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THE ORDER FOR

MORNING PRAYER,

DAILY THROUGHOUT THE YEAR.

At the beginning of Morning Prayer the Minister shall read, with a loud voice, some one or more of these sentences of the Scriptures that follow. And then he shall say that which is written after the said sentences.

HEN the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. Ezek. xviii. 27. I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Psal. li. 3. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Psal. li. 9.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Psal. li. 17.

Rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Joel. ii. 13.

To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him ; neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us. Dan. ix. 9, 10.

O Lord, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing. Jer. x. 24. Psal. vi. 1.

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Repent ye, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand. St. Matth. iii. 2.

I will arise, and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. St. Luke xv. 18, 19.

Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord; for, in thy sight, shall no man living be justified. Psal. cxliii. 2.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us; but, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 St. John i. 8, 9.

EARLY beloved brethren, the Scripture moveth us, in sundry places, to acknowledge and confess our manifold sins and wickedness; and that we should not dissemble nor cloke them before the face of Almighty God our heavenly Father,

If we say that we have no sin.]—It should be observed in the use of the Book of Common Prayer, that in the Order for Morning Prayer, and, equally, in the Order for Evening Prayer, the spirit of the composition intends a preparation for prayer, and even a preparation for praise and thanksgiving, before it permits the actual commencement of either. As the "Book of the Common Praier" was originally published by King Edward VI, in the year 1549, it contained no such preparation; the service, both morning and evening, opening at once with prayer; that is, with the Lord's Prayer; after which there immediately followed, as now, the several formulas of praise and thanksgiving.

The change, however, was early made; and already, in the "Boke of Common Praier," as printed in the year 1552; those preparatory parts, along with other alterations and additions, had obtained their present place in the Liturgy.

The fitness of the change appears to be indisputable. As the "Order" at present stands, the congregation is taught to feel and express the sentiment of contrition for sins, either great or small, and its sins are conditionally absolved and remitted, before it proceeds to address itself to God in prayer, or even in praise or thanksgiving.

The Church of England and Ireland, in this arrangement of its Liturgy, has the example of the Primitive Christian Churches, as well as the natural recommendation of the practice, to justify its course. Tradition informs us that the first Christians uniformly began their worship with strong expressions of penitence for sin, and made these the indispensable preliminaries to all that followed; and the same notions of penitence, and of a succeeding absolution or purification, are observable in the ancient Liturgy of Saint James, or of Jerusalem; the celebration of which was begun by the washing of his hands by the Bishop, or other Minister, in a basin of water presented to him for that purpose; and by his pronouncing, while in performance of the act, a part, if not the whole, of the sixth and seventh verses of the twenty-sixth Psalm: "I will wash mine hands in innocency, O Lord, and so will I go to thine altar; that I may show the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works :" or as if, before prayer, thanks, or even praise, the Christian would say, (as in Psalm li. 2,) "wash me throughly from my wickedness and cleanse me from my sin."

But, from what has here preceded, we must be struck with the departure (however inadvertent, or however well-intended) from the spirit of these general ordinances, ancient and modern, in foreign parts of Christendom. In the "Book of Common Prayer," &c. according to the "Use of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of

but confess them with an humble, lowly, penitent, and obedient heart; to the end that we may obtain forgiveness of the same, by his infinite goodness and mercy. And although we ought at all times humbly to acknowledge our sins before God, yet ought we most chiefly so to do, when we assemble and meet together, to render thanks for the great benefits that we have received at his hands, to set forth his most worthy praise, to hear his most holy Word, and to ask those things which are requisite and necessary, as well for the body as the soul. Wherefore I pray and beseech you, as many as are here present, to accompany me with a pure heart and humble voice, unto the throne of the heavenly grace; saying after me,

A General Confession, to be said of the whole congregation after the Minister, all kneeling.

ALMIGHTY and most merciful Father, we

have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost

America" put forth in the year 1789, and ever since continued, the "Sentences of the Scriptures," which begin the English Prayer Book, and all that follows, are retained; but they are preceded by new "Sentences of the Scriptures," expressing praise; sentences which, however excellent in themselves, and in however pure a spirit they may have been introduced, are yet violations of that spirit which pervades the English Book of Common Prayer, and which pervaded all the Christian, and even Jewish Liturgies. Similar things occur, too, in England and Ireland, in places of worship not pertaining to the Establishment; and even in the Establishment, a practice sometimes obtains, of opening the service with a psalm, obviously in the same variance with the spirit of the genuine ordinances of the Church; which latter, while it is as earnest as any of its innovators not to omit praises and thanksgivings, yet makes these to follow, and not to precede, the Confession and the Absolution, or the expressions of penitence and purification; and aims at enabling its congregations, not to "magnify" only, but "worthily to magnify" God's Holy Name. No Hymn, or Psalm, unless it should be one of the Penitential Psalms, or what resembles them, can precede or occupy the first place in the "Order," either for Morning or Evening Prayer, in consistence with the spirit of that "Order."

Another inference (and one of still more general application) is the duty which, in consistence with the spirit of the Church's "Order," either for Morning or Evening Prayer, is imposed upon every member of the congregation to be present at the beginning of either service; or, in other words, the inference, how unprepared (in consistence with the spirit of the "Order") are such as presume to join the subsequent prayer and praise, who have not previously partaken in the Confession and Absolution; or in the acknowledgment of sin, and in the reception of its declared conditional remission. What is required, therefore, is, so early an attendance upon the service, as not to be absent at the very moment of its important beginning.

A General Confession &c.]-It has been justly said, in commendation of the terms of this form of "general confession," that the terms of such a composition cannot be too general. If they were too particular, either the enumeration of all possible sins must be made scanty, or else thousands and tens of thousands of persons must be made to "confess" themselves guilty of sins which they never committed. The Church leaves it to the thoughts and consciences of individuals, to use this "general confession" in the manner suitable to their individual cases; only expecting from each the general acknowledgement, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is nct in us."

sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done; and there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us miserable offenders. Spare thou them, O God, which confess their faults. Restore thou them that are penitent, according to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesu our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake, that we may, hereafter, live a godly, righteous, and sober life, to the glory of thy holy Name. Amen.

The Absolution, or Remission of Sins, to be pronounced by the Priest alone, standing; the people still kneeling.

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LMIGHTY God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who desireth not the death of a sinner, but, rather, that he may turn from his wickedness and live; and hath given power and commandment to his ministers to declare and pronounce to his people, being penitent, the absolution and remission of their sins: He pardoneth and absolveth all them that truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy Gospel; wherefore, let us beseech him to grant us true repentance and his holy Spirit, that those things may please him which we do at this present, and that the rest of our life, hereafter, may be pure and holy; so that, at the last, we may come to his eternal joy, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The people shall answer here, and at the end of all other prayers,

Amen.

Then the Minister shall kneel, and say the Lord's Prayer with an audible voice; the people also kneeling, and repeating it with him, both here, and wheresoever else it is used in Divine Service.

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