expressed our enmity against thee in wicked works we have 2 Tim. 2. 19. named the Name of Christ but not departed from Iniquity vowed allegiance to thee in our Baptism but have broken thy Bonds asunder and cast away thy Cords from us and as if the temptations of the World and the Devil would not have enough prevailed to defile and destroy us we have tempted our selves and been drawn away of our own lust and enticed Jam. 1. 14. We have not had that sense of thy Love as to love thee with all our hearts that sense of thy Mercies as with those Cords of kindness to be drawn to thy Service that sense of thy displeasure as to fear offending thee that sense of Sins filthiness and deformity as to hate and flee from it with our whole Souls nor have we had that belief of Heavens Glory and Happiness as by a fruitfulness in good works to press toward it with all our might that active and vigorous diligence that should have been used to promote the spiritual good of our Souls and secure their immortal interest we have with great folly misimployed in pursuing the pleasures and profits of this World and in assuring those fickle and slippery vanities that are not capable of a long or certain continuance O Lord have mercy upon us miserable offenders and help us so to repent of all the Sins we have committed as never more to commit the Sins of which we have repented and work in us a true and a lively faith in thy dear Son our blessed Redeemer who is both God and Man that God and Man may be reconciled and through the blood of his Cross grant us repentance and remission of Sins and by that precious Blood sprinkled upon our Consciences Heb. 9. 14. purge them from dead Works to serve thee the living God Wash our hearts from wickedness Jer. 4. 14. that we may be saved and let not vain thoughts lodg within us help us so to govern our Tongue that unruly Member that no corrupt communication may at any time proceed out of our Mouth but that Eph. 4. 29. which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace unto the hearers and let all our actions be directed by thy Word and designed to thy Glory That delight and satisfaction that we might vainly and to no purpose seek in sensual pleasures and the impure gratifications of the Flesh let us seek and find in the ways of holiness and a dutiful compliance with thy Will that in loving and keeping Psal 119. 165. thy Law we may have great peace and nothing may offend us and in the midst of all the troubles and confusions of the World we may rejoyce in our reconciliation with thee and in the harmony and peaceful reports of our own consciences Bless us in our Callings and Imployments that we may neither Pro. 30. 8. 9. abound in Riches lest we be full and deny thee nor be pinched with extream want lest we be tempted to the evils that attend an impoverished State but in thy wise and good providence carve out to us such a convenient share of worldly good things health and strength riches and reputation that we may faithfully serve thee and be cheerfully helpful to our brethren Let thy love and holy fear so intermix with and sweeten all our earthly injoyments that we may eat our Eccl. 9. 7. Bread with joy and drink our Wine with a merry heart because thou acceptest our works In every condition of Life be thou our Guide and our Support help us to love and rejoyce in thee above our highest and best comforts and under our crosses with patience and cheerfulness to resign up our selves to thy wise and righteous providence and with a stedfast faith to rely upon thy gracious and faithful promises Let our conversation be without Heb. 13. 5. covetousness and make us content with such things as we have because thou hast said thou wilt never leave us nor forsake us by all the changes we meet with in this World prepare us O Lord for our last and great change when we shall leave it that death our last Enemy may be to us neither dangerous nor dreadful but a sweet and desireable passage to a blessed and glorious immortality And in these our Prayers we commend allied by a common Brotherhood all Mankind to thy Grace and Favour heal the Sick ease the pained relieve the Oppressed supply the Impoverished feed the Hungry cloath the Naked comfort the Disconsolate cause them that are disquieted in Conscience to Rejoyce spread forth the knowledge of thy Son into all the dark corners of the World that Isai 49. 6. he may be thy Light and thy Salvation unto the end of the Earth Let thy continual pity cleanse and defend thy Church and because it cannot continue in safety without thy succour preserve it evermore by thy help and goodness O be gracious and favourable to the Land of our Nativity forgive all our crying Sins avert thy threatned and approaching Judgments cleanse our defilements heal our divisions stablish us in truth righteousness and peace perpetuate thy Gospel and Ordinances the pledges of thy love and kindness and grant that we may alway walk worthy of those inestimable benefits Bless preserve direct and prosper our Sovereign Lord the King in all his thoughts words and works let him ever seek thy honour and glory and study to preserve thy People committed to his charge in wealth peace and godliness Let the Bishops and Pastors of thy Church by their heavenly Doctrine and exemplary Lives their diligent labours vigilant care and prudent carriage adorn the Gospel silence gainsayers and win many to righteousness and let Magistrates by an equal and indifferent administration of Justice uphold Religion and Virtue and suppress Vice and Ungodliness and grant that all under Authority may follow after Peace and Holiness obeying those that are over them for conscience sake loving and forbearing one another leading quiet and peaceable Lives in all godliness and honesty Follow us with thy mercy and loving kindness this night and let thy good providence that neither slumbers nor sleeps defend and protect us that no danger or disturbance in the intermission of our own thoughts care and reason harm or annoy us And so repair our decaying spirits by a quiet and peaceful rest that we may serve thee with healthful bodies and cheerful minds the next day and all our days till thou bringest us to that blessed state where eating and drinking and sleeping shall be no more but we shall be eternally happy in praising and injoying thee through thy dear Son our ever blessed Redeemer through whose Merits alone we hope to be heard and in whose words we further pray OVr Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done in Earth As it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily Bread And
FORMS OF PRAYER FOR EVERY Day in the Week MORNING and EVENING Composed for the use of PRIVATE FAMILIES By John Meriton D. D. Rector of St. Michael Cornhill London and Lecturer at St. Martins in the Fields LONDON Printed by H. H. for Robert Boulter at the Turks Head in Cornhill 1682. THE PREFACE THat all Men are obliged to worship God by praising and praying to him is so evident by the light of natural Reason as well as the Revelation of Scripture that none can question it but they whose Immoralities and improved Debaucheries have laid such a foundation of Atheism as makes them inclinable to deny the Being of God and loath to acknowledge their dependance upon him lest this should involve them in the dreadful consequence of their being accountable to him And that men ought dayly to pay this Homage and Tribute of Praise and Prayer unto God as they stand linked in the relations of Families though all readily grant that are sensible of the Sins there committed that need his Pardon of the many Temporal and Spiritual blessings either wanted and to be sought at his Hands or injoyed and to be thankfully acknowledged yet the too common neglect of Family Prayer is it 's to be feared and he must have a very easie and credulous charity that can be otherwise minded not only one of the many instances of the decay of Piety and Religion but one of the provoking Sins that cry aloud to Heaven for vengeance It is no doubt by many totally omitted from an insensible stupidity an irreligious profane disregard of God and their Duty but by others not a few as was well and charitably suggested by the Good Man that earnestly pressed me to this undertaking only from a consciousness of their inabibility decently to perform it Now that this might be neither a feigned pretence nor a real hinderance But that they that like Joshua are willing and resolved to serve God with their Families might have Materials of Devotion ready at hand As the Water near the Road offered it self to the Eunuch willing to be Baptized I have for the help of such as can read complyed with my Friends desire and composed a Form of Weekly Prayers Morning and Evening And though their length will not I hope be complained of by any whose leasure may allow and whose Affections can vigorously attend one quarter of an hours solemn and religious Address to God Yet in consideration of others multiplicity of Business and that flatting and depression of Spirits that may follow from it all the Prayers are printed in many distinct Paragraphs that some of the Confessions or Petitions or both may easily and without disturbing their Devotion be pass'd over and the Prayer thereby so contracted as to suit their convenience And I desire they would rather do so than wholly omit the Duty for better a short Prayer than none at all Lord's Day Morning ALmighty most high and holy Lord God who art the glorious Creator Preserver and Governour of all things in Heaven and in Earth and most worthy to be praised and honoured by all Creatures And with infinite kindness and compassion hast redeemed lost and undone Sinners by thine only beloved Rom. 4. ult Son whom thou hast delivered to death for their offences and raised again for their justification and so thou art for ever to be loved and delighted in obeyed and worshipped praised and honoured by thy redeemed ones We thy poor Creatures and Children are here before thee this Morning humbly sensible of this our great and bounden duty and of our own inability without the assistance of thy Grace to perform it And in a deep sense both of our duty and insufficiency we desire to offer up our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to thy Divine Majesty our mighty Creator and most merciful Redeemer and humbly desire that thou wouldest sanctifie and prepare both our Souls and Bodies by the Grace of thy Holy Spirit that we may present unto thee acceptable thank-offerings We acknowledge O Lord that besides the sins of our Callings common Imployments and even those of the Week last past whereby we have greatly offended thee the sins of our holy duties and our profanation of this thy holy day have given thee a just provocation to withdraw the grace of thy good Spirit from us and leave us to the ignorance and vanity of our own minds the wandrings and distractions of our thoughts the earthliness and sensuality of our affections the hardness impenitency and unbelief of our hearts And then by all the duties of thy Worship and Service we should dishonour thee and by offering the Sacrifices of Fools increase our own guilt before thee But we humbly beseech thee most merciful Father forgive us all our past offences that they may not stand as a partition Wall between thy Majesty and us to hinder either thy Grace from coming down upon us as Rain upon the tender Herb or our Prayers from coming up before thee as Incense Fill every one of our hearts with awful thoughts of thee as a God that searchest hearts and art throughly acquainted with our most secret imaginations dispositions and purposes and because thou art a God of purer Eyes than to behold iniquity Let us worship thee with an holy worship so as to fear thy Goodness and love thy Justice to delight in thy Mercy trust and rely upon thy Power and Faithfulness to admire praise and imitate thy Holiness In the publick Duties and Services of this thy Day help us so to joyn with the Assembly of thy Servants that our hearts may be inflamed with a love of thee and delight in thee and in the vigour and fervency of devout affections we may together glorifie thy holy and great Name set forward our own edification and comfort and advance in those ways of holiness that lead to everlasting happiness And seeing in great mercy and compassion to our Souls thou art pleased to continue to us thy Sabbaths and the use of thine ordinances which by our many and great sins we have long since forfeited Let us not like Children sitting in Mat. 11. 16. the Market-place trifle away the precious opportunities and means of Grace and Salvation Help us seriously to consider when we are in thine House the Habitation of thine Holiness Psal 26. 8. and the place where thine Honour dwelleth the glorious Majesty and spotless perfect purity of that God with whom we have to do and let us behave our selves in thy sacred and dreadful presence with that reverence and holy fear that humility and lowliness of mind that simplicity and godly sincerity that heavenly mindedness and purity of affection that firm constancy of resolution to devote our selves to thee by our hearty obedience to thy Laws as it becomes dust and ashes vile Creatures that dwell in houses of Clay when they worship and do homage to that Sovereign Majesty the Throne of whose Glory is in the highest
coming into this world and as little laid to heart whaâ— will become of us when wâ— shall go hence and be no morâ— and as though we were to dyâ— as the Beasts dye we have livâ—… too much as the Beasts live In our selves O Lord wâ— have no hope but in the muâ—titude of thy tender mercies wâ— cannot despair and thougâ— we have deserved wrath and vengeance and have nothing of our own to plead why we should escape it we are greatly encouraged to sue to thine offended Majesty for pardon and forgiveness by that Proclamation which thou hast made Exod. 34. 6 7. of thy glorious Name the Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands and forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin and because thou hast said thou wilt not clear the guilty take away our guilt by a sincere hearty repentance and a true and lively faith in the merits and righteousness of thy Son Let all our sins be more bitter and burthensom in the review of them than they have ever been pleasant and delightful in the commission of them and grant gracious Lord that â—e may be so sorrowful for 〈◊〉 sins as to loath them so 〈◊〉 them as to take up firm Resolutions against them and so resolve as that by the powerful assistance of thy holy Spirit we may never renew the practice of them and having done iniquity Job 34. 32. we may do so and offend no more Wash and cleanse our sinful Souls from their guilt and filthiness in that fountain of thy dear Sons most precious blood Zech. 13. 1. which thou hast set open for sin and uncleanness and by the grace of thy holy Spirit subduing and mortifying our sins in us convince and satisfie us that thou hast pardoned them create in us clean hearts O God Psal 51. 10. and renew right spirits within us And as we call thy Son Jesus Christ our Saviour and hope to be for ever happy in the light and injoyment of him in Heaven let us make him our example and purifie our selves even as he is pure 1 Joh. 3. 3. Make us as he was holy and humble meek and merciful patient and charitable heavenly minded and self-denying let 's be zealous for thy glory contented with our present condition satisfied with all the wise allotments of thy providence and make it our meat and drink to do the will of our heavenly Father and in all things wherein he was a most lively and admirable pattern for our imitation seeing we profess our selves Christians and say we abide 1 Joh. 2. 6. in him let us walk as he also walked Settle and root in our hearts a stronger and more firm belief of thy holy Gospel and so fix our thoughts and affections upon that unseen happiness that our Saviour in our name and place is possessed of that nothing here below may either allure or affright us from our duty or make us remiss cold and negligent in it but we may be zealous of good works and with fervency of spirit alway serve that gracious Lord from whom we expect the reward of a glorious and immortal inheritance Fill every one of our hearts with a quick and a constant sense an humble and awful dread an ardent and intire love of thee together with an active and vigorous delight in thee and a vigilant and circumspect care universally and in the whole course of our lives to please and approve our selves to thee Let us never adventure to commit any sin as a little one because it will offend and dishonour thee the great and infinite Majesty of Heaven and deserve the eternal punishment and misery of an immortal Soul Keep us by thy grace from every evil way and those sins especially to the which we may be most inclined and easily prevailed upon by custom or example the naughtiness and general corruption of the age we live in our Callings our company or our constitution so that laying aside every weight Heb. 12. 2. and the sins that easily beset us and running with patience and perseverance the race that thou hast set before us we may at length obtain that prize of our High Calling which thou hast prepared and promised in Christ Jesus our Lord. And in his Name we humbly recommend to thy compassion and goodness all the Sons of Men that dwell upon the Face of the Earth beseeching thee that thou wouldst make known thy Will to them and help them to practise according to what they know and whatever affliction or calamity may lye upon them in mind body or estate let them by thy mercy and clemency be supported under them and in thy due time be delivered from them Shew favourable regards of care and kindness towards thy Church engrave her upon the Palms of thine Hands and let Isa 49. 16. her Walls be continually before thee Appoint Salvation for the Walls and Bulwarks of the Nation wherein we live pardon our many crying sins avert thy deserved feared Judgments heal our back-slidings and heal our breaches continue thy Gospel and grant that we may walk worthy of that inestimable favour Bless our dread Sovereign with the blessings of thy right and left hand let his Government be happy and peaceable long and prosperous and a publick blessing to all that are under it and grant that all subordinate Governours in Church in State may faithfully use their power to the discouragement of Vice and ungodliness and the promoting and supporting peace and good order truth righteousness and holiness and let all men by a serious repentance and a through reformation of their ways strive to save the Land from those confusions and miseries into which they have plunged it by their manifold offences Comfort all that mourn give them beauty for ashes and the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness and let all that groan under thy heavy hand triumph in thy salvation Be with us thy servants this day and let that good providence that hath this night preserved and refreshed us direct assist and bless us in all our ways and keep us from the dangers and mischiefs the sins and offences the snares and temptations that we might otherwise fall into Let us be in thy fear all the day long and so order our lives as if it were the last day we had to live in this world that as in the evening we shall be one day nearer our death we may be nearer eternal life and happiness grant us all these our requests most gracious Father and whatever else thou knowest to be needful for us for the sake of thy dear Son in whose Name and Words by his own direction we further implore thy merciful goodness OVr Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done in Earth As it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily Bread And forgive us our Trespasses As
delivered from wrath and condemnation Matt. 22. 37 39. to love thee the Lord our God with all our heart and our Neighbour as our selves and let 's evidence our love to thee by keeping thy Commandments 1 Joh. 5. 3. and our love to our Neighbour by forbearing and forgiving reproving and admonishing counselling comforting and relieving him and performing all acts of charity and kindness to him Let us herein exercise our Acts 24. 16. selves to have always a conscience void of offence toward thee and toward men enlighten our understandings with the knowledge of thy Will inflame our affections with a delightful love of it and so conform our wills unto thine that we may readily do what thou wouldst have us do and cheerfully suffer what thou wouldst have us suffer Give us that Jam. 3. 17. wisdom which is from above that is first pure to fit us for the happiness of another life and then peaceable to give a relish to the injoyments of this and let us so imploy our selves in the affairs and businesses of this World as to make Religion our great business and present Rom. 12. 1. our Bodies and Souls a living Sacrifice holy acceptable unto thee which is our reasonable Service Help us to subdue our inordinate desires and all sinful passions and when at any time we are tempted to the breach of thy Laws with courage to resist the temptation not daring to sin against thee our gracious Father and righteous Judge and whatever Talents thou intrustest to our management health strength or credit our time Estates the seasons of Grace and opportunities of doing good let us husband and improve them with that wisdom and faithfulness that become them that must ere long give an account of their Stewardship And because through the weakness of our mortal nature we can do no good thing without thee grant us the help of thy Grace that in keeping thy Commandments we may please thee both in will and deed and in our several Callings whether they be publick or private our several Conditions whether of prosperity or adversity our several Relations whether of Husbands or Wives Parents or Children Masters or Servants Neighbours and Friends we may perform the Duties that those Callings Conditions and Relations require of us And Mat. 5. 16 let our light so shine before Men that they seeing our good Works may glorifie thee our Father which art in Heaven Whilest we are in the way let us quickly agree with our Mat. 5. 25. Adversary and give diligence that by a sincere repentance and an upright universal obedience we may be found of thee in peace and prepared to appear before the Judgment-Seat of Christ when he shall sit upon the Throne of his Glory and weighing our thoughts words and actions in impartial Ballances shall render to us according to our works and let the consideration of that account leave such awful impressions in our hearts as both to hinder the doing of whatever may make the thoughts of it terrible to us and cause us to wait for our Lord with our Loyns Luk. 12. 35. girt and our Lamps burning that at his return we may enter with him into everlasting habitations Let thy merciful hands be opened toward all the Sons of Men whom thy hands have made and with a more especial kindness be gracious and favourable to Sion keep thy Church and Houshold continually in thy true Religion and leaning upon the hope of thy heavenly Grace let them evermore be defended by thy mighty Power Bless this sinful and unworthy Nation pardon all our Sins that cry aloud in thine Ears for vengeance purely purge away Isa 1. 25. our dross and take away all our Tin deliver us from the destructions we have deserved and perpetuate thy Gospel and true Religion among us from generation to generation Let the Life and Health the peace honour and safety of our Soveraign Lord be precious in thy sight and let all that govern under Him in Church and State maintain and encourage Truth and Peace Religion Righteousness and all goodness and grant that all under their Authority may lead quiet and â— Tim. 2. 2. peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty Succour and relieve all in any suffering condition recompence the kindnesses of our Friends and Benefactors seven-fold into their Bosom forgive and help us heartily to forgive all that may have offered injury and unkindness to us Look down upon us in mercy that are here lifting up our hands and hearts to thee we bless thee for the peace safety and refreshment of the last night beseeching thee so to guard us through the hazards and guide us through the affairs of this day that we may glorifie thee grow in Grace and go forward in the way that leads to everlasting Life and happiness through our Lord Jesus Christ according to whose directionâ— and command we further pray OVr Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done in Earth As it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily Bread And forgive us our Trespasses As we forgive them that Trespass against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from Evil For thine is the Kingdom and the Power And the Glory For ever and ever Amen Thursday Evening ALmighty and everlasting God the wise and righteous Governour of all things in Heaven and Earth who dost whatsoever thou pleasest and whatever thou dost is well and wisely done because thou dost it we thine unworthy Servants whom thy hands have made and ever since supported and supplyed beseech thee in mercy to look down upon us that in a sense of our own vileness are here humbling our selves at thy Foot-stool acknowledging it thy mercy and long-suffering that we are intrusted with one opportunity more to implore thy pardon and forgiveness Thou might'st have destroyed us the polluted Off-spring of disobedient Parents as soon as ever we came into the world and ever since we were capable of breaking thy Laws we have added sin unto sin and heapt transgression upon transgression We have trifled away that time that thou hast allotted us to make provision for an happy Eternity in the pursuit of pleasure and profit transient and momentany vanities and have waged and maintained War against thee in those seasons of Grace thou hast afforded us for the making our peace thy patience and long-suffering that should have led us to repentance we have perverted to fleshly purposes and a more presumptuous and impenitent progress in Sin We have over-cared for over-loved over-desired and over-delighted in the good things of this World and inordinately placed our affections upon earthly and temporary injoyments which thou hast fitted to such things as have in them an heavenly spiritual and everlasting excellency How grievously and how justly might'st thou plague us with the desires of our own hearts and punish us by giving us our portion in this
forgive us our Trespasses As we forgive them that Trespass against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from Evil For thine is the Kingdom and the Power And the Glory For ever and ever Amen Saturday Morning O Eternal Lord God the great Creator and Preserver of Heaven and of Earth and our most merciful Father in Christ Jesus Look down we beseech thee from Heaven upon us vile Dust and Ashes and grant that when we call upon thee with our Lips our Hearts may not be far from thee We do humbly acknowledge the great sinfulness and corruption of our Natures the blindness of our Minds the perversness of our Wills the disorder and depravedness of our affections and the vanity of our thoughts We acknowledge that we are by nature the Children of Wrath and that there is no sound or clean part in us We do farther confess that we have by many actual sins made our selves more the Children of Wrath than we were by Nature We confess our sins of omission as well as commission our sins against Thee our Brother and our own Souls We have many ways offended thee in thought word and deed And if thou shouldst mark Iniquities we were not able to stand before thee We have sinned against light and knowledge after the greatest of thy Mercies under sufficient means of Grace after many and solemn Vows of better obedience We have not been awakened out of our sinful and careless Life by the greatest of thy Judgments but have sinned after the convictions of our own Consciences and the experience of the evil of departing from thee after many confessions and many repetitions We have grieved thy Spirit defaced thy Image mispent our precious time trifled in the great concernments of Eternity and in great measure received the grace of thee our God in vain We humble our selves before thee O God and desire to be vile in our own Eyes as we have made our selves so in thine Enter not into Judgment with thy Servants O Lord for no Flesh shall be justified in thy sight Have mercy upon us O Lord have mercy upon us for Jesus Christ's sake who is the Propitiation for our Sins and ever lives to make intercession for those who come unto God by him Grant that he may not be an empty Name and Title to us but that he may bless us in turning us from our Iniquities and may give us Repentance as well as forgiveness of Sins And we most humbly beseech thee to give us thy holy Spirit purisie and cleanse our Hearts and help us that we may fear love and desire thee above all things Make us like unto thee and help us that we may chearfully do and suffer thy whole Will Supply all our wants sanctifie all thy dealings to us direct us in our difficulties and enable us against our Sins Deliver us O Lord from every evil thing from hardness of Heart and contempt of thy Word keep us from being tempted above what we are able and enable us by thy Grace against the assaults of the Devil the Temptations of the World and the Flesh and make us at the last partakers of Everlasting Life Be merciful we pray thee to the whole World enlarge the Kingdom of Christ and let the whole World be filled with the knowledge of thee and of thy Son as the Waters cover the Sea Bless thy whole Church reform whatever is amiss in the belief or lives of Christians Grant that all who name the Name of Christ may depart from all Iniquity Be gracious to these Kingdoms Pardon our Sins pity our Distractions heal our Breaches unite us to one another reconcile us all to thy Divine Majesty and defend us against our Enemies Especially we pray thee to bless the King endue his Heart with all the Graces of thy holy Spirit defend Him against all His Enemies bless Him in His Royal Relations and teach His Senators wisdom Bless all the Governours and Instructors of thy Church and grant they may all in their several places answer the end of their Institution and Appointment Pity all that are afflicted Comfort them that mourn visit the Sick and Weak have compassion on them who lye a dying and take them not out of this Life before they are fitted for a better Life than this Bless all our Friends with all the Blessings of this and of a better Life Forgive our Enemies convert and turn their hearts We bless thee for all thy Mercies to us both of this and a better Life above all we bless thee for Jesus Christ humbly beseeching thee so to affect our hearts with the sense of thy Mercies that thy goodness may lead us to Repentance And all we beg for Christ his sake who hath taught us when we pray to say OVr Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done in Earth As it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily Bread And forgive us our Trespasses As we forgive them that Trespass against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from Evil For thine is the Kingdom and the Power And the Glory For ever and ever Amen Saturday Evening MOst gracious and ever blessed Lord God and our most merciful Father in Christ Jesus we that are less than the least of thy mercies desire in all humility to come into thy presence and beseech thee for Christ's sake to have a regard unto us We do acknowledge before thee our lost and undone condition without thy great mercy towards us we have grievously offended thee in thought word and deed been unthankful for thy Mercies incorrigible under thy Judgments and very unprofitable under the means of Grace We humble our selves before thee for the Sins of our whole Life and particularly for the Sins of this day with all the circumstances of aggravation with which they have been attended Pardon us O Lord we humbly pray thee for the sake of Jesus Christ who came into the World to seek and to save that which was lost Give us a true faith in him and work in us a sincere and hearty repentance never to be repented of And we pray thee assist us by thy Grace that we may for the time to come walk before thee in newness of Life Enlighten our Minds rectifie our Wills sanctifie our Affections and purifie all the thoughts intentions of our Hearts Make us fit Temples for thy holy Spirit to dwell in and grant that he who is in us may be greater than he who is in the World Be with us under all our Tryals and Temptations and prepare us for all events of things Sanctifie all thy dispensations to us and give us Wisdom and a saving Knowledge of thee and of thy Son Make us humble and lowly heavenly minded and pure in heart patient under every trouble contented in every condition and resigned to thy holy and heavenly Will And because the way of Man is not in himself we humbly pray thee to direct and guide us in the way that we should go Take care of our Affairs prosper all our Undertakings which are agreeable to thy heavenly Will help us that we may live Righteously So berly and Godly in this present World Cast out of our mind every thing that is displeasing to thee discharge our Hearts of all Pride Ambition Covetousness Malice Vain Conceit of our Selves And grant that we may not be overcome by the Temptations of the Devil the World and the Flesh And that we may not go out of this World with false hopes and expectations about us Prepare us we pray thee for our latter end When our Heart and Flesh shall fail us be thou the strength of our Heart and our Portion for ever And suffer us not at our last hour for any Pains or Agonies of Death to fall away from thee make us willing and ready to leave this World whensoever it shall please thee to call us hence Be merciful to the whole race of Mankind Advance the Kingdom of Christ in the World Let the People praise thee O God let all the People praise thee Especially be merciful to thy whole Church Bless these Kingdoms and settle us upon the Foundations of Righteousness of Truth and Peace Bless with the choicest of thy Blessings our Sovereign Lord the King Protect His Royal Person bless His Government let His days be many and His Reign prosperous And bless His Royal Relations and succeed His Counsellors and all in Authority under Him and grant that under Him we may live quiet and peaceable Lives in all godliness and honesty Bless all that minister in holy things and grant they may gain many unto Righteousness Have compassion upon the Afflicted upon the Oppressed and the Poor upon Widows and Fatherless upon all that are persecuted for Righteousness sake upon the Sick and the Weak upon all that are troubled in mind and at the point of Death Be merciful to them all according to their several necessities We beseech thee to be merciful to our Friends and to forgive all our Enemies We bless thy holy Name for all thy mercies to us and to all the World for thy preservation of us this day for the means of Grace and the hope of Glory We bless thee above all for Jesus Christ we praise thee for the clear revelation of thy Will the Promise of thy Spirit the time and space of Repentance which thou art pleased to continue to us for any measure of Health and Strength the many Mercies which we injoy and which others want and which we have been unthankful for Write a Law of thankfulness upon our Hearts we humbly pray thee and grant that we may be bettered by all thy Mercies Take us we pray thee into thy protection this night sanctifie and prepare our Hearts for all the solemn Duties and Services of the next Day and grant all our Requests for Christ's sake in whose words we further call upon thee OVr Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done in Earth As it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily Bread And forgive us our Trespasses As we forgive them that Trespass against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from Evil For thine is the Kingdom and the Power And the Glory For ever and ever Amen FINIS
things in Christ Jesus our Lord that tend to the renewing us after thy likeness in this life and the satisfying of us with it in the life to come We bless thee for that inestimable gift the Foundation of all others the Son of thy dearest love and everlasting delight whom in a tender compassion to our Souls thou hast sent into the world to be our Redeemer and Saviour that when we had by our sins ruined and undone our selves and were so lyable to thy severe displeasure and insupportable vengeance that no creature in Heaven or Earth could deliver us from it it pleased thee in thine infinite goodness to find out and in thy mercy to afford us in him an admirable and unthought of way of recovery Now O Lord we know thou lovest us and hast a favour and good will towards us seeing thou hast not withheld thy Son thine only Son from us Ever blessed be thy Name that thy Son who is God over all blessed for ever took upon him our humane Flesh that while he lived here upon Earth he instructed us both by his heavenly doctrine and exemplary life that he gave himself to Death as the price of our Redemption that he compleated that great work in his powerful and glorious Resurrection wherein he conquered and triumphed over all the powers of darkness and hath begotten us again to a lively hope of an inheritance incorruptible undefiled 1 Pet. 1. 3 4. that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us We praise thee that when he had wrought a perfect Righteousness for us upon Earth he ascended up to Heaven sits at thy right hand to represent and plead it on our behalf by his prevailing intercession that when he ascended up on high he led captive those spiritual enemies that held us in captivity and for the Eph. 4. 11. edification of his Church gave gifts unto Men Apostles and Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers That thou hast Psal 119. 10 given thy holy Word to be a Lamp to our Feet and a Light to our Paths and when many Nations sit in Darkness and the Regions of the Shadow of Luk. 1. 78 79. Death the day spring from on high hath visited us to guide our Feet into the way of Peace We give thee our humble and hearty thanks that thou still keepest open the doors of thy Sanctuary that for our unfruitfulness thou mightest have shut and barred against us and notwithstanding our vile unworthiness thou graciously admittest us to Communion with thy Self in thy publick Ordinances the Reading and Preaching of thy Word Prayers to and Praises of thy Name and the participation of thy holy Sacraments wherein thou dost lively represent the Death of thy Son and to all worthy Receivers dost firmly assure and convey the precious benefits of it and bind them to walk answerably to them And we further thank thee with enlarged hearts O our heavenly Father for all the promises of thy Covenant which thou hast sealed with the Blood of thy Son and given unto us that we might by them be the more encouraged in an holy 2 Cor. 7. 1. obedience cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit and perfecting holiness 2 Pet. 1. 4. in thy fear be made partakers of the Divine Nature We can never enough magnifie thy mercy and goodness that thou hast made our duty to be a part of our happiness and that it is not only necessary but best for us to love and fear trust and serve obey and honour thee and that we are not only bound to be sober and temperate meek and patient just and charitable but much better by being so And what thanks can we render to thee who in consideration of our weakness and slugglishness to the performance of our duty hast not only set before us the lively and encouraging examples of thy Saints and Martyrs but assisted and enabled us by the grace of thy holy Spirit that our sufficiency 2 Cor. 3. 5. hath been of thee who of our selves have not been sufficient to think a good thought and for the Reward of those Graces and Duties that are the Fruits of thy Spirit working in us hast promised such a glory and happiness in the world to come as surpasses not our desires only but our thoughts and conceptions We further glorifie thy great Name O Lord that thy rich and free Grace hath been the only motive to the bestowing all thy Mercies upon us guilty and wretched sinners that our unworthiness hath not hindred the streaming forth of thy goodness but thy goodness hath born away before it all consideration of our unworthiness And O how admirable in themselves and how obliging to us are all those favours and kindnesses which not only without our merits but notwithstanding our deserts of wrath and vengeance thou hast conferred upon us bold and provoking Rebels We are O Lord as thy Creatures infinitely below thee but as Sinners we have foolishly opposed and set our selves against thee we have broken thy holy Laws abused thine abundant Mercies slighted the tenders of thy Grace dishonoured and crucified afresh our great and merciful Redeemer resisted and grieved thy holy Spirit profaned and polluted thy Sabbaths and Ordinances that are both the Pledges and means of thy Grace and Favour And were there no other Sin upon our account but of these thy days and the holy duties of them they might for ever fill our Faces with shame and lay us under thy wrathful displeasure We have come unprepared to thy solemn worship and with unhallowed hearts entred the Sanctuary and approached the presence of the most holy God we have been heedless and unattentive hearers of thy holy Word remembring little of what we have heard and practing less of what we have remembred we have been flat and unaffected in offering up thy praise and our hearts have been earthly dull and distracted in our Prayers how often have we turned our Backs upon thy holy Table judging our selves unworthy of the precious benefits that are there tendered or if we have not altogether neglected the sacred Ordinance we have not as we might have done grown in the graces and the comforts of thy holy Spirit by it How seldom have we been seriously exercised in Meditation and either so recollected thy Mercies as to become sensible of our obligation by them or so thought on our ways as Psal 119. 59 â—… to turn our feet unto thy Testimonies Forgive us O Lord we pray thee all our past offences and as the best assurance of our forgiveness let us not so offend any more Graciously guide us into the ways of truth and holiness and that we may always fear thee let us set our selves continually in thy presence and so observe and stand in aw of thine all-seeing Eye that all our evil thoughts words and actions may be scattered by it Let us dye with Christ in the crucifying of our Flesh with
its affections and lusts and rise with him to a life of holy and new obedience that as Christ being raised from the dead Rom. 6. 9. dieth no more so being risen with him we may wilfully sin no more but run the race of thy Commandments till at length we receive the prize of a glorious and incorruptible inheritance Extend thy mercy and goodness to all the Sons of Men and let the Kingdoms of the World that are ignorant of thee and thy Salvation behold the light of thy glorious Gospel and become obedient to the Scepter of thy Son Bless thy whole Church scatter the Mists of Ignorance and Errour heal the breaches of Schism and Division quench the Wildfire of Strife and Contention cleanse the Spots of Profaneness and Superstition that defile and deform it and make thy Sion the Beauty and the joy of the whole Earth Be gracious to these sinful Nations forgive those many and great sins that have pulled down thy heavy Judgments upon us and still provoke thee more and more to punish us and particularly pardon we pray thee our wicked and scandalous profanation of this thy day our unthankfulness for the light of thy blessed Gospel and walking unsuitably to the principles of that holy Religion that hath been of a long time publickly taught and professed among us Wash us throughly Psal 51. 2. from our Iniquities and cleanse us from our Sins and grant that by unity and charity and holiness of life we may glorifie thy great Name evidence the truth of our Christianity and adorn the Gospel of God our Saviour Continue thy Gospel among us defeat and overthrow the evil designs of bloody and deceitful Men that would pervert the truth of it by mixtures of Superstition and Idolatry and let all that Psal 40. 16. love thy Salvation say continually let the Lord be magnified Guide and guard bless and protect thine Anointed Servant our Soveraign Lord King Charles let his days be many his Counsels wise and religious his enterprizes successful his Reign happy to himself and all his Subjects Cloath his Enemies with shame and upon his head Psal 132. 18. let his Crown flourish let the Bishops and Pastors of thy Church further the edification of it by soundness of Doctrine and holiness of Life and Magistrates cherish and defend it by the encouragement of all virtue and goodness and the punishment and suppression of all vice and ungodliness and let all men follow after peace and holiness without which Heb. 12. 14. none shall see the Lord. Refresh and support the Sons and Daughters of Sorrow and in the multitude of their Psal 94. 19. thoughts within them let thy comforts delight their Souls Be gracious and favourable to us that are here before thee forgive us all our Sins and remember not against us those iniquities that have this day polluted our holy offerings defend and protect us this night from all those dangers and mischiefs that might overtake us and let us find safety under the shadow of thy wings refresh our frail Bodies with a quiet and moderate rest and help us in the renewed strength of it vigorously to serve thee in a faithful discharge of the duties of the next day and all our days let us live to thee that in the end of them we may live with thee through Jesus Christ our Lord who hath taught and commanded us when we Pray to say OVr Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done in Earth As it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily Bread And forgive us our Trespasses As we forgive them that Trespass against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from Evil For thine is the Kingdom and the Power And the Glory For ever and ever Amen Monday Morning O Most mighty Lord God and merciful Father the Author of our Being both Bodies and Souls and the Giver of every good Gift that may tend to the benefit and happiness of both our Souls and Bodies we thy poor and most unworthy Servants are here before thee this Morning thankfully to acknowledge thy great goodness in all the blessings we injoy for this Life and a better humbly to implore thy mercy in the free pardon of all our Sins and earnestly to beg the grace of thy holy Spirit that we may faithfully discharge the duties of pardoned Sinners and answer the Obligations thou hast laid upon us by thy manifold blessings We bless thy holy and great Name as for all Spiritual and Temporal blessings bestowed on us through thy Son so particularly for all the ordinances of the Gospel and the priviledges of thy House yesterday injoyed and for the safety and quiet rest and refreshment of the last Lam. 3. 22. night acknowledging it to be of thy mercies that we are not consumed and because thy compassions fail not for hadst thou rewarded us after our Iniquities we had long since been incapable of any the least blessing and had been punished with utmost and everlasting misery We confess O Lord there hath on thy part been nothing wanting that might work in us a Conformity to thy Will but there hath wanted on ours a care to please thee and a fear to offend thee a love and delight in thee and a stedfast purpose to give up our selves to the obedience of thy heavenly Laws And which hath made us more remiss and negligent we have not firmly believed the excellent and glorious things thou hast promised upon a compliance with thy Will nor the fearful and insupportable punishments which thou hast threatned to our disobedience We have with great folly over desired over loved over trusted to and over delighted in the things of this World which cannot profit us nor in the least promote our spiritual interest or eternal happiness whilest we have been Mat. 6. 33. careless and negligent in seeking thy Kingdom and righteousness though for our incouragement to do that in the first place thou hast graciously promised that all the conveniencies of life shall be added unto us How have vain transitory profits and pleasures drawn off our hearts from the love of thee who alone canst make us happy and from a delight in thy Laws in the keeping of which there Psal 19. 11. is great reward We have with too great care pampered our vile bodies and made provision Rom. 13. 14. for our flesh to fulfil the lusts of it and with too little provided for our Souls and secured their happiness in the future state We have misimployed the Talents intrusted with us in the service of Sin and abused to thy dishonour our time and opportunity of doing good our health and strength our ease and liberty our credit and plenty the members of our Bodies the faculties of our Souls which being received from thy bounty should all have been improved to thy glory nor have we remembred the great day of reckoning
part in Spirit and in Truth We thankfully acknowledge our dependance upon thee and that our lives and all the comforts of our lives are the effects of thy bounty and goodness thy hands have both made and fashioned us in the Womb and brought us into the World and ever since we saw the Light thou hast all along opened thine hands and filled us with variety of good things though for our many and great sins thou mightest have left us naked and miserable and brought upon us all the punishments that the threatnings of thy holy and righteous Law have made justly due to the Transgressors of it and had thy ways been as the ways of a Man are or thy thoughts towards us like unto our thoughts we had long since been past the Thank-offering of Praise the benefit of Prayer and the hope of Pardon for our trangressions have been multiplied against thee and our Iniquities have gone over Psal 38. 4. our Heads as a burthen too heavy for us The corruption of our nature is opposite to thy holy Law that requires no less holy principles than holy practises and by the transgressions of our lives we have broken it in thought word and deed We confess O Lord with sorrow and shame our ignorance of thy will and in many things our acting contrary to the knowledge we have had of it our pride earthliness and hypocrisie our injustice uncharitableness and sensuality our inordinate self-love eagerness in the pursuit of worldly things and indifferency in matters of Religion our impenitency and unbelief the hardness of our hearts notwithstanding all the ways and methods thou hast taken to soften them our unthankfulness for all thy mercies our incorrigibleness under all thy chastisements our unfruitfulness under the means of Grace our unfaithfulness under all our vows and promises and resolutions of service and obedience We have sinned against a clear revelation of thy Will and against the greatest obligations to compliance with it against the expressions of a tender kindness in thy multiplyed mercies and the evidence of a righteous severity in thy justly deserved chastisements we have sinned against thine inviting promises and dreadful threatnings against the frequent warnings of thy Word the renewed motions and powerful convictions of thy Spirit and the precious blood of thy dear Son we have sinned against the light of our understandings against our promises and purposes of obedience against the checks of our own consciences we cannot recount the number of our sins they are so exceeding many nor set in order the aggravating circumstances whereby they are become exceeding sinful But O Lord have mercy upon Psal 51. 1. us according to thy loving kindness according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out our transgressions Help us to forsake our sinful Isa 55. 7. thoughts and crooked ways and by unfeigned repentance to return unto thee that thou mayest have mercy on us and abundantly pardon us Speak peace to us most merciful Father through the death and sufferings of thy dear Son who gave up himself in Sacrifice to expiate the guilt of our sins and by that precious ransom to buy off the punishment that was due to our transgressions O sprinkle our consciences with that blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things Heb. 12. 24. than the blood of Abel work in us a true and lively faith that we may be justified and have Rom. 5. 1. peace with thee through our Lord Jesus Christ For though we have no righteousness of our own that we dare plead to the strictness of thy Law and the severity of thy Justice thou hast treasured up an alsufficient righteousness in thy Son that believing in him we may be pardoned and through his stripes be healed And let thy pardoning mercy be accompanied with thy purifying grace that we may be both delivered from the guilt and punishment of our sins and cleansed from the filth and impurity of them And as our Lord Christ dyed unto sin to condemn it in the flesh let us dye unto sin to crucific it in ours that it may never reign in our mortal bodies that we Rom. 6. 10 11 12. should obey it in the lusts thereof Help us heavenly Father to put off the old man which is corrupt according to deceitful Eph. 4. 22 23 24. lusts and to put on that new man which is created after thine own image in righteousness and true holiness and as by the natural birth we have in sin and corruption born the image of the first Adam that was made a living Soul so let us by the spiritual birth in sanctification and holiness bear the image of the second Adam that was made a quickning Spirit Give us a new Ezek. 36. 26 27. heart and put within us a new Spirit take away the stony heart out of our flesh and give us an heart of flesh put thy Spirit within us and cause us to walk in thy Statutes that we may keep thy Judgments and do them Wean our hearts from an excessive and inordinate love of all the things of this World and let us never place our happiness in the pomps and pleasures the profits and honours or any transitory injoyments of this Life where we are told not only in thy Word but by our own experience it is not to be found but let us weep as though we wept not and 1 Cor. 7. 30 31. rejoyce as though we rejoyced not and buy as though we possessed not and use this World as not abusing it because the fashion of this World passeth a-away Let us never adventure upon sin with the foolish and deceitful hopes of getting any thing by it but let our minds be influenced with the great and certain truth of what our Saviour hath taught us that the gaining of the whole World can be 〈◊〉 16. 26. no recompence for the loss of our Souls Let the great and strict account that we must ere long make be often in our serious thoughts and the course of our Lives be thereby so ordered that we may think of it with a joyful expectation and never allow our selves to do to speak or think any thing that may make the thoughts of the day of Judgment a terrour to us Let us so obey the Laws of our great Lord and Saviour and follow the steps of his example that when Christ who is our life shall appear we may lift up our heads with joy and appear with Col. 3. 4. him in glory Show forth the favour and loving kindness of a Father to all the Children of Men and as thou hast made them capable of eternal life and happiness make known unto them the way of thy Salvation that leads unto it Let the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his Mal. 4. 2. Wings and dispel the darkness of Heathenish and Mahometan Superstition and Idolatry that the Kingdoms of the Earth may become the Kingdom of thy Son
Bless thy whole Church and let the company of the Faithful that thou hast incorporated and knit together as one Body in thy Son by thy Grace be desended and preserved enlightned and instructed ordered and governed purged and sanctified and let the Ordinances of Christ be so administred and his Laws observed as may become the Spouse and Body of thy Son Be merciful O Lord to the sinsul Nation wherein we live and let neither our abuse of thy mercies nor our hardning our selves under thy Judgments bring upon us that ruine that they have justly deserved Lord thou hast been favourable to the Land in that thou hast often rescued us from the destruction that was due to our Sins and hast blessed us with the long continuance of thy Gospel that was no way due to our walking so unworthy of it Oh let that infinite mercy that hath hitherto spared us and interposed betwixt us and thy desolating vengeance forgive our iniquity and turn away the fierceness of thine anger Heal our back-slidings and heal our breaches take away Hos 14. 2. all our iniquity receive us graciously and love us freely to us belongeth confusion of Face Dan. 9. 8. 9. but to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses though we have rebelled against thee Continue thy mercies our peace and our plenty and above all the truth of thy Gospel and purity of Religion Cause us to fear thee and thy goodness and let thine infinite wisdom find out a way to bring us out of those woful confusions from which to be delivered is above the contrivances of our wisdom Bless with the blessings of the right and left hand of this life and a better thine Anointed Servant and our Sovereign Lord King Charles let his Reign be religious peaceable long and prosperous so rule his heart in thy faith fear and love that he may ever seek thy honour and glory And let all that are Governours under him in Church or State exercise their power for the punishment of 1 Pet. 2. 14. evil doers and the praise of them that do well Be merciful to all afflicted ones to our Friends and Relations to all that have wronged us forgive our Enemies O Lord and help us to forgive them as we expect to be forgiven both of them and thee We humbly commit our selves to thy merciful protection this night defend from all danger our persons our dwellings our possessions refresh us with a quiet and healthful sleep and with the health and strength of our Bodies and the vigour of our minds let us serve thee all our days till at the end of them we receive the end of our Faith the salvation of our Souls through thy dear Son our alone Saviour Jesus Christ in the merit of whose righteousness and intercession we further pray OVr Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done in Earth As it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily Bread And forgive us our Trespasses As we forgive them that Trespass against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from Evil For thine is the Kingdom and the Power And the Glory For ever and ever Amen Tuesday Morning GReat and glorious Lord God who art infinite and incomprehensible in all perfections art cloathed with Glory and Majesty and dwellest in that light that no mortal creature can approach and live we thine unworthy servants humbly sensible of our infinite distance as creatures and our abominable vileness as Sinners are here before thee this morning to offer up our prayers and praises in the Name and Mediation of thy Son In our selves we have no confidence to appear before thee for we are as dry stubble and thou a consuming fire but in thy beloved Son our ever blessed Redeemer and Intercessor we have access with confidence who hath opened Heb. 10 19 20. an entrance into the Holiest by his Blood and consecrated a new and living way to the Throne of thy Grace through the Veil of his Flesh that we coming to thee in his precious and prevailing Name Heb. 4. ult may obtain mercy and find grace to help in our time of need We are guilty Sinners and want pardon we are defiled Sinners and want cleansing we are weak Sinners and want strengthning we are foolish Sinners and want to be instructed in the ways of thy Word and wandring Sinners that want to be brought back into them but though our case be all necessity thy glorious attribute is Al-sufficiency and thy grace and mercy thy wisdom and power is ready to supply all our wants Phil. 4. 19. according to thy riches in glory by Christ Jesus We admire with all thankfulness thy great patience and long-suffering towards us that thou hast hitherto spared us and not speedily brought upon us that punishment and misery that our sins have righteously deserved of which we can give no account but that thou art merciful because mercy pleases thee and shewest compassion because thou delightest in compassion but such is thy goodness thou hast not only spared but bountifully supplyed us and given us all things richly to injoy that belong to life and godliness thou feedest and cloathest us preservest and defendest us hast safely brought us through the darkness and the dangers of the last night to the light of another day for these and all the blessings of this life we praise thee but we much more magnifie and adore thine inconceiveable goodness and love in giving us thy Son to redeem us from wrath and condemnation and thy holy Gospel to conduct us in the way to eternal life And we cannot without confusion of face reflect upon the shameful and disingenuous returns we have made of thine abundant and undeserved kindnesses that when thou hast nourished and brought up children we have rebelled against Isa 1. 2. thee Thy holy Laws we have broken in sinful thoughts words and actions though thou hast therein commanded us nothing but what is in it self just and reasonable and what is sutable to our dependance upon thy holy Majesty we have not carried our selves as it becomes us to thee in holiness and godliness to our neighbours in righteousness and charity to our selves in temperance and sobriety but have followed after and fulfilled the sensual appetites and inclinations of our own hearts and instead of serving thee our God have served divers lusts and pleasures We have known that our vile bodies must ere long lye down in the house of dust and rottenness and yet we have pampered them to fulfil the lusts of our flesh and that our immortal Souls must last an Eternity of Happiness or Misery and yet we have neglected laying up in store for them an Happiness in the future State Joh. 6. 27. And while we have laboured for the meat that perishes we havâ— neglected that which endureâ— unto everlasting Life We havâ— little considered the great enâ— of our
fight or recover our selves from our falls let thy grace and holy spirit strengthen Eph. 3. 16. us with might in our inward man and make us more than Rom. 8. 37. conquerors through him that hath loved us Cause us in the first place to Mat. 6. 33. seek thy Kingdom and righteousness and as those that are Col. 3. 1. risen with Christ to seek the things that are above not looking at the things that are seen 2 Cor. 4. 18. for they are temporal but at the things which are not seen for they are eternal Let our Mat. 6. 20. treasure be laid up in Heaven where Moth and Rust corrupt not and where Thieves break not through nor Steal and let our hearts be where our treasure is Guide us continually in all the ways of wisdom and righteousness and defend us against all temptations that might withdraw us from them help us to go on our way rejoycing and working righteousness and perform our several duties to thee and all men with such cheerfulness and constancy as not to be weary of well-doing but by a religious abstinence and moderate use of bodily refreshments let our flesh be so subdued to the Spirit that we may ever obey thy godly motions and in a course of righteousness and true holiness run to the end of the race which thou hast set before us and be made partakers of that glorious prize which thou hast promised to all them that by a patient continuance in well-doing seek for Rom. 2. 7. glory and honour and immortality And let the prospect and blessed hope of thy heavenly Kingdom make us upright and faithful active and diligent contented and cheerful in every condition of life humble and patient stedfast and resolved self-denying and heavenly minded till thou bringest us to the possession of those inconceiveable joys and makest us to drink of the Rivers of Pleasure that are at thy right hand for evermore Do good with us we pray thee to the whole world and let all that bear the image of thy power and wisdom be made partakers of thy favour and kindness let the Nations that know thee not be delivered from the power of darkness Col. 1. 13. and translated into the Kingdom of thy dear Son Be gracious in an especial manner to all whom thou hast called to the knowledge and obedience of his Gospel forgive gracious Father and showr down thy blessings upon the inhabitants of this sinful Land let us prepare to meet thee by an hearty and universal repentance and so prevent those judgments that seem to be arrayed and marching forward to our destruction Give Salvation to our King Psai 144. 10 and preserve thy Servant from hidden Treacheries and the hurtful Sword direct all publick Counsels to thine honour the promoting of true Religion the establishment of Righteousness and Peace and the comfort of all them that heartily love and fear thee and let all that love thy Salvation say Psal 40. 16. continually the Lord be magnified Comfort all that in any kind suffer adversity let thy holy Spirit refresh them as with new Wine whom thou hast given Tears to drink in great measure and let that good providence that hath been our protection and repose this night defend us from all the dangers and temptations direct and prosper us in all the designs and enterprises of this day and by a faithful discharge of our duty bring us nearer to the glorious reward of Eternal Life which thou hast promised in Christ Jesus our Lord in whose Name and Words we further commend our selves and others to thy grace and mercy saying OVr Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done in Earth As it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily Bread And forgive us our Trespasses As we forgive them that Trespass against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from Evil For thine is the Kingdom and the Power And the Glory For ever and ever Amen Friday Evening MOst blessed Lord God the Father of Mercies our hope and present help our strength and our Salvation the over-flowing and inexhaustible Fountain of all Good we thy poor Servants in an humble and thankful sense of thy great goodness and emboldned by the invitation of thy gracious promises present our selves before the Throne of thy Grace to offer up our supplications and thanksgivings through the Mediation of thy dear Son in whom thou hast given us access Eph. 3. 12. with confidence through the Faith of him We are most unworthy in our selves to receive blessings or offer praises but worthy art thou O Lord to receive honour and glory and blessing and thanksgiving as for thy divine perfections which we cannot comprehend so for thine abundant kindnesses towards us which we can neither deserve nor number Thou didst frame and fashion us in the Womb by thy wisdom and power and hast maintained and provided for us by thy goodness and bounty ever since thou hast brought us into life and being giving us richly all things to injoy not only the necessaries but conveniencies of Life whereby it hath been made easie and pleasant to us But above all from the bottom of our hearts we praise a dore and magnifie thy transcendent wisdom superlative love in that inestimable benefit of our Redemption by the bitter sufferings and bloody Death of thy dear Son that when we had lost and undone our selves were lyable to wrath and eternal misery when we lay weltring in our own blood and there was no Eye to pity no Hand to relieve us thou redeemedst us in such a way as no creature had wisdom to contrive worthiness to undertake or power to effect We praise thee O Lord that thou hast in thy Gospel manifested this great and admirable Salvation made thy goodness to pass before us and fully and plainly instructed us in our duty that in performing the one we might be made partakers of the other that thou hast afforded us the means of Grace thy Word and Sacraments opportunities of thy publick Worship the motions and assistances of thy holy Spirit that thou hast quickned our obedience by the hopes of a glorious recompence Give us we pray thee a due sense of all thy mercies and withdraw not thy loving kindness from us if our worthiness had been to procure these mercies they had never been put into our hands and if any thing but thy goodness were to continue them we could never hold them our own wickedness might correct us and our Jer. 2. 19. back-slidings reprove us for we have sinned and done very foolishly We have perverted and polluted our ways and professing Tit. 1. 16. to know thee have in our works denyed thee we have called thee our Father but have not loved and honoured thee as Children our Master but have not feared and obeyed thee as Servants our Friend and Benefactor but have
we forgive them that Trespass against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from Evil For thine is the Kingdom and the Power And the Glory For ever and ever Amen Tuesday Evening ALmighty and most merciful God and Father the Maker and Governour of all Creatures in Heaven and Earth and exalted in thy glorious perfections above the thoughts and services the praises and acknowledgments of the highest and best of them thine understanding is infinite and thou seest the hearts and ways of all the sons of men thy holiness is infinite and thou hatest all the sin and iniquity thou espiest in them thy power infinite thou canst easily punish them for the sins that provoke and displease thee and 〈◊〉 yet thine infinite mercies thou pardonest the sins of all that by sincere repentance and a through amendment of their ways return to thee We thy poor Servants in a deep sense of our guilt and wretchedness and the strong encouragements of thy declared mercy and goodness humble our Souls at thy Foot-stool beseeching thee to have mercy upon us and through the righteousness of thy dear Son whom thou hast given to be a propitiation and price of redemptition for us to pardon our many and great transgressions whereof we are guilty before thy Majesty in thought and word and deed and whereby we have deserved to be punished with overlasting destruction from thy presence by thy glorious power Hadst thou O Lord taken advantages against us or been forward to pour out that wrath and vengeance that we have been forward to provoke we had not now been begging thy mercy or cherish'd with the hopes of it but had in vain lamented the bloody and severe effects of thine incensed Justice We are not only by Nature the Children of Wrath but have in the course of our Lives actuated the sinful corrupt principles of our Nature and gone astray from thy holy just and good Laws that thou hast given to be the rule and measure of our actions and though both as thy Creatures thy Servants and thy Children thou hast laid upon us the greatest obligations to obedience and a dutyful complyance with thy Will yet have we in the eager and violent pursuit of our lusts Psal 2. 3. broken thy bonds asunder and cast away thy cords from us We have professed the pure and holy Religion of thy Son but have shamefully dishonoured him and his Religion by impure and unholy practises and 2 Tim. 2. 19. naming the Name of Christ we have not departed from iniquity we have given up our Names to him in Baptism and solemnly vowed obedience to the Laws of his holy Gospel but we have started aside like broken Bows and walked in the imaginations of our own hearts and fulfilled our vile and foolish lusts as if there were no God to be served no Soul to be saved no Hell to be feared no Heaven to be expected and as if the Name of Christians would have carryed us to Heaven we have done those things that many Heathens would have blushed at and been ashamed to have practised so that this might be our condemnation which of all other is the most grievous and insupportable that Light is come into the World and we have loved Darkness rather than Light Joh. 3. 19. because our deeds have been evil So many and undeserved have been thy mercies towards us so kind and unwearied the expressions of thy bounty that all our disobedience is by a shameful and odious ingratitude become exceeding sinful and we cannot without sorrow of heart and confusion of Face reflect upon our wearying thee with our sins when thou hast loaded us with thy benefits But we beseech thee O most merciful Father in the tenderest compassions of thy sounding bowels look down upon us and for thy Names sake the most powerful argument and such as uses to prevail O Lord hear O Lord spare O Lord forgive by a serious and hearty repentance and a true and lively Faith in thy Son make us fit partakers of thy pardoning mercy Though our deserts are thine indignation and vengeance the merit of his righteousness is remission and forgiveness though we have affronted thy Justice he hath satisfied it though we have incensed thy wrath he hath appeased it the chastisement of Isa 53. 5. our peace was upon him O let the merit of his righteousness be upon us And because the holy Jesus together with the guilt and punishment of sin alway delivers from the power of it and they that are Christs crucifie the Gal. 5. 24. flesh with its affections and lusts by the subduing and mortification of our sins convince and comfortably satisfie us that thou hast pardoned them and by thy sanctifying grace help us to cleanse our selves from 2 Cor. 7. 1. all filthiness of the flesh and spirit and to perfect holiness in thy fear sanctifie us wholly 1 Thes 5. 23. and let our whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Quicken us holy Father by the spirit of life and holiness to run the ways of thy Commandments and as thou hast given our blessed Saviour to be Head of thy Church and anointed him with an unmeasured fulness of thy Spirit that he might communicate and impart it to the Members of his Body let some drops of that holy Oil fall down upon us that was so plentifully poured upon the Head of our High Priest and out of his fulness let us receive Joh. 1. 16. Grace for Grace and so renew the Image of his Holiness in our Souls that as his true Children we may shew forth all the Features and Lineaments of our heavenly Father And because we are not sufficient of our selves to avoid any evil or perform any good be graciously present with us to preserve us from the one and assist us in the other Make us perfect in every good work to do thy will working in us that which is well pleasing in Heb. 13. 21. thy sight through Jesus Christ Make us wise to Salvation and seeing our days are very few and uncertain and repentance both necessary and out of our own power let us not put it off till to morrow not knowing what a day may bring forth nor deceive our selves with vain purposes of parting with our Sins hereafter when this very night our Souls may be Luk. 12. 20. taken from us But seeing the Heavens and the Earth at 2. Pet. 3. 15. length and our selves ere long must be dissolved let us be diligent that we may be found of thee in peace without spot and blameless Bless thy whole Church scattered far and near over the Face of the Earth pour out upon it the Spirit of Truth and Holiness and grant that all that confess thy holy Name may agree in the truth of thy holy Word and live in unity and godly love be thou that art the Lord and
Lawgiver of thy Church and People their Protector and Saviour from all their Enemies thou art our Psal 44. 4. King O God command deliverances for Jacob. Be gracious and favourable to these Nations many and heinous are the sins whereby we have provoked thy Majesty great and heavy the Judgments that hang over us for those Sins pardon we most humbly beseech thee our Sins and avert those Judgments thou that sittest between the Cherubims shine forth before England Scotland and Ireland stir up thy Psal 80. 1 2. strength and come and save us And though we of this Nation have deserved to be overthrown with an utter destruction and for ever cast out of thy sight as a loathsome and abominable thing for thy goodness O Lord pardon and spare reform and amend compose and settle heal and establish us in the multitude of thy tender mercies Give us not up to the mischiefs and desolations that we have deserved and thine and our Enemies have designed nor suffer those that hate us proudly to insult and triumph over us Bless with all blessings of this life and the next thine anointed Servant our Sovereign Lord the King direct him in such ways as are pleasing to thee and protect him from all dangers that may at any time threaten him Let all subordinate Ministers Ecclesiastical and Civil be so assisted by thy Grace and holy Spirit that Religion and Godliness Peace and Order Love and Unity Truth and Righteousness may be established and encouraged 1 Pet. 2. 1. among us and let all sorts of men laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings keep the unity Eph. 4. 3. of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace Comfort the afflicted and distressed in Mind Body or Estate recompense the kindnesses of our Friends seven fold into their Bosoms forgive our Enemies and help us so to forgive them that we may comfortably hope for our own forgiveness Keep us O Lord from the evils and dangers that without thy protection might this night befal us refresh and strengthen our frail Bodies with a moderate quiet and peaceable rest and let the strength of this nights healthful repose be returned to thee in the next days faithful service that as every day we are nearer our death we may be nearer an immortal Crown of Life and Glory which thou hast prepared and promised to them that Love and Fear thee through Jesus Christ who by his Righteousness and Intercession hath given us the liberty and confidence to say OVr Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done in Earth As it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily Bread And forgive us our Trespasses As we forgive them that Trespass against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from Evil For thine is the Kingdom and the Power And the Glory For ever and ever Amen Wednesday Morning HOly and heavenly Father thou art infinite in Power and Wisdom in Holiness Truth and Goodness abundant in Mercy to all that call upon thee in truth all thy Works in Heaven and Earth shew forth thy praise the glorious Angels and the glorified Spirits of just Men being themselves honoured in the honouring of thee everlastingly triumph in the celebration of thy divine incomprehensible perfections to praise and magnifie thy great and holy Name is both the duty and priviledge of the Sons of Men to whom thou hast given understandings in some measure to conceive thy glorious excellencies and tongues to declare them We thy poor and unworthy Servants humbly offer up to thy divine Majesty the tribute of our hearty praises and adorations of thine infinite Power and Justice Wisdom and Holiness Truth and Faithfulness and bless thee with our whole Souls for all those blessings for our Souls and Bodies our present and future happiness which are the effects of thy bounty and goodness We thank thee O Lord for our health and strength our liberty and peace the Bread we eat and the Raiment we put on that thou hast delivered us from Pains and Sicknesses and those grievous pressures and calamities wherewith others better than our selves are sorely afflicted that thou hast the last night preserved us from dangers and refreshed us with sleep and bestowest upon us all the supports and conveniencies of Life and above all that thou hast redeemed us from Hell and Damnation by the precious Blood of thy dear Son that by his Gospel thou hast brought to light life and immortality and encouraged our hopes of them by thy precious and faithful promises Lord what is Man that thou art so mindful of him What are Sinners that thou shewest such favour unto them Thy mercies conferr'd upon us are admirable as we are thy Creatures that can no way oblige our Almighty and Independent Creator and much more so as we are Sinners that have offended and provoked our most righteous Sovereign Lord and Lawgiver Ever since we came into the World we have been overspread with a contagious Leprosie and loathsom Disease and have added the iniquities of practise to our natural pollution and more defiled our selves by chusing our own crooked ways and fulfilling the imaginations of our naughty hearts We have many times given scandal to others by our open and observed miscarriages and cast a blemish and reproach upon that holy Religion whereof we have made profession so as to have made it worse thought on by its Enemies and with great folly we have sometimes adventur'd to commit those Sins in our private retirements which we would have been ashamed that men should have taken notice of though we have well known that the Psal 139. 12 light and darkness are both alike to thee and that no secresie can hide from thine all-seeing Eye We have been too careless of avoiding temptations to Sin and have run into those snares that by taking heed to our feet we might have avoided we have neglected the means of mortifying our Lusts watchfulness Prayer and Fasting which through thy blessing might have been effectual to that blessed purpose and instead of strongly and resolutely opposing we have cowardly and treacherously complied with furnished and animated thine and our Enemies making provision for Rom. 13. 14. our Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof and though we have been well assured that our lives and all our present earthly injoyments that support and sweeten them are but of a short and momentany continuance we have laboured been sollicitous Joh. 6. 27. for the meat that perishes and neglected that which endures to everlasting Life How often have we deafned our Ear to the calls of thy Gospel And made light of both the invitations of thy gracious promises and the terrors of thy dreadful threatnings How often have we hardned our hearts against the motions of thy holy Spirit How often to satisfie our lustful appetites have we broken through the convictions of