Lord, we are sick, spotted with sin, Like Naaman, bid us wash; yet let it be Touch'd by the heav'nly Dove's bright wing, To God, the Lord of night and days; Ever high, who ever must Thus be sung; is still the same; Eternal praises crown his name! Amen. A Prayer for Charity. FULL of mercy, full of love, Look upon us from above; Thou, who taught'st the blind man's night Thine and the day's, (and that thine too); The lame away his crutches threw ; Return'd unto its infancy : The dumb amazed was to hear His own unchain'd tongue strike his ear: Thy powerful mercy did even chase The devil from his usurp'd place, Where thou thyself shouldst dwell, not he. Our dust shall cease to be with men. Amen. THE PSALTER OF DAVID: WITH TITLES AND COLLECTS, ACCORDING TO THE MATTER OF EACH PSALM : WHEREUNTO ARE ADDED DEVOTIONS FOR THE HELP AND ASSISTANCE OF ALL CHRISTIAN PEOPLE, IN ALL OCCASIONS AND NECESSITIES. THE PREFACE. It is natural for all men, when they are straitened with fears or actual infelicities, to run for succour to what their fancy, or the next opportunity, presents, as an instrument of their ease and remedy. But that which distinguishes men in these cases, is the choice of their sanctuary; for to rely upon the reeds of Egypt, or to snatch at the bulrushes of Nilus, may well become a drowning man, whose reason is so wholly invaded and surprised by fear, as to be useless to him in that confusion: but he whose condition (although it be sad) is still under the mastery of reason, and hath time to deliberate, unless he places his hopes upon something that is likely to cure his misery, or at least to ease it, by making his affliction less, or his patience more, does deserve that misery he groans under. Stripes and remediless miseries are the lot of fools; but afflictions, that happen to wise men or good men, represent indeed the sadnesses of mortality; but they become monuments and advantages of their piety and wisdom. In this most unnatural war, commenced against the greatest solemnities of Christianity, and all that is called God, I have been put to it to run somewhither to sanctuary; but whither, was so great a question, that had not religion been my guide, I |