That it may please Thee to sanctify those that love the beauty of Thy house, and to glorify them with Thy divine power, Grant of Thy mercy, O Lord. That it may please Thee to fetch home to Thy flock all strangers and wanderers, and to make us one fold under one Shepherd, Grant of Thy mercy, O Lord. That it may please Thee to pity and strengthen all afflicted or departing souls, and specially all those that suffer for the truth, Grant of Thy mercy, O Lord. That it may please Thee to enable me with all boldness to speak the whole counsel of God, that I may exercise my office well and purchase to myself a higher degree in Thy holy ministry, Grant of Thy mercy, O Lord. That it may please Thee to give me skill and conduct in my difficulties, a discerning spirit, studious habits, and a sound judgment in all things; and to guide me into all truth, Grant of Thy mercy, O Lord. That it may please Thee to set a watch before my mouth and keep the door of my lips; to destroy in me the inordinate love of pleasure and conformity to the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, Grant of Thy mercy, O Lord. That it may please Thee to make me an earnest lover of souls, wise to win them, and watchful to keep them, as one that must give account, Grant of Thy mercy, O Lord. That it may please Thee to guide all them that are guides to others; that the whole Church may go in the right way to the right end, even eternal life, Grant of Thy mercy, O Lord. That it may please Thee to give me the heart to present myself a living sacrifice unto Thee, to keep me, and strengthen me; to guide me with Thy counsel here, and after that receive me with glory, Grant of Thy mercy, O Lord. 106 A LITANY FOR EMBER DAYS. Lord, have mercy upon me; OUR Father, &c. MERCIFUL God, who hast made all things, and hatest nothing that Thou hast made, nor wouldest the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live: Have mercy upon all Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Heretics, and take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of Thy word: and so fetch them home, blessed Lord, to Thy flock, that they may be saved among the remnant of the true Israelites, and be made one fold under one Shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen. SHORT READINGS FOR CANDIDATES FOR HOLY ORDERS. I. A GRAVE divine is one that knows the burden of his calling, and hath studied to make his shoulders sufficient: for which cause he hath not been hasty to launch forth of his port, the university, but expected the ballast of learning and the wind of opportunity. Divinity is not the beginning but the end of his studies: to which he takes the ordinary stair and makes the arts his way. He counts it not profaneness to be polished with human reading, or to smoothe his way by Aristotle to school divinity. The ministry is his choice, not his refuge; and yet the pulpit is not his itch, but fear. His discourse is substance, not all rhetoric: and he utters more things than words. His speech is not helped with enforced action, but the matter acts itself. He shoots all his meditations at one butt and beats upon his text, not the cushions; making his hearers, not the pulpit, groan. In citing of popish errors, he cuts them with arguments, not cudgels them with barren invectives; and labours more to shew the truth of his cause than the spleen. His sermon is limited by the method, not the hour-glass; and his devotion goes along with him out of the pulpit. He comes not up thrice a week, because he would not be idle; nor talks three hours together, because he would not talk nothing; but his tongue preaches at fit times, and his conversation is every day's exercise. In matters of ceremony he is not ceremonious, but thinks he owes that reverence to the Church to bow his judgment to it, and make more conscience of schism than a surplice. He esteems the Church's hierarchy as the Church's glory; and however we jar with Rome, would not have our confusion distinguish us. In simoniacal purchases he thinks his soul goes in the bargain, and is loth to come by promotion so dear; yet his worth at length advances him, and the price of his own merit buys him a living. He is no base grater of his tithes, and will not wrangle for the odd |