Tuesday, January 26, 2010

On the Solemnization of Marriage

I have been asked a couple of times for copies of the prayer of blessing at the wedding of my wife's brother, Brandon. It came directly from the Westminster Directory of Public (or Publick) Worship. I simply updated the language and added the names of the couple.

Here is the prayer:

"Acknowledging our sins, whereby we have made ourselves less than the least of all the mercies of God, and provoked him to embitter all our comforts; earnestly, in the name of Christ, to entreat the Lord (whose presence and favour is the happiness of every condition, and sweetens every relation) to be their portion, and to own and accept them in Christ, who are now to be joined in the honourable estate of marriage, the covenant of their God: and that, as he hath brought them together by his providence, he would sanctify them by his Spirit, giving them a new frame of heart fit for their new estate; enriching them with all graces whereby they may perform the duties, enjoy the comforts, undergo the cares, and resist the temptations which accompany that condition, as becometh Christians."

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