mend each other to our bleffed Redeemer, in Terms of Scripture, which a Council, held near 1200 Years ago, affirms to be used for this Purpose by the Direction of the Apostles, and may certainly well be used fo without it: The Lord be with you: And with thy Spirit": Then we make a direct Application to him, under the Names of Lord and Christ, repeating it thrice, as a Mark of our Earneftness, that he would have Mercy upon us: Words often addreffed to him, when on Earth; often folemnly reiterated by the whole ancient Church, and spoken by the Latin Church in the orignal Greek of the New Teftament, Kupiɛɛɛŋσov', but much more prudently tranflated by ours into English.

This done, as before we fubjoined the Lord's Prayer to our Confeffion, to obtain the Confirmation of our Pardon; fo now we prefix it to our Requests, as a Summary of our Defires. And furely faying it again at such a Distance, and with fo different a View, cannot be thought a vain Repetition ".

After these general Prayers, we express to God diftinctly, in fhort Sentences, the several

Conc. Bracarenfe 1. A. D. 563.
s 2 Tim. iv. 22.

iii. 16.
■ Matt. vi. 7.

Can. xxi. 2 Theff.

Matt. xv. 22. XX. 30, 31.

Heads

Heads of the Supplications, which we are about to offer up more at large, for Peace, and Grace, for the King, the Clergy, and the People. And all these Sentences are conceived in Words taken from the Pfalms: excepting one, Give Peace in our Time, O Lord; which hath a Reafon added to it, by fome thought improper; Because there is none other that fighteth for us, but only thou, O God: whereas, fay they, we often have others to fight for us; and if we had Him alone, why should we defpond, and immediately pray for Peace upon it? But these Objectors utterly mistake our Meaning: which is, that whatever Help we have befides, we look upon it as nothing, without that of the Almighty; whom therefore we beg, in the Words which they unjustly blame, when we are in Peace, to continue it, by restraining fuch as would difturb it; and when we are not, to restore it, by turning the Hearts, or overthrowing the Attempts, of those who have infringed it.

In Confequence of these Preparations, the Petitions themfelves follow: not in one long Prayer, but feveral fhort ones; which Method is certainly as lawful as the other; and, we think, more expedient.. It reminds us oftener of the Attributes of God, and Merits of Christ,

which are the Ground of our asking in Faith": and by the Frequency of faying, Amen, it ftirs up our Attention, and warms our Devotion, which are too apt to languish. These short Prayers have the Name of Collects: either from their collecting much good Matter, particularly out of Scripture, into a fmall Compass; or from their being originally compofed for the People to use, when collected and affembled together. And the first of thefe Collects is, That for the Day. Befides the Lord's Day, which is the weekly Memorial of all God's Goodness to Us, and our Duty to Him, we have annual ones, to celebrate, not only the principal Parts of the Hiftory of Chrift, but also the holy Lives and Deaths of his chief Followers, who are mentioned in the New Teftament. For, as the Righteous are to be had in everlasting Remembrance; and the Epistle to the Hebrews particularly directed the first Chriftians to remember them, which had had the Rule over them, who had spoken unto them the Word of God: as they did accordingly pay diftinguished Honours to the Memories of the Apoftles, Evangelifts and Martyrs: and as the Church of Rome, which had gone much too far in this

W James i. 6.

* Pf. cxii. 6.

y Heb. xiii. 7.

Matter,

Matter, would notwithstanding have had a great Advantage against us, if we had neglected it intirely; we do therefore, on the Days, which bear their Names, read Portions of holy Writ relating to them, return Thanks to God for their Labours and Example; and beg, that we may profit fuitably by them. This then makes a confiderable Proportion of the variable Collects. The rest are appointed, one for each Sunday and Week in the Year. And the Intention, however imperfectly executed, muft have been, that fometimes praying more explicitely for this Grace or Mercy, fometimes for that, we may be likelier to obtain, through God's Goodness, all that are needful for us.

The Objection, that our Service is taken. from the Popish, affects chiefly the Collects. But those of ours, which are the fame with theirs, are moftly derived from Prayer-Books, brought over in the Days of that Pope, by whose Means our Saxon Ancestors were converted to Christianity, above 1100 Years ago: and they were old ones then; much older, than the main Errors of Popery. However, partly at, and partly fince, the Reformation, fuch of the Collects in thofe Books, as wanted and deferved it, have been carefully corrected; many, that were thought improper,

Q4

improper, quite removed; and new ones framed in their Stead. But why should those be changed, which are both faultlefs in themfelves, and recommended by venerable Antiquity?

After the Collect for the Day, come two conftant ones, to be used every Day, for Peace and Grace: general Words, comprehending between them all Bleffings, temporal and fpiritual. In the former, which is tranflated from the ancient Latin Offices, we befeech God, in the Knowledge of whom ftandeth our Hope of eternal Life hereafter, and whofe Service, in proportion as we improve in it, gives us here perfect Freedom from the Tyranny of Sin, and the Stings of an evil Confcience, would likewife fo defend us in all Affaults of our outward Enemies, that trufting in Him, we may not fear Them. Thus we embolden ourselves from the Confideration of his greater Mercies, to hope for the leffer: In Imitation of the Apostle's Reafoning, He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us, how fall he not with him alfo freely give us all Things? The latter of thefe Collects is not taken from the Roman, but principally from the Greek Service, as others cf our Prayers befides are: the Compilers of

Rom. viii. 32.

our