it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it Mat. 16. 25. Let us not be weary in well-doing for in due time we shall reap if we faint not Gal. 6. 9. Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners lest ye be weary and faint in your minds Heb. 12. 2. He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he have set judgment in the earth Isa. 42. 4. Because iniquity of persecutors shall abound the love of many shall wax cold But he that shall endure unto the end the same shall be saved Mat. 24. 12 13. Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a Crown of Life Rev. 2. 10. Here is the patience and faith of the Saints Rev. 13. 10. 9. With Prayer and unwearied Devotion Be patient in tribulation continuing instant in prayer Rom. 12. 12. Take unto you the whole armour of God that ye may able to stand in the evil day Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all Saints Eph. 6. 13. 18. Is any among you afflicted let him pray Jam. 5. 13. For my love they are my adversaries but I will give my self unto prayer Psal. 109. 4. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering Not forsaking the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching Heb. 10. 23 25. 10. With Charity towards Persecutors 1. When ye suffer for well-doing take it patiently for this is acceptable with God 1 Pet. 2. 20. And be ready to give an answer to every man that seeth you suffer and asketh a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and reverence 1 Pet. 3. 18. Bless those that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you That you may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven who doth good to the just and unjust Mat. 5. 44 45. Moreover Hereunto are ye called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps Who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously 1 Pet. 2. 21 23. He was oppressed and brought as a Lamb to the slaughter yet he opened not his mouth Isa. 53. 7. When they Crucified him then said Jesus Father forgive them for they know not what they do Luk. 23. 34. They stoned Stephen and he kneeled down and cryed with a loud voice Lord lay not this sin to their charge Act. 7. 59. 60. Being reviled we bless being persecuted we suffer it being defamed we intreat or intercede for our defamers 1 Cor. 4. 12 13. 2. Let not thy heart envy sinners but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long For surely there is an end and thy expectation shall not be cut off Prov. 23. 17 18. Fret not thy self because of evil men neither be thou envious against the wicked For there shall be no reward to the evil man the candle of the wicked shall be put out Prov. 24. 19 20. Rejoyce not when thine enemy falleth and let not thy heart be glad when he stumbleth Lest the Lord see it and it displease him and he turn away his wrath from him to thee Prov. 24. 17 18. Charity suffereth long charity vaunteth not it self is not puffed up Doth not behave it self unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh or imputeth no evil Rejoyceth not in iniquity beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things And though I give my body to be burned and have not this charity it profiteth me nothing 1 Cor. 13. 3 4 5 6 7. Bless them which persecute you bless and curse not Recompence to no man evil for evil Avenge not your selves but give place unto wrath for it is written Vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink Be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good Rom. 12. 14 17 19 20 21. 11. With Charity towards the Persecuted 1. I will weep bitterly labour not to comfort me because of the spoyling of the Daughter of my People Isa. 22. 4. O! that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for the slain of the Daughter of my People Jer. 9. 1. Wâ— unto them that are at ease in Sion that lye upon beds of Ivory That chaunt to the sound of the Viol that drink Wine in Bowls and anoint themselves with the chief Oyntments but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph Am. 6. 1 3 4 5 6. Whether one member suffer all the members suffer with it or one member be honoured all the members rejoyce with it 1 Cor. 12. 26. Rejoyce with them that do rejoyce and weep with them that weep Rom. 12. 15. 2. Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them and them which suffer adversity as being your selves also in the body Heb. 13. 3. Be not thou ashamed of the Testimony of the Lord nor of me his Prisoner but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the Gospel according to the power of God The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus for he oft refreshed me and was not ashamed of my Chain But when he was in Rome he sought me out very diligently and found me 2 Tim. 1. 8 16 17. Ye endured a great fight of afflictions partly whilst ye were made a gazing-stock both by reproaches and afflictions and partly whilst ye became Companions of them that were so used For ye had compassion of me in my bonds took joyfully the spoyling of your goods knowing in your selves that ye have in Heaven a better and an enduring substance Heb. 10. 32 33 34. Beloved thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren and to strangers which have born witness of thy Charity before the Church whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort thou shalt do well Because that for his Name sake they went forth We therefore ought to receive such that we might be fellow-helpers to the truth 3 Jo. 5 6 7 8. He that receiveth a Prophet in the Name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophets reward and he that receiveth a Righteous Man in the Name of a Righteous Man shall receive a Righteous Mans reward And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the Name of a Disciple verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward Mat. 10. 41 42. I was an hungred and ye gave me no meat thirsty and ye gave me no drink A stranger and ye took me not in naked and ye cloathed me not sick and in
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
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