any duty to bear any burden to resist any temptation to mortifie any lust 2. Cor. 3. 5. To think one good thought but all our sufficiency is of thee thou O Lord canst pardon our Sins supply our wants heal our distempers enlighten our blindness soften our hardness strengthen our weakness we have no whither to go but unto thee nor can we come to thee but in thine own Power into such a wretched condition have our Sins brought us that we are both unable to help our selves and unworthy that thou shouldst help us but our comfort is that thy Grace doth not use to find Sinners worthy but make them so nor dost thou shew favour and kindness to them because they please thee but because thou art pleased with thine own Mercy and Goodness Our Iniquities we acknowledge have been many and great a sinful nature as a corrupt Fountain hath sent forth polluted streams in the thoughts words and actions of our Lives and we have often offended against thy holy Laws and expressed the enmity of our carnal minds Though all thy Laws are in themselves most equal just and good and thou hast both encouraged our obedience by the gracious promises of thy favourable acceptance and an eternal recompence and affrighted from sin by threatning it with everlasting punishment yet lightly esteeming thy Promises and contemning thy threatnings we have troddâ—n thy holy Laws under our Feet and broken through the restraints wherewith â—…ou hast hedged us in from finding our own ways Our pride and earthliness our unbelief unthankfulness our hypocrisie sensuality and hardness of heart witness against us to our faces and give us great cause to blush and be confounded to mourn and grieve in the sense of them Who of us hath had that due sense of thy holiness power and goodness thine omnipresence and all-seeing Eye as to be thereby driven from our Sins or quickned to the exercise of Virtue and Godliness Who of us hath been so affected with that Grace that hath appeared bringing Salvation as to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and make it our study and business to please and approve our selves to thee Who of us hath so felt the burthen and tasted the bitterness of our sins as to loath and leave them with dislike and abhorrency Who of us hath been so delighted in thy love as to return thee our hearty love in a sincere and uniform obedience Who of us hath so firmly believed the rewards and punishments of the future state as to press toward the mark for the obtaining the prize and make hast to escape and flee from the bottomless Pit and burning Lake The zeal and earnestness that we should have shewn in matters of Religion we have expressed in following our worldly interests and that coldness and indifferency that would have been well bestowed upon the little and short lived benefits of the present Life hath attended the performance of our holy duties We have in some measure known our Masters Will and yet have done our own and to please our corrupt and fleshly Appetites have done what we have well understood to be displeasing in thy sight Though thou hast often commanded us to repent and turn from our evil ways and we have been convinced that to hear thy Voice to day is both our duty and our wisdom we have demurred by lingring delays and not cast off our Sins by a speedy repentance We are ashamed O Lord of this our folly and beseech thee so to awaken and assist us by thy Grace that we may not receive it in vain nor longer delude our own Souls with the deceitful purposes of a future repentance but let us make haste to hearken to thy loud and earnest 2 Cor. 6. 2. Calls now while it is the accepted time and the day of Salvation And let thy pardoning mercy freely forgive all our Sins thy Grace having by true repentance made us meet partakers of that inestimable benefit So set them before our face as that we may mark and consider them mourn for and confess loath and forsake them and so cast them behind thy back as not to observe them with a wrathful countenance or punish them with a justly deserved vengeance By the precious blood of thy dear Son that immaculate Lamb that was offered to take away the Sins of the World Psal 51. 2. Wash us throughly from our Iniquities and cleanse us from our Sins and through his perfect righteousness let the free gift come upon us unto justification Rom. 5. 18. of Life Deliver us we pray thee as from the guilt and damnation of Sin by his precious Sacrifice so from its power and dominion by his sanctifying Spirit and though like a Leprofie in the Walls of an infected house Sin will remain in us while we are in the world let it not reign Rom. 6. 12. in our mortal Body that we should obey it in the lusts thereof But as the Flesh in us lusteth against the Spirit let thy Gal. 3. 17. Spirit in us resist and subdue the lusts of the Flesh Let not an inordinate love of the allurements and intangling vanities of this World quench or weaken in our Souls that entire and most hearty love that is due to thee and heavenly things nor distracting cares for the conveniencies of the Body eat out and destroy the care of our Souls nor hinder a timely provision for their future and eternal happiness But for as much as our stay here below is very short and the time of our departure hence into an everlasting state very uncertain let us with fear and trembling earnestness and diligence work out our own Salvation and carry our selves with upright and inoffensive Consciences toward thee and all men whilst we are in the World as we shall wish to have done when we come to leave it Help us to run the race of holy obedience meekness and patience charity contentment constancy and perseverance to fight a good fight finish our course and keep the faith that we may receive a Crown of righteousness which the righteous Judge shall at the last day 2 Tim. 4. 7. 8. give unto all them that love his appearing And let the contemplation of that glory and happiness and the well-grounded hope of our attaining it make us diligent and faithful in the discharge of our duty watchful against all fleshly defilements patient and cheerful under all crosses and troubles cold and indifferent to all the profits and pleasures of this Life and let our whole conversation on Earth be such as may become the Heirs of an heavenly glorious and eternal inheritance that when our earthly 2 Cor. 5. 1. house of this tabernacle shall be dissolved we may have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens and be found meet to be Col. 1. 12. partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in Light Look in mercy upon all the Sons of Men
fight or recover our selves from our falls let thy grace and holy spirit strengthen Eph. 3. 16. us with might in our inward man and make us more than Rom. 8. 37. conquerors through him that hath loved us Cause us in the first place to Mat. 6. 33. seek thy Kingdom and righteousness and as those that are Col. 3. 1. risen with Christ to seek the things that are above not looking at the things that are seen 2 Cor. 4. 18. for they are temporal but at the things which are not seen for they are eternal Let our Mat. 6. 20. treasure be laid up in Heaven where Moth and Rust corrupt not and where Thieves break not through nor Steal and let our hearts be where our treasure is Guide us continually in all the ways of wisdom and righteousness and defend us against all temptations that might withdraw us from them help us to go on our way rejoycing and working righteousness and perform our several duties to thee and all men with such cheerfulness and constancy as not to be weary of well-doing but by a religious abstinence and moderate use of bodily refreshments let our flesh be so subdued to the Spirit that we may ever obey thy godly motions and in a course of righteousness and true holiness run to the end of the race which thou hast set before us and be made partakers of that glorious prize which thou hast promised to all them that by a patient continuance in well-doing seek for Rom. 2. 7. glory and honour and immortality And let the prospect and blessed hope of thy heavenly Kingdom make us upright and faithful active and diligent contented and cheerful in every condition of life humble and patient stedfast and resolved self-denying and heavenly minded till thou bringest us to the possession of those inconceiveable joys and makest us to drink of the Rivers of Pleasure that are at thy right hand for evermore Do good with us we pray thee to the whole world and let all that bear the image of thy power and wisdom be made partakers of thy favour and kindness let the Nations that know thee not be delivered from the power of darkness Col. 1. 13. and translated into the Kingdom of thy dear Son Be gracious in an especial manner to all whom thou hast called to the knowledge and obedience of his Gospel forgive gracious Father and showr down thy blessings upon the inhabitants of this sinful Land let us prepare to meet thee by an hearty and universal repentance and so prevent those judgments that seem to be arrayed and marching forward to our destruction Give Salvation to our King Psai 144. 10 and preserve thy Servant from hidden Treacheries and the hurtful Sword direct all publick Counsels to thine honour the promoting of true Religion the establishment of Righteousness and Peace and the comfort of all them that heartily love and fear thee and let all that love thy Salvation say Psal 40. 16. continually the Lord be magnified Comfort all that in any kind suffer adversity let thy holy Spirit refresh them as with new Wine whom thou hast given Tears to drink in great measure and let that good providence that hath been our protection and repose this night defend us from all the dangers and temptations direct and prosper us in all the designs and enterprises of this day and by a faithful discharge of our duty bring us nearer to the glorious reward of Eternal Life which thou hast promised in Christ Jesus our Lord in whose Name and Words we further commend our selves and others to thy grace and mercy saying OVr Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done in Earth As it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily Bread And forgive us our Trespasses As we forgive them that Trespass against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from Evil For thine is the Kingdom and the Power And the Glory For ever and ever Amen Friday Evening MOst blessed Lord God the Father of Mercies our hope and present help our strength and our Salvation the over-flowing and inexhaustible Fountain of all Good we thy poor Servants in an humble and thankful sense of thy great goodness and emboldned by the invitation of thy gracious promises present our selves before the Throne of thy Grace to offer up our supplications and thanksgivings through the Mediation of thy dear Son in whom thou hast given us access Eph. 3. 12. with confidence through the Faith of him We are most unworthy in our selves to receive blessings or offer praises but worthy art thou O Lord to receive honour and glory and blessing and thanksgiving as for thy divine perfections which we cannot comprehend so for thine abundant kindnesses towards us which we can neither deserve nor number Thou didst frame and fashion us in the Womb by thy wisdom and power and hast maintained and provided for us by thy goodness and bounty ever since thou hast brought us into life and being giving us richly all things to injoy not only the necessaries but conveniencies of Life whereby it hath been made easie and pleasant to us But above all from the bottom of our hearts we praise a dore and magnifie thy transcendent wisdom superlative love in that inestimable benefit of our Redemption by the bitter sufferings and bloody Death of thy dear Son that when we had lost and undone our selves were lyable to wrath and eternal misery when we lay weltring in our own blood and there was no Eye to pity no Hand to relieve us thou redeemedst us in such a way as no creature had wisdom to contrive worthiness to undertake or power to effect We praise thee O Lord that thou hast in thy Gospel manifested this great and admirable Salvation made thy goodness to pass before us and fully and plainly instructed us in our duty that in performing the one we might be made partakers of the other that thou hast afforded us the means of Grace thy Word and Sacraments opportunities of thy publick Worship the motions and assistances of thy holy Spirit that thou hast quickned our obedience by the hopes of a glorious recompence Give us we pray thee a due sense of all thy mercies and withdraw not thy loving kindness from us if our worthiness had been to procure these mercies they had never been put into our hands and if any thing but thy goodness were to continue them we could never hold them our own wickedness might correct us and our Jer. 2. 19. back-slidings reprove us for we have sinned and done very foolishly We have perverted and polluted our ways and professing Tit. 1. 16. to know thee have in our works denyed thee we have called thee our Father but have not loved and honoured thee as Children our Master but have not feared and obeyed thee as Servants our Friend and Benefactor but have
things in Christ Jesus our Lord that tend to the renewing us after thy likeness in this life and the satisfying of us with it in the life to come We bless thee for that inestimable gift the Foundation of all others the Son of thy dearest love and everlasting delight whom in a tender compassion to our Souls thou hast sent into the world to be our Redeemer and Saviour that when we had by our sins ruined and undone our selves and were so lyable to thy severe displeasure and insupportable vengeance that no creature in Heaven or Earth could deliver us from it it pleased thee in thine infinite goodness to find out and in thy mercy to afford us in him an admirable and unthought of way of recovery Now O Lord we know thou lovest us and hast a favour and good will towards us seeing thou hast not withheld thy Son thine only Son from us Ever blessed be thy Name that thy Son who is God over all blessed for ever took upon him our humane Flesh that while he lived here upon Earth he instructed us both by his heavenly doctrine and exemplary life that he gave himself to Death as the price of our Redemption that he compleated that great work in his powerful and glorious Resurrection wherein he conquered and triumphed over all the powers of darkness and hath begotten us again to a lively hope of an inheritance incorruptible undefiled 1 Pet. 1. 3 4. that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us We praise thee that when he had wrought a perfect Righteousness for us upon Earth he ascended up to Heaven sits at thy right hand to represent and plead it on our behalf by his prevailing intercession that when he ascended up on high he led captive those spiritual enemies that held us in captivity and for the Eph. 4. 11. edification of his Church gave gifts unto Men Apostles and Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers That thou hast Psal 119. 10 given thy holy Word to be a Lamp to our Feet and a Light to our Paths and when many Nations sit in Darkness and the Regions of the Shadow of Luk. 1. 78 79. Death the day spring from on high hath visited us to guide our Feet into the way of Peace We give thee our humble and hearty thanks that thou still keepest open the doors of thy Sanctuary that for our unfruitfulness thou mightest have shut and barred against us and notwithstanding our vile unworthiness thou graciously admittest us to Communion with thy Self in thy publick Ordinances the Reading and Preaching of thy Word Prayers to and Praises of thy Name and the participation of thy holy Sacraments wherein thou dost lively represent the Death of thy Son and to all worthy Receivers dost firmly assure and convey the precious benefits of it and bind them to walk answerably to them And we further thank thee with enlarged hearts O our heavenly Father for all the promises of thy Covenant which thou hast sealed with the Blood of thy Son and given unto us that we might by them be the more encouraged in an holy 2 Cor. 7. 1. obedience cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit and perfecting holiness 2 Pet. 1. 4. in thy fear be made partakers of the Divine Nature We can never enough magnifie thy mercy and goodness that thou hast made our duty to be a part of our happiness and that it is not only necessary but best for us to love and fear trust and serve obey and honour thee and that we are not only bound to be sober and temperate meek and patient just and charitable but much better by being so And what thanks can we render to thee who in consideration of our weakness and slugglishness to the performance of our duty hast not only set before us the lively and encouraging examples of thy Saints and Martyrs but assisted and enabled us by the grace of thy holy Spirit that our sufficiency 2 Cor. 3. 5. hath been of thee who of our selves have not been sufficient to think a good thought and for the Reward of those Graces and Duties that are the Fruits of thy Spirit working in us hast promised such a glory and happiness in the world to come as surpasses not our desires only but our thoughts and conceptions We further glorifie thy great Name O Lord that thy rich and free Grace hath been the only motive to the bestowing all thy Mercies upon us guilty and wretched sinners that our unworthiness hath not hindred the streaming forth of thy goodness but thy goodness hath born away before it all consideration of our unworthiness And O how admirable in themselves and how obliging to us are all those favours and kindnesses which not only without our merits but notwithstanding our deserts of wrath and vengeance thou hast conferred upon us bold and provoking Rebels We are O Lord as thy Creatures infinitely below thee but as Sinners we have foolishly opposed and set our selves against thee we have broken thy holy Laws abused thine abundant Mercies slighted the tenders of thy Grace dishonoured and crucified afresh our great and merciful Redeemer resisted and grieved thy holy Spirit profaned and polluted thy Sabbaths and Ordinances that are both the Pledges and means of thy Grace and Favour And were there no other Sin upon our account but of these thy days and the holy duties of them they might for ever fill our Faces with shame and lay us under thy wrathful displeasure We have come unprepared to thy solemn worship and with unhallowed hearts entred the Sanctuary and approached the presence of the most holy God we have been heedless and unattentive hearers of thy holy Word remembring little of what we have heard and practing less of what we have remembred we have been flat and unaffected in offering up thy praise and our hearts have been earthly dull and distracted in our Prayers how often have we turned our Backs upon thy holy Table judging our selves unworthy of the precious benefits that are there tendered or if we have not altogether neglected the sacred Ordinance we have not as we might have done grown in the graces and the comforts of thy holy Spirit by it How seldom have we been seriously exercised in Meditation and either so recollected thy Mercies as to become sensible of our obligation by them or so thought on our ways as Psal 119. 59 â—… to turn our feet unto thy Testimonies Forgive us O Lord we pray thee all our past offences and as the best assurance of our forgiveness let us not so offend any more Graciously guide us into the ways of truth and holiness and that we may always fear thee let us set our selves continually in thy presence and so observe and stand in aw of thine all-seeing Eye that all our evil thoughts words and actions may be scattered by it Let us dye with Christ in the crucifying of our Flesh with
coming into this world and as little laid to heart whaâ— will become of us when wâ— shall go hence and be no morâ— and as though we were to dyâ— as the Beasts dye we have livâ—… too much as the Beasts live In our selves O Lord wâ— have no hope but in the muâ—titude of thy tender mercies wâ— cannot despair and thougâ— we have deserved wrath and vengeance and have nothing of our own to plead why we should escape it we are greatly encouraged to sue to thine offended Majesty for pardon and forgiveness by that Proclamation which thou hast made Exod. 34. 6 7. of thy glorious Name the Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands and forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin and because thou hast said thou wilt not clear the guilty take away our guilt by a sincere hearty repentance and a true and lively faith in the merits and righteousness of thy Son Let all our sins be more bitter and burthensom in the review of them than they have ever been pleasant and delightful in the commission of them and grant gracious Lord that â—e may be so sorrowful for 〈◊〉 sins as to loath them so 〈◊〉 them as to take up firm Resolutions against them and so resolve as that by the powerful assistance of thy holy Spirit we may never renew the practice of them and having done iniquity Job 34. 32. we may do so and offend no more Wash and cleanse our sinful Souls from their guilt and filthiness in that fountain of thy dear Sons most precious blood Zech. 13. 1. which thou hast set open for sin and uncleanness and by the grace of thy holy Spirit subduing and mortifying our sins in us convince and satisfie us that thou hast pardoned them create in us clean hearts O God Psal 51. 10. and renew right spirits within us And as we call thy Son Jesus Christ our Saviour and hope to be for ever happy in the light and injoyment of him in Heaven let us make him our example and purifie our selves even as he is pure 1 Joh. 3. 3. Make us as he was holy and humble meek and merciful patient and charitable heavenly minded and self-denying let 's be zealous for thy glory contented with our present condition satisfied with all the wise allotments of thy providence and make it our meat and drink to do the will of our heavenly Father and in all things wherein he was a most lively and admirable pattern for our imitation seeing we profess our selves Christians and say we abide 1 Joh. 2. 6. in him let us walk as he also walked Settle and root in our hearts a stronger and more firm belief of thy holy Gospel and so fix our thoughts and affections upon that unseen happiness that our Saviour in our name and place is possessed of that nothing here below may either allure or affright us from our duty or make us remiss cold and negligent in it but we may be zealous of good works and with fervency of spirit alway serve that gracious Lord from whom we expect the reward of a glorious and immortal inheritance Fill every one of our hearts with a quick and a constant sense an humble and awful dread an ardent and intire love of thee together with an active and vigorous delight in thee and a vigilant and circumspect care universally and in the whole course of our lives to please and approve our selves to thee Let us never adventure to commit any sin as a little one because it will offend and dishonour thee the great and infinite Majesty of Heaven and deserve the eternal punishment and misery of an immortal Soul Keep us by thy grace from every evil way and those sins especially to the which we may be most inclined and easily prevailed upon by custom or example the naughtiness and general corruption of the age we live in our Callings our company or our constitution so that laying aside every weight Heb. 12. 2. and the sins that easily beset us and running with patience and perseverance the race that thou hast set before us we may at length obtain that prize of our High Calling which thou hast prepared and promised in Christ Jesus our Lord. And in his Name we humbly recommend to thy compassion and goodness all the Sons of Men that dwell upon the Face of the Earth beseeching thee that thou wouldst make known thy Will to them and help them to practise according to what they know and whatever affliction or calamity may lye upon them in mind body or estate let them by thy mercy and clemency be supported under them and in thy due time be delivered from them Shew favourable regards of care and kindness towards thy Church engrave her upon the Palms of thine Hands and let Isa 49. 16. her Walls be continually before thee Appoint Salvation for the Walls and Bulwarks of the Nation wherein we live pardon our many crying sins avert thy deserved feared Judgments heal our back-slidings and heal our breaches continue thy Gospel and grant that we may walk worthy of that inestimable favour Bless our dread Sovereign with the blessings of thy right and left hand let his Government be happy and peaceable long and prosperous and a publick blessing to all that are under it and grant that all subordinate Governours in Church in State may faithfully use their power to the discouragement of Vice and ungodliness and the promoting and supporting peace and good order truth righteousness and holiness and let all men by a serious repentance and a through reformation of their ways strive to save the Land from those confusions and miseries into which they have plunged it by their manifold offences Comfort all that mourn give them beauty for ashes and the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness and let all that groan under thy heavy hand triumph in thy salvation Be with us thy servants this day and let that good providence that hath this night preserved and refreshed us direct assist and bless us in all our ways and keep us from the dangers and mischiefs the sins and offences the snares and temptations that we might otherwise fall into Let us be in thy fear all the day long and so order our lives as if it were the last day we had to live in this world that as in the evening we shall be one day nearer our death we may be nearer eternal life and happiness grant us all these our requests most gracious Father and whatever else thou knowest to be needful for us for the sake of thy dear Son in whose Name and Words by his own direction we further implore thy merciful goodness OVr Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done in Earth As it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily Bread And forgive us our Trespasses As
FORMS OF PRAYER FOR EVERY Day in the Week MORNING and EVENING Composed for the use of PRIVATE FAMILIES By John Meriton D. D. Rector of St. Michael Cornhill London and Lecturer at St. Martins in the Fields LONDON Printed by H. H. for Robert Boulter at the Turks Head in Cornhill 1682. THE PREFACE THat all Men are obliged to worship God by praising and praying to him is so evident by the light of natural Reason as well as the Revelation of Scripture that none can question it but they whose Immoralities and improved Debaucheries have laid such a foundation of Atheism as makes them inclinable to deny the Being of God and loath to acknowledge their dependance upon him lest this should involve them in the dreadful consequence of their being accountable to him And that men ought dayly to pay this Homage and Tribute of Praise and Prayer unto God as they stand linked in the relations of Families though all readily grant that are sensible of the Sins there committed that need his Pardon of the many Temporal and Spiritual blessings either wanted and to be sought at his Hands or injoyed and to be thankfully acknowledged yet the too common neglect of Family Prayer is it 's to be feared and he must have a very easie and credulous charity that can be otherwise minded not only one of the many instances of the decay of Piety and Religion but one of the provoking Sins that cry aloud to Heaven for vengeance It is no doubt by many totally omitted from an insensible stupidity an irreligious profane disregard of God and their Duty but by others not a few as was well and charitably suggested by the Good Man that earnestly pressed me to this undertaking only from a consciousness of their inabibility decently to perform it Now that this might be neither a feigned pretence nor a real hinderance But that they that like Joshua are willing and resolved to serve God with their Families might have Materials of Devotion ready at hand As the Water near the Road offered it self to the Eunuch willing to be Baptized I have for the help of such as can read complyed with my Friends desire and composed a Form of Weekly Prayers Morning and Evening And though their length will not I hope be complained of by any whose leasure may allow and whose Affections can vigorously attend one quarter of an hours solemn and religious Address to God Yet in consideration of others multiplicity of Business and that flatting and depression of Spirits that may follow from it all the Prayers are printed in many distinct Paragraphs that some of the Confessions or Petitions or both may easily and without disturbing their Devotion be pass'd over and the Prayer thereby so contracted as to suit their convenience And I desire they would rather do so than wholly omit the Duty for better a short Prayer than none at all Lord's Day Morning ALmighty most high and holy Lord God who art the glorious Creator Preserver and Governour of all things in Heaven and in Earth and most worthy to be praised and honoured by all Creatures And with infinite kindness and compassion hast redeemed lost and undone Sinners by thine only beloved Rom. 4. ult Son whom thou hast delivered to death for their offences and raised again for their justification and so thou art for ever to be loved and delighted in obeyed and worshipped praised and honoured by thy redeemed ones We thy poor Creatures and Children are here before thee this Morning humbly sensible of this our great and bounden duty and of our own inability without the assistance of thy Grace to perform it And in a deep sense both of our duty and insufficiency we desire to offer up our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to thy Divine Majesty our mighty Creator and most merciful Redeemer and humbly desire that thou wouldest sanctifie and prepare both our Souls and Bodies by the Grace of thy Holy Spirit that we may present unto thee acceptable thank-offerings We acknowledge O Lord that besides the sins of our Callings common Imployments and even those of the Week last past whereby we have greatly offended thee the sins of our holy duties and our profanation of this thy holy day have given thee a just provocation to withdraw the grace of thy good Spirit from us and leave us to the ignorance and vanity of our own minds the wandrings and distractions of our thoughts the earthliness and sensuality of our affections the hardness impenitency and unbelief of our hearts And then by all the duties of thy Worship and Service we should dishonour thee and by offering the Sacrifices of Fools increase our own guilt before thee But we humbly beseech thee most merciful Father forgive us all our past offences that they may not stand as a partition Wall between thy Majesty and us to hinder either thy Grace from coming down upon us as Rain upon the tender Herb or our Prayers from coming up before thee as Incense Fill every one of our hearts with awful thoughts of thee as a God that searchest hearts and art throughly acquainted with our most secret imaginations dispositions and purposes and because thou art a God of purer Eyes than to behold iniquity Let us worship thee with an holy worship so as to fear thy Goodness and love thy Justice to delight in thy Mercy trust and rely upon thy Power and Faithfulness to admire praise and imitate thy Holiness In the publick Duties and Services of this thy Day help us so to joyn with the Assembly of thy Servants that our hearts may be inflamed with a love of thee and delight in thee and in the vigour and fervency of devout affections we may together glorifie thy holy and great Name set forward our own edification and comfort and advance in those ways of holiness that lead to everlasting happiness And seeing in great mercy and compassion to our Souls thou art pleased to continue to us thy Sabbaths and the use of thine ordinances which by our many and great sins we have long since forfeited Let us not like Children sitting in Mat. 11. 16. the Market-place trifle away the precious opportunities and means of Grace and Salvation Help us seriously to consider when we are in thine House the Habitation of thine Holiness Psal 26. 8. and the place where thine Honour dwelleth the glorious Majesty and spotless perfect purity of that God with whom we have to do and let us behave our selves in thy sacred and dreadful presence with that reverence and holy fear that humility and lowliness of mind that simplicity and godly sincerity that heavenly mindedness and purity of affection that firm constancy of resolution to devote our selves to thee by our hearty obedience to thy Laws as it becomes dust and ashes vile Creatures that dwell in houses of Clay when they worship and do homage to that Sovereign Majesty the Throne of whose Glory is in the highest
its affections and lusts and rise with him to a life of holy and new obedience that as Christ being raised from the dead Rom. 6. 9. dieth no more so being risen with him we may wilfully sin no more but run the race of thy Commandments till at length we receive the prize of a glorious and incorruptible inheritance Extend thy mercy and goodness to all the Sons of Men and let the Kingdoms of the World that are ignorant of thee and thy Salvation behold the light of thy glorious Gospel and become obedient to the Scepter of thy Son Bless thy whole Church scatter the Mists of Ignorance and Errour heal the breaches of Schism and Division quench the Wildfire of Strife and Contention cleanse the Spots of Profaneness and Superstition that defile and deform it and make thy Sion the Beauty and the joy of the whole Earth Be gracious to these sinful Nations forgive those many and great sins that have pulled down thy heavy Judgments upon us and still provoke thee more and more to punish us and particularly pardon we pray thee our wicked and scandalous profanation of this thy day our unthankfulness for the light of thy blessed Gospel and walking unsuitably to the principles of that holy Religion that hath been of a long time publickly taught and professed among us Wash us throughly Psal 51. 2. from our Iniquities and cleanse us from our Sins and grant that by unity and charity and holiness of life we may glorifie thy great Name evidence the truth of our Christianity and adorn the Gospel of God our Saviour Continue thy Gospel among us defeat and overthrow the evil designs of bloody and deceitful Men that would pervert the truth of it by mixtures of Superstition and Idolatry and let all that Psal 40. 16. love thy Salvation say continually let the Lord be magnified Guide and guard bless and protect thine Anointed Servant our Soveraign Lord King Charles let his days be many his Counsels wise and religious his enterprizes successful his Reign happy to himself and all his Subjects Cloath his Enemies with shame and upon his head Psal 132. 18. let his Crown flourish let the Bishops and Pastors of thy Church further the edification of it by soundness of Doctrine and holiness of Life and Magistrates cherish and defend it by the encouragement of all virtue and goodness and the punishment and suppression of all vice and ungodliness and let all men follow after peace and holiness without which Heb. 12. 14. none shall see the Lord. Refresh and support the Sons and Daughters of Sorrow and in the multitude of their Psal 94. 19. thoughts within them let thy comforts delight their Souls Be gracious and favourable to us that are here before thee forgive us all our Sins and remember not against us those iniquities that have this day polluted our holy offerings defend and protect us this night from all those dangers and mischiefs that might overtake us and let us find safety under the shadow of thy wings refresh our frail Bodies with a quiet and moderate rest and help us in the renewed strength of it vigorously to serve thee in a faithful discharge of the duties of the next day and all our days let us live to thee that in the end of them we may live with thee through Jesus Christ our Lord who hath taught and commanded us when we Pray to say OVr Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done in Earth As it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily Bread And forgive us our Trespasses As we forgive them that Trespass against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from Evil For thine is the Kingdom and the Power And the Glory For ever and ever Amen Monday Morning O Most mighty Lord God and merciful Father the Author of our Being both Bodies and Souls and the Giver of every good Gift that may tend to the benefit and happiness of both our Souls and Bodies we thy poor and most unworthy Servants are here before thee this Morning thankfully to acknowledge thy great goodness in all the blessings we injoy for this Life and a better humbly to implore thy mercy in the free pardon of all our Sins and earnestly to beg the grace of thy holy Spirit that we may faithfully discharge the duties of pardoned Sinners and answer the Obligations thou hast laid upon us by thy manifold blessings We bless thy holy and great Name as for all Spiritual and Temporal blessings bestowed on us through thy Son so particularly for all the ordinances of the Gospel and the priviledges of thy House yesterday injoyed and for the safety and quiet rest and refreshment of the last Lam. 3. 22. night acknowledging it to be of thy mercies that we are not consumed and because thy compassions fail not for hadst thou rewarded us after our Iniquities we had long since been incapable of any the least blessing and had been punished with utmost and everlasting misery We confess O Lord there hath on thy part been nothing wanting that might work in us a Conformity to thy Will but there hath wanted on ours a care to please thee and a fear to offend thee a love and delight in thee and a stedfast purpose to give up our selves to the obedience of thy heavenly Laws And which hath made us more remiss and negligent we have not firmly believed the excellent and glorious things thou hast promised upon a compliance with thy Will nor the fearful and insupportable punishments which thou hast threatned to our disobedience We have with great folly over desired over loved over trusted to and over delighted in the things of this World which cannot profit us nor in the least promote our spiritual interest or eternal happiness whilest we have been Mat. 6. 33. careless and negligent in seeking thy Kingdom and righteousness though for our incouragement to do that in the first place thou hast graciously promised that all the conveniencies of life shall be added unto us How have vain transitory profits and pleasures drawn off our hearts from the love of thee who alone canst make us happy and from a delight in thy Laws in the keeping of which there Psal 19. 11. is great reward We have with too great care pampered our vile bodies and made provision Rom. 13. 14. for our flesh to fulfil the lusts of it and with too little provided for our Souls and secured their happiness in the future state We have misimployed the Talents intrusted with us in the service of Sin and abused to thy dishonour our time and opportunity of doing good our health and strength our ease and liberty our credit and plenty the members of our Bodies the faculties of our Souls which being received from thy bounty should all have been improved to thy glory nor have we remembred the great day of reckoning