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God, &c. which, it is generally believed, was composed by St. Ambrose; and the BENEDICITE, O all ye works of the Lord, which is an exact paraphrase of the 148th psalm, and was a hymn in the Jewish Church, and early adopted into the public devotions of Christians. The first hymn after the first lesson at evening prayer, is the 98th psalm, which, though composed on occasion of the deliverance God wrought for the Jewish nation, may very aptly be applied to Christians, who are God's spiritual Israel, and who are bound to praise him for their glorious deliverance from the bondage of sin and death. The second hymn which may be used, is part of the 92d psalm, and is a beautiful and affecting exhortation to the duty of praise to God for all the operations of his hands.

Q. What have you to observe in regard to the hymns after the second lessons?

A. As the second lessons are all taken out of the New Testament, which conveys to us the glad tidings of salvation, the hymns which follow these lessons, all celebrate the goodness and mercy of God in our redemption. The first hymn after the second lesson in the morning, is the 100th psalm, which calls upon us to praise God, not only for his goodness and power manifested in our creation and preservation, but for that grace, mercy, and truth, which in his everlasting Gospel are set forth, from generation to generation. The other hymn, styled BENEDICTUS, was pronounced by Zecharias, at the circumcision of his son, John the Baptist, and is a lively thanksgiving to God for the incarnation of Christ, and for the unspeakable mercies of redemption. After the second lesson in the evening service, the first hymn, the 67th psalm, is an earnest prayer of David for the coming of the Gospel; and the other hymn, part of the 103d psalm, is a sublime and animated act of thanksgiving for the mercies of redemption actually conferred on mankind.

Q. Is there not great propriety in the order observed by the Church, in placing the creeds and prayers after the lessons?

A. As "faith comes by hearing," "w it seems proper, that after the lessons, which declare to us the word of God, should follow the Creed, which is the profession of our faith; and after the Creed follow prayers, which are grounded upon

w Rom. x. 17.

faith; for "how shall we call on him, in whom we have not believed?"

Q. Do not both minister and people join in repeating the Creed?

A. Both minister and people join in repeating the Creed, because it is designed to be the profession of every one present, and also that they may the more expressly declare their belief of it to each other, and to the whole Christian world with whom they maintain communion. It is to be repeated standing, to signify our resolution to maintain and defend it. At the second article of this Creed, when the name of Jesus is mentioned, the whole congregation make obeisance, in compliance with an ancient custom of the Church, probably founded on the command of St. Paul, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow.x

Q. Why are the Apostles' and Nicene Creed so called? A. The Apostles' Creed is so called, because the greatest part of it was derived from the very days of the Apostles; and the Nicene Creed is so called, as being, for the most part, drawn up by the first council of Nice.y The Nicene Creed was designed to establish more fully the divinity of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, against the heresies which began to prevail in the Church.

Q. Are not the different parts of the service which have now been explained, admirably calculated to prepare the people for the remaining part of divine worship, supplication, and prayer ?

A. After our consciences are absolved from sin, our affections warmed with thanksgiving, our understandings enlightened by the word, and our faith strengthened by a public profession of the Creed, we are prepared to enter on the re-, maining part of divine worship, supplication, and prayer-to ask those things which are requisite and necessary as well for the body as the soul.

Q. Explain that part of the service which immediately succeeds the Creed.

A. Since neither minister nor people can possibly pray to God aright without his grace and assistance, the minister first prays for the special presence of God with the people, saying, The Lord be with you; and they put up the same petition to the minister, who is to be their representative before the throne of grace, answering, And with thy spirit.

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The minister then says, Let us pray-a form which, after the custom of the old liturgies, is several times repeated through the service, in order to awaken the attention of the people, and to warn them to lay aside all wanderings, and to accompany the minister with their thoughts and affections. Both minister and people then adore God, and, by turns, lift up their hearts to him in short ejaculations, beseeching him to show them his mercy and salvation, to renew their hearts, and to grant them the presence of his Holy Spirit.

Q. What are the advantages of dividing the public devotions into collects or short prayers, instead of presenting them in one continued prayer?

A. The division of that part of the service which consists in supplication and petition, into collects or short prayers, tends, by the variety which is thus exhibited, to excite and keep up the devotion of the people. Every one of these short prayers beginning with some of the attributes or perfections of God, our minds, by this repetition, are more strongly fixed on the particular attribute which is suited to the petition we may then be offering up. The conclusion of each prayer also-through Jesus Christ our Lord-being frequently repeated, the important truth is by this method more strongly impressed upon us, that it is only through the mediation of Jesus Christ that we can have access unto the Father.

Q. Why are these short prayers styled collects ?

A. These short prayers are styled collects, most probably because in them the minister collects or comprises all the wants of the people, and presents them unto God. The same reason will apply to the collect for the day, which always contains such matters as may be collected from the epistle and gospel.

Q. Is there not a particular office appointed to be used on certain days, instead of some of these prayers or collects?

A. A particular office, styled the litany, or general sup plication, is appointed to be used instead of some of the prayers, on the morning of Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday. This litany, whether we consider its simple, chaste, sublime, and affecting language, or the importance and variety of the matter with which it abounds-the solemnity of the invocations of the sacred persons of the Trinity with which it commences the earnestness of the deprecations which it contains of the punishment of sin, of all temporal and spiritual evil-the importunity of the affecting entreaties by

which we implore the blessed Redeemer, the Lamb that taketh away the sins of the world, to hear and deliver us, to grant us his mercy and peace-the justness and variety of the intercessions and alternate supplications by which we implore for ourselves and others, all necessary blessings, both temporal and spiritual-in all these points of view, this litany may be pronounced one of the most sublime, affecting, and animating offices of devotion that can possibly be formed. By its variety, its force, and its penetrating fervour, it is calculated to arrest the attention of the careless, to animate and exalt the devotion of the pious, and to engage all the powers of the soul in the most exalted acts of homage and supplication.

Q. What should be our behaviour while the minister is offering up the prayers and the litany?

A. While the minister is offering up the prayers and the litany, we ought not to sit, or place ourselves in any other irreverent posture, but continue on our knees, being the posture which becomes sinful and unworthy creatures, when addressing their great and almighty Creator. We ought not to repeat the prayers aloud, but we should accompany the minister, in our mind and affections, from one prayer to another, and from one part of each prayer to the other; humbly adoring and praising God according to the names, attributes, and works which are attributed to him at the beginning of each prayer; earnestly desiring the blessings which are asked of him either for ourselves or others, and steadfastly relying on the merits and intercession of Jesus Christ for the obtaining of them. At the conclusion of every collect and prayer also, we are to testify our sincere joining in it by a solemn amen, which signifies, so be it, or, thus I heartily pray God it may be. We are to join in the litany, by repeating aloud, with humble but earnest importunity, the several answers, Good Lord, deliver us-We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord, and the other parts assigned to us. In this manner we make our own, the various supplications, &c. which the minister recites in that affecting service.

Q. What have you to remark in regard to the general thanksgiving?

A. Having in the collects, or litany, prayed for all necessary blessings for ourselves and others, it is but fit we should praise God also for those mercies we have already received; and give thanks, not only in behalf of ourselves, but, according to the Apostles' direction, for all mankind;

which we do, toward the end of the service, in the general thanksgiving. Here, if we have any special or particular mercy which calls for thankfulness to God, we should gratefully remember it, and secretly in our hearts return our thanks for it, when we come to that passage, Thy goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all men. But we should stir up our affections to the utmost fervency that is possible, when we praise God for his inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory; for as these are the greatest blessings he could bestow upon us, the thankful acknowledgment of them is one of the chief ends of our coming together in Christian assemblies; and we should not only heartily pray, but sincerely resolve and endeavour to show our sense of these, and of all God's other mercies, by our holy and obedient lives.

Q. In what manner does the common daily service end? A. After the general thanksgiving succeeds the prayer of St. Chrysostom; and then the minister alone concludes, kneeling, with the prayer, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, &c. In this prayer is comprehended all we have desired, or can desire, to make us completely happy, both now and for ever.

Q. Is there not, on Sundays and holy days, an addition to the common daily service?

A. On Sundays and holy days, though there be no actual communion, the Church enjoins the communion service to be read to the end of the gospel, concluding with the blessing.z

Q. Why does the minister read the ten commandments, at the beginning of the communion service, standing?

A. As the minister pronounces the ten commandments in the name of God, to express the greater authority, he reads them standing.

Q. How should the congregation be engaged during the reading of the commandments?

A. As the awful declaration of God's will in the ten commandments should be heard with the greatest reverence, and as the Church directs us, at the end of each commandment, to beg the mercy of God, and the assistance of his grace, we should humbly and reverently kneel during this part of the service. It is our business audibly to pronounce the short prayer which follows each commandment, begging pardon

z Rubric at the end of the communion service.

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