blessings of our lives: it is only of thy mercy that we have so much health continued, after the disorderly manner in which we have lived. And O how just were it with thee, utterly to take away that health from us which we have so greatly abused to a forgetfulness of thee, and wontonness against thee! how justly mightest thou smite us with the most sharp and noisome diseases, which our nature most abhorreth to hurry us out of the land of the living, and put a sorrowful end to our wretched days! Our flesh trembles for fear of thee, and we are afraid of thy judgments, lest thou shouldst strike into us the arrows of the Almighty, for the poison thereof to drink up our spirits: lest thou shouldst give unto Death a command to come in at our doors and windows, and make havoc among us, 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 take pity on us, and turn away this plague from us. Put a stop to the raging infection, and say to the destroying angel, it is enough. That we may not be so afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flies by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noon-day but with ease in our minds, and gladness in our hearts, may serve thee faithfully and cheerfully all our days: and devote our spared lives, which we have begged at thy hands, and our health and every mercy, to be laid out and used to thy honour and glory; through the strength and the righteousnes of thy dear Son, our most compassionate and prevailing Mediator, Jesus Christ. Amen.

In Time of Famine.

LORD most High, the Creator of every com

fort! Thou hast long dealt out thy comfortable blessings with a plentiful hand to us; and we have freely enjoyed all the abundance of thy good things heaped upon us. But when thou hast fed us

to the full, how have we kicked against our blessed Creator, and most bountiful Provider: and consumed the provisions for our bodies, to feed the lusts that war against our souls; and to strengthen and embolden us in our rebellion against the Majesty of heaven! most righteous therefore, we confess, would be thy judgments, holy God, if thou shouldst stretch out upon us the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness, and break the staff of our bread; and curse us in all our store, and in all the endeavours of our hands, to help ourselves.

But, O thou blessed Father of mercies! in mercy avert from us the hunger, and thirst, and nakedness, and want of all things, which is the due desert of our sins, and of our wicked abuses of thy creaturecomforts; that the husbandman may not be ashamed, sowing much and gathering little : and that the land may not mourn, and all the inhabitants, with the beasts of the field, and the fowls of heaven Humble us, O Lord, for all our sins; and turn us from that wickedness which turns our land into barrenness; and then again be pleased to command a blessing upon the blasted comforts, and abundantly bless our provision, and satisfy our poor with bread; and give us fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness; that we may see thy hand, and sing and praise thy power, and admire and adore thy mercy and bounty and in the strength and re

freshment of our comforts restored, joyfully devote ourselves to thy holy service, all the days of our lives. Amen.

Devout Application to the Lord in Time of great Thunder, or some terrible Tempest.

LORD God, most High and Almighty; who lookest upon the earth, and it trembles; and touchest the mountains and they smoke. How wonderful art thou and terrible in all thy works and doings! to make us fear and tremble before thee; who hast all the creatures at thy will, to employ them when thou wilt, as the executioners of thy wrath; and even the devouring fire, and stormy winds, so outrageous in themselves, yet do fulfil thy word. In these astonishing flames, the roaring noises, and dreadful commotions, thou shewest the power of thy hand, which no creature is able to resist. When the God of glory thunders and causes his voice, in an amazing manner, to be heard from heaven, thou makest us to know the terrors of the Lord, and how fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God. The dangers that startle and come so nigh us thou mightest make them the messengers of thy heavy judgments upon us. And we must own it, Lord, to be only of thy mercies that we are not consumed, because thy compassions fail not. O let these thy compassions now be extended to us, and shewed upon us. And in tender mercy cause the threatening destruction to pass over us.

Great God! there is no abiding of thy wrath! though we deserve it, we are not able to stand before it but fall down, and humble and submit ourselves to thy omnipotent glorious Majesty ; beseeching thee to spare us, and to saves from the mischief

and ruin which thou mightest justly commission and empower to destroy us. And from the peril and hurt of lightning and tempest, and sweeping judgments and sudden death, good Lord deliver us.

O despise not the prayers of thy poor creatures, crying to thee in our distress and extremity: But now and evermore vouchsafe to hear, O Christ; graciously hear us, O Christ: graciously hear us, O Lord Christ, and let us find mercy from thee now, and in that great day of the Lord, wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; and the earth, with all its works, be burnt up. O if these sights and noises, and shakings be so terrible to us now! how unspeakably astonishing will it be, when the whole mighty frame ofnature shall crack and sink, and tumble down! O Lord of all mercy, save us now from our sins, that would then utterly consume us with terrors. For they are our sins that make us afraid and fearfulness surprises us, because we have been false in thy covenant, and rebellious against thy word, and provoked the Lord our God to be angry with us. O forgive us all the guilt and transgression which do fill us with fearful expectation of thy wrath and fiery indignation. And let the all-sufficient merits of our Lord and Redeemer's bloody passion, that passion which made the earth to quake, and the rocks to rend, atone for every wickedness, whereby we have offended the holy Majesty of heaven.

And O that we may not only be stunned and struck down for the present; when thou dost so dreadfully discover thyself to us, and shake thy rod over us; but of thy mercy, O Lord, wake us out of all carnal security and hardness of heart, and forgetfulness of our God, who is a consuming fire. As the thunder-st, though frightful, use to be

fruitful; so may the dread of thy judgments produce some good fruits of thy Spirit in us. Blessed God, let thy terrors soften our hearts, and leave such deep and lasting impressions on our minds, that we may never disregard the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands; but with all awfulness revere and adore the Supreme Eternal Ruler of all the world; and in thy holy fear keep back from every evil provoking thing; and carry ourselves towards the Lord our God, in a humble, godly, circumspect manner, as long as we have a day to live; even from this time forth for evermore. Amen.

In time of any sore and grievous Calamity.

MOST high and dreadful God, the supreme Commander of the whole world! holy and reverend is thy name; just and terrible are thy judgments: Yet O how unsearchable ! and thy ways past our finding out! thy path is in the great deep; and thy footsteps are not known. Clouds and darkness are round about thee, yet righteousness and judgment still are the habitation of thy throne; and thou canst never do injury to any; but art righteous in all thy ways, and holy in all thy works. Who would not stand in everlasting awe of thy heavenly glorious Majesty, O Lord, in whose hands we all of us are, to be used as thou wilt! who canst touch and consume us by thy own immediate stroke, or arm any of thy creatures in heaven or in earth against us or make the vilest of them the executioners of thy just indignation; or turn the very things wherein we have offended, into the instruments of our punishment; yea, and plague us even in our comforts; making the choicest blessings of our lives become the saddest of our crosses, and the keenest of our