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
Parents and therefore none of their Posterity have any Reason to make use of them so extravagantly as some Persons of this last Age have done to that degree that they have made themselves ridiculous in the Eyes of many sober Beholders The Pride and Vanity of the Daughters of Sion or Jewish Ladies were severely reprehended in the time of the Prophet Isaiah by God Almighty Himself 3 Isai 16 17 18 c. Namely their walking with stretch'd-forth-Necks and wanton Eyes mincing as they went and priding themselves with the bravery of their tinkling Ornaments about their Feet There was likewise particular Notice taken of their Cauls and Round Tires like the Moon of their Chains Bracelets and Mufflers their Bonnets Head-bands and Ornaments of their Legs their Tablets Ear-Rings and Nose-Jewels their Mantles Wimples and Crisping-pins together with their châ—ngeable Suits of Apparel For all which Extravagances and Excesses there were at the same time threatned and denounced very severe Judgments I pray God the Vanities of this latter Age may not give as great offence Reflection Should a plain Country-Gentleman of Wit and Parts who has by any Misfortune been confined and shut up in a close place for twenty or thirty Years last past be suddenly brought forth into some places of publick Shows and Concourse I am apt to believe that he would be extremely surprized with the sight of some strange Dresses that are in use now-a-days and possibly fall into as great fit of Laughter crying Aha! Aha! as those who are stung or bit with a Tarantula And peradventure it might be as difficult to reconcile him and oblige him to approve of their wild Fancies as it would be to compose such a specifick musical Tune as might perfectly cure and bring the others to their right Senses 11. To love our Neighbour as our selves not to slander calumniate reproach backbite or bear false Witness against him Not to lessen or detract from his Worth or Merits or delight to hear it done by others or to envy his Prosperity and Happiness Never to break out into sinful Anger unbridled Passions provoking Language or reviling Speeches much less to do him any kind of violence or give him mortal Wounds Not to rob or steal his Goods or any way to cozen or deceive him by false Wares Weights or Measures or other fraudulent practises Not to covet his House his Wife his Man-servant his Maid-servant his Ox his Ass or any thing that is his Not to let his Ox or his Ass go astray and hide our selves from them but to take particular care of and restore them Not to remove old Land-Marks or enter into the field of the Fatherless and not to oppress the Poor in the Gate or devour Widow's houses Not to judge or set at nought our Brother Nor to lay any stumbling-Block or occasion to fall in his way or to censure him for strickly observing Meats or Drinks or Days Not to draw him into any Sin or Wickedness by our Encouragements Connivance or ill Examples When we converse with others to be assable and courteous and to behave our selves with all humility and meekness condescending to Men of low Estates and esteeming others better than our selves To follow Peace with all Men as much as in us lies and to be Peace-makers our selves To let our Love be without dissimulation and hypocrisy and to be kindly affectioned one to another rejoycing with them that rejoyce and weeping with them that weep To shew kindness as we have occasion to our very Enemies and to pray for those that hate persecute and despitefully use us To shew mercy with chearfulness and alacrity and never to let our Alms be accompanied with harsh and uncomfortable words And thus to deal our Bread to the Hungry to give Drink to the Thirsty to cloath the Naked to visit the Sick to relieve the Prisoners to redeem the Captives to help the Poor the Widow and the Fatherless to comfort and assist the Desolate and Oppressed and never to shut up the bowels of our Compassion from any without distinction of Persons or Qualifications who stand in need of our asssistance To conclude all Persons whatever are bound in Conscience to behave themselves with all sincerity and uprightness in their several and respective Stations and Relations Wives are to submit themselves to their own Husbands as unto the Lord for the Husband is the Head of the Wife even as Christ is the Head of the Church and as the Church is subject unto Christ so are the Wives to be to their own Husbands in every thing 5 Ephes 22 23 24. Again Husband are to love their Wives even as Christ also loved the Church so ought Men to love their Wives as their own Bodies He that loveth his Wife loveth himself for no Man yet hateth his own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it For which cause shall a Man leave his Father and his Mother and shall be joined unto his Wife and they two shall be one Flesh 5 Ephes 25 26. c. Children are to obey their Parents in the Lord To honour their Father and Mother which is the first Commandement with promise that it may be well with them 6 Ephes 1 2 3. Parents are enjoined to bring up their Children in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord and according to their Abilities to make suitable provision for their Maintenance It is no small Trust that Parents repose in Governours and Governesses but more especially in School-Masters and Mistresses for the pious and virtuous Education of the Youth of both Sexes which Trust if it be faithfully and honestly perform'd is of unspeakable Benefit and Use in a Common-wealth and such School-Masters and Mistresses deserve to be valued and respected according to their Merits On the other side if this Trust be not rightly perform'd but neglected and abused it is of pernicious consequence of which I my self have seen some woful effects and have heard very bitter Complaints It is and has been a daily practise in some Schools by harsh and cruel Masters and by peevish hard-hearted and ill natur'd Mistresses to beat and bruise poor Childrens heads as if their double Fists were so many Mallats their Scholars heads as so many Blocks and they themselves Hemp-beaters And the truth is Beating of Hemp would be a much fitter Employment for the meaner sort of those unmerciful Wretches and it 's great pity that there are not very severe Laws made against such barbarous and inhumane Practises which so manifestly obstruct and hinder the Soul whose principal seat the head is in sending too and fro and rightly making use of the Vital and Animal Spirits for the due performance of their several and respective Operations of which the natural consequences are oftimes Deafness Imposthumes and other dangerous Disorders and Distempers And God alone knows how many persons there are and have been in this very Kingdom within the space of forty or fifty Years who promised Wonders in their
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