heavens Let us hear thy holy Word that shall be read and preached to us as the Oracles of God and those Divine Messages which thou hast sent us from Heaven to guide us in the ways that lead thither Let us hearken to it with diligent attention imbrace it with holy and heavenly affections rejoycing in the Promises dreading the threatnings loving and practising the commands of it let us receive it with meekness and mix it with Jam. 1. 21. Faith that it may be an ingrafted Heb. 4. 2. word to the salvation of our Souls And as the Rain Isa 55. 10 11. cometh down the Snow from Heaven and returneth not thither but watereth the Earth and maketh it bring forth Fruit and bud that it may give seed to the Sower and bread to the eater So let not thy Word that goeth forth out of thy mouth return to thee void but accomplish that which thou pleasest and prosper in the thing whereto thou hast sent it Help us to pray in faith and fervency let all our petitions be addressed to the Throne of thy Grace in the prevailing name of thy dear Son and by the efficacy of thy holy Spirit the Spirit of Supplication And that the Prayers that we shall this day send up to Heaven may find a gracious acceptance with thee Let the holy Ghost make intercession Rom. 8. 26. in our hearts by exciting holy humble earnest and hearty desires and let our blessed Redeemer make intercession in Heaven and sweeten all the displeasing unsavoriness of our Flesh with the Perfume Rev. 8. 3. of his Incense Let us give thanks unto thee with our whole hearts and let all that is within us magnifie and praise thy Name as for all thy mercies to our Souls and Bodies for this Life and a better so especially for our Redemption by the precious death and Sufferings of thy Son and finishing that glorious work by the raising him from the Dead Raise up our Souls O Lord to the highest pitch of hearty thankfulness in the remembrance and sense of those inestimable benefits that redound to us and thy whole Church from this great and alsufficient Redeemer And help us so to sing praises to thee and to the Lamb that sits with thee upon thy Throne that by praising thee on Earth we may tune and prepare our hearts for those glorious and triumphant Praises that in Heaven will be the business and happiness of thy Saints to all Eternity Let us so carry our selves this whole day as remembring thou hast separated and sanctified it to thine own service and made Religion which is the great Work of every day the more proper and peculiar imployment of this Let us therefore make a difference betwixt the thoughts the words the practises of other days and this which thou hast set apart to different purposes and so sanctifie this day of holy Rest and make it our delight that we may be sanctified and fitted for that perpetual Rest that remains for thy People and satisfied with those Rivers of Psa 16. ult Pleasures that are at thy Right Hand for evermore Bless we beseech thee thy whole Church and that part of it especially which thou hast planted in these Kingdoms Pardon our many Sins and remove far away from us whatever may provoke thy displeasure unsettle our foundations or disturb our peace Let thy Servant our Sovereign Lord the King find favour in thine Eyes So bless Him in His Person in His Counsels and Enterprizes that upon his Head His Crown may long flourish and His Government be a publick Blessing to these Kingdoms Govern those that govern under Him in Church and State and let all His Subjects in their several Orders and Stations do what lies in them to the healing of our wide Breaches the restoring of Christian Love and Charity the establishment of Truth and Eph. 4. 3. Righteousness and keeping the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace Let all afflicted ones in what kind soever find thy gracious hand ready for their relief and succour and by the more immediate working of thy holy Spirit supply the want of thy publick ordinances to all that desire them and are by Imprisonment Banishment Sickness or any other hinderance deprived of them let us that by thy special favour are blessed with the rich and in estimable priviledge injoying them carefully improve them to a growth in Grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to an increase of Faith and all godliness till we come to the full and perfect happiness of an immediate injoying thee without them in thy heavenly and everlasting Kingdom by thy dear Son Jesus Christ our ever blessed Redeemer through whose Merit and Mediation and in whose Form of Words we are bold to call thee Father 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 Lord's Day Evening EVer blessed and gracious Lord God and in Jesus Christ our loving and merciful Father and most liberal and open-handed Benefactor from whose favour and kindness we have all the good things that we receive in this Life and the hopes of a better to make us everlastingly happy in the next We thy poor Servants acknowledging our manifold unworthiness of the least of thy mercies and the guilt of those sins whereby we have made frequent forfeitures of them are here before thee to offer up to thee our Evening Sacrifice of hearty praise and thansgivings for all those blessings that with a most free and unwearied bounty thou hast been pleased to confer upon us and continue to us Thy hand hath formed us in the Womb given us Life and Breath and Being and having brought us into the World bestowed on us many conveniencies of Life that have made our Being in the World easie and delightful to us Thine O Lord is our health and strength our ease and liberty thine the Air we breath in and the Earth we tread upon thine our Food and our Raiment the Sun that shines to give us Light and the Rain that falls to give us plenty thine the use of our Limbs and thine the exercise of our Understanding and Reason And we bless thy Name for all those outward and temporal blessings the multitude whereof such is thy goodness makes us unable to recount them and whose dayly repetition that should heighten our esteem of them and thankfulness for them makes us such is our folly and weakness too apt to undervalue them But above all we adore and with our highest and heartiest praises desire to magnifie thy rich and free Grace for spiritual blessings in heavenly
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
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
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