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
and nothing but Affliction will make them wise justly art thou moved now at length to visit thy People in this Land with Persecutions after we had first turned a deaf ear to all the Calls of thy Mercy and had long abused the blessings of peace There is need O God of our sufferings to keep up a Reverence for thy Justice and to reclaim us from our iniquities and this fiery Tryal comes to purge us from our dross and to chastize us for our past Offences as well as to prove our present Obedience and Constancy to thy Holy Laws Our Peace O! Holy Father had made us loose and contentious and our Plenty had served chiefly to maintain Pride Luxury And the worldly Endowments about Religion had stoln our Affections away from it and instead of continuing thankful true to thee our hearts grew covetous and ambitious after them and preferr'd and took up with them for their Portion We are O! Lord a stubborn and a stiff-necked People still lifting up our selves against thee and against thy Vice-gerents We are given to Hypocrisie and take delight in Lyes Oppression and Rapine are to be found in our dwellings and Drunkenness and Adultery have grown common and fashionable Wickednesses have set up without shame in our streets Thy pure Worship and Service had been grievously and shamefully neglected or carelesly and indevoutly attended before it was given up to be persecuted amongst us And thine Holy Things have been desiled thy Ministers have been despised and evil intreated and thy Sacred and Dreadful Name has been commonly horribly prophaned by rash and false Oaths and by the most presumptuous terrible Imprecations Our Works O! Great and Righteous God have been Works of Iniquity and when thou hast called us we have not hearkened unto thee when thou hast smitten us we have not repented but have dealt proudly and hardned our necks against thy Word To us therefore O! Lord belongeth shame and sorrow and confusion of face and thou art Righteous in all that thou hast brought upon us Our sufferings are far below our deserts and we must needs justifie thee and condemn our selves But to thee O! God belongeth mercy and forgiveness though we have rebelled against thee And we return unto thee with true contrition and hearty repentance for all our Iniquities that thou mayest have Mercy upon us Oh! for the sake of thy Dear Son 's most pretious Blood pardon all our sins and purifie our souls Perfect our repentance and bring us home intirely to thy self and prevent all our back-slidings Help our slow and sloathful souls to be quick and vigorous and our drowsy spirits to be watchful in the ways of Righteousness Help thou us Good Lord for we are not able to help our selves and thou alone art our help And when our sufferings have by thy help and Grace reduced us to our duty we shall then O! Holy Father thankfully receive any Losses for Righteousness sake and look on all the violent attempts of the Enemy as so many instances and messengers of thy Mercy through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen 2. Out of the Office of Commination O! most Mighty God and Merciful Father who hast Compassion upon all Men and hatest nothing that thou hast made who wouldest not the death of a sinner but that he should rather turn from his sin and be saved mercifully forgive us our Trespasses receive comfort us who are grieved and wearyed with the Burden of our sins Thy Property is always to have Mercy to thee alone it appertaineth to forgive sins Spare us therefore good Lord spare thy People whom thou hast redeemed enter not into judgment with thy servants who are vile earth and miserable sinners But so turn thine Anger from us who meekly acknowledge our vileness and truly repent us of our faults and so make hast to help us in this world that we may ever live with thee in the world to come through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen 2. Prayers under Persecutions as they are Tryals of our Obedience and bring upon us Losses for Righteousness I. A General Prayer for Mercies Qualifications needful in Suffering-times O Blessed Jesus Who now callest us out to bear thy Cross and to suffer Afflictions for thy sake who sufferedst a most ignominious Death for ours bring none of us to suffer till thou hast first prepared us for it nor let us suffer more or longer than thou wilt enable us willingly and thankfully to endure Let not any among us O! Lord come to suffer for our own follies nor be afraid to suffer for thy Righteousness And give us all Grace to live according to thy Precepts that we may all have Courage and Comfort in suffering for them Let us not take liberty to transgress some duties of our Holy Religion whilst we suffer for others nor ever hope to recommend our selves or our sufferings to thy merciful acceptance without studying to be intire in our godly care and having an eye to all thy Laws And when our Afflictions press most upon us let the Graces and Comforts of thy Holy Spirit abound most in us Whatever else we lose thereby let us not lose Truth and a good Conscience Preserve us steadfast in the belief of thy Heavenly and Oppressed Truths undaunted in the Profession of them Grant us patience to bear thy Cross and not grow faint or weary and meekness to bear our Persecutors and not grow angry and bitter of spirit and Charity to forgive their Wrongs and to overcome their evil with good Strengthen our Faith of thy Heavenly Joys to recompence all these earthly sufferings and of thy never-failing Help and Grace to assist and support us under them and to deliver us from the same in thy due time Let the greatness of our distresses drive us to be more constant and earnest in our Prayers And as fast as Afflictions come from our Persecutors let succours and supports still come from thee O! Let us always have thy strength to bear us up and find thee an help at hand in our greatest needs and then our patience and godly steadfastness shall triumph over all the malice of our Persecutors And suffer us not O! Father of Mercies to be dashed to pieces in this storm swallowed up in these waves But in thy tenderness to our infirmities after we have suffered a while send us ease Shorten the days of these sufferings and hasten thy coming for our Deliverance and bring us at length to everlasting rest and peace in thy Heavenly Kingdom through JESVS CHRIST our Lord. Amen 2. A Prayer Out of the Litany O! God Merciful Father that despisest not the sighing of a contrite heart nor the desire of such as be sorrowful Mercifully assist our Prayers which we make before thee in all our troubles and adversities whensoever they oppress us and graciously hear us that those evils which the craft and subtilty of the devil or man worketh
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
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