1. Do you, if you have done any wrong to any, ask pardon of them, that they may also forgive you?

2. Are there any whom you particularly remember, and would have this signified to them in your name?

3. Since no forgiveness of sins committed against the eighth and ninth commandments can be hoped for, unles restitution be made, are you ready to restore what you have unjustly taken from another person? or if you have injured his good name, are you ready to make all just and reasonable amends, and that without fraud and delay?

4. Do you remember who those are?

1

POST

POSTSCRIPT.

I cannot send forth the foregoing pages without again intreating the candour, and deprecating the censure of my elder brethren, who in the discharge of the duties of their ministry, have had experience in, and studied the best method of performing this, the most important of all, the Visiting of the Sick: for, as I have before observed, they have no doubt provided themselves with suitable prayers either to use with the Sick, or to recommend to them for their private use to these it would be presumption in me to point out what are most proper to be selected from writers on that subject. But perhaps I may be entitled to a small share of acknowledgment from my younger brethren, who will here find exhibited to them not only a form-or if not a form,: a pattern to be improved upon, for their first Visits to a Sick Person;-not only some occasional prayers for them to recommend to the private use of the Sick, but also the names of some authors to

whom they may have recourse, and from whom they may receive much information and assistance in qualifying themselves for the due discharge of so solemn a service. In them they will find helps and directions for, I had almost said, every possible case*; and their own experience will in time make the observations of others so much their own, that they will feel themselves grateful for whatever was the cause of bringing them acquainted with authors who have been so serviceable, as many of them have been, in supplying the deficiencies which cannot but be observed in the form which our church has appointed to be used.

But perhaps these deficiencies were intended by the compilers of our Liturgy; who thinking it impossible to appoint a form which would comprehend every possible case, have therefore left it to the discretion of Ministers to provide such prayers, and use such exhortations as they

* The young Clergyman who uses this book, I trust, will not be displeased, if I hint to him the propriety of having some blank leaves bound with it, in which he may transcribe such prayers from different authors, as he may have occasion to use. It may prevent the inconvenience, as well as the confusion which is sometimes occasioned by it, of turning over the leaves of two or three books at the same visit.

"shall

"shall think most needful and convenient*. To the names of Kenn, Warren, Wilson, Nelson, Kettlewell, Gibson, Dodwell, Stearne, Stonhouse, I might have added many more had I thought it necessary to increase this little book to a larger size, by selecting many excellent prayers and observations from their works; but that would have frustrated my design, which is to present my readers with such a method of discharging some first Visits, as I have never met with, but have often wished for, as briefly as could be done, and with a few occasional prayers for the Sick suitable to such cases as generally arise; referring to the authors themselves, of whose works I have made so free use, for more copious information.

Such as it is, the publick are now in possession of it, and to their decision I must now submit, whether it shall be thought deserving of notice or neglect. I shall however feel great satisfaction, if the sentence which I have placed in the title page, extracted from one of the authors whom I have consulted, be at all applicable to me. But if it be not by my readers, I think I may at least console myself in private, by the reflection that I have in some degree endeavoured to make it so.

67th Canon..

I have only to add my prayer to Almighty God for myself and my Clerical Brethren, that when we shall be summoned to give an account of the manner in which we have discharged our parochial duties, it may never be laid to our charge, that we have been backward in visiting the Sick, or in offering to the afflicted that comfort which our profession in a more particular manner calls on us to administer to them. May God grant us the assistance of his Holy Spirit, that we may hereafter be proved to have been faithful ministers in that church which he has established by the blood of his dear Son, and that we may receive the reward of baving been so, through the merits of the same Jesus. Amen.

THE END.

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