A General Thanksgiving. (38.) ALMIGHTY God, Father of all mercies, we, thine unworthy servants, do give thee most humble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and loving kindness to us, and to all men. We bless thee for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but, above all, for thine inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and

most appropriate to the purport of the prayer itself. As it is offered up for all conditions of men, we address God as the Creator and Preserver of all mankind. The first petition is a paraphrase of the first part of the Lord's Prayer, and the words are taken from the 67th Psalm. We pray that God's name, "may be hallowed" among the heathen, where it is not yet known; and that "his kingdom" of grace may "come," where it has not yet been preached. We beseech God that the general dispensations of his Providence, and particularly the Gospel, in Scripture emphatically called his saving health, may be known unto all nations. In other words, we here pray for the conversion of "Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Heretics, that all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of God's word, being taken away, they may be saved among the remnant of the true Israelites."

In ancient Liturgies, the Church prayed not only for the illumination of those that sat in darkness, for the instruction of the ignorant, and conversion of the wicked, but likewise for the improvement of the good. And we here pray "more especially for the holy Church universal:" Not so much for the external prosperity of any particular portion of it, but that the whole-the Oriental, the Greek, the Latin, the Reformed, with every denomination of Christians, "may be led into the way of truth;" -neither embracing the fanciful innovations of the moderns, nor reviving the heretical opinions of the ancients; but that all may "hold the faith" once delivered to the saints, "in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life."

We further intercede for all that are afflicted; whether by sorrow, sickness, or penury; commending them to the fatherly goodness of God, and beseeching him to "comfort and relieve them according to their several necessities :" to mitigate their sorrow of mind, assuage their bodily pain, and relieve their distressed estate. In particular we pray that, during their sufferings, He will enable them to bear his visitation patiently;-trusting that if they are restored to health and prosperity, they will lead the residue of their lives to his glory; and assured, that if their sufferings terminate in death, to which as to the only complete deliverance from the

for the hope of glory. And, we beseech thee, give us that due sense of all thy mercies, that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful, and that we may show forth thy praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives; by giving up ourselves to thy service, and by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days, through Jesus Christ our Lord; to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

pressure of human woe, the good man must, in the gloom of adversity, look forward with secret delight; the issue will, to him at least, be equally fortunate and happy.

But let us not think that in praying for the afflicted and the miserable, we have fulfilled all the duties which we owe them. We must regard ourselves as instruments in the hands of the Almighty, to help and relieve them: we must exercise towards them every office of kindness and benevolence in our power; assisting them with our alms, our counsel, and our attendance, as their several necessities may demand. And while we are praying for others, or exercising towards them the offices of charity, let us not forget to practise ourselves, the great duty of patience and resignation to the divine will, under whatever trials it may please God to send us; that so we may have a well grounded hope of obtaining, in the end, an happy issue out of all our misery, and of entering into the joy of our Lord.

T. C. B.

(38.) PRAISE is one of the most essential parts of the worship of God. It seems indeed to be one of the first dictates of natural religion, as well as the indispensable requirement of Revelation. The worship of the Jews consisted chiefly in peace-offerings and praises. The Psalms were their forms; and the sons of Asaph, with all sorts of Musick, united in giving thanks unto the Most High. The very Heathens have constructed temples, and erected altars, for the sacrifices of praise, and thanksgiving. Well then does the Exhortation, at the beginning of our service, admonish us as Christians, that one of the principal ends of our assembling in the house of God is "to render thanks for the great benefits that we have received at his hands."

The ancient requirement of oblations and sacrifices was tedious and burthensome; but no time is too short, no place too narrow, and no fortune too mean for the duty of Christian thanksgiving. They who have not leisure or convenience for more formal returns of gratitude for the divine blessings, may at least say, as was the custom of the primitive Christians, "The Lord be praised." To reflect upon our sins, as in repentance-to

consider our wants, as in prayer-or to meditate upon our duty, as in hearing the word of God-all these are attended with solicitude and pain: But to contemplate the goodness and mercy of our heavenly Father-to recount the innumerable favours he has conferred on us, and to breathe a prayer for their continuance and increase-all this can be nothing but unmixed delight. "It is a good thing to sing praises to our God; yea, a joyful and pleasant thing it is to be thankful." They who can take no pleasure in such devotion, are strangers to the joys of blessed souls, and unfit to be received to their heavenly habitations.-The frequent exercise of this duty, has a tendency to increase our relish for it. It inflames our love to God, confirms our faith in his mercy, expels our fears, and revives our hopes; so that, at length, the thankful heart finds its best reward for praising God, in the very pleasure of the duty. And when we consider that we are poor, frail, indigent, and helpless creaturesthat we are nothing but what God has made us, have nothing but what he has given us, and are constantly dependant upon his bounty, we cannot fail to perceive our obligations of gratitude for the innumerable blessings we enjoy, and adopting the language of our Communion Service, to confess, that "It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty, at all times and in all places, to give thanks unto the Lord our God."

For the performance of the duty of praise and thanksgiving, the early compilers of our Liturgy had provided the Halleluia, the Gloria Patri, and the daily Psalms and Hymns. In the time of King James I. particular thanksgivings were added for deliverence from Drought, Rain, Famine, War, Tumults, and Pestilence. Afterwards, at the Restoration of King Charles II., that there might be no defect in our expressions of gratitude, the form of "General Thanksgiving" which is now under consideration, was added for daily use.

This form of General Thanksgiving is thought to have been composed by the venerable Bishop Sanderson, and it is very properly placed in the order of the service immediately after the General Intercession. It is a more methodical summary of the several mercies of God, "to us and to all men," than we have before used. And, as we cannot be too thankful to God, the acknowledgments, which we offered up at the beginning of the service, may be very properly repeated so near the close.

The General Thanksgiving begins with an acknowledgment of the "goodness and lovingkindness" of God, "to us, and to all men." And while we address him as the "Father of all mercles," we profess ourselves (as we truly are) his "unworthy servants." We then proceed to enumerate our obligations to him, as our Creator and

Preserver, and the giver of all temporal and earthly blessings. The enjoyments of his life, however mean in comparison with those of a future state, still possess their proper value. The all-wise Au

thor of our being knows what is fitting for us in every state, and dispenses his favours accordingly. We are therefore to accept the good things of this world with gratitude, and use them with moderation and cheerfulness. But, "above all," we must be grateful to God for the spiritual mercies which he dispenses to us.-Among these we particularize the blessings of redemption, sanctification, and salvation..

When we consider our sinfulness and wretchedness, and the abundant treasures of the divine mercy and goodness; when we consider the misery from which we are delivered, and the everlasting happiness and glory which are proffered to us, we are lost in admiration of the loving kindness of God, and can never sufficiently praise and adore him for his "inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ."-" Lord! what is man, that thou hast such respect unto him; or the son of man, that thou so regardest him?" But we further bless God for our sanctification and salvation. The former we designate by "the means of grace," and the latter by "the hope of glory." The principal means of grace, or ways by which we may obtain the gracious aids of the Holy Spirit, are prayer, the reading of the word of God, and the participation of the holy Sacraments of Baptism, and the Lord's Supper. They who refuse, or neglect the use of these means, must not presume to expect the end to be obtained by them -the sanctification and salvation of their souls. But, alas! how fatally do men deceive themselves on this subject! How many there are, who call themselves Christians, and yet live in the habitual neglect of these essential duties of Christianity! especially of that which is the most important of all, the receiving of the Lord's Supper. Strange infatuation! To thank God for our Redemption, and at the same time to refuse to commemorate it in the way which the Redeemer has commanded! To thank him for the means of grace, and yet never to use the chiefest of those means! for the hope of glory, and yet never to receive the pledge and earnest of that glory, tendered to us in the Holy Communion! Let those who attend the common service of the Church, and never approach the Lord's Table, consider what an inconsistency and absurdity they are guilty of; and what an insult it is to the divine majesty, to thank God for mercies, which they obstinately refuse to receive, and to pray to him for blessings, the means of obtaining which they wilfully reject.

When we meditate on all the blessings of Crea

A Prayer of St. Chrysostom. (39.)

ALMIGHTY God, who hast given us grace at this time, with one accord to make our common supplications unto thee; and dost promise that when two or three are

tion, Preservation, and Redemption, which we have enumerated, and consider them in all their extent and effects, our souls are filled with wonder at the treasures of the divine goodness. And since we find ourselves unable to render an adequate return of gratitude, we change our thanksgivings into supplications, and pray our heavenly Father to grant us one favour more, in addition to all the resteven to "give us a due sense of all his mercies," and to make us "unfeignedly thankful" for them. In order to produce in our minds "a due sense" of the mercies of God, we should give ourselves to frequent meditation on them. We should contemplate them separately, and endeavour to sum up the amount of them; and especially we should pray for the influence of divine grace, to enable us justly to estimate them. Then shall we be "unfeignedly thankful," and the gratitude of our hearts will burst forth at our lips. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," and the Psalmist of Israel, who has supplied us with language for every expression of gratitude, says, "I will always give thanks unto the Lord; his praise shall ever be in my mouth." The mercies of God are bestowed upon us openly, so that all the world may see them. We must not think, therefore, to conceal his praise in the secret corners of our hearts, or pretend to thank him privately in our thoughts. We should "show forth his praises" with our "lips," and our gratitude should have as many witnesses, if it were possible, as his mercies. Thus shall we proclaim his glory, and excite others to join with us, and assist us.

But when we have thus praised God with our lips, our duty is not ended. We must glorify him "in our lives."-The most pompous and solemn thanksgivings, from the habitual evil liver, are but profane mockery, and are odious in the sight of God. It is when we "give ourselves up to his service, and walk before him in holiness and righteousness," that we verify our gratitude. This is the best and most genuine thanksgiving, and without this demonstration of our gratitude, all our professions will be inconsistent, and in vain.-"Praise is not seemly in the mouth of a sinner," but "it becometh well the just to be thankful."

These thanksgivings and petitions, like all others, we present in the name and mediation of Jesus Christ; and we conclude the whole with a doxology, in which we ascribe to the Son, with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

gathered together in thy name, thou wilt grant their requests; fulfil now, O Lord, the desires and petitions of thy servants, as may be most expedient for them; granting us in this world knowledge of thy truth, and in the world to come life everlasting. Amen.

The General Thanksgiving, and the "Prayer for all conditions of men, which precedes it, were placed among the "occasional Prayers and Thanksgivings," in the English Book; but our American reviewers of the Liturgy have judiciously transferred them to the daily Morning and Evening Pray"Their station in the English Service," says Bishop White, "must have been owing to their having been of later origin than the Compilation. This did not apply to a new arranging of the Service."

er.

T. C. B.

(39.) After this general Thanksgiving, and when we are about to conclude our devotions, it is proper that we should reflect on all the great and ne necessary requests that we have made; renewing our desires that God would grant our petitions, and animating our hearts by the hope that he will do so. For this purpose, the Compilers of our Liturgy have furnished us with the admirable Prayer of St. Chrysostom.

Neither this, nor the following benedictory prayer, were placed at the close of the daily morning and evening service, in the English Common Prayer Book, till the last review; being found before that, at the end of the Litany. There also stood the Prayers for the King and Royal Family, and that for the Clergy and People, though Mr. Wheatley supposes they were always used in the places where they now stand.

The Prayer under consideration is taken from the middle of St. Chrysostom's Liturgy; But it is much more judiciously placed in the close of our's. It first thankfully confesses the great goodness of our blessed Redeemer, in disposing our minds, of themselves so variously and wrongly inclined, to ask unanimously of him such things as we ought, and in encouraging our applications by such explicit assurances of his hearing us. Then, it submits entirely to his wisdom, in what manner, and how far, he will think it for our good to grant us any of our particular requests. For two things, however, we positively and importunately pray, because he has absolutely engaged to bestow them on our prayers and endeavours; namely, the knowledge of all necessary religious truth in this world; and when we shall pass out of it into the world to come, life everlasting: Being fully assured that if these two points, the knowledge of God here, and the enjoyment of him hereafter, be secured, every thing else is comparatively of little value.

It is a general rule in our Liturgy, (the Litany

2 Cor. xiii. 14. (40.) THE grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and

and a few Collects only being excepted,) to address all our Prayers to the Father, in the name, and through the mediation, of his Son. But this prayer of St. Chrysostom is directed immediately to the Son; as appears from the promise referred to in the introductory part, which our Saviour made in his own person, while he dwelt on the earth; and also from the omission of the usual words, "through Jesus Christ our Lord," at the end. Not that when we address ourselves to one person only in the blessed Trinity, we are to exclude the others from our thoughts; since they are one undivided nature, and jointly constitute the object of our worship. It is justly expressed, therefore, in the Nicene Creed, that "the Holy Ghost, with the Father and the Son together, is worshipped and glorified."

T. C. B.

(40.) After we have presented our prayers and praises to Almighty God in his sanctuary, the service is concluded with the Apostolic Benediction ;"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore." Though this form of Benediction, is not literally copied from the Benediction ordained by God, under the law: (Numb. vi. 23.) yet it virtually agrees with it. "On this wise shalt thou bless the children of Israel, saying unto them, "The Lord bless thee, and keep thee:

The Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:

The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace."

And this ancient form of benediction, in which the name of Jehovah is repeated three times, and in the Masoretic copies with a different accent each time, is, by the Jews themselves, supposed to contain a divine mystery. The pious and intelligent Christian will perceive that it contains a direct allusion to the three persons of the ever blessed Trinity; To the Father, that he may bless and keep us; to the Son, that he may make his face to shine upon us, and be gracious unto us; and to the Holy Ghost, that he may lift up the light of his countenance upon us, and give us peace both now and evermore.

The Apostolic Benediction, as it is used in our Liturgy, is rather a benedictory prayer; the word you, being changed into us, and the Priest imploring a blessing for himself, as well as for the Congregation. It is a prayer for three things essentially necessary to our happiness and salvation. First, that "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all."

By "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ," are

the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore. Amen.

HERE ENDETH THE ORDER OF MORNING PRAYER.

meant those peculiar acts of favour and mercy which are ascribed to him in the gospel; namely, the redemption, and salvation of our souls." "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ," says St. Paul," that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye, through his poverty might be rich." To pray for this grace, therefore, is to supplicate an interest in all the advantages of his sufferings, his death and intercession; that our transgressions may be pardoned through his blood, that we may be justified by his righteousness, renewed by the Holy Spirit, and at last received into his eternal kingdom and glory.

But because the blessings which Christ has purchased for us are conferred upon us by the Father, we therefore request, secondly, that "the Love of God may be with us all evermore."

To comprehend the length and breadth, and depth and height of the love of God, is impossible: it passeth all understanding. The ideas which we have of it, are derived from the manifestations of his good will towards us, in the dispensations of his providence and grace. We are assured that his love was the moving cause of all the blessings and comforts which we enjoy in this life, and above all, of the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, of the means of grace, and the hope of glory. He is the "Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort," and he "so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

To pray for this love to abide with us continually, is to desire that perfection of happiness for ourselves and our fellow-worshippers, which God only can bestow:-a love which is immutable, and which will abide from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and keep his covenant. These his love engraves upon the palms of his hands; he sets them as a seal upon his arm; he keeps them as the apple of his eye: he will guide them here by his counsel; and after that receive them to glory.

We come, thirdly, to the conclusion of this Apostolic blessing; "The fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with us all evermore."

Though God the Father counseled, and God the Son effected the work of our Redemption; yet it is God the Holy Ghost that applies all the benefit of it to our souls.

The efficacy of all the means of grace is so fully ascribed to the Holy Spirit, that he is said "to work all in all." The fellowship of the Holy Ghost is manifested in his accompanying us, in the read

ing of the word of God; and concurring with us, in its holy ordinances;-communicating to us his gifts and graces in and by them, and instructing us by the one, while he sanctifies us by the other. When this is truly our experience, we are said to be born again of water and of the Spirit. St. Paul reminds the Corinthians that they were washed from the guilt and pollution of their former sins by the Spirit of God. And, in his Epistle to Titus, ne ascribes our salvation, not to any works of righteousness that we have done, but to the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.

whether we sufficiently realize the blessings included in this benediction of the Apostle.-Do we wish for the pardon of our sins, and acceptance with God? These are to be found in "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ." Do we seek protection from our enemies, and strength to presevere in the ways of holiness? These are to be obtained through "the love of God." Are we anxious to be sanctified in body, soul, and spirit? "The fellowship of the Holy Ghost" must be with us as our sanctifier, which alone can enable us to adorn our Christian profession, and make us meet for the

T. C. B.

THE LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him. Hab. ii. 20.

From the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the Heathen, saith the Lord of hosts. Mal. i. 11.

Let the words of my mouth,and the medi

(1.) A great portion of the Evening Service is the same with that used in the Morning. For the elucidation of such parts of it, the reader is referred to the Commentary on the Morning Service. But as the Sentences are calculated to have an important influence in regulating our frame of mind preparatory to our devotions, it may not be amiss, in this place, to subjoin (in addition to the copious remarks already made) a paraphrase of each particular verse, and a condensed summary of the whole, as they stand in the English book, from the works of Dr. Nicholls, and Arch Bishop Secker.

T. C. B.

(2.) At whatsoever time the sinner by his unfeigned repentance shall turn to God, he will be acceptable unto him, although his former course of life has been very vicious. For (as that whole

tation of my heart, be alway acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. Ps. xix. 14.

(2.) When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. Ezek. xviii. 27.

(3.) I acknowledge my transgressions; and my sin is ever before me. Ps. li. 3.

(4.) Hide thy face from my sins; and blot out all mine iniquities. Ps. li. 9.

chapter of Ezekiel, from whence this verse is taken, shews) as those who have formerly led an habitual good life, if they fall into a sinful course, shall forfeit God's favour, and ruin their souls, notwithstanding their former goodness: So shall an evil man, if he amends his life, and turns to God, be restored to his kindness, and shall deliver his soul from those miseries which attend a final impeni

tenee.

(3.) I do not extenuate my guilt, or deny it; but do with grief acknowledge it; letting it make that deep impression upon me, as to be always present in my mind, and as it were, continually set before my eyes.

(4.) O Lord, out of thy proneness to pardon sin, do thou, as it were, overlook my offence: And upon my true repentance, which I beseech thee to