Father c. Evening Prayer O Lord God Almighty the Great and Supream Being before whom the Blessed and Glorious Angels cover their faces thou art a God terrible in Wrath and Vengeance against all obstinate wicked men but infinite in Mercy and endless in Compassion to all poor sinners that with unfeigned Repentance truly turn unto thee thou keepest Covenant and Mercy for ever for all who desire to fear thy great Name and walk humbly before thee I Vile Earth and Ashes miserable Creature laden with Sin might justly fear to lift up my Eyes to Heaven but since thou art so far from despising and driving from thee a Weak and Vile Sinful Wretch as I am that thou callest and drawest such unto thee I am bold to approach the Throne of thy Grace in the name of thy dear Son my Lord Jesus Christ whom thou hast given for Sinners not only a Saviour but also an Advocate and Intercessor to put up our Suits and make our Prayers accepted Through him Lord admit me into thy Presence and hold forth unto me the Golden Scepter of thy Grace let not thy Power dismay but strengthen my Weakness thy Glory not confound but cover my Vileness thy Purity not pursue but purge my Wickedness I can plead nothing but Misery in my self to make way unto thy Mercy from thee alone must all motives unto compassion be drawn I beseech thee O Lord be not ashamed of my Poverty be not weary of my Importunity but as the Sense of my misery leads me unto thee so let the Pity and Commiseration of the same incline thy Merciful Heart towards me I brought with me a World of Sin into this thy World I have derived from my first Parents not only the Guilt of their Sin but also the Corruption of their Nature that Leprosy of Adam cleaves unto me and has overspread all the Powers and Parts both of Soul and Body darkening and misleading my Vnderstanding benumming and abusing my Conscience inthralling and hardening my Will disturbing and disordering my Affections and making my Bodily Senses and Members either as Porters to let in Sin or as Instruments to execute it And from this cursed Root have sprung all those Actual Transgressions which in Imitation of Adam's Sin I have committed and multiply'd against thy Majesty by breaking every one of thy Commands in Thought Word and Deed even from the beginning of my life unto this present time So that there is scarce any Sin but I have been guilty of it one time of my life or other nay this very day how miserably have I departed from thee how frequently and sadly have I backslid in what Liberty have I allow'd my self how heedlessly have I conversed I have walked at a meer peradventure with thee my God And here O Lord I desire to confess with shame unto thee not only the Sin of this Day but those great and notorious Offences of all my sinful life past with all those heinous Circumstances whereby my Sins have been made out of measure sinful as the abuse of thy Patience the quenching thy Spirit despising thy Gospel unthankfulness for thy Mercies unfaithfulness in thy Covenant These and many more are the Mischiefs with which my Nature is blemished my Life filled my Conscience hardned and thy heavy Wrath most justly deserved yet because thou hast out of thy free Grace given thy Son Jesus Christ the Lord a means of Propitiation in whom thou reconcilest the World to thy self I humbly beg of thee through him Grace and Pardon O let his sufferings satisfie thy Justice for all my Sins and procure favour and forgiveness from thee let thy Christ be my Jesus to save and deliver me from wrath to come And whereas thou hast not only promised to deal thus with me but commanded me to believe that promise of thine Lord I desire to obey thy Command and Seal to thy Truth yet privy to the weakness of my Faith I pray thee help my unbelief Behold not my Iniquities O Lord as a severe Judge to be avenged of them but as a Sovereign Physician to cure and heal them Shew me my Pollutions by Sin in the Glass of thy World and by the Lamp thereof help me to search and know how wicked I am that Judging and condemning my self I may avoid thy Judgment and heavy Sentence and may so hate abhor and be avenged of my self as that I may avoid thy Wrath and Punishment O let Sin be as bitter to me in the attempting as in the repenting at leastwise more bitter in the repenting than ever it was sweet in the committing Grant me thy Grace to overcome my special Lusts at least alwaies to strive against them Subdue my proud haughty and vain Thoughts and straiten my crooked and distorted Affections Let me look on the Pleasures and Profits of life not only as thy liberal allowances unto me but also as Satan's Baits avoiding all excess and abuse and using them with thankfulness moderation and as things that must shortly leave me or I them Let me not value Pleasure Honor Profit Ease or any thing whatsoever at so high a rate as for the love thereof to make shipwrack of a good Conscience Let me measure my self not by what others Judge me or I feel my self to be but by that I desire and labour to be Teach me to keep a diligent account of what I receive from thee remembring there will be a day of Reckoning and grant me so to manage and employ thy Talents that thou mayest receive thy own with advantage Let my whole Life be a preparation to Death And the Meditation of Death the Rule of my Life Vnto my old and gray head O Lord forsake me not and let thy Fear keep me from forsaking thee let me be amongst those that are planted in thy House and flourish in thy Courts who bring forth most fruit in their old age Help me often to consider the danger I stand in through the Multitude Power and Subtilty of my Spiritual Enemies And to my Faith in thee let me always joyn Fear not only of Satan with whom I am continually to Fight but also of the slippery paths of this sinful World and the Frailty and Treachery of my deceitful Heart and Sinful Nature ever running after Satan's allurements and conspiring with him my utter ruin Let me ever remember how Satan shews only the fair side of Sin and chooses the fittest Instruments to deceive and knows how to sute his Temptation and also of the Scourges which follow after Sin the bitter Fruits thereof how it unfits me for any Service makes me miserable what ever my condition be And how thou wilt most certainly make those that belong to thee to feel the smart thereof especially if it be against Conscience Lord let me never forget Satan's deadly malice against thy best Servants how few of them have ever escaped to the end of their lives without some grievous Wounds Let me not O Lord be drowsy
Infinite without all limit of thought let our Hearts Adore a Spiritual Majesty which we cannot comprehend but yet know to be let us think of him as one whose Wisdom is his Justice whose Justice is his Power whose Power is his Mercy and whose Wisdom Justice Power Mercy is himself As Good without Quality Great without Quantity Everlasting without Time Present every where without Place containing all things without Extent and when our thoughts are come to the heighth let us stay there and be content to wonder in silence and since we cannot reach to conceive of him as he is let us be careful we conceive not of him as he is not But besides this awful apprehension of the Deity we are to conceive of three Persons in one Essence not divided but distinguish'd There is nothing wherein the want of Words can grieve us but in this here alone as we can Adore and not conceive so we can conceive and not utter Think here of one Substance in three Subsistences one Essence in three Relations one Jehovah Begetting Begotten Proceeding Let our thoughts here walk warily the path is narrow and the conceit either of three Substances or but one Subsistence is Damnable Yet all this will not avail us if we take not our Mediator with us if we apprehend not a true Manhood gloriously united to the Godhead without change of either Nature without mixture of both whose Prisence and Merits must give passage acceptance and Vigour to our Prayers Thus in Prayer God is to be known and consider'd of the distinction of Persons Father Son and Holy Spirit and Ordinarily our Prayers must be directed to the Father by the Son through the help of the Holy Ghost John 16.23 Whatsoever you ask the Father in my name he will give it you Ephes 5.20 Rom. 8.15,27 We call God Abba Father by the Spirit which makes Intercession for us For such is the Divine dispensation of God the Father Son and Holy Spirit that tho' they are but one indivisible Essence and whatsoever any one does out of himself the very same do the others also yet they sustain different Persons and Offices as we may say and do the same things in different and distinct Order yet so as the naming of one does not exclude but necessarily include the other In Prayer the Father sustains the Person and Place of him that is offended by sin that must be appeas'd and does hear and grant Requests 1 John 2.1 If we sin we have an Advocate with the Father The Son supplies the Place of a Mediator and Intercessor by whom Requests ascend and become acceptable to the Father John 16.23 Revel 8.3 He is the Golden Altar upon which the Prayers of all Saints are Offer'd and ascend as Incense John 14.6 No man can come to the Father but by me He is appointed of God to us and being both God and Man is a fit and all-sufficient Mediator between God and Man without him no man's Person or best Actions by reason of their many Imperfections can be acceptable The Holy Ghost does supply the Office of a Teacher and Assistant to help our Infirmities and in us to make our Intercessions and Requests for us that they may be Offer'd to the Father by the Intercession of the Son Rom. 8.26 We know not what to pray for as we ought If the Spirit do not work together with our Prayers there would be no goodness at all in them no not so much as Truth and Uprightness without which Christ will not offer them to his Father for us therefore Prayers must be made in the Spirit and through his help And thus Christ by the Office of his Mediation and Intercession is an Advocate to his Church and does in Heaven apply his Merits and further the cause of our Salvation with his Father And the Spirit also is an Advocate by Energy and Operation by Instruction and Assistance by his Counsel and Inspiration inabling us to manage our own business and plead our own Cause he does not indeed interceed nor appear before God in Person for us as Christ does but makes Intercession in and by our selves giving us access unto the Father imboldening us in our Fears helping us in our Infirmities and bringing those things which were blotted out and forgot into our remembrance Ephs 2.18 Hebr. 10.15.19 Admonishing and Directing us John 14.26 how to order and solicite our own business what Evidences to produce what Witnesses to prepare what Offices to attend what preparations to make against the time of hearing And lastly he makes up Failings by his Wisdome and gathers Arguments to further our Suit which we our selves observ'd not So when we know not what to Pray nor what to do when in our own apprehensions the whole business of our Peace and comfort lyes a bleeding the Spirit does then help our Infirmities presenting Arguments by secret intimations by deeep and unexpressible groans unto him who is the Searcher of hearts and who knows the mind of the Spirit which we our selves cannot express Thus as an Infant cries and complains for want of sleep and yet knows not that it is sleep which he wants as a sick man goes to a Physician and complains that some Physick he wants but knows not the thing he asks for So the soul of a Christian by the assistance of the Spirit is incourag'd to request things of God which yet of themselves do pass the knowledge and understanding of those that ask them Rom. 8.26 Ephes 3.19 Phil. 4.7 1 Cor. 14.13 Hence the Holy Ghost call'd another Comforter because he supplies the Corporal absence of Christ Joh. 14.16 brings him down to a Christian Forms him in his heart evidences him and the Virtue of his Passion and Resurrection in the powerful dispensation of his Holy Ordnances therefore when our Saviour speaks of sending the Holy Spirit he adds I will not leave you Comfortless I will come to you when the World sees me not you see me John 14.18,20 Now because of this Order of the Deity the Father being first and because of the different Places they sustain in the work of our salvation the Counsel and Will of all three is That the Father should be Pray'd unto and Worshipp'd in the only Mediation of the Son through the Holy Spirit and therefore the Father is fitly nam'd alone because the Son by Voluntary dispensation has the Part of a Mediator and the Holy Spirit the Office of an Instructor teaching us what to Pray In Wishing the effecting of things it is not necessary to name any Persons 1 Chron. 4.10 Oh that thou would'st bless me indeed and inlarge my Coast Somtimes 't is lawful to name indefinitely Acts 4.24 Lord thou art God who hast made Heaven and Earth It is lawful also Act. 22.24 when we name Persons to name only one or two provided we name not one as excluding the other two nor two as excluding the third 2 Cor.