and wretched creature made so by my great rebellions against thee and departures from thee having all the daies of my life multiplied my transgressions before thee I humbly confess I have too much inclined my will to the bent of my sinful nature and corrupt desires too often satisfying my sensual appetite in forbidden enoyments And when the inward voice of thy Spirit hath checkt me and thy grace impowered me to contend with my unlawful desires I have suffered my carnal part to prevail against thy Grace and my duto to Christ here call thy self to particular observations of thy actions So that Lord thou mightest in justice have left me upon the account of a carnall estate which is death and enmitie against thee and cannot please thee But O Lord be merciful unto me and pittie my soul for thy blessed Iesus sake And let that degree of spiritualitie that is in me though very weak and imperfect upon my present sorrow and promise of future amendmen be reckoned for a state of Grace Son-ship and peace with thee for my blessed Saviours sake Amen II. Lord I am miserable and wretched for I have too much embraced this present world the love of which is inconsistent with all love to and from thee I have ingaged too many thoughts and cares and too strong designes for temporall things I have had too great a fondness for the honours pleasures profits and friends of this world here bewaile thy miscarriages herein So that in justice thou mayest cast me off as having too much of the world in me for Christs Kingdome But Lord be merciful unto me and accept of my weak and imperfect attempts to despise the world and to lay it aside and my present sorrowes for my present miscarriages that I may through thy mercies in Christ be accounted one though of the least and lowest of Christs Kingdom of Grace here and may have my portion of his Kingdome of Glory hereafter Amen III. Lord I am miserable and wretched for I have in some part of my life contracted and lived in many habits of sin as of c. here account before God the remembrance of them whereby I have been sold under sin and in a state of death and enmity to thee subject to every lust and prostitute to every temptation But Lord be merciful unto me and through thy infinite mercy let me stand in the account of a New man and under a free pardon of such sinful habits as if they had never been and that I may now appear washed sanctified and justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of my God Amen IV. Lord I am miserable and wretched for besides my sad state of habitual wickednesse I have multiplied an innumerable number of actuall transgressions which surpasse the number of the starres and are an heavy burthen too heavie for me to bear If I measure my sins by my time here mention the years of thy pilgrimage Lord I confesse that in every day that I have lived I have heaped sin upon sin iniquity upon iniquity If by thy laws Lord I acknowledg there is no one precept of Christ that I have not transgressed having sinned against all the Commandments that concern my living godly to God justly to men and soberly to my self here account by the rules of life in the preceding larger Catechisme If I measure my sins by the exercises of all the faculties and parts of my soul and body I confesse O Lord that all of them in their several offices have been made instruments of unrighteousnesse here account the miscarriage of every faculty sense and member For all which O Lord I have deserved thou shouldest blot me out of the book of life and deliver me up to a state of death and reprobation But Lord be merciful unto me and accept of my hearty sorrow for these my sins my purpose against them and sincere endeavour to forsake them that I may be accounted capable of the grace of the Gospel and pardon in Christ Amen V. Lord I am miserable and wretched for thou hast required an uncessant course of service to thy self both publick and private in constant prayer praises and worship and a pure intention to glorifie thy Name in all of them But I have either altogether omitted them or have bin very slight and imperfect in the perrformance of them or have corrupted them with the mixture of many mean ends and designes acconnt thy failings herein Lord thou hast obliged me to abound in righteousness and every good work and to do good to all men to my highest capacity But I have neglected the opportunities and have often changed them into pleasures and worldly satisfactions confesse thy particular omissions Lord thou hast required of me diligence in my calling and a just peaceable and charitable conversation with all men But I have not been so watchful as I should have been in the use of my time nor so careful in my words and actions of doing to all men as I would they should do to me here charge thy soul with thy failings herein And now O Lord my God if none shall enter into thy Kingdom but those that keep thy Commandements where shall I appear that am justly chargeable with all these omissions But O Lord be merciful unto me and for Jesus sake pardon to my soul these great neglects of my duty to thee and graciously accept of my former weak and imperfect endeavours to perform them my present sorrow and future amendment to the comfort and peace of my soul Amen VI For O Lord my God I have no hope but in thy mercy and in my blessed Jesus in whom thou hast promised pardon to all sincere penitents and entered Covenant with us to be merciful to our unrighteousnesse and our sins to remember our iniquities no more O Lord make good this thy gracious promise to my sinful soul for my dear Jesus sake forgive unto me all these sins of which I have pleaded guilty before thee and all other my secret and unremembred transgressions And O merciful Father furnish my soul with thy divine Spirit which may according to thy promise write thy holy lawes in my mind and in my heart Strengthen me in the inner Man that I may crucifie all my lusts and overcome all the deceits and temptations of the world and the devill Lord turn the stream of my affections to things above and make mee diligently pursue them Give me grace to hate and forsake every sin as death and hell that in the whole course of my remaining life I may deny ungodlinesse and all worldly lusts and live soberly righteously and godly in this present world through Jesus Christ my onely Saviour and Redeemer Amen Lord have mercy upon me Christ have mercy upon me Lord have mercy upon me Our Father which art in heaven c. A Form for the Services of God in a FAMILY Morning PRAYER Our Father which art c.
Thanksgiving O merciful Father after all thy mecies to me in the whole course of my life my soul hath this day further seen and tasted how good the Lord is in many significations of mercie and loving kindness to me I bless thee O Lord for the great work of mercie in Iesus Christ For that I have a time to repent me of those sins for which I might even now have been suffering in an eternal punishment I praise thee that I am not roating in a torment languishing in a disease pining in a prison nor a poor vagrant nor a disconsolate captive But on the contrary O my Lord thou hast given me a residence a protâ—ction a plenty a sound mind an healthful body and liberty But most especially that thou hast offered me sweet testimonies of thy present grace and a blessed hope of future glory Now O my Lord for every of these and for all other the blessed evidences of thy love and goodness to me I do from my soul acknowledg thy mercie and bless praise and magnity thy great and glorious Name for ever and ever And O Lord keep me this night under the same protection and let the mercy of my God so preserve me that neither sin nor danger may make me miserable through the might of Iesus Christ my ever blessed Saviour Amen Vse the same intercession that is set for the Morning Service THE Largest Forme FOR Private Exercise Morning PRAYER When thou addressest thy self to thy morning service first frame thy mind to meditate of the glorious excellencies and presence of God and worship him in this or the like manner Our Father which art c. O Most glorious and incomprehensible Lord God of heaven and earth whose immense essence and infinite perfections no tongue can express nor heart conceive Before whose Dreadful Majesty the holy Angels vaile their faces and the glorified Spirits cast their crowns Thou O Lord art only worthy to receive Glory Honour and Power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created Therefore being sensible of my miserable nothing poverty and dependency and admiring thy absolute and infinite excellencies do throw my self my soul and body at the foot of thy Majesty and do adore and worship thy divine presence acknowledging that blessing honour and power is due unto thee for ever and ever Amen A Confession O Lord my God who art a God of purity and holiness and hatest the wayes of iniquity Though thou hast sentenced sin to a wages of death and an eternal punishment and hast declared a dislike of all wicked persons and their performances yet O Lord wretch that I am I have not ceased to do evill in thy sight and to depart from all thy holy wayes For I have yeelded my self too much to satisfy the vanity of my corrupt mind and my unholy lusts not considering their inconsistencie with the Kingdom of Christ I have inclined my affections desires and designes too much to present enjoyments and suffered my heart to be betrayed by them to a forgetfulness or thee and departure from thee O Lord I have either altogether omitted the duties of thy service and worship or performed them too loosely and subordinately or with too much hypocrisie or confidence in them I confesse I have every way lived unanswerably to the infinite mercies and strict commandments of the Gospel too much neglecting the great salvation and the excellencies of the peace of Christ O Lord my God when I consider the iniquities I have committed in my mind with evill thoughts in my tongue in sinfull words and how much all parts and faculties have concurred as instruments of sin how I have offended against the motions of thy Spirit and my own purposes against all thy lawes and all thy providences in all my actions and employments and in every part of my life my sins become an heavy burthen too heavy for me to bear Here open thy soul to God in particulars so that for them and all other my sins I have justly deserved thy wrath and indignation to afflict me in this life with signal punishments and in the life to come with eternall torments Petition for Pardon But O Lord my God give me a true and sincere repentance such as thou shalt please to accept in Christ O teach mine eyes to weep my heart to break my soul to mourn for all my sins O let my understanding alwayes perceive and be convinced of their filthinesse and deadliness even as when thou beholdest sinnes to punish them or as when thou requiredst the blood of my Saviour to satisfie thy justice for them Lord help me to purpose against them and truly to depart from them as if the shame and unprofitablenesse the curse and the hell of them were alwayes before me And O Lord I beseech thee for thy tender mercies and bowels of compassion sake who canst not delight in the death of a sinner to pitty my poor soul lying under the burthen of my sins O my dear Iesus let these wounds of my soul be healed by thy stripes and the divine justice that I have offended be satisfied by thy dear sufferings And since thou hast paid a price for my sins and still intercedest for the pardon of them O deliver me from the guilt and burthen of them an unpeaceable conscience and a miserable eternity the just wages of them Through the merits of my dear Iesus my Lord and Saviour Amen Petition for Grace O my most gracious God I being sensible of my spiritual poverty and inabilitie to understand desire or think of the things of my peace without thy assistance do beseech thee in thy tender mercies not to leave my soule to the guidance of my sinful nature nor to give me over to my own vile affections but rather grant me power through thy holy Spirit to crucify my lusts and to deny my self in all things that are inconsistent with thee O strengthen me to encounter with the temptations of the world and let not the seeming satisfactions of any outward enjoyment betray my soul to forget thee or to decline my obedience to thee Lord grant me the compleat armour of thy grace that I may alwayes prevent the wiles of the devil and overcome the powers and rulers of darkness in their temptations Give me a disposedness in all parts and faculties of soul and body to exercise their offices in obedience to Christ Enlighten my understanding to mind heavenly things draw my will after thee and command all my affections to thee Fill me O Lord with every grace of the Gospel whose exercise thou requirest of me as a disciple of Christ O make me able to live godly to thee in all parts of thy worship righteously to men by the strict rules of justice and soberly to my self in all temperance and chastity Lord make me humble sincere meek patient and peaceable and give me strength to obey the whole will of Christ in all his
Let my bodily distemper cure my soules infirmities and that I may learn thereby to hate sin and fear thee to see the vanity of worldly dependencies and to flie unto thee as the only refuge Lord let not the vanities of my health and prosperity be now laid to my charge but accept of my repentance and sorrow for them and grant me a peace and reconciliation with thee through the blood of Christ In my straits let me look up to thee with comfort as to a gracious Father O do not appear to me in terrour as a dreadful Iudge Lord I am thy servant do with me as it pleaseth thee yet for thy mercies sake lay no more upon me then what thou seest necessarily to conduce to the salvation of my soul If it pleaseth thee that I survive this affliction O let me live answerably to thy gracious intention in chastising me and to all those my holy purposes and promises made unto thee in this my visitation that these light afflictions may be advantages to me to the obtaining the exceeding weight of Glory Through my dear Saviour and Mediatour Iesus Christ Amen If the sicknesse appear dangerous then adde this Prayer O Lord my God in whom alone is the power of life and death and who precisely knowest the number of my daies be pleased to go along with me in mercie to my last hour And if it be thy pleasure to order this sickness to end in my death Lord make that the entrance to a blessed life Help me in all my natural and spiritual distresses let neither my paines nor my sins make me impatient or unconfident Lord let not my faith in Christ nor hope of thy mercie faile in the bitter hour O let the light of thy countenance break through the terrours of death to comfort me and let thy Spirit assist me when my strength faileth me Grant O Lord that my death be neither very tormenting nor uncomelie and when my soul shall depart O receive me into the resting place of thy glorie for Iesus sake my only Saviour and Redeemer When thou hearest any of thy neighbours to be very weak in sickness Pray for him in this manner O blessed Lord and fountain of mercies I humbly beseech thee to look with thy tender compassions upon thy servant A. B. Give him faith to depend upon thee patience to submit unto thee and thy Spirit to comfort him in whatsoever afflictions thou shalt lay upon him Accept of his repentance and final preparation for the peace of his soul in Christ accept of his addresses to the throne of Grace hear and help when he calls upon thee Make his bed in the time of his sickness and provide for him all things needful in his distress both for soul and body If it be thy will raise him up to his former health but with an ingagement upon his Spirit to live answerable to thy mercies and deliverances and if it be thy will to take him out of this life O assist his Spirit in the terrours of a dying hour and receive his soul into the armes of thy mercy through Iesus Christ my blessed Saviour Amen A Prayer to be used by a woman great with child O Lord God who hast blest my womb with conception for which I praise thy providence and with that conception hast made me a partaker of the sorrow common to my sex for the sin of my first mother grant me a part in the promised seed of a woman my Lord Iesus who came to bruise the head of the Serpent And though he hath not delivered me from the trouble and miseries of my body yet O Lord give me deliverance by him from the sin of my soul Lord keep me from sad accidents and from an untimely birth Give my childe a perfect shape and fitted for right senses and a good understanding Grant it a naturall birth and me patience for the pain and a prepared soul for the perill of it when it shall be borne grant me a safe recovery my childe a timely Baptisme that it may afterward make profession of the faith of Christ and through thy grace may lead an holy life Through the same Iesus Christ my blessed Saviour and Redeemer Amen A Prayer to be used before and in a journey Almighty and merciful Father who with thine eye of Providence that runneth through the world beholdest me wheresoever I am in all my wayes and actions who leddest thy people through the wildernesse by a marvelous guidance and didst direct with safety the Wise men by a Starre to our blessed Saviour Defend me in this my journey from all kinds of dangers from all temptations to sin and forgetfulness of thee from the hands of evill men and all sad accidents whatsoever Blesse my design and all my relations that I have left behinde me grant that I may go in safety and return in peace through the might and mediation of Christ my Saviour Amen A short Prayer to be used by all at their entrance into the Congregation And I desire it may be taught to children as a means to oblige them to a mindfulnesse of Gods service MOst dreadful Majesty who hast promised thy presence with them that are most met in thy Name give me grace to serve thee reverently as in thy presence and to perform my duty in thy worship acceptably to thy Glory Through Jesus Christ Amen An Exercise of Humiliation to assist humble penitents upon days of their private fasting and for a due examination of themselves before the receiving of the blessed SACRAMENT A PSALM O Lord rebuke me not in thine indignation neither chasten me in thy displeasure For thou art a God that hast no pleasure in wickedness neither shall any evill dwell with thee Such as be foolish shall not stand in thy sight for thou hatest all them that work vanity Have mercy upon me O God after thy great goodnesse according to the multitude of thy mercies do away mine offences Wash me throughly from my wickedness and cleanse me from my sins For I acknowledg my faults and my sin is ever before me Against thee only have I sinned and done this evill in thy sight that thou mightest be justified in thy saying and clear when thou judgest My misdeeds prevail against me O be thou merciful unto my sinnes I will therefore confess my wickedness and be sorry for my sinne Turn thy face away from my sins and put out all my misdeeds For thy Names sake O Lord be merciful to my sin for it is great For my wickednesses are gone over my head and are like a fore burthen too heavy for me to bear Withdraw not thou thy mercie from me let thy loving kindness and thy truth alwayes preserve me O Lord let it be thy pleasure to deliver me make haste O Lord to help me Haste thee to help me O Lord God of my salvation The confession of sins I. O Lord God Judge of all men and actions I am a miserable