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
our own consciences And to violate thy holy and good Laws have offered violence to the dictates of our own minds We judge our selves O Lord and acknowledge we have justly deserved all that wrath that might make us everlastingly miserable and made our selves liable to those threatned punishments which we can neither escape nor endure but O our merciful Father do not thou condemn us we are ashamed and confounded in the sense and remembrance of our transgressions comfort us O Lord we beseech thee with a sense of thy pardoning mercy in our blessed and all-sufficient Redeemer Help us by a sincere and hearty repentance to return to thee from whom in our own crooked and perverse ways we have gone astray Let the time past of our lives suffice us to have 1 Pet. 4. 3. wrought the wills of the flesh and seeing we have already by the frequent commissions of sin too much offended thee and endangered our Souls let us not by the repeated and continued practice of it heighten the offence and add to our guiltiness Let the Blood of thy dear 1 Joh. 1. 7. Son Jesus Christ cleanse us from all sin and through his precious Sacrifice and meritorious sufferings that was pure and perfectly innocent discharge and acquit us that have been foul offenders Let thy holy Spirit sanctifie and renew us after thine own Image in righteousness and true holiness and as we hope to be pardoned by the precious death of Christ grant that crucifying our Lusts upon his Cross we may follow the example of his holy Life and in all holiness and humility meekness and charity zeal for thy Glory and submission to thy Will patience heavenly mindedness and self-denial contentment and the contempt of this World we may walk as Christ walked and be filled with all Phil. 1. 11. the fruits of righteousness which are through him unto thy praise and glory Help us to live by faith in thy promises in all varieties of thy providence let this be our great support and comfort that thou hast said thou wilt never Heb. 13. 5. leave us nor forsake us and in all difficulties and temptations let this be our great care that we do not leave nor forsake thee But sanctifie the Lord God 1 Pet. 3. 15. in our hearts and with a zealous faithfulness endeavour to please and approve our selves to thee in all our ways and seeing we call on the Father who without respect of persons judges according to every mans work let us pass the time of our sojourning here in fear 1 Pet. 1. 17. And give diligence to make our calling and election sure that 2 Pet. 1. 10 11. we may never fall either into scandalous sins or insupportable miseries but an entrance may be ministred to us abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Col. 3. 4. and when Christ who is our life shall appear we may also appear with him in glory Shew thy favour and goodness to all mankind and grant O Lord we beseech thee that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by thy governance that thy Church may joysully serve thee in all godly quietness and being delivered from the Plots and Combinations the Oppositions and Persecutions of its Enemies may alway walk before thee in truth and holiness and all that profess the Gospel of our Lord Jesus may hold fast his pure and heavenly Doctrines and express the power of them in their lives Bless this sinful and provoking Nation wherein we live pardon our many great and crying sins heal our wide breaches unite our divisions compose our distractions and remove from us whatever may provoke the Eyes of thy Jealousie and Glory and deprive us of thy long continued temporal and spiritual blessings and lay us open to thy dreadful and desolating Judgments Send thy blessed Spirit into our hearts a spirit of wisdom and knowledge and of the fear of the Lord a spirit of truth and holiness of peace and unity of righteousness moderation meekness and charity and instead of loading one another with slanders and scandals foul reproaches and bitter censures help us to bear one anothers Gal. 6. 2. burdens and so fulfil the Law of Christ Bless our Sovereign Lord King Charles with the choicest of thy blessings fill his heart with wisdom and piety with a mighty sense of the great Trust thou hast committed to him and the great obligations thou hast laid upon him with courage and resolution to support and promote Righteousness and true Religion And grant that all in places of Power and Authority may exert and use it for the punishment of evil doers and the praise of them that do well as it becomes them that have received their Power from thee and are accountable for it unto thee Order all publick Affairs to thy glory and the comfort and encouragement of all that fear thee Support and comfort all those whom thou hast fed with the Bread of Tears and mingled their drink with weeping And we humbly beseech thee for a blessing upon our selves as thou hast preserved us this night direct assist and prosper us in all the affairs and enterprizes of this day and let us all the day long be in thy fear remembring thou observest and thou wilt judge us and let a sense of this preserve us from all sin and quicken us to the doing of whatever may be pleasing in thy sight through our blessed Redeemer who when we pray hath taught and commanded us 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 Evening BLessed Lord God the high and lofty One that inhabitest Isai 57. 15. eternity whose Name is Holy who dwellest in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble Spirit We wretched and miserable sinners most humbly beseech thee to look down upon us from the habitation of thy Holiness and glory in the multitude of thy tender mercies and work in us that humble and contrite Spirit that is so pleasing and acceptable in thy sight that our hearts hardned by the deceitfulness of Sin may be softned by the effectual working of thy Grace By commanding us to call upon thee thou hast made Prayer our Duty and by promising to hear us when we Pray thou hast made it no less our priviledge in obedience to thy command and in the incouragement of thy Promise we are here before thee to offer up our Evening Sacrifice of Prayer desiring thee both to prepare our Hearts to Pray and bow down thine ear to hear We are not of our selves sufficient to perform
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
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
Bless thy whole Church and let the company of the Faithful that thou hast incorporated and knit together as one Body in thy Son by thy Grace be desended and preserved enlightned and instructed ordered and governed purged and sanctified and let the Ordinances of Christ be so administred and his Laws observed as may become the Spouse and Body of thy Son Be merciful O Lord to the sinsul Nation wherein we live and let neither our abuse of thy mercies nor our hardning our selves under thy Judgments bring upon us that ruine that they have justly deserved Lord thou hast been favourable to the Land in that thou hast often rescued us from the destruction that was due to our Sins and hast blessed us with the long continuance of thy Gospel that was no way due to our walking so unworthy of it Oh let that infinite mercy that hath hitherto spared us and interposed betwixt us and thy desolating vengeance forgive our iniquity and turn away the fierceness of thine anger Heal our back-slidings and heal our breaches take away Hos 14. 2. all our iniquity receive us graciously and love us freely to us belongeth confusion of Face Dan. 9. 8. 9. but to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses though we have rebelled against thee Continue thy mercies our peace and our plenty and above all the truth of thy Gospel and purity of Religion Cause us to fear thee and thy goodness and let thine infinite wisdom find out a way to bring us out of those woful confusions from which to be delivered is above the contrivances of our wisdom Bless with the blessings of the right and left hand of this life and a better thine Anointed Servant and our Sovereign Lord King Charles let his Reign be religious peaceable long and prosperous so rule his heart in thy faith fear and love that he may ever seek thy honour and glory And let all that are Governours under him in Church or State exercise their power for the punishment of 1 Pet. 2. 14. evil doers and the praise of them that do well Be merciful to all afflicted ones to our Friends and Relations to all that have wronged us forgive our Enemies O Lord and help us to forgive them as we expect to be forgiven both of them and thee We humbly commit our selves to thy merciful protection this night defend from all danger our persons our dwellings our possessions refresh us with a quiet and healthful sleep and with the health and strength of our Bodies and the vigour of our minds let us serve thee all our days till at the end of them we receive the end of our Faith the salvation of our Souls through thy dear Son our alone Saviour Jesus Christ in the merit of whose righteousness and intercession we further pray OVr Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done in Earth As it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily Bread And forgive us our Trespasses As we forgive them that Trespass against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from Evil For thine is the Kingdom and the Power And the Glory For ever and ever Amen Tuesday Morning GReat and glorious Lord God who art infinite and incomprehensible in all perfections art cloathed with Glory and Majesty and dwellest in that light that no mortal creature can approach and live we thine unworthy servants humbly sensible of our infinite distance as creatures and our abominable vileness as Sinners are here before thee this morning to offer up our prayers and praises in the Name and Mediation of thy Son In our selves we have no confidence to appear before thee for we are as dry stubble and thou a consuming fire but in thy beloved Son our ever blessed Redeemer and Intercessor we have access with confidence who hath opened Heb. 10 19 20. an entrance into the Holiest by his Blood and consecrated a new and living way to the Throne of thy Grace through the Veil of his Flesh that we coming to thee in his precious and prevailing Name Heb. 4. ult may obtain mercy and find grace to help in our time of need We are guilty Sinners and want pardon we are defiled Sinners and want cleansing we are weak Sinners and want strengthning we are foolish Sinners and want to be instructed in the ways of thy Word and wandring Sinners that want to be brought back into them but though our case be all necessity thy glorious attribute is Al-sufficiency and thy grace and mercy thy wisdom and power is ready to supply all our wants Phil. 4. 19. according to thy riches in glory by Christ Jesus We admire with all thankfulness thy great patience and long-suffering towards us that thou hast hitherto spared us and not speedily brought upon us that punishment and misery that our sins have righteously deserved of which we can give no account but that thou art merciful because mercy pleases thee and shewest compassion because thou delightest in compassion but such is thy goodness thou hast not only spared but bountifully supplyed us and given us all things richly to injoy that belong to life and godliness thou feedest and cloathest us preservest and defendest us hast safely brought us through the darkness and the dangers of the last night to the light of another day for these and all the blessings of this life we praise thee but we much more magnifie and adore thine inconceiveable goodness and love in giving us thy Son to redeem us from wrath and condemnation and thy holy Gospel to conduct us in the way to eternal life And we cannot without confusion of face reflect upon the shameful and disingenuous returns we have made of thine abundant and undeserved kindnesses that when thou hast nourished and brought up children we have rebelled against Isa 1. 2. thee Thy holy Laws we have broken in sinful thoughts words and actions though thou hast therein commanded us nothing but what is in it self just and reasonable and what is sutable to our dependance upon thy holy Majesty we have not carried our selves as it becomes us to thee in holiness and godliness to our neighbours in righteousness and charity to our selves in temperance and sobriety but have followed after and fulfilled the sensual appetites and inclinations of our own hearts and instead of serving thee our God have served divers lusts and pleasures We have known that our vile bodies must ere long lye down in the house of dust and rottenness and yet we have pampered them to fulfil the lusts of our flesh and that our immortal Souls must last an Eternity of Happiness or Misery and yet we have neglected laying up in store for them an Happiness in the future State Joh. 6. 27. And while we have laboured for the meat that perishes we havâ— neglected that which endureâ— unto everlasting Life We havâ— little considered the great enâ— of our
Lawgiver of thy Church and People their Protector and Saviour from all their Enemies thou art our Psal 44. 4. King O God command deliverances for Jacob. Be gracious and favourable to these Nations many and heinous are the sins whereby we have provoked thy Majesty great and heavy the Judgments that hang over us for those Sins pardon we most humbly beseech thee our Sins and avert those Judgments thou that sittest between the Cherubims shine forth before England Scotland and Ireland stir up thy Psal 80. 1 2. strength and come and save us And though we of this Nation have deserved to be overthrown with an utter destruction and for ever cast out of thy sight as a loathsome and abominable thing for thy goodness O Lord pardon and spare reform and amend compose and settle heal and establish us in the multitude of thy tender mercies Give us not up to the mischiefs and desolations that we have deserved and thine and our Enemies have designed nor suffer those that hate us proudly to insult and triumph over us Bless with all blessings of this life and the next thine anointed Servant our Sovereign Lord the King direct him in such ways as are pleasing to thee and protect him from all dangers that may at any time threaten him Let all subordinate Ministers Ecclesiastical and Civil be so assisted by thy Grace and holy Spirit that Religion and Godliness Peace and Order Love and Unity Truth and Righteousness may be established and encouraged 1 Pet. 2. 1. among us and let all sorts of men laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings keep the unity Eph. 4. 3. of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace Comfort the afflicted and distressed in Mind Body or Estate recompense the kindnesses of our Friends seven fold into their Bosoms forgive our Enemies and help us so to forgive them that we may comfortably hope for our own forgiveness Keep us O Lord from the evils and dangers that without thy protection might this night befal us refresh and strengthen our frail Bodies with a moderate quiet and peaceable rest and let the strength of this nights healthful repose be returned to thee in the next days faithful service that as every day we are nearer our death we may be nearer an immortal Crown of Life and Glory which thou hast prepared and promised to them that Love and Fear thee through Jesus Christ who by his Righteousness and Intercession hath given us the liberty and confidence to say OVr Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done in Earth As it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily Bread And forgive us our Trespasses As we forgive them that Trespass against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from Evil For thine is the Kingdom and the Power And the Glory For ever and ever Amen Wednesday Morning HOly and heavenly Father thou art infinite in Power and Wisdom in Holiness Truth and Goodness abundant in Mercy to all that call upon thee in truth all thy Works in Heaven and Earth shew forth thy praise the glorious Angels and the glorified Spirits of just Men being themselves honoured in the honouring of thee everlastingly triumph in the celebration of thy divine incomprehensible perfections to praise and magnifie thy great and holy Name is both the duty and priviledge of the Sons of Men to whom thou hast given understandings in some measure to conceive thy glorious excellencies and tongues to declare them We thy poor and unworthy Servants humbly offer up to thy divine Majesty the tribute of our hearty praises and adorations of thine infinite Power and Justice Wisdom and Holiness Truth and Faithfulness and bless thee with our whole Souls for all those blessings for our Souls and Bodies our present and future happiness which are the effects of thy bounty and goodness We thank thee O Lord for our health and strength our liberty and peace the Bread we eat and the Raiment we put on that thou hast delivered us from Pains and Sicknesses and those grievous pressures and calamities wherewith others better than our selves are sorely afflicted that thou hast the last night preserved us from dangers and refreshed us with sleep and bestowest upon us all the supports and conveniencies of Life and above all that thou hast redeemed us from Hell and Damnation by the precious Blood of thy dear Son that by his Gospel thou hast brought to light life and immortality and encouraged our hopes of them by thy precious and faithful promises Lord what is Man that thou art so mindful of him What are Sinners that thou shewest such favour unto them Thy mercies conferr'd upon us are admirable as we are thy Creatures that can no way oblige our Almighty and Independent Creator and much more so as we are Sinners that have offended and provoked our most righteous Sovereign Lord and Lawgiver Ever since we came into the World we have been overspread with a contagious Leprosie and loathsom Disease and have added the iniquities of practise to our natural pollution and more defiled our selves by chusing our own crooked ways and fulfilling the imaginations of our naughty hearts We have many times given scandal to others by our open and observed miscarriages and cast a blemish and reproach upon that holy Religion whereof we have made profession so as to have made it worse thought on by its Enemies and with great folly we have sometimes adventur'd to commit those Sins in our private retirements which we would have been ashamed that men should have taken notice of though we have well known that the Psal 139. 12 light and darkness are both alike to thee and that no secresie can hide from thine all-seeing Eye We have been too careless of avoiding temptations to Sin and have run into those snares that by taking heed to our feet we might have avoided we have neglected the means of mortifying our Lusts watchfulness Prayer and Fasting which through thy blessing might have been effectual to that blessed purpose and instead of strongly and resolutely opposing we have cowardly and treacherously complied with furnished and animated thine and our Enemies making provision for Rom. 13. 14. our Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof and though we have been well assured that our lives and all our present earthly injoyments that support and sweeten them are but of a short and momentany continuance we have laboured been sollicitous Joh. 6. 27. for the meat that perishes and neglected that which endures to everlasting Life How often have we deafned our Ear to the calls of thy Gospel And made light of both the invitations of thy gracious promises and the terrors of thy dreadful threatnings How often have we hardned our hearts against the motions of thy holy Spirit How often to satisfie our lustful appetites have we broken through the convictions of
fight or recover our selves from our falls let thy grace and holy spirit strengthen Eph. 3. 16. us with might in our inward man and make us more than Rom. 8. 37. conquerors through him that hath loved us Cause us in the first place to Mat. 6. 33. seek thy Kingdom and righteousness and as those that are Col. 3. 1. risen with Christ to seek the things that are above not looking at the things that are seen 2 Cor. 4. 18. for they are temporal but at the things which are not seen for they are eternal Let our Mat. 6. 20. treasure be laid up in Heaven where Moth and Rust corrupt not and where Thieves break not through nor Steal and let our hearts be where our treasure is Guide us continually in all the ways of wisdom and righteousness and defend us against all temptations that might withdraw us from them help us to go on our way rejoycing and working righteousness and perform our several duties to thee and all men with such cheerfulness and constancy as not to be weary of well-doing but by a religious abstinence and moderate use of bodily refreshments let our flesh be so subdued to the Spirit that we may ever obey thy godly motions and in a course of righteousness and true holiness run to the end of the race which thou hast set before us and be made partakers of that glorious prize which thou hast promised to all them that by a patient continuance in well-doing seek for Rom. 2. 7. glory and honour and immortality And let the prospect and blessed hope of thy heavenly Kingdom make us upright and faithful active and diligent contented and cheerful in every condition of life humble and patient stedfast and resolved self-denying and heavenly minded till thou bringest us to the possession of those inconceiveable joys and makest us to drink of the Rivers of Pleasure that are at thy right hand for evermore Do good with us we pray thee to the whole world and let all that bear the image of thy power and wisdom be made partakers of thy favour and kindness let the Nations that know thee not be delivered from the power of darkness Col. 1. 13. and translated into the Kingdom of thy dear Son Be gracious in an especial manner to all whom thou hast called to the knowledge and obedience of his Gospel forgive gracious Father and showr down thy blessings upon the inhabitants of this sinful Land let us prepare to meet thee by an hearty and universal repentance and so prevent those judgments that seem to be arrayed and marching forward to our destruction Give Salvation to our King Psai 144. 10 and preserve thy Servant from hidden Treacheries and the hurtful Sword direct all publick Counsels to thine honour the promoting of true Religion the establishment of Righteousness and Peace and the comfort of all them that heartily love and fear thee and let all that love thy Salvation say Psal 40. 16. continually the Lord be magnified Comfort all that in any kind suffer adversity let thy holy Spirit refresh them as with new Wine whom thou hast given Tears to drink in great measure and let that good providence that hath been our protection and repose this night defend us from all the dangers and temptations direct and prosper us in all the designs and enterprises of this day and by a faithful discharge of our duty bring us nearer to the glorious reward of Eternal Life which thou hast promised in Christ Jesus our Lord in whose Name and Words we further commend our selves and others to thy grace and mercy saying OVr Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done in Earth As it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily Bread And forgive us our Trespasses As we forgive them that Trespass against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from Evil For thine is the Kingdom and the Power And the Glory For ever and ever Amen Friday Evening MOst blessed Lord God the Father of Mercies our hope and present help our strength and our Salvation the over-flowing and inexhaustible Fountain of all Good we thy poor Servants in an humble and thankful sense of thy great goodness and emboldned by the invitation of thy gracious promises present our selves before the Throne of thy Grace to offer up our supplications and thanksgivings through the Mediation of thy dear Son in whom thou hast given us access Eph. 3. 12. with confidence through the Faith of him We are most unworthy in our selves to receive blessings or offer praises but worthy art thou O Lord to receive honour and glory and blessing and thanksgiving as for thy divine perfections which we cannot comprehend so for thine abundant kindnesses towards us which we can neither deserve nor number Thou didst frame and fashion us in the Womb by thy wisdom and power and hast maintained and provided for us by thy goodness and bounty ever since thou hast brought us into life and being giving us richly all things to injoy not only the necessaries but conveniencies of Life whereby it hath been made easie and pleasant to us But above all from the bottom of our hearts we praise a dore and magnifie thy transcendent wisdom superlative love in that inestimable benefit of our Redemption by the bitter sufferings and bloody Death of thy dear Son that when we had lost and undone our selves were lyable to wrath and eternal misery when we lay weltring in our own blood and there was no Eye to pity no Hand to relieve us thou redeemedst us in such a way as no creature had wisdom to contrive worthiness to undertake or power to effect We praise thee O Lord that thou hast in thy Gospel manifested this great and admirable Salvation made thy goodness to pass before us and fully and plainly instructed us in our duty that in performing the one we might be made partakers of the other that thou hast afforded us the means of Grace thy Word and Sacraments opportunities of thy publick Worship the motions and assistances of thy holy Spirit that thou hast quickned our obedience by the hopes of a glorious recompence Give us we pray thee a due sense of all thy mercies and withdraw not thy loving kindness from us if our worthiness had been to procure these mercies they had never been put into our hands and if any thing but thy goodness were to continue them we could never hold them our own wickedness might correct us and our Jer. 2. 19. back-slidings reprove us for we have sinned and done very foolishly We have perverted and polluted our ways and professing Tit. 1. 16. to know thee have in our works denyed thee we have called thee our Father but have not loved and honoured thee as Children our Master but have not feared and obeyed thee as Servants our Friend and Benefactor but have
expressed our enmity against thee in wicked works we have 2 Tim. 2. 19. named the Name of Christ but not departed from Iniquity vowed allegiance to thee in our Baptism but have broken thy Bonds asunder and cast away thy Cords from us and as if the temptations of the World and the Devil would not have enough prevailed to defile and destroy us we have tempted our selves and been drawn away of our own lust and enticed Jam. 1. 14. We have not had that sense of thy Love as to love thee with all our hearts that sense of thy Mercies as with those Cords of kindness to be drawn to thy Service that sense of thy displeasure as to fear offending thee that sense of Sins filthiness and deformity as to hate and flee from it with our whole Souls nor have we had that belief of Heavens Glory and Happiness as by a fruitfulness in good works to press toward it with all our might that active and vigorous diligence that should have been used to promote the spiritual good of our Souls and secure their immortal interest we have with great folly misimployed in pursuing the pleasures and profits of this World and in assuring those fickle and slippery vanities that are not capable of a long or certain continuance O Lord have mercy upon us miserable offenders and help us so to repent of all the Sins we have committed as never more to commit the Sins of which we have repented and work in us a true and a lively faith in thy dear Son our blessed Redeemer who is both God and Man that God and Man may be reconciled and through the blood of his Cross grant us repentance and remission of Sins and by that precious Blood sprinkled upon our Consciences Heb. 9. 14. purge them from dead Works to serve thee the living God Wash our hearts from wickedness Jer. 4. 14. that we may be saved and let not vain thoughts lodg within us help us so to govern our Tongue that unruly Member that no corrupt communication may at any time proceed out of our Mouth but that Eph. 4. 29. which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace unto the hearers and let all our actions be directed by thy Word and designed to thy Glory That delight and satisfaction that we might vainly and to no purpose seek in sensual pleasures and the impure gratifications of the Flesh let us seek and find in the ways of holiness and a dutiful compliance with thy Will that in loving and keeping Psal 119. 165. thy Law we may have great peace and nothing may offend us and in the midst of all the troubles and confusions of the World we may rejoyce in our reconciliation with thee and in the harmony and peaceful reports of our own consciences Bless us in our Callings and Imployments that we may neither Pro. 30. 8. 9. abound in Riches lest we be full and deny thee nor be pinched with extream want lest we be tempted to the evils that attend an impoverished State but in thy wise and good providence carve out to us such a convenient share of worldly good things health and strength riches and reputation that we may faithfully serve thee and be cheerfully helpful to our brethren Let thy love and holy fear so intermix with and sweeten all our earthly injoyments that we may eat our Eccl. 9. 7. Bread with joy and drink our Wine with a merry heart because thou acceptest our works In every condition of Life be thou our Guide and our Support help us to love and rejoyce in thee above our highest and best comforts and under our crosses with patience and cheerfulness to resign up our selves to thy wise and righteous providence and with a stedfast faith to rely upon thy gracious and faithful promises Let our conversation be without Heb. 13. 5. covetousness and make us content with such things as we have because thou hast said thou wilt never leave us nor forsake us by all the changes we meet with in this World prepare us O Lord for our last and great change when we shall leave it that death our last Enemy may be to us neither dangerous nor dreadful but a sweet and desireable passage to a blessed and glorious immortality And in these our Prayers we commend allied by a common Brotherhood all Mankind to thy Grace and Favour heal the Sick ease the pained relieve the Oppressed supply the Impoverished feed the Hungry cloath the Naked comfort the Disconsolate cause them that are disquieted in Conscience to Rejoyce spread forth the knowledge of thy Son into all the dark corners of the World that Isai 49. 6. he may be thy Light and thy Salvation unto the end of the Earth Let thy continual pity cleanse and defend thy Church and because it cannot continue in safety without thy succour preserve it evermore by thy help and goodness O be gracious and favourable to the Land of our Nativity forgive all our crying Sins avert thy threatned and approaching Judgments cleanse our defilements heal our divisions stablish us in truth righteousness and peace perpetuate thy Gospel and Ordinances the pledges of thy love and kindness and grant that we may alway walk worthy of those inestimable benefits Bless preserve direct and prosper our Sovereign Lord the King in all his thoughts words and works let him ever seek thy honour and glory and study to preserve thy People committed to his charge in wealth peace and godliness Let the Bishops and Pastors of thy Church by their heavenly Doctrine and exemplary Lives their diligent labours vigilant care and prudent carriage adorn the Gospel silence gainsayers and win many to righteousness and let Magistrates by an equal and indifferent administration of Justice uphold Religion and Virtue and suppress Vice and Ungodliness and grant that all under Authority may follow after Peace and Holiness obeying those that are over them for conscience sake loving and forbearing one another leading quiet and peaceable Lives in all godliness and honesty Follow us with thy mercy and loving kindness this night and let thy good providence that neither slumbers nor sleeps defend and protect us that no danger or disturbance in the intermission of our own thoughts care and reason harm or annoy us And so repair our decaying spirits by a quiet and peaceful rest that we may serve thee with healthful bodies and cheerful minds the next day and all our days till thou bringest us to that blessed state where eating and drinking and sleeping shall be no more but we shall be eternally happy in praising and injoying thee through thy dear Son our ever blessed Redeemer through whose Merits alone we hope to be heard and in whose words we further pray OVr Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done in Earth As it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily Bread And
forgive us our Trespasses As we forgive them that Trespass against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from Evil For thine is the Kingdom and the Power And the Glory For ever and ever Amen Saturday Morning O Eternal Lord God the great Creator and Preserver of Heaven and of Earth and our most merciful Father in Christ Jesus Look down we beseech thee from Heaven upon us vile Dust and Ashes and grant that when we call upon thee with our Lips our Hearts may not be far from thee We do humbly acknowledge the great sinfulness and corruption of our Natures the blindness of our Minds the perversness of our Wills the disorder and depravedness of our affections and the vanity of our thoughts We acknowledge that we are by nature the Children of Wrath and that there is no sound or clean part in us We do farther confess that we have by many actual sins made our selves more the Children of Wrath than we were by Nature We confess our sins of omission as well as commission our sins against Thee our Brother and our own Souls We have many ways offended thee in thought word and deed And if thou shouldst mark Iniquities we were not able to stand before thee We have sinned against light and knowledge after the greatest of thy Mercies under sufficient means of Grace after many and solemn Vows of better obedience We have not been awakened out of our sinful and careless Life by the greatest of thy Judgments but have sinned after the convictions of our own Consciences and the experience of the evil of departing from thee after many confessions and many repetitions We have grieved thy Spirit defaced thy Image mispent our precious time trifled in the great concernments of Eternity and in great measure received the grace of thee our God in vain We humble our selves before thee O God and desire to be vile in our own Eyes as we have made our selves so in thine Enter not into Judgment with thy Servants O Lord for no Flesh shall be justified in thy sight Have mercy upon us O Lord have mercy upon us for Jesus Christ's sake who is the Propitiation for our Sins and ever lives to make intercession for those who come unto God by him Grant that he may not be an empty Name and Title to us but that he may bless us in turning us from our Iniquities and may give us Repentance as well as forgiveness of Sins And we most humbly beseech thee to give us thy holy Spirit purisie and cleanse our Hearts and help us that we may fear love and desire thee above all things Make us like unto thee and help us that we may chearfully do and suffer thy whole Will Supply all our wants sanctifie all thy dealings to us direct us in our difficulties and enable us against our Sins Deliver us O Lord from every evil thing from hardness of Heart and contempt of thy Word keep us from being tempted above what we are able and enable us by thy Grace against the assaults of the Devil the Temptations of the World and the Flesh and make us at the last partakers of Everlasting Life Be merciful we pray thee to the whole World enlarge the Kingdom of Christ and let the whole World be filled with the knowledge of thee and of thy Son as the Waters cover the Sea Bless thy whole Church reform whatever is amiss in the belief or lives of Christians Grant that all who name the Name of Christ may depart from all Iniquity Be gracious to these Kingdoms Pardon our Sins pity our Distractions heal our Breaches unite us to one another reconcile us all to thy Divine Majesty and defend us against our Enemies Especially we pray thee to bless the King endue his Heart with all the Graces of thy holy Spirit defend Him against all His Enemies bless Him in His Royal Relations and teach His Senators wisdom Bless all the Governours and Instructors of thy Church and grant they may all in their several places answer the end of their Institution and Appointment Pity all that are afflicted Comfort them that mourn visit the Sick and Weak have compassion on them who lye a dying and take them not out of this Life before they are fitted for a better Life than this Bless all our Friends with all the Blessings of this and of a better Life Forgive our Enemies convert and turn their hearts We bless thee for all thy Mercies to us both of this and a better Life above all we bless thee for Jesus Christ humbly beseeching thee so to affect our hearts with the sense of thy Mercies that thy goodness may lead us to Repentance And all we beg for Christ his sake who hath taught us when we pray to say OVr Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done in Earth As it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily Bread And forgive us our Trespasses As we forgive them that Trespass against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from Evil For thine is the Kingdom and the Power And the Glory For ever and ever Amen Saturday Evening MOst gracious and ever blessed Lord God and our most merciful Father in Christ Jesus we that are less than the least of thy mercies desire in all humility to come into thy presence and beseech thee for Christ's sake to have a regard unto us We do acknowledge before thee our lost and undone condition without thy great mercy towards us we have grievously offended thee in thought word and deed been unthankful for thy Mercies incorrigible under thy Judgments and very unprofitable under the means of Grace We humble our selves before thee for the Sins of our whole Life and particularly for the Sins of this day with all the circumstances of aggravation with which they have been attended Pardon us O Lord we humbly pray thee for the sake of Jesus Christ who came into the World to seek and to save that which was lost Give us a true faith in him and work in us a sincere and hearty repentance never to be repented of And we pray thee assist us by thy Grace that we may for the time to come walk before thee in newness of Life Enlighten our Minds rectifie our Wills sanctifie our Affections and purifie all the thoughts intentions of our Hearts Make us fit Temples for thy holy Spirit to dwell in and grant that he who is in us may be greater than he who is in the World Be with us under all our Tryals and Temptations and prepare us for all events of things Sanctifie all thy dispensations to us and give us Wisdom and a saving Knowledge of thee and of thy Son Make us humble and lowly heavenly minded and pure in heart patient under every trouble contented in every condition and resigned to thy holy and heavenly Will And because the way of Man is not in himself we humbly pray thee to direct and guide us in the way that we should go Take care of our Affairs prosper all our Undertakings which are agreeable to thy heavenly Will help us that we may live Righteously So berly and Godly in this present World Cast out of our mind every thing that is displeasing to thee discharge our Hearts of all Pride Ambition Covetousness Malice Vain Conceit of our Selves And grant that we may not be overcome by the Temptations of the Devil the World and the Flesh And that we may not go out of this World with false hopes and expectations about us Prepare us we pray thee for our latter end When our Heart and Flesh shall fail us be thou the strength of our Heart and our Portion for ever And suffer us not at our last hour for any Pains or Agonies of Death to fall away from thee make us willing and ready to leave this World whensoever it shall please thee to call us hence Be merciful to the whole race of Mankind Advance the Kingdom of Christ in the World Let the People praise thee O God let all the People praise thee Especially be merciful to thy whole Church Bless these Kingdoms and settle us upon the Foundations of Righteousness of Truth and Peace Bless with the choicest of thy Blessings our Sovereign Lord the King Protect His Royal Person bless His Government let His days be many and His Reign prosperous And bless His Royal Relations and succeed His Counsellors and all in Authority under Him and grant that under Him we may live quiet and peaceable Lives in all godliness and honesty Bless all that minister in holy things and grant they may gain many unto Righteousness Have compassion upon the Afflicted upon the Oppressed and the Poor upon Widows and Fatherless upon all that are persecuted for Righteousness sake upon the Sick and the Weak upon all that are troubled in mind and at the point of Death Be merciful to them all according to their several necessities We beseech thee to be merciful to our Friends and to forgive all our Enemies We bless thy holy Name for all thy mercies to us and to all the World for thy preservation of us this day for the means of Grace and the hope of Glory We bless thee above all for Jesus Christ we praise thee for the clear revelation of thy Will the Promise of thy Spirit the time and space of Repentance which thou art pleased to continue to us for any measure of Health and Strength the many Mercies which we injoy and which others want and which we have been unthankful for Write a Law of thankfulness upon our Hearts we humbly pray thee and grant that we may be bettered by all thy Mercies Take us we pray thee into thy protection this night sanctifie and prepare our Hearts for all the solemn Duties and Services of the next Day and grant all our Requests for Christ's sake in whose words we further call upon thee OVr Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done in Earth As it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily Bread And forgive us our Trespasses As we forgive them that Trespass against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from Evil For thine is the Kingdom and the Power And the Glory For ever and ever Amen FINIS