The prayers that follow, the bishops shall separately repeat. "We invoke
thee, O Lord, Holy Father Almighty and Eternal God, that this thy
servant, whom by the wisdom of thy divine dispensations from the
beginning of his existence to this day, thou hast permitted to increase,
rejoicing in the flower of youth, enriched with the gift of thy piety,
and full of the grace of thy truth, thou mayest cause to be always
advancing, day by day, to better things before God and men;--that
rejoicing in the bounty of supernal grace, he may receive the throne of
supreme power; and, defended on all sides from his enemies by the wall
of thy mercy, he may deserve to govern happily the people committed to
him, with the peace of propitiation and the strength of victory."
The following combination of admirable Scripture allusions is extracted
from the third prayer, or that offered by the bishop after the
consecration, "holding the crown over the king."
"Almighty Creator, everlasting Lord, Governor of heaven and earth, the
Maker and Disposer of angels and men, King of kings and Lord of lords!
who made thy faithful servant Abraham to triumph over his enemies, and
gavest manifold victories to Moses and Joshua, the _prelates_ of thy
people; and didst raise David, thy lowly child, to the summit of the
kingdom, and didst free him from the mouth of the lion and the paws of
the bear, and from Goliath, and from the malignant sword of Saul; who
didst endow Solomon with the ineffable gift of wisdom and peace;--look
down propitiously on our humble prayers, and multiply the gifts of thy
blessing on this thy servant, whom with humble devotion we have chosen
to be king of the Angles and Saxons. Surround him everywhere with the
right hand of thy power, that, strengthened with the faith of Abraham,
the meekness of Moses, the courage of Joshua, the humility of David, and
the wisdom of Solomon, he may be well pleasing to thee in all things,
and may always advance in the way of justice with inoffensive progress."
When crowned, the invocation is, "May God crown thee with the honour of
justice, and the labour of fortitude; that by the virtue of _our_
benediction, and by a right faith, and the various fruit of good works,
thou mayest attain to the crown of the everlasting kingdom, through his
bounty whose kingdom endureth for ever!"
We cannot omit the concluding benedictions, rich with Scripture
phraseology as any church could make them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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