FOR TEMPORAL BLESSINGS.

O GOD, heavenly Father, who by thy Son Jesus Christ hast promised to all them that seek thy kingdom, and the righteousness thereof, all things necessary to their bodily sustenance; send us, I beseech thee, such seasonable weather as may preserve to our use the kindly fruits of the earth, and that in due time we may enjoy them. I acknowledge, O Lord, that it is from thy gift that the rain doth fall, the earth is fruitful, beasts increase, and fishes do multiply; and though for our sins we have worthily deserved scarcity and dearth, and have justly exposed ourselves to be punished with great sickness and mortality, and to be delivered into the hands of our enemies; yet, for the sake of thy blessed Son, and upon our own true repentance, send us cheapness and plenty, healthful seasons, unity, peace, and concord; deliver us from lightning and tempest, from plague, pestilence, and famine, from battle and murder, and from sudden death. Increase the fruits of the earth by thy heavenly benediction, and grant that we, receiving thy bountiful liberality, may use the same to thy glory, the relief of those that are needy, and to our own comfort, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

FOR AVERTING JUDGMENTS.

O ALMIGHTY God, who in thy wrath didst send a plague upon thine own people in the wilderness, for their obstinate rebellion against Moses and Aaron; and also in the time of king David didst slay with the plague of pestilence threescore and ten thousand; be merciful to thy sinful people, who have so many ways provoked thy wrath, that we are afraid of thy judgments; remember not, Lord, our sins, nor the sins of our fore

fathers, but according to the greatness of thy mercies, think thou upon us for thy goodness-sake. Turn us, O Lord, and so let thy anger cease from us. Be favourable, O Lord, be favourable to thy people, who turn to thee in weeping, fasting, and praying. Thou sparest when we deserve punishment, and in thy wrath thinkest upon mercy. Spare thy people, good Lord, spare them, and let not thy heritage be brought to confusion. Hear us, O Lord, for thy mercy is great, and after the multitude of thy mercies look upon us, through the merits and mediation of thy blessed Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

CHAP. VII.

EMBER DAYS IN WHITSUN-WEEK.

Q. What Fast does the church observe at this time? A. The second season of the Ember Days; which are the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, after the feast of Pentecost; Trinity Sunday, which immediately follows, being one of the stated times for ordinations.

Q. What do you mean by ordination?

A. A privilege peculiar to the character of a bishop, who is a governor in the church of God; whereby he conveys authority to some to preach the gospel, and to administer the sacraments, who are called presbyters, and from whence is derived our word priest; and to others to be assistants to himself and the presbyters in their spiritual administrations, who are called deacons ; which is performed by prayer and the imposition of hands: a solemn ceremony of blessing and devoting persons to the sacred function. For as the laying the hands upon the head was a rite of benediction used by Jacob in blessing Joseph's children, and by Moses in

blessing Joshua; so by the sinners laying their hands on the heads of the sacrifice, it appears that it was a ceremony used in devoting things to God; upon which account this was appropriated to the ordination of churchmen, who are to be blessed and devoted to God, and was made use of to express that right and authority which persons do receive together with it, for the exercise and discharge of their ministerial function.

Q. What foundation is there for this subordination of church officers from the institution of Jesus Christ?

A. Our blessed Saviour while here upon earth, was himself the great shepherd and bishop of souls; an high priest, called of God, who in his lifetime established under himself two distinct orders of church officers, the one superior to the other, viz. the twelve Apostles and the seventy disciples; who are so distinguished from one another, that it implies a distinction in their office, they are mentioned apart by different names, and sent forth at different times. In which establishment our Saviour kept as nigh to the form in use among the Jews as was possible; who had their high priests, the priests, and the Levites.

Q. How does it appear that the office of the Apostles was superior to that of the seventy?

A. This is evident, not only from our Saviour's particular care, solicitude, and intercession for these twelve, and his diligent instructing and teaching them more than the rest of his followers, revealing to them the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven; but from hence also, that the successors of the Apostles were chosen out of the seventy; and that Matthias, who was ordained into the place of Judas, is by the ancients affirmed to be * Gen. xlviii. 14. Deut. xxxiv. 9. b Heb. v. 10. Luke vi. 13. x.1.

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of that number; which argues the Apostles to be superior to the seventy, otherwise it would be no advancement to the seventy to have succeeded them. Besides, the Apostles exercised powers which were not common with the seventy, as cleansing the lepers, and raising the dead; and our Saviour, after his resurrection, gave them a second solemn mission, whereby these peculiar spiritual powers were increased.

Q. What powers did the Apostles exercise which the seventy were not endowed with?

A. The power of imposition of hands in ordinations, as is plain in the institution of deacons who, though chosen by the rest of the disciples, yet they were set before the Apostles, and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them. The power of confirming baptized Christians; for when St. Philip had converted and baptized the men of Samaria, the Apostles sent St. Peter and St. John to lay their hands on them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost; the power of jurisdiction and authority to govern the church, as is evident in the case of Diotrephes, a presbyter; whom, for not giving heed to St. John's letters, and for his rejection of some faithful people from the Catholic communion, without cause, and without authority, St. John the Apostle threatened, that when he came, he would remember his deeds; which would have been to no purpose, if he had not had coercive jurisdiction to have punished his delinquency.

Q. But was not this superiority and subjection among the ecclesiastical orders temporary, and to cease with the persons of the Apostles?

A. These powers, peculiar to the superior order, being a Mat. x. 8. Luke x. 1, 9.

3 John 10.

e

Acts vi.

f Acts viii.

necessary for the good government of the church, it is plain in fact they did not expire with the Apostles. But as our Saviour glorified not himself to be an high priest," but had his commission from God the Father; so, after his resurrection, he invested the Apostles with the same commission his Father had given unto him. As my Father hath sent me, even so I send you; and he breathed on them, and said unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. In which commission is plainly contained the authority of ordaining others, and a power to transfer that commission upon others, and those upon others to the end of the world. And to shew that it was not merely personal to the Apostles, our Saviour promises to be with them and their successors in the execution of this commission always, even unto the end of the world.* And in pursuance of this commission, the Apostles ordained bishops in all churches, particularly St. James at Jerusalem, Epaphroditus at Philippi, as St. Paul did Titus at Crete, that he should set things in order that were wanting, and ordain elders in every city, and rebuke with all authority,' (the true characters of episcopal power), and Timothy at Ephesus, even after the presbytery was formed and settled: St. Paul having laboured among them for three years together. And there can be no other reason given why, in the primitive language of the church, bishops are styled Apostles, but because they succeeded in the Apostolical superiority. And there cannot be a greater evidence that such a superiority was not to be temporary, but perpetual, than the universal practice in the purest times, when they had no worldly encouragements, but the chief among them expected to be the first martyrs.

h Heb. v. 5. 'John xx. 21, 22, &c. Tit. i. 5. ii. 15.

* Mat. xxviii. 20.