your will that none may contend about your estate when you are dead. If you have wronged any, make them restitution. If you have fallen out with any, be quickly reconciled, and forgive them. And if you have the means, remember in your wills the Church, and institutions of piety and benevolence.

Mistake not sickness and death as if there were more harm in them than there really is. Sickness is a dispensation of God, on which you may as confidently expect his blessing, as on his word and sacraments. Labour, therefore, to reap the benefit of it, by suffering it to convince you more effectually of the vanity and vexation of the world. And remember what a mercy it is that man, who is so loth to die, should end his days in such pain and weakness, as to make him the more willing to be dissolved. Sickness alone, without faith and love, will draw no man's heart to heaven, or save him; yet such a help against the sinful love of life and fear of death, is no small mercy. Be sensible of the benefit of sickness, and experience will reconcile you to the providence of God, and prevent all repining.

Beg of God, for the sake of your Redeemer, such assistance of his Spirit as your low and weak condition needeth, and such as is suitable to a dying man. God hath great help and grace for great necessities.

Renew your repentance and confession of sin, and warn all about you to learn by your example to set their hopes and hearts on heaven, and to make it the work of all their lives to prepare for such a change. Then confidently deliver up your soul into the hand of your Father and

your Redeemer, and give over all distrustful carring for youself.

Let holy affections be exercised in suitable expressions. If your disease allow you strength to do this, magnify God's goodness, and speak good of his name, and word, and ways. Make others see that there is a reality in the comforts of faith and hope; and that the death of the righteous is so desirable as to make their lives desirable also. Your tongue was given you to praise the Lord: it hath but a little while more to speak: Let its last word be to his glory. Tell men what you have found God and your Redeemer to be to your soul; and speak of the glory of his kingdom, which you expect, that the hopes and desires of others may be excited.

Let your last words be addressed to God himself in prayer and praises, beginning the work on earth which you must perfect in heaven. Imitate your dying Lord, saying "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit:" and say with his first martyr, "Lord Jesus receive my spirit.” AMEN! AMEN!

A Prayer for a happy Death.

(From the Offices of the Church.)

O God whose days are without end, and whose mercies cannot be numbered; make me, I beseech thee, deeply sensible of the shortness and uncertainty of human life. In the midst of life, I am in death; and can seek for succour only of thee, O Lord,

who, for my sins, art justly displeased, O grant me unfeigned repentance for all the errors of my life past, and a steadfast faith in thy Son Jesus, that my sins may be done away by thy mercy, and my pardon sealed in heaven, before I go hence, and be no more seen. Let thy holy Spirit lead me through this vale of misery in righteousness and holiness all the days of my life; that when I shall have served thee in my generation, I may be gathered unto my Fathers, having the testimony of a good conscience; in the communion of the Catholic Church; in the confidence of a certain faith; in the comfort of a reasonable, religious, and holy hope; in favour with thee, my God, and in perfect charity with the world. Fit and prepare me, O heavenly Father, against the hour of death; that I may then commend my soul into thy hands, as into the hands of a faithful Creator and most merciful Saviour. And do thou wash it in the blood of that immaculate Lamb that was slain for the sins of the world, that whatsoever defilements it may have contracted, being purified and done away, it may without spot be presented unto thee. Grant, O Almighty God, with whom do live the spirits of those who 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, that, with all those who are departed in the true faith of thy holy name, I may have my perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul, in thy eternal and everlasting glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

AN EXHORTATION,

WITH

SOME FORMS,

IN ORDER TO ENFORCE AND TO ASSIST IN THE PRACTICE OF THE DUTY OF

EJACULATORY PRAYER;

THAT IS,

OF OFFERING UP SHORT PRAYERS TO GOD ON ALL OCCASIONS WITH HEARTY DEVOTION

AND WARMTH OF SPIRIT.

RECOMMENDATORY ADDRESS,

BY THE REV. WILLIAM JONES, OF NAYLAND.

TO THE PUBLISHERS.

SIRS,

THIS little Book, plain as it is, being singular in its way, and having been the instrument of much good, I wished to see it reprinted several years ago, and on such authority as would have been sufficient to recommend the use of it; but as I did not succeed, I am glad you have determined to give a new edition of it.

A reader may suppose the whole design of it to be only that of supplying the words and the language of occasional prayer. It will, indeed,

supply words to those who want them; but its first and greatest object is, to produce in the Christian the habit of mental prayer; a readiness of heart, rather than a fluency of speech; for if the heart be ready, the tongue will seldom be wanting in utterance.

I knew the author well;* and I knew him to be a man truly affected to God, of great charity to the poor, and a parish priest, as indefatigable as any in this church. The late Dr. Horne, Bishop of Norwich, so far approved his book, that he asked me, when it would be re-printed? that he might put it into the hands of some young persons very near to him, to give them a religious turn of thought. This anecdote will be a greater recommendation to many people, and promote the success of your new edition, better than all I can say in its favour. I, therefore, only add, that it will teach the young and the old; the former how to live, the latter how to die; for death will never take him by surprise who lives daily by this rule.

Nayland, Nov. 30, 1796.

W. JONES.

The Rev. Robert Cooke, M. A. late Vicar of Boxted,