(6) We pray for the Magistrates, that He will bless and keep them, and give them grace to execute justice and to maintain truth; (7) We pray that He will be pleased to bless and keep all His people; to give to all nations unity, peace, and concord; to give us an heart to love and dread1 Him and diligently to live after His commandments; to give to all His people increase of grace to hear meekly His Word, to receive it with pure affection, and to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit; (8) We pray that He will be pleased to bring into the way of truth all such as have erred2 and are deceived; to strengthen such as do stand; to comfort and help the weak-hearted; to raise up them that fall, and finally to beat down Satan under our feet1; (9) We pray that He will be pleased to succour, help, and comfort all that are in danger, necessity, and tribulation; to preserve all that travel by land or by water; all women labourThe American Prayer 1 Dread to fear with reverence. Book has "to love and fear Thee:" compare "So the Aungel of the Lord apperid in slep to him and seide Joseph the son of David nyle thou drede to take Marie thy wyf, for that thing that is born in hir is of the Hooly Goost." Wiclif, Math. i. 20. 2 A similar clause in Marshall's Primer runs, "That Thou vouchsafe that all which do err and be deceived may be reduced into the way of verity." Burton's Primers, p. 127. 3 Comfort here to strengthen, according to its etymology (fr. the late Latin comfortare, French conforter from con and fortis strong); Comp. Phil. iv. 13 (Wiclif's version), “I may alle thingis in him that comfortith (= strengtheneth) me." Again Bacon (Adv. II. 322) speaks of "water by union comforting and sustaining itself;" and Hooker, Eccl. Pol. II. 1, "The evidence of God's own testimony.. doth not a little comfort and confirm the same." 4 "Vouchsafe that we may the devil with all his pomps crush and tread under foot;' Marshall's Primer, p. 127, ing of child, all sick persons, and young children, (10) We pray Him to defend and provide for the (12) We pray Him, finally, to give us true repent- = 1 Kindly natural (from kind A.-S. cynd = nature). "The kindly fruits are the natural fruits, those which the earth according to its kind should naturally bring forth. which it is appointed to produce;" Trench, English Past and Present, p. 244, 6th ed. Sir Thomas More says that Richard III. thought by murdering his two nephews in the Tower to make himself accounted "a kindly king": =a king by kind or natural descent. Thus also Hooker (Ecc. Pol. III. 2) says, "those things are termed most properly natural agents, which keep the law of their kind (=nature, race) unwittingly." Comp. also "the moral law of kinde," Pecock's Repressor circ. 1450; Chaucer, The Nonne Prest his Tale, 371, Ed. Morris: "He knew by kynde, and by noon other lore, That it was prime, and crew with blisful steven." Also Spenser, Faery Queene, II. ii. 36: "But young Perissa was of other mind, Full of disport, still laughing, loosely light, And quite contrary to her sisters' kind." 2 Negligence acts or sins of ignorance. Sir T. More translates Ps. xxv. 7, "The offences of my youth, and myne ignorances (ignorantias) remembre not good lorde." This last suffrage has nothing corresponding to it in any other Litany; it is a beautiful summary, expressing what we P. B. 8 7. The Versicles and Prayers, which occupy the rest of the Litany, commence with the Lesser Litany; then follows the Lord's Prayer, a Versicle, and a Prayer that He, who despises not the sighing of a contrite heart, nor the desire of such as be sorrowful, will mercifully assist our prayers that we make before Him in all our troubles and adversities, whensoever they oppress us; that He will graciously hear us, that those evils, which the craft and subtilty of the devil or man worketh against us may be brought to nought, and by the providence of God's goodness dispersed, so that we His servants may evermore give thanks unto Him in His Holy Church1. 8. The following portion to the end of the Gloria Patri was taken by Cranmer from the Introduction to the Medieval Litany sung on Rogation Monday before leaving the choir to form the procession. The Versicles, O Lord, arise, help us, and deliver us for thy Name's sake, and for thine honour, are well adapted to a processional Prayer, while the words of Ps. xliv. I supply the clause, in which we seek to remind the most High of the noble works which we have heard with our ears and our fathers have declared unto us as having been wrought by Him in their days and in the old time before them, and on the strength of which we implore His aid now. 9. The Conclusion. The Versicles, which follow the Gloria Patri, were taken by Cranmer from an occasional portion, which was added to the Litany in time of war. The last couplet was used in the Preces of Morning ought to feel at the conclusion of such petitions as have preceded: it is in general expressions, to supply any omission of a request, or of a confession, which ought to have been made; a prayer for repentance, forgiveness, and the grace of amendment of life." Procter, pp. 255, 257. 1 This Prayer had formed a Collect in the Mass "pro tribulatione cordis." Procter, p. 258. and Evening Prayer. These are followed by a beautiful Prayer, altered by Cranmer from an old Collect, in which we pray that He, who has mercifully revealed Himself to us as our Father, will look upon our infirmities, will for the glory of His Name turn from us all those evils that we most righteously have deserved, and grant that in all our troubles we may put our whole trust and confidence in His mercy, and evermore serve Him in holiness and pureness of living, to His honour and glory. This Prayer is followed by the Prayer of St Chrysostom and the Benediction', which bring our English Litany to a conclusion. PART IV. THE OCCASIONAL PRAYERS AND THANKS GIVINGS. 1. Occasional Prayers and Thanksgivings. After the Litany there are placed in the Prayer-Book certain Prayers and Thanksgivings to be used upon several occasions before the two final Prayers of the Litany, or of Morning and Evening Prayer. These are entirely English compositions. It is true that in Mediæval times there were special Masses for Rain, for Fair Weather, and in Time of War, but the Collects used in them can hardly be said to have furnished a hint towards their expressions. 2. The Occasions for these Prayers and Thanks. givings may be thus arranged : PRAYERS. I. For Rain. 2. For Fair Weather. 3. For Fair Weather. 1 Added to the Litany of Elizabeth, 1559. 5. In the time of any common Plague or Sickness. 6. In the Ember Weeks, to be said every day for those that are to be admitted into Holy Orders. 7. A Prayer that may be said after any of the former. 8. A Prayer for the High Court of Parliament. 9. A Collect or Prayer for all Conditions of men. 3. The First Five Prayers. All these occasional Prayers and Thanksgivings in the First Prayer-Books formed part of the Litany itself, but were disjoined from it at the last revision in 1661. The first two Prayers for Rain and Fair Weather were among those at the end of the Communion Office in Edward's First PrayerBook, but were placed at the end of the Litany in the Second Book. The Prayers, In the time of Dearth and Famine1, those In the time of War and Tumults, and of Any common Plague or Sickness, were all added in the year 1552, and it is probable that they all had their origin in the necessities of the times. 1 The second form of these two Prayers was left out in 1559, and only restored, with alterations, in 1661. 2 We find an account of the Sweating Sickness and a |