PRAYERS FOR SPECIAL OCCASIONS.

A Prayer for a sick Child.

ALMIGHTY God, and merciful Father, to whom alone belong the issues of life and death; Look down from heaven, we humbly beseech thee, with the eyes of mercy upon this child now lying upon the bed of sickness: Visit him, O Lord, with thy salvation; deliver him in thy good appointed time from his bodily pain, for thy mercies' sake: and if it shall be thy pleasure to prolong his days here on earth, may he live to thee, and be an instrument of thy glory, by serving thee faithfully, and doing good in his generation; and at last be received into those heavenly habitations, where the souls of them that sleep in the Lord Jesus enjoy perpetual rest and felicity. Grant this, O Lord, for thy mercies' sake, in the same thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Prayer for a Young Person in sickness, resigned to the will of God, and supported by Christian hope.

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LMIGHTY and glorious and ever blessed God: Thou hast created mankind to shew forth thy praise; and hast given to them hearts and minds to love and serve thee: Thou hast placed them in a world, which, though abounding with trials and temptations, does also abound in tokens of thy loving kindness and exhaustless bounty. Our times are in thy hands; and all the circumstances of our life are at thy disposal. In thy mysterious but all-wise providence a lengthened life is given to some; while to others, thou hast shortened their days. Thanks to thine infinite goodness, thou hast taught us, that whether short or long, ample space is given to all, to consider and to prepare for their latter end. All that thou dost is kind and merciful, and often when thou takest away, it is that the apparently untimely death may hide and shelter those whom thou dost love, from the evil to come. We commend to thy Fatherly care this young person; to whom, in the midst of bodily suffering and weakness, thou hast graciously caused the consolations of faith and hope to abound; to whom the

voice from Heaven has spoken peace and pardon, and the promises of the gospel have enabled him to say, Not my will, but thine, be done :-it is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good. In submission to thy will we pray that thou wouldest spare his life, and grant him to live and serve thee here below: but if thou hast prepared for him a more glorious inheritance, suffer not his faith to fail, but may he enjoy, amidst his mortal sufferings, that precious liberty which Christ purchased by his life and death for all who partake of his Spirit. May that Spirit set him free from the fear of death, and enable him to dwell with holy joy and inward peace on the prospect of immortal bliss. This we beg for thy mercy's sake through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

A Prayer for a sick Person when there appeareth small Hope of Recovery.

FATHER of mercies and God of all comfort, our only help in time of need; We fly unto thee for succour in behalf of this thy servant, here lying under thy hand in great weakness of body. Look graciously upon him, O Lord; and the more the outward man decayeth, strengthen him, we beseech thee, so much the more continually with thy grace and holy Spirit in the inner man. Give him unfeigned repentance for all the errors of his life past, and stedfast faith in thy Son Jesus; that his sins may be done away by thy mercy, and his pardon sealed in heaven, before he go hence, and be no more seen. We know, O Lord, that there is no word impossible with thee; and that, if thou wilt, thou canst even yet raise him up, and grant him a longer continuance amongst us. Yet, forasmuch as in all appearance the time of his dissolution draweth near, so fit and prepare him, we beseech thee, against the hour of death, that after his departure hence in peace, and in thy favour, his soul may be received into thine everlasting kingdom, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

A commendatory Prayer for a sick Person of an upright and godly life, at the Point of Departure.

ALMIGHTY God, with whom do live the spirits of just men made perfect, after they are delivered

from their earthly prisons; We humbly commend the soul of this thy servant, our dear brother, into thy hands, as into the hands of a faithful Creator, and most merciful Saviour; most humbly beseeching thee, that it may be precious in thy sight. And teach us who survive, in this and other like spectacles of mortality, to see how frail and uncertain our own condition is; and so to number our days, that we may seriously apply our hearts to that holy and heavenly wisdom, whilst we live here, which may in the end bring us to life everlasting, through Jesus Christ thine only Son our Lord. Amen.

A Prayer for Persons troubled in Mind or in Conscience.

BLESSED Lord, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comforts; We beseech thee, look down in pity and compassion upon this thy afflicted servant. Thou writest bitter things against him, and justly makest him to suffer for his former iniquities; and his soul is full of trouble: But, O merciful God, who hast caused thy holy Word to be written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the holy Scriptures, might have hope; give him a right understanding of himself, and of thy threats and promises, and bring him to true repentance, that he may neither cast away his confidence in thee, nor place it any where but in thee. Give him strength against all his temptations, and heal all his distempers. Break not the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax. Shut not up thy tender mercies in displeasure; but make him to hear of joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Deliver him from distressing fear, and lift up the light of thy countenance upon him, and give him peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

A Prayer for an aged Christian at the point of Death.

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LMIGHTY God, in whom we live and move and have our being, by whom we are upheld and supported from infancy to the close of life, in whose hands our breath is, and whose are all our ways; we beseech thee for thine aged servant, now lying under the pressure of infirmity and length of years: cast him not off when his strength faileth. As his end draws near, while he may

be disposed to say, Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been; and while he deplores the sins and defects of his past life, and humbly seeks thy merciful forgiveness, and thy gracious acceptance of his imperfect service; let the recollection of thy goodness to him, of thy kind and unfailing providence, of thine abounding grace in Christ Jesus our Lord, fill his heart with gratitude and joy and hope. If it be thy will that this sickness shall be unto death, may he not only resignedly submit, but grant him firm faith in the resurrection to eternal life, calm and grateful contemplation of the glory that will be revealed. Enable him to look forward to a reunion with all those whom on earth he had loved and lost; with whom he had lived and acted in thy Church and in the world. Give him to anticipate the happiness of being with Jesus, and with all his saints assembled around thy throne, in thy presence where there is fulness of joy, at thy right hand where there are pleasures for ever more. Thus may Christ be in him and with him, in all the power of truth and holiness and full assurance,-the hope of glory, to the honour of thy name, through the same our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Epistle. Heb. xii. 5 and 6.

The Gospel. St. John v. 24.

THE ORDER FOR

THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD.

The Minister meeting the Corpse at the entrance of the Churchyard, and going before it, either into the Church, or towards the Grave, shall say, or sing, one or more of these sentences.

I

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

I

my

KNOW that Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my death worms destroy this body, yet when I rise I shall see God.

THE

HE hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of condemnation. St. John v. 28, 29.

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E 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.

BUT UT I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 1 Thes. iv. 13, 14.

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After they are come into the Church, shall be read or sung one or both of these Psalms following.

Dixi, custodiam. Psal. xxxix.

SAID, I will take heed to my ways: that I offend not with my tongue.

I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me.