When they come to the Grave, while the corpse is made ready to be laid into the earth, the Priest shall say, or the Priest and People shall sing :

MAN that is born of a woman, hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery: he cometh up, and is cut down like a flower; he fleeth as it were a shadow, and never continueth in one stay.

In the midst of life we are in death: of whom may we seek for succour, but of thee, O Lord, who for our sins art justly displeased?

Yet, O Lord God most holy, O Lord most mighty, O holy and most merciful Creator, deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death.

Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts; shut not thy merciful ears to our prayers: but spare us, Lord most holy, O God most mighty, O holy and merciful Father, thou most worthy Judge eternal, suffer us not at our last hour for any pains of death to fall from our hope in thee.

Then, while the earth shall be cast upon the body by some standing by, the Priest shall say:

FORASMUCH as it hath pleased Almighty God of his great mercy to take unto himself the soul of our dear brother here departed, we therefore commit his

body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain expectation of a resurrection to another life, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change the vile body of the faithful, that it may be like unto his glorious body, according to the mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself.

Then shall be said or sung:

I HEARD a voice from heaven, saying unto me, Write, From henceforth blessed are the dead which die in the Lord: even so saith the Spirit; for they rest from their labours. Rev. xiv. 13.

OUR Father which art in heaven, &c. Amen.

Priest.

ALMIGHTY 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: Grant unto this thy servant, that the sins which he committed in this world be not imputed unto him; but that he may ever dwell in the region of light, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the place where is no weeping, sorrow, nor heaviness. And when

the day of the general resurrection shall come, make him and us to rise also with the just and righteous, and receive our bodies again to glory, then made pure and incorruptible. Set us then all on the right hand of thy Son Jesus Christ, among thy holy and elect: that then we may hear with them those most sweet and comfortable words; Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world.

Note, That this last Prayer is to be omitted if the person was only a Catechumen.

Then shall be added:

We do also humbly resign up to thee our dear brother [or, sister] whom thou hast been pleased to deliver out of the miseries of this sinful world; beseeching thee that it may please thee of thy gracious goodness, shortly to accomplish the number of thine elect, and to hasten thy kingdom: that we, with all those that are departed in the true faith of thy holy Name, may have our perfect consummation and bliss both in body and soul, in thy eternal and everlasting glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Collect.

O MERCIFUL God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who art the resurrection and the life: in whom whosoever believeth, shall live, though he die; and whosoever liveth and believeth in him, shall not die eternally: who hath also taught us by his holy Apostle Saint Paul, not to be sorry as men without hope, for them that sleep in him: We meekly beseech thee, O Father, to raise us from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness: that when we shall depart this life, we may rest in him ; and that at the general resurrection in the last day, we may be found acceptable in thy sight, and obtain a joyful resurrection to everlasting life. Grant this, we beseech thee, O merciful Father, through Jesus Christ our Mediator and Redeemer. Amen.

THE grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us* all evermore. Amen.

The Holy Communion, as well as Baptism, and other Sacred Offices of Religion, appear at first to have been sometimes performed over the Graves of the faithful departed, and of the Martyrs, in token of the Christian's full expectation of their resurrection to glory at the Last Day.

"With you all;" in the edition of 1750.-P. H.

To be added (in times of Distress or of Solemn Fasting*) before the concluding Prayer, at noon, on Wednesdays

and Fridays, excepting the fifty days between Easter and Pentecost.

BELOVED Brethren: seeing that all they are accursed (as the prophet David beareth witness) who do err and go astray from the commandments of God, let us remember the dreadful judgment(s) hanging over our heads, and always ready to fall upon us, and let us return unto our Lord God with all contrition and meekness of heart; bewailing and lamenting our sinful life, acknowledging and confessing our offences, and seeking to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance. For the axe will be put unto the root of the tree, so that every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, will be hewn down, and cast into the fire. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God: he shall pour down rain upon the sinners, snares, fire and brimstone, storm and tempest; this shall be their portion to drink.

For lo,

the Lord will come out of his place to visit the wickedness of such as dwell upon the earth. But who may abide the day of his coming?

be able to endure when he appeareth?

Who shall

His fan is

* The edition of 1750 reads, "Which may be added;" and inserts the

words here placed between parenthesis.-P. H.