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A prayer when labouring under any grievous pains. Lord our refuge and ftrength, who art a prefent help in time of trouble; look down from heaven; behold, vifit and relieve me thy fervant; and fend me that eafe and comfort in this time of my diftrefs, as fhall seem to thee most expedient for me. O let me never murmur or repine under any affliction thou feest fit to lay upon me; for thy tender mercy is over all thy works; and my fins deferve much greater pains than I now feel. Grant therefore, O gracious Lord, that I may meekly and quietly fubmit to thy will, and never be rafhly or unbecomingly tranfported into any indecent expreffions, or caufed to entertain a hard thought of thy providence, under the extremity of my pains; but whatever evils or forrows I may feel, let me ftill love thee, and believe thee to be a kind and merciful father; ftrengthen and fupport me with the confolations of thy holy fpirit, and fanctify this affliction to me, that it may produce in me the fruits of a true and fincere repentance, who feek for relief, mercy, and forgiveness, only through the merits, and in the name of Jefus Chrift our Lord and Saviour. Amen.

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A prayer to be used for a fick child.

Father of mercies, and God of all comfort, to whom alone belong the iffues of life and death, we flee unto thee for fuccour in behalf of this child here lying under thy hand in a weak and fickly state. Visit him, O Lord, with thy falvation: deliver him, in thyr good time, from bis bodily pain; comfort him in his greatest extremity, and fave his foul, for thy mercies fake.

We know, O Lord, that if thou wilt, thou canft raise bim up, and prolong his days here on earth: wherefore we humbly befeech thee, if it be thy pleasure, to raife him up again, that he may, together with his years and stature, in wisdom and in thy fear, and thereby to comfort his parents, and to glorify thee, by doing good in his generation,

grow

But whether be live or die, let him be thine; and either preserve him to be thy true and faithful fervant here on earth, or elfe receive him into those heavenly manfions, where the fouls of them that fleep in the Lord Jefus, enjoy perpetual rest and felicity. Grant this, O Lord, for thy mercies fake in the fame thy fon, our Lord Jefus Chrift, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the holy ghoft, one God, world without end. Amen.

A

A

prayer to be used by a woman during her being

with child.

Most merciful God, the fupreme difpo fer of all events, the author of our being the fountain of life, and the refuge of all that truft in thee; I, thy unworthy fervant, adore thy glorious majefty, which has begun an excellent work in me, which no eye but thine fees, and no hand but thy almighty power can finish; and I do moft humbly implore thy gracious aid and protection. Be thou to me, O Lord, in this time of danger and peril, a fure guardian and rock of defence; and be pleased not only to perfect and complete that which thou haft now begun in me, with its due fhapes, and full growth; but preserve me from all frights, or evil accidents, which may cause me to miscarry.

Let thy almighty hand form it with an understanding mind and heart, and with all thofe holy and good difpofitions, that may make it always know, love and fear thee, and be amiable in thy fight. I therefore most humbly befeech thee to fanctify it from the womb, and to receive and reckon it for thy child, as foon as it is mine; lent to me for my comfort, but created and referved by thee for

thy

148 A Prayer to be used under Affliction. thy fervice in this world, and to reign with thee in glory in the world to come.

I acknowledge the juftice of thy fentence, when thou faidft unto the woman, I will greatly multiply thy forrow in conception, in forrow fhalt thou bring forth children; ftrengthen me therefore, and enable me to go thro' all the pains and uneafinefs of child-bearing with patience and fubmiffion to thy will; confidering that they are the juft punishment of fin: give me an humble truft and dependence on thy fatherly care and good providence; and make me, in thy good time, a joyful mother of a hopeful child, which may live to be an inftrument of thy glory, and by ferving thee faithfully, and doing good in its generation, may be received into the manfions of eternal blifs, thro' Jefus Chrift our Lord. Amen.

A prayer to be used by a perfon under affliction.

God of all mercy, and father of all com

fort, fupport me under the troubles thou haft moft righteoufly laid upon me. I confefs that mine iniquities are many, and that my fins have deferved more grievous punishments than I now fuffer under thy juftice, which leaves none of the events of this life to chance or uncertainty, but difpofes of all things, by thy

good

good providence, for the benefit of thy creatures. Therefore extend thy mercy, and have pity upon me; and confidering the infirmities of my nature, deal with me, not according to my fins; but after thine own great mercy, pardon all my fins, and after thou haft brought me to a true fenfe of my own unworthiness, and to a fincere repentance, reftore me to thy love, peace and favour. and favour. But if for reafons, best known to thy infinite wifdom, thou fhalt fee fit to continue my prefent troubles, thy bleffed will be done, befeeching thee only to enable me patiently to bear, and contentedly to fubmit to the difpenfations of thy good providence, how contrary foever to flesh and blood, and to direct me to ufe all proper and honest means to bring them to an end, without murmuring and repining; all which I most humbly request, through the merits, and in the name of Jefus Chrift, my dear redeemer, who, in his own flesh, bore my infirmities, and all forrows. Amen.

my

A prayer to be used by a perfon troubled in mind.

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Bleffed Lord, the father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, look down, I humbly befeech thee, with pity and compaffion upon a miserable creature, under great

for

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