Prayer, Litany, and Communion, together, without any intermission; to the intent that people might continue together in prayer, and hearing the Word of God, and not depart out of the church during all the time of the whole Divine Service1."

CHAPTER II.

DIVISION OF THE LITANY,

1. Division of the Litany. Our English Litany may be divided into five parts :

(1) The Invocations;
(2) The Deprecations;
(3) The Obsecrations;

(4) The Intercessions;

(5) The Versicles and Prayers.

2. The Invocations, in which are included the first four clauses of the Litany, are solemn and earnest appeals for mercy and pardon addressed to each Person in the Godhead, first separately and then collectively, whereby each is made the object of devout worship. The ancient Litanies commenced with the form Kyrie eleison, each part of it being once or thrice repeated. This was done away in the English Litany of 1544, which commenced with the invocation of the several Persons of the Trinity, with the addition of the words, peculiar to it among all other Litanies, miserable sinners, in all

1 Cardwell, Doc. Ann. lxxvi.

* In Latin the Invocations run, "Pater de cœlis (=ò Пarnp ¿ ¿ ovpavoû=which art in heaven in the Lord's Prayer), Deus, miserere nobis; Fili, Redemptor mundi, Deus, miserere nobis ; Spiritus Sancte, Deus, miserere nobis." The position of Deus emphatically marks the Divinity of each Person of the Trinity.

the clauses, and proceeding from the Father and the Son in that relating to the Holy Ghost'.

3. The Deprecations, in which are included the eight next clauses, are preceded by the Prayer Remember not, Lord, our offences, &c. This was inserted in the Litany of 1544 in the place of the old and short clause :

Propitius esto: parce nobis, Domine.

It is the translation of an Anthem at the end of the Penitential Psalms and stood in the Breviary immediately before the Litany2. The Deprecations themselves are fervent prayers for deliverance from evil in all its forms, and are more immediately addressed to the Second Person of the Trinity, who upon His Cross "made a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world""

4. The Evil around us, from which we pray to be delivered, is of many kinds1. (i) There is the original Author (Jn. viii. 44), and the constant Promoter of evil (1 Pet.v.8), the Devil, our ghostly Enemy5, and therefore we pray to be delivered from his crafts and assaults.

1 Next in the Old Litanies came the Invocation of Saints, beginning with St Mary and ending Omnes sancti: orate pro nobis. Only three such clauses were retained by the Reformers in the first Litany of 1544; they appeared also in Henry VIIIth's Primer of 1545, but were entirely omitted in the Litany of Edward VI.

2 See Marshall's Primer, p. 124.

3 See the Prayer of Consecration in the Communion Office. 4 Evil... mischief... sin. Mischief (from the old French meschef, from mis, ill, and chef = Lat. caput, the head)=(1) that which comes to a head or ends ill; (2) an ill consequence; (3) injury, damage.

5 Compare the explanation of the petition deliver us from evil in the Church Catechism. For the use of ghostly spiritual, compare Marshall's Primer, "Grant us ghostly eyes to see the beauty of virtue......and ghostly lust and pleasure to muse and think of him," Burton's Primers, p. 225.

(ii) There are the wages (Rom. vi. 23), or consequences of evil and of yielding to his seductions, and therefore we pray to be delivered from God's wrath and from everlasting damnation. (iii) There is evil in our own hearts (Mtt. xv. 191), and therefore we pray to be deli vered from all blindness of heart, from pride, vainglory, and hypocrisy ; from envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableness; from fornication, and all other deadly sin. (iv) There is physical evil, and therefore we pray to be delivered from lightning and tempest, from plague, pestilence, and famine. There is evil arising from the wild passions of men, from misgovernment and anarchy, and therefore we pray to be delivered from battles and murder and sudden death, from all sedition, privy conspiracy5, and rebellion. (vi) There is intellectual evil, and therefore we pray to be delivered from all false doctrine, heresy, and schism, and the too common root of each of these, hardness of heart', and contempt of God's word and commandments.

=

(v)

1 And comp. Ps. xix. 12; Jer. xvii. 9; Gal. v. 19-21. 2 Deadly deliberate and presumptuous sin; comp, Ps. xix. 13; on the Presbyterian objection to the expression see above, p. 47.

3 Battle, to which the Use of York adds, "from persecution by Pagans and all our enemies."

This in the Sarum Use is "a subitanea et improvisa morte;" from sudden and unprovided death, Marshall's Primer, 1535. Its close collocation with battle and murder is noticeable, and seems to refer it chiefly to a violent death. On the Puritan objections to this petition, see above, p. 47.

5 Here in the Litany of 1544 was added, "from the tyranny of the bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities." The clause was retained in Edward's Prayer-Books, and appeared in the Litany printed in the first month of Elizabeth's reign, but was omitted in the Litany published by authority in 1559. See above, p. 32.

6 The words rebellion and schism were inserted after the last revision in 1661; see above, p. 57.

7 Comp. the third Collect for Good Friday.

5. The Obsecrations, in which are included the three next clauses, are pleas for mercy, not only addressed to the Second Person of the Trinity, but specially mentioning all that He has done for us men and for our salvation; His holy Incarnation, Nativity, and Circumcision; His Baptism, Fasting, and Temptation; His Agony and bloody Sweat; His Cross and Passion; His precious Death and Burial; His glorious Resurrection and Ascension; and the bestowal of His promised gift in the coming of the Holy Ghost. By the remembrance of each and all of these events in His life incarnate we beseech Him to deliver us in all time of our tribulation; in all time of our wealth1; in the hour of death; and in the day of judgment.

6. The Intercessions, in which are included the next twenty-one clauses, are in form common to all the Litanies, and consist of Prayers in behalf of "all sorts and conditions of men." Hence

(1) We pray for the holy Church universal, that God will be pleased to rule and govern it in the right way;

(2) We pray for the Sovereign, that He will be pleased to keep and strengthen her in the true worshipping of Him, and in righteousness and

1 Wealth (from A.-S. and old Germ. wela abundance; A.-S. wela, welig=rich) = weal, well-being, happiness, prospe rity. In the Primer of 1535, this ran, "in time of our tribulations, in the time of our felicity." Compare (1) commonwealth, common weal bonum publicum; (2) 2 Chron. i. 12, "I will give thee riches, and wealth, and honour;" Ps. cxii. 3, "Wealth and riches shall be in his house;" Ps. lxix. 22, "Let the things which should have been for their wealth be unto them an occasion of falling;" (3) "Nothing eyther great or small was euer done for hym, but it serued and perteyned to our profite, weale, and commoditie;" Taverner's Postils, p. 134; (4) Commend me to the lords, and tell them it were meet they were with me, for that I do is all for their wealths;" Lancaster Herald's Report, Oct. 21, 1536; Froude, Vol. I. p. 150.

holiness of life; to rule her heart in His faith,
fear, and love; to enable her evermore to
have affiance1 in Him, and ever seek His honour
and glory; and to be her defender and keeper,
giving her the victory over all her enemies;
(3) We pray for all the Royal Family, that He will
be pleased to bless and preserve them;

(4) We pray for all Bishops, Priests, and Deacons,
that He will be pleased to illuminate them with
true knowledge and understanding of His Word,
so that both by their preaching and living they
may set it forth2 and show it accordingly;
(5) We pray for the Lords of the Council and all
the nobility, that He will endue them with
grace, wisdom, and understanding;

1 Affiance=trust, reliance, Lat. fides, faith; low Lat. affidare (whence affidavit); Fr. affier to trust in; O. E. affie or affy. Comp. Myn affiaunce and my feith

66

Is ferme in his bileve."

P. Ploughman's Vision, 11290;

Pat philosophir all pe folke faste he defende

That they suld noghte in thy faythe, John, þame affy." Religious Pieces, cir. A. D. 1440, p. 93; "And yet did this woman continue still in prayer, she cast not away her confidence. tion, and said with good fiance, sayest, but I ask no bread

she abode still in her petiIt is truhe, Lord, that thou I am but a little whelp, and

desire the crumbs which fall from thy children's table." Marshall's Primer, ed. Burton, p. 149;

"If it be so presumptuous a matter to put affiance in the merits of Christe, what is it then to put affiance in our own merits?" Jewell, Def. of Apol. p. 76.

2 To set forth (1) to promote, further; so Hall, Hen. IV. fol. 11 a, "Se how the deuyll is as redy to set furth mischief, as the good angel is to auace vertue.” (2) to publish, declare; comp. "Wherefore, my beloued in Christ, let vs not despise this right holy state......which our Sauior Christ dyd here with so high a myracle set forth and commend vnto us." Taverner's Postils, p. 76, Oxfd. Edn., "These be the blanchers, that hitherto have stopped the word of God, and hindered the true setting forth of the same." Latimer's Sermon on the Plough.