pursued the Lawe lawfully against thee and by them iustly and in the Iudgement of God thou be committed to this place of restraint thou hast that thou deseruest for to borrow other mens goods to wast them ryotously vpon thine vngodly and wanton delights is most wicked it is too much so to consume thine owne substance but so to consume other mens when thine owne is spent prodigally thou art not fit to haue thy libertie for by thy lewde course of life others are induced by thine example into the same excesse of ryot and fitter it is that the prison should keepe thee in and in order then to corrupt others abroad to the breach of the diuine Lawes of God who in Iustice doth punish thee for thy sinne and yet if this thy restraint may worke reformation in thee it sauours of the loue of God towards thee If therefore thou canst and doest repent thee of the ill spent life and canst and doest faithfully seeke the fauour of God for pardon of thy sinnes in his Christ thou maist imbrace thine imprisonment and not impute it to the seueritie of thy Creditors though they were the meanes vnder God for thy good they nothing lesse intending then to doe 〈◊〉 good but to come by their owne thereby but if thou be one whome God hath a purpose to reclaime from euill to make thee good thy restraint is the beginning of thy happinesse for Happie is the man whome God correcteth They are not strangers from his Couenant of grace but sonnes and daughters whome he doth chasten therefore though thou haue plaide the part of that Prodigall sonne in consuming thy patrimony and thy goods in wantonnesse this thy restraint may call thee home againe to thy louing fathers house and will make thee not a seruant but imbrace thee as a sonne by thy repentance in a true faith What haue all thy pleasures yeilded thee which thou hast so eagerly followed when thou wert at libertie but huske for swyne durt and draffe wherewith Satan feedeth them that followe him hee seasons them with sweetnesse to the fleshly minde yet is that sweetnesse but to fleshly mindes and is meere poyson to the soule wherewith if thou feele thy selfe at any time to be infected thou hast now time to take Physicke to cure thee thou art here in the place where thy heauenly Father hath appointed thee not to destroye thee but to dyet thee and to prepare thee to receiue some bitter Pilles to purge thee from the contagious humours of thy sinnes which the corrupte ayre of wicked companions of thine hath inspired into thee and it may be if thou hadst had thy libertie stil in the open fields of this corrupt worlds delights where thou art restrained for a Peny in comparison it might haue beene a pound so the procuring of thy freedome would haue beene the more hard to be obtained if at all But thou art in prison be thy debte much or little if thou cannot paye it and thy Creditors will exacte the vttermost Farthing what is thy last and safest refuge thou maist appeale vnto the Magistrate but hee cannot but maintaine his Lawes some mittigation by mediation may bee obtayned yet thou must endure the will of thy Creditor whose seuerity may in part against his will be moderated but his heart is in the hands disposing of the Almightie and therefore make thy petitions vnto God confesse thy euill and prophane life acknowledge thy sinnes that haue caused thy trouble repent thee heartily of them bee patient in them and thou shalt see that God who made the heart of thy Creditor can molifie it and insteed of his vttermost seueritie turne it into charitie and bee thou of a meeke spirit and of an humble heart towards thy Creditor and settle thine affections vpon heauen and heauenly things praye faithfully and feruently to God it may please him to worke the meanes to free thee but in his good time Innocent Ioseph lay two yeares in miserable imprisonment falsly accused yet highly beloued of God therefore thinke it not long for God seeth the time fit to deliuer thee better then thou thy selfe But when thou art sufficiently humbled and brought to the true feare of God and obedient to his will thou maist be assured he will let thee goe free A Prayer to be often said of a man imprisoned for debte O Lord my God in Iesus Christ I doe acknowledge that I haue grieuously offended thee by my sinnes which haue so deeply deserued thy displeasure as that thou either thinkest me vnworthy of the libertie and freedome which other men enioy in the world or in thy wisedome that restraint and imprisonment are more profitable for me then libertie I doe confesse indeed that my libertie hath wrought in me many occasions to offend thee and my restraint through thy grace may worke some reformation in me When I was free of this my trouble I did not so walke as I ought to haue done but many wayes abused that freedome which thou affordest me by committing many vnseemely and vngodly actions which thou hast forbidden and by omitting many good and godly duties which thou hast commanded which brought me to necessitie necessitie inforced mee to borrow to supply my wants and borrowing and not repaying procured the dislike of my Creditors and their seueritie in thy Iustice haue brought me into this place of vnsauourie restraint from whence I haue no meanes to bee freed but by thy meere mercy and prouidence onely wherein I know thou art able to deliuer me if thou thinke libertie more profitable for mee I cannot but confesse O Lord that I haue not onely deserued this but a farre sharper punishment for my sinnes yet as thou art a most gracious and louing Father so art thou euer ready to forgiue sinners vpon their hearty repentance and their sinnâ—â— being forgiuen thy propertie is either to remoue altogether or to mittigate their punishment Lord my debtes are out of measure greater to thee then my greatest can bee vnto man and my debtes to thee are encreased by the cause whereby I am become debter in this kinde vnto man But if thou Lord maist be pleased to pardon my debtes whereby I stand indangered to thee my debtes due vnto men shall bee the more easily satisfied and I shall be the sooner deliuered from this my captiuitie for he that is freely forgiuen of thee though he be in bands at the pleasure of men yet is he free in thee and he that is thy free-man hee cannot bee restrained according to the will of man further then thou shalt permit Therefore most gracious Lord God rich in mercie and goodnesse while thy will and pleasure is to permit mee in this place of restraint to remaine graunt that I may euen here enioy the libertie of a godly minde faith in thee obedience to thee and patience in thee with necessary meanes from thee for my reliefe and sustinance for thou seest my
wheresoeuer thou shalt be pleased to dispose of mee meanes to sustaine mee Thou art euery where Lord and raignest and rulest ouer all people thou possessest and disposest all things for all men The whole earth is thine the whole masse of gold and siluer is thine the Cattell vpon all the mountaines and in all the valleyes vpon the earth are thine and thine to giue Thou gauest Abraham and Lot portions of lands and Heards of Cattell in aboundance in a land wherein they were strangers Thou blessedst Iacob constrained to flee a poore man only with a Scrip and a Staffe and thou broughtest him againe to the place from whence he was constrained to flee with mighty Droues Lord how mercifully diddest thou worke for Ioseph abandoned from father mother and friends solde as a Slaue falsly accused guiltlesse imprisoned yet at last made the chiefe vnder a strange King of a mighty people When Eliah was enforced to flee from Ahab the King such was thy fatherly care of him that rather then hee should want his necessary foode thou appointedst the very Rauens to bring him foode morning and euening And cōmandedst a poore Widow to feede him in Sareptha And because she was poore thou through thy power and loue of thy seruant vouchsafedst to encrease her little oyle and meale neere totally consumed into so great a quantity as shee had not onely sufficient aboundantly to releeue her selfe and her family in the extreame dearth and famine But to pay her debts with the remainder When Dauid was enforced to flee from the fearefull fury malice of Saul thou diddest not leaue him destitute of necessaries euen in the very mountaines and desert places O my God how can I but assure my selfe of thy like power ouer mee thy loue towards me and thy prouidence for me hauing receiued so many sweet testimonies of thy helping so many whom in their banishments thou hast sustained and relieued in former times Thou art the same God and of the same power and prouidence therfore Lord forsake not mee in this place where I am a stranger where I haue no friend no meanes of any constant assurance to be relieued Lord let not my sinnes hinder the worke of thy mercies towards me but pardon all my sinnes and blot out all mine offences through the bloud of my Sauiour Iesus Christ whose merites extendeth to the saluation of all beleeuers through the whole earth O embrace mee Lord with the armes of thy mercies euen here where I am a stranger keepe me vnder the shadowe of thy winges teach mee wisedome that euen here I may seeke thee and finde thee and may receiue here such reliefe and comfort as I here giue glory to thy holy name for thine vndeserued fauor towards me Amen Lord encrease my faith Comfort and encouragement for Parents that are crossed and grieued at the vngodlines and disobedience of their children fit for all Parents to reade AMong the Iewes it was a reproach and a kinde of shame for a woman to be barren and now in this our age many men and women that haue begotten and borne children become grieued and ashamed that euer they begat or bare them by reason of their disobedience and vicious liues Children are the gift of God and a great blessing and comfort to godly Parents if they be good and vertuous if they feare God and walke in his wayes and then can they not but obay their Parents A wise and a godly sonne maketh a glad father but a foolish and wicked sonne is a heauines to his mother When children proue wicked disobedient rebellious and refractarie it is the greatest griefe vnto godly and religious Parents that any earthly crosse or affliction can yeeld for as the comfort is great vnto a man to beget sonnes and daughters whom God hath chosen to encrease the Kingdome of Christ So contrarily a greater griefe there cannot be vnto him then to obserue his children enclined to be members of Sathan or Antichrist Especially when a godly Father hath endeuoured through a godly and religious care to educate a sonne in the true feare and knowledge of God yet to see him to proue wicked and vngodly But thou that art thus afflicted through the wicked and irreligious course of a rebellious sonne after all the good meanes thou hast vsed to reduce him to obedience the feare of God Consider with patience that although God haue giuen thee power to be his Father in begetting him and to his Mother to beare him yet neither thou in begetting nor shee though she nourished him in her womb did giue him either forme or life How much lesse canst thon or she forme or frame his minde to vertue and godlinesse thou mayest giue good wholsome counsell vnto his eares but thou canst not infuse grace and goodnesse into his heart yet it is thy duty to doe thy best endeuour to giue him good and godly counsell with faithfull prayer to God that hee will so water the seede as it may bring forth good fruit and more the most godly Parents cannot doe It is with Parents in their desires to make their children fruitfull in godlinesse as it is with the husbandman that couets a fruitfull haruest who manures his ground soyles it ploughes it sowes it harrowes it and as neere as he can keepes and preuents the vermine from deuouring the seede sowne yet it is not his labour skill and diligence that can make it spring vp he cannot forme the blade nor infuse the graine into the eare Nor so preuent the vermine but that they will deuoure some of the seede neither can the most godly Father by his best counsell make good an vngodly Sonne Hee may sowe the good seede of the feare of God vpon the ground of his heart hee may harrow it with sharpest and seuerest threates and may endeuour to preuent venemous vices that offer to choke the good seede that hee hath sowne But if his heart be stonie thornie or neere the high way of the common sinnes of this world All his labour care and diligence will proue in vaine he must leaue the infusion of grace into his heart vnto God and to worke the practice of godlinesse in him to whom a godly Father becomes a daily and faithfull petitioner that he will driue away Sathan and the swarme of his wicked instruments from deuouring the good seede and from sowing the tares of sinne and the weedes of vngodlines in him This corrupt world is so full and fraught with wicked and ly centious youth that as soone as a young man or Mayde hath liberty to enter into the companie and societie of wantons and vngodly youth they become commonly so infected with their manners as they drinke in all kindes of vices as it were wine making them many times so drunken with vanities by examples and lewd enticements as the best counsell of wisest Parents cannot make them truly sober againe And to
his sonne to goodnesse and to a godly course of life and cannot should be too much discouraged and cast downe through sorrow and griefe that hee should be the father of such a sonne let him but consider that his sonne though wicked is the creature of God knowne vnto him before hee was formed in the wombe his beginning course of life and end determined by God and the meanes and therefore when such a father hath done his vttermost godly endeauour to make his sonne good by counsell and findes contrarie effects of his hope let him onely praye for him The best and last dutie that a louing and well-wishing father can show for the good of his best beloued sonne If this worke not the reformation of his wicked childe hee may cast off all sorrowe and griefe for that he cannot reclaime him and before the world he may iustly disclaime him They therefore that will taxe and condeme such a father for hauing such an vngodly person to his sonne are vncharitable as long as the wickednesse of his sonne proceedes not of any neglect or knowne error of the father Doe we not vnderstand that most godly parents hauing two or more sonnes of equall education and equally instructed that the one proues tractable vertuous religious fearing God and another cleane contrarie Had not Izaak by his wife Rebecha two sonnes borne twinnes Esau and Iaakob the one wicked the other the Elect of God shall wee thinke that Kayne that Reprobate was not as well instructed in the feare of God by Adam his father as Abel was yet the one a murtherer and the other a godly religious and milde man Shall we thinke that Dauid instructed not his sonne Absolon in the feare of God though hee became a rebell against his owne father And what shall we thinke of Ismael the sonne of Abraham the father of the faithfull was it for want of diuine instruction that he became a fierce and cruell man whose hand was against euery man and euery mans hand against him Will any man be so iniurious or so vncharitable to iudge or condemne these godly parents for the wickednesse of their children doth it not hereby appeare that good men notwithstanding all their care diligence to make them good may haue wicked children neither doth it follow that wicked men haue alwayes vngodly children It is God who as hee formes the bodies of good and bad in the wombe so he frames the mindes of such as he intendeth to make the vessels of saluation and giueth them the meanes to become wise in him religious and faithfull in him yet yeeldeth he the libertie of his word equally alike to both but they haue not both equall grace to imbrace and to practise it alike Idolatrous Ahaz had religious Hezekiah good Hezekiah had wicked Manasses wicked Amon had godly Iosiah Iosiah idolatrous Iehoahaz Infinite are the examples in all ages showing that good men haue had wicked children and wicked fathers good sonnes that no man should presume vpon the towardnesse or dispaire of the vngodly beginning of his children but to commend both to the goodnes and prouidence of God in faithfull prayer vsing the meanes leauing the wicked to God in prayer for their reformation and the godly to him for continuance and perseuerance vnto the end in whose secret counsell it is determined what shall be the end of them that feare not God nor reuerence man A Prayer to bee vsed of godly parents for the reformation of vngodly and disobedient children and for patience not ouermuch to afflict themselues for the stubbornesse and disobedience of a wicked sonne O Gracious mercifull powerfull euermore louing Lord God the Creator of all man-kind to whom thou giuest and into whome thou infusest diuers and seuerall portions of vnderstanding wit wisedome and grace and none by nature can attaine vnto the least measure of these blessings but by thee Fathers thou hast ordained to beget and Mothers to conceiue and beare fruite to the increase and multiplication of humane kinde but it is not left vnto the power of parents to propagate grace in their seede Seeing then good Father that thou hast giuen vs power to propagate their earthly and carnall parts yet all formed by thee in the wombe and hast reserued vnto thy selfe the disposition of their mindes and affections So I humbly pray and beseech thee to dispose the inclination of them whome thou hast giuen me power to beget beget in them good and godly desires reforme the vngodly life and conuersation of that disobedient and vagodly son of mine whose behauiour is much grieuous vnto me and I doe confesse that mine owne sinnes haue prouoked thee to anger against me and thy displeasure appeareth in that hee whome I receiued in hope to be a comfort vnto me and the staffe of mine olde age is become not onely disobedient vnto me but as it were rebellious against thee and thy counsell Thou art a God righteous absolutely holy hating iniquitie it cannot be hid from thee how I haue neglected the training him vp in thy feare Yet thou also knowest O Lord that I haue laboured and endeuoured by my best counsell to winne him to the feare and seruice of thee if it haue beene in vaine thou hast wisedome and power to supply in him what is defectiue in me to giue him I haue endeuoured to make him to know thee and to walke in thy wayes but he hath contemned mine instructions and cast my counsell behinde his backe hee will not vnderstand that thou art a God of power to punish him or a God of mercie to comfort him if he returne from his sinnes to the obedience of thee Lord it is onely in thee to reclaime him as thou didst the prodigall sonne whome thou vouchsafedst to receiue vnto mercie after his long going astray whereby it appeareth that no man erreth so farre but thou canst recall him O recall this mine erronious sonne reduce him into the feare of thy great name and make him one of the sheepfolde of thy Saints He is the worke of thine owne hands O Lord though I wretched man begat him in corruption his mother conceiued him in sinne and bare him in miserie yet are these no hinderance to the worke of thy grace in him For what is or hath bin the man that hath not had the like corrupt beginning thine owne begotten Sonne excepted Enoch that walked vprightly before thee Abraham the father of the faithfull Eliah and Iohn Baptist and all thine Elect vessels came by nature of the same corrupt seed as hath this though my vngodly sonne Thou wert pleased to sanctifie these fore-fathers of ours whome if thou hadst left vnto themselues they had beene as this my sonne ready to lift vp their heeles against their parents and thee Lord giue thou grace wisedome faith and obedience vnto this my sonne these are thine and onely thine to giue I indeed haue
but wilt rather be thankfull vnto God that he so louingly dealeth with thee in keeping thee from the meanes to make thee proud to forget thy selfe and him As I thinke thou canst not be ignorant that riches health and earthly happinesse commonly carie men not hauing faith and the feare of God into many noysome lusts and vngodly and wanton desires And that pouertie and want sicknesse and other like crosses are the good gracious means that God vseth to with-hold his dearest children from running astray although it cannot be denied also but that a faithlesse poore man may haue his heart infected and poysoned with as haynous sinnes as the rich for it is not wealth that alwayes makes a wicked man though it be a great temptation and prouocation to many and grieuous sinnes It is not the money but the minde wherein the error lies and it is not pouertie of it selfe or anie other crosse that maketh an euill man good but it is a meanes which God in his wisedome vseth to preuent the danger that wealth often worketh A knife in a childes hand hurteth not but he is a silly Father and she a simple Nurse that will not takâ— it from the childe for feare of the hurt it might do the childe So riches of themselues hurt not but the abuse of them may peruert the reputed owner for no man is the true owner of the wealth he possesseth hee is but a disposer of it and it is the well vsing or abusing of it that draweth vpon the Steward a blessing or a curse If thou that art become poore and doest acknowledge it iustly layde vpon thee it is the entrance into assurance that God hath layde it vpon thee in mercie if in mercie then no doubt but in loue be assured that thy pouerty is better for thee then riches for hee knoweth better then thou what is best for thee Take it therefore with patience in faith and embrace it so much the more by how much thou mayest assure thy selfe it is a token of the loue and fauour of God towards thee to humble thee and to make thee so much the more like vnto thy Redeemer who became poore to make thee rich hee abased himselfe to bring thee to honour hee was here in worldly want to furnish thee with all spirituall aboundance he hath chosen the poore of the world to make them rich in God hee keepeth his owne dearest children lowe here that he may exalt them hereafter for it is not possible that any man shall liue here in pompe and pleasure and all earnall delights and yet assure himselfe of the glory to come prepared onely for his Elect Saints that suffer heere And if Christ our Master and Redeemer suffered heere pouerty ignominie rebuke and shame before he in his humane nature ascended into glory shall any man perswade himselfe that hee shall attaine the glory to come by a delicate loose carnally delightfull and worldly glorious estate here How then are many carnally minded men deceiued that measure the loue and fauour of God and his displeasure towards men according to their worldly prosperity and aduersity censuring Gods dearest children seasoned with any kind of affliction to be the very out-casts of the world forsaken of God and the rich wealthy and glorious in the world to be his choyse darlings and fauourites then which nothing is more contrary although their estates in deede seene with a carnall eye and iudged by outward appearance may be censured as they seeme but not as they are in deede for the outward most glorious are not commonly gracious within though they may be neither are the outward poore commonly inwardly and spiritually rich But the godly faithfull poore man were his case as hard as was that of poore Lazarus yet is he the beloued of God who iudgeth not as man doth partially by the outward show but according to equity He doth not iustifie the poore before the rich if the Rich be rich in grace and the poore a wicked man God in deede by promise regardeth the poore and careth for them namely for such as in a liuely faith depend vpon his prouidence liuing iustly and in an holy diligence in his lawfull calling If thou thus behauest thy selfe in thy pouerty the promise of God is a promise made euen to thee that hee will neuer faile thee nor forsake thee Thou mayst then safely cast thy care vpon him for he will take care of thee Thou shalt not want foode and rayment and hauing that content thee with it it is a plentifull portion for what more hath he that hath his Table spread with diuers dishes and sundry varieties but onely feedeth his body with fewe And hee that hath diuers and sundry sutes and sorts of garments one sute sufficeth to couer him at once If then thou bee fed and cloathed giue the glory to God that giues it It may be thou wilt say thou hast a great charge wife and children to maintaine a great burthen vnto thee who require greater supply then thou by thy best industrie canst prouide for them Thou must allow and allot vnto thy selfe and them according to thy meanes Thou mayst not feede or cloath thee or them as peraduenture thine and their haughty hearts may require But feede them moderately and cloathe them modestly for in the superfluity of these two necessaries many haue not onely exceeded and vndone themselues but haue turned thereby many times the blessings of God into wantonnesse And so in steede of the continuance of Gods blessings they haue caused him to punish them with pouerty and want As who so obserueth cannot but see infinite numbers that haue receiued great portions and patrimonies from their Parents and friends that through the excesse of these together with their lewde lasciuious and wicked liues haue drawne vpon them such a heauie weight of pouerty and want as they haue either beene depriued of their libertie for the debt they ranne into to maintaine their vanities or haue beene enforced to begge their bread and like the prodigall Sonne haue beene constrayned through commaunding hunger to eate the scraps that they before scorned to touch with their fingers and that in a iust recompence of their former nicenesse and vanities who yet if this gentle correction may reclaime them and cause them to reforme their wicked liues to seek after God through a liuely faith and faithfull prayer may be receiued into the fauour of God who is ready to receiue a sinner repenting be he neuer so poore neuer so base neuer so loathsome in the eyes of men as were Lazarus and the lost Sonne As thou therefore art grieued vnder the burthen of thy miserable and poore estate so grieue aboue it that thou hast offended God who correcteth thee for thy sinnes Crye for pardon pray for spirituall graces seeke the Kingdome of God and the righteousnesse thereof haue a liuely faith repent and be patient
originally from Sathan who moueth and maketh mariages as farre as in him lyeth betweene vnequals which may import many inconuenient matches not made in the feare and reuerence of God great inequality of yeares and much difference in estates cause often disparagements Houses and riches are the inheritance of Fathers but a prudent and vertuous wife is the gift of God And he that findeth such a one recâ—iueth a fauour from the Lord. But how can any man thinke that God will bestow such a fauour vpon him without asking Abrahams seruant that was but put in trust to get a wife for Isaack his Maisters sonne went not rashly and as the prouerbe is hand ouer head in this weighty businesse as to take the first that came to hand as many doe that conclude the match at the first sight But hee prayed vnto the Lord to send him good speede in the choyse and wayted the Lords prouidence and besought him to shew him certaine probable tokens that the mayde Rebecka was she whom God had appointed for Isaack That businesse which is begun with faithfull Prayer to God seldome or neuer succeedeth ill And aboue all other earthly occasions there is none of higher importance then the choyse of a wife or a husband either of them being an assured crosse or a comfort as long as both of them doe liue And for want of this heauenly beginning faithfull Prayer to God it many times comes to a helliâ—h ending which may be a motiue to stirre vp men and women intending to entertaine this holy estate to craue direction and wisedome from God both for their choyse and peace in that estate And because many already coupled together seeme discontent and afflicted in minde at their mutuall crosses now past reuocation They must be content to make a vertue of necessity namely to vndergoe the burthen that the one vnkindly layes vpon another and to pray either that God will ease it or giue them patience to beare it A Prayer fit to be said by man and wife together or by either of them at any time in priuate O Lord our GOD most mercifull and louing Father in Iesus Christ vouchsafe as it hath pleased thee of thy great mercy to conioyne vs man and wife together according to thy holy institution in the beginning So let our hearts be truly conioyned vnto thee in a liuely faith and true obedience And so frame our affections one towardes another as there appeare no cause of breach of our sincere mutuall duties to the offence of thee But by thy blessing wee may as long as we liue endeuour to preserue and maintaine peace and vnity betweene our selues being a thing pleasing vnto thee Endue vs both Lord with thy grace heauenly spirit that as thou hast by thy holy ordinance of â—wayne now made vs one so our hearts affections and enclinations may be euer one not according to our naturall dispositions but answerable to thy blessed commandements that wee giue no cause of offence each to other and that wee may euer endeuour to continue perfect and mutable in our mutuall loue which we by nature cannot doe for wee are corrupt and sinfull of our selues and alwayes most enclinable to forbidden things We haue also O Lord thou knowest a subtill and malicious aduersarie who striueth to crosse in vs all good desires and to peruert our best duties to raise discordes debates quarels and as much as in him is to breake the band of fidelity which we made each to other before thee He began thou knowest O Lord with the first couple Adam and Heuah It was he that seduced the woman and shee by his meanes betrayed the man and so subuerted their blessed estate of innocencie and made them subiect to all kindes of miseries and their posterities whereof we thy poore seruants are feeble and sinfull members And as he began in malice and subtilty to betray our first Parents So is he alwayes busie to sowe the seedes of debate and strife betweene vs. But Lord preuent him and assise vs by thy power that we may haue power to resist him and all his suggestions and tentations Then as thou Lord hast ioyned vs together nothing shall seperate our mutuall loues but Death And forasmuch Lord as this estate though in it selfe honorable may bring vpon vs many troubles crosses and afflictions incident to marriage estate in the world yet by thy fatherly blessing we shall be able to vndergoe them with patience or to auoyd them with thankfulnes It is not in vs in our wisedomes strength or policies to preuent or auoyde the infinite troubles and vexations which this estate bringeth with it Therfore we humbly pray thee O Lord to endue vs with wisedome froÌ„ aboue that whatsoeuer thou haue determined shall befall vs be it pouerty or plenty sicknesse or health weale or woe we may embrace the one with patience the other with thanks And in both support vs in thy loue guide vs by thy grace protect vs by thy power and prouide for vs in thy prouidence If pouerty or want assaile vs supply our necessities if riches encrease make vs thankfull and alienate our hearts from too much loue of them If sicknesse or any corporall infirmity ceaze vs be thou our Physician to cure vs If health continue leaue vs not in security but giue vs watchfull hearts to wayte the time of thy visitation If the fruits of our bodies encrease encrease to vs the meanes to sustaine them both with corporall spirituall necessaries And prepare vs for the day of our departure out of this mortall life and in the meane time so season vs in all heauenly and diuine knowledge with true faith and perfect obedience vnto thee as that day may be vnto vs the first day of our euerlasting Sabaoth Be thou also wee humbly beseech thee O Lord a continuall guide vnto vs in our calling Blesse vnto vs and vnder our hands whatsoeuer we endeuor to performe in thy feare and let thy blessing be vpon all that appertaineth vnto vs. If enemies seeke to molest vs to trouble vs or to hurt vs preuent them of their euill deuices and graunt that wee giue no cause of offence to any nor be stirred vp to reuenge vpon euery light occasion but vpon all occasions to leaue the reuenge to thee And that we may seeke to maintaine peace with all men to loue our neighbours to comfort the comfortlesse and as farre as thou shalt be pleased to enable vs to hâ—lpe succour and relieue the poore and needie and to doe vnto other men as wee desire other men to doe vnto vs To guide and gouerne our family in thy feare to frequent the places where thy holy word is preached seeking the Kingdome of Iesus Christ and to doe all other holy duties according to thy will vnto our liues end Amen O Lord encrease our faith and our mutuall loue one towards another How the Husband ought to behaue himselfe towards his