PRAYER
IN TIME OF PLAGUE
This is taken from the special prayers
published by the Church of England during the bubonic plague outbreak
in 1665.
A Form of Common Prayer, Together With an
Order of
Fasting, For The Averting of God's Heavy
Visitation
Upon Many Places of this Realm,
O Most gracious God, Father of Mercies,
and of our Lord Jesus Christ, look down upon us, we beseech thee, in
much pity,
and compassion, and behold our great misery and trouble.
For there is wrath gone out against us,
and the Plague is begun. That dreadful Arrow of thine
sticks fast in our flesh; and the Venime
thereof
fires our bloud, and drinks up our
spirits; And shouldest thou suffer it to
bring us all to the Dust of
Death, yet must we still acknowledge, that Righteous art thou, O Lord,
and just
are thy judgements. For our Transgressions
multiplied
against thee, as the sand on the sea shore, might justly bring over us
a Deluge
of thy Wrath. The cry of our sins, that hath pierc't
the very Heavens, might well return with showers of Vengeance upon our
Heads.
While our Earth is defiled under the Inhabitants thereof, what wonder,
if thou commandest an evil Angel to pour
out his Vial into our Air,
to fill it with Infection, and the noisome Pestilence, and so to turn
the very breath
of our Life into the savour of Death unto
us all!
But yet we beseech thee, O our God,
forget not thou to be gracious: neither shut thou up thy loving
kindness in
Displeasure. For his sake, who himself took our Infirmities, and bare
our
Sicknesses, have mercy upon us, and say to the destroying Angel, It is
enough. O let that bloud
of sprinkling, which
speaks better things than that of Abel, be upon the Lintel, and the two
side-posts in all our Dwellings, that the Destroyer may pass by.
Let the
sweet Odour of thy Blessed Son's
all-sufficient
Sacrifice, and Intercession (infinitely more prevalent than the typical
Incense
of Aaron) interpose between the Living and the Dead, and be our full
and
present Atonement, ever acceptable with thee, that the Plague may be
stayed.
O let us live, and we will praise thy
Name; and these thy Judgements shall teach
us to look
every Man into the plague of his own Heart: that being cleansed from
all our
sins, we may serve thee with pure hearts all our days, perfecting
holiness in
thy Fear, till we come at last, where there is no more Sickness, nor
Death,
through thy tender Mercies in him alone, who is our Life, and our
Health, and
our Salvation, Jesus Christ, our ever blessed Saviour,
and Redeemer, Amen.