loving-kindness [here name the blessing]. What am I, O Lord, and what is my father's house, what is the life and what are the capacities of thy servant, that thou shouldest do this unto me; that the great God of men and angels should make a special decree in heaven for me, and send out an angel of blessing, and instead of condemning and ruining me, as I miserably have deserved, to distinguish me from many my equals and my betters, by this and many other special acts of grace and favour? Praised be the Lord daily, even the Lord that helpeth us, and poureth his benefits upon us. He is our God, even the God of whom cometh salvation: God is the Lord, by whom we escape death. Thou hast brought me to great honour, and comforted me on every side. Thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy works; I will rejoice in giving praise for the operation of thy hands. O give thanks unto the Lord, and call upon his name: tell the people, what things he hath done. As for me, I will give great thanks unto the Lord, and praise him among the multitude. Blessed be the Lord God, even the Lord God of Israel, which only doth wondrous and gracious things. And blessed be the name of his Majesty for ever: and all the earth shall be filled with his majesty. Amen. Amen. Glory be to the Father, &c. As it was in the beginning, &c. may A Prayer to be said on the Feast of Christmas, or the Birth of our blessed Saviour Jesus: the same also be said upon the Feast of the Annunciation and Purification of the B. Virgin Mary. O holy and almighty God, Father of mercies, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of thy love and eternal mercies, I adore and praise and glorify thy infinite and unspeakable love and wisdom, who hast sent thy Son from the bosom of felicities to take upon him our nature and our misery and our guilt, and hast made the Son of God to become the Son of man, that we might become the sons of God, and partakers of the Divine nature: since thou hast so exalted human nature, be pleased also to sanctify my person, that, by a conformity to the humility and laws, and sufferings of my dearest Saviour, I may be united to his Spirit, and be made all one with the most holy Jesus. Amen. O holy and eternal Jesus, who didst pity mankind lying in his blood, and sin, and misery, and didst choose our sadnesses and sorrows that thou mightest make us to partake of thy felicities; let thine eyes pity me; thy hands support me, thy holy feet tread down all the difficulties in my way to heaven let me dwell in thy heart, be instructed with thy wisdom, moved by thy affections, choose with thy will, and be clothed with thy righteousness; that, in the day of judgment, I may be found having on thy garments, sealed with thy impression; and that, bearing upon every faculty and member the character of my elder brother, I may not be cast out with strangers and unbelievers. Amen. O holy and ever-blessed Spirit, who didst overshadow the holy virgin-mother of our Lord, and caused her to conceive by a miraculous and mysterious manner; be pleased to overshadow my soul, and enlighten my spirit, that I may conceive the holy Jesus in my heart, and may bear him in my mind, and may grow up to the fulness of the stature of Christ, to be a perfect man in Christ Jesus. Amen. To God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to the eternal Son that was incarnate and born of a virgin, to the Spirit of the Father and the Son, be all honour and glory, worship and adoration, now and for ever. Amen. [The same form of prayer may be used upon our own birthday, or day of our baptism: adding the following prayer.] A Prayer to be said upon our Birth-day, or day of Baptism. O blessed and eternal God, I give thee praise and glory for thy great mercy to me, in causing me to be born of Christian parents, and didst not allot to me a portion with misbelievers and heathen that have not known thee. Thou didst not suffer me to be strangled at the gate of the womb, but thy hand sustained and brought me to the light of the world, and the illumination of baptism, with thy grace preventing my election, and by an artificial necessity and holy prevention engaging me to the profession and practices of Christianity. Lord, since that, I have broken the promises made in my behalf, and which I confirmed by my after-act; I went back from them by an evil life: and yet thou hast still continued to me life and time of repentance; and didst not cut me off in the beginning of my days, and the progress of my sins. O dearest God, pardon the errors and ignorances, the vices and vanities, of my youth, and the faults of my more forward years, and let me never more stain the whiteness of my baptismal robe and now that by thy grace I still persist in the purposes of obedience, and do give up my name to Christ, and glory to be a disciple of thy institution, and a servant of Jesus, let me never fail of thy grace: let no root of bitterness spring up, and disorder my purposes, and defile my spirit. O let my years be so many degrees of nearer approach to thee and forsake me not, O God, in my old age, when I am grey-headed; and when my strength faileth me, be thou my strength and my guide unto death; that I may reckon my years, and apply my heart unto wisdom; and at last, after the spending a holy and a blessed life, I may be brought unto a glorious eternity, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. [Then add the form of thanksgiving formerly described.] A Prayer to be said upon the Days of the Memory of Apostles,' Martyrs, &c. O eternal God, to whom do live the spirits of them that depart hence in the Lord, and in whom the souls of them that be elected, after they be delivered from the burden of the flesh, be in peace and rest from their labours, and their works follow them, and their memory is blessed; I bless and magnify thy holy and ever-glorious name, for the great grace. and blessing manifested to thy apostles and martyrs, and other holy persons, who have glorified thy name in the days of their flesh, and have served the interest of religion and of thy service and this day we have thy servant [name the apostle, or martyr, &c.] in remembrance, whom thou hast led through the troubles and temptations of this world, and now hast lodged in the bosom of a certain hope and great beatitude, until the day of restitution of all things. Blessed be the mercy and eternal goodness of God; and the memory of all thy saints is blessed. Teach me to practise their doctrine, : to imitate their lives, following their example, and being united as a part of the same mystical body by the band of the same faith, and a holy hope, and a never-ceasing charity. And may it please thee, of thy gracious goodness, shortly to accomplish the number of thine elect, and to hasten thy kingdom, that we with thy servant and all others departed in the true faith and fear of thy holy name, may have our perfect consummation and bliss, in body and soul, in thy eternal and everlasting kingdom. Amen. A Form of Prayer recording all the parts and mysteries of Christ's Passion, being a short history of it: to be used especially in the Week of the Passion, and before the receiving the blessed Sacrament. All praise, honour, and glory, be to the holy and eternal Jesus. I adore thee, O blessed Redeemer, eternal God, the light of the Gentiles, and the glory of Israel; for thou hast done and suffered for me more than I could wish; more than I could think of; even all that a lost and a miserable perishing sinner could possibly need. Thou wert afflicted with thirst and hunger, with heat and cold, with labours and sorrows, with hard journeys and restless nights; and when thou wert contriving all the mysterious and admirable ways of paying our scores, thou didst suffer thyself to be designed to slaughter by those for whom in love thou wert ready to die. "What is man, that thou art mindful of him; and the Son of man, that thou visitest him?” Blessed be thy name, O holy Jesus; for thou wentest about doing good, working miracles of mercy, healing the sick, comforting the distressed, instructing the ignorant, raising the dead, enlightening the blind, strengthening the lame, straightening the crooked, relieving the poor, preaching the gospel, and reconciling sinners by the mightiness of thy power, by the wisdom of thy Spirit, by the word of God, and the merits of thy passion, thy healthful and bitter passion. "Lord, what is man that thou art mindful of him," &c. Blessed be thy name, O holy Jesus, who wert content to be conspired against by the Jews, to be sold by thy servant for a vile price, and to wash the feet of him that took money for thy life, and to give to him and to all thy apostles thy most holy body and blood, to become a sacrifice for their sins, even for their betraying and denying thee; and for all my sins, even for my crucifying thee afresh, and for such sins, which I am ashamed to think, but that the greatness of my sins magnify the infiniteness of thy mercies, who didst so great things for so vile a person. "Lord, what is man," &c. Blessed be thy name, O holy Jesus, who, being to depart the world, didst comfort thy apostles, pouring out into their ears and hearts treasures of admirable discourses; who didst recommend them to thy Father with a mighty charity, and then didst enter into the garden set with nothing but briers and sorrows, where thou didst suffer a most unspeakable agony, until the sweat strained through thy pure skin like drops of blood, and there didst sigh and groan, and fall flat upon the earth, and pray, and submit to the intolerable burden of thy Father's wrath, which I had deserved, and thou sufferedst. "Lord, what is man," &c. Blessed be thy name, O holy Jesus, who hast sanctified to us all our natural infirmities and passions, by vouchsafing to be in fear and trembling and sore amazement, by being bound and imprisoned, by being harassed and dragged with cords of violence and rude hands, by being drenched in the brook in the way, by being sought after like a thief, and used like a sinner, who wert the most holy and the most innocent, cleaner than an angel, and brighter than the morning star. "Lord, what is man," &c. Blessed be thy name, O holy Jesus, and blessed be thy loving-kindness and pity, by which thou didst neglect thy own sorrows, and go to comfort the sadness of thy disciples, quickening their dulness, encouraging their duty, arming their weakness with excellent precepts against the day of trial. Blessed be that humility and sorrow of thine, who, being Lord of the angels, yet wouldest need and receive comfort from thy servant the angel; who didst offer thyself to thy persecutors, and madest them able to seize thee; and didst receive the traitor's kiss, and sufferedst a veil to be thrown over thy holy face, that thy enemies might not presently be confounded by so bright a lustre; and wouldst do |