PRAYER IN TIME OF PREVALENT DISEASE.

For Hospitals, or Ships on which many are ill.

O LORD GOD, the Giver of our health, which is the blessing that sweetens all the other blessings of our lives; it is only of thy mercy that any of us have any measure of health continued to us. And, O how just were it with thee, utterly to take away from us that health which we have so greatly abused to a forgetfulness of thee, and to wantonness against thee! How justly mightest thou smite us with the most sharp and noisome diseases, and hurry us out of the land of the living, by signal and desolating judgments! Our flesh trembles for fear of thee, and we are afraid of thy judgments; lest thou shouldest pierce us with the arrows of the Almighty, and sweep us away with the besom of destruction. But, O thou hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in time of trouble, regard not our ill deserts; but remember thy own tender mercies, and gracious promises; and have pity on us; and turn away this plague from us. Put a stop to disease, and say to the destroying angel, It is enough: that we may no longer be afraid of the terror by night, or of the arrow that flieth by day, or of the pestilence that walketh in darkness, or of the destruction that wasteth at noon-day; but may with ease in our minds and gladness in our hearts, serve thee the only true God, and devote to thee the life and health which thou hast spared. Of thy tender mercy, look down on those of our number who are laid on the bed of languishing. Thou art the great Physician: thou art the Lord who healest us. Command thy blessing, heavenly Father,

on the means which are used; and be present to heal both body and soul. Awaken to reflection those whom thou dost chastise, and instruct them out of thy law. Reveal to them the Lord Jesus, as the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. And O have mercy on any who are near to death! Grant that none may be driven away in their wickedness, but that all may have hope in their death. O hear us in this hour of our necessity, and let our cry come unto thee, through the merits and intercession of thy dear Son, our most compassionate and prevailing Mediator, Jesus Christ. Amen.

PRAYER FOR THE SICK, OR THE WOUNDED.

In Camp, Ship, or Hospital.

O LORD GOD ALMIGHTY, and ever blessed, in whom we ever live, and move, and are! we acknowledge it to be of thy mercies that we are not consumed, even because thy compassions fail not. If thou hadst long since cut us off in our sins, and shut us up under final despair of mercy, yet righteous hadst thou been, O Lord, and just, and good. Yea, justly mightest thou at this time cast out our prayers, and refuse to hear thy rebellious creatures, who have so long turned a deaf ear to thee. But thou art God, and not man; and thy thoughts are not as our thoughts, nor thy ways as our ways; but as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are thy thoughts and thy ways above ours. Thou art our refuge and strength, and present help in every time of need; and thou hast

commanded us to call upon thee in our troubles: and hast promised to hear us, and to give us cause to praise and glorify thee for thy goodness and mercy

to us.

And now we come to thee, O Lord our God, in behalf of thy servants who lie here in a low and distressed state under thy chastening hand. Look down, we beseech thee, mercifully upon them; and be thou gracious and favourable to them according to the necessity of their case, and according to the multitude of thy tender mercies in Christ Jesus. Great as their danger is, if thou wilt, O Lord, thou canst make them whole: if thou but speak the word it shall be done. In submission to thy most wise and righteous disposal of all things, we would beg this mercy at thy hands; that thou wouldest be pleased to rebuke their distemper, to remove thy stroke, and cause the bitter cup which thou hast given them to pass away from them. To this end do thou direct us to the proper means, and command a blessing upon them. Spare them, good Lord, and restore them, (if it be thy will,) that they may recover, and be more useful in their places, and do more good in their generation. Or, however thou shalt be pleased to deal with them as to the concerns of their bodies, (which we pray may be in a way of gentleness and tender mercy,) yet, Lord, let their souls be ever precious in thy sight. And may this sickness of the body be for the health of their better and immortal part, and be instrumental to advance their everlasting salvation.

O give them a right discerning of the things belonging to their peace, before they be hid from their

eyes. Show them what they have to do, and enable them for the doing of it, that they may have peace with God, through Christ Jesus. Give them repentance towards God, and faith in the only Saviour of the world. Wash and cleanse their soul with the blood of thy Son, and the graces of thy Spirit; that they may be delivered from all the defilements which they have contracted in this present evil world; and be found safe and happy in the hour of death, and in the great day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Fit them, O Lord, for living, or dying, or whatever in thy wise and righteous providence thou hast designed for them; that it may be unto them, Christ to live, and gain to die; and that in all things they may find cause to glorify thy name. If thou shalt be pleased to release them from this bed of languishing, and to add to them a yet further term of life, O that they may live to thee and do thee better service, and bring thee greater glory! Or if thou hast determined that this sickness shall be unto death, prepare them, O merciful God, by thy grace, for thyself; and grant them a safe and comfortable passage out of this wretched life to an infinitely better; through the merits and mediation of thy beloved Son, our only Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

PRAYER FOR A PRISONER.

O LORD, my God, infinitely kind and good! I have, through thy gracious indulgence, long enjoyed my freedom in the world; and been permitted to go in

and out, whither I would, at my pleasure. But now that I am under restraint and confined to this place, O how much sore affliction ought I with patience to endure, for turning my liberty into licentiousness, and for wandering (as I have done) from thee, and wearying myself in the ways of wickedness! This I acknowledge to be but a light correction, indeed, to one who deserves to be shut up in the eternal prison, from whence there is no redemption. But, for thy dear Son, my blessed Saviour's sake, I beg, Lord, that this restraint may be, not in judgment, but in mercy to me; that it may bring me to timely consideration, and to a deep repentance for all those sinful liberties which I have taken, in living after my own foolish and hurtful lusts: let it remove me out of the way of temptations, and engage me more closely and dutifully to attend upon thee; that in thy service I may find a better freedom than that which is now suspended:" let me obtain by means of it a freer access into thy presence, and power to tread down the enemies of my soul, whensoever they rise up against me.

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O that now I am sequestered from the world, I may be also crucified unto it; and may leave it in affection, as I am shut out from its conversation. Let me in heart and mind ascend and dwell above, and have my conversation in heaven, and enjoy such fellowship with thee my God and Saviour, as shall be infinitely preferable to all the society and enjoyments of the world. If the Son of God shall make me free, I shall be free indeed. O pity me, tied as I am, and bound with the chain of my sins. Bring my soul out of the hands of my worst enemies, that I may give thanks