breath, and all things. Thy providence has appointed my station, and disposes whatever concerns me in the world; if not so much as a sparrow falls down to the ground without thee, and the very hairs of our heads are numbered, thou canst not be unconcerned in the changes and accidents that befal thy servants; and whatever instruments and occasions have been in the way, it is thy pleasure that so it should be with me. Restain me, therefore, O Lord, from fretting myself to do evil. Help me to take up my cross, and follow my meek and lowly Saviour in self-denial and quiet submission to the will of my heavenly Father.

O who am I, sinful wretch, who have. so much displeased thee, that I should never be crossed, nor have any thing to trouble me! thy will be done, O Lord, how much soever it go against flesh and blood. Let me ever design thy glory; and endeavour to conform to thy pleasure, whether it make for or against me, in any respects of this life. O that I may learn obedience by the things that I suffer! that I may not be worse, but better in my spiritual concerns, for these rubs and disappointments in matters of the world. O that the adverse things which interrupt and trouble me in my designs and enterprizes here, may turn all to the glory of thy name, and to the furtherance of my comfortable accounts in the hour of death, and in the great day of our Lord Jesus Christ. A

men.

A Prayer

A Prayer under Losses and Damage in our Goods and Estate.

BLESS

1

LESSED Lord! thou art the great proprietor and owner of whatever we have to enjoy the world is thine, and the fulness thereof thou givest, and thou takest away: blessed be thy name in all. Thou hast made me to abound in many, things, which others are destitute of: and if thou also makest me want while others abound, yet teach me, my God, how to be abased, and to suffer need, as well as how to abound: and in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. Seeing all these things come alike to all, and no one knows love or hatred, by what is here before him. And as it will profit a man nothing to gain the whole world and lose his own soul, so all the losses in the world cannot undo him, whose soul is safe in thy hands. O let me not grieve, therefore, as if I were undone, for what I have lost; but chearfully commit myself to thee, to choose my inheritance for me; and be least of all concerned for my worldly portion, so that I may but see the joy of thy salvation. Lord repair to me these damages, an infinitely better way, out of thy own fulness, with the more precious things that accompany salvation; that I may imitate thy holy' servants of old, who took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, as knowing that they had in heaven a better, and an enduring substance. O make me now the more solicitous and industrious to lay up my treasure in heaven; when I see how little any thing is to be confid

ed in here on earth. O let me look less upon these temporal things that are seen, and be most of all concerned, that I lose not the blessed things eternal, but provide so well for my soul, and be so rich towards God, that when all here shall fail me, thou mayest never fail me, but be the strength of my heart, and my portion for evermore. Amen.

A Prayer under Confinement and Loss of

Ӧ

Liberty..

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 sorer affliction ought I with patience to endure for turning my liberty into licentiousness, and flying out as I have done, into wild excesses and disorders, to wander from thee, and weary myself in the ways of wickedness! This confinement I acknowledge to be but the easy correction of my extravagance, who deserve 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 not be in judgment, but in mercy to me, that it may bring me to the consideration and repentance of all those vicious liberties which I have taken, to live af ter my own foolish and hurtful lusts; and that it may remove me out of the way of such temptations and opportunities of sinning against

thee, and engaging me more closely dutifully to attend upon thee, that in thy service I may find a better freedom than the freedom which I have Post; having free access into thy presence, and boldness at the throne of grace, and deliverance from the bondage of my sins, and power to tread down the enemies of my soul, and to bring them under, that have reigned over me.

O that I may now be crucified to the world, as well as sequestred from it, that I may not be turned off with regret and a heavy heart, but may leave it in affection, as I am now shut out from its conversation; that I may in heart and mind, ascend and dwell above, and have my conversation in heaven, and such fellowship with thee my God and Saviour, which I may infinitely prefer above all the society enjoyments of the world. If the Son of God shall make me free, I shall be free indeed. O bring my soul out of prison, the horrible pit of my sins and fears, that I may not there be kept in durance to the judgment of the great day, and I will then praise thy name, let my body be shut up in ever so narrow a compass. O set my feet in such a large room, my affections at liberty to enjoy thy infinite Self, and to expatiate in thy heavenly kingdom, that is boundless and everlasting; and make me a fellow-citizen with the saints, and of the household of God; and then though I lie in a jail, and in a grave, yet I shall be a prisoner of hope, looking for that blessed hope to be delivered from the bondage of cor ruption, into the glorious liberties of the chil dren of God; even for his sake, who for our's,

was apprehended, confined, and put to death, and laid in the grave, and now liveth and reigneth with thy eternal Self, and holy Spirit, over all, God blessed for evermore.

Amen.

A Prayer under sad Accidents and Disasters falling on the Body.

LORD, Most High! the all disposing God! thou hast taught us, that affliction rises not out of the dust, nor comes by chance without thy appointment; but is the messenger dispatched on thy errands, who hast an overruling hand in all these disasters that befal us, whatever else be the occasion of our hurts: and still thou hast good reason to do as thou dost, though the reason may be hid from us. I know O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me. O why should a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins! Great God, I humbly submit to thy hand, and will bear the effects of thy displeasure, which I have pulled down upon myself. O my Lord, give me patience, and strength, and grace, proportionable to this great trial; and enable me so to demean myself under it, that after the affliction I may find cause to say, it was good for me to be afflicted. Thou that wast torn and smitten, thou alone art able to heal, and bind up my breaches: O wilt thou remember me in my low estate, out of that mercy of thine which endures for ever; and help me to find out the cursed things that have provoked thee so to stretch out thy hand upon me. O that I may search and try my