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mortality I see may incline me seriously to consider how frail and uncertain my condition is; and teach me so to number my days that I may apply my heart to that holy and heavenly wisdom whilst I live here, which will in the end bring me to life everlasting.

And O Thou Who art our only help in time of need, strengthen me, I beseech Thee, in my last agonies and as my strength decays let my pains wear off; but when my strength fails, O let not my faith fail: even in death enable me to trust in Thee.

Deliver me from all violent disorders of a troubled fancy, or painful delusions of my ghostly enemy. let him not be able to disturb or terrify me, or any way prevail against me. Have me in Thy custody, O Holy Father; for nothing can take me out of Thy hands. Give Thy holy angels charge to stand about me, to guard and receive my soul at my departure; and to conduct and carry it to the blessed receptacles of rest and peace.

If it be Thy gracious will, O Lord, make my pains short, and my death easy. But if Thou hast otherwise ordered, Thy blessed will be done; only give me patience to bear, and spiritual comforts under whatever Thou art pleased to lay upon me, and in Thine own appointed time make my death a passage to a joyful resurrection unto a blessed and eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O Almighty Lord, Who art &c. p. 104.
Unto God's gracious mercy &c. p. 104.

THURSDAY AFTERNOON.

The certainty of death, and of a general resurrection unto eternal life.

There is a time to be born, and a time to die'.

1 Eccles. iii. 2.

I know that Thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living1.

When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return '.

If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.

All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust s

Man being in honour abideth not*.

Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.

What man is he that liveth and shall not see death? Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? He shall go to the generation of his fathers: they shall never see the light'.

They are laid in the grave: death shall feed on them; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwellings.

But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave; for He shall receive me9.

Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth; my flesh also shall rest in hope 10.

For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin worms destroy this body; yet in my flesh shall I see God".

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth

12

in Me, shall never die 12.

For to this end Christ both died, and rose and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living".

13

For He must reign till He hath put all enemies

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under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death 1.

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, Which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 2.

Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself 3.

For if we believe that Jesus died, and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him 4.

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 we 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 ever be with the Lord'.

Remember not Lord mine offences &c. p. 102.
Lord have mercy upon me, &c. 102.

Our Father, Which art in heaven &c.

Prayer for grace so to live, that we may give a joyful account in the day of judgment.

O ALMIGHTY and eternal God, the Creator of all things, Who hast made my days upon earth as it were a span long, and mine age even as nothing in respect of Thee; give me grace, I humbly beseech Thee, to live under such a constant sense of my mortality, and of the shortness and uncertainty of this present life, that death may never surprise me in an hour when I am not aware; but being always provided with oil in my lamp I may be ready, whenever the Bridegroom

11 Cor. xv. 25, 26.
4 1 Thess. iv. 14.

3 Phil. iii. 21.

2 Ibid. ver. 55-57.
5 Ibid. iv. 16, 17.

shall come, to enter with Him into the marriage feast; and may receive a blessing among those who watch and wait for the coming of their Lord; to Whom, with Thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

Prayer for grace to prepare our souls for the society of glorified spirits in heaven.

O ETERNAL God, with Whom do live the spirits of them that depart hence in the Lord; and with Whom the souls of the faithful, after they are delivered from the burden of the flesh, are in joy and felicity; I give Thee humble and hearty thanks for that it hath pleased Thee to vouchsafe us so clear a revelation of life and immortality by Thy Son Jesus Christ: and I most humbly beseech Thee to give me grace in this my day of trial and probation to fit myself for the employment of eternity, by weaning my heart from the things of this world, and by setting my affections on things above, and having my conversation in heaven; that when I put off this frail body my soul may be immediately brought into the blessed society of just men made perfect, and readily join with them in singing praises and hallelujahs to Thee for ever and ever; through Thine only Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O Almighty Lord, Who art &c. p. 104.
Unto God's gracious mercy &c. p. 104.

FRIDAY AFTERNOON.

The troubles and afflictions of this life. The duty and blessedness of patience and perseverance to the end.

O DEATH, how bitter is the remembrance of thee

man that hath nothing to vex him, and that hath prosperity in all things'.

Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust; neither doth trouble spring out of the ground; yet man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward 2.

For what hath man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the sun? For all his days are sorrows, and his travel grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night 3.

All things are full of labour: man cannot utter it *. Sore travail hath God given to the sons of man, to be exercised therewith ".

But my son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of His correction. For whom the Lord loveth, He correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth ".

If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he, whom the Father chasteneth not??

Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby".

Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator'.

The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them 1o.

Though they be punished in the sight of men; yet is their hope full of immortality: and having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded; for God proved them, and found them worthy for Himself".

Then shall the righteous man stand in great bold

1 Ecclus. xli. 1.
4 Ibid. i. 8.
7 Heb. xii. 7.

10 Wisd. iii. 1.

2 Job v. 6, 7.
5 Ibid. ver. 13.
8 Ibid. xii. 11.

3 Eccles. ii. 22, 23. Prov. iii. 11, 12. 91 Pet. iv. 19.

11 Ibid. ver. 4, 5.

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