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 witha 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. LMIGHTY and most merciful Father; We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost 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. authority of Edward VI., in the year 1552. The simple and affectionate language in which the minister here addresses the congregation, closely harmonizes with the Scriptural tone of the whole service. His exhortation arises naturally out of the passages of Scripture just repeated. It is, indeed, but an unfolding of their application to every attentive ear and humble heart. "Almighty and most merciful," &c.-This is a general confession, made not in private to the minister, but by the whole congregation, and by the minister himself as well as by the people. Confession of sins formed a material part of the service in the primitive church; and it is somewhat remarkable that provision was not made for it in the first book published by King Edward. We The Absolution, or Remission of sins, to be pronounced by the Priest alone, standing; the people still kneeling, 7LMIGHTY God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who desireth not the Je 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 may, however, account for its omission from the circumstance, that at the time when the English Liturgy was first published, private confession had not fallen altogether into disuse. The opinions of the reformers had yet to be settled on some points connected with the nature of confession and the absolving power of the priest. Clearer views were possessed when they came to revise their work; and it was then determined, that it would be most accordant to ancient practice, and to the nature of public worship, to begin with an open and general confession. It has been doubted by some learned men whether the first confession in the morning service of ancient times was made by the congregation silently to themselves, or aloud. The confession, spoken of as a later part of the service, consisted of the fifty-first psalm; called, therefore, the psalm of confession. We may hence infer, that confession of sins was considered, in early times, not only a proper introduction, but a most becoming conclusion to congregational worship. The form adopted is so simple and yet so earnest, that it would be difficult to imagine any state of mind in which it might not be adopted. Afflicted in heart, broken in spirit, the humblest sinner can feel that if, in sincerity, he thus acknowledges his guilt, thus confesses his utter departure from the ways of holiness, he has declared what his conscience would most urge him to express. The happier worshippers, on the other hand, who come to the house of prayer less in the spirit of fear than of love, will willingly adopt every sentence of this confession; for the remembrance of their past lives furnishes them with numberless reasons for acknowledging that they have erred and strayed from God's ways like lost sheep, and their humble sense of present infirmities, of their entire dependance on divine grace for help convinces them, that without the presence of the Sanctificator, there is no health in them. The practice of public confession is as old as the establishment of the Levitical law. On the great day of expiation, the high priest of the Jews declared, in a threefold confession, his own sins, the sins of his family, and of the people in general. The solemn announcement, that without shedding of blood there is no remission, was considered, under the old dispensation, as almost equally applicable to the duty of confession. No sinner, it was taught, might hope for pardon till he freely acknowledged his transgression. He that covereth his sins,' says the holy Spirit, 'shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth, and forsaketh them, shall have mercy.' Prov. xxviii. 13. In the Gospel confession is one of the chief evidences of that grace of humility, without which no one can enter the kingdom of heaven. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,' is the motto written over every altar of his temple. "Almighty God," &c.-As there is much beauty and consistency in the arrangement of the service, the congregation should carefully attend to the directions of the Rubric. Thus, as in the confession, the minister, as well as the people, bowed himself in humble reverence before God; so in pronouncing the absolution he stands up as representing the authority by which alone he acts. That a true and earnest penitence should be followed by forgiveness was the comforting assurance on which the Gospel fixed its just claim to the gratitude of fallen man. The declaration of this principle, of this rule, by which divine love and divine justice were henceforth to act in harmony, gave the whole system of Christianity its title to be called good tidings; the revelation of peace and glory. Under the Mosaic dispensation the declaration of forgiveness followed the offering up of the sacrifice, according to the requirements of the law. But as no sacrifice could be slain, except 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. in the temple and by the priest, it was through him alone that the people received the judicial sentence of pardon and peace. Jesus Christ bestowed an authority upon his ministers at least equal to that conferred upon the ministers of the old covenant. In both cases trusts were committed to the charge of the priest which he was to administer vicarially, that is, not in his own name, but in the name of the Lord. In the one case, justification through the sufficiency of the sacrificial type was pronounced; in the other, justification through the merits of Christ. The priest received the sole right of declaring that God completed the act of mercy by forgiveness and benediction, when the penitent had sought him in this appointed way of grace. But in neither instance could the absolution be otherwise than declaratory and vicarious. It wholly depended upon the efficacy of the appointed sacrifice. The minister owed his authority to the same power as that which gave efficacy to the sacrifice, and instituted the means of grace. Our reformers, therefore, took for their guide the analogy of faith when they drew up the above form of absolution. As following immediately the announcements of Scripture, and the open confession of sins, it supposes the faith and penitence of the assembled people. On this ground they are declared to be pardoned according to God's will, and the grace of the Gospel. The condition not fulfilled, true repentance and faith being wanting, the absolution is not applicable to their case, and they remain, as before it was pronounced, unpardoned and unreconciled. The sins,' it was said of old, that are committed against God, he alone hath power to forgive which took upon him our sins; even he who sorrowed and suffered for us; he whom the Father delivered unto death for our offences.' 6 “ Amen.”—The word Amen was frequently employed by our Saviour to introduce the most solemn of his declarations. In these cases it intimates not only the truth, but the importance of the matter communicated. Its original meaning in Hebrew, whence it was adopted into the Greek and other languages, is true or faithful. Thus in the original of Isaiah lxv. 16, the Almighty is called the God Amen; in English the God of truth. In Revelations iii. 14, the word is applied to Christ, 'These things saith the Amen; the faithful and true Witness.' In 2 Cor. i. 20, we have, All the promises of God, in him are yea and in him Amen.' The general use of this word in the first Christian assemblies is shown by the question of St. Paul, 'How shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen, at thy giving of thanks? Among the Jews it had been used in giving a solemn assent to the adjuration of a judge; 'We adjure thee by the Lord God of Israel, that thou hast nothing of this man's in thy hand; and he answered, Amen!' It was also the most weighty confirmation of a vow; 'Whosoever vowed any holy thing, and bound it up with Amen, was tied thereby.' Lightfoot observes that in the Old Testament it is only used to express a wish, or a prayer; but that our Saviour employed it in the way of assertion. It may be conjectured, therefore, that the latter use of it had sprung up among the Jews since the writing of the Old Testament scriptures. In our Liturgy it is employed in both senses; for when the people say Amen at the end of a prayer, it expresses their earnest desire that the supplication may be answered; and when at the end of a creed, it is an acknowledgment of their belief in the several doctrines which it propounds. The early Christians pronounced this word with great earnestness and devotion. They raised themselves as they uttered it,' says one of the Fathers, 'as if they desired that that word should carry up their bodies, as well as their souls, to heaven:' a strange contrast to the cold and negligent manner in which the word, so full of meaning and interest, is heard in some of our congregations. UR Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, As it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; But deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory, For ever and ever. Amen. Then likewise he shall say, O Lord, open thou our lips. Answer. And our mouth shall show forth thy praise. Priest. O God, make speed to save us. Answer. O Lord, make haste to help us. Here all standing up, the Priest shall say, Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost; "Our Father," &c.-This sacred and venerable form of words has been used by Christians in every age as that under which they could best express and sum up whatever petitions they would present at the throne of grace. Passages occur in the writings of the Fathers which prove that it was considered not simply in the light of a pattern for prayer in general, but as a prayer perfect in itself. St. Chrysostom, it is remarked, has in a certain portion of his works repeated more than twenty times that the Lord's Prayer was a common form in use among the Christians of his age, as by the express command of Christ. No office was used in the ancient church into which it did not enter, and it was regarded as the foundation of all other prayers. It entered into the daily and ordinary services of the church, and was considered a necessary part of the prayers of God's people whenever, or wherever assembled together, and when apart from each other they offered up their supplications in solitude. "O Lord, open thou our lips."-There is a peculiar beauty and propriety in the introduction of these short supplications at this part of the service. The confession has freed the burdened conscience; the declaration of the divine mercy in the absolution has inspired the heart with new hopes; and in the Lord's Prayer it has appealed to the throne of grace with the mingled feelings of penitence and love, the result of filial faith. We desire now that the Lord would enable us to praise him in the language of holy gratitude, and that he would hasten to complete for us the salvation of which we have thus begun to taste the fruits. "Glory be to," &c.-In the Ancient Church the people were directed, by turns, to kneel, stand, or prostrate themselves, and this not only as the service varied, but according to the day or the season. Thus, in the performance of worship on the Sabbath, and between Easter and Whitsuntide, it was the rule to stand, as in remembrance of the resurrection. Our own Liturgy requires us to use this variety of posture, in conformity with the sentiment so early expressed, that we ought in our prayers to remember both our fall and our restoration. We rise, therefore, at this part of the service. The soul rejoices in God; and, quickened by the grace which has been sought, gives glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Great importance was attached, in the Ancient Church, to this form of praise. The doxologies used at first were addressed to the whole Trinity, or to the several persons of the Trinity, according to the particular nature of the prayers in which they were introduced. The earliest Answer. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen. Priest. Praise ye the Lord. Answer. The Lord's Name be praised. Then shall be said or sung this Psalm following: except on Easter-Day, upon which another Anthem is appointed; and on the Nineteenth day of every Month it is not to be read here, but in the ordinary Course of the Psalms. Venite, exultemus Domino. Psal. xcv. COME, let us sing unto the Lord : let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving: and show ourselves glad in him with Psalms. For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods. : In his hand are all the corners of the earth and the strength of the hills is his also. The sea is his, and he made it and his hands prepared the dry land. known was the former part of that now in use; the latter clause, or the response, having been first employed, it is said, during the great Arian controversy of the fourth century. It was then also seen that considerable danger attended the use of some of the doxologies employed at that time. The church, therefore, universally adopted the one inserted in our Liturgy; and it has ever since been regarded not only as a noble expression of praise, but as a confession of belief in the foundation-doctrine of revealed religion. It was formerly called the lesser doxology, to distinguish it from that in the Communion Service, entitled the Great Doxology, or the Hymn of the Angels, and the use of which is now confined to particular occasions. "Praise ye the Lord"—is the ancient hallelujah. The response was added at the last revisal of the Liturgy. "O come, let us sing."-We have the testimony of the Fathers both of the Greek and Latin Churches to the general use of this psalm in the services of the Sunday and festival days. It was formerly known by the title of the Invitatory Psalm, and is said to have been sung very loud, that the people who were lingering outside the church might be warned against delaying any longer to enter. Many commentators suppose that it was used at the removal of the ark, and all agree that it referred especially to the times of the Messiah. St. Paul has taught us that, while it instructs us to glorify God in the language of the spirit, it conveys a warning of the most solemn kind. He is the Lord our God; but harden not your hearts, as in the day of provocation, is an exhortation full of wisdom and of love. The constant use of this psalm, as introductory to those of the day, is justified by its general and hortatory character. It is a noble prelude, the customary notes of which awaken in the hearts of attentive worshippers all those emotions which give force and meaning to divine psalmody. The singing or repetition of psalms formed a principal part of ancient worship, and generally preceded the reading of the Scriptures. St. Augustine alludes especially to the Ninety-fifth Psalm, and says that it was read after the Epistle, and was immediately followed by the Gospel of the day; but it was not particularly appointed for this purpose, the Psalms in general, it is stated, being intermixed with the reading of the Lessons, so as to afford a refreshing and profitable variety to the minds of the people. |