written by David to keep his sin ever in remembrance, according to that in the 51st Psalm, "My sin is ever before me." For the less we remember our sins, the more God remembers them; and the more we remember them, the less does He. This Psalm begins like the first, with deprecating, in the person of the penitent, God's extreme wrath and displeasure. "Put me not to rebuke, O Lord, in thine anger ;..." and describes his wretchedness more at length than heretofore, his sickness of body, his anguish of mind, the unkindness of friends, and the snares of the wicked. At length, deserted by all human aid, he is silent, trusting in God his only Saviour. "In thee, O Lord, have I put my trust: thou shalt answer for me, O Lord my God." Then, finally, rejoicing in God, he implores the steady continuance of His assistance: "Forsake me not, O Lord my God. Haste thee to help me, O Lord God of my salvation." ... The fourth Psalm, which is the 51st, is a perfect model of sorrowful expression for sin, and the masterpiece of penitential services. Its title is like the first, "To the End;" but adds, that it is " a Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him after he had gone in to Bathsheba." It contains three parts-1. Confession. 2. Prayer for grace; and 3. Promises of contrition. First, the penitent gives utterance to the bitterest compunction and the deepest humility: "Have mercy upon me, O God, after thy great goodness: according to the multitude of thy mercies, do away mine offences...I acknowledge my faults, and my sin is ever before me," &c. Then he prays for pardon and grace: "Turn thy face from my sins...Make me a clean heart... Cast me not away from thy presence... Give me the comfort of thy help again...Deliver me from blood-guiltiness." Then, full of confidence in God's mercy, he promises 66 that which was mystically intended by the bullocks and burnt offerings of the old law- a troubled spirit, a broken and contrite heart, and the sacrifice of righteousness." 66 The fifth, the 102nd Psalm, is the "Oratio Pauperis," or Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the Lord." The penitent now pours out his soul in prayer to God: "Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto thee. Hide not thy face from me...O hear me, and that right soon." He relates his miseries and afflictions at length, that God may have compassion on him at last : 66 My bones will scarce cleave to my skin...I have watched, and am even as it were a sparrow... My days are gone like a shadow; and I am withered like grass." Then he turns to the thought of God's eternity: "Thou, O Lord, shalt endure for ever!" and losing the sense of his own troubles in that boundless ocean, he pursues his thought to the sure arrival at length of the Almighty's time for shewing mercy. "When the heathen shall fear thy name, and all the kings of the earth thy glory,"-when he shall" turn himself unto the prayer of the poor destitute," when all created things else shall fail but the children of the blessed and the seed of the saints, which alone shall stand fast in eternal rest and the perpetual brightness of Divine light. The sixth, the 130th Psalm, is one of the Gradual Psalms, or "A Song or Psalm of degrees," the meaning of the title of which is explained above. It here teaches the penitent that he must not stand still, but go on from virtue to virtue, and from grace to grace; that he must "look for the Lord wait for him... trust in Him," till he reaches that great Day of final absolution "from all his sins," and is raised to that height whence there is no relapse, and where, at length, those blessed words apply ... in their fullest sense: "Your joy no man taketh from you. We come now to the seventh and last Psalm, which is the 143rd-"A Psalm of David,' when he was pursued by his son Absalom," by which we are taught that, after the external foes of the penitent have been overcome, there remain still" they of his own household," "the law in our members,"-the unnatural Absalom rising against his parent. Here, then, again, the penitent prays the Lord to "hear" him, not to judge, but rather to pronounce over him those blessed words: 66 Son,...thy sins be forgiven thee." He complains of his enemy-the enemy which has so long "persecuted his soul;" and of his own desolation of spirit. Yet, for his comfort, he recalls to mind the redemption God has now of old time sent to His people, and stretching forth his hands to Him after the pattern of Him who died on the cross, implores speedy salvation. He prays that he may know God's will that he may be led "into the land of righteousness," be quickened, and rescued from his troubles and all the snares of the enemy, inasmuch as he both is and ever will be to the end, God's faithful “ servant." Learned men are of opinion, that so far back as the time of our Lord, short supplications were used in Jerusalem, in which Hosannah was frequently repeated, and hence the introduction of litanies a word of general meaning, since a few repetitions of "Kyrie Eleison" before the Lord's Prayer are so called, as well as the longer forms of prayer more commonly understood by that name. But the institution of particular days for using litanies in procession, have, for the most part, assignable dates; 1 John xvi. 22. 2 As we are told by the LXX. and Vulgate translations. as that on the Feast of St. Mark is ascribed to St. Gregory the Great, A.D. 590, and those on the three Rogation days to St. Mamertus, bishop at Vienna, A.D. 452. The special interpositions of Providence to allay plagues, wars, and earthquakes, and to convert heathen nations, as, for example, the Saxons, have been amongst the fruit of such deprecations of God's wrath. The lists of the saints which used to be invoked in England on the several days of the week, have been retained at the end of the Litany as suitable to a work, the chief object of which is to assist in restoring the reverence and regard due to them who sleep in Christ. "The Commendation of a Dying Person," "the Accompaniment to the Burial Service," and the other prayers, offices, and lessons from the Scriptures, require no further explanation than the perusal of them and the directory for their use supply. The Meditations on the Four Last Things, which are subjoined, have a preface at the place explanatory of their connexion with the foregoing Prayers, &c., together with rules for using them, which renders it needless to say more here than that the Editor, in both rules and meditations, has been less studious of originality than of usefulness. In the rules for meditation especially, though responsible for the arrangement, he lays claim to nothing further. That it may please God to bless this humble attempt to restore amongst members of our Church the christian practice of Prayer for the Faithful Departed, to the comfort of those holy souls, and the conversion and edification of us who remain in this vain and transitory world, is the hearty desire and earnest prayer of its compiler. London, Septuagesima, 1845. W. F. W. |