Special Devotions to be used upon the Lords Day, and the great Festivals of Christians.

In the morning recite the following form of thanksgiving, upon the special festivals, adding the commemoration of the special blessings according to the following prayers; adding such prayers as you shall choose out of the foregoing devotions.

Besides the ordinary and public duties of the day, if you retire into your closet to read and meditate, after you have performed that duty, say the Song of St. Ambrose, (commonly called the Te Deum,) or, We praise thee, etc.; then add the prayers for particular graces, which are at the end of the former chapter, such and as many of them as shall fit your present needs and affections, ending with the Lord’s Prayer. This form of devotion may, for variety, be indifferently used at other times.

A form of thanksgiving with a recital of public and private blessings, to be used upon Easter-day, Whit-sunday, Ascention-day, and all Sundays of the year; but the middle part of it may be reserved for the more solemn festivals, and the other used upon the ordinary, as every man’s affections or leisure shall determine.

1. Ex Liturgia S. Basilii magna ex parte.

Oh eternal essence, Lord God, Father Almighty, maker of all things in heaven and earth; it is a good thing to give thanks to thee, O Lord, and to pay to thee all reverence, worship and devotion, from a clean and prepared heart, and with an humble spirit to present a live in and reasonable sacrifice to thy holiness and majesty; for thou hast given unto us the knowledge of thy truth; and who is able to declare thy greatness, and to recount all thy marvelous works which thou hast done in all the generations of the world?

O great Lord and Governor of all things, Lord and Creator of all things, Lord and Creator of all things visible and invisible, who sittest upon the throne of thy glory, and beholdest the secrets of the lowest abyss and darkness, thou art without beginning, uncircumscribed, incomprehensible, unalterable, and seated for ever unmovable in thy own essential happiness and tranquility; thou art the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is,

Our dearest and most gracious Saviour, our hope, the wisdom of the Father, the image of thy goodness, the word eternal, and the brightness of thy person, the power of God from eternal ages, the true light that lighteneth every man that cometh into the world, the redemption of man, and the sanctification of our spirits.

By whom the Holy Ghost descended upon the church; the Holy Spirit of truth, the seal of adoption; the earnest of the inheritance of the saints; the first fruits of everlasting felicity; the life-giving power; the fountain of sanctification; the comfort of the church, the ease of the afflicted, the support of the weak, the wealth of the poor, the teacher of the doubtful, scrupulous, and ignorant; the anchor of the fearful; the infinite reward of all faithful souls, by whom all reasonable and understanding creatures serve thee, and send up a never-ceasing and a never-rejected sacrifice of prayer, and praise, and adoration.

All angels and archangels, all thrones and dominions, all principalities and powers, the cherubim with many eyes, and the seraphim covered with wings from the terror and amazement of thy brightest glory; these, and all the powers of heaven, do perpetually sing praise and never-ceasing hymns and eternal anthems to the glory of the eternal God, the Almighty Father of men and angels.

Holy is our God; holy is the Almighty; holy is the Immortal; holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth, heaven and earth are full of the majesty of thy glory. Amen. With these holy and blessed spirits I also, thy servant O thou great lover of souls, though I be unworthy to offer praise to such a majesty; yet, out of my bounden duty, humbly offer up my heart and voice to join in this blessed choir, and confess the glories of the Lord. For thou art holy, and of thy greatness there is no end; and in thy justice and goodness thou hast measured out to us all thy works.

Thou madest man out of the earth, and didst form him after thine own image; thou didst place him in a garden of pleasure, and gavest him laws of righteousness to be to him a seed of immortality.

“O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness, and declare the wonders that he hath done for the children of men.”

For when man sinned and listened to the whispers of a tempting spirit, and refused to hear the voice of God, thou didst throw him out from paradise, and sentest him to till the earth; but yet leftest not his condition without remedy, but didst provide for him the salvation of a new birth, and by the blood of thy Son didst redeem and pay the price to thine own justice for thine own creature, lest the work of thine own hands should perish.

“O that men would therefore praise the Lord,” etc.

For thou, O Lord, in every age didst send testimonies from heaven, blessings, and prophets, and fruitful seasons, and preachers of righteousness, and miracles of power and mercy; thou spakest by thy prophets and saidst, ‘I will help by one that is mighty; and, in the fulness of time, spakest to us by thy Son, by whom thou didst make both the worlds, who, by the word of his power, sustains all things in heaven and earth; who thought it no robbery to be equal to the Father; who, being before all time, was pleased to be born in time to converse with men, to be incarnate of a holy virgin; he emptied himself of all his glories, took on him the form of a servant, in all things being made like unto us, in a soul of passions and discourse, in a body of humility and sorrow, but in all things innocent, and in all things afflicted; and suffered death for us, that we by him might live, and be partakers of his nature and his glories, of his body and of his Spirit, of the blessings of earth, and of immortal felicities in heaven.

“O that men would therefore praise the Lord,” etc.

For thou, O holy and immortal God, O sweetest Saviour Jesus, wert made under the law to condemn sin in the flesh; thou, who knewest no sin, wert made sin for us; thou gavest to us righteous commandments, and madest known to us all thy Father’s will; thou didst redeem us from our vain conversation, and from the vanity of idols, false principles, and foolish confidences, and broughtest us to the knowledge of the true and only God and our Father, and hast made us to thyself a peculiar people of thy own purchase, a royal priesthood, a holy nation; thou hast washed our souls in the laver of regeneration, the sacrament of baptism; thou hast reconciled us by thy death, justified us by thy resurrection, sanctified us by thy Spirit, sending him upon thy church in visible forms, and giving him in powers and miracles and mighty signs, and continuing this incomparable favour in gifts and sanctifying graces, and promising that he shall abide with us for ever; thou hast fed us with thine own broken body, and given drink to our souls out of thine own heart, and hast ascended up on high, and hast overcome all the powers of death and hell, and redeemed us from the miseries of a sad eternity; and sittest at the right-hand of God, making intercession for us with a never-ceasing charity.

“O that men would therefore praise the Lord,” etc.

The grave could not hold thee long, O holy and eternal Jesus; thy body could not see corruption, neither could thy soul be left in hell; thou wert free among the dead, and thou breakest the iron gates of death, and the bars and chains of the lower prisons. Thou broughtest comfort to the souls of the patriarchs, who waited for thy coming, who longed for the redemption of man, and the revelation of thy day. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob saw thy day and rejoiced; and when thou didst arise from thy bed of darkness, and leftest the graveclothes behind thee, and didst put on a robe of glory, (over which for forty days thou didst wear a veil) and then enterdst into a cloud, and then into glory, then the powers of hell were confounded, then death lost its power and was swallowed up into victory; and though death is not quite destroyed, yet it is made harmless and without a sting, and the condition of human nature is made an entrance to eternal glory; and art become the Prince of life, the first-fruits of the resurrection, the first-born from the dead, having made the way plain before our faces, that we may also arise again in the resurrection of the last day, when thou shalt come again unto us, to render to every man according to his works.

“O that men would therefore praise the Lord,” etc.

O give thanks unto the Lord, praise ye the Lord; praise him and magnify him for ever.

O ye spirits and souls of the righteous, praise ye the Lord; praise him and magnify him for ever.

And now, O Lord God, what shall I render to thy Divine Majesty for all the benefits thou hast done unto thy servant in my personal capacity?

Thou art my creator and my Father, my Protector and my Guardian; thou hast brought me from my mother’s womb; thou hast told all my joints, and in thy book were all my members written; thou hast given me a comely body, Christian and careful parents, holy education; thou hast been my guide and my teacher all my days; thou hast given me ready faculties, an unloosed tongue, a cheerful spirit, straight limbs, a good reputation, and liberty of person, a quiet life, and a tender conscience. Thou wert my hope from my youth, through thee have I been holden up ever since I was born. Thou hast sent thy angel to snatch me from the violence of fire and water, to prevent precipices, fracture of bones, to rescue me from thunder and lightning, plague and pestilential diseases, murder and robbery, violence of chance and enemies, and all the spirits of darkness; and in the days of sorrow thou hast refreshed me; in the destitution of provisions thou are taken are of me, and thou hast said unto me, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”

“I will give thanks unto the Lord with my whole heart, secretly among the faithful, and in the congregation.”

Thou, O my dearest Lord and Father, hast taken care of my soul, hast pitied my miseries, sustained my infirmities, relieved and instructed my ignorances; and though I have broken thy righteous laws and commandments, run passionately after vanities, and was in love with death, and was dead in sin, and was exposed to thousands of temptations, and fell foully, and continued in it, and loved to have it so, and hated to be reformed; yet thou didst call me with the checks of conscience, with daily sermons and precepts of holiness, with fear and shame, with benefits and the admonitions of thy most Holy Spirit, by the counsel of my friends, by the example of good persons, with holy books and thousands of excellent arts, and would not suffer me to perish in my folly but didst force me to to attend to thy gracious calling, and hast put me into a state of repentance, and possibilities of pardon, being infinitely desirous I should live, and recover, and make use of thy grace, and partake of thy glories.

“I will give thanks unto the Lord with my whole heart, secretly among the faithful and in the congregation. For salvation belongeth unto the Lord, and thy blessing is upon thy servant. But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercies, and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple. For of thee, and in thee, and through and for thee, are all things. Blessed be the name of God, from generation to generation.” Amen.