It was the practice to pray for the Christian Emperors, and their family, both in the Greek and Latin Church; and this Prayer, in our Liturgy, is taken, almost verbatim, from the Sacramentary of St. Gregory. It was first inserted in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; because it was observed, that, by the Liturgy of King Edward, the Queen could not be prayed for, but on those days, when either the Litany or the Communion Service was used.

OF THE PRAYER FOR THE ROYAL FAMILY. Almighty God the fountain of all goodness, &c.

This Prayer was added at the accession of King James I. who was the first Protestant Sovereign that had children.

OF THE PRAYER FOR THE CLERGY AND PEOPLE.

Al

mighty and everlasting God, who alone, &c.

This Prayer was added in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, in conformity to the practice of the ancient Church, which always had Prayers for the Clergy and people. This form is taken out of the Sacramentary of St. Gregory. By Curates, is here meant all those, who have the cure of souls, whether Incumbents, or their Curates, now commonly so called.

OF THE PRAYER OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. Almighty God, who has given us grace, &c.

As some former Prayers were taken from Western Liturgies, so this is taken from one of the Eastern: it is still in daily use in the Greek Church. This is deemed to be an undoubted composition of St. Chrysostom. In the Liturgies of St. Basil, and St. Chrysostom, it is inserted in the middle of the Service. It seems more proper to come at the conclusion, as in ours. This Prayer is distinguished from the rest, by being addressed to the second person in the Trinity, reminding him of his promise,where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the miast of them, Matth. xviii. 20.

OF 2 COR. 13, 14. The Grace of our Lord, &c.

The whole Service is closed with this Benedictory Prayer of St. Paul, with which he concludes most of his Epistles.

D

This is rather a Prayer than a Blessing, for it is pronounced kneeling by the minister, who includes himself, as well as the people.

Neither this, nor the Prayer of St. Chrysostom, were in our old Prayer Books, all of which concluded with the third Collect; but the Prayer of St. Chrysostom was at the end of the Litany in the first Book of Edw. VI. and so was the Benedictory Prayer in that of Queen Elizabeth; there also were placed the Prayers for the King, and the Royal Family, and that for the Clergy and People, till the last Review; and, though not so printed, they were, nevertheless, used for the conclusion of the daily Service, as they are now.

OF THE LITANY.

THE Litany, as explained by the Rubric prefixed to it, is "A general Supplication:" in this sense it was used by the Greeks, both Heathens and Christians. Such a kind of Litany was the supplication made by David, in the 51st Psalm, called one of the Penitential Psalms. Such was that Litany of God's appointment in Joel, [Joel ii. 17.] where, in a general assembly the Priests, the ministers of the Lord, were to weep between the Porch and the Altar, and to say, spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach; in imitation of which solemn supplication, our Litany retains the same words; and is directed, by the royal injunctions, (still in force) to be said, or sung, in the midst of the Church, at a low desk, before the Chancel-door, anciently called the Falled Stool. Such a Litany also was that agony of our Saviour, described by St. Luke, chap. xxii. 44, when, according to the words of St. Paul, he offered up Prayers and Supplications, with strong crying and tears, Heb. v. 7.

It appears to be a very ancient form of Litanies, for the Priest to make short requests, and the people to respond to them in short sentences. There is a Litany of St. Ambrose in that form, agreeing in many things with our own. Gregory the Great, about A. D. 600, out of all the Litanies

Η Φίλας λιάνευε τοκῆας. Hes. Theog.

Λιανένα δε ἐστι παράκλησις πρὸς θεὸν, καὶ ἱκεσία—δὲ ὀργὴν Qaçquén. Simeon. Thess.

extant, composed that famous seven-fold Litany, which has been a pattern to all the Western Churches since, and to which ours comes nearer, than that in the present Roman Missal, wherein later Popes have inserted invocations of Saints, all which our reformers very justly expunged, when they adopted this excellent Office. About the year A. D. 400, Litanies had begun to be used with Processions, the people walking barefoot, and saying them with great devotion. But these processional Litanies, degenerating into conviviality, and causing scandal, it was decreed, by a Council at Cologne, that Litanies should be used only within the walls of the Church.

In the time of King Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth, the Litany seems to have been used as preparatory to the second, or the Communion, Service; for by their injunctions it was ordered, that immediately before High Mass, or the time of Communion of the Sacrament, the Priests, with others of the Quire, shall kneel in the midst of the Church, and sing or say, plainly and distinctly, the Litany which is set forth in English, with all the Suffrages following, to the intent that people may hear and answer. This custom was, to a late period, continued in some Cathedrals and Chapels; though now, for the most part, the Litany, is made one Office with the Morning Prayer, which, indeed conforms with the present Rubric; it being ordered by the Rubric before the Prayer for the King, to be read after the third Collect for Grace, instead of the Intercessional Prayers in the Daily Service.

By the 15th Canon above-mentioned, when the Litany is read as a distinct Service by itself, every householder, dwelling within half a mile of the Church, is to come, or send one at the least of his household fit to join with the minister in Prayers.

There is no direction, in the present Rubric, for the minister to kneel during the Litany; but this must be considered as included in the Rubric, at the end of the Suffrages, after the second Lord's Prayer. It may here be observed, that wherever the Minister kneels, the people do the same.

In several Cathedral and Collegiate Churches, the Litany is sung by laymen, which seems an irregularity, and has given offence to many persons, who are zealous for order and decorum in our public worship.

OF THE INVOCATION.

O God, the Father of Heaven, &c.

All Litanies, both ancient and modern, begin with these solemn words, Lord have mercy upon us. i The Invocation in ours is still more solemn, and is in truth, the sum of the whole Litany, being an earnest Address for Mercy, first to each person in the Holy Trinity, and then to them all together. O God, the Father of Heaven, &c.

These whole verses are repeated by the Congregation after the Minister, that every one may first crave, in his own words, to be heard; after obtaining which, it was thought they may leave it to the Priest to set forth all their needs, declaring only their assent to every Petition as he delivers it, which is done in the following manner.

OF THE DEPRECATIONS.

From all evil, &c.

Because our requests ought to ascend by degrees, before we ask for a perfect deliverance, we beg the mercy of forbearance; we therefore first pray, that God would Remember not our offences, &c. to which the People respond, Spare us good Lord.

After the way is thus opened, we commence our Petitions; and, because deliverance from evil is the first step to felicity, we begin with these Deprecations for removing it. Both the Eastern and Western Churches open their Litanies in the same manner; theirs, as well as ours, is a Paraphrase upon that Petition in the Lord's Prayer, Deliver us from evil.

The first Petition is, to be delivered from sin and misery in general; from all evil and mischief, &c. after this, we descend to particulars, reckoning divers kinds of the most common sins, some of which have their seat in the heart and mind, and others in the body; we begin with those of the heart, where all sin originates; and we recount, first those that concern ourselves, all blindness of heart, &c. secondly, those that concern our neighbours, as envy, hatred, &c. From the heart, sin spreads into the life and actions, and causes the sins of the body, as fornication, and all other deadly sin, &c.

After we have deprecated all these sins, generally and particularly, we proceed to pray against those judgments with

i In the Greek Litanies, they are Κύριε ἐλέησον.

which God generally scourges such as offend him, as lightning and tempest, &c. and, having deprecated those evils which endanger our lives, we proceed to pray against those, that would deprive us of our peace, as sedition, privy conspiracy, &c. and conclude with the worst of all sins, hardness of heart, &c.

And now, to obtain deliverance from all these evils, we add the most important Supplication that can be imagined; the two Petitions, which the Latins called Obsecrationes, in which we beseech our Redeemer, By the mystery of thy holy incarnation, &c. and offer these considerations, to move him to grant our requests, and deliver us from all the evils we have been enumerating.

Because there are some particular times, when we stand in more especial need of the divine help, we pray for such aid before the evil day comes, In all time of our tribulation, &c.

Such is the method in which our church has taught us to offer up Petitions for deliverance from evil; to each of which, the people signify their concurrence by repeating Good Lord deliver us.

It may be noticed here, that the words rebellion and schism were added at the last Review, to deprecate in future the like subversion of Church and State, which they had then lately experienced. After privy conspiracy, &c. came, in both the Books of Edw. VI. from the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome, and all his detestable enormities, which was omitted in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign.

OF THE INTERCESSIONS.

We Sinners do beseech thee, &c.

According to the exhortation of St Paul, that we should make Intercession for all men, 1 Tim. ii. 1, our Church, conformably also with the practice of every other Church, has made such Intercession a part of the solemn service of the Litany; almost every one of the following Intercessional Petitions are taken out of the best and oldest Litanies extant.

That we may not seem too presumptuous in praying for others, who are unworthy to pray for ourselves, we begin this part of our Supplications, by acknowledging our sinful state: We Sinners do beseech thee to hear us, O Lord God, &c.

The first Petition, in these our Intercessions for others, is in behalf of the Holy Church Universal; after which, we intercede for our own, in the person of the King, who is the head,