Repentance with a stedfast and firm Resolution to reform and amend our Lives Bless us in our going out and our coming in when we are upon the Way when we lay us down and when we rise up When we are in our private Closets lend an Ear to our Prayers and answer the Desires of our Souls When we are employed about our Lawful Callings give success to our honest Labours and Endeavours When we are conversing with others let us behave our selves with all humility and meekness in all our Words and Actions esteeming others better than our selves and doing to others what we would be willing they should do unto us Being patient gentle and easy to be entreated slow to wrath and ready to forgive all those who have trespassed against us until seventy seven times Loving our Enemies doing good and shewing kindness as we have opportunities to those who hate persecute and despitefully use us Living in humble Obedience to and heartily praying for Him who hath the supreme Power over us together with all those who are related to Him or who are in Authority under Him Being no Busy-bodies in other Men's Matters no Whisperers Tale-bearers Slanderers or Back-biters No Deceivers or Covenant-breakers but sincere and upright in all our Dealings and Transactions No lovers of Earthly Treasure no Worshippers of Gold or Silver or greedy of filthy Lucre. With all chearfulness and alacrity dealing our Bread to the Hungry giving Drink to the Thirsty Clothing the Naked visiting the Sick relieving Prisoners redeeming Captives helping the Fatherless and Widows comforting and assisting the Desolate and Oppressed and never shutting up the Bowels of our Compassion from any who want our Help or Assistance And forasmuch as we are here but Strangers and Pilgrims let thy good Spirit guide and conduct us in our Way to our long Homes through the vast and wide Wilderness of this sinful World where there are so many Turnings and Windings Cross-ways and By-paths Thorns and Briars Pits and Precipices Traps and Snares laid for us by the Devil and his Emissaries to entice us to Sin and Wickedness and then to plunge us into endless Woe and Miseries Where there is no true content or Satisfaction to be found and where the most refined of Human Pleasures and Delights are allayed with the mixture of Cares and Troubles Fears and Jealousies Sicknesses and Diseases Crosses and Disappointments where Love and Kindness is often repaid with Hatred and Malice and the most bountiful Actions with ungrateful Returns Where the Poor are oppressed by Men of Power and innocent Lambs made a prey to ravenous Wolves where our Eyes are too often entertained with doleful Spectacles and our Ears filled with Sighs and Groans and bitter Lamentations And therefore Gracious FATHER be thou pleased to give us such a measure of Faith Hope and Patience as may bear us up in all the Changes and Chances of this Mortal Life and enable us in whatever State or Condition we are therewith to be content as well to be abased as to be exalted to want as to abound to have nothing as to possess all things And though the Fig-tree should be withered and no Fruit be found on the Vine the labour of the Olive fail and the Field yield no increase though there should be no Sheep in the Fold or Herd in the Stall no Cattel in the pasture or Stores in the Garner no Water in the Bottle or Oil in the Cruce yet still to trust in that GOD who feeds the Ravens and the young Lions when they call upon him who can make Rivers to flow out of hard Rocks and furnish a Table in the Wilderness With whom the very Hairs of our heads are all numbred and in whom none ever trusted and were confounded That so having finished our Course and run our Race and lived the Life of the Righteous our last END may be like unto his And whenever these Houses of Clay shall be dissolved our Souls may be safely conveyed by some blessed Guardian Angels to the place appointed for the Spirits of GOD's Elect there to wait with patience for a joyful Re-union with their respective Bodies at the Resurrection and second coming of CHRIST in Glory with all his holy Angels in whose Name and Words we farther desire to call upon Thee Saying Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy NAME thy Kingdom come thy Will be done on 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 the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen AN EVENING-PRAYER FOR Every Day in the Week MOST Glorious LORD GOD and merciful Father in Christ Jesus who inhabitest the highest Heavens and yet art pleased to dwell in the lowest Hearts and hast graciously promised That where-ever Two or Three are gathered together in thy Name and Fear Thou wilt be there in the midst of them Look down in mercy upon us who are now before Thee and dare not give sleep to our Eyes or slumber to our Eye-lids till we have renewed our Covenant with the GOD and FATHER of Mercies and have humbly offered unto Him our Selves our Souls and Bodies as a reasonable service Be therefore pleased O Lord to forgive all the Sins of our past Lives particularly the Omissions and Commissions of this Day for which alone shouldst Thou enter into Judgment with us Thou mightst justly condemn us to the lowest Hell and give ns our portion with Hypocrites in utter Darkness Blessed LORD we desire from the bottom of our Hearts to be sensible of our manifold Frailties and Infirmities and of that Law in our Members that is always Warring against the Law of our Minds so that whenever we would do Good Evil is present with us and intermingles with our very Prayers and disturbs our most religious Duties and Performances And therefore it is that utterly renouncing our own Righteousness as Dung â—nd Dross we fly to Him who is our Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous to wash away our Sins with his own precious Blood and to present us unto Thee our GOD pure and spotless And for his sake we humbly beseech Thee O LORD to lighten our Darkness and by thy great mercy to defend us from all perils and dangers this Night giving us a moderate and refreshing Rest free from frightful Dreams and sinful Imaginations which are the evil Effects of our corrupt Natures When we awake let our Souls be filled with heavenly Thoughts and pious Meditations always remembring That we are in the presence of a God who knows our down-sitting and our up-rising who understands our Thoughts a farr off and is acquainted with all our ways If we should be so vain and foolish to believe that the Darkness would cover us the Night shall be light about us the Darkness hideth not from Thee but
to all intents and purposes most spiteful and malicious O cruel Satan Was there not room enough for thee and all thy Infernal Crew to range up and down in the vast and wide Expanse without intruding so rudely and abruptly into Paradise O spiteful old Dragon What Wrong or Injury did our first Parents do to thee while they were dressing the Garden which their MAKER had so lately placed them in that thou shouldest invent so hellish a Stratagem and in Masquerade make so fatal an Address at once to rob them of their Innocence disturb their present Peace and disappoint them of their future Happiness Be therefore for ever accursed O Beelzebub Thou Prince of Devils and true Original of all Sin and Wickedness for thy malicious Practises to deceive all the Nations of the World for so many Thousand Years whenas thou canst not be ignorant but that the Sins of every Soul that thou has tempted be it Saved or be it Damned shall one Day be set to thy Accompt and add Degrees to thy Eternal Torment From all Evil and Mischief and from all the Crafts and Assaults of the Devil and all his Infernal Spirits Good Lord deliver us Now here I doubt not but that the ingenious Reader will expect I should insert some short Discourse concerning Blessed and Apostate Spirits and I could heartily wish I had a sufficient Knowledge of and Insight into those Mysteries to answer fully his desires But I am afraid on the one side that he would be very little satisfied with my Endeavours in case I should in imitation of a late learned Author try to squeeze a plausible Description of LOST PARADISE out of St. John's Vision in the Isle of Patmos and fancy to my self a formal and pitcht Battle upon a vast and wide Plain in the North part of Heaven fought between two mighty Hosts of Blessed and Revolted Spirits conducted and led up by mighty Arch-Angels for their Generals riding in Brazen Chariots drawn by foaming Steeds and clad with Adamantine Coats one of which was by a massy Sword cut down to the wast and stain'd with Angelick blood Where the one of these Armies dug up the Terrain of Heaven and with the Materials they there found made Powder Bullets and great Guns it is pity that Bombs were not in use when he wrote that Treatise and with them did great Execution upon their Enemies who in Revenge tore up great Mountains by the Roots and hurl'd them at their Heads with a great number of other Romantick Stories which is Ludere cum Sacris and much fitter for Poets and Painters who when they are got to the top of their Pâ—rnassus frame to themselves Idea's of what Chimera's or Goblins they please And on the other side I judge it altogether needless to make use of the Dark-Lanterns of Homer Ovid Virgil or any of the old Heathen Poets or to borrow the dim Tapers and blinking Lights of Plato Aristotle Seneca or any of those Half-Divine Philosophers or to be beholding to the School-men for their vain Distinctions and splitting of Hairs with their lame Definitions and Explanations of Obscurum per Obscurius Neither am I willing to tire my Reader with endless Quotations out of the Ancient Pious and Learned Fathers who were for the most part somewhat tender in delivering their Opinions about the Doctrin of Spirits but wisely waved the positive Determination of Questions relating to the Invisible World and those deep Mysteries of Incorporeal Beings as not to be fathom'd by the Line and Plummet of Human Understanding And therefore I shall content my self with what Light I can get from the Holy Scriptures and where those are either obscure or silent to be very cautious sober and modest 1. That there were are and ever shall be true and real Subsistencies of Good and Evil Angels the following Passages of Sacred Writ do plainly inform us viz. Before the Angels of God 12 Luke 8. He shall come with all his holy Angels 25 Matth. 31. If God spared not the Angels that sinned 2 Pet. 2. 4. The Angels that kept not their first Estate Jud. 6. The Angels came 4 Matth. 11. Out of whom went 7 Devils 8 Luke 2. Everlasting Fire Prepared for the Devil and his Angels 25 Matth. 41. But are as the Angels in Heaven 22 Matth. 30. 2. As concerning the Time when the Angels were Created it may be conjectured by comparing several Texts of Scripture and making the following Inference viz. The Sons of God and the Morning-Stars are put together and the Morning-Stars were made before the Earth Job 38. And the Earth was made three Days before the Stars in the Firmament Gen. 1. And consequently Morning Stars cannot be meant Stars of the Firmament Again by Stars are meant Angels 12 Rev. 4. And by the Heavenly Host are meant Angels 2 Luke 13. and 1 Kings 19. 21. And the Heavens and Heavenly Hosts are joined together 2 Gen. And the Heavens said to be Created the First Day Therefore it seems probable that the Sons of God otherwise the Morning-Stars or which is the same thing Angels or the Host of Heaven were created on the first of the Six Days in the Morning 3. That there were great Numbers of both Blessed and Apostate Angels we are assured from several Passages in the Old and New Testament More than 12 Legions or as some compute it 79992 Angels 26 Matth. 23. Thousand Thousands ministred unto him and Ten Thousand times Ten Thousand stood before him 7 Dan. 10. and 5 Rev. 11. An innumerable Company of Angels 12. Heb. 22. A multitude of the Heavenly Host 2 Luke 13. His Tail drew a Third part of the Stars of Heaven 12 Rev. 4. My Name is Legion for we are many 5 Mark 9. Now if Solomon who was LORD but of a very small Spot of the Terrestrial Globe which Globe is by us thought to be little more than a Point if compared with the Starry Firmament had so many Attendants What Number should we think a fit Retinue for the KING of KINGS and LORD of LORDS Myriades Myriadum will be too small a Summ And so will our ordinary Terms of Arithmetick and we must be forced to borrow some of the learned Commentator upon Archimedes his Arenarius and say Billions Trillions Quadrillions c. of blessed Angels to attend his Throne and to make up the Court of Heaven 4. That there were different Orders and Degrees of Good and Evil Spirits we have reason to believe from the following Texts viz. The great Prince Michael 12 Dan. 1. Beelzebub the Prince of Devils 11 Luke 15. The Prince of the Power of the Air 2 Ephes 2. The Voice of the Arch-Angel 2 Thess 4. 16. Thrones or Dominions Principalities or Powers 1 Coloss 16. Michael and his Angels and the Devil and his Angels 12 Rev. 3. 9. 5. That all the blessed Angels which attend God's Throne are Ministring Spirits and sometimes appeared in Humane shapes we find in the following Texts
shifting of Scenes the Devil and his Agents are always at hand to disturb and hinder the Actor in his performances both of Religious and Moral Duties and at last to carry him off the Stage with Eternal Dishonour and Disgrace It will not be difficult to trace his Cloven-Footsteps from the first Creation to this present Time Having beguiled our first Parents he resolved to mischief their two Sons First by polluting Cain's Offering and laying Sin at his door then by urging him to be wroth and angry with his Maker for not accepting it And lastly by provoking him to break all the Bonds of Nature and to become his own Brother's Murtherer This done he proceeds to tempt the Old World to the Commission of gross and enormous Impieties till God destroyed them with a Deluge After the Flood when Noah's Posterity was multiplied the Devil turned Architect and drew a Design for the Children of Men to build a Tower in the Plain of Shinaar whose top was to reach to Heaven from which he himself had so lately fallen When God had dispersed those Builders by the Confusion of Languages he took upon him the Office of an Infernal Prophet Priest and King instructing his Disciples and Followers to forsake the Worship of the True God to yield Obedience to all his Commands and to erect Altars plant Groves and to offer Sacrifice to Devils under various Forms of Beasts Birds and Creeping Things And so great was his Malice that he would not spare that Grove of Oaks at or near the Plains of Mamre which the good old Patriarch Abraham had planted and made use of as an Oratory orselect place of Divine Worship for himself and his numerous Family but caused it to be converted to Idolatrous Uses till such time as Constantine the Great took care to have the Heathen Altars and Images demolished by the Bishop of Jerusalem and those of Palestine and a Christian Church erected in their stead It would be endless to make enquiry into all the Actions and various Forms of Worship among the Men of the Old Gentile World and Heathen Idolaters Or to make an Enumeration of the Names of their respective Idols I shall only entertain the Reader with a brief Narrative of what I have collected out of a late Traveller of no small Credit amongst us which may give him some light into the Practices of former Ages There is saith my Author a Kingdom in the East Indies called Tunquin where some of the Inhabitants worship four Gods whose Names are Rauma Betols Ramonu and Brama and a Goddess called Satisbana Others of them hold Transmigration of Souls and have a great Veneration for a certain Hermit called Chacabout one of the greatest Impostors that ever was in Asia A third Sort have great esteem for one Lanthu one of the greatest Magicians of the East That Impostor's Disciples having given it out that his Mother carried him in her Womb without losing her Virginity for the space of Seventy years which I am apt to believe is a Mock the Devil puts upon our blessed Saviour's being carried Ten Months in the Womb of a Virgin It is the Custom of the Tunquineses to Adore three things The first is the Hearth of their Chimney made of Three Stones The second is an Idol which they call Tiensa the Patroness of Handy-Crafts The Third is the Idol Buabin which they implore before they build their Houses They likewise present Offerings to Trees Elephants Horses Cows and almost all kinds of Animals Besides all this they have great Veneration for two Magicians and one Magicianess The first Magician foretells future Events To the second they have recourse in all their Sicknesses And sometimes after several Apish-tricks he himself together with the sick Party and those who brought him do Homage and the Devil and the sick Party's friends present him and the Devil with an Entertainment of their choisest Meats But if the sick Person after all their Offerings do not recover his Friends and Relations with as many Soldiers as they can get together discharge their Guns and Musquets three times to drive away his Devilship from those parts Sometimes the chief Magician Thaybou being consulted and finding that the Distemper arises from the Souls of the Dead he or his Brother Thay-phouthouy finds ways to draw to him that Soul that is the Author of the Disease and then shuts it up in a bottle of water well stopt till the Party be cured afterwhich he breaks the Bottle and lets that Soul loose to go about its business The Magicianess Bacoti keeps constant Correspondence with the Devil to whom if she has a Daughter she offers her as soon as she is born and if any Mother happen to lose a Child she makes her Address to this Magicianess who by the beat of a Drum pretends to Summon the Soul of that Child and tell the Mother whether its Condition in the other World be Good or otherwise When the Moon is in an Eâ—clipse they believe it is assaulted by a Dragon and therefore they make a hideous noise with Drums Trumpets Bells and Musquets till the Ecclipse be over and then make great Rejoycings for having conquered that monstrous Creature It is very wonderful to consider what cruel Tyranny the Devil exercises over many of the poor Idolatrous Indians Some he makes to carry their Arms over their Heads during their Lives which causes certain Carnosities to breed in their Joints that they can never bring them down again Others he makes to stand upon one Foot holding a Chaffing-dish in one hand and with the other pouring out Incense as an Offering to their God fixing their Eyes all that while upon the Sun When the Inhabitants of the City Malde in Bengala on a certain Day go out of that City great Numbers of them hang themselves by the flesh of their Bodies upon iron Hooks fastned to Trees for that purpose till the weight of their Bodies tearing away the Flesh they fall off themselves to the ground and which is almost incredible not a Drop of Blood issues out of the Wounds nor the least bit of Flesh is left upon the Hooks and within the space of two Days they are cured by the Bramans Ejaculation I bless and praise Thee with my whole heart O Lord of Heaven and Earth for thy distinguishing Goodness and Mercy to me the meanest and most unworthy of all Adam's Posterity in permitting me to be Born within the Pale of the True Church where the Gospel of Thy Son is openly preacht and profest in the publick Assemblies And not among Pagans Turks or other Infidels It is very remarkable that the Devil notwithstanding his great Power and Dominion over the Heathen World for so many Thousand Years has never yet been able utterly to deface those Principles of Right Justice and Conscience which the Almighty Maker has stampt upon Men's Souls though at the same time in most places he has extreamly sullied them with hellish Impostures
and Delusions and Idolatrous Worship of divers kinds so as to make sure of them in the main and always hold them fast within his Clutches Thus in the foregoing Instance of the Tunquineses the Hermite Chacabout left behind him Ten Commandements which he enjoined his Followers to observe with all manner of strictness viz. First Not to Kill Secondly Not to Steal Thirdly Not to defile their Bodies Fourthly Not to Lye Fifthly Not to falsify their Words Sixthly To restrain their inordinate Desires Seventhly Not to do Injury to any Man Eighthly Not to be great Talkers Ninthly Not to give way to their Anger Tenthly To labour to their utmost to get Knowledge Besides all this They who designed to lead a Religious Life must renounce the Delights of this Life be Charitable to the Poor overcome their Passions and give themselves up to Meditation He taught moreover That after this Life there were Ten distinct Places of Joy and Torment and that the Contemners of these Laws should feel Torment proportionable to their Offences without any End of their Torments That they who endeavoured to fulfil his Law and had failed in any point should wander in divers Bodies holding Transmigration of Souls for the space of Three Thousand Years before they entred into Happiness But that those who had perfectly Obeyed his Laws should be rewarded without suffering any Change of their Bodies And that he himself had been Born ten times before he enjoyed the Bliss that he possessed not having in his first Youth been illuminated with that Knowledge which he afterwards attained Reflection As for his Ten Commands and his other Instructions immediately following one would think at first sight that this Impostor had collected them out of the Holy Scriptures save only that there is not a Word therein that has the least regard to a Saviour or Messias But alass that subtil old Serpent and Prince of Darkness who is so perfect a Hater of the Saviour of the World and of Humane Race makes it his principal Care and Caution to keep all his Subjects and Vassals from the least Knowledge of those divine Mysteries which relate to the holy JESUS For my part I am apt to believe altho' so many Ages have past since the Martyrdom of the blessed Apostles among the Pagans and Barbarians who undoubtedly converted very great numbers of them while they lived amongst them that some of these Converts left behind them many pious Instructions to their Children who also left the same to their Children and so from Generation to Generation which in process of time were corrupted by Satan's Artifices being confounded and intermingled with a great number of foolish and extravagant Traditions Of this I shall here take the freedom to mention one famous Instance There were about fifteen Years since as a Traveller assures me who was himself in those parts and probably are to this day living above Twenty thousand Families of a certain People who call themselves Christians or Disciples of St. John from whom they pretend to have received their Faith their Books and Traditions These people inhabit at present at Balsara about ten days Voyage from that place where the River Tigris divides it self into two Arms the one running through the ancient Chaldaea and the other towards Mesopotamia in view of which stands an old Wall of about a League in compass which the Chronicles of that Country say was the Ruins of the ancient Babylon upon which Wall six Coaches may go abreast being made of burnt Brick each Brick ten Foot square and three Foot thick These Christians of St. John anciently lived by the River of Jordan where St. John baptized and so from him they took their Name But since the time that Mahomet conquered Palestine although he had given them his Hand and Letter of Privilege not to be molested his Successors resolved to extirpate them ruining their Churches burning their Books and exercising all manner of Cruelties upon their Persons which obliged them to retire into Mesopotamia and Chaldaea and for some time they were under the Patriarch of Babylon from whom they separated about 175 Years since and then removed into Persia and Arabia and the Towns round about Balsara Their Creed is full of Fables and soul Errors They never Baptize but in Rivers and only upon Sundays But before they go to the River they carry the Infant to Church where there is a Bishop who reads certain prayers over the head of the Child from thence they carry it to the River with a train of Men and Women who together with the Bishop go up to the knees in Water then the Bishop reads again certain prayers out of a Book which he holds in his hand which done he sprinkles the Infant three times saying Beesme brad Er-rabi Kaddemin Akreri Menhal el Gennet Alli Koulli Kralek which is in English In the Name of the LORD first and last of the WORLD and of PARADISE the high Creator of all Things After that the Bishop reads something again out of his Book while the Godfather plunges the Child all over in the water after which they all go to the Parents house to feast If any tax their Baptism for insufficient in regard the Three Persons of the Trinity are not mentioned therein they give no reasonable Answer nor have they any knowledge of that Mystery only they say that Christ is the Spirit and Word of the Eternal Father They believe the Angel Gabriel to be the Son of God begotten upon Light yet will not believe the Eternal Generation of Christ as God although they confess he became Man to free us from the punishment of Sin and that he was conceived in the Womb of a Virgin without the knowledge of Man by means of the Water of a certain Fountain which she drank of They believe he was Crucisied by the Jews That he rose the Third Day and that his Soul ascended up to Heaven his Body remaining upon Earth but withal That Christ vanished when the Jews came to take him and that he deluded their Cruelty with his shadow In the Eueharist they make use of Meal kneaded up with Wine and Oil the Wine they make with Grapes dried in the Sun and casting water upon them let them steep a long time and with that they Consecrate the Cup The Arabians under whose Government they live not permitting them the use of ordinary Wine The Words of their Consecration are no other then long Prayers but make no mention of Christ's Body or Blood which they say is not necessary because God knows their intention After the Ceremonies are ended the Priest eats some of the Bread and distributes the rest to the people All their Bishops wear their Hair long with a little Cross wrought with a needle These People believe and say That the Angel Gabriel undertaking to create the World according to God's Command took along with him Three hundred thirty six Thousand Demons and made the Earth so fertile
the Night shineth as the Day The Darkness and the Night are both alike to Thee And forasmuch as the closing of our Eyes to Rest so nearly resembles Death and our Beds are but models of our Graves out of which we must one Day be called by the sound of the last Trump to Arise and come to Judgment Let this and every Evening and every Morning of our Lives put us in mind of our dying Hours And let no worldly Affairs hinder us from being always in a readiness for our last and final Conflict with the Prince and Powers of Darkness who knowing their time is but short will be sure to make their fiercest Assaults upon Departing-Souls when they find them struggling with Bodily pains and sharp Diseases and drawing nigh to their last Agonies And sometimes to terrify them with frightful Dreams and Visions to make them if possible utterly to despair of God's Mercies and to let go their hold and quit their Hopes of Eternal Life and Happiness Make us therefore sensible how highly it concerns us while we have Health of Body and soundness of Mind to arm our selves like good Souldiers with Christian Courage and Resolution for those Death-bed Combats and critical Hours Minutes and Moments of our Lives And because we are to wrestle with invisible Enemies of mighty Power and wonderful Knowledge great Subtilty and long Experience who know too well our Tempers Inclinations and Infirmities and where and how to set upon us with the greatest Advantage Be pleased to send thy blessed Angels and Ministring-Spirits to comfort and assist us in all those siery Tryals and Temptations That so Death which is to so many others the King of Terrors may be to us a kind Friend and a welcome Guest and we may with all cheerfulness quit these Houses of Clay and fleshy Tabernacles and exchange the Troubles and Sorrows of a painful Pilgrimage in a Valley of Tears for the Joys of Heaven and Everlasting Happiness with blessed Saints and Angels in the highest Heavens All which with whatever else Thou knowest to be needful either for us or for any of ours or for any of Thine we humbly beg in the Name and for the sake of the blessed Jesus who in compassion to our Infirmities has taught us thus to pray Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy NAME thy Kingdom come thy Will be done on 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 the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen A MORNING-PRAYER FOR Sundays Fasts and Festivals LET us now fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker Most Holy Blessed Glorious and incomprehensible Triniry Father Son and Holy Ghost Three Persons and One God Almighty Maker of all Things and Judge of all Men Have mercy upon us miserable Sinners who are by Nature Children of Disobedience and by our actual Sins every Day and Hour of our Lives liable to Divine Wrath and Vengeance Remember not O Lord the many Follies and Vanities of our Child-hood and Youth nor the innumerable Transgressions of our riper Years and how we have always erred and strayed from the Ways of Truth and Righteousness and trod in forbidden Paths through the several Stages of our Lives leaving undone those things which thou hast absolutely commanded and doing those things which thou hast exprelly forbidden and many times drawing upon our selves the guilt of other Men's Sins by our Encouragement Connivance or ill Examples breaking the solemn Vows and Promises either made for us by others in Baptism or by our selves in Times of Danger or Sickness unthankful for Mercies and incorrigible under Judgments rejecting the Motiors of thy blessed Spirit and following the Devices Desires and vain Imaginations of our own Hearts and so running the hazard of losing our precious and immortal Souls for the enjoyment of a few sinful and short-liv'd Pleasures Blessed LORD we cannot but confess and acknowledge with shame and confusion of face that it is a wonder of thy patience and forbearance that we are yet alive and that thou hast not cut us of in the midst of our Sins and Doom'd us to dwell with everlasting Burnings among damned Souls and Spirits But this is our hope and humble confidence that we have to do with the God and Father of Mercies who takes no delight in the death of Sinners but is slow to Anger and ready to forgive all those who sincerely repent and truely believe in our blessed Lord and Saviour CHRIST JESUS for whose coming into the world to save lost Sinners and to open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers with Angels and Arch-Angels and all the Company of Heaven we laud and magnify thy great and holy NAME as we likewise do for thy other Mercies and Favours daily and hourly bestowed upon us We bless and praise Thee for giving us a Being in the World for that admirable Frame and Structure of our Bodies while we lay inclosed in our Mother's Wombs for breathing into us the Breath of Life and enduing us with reasonable Souls after thine own Image and Likeness for being Born where the Gospel of thy SON is openly preached and professed and not among Heathens Turks or Infidels For the unparallel'd Pattern of all Goodness in the Life of the holy JESUS and for the pious Examples of the blessed Patriarchs Prophets Apostâ—â—s and Martyrs who are gone before us and with their own Blood have traced out for us the true Way to Life and Happiness beseeching thee that we following their good Examples may with them be made partakers of Everlasting Life in the World to come We thank Thee LORD of Heaven and Earth for the wonderful Works of the Creation of which we all enjoy our shares and proportions for the Sun that shines by Day and for the Moon and Stars That rule by Night and by their regular Motions and sweet Influences serve for Signs and Seasons Days and Years for the Clouds that give Rain and drop Fatness upon our Fields and Pastures and for the Springs that go up by the Mountains and run down among the Vallies for reserving to us the appointed Times of Harvest and giving us the kindly Fruits of the Earth in their due and proper Seasons for our Food and Raiment and all the good things of this Life and our manifold preservations from sundry Dâ—â—â—â— and Dangers ever since we hung upon our Mother's Breasts for protecting us this last Night from many calamitous Accidents which in a Night might have befallen us and bringing us safely to the light of another Day and so giving us a longer time and space for Repentance and Amendment of our Lives most humbly beseeching Thee to continue these thy Mercies and Favours to us and to keep us the remainder of this Day and of our Lives from
all Things that may be hurtful either to our Spuls or Bodies From all Evil and Mischief from Sin from the Grafts and Assaults of the Devil from thy Wrath and everlasting Damnation Good LORD deliver us From saying in our Hearts that there is no God or openly denying the Divine Essence and glorious Attributes of which either the highest Presumption or utmost Desperation are the usual and woful Effects Let the visible things of the Creation and the Restections of our own Consciences in our Solitudes and private Retirements be sufficient to disswade and restrain us Against Idolatry and having other Gods besides Thee and from bowing down to and Worshipping either Idols made with hands or those of our beloved Lusts Lord strengthen us by thy Grace To keep us from taking the NAME of the LORD our GOD in vain in our ordinary Discourses or prophaning it with wicked Oaths on bitter Curses Let us remember that the same LORD hath assured all such Offenders that he will in no wise hold them guiltless To observe religiously the Lord's Day and all other Times solemnly set a part for Divine Worship and Service not following our own Ways nor speaking our own Words nor thinking our own Thoughts Let thy good Spirit dispose and encline our hearts Let us never attempt to sow Discord and Divisions in the Church or to offend our blessed Saviour's Little Ones or any way to disturb the Communion of Saints as knowing who hath told us That it would be much better for us to be thrown into the midst of the Sea with Mill-stones hung about our Necks than to be guilty of such Offences Let us always be conscientiously careful to Honour and Obey our Parents and all others under whose Rule and Government thou hast placed us behaving ourselves with all humility and singleness of heart not as Eye-servants or Men-pleasers And whenever Pride and Vain-glory would puff us up and make us become wise in our own Eyes let the remembrance that we are but Dust and Ashes and born like the wild Asses Colt pull down our haughty Looks and abate our swelling Thoughts From sinful Anger and unbridled Passion from provoking Language and reviling Speeches from Envy Hatred and Malice and all the mischievous and fatal consequences that may thereby happen either to our selves or others LORD ever keep us by thy restraining Grace From Rioting and Drunkenness from Chambering and Wantonness from Adultery Fornication and Uncleanness or living in any known Sin Let the fear of thy Wrath and the Vengeance of Eternal Fire deterr us To wrong our Neighbours by open Violence or by Secret and fraudulent Practises Let it never enter into our Thoughts That we may never Slander speak Evil of or rashly censure others or bear false Witness against them Let us set a watch before our Mouths and strictly guard the Doors of our Lips Let us be afraid of oppressing the Poor and Needy in the Gate or ploughing in the field of the Fatherless because their Redeemer is mighty or of devouring Widow's Houses lest the Stones out of the Walls should one Day be our Accusers and the Beams out of the Timber make Answer and testifie against us To covet our Neighbour's House to covet our Neighbour's Wife his Man-servant his Maid-servant his Ox his Ass or any thing that is his Let no worldly Advantage or carnal Delight be ever able to tempt or allure us From Thieves and Robbers from the Hands of bloody Men and Murderers from Invasion of foreign Foes from the Conspiracies of Domestick Enemies and Treachery of false Friends do Thou O LORD to whom alone all Hearts are open all Designs known and from whom no Secrets are hid defend us by thy good Providence confounding their Counsels and bringing to nought their Devices From Plague Pestilence and Famine from bodily Torments Tempests and Earth-quakes and all the sad Accidents of Fire and Water for thy Mercies sake save and protect us Neither do we pray for our selves alone but for the whole Race of Mankind now living upon or working within the Bowels of the habitable Earth or else floating upon the face of the deep Waters and particularly for the Church Militant where-ever scattered or dispersed that the Gates of Hell may never prevail against it Look down with the Eye of pitty upon all who in this transitory Life are in Trouble Sorrow Need Sickness or any other Adversity more especially upon those thy Servants on whom thou hast laid thine afflicting Hand either for a Tryal of their Patience or a Punishment of their Disobedience Make them sensible that Affliction comes not forth of the Dust neither doth Trouble spring out of the Ground but that the Hand of the LORD hath done it to whom alone belong the Issues of Life and Death and who doth whatever pleaseth him in Heaven and in Earth but never willingly asslicts or grieves the Children of Men and then Why should we receive Good Things at the hands of the LORD and not Evil things And Why should a living Man complain for the punishment of his Sins In the mean time be thou graciously pleased who art the great Physician of Soul and Body to mitigate their Pains and to asswage their Griefs and to lay no more upon Dust and Ashes than thou enablest them to bear with Christian patience and a lively Faith in the Merits and Mediation of JESUS CHRIST the Righteous for the Remission of their Sins and the Salvation of their Souls That so thy Fatherly Chastisements may have their blessed Effects and those thy Children may come out of the Furnace of Affliction like Gold and Silver that hath been tried in the fire and purified seven times Be merciful to these Kingdoms and avert those heavy Judgments which we have done as much as in us lay by our crying Sins and Provocations to pull down upon our Heads Let the choicest of thy Blessings descend upon the Head and Heart of Him whom by thy especial Providence thou hast placed in supream Authority over us together with all His Royal Relations Give Grace and Wisdom to all the Senators and great Counsellors in all their Debates and Consultations Clean Hands and clear Consciences to the Judges and chief Magistrates that so they may help the Fatherless and hear the Cause of the Widow and upon all occasions act in their several Places without the least partiality or respect of Persons Spiritual Gifts and Graces to the Ministers of thy Word and Sacraments however Dignified or Distinguished that they may truly and faithfully feed the Flocks committed to their Charge Sobriety and Godliness to the Governors and Inhabitants of foreign Plantations that by their good Conversations and Examples they may convert Pagans and Insidels to the Faith of JESUS and turn many Souls to Righteousness The Dew and Blessing of Heaven to Schools and Universities that out of those Seminaries and Nurseries may grow up Plants that may be useful both to Church and State in their several Capacities and Generations Health and Happiness here and the Joys of Heaven hereafter to our Parents Brethren Sisters Kindred or Christian Acquaintance and to all our Friends and Benefactors who have at any time generously and readily shewed us Kindness in our Distress and when we truly stood in need of their Aid and Assistance A Spirit of Reformation to the whole Commonalty within these Realms and Dominions that so they may live in the true Faith and Fear of Thee our GOD in humble Obedience to their Superiors and in Brotherly Love and Charity one towards another Finally we beseech Thee to be present with us and all those who shall this day meet in any of the publick Assemblies to assist at thy Divine Worship and Service Let our Prayers come up before thee as Incense and the lifting up of our hands as an acceptable Sacrifice Touch with a Cole from thine Altar the Tongues of those who are to speak that they may not spare but cry aloud and lift up their Voices like Trumpets and shew the People of England their Transgressions and tell every Congregation their Sins And let us and all their Hearers receive the Word with meekness and pure Affections laying it up in our Hearts and bringing forth the fruit thereof in our future Lives and Conversations All which with what ever else thou knowest to be needful for us we humbly beg in the Name and for the Sake of JESUS CHRIST the Righteous concluding these our imperfect Prayers with that absolute Form which he himself while he was yet upon Earth taught his Disciples saying Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy NAME thy Kingdom come thy Will be done on 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 the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen FINIS and