bee any longer hardned against each other a Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand but give us all the spirit of meeknesse Mar. 3.23 patience and brotherly love Take from us all self-ends and private interests that we may all unanimously seek thy glory and this Kingdoms welfare Give the King thy judgements O Lord Psal 72.1 and thy righteousnesse to the Kings Sonne blesse them the Queen and the rest of the Royall stem with all the graces of thy holy Spirit blesse the Fathers and Ministers of thy Word and Sacraments with zeal and piety Restore incorrupt Doctrine and holy discipline to the Church and in thy good time a setled and religious Peace to this dying perishing Kingdom Blesse all our Magistrates and Counsellours with wisdom knowledge and integrity blesse all thy people with true faith and obedience and grant us all high and low the spirit of unity and charity that we may agree in a blessed and acceptable harmony to praise thy holy Name for all thy mercies to us in Christ Jesus Amen Another O Lord Father of mercies the God of peace unity and love Psal 80.4 How long wee beseech thee wilt thou bee angry against the prayer of thy people How long will it be ere thou thou remove this unnaturall and execrable warre Look upon the afflictions of thy people give ear to the sighes teares and groanes of the poore and let the effusion of so much Christian blood move thee to pity Alas O Lord we acknowledge that this and other thy judgements are just punishments for our sinnes we have sinned we have committed iniquity we have despised and forsaken thee the fountain of life and our own happinesse and have waged warre against thee and thy commandments by our daily offences We have kept none of thy statutes which according to thy word by the Prophet hath brought the sword into our land to devoure us Isa 1.20 Yet thou O Lord in the midst of thy wrath remember mercy Hab. 3.2 Which that we may be capable of give us grace to call to our remembrance to confesse bewaile and forsake our transgressions Send into our hearts the spirit of grace and supplication that we may humbly deprecate thy just displeasure and cry unto thee and say Lord pity Lord save thy people whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood and be not angry with us for ever Lord sheath this bloody and devouring sword and let us not fall as Saul did upon our own swords Command all those that minister occasions of warre to return to their own places that so by thy grace and favour through the merits of our alone Saviour we may again recover if it stand with thy good will and pleasure our lost happy and most desired peace and agree again as becometh Christians in unity of hearts and mindes to praise and glorifie thy holy Name for ever Amen In this time of unseasonable weather dearth and scarcity ALmighty Lord God which givest food to every living thing that coverest the heaven with clouds and preparest rain for the earth that commandest the clouds to send forth rain and again doest stop the flood-gates of heaven who at the prayer of thy Prophet Elias didst shut the cataracts thereof so that it rained not in three yeers space and didst again open them and the clouds did yeeld plentifull showers one for the peoples good the other for their punishment Wee confidently beleeve that thou doest what thou pleasest in heaven in earth in the sea and all places Wee thy poor distressed and miserable Creatures humbly acknowledge and confesse that wee have departed from thee and have not hearkned to thy word to walk in thy commandments Wee have spent the dayes appointed for thy seruice in idlenesse and excesse and neglected thy worship letting loose the reynes of the flesh to all uncleannesse Therefore that curse denounced in thy law for such rebellion hath befalne us Deut. 28.16 c. That wee should bee cursed in the city and cursed on the field in our store in the fruit of our body and of our land in the encrease of our kine and the flâ—cks of our sheep And that the heaven over our head should bee brâ—sse and the earth under us irâ—n And that the rain should come down till we be destroyed O Lord we have seen with ioy and comfort that in the former parts seaons of the year the earth was plentifully cloathed with fruits in abundance which filled us with hopes and expectation of a plentifull harvest and a numerous encrease of all things for the sustentation of man and beast But O Lord thankful hearts not accompaneing our joyful minds thou hast broken up the springs of the earth thou hast opened the windows of heaven and immoderate rains have fallen whereby the land hath been overmoistned the corn hath been depressed and laid flat to the ground and for want of the comfort and heat of the Sunne hath not attained to its due ripening and the waters have overflowed the earth so much that our cattell are like to want necessary food and sustentation so that all our former hopes seem to be frustrate and unlesse thou of thy speciall providence be mercifull to us the labours of our hands will prove altogether vain and our hopes will be as thistle-down Sap. 5.14 which is carried away with the winde and as the froth which is driven away with a storm and as the smoak which is dispersed here and there with a temptest and wee may justly fear a famine to ensue When O Lord we see and feel these extraordinary tempests and rains wee cannot but acknowledge thy just hand upon us for our ingratitude in not giving thee due praise for former plentifull yeers and seasonable times and for our sleighting and undervaluing so great blessings as also that thou art enforced to draw us to thee by more severe means and to learn by those thy plagues that mans labour avails nothing without thy blessing and that if thou withdraw thy hand of providence all our endeavours prove invalid and uneffectuall and therefore we should not undertake any thing without addresse to thee by prayer and when thy heavy hand is upon us in this or any other kinde to betake our selves to no other means then calling upon thy holy Name to releeue us At this time therefore lying under this scourge of thine we flee unto thee O mercifull Father wee tender our humble supplications to thee and earnestly in thy Sonnes Name and for his Merits beseech thee if it stand with thy blessed will to keep back the bitter judgement of dearth and famine which wee have just cause to fear O deal not with us in thy fury but bee pleased that we may enjoy those fruits of the earth which thou didst put us in hope to receive Supply O Lord what wee shall want by some way or means which thou in thy providence doest better know to give then wee to expect Isa â—9 1 Thy hand is not shortned that it cannot help And it is all one to thee to releeve us either with or without means Lord abate in us all immoderate desires to the creatures which with other our transgressions hath caused this judgement of famine to beginne to take hold upon us Divert these intemperate showers into our eyes and extract showers of tears from them which may testifie that wee unfeignedly bewaile our sinnes and deplore our manifold offences These showers will prove farre better and more wholsome and profitable for us and be a meanes by the intercession of our Saviour to stay and cease those stormes which seem to foretell our destruction and ruine Lord hear us and answer us for thy son Christ Jesus sake in whom thou are alone well pleased Amen FINIS
it rained not on the earth by the space of three yeers and six moneths And he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit Samuel having terrified the people for their ingratitude 1. King 17. 18. by thunder and rain in harvest â— Sa. 12.18 was entreated by the people to pray to God on their behalf to withdraw that judgement from them which he did Yet a little neerer to our selves The people in the absence of Moses cause Aaron to make a golden Calf God is highly displeased with them and saith to Moses Ex. 32.10.11.14 Let me alone that I may consume them Moses besought the Lord for them and he was appeased In the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah Gen 19.19 and the countrey round about Let by prayer preserved Zoar. Jonah being sent by God denounceth destruction to the great city Ninive The king and the people betake themselves to prayer and repentance Jon 3.4 10 and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them and he did it not In particular cases we finde Gen. 32 9. Jacob prayed for deliverance from the wrath of his brother Esau and had it 1. Sam. 1.11 Hannah from barrennesse of womb and the Lord heard her By prayer Jer. 40. Jeremiah was comforted in the dungeon and released Dan. 6.22 Daniel saved from the violence of the lyons Job was preserved upon the dunghil Luk. 23 42. The Thief found Paradise upon the Crosse Act. 12.5 And Peter was delivered from prison by the prayers of the Church If any wanted necessaries they prayed to God for them As Jacob for bread Gen. 28.20 and raiment If for wisdom to manage their calling as Solomon he begged 1. Kin. 3 9. and had it in large measure If they lay sick and desired health as Hezekiah 2. Kin. 20.6 upon his prayer to God he had not onely the sentence of death revoked but fifteen yeers added to his life In the new Testament we finde thâ— duty in great estimation Our Saviâ—â— to encourage us not that he had neâ—â— himself oft times used to pray and gave us a rule Luc 21 36 Pray alwayes So did the Apostle Paul 1. Thes 5.17 Pray without ceasing And the Fathers and Doctours in the Primitive church gave prayer many encomioms stiling it the key of heaven and practised it oftner then any other religious duty Nay in those times as the best things may in time be corrupted some there were the Psalliam or Euchite that prayed so much that they which should hear of it saith Augustine would think it incredible and were therefore numbred among the Heretiques of that age Their errour grew upon the misunderstanding of those words of our Saviour and of the Apostle of praying alwayes and without ceasing which as the Fathers expound them was that men should allot some time daily for performing the duty of prayer But we wretched creatures a thing much to be lamented in these very times of heavy and bitter afflictions when heaven it self the elements and all creatures else seem to be sensible of them we I say do not so much as think of amendment of life nor seek we to God by prayer but in these extremities have recourse to the arm of flesh and rely upon our own strength and wisdoms them which God being neglected nothing is more vain and helplesse Nay being already stricken Jer 5 3. we have not grieved being almost consumed we have refused to receive correction We have made our faces harder then a rock we have refused to return And as it was in the prophet Esays time Isa 22.12 In that day a day like ours did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping and mourning and to baldnesse and to girding with sackcloth And behold joy and gladnesse 13. slaying oxen and killing sheep eating flesh and drinking wine Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die Insomuch as God may again take up that complaint which he did long since Jer. 2.30 In vain have I smitten your children they received no correction And it 's no marveile we coming so short in this duty of prayer of those which have gone before us that all the elements conspire against us nor is it wonder if we feel daily the revenging hand of God which prayer only as it were tyes up in greater measure then they felt it Therefore are we much to be blamed for though we conceive that Godâ— judgements lye heavier upon us then upon any Nation of former ages yet we procrastinate and put off from us this wholsome remedy of prayer Our necessities are present why seek we not for present help Do we know whither we shall have time to pray while too morrow how dare we then promise so much to our selves The Parable of the foolish Virgins should teach us to take the present time for none ever escaped unpunished that neglected and let slip the time and opportunity of Gods mercy The Prophets counsell was Seek the Lord while he may be found Isa 35 6. call upon him while he is neer We are daily frighted with many fears and those not causelesse one plague one judgement suceeeds another nor are we free either within or without us from divine vengeance In these extremities what more present remedy or help can we finde then by calling upon God and casting our cares upon him Is any afflicted saith the Apostle Let him pray Jam. 5 13. If crosses dangers sicknesse warre famine pestilence tempestuous weather want or other calamity hang over our heads or befall us what is to be done Let us pray If the sence of our sinnes trouble us as well they may if the fear of eternall death the wages of sin afflict us Let us pray for prayer is the life and soul of the soul and so profitable a duty so necessary that the soul health life it self and all we have depend upon it Then why do we so much neglect it so little regard it why have we not recourse to God by daily and fervent prayers especially in these times when we have more need of his help and succour then ever before The Church is rent and torn the Kingdom distracted and even at the brink of ruine and destruction Can we behold these desolations with dry eyes without bleeding hearts shall we not deprecate Gods anger and imprecate his favour and become humble suppliants to him to pardon our great and manifold sins and to avert these his heavy judgements from us shall the heauens seem to mourn and shall not we shall we not If a man have lost all that he possessed and become blinde lame and infirme this man must either beg or starve and perish Certainly we have lost by our transgressions all the good we had and therewith all the gifts and graces of grace and nature what then remains but that like
And in that he himself hath suffered being tempted Heb 2.18 he is able to succour them that are tempted 1. Jo. 2.1 Jo. 17.5 And therefore having Christ to be our Advocate and that he tells us that he prayeth for his why should we decline so easie a way and take a harder and more deceitfull tract either by the merits of our own prayers or the mediation of Saints or Angels If there be occasion to pray for the members of Christ labouring under difficulties on earth let the prayers ascend to the Head saith Aug. who is gone before into heaven by whom there is propitiation for our sinnes 1. Jo. 2.2 For if Paul be a Mediator the other Apostles should be so too and if there be many Mediators there 's no reason why Saint Paul should say 1. Tim. 2.5 There is one God and one Mediator between God and man the Man Christ Jesus In whom we are one if we keep thâ— unity of the spirit Ephe. 4 3. in the bond of peace Therefore if we desire that our prayers should be as incense Psal 141.2 or a morning sacrifice to God and receive a gracious answer from him we must tender them to him onely in the Name and for the merits of Jesus Christ Mat. 3.17 In whom alone he is well pleased 6. Lastly our prayers receive not that audience or acceptance that we expect because we offer them not with that due respect we ought our outward behaviour is not suitable with that of Petitioners If a man petition for any thing it 's fit he should compose himself as becomes a Petitioner that is by uncovering his head bending himself and the like We usually call him that begs an alms with his hat on a sturdy begger and give him relief accordingly Jer. 6.16 Ask and enquire of the old pathes and see whither in former ages there were ever such bold unreverend Petitioners as now God may well take up to us the speech which he used in the Prophet to the uncivill Jews If I be a Father where is mine honour if I be a Master where is my fear Search the Scriptures and you shall finde how reverently the Saints of God made their addresses to him Abraham in his conference with God fell on his face So did Mary Gen. 17.3 the sister of Lazarus Jo. 11.32 to our Saviour Christ And the Samaritan Leper one of the ten Lepers which were cured Fell down on his face at Christs feet Lu. 17.16 giving him thanks for the great benefit he had received from him a gesture certainly of much submission King Solomon 1. Kin. 8.15 assoon as he had built the Temple powred out his Prayers to God for a blessing Nor is that set down that he prayed onely but for our instruction with what gesture he did it 54. He arose from the Altar of the Lord from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven Ezra in his Prayer for the people that had sinned grievously Ezra 9.5 Fell upon his knees and spread out his hands to the Lord his God Saint Pauls precept is 1. Tim. 2.8 I will that men pray every where lifting up holy hands without wrath or doubting Our Saviour himself kneeled wheâ— he prayed Lu. 22.41 Act. 9.40.20.36 Saint Peter praying for Tabithas restoring from death to life kneeled down and prayed The like diâ— Saint Paul upon the shore at Ephesus with all that were with him We may read also in sacred Scripture that many Penitents joyned with their prarers smiting their brests and casting ashes upon their heads renting their garments and putting on of sack-cloath these and the other before mentioned being tokens that their prayers were fervent and their confession of sinnes and their repentance for them serious and humble For while we cast up our eyes and stretch our hands to heaven we declare and signifie our ardent expectation of all aid and good from God alone and from none other When I kneel I expresse my humility when I smite my brest I shew mine indignation against my self for offending so gracious a God and the like I deny not but that the true worship of God consists chiefly in inward not outward behaviour yet outward gestures are not only as I said signes of the sincerity of our prayers but prevalent also to stirre up our attentions and to cast off all dulnesse and frigidity in praying Besides these humble gestures are as it were a means to incite others that are spectators of our devotion to the like reverentiall performance And indeed since God is the Creator not onely of the soul but of the body also which is as it were the temple of the Soul and that the Body one day must receive good or ill with the Soul why should not God be honoured by both I confesse as I said before that the inward affections of the Soul justly chalength the first place in our Prayers nor is it to be thought that God despiseth the prayers of him that sitteth standeth or lyeth if his affections go along with them yet since God hath given man a Body with a Soul for his own glory 1. Cor. 6.20 Therefore as the Apostle directs glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods In all these fore-named gestures it 's certain that the heart must be lift up before the hands the heart must kneel before the body for the heart hath knees as well as the body Eph. 3.14 witnesse Saint Paul the heart must weep before the eyes and the heart must speak before the tongue for it 's not the voice or bare sound of words which God gives ear to but the affection of the heart Though true vocal prayer is necessary to stirre up our fainting spirits and to incite others to the like duty for God by the Prophet complained of such as were onely wording petitioners Isa 29.13 and our Saviour quotes the same text Mat. 15.8 against the Scribes and Pharisees This people draw neer me with their mouths and with their lips do honour me but have removed their heart far from me Therefore as Augustine doth we may conclude that Oratio non est in multiloquio True prayer consists not in many words And with him Differunt multum loqui multum precari Hoc negotium plus gemitibus quam sermonibus agitur plus fletu quam affatu There 's great difference between much speaking and much praying this work is better effected by groanes then words by weeping then by speaking There are divers presidents in Gods word to inform us that God hears mental prayers Eâ— 14.15 aswell as vocal Wherefore cryest thou unto me saith God to Moses when we read not of a word that he spake So when God was offended at the Israelites for making a golden calf Moses stood sad and silent yet as it seems he prayed secretly and his prayer ascended up to