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
will O Lord be done I commend both my body and my spirit into thy hands who art able to make the Sea give up her dead by thine Almighty Word Help me always to hold fast that hope of eternal life as an anchor of my soul both sure and stedfast Heb. 6.19,20 which may preserve me in unshaken comfort and joy at the hour of death it self And looking up to that quiet place whither Jesus our fore-runner is entred for us I may begin those Praises and Thanksgivings which I hope shall have no end but be continued for ever in the company of the blessed in the other world Unto which I beseech thee of thine infinite mercies to bring me through Christ Jesus who is made an high priest for ever Amen A Thanksgiving after it is finished and the party returned home again O Blessed Lord Thou art great and greatly to be praised for by thy word the heavens were made Psal 48.1 33.6,7 and all the host of them by the breath of thy mouth 135.6 107.24 c. Thou didst gather the waters of the Sea together as an heap and laidst them up in the store-houses of the deeps They are all at thy command and whatsoever thou pleasest that dost thou in heaven and in earth in the Seas and all deep places I have seen thy works O Lord and thy wonders in the deep For thou spakest the word and the stormy wind arose which lifted up the waves thereof And again when we cryed unto thee thou madest the storm a calm so that the waves thereof were still Blessed be thy Almighty Goodness which carried me safe through such great and dreadful dangers Blessed be thy goodness that the deep hath not swallowed me up and that I am not gone down into silence Blessed be thy goodness that neither my body nor my goods became a prey to unreasonable men but that thou broughtest me to the haven where I would be and hast now returned me home in safety O God that I may never forget the vows which I was forward to make when I was in trouble Preserve in me for ever an awful sense and apprehension of thy great power who bringest the wind out of thy treasuries Psal 135.7 89.9 and rulest the raging of the Sea Jer. 5.22 and stillest the noise of its waves Psal 120.11 Who would not fear thee O Lord who would not tremble at thy presence who hast placed the sand for the bound of the Sea by a perpetual decree that it cannot pass it and though the waves thereof toss themselves yet can they not prevail though they roar yet can they not pass over it O possess my heart with a greater reverence of thy divine Majesty that I may ever serve thee with fear and rejoyce before thee with trembling Especially make me fearful of offending thee who art so great and powerful and hast done such great things for me and canst do greater and wilt do them as thou hast promised by Christ Jesus Philip. 3.20 who hath power to subdue all things to himself Heb. 2.3 Blessed be thy infinite grace which hath wrought such a marvellous redemption for us by him How shall I escape if I neglect so great salvation How miserable shall I be if after all the dangers from which I have now been rescued I should for my ingratitude and disobedience be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone O God that all thy mercies and deliverances here may by a thankful remembrance and careful improvement of them only prepare me for that glorious deliverance at the day of the Lord Jesus And as by thy good providence thou hast saved me from the violence of storms and tempests and other hazards so by thy grace deliver me from the power and violence of all temptations and enable me stedfastly to persist in well doing and patient suffering unto the end Endue me with such a right sense of my Religion as may make it to be my delight that so I may be out of all danger of being prevailed withal to forsake that which is so sweet and pleasant to my soul O that it may be my guide in prosperity and my comfort in adversity the rule of my life and my great satisfaction in death Sanctifie every condition unto me that sickness or health poverty or riches honour or disgrace may prove real blessings to me and make me profit in piety and vertue And let a great sense of thee and of Religion intermix it self with all my employments Teach me so to behave my self that I may be acceptable in thy sight not only when I make such addresses as these unto thee But whether I eat or drink or whatsoever I do else I may abide in thy love and be approved by thee for a good and faithful servant All which I most humbly beg of thee and whatsoever thou seest good for me in the name of the Lord Jesus by whom and with whom in the unity of the holy Ghost all honour and glory be unto thee O Father Almighty world without end Amen A Prayer to be used by a woman with Child O God the Author of our being the Fountain of life and all other good who hast begun an excellent work in me which no eye but thine sees and no hand but thy Almighty power can finish I adore thy great and glorious Majesty in this and in all other thy works of wonder Thou dost great things without number but art more particularly to be acknowledged in the formation of mankind who are fearfully and wonderfully made after thy own image and likeness Be pleased O Lord in thy infinite goodness to perfect and compleat that which thou hast begun Preserve the smallest degree of life which thou hast inspired Bestow upon it intireness of all its parts and prepare a convenient habitation for an understanding spirit capable of the best wisdom and inclinable to vertue and goodness Prevent good Lord the miscarriage of my hopes and ripen them to a good issue And the nearer they come to their full growth strengthen the more my humble trust in thee and submission to thee and hearty desires to encrease the number of thy faithful people together with my own Family That ought to be the chiefest desire of my soul to be formed my self in all things according to the mind and will of thee my God that so I may be an instrument of doing good to others O thou who hast wrought many holy purposes and resolutions in my heart preserve and confirm them that they may not prove abortive but bring forth continually the fruit of good living Perfect me in Knowledge in Faith in Love and in Obedience Enable me so discreetly and carefully to discharge the duties of all the Relations wherein I at present or shall hereafter stand that I may be a comfort to them and a credit to Religion And howsoever thou disposest of me or them Lord make me well
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
thee Give us thy grace continually for our seasonable relief and succour that we persevering in well doing may have a solid and lively hope in our death of coming to see thee in that high and holy place where thou livest and reignest for evermore As for all the things of this life we most heartily refer our selves to thy Fatherly Wisdom and Goodness O Lord God Almighty trusting thou wilt order for us that which is most convenient and bless our honest diligence with such a competent portion of them that we may have the more leisure to give continual praise honour blessing and thanksgiving to thee whose mercies endure for ever Accept we pray thee of our thankful acknowledgements at this time for those which this day hath added to the rest of thy benefits which thou hast been continually heaping upon us ever since we were born And let all the people of the earth praise the name of the Lord which is highly exalted above all blessing and praise O that all the Kingdoms of the World would become the Kingdoms of our Saviour Christ and that all they who acknowledge his authority would religiously obey his holy Laws that all wars oppression and cruelty may cease among Christian people and they may live together in brotherly love and unity Make our Soveraign and all his Realms happy by a great increase of true knowledge godliness and vertue every where Bless all our friends forgive our enemies requite all the kindness of our benefactors comfort every one of thy desolate and afflicted servants and turn their mourning and heaviness into joy and gladness at the last And now that we are going to repose our selves keep us we beseech thee and all belonging to us in safety Refresh our wearied spirits with comfortable rest and sleep and when we awaken again in the morning direct our thoughts immediately to thee our merciful preserver and help us to imploy all our renewed strength to thy honour and glory according to thy will declared by Christ Jesus in whose blessed Name and Words we commend our selves to thy infinite Mercies Our Father c. PRAYERS FOR FAMILIES WEDNESDAY MORNING O Most great and mighty Lord the Possessor of heaven and earth All the Angels worship and adore thy incomprehensible Majesty with the humblest reverence and rejoyce in rendring praise blessing and thanksgiving to thee the Father of spirits For thou hast created all things and in wisdom hast thou made them all and spread thy tender mercies over all thy works It is no less our happiness than our duty to joyn our hearts and voices with that heavenly host most gratefully to acknowledge thy bounty to us among the rest of thy creatures and thy particular grace and favour in our Lord Jesus Christ our most merciful Saviour and Redeemer We can never sufficiently admire that love which gave him to dye for us and hath made him the Lord of life and glory that he may be the Author of eternal Salvation to all those that obey him All the love we have is too little to give thee to whom all our services are due by a former title Our highest praises fall infinitely short of thy most excellent Majesty and we are ashamed of the most affectionate thanks we can render to thee for those inestimable benefits which thou hast conferred on us and so long continued to us How much greater reason then have we to be abashed at our shameful ingratitude and disobedience to thy divine Majesty for which we are heartily sorry and do now most earnestly repent our selves of it unfeignedly resolving and protesting to be more faithful to thee for the time to come Pardon us therefore Good Lord and receive us unto thy mercy Accept of our renewed vows to study and do our duties conscientiously towards thee and towards all men And as thou hast excited these holy desires and purposes in our hearts so inable us to perform them constantly in the whole course of our life Our blessed Saviour hath told us thou wilt as readily give thy holy Spirit to them that ask it as a Parent will give bread to his hungry children O Father of mercies let it be unto us according to his Word Cherish these little beginnings of goodness which thou seest in our souls and prosper all our endeavours to attain a greater measure of it And since at the best we are but unprofitable servants and can do no more than was our duty to do inable us to do every thing which thou hast commanded us heartily with good will and true love to thy service We know this is all that can in the least commend us to thy free grace and favour and therefore we most humbly again dovote our selves to do thy Will with a cordial affection to it We would ever approach unto thee with delight and pleasure and feel it the joy of our hearts to think of thee to praise thee to give thee thanks and to offer our selves with absolute resignation to thee O that Mercy may always please us as it pleaseth thee that we may be strictly just and righteous may chearfully pass by injuries freely deny all desires of sinful pleasures willingly submit to thy fatherly corrections and perform the duties of our several relations with singleness of heart Render us so mindful of the great love of our Lord and Master Christ that we may be zealously concerned for his glory and use our utmost diligence to do Him and his Religion some honour in the world delighting to commemorate his Death and Passion making a joyful sacrifice of our souls and bodies to him and desiring most earnestly that his kingdom may come and all mankind submit themselves to his Government Fulfil most merciful Lord all our petitions and as thou hast mightily protected us and our dwellings this last night from fire and thieves and whatsoever might disturb our repose blessed be thy goodness so accompany us all this day with thy blessing that we may please thee in body and soul and be safe under thy defence who art nigh to all those that call upon thee that call upon thee in truth And O that all those who are forgetful of their duty to thee may be awakened to a lively sense of all thy benefits and fill the whole world with thy praises Stir up especially the minds of all Christian people to inquire after and follow the Truth as it is in Jesus abandoning all vice and wickedness and exercising themselves to have consciences void of offence towards thee and towards all men And dispose the hearts of all their Kings and Princes to make themselves the greatest examples of Christian Piety to all others Bless these Kingdoms and indue our Soveraign with such excellent Wisdom and holy Zeal for thy honour and glory that we may see many good days under his Government O that true Religion Justice Mercy Brotherly kindness and all things else that are praise-worthy may so flourish among us that we
may enjoy the blessings of peace and plenty and there may be no complaining in our streets We recommend to thee all our friends and neighbours all the poor the sick and other afflicted persons desiring those mercies for them which we should ask for our selves were we in their condition incouraged hereto by the large declarations which thou hast made of thy abundant goodness to mankind in our Lord Jesus In whose words we conclude our humble supplications unto thee saying Our Father c. At Night ALmighty and everlasting God the Soveraign Lord of all creatures in heaven and earth and our most merciful and gracious Father in thy Son Christ Jesus We most heartily acknowledge that our beings and all the comforts of them depend on thee the Fountain of all good We have nothing but what we have received thence and is owing intirely to thy free and bounteous love O most blessed Creator and to the unsearchable riches of thy grace O most blessed Redeemer To thee therefore be given by us and all creatures whom thou hast made to know how great and how good thou art all honour glory and praise all love service and obedience as long as we have any being It is but meet right and our bounden duty that we should at all times and in all places give thanks unto thee O Lord and devoutly resign both soul and body to thee to be absolutely governed and ruled according to thy holy will and pleasure We are heartily sorry that we have not done it from the very beginning of our lives till this time We are ashamed to think of our injustice and ingratitude in following our own desires so long and rendring our selves no sooner most humbly obedient in all things to thee Our hopes are only in those infinite mercies which have spared us notwithstanding and opened our eyes to see our errors and touched our hearts with some sense of our duty And we hope in them not only for a pardon which we earnestly implore according to thy gracious promises made in Christ Jesus but for the power of thy holy Spirit to further and promote those godly resolutions which we feel already in our hearts to live as becomes thy creatures and as becomes the Disciples of Jesus Christ who were early dedicated to thee and have often since vowed themselves to thy service As thou hast made us to understand the reasonableness and goodness of all thy Laws so make us more and more in love with them that they may be writ upon our hearts and our wills may cleave unto them as our very life Keep alive such a powerful sense of thee and of the love of our Lord and Saviour in our mind that we may naturally fear and reverence thee and study to be approved of thee and beloved by thee and account it our highest perfection and happiness to be like thee O that it may ever be the joy of our hearts to be Righteous as thou art Righteous to be Merciful as thou our heavenly Father art Merciful to be Holy as thou who hast called us art Holy in all manner of conversation to be indued with thy divine Wisdom and to resemble thee in Faithfulness and Truth O that the memory of our blessed Saviour and his admirable example may be always dear unto us that we may chearfully follow him in his Humility Meekness Patience Contentedness Peaceableness and Delight to do thy Will O God in every thing as he did Accept we most humbly beseech thee of these desires of our souls after thee and graciously assist and strengthen them according as we unfeignedly offer them up unto thee Accept likewise of our thanks for thy merciful preservation of us all this day by which we are come in safety to the conclusion of it and are here before thee with a new load of thy benefits upon us added to other innumerable blessings which thou hast formerly bestowed We are bold again likewise to commit our selves unto thee this night and to trust in thy merciful protection and care over us when we can take no care of our selves or any thing else belonging to us Defend us from all the powers of darkness from evil men from fire and all such sad accidents and raise up our spirits together with our bodies in the morning to such a vigorous sense of thy continued goodness as may provoke us all the day long to an unwearied diligence in well doing And the same Mercies that we beg for our selves we desire for the rest of mankind especially for all those who are called by the name of Christ O that every member of that body of which He is the head may do their duties with all fidelity according to the several offices to which thou hast assigned them That Kings may be tender-hearted as the Fathers of their Countries and all their subjects may be dutiful and obedient to them as their children That the Pastors of the Church may feed thy flock with Wisdom and Understanding and the people may all submit unto them and follow their godly counsels That the rich and mighty may have compassion on the poor and miserable and all such distressed people may bless the rich and rejoyce in the prosperity of those that are above them Give husbands and wives parents and chidren masters and servants the grace to behave themselves so in their several Relations that they may adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour in all things and being an honour to his Religion here may receive immortal honour and glory hereafter from the hands of Christ Jesus in whose holy name and words we continue to beseech thy grace and mercy towards us and all thy people every where 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. PRAYERS FOR FAMILIES THVRSDAY MORNING O Lord the high and holy One whose Psal 148.13 glory is above the earth and heaven We thy creatures prostrate our selves in the humblest adorations of thee ascribing to thee all Power Wisdom Riches Might Majesty and Dominion and acknowledging that to thee of right belongs all Worship Blessing Thanksgiving and Praise together with all Honour Love Service and Obedience for evermore Blessed be thine Omnipotent goodness which hath advanced us to such a degree of being that we are capable to look back to thee from whom we come to know thee to love thee to acknowledge thy great bounty towards us and to resemble thee in Wisdom and Goodness All that is within us blesses thy Holy Name for breathing into us immortal spirits that we may eternally admire thee praise thee love thee and joyfully render those grateful acknowledgements which we owe unto thee We can never sufficiently magnifie thy mercies towards
benefits we have received and therefore may justly fear thou shouldest withhold thy tender mercies and shut up thy loving kindness in displeasure But the desires and holy resolutions thou hast wrought and continuest in our souls to amend and become still more fruitful in all good works incourage us to hope in thee for pardon through the bloud of Jesus Christ and for the assistance of thy holy Spirit to inable us to accomplish that which we intend and purpose to grow more and more in wisdom and knowledge and in righteousness and true holiness O that this Image of thine may appear every day fairer and more beautiful before thee and in the sight of all men That so we may adorn the Religion we profess and be a good Example unto others and have a solid foundation of peace and comfort in our own hearts and be able to hope in thee for thy future mercy in Christ Jesus even unto eternal life We commend our selves to thy wonted grace and in a sense of what thou hast done already for us and what thou hast promised to do depend on thy goodness for what thou seest profitable and conducing to our chiefest good referring our selves wholly to thy wise will and pleasure and resolved contentedly to submit to thy appointments thankfully to receive thy mercies and to rest satisfied with our portion whatsoever it be that thou orderest for us Make us but steadfast in thy faith and love unwearied in well doing patient and constant under all sufferings full of a lively hope in thy mercy and willing to dye when and as thou pleasest and we have enough In confidence that thou hearest us and art every where and never slumberest nor sleepest we commit our selves to the custody of thy watchful providence this night to be secured and protected by thee when we cannot at all attend to our own preservation May it please thy goodness to give this whole family a comfortable rest and repose to defend this habitation and all about us from fire and such like sad accidents to deliver us from the power of evil spirits and of evil men and to raise us in health and chearfulness to praise thee and to glorifie thee both in soul and body the next day Psal 59.16,17 Then will we sing of thy power yea we will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning because thou hast been our defence and our refuge at all times Vnto thee O our strength will we sing for God is our defence and the God of our mercy 111.1 We will praise the Lord with our whole heart in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation 92.1,2 For it is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing praises unto thy name O most High to shew forth thy loving kindness in the morning and thy faithfulness every night 24.1 The earth is thine and the fulness thereof the world and they that dwell therein 22.27,28 Let all the people praise thee O God let all the people praise thee O that all the ends of the world would remember and turn unto the Lord and all the kindreds of the Nations worship before him For the kingdom is the Lords and he is the governour among the Nations Bless especially all Christian Kings and Princes that it may Prov. 16.12 be an abomination to them to commit wickedness and their thrones may be established by righteousness And incline the hearts of all those who have any authority in these Kingdoms to love and hold fast thy true Religion and to live according to to it that 20.28 by mercy and truth the king may be preserved and his throne be upholden by mercy We heartily desire the ease peace and satisfaction of all those who are in pain trouble and perplexity and that all poor miserable people may find supply of their wants from thy bounty and the charity of those on whom thou hast bestowed plenty and abundance We humbly also wait for thy blessing upon all our Relations and Friends trusting in thee for such a measure of health and all other good things as thou judgest useful for us and especially that the Lord Jesus 1 Tim. 4.8 will deliver us from every evil work and preserve us to his heavenly kingdom To whom be glory for ever and ever Amen Our Father c. A shorter Morning Prayer for any day in the week when there is not time by reason of some extraordinary occasions for the other O Most great and glorious God the Soveraign of the World Upon whom we continually depend to whom we owe all the love the service and the praise that we are able to render to all eternity We adore thy infinite mercy from whence we have received so many blessings for the comfort of this life and by which we have a sure Hope of good things in the life to come Blessed be thy goodness which hath not suffered us to wander without instruction after the foolish desires of our own hearts but hath clearly shown us where our happiness lyes We receive with all thankfulness those holy words which teach us the blessedness of poverty and contentedness of spirit of meekness and humility of mind of hungering and thirsting after righteousness of mercifulness and purity of heart of peaceableness and patient suffering for doing the will of our Lord Christ O that we may have grace to labour alway to be in the number of those blessed Souls that never set their hearts on any thing so much as these heavenly vertues O that we may ever think and feel our selves happy in the comfort of those great and precious promises of being made the children of the highest the heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven and at last of seeing thee our God It suffices O Lord that we have these glorious hopes hereafter which make us believe thou wilt not let us want what is necessary for us whilst we continue here We commend our selves with an humble confidence to thy watchful providence this day beseeching thee to guide and assist us that in all our desires words and actions we may keep our selves innocent and undefiled before thee and be disposed to do all good as we have opportunity And we heartily desire that all mankind may be filled with the same devotion to thee and especially that all Christian people may glorifie thy Name and be joyful in thee And the greater any are in Dignity and Power raise their spirits to the greater pitch of Wisdom Mercy and Piety that they may right those that suffer wrong and defend those that have no helper and provide for the ease and comfort of all miserable creatures to the utmost of their power In this ardent charity we commit both souls and bodies to thee beseeching thee to increase our love to thee and to all men till we be fit to be translated to the region of love and joy and perfect satisfaction through Christ Jesus
who hath taught us when we pray to say Our Father c. Another short Prayer for the Morning O Blessed God be thou acknowledged praised and loved by us and all the children of men on whom thou pourest continually thy benefits They are great and many we know not the summe nor understand the value of them The Angels themselves admired thy love to us in Christ Jesus and are become ministring Spirits to them who are heirs of Salvation We enjoy the continual fruits of thy watchful providence by which we have been kept in peace and safety the last night and are raised this morning in health and strength both of body and mind beholding all things belonging to us just as we left them with thee when we went to sleep Accept we most humbly beseech thee of this poor tribute of praise and thanks together with the hearty oblation of our souls and bodies which we here dedicate again to thy service Vouchsafe us the continued assistance of the grace of thy holy Spirit to inable us to make good those vows that are upon us of obediently keeping thy holy will and commandments and walking in the same all the days of our life Pardon good Lord all our breaches of this Sacred Covenant Deal not with us according to our sins neither reward us after our iniquities But in the multitude of thy tender mercies pitty our errors and wandrings and help us against our infirmities Give us leave this day to put our selves into thy powerful protection and to depend on thee for thy merciful guidance and assistance that we may be more faithful to thee in the discharge of our duties and never swerve from the rules of Sobriety Righteousness Charity and Godliness So shall we return with joyful hearts to praise thee in the Evening and teach those who shall come after us to continue thy praises in the next generation Amen for thy mercies sake in Christ Jesus in whose words we present the earnest desires of our hearts for our selves and all our Brethren saying Our Father c. A short Prayer for the Evening when there is not time for the longer O God we thy creatures who have tasted liberally of thy bounty many ways and been blessed in our several imployments and mercifully preserved from several dangers this day are here met to joyn together in most hearty thanksgivings to thy divine Majesty which with one accord we offer up unto thee It is the greatest happiness of all we acknowledge that we have any sense of thee in our minds any love to thee in our hearts any remembrance of thy benefits any holy dispositions to obey thee and any hopes that thou wilt pardon our sins and make us partakers of eternal life All that we desire of thee O Lord is the continuance and increase of this happiness that we may be possessed with a stronger sense of thy Majesty thy Soveraign Power thy unsearchable Wisdom Goodness and Truth and be filled with a more ardent love to thee and to all righteousness and delight to do thy Will in every thing and rejoyce in hope of thy immortal Glory As for all the things of this life in a grateful remembrance of thy many past mercies we intirely trust thee for the time to come referring our selves to thy Wisdom and resolving to be content with that portion which thy good providence is pleased to assign us Help us but to be steadfast and unmoveable in the work of our Lord to bring forth all the fruits of the Spirit love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness and temperance and we shall think our selves rich enough and well provided for in every state and condition of life In these holy thoughts and desires we commend our selves to thy gracious protection this night hoping to find them fresh and lively in our souls when we awake in the Morning and desiring withal the happiness of the rest of the world that they may know thee and acknowledge thee and be guided unto and walk in the way that leads to everlasting life through Christ Jesus our blessed Redeemer In whose powerful name and comprehensive words we continue to pray as he hath taught us saying Our Father c. Another for the Evening IN an humble and thankful sense O Lord of heaven and earth of our intire dependence on thee and of the duty we owe thee and the many promises and vows wherein we stand ingaged to thee we fall down before thee this Evening and with all reverence worship thy divine Majesty Giving thee the glory that is due unto thy Name and acknowledging thy multiplied mercies to us particularly those of this day to the conclusion of which thou hast now safely brought us with new resolutions in our hearts to continue for ever in thy faith and fear and love and obedience It is but just and reasonable and we feel likewise by daily experience that it is our happiness to keep thy Commandments and to maintain chearful thoughts of thee and an hearty friendship with thee by complying in all things with thy holy Will O pardon our folly most gracious God in forsaking at any time that perfect Rule to follow our own unruly desires Pardon us we beseech thee for we know not how to pardon our selves such ingratitude to thee and cruelty to our selves It is the grief of our hearts that we have in the least offended thee and our most earnest unfeigned desire to be preserved hereafter in an exact conformity to our Rule in every thing Yea we would delight to do thy Will O God and take such a pleasure in all the acts of righteousness mercy meekness and gentleness to our Neighbours and in praising and acknowledging thee the God of all grace and in living in an humble sense of thy bounty and our own undeservings and in a temperate and thankful use of all thy blessings that we may have the continual feast of a good conscience and the constant comfort and satisfaction of having thee alway for our friend and our gracious Father in Christ Jesus O thou who art the Inspirer of such holy counsels desires and purposes keep them for ever in our hearts Incourage strengthen and increase them that after the refreshment of a quiet sleep this night we may feel them lively and powerful in the Morning and with renewed joy we may still devote our selves to thy faithful service O that our friends and all thy people in every place may partake of the same mercies we desire for our selves and howsoever we are severed one from another in this world grant us an happy meeting at the day of our Lord in whose words we pray thee to hear us 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
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
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
place Attend unto my cry O Lord and give ear unto my Prayer that goeth not out of feigned lips Thou art my God and I will praise thee thou art my God and I will exalt thee And I will delight my self in thy Commandments which I have loved My hands also will I lift up to thy commandments which I have loved and I will meditate in thy statutes Let thy tender mercies come also unto me O Lord even thy Salvation according to thy Word Look upon me and be merciful unto me as thou usest to do to those that love thy Name Order my steps in thy Word and let not any iniquity have dominion over me Amen A longer Prayer in the Church when there is time for it before the begining of divine Service I Cast down my self O Lord in an holy fear and humble adoration of thine incomprehensible Majesty who fillest heaven and earth but delightest to make thy self more peculiarly present to those that acknowledge and praise thee and are desirous to be filled with a constant sense of thee and intire love to thee Blessed be thy infinite goodness which hath incouraged such wretches as I am by the declaration of thy good will to us in Christ Jesus by thy most gracious invitations and precious promises and by the long experience I have had of thy kindness to approach unto thee O Lord most High I accept most thankfully of this freedom and liberty of access with confidence by the faith of Jesus and am here to joyn with the rest of thy servants in extolling and magnifying thy eternal Power Wisdom and Goodness in giving thanks to thee for thy innumerable blessings in hearing thy most holy Word and making our humble supplications for the continuance of thy undeserved grace and favour towards us Compose mine and every one of our thoughts to the most silent admiration of thee Strike our Spirits with a reverend apprehension of the surpassing greatness and glory of thy Majesty Raise our affections to the highest pitch of love and gratitude to thee bow our wills to the most chearful submission to all thy holy commands and touch us with an unspeakable joy when we read and hear thy exceeding great and precious promises Vouchsafe most loving Father the power of thy holy Spirit to attend upon me to draw my mind from all other things and to give me such a lively taste of the pleasures of thy house as may make me ever delight to attend upon thee here and walk with thee in every other place with a perfect heart That so my own 1 Joh. 3.21,22 heart not condemning me I may have more and more confidence towards thee that whatsoever I ask I shall receive of thee because I keep thy commandments and do those things which are pleasing in thy sight Psal 62.1 O my God truly my soul waiteth upon thee from thee cometh my salvation 61.1 Hear my cry O God and attend unto my prayer for the honour of our Lord Jesus and the love thou bearest to him who hath bid us ask and we shall receive seek and we shall find knock and it shall be opened unto us Let it be to thy servant I most ardently beseech thee according to his Word Amen Another more large O Lord of heaven and earth who art infinite and incomprehensible in thy being eternal in thy duration and unchangeable in thy Nature who canst do what thou wilt and delightest in doing us good By thy Power I and all creatures were made by thy Wisdom we are govern'd by thy Goodness and Bounty we are provided for under thy Soveraign Dominion we live and unto thy Majesty we owe all reverence service and faithful obedience I adore and humbly worship thee I acknowledge my self bound by innumerable tyes to fear thee to love thee to praise thee and to serve thee with all my heart and soul and strength Blessed be thy Goodness that I have any hope thou wilt accept of such a worthless thing as my love Blessed be thy Goodness I admire at the riches of thy Grace that thou dost not reject all the service that I can tender thee Nay it is to be ascribed to this alone that I am alive to worship thee and have the doors of thy house stand open to me and that I have any heart to enter into it to offer up spiritual Sacrifices by Christ Jesus O God I offer thee here my whole self which is all due to thee because I received it all from thee beseeching thee most earnestly to make me feel that I am not mine own any longer but thine by taking off my thoughts and affections from all other things at this present and filling me with such a reverend apprehension of thee such hearty devotion to thee and heavenly joy in thee that I may every day offer up my self to thee more holy and more pure more meek and merciful more humble and thankful more chearfully disposed to every good work and better prepared to bear a part in the praises and services of the glorious company above Thou knowest the weakness of our nature how soon our thoughts are tyred and apt to start aside when we direct them towards heaven Vouchsafe me therefore the assistance of thy holy Spirit to compose my mind to the most serious the most earnest the most devout and chearful attention in all the parts of thy Divine Service That I may have the liveliest sense of thy glorious perfections when I praise thee and the most delightful remembrance of thy Mercies when I give thee thanks and the most thirsty desires to be conformed to thy Will and to feel more and more the influences of thy Grace when I hear thy holy Word and present my prayers and supplications before thee Accept O blessed God of this good will and sincere affection that I have to thy service though performed with broken and distracted thoughts and with too great listlessness and dulness of spirit And help me continually to out-grow this weakness and to present thee with an heart more quiet calm and fit to receive thee more perfect and intire in ardent love to thee and more setled and fixed in thee as its chiefest joy and happiness That so all the rest of the actions of my life may be a more constant and even performance of my duty according to the command and example of my blessed Lord and Master Christ Jesus In whose name it is that I am bold to approach into thy presence believing the Power and Authority thou hast given him over all to bless us and to do for us exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think By him be glory unto thee O Father Almighty in the Church throughout all ages world without end Amen At the conclusion of Divine Service after these words The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ c. Say Amen with the heartiest and most earnest affection And add some such words as these BLessed be thy name
hast made those things my duty which are really my happiness Thou ingagest me to do my self good here by promising a greater good hereafter I praise thee I thank thee and will be ever speaking good of thee And it is a new favour that I may thus praise and bless thee both in the assemblies of thy people and in my own retirements O give me an heart to delight in it and in all other duties of a Christian life That obeying thy holy Gospel in all things and being never weary in well doing I may find thy unwearied goodness extending it self to immortal life and bliss through Christ Jesus O blessed Jesus that thy holy Laws may be more deeply ingraven on my heart O that every truth I have learnt this day may be so faithfully preserved and kept in mind as to become the rule of my life or the ground of my hope and a powerful motive to universal and uniform obedience to the end of my days O that the remainder of my days may be the better for this day and the holy rest we observe here on earth may be a beginning of the eternal rest which we wait for at thy second coming Amen Come Lord Jesus A Prayer upon any Festival in remembrance of our blessed Lord and Saviour O Most glorious God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of lights Jem 1.17 from whom cometh every good and every perfect gift with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of change Thou always wast and ever wilt be happy without us or any of the praises that we or any other creatures are able to render unto thee But it is our duty our perfection and high â—riviledge constantly to acknowâ—edge thee with joy and exultation â—f spirit in remembrance of thy inâ—nite bounty to us and to all world Every day tells us how good thou art â—nd every one of thy creatures calls â—pon us to magnifie thee and love â—hee and serve thee who hast made â—o many of them to serve us But â—his day gives us occasion to remember thy more special and extraordinary kindness to us the children of men which calls for our highest and most exalted praises to be joyned with those of the blessed company above who are never weary of giving honour glory blessing and thanksgiving to thee not only in their own behalf but even for thy goodness to us thy unworthy creatures O how great was that love which an Angel came to give notice of and which a multitude of an heavenly host celebrated with songs of praise when thou sentest thy dear Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and in the form of a servant to minister to our necessities to relieve our misery and to be the way to everlasting life O the riches of thy grace that after mankind had forfeited all the rights of thy creatures and had contemned and despitefully used many of thy messengers thou wouldst in much mercy create us again unto good works and for that end appear thy self most gloriously among us in the person of Jesus Christ I thank thee O Lord that thou hast assumed our Nature unto such a nearness to thee as we are not able to understand I thank thee for the glad tydings which Jesus hath brought us from heaven that thou wilt be reconciled unto us and admit us again into thy favour and that he hath fulfilled all righteousness and shown us in our likeness what thou art and what thou wouldest have us to be I thank thee for the redemption which he hath wrought for us by his bloud And I rejoyce in the victory which he hath got over hell and the grave by his Resurrection from the dead and in his glorious triumph when he ascended up on high and led captivity captive and in his royal Power wherewith he was invested when he sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high and in those gifts which he received for men even for the rebellious also that the Lord God might dwell among them Blessed be thy eternal goodness which hath made him a most merciful and compassionate High-priest and given us so great assurance that he is become the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him Blessed be thy goodness which hath sent the holy Ghost and continued to us a succession of Pastors and Teachers to be the Guides of our Souls and to minister to us those pledges of thy love which our Saviour hath left us in the Communion of his Body and Bloud O God that my heart could ascend up to heaven in these devout meditations and in ardent love to thee who hast loved us in such a marvellous manner O that it might never come down again to this world but with desires left in it aspiring towards heaven Touch my soul so powerfully with a sense of these things that with an hearty and zealous affection it may ever look towards thee and towards my dear Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus O â—ix mine eyes on him as he was here on earth that I may learn of him his humble and meek obedience to thy commands and as he is now in heaven that I may trust him for the performance of his precious promises and patiently wait till he carry me to that glorious place where he is inthroned Since he appeared among us to destroy the works of the Devil and died to redeem us from all sin and rose again that he might bless us in turning every one of us from our iniquities and is made Lord of all that he may govern us by his Laws and reward and punish us according to our works preserve in my mind I beseech thee a constant and lively sense of this great end of his whole undertaking for us That he may see the fruit of the travail of his soul in me and my whole life may be a serious study and endeavour to imitate him by purifying my self as he is pure O that thy fear and love and an holy joy in thee may preserve me this day from abusing any of the good things which thou allowest me for the refreshment of my body Give me such a savour and relish of thy Divine Truths revealed to us in the Gospel that I way not glut my self with any fleshly injoyments as if I knew no pleasure more excellent But raise up my mind by them to better delights that I may injoy them with thanksgiving to thee with bowels of mercy to those who are in need with a taste of spiritual and heavenly joys and with hunger and thirst after the fulness and perfection of those joys when our Lord Jesus shall come to show us his glory and entertain us with eternal satisfaction in his incomprehensible love Amen A PRAYER ON GOOD FRIDAY In the MORNING O Most holy and eternally blessed the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom I am incouraged to come unto thee And how shall I come O Lord but in the
redemption that the Lord Jesus obtained for us by his bloud and the power and dominion which thou hast given him at thy right hand after his Resurrection from the dead and his compassionate intercession on our behalf So for all those gifts which he gave unto men whereby he made some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the ministry and the edifying of his body Blessing honour glory and praise be to thee O Father of mercies for all those great instruments of the holy Ghost the illustrious Ministers of thy grace the Embassadors for Christ and the blessed Champions of his holy Truth who have communicated the light of thy glorious Gospel to the world and overcome the kingdom of darkness by the bloud of the Lamb Rev. 12.11 and the word of their testimony not loving their lives unto the death Adored be the mightiness of that Grace Psal 8.2 which out of the mouths of babes and sucklings ordained strength Glory be to thee O Christ 2 Cor. 2.9 whose strength was made perfect in weakness Glory be unto thee who didst commit this heavenly treasure unto earthen vessels 2 Cor. 4.7 who approved themselves the ministers of God in much patience 6.4,5 in afflictions in necessities in distresses in stripes in imprisonments in tossings to and fro in labours in watchings in fastings that the excellency of the power might be of God and not of men I heartily submit to the power of that Divine Truth for which they suffered the loss of all things Phil. 3.8 and counted them but dung that they might win Christ and be found in him And I rejoyce that thou hast had so many faithful servants who have loved thee O Lord thou lover of souls more than their own lives most earnestly desiring to be inspired with the very same spirit which was in them that I may leave some example though never so small of hearty and universal obedience to those that shall come after Accept good Lord of my sincere resolution to be a follower of them even as they were of Christ in pureness in knowledge in long-suffering in kindness 1 Cor. 11.1 in love unfeigned That my rejoycing may be this 2 Cor. 6.6,7 the testimony of my conscience 2 Cor. 1.12 that in simplicity and godly sincerity 8.21 not with fleshly wisdom but by thy grace I have had my conversation in the world 1.5 providing for honest things not only in the sight of our Lord but also in the sight of all men Make me constant and couragious in the profession of thy holy Truth and to be willing to pass through honour or dishonour through good report or evil report for the Lords sake hoping that if the sufferings of Christ abound in me my consolation also shall abound by Christ Stir me up I beseech thee and quicken me that I may show the same diligence that thy Saints have done to the full assurance of hope unto the end that I may not be slothful Heb. 6.11,12 but a follower of them who through faith and patience inherited the promises 2.3,4,5 How shall I escape if I neglect so great salvation which at first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed by them that heard him God also bearing them witness with signs and wonders and with divers miracles of the holy Ghost according to his own will O continue the mighty assistance of that divine power with me that behaving my self so holily justly and unblameably as they did 1 Thess 2.10 I may rest at last together with them 2.1,7,9 when our Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that believe And now preserve me this day from dishonouring thaâ— worthy name Jam. 2.7 whereby wâ— are called knowing how we ought to follow them 2 Thess 3.7,13 who behaved not themselves disorderly among those that believed That by this rest from my ordinary labours I may not learn idleness nor grow weary of well doing but be better disposed in my mind by all the refreshments of my body to do my duty in the place and relations wherein thou hast set me with greater chearfulness fidelity and diligence to the end of my days O that it may be my highest pleasure to attend on thee and praise thee in the assemblies of thy Saints Give me such a sensible delight and joy in reading and meditating of thy holy Word and in the remembrance of all thy mercies that nothing in this world may make me forget the sweetness of it but every thing may excite me more to praise extol and magnifie thy loving-kindness to me and to express my thankfulness in a free and ready obedience to thy commands till I be made fit to be admitted into the company of the blessed there to praise thee world without end Amen A PRAYER Upon the day of ones BIRTH O Most mighty Lord the Former and Preserver of all things All thy works praise thee and do declare thy infinite greatness wisdom and bounty and do call upon us likewise to magnifie thy Name with our continual praises and thanksgivings I humbly bow my self before thy glorious Majesty who inhabitest eternity acknowledging that it is but a little time since I was not and that I am not gone down again into silence is to be ascribed only to thy Omnipotent goodness which brought me into being to praise theâ— among the rest of thy creatures I thank thee O Lord by whom I was fearfully and wonderfully made Psal 139.14,15 and curiously wrought in my mothers womb 22.9 Thou art he that took me thence thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mothers breast 71.6 By thee I have been holden up ever since and most carefully provided for when I could not think at all of thy tender mercies towards me And therefore now that I am grown to the use of my reason my praise ought to be continually of thee O bless the Lord my soul 103.1,2 and all that is within me bless his holy Name Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits While I live will I praise the Lord Psal 146.2 I will sing praises to my God while I have any being Pardon I beseech thee my ingratitude in that I lâ—…e no earlier remembred thee my Creator in whom I live and move and who givest me all things richly to enjoy Accept of my unfeigned resolutions to preserve hereafter a more grateful sense of thy great goodness to me and to glorifie thee with my body and with my spirit which are thine Vouchsafe me the assistance of thy heavenly grace that I may return them back unto thee pure and undefiled full of wisdom and spiritual understanding full of love and devout affection to thee full of all good works and
present contentment and satisfaction of it hath a great recompence of reward O preserve in my mind a constant remembrance how dearly I am bought by the precious bloud of thy Son Christ how early I was dedicated to thy service how often I have since found abundant cause to determine I would be thine how I have condemned my self for the breach of those holy purposes and what great satisfaction of mind I have had in the keeping of thy Commandments That so I may never wilfully offend against so many forcible reasons obliging me to my duty but be swayed by them notwithstanding all the temptations of the world the flesh or the devil to persevere in a resolved obedience to thee for ever And by the power of thy holy Spirit I beseech thee to make them clearer stronger and more effectual that I may have the same thoughts passions inclinations and purposes now which I shall be apt to have when I come to dye For which end help me often to place my self before thy Judgement Seat and to consider that I must give an account for all that I have received for thy holy Gospel for thy divine inspirations for the counsels and exhortations of thy Ministers for all the means and helps of growing better and for all the incouragements I have even from the good things of this life which thy bounty bestows upon me That by a careful preparation for such a reckoning I may be kept close and stedfast to my duty in hope of that exceeding glorious reward which our Lord will bestow upon all his faithful servants at the day of his appearing Amen Another to the same effect O Most great and glorious Majesty of heaven and earth who art of unspotted purity and in whom there is not the least shadow of change I know that all the resolutions of thy Wisdom are most just and equal and I cannot chuse when I am in my right mind to be guided by any thing else but thy holy Will who designest I see in all the revelations thou hast made of thy self to us to make us like to thy own most blessed Nature I do here own and acknowledge most heartily the righteousness and goodness of all thy Laws I admire the loveliness of thy Image in wisdom righteousness and true holiness I loath my own deformity whilst I am unlike to thee I implore thy renewing grace as the greatest blessing I can receive from thee and I bind my self to the faithful improvement of it as the weightiest imployment of my life I am abundantly satisfied in the declaration thou hast made of thy gracious purposes towards us I renounce all thoughts and desires that are contrary thereunto and resolve that holiness and eternal life shall be my design and study I expect no pardon O my God but in ways of sobriety righteousness and godliness I hope for a blessed immortality only by patient continuance in well doing I consent to every part of thy holy Gospel and add my testimony to the truth of its words that none of thy commandments are grievous but thy yoke is easie and thy burden light I hope O Lord by thy grace I shall never contradict my self by disowning in my practice these free and serious professions But that I shall every day so call to mind my own protestations and resolutions as to continue with an unwearied diligence in stedfast obedience to thy commands and to grow still stronger in the grace of the Lord Jesus O that every such address as this unto thy Divine Majesty may leave a greater sense of thee and of my duty and of my happiness and of my manifold obligations and repeated promises upon my heart That I may always go out of thy presence with my mind more towards heaven with lower thoughts of all the injoyments of this life with a greater relish of piety and holiness and more passionate desires to become every way such as thou canst approve and love and delight in for ever And assist me I humbly beseech thee so constantly from above that whatsoever good thoughts are at any time in my mind they may grow to fixed principles and all heavenly affections may become a new nature and the constant temper of my spirit and all my purposes and resolutions may advance into a serious practice and exercise of godliness and all the actions of an holy life may grow more free chearful vigorous and full of delight till they be compleated in everlasting bliss through Christ Jesus Amen A PRAYER After RELAPSE Into any SIN I Cast down my self before thee O most holy Lord of heaven and earth with an humble sorrowful and penitent heart adoring thy infinite grace which suffers such a vile and miserable sinner to approach into thy presence I am thine indeed dedicated long ago to thy service which I have since chosen as the most perfect freedom But so much the greater reason I have to be abashed before thee and to be astonished at thy forbearing mercy which prolongs the life of such an one as I am who have been so false to thee and to my own resolutions I remember in the bitterness of my soul how many obligations thou hast laid upon me to observe and obey thee how often I have acknowledged the justice and goodness of thy Precepts and how frequently I have promised and vowed to conform my self unto them and what great and precious promises thou hast made to me of invaluable blessings And yet wretch that I am I have been drawn aside from thy ways by easie and slight temptations and for a small and momentary pleasure or gain * Here mention the particular sin have ventured the loss of thy favour which is better than life it self O God that thou shouldst have patience with so perfidious so ungrateful so senseless a creature as I am That thou shouldst permit me to see the light of the Sun and hast not condemned me to utter darkness in weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth But that thou givest me leave to look towards heaven and that I have any heart to speak unto thee and still may call thee Father saying Father I have sinned against thee and am no more worthy to be called thy son O the riches O the unsearchable riches of thy grace I can never sufficiently admire thy exceeding great long-suffering towards me in Christ Jesus Nor sufficiently abhorr and loath my self for my foul revolt from thee who art so kind gracious especially if I should still continue to abuse such tender mercy and compassion towards me Tribulation and anguish indignation and wrath I acknowledge is the due portion of those that do evil and if thou shouldst abandon me and cast me out of thy sight I must confess that thou art righteous and that I reap but the fruit of my own ways and suffer the deserved punishment of my late iniquity But thou O God delightest in mercy and there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayst
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
nevertheless thy counsel O Lord that shall stand I will therefore bless thee O Lord my God alway and desire of thee that my ways may be directed and that all my paths and counsels may prosper for thou thy self givest all good things and thou humblest whom thou wilt and as thou wilt Accordingly I now most earnestly recommend my self and all my concerns to thee who hast bid me in all my wayes acknowledge thee Prov. 3.5,6 and thou wilt direct my paths I trust in thy wise and good providence with all my heart and lean not unto mine own understanding I hope in thy mercy that thou wilt so direct assist and prosper all my thoughts designs and endeavours that they may attain their desired end And above all things I desire that I may have grace to design and seek for nothing but what is just and honest pious and charitable praise worthy and of good report Bless me good Lord with that integrity of heart in which thou so much delightest and then bless me with wisdom and good understanding in all my affairs that I may guide them with discretion Wisd 7.15,16 For it is thou that leadest into wisdom 9.10 and directest the wise Ecclus. 23.1,5 In thy hand are both we and our words all wisdom also and knowledge of workmanship Leave me not therefore O Lord Father and Governour of all my whole life leave me not to my self alone but send out thy wisdom from the throne of thy glory that being present she may labour with me And turn away from me vain hopes Indue me also with a patient contented and untroubled spirit that I may wait on thee as long as thou pleasest And whatsoever the event shall be enable me to rejoyce in thee as my portion and to rest perfectly satisfied in thy love and in the assured hope of good things in the other world I humbly recommend likewise to thy merciful guidance all those with whom I have intrusted any of my concerns that they may manage all their undertakings with skill and prudence justice and fidelity and do for me as they would that I or others should do for them Make us all ever mindful that all our works are as the Sun before thee Ecclus. 17.19 Ephes 3.20 and thy eyes are continually upon our ways Rom. 16.25,27 that we may never dare to do any thing but what thou approvest and of which we may give a comfortable account at the great day of judgement Now unto him that is of power to do for me exceeding abundantly above all that I ask or think to God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ for ever Amen A Prayer when one intends to live Vnmarried O Lord the lover of souls for whom they were made and in whom alone they can be happy There is none I have in heaven but thee Psal 73.25 nor on earth that I desire besides thee Who art the perfection of wisdom power and goodness and the fountain of all the good that is in us Thou art able to raise us to what degree of wisdom strength and goodness thou pleasest and hast promised us thine assistance to make us like unto thee and assured us we shall be immortally blessed by a glorious participation of thee Thou drawest us so mightily that we have no power to resist thee when our minds turn themselves towards thee and reflect upon thy most excellent Nature which discovers it self in all thy bounty to us and the rest of thy creatures We cannot but love thee when we think of thee and when we love thee we cannot but again think of thee that we may have the pleasure still of loving thee more O fix my mind I beseech thee in a more stedfast contemplation of thee and of all thy gracious communications to me that I may spend my days delightfully in a perpetual meditation of thy mercies which I have received in such abundance from thee There is nothing I know more natural and more easie than to think of the kindnesses of those that love us especially theirs to whom we bear a mutual love O how great how free and undeserved is thy love to us What infinite reason is there that we should love thee with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength Inspire me O God with such a lively sense of thy goodness in my creation and ever since both to my soul and to my body that I may ever preserve a sweet and grateful remembrance of it and may feel it provoking me daily to commemorate thy loving kindness with the most ardent love of thee my most bountiful benefactor O that I could love thee in every thing that I see and enjoy being led by it to the thoughs of thy admirable wisdom which astonishes us in the least of thy creatures and of thy matchless goodness which hath provided such variety of pleasures for all our senses Possess me with a great and strong admiration of the excellency of wisdom that I may be a lover of her beauty Wisd 8.2,3,9 and seek her out from my youth desiring to marry her to my self For thou the Lord of all things thy self lovest her And therefore I purpose to take her to live with me knowing that she will be a counseller of good things and a comfort in cares and grief But especially over-power my heart with a strong and lasting sense of thy exceeding abundant kindness in Christ Jesus in whom thou hast choseâ— me Ephes 1.4,8 that I should be holy and without blame before thee in love Let me never think of that buâ— with such great transports of love and joy and thankfulness unto thee as may make me then forget all other things And make me to understand more and more how thy love in him hath abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence That so I may be the more moved to admire it and delight to meditate upon it and be still searching into those treasures of thy Wisdom and unsearchable riches of thy Grace till I come to be filled with all the fulness of thee my God Ephes 3.19 Translate all my affections from these lower objects to him that is fairer than the children of men Psal 45.2 who loved me so much as to dye for me who is risen again and sits at thy right-hand in incomparable Majesty and Glory Raise up my thoughts as high as that heavenly place where he is and where I hope one day to be equal to the Angels Luk. 20.36 who neither marry nor are given in marriage Help me to begin that happy state in separating my self frequently from all this world and joyning with that blessed company above in praising thee and giving thanks unto thee whose mercies are great and endure for ever And when I am about any other imployment help me chearfully to attend it and with a willing mind to perform the duties belonging to it Possess
instruction Prov. 5.12,13 and my heart despised reproof And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers nor inclined mine ear to them that admonished me How swift have my feet been to run into evil and how backward and averse have I been to any thing that is good O the injuries which I have done my Neighbours the abuse of my self and of thy good creatures The prophane contempt or neglect of thee and the duties of thy worship and service * Here let him reckon up the blasphemy debauchery and violence that he hath been guilty of The remembrance of all this is dreadful the burden of it is intolerable How shall I appear before thee at whose rebuke the Mountains quake since I cannot think of appearing before an earthly Judge without shame and affrightment of spirit O Lord work in me a greater dread of thee with a greater shame and confusion of face now that I am in thy presence For which end be pleased to represent unto me effectually the wickedness the baseness and vileness of all my evil doings as well as the guilt and just desert of them O that I could hate and abhorr them more than that death * Or punishment when the crime is less which I expect shortly to suffer for them Bestow on me that ingenuous and godly sorrow which worketh repentance and unfeigned purposes of amendment of life They come too late indeed I may justly think to find acceptance with thee and therefore not without fear and trembling and a great sense of my undeservings I look up unto thee acknowledging thy infinite goodness if thou wilt vouchsafe but the smallest hope of mercy Mercy mercy good Lord cast me not quite out of thy sight for Jesus Christs his sake who gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity It is the beginning of some mercy and an earnest I hope of more that thon hast made me sensible of mine offences and that thou hast wrought in me a resolution to forsake them and some love to a godly sober and righteous life Help me to manifest the sincerity and uprightness of my soul in these resolutions as much as I am able by giving thee hearty thanks that the hand of justice hath over-taken and laid hold upon me and put a stop to the further mischief which I might have committed and by making a free and open confession of my crimes and taking the shame which belongs to me before others and by acknowledging that I am unworthy to live and by earnest admonishments to all to be warned by my example and to cease betimes to do evil and learn to do well O God that I could glorifie thee a little in my latter end after this manner And till I come to receive my deserved punishment help me to spend my time in bewailing my sins in humbling my self before thee for them in setting my heart against them in studying and admiring with the greatest affection the holy life of the Lord Jesus in calling other offenders to repentance and exhorting them thereby to give thee glory Deny me not the grace I beseech thee to enable me thus to imploy my self that I may have some taste of thy mercy and the fear of death may be abated by some hope that when my soul shall be parted from the body thou O blessed Jesus wilt receive it though so unworthy into some of the heavenly mansions Amen Amen A Souldier's Prayer that fights for his Country O Most mighty Lord the Fountain of life and strength and courage whom all the host of heaven continually obeys I prostrate my self before thee in a religious sense that the fear of thy divine Majesty a pure conscience and a strong hope and confidence in thy Omnipotent goodness will give the most assured resolution valour and boldness to our spirits in all dangers Most humbly beseeching thee to purge my heart from the love of every thing that is offensive to thee to pardon all my former sins negligences and ignorances and to indue me with the grace of thy holy Spirit strictly to amend and reform my life according to thy holy Word Many temptations I am sensible will continually assault me in this state of life wherein I am ingaged But I as earnestly beseech thee to defend me from the power of them as I desire to be defended from death and to be covered by thee in the day of battle O that no covetous desires or greediness of spoil no ambition or vain-glory no hatred or malice may push me forward in any enterprize But give me the victory over these and all other vile affections and passions before I meet with any other enemy And graciously bless and prosper our arms for the defence of our Country and the preservation of our Religion Government Laws and Liberties And whilst we fight for the preservation of good Order Lord give us all grace to be examples of it our selves That abhorring all blasphemy and prophaneness all riot and lasciviousness Luk. 3.14 and doing violence to no man accusing no man falsly and being content with our wages we may adorn both our Cause and our Religion and whatsoever the issue be we may have peace in our own hearts and living or dying may be accepted with thee through Christ Jesus the Prince of peace To whom c. Amen A Prayer for the use of one that is Aged I Adore thee O Lord of life and glory who art from everlasting to everlasting and changest not beseeching thee to look graciously upon thy unworthy servant whose hope is only in thine infinite mercy by which my life hath been prolonged to old age and which is able to make me eternally blessed I thank thee for thy inconceiveable love in the Lord Jesus who hath given me such a solid and stedfast ground of hope to suppport and strengthen my heart when all the comforts of this life fail me and likewise praise and magnifie thy bounteous goodness for those innumerable blessings which time after time thou hast bestowed upon me from the beginning of my life till this present * Let them be reckoned up as particularly as you can O my God help me always to solace my self now that the days are come wherein I have no pleasure with a perpetual remembrance of all thy past loving kindnesses to me and with those hopes which I have of thy endless love in the other world And the more my outward senses decay vouchsafe me the quicker and more lively sense in my heart of those good things which thou hast laid up there for those that fear thee Preserve me from all discontented thoughts and peevish passions Make me an example unto others of Holiness discretion temperance gravity Tit. 2.2,3 peaceableness and patience Prov. 20.29 that so I may with the more authority be a teacher of good things Ecclus. 25.4 and my hoary head may be a crown of glory being found in the ways of righteousness
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
truly to get their own living and to do their duty in that state of life unto which it hath pleased thee to call them And good Lord bless the honest labours of all men among us and crown them with good success Especially of those who have any work in hand for the glory of thy name the increase of Christian piety and the peace of thy Church Reward the bounty of all charitable persons either for the honour of Religion or the relief of them that are in poverty And make the bones which thou hast broken to rejoyce Comfort all that are in a sorrowful condition and bring them out of all their troubles Send thy Angel to guide and preserve those who are in journeys upon their lawful occasions Let them that go down into the deep and do business upon the great waters observe thy providence and praise thee for thy goodness and for thy wonderful works for the children of men Forgive all that have done me any evil and requite the kindness of those who have done me any good Let their souls abide in good and their seed inherit the earth Psal 25.13 Rejoyce the heart of all my Friends and fulfil the petitions of all that have desired my prayers 106. ult Let none that wait on thee O Lord be ashamed let all them that trust in thee say continually the Lord be magnified Save and deliver every one of us O Lord our God from the hands of our enemies to give thanks unto thy holy name and to triumph in thy praise Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ from everlasting to everlasting and let all the people say Amen Praise the Lord. AFter this if the spirits be tyred it will be fit to give them some refreshment And then it will be very profitable to read and weigh seriously our Saviours Sermon on the Mount contained in the V. VI. and VII Chapters of the Gospel according to St. Matthew And such meditations may be interspersed as are most sutable to the persons condition and occasions With the addition of some of the prayers foregoing for RESOLVTION in well doing or for the DIVINE GRACE or for good SVCCESS in any business or for Friends that are TROVBLED IN MIND or are in a long JOVRNEY c. And then conclude with the following Prayer and Thanksgiving I. I Most humbly adore and worship thee O Lord most high the possessor of heaven and earth And admire thy infinite love to mankind whom thou hast thought worth the expence of the bloud of thy dear Son and the conduct and assistance of the holy Ghost and the Ministry of Angels by whom thou exercisest a most watchful providence over us and so many gracious messages from heaven wherein thou hast plainly declared that thou desirest to see us eternally happy by being made partakers of a Divine Nature When we seriously consider thy glorious perfections and thy astonishing kindness towards us we may justly wonder at our selves that we should ever refuse to be conformed to thy will nay that we should not be exceeding forward to joyn our selves unto thee in most hearty love and intire friendship with thee I am amazed at the dulness and stupidity of our Nature that there should need so many intreaties and beseechings of us to be so happy It is impossible to think of thee and to prefer any thing in our esteem and desire and choice and delight and joy before thy favour and good will towards us who art so able and so desirous to bestow the greatest bliss upon us And therefore I most earnestly beseech thy goodness that to all other mercies which I have begged of thee thou wilt add this grace to bring thy self often to my remembrance and to possess my heart with a constant serious and deep sense of thy marvellous kindness in giving me liberty to chuse so great a good as thy self and in propounding to my will such everlasting happiness and in drawing me from those ways which are contrary even to my peace and satisfaction here by such powerful motives to well doing II. Awaken O Lord awaken this sense continually in my mind Fasten my thoughts upon those unseen and eternal enjoyments Make me feel what an happiness it is to love thee with all my heart to cleave unto thee against all temptations which would allure or affright me from my duty to bless and praise thee with joyful lips to be kept in perfect peace and tranquillity while my mind is stayed on thee to be full and satisfied and to desire nothing more but to live for ever in thy love O make me more and more to conceive and remember what an infinite delight thou the infinite good canst pour forth into us how highly our Lord Jesus is dignified and exalted and that thou hast made him most blessed for ever and made him exceeding glad with thy countenance Psal 21.6 and that he will bring all thy children unto his glory Settle in my soul such strong apprehensions of these things that they may purifie my heart more perfectly and provoke me to an unwearied diligence in well doing and make me endure hardship also if need be as a good souldier of Jesus Christ who was made perfect through sufferings III. And assist me especially in these holy addresses to thee that continuing instant in prayer I may feel my heart lifted up more and more towards heaven by ardent breathings after thee And indue me likewise with such a spirit of wisdom and such sincerity of heart that I may never be discouraged though I fall short of the height of my desires but I may always thankfully acknowledge thy grace in what I have attained and labour earnestly to grow better with a quiet patient even and steady mind Preserve in me an humble confidence that thou wilt never forsake the work of thine own hands And let that confidence make me industrious but not slothful And let thy holy Spirit bless and further my endeavours and a fervent desire and hearty good will press me forward and the pleasures of Religion mightily indear it to me and the joy that thou hast set before me make me run the way of thy commandments with an enlarged heart And the nearer I come to the end of my race may it please thy goodness to present me with a clearer sight of that Crown of Life which our Lord hath promised Open to me more of the treasures of thy Kingdom and fill me with a greater joy in hope of thy glory that so I may be willing to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all IV. And now O Lord what thanks shall I render unto thee for these holy thoughts desires and affections which by thy grace I feel in my heart together with all the other benefits which thou hast bestowed on me or intendest for me Great and marvellous things O God hast thou wrought for the children of men and thou hast
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
Gospel of Christ That so our praises being not meerly words but real deeds and all the fruits of righteousness we may be blessed in our deed and at last hear our Lord speaking to us in those gracious words Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world Amen A Prayer for the Morning when there is a Communion O Most holy holy holy Lord God Almighty the Father of mercies the God of peace and comfort by whose power we and all things else were created and by whose good providence we are all preserved and maintain'd Be thou eternally blessed and praised worshipped and served with the most ardent love who hast made mankind so like to thy self and ordered so many of thy creatures to serve us and chosen rather to make us anew and create us again Ephes 2.10 in Christ Jesus unto good works than let us be undone by our shameful disobedience to thee For thou Joh. 3.16 hast sent thy only begotten Son into the world adored be thy inconceiveable love that whosoever believeth in him might not perish but have everlasting life And he hath laid down his life for that end and redeemed us by his bloud from the hands of our enemies and triumphed over them all most gloriously and in token thereof ascended into heaven and possessed the Crown of immortal Life and sat down at thy right hand and obtained dominion over Angels and Men and all Creatures We have felt the blessed fruits of his Death and Resurrection and Royal Power whereby Heb. 7.25 he is able to save to the uttermost all them that come to thee by him Thy holy Spirit hath breathed often into our hearts we have been instructed in the Gospel of thy grace and thy Servants the Ministers of thy Word have not ceased to call upon us yea to importune us to follow after our Saviour to that heavenly bliss in which he lives And now again thou vouchsafest to us an happy opportunity to improve our selves in Christian Wisdom Devotion and holiness and we have received thy kind invitations to the nearest approaches to thy divine Majesty O fill us we pray thee with a lively and strong sense of thy bounteous goodness which hath been so many ways expressed towards us Fill us with pious dispositions to receive more of it according to thy precious promises in Christ Jesus Stirr up in us such thankful acknowledgements to thee such hearty resolutions to obey thee such earnest desires and longings to partake more and more of thy divine Nature such love delight and joy in well doing that our souls may be lifted up above to that glorious place where our dear Saviour is and we may comfortably expect and be truly prepared for a blessed translation thither at the great day of his appearing Our great unfruitfulness we confess in the knowledge of Christ may justly make thee deny thy gratious influences from heaven upon us But O God of all grace who multiplyest mercy and delightest in doing good pardon us and make us better both at once Quicken our souls to hear thy holy Word with greater fear and reverence to sing thy praises with greater cheerfulness and gladness to pray to thee with more earnest affection and steadiness of mind to approach to thy holy Table with the deepest humility and devotion of spirit and to receive the renewed pledges of thy love to our very great increase in Faith and Hope and Love to thee and to all the world That so this may be a good day to our souls and we may be disposed and enabled to spend the rest of our days better as becomes the redeemed of the Lord who have tasted how gracious he is and who have received the earnest of eternal life O that our conversation may be in heaven by the constant love and exercise of purity righteousness mercy and godliness That we ever studying to glorifie thee our heavenly Father by bearing much of this good fruit may have the more assured hope that thou wilt glorifie us with thy self And inspire we beseech thee the hearts of all others that meet together this day to magnifie thy great and glorious Name with the like religious affections towards thee That we may all Rom. 12.1 present our selves a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto thee which is our reasonable service Help us all to Coloss 3.10,11 c. put on as thy elect children holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindness humbleness of mind meekness long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another if any man have a quarrel against any even as Christ forgave us so incline us also to do And above all these things to put on charity which is the â—ond of perfectness And let the peace â—f thee our God rule in our hearts â—o which we are called in one body and â—ake us ever truly thankful Hear â—s we beseech thee O most merciâ—ul Father and after we have perâ—ected holiness here in thy fear bring â—s all to compleat our praises and â—hanksgivings to thee in the great â—ssembly of Saints and Angels through Christ Jesus our blessed Lord and Saviour 2 Pet. 3. ult To whom be glory both now and for ever Amen Our Father c. A Prayer at Night when there hath been a Communion O Eternally blessed Lord God the Creator of the world the Father of Angels and men the King of infinite Majesty and Power who canst do what thou pleasest every where 2 Chron. 6.18 Thâ—… heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee who art inthroned only in thy own greatness and crowned with the glory of thy own uncommunicated perfections There is nothing can be added to thee by us or any other creatures of whose services thou hast no need seeing thou art absolutely happy in thy self Act. 17.25 and givest to all life and breath and all things But it is our perfection and happiness to admire and praise thee whom we cannot comprehend to love thee as much as we know thee and to obey thee as much as we love thee 1 Chron. 28.9 with a perfect heart and with a willing mind for the Lord searcheth all hearts and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts We praise thee therefore O God we acknowledge thee to be the Lord. We give thee the glory that is due unto thy name and with hearty â—ove offer up our selves again intireâ—y unto thee whose we are and for whom we were made Justice and gratitude fear and love hope and interest whatsoever hath any power to move our hearts do all press and mightily urge us constantly to devote and consecreate our souls and bodies to thy faithful service We cannot neglect thee unless we will cast away our selves nor sin against thee unless we will be our own accusers judges and tormentors and throw our selves into the greatest miseries Thou hast been so good to us that if we should not become
good likewise we must hate and abhorr our selves who cannot but love and delight in those who show us any kindness and bestow any benefits upon us though they are but thy Ministers and Servants that have nothing and can do nothing but what thou hast given them and inclinest them to do By thee we were formed and brought out of our Mothers Womb. And by a greater mercy were early born again and made thy children in Christ Jesus We have been thy care ever since and been instructed in that Covenant of Grace into which at our Baptism we were received by the knowledge thou hast given us of thy blessed Gospel Wherein we read the great love of our Saviour in dying for us and have the promise of his Spirit to sanctifie and govern us his holy Precepts for the rule of our actions his glorious Example to excite and quicken us and the hope of eternal bliss by his Resurrection from the dead to incourage and comfort us in well doing And in the mean time we injoy the society of thy Saints the ministry of thy Angels and the direction and assistance of thy faithful servants the Embassadors of peace and reconciliation with thee All which fruits of thy wonderful love we have long enjoyed and thou hast this day entertained us at thy Table where thou hast refreshed us with the Communion of the body and bloud of Christ Jesus the earnest of a blessed resurrection and the pledge of immortality Besides innumerable good things which thy most tender mercy hath been pleased to bestow upon our bodies to make our passage to that blessedness through all the troubles and dangers of this life the more easie and delightful to us And all this thou hast done for those who have been too idle and useless cold and dull inconstant and soon weary of their duty forgetful of benefits and unfaithful to their own promises But thy infinite goodness still continues to do it to make us more diligent more zealous more steadfast and immoveable more mindful of thee and of our own holy purposes that we may be abundant as there is reason in the work of our Lord knowing that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. And that is the most sincere and fervent desire of our souls likewise who here most humbly beseech thee by the power of thy holy Spirit to preserve in us a perpetual and affectionate remembrance of all thy undeserved kindness to us Stir up all that is within us every morning to bless and praise thy holy Name That by a renewed serious acknowledgement of thy benefits we may be more and more stirred up to love and to all good works O that the Lord Jesus may be always in our thoughts and in our hearts that we may make him our pattern as he is our hope O that nothing may be so dear unto us in this world as his holiness his humility his goodness and charity his meekness and patience his intire trust in thee and resignation to thee his delight to do thy will O God in hope of that Tit. 1.1 eternal life which thou who canst not lye hast promised to us Fix our minds and affections more steadfastly on that glory wherewith he is crowned by his obedient suffering of death that we may never be weary nor faint in our minds under any sufferings for well doing but continuing faithful to the death may also receive the Crown of Life Accept we pray thee of this our bounden duty and service pitty our great weaknesses pardon all our sins and negligences and deny us not the grace of thy holy Spirit which we have implored to inable us to amend our lives according to thy holy Word But after thou hast refreshed us with quiet sleep this night let us feel it moving our hearts to the same holy thoughts acknowledgements desires and resolutions which it now works in us through thy mercy declared to us in Christ Jesus In whose words we conclude our Prayers saying as he hath taught us 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. PRAYERS FOR FAMILIES MVNDAY MORNING WE humble our selves O Lord of heaven and earth before thy glorious Majesty we heartily acknowledge thy Sovereign Dominion over us all creatures we praise and magnifie thy eternal Power Wisdom Goodness and Truth and we render thee our most unfeigned thanks for the innumerable benefits which thou in thy bounty hast loaded us withal Above all for the gracious declaration thou hast made of thy good will to us in Christ Jesus by whom thou hast invited and incouraged sinners to return to thee and directed them in the way to everlasting bliss We blush to think of our shameful forgetfulness of thee and ingratitude to thee to whom we owe all that we have in this world and all our hopes in the next We most humbly implore thy tender mercies in the forgiveness of all our sins whereby we have offended either in thought word or deed against thy just and holy Laws For we are truly sorry for all our mis-doings we utterly renounce whatsoever is contrary to thy will and here devote our selves intirely to the obedience thereof Accept O most merciful Father of this renewed Dedication which we make of our whole man body soul and spirit to thee And as thou dost inspire us with holy resolutions so accompany them always with the assistance of thy grace that we may be able every day to offer up our selves more sincerely and more cheerfully to thee with more pure affection and hearty devotion and ready disposition to thy service We adore thy great grace which hath brought salvation to us and Tit. 2.11,12 teaches us that denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world We will indeavour O Lord to preserve a grateful sense of thy mighty love in our mind and to follow the doctrine and example of thy Son Christ Jesus as becomes those who have such a blessed hope and look for so great Salvation at the day of his glorious appearing We desire above all things to be so pure and undefiled so meek and gentle so humble and lowly so just and merciful so peaceable and patient contented and thankful as our blessed Lord and Master was And we hope that thou wilt fulfil all the gracious promises he hath made to us which we esteem far greater treasure than thousands of gold and silver They are the support the comfort the satisfaction of our hearts We ask nothing but that it may be to thy servants according to his Word Thou hast mercifully kept us the last night blessed be thy continued goodness and raised us again to see
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
most high wisdom hath set us And we desire the comfort of those that mourn the ease of those who are in pain the health of the sick the release of poor prisoners and captives the quiet and satisfaction of those who are in trouble and anguish of mind and the true content of all men in whatsoever condition they are that we may be all continually giving thanks to thee the Father of mercies for the joy thou hast set before us and the hope we have by running our Christian race with patience to come to that blessed place into which Jesus our fore-runner is already entred for us By whom we continue to desire in his own words that thou mayst be glorified every where in our well doing saying as he hath taught us Our Father c. At Night O Lord the Almighty Creator and Governour of the world Psal 104.24 How great and manifold are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all 74.16 The day is thine the night also is thine thou hast prepared the light and the Sun We thy creatures a small part of mankind prostrate our selves before thee this evening in the humblest adoration of thy divine Majesty praising thy incomprehensible perfections and rendring thee our thanks for all the benefits thou hast bestowed on the whole world especially on us whom thou hast called to the knowledge of thy grace in Christ Jesus It is a marvailous love wherewith thou hast loved us Thou hast not dealt so with all people and as for thy great and precious promises they have not known them We are bound therefore more particularly to offer up unto thee continually spiritual sacrifices by Christ Jesus and to laud and bless thy great and glorious Name in the behalf of our selves and the rest of mankind among whom thou hast left innumerable testimonies of thy careful providence in that Act. 14.17 thou dost them good and givest them rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling their hearts with food and gladness We praise thee we bless thee we magnifie and extol thy wise and powerful goodness we thank thee for thy never ceasing bounty towards us especially that thou hast vouchsafed to send Jesus Christ to restore us by his appearing among us and his humbling himself to the death for us and his glorious Resurrection from the grave and Ascension on high to a blessed hope of thy mercy unto eternal life We can do no less than devote our selves souls and bodies eternally to thee returning what we have received from thee back again with the greatest love and most grateful acknowledgements Accept we pray thee O most gracious and merciful Father of this small oblation we make thee of our most hearty and unfeigned resolutions to worship and serve thee in the constant exercise of righteousness mercy meekness patience humility and purity with whatsoever is lovely and of good report And we humbly beg thy holy Spirit may constantly accompany us inabling us to think of these things to cleave unto them to delight in them and to persevere in a free and willing performance of all our duty towards thee and all men to our lives end And we most heartily desire the rest of mankind may at last be so happy as to come acquainted with the exceeding riches of thy grace in Christ O that Psal 67.2 thy way may be known upon earth and thy saving health among all nations Rom. 15.10.6 that all the Gentiles may rejoyce with thy people and we may with one mind and one mouth glorifie thee our God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ O that all Idolatry and ungodliness all cruelty and filthiness all rapine and violence may be abolished and rooted out of the earth and true piety righteousness holiness and brotherly kindness may flourish in the room thereof For which end we beseech thee indue all Kings and Princes especially those that are Christian with a great sense of thy Soveraign Authority over all that they may humbly obey thee as they desire others should obey them and govern all their people with great wisdom uprightness and a tender compassionate care of their welfare O that no covetousness ambition or revenge may rule in any hearts provoking them to war and bloudshed but there may be great peace in all Lands by observing the holy Laws of the Prince of peace Christ Jesus More particularly we recommend unto thy blessing these Kingdoms wherein we live beseeching thee to be merciful to our sins in giving us grace to repent of them and to bring forth fruits meet for repentance and amendment of life Bless our Soveraign and all that are imployed under him either in Spiritual or Civil affairs with all those graces which are necessary for the right discharge of their duties in such high places Prosper all their pious indeavours for the good either of mens souls or outward estates that true Religion and Vertue increasing and all ungodliness and vice being put to shame we may become a renowned Nation and a praise in the earth We commend to thee also O Father of mercies all those who are in a distressed and sorrowful condition most earnestly desiring their seasonable relief and comfort with their release from those troubles when thou pleasest And now that we are going to lay down our selves to sleep we put our selves and our habitations with all that belong unto us into thy most gracious protection hoping thou wilt take care of us when we cannot so much as think how to secure our selves from any danger that may approach us Thou hast been our helper keeper and defender therefore under the shadow of thy wings will we still rejoyce When we close our eyes let these holy thoughts of thee and affections towards thee still remain in us and possess our hearts that they may awake again with us in the morning and send up our souls in renewed love and thanks and praise to thy divine Majesty by our blessed Saviour and Redeemer Christ Jesus In whose words we continue to implore thy mercies towards us 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. PRAYERS FOR FAMILIES SATVRDAY MORNING O Lord all thy works praise thee and declare the greatness of thy Majesty Power Wisdom and Bounty which surpass all understanding Thou art good unto all and thy tender mercies are over all thy works Thou art holy in all thy wayes and righteous in all thy doings and keepest truth for ever Thy Kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations We all decay and perish the heavens themselves wax old like a garment but thou art the same and thy years shall have no end We adore thee O Lord
most high and most willingly joyn our hearts and voices this Morning together with all the host of heaven and earth to laud and praise thy glorious Name and give thanks unto thee whose mercy endureth for ever We think our selves happy that we know thee and that we live under the care and providence of thine Almighty and most wise goodness and that we have a good hope not only of thy blessing and favour here but of life for evermore Blessed be thy Name for sending thy Son Jesus to give us these hopes by his Death and Resurrection and Ascension to heaven and the coming of the holy Ghost Blessed be thy Name who hast trained us up in his Religion and given us the means and opportunities to know that love of thine which passes knowledge We thank thee for all the blessed operations and motions of thy holy Spirit in our hearts and that thou hast so early inclined us to fear thee and love thee and place our contentment and satisfaction in thy love and favour which is better than life it self And that thou hast also added a number of other mercies for our comfortable subsistence in this world having granted us so long health peace and plenty a great many friends loving relations and acquaintance and continued the enjoyment of them to this day though we be so unworthy of the least of thy favours We thank thee O God that now thou hast graciously renewed thy kindness unto us in protecting us the last night from all the powers of darkness and every evil accident and raising us up this morning in health and safety to praise thy goodness More especially we praise thee for any sense we have of these thy mercies humbly waiting on thee for the increase of it and for thy gracious pardon of all our unthankfulness and undutiful behaviour towards thee which we most heartily bewail and desire and will endeavour to amend And for that end we implore the help of thy holy Spirit which our Lord hath incouraged us to ask of thee and told us thou wilt not deny to those that earnestly seek it and continue to knock importunately at the gate of Mercy for it We believe all his promises to be faithful and true and therefore humbly depend on thy mighty Power to strengthen and inable us to do our duty towards thee and towards all men with care and diligence and zeal and perseverance to the end Indue us good Lord with a spirit of true and servent devotion to thee our Creator and Redeemer with upright just and charitable hearts to all our Neighbours and with temperate contented and humble minds in every condition and state of life unto which thou shalt please to call us Help us to be meek and gentle in our conversation prudent and discreet in ordering all our affairs good and useful in every relation observant of thy fatherly providence in every thing that befals us grateful for thy benefits patient under thy chastisements and readily disposed to every good word and work Preserve in us a constant remembrance of thine all-seeing eye of the many promises and vows we have made of fidelity to thee of thine inestimable love in Christ Jesus whereof thou hast given us so many pledges and of the great account we must give to him the Judge of all at the day of his appearing That so we may continue steadfast and unmoveable and be abundant in the work of the Lord knowing that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Deliver us we beseech thee from all inordinate cares and desires from vain hopes and causeless fears and so dispose our hearts that death it self may not be dreadful to us but we may welcome it with a chearful countenance when and howsoever it shall approach O that our hearts may be so firmly settled and established in the true Religion and our minds kept so free from all delusions that nothing may afright us or shake our constancie But we may rather chuse to dye than dishonour our Saviour who dyed for us We resign our selves to thy wisdom and goodness who knowest what is best for us hoping thou wilt 1 Corinth 10.13 never suffer us to be tempted above what we are able and wilt with the temptation also make a way to escape that we may be able to bear it We commend unto thee likewise all mankind especially thy Church and chosen people these Kingdoms more particularly of which we are members that we may be all faithful to our Lord Christ and zealous of good works Bless our Soveraign his Councellors his Ministers and all imployed in publick business whether Spiritual or Civil that they may be conscientiously industrious and whatsoever they do may prosper for the good of all those who are committed to their charge Be gracious to all our friends and those who are dear unto us Keep us all in thy fear and love and obedience while we live and make us willing to dye and to be with Christ which is best of all Guide us good Lord and govern us by the same spirit of wisdom and goodness that we may be so united to thee here as not to be eternally separated when thou art pleased to order our departure hence But that we all at last may have an happy meeting in the other and better world to dwell with thee in love and joy that shall never dye through Christ Jesus our blessed Lord and Saviour in whose words we still beseech thee to hear us Our Father c. At Night ALL honour and glory thanks and praise love and service be rendred by us and all other reasonable creatures to thy great and glorious Majesty O Lord who hast brought us into the world and preserved our life most tenderly to this moment and made it easie and comfortable to us by more mercies than we can number And to all the former hast added those of this day which we have passed in peace and health and safety blessed be thy never-ceasing goodness Above all we acknowledge thy unconceiveable love in Christ Jesus by whom thou hast made a gracious provision for our souls and their everlasting happiness in the other world Having sent him to us with the promises of eternal life and to be the Way and Director to it and given him to dye that he might seal his promises with his bloud and raised him again from the dead that our faith and hope might be in thee O God 1 Cor. 2.9 Eye had not seen nor ear heard neither did enter into the heart of man the things which thou hast prepared for them that love thee We love thee O Lord and give our selves both souls and bodies to thee most earnestly desiring to be inspired with such a sense of thy infinite goodness that we may love thee more and serve thee better with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength We confess we have not walked worthy of the great
lowest prostrations of my soul and body with mine eyes full of tears and my heart full of grief and sorrow because I have been so undutiful to thee whose grace and mercy hath so exceedingly abounded towards us When I cast mine eyes upon my Saviour and upon my self with the rest of the children of men I am astonished at the wonderful greatness of thy love which surpasses the thoughts of men and Angels For what were we that thou shouldest make thy dear Son a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief for our sake That he should become poor and mean not having where to lay his head and indure likewise cruel mockings and buffettings and be spit upon and abused yea sorely wounded and bruised and drink that bitter cup the vile and accursed death of the cross where he shed his most precious bloud and gave himself a ransome for us O Lord what was the whole race of mankind worth that thou shouldest purchase them with so dear a price and by the obedience of thy Son Christ Jesus unto the death grant a pardon for their rebellion and seal a new Covenant of Grace in his bloud and by the same bloud consecrate him to be an high-Priest with royal Power in the heavens to give repentance and remission of sin and all this so freely that we did not so much as desire it nor did it enter into the heart of men to conceive that thou shouldest be so gracious to them O blessed God how rich is thy goodness that lets us withal injoy a great plenty of worldly good things much of that ease and pleasure which was denyed our dear Saviour and yet we are sinners and he had no sin neither was guile found in his mouth yea we are ungrateful sinners so far from being sensible as we ought of such infinite loving kindness that we may justly fear lest this goodness of thine which was designed to save us should through our unthankfulness and negligence prove the occasion of our greater ruine I most heartily bewail O most merciful Father my shameful forgetfulness of so great benefits or my cold and dull remembrance of them I lament all the errors and miscarriages of my life which are the more heynous I acknowledge after such a plain declaration of thy displeasure against sin and of thy marvellous love to us sinners I am afflicted for the hardness and stupidity of my heart which alas is oft-times little pierced and wounded when I reflect upon his sorrow and pain and anguish for the sake of sinners and for the listlessness and backwardness of my will to give up my self absolutely to him who so willingly gave himself an offering for our sins I blush to remember how weak and short my thoughts have been how transient and ineffectual my passions when I have meditated on his bloudy death and sufferings And am confounded when I think how suddenly I have started from those holy purposes and resolutions which the sense of his love hath sometimes begot in my heart I cannot but accuse and condemn my self here in thy presence but I likewise condemn every sinful desire that is still remaining in me to dye and be crucified together with him I would have nothing contrary to thy Will to have any power or live any longer in me and therefore here yield up my self intirely into thy hands to be conformed in all things to Christ Jesus who dyed for me Fix my thoughts so constantly upon his dying love and affect my heart so mightily therewith that I may chearfully undergo any pains to be made like unto him in his humility in his obedience in his resignation of himself to thy wise will and pleasure in his patience in his meekness in his charity and forgiveness of his enemies in his willingness to quit all things for thy names sake and to trust both soul and body with thee in well doing and contented suffering whatsoever it be that thou requirest of me I desire not to live O Lord but that I may live to him that dyed for me I refuse no reproaches no poverty no pain or trouble if thy will cannot other ways be accomplished by me Do what thou pleasest with me so that I may but be perfected in holiness and obtain thy gracious pardon through the redemption that is in Jesus I believe the vertue and power of his Sacrifice to be everlasting and that when he had by himself purged our sins he sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high And therefore I look for the constant assistance of thy good Spirit which he hath bid me ask in his Name to inable me to purifie my self and to tread in the steps of his humble meek and patient Charity that so I may be presented unblameable and unproveable in thy sight at the day of his appearing Great is the wisdom of thy love wherein thy grace hath abounded towards us in Christ Jesus Great are the incouragements which thou hast given us by his laying down his life for us that he might take it again and live for evermore Great is the boldness that we have to enter into the holyest by the bloud of Jesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through his flesh Give me the grace I beseech thee wisely to consider and ponder the merciful design of thy Grace to walk circumspectly and exactly as the redeemed of the Lord as an heir of his love that hopes to see him in immortal glory O that the comfort and joy of this hope to see Jesus who was so scorned and abused sitting upon his throne and triumphing over all his enemies may so raise and inlarge my mind by the power of it that I may overlook and despise all the petty temptations of this world looking still steadfastly unto him and following him with unmoveable resolution till I come to possess that which I hope for and rejoyce eternally in his love Hear me O Father of mercies and deal graciously with me far beyond all my thoughts and desires for his sake who is the Author and the finisher of our faith who dyed once for us and now lives for ever to make intercession on our behalf By whom all honour praise thanksgiving love and obedience be rendered to thee by me and by all mankind both now and for ever Amen A Prayer on Good Friday in the Evening O Most holy most gracious the only wise God most blessed for ever We cannot conceive the greatness of thy perfections nor is there any thing to which we can compare them Thy holiness is more unspotted than the light of the Sun Thy goodness spreads it self more largely than its beams Thy Wisdom pierces into those secrets which are buried in darkness and though all things alter and wax old yet thou art the same unchangeable being whose years have no end How shall such a vile wretch as I am take the boldness to look towards thee and speak unto thee who
pains I may endure Lay no more upon me O Father of mercies than I shall be able to bear and lay upon me what thou pleasest Free me for the present from all murmuring and repining thoughts and for the future make the sickness and anguish of my body a blessed instrument to purge my spirit more perfectly from all pride and vanity from all covetousness and worldly-mindedness and from all inordinate love of any of the pleasures of this life I believe O blessed Jesus that thou livest for ever who sufferedst and dyedst for us and that thou hast a great compassion towards those who would gladly follow thee though it be through sufferings Behold Lord I commend my self to thy mighty Love desiring above all things to be made conformable to thee in meekness in humility in patience in intire resignation to Gods holy will and pleasure and in perfect satisfaction in his Fatherly love and kindness whatsoever my condition be I am sensible O God that I have not employed my time to the utmost advantage of my soul and to thy honour glory but have wasted many precious hours and several ways neglected my duty towards thee * Here reckon up the sins you may have committed and been but an unprofitable part of this world so that I am not worthy to continue any longer in it But I hope thou wilt vouchsafe me thy gracious pardon and receive me to mercy if thou callest me hence for into thy hands O Father I commend my spirit who hast redeemed me by the precious bloud of Jesus Christ And that if thou prolongest my days on earth I shall serve thee with greater diligence and strictness and zeal and chearfulness to the end of my life I desire not to live but that I may perfect holiness in thy fear and secure to my self by doing more good an happy entertainment into the society of the blessed in the other world I see already the emptiness and insufficiency of all enjoyments upon earth All flesh is grass and all the goodliness of it as the flower of the field The grass withereth Isa 40.7 the flower fadeth Psal 119.50,81 But thy word standeth fast for ever In thy word therefore O Lord and gracious promises is my hope This is my comfort in my affliction And my perfect contentment I see lyes always in thy love and favour alone which is better than life it self O settle me in a certain and unmoveable possession of it by what means thou pleasest Do but love me and preserve me in a lively sense of thy good will towards me and dispose of me as thou thinkest good In the multitude of my thoughts within me Psal 94.19 thy comforts shall delight my soul Rom. 5.2 8.28 I will rejoyce even in the midst of tribulations Psal 23.3 30.10 and glory in thy holy name who makest all things work together for good to them that love thee Though I walk through the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy power and tender care they shall comfort me Accept Good Lord of these my desires and resolutions Hear me O God and have mercy upon me Lord be thou my helper for Christ Jesus his sake my ever blessed Redeemer Amen IT will be seasonable here to put the Devout Reader in mind that when he is in distress and desires Mercy of God it ought to excite his charity to others that are in misery and dispose him to shew mercy to them For though that be not Canonical Scripture which we read Tob. 12.9 Alms doth deliver from death yet this is With the merciful God will shew himself merciful Psal 18.25 Blessed is he that considereth the poor the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble 41.1,2,3 If he do not preserve him and keep him alive yet the Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing he will make all his bed in his sickness Therefore as thou recommendest thy self to God and desirest others to pray with thee so remember that Prayer is good with fasting and alms and righteousness Tob. 12.8 A Prayer to be said by the Family with the Sick person O Lord the Father of our spirits who givest to us and all creatures life and breath and all things We sinful dust and ashes blush to lift up our eyes unto heaven when we consider our vast distance from thee and reflect upon thy unspotted holiness and our impurity thy infinite wisdom and our wretched folly thy power and our weakness thy Eternity of life and our short continuance We are but of yesterday and know nothing Job 8.9 because our days upon earth are a shadow Psal 39.11 When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity Job 25.6 thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth Surely every man is vanity But so great is thy condescending grace that thou hast assured us thou wilt not despise such worms as we are Nay thou hast incouraged us blessed be thy goodness to approach unto thee with some confidence that thou wilt mercifully receive us though we have highly offended thy Divine Majesty Having sent thy dear Son into the world to save sinners to purifie our natures to indue us with a divine understanding to strengthen our weakness and to comfort us with the hope of an immortal life Behold O Lord the oblation which we make to thee of most thankful hearts devoted to thy service whose love and tender mercies have so exceedingly abounded towards us We will praise thee and glorifie thee as long as we have any being for this great salvation which Christ Jesus hath brought to light by his resurrection from the dead to an eternal Kingdom in the heavens We are humbly bold to hope in thee that thou who hast not spared thy own Son Rom. 8.32 but delivered him up for us all wilt with him also freely give us all things O thou Father of mercies and God of all comfort who hast not thought a Crown of everlasting life and glory too much to promise us we believe that thou wilt not deny us what is needful and fit for us both for our souls and our bodies in our passage through this world to that honour glory and immortality In this confidence we more particularly recommend this thy sick servant to thy infinite and most compassionate mercy Settle in his * Or her soul a stedfast faith that thou dost not willingly grieve the children of men but intendest good to him by this affliction And now that other pleasures and enjoyments fail him represent thy self effectually unto him as his true happiness and satisfaction Wherein soever he hath neglected thee or committed any offence against thee make him deeply sensible of and heartily sorrwful for his folly And as he earnestly desires pardon and forgiveness of thee so work in him a serious resolution to live more circumspectly and exactly in time to come Assist him graciously
O Lord that he may give a proof of his sincere intentions hereafter to submit himself in all things to thy will by his patient submission to thy fatherly correction now O that he may so quietly so meekly so humbly and chearfully resign his will unto thee to suffer what thou inflictest that he may be the more disposed readily to deny his own desires in doing whatsoever thou commandest For which end make him throughly apprehensive of thy soveraign power and authority over all creatures Possess him with a great reverence of thy wisdom and justice with an intire confidence in thy goodness and charity and with a thankful remembrance of all thy past mercies to him which have been innumerable That so he may the better endure what thou layest upon him at present and ever chuse to follow thy directions and submit to thy orders and love thy commandments and delight to do thy will O God Bless and succeed those remedies that are used for the restoring him to his former health that he may live to perform his holy purposes Or if thou hast otherwise appointed accept of them graciously and dispose him to return back his spirit willingly unto thee who gavest it and with great humility and deep sense of his own undeservings to expect thy mercy declared in Christ Jesus who hath so highly merited of thee Fix his mind stedfastly upon him who hath led the way through the grave unto heaven that he may not be affrighted with the approaches of death but looking beyond it to that high and holy place where the Lord Jesus is may rejoyce in hope of thy eternal glory And give every one of us in our best estate of health to consider perpetually how frail and weak we are That so we may not abuse our selves by an intemperate use of any of the pleasures of sense nor load our minds with the cares of this life nor spend our days in a vain pursuit of the honour and glory of this world But may pass all the time of our sojourning here in fear 1 Pet. 1.17 Tit. 2.12 and live so soberly righteously and godlily in this present world as becomes those who expect shortly to give an account to thee who wilt judge all men according to their works Hear â—s O Lord we most humbly beseech thee through Christ Jesus our merciful and compassionate High-priest who sits at thy right hand â—nd lives for ever to make intercession for us In whose name we continue to recommend our selves â—nd friends and all thy people to â—hee as he hath taught us 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 â—respass against us And lead us not â—nto temptation but deliver us from evil c. If the disease proceed to such an extremity that in all appearance the Soul is ready to depart there is a Commendatory Prayer appointed in the Publique offices of Devotion to be said by the Minister whose assistance then sure will be desired And besides the sick person himself as long as he is able may thus recommend his soul unto Almighty God A Prayer when a person is giving up the Ghost I Resign my spirit O God most chearfully into thy hands hoping to find mercy with thee through Christ Jesus I know no other name under heaven whereby I may be saved but thine alone O blessed Jesus who wast dead and â—rt alive again Rev. 1.18 and livest â—or evermore I come unâ—o thee O Lord confiding in thy â—ost precious promises which I beâ—ieve are faithful and true as thou art â—or pardon and for immortal life Accept I beseech thee of my most â—earty thanks for all thy mercies to â—e from the beginning of my life to â—his moment Pass by all my ingraâ—tude and disobedience Receive â—e into the company of the spirits â—f just men made perfect to give thee â—hanks for ever And as I desire to find mercy with â—…ee so I forgive all my enemies â—eseeching thee likewise to forgive â—em and to bless and comfort all â—y friends and to make thy whole â—hurch glorious and to bring us â—l at last to live together in everlasting love and joy through Christ Jesus Amen IF God be pleased to restore the sick person to a state of health publick Thanksgivings ought to be rendred to Almighty God for it And together with the Sacrifice of praise which is the fruit of our lips Heb. 13.15,16 he ought not to forget to do good and to communicate to them that are in misery for with such sacrifices God is pleased And to preserve a grateful remembrance of Gods mercy here follows a Form of Thanksgiving to be used in private by himself and by his friends that are concerned in his recovery A Thanksgiving after recovery from a Sickness to be said by the person himself who is restored to health O God the fountain of life and of all good who art continually more and more pouring forth thy benefits upon us I thy poor creature whose life thou hast mercifully spared when I deserved to be cut off prostrate my self in an humble sense of thy divine goodness to render thee my most hearty thanks and to renew my vows which I made in the day of my distress Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me Psal 103.1,2,3 c. bless his holy name Bless the Lord O my soul 34.8 118,17,18 and forget not all his benefits Who forgiveth all thine iniquities 111.1 who healeth all thy diseases Who redeemeth thy life from destruction who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things so that thy youth is renewed like the Eagles The Lord is merciful and gracious slow to anger and plenteous in mercy He will not always chide neither will he keep his anger for ever He hath not dealt with me after my sins nor rewarded me according to my iniquities But as far as the East is from the West so far hath he removed my transgressions from me O tast and see my soul how gracious the Lord is blessed is the man that trusteth in him I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord hath chastned me sore but he hath not given me over unto death I will give thanks therefore unto the Lord with my whole heart secretly among the faithful and in the congregation I can do no less than dedicate this new life which thou hast bestowed upon me intirely to thy service resolving to employ more vigorously all those powers of soul and body which are so graciously restored unto me unto thy honour and glory For which end I most earnestly desire to have a lively sense preserved in my mind of those things which were most powerful to move my heart towards thee
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
them and to be led by them which is sufficient to humble and lay us low in our own eyes With what dejection of spirit then ought I to mention all those offences whereby I or others have justified that first rebellion and still taken part with the Devil and his Angels against thee and the motions of thy holy Spirit in our hearts Thy mercy indeed is so much the more miraculous which hath bestowed such great benefits as I have acknowledged upon such vile such sinful such unthankful wretches and at the best such unprofitable creatures whose understandings are so shallow to comprehend and admire thy love whose affections are so heavy so listless and so unapt to lay it to heart and who when they have done all that they can have done no more than was their duty to do But the greater reason there is that I should be confounded at the remembrance of my disobedience to thee notwithstanding such unexpected as well as undeserved demonstrations of thy love and grace towards mankind It becomes me to bow my self lower than my knees before thee and to debase my self as much as I am able in thy presence since I am but sinful dust and ashes that deserves to be cast down even into the pit of destruction The very multitude of my offences is enough to amaze and perplex my thoughts the weight of them did I always feel it may well depress and sink my spirit into the greatest horror and affrightment but the baseness and ingratitude of them to so gracious a Father O how VI. I am not able to express O Lord the shame the consternation and the trouble of my spirit at the thought of that ingratitude I loath and abhor my self as unworthy to live and breath upon the face of the earth I am astonished at thy wonderful patience and long-suffering which not only endures such a wretch as I am but permits me to speak unto thee and to cry for mercy to that love which I have so much abused O that I were sensibly affected with something of thee That at least thy sparing and forbearing mercy did mightily move and everlastingly possess my heart with admiration of it That so I may with the more ingenuous sorrow and grief bewail mine offences against such tender bowels of compassion towards me Jer. 9.1 O that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep bitterly for my unkind requitals of the infinite bounty of thee my Creator and of the inconceiveable love of my blessed Saviour and of the unwearied grace of thy holy Spirit which I hope I still feel working in my heart Fill me O God with the saddest remembrance of all my follies and possess my reason so much against them that I may have an utter hatred and detestation of them as the greatest offences to me as well as to thy divine Majesty It is easier I know to make large confessions than to be truly contrite and broken in heart and we are more inclin'd to sigh and groan under the sense of thy displeasure than to abhorr that which is evil and to cleave to that which is good Rom. 12.9 Be thou therefore pleased Psal 42.8 O Lord the Father of our spirits to wound my soul with a lively sense of the vileness of my behaviour towards thee Dan. 5.23 the God of my life in whose hand my breath is and whose are all my ways Estrange me from every thing that will not let me love thee with all my heart and soul and strength by whom it is that I have power to love any thing at all Set my heart in such a perfect enmity to all things contrary to thy blessed will that I may never be reconciled to them any more And dispose me to such an entire affection to all thy commands that none of them may be grievous to me but I may account thy yoke to be easie and thy burden to be light And then be merciful unto me good Lord according to thy loving kindness Psal 51.1 according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions 25.7 38.18 Be merciful unto me for Jesus his sake 32.5 who came into the world and dyed to save sinners 143.2 O remember not the sins of my youth 130.3,4 nor the transgressions of my riper years 86.5,6 25.11 according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness sake O Lord. For I confess mine iniquity and am sorry for my sin I acknowledge my sin unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid Enter not therefore into judgement with thy servant for if thou Lord shouldest mark iniquities O Lord who shall stand But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayst be feared Thou art good and ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee Give ear therefore unto my prayer and attend to the voice of my supplications And for thy name sake pardon mine iniquity for it is great VII Great are thy tender mercies O Lord who hast not yet cast me away from thy presence nor dealt with me after my sins nor rewarded me according to mine iniquities Adored be thine infinite goodness that I am so far from being cast into the place of weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth that I do not yet suffer here the pains and the anguish and misery which mine offences have deserved I might have been lamenting them in those doleful complaints of thy ancient servant saying thine arrows stick fast in me and thy hand presseth me sore There is no soundness in my flesh Psal 38.2.3.6 c. because of thine anger 88.16,18 neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin I am troubled I am bowed down greatly I go mourning all the day long For my loyns are filled with a loathsome disease and there is no soundness in my flesh I am feeble and sore broken I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart But thanks be to thy most long-suffering goodness thy fierce anger goeth not over me thy terror hath not cut me off Lovers and friends hast thou not put far from me nor mine acquaintance into darkness Yea thou declarest thy self willing to accept me again into friendship with thy self And hast in the most loving manner invited me to come unto thee and bid me hope for a pardon through thy mercy in Christ Jesus O how sweet are those gracious words Come unto me all ye that labour Matth. 11.26 and are heaven laden Heb. 8.10,12 and I will give you rest How precious are thy promises Act. 26.18 that thou wilt put thy laws into our mind and write them in our hearts And be merciful to our unrighteousness and remember our sins and iniquities no more Marvellous was thy mercy O Lord Jesus who sent thine Apostles to open mens eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and