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with more sincerity, and serve thee with greater faithfulness than I have ever yet done.

Teach me, O Lord, so to number my days, that I may apply my heart unto true wisdom. Let me never be separated from thee; but grant that I may be of the number of thy faithful and obedient servants, who are united to thee by grace and good works in this life, and will hereafter live with thee in endless bliss and happiness. And,

Grant that in the days of health and prosperity I may consider my latter end, and remember and provide for that great account which I must one day give before the judgment-seat of Christ; that when the hour of my departure shall come, I may meet death without fear and amazement; and with a wellgrounded hope of thy mercy and goodness, may cheerfully resign up my soul into thy hands: and may be willing and even desirous to leave this world, when thou, my God, in thy great wisdom shall see it fitting.

Be mindful, O Lord, of all that are in any affliction or distress. Relieve and comfort those that suffer for the testimony of a good conscience, or that labour under the torments of a wounded spirit. Let the sorrowful sighing of the afflicted come before thee; and deliver them, in thy good time, out of all their troubles. Here may be added the two paragraphs in the Morning Prayer on page 137, marked thus [" Be gracious, &c.

To these my prayers and intercessions, I

desire to add my unfeigned praises for all thy blessings, spiritual and temporal. I bless thee more particularly for the mercies of the day past; for preserving me in health and safety; and delivering me from the evils which I have most justly deserved.

Give me grace to make a right use and improvement of all thy mercies; and vouchsafe, O Lord, to continue to me thy gracious favour and protection. Be thou pleased of thy great goodness to take me, my dear husL band, or wife and children,] and all that belong to me, this night, under the care of thy good providence. Defend us from all perils and dangers; and after the comfortable refreshments of rest and sleep, raise us up in health and safety, with hearts full of love to thee, and zeal to thy service, through Jesus Christ our Lord, in the fullest sense of whose words I pray to be heard; saying, Our Father, &c.

A Prayer during the time of Sickness.

ALMIGHTY and immortal God, the aid

of all that need, the helper of all that flee to thee for succour; the life of them that believe, and the resurrection of the dead: I humble myself before thee with sincere acknowledgments of thy justice, in all the dispensations of thy divine providence. Look with an eye of compassion upon me, thy poor afflicted servant, and sanctify, I beseech thee,

this thy fatherly correction to me, that I may never murmur or repine under any of thy wise dispensations; but at all times receive thy judgments as a means to wean me from the world, to bring me nearer to thyself, and to purge away all that dross and defilement which my soul has contracted in this state of sinful mortality.

and

I confess, O gracious Lord, that thy judgments are just, and that thou of thy goodness hast caused me to be troubled; for notwithstanding all the gentle methods which thou hast used towards me, I have not loved thee as I ought to do; but in the days of health and prosperity have forgotten thee, my God, gone in the paths of vanity and folly; but, O merciful Father, that despisest not the sighing of a contrite heart, nor the desire of such as be sorrowful, mercifully assist my prayers that I offer unto thee in all my troubles and adversities: and especially let not my sins provoke thee to turn away thy face from me thy servant, now seeking unto thee in this time of my trouble; shut not up the bowels of thy tender compassion from me; but for the merits and intercession of thy beloved Son, pardon all my sins, and vouchsafe, I beseech thee, for his sake, to be reconciled unto me.

Support me under all my pains, weaknesses, and infirmities; strengthen my faith, enlarge my hopes, increase my charity, and perfect my repentance. Make thou my bed in my sick

ness, and lay not more upon me than thou wilt enable me to bear; give a blessing to the means that shall be used for my recovery; and say unto my soul I am thy salvation; and if it be thy good pleasure restore me to my former health, that I may lead the residue of my life in thy fear, and to thy glory: but if thou hast determined that this sickness shall be unto death; grant, O merciful Father, that the more the outward man decayeth, so much the more I may find the inward man strengthened and renewed with thy grace and Holy Spirit. O give me graces so to take this thy visitation, that after this painful life is ended, I may dwell with thee in life everlasting, through the merits: and mediation of Jesus Christ, my dear and only Saviour. Amen.

A Prayer to be used on taking physic.

GOD, the creator and preserver of all mankind, who knowest our necessities before we ask, and our ignorance in asking, without whom all our endeavours are but vain, I, in a deep sense of all thy mercies, acknowledge it to be an eminent token of thy goodness, that I am not cut off in the midst of my sins, by a sudden and unprovided death; and am particularly thankful that thou hast placed me in such station and circumstances, as to be enabled to obtain the use of such means as thou hast ordained for the benefit of mankind. Oh! give thy blessing to the means used for

my recovery, and (if it be thy blessed will) make them so effectual for that end, that Í may live and be an instrument of thy glory, and better prepared for the coming of my dear Lord, when every man shall be judged according to what he has done in the flesh, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

A Prayer to be used for a sick Child. FATHER of mercies, and God of all com

fort, to whom alone belong the issues of life and death, we flee unto thee for succour in behalf of this child here lying under thy hand in a weak and sickly state. Visit him, O Lord, with thy salvation; deliver him, in thy good time, from his bodily pain; comfort him in his greatest extremity, and save his soul, for thy mercies' sake.

We know, O Lord, that if thou wilt, thou canst raise him up, and prolong his days here on earth: wherefore we humbly beseech thee, if it be thy pleasure, to raise him up again, that he may, together with his years and stature, grow in wisdom and in thy fear, and thereby to comfort his parents, and to glorify thee, by doing good in his generation.

But whether he live or die, let him be thine; and either preserve him to be thy true and faithful servant here on earth, or else receive him into those heavenly mansions, where the souls of them that sleep in the Lord Jesus enjoy perpetual rest and felicity. Grant this, O

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