Indiscriminate compassion is a feature of Christian intercession and in accord with Christ's command we ask for the forgiveness of those who wish us ill, enemies, persecutors, and slanderers. May a gracious God turn their hearts as he has sovereignly turned ours.

The consideration of divine kindness in providing "the fruits of the earth" is an inducement to renounce the enmity of the natural heart toward God and to mellow it in an inclination to repentance: Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance (Romans 2:4) cf Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy (Acts 14:17).

If we note the texts cited above we may see that the composition of the Litany forges subtle links between units of petition in which a biblical continuity of intention is displayed, e.g. "That it may please thee to forgive our enemies, persecutors, and slanderers, and to turn their hearts. That it may please thee to give and preserve to our use the kindly fruits of the earth, so as in due time we may enjoy them. That it may please thee to give us true repentance; to forgive us all our sins, negligences, and ignorances; and to endue us with the grace of thy Holy Spirit, to amend our lives according to thy holy Word."

The Litany is a work of art as well as a way of prayer when it is examined closely. As it is ingrained in the mind so it becomes a model for our personal prayer, silent and spoken. A good liturgy trains the mind for disciplined and focused prayer that omits irreverence, unnecessary rambling, and casual cliche. For those who disparage written and orderly prayer as automatic and insincere just listen to the unvarying pattern of prayer offered by some individuals week by week in many informal prayer meetings. There is room for both preparation and spontaneity in our calling upon God as the Holy Spirit leads those who offer their entreaties and thanksgivings to him. A definite plus for corporate liturgical prayer lies in the fact that it omits expressions and sentiments that are unseemly or inappropriate in public. Somewhere, it seems, someone knowledgeable has advised that Cranmer was not averse to the insertion of suitable extempore expression in the conduct of liturgical prayer. The Spirit of God is not passive whenever believers pray earnestly in any form.

The versicles and responses following the series of invocations presented by the Litany revert to our total dependence upon the Lord Jesus as the auditor of our requests, our advocate in heaven, and the effecter of the atonement through whom we make our appeal to God:
Son of God: we beseech thee to hear us.
O Lamb of God: that takest away the sins of the world; have mercy on us, etc.

The fact is impressed upon us, as the Litany commences and concludes, that the Lord Jesus is the conduit of all mercies received and all reliance is to be placed in him and his royal dispensations. The love, generosity, and power of our Elder Brother fuels our prayer with ardor, affection, and confidence. The Litany renders homage to the sovereignty and centrality of the Son in the Triune God's plan of universal reclamation as well as being cognizant that the Trinitarian team collaborate equally in the splendid recovery of our race and disordered creation.

Accordingly, the Service of the Litany includes the Lord's Prayer, the essential shape of prayer, that Jesus taught his disciples and ourselves, and further prayers expressing our humbleness and helplessness before God duly follow. These prayers are imbued with realism and enormous encouragement to the soul. They are hardly compatible with the mindset of our generation and they highlight just how much of authentic Christian piety we have lost and how out of step we have become with the spiritual masters and mystics of the past.

O God, merciful Father, that despisest not the sighing of a contrite heart, nor the desire of such as be sorrowful: Mercifully assist our prayers that we make before thee in all our troubles and adversities, whensoever they oppress us; and graciously hear us, that those evils, which the craft and subtilty of the devil or man worketh against us, be brought to nought, and by the providence of thy goodness they may be dispersed; that we thy servants, being hurt by no persecutions, may evermore give thanks unto thee in thy holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Response of the congregation: O Lord, arise, help us, and deliver us for thy Name's sake.

O God, we have heard with our ears, and our fathers have declared unto us, the noble works that thou didst in their days, and in the old time before them.

Response: O Lord arise, help us, and deliver us for thine honor.

These prayers encapsulate the aspirational spirit lying at the heart of genuine Anglicanism. What is popularly known and misunderstood as revival (the hyping of the human heart, emotion, and bustling activity) is sought as the sovereign, sobering presence and exertion of the power of Almighty God among his people, increasing their holiness, humility, and fervor for truth, accompanied by the divine effecting of reconnection of lost souls to the Lord. Could anything make more clear the desire of Anglicanism for the "noble works of God' in our time. Reformation and renewal are at the summit of our yearnings for the people of God across all loyal denominations and traditions, and we seek God's blessing upon the entire alienated world. We clamor before the throne of the Lord with the heartfelt, emphatic, urgent appeal "O Lord, arise!"

Our self-effort and attempts in stirring ourselves are futile: 'The first cause of the defect of grace is on our part; but the first cause of the bestowal of grace is on God's according to Hosea 13:9, "Destruction is thy own, O Israel; thy help is only in Me"' (Thomas Aquinas). Is the church in our time sanguinely over-presumptuous in its expectation of revival? Do we replicate ancient Israel in its fancy that God panders to it? Do we with impertinence seek our own success and gratification? (My ministry is more significant than yours. My seminary excels your seminary? Have we entered the pagan world of competitiveness and snootiness?) Maybe for our faults we are assigned to a season of being an embattled remnant until our ambitions are purified and attitudes humbled.

We recall the Bradfords and Latimers, the Whitefields and Topladys, the Davenants and Usshers, the Ryles and McIlvaines - all doughty heralds of sovereign, saving grace. We witness the gradual passing of the invaluable fathers of our own desperate time; we long for God to stretch out his hand and touch the tongues and pens of worthy successors. But most of all we cry out for the strengthening of the conviction and cohesion of God's people everywhere in elevating and commending the Name of Christ. We exist and are elect for his Name's sake. Being nothing in ourselves we base our hope in the Lord's reputation established in "our fathers' days". This is why the historical perspective is so important to the church's future. We need to acquaint ourselves with our roots. Life in our contemporary bubble cannot last or suffice. We are ill-informed and inadequate. Our fathers are worth listening to and they can extract us from our infant ecclesiastical playground. Hindsight creates hope.

In our day of uncertainty, defection from true faith, and death-dealing culture we could well pray with the Litany:

We humbly beseech thee, O Father, mercifully to look upon our infirmities: and for the glory of thy Name turn from us all those evils that we most righteously have deserved: and grant that in all our troubles we may put our whole trust and confidence in thy mercy, and evermore serve thee in holiness and pureness of living, to thy honor and glory; through our only Mediator and Advocate, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The beautiful prayer of St. Chrysostom and the Grace bring our lovely service of the Litany to an end as we anticipate taking it up again many times, in the measure of future God allows us, to make our invigorating journey through its pages, or the text of suitable and orthodox revisions. We must cling to our roots in 1662 but also contribute compatible contemporary forms of worship to our repertoire of manuals of worship and spiritual development.

The merit of Litany 1662 is that it makes us confront hard truths that contemporary religion has excised from our consciousness. Imprecise teaching, easy believism, and prevailing Arminianism and universalism have sedated the church by and large into a drowsy state of mind and shallow spirituality. We are no longer an army but occupants of arm chairs, comfortable now but catastrophic in the long term (time and eternity). It is hard for us to be aroused from or somnolence. We have a craving to be soothed and pampered by our religion. The Litany addresses us sharply in our effete condition. It offends the modern ear and we observe this in various attempts to rewrite it. Who wishes to echo its stark expressions?:

Have mercy upon us miserable sinners. (Surely we only make mistakes).
Be not angry with us forever.
Deliver us "from thy wrath and everlasting damnation"; "from sudden death"; "in the hour of death, and in the day of judgement".
Beat down satan under our feet.
Those evils which we most righteously have deserved.

In these days of rampant feminization, that deprives the precious female gender of so much that that it really wants, it can be stated that the character of the Litany is sturdy and manly, and manliness is what the church so much needs in our time of widespread emasculation through family disruption and the disappearance of real and ever-present responsible fatherhood. Gender confusion in its every harmful aspect is the devil's artifice for neutralizing the church (does any bishop really know what they believe anymore?) and degrading society with endless insoluble complexities. You see, satan* is meddling with the image of God, meant to be male and female in beautiful harmony together in conformity to the character of God. * The devil does not deserve capitals - especially as a certain NT specialist denies them to God. (Lets all of us find a way of expressing our specialness).

The Litany encourages us to sober self-assessment. We are infirm, vulnerable, and guilty. This realization is a "right downer" so to speak. Until we grasp the notion, the fact, the incredible reality that grace extends to the undeserving and spiritually inert. The Lord's goodwill and bidding to trust him excites our earnestness to seize hold of him with holy violence.

The Litany inculcates the comprehension of God's supremacy and compassion. Its themes introduce us to contrition and confidence before God. It facilitates the process of self-renunciation and hastens our grip upon his muscular might for our safety and well being in a life that is so frail in the midst of so many sudden and unsuspected dangers , perils, and perplexing occurrences (we are by no means in control) . Our haughty self-importance is reduced, even though "hydra-like' it rises again, and we are led to appreciate our tininess in the scheme of things - yet the Master of that scheme cares for us.

The Litany humbles and uplifts. And these are the great needs of the church and all believers all the time. Let us resort to it frequently as an enduring and comforting benefit of our Anglican heritage.

The Rev. Roger Salter is an ordained Church of England minister where he had parishes in the dioceses of Bristol and Portsmouth before coming to Birmingham, Alabama to serve as Rector of St. Matthew's Anglican Church.