and cause the light of thy Gospel to guide their feet into the way of peace that are wandring in the darkness of sensuality profaneness superstition and idolatry and shew them thy Salvation Bless thy whole Church throughout the World preserve it from the offences and reproachful scandals of its professed Friends and from the oppressions and persecutions of its open and declared Enemies Let thy continual care keep and cleanse thy Vineyard that it may abound in the Fruits of Righteousness Be merciful to this Nation where we live pardon the Sins that cry aloud for vengeance heal the breaches that threaten its ruine and avert those dreadful Judgments that hang over our heads and as thou hast all along often saved us from the destructions miseries that our daring wickednesses might have pull'd down upon our heads give us cause more and more to magnifie thy mercy and triumph in thy Salvation Bless our Lord the King with Wisdom and Courage a zeal for thy glory and a continual care of promoting Righteousness and true Religion and let all under him in places of Civil and Ecclesiastical Government make it their business to further Righteousness and Peace and the good of Souls and let all sorts of men follow after peace without which they cannot see happiness on Earth and holiness without which they shall not see thy Face in Heaven Be thou a present help for the relief and succour of all that are in a suffering condition and let that good providence that hath defended directed and assisted us in the dangers the occurrences and businesses of the day so protect and refresh us with sleep this night that in the morning we may be more fit to serve thee and live to thy praise in Christ Jesus our Lord through whom we beseech thee to accept our persons pardon our sins and hear our Prayers when we say OVr Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done in Earth As it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily Bread And forgive us our Trespasses As we forgive them that Trespass against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from Evil For thine is the Kingdom and the Power And the Glory For ever and ever Amen Thursday Morning MOst gracious God and merciful Father in Jesus Christ the Author of our Being and the Fountain of all those good things that may make us happy in this World and that which is to come we thy poor Creatures vile and provoking Sinners in the sense of our own guilt fly to thy mercy to pardon us in the sense of our weakness fly to thy might to strengthen us in the sense of our own ignorance and folly fly to thy wisdom to instruct and counsel us in the sense of our manifold wants and necessities fly to thy fulness and all-sufficiency to supply us We acknowledge O Lord that our nature is not only corrupt and sinful overspread with a Leprosie and loathsome Disease that might make us for ever abominable in thy pure Eyes but our practises have been contrary to thy holy and righteous Laws both in the doing what thou hast forbidden us and the leaving undone what thou hast commanded us we have followed after and fulfilled our own Lusts and yielded to them a vile and slavish subjection as to our Lords and Lawgivers whilst we have refused and been weary of thy Service as a slavery which is perfect freedom We have forgotten thee our God and turning aside to lying vanities have sinned against thee in every state and condition of our lives in our health we have seldom thought how soon we might be cast upon a sick Bed and in our sickness have been unprepared for death that might have been the issue of it in our prosperity we have been secure and sensual wanton proud and unthankful and in our adversity we have repined and murmured with impatience and discontentment and when our folly hath perverted our ways our hearts Pro. 19. 3. have fretted against the Lord. We have suffered our selves to be prevailed upon by the pleasures and profits of this Life those deceitful baits of the Flesh that having for a while gratified our sensual inclination have left the sharp and wounding hook of fear and disquiet in our consciences And though thou hast graciously forewarned us that our most pleasant Lusts will be bitterness in the latter end and the wages of Sin Rom. 6. 23. is nothing less then death and eternal misery yet by our unbelief and carnal affections and the present seeming advantages of Sin we have been drawn into Sin and not frighted from it by its future mischiefs and punishments Thou hast sent thy Son into the World to redeem and save us from our Sins to make known thy Will and publish to us his holy and good Laws that we should govern our thoughts our words and actions by them but we have by our disobedience vilely cast away his Scepter and disown'd the authority of his Laws notwithstanding our professions to Tit. 1. 16. know and believe him we have by wicked works denyed him and naming the Name of Christ 2 Tim. 2. 19. we have not departed from Iniquity We have so resisted and grieved thy holy Spirit who hath earnestly pleaded with us to cast off our Sins and return to our Duty that he might in displeasure withdraw from us and forbearing his blessed motions and leaving us destitute of his gracious assistance might give us up to the blindness of our own minds the unbelief and impenitent hardness of our hearts and suffer us to go on in our own ways till our condition were wholly hopeless and without possibility of recovery we had sinn'd our selves into eternal misery Awaken O Lord we pray thee our sleepy Consciences and so throughly convince us of the great evil of Sin and those fearful punishments that follow it that we may in good earnest and without the least delay flee from it by a most serious and hearty repentance and return unto the Lord our God from Hos 14. 1. whom we have fallen and gone astray by our Iniquities Through the sufferings and precious death of thy Son be reconciled and speak peace to us though our offences are very foul and heinous and our best righteousness cannot encourage us to look up with confidence to thine offended Majesty yet in the righteousness of our blessed Mediator we both pray and hope to be forgiven being by thy self assured that thou hast given him a great and all-sufficient Redeemer for the Atonement of great Transgressors and exalted him Acts 5. 31. to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance and remission of Sins For our sakes and in our stead he endured the punishments that himself had not deserved he Isa 53. 5. was wounded for our Transgressions and the chastisement of our peace was upon him O let us through his Stripes be healed Help us being
things in Christ Jesus our Lord that tend to the renewing us after thy likeness in this life and the satisfying of us with it in the life to come We bless thee for that inestimable gift the Foundation of all others the Son of thy dearest love and everlasting delight whom in a tender compassion to our Souls thou hast sent into the world to be our Redeemer and Saviour that when we had by our sins ruined and undone our selves and were so lyable to thy severe displeasure and insupportable vengeance that no creature in Heaven or Earth could deliver us from it it pleased thee in thine infinite goodness to find out and in thy mercy to afford us in him an admirable and unthought of way of recovery Now O Lord we know thou lovest us and hast a favour and good will towards us seeing thou hast not withheld thy Son thine only Son from us Ever blessed be thy Name that thy Son who is God over all blessed for ever took upon him our humane Flesh that while he lived here upon Earth he instructed us both by his heavenly doctrine and exemplary life that he gave himself to Death as the price of our Redemption that he compleated that great work in his powerful and glorious Resurrection wherein he conquered and triumphed over all the powers of darkness and hath begotten us again to a lively hope of an inheritance incorruptible undefiled 1 Pet. 1. 3 4. that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us We praise thee that when he had wrought a perfect Righteousness for us upon Earth he ascended up to Heaven sits at thy right hand to represent and plead it on our behalf by his prevailing intercession that when he ascended up on high he led captive those spiritual enemies that held us in captivity and for the Eph. 4. 11. edification of his Church gave gifts unto Men Apostles and Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers That thou hast Psal 119. 10 given thy holy Word to be a Lamp to our Feet and a Light to our Paths and when many Nations sit in Darkness and the Regions of the Shadow of Luk. 1. 78 79. Death the day spring from on high hath visited us to guide our Feet into the way of Peace We give thee our humble and hearty thanks that thou still keepest open the doors of thy Sanctuary that for our unfruitfulness thou mightest have shut and barred against us and notwithstanding our vile unworthiness thou graciously admittest us to Communion with thy Self in thy publick Ordinances the Reading and Preaching of thy Word Prayers to and Praises of thy Name and the participation of thy holy Sacraments wherein thou dost lively represent the Death of thy Son and to all worthy Receivers dost firmly assure and convey the precious benefits of it and bind them to walk answerably to them And we further thank thee with enlarged hearts O our heavenly Father for all the promises of thy Covenant which thou hast sealed with the Blood of thy Son and given unto us that we might by them be the more encouraged in an holy 2 Cor. 7. 1. obedience cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit and perfecting holiness 2 Pet. 1. 4. in thy fear be made partakers of the Divine Nature We can never enough magnifie thy mercy and goodness that thou hast made our duty to be a part of our happiness and that it is not only necessary but best for us to love and fear trust and serve obey and honour thee and that we are not only bound to be sober and temperate meek and patient just and charitable but much better by being so And what thanks can we render to thee who in consideration of our weakness and slugglishness to the performance of our duty hast not only set before us the lively and encouraging examples of thy Saints and Martyrs but assisted and enabled us by the grace of thy holy Spirit that our sufficiency 2 Cor. 3. 5. hath been of thee who of our selves have not been sufficient to think a good thought and for the Reward of those Graces and Duties that are the Fruits of thy Spirit working in us hast promised such a glory and happiness in the world to come as surpasses not our desires only but our thoughts and conceptions We further glorifie thy great Name O Lord that thy rich and free Grace hath been the only motive to the bestowing all thy Mercies upon us guilty and wretched sinners that our unworthiness hath not hindred the streaming forth of thy goodness but thy goodness hath born away before it all consideration of our unworthiness And O how admirable in themselves and how obliging to us are all those favours and kindnesses which not only without our merits but notwithstanding our deserts of wrath and vengeance thou hast conferred upon us bold and provoking Rebels We are O Lord as thy Creatures infinitely below thee but as Sinners we have foolishly opposed and set our selves against thee we have broken thy holy Laws abused thine abundant Mercies slighted the tenders of thy Grace dishonoured and crucified afresh our great and merciful Redeemer resisted and grieved thy holy Spirit profaned and polluted thy Sabbaths and Ordinances that are both the Pledges and means of thy Grace and Favour And were there no other Sin upon our account but of these thy days and the holy duties of them they might for ever fill our Faces with shame and lay us under thy wrathful displeasure We have come unprepared to thy solemn worship and with unhallowed hearts entred the Sanctuary and approached the presence of the most holy God we have been heedless and unattentive hearers of thy holy Word remembring little of what we have heard and practing less of what we have remembred we have been flat and unaffected in offering up thy praise and our hearts have been earthly dull and distracted in our Prayers how often have we turned our Backs upon thy holy Table judging our selves unworthy of the precious benefits that are there tendered or if we have not altogether neglected the sacred Ordinance we have not as we might have done grown in the graces and the comforts of thy holy Spirit by it How seldom have we been seriously exercised in Meditation and either so recollected thy Mercies as to become sensible of our obligation by them or so thought on our ways as Psal 119. 59 â—… to turn our feet unto thy Testimonies Forgive us O Lord we pray thee all our past offences and as the best assurance of our forgiveness let us not so offend any more Graciously guide us into the ways of truth and holiness and that we may always fear thee let us set our selves continually in thy presence and so observe and stand in aw of thine all-seeing Eye that all our evil thoughts words and actions may be scattered by it Let us dye with Christ in the crucifying of our Flesh with
we forgive them that Trespass against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from Evil For thine is the Kingdom and the Power And the Glory For ever and ever Amen Tuesday Evening ALmighty and most merciful God and Father the Maker and Governour of all Creatures in Heaven and Earth and exalted in thy glorious perfections above the thoughts and services the praises and acknowledgments of the highest and best of them thine understanding is infinite and thou seest the hearts and ways of all the sons of men thy holiness is infinite and thou hatest all the sin and iniquity thou espiest in them thy power infinite thou canst easily punish them for the sins that provoke and displease thee and 〈◊〉 yet thine infinite mercies thou pardonest the sins of all that by sincere repentance and a through amendment of their ways return to thee We thy poor Servants in a deep sense of our guilt and wretchedness and the strong encouragements of thy declared mercy and goodness humble our Souls at thy Foot-stool beseeching thee to have mercy upon us and through the righteousness of thy dear Son whom thou hast given to be a propitiation and price of redemptition for us to pardon our many and great transgressions whereof we are guilty before thy Majesty in thought and word and deed and whereby we have deserved to be punished with overlasting destruction from thy presence by thy glorious power Hadst thou O Lord taken advantages against us or been forward to pour out that wrath and vengeance that we have been forward to provoke we had not now been begging thy mercy or cherish'd with the hopes of it but had in vain lamented the bloody and severe effects of thine incensed Justice We are not only by Nature the Children of Wrath but have in the course of our Lives actuated the sinful corrupt principles of our Nature and gone astray from thy holy just and good Laws that thou hast given to be the rule and measure of our actions and though both as thy Creatures thy Servants and thy Children thou hast laid upon us the greatest obligations to obedience and a dutyful complyance with thy Will yet have we in the eager and violent pursuit of our lusts Psal 2. 3. broken thy bonds asunder and cast away thy cords from us We have professed the pure and holy Religion of thy Son but have shamefully dishonoured him and his Religion by impure and unholy practises and 2 Tim. 2. 19. naming the Name of Christ we have not departed from iniquity we have given up our Names to him in Baptism and solemnly vowed obedience to the Laws of his holy Gospel but we have started aside like broken Bows and walked in the imaginations of our own hearts and fulfilled our vile and foolish lusts as if there were no God to be served no Soul to be saved no Hell to be feared no Heaven to be expected and as if the Name of Christians would have carryed us to Heaven we have done those things that many Heathens would have blushed at and been ashamed to have practised so that this might be our condemnation which of all other is the most grievous and insupportable that Light is come into the World and we have loved Darkness rather than Light Joh. 3. 19. because our deeds have been evil So many and undeserved have been thy mercies towards us so kind and unwearied the expressions of thy bounty that all our disobedience is by a shameful and odious ingratitude become exceeding sinful and we cannot without sorrow of heart and confusion of Face reflect upon our wearying thee with our sins when thou hast loaded us with thy benefits But we beseech thee O most merciful Father in the tenderest compassions of thy sounding bowels look down upon us and for thy Names sake the most powerful argument and such as uses to prevail O Lord hear O Lord spare O Lord forgive by a serious and hearty repentance and a true and lively Faith in thy Son make us fit partakers of thy pardoning mercy Though our deserts are thine indignation and vengeance the merit of his righteousness is remission and forgiveness though we have affronted thy Justice he hath satisfied it though we have incensed thy wrath he hath appeased it the chastisement of Isa 53. 5. our peace was upon him O let the merit of his righteousness be upon us And because the holy Jesus together with the guilt and punishment of sin alway delivers from the power of it and they that are Christs crucifie the Gal. 5. 24. flesh with its affections and lusts by the subduing and mortification of our sins convince and comfortably satisfie us that thou hast pardoned them and by thy sanctifying grace help us to cleanse our selves from 2 Cor. 7. 1. all filthiness of the flesh and spirit and to perfect holiness in thy fear sanctifie us wholly 1 Thes 5. 23. and let our whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Quicken us holy Father by the spirit of life and holiness to run the ways of thy Commandments and as thou hast given our blessed Saviour to be Head of thy Church and anointed him with an unmeasured fulness of thy Spirit that he might communicate and impart it to the Members of his Body let some drops of that holy Oil fall down upon us that was so plentifully poured upon the Head of our High Priest and out of his fulness let us receive Joh. 1. 16. Grace for Grace and so renew the Image of his Holiness in our Souls that as his true Children we may shew forth all the Features and Lineaments of our heavenly Father And because we are not sufficient of our selves to avoid any evil or perform any good be graciously present with us to preserve us from the one and assist us in the other Make us perfect in every good work to do thy will working in us that which is well pleasing in Heb. 13. 21. thy sight through Jesus Christ Make us wise to Salvation and seeing our days are very few and uncertain and repentance both necessary and out of our own power let us not put it off till to morrow not knowing what a day may bring forth nor deceive our selves with vain purposes of parting with our Sins hereafter when this very night our Souls may be Luk. 12. 20. taken from us But seeing the Heavens and the Earth at 2. Pet. 3. 15. length and our selves ere long must be dissolved let us be diligent that we may be found of thee in peace without spot and blameless Bless thy whole Church scattered far and near over the Face of the Earth pour out upon it the Spirit of Truth and Holiness and grant that all that confess thy holy Name may agree in the truth of thy holy Word and live in unity and godly love be thou that art the Lord and