A

FORM OF DEVOTION;

TO BE USED AND SAID IN

THE DAYS OF SORROW AND AFFLICTION

OF

A FAMILY, OR OF PRIVATE PERSONS.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Our Father which art in heaven, &c.

Versicle. O God, make speed to save us.
Answer. O Lord, make haste to help us.
Glory be to the Father, &c.

As it was in the beginning, &c.

The Psalm.

HIDE not thy face far from me, O Lord, put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.

O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not: and in the night season I am not silent.

But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.

Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted in thee, and thou didst deliver them.

But I am a worm, and no man: smitten of thee, Lord, afflicted, tormented, forsaken.

Thou hast filled me with bitterness, and hast made me drunk with wormwood: thou hast removed my soul far off from peace, and I have forgotten prosperity.

But, O God, thou art my God, early will I seek thee: be not thou far from me; O Lord, O my strength, haste thee to help me.

I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have

I not hid: I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; O do thou forgive the iniquity of my sin.

Thou art my hiding-place, thou shalt preserve me from trouble: thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance.

Lord, make me to know my end, and the measure of my days, what it is: that I may know how frail I am.

Behold, thou hast made my days as a handbreadth, and mine age is nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.

And now, O Lord, what wait I for? Surely my hope is in thee.

Deliver me from all my transgressions, remove thy stroke away from me: I am even consumed by the blow of thy hand.

When thou with rebukes dost chasten man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity.

Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry, hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.

O spare me a little, that I may recover my strength: before I go hence, and be no more seen.

Let all those that seek thee, rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation, say continually, The Lord be magnified.

But I am poor and needy, yet the Lord careth for me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.

Amen, Amen, Amen.

Then read the second chapter of Ecclesiasticus; or the sixth chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel; or the twelfth chapter to the Romans; or the fifth chapter of the second Epistle to the Thessalonians; or the first of Timothy the sixth chapter; or Hebrews, the twelfth; or James, the fifth. These at several times.

After the chapter is read, sit still awhile, and consider of such comforts or instructions, as are in the chapter fitted to your needs.

If this Office be said by a Minister in the company of the afflicted Person; then he may add such useful and comfortable Discourses as are occasioned by the chapter, and then say the following Collects.

After meditation or discourse, humbly kneel down, and pray.

I.

An Act of Repentance.

O my God and Father, in vain do we beg to have thy heavy hand taken from us, so long as the cause remains: our sins, O God, our sins are so great, so numerous, so intolerable, that we must needs with shame hide our face, and confess we have deserved all the evil that we suffer, and all that which thou hast threatened. We have, O God, more to give thee thanks for, than we have to deplore. It is thy infinite mercy, that we are yet kept from feeling thy severest judgments. It is thy mercy that we have our senses and our understandings, that we have the use of thy word and sacraments, that we have not intolerable pains of body, and unsufferable troubles in our mind: it is thy blessing that we have bread, that we have any friends, that we have the prayers of thy faithful servants; that we have faith in thee, and that we have hope. It is thy infinite mercy, that we are yet kept from the unsufferable pains of hell, and are permitted to pray to thee, to rely upon thy mercies, to work out our salvation, and to expect thy loving-kindness in the land of the living.

II.

All the evils that we suffer, we have deserved, but nothing of the good have we deserved; we are less than the least of all thy mercies, and our sins are greater than the greatest of all our sufferings. And now, O God, thou who hast so mercifully dealt with thy servants in taking a less fine of us, than in justice thou mightest have exacted, be pleased also to proceed in the methods of thy mercy; and make our present sufferings be instrumental of thy glory, of the pardon of our sins, of the sanctifications of our spirits, of the humiliation of our souls, that, like silver tried in the fire, we may come forth more pure vessels of honour, pleasing and acceptable to thee in Jesus Christ.

III.

An Act of Patience and Resignation.

We know, O God, that thou art infinitely wise and infinitely good, and thou disposest all the events of thy crea

tures to excellent purposes, and delightest to bring good out of evil. Behold, O God, we are thy servants and thy creatures, do to us as seemeth good in thine eyes; only give us patience and a long-suffering spirit, that we may not murmur secretly, when we complain openly; that we may not make haste in the day of our calamity, but with a quiet spirit expect and wait for the time of our redemption. But make no long tarrying, O Lord, make haste to help us, O God of our salvation; and be pleased to give us a light from heaven, that, with the eye of faith, we may see beyond the cloud, and look for those comforts which thou didst prepare for thy servants that love thee, and put their trust in thee, and have laid up all their hopes in the bosom of God.

IV.

An Act of Hope.

O God, our God, thou hast said unto us, • I will never leave you, nor forsake you;' thou hast often eased our calamities, and taken off thy severe hand, thou hast promised to be with us in time of need, thou delightest to deliver them whose confidence is in thy goodness. Thou hast supported our spirits in the day of our sorrow, and hast given us many intervals and spaces of refreshment, and renewest thy lovingkindness day by day: O let us never have our portion amongst the hopeless and desperate. Let us always pray to thee, and hope in thee, and in every period of our affliction let us do some actions of virtue, by which we may please thee, and be accepted so long as we can pray. Thou hast commanded us to hope; and we do hope, that these comforts shall refresh our souls, that thy mercies will support us under our afflic tions, that thy Spirit shall comfort us in it, and thy grace and thy glorious providence shall speedily deliver us from it, Amen, blessed Jesus, Amen.

V.

The Petition.

And now, O most merciful Father, give thy servants admittance to present our complaint before the throne of grace, and let our petition enter into thy presence: thy arrows stick fast in us, and thy hand presseth us sore: open thy heart,

the treasure and spring of mercy, and thence let comforts and refreshments descend upon thy servants. Put a blessed period to our sorrows, but first put a stop to our sins: let us not sin against thee, when for sin thou art smiting us; let us never charge thee foolishly, nor behave ourselves peevishly towards others, but use all the means we can to ease their sorrows, to lighten their burdens, to sweeten their lives, that so we may expect from thy goodness a more plentiful and abundant measure of loving-kindness.

VI.

O Lord, put a bar and stop unto our passions; make them to be humble ministers of religion and prudent government, but never let us suffer any violent transportations in ourselves, never be provoked to any bitterness, never to be harsh or cruel towards any, never to speak any thing peevishly and undecently, never to put too much upon any temporal interest; in all things let us behold thy providence, and reverence thy justice, and adore thy majesty, and feel thy mercy, and obey thy Spirit; and if thou shalt still persevere to smite us, and to try thy servants, let not thy punishing us ever cause us to sin against thee. Let not our own follies be our scourges, lest we sin against thee, and lose thy blessing for ever.

VII.

Be pleased, O God, to add this favour unto thy servants, that our trouble may not be doubled or increase by our own infirmities: take from us all troublesome fancies and too quick apprehensions of our sorrows; blessed be thy name, they are finite, and they are temporal sorrows, they are less than our sins, and they are less than thy mercies. Give us grace to despise the world, and all its interests and possessions, that while we set not our affections upon them, we may not be too much afflicted, when we are crossed in them; but let our great care be to please thee, our greatest fears lest we should sin against thee. Let our duty be our employment, thy providence our portion, thy Spirit our guide, thy law our rule: that when this cloud is passed over, we may see the brightness of thy face, and perpetual showers of grace and mercy, refreshing our sad and weary spirits: so shall thy servants sing praises to the honour of thy name,