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
successful Enterprizes let all subordinate Authority be exercised to the beating down of Vice and the exaltation of Religion and Righteousness and dispose all that are under Authority to a pious obedience unto thee a peaceable subjection to them that thou hast set over them not only for wrath but for conscience Rom. 13. 5. sake and to mutual kindness and a brotherly love of one another We come unto thee holy Father for a blessing upon our selves beseeching thee to take our Bodies and Souls our Habitation and Possessions into the safe custody of thy watchful Providence that no evil befal Psal 91. 10. us nor any plague come nigh our dwelling repair the decays of our frail Bodies by a quiet and refreshing rest and let us lay out our strength and vigour in thy service to thy praise and honour and the giving up our account with joy at the appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in whom as the High Priest of our Profession we offer up all our Prayers and Praises and through whom alone we hope to be heard and accepted when praying 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 Friday Morning O Lord the great and holy Dan. 9. 4. God that keepest Covenant and Mercy to them that Psal 145. 18. love thee and art nigh to all that call upon thee in truth and sincerity though thou hast thousands of holy and blessed Spirits and ten thousand times ten thousands dayly Ministring about thy Throne and art not at all better'd by their pure and spotless Services yet thou hast gracious and compassionate regards to the Prayers of weak and sinful Creatures that dwell in Houses of Clay thou openest thine Eyes to take knowledge of their condition bowest thine Ear to hearken to their Cryes movest thy Bowels to pity their infirmities and stretchest forth thine hand to relieve their wants We poor Creatures and guilty Sinners are here fallen down at thy Footstool adoring thine infinite perfections of holiness and wisdom power truth and goodness and beseeching thee mercifully to look upon our follies and frailties to supply our bodily and spiritual necessities to lift up the light of thy countenance upon us and turn away thy Face from our deserts of vengeance to answer 〈◊〉 which purposes we have none in Heaven Psal 73. 25. but thee none in Earth that our Souls can desire in comparison of thee We dare not we confess look up to Heaven with any confidence of being accepted for our own worthiness as being conscious that we have grievously offended that holy just and Almighty Majesty that is there seated on the Throne of his Glory nor are we worthy to tread upon the Earth or injoy the fruits and benefits of it where we have acted our wickednesses in the sight of Heaven We were not only conceived in Sin and brought forth in Iniquity but we have conceived Sin and brought forth Iniquity Num. 32. 14 and are risen up in our Fathers stead a generation of sinful men to kindle and in crease the anger of the Lord against us We have followed after our own imaginations and fulfilled the motions of our own Wills which have been opposite and contrary to the declarations of thine though there hath been the greatest reason we should receive Law from thy Mouth as our Almighty Creator Sovereign Lord and merciful Redeemer How barren and unfruitful have we been in thy Vineyard though thou hast caused the Clouds to drop down their moisture upon us and watered us with the plentiful showers of thy Word and the fructifying dew of thy holy Spirit that should have made us fruitful in all good works How have we neglected the Seasons of Grace And when thou hast called us to a speedy and present repentance the answer of our hearts hath been we will repent to morrow as if we could live as long as we listed and had power in our selves to turn to thee when we listed We bewail before thee the blindness of our understandings the stubbornness of our wills the vanity of our thoughts the earthliness of our affections we have hated what thou lovest and loved what thou hatest and the good things which thou hast allowed us to love moderately and in subordination to thee we have followed with eager and unbounded appetites and embraced with our highest and best love we have not carryed our selves as it becomes those that are Strangers and Pilgrims upon the Earth and profess to seek a better heavenly Countrey but lived as if we were at home and expected nothing better than what is to be here injoyed as if the happiness of this Life would never end and that of the next would never begin O Lord be merciful to us and in the multitude of thy tender mercies be reconciled to us through thy Son and blot out all our Iniquities give us heartily to repent of all our forepast Sins and Follies and so to receive Christ Jesus the Lord as Col. 2. 6. to walk in him And whatever thou denyest us grant us a full pardon through our dear and all-sufficient Redeemer whom thou hast set forth to be a Propitiation Rom. 3. 25. through Faith in his Blood And let the time past of our 1 Pet. 4. 3. Lives suffice to have wrought the wills of the flesh judging that Christ dyed for us that we 2 Cor. 5. 15. should not henceforth live unto our selves but unto him which dyed for us and rose again Col. 1. 10. help us to walk worthy of thee unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God give us we pray thee a Psal 111. 10 good understanding not only to know but to do thy Commandments and by growing 2 Pet. 3. 18. in Grace let us increase the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Phil. 4. 8. Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any virtue and if there be any praise let us think on and follow these things and never be slothful in the weighty matters of thine honour and the everlasting interest and happiness of our Souls but diligently follow those that have been followers of thee and have Heb. 6. 12. through faith and patience inherited the promises And because we are weak in our selves and insufficient to perform our duty to subdue our lusts to improve our blessings or bear our burdens to resist and conquer our spiritual enemies to stand our ground in the
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
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