The daily practice of devotion, or, The hours of prayer fitted to the main uses of a Christian life also lamentations and prayers for the peaceful re-settlement of this church and state / by the late pious and reverend H.H., D.D.

LAMENTATIONS AND DEVOTIONS FOR THE TIMES OF CAPTIVITY.

Eccles. 12. 13, 14.

Let us hear the Conclusion of the whole matter:

Fear God, and keep his Com∣mandments; for this is the whole duty of Man.

For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether is be good, or whe∣ther it be evil.

I. IS it nothing to you,* 1.1 all ye that pass by? Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.

The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand; they are wreathed and come up upon my neck. He hath made my Srength to fail; the Lord hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up. The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me; he hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men. The Lord hath trodden the Virgin the Daughter of Judah as in a Wine-press, and all her beauty is departed from her.

Zion stretcheth forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her.

Her adversaries are the chief, her Enemies prosper; for the Lord hath afflicted her. For the multitude of her transgressions her children are gone into captivity before the Enemy.

For these things I weep:* 1.2 mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water; because the Comforter that should relieve my Soul is far from me. My Children are deso∣late because the Enemy prevail∣ed.

The Lord is righ∣teous;* 1.3 for I have rebelled against his Commandment.

Behold, O Lord, for I am in distress. My bowels are trou∣bled, my heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebel∣led.

Abroad the Sword berea∣veth, at home there is as death.

They have heard that I sigh; there is none to comfort me. All mine Enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thou hast done it.

II. How hath the Lord covered the Daughter of Zion with a Cloud in his anger,* 1.4 and cast down from Heaven unto the Earth the Beauty of Israel, and remembred not his footstool in the day of his anger!

He hath cut off in his fierce an∣ger all the Srength of Israel. He hath polluted the Kingdom and the Princes thereof. Her King and her Princes are among the Gentiles: they are become like Harts that find no Pasture, and they are gone without strength before the Pursuer, Chap. 1. 6.

The Law is no more;* 1.5 her Pro∣phets also find no Vision from the Lord. The Lord hath cast off his Alter, he hath abhorred his Sanctuary, and vio∣lently taken away his Tabernacle, and destroyed his places of the Assembly. The Lord hath cau∣sed the Solemn Feasts and Sab∣baths to be forgotten in Zion; and hath despised in the indigna∣tion of his anger the King and the Priest.

All that pass by clap their hands at thee;* 1.6 they hiss and wag their head at the Daughter of Jerusa∣lem. Is this the City that men call the perfection of Beauty, the Joy of the whole Earth?

Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast done this, Vers. 20.

III. Remember mine af∣fliction and my misery,* 1.7 and the wormwood and the gall.

My Soul hath them still in re∣membrance, and is humbled in me.

This I recal to mind, there∣fore have I hope.

It is of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed,* 1.8 be∣cause his Compassions fail not:

They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness.

For the Lord will not cast off for ever: but though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies: for he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the Chil∣dren of men.

Wherefore doth a living man complain,* 1.9 a man for the punish∣ment of his sins?

Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.

IV. The Lord hath ac∣complished his fury,* 1.10 he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath de∣voured the foundations thereof.

The Kings of the Earth, and all the Inhabitants of the World, would not have beleived that the Adversary and the Enemy should have entered into the Gates of Jerusalem.

The anger of the Lord hath divided them,* 1.11 he will no more regard them. They respected

not the persons of the Priests, they favoured not the Elders.

As for us, our eyes as yet fail∣ed for our vain help; in our watching we have watched for a Nation that could not save us.

They hunt our steps that we cannot go into the streets. Our Persecutors are swifter than the Eagles of the Heavens; they pur∣sued us upon the Mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.

The Breath of our nostrils the Anointed of the Lord,* 1.12 was ta∣ken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the Heathen.

V. Remember, O Lord what is come upon us:* 1.13 consider and behold our reproach.

Our Inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.

We are Orphans and Father∣less; our Mothers are as Wi∣dows.

Servants have ruled over us;* 1.14 there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.

Princes are hanged up by their hand. The Faces of the Elders were not honoured.

The Joy of our Heart is cea∣sed: our Dance is turned into Mourning.

The Crown is fallen from our head: Wo unto us that we have sinned.

For this our Heart is faint;* 1.15 for these things our eyes are dim.

Thou, O Lord, re∣mainest for ever,* 1.16 thy Throne from generati∣on to generation.

Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?

Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned: renew our days as of old.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Lam. c. 1. v. 12. 14, 15, 6, 17, 5.
• * 1.2

  Vers. 16.
• * 1.3

  Ver. 18, 20, 21.
• * 1.4

  C. 2. v. 1, 3, 2, 9.
• * 1.5

  C. 2. v. 9, 7, 6.
• * 1.6

  Vers. 15.
• * 1.7

  C, 3. v. 19, 20, 21.
• * 1.8

  Ver. 22, 23, 31, 32, 33.
• * 1.9

  Ver. 39, 40.
• * 1.10

  Chap. 4. ver. 11, 12.
• * 1.11

  Ver. 16, 17, 18, 19.
• * 1.12

  Vers. 20.
• * 1.13

  Chap. 5. ver. 2, 3.
• * 1.14

  Vers. 8, 12, 15, 16.
• * 1.15

  Vers. 17.
• * 1.16

  Vers. 19, 20, 21.