PRAYERS, &c. ALL GLORY BE TO GOD. Thomas unworthy Bishop of Bath and Wells, to all Persons who come to the Baths for Cure, wisheth from God the Blessings of this Life, and of the Next. GOOD CHRISTIAN BROTHER OR SISTER, WHATSOEVER the calamity be, whether sickness, or lameness, or want of children, which brings you to this place, I am sensible how tender a regard I ought to have for you, since you are come within my fold, in imitation of our most merciful Redeemer, who in respect even of our bodily distempers, sympathized with our miseries, "bore our griefs, and carried our sorrows1." For this reason I could not satisfy myself, in only praying for you, as I daily do, unless I did also send you these directions and prayers, which are few, and short, and familiar, to comply with the infirmities of your condition, and which I hope, by God's blessing, may be "words spoken in season:" nor can I doubt, 'Isa. liii. 4.; Matt. viii. 17. but that all of you who want such helps will seriously peruse them, and observe the advices of your spiritual physicians, as you are wont to do those of your corporal. Do not think the baths can do you any good, without God's immediate blessing on them, for it is God that must first heal the waters, before they can have any virtue to heal you. The river Jordan could never have cleansed Naaman of his leprosy', had he washed himself in it seventy times seven times, had not God blessed it to his cleansing. The pool of Siloam could never have restored sight to one born blind, had not our Lord sent him to it. And the pool of Bethesda 3, could never have made sick persons whole, but that an angel was sent by God "to trouble the waters." I cannot then do better, than to send you to that angel, who, according to St. John, flies in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth, saying with a loud voice, "Fear God, and give glory to him, and worship him, that made heaven and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters "." This was the angel's sermon, and I beseech you to become his auditors, and to observe how after the heaven, and the earth, and the sea, he particularly mentions the springs or fountains of waters, as a very wonderful part of the creation: for out of the dark places of the earth, through passages, and from causes unknown to the search of the wisest of men, God makes sweet and fresh springs to rise, to water 1 2 Kings v. 10. 3 John v. 4. 2 John ix. 7. 4 Rev. xiv. 7. |