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obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws which he fet before us.-Dan. ix. 9, 10.

O Lord, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, left thou bring me to nothing. Jer.x. 24; Pf. vi. 1. Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.St. Matt. iii. 2.

I will arife, and go to my father; and will fay unto him, Father, I have finned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy fon.-St. Luke xv. 18, 19. Enter not into judgment with thy fervant, O Lord; for in thy fight fhall no man living be juftified.-P. cxliii. 2. If we fay that we have no fin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us: but if we confefs our fins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our fins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteoufnefs.-1 St. John i. 8, 9.

EARLY beloved brethren, the Scripture moveth us

in fundry places to acknowledge and confefs our manifold fins and wickedness; and that we fhould not dif femble nor cloak them before the face of Almighty God our heavenly Father; but confefs them, with an humble, lowly, penitent, and obedient heart; to the end that we may obtain forgiveness of the fame, by his infinite goodness and mercy. And although we ought at all times humbly to acknowledge our fins before God; yet ought we most chiefly fo to do, when we affemble and meet together, to render thanks for the great benefits that we have received at his hands; to fet forth his moft worthy praife; to hear his moft holy Word; and to ask those things which are requifite and neceffary, as well for the body as the foul. Wherefore I pray and befeech you, as many as are here prefent, to accompany me with a pure heart, and humble voice, unto the throne of the heavenly grace, faying after me:

¶A general Confeffion to be faid of the whole Congregation, after the Minifter, all kneeling.

Lmighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and ftrayed from thy ways like loft sheep: We have followed too much the devices and defires of our own

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hearts: We have offended against thy holy laws: We have left undone thofe things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; And there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miferable offenders. Spare thou them, O God, which confefs their faults: Restore thou them that are penitent; According to thy promises, declared unto mankind in Chrift Jefu our Lord. And grant, O moft merciful Father, for his fake, That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and fober life, To the glory of thy holy Name. Amen.

The Abfolution or Remiffion of fins, to be pronounced by the Priest alone, ftanding; the People ftill kneeling.

ALmighty God, the Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift,

who defireth not the death of a finner, but rather that he may turn from his wickedness, and live; and hath given power and commandment to his Minifters, to declare and pronounce to his people, being penitent, the Abfolution and Remiffion of their fins; He pardoneth and abfolveth all them that truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy Gofpel. Wherefore, let us befeech him to grant us true repentance, and his Holy Spirit; that thofe things may pleafe him, which we do at this prefent, and that the reft of our life hereafter may be pure and holy; fo that at the last we may come to his eternal joy, through Jefus Chrift our Lord. Amen....

Then the Minifter fhall kneel, and fay the Lord's Prayer; the People alfo kneeling, and repeating it with him.

UR Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy

Name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven: Give us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trefpaffes, as we forgive them that trefeafs against us; And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen. »

The Lord's Prayer] In my obfervations on this divine form of prayer in the Morning Service, I have remarked that Chrift compofed it from a judicious felection of particulars contained in the Jewish prayers. Lightfoot, Calmet, and ethers converfant in Hebrew and Talmudical learning, have pointed out the forms (composed by Efdras during the Babylonith

Then likewife be fhall fay,

O Lord, open thou our lips;

Anfw. And our mouth fhall fhew forth thy praife.
Prieft. O God, make speed to fave us :

Anf. O Lord make hafte to help us.

captivity) from which our bleffed Lord adopted its different paragraphs: “Our Father which art in heaven;" Maimonedes in Tiphilloth. "Hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come;" Bab. Baracoth, fol. xl. 2. "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven," &c.; Bab. Baracoth, fol. xxix. 2. "Deliver us from evil;" Id. Baracoth., fol. xvi. 2. Exclufive, however, of this external evidence of our bleffed Saviour having condefcended to adopt forms which were already familiar to his difciples, there is an internal one of great weight, that points to the fame conclufion. It is obfervable, that Chrift delivers all the claufes of the Lord's Prayer, fave one, in diftinct propofitions, and not in an interwoven feries, which would have been the cafe had the form been an original compofition; and alfo, that he does not accompany thefe claufes by any comment or explication, becaufe this would have been an unneceffary addition to forms already in ufe, and well understood by those to whom he repeated them. To this however there is one exception, namely, in the prayer for forgiveness of treffpaffes or debts. Here Chrift follows up the claufe with a comment, by which he points out the connection between the performance of an important duty, and the fuccefs of the petition; "For if ye forgive men their. trefpaffes," &c.; Matt. vi. 14, 15: plainly indicating that he had here added fomething new to their old and accustomed prayers, by the explanation which he has thought proper to give of the reafon, beauty, and neceflity of its introduction.

O God, make Speed, &c.] The evenfong or fervice, according to Henry's Primer, commenced with these two verticles. It began at fix o'clock in the afternoon, and confifted of pfalms exii. cxxxiv. cxxxvii; the anthem; the chapter; the hymn

O Lord, the world's faviour,

Which haft preferved us this day,
This night alfo be our fuccour,
And fave us ever, we thee pray.

Be merciful now unto us,

And fpare us, which do pray to thee;

Our fin forgive, Lord gracious,

That our darkness lightened be.

That fleep our minds do not opprefs,
Nor that our enemy us beguile,
Nor that the flesh, full of frailnefs,
Our foul and body do defile.
O Lord, reformer of all thing,
With hearts defire we pray to thee,
That after our reft and fleeping,

We may rife chafte and worship thee.

Amen.

The verficle; the anfwer; the Magnificat; the anthem; the verficle; the answer; and a prayer for grace and fanctification.-The Complyn for fervice that took place at nine o'clock at night, and was fo called from its compleating the religious duties of the day) follows the evening fong in Henry's Primer, and confifts of four verticles, and the Gloria Patri; pfalms

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Here all standing up, the Prieft fhall fay,

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghoft;

Anf. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever fhall be: world without end. Amen.

Priest. Praise ye the Lord.

Anfw. The Lord's Name be praised.

¶ Then fhall be faid or fung the Pfalms in order as they are appointed. Then a Leffon of the Old Testament, as is appointed: and after that, Magnificat, (or the Song of the bleed Virgin Mary) in English, as followeth.

Magnificat. St. Luke i. 46.

Y foul doth magnify the Lord: and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

For he hath regarded: the lowlinefs of his hand-maiden. For behold, from henceforth: all generations fhall call me bleffed.

xii. xlii.; the anthem; the chapter; the hymn; the verficle; the anfwer; Nunc Dimittis; the anthem; the verficle; the anfwer; the collect, "Lighten our darkness;" and these two ejaculations, "Blefs we the Lord: thanks be to God."

The Pfalms in Order, &c.] St. Chryfoftom obferves: "For holy David's Pfalms the grace of the holy Spirit hath fo ordered it, that they fhould be faid or fung night and day. In the Church's vigils, the firft, the midft, and the laft, are David's pfalms: in the morning David's pfalms are fought for, and the firft, the midft, and the laft, is David. At funeral folemnities the first, the midft, and the laft, is David. In private houses where the virgins spin, the first, the midft, and the last, is David. Many that know not a letter, can fay David's pfalms by heart: In the monafteries, the quires of heavenly hofts, the first, the midft, and the laft, is David: In the deferts, where men that have crucified the world to themfelves converse with God, the first, the midft, and the laft, is David: In the night when men are asleep, David awakes them up to fing; and gathering the fervants of God into angelical troops, turns earth into heaven, and makes angels of men finging David's pfalms."-Sparrow.

Magnificat] This is a hymn of thanksgiving and praise uttered by the Virgin Mary when Elizabeth hailed her as the mother of our blessed Lord. As in the perfon of Chrift the types and prophecies of the Old Teftament received their completion, fo there feems to be great propriety in introducing it after the firft leffon, which is taken from the old covenant. Its adoption into the Liturgy is fanctioned by the authority of the Weftern Church as early as the lixth century; for we meet with it prescribed for public ufe in the rules of Cæfarius Arelatenfis, and Aurelian, about the year 506.-Bingham's Antiq. b. xiv. c. 2. The reformed churches on the Coptinent ufe it at prefent in their evening fervice.

For he that is mighty hath magnified me: and holy is

his Name.

And his mercy is on them that fear him: throughout all generations.

He hath fhewed ftrength with his arm: he hath fcattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

He hath put down the mighty from their feat: and hath exalted the humble and meek.

He hath filled the hungry with good things: and the rich he hath fent empty away.

He remembering his mercy hath holpen his fervant Ifrael: as he promised to our forefathers, Abraham and his feed for ever.

Glory be to the Father, &c.

As it was in the beginning, &c.

Or elfe this Pfalm; except it be on the Nineteenth day of the Month, when it is read in the ordinary course of the Pfalms.

Cantate Domino. Pfalm xcviii.

Sing unto the Lord a new song: for he hath done marvellous things.

With his own right hand, and with his holy arm: hath he gotten himself the victory.

The Lord declared his falvation: his righteousness hath he openly fhewed in the fight of the heathen.

He hath remembered his mercy and truth toward the houfe of Ifrael: and all the ends of the world have feen the falvation of our God.

Shew yourselves joyful unto the Lord, all ye lands: fing, rejoice, and give thanks.

Praife the Lord upon the harp: fing to the harp with a pfalm of thanksgiving.

With trumpets alfo and fhawms: O fhew yourfelves joyful before the Lord the King.

Cantate Domino] This was added in Edward's fecond Book; and feems eligible to be repeated when the firft leffon has recounted any inftance of extraordinary protection, mercy, or compaflion. It was probably compofed by David after fome fignal fuccefs.

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