under the torments of a wounded fpirit. Let the forrowful fighing of the afflicted come before thee; and deliver them, in thy good time, out of all their troubles. Here may be added the two paragraphs in the morning prayer on page 138, marked thus [" To these my prayers and interceffions, I defire to add my unfeigned praifes for all thy bleffings, fpiritual and temporal. I blefs thee more particularly for the mercies of the day paft; for preferving me in health and fafety; and delivering me from the evils which I have moft juftly deserved. Give me grace to make a right use and improvement of all thy mercies; and vouchfafe, O Lord, to continue to me thy gracious favour and protection. Be thou pleafed of thy great goodnefs to take me, [my dear husband or wife and children,] and all that belong to me, this night, under the care of thy good providence. Defend us from all perils and dangers; and after the comfortable refreshments of reft and fleep, raife us up in health and fafety, with hearts full of love to thee, and zeal to thy fervice, through Jefus Chrift our Lord, in the fulleft fenfe of whofe words I pray to be heard; faying, Our Father, &c. A prayer during the time of sickness. Lmighty and immortal God, the aid of all that need, the helper of all that that flee to thee for fuccour; the life of them that believe, and the refurrection of the dead: I humble myfelf before thee with fincere acknowledgments of thy juftice, in all the difpenfations of thy di vine providence. Look with an eye of compaffion upon me, thy poor afflicted fervant, and fanctify, I befeech thee, this thy fatherly correction to me, that I may never murmur or repine under any of thy wife difpenfations; but at all times receive thy judgments as a means to wean me from the world, to bring me nearer to thyfelf, and to purge away all that drofs and defilement which my foul has contracted in this ftate of finful mortality. I confefs, O gracious Lord, that thy judgments are juft, and that thou of thy goodness haft caufed me to be troubled'; for notwithstanding all the gentle methods which thou haft ufed towards me, I have not loved thee as I ought to do; but in the days of health and profperity have forgotten thee, my God, and gone in the paths of vanity and folly; but, O merciful Father, that defpifeit not the fighing of a contrite heart, nor the defire of fuch as be forrowful, mercifully affift my prayers that I offer unto thee in all my troubles and adverfities: and efpecially let not my fins provoke thee to turn away away thy face from me thy fervant, now feeking unto thee in this time of my trouble; fhut not up the bowels of thy tender compaffion from me; but for the merits and interceffion of thy beloved Son, pardon all my fins, and vouchsafe, I befeech thee, for his fake, to be reconciled unto me. Support me under all my pains, weakneffes, and infirmities; ftrengthen my faith, enlarge my hopes, increafe my charity, and perfect my repentance. Make thou my bed in my ficknefs, and lay not more upon me than thou wilt enable me to bear; give a bleffing to the means that fhall be used for my recovery; and fay unto my foul I am thy falvation; and if it be thy good pleafure reftore me to my former health, that I may lead the refidue of my life in thy fear, and to thy glory: but if thou haft determined that this ficknefs fhall be unto death; grant, O merciful Father, that the more the outward man decayeth, fo much the more I may find the inward man ftrengthened and renewed with thy grace and Holy Spirit. O give me grace fo to take this thy vifitation, that after this painful life is ended, 1 may dwell with thee in life everlafting. through the merits and mediation of Jefus Chrift, my dear and only Saviour. Amen. A prayer O A prayer to be used on taking physic. God, the creator and preferver of all mankind, who knoweft our neceffities before we afk, and our ignorance in afking, without whom all our endeavours are but vain, I, in a deep fense of all thy mercies, acknowledge it to be an eminent token of thy goodness, that I am not cut off in the midst of my fins, by a fudden and unprovided death; and am particularly thankful that thou haft placed ( me in fuch ftation and circumftances, as to be enabled to obtain the use of fuch means as thou haft ordained for the benefit of mankind. Oh! give thy bleffing to these means now used for my recovery, and (if it be thy bleffed will) make them fo effectual for that end, that I may live and be an inftrument of thy glory, and better prepared for the coming of my dear Lord, when every man fhall be judged according to what he has done in the flesh, through Jefus Chrift our Lord. Amen. A prayer when labouring under any grievous pains. Lord, our refuge and ftrength, who art a prefent help in time of trouble; look down from heaven; behold, vifit, and relieve me thy fervant; and fend me that eafe and comfort in this time of my diftrefs as fhall feem to thee moft expe dient for me. O let me never murmur or repine under any affliction thou feeft fit to lay upon me; for thy tender mercy is over all thy works; and my fins deferve much greater pains than I now feel. Grant therefore, O gracious Lord, that I may meekly and quietly fubmit to thy will, and never be rafhly or unbecomingly transported into any indecent expreffions, or caufed to entertain a hard thought of thy providence, under the extremity of my pains; but whatever evils. or forrows I may feel, let me ftill love thee, and believe thee to be a kind and merciful Father; ftrengthen and support me with the confolations of thy Holy Spirit, and fanctify this affliction to me, that it may produce in me the fruits of a true and fincere repentance, who feek for relief, mercy, and forgiveness, only through the merits and in the name of Jefus Chrift our Lord and Saviour. Amen.. A prayer to be used for a fick child., Father of mercies and God of all com fort, to whom alone belong the issues of life and death, we flee unto thee for fuccour in behalf of this child here lying under thy hand in a weak and fickly ftate. Vifit bim, O Lord, with thy falvation; deliyer him, in thy good time, from his bodily Q pain 3 |