That it may please thee' to fuccour help' and comfort' all that are in danger' neceffity' and tribulation We, &c. That it may please thee' to preserve all that travel' by land' or by water" all women labouring of child" all fick perfons' and young children" and to fhew thy pity upon all prisoners and captives "" We, &c. That it may please thee' to defend' and provide for the fatherlefs children' and widows" and all that are defolate' and oppre'ffed"" That it may please thee to have mercy upon ǎll men"" We, &c. That it may pleafe thee' to forgive our enemies' perfecutors and flanderers' and to turn their heārts " We, &c. R That That it may please thee' to give and prefer ve to our ufe' the kindly fruits of the earth' fo as in dùe time we may enjoy them We, &c. That it may please thee to give us trùe repentance" to forgive us all our fi`ns' negligences and i`gnorances and to endue us with the grace of thy Holy Spirit' to amend our lives according to thy holy wo`rd We beseech thee to hear us good Lord = = So`n of God' we beseech thee to hear Ō Lamb of God' that takeft away the "fins of the world ...Grant us thy peace"" Lamb of God' that takest awày the fins of the world' Have mercy upon us ō Christ' O Chrift hear us w Lord have mercy upon us Christ' have me`rcy upon us" Lord have mercy upon us = I fhall now make a few obfervations upon fome paffages in the above service. In the opening of the Litany, there is fomething fo wrong in the compofition, that it will be very difficult to fet it right by any mode of reading. The ufual way of delivering hit God the Father of O Heaven' certainly does not make it fenfe. God may properly be ftyled the Creator of Heaven, as well as of Earth; but as we fhould be ftruck with the impropriety of calling him the Father of Earth, custom alone could prevent our perceiving that it is equally abfurd to ftyle him the Father of Heaven. Besides, there is evidently, intended here, in the opening of the Litany, a dif R 2 1 a distinct addrefs to each of the Perfons of the Trinity; not only by their different appellations, but by specific attributes to each. Thus in the addrefs to God the Son, he is peculiarly characterifed as, Redeemer of the world. In that to the Holy Ghost, as, Proceeding from the Father and the Son. The like was probably intended with regard to the addrefs to God the Father at the opening, by the words, of Heaven' as confidering that to be peculiarly his province, as that of the Earth more immediately belonged to our Redeemer. If this was the intention, as it certainly ought to have been, of the writer, it is fo obfcured by the ill choice and arrangement of the words, that all the world have mistaken it. Had he inferted the word, Ruler, or Creator, the sense would then have been plain, and the compofition perfect; as thus-O God the Father! Ruler of Heaven, &c. O God O God the Son! Redeemer of the world, &c. O God the Holy Ghoft! proceeding from the Father and the Son, &c.' There is no doubt, that as it was intended that the opening of the Litany, should be, by a distinct address to each of the three Perfons of the Trinity, this intention should have been manifefted in the first inftance of the address to the first Perfon, God the Father; which it is not at all in the manner in which it is always delivered 'O God the Father of Heaven'-for this is not God the Father confidered as one of the Perfons of the Trinity, that is, the Father of Jefus Christ, or God the Son; but exprefsly, God the Father of Heaven; and therefore has no relation to, or connexion with, the two following invocations, to God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. The only way to remedy this defect, is by making a paufe after R 3 -God |