most high and most willingly joyn our hearts and voices this Morning together with all the host of heaven and earth to laud and praise thy glorious Name and give thanks unto thee whose mercy endureth for ever We think our selves happy that we know thee and that we live under the care and providence of thine Almighty and most wise goodness and that we have a good hope not only of thy blessing and favour here but of life for evermore Blessed be thy Name for sending thy Son Jesus to give us these hopes by his Death and Resurrection and Ascension to heaven and the coming of the holy Ghost Blessed be thy Name who hast trained us up in his Religion and given us the means and opportunities to know that love of thine which passes knowledge We thank thee for all the blessed operations and motions of thy holy Spirit in our hearts and that thou hast so early inclined us to fear thee and love thee and place our contentment and satisfaction in thy love and favour which is better than life it self And that thou hast also added a number of other mercies for our comfortable subsistence in this world having granted us so long health peace and plenty a great many friends loving relations and acquaintance and continued the enjoyment of them to this day though we be so unworthy of the least of thy favours We thank thee O God that now thou hast graciously renewed thy kindness unto us in protecting us the last night from all the powers of darkness and every evil accident and raising us up this morning in health and safety to praise thy goodness More especially we praise thee for any sense we have of these thy mercies humbly waiting on thee for the increase of it and for thy gracious pardon of all our unthankfulness and undutiful behaviour towards thee which we most heartily bewail and desire and will endeavour to amend And for that end we implore the help of thy holy Spirit which our Lord hath incouraged us to ask of thee and told us thou wilt not deny to those that earnestly seek it and continue to knock importunately at the gate of Mercy for it We believe all his promises to be faithful and true and therefore humbly depend on thy mighty Power to strengthen and inable us to do our duty towards thee and towards all men with care and diligence and zeal and perseverance to the end Indue us good Lord with a spirit of true and servent devotion to thee our Creator and Redeemer with upright just and charitable hearts to all our Neighbours and with temperate contented and humble minds in every condition and state of life unto which thou shalt please to call us Help us to be meek and gentle in our conversation prudent and discreet in ordering all our affairs good and useful in every relation observant of thy fatherly providence in every thing that befals us grateful for thy benefits patient under thy chastisements and readily disposed to every good word and work Preserve in us a constant remembrance of thine all-seeing eye of the many promises and vows we have made of fidelity to thee of thine inestimable love in Christ Jesus whereof thou hast given us so many pledges and of the great account we must give to him the Judge of all at the day of his appearing That so we may continue steadfast and unmoveable and be abundant in the work of the Lord knowing that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Deliver us we beseech thee from all inordinate cares and desires from vain hopes and causeless fears and so dispose our hearts that death it self may not be dreadful to us but we may welcome it with a chearful countenance when and howsoever it shall approach O that our hearts may be so firmly settled and established in the true Religion and our minds kept so free from all delusions that nothing may afright us or shake our constancie But we may rather chuse to dye than dishonour our Saviour who dyed for us We resign our selves to thy wisdom and goodness who knowest what is best for us hoping thou wilt 1 Corinth 10.13 never suffer us to be tempted above what we are able and wilt with the temptation also make a way to escape that we may be able to bear it We commend unto thee likewise all mankind especially thy Church and chosen people these Kingdoms more particularly of which we are members that we may be all faithful to our Lord Christ and zealous of good works Bless our Soveraign his Councellors his Ministers and all imployed in publick business whether Spiritual or Civil that they may be conscientiously industrious and whatsoever they do may prosper for the good of all those who are committed to their charge Be gracious to all our friends and those who are dear unto us Keep us all in thy fear and love and obedience while we live and make us willing to dye and to be with Christ which is best of all Guide us good Lord and govern us by the same spirit of wisdom and goodness that we may be so united to thee here as not to be eternally separated when thou art pleased to order our departure hence But that we all at last may have an happy meeting in the other and better world to dwell with thee in love and joy that shall never dye through Christ Jesus our blessed Lord and Saviour in whose words we still beseech thee to hear us Our Father c. At Night ALL honour and glory thanks and praise love and service be rendred by us and all other reasonable creatures to thy great and glorious Majesty O Lord who hast brought us into the world and preserved our life most tenderly to this moment and made it easie and comfortable to us by more mercies than we can number And to all the former hast added those of this day which we have passed in peace and health and safety blessed be thy never-ceasing goodness Above all we acknowledge thy unconceiveable love in Christ Jesus by whom thou hast made a gracious provision for our souls and their everlasting happiness in the other world Having sent him to us with the promises of eternal life and to be the Way and Director to it and given him to dye that he might seal his promises with his bloud and raised him again from the dead that our faith and hope might be in thee O God 1 Cor. 2.9 Eye had not seen nor ear heard neither did enter into the heart of man the things which thou hast prepared for them that love thee We love thee O Lord and give our selves both souls and bodies to thee most earnestly desiring to be inspired with such a sense of thy infinite goodness that we may love thee more and serve thee better with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength We confess we have not walked worthy of the great
unto her and her relations further favour Tob. 8.16 and finish their life in health with joy and mercy Renew her strength daily and as that increaseth so make her thankfulness and pious affections towards thee and serious resolutions to obey thee faithfully grow up together therewith Refresh her spirit while she lyeth on this bed of weakness with many heavenly thoughts and delightful meditations of all thy mercies towards her and towards mankind especially with a sense of thy wonderful love in Christ Jesus who was pleased to be born of a woman and to become like one of us that we might be assured of thy care over us in every condition and be made thy children and at last be heirs of everlasting life And when she hath recovered her former strength make her to feel this love still more powerful in her heart exciting her to serve thee carefully in all righteousness sobriety modesty devotion and readiness to assist others especially the poor and needy in the same distress wherein she hath been her self We commend likewise this little one which thou hast blessed her withal unto thy tender care and fatherly love beseeching thee that it may live to be dedicated unto thee and to be instructed in the knowledge of thee and to praise thee as we now do for bringing it into the world and for making it partakeâ—… likewise of thy grace in Christ Jesus Or if it shall seem good to thee to let either of them fall into any further danger enable her to endure iâ— with patient submission to thee trusting even in death it self in thy good providence and in thy precious promises who never failest those that faithfully seek thee Hear us O Father of mercies and pardon our offences pitty our infirmities make us more thankful for what we have received and more fit for thy future mercies either in this life or in the next through thy infinite love declared to us in Christ Jesus in whose holy words we conclude our prayers saying as he hath taught us Our Father c. A Thanksgiving to be used by the person her self when she is able UNto thee O God do I give thanks unto thee do I give thanks for that thou art near thy wondrous works declare Psal 75.1 In my distress I called upon thee and my cry came unto thee 18.6 34.4 I sought thee O Lord 138.3 and thou heardest me 30.3 and deliveredst me from all my fears 66.20 56.12 In the day when I cryed 104.33,34 thou answeredst me and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul Thou hast brought up my soul from the grave thou hast kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit Blessed be God which hath not turned away my prayer nor his mercy from me Blessed be God who hath preserved the fruit of my womb and made me the joyful mother of a child Thy vows are upon me O God I will render praise unto thee I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live I will sing praises unto my God while I have my being My meditation of him shall be sweet I will be glad in the Lord. Accept O most merciful Father of these thankful acknowledgements Psal 17.2 57.2 which go not forth out of fained lips And be pleased graciously to preserve such a lasting and fresh remembrance of thy great mercies in my heart that I may always be joyful in thee and speak good of thy name and trust in thee at all times and still cry unto thee O God most high who performest all things for me Make me studious likewise and forward to bring forth all the fruits of righteousness throughout the whole course oâ— my life which may witness the truth and sincerity of my thankfulness to thee O that I may never be less earnest and fervent in the return of obedience than I have been in desires and prayers to receive thy blessings Dispose me to have a kind and tender care of this infant which thou hast committed to my charge Make me willing to undergo to the utmost of my power the pains that accompany its education Let not the love of ease and pleasure breed in me an aversness to any duty to which both Nature and Religion incline me or give me grace by sober thoughts and a thankful remembrance of the late pain from which thou hast delivered me to overcome it Especially indue me with the greatest love to its precious and immortal soul And help me so to grow and encrease in Christian wisdom and goodness that I may be able to instruct it when it is capable in the fear of our Lord and by meek and gentle admonitions together with a good example in all things to win it to the love of true godliness Or if thou art pleased to take it from me who deserve not the least of thy mercies Lord so moderate my affections and bring them in subjection to thee that I may not undutifully repine at thy providence but in an humble adoration of thy unsearchable wisdom and a stedfast confidence of thy good will towards me resign it unto thee from whom I received it And I also beseech thy Divine goodness when thou shalt restore me to the publick assemblies of thy people again to give me grace to receive that mercy with exceeding joy Prepare my heart with enlarged affection to offer unto thee not only the sacrifice of praise giving thanks unto thy name but all other oblations which ought to accompany such addresses to thy glorious Majesty That they may be but an earnest of my future diligence and zeal in thy Divine Service and oâ— my readiness to do good and communicate unto others whereby I may lay up in store for my self a good foundation against the time to come 1 Tim. 6.19 that I may lay hold on eternal life through Christ Jesus Amen A Prayer for good success in some extraordinary business ALmighty and most merciful father the supreme Governour of the whole world who disposest and orderest all things in heaven and earth with admirable judgement and canst not possibly err in what thou doest nor fail of what thou designest I adore in the humblest reverence of my soul thy most glorious Majesty thy eternal Power Holiness Goodness and Truth which are all beyond my comprehension And more particularly I adore thy unspotted Justice and all-seeing Wisdom which penetrates into the deepest secrets and spies out all the ways of the sons of men and renders to every one of them according to their doings Jer. 10.23 I know O Lord that the way of man is not in himself Prov. 16.9 19.21 it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps Tob. 4.19 The success of all our counsels and actions depends on thy pleasure and when we have devised the way we intend to go thou givest it what issue seems good in thine eyes There are many devices in a mans heart
the light of this morning Receive us likewise all this day into thy protection to which we most humbly commit our selves We trust our selves and all belonging to us with thee our Creator and Redeemer We submit to thy orders and are willing to do and suffer what thou pleasest Jude 21. Waiting for the mercy of our Lord Christ Jesus unto eternal life And we desire thou knowest the good of all mankind as well as our own especially of all Christian people that they may all walk worthy of the Gospel and live together in unity and godly love For which end we pray that all Christian Kings Princes and Governours may be wise pious just and merciciful indeavouring that all their subjects may lead peaceable lives under them in all godliness and honesty And more particularly that our Soveraign may be blessed with a religious quiet long and prosperous Reign and that all his Ministers of State and Officers of Justice may conscientiously discharge the trust that is reposed in them seeking in their several places how to right the oppressed to comfort the afflicted to provide for the poor and needy and to relieve all those that are in any misery Bless all our spiritual Pastors and Instructors succeed their labours and give us grace to follow their godly admonitions 1 Thess 5.13 to esteem them very highly in love for their works sake and to be at peace among our selves The same blessings we crave for all our friends relations and acquaintance that we may all live in perfect love and peace together doing our duties to thee to each other and to all men so faithfully that we may give a comfortable account of our selves and rejoyce together at the great day of the Lord Jesus In whose holy words we beseech thee to help us still more heartily to offer up our desires to thee Our Father c. At Night ALmighty and most merciful Father by whom we were made and in whom we live move and have our being to whose tender compassions we owe our safety the day past together with all the comforts of this present life and the hopes of that which is to come We praise and laud thee O Lord the Creator and Governor of the world We ascribe all Greatness Might Majesty Wisdom Riches and Bounty to thee whom all the host of heaven continually admires and acknowledges with the most joyful reverence We bow our selves likewise before thee and worship thee in an humble sense that we are nothing in compare with thee and have nothing but what we receive from thee Psal 75.1 Psal 43.4 68.19 Vnto thee do we give thanks unto thee do we give thanks O God our exceeding joy who daily pourest thy benefits upon us Blessed be thy great goodness for our continued health for our food and raiment our peace and safety the society of our friends the love of our neighbours and the success of our honest labours But above all things for sending Jesus Christ into the world to dwell among us to dye for us and to direct us in the way to immortal life We thank thee that we feel in our hearts any motion towards thee and that we have made the least progress in those paths of life O Lord we present our selves here before thee to be inspired with such a vigorous and full sense of thy love as may move us more powerfully towards thee and put us forward with a greater earnestness zeal and diligence in all our duty There is nothing in heaven or earth that we can desire but to be beloved of thee who possessest both and art able to make thy friends as great and happy as thou pleasest Assist us therefore still by thy grace to the recovery of such a lively Image of thee in all righteousness purity mercy faithfulness and truth that we may know thou lovest us O that Jesus the hope of glory may be formed in us in all humility meekness patience contentedness peaceableness and absolute surrender of our souls and bodies to thy holy will and pleasure That Gal. 2.20 we may no longer live but Christ may live in us and the life we lead in the flesh may be by the faith of thy Son O God who loved us and gave himself for us The remembrance of that love is most dear and precious to us We cannot often enough make mention of so great kindness as his making himself freely an offering for our sins It moves us again to offer up our selves sincerely to thee to do thy will O God as our blessed Lord and Master did We repose also an intire confidence in thee and still trust our selves with thee who hast Rom. 8.32 not spared thine own Son but given him up for us all We will humbly and reverently accept of whatsoever thou sendest us and 1 Thess 5.18 in every thing give thanks which is thy will concerning us in Christ Jesus We hope thou wilt never leave us nor forsake us but conduct us safe through all varieties and changes of our condition here in an unchangeable love to thee and an holy composure and tranquillity of mind in thy love to us till we come to live with thee and enjoy thee for ever And now that we are going to lay our selves down to sleep take us into thy gracious protection and settle our spirits in such quiet and delightful thoughts of Jesus that we may be willing to leave this world and go to him 1 Thess 5.10 Who dyed for us that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him To his blessing we commend all mankind of whatsoever rank and condition they be high and low rich and poor that they may all be so happy as to do their several duties carefully and to enjoy contentedly whatsoever is needful for them We leave all we have with thee especially our friends and those who are dear unto us desiring that when we are dead and gone they may lift up their souls in this manner unto thee and teach those that come after to praise love and obey thee and that if we awake again in the morning our mouths may likewise praise thee again with joyful lips and we may still offer our selves a more acceptable sacrifice to thee through Christ Jesus In whose words we beseech thee to hear us according to the fullest sence and intention of them Our Father c. PRAYERS FOR FAMILIES TVESDAY MORNING ALL honour glory and praise be given to thee O Lord our Creator Redeemer and Comforter by us and by all the world Thou art worthy of all our love service and obedience being most excellent in thine own nature and of so abundant kindness to us thy creatures Who most humbly therefore prostrate our selves before thee this Morning to make thee our thankful acknowledgements for all thy benefits and tender thee our most hearty and affectionate service and wait upon thy bounty for the continuance of thy grace and mercy
lowest prostrations of my soul and body with mine eyes full of tears and my heart full of grief and sorrow because I have been so undutiful to thee whose grace and mercy hath so exceedingly abounded towards us When I cast mine eyes upon my Saviour and upon my self with the rest of the children of men I am astonished at the wonderful greatness of thy love which surpasses the thoughts of men and Angels For what were we that thou shouldest make thy dear Son a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief for our sake That he should become poor and mean not having where to lay his head and indure likewise cruel mockings and buffettings and be spit upon and abused yea sorely wounded and bruised and drink that bitter cup the vile and accursed death of the cross where he shed his most precious bloud and gave himself a ransome for us O Lord what was the whole race of mankind worth that thou shouldest purchase them with so dear a price and by the obedience of thy Son Christ Jesus unto the death grant a pardon for their rebellion and seal a new Covenant of Grace in his bloud and by the same bloud consecrate him to be an high-Priest with royal Power in the heavens to give repentance and remission of sin and all this so freely that we did not so much as desire it nor did it enter into the heart of men to conceive that thou shouldest be so gracious to them O blessed God how rich is thy goodness that lets us withal injoy a great plenty of worldly good things much of that ease and pleasure which was denyed our dear Saviour and yet we are sinners and he had no sin neither was guile found in his mouth yea we are ungrateful sinners so far from being sensible as we ought of such infinite loving kindness that we may justly fear lest this goodness of thine which was designed to save us should through our unthankfulness and negligence prove the occasion of our greater ruine I most heartily bewail O most merciful Father my shameful forgetfulness of so great benefits or my cold and dull remembrance of them I lament all the errors and miscarriages of my life which are the more heynous I acknowledge after such a plain declaration of thy displeasure against sin and of thy marvellous love to us sinners I am afflicted for the hardness and stupidity of my heart which alas is oft-times little pierced and wounded when I reflect upon his sorrow and pain and anguish for the sake of sinners and for the listlessness and backwardness of my will to give up my self absolutely to him who so willingly gave himself an offering for our sins I blush to remember how weak and short my thoughts have been how transient and ineffectual my passions when I have meditated on his bloudy death and sufferings And am confounded when I think how suddenly I have started from those holy purposes and resolutions which the sense of his love hath sometimes begot in my heart I cannot but accuse and condemn my self here in thy presence but I likewise condemn every sinful desire that is still remaining in me to dye and be crucified together with him I would have nothing contrary to thy Will to have any power or live any longer in me and therefore here yield up my self intirely into thy hands to be conformed in all things to Christ Jesus who dyed for me Fix my thoughts so constantly upon his dying love and affect my heart so mightily therewith that I may chearfully undergo any pains to be made like unto him in his humility in his obedience in his resignation of himself to thy wise will and pleasure in his patience in his meekness in his charity and forgiveness of his enemies in his willingness to quit all things for thy names sake and to trust both soul and body with thee in well doing and contented suffering whatsoever it be that thou requirest of me I desire not to live O Lord but that I may live to him that dyed for me I refuse no reproaches no poverty no pain or trouble if thy will cannot other ways be accomplished by me Do what thou pleasest with me so that I may but be perfected in holiness and obtain thy gracious pardon through the redemption that is in Jesus I believe the vertue and power of his Sacrifice to be everlasting and that when he had by himself purged our sins he sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high And therefore I look for the constant assistance of thy good Spirit which he hath bid me ask in his Name to inable me to purifie my self and to tread in the steps of his humble meek and patient Charity that so I may be presented unblameable and unproveable in thy sight at the day of his appearing Great is the wisdom of thy love wherein thy grace hath abounded towards us in Christ Jesus Great are the incouragements which thou hast given us by his laying down his life for us that he might take it again and live for evermore Great is the boldness that we have to enter into the holyest by the bloud of Jesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through his flesh Give me the grace I beseech thee wisely to consider and ponder the merciful design of thy Grace to walk circumspectly and exactly as the redeemed of the Lord as an heir of his love that hopes to see him in immortal glory O that the comfort and joy of this hope to see Jesus who was so scorned and abused sitting upon his throne and triumphing over all his enemies may so raise and inlarge my mind by the power of it that I may overlook and despise all the petty temptations of this world looking still steadfastly unto him and following him with unmoveable resolution till I come to possess that which I hope for and rejoyce eternally in his love Hear me O Father of mercies and deal graciously with me far beyond all my thoughts and desires for his sake who is the Author and the finisher of our faith who dyed once for us and now lives for ever to make intercession on our behalf By whom all honour praise thanksgiving love and obedience be rendered to thee by me and by all mankind both now and for ever Amen A Prayer on Good Friday in the Evening O Most holy most gracious the only wise God most blessed for ever We cannot conceive the greatness of thy perfections nor is there any thing to which we can compare them Thy holiness is more unspotted than the light of the Sun Thy goodness spreads it self more largely than its beams Thy Wisdom pierces into those secrets which are buried in darkness and though all things alter and wax old yet thou art the same unchangeable being whose years have no end How shall such a vile wretch as I am take the boldness to look towards thee and speak unto thee who
contented and in every condition to give thanks unto thee and rejoyce in thy holy Name and in the hope of eternal life through Christ Jesus my most blessed Lord and Saviour Amen A Prayer when the time of heâ— Travel draweth near O God the helper and delâ—verer of all those that trust iâ— thee by whose power I was formed in my Mothers Womb by whoâ— care I was brought from thence anâ— by whose merciful kindness I havâ— been preserved in many dangers since I praise and magnifie thy great and glorious Name and am encouraged by the remembrance of thy mercies which have been ever of old to implore thy compassionate help in the approaching time of my need pain and danger Thou art present to all thy creatures and hearest the cryes of the beasts of the earth which all wait upon thee O be not far from me when trouble is near but hearken unto me and save me when I call upon thee Shorten my pains or lengthen my patience which thou pleasest Bear up my spirit in submission to thy will and in some humble hope that I shall forget my anguish for joy that a man is born into the world Joh. 16.21 Psal 138.8 22.4,5 Forsake not the work of thy own hand but in due time perfect it and bring forth that which thou hast wrought in secret into the light that we may all see the wonders of thy wisdom and praise thy goodness and thy power My parents trusted in thee they trusted and thou didst deliver them They cryed unto thee and were delivered they cryed unto thee and were not confounded In thee likewise do I humbly put my trust and confidence which nothing disheartens but my own great unworthiness by reason of my forgetfulness of thy benefits and unthankful returns for former mercies bestowed upon me But thou hast taken care that this should not discourage me neither by proclaiming a gracious pardon by him that was born of woman and dyed for us unto contrite and reforming sinners Accept I beseech thee of my sincere resolutions to preserve hereafter a more affectionate remembrance of thy love to me and to dedicate my self and all I have to thy service 1 Tim. 2.15 in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety Or if thou art pleased oâ—herwise to dispose of me I resign â—y self heartily unto thee Lord â—eceive me to a better life where all â—ghing and sorrow shall be done away and eternal joy intirely posâ—ess our hearts Amen for Christ Jeâ—us his sake Amen 〈◊〉 Prayer to the same purpose to be said by her Relations O Most mighty Lord who hast already given us innumerable â—ledges of thy love and many arâ—uments to trust in thee for ever â—nd to expect with quiet and patient â—inds the issue of thy wise and good â—rovidence Thou hast respect to all â—e works of thy hands especially 〈◊〉 the sons of men and to those aâ—ove the rest who seek thy favour â—d give thee the glory of all thy â—ercies and are resolved to devote â—emselves and their children and all they have to do thee honour in the world We most humbly commend thy servant drawing near the time of her Travel to thy care and blessing beseeching thee to give her a gracious deliverance and to ease her of the burden wherewith she labours We our selves are monuments oâ— that mercy which we beg of thee Thou broughtest us into this world and didst unloose the bands wherewith we were swadled in our mothers womb We have had long experience also of thy readiness to succour us and to do us good eveâ— since many times beyond our desires and hopes and always beyond our deservings We dare not buâ— commit our selves and every thing belonging unto us most heartily into thy hands remembring that thou hast the same power and goodnesâ— still by which we came into thâ— light of the living and that thou still exercisest them as thy wisdom thinks most meet We cannot desire to be better provided for than as thy infinite understanding and counsel judges most convenient for us Unto that we refer our selves beseeching thee if it be thy good pleasure that her deliverance may be as speedy as her cryes unto thee or her patience as great and long as her pains Thou who ripenest the fruits of the earth and then givest us to gather them to our comfort blast not our humble hopes of the fruit of the womb But after thou hast brought it to maturity deliver it into our hands as a new pledge of thy goodness to us for which we will ever thankfully acknowledge and praise thy Name Or if thou hast otherwise determined Lord give us grace to submit to thy holy will and to rest satisfied in thy wise appointments and never to distrust thy goodness and care over us Yea help us still to bless thee and to speak good of thy Name saying The Lord gave and tâ—e Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord from henceforth and for ever Amen A Thanksgiving to be used by those present after her safe Deliverance WE thank thee O Father Lord of heaven and earth for thy long continued goodness to us thy creatures who are unworthy of the least of thy favours In thee we live and move and have our being And it is only of thy mercy that we have not lived in perpetual pain and torment spending our days in sighs and lamentations but have enjoyed much health and ease and had innumerable occasions to praise thee and to rejoyce in thee who loadest us daily with thy benefits Blessed be thy Name O Lord who forgivest all our iniquities and healest all our diseases Who redeemest our life from destruction and crownest us with loving kindness and tender mercies More particularly we thank thee that thou hast heard the humble supplications of this thy servant to whom thou hast now granted a gracious deliverance and turned her sorrow and heaviness into joy and gladness We thank thee that thou hast sent her seasonable helpers and blessed their endeavours for the preservation of her and of the fruit of her womb And that thou likewise vouchsafest her all needful things for her refreshment in this weak condition wherein she lies waiting upon thee for the perfecting of thy mercies towards her Accept we beseech thee of our hearty acknowledgements of thy powerful and good providence over her and over any person here present in the like necessity which we now thankfully call to mind and desire may never be forgotten O that a lively remembrance of this and all other thy mercies may so mightily affect our hearts that we may be moved thereby to fear thee all our days and to love thee and to put our trust in thee and with quiet and resigned minds to cast all our burdens and cares on thee in a constant and chearful obedience to all thy holy commands And since thou hast begun to be so gracious to this thy hand-maid grant
Gospel of Christ That so our praises being not meerly words but real deeds and all the fruits of righteousness we may be blessed in our deed and at last hear our Lord speaking to us in those gracious words Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world Amen A Prayer for the Morning when there is a Communion O Most holy holy holy Lord God Almighty the Father of mercies the God of peace and comfort by whose power we and all things else were created and by whose good providence we are all preserved and maintain'd Be thou eternally blessed and praised worshipped and served with the most ardent love who hast made mankind so like to thy self and ordered so many of thy creatures to serve us and chosen rather to make us anew and create us again Ephes 2.10 in Christ Jesus unto good works than let us be undone by our shameful disobedience to thee For thou Joh. 3.16 hast sent thy only begotten Son into the world adored be thy inconceiveable love that whosoever believeth in him might not perish but have everlasting life And he hath laid down his life for that end and redeemed us by his bloud from the hands of our enemies and triumphed over them all most gloriously and in token thereof ascended into heaven and possessed the Crown of immortal Life and sat down at thy right hand and obtained dominion over Angels and Men and all Creatures We have felt the blessed fruits of his Death and Resurrection and Royal Power whereby Heb. 7.25 he is able to save to the uttermost all them that come to thee by him Thy holy Spirit hath breathed often into our hearts we have been instructed in the Gospel of thy grace and thy Servants the Ministers of thy Word have not ceased to call upon us yea to importune us to follow after our Saviour to that heavenly bliss in which he lives And now again thou vouchsafest to us an happy opportunity to improve our selves in Christian Wisdom Devotion and holiness and we have received thy kind invitations to the nearest approaches to thy divine Majesty O fill us we pray thee with a lively and strong sense of thy bounteous goodness which hath been so many ways expressed towards us Fill us with pious dispositions to receive more of it according to thy precious promises in Christ Jesus Stirr up in us such thankful acknowledgements to thee such hearty resolutions to obey thee such earnest desires and longings to partake more and more of thy divine Nature such love delight and joy in well doing that our souls may be lifted up above to that glorious place where our dear Saviour is and we may comfortably expect and be truly prepared for a blessed translation thither at the great day of his appearing Our great unfruitfulness we confess in the knowledge of Christ may justly make thee deny thy gratious influences from heaven upon us But O God of all grace who multiplyest mercy and delightest in doing good pardon us and make us better both at once Quicken our souls to hear thy holy Word with greater fear and reverence to sing thy praises with greater cheerfulness and gladness to pray to thee with more earnest affection and steadiness of mind to approach to thy holy Table with the deepest humility and devotion of spirit and to receive the renewed pledges of thy love to our very great increase in Faith and Hope and Love to thee and to all the world That so this may be a good day to our souls and we may be disposed and enabled to spend the rest of our days better as becomes the redeemed of the Lord who have tasted how gracious he is and who have received the earnest of eternal life O that our conversation may be in heaven by the constant love and exercise of purity righteousness mercy and godliness That we ever studying to glorifie thee our heavenly Father by bearing much of this good fruit may have the more assured hope that thou wilt glorifie us with thy self And inspire we beseech thee the hearts of all others that meet together this day to magnifie thy great and glorious Name with the like religious affections towards thee That we may all Rom. 12.1 present our selves a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto thee which is our reasonable service Help us all to Coloss 3.10,11 c. put on as thy elect children holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindness humbleness of mind meekness long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another if any man have a quarrel against any even as Christ forgave us so incline us also to do And above all these things to put on charity which is the â—ond of perfectness And let the peace â—f thee our God rule in our hearts â—o which we are called in one body and â—ake us ever truly thankful Hear â—s we beseech thee O most merciâ—ul Father and after we have perâ—ected holiness here in thy fear bring â—s all to compleat our praises and â—hanksgivings to thee in the great â—ssembly of Saints and Angels through Christ Jesus our blessed Lord and Saviour 2 Pet. 3. ult To whom be glory both now and for ever Amen Our Father c. A Prayer at Night when there hath been a Communion O Eternally blessed Lord God the Creator of the world the Father of Angels and men the King of infinite Majesty and Power who canst do what thou pleasest every where 2 Chron. 6.18 Thâ—… heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee who art inthroned only in thy own greatness and crowned with the glory of thy own uncommunicated perfections There is nothing can be added to thee by us or any other creatures of whose services thou hast no need seeing thou art absolutely happy in thy self Act. 17.25 and givest to all life and breath and all things But it is our perfection and happiness to admire and praise thee whom we cannot comprehend to love thee as much as we know thee and to obey thee as much as we love thee 1 Chron. 28.9 with a perfect heart and with a willing mind for the Lord searcheth all hearts and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts We praise thee therefore O God we acknowledge thee to be the Lord. We give thee the glory that is due unto thy name and with hearty â—ove offer up our selves again intireâ—y unto thee whose we are and for whom we were made Justice and gratitude fear and love hope and interest whatsoever hath any power to move our hearts do all press and mightily urge us constantly to devote and consecreate our souls and bodies to thy faithful service We cannot neglect thee unless we will cast away our selves nor sin against thee unless we will be our own accusers judges and tormentors and throw our selves into the greatest miseries Thou hast been so good to us that if we should not become
good likewise we must hate and abhorr our selves who cannot but love and delight in those who show us any kindness and bestow any benefits upon us though they are but thy Ministers and Servants that have nothing and can do nothing but what thou hast given them and inclinest them to do By thee we were formed and brought out of our Mothers Womb. And by a greater mercy were early born again and made thy children in Christ Jesus We have been thy care ever since and been instructed in that Covenant of Grace into which at our Baptism we were received by the knowledge thou hast given us of thy blessed Gospel Wherein we read the great love of our Saviour in dying for us and have the promise of his Spirit to sanctifie and govern us his holy Precepts for the rule of our actions his glorious Example to excite and quicken us and the hope of eternal bliss by his Resurrection from the dead to incourage and comfort us in well doing And in the mean time we injoy the society of thy Saints the ministry of thy Angels and the direction and assistance of thy faithful servants the Embassadors of peace and reconciliation with thee All which fruits of thy wonderful love we have long enjoyed and thou hast this day entertained us at thy Table where thou hast refreshed us with the Communion of the body and bloud of Christ Jesus the earnest of a blessed resurrection and the pledge of immortality Besides innumerable good things which thy most tender mercy hath been pleased to bestow upon our bodies to make our passage to that blessedness through all the troubles and dangers of this life the more easie and delightful to us And all this thou hast done for those who have been too idle and useless cold and dull inconstant and soon weary of their duty forgetful of benefits and unfaithful to their own promises But thy infinite goodness still continues to do it to make us more diligent more zealous more steadfast and immoveable more mindful of thee and of our own holy purposes that we may be abundant as there is reason in the work of our Lord knowing that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. And that is the most sincere and fervent desire of our souls likewise who here most humbly beseech thee by the power of thy holy Spirit to preserve in us a perpetual and affectionate remembrance of all thy undeserved kindness to us Stir up all that is within us every morning to bless and praise thy holy Name That by a renewed serious acknowledgement of thy benefits we may be more and more stirred up to love and to all good works O that the Lord Jesus may be always in our thoughts and in our hearts that we may make him our pattern as he is our hope O that nothing may be so dear unto us in this world as his holiness his humility his goodness and charity his meekness and patience his intire trust in thee and resignation to thee his delight to do thy will O God in hope of that Tit. 1.1 eternal life which thou who canst not lye hast promised to us Fix our minds and affections more steadfastly on that glory wherewith he is crowned by his obedient suffering of death that we may never be weary nor faint in our minds under any sufferings for well doing but continuing faithful to the death may also receive the Crown of Life Accept we pray thee of this our bounden duty and service pitty our great weaknesses pardon all our sins and negligences and deny us not the grace of thy holy Spirit which we have implored to inable us to amend our lives according to thy holy Word But after thou hast refreshed us with quiet sleep this night let us feel it moving our hearts to the same holy thoughts acknowledgements desires and resolutions which it now works in us through thy mercy declared to us in Christ Jesus In whose words we conclude our Prayers saying as he hath taught us Our 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 c. PRAYERS FOR FAMILIES MVNDAY MORNING WE humble our selves O Lord of heaven and earth before thy glorious Majesty we heartily acknowledge thy Sovereign Dominion over us all creatures we praise and magnifie thy eternal Power Wisdom Goodness and Truth and we render thee our most unfeigned thanks for the innumerable benefits which thou in thy bounty hast loaded us withal Above all for the gracious declaration thou hast made of thy good will to us in Christ Jesus by whom thou hast invited and incouraged sinners to return to thee and directed them in the way to everlasting bliss We blush to think of our shameful forgetfulness of thee and ingratitude to thee to whom we owe all that we have in this world and all our hopes in the next We most humbly implore thy tender mercies in the forgiveness of all our sins whereby we have offended either in thought word or deed against thy just and holy Laws For we are truly sorry for all our mis-doings we utterly renounce whatsoever is contrary to thy will and here devote our selves intirely to the obedience thereof Accept O most merciful Father of this renewed Dedication which we make of our whole man body soul and spirit to thee And as thou dost inspire us with holy resolutions so accompany them always with the assistance of thy grace that we may be able every day to offer up our selves more sincerely and more cheerfully to thee with more pure affection and hearty devotion and ready disposition to thy service We adore thy great grace which hath brought salvation to us and Tit. 2.11,12 teaches us that denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world We will indeavour O Lord to preserve a grateful sense of thy mighty love in our mind and to follow the doctrine and example of thy Son Christ Jesus as becomes those who have such a blessed hope and look for so great Salvation at the day of his glorious appearing We desire above all things to be so pure and undefiled so meek and gentle so humble and lowly so just and merciful so peaceable and patient contented and thankful as our blessed Lord and Master was And we hope that thou wilt fulfil all the gracious promises he hath made to us which we esteem far greater treasure than thousands of gold and silver They are the support the comfort the satisfaction of our hearts We ask nothing but that it may be to thy servants according to his Word Thou hast mercifully kept us the last night blessed be thy continued goodness and raised us again to see
to us Though we are not worthy we confess of the least regard from thee whom we have so much neglected and whose love and clemency we have too often abused yet we hope thou wilt accept of this small oblation which we make of our selves our souls and bodies with unfeigned devotion to thee Pardon and forgive us we most humbly beseech thee all our past offences the remembrance of which is grievous and bitter to us and vouchsafe us the grace of thy holy Spirit to enable us to do thy will with greater care and diligence for the time to come Let it ever accompany and assist us according as thou seest us sincerely desirous and studious to please thee in all the actions of an holy life in chastity and temperance justice and fidelity mercy and charity meekness and humility patience and contentedness â—nnocency and peace and in contiâ—ual prayers praises and thanksgiâ—ings to thee the Father of mercies in Christ Jesus our Lord. We see how frail and weak our bodies and all their enjoyments are and therefore we the more earnestly desire to have our souls inriched with those immortal treasures of thy Divine Grace O that we may never cease most zealously to seek and pursue them and that we may think our selves happy enough in the possession of them and may rejoyce in nothing so much as in Rom. 6.22 having our fruit unto holiness that in the end we may attain eternal life Suffer not our spirits to sink too deep into the love of any the dearest good that we have in this world But rather by all these earthly things which thy goodness affords to us for our support ease and delight raise our minds and hearts to those Celestial enjoyments which will yield us eternal pleasure and satisfaction Set our affections principally on things above Make us so wise as to provide our selves friends that never dye and to be still preparing our selves by all divine qualities for their company and society that so they may Luk. 16.9 receivs us when we remove hence into their everlasting habitations Thus now we commend our selves this day to thy most gracious protection guidance and blessing hoping that the same good providence which preserved us and our habitations the last night from fire and innumerable other dangers for which we thank thee will guard us this day from all evil and mischief and bring us in safety of soul and body to praise thee in the Evening Help us thankfully to receive and soberly to use all thy mercies quietly to do our own business and bear our several burdens to be just in our dealings innocent and harmless â—n our conversation well pleased â—ith the prosperity of our neighâ—ours desirous of the good of all â—he world especially that they may all love and honour and joyn â—ogether in magnifying and praising â—hee our Lord and Governour whose name is excellent in all the earth More particularly we implore thy mercies towards these Kingdoms wherein we live Remember not against us our high provocations Spare us good Lord and have patience with us if perhaps we may bring forth better fruit becoming thy holy Gospel and all the care thou hast taken about us Indue our Soveraign with much Wisdom from above that he may always discern what is most profitable for us and earnestly pursue it to the utmost of his power Bless him in his Relations in his Councellors in his Judges and all other Officers in all the Nobility Clergy Gentry and Commonal y of the Realm that every one of them may uprightly and zealously do their duty to the maintenance of thy true Religion and the increase of Piety Honesty and Brotherly love among us Comfort and relieve all those that are in any distress trouble or anguish either of body or of mind And give us tender and pitiful hearts towards them ready to help and ease them according to our abilities That we following the example of our merciful and compassionate High-Priest Christ Jesus may have now the benefit of his intercession for us and at last be admitted into the high and holy place where he is In whose blessed Name and words we conclude our Prayers Our Father c. At Night WE fall down before thee O Lord of heaven and earth and worship thee in the deepest humility of our souls acknowledging â—hat we are thy creatures who stand infinitely bound unto thee by innumerable blessings and favours which thou hast conferred upon us out of thy mere bounty and goodness We owe our lives to that alone and all the comforts of them together with all the hopes we have hereafter either in this world or the other And blessed for ever blessed be thy merciful kindness for giving such glorious hopes by the Lord Jesus By his Death and Resurrection by his Ascension and being inthroned at thy right hand and by the coming of the Holy Ghost to be a witness of his Majesty and Glory We rejoyce O Lord in that great salvation which thou hast sent unto us and cannot but be still praising thee whose love hath so abounded towards us beyond all our thoughts and desires Pardon we most humbly beseech thee out of the same grace and mercy all our past neglects of thee our insensibleness of thy benefits our carelesness or inconstancy in our obedience and particularly whatsoever we have done or omitted this day contrary to those holy purposes and resolutions wherein we stand ingaged to thee And vouchsafe us the assistance of thy holy Spirit to inable us to perform those vows better which here we renew of greater gratitude and more chearful and steadfast obedience to thy divine Majesty for the time to come Awaken our minds to frequent and serious reflections upon thy undeserved and most bountiful mercies towards us Touch our hearts with such an ingenuous and dutiful sense of them that our wills may be overcome to yield themselves wholly and absolutely to thee And that we may feel them constantly provoked to love and good works help us ever to set our Lord and Master by whose name we are called before our eyes and to admire his unspotted purity his condescending humility his tender-hearted charity his meekness of wisdom his hearty trust in thee and resignation to thee his forgiveness of injuries his patience under reproaches and cruel torments his peaceable and contented spirit his acknowledging thee in all things and ever seeking thy Honour and Glory That being in love with all these and valuing them more than life it self we may never cease our indeavours till this Image of our dear Lord and Master be formed in our hearts O Lord Jesus favourably behold these holy desires wherewith our souls aspire towards thee Preserve and maintain them incourage and increase them make them restless and unwearied till they be accomplished in the injoyment of this great blessedness Thou who hast begun a good work in us finish and compleat it we most humbly and earnestly beseech
never dye nor languish in our hearts but be kept alive in their vigour and force by the perpetual inspirations of the holy Ghost We wait upon thee for that promise of our Saviour to assist and promote our sincere indeavours to preserve our souls unblameable in the love of thee our God and of all mankind We heartily desire the prosperity and welfare of every one of them as well as our own O that they were all so wise and happy as to acknowledge and submit themselves to thee by obeying thy holy Laws Especially we desire that all Kings and Princes may become our Saviours Subjects and conforming themselves to his will may be rendred thereby most excellent examples to all other men Indue our Soveraign with abundance of the Spirit of counsel and judgement and the fear of our Lord. Make him happy in wise and faithful Ministers in loyal and peaceable Subjects and in the good success of all his enterprises for the honour of Religion and his peoples tranquillity We commend to thy mercies all our friends relations and benefactors desiring that all who have done us good may be requited an hundred fold here and obtain at last eternal life And all that have done evil to us as we heartily forgive them so we earnestly desire they may obtain thy gracious pardon Together with these we remember likewise all that are in affliction whatsoever it be either of soul or body to whom we wish ease and comfort and seasonable relief that they may rejoyce in the end for the days wherein they have seen adversity In these holy thoughts and desires we now are bold to commend our selves to thy protection this night who hast preserved and blessed us we most thankfully acknowledge all the day past We repose our selves in the belief of thy good providence with which we intrust our selves and all belonging to us We would lay down our selves to sleep with hearts full of love to thee and humble faith and hope in thee Desiring we may awake again in the same manner and find that we are still with thee Dispose us good Lord by the rest thou givest us always to serve thee more zealously with our renewed spirits that after the few days and nights we have to pass in this world we may come to thy eternal rest together with Christ Jesus In whose blessed name and words we still recommend our selves to thy mercies Our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy kingdom â—ome Thy will be done in earth as it â—s in heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our â—respasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from â—vil c. PRAYERS FOR FAMILIES FRIDAY MORNING O God most blessed for ever whose the world is and the fulness thereof who needest not any thing that we can give thee for thou givest us whatsoever we injoy We prostrate our selves before thee to make such poor expressions as we are able of the sense we have of thine infinite bounty to us It is but fit and meet that we should acknowledge and praise thee though we can thereby add nothing unto thee It is our happiness to have a grateful remembrance of thy goodness to us and to be knit unto thee in hearty love and dutiful affection all the days of our life We thank thee therefore O Lord of heaven and earth who hast loaded us continually with thy benefits They are great and many more than we can number both towards our bodies and towards our souls for the comfort of this life and our everlasting Salvation in the Life to come For ever adored be thy love in Christ Jesus who hath given us an undoubted testimony of thy fatherly care and providence over us and incouraged us though we have offended thee to address our selves to thee with good hope of thy gracious acceptance of us into friendship with thee again We love thee O Lord above all things We freely offer our spirits souls and bodies to thee with most sincere devotion and the heartiest affection to thy service There is nothing we desire and long for so much as to have a lively sense of thy marvailous love always possessing our hearts that may still constrain us to love thee to obey thee to trust in thee to be content with the portion thy love allots unto us and to rejoyce even in the midst of all the troubles of this life We cannot chuse O Lord when we seriously think of what thou hast done for us but absolutely commit our selves to thee intirely confide in thee for the time to come Since thou hast Rom. 8.32 not spared thy own Son but delivered him up for us all how shalt thou not with him also freely give us all things We depend upon thee especially for the grace of thy holy Spirit for the power of which in our hearts exciting these holy desires and godly resolutions we most humbly thank thy divine Majesty O that we may feel it perpetually bearing us up by the strength of our most holy faith and by the power of love and hope above all the temptations which at any time assault us That we may keep our selves unspotted from the world and no appetite of pleasure of glory or of riches may ever carry us from our duty but we may still cleave to thee in Righteousness Purity Humility Charity and all other divine vertues of which our Lord hath given us so great an example For his sake we hope for a favourable acceptance of these our praises acknowledgements and prayers For we must be still beholden to thine infinite goodness for the least regard to any thing that we can do who are but unprofitable servants And we wait upon the same goodness for thy blessing to accompany us all this day that we may do nothing but what we know is pleasing to thee and may be so prospered protected and assisted by thine Almighty power that we may return with our hearts full of love and thankfulness to thee in the evening again to praise and magnifie thy continued kindness to us Unto which we commend most heartily the rest of mankind desiring that they may all know thee the true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent whom to know is eternal life And O that all Christians would walk worthy of thy high and heavenly Calling that others seeing their good works may be invited thereby to acknowledge and glorifie thee our heavenly Father More particularly we desire the increase of wisdom and goodness to all Christian Kings and Princes and a plentiful portion of the Spirit of thy Grace to all Christian Bishops Priests and Deacons that they may be eminent instruments of thy honour and their peoples good by the authority of their Doctrine and godly Example Make our Soveraign and us all happy in each other by the faithful discharge of our several duties in the places wherein thy
benefits we have received and therefore may justly fear thou shouldest withhold thy tender mercies and shut up thy loving kindness in displeasure But the desires and holy resolutions thou hast wrought and continuest in our souls to amend and become still more fruitful in all good works incourage us to hope in thee for pardon through the bloud of Jesus Christ and for the assistance of thy holy Spirit to inable us to accomplish that which we intend and purpose to grow more and more in wisdom and knowledge and in righteousness and true holiness O that this Image of thine may appear every day fairer and more beautiful before thee and in the sight of all men That so we may adorn the Religion we profess and be a good Example unto others and have a solid foundation of peace and comfort in our own hearts and be able to hope in thee for thy future mercy in Christ Jesus even unto eternal life We commend our selves to thy wonted grace and in a sense of what thou hast done already for us and what thou hast promised to do depend on thy goodness for what thou seest profitable and conducing to our chiefest good referring our selves wholly to thy wise will and pleasure and resolved contentedly to submit to thy appointments thankfully to receive thy mercies and to rest satisfied with our portion whatsoever it be that thou orderest for us Make us but steadfast in thy faith and love unwearied in well doing patient and constant under all sufferings full of a lively hope in thy mercy and willing to dye when and as thou pleasest and we have enough In confidence that thou hearest us and art every where and never slumberest nor sleepest we commit our selves to the custody of thy watchful providence this night to be secured and protected by thee when we cannot at all attend to our own preservation May it please thy goodness to give this whole family a comfortable rest and repose to defend this habitation and all about us from fire and such like sad accidents to deliver us from the power of evil spirits and of evil men and to raise us in health and chearfulness to praise thee and to glorifie thee both in soul and body the next day Psal 59.16,17 Then will we sing of thy power yea we will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning because thou hast been our defence and our refuge at all times Vnto thee O our strength will we sing for God is our defence and the God of our mercy 111.1 We will praise the Lord with our whole heart in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation 92.1,2 For it is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing praises unto thy name O most High to shew forth thy loving kindness in the morning and thy faithfulness every night 24.1 The earth is thine and the fulness thereof the world and they that dwell therein 22.27,28 Let all the people praise thee O God let all the people praise thee O that all the ends of the world would remember and turn unto the Lord and all the kindreds of the Nations worship before him For the kingdom is the Lords and he is the governour among the Nations Bless especially all Christian Kings and Princes that it may Prov. 16.12 be an abomination to them to commit wickedness and their thrones may be established by righteousness And incline the hearts of all those who have any authority in these Kingdoms to love and hold fast thy true Religion and to live according to to it that 20.28 by mercy and truth the king may be preserved and his throne be upholden by mercy We heartily desire the ease peace and satisfaction of all those who are in pain trouble and perplexity and that all poor miserable people may find supply of their wants from thy bounty and the charity of those on whom thou hast bestowed plenty and abundance We humbly also wait for thy blessing upon all our Relations and Friends trusting in thee for such a measure of health and all other good things as thou judgest useful for us and especially that the Lord Jesus 1 Tim. 4.8 will deliver us from every evil work and preserve us to his heavenly kingdom To whom be glory for ever and ever Amen Our Father c. A shorter Morning Prayer for any day in the week when there is not time by reason of some extraordinary occasions for the other O Most great and glorious God the Soveraign of the World Upon whom we continually depend to whom we owe all the love the service and the praise that we are able to render to all eternity We adore thy infinite mercy from whence we have received so many blessings for the comfort of this life and by which we have a sure Hope of good things in the life to come Blessed be thy goodness which hath not suffered us to wander without instruction after the foolish desires of our own hearts but hath clearly shown us where our happiness lyes We receive with all thankfulness those holy words which teach us the blessedness of poverty and contentedness of spirit of meekness and humility of mind of hungering and thirsting after righteousness of mercifulness and purity of heart of peaceableness and patient suffering for doing the will of our Lord Christ O that we may have grace to labour alway to be in the number of those blessed Souls that never set their hearts on any thing so much as these heavenly vertues O that we may ever think and feel our selves happy in the comfort of those great and precious promises of being made the children of the highest the heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven and at last of seeing thee our God It suffices O Lord that we have these glorious hopes hereafter which make us believe thou wilt not let us want what is necessary for us whilst we continue here We commend our selves with an humble confidence to thy watchful providence this day beseeching thee to guide and assist us that in all our desires words and actions we may keep our selves innocent and undefiled before thee and be disposed to do all good as we have opportunity And we heartily desire that all mankind may be filled with the same devotion to thee and especially that all Christian people may glorifie thy Name and be joyful in thee And the greater any are in Dignity and Power raise their spirits to the greater pitch of Wisdom Mercy and Piety that they may right those that suffer wrong and defend those that have no helper and provide for the ease and comfort of all miserable creatures to the utmost of their power In this ardent charity we commit both souls and bodies to thee beseeching thee to increase our love to thee and to all men till we be fit to be translated to the region of love and joy and perfect satisfaction through Christ Jesus
deliver us from evil c. PRAYERS For particular PERSONS A Prayer for the Morning to be said by any Person alone O Most holy blessed and glorious Majesty of heaven and earth Who art before all things because they all received their being from thee and who art of thy self infinite in all perfections Before thee who art so great and incomprehensible I most humbly prostrate my self this Morning rejoycing in this happy liberty which thou vouchsafest me of retiring my thoughts a little from this world to look up unto thee the Father of my being I adore and praise thy eternal Power Wisdom and Goodness I heartily acknowledge the duty which I owe thee both as I am thy creature and as I am a Christian I bewail all my neglects of it my backwardness unto it or coldness in it I intreat thy gracious pardon and ingage my self for the time to come more heartily and firmly to thy obedience beseeching the grace of thy holy Spirit to inable me to perform all those ingagements which are upon me And blessed be thy Fatherly goodness which hath so often prevented me with that grace I owe to it all the good thoughts and inclinations that are in my heart all those motions that I feel in my soul towards thee as my chiefest good with all the effects and fruits of them in my life and actions which incourage me to hope in thee for the constant help of it to further me in well doing unto the end O thou who hast sent thy Son from heaven to dwell among us who hast not spared his life but given him up for us all who hast raised him from the dead and made him heir of all things who hast given him all power in heaven and earth that he may bless us and do us good deny not the desires of a soul that offers up it self intirely in sincere affection to thy service But assist me so mightily from above that I may make thee my constant acknowledgements likewise for the sensible fruits of his Life Death Resurrection and Exaltation produced in my heart growing more and more in all Wisdom Righteousness Purity Humility Goodness and every other divine Vertue For which end preserve me alway in such a serious temper of mind that the sense of my duty to thee may make me always ready and forward to it and the sense of my weakness may make me watchful and diligent and the sense of my former negligence make me fervent in spirit and the goodness of thy commands may render me more fruitful and abundant in the work of our Lord and the great danger I have escaped and the blessedness before me may make me persevere most patiently in all well doing with joy and thankfulness So that I may be like to Christ Jesus my gracious Lord and Master and do him honour here in this world and walk worthy of the great priviledges he hath bestowed on me and make grateful returns for all the vast receipts I have had from thy most bounteous mercy O that all my acknowledgements and pious affections may be turned into actions of holiness and piety and all my actions may be spirited with zeal and all my zeal be regulated with prudence and my prudence be void of all guile and joyned with perfect integrity of heart that adorning my most holy faith and profession by a religious upright charitable and discreet conversation whilst I am here I may receive approbation and praise at the day of the Lord Jesus and be numbered among thy Saints in glory everlasting This O Lord is the sum of all my desires Dispose me by every thing that befals me for eternal life and it sufficeth I wholly leave my concerns in this life to the wisdom of thy goodness that thou mayst order what thou judgest to be fittest for me I trust thee with my self and all I have hoping thou wilt preserve me from all things hurtful and lead me to all things profitable for my salvation The like I wish to all the world that unbelievers may be translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of thy dear Son and they who are called by the name of Christ may depart from all iniquity Inspire all Kings and Princes of the earth with great wisdom and charity and make them like to thee the Lord of all who art good unto all and pleased in mercy Indue all our Pastors and Guides with true knowledge piety and zeal and give me and all Christian people grace to receive their instructions with a meek humble and obedient heart Thou knowest the sorrows troubles and perplexities of all afflicted persons for whom I implore thy compassionate relief Support them with a lively faith and hope in thy precious promises dispose them thereby to a more strict observance of thy holy Commands and convert their present sufferings into endless joys when they have brought forth the peaceable fruit of righteousness And whilst thou art pleased to continue to me that ease plenty and prosperity which I enjoy fill me with such a sense of thy undeserved goodness that I may be the more ready to do good to those who are in misery and by a sober and moderate use of thy blessings be prepared to endure patiently whatsoever change thou shalt be pleased to order for me into a worse condition Preserve me all this day in innocence and in love to thee and to all men And since in all my ways I acknowledge thee do thou direct my paths and teach me to guide my affairs with discretion Prov. 3.6 Psal 112.5 Thou art my hope and my confidence my satisfaction and my peace my glory and my joy therefore never leave me not forsake me but conduct me safely by thy counsel through all the businesses and enjoyments through all the temptations and troubles of this life to that blessed place where our Lord Jesus liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the same spirit world without end Amen Our Father c. A Prayer for the Evening O Lord the Creator of the world and the Redeemer of mankind Who knowest all things and canst do what thou pleasest and wilt do that which is best for thy children and hast done us a world of good already and promised to do more for us if we be obedient than we can ask or think and hast given us the greatest assurance of the truth of those promises by thy Son Jesus who dyed for us and whom thou hast raised from the dead and given him the promise of the holy Ghost which he hath poured forth abundantly to shed abroad thy love in our hearts I fall down before thee in the lowliest manner to express my fear and reverence of thy Almighty Power my admiration of and submission to thy unsearchable wisdom my hearty love and thankful acknowledgement of thy wondrous goodness my trust and confidence in thy faithful Promises with my readiness and sincere purposes to perform all obedience
O God for the good hope which thy infinite charity hath given us by thy great grace in Christ Jesus and the plentiful communication of the holy Ghost O let thy mercy be upon me according as I hope in thee Preserve me alway in thy love through that abundant grace in thy Son Christ and the powerful presence of thy holy Spirit working in me mightily this day and ever Or after The peace of God which passeth all understanding c. you may say as the Apostle St. Paul 2 Thess 3.16 and the Psalmist 115.12,13,18 NOw the Lord of peace himself give me peace always by all means The Lord be with us all The Lord hath been mindful of us he will bless us He will bless them that fear him both small and great And we will bless the Lord from this time forth and for evermore Amen A short Prayer for the Lords-day or any other to be used at home before Morning Service O Lord the Almighty Creator of the world and the merciful Saviour of mankind who art above all our thoughts and excellest the praises of the highest Angels Thou art greatly to be feared in the assembly of thy Saints and to be had in reverence of all those that are about thee I most humbly desire leave to joyn my self with all those holy ones to worship thy most glorious Majesty to express the due sense I have of all thy benefits by paying thee my most thankful acknowledgements for them to make thee the best oblation I am able and devote my self intirely to thy obedience Since thou hast graciously inclined me to go into thy house and there to set forth thy praise to declare thy loving kindness to resign my self to thy Will to recommend my self to thy Wisdom to submit to thy Government to approve the justice and goodness of all thy Laws to profess that I am thy servant to renounce all thy enemies and to testifie my continued purpose to follow thee against all the temptations of the world the flesh and the Devil be pleased good Lord to pardon all my former failings and at this present to accept my holy intentions and to inspire me from above that I may chearfully perform all these acts of devotion to thy Divine Majesty And vouchsafe more fully to inform me in my duty to correct and amend what is amiss in me to incourage and strengthen my good resolutions and to assist me in all well doing Fill me with a great love to thee and to my blessed Saviour to thy holy Word and to all holy duties to Christian people every where and to all mankind Perfect me in Wisdom in Holiness and in Goodness By all thy instructions by all thy mercies by all thy chastisements and by all my prayers praises and thanksgivings to thee the Father of mercies make me such as thou canst love and delight in and reward at the great day of the Lord Jesus Amen A short Prayer at home after we are come from Church before Dinner I Adore thee again O Lord of Life and glory I acknowledge my dependence on thee I thank thee for thy mercies which thou never ceasest to heap upon me Accept I beseech thee of that dedication I have made of soul and body with praises and thanksgivings unto thee in the publick Congregation Be merciful to all my sins and indue me with the grace of thy holy Spirit to inable me to present my self when I appear again before thee a more holy and devout Sacrifice unto thee steadfastly resolved and chearfully disposed in every thing to be ordered by thy Will For which end be pleased to settle and root in my heart a stronger belief of thy holy Gospel and to fix my thoughts and affections upon that unseen happiness and bliss where our Saviour is That nothing here below may either allure or affright me from my duty nor ever make me remiss or negligent in it but I may be zealous of good works fervent in spirit serving my Lord from whom I expect the reward of an immortal inheritance Preserve in me always a Religious sense of thee And make me now so thankful and sober a partaker of the refreshments of my body that they may not damp the devotion of my soul But I may rather return to worship thee with greater chearfulness and gladness of heart after thou hast added the good things of this world to those of the other according to thy abundant love in Christ Jesus Amen A Prayer in private before the Evening Service O God who art rich in mercy to all that call upon thee and hast bid us 1 Thess 5. pray without ceasing and rejoyce evermore In obedience to thy command and incouraged by the goodness of thy Nature thy gracious invitations thy most precious promises and the long experience that I and others have had of thy bounty I am bold again to approach into thy presence to renew my requests unto thee to bless thy holy name to make profession of my love to thee and readiness in all things to obey thee Quicken my thoughts and affections O Lord to a free and joyful attendance on thee in all holy duties that no dulness nor weariness may seize upon my spirit but such a fervent love to thee may possess my heart as may render all the imployments of Religion my delight and the doing thy Will both now and alway my greatest pleasure And pass by I most humbly beseech thee all my unwilling indispositions Accept of such service as I am able to render thee And dispose me by all my addresses to thee to be more circumspect and watchful more diligent and industrious more forward and zealous in the performance of every part of my duty That being led by thy Counsel governed by thy Spirit and preserved by thy gracious Providence I may at last be admitted into the company of the blessed there to perfect my praises and acknowledgements and to receive the reward of patient continuance in well doing through Christ Jesus Whose grace be with my spirit Amen Another after the Evening Service is done as soon as there is opportunity to retire alone I Acknowledge thy manifold blessings O Lord which are renewed upon me every moment I owe my life continually to thee with all the comforts of it If I had no more to thank thee for but the mercies of this day they are so many so great that I could never thank thee enough for them Thou takest care of my body and of my soul Thou feedest me at thy house and at my own Thou lettest me taste the bread of Life which came down from Heaven besides the many supports and refreshments which thou affordest for this natural life Several of thy creatures lose their lives to preserve mine and thy dear Son hath not thought it too much to lay down his precious Life for my sake Thou speakest to me and givest me leave to speak to thee Thou instructest me in my duty and
be â—eared Psal 130.4 Thou hast sworn â—hat thou desirest not â—he death of a sinner Ezek. 18.32 â—ut rather that he should return and â—ve And hast sent thy Son Jesus â—ith the most indearing arguments â—f the greatest love to perswade us â—o return unto our duty Behold O Lord I return with grief and â—ffliction of spirit that I have offendâ—d thee detesting the thoughts of â—oing the like again and resolving â—o be more careful and diligent and â—rcumspect for the time to come â— let me live to the praise of thy â—mnipotent Grace inabling me to â—erform these resolutions in a more â—rict and exact obedience to thy hoâ— commands the rest of my days â—ercy mercy I most earnestly beg â— Father of mercies for the sake of him that dyed for me not meerly for the pardon of my sins but for a Divine Power to enable me to subdue them I desire not thy infinite goodness to bear me out in rebellion against thy righteousness purity and truth but that by thy goodness I may be partaker of them that my repentance may be accepted and that it may be hearty and stedfast never to be repented of I desire no peace quiet and ease in my heart but in a constant and resolute opposition of all the temptation of the world the flesh and the devil and in the hope I have thaâ— through thy gracious assistance iâ— shall be victorious O settle me I beseech thee in thiâ— holy disposition that I may preservâ— an intire friendship with thee hereâ— after by an happy agreement witâ— thy will and pleasure in every thing And for that end makâ— me strong in the Lord Ephes 6.10 anâ— in the power of his might That bâ—ing sensible of my own great weakness I may more earnestly depend upon thy aid from above by an humble and vigorous faith in thy Almighty goodness Maintain such a clear light in my mind that may keep me from being deceived with the vain shadows and empty appearances of satisfactory pleasure in any thing of this world Fortifie my will with the power of thy Divine love that may overcome all sensual affections that arise in me at any time against thy sacred commands And possess me with such a lively hope of those good things which Christ hath promised in the other life that may make me active â—nd zealous stedfast and unmoveable â—lways abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that my labour shall â—ot be in vain in the Lord. Thou knowest the secrets of all â—earts let thy mercy O Lord be â—pon me according as I deliberately and sincerely chuse to cleave unto thee with purpose of heart Act. 11.23 Psal 51.9,10,11 O cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy Spirit from me But hide thy face from my sins Psal 119.80 and blot out all mine iniquities Psal 19.13,14 Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a constant spirit in me Make my heart to be sound in thy Statutes that I may never be ashamed Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins let them not have dominion over me Then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression The words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart shall be accepted in thy sight O Lord my strength and my Redeemer Amen Amen A THANKSGIVING To the DIVINE GOODNESS For any hope of a PARDON After such RELAPSE O Eternally most blessed God the Fountain of all good from whence all creatures derive whatsoever they injoy They are all poor and indigent things full of necessities and wants which are continually supplied out of thy fulness But the wants of our souls are the most lamentable because besides the poverty of creatures we have made a great many needs to our selves by our wilful departure from thee in whom we live and move and have our being We stand in need of thy Pardon of thy converting grace and the greater supplies of thy holy Spirit which we know not how with any confidence to expect but that all these wants are not too big for thy infinite goodness to relieve and that thou hast been pleased most compassionately to consider our miserable condition in sending Christ Jesus into the world and filling him with all the treasures of thy grace and mercy that he might dispense them to us according to our several necessities O how excellent is thy loving kindness O God! How surpassing is thy love that will pass by the insolent offences of thy creatures against thy high authority and Soveraign goodness and not let them eternally perish without a remedy in that forlorn condition into which they have brought themselves â— Blessed for ever blessed be thy sparing Mercy which hath delivered Christ Jesus for our offences and testified thy acceptance of his Sacrifice of himself by raising him again for our justification Blessed by thy name for the gracious declaration which thou hast made that if any man sin we have an advocate with thee 1 Joh. 2.1,2 Christ Jesus the righteous who is the propitiation for our sins I most thankfully receive these glad tidings which are worthy of all acceptation 1 Tim. 1.15 that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners Thanks be to thy tender mercy which hath restored us to a possibility of recovering thy grace and favour The smallest hope of it I acknowledge is more valuable than the greatest abundance of all the injoyments and pleasures of this present life What praise therefore what love what obedience am I bound to render unto thee who hast given me such a good hope of peace and reconciliation with thee and thereby delivered me from the horror of my own guilty mind remembring that I have adventured to oppose my will to thine I ought for ever with the most zealous devotion of a grateful and obedient heart to admire and stand amazed at thy inconceiveable Grace which will not strictly mark what is done amiss but accept of our repentance and amendment in stead of an intire and constant performance of our duty to thee O the heighth the depth the length and the breadth of thy love in Christ Jesus which is the satisfaction of our heart and the joy of our lives which would otherwise be intolerably grievous and burdensome to us whilst we remember that we are sinners Fill me O Lord with a most ardent love to thee now that I here offer up my self in truth and sincerity of heart to be wholly disposed by thee Behold O Lord my will lies at thy feet I would have no will of my own but desire only that thy will may be done And fill me with an holy fear of thee that thy indulgent mercy may not make me remiss and negligent and presumptous again to offend thee But a perpetual sense of my new obligations to thee in reviving my hopes which I had forfeited in thee may render me more watchful more
graciously accept such holy resolutions and certainly further and succeed them as the effect of thine own inspirations Suffer not his spirit to be oppressed under the sense of his great weakness or discouraged though he fall short of his present holy desires purposes and endeavours But bear him up in a strong perswasion that by sincere constant and unwearied diligence in well doing he shall at last obtain the victory through the power of thy holy Spirit assisting of him Make him see how reasonable it is most gratefully to acknowledge thy infinite Mercies if after much pains many conflicts and long patience he may recover a state of friendship with thee That so he may not spend his time in dejected complaints nor ever faint in his mind or despond in the Christian course but still pursue the compleat mastery over himself in assured hope that thou wilt be with him and never leave him or forsake him We bless thee for that instance of thy exceeding grace to the chiefest of sinners which thou gavest in thy holy Apostle of us Gentiles Who was a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious 1 Tim. 1.13,16 but for this cause obtained mercy that in him Christ Jesus might show forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting Above all we bless thee for our Lord Jesus himself whom thou sentest in our flesh that he might save sinners We bless thee for all the miraculous cures which he wrought on miserable creatures whereby he demonstrated his great charity towards us For the gracious proclamation he hath made of thy pardoning mercy and for the Universal invitation which he hath given to every one Rev. 22.17 that is a thirst to come and take the waters of life freely 1 Joh. 2.2 We thank thee for his death upon the Cross Luk. 23.34 that he might make a propitiation for the sins of the whole world Act. 5.31 2 Cor. 5.18 for his great love in praying then for his bitterest enemies Matth. 26.28 Heb. 7.25 that they might be forgiven 2.17 4.15 for his resurrection and exaltation at thy right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance and forgiveness of sins And that he hath given to his Apostles the Ministry of reconciliation and admitted us into a Covenant of mercy and forgiveness by Baptism into his Name and hatâ— left us the cup of blessing whicâ— is the New Covenant in his blouâ— for the remission of sins and given power and authority to his Mâ—nisters to absolve all those who heartily repent and unfeignedly believâ— his holy Gospel We thank thee O Lord for the assurance we havâ— that he lives for ever to make interceâ—sion for us and is able to save to thâ— uttermost all those that come to thâ— by him and that he is a merciful and faithful High-priest to make reconciliation for the sins of the people being touched with a feeling of all our miseries We cannot doubt O blessed God of thy gracious intentions and desires to pardon us and to make us better when we seriously meditate on all these testimonies of thy Divine love and on that easie and gentle yoke which thou layest on us to love thee with all our heart and our neighbour as our selves and on the promised assistance which we have hopes of from above to inspire inliven and strengthen us to all well doing and patient suffering O that this languishing soul may likewise feel the comfortable influence of all these heavenly Truths reviving and chearing his spirit into a good hope in thee that thou wilt mercifully accept the oblation which he is willing to make of himself to thee and also constantly inable him to offer himself with greater affection and more pure devotion to thy service Scatter all the clouds that darken his mind and lift upon him the light of thy countenance O give him the comfort of thy help again Psal 51.12 and stablish him with thy free spirit 143.11 Quicken him 4.7 O Lord for thy names sake 85.6 for thy righteousness sake bring his soul out of trouble 2 Thess 1.11 Put gladness into his heart 1 Tim. 1.14 and revive him again that he and we may rejoyce in thee Amen Amen O God of all grace fulfill in him all the good pleasure of thy goodness and the work of faith with power that the name of our Lord may be glorified in him according to that grace which was exceeding ahundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus To whom be glory and praise for ever and ever Amen WHen sickness arrests any person it is time for him presently in the very beginning of it to search and try his ways sorrowfully to confess the sins of which he finds himself guilty with a full purpose of amendment to advise with his Spiritual Guide and before his spirit be feeble and broken to recommend himself heartily to our blessed Saviour by receiving the Communion of his body and bloud thereing making a commemoration of his wonderful love and devoting himself again to his service And having set his house in order as thâ— Prophet said to Hezekiah Isa 38.1 and setled his estate to acknowledge Gods great goodness to him hitherto and to submit himself wholly to his good pleasure in such manner as followeth A Prayer in the beginning of a Sickness O Lord the Soveraign of the world who doest what thou pleasest in heaven and in earth Psal 135.6 and delightest most in acts of bounty as all thy works every where declare and art full of compassion and mercy Ecclus 2.11 long-suffering and very pittiful and forgivest sins and savest in time of affliction I acknowledge my self among the rest of thy creatures to be most deeply indebted to thee whose life thou hast prolonged to this time in much health plenty and peace together with the enjoyment of spiritual blessings in the Lord Jesus I thank thee and praise thee all that is within me blesses thy holy name to whose wise and good Providence I wholly refer my self for the time to come placing my intire trust and confidence in thy almighty Goodness Faithfulness and Truth which endures for ever I ought to receive with all thankfulness whatsoever comes from thy hand and believe that to be good for me which thy infinite wisdom and kindness orders and allots for my portion Accordingly I accept with all humble and dutiful affection this thy Fatherly chastisement I acknowledge thy care of me and submit to what thou wilt be pleased to lay upon me If thou thinkest good to exercise me with a longer sickness and to let the present indisposition of my body proceed to a greater disorder not my will but thine O heavenly Father be done I only wait on thee for the comfortable presence of thy holy Spirit to support my soul by faith and hope and patience under all the
pains I may endure Lay no more upon me O Father of mercies than I shall be able to bear and lay upon me what thou pleasest Free me for the present from all murmuring and repining thoughts and for the future make the sickness and anguish of my body a blessed instrument to purge my spirit more perfectly from all pride and vanity from all covetousness and worldly-mindedness and from all inordinate love of any of the pleasures of this life I believe O blessed Jesus that thou livest for ever who sufferedst and dyedst for us and that thou hast a great compassion towards those who would gladly follow thee though it be through sufferings Behold Lord I commend my self to thy mighty Love desiring above all things to be made conformable to thee in meekness in humility in patience in intire resignation to Gods holy will and pleasure and in perfect satisfaction in his Fatherly love and kindness whatsoever my condition be I am sensible O God that I have not employed my time to the utmost advantage of my soul and to thy honour glory but have wasted many precious hours and several ways neglected my duty towards thee * Here reckon up the sins you may have committed and been but an unprofitable part of this world so that I am not worthy to continue any longer in it But I hope thou wilt vouchsafe me thy gracious pardon and receive me to mercy if thou callest me hence for into thy hands O Father I commend my spirit who hast redeemed me by the precious bloud of Jesus Christ And that if thou prolongest my days on earth I shall serve thee with greater diligence and strictness and zeal and chearfulness to the end of my life I desire not to live but that I may perfect holiness in thy fear and secure to my self by doing more good an happy entertainment into the society of the blessed in the other world I see already the emptiness and insufficiency of all enjoyments upon earth All flesh is grass and all the goodliness of it as the flower of the field The grass withereth Isa 40.7 the flower fadeth Psal 119.50,81 But thy word standeth fast for ever In thy word therefore O Lord and gracious promises is my hope This is my comfort in my affliction And my perfect contentment I see lyes always in thy love and favour alone which is better than life it self O settle me in a certain and unmoveable possession of it by what means thou pleasest Do but love me and preserve me in a lively sense of thy good will towards me and dispose of me as thou thinkest good In the multitude of my thoughts within me Psal 94.19 thy comforts shall delight my soul Rom. 5.2 8.28 I will rejoyce even in the midst of tribulations Psal 23.3 30.10 and glory in thy holy name who makest all things work together for good to them that love thee Though I walk through the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy power and tender care they shall comfort me Accept Good Lord of these my desires and resolutions Hear me O God and have mercy upon me Lord be thou my helper for Christ Jesus his sake my ever blessed Redeemer Amen IT will be seasonable here to put the Devout Reader in mind that when he is in distress and desires Mercy of God it ought to excite his charity to others that are in misery and dispose him to shew mercy to them For though that be not Canonical Scripture which we read Tob. 12.9 Alms doth deliver from death yet this is With the merciful God will shew himself merciful Psal 18.25 Blessed is he that considereth the poor the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble 41.1,2,3 If he do not preserve him and keep him alive yet the Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing he will make all his bed in his sickness Therefore as thou recommendest thy self to God and desirest others to pray with thee so remember that Prayer is good with fasting and alms and righteousness Tob. 12.8 A Prayer to be said by the Family with the Sick person O Lord the Father of our spirits who givest to us and all creatures life and breath and all things We sinful dust and ashes blush to lift up our eyes unto heaven when we consider our vast distance from thee and reflect upon thy unspotted holiness and our impurity thy infinite wisdom and our wretched folly thy power and our weakness thy Eternity of life and our short continuance We are but of yesterday and know nothing Job 8.9 because our days upon earth are a shadow Psal 39.11 When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity Job 25.6 thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth Surely every man is vanity But so great is thy condescending grace that thou hast assured us thou wilt not despise such worms as we are Nay thou hast incouraged us blessed be thy goodness to approach unto thee with some confidence that thou wilt mercifully receive us though we have highly offended thy Divine Majesty Having sent thy dear Son into the world to save sinners to purifie our natures to indue us with a divine understanding to strengthen our weakness and to comfort us with the hope of an immortal life Behold O Lord the oblation which we make to thee of most thankful hearts devoted to thy service whose love and tender mercies have so exceedingly abounded towards us We will praise thee and glorifie thee as long as we have any being for this great salvation which Christ Jesus hath brought to light by his resurrection from the dead to an eternal Kingdom in the heavens We are humbly bold to hope in thee that thou who hast not spared thy own Son Rom. 8.32 but delivered him up for us all wilt with him also freely give us all things O thou Father of mercies and God of all comfort who hast not thought a Crown of everlasting life and glory too much to promise us we believe that thou wilt not deny us what is needful and fit for us both for our souls and our bodies in our passage through this world to that honour glory and immortality In this confidence we more particularly recommend this thy sick servant to thy infinite and most compassionate mercy Settle in his * Or her soul a stedfast faith that thou dost not willingly grieve the children of men but intendest good to him by this affliction And now that other pleasures and enjoyments fail him represent thy self effectually unto him as his true happiness and satisfaction Wherein soever he hath neglected thee or committed any offence against thee make him deeply sensible of and heartily sorrwful for his folly And as he earnestly desires pardon and forgiveness of thee so work in him a serious resolution to live more circumspectly and exactly in time to come Assist him graciously
in the time of my sickness O that this world may ever appear unto me as it was then represented to my mind That I may never set my heart too much upon these perishing enjoyments and short satisfactions nor ever neglect thee whose favour and grace I then sought so earnestly as my chiefest good But remembring how little comfort I could find in any thing here what a joy it was to have any hope in thee the eternal God and how that in my best estate I am but altogether vanity I may most seriously apply my self to work out my salvation with fear and trembling and give all diligence to settle a stedfast hope in thee that never may be shaken Make me often to remember that my days are but like a shadow that declineth Psal 102.11,12,27 and that I wither like the grass But thou O Lord shalt endure for ever for thou art the same and thy years shall have no end That so I may neither seek my happiness in this dying life but in thy endless love and favour nor be slothful in business Rom. 12.11 but fervent in spirit serving the Lord. Blessed be thy goodness that I feel these holy thoughts and desires still remaining in me Excite me I humbly beseech thee continually to renew them that no day may pass without serious reflections upon thy patient and long-suffering kindness towards me upon the shortness oâ— this life the uncertainty of all earthly comforts and the happiness of having a good hope in thee by stedfast continuance in well doing And let these thoughts be so deeply imprinted in my heart that my affections may be weaned thereby from all things here below and set on things above where Christ is at thy right hand O that I may desire and covet those heavenly things for my portion more than I do to eat and drink or enjoy any other pleasure of this life Make me to rejoyce in them more than in a whole world of other comforts and to stand in greater fear of losing them than I do to dye or endure any misery Preserve in me good Lord such a sober and considerate disposition of mind that I may never be proud who am I see but dust and ashes nor confident of my own strength and power which is but weakness and vanity nor distrustful of thee who art so gracious and merciful as well as mighty to save Suffer me not to sink under any discouragements who have the everlasting arms under me the wisdom of heaven to direct and guide me and the infinite treasures of goodness to supply all my necessities And more particularly I beseech thee to give me grace by my late confinement weakness dulness want of appetite and rest to learn to value very highly the benefits of liberty strength and quickness of all my senses and to bless thee more than ever I have done for the constant refreshments of my food in the day and of undisturbed sleep in the night together with the rest of the pleasures of life to which thou hast restored me with my health Make me perfectly contented in any state and condition whilst I enjoy so great a blessing as that which comprehends so many others in it And when thou art pleased to take it again away from me O that I may be able to be contented then also in a remembrace of all thy past kindnesses to me and of a well-spent life and careful improvement of this renewed health and in hope of thy continued mercies to me in Christ Jesus even to eternal life To which I humbly beseech thee to bring me by an unchangeable love and obedience to thee in all the changes and alterations of this mortal life for his sake who loved me and gave himself for me To whom with thy self in the Unity of the same spirit be glory everlasting Amen A Thanksgiving to be said by the Family O Most holy great and glorious God the Almighty Creator â—f heaven and earth who upholdest â—ll things by the word of thy powâ—r and governest the whole world with admirable wisdom justice and mercy Thou deservest the highest acknowledgements of all thy creatures The Praises of Angels are not worthy of thee nor any of their thoughts equal to thy infinite Majestie What can we vile creatures then speak of thee or what thoughts shall we frame of thy perfections Especially of thy transcendent love which hath moved thee in much compassion to consider our weaknesses and help our infirmities Thou hast taught us by our Lord Jesus what we should think of thee having vouchsafed to dwell among us and make thy self visible unto us not only as the most Wise and Mightie but as the most Holy Righteous Gracious and Merciful Lord who designest the greatest blessings to us But now that we see thee we have the greatest reason to abhorr our selves in dust and ashes when we consider how unlike we are unto thee in those excellent qualities wherein thou hast made thy self known unto us and how unthankful we have been unto thy divine goodness which hath so strangely condescended unto us who are unworthy of the least regard from thee And yet such is thy tender mercy and pitty towards us that thou hast declared thy self willing to entertain even the greatest sinners into thy favour by making them better We our selves have received innumerable tokens of thy great clemency patience and forbearance And now â—ately thou hast been pleased to give us a new instance of thy loving kindness and of thy desire to win our hearts unto thee in rescuing one of as from going down into the grave and restoring him to health and strength again The living the living O Lord â—hall praise thee as we do â—his day Yea Isa 38.19 we will â—less thy name as long as â—e live Psal 104.33 and sing praises unto thee Psal 86.12,13 as long as we have any being We will praise thee O Lord our God with all our heart 118.14,15 and glorifie thy name for evermore For great is thy mercy towards us and thou hast delivered the soul of thy servant from the lowest hell The Lord is our strength and our song and is become our salvation The voice of joy and health is in our dwellings the right hand of the Lord bringeth mighty things to pass O that there were such an heart in every one of us as to studie seriously to know thee better to meditate continually on thy benefits both to our souls and bodies to love thee intirely and to indeavour to be like unto thee which is the design of thy goodness towards us Empty our hearts of all other things and make room for thy self to dwell there in wisdom righteousness and true holiness Dispose every one of us to follow Jesus Christ our Master in lowliness patience and charity and to be ordered by the governance of his holy Spirit Common Prayer-Book in the Commination seeking always his glory and serving
will O Lord be done I commend both my body and my spirit into thy hands who art able to make the Sea give up her dead by thine Almighty Word Help me always to hold fast that hope of eternal life as an anchor of my soul both sure and stedfast Heb. 6.19,20 which may preserve me in unshaken comfort and joy at the hour of death it self And looking up to that quiet place whither Jesus our fore-runner is entred for us I may begin those Praises and Thanksgivings which I hope shall have no end but be continued for ever in the company of the blessed in the other world Unto which I beseech thee of thine infinite mercies to bring me through Christ Jesus who is made an high priest for ever Amen A Thanksgiving after it is finished and the party returned home again O Blessed Lord Thou art great and greatly to be praised for by thy word the heavens were made Psal 48.1 33.6,7 and all the host of them by the breath of thy mouth 135.6 107.24 c. Thou didst gather the waters of the Sea together as an heap and laidst them up in the store-houses of the deeps They are all at thy command and whatsoever thou pleasest that dost thou in heaven and in earth in the Seas and all deep places I have seen thy works O Lord and thy wonders in the deep For thou spakest the word and the stormy wind arose which lifted up the waves thereof And again when we cryed unto thee thou madest the storm a calm so that the waves thereof were still Blessed be thy Almighty Goodness which carried me safe through such great and dreadful dangers Blessed be thy goodness that the deep hath not swallowed me up and that I am not gone down into silence Blessed be thy goodness that neither my body nor my goods became a prey to unreasonable men but that thou broughtest me to the haven where I would be and hast now returned me home in safety O God that I may never forget the vows which I was forward to make when I was in trouble Preserve in me for ever an awful sense and apprehension of thy great power who bringest the wind out of thy treasuries Psal 135.7 89.9 and rulest the raging of the Sea Jer. 5.22 and stillest the noise of its waves Psal 120.11 Who would not fear thee O Lord who would not tremble at thy presence who hast placed the sand for the bound of the Sea by a perpetual decree that it cannot pass it and though the waves thereof toss themselves yet can they not prevail though they roar yet can they not pass over it O possess my heart with a greater reverence of thy divine Majesty that I may ever serve thee with fear and rejoyce before thee with trembling Especially make me fearful of offending thee who art so great and powerful and hast done such great things for me and canst do greater and wilt do them as thou hast promised by Christ Jesus Philip. 3.20 who hath power to subdue all things to himself Heb. 2.3 Blessed be thy infinite grace which hath wrought such a marvellous redemption for us by him How shall I escape if I neglect so great salvation How miserable shall I be if after all the dangers from which I have now been rescued I should for my ingratitude and disobedience be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone O God that all thy mercies and deliverances here may by a thankful remembrance and careful improvement of them only prepare me for that glorious deliverance at the day of the Lord Jesus And as by thy good providence thou hast saved me from the violence of storms and tempests and other hazards so by thy grace deliver me from the power and violence of all temptations and enable me stedfastly to persist in well doing and patient suffering unto the end Endue me with such a right sense of my Religion as may make it to be my delight that so I may be out of all danger of being prevailed withal to forsake that which is so sweet and pleasant to my soul O that it may be my guide in prosperity and my comfort in adversity the rule of my life and my great satisfaction in death Sanctifie every condition unto me that sickness or health poverty or riches honour or disgrace may prove real blessings to me and make me profit in piety and vertue And let a great sense of thee and of Religion intermix it self with all my employments Teach me so to behave my self that I may be acceptable in thy sight not only when I make such addresses as these unto thee But whether I eat or drink or whatsoever I do else I may abide in thy love and be approved by thee for a good and faithful servant All which I most humbly beg of thee and whatsoever thou seest good for me in the name of the Lord Jesus by whom and with whom in the unity of the holy Ghost all honour and glory be unto thee O Father Almighty world without end Amen A Prayer to be used by a woman with Child O God the Author of our being the Fountain of life and all other good who hast begun an excellent work in me which no eye but thine sees and no hand but thy Almighty power can finish I adore thy great and glorious Majesty in this and in all other thy works of wonder Thou dost great things without number but art more particularly to be acknowledged in the formation of mankind who are fearfully and wonderfully made after thy own image and likeness Be pleased O Lord in thy infinite goodness to perfect and compleat that which thou hast begun Preserve the smallest degree of life which thou hast inspired Bestow upon it intireness of all its parts and prepare a convenient habitation for an understanding spirit capable of the best wisdom and inclinable to vertue and goodness Prevent good Lord the miscarriage of my hopes and ripen them to a good issue And the nearer they come to their full growth strengthen the more my humble trust in thee and submission to thee and hearty desires to encrease the number of thy faithful people together with my own Family That ought to be the chiefest desire of my soul to be formed my self in all things according to the mind and will of thee my God that so I may be an instrument of doing good to others O thou who hast wrought many holy purposes and resolutions in my heart preserve and confirm them that they may not prove abortive but bring forth continually the fruit of good living Perfect me in Knowledge in Faith in Love and in Obedience Enable me so discreetly and carefully to discharge the duties of all the Relations wherein I at present or shall hereafter stand that I may be a comfort to them and a credit to Religion And howsoever thou disposest of me or them Lord make me well
nevertheless thy counsel O Lord that shall stand I will therefore bless thee O Lord my God alway and desire of thee that my ways may be directed and that all my paths and counsels may prosper for thou thy self givest all good things and thou humblest whom thou wilt and as thou wilt Accordingly I now most earnestly recommend my self and all my concerns to thee who hast bid me in all my wayes acknowledge thee Prov. 3.5,6 and thou wilt direct my paths I trust in thy wise and good providence with all my heart and lean not unto mine own understanding I hope in thy mercy that thou wilt so direct assist and prosper all my thoughts designs and endeavours that they may attain their desired end And above all things I desire that I may have grace to design and seek for nothing but what is just and honest pious and charitable praise worthy and of good report Bless me good Lord with that integrity of heart in which thou so much delightest and then bless me with wisdom and good understanding in all my affairs that I may guide them with discretion Wisd 7.15,16 For it is thou that leadest into wisdom 9.10 and directest the wise Ecclus. 23.1,5 In thy hand are both we and our words all wisdom also and knowledge of workmanship Leave me not therefore O Lord Father and Governour of all my whole life leave me not to my self alone but send out thy wisdom from the throne of thy glory that being present she may labour with me And turn away from me vain hopes Indue me also with a patient contented and untroubled spirit that I may wait on thee as long as thou pleasest And whatsoever the event shall be enable me to rejoyce in thee as my portion and to rest perfectly satisfied in thy love and in the assured hope of good things in the other world I humbly recommend likewise to thy merciful guidance all those with whom I have intrusted any of my concerns that they may manage all their undertakings with skill and prudence justice and fidelity and do for me as they would that I or others should do for them Make us all ever mindful that all our works are as the Sun before thee Ecclus. 17.19 Ephes 3.20 and thy eyes are continually upon our ways Rom. 16.25,27 that we may never dare to do any thing but what thou approvest and of which we may give a comfortable account at the great day of judgement Now unto him that is of power to do for me exceeding abundantly above all that I ask or think to God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ for ever Amen A Prayer when one intends to live Vnmarried O Lord the lover of souls for whom they were made and in whom alone they can be happy There is none I have in heaven but thee Psal 73.25 nor on earth that I desire besides thee Who art the perfection of wisdom power and goodness and the fountain of all the good that is in us Thou art able to raise us to what degree of wisdom strength and goodness thou pleasest and hast promised us thine assistance to make us like unto thee and assured us we shall be immortally blessed by a glorious participation of thee Thou drawest us so mightily that we have no power to resist thee when our minds turn themselves towards thee and reflect upon thy most excellent Nature which discovers it self in all thy bounty to us and the rest of thy creatures We cannot but love thee when we think of thee and when we love thee we cannot but again think of thee that we may have the pleasure still of loving thee more O fix my mind I beseech thee in a more stedfast contemplation of thee and of all thy gracious communications to me that I may spend my days delightfully in a perpetual meditation of thy mercies which I have received in such abundance from thee There is nothing I know more natural and more easie than to think of the kindnesses of those that love us especially theirs to whom we bear a mutual love O how great how free and undeserved is thy love to us What infinite reason is there that we should love thee with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength Inspire me O God with such a lively sense of thy goodness in my creation and ever since both to my soul and to my body that I may ever preserve a sweet and grateful remembrance of it and may feel it provoking me daily to commemorate thy loving kindness with the most ardent love of thee my most bountiful benefactor O that I could love thee in every thing that I see and enjoy being led by it to the thoughs of thy admirable wisdom which astonishes us in the least of thy creatures and of thy matchless goodness which hath provided such variety of pleasures for all our senses Possess me with a great and strong admiration of the excellency of wisdom that I may be a lover of her beauty Wisd 8.2,3,9 and seek her out from my youth desiring to marry her to my self For thou the Lord of all things thy self lovest her And therefore I purpose to take her to live with me knowing that she will be a counseller of good things and a comfort in cares and grief But especially over-power my heart with a strong and lasting sense of thy exceeding abundant kindness in Christ Jesus in whom thou hast choseâ— me Ephes 1.4,8 that I should be holy and without blame before thee in love Let me never think of that buâ— with such great transports of love and joy and thankfulness unto thee as may make me then forget all other things And make me to understand more and more how thy love in him hath abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence That so I may be the more moved to admire it and delight to meditate upon it and be still searching into those treasures of thy Wisdom and unsearchable riches of thy Grace till I come to be filled with all the fulness of thee my God Ephes 3.19 Translate all my affections from these lower objects to him that is fairer than the children of men Psal 45.2 who loved me so much as to dye for me who is risen again and sits at thy right-hand in incomparable Majesty and Glory Raise up my thoughts as high as that heavenly place where he is and where I hope one day to be equal to the Angels Luk. 20.36 who neither marry nor are given in marriage Help me to begin that happy state in separating my self frequently from all this world and joyning with that blessed company above in praising thee and giving thanks unto thee whose mercies are great and endure for ever And when I am about any other imployment help me chearfully to attend it and with a willing mind to perform the duties belonging to it Possess
betray them And fortifie their minds against the power of all allurements to sin that we may live to see them thy dutiful and obedient children and may leave the world in hope that they will continue so unto their lives end Or if thou takest us away before they come to their full age we commend them with the more ardent affection to thy never failing mercy and compassion O thou who art the Father of the fatherless Psal 68.5 be their God and let them find mercy with thee Hos 14.3 according to thy word Dispose of them so that by loving and careful governours holy examples innocent and good company pious and discreet counsels with the help of thy divine grace they may ever be secured in their duty and follow after us to eternal life through Christ Jesus Amen A short Prayer for the use of a little Child O Lord my most loving Saviour and merciful Redeemer who commanddest that the little children should come unto thee and didst take them up in thine arms lay thy hands upon them bless them Look graciously upon me I humbly beseech thee and bless me who am one of thy children dedicated to thy service Pitty the weakness of my tender age and prevent me betimes with thy grace Make me seriously to remember my Creator in the days of my youth Indue me with the fear of my God and make me always mindful of the Vow and Promise that was made in my name when I was baptized to forsake the Devil and all his works to believe in God and to serve him Make me dutiful as thou O Lord Jesus wast unto my Parents loving to my Brethren and Sisters obedient to my instructors thankful for the good counsel of my Friends humble and reverent to my betters and meek and gentle to all men That as I grow in years so I may grow in wisdom and favour with thee and with all those who are good Preserve me from all dangers let thy good Angels be my keepers and defenders and guide me by thy holy Spirit that the longer I live the better I may be to the comfort of my Parents the honour and glory of my God and my own happiness here and for ever Amen A shorter HEavenly Father who despisest nothing that thou hast made but takest care of the beasts of the earth and of the fowls of the air bless me thy child whom thou hast made in thy own Image Preserve me this day from all evil both in soul and body Give me what thou seest good for me Especially an heart to know thee early to be thankful to thee to love thee and to do thy will as well as I am able Bless my Father and my Mother and all my friends and make me a follower of those who are good for the sake of my Saviour Christ Jesus the Lord. Amen A Prayer for the use of a Child that hath lost its Parents O Lord who never failest those that seek thee but givest to the beast his food Psal 147.9 and to the young ravens which cry I cast my self upon thy infinite goodness with whom the fatherless have been wont to find mercy Be thou Ecclus. 23.4 O Lord Father and God of my life a most merciful and gracious Father unto me and provide what thou seest in thy wisdom to be necessary for me Especially bestow upon me some faithful friend that will admonish me and take care of my soul to bring me up religiously in the fear of thee my God Preserve me from all distrust of thy good providence Give me favour in the eyes of others by an humble submissive and good behaviour towards them Make me diligent and industrious in some honest calling And bless my labours and endeavours that I may not be a burden unto others But whatsoever my portion be in this world give me grace to live so piously justly and soberly that I may not miss of that incorruptible inheritance which fadeth not away 1 Pet. 1.4 reserved in the heavens for us through Christ Jesus Amen A Prayer to be used by a Widow O God by whose wise providence which I humbly adore and reverence I am left without my dearest companion and guide in this our pilgrimage and thereby deprived of the sweetest comfort of life behold the desolate and sorrowful estate of thy poor handmaid who supplicates thy tender mercy and compassion towards her Comfort me good Lord with a delightful sense of thy Divine Presence with me and draw my heart the nearer to thee in holy love and devout affection and a lively hope that thou wilt never leave me nor forsake me I ought to thank thee at all times for the many tokens of thy love towards me and particularly for lending me this blessing so long the value of which I now feel by the want I am in of its support Pardon me I beseech thee that I have not been so thankful for it and the rest of thy mercies as I ought nor so carefully improved them as I might have done O take not away thy loving kindness from me in displeasure But vouchsafe still the continuance of thy favour towards me especially the support of thy Divine Grace by the power of the holy Ghost to enable me to bear this affliction with an humble meek and patient spirit Moderate all my passions Free me from all discontented and distrustful thoughts Help me to cast all my care on thee who relievest the fatherless and widow Psal 146.9 and carest even for the strangers Fix my mind upon thy love in the Lord Jesus in whom thou wouldst have us to rejoyce always Lift up my thoughts to those heavenly enjoyments in that blessed place where he is to which I hope my husband is departed And help me to follow after him with all diligence in a pure grave and godly conversation and by a careful education of my Children to endeavour that they may be also with us in that glory Let thy blessing ever rest upon them And now that they are left to me alone give me so much the more wisdom to instruct and govern them aright and so much the more love to them and tender affection to their good and welfare Make them to be a comfort to me in my Widow-hood by their increase in godliness that we may chearfully serve thee together in Prayers and Thanksgivings and reading of thy holy Word and Communion with our blessed Saviour and all other actions of a Christian life Prepare us for whatsoever condition it is into which thou shalt be pleased to bring us that neither fulness nor poverty honour nor reproaches health nor sickness may ever separate us from thy love in Christ Jesus but we may persevere in patient obedience to thee till we receive that crown of life which he hath promised to them that love thee Amen A Prayer for the use of a poor Servant O Lord most high who arâ— the Maker of the rich and
of the poor Prov. 22.2 with whom there is no respect of persons Look graciously upon me I humbly beseech thee who here cast down my self before thee acknowledging thy Soveraign power over all and thy wise providence which hath disposed all things into several ranks and orders for their mutual help and benefit I humbly submit to the state and condition wherein thou hast been pleased to place me below many others I thank thee that I live and that I live in health and have strength of body great and invaluable blessings and that I have so much liberty as to make my requests unto thee and acknowledge thy mercies and that I have any hope thou wilt never cease to do me good till thou hast crowned all thy mercies in eternal life Good Lord pardon me if I have at any time murmur'd and repin'd at my condition or envied the higher estate of other persons Pardon all my other offences whatsoever they have been and vouchsafe but to deliver me from the bondage of sin and to make me a Servant of Righteousness and I shall not only be contented but perpetually rejoyce in thy Salvation Indue me with a right understanding of my duty in this relation wherein I stand That according to thy command I may account those whom I serve worthy of all honour being careful to please them in all things 1 Tim. 6.1 never contradicting Tit. 2.9,10 nor purloyning Ephes 6.5,7 but showing all good fidelity and with good will and singleness of heart doing service as to the Lord and not to men Help me to demean my self so humbly Collos 3.23,25 and whatsoever I do to do it so heartily that I may obtain favour in their eyes Or if they be froward and hard to please O God preserve me from all unseemly passions and disrespectful behaviour towards them And make me so much the more diligent in their business remembring that I serve the Lord Christ from whom I expect to receive the reward of the inheritance Coloss 3.23,25 If thou art pleased any other way to afflict me with sickness or pains â—n my body which may hinder my â—abour and cast me into poverty Lord still strengthen my faith and confidence in thee And help me to â—ear it with a patient mind looking â—nto Jesus who took upon him the form of a Servant and became poor and suffered much for our sake but how is therefore highly exalted to â—uccour and comfort all those that â—ollow after him contentedly in well-doing In his Name and Words I â—ecommend my self unto thy mercy saying Our Father c. A Prayer of a poor Prisoner for Debt O God who art present to us in all places and hast regard to the sighs and groans of the miserable who humbly implore thy pitty and compassion towards them Vouchsafe to look graciously upon thy afflicted servant in this place which is most desolate and comfortless unless the light of thy countenance shine upon me I confess that I have too much abused the liberty which I formerly enjoyed and did not so carefully improve as I oughâ— to have done those happy opportunities which therewith were puâ— into my hands Many ways I am sensible I have offended thy Divine Majesty * Here acknowledge the particulars for which I am heartily sorry and acknowledgâ— my self infinitely indebted to thy goodness that I am not plunged into the depth of misery to bewail my sins in the bottomless pit I thank thee O Lord with all my soul that I am not shut up in the place of outer darkness and that I have any hope to obtain the benefit of the redemption which is in Christ Jesus In whose Name I beseech thee to pardon me and likewise to sanctifie these straits wherein I lye to the freeing my soul from the bond of all iniquity and the restoring me to the glorious liberty of thy children Help me seriously to follow the direction of thy Providence in this restraint and now that I am so much alone by my self to descend into my own heart to search and try my ways and unfeignedly to turn to thee my God Enlarge my spirit more than ever now that my body is confined in fervent Prayer for thy Divine Grace and in chearful Thanksgivings for the innumerable benefits that I have received from thy bounty and in tender pitty and commiseration of the sad condition of all distressed people And be pleased to touch the hearts of my Creditors also with a sense of my miseries incline them to accept of what I am able to pay and make me willing conscientiously to satisfie them to the utmost of my power In the mean time bestow upon me the blessing of a contented spirit Help me patiently to endure the inconveniences of this place And preserve me from the danger of all the temptations which I meet with in it especially from seeking a remedy of my sorrows in the pleasures of intemperance or evil company or any prophane mirth whatsoever Be thou my comfort O God my exceeding joy and the full satisfaction of my soul in all conditions And when thou art pleased to deliver me from this place and restore me again to my desired freedom O Lord make me ever mindful of the vows wherein I am now forward to bind my self Dispose my heart then to be so sensibly affected with the least of those mercies which formerly I have little regarded that I may never forget to praise thee even for the benefit of a sweeter air than now I enjoy and to acknowledge thee in the night season upon my bed and to thank thee for the coursest food and especially I may rejoyce to go again into the great Congregation to praise thee with the most ardent love for all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus Preserve in me also a grateful remembrance of the kindness of my Friends and Neighbours especially of those persons to whom I stand particularly indebted when by their charity I shall be released And whatsoever loss they sustain by my poverty good Lord make it up abundantly to them and theirs out of thy rich grace and mercy Requite their love with plenty and prosperity in this world and give them the reward of eternal life and glory in the world to come through Christ Jesus Amen A Prayer of a great Malefactor in Prison O Most holy and righteous Judge of the whole world give a sinful and miserable wretch leave to prostrate himself before the Throne of thy Grace and implore that mercy which formerly I have despised or abused I am not worthy I confess to lift up my eyes towards heaven and it becomes me in the greatest dejection of spirit to sigh and groan under the load of my sins which have been so great and many so bold so presumptuous and shameless that when with an awakened mind I reflect upon them I am ready to sink into hell and utterly despair of any mercy O God how have I hated
O how comely a thing is judgement for gray hairs and for ancient men to know counsel Pardon me good Lord that I have made no better improvement of my time and experience for the furnishing of my mind with this wisdom and with those vertues Pardon all my negligences and all my offences * Remember them particularly And fill my heart with a comfortable sense of thy pardoning mercy in Christ Jesus that having no other burden but that of age to oppress my spirit I may rejoyce in thee as long as I live and at last lay my self down to rest in peace and return my soul back unto thee chearfully whensoever thou callest for it in sure and certain hope of the resurrection of the dead and of that glory honour and immortality which thou hast graciously promised us by thy dear Son my most blessed Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus With whom I desire to live to give thee eternal praises Amen A large FORM OF DEVOTION When any person is disposed to spend a day or part of it in Devotion the usual addresses to God in the morning may be continued in this manner O Most High and holy One who inhabitest eternity and art God over all most blessed for evermore Happy are they who stand continually in thy presence and are always admiring praising loving and obeying thee and rejoycing in thy love and favour towards them The highest Angels can desire no greater bliss than to be thus knit unto thee and to live in such constant union and friendship with thee An happiness I am sensible that is above our reach who dwell in houses of clay and groan under the burden of this flesh but which we aspire towards and our uncloathed spirits hope for in the other world And blessed be thy infinite goodness we are incouraged by Christ Jesus to look up unto thee for the beginning and taste of this happiness whilst we remain here below at this great distance from the Throne of thy Glory And accordingly I humbly prostrate my self before thee at this time beseeching thee in the name of my dear Saviour who gave himself for me that thou wilt graciously vouchsafe to inspire me with such delightful thoughts of thee and such a transforming love unto thee as may fill my heart with unspeakable joy and satisfaction whilst I am in thy presence to admire and adore thee to praise thy incomprehensible perfections to acknowledge with all humility my intire dependence on thee thankfully to remember all the benefits thou hast done unto me sorrowfully to bewail my ungrateful behaviour towards thee most earnestly to deprecate thy displeasure to implore thy grace and favour and to make an absolute surrender of my self to thee with most hearty Devotion to thy service It is the unfeigned desire of my soul to spend some time in attending wholly to these duties the better to dispose me to serve thee in the rest of my life But alas O Lord what am I or what can I do unless thou wilt make thy self present to me and send down thy holy Spirit upon me My thoughts and affections are exceeding dull and heavy and they will soon flag and grow weary unless thou wilt be pleased by thy Almighty Power to raise and bear them up towards heaven I most humbly therefore again beseech thee in thy infinite mercy to touch my heart with such a lively sense of thy Divine Majesty as may fix my wandring thoughts and compose my tumultuous affections and stir up my flat and cold desires and may make me feel the power and taste the sweetness of every Divine Truth whilst I read or meditate in thy holy Word and whilst I pray to thee and praise thee and bless thy holy Name O that all other things may be shut out of my soul and that I may be so alone with thee as to be more apprehensive of thy greatness and of thy goodness and of thy purity and of my near relation to thee and the innumerable obligations which I lye under to be thine intirely O that nothing may be so bitter to me as to think that I have in the least offended thee and that nothing may be so marvellous in my eyes as thy exceeding abundant love in the Lord Jesus by whom thou hast incouraged sinners to place their faith and hope in thee Help me O my God through that new and living way which he hath consecrated to draw nigh unto thee and to throw down my self at thy feet waiting for a gracious look from thee resigning my will to thee strongly uniting it in hearty affection to thy holy Will and resolving never to rise up any more in opposition to it but to live in thy love and in sincere obedience to all thy commands So shall my soul bless thee as long as I live I will alway be speaking good of thy Name and will shew forth thy praise as well as I am able to all generations Amen AFter this short address to God for his assistance consider a while who it is to whom you have begun to speak Cast your eyes upon the heaven and the earth and think of the glory of that Majesty which fills all things and cannot be contained in any Then labour to affect your heart with your own mean vile and sinful condition For which end examine what particular sins you have been guilty of Set them down in writing before your eyes that they may be confessed and lamented And likewise consider in the same manner what particular blessings you have received that they may be most thankfully acknowledged In all which you may assist your selves and be much excited by reading some of the Psalms of David and some part of such pious Books as you are acquainted withal After which proceed to express the sense of your heart to God with the greatest deliberation in the manner following pausing a while and ruminating upon what you have said at the end of every part thereof I. O Most glorious Majesty of heaven and earth upon whom all creatures depend for life and breath and all things I most thankfully embrace and desire wisely and faithfully to improve this happy leisure which thou vouchsafest me of retiring from this world and making my resort to thee 2 Cor. 1.3 the Father of mercies Rev. 5.13 and the God of all comfort Psal 48.1 Thou art worthy Rev. 4.8 O Lord to receive from me and from the whole world blessing 1 Sam. 2.2 Psal 145.17 45.7 and honour and glory and power Job 37.23 for thou art great and greatly to be praised Psal 19.1 All the host of heaven continually praiseth thee Job 42.2 Psal 135.6 and so ought all the Church on earth 148.5,6 147.5 saying Holy 104.24,27,28,31 holy holy Lord God almighty which is which was 145.4,13 102 27. 119.89 146.2 111.1 148.13 and which is to come There is none holy as the Lord for there is
them and to be led by them which is sufficient to humble and lay us low in our own eyes With what dejection of spirit then ought I to mention all those offences whereby I or others have justified that first rebellion and still taken part with the Devil and his Angels against thee and the motions of thy holy Spirit in our hearts Thy mercy indeed is so much the more miraculous which hath bestowed such great benefits as I have acknowledged upon such vile such sinful such unthankful wretches and at the best such unprofitable creatures whose understandings are so shallow to comprehend and admire thy love whose affections are so heavy so listless and so unapt to lay it to heart and who when they have done all that they can have done no more than was their duty to do But the greater reason there is that I should be confounded at the remembrance of my disobedience to thee notwithstanding such unexpected as well as undeserved demonstrations of thy love and grace towards mankind It becomes me to bow my self lower than my knees before thee and to debase my self as much as I am able in thy presence since I am but sinful dust and ashes that deserves to be cast down even into the pit of destruction The very multitude of my offences is enough to amaze and perplex my thoughts the weight of them did I always feel it may well depress and sink my spirit into the greatest horror and affrightment but the baseness and ingratitude of them to so gracious a Father O how VI. I am not able to express O Lord the shame the consternation and the trouble of my spirit at the thought of that ingratitude I loath and abhor my self as unworthy to live and breath upon the face of the earth I am astonished at thy wonderful patience and long-suffering which not only endures such a wretch as I am but permits me to speak unto thee and to cry for mercy to that love which I have so much abused O that I were sensibly affected with something of thee That at least thy sparing and forbearing mercy did mightily move and everlastingly possess my heart with admiration of it That so I may with the more ingenuous sorrow and grief bewail mine offences against such tender bowels of compassion towards me Jer. 9.1 O that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep bitterly for my unkind requitals of the infinite bounty of thee my Creator and of the inconceiveable love of my blessed Saviour and of the unwearied grace of thy holy Spirit which I hope I still feel working in my heart Fill me O God with the saddest remembrance of all my follies and possess my reason so much against them that I may have an utter hatred and detestation of them as the greatest offences to me as well as to thy divine Majesty It is easier I know to make large confessions than to be truly contrite and broken in heart and we are more inclin'd to sigh and groan under the sense of thy displeasure than to abhorr that which is evil and to cleave to that which is good Rom. 12.9 Be thou therefore pleased Psal 42.8 O Lord the Father of our spirits to wound my soul with a lively sense of the vileness of my behaviour towards thee Dan. 5.23 the God of my life in whose hand my breath is and whose are all my ways Estrange me from every thing that will not let me love thee with all my heart and soul and strength by whom it is that I have power to love any thing at all Set my heart in such a perfect enmity to all things contrary to thy blessed will that I may never be reconciled to them any more And dispose me to such an entire affection to all thy commands that none of them may be grievous to me but I may account thy yoke to be easie and thy burden to be light And then be merciful unto me good Lord according to thy loving kindness Psal 51.1 according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions 25.7 38.18 Be merciful unto me for Jesus his sake 32.5 who came into the world and dyed to save sinners 143.2 O remember not the sins of my youth 130.3,4 nor the transgressions of my riper years 86.5,6 25.11 according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness sake O Lord. For I confess mine iniquity and am sorry for my sin I acknowledge my sin unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid Enter not therefore into judgement with thy servant for if thou Lord shouldest mark iniquities O Lord who shall stand But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayst be feared Thou art good and ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee Give ear therefore unto my prayer and attend to the voice of my supplications And for thy name sake pardon mine iniquity for it is great VII Great are thy tender mercies O Lord who hast not yet cast me away from thy presence nor dealt with me after my sins nor rewarded me according to mine iniquities Adored be thine infinite goodness that I am so far from being cast into the place of weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth that I do not yet suffer here the pains and the anguish and misery which mine offences have deserved I might have been lamenting them in those doleful complaints of thy ancient servant saying thine arrows stick fast in me and thy hand presseth me sore There is no soundness in my flesh Psal 38.2.3.6 c. because of thine anger 88.16,18 neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin I am troubled I am bowed down greatly I go mourning all the day long For my loyns are filled with a loathsome disease and there is no soundness in my flesh I am feeble and sore broken I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart But thanks be to thy most long-suffering goodness thy fierce anger goeth not over me thy terror hath not cut me off Lovers and friends hast thou not put far from me nor mine acquaintance into darkness Yea thou declarest thy self willing to accept me again into friendship with thy self And hast in the most loving manner invited me to come unto thee and bid me hope for a pardon through thy mercy in Christ Jesus O how sweet are those gracious words Come unto me all ye that labour Matth. 11.26 and are heaven laden Heb. 8.10,12 and I will give you rest How precious are thy promises Act. 26.18 that thou wilt put thy laws into our mind and write them in our hearts And be merciful to our unrighteousness and remember our sins and iniquities no more Marvellous was thy mercy O Lord Jesus who sent thine Apostles to open mens eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and
even for these things O how vile then and odious are all those sins of injustice or unmercifulness of which I may have been guilty IV. Be merciful unto me O Lord be merciful unto me through the blood of that spotless Lamb which was shed for the sins of the world Remember not against me the vanity of my thoughts the errors and mistakes of my judgement the pride of my spirit the greediness of my sensual desires the violence and disorder of any of my passions the unruliness of my tongue the inconstancy of my purposes or the baseness and unworthiness of any of my ends and intentions O holy God and merciful Father enter not into judgement with me for the mispense of my precious time for letting slip any good opportunites or for my ill husbanding the many Talents which thou hast intrusted me withal Let not the abuse of any of thy creatures the ill example that I have given to any of my Neighbours my unthankfulness for a world of mercies my inobservance or forgetfulness of thy fatherly providences and my insensibleness of others miseries be charged upon me at the day of our Lord or incense thy severe displeasure against me in this present life O remember not my immoderate sorrow for worldly losses my excessive pleasure in the abundance of any worldly enjoyments the deadness of my grief and the scarcity of my tears for my own sins and the sins of others and the heartlesness of my joys in thee and in thy Son Christ and for all the good thou hast done to me and to my Brethren or which they do for thy honour and the comfort of thy people Let not any discontent with my condition provoke thee to make it worse nor my want of love to thee deprive me of the love of others nor the breach of any of my resolutions be punished with an indifferency and carelesness of spirit nor the abuse of any of thy blessings or unthankfulness for them move thine offended goodness to strip me naked of them V. But gracious Lord so pardon me as to give me the grace of thy holy Spirit to change and renew me throughout in spirit soul and body and to enable me daily to amend my life according to thy holy word That 's the hearty desire and purpose of my soul which longs for nothing more than a power from above to possess me with more steady and affectionate thoughts of thee and to fill me with a more inflamed love to thee and to all my Brethren and to dispose my will to resign it self in all things to thee and chearfully to comply with thy providence and zealously to imploy all holy opportunities of doing or receiving good O God deny me not this great grace though unworthy of the least but strengthen me with might by thy Spirit in the inner man Let it teach and direct me in the right way let it assist me to walk in it let it constantly incourage my progress chearing and refreshing me when I am ready to faint upholding me when I am ready to fall recovering me when I slip enabling me with fervent desires to implore thy mercy and with resolved watchfulness to strengthen my self against all temptations for the time to come VI. Preserve in me such a serious and deep sense of the worth of my soul of the weight of all eternity of the certainty and greatness of the glory which shall be revealed that they may prevail more with me than all the honours and riches and pleasures of this life Prepossess me with a clear understanding of the Gospel of our Saviour with a strong saith a fervent charity and a lively hope against all other things that press upon me and sollicite my affections that so nothing may find admittance into my heart but what shall submit to thy laws and live under the government and discipline of our Lord Jesus Instruct me how to make all my pleasures discreet moderate and useful to me that they may never take up the best of my time nor devour the strength of my mind Teach me to use the riches of this world aright and to do good to my self and others with them Dispose me to look upon greatness or honours but as greater opportunities to do thee more honour and the world more service Moderate all my passions and subdue them perfectly to the obedience of Reason and Religion O that all my conversation with others may be innocent and profitable and my private retirements more devout and heavenly and all my imployments without inordinate cares and fears or any distrust of thy good providence Help me to look upon long life as desireable only that I may have more time to root out perfectly all evil habits and dispositions to implant and increase all Divine Vertues to do the more good that I may be better sitted for an happy life world without end Amen The same prayer may be used in time of any publick calamity and some of these following prayers added as there shall be occasion A Prayer in time of Plague GReat and many O Lord are the sins whereby we have provoked thee in these Kingdoms to send all thy sore judgements upon us the sword the famine and the pestilence to cut off from them man and beast It is only of thine infinite mercies that we are not utterly consumed and because thy compassions fail not Blessed be thy goodness that we are not yet delivered into the hand of those that hate us but only corrected by thy own hand who art the Father of mercies To them we flee now in our great distress and beseech thee that thou wilt not shut up the bowels of thy tender mercy and compassion towards us in displeasure But punish us that thou maist pardon us and amend us and make us a more devout sober righteous and charitable people zealous of good works Say to thy destroying Angel Hold thy hand it is enough Or if thou art pleased to have it still stretched out against us give grace to us who are yet in health to spend our time in examining our hearts and lives in bewailing our offences in setling our purposes of repentance and new obedience in inuring our selves to delight in Prayer and holy Meditation in giving thanks to thee for thy merciful preservation of us in preparing our selves for whatsoever change thou art pleased to make in our condition and in doing good with compassionate hearts to those poor people that lye under thy heavy visitation And graciously vouchsafe to bestow upon them intire patience and submission to thy Will and enable them with unfeigned repentance and humble hope in thy mercy to resign themselves and theirs into thy hands that howsoever thou shalt dispose of any of us living or dying we may be the Lords Lord have mercy upon us all for Jesus Christ his sake Amen In time of War O God who hast justly punished our carnal security and abuse of that peace and quietness
which we have enjoyed by making us hear the sound of the trumpet and the alarm of war be merciful unto us I most humbly beseech thee and awaken ever one of our souls thereby to search and try our ways and to turn unto thee by a timely repentance and amendment of our lives Though we deserve to be cut off by the sword which is unsheathed as a foolish people that have not known thee sottish children that have no understanding who are wise to do evil but to do good have no knowledge Jer. 4.22 yet spare us good Lord spare thy people and give not thy heritage to reproach Joel 2.17 O thou God of peace who didst send thy own Son among thine enemies to make reconciliation between lost men and thy self inspire our hearts and the hearts of all those with whom we are at difference with a love of peace and incline us to hearken and consent to reasonable terms of reconciliation And for that end root out of every one of our minds and hearts all pride and ambition all inordinate desire of greatness and dominion all covetousness and greediness of wealth all false opinions prejudices and misapprehensions all anger passion and causeless jealousies and especially all study of revenge all rancour and bitterness all hatred and malice with whatsoever else is contrary to the Doctrine and Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ Possess us with the Spirit of Truth and love and brotherly affection Make us tender-hearted and to have compassion one towards another to study to be peace-makers to pray for peace to seek those things which will make for peace and not only to seek after it but to pursue it to the utmost of our power Direct to those expedients which will happily unite and tye us fast together Or if these miserable differences continue and cannot otherwise be composed go forth O Lord with our hosts give wisdom and valour to our leaders resolution and undaunted courage to our souldiers and good success to all those enterprises which are undertaken for the common good and safety of these Kingdoms O God let us fall into thy hands for thy mercies are great but not into the hands of men when they are wrathfully displeased at us And if thou art pleased to crown us with victory give us grace to use it with moderation justice and charity O that we may overcome likewise all temptations to bold and presumptuous continuance in our sins against thee and be subdued by thy favour towards us to a serious study and care how to lead a peaceable life in all godliness and honesty for the sake of Christ Jesus the Prince of peace Whose grace be with us all Amen In time of Scarcity O God who turnest a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein pour down upon the sinful inhabitants of these Islands a serious sense of their own undeservings and of thy righteous judgements which thou hast sent upon them That they may humble themselves before thee and repent of their wantonness and riot of their feasting themselves without fear and hardning their hearts against the cryes of the poor of their discontent and repining in the midst of plenty and their loathing the divine food of their souls which thou hast justly punished with scarcity of bread in all places Make us ashamed O Lord and heartily sorry for these and all other our offences against thy Divine Majesty And as an earnest of better obedience for the time to come dispose the hearts of those who are afflicted to submit with meekness to thy punishment and preserve them from all murmuring at thy wise providence Open the hearts likewise of those who are rich to show mercy to them and comfort them in their miseries The greater stores of provision any have treasured up against this time of want encline them so much the more to consider the poor and needy and fear to oppress them Enlarge their hearts in more abundant charity by the advantage they make of this present Scarcity And when thou shalt have turned it into plenty again Lord make us all truly thankful and soberly to use thy blessings and to bring forth plentifully the fruit of good living to the honour and praise of thy Name and the eternal happiness of our souls and bodies in that world where there is no want but fulness of joy for evermore Amen A Thanksgiving for any publick or private mercies O God most high and blessed for evermore who hast bestowed upon us the happiness to know and understand thee that thou art the Lord of all and that thou exercisest loving kindness judgement and righteousness in the earth and that thou hast said in these things thou delightest Jer. 9.24 Thou art to be worshipped and adored with my continual praises and thanksgivings who am here prostrated before the Throne of thy Grace oppressed with the great load of thy mercies and benefits which call upon all that is within me to bless thy holy Name I have often acknowledged that thou art the Author of my being and that it is thy favour which hath made my life not to be a burden to me as it might have been by innumerable miseries And now I heartily renew those acknowledgements and thank thy great goodness for my long continued health ease peace and plenty or that thou hast mercifully relieved and supported me in any sickness pain trouble or loss of worldly goods that hath befaln me Particularly I thank thee for thy late blessings which thou hast conferred upon me notwithstanding my undeservings and high provocations which I have any way given thy divine Majesty to deprive me of all good things Here mention the particulars in which you are privately concern'd and if it be the publick mercy of ceasing a great Contagion proceed thus Blessed be thy goodness which hath preserved so many of us alive in the midst of a great mortality and hath restored health again into the habitations of our Neighbours Blessed be thy sparing mercy which hath delivered us from the noisome pestilence and when a thousand fell at our side and ten thousand at our right hand didst not suffer it to come nigh our dwelling Thou hast been our refuge and our fortress our God in whom we ought to trust for ever Psal 91.2,7 After a War is ended some such words as these may be added Psal 124.1,2 c. 65.7 29. ult If it had not been the Lord who was on our side may we all well say if it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us Then they had swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against us Blessed be the Lord who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth Blessed be the Lord who hath caused wars to cease and made our enemies to be at peace with us It is the Lord that stilleth the noise of the Seas the noise of their
to live among us to dye for us and to give us an assured hope of immortal life I love thee O Lord. I renew the oblation which I have often made of my soul and body to thee I wait upon thee still for what thou seest good for both I hope in thy everlasting mercies that thou wilt pardon all my forgetfulness of thee and ingratitude unto thee And I most earnestly implore the grace of thy holy Spirit to preserve in my mind a powerful sense of thee an ardent love to thee and an holy care to please and obey thee in all things That the very same mind and spirit may be in me which was in Christ Jesus our Lord the Spirit of wisdom and understanding and the fear of thee the spirit of meekness humility purity and charity and that I may do thy will with such chearfulness zeal constancy patience and perseverance as he did I thank thee O Lord for all helps and assistances of that good Spirit which thou hast already favoured me withal That thou hast so frequently made good motions to my soul inspired me with holy thoughts and devout affections and inclined and disposed my will many ways to the choice of that which is good I thank thee for the many seasonable admonitions which thou hast given me for the happy opportunities which have been afforded me for wisdom and vertue for a good education pious examples faithful friends and all other furtherances in the way of salvation I remember likewise with my most grateful acknowledgements what abundance of good things thou hast bestowed on me from time to time for my better accommodation in this present life Blessed be thy name for my continued health and food and raiment Blessed be thy name that my bones are not broken that I am not groaning under the sorest pains that I dwell in safety night and day and that I still see my friends and acquaintance and many other comforts round about me I thank thee O Lord for these and all blessings whatsoever that thou hast conveyed to me by the Ministry of thy holy Angels unto whom thou hast given the charge of me O bless the Lord together with me ye his angels which excel in strength that do his commandments hearkening to the voice of his word And enable me every day I most humbly beseech thee O Father of mercies to bless thee better with a purer heart and a more lively sense of all thy love and a greater delight in thy divine Service and a forwardness to every good work And as thou hast preserved me hitherto this day so bless me the remaining part of it That indeavouring sincerely in all my designs words desires and actions to approve my self to thee as thy good and faithful servant I may with a good conscience present my self before thee in the conclusion of it and with the greater confidence of thy gracious acceptance renew my praises and acknowledgements and commend my self to thy blessing and hope for the continued protection of thy holy Angels through Christ Jesus To whom be glory for ever Amen A shorter to the same purpose I Prostrate my self before thee O Lord of heaven earth in all humility of soul and body I acknowledge my dependance upon thee and thy constant care and providence over me ever since I was born particularly this day in keeping me hitherto from many dangers and providing for me many good things as well for the comfort and pleasure as for the necessary support of this present life Especially I thank thee for thy exceeding great love in the Lord Jesus through whom thou hast given me good hope of better enjoyments in the life to come by following that blessed example which he hath set us of all well doing and contented suffering It is all reason O Lord that I should love thee and intirely trust in thee and most willingly serve and obey thee Accordingly I here again dedicate my self both soul and body to thee I vow my self ever to thy service I hope still in thy great mercies which have been so tender and so abundant towards me I depend upon thee for what thou seest to be profitable for me I refer my self absolutely to thy wise Will resolving to rest contented and satisfied in that condition wherein thou placest me I believe thou orderest all things in heaven and in earth and takest the greatest care of those that wait upon thee and commit themselves unto thee as I now do in confidence of thy goodness and submission to thy pleasure Especially I rely upon thee for thy holy Spirit to preserve in me these holy purposes and inspire me continually with good thoughts and stir up in me heavenly affections and increase and strengthen my faith and hope in thee and assist my indeavours to do according to my pious resolutions Blessed be thy great goodness for what I have felt already I thank thee for thy many illuminations from above for thy grace so early preventing me for the assistance and furtherance thou hast given me and the happy opportunities I have met withal of improving my self in true wisdom and goodness It is the earnest desire of my soul to grow more in both and to be made perfectly like to my blessed Lord and Saviour By whom all honour and glory be given to thee O Father Almighty world without end Amen A Grace before meat WE acknowledge thy goodness O Lord in making this plentiful provision for us Pardon our ingratitude for thy former mercies And bless us with such a discreet and thankful use of these thy good creatures that they may not hinder us in our duty but better dispose us to do thee all faithful service in our several places through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Amen Or this WE look up unto thee O Lord who givest us life and breath and all things beseeching thee to forgive us all our sins and to make us such thankful partakers of these thy good creatures that by a moderate use of them our bodies may be refreshed and made more fit to accompany our souls in hearty endeavours to do thee all faithful service through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Or this WE renew our thankful acknowledgements unto thee O Lord for making again this merciful provision for us who are unworthy of the least of thy favours Add thy gracious pardon likewise and bless the sober use of these thy creatures to the strengthning of our frail bodies And endue our souls with the grace of thy holy Spirit that we may return back unto thee the strength we receive from them in well doing and it may be as delightful as our meat and drink to do the will of thee our heavenly Father through Jesus Christ c. Amen After Meat WE return unto thee O Lord our hearty thanks for these and all other the like mercies bestowed upon us ever since we had a being especially for the promises thou hast given us of eternal