have rest in our selves And keep our hearts at rest O! God on thy Promises by looking to the sure and blessed hope that is set before us not on the uncertainty of any worldly supports or prospects of this Life which like the Reeds of Egypt are lyable to break when we lean upon them and to run into our hands And let this patient endurance of all their unreasonable and unjust Violence have its perfect Work in us Let us not be wearyed out of it or give way at last to angry resentments but shew forth this calmness sweetness of spirit to the end Oh! let not our Patience be broke by their injuries but hold out till at last it has broke them and made them relent and grow weary of inflicting the same and till thou shalt have graciously turn'd our troubles from them into everlasting Rest and Peace with thee through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen 2 AND whilst thou art pleased to try us with these sufferings O! Blessed Lord grant that we may never take a priviledge for Lawless Wrath on pretence of being angry for thy Cause Oh! keep us sensible under their sharpest provocations that the wrath of man is much apter to transgress the Rules of Piety and Righteousness than to maintain them Make us mindful that it belongs to thee to punish wrongs done to thy Holy Religion that thou art most interested in the same and most concerned to chastise the Enemies thereof and wilt do it in thy due time And that when ungodly men persecute the ways of Holiness our part is constantly to profess and practice them to plead when we are called and patiently to suffer for the same but thine to punish for them And Lord let us not be more hasty for wrath and vengeance than thou art in thine own Cause Let not us lose Patience towards them whilst thou bearest with them but study and pray for their Conversion and willingly and joyfully help on the same that they may be saved at last through the Merits and Mediation 〈◊〉 thy dear Son our only Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen Particular Prayers for Charity toward Persecutors 1 HElp us O! Father of Mercies not only to bear our Persecutors Patiently but to treat them Charitably Enable us to love our Enemies whilst we suffer by them to forgive their wrongs whilst we smar◠under them and not to aggravat◠their evil usage but as thou did◠O! Blessed Jesu whilst thou borest the extremity of their Malice upon the Cross rather study how we may any ways lessen or excuse the same Oh! that we may approve our selves thy true followers by suffering without Threatning by praying for them whilst they are persecuting us by returning blessing for their cursing kindness for their cruelties and by overcoming their evil with good But let none of us please our selves O God! with thoughts or hopes of Vengeance nor rejoyce at their fall lest it displease thee and thou turn away thy wrath from their Heads and direct it upon our own Let us not render evil for evil or railing for railing to any man nor meet their malice with bitter Passions and angry Returns Keep us ever fully sensible O! Lord that under the greatest cruelty of their usage to shew Patience and Charity is our business but that the taking Vengeance must be left to thy Justice And enable us mildly to commit our Cause to thee and desire that thou wouldest end our sorrows not by their destruction but conversion thro' our only Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen 2. LOrd let not us fall to hate them because they cruelly despite us nor to take up with any false Accusations against them or when they stand truly chargeable with any smaller matters to strain upon them so far till we have raised them into great and shameful Offences by our own evil surmises Let not us vaunt our selves because they unreasonably depress us nor behave our selves in any kind unseemly towards them tho' they should cast off all regard of humanity and decency towards us Nor ever so far forget thee as to rejoyce in any Iniquity when it is like to prejudice their Cause or to serve ours But to rejoyce always in the Prosperity of thy Truth and in seeing great Temptations turned aside and general Falls prevented and in having good and right things take place If they provoke us O! God enable us to shew patience If they persist therein help us to suffer long Let us bear all things without wrath and endure all things without weariness and not forget to be kind towards them to believe all things favourably and to speak all things charitably whilst they are doing all things contrary towards us And to look upon all these as parts of that Charity without which all our sufferings for thee are nothing worth Oh! Let the Heavenly Wisdom which keeps us pure from their errors and corruptions keep us also peaceable without bursting into noise and quarrels and gentle without yielding to anger and bitter words and placable and easie in admitting excuses without any shew of rigor in exacting Reasons or of being studious of Revenge Let it keep us full of mercy and good fruits without any mischievous returns or any proneness to cruelty and inhumanity when 't is in our way to shew the same And without Partiality and Hypocrisie as persons uniform in all Acts of Vertue and Justice when they serve others as well as when they serve us and who are careful not to put on any Vertue for a pretence nor to decry things as Evil in others whilst we can allow of the same in our selves Teach us O! Gracious Lord that it is only by these Blessed Fruits that our Belief and Espousal of a right Cause must approve it self to be the wisdom that cometh from above and which as it prceeds from thee must gain us all acceptance with thee thro' the Merits of our dear Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen 3 A Prayer against evil Surmises and for Candor in Censuring those who either Persecute us or fall from the way of Righteousness O! Gracious God in Censuring the Persons or Actions of all those who either persecute us or in these days of Tryal are faln from thee let Equity Candor direct and govern all our Thoughts and Speeches and let not ill will byass us Oh! that we may never charge them with imaginary Guilts through our own evil Surmises nor hastily make sure of any things against them whilst they are really uncertain nor make the worst of doubtful things which good-will might easily think better of Yea where their Falls are plain and manifest grant us Grace O Lord to behold them as thou didst the wickedness of thy Persecutors with the bowels and compassion of a Friend and not with the malicious insults and triumphs of an Enemy And to judge of them with a sense of humane infirmities considering that we also
A COMPANION FOR The Persecuted OR An OFFICE for Those Who Suffer for RIGHTEOUSNESS CONTAINING Particular Prayers and Devotions for Particular Graces and for their Private or Publick Wants and Occasions Printed in the Year 1693. The Introduction Reader I Here present thee with Prayers and Devotions fitted to support the spirits and to direct and improve the virtues of those who at any time or in any place are call'd out by the wisdom and goodness of God to suffer for the cause of Truth and Righteousness The Charitable helps and offers of this kind are very needful and will be very acceptable to those who are actually labouring under the Cross and bearing affliction for the blessed Jesus And as for others who think they have no need thereof for themselves yet may they at all times find occasion enough if they please to puâ— up such Prayers for their persecuted Brethren and Fellow-Members For the Church of Christ is still bearing his Cross in one part or other and whilst in one place he is cherishing some with the comforts of Peace he is elsewhere proving others of their Brethren with Tribulations Nay since these Tryals are common to men and more especially to Christians he who says at present that he is most free from them knows not how soon the All-wise God may see fit to bring him under the same And 't is good to be fore-armed and provided for a sharp conflict which we are lyable to be tryed withal and the rather because in the heat thereof when these helps are most needed they are usually hardest to be got and 't is not so easie then to put them into the hands of those who want to be directed and assisted by them Indeed by the bounty and indulgence of Almighty God the true Disciples of Christ have here their intervals of rest and quietness and are oft-times comforted and refreshed with worldly peace and the favour of Princes But when God gives them this outward ease it is more than his Gospel promises Their profession is to be followers of a man of sorrows and to look for Crosses and Persecutions in his service and when they come to take them up and bear them patiently after him So that it must neither be contrary to their spirit nor expectations to hear of sufferings it should never be thought a service out of season to instruct them how to bear them and to furnish them with such Prayers and proper Reflexions as may afford them both direction and support therein The first care in this Case is to see that their sufferings be for the Truths sake or for a good Cause Without this the hopes of sufferers are but a Dream and there is no true ground of comfort or support in them If they suffer only for their own follies or fancies what reason has their blessed Lord to thank them for being fanciful or foolish Or if they suffer for maintaining dangerous Errors and for turning out of the way of Truth and Righteousness these are not things for him to reward but to punish 'T is only their suffering for some Doctrines or Precepts of his that can render them his Martyrs or Confessors And when they take care to be found in that way and suffer for hearkning unto him he will support them whilst they suffer and afterwards make them ample amends for the same But when they take care to be found in a Righteous Cause they must be careful withal to honour him and approve themselves by all the parts and virtues of a Righteous and truly Christian Carriage Their study then must be to shew minds advanced above all earthly fears and desires to support themselves with the comforts of Religion the belief of Gods Promises to bear their Afflictions for Christ's sake with patience and thankfulness to weary out their persecutors fury with their Religious constancy to vanquish all their injuries by returning prayers and kindnesses and in all things to evidence a spirit that is full of love and holy zeal and humble confidence in God but that is not either to be corrupted by the ease and comforts or shocked and broken by the threats or losses of this world And by these and such like virtues they will be made conformable to the image of their suffering Saviour and perform a service most fragrant and pleasing unto him and most honourable to Truth a Righteous Cause For the world doth not afford a more glorious sight than to see a Christian with Religious bravery constancy bearing Christs Cross and by magnanimity and meekness triumphing over all the powers of Error and unjust Violence These indeed are hard services But as they have great difficulties they will at last have glorious Rewards and at present have great assistances The Almighty Spirit of God will support those who seriously and Religiously set themselves to suffer Christianly in his Cause They will be set above themselves and will be guarded and fortified against human weakness by the powers of the Divine Grace And this as they must humbly and firmly depend upon so must they constantly and earnestly seek from him by Prayers and Devotion In the following Offices it has been my aim and study to be as helpful to them as I can for this purpose And therein according as I was able I have not only suggested the true comforts and supports but directed their eye to the true spirit duty and carriage of Gospel-sufferers And have taught them under the same to express such resentments and aspire after such raised affections as may become those who would honour God and secure their own future happy reward by their sufferings and who count it a priviledge to be thought worthy by the Blessed Jesus to suffer in his Cause And on this Account this little Book may be put into the hands of the Persecuted not only as a Form of Devotion to be put up to God in holy and fervent Prayers but likewise as a Treatise of Instruction to be read for the Knowledge of their Duty and as a Guide to their Practice since therein they have a draught and delineation of that Spirit which they are to nurse up and shew forth and of those habits and virtues wherein they are to dress up their souls at such times I have been very particular in the Devotional provisions and supplies for these purposes and have had regard both to private and publick necessities Which pains I hope will be acceptable to devout minds who when they are desirous to express their devotion on those particulars will not be unfurnished with fitting Forms and may at any time use more or fewer thereof as their leisure permits or as their needs require And to the Body of Prayers and Devotions I have prefixed a Collection of select Scriptures upon the several Duties and most important needs and desires of sufferers for Righteousness And this I have done for the sufferers guidance and instruction as well as for their
any cruel and unjust usage for thy sake to accuse thy Providence or to revile my Persecutors Let me not shew uneasiness under my sufferings but willingly and contentedly bear them yea rejoyce in the same and thankfully praise thee that thou countest me worthy to suffer for thy Name Keep me from growing weary of bearing thy Cross or from fainting under it Tho' thou tarryest enable me to wait for thee Oh! that I may persevere in waiting and hold on to the end and never let go my patience when my Persecutors have left me nothing else or cast away my confidence in thee Oh! that I may inwardly triumph in the Righteousness of my Cause when I am trodden down by the violence of the Oppressors That I may be comforted to think that I have still the more of thy Love as I bear the more of their Malice Oh! that I may be joyful in hope as well as patient in tribulation and count it an extraordinary favour to me that I have been called out to lose any thing for thee to testifie my love unto thy Laws and to dispose me for thy Gracious Acceptance through the Merits and Mediation of my dearest Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen 2. In not envying the success of the wicked in compassing unrighteous Devices O! Lord who for wiseends art oft-times pleased to permit a Righteous Cause to be worsted and the devisers of unrighteousness to prevail against it Suffer us not to fret or torment our selves when we see such wicked men prosperous and triumph for bringing their unrighteous devices to pass Let not that tempt us O! God to envy sinners much less to think favourably yea or even doubtfully of their wicked Violence Never give us up to measure the Justice or Injustice of Undertakings by success and to miscall apparently wicked things naming Evil Good and Wrong Right only because we see it prosperous Let us not fall to take part with the Injury only because of its seeming prosperity or to think that God has forsaken what is right because he permits it to be oppressed for a while or when we see it once down to despair of his ever raising it up again Thy Judgments O! most Mighty Lord are unsearchable and a great deep teach us with all humility to reverence them not by bold expositions especially in favour of apparently unrighteous things to abuse the same They surprize us with doing right when all outward hopes and appearances thereof are gone Help us therefore when things are at the worst still to have hope and faith in thee to raise them up again They open a way and make a light of deliverance to break forth at thine own time Give us patience in expectation till that time come The Unrighteous as Pharas was are more in the way of thy mercy when thou keepest thy plagues upon them to soften their hearts than when thou takest them off Oh! let us not envy them for that ease which hardens sinners and is their greatest unhappiness They are kept up with successes for full tryal of thy servants patience and if they will not repent thereof to fill up the measure of their own wickedness Let us therefore learn therein Gracious Lord to adore thy forbearance and to imitate the same not to repine at it And to finish the work of our own patience that patience may have its perfect work in us And however it passes here on earth O! God yet we are assured that at the Great Day the Judge of all the World will do exact Justice The wicked shall then be eternally punished for all their prosperous wickedness And the Just shall be everlastingly recompensed for all the sufferings which they have endured and for all the losses which they have sustained in adhering to the ways of Righteousness Oh! therefore blessed Lord that we may ever detest all wickedness carefully keep off from it even when here we see it most prosperous And steadfastly reverence the ways of Duty and Righteousness and stick to them even when we see them labouring under the Cross and born down with cruel Oppressions Oh! that we may see and believe assuredly that although we do not live to see the prosperity of the ungodly turned into punishments and the sufferings of thy Saints exchanged for Crowns and Glories in this world yet we shall certainly see the same fulfilled in both to the uttermost in another world Where Lord grant that I may have my Place of Ease whatever Troubles I meet with here for my Dear Saviour Jesus Christ's sake Amen 7. For Prayers and unwearyed Devotion under Persecutions O! Holy Father give me Grace to look up to thee in all my distresses and to make holy fervent Prayers both my most bounden service and my most sure support under all these Persecutions Oh! that the growth of my sufferings may continually heighten and increase my Devotions That I may be instant in Prayers and watch thereunto with all perseverance And the more straitness and scarcity I find at any time of publick opportunities make me so much the more diligent and constant earnest and affectionate in my private devotions Let not the Malice of mine Oppressors be able to estrange my soul from thee or make me weary of conversing with the Almighty Let devotion be the life and stay of my Spirit and let me never forget that my chief remedies against their Violence are Prayers and Tears When they drive me from all confidence in my self teach me to run for sanctuary and to seek help from thee Even from thee O! my God who with a Fathers pity and tenderness beholdest what we suffer for thy sake and wilt support us under the same who seest our wrongs and wilt do us right in thy due time And who bottlest up all our Tears and wilt remember them with surpassing and eternal Mercies in the day of Recompences for our Dear Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ's sake Amen 8. A Prayer for diligent Attendance on Publick Assemblies ANd O! Gracious Lord in these Tryals give me Grace diligently to attend upon the Publick Ministrations and to make one in offering up thy pure Worship in the Communion and Assemblies of the Saints Make me fully sensible that when they most violently oppress us we have most need to fly to thee with joynt accord to help and defend us And that when they seek most to extirpate thy pure Worship it lyes upon us to meet together to pay the same and bear it up Oh! that their Cruelty against it may enkindle in us a godly Zeal for it That we may hold on our Profession without wavering and resolutely stick to thine Holy Assemblies without which we can not pretend to stand up for thy Cause And Oh! that no difficulties or hazardousness of these Assemblies may make us indifferent about thy service and that none among us may lay hold thereof as an excuse for Irreligion or
prophane Negligence Make us all see that we can have no excuse in rejecting Prayers and publick Ministrations more than in rejecting other Duties only because they are persecuted and have the Cross upon them Yea Lord let nothing seem so terrible to me as being debarred the opportunities of waiting upon thee Nor any Loss seem so hard to be endured as losing this way of access to God and the devotion of my Spirit Whilst I am serving thee make me confident O! my God that thou wilt protect me My safety at all times lyes in the care and guardianship of thy good Providence And I can never have more reason to expect that careful Providence than when I am taken up in thine immediate service But if suffering shall happen to meet me there let me comfort my self to think that it finds me at a good work and can not come to me when I am better employ'd And whatever I lose in this case make me sensible O! Lord that it is not lost but most wisely and well layd out and that I can not part with my Worldly Substance for a better Cause or to my greater Advantange Oh! that I may rejoyce in such spoyling of my Goods as what is a laying up Treasures for my self in Heaven And be glad to have my poor perishing substance thus lent to thee to be repayd with an Eternal Inheritance in thy Kingdom through the Merits of my Blessed Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ. Amen 9. Prayers for Godly Prudence and Caution in Days of Peril and Persecution 1. For Prudence BUt though I am ready to come and suffer for thee when thou callest me to it let me not run upon it O! Gracious God before thy Call Suffer me not to expose my self to their Violence needlesly Nor to bring it upon my own Head for things that are no part of thy service Nay nor even for doing good things unseasonably or with such Unnecessary Provocations or improvident Carriage and indiscreet Circumstances as are fit to fetch down troubles when I might have been safe in doing the same with due foresight and godly caution Oh! that Conversing as I do in the midst of dangers I may learn to beware of men That knowing * the days are evil and that trouble is hasting on apace of it self I may not throw away my quiet before I need but redeem the time Grant me the skill and care O! Merciful Lord to be provident in all things and walk circumspectly To walk in wisdom towards those that are without that they may find nothing for which to lay hold of me but my Love and Zeal to thee and a wise and faithful discharge of my duty which though they persecute thou O! my God wilt graciously accept for my Dear Lord Jesus Christ's sake Amen 2. For Integrity therewith BUt together with the wisdom of the Serpent give me Grace O! Holy Father in all my tryals to shew forth the innocency and sincerity of the Dove Let all my wisdom and waryness be shewn in doing of my Duty but never in letting it fall And in doing it faithfully without maim or disobedient reserves diligently without remissness and resolutely and undauntedly when thou callest me forth to shew boldness Let it never carry me to secure my self by neglecting thee or thy service or by acting against the rules of Truth and Righteousness or against the Honour and Interest of thy Cause Under all my sufferings O! Lord help me constantly strictly to attend to the ways of Religion that I may suffer with innocence and not to the worldly ways of Parties which abound too much with wickedness And let me never forget that there is as much need of a good and righteous Carriage under sufferings for Christ as of a good and righteous Cause for the same But in serving thee faithfully O! Gracious God let me not shew rashness nor give the Enemies of thy Truth Advantage against me by any culpableness or unadvisedness of my own Carriage Whatever I suffer let it not be as the Fruit and Chastizement of my own folly and precipitancy But grant that in that day I may have the comfort support to think that 't is all come upon me for my duty towards thee and for an acceptable and well guided Zeal for thy Glory which however it is spitefully treated by them at present will be graciously received and remembred by thee at last for mine unspeakable and Eternal Comfort through the Merits of my onely Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen 10. A Prayer for Patience and Charity towards our Persecutors O! Blessed Lord whilst we are suffering at their hands for thy Cause fill us with Patience and Charity towards our Persecutors Keep us always mindful that there is as much need of a meek and forgiving Carriage as of a Righteous Cause in those that suffer for thee And that thou sendest Persecutions for a Tryal of our Patience and Charity towards our Oppressors as well as for a Tryal of our Constancy to thy Truth and Righteousness Let us not fail O! God of a gracious Acceptance with thee by our impatience and wrathfulness against them Yea and let not the way of Truth and Righteousness miscarry in our hands through the scandal of our angry Passions Let us not prejudice any against the goodness of our Cause by the bitterness and implacableness of our spirits nor tempt good minds to be hasty in concluding that we want Truth because they see we can not be easie in suffering for it and want Charity In all our Tryals O! Blessed Jesus let us steadfastly consider how meekly and charitably thou didst endure thine And learn of thee to suffer without threatning and not only to bear our Enemies but to love them To beat back their Violence by unwearyed Patience and to overcome their inclinations of heaping Injuries on our heads by our dayly heaping Forgiveness and Kindnesses on theirs And instead of being angry at those by whom we suffer let it please us O! God that we are counted worthy to suffer for thy Name and enable us to rejoyce at our Losses in this World in hopes of the Blessed Recompence thereof in thy Heavenly Kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Particular Prayers for Patience towards them 1. HOwever Cruel or Unjust their usage be give us Grace O! Almighty Father to bear it patiently Let us not seem fretful and uneasie at our Worldly Losses as if we payd thee this service with ill will and were more affected with those things which they have taken from us than with the Blessed Hopes of a better and a more enduring substance Let us suffer meekly without wrath and quietly without noise And neither disturb our own spirits by discontent and impatience nor our Persecutors by bitter Reproaches Accusations nor our Neighbours by wearisome Complaints In the midst of all their Troubles give us inward composedness and Patience to possess our souls and
wickedness Arise then O! Almighty God and plead thine own cause Arise and right the oppressed and make the proud and the Men that rage in ways of ungodliness and violence to know themselves Return not upon them what they have done to us O! Lord. But fill their faces with shame that they may seek thy Name and give us ease from their violence and grace to turn it to thy praise and to the performance of all holy and thankful Obedience through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen 14. Intercessions or Prayers for others in Times of Persecutions 1. A Prayer for Persecutors who at any time or any where are oppressing Truth or Righteousness O! Most Gracious Father shew mercy we humbly intreat thee towards our Persecutors though they neither shew mercy nor justice towards us Cure the delusion of seduced and seducing spirits Let them not be led away with errors any longer nor intoxicated with the love thereof Let them not continue to resist thy truth much less proceed to blaspheme and reproach it and least of all to set themselves to fight against it by an arm of flesh and cruelly to persecute and extirpate the professors thereof Pity those who are ignorant and set straight those who are perverse among them Remove those prejudices which blind their eyes and sweeten and mollifie their spirits that they may no longer be driven aside by malice and bitter passions and dispose them by humility and meekness and a sincere love of truth and righteousness to a joyful reception and acknowledgement thereof that instead of persecuting they may fall resolutely to profess them and if need be to suffer for the same But if any still harden themselves in their error and violence and think that by destroying thy servants they please thee and do God service yet deal not thou with them O! God as they deal with us but save their Lives though they seek to take away ours Though we suffer yea or die by their hands let them not die in their errors and wicked violence But curb them Good Lord in their carier and stop it in thy due time And if it may seem good to thee work this blessed change in them by mild and gentle methods But if nothing else will touch their hearts with remorse afflict their bodies O! Merciful Father and let the Rod give understanding and teach them repentance Yea let all thy crosses come upon them rather than the curse of a seared Conscience And when there is nothing left but smiting to reduce them Lord give not off smiting them till they are brought to see the wickedness of persecuting the ways of truth and righteousnes and to make the best amends they can by standing up zealously for the same Say not unto them as thou didst to the Revolting Jews who still grow worse and worse under their corrections Why should you be stricken any more Nor deliver them up to the wretched ease of incorrigeable sinners who are therefore at ease because their state is hopeless and whose ease and respite is only that of condemn'd Prisoners who are sealed up for sudden and inevitable vengeance But by what-ever means thou shalt see sit to work the same let their repentance prevent thine eternal vengeance through the Merits of our Dearest Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen 2. Prayers for the Persecuted who happen in any place to be suffering for the cause of Truth or Righteousness 1. O! Almighty and most Merciful Father extend thy help and pity in these trying times to all the necessities and back-slidings of thy Servants Have Mercy upon all who either by their own worldly fears and covetous desires or by the Art and cunning of Seducers have been made to fall from thee and raise them up again Neither suffer them to rest secure nor to grow desperate in their wickedness but fill their hearts with such awakenings as may put them in the way of true Repentance And when any of them grow doubtful of what they have done Lord carry on their doubts to a full Conviction And when once they are convinced of their Errors give them no rest till they have amended them Let their Prayers and Alms ascenâ— up before thee and bring down Grace still more and more to see their fall and to fit and fortify their Spirits to recover from it Enable them to overcome all fears of shame and worldly loss to place their truest and their only honour in Repentance and their highest interest and safety in rectifying and repairing what they have done amiss and to study above all things how despising worldly considerations they may recover thy Peace and save their precious and immortal Souls Shew Mercy also O! Gracious God on all those who are shaken in mind by these Storms and begin to stagger in the Faith and fix and settle them therein And on all those who by thy Grace have resolutely withstood the same and daily perfect and confirm them Oh! Lord daily make them more numerous and let their Sufferings like that of thy faithful Servants and Confessors of old be a fruitful Seed of a truly righteous and holy Church Lengthen out their Patience whilst thou prolongest their Sufferings and strengthen their Faith that they may stedfastly persevere therein Let thy Providence supply those wants which any of them are reduced unto for a good Conscience Give them comfort under their Sufferings and in thy due time an happy riddance thereof and endless and unspeakable joys at last in exchange for them The more their Enemies seek to root them out by unrighteous Persecution Oh! that they may answerably strengthen themselves the more in fervent and godly Devotion Make them to have a strict and conscionable eye to all thy Laws that whilst in these Persecuted points they suffer as Saints they miss not at last of their reward by taking liberty in any other things to live as Sinners Oh! that they may study in all things to please thee in their Lives that so they may be accepted in their Sufferings for our Lord Jesus Christs sake Amen 2. AND tho' here O! Righteous Father for thine Holiness and for thy Truths sake they are vile in the eyes of Men let them be precious in thine Eyes and do thou own them from Heaven Plead thou the cause of thy Servants against those that oppress them Let their Persecutors see that there is no fighting against thee Make them find that Truth is stronger than they and will at last prevail over them And that Persecutions which they use for rooting out the sincere Professors thereof are over-ruled by thine Almighty Power and Wisdom to propagate and multiply them And when all others are ready to forsake us in our afflictions do thou O! God stick by us Do thou stick by us in our extremities and deliver us Let not the mischievous imaginations of the wicked always prosper lest they be too proud Let not the
Rod of the Wicked rest upon the Lot of the Righteous lest they put forth their hand unto Iniquity Shorten the days of these Sorrows and make hast to help and deliver us And work that Deliverance if it please thee by the Conviction rather than by the destruction of our Enemies for our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christs sake Amen 3. Prayers for a Kingdom when in any Time or Place it happens to labour under Persecutions for any part of Gods Truth or way of Righteousness Or when it is torn to pieces by Intestine Divisions about the same 1. O! Almighty and most Merciful God have Mercy upon this most wretched and sinful Land and exalt the greatness of thy Mercy by curing the Height of our Misery And in the first place purge our Sins O! Lord which are the chief cause of all our Sorrows and which are the heaviest Plague that we lye under tho' alass we are least sensible thereof Oh! give us not up to a Reprobate mind and a seared Conscience Let thy Correction open all our Eyes to see and abhor all that iniquity and ungodliness which calls aloud to thee for Vengeance Oh! that we may see what it is to be false and faithless to God and Man to forsake thee in our Distress and seek to unrighteous ways for Refuge That we may lay to heart all that Hypocrisie and Prophaneness all that shedding of Innocent Blood all that Violence whereof our hands are full and the Spoils and Oppressions and other Wickednesses which have reign'd amongst us And by these foretasts of Sorrows which we have already felt in the course of these Iniquities Grant O! Lord that we may be struck with Terror of those insupportable Plagues and after-reckonings which are yet to come if we continue in the same And that we may learn thereby to Sin no more but apply our selves faithfully to seek and serve thee that we may be fit for thine Eternal Mercy through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen 2. AND when thou hast cleared us of the Guilt then Deliver us O! Gracious Lord from the Curse of our Transgressions Let not Power be employed to suppress thy Truths or a Righteous Cause but to support them Let not violence be able to force the Seat of Justice nor to hinder or pervert the due and free course thereof Bless the Labours of all those who seek to have Truth and Equity take place and to plant and settle Peace on Righteousness And set thy Face against them whose hearts and hands are set on ways of unjust Violence and publick Disturbance Turn their hearts O! God to be in love with Peace and Justice Or if still they will be obstinate against the same weaken their hands that they may not be able to hinder us of the speedy and happy influence and settled enjoyment thereof Bind up our breaches O! Father and make all our unnatural broils and bloodshed cease We are a People shaken to pieces do thou settle us We are all in confusion do thou bring us into order We are broken by our Sins Oh! do thou repair and heal us by restoring us to ways of Righteousness Our guilt and misery have made us heartless and void of courage Oh! let Innocence and the light of thy Countenance raise our Spirits We lye comfortless in our Iniquities Oh! Oh! Let thy Spirit reform us and then speak comfort to us Heal all the Sores of our Souls and then lighten our Earthly Burdens Keep Life in this exhausted Kingdom which is ready to faint and daily encrease it in the same and settle us once more in Justice and Holiness Peace and Safety for Jesus Christ's sake Amen 4. Prayers for the Church when in any any Time or Place it is called to suffer Persecution for Truth or Righteousness 1. A general Prayer for things needful to the same in such Times of Persecution O! Almighty Lord who hast purchased to thy self a Church with thine own Blood look in Mercy â—pon the same however Distressed â—ro ' all the World Especially upon â—â—at part thereof which languisheth in this Land and suffer not the Adversary to lay it wasâ—e or utterly to deface it after thou hast paid so dear for it Let not either Superstition or immoral Wickedness Corrupt and Prophane thy Worship nor let Schism any longer tear thy Body to pleces Let not vile Men go on to make Religion a Cover and Pretence for acting against moral Honesty and Justice lest the Hypocrisie of some beget Atheism in others and lest thereby loose Men be tempted to think and take occasion to say That there is nothing under any Professions of Religion but serving Worldly ends because they can see nothing else under theirs Oh! That Truth and Righteousness may be set up in thy Church and that Love and Unity may be set up in our Hearts That we may once more hear the Voice of Joy and Peace and receive Beauty for Ashes Pity a Church O! Blessed Lord which has long maintained Truth of Doctrin and Purity of Worship in the Nation and which has openly professed and bore out the Doctrin of patient Suffering for Righteousness and not resorting to any evil means for Relief in the Eyes of Men. Pity those who suffer and are in danger to be destroyed for their stedfast adhering to these thy ways when others generally fall off from them and set themselves violently to persecute the same And hear their Crys who mourn in Sion and are afflicted for the Dishonour that is brought upon thy Name and for all the Violences which are done to an Holy Religion Preserve them Holy FATHER by thy Power and give them not up to the VVill of their Oppressors But stir up thy Strength and come and help us Give us Constancy against the Errors of our Persecutors and in thy good time give us rest from their Violence for our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ's sake Amen The Collect for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity GRant O! Lord we beseech thee that the Course of this World may be so peaceably ordered by thy Governance that thy Church may joyfully serve thee in all Godly Quietness through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen 2. Prayers for particular Graces or Blessings when at any time or any where it is violently broken or pressed by Persecutions to forsake the way of God's Truth or Righteousness 1. Prayers for its Purity and Integrity 1. O! Father of Mercies who seest all the Back-slidings and Calamities of thy poor Church amongst us pity its misery and possess it with such a Spirit as is fit to enliven and actuate thy Body Oh! Keep it in thy Truth and save it from Heresie and false Doctrines either about Faith or Practice Give it not up to teach Errors for Advantage or to justifie unlawful ways for worldly Ends and Securities Nor suffer it to suit its Doctrines to secular Turns or to change Religious Principles as it shall be driven thereto by worldy Necessities Fix
it in ways of Holiness O! Lord that all its Ministrations may be such as become Saints Suffer it not to mix sin in thy Service or to teach it to thy People To pollute holy Offices with any ungodly or unrighteous Petitions and prostitute and prophane thy Worship by falling therein to offer any abominable things Oh! let not its Ministrations become the Ministrations of Unrighteousness but be Holy and without Blemish as besits thine House and becomes thy Spouse Whilst thou art pleased to try it with Tribulations Lord let them only purge it but not lay it waste And revive a suffering Spirit among us when it labours under a suffering State Make it willing then and ready to quit all Interests of this World and live upon the hopes of a better Enable it contentedly yea joyfully to take up thy Cross and to bear it after thee Oh! that at such times it may always be more afraid of Sinning than of Suffering Oh! that it may never fall to make the way of Gain to pass for the way Godliness or to Preach up what is Unrighteous because it is become serviceable and safe Nor ever seek to Error and Wickedness for Refuge instead of seeking to God and trusting in him and in his holy ways for the same Oh! Father in thy Mercy guard it against all Error and Ungodliness rescue it from all Schisms and Divisions and free it in thy due time of its Distress and Persecutions for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake Amen 2. O! Almighty Lord Direct and Rule the Hearts of thy People by the Power of thy Grace that they may no longer run furiously upon Unrighteous Expedients nor by their Violence drive their Teachers into the Practice and Justification thereof Oh! that they may seek to hear true and not pleasing things and not only hear but love to be faithfully dealt with And give them not up O! Father to persecute the Preachers of Righteousness who are ready to warn them of the Error and Danger of their ways or to despite them and treat them as their worst Enemies only for telling them thy Saving Truths Lord let not the love of Error and Hatred of those Truths which are according to Godliness and Honesty always Reign in them Let them not persist therein without Remorse Or when they are smitten with Relentings let them not lie sealed up in their Iniquity as the fallen Angels do by despair of Mercy and seat themselves among those Sinners who when once they have done ill think they cannot be safe but by doing worse Especially O! God deliver them not over to a Reprobate Sense nor shut them up under a Spiritual Blindness But open their Eyes to see from whence they are fallen and to seek after those things which are necessary to their Everlasting Peace through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen 2. Prayers for cure of Schisms and for Graces in divided Times 1. DEliver this Church O! Almighty Lord from Schisms which have torn it to pieces And grant that all those Members who are broken off may return to offer up their Religious Services in due Dependance upon their own Orthodâ—x and Lawful Pasters and to make Conscience of keeping Union and of continuing Subject and Obedient unto those who are Rightfully set over them in the Government of thy Church Let them not think it enough O! God to have Holy Prayers But teach them moreover to put up these Prayers in such Assemblies as keep Obedient and United to those Spiritual Fathers whom thou hast called to be the Rightful Governors of the Body And make them know that when as good Christians they are careful to joyn in none but Holy Services they must take care also as good Church-Members to present those Services to thine Hands in the Unity and Communion of thy Church there to be accepted with thee through his Merits and Mediation who is the Head and Saviour of the Body even thy most Blessed Son and our only Saviour Jesus Christ Amen 2. BEnd the Hearts of all amongst us O! blessed Lord to have Peace amongst themselves Teach them Humility and Submission to those whom thou hast put in Authority over them Let Love and Lowliness increase and all self-denying and amicable Tempers And remove far from us Covetous and Aspiring Thoughts and Pride and self-pleasing and all Wrath and bitter Passions Reconcile all jarring Spirits and cause all Discord and Division to cease And dispose us all O! Jesu thou Prince of Peace to see those Truths which make for Peace and tend to close our Breaches and willingly to submit to them Let us not give way so far to Anger and bitter Passions till none but violent things will please us and till we grow fond and greedy of any Error that will make the Breach wider but Zealous against such Truths as might serve again to unite and bring us together Oh! keep us strictly careful both of Peace and Truth And as we humbly pray that we may never give up thy saving Truths for Peace so do we likewise that we may never divide from each other and be averse to Peace when thy Holy Truths stand in no need thereof And whilst we labour under our unhappy Breaches Let us not be wanting in any mutual Offices of Humanity good Neighbourhood or common Justice towards each other Let us not fancy that their being of different Opinions or of different Churches from us must put a stop to the Just Acts and Offices of Gratitude and to the Remembrance of former kindness or that they must give us a discharge from any mutual Obligations of natural Kindred or of civil Relations Especially O! Merciful God keep us from placing all Religion in the Notes of a Party Let us not so over-ratc the real or fancied Virtues of our several Divisions as to take up therewith and become our selves as culpable for the Breach and allowed Neglect of some Duties as we charge our Brethren to be for the Breach of others But whilst on all sides we are zealous in pursuing those points wherein we differ let us be zealous for others too aud not overlook or lay aside the care of good Life and of that common Religion wherein we all agree and which at last must deliver us all from thy Wrath and prepare us for thine Everlasting Mercies thro' our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Amen 3. Prayers for the Bishops and Clergy under Persecutions 1. O! Almighty Lord under all these Persecutions which are sent to prove and purge us have an especial care of the Bishops and Pastors of thy Church who are set to take of thy People and to defend thy cause and fill their Hearts with the power of thy Spirit and with all those Gifts and Graces which are needful to maintain their own Standing or prevent the Falls of others Make them clear Examples O! God of Holy Living and of truly Christian and Righteous Suffering to thy Flock setting before their Eyes the lively Draughts and
worldly Troubles let me have Peace with thee and with mine own Conscience And whilst thy Comforts do refresh my Soul by thy Grace strengthening me I shall better bear any other Misery which thou shalt give my Enemies leave to inflict upon my Body and persevere faithfully to serve and patiently to suffer for thee till thou shalt Graciously take me out of their Hands to thine Everlasting Rest and Mercy for Jesus Christ's sake Amen 6. A Prayer for Graces needful for him at the Tryal when he is to be judged for his Stedfastness to Gods Truth or Righteousness O! Blessed Lord if by thy wise ordering 〈◊〉 I meekly submit I shall be carried from the place of Cusâ—ody to the place of Tryal or of further Examination do tho vouchsafe to go along with me When I am question'd teach me what I shall say that I may answer so honestly as not to offend or dishonour thee and so prudently as not to prejudice my self nor bring Trouble on any other Righteous Persons for their bearing a good Affection to Righteous Things Give me presence of mind and clearness of Spirit in appearing before all Tribunals and wisdom and readiness in answering all Questions Let my Carriage be without Fear or Confusion or any evil or insincere Arts in all things acceptable unto thee and becoming my Person and Condition Suffer me not to be made a Sacrifice by the Fears or Forgetfulness the mis-representations or false Accusations of Witnesses nor by the Fetches and false colours of Council nor by the partiality or misguided Zeal of Judges and Juries Or if thou hast otherwise determined and I must fall enable me Good Lord to bear thy Will And tho' my Blood which is shed in this Cause be vile in the sight of Men let it be acceptable and of a sweet smell in thy Sight for my Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ's sake Amen 7. Prayers after Sentence of Condemnation is past upon him for his Stedfastness to the same EJACULATIONS THE Cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it Joh. 18. 11. Not my Will O! my God but thine be done Luk. 22. 42. Lord I thank thee for counting me worthy to receive this Sentence for the sake of thy Righteousness Lord lay not this Sin to their Charge Acts 7. 60. Forgive them for they know not what they do Luk. 23. 34. A short Prayer upon his receiving the Sentence LOrd I meekly submit to this heavy Sentence yea I thank thee for it and Glory in this shame since it comes upon me for my Love unto thy ways And I humbly pray thee to look upon their Ignorance for their excuse than upon their Blood-Guiltiness for their punishment If they understood the ways of thy Righteousness they would not shed my Blood for keeping stedfast to the same But now they think alass to serve and please thee by slaying me Father forgive them for they know not what they do And bring them timely to see their Errors and thoroughly to repent thereof That they who now in their misguided Zeal for thee are my Enemies may yet however at length be Loving and Happy Sharers with me of thine Everlasting Mercies through the Merits of our dear Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Amen A Longer Prayer afterwards O! Righteous Lord since thou art pleased to call me to give Testimony to thy Righteousness with my Blood I am content to do it Yea I thank thee O! Father that thou hast counted me worthy to lay down my Life for thy sake But as thou tryest me to the utmost sâ— strengthen me to the utmost I most humbly beseech thee that in this highest and last Service I may shew stedfast Faith in thee and Charity towards my Persecutors and meet my Death with that constancy and devout Chearfulness which befits one who is pasing thro' the Red Sea to the Heavenly Canaan and laying down his Life for thy Cause Tho' I stand Condemned and viliâ—ied among Men for this adherence to thy ways yet I humbly hope that thou O! my God wilt acquit and lovingly accept me And if I have thy Approbation my Heart shall rejoyce therein and account it enough for me whatever the World thinks of me Shew them their Error and our Uprightness O! Lord in standing firm to these points for which we suffer But if we cannot satisfie them that the way for which they persecute our Souls is Innocent and Holy let it however satisfie us that so it is and that so it will be â—ouâ—d and declared by thee before all thine elect Angels when tâ—ou shalt appear in thy dreadful Majesty to pass Sentence both upon our way and theirs And to the clearing of that Day and the Tryal of thy Righteous Tribunal do we humbly commit our Cause and Sufferings Where our Hope is that thou Blessed Jesu wilt Graciously own and receive both tho' they disdainfully reject them And that thou Righteous Father for Jesus sake wilt both pardon the real Guilt of our other Sins and openly clear us of the fancied Guilt of these ways wherewith our Persecutors do falsly asperes thy Truths and Reproach us Which grant O! merciful Lord that we may all comfortably expect in our Lives and comfortably find at our Deaths for thy dear Son and our only Saviour Jesus Christs sake Amen After this he may at any time use such of the Prayers as he likes best in the preceding Office for Sufferers for Righteousness to exercise and strengthen his Faith his Patience his Charity or other Graces proper for his Circumstances or to assist him in making Intercessions for others 8. A Prayer for Dying without Fear O! Almighty and most merciful Father perfect thy Strength in my Weakness and support thy Frail and most unworthy Servant in this last and greatest Service which I have now to pay thee of laying down my Life and leaving all that is dear unto me in this World for thy Cause Oh! let not me dishonour the Cause and Truths for which I suffer by shewing any mis-becoming Fears or unwillingness to suffer 'T is not my mistrust of the Righteousness of this Cause O! my God but the Conscience of my other Sins and of the common Errors of my Life from the Rule of thy Holy Commandments which makes me at all afraid to appear at thy Righteous Bar. But cleanse thou me from all my Sins by the Blood of my dearest Lord and then I may meet Death with an humble Confidence and Triumph over it I know O! blessed Lord that when Sin and Guilt which are the Sting of Death are taken out there is still an aversion in Nature which is common to us all against this Change and which found place in our Blessed Lord himself But let the Influences of thy Grace though not wholly purge off this averseness yet subdue and over rule it in my Spirit Possess my Mind more with the Righteousness of the Cause for which I dye and with the