OMnipotent Lord, thou sin-revengingGod, who for disobedience diddest threaten thine own people of Israel to smite them in the knees, Deut. 28.35. and in the legs with a sore Botch that could not be healed, from the sole of the foot unto the top of the head: to smite them with the botch of Egypt, vers 27. whereof they could not be healed: Thou who by the mouth of thine onely Son diddest fore-tell to the Jews that Nation should rise against Nation, Kingdome against Kingdom, and that there should be Fa­mines and Pestilences in diverse places: Mat. 24.7 Be pleased, ô thou great, offended Lord, in the bowells of thy compassion to let thine anger cease, Psal. 85.4 and to bow down thine eare to us miserable sinners. O our God, thou seest how we groan under the burthen of thy wrathful indignation, bemoaning the gene­rall sufferances for our more general sins. Our sins, our sins doe far exceed the trans­gressions of Israel: yea they are greater then those of the Jews against the true Mes­sias; for thine own Apostle beareth them witnesse,1 Cor. 2.8 that Had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory: but we alas, both have known, and doe know him; & yet we crucifie to our selves the son of thee our God afresh; Heb. 6.6 and daily put him to an open shame. For these our offences thou hast be­gun thy Revenge, yea, and most justly too; for thou art deer, though man should judge thee. Under this thy heavy wrath we groan O Lord, we cry, we howle; for sicknesse in­creaseth, death approacheth: yea such a sicknesse, and such a death, as maketh us feare both our selves, and our neighbours; because we have not feared thee the Lord of hosts. Thou seest, ô Lord, our afflictions; even that our houses are made our prisons, & our sores our companions. Our streets are tur­ned into pastures, our towns into wildernesses and for our backwardness in our devotions, our very doores instruct us to addresse our selves unto thee, and to beseech thee Lord to have mercy upon us. Our days are consumed in sorrows, and languishing; and our nights in weeping, and mourning. Thou woun­dest us, and we cry; thou smitest us, and we roare, thou plag [...]st u [...], and [...] troubled, we are dismayed. Our Golgothaes are surfeited with the dead, and our habita­tions infected with the living. We fly from place to place, from Country to Country; and yet wee fly not from thy presence, wee avoid not thy judgments. What shall wee do,Jer. 8.22. What shall we do? Is there no balm, O Lord, in Gilead? Is there no Physitian there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of thy people recovered? Thy Son, thy mer­cifull Son, thy sweet Son Jesus was sent to binde up the broken hearted, and to open the prisons to them that were bound, Isa. 66.1. v. 2. and to com­fort them that mourn: and he was not back­ward in the performance of this for which he was sent; for he healed all manner of sick­nesse, Mat. 4.23 c. 15.30. and all manner of diseases among the people. At thy feet therefore, ô Jesus thou best Physitian, wee cast our selves down. A mul­titude we are that ly at thy feet: Cure us, ô Christ, heal us, ô Jesus, as thou diddest the multitude. A whole multitude once did seek to touch thee; for there went virtue out of thee; and thou healedst them all. Luk. 6.19 Mat. 14.14. Thou wert moved with compassion, and didst heal their sick. Ma­ny didst thou cure of their infirmities, and plagues. Behold thy hand is not shortned that it cannot save; Luk. 7.21 neither is thine ear heavy that thou canst not hear. The number of petitio­ners cannot deter thee;Isa. 59.1. the multitude of suitors cannot [...] healed many: Mat. 3.10 therefore, with the multitude in the Gospel, we presse upon thee, that we may but touch thee; for thou hast virtue in thee; thou hast power to heal. O Lord hear, ô Lord forgive, ô Lord heal us of our grie­vous wounds. In the depth of thy fury when thou didst resolve to be revenged of a Re­bellious people, it was yet thy promise that thou wouldest leave a few from the Sword, Ezek. 12.16. and from the Famine, and from the Pestilence, that they might declare all their abominations among the people where they should come; that they might know that thou art the Lord. Us thou hast Plagued, us thou hast punished, so sorely, so grievously, that but few of us are left: yet ô Lord, now at last look in mercy upon us: ô Lord let this remnant finde thy compassion. O cure us, ô heal us, ô help us for thy mercy's sake. When thou wert angry with Egypt, thou didst threaten to smite it: Isa. 19.22 but, even at that very instant, thou didst like wise promise to heal it; and that they should return unto thee their Lord, and that thou wouldest be intreated of them. Jer. 33 6 Thou diddest proclaim unto Judah that thou wouldst bring it health, and cure; and wouldest cure them, and reveale unto them aboundance of peace & truth. Thou didst promise unto Zion, that thou wouldest restore health unto her, cap. 30.17 and heal her of her wounds, because she was called an out-cast by the people, saying; [...], whom no man seeketh after. These were thy promises even in the midst of thy threat­nings: and wilt thou be worse unto us then thou wert unto Egypt, or Judah, or Zion? True it is that thou expectest our conver­sion;Joel 2.12 thou commandest us to turn unto thee with all our hearts, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning. To thee there­fo [...]e, ô God (though formerly we have not, yet now) do we turn. Wee turn unto thee both our weeping Eyes, and our dejected Countenances, and our wringing Hands, and our bended Knees, and our mourning voyces, and our groaning hearts. Merciful God, be­hold our Tears, and view our countenances, and look upon our hands, strengthen our knees, and hearken to our voyces, and com­fort our hearts. The Priests, ô Lord,vers. 17. even thine own Ministers doe weep between the Porch and the Altar, and they say, Spare thy people, ô Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach. Our Ezra's pray, Ezra. 10.1 and confesse and weep, and cast themselves down before thine house; and the people assemble themselves un­to them, both our men and our women, and our children; for we all weep very sore. We weep as the Israelites did before the doore of the tabernacle of the congregation, Num. 2.56. when twenty and four thousand of them dyed of the Pe­stilence. Thus we mourn; thus we weep: our Eys, our Hearts, our very souls do weep: ô let us tast of thy love; let us feel thy com­passion. Make us to boast of thy praise, as thy servant David did; when he cryed unto thee, and thou didst heal him. Psal. 30.2 Thou hast been wroth with us, as thou wert with the Jews for their coveteousnesse; Isa. 57.17 and thou hast smit­ten us: thou hast hid thy self, and hast been angry; yet we have gone on frowardly in the wayes of our hearts. But O our God, do thou make us as penitent as those Jews; and then say unto us as thou didst unto thy Judah, I have seen thy wayes, and I will heale thee: v. 18. I will lead thee also, and restore comforts unto thee and to thy mourners. Alas, we mourn, and yet we are punished: we grieve, and yet we are Plagued; Jer. 14.7. and all because our iniquities do testifie against us: But for thy name's sake, O Lord, be pleased to spare us.vers. 8. O the hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in the time of trouble, why shouldest thou be as a stra [...] the land; and as a way-faring man that tur­neth aside to tarry but a night? Why shouldest thou be as a man astonished; vers. 9. as a mighty man that cannot save? Thou, O Lord, art still in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; therefore, we pray thee, leave us not. O here is a Pestilence in our land; 1 King 8.37. vers. 38. v. 39. v. 40. and we make our prayers and supplications, and stretch forth our [...] in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive; that we may fear thee, and walk in thy wayes all the dayes of our lives. Or if the sins of us thy people cause thee to stop thine ears at our prayers, O hear thou our Hezekiah's praying for us, 2 Chr. 30 18. who have not cleansed our selves. Stay the Plague from us thine Israel, as thou didst from thy people, when thy ser­vant Phinehas executed judgment. Psal. 106.30. Num. 16.46. Cause our Aarons to take their Censers, and to put fire in them from off the Altar, and to put on in­cense: O let them come quickly to our congregations, and make an attonement for us.v. 48. Let them stand between the dead and the living, and let the Plague be stayed. Thine Angel stretcheth forth his hand upon our Je­rusalem to destroy it: 2 Sam. 24 16. O do thou as in the time of King David: Repent thee of the evill and say unto the destroying Angel, It is enough; stay now thy hand. Hear us, O Lord, for the distressed People in this City and Nation; and hear them for us, and hear thy Christ for us all: That to Him, and Thee, and thy bles­sed Spirit, we may render (as is most due) all Praise, and Glory, and Thanksgiving, and Obedience, from this time forth for ever more, Amen. Saying as Christ him­self hath taught us, Our Father, &c.