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A36367
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Family devotions for Sunday evenings, throughout the year being practical discourses, with suitable prayers / by Theophilus Dorrington.
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Dorrington, Theophilus, d. 1715.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing D1938; ESTC R19123
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173,150
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313
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but serviceable with them In Heb. 13. 15. We are exhorted to offer the Sacrifice of Praise to God continually that is the fruit of our Lips giving thanks to his Name But the Apostle immediately adds To do good and communicate forget not for with such Sacrifice God is well-pleased He intimates the former is required and due but we must not satisfy our selves with that alone but he requires also another Sacrifice even that of good Works and offices of Charity All the good that we have power and opportunity to do for our Neighbour relating to his Soul or his Body his Reputation or Estate we must be ready charitably to perform and this is to be always done in the best way to serve his Interest we must not only regard our own Advantage Thus should all the several Callings Offices and Dignities of Men be managed And thus may all Men express their Thankfulness to God for his benefits in the Business of their worldly Callings thus they may consecrate these and make them religious Thus I have also finisht the Second thing propos'd Now to conclude that we may the better excite our selves to these things Let us further consider at our leisure The greatness of God to whom we are beholden together with our own meanness He that gives us all we have is a Being infinite and perfect he is eternally happy in the enjoyment of himself has no need of any of his Creatures nor can have any advantage from them Yet has he taken care of us continually he watches over us every moment to defend us from mischief to supply our wants to protect our enjoyments and to support our frail Lives Justly may we say with the Psalmist Lord what is Man that thou art mindful of him or the Son of Man that thou visitest him Let us assure our selves too that the best way to preserve the Benefits we enjoy is to use them rightly and to be duly thankful for them Let us reckon also that this must needs be necessary to the acceptance and success of our Prayers for such things as we want to use well and be thankful for what we have already obtained Lastly Let us consider that a thankful frame of Mind such as is sensible of God's Mercies that which sees its own advantages and thinks upon the good things which it enjoys That uses them as God requires with Wisdom and Reason and a good Conscience such a one keeps the Soul always easy and calm always chearful and contented such a Person fully enjoys what he has and tastes the sweetness of it Whereas he who murmurs and complains who is never satisfied nor contented is always unhappy He who pores only upon his wants and what he desires who is impatient under every affliction and cross and abuses himself and his enjoyments in guilty excesses such a man can never feel any rest or quiet in his Mind he is always troubled and uneasy He imbitters his Pallate so that he cannot rightly relish any good thing he has is a burden to himself and indeed does severely punish upon himself his own Iniquity and Ingratitude Lt us then in every thing give thanks and say To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory Thanks and Praise for ever and ever Amen THE PRAYER ALmighty and most Gracious God thou art good and doest good thou art abundant in Goodness We thine unworthy Servants do give thee most humble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and loving kindness which thou hast graciously shewn to us and to all Men. We bless thee for our Creation O Lord for that thou hast made us little lower than the Angels and crowned us with honour and dignity and for that thou hast plentifully furnisht this World with good things for our Use We own O Lord with all thankfulness that thou hast hitherto preserved us thou hast taken care of us ever since we came from our Mothers Womb. Thou hast defended us from innumerable Evils which always compass us about Thou hast given us all that we have enjoy'd of the good things of this World for they are thine and thou dost dispose of them as seemeth good to thee and by thy Blessing upon thy Gifts have they been sufficient to support and comfort our mortal Life But above all we bless we praise thee we magnify thee for thy inestimable Love in the Redemption of the World by our Lord Jesus Christ and for the hopes that we have of obtaining everlasting glory and happiness by the vertue of his Merits and by the guidance of thy good Spirit O Lord give us we beseech thee a due and deep sense of all thy Mercies make our Hearts unfeignedly thankful make us ready to acknowledge that we are less than the least of thy Mercies that in all thou givest thou owest us nothing Make us humbly sensible and ashamed of all our transgressions against thee of our base and ungrateful returns to thy Mercies That instead of winning us to love and serve thee they have encouraged us to transgress and have been used in rebellion against thee O Lord of thy infinite Mercy pardon all our past unthankfulness And let thy Grace make us set our selves for the future to shew forth thy praise not only with our Lips but in our Lives by giving up our selves to thy Service and by walking before thee in Holiness and Righteousness all our Days O Lord make us to go in the Path of thy Commandments And from thy mercy and goodness let us learn to shew mercy and to do good according to our power and opportunity communicating to the Necessities of others which is a Sacrifice well-pleasing unto thee And do thou O Lord continue the exercises of thy goodness to us till thou hast made us perfectly and compleatly happy in the enjoyment of thy self We humbly implore thy Mercy and Favour for all Mankind Oh that thy way may be made known upon Earth and thy saving Health among all Nations that the People may praise thee O God yea that all the People may praise thee Bless we pray thee thy Church and defend it from all Spiritual and Temporal Enemies Remove out of it all false Doctrin Heresy and Schism Envy Hatred Malice and all Uncharitableness hardness of Heart and contempt of thy Word and Commandments We intreat thee graciously to watch over that Part of it which thou hast planted amongst us defend it from secret Attempts and Plots and from open Violence from all the Enemies of thy true Religion establisht among us and make it we pray thee a glorious Church in the eminent Gifts and Vertues of the Members of it Bless our King and Queen and all that are put in Authority under them with great Wisdom and Understanding with a Zeal for thy Glory and the Subject's Well-fare Teach those that are Subjects each in their several Places to do their own Business and to study submission and quietness We humbly recommend to
that thou hast been pleased to make us capable to know and meditate on thy Self to chuse and love thee to desire and enjoy thee who art an Infinite Eternal Good and in whose presence is fulness of Joy Oh how ready should our Hearts be at all times to say Whom have we in Heaven but thee and there is none on Earth that we can desire besides thee But alas we are degenerated we are fallen from our Original Excellency we are sunk into Sensuality we need to be put in mind and told wherein our true Happiness lies and to be excited urged and exhorted to pursue it We hover here below and seldom have any thoughts or desires moving upwards the objects of Sense detain us with them and we feed on Husks among Beasts we stay and abide upon the lowest and the smallest part of our Happiness Lord we are miserable we are undone and shall perish for ever if thy pity do not rescue us from the Love of these low Things Oh Pardon our guilty and heal our distempered Souls Discover thy self to us and make us love thee shed abroad thy Love abundantly in our Hearts Make us to rise by the Creature to the Creator Guide us by the streams to thee the Fountain of their Goodness and make us as we ought to love thee above all things Let us be governed by thy Love in the whole course of our lives and readily deny our selves to please thee and keep thy Commandments Let us firmly believe the glorious Things which thou hast prepared for them that love thee and draw our Hearts after them to endeavour that our Treasure may be in Heaven in Immutable things And direct us we pray thee so to pass through things Temporal as that we finally lose not the things Eternal Have mercy O Lord upon all Mankind Let the Earth be filled with Knowledge of the Lord as waters cover the Sea and all Men be directed and led in the way to true Happiness Give to all Nations Unity Peace and Concord Pour down an abundant measure of thy Spirit upon thy Church that the Gospel may run and be glorified from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same Let them prosper that love it and let not the Gates of Hell ever prevail against it We pray especially for that part of it which thou hast graciously placed in these Nations and hitherto wonderfully detended Lord make it a very fruitful Vineyard and purge out of it all that is contrary to true Doctrin and Godliness Bless we pray thee our Gracious King and Queen and the Royal Family with all Spiritual and Eternal Blessings and give them long and happy Possession of the Throne of these Kingdoms to thy Glory and our Comfort Bless all in Authority under them help them truly and indifferently to administer Justice to the punishment of Wickedness and Vice and to the maintainance of thy true Religion and Vertue Give grace O Heavenly Father to all Bishops and Curates that they may both by their Life and Doctrin honour thee and guide thy People committed to them in the way of Blessedness Let all the Subjects of this Realm be subject to thee in Loyalty and Subjection and due Obedience to those that are over them in Church and State and let Piety Love Righteousness and Peace and Truth abound among us We commend to thy Fatherly goodness all that are in any Distress and Affliction all our Friends and Relations we pray for our Enemies do for all beyond what we are able to ask or think We humbly ask a comfortable and safe rest this Night and that it may please thee to make the out-goings of the Morning to rejoice Let thy word which we have heard this Day guide our Conversations and let us bring forth in them the Fruits of the Spirit let not the Cares of this World or the Deceitfulness of Riches choke the Word and render it unfruitful but grant we may live to the Glory of thy Name and to the Peace and Salvation of our own Souls by Jesus Christ in whose most comprehensive words we sum up our Requests 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 the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen THE Necessity of Obedience TO THE COMMANDS of GOD Proved and Stated Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Mat. 7. 21. Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven HOW common a thing is it among those that have heard the glad Tidings of the Gospel for Men to take up a presumptuous reliance upon the Merits of Jesus Christ with neglect of Obedience to the Commands of God! Some of the most profligate and careless Sinners will hope to be saved And if one ask them how They will say by the Merits of Jesus Christ Many indulge themselves in their darling Sins and yet hope to be saved by the Merits of Christ And most certain it is that the Doctrins of some Teachers give occasion to this presumption They occasion Men to think there is nothing necessary to their Salvation but strong Believing and so to endeavour nothing but that and to rely upon the Righteousness of Christ so as to neglect all Endeavour after any Righteousness of their own And this Error and Delusion where it obtains does often prove able to harden a Man against the most earnest Exhortations to leave his Sins yea and even against the most plain Rebukes of Providence for them and to frustrate all other Means of Grace and Conversion whatever It is therefore of great Importance to remove it out of the way and this I shall endeavour by discoursing on these words of our Saviour which if they had been well considered together with many other plain Scriptures it had prevented the entertainment of such Imaginations in the Minds of Men. He had been in a long Discourse enforcing many of the Commands of the Moral Law And now towards the close of this Discourse he begins in this Verse to tell them of what importance and necessity it was to them to practise what he had taught He plainly teaches that no belief in him would avail them any thing if they did not together with it keep the Commands of God Not every one says he that saith to me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven