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PRAYERS AND THANKSGIVINGS

FOR SPECIAL PUBLIC OCCASIONS.

For the High Court of Parliament.

To be read during their Session.

MOST gracious God, we humbly beseech thee, as for this Kingdom in general, so especially for the High Court of Parliament, under our most religious and gracious Queen at this time assembled: That thou wouldest be pleased to direct and prosper all their consultations to the advancement of thy glory, the good of thy Church, the safety, honour, and welfare of our Sovereign, and her Dominions; that all things may be so ordered and settled by their endeavours, upon the best and surest foundations, that peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, may be established among us for all generations. These and all other necessaries, for them, for us, and thy whole Church, we humbly beg in the name and mediation of Jesus Christ, our most blessed Lord and Saviour. Amen.

M m

TO BE USED DURING THE SITTING OF

Civil or Criminal Courts

IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD.

We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ. 2 Cor. v.

APPROPRIATE PSALMS.
1, 11, 15, 75.

THE PRAYER.

GOD, the supreme Governor of all the earth, look down, we pray thee, upon all who bear rule amongst thy people, and more especially upon those who are at this time appointed to execute justice amongst them. Give them all wisdom and grace, we beseech thee, and a careful conscience, rightly and impartially to discharge this their solemn duty, that so things amiss may be reformed, vice abandoned, truth supported, innocence relieved, strife and contention abated, and thy glory maintained. [Especially, O Lord, we pray thee, who hast called thy servant () to be a minister of justice and order among thy people, endue him with an honest and upright heart, that remembering thine all-seeing eye Where the master he may regard the person of no of the family holds any man, but be faithful and true to judicial situation, add the trust reposed in him.] Have compassion on all who are in prison or in bonds, and convert all those who are in sin or error, and may all find alike acceptance and redemption at the great day of account, through the alone merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

this.

TO BE USED DURING A VISITATION OR

Meeting of the Clergy

IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD.

They watch for your souls as they that must give Heb. xiii.

account.

APPROPRIATE PSALMS.

122, 132,

THE PRAYER.

(Compiled from forms of Bidding Prayer.) ALMIGHTY Lord God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Head over all his Church, look down, we pray thee, upon the same, and more especially upon thy servants, our (Fathers and) Pastors, the Bishops and Clergy now assembled together, and inspire their minds so to agree to the benefit and fruit of the Church, that they be not gathered together in vain and without cause. May their labours be sanctified of thee, and they be found good stewards of thy will, that all thy people may be built up in the knowledge of thy truth. And give to all the congregation of Christian people dispersed throughout the world, the assistance of thy Holy Spirit, and purge out of it all schism, error, and heresy, and unite all Christians in one holy bond of faith and charity, so that that happy day may dawn upon us, in which all who do confess his holy name may agree in the truth of his holy word, and live in unity and godly love, and praise him with one heart and mouth, and worship him with one accord, in the beauty of holiness, for Jesus Christ his sake. Amen.

During the erection of a Church,

OR OTHER CHARITABLE INSTITUTION, IN WHICH THE FAMILY ARE GIVING AID.

In every work that he began in the service of (the house of) God, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart and prospered. 2 Chron. xxxi. With perfect heart they offered willingly to the Lord. 1 Chron. xxix.

APPROPRIATE PSALMS.

41, 48, 127, 132.

THE PRAYER.

(Partly from a service in use by the late Bps. of Sodor and Man.)

O ETERNAL God, mighty in power, and in majesty incomprehensible, bless, we beseech thee, the work on which we ask thy favour, to the honour and glory of thy great name, and the edification of thy holy Church.

If the work is a

[Vouchsafe, O Lord, that the walls now begun may be built up Church in the course an holy temple to thee, and be

of erection.

kept safe from all common and profane uses. Grant that the prayers and praises of thy holy Catholic and Apostolic Church may be there unceasingly offered to thee, thy true and lively word set forth, and thy holy Sacraments rightly and duly administered.]

Direct also those who design the same, and fill all with liberal and grateful hearts. Keep all who are engaged therein (in the erecting thereof) from

every vain and covetous and unholy thought and word and work, and from all dangers and accidents. Give thine holy Angels charge over them to keep them in all their ways. And graciously accept our offerings, and therewith our prayers and praises, * through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

*Where any member of the family holds an office in the Church open to Laymen, as Churchwarden, Sacristan, &c., the prayer may end thus,

And since thou hast permitted thy servant and others of the members of thy flock, to serve thee in one of the inferior offices thereof, and called them to the care of* [here mention the office] grant that he and they may be filled with a spirit of reverence and holy affection for all that belongs to thee, may humbly submit themselves to all that are over them in the Lord, and though they be but as door-keepers in the House of our God, may so serve thee therein, that they obtain the testimony of a good conscience here, and eternal life hereafter, through the alone merits of Jesus Christ our Saviour.

See also p. 237 for thanksgivings on the completion of any great object.

In the above case it would be

"to the care and maintenance of thy holy house, and of the things that are therein" &c. &c.

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