A FORM OF

PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING

TO ALMIGHTY GOD,

FOR THE FRUITS OF THE EARTH AND ALL THE OTHER BLESSINGS OF HIS MERCIFUL PROVIDENCE;

to be used yearly on the First Thursday in November.

¶ The Service shall be as usual, except where it is hereby otherwise appointed.

¶ Among the sentences at the Beginning of Morning Prayer shall be the following:

HOnor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first-fruits of all thine increase; So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. Prov. 3. 9, 10.
    The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the Heavens. By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew. Verse, 19, 20.

¶ Instead of O come, let us sing, &c., the following shall be said or sung:

PRaise ye the Lord : for it is good to sing praises unto our God; or it is pleasant, and praise is comely.
    The Lord doth build up Jerusalem : he gathereth together the out-casts of Israel.
    He healeth those that are broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.
    He covereth the Heaven with clouds, and prepareth rain for the earth : He maketh the grass to grow upon the mountains.
    He giveth to the beast his food : and to the young ravens which cry.
    Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem : Praise thy God, O Sion.
    For he hath made fast the bars of thy gates : He hath blessed thy children within thee.
    He maketh peace in thy borders : And filleth thee with the finest of the wheat.

¶ Then shall be said or sung the Psalm; which shall be the same as is appointed for the 13th Day, Part 2.

¶ The first Lesson shall be Deut. 28 to verse 15; and the second Lesson shall be Matth. 7 verse 7 to 28.

¶ After the General Thanksgiving, shall be said this which followeth.

MOst gracious God, by whose knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew; we yield thee unfeigned thanks and praise as for all thy mercies, so especially for the returns of Seed-time and Harvest, and for crowning the year with thy goodness, in the increase of the ground, and gathering in of the fruits thereof. And, we beseech thee, give us a just sense of this great mercy; such as may appear in our lives, by an humble, holy, and obedient walking before thee all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord: to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be all glory and honour, world without end. Amen.
 

¶ The Collect to be used instead of that for the day.

O Most merciful Father, who hast blessed the labours of the husbandman in the returns of the fruits of the earth; We give thee humble and hearty thanks for this thy bounty; beseeching thee to continue thy loving-kindness for this thy bounty; beseeching thee to continue thy loving-kindness to us; that our land may still yield her increase, to thy glory and our comfort: through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

¶ The Epistle. St. James 1.16.

DO not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above; and cometh down from the Father of Lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures. Wherefore, my beloved Brethren, let every Man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the ingrafted word, which is able to save your souls. Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a Man beholding his natural face in a glass; for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of Man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this Man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this Man's religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

¶ The Gospel. St. Matt. 5.43.

YE have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy Neighbour, and hate thine Enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the Publicans the same? Or if ye salute your Brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the Publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.