A FORM OF COMMON-PRAYER, To be used upon the solemn Fast, apppointed by His Majesty's Proclamation upon the Fifth of February, being Wednesday. For a Blessing on the TREATY now begun, that the end of it may be a happy PEACE to the KING and to all his People. Set forth by His Majesty's special Command to be used in all Churches and Chapels. OXFORD, Printed by LEONARD LICHFIELD, Printer to the University. M.DC.XLIV. royal blazon or coat of arms C R HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE DIEV ET MON DROIT THE ORDER FOR MORNING PRAYER. First the Minister shall say. CORRECT us (O Lord) and yet in thy judgement, not in thy fury, lest we should be consumed, and brought to nothing. Then shall follow the Exhortation. DEarly beloved Brethren, the Scripture moveth us in sundry places, to acknowledge & confess our manifold sins and wickedness, and that we should not dissemble nor cloak them before the face of Almighty God our heavenly Father, but contesse 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 chief so to do, when at such a time and occasion as this is, we assemble, and meet together, to cast ourselves down at the throne of his heavenly Grace, and to pour out our humble supplications, for the Averting of his heavy Judgements now upon us, for the ceasing of this present bloody and unnatural War, and restoring a happy Peace in this Kingdom. Wherefore I pray and beseech you, as many as be here present, to accompany me with a pure heart and humble voice, unto the Throne of the heavenly grace, saying after me. The Confession to be said of the whole Congregation, Kneeling. ALmighty and most merciful Father, We have erred & 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 be penitent, according to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord; And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake, that we may hereafter live a Godly, Righteous, and a sober life, to the glory of thy holy Name. AMEN. The Absolution to be pronounced by the Priest alone. ALmighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which 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 which truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy Gospel. Wherefore we 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. AMEN. The Priest shall begin, and say. Our 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. Priest. 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. Priest. 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. Praise ye the Lord. In s●ead of the Venite Exultemus, shall be used this Psalm composed out of several passages in the Book of Psalms. UNto thee will I cry, O Lord my strength: Psal. 28.1. think no scorn of me, lest if thou make as though thou hearest not, I become like them that go down into the Pit. Hear the voice of my humble Petitions, 2. when I cry unto thee: when I hold up my hands towards the Mercy seat of thy holy Temple. O God, wherefore art thou absent from us so long: Psal. 74 v. 1. why is thy wrath so hot against the sheep of thy pasture? Lord, how long wilt thou be angry: Psal. 79.5. shall thy jealousy burn like sire for ever? Hath God forgotten to be gracious: Psal. 77.9. or will he shut up his loving kindness in displeasure? Lord where are thy old loving kindnesses: Psal. 89.48. which thou swarest unto David in thy truth? O think upon thy Congregation: Psal. 74.2. whom thou hast purchased, and redeemed of old. Think upon the tribe of thine Inheritance: 3. and mount Zion wherein thou hast dwelled. Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion: Psal. 102.13. for it is time that thou have mercy upon her, yea, the time is come. And why? thy servants think upon her stones: 14. and it pitieth them to see her in the Dust. Be thou my Judge, O Lord, Psal. 26.1. for I have walked innocently: my trust hath been also in the Lord, therefore sh●ll I not fall. Examine me, O Lord, and prove me: try out my reins, 2. and my Heart. Let my sentence come forth from thy presence: Psal. 17.2. and let thine eyes look upon the thing that is equal. Show thy marvelous loving kindness, 7. thou that art the Saviour of them which put their trust in thee: from such as resist thy right hand. Call to remembrance, Psal. 25.5. O Lord, thy tender mercies: and thy loving kindness which hath been ever of old. For thy Names sake, 1●. O Lord, be merciful unto my sin: for it is great. The sorrows of my Heart are enlarged: 16. O bring thou me out of my troubles. Look upon mine adversity and misery: 17. and forgive me all my sin. Thou shalt show us wonderful things in thy Righteousness, Psal. 65.5. O God of our salvation: thou that art the Hope of all the ends of the Earth, and of them that remain in the broad Sea. Which stilleth the raging of the Sea: 7. and the noise of his waves, and the madness of his People. Remember me, Psal. 106.4. O Lord, according to the favour that thou bearest unto thy people: O visit me with thy salvation. That I may see the felicity of thy chosen: 5. and rejoice in the gladness of thy People, & give thanks with thine Inheritance. O let the sorrowful sighing of the Prisoners come before thee: Psal. 79.12. according to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to die. Comfort us again now after the time that thou hast plagued us: Psal. 90.15. and for the years wherein we have suffered adversity. The fierceness of man shall turn to thy Praise: Psal. 76.10. and the fierceness of them shalt thou refrain. For God will save Zion, Psal. 69.36. and build the Cities of Juda: that men may dwell there, and have it in possession. O tarry thou the Lords leisure: Psal. 27.16. be strong and he shall comfort thine heart, and put thou thy trust in the Lord. And the glorious Majesty of the Lord our God be upon us: Psal. 90.17. Prosper thou the work of our Hands upon us, O prosper thou our handy work. 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. Psalms for Morning and Evening Prayer. For Morning, For the Evening. Psalms 42 Psalms 77. 46. 80. 61. 85. 80. 126. 122. 132. 133. The First Lesson for Morning Prayer, Isay 51. from the 9 verse to the end of the Chapter. Te Deum Laudamus. For the Second Lesson, Rom. 12. from the beginning of the 9 verse to the end of the Chapter. Benedictus. The First Lesson for Evening Prayer, Isa. 54. Magnificat. Luke 1. The Second Lesson 1. Epist. john c. 4. Nunc dimittis. Luk. 2.29. The rest to go on as it is in the former Fast-Book, with the addition of some Prayers. The Epistle Heb. 12. from the middle of the fift verse, My Son, etc. to the end of the 15. verse. The Gospel Matth▪ 5. from the first verse to the end of the 12. verse. A Prayer drawn by His Majesty's special Direction and Dictates. O Most merciful Father, Lord God of Peace and Truth, we a People sorely afflicted by the Scourge of an unnatural War, do here earnestly beseech Thee, to command a Blessing from Heaven upon this present Treaty, begun for the establishment of an happy Peace. Soften the most obdurate Hearts with a true Christian desire of saving those men's blood, for whom Christ himself hath shed His. Or if the guilt of our great sins cause this Treaty to break off in vain, Lord let the Truth clearly appear, who those men are, which under pretence of the Public good do pursue their own private ends; that this People may be no longer so blindly miserable, as not to see, at least in this their Day, the things that belong unto their Peace. Grant this gracious God, for his sake who is our Peace itself, even Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN. A Prayer for Peace. ALmighty God, terrible in thy Judgements, but more wonderful in thy Mercies, who turnest man to Destruction, and again, thou sayest, Come again ye children of Men; we miserable sinners prostrate this day before thee; humbly confess with Horror in our Hearts, and Confusion in our Faces, that every one of us hath, more or less, contributed to that vast heap of crying sins which hath now in so high a measure drawn down thy vengeance on us, that we have abused thy Patience so long, till we have at last turned it into Fury, compelling thee, by our often provocations to visit us in blood, to make us tear out our own bowels, and by a strange unnatural War, raised we know not why, (thy Justice and our Sins excepted) to become executioners of ourselves, and so to sinne afresh in the very punishments of sin. But alas! what profit is there in our Blood? or what Glory can come to thee by our Ruin? Let it suffice, O God, that thou hast thus far rebuked us in thine Anger; but consume us not utterly, for we are all thy People. Say to the destroying Sword, It is enough, and let it be no longer drunk with the blood of thine Inheritance: But look down upon our unfeigned Humiliation, hear the Prayer which in the bitterness of our Souls we power out this day before thee, accept of our Repentance, and where it is defective, let thy Holy Spirit make it up with Groans that cannot be expressed. Look upon thy Moses who standeth in the gap, beseeching thee to turn thine anger from thy People; remember what he hath suffered, and the heavy things that thou hast shown him; and in the day, when thou makest Inquisition for Blood, forget not his desires of Peace, the endeavours which he hath used, and the Prayers which he hath made to Thee for it. Return all this, O Lord, with comfort into his Bosom. And since thou hast already wrought so much for him, as to bring these unhappy entangled differences to a Treaty, take not off thine Hand, till thou hast untied every knot, and cleared every difficulty. Send thy Spirit into their Hearts who are entrusted with this great work, give them Bowels of Compassion toward their bleeding, and expiring Country, strike a Sense into them of the Blood already shed, and the Desolation to come, which threatneth all if they prevent it not. But above all, let thy Fear run through all their consultations, that remembering the sad account, which in the last great day will be required of them, they may lay aside every Sin, and every Interest that may divert them from the ways of Peace, and by the guidance of thy Wisdom (for in this all humane wisdom fails) find out those blessed Expedients as may restore the voice of Joy and Peace into our Dwellings, in such a way, as may be most to the Glory of thy Great Name, the Settlement of the true Religion so long professed among us, the Honour, and Safety of the King's Sacred Person, and the Good of all H●s People. Hear these our Prayers, and perfect this great work, through the mediation of thine own dear Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. A Prayer. O Most just and powerful Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth, we cannot but acknowledge that the manifold miseries which have befallen us are the due reward of our deeds, and that we have deserved that the things which belong to our peace should still be hid from our eyes. For when of thy own free mercy thou wert pleased to grant us a long time of plenty and prosperity, more than thou gavest to any of the Nations that are about us, we became weary of our happiness, and by our ingratitude pulled upon us those judgements which now threaten desolation to this late flourishing Kingdom. And since the time of our affliction thou hast given us space to repent, and we repent not; Iniquity hath still more and more abounded. As heretofore thy mercies did not allure us, so now thy judgements have not humbled us to a serious consideration of our misdeserving. Now, O Lord, we find ourselves entangled and wearied by our own counsels; The troubles of our heart are enlarged; Our iniquities and the punishments which attend upon them, are a burden too heavy for us to bear. And therefore in the anguish and bitterness of our souls we return unto thee, humbly beseeching thee, in whom alone is our help, to have respect unto the prayers of thy servants. O shut not up thy loving kindness in displeasure, let not thine anger burn against the sheep of thy pasture: But bind up the breach of this people. Let the sighing of the prisoners come before thee, Behold the tears of the distressed Orphans and widows, and of all such as are oppressed and have no comforter. How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou forbear to command deliverances? Remember thy tender mercies which have been ever of old, and save us as thou hast done heretofore. Remember thy promise of deliverance to those who call upon thee in the day of trouble. And when the blood that hath been shed by oppression calls aloud for vengeance, O then hearken unto the voice of thy Son's blood which speaks better things; behold the Lamb of God, who was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities. And to this end regard the sincerity of thine Anointed, maintain thy own cause, and preserve unto him that power which thou hast given him: bind his soul in the bundle of life, let mercy and truth preserve him, and let his Throne be established for ever before thee. Bless them that are peaceable and faithful in the land: And as for those that have risen up against him, we beseech thee melt & mollify their hearts to the entertainment of compassion and love; reclaim them to obedience, lay not their sin to their charge, but guide their feet into the way of peace. Give to those that have done wrong the grace to repent, and to those that have suffered wrong, minds ready to forgive. And if any shall be averse from peace, O thou that art the wonderful Counsellor, turn their wisdom into foolishness, confound their practices, and let their mischief return upon their own heads. And when thou hast vouchsafed to give us that tranquillity which we beg at thy hands, give us grace to embrace it with all thankfulness, to obey our Governors, to live at unity among ourselves, evermore blessing thy glorious name which is exalted above all blessing and praise, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. FINIS.