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II.

Supplicate with tears unto Christ, who is to judge my poor soul, that he will deliver me from the fire that is unquenchable. I pray you all, my friends and acquaintance, make mention of me in your prayers, that in the day of judgment I may find mercy at that dreadful tribunal.

III.

Then may the Standers-by pray.

When in unspeakable glory, thou dost come dreadfully to judge the whole world, vouchsafe, O gracious Redeemer, that this thy faithful servant may in the clouds meet thee cheerfully. They, who have been dead from the beginning, with terrible and fearful trembling stand at thy tribunal, waiting thy just sentence. O blessed Saviour Jesus! none shall there avoid thy formidable and most righteous judgment. All kings and princes with servants stand together, and hear the dreadful voice of the Judge condemning the people, which have sinned, into hell: from which sad sentence, O Christ, deliver thy servant. Amen.

Then let the sick man be called upon to rehearse the arti

cles of his faith; or, if he be so weak he cannot, let him (if he have not before done it) be called to say, Amen, when they are recited, or to give some testimony of his faith and confident assent to them.

After which it is proper (if the person be in capacity) that the minister examine him, and invite him to confession, and all the parts of repentance, according to the foregoing rules: after which, he may pray the prayer of absolution.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath given commission to his church, in his name to pronounce pardon to all, that are truly penitent, he, of his mercy, pardon and forgive thee all thy sins, deliver thee from all evils past, present, and future, preserve thee in the faith and fear of his holy name to thy life's end, and bring thee to his everlasting kingdom, to live with him for ever and ever.

Amen.

Then let the sick man renounce all heresies, and whatsoever is against the truth of God or the peace of the church, and pray for pardon for all his ignorances and errors, known and unknown.

After which let him (if all other circumstances be fitted) be disposed to receive the blessed sacrament, in which the curate is to minister according to the form prescribed by the church.

When the rites are finished, let the sick man in the days of his sickness be employed with the former offices and exercises before described; and when the time draws near of his dissolution, the minister may assist by the following order of recommendation of the soul.

I.

O holy and most gracious Saviour Jesus, we humbly recommend the soul of thy servant into thy hands, thy most merciful hands; let thy blessed angels stand in ministry about thy servant, and defend him from the violence and malice of all his ghostly enemies, and drive far from hence all the spirits of darkness. Amen. II.

Lord, receive the soul of this thy servant: enter not into judgment with thy servant: spare him whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood: deliver him from all evil, for whose sake thou didst suffer all evil and mischief; from the crafts and assaults of the devil, from the fear of death, and from everlasting death, good Lord, deliver him. Amen.

III.

Impute not unto him the follies of his youth, nor any of the errors and miscarriages of his life; but strengthen him in his agony, let not his faith waver, nor his hope fail, nor his charity be disordered; let none of his enemies imprint upon him any afflictive or evil fantasm; let him die in peace, and rest in hope, and rise in glory. Amen.

IV.

Lord, we know and believe assuredly, that whatsoever is

under thy custody cannot be taken out of thy hands, nor by all the violences of hell robbed of thy protection: preserve the work of thy hands, rescue him from all evil; take into the participation of thy glories him, to whom thou hast given the seal of adoption, the earnest of the inheritance of the saints. Amen.

V.

Let his portion be with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; with Job and David, with the prophets and apostles, with martyrs and all thy holy saints, in the arms of Christ, in the bosom of felicity, in the kingdom of God to eternal ages. Amen.

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[These following prayers are fit also to be added to the foregoing offices, in case there be no communion or intercourse, but prayer.]

Let us pray.

O almighty and eternal God, there is no number of thy days or of thy mercies: thou hast sent us into this world to serve thee, and to live according to thy laws; but we by our sins have provoked thee to wrath, and we have planted thorns and sorrows round about our dwellings: and our life is but a span long, and yet very tedious, because of the calamities that enclose us in on every side; the days of our pilgrimage are few and evil; we have frail and sickly bodies, violent and distempered passions, long designs and but a short stay, weak understandings and strong enemies, abused fancies, perverse wills. O dear God, look upon us in mercy and pity: let not our weaknesses make us to sin against thee, nor our fear cause us to betray our duty, nor our former follies provoke thy eternal anger, nor the calamities of this world vex us into tediousness of spirit and impatience: but let thy Holy Spirit lead us through this valley of misery with safety and peace, with holiness and religion, with spiritual comforts and joy in the Holy Ghost: that, when we have served thee in our generations, we may be gathered unto our fathers, having the testimony of a holy conscience, in the communion of the catholic church, in the confidence of a certain faith, and the comforts of a reasonable, religious, and holy hope, and perfect charity with thee our God and

all the world; that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, may be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

II.

O holy and most gracious Saviour Jesus, in whose hands the souls of all faithful people are laid up till the day of recompense, have mercy upon the body and soul of this thy servant, and upon all thy elect people, who love the Lord Jesus, and long for his coming; Lord, refresh the imperfection of their condition with the aids of the Spirit of grace and comfort, and with the visitation and guard of angels, and supply to them all their necessities known only unto thee; let them dwell in peace, and feel thy mercies pitying their infirmities, and the follies of their flesh, and speedily satisfying the desires of their spirits: and when thou shalt bring us all forth in the day of judgment, O then shew thyself to be our Saviour Jesus, our advocate and our judge. Lord, then remember, that thou hast, for so many ages, prayed for the pardon of those sins, which thou art then to sentence. Let not the accusations of our consciences, nor the calumnies and aggravation of devils, nor the effects of thy wrath, press those souls, which thou lovest, which thou didst redeem, which thou dost pray for; but enable us all, by the supporting hand of thy mercy, to stand upright in judgment. O Lord, have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us: O Lord, let thy mercy lighten upon us, as our trust is in thee. O Lord, in thee have we trusted, let us never be confounded. Let us meet with joy, and for ever dwell with thee, feeling thy pardon, supported with thy graciousness, absolved by thy sentence, saved by thy mercy, that we may sing to the glory of thy name eternal hallelujahs. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Then may be added in the behalf of all, that are present, these ejaculations.

O spare us a little, that we may recover our strength, before we go hence, and be no more seen. Amen.

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Cast us not away, in the time of age; O forsake us not, when strength faileth. Amen.

Grant, that we may never sleep in sin or death eternal, but that we may have our part of the first resurrection, and that the second death may not prevail over us. Amen.

Grant, that our souls may be bound up in the bundle of life; and in the day, when thou bindest up thy jewels, remember thy servants for good, and not for evil, that our souls may be numbered amongst the righteous. Amen.

Grant unto all sick and dying Christians mercy and aids from heaven; and receive the souls returning unto thee, whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood. Amen.

Grant unto thy servants to have faith in the Lord Jesus, a daily meditation of death, a contempt of the world; a longing desire after heaven; patience in our sorrows; comfort in our sicknesses; joy in God; a holy life and a blessed death; that our souls may rest in hope, and my body may rise in glory, and both may be beatified in the communion of saints, in the kingdom of God, and the glories of the Lord Jesus. Amen.

The Blessing.

Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work, to do his will, working in you, that which is pleasing in his sight; to whom be glory, for ever and ever, Amen.

The Doxology.

To the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings 4, and the Lord of lords, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light, which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see, be honour and power everlasting. Amen.

After the sick man is departed, the minister, if he be present, or the major-domo, or any other fit person, may use the following prayers in behalf of themselves.

Heb. xiii. 20, 21.

a 1 Tim. vi. 15, 16.

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