Cap. lv.

[ii. 12.]

and spake unto you, but when I spake, you would not hear, neither when I called would ye answer: Therefore will I do unto this house, whereupon my Name is called, wherein also ye trust, even to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Silo; and I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, &c. Let us therefore remember ourselves in time, and call upon God with earnest repentance, before he turn his face clean from us: let us follow the good counsel of the blessed Prophet Esay, Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is nigh us: let the wicked man forsake his wicked ways, and the evil man his naughty cogitations, and return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon us. Let us return unto God: for he is ready to forgive. Yea, God himself calleth us by the Prophet Joel: Turn unto the Lord (saith he) with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rent your hearts and not your clothes, and turn unto the Lord your God: For he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil that he hath purposed. Let us therefore embrace the mercy of God while it is offered: he hath not yet stretched out his arm against us: only as a merciful Father he hath shaken the rod of his justice toward us, to wake us out of the deep slumber of our security. The Lord God grant, that in time we may take warning thereby, and not harden our hearts, and make stiff our necks against our gracious God! These are therefore in the fear of God to charge the watchmen of the Lord's city, diligently and carefully to sound the Trumpet in Sion, to gather the people together, to teach them in sackcloth and ashes to repent, to will them inwardly to rent their hearts, and not outwardly their garments only: sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, call the young ones, and even those that suck the breast. Let the bridegroom and his spouse, let them that live in delicacy and pleasure of this life, in what state or condition soever they be, high or low, cast away their mirth and solace, and come and weep and cry with bitter repentance before the mighty God, saying, Spare thy people (O Lord) and give not thine heritage and beloved vineyard into reproach, that the wicked seed of Antichrist rule over it. Let not the enemies of thy truth say among themselves, Where is now their God, in whom they have put their trust? Then undoubtedly will the Lord be jealous over this land, and spare his people; yea, the Lord will answer, and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and you shall be satisfied therewith, and I will no more make you a reproach among mine enemies, and I will remove far from you the Northern army, that is, the Antichristian power, and I will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the East sea, and his end to the uttermost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his corruption shall ascend, because he hath exalted himself against the truth of God. Fear not (O land), but be glad and rejoice, for the Lord will do great things for thee. This godly admonition was given to the prince, priests, and people, with great zeal and earnestness by Joel the prophet, in the days of that good king Ezechiah, and is the only way to turn away the wrath of God from us, and to obtain the continuance of his gracious goodness toward us, and his divine protection over us in all our difficulties and distresses.

That therefore this admonition or exhortation may take the better effects in men's hearts, it is ordered and straitly charged, that in every parish where there is a preacher allowed by the Ordinary, that every Sunday in some public Sermon he shall put the people in remembrance of God's exceeding benefits and blessings bestowed upon us these many years, and of our unthankful receiving and using of the same; and exhort them to sincere and true repentance, and that in such sort, as they declare the inward affection of their hearts with the outward exercises of prayer, fastings, and alms-deeds, that the world may testify and see that they truly return to their Lord God. In other places, where such sufficient and discreet preachers be not, the Ministers upon the same days shall read some part of these Homilies following, distinctly and reverently, that the people may be moved thereby to the effect of that which is before mentioned. Moreover, upon the Wednesdays and Fridays the Ministers in every Parish shall say Divine service morning and evening, in such sort as hereafter followeth: at which Service one of every house in the parish shall be present. And if either the Ministers shall be negligent in doing their duties appointed unto them in this service, or the people disobedient in coming or resorting to this godly exercise, the Churchwardens and other discreet men of the Parish are required to complain thereof unto the Ordinary, that the slackness of each party may be corrected. The people also at each time of assembly would be admonished to make their charitable contributions to the relief of the poor, at the least according to the order of the Statute'.

The order of this book.

First, the Confession, as it is in the Book of Common prayer, with some one or two of the sentences of Scripture set before the same.

Then two or three of these Psalms following in order.

Then some one of these Chapters

following: Esai. v. lviii. lix. lxv. Ezechiel xvii. Zachar. vii. Joel i. ii. Jonas iii. Luke xvi. xxi. Matthew xxv. i John iii.

['An act of parliament passed in the fifth year of Elizabeth's reign (cap. 2) ordered, that very soon after Midsummer-day, 'when the people are at the Churche at Dyuine Seruice,' parish officers duly appointed on the previous Sunday should ask 'gentelly' such as were of ability, what they would give weekly towards the maintenance of the poor, and write the sums they mentioned against their names in a book. Doubtless there were many who endeavored to frustrate this merciful enactment.]

[LITURG. QU. ELIZ.]

38

Then the Litany, with the prayer appointed to be said in the time of dearth and famine: and the next Prayer following for the time of War. And if there be a convenient number of hearers upon any of the workdays in the Church, then one of these Homilies may be read, if there be no Sermon1.

An Homily of repentance, and of true reconciliation unto God.

THERE is nothing that the Holy Ghost doth so much labour in, &c.

મ An Homily of fasting.

THE life which we live in this world, &c.

An Homily of Alms-deeds and mercifulness toward the poor and needy.

AMONGST the manifold duties that Almighty God requireth, &c.

The second part of the Sermon of Alms-deeds. YE have heard before (dearly beloved), &c.

The third part of the Homily of Alms-deeds. YE have already heard two parts, &c.

[Whitgift's coat of arms, impaling the arms of the see of Canterbury, occurs here in some copies. But this circumstance does not militate against our assigning to the Form the date 1586 (see p. 468); since armorial bearings, as the documents at Herald's College shew, were really granted to him by Sir Gilbert Dethick, the 19th of May, 1577, whilst bishop of Worcester, not, as stated by Strype (Life, p. 3), the 4th of July, 1588, by Sir William Dethick.]

[These Homilies are all printed entire.]

An ORDER OF PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING, for the preservation of her Majesty and the Realm, from the traitorous and bloody practises of the Pope, and his adherents: to be used at times appointed in the Preface.

Ecclesiastes 10.

¶ Wish the king no evil in thy thought, and speak no hurt of the rich in thy privy chamber: for the birds of the air shall carry thy voice, and with their feathers shall they bewray thy words.

Eodem.

He that diggeth a pit shall fall therein himself, and whoso breaketh down the hedge, a serpent shall bite him.

Proverbs 21.

There is no wisdom, there is no understanding, there is no counsel
against the Lord.

The horse is prepared for the day of battle: but the Lord giveth victory.
Published by authority.

¶ Imprinted at London, by Christopher Barker, Printer to
the Queens most excellent Majesty.

1586.

The Preface.

CONSIDERING the great peace and quietness, wherewith God hath continually blessed this noble Realm of England, since the time that it pleased him by the hand of her Majesty to have the sincere truth of the Gospel of our Saviour planted among us, and his great blessings of all sorts, wherewith he hath enriched us, and given us our hearts' desires to our comfort, and the admiration of our neighbours round about us: It were too great impiety, not to shew ourselves daily thankful for these great mercies, and not to crave the continuance of God's holy hand over us. But weighing further, with what peril of violent death, by means of wicked popish practices, our gracious sovereign hath maintained the truth, which we profess, upon whose life (next under God) the profession of the same in this land, and the continuance of the lives and welfare of us her faithful Subjects, do depend; and knowing that the Almighty most miraculously hath preserved her highness from all treason hitherto intended against her most Royal person, and kept our blood from flowing in every street like water, our Cities and Houses from sacking, and the whole Land from extreme ruin: with what zeal ought every one of us to be inflamed to praise the Lord for the detecting and confusion of our secret foes, whom his right hand hath bruised! and how ought we to detest that doctrine, which bringeth forth so traitorous and bloody fruits!

XXV.

XX.

Psal. 34.

Moses and Miriam, and the whole host of Israel, had never greater cause to sing unto the Lord for the overthrow of Pharaoh and his army: nor Debora and Barac for the victory of Sisera: nor Judith, and the citizens of Bethulia for the end of Holofernes1 and the flight of his host, than we

[This allusion is not unlikely to have been suggested by a little book, which the Roman Catholics printed at Douay in 1578, and reprinted at London in 1580, entitled 'A Treatise of Schisme,' wherein the ladies about the court were thus exhorted: "Judith foloweth, whose godlye and constant wisdome if our Catholike gentlewomen would folowe, they might destroye Holofernes [Elizabeth] the master heretike, and amase all his retinew." The printer of this seditious and traitorous publication, William Carter, also then the chief Printer for the Romanists,' was hanged, drawn, and quartered for his offence at Tyburn, on the 11th of January, 1584. Camden, p. 497. Lingard, Vol. VIII. p. 429. A similar allusion is contained in the Latin prayer (see p. 466), which will now be given:

O Summa MAJESTAS, VIRTUS, et POTENTIA, noster solus qui vivas et videas Anglorum Deus, quanta ferocitate nunc temporum immanis humani generis adversarius ille Satan in asseclis suis (tuis autem conjuratis hostibus apertis), omni fraudum, contumeliarum, atque insidiarum molimine et insultu, CHRISTI Evangelium verosque ejusdem professores (quoad possint) opprimentibus, sanguinem nostrum quam omnia malentibus, passim frendeat ac furiat. Tu autem omnipotens et benignissime PATER adjuva populum tuum sperantem in te: Per te fortescat tua Judith in protectione suæ plebis et Bethuliæ, fratrumque suorum deflende afflictorum ex atroci tyrannide ferocientis illius misereque fascinati Holofernis, atque contra execrandum ejus (quod colit) Idolum, perfidum veritatis desertorem, blasphemum illum Zennacherib: ut tua Famula populusque suus non expavescat unquam ad corum arma, licet in tuorum perniciem ad amussim exacuta ac intentissime stricta: Quoniam revera, quamvis mundo gigantes videantur robustissimi et tela fortia, in conspectu tamen tuo vecordes et ignavi fiunt nani et spicula junci. Constringe tu DEUS noster gentem infidam, contumacem et religioni tuæ sedulo rebellantem: Per te corruat sacrilegus ille malignantium cœtus, et Ecclesia in impietate fundata, flagitiis constructa, fraudibus suffulta: Aut si fieri possit, ô clementissime PATER, effice, ut hi repudiato suo atheismo tandem aliquando resipiscant, agnoscentes Majestatem et Evangelium CHRISTI tui, in cujus veritate apud ceteros Christiani orbis fratres, cum caritate mutua in gratiam et religionis unitatem redeant, atque coalescant in eadem. Exeras interim, ô FORTITUDO nostra, caput tuum in tuorum tutelam, hostium autem confusionem: Tu propitius DEUS noster, qui adeo in angustiis non deseras tuos, ut castra etiam figat Angelus tuus circum eos qui te timeant, et eripiat eos. Suscipe causam tuam, ô DEUS, quæ nunc agitur, quo videant gentes quod non sit, ut Consilium neque adeo Concilium (ne Tridentinum quidem illud spurium et scelestum) adversus DOMINUM aut adversus CHRISTUM ejus, ita nec Deus ullus præ