THE POST-COMMUNION.

The minister and people devoutly kneeling shall say the Lord's prayer, the people repeating every petition after the minister.

OUR Father, which art in heaven; hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever.

Amen.

Then the minister shall pray this prayer for the catholic church.

I.

RECEIVE, O eternal 'God, this sacrifice for and in behalf of all christian people, whom Thou hast redeemed with the blood of Thy Son, and purchased as Thine own inheritance. From the fountains of mercy, the springs of our blessed Saviour, let all Thy people upon whom the name of Jesus is called, receive confirmation and increase of grace, fruitfulness in good works, and perfect understanding in the way of godliness; defend, O God, Thy church, and preserve her from all heresy and scandal, from sacrilege and simony, from covetousness and pride, from factions and schism, from atheism and irreligion, from all that persecute the truth, and from all that work wickedness, and let not the gates of hell prevail against her, nor any evil come near to hurt her.

II.

GIVE Thy blessing, O God, to this nation; remember us for good and not for evil; be reconciled unto us in the Son of Thy love, and let not Thine anger be any longer upon us, nor Thy jealousy burn like fire. Send us health and peace, justice and truth, good laws and good government; an excellent religion, undivided, undisturbed; temperate air, seasonable showers, wholesome dews, fruitful seasons: crown the year with goodness, and let the clouds drop fatness, that we may glorify Thy name, and confess Thy goodness, while Thou bearest witness to us from heaven, filling our hearts with food and gladness.

III.

WITH a propitious eye and a great pity behold the miseries of mankind; put a speedy period to all our sins and to all our calamities hear the sighings of the distressed, the groans of the sick, the prayers of the oppressed, the desires of the poor and needy; support the weakness of them that languish and faint, ease the pains of them that are in affliction and call to Thee for help. Take from the miserable all tediousness of spirit and despair: pardon all the penitents, reform the vicious, confirm the holy, and let them be holy still; pity the folly of young men, their little reason and great passion; succour the infirmities and temptations of the aged, preserving them that they may not sin towards the end of their lives, for Jesus Christ his sake.

IV.

ADMIT, O blessed God, into the society of our prayers, and the benefits of this eucharist, our fathers and brethren, our wives and children, our friends and benefactors, our charges and relatives, all that have desired our prayers and all that need them, all that we have and all that we have not remembered; thou knowest all their necessities and all their dwellings, their joys and their sorrows, their hopes and their fears, the number of their sins and the measures of their repentances; O dear God, sanctify them and us, let our portion. be in the good things of God, in religion and purity, in the peace of conscience, and the joys of the holy Ghost, in the love of God and of our neighbours. O gather us to the feet of Thy elect, when Thou wilt, and in what manner Thou art pleased; only let us appear before Thee without shame and without sins, through the merits of Jesus Christ, our most merciful Saviour and Redeemer. Amen.

Then shall follow the eucharistical prayers.

I.

GLORY be to Thee, O God our Father, who hast vouchsafed to make us at this time partakers of the body and blood of Thy holy Son: we offer unto Thee, O God, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto Thee: keep us under the shadow of Thy wings, and defend us from all evil, and conduct us by Thy holy spirit of grace into all good; for Thou who hast given Thy holy Son unto us, how shalt not Thou with Him give us all things else? Blessed be the name of our God for ever and ever. Amen.

II.

GLORY be to Thee, O Christ, our king, the only-begotten Son of God, who wert pleased to become a sacrifice for our sins, a redemption from calamity, the physician and the physic, the life and the health, the meat and the drink of our souls; Thou by Thy unspeakable mercy didst descend to the weakness of sinful flesh, remaining still in the perfect purity of spirit, and hast made us partakers of Thy holy body and blood: O condemn us not when Thou comest to judgment, but keep us ever in Thy truth, in Thy fear, and in Thy favour, that we may have our portion in Thine inheritance, where holiness and purity, where joy and everlasting praises do dwell for ever and ever. Amen.

III.

PROCEEDING from glory to glory, we still glorify Thee, O Father of spirits, and pray Thee for ever to continue Thy goodness towards us. Direct our way aright, establish us in holy purposes, keep us unspotted in Thy faith, let the enemy have no part in us, but conform us for ever to the likeness of Thy holy Son; lead us on to the perfect adoption of our souls, and to the redemption of our bodies from corruption, and fill our hearts and tongues with everlasting praises of Thy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The blessing.

THE peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord: and the blessing of God almighty, Father, Son and holy Spirit, be upon you, and abide with you, and be your portion for ever and ever. Amen.

THE END OF THE COMMUNION OFFICE.

A

FORM OF ADMINISTRATION

OF THE

HOLY SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM.

Pure water being provided and put into the fount, or into a lavatory of silver, or some other clean vessel, fit and decent for this sacred action; the minister being vested in an ecclesiastical habit, shall begin with this exhortation.

DEARLY BELOVED BRETHREN,

FORASMUCH as from our first parents we derive nothing but flesh and corruption: and that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven; it is necessary that every man who is reckoned in Adam should be also reckoned in Christ, that every one who is born of the flesh be also born again, and born of the Spirit, that every son of man by nature may become the son of God by adoption, be incorporated into Christ, intitled to the promises, and become heir of heaven by grace and faith in Jesus Christ: and that this cannot be done but by being admitted to the covenant of grace in baptism, our blessed Saviour saying that "except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God:" Let us humbly and devoutly pray unto God in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that He will be pleased to send down His holy spirit upon these waters of baptism, that they may become to this infant [* all that shall be washed in them] a laver of regeneration, and a well of water springing up to life eternal; and that this infant may be admitted to the covenant of grace and pardon, of mercy and holiness, receiving from grace what by nature he cannot have, that being baptized in water to the remission of sins, he may all his life walk in this covenant of grace and holiness, as a lively member of the holy church, which is the mystical body of Christ our head.

• If the place be populous and baptisms frequent, and this water be kept (as it is usual in

most churches both of east and west) then that clause within the columns may be used, else not.

LET US PRAY.
I.

O ALMIGHTY and eternal God, Father of men and angels, Lord of heaven and earth, whose Spirit moving upon the waters at the beginning of the world produced every living and every moving creature: Thou by the flood of waters didst wash away the iniquity of the old world, and by preserving to Thyself a generation of holy persons,

[sic edd.]

whom Thou didst bring up from those waters, didst consign to us a type of regeneration: Look, O Lord, graciously upon the face of Thy church, and multiply in her Thy regenerations, and the new-births of Thy spirit. With the abundance of Thy grace make Thy holy city to rejoice, and still open this holy fountain of baptism, for the reformation and sanctification of all the nations of the world; that Thy blessed spirit sanctifying these waters, a new and heavenly offspring may hence arise, full of health and light; that human nature, which was made after Thy own image, being reformed and restored to the honour of its first beginning, may be cleansed from all the impure adherencies of sin, preserved from the dominion of it, and rescued from all its sad effects, that what shall be so born in the womb of the church, may dwell in the house of God, and reign with Thee for ever in the inheritance of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus.

II.

Amen.

OUR blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus, who was baptized of John in Jordan, who walked upon the waters, who converted water into wine, who out of His precious side shed forth blood and water, the two sacraments of life, unto His holy church, and commanded His disciples to teach all nations, baptizing them with water in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the holy Ghost: He bless and sanctify by His holy spirit this water, that it may be instrumental and effective of grace, of pardon and sanctification: hear us, O most gracious God, that whosoever shall be baptized in this water may be renewed by Thy grace, justified by Thy mercy, sanctified by Thy spirit, preserved by Thy providence, and guided by Thy word, that in this water, springing from the paradise of God, the soul [or souls] presented unto Thee may be cleansed and purified, and that there may be added to Thy church daily such as shall be saved in the day of Thy glorious appearing, O blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus. Amen.

Then the minister and people arising from their knees, the
following gospel shall be read.

HEAR the words of the holy gospel written by S. Matthew, in the third chapter, &c.

Verse 13 to verse 17 inclusively.

"THEN Cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. But John forbad Him, saying, I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered Him. And Jesus when He was baptized went up straightway out of the water, and lo, the heavens