name, that in the time of danger and difficulty thou wast pleased to display thy saving power and mercy. We thank thee that thine handmaid is the living mother of a living and perfect child. Write a law of love and gratitude on our hearts for this fresh instance of thy providential care, and grant that the life which thou hast given, and the life which thou hast preserved, may be devoted unto thee, and be precious in thy sight.

Be pleased to perfect the mercy which thou hast begun, and speedily restore thine handmaid to health and strength; and grant that every additional mercy may be considered and improved by us as an additional obligation to love and serve thee. May we and ours be the Lord's.

Here may properly be added any of the following petitions (which may also be used on other occasions).

For the Children of the Family.

LORD our God, the God of the spirits of all flesh; all souls are thine: the souls of the parents, and the souls of the children are thine.

It is thy good providence which hath built us up into a family. We thank thee for the children which thou hast graciously given thy servants. We pray that thou who hast blessed us with them, wilt make them blessings to us.

We lament the corrupt nature which they derive from us. But we bless thee that there is a fountain opened for their cleansing, and that they were betimes dedicated to thee. Lord take them as members of thy family. They are thine; save them, and let them be owned as thine in that day when thou makest up thy jewels.

Give them good capacities, and good dispositions of mind. Make them tractable, and willing to receive instruction. Incline them betimes to religion and virtue. Lord give them wisdom and understanding, and drive out the foolishness that is bound up in their hearts.

Save them from the vanity to which childhood and youth are subject. Fit them to live comfortably and usefully in the world. We ask not great things for them on earth. Give them, if it please thee, a healthful constitution of body; preserve them from evil accidents; and

feed them with food convenient for them. But above all, we pray, that thou wilt pour out thy Spirit upon our seed, and thy blessing upon our offspring; that they may be a seed to serve thee, which shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. O give them that good part which shall never be taken from them.

Give us wisdom and grace to bring up our children in thy fear, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; with meekness and tenderness; and having them in subjection with gravity. Teach us, that we may teach them the things of God, as they are able to bear them. Dispose us to reprove and admonish, and when there is need, to correct them in a proper manner. Help us to set them good examples of every thing that is virtuous and praiseworthy. Enable us so to train them up in the way they should go, that if they live to be old they may never depart from it.

Keep them from the snares of evil company and all the temptations of youth. Make them sensible how much it is their interest as well as duty to be religious betimes. And Lord grant, that none of them may be found at the left hand of Christ at the last day.

We earnestly pray that Christ may be formed in their hearts betimes, and that we may have the satisfaction of seeing our children walking in the truth, and setting their faces heavenwards.

Prosper the means of their education. Let all our children be taught of the Lord, and give them to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. May they from children know the holy scriptures, which are able to make them wise unto salvation. As far as they are taught the truth as it is in Jesus, may they continue in the things which they have learned.

It is our hearts' desire and prayer, that our children may be praising God on earth, when we are gone to praise him in heaven; and that we and they may at last meet together there, to serve and enjoy thee for

ever.

If it should please thee to remove any of them from us in their youth, give us grace submissively to resign them to thee, and let us have hope in their death. If thou shouldst see fit to take us from them while they are young, be thou a father to them, to teach and provide for them, O thou in whom the fatherless findeth

mercy. Thou knowest our care concerning them; O enable us to cast it upon thee, believing that thou carest for them.

Previous to the Baptism of a Child*. WE adore thee, O gracious Father of mankind, that thou hast continued the human race in existence until now, and that still the sons and daughters of Adam continue to be born, and to replenish the earth. We bless thee for the addition which thou hast lately made to our family; and we pray that the child which thou hast given to thy servants may be spared as a blessing unto us, and may be acknowledged as one of thy children.

Encouraged by thy promise and covenant, we humbly give it up unto thee. Be thou graciously pleased to assist us in that solemn act of dedication in which we are about to engage. [Deliver us from formality and hypocrisy in celebrating the ordinance of baptism. Help us rightly to understand, and duly to attend to the meaning of this service.] May we our

*This may be used by those who object to the baptism of infants, on their dedication of them to God, omitting only the passage marked [ ].