For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell: neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: when I awake, with thy likeness I shall be satisfied. Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is the fulness of joy, and at thy right hand there is pleasure for evermore. Glory be to the Father, &c. As it was in the beginning, &c. When the Corpse is in the Grave, the Minister shall say, Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God, to take to himself the soul of our dear brother here departed; we lay his body in the ground; for out of it was it taken; dust it is, and unto dust it does return; but we lay it down in a sure and certain hope of the resurrection from the grave. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then those, which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we be ever with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. Let us pray. Lord, have mercy upon us. Christ, have mercy upon us. Lord, have mercy upon us. Our Father which art in heaven, &c. I. O Almighty God, with whom do live the spirits of the just men made perfect, we give thee humble thanks that thou hast delivered the soul of thy servant [aN. N.] from the calamities of this life, putting a period to his sin and to his pains; O be pleased shortly to fill up the numbers of thine elect, and hasten thy kingdom; and to us thy servants grant that we may die to sin and live to righteousness, living a holy and a gracious life, peaceable and blessed; that when we have * Bishop Taylor seems to be of opinion, that to name the deceased adds solemnity to the service. served thee in our generations, we may die the death of the righteous, leaving a good name and a fair example behind, and our good works may follow us; that being holy in our lives we may be blessed in our death, and with this thy servant, and all other departed in thy love and fear, may lie in the bosom of our Lord, till, by the trump of God, we shall be awakened in the resurrection of the just, to reign with thee in thy kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. II. Amen. O most blessed Saviour Jesus, who art the resurrection. and the life, and in whose sight the death of thy saints is precious, look upon us thy servants whose life is vanity, and our days pass away like a tale that is told, and as the remembrance of a passenger that stayeth but a night; the days of our pilgrimage are few and evil, and we disquiet ourselves in vain: O look upon us with a gracious eye; give us thy holy Spirit of wisdom and peace to guide us in the ways of God, that our affections and our conversation being in heaven, and being weaned from this world, we may die daily, and every day be doing good; that laying up a treasure of good works, we may rejoice in the day of our death, and may be freed from the terrors of the day of judgment, and the gates of hell may not prevail against us, O preserve us from that eternal wrath, which shall destroy all thine enemies; and let our portion be with the charitable and the merciful, on the right hand of the Father, where thou sittest and reignest in the glory of God, to eternal ages, world without end. Amen. If it be opportune, then here may be added one of the Prayers for a blessed Death,' at the end of Evening Prayer throughout the year; ending with the usual Benediction: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, &c. A FORM OF DEVOTION; TO BE USED AND SAID IN THE DAYS OF SORROW AND AFFLICTION OF A FAMILY, OR OF PRIVATE PERSONS. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Versicle. O God, make speed to save as. As it was in the beginning, &c. The Psalm. HIDE not thy face far from me, O Lord, put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not: and in the night season I am not silent. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted in thee, and thou didst deliver them. But I am a worm, and no man: smitten of thee, Lord, afflicted, tormented, forsaken. Thou hast filled me with bitterness, and hast made me drunk with wormwood: thou hast removed my soul far off from peace, and I have forgotten prosperity. But, O God, thou art my God, early will I seek thee: be not thou far from me; O Lord, O my strength, haste thee to help me. I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid: I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; O do thou forgive the iniquity of my sin. Thou art my hiding-place, thou shalt preserve me from trouble thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Lord, make me to know my end, and the measure of my days, what it is: that I may know how frail I am. Behold, thou hast made my days as a handbreadth, and mine age is nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. And now, O Lord, what wait I for? Surely my hope is in thee. Deliver me from all my transgressions, remove thy stroke away from me: I am even consumed by the blow of thy hand. When thou with rebukes dost chasten man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry, hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were. O spare me a little, that I may recover my strength: before I go hence, and be no more seen. Let all those that seek thee, rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation, say continually, The Lord be magnified. But I am poor and needy, yet the Lord careth for me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God. Amen, Amen, Amen. Then read the second chapter of Ecclesiasticus; or the sixth chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel; or the twelfth chapter to the Romans; or the fifth chapter of the second Epistle to the Thessalonians; or the first of Timothy, the sixth chapter; or Hebrews, the twelfth; or James, the fifth. These at several times. After the chapter is read, sit still awhile, and consider of such comforts or instructions, as are in the chapter fitted to your needs. If this Office be said by a Minister in the company of the afflicted Person; then he may add such useful and comfortable Discourses as are occasioned by the chapter, and then say the following Collects. After meditation or discourse, humbly kneel down, and pray. I. An Act of Repentance. O my God and Father, in vain do we beg to have thy heavy hand taken from us, so long as the cause remains: our sins, O God, our sins are so great, so numerous, so intolerable, that we must needs with shame hide our face, and confess we have deserved all the evil that we suffer, and all that which thou hast threatened. We have, O God, more to give thee thanks for, than we have to deplore. It is thy infinite mercy, that we are yet kept from feeling thy severest judgments. It is thy mercy that we have our senses and our understandings, that we have the use of thy word and sacraments, that we have not intolerable pains of body, and unsufferable troubles in our mind; it is thy blessing that we have bread, that we have any friends, that we have the prayers of thy faithful servants; that we have faith in thee, and that we have hope. It is thy infinite mercy, that we are yet kept from the unsufferable pains of hell, and are permitted to pray to thee, to rely upon thy mercies, to work out our salvation, and to expect thy loving-kindness in the land of the living. II. All the evils that we suffer, we have deserved, but nothing of the good have we deserved; we are less than the least of all thy mercies, and our sins are greater than the greatest of all our sufferings. And now, O God, thou who hast so mercifully dealt with thy servants in taking a less fine of us, than in justice thou mightest have exacted, be pleased also to proceed in the methods of thy mercy; and make our present sufferings be instrumental of thy glory, of the pardon of our sins, of the sanctifications of our spirits, of the humiliation of our souls, that like silver tried in the fire, we may come forth more pure vessels of honour, pleasing and acceptable to thee in Jesus Christ. III, An Act of Patience and Resignation. We know, O. God, that thou art infinitely wise and infinitely good, and thou disposest all the events of thy crea |