, but likewife in the providential care of the fame, did not overlook loft mankind: But after the law of nature, the admonitions of the pofitive law, the reproofs of prophets, the fuperintendency of angels, when men had perverted both the pofitive and natural law, and were now ready to perish univerfally; He, who was man's creator, was pleased with thy consent to become man; the law-giver to be made fubject to the law; the highprieft to be himself the facrifice, the fhepherd a fheep, to appease thee his God and Father, to reconcile thee to the world, and to deliver all men from the impending wrath. He was born of a virgin, born in the flesh: God the Word, the beloved fon, the firft-born of the whole creation, was made, as himself had foretold by the mouth of the prophets, of the feed of David and Abraham, and of the tribe of Judah: He, who forms all that are born into the world, was himself formed in the womb of a virgin; He, who was without flesh, became incarnate; and He, who was begotten before all time, was born in time. His converfation was holy, and his doctrine divine: He cured all manner of fickness and all manner of disease, and wrought figns and wonders among the people; He, who is the feeder of the hungry, and filleth every living creature with his goodness, became partaker of his own gifts, and eat, and drank, and flept among us:

He

He manifefted thy name to them who knew it not; he difpelled the cloud of ignorance, revived true piety, fulfilled thy will, and finished the work which thou gavest him to do. And after having acted in all these things with the highest wisdom and order, he was feized by the hands of a disobedient people, and wicked men abufing the office of priests and high-priests, being betrayed to them by the inveterate malice of one of his own difciples: And when he had by thy permiffion fuffered many things from them, and had been treated with all manner of indignity, he was delivered to Pilate the governour: The judge of all the world was judged, and the faviour of mankind condemned; although impaffible, he was nailed to the cross; and although immortal, died: The giver of life was himself laid in the grave, that he might deliver those for whose fake he came from the pains of eternal death, that he might break the bonds of the devil, and rescue mankind from his deceit. He rofe again the third day from the dead; and having converfed forty days with his disciples, he was taken up into heaven, and is fet down on the right hand of Thee his God and Father.

Wherefore having in remembrance those things which he endured for our fakes, we give thanks to thee, O God Almighty, not as we ought, but as we are able, and fulfil his inftitution. For in the fame night that he was betrayed, he Here the Frieft is to take the Paten into his hands took bread into his holy and immaculate hands; and looking up to thee his God and Father, and And here to break the bread with both his hands, having first fet the Paten down on the Altar breaking it, he gave it to his difciples, faying This is the mystery of the New

Tefta