That it may please thee to illuminate all Bishops, Pastors, and Ministers of the Church, with true knowledge and understanding of thy word: and that both by their preaching and living they may set it forth and shew it accordingly. We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. That it may please thee to endue the Lords of the council, and all the nobility, with grace, wisdom, and understanding. We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. That it may please thee to bless and keep the Magistrates, giving them grace to execute justice, and to maintain truth. We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. That it may please thee to bless and keep all thy people. That it may please thee to give to all nations unity, peace and concord. We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. That it may please thee to give us an heart to love and dread thee, and diligently to live after thy commandments. We beseech thee to hear us good Lord, That it may please thee to give all thy people increase of grace, to hear meekly thy word, and to receive it with pure affection, and to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit. We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. That it may please thee to bring into the way of truth, all such as have erred and are deceived. We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. That it may please thee to strengthen such as do stand, and to comfort and help the weak-hearted, and to raise them up that fall, and finally to beat down Satan under our feet. We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. That it may please thee to succour, help and comfort, all that be in danger, necessity, and tribulation. We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. That it may please thee to preserve all that travel by land or by water, all women labouring of child, all sick persons and young children, and to shew thy pity upon all prisoners and captives. We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. [1596, to all.] [1596, up them.] That it may please thee to defend and provide for the fatherless children and widows, and all that be desolate and oppressed. We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. That it may please thee to have mercy upon all men. That it may please thee to forgive our enemies, persecutors and slanderers, and to turn their hearts. We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. That it may please thee to give and preserve to our use the kindly fruits of the earth, so as in due time we may enjoy them. We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. That it may please thee to give us true repentance, to forgive us all our sins, negligences, and ignorances, and to endue us with the grace of thy holy Spirit to amend our lives according to thy holy word. We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. Son of God: we beseech thee to hear us. Son of God: we beseech thee to hear us. O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world : O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world : O Christ hear us. O Christ hear us. Lord have mercy upon us. Lord have mercy upon us. Christ have mercy upon us. Christ have mercy upon us. Lord have mercy upon us. Lord have mercy upon us. Our Father, which art in heaven. &c. [This mode of arranging the Lord's Prayer occurs six times, and may be explained from a rubric in the Salisbury Breviary:-Notandum est, quod nunquam in ecclesia Sarisburiensi incipitur Pater noster a sacerdote in audientia ad aliquod servitium, nisi ad missam tantum. Et postea dicat sacerdos in audientia, Et ne nos. Chorus, Sed libera. Dominica And lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil 2. The Versicle. O Lord deal not with us after our sins. Let us pray. O God merciful Father, that despisest not the sighing of a contrite heart, nor the desire of such as be sorrowful: mercifully assist our prayers that we make before thee, in all our troubles and adversities whensoever they oppress us. And graciously hear us, that those evils, which the craft and subtilty of the devil or man worketh against us, be brought to nought, and by the providence of thy goodness they may be dispersed, that we thy servants, being hurt by no persecutions, may evermore give thanks unto thee in thy holy church, through Jesu Christ our Lord. O Lord arise, help us, and deliver us for thy name's sake. O GOD we have heard with our ears, and our fathers have declared unto us, the noble works that thou didst in their days, and in the old time before them. O Lord arise, help us, and deliver us, for thine honour. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen. From our enemies defend us, O Christ. Graciously look upon our afflictions. Pitifully behold the sorrows of our heart5. Mercifully forgive the sins of thy people. Favourably with mercy hear our prayers. O Son of David have mercy upon us. Both now and ever vouchsafe to hear us, O Christ. Graciously hear us, O Christ, Graciously hear us, O Lord Christ. The Versicle. O Lord let thy mercy be shewed upon us. The Answer, As we do put our trust in thee. Prima Adventus, Ad Matutinas, Noct. 1. See L'Estrange's Alliance, p. 327.] [Grafton and 1596, Amen.] [Grafton and 1596, Jesus.] [Grafton, to.] [1596, hearts.] Let us pray. WE humbly beseech thee, O Father, mercifully to look upon our infirmities, and for the glory of thy name's sake, 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 thy mercy, and evermore serve thee in holiness and pureness of living, to thy honour and glory through our only mediator and advocate Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. For' rain, if the time require. O GOD heavenly Father, which by thy Son Jesu Christ hast promised to all them that seek thy kingdom and the righteousness thereof, all things necessary to their bodily sustenance: send us we beseech thee, in this our necessity, such moderate rain and showers, that we may receive the fruits of the earth to our comfort, and to thy honour: through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. For fair weather. O LORD God, which for the sin of man didst once drown all the world, except eight persons, and afterward of thy great mercy didst promise never to destroy it so again: we humbly beseech thee, that although we for our iniquities have worthily deserved this plague of rain and waters, yet upon our true repentance thou wilt send us such weather, whereby we may receive the fruits of the earth in due season, and learn both by thy punishment to amend our lives, and for thy clemency to give thee praise and glory: through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. In the time of dearth and famine. O GOD heavenly Father, whose gift it is that the rain doth fall, the earth is fruitful, beasts increase, and fishes do multiply: behold, we beseech thee, the afflictions of thy people, and grant that the scarcity and dearth (which we do now most justly suffer for our iniquity) may through thy goodness be mercifully turned into cheapness and plenty, for the love of Jesu Christ our Lord: to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost. &c. ['The later impressions by Jugge and Cawode follow Grafton in all respects, as regards these collects. See pp. 76, 77.] ¶ Or thus. O GOD merciful Father, which, in the time of Heliseus the prophet, didst suddenly turn in Samaria great scarcity and dearth into plenty and cheapness, and extreme famine into abundance of victual: Have pity upon us, that now be punished for our sins with like adversity; increase the fruits of the earth by thy heavenly benediction; and grant, that we, receiving thy bountiful liberality, may use the same to thy glory, our comfort, and relief of our needy neighbours : through Jesu Christ our Lord. Amen. In the time of war. O ALMIGHTY God, King of all kings, and governour of all things, whose power no creature is able to resist, to whom it belongeth justly to punish sinners, and to be merciful to them that truly repent: save and deliver us (we humbly beseech thee) from the hands of our enemies: abate their pride, assuage their malice, and confound their devices; that we, being armed with thy defence, may be preserved evermore from all perils to glorify thee, which art the only giver of all victory, through the merits of thy only Son Jesu Christ our Lord. In the time of any common plague or sickness. O ALMIGHTY God: which in thy wrath in the time of king David didst slay with the plague of pestilence sixty and ten thousand, and yet remembering thy mercy didst save the rest: have pity upon us miserable sinners, that now are visited with great sickness and mortality; that like as thou didst then command thy Angel to cease from punishing, so it may now please thee to withdraw from us this plague and grievous sickness, through Jesu Christ our Lord. ¶ And the Litany shall ever end with this Collect following. ALMIGHTY God, which 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 be gathered 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. |