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
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
redemption that the Lord Jesus obtained for us by his bloud and the power and dominion which thou hast given him at thy right hand after his Resurrection from the dead and his compassionate intercession on our behalf So for all those gifts which he gave unto men whereby he made some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the ministry and the edifying of his body Blessing honour glory and praise be to thee O Father of mercies for all those great instruments of the holy Ghost the illustrious Ministers of thy grace the Embassadors for Christ and the blessed Champions of his holy Truth who have communicated the light of thy glorious Gospel to the world and overcome the kingdom of darkness by the bloud of the Lamb Rev. 12.11 and the word of their testimony not loving their lives unto the death Adored be the mightiness of that Grace Psal 8.2 which out of the mouths of babes and sucklings ordained strength Glory be to thee O Christ 2 Cor. 2.9 whose strength was made perfect in weakness Glory be unto thee who didst commit this heavenly treasure unto earthen vessels 2 Cor. 4.7 who approved themselves the ministers of God in much patience 6.4,5 in afflictions in necessities in distresses in stripes in imprisonments in tossings to and fro in labours in watchings in fastings that the excellency of the power might be of God and not of men I heartily submit to the power of that Divine Truth for which they suffered the loss of all things Phil. 3.8 and counted them but dung that they might win Christ and be found in him And I rejoyce that thou hast had so many faithful servants who have loved thee O Lord thou lover of souls more than their own lives most earnestly desiring to be inspired with the very same spirit which was in them that I may leave some example though never so small of hearty and universal obedience to those that shall come after Accept good Lord of my sincere resolution to be a follower of them even as they were of Christ in pureness in knowledge in long-suffering in kindness 1 Cor. 11.1 in love unfeigned That my rejoycing may be this 2 Cor. 6.6,7 the testimony of my conscience 2 Cor. 1.12 that in simplicity and godly sincerity 8.21 not with fleshly wisdom but by thy grace I have had my conversation in the world 1.5 providing for honest things not only in the sight of our Lord but also in the sight of all men Make me constant and couragious in the profession of thy holy Truth and to be willing to pass through honour or dishonour through good report or evil report for the Lords sake hoping that if the sufferings of Christ abound in me my consolation also shall abound by Christ Stir me up I beseech thee and quicken me that I may show the same diligence that thy Saints have done to the full assurance of hope unto the end that I may not be slothful Heb. 6.11,12 but a follower of them who through faith and patience inherited the promises 2.3,4,5 How shall I escape if I neglect so great salvation which at first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed by them that heard him God also bearing them witness with signs and wonders and with divers miracles of the holy Ghost according to his own will O continue the mighty assistance of that divine power with me that behaving my self so holily justly and unblameably as they did 1 Thess 2.10 I may rest at last together with them 2.1,7,9 when our Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that believe And now preserve me this day from dishonouring thaâ— worthy name Jam. 2.7 whereby wâ— are called knowing how we ought to follow them 2 Thess 3.7,13 who behaved not themselves disorderly among those that believed That by this rest from my ordinary labours I may not learn idleness nor grow weary of well doing but be better disposed in my mind by all the refreshments of my body to do my duty in the place and relations wherein thou hast set me with greater chearfulness fidelity and diligence to the end of my days O that it may be my highest pleasure to attend on thee and praise thee in the assemblies of thy Saints Give me such a sensible delight and joy in reading and meditating of thy holy Word and in the remembrance of all thy mercies that nothing in this world may make me forget the sweetness of it but every thing may excite me more to praise extol and magnifie thy loving-kindness to me and to express my thankfulness in a free and ready obedience to thy commands till I be made fit to be admitted into the company of the blessed there to praise thee world without end Amen A PRAYER Upon the day of ones BIRTH O Most mighty Lord the Former and Preserver of all things All thy works praise thee and do declare thy infinite greatness wisdom and bounty and do call upon us likewise to magnifie thy Name with our continual praises and thanksgivings I humbly bow my self before thy glorious Majesty who inhabitest eternity acknowledging that it is but a little time since I was not and that I am not gone down again into silence is to be ascribed only to thy Omnipotent goodness which brought me into being to praise theâ— among the rest of thy creatures I thank thee O Lord by whom I was fearfully and wonderfully made Psal 139.14,15 and curiously wrought in my mothers womb 22.9 Thou art he that took me thence thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mothers breast 71.6 By thee I have been holden up ever since and most carefully provided for when I could not think at all of thy tender mercies towards me And therefore now that I am grown to the use of my reason my praise ought to be continually of thee O bless the Lord my soul 103.1,2 and all that is within me bless his holy Name Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits While I live will I praise the Lord Psal 146.2 I will sing praises to my God while I have any being Pardon I beseech thee my ingratitude in that I lâ—…e no earlier remembred thee my Creator in whom I live and move and who givest me all things richly to enjoy Accept of my unfeigned resolutions to preserve hereafter a more grateful sense of thy great goodness to me and to glorifie thee with my body and with my spirit which are thine Vouchsafe me the assistance of thy heavenly grace that I may return them back unto thee pure and undefiled full of wisdom and spiritual understanding full of love and devout affection to thee full of all good works and
beseech God to bestow upon us And therefore with a sincere hatred of all sin and a spirit armed with hearty resolution against it invoke the Divine Grace for your assistance If you be true Christian Souldiers that manfully fight under the banner of our Lord call to him for aid with your weapons in your hand With a mind bent to consider desire God to enlighten you And with an heart stored with the treasures of Divine Truth beseech him to quicken and enliven you And with close and urgent applications of them to your heart entreat him to enable you to form and shape your whole man spirit soul and body according to them For God is not hard to be entreated since he entreats us to come to him yea gives a great deal of his grace without asking but it is the faintness or inconstancy of our endeavours to comply with his grace and our own petitions that makes them no more prevalent They that had no other Director but the light of their own minds saw this well enough and were so sensible of this truth that they were wont publickly to declaim as we find in Aristides his Oration to the Rhodians concerning Concord against the absurd folly of those who were perpetually importuning the Gods with their Prayers but would do nothing for themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. no not those things which they knew the Gods had put in their power And in the same manner Demosthenes in one of his Philippicks chides the Greeks comparing them to men who seeing great Hail-stones fall upon their heads prayed that they might be preserved in safety but would not run away to secure themselves from harm And therefore Clemens Alexandrinus Lib. 7. Strom. justly commends the wisdom of those who made the Laws of the famous Olympick Combats By which he that entred the lists having for a long time before exercised his body to feats of activity was ordered before he began to contend for the Prize to stand right over against the Statue of Jupiter and to say this Prayer O God if I am in all regards duly fitted and prepared as I ought for this Combate vouchsafe in thy righteous judgement to grant the victory to me Even so saith he may a man chearfully approach to God who faithfully and with a good conscience doth all that he can both to learn his will and to exercise himself in good works that are pleasing to him for he shall have all that can be wisht for the perfecting of his Salvation Just as a Physician as he goes on restores health to those who cooperate with his medicines so will God give his eternal salvation to them who work together with him both unto knowledge and unto well doing As for those who do not live well it is plain saith he in another place Lib. 6. Strom. that they do not so much as know what things are most profitable for themselves And if so then it is manifest likewise that they cannot tell how to pray to God to receive good things from him being ignorant of what is good Or if they should receive them they would have no sense at all of the gift nor use it according to its worth and dignity and that for the very same reason because they understand not its value Inspire therefore O God of all Grace I most humbly beseech thee both my heart and the hearts of all others who shall read this Book with such a godly will to endeavour zealously in all things to do what is well pleasing in thy sight that we may comfortably expect the constant and powerful presence of thy holy Spirit with us to help us in the performance of our duty till we have perfected holiness in thy fear And the sincerity of that love to thee which we profess in our Prayers being testified by an unwearied observance of all thy commands we may be able also to wait with an humble confidence for thy salvation who hast graciously promised to reward our weak and short obedience in this life with inconceiveable and endless joys in a better World Amen Imprimatur Sam. Parker R mo in Christo Patri ac Domino D no. Gilberto Archiep. Cantuar. à sac Dom. Ex Aedib Lambeth Octob. 21. 1672. ERRATA PAge 41. line 8. read abundant p. 50. l. 3. for thou r. the. p. 51. l. 11. r. consecrate p. 84. l. 9. r. devote p. 92. l. 24. r. children p. 135. penult dele to p. 258. l. 7. for who r. thou p. 265. l. 8. for bountiful r. beautiful p. 495. l. 5. r. every one PRAYERS FOR FAMILIES On the LORDS DAY In the MORNING ALmighty and Eternal God the Lord of heaven and earth we thy creatures are here prostrate before thee to express our humble and grateful sense of our dependence on thee to honour thee with our Praises and Thanksgivings and an hearty oblation of our selves our souls and bodies to thy service We are unworthy we confess to be admitted to speak unto thy Majesty nor can our thoughts or words add any thing to thy greatness happiness and glory but since thou art pleased in thy infinite goodness to do us the honour not only to admit but to invite our addresses unto thee that our spirits may be bettered by lifting up themselves to thee from whom we come by meditating thy praises by exciting our love and praying our acknowledgements to thee we most humbly and thankfully receive this thy great grace and favour towards us Remembring withal that it is but just and reasonable we should pay thee our vows which we made the last night being so graciously raised up in soundness of body and mind to see the light of this day which our Saviour hath made that we may be glad and rejoyce therein We laud and magnifie therefore thy most holy Name thy infinite Power Wisdom and Bounty which all the world proclaims with the highest praises We bless thee in behalf of all thy creatures as well as of our selves to whom thou hast given dominion over the works of thy hands for Psal 145.15,16 the eyes of all look unto thee and thou givest them their meat in due season Thou openest thy hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing But above all we acknowledge thy inestimable benefits bestowed upon mankind in Christ Jesus the Son of thy Love whom thou wast pleased in thy infinite mercy to send among us in our own likeness to assure us of thy good will towards us and to instruct us in our duty towards thee and to give us hope of no less than immortal life by patient continuance in well doing We remember with all thankfulness his miraculous Birth at which the Angels rejoyced his most holy Life his bitter Agony and bloudy Death his glorious Resurrection upon this day from the grave his Ascension into the heavens to fit on the right hand of the Majesty on high his Triumph over all the powers of
made to understand thy most adorable excellencies which are far beyond the highest of all our thoughts And we have yet a more particular obligation to thee for thy marvailous love in Christ Jesus whom thou hast sent in great humility to visit us who are but dust and ashes to make his abode among us to testifie thy great love to us and assure us of thy good will notwithstanding our many offences and to make us exceeding great and precious promises to invite us to approach thee and to incourage our obedience to thee We thank thee that he hath sealed them with his bloud and thou hast confirmed them by his Resurrection and Ascension and the coming of the holy Ghost that thou hast given us so many happy opportunities to acquaint our selves with the truth and purity of the Christian Religion which comforts us in this state of mortality and misery with the blessed hope of eternal life Blessed be thy goodness for that great consolation and that thou hast shown us the way to it by his doctrine and example and assured us of the assistance of thy holy Spirit to inable us to follow after him to that glory which he possesses Blessed be thy goodness that we have felt it so often in our minds and hearts inspiring us with holy thoughts exciting in us devout affections and godly resolutions filling us with Divine Joys and with comfortable expectations of the glory that shall be revealed We thank thee that thou hast permitted us this day to attend upon thee together with our Christian Brethren in the publick Duties of thy Worship and Service And that there we have received any good instructions any holy exhortations and Christian incouragements to proceed and go forward in the course of well doing and have begun in any measure that eternal rest which we wait for with all the faithful when we shall praise and thank and love thee our heavenly Father better than we can do now whilst we are in these frail bodies and absent from the Lord. We can do no less than offer up again our souls and bodies to thee to be order'd and govern'd by thy blessed Will and not our own that so we may be every day more prepared for that happy state and draw nearer and nearer in the disposition and temper of our spirits to that immortal blessedness It is our satisfaction our security the ease and joy of our hearts to be under the conduct of thy unerring wisdom to follow thy counsels and to be determined in all things by thy holy Will who art so good and hast given us such large demonstrations of thy abundant kindness and good will to us as will not let us distrust thy tender care of us whatsoever it is thou wouldest have us do or suffer in this world O God purifie our minds and thoughts more perfectly that we may never conceive amiss of thee but have right apprehensions in all things and all our passions and affections likewise that we may intirely love thee and rejoyce in being beloved of thee and humbly confide in thee and absolutely resign our selves to thee and be filled with constant devotion towards thee our Almighty Creator and most merciful Redeemer Possess our hearts with such a lively sense of our relation to thee in both respects and of the honour thou hast done us in preferring us so much above the rest of our fellow creatures that we may ever behave our selves suitably to the dignity of our Nature and of our Religion O that we may never degenerate into a base and unworthy love of any thing here below nor be oppressed with the burden of the cares of this life nor sink under the weight of any affliction nor be vainly puffed up with the greatest fulness of earthly goods if thou art pleased to bestow them on us But assist us with thy grace to Rom. 12.9 abhor that which is evil and cleave to that which is good Dispose us to a discreet and temperate use of all the pleasures of this world Indue us with true modesty and humility of spirit that we may Rom. 12.3,10,16 not think of our selves more highly than we ought to think but think soberly according to the measure which thou hast dealt unto us Keep us from being wise in our own conceits and inable us so to order our selves that Phil. 4.5 our moderation may be known to all men Make us kindly affectioned one to another in brotherly love To delight in doing good Tit. 3.2 to shew all meekness to all men Rom. 13.7,8 To render to all their dues Tribute to whom tribute is due custom to whom custom fear to whom fear honour to whom honour and to owe no man anything but to love one another Make us so happy that we may be able to Matth. 5.44 love our enemies to bless those that curse us to do good to them that hate us Rom. 12.15 to rejoyce with them that do rejoyce and weep with them that weep Compose our spirits to a quiet and steady dependence on thy good providence that we may not Matth. 6.25 take too much thought for our life nor be careful for any thing Phil. 4.6 but by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving still make known our requests to thee our God And help us Luk. 18.1 to pray alway and not faint 1 Thess 5.18 In every thing to give thanks Heb. 13.15 and offer up the sacrifice of praise continually 1 Pet. 1.17 To pass the time of our sojourning here in fear Rom. 5.2 To believe those things which we do not see and to rejoyce in hope of thy glory Luk. 21.19 To possess our souls in patience Phil. 4.11,12 And to learn in whatsoever state we are therewith to be content Make us know both how to be abased and how to abound every where and in all things instruct us both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need being inabled to do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us That we feeling the joys of uprightness and integrity of heart our Religion may be the greatest comfort and pleasure to us and we our selves an ornament to our Religion O that we could alway by an innocent good and useful life commend the Doctrine of God our Saviour to those who converse with us And that the light of all Christians did so shine before men that others beholding their good works might be moved to glorifie thee and heartily to believe on the Lord Jesus Send forth thy Light and thy Truth into all the dark corners of the Earth That Psal 72.11,12,13,14 all kings may fall down before him and all nations serve him And indue them whom thou hast placed in such high Authority over others with that divine Spirit which was in him that they may deliver the needy when he cryeth the poor also and him that hath no helper That
hearts rejoyce that we may spend a day in thy Courts are invited to a longer attendance on thy divine Majesty in the duties of thy worship and service We are ashamed that any weariness should seize on our spirits and that it should be irksome to us to renew our thoughts and acknowledgements of thy infinite goodness Behold O Lord we are resolved again to address our selves unto thee with praise and thanksgiving for giving us such opportunities to look back to thee the Author of our being to lift up our souls towards our heavenly Country and unite them to the first and chiefest good from whence we derive whatsoever we have or hope to enjoy Beseeching thee to help us to draw near unto thee with hearts full of wonder at thy incomprehensible Majesty full of love to thy most wise and Almighty goodness full of thankfulness for thy benefits full of desires to be what thou wouldst have us and full of joy that thou wouldst have us be so happy in being made thy children partakers of a Divine Nature and heirs of immortal life We admire thy glory O great Lord of heaven and earth which shines in the whole Creation thy greater glory in the work of our redemption by the miraculous Birth Life Death and Resurrection of Christ Jesus and the greatest of all which we hope and wait for at his appearing when he shall come to be admired in his Saints and glorified in all them that believe Thou hast done great things for us already thou hast promised to do greater and thou art daily performing thy promises and preparing us for the accomplishment of them all in the highest blessedness O God of all grace make us wiser Stewards than we have been of thy manifold gifts and graces which we are intrusted withal Help us carefully to husband this sacred opportunity which thou continuest to us to the best advantage of our immortal souls Gather in our thoughts from our ordinary business Fix them on thy self and hold them in the contemplation of thy infinite mercies and of those divine Truths which represent our duty and thy exceeding love and kindness towards us Chase away all worldly affections and over-awe our spirits with a sense of thy divine presence that by serving thee with a religious reverence this day we may be disposed to walk in thy fear all the rest of our lives Having a grateful remembrance of thy benefits a deep and serious reflection upon our own resolutions and thy gracious promises an holy jealousie over our selves lest we should be unfaithful to them and a pious care in all things to approve our selves the constant and diligent servants of the Lord Jesus O that our thankfulness and good affections and zealous desires may not end with our prayers nor conclude with this day But we may be possessed with such a strong and habitual sense of thee and of our obligations to thee that we may every day earnestly and heartily serve thee in all the actions of Christian piety and be unwearied in well doing unto the conclusion of our lives Another O Most holy great and glorious Majesty of heaven and earth To whom all the blessed company above do with the highest admiration and love give continual praise and thanks and honour and worship and obedience acknowledging thou art above all that they are able to speak of thee or ascribe and render to thee Much more art thou exalted above the thoughts of such poor mortals as we who are clothed with flesh and live far remote from the throne of thy glory And yet such is thy goodness thou condescendest to admit nay to draw us to a fellowship with those holy spirits that we may thereby be made happy and called thy servants though when we have done the best we can very unprofitable What is man that thou art mindful of him what are the sons of men that thou dost at all consider them Thou hast crowned us with glory and honour here below and raised us to a Dominion over the works of thy hands Thou hast indued us with understandings to know thee and with wills to love thee whose most excellent wisdom Almighty power and surpassing goodness we discover in all thy works of wonder But what is sinful man that thou shouldest so much regard him as to send after him to seek and save him when he was lost Lord what grace was this that thou shouldest vouchsafe to speak with us and communicate any thing of thy mind to such forgetful and ungrateful wretches But that thou shouldst speak to us by thy Son and declare thy mind in such words of grace and favour and publish such kind intentions towards us and recover us with so much cost and purchase us to thy self with the precious bloud of thy Son Jesus and send thy holy Spirit to purifie us that we might have thy Image renewed in us and be made fit society for thy self again and restored to immortal life Lord how much doth it exceed all belief hadst thou not given us in tender mercy such abundance assurance of it We have those reasons to bless thee which the Angels have not We must admire thee not only as the great Creator and Preserver of all things which we heartily do and give thee the glory of all thy marvailous works but also as the Redeemer of mankind out of a forlorn condition by the manifestation of thy self in our flesh by the bloud of thy Son the constant breathings of the holy Ghost the light of thy Gospel and an unwearied patience which hath waited on us and propounded to us no less happiness than to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus who is advanced far above all principalities and powers and every name that is named not only in this world but in that also which is to come We praise thee O God we magnifie thy most holy Name we confess our selves bound to thee above all other creatures that we have any knowledge of for we are twice thy creatures and thou hast a double title to all we have O stir up all that is within us to bless thee and love thee and offer up the sacrifice of thanksgiving to thee Fill our hearts with joy and gladness that we have another opportunity wherein to recount thy mercies to us to be further instructed in thy mind and will declared by our Saviour and to be under the comfortable influences of heaven to cherish those holy thoughts affections and resolutions which are begun in us and to promote our growth and increase in all wisdom goodness and vertue Possess us with such a strong sense of thy continued love towards us that we may testifie our true and hearty thankfulness for it by attentive consideration of all that we hear out of thy holy Word and by laying it up in our hearts and esteeming it more than the greatest treasures of this World and endeavouring every day to have our conversation as becometh the
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
us especially those in the Lord Jesus in whom thy Grace hath so exceedingly abounded as to surpass not only our deserts but the largest of our desires Blessed blessed for ever blessed be thy fatherly goodness who hast sent him from heaven so unexpectedly to visit us vile wretches who dwell in houses of clay whose foundation is in the dust Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him or the son of man that thou didst thus visit him We thank thee according to our poor ability from the very bottom of our hearts for his manifestation in our flesh for the charitable testimonies he gave of his love to mankind in the course of his life for that astonishing grace in submitting himself to dye for us for his glorious Resurrection and Ascension to heaven for the Soveraign Power and Authority which thou hast given him at thy right hand for his compassionate intercession for us and the assurances we have received of his being the King of glory and of his continued kindness to us by the coming of the Holy Ghost We will never cease to bless thee for that great salvation Heb. 2.3,4 which was first preached by the Lord was confirmed by them that heard him and for the witness which thou barest to them both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts of the holy Ghost according to thy own will We rejoyce in the Light of thy holy Gospel that we see the way to be happy both by the Doctrine and example of thy Son Jesus that we have the incouragement of his precious promises and such good hope of remission of sin and eternal life in the day when he shall judge the world in righteousness O how much are we bound unto thee for that comfortable hope which thou hast given us of seeing our dear Saviour in all his glory and being there where he is and reigning with him for ever We again render thee our most hearty thanks for that everlasting consolation and good hope through grace which thou hast given us and for all those benefits likewise which thou art pleased to bestow upon us to make our stay here on earth the more convenient and delightful to us We are every way obliged to thee beyond all that we are able to express or conceive Thou feedest us and clothest us thou preservest our health and our strength thou hast delivered us from innumerable dangers and when thou hast chastised us it hath been in great mercy and clemency and not according to our deserving O that all the world would shew forth thy praise and devote themselves to the service of our Lord. Let all Kings of the earth submit themselves unto him and glory in the name of his obedient subjects High and low rich and poor let them praise the name of the Lord from this time forth and for evermore Accept most gracious God of these unfeigned desires of us thy servants who for our parts intirely dedicate our selves both souls and bodies unto thee Resolving in all things to walk worthy of thee who hast called us to thy Kingdom and Glory and blessed us also with many other good things which make this life to be a more easie passage to a better We will never forget how much we are indebted to thee but study to express our grateful remembrance of thy mercies by living Tit. 2.12,13 soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Favour we pray thee these holy purposes with the constant assistance of thy good spirit that we may be able to accomplish what we have begun and to perfect holiness in thy fear Help us to 2 Pet. 1.5,6,7,8 add to our faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity That these things being in us and abounding they may make us to be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ Preserve us this day especially that we swerve not presently from these pious resolutions But may give such a proof of their sincerity by our being steadfast and immoveable in all well doing notwithstanding any temptation to the contrary that we may have the better hope we shall persevere to the very end through thy continued grace in Christ Jesus in whose words we desire all that thou seest needful either for our souls or bodies saying Our Father c. At Night WE are here again prostrate before thee O Lord of heaven and earth to joyn our selves with all that holy company Revel 4.8,11 who rest not day and night saying Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created Blessed be thy divine goodness which hath made the children of men but little lower than the Angels and crowned us with such glory and honour that we are capable to accompany that heavenly host in giving continual thanks and praise unto thee Praised be thy name that we are now alive and that we have the use of our reason and understanding and enjoy so many of the comforts and conveniences of this present life and have attained a good hope through Christ Jesus of being immortally happy O how great was thy love which sent him into the world to direct us in the way to that happiness by his holy doctrine and life and to be a propitiation for our sins by his death and to Act. 26.23 be the first that should rise from the dead and should shew light unto the world We rejoyce in that light of life We most chearfully devote our selves to be the faithful Disciples of him the Prince of peace the Lord of life and glory It is our happiness as well as our duty to be governed by him and obey his commands We are sensible that they are all equal just and good and that thou hast done us an infinite kindness in teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world And therefore we here again most heartily surrender our wills to thine desiring that we may unchangeably cleave unto it with the greatest and most intire love and affection to all its commands O that there may abide for ever in us such a strong and powerful sense of thy mighty love towards us in Christ Jesus as may constrain us freely and willingly to please thee in the constant exercise of piety and devotion righteousness and mercy temperance and chastity meekness and patience truth and fidelity together with such an humble contented and peaceable spirit as may adorn the Religion of our Lord and Master O God that these holy desires and inclinations may
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
who hath taught us when we pray to say Our Father c. Another short Prayer for the Morning O Blessed God be thou acknowledged praised and loved by us and all the children of men on whom thou pourest continually thy benefits They are great and many we know not the summe nor understand the value of them The Angels themselves admired thy love to us in Christ Jesus and are become ministring Spirits to them who are heirs of Salvation We enjoy the continual fruits of thy watchful providence by which we have been kept in peace and safety the last night and are raised this morning in health and strength both of body and mind beholding all things belonging to us just as we left them with thee when we went to sleep Accept we most humbly beseech thee of this poor tribute of praise and thanks together with the hearty oblation of our souls and bodies which we here dedicate again to thy service Vouchsafe us the continued assistance of the grace of thy holy Spirit to inable us to make good those vows that are upon us of obediently keeping thy holy will and commandments and walking in the same all the days of our life Pardon good Lord all our breaches of this Sacred Covenant Deal not with us according to our sins neither reward us after our iniquities But in the multitude of thy tender mercies pitty our errors and wandrings and help us against our infirmities Give us leave this day to put our selves into thy powerful protection and to depend on thee for thy merciful guidance and assistance that we may be more faithful to thee in the discharge of our duties and never swerve from the rules of Sobriety Righteousness Charity and Godliness So shall we return with joyful hearts to praise thee in the Evening and teach those who shall come after us to continue thy praises in the next generation Amen for thy mercies sake in Christ Jesus in whose words we present the earnest desires of our hearts for our selves and all our Brethren saying Our Father c. A short Prayer for the Evening when there is not time for the longer O God we thy creatures who have tasted liberally of thy bounty many ways and been blessed in our several imployments and mercifully preserved from several dangers this day are here met to joyn together in most hearty thanksgivings to thy divine Majesty which with one accord we offer up unto thee It is the greatest happiness of all we acknowledge that we have any sense of thee in our minds any love to thee in our hearts any remembrance of thy benefits any holy dispositions to obey thee and any hopes that thou wilt pardon our sins and make us partakers of eternal life All that we desire of thee O Lord is the continuance and increase of this happiness that we may be possessed with a stronger sense of thy Majesty thy Soveraign Power thy unsearchable Wisdom Goodness and Truth and be filled with a more ardent love to thee and to all righteousness and delight to do thy Will in every thing and rejoyce in hope of thy immortal Glory As for all the things of this life in a grateful remembrance of thy many past mercies we intirely trust thee for the time to come referring our selves to thy Wisdom and resolving to be content with that portion which thy good providence is pleased to assign us Help us but to be steadfast and unmoveable in the work of our Lord to bring forth all the fruits of the Spirit love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness and temperance and we shall think our selves rich enough and well provided for in every state and condition of life In these holy thoughts and desires we commend our selves to thy gracious protection this night hoping to find them fresh and lively in our souls when we awake in the Morning and desiring withal the happiness of the rest of the world that they may know thee and acknowledge thee and be guided unto and walk in the way that leads to everlasting life through Christ Jesus our blessed Redeemer In whose powerful name and comprehensive words we continue to pray as he hath taught us saying Our Father c. Another for the Evening IN an humble and thankful sense O Lord of heaven and earth of our intire dependence on thee and of the duty we owe thee and the many promises and vows wherein we stand ingaged to thee we fall down before thee this Evening and with all reverence worship thy divine Majesty Giving thee the glory that is due unto thy Name and acknowledging thy multiplied mercies to us particularly those of this day to the conclusion of which thou hast now safely brought us with new resolutions in our hearts to continue for ever in thy faith and fear and love and obedience It is but just and reasonable and we feel likewise by daily experience that it is our happiness to keep thy Commandments and to maintain chearful thoughts of thee and an hearty friendship with thee by complying in all things with thy holy Will O pardon our folly most gracious God in forsaking at any time that perfect Rule to follow our own unruly desires Pardon us we beseech thee for we know not how to pardon our selves such ingratitude to thee and cruelty to our selves It is the grief of our hearts that we have in the least offended thee and our most earnest unfeigned desire to be preserved hereafter in an exact conformity to our Rule in every thing Yea we would delight to do thy Will O God and take such a pleasure in all the acts of righteousness mercy meekness and gentleness to our Neighbours and in praising and acknowledging thee the God of all grace and in living in an humble sense of thy bounty and our own undeservings and in a temperate and thankful use of all thy blessings that we may have the continual feast of a good conscience and the constant comfort and satisfaction of having thee alway for our friend and our gracious Father in Christ Jesus O thou who art the Inspirer of such holy counsels desires and purposes keep them for ever in our hearts Incourage strengthen and increase them that after the refreshment of a quiet sleep this night we may feel them lively and powerful in the Morning and with renewed joy we may still devote our selves to thy faithful service O that our friends and all thy people in every place may partake of the same mercies we desire for our selves and howsoever we are severed one from another in this world grant us an happy meeting at the day of our Lord in whose words we pray thee to hear 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
lords who only hast immortality and designest by thy Son Jesus to raise us sinful dust and ashes to a kingdom glory honour and immortality in the heavens I most earnestly beseech thee that this sense of thee may accompany me wheresoever I go and in whatsoever I do this day That approving my self to thee in such a godly sober righteous charitable and prudent behaviour as may adorn the Gospel of my Lord and Master Christ Jesus I may have a greater assurance of thy good will towards me and an undoubted hope of thy mercy in him to eternal life In whose most blessed name and words I humbly recommend my self my friends and all thy servants to thy infinite charity saying as he hath taught us Our Father c. Another for the Evening BLessing Glory Honour and Praise be again returned to thee O Father of mercy from a most thankful heart which offers up it self also in holy devotion to thee Who art my Soveraign Lord my most loving Saviour my Deliverer and Benefactor the Fountain of all the good things I enjoy at present and the hope of my soul for ever and ever Blessed be thy renewed kindness to me this day past both to my self and my relations to my soul and my body in my transactions with men and in the liberty thou allowest me of addresses to thy self Pardon good Lord whatsoever hath escaped me in thought word or deed contrary to my duty And accept of those sincere intentions and unfeigned purposes which were and I hope shall always be in my heart to study to approve my self to thee in all well doing It is but just and reasonable that I should follow thy will and not my own and in a grateful sense of what I have received from thee I ought to be moved to imploy all the powers of my soul and body for thee But such is the goodness of thy will that it is for my ease and pleasure and greatest happiness to be absolutely led and governed by it I am sensible O Lord how much I am indebted to thee for teaching me by Christ Jesus and also strongly obliging me to exercise my self to all godliness purity righteousness humility goodness and truth And accordingly I thank thee above all things for his holy instructions and example for the hope thou hast given us by his bloud that thou wilt be so merciful to our sins as not to deny us the power of thy holy Spirit to inable us to follow him and obey his commands and for that exceeding great and precious promise which he hath given us of immortal life to incourage us to follow him willingly and chearfully even to the death O that I may feel a lively and steadfast faith in his Word continually working with great power in my heart exciting me to an unwearied diligence and zeal and love and patient continuance in my duty towards thee and towards all men That so my hope in thee may grow and increase and I may joyfully expect that hour which shall translate me hence to the eternal happiness of the other world And during my stay here I commend my self to thy good providence which hath hitherto been so tender of me I trust thee wholly with my self and all belonging to me and am willing in every thing to be disposed of as thou seest good This night 〈◊〉 fly unto thy Almighty protection hoping thou wilt keep me safely and whether I awake in this or the other life I shall still be praising thee whose Mercy endureth for ever Amen for Christ Jesus his sake by whom thou hast incouraged me to hope in thee and taught me to call thee father saying 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. THat time which is wont to be spent in the Church in talking or looking about before Divine Service begin may be better imployed in private Prayer to dispose us to joyn with greater seriousness in the Publick And indeed our business being there with God alone and that place being separated to his service only the custom which now universally prevails of entertaing discourse one with another is very undecent to say no worse and ought to be reformed We have other times and places enow to confer with our neighbours and therefore have no temptation to pervert the use of this which is set apart for devout intercourse with God and none else by speaking to him in Prayer and Praises and hearing him speak to us in his holy Word It is fit to silence all other speech and therefore here follow some helps for that purpose which I hope all good Christians will indeavour to use or imitate and not despise this loving admonition Private PRAYERS IN THE CHVRCH A short Prayer before Divine Service begins BEhold O Lord of heaven and earth a Soul prostrate before thee desirous to be filled with such an awful sense of thy divine Majesty that no other thing may interpose it self while I am in thy presence Fix my inconstant thoughts in a steadfast attention to thy most holy Word Inspire me with devout affections when I set forth thy praise and render thanks for all thy benefits And excite in me such fervent desires for all those things which I ask of thee that I may feel my self better disposed by these addresses to thee to every Christian duty the rest of this day through Christ Jesus our Lord and Saviour Amen Another IN an humble and thankful sense of thine infinite goodness which honoureth us so much as to speak to us and gives us leave to speak to thee I bow down my self before thee O most high and holy Lord the Creator of the world desiring my mind may be possessed with such great thoughts of thee whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain and who openest thy hand and fillest all things with good that I may most reverently worship thee and affectionately acknowledge thy bounty and set my heart open to receive thy holy Word and my mouth may praise thee with joyful lips Silence all other thoughts and desires in me while I am here in thy presence And lift up my heart so towards heaven that I may feel it united to that glorious company above who perpetually praise thee and rejoyce in thee and do thy Commandments hearkning to the voice of thy Word Which I humbly beg in the name of Christ Jesus which is ever dear unto thee and by whom thou hast promised to hear us Amen Or those words of the Prophet David which you read Psal 5.7 17.1 118.28 119.47,48 c. may be a little altered in this manner IN the multitude of thy mercy I am come into thy house and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy
present contentment and satisfaction of it hath a great recompence of reward O preserve in my mind a constant remembrance how dearly I am bought by the precious bloud of thy Son Christ how early I was dedicated to thy service how often I have since found abundant cause to determine I would be thine how I have condemned my self for the breach of those holy purposes and what great satisfaction of mind I have had in the keeping of thy Commandments That so I may never wilfully offend against so many forcible reasons obliging me to my duty but be swayed by them notwithstanding all the temptations of the world the flesh or the devil to persevere in a resolved obedience to thee for ever And by the power of thy holy Spirit I beseech thee to make them clearer stronger and more effectual that I may have the same thoughts passions inclinations and purposes now which I shall be apt to have when I come to dye For which end help me often to place my self before thy Judgement Seat and to consider that I must give an account for all that I have received for thy holy Gospel for thy divine inspirations for the counsels and exhortations of thy Ministers for all the means and helps of growing better and for all the incouragements I have even from the good things of this life which thy bounty bestows upon me That by a careful preparation for such a reckoning I may be kept close and stedfast to my duty in hope of that exceeding glorious reward which our Lord will bestow upon all his faithful servants at the day of his appearing Amen Another to the same effect O Most great and glorious Majesty of heaven and earth who art of unspotted purity and in whom there is not the least shadow of change I know that all the resolutions of thy Wisdom are most just and equal and I cannot chuse when I am in my right mind to be guided by any thing else but thy holy Will who designest I see in all the revelations thou hast made of thy self to us to make us like to thy own most blessed Nature I do here own and acknowledge most heartily the righteousness and goodness of all thy Laws I admire the loveliness of thy Image in wisdom righteousness and true holiness I loath my own deformity whilst I am unlike to thee I implore thy renewing grace as the greatest blessing I can receive from thee and I bind my self to the faithful improvement of it as the weightiest imployment of my life I am abundantly satisfied in the declaration thou hast made of thy gracious purposes towards us I renounce all thoughts and desires that are contrary thereunto and resolve that holiness and eternal life shall be my design and study I expect no pardon O my God but in ways of sobriety righteousness and godliness I hope for a blessed immortality only by patient continuance in well doing I consent to every part of thy holy Gospel and add my testimony to the truth of its words that none of thy commandments are grievous but thy yoke is easie and thy burden light I hope O Lord by thy grace I shall never contradict my self by disowning in my practice these free and serious professions But that I shall every day so call to mind my own protestations and resolutions as to continue with an unwearied diligence in stedfast obedience to thy commands and to grow still stronger in the grace of the Lord Jesus O that every such address as this unto thy Divine Majesty may leave a greater sense of thee and of my duty and of my happiness and of my manifold obligations and repeated promises upon my heart That I may always go out of thy presence with my mind more towards heaven with lower thoughts of all the injoyments of this life with a greater relish of piety and holiness and more passionate desires to become every way such as thou canst approve and love and delight in for ever And assist me I humbly beseech thee so constantly from above that whatsoever good thoughts are at any time in my mind they may grow to fixed principles and all heavenly affections may become a new nature and the constant temper of my spirit and all my purposes and resolutions may advance into a serious practice and exercise of godliness and all the actions of an holy life may grow more free chearful vigorous and full of delight till they be compleated in everlasting bliss through Christ Jesus Amen A PRAYER After RELAPSE Into any SIN I Cast down my self before thee O most holy Lord of heaven and earth with an humble sorrowful and penitent heart adoring thy infinite grace which suffers such a vile and miserable sinner to approach into thy presence I am thine indeed dedicated long ago to thy service which I have since chosen as the most perfect freedom But so much the greater reason I have to be abashed before thee and to be astonished at thy forbearing mercy which prolongs the life of such an one as I am who have been so false to thee and to my own resolutions I remember in the bitterness of my soul how many obligations thou hast laid upon me to observe and obey thee how often I have acknowledged the justice and goodness of thy Precepts and how frequently I have promised and vowed to conform my self unto them and what great and precious promises thou hast made to me of invaluable blessings And yet wretch that I am I have been drawn aside from thy ways by easie and slight temptations and for a small and momentary pleasure or gain * Here mention the particular sin have ventured the loss of thy favour which is better than life it self O God that thou shouldst have patience with so perfidious so ungrateful so senseless a creature as I am That thou shouldst permit me to see the light of the Sun and hast not condemned me to utter darkness in weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth But that thou givest me leave to look towards heaven and that I have any heart to speak unto thee and still may call thee Father saying Father I have sinned against thee and am no more worthy to be called thy son O the riches O the unsearchable riches of thy grace I can never sufficiently admire thy exceeding great long-suffering towards me in Christ Jesus Nor sufficiently abhorr and loath my self for my foul revolt from thee who art so kind gracious especially if I should still continue to abuse such tender mercy and compassion towards me Tribulation and anguish indignation and wrath I acknowledge is the due portion of those that do evil and if thou shouldst abandon me and cast me out of thy sight I must confess that thou art righteous and that I reap but the fruit of my own ways and suffer the deserved punishment of my late iniquity But thou O God delightest in mercy and there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayst
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
diligent more earnest and solicitous more humble and distrustful of my self and more fervent to implore the powerful succours of thy divine Grace O that it may be as natural to me to pray to thee as it is to breath And thou who fillest the hungry with good things pour into me life and strength and vigor in a constant dependance on thee and an hearty indeavour to do thy will Ephes 3.16 Strengthen me with might by thy spirit in the â—inner man That notwithstanding the strongest temptations wherewith I may be assaulted and notwithstanding the weakness and feebleness of my own spirit to resist them I may persevere couragiously in well doing unto the end and finish my course with joy and lay my self down to rest in an holy hope that I shall enter into a state of safety and security from all danger and remain for ever in the joy of our Lord. Amen A Prayer for the Divine Grace O Most blessed God the high and mighty One who inhabitest eternity and art what thou always wast and ever wilt be the mosâ— perfect power wisdom goodnesâ— and truth the fountain of all thâ— perfections that are in us We oughâ— to address our selves to thee in the greatest humility of spirit having nothing to present thee withal which we can call our own being unable by all our righteousness to profit thee who standest in need of none of thy creatures But alas O Lord we have robbed thee of that which we have received from thee and are so far from giving thee any thing of ours that we have not returned to thee that which is thine O the miserable condition therefore into which we have brought our selves who are not so much as fit to receive any more from thy divine bounty and which is worse have been too unwilling to partake of thy favours O thy infinite love in Christ Jesus which hath bestowed the richest grace upon us whether we would or â—o Thou hast honoured our naâ—ure with thy divine presence dwelâ—ing in it Thou hast delivered him â—o dye for our sins Thou hast given us 〈◊〉 blessed hope in thee by his Resurâ—ection from the dead Thou hast â—nt him to bless us in turning every one of us from our iniquities Act. 3.26 And given him all power in heaven and earth that he may succour and strengthen us when we are tempted and enable us to overcome I thank thee with all my soul for this abundant grace so freely and undesired conferred upon us Which incourages me to hope in thee now that thou inclinest my heart towards thee and hast given me a thankful sense of thy love and some will to obey thee and holy resolutions to cleave unto thee in well doing that thou wilt not deny me the constant assistance of that good Spirit which our Saviour hath bid us ask of thee to strengthen confirm and settle what thou hast begun to do for me in a perfect love and stedfast obedience to all thy holy commands O God of all grace and might the root of our life and power and strength without whom all good desires and purposes wither and die withdraw not the sweet influences of thy holy Spirit from thy unworthy servant who intirely confides in thee and hath no hope but in thy infinite Mercies Remember not against me former iniquities let not my late back-sliding and return to folly cut me off from the communication of thy grace which is wont to press into those souls that open themselves to receive it and seriously thirst after it My soul thirsteth for thee O God that I may be more firmly united to thee and be made more exactly like thee in unchangeable righteousness purity and goodness Cherish and increase the most faint but sincere motions which thou seest in me towards a more compleat participation of thee And especially preserve in me a full confidence in thy Almighty Love as ready to accomplish the desires and indeavours of all those who yield up themselves unto it in hearty willingness to be governed by it That being born up by this strong hope in thee my helper and exceeding great reward no temptation may be able to prevail over me but I may walk stedfastly and evenly with thee in all conditions and circumstances of life Make me feel so much of the comfort of this faith and love and hope and obedience reviving me to a delightful sense of a blessed immortality that whatsoever allurements or discouragements I meet withal in this world they may only provoke me to give a greater proof of all these in a constant adherence to my duty and occasion the increase of my unspeakable joy and satisfaction And inlarge my heart thereby to such a measure of Christian piety that I may not only be innocent and harmless but forward also to do good and not only be contented with my portion but rejoyce in our Lord alway and rejoyce not only to do thy will but to suffer also for righteousness sake knowing that great shall be my reward in heaven Bless my indeavours to add to faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience 2 Pet. 1.5,6,7,10,11 and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity That doing these things I may never fall But an entrance may be ministred to me abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Amen A short Prayer when any man's occasions call him to a place where he fears danger O Almighty God who art every where and more especially present to those souls that look up unto thee with an high esteem of thy favour and grace and with hearty desires to continue in thy love by patient continuance in well doing In this humble faith in thy Divine goodness and with a due fear and reverence of thy glorious Majesty I prostrate my soul and body before thee to put my self into thy most gracious protection and to beg the powerful assistance of thy holy Spirit to preserve me wheresoever I am in a dutiful observance of all thy holy commands I am sensible O Lord that we live in a world of temptations and that our nature is weak and ready to yield to them and that our affections are apt to wander after vanity and that sudden passions oftentimes transport us from our duty But I know withal that a sense of thy all-seeing eye and of the life to come and of the rewards and punishments which thou wilt render according to our works will certainly overawe all sinful motions in me and break the force of the strongest temptations that assault me And therefore the greater the danger is the more earnestly I sue unto thee to be possessed with a piercing sense and lively remembrance of these things which may abide with me alway and especially this day in every place and company into which I shall come O that I may not be so forgetful
angels charge over me to keep me in all my ways 91.11 When he walks abroad and beholds all things round about him he may say as it is Psal 104.24 O Lord how manifold are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all the earth is full of thy riches c. At Meals O taste and see that the Lord is good He filleth our hearts with food and gladness Psal 24.8 Act. 14.17 Blessed be the Lord who daily loadeth us with his benefits Psal 68.19 At Candle-light Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us Psal 4.6 Or God be merciful unto us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us 67.1 When he goes to bed I will both lay me down in peace and sleep for thou Lord only makest me dwell in safety Psal 4.8 He that keepeth me doth not slumber The Lord is my keeper the Lord is my defence who neither slumbers nor sleeps Psal 121.4,5 In the Night season O happy souls that rest not day nor night saying Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was which is and is to come Rev. 4.8 O great God! the darkness hideth not from thee but the night shineth as the day the darkness and the light are both alike to thee Psal 139.12 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips when I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the night watches Because thou hast been my help therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoyce Psal 63.5,6,7 On a sick-bed or in other affliction It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good 1 Sam. 3.18 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord Lam. 3.26 Blessed be the Lord for my long continued health and all his other benefits Let the remembrance of thy former mercies refresh my soul and incourage my hope and strengthen my patience with quiet resignation of my self to thy good pleasure At the point of Death I have waited for thy salvation O Lord Gen. 49.18 Into thy hand O Father I commend my self who breathedst into me the breath of Life Lord Jesus receive my spirit which thou hast redeemed by thy precious bloud and sanctified by the holy Ghost When he hears a Passing-bell Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity Psal 39.5 O teach me so to number my days that I may apply my heart unto wisdom 90.12 In a time of Plague O Lord correct us but with judgement not in thine anger lest thou bring us to nothing Jer. 10.24 In a time of War O Lord arise help us and deliver us for thy names sake From our enemies defend us O Christ Graciously look upon our affliction King Asa cryed unto God in this manner when he was going to give battle to a million of enemies Lord it is nothing with thee to help whether with many or with them that have no power Help us O Lord our God for we rest on thee and in thy name go against this multitude 2 Chron. 14.11 In any other publick Calamity Spare thy people O Lord and give not thy heritage to reproach Joel 2.17 A great Offender may often say with the Prodigal Father I have sinned against thee and am no more worthy to be called thy son And with the Publican God be merciful to me a sinner After any mercy received What shall I render unto the Lord for all the benefits that he hath done unto me Psal 116.12 Every day will I give thanks unto thee and praise thy name for ever and ever 145.1 I shall mention no more because I would not invite the Reader to make this sort of Prayer too common For by that means it will be in danger to grow cold and lose its force and efficacie by growing fashionable To that purpose I remember a devout Prelate of our own Bishop Hall somewhere delivers his judgement about this matter But if any one find that he can with profit turn his thoughts this way upon all occasions he may easily invent more Ejaculations The measure of them is as that forenamed person speaks to preserve our hearts in a constant tender and godly disposition which shall be further actuated upon all opportunites by the exercise of our more inlarged and fixed devotions A Prayer for Submission to God in case of any great loss in a mans Estate Relations or Friends O Most Holy holy holy the Supreme Lord and Governour of the world who are unsearchable in thy Wisdom unspotâ—ed in thy Justice and irresistable in â—hy Power whose goodness hath no â—ounds but what thy wise and holy Will gives unto it and art immuâ—able in these and all other perfections the great God most blessed for ever It is most reasonable and agreeable to our nature most profitable and convenient to our interest most satisfactory and suitable to our wisest choice by an absolute and â—uiet submission in all things to thy â—overaign Wisdom Justice and Goodness to declare our fear and reverence of thee our unfeigned love to thee and desires to please thee our trust and confidence in thee and ready disposition to obey thee Thou art too great I know to delight in grieving us thy poor creatures and hast other ways of procuring thy own pleasure than by our misery pain and torment And therefore in a full perswasion of thy unerring providence over us and infinite Charity towards us I here most humbly and freely resign all my thoughts and desires unto thee submitting my self intirely to thy Orders and resolving by thy gracious assistance to rest contented with whatsoever thou appointest The Lord gave Job 1.21 and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the Name of the Lord. Blessed bâ— thy name who hast continued to me so long the enjoyment of so many good things Blessed be thy nameâ— that I had any thing to part withal whereby I may testifie my faith in thee and affection to thee Blessed be thy name that I have any of the comforts of this life still remaining and that they are not all taken away from me I have nothing too great or too dear to be resigned to thee from whose bounty I received all I have and who art my best and my eternal friend O that no repining thoughts may arise in my heart to disorder and discompose my duty towards thee or towards my neighbour But help me rather to think wherein I have offended thee and carefully to amend it to place my affections more stedfastly on those unmoveable things which are above to lay up my treasure and hope in heaven and to prepare my self by perfecting my purity and thankfulness and paâ—ience and all other vertues to be translated thither where our life is â—id in thee with Christ Jesus I â—hank thee O Father of Mercies that thou hast given us such everlasting consolation through thy Grace in him Every day will I bless thee
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
none besides thee Thou art righteous in all thy ways Job 11.7 and holy in all thy works Thou lovest righteousness and hatest iniquity and art excellent in power and in judgement and in plenty of justice The earth is thine and the fulness thereof the world and they that dwell therein The heavens declare the glory of God the firmament sheweth his handy-work The sun moon and stars praise the name of the Lord for he commanded and they were created He hath also established them for ever and ever He hath made a decree which shall not pass I know O Lord that thou canst do every thing and that no thought of thine can be hindred Whatsoever the Lord pleases that doth he in heaven and in earth in the seas and in all deep places For he is great and of great power his understanding is infinite Praised be thy Soveraign goodness and tender mercy which spreads it self over all thy works O Lord how manifold are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all And they all wait on thee that thou mayst give them their meat in due season That thou givest them they gather thou openest thy hand they are filled with good The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever the Lord shall rejoyce in his works Thou always wast and ever wilt be the most holy powerful wise and good Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations One generation shall â—raise thy works to another and shall deâ—lare thy mighty acts They all pass away like a shadow but thou art the same and thy years shall have no end For ever O Lord thy word is setled in heaven Thy faithfulness is unto all generations While I live there fore will I praise the Lord I wilâ— sing praises to my God while I have any being I will praise thee O Lord with my whole heart whose name iâ— exalted above all blessing and praise For we cannot know the Almighty to perfection His wisdom is unsearchable and his ways past finding out His name alone is excellent his glory is above the earth and heaven II. O what high dignity is this thaâ— I am admitted into thy presence tâ— speak unto thee the blessed and only Potentate 1 Tim. 6.15 the King oâ— kings and Lord of Lords who only hast immortality O how happy ought I to think my self thaâ— I may draw thus nigh to thee whâ— dwellest in light unapproachable who art so happy in thy own most blessed Nature and who if thou dost but open thy self to any soul and fillest it with a great sense of thee and affection to thee thou lettest heavenly joys into it and makest it happy beyond expression For heaven cannot be separated from thee but wheresoever thou art there is peace and satisfaction joy and gladness and unspeakable bliss Adored be thy divine goodness which hath made me so happy this day as to feel some sense of thee begin to shine in my soul Adored be thy goodness which incourages me still to look up unto thee that I may feel more of thee yea hath ingaged me by innumerable Mercies to continue these addresses to thy divine Majesty O how excellent is thy loving kindness Psal 36.7 O God! 139.17 How precious are thy thoughts unto me how great is the sum of them Psal 46.5 Many O Lord my God 22.9,10 are thy wonderful works which thou hast done and thy thoughts which are to me-ward they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee if I would declare and speak of them they are more than can be numbred By thee I was fearfully and wonderfully made in secret Thou art he that took me out of my mothers womb and didst make me hope upon her breasts I have been cast upon thee ever since and thou hast been my gracious God unto this moment My infancy and childhood was attended with a very careful providence And thou hast blessed my riper years with a continued health and strength of body and mind and abundance of good things to support and refresh me in my pilgrimage through this world to a better life I never have wanted my daily bread even when I was not able to ask it of thee And thou hast bestowed on me many friends and kind benefactors And prevented me likewise by a timely grace and sent me many instructors that I might remember thee my Creator and Jesus Christ my Saviour Into whose family blessed be thy Name I was early adopted and assured of thy fatherly love and tender mercy towards me O how deeply do I stand indebted to thee for all those by whose Counsels or Sermons or Writings or religious Society or godly Examples or charitable Prayers I have been helped forward in my way to heaven Blessed be thy Name for all the means whereby I have been led to the knowledge of thy great love in the Lord Jesus which passeth knowledge For ever blessed be thy Name for sending him into the world born of a woman to be a teacher of righteousness to go before us and leave us a pattern of a most holy life to dye for our sins and to rise again for our justification and then to ascend into the heavens to prepare a place for us where thou hast advanced him above all principalities and powers Phil. 3.10,11 and given him a name above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should how and every tongue confess him to be the Lord to the glory of thee O God the Father Almighty I glorifie thee O heavenly Father with all my heart and soul for inspiring thy holy Apostles and Prophets 2 Cor. 4.6 and shining into their hearts to give the light of the knowledge of thy glory in the face of Jesus Christ I thank thee for calling me to faith in thee for making such great and precious promises to incourage our hope and for disposing me in any measure to be an inheritour of them I thank thee for granting such power to our blessed Lord to fulfil his word for making him a royal high-Priest and appointing him to bless us here and eternally Glory be to thee O Lord most high who hast so often favoured me with the gracious visitations of thy holy Spirit inlightning my mind drawing my will towards thee exciting in me holy desires working many pious purposes and resolutions in my heart giving me a taste how gracious thou art setting before me the hope of eternal life and perswading me by innumerable arguments to entertain those blessings which I should have been forward of my self to have desired Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord Psal 106.2 who can show forth all his praise How often hast thou spared me when I deserved to be punished How many dangers have I escaped From how many assaults of the enemy have I been guarded And how many of his designs have been defeated by an invisible and unobserved goodness which ought for
waves and the tumult of the people The Lord giveth strength to his people the Lord blesseth his people with peace When Plenty is restored say Psal 65.9,12 132.15 147.14 Joel 2.23 Thou hast visited the earth and blessed it thou hast made it very plenteous Thou hast crowned the year with thy goodness and thy clouds have dropt fatness Thou hast blessed our provision abundantly and satisfied our poor again with bread Blessed be the Lord who hath caused the former and latter rain to come down for us in their season and filled us with the finest of the wheat We eat in plenty and are satisfied Praised be the name of the Lord our God that hath dealt wondrously with us But above all thy great and glorious name is to be praised for thine incomprehensible mercy in thy Son Christ whom thou hast sent unto us with better blessings to be the Mediator of our peace with thee to heal all the diseases of our sinful natures and to deliver us from the power of Satan and of Hell and Death and to restore us to an immortal life Thanks be to thine infinite goodness which hath taught us by him the way of truth and righteousness and made him an offering for our sins and raised him from the dead to the Throne of Glory in the heavens and sent from thence the holy Spirit to enlighten our minds with the whole knowledge of thy will and to shed abroad thy great love in our hearts and to be the earnest of an heavenly inheritance together with our blessed Lord who is heir of all things having the hosts of Angels subject unto him whom he hath appointed blessed be thy Name for the guard and defence the succour and help of all his faithful servants I thank thee O Lord that thou hast pardoned so many offences so graciously importuned me to return to my duty and afforded so long time and space of repentance and waited so patiently for my amendment and continued to me constantly as I must again confess so many blessings which I have abused or restored them to me after a short correction of my faults I cannot wish for any further happiness but only for an heart gratefully to resent thy love and to delight to meditate continually on thy tender mercies that so I may love thee more and thank and serve thee better the rest of my days and live in good hope to pass from all this happiness here to eternal bliss And this grace thou hast likewise promised to bestow upon me yea I feel the motions of thy holy Spirit in my heart exciting in me a sense of thy goodness and provoking me to love and to good works O my soul never forget the loving kindness of the Lord. Let his name be daily blessed and praised with a joyful heart for his goodness endureth continually Psal 52.1 To him I ought to live and not unto my self for he is my Creator and Saviour and Comforter who daily loadeth me with his benefits Therefore I ought to glorifie him both with my body and with my spirit which are his Accept good Lord of the unfeigned desires and purposes which thou seest in my heart in all things to be conformed to thy Will And accordingly assist me always with the renewed influences of thy heavenly grace that I may grow in spiritual wisdom and knowledge of my duty and that I may heartily love it and faithfully remember it and give all diligence to perform it notwithstanding any difficulties that I meet withal to oppose it In able me to maintain a constant sense of thy divine presence to reverence thy holy Name and Word and to walk before thee in all humility thankfulness patience heavenly mindedness and contentedness of spirit And help me likewise to exercise all justice charity meekness and forgiveness towards all men and to live in a sober chaste and moderate use of all the good things of this world Let thy fear always curb the disorders of my passions and thy love be a spur to my indeavours and the example of the Lord Jesus and all the Saints provoke me to zeal and fervency of spirit and the hope of eternal bliss strengthen incourage and make me constant in all the troubles and hardships of this life that persevering in well doing I may finish my course with joy and win the Crown of Righteousness which he hath promised to all the faithful Amen Amen Assist me mercifully O Lord in these my Supplications and Prayers and dispose the way of thy servant towards the attainment of everlasting salvation that among all the changes and chances of this mortal life I may ever be defended by thy most gracious and ready help through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen A short Prayer for a Student I Look up unto thee O Lord from whom cometh every good and perfect gift beseeching thee to direct assist and bless all the labours of my mind Illuminate my understanding O Father of lights and lead me unto right apprehensions in all things In due me with that humility and soberness of mind which thou delightest to reward with more of thy gifts and graces Bestow upon me a discerning spirit a sound judgement and an honest and good heart sincerely disposed to imploy all the Talents which thou hast or shalt intrust me withal to thy honour and glory and to the good of mankind For which end I beseech thee to excite my thirst after useful rather than much knowledge And especially inrich me with the treasures of that inspired wisdom contained in thy holy Scriptures which are able to make me wise unto salvation That growing in understanding and goodness as I grow in years my profiting may be apparent unto all men and I may give a comfortable account of my time to thee my God at the day of the Lord Jesus Amen A Prayer that may be used any time of the day when a person hath leisure to retire O Lord the great Creator and Governor of all things I prostrate my self before thee in the humblest adoration of thy incomprehensible Majesty acknowledging that I depend intirely upon thee praising and magnifying thy most glorious Power Wisdom and Goodness which are conspicuous every where and rendring unto thee my most hearty thanks for all the benefits which thou hast so freely and undeservedly conferred on me Thou art bountiful to the whole world All thy Works praise thee and we the children of men ought more particularly to bless thee and speak good of thy Name who have received singular marks and tokens of thy favour grace above all the rest of our fellow creatures Thou hast made us after thine own Image and indued us with reasonable and immortal spirits and given us a capacity to reflect on thee the author of our being and to be like unto thee in wisdom holiness goodness and truth But above all I ought to remember continually that great demonstration of thy love in sending thy dear Son