57 



PRAYERS. 



The Editor* has been prevailed upon to add to Mr. 

 Derham's hfe of this excellent man the following prayers 

 and meditations, exactly copied from the originals in Mr. 

 Ray's own hand- writing ; the first two on occasion of 

 the death of particular friends ; the last two may be 

 presumed to be the prayers he generally used, morning 

 and evening. 



I. 



A 'Prayer upon, occasion of Mr. F. W.'s death. 



0 Lord, thou hast been pleased to make a sad breach among us, to 

 deprive us of our most dear friend and relation, a person that was to some 

 of us as the very light of our eyes, the joy of our hearts, the greatest out- 

 ward comfort of our lives. Give us a sanctified use of this heavy afiliction ; 

 and when our hearts are moved and affected with a sense of our loss, give us 

 to consider our sins, and to spend some part of our tears in lamenting them. 

 Give us to consider the vanity and uncertainty of our lives, and the empti- 

 ness and insufiiciency of aU. things here below, to satisfy the vast desires of 

 our immortal souls. Comfort, 0 Lord, and support the hearts of thy ser- 

 vants, who have the greatest interest in this loss ; and be thou pleased also 

 to counsel and direct them. Give us aU, upon this occasion, to consider our 

 latter end, and to prepare for it ; to wait all the days of our appointed time, 

 until our change come ; to consider that we can die but once, and after death 

 comes judgment ; that upon this moment depends eternity ; that as the tree 

 falls, so it lies ; as death leaves, so shall judgment find us ; as we spend a 



* George Scott. 



