Mercifully forgive us our trespasses; receive and comfort us who are grieved and wearied with the burden of our sins. Thy property is always to have mercy; to thee only it appertaineth to forgive sins. Spare us therefore, good Lord, spare thy people, whom thou hast redeemed: enter not into judgment with thy servants, who are vile earth, and miserable sinners: but so turn thine anger from us, who meekly acknowledge our vileness, and truly repent us of our faults, and so make haste to help us in this world, that we may ever live with thee in the world to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Turn thou us, O good Lord, and so shall we be turned. Be favourable, O Lord, be favourable to thy people,

who turn to thee in weeping, fasting, and praying. For thou art a merciful God, full of compassion, long-suffering, and of great pity. Thou sparest when we deserve punishment, and in thy wrath thinkest upon mercy. Spare thy people, good Lord, spare them, and let not thine heritage be brought to confusion. Hear us, O Lord, for thy mercy is great, and after the multitude of thy mercies look upon us ; through the merits and mediation of thy blessed Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

No. 5.

But if there is no cause for a special confession of sins, and special absolution, and the sick person appears to be brought to true repentance, and to be in charity with all men,—and yet that he cannot take courage from the promises of God's Holy Word;Or if, after absolution, he is still discomforted; Let the Minister endeavour to find out the cause of his trouble, and, by whatever Christian methods he sees fit, to remove it. And let him use with the person the prayer following:

A Prayer for persons troubled in mind or conscience.

O BLESSED Lord, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comforts, we beseech thee look down in pity

and compassion upon this thy afflicted servant. Thou writest bitter things against him, and makest him to possess his former iniquities; thy wrath lieth hard upon him, and his soul is full of trouble: But, O merciful God, who hast written thy holy Word for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of thy holy Scriptures might have hope; give him a right understanding of himself, and of thy threats and promises, that he may neither cast away his confidence in thee, nor place it any where but in thee. Give him strength against all his temptations, and heal all his distempers. Break not the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax. Shut not up thy tender mercies in displeasure; but make him to hear of joy

and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Deliver him from fear of the enemy, and lift up the light of thy countenance upon him, and give him peace, through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Adding this:

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who art always more ready to hear than we to pray, and art wont to give more than either we desire or deserve; Pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy; forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord.