ST IV. ance at TRENGTHEN me, O God, in my last For AfliftAgonies; and as my Strength decays, let my the Hour Pains wear off. But when my Strength fails, let of Death. not my Faith fail; even in Death enable me to truft in thee. Deliver me from all violent Diforders of a troubled Fancy, or painful Delufions of my Ghoftly Enemy. Oh! let him not be able to disturb and terrify me, or any Way prevail against me. Have me in thy Cuftody, O holy Father! for nothing can take me out of thy Hands; give thy holy Angels Charge to ftand about me, to guard and receive my poor Soul at my Departure, and to conduct and carry it to the bleffed Receptacles of Reft and Peace. If it be thy gracious Will, O Lord, make my Pains fhort, and my Death eafy; at least not extremely tedious or grievous to me. But if thou haft otherwife ordered, thy blefsed Will be done; only give me Patience to bear them, and spiritual Comforts under them, and at thine own Time, make my Death my Paffage to a joyful Refurrection, to a bleffed and eternal Life, through Jefus Christ our Lord. Amen. CHAP. VI. Rogation Days. WHAT Faft doth the Church obferve at this A. The Faft of the Rogation Days, which are the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before Holy Thurfday, or the Afcenfion of our Lord. Q. Why are they called Rogation Days? A. From the extraordinary Prayers and Supplications, which, with Fafting, were at this Time offered to God by devout Chriftians. The Latins called Gga them Annal. Ecclef. them Rogations, and the Greeks Litanies. In these Fafts the Church had not only a Regard to prepare our Minds to celebate our Saviour's Afcenfion after a devout Manner, but by fervent Prayers and Humiliation to appeafe God's Wrath, and deprecate his Displeasure, fo that he might avert those Judgments which the Sins of a Nation deferved, that he might be pleased to blefs the Fruits with which the Earth is at this Time covered, and not pour upon them thofe Scourges of his Wrath, Peftilence and War, which ordinarily begin in this Seafon. Q. When were thefe Rogation Days eftablished in the Church? A. The Ufe of thefe earneft Supplications for the Mercy of God, which were called Litanies, was very early practifed in the Chriftian Church, the Joel ii.17 Pattern whereof we have in Scripture appointed by God himself in a Time of general Calamity; and Tim. ii. fuch Supplications are thought to be fuggefted Le Comte by St. Paul in thofe feveral Kinds of public Prayers, which he enjoins to Timothy. But this Seafon before our Lord's Afcenfion, for Litanies Tom.1.p. and Rogations, were fixed by Mamertus, Bishop of Vienne, about the Middle of the fifth Century, upon the Profpect of fome particular Calamities that threatened his Diocese. Some few Years after, this Example we followed by Sidonius Bishop of Clermont; and, in the Beginning of the fixth Century, the firft Council of Orleans appointed that they should be yearly observed. Fran. 285, 286. Q. Wherein confifts the Piety of this Inftitution? A. In that it teftifies our Dependance upon God, in thofe Expectations we entertain of Temporal Happiness. And in that we acknowledge all fecond Caufes are entirely at his Difpofal; and that the folemn Repentance and earnest Prayers of a Nation are the most effectual Means to appease God's Wrath and avert public Evils. For thus we we find in the Old Teftament, among the People of God, that his Providences were fuited to their Manners, and they were conftantly profperous or afflicted, as Piety and Virtue flourished or declined among them. And the crying Sins of a Nation cannot hope to efcape public Judgments, unless they be prevented by a general Repentance and Humiliation; it being only in this Life that public Bodies and Communities of Men, as fuch, are liable to Punishment. Q. What was the Service enjoined upon thefe Days? A. At the Reformation, when all Profeffions were abolished by Reason of the Abuse of them, yet for retaining the Perambulation of the Circuits of Parishes, it was enjoined, that the People fhall, once a year, at the Time accustomed, with the Curate and fubftantial Men of the Parish, walk about the Parishes as they were accuftomed, and at their Return to Church make their Common Prayers. Provided that the Curate in their faid common Perambulations, used heretofore in the Days of Rogations, at certain convenient Places, fhall admonish the People to give Thanks to God, in the beholding of God's Benefits, for the Increafe and Abundance of his Fruits upon the Face of the Earth, with the Saying of the 103 Pfalm; at which Time also the fame Minister fhall inculcate this and fuch Sentences, Curfed be be that tranflateth the Bounds and Doles of his Neighbour. Injunct. Q. Eliz. 18, 19. Q. But fince all Chriftians own the great and wonderful Efficacy of Prayer; let me know wherein the Nature of Prayer confifts? A. Prayer is the Address of the Soul to God, and the Afcent of the Mind towards Heaven; which receives different Names according to those various Subjects the Mind is employed upon in Gg 3 fuch fuch Addreffes. When we bewail our particular Sins with Sorrow and full Purposes of Amendment, it is called Confeffion; when we implore God's Mercy, and defire any Favour from him, Petition; when for the averting any Evil, Supplication; when we exprefs a grateful Senfe of Benefits received, Thanksgiving; when we acknowledge and adore the Divine Perfections, Praife; when we beg any Thing for others, it is flyled Interceffion. So that in all thefe Acts we have the great Honour to be admitted into God's Prefence, and to treat with him about thofe Things which chiefly concern our own Happiness, or that of our Neighbours. Q. But fince God knows all Things, and being infinite Goodness is ready to Jupply us, how doth it appear neceffary to make fuch Addreffes to him? A. Prayer is neceffary, as it is one of the highest Acts of religious Worship, whereby we acknowledge God's infinite Perfections, and own our entire Dependance upon him; that he is the Fountain of all Goodnefs, and that we are nothing but Weaknefs and Imperfection. Befides, God hath eftablished it as a Means, whereby we are to obtain whatever we want in Relation to our Souls and Mat. vii. Bodies; we are to afk before it fhall be given, we must seek before we shall find, we must knock before it will be opened unto us. And he hath promised the Affiftance of his Holy Spirit to help us in the Performance of our Prayers; and hath Heb. vii. appointed his Son to intercede by Virtue of his 7. Rom. viii. 26. 25. Merits for their Acceptance. So that a Man must be very Atheistical, that forbears paying the great Creator this Homage that is due to him; or very careless of his Salvation, that neglects fuch admirable Means for the effecting it. Q. What hath been the Practice of the World in this Particular? A. The A. The most barbarous Nations, as they have owned the Being of a God, fo have they always expreffed their Refpect and Reverence of a Deity, in making Addreffes to him. And thus much was imported by their offering Sacrifices, that God was the great Sovereign of the Univerfe, that all good Things came from above, and that from his Bounty alone they could expect a Supply of their Wants. In all Ages good Men have in this Manner conftantly exercised their Devotion, and have exposed themselves to the utmost Dangers and Hazards, rather than neglect their Duty in this Kind; nay, the bleffed Jefus thus teftified his Obedience and Submiffion, his Love and Humility; he often went into the Places of public Worthip, and frequently retired all alone, and spent whole Nights in the Exercise of Prayer. Q. What ought we to pray for? 33. A. In the first Place, we ought to feek the King- Mat. vi. dom of God and his Righteoufnefs, all thofe Things that are neceffary to our Salvation: That God would be pleased to illuminate our Understandings with the Knowledge of Divine Truths: That he would pardon our Sins, ftrengthen our Refolutions of better Obedience, and affift us to overcome Temptations, and by the Help of his Spirit, enable us to walk in his Ways all the Days of our Lives That as to this World, he would be pleased to fupply us with fuch a Share of the good Things of it, as may be moft agreeable to his Will, and anfwer the Ends of his univerfal Providence, and may moft conduce to our eternal Welfare. Q. What Encouragement have we to beg the Supply of our fpiritual and temporal Wants? A. The infinite Goodness of the divine Nature, always ready to exert and communicate itself to capable Subjects, and that univerfal Providence Gg 4 whereby |