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him in thy heavenly and for it. Ease it of its pains,

everlasting glory.

FOR A NEW YEAR.

BLESSED be God, who has brought us safe to the beginning of another year. Make us sensible, O thou eternal and holy One, how short and uncertain is our mortal life. Pardon our misspent time, and make us henceforth careful to redeem it. Grant that we may begin this new year with new resolutions of serving thee more faithfully. Make us wise unto salvation; that we may consider in this our day the things that belong to our peace; and that we may pass the time of our sojourning here in thy fear and love; and be ready to depart hence, whenever thou shalt say unto us, Return, ye children of men.

FOR A SICK CHILD. HEAVENLY Father, we beseech thee to pity the troubles of the child whom thou hast visited with illness, and pity our sorrows, who are afflicted

and strengthen it in its weakness. Raise it up again, if it shall please thee, to grow in years and stature, in wisdom and virtue; and thereby to comfort us, and glorify thee. We believe that thou knowest best what is fit both for it, and for us, and wilt do what is fit for both; and therefore we leave it to thy wise disposal. But let it be thine, O Lord, in life or death; and either preserve it to be thy true and faithful servant on earth, or take it to the blessedness of thy children in the kingdom of heaven.

FOR A SICK PERSON. LOOK graciously, O God, on thy servant, whom thou hast brought low with illness. Grant unto him a strong sense of his entire dependence upon thee; that whether the means used for his relief succeed, he may ascribe the glory to thee alone, or whether thou thinkest fit to deny them their intended effects, he

may humble himself under thy mi hty hand, and mighty lear the rod, knowing who hath appointed it. We pray thee to preserve thy servant to us, for he is dear to us. Nevertheless, not our will, but thine be done. If it be thy will that he should live, may his whole life praise thee. If his sickness is unto death, may his soul be prepared to meet thee, and our souls lie resigned at thy feet.

IN BEREAVEMENT. SANCTIFY to thy servants, O God, the loss of one of our number by death. Look with pity upon our sorrows; and grant that the affliction which it has pleased thee to bring upon us, may awaken our consciences, and soften our hearts, and impress upon us such convictions of thy holiness and power, that we may place in thee our only fe

licity, and strive to please thee in all our ways. And give us grace constantly to look forward to that life which which is beyond death, and over which death has no power, revealed to us by thy dear Son Jesus Christ.

IN ANY AFFliction.

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MERCIFULLY gard us, O Lord, in our present trouble, and make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us. Strengthen us to bear the cross which

is laid upon us. Give us grace to look to the example of our blessed Master, who, for the joy which was set before him, endured a heavier cross than ours. By the sadness of our our countenances may our hearts be made better; and may we so improve thine afflictive dispensations, that they may all tend to our final happiness and glory.

END OF PETITIONS AND THANKSGIVINGS.

BURIAL OF CHILDREN.

The Service shall begin with the following Sentences; the Minister standing, if convenient, at the head of the Coffin.

I AM the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord; he who believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die. John xi. 25, 26.

WE brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. 1 Tim. vi. 7. Job i. 21.

WHILE the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the child may live? But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he

shall not return to me. 2 Sam. xii. 22, 23.

Then followeth the Psalm.

PSALM 90.

LORD, thou hast been our refuge from one generation to another.

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of

men.

As soon as thou scatterest them they are even as a sleep, and fade away suddenly as the grass.

In the morning it is green, and groweth up; but in the evening it is

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MY brethren, what is our life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little while, and then vanisheth away. It is as the early dew of morning, that glittereth for a short time, and then is exhaled to heaven. Where is the beauty of childhood? Where is the light of those eyes, and the bloom of that countenance? The light is quenched, the eyes are closed, the bloom is faded, the countenance is changed. Who is young, and who is old? Whither are we going,

and what shall we become? The gray head is laid low; and the blossom of youth perisheth. All are in the hands of God.

The voice said, Cry! And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the wind. of the Lord bloweth upon

it.

The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand for ever. And the word of God is his promise to you and to your children, through Christ Je

sus.

And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life. This corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality.

Forasmuch then, as it hath pleased Almighty God to take unto himself the soul of this deceased child, we therefore commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to

dust; looking for the general resurrection in the last day, when the earth and the sea shall give up their dead, and the corruptible bodies of those who sleep in Jesus shall be changed, and made like unto his glorious body, according to the mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself.

the Judge of all the earth will do right; that so our darkness may be dispelled, our tears wiped away, and our sorrow turned into joy.

It has pleased thee, O God, to send thine angel of death, to cut off a beloved child from the land of the living, in the morning of his days. We believe in thy loving mercy and truth, and in the gospel Then shall he say fur- of thy Son. of thy Son. We believe

ther;

AND Jesus said, Suffer little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

Let us pray.

O GOD, our heavenly Father, in whose hands are the souls of thy children, and with whom the spirits of the innocent, departed this life, are in everlasting peace and felicity, enable us, we pray thee, to understand and feel the wisdom of thine appointments, to bow with submission to thy decrees, and to acknowledge that

that it is well with the child. Give grace, we beseech thee, to the bereaved mourners, to say, It is well. Have compassion upon them in their grief. Sustain them by faith in thy sure promises; comfort them by thy holy Spirit; and strengthen them with the consolations of Christ. Impress on their minds the assurance that thou didst call the child, because thou hadst need of him, and that he is now resting, peacefully and safely in the arms of the holy Saviour, who, when he was on earth, took little children into his arms,

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