us especially those in the Lord Jesus in whom thy Grace hath so exceedingly abounded as to surpass not only our deserts but the largest of our desires Blessed blessed for ever blessed be thy fatherly goodness who hast sent him from heaven so unexpectedly to visit us vile wretches who dwell in houses of clay whose foundation is in the dust Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him or the son of man that thou didst thus visit him We thank thee according to our poor ability from the very bottom of our hearts for his manifestation in our flesh for the charitable testimonies he gave of his love to mankind in the course of his life for that astonishing grace in submitting himself to dye for us for his glorious Resurrection and Ascension to heaven for the Soveraign Power and Authority which thou hast given him at thy right hand for his compassionate intercession for us and the assurances we have received of his being the King of glory and of his continued kindness to us by the coming of the Holy Ghost We will never cease to bless thee for that great salvation Heb. 2.3,4 which was first preached by the Lord was confirmed by them that heard him and for the witness which thou barest to them both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts of the holy Ghost according to thy own will We rejoyce in the Light of thy holy Gospel that we see the way to be happy both by the Doctrine and example of thy Son Jesus that we have the incouragement of his precious promises and such good hope of remission of sin and eternal life in the day when he shall judge the world in righteousness O how much are we bound unto thee for that comfortable hope which thou hast given us of seeing our dear Saviour in all his glory and being there where he is and reigning with him for ever We again render thee our most hearty thanks for that everlasting consolation and good hope through grace which thou hast given us and for all those benefits likewise which thou art pleased to bestow upon us to make our stay here on earth the more convenient and delightful to us We are every way obliged to thee beyond all that we are able to express or conceive Thou feedest us and clothest us thou preservest our health and our strength thou hast delivered us from innumerable dangers and when thou hast chastised us it hath been in great mercy and clemency and not according to our deserving O that all the world would shew forth thy praise and devote themselves to the service of our Lord. Let all Kings of the earth submit themselves unto him and glory in the name of his obedient subjects High and low rich and poor let them praise the name of the Lord from this time forth and for evermore Accept most gracious God of these unfeigned desires of us thy servants who for our parts intirely dedicate our selves both souls and bodies unto thee Resolving in all things to walk worthy of thee who hast called us to thy Kingdom and Glory and blessed us also with many other good things which make this life to be a more easie passage to a better We will never forget how much we are indebted to thee but study to express our grateful remembrance of thy mercies by living Tit. 2.12,13 soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Favour we pray thee these holy purposes with the constant assistance of thy good spirit that we may be able to accomplish what we have begun and to perfect holiness in thy fear Help us to 2 Pet. 1.5,6,7,8 add to our faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity That these things being in us and abounding they may make us to be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ Preserve us this day especially that we swerve not presently from these pious resolutions But may give such a proof of their sincerity by our being steadfast and immoveable in all well doing notwithstanding any temptation to the contrary that we may have the better hope we shall persevere to the very end through thy continued grace in Christ Jesus in whose words we desire all that thou seest needful either for our souls or bodies saying Our Father c. At Night WE are here again prostrate before thee O Lord of heaven and earth to joyn our selves with all that holy company Revel 4.8,11 who rest not day and night saying Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created Blessed be thy divine goodness which hath made the children of men but little lower than the Angels and crowned us with such glory and honour that we are capable to accompany that heavenly host in giving continual thanks and praise unto thee Praised be thy name that we are now alive and that we have the use of our reason and understanding and enjoy so many of the comforts and conveniences of this present life and have attained a good hope through Christ Jesus of being immortally happy O how great was thy love which sent him into the world to direct us in the way to that happiness by his holy doctrine and life and to be a propitiation for our sins by his death and to Act. 26.23 be the first that should rise from the dead and should shew light unto the world We rejoyce in that light of life We most chearfully devote our selves to be the faithful Disciples of him the Prince of peace the Lord of life and glory It is our happiness as well as our duty to be governed by him and obey his commands We are sensible that they are all equal just and good and that thou hast done us an infinite kindness in teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world And therefore we here again most heartily surrender our wills to thine desiring that we may unchangeably cleave unto it with the greatest and most intire love and affection to all its commands O that there may abide for ever in us such a strong and powerful sense of thy mighty love towards us in Christ Jesus as may constrain us freely and willingly to please thee in the constant exercise of piety and devotion righteousness and mercy temperance and chastity meekness and patience truth and fidelity together with such an humble contented and peaceable spirit as may adorn the Religion of our Lord and Master O God that these holy desires and inclinations may
to thy holy Commands There is nothing O Lord so afflictive to me as the remembrance that I have any time offended thy Soveraign Authority I am heartily sorry for the breaking of any of thy sacred righteous and good Laws I abhorr the thoughts of doing so again And protest eternal enmity to all that is contrary to thy blessed Will addicting my self with most hearty affection to thy true and faithful service Pardon me therefore most gracious and merciful Father and accept these holy resolutions which thou hast inspired me withal Strengthen I beseech thee and further them with thy continued grace that no sudden desires vehement inclinations ineffectual purposes no nor partial performances may deceive and lead me into a false opinion of my self but I may bring forth actually and with a constant spirit all the fruits of righteousness which are by Christ Jesus to the praise and glory of thee my God Possess me with such a deep and strong sense of thy supreme Authority over all of the obligations I have to thee and the great kindness thou hast done me in ingaging me to be thy servant that Religion may be the very business of my life and my greatest pleasure may be to please thee in every thing and my highest design to attain that blessed immortality which Christ Jesus hath promised O lift up my affections more and more to those things above where he is That heaven may have my heart while this world hath my body and I may have perfect contentment of mind in well doing and patient suffering and the good hope I have of being eternally beloved of thee the Lord of heaven and earth may make me rejoyce evermore Free me from all inordinate cares for the things of this life from all distrust of thy good providence from all repining at any thing that befals me and inable me in every thing to give thanks believing that all things are ordered by the greatest reason and shall work together for good to those that love thee I doubt not of thy Fatherly affection to those that study in all sincerity to approve themselves unto thee and therefore still resolve to leave my self intirely to thy wise Counsels that thou mayst dispose me into such a condition as thou seest best in this world Remember me but of my duty quicken and excite me to it strengthen me in the doing of it support me under all discouragements advise me in all difficult cases and comfort me with a steadfast belief of thy holy Word and I shall ever be giving thanks and praise unto thee who dealest so bountifully with me Into thy hands I commend this night both soul and body which have been mercifully preserved in safety all this day I repose my self in the belief of thy watchful providence and that thou givest thy Angels charge of us and art about our beds and about our paths and spiest out all our thoughts O continue these holy thoughts and desires in me till I fall asleep that thou mayst have a soul full of love to thee in thy custody and I may receive the light of the Morning if thou prolongest my life with new joy in thee and thankful affection to thee I most heartily desire likewise O merciful God the good of the whole world Pitty the follies of mankind deliver them from their sins and from their miseries Hear the groans of every part of the creature that is yet subject to the bondage of corruption and bring them all into the glorious liberty of thy children Hear the daily prayers of the Catholick Church Free her from all foul and dividing errors Let the Truth as it is in Jesus prevail and peace be in all her borders O that all Christian Kings and Governours may follow after peace and insue it Make thy Ministers the Messengers of peace and dispose the hearts of all Christians to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Inlighten the minds of all Jews Turks and Infidels with the knowledge of thy Truth Give repentance unto sinners and increase of grace and strength to all thy faithful servants Reduce those that wander out of the way raise up those who are faln confirm and settle those that stand and grant them a steadfast resolution to persevere in faith love and obedience Relieve and comfort all those that are in any distress Make the earth to bring forth her increase in due season And let all honest and industrious people be succeeded and blessed in their labours Remember all those to whom I am indebted for my birth education instruction or promotion Thou who art rich in mercy reward and recompence their care and love Grant forgiveness and charity to all my enemies Continue good will among all my kind Neighbours Assist those who are dying and leaving this world Fit them for a better place receive the souls which thou hast redeemed with thy Sons most precious bloud and sanctified by the holy Ghost and give us all a glorious resurrection and eternal life Amen Amen Our Father c. A shorter Prayer to be used by any one alone in the Morning I Adore thee O Lord the possessor of heaven and earth who surpassest all our thoughts and dost us good beyond all our desires There is all reason that I should acknowledge thee continually that I should worship and praise and love and obey thee whilst I have my being I cannot but witness against my self whensoever I neglect thee much more when I oppose thy most high Authority by doing contrary to thy Laws For thy Almighty Goodness gave me my being and by that alone have I been maintained and liberally provided for yea it hath born with me very patiently in my rebellion and used extraordinary means to make us friends and ceases not its intreaties after many unkind denials but continues to importune me till my heart consent to yield it self intirely to thee I cannot withhold my self O Lord from thee when I consider what thou art and what thou hast been to me such a tender gracious and compassionate Father as my greatest affections cannot find words to express I must again surrender soul and body into thy hands which have been so long so lovingly stretched out towards me resolving to stay with thee and never to depart away from thee For the more I know of thee the more I find that I must needs love thee and the more I love thee the more I desire to love thee and to resemble thee and to be beloved of thee O that I may feel the power of thy love so great in my heart that it may govern the rest of my passions and affections and nothing in the world may tempt me to displease thee but every thing provoke me more to love thee and delight in thee and obey thee For whom is there in heaven that I can desire but thee or on earth besides thee who art the blessed and only Potentate the King of kings and the Lord of
to serve thee be a great reward Let a contented mind be instead of all that I want and a thankful heart sweeten all my enjoyments Let patience always ease me under my burdens and an entire submission to thy will breed in me a settled tranquillity of spirit Let my delight be in the excellent that are in the earth and my thoughts be very much there while I live where I desire to be when I dye That heaven being my aim my hope and the longing expectation of my soul I may conquer all difficulties in my way to it and go through honour and dishonour good report and bad report prosperity and adversity with the same chearfulness and evenness of mind till at last I come to that place of rest and peace with the glorified Jesus who is able to give eternal life to them that obey him XI Blessed be thy name who hast inspired my heart with these holy desires and wrought these purposes and resolutions in me It is an earnest I hope of thy never failing love towards me in assurance of which I repose my self with full satisfaction of heart Yea this is my joy and my glory that I know thee and that I live under the care of thy wise merciful and almighty providence at present and that I have the promise of remission of sins and of a crown of life when the times of refreshment shall come from thy presence and thou shalt send Jesus Act. 3.19 to conduct all the faithful to that glorious place where he lives This is my salvation and and all my desire 2 Sam. 23.5 Now that I see thy abundant love O heavenly Father it sufficeth Rejoyce with me likewise all ye Angels of God according to the word of our Lord that there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth Luk. 15.7 Bless the Lord ye heavenly hosts ye minsters of his that do his pleasure Psal 103.21 And O that this joy may increase continually by my daily increase in all goodness and the perfecting of my repentance till I come to be admitted into their company and enter into the joy of my Lord. XII And I wish the same happiness to all mankind which I desire for my self It will multiply my joy to see all the people praise thee O God to see all the people praise thee O make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands Serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence with thanksgiving Psal 100.1 Give unto the Lord O ye kindreds of the people give unto the Lord glory and strength Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name bring an offering and come into his courts O worship the Lord with holy worship fear before him all the earth 96.8,9 More especially I desire the increase of grace mercy and peace to thy chosen people Beseeching thee to bless thy universal Church and to fill the hearts of all its members with thy love that they may rest neither day nor night saying Blessed be God Blessed be the glorious Majesty of heaven and earth whose power wisdom and goodness excel all praise and endure for ever And arise O God for the sighing of the poor and the needy let not the men of the earth always oppress them Psal 10.18 Let the salvation of thy people come out of thy holy place 14.7 Be thou exalted in thy own strength and so will we sing and praise thy power 21.13 Lord continue thy loving kindness unto those that know thee and thy righteousness to men of upright heart Let not the foot of pride come against them and let not the hand of the wicked remove them 36.10,11,12 O let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end but establish thou the just 7.9 Protect O Lord and defend that part of thy Church which thou hast planted in these Kingdoms Great and innumerable have been thy mercies to us but alas we are a stubborn and rebellious people a people that set not our heart aright and whose spirit hath not been stedfast with thee And therefore thou hast justly plagued us many ways and we should have but our deserts if thy hand should still be stretched out to punish us seven times more for our sins But what is man that thou shouldst take displeasure at him or what is a corruptible generation that thou shouldest be extreamly angry with them For in truth there is none among them but hath dealt wickedly and among the faithful there is none that hath not done amiss But in this O Lord thy righteousness and goodness shall be declared if thou be merciful to them which have not the confidence of good works Psal 78.8 2 Esdras 8.34,35,36 Psal 79 8,9 118.25 O be merciful unto us be merciful unto us and do not utterly forsake us O remember not against us former iniquities and that we have so soon forgot thy works and the wonderful deliverances which thou hast given us Help us O God of our salvation for the glory of thy name and deliver us and purge away our sins for thy names sake Fill us with thy wisdom from above that we may be heartily in love with the Religion which we profess and preserve us in it for ever Defeat the counsels of all its enemies and bring their wicked devices to nought Unite us to each other in brotherly love and make us at peace among our selves O let peace be within this Church Let them prosper that love her and seek her good Save now I beseech thee O Lord O Lord I beseech thee send now prosperity And for that end indue our Soveraign Lord the King with all the gifts and graces of thy holy Spirit Hear the daily prayers of thy Church for him that he may always incline to thy will and walk in thy way and study to preserve thy people committed to his charge in wealth peace and godliness Enlighten all our Bishops Priests and Deacons with true knowledge and understanding of thy Word and enable them both by their life and doctrine to set it forth and shew it accordingly Teach all our Counsellors and Senators wisdom and give all our Magistrates courage and zeal to excute Justice and to maintain Truth Vouchsafe to all thy people increase of grace to hear thy word with meekness and to receive it with pure and sincere affection and to bring forth the fruits of the spirit Give them honest and good hearts to honour and obey the King and all that are put in authority under him to submit themselves to all their Governours Teachers spiritual Pastors and Masters to order themselves lowly reverently to all their betters to be careful not to hurt one another by word or deed to be just and true in all their dealing to bear no malice nor hatred in their hearts to preserve themselves to temperance soberness and chastity not to covet one anothers goods but to learn and labour
beseech God to bestow upon us And therefore with a sincere hatred of all sin and a spirit armed with hearty resolution against it invoke the Divine Grace for your assistance If you be true Christian Souldiers that manfully fight under the banner of our Lord call to him for aid with your weapons in your hand With a mind bent to consider desire God to enlighten you And with an heart stored with the treasures of Divine Truth beseech him to quicken and enliven you And with close and urgent applications of them to your heart entreat him to enable you to form and shape your whole man spirit soul and body according to them For God is not hard to be entreated since he entreats us to come to him yea gives a great deal of his grace without asking but it is the faintness or inconstancy of our endeavours to comply with his grace and our own petitions that makes them no more prevalent They that had no other Director but the light of their own minds saw this well enough and were so sensible of this truth that they were wont publickly to declaim as we find in Aristides his Oration to the Rhodians concerning Concord against the absurd folly of those who were perpetually importuning the Gods with their Prayers but would do nothing for themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. no not those things which they knew the Gods had put in their power And in the same manner Demosthenes in one of his Philippicks chides the Greeks comparing them to men who seeing great Hail-stones fall upon their heads prayed that they might be preserved in safety but would not run away to secure themselves from harm And therefore Clemens Alexandrinus Lib. 7. Strom. justly commends the wisdom of those who made the Laws of the famous Olympick Combats By which he that entred the lists having for a long time before exercised his body to feats of activity was ordered before he began to contend for the Prize to stand right over against the Statue of Jupiter and to say this Prayer O God if I am in all regards duly fitted and prepared as I ought for this Combate vouchsafe in thy righteous judgement to grant the victory to me Even so saith he may a man chearfully approach to God who faithfully and with a good conscience doth all that he can both to learn his will and to exercise himself in good works that are pleasing to him for he shall have all that can be wisht for the perfecting of his Salvation Just as a Physician as he goes on restores health to those who cooperate with his medicines so will God give his eternal salvation to them who work together with him both unto knowledge and unto well doing As for those who do not live well it is plain saith he in another place Lib. 6. Strom. that they do not so much as know what things are most profitable for themselves And if so then it is manifest likewise that they cannot tell how to pray to God to receive good things from him being ignorant of what is good Or if they should receive them they would have no sense at all of the gift nor use it according to its worth and dignity and that for the very same reason because they understand not its value Inspire therefore O God of all Grace I most humbly beseech thee both my heart and the hearts of all others who shall read this Book with such a godly will to endeavour zealously in all things to do what is well pleasing in thy sight that we may comfortably expect the constant and powerful presence of thy holy Spirit with us to help us in the performance of our duty till we have perfected holiness in thy fear And the sincerity of that love to thee which we profess in our Prayers being testified by an unwearied observance of all thy commands we may be able also to wait with an humble confidence for thy salvation who hast graciously promised to reward our weak and short obedience in this life with inconceiveable and endless joys in a better World Amen Imprimatur Sam. Parker R mo in Christo Patri ac Domino D no. Gilberto Archiep. Cantuar. à sac Dom. Ex Aedib Lambeth Octob. 21. 1672. ERRATA PAge 41. line 8. read abundant p. 50. l. 3. for thou r. the. p. 51. l. 11. r. consecrate p. 84. l. 9. r. devote p. 92. l. 24. r. children p. 135. penult dele to p. 258. l. 7. for who r. thou p. 265. l. 8. for bountiful r. beautiful p. 495. l. 5. r. every one PRAYERS FOR FAMILIES On the LORDS DAY In the MORNING ALmighty and Eternal God the Lord of heaven and earth we thy creatures are here prostrate before thee to express our humble and grateful sense of our dependence on thee to honour thee with our Praises and Thanksgivings and an hearty oblation of our selves our souls and bodies to thy service We are unworthy we confess to be admitted to speak unto thy Majesty nor can our thoughts or words add any thing to thy greatness happiness and glory but since thou art pleased in thy infinite goodness to do us the honour not only to admit but to invite our addresses unto thee that our spirits may be bettered by lifting up themselves to thee from whom we come by meditating thy praises by exciting our love and praying our acknowledgements to thee we most humbly and thankfully receive this thy great grace and favour towards us Remembring withal that it is but just and reasonable we should pay thee our vows which we made the last night being so graciously raised up in soundness of body and mind to see the light of this day which our Saviour hath made that we may be glad and rejoyce therein We laud and magnifie therefore thy most holy Name thy infinite Power Wisdom and Bounty which all the world proclaims with the highest praises We bless thee in behalf of all thy creatures as well as of our selves to whom thou hast given dominion over the works of thy hands for Psal 145.15,16 the eyes of all look unto thee and thou givest them their meat in due season Thou openest thy hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing But above all we acknowledge thy inestimable benefits bestowed upon mankind in Christ Jesus the Son of thy Love whom thou wast pleased in thy infinite mercy to send among us in our own likeness to assure us of thy good will towards us and to instruct us in our duty towards thee and to give us hope of no less than immortal life by patient continuance in well doing We remember with all thankfulness his miraculous Birth at which the Angels rejoyced his most holy Life his bitter Agony and bloudy Death his glorious Resurrection upon this day from the grave his Ascension into the heavens to fit on the right hand of the Majesty on high his Triumph over all the powers of
darkness and his Sovereign Dominion over all Angels Authorities and Powers whom thou hast made subject to him 1 Pet. 3. ult O God how great was thy love to the sinful sons of men which moved thee to pass by such innumerable offences whereby they had provoked thy severest displeasure How great was that love which hath honoured our mortal nature with so high a glory and committed the care of our immortal souls to one so mighty to save and so full of kindness and most tender charity toward us O the greatness of thy love which hath chosen us to be thy sons and heirs together with Christ Jesus and set such an high Priest over thy house and family to make intercession for us to dispense all divine blessings to us and send forth Angels themselves to be Heb. 1. ult ministring spirits for them who shall be heirs of salvation Who can understand the exceeding riches of thy grace in sending the holy Ghost to be a witness of our Saviours Resurrection and Exaltation and to make us abound in hope Rom. 15.13 that we shall be one day raised from the dead and carried to heaven and keep a perpetual rest after our short labours here with our blessed Lord and Master in his eternal glory O that we could begin it this day in devout Meditations of these things in unspeakable joy and satisfaction of heart in the assured hope and expectation of them and in blessing and praising thee who hast given us such good hope and everlasting consolation Lift up our minds we pray thee this morning above all these little things here below which are apt to distract our thoughts and turn away our eyes from that heavenly bliss And keep them above in the serious contemplation of it till we be in love with it and our hearts be fully bent and resolved to seek it every day in those ways wherein Jesus hath gone before us though it should be with the loss of all that we here possess It is but meet and fit that we should wholly quit our own will and devote our selves to follow thine especially since thou hast shown such unusual kindness towards us as if we had been innocent we durst not have presumed to expect from thee We are asham'd O Lord to think that ever we have disobeyed thee to whom we stand so deeply indebted both as we are thy creatures and as we are redeemed by the precious bloud of thy Son Jesus It grieves us that we have transgressed any of thy righteous and good Laws by which it is our happiness as well as our duty to be govern'd We abhorr the thoughts of ever breaking them any more beseeching not only thy gracious pardon but thy acceptance of our intire resolution to agree with thy Will in all things for the time to come We here again most solemnly dedicate all the powers of our souls and bodies to thy service desiring unfeignedly that all the thoughts and designs of our minds all the affections and passions of our hearts and all the actions of our life and conversation may be pure holy and unreproveable in thy sight For which end we most humbly implore the assistance of thy good spirit which our Lord hath incouraged us to hope thou wilt give to those that ask and seek it with their whole heart O let thy mercy be upon us according to thy word according as our hope is in thee and our hearts sincerely and stedfastly set to keep thy Commandments Psal 139.23,24 Search us O God and know our hearts try us and know our thoughts And see if there be any way of wickedness in us and lead us in the way everlasting Fill our minds with awful and reverend thoughts of thee as our Sovereign Lord and Judge Settle in us an immutable love to thee and the highest esteem of thy favour and grace as better than life it self That so we may study above all things to approve our very hearts and all our actions to thee and feel the sense of thy acceptance of us giving us greater pleasure than all the world can afford us Make it our delight to praise thee to call to mind thy loving kindness to offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving and to meditate on thy pretious promises Help us to Luk. 21.34 take heed to ourselves lest our hearts be at any time overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the inordinate cares of this life Heb. 13.5 To have our conversation without covetousness and to be content with such things as we have 1 Thess 4.4 To possess our bodies in sanctification and honour Rom 13.9 To love our neighbours as our selves Matth. 7.12 And as we would that others should do to us to do even so to them Rom. 12.18 To live peaceably as much as in us lyeth with all men 1 Pet. 3.4 To put on the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit Jam. 5.12 To take those who have spoken in the name of our Lord for an example of suffering affliction and of patience 1 Pet. 4.16 And when we suffer as Christians not to be ashamed but to glorifie thee our God on this behalf And accept good Lord of all the praises and acknowledgements of all thy people met this day together according to thy Will and assist us to render thee still more hearty and affectionate praises in that holy Assembly to which we are going to joyn our selves O that all people on the face of the earth were united together likewise in one body to shew forth thy praise O that thy way were known upon earth thy saving health among all Nations And that all Christian Kings especially may be filled with thy holy Spirit and think it their Crown and their Glory to be the devout worshippers and faithful subjects of the Lord Jesus the King of kings and the Lord of lords Psal 132.9 O that thy priests may be cloathed with righteousness and thy Saints shout aloud for joy That all who are in distress and misery may rejoyce also in hope that all afflictions shall turn to their good and Heb. 12.11 afterwards yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness O Lord hear us and make thy face to shine upon thy servants that we may enter into thy gates with thanksgiving and into thy courts with praise that we may be thankful unto thee and bless thy Name 100.4,5 For the Lord is good his mercy is everlasting and his truth endureth to all generations Our Father c. At Night O Lord most high the Holy One who inhabitest Eternity who only hast immortality and art most blessed in thy own incomprehensible perfections Thou art to be feared and loved and worshipped and praised by us and all reasonable creatures who have any knowledge how great how mighty how wise and merciful thou art All thy works praise thee O Lord and we more especially ought to bless thee whom thou hast
they may spare the poor and needy and save and redeem their soul from deceit and violence and their bloud may be precious in their sight Bless these Kingdoms wherein we live and as thou hast long continued to us the knowledge of thy Truth so give us grace to bring forth fruit becoming the Gospel that thou mayst not cut us down as barren trees which cumber the ground Lord save the King and establish his Throne in righteousness that we may see many happy days under his government and be Psal 90.15 comforted now after the time that thou hast plagued us and for the years wherein we have suffered adversity Prosper the pious endeavours of all those that faithfully feed and instruct thy people and increase the number of them O that the seed which hath been sown this day may take deep root in all our hearts and bring forth fruit abundantly that being not Jam. 1.25,26 forgetful hearers but doers of the work we may be all blessed in our deed Help us in all the week following to Psal 141.3,4 set a watch before our mouth and to keep the door of our lips Preserve us that our heart incline not to any evil thing to practise wicked works with men that work iniquity but we may be always 1 Pet. 3.13 followers of that which is good 1 Thess 4.1 and as we have received how we ought to walk and please thee our God so we may abound more and more Protect us we beseech thee and all our friends every where this night Grant us quiet and undisturbed rest and sleep and awaken in the morning these good thoughts and desires again in our hearts Joh. 15.7 that the words of our Saviour may abide in us and we in him till we come to endless life together with him by whom we are incouraged thus to address our selves unto thee and to continue to pray as he hath taught us in his holy Gospel saying Our Father c. A shorter form of Prayer for the Lords day Morning O Most holy eternally Blessed Deut. 10.14 The heaven and the heaven of heavens is thine the earth also with all that therein is Thou art every where and canst not be excluded from any place but art present to the greatest secrets of our souls and seest the closest and most retired thoughts of our hearts Thou knowest very well with what designs and affections we now bow our selves before thee and canst not be deceived by any words that we are able to speak in thy praise whilst our hearts are far from thy fear and love Behold O Lord our hearts are full with desires to be possessed with a mighty reverend sense of thee and all the benefits thou hast bestowed on us and to be lifted up to heaven in love to thee and joy in thee whilst we bless and praise thee and speak good of thy Name We here remember with all humility and thankfulness that thou art our Creator And acknowledge thy care and providence over thy ancient people in blessing and sanctifying a day wherein thou thy self restedst from thy works that they might cease from all other imployments and admire thy wonderful works extol thy power bless thy goodness and be astonished at thy wisdom in making preserving adorning and governing this excellent frame of the world The heavens declare thy glory O God and the firmament sheweth thy handy-work The Sun the Moon and all the host of Heaven proclaim the greatness and splendor of thy Majesty The Psal 104.24 whole earth is full of thy rich goodness so is the great and wide sea wherein are things moving innumerable both small and great living creatures There is nothing but what speaks of thee and above all the children of men whom thou hast wonderfully made and curiously wrought and impressed with thine own Image that they might understand thee and love thee in all and above all things The variety the order the stedfastness of all thy works in this great world abundantly utter thy adorable perfections But thou O Lord by thy goodness in giving thy Son for us and then raising him up from the dead and setting him at thy right hand hast given us new matter of wonder and praise and consecrated a better rest and holy-day of rejoycing wherein we should behold the glories of another world and have before our eyes the happiness thou intendest for us there together with all the excellent means which lead unto it Thou givest us occasion not only to reflect upon all the good things thou hast provided for our bodies which we can never acknowledge enough the very health and ease of one day deserving the thankfulness of many but we must also remember that we are thy redeemed ones and that thou hast done great things for our souls in thy Son Jesus who is entred into the heavens for us and gone to prepare a resting place for all those that follow him This exceeding riches of thy grace infinitely surpasses all our acknowledgements since all the praises we are able to render thee are less than is due for thy temporal blessings To this love we â—owe the knowledge of thee the true and only God our freedom from Idolatry and a vain conversation the true principles of holy living the benefit of repentance the promise of a pardon the assistance of thy holy Spirit the ministry of thy Angels the hope of immortal life and the pledges our Lord hath left us of his endless love To this we owe thy forbearance in the days of our ignorance thy unwearied patience towards us in a continued rebellion and thy earnest intreaties of us when we were passionately bent upon our own destruction Thou hast sent us in much love many holy Instructors and guides to blessedness We have had the benefit of sundry pious Sermons good Examples wholesome admonitions and serious counsels of the power of the Holy Ghost and divers restraints of fear and shame and love and thou still pursuest us with thy merciful kindness and beseechest us to attend to thy call and receive thy blessings and make thee our choice and be eternally happy in thy Divine favour and likeness What shall we render to the Lord for all his benefits towards us O help us to manifest our real and unfeigned desires to make some worthy returns to thee by our careful improvement of the holy opportunity which thou this day puttest into our hands O that our minds may be more inlightned to understand the truth as it is in Jesus that our wills may be more steadfastly resolved to cleave unto it that our affections may be excited to a stronger and more ardent love to thee and to a greater delight in thee and all the powers of our souls disposed to serve thee at all other times more cheerfully and readily in all the Duties of Piety Soberness Righteousness and Mercy So that every day may become an holy rest to the Lord by
to us Though we are not worthy we confess of the least regard from thee whom we have so much neglected and whose love and clemency we have too often abused yet we hope thou wilt accept of this small oblation which we make of our selves our souls and bodies with unfeigned devotion to thee Pardon and forgive us we most humbly beseech thee all our past offences the remembrance of which is grievous and bitter to us and vouchsafe us the grace of thy holy Spirit to enable us to do thy will with greater care and diligence for the time to come Let it ever accompany and assist us according as thou seest us sincerely desirous and studious to please thee in all the actions of an holy life in chastity and temperance justice and fidelity mercy and charity meekness and humility patience and contentedness â—nnocency and peace and in contiâ—ual prayers praises and thanksgiâ—ings to thee the Father of mercies in Christ Jesus our Lord. We see how frail and weak our bodies and all their enjoyments are and therefore we the more earnestly desire to have our souls inriched with those immortal treasures of thy Divine Grace O that we may never cease most zealously to seek and pursue them and that we may think our selves happy enough in the possession of them and may rejoyce in nothing so much as in Rom. 6.22 having our fruit unto holiness that in the end we may attain eternal life Suffer not our spirits to sink too deep into the love of any the dearest good that we have in this world But rather by all these earthly things which thy goodness affords to us for our support ease and delight raise our minds and hearts to those Celestial enjoyments which will yield us eternal pleasure and satisfaction Set our affections principally on things above Make us so wise as to provide our selves friends that never dye and to be still preparing our selves by all divine qualities for their company and society that so they may Luk. 16.9 receivs us when we remove hence into their everlasting habitations Thus now we commend our selves this day to thy most gracious protection guidance and blessing hoping that the same good providence which preserved us and our habitations the last night from fire and innumerable other dangers for which we thank thee will guard us this day from all evil and mischief and bring us in safety of soul and body to praise thee in the Evening Help us thankfully to receive and soberly to use all thy mercies quietly to do our own business and bear our several burdens to be just in our dealings innocent and harmless â—n our conversation well pleased â—ith the prosperity of our neighâ—ours desirous of the good of all â—he world especially that they may all love and honour and joyn â—ogether in magnifying and praising â—hee our Lord and Governour whose name is excellent in all the earth More particularly we implore thy mercies towards these Kingdoms wherein we live Remember not against us our high provocations Spare us good Lord and have patience with us if perhaps we may bring forth better fruit becoming thy holy Gospel and all the care thou hast taken about us Indue our Soveraign with much Wisdom from above that he may always discern what is most profitable for us and earnestly pursue it to the utmost of his power Bless him in his Relations in his Councellors in his Judges and all other Officers in all the Nobility Clergy Gentry and Commonal y of the Realm that every one of them may uprightly and zealously do their duty to the maintenance of thy true Religion and the increase of Piety Honesty and Brotherly love among us Comfort and relieve all those that are in any distress trouble or anguish either of body or of mind And give us tender and pitiful hearts towards them ready to help and ease them according to our abilities That we following the example of our merciful and compassionate High-Priest Christ Jesus may have now the benefit of his intercession for us and at last be admitted into the high and holy place where he is In whose blessed Name and words we conclude our Prayers Our Father c. At Night WE fall down before thee O Lord of heaven and earth and worship thee in the deepest humility of our souls acknowledging â—hat we are thy creatures who stand infinitely bound unto thee by innumerable blessings and favours which thou hast conferred upon us out of thy mere bounty and goodness We owe our lives to that alone and all the comforts of them together with all the hopes we have hereafter either in this world or the other And blessed for ever blessed be thy merciful kindness for giving such glorious hopes by the Lord Jesus By his Death and Resurrection by his Ascension and being inthroned at thy right hand and by the coming of the Holy Ghost to be a witness of his Majesty and Glory We rejoyce O Lord in that great salvation which thou hast sent unto us and cannot but be still praising thee whose love hath so abounded towards us beyond all our thoughts and desires Pardon we most humbly beseech thee out of the same grace and mercy all our past neglects of thee our insensibleness of thy benefits our carelesness or inconstancy in our obedience and particularly whatsoever we have done or omitted this day contrary to those holy purposes and resolutions wherein we stand ingaged to thee And vouchsafe us the assistance of thy holy Spirit to inable us to perform those vows better which here we renew of greater gratitude and more chearful and steadfast obedience to thy divine Majesty for the time to come Awaken our minds to frequent and serious reflections upon thy undeserved and most bountiful mercies towards us Touch our hearts with such an ingenuous and dutiful sense of them that our wills may be overcome to yield themselves wholly and absolutely to thee And that we may feel them constantly provoked to love and good works help us ever to set our Lord and Master by whose name we are called before our eyes and to admire his unspotted purity his condescending humility his tender-hearted charity his meekness of wisdom his hearty trust in thee and resignation to thee his forgiveness of injuries his patience under reproaches and cruel torments his peaceable and contented spirit his acknowledging thee in all things and ever seeking thy Honour and Glory That being in love with all these and valuing them more than life it self we may never cease our indeavours till this Image of our dear Lord and Master be formed in our hearts O Lord Jesus favourably behold these holy desires wherewith our souls aspire towards thee Preserve and maintain them incourage and increase them make them restless and unwearied till they be accomplished in the injoyment of this great blessedness Thou who hast begun a good work in us finish and compleat it we most humbly and earnestly beseech
never dye nor languish in our hearts but be kept alive in their vigour and force by the perpetual inspirations of the holy Ghost We wait upon thee for that promise of our Saviour to assist and promote our sincere indeavours to preserve our souls unblameable in the love of thee our God and of all mankind We heartily desire the prosperity and welfare of every one of them as well as our own O that they were all so wise and happy as to acknowledge and submit themselves to thee by obeying thy holy Laws Especially we desire that all Kings and Princes may become our Saviours Subjects and conforming themselves to his will may be rendred thereby most excellent examples to all other men Indue our Soveraign with abundance of the Spirit of counsel and judgement and the fear of our Lord. Make him happy in wise and faithful Ministers in loyal and peaceable Subjects and in the good success of all his enterprises for the honour of Religion and his peoples tranquillity We commend to thy mercies all our friends relations and benefactors desiring that all who have done us good may be requited an hundred fold here and obtain at last eternal life And all that have done evil to us as we heartily forgive them so we earnestly desire they may obtain thy gracious pardon Together with these we remember likewise all that are in affliction whatsoever it be either of soul or body to whom we wish ease and comfort and seasonable relief that they may rejoyce in the end for the days wherein they have seen adversity In these holy thoughts and desires we now are bold to commend our selves to thy protection this night who hast preserved and blessed us we most thankfully acknowledge all the day past We repose our selves in the belief of thy good providence with which we intrust our selves and all belonging to us We would lay down our selves to sleep with hearts full of love to thee and humble faith and hope in thee Desiring we may awake again in the same manner and find that we are still with thee Dispose us good Lord by the rest thou givest us always to serve thee more zealously with our renewed spirits that after the few days and nights we have to pass in this world we may come to thy eternal rest together with Christ Jesus In whose blessed name and words we still recommend our selves to thy mercies Our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy kingdom â—ome Thy will be done in earth as it â—s in heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our â—respasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from â—vil c. PRAYERS FOR FAMILIES FRIDAY MORNING O God most blessed for ever whose the world is and the fulness thereof who needest not any thing that we can give thee for thou givest us whatsoever we injoy We prostrate our selves before thee to make such poor expressions as we are able of the sense we have of thine infinite bounty to us It is but fit and meet that we should acknowledge and praise thee though we can thereby add nothing unto thee It is our happiness to have a grateful remembrance of thy goodness to us and to be knit unto thee in hearty love and dutiful affection all the days of our life We thank thee therefore O Lord of heaven and earth who hast loaded us continually with thy benefits They are great and many more than we can number both towards our bodies and towards our souls for the comfort of this life and our everlasting Salvation in the Life to come For ever adored be thy love in Christ Jesus who hath given us an undoubted testimony of thy fatherly care and providence over us and incouraged us though we have offended thee to address our selves to thee with good hope of thy gracious acceptance of us into friendship with thee again We love thee O Lord above all things We freely offer our spirits souls and bodies to thee with most sincere devotion and the heartiest affection to thy service There is nothing we desire and long for so much as to have a lively sense of thy marvailous love always possessing our hearts that may still constrain us to love thee to obey thee to trust in thee to be content with the portion thy love allots unto us and to rejoyce even in the midst of all the troubles of this life We cannot chuse O Lord when we seriously think of what thou hast done for us but absolutely commit our selves to thee intirely confide in thee for the time to come Since thou hast Rom. 8.32 not spared thy own Son but delivered him up for us all how shalt thou not with him also freely give us all things We depend upon thee especially for the grace of thy holy Spirit for the power of which in our hearts exciting these holy desires and godly resolutions we most humbly thank thy divine Majesty O that we may feel it perpetually bearing us up by the strength of our most holy faith and by the power of love and hope above all the temptations which at any time assault us That we may keep our selves unspotted from the world and no appetite of pleasure of glory or of riches may ever carry us from our duty but we may still cleave to thee in Righteousness Purity Humility Charity and all other divine vertues of which our Lord hath given us so great an example For his sake we hope for a favourable acceptance of these our praises acknowledgements and prayers For we must be still beholden to thine infinite goodness for the least regard to any thing that we can do who are but unprofitable servants And we wait upon the same goodness for thy blessing to accompany us all this day that we may do nothing but what we know is pleasing to thee and may be so prospered protected and assisted by thine Almighty power that we may return with our hearts full of love and thankfulness to thee in the evening again to praise and magnifie thy continued kindness to us Unto which we commend most heartily the rest of mankind desiring that they may all know thee the true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent whom to know is eternal life And O that all Christians would walk worthy of thy high and heavenly Calling that others seeing their good works may be invited thereby to acknowledge and glorifie thee our heavenly Father More particularly we desire the increase of wisdom and goodness to all Christian Kings and Princes and a plentiful portion of the Spirit of thy Grace to all Christian Bishops Priests and Deacons that they may be eminent instruments of thy honour and their peoples good by the authority of their Doctrine and godly Example Make our Soveraign and us all happy in each other by the faithful discharge of our several duties in the places wherein thy
deliver us from evil c. PRAYERS For particular PERSONS A Prayer for the Morning to be said by any Person alone O Most holy blessed and glorious Majesty of heaven and earth Who art before all things because they all received their being from thee and who art of thy self infinite in all perfections Before thee who art so great and incomprehensible I most humbly prostrate my self this Morning rejoycing in this happy liberty which thou vouchsafest me of retiring my thoughts a little from this world to look up unto thee the Father of my being I adore and praise thy eternal Power Wisdom and Goodness I heartily acknowledge the duty which I owe thee both as I am thy creature and as I am a Christian I bewail all my neglects of it my backwardness unto it or coldness in it I intreat thy gracious pardon and ingage my self for the time to come more heartily and firmly to thy obedience beseeching the grace of thy holy Spirit to inable me to perform all those ingagements which are upon me And blessed be thy Fatherly goodness which hath so often prevented me with that grace I owe to it all the good thoughts and inclinations that are in my heart all those motions that I feel in my soul towards thee as my chiefest good with all the effects and fruits of them in my life and actions which incourage me to hope in thee for the constant help of it to further me in well doing unto the end O thou who hast sent thy Son from heaven to dwell among us who hast not spared his life but given him up for us all who hast raised him from the dead and made him heir of all things who hast given him all power in heaven and earth that he may bless us and do us good deny not the desires of a soul that offers up it self intirely in sincere affection to thy service But assist me so mightily from above that I may make thee my constant acknowledgements likewise for the sensible fruits of his Life Death Resurrection and Exaltation produced in my heart growing more and more in all Wisdom Righteousness Purity Humility Goodness and every other divine Vertue For which end preserve me alway in such a serious temper of mind that the sense of my duty to thee may make me always ready and forward to it and the sense of my weakness may make me watchful and diligent and the sense of my former negligence make me fervent in spirit and the goodness of thy commands may render me more fruitful and abundant in the work of our Lord and the great danger I have escaped and the blessedness before me may make me persevere most patiently in all well doing with joy and thankfulness So that I may be like to Christ Jesus my gracious Lord and Master and do him honour here in this world and walk worthy of the great priviledges he hath bestowed on me and make grateful returns for all the vast receipts I have had from thy most bounteous mercy O that all my acknowledgements and pious affections may be turned into actions of holiness and piety and all my actions may be spirited with zeal and all my zeal be regulated with prudence and my prudence be void of all guile and joyned with perfect integrity of heart that adorning my most holy faith and profession by a religious upright charitable and discreet conversation whilst I am here I may receive approbation and praise at the day of the Lord Jesus and be numbered among thy Saints in glory everlasting This O Lord is the sum of all my desires Dispose me by every thing that befals me for eternal life and it sufficeth I wholly leave my concerns in this life to the wisdom of thy goodness that thou mayst order what thou judgest to be fittest for me I trust thee with my self and all I have hoping thou wilt preserve me from all things hurtful and lead me to all things profitable for my salvation The like I wish to all the world that unbelievers may be translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of thy dear Son and they who are called by the name of Christ may depart from all iniquity Inspire all Kings and Princes of the earth with great wisdom and charity and make them like to thee the Lord of all who art good unto all and pleased in mercy Indue all our Pastors and Guides with true knowledge piety and zeal and give me and all Christian people grace to receive their instructions with a meek humble and obedient heart Thou knowest the sorrows troubles and perplexities of all afflicted persons for whom I implore thy compassionate relief Support them with a lively faith and hope in thy precious promises dispose them thereby to a more strict observance of thy holy Commands and convert their present sufferings into endless joys when they have brought forth the peaceable fruit of righteousness And whilst thou art pleased to continue to me that ease plenty and prosperity which I enjoy fill me with such a sense of thy undeserved goodness that I may be the more ready to do good to those who are in misery and by a sober and moderate use of thy blessings be prepared to endure patiently whatsoever change thou shalt be pleased to order for me into a worse condition Preserve me all this day in innocence and in love to thee and to all men And since in all my ways I acknowledge thee do thou direct my paths and teach me to guide my affairs with discretion Prov. 3.6 Psal 112.5 Thou art my hope and my confidence my satisfaction and my peace my glory and my joy therefore never leave me not forsake me but conduct me safely by thy counsel through all the businesses and enjoyments through all the temptations and troubles of this life to that blessed place where our Lord Jesus liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the same spirit world without end Amen Our Father c. A Prayer for the Evening O Lord the Creator of the world and the Redeemer of mankind Who knowest all things and canst do what thou pleasest and wilt do that which is best for thy children and hast done us a world of good already and promised to do more for us if we be obedient than we can ask or think and hast given us the greatest assurance of the truth of those promises by thy Son Jesus who dyed for us and whom thou hast raised from the dead and given him the promise of the holy Ghost which he hath poured forth abundantly to shed abroad thy love in our hearts I fall down before thee in the lowliest manner to express my fear and reverence of thy Almighty Power my admiration of and submission to thy unsearchable wisdom my hearty love and thankful acknowledgement of thy wondrous goodness my trust and confidence in thy faithful Promises with my readiness and sincere purposes to perform all obedience
lords who only hast immortality and designest by thy Son Jesus to raise us sinful dust and ashes to a kingdom glory honour and immortality in the heavens I most earnestly beseech thee that this sense of thee may accompany me wheresoever I go and in whatsoever I do this day That approving my self to thee in such a godly sober righteous charitable and prudent behaviour as may adorn the Gospel of my Lord and Master Christ Jesus I may have a greater assurance of thy good will towards me and an undoubted hope of thy mercy in him to eternal life In whose most blessed name and words I humbly recommend my self my friends and all thy servants to thy infinite charity saying as he hath taught us Our Father c. Another for the Evening BLessing Glory Honour and Praise be again returned to thee O Father of mercy from a most thankful heart which offers up it self also in holy devotion to thee Who art my Soveraign Lord my most loving Saviour my Deliverer and Benefactor the Fountain of all the good things I enjoy at present and the hope of my soul for ever and ever Blessed be thy renewed kindness to me this day past both to my self and my relations to my soul and my body in my transactions with men and in the liberty thou allowest me of addresses to thy self Pardon good Lord whatsoever hath escaped me in thought word or deed contrary to my duty And accept of those sincere intentions and unfeigned purposes which were and I hope shall always be in my heart to study to approve my self to thee in all well doing It is but just and reasonable that I should follow thy will and not my own and in a grateful sense of what I have received from thee I ought to be moved to imploy all the powers of my soul and body for thee But such is the goodness of thy will that it is for my ease and pleasure and greatest happiness to be absolutely led and governed by it I am sensible O Lord how much I am indebted to thee for teaching me by Christ Jesus and also strongly obliging me to exercise my self to all godliness purity righteousness humility goodness and truth And accordingly I thank thee above all things for his holy instructions and example for the hope thou hast given us by his bloud that thou wilt be so merciful to our sins as not to deny us the power of thy holy Spirit to inable us to follow him and obey his commands and for that exceeding great and precious promise which he hath given us of immortal life to incourage us to follow him willingly and chearfully even to the death O that I may feel a lively and steadfast faith in his Word continually working with great power in my heart exciting me to an unwearied diligence and zeal and love and patient continuance in my duty towards thee and towards all men That so my hope in thee may grow and increase and I may joyfully expect that hour which shall translate me hence to the eternal happiness of the other world And during my stay here I commend my self to thy good providence which hath hitherto been so tender of me I trust thee wholly with my self and all belonging to me and am willing in every thing to be disposed of as thou seest good This night 〈◊〉 fly unto thy Almighty protection hoping thou wilt keep me safely and whether I awake in this or the other life I shall still be praising thee whose Mercy endureth for ever Amen for Christ Jesus his sake by whom thou hast incouraged me to hope in thee and taught me to call thee father saying Our 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 c. THat time which is wont to be spent in the Church in talking or looking about before Divine Service begin may be better imployed in private Prayer to dispose us to joyn with greater seriousness in the Publick And indeed our business being there with God alone and that place being separated to his service only the custom which now universally prevails of entertaing discourse one with another is very undecent to say no worse and ought to be reformed We have other times and places enow to confer with our neighbours and therefore have no temptation to pervert the use of this which is set apart for devout intercourse with God and none else by speaking to him in Prayer and Praises and hearing him speak to us in his holy Word It is fit to silence all other speech and therefore here follow some helps for that purpose which I hope all good Christians will indeavour to use or imitate and not despise this loving admonition Private PRAYERS IN THE CHVRCH A short Prayer before Divine Service begins BEhold O Lord of heaven and earth a Soul prostrate before thee desirous to be filled with such an awful sense of thy divine Majesty that no other thing may interpose it self while I am in thy presence Fix my inconstant thoughts in a steadfast attention to thy most holy Word Inspire me with devout affections when I set forth thy praise and render thanks for all thy benefits And excite in me such fervent desires for all those things which I ask of thee that I may feel my self better disposed by these addresses to thee to every Christian duty the rest of this day through Christ Jesus our Lord and Saviour Amen Another IN an humble and thankful sense of thine infinite goodness which honoureth us so much as to speak to us and gives us leave to speak to thee I bow down my self before thee O most high and holy Lord the Creator of the world desiring my mind may be possessed with such great thoughts of thee whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain and who openest thy hand and fillest all things with good that I may most reverently worship thee and affectionately acknowledge thy bounty and set my heart open to receive thy holy Word and my mouth may praise thee with joyful lips Silence all other thoughts and desires in me while I am here in thy presence And lift up my heart so towards heaven that I may feel it united to that glorious company above who perpetually praise thee and rejoyce in thee and do thy Commandments hearkning to the voice of thy Word Which I humbly beg in the name of Christ Jesus which is ever dear unto thee and by whom thou hast promised to hear us Amen Or those words of the Prophet David which you read Psal 5.7 17.1 118.28 119.47,48 c. may be a little altered in this manner IN the multitude of thy mercy I am come into thy house and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy
diligent more earnest and solicitous more humble and distrustful of my self and more fervent to implore the powerful succours of thy divine Grace O that it may be as natural to me to pray to thee as it is to breath And thou who fillest the hungry with good things pour into me life and strength and vigor in a constant dependance on thee and an hearty indeavour to do thy will Ephes 3.16 Strengthen me with might by thy spirit in the â—inner man That notwithstanding the strongest temptations wherewith I may be assaulted and notwithstanding the weakness and feebleness of my own spirit to resist them I may persevere couragiously in well doing unto the end and finish my course with joy and lay my self down to rest in an holy hope that I shall enter into a state of safety and security from all danger and remain for ever in the joy of our Lord. Amen A Prayer for the Divine Grace O Most blessed God the high and mighty One who inhabitest eternity and art what thou always wast and ever wilt be the mosâ— perfect power wisdom goodnesâ— and truth the fountain of all thâ— perfections that are in us We oughâ— to address our selves to thee in the greatest humility of spirit having nothing to present thee withal which we can call our own being unable by all our righteousness to profit thee who standest in need of none of thy creatures But alas O Lord we have robbed thee of that which we have received from thee and are so far from giving thee any thing of ours that we have not returned to thee that which is thine O the miserable condition therefore into which we have brought our selves who are not so much as fit to receive any more from thy divine bounty and which is worse have been too unwilling to partake of thy favours O thy infinite love in Christ Jesus which hath bestowed the richest grace upon us whether we would or â—o Thou hast honoured our naâ—ure with thy divine presence dwelâ—ing in it Thou hast delivered him â—o dye for our sins Thou hast given us 〈◊〉 blessed hope in thee by his Resurâ—ection from the dead Thou hast â—nt him to bless us in turning every one of us from our iniquities Act. 3.26 And given him all power in heaven and earth that he may succour and strengthen us when we are tempted and enable us to overcome I thank thee with all my soul for this abundant grace so freely and undesired conferred upon us Which incourages me to hope in thee now that thou inclinest my heart towards thee and hast given me a thankful sense of thy love and some will to obey thee and holy resolutions to cleave unto thee in well doing that thou wilt not deny me the constant assistance of that good Spirit which our Saviour hath bid us ask of thee to strengthen confirm and settle what thou hast begun to do for me in a perfect love and stedfast obedience to all thy holy commands O God of all grace and might the root of our life and power and strength without whom all good desires and purposes wither and die withdraw not the sweet influences of thy holy Spirit from thy unworthy servant who intirely confides in thee and hath no hope but in thy infinite Mercies Remember not against me former iniquities let not my late back-sliding and return to folly cut me off from the communication of thy grace which is wont to press into those souls that open themselves to receive it and seriously thirst after it My soul thirsteth for thee O God that I may be more firmly united to thee and be made more exactly like thee in unchangeable righteousness purity and goodness Cherish and increase the most faint but sincere motions which thou seest in me towards a more compleat participation of thee And especially preserve in me a full confidence in thy Almighty Love as ready to accomplish the desires and indeavours of all those who yield up themselves unto it in hearty willingness to be governed by it That being born up by this strong hope in thee my helper and exceeding great reward no temptation may be able to prevail over me but I may walk stedfastly and evenly with thee in all conditions and circumstances of life Make me feel so much of the comfort of this faith and love and hope and obedience reviving me to a delightful sense of a blessed immortality that whatsoever allurements or discouragements I meet withal in this world they may only provoke me to give a greater proof of all these in a constant adherence to my duty and occasion the increase of my unspeakable joy and satisfaction And inlarge my heart thereby to such a measure of Christian piety that I may not only be innocent and harmless but forward also to do good and not only be contented with my portion but rejoyce in our Lord alway and rejoyce not only to do thy will but to suffer also for righteousness sake knowing that great shall be my reward in heaven Bless my indeavours to add to faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience 2 Pet. 1.5,6,7,10,11 and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity That doing these things I may never fall But an entrance may be ministred to me abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Amen A short Prayer when any man's occasions call him to a place where he fears danger O Almighty God who art every where and more especially present to those souls that look up unto thee with an high esteem of thy favour and grace and with hearty desires to continue in thy love by patient continuance in well doing In this humble faith in thy Divine goodness and with a due fear and reverence of thy glorious Majesty I prostrate my soul and body before thee to put my self into thy most gracious protection and to beg the powerful assistance of thy holy Spirit to preserve me wheresoever I am in a dutiful observance of all thy holy commands I am sensible O Lord that we live in a world of temptations and that our nature is weak and ready to yield to them and that our affections are apt to wander after vanity and that sudden passions oftentimes transport us from our duty But I know withal that a sense of thy all-seeing eye and of the life to come and of the rewards and punishments which thou wilt render according to our works will certainly overawe all sinful motions in me and break the force of the strongest temptations that assault me And therefore the greater the danger is the more earnestly I sue unto thee to be possessed with a piercing sense and lively remembrance of these things which may abide with me alway and especially this day in every place and company into which I shall come O that I may not be so forgetful
of thee and of my own good as for the small and momentany pleasures of this world to hazard the loss of those great and eternal joys which we expect in the other life But enable me O most gracious God so to behave my self that when I have passed through all the imployments and occasions of this day I may bring my self back again into thy presence so pure and undefiled that I may begin those joys which are to come in chearful praises of thee and in a comfortable sense that thou dwellest in me and art leading me by thy holy Spirit to immortal happiness through Christ Jesus Amen A Prayer for serious and effectual Consideration the better to establish all good resolutions O Most glorious Majesty of heaven and earth who art above the highest of all our thoughts and much more beyond all our words But that thou art great and mighty we know by thy works of wonder which we behold And the admirable disposure and government of all things tell us that thou art infinitely wise and knowest all things We see how good thou art by the large provision which thou hast made for all thy creatures every where Thy Precepts teach us how just and holy thou art and by thy Promises we know that thou art gracious and bountiful and by thy Threatnings that thou hatest iniquity and by thy executing of both that thou art faithful and true and wilt save the godly and punish evil doers When we consider all this we may justly wonder at our selves that we should not fear thee and reverence thee and love thee and seek thy love and favour above all things by studying to please thee in universal obedience to thy blessed will which designs to imploy thy Almighty Power to make us so great so happy and so glorious And there is no other reason I see why we are no better affected towards thee but because our thoughts are exceeding short and light and vain and we so seldom consider and deeply ponder what we confess thou art and in what relation we stand to thy Divine Majesty Vouchsafe therefore O God of all grace to awaken my mind to a more lively and stedfast remembrance of thee my Creator my Redeemer my daily Benefactor and my most loving and tender-hearted Father in Christ Jesus O that no day may pass without some serious and considerate thoughts of those things which so nearly concern my everlasting welfare And by thy powerful presence with me inlighten my mind to a clearer sense of them Quicken and inliven that sense I humbly beseech thee and make it so strong and moving that it may press upon my heart and affections till it overcome me to surrender soul and body absolutely unto thee Pardon all my former neglects of thee and let them not hinder the influences of thy holy Spirit upon me by which I may be changed into thy image and likeness Sanctifie my understanding that I may rightly conceive thy holy Truths and fully apprehend them Sanctifie my memory that I may keep in mind all that I know of thee and of thy blessed will revealed to us in Christ Jesus Sanctifie my will that I may chearfully imbrace and intirely consent to thine in all things And sanctifie all my affections that I may love thee with all my heart and soul and strength and delight in thee more than in all the contentments of this life and hope more for thy glory than all worldly preferments and fear thee more than the greatest potentate upon earth and take more care for my soul and eternal things than for this body and all its momentany pleasures and hate all sin more than my greatest enemies yea help me to love mine enemies to do good to them that do evil to me to bless them that curse me and pray for them that despightfully use me For which end sanctifie all my Passions that I may be angry at nothing so much as that I have displeased thee and in an holy indignation at my self and in revenge of my former negligence and disobedience may be more strict and severe in the performance of all my duty for the time to come Sanctifie me throughout in body as well as spirit that I may possess it in holiness and honour and all my senses may administer occasions to my mind to remember thee to praise thee and to bless thee who every way so liberally providest for me Sanctifie all my conversation with others and all the imployments of this life that I may still be heavenly minded and have a respect to my last end and everlasting good Sanctifie all the blessings of health and strength and peace and plenty and friends yea and all the crosses and afflictions of this life that they may make me more serious and considerate and help more perfectly to purifie my spirit and dispose me for the happiness of the other world Raise me O Lord to such an exceeding great delight in these holy thoughts and meditations and entertain me with such a blissful sense of thee when I address my self unto thee that I may rather be unwilling to depart from thy presence than weary of conversing with thee And when I return to my other imployments again O that my mind may be often looking back towards thee my God my exceeding joy desirous to be always with thee and longing to enjoy thee in unchangeable love and perfect likeness to thee Unto which I most humbly beseech thee to bring me for thy mercies sake declared in Christ Jesus who lives for ever to make intercession for us Amen THe better to preserve a constant sense of God in the mind and pious dispositions in the heart Here follow certain short Ejaculations as we are wont to call them in which upon several occasions any man may lift up his soul to God And if he do it fervently may find it of great effect EJACVLATIONS When he awakes in the morning he may say I Laid me down and slept I awaked for the Lord sustained me Psal 3.5 How precious also are thy thoughts unto me O God how great is the sum of them If I would count them they are more in number than the sand when I awake I am still with thee Psal 139.17,18 When he is dressing himself O how bountiful is the ornament of a pure humble meek patient and charitable spirit Help me O God to put on the Lord Jesus in these and all other vertues When he goes into the Church or his Closet My heart is fixed O God my heart is fixed I will sing and give praise Psal 57.7 When he begins any business My help cometh from the Lord which â—ade heaven and earth Psal 121.2 The Lord Jesus Christ be with my spirit 2. Tim. 4.22 When he goes forth of his doors Hold thou up my goings in thy paths that my foot-steps slip not Psal 17.5 Order my steps in thy word and let not any iniquity have dominion over me 119.133 Give thy
and I will praise thy name for ever and ever for those exceeding great and precious promises which thou hast given us to support and comfort us in all the troubles of this life Increase my faith strengthen and confirm my hope lift up my spirit continually to that blessed place where Jesus is that I may rejoyce in hope of that immortal life when all tears shall be wiped from our eyes and there shall be no sighing nor sorrow any more but we * This clause to be used only in the loss of Friends or Relations who are now parted asunder shall meet together to acknowledge with eternal praises thy wise and merciful providence which by ways most contrary to our desires hath brought us to endless and undisturbed bliss Thou knowest O Lord the weakness and frailty of our nature and therefore vouchsafe me the constant assistance of thy good Spirit for which I depend upon thee to inable me to continue in this humble quiet and dutiful submission to thee waiting for that peaceable and joyful repose in the eternal rest which thou hast prepared for thy people through thy mercies in Christ Jesus By whom all glory honour love and obedience be rendred to thee by me and all mankind both now and for ever Amen A Prayer which a pious soul may use that is full of doubts and much troubled in mind O Lord 2 Cor. 1.3 the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort I acknowledge and adore thy eternal Power Wisdom and Goodness I render thee my most hearty thanks for all the benefits thou hast freely bestowed on me from my first coming into the world until this time Many O Lord my God are thy wonderful works which thou hast done and thy thoughts which are to us ward they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee Psal 40.5 if I would declare and speak of them they are more than can be numbred Above all I bless thee for that great demonstration of thy love and good will to mankind by Christ Jesus whom thou hast sent into the world to save sinners and for bringing me to the clear knowledge of him faith in him and some love I hope towards him and unfeigned affection to thy holy will declared to us in his blessed Gospel O God thou hast taught me from my youth up and hitherto been marvailously gracious to me Hide not I beseech thee thy face now from me and put not thy servant away in displeasure Thou hast been my help leave me not neither forsake me O God of my salvation But for Jesus Christ his sake I humbly intreat thee to pardon and pass by all my neglects of thee and unthankfulness to thee and offences against thee And as I here sincerely devote and dedicate my whole self soul and body to thy service so help me O my God and further me in the performance of my duty by the grace of thy holy Spirit To thee all hearts are open and from thee no secrets are hid deal with me according to the earnest desire and full purpose of my soul to conform my self in all things to thy holy Will Settle in me an unmoveable faith in thy infinite Mercies a constant love and chearful affection to my duty and a readiness of heart to obey thee and to submit to thy wise appointments in every condition The whole earth is full of thy Mercy thou openest thy hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing O refuse not the humble desires of my poor soul which gaspeth after thee even as the thirsty land Thou who givest to the Beasts their food and to the young Ravens when they cry O satisfie me early with thy Mercies that I may rejoyce and be glad all my days Compose my broken and disturbed thoughts quiet my troubled and disordered spirit and appease all the ragings and tumults there by a sweet sense of thy most tender mercies which have been ever of old and endure continually Banish from me all causless fears and jealousies deliver me from all unprofitable sadness and dejection of spirit keep me from rash judging of my self and much more from charging thee foolishly Bestow upon me a chearful spirit by an humble hope in thee and by referring my self wholly to thee Endue me with such wisdom and uprightness that I may neither neglect my duty nor suspect thy gracious acceptance of me Give me an hearty zeal to do the best that I am able and a setled perswasion that thou requirest no more of me Defend me O my gracious God from dishonouring thee and my Religion by distrusting thy goodness and calling thy loving kindness in question towards those that are sincerely bent to please thee Remove all troublesome imaginations from me and give me a clear understanding of thee and of my self Or when I am in darkness and confusion of thoughts grant me so much light and judgement as not to conclude my self forsaken by thee but to reflect upon thy long continued favours to me and many deliverances of me that so I may resolve still to hope in thee to bear my present trouble patiently and to resign my will absolutely to thy good pleasure And good Lord enable me to look beyond these clouds to that blessed state whither my Saviour is gone in which there is no darkness at all and in an humble hope of coming to the same place where he is to content my self with any condition whilst I am here so far remote from that Region of light and glory Hear me most loving and merciful Father I most humbly beseech thee Pitty my great dulness and deadness of heart Strengthen my weak and feeble endeavours Support my fainting spirit and cause it humbly to hope in thee for ever Confirm and establish every good thought desire and purpose which thou hast wrought in me Perfect that which thou hast begun Make me to grow in wisdom faith love and willing obedience Conduct me hereafter so evenly and steadily so peaceably and quietly so chearfully and securely in thy ways that I may glorifie thee whilst I live by incouraging others to accompany me in thy service And when I come to dye may resign my soul unto thee with an undisturbed mind and in an holy hope also of a joyful resurrection of the body at the great day of the Lord Jesus to whom be glory and dominion for ever Amen A Prayer to be said by others for one that is troubled in mind O God the only Hope the Refuge the Comfort and satisfaction of our souls Of whose Goodness and tender mercy all the world hath so many testimonies and we our selves have had such long experience that we are incouraged thereby though most unworthy to make this humble address to thy Divine Majesty Thou seest we know and pittiest the misery and torment of this afflicted spirit none of his * Or her sighs or groanings are hid from thee But to express also our charity and compassionate
unto her and her relations further favour Tob. 8.16 and finish their life in health with joy and mercy Renew her strength daily and as that increaseth so make her thankfulness and pious affections towards thee and serious resolutions to obey thee faithfully grow up together therewith Refresh her spirit while she lyeth on this bed of weakness with many heavenly thoughts and delightful meditations of all thy mercies towards her and towards mankind especially with a sense of thy wonderful love in Christ Jesus who was pleased to be born of a woman and to become like one of us that we might be assured of thy care over us in every condition and be made thy children and at last be heirs of everlasting life And when she hath recovered her former strength make her to feel this love still more powerful in her heart exciting her to serve thee carefully in all righteousness sobriety modesty devotion and readiness to assist others especially the poor and needy in the same distress wherein she hath been her self We commend likewise this little one which thou hast blessed her withal unto thy tender care and fatherly love beseeching thee that it may live to be dedicated unto thee and to be instructed in the knowledge of thee and to praise thee as we now do for bringing it into the world and for making it partakeâ—… likewise of thy grace in Christ Jesus Or if it shall seem good to thee to let either of them fall into any further danger enable her to endure iâ— with patient submission to thee trusting even in death it self in thy good providence and in thy precious promises who never failest those that faithfully seek thee Hear us O Father of mercies and pardon our offences pitty our infirmities make us more thankful for what we have received and more fit for thy future mercies either in this life or in the next through thy infinite love declared to us in Christ Jesus in whose holy words we conclude our prayers saying as he hath taught us Our Father c. A Thanksgiving to be used by the person her self when she is able UNto thee O God do I give thanks unto thee do I give thanks for that thou art near thy wondrous works declare Psal 75.1 In my distress I called upon thee and my cry came unto thee 18.6 34.4 I sought thee O Lord 138.3 and thou heardest me 30.3 and deliveredst me from all my fears 66.20 56.12 In the day when I cryed 104.33,34 thou answeredst me and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul Thou hast brought up my soul from the grave thou hast kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit Blessed be God which hath not turned away my prayer nor his mercy from me Blessed be God who hath preserved the fruit of my womb and made me the joyful mother of a child Thy vows are upon me O God I will render praise unto thee I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live I will sing praises unto my God while I have my being My meditation of him shall be sweet I will be glad in the Lord. Accept O most merciful Father of these thankful acknowledgements Psal 17.2 57.2 which go not forth out of fained lips And be pleased graciously to preserve such a lasting and fresh remembrance of thy great mercies in my heart that I may always be joyful in thee and speak good of thy name and trust in thee at all times and still cry unto thee O God most high who performest all things for me Make me studious likewise and forward to bring forth all the fruits of righteousness throughout the whole course oâ— my life which may witness the truth and sincerity of my thankfulness to thee O that I may never be less earnest and fervent in the return of obedience than I have been in desires and prayers to receive thy blessings Dispose me to have a kind and tender care of this infant which thou hast committed to my charge Make me willing to undergo to the utmost of my power the pains that accompany its education Let not the love of ease and pleasure breed in me an aversness to any duty to which both Nature and Religion incline me or give me grace by sober thoughts and a thankful remembrance of the late pain from which thou hast delivered me to overcome it Especially indue me with the greatest love to its precious and immortal soul And help me so to grow and encrease in Christian wisdom and goodness that I may be able to instruct it when it is capable in the fear of our Lord and by meek and gentle admonitions together with a good example in all things to win it to the love of true godliness Or if thou art pleased to take it from me who deserve not the least of thy mercies Lord so moderate my affections and bring them in subjection to thee that I may not undutifully repine at thy providence but in an humble adoration of thy unsearchable wisdom and a stedfast confidence of thy good will towards me resign it unto thee from whom I received it And I also beseech thy Divine goodness when thou shalt restore me to the publick assemblies of thy people again to give me grace to receive that mercy with exceeding joy Prepare my heart with enlarged affection to offer unto thee not only the sacrifice of praise giving thanks unto thy name but all other oblations which ought to accompany such addresses to thy glorious Majesty That they may be but an earnest of my future diligence and zeal in thy Divine Service and oâ— my readiness to do good and communicate unto others whereby I may lay up in store for my self a good foundation against the time to come 1 Tim. 6.19 that I may lay hold on eternal life through Christ Jesus Amen A Prayer for good success in some extraordinary business ALmighty and most merciful father the supreme Governour of the whole world who disposest and orderest all things in heaven and earth with admirable judgement and canst not possibly err in what thou doest nor fail of what thou designest I adore in the humblest reverence of my soul thy most glorious Majesty thy eternal Power Holiness Goodness and Truth which are all beyond my comprehension And more particularly I adore thy unspotted Justice and all-seeing Wisdom which penetrates into the deepest secrets and spies out all the ways of the sons of men and renders to every one of them according to their doings Jer. 10.23 I know O Lord that the way of man is not in himself Prov. 16.9 19.21 it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps Tob. 4.19 The success of all our counsels and actions depends on thy pleasure and when we have devised the way we intend to go thou givest it what issue seems good in thine eyes There are many devices in a mans heart
betray them And fortifie their minds against the power of all allurements to sin that we may live to see them thy dutiful and obedient children and may leave the world in hope that they will continue so unto their lives end Or if thou takest us away before they come to their full age we commend them with the more ardent affection to thy never failing mercy and compassion O thou who art the Father of the fatherless Psal 68.5 be their God and let them find mercy with thee Hos 14.3 according to thy word Dispose of them so that by loving and careful governours holy examples innocent and good company pious and discreet counsels with the help of thy divine grace they may ever be secured in their duty and follow after us to eternal life through Christ Jesus Amen A short Prayer for the use of a little Child O Lord my most loving Saviour and merciful Redeemer who commanddest that the little children should come unto thee and didst take them up in thine arms lay thy hands upon them bless them Look graciously upon me I humbly beseech thee and bless me who am one of thy children dedicated to thy service Pitty the weakness of my tender age and prevent me betimes with thy grace Make me seriously to remember my Creator in the days of my youth Indue me with the fear of my God and make me always mindful of the Vow and Promise that was made in my name when I was baptized to forsake the Devil and all his works to believe in God and to serve him Make me dutiful as thou O Lord Jesus wast unto my Parents loving to my Brethren and Sisters obedient to my instructors thankful for the good counsel of my Friends humble and reverent to my betters and meek and gentle to all men That as I grow in years so I may grow in wisdom and favour with thee and with all those who are good Preserve me from all dangers let thy good Angels be my keepers and defenders and guide me by thy holy Spirit that the longer I live the better I may be to the comfort of my Parents the honour and glory of my God and my own happiness here and for ever Amen A shorter HEavenly Father who despisest nothing that thou hast made but takest care of the beasts of the earth and of the fowls of the air bless me thy child whom thou hast made in thy own Image Preserve me this day from all evil both in soul and body Give me what thou seest good for me Especially an heart to know thee early to be thankful to thee to love thee and to do thy will as well as I am able Bless my Father and my Mother and all my friends and make me a follower of those who are good for the sake of my Saviour Christ Jesus the Lord. Amen A Prayer for the use of a Child that hath lost its Parents O Lord who never failest those that seek thee but givest to the beast his food Psal 147.9 and to the young ravens which cry I cast my self upon thy infinite goodness with whom the fatherless have been wont to find mercy Be thou Ecclus. 23.4 O Lord Father and God of my life a most merciful and gracious Father unto me and provide what thou seest in thy wisdom to be necessary for me Especially bestow upon me some faithful friend that will admonish me and take care of my soul to bring me up religiously in the fear of thee my God Preserve me from all distrust of thy good providence Give me favour in the eyes of others by an humble submissive and good behaviour towards them Make me diligent and industrious in some honest calling And bless my labours and endeavours that I may not be a burden unto others But whatsoever my portion be in this world give me grace to live so piously justly and soberly that I may not miss of that incorruptible inheritance which fadeth not away 1 Pet. 1.4 reserved in the heavens for us through Christ Jesus Amen A Prayer to be used by a Widow O God by whose wise providence which I humbly adore and reverence I am left without my dearest companion and guide in this our pilgrimage and thereby deprived of the sweetest comfort of life behold the desolate and sorrowful estate of thy poor handmaid who supplicates thy tender mercy and compassion towards her Comfort me good Lord with a delightful sense of thy Divine Presence with me and draw my heart the nearer to thee in holy love and devout affection and a lively hope that thou wilt never leave me nor forsake me I ought to thank thee at all times for the many tokens of thy love towards me and particularly for lending me this blessing so long the value of which I now feel by the want I am in of its support Pardon me I beseech thee that I have not been so thankful for it and the rest of thy mercies as I ought nor so carefully improved them as I might have done O take not away thy loving kindness from me in displeasure But vouchsafe still the continuance of thy favour towards me especially the support of thy Divine Grace by the power of the holy Ghost to enable me to bear this affliction with an humble meek and patient spirit Moderate all my passions Free me from all discontented and distrustful thoughts Help me to cast all my care on thee who relievest the fatherless and widow Psal 146.9 and carest even for the strangers Fix my mind upon thy love in the Lord Jesus in whom thou wouldst have us to rejoyce always Lift up my thoughts to those heavenly enjoyments in that blessed place where he is to which I hope my husband is departed And help me to follow after him with all diligence in a pure grave and godly conversation and by a careful education of my Children to endeavour that they may be also with us in that glory Let thy blessing ever rest upon them And now that they are left to me alone give me so much the more wisdom to instruct and govern them aright and so much the more love to them and tender affection to their good and welfare Make them to be a comfort to me in my Widow-hood by their increase in godliness that we may chearfully serve thee together in Prayers and Thanksgivings and reading of thy holy Word and Communion with our blessed Saviour and all other actions of a Christian life Prepare us for whatsoever condition it is into which thou shalt be pleased to bring us that neither fulness nor poverty honour nor reproaches health nor sickness may ever separate us from thy love in Christ Jesus but we may persevere in patient obedience to thee till we receive that crown of life which he hath promised to them that love thee Amen A Prayer for the use of a poor Servant O Lord most high who arâ— the Maker of the rich and
to live among us to dye for us and to give us an assured hope of immortal life I love thee O Lord. I renew the oblation which I have often made of my soul and body to thee I wait upon thee still for what thou seest good for both I hope in thy everlasting mercies that thou wilt pardon all my forgetfulness of thee and ingratitude unto thee And I most earnestly implore the grace of thy holy Spirit to preserve in my mind a powerful sense of thee an ardent love to thee and an holy care to please and obey thee in all things That the very same mind and spirit may be in me which was in Christ Jesus our Lord the Spirit of wisdom and understanding and the fear of thee the spirit of meekness humility purity and charity and that I may do thy will with such chearfulness zeal constancy patience and perseverance as he did I thank thee O Lord for all helps and assistances of that good Spirit which thou hast already favoured me withal That thou hast so frequently made good motions to my soul inspired me with holy thoughts and devout affections and inclined and disposed my will many ways to the choice of that which is good I thank thee for the many seasonable admonitions which thou hast given me for the happy opportunities which have been afforded me for wisdom and vertue for a good education pious examples faithful friends and all other furtherances in the way of salvation I remember likewise with my most grateful acknowledgements what abundance of good things thou hast bestowed on me from time to time for my better accommodation in this present life Blessed be thy name for my continued health and food and raiment Blessed be thy name that my bones are not broken that I am not groaning under the sorest pains that I dwell in safety night and day and that I still see my friends and acquaintance and many other comforts round about me I thank thee O Lord for these and all blessings whatsoever that thou hast conveyed to me by the Ministry of thy holy Angels unto whom thou hast given the charge of me O bless the Lord together with me ye his angels which excel in strength that do his commandments hearkening to the voice of his word And enable me every day I most humbly beseech thee O Father of mercies to bless thee better with a purer heart and a more lively sense of all thy love and a greater delight in thy divine Service and a forwardness to every good work And as thou hast preserved me hitherto this day so bless me the remaining part of it That indeavouring sincerely in all my designs words desires and actions to approve my self to thee as thy good and faithful servant I may with a good conscience present my self before thee in the conclusion of it and with the greater confidence of thy gracious acceptance renew my praises and acknowledgements and commend my self to thy blessing and hope for the continued protection of thy holy Angels through Christ Jesus To whom be glory for ever Amen A shorter to the same purpose I Prostrate my self before thee O Lord of heaven earth in all humility of soul and body I acknowledge my dependance upon thee and thy constant care and providence over me ever since I was born particularly this day in keeping me hitherto from many dangers and providing for me many good things as well for the comfort and pleasure as for the necessary support of this present life Especially I thank thee for thy exceeding great love in the Lord Jesus through whom thou hast given me good hope of better enjoyments in the life to come by following that blessed example which he hath set us of all well doing and contented suffering It is all reason O Lord that I should love thee and intirely trust in thee and most willingly serve and obey thee Accordingly I here again dedicate my self both soul and body to thee I vow my self ever to thy service I hope still in thy great mercies which have been so tender and so abundant towards me I depend upon thee for what thou seest to be profitable for me I refer my self absolutely to thy wise Will resolving to rest contented and satisfied in that condition wherein thou placest me I believe thou orderest all things in heaven and in earth and takest the greatest care of those that wait upon thee and commit themselves unto thee as I now do in confidence of thy goodness and submission to thy pleasure Especially I rely upon thee for thy holy Spirit to preserve in me these holy purposes and inspire me continually with good thoughts and stir up in me heavenly affections and increase and strengthen my faith and hope in thee and assist my indeavours to do according to my pious resolutions Blessed be thy great goodness for what I have felt already I thank thee for thy many illuminations from above for thy grace so early preventing me for the assistance and furtherance thou hast given me and the happy opportunities I have met withal of improving my self in true wisdom and goodness It is the earnest desire of my soul to grow more in both and to be made perfectly like to my blessed Lord and Saviour By whom all honour and glory be given to thee O Father Almighty world without end Amen A Grace before meat WE acknowledge thy goodness O Lord in making this plentiful provision for us Pardon our ingratitude for thy former mercies And bless us with such a discreet and thankful use of these thy good creatures that they may not hinder us in our duty but better dispose us to do thee all faithful service in our several places through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Amen Or this WE look up unto thee O Lord who givest us life and breath and all things beseeching thee to forgive us all our sins and to make us such thankful partakers of these thy good creatures that by a moderate use of them our bodies may be refreshed and made more fit to accompany our souls in hearty endeavours to do thee all faithful service through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Or this WE renew our thankful acknowledgements unto thee O Lord for making again this merciful provision for us who are unworthy of the least of thy favours Add thy gracious pardon likewise and bless the sober use of these thy creatures to the strengthning of our frail bodies And endue our souls with the grace of thy holy Spirit that we may return back unto thee the strength we receive from them in well doing and it may be as delightful as our meat and drink to do the will of thee our heavenly Father through Jesus Christ c. Amen After Meat WE return unto thee O Lord our hearty thanks for these and all other the like mercies bestowed upon us ever since we had a being especially for the promises thou hast given us of eternal