20. Join with us, thou divine and sacred
person, in considering these questions, with the store of experience,
that source of wisdom, which thou hast gathered in thy long life.
Herewith instruct thy people. Teach them to break their bread to
the hungry, to gather together the poor that have no shelter, to cover
their nakedness and not neglect those of the same blood, Isai. lviii. 7. and now especially that we may gain a
benefit from our need instead of from abundance, a result which pleases
God more than plentiful offerings and large gifts. After this,
nay before it, show thyself, I pray, a Moses, Exod. xxxii. 11. or
Phinehas Ps. cvi. 23, 30. to-day. Stand
on our behalf and make atonement, and let the plague be stayed, either
by the spiritual sacrifice, 1 Pet. ii. 5. or by prayer and
reasonable intercession. Rom. xii. 1. Restrain the
anger of the Lord by thy mediation: avert any succeeding blows of
the scourge. He knoweth to respect the hoar hairs of a father
interceding for his children. Intreat for our past
wickedness: be our surety for the future. Present a people
purified by suffering and fear. Beg for bodily sustenance, but
beg rather for the angels’ food that cometh down from
heaven. So doing, thou wilt make God to be our God, wilt
conciliate heaven, wilt restore the former and latter rain: Joel ii. 23. the Lord shall show loving-kindness Ps. lxxxv. 13. and our land shall yield her fruit; Ib. lxvii.
6. our earthly land its fruit which lasts for
the day, and our frame, which is but dust, the fruit which is eternal,
which we shall store up in the heavenly winepresses by thy hands, who
presentest both us and ours in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory
for evermore. Amen.