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A47235 Prayers for the use of all persons who come to the baths for cure. By the author of the Manual of prayers, for the use of the scholars of Winchester Colledge. Ken, Thomas, 1637-1711. 1692 (1692) Wing K277; ESTC R220999 15,192 82

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Prayers FOR THE USE of all PERSONS Who come to the BATHS For CURE By the Author of the Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Scholars of Winchester Colledge London Printed for C. Brome 1692. BATHE Prayers FOR THE USE of all PERSONS Who come to the BATHS For CURE All Glory be to God Good Christian Brother or Sister WHatsoever the Calamity be whether sickness or lameness or want of Children which brings you to this place I am sensible how tender a regard I ought to have for you since you are come within my Fold in imitation of our most merciful Redeemer who in respect even of our bodily distempers Sympathised with our miseries bore our griefs and carried our sorrows Isa. liii 4. Mat. viii 17. For this reason I could not satisfie my self in only praying for you as I daily do unless I did also send you these Directions and Prayers which are few and short and familiar to comply with the Infirmites of your Condition and which I hope by Gods blessing may be words spoken in season nor can I doubt but that All of you who want such helps will seriously persue them and observe the advices of your spiritual Physitians as you are wont to do those of your Corporal Do not think the Baths can do you any good without Gods immediate blessing on them for it is God that must first heal the waters before they can have any virtue to heal you The River Jordan could never have cleansed Naaman of his Leprosie 2 King v. 10. had he washed himself in it seventy times seven times had not God blessed it to his clensing The Pool of Siloam Joh. ix 7● could never have restored sight to one born blind had not our Lord sent him to it And the Pool of Bethesda could never have made sick persons whole but that an Angel was sent by God to trouble the waters Joh. v. 14. I cannot then do better than to send you to that Angel who according to St. John Flyes in the midst of Heaven having the everlasting Gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth saying with a loud voice fear God and give glory to him and worship him that made heaven and earth and the Sea and the fountains of waters Rev. xiv 6 7. This was the Angel's Sermon and I beseech you to become his Auditors and to observe how after the Heaven and the Earth and the Sea he particularly mentions the Springs or Fountains of waters as a very wonderful part of the Creation for out of the dark places of the Earth through Passages and from Causes unknown to the search of the wisest of men God makes sweet and fresh Springs to rise to water the Earth to give drink to every Beast of the Field and to supply all the necessities of human Life and Springs of different kinds some to allay our thirst some to Cure our Diseases Look therefore on the Bath as a very admir●●●● and propitious Work of Divine Providence designed for the good of a great number of infirm persons as well as for your self Praise and Adore God who has signally manifested his Power and his Mercy in Creating so Universal a Good and the first thing you do when you are come to this place worship God who made the Fountain To this end you may use the following form at your first coming and all the time of your stay and be pleased to observe that this and all the other forms which you find here are penned in distinct parts on purpose that you may choose those which are most suitable to your condition or recite one at a time if your Weakness will not bear any longer intention of your mind A Thanksgiving for the Waters and a Prayer for Gods Blessing on them WIth all Humility of soul and of body I praise and adore and worship thee O Lord God Allmighty and All-gracious who hast mad● t●e Fountains of Waters thou sendest the Springs into the Vallies which run among the Hills some for our Refreshment some for Medicine and in particular thou hast sent us this Spring as a general good to infirm persons And therefore all Glory be to thee Thee only O Lord do I acknowledge the Author of the Sp●ing thou only canst make it eff●ctual to my Cure in thee only I trust on th●● only I depend to thee only I commit my self all my hope is only in thee Behold O merciful Lord I am come to the Bath as Naaman to Jordan O may I feel the like happy effect O may I wash and be healed I come Lord like the blind man to the Pool of Siloam I come for thou thy self hast sent me as thou didst send him Thy Providence by laying on me this Distemper has bid me come hither O may the Bath be as powerful to restore my Health as the Pool was to give the blind man his sight I come Lord to the Bath like the Infirm man to the Pool of Bethesda O send thy Angel to move the Waters as I step into them to move them not only for me but for all other Infirm persons also whom thou hast sent hither that we may be made Whole of whatsoever Diseases we have if it seem good in thy sight Lord be thou pleased to guide and counsel my Physitian that he may throughly discover the cause of my Distemper and prescribe proper means for my Recovery and do thou so bless those means that in thy good time they may become successful O my God hear me and help me for the merits of Jesus thy beloved Amen You have great reason to begin with God not only because he is the Author of the Bath and can only bless it to your Health but also because he is the Author of that very Distemper that brings you hither For affliction cometh not forth of the dust neither does trouble spring out of the g●ound Job v. 6. It is not a thing that happens to us by chance it does not proceed only from Natural Causes which are secundary and instrumental we must look beyond all these to the permission and apointment of Divine Providence from which it first took its rise and by which it is wholly conducted Since then it is certain that your Affliction comes from God and it is as certain that God does not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men Lam. iii. 33 but that he has always a most Righteous motive to incline him to afflict them It very h●ghly concerns you to examine your self with all the care you can that you may discover what there is in you what you have done to move the God of Mercy to grieve you There is no Calamity whether it be Sickness or Pain or Lameness or the like that can befall us but it is the natural consequence of our depraved frail mortal condition and is incident to good Men as well as to bad to the former it is a punishment to the latter it is a