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
heavens Let us hear thy holy Word that shall be read and preached to us as the Oracles of God and those Divine Messages which thou hast sent us from Heaven to guide us in the ways that lead thither Let us hearken to it with diligent attention imbrace it with holy and heavenly affections rejoycing in the Promises dreading the threatnings loving and practising the commands of it let us receive it with meekness and mix it with Jam. 1. 21. Faith that it may be an ingrafted Heb. 4. 2. word to the salvation of our Souls And as the Rain Isa 55. 10 11. cometh down the Snow from Heaven and returneth not thither but watereth the Earth and maketh it bring forth Fruit and bud that it may give seed to the Sower and bread to the eater So let not thy Word that goeth forth out of thy mouth return to thee void but accomplish that which thou pleasest and prosper in the thing whereto thou hast sent it Help us to pray in faith and fervency let all our petitions be addressed to the Throne of thy Grace in the prevailing name of thy dear Son and by the efficacy of thy holy Spirit the Spirit of Supplication And that the Prayers that we shall this day send up to Heaven may find a gracious acceptance with thee Let the holy Ghost make intercession Rom. 8. 26. in our hearts by exciting holy humble earnest and hearty desires and let our blessed Redeemer make intercession in Heaven and sweeten all the displeasing unsavoriness of our Flesh with the Perfume Rev. 8. 3. of his Incense Let us give thanks unto thee with our whole hearts and let all that is within us magnifie and praise thy Name as for all thy mercies to our Souls and Bodies for this Life and a better so especially for our Redemption by the precious death and Sufferings of thy Son and finishing that glorious work by the raising him from the Dead Raise up our Souls O Lord to the highest pitch of hearty thankfulness in the remembrance and sense of those inestimable benefits that redound to us and thy whole Church from this great and alsufficient Redeemer And help us so to sing praises to thee and to the Lamb that sits with thee upon thy Throne that by praising thee on Earth we may tune and prepare our hearts for those glorious and triumphant Praises that in Heaven will be the business and happiness of thy Saints to all Eternity Let us so carry our selves this whole day as remembring thou hast separated and sanctified it to thine own service and made Religion which is the great Work of every day the more proper and peculiar imployment of this Let us therefore make a difference betwixt the thoughts the words the practises of other days and this which thou hast set apart to different purposes and so sanctifie this day of holy Rest and make it our delight that we may be sanctified and fitted for that perpetual Rest that remains for thy People and satisfied with those Rivers of Psa 16. ult Pleasures that are at thy Right Hand for evermore Bless we beseech thee thy whole Church and that part of it especially which thou hast planted in these Kingdoms Pardon our many Sins and remove far away from us whatever may provoke thy displeasure unsettle our foundations or disturb our peace Let thy Servant our Sovereign Lord the King find favour in thine Eyes So bless Him in His Person in His Counsels and Enterprizes that upon his Head His Crown may long flourish and His Government be a publick Blessing to these Kingdoms Govern those that govern under Him in Church and State and let all His Subjects in their several Orders and Stations do what lies in them to the healing of our wide Breaches the restoring of Christian Love and Charity the establishment of Truth and Eph. 4. 3. Righteousness and keeping the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace Let all afflicted ones in what kind soever find thy gracious hand ready for their relief and succour and by the more immediate working of thy holy Spirit supply the want of thy publick ordinances to all that desire them and are by Imprisonment Banishment Sickness or any other hinderance deprived of them let us that by thy special favour are blessed with the rich and in estimable priviledge injoying them carefully improve them to a growth in Grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to an increase of Faith and all godliness till we come to the full and perfect happiness of an immediate injoying thee without them in thy heavenly and everlasting Kingdom by thy dear Son Jesus Christ our ever blessed Redeemer through whose Merit and Mediation and in whose Form of Words we are bold to call thee Father 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 Lord's Day Evening EVer blessed and gracious Lord God and in Jesus Christ our loving and merciful Father and most liberal and open-handed Benefactor from whose favour and kindness we have all the good things that we receive in this Life and the hopes of a better to make us everlastingly happy in the next We thy poor Servants acknowledging our manifold unworthiness of the least of thy mercies and the guilt of those sins whereby we have made frequent forfeitures of them are here before thee to offer up to thee our Evening Sacrifice of hearty praise and thansgivings for all those blessings that with a most free and unwearied bounty thou hast been pleased to confer upon us and continue to us Thy hand hath formed us in the Womb given us Life and Breath and Being and having brought us into the World bestowed on us many conveniencies of Life that have made our Being in the World easie and delightful to us Thine O Lord is our health and strength our ease and liberty thine the Air we breath in and the Earth we tread upon thine our Food and our Raiment the Sun that shines to give us Light and the Rain that falls to give us plenty thine the use of our Limbs and thine the exercise of our Understanding and Reason And we bless thy Name for all those outward and temporal blessings the multitude whereof such is thy goodness makes us unable to recount them and whose dayly repetition that should heighten our esteem of them and thankfulness for them makes us such is our folly and weakness too apt to undervalue them But above all we adore and with our highest and heartiest praises desire to magnifie thy rich and free Grace for spiritual blessings in heavenly
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
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
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
and cause the light of thy Gospel to guide their feet into the way of peace that are wandring in the darkness of sensuality profaneness superstition and idolatry and shew them thy Salvation Bless thy whole Church throughout the World preserve it from the offences and reproachful scandals of its professed Friends and from the oppressions and persecutions of its open and declared Enemies Let thy continual care keep and cleanse thy Vineyard that it may abound in the Fruits of Righteousness Be merciful to this Nation where we live pardon the Sins that cry aloud for vengeance heal the breaches that threaten its ruine and avert those dreadful Judgments that hang over our heads and as thou hast all along often saved us from the destructions miseries that our daring wickednesses might have pull'd down upon our heads give us cause more and more to magnifie thy mercy and triumph in thy Salvation Bless our Lord the King with Wisdom and Courage a zeal for thy glory and a continual care of promoting Righteousness and true Religion and let all under him in places of Civil and Ecclesiastical Government make it their business to further Righteousness and Peace and the good of Souls and let all sorts of men follow after peace without which they cannot see happiness on Earth and holiness without which they shall not see thy Face in Heaven Be thou a present help for the relief and succour of all that are in a suffering condition and let that good providence that hath defended directed and assisted us in the dangers the occurrences and businesses of the day so protect and refresh us with sleep this night that in the morning we may be more fit to serve thee and live to thy praise in Christ Jesus our Lord through whom we beseech thee to accept our persons pardon our sins and hear our Prayers when we 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 Thursday Morning MOst gracious God and merciful Father in Jesus Christ the Author of our Being and the Fountain of all those good things that may make us happy in this World and that which is to come we thy poor Creatures vile and provoking Sinners in the sense of our own guilt fly to thy mercy to pardon us in the sense of our weakness fly to thy might to strengthen us in the sense of our own ignorance and folly fly to thy wisdom to instruct and counsel us in the sense of our manifold wants and necessities fly to thy fulness and all-sufficiency to supply us We acknowledge O Lord that our nature is not only corrupt and sinful overspread with a Leprosie and loathsome Disease that might make us for ever abominable in thy pure Eyes but our practises have been contrary to thy holy and righteous Laws both in the doing what thou hast forbidden us and the leaving undone what thou hast commanded us we have followed after and fulfilled our own Lusts and yielded to them a vile and slavish subjection as to our Lords and Lawgivers whilst we have refused and been weary of thy Service as a slavery which is perfect freedom We have forgotten thee our God and turning aside to lying vanities have sinned against thee in every state and condition of our lives in our health we have seldom thought how soon we might be cast upon a sick Bed and in our sickness have been unprepared for death that might have been the issue of it in our prosperity we have been secure and sensual wanton proud and unthankful and in our adversity we have repined and murmured with impatience and discontentment and when our folly hath perverted our ways our hearts Pro. 19. 3. have fretted against the Lord. We have suffered our selves to be prevailed upon by the pleasures and profits of this Life those deceitful baits of the Flesh that having for a while gratified our sensual inclination have left the sharp and wounding hook of fear and disquiet in our consciences And though thou hast graciously forewarned us that our most pleasant Lusts will be bitterness in the latter end and the wages of Sin Rom. 6. 23. is nothing less then death and eternal misery yet by our unbelief and carnal affections and the present seeming advantages of Sin we have been drawn into Sin and not frighted from it by its future mischiefs and punishments Thou hast sent thy Son into the World to redeem and save us from our Sins to make known thy Will and publish to us his holy and good Laws that we should govern our thoughts our words and actions by them but we have by our disobedience vilely cast away his Scepter and disown'd the authority of his Laws notwithstanding our professions to Tit. 1. 16. know and believe him we have by wicked works denyed him and naming the Name of Christ 2 Tim. 2. 19. we have not departed from Iniquity We have so resisted and grieved thy holy Spirit who hath earnestly pleaded with us to cast off our Sins and return to our Duty that he might in displeasure withdraw from us and forbearing his blessed motions and leaving us destitute of his gracious assistance might give us up to the blindness of our own minds the unbelief and impenitent hardness of our hearts and suffer us to go on in our own ways till our condition were wholly hopeless and without possibility of recovery we had sinn'd our selves into eternal misery Awaken O Lord we pray thee our sleepy Consciences and so throughly convince us of the great evil of Sin and those fearful punishments that follow it that we may in good earnest and without the least delay flee from it by a most serious and hearty repentance and return unto the Lord our God from Hos 14. 1. whom we have fallen and gone astray by our Iniquities Through the sufferings and precious death of thy Son be reconciled and speak peace to us though our offences are very foul and heinous and our best righteousness cannot encourage us to look up with confidence to thine offended Majesty yet in the righteousness of our blessed Mediator we both pray and hope to be forgiven being by thy self assured that thou hast given him a great and all-sufficient Redeemer for the Atonement of great Transgressors and exalted him Acts 5. 31. to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance and remission of Sins For our sakes and in our stead he endured the punishments that himself had not deserved he Isa 53. 5. was wounded for our Transgressions and the chastisement of our peace was upon him O let us through his Stripes be healed Help us being
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