them wisdom and grace, we beseech thee, and a careful conscience, rightly and impartially to discharge this their solemn duty, that so things amiss may be reformed, vice abandoned, truth supported, innocence relieved, and thy glory maintained. Have compassion on all who are in prison or in bonds, and convert all those who are in sin or error, and may all find alike acceptance and redemption at the great day of account, through the alone merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

A Prayer to be used during the erection of a Church, or other charitable institution, in which the family are giving aid.

(From a service in use by the late Bps. of Sodor and Man.)

ETERNAL God, mighty in power, and in majesty incomprehensible, bless, we beseech thee, the work on which we ask thy favour, to the honour and glory of thy great name, and the edification of thy holy Church. [(If a Church.) Vouchsafe, O Lord, that the walls now begun may be built up an holy temple to thee, and be kept safe from all common and profane uses. Grant that the prayers and praises of thy holy Catholic and Apostolic Church may be there unceasingly offered to thee, thy true and lively word set forth, and thy holy Sacraments rightly and duly administered.] Direct those who design the same, and fill all with liberal and grateful hearts. Keep all who are engaged in the (erecting) thereof from every vain and covetous and unholy thought and word and work, and from all dangers and accidents. Give thine holy Angels charge over them to keep them in all their ways. And graciously accept our offerings, and therewith our prayers and praises, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For the High Court of Parliament.

To be read during their Session.

OST gracious God, we humbly beseech thee, as for

Court of Parliament, under our most religious and gracious Queen at this time assembled: That thou wouldest be pleased to direct and prosper all their consultations to the advancement of thy glory, the good of thy Church, the safety, honour, and welfare of our Sovereign, and her Do

minions; that all things may be so ordered and settled by their endeavours, upon the best and surest foundations, that peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, may be established among us for all generations. These and all other necessaries, for them, for us, and thy whole Church, we humbly beg in the name and mediation of Jesus Christ, our most blessed Lord and Saviour. Amen.

For Seasonable Weather, for Plenty, for Health, Peace, &c.

GOD, Heavenly Father, who by thy Son Jesus Christ,

kingdom

righteousness, all things needful: [we humbly beseech thee, to send us such weather as that we may receive the fruits of the earth in due season; increase them by thy heavenly benediction; and give us grace to use them to thy glory and the relief of those who need.]

Or,

Have pity upon us, and save us from the hands of our enemies, and give us the blessings of peace.

Or,

Have compassion upon us, and save us from all pestilence and grievous sickness,

That we may glorify thy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Such parts of the foregoing Prayer may be inserted in the General Thanksgiving, (p. 36,) on any proper occasion, as are adapted to it.

In Times of National Trouble.

ALMIGHTY Lord God, who by thy wisdom guidest and orderest all things; we thy sinful people acknowledge thee to be righteous in all thy ways, and holy in all thy works and do here fall down before thee, confessing that thy judgments are right: and that we have drawn down the same upon ourselves, by the great and long provocations of our sins against thee. We do therefore here humble ourselves before thee; beseeching thee to deliver this nation, and to turn from us and our posterity all those judgments, which we by our sins have worthily deserved: Grant this, for the all-sufficient merits of thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

PRAYERS

FOR USE IN

TIMES OF DOMESTIC AFFLICTION, SICKNESS, AND DEATH.

DESPISE not of thor ford

ESPISE not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint

loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Heb. xii.

He chasteneth us for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

Ib.

Exhortation.

EARLY beloved, we know this, that Almighty God is

to them

pertaining. Wherefore whatsoever our [affliction] be, know we certainly, that it is God's visitation. And for what cause soever it is sent unto us; whether it be to try our patience for the example of others, and that our faith may be found in the day of the Lord laudable, glorious, and honourable, to the increase of glory, and endless felicity; or else it be sent us to correct and amend in us whatsoever doth offend the eyes of our heavenly Father: know we certainly, that if we truly repent us of our sins, and bear our [trial] patiently, trusting in God's mercy, and rendering unto him humble thanks for his fatherly visitation, submitting ourselves wholly unto his will, it shall turn to our profit, and help us forward in the right way that leadeth unto everlasting life. (See also Friday Morning.)

Prayer for Pardon, &c.

REMEMBER forefathers: Spare us, good Lord, spare

EMEMBER not, Lord, our iniquities, nor the iniqui

thy people, whom thou hast redeemed with thy most

precious blood, and be not angry with us for ever. Spare us, good Lord.

Appropriate Psalms.-xxxviii. li. lxxi, cxxx. cxliii.

Prayer.

EAR us, O Almighty and most merciful God and

accustomed

thy [family] which is grieved with [heavy affliction.] Sanctify, we beseech thee, this thy fatherly correction unto us, that the sense of our weakness may add strength to our faith, and seriousness to our repentance, that we may lead the residue of our life in thy fear, and to thy glory; and give us grace so to take thy visitation, that, after this painful life ended, we may dwell with thee in life everlasting; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Or this.

BLESSED Lord, the Father of mercies and the God of all comforts; we beseech thee, look down in pity and compassion upon us thine afflicted servants. Our souls are full of trouble. [(For those troubled in mind.) Thou writest bitter things against us, and makest us to possess our former iniquities; thy wrath lieth hard upon us, and our souls are full of trouble.] O merciful God, who hast written thy holy Word for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of thy Holy Scriptures, might have hope; [give us a right understanding of ourselves, and of thy threats and promises;] grant, that we may neither cast away our confidence in thee, nor place it any where but in thee. Break not the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax. Shut not up thy tender mercies in displeasure, but make us to hear of joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Deliver us from fear of the enemy, and lift up the light of thy countenance upon us, and give us peace; through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For a Sick Member of the Family.

ALMIGHTY, everliving God, Maker of mankind, who

dost correct those whom thou dost love, and chastise every one whom thou dost receive: We beseech thee to have mercy upon this thy servant visited with thine hand,

and to grant that he may take his sickness patiently, and recover his bodily health, (if it be thy gracious will;) and whensoever his soul shall depart from the body, it may be without spot presented unto thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Or this.

MOST merciful God, who, according to the multitude of thy mercies, dost so put away the sins of those who truly repent, that thou rememberest them no more; Open

thine eye of mercy upon this thy servant, who most earnestly desireth pardon and forgiveness. Renew in him, most loving Father, whatsoever hath been decayed by the fraud and malice of the devil, or by his own carnal will and frailness; preserve and continue this sick member in the unity of the Church; consider his contrition, accept his tears, assuage his pain, as shall seem to thee most expedient for him. forasmuch as he putteth his full trust only in thy mercy, impute not unto him his former sins, but strengthen him with thy blessed Spirit; and, when thou art pleased to take him hence, take him unto thy favour, through the merits of thy most dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For the Mistress, during the hours of her travail.

(Bp. Cosin.)

And

MERCIFUL Lord, who, when thou tookest upon thee to deliver man, didst not abhor the Virgin's womb, but when the fulness of time came, wast thyself made of a woman, we humbly beseech thee, for thy tender pity and goodness, to protect and strengthen (thy dear servant, the mistress of this family) against all the dangers and pains of her labour and travail, that through thy most mighty aid, she may be safely delivered of the fruit which thou hast created in her womb. [Forsake her not when her strength faileth, when her spirits faint, but moderate her pain, if it be thy blessed will.] And when it is born and brought forth into the world, vouchsafe also that it may be born again by Baptism, and brought up in thy holy religion, till it be finally brought to thine everlasting kingdom, where, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, thou livest and reignest ever one God, world without end. Amen.