Then are they glad because they be at quiet; so He bringeth them unto the desired haven.-O that men would therefore praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the sons of men! O Lord God of hosts, who is like unto Thee? Thy truth, most mighty Lord, is on every side. Thou rulest the raging of the sea, Thou stillest the waves thereof when they arise. Thou shalt shew us wonderful things in Thy righteousness, O God of our salvation; Thou that art the hope of all the ends of the earth, and of them in the broad sea.-They also that dwell in the uttermost parts of the earth shall be afraid at Thy tokens, Thou that makest the out-goings of the morning and evening to praise Thee. The Lord hath said, I will bring My people again as I did from Basan; Mine own will I bring again, as I did sometime from the deep of the sea. Glory be to the Father, &c. As it was in the beginning, &c. Or this; to be said especially in a storm or danger of shipwreck. THE Lord is King; ever since the world began hath Thy seat been prepared, Thou art from everlasting. The floods are risen, O Lord, the floods have lift up their voice: the floods lift up their waves; the waves of the sea are mighty, and rage horribly: but the Lord that dwelleth on high is mightier. Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art not Thou he which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? Thou art the God that doeth wonders, and hast declared Thy power among the people.-Thou hast mightily delivered Thy people, even the sons of Jacob and Joseph. The waters saw Thee, O God, the waters saw Thee, and were afraid; the depths also were troubled.-The clouds poured out waters, the air thundered, and Thine arrows went abroad. The voice of Thy thunder was heard round about, the lightnings shone upon the ground; the earth was moved and shook withal.-Thy way is in the sea, and Thy paths in the great waters; and Thy footsteps are not known. Therefore I will cry unto God with my voice, even unto God will I cry with my voice; and He shall hearken unto me.-Hear me, O God, in the multitude of Thy mercy, even in the truth of Thy salvation. Take me out of the mire that I sink not; O let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters. Let not the water-flood drown me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. Hear me, O Lord, for Thy loving kindness is comfortable; turn Thee unto me according to the multitude of Thy mercies.-Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, amongst the gods? who is like Thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? O hide not Thy face from Thy servants; for we are in trouble: O haste and hear us. Our souls are full of trouble, and our life draweth nigh unto the grave. O Thou that hearest prayer, unto Thee shall all flesh come;-O let our prayer enter into Thy presence, incline Thine ear unto our calling. Glory be to the Father, &c. As it was in the beginning, &c. If there be time and opportunity to read any portions of scripture suitable to the necessity, then read, If they be pursued by pirates, Exodus xiv. from verse 21, to the 20 verse of the xv. chapter. If they be in danger of shipwreck, read, Jonah i. or Jonah ii. or Acts xxvii. At other times, read, Matthew viii., or Matthew xiv., or, Mark iv. or Luke viii. The prayer. O ALMIGHTY God, and Father of heaven and earth, who settest a bound to the sea, and restrainest his waves by a heap of sand, by mountains and by rocks, by Thy word and by Thy spirit, saying, Hither shall thy proud waves pass and no further: Look upon us Thy servants, whose lives are in our hands, and we dwell in the shadows of death night and day; we know, O Lord, and confess the floods and waves of passion do frequently over-run us, and we are drowned in the storms and overwhelmed with iniquity. Our [oaths, blasphemies, impieties, irreligious actions] are louder than the fiercest winds, and call aloud upon Thee for vengeance; and many of us in our greatest danger provoke Thee with the greatest unreasonableness and violence of impiety. But, O God, our God, be gracious unto Thy people, who accuse ourselves, and confess our guilt, and acknowledge Thy justice, and beg Thy goodness, and pray to Thee for safety and defence, for deliverance and for pardon, for Thy conduct and Thy blessing. Keep us, O God, from storms and quicksands, from pirates and rocks, from error and impieties, from all evil contingencies and all evil actions; let our voyage be safe to our persons and to our goods; let it be blessed by Thy providence and Thy holy spirit, that we may return with comfort and with advantages of trade [or success], and Thy servants may glorify Thee in the land of the living, in the church of the first-born, the congregation of Thy redeemed ones, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. II. In a storm, or danger of pirates or shipwreck. O ETERNAL and most holy Saviour Jesus, who in the days of Thy flesh and Thy infirmity didst command the winds and rebuke the seas, and they obeyed Thee; and Thou art now exalted far above all principalities and powers, above all heavens and all angels, and art the king of the world, and the great prince of the whole creation; and Thou hast commanded us to come boldly to the throne of grace, and hast promised we should find help in time of need; look down upon Thy servants, who in the abyss of the seas, and the abyss of our trouble, invocate the abyss of Thy mercies; speak peace unto our consciences, and command our enemies to be in peace with us, or to have no power against us; rebuke the winds [restrain the violent and injurious]: Thou art our refuge, be Thou therefore our defence and our security, and rescue us from the present danger: we know, O God, that the devil is a great prince, and rules in the air, and in the hearts of the children of disobedience; but Thou art the king and Lord over him and all princes of the world; Thou art the prince of spirits, and restrainest the spirits of princes; let not the enemy of mankind execute his cruel envy against us, nor any of the elements, or any of his instruments be able to do us any violence. III. O REFUSE not to hear the prayers, and to consider the cries, and to behold and pity the need of them that call upon Thee, that put their trust in Thee, that have laid up all their hopes in Thee, and Thy infinite and eternal goodness. We have no strengths of our own, but Thou art our confidence; be Thou also our portion and our guide, our defence and our shield, a star in the night and a covering by day. Strengthen our faith, O God, and increase our hope; that in the greatest danger we may against hope believe in hope, and with faith and love expect the salvation of the Lord, and may find Thy goodness rescuing us from this present fear, and defending us in all our difficulties, and sanctifying every accident, and sweetening every event of providence, and consigning us by these blessings to a final delivery from all our sins, and from the evils which our sins deserve; to the glory of God, to the salvation of our souls in Thy day, in Thy glorious day, O eternal and most holy Saviour and Redeemer Jesus. Amen. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, &c. A form of prayer and blessing to be used over him that in the beginning of a journey, by land or sea, begs the prayers of the minister of the church. The prayer. O ALMIGHTY God, most gracious and most merciful, who art a God afar off as well as nigh at hand, and hast sent Thy ministering angels to minister good to them that shall be heirs of salvation; be Thou pleased to send Thy holy angel before this Thy servant N. to defend him from the heat of the day and the cold of the night, from the arrow that flies at noon and the evil spirits that walk in darkness, from errors and falls, from precipices and fracture of bones, from [pirates and] robbers, from evil intentions and evil accidents, from violent weather and violent fears, from all impressions of evil men. and evil spirts; let his journey be safe and useful to Thy servant, comfortable to his relatives, holiness to the Lord, and glory to Thy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord. The blessing. THE Lord bless thee and keep thee; the Lord make His face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee; He keep thee from all evil by the custody of angels, and lead thee into all good by the conduct of His good spirit. Amen. Let the providence and love of God be thy defence and thy security; His grace be thy portion, His service thy employment; He go in and out before thee, and keep thee in all thy ways, and lead thee in all His. He bring thee back again in peace and safety, and prosper all thy innocent and holy purposes; and when the few and evil days of thy pilgrimage are ended, He of His infinite mercy bring thee to the regions of holiness and eternal peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. I. A prayer to be used in behalf of fools or changelings. O ETERNAL and most blessed Saviour Jesus, who art the wisdom of the Father, and art made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, have pity upon the miserable people to whom Thou hast given life and no understanding. Thou didst create us of nothing, and gavest us being when we were not, and createdst in us capacity of blessings when we had none, and gavest us many when we did not understand them; Thou bringest infants from the womb, and from the state of nature to the state of grace, and from their mother's breasts Thou dost often convey them to the bosom of Jesus, and yet they do nothing, but Thou art glorified in Thy free gift. 0 be gracious to all natural fools and innocents, for Thou hatest nothing which Thou hast made, and lovest every soul which Thou hast redeemed; we that have reason can deserve heaven no more than these can; but these do not deserve hell so much as we have done. Impute not to them their follies that are unavoidable, nor the sins which they discern not, nor the evils which they cannot understand; keep them from all evil and sad mischances, and make supply of their want of the defences of reason by the special guard of angels; and let Thy obedience and Thy sufferings be accepted, and Thy intercession prevail for them: that since they cannot glorify Thee by a free obedience, Thou mayest be glorified by Thy free mercies to them; and for their destitution of good in this world, let them receive eternal blessings in the world to come, through Thy mercies, O eternal and most blessed Saviour Jesus. Amen. II. A prayer for madmen. ALMIGHTY God, whose wisdom is infinite, whose mercy is eternal, whose tranquillity is essential, and whose goodness hath no shore; in judgment remember mercy, and do Thou delight to magnify Thy mercy upon them who need it, but cannot ask it; who are in misery, but feel it not; who do actions without choice, ore choose without discretion and sober understanding. Pity the evil they suffer, and pardon the evils that they have done, and impute not unto them the evils which they rather bear than act; and let not their entry into this calamity be an exclusion from their future pardon; but let this sad calamity and judgment which they bear, be united to the sufferings of our Lord, and be sanctified by His intercession, and become ['and' A.] C |