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years: yet is their strength then but labour and forrow; fo foon paffeth it away, and we are gone.

But who regardeth the power of thy wrath: for even thereafter as a man feareth, fo is thy displeasure.

So teach us to number our days: that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

Turn thee again, O Lord, at the laft: and be gracious unto thy fervants.

O fatisfy us with thy mercy, and that foon: fo fhall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life.

Comfort us again now after the time that thou haft plagued us: and for the years wherein we have fuffered adversity.

Shew thy fervants thy work: and their children thy glory. And the glorious majefty of the Lord our God be upon us: profper thou the work of our hands upon us, O profper thou our handy-work.

Glory be to the Father, &c.

As it was in the beginning, &c.

Then fhall follow the Leffon taken out of the xuth Chapter of the former Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians.

Now

OW is Christ rifen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that flept. For fince by man came death, by man came alfo the refurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even fo in Christ thall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Chrift the firstfruits; afterward they that are Chrift's at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he fhall have put down all rule, and all authority, and power. For he muft reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The laft enemy that shall be deftroyed, is death. For be hath put all things under his feet. But when he faith all things are put under him, it is manifeft that he is excepted which did put all things under him And when all things fhall be fubdued unto him, then shall the fon alfo himself be fubject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all. Elfe what fhall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rife not at all? Why are

they then baptized for the dead? And why ftand we in jeopardy every hour? I proteft by your rejoicing which I have in Chrift Jefus our Lord, I die daily. If after the manner of men I have fought with beafts at Ephefus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rife not? Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners. Awake to righteousness, and fin not; for fome have not the knowledge of God: I fpeak this to your fhame. But fome man will fay, How are the dead raifed up? and with what body do thy come? Thou fool, that which thou foweft, is not quickened except it die: and that which thou foweft, thou foweft not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of fome other grain: but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every feed his own body. All flefh is not the fame flefh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beafts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestial; but the glory of the celeftial is one, and the glory of the terreftial is another. There is one glory of the fun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the ftars: for one ftar differeth from another ftar in glory. So alfo is the refurrection of the dead. It is fown in corruption; it is raifed in incorruption: It is fown in difhonour; it is raised in glory: It is fown in weakness; it is raifed in power: It is fown a natural body; it is raised a fpiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a fpiritual body. And fo it is written, The first man Adam was made a living foul; the laft Adam was made a quickening fpirit. Howbeit, that was not firft which is fpiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is fpiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy:

the fecond man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, fuch are they that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, fuch are they alfo that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we fhall alfo bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I fay, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I fhew

you a mystery. We fhall not all fleep, but we fhall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the laft trump; (for the trumpet fhall found, and the dead fhall be raised incorruptible, and we fhall be changed.) For this corruptible muft put on incorruption, and this mortal muft put on immortality. So when this corruptible fhall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then fhall be brought to pass the faying that is written, Death is fwallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy fting? O grave, where is thy victory? The fting of death is fin; and the ftrength of fin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jefus Chrift. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forafinuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

¶ When they come to the Grave, while the Corpfe is made ready to be laid into the carth, the Priest fhall fay, or the Prieft and Clerks fhall fing,

AN that is born of a woman, hath but a fhort time

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live, and is full of mifery. He cometh up, and is cut down like a flower; he fleeth as it were a fhadow, and never continueth in one ftay.

In the midst of life we are in death: of whom may we feek for fuccour, but of thee, O Lord, who for our fins art juftly displeased?

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

Thou knoweft, Lord, the fecrets of our hearts; shut not thy merciful ears to our prayers; but fpare us, Lord moft holy, O God moft mighty, O holy and merciful Saviour, thou moft worthy Judge eternal, fuffer us not at our laft hour for any pains of death to fall from thee. ¶ Then, while the earth fhall be cast upon the Body by fome ftanding by, the Priest fhall fay,

ORASMUCH as it hath pleased Almighty God of his great mercy to take unto himself the foul of our

FOR

dear brother here departed, we therefore commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, afhes to afhes, duft to dust, in fure and certain hope of the refurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be like unto his glorious body, according to the mighty working, whereby he is able to .fubdue all things to himself.

Then fhall be faid or fung,

I HEARD a voice from heaven, W

From henceforth bleffed are the dead which die in the Lord: even fo faith the Spirit; for they reft from their labours. Rev. xiv. 13.

¶ Then shall the Priest say,

Lord, have mercy upon us.
Christ, have mercy upon us.

Lord, have mercy upon us.

UR Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy
Name. Thy kingdom

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come. Thy will be done
Give us this day our daily
trefpaffes, As we forgive
And lead us not inte

in earth, As it is in heaven.
bread. And forgive us our
them that trefpafs against us.
temptation, But deliver us from evil. Amen.

Prieft.

ALMIGHTY God, with whom do live the fpirits of

them that depart hence in the Lord, and with whom the fouls of the faithful, after they are delivered

Duft to duft Some of our funeral ceremonies are evidently remnants of certain amiable practices of claffical fuperftition. Cafting the earth thrice upon the body is the custom mentioned by Horace :

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Injecto ter pulvere curras.' Od. lib. i. 28. And the throwing handfuls of flowers into the grave at this part of the fervice, which is the cuftom at country funerals, (and amongst the lower claffes of people, with whom traditionary ufages are always beft preferved) is the ancient teftimony of affection alluded to in thofe beautiful lines of Virgil: "Manibus date lilia plenis:

Purpureos fpargam flores, animamque nepotis
His faltem accumulem donis, et fungar inani

Munere."

VIR. N. vi. 883.

The rosemary sprigs frequently thrown upon the grave by the atten dants are apt emblems of that fure and certain hope of immortality which the Chriftian entertains; it being the property of this plant always to be green, and to vegetate the stronger, the more it is theered.

from the burthen of the flesh, are in joy and felicity; We give thee hearty thanks, for that it hath pleafed thee to deliver this our brother out of the miseries of this finful world; befeeching thee that it may please thee of thy gracious goodnefs, fhortly to accomplish the number of thine elect, and to haften thy kingdom; that we, with all thofe that are departed in the true faith of thy holy Name, may have our perfect confummation and blifs, both in body and foul, in thy eternal and everlasting glory, through Jefus Chrift our Lord. Amen.

The Collect.

Merciful God, the Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, who is the refurrection and the life; in whom whofoever believeth fhall live, though he die; and whofoever liveth, and believeth in him, fhall not die eternally; who alfo hath taught us (by his holy Apoftle St. Paul) not to be forry as men without hope, for them that fleep in him; We meekly befeech thee, O Father, to raise us from the death of fin unto the life of righteoufnefs; that when we shall depart this life, we may reft in him, as our hope is this our brother doth; and that at the general refurrection in the last day we may be found acceptable in thy fight, and receive that bleffing which thy well-beloved Son fhall then pronounce to all that love and fear thee, faying, Come, ye bleffed children of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world. Grant this, we beseech thee, O merciful Father, through Jefus Chrift our Mediator and Redeemer. Amen.

The Collect] I have obferved in the Introduction, that Queen Elizabeth either permitted fome popifh practices which had fubfifted in her fifter Mary's reign, to continue for fome time during her own, or revived others that had become obfolete, in order to reconcile the Catholics, and thus promote the peace of the church. Amongst these compliances to her Catholic fubjects the reftored, in fome cafes, the ceremony of the communion at funerals, (which had been abolished at Edward the VIth's review;) and by an exprefs proclamation declared, that "fome things peculiar at the funerals of Chriftians, fhe had added, and commanded to be used, the Act of Uniformity fet forth in the first year of her reign to the contrary notwithstanding." In addition to this, a Latin prayer-book was printed in the 2d year of her reign, which contained the communion service attached to the burial one. But it is to be observed, this Latin service was intended for the ufe only of the two Universities, and the colleges of Winchefter and Eton.

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