the union of Christ and his church: be pleased to go along with thy servant in my entering into, and passing through, this state, that it may not be a state of temptation or sorrow, by occasion of my sins or infirmities, but of holiness and comfort, as thou hast intended it to all that love and fear thy holy name.

III.

Lord, bless and preserve that dear person, whom thou hast chosen to be my husband; let his life be long and blessed, comfortable and holy; and let me also become a great blessing and comfort unto him; a sharer in all his joys, a refreshment in all his sorrows, a meet helper for him in all accidents and chances of the world. Make me amiable, for ever, in his eyes, and very dear to him. Unite his heart to me in the dearest union of love and holiness; and mine to him in all sweetness, and charity, and compliance. Keep from me all morosity and ungentleness, all sullenness and harshness of disposition, all pride and vanity, all discontentedness and unreasonableness of passion and humour: and make me humble and obedient, charitable and loving, patient and contented, useful and observant; that we may delight in each other according to thy blessed word and ordinance, and both of us may rejoice in thee, having our portion in the love and service of God for ever and ever.

IV.

O blessed Father, never suffer any mistakes or discontent, any distrustfulness or sorrow, any trifling arrests of fancy, or unhandsome accident, to cause any unkindness between us but let us so dearly love, so affectionately observe, so religiously attend to each other's good and content, that we may always please thee, and by this learn and practise our duty and greatest love to thee, and become mutual helps to each other in the way of godliness; that when we have received the blessings of a married life, the comforts of society, the endearments of a holy and great affection, and the dowry of blessed children, we may for ever dwell together in the embraces of thy love and glories, feasting in the marriage-supper of the Lamb to eternal ages, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Amen.

A Prayer for a holy and happy Death.

O ETERNAL and holy Jesus, who by death hast overcome death, and by thy passion hast taken out its sting, and made it to become one of the gates of heaven, and an entrance to felicity, have mercy upon me now, and at the hour of my death. Let thy grace accompany me all the days of my life, that I may, by a holy conversation and a habitual performance of my duty, wait for the coming of our Lord, and be ready to enter with thee at whatsoever hour thou shalt come. Lord, let not my death be in any sense unprovided, nor untimely, nor hasty, but after the manner of men, having in it nothing extraordinary, but an extraordinary piety, and the manifestation of a great and miraculous mercy. Let my senses and my understanding be preserved entire till the last of my days; and grant that I may die the death of the righteous, free from debt and deadly sin, having first discharged all my obligations of justice, leaving none miserable and unprovided in my departure; but be thou the portion of all my friends and relatives, and let thy blessing descend upon their heads, and abide there, till they shall meet me in the bosom of our Lord. Preserve me ever in the communion and peace of the church; and bless my death-bed with the opportunity of a holy and a spiritual guide, with the assistance and guard of angels, with the reception of the holy sacrament, with patience and dereliction of my own desires, with a strong faith, and a firm and humbled hope, with just measures of repentance, and great treasures of charity to thee, my God, and to all the world; that my soul, in the arms of the holy Jesus, may be deposited with safety and joy, there to expect the revelation of thy day, and then to partake the glories of thy kingdom, O eternal and holy Jesus. Amen.

FESTIVAL HYMNS.

I will sing with the Spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.

HYMNS

CELEBRATING THE MYSTERIES AND CHIEF FESTIVALS

OF THE YEAR, ACCORDING ΤΟ THE MANNER OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH; FITTED TO THE FANCY AND DEVOTION OF THE YOUNGER AND PIOUS PERSONS: APT FOR MEMORY, AND ΤΟ BE JOINED TO THEIR OTHER PRAYERS.

Hymns for Advent, or the Weeks immediately before the Birth of our Blessed Saviour.

I.

WHEN, Lord, O when, shall we

Our dear salvation see?

Arise, arise;

Our fainting eyes

Have long'd all night: and 'twas a long one too.

Man never yet could say

He saw more than one day,

One day of Eden's seven :

The guilty hours, there blasted with the breath

Of sin and death,

Have, ever since, worn a nocturnal hue.

But thou hast given us hopes, that we,
At length, another day shall see,

Wherein each vile neglected place,
Gilt with the aspect of thy face,

Shall be, like that, the porch and gate of heaven.

How long, dear God, how long!
See how the nations throng:
All human kind,

Knit and combin'd

Into one body, look for thee their head.
Pity our multitude;

Lord, we are vile and rude,

Headless, and senseless, without thee,
Of all things but the want of thy blest face:
O haste apace,

And thy bright self to this our body wed;
That, through the influx of thy power,
Each part, that erst confusion wore,
May put on order, and appear
Spruce, as the childhood of the year,
When thou to it shalt so united be. - Amen.

The second Hymn for Advent; or, Christ's coming to Jerusalem in triumph.

LORD, come away;

Why dost thou stay?

Thy road is ready; and thy paths, made straight,
With longing expectation wait

The consecration of thy beauteous feet.
Ride on triumphantly: behold, we lay
Our lusts and proud wills in thy way.

Hosannah! welcome to our hearts: Lord, here
Thou hast a temple, too, and full as dear

As that of Sion; and as full of sin;

Nothing but thieves and robbers dwell therein,

Enter, and chase them forth, and cleanse the floor; Crucify them, that they may never more

Profane that holy place,

Where thou hast chose to set thy face.

And then if our stiff tongues shall be

Mute in the praises of thy deity,

The stones out of the temple-wall

Shall cry aloud and call

Hosannah! and thy glorious footsteps greet. — Amen.

Hymns for Christmas Day.

I.

MYSTERIOUS truth! that the self-same should be
A Lamb, a Shepherd, and a Lion too!
Yet such was he

Whom first the shepherds knew,
When they themselves became

Sheep to the Shepherd-Lamb.

Shepherd of men and angels,- Lamb of God,-
Lion of Judah, — by these titles keep
The wolf from thy endangered sheep.
Bring all the world into thy fold;
Let Jews and Gentiles hither come
In numbers great, that can't be told;
And call thy lambs, that wander, home.

Glory be to God on high;

All glories be to th' glorious Deity.

The second Hymn; being a Dialogue between three Shepherds.

1. WHERE is this blessed Babe,

That hath made

All the world so full of joy

And expectation?

That glorious boy,

That crowns each nation

With a triumphant wreath of blessedness?

2. Where should he be but in the throng,