Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

with comfort in thy kingdom. O grant this mercy for the sake of thy Son Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.-(Dodwell.)

1

For one that is at the point of Death. BLESSED JESUS, who once representedst thyself visibly to thy dying servant, St. Stephen, to support him in the last act of his probation; look down we beseech thee with mercy and compassion on this our departing brother, the work of thine own hands, and the purchase of thine own blood, and enable him to look up with the eye of faith to thee, and to reap satisfaction in the prospect. Thy sufferings and thy promises, as set forth in the gospel, are at all times the only ground of comfort to miserable sinners, and more especially at this time of trial and distress. We cannot look forward with any degree of hope, to those important seasons, the hour of death, and the day of judgment, but by thy gracious assistance. O grant

it in this time of need, and hear our prayers for this thy servant, who is now hastening to thy tribunal, and who puts his whole confidence only in thy mercy. O suffer him not to fail of that happiness, which thou thyself didst once die to obtain for him. By the merits of thine own agony save him safely through his. By thy cross and passion blot out the remembrance of his offences. By thy precious death and burial, prepare him patiently to submit to his change. By thy glorious Resurrection entitle him to the same hope, and by thy ascension bring him to the same state of glory. In this his distressed state, in which he is incapable of relief from any other power, yet we know that he can, and we pray that he may find thy all-sufficient help, both for his soul and for his body. Grant that the former may depart in peace, and the latter may rest in hope, and both be joined again in endless joy and glory. And bring us all, we beseech thee, in thy own good time,

to the same happy and glorious state, through thine own all-sufficient merits and mediation.-(Dodwell.)

O GOD, whose nature and property is ever to have mercy and to forgive, receive our humble petitions; and though we be tied and bound with the chain of our sins, yet let the pitifulness of thy

Green, Printer, Knutsford.

For one that has been long ill.

O GRACIOUS GOD, who in the midst. of judgment hast remembered mercy, and hast made the sorest calamities to which we are liable, to be attended with some advantages: give thy grace to this thy servant, that he may look on his present condition, to remind him of his sins, and of thy mercy; by both to quicken him to earnest repentance. Let the tedious distemper under which he suffers, raise his thoughts to the cause of all human sorrow in the disobedience of man, and to an humble reflection on the disobedience of each man, as a just cause of each one's suffering. But let him look on the time and opportunity hereby afforded, as a particular favor, and improve it to a real blessing; make him thankful that he was not snatched away in a state of impenitence, nor cut off in the pursuit of sins and follies. Make him thankful that his distemper does not affect his understanding, but that thou

« EdellinenJatka »