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 Evening ALmighty and most merciful God and Father the Maker and Governour of all Creatures in Heaven and Earth and exalted in thy glorious perfections above the thoughts and services the praises and acknowledgments of the highest and best of them thine understanding is infinite and thou seest the hearts and ways of all the sons of men thy holiness is infinite and thou hatest all the sin and iniquity thou espiest in them thy power infinite thou canst easily punish them for the sins that provoke and displease thee and 〈◊〉 yet thine infinite mercies thou pardonest the sins of all that by sincere repentance and a through amendment of their ways return to thee We thy poor Servants in a deep sense of our guilt and wretchedness and the strong encouragements of thy declared mercy and goodness humble our Souls at thy Foot-stool beseeching thee to have mercy upon us and through the righteousness of thy dear Son whom thou hast given to be a propitiation and price of redemptition for us to pardon our many and great transgressions whereof we are guilty before thy Majesty in thought and word and deed and whereby we have deserved to be punished with overlasting destruction from thy presence by thy glorious power Hadst thou O Lord taken advantages against us or been forward to pour out that wrath and vengeance that we have been forward to provoke we had not now been begging thy mercy or cherish'd with the hopes of it but had in vain lamented the bloody and severe effects of thine incensed Justice We are not only by Nature the Children of Wrath but have in the course of our Lives actuated the sinful corrupt principles of our Nature and gone astray from thy holy just and good Laws that thou hast given to be the rule and measure of our actions and though both as thy Creatures thy Servants and thy Children thou hast laid upon us the greatest obligations to obedience and a dutyful complyance with thy Will yet have we in the eager and violent pursuit of our lusts Psal 2. 3. broken thy bonds asunder and cast away thy cords from us We have professed the pure and holy Religion of thy Son but have shamefully dishonoured him and his Religion by impure and unholy practises and 2 Tim. 2. 19. naming the Name of Christ we have not departed from iniquity we have given up our Names to him in Baptism and solemnly vowed obedience to the Laws of his holy Gospel but we have started aside like broken Bows and walked in the imaginations of our own hearts and fulfilled our vile and foolish lusts as if there were no God to be served no Soul to be saved no Hell to be feared no Heaven to be expected and as if the Name of Christians would have carryed us to Heaven we have done those things that many Heathens would have blushed at and been ashamed to have practised so that this might be our condemnation which of all other is the most grievous and insupportable that Light is come into the World and we have loved Darkness rather than Light Joh. 3. 19. because our deeds have been evil So many and undeserved have been thy mercies towards us so kind and unwearied the expressions of thy bounty that all our disobedience is by a shameful and odious ingratitude become exceeding sinful and we cannot without sorrow of heart and confusion of Face reflect upon our wearying thee with our sins when thou hast loaded us with thy benefits But we beseech thee O most merciful Father in the tenderest compassions of thy sounding bowels look down upon us and for thy Names sake the most powerful argument and such as uses to prevail O Lord hear O Lord spare O Lord forgive by a serious and hearty repentance and a true and lively Faith in thy Son make us fit partakers of thy pardoning mercy Though our deserts are thine indignation and vengeance the merit of his righteousness is remission and forgiveness though we have affronted thy Justice he hath satisfied it though we have incensed thy wrath he hath appeased it the chastisement of Isa 53. 5. our peace was upon him O let the merit of his righteousness be upon us And because the holy Jesus together with the guilt and punishment of sin alway delivers from the power of it and they that are Christs crucifie the Gal. 5. 24. flesh with its affections and lusts by the subduing and mortification of our sins convince and comfortably satisfie us that thou hast pardoned them and by thy sanctifying grace help us to cleanse our selves from 2 Cor. 7. 1. all filthiness of the flesh and spirit and to perfect holiness in thy fear sanctifie us wholly 1 Thes 5. 23. and let our whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Quicken us holy Father by the spirit of life and holiness to run the ways of thy Commandments and as thou hast given our blessed Saviour to be Head of thy Church and anointed him with an unmeasured fulness of thy Spirit that he might communicate and impart it to the Members of his Body let some drops of that holy Oil fall down upon us that was so plentifully poured upon the Head of our High Priest and out of his fulness let us receive Joh. 1. 16. Grace for Grace and so renew the Image of his Holiness in our Souls that as his true Children we may shew forth all the Features and Lineaments of our heavenly Father And because we are not sufficient of our selves to avoid any evil or perform any good be graciously present with us to preserve us from the one and assist us in the other Make us perfect in every good work to do thy will working in us that which is well pleasing in Heb. 13. 21. thy sight through Jesus Christ Make us wise to Salvation and seeing our days are very few and uncertain and repentance both necessary and out of our own power let us not put it off till to morrow not knowing what a day may bring forth nor deceive our selves with vain purposes of parting with our Sins hereafter when this very night our Souls may be Luk. 12. 20. taken from us But seeing the Heavens and the Earth at 2. Pet. 3. 15. length and our selves ere long must be dissolved let us be diligent that we may be found of thee in peace without spot and blameless Bless thy whole Church scattered far and near over the Face of the Earth pour out upon it the Spirit of Truth and Holiness and grant that all that confess thy holy Name may agree in the truth of thy holy Word and live in unity and godly love be thou that art the Lord and
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
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
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
coming into this world and as little laid to heart whaâ— will become of us when wâ— shall go hence and be no morâ— and as though we were to dyâ— as the Beasts dye we have livâ—… too much as the Beasts live In our selves O Lord wâ— have no hope but in the muâ—titude of thy tender mercies wâ— cannot despair and thougâ— we have deserved wrath and vengeance and have nothing of our own to plead why we should escape it we are greatly encouraged to sue to thine offended Majesty for pardon and forgiveness by that Proclamation which thou hast made Exod. 34. 6 7. of thy glorious Name the Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands and forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin and because thou hast said thou wilt not clear the guilty take away our guilt by a sincere hearty repentance and a true and lively faith in the merits and righteousness of thy Son Let all our sins be more bitter and burthensom in the review of them than they have ever been pleasant and delightful in the commission of them and grant gracious Lord that â—e may be so sorrowful for 〈◊〉 sins as to loath them so 〈◊〉 them as to take up firm Resolutions against them and so resolve as that by the powerful assistance of thy holy Spirit we may never renew the practice of them and having done iniquity Job 34. 32. we may do so and offend no more Wash and cleanse our sinful Souls from their guilt and filthiness in that fountain of thy dear Sons most precious blood Zech. 13. 1. which thou hast set open for sin and uncleanness and by the grace of thy holy Spirit subduing and mortifying our sins in us convince and satisfie us that thou hast pardoned them create in us clean hearts O God Psal 51. 10. and renew right spirits within us And as we call thy Son Jesus Christ our Saviour and hope to be for ever happy in the light and injoyment of him in Heaven let us make him our example and purifie our selves even as he is pure 1 Joh. 3. 3. Make us as he was holy and humble meek and merciful patient and charitable heavenly minded and self-denying let 's be zealous for thy glory contented with our present condition satisfied with all the wise allotments of thy providence and make it our meat and drink to do the will of our heavenly Father and in all things wherein he was a most lively and admirable pattern for our imitation seeing we profess our selves Christians and say we abide 1 Joh. 2. 6. in him let us walk as he also walked Settle and root in our hearts a stronger and more firm belief of thy holy Gospel and so fix our thoughts and affections upon that unseen happiness that our Saviour in our name and place is possessed of that nothing here below may either allure or affright us from our duty or make us remiss cold and negligent in it but we may be zealous of good works and with fervency of spirit alway serve that gracious Lord from whom we expect the reward of a glorious and immortal inheritance Fill every one of our hearts with a quick and a constant sense an humble and awful dread an ardent and intire love of thee together with an active and vigorous delight in thee and a vigilant and circumspect care universally and in the whole course of our lives to please and approve our selves to thee Let us never adventure to commit any sin as a little one because it will offend and dishonour thee the great and infinite Majesty of Heaven and deserve the eternal punishment and misery of an immortal Soul Keep us by thy grace from every evil way and those sins especially to the which we may be most inclined and easily prevailed upon by custom or example the naughtiness and general corruption of the age we live in our Callings our company or our constitution so that laying aside every weight Heb. 12. 2. and the sins that easily beset us and running with patience and perseverance the race that thou hast set before us we may at length obtain that prize of our High Calling which thou hast prepared and promised in Christ Jesus our Lord. And in his Name we humbly recommend to thy compassion and goodness all the Sons of Men that dwell upon the Face of the Earth beseeching thee that thou wouldst make known thy Will to them and help them to practise according to what they know and whatever affliction or calamity may lye upon them in mind body or estate let them by thy mercy and clemency be supported under them and in thy due time be delivered from them Shew favourable regards of care and kindness towards thy Church engrave her upon the Palms of thine Hands and let Isa 49. 16. her Walls be continually before thee Appoint Salvation for the Walls and Bulwarks of the Nation wherein we live pardon our many crying sins avert thy deserved feared Judgments heal our back-slidings and heal our breaches continue thy Gospel and grant that we may walk worthy of that inestimable favour Bless our dread Sovereign with the blessings of thy right and left hand let his Government be happy and peaceable long and prosperous and a publick blessing to all that are under it and grant that all subordinate Governours in Church in State may faithfully use their power to the discouragement of Vice and ungodliness and the promoting and supporting peace and good order truth righteousness and holiness and let all men by a serious repentance and a through reformation of their ways strive to save the Land from those confusions and miseries into which they have plunged it by their manifold offences Comfort all that mourn give them beauty for ashes and the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness and let all that groan under thy heavy hand triumph in thy salvation Be with us thy servants this day and let that good providence that hath this night preserved and refreshed us direct assist and bless us in all our ways and keep us from the dangers and mischiefs the sins and offences the snares and temptations that we might otherwise fall into Let us be in thy fear all the day long and so order our lives as if it were the last day we had to live in this world that as in the evening we shall be one day nearer our death we may be nearer eternal life and happiness grant us all these our requests most gracious Father and whatever else thou knowest to be needful for us for the sake of thy dear Son in whose Name and Words by his own direction we further implore thy merciful goodness 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
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
Life As thou hast multiplied thy Blessings we have multiplied our Inquities and transgressed those holy and good Laws which thou hast given us as the rule of our carriage towards thee our selves and others and wherein thou hast commanded us nothing but what tends to the perfection of our nature and the promoting of our happiness We have little regarded thy design in sending us into this World which was that we should serve and please obey and honour thee our great Creator and gracious Benefactor and as little laid to heart the strict account that we must shortly render of all our ways and works before thy exact and impartial Tribunal when we shall go hence and be here no more We have turn'd a deaf ear to thy counsels quencht the motions of thy Spirit misimproved thy mercies to make them the materials of pride and a wanton sensuality rejected the tenders of thy Grace and hardned our hearts under the correction of thy Rod And if thou Lord shouldst mark our Iniquities who of us Psal 130. 3. O Lord could stand How justly mightst thou deprive us of all the blessings that we have forfeited And make us feel the smart and severity of that vengeance that thou hast threatned Thou mightst inflict pains and diseases in our Bodies and pursue us with terrours and the fearful foretasts of wrath in our consciences thou mightst remove thy Gospel which we have abused and withdraw thy Spirit whom we have grieved thou mightst give us up to the lusts of our 〈◊〉 81. 12. own hearts that we should walk in our own counsels till we had filled up the measure of our Sins and ripened our selves to be cut down for everlasting punishment But with thee there is mercy Psal 130. 4. and forgiveness that thou mayst be feared and we may be pardoned work in us we beseech thee that deep contrition and through repentance which wherâ—ever it is wrought is followed by forgiveness and through faith in the blood of thy dear Son who hath made peace by the blood of his Cross let us be justified and reconciled and rejoyce in thee having Rom. 5. 11. received the Atonement Sanctifie us in Soul Spirit and Body to thy Service enlighten our minds with the knowledge of thy Will incline our wills to the obedience of it purifie our affections to a love and delight in it purge our consciences from dead Heb. 9. 14. works to serve thee the living God and as we have yielded our Members Servants of unrighteousness unto Iniquity let us yield them the Servants of Rom. 6. 19. Righteousness unto Holiness And because we are in this World beset with many Snares and Temptations let us be sober 1 Pet. 5. 8. and vigilant and walk circumspectly Eph. 5. 15. not as Fools but as Wise shunning all appearance of evil and avoiding whatever may be an occasion to the Flesh suffer us not at any time so to be led into temptation as that the sollicitations of Satan the Allurements of this vain World or the suggestions of our own carnal and treacherous hearts should draw us into those sinful ways that are displeasing to thee and destructive to our Souls but being alway sensible of how great importance and necessity it is to work out our Phil. 2. 12. Salvation with fear and trembling how short a time is allotted to us How many and powerful Enemies are combined to hinder us How glorious the Reward is that is promised And how dreadful and insupportable the punishment that is threatned Let us make hast to escape the wrath to come and with all our might endeavour to lay hold of eternal Life pressing toward the mark for Phil. 3. 14. the prize of the high Calling of God in Christ Jesus 1 Pet. 1. 17. 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 and never allow our selves the commissions of any known Sin nor the omission or neglect of any known Duty Enable us by thy holy Spirit to subdue and govern our unruly passions to resist and crush the first motions of Sin in our earthly members faithfully to trade the several Talents thou putst into our hands regularly to fill up all the relations wherein thou hast placed us patiently to bear all our burdens cheerfully to injoy all our blessings and thankfully to return them to thee in thy service and praise and so wisely to improve all thy providences both of bounty and severity that in our lowest adversity we be not dejected with anxiety and unbelief and in our highest prosperity our hearts be not lifted up with pride to forget thee the Lord our God but in all things the glory of thy great Name may be advanced and the spiritual profit of our Souls and their growth in grace may be promoted and furthered Cherish and increase in us all sincere though feeble motions towards a more perfect and uniform obedience to thy Will and having begun a good work in any of us complete and finish Phil. 1. 6. it until the day of Jesus Christ help us to love thee more entirely to serve thee more diligently to trust in thee more fully to live to thee more exactly to please thee more abundantly than we have hitherto done that in a dying hour our Sins and Follies may not strike us with horror and perplexity but our Souls may be filled with sweet and comfortable reflections upon those ways that have been pleasing to thee that our God our Consciences may smile upon us and speak kindly to us when all the things of this World are forsaking us and we are passing into an eternal state Use us O Lord whilest we live as Instruments of thy Glory in all holiness and as Vessels of Glory fill us when we dye with everlasting happiness Let all the Sons of Men whom thou hast made capable of thy grace and favour be made partakers of it Relieve them that are any way distressed and enlighten them with the knowledge of thy Gospel that sit in darkness Beautifie Mount Sion the joy of the whole Earth with thy Salvation deliver thy Church from ignorance and error pride and hypocrisie strife and contention schism prophaneness tyranny superstition and idolatry and let there be none to offend or oppress in thy Holy Mountain Be gracious and merciful to this sinful and divided Nation though our Sins be as scarlet let them be white as Snow though Isai 1. 18. they be red like crimson let them be as Wool Establish thy Religion in the truth and purity of it and let it be made beautiful by the religious lives and practices of them that profess it Let the King joy in thy Psal 21. 1. strength O Lord and exceedingly rejoyce in thy Salvation bless him with length of days and safety from dangers direct him by wise Counsels to just honourable and
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