English, to be followed by one of the five Collects, and the Blessing; but on other days the service shall proceed as in Morning Prayer,

without Litany or Communion
from the Anthem.

Here endeth the Order for Evening
Prayer.

THE LITANY, OR GENERAL SUPPLICATION.

This is to be chanted, or said in parish churches, on Wednesdays and Fridays, at Morning Prayer, on Ash Wednesday, and in Passion Week, both morning and evening, at the Saturday Evening AnteVespers, unless Christmas Day should fall upon a Saturday; at the Ante- Vespers of Principalment of thy glory, the good of thy Feast Days, having such; and at other times, when directed by the Ordinary, immediately after the Anthem, or after the second Collect; if there be Altar Service also, the Altar Service to follow the Litany; provided, however, that on Festival Days falling on a Litany Day, the Litany shall be omitted, except any Ante-Vespers Litany that may be directed in this

the Council,) this verse shall be inserted to be said only when Parliament is sitting.

"That it may please thee to send thy blessing upon the Great Council of the Nation now assembled in Parliament; and direct and prosper all their consultations, to the advance

book.

church, and to the safety, honour, and welfare of our Sovereign and his dominions."

We beseech thee, &c.

¶ Instead of the General Thanksgiving, this verse is here (after the now last) inserted.

"That it may please thee to give us that due sense of all those blessings, both spiritual and temporal, which, in thy mercy, thou hast vouchsafed to us, that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful; and that we may show forth thy praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives."

We beseech thee, &c.

Then as in Prayer Book to the end of the Lord's Prayer, after which the Priest shall say,

O Lord, deal not with us according to our sins.

Answer. Neither punish us as our iniquities deserve.

* Even the emendation I have ventured upon, I should hold to be highly objectionable, without an explanation in the margin, in every edition of the Prayer Book. I mean only temporal consequences to children from the faults of their parents, a bad constitution from the father's intemperance, poverty from the father's extravagance, bad reputation from the father's crimes, ignorance from the father not having caused his son to learn that befitting his situation, &c.; but to include spiritual consequences, seems to me such a misgiving of the promise in the 18th chapter of Ezekiel, as to be impious. It is true, that temporal evil consequences seem sometimes to make all the difference in the faith and morals of the child; but this difficulty is for the God of justice and mercy, not us, to deal with.

The Order for short Morning and Altar Service, with or without Communion, for Sundays and other Holy Days commanded by the Ordinary.

Answer. That put &c., (as in Commination Service.)

Minister. Let us pray.
O Lord, &c.

O most mighty God, &c.
And this Prayer shall be said by
both Priest and people.

Turn thou us, &c., (as in Commination.)

¶ Then the Minister alone shall say,
The Lord bless us, &c., (as in
ditto.)

All the foregoing, from the Lord's
Prayer in the Litany, shall be
used on all other principal Fast
Days.

In the Commusion Service, the
same as in Prayer Book,except that
for the Gospel, shall be read the
18th, 19th, and 20th verses of the
2nd ch. of St. Mark.*

THE ORDER FOR EVENING

PRAYER.

(Double Vespers.)

Proper Psalms as in Table.
Proper Lessons.

First Lessons.

First Vespers. Jeremiah ch. xxiii. ver.16–32, (hoth inclusive.) Second Vespers. Ditto, ch. xxvi. first sixteen verses.

Second Lessons.

First Vespers. 1st John ch. ii. first seventeen verses.

Second Vespers. Ditto ch. iv. After the Collect for Aid against Perils, shall follow the Sanctus or Anthem, as the case may be, and the Service end by the Litany concluding as in Morning Litany.

THE COLLECTS, EPISTLES, AND GOSPELS.
My plan about these would be to
retain all (with the exception of the
Gospel for Ash-Wednesday,) but to
so alter their arrangement, as for
Epistles and Gospels to more corres-
pond with their respective Collects,
and to change the places of some few,
to make them more in character with
the seasons in which they are read.
I think this not very difficult to ac-
complish; if I am mistaken, a few
of the Epistles and Gospels might
be changed for others, which, how-
ever, I should reluctantly do, as the
antiquity of their use would naturally
make a little alteration of arrange-

ment more gratifying. Here I may
remark how happy I am to find that /
I have been able to try to improve
our public worship in so many details
of it with so few new materials. If
I have succeeded, it is a proof of the
excellency of the matter of our Li-
turgy, (using the word in the popular
sense,) of which some, I believe well
meaning men, would throw aside the
greater half. It has been well re-
marked, that without Sermon osten-
sibly, the frequenters of our Church
always hear much of the Scriptures
expounded, if they attend to the
meaning of our prayers; all tenacity

I am confident that few, when they reflect, will not agree with me, that innovation is justifiable here, upon every principle of common sense. In our Prayer Books we find for the Gospel a part of the 6th chapter of St. Matthew, which refers most evidently to private or "secret" fasting "not to be seen of men." What would be thought of a preacher, who, in arguing in defence of public worship, should take for his text the 6th verse of the above chapter of St. Matthew? In like absurd manner might we argue in favour of extemporary prayer in public, and in the first person plural, from the private (though in the temple, which was open at all times,) ejaculations of the Pharisee and the Publican, which, at any rate, were in the first person singular. The instances of scepticism I have witnessed, from the parties being thrown in the way of hearing, either a careless or an uncandid application of scriptural language, are quite frightful to reflect upon. Let us hope, that, for the future, sincere ministers of all sects will remember the importance of fair interpretation, which is their obvious interest as well as duty.

within reason is therefore natural. The Easter Day Hymns, instead of the Venite exultemus, I would propose to use, Morning and Evening, not only on Easter Day, but also on the two following days, as also on Low Sunday. It only remains, for this part of the subject, to suggest the following Collect, Epistle, and Gospel, as also Lessons, for the 8th of September, the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.*

The Collect.

O Lord, who didst wonderfully make prophecy a testimony of thy Son, by selecting the Blessed Virgin Mary, of the race of Abraham, of the Tribe of Juda, of the noble stem of

David, to be, according to the flesh, the mother of thy Son our Lord, we thank thee, as on this the day of her Nativity, for such unspeakable mercy; and we humbly beseech thee, O Lord, to grant to us, thy servants, the gift of thy heavenly grace; that we, to whom the Blessed Virgin's childbirth was the beginning of redemption, may obtain final salvation, through the merits, and for the sake, of thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the only "name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." Amen.

For the Epistle. Genesis ch. iii. vers. 14 and 15.

The Gospel. Matthew ch. i. first sixteen verses.

Ante-Vespers.

Second.-Luke, ch. i., v. 26 to 56,

(both inclusive.)

Evening.

First.-Isaiah, ch. viii. v. 10 to 15, (both inclusive.)

Second.-Galatians, ch. iv.

Morning.

First.-Genesis, ch. xxiv. v. 50.

First.-Proverbs, ch. xxxi. begin

ning at v. 10.

Second.-John, ch. xix, v. 25 to 27, (both inclusive.)

I am quite aware of the great prejudice of most Protestants against any thing in honour of the Virgin Mary, arising from what we contend (properly I think) to be most unwarrantable innovations by the See of Rome. But the abuse of a thing is no argument against its right use; and really when we read some of the portions of Scripture I have selected for Lessons, and see by them that the Virgin's title of "Blessed throughout all generations" is conferred in language rather more marked of the two, than a similar appellation applied by our Lord to St. Peter, (Matthew xvi. 17,) upon receiving a divine inspiration, whose festival we keep; and, moreover, when we remember that we keep feasts in honour of some, not Apostles, as St. Stephen, Innocents, &c., I do not see how we can consistently omit the observance of this day, the Annunciation and Purification (according to all hitherto published reasons for retaining those two days only) not being sufficient. We acknowledge the Roman Catholic Church to be a branch, however corrupted, of the true tree, and admit her ministers, who recant, without fresh ordination, (though she will not acknowledge us to be a true Church;) therefore to hesitate about what appears to be right, from fear of seeming to imitate another branch of the Catholic Church, is to my mind very like attempting to "divide Christ." (1 Cor. i. 13.) And I may add, that two common questions with Roman Catholics, in reference to this day, would puzzle some to satisfactorily answer. "Do you mean by your non-observance to try to disannul prophecy?" "Or do you mean to acknowledge yourselves heretics?"

¶ There are only the necessary verbal alterations in the opening wanted here.

MATRIMONY.

As a question of mere taste, Mr. | Price may be right in his first sugges tion; but as a matter of theological propriety, I doubt it. I cordially, however, agree to his other emenda

tion, viz. " that they may live together so long in godly love and honesty, that they may see their children christianly and virtuously brought up."

¶ Alter "Remember not," &c. (as
in altered Litany.)

THE ORDER FOR THE VISITATION OF THE SICK.
and the Lord shall raise him
up;
and
if he have committed sins, they shall
be forgiven him." Therefore let us
now pray,

T¶ Then the Minister shall say,

Dearly beloved, the apostle, St. James, doth instruct us, in the time of sickness, after this sort:-" Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick,

Lord have mercy &c., (as in Prayer Book down to the Absolution, before which the following Prayer to be inserted.)

Almighty and ever living God, who hast commanded us, by thy holy apostle, to anoint the sick in thy