Psal. 4.

Let us therefore always set God before our eyes: Let us 15. stand in awe and sin not: Let us offer up the sacrifice of righteousness, and put our trust in the Lord.

Let us have an eye unto the laws of the Lord, and keep his ways, 16. and not forsake our God, as the wicked doth.

Psal. 18.

Let us live uncorrupt before him, and eschew our own 17. wickedness.

Let us come near unto his house, even in the multitude of his mercies, 18. and in his fear let us worship toward his holy temple.

Psal. 5.

Then he will lift up the light of his countenance upon us, 19. and bless us.

Psal. 4,

Then may we lay ourselves down in peace and take our rest: for it 20. is the Lord only that maketh us dwell in safety.

Psal. 5.

For thou, O Lord, wilt give thy blessing unto the righte- 21. ous, and with thy favourable kindness wilt thou defend him, as with a shield.

O how plentiful is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them 22. Psal. 3[1]. that fear thee, and that thou hast prepared for them that put their trust in thee, even before the sons of men.

Thanks be to the Lord: for he hath shewed us marvel- 23. lous great kindness in a mighty city.

Psal. 16.

We will thank the Lord, because he hath given us warning: we will 24. sing of the Lord, because he hath dealt lovingly with us: Yea, we will praise the name of the Lord most High.

Psal. 5.

Let all them that put their trust in the Lord rejoice: 25. they shall ever be giving of thanks, because thou defendest them: they that love thy name shall be joyful in thy salvation.

Psal. 18.

The Lord liveth, and blessed be our gracious helper: and praised be 26. the God of our salvation, which hath delivered us from the snares of death.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost:

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever. &c.]

The Prayer or Collect.

WE yield thee hearty thanks, O most merciful Father, that it hath pleased thee in thy wrath to remember thy mercy, and partly to mitigate thy severe rod of this terrible plague, wherewith thou hast hitherto most justly scourged us for our wickedness, and most mercifully revoked us from the same:

calling us (who in health and prosperity had clean forgotten both thee and ourselves) by sickness and adversity to the remembrance both of thy justice1 and judgment, and of our miserable frailness and mortality; and now, lest we by the heaviness of thine indignation should have utterly despaired, comforting us again by the manifest declaration of thy fatherly inclination to all compassion and clemency. We beseech thee to perfect the work of thy mercy graciously begun in us: And forasmuch as true health is, to be sound and whole in that part, which in us is most excellent and like to thy Godhead, we pray thee thoroughly to cure and heal the wounds and diseases of our souls3, grievously wounded and poisoned, by the daily assaults and infections of the old serpent Satan, with the deadly plagues of sin and wickedness: by the which inward infection of our minds these outward diseases of our bodies have by the order of thy justice, O Lord, issued and followed, that we, by thy fatherly goodness and benefit, obtaining perfect health both of our minds and bodies, may render unto thee therefore continual and most hearty thanks, and that, by flying from sin, we may avoid thine anger and plagues, and ever hereafter, in innocency and godliness of life studying to serve and please thee, may both by our words and works always glorify thy holy name. Which we beseech thee to grant us, O Father of mercies and God of all consolation, for thy dear Son, our only Saviour and Mediator, Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.

6

['terrible justice. These notes shew the original readings of the manuscript copy.]

[ from.]

[the great murtherer and old serpent.]

[ minds, as it were out of a most corrupt sink, these.]

[ flowed.]

[ anger, and ever.]

[ of sin from henceforth.]

A SHORT FORM OF THANKSGIVING TO GOD for ceasing the vII. contagious sickness of the plague, to be used in Common prayer, on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, in stead of the Common prayers, used in the time of mortality. Set forth by the Bishop of London, to be used in the City of London, and the rest of his diocese, and in other places also at the discretion of the ordinary Ministers of the Churches.

After the end of the Collect in the Litany, which beginneth with these words: We humbly beseech thee, O Father. &c. shall follow this Psalm, to be said of the Minister, with the answer of the people.

LORD, thou art become gracious unto thy Land, thou 1. hast turned away the afflictions of thy servants.

Psal. 85.

Thou hast taken away all thy displeasure, and turned thyself from 2. thy wrathful indignation.

For if thou, Lord, hadst not helped us, it had not failed, 3. but our souls had been put to silence.

Psal. 94.

But when we said, our feet have slipped, thy mercy, O Lord, helped 4.

us up.

In the multitude of the sorrows that we had in our hearts, 5. thy comforts have refreshed our souls.

Our souls waited still upon the Lord, our souls hanged upon his help, 6. our hope was always in him.

Psal. 62. 63.

In the Lord's word did we rejoice, in God's word did we 7. comfort ourselves.

For the Lord said: Call upon me in the time of trouble, and I will 8. hear thee, and thou shalt praise me.

Psal. 50.

So when we were poor, needy, sickly, and in heaviness, 9. the Lord cared for us: he was our help and our Saviour ac- Psal. 40. 69. cording to his word.

In our adversity and distress he hath lift up our heads, and saved us 10. from utter destruction.

Psal. 27.

He hath delivered our souls from death, he hath fed us in 11. the time of dearth, he hath saved us from the noisome pesti- Psal. 33. 91. lence.

[10 The psalm has been reprinted once before in Bull's Christian Prayers, p. 164. It occurs, too, in a Form for 1625, put forth on a similar occasion.]

33

[LITURG. QU. ELIZ.]

Psal. 27.

Psal. 106.

12.

13..

14.

Psal. 86. 103.

15.

Psal. 57. 108.

Psal. 103.

Psal. 71.

Psal. 98.

Psal. 47.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

Therefore will we offer in his holy Temple the oblation of thanksgiving with great gladness: we will sing and speak praises unto the Lord our Saviour.

We will give thanks unto the Lord, for he is gracious, and his mercy endureth for ever.

The Lord is full of compassion and mercy, long-suffering, plenteous in goodness and pity.

His mercy is greater than the heavens, and his gracious. goodness reacheth unto the clouds.

Like as a father pitieth his own children: even so is the Lord merciful unto them that fear him.

Therefore will we praise thee and thy mercies, O God; unto thee will we sing, O thou holy one of Israel.

We will sing a new song unto thee, O God, we will praise the Lord with psalms of thanksgiving.

O sing praises, sing praises unto our God: O sing praises, sing praises unto our king.

For God is the King of the Earth, sing praises with understanding. We will magnify thee, O God our King, we will praise thy name for ever and ever.

Every day will we give thanks unto thee, and praise thy name for ever and ever.

Our mouth shall speak the praises of the Lord, and let all flesh give thanks to his holy name for ever and ever.

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for ever: and blessed be the name Psal. 21. 72. of his Majesty, world without end. Amen. Amen.

After this Psalm, shall be said by the Minister openly, and with an high voice, the Collect following.

The Collect.

O HEAVENLY and most merciful Father, what mind or what tongue can conceive or give thee worthy thanks for thy most great and infinite benefits, which thou hast bestowed, and dost daily bestow upon us, most unworthy of this thy so great and continual goodness and favour, though we should bestow all our life, power, travail, and understanding thereabouts only and wholly? When we were yet as clay is in the potter's hands, to be framed at his pleasure, vessels of honour or dishonour of thy only goodness without our deserving (for how could we deserve any thing, before we were any thing?) thou hast created and made us of nothing, not dumb

beasts void of reason, not vile vermins creeping upon the earth; but the noblest and most honourable of all thy worldly creatures, little inferior to thy heavenly Angels, endued with understanding, adorned with all excellent gifts, both of body and of mind, exalted to the dominion over all other thy earthly creatures, yea, the sun and the moon with other heavenly lights appointed to our service, enriched with the possession of all things, either necessary for our use, or delectable for our comfort. And as thou hast made us so excellent of nothing, so hast thou restored us, being lost, by thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, dying for us upon the cross, both more marvellously and mercifully than thou didst first create us of nothing; besides that thou dost continually forgive and pardon our sins, into the which we do daily and hourly fall most dangerously, yea, deadly also, dampnably, and desperately, were not this thy present and most ready help of thy mercy. And what have we, that we have not by thee? or what be we, but by thee? All which unspeakable benefits thou hast, like a most loving father, bestowed upon us, that we thereby provoked might, like loving children, humbly honour and obediently serve thee, our good and most gracious Father. But forsomuch as we have dishonoured thee by and with the abusing of thy good gifts, thou dost even in this also, like a father correcting his children whom he loveth, when they offend, no less mercifully punish us for the said abuse of thy gifts, than thou didst bounteously before give them unto us; scourging us sometime with wars and troubles, sometimes with famine and scarcity, sometime with sickness and diseases, and sundry other kinds of plagues, for the abusing of peace, quietness, plenty, health, and such other thy good gifts, against thy holy word and will, and against thy honour and our own health, to thy great displeasure and high indignation: As thou now of late terribly, but most justly and deservedly, plagued us with contagious, dreadful and deadly sickness; from the which yet thou hast most mercifully, and without all deservings on our part, even of thine own goodness, now again delivered us and saved us. By the which thy most merciful deliverance, and especially1 in

['This passage respecting the queen was inserted by the positive direction of Cecil. Grindal's Remains, p. 268.

The following two prayers, as not being devoid of interest, are