A FORM OF PRAYER OR THANKSGIVING. The Preface to the following Office. SINCE it hath pleased God to hear our prayers, and to give us the blessing we now feel and rejoice in, the blessing of peace, health, plenty, victory, &c. let us faithfully and devoutly give thanks unto God for his great benefit and grace; and say, Psalms Eucharistical, or of Thanksgiving, upon special Times of Festivity, to be added to any of the foregoing Offices; or to be said distinctively. I. After a plentiful Harvest. Our Father, which art in heaven, &c. O be joyful in God, all ye lands: sing praises unto the honour of his name, make his praise to be glorious. O come hither and behold the works of God: how wonderful he is in his doing toward the children of men. Thou visitest the earth, and blessest it: thou makest it very plenteous. Thou waterest her furrows, thou sendest rain into the little valleys thereof: thou makest it soft with the drops of rain, and blessest the increase of it. Thou crownest the year with thy goodness: and thy clouds drop fatness. They shall drop upon the dwellings of the wilderness: and the little hills shall rejoice on every side. The folds shall be full of sheep: the valleys also shall stand so thick with corn, that they shall laugh and sing. Praised be God, which hath not cast out our prayer: nor turned his mercy from us. Let us now fear the Lord our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter rain in his season. He reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest. Lord, what is man, that thou hast respect unto him! or the son of man, that thou so regardest him! The eyes of all wait upon thee, O Lord: and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thy hand: and fillest all things living with plenteousness. : The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works. The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him,-yea, all such as call upon him faithfully. He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will help them. That our sons may grow up as the young plants: and that our daughters may be as the polished corners of the temple. That our garners may be full and plenteous with all manner of store: that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets. That our oxen may be strong to labour: that there be no decay; no leading into captivity, and no complaining in our streets. Happy are the people that be in such a case: yea, blessed be the people which hath the Lord for their God. Glory be to the Father, &c. As it was in the beginning, &c. II. After Recovery of a City, Family, or single Person, from the Plague, or any great Sickness. O come hither and hearken, all ye that fear God: and I will tell you what he hath done for my soul. I called unto him with my mouth, and gave him praises with my tongue: O Lord my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me. Thou, Lord, hast brought my soul out of hell: thou hast kept my life from them that go down to the pit. O what great troubles and adversities hast thou showed me, and yet didst thou turn and refresh me! yea, and broughtest me from the deep of the earth again! Sing praises unto the Lord, O ye saints of his: and give thanks unto him for the remembrance of his holiness. For his wrath endureth but the twinkling of an eye, and in his pleasure is life: heaviness may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. Praised be the Lord, daily: even the God, which helpeth us and poureth his benefits upon us. He is our God, even the God, of whom cometh salvation: God is the Lord, by whom we escape death. I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: for thou hast considered my trouble, and hast known my soul in adversity. Thou hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy : but hast set my feet in a large room. Thou hast turned my heaviness into joy: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness. Therefore shall every good man sing of thy praises with. out ceasing: O my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever, Glory be to the Father, &c. III. After a Victory, or the prosperous Ending of a War. Blessed be the Lord my strength: which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight. : My hope and my fortress, my castle and deliverer: my defender in whom I trust, which subdueth my people which is under me. When my spirit was in heaviness, thou knewest my path: in the way wherein I walked, they privily laid a snare for me. I cried unto the Lord, and said: Thou art my hope and my portion in the land of the living. Thou didst send down thine hand from above: thou didst deliver me and take me out of the great waters, from the hand of strange children. Thou hast given victory unto kings: and hast delivered David thy servant from the peril of the sword. For I know that the Lord is great; and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven and in earth: in the sea, and in all deep places. The Lord is on my side: I will not fear what man doth unto me. The Lord taketh my part with them that help me: therefore shall I see my desire upon mine enemies. It is better to trust in the Lord, than to put any confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord, than to put any confidence in princes. The Lord is my strength and my song: and is become my salvation. The voice of joy and health is in the dwellings of the righteous: the right hand of the Lord bringeth mighty things to pass. The right hand of the Lord hath the pre-eminence: the right hand of the Lord bringeth mighty things to pass. He maketh wars to cease in all the world: he breaketh the bow, and snappeth the spear in sunder; and burneth the chariots in the fire. Behold how good and joyful a thing it is, brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down unto the beard, even unto Aaron's beard, and went down to the skirts of his clothing. For there the Lord promised his blessing, and life for evermore. The Lord liveth: and blessed be my strong helper, and praised be the God of my salvation. Glory be to the Father, &c. As it was in the beginning, &c. If there be any other occasion, instead of these use Te Deum laudamus, &c. After each of these Eucharistical Psalms, shall be added as followeth. Minister. Lift up your hearts. Answer. We lift them up unto the Lord. : It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty, that we should, at all times, and in all places, give thanks and praise, honour and adoration, love and duty, to thee, O Lord God, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort; who hast known our soul in adversity, and delivered us from the evil we have deserved, and hast given us good things we deserved not. We confess, O God, that we are less than the least of all thy mercies; but thy immense, thy unlimited goodness and loving-kindness, rejoices in doing us good, in preserving us from evil, in heaping thy benefits upon us, in giving to us witness from heaven, in feeding our hearts with food and gladness: in delivering us from our enemies; in snatching us from the power of the grave: in commanding thy destroying angel to hurt us not. Holy Jesus, blessed be God. II. We are thy servants and thy children; we are all thine; and have no interest but thy service; thou art our God, and all our hopes are laid up in thee. Thou art gracious when thou smitest us; but we cannot express thy infinite sweetness when thou relievest our necessity, when thou sustainest our sorrows, when thou dost deliver us from thy wrath, when thou hearest our prayers, when thou pourest thy benefits upon us. O give unto thy servants thankful hearts, obedient and loving spirits, carefulness of duty, charity and humility, zeal for thy glory, submission to thy divine will and pleasure; that serving thee with all our powers, loving thee with all our faculties, obeying thee in all instances, delighting in thee in all dispensations, we may be conducted through all varieties of providence, and defended in all temptations of our enemies, and relieved in all the necessities of our life, and assisted in all particulars of duty, that so we may pass through this valley of tears in peace and meekness, in faith and charity, with the confidence of a holy hope, and in the strength of thy righteous promises, to the fruition of those mercies, which are the portion of willing and obedient souls; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. THE GREAT PENITENTIAL LITANIES; To be said according to the discretion of him that ministers; especially in the time of Lent, and upon solemn Fasting-days. O BLESSED GOD, Father of mercies, who hast sent thy Son to redeem us from sin and wrath, have mercy upon us, rebellious and perishing children, lost and miserable sinners. O blessed Saviour Jesus, who wert the price of lost mankind, and gavest thyself a sacrifice for our sins, have mercy upon us, miserable and lost, but sorrowful and returning sinners. O blessed Spirit of the Father, who didst come into the world, to sanctify and to teach, to illuminate and to guide it, |