Page:Prayer book for families and private persons (1).pdf/20

 order to live hereafter to the glory of thy name. We beseech Thee, perfect all that concerns his recovery; and grant that this gracious interposition may properly effect both him and every one of us in this family. From henceforth may we all more entirely depend upon thee for the continuance and preservation of our dearest earthly comforts; may we consider them as thy free gifts, O Lord ; and know that they alone makest every earthly blessing be to us what it is.

And give us grace so to use and enjoy all our temporal comforts as those who know that the fashion of this world passeth away. Grant we may learn, from this late affliction in our family, to live more like families who are soon to be separated by death, and to give all diligence to grow rich towards God, that we may be better prepared for a breach in our family whenever it shall come. And whensoever, O God thou shalt be pleased to call any of us away though for a season our family may thus be separated may we all be united again in heaven, and be for ever with the Lord and with one another.

That we may none of us fall short of so glorious an end, O give us a clear knowledge of the excellency of our God, and a firmer dependence upon the word of thy grace. Grant us a strong love to the Lord Jesus Christ, and a greater resemblance of him; that each of us in our particular station may be zealous for God, full of mercy and justice towards men, and possess every temper whereby God can be glorified in us.

Fill our minds with a more cheerfull and lively sense of our obligations to thee, especial for this late additional mercy: write it, we beseech thee, on our hearts, so that no temptation from without.