serve thee, and to live according to thy laws; but we by our sins have provoked thee to wrath, and we have planted thorns and sorrows round about our dwellings; and our life is but a span long, and yet very tedious, because of the calamities that enclose us on every side; the days of our pilgrimage are few and evil; we have frail and sickly bodies, violent and distempered passions, long designs and but a short stay, weak understandings and strong enemies, abused fancies, perverse wills. O dear God, look on us in mercy and pity: let not our weaknesses make us to sin against thee, nor our fear cause us to betray our duty, nor our former follies provoke thy eternal anger, nor the calamities of this world vex us into tediousness of spirit and impatience but let thy Holy Spirit lead us through this valley of misery with safety and peace, with holiness and religion, with spiritual comforts and joy in the Holy Ghost; that when we have served thee in our generations, we may be gathered unto our fathers, having the testimony of a holy conscience, in the communion of the catholic church, in the confidence of a certain faith, and the comforts of a reasonable, religious, and holy hope, and perfect charity with thee our God and all the world; that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, may be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. II. O holy and most gracious Saviour Jesus, in whose hands the souls of all faithful people are laid up till the day of recompense, have mercy on the body and soul of this thy servant, and on all thy elect people, who love the Lord Jesus, and long for his coming: Lord, refresh the imperfection of their condition with the aids of the Spirit of grace and comfort, and with the visitation and guard of angels, and supply to them all their necessities known only unto thee: let them dwell in peace, and feel thy mercies, pitying their infirmities and the follies of their flesh, and speedily satisfying the desires of their spirits and when thou shalt bring us all forth in the day of judgment, O then show thyself to be our Saviour Jesus, our advocate and our judge. Lord, then remember that thou hast, for so many ages, prayed for the pardon of those sins, which thou art then to sentence. Let not the accusations of our consciences, nor the calumnies and aggravations of devils, nor the effects of thy wrath, press those souls, which thou lovest, which thou didst redeem, which thou dost pray for ; but enable us all, by the supporting hand of thy mercy, to stand upright in judgment. O Lord, have mercy on us, have mercy on us: O Lord, let thy mercy lighten on us, as our trust is in thee. O Lord, in thee have we trusted; let us never be confounded. Let us meet with joy, and for ever dwell with thee, feeling thy pardon, supported with thy graciousness, absolved by thy sentence, saved by thy mercy, that we may sing to the glory of thy name eternal hallelujahs. Amen. Amen. Amen. Then may be added, in the behalf of all that are present, these ejaculations. O spare us a little, that we may recover our strength, before we go hence, and be no more seen. Amen. Cast us not away in the time of age; O forsake us not when strength faileth. Amen. Grant that we may never sleep in sin or death eternal, but that we may have our part of the first resurrection, and that the second death may not prevail over us. Amen. Grant that our souls may be bound up in the bundle of life; and in the day when thou bindest up thy jewels, remember thy servants for good, and not for evil, that our souls may be numbered amongst the righteous. Amen. Grant unto all sick and dying Christians mercy and aids from heaven; and receive the souls returning unto thee, whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood. Amen. Grant unto thy servants to have faith in the Lord Jesus, a daily meditation of death, a contempt of the world, a longing desire after heaven, patience in our sorrows, comfort in our sicknesses, joy in God, a holy life, and a blessed death; that our souls may rest in hope, and our bodies may rise in glory, and both may be beatified in the communion of saints, in the kingdom of God, and the glories of the Lord Jesus. Amen. The blessing. Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work, to do his will, working in you that which is pleasing in his sight; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.'* The doxology. To the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see, be honor and power everlasting. Amen.'t After the sick man is departed, the minister, if he be present, or the major-domo, or any other fit person, may use the following prayers in behalf of themselves. I.—Almighty God, with whom do live the spirits of them that depart hence in the Lord, we adore thy majesty, and submit to thy providence, and revere thy justice, and magnify thy mercies, thy infinite mercies, that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our brother out of the miseries of this sinful world. Thy counsels are secret, and thy wisdom is infinite: with the same hand thou hast crowned him, and smitten us; thou hast taken him into regions of felicity, and placed him among saints and angels, and left us to mourn for our sins and thy displeasure, which thou hast signified to us by removing him from us to a better, a far better place. Lord, turn thy anger into mercy, thy chastisements into virtues, thy rod into comforts, and do thou give to all his nearest relatives comforts from heaven, and a restitution of blessings equal to those which thou hast taken from them. And we humbly beseech thee, of thy gracious goodness, shortly to satisfy the longing desires of those holy souls, who pray, and wait, and long for thy second coming. Accomplish thou the number of thine elect, and fill up the mansions in heaven which are prepared for all them that love the coming of the Lord Jesus; that we, with this our brother, and all others departed this life in the obedience and faith of the Lord Jesus, may have our perfect consummation and bliss in thy eternal glory, which never shall bave ending. Grant this for Jesus Christ's sake, our Lord and only Saviour. Amen. * Heb. xiii. 20, 21. . † 1 Tim. vi. 15, 16. II. O merciful God, father of our Lord Jesus, who art the first-fruits of the resurrection, and by entering into glory hast opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers, we humbly beseech thee to raise us up from the death of sin to the life of righteousness; that, being partakers of the death of Christ, and followers of his holy life, we may be partakers of his Spirit and of his promises; that, when we shall depart this life, we may rest in his arms, and lie in his bosom, as our hope is, this our brother doth. O suffer us not, for any temptations of the world, or any snares of the devil, or any pains of death, to fall from thee. Lord, let thy Holy Spirit enable us with his grace to fight a good fight with perseverance, to finish our course with holiness, and to keep the faith with constancy unto the end; that, at the day of judgment, we may stand at the right hand of the throne of God, and hear the blessed sentence of, 'Come, ye blessed children of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world.' O blessed Jesus, thou art our judge, and thou art our advocate: even because thou art good and gracious, never suffer us to fall into the intolerable pains of hell, never to lie down in sin, and never to have our portion in the everlasting burning. Mercy, sweet Jesu, mercy. Amen. A prayer to be said in the case of a sudden surprise by death, as by a mortal wound, or evil accidents in childbirth, when the forms and solemnities of preparation cannot be used. O most gracious Father, Lord of heaven and earth, Judge of the living and the dead, behold thy servants running to thee for pity and mercy, in behalf of ourselves, and this thy servant, whom thou hast smitten with thy basty rod, and a swift angel. If it be thy will, preserve his life, that there may be place for his repentance and restitution: O spare him a little, that he may recover his strength, before he go hence and be no more seen. But if thou hast otherwise decreed, let the miracles of thy compassion and thy wonderful mercy supply to him the want of the usual measures of time, and the periods of repentance, and the trimming of his lamp; and let the greatness of the calamity be accepted by thee as an instrument to procure pardon for those defects and degrees of unreadiness, which may have caused this accident on thy servant. Lord, stir up in him a great and effectual contrition; that the greatness of the sorrow, and hatred against sin, and the zeal of his love to thee, may, in a short time, do the work of many days. And thou, who regardest the heart and the measures of the mind more than the delay and the measures of time, let it be thy pleasure to rescue the soul of thy servant from all the evils he hath de served, and all the evils that he fears; that, in the glorifications of eternity, and the songs, which to eternal ages thy saints and holy angels shall sing to the honor of thy mighty name and invaluable mercies, it may be reckoned among thy glories, that thou hast redeemed this soul from the dangers of an eternal death, and made him partaker of the gift of God, eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. If there be time, the prayers in the foregoing offices may be added, according as they can be fitted to the present cir cumstances. SECT. VIII-A peroration concerning the contingences and treatings of our departed friends after death, in order to their burial, &c. When we have received the last breath of our friend, and closed his eyes, and composed his body for the grave, then seasonable is the counsel of the son of Sirach; Weep bitterly, and make great moan, and use lamentation, as he is worthy; and that a day or two, lest thou be evil spoken of and then comfort thyself for thy heaviness. But take no grief to heart; for there is no turning again: thou shalt not do him good, but hurt thyself." Solemn and appointed mournings are good expressions of our dearness to the departed soul, and of his worth, and our value of him; and it hath its praise in nature, and in manners, and in public customs; but the praise of it is not in the gospel, that is, it hath no direct and proper uses in religion for if the dead did die in the Lord, then there is joy to him, and it is an ill expression of our affection and our charity, to weep uncomfortably at a change, that hath carried my friend to the state of a huge felicity; but if the man did * Ecclus. xxxviii. 17. 20. |