Morning Exercises

Morning Exercises refers to a religious observance by Puritans in London which started at the beginning of the English Civil War.

As most of the citizens of London had either a near relation or friend in the army of the Earl of Essex, clergymen were getting overwhelmed with requests to include prayers for these soldiers in their Sunday services. So a group of them agreed to set aside an hour at 7 am, every morning, with half an hour for prayer and half an hour for a broader exhortation of the population. It was started by Thomas Case the Presbyterian minister at St. Mary Magdalen, Milk Street^[1] and continued there for a month. The exercises were then taken up by other churches across the City of London. Shortly after Westminster Abbey also started to host religious lectures between 6 - 8am, not only for local residents, but also for Members of Parliament. The preachers here included Edmund Staunton, Philip Nye, Stephen Marshall, Herbert Palmer, Charles Herle, Jeremiah Whitaker and Thomas Hill.^[2]

After the Civil War the Morning Exercises were continued, with many collected by Samuel Annesley being subsequently published in six volumes.

The following list of 75 was published in 1844.^[3]