A Method for Prayer01 Matthew Henry
— MATTHEW HENRY ——— ' ec £ PRAYER SERIES A METHOD FOR PRAYER WITH SCRIPTURE EXPRESSIONS PROPER TO BE USED UNDER EACH HEAD BY THE REV. MATTHEW HENRY Author ofthe Commentary on the Bible PHILADELPHIA PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION, No. 265 CHESTNUT STREET.
GROWDEDSHIP Originally published in 1710 for Nathaniel Cliff and Daniel Jackson at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near
Aaron Sturgill edited this version from a digitized copy from archive.org from 1800. This edition contains both modernized language and a different method of outlining.
Copyright © 2024 Aaron Sturgill Edited and formatted by Aaron Sturgill Cover design: Crowdedship Designs Published by Crowdedship Publications, May 2024.
TABLE OF CONTENTS To the ReadereiicccccssesssessesessessesessesssesssessssssesessssseseseseeneD Adoration of God....eeeesssssssssesesssscsnssssessesessessessssseseesssssseeeL4 Confession Of Sit.cccscsssesessessesessessessssssssssessesesessssneseeeseOD
Petitions and Requests.......cecssssssssessessssessessssessessssessesessesees06 Thanksgivings for Mercy....cscsssesssessssessesessessesesesessesesseseseee
LLO Intercession for Others .....cscessessssessesessessssessesessesteseseseseseeses LAD Occasional Addresses to God .....eesescessssesesesseteseseetesesestesesesene
LZ5, The Conclusion of Prayer......ccccccssseseeeesseseesssssesessesseeseesees A Paraphrase on the Lord's Prayer.......c.cecssseseesesseeeseseeeeeenee
Some forms of Prayer..c.csessessssessessssessnessssesessesessssssseeeseee DOO TO THE READER Religion is so much the business of our lives, and the worship of God so much the business of our religion, that what has a sincere intention, and probable tendency, to promote and assist the acts of religious worship, I think, cannot be unacceptable to any that heartily wish well to the interests of God's kingdom among men:
For ifwe have spiritual senses exercised, true devotion, that aspiring flame of pious affections to God, as far as in a judgment of charity we discern it in others (though in different shapes and dresses, which may seem uncouth to one another) cannot but appear beautiful and amiable, and as far as we feel it in our own breasts, cannot but be found very pleasant and comfortable.
Prayer is a principal branch of religious worship, which we are moved to by the very light of nature and obliged to by some of its fundamental laws. Pythagoras' golden verses begin with this precept, "Whatever men madea god of, they prayed to." ["Deliver me, for you are my god" Isa 44:17.] Indeed, whatever they prayed to, they made a god of— Deos qui rogat illefacit. [An allusion to Pythagoras' Rules ofConduct: "Begin your work first having prayed for the gods to accomplish it."] It is a piece of respect and homage so exactly consonant to the natural ideas which all men have of God, that it is certain those that live without prayer, live without God in the world.
Prayer is a solemn and religious offering up of devout acknowledgments and desires to God, or a sincere representation of holy affections, with a design to give unto God the glory due unto His Name thereby, and to obtain from Him promised favors, and both through the Mediator. Our English word Prayer is too strait, for that properly signifies Petition or Request, whereas humble adorations of God, and thanksgivings to Him, are as necessary in Prayer, as any other part of it.The Greek word proseuch
(from euch) is a Vow directed to God. The Latin word votum is used for prayer: Jonah's mariners with their sacrifices made vows, for prayer is to move and oblige ourselves, not to move or oblige God.
Clement ofAlexandria (in The Stromata,7, Ante-Nicene Christian Library, 534) calls Prayer (with an excuse for the boldness of the expression) homilia pros ton theon, it is conversing with God: And it is the scope of a long discourse of his there, to show that his 4o gnostikos [i.e., his Believer, for faith is called knowledge; he makes his companions to be hoi homoiospepisteukotes (i.e., those who have in like manner believed) lives a life of communion with God, and so is praying always; that he studies by his prayers continually to converse with God. Some (he says) had their stated hours ofprayer, but he para holon euchetai ton bion (i.e., "prays all his life long"). The Scripture describes prayer to be our drawing near to God, our lifting up our souls to Him, our pouring out our hearts before Him.
This is the life and soul of prayer; but this soul in the present state must have a body, and that body must be such as becomes the soul and is suited and adapted to it. Some words there must be of the mind at least, in which as in the smoke, this incense must ascend; not that God may understand us, for our thoughts afar off are known to Him, but that we may the better understand ourselves.
A golden thread of heart-prayer must run through the web of the whole Christian life; we must be frequently addressing ourselves to God in short and sudden ejaculations, by which we must keep up our communion with God in providences and common actions, as well as in ordinances and religious services. Thus prayer must be sparsim (a sprinkling of it) in every duty, and our Eyes must be ever towards the Lord.
In mental prayer thoughts are words, and they are the first born of the soul, which are to be consecrated to God. But ifwhen we pray alone we see cause for the better fixing of our minds, and exciting of our devotions, to clothe our conceptions with words; if the conceptions be the genuine products of the new nature, one would think words should not be far to seek. Indeed, if the groanings be such as cannot be uttered, he that searches the heart knows them to be the mind ofthe Spirit, and will accept of them (Rom 8:26, 27) and answer the voice of our breathing (Lam 3:56). Yet through the infirmity of the flesh, and the aptness of our hearts to wander and trifle, it is often necessary that words should go first and be kept in mind for the directing and exciting of devout actions, and in order thereunto, the assistance here offered I hope will be of some use.
When we join with others in prayer, who are our mouth to God, our minds must attend them, by an intelligent believing concurrence with that which is the sense and scope and substance of what they say, and affections working in us suitable thereunto:
And this the Scripture directs us to signify, by saying Amen, mentally if not vocally, at their giving ofThanks (1 Cor 14:16). As far as our joining with them will permit, we may intermix pious ejaculations of our own, with their addresses, provided they be pertinent, that not the least fragment of praying time may be lost.
But he that is the mouth of others in prayer, whether in public or private, and therein uses that freedom of speech, that holy liberty of prayer which is allowed us (and which we are sure many good
Christians have found by experience to be very comfortable and advantageous in this duty) ought not only to consult the workings of his own heart (though them principally, as putting most life and spirit into the performance) but the edification also of those that join with him; and both in matter and words should have an eye to that; and for service in that case I principally design this endeavor.
It is desirable that our prayers should be copious and full; our burdens, cares, and wants are many, so are our sins and mercies. The promises are numerous and very rich, our God gives liberally, and has bid us open our mouths wide, and he will fill them, will satisfy them with good things.
We are not straitened ["confined in narrow limits"] in him, why then should we be stinted and straitened in our own bosoms! Christ had taught His disciples the Lord's prayer, and yet tells them (John 16:24) that hitherto they had asked nothing (i.e., nothing in comparison with what they should ask when the Spirit should be poured out, to abide with the church forever; and they should see greater things than these. Then ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full. We are encouraged to be particularly in prayer, and in everything to make our requests known to God, as we ought also to be particularly in the adoration of the divine perfections, in the confession of our sins, and our thankful acknowledgements of God's mercies.
But since at the same time we cannot go over the tenth part of the particulars which are fit to be the matter ofprayer, without making the duty burdensome to the flesh which is weak, even where the spirit is willing (an extreme which ought carefully to be avoided) and without danger of entrenching upon other religious exercises, it will be requisite that what is but briefly touched upon at one time, should be enlarged upon at another time: And herein this storehouse of materials for prayer may be of use to put us in remembrance of our several errands at the throne of grace, that none may be quite forgotten.
And it is requisite to the decent performance ofthe duty, that some proper method be observed, not only that what is said be good, but that it be said in its proper place and time; and that we offer not anything to the glorious Majesty of heaven and earth, which is confused, impertinent, and undigested. Care must be taken, then more than ever, that we be not rash with our mouth, nor hasty to utter anything before God, that we say not what comes uppermost, nor use such repetitions as evidence not the fervency, but the barrenness and slightness of our spirits; but that the matters we are dealing with God about being of such vast importance, we observe a decorum in our words, that they be well chosen, well weighed, and well placed.
And as it is good to be methodical in prayer, so it is good to be sententious: The Lord's Prayer is remarkably so; and David's psalms, and many of St. Paul's prayers which we have in his epistles.
We must consider that the greatest part of those that join with us in prayer will be in danger of losing or mistaking the sense, if the period be long, and the parenthesis many, and in this as in other things, they that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak. Jacob must lead as the children and flock can follow.
As to the words and expressions we use in prayer, though I have here in my enlargements upon the several heads ofprayer confined myself almost wholly to Scripture language, because I would give an instance of the sufficiency of the Scripture to furnish us for every good work, yet I am far from thinking but that it is convenient and often necessary to use other expressions in prayer besides those that are purely scriptural; only I would advise that the sacred dialect be most used, and made familiar to us and others in our dealing about sacred things; that language Christian people are most accustomed to, most affected with, and will most readily agree to; and where the Scriptures are opened and explained to the people in the ministry of the word, scripture language will be most intelligible, and the sense of it best apprehended. This is sound speech that cannot be condemned. And those that are able to do it may do well to enlarge by way of descant or paraphrase upon the Scriptures they make use of; still speaking according to that rule, and comparing spiritual things with spiritual, that they may illustrate each other.
It is not to be reckoneda perverting of Scripture, but is agreeable to the usage of many divines, especially the Fathers, and I think is warranted by divers quotations in the New Testament out of the Old, to allude to a Scripture phrase, and to make use of it by way of accommodation to another sense than what was the first intention of it, provided it agree with the analogy of faith. As for instance, those words (Psalm 86:7), A// my springs are in you, may very fitly be applied to God, though there it appears by the feminine article in the original, to be meant ofZion; nor has it ever been thought any wrong to the Scripture phrase, to pray for the blessings of the upper springs and nether springs, though the expression from whence it is borrowed (Judges 1:15), has no reference at all to what we mean; but by common use every one knows the signification, and many are pleased with the significance of it.
Divers heads of prayer may no doubt be added to those which I have here put together, and many Scripture expressions too, under each head (for I have only set down such as first occurred to my thoughts) and many other expressions too, not in Scripture words, which may be very comprehensive and emphatical, and apt to excite devotion. And perhaps those who covet earnestly this excellent gift, and covet to excel in it, may find it ofuse to them to have such a book as this interleaved, in which to insert such other heads and expressions as they think will be most agreeable to them, and are wanting here. And though I have here recommended a good method for prayer, and that which has been generally approved, yetI am far from thinking we should always tie ourselves to it; that may be varied as well as the expression: Thanksgiving may very aptly be put sometimes before confession or petition, or our intercessions for others before our petitions for ourselves, as in the Lord's Prayer. Sometimes one of these pares of prayer may be enlarged upon much more than another; or they may be decently interwoven in some other method; Ars est celaree areem.
There are those (I doubt not) who at some times have their hearts so wonderfully elevated and enlarged in prayer, above themselves; at other times, such a fixedness and fullness of thought, such a fervor of pious and devout affections, the product ofwhich is such a fluency and variety of pertinent and moving expressions, and in such a just and natural method, that then to have an eye to such a scheme as this, would be a hindrance to them, and would be in danger to cramp and straiten them: If the Heart be full of its good matter, it may make the tongue as thepen ofa ready Writer. But this is a case that rarely happens, and ordinarily there is need of proposing to ourselves a certain method to go by in prayer, that the service may be performed decently and in order; in which yet one would avoid that which looks too formal.
A man may write straight without having his paper ruled.
Some few forms of Prayer I have added in the last Chapter, for the use of those who need such helps, and that know not how to do as well or better without them; and therefore I have calculated them for families. If any think them too long, let them observe that they are divided into many paragraphs, and those mostly independent, so that when brevity is necessary some paragraphs may be omitted.
But after all, the intention and close application of the mind, the lively exercises of Faith and Love, and the outgoings of holy desire towards God, are so essentially necessary to Prayer, that without these in sincerity, the best and most proper language is buta lifeless image. If we had the tongue of men and angels and have not the heart of humble serious Christians in Prayer, we are but as a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. It is only the effectualfervent prayer, the in-wrought in-laid Prayer that avails much. Thus, therefore we ought to approve ourselves to God in the integrity of our hearts, whether we pray by, or without a pre-composed Form.
Matthew Henry Chester, March 25, 1710 ADORATION OF GOD Of the first part of prayer, which is address to God, adoration of Him, with suitable acknowledgements, professions, and preparatory requests.
Our spirits being composed into a very reverent serious frame, our thoughts gathered in, and all that is within us charged in the name of the great God carefully to attend the solemn and awful service that lies before us, and to keep close to it, we must with afixed intention and application ofmind, and an active livelyfaith, set the Lord before us, see His eye upon us, and set ourselves in His specialpresence, presenting ourselves to Him, as living sacrifices, which we desire may be holy and acceptable, and a reasonable service; and then bind these sacrifices with cords to the horns ofthe altar, in such thoughts as these: Romans 12:1.
Let us now lift up our hearts with our eyes and our hands unto God in the heavens. Lamentations 3:41. John 17:1.
Let us stir up ourselves to take hold on God, to seek his face, and to give him the glory due unto his name. Isaiah 64:7. Psalm 27:8.
Unto you, O Lord, do we lift up our souls. Psalm 25:1.
Let us now, with humble boldness, enter into the Holiest by the blood ofJesus, in the new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the vail. Hebrews 10:19, 20.
Let us now attend upon the Lord without distraction and let not our hearts be far from him when we draw nigh to him with our mouths, and honor him with our lips.
1 Corinthians 7:35. Matthew 15:8.
Let us now worship God who is a Spirit, in the spirit and in truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. John 4:24, 23.
Having thus engaged our hearts to approach unto God, Jeremiah 30.21.
We must solemnly address ourselves to that infinitely great andglorious Being with whom we have to do, as one who is possessed with afull beliefofhispresence anda holy awe and reverence ofhis Majesty, which may be done in such expressions as these:
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which are and was, and are to come. Revelation 4:8.
O you whose name alone is Jehovah, and who are the most high over all the earth. Psalm 83:18.
O God, you are our God, early will we seek you; Our God, and we will praise you; our fathers God, and we will exalt you. Psalm 63:1.
O youwhoare the true God, the living God, the one only living and true God, and the everlasting king. The Lord our God who is one
Lord. Jeremiah 10:10. 1 Thessalonians 1:9. Deuteronomy 6:4.
And we may thus distinguish ourselvesfrom the worshippers of falsegods.
The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, they are vanity and a lie, the work ofmen's hands; theythat make them are like unto them, and so is everyone that trusts in them. But the portion ofJacob is not like them, for he is the former of all things, and Israel is the rod of his inheritance, the Lord of hosts is his name; God over all, blessed for evermore. Psalm 115:4, 8. Jeremiah 10:15, 16. Romans
Their rock is not our Rock, even the enemies themselves being judges, for he is the Rock of ages, The Lord Jehovah, with whom is everlasting strength. Whose name shall endure forever, and his memorial unto all generations, when the gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, shall perish from offthe earth, and from under those heavens. Deuteronomy 32:31. Isaiah 26:4. Psalm 135:13.
1. WE MUST REVERENTLY ADORE GOD AS A BEING TRANSCENDENTLY BRIGHT AND BLESSED We must reverently adore God as a being transcendently bright and blessed, self-existent and self-sufficient, and infinite and eternal Spirit, that has all perfections in himself, and give him the glory of his titles and attributes. Lord our God, you are very great, you are clothed with honor and majesty, you cover yourself with light as with a garment, and yet as to us make darkness your pavilion, for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness.
Psalm 104:1, 2. Psalm 18:11. Job 37:19.
This is the message which we have heard ofyou, and we set to our seal that it is true, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all: And that God is love, and they that dwell in love, dwell in God, and God in them. 1 John 1:5. John 3:33. 1 John 4:16.
You are the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness or shadow of turning, and from whom proceeds every good and perfect gift. James 1:17.
You are the blessed and only Potentate; the King ofkings, and Lord oflords, who only have immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see. 1
We must acknowledge His being to be unquestionable and past dispute.
The heavens declare your glory, O God, and the firmament shows your handy work, and by the things that are made is clearly seen and understood your eternal power and Godhead. So that they are fools without excuse, who say there is no God; for verily there is a reward for the righteous, verily there is a God that judges in the earth, and in heaven too. Psalm 19:1. Romans 1:20. Psalm 14:1.
We therefore come to you, believing that you are, and that you are the powerful and bountiful rewarder of them that diligently seek you. Hebrews 11:6.
Yet we must own His nature to be incomprehensible.
We cannot by searching find out God, we cannot find out the Almighty unto perfection. Job 11:7.
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. Psalm 145.3.
Who can utter the mighty acts ofthe Lord, who can shew forth all his praise? Psalm 106:2.
AndHis perfections to be matchless and without compare.
Who is a God like unto you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? Exodus 15:11.
Who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord? who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord? O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto you, or to your faithfulness round about you? Psalm 89.6, 8.
Among the gods there is none like unto you, O Lord, neither are there any works like unto your works: For you are great, and dost wondrous things; you are God alone. Psalm 86:8, 10.
There is not any creature that has an arm like God or can thunder with a voice like him. Job 40:9.
Andthat He is infinitely above us andallother beings.
You are God and not man; have not eyes of flesh, nor sees as man sees: Your days are not as the days of man, nor your years as man's days. Hosea 11:9. Job 10:4, 5.
As heaven is high above the earth, so are your thoughts above our thoughts, and your ways above our ways. Isaiah 55:9.
All nations before you are as a drop ofthe bucket, or the small dust of the balance, and you take up the isles as a very little thing: They are as nothing, and are counted to you less than nothing, and vanity.
Particularly in our adorations we must acknowledge, 1.1. ThatHe is an eternal immutable God without beginning of days, or end oflife, or change oftime.
You are the King eternal, immortal, invisible.
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are
God, the same yesterday, today, and forever. Psalm 90:2. Hebrews 13:8.
Of old have you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works ofyour hands: They shall perish, but you shalt endure; yea all of them shall wax old like a garment, as a vesture shalt you change them, and they shall be changed; but you are the same, and your years shall have no end. Psalm 102:25, 26, 27.
You are God, and changes not; therefore, is it that we are not consumed. Malachi 3:6.
Are you not from everlasting, O Lord our God, our Holy One?
The everlasting God, even the Lord, the Creator of the ends ofthe earth, who faintest not, neither are weary; there is no searching out ofyour understanding. Habakkuk 1:12. Isaiah 40:28.
1.2. ThatHe ispresent in allplaces, and there is noplace in which He is included, or out ofwhich He is excluded.
You are a God at hand, and a God afar off; None can hide himself in secret places that you canst not see him, for you fill heaven and earth. Jeremiah 23:23, 24.
You are not far from every one of us. Acts 17:27.
We cannot go any whither from your presence, or flee from your spirit: Ifwe ascend into heaven, you are there; ifwe make our bed in hell, in the depths of the earth, behold you are there; if we take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost pares of the sea, even there shall your hand lead us, and your right hand shall hold us, that we cannot out-run you. Psalm 139:7-10.
1.3. ThatHe hath aperfect knowledge ofallpersons and things, and sees them all, even that which is most secret, at one clear, certain, and unerring view.
All things are naked and open before the eyes of him with whom we have to do, even the thoughts and intents ofthe heart. Hebrews 4:13,
Your eyes are in every place beholding the evil and the good; they run to and fro through the earth, that you may show yourselfstrong on behalfofthose whose hearts are upright with you. Proverbs 15:3.
You search the heart, and try the reins, that you mayest give to every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
O God, you have searched us and known us, you know our downsitting and our up-rising and understand our thoughts afar off: You compass our path and our lying down, and are acquainted with all our ways: There is not a word in our tongue, but lo,
O Lord, you know it altogether. Such knowledge is too wonderful for us, it is high, we cannot attain unto it. Psalm 139:1-4, 6.
Darkness and light are both alike to you. Psalm 139:12.
1.4, That His wisdom is unsearchable, and the counsels and designs of it cannot befathomed.
Your understanding, O Lord, is infinite, for you tell the number of the stars, and call them all by their names. Psalm 147:5, 4.
You are wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working. Wise in heart, and mighty in strength. Isaiah 28:29. Job 9:4.
O Lord, how manifold are your works, in wisdom have you made them all; all according to the counsel of your own will. Psalm
104:24, Ephesians 1:11.
O the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out.
1.5. That His sovereignty is uncontestable, andHe is the owner and absolute Lord ofall.
The heavens, even the heavens are yours, and all the hosts of them:
The earth is yours, and the fulness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. In your hand are the deep places of the earth, and the strength of the hills is yours also: The sea is yours, for you made it, and your hands formed the dry land: All the beasts of the forest are yours, and the cattle upon a thousand hills: You are therefore a great God, anda great King above all gods. Psalm 115:16. Psalm
24:1. Psalm 95:4, 5. Psalm 50:10, 11. Psalm 95:3.
In your hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind. Job 12:10.
Your dominion is an everlasting dominion, and your kingdom is from generation to generation: You do according to your will in the armies ofheaven, and among the inhabitants ofthe earth, and none can stay your hand, or say unto you,What doest you, or Why doest you so? Daniel 4:34, 35.
1.6. That Hispower is irresistible, and the operations ofit cannot be controlled.
We know, O God, that you canst do everything, and that no thought can be with-holden from you: Power belongs to you; And with you nothing is impossible. Job 42:2. Psalm 62:11. Luke 1:37.
All power is yours both in heaven and in earth. Matthew 28:18.
You kill, and you make alive, you wound, and you heal, neither is there any that can deliver out ofyour hand. Deuteronomy 32:39.
What you have promised youare able also to perform. Romans 4:21.
1.7. ThatHe is a God ofunspottedpurity andperfect rectitude.
You are holy, O you that inhabit the praises of Israel: Holy and reverend is your name; and we give thanks at the remembrance of your holiness. Psalm 22:3. Psalm 111:9. Psalm 30:4.
You are ofpurer eyes than to behold iniquity, neither shall evil dwell with you. Habakkuk 1:13. Psalm 5:4.
You are the Rock, your work is perfect, all your ways are truth and judgment; a God of truth, and in whom there is no iniquity. You are our rock, and there is no unrighteousness in you. Deuteronomy
You are holy in all your works, and holiness becomes your house, O Lord, forever. Psalm 145:17. Psalm 93:5.
1.8. ThatHe isjust in the administration ofHisgovernment, and never did, nor ever will do wrong to any ofHis creatures.
Righteous are you, O God, when we plead with you, and will be justified when you speak, and clear when you judge. Jeremiah 12:1.
Far be it from God that he should do wickedness, and from the Almighty that he should commit iniquity; for the work of a man shall he render unto him. Job 34:10, 11.
Your righteousness is as the great mountains, even then when your judgments are a great deep! And though clouds and darkness are round about you, yet judgment and justice are the habitation of your throne. Psalm 36:6. Psalm 97:2.
1.9. That His truth is inviolable, and the treasures ofHis goodness inexhaustible.
You are good, and your mercy endures forever. Your lovingkindness is great towards us, and your truth endures to all generations. Psalm
136:1. Psalm 117:2. Psalm 100:5.
You have proclaimed your name: The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin. And this name ofyours is our strong tower.
Exodus 34:6, 7. Proverbs 18:10.
You are good and dost good; good to all, and your tender mercy is over all your works. But truly God is in a special manner good to Israel, even to them that are of a clean heart. Psalm 119-68. Psalm
O that you wouldst cause your goodness to pass before us; that we may taste and see that the Lord is good; and his loving kindness may be always before our eyes. Exodus 33:19. Psalm 34:8. Psalm
1.10. Lastly, when we have said all we can ofthe gloriousperfections ofthe divine nature, wefall infinitely short ofthe merit ofthe subject.
Lo these are but pares of your ways, and how little a portion is heard of God! But the thunder of his power who can understand?
Touching the Almighty we cannot find him out, he is excellent in power and in judgment, and in plenty ofjustice; and he is exalted far above all blessing and praise. Job 37:23. Nehemiah 9.5.
2. WE MUST GIVE GOD THE PRAISE OF THAT SPLENDOR AND GLORY WHEREIN HE IS PLEASED TO MANIFEST HIMSELF IN THE UPPERWORLD You have prepared your throne in the heavens, and it is a throne of glory, high and lifted up, and before you the seraphim cover their faces. And it is in compassion to us that you hold back the face of that throne and spread a cloud upon it. Psalm 103:19. Isaiah 6:1, 2.
You make your angels spirits, and your ministers a flame of fire.
Thousand thousands of them minister unto you, and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before you, to do your pleasure: They excel in strength, and hearken to the voice of your word. And we come by faith and hope and holy love into a spiritual communion with that innumerable company of angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect, even to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, in the heavenly Jerusalem. Psalm 104:4. Daniel 7:10.
Psalm 103:21,20. Hebrews 12:22, 23.
3. WE MUST GIVE GLORY TO HIM AS THE CREATOR OF THE WORLD, AND THE GREAT PROTECTOR, BENEFACTOR AND RULER OF THE WHOLE CREATION.
You are worthy, O Lord, to receive blessing, and honor, and glory, and power; for you have created all things, and for your pleasure, and for your praise they are and were created. Revelation 4:11.
We worship him that made the heaven and the earth, the sea and the fountains of waters; who spoke and it was done, who commanded and it stood fast; who said, Let there be light, and there was light; Let there be a firmament, and he made the firmament; and he made all very good; and they continue this day according to his ordinance; for all are his servants. Revelation 14.7.
Psalm 33:9. Genesis 1:3, 6, 7, 31. Psalm 119:91.
The day is your, the night also is yours; you have prepared the light and the sun: You have set all the borders ofthe earth, you have made summer and winter. Psalm 74:16, 17.
You uphold all things by the word of your power, and by you all things consist. Hebrews 1:3. Colossians 1:17.
The earth is full of your riches; so is the great and wide sea also.
The eyes of all wait upon you, and you give them their meat in due season: You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. You preserve man and beast and give food to all flesh. Psalm
104.24, 25. Psalm 145:15, 16. Psalm 36:6. Psalm 136-25.
You, even you are Lord alone; you have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all things that are therein, the seas and all that is therein, and you preserve them all:
And the host of heaven worships you, whose kingdom rules over all. Nehemiah 9:6. Psalm 103:19.
A sparrow falls not to the ground without you. Matthew 10.29.
You made man at first of the dust ofthe ground, and breathed into him the breath of life, and so he becamea living soul. Genesis 2:7.
And you have made of that one blood, all nations of men, to dwell on all the face of the earth, and have determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation. Acts 17:26.
You are the Most High, who rules in the kingdom ofmen, and gives it to whomsoever you wilt; for from you every man's judgment proceeds. Daniel 4:25. Proverbs 29:26.
Hallelujah, the Lord God omnipotent reigns, and doth all according to the counsel of his own will, to the praise of his own glory. Revelation 19:6. Ephesians 1:11, 12.
4. WE MUST GIVE HONOR TO THE THREE PERSONS IN THE GODHEAD DISTINCTLY, TO THE FATHER, THE SON, AND THE HOLY GHOST, THAT GREAT AND SACRED NAME INTO WHICH WE WERE BAPTIZED, AND IN WHICH WE ASSEMBLE FOR RELIGIOUS WORSHIP, INCOMMUNION WITH THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH.
We pay our homage to the three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; for these three are one. 1
We adore you, O Father, Lord ofheaven and earth; and the eternal Word, who was in the beginning with God, and was God, by whom all things were made, and without whom was not anything made that was made, and who in the fulness oftime was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and shewed his glory, the glory as of the only begotten ofthe Father, full ofgrace and truth. Matthew 11:25. John
1:1, 2, 3. Galatians 4:4. John 1:14.
And since it is the will of God that all men should honor the Son as they honor the Father, we adore him as the brightness of his
Father's glory, and the express image of his person; herein joining with the angels of God, who were all bid to worship him. John 5:23.
We pay our homage to the exalted Redeemer, who is the faithful witness, the first begotten from the dead, and the prince of the kings ofthe earth, confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Revelation 1:5. Philippians 2:11.
We also worship the Holy Ghost the Comforter, whom the Son hath sent from the Father, even the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, and who is sent to teach us all things, and to bring all things to our remembrance; who indited the scriptures, holy men of God writing them as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. John
15:26. John 14:26. 2 Peter 1:21.
5. WE MUST ACKNOWLEDGE OUR DEPENDENCE UPON GOD, AND OUR OBLIGATIONS TO HIM, AS OUR CREATOR, PRESERVER, AND BENEFACTOR.
You, O God, made us, and not we ourselves, and therefore we are not our own, but yours, your people and the sheep ofyour pasture;
Let us therefore worship, and fall down and kneel before the Lord our maker. Psalm 100:3. 1 Corinthians 6:19. Psalm 95:6.
You, Lord, are the former ofour bodies, and they are fearfully and wonderfully made, and curiously wrought. Your eye did see our substance yet being imperfect, and in your book all our members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. Psalm 139:14, 15, 16.
You have clothed us with skin and flesh, you have fenced us with bones and sinews; You have granted us life and favor, and your visitation preserves our spirits. Job 10-11, 12.
You are the Father of our spirits; for you formed the spirit of man with him and made us these souls. The Spirit ofGod hath made us, and the breath ofthe Almighty hath given us life. You put wisdom in the inward pare and give understanding to the heart. Hebrews 12:9.
Zechariah 12:1. Jeremiah 38:16. Job 33:4. Job 38:36.
You are God our maker, who teaches us more than the beasts ofthe earth and make us wiser than the fowls of heaven. Job 35:10, 11.
We are the clay, and you our potter, we are the work ofyour hand.
You are he that took us out ofthe womb, and kept us in safety when we were at our mother's breasts; We have been cast upon you from the womb, and holden up by you, you are our God from our mother's bowels, and therefore our praise shall be continually of you. Psalm 22:9, 10. Psalm 71-6.
In you, O God, we live and move and have our being; for we are your offspring. Acts 17:28.
In your hand our breath is, and yours are all our ways; for the way of man is not in himself, neither is it in man that walketh to direct his steps; but our times are in your hand. Daniel 5:23. Jeremiah
You are the God that have fed us all our life long unto this day and redeemed us from all evil. Genesis 48:15, 16.
It is of your mercies that we are not consumed, even because your compassions fail not, they are new every morning, great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22, 23.
If you take away our breath we die and return to the dust out of which we were taken. Psalm 104:29, 30.
Who is he that saith and it cometh to pass, ifyou command it not?
Out of your mouth, O most High, both evil and good proceed.
Lamentations 3:37, 38.
6. WE MUST AVOUCH THIS GOD TO BE OUR GOD, AND OWN OUR RELATION TO HIM, HIS DOMINION OVER US, AND PROPRIETY IN US Our souls have said unto the Lord, You are our Lord, though our goodness extends not unto you, neither ifwe are righteous are you the better. Psalm 16:2. Job 35:7.
You are our King, O God: Other lords besides you have had dominion over us, but from henceforth by you only will we make mention ofyour name. Psalm 44:4. Isaiah 26:13.
We avouch the Lord this day to be our God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and to hearken to his voice, and give ourselves unto him to be his peculiar people as he hath promised, that we may be a holy people unto the Lord our God; and may be unto him for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory. Deuteronomy 26:17, 18, 19. Jeremiah 13:11.
O Lord, truly we are your servants, we are your servants born in your house, and you have loosed our bonds; we are bought with a price, and therefore we are not our own; but yield ourselves unto the Lord, and join ourselves to him in an everlasting covenant that shall never be forgotten. Psalm 116:16. 1 Corinthians 6:20, 19. 2
Chronicles 30:8. Jeremiah 50:5.
We are yours, save us; for we seek your precepts: It is your own, Lord, that we give you, and that which cometh ofyour hand. Psalm
119.94. 1 Chronicles 29:16.
7. WE MUST ACKNOWLEDGE IT AN UNSPEAKABLE FAVOR, AND AN INESTIMABLE PRIVILEGE, THAT WE ARE NOT ONLY ADMITTED, BUT INVITED AND ENCOURAGED TO DRAW NIGH TO GOD IN PRAYER.
You have commanded us to pray always, with all prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, and to watch thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; to continue in prayer; and in everything with prayer and supplication to make our requests known to God. Ephesians 6:18. Colossians 4:2. Philippians 4:6.
You have directed us to ask and seek and knock, and have promised that we shall receive, we shall find, and it shall be opened to us.
You have appointed us a great high priest, in whose name we may come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may find mercy and grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:14-16.
You have assured us that while the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, the prayer of the upright is his delight; and that he that offers praise glorifies you, and the sacrifice of thanksgiving shall please the Lord better than that of an ox or bullock that has horns and hoofs. Proverbs 15:8. Psalm 50:23. Psalm
You are he that hears prayer, and therefore unto you shall all flesh come. Psalm 65:2.
You say, Seek ye my face, and our hearts answer, Your face, Lord, will we seek. For should not a people seek unto their God? Whither shall we go but to you? You have the words of eternal life. Psalm
27:8. Isaiah 8:19. John 6:68.
8. WE MUST EXPRESS THE SENSE WE HAVE OF OUR OWN MEANNESS AND UNWORTHINESS TO DRAW NEAR TO GOD AND SPEAK TO HIM.
But will God in very deed dwell with man upon the earth? that God whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, with man that is a worm, and the son of man that is a worm. 2 Chronicles 6:18.
Who are we, O Lord God, and what is our father's house, that you have brought us hitherto, to present ourselves before the Lord; that we have through Christ an access by one Spirit unto the Father:
And yet as if this had been a small thing in your sight, you have spoken concerning your servants for a great while to come, and is this the manner of men, O Lord God? 2 Samuel 7:18. Ephesians
What is man that you are thus mindful of him, and the son ofman that you visit him? and dost thus magnify him. Psalm 8:4. Job 7:17.
O let not the Lord be angry, ifwe that are but dust and ashes take upon us to speak unto the Lord ofglory. Genesis We are not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth which you have shewed unto your servants; nor is it meet to take the children's bread, and cast it to such as we are; yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table: And you are rich in mercy to all that call upon you. Genesis 32:10. Matthew
15:26, 27. Romans 10:12.
9. WE MUST HUMBLY PROFESS THE DESIRE OF OUR HEARTS TOWARD GOD AS OUR FELICITY AND PORTION, AND THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE AND ALL
Whom have we in heaven butyou; and there is none upon earth that we desire besides you, or in comparison of you: When our flesh and our heart fail, be you the strength ofour heart, and our portion forever; the portion of our inheritance in the other world, and of our cup in this, and then we will say that the lines are fallen to us in pleasant places, and that we have a goodly heritage. Psalm 73:25,
The desire of our souls is to your name, and to the remembrance of you; with our souls have we desired you in the night, and with our spirits within us will we seek you early. Isaiah 26:8, 9.
As the hare pants after the water brooks, so pants our soul after you, O God; our soul thirsts for God, for the living God; who will command his loving-kindness in the day-time, and in the night his song shall be with us, and our prayer to the God of our life. Psalm
O that we may come hungering and thirsting after righteousness; for you fill the hungry with good things, but the rich you send empty away. Matthew 5:6. Luke 1:53.
O that our souls may thirst for you, and our flesh long for you ina dry and thirsty land, where no water is, that we may see your power and your glory, as we have seen you in the sanctuary. Your lovingkindness is better than life; our souls shall be satisfied with that as with marrow and fatness, and then our mouths shall praise you with joyful lips. Psalm 63:1, 2, 3, 5.
10. WE MUST LIKEWISE PROFESS OUR BELIEVING HOPE AND CONFIDENCE IN GOD, AND HIS ALLSUFFICIENCY, IN HIS POWER, PROVIDENCE, AND PROMISE.
In you, O God, do we put our trust, let us never be ashamed; yea let none that wait on you be ashamed. Psalm 31:1. Psalm 25:3.
Truly our souls wait upon God; from him cometh our salvation; he only is our rock and our salvation: In him is our glory, our strength, and our refuge, and from him is our expectation. Psalm 62:1, 2, 7, 5.
When refuge fails us, and none cares for our souls, we cry unto you, O Lord; You are our refuge and our portion in the land of the living. Psalm 142-4, 5.
Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we will remember the name ofthe Lord our God. We will trust in your mercy, O God, for ever and ever, and will wait on your name, for it is good before your saints. Psalm 20:7. Psalm 52.8, 9.
We have hoped in your word; O remember your word unto your servants, upon which you have caused us to hope. Psalm 119:74,
11. WE MUST INTREAT GOD'S FAVORABLE ACCEPTANCE OF US AND OUR POOR PERFORMANCES.
There are many that say, who will show us any good? But this we say, Lord, lift up the light ofyour countenance upon us, and that shall put gladness into our hearts more than they have whose corn and wine increase. Psalm 4:6, 7.
We intreat your favor with our whole hearts; for in this we labor, that whether present or absent we may be accepted of the Lord.
Psalm 119-58. 2 Corinthians 5:9.
Hear our prayers, O Lord, give ear to our supplications; in your faithfulness answer us. And be nigh unto us in all that which we call upon you for; for you never said to the seed ofJacob, Seek ye me in vain. Psalm 143-1. Deuteronomy 4:7. Isaiah 45:19.
You that hear the young ravens which cry, be not silent to us, lest if you be silent to us, we be like them that go down to the pit. Psalm
Let our prayer be set forth before you as incense, and the lifting up of our hands be acceptable in your sight as the evening sacrifice.
12. WE MUST BEG FOR THE POWERFUL ASSISTANCE AND INFLUENCE OF THE BLESSED SPIRIT OF GRACE IN OUR PRAYERS.
Lord, we know not what to pray for as we ought, but let your Spirit help our infirmities, and make intercession in us. Romans 8.26.
O pour upon us the spirit of grace and supplication; the Spirit of adoption teaching us to cry, Abba Father; that we may find in our hearts to pray this prayer: Zechariah 12:10. Romans 8:15. 2 Samuel
O send out your light and your truth, let them lead us, let them guide us to your holy hill, and your tabernacles, to God our exceeding joy. Psalm 43:3, 4.
O Lord, open you our lips, and our mouth shall shew forth your praise. Psalm 51-15.
13. WE MUST MAKE THE GLORY OF GOD OUR HIGHEST END IN ALL OUR PRAYERS.
His is that which you, O Lord, have said, that you will be sanctified in them that come nigh unto you, and before all the people you will be glorified; we therefore worship before you, O Lord, that we may glorify your name; and therefore we call upon you, that you mayest deliver us, and we may glorify you. Leviticus 10:3. Psalm 86:9. Psalm
For of you, and through you, and to you, are all things. Romans 11:36.
14. WE MUST PROFESS OUR ENTIRE RELIANCE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST ALONE FOR ACCEPTANCE WITH GOD AND COME IN HIS NAME.
We do not present our supplication before you for our own righteousness; for we are before you in our trespasses, and cannot stand before you because of them:
But we make mention of Christ's righteousness, even of his only, who is THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. Daniel 9:18.
Exra 9:15. Psalm 71:16. Jeremiah 23:6.
We know that even spiritual sacrifices are acceptable to God only through Christ Jesus, nor can we hope to receive anything but what we ask of you in his name, and therefore make us accepted in the beloved; that other angel, who puts much incense to the prayers of saints, and offers them up upon the golden altar before the throne.
1 Peter 2:5. John 16:23. Ephesians 1:6. Revelation 8:3.
We come in the name of the great high priest, who is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, who was touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and is therefore able to save to the uttermost all those that come to God by him, because he ever lives making intercession. Hebrews 4:14, 15. Hebrews 7:25.
Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face ofyour anointed, in whom you have by a voice from heaven declared yourself to be well pleased; Lord, be well pleased with us in him. Psalm 84:9.
CONFESSION OF SIN Ofthe second part ofprayer, which is, confession of sin, complaints of ourselves, and humble professions of repentance.
Havinggiven glory to God, which is His due, we must next take shame to ourselves, which is our due, and humble ourselves before Him in the sense ofour own sinfulness and vileness; and herein also we must give glory to Him, as ourjudge, by whom we deserve to be condemned, and yet hope, through Christ, to be acquitted and absolved. Joshua 7:19.
In this part ofour work, 1. WE MUST ACKNOWLEDGE THE GREAT REASON WE HAVE TO LIE VERY LOW BEFORE GOD AND TO BE ASHAMED OF OURSELVES WHEN WE COME INTO HIS PRESENCE, AND TO BE AFRAID OF HIS
WRATH, HAVING MADE OURSELVES BOTH ODIOUS TO HIS HOLINESS, AND OBNOXIOUS TO HIS JUSTICE.
O Our God, we are ashamed and blush to lift up our faces before you, our God; for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens. Ezra 9:6.
To us belongs shame and confusion offace because we have sinned against you. Daniel 9:8.
Behold we are vile, what shall we answer you? we will lay our hand upon our mouth, and put our mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope; crying with the convicted leper under the law, Unclean, unclean. Job 40:4. Lamentations 3:29. Leviticus 13:45.
You put no trust in your saints, and the heavens are not clean in your sight: How much more abominable and filthy is man, who drinks iniquity like waters! Job 15:15, 16.
When our eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts, we have reason to cry out, Woe unto us, for we are undone. Isaiah 6:5.
Dominion and fear are with you, you make peace in your high places: There is not any number of your armies, and upon whom doth not your light arise? How then can man be justified with God, or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? Job 25:2-4.
You, even you are to be feared, and who may stand in your sight, when once you are angry? Even you, our God, are a consuming fire, and who knows the power ofyour anger? Psalm 76:7. Hebrews 12:29.
Ifwe justify ourselves, our own mouths shall condemn us, ifwe say we are perfect, that also shall prove us perverse; for ifyou contend with us, we are not able to answer you for one ofa thousand. Job 9:20,
Ifwe knew nothing by ourselves, yet were we not thereby justified, for he that judges us is the Lord, who is greater than our hearts, and knows all things. But we ourselves know that we have sinned,
Father, against heaven, and before you, and are no more worthy to be called your children. 1 Corinthians 4:4. 1 John 3:20. Luke 15:21.
2. WE MUST TAKE HOLD OF THE GREAT ENCOURAGEMENT GOD HAS GIVEN US TO HUMBLE OURSELVES BEFORE HIM WITH SORROW AND SHAME AND TO CONFESS OUR SINS.
If you, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who should stand?
But there is forgiveness with you that you mayest be feared; with you there is mercy, yea with our God there is plenteous redemption, and he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
Psalm 130.3, 4, 7, 8.
Your sacrifices, O God, are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise: Nay, though you are the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; though the heaven be your throne, and the earth your footstool, yet to this man will you look, that is poor and humble, of a broken and a contrite spirit, and that trembles at your word, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Psalm
51:17. Isaiah 57:15. Isaiah 66:1, 2. Isaiah 57:15.
You have graciously assured us, that though they that cover their sins shall not prosper, yet those that confess and forsake them shall find mercy. And when a poor penitent said, I will confess my transgression unto the Lord, you forgave the iniquity ofhis sin, and for this shall every one that is godly in like manner pray unto you, in a time when you mayest be found. Proverbs 28:13. Psalm 32.5, 6.
We know that ifwe say, we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us; but you have said that ifwe confess our sins, you are faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:8, 9.
3. WE MUST THEREFORE CONFESS AND BEWAIL OUR ORIGINAL CORRUPTION IN THE FIRST PLACE, THAT WE ARE THE CHILDREN OF APOSTATE AND REBELLIOUS PARENTS, AND THE NATURE OF MAN
IS DEPRAVED, AND WRETCHEDLY DEGENERATED FROM ITS PRIMITIVE PURITY AND RECTITUDE, LORD, you made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions; And being in honor did not understand, and therefore abode not, but became like the beasts that perish. Ecclesiastes 7:29.
By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned; By that one man's disobedience many were made sinners, and we among the rest.
We are a seed of evil doers; our father was an Amorite, and our mother a Hittite, and we ourselves were called (and not miscalled) transgressors from the womb, and you knew we would deal very treacherously. Isaiah 1:4. Ezekiel 16:3. Isaiah 48:8.
The nature of man was planted a choice and noble vine, wholly a right seed, but it is become the degenerate plant of a strange vine, producing the grapes of Sodom, and the clusters of Gomorrah.
How is the gold become dim, and the most fine gold changed!
Jeremiah 2:21. Deuteronomy 32:32. Lamentations 4:1.
Behold we were shaped in iniquity, and in sin did our mothers conceive us. For who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
Not one. We are by nature children of wrath, because children of disobedience, even as others. Psalm 51:5. Job 14:4. Ephesians 2:3, 2.
All flesh hath corrupted their way, we are all gone aside, we are all together become filthy, there is none that doth good, no, no not one. Genesis 6:12. Psalm 14:3.
4. WE MUST LAMENT OUR PRESENT CORRUPT DISPOSITIONS TO THAT WHICH IS EVIL, AND OUR INDISPOSEDNESS TO AND IMPOTENCY, IN THAT WHICH IS GOOD. WE MUST LOOK INTO OUR OWN
HEARTS AND CONFESS WITH HOLY BLUSHING:
4.1. The blindness ofour understandings, and their unaptness to admit the rays ofthe divine light.
By nature, our understandings are darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in us, because of the blindness of our hearts. Ephesians 4:18.
The things of the Spirit of God are foolishness, to the natural man, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2:14.
We are wise to do evil, but to do good we have no knowledge. We know not, neither do we understand, we walk on in darkness.
Jeremiah 4:22. Psalm 82:5.
God speak once, yea twice, but we perceive it not; but hearing we hear, and do not understand, and we see men as trees walking. Job
33:14. Matthew 13:14. Mark 8:24.
4.2. The stubbornness ofour wills, and their unaptness to submit to the rules ofthe divine law.
We have within us a carnal mind, which is enmity against God, and is not in subjection to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
You have written to us the great things of your law, but they have been accounted by us as a strange thing, and our corrupt hearts have been sometimes ready to say, what is the Almighty that we should serve him? And that we would certainly do whatsoever thing goes forth out of our own mouth. For we have walked in the way of our own heart, and in the sight of our eyes, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Hosea 8:12. Job 21:15. Jeremiah 44:17.
Ecclesiastes 11:9. Ephesians 2:3.
Our neck hath been an iron sinew, and we have made our heart as an adamant; we have refused to hearken, have pulled away the shoulder, and stopped our ears, like the deaf adder, that will not hearken to the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely.
Isaiah 48:4. Zechariah 7:12, 11. Psalm 58-4, 5.
How have we hated instruction, and our heart despised reproof, and have not obeyed the voice of our teachers, nor inclined our ear to them that instructed us? Proverbs 5:12, 13.
4.3. The vanity ofour thoughts, their neglect ofthose things which they ought to be conversant with anddwelling upon those things that are unworthy ofthem andtend to corrupt our minds.
Every imagination ofthe thought of our heart is evil, only evil, and that continually, and it has been so from our youth. Genesis 6:5.
O how long have those vain thoughts lodged within us! those thoughts offoolishness which are sin. From within out ofthe heart proceed evil thoughts, which devise mischief upon the bed, and carry the heart with the fool's eyes into the ends of the earth.
Jeremiah 4:14. Proverbs 24:9. Matthew 15:19. Micah 2:1. Proverbs 17:24.
But God is not in all our thoughts, it is well if he be in any: Of the Rock that begat us we have been unmindful and have forgotten the God that formed us: We have forgotten him days without number, and our hearts have walked after vanity, and become vain. Their inward thought having been that our houses should continue forever; this our way is our folly. Psalm 10:4. Deuteronomy 32:18. Jeremiah
2:32, 5. Psalm 49:11, 13.
4.4. The carnality ofour affections, their beingplaced upon wrong objects andcarried beyond due bounds.
We have set those affections on things beneath, which should have been set on things above, where our treasure is, and where Christ sits on the right hand of God, the things which we should seek.
Colossians 3:2, 1. Matthew 6-21.
We have followed after lying vanities and forsaken our own mercies; have forsaken the fountain of living waters, for cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Jonah 2:8. Jeremiah 2:13.
We have panted after the dust of the earth and have been full of care what we shall eat, and what we shall drink, and wherewithal we shall be clothed, the things after which the Gentiles seek, but have neglected the kingdom ofGod and the righteousness thereof.
Amos 2:7. Matthew 6:31, 32, 33.
We have lifted up our souls unto vanity, and set our eyes upon that which is not, have looked at the things that are seen which are temporal, but the things that are not seen that are eternal, have been forgotten and postponed. Psalm 24:4. Proverbs 23:5. 2
4.5. The corruption ofthe whole man: irregular appetites towards those things that arepleasing to sense, and inordinatepassions against those things that are displeasing, and an alienation ofthe mindfrom theprinciples, power andpleasures ofthe spiritual and divine life.
We are born of the flesh, and we are flesh: Dust we are: We have borne the image of the earthly; and in us, that is, in our flesh, there dwells no good thing: For if to will is present to us, yet how to perform that which is good we find not; for the good that we would do we doit not, and the evil which we would not do that we do. John
3:6. Genesis 3:19. 1 Corinthians 15:49. Romans 7:18, 19.
We have a law in our members warring against the law of our mind and bringing us into captivity to the law of sin that is in our members: So that when we would do good, evil is present with us, and most easily besets us. Romans 7:23, 21. Hebrews 12:1.
The whole head is sick, the whole heart faint, from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in us, but wounds and bruises, and putrifying sores. Isaiah 1:5, 6.
There is in us a bent to backslide from the living God: Our hearts are deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know them? They stare aside like a broken bow. Hosea 11:7.
Jeremiah 17:9. Hosea 7:16.
5. WE MUST LAMENT AND CONFESS OUR OMISSIONS OF OUR DUTY, OUR NEGLECT OF IT, AND TRIFLINGS IN IT, AND THAT WE HAVE DONE SO LITTLE SINCE WE CAME INTO THE WORLD OF THE GREAT WORKWE WERE SENT INTO THE WORLD ABOUT, SO VERY LITTLE TO ANSWER THE END EITHER OF OUR CREATION OR OF OUR REDEMPTION, OF OUR BIRTH OR OF OUR BAPTISM, AND THAT WE HAVE PROFITED NO MORE BY THE MEANS OF GRACE.
We have been as fig-trees planted in the vineyard, and you have come many years seeking fruit from us, but have found none; and therefore, we might justly have been cut down and cast into the fire for cumbering the ground: You have come looking for grapes, but behold wild grapes; orwe have been empty vines, bringing forth fruit unto ourselves. Luke 13:6, 7. Matthew 3:10. Isaiah 5:4. Hosea
We have known to do good but have not done it: We have hid our Lord's money, and therefore deserve the doom of the wicked and slothful servant. James 4:17. Matthew 25:18, 26.
We have been unfaithful stewards, that have wasted our Lord's goods; for one sinner destroys much good. Luke 16:1. Ecclesiastes
Manya price hath been put into our hand to get wisdom, which we have had no heart to; or our heart has been at our left hand.
Proverbs 17:16. Ecclesiastes 10:2.
Our childhood and youth was vanity, and we have brought our years to an end, as a tale that is told. Ecclesiastes We have not known, or improved, the day ofour visitation, have not provided meat in summer, nor gathered food in harvest, though we have had guides, overseers and rulers. Luke 19:44. Proverbs 6:8, 7.
We are slow ofheart to understand and believe, and whereas for the time we might have been teachers of others, we are yet to learn the first principles ofthe oracles ofGod, have need ofmilk, and cannot bear strong meat. Luke 24:25. Hebrews 5:12.
We have cast off fear, and restrained prayer before God; have not called upon your name, nor stirred up ourselves to take hold on you.
Job 15:4. Isaiah 64:7.
We have come before you as your people come, and have sat before you as your people sit, and have heard your words, when our hearts at the same time have been going after our covetousness. And thus have we brought the torn, and the lame, and the sick for sacrifice, have offered that to our God, which we would not have offered to our governor; and have vowed and sacrificed to the Lord a corrupt thing, when we had in our flock a male. Ezekiel33:31. Malachi 1:8,
6. WE MUST LIKEWISE BEWAIL OUR MANY ACTUAL TRANSGRESSIONS, IN THOUGHT, WORD, AND DEED We have sinned, Father, against heaven and before you; we have all sinned and have come short of the glory of God; for the God in whose hand our breath is, and whose are all our ways, have we not glorified. Luke 15:18. Romans 3:23. Daniel 5:23.
Against you, you only have we sinned and have done much evil in your sight; neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws which he hath set before us; though they are all holy, just, and good. Psalm 51:4. Daniel 9:10. Romans 7:12.
Who can understand his errors? Cleanse us from secret faults.
In many things we all offend; and our iniquities are more than the hairs of our head. James 3:2. Psalm 40-12.
As a fountain cast out her waters, so do our hearts cast out wickedness; and this hath been our manner from our youth up, that we have not obeyed your voice. Jeremiah 6:7. Jeremiah 22:21.
Out of the evil treasure of our hearts we have brought forth many evil things. Matthew 12.35.
6.1. We must confess andbewail the workings ofpride in us.
We have all reason to be humbled for the pride of our hearts, that we have thought of ourselves above what hath been meet, and have not thought soberly, nor walked humbly with our God. 2 Chronicles
32:26. Romans 12.3. Micah 6.8.
We have leaned to our own understanding; and trusted in our own hearts; and have sacrificed to our own net. Proverbs 3:5. Proverbs
28:26. Habakkuk 1:16.
We have sought our own glory more than the glory ofhim that sent us; and have been puffed up for that for which we should have mourned. John 7:18. 1 Corinthians 5:2.
6.2. The breaking out ofpassion andrash anger.
We have not had the rule which we ought to have had over our own spirits, which have therefore been as a city that is broken down and has no walls. Proverbs 25:28.
We have been soon angry, and anger hath rested in ourbosoms. And when our spirits have been provoked, we have spoken unadvisedly with our lips; and have been guilty of that clamor and bitterness which should have been put far from us. Proverbs 14:17. Ecclesiastes
7:9. Psalm 106:33. Ephesians 4:31.
6.3. Our covetousness and love ofthe world.
Our conversation has not been without covetousness, nor have we learned in every state to be content with such things as we have.
Hebrews 13.5. Philippians 4:11.
Who can say he is clean from that love of money, which is the root of all evil, that covetousness which is idolatry. 1 Timothy 6:10.
We have sought great things for ourselves, when you have said, Seek them not. Jeremiah 45:5.
6.4. Our sensuality andflesh-pleasing.
We have minded the things ofthe flesh more than the things of the Spirit, and have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton, and have nourished our hearts as in a day of slaughter. Romans 8:5.
We have made provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts of it; even those lusts which war against our souls: and in many instances have acted as ifwe had been lovers ofpleasure more than lovers of God.
Romans 13:14. 1 Peter 2:11. 2 Timothy 3:4.
When we did eat, and when we did drink, did we not eat to ourselves, and drink to ourselves? Zechariah 7:6.
6.5. Our security and unmindfulness ofthe changes we are liable to in this world.
We have put far from us the evil day, and in our prosperity have said we should never be moved, as iftomorrow must needs be as this day, and much more abundant. Amos 6.3. Psalm 30:6. Isaiah 56:12.
We have encouraged our souls to take their ease, to eat and drink and be merry, as if we had goods laid up for many years, when perhaps this night our souls may be required of us. Luke 12:19, 20.
We have been ready to trust in uncertain riches more than in the living God; to say to the gold you are our hope, and to the fine gold you are our confidence. 1 Timothy 6:17. Job 31:24.
6.6. Ourfretfulness and impatience and murmuring under our afflictions, our inordinate dejection, and distrust ofGodandHis providence.
When you have chastised us and we were chastised, we have been as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke; and though our own foolishness hath perverted our way, yet our heart hath fretted against the Lord; and thus, in our distress we have trespassed yet more against the Lord. Jeremiah 31:18. Proverbs 19:3.
We have either despised the chastening of the Lord or fainted when we have been rebuked of him; and ifwe faint in the day of adversity, our strength is small. Proverbs 3:11. Proverbs 24:10.
We have said in our haste we are cut offfrom before your eyes, and that the Lord hath forsaken us, our God hath forgotten us, as if God would be favorable no more; as if he had forgotten to be gracious and had in anger shut up his tender mercies. This has been our infirmity. Psalm 31:22. Isaiah 49:14. Psalm 77:7, 9, 10.
6.7. Our uncharitableness towards our brethren, and unpeaceableness with our relations, neighbors andfriends, and perhaps injustice towards them.
We have been verily guilty concerning our brother; for we have not studied the things that make for peace, nor things wherewith we might edify one another. Genesis 42:21. Romans 14:19.
We have been ready to judge our brother, and to set at nought our brother, forgetting that we must all shortly stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Romans 14:10.
Contrary to the royal law ofcharity, we have vaunted ourselves, and been puffed up, have behaved ourselves unseemly, and sought our own, have been easily provoked, have rejoiced in iniquity, and been secretly glad at calamities.
1 Corinthians 13:4, 5, 6. Proverbs 17:5.
We have been desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another; when we should have considered one another to provoke to love and to good works. Galatians 5:26. Hebrews
The bowels of our compassion have been shut up from those that are in need; and we have hidden ourselves from our own flesh. Nay, perhaps our eye has been evil against our poor brother, and we have despised the poor. 1 John 3:17. Isaiah 58:7. Deuteronomy 15:9. James
And if in anything we have gone beyond and defrauded our brother, ifwe have walked with vanity, and our foot hath hasted to deceit, and any blot hath cleaved to our hands, Lord, discover it to us, that if we have done iniquity, we may do so no more. 1
Thessalonians 4:6. Job 31:5, 7. Job 34:32.
6.8. Our tongue sins.
In the multitude of our words there wanted not sin, nor can a man full of talk be justified. Proverbs 10:19. Job 11:2.
While the lips ofthe righteous feed many, our lips have poured out foolishness and spoken frowardness. Proverbs 10:21. Proverbs 15:2.
Much corrupt communication hath proceeded out of our mouths; that foolish talking and jesting which is not convenient; and little of that which is good, and to the use of edifying, and which might minister grace unto the hearers. Ephesians 4:29. Ephesians 5:4.
Iffor every idle word that men speak they must give an account, and by our words we must be justified, and by our words we must be condemned, Woe unto us, for we are undone! for we are ofunclean lips, and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Matthew
12:36, 37. Isaiah 6:5.
What would become ofus, ifGod should make our own tongues to fall upon us. Psalm 64:8.
6.9. Our spiritualslothfulness and decay.
We have been slothful in the business of religion, and not fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Romans 12:11.
The things which remain are ready to die, and our works have not been found perfect before God. Revelation 3:2.
We have observed the winds, and therefore have not sown, have regarded the clouds, and therefore have not reaped; and with the sluggard have frightened ourselves with the fancy ofa lion in the way, a lion in the streets, and have turned on our bed as the door on the hinges; still crying, Yet a little sleep, a little slumber. Ecclesiastes
11:4. Proverbs 26:13, 14. Proverbs 6:10.
We have lost our first love, and where is now the blessedness we sometimes spoke of? Revelation 2:4. Galatians 4:15.
Our goodness hath been as the morning cloud and the early dew which passes away. Hosea 6.4.
And that which is at the bottom of all, is the evil heart of unbelief in us, which inclines us to depart from the living God. Hebrews
7. WE MUST ACKNOWLEDGE THE GREAT EVIL THAT THERE IS IN SIN, IN OUR SIN, THE MALIGNITY OF ITS NATURE, AND ITS MISCHIEVOUSNESS TO US.
7.1. The sinfulness of sin.
O that sin may appear sin to us, may appear in its own colors, and that by the commandment we may see it to be exceeding sinful, because it is the transgression ofthe law. Romans 7:13. 1 John 3:4.
Byevery willful sinwe have in effect said, We will not have this man to reign over us; And who is the Lord, that we should obey his voice? And thus have we reproached the Lord and cast his law behind our backs. Luke 19:14.
7.2. The foolishness ofsin.
O God, you know our foolishness, and our sins are not hidden from you: We were foolish in being disobedient; and our lusts are foolish and hurtful. Psalm 69:5. Titus 3:3.
Foolishness was bound up in our hearts when we were children; for though vain man would be wise, he is born like the wild ass's colt.
Proverbs 22:15. Job 11:12.
Our way hath been our folly, and in many instances we have done foolishly, very foolishly. Psalm 49:13.
So foolish have we been and ignorant, and even as beasts before God. Psalm 73:22.
7.3. The unprofitableness of sin.
We have sinned and perverted that which was right, and it profited us not. Job 33:27.
What fruit have we now in those things whereofwe have cause to be ashamed; seeing the end of those things is death? And what are we profited, ifwe should gain the whole world, and lose our own souls? Romans 6:21. Matthew 16:26.
7.4. The deceitfulness of sin.
Sin hath deceived us, and by it slain us; for our hearts have been hardened through the deceitfulness ofsin; and we have been drawn away ofour own lust and enticed. Romans 7:11. Hebrews 3:13.James
It hath promised us liberty but has made us the servants of corruption; hath promised that we shall not surely die, and that we shall be as gods; but it has flattered us and spread a net for our feet.
2 Peter 2:19. Genesis 3:4, 5. Proverbs 29.5.
The pride ofour heart particularly has deceived us. Obadiah 3.
7.5. The offense which by sin we havegiven to the Holy God.
By breaking the law, we have dishonored God and have provoked the Holy One ofIsrael to anger most bitterly. And manya thing that we have done hath displeased the Lord. Romans 2:23. Isaiah 1:4.
Hosea 12:14. 2 Samuel 11 (v. 27).
God has been broken by our whorish heart, and our eyes that have gone a whoring after our idols. Ezekiel 6:9.
We have tempted him, and proved him, and grieved him in the wilderness; have rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit, and pressed him with our iniquities, as a care is pressed that is full of sheaves. Psalm
95:9, 10, 8. Isaiah 63:10. Amos 2:13.
We have grieved the holy Spirit of God, by whom we are sealed to the day of redemption. Ephesians 4:30.
7.6. The damage which by sin we have done to our own souls, and theirgreat interests.
By our iniquities we have sold ourselves, and in sinning against you have wronged our own souls. Isaiah 50:1. Proverbs 8:36.
Our sins have separated between us and God and have kept good things from us; and by them our minds and consciences have been defiled. Isaiah 59:2. Jeremiah 5:25. Titus 1:15.
Our own wickedness hath corrected us, and our backslidings have reproved us, and we cannot but know and see, that it is an evil thing, and bitter, that we have forsaken the Lord our God, and that his fear hath not been in us. Jeremiah 2:19.
O what fools are they that make a mock at sin! Proverbs 14-9.
8. WE MUST AGGRAVATE OUR SINS AND TAKE NOTICE OF THOSE THINGS WHICH MAKE THEM MORE HEINOUS IN THE SIGHT OF GOD AND MORE DANGEROUS TO OURSELVES.
We bewail before you all our sins, and all our transgressions in all our sins. Leviticus 16:21.
8.1. The more knowledge we have ofgoodandevil, the greater is our sin.
We have known our Master's will, but have not done it, and therefore deserve to be beaten with many stripes. Luke 12:47.
We have known the way of the Lord, and the judgments of our God, and yet have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.
We have known the judgment of God, that they which do such things are worthy of death, and yet have done them, and have had pleasure in them that do them. Romans 1:32.
We have taught others, and yet have not taught ourselves; and while we profess to know God, we have in works denied him.
Romans 2:21. Titus 1:16.
8.2. Thegreaterprofession we have made ofreligion, thegreater hath been our sin.
We call ourselves of the holy city, and stay ourselves upon the God of Israel, and make mention of his name, but not in truth and righteousness. For we have dishonored that worthy name by which we are called and given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. Isaiah 48:2, 1. James 2:7, 23.
We have named the name of Christ, and yet have not departed from iniquity.
8.3. The more mercies we have receivedfrom God, thegreater hath been our sin.
You have nourished and brought us up as children, but we have rebelled against you. Isaiah 1:2.
We have ill requited you, O Lord, as foolish people and unwise:
Though you are our Father that has made us, and bought us, and established us, yet our spot has not been the spot ofyour children.
We have not rendered again according to the benefit done unto us.
8.4. Thefairer warning, we have hadfrom the word ofGod, and from our own consciences, concerning our danger ofsin, and danger by sin, thegreater is the sin ifwego on in it.
We have been often reproved, and yet have hardened our neck; and have gone on frowardly in the way of our heart. Proverbs 29:1.
You have sent to us, saying, O do not this abominable thing which I hate; but we have not hearkened, nor inclined our ear. Jeremiah
The word of God hath been to us, precept upon precept, and line upon line; and though we have beheld our natural faces in the glass ofit, yetwe have gone away, and straightway forgot what manner of men we were. Isaiah 28:13. James 1:23, 24.
8.5. Thegreater afflictions we have been underfor sin, thegreater is the sin if we go on in it.
You have stricken us, but we have not grieved, we have refused to receive correction and have made our faces harder than a rock; and the rod hath not driven the foolishness out of our hearts. Jeremiah 523. Proverbs 22:15.
You have chastened us with the rod ofmen, and with the stripes of the children of men, yet we have not turned to him that smites us, nor have we sought the Lord of hosts.
2 Samuel 7:14. Isaiah 9:13.
When some have been overthrown as Sodom and Gomorrah were, we have been as brands plucked out of the fire, yet have we not returned unto you, O Lord. And when your hand has been lifted up, we have not seen it. Amos 4:11. Isaiah 26:11.
8.6. The more vows andpromises we have made ofbetter obedience, thegreater has our sin been.
We have not performed the words of the covenant which we made before you, but as treacherous dealers we have dealt treacherously.
Jeremiah 34:18. Isaiah 24:16.
Did we not say we would not transgress; we would not offend anymore? We did, and yet we have returned with the dog to his vomit; have returned to folly after God hath spoken peace. Jeremiah
2:20. Job 34:31. 2 Peter 2:22. Psalm 85:8.
9. WE MUSTJUDGE AND CONDEMN OURSELVES FOR OUR SINS AND OWN OURSELVES LIABLE TO PUNISHMENT.
And now, O our God, what shall we say after this, for we have forsaken your commandments? We have sinned, what shall we do unto you, O you preserver of men? Ezra 9:10. Job 7:20.
We know that the law cursed every one that continues not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them; that the wages of every sin is death; and that for these things' sake cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Galatians
3:10. Romans 6:23. Ephesians 5:6.
And we are all guilty before God; the scripture hath concluded us all under sin; and therefore, you might justly be angry with us till you had consumed us; so that there should be no remnant, nor escaping. Romans 3:19. Galatians 3:22. Ezra 9:14.
If you should lay righteousness to the line and judgment to the plummet, you might justly separate us unto all evil, according to all the curses of the covenant, and blot out our names from under heaven. Isaiah 28:17. Deuteronomy 29.21, 20.
You might justly swear in your wrath, that we should never enter into your rest; might justly set us naked and bare, and take away our corn in the season thereof, and our wine in the season thereof, and put into our hands the cup of trembling, and make us drink even the dregs of that cup. Psalm 95 (v. 11). Hosea 2:3, 9. Isaiah
You are just in whatever you are pleased to lay upon us; for you have done right, but we have done wickedly: Nay, you our God have punished us less than our iniquities have deserved. Nehemiah 9:33.
You therefore shalt be justified when you speak, and clear when you judge; and we will accept of the punishment of our iniquity, and humble ourselves under your mighty hand, and say the Lord is righteous. Psalm 51:4. Leviticus 26:43. 1 Peter 5:6.
Wherefore shoulda living man complain, aman for the punishment of his sins? No, we will bear the indignation of the Lord, because we have sinned against him. Lamentations 3:39. Micah 7:9.
10. WE MUST GIVE TO GOD THE GLORY OF HIS PATIENCE AND LONG-SUFFERING TOWARDS US AND HIS WILLINGNESS TO BE RECONCILED.
The riches of the patience and forbearance of God! how longsuffering is he to us ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Romans 2:4. 2 Peter 3:9.
You have not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us after our iniquities; but you wait to be gracious to us. Psalm 103.10.
Sentence against our evil works has not been executed speedily; but you have given us space to repent and make our peace with you; and call even backsliding children to return to you, and have promised to heal their backslidings; And therefore, behold we come unto you, for you are The Lord our God. Ecclesiastes 8:11.
Revelation 2:21. Jeremiah 3:22, 23.
Surely the long-suffering of our Lord, is salvation; and if the Lord had been pleased to kill us, he would not as at this time have shewed us such things as these. 2 Peter 3:15. Judges 13:23.
AndO that this goodness of God might lead us to repentance! for though we have trespassed against our God, yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. Romans 2:4. Ezra 10:2.
You have said it, and have confirmed it with an oath, that you have no pleasure in the death ofsinners, but rather that they should turn and live: Therefore will we rent our hearts and not our garments, and turn to the Lord our God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, who knows if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him. Ezekiel 33:11.Joel2:13, 14.
11. WE MUST HUMBLY PROFESS OUR SORROW AND SHAME FOR SIN, AND HUMBLY ENGAGE OURSELVES IN THE STRENGTH OF DIVINE GRACE, THAT WE WILL BE BETTER AND DO BETTER FOR THE FUTURE.
Lord, we repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand; to which you have exalted your Son Christ Jesus to give repentance and remission ofsins. Matthew 3:2. Acts 5:31.
We have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now our eye sees you; wherefore we abhor ourselves and repent in dust and ashes. Therefore, will we be like the doves of the valleys, everyone mourning for his iniquities. Job 42:5, 6. Ezekiel 7:16.
O that our heads were waters, and our eyes fountains of tears, that we might weep day and night for our transgressions and might in such a manner sow in those tears, as that at last we may reap injoy; may now go forth weeping, bearing precious seed, and may in due time come again with rejoicing, bringing our sheaves with us.
Jeremiah 9:1. Psalm 126.5, 6.
Our iniquities are gone over our heads as a heavy burden, they are too heavy for us; but weary and heavy laden under this burden we come to Christ, who has promised that in him we shall find rest for our souls. Psalm 38:4. Matthew 11:28, 29.
O that knowing every man the plague ofhis own heart, we may look unto him whom we have pierced, and may mourn, and be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for a first-born. That we may sorrow after a godly sort, with that sorrow which worketh repentance unto salvation, not to be repented of; and that we may remember and be confounded, and never open our mouth anymore, because of our shame when you are pacified towards us. 1 Kings
8:38. Zechariah 12:10.
2 Corinthians 7:10. Ezekiel 16:63.
And, O that we may bring forth fruits meet for repentance! and may never return again to folly! for what have we to do any more with idols? Sin shall not have dominion over us, for we are not under the law, but under grace. Matthew 3:8. Psalm 85:8. Hosea
We have gone astray like lost sheep; seek your servants, for we do not forget your commandments. Psalm 119 (v. 176).
PETITIONS AND REQUESTS Ofthe third part of prayer, which is petition and supplication for the good things which we stand in need.
Having opened the wounds of sin, both the guilt of it, and the power of it, and its remainders in us, we must next seek unto God for the remedy, for healing and help, for from Him alone it is to be expected, and He will for this be enquired of by us. And now we must affect our hearts with a deep sense of the need we have of those mercies which we pray for, that we are undone, forever undone, without them; and with a high esteem and value for them, that we are happy, we are made for ever, ifwe obtain them; that we may like Jacob wrestle with Him in prayer as for our lives, and the lives of our souls. But we must not think in our prayers to prescribe to Him, or by our importunity to move Him. He knows us better than we know ourselves and knows what He will do. But thus we open our wants and our desires, and then refer ourselves to His wisdom and goodness: And hereby we give honor to Him as our protector and benefactor, and take the way which He Himself hath appointed of fetching in mercy from Him, and by faith plead His promise with Him, and ifwe are sincere herein, we are through His grace qualified according to the tenor ofthe new covenant to receive
His favors, and are to be assured, that we do and shall receive them.
Ezekiel 36:37. John 6:6. Mark 11:24.
And now, Lord, what wait we for? Truly our hope is even in you:
Deliver us from all our transgressions, that we may not be the reproach ofthe foolish. Psalm 39:7, 8.
Lord, all our desire is before you, and our groaning is not hidden from you; even the groanings which cannot be uttered: For he that searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit. Psalm
38:9. Romans 8:26, 27.
We do not think that we shall be heard for our much speaking; for our Father knows what things we have need of before we ask him; but our Master hath told us, that whatsoever we ask the Father in his name he will give it us. And he hath said, Ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may befull. Matthew 6.7, 8. John 16:23, 24.
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hearth us: And ifwe know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. 1 John 5:14, 15.
1. WE MUST EARNESTLY PRAY FOR THE PARDON AND FORGIVENESS OF ALL OUR SINS.
Lord, we come to you, as the poor publican, which stood afar off, and would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven but smote upon his breast; and we pray his prayer, God be merciful to us sinners. The God of infinite mercy be merciful to us. Luke 18:13.
O wash us thoroughly from our iniquity, and cleanse us from our sin, for we acknowledge our transgressions, and our sin is ever before us. O purge us with hyssop and we shall be clean, wash us and we shall be whiter than snow: Hide your face from our sins, and blot out all our iniquities. Psalm 51:2, 3, 7, 9.
Be merciful to our unrighteousness, and our sins and our iniquities do you remember no more. O forgive us that great debt. Hebrews
Let us bejustified freely by your grace through the redemption that is in Jesus, from all those things from which we could not be justified by the law ofMoses. Romans 3:24. Acts 13:39.
O let not our iniquity be our ruin; but let the Lord take away our sin that we may not die, not die eternally: that we may not be hurt of the second death. Ezekiel 18:30.
2 Samuel 12:13. Revelation 2:11.
Blot out as a cloud our transgressions, and as a thick cloud our sins; for we return unto you because you have redeemed us. Isaiah 44:22.
Enter not into judgment with your servants, O Lord, for in your sight shall no flesh living be justified. Psalm 143:2.
Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously; Heal our backslidings, and love us freely, and let your anger be turned away from us; for in you the fatherless finds mercy. Hosea 14:2, 4, 3.
Though our sins have been as scarlet, let them be as white as snow, and though they have been red like crimson, let them be as wool, that being willing and obedient, we may eat the good of the land.
We will say unto God, Do not condemn us, but deliver us from going down to the pit, for you have found the ransom. Job 10:2. Job
For the encouraging of our faith, and the exciting of our fervency in this petition for the pardon of sin, we may plead with God,
1.1. The infinitegoodness ofHis nature, His readiness toforgive sin, andHis glorying in it.
You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive; and rich in mercy to all ofthem that call upon you. You are a God full of compassion and gracious, long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth. Psa/m
You are a God of pardons, merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; that dost not always chide, nor keep your anger forever.
Nehemiah 9:17. Psalm 103.9.
You, even you are he that blots out our transgressions for your own sake, and will not remember our sins, which we are here to put you in remembrance of, to plead with you and to declare that we may be justified. Isaiah 43:25, 26.
And now we beseech you, let the power of our Lord be great, according as you have spoken, saying, The Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression. Pardon, we beseech you, the iniquity of your people, according unto the greatness ofyour mercy; and as you have forgiven, even until now.
Numbers 14:17, 18, 19.
For who is a God like unto you, that pardons iniquity, and passes by the transgression of the remnant of your heritage, who retains not your anger forever, because you delight in mercy. O that you would have compassion upon us, and subdue our iniquities, and cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. Micah 7:18, 19.
1.2. The merit and righteousness ofour LordJesus Christ, which we rely upon as our mainplea in ourpetitionfor thepardon ofsin.
We know that as you are gracious and merciful, so you are the righteous God that loveth righteousness, and will by no means clear the guilty. We cannot say, Have patience with us, and we will pay you all; for we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness as filthy rags. But Jesus Christ is made of God to us righteousness; being made sin for us, though he knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Psa/m 11:7.
Exodus 34:7. Matthew 18:26. Isaiah 64:6. 1 Corinthians 1:30. 2
We have sinned, but we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous, who is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. 1 John 2:1, 2.
Itis God that justifies, who is he that shall condemn? Itis Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again, and now is even at the right hand of God; who also makes intercession for us, and whose blood speaks better things than that of Abel. Romans 8:33, 34. Hebrews
We desire to count everything loss for Christ; and dung that we may win Christ, and be found in him, not having any righteousness of our own, but that which is through the faith of Christ.
This is the name whereby we will call him, The Lord Our Righteousness. In him, Lord, we believe, help our unbelief. Jeremiah 23:6. Mark 9:24.
Lord, remember David and all his troubles, the Son of David.
Remember all his offerings and accept his burnt sacrifice; and turn not away the face ofyour anointed; who by his own blood is entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.
Psalm 132:1. Psalm 20:3. Psalm 132:10. Hebrews 13:12. Hebrews 9.24.
Have not you yourself set forth your Son Christ Jesus to be a propitiation for sin through faith in his blood, to declare your righteousness for the remission of sins, to declare at this time your righteousness, that you mayest be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus; And we now receive the atonement.
Romans 3:25, 26. Romans 5:11.
1.3. Thepromises God hath made in His word topardon and absolve all ofthem that truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holygospel.
Lord, is not this the word which you have spoken, that if the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and return unto the Lord, even to our God, that you will abundantly pardon, will multiply to pardon? Isaiah 55:7.
To you the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against you. Daniel 9:9.
Is not this the covenant which you have made with the house of Israel, that you will take away their sins; that you will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more; that the iniquity ofIsrael shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins ofJudah, and they shall not be found? Romans 11:27. Jeremiah 31:34. Jeremiah
Have you not said, that if the wicked will turn from all his sins which he hath committed, and keep your statutes, he shall live, he shall not die, all his transgressions shall not be mentioned unto him?
Have you not appointed that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in Christ's name unto all nations? Luke 24:47.
Didst you not promise, that when the sins of Israel were put upon the head of the scapegoat, they should be sent away into the wilderness, into a land not inhabited? And as far as the east is from the west, so far dost you remove our transgressions from us. Leviticus
16:21, 22. Psalm 103:12.
O remember these words unto your servants, upon which you have caused us to hope. Psalm 119.49.
1.4, Our own misery anddanger becauseof sin.
Foryour name's sake, O Lord, pardon our iniquity, for it is great; for innumerable evils have compassed us about, our iniquities have taken hold upon us, so that we are not able to look up. Be pleased,
O Lord, to deliver us; O Lord, make haste to help us. Psalm 25:11.
O remember not against us former iniquities, let your tender mercies speedily prevent us, for we are brought very low. Help us,
God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us, and purge away our sins for your name's sake. Psalm 79.8, 9.
Remember not the sins of our youth, nor our transgressions; according to your mercy remember you us, for your goodness' sake,
1.5. The blessedcondition which they are in whose sins are pardoned.
O let us have the blessedness of those whose transgression is forgiven, and whose sin is covered; of that man unto whom the Lord imputes not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.
O let us have redemption through Christ's blood, even the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of your grace; wherein you have abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence. That being in Christ Jesus, there may be no condemnation to us.
Ephesians 1:7, 8. Romans 8:1.
That our sins, which are many, being forgiven us, we may go in peace: And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick, if the people that dwell therein be forgiven their iniquity. Luke 7:47, 50. Isaiah 33
2. WE MUST LIKEWISE PRAY THAT GOD WILL BE RECONCILED TO US THAT WE MAY OBTAIN HIS FAVOR AND BLESSING AND GRACIOUS ACCEPTANCE.
2.1. That we may be atpeace with God; andHis anger may be turned awayfrom us.
Being justified by faith, let us have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and through him let us have access into that grace wherein believers stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1, 2.
Be nota terror to us, for you are our hope in the day of evil. Jeremiah 17:17.
In Christ Jesus let us, who sometimes were afar off, be made nigh by the blood of Christ; For he is our peace, who hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, and that he might reconcile us to God by his cross, hath slain the enmity thereby, so making peace. Through him therefore let us who had made ourselves strangers and foreigners, become fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God. Ephesians 2:13-16, 19.
Fury is not in you, who would set the briers and thorns against you in battle, you would go through them, yea you wouldst burn them together; but you have encouraged us to take hold on your strength that we may make peace, and have promised that we shall make peace; O let us therefore acquaint ourselves with you, and be at peace, that thereby good may come unto us. Isaiah 27:4, 5. Job
Heal us and we shall be healed, save us, and we shall be saved, for you are our praise. Be not angry with us forever, but revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you. Shew us your mercy, O Lord, and grant us your salvation. Jeremiah 17:14. Psalm 85:5-7.
2.2. That we may be taken into covenant with God andadmitted into relation to Him.
Be you to us a God and take us to be to you a people; and make us a willing people in the day of your power. Hebrews 8:10. Psalm
Though we are no more worthy to be called your children; for how should you put us that have been rebellious among the children, and give us the pleasant land? But you have said that we shall call you our Father, and not turn away from you. Shall we not therefore from this time cry unto you, Our Father, you are the guide of our youth. Luke 15:19. Jeremiah 3:19, 4.
Lord, we take hold ofyour covenant, to you we join ourselves ina perpetual covenant; O that you would cause us to pass under the rod, and bring us into the bond of the covenant, that we may become yours. Isaiah 56:4. Jeremiah 50:5. Ezekiel 20:37. Ezekiel
Make with us an everlasting covenant, even the sure mercies of David. Isaiah 55:3.
2.3. That we may have the favor ofGod, and an interest in His special love.
We intreat your favor, O God, with our whole hearts; be merciful to us according to your word, for in your favor is life, yea your loving kindness is better than life itself. Psalm 119:58. Psalm 30:5. Psalm
Lord, make your face to shine upon us, and be gracious unto us; Lord, lift up the light of your countenance upon us, and give us peace. Numbers 6:25, 26.
Remember us, O Lord, with the favor that you bear unto your people, O visit us with your salvation, that we may see the good of your chosen, and may rejoice in the gladness of your nation, and may glory with your inheritance. Psalm 106.4, 5.
2.4. That we may have the blessing ofGod.
O God, be merciful to us and bless us, and cause your face to shine upon us; yea let God, even our own God, give us his blessing. Psalm
The Lord that made heaven and earth, bless us out of Zion; bless us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things by Christ Jesus.
Psalm 134.3. Ephesians 1:3.
O that you would bless us indeed! Command the blessing upon us, even life forever more; For you bless, O Lord, and it shall be blessed. 1 Chronicles 4:10. Psalm 133:3.
Let us receive the blessing from the Lord, even righteousness from the God of our salvation. Psalm 24:5.
Have you but one blessing? Yea, you have many blessings: Bless us, even us also, O our Father; yea, let the blessing ofAbraham come upon us, which comes upon the Gentiles through faith. And the blessing ofJacob, for we would not let you go, except you bless us.
Genesis 27:38. Galatians 3:14. Genesis 32:26.
2.5. That we may have the presence ofGod with us.
Ifyour presence goes not up with us, carry us not up; hence, never leave us nor forsake us. Exodus 33:15. Hebrews 13:5.
O cast us not away from your presence, nor ever take your holy spirit away from us; but let us always dwell with the upright in your presence. Psalm 51:11. Psalm 140:13.
3. WE MUST PRAY FOR THE COMFORTABLE SENSE OF OUR RECONCILIATION TO GOD AND OUR ACCEPTANCE WITH HIM.
3.1. That we may have some evidence ofthepardon ofour sins, and of our adoption.
O make us hear joy and gladness, that the bones which sin hath broken may rejoice. Psalm 51:8.
Say unto each ofus, Son, Daughter, be ofgood cheer, your sins are forgiven you. Matthew 9:2.
Let the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge our conscience from dead works to serve you the living God. Hebrews 9:14.
Let your Spirit witness with our spirits that we are the children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. Romans 8:16, 17.
Say unto our souls, that you are our salvation. Psalm 35:3.
3.2. That we may have a well-groundedpeace ofconscience; a holy security and serenity ofmindarisingfrom a sense ofour justification before God, and a good work wrought in us.
The Lord of peace himself give us peace, all peace, always, by all means; that peace which Jesus Christ hath left with us, which he gives to us, such a peace as the world can neither give nor take away; such a peace as that our hearts may not be troubled or afraid. 2
Thessalonians 3:16. John 14:27.
Let the work of righteousness in our souls be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever. Isaiah 32:17.
Speak peace unto your people and to your saints and let not them turn again to folly. Psalm 85:8.
O create the fruit of the lips, Peace, peace to them that are afar off and to them that are nigh and restore comfort to your mourners.
Where the sons ofpeace are, let your peace find them out, and rest upon them. Luke 10:6.
Cause us to hear your loving kindness, and to taste that you are gracious, for in you do we trust. Psalm 143.8. 1 Peter 2:3.
Let the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus; and let that peace rule in our hearts, unto which we are called. Philippians 4:7. Colossians
Now the God ofhope fill us with all joy and peace in believing, that we may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.
4. WE MUST PRAY FOR THE GRACE OF GOD AND ALL THE KIND AND POWERFUL INFLUENCES AND OPERATIONS OF THAT GRACE.
We come to the throne ofgrace, that we may obtain not only mercy to pardon, but grace to help in every time of need, grace for seasonable help. Hebrews 4:16.
From the fulness that is in Jesus Christ (in whom it pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell) let every one ofus receive, and grace for grace. John 1:16. Colossians 1:19.
4.1. We mustprayforgrace to fortify us against every evilthought, wordand work. Having been earnestfor the removing ofthe guilt of sin, that we may not diefor it as a crime, we must be no less earnest for the breaking ofthepower ofsin, that we may not die by it as a disease; but that it may be mortified in us.
O let no iniquity have dominion over us, because we are not under the law, but under grace. Romans 6:14.
Let the flesh be crucified in us with its affections and lusts; that walking in the Spirit we may not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.
Let our old man be crucified with Christ, that the body of sin may be destroyed, that henceforth we may not serve sin; and let not sin reign in our mortal bodies (in our immortal souls) that we should obey it in the lusts thereof. But being made free from sin, let us become the servants of righteousness. Romans 6:6, 12, 18.
Let the law of the Spirit of life, which is in Christ Jesus, make us free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:2.
Give us grace to put offthe old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, that we may put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Ephesians 4.22,
That the world may be crucified to us, and we to the world, by the cross of Christ. Galatians 6:14.
— And that the temptations of Satan may not overcome us.
We pray that we may not enter into temptation: Or however, that no temptation may take us but such as is common to men, and let the faithful God never suffer us to be tempted above what we are able, but with the temptation make way for us to escape. Matthew
26:41. 1 Corinthians 10:13.
Put upon us the whole armor of God, that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand; Let our loins be girt about with truth: put onus the breastplate ofrighteousness, and let our feet be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Give us the shield of faith, wherewith we may quench all the fiery dares ofthe wicked, and the helmet of salvation; and let the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, be always ready to us. Ephesians 6:11-17.
Enable us so to resist the devil, as that he may flee from us; to resist him steadfast in the faith. And the God ofpeace tread Satan under our feet and do it shortly. James 4:7. 1 Peter 5:9. Romans 16:20.
4.2. We mustprayforgrace tofurnish usfor everygoodthought, word, and work; that we may not only be keptfrom sin but may be in everything as we should be anddo as we should do.
Let Christ be made of God to us not only righteousness, but wisdom, sanctification, and redemption. 1 Corinthians 1:30.
Let us be planted together in the likeness of Christ's death and resurrection, that as he was raised from the dead by the glory ofthe
Father, so we also may walk in newness of life. Romans 6:5, 4.
4.2.1. That the work ofgrace may be wrought there where it is not yet begun.
Lord, teach transgressors your ways, and let sinners be converted unto you; and let the disobedient be turned to the wisdom of the just; and made ready, a people prepared for the Lord. Psalm 51:13.
Let those be quickened that are yet dead in trespasses and sins: Say unto them, Live; yea, say unto them, Live; and the time shall be a time of love. Ephesians 2:1. Ezekiel 16:6, 8.
Open their eyes, and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among them which are sanctified. Acés
By the blood ofthe covenant send forth the prisoners out ofthe pit in which is no water, that they may turn to the strong hold, as prisoners of hope. Zechariah 9:11, 12.
Let the word of God prevail to the pulling down of strong holds, and the casting down of imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and let every thought be brought into obedience to Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:4, 5.
4.2.2. That where it is begun it may be carried on, and at length perfected, and thefoundation that is welllaid may be happily built upon.
Fulfil in us all the good pleasure ofyour goodness, and the work of faith with power. 2 Thessalonians 1:11.
Let the God that has begun a good work in us, perform it unto the day of Christ. Philippians 1:6.
Perfect, O God, that which concerns us: Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever; forsake not the work of your own hands. Psa/m
Lord, let your grace be sufficient for us, and let your strength be made perfect in weakness; that where we are weak there we may be strong; strong in the Lord and the power of his might. 2
Corinthians 12:9, 10. Ephesians 6:10.
4.3. More particularly we must pray for grace.
4.3.1. To teach and instruct us and make us knowing and intelligent in the things ofGod.
Give us so to cry after knowledge, and lift up our voice for understanding, to seek for it as silver, and to search for it as for hid treasure, that we may understand the fear ofthe Lord, and find the knowledge of God. Proverbs 2:3, 4, 5.
Give us all to know you, from the least even to the greatest, and to follow on to know you; and so to know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent, as may be life eternal to us.
Hebrews 8:11. Hosea 6:3. John 17:3.
Give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ, that the eyes of our understanding being enlightened, we may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory ofhis inheritance in the saints, and may experience what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us ward who believe; according to the working of his mighty power. Ephesians 1:17, 18,
Open you our eyes, that we may see the wondrous things of your law and gospel. Psalm 119:18.
Give us to know the certainty ofthose things wherein we have been instructed; and let our knowledge grow up to all riches of the full assurance ofunderstanding, to the acknowledgment ofthe mystery of God, even ofthe Father and of Christ. Luke 1:4. Colossians 2:2.
Deal with your servants according to your mercy and teach us your statutes; we are your servants, give us understanding that we may know your testimonies. Let our cry come before you, O Lord, give us understanding according to your word; that good understanding which they have that do your commandments; whose praise endures forever. Psalm 119:124, 125, 169. Psalm 111:10.
4.3.2. To lead us into, and keep us in the way oftruth, and ifin anything we be in an error, to rectify our mistake.
Let the Spirit of truth guide us into all truth and cause us to understand wherein we have erred. John 16:13. Job 6:24.
That which we see not teach you us, and enable us so to prove all things, as to hold fast that which is good. Job 34:32. 1 Thessalonians
Lord, grant that we may not be as children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind ofdoctrine, by the slight of men, but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Christ in all things, who is the head. Ephesians 4:14, 15.
Lord, give us so to do your will, as that we may know ofthe doctrine whether it be of God; and so, to know the truth, as that the truth may make us free, may make us free indeed. John 7:17. John 8:32,
Enable us, we pray you, to hold fast the form ofsound words, which we have heard, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus, and to continue in the things which we have learned and been assured of.
2 Timothy 1:13. 2 Timothy 3:14.
4.3.3. To help our memories, that the truths ofGod may be ready to us, whenever we have occasion to use them.
Lord, let your Spirit teach us all things, and bring all things to our remembrance, whatsoever you have said unto us; that the word of Christ may dwell richly in us in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. John 14:26. Colossians 3:16. Colossians 1:9.
Lord, grant that we may give a more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we let them slip, and may keep in memory what hath been preached to us and may not believe in vain. Hebrews 2:1. 1 Corinthians 15:2.
Lord, make us ready and mighty in the scriptures, that we may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works; and being well instructed unto the kingdom of heaven, may as the good householder, bring out of our treasure things new and old. Acts
18:24. 2 Timothy 3:17. Matthew 13:52.
4.3.4. To direct our consciences, to shew us the way ofour duty, and to make us wise, knowing,judicious Christians.
Lord, give us a wise and an understanding heart, that wisdom which in all cases is profitable to direct; that wisdom ofthe prudent which is to understand his way. 1 Kings 3:9, 12. Ecclesiastes
This we pray, that our love may abound yet more and more in knowledge, and in all judgment, that we may discern things that differ, and may approve things that are excellent; That we may be sincere and without offense unto the day of Christ, and may be filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9, 10, 11.
O that we may be filled with the knowledge of your will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That we may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. Colossians 1:9, 10.
Teach us your way, O God, and lead us in a plain path, because of our observers. Psalm 27-11.
When we know not what to do, our eyes are up unto you; Then let us hear the word behind us, saying, This is the way, walk in it, that we turn not to the right hand, or to the left.
Order our steps in your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over us. Psalm 119:133.
4.3.5.To sanctify our natures, toplant in us allholyprinciples and dispositions, and to increase every grace in us.
The very God of peace sanctify us wholly, and we pray God our whole spirit, and soul and body, may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; for faithful is he that calleth us, who also will do it.
1 Thessalonians 5:23, 24.
Create in us a clean heart, O God, and renewa right spirit within us; Cast us not away from your presence and take not your holy spirit away from us; Restore unto us the joy of your salvation and uphold us with your free spirit. Psalm 51:10, 11, 12.
Write your law in our hearts, and put it in our inward pare, that we may be the epistles ofChrist written by the Spirit ofthe living God, not in tables ofstone, but in fleshy tables of the heart, that the law ofour God being in our heart, none of our steps may slide, and we may delight to do your will, O God, may delight in the law ofGod after the inward man. Hebrews 8:10. 2 Corinthians 3:3. Psalm
37:31. Psalm 40:8. Romans 7:22.
O that we may obey from the heart that form of doctrine into which we desire to be delivered, as into a mold, that our whole souls may be leavened by it; and that we may not be conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of our mind; may not fashion ourselves after our former lusts in our ignorance, but as obedient children may be holy in all manner ofconversation, as he which hath called us is holy. Romans 6:17. Matthew 13:33.
Romans 12:2. 1 Peter 1:14, 15.
4.3.5.1. We must pray forfaith.
Unto us (Lord) let it be given to believe; for the faith by which we are saved is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. Philippians 1:29.
Lord, increase our faith; and perfect what is lacking in it, that we may be strong in faith, giving glory to God. Luke 17:5.
Thessalonians 3:10. Romans 4.20.
Lord, give us so to be crucified with Christ, as that the life we now live in the flesh we may live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us, and gave himself for us; And so to bear about with us continually the dying of the Lord Jesus, as that the life also ofJesus may be manifested in our mortal bodies.
As we have received Christ Jesus the Lord, enable us so to walk in him, rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith as we have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Colossians
Let every word ofyours profit us, being mixed with faith, by which we receive your testimony, and set to our seal that God is true.
Hebrews 4:2. John 3:33.
We beseech you work in us that faith which is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence ofthings not seen, by which we may look above the things that are seen that are temporal, and may look at the things that are not seen that are eternal. Hebrews 11:1.
Enable us by faith to set the Lord always before us, and to have our eyes ever towards him; that we may act in everything as seeing him that is invisible and having a respect to the recompence of reward.
Psalm 16:8. Psalm 25:15. Hebrews 11:27, 26.
Let our hearts be purified by faith, and let it be our victory overcoming the world. And let us be kept from fainting by believing that we shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Acts 15:9. 1 John 5:4. Psalm 27:13.
4.3.5.2. We must pray for the fear of God.
Lord, workin us that fear ofyou, which is the beginning ofwisdom, which is the instruction of wisdom, and which is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death. Proverbs 1:7. Proverbs 15:33.
Unite our hearts to fear your name, that we may keep your commandments, which is the whole of man. Psalm 86:11.
O put your fear into our hearts, that we may never depart from you. Let us all be devoted to your fear; And let us be in the fear of the Lord every day, and all day long. Jeremiah 32:40. Psalm 119:38.
4.3.5.3. We mustpray that the love ofGod and Christ may be rooted in us, and in order thereunto, that the love ofthe world may be rooted out ofus.
Give us grace (we beseech you) to love you the Lord our God with all our heart and soul, and mind and might, which is the first and great commandment, to set our love upon you, and to delight ourselves always in you, and therein we shall have the desire ofour heart. Matthew 22:37, 38. Psalm 91:14. Psalm 37:4.
Circumcise our hearts to love you the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, that we may live. Deuteronomy 30:6.
O that the love of God may be shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. Romans 5:5.
O that Jesus Christ may be very precious to us, as he is to all that believe, that he may be in our account the chief of ten thousands, and altogether lovely; and that he may be our beloved and our friend: That though we have not seen him, yet we may love him, and though now we see him not, yet believing we may rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. 1 Peter 2:7. Canticle (Song of Solomon) 5:10, 16. 1 Peter 1:8.
Let the love ofChrist to us constrain us to live, not to ourselves, but to him that died for us and rose again. 2 Corinthians 5:14, 15.
And, Lord, grant that we may not love the world, nor the things that are in the world, because if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him; that we may set our affections on things above, and not on things that are on the earth. 1 John 2-15.
4.3.5.4. We mustpray that our consciences may be always tender, and that we may live a life ofrepentance.
Lord, take away the stony heart out ofour flesh, and give us a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 11:19.
Make us afraid of all appearances of evil, and careful not to give Satan advantage against us, as being not ignorant of his devices. 1
Thessalonians 5:22. 2 Corinthians 2:11.
Lord, give us the happiness which they have that fear always; that when we think we stand, we may take heed lest we fall. Proverbs
28:14. 1 Corinthians 10:12.
4.3.5.5. We must pray to God to work in us charity and brotherly love.
Lord, put upon us that charity, which is the bond of perfectness, that we may keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, and may live in love and peace, that the God oflove and peace may be with us. Colossians 3:14. Ephesians 4:3.
Lord, give us to love our neighbor as ourselves, with that love which is the fulfilling of the law; to love one another with a pure heart fervently, that hereby all men may know that we are Christ's disciples. Romans 13:9, 10. 1 Peter 1:22. John 13:35.
And as we are taught ofGod to love one another, give us to abound therein more and more, and as we have opportunity to do good to all men, and as much as in us lies to live peaceably with all men; always following after the things that make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another. 1 Thessalonians 4:9, 10. Galatians
6:10. Romans 12:18. Romans 14-19.
Lord, make us able to love our enemies, to bless them that curse us, and to pray for them that despitefully use us, and to do good to them that hate us, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another in love, as Christ forgave us. Matthew 5:44. Colossians 3:13.
4.3.5.6. We must prayfor the grace ofself-denial.
Lord, give us grace to deny ourselves, to take up our cross daily, and to follow Christ, to keep under the body, and bring it into subjection. Matthew 16:24. 1 Corinthians 9:27.
Lord, keep us from being lovers of our own selves, from being wise in our own conceit, and leaning to our own understanding. 2 Timothy
3:2. Proverbs 3:7, 5.
Lord, give us to seek not our own only, but everyone his brother's welfare.
And grant that none ofus may live to ourselves, or die to ourselves, but whether we live or die we may be the Lord's and may live and die to him. Romans 14:7, 8.
4.3.5.7. We mustprayfor humility and meekness.
Lord, give us all to learn of Christ to be meek and lowly in heart, that we may find rest to our souls; and that herein the same mind may be in us that was also in Christ Jesus. Matthew 11:29.
Lord, hide pride from us, and clothe us with humility, and put upon us the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which in your sight is ofgreat price. Job 33:17. 1 Peter 5:5. 1 Peter 3:4.
Lord, give us grace to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering forbearing one another in love. Ephesians 4-1, 2.
Let anger never rest in our bosoms, nor the sun ever go down upon our wrath; but enable us to shew all meekness towards all men, because we ourselves also were sometimes foolish and disobedient.
Ecclesiastes 7:9. Ephesians 4.26. Titus 3:2, 3.
Let us be clothed as becomes the elect of God, holy and beloved, with bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, and long-suffering; that being merciful as our Father which is in heaven is merciful, we may be perfect as he is perfect. Colossians
3:12. Luke 6:36. Matthew 5 (v. 48).
4.3.5.8. We mustprayfor the grace ofcontentment and patience, and a holy indifferency to all the things ofsense and time.
Lord, teach us whatsoever state we are in therewith to be content; let us know both how to be abased, and how to abound, everywhere and in all things let us be instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need; And let godliness with contentment be great gain to us; and a little with the fear of the Lord and quietness, is better than great treasure and trouble therewith. Philippians 4:11, 12. 1 Timothy 6:6. Proverbs 15:16.
Lord, grant that our conversation may be without covetousness, and we may always be content with such things as we have; still saying,
The will of the Lord be done. Hebrews 13:5. Acts 21:14.
Enable us in our patience to possess our own souls; and let patience always have its perfect work, that we may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Luke 21:19. James 1:4.
Lord, give us grace to weep as though we wept not, and to rejoice as though we rejoiced not, and to buy as though we possessed not, and to use this world as not abusing it, because the time is short, and the fashion of this world passes away. 1 Corinthians 7:29, 30,
4.3.5.9. We mustprayfor the grace ofhope, a hope in God and Christ, and a hope ofeternal life.
Let patience work experience in us, and experience hope, such a hope as makes not ashamed. Through patience and comfort ofthe scriptures let us have hope and be saved by hope. Romans 5.4, 5.
Romans 15:4. Romans 8:24.
Let the God of Jacob be our help, and our hope always be in the Lord our God. Psalm 146:5.
Let us be begotten again toa lively hope by the resurrection ofJesus Christ, and let that hope be to us as an anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast, entering into that within the veil, whither the forerunner is for us entered. 1 Peter 1:3. Hebrews 6:19, 20.
Let us have Christ in us the hope of glory, and never be moved away from that hope of the gospel; but enable us to give diligence unto the full assurance of hope unto the end. Colossians 1:27, 23.
4.3.5.10. We mustprayfor grace topreserve usfrom sin, and all appearances ofit and approaches towards it.
Now we pray to God that we may do no evil but may be blameless and harmless as the children of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. 2
Turn away our eyes from beholding vanity and quicken you us in your way; Remove from us the way of lying and grant us your law graciously. Psalm 119:37, 29.
Incline not our hearts to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with them that work iniquity, and let us not eat of their dainties.
O cleanse us from our secret faults, keep back your servants also from presumptuous sins; let not them have dominion over us, but let us be upright and innocent from the great transgressions, and grant that hereby we may prove ourselves upright before you, by keeping ourselves from our own iniquity. Psalm 19:12, 13. Psalm
Let your word be hid in our hearts, that we may not sin against you, and your grace be at all times sufficient for us, ready to us, and mighty in us, and never give us up to our own hearts lusts, to walk in our own counsels. Psa/m 119-11. 2 Corinthians 12:9. Psalm 81:12.
Enable us to walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, so circumspectly, that we may cut offoccasion from them which desire occasion to blaspheme that worthy name by which we are called, and with well-doing may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, and may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior, in all things.
Ephesians 5:15. 2 Corinthians 11:12. James 2:7. 1 Peter 2:15. Titus 2.10.
4.3.5.11. We mustprayfor grace to enable us both to govern our tongues well, and to use them well.
Lord, enable us to take heed to our ways, that we offend not with our tongue, and to keep our mouth as it were witha bridle, that it may not be hasty to utter anything. Psalm 39:1. Ecclesiastes 5:2.
Set a watch, O Lord, before our mouth, keep the door of our lips, that we may not offend in word. Psalm 141:3. James 3:2.
Let our speech be always with grace seasoned with salt and enable us always out of the good treasure of our heart to bring forth good things. Let our mouth speak wisdom, and our tongue talk of judgment; and let not your words depart out ofour mouth, nor out of the mouth of our seed, or our seed's seed, from henceforth and forever. Colossians 4:6. Matthew 12:35. Psalm 37:30. Isaiah 59:21.
Enable us always to open our mouth with wisdom and let the law of kindness be in our tongue: Give us to know what is acceptable, that our tongue may be as choice silver, and our lips may feed many.
Proverbs 31:26. Proverbs 10:32, 20, 21.
4.3.5.12. We mustprayfor grace to direct and quicken us to, and to strengthen and assist us in our duty in the whole course ofour conversation.
Let the grace of God, which hath appeared to us, and to all men, bringing salvation, effectually teach us to deny all ungodliness and worldly fleshly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world, looking for the blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himselffor us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. Titus 2:1114.
(That we may be prudent and discreet in our duty.) You have said, If any man lack wisdom, he must ask it of God, who gives to all men liberally, and upbraids not, and it shall be given him. Lord, we want wisdom, make us wise as serpents, and harmless as doves, that wisdom may make our face shine, and may be better to us than weapons of war. James 1:5. Matthew 10:16.
Enable us to walk in wisdom towards them that are without, redeeming the time. Colossians 4:5.
Give us to order all our affairs with discretion; and to behave ourselves wisely in a perfect way, with a perfect heart. Psalm 112:5.
(That we may be honest and sincere in our duty.) Let our wisdom be not that from beneath, which is earthly, sensual, devilish, but wisdom from above, which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. James 3:15, 17.
O that we may always have our conversation in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God. 2 Corinthians 1:12.
Lord, uphold us in our integrity, and set us before your face forever, and let integrity and uprightness preserve us, for we wait on you.
Psalm 41:12. Psalm 25:21.
Let our hearts be sound in your statutes, that we be not ashamed; and let our eye be single, that our whole body may be full of light.
Psalm 119-80. Matthew 6:22.
(That we may be active anddiligent in our duty.) Lord, quicken us to work the works ofhim that was sent us, while it is day, because the night comes wherein no man can work, and what good our hand finds to do, to do it with all our might, because there is no work or knowledge in the grave, whither we are going. John 9:4. Ecclesiastes
Lord, grant that we may never be slothful in any good business, but fervent in spirit serving the Lord; steadfast and unmovable, always abounding in the work ofthe Lord, forasmuch as we know that our labor is not in vain in the Lord. Romans 12:11. 1 Corinthians 15:58.
Lord, make us zealously affected in every good work; and what we do enable us to do it heartily as unto the Lord, and not unto men.
Galatians 4:18. Colossians 3:23.
Lord, enable us to do the work ofevery day in its day, according as the duty of the day requires, redeeming the time, because the days are evil; that when our Lord comes, he may find us doing. Ezra 3:4.
Ephesians 5:16. Luke 12:43.
(That we may be resolute andcourageous in ourduty, as those that know that though we may be losersfor Christ, we shall not be losers by Him in the end.) Lord, teach us to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ; that we may not fear the reproach of men, or their reviling, nor be ashamed of Christ or ofhis words, knowing whom we have believed, even one who is able to keep what we have committed to him against that day.
2 Timothy 2:3. Isaiah 51:7.
Mark 8:38. 2 Timothy 1:12.
Though bonds and afflictions should abide us, Lord, grant that none of these things may move us, and that we may not count life itself dear to us, so we may finish our course with joy. Acts 20:23,
24, Enable us in all things to approve ourselves to God, and then to pass by honorand dishonor, by evil report and good report, clad with the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, as those that account it a very small thing to be judged of man's judgment, for he that judges us is the Lord. 2 Corinthians 6.4, 8,
7. 1 Corinthians 4-3, 4.
(That we may bepleasant and cheerful in our duty.) Lord, enable us to rejoice evermore; to rejoice in the Lord always, because he hath again said unto us, rejoice; that we may go on our way rejoicing, may eat our bread with joy, and drink our wine with a merry heart, as we shall have reason to do if God now accepts our works. 1
Thessalonians 5:16. Philippians 4.4. Acts 8:39. Ecclesiastes 9:7.
Give us grace to serve you the Lord our God with joyfulness and gladness ofheart in the abundance of all things; And to sing in the ways of the Lord, because great is the glory of our God.
Deuteronomy 28:47. Psalm 138:5.
Let us have that cheerfulness of heart which doth good like a medicine and deliver us from that heaviness which makes the heart stoop, and that sorrow of the world which worketh death. Proverbs
17:22. Proverbs 12:25. 2 Corinthians 7:10.
(That we may do the duty of every condition of life, every event of providence, and every relation wherein we stand.) Lord, enable us, in a day ofprosperity to be joyful, and ina day ofadversity, to consider, because God hath set the one over against the other; to add to our knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience. Ecclesiastes
Give us grace to abide with you in the calling wherein we are called; and in all our ways to acknowledge you, and be you pleased to direct our steps. 1 Corinthians 7:24. Proverbs 3:6.
Let those that are called, being servants,be the Lord's freemen, and those that are called, being free, be Christ's servants. 1 Corinthians
7:22, Let all in every relation dwell together in unity, that it may be as the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion. O that we may dwell together as joint heirs of the grace oflife, that our prayers may not be hindered. Psalm 133:1,
Give us grace to honor all men, to love the brotherhood, to fear God, and to be subject to the higher powers, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. 1 Peter 2:17. Romans 13:1, 5.
(That we may be universally conscientious.) O that we may stand perfect and complete in all the will ofGod. Colossians 4:12.
O that our ways were directed to keep your commandments! And then shall we not be ashamed, when we havea respect to them all.
Teach us, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and we shall keep it unto the end: Give us understanding, and we shall keep your law, yea we shall observe it with our whole heart: Make us go in the path ofyour commandments, for therein do we delight. Incline our hearts unto your testimonies, and not to covetousness. Psalm 119:33-36.
Grant us, we pray you, according to the riches ofyour glory, that we may be strengthened with all might by your Spirit in the inner man:
That Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith, and that we being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and may know the love of Christ which pass knowledge; and be filled with a divine fulness, and may partake of a divine nature. Ephesians
3:16-19. 2 Peter 1:4.
And let the love of Christ constrain us to live not to ourselves, but to him that died for us, and rose again. 2 Corinthians 5:14, 15.
4.3.5.13. We mustprayfor grace to make us wiser and better every day than other.
Lord, give us to increase with the increases of God; to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; to hold on our way, and having clean hands to grow stronger and stronger. Colossians 2:19. 2 Peter 3:18. Job 17-9.
Let our path be as the shining light, which shines more and more to the perfect day. Proverbs 4:18.
We have not yet attained, nor are we already perfect; Lord, grant that therefore forgetting the things that are behind, we may reach forth to those things that are before, for the prize ofthe high calling ofGod in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:12, 13, 14.
Be you as the dew unto us, that we may grow as the lily, and cast forth our roots as Lebanon; that our branches may spread, and our beauty be as the olive-tree. And let the Sun of righteousness arise upon us with healing under his wings, that we may go forth and grow up as calves of the stall. Hosea 14:5, 6. Malachi 4:2.
4.3.5.14. We mustprayfor effectual support and comfort under all the crosses and afflictions that we meet with in this world.
We know that we are born to trouble as the sparks fly upward; but in six troubles, be you pleased to deliver us, and in seven let no evil touch us. Job 5:7, 19.
Let the eternal God be our refuge, and underneath be the everlasting arms; that the spirit you have made may not fail before you, nor the soul that you have redeemed. Deuteronomy 33:27.
Isaiah 57:16. Psalm 71:23.
Let us be strengthened with all might according to your glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness.
Let your statutes be our songs in the house of our pilgrimage; and let your testimonies, which we have taken as a heritage forever, be always the rejoicing of our hearts. Psalm 119:54, 111.
When we are troubled on every side, yet let us not be distressed, and when we are perplexed, yet let us not be in despair; but as sorrowful, and yet always rejoicing, as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.
4.3.5.15. We mustprayfor grace topreserve us to the end, and tofit usfor whatever lies before us betwixt and the grave.
Lord, deliver us from every evil work, and preserve us to your heavenly kingdom, being kept from falling, that we may be presented faultless at the coming ofyour glory with exceeding joy. 2
Timothy 4:18. Jude 24.
Lord, make us to increase and abound in love one towards another, and towards all men, that our hearts may be established unblameable in holiness, before God even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.
1 Thessalonians 3:12, 13.
If Satan desire to have us that he may sift us as wheat, yet let Christ's intercession prevail for us, that our faith fail not. Luke
Till we are taken out of the world, let us be kept from the evil, and sanctified through your truth; your word is truth. John 17:15, 17.
Build us up, we pray you, in our most holy faith, and keep us in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Jude 20, 21.
Grant that we may continue to call upon you as long as we live, and till we die may never remove our integrity from us; and that our righteousness we may hold fast, and never let it go, and our hearts may not reproach us so long as we live. Psalm 116-2. Job 27:5, 6.
4.3.5.16. We mustprayfor grace toprepare usfor death, and to carry us well through our dying moments.
Lord, make us to know our end, and the measure of our days what it is, that we may know and consider how frail we are; and that our days are as a hand breadth, and that every man at his best state is altogether vanity, and our days upon earth are as a shadow, and there is no abiding. Psalm 39:4, 5.
Lord, teach us so to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom, and make us to consider our latter end. Psalm 90:12.
Lord, make us always ready, with our loins girded about, and our lights burning, because the Son of man comes at an hour that we think not. Luke 12:35, 40.
Keep us all the days of our appointed time, waiting till our change comes; and then shalt you call, and we will answer. Job 14:14, 15.
Bring us to our grave as a shock ofcorn in its season; satisfy us with life, whether it be longer or shorter, and show us your salvation. Job
5:26. Psalm 91 (v. 16).
And when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, be you with us, that we may fear no evil, let your rod and your staff comfort us. Psalm 23:4.
Let goodness and mercy follow us all the days of our life and let us dwell in the house ofthe Lord forever. Mercy and truth be with us.
Redeem our souls from the power of the grave, and receive us; Guide us by your counsel, and afterwards receive us to glory. Psalm
4.3.5.17. We mustprayfor grace tofit usfor heaven, and that we may at length beput in possession ofeternal life.
Lord, make us meet to partake of the inheritance of the saints in light; let God himselfwork us to the self-same thing, and give us the earnest ofthe Spirit in our hearts. Colossians 1:12. 2 Corinthians
O that we may now have our conversation in heaven, that we may from thence with comfort look for the Savior the Lord Jesus, who shall change our vile bodies, that they may be fashioned like unto his glorious body. Philippians 3:20, 21.
O that now we may set our affections on things above, and that our life may be hid with Christ in God, that when Christ who is our life shall appear, we may also appear with him in glory; that when he shall appear we may be like him, and may see him as he is, may behold his face in righteousness, and when we awake may be satisfied with his likeness. Colossians 3:2, 3, 4. 1 John 3:2. Psalm
When we fail, let us be received into everlasting habitations, in the city that hath foundation, whose builder and maker is God, that we may be together for ever with the Lord, to see as we are seen, and know as we are known.
Thessalonians 4:17. 1 Corinthians 13:12.
And in the meantime, help us to comfort ourselves and one another with these words; and having this hope in us to purify ourselves even as Christ is pure.
1 Thessalonians 4:18. 1 John 3:3.
Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, who hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort our hearts, and stablish us in every good word and work. 2 Thessalonians 2:16, 17.
4.3.5.18. We must pray for the good things of this life, with a humble submission to the will ofGod.
Lord, you have told us, that godliness hath the promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come; And that ifwe seek first the kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof, other things shall be added to us; and therefore we cast all our care about these things upon you, who cares for us, for our heavenly Father knows that we have need of all these things. 1 Timothy 4.8.
Matthew 6:33. 1 Peter 5:7. Matthew 6:32.
4.3.5.19. We mustpray to bepreservedfrom the calamities to which we are exposed.
You, Lord, are our refuge and our fortress, and under your wings will we trust, your truth shall be our shield and buckler; Let us therefore not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flies by day. Having made the Lord our refuge, and the most High our habitation, let no evil befall us, nor any plague come nigh our dwelling. Psalm 91:2, 4, 5, 9, 10.
Let the Lord be our keeper, even he that keeps Israel, and neither slumbers nor sleeps. Let the Lord be our shade on our right hand;
That the sun may not smite us by day, nor the moon by night; Let the Lord preserve us from all evil, the Lord preserve our souls; The Lord preserves our going out and coming in, from this time forth, and even for ever more. Psalm 121:4-8.
Lord, make a hedge about us, about our houses, and about all that we have round about; and take sickness away from the midst ofus.
Job 1:10. Exodus 23:25.
4.3.5.20. We mustpray to be supplied with the comforts and supports we daily stand in need of.
O that the beauty ofthe Lord our God maybe upon us, prosper you the work of our hands upon us, yea the work of our hands establish you it; Save now, we beseech you, O Lord; O Lord, we beseech you send now prosperity. Psalm 90:17. Psalm 118:25.
Let our sons be as plants grown up in their youth, and our daughters as corner stones polished after the similitude of a palace:
Let our garners be full, affording all manner ofstore; And let there be no breaking in or going out; no complaining within our streets:
Happy is the people that is in such a case, yea rather happy is the people whose God is the Lord. Psalm 144:12-15.
Let us be blessed in the city, and blessed in the field, let our basket and store be blessed, let us be blessed when we come in, and when we go out. Deuteronomy 28:3, 5, 6.
Let your good providence so order all events concerning us, as that they may be made to work for good to us, as you have promised they shall to all that love you and are called according to your purpose. Romans 8-28.
Give us to trust in the Lord and do good, and then we shall dwell in the land, and verily we shall be fed; and be you pleased to bring forth our righteousness as the light, and our judgment as the noonday. Psalm 37:3, 6.
Let us be hid from the scourge of the tongue, and not be afraid of destruction when it cometh; let us be in league with the stones of the field, and let the beasts of the field be at peace with us; let us know that our tabernacle is in peace, and let us visit our habitation and not sin. Job 5:21, 23, 24.
And ifGod will be with us, and will keep us in the way that we go, during our pilgrimage in this world, and will give us bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that we may come to our heavenly
Father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be our God. Genesis 28:20, 21.
4.3.5.21. We mustplead thepromises ofGodfor the enforcing ofall ourpetitions, put thesepromises in suit, and refer ourselves to them.
Lord, you have given us many exceeding great and precious promises, which are all yea and Amen in Christ. Now be it unto your servants according to the word which you have spoken. 2 Peter
1:4, 2 Corinthians 1:20. Luke 1:38. 2 Samuel 7:25.
Give us to draw water with joy out of those wells of salvation, to suck and be satisfied from those breasts of consolation; And now,
O Lord God, let the word which you have spoken concerning your servants be established forever, and do as you have said. Isaiah 12:3.
Isaiah 66:11. 2 Samuel 7:25. 1 Chronicles 17:23.
Deal with us according to the tenor of the everlasting covenant, which is well ordered in all things and sure, and which is all our salvation, and all our desire. 2 Samuel 23:5.
Look upon us and be merciful to us, as you used to do unto those that love your name and do more for us than we are able to ask or think and supply all our needs according to your riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Psalm 119:132. Ephesians 3:20. Philippians 4:19.
THANKSGIVINGS FOR MERCY Ofthe fourth part ofprayer, which is thanksgiving for the mercies we have received from God, and the many favors of his we are interested in, and have and hope for benefit by Our errand at the throne of grace is not only to seek the favor of God, but to give unto Him the glory due unto His name, and that not only by an awful adoration of His infinite perfections, but by a grateful acknowledgment of His goodness to us, which cannot indeed add anything to His glory, but He is pleased to accept of it, and to reckon Himselfglorified by it, if it come from a heart that's humbly sensible of its own unworthiness to receive any favor from God, that values the gifts, and loves the giver of them.
1. WE MUST STIR UP OURSELVES TO PRAISE GOD, WITH THE CONSIDERATION BOTH OF THE REASON AND OF THE ENCOURAGEMENT WE HAVE TO PRAISE HIM Unto you, O God, do we give thanks, unto you do we give thanks, for that your name is near your wondrous works declare. Psalm
Let our souls bless the Lord and let all that is within us bless his holy name; yea, let our souls bless the Lord, and not forget any of his benefits. Psalm 103:1, 2.
We will praise the Lord, for it is good, it is pleasant, and praise is comely for the upright, yea it is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto your name, O most High, to shew forth your loving-kindness in the morning, and your faithfulness every night. Psalm 147:1. Psalm 92:1, 2.
We will extol you our God, O king, and will bless your name for ever and ever; Every day will we bless you and will praise your name for ever and ever; we will abundantly utter the memory of your great goodness and sing ofyour righteousness. Psa/m 145:1, 2, 7.
We will sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints; O let Israel rejoice in him that made him, let the children of Zion be joyful in their King; Let the saints be joyful in glory, and let the high praises of God be in their hearts, and in their mouths. Psa/m 149-1, 2, 5, 6.
While we live, we will bless the Lord and will sing praises unto our God while we have any being; and when we have no being on earth, we hope to have a being in heaven to be doing it better. Psalm
We are here through Jesus Christ to offer the sacrifice ofpraise to you, which we desire to do continually, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to your name. And you have said that he that offers praise glorifies you, and that this also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs. Hebrews 13:15.
Psalm 50 (v. 23). Psalm 69:31.
We will mention the loving-kindnesses ofthe Lord, and the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness towards the house of Israel which he hath bestowed on them, according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses. Isaiah 63:7.
2. WE MUST BE PARTICULAR IN OUR THANKSGIVING TO GOD.
2.1. For the discoveries which He has made to us in His word ofthe goodness ofHis nature.
We give thanks unto the God of gods, unto the Lord of lords, for his mercy endures forever. Psalm 136:2, 3.
Your goodness is your glory, and it is that for which all your works do praise you, and your saints do bless you. Exodus 33:19. Psalm
You are gracious and full ofcompassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy, and have told us that you dost not afflict willingly, or grieve the children of men, but though you cause grief, yet you will have compassion, according to the multitude of your mercies. Psalm
145:8. Lamentations 3:33, 32.
You take pleasure in them that fear you, in them that hope in your mercy. Psalm 147-11.
2.2. Thegoodness ofHisprovidence relating to our bodies, and the life that now is and this, 2.2.1. First, with reference to all the creatures, and the world of mankind, in general.
You have stretched out the heavens like a curtain, and in them have you set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and rejoices as a strong man to runa race. And you cause your sun to shine on the evil and on the good and send rain on the just and on the unjust. Psalm 104:2. Psalm 19:4, 5.
When we consider the heavens the work of your fingers, the sun, the moon, and the stars which you have ordained, Lord, what is man that you visit him? For truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun: All the glory be to the Father of lights, who commands the morning, and causes the dayspring to know his place. Psalm 8:3, 4. Ecclesiastes 11:7. James
You didst not leave yourself without witness among the heathen, in that you didstgood, and gave them rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness. Acs 14:17.
You cover the heavens with clouds, and preparest rain for the earth, and make grass to grow upon the mountains: You give to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry. Psalm 147:8, 9.
You cause it to rain on the wilderness where there is no man, to satisfy the desolate and waste ground. Job 38:26, 27.
You visit the earth, and water it, you greatly enrich it with the river of God, which is full of water; you preparest them corn when you have so provided for it: You water the ridges thereof abundantly, you settle the furrows thereof, you make it soft with showers, you bless the springing thereof; You crown the year with your goodness, and your paths drop fatness. Psalm 65:9, 10, 11.
You send the springs into the valleys which run among the hills; and they give drink to every beast of the field; and by them the fowls of the heaven have their habitation, which sing among the branches. Psalm 104:10, 11, 12.
You have laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed forever, and set bounds to the waters of the sea, that they turn not again to cover the earth; You have shut up the sea with doors, and broken up for it your decreed place, saying, Hitherto shalt you come but no further, here shall your proud waves be stayed. And you have made good what you have sworn, that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth. Psalm 104.5, 9.
Job 38:8, 10, 11. Isaiah 54:9.
Your covenant of the day and of the night is not broken, but still you give the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances ofthe moon and ofthe stars for a light by night; and are faithful to that covenant ofprovidence, that while the earth remains, seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease.
Jeremiah 33:20. Jeremiah 31:35. Genesis 8:22.
The heaven, even the heavens are yours, but the earth you have given to the children ofmen; and you have put all things under their feet, and made them to have dominion over the works of your hands; so that the fear ofman and the dread of man is upon every beast of the earth, and upon the fowl of the air, and into his hand they are delivered, because you hada favor to him, and your delights were with the sons of men. Psalm 115:16. Psalm 8:6. Genesis 9:2.
You cause the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man, that you mayest bring forth food out of the earth; Wine that makes glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengthens man's heart. Psalm 104:14, 15.
You give to all life and breath and all things, and the earth, O Lord, is full ofyour mercy. Acts 17:25. Psalm 119:64.
All the creatures wait upon you, that you mayest give them their meat in due season; That you give them they gather, you open your hand, they are filled with good: You send forth your spirit they are created, you renew the face of the earth. This your glory shall endure forever, and you rejoice in these works. Psalm 104:27, 28,
It is through your goodness, O Lord, that as one generation of mankind passes away, another generation comes, and that you have not blotted out the name ofthat corrupt and guilty race from under heaven. Ecclesiastes 1:4. Deuteronomy 29:20.
2.2.2. Secondly, with reference to us inparticular.
2.2.2.1. We must give thanks that He hath made us reasonable creatures, capable ofknowing, loving, serving and enjoying Him, and that He hath not made us as the beasts thatperish.
We will praise you, for we are fearfully and wonderfully made, and that our souls, our nobler pare, know right well; for what man knows the things ofaman, save the spirit ofman which is in him?
Psalm 139:14. 1 Corinthians 2:11.
You have made us of that rank of beings which is little lower than the angels and is crowned with glory and honor; For there is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding. And the spirit of a man is the candle of the Lord.
Psalm 8:5. Job 32:8. Proverbs 20:27.
Our bodies are capable ofbeing the temples ofthe Holy Ghost, and our souls of having the Spirit of God dwell in them; we therefore glorify you with our bodies, and with our spirits, which are yours.1
Corinthians 6:19. 1 Corinthians 3:16. 1 Corinthians 6:20.
You, Lord, have formed us for yourself, that we might shew forth your praise. Isaiah 43.21.
2.2.2.2. We must give thanksfor ourpreservation, that our lives areprolonged, and that the use ofour reason and understanding, our limbs and senses, is continued to us.
It was owing to your good providence that we died not from the womb and did not give up the ghost when we came out ofthe belly, that the knees prevented us, and the breasts that we should suck.
Though we were called transgressors from the womb, yet by your power we have been borne from the belly and carried from the womb; and you hold our souls in life and suffer not our foot to be moved. Isaiah 48:8. Isaiah 46:3. Psalm 66:9.
All our bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto you, for you keep all our bones, not one of them is broken. Psalm 35:10. Psalm 34:20.
We lay us down and sleep, for you, Lord, make us dwell in safety.
Psalm 3.5. Psalm 4:8.
You have given your angels a charge concerning us, to keep us in all our ways, to bear us up in their hands, lest we dash our foot against a stone. And they are all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for the good ofthem that shall be heirs ofsalvation. Psalm
91:11, 12. Hebrews 1:14.
2.2.2.3. For signal recoveries from danger by sickness, or otherwise.
When perhaps there has been but a step between us and death, and we have received a sentence of death within ourselves, and have been ready to say in the cutting offof our days we should go to the gates ofthe grave, and were deprived ofthe residue ofour years, yet you have in love to our souls delivered them from the pit of corruption, and cast all our sins behind your back. 1 Samuel20:3. 2
Corinthians 1:9. Isaiah 38:10, 17.
When the sorrows of death have compassed us, and the pains of hell have got hold upon us, we have called upon the name of the Lord, and have found that gracious is the Lord and righteous, yea, our God is merciful; we have been brought low and he hath helped us, and hath delivered our souls from death, our eyes from tears, and our feet from falling. We will therefore walk before the Lord in the land of the living. Psalm 116:3-6, 8, 9.
2.2.2.4. For the supports and comforts ofthis life, which have hitherto made the land ofourpilgrimage easy andpleasant to us.
Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with his benefits, even the God of our salvation. Psalm 68:19.
You make us lie down in green pastures, you feed us beside the still waters: You preparest a table for us in the presence ofour enemies, you anoint our head, and our cup runs over. Psalm 23:2, 5.
It may be we were sent forth without purse or scrip, but lacked we anything? Nothing, Lord. Luke 22:35.
The candle ofGod hath shined upon our head, and by his light we have walked through darkness, and the secret of God has been in our tabernacle. Job 29:3, 4.
You have given us all things richly to enjoy, and into our hands have brought plentifully. 1 Timothy 6:17. Job 12:6.
Manya time we have eaten and been filled and have delighted ourselves in your great goodness. Nehemiah 9:25.
When we remember all the way which the Lord our God hath led us for so many years in this wilderness, we must here set up a stone and call it Ebenezer, for hitherto the Lord hath helped us.
2.2.2.5. For success in our callings and affairs, comfort in relations, and comfortableplaces ofabode.
Itis God that girds us with strength and makes our way perfect; that hath blessed the work ofour hands, and it may be so as that though our beginning was small, yet our latter end hath greatly increased.
Psalm 18:32. Job 1:10. Job 8:7.
Our houses have been safe from fear, and there hath been no rod of God upon us; so that the voice of rejoicing and salvation hath been in our tabernacle from day to day. Job 21:9. Psalm 118:15.
With our staff it may be we have passed over this Jordan, and now we are become two bands; and it is God that sets the solitary in families. Genesis 32:10. Psalm 68:6.
Ifwe have lived joyfully with our relations, and they have been to us as the loving hind and as the pleasant roe, we must give you thanks for it; for every creature is that to us, and no more, that you make it to be. Ecclesiastes 9:9. Proverbs 5:19.
2.2.2.6. For our share in the public plenty, peace, and tranquility.
When we have eaten and are full, we have reason to bless you for the good land which you have given us: A land which the eyes of the Lord our God are always upon, from the beginning ofthe year even to the end of the year. Deuteronomy 8:10. Deuteronomy 11:12.
You make peace in our borders and fill us with the finest of the wheat: We are delivered from the noise of archers at the places of drawing water; there therefore will we rehearse the righteous acts of the Lord, even his righteous acts towards the inhabitants of his villages. Psalm 147.14. Judges 5:11.
We thank you that the powers that are set over us are ministers of God to us for good, that they seek the welfare of our people, speaking peace to all their seed. Romans 13:4. Esther 10:3.
2.3. Thegoodness ofHis grace relating to our souls, and the life that is to come. But especially blessed be the GodandFather ofourLord
Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ. Ephesians 1:3.
2.3.1. First, we mustgive God thanksfor His kindness to the children ofmen relating to their betterpare and theirfuture state, andHis favors to the church in general.
2.3.1.1. We mustgive thanksfor the gracious design and contrivance ofman's redemption and salvation, when he was lost and undone by sin.
O how wonderfully did the kindness and love of God our Savior towards man appear, not by any works of righteousness, which he had done, but according to his mercy he saved us: We had destroyed ourselves, but in you, and you only was our help. Titus 3:4, 5. Hosea
When we were cast out in the open field, and no eye pitied us, you saw us polluted in our own blood, and you said unto us, Live; yea, you said unto us, Live; and the time was a time oflove. Ezekiel 16:5,
When the redemption of the soul was so precious, as that it must have ceased forever, and no man could by any means redeem his brother, or give to God a ransom for him, then you was pleased to find a ransom, that we might be delivered from going down to the pit. Psalm 49.8, 7. Job 33:24.
When we must needs die, and were as water spilt upon the ground, which cannot be gathered up again, then didst you devise means that the banished might not be forever expelled from you. 2 Samuel
When you spared not the angels that sinned, but didst cast them down to hell, you said concerning the race of mankind, destroy it not for a blessing is in it.
2 Peter 2:4. Isaiah 65-8.
Herein appears the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world for our glory. 1
2.3.1.2. For the eternalpurposes and counsels ofGod concerning man's redemption.
We are bound to give thanks always to you, O God, because you have from the beginning chosen some to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit: That there is a remnant according to the election ofgrace, whom God hath chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, that they should be holy and without blame before you in love, having predestinated them to the adoption of children, by Jesus Christ unto yourself, according to the good pleasure of your will, to the praise of the glory of your grace. 2 Thessalonians 2:13. Romans 11:5. Ephesians 1:4, 5, 6.
Yours they were, and you gave them to Christ, and this is your will, that of all that you have given him he should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day. John 17:6. John 6:39.
2.3.1.3. For the appointing of the Redeemer, and Goa's gracious condescension to dealwith man upon new terms, recedingfrom the demands ofthe broken covenant of innocence.
We bless you that when sacrifice and offering you would not, and in it had no pleasure, that then the eternal Son of God said, Lo I come to do your will, O God, and a body have you prepared me:
And that as in the volume of the book it was written of him, he did delight to do your will, O God, yea, your law was within his heart.
Hebrews 10:5, 6, 7. Psalm 40:7, 8.
You have laid help upon one that is mighty, one chosen out ofyour people: You have found David your servant with your holy oil, you have anointed him, even with the oil ofgladness above his fellows, and didst promise that with him your hand should be established, and your arm should strengthen him, and that you would make him your first-born, higher than the kings ofthe earth. Psalm 89:19,
20. Psalm 45:7. Psalm 89:21, 27.
We bless you that the Father now judges no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son: That as he has life in himself, so he hath given to the Son to have life in himself, and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man: That the Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand. And that the counsel ofpeace is between them both.
John 5:22, 26, 27. John 3:35. Zechariah 6:13.
That he is your servant whom you dost uphold, your elect in whom your soul delights: Your beloved Son in whom you are well pleased:
That you have given him for a covenant of the people, and that through him we are not under the law, but under grace. Isaiah 42:1.
Matthew 17:5. Isaiah 49:8. Romans 6:14.
That God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16.
2.3.1.4. For the early andancient indications ofthis gracious design concerningfallen man.
We bless you, that as soon as ever man had sinned, it was graciously promised that the seed of the woman should break the serpent's head; and that in the Old Testament sacrifices Jesus Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
And that by faith the elders, though they received not the promise, yet obtained a good report, for they obtained witness that they were righteous. Hebrews 11:39, 2, 4.
We bless you for the promise made to Abraham, that in his seed all the families of the earth should be blessed, and to Jacob that the Shiloh should come, and to him should the gathering of the people be: And that the patriarchs rejoiced to see Christ's day, and they saw it and were glad. Genesis 12:3. Genesis 49:10. John 8:56.
2.3.1.5. For the many glorious instances ofGod's favor to the Old Testament church.
We adore that wisdom, power and goodness with which you brought the vine out ofEgypt, didst cast out the heathen and plant it; you prepared room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. Psalm 80:8, 9.
And they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them, but your right hand, and your arm, and the light ofyour countenance, because you hada favor to them.
Psalm 44.3. Psalm 136:10. & others.
We bless you that to the Jews were committed the oracles of God; that they had the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises: And that there did not fail one word of all your good promise, which you promised by the hand of Moses your servant. Romans 3:2.
Romans 9:4. 1 Kings 8:56.
We bless you for all that which you didst at sundry times and in divers manners speak in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, those holy men of God, who spoke as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost, and prophesied of the grace that should come unto us, testifying beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow, and that not to themselves only, but to us they ministered those great things, things which the angels themselves desire to look into. Hebrews 1:1. 2 Peter 1:21. 1 Peter 1:10, 11, 12.
And especially we bless you that you have provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
2.3.1.6. For the wonderful and mysterious incarnation ofthe Son of God, and His coming into the world.
We bless you that when the fulness oftime had come, you didst send forth your Son made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Galatians 4:4, 5.
That the eternal Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and there were those who saw his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness, that God was manifested in the flesh. John 1:14. 1 Timothy 3:16.
We bless you that to this end he was born, and for this cause he came into the world, that he might bear witness of the truth, and we believe and are sure, that he is that Christ, the Son of the living
God; that it is he that should come, and we are to look for no other.
John 18-37. John 6:69. Matthew 11:3.
We bless you that the Son ofman is come to seek and to save that which was lost; that he is come that we might have life, and that we might have it more abundantly, and that for this purpose the Son ofGod was manifested, that he might destroy the works ofthe devil. Luke 19:10. John 10:10. 1 John 3:8.
Lord, we receive it as a faithful saying, and well worthy of all acceptations, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, even the chief. 1 Timothy 1:15.
We bless you that forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took pare of the same: That he took not on him the nature of angels, but our nature, and was in all things made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest, in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins ofthe people; and that he is not ashamed to call them brethren. Hebrews 2:14, 16, 17, 11.
And that the first begotten was brought into the world with a charge given to all the angels ofGod to worship him. Hebrews 1:6.
2.3.1.7. For God's gracious owningofHim in His undertaking, and in the carrying of it on.
We bless you that you were in Christ reconciling the world to yourself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and that you have committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
That you have yourself given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people. That he was sanctified and sealed and sent into the world, and that the Father which sent him did not leave him alone, for he always did those things that pleased him. Isaiah 55-4. John 10:36. John 6:27. John 8:29.
Glory be to God in the highest, for in and through Jesus Christ there is on earth peace, and good-will towards men. Luke 2:14.
In this was manifested the love ofGod towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 1 John 4:9.
We thank you for the power you have given him over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as were given him. John 17.2.
2.3.1.8. For His Holy life, His excellent doctrine, and the glorious miracles He wrought to confirm His doctrine.
We bless you for the assurance we have that he is a teacher come from God, since no man could do those miracles which he did, except God were with him. John 3:2.
That you have in these last days spoken unto us by your Son, whose doctrine was not his, but his that sent him, and he spoke as one having authority, and that we are encouraged to come and learn of him, because he is meek and lowly in heart, and in learning ofhim we shall find rest to our souls. Hebrews 1:2. John 7:16. Matthew 7
(v. 29). Matthew 11:29.
We bless you that he hath left us an example, that we should follow his steps, in that he did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, and when he was reviled, he reviled not again; and his meat and drink was to do the will of his Father; in that he was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. O that we may be armed with the same mind, and that as he was so we may be in this world; and that we may so walk even as he walked. 1 Peter 2:21, 22, 23. John 4:34. Hebrews 7:26. 1 Peter 4:1. 1 John 4:17. 1 John 2:6.
We bless you that the works which he did, the same bore witness of him that the Father had sent him, that by his power the blind received their sight, the lame walked, the lepers were cleansed, the deaf heard, the dead were raised up, and the poor had the gospel preached to them; and even the winds and the sea obeyed him; for which we glorify the God of Israel. Doubtless this was the Son of God. John 5:36. Matthew 11:5. Matthew 8:27. Matthew 15:31.
2.3.1.9. For the great encouragements Christ gave topoor sinners to come to Him.
We bless you that Jesus Christ came to call, not the righteous, but sinners (such as we are) to repentance, and had power on earth to forgive sin; that he came to save his people from their sins; and is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin ofthe world, and that he is (to his honor, not to his reproach) a friend to publicans and sinners. Matthew 9:13, 6. Matthew 1:21. John 1:29. Matthew 11:19.
We thank you for the gracious invitation he gave to those who are weary and heavy laden to come to him for rest: And for the assurance he hath given that whosoever comes unto him he will in no wise cast out. Matthew 11:28. John 6:37.
That he made a gracious offer, that whosoever thirsts might come unto him and drink. John 7:37.
2.3.1.10. For thefull satisfaction which He made to thejustice ofGodfor the sin ofman by the blood ofHis cross,for the purchases, victories, and triumphs ofthe cross, andfor all the precious benefits whichflow to usfrom the dying ofthe Lord
Herein indeed God commended his love to us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us, that we might be reconciled to him by the death ofhis Son. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world; that he tasted death for every man, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. Romans 5:8, 10.
1 John 4:10. 1 John 2:2. Hebrews 2:9, 14.
We bless you, that by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified, that he hath finished transgression, made an end of sin, made reconciliation for iniquity, and hath brought in an everlasting righteousness. Hebrews 10:14. Daniel 9:24.
That he hath redeemed us from the curse ofthe law, by being made a curse for us. Galatians 3:13.
That what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God hath done by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, who bya sacrifice for sin condemned sin in the flesh.
That he was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities, and that the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed; and that the Lord having laid upon him the iniquity of us all, it pleased the Lord to bruise him, and put him to grief. Isaiah 53:5, 6, 10.
That appearing to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, he did by the eternal Spirit offer himselfwithout spot unto God, and by his own blood entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Hebrews 9:26, 14, 12.
That he hath spoiled principalities and powers, and made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in his cross, and hath blotted out the handwriting ofordinances which was against us, which was contrary to us, taking it out of the way by nailing it to his cross.
That he is our peace, who having broken down the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile, hath made himselfoftwain one new man, hath reconciled both unto God, in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. Ephesians 2:14, 15, 16.
That he hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us unto our God kings and priests.
O the height, and depth, and length, and breadth of that love of Christ which passes knowledge; that great love wherewith he loved us. Ephesians 3:18, 19. Ephesians 2:4.
Worthyis the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing; for he was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by his blood. Revelation
2.3.1.11. For His resurrection from the dead on the thirdday.
We thank you that as he was delivered for our offences, so he rose again for our justification, and was declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. Romans 4 (v. 25).
That though he was dead, yet he is alive, and lives for evermore, and hath the keys of hell and death, and being raised from the dead, he dies no more, death has no more dominion over him.
Revelation 1:18. Romans 6:9.
That now is Christ risen from the dead and is become the first fruits of them that slept, that as in Adam all died, so in Christ all might be made alive, and everyone in his own order. 1 Corinthians
That God suffered not his Holy One to see corruption, but loosed the pains of death, because it was impossible he should be holden of them, and so declared to all the house of Israel, that that same
Jesus whom they crucified, is both Lord and Christ. Acts 2:27, 31, 24, 36, And that for this end Christ both died and rose and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living, and that whether we wake or sleep, we might live together with him. Romans 14:9. 1
2.3.1.12. For His ascension into heaven, and His sitting at Goa's right hand there.
We bless you that our Lord Jesus is ascended to his Father and our Father, to his God and our God; is ascended up on high, having led captivity captive, and hath received gifts for men, yea, even for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.
John 20:17. Psalm 68:18.
Thatas the forerunner he is forus entered; entered into heaven itself now to appear in the presence ofGod for us, a Lamb as it had been slain standing in the midst of the throne. Hebrews 6:20. Hebrews
9:24. Revelation 5:6.
That he is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, angels, and authorities, and powers being made subject to him. Hebrews 8:1. 1 Peter 3:22.
That he is gone before to prepare a place for us in his Father's house, where there are many mansions; and though whether he is gone we cannot follow him now, yet we hope to follow him hereafter, when he shall come again to receive us to himself, that where he is there we may be also. John 14:2. John 13:36. John 14:3.
2.3.1.13. For the intercession which He ever lives to make in the virtue ofHis satisfaction.
We thank you that having borne the sins of many, he makes intercession for transgressors; and prays not for those only that were given him when he was upon earth, but for all that shall believe on him through their word; That they all may be one. Isaiah 53:12.
That we have an advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the Righteous, who is therefore able to save to the uttermost all those that come to God as a Father by him as mediator, seeing he ever lives making intercession. 1 John 2:1. Hebrews 7:25.
That we have a high priest taken from among men, and ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifice for sin, who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way, and that he is become the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him. Hebrews 5:1, 2, 9.
2.3.1.14. For the dominion and sovereignty to which the Redeemer is exalted.
We thank you that because our Lord Jesus humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, therefore
God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee might bow, and every tongue confess (as we do at this time) that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:8-11.
That all power is given unto him both in heaven and on earth, that you have set him over the works of your hands and have put all things in subjection under his feet, and so have crowned him with glory and honor. Matthew 28:18. Hebrews 2:7, 8, 9.
That he is King of kings and Lord of lords; that the Ancient of days hath given him dominion and glory and a kingdom, an everlasting dominion, and a kingdom which shall not be destroyed.
Revelation 19:16. Daniel 7:13, 14.
That the government is upon his shoulders, and that his name is called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting
Father, and The Prince of Peace; and of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end. Isaiah 9:6, 7.
That you have set him as king upon your holy hill ofZion, and that he shall reign over the house ofJacob forever, shall reign till he has put down all opposing rule, principality, and power, till all his enemies are made his footstool, and then he shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father, that God may be all in all. Psalm
2:6. Luke 1:33. 1 Corinthians 15:24, 25. Ephesians 6:12. Hebrews 10:13. 1 Corinthians 15:24, 28.
2.3.1.15. For the assurance we have ofHis second coming to judge the world.
We bless you that you have appointed a day in which you will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom you have ordained, whereof you have given assurance unto all men, in that you have raised him from the dead. Acts 17:31.
That in that day the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ: And shall come to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe; for them that sleep in Jesus he will bring with him. 2 Thessalonians 1:7, 8, 10. 1 Thessalonians 4:14.
That he shall then send forth his angels to gather out ofhis kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and to gather together his elect from the four winds, and then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Matthew
13:41. Matthew 24:31. Matthew 13:43.
And we then, according to your promise, look for new heavens, and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness: Lord, grant that seeing we look for such things, we may give diligence to be found ofhim in peace without spot and blameless: And then come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. 2 Peter 3:13, 14. Revelation 22:20.
2.3.1.16. For the sendingof the Holy Spirit to supply the want ofChrist's bodily presence, to carry on His undertaking, andto prepare things for His second coming.
We bless you that when our Lord Jesus went away, he sent us another Comforter to abide with us forever, even the Spirit of truth, who shall glorify the Son, for he shall take of his, and shall shew it unto us. John 14:16, 17. John 16:14.
That being by the right hand ofGod exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he poured it forth as rivers of living water. Acts 2:33. John 7:38.
Blessed be God for the signs and wonders, and divers miracles, and gifts ofthe Holy Ghost, with which God bear witness to the great salvation. Hebrews 2:4, 3.
And blessed be God for the promise, that as earthly parents, though evil, know how to give good gifts to their children, so our heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him, that holy Spirit ofpromise, which is the earnest ofour inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession. Luke 11:13. Ephesians 1:13, 14.
2.3.1.17. For the covenantofgrace made with us in Jesus Christ, and all the exceeding great andprecious privileges of that covenant, andfor the seals ofit.
We thank you that in Jesus Christ you have made an everlasting covenant with us, even the sure mercies ofDavid, and that though the mountains may depart, and the hills be removed, yet this covenant of your peace shall never be removed. Isaiah 55:3. Isaiah
That you have given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these we might be partakers of a divine nature: and that Jesus Christ is the mediator of this better covenant, which is established upon better promises. 2 Peter 1:4. Hebrews 8:6.
That though you chasten our transgression with the rod, and our iniquity with stripes, yet your loving kindness you will not utterly take away, nor cause your faithfulness to fail, your covenant you will not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of your lips. Psalm
That being willing more abundantly to shew to the heirs of promise the immutability ofyour counsel, you have confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us. Hebrews 6:17, 18.
That baptism is appointed to be a seal ofthe righteousness which is by faith, as circumcision was: That it assures us ofthe remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Ghost; and that this promise is to us and our children. And that the cup in the Lord's supper is the blood of the New Testament, which was shed for many for the remission of sins. Romans 4:11. Acts 2:38, 39. Matthew 26:28.
2.3.1.18. For the writing ofthe scriptures, and thepreserving ofthempure and entire to our day.
We thank you that we have the scriptures to search, and that in them we have eternal life, and that they testify of Christ, and that all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness. John 5:39.
That whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort ofthe scripture might have hope: And that we have this most sure word ofprophecy as a light shining in a dark place. Romans 15:4. 2 Peter 1:19.
That the vision is not become to us as the words of a book that is sealed, but that we hear in our own tongue the wonderful works of God. Isaiah 29:11. Acts 2:11.
We thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that the things which were hid from the wise and prudent, and which many prophets and kings desired to see and might not, are revealed unto us babes; Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight. Luke
2.3.1.19. For the institution ofordinances, andparticularly that ofthe ministry.
We thank you that you have not only shewed your word unto Jacob, but your statutes and judgments unto Israel, unto us: You have not dealt so with other nations, and as for your judgments, they have not known them. Psa/m 147:19, 20.
That the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and that he hath set his sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore, and there will meet with the children of Israel.
Revelation 21:3. Ezekiel 37:26. Exodus 29:43.
We thank you that you have made known unto us your holy sabbaths; and that still there remains the keeping ofa sabbath to the people of God. Nehemiah 9:14. Hebrews 4:9.
And that when the Lord Jesus ascended up on high, he gave gifts unto men, not only prophets, apostles, evangelists, but pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ! And that while they teach us to observe all things which Christ hath commanded, he hath promised to be with them always even unto the end of the world. Ephesians 4:8, 11, 12, 13. Matthew
2.3.1.20. For theplanting ofthe Christian religion in the world, and the setting up ofthe gospel church, in despite ofall the oppositions ofthepowers ofdarkness.
We thank you that the preaching ofJesus Christ according to the commandment of the everlasting God, and the gospel which was made known to all nations for the obedience of faith, was mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds. That the Lord wrought with it and confirmed the word by signs following; so that Satan fell as lightning from heaven. Romans 16:25, 26. 2
Corinthians 10:4. Mark 16:20. Luke 10:18.
That though the gospel was preached in much contention, yet it grew and prevailed mightily, and multitudes turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven. 1 Thessalonians 2:2. Acts 19:20. 1 Thessalonians 1:9, 10.
Now came salvation and strength, and the kingdom ofour God, and the power ofhis Christ: And the exalted Redeemer rode forth with his bow, and with his crown conquering, and to conquer; and nations were born at once. Revelation 12:10. Revelation 6:2. Isaiah
2.3.1.21. For the preservation ofChristianity in the world unto this day.
We bless you that though the enemies ofIsrael have afflicted them from their youth up, have manya time afflicted them, yet they have not prevailed against them, though the plowers have plowed on their back, yet the righteous Lord has cut asunder the cords of the wicked. Psalm 129:1-4.
That Jesus Christ hath built his church upon a rock, which the gates ofhell cannot prevail against, but his seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven. Matthew 16:18. Psalm 89:29.
2.3.1.22. For the martyrs andconfessors, the lights ofthe church, andthe goodexamples ofthose that are gone before us to heaven.
We bless you for all those who have been enabled to approve themselves to God in much patience in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, who when they have been brought before governors and kings for Christ's sake, it has turned to them for a testimony, and God has given them a mouth and wisdom, which all their adversaries were not able to gainsay or resist.2 Corinthians 6:4. Luke 21:12, 13,
That those who for Christ's sake were killed all the day long, and accounted as sheep for the slaughter, yet in all these things were more than conquerors through him that loved us. Romans 8:36, 37.
That they overcame the accuser ofthe brethren by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and by not loving their lives unto the death. Revelation 12:10, 11.
We bless you for the cloud of witnesses with which we are compassed about, for the footsteps of the flock, for the elders that have obtained a good report, and are now through faith and patience inheriting the promises. Lord, give us to follow them as they followed Christ. Hebrews 12:1. Canticle (Song ofSolomon) 1:8.
Hebrews 11:2. Hebrews 6:12. 1 Corinthians 11:1.
2.3.1.23. For the communionof saints, that spiritual communion which we have infaith and hope and holy love, and in prayers andpraises with allgood Christians.
We bless you that ifwe walk in the light, we have fellowship one with another, even with all that in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. 1 John 1:7. 1
That we being many are one bread and one body, and that though there are diversities ofgifts and administrations, and operations, yet there is the same Spirit, the same Lord, and the same God, which worketh all in all.
1 Corinthians 10:17. 1 Corinthians 12:4, 5, 6.
We thank you that all the children of God, which were scattered abroad, are united in him, who is the head ofthe body the church; so that they are all our brethren and companions in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience ofJesus Christ. John 11:52. Colossians
1:18. Revelation 1:9.
2.3.1.24. For theprospect and hope ofeternal life, when time and days shall be no more.
We thank you for the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him; the inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for us. James 1:12. 1 Peter 1:4.
That having here no continuing city, we are encouraged to seek the better country, that is, the heavenly, the city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Hebrews 13:14. Hebrews 11:16,
That we are in hope ofeternal life, which God that cannot lie hath promised; And that all true believers through grace have eternal life abiding in them. Titus 1:2. Acts 18:27. 1 John 5:13.
2.3.2. Secondly, we mustgive God thanksfor the spiritual mercies bestowed upon us in particular, especially ifwe are called with an effectual call, and have a good work ofgrace begun in us.
2.3.2.1. We must bless God for the strivings ofHis spirit with us, and the admonitions and checks ofour own consciences.
We bless you that you have not given us over to a reprobate mind, that our consciences are not seared, that you have not said concerning us, they are joined to idols, let them alone, but that your spirit is yet striving with us. Romans 1:28. 1 Timothy 4:2. Hosea
We thankyou for the work ofthe law written in our hearts, our own consciences also bearing witness, and our own thoughts between themselves accusing or excusing one another. Romans 2:15.
2.3.2.2. We must bless God ifthere be a saving change wrought in us by His blessed Spirit.
And hath God by his grace translated us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear Son? Hath, he called us into the fellowship ofJesus Christ, and made us nigh by his blood, who by nature were afar off. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto your name give glory. Colossians 1:13. 1 Corinthians 1:9. Ephesians
We give thanks to God always for those to whom the gospel is come, not in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. 1 Thessalonians 1-2, 5.
You have loved us with an everlasting love, and therefore with loving kindness you have drawn us, drawn us with the cords of a man, and the bands of love. Jeremiah 31:3. Hosea 11:4.
When the strong man armed kept his palace in our hearts, and his goods were in peace, it was a stronger than he that came upon him, and took from him all his armor, wherein he trusted, and divided the spoil. Luke 11:21, 22.
2.3.2.3. We must give thanksfor the remission ofour sins, and thepeace ofour consciences.
We bless you for the redemption we have through Christ's blood, even the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of your grace, wherein you have abounded towards us. Ephesians 1:7, 8.
That you have forgiven all our iniquities and healed all our diseases; and have in love to our souls delivered them from the pit of corruption; for you have cast all our sins behind your back. Psalm
When you brought us into the wilderness, yet there you spoke comfortably to us, and gave us our vineyards from thence; and the valley ofAchor for a door of hope. Hosea 2:14, 15.
2.3.2.4. For the powerful influences ofdivine grace, to sanctify andpreserve us, toprevent ourfalling into sin, and to strengthen us in doing our duty.
You have not quenched the smoking flax, nor broke the bruised reed, nor despised the day ofsmall things, but having obtained help of God, we continue hitherto. Matthew 12:20. Zechariah 4:10. Acts
In the day when we cried, you have answered us and have strengthened us with strength in our souls. Psalm 138:3.
We have been continually with you, you have holden us by your right hand, when our feet were almost gone, and our steps had well-nigh slipped. Psalm 73:23, 2.
We have reason never to forget your precepts; for by them you have quickened us; And unless your law had been our delight, we should many a time have perished in our affliction; for your statutes have been our songs in the house of our pilgrimage. Psalm 119:93, 92,
Unless the Lord had been our help, our souls had almost dwelt in silence: But when we said, our foot slips, your mercy, O Lord, held us up: And in the multitude of our thoughts within us, your comforts have been the delight of our souls. Psalm 94:17, 18, 19.
2.3.2.5. For sweet communion with God in holy ordinances, and the communications ofHis favor.
We have been abundantly satisfied with the fatness of your house, and you have made us drink of the river ofyour pleasures. For with you is the fountain of life, in your light shall we see light. Psa/m
You have brought us to your holy mountain, and made us joyful in your house ofprayer, and we have found it good for us to draw near to God. Isaiah 56:7. Psalm 73:28.
We have had reason to say, That a day in your courts is better than a thousand, and that it is better to be door-keepers in the house of our God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness; For the Lord
God is a sun and shield, he will give grace and glory, and no good thing will he with-hold from them that walk uprightly:
O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusts in you. Psalm 84:10, 11, 12.
We sat down under your shadow with delight, and your fruit hath been sweet unto our taste; You have brought us into the banqueting house, and your banner over us has been love. Canticle (Song of Solomon) 2.3, 4.
2.3.2.6. For gracious answers to our prayers.
We have reason to love you, O Lord, because you have heard the voice of our supplications, and because you have inclined your ear unto us, we will therefore call upon you as long as we live. Psalm
Out of the depths have we cried unto you, O Lord, and you have heard our vows, and given us the heritage of those that fear your name. Psalm 130-1. Psalm 61:5.
Nay, before we called you have answered, and while we have been yet speaking you have heard, and have said, Here I am, and have been nigh unto us in all that which we call upon you for. Isaiah
65:24. Isaiah 58:9. Deuteronomy 4:7.
Lord, you have heard the desire of the humble, you will prepare their heart and cause your ear to hear. Psalm 10:17.
Blessed be God, who hath not turned away our prayer, or his mercy from us, for we have prayed, and have gone away, and our countenance has been no more sad. Psalm 66:20. 1 Samuel 1:18.
2.3.2.7. For support under our afflictions and spiritual benefit and advantage by them.
You have comforted us in all our tribulation, have considered our trouble, and known our souls in adversity, and showed us your marvelous kindness as in a strong city. 2 Corinthians 1:4. Psalm
When afflictions have abounded, consolations have much more abounded. 2 Corinthians 1:5.
Though no affliction for the present hath been joyous, but grievous, nevertheless afterward it hath yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness; and hath proved to be for our profit, that we might be partakers ofyour holiness. Hebrews 12:11, 10.
We have had reason to say that it was good for us we were afflicted, that we might learn your commandments; for before we were afflicted,we went astray, but afterwards have kept your word. Psa/m
It has been but for a season, and when there was need that we were in heaviness, through manifold temptations: And we beg that all the trials of our faith may be found unto praise, and honor, and glory, at the appearing ofJesus Christ, whom having not seen we love, in whom though now we see him not, yet believing we rejoice with joyunspeakable and full ofglory; are longing to receive the end of our faith, even the salvation of our souls. 1 Peter 1:6-9.
2.3.2.8. For the performance ofGoa's promises.
You have dealt well with your servants, O Lord, according to your word, and you have been ever mindful ofyour covenant, the word which you have commanded to a thousand generations. Psalm
There hath not failed one word of all the good promise which you have promised, to David your servant, and Israel your people. 1 Kings
And now what shall we render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards us. Let our souls return to him, and repose in him as their rest, because he hath dealt bountifully with us, we will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord; For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endures to all generations. Psalm 116:12, 7, 13. Psalm 100.5.
We will bless the Lord at all times, yea his praise shall continually be in our mouths; we will sing unto the Lord as long as we live; and we hope to be shortly with those blessed ones, who dwell in his house above, and are still praising him, and who rest not day or night from saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. Psa/m
34:1. Psalm 104:33. Revelation.
INTERCESSION FOR OTHERS Of the fifth part of prayer, which is intercession, or address and supplication to God for others.
Our Lord Jesus hath taught us to pray, not onlywith, but for others:
And the apostle hath appointed us to make supplication for all saints; and many of his prayers in his epistles are for his friends:
And we must not think that when we are in this pare ofprayer, we may let fall our fervency, and be more indifferent, because we ourselves are not immediately concerned in it, but rather let a holy fire of love both to God and man here, make our devotions yet more warm and lively. Ephesians 6:18.
1. WE MUST PRAY FOR THE WHOLE WORLD OF MANKIND, THE LOST WORLD: AND THUS, WE MUST HONOR ALL MEN, AND ACCORDING TO OUR CAPACITY DO GOOD TO ALL MEN. 1 PETER 2:17; GALATIANS 6:10.
We pray, as we are taught, for all men, believing that this is good and acceptable in the sight ofGod our Savior, who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth, and of Jesus Christ, who gave himself'a ransom for all.
1 Timothy 2:1, 3, 4, 6.
O look with compassion upon the world that lies in wickedness and let the prince ofthis world be cast out, that has blinded their minds.
1 John 5:19. John 12:31. 2 Corinthians 4.4.
O let your way be known upon earth, that barbarous nations may be civilized, and those that live without God in the world may be brought to the service of the living God; and thus let your saving health be known unto all nations: Let the people praise you, O
God, yea let all the people praise you: O let the nations be glad, and sing for joy, for you shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Psalm 67:2. Ephesians 2:12. Psalm
O let your salvation and your righteousness be openly shewed in the sight of the heathen and let all the ends of the earth see the salvation of our God. Psalm 98:2, 3.
O give your Son the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost pares of the earth for his possession! For you have said, it is a light thing for him to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ofIsrael, but you will give him for a light to the Gentiles.
Psalm 2.8. Isaiah 49:6.
Let all the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ. Revelation 11:15.
2. FOR THE PROPAGATING OF THE GOSPEL IN FOREIGN PARTS, AND THE ENLARGEMENT OF THE CHURCH BYTHE BRINGING IN OF MANY TO IT.
O Let the gospel be preached unto every creature; for how shall men believe in him, ofwhom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without preachers? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? and who shall send forth laborers, but the Lord of the harvest? Mark 16:15. Romans 10:14, 15. Matthew 9:38.
Let the people which sit in darkness see a great light, and to them which sit in the region and shadow of death, let light spring up.
Add unto your church daily such as shall be saved; Enlarge the place of its tent, lengthen its cords, and strengthen its stakes. Acts 2
(v. 47). Isaiah 54-2.
Bring your seed from the east and gather them from the west; say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Keep not back: Bring your sons from far, and your daughters from the ends of the earth. Let them come with acceptance to your altar and glorify the house of your glory; Let them fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows. Isaiah 43:5, 6. Isaiah 60.7, 8.
In every place let incense be offered to your name, and pure offerings; And from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, let your name be great among the Gentiles; and let the offering up of the Gentiles be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. Malachi 1:11. Romans 15:16.
O let the earth be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. Isaiah 11:9.
3. FOR THE CONVERSION OF THEJEWS.
Let the branches which are broken off not abide still in unbelief but be grafted in again into their own olive tree. And though blindness is in pare happened to Israel, yet let the fulness of the Gentiles come in, and let all Israel be saved. Romans 11:17, 23-26.
Let them be made to look unto him whom they have pierced, and that they may turn to the Lord, let the veil which is upon their hearts be taken away. Zechariah 12:10. 2 Corinthians 3:15, 16.
4. FOR THE EASTERN CHURCHES THAT ARE GROANING UNDER THE YOKE OF MAHOMETAN TYRANNY.
Let the churches ofAsia, that were golden candlesticks, which the Lord Jesus delighted to walk in the midst of, be again made so.
Revelation 1:11, 12. Revelation 2:1.
Restore unto them their liberties as at the first, and their privileges as at the beginning; purely purge away their dross, and take away all their tin, and turn again their captivity as the streams in the south. Isaiah 1:26, 25. Psalm 126.4.
5. FOR THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH WHEREVER DISPERSED, AND FOR ALL THE INTERESTS OF IT.
Our heart's desire and prayer to God for the gospel Israel, is that it may be saved. Romans 10:1.
Do good in your good pleasure unto Zion, build you the walls of Jerusalem. Peace be within her walls, and prosperity within her palaces; For our brethren and companions' sake we will now say,
Peace be within her. Psalm 51:18. Psalm 122.7, 8.
O that we may see the good ofthe gospel Jerusalem, all the days of our life, and peace upon Israel. And that thus we may have reason to answer the messengers of the nations, that the Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust that. Psalm
128:5, 6. Isaiah 14:32.
Save your people, O Lord, and bless your heritage: Feed them also, and lift them up for ever. Give strength unto your people and bless your people with peace; with your favor do you compass them as with a shield. Psalm 28 (v. 9). Psalm 29 (v. 11). Psalm 5 (v. 12).
Grace be with all of them that love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity; foryou know them that are yours; and give to all that name the name of Christ to depart from iniquity. Ephesians 6:24. 2
We pray for all that believe in Christ, that they all may be one; And since there is one body, and one Spirit, and one hope ofour calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all, give to all Christians to be of one heart, and one way. John 17:20,
21. Ephesians 4.4, 5, 6. Jeremiah 32.39.
Let the word of the Lord in all places, have a free course, and let it be glorified. 2 Thessalonians 3:1.
6. FOR THE CONVICTION AND CONVERSION OF ATHEISTS, DEISTS AND INFIDELS, AND OF ALL THAT ARE OUT OF THE WAY OF TRUTH AND OF PROFANE SCOFFERS, AND THAT THAT DISGRACE
CHRISTIANITY BY THEIR VICIOUS AND IMMORAL LIVES.
Teach transgressors your ways, and let sinners be converted unto you. Psalm 51:13.
O give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, the truth as it is in Jesus, the truth which is according to godliness, that they may recover themselves out ofthe snare ofthe devil. 2 Timothy
2:25. Ephesians 4:21. Titus 1:1. 2 Timothy 2:26.
Let those that are as sheep going astray return to Jesus Christ, the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls. 1 Peter 2:25.
Show those fools their folly and misery, that have said in their hearts there is no God, and that are corrupt, and have done abominable work. Psalm 14:1.
Lord, maintain the honor of the scripture, the law and the testimony, and convince those who speak not according to that word, that it is because there is no light in them; magnify that word above all your name; magnify the law, magnify the gospel, and make both honorable. Isaiah 8:20. Psalm 138:2. Isaiah 42:21.
Let those that will not be won by the word, be won by the conversation of Christians, which we beg may be such in everything, that they who believe not may be convinced of all, and judged of all, and may be brought to worship God, and to report that God is with them of a truth. 1 Peter 3:1.
1 Corinthians 14:24, 25.
7. FOR THE AMENDING OF EVERYTHING THAT IS AMISS IN THE CHURCH, THE REVIVING OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY AND THE POWER OF GODLINESS, AND IN ORDER THEREUNTO, THE POURING OUT OF THE SPIRIT.
Lord, let your spirit be poured out upon your churches from on high, and then the wilderness shall become a fruitful field, then judgment shall return unto righteousness, and all the upright in heart shall follow it. Isaiah 32:15. Psalm 94:15.
Let what is wanting be set in order and let every plant that is not ofour heavenly Father's planting be plucked up. Titus 1:5. Matthew
Let the Lord whom we seek come to his temple like a refiner's fire, and fuller's soap, and let him purify the sons of Levi, and all the seed ofIsrael, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness, pleasant to the Lord, as in the days of old, as in former years. Malachi 3:1-4.
Let pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father, flourish and prevail everywhere, that kingdom of God among men, which is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. O revive this work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known, and let our times be times of reformation. James 1 (v. 27). Romans 14:17. Habakkuk 3:2. Hebrews
8. FOR THE BREAKING OF THE POWER OF ALL THE ENEMIES OF THE CHURCH, AND THE DEFEATING OF ALL THEIR DESIGNS AGAINST HER.
Let all that set themselves, and take counsel together against the Lord, and against his anointed, that would break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from them, imagine a vain thing.
Let him that sits in heaven laugh at them and have them in derision; speak unto them in your wrath and vex them in your sore displeasure. Give them, O Lord: what will you give them? give them a miscarrying womb, and dry breasts. Psalm 2:1-5. Hosea 9:14.
O our God, make them like a wheel, and as stubble before the wind; Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek your name, O
Lord, and that men may know, that you whose name is Jehovah, are the most high over all the earth. Psalm 83:13, 16, 18.
Put them in fear, O Lord, that the nations may know themselves to be but men, and wherein the proud enemies ofyour church deal proudly, make it to appear that you are above them. Psalm 9:20.
Let them be confounded and turned back that hate Zion and be as the grass upon the house-tops, which withers before it grows up.
Let no weapon formed against your church prosper and let every tongue that rises against it in judgment be condemned. Isaiah
Make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people, and let all that burden themselves with it be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth should be gathered together against it; so let all your enemies perish, O Lord, but let them that love you be as the sun when he goes forth in his strength. Zechariah 12:3. Judges 5 (v. 31).
Lord, let the man ofsin be consumed with the spirit ofyour mouth, and destroyed with the brightness of your coming: And let those be undeceived that have been long under the power of strong delusions to believe a lie, and let them receive the truth in the love of it. 2 Thessalonians 2:3, 8, 11, 10.
Let Babylon fall, and sink like a millstone into the sea; And let the kings of the earth, that have given their power and honor to the beast, be wrought upon at length to bring it into the new Jerusalem.
Revelation 18:2, 21. Revelation 17:17. Revelation 21:24.
9. FOR THE RELIEF OF SUFFERING CHURCHES, AND THE SUPPORT, COMFORT AND DELIVERANCE OF ALL THAT ARE PERSECUTED FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS' SAKE.
We desire in our prayers to remember them that are in bonds for the testimony ofJesus, as bound with them, and them which suffer adversity, as being ourselves also in the body. O send from above, and deliver them from those that hate them, and bring them forth into a large place. Hebrews 13:3. Psalm 18:16, 17, 19.
O let not the rod of the wicked rest upon the lot of the righteous, lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity. Psalm 125:3.
Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm ofthe Lord; awake as in the ancient days, as in the generations of old, and make the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed ofthe Lord to pass over. Isaiah 51:9,
For the oppression ofthe poor and the sighing ofthe needy, now do you arise, O Lord, and set them in safety from them that puff at them. Psalm 12:5.
O strengthen the patience and faith of your suffering saints, that they may hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.
Revelation 13:10. Lamentations 3.26.
O let the year ofyour redeemed come, and the year ofrecompences for the controversy of Zion. Isaiah 63:4. Isaiah 34:8.
O that the salvation of Israel had come out of Zion; and when the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad. Psalm 14.7.
O let not the oppressed return ashamed but let the poor and needy praise your name. Psalm 74:21.
Lord, arise, and have mercy upon Zion, and let the time to favor her, yea the set time come; yea let the Lord build up Zion, and appear in his glory. Lord, regard the prayer of the destitute, and do not despise their prayer. Psalm 102:13, 16, 17.
O Lord God, cease we beseech you, bywhom shall Jacob arise, for he is small! O cause your face to shine upon that part of your sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake. Amos 7:5. Daniel
Let the sorrowful sighing of your prisoners come before you, and according to the greatness of your power preserve you those that for your name's sake are appointed to die. Psalm 79:11.
Let those whose teachers are removed into corners again see their teachers, though they have the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction. Isaiah 30:20.
10. FOR THE NATIONS OF THE WORLD.
Thou, Lord, are the governor among the nations: Who shall not fear you, O King of nations? You sit in the throne judging right; judge the world therefore in righteousness, and minister judgment to the people in uprightness. Psalm 22-28. Jeremiah 10:7. Psalm 9:4,
Lord, hasten the time when you will make wars to cease to the ends of the earth; when nation shall no more lift up sword against nation, nor kingdom against kingdom, but swords shall be beaten into plow-shares, and spears into pruning-hooks, and they shall not learn war any more. Psalm 46:9. Isaiah 2:4.
Make kings nursing fathers, and their queens nursing mothers to the Israel of God. Isaiah 49:23.
And in the days of these kings let the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, even the kingdom of the Redeemer. And whatever counsels there are in men's hearts, Lord, let your counsel stand, and do you fulfil the thoughts ofyour heart unto all generations. Daniel 2:44. Proverbs 19:21. Psalm 33:11.
11. FOR OUR OWN LAND AND NATION, WHICH WE OUGHT IN A SPECIAL MANNER TO SEEK THE WELFARE OF, THAT IN THE PEACE THEREOF WE
11.1. We must be thankfulto GodforHis mercies to our land.
We bless you that you have planted us in a very fruitful hill, and have not made the wilderness our habitation, or the barren land our dwelling, but our land yields her increase. Isaiah 5:1. Job 39:6. Psalm
Lord, you have dealt favorably with our land; We have heard with our ears, and our fathers have told us what work you didst for us in their days, and in the times of old: And as we have heard, so have we seen; for we have thought of your loving-kindness, O God, in the midst ofyour temple. Psalm 85:1. Psalm 44:1. Psalm 48:8, 9.
You have given us a pleasant land, it is Immanuel's land, it is a valley of vision, you have set up your tabernacle among us, and your sanctuary is in the midst ofus. Jeremiah 3:19. Isaiah 8-8. Isaiah 22:1.
We dwell safely, under our own vines and fig-trees, and there is peace to him that goes out, and to him that comes in. 7 Kings 4:25.
And because the Lord loved our people, therefore he hath set a good government over us to do judgment and justice; to be a terror to evil doers, and a protection and praise to them that do well. 1
Kings 10:9. Romans 13.3.
11.2. We must be humbled before Godfor our national sins and provocations.
But we are a sinful people, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil doers; And a great deal of reason we have to sigh and cry for the abominations that are committed among us. Isaiah 1:4. Ezekiel
9:4. Iniquity abounds among us, and the love of many is waxen cold. Matthew 24:12.
We have not been forsaken nor forgotten of our God, though our land be full of sin against the Holy One of Israel. Jeremiah 51:5.
11.3. We mustpray earnestly for nationalmercies.
11.3.1. For the favorofGod to us, and the tokens ofHispresence among us, as that in which the happiness ofour nation is bound up.
O the hope of Israel, the savior thereof in time of trouble, be not you as a stranger in our land, or a way-faring man that turns aside to tarry but for a night; but be you always in the midst ofus, we are called by your name, O leave us not: Though our iniquities testify against us, yet do you it for your name's sake; though our backslidings are many, and we have sinned against you. Jeremiah
Turn us to you, O Lord God of hosts, and then cause your face to shine, and we shall be saved. O stir up your strength and come and save us. Psalm 80:3, 2.
Shew us your mercy, O Lord, and grant us your salvation, yea let that salvation be nigh them that fear you, that glory may dwell in our land: Let mercy and truth meet together, righteousness and peace kiss each other: Let truth spring out of the earth, and righteousness look down from heaven; yea let the Lord give that which is good: Let righteousness go before him, and set us in the way of his steps. Psalm 85:7, 9-13.
11.3.2. For the continuance ofthe gospelamong us, andthe means ofgrace, anda nationalprofession ofChrist's holy religion.
O let the throne of Christ endure forever, among us, even the place of your sanctuary, that glorious high throne from the beginning.
Psalm 45:6. Jeremiah 17:12.
Let our candlestick never be removed out of his place, though we have deserved it should, because we have left our first love. Never do to us as you didst to your place which was in Shiloh, where you didst set your name at the first. Revelation 2:4, 5. Jeremiah 7:12.
Let us never know what a famine of the word means; nor ever be put to wander from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends ofthe earth, to seek the word of God. Amos 8:11, 12.
Let wisdom and knowledge be the stability of our times and strength of salvation, and let the fear of the Lord be our treasure:
Let the righteous flourish among us, and let there be those that shall fear you in our land as long as the sun and moon endure throughout all generations, that there may be abundance of peace, and the children which shall be created may praise the Lord.
Isaiah 33:6. Psalm 72:5, 7. Psalm 102:18.
11.3.3. For the continuance ofour outwardpeace and tranquility, our liberty andplenty, for the prosperity ofour trade, and a blessing upon the fruits ofthe earth.
Let God himselfbe a wall of fire round about us, and the glory in the midst of us, yea let his gospel be our glory, and upon all that glory let there be a defense; and create upon every dwelling-place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night. Zechariah 2:5. Isaiah 4:5.
Peace be within our borders, and prosperity within our palaces, the prosperity both of merchandise and husbandry, that Zebulun may rejoice in his going out, and Issachar in his tents. Psalm 122:7.
Appoint salvation to us for walls and bulwarks, and in order to that let the gates be opened, that the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in. Isaiah 26-1, 2.
Make our officers peace, and our exactors righteousness, let violence never be heard in our gates, wasting or destruction within our borders, but let our walls be called Salvation, and our gates Praise:
Never let our land be termed Forsaken and Desolate, but let the Lord delight in us, and let our land be married to him. Isaiah 60:17,
Let our peace be as a river, and in order to that, our righteousness as the waves of the sea: Let that righteousness abound among us which exalts a nation, and deliver us from sin, which is a reproach to any people. Isaiah 48:18. Proverbs 14:34.
Never make our heavens as brass, and our earth as iron; nor take away your corn in the season thereof, and your wine in the season thereof, but give us rain moderately, the former and the later rain in due season, and reserve unto us the appointed works of harvest, giving us fair weather also in its season: Let our land yield her increase, and the trees their fruit; that we may eat bread to the full, and dwell in our land safely. Deuteronomy28:23. Hosea 2:9. Joel2:23.
Jeremiah 5:24. Leviticus 26:4, 5.
Abundantly bless our provision, and satisfy our poor with bread, that they which have gathered it may eat and praise the Lord. Blow not you upon it, for then when we look for much it will come to little, but bless our blessings, that all nations may call us blessed, and a delightsome land. Psalm 132:15. Isaiah 62:9. Haggai 1:9. Malachi
11.3.4. Forthesuccess of allendeavorsfor the reformation of manners, thesuppression ofvice andprofaneness, andthe support ofreligion and virtue, and the bringing ofthem into reputation.
O let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish the just, O you righteous God that tries the hearts and reins. Spirit many to rise up for you against the evil doers, and to stand up for you against the workers of iniquity. Psalm 7:9. Psalm 94:16.
Let the Redeemer come to Zion and turn away ungodliness from Jacob; And let the filth of Jerusalem be purged from the midst thereofby the spirit ofjudgment, and the spirit ofburning. Romans 11:26. Isaiah 4-4.
Let all iniquity stop her mouth, and let the infection of that plague be stayed, by executing judgment. Psalm 107:42. Psalm
Let those that are striving against sin never be weary or faint in their minds. Hebrews 12:4, 3.
Cause the unclean spirit to pass out of the land, and turn to the people a pure language, that they may call on the name ofthe Lord.
Zechariah 13:2. Zephaniah 3:9.
Make us high above all nations in praise and in name and in honor, by making us a holy people unto the Lord our God. Deuteronomy
11.3.5. For the healing ofour unhappy divisions, and the making up ofour breaches.
For the divisions that are among us, there are great searchings of heart; for there are three against two, and two against three in a house. But is the breach wide as the sea, which cannot be healed!
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of our people recovered? Lord, heal the breaches of our land, for because ofthem it shakes. Judges
5:16. Luke 12:52. Lamentations 2:13. Jeremiah 8 (v. 22). Psalm 60:2.
We beg in the name ofour Lord Jesus Christ, that there may be no divisions among us, but that we may be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. 1 Corinthians 1:10.
Now the God of patience and consolation grant us to be likeminded one towards another, according to Christ Jesus, that we may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and promote the common salvation.
Romans 15:5, 6. Jude 3.
Lord, keep us from judging one another, and despising one another, and give us to follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another; that living in love and peace, the God oflove and peace may be with us. Romans 14.3, 19.
Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but everything in lowliness of mind, and grant that our moderation may be known unto all men, because the Lord is at hand. Philippians 2:3.
11.3.6. For victory andsuccess against our enemies abroad, that seek our ruin.
Rise, Lord, and let your enemies be scattered, and let those that hate you flee before you, but return, O Lord, to the many thousands of your Israel. Numbers 10:35, 36.
Give us help from trouble, for vain is the help of man; Through God let our forces do valiantly, yea let God himself tread down our enemies, and give them as dust to our sword, and as driven stubble to our bow. Psalm 60:11, 12. Isaiah 41:2.
Let us be a people saved by the Lord, as the shield of our help and the sword ofour excellency; and make our enemies sensible that the Lord fights for us against them. Deuteronomy 33 (v. 29). Exodus 14:25.
Those who jeopard their lives for us in the high places of the field, teach their hands to war, and their fingers to fight, give them the shield ofyour salvation, and let your right hand hold them up, and cover their heads in the day of battle. Judges 5:18. Psalm 144:1.
Psalm 18:35. Psalm 140:7.
11.3.7. For allthat are employed in the conduct ofpublic affairs.
Counsel our counsellors and teach our senators wisdom: O give thema spirit ofwisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and might, a spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, to make them ofquick understanding in the fear ofthe Lord. Psalm 105:22.
O remove not the speech of the trusty, nor take away the understanding of the aged, nor ever let the things that belong to the nation's peace be hidden from the eyes of those that are entrusted with the nation's counsels. Job 12:20. Luke 19:42.
Make it to appear that you stand in the congregation ofthe mighty, and judge among the gods, and that when the princes ofthe people are gathered together, even the people ofthe God ofAbraham, the God ofAbraham himselfis among them; And let the shields of the earth belong unto the Lord, that he may be greatly exalted. Psalm
Let those that be of us build the old waste places, and raise up the foundations of many generations, that they may be called the repairers of the breaches, and restorers of paths to dwell in. Isaiah 58:12.
11.3.8. For magistrates,judges andjustices ofthe peace.
Make those that rule over us just, ruling in the fear of God; and let those that judge remember that they judge not for man, but for the Lord, who is with them in the judgment, that therefore the fear of the Lord may be upon them. 2 Samuel 23:3.
2 Chronicles 19:6, 7.
Make them able men, and men of truth, fearing God, and hating covetousness, that judgment may run down like a river, and righteousness as a mighty stream. Exodus 18:21. Amos 5:24.
Enable our magistrates to defend the poor and fatherless, to do justice for the afflicted and needy, to deliver the poor and needy, and to rid them out of the hand of the wicked; and let rulers never be a terror to good works, but to the evil. Psalm 82:3, 4. Romans 13.3.
11.3.9. For allthe ministers ofGod's Holy wordandsacraments.
Teach your ministers how they ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, that they may not preach themselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and may study to shew themselves approved to God, workmen that need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 1 Timothy 3:15. 2
Corinthians 4:5. 2 Timothy 2:15.
Make them mighty in the scriptures, that from thence they may be thoroughly furnished for every good work, in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, and sincerity, and sound speech, which cannot be condemned. Acts 18:24.
2 Timothy 3:17. Titus 2:7, 8.
Enable them to give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine, to meditate upon these things, to give themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word, to give themselves wholly to them; and to continue in them that they may both save themselves, and those that hear them. 1 Timothy 4:13, 15. Acts 6:4.
Let utterance be given to them, that they may open their mouths boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, that thereof they may speak as they ought to speak, as able ministers of the New
Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit, and let them obtain mercy of the Lord to be faithful. Ephesians 6:19, 20. 2 Corinthians
3:6. 1 Corinthians 7:25.
Let the arms of their hands be made strong by the hands of the mighty God ofJacob; and let them be full ofpower by the spirit of the Lord ofhosts, to shew your people their transgressions, and the house ofJacob their sins. Genesis 49:24. Micah 3:8. Isaiah 58:1.
Make them sound in the faith and enable them always to speak the things which become sound doctrine, with meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; and let not the servants of the Lord strive, but be gentle to all men, apt to teach. Titus 1:13. Titus 2:1. 2
Make them good examples to the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity; and let them be clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord and let Holiness to the Lord be written upon their foreheads.
2 Timothy 4:12. Isaiah 52:11.
Exodus 28:36. Lord, grant that they may not labor in vain, or spend their strength for nought, and in vain, but let the hand ofthe Lord be with them, that many may believe, and turn to the Lord. Isaiah
11.3.10. For all the universities, schools, and nurseries of learning.
Let the schools ofthe prophets be replenished with every good gift and every perfect gift from above from the Father of lights. James
Cast salt into those fountains, and heal the waters thereof, that from thence may issue streams which shall make glad the city of our God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High. 2
Kings 2:21. Psalm 46:4.
11.3.11. For the common people ofthe land.
Give grace to all the subjects of this land, that they may under the government God hath set over us, live quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty, dwelling together in unity, that the Lord may commanda blessing upon us, even life for evermore. 1 Tim
Let all ofevery denomination that fear God and work righteousness be accepted of him; yea let such as love your salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified that hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servants. Acts 10:35. Psalm 35:27.
11.3.12. For the several ages and conditions ofmen, as they stand in need ofmercy andgrace.
11.3.12.1. For those that are young and setting out in the world.
Lord, give to those that are young to remember their Creator in the days of their youth, that thereby they may be kept from the vanity which childhood and youth are subject to, and may be restrained from walking in the way of their heart, and in the sight oftheir eyes, by considering that for all these things God will bring them into judgment. Ecclesiastes 12:1. Ecclesiastes 11:10, 9.
Lord, make young people sober-minded, and let the word of God abide in them, that they may be strong, and may overcome the wicked one. Titus 2:6. 1 John 2:14.
From the womb of the morning let Christ have the dew of the youth and let him be formed in the hearts of those that are young.
Psalm 110.3. Galatians 4:19.
Keep those that are setting out in the world from the corruption that is in the world through lust; and give to those that have been well educated to hold fast the form ofsound words, and to continue in the things which they have learned. 2 Peter 1:4.
11.3.12.2. For those that are old and are of long standing in profession.
There are some that are old disciples of Jesus Christ, Lord, give them still to bring forth fruit in old age, to shew that the Lord is upright, that he is their rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. Now the evil days have come, and the years ofwhich they say there is no pleasure in them, let your comforts delight their souls.
Acts 21:16. Psalm 92:14, 15. Ecclesiastes 12:1. Psalm 94:19.
Even to their old age be you he, and to the hoary hairs do you carry them, you have made, we beseech you bear, yea do you carry and deliver them. Isaiah 46.4.
Those whom you have taught from their youth up, and who have hitherto declared all your wondrous works, now also when they are old and grey-headed leave them not, cast them not off in their old age, fail them not when their strength fails. Psa/m 71:17, 18, 9.
Let every hoary head be a crown ofglory to those that have it, being found in the wayofrighteousness, and give them to knowwhom they have believed. Proverbs 16:31. 2 Timothy 1:12.
11.3.12.3. For those that are rich andprosperous in the world, some ofwhom perhaps needprayers as much as those that request them.
Lord keep those that are rich in the world from being high minded, and trusting in uncertain riches, and give them to trust in the living
God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy: That they may do good, and be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, that they may lay up in store for themselves a good security for the time to come. 1 Timothy 6:17, 18, 19.
Though it is hard for those that are rich to enter into the kingdom of heaven, yet with you this is possible. Matthew 19:23, 26.
11.3.12.4. For those that arepoor and in affliction, for such we have always with us.
Lord, make those that are poor in the world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom, and give to them to receive the gospel. James 2:5.
O that the poor ofthe flock may wait upon you and may know the word of the Lord. Zechariah 11:11.
Many are the troubles ofthe righteous, good Lord, deliver them out of them all, and though no affliction for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous, nevertheless afterward let it yield the peaceable fruit ofrighteousness to them that are exercised thereby.
Psalm 34:19. Hebrews 12:11.
11.3.12.5. For our enemies, and those that hate us.
Lord, give us to love our enemies, to bless them that curse us, and to pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us. Matthew
Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do; and lay not their malice against us to their charge, and work in us a disposition to forbear and forgive in love, as you require we should when we pray. Luke 23:34. Acts 7:60. Colossians 3:13. Mark 11:25.
And grant that our ways may please the Lord, that even our enemies may be at peace with us. Let the wolf and the lamb lie down together and let there be none to hurt or destroy in all the holy mountain; let not Ephraim envy Judah, nor Judah vex
Ephraim. Proverbs 16:7. Isaiah 11:6, 9, 13.
11.3.12.6. For our friends, and those that love us.
And we wish for all those whom we love in the truth, that they may prosper, and be in health, especially that their souls may prosper. 3
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with their spirits. Philemon (v. 25).
OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES TO GOD Ofaddresses to God upon particular occasions, whether domestic or public.
It is made our duty, and prescribed as a remedy against disquieting care, that in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving we should make our requests known to God. And it is part of the parrhesia, the boldness, the liberty of speech (so the word signifies) which is allowed us in our access to God, that we may be particular in opening our case, and seeking to Him for relief; that according as the sore and the grief is, accordingly the prayer and the supplication may be by any man, or by the people of Israel. Not that God needs to be particularly informed of our condition, He knows it better than we ourselves do, and our souls too in our adversity, but it is His will that we should thus acknowledge Him in all our ways, and wait upon Him for the direction of every step, not prescribing, but subscribing to infinite wisdom, humbly shewing Him our wants, burdens, and desires, and then referring ourselves to Him, to do for us as He thinks fit.
Philippians 4:6. Hebrews 10:19. 2 Chronicles 6:29. Proverbs 3:6.
We shall instance in some of the occasions of particular address to God, more or less usual, which may either be the principal matter of a whole prayer, or inserted in our other prayers, and in some cases that are more peculiar to ministers, or others, in common to them with masters offamilies and private Christians. As there may be something particular.
1. INOUR MORNING PRAYERS Our voice shalt you now hear in the morning, in the morning will we direct our prayer unto you, and will look up; for our souls wait for you, O Lord, more than they that watch for the morning, yea more than they that watch for the morning; and we will sing aloud ofyour mercy in the morning; for you have been our defense. Psalm
523. Psalm 130:6. Psalm 59:16.
It is you (O God) that have commanded the morning and caused the dayspring to know its place, that it might take hold ofthe ends of the earth, and it is turned as clay to the seal. Job 38:12, 13, 14.
The day is yours; the night also is yours; you have prepared the light and the sun. Psalm 74:16.
With the light of the morning let the dayspring from on high visit us, to give us the knowledge of salvation, through the tender mercy of our God; And let the Sun of righteousness arise upon our souls with healing under his wings; and our path be as the shining light, which shines more and more to the perfect day. Luke 1:78, 77.
Malachi 4:2. Proverbs 4:18.
It is ofyour mercy, O Lord, that we are not consumed, even because your compassions fail not, they are new every morning, great is your faithfulness: And if weeping sometimes endures for a night, joy comes in the morning. Lamentations 3:22, 23. Psalm 30:5.
We thank you that we have laid us down, have had where to lay our head, and have not been wandering in deserts and mountains, in dens, and caves of the earth: And that we have slept, and have not been full of tossing to and fro till the dawning of the day, that wearisome nights are not appointed to us, and we are not saying at our lying down, When shall we arise, and the night be gone? But our bed comforts us, and our couch eases our complaint: You give us sleep as you give it to your beloved. And that having laid us down and slept, we have waked again; You have lightened our eyes, so that we have not slept the sleep of death. Matthew 8:20. Hebrews
11:38. Job 7:4, 3, 13. Psalm 127-2. Psalm 3:5. Psalm 13:3.
You have preserved us from the pestilence that walketh in darkness, and from the malice of the rulers ofthe darkness of this world, the roaring lion that goes about seeking to devour: He that keeps Israel, and neither slumbers nor sleeps, has kept us, and so we have been safe. Psalm 91:6. Ephesians 6:12. 1 Peter 5:8. Psalm 121.4.
Butwe cannot saywith your servant David, that when we awake, we are still with you, or that our eyes have prevented the night watches, that we might meditate in your word; but vain thoughts still lodge within us. O pardon our sins, and cause us to hear your lovingkindness this morning, for in you do we trust; cause us to know the way wherein we should walk, for we lift up our souls unto you:
Teach us to do your will, for you are our God, your spirit is good, lead us into the way and land of uprightness. Psalm 139:18. Psalm
119:148. Jeremiah 4:14. Psalm 143-8, 10.
And now let the Lord preserve and keep us from all evil this day, yea let the Lord preserve our souls: Lord, preserve our going out, and coming in; Give your angels charge concerning us, to bear us up in their hands, and keep us in all our ways. And give us grace to do the work of the day in its day, as the duty of the day requires. Psalm
121:7, 8. Psalm 91:11, 12. Ezra 3:4.
2. INOUR EVENING PRAYERS Thou, O God, make the outgoings of the evening, as well as ofthe morning, to rejoice; for thereby you call us from our work and our labor, and bid us rest a while. And now let our souls return to you, and repose in you as our rest, because you have dealt bountifully with us; so, shall our sleep be sweet to us. Psalm 65:8. Psalm 104:23.
Mark 6:31. Psalm 116-7. Jeremiah 31:26.
Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with his benefits, who hath this day preserved our going out and coming in: And now we have received from you our daily bread, we pray, Father, forgive us our trespasses. Psalm 68:19. Psalm 121:8. Matthew 6:11, 12.
And we will lie down and sleep; for you, Lord, make us dwell in safety: Make a hedge of protection (we pray you) about us and about our house, and about all that we have round about. Let the angels of God encamp round about us to deliver us; that we may lie down, and none may make us afraid. Psalm 4:8. Job 1:10. Psalm
Into your hands we commit our spirits; that in slumberings upon the bed, our ears may be opened, and instruction sealed; And let the Lord give us counsel, and let our reins instruct us in the night season: Visit us in the night and try us and enable us to commune with our own hearts upon our bed. Psalm 31:5. Job 33:15, 16. Psalm
16-7. Psalm 17:3. Psalm 4-4.
Give us to remember you upon our bed, and to meditate upon you in the night watches, with the saints that are joyful in glory, and that sing aloud upon their beds. Psalm 63:6. Psalm 149.5.
3. IN CRAVING A BLESSING BEFORE MEAT Thou, O Lord, give food to all flesh, for your mercy endures forever.
The eyes of all wait on you; but especially you give meat to them that fear you, being ever mindful of your covenant. Psalm 136:25.
Psalm 145:15. Psalm 111.5.
You are our life, and the length of our days, the God that have fed us all our life long unto this day: You give us all things richly to enjoy, though we serve you but poorly. You have not only given us every green herb, and the fruits of the trees to be to us for meat, but every moving thing that lives even as the green herb.
Deuteronomy 30:20. Genesis 48:15. 1 Timothy 6:17. Genesis 1:29.
And blessed be God that now under the gospel we are taught to call nothing common or unclean, and that it is not that which goes into the man that defiles the man, but that every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused; for God hath created it to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. Acts 10:14, 15. Matthew 15:11. 1 Timothy 4:4, 3.
We acknowledge we are not worthy of the least crumb that falls from the table ofyour providence: You might justly take away from us the stay of bread, and the stay of water, and make us to eat our bread by weight, and to drink our water by measure, and with astonishment; because when we have been fed to the full, we have forgotten God our Maker. But let our sins be pardoned, we pray you, that our table may not become a snare before us, nor that be made a trap, which should have been for our welfare. Matthew
15:27. Isaiah 3:1. Exekiel 4:16. Deuteronomy 32:15. Hosea 8:14.
We know that everything is sanctified by the word of God and prayer; and that man lives not by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out ofthe mouth of God; and therefore, according to our Master's example, we lookup to heaven, and pray fora blessing upon our food, Abundantly bless our provision. 1 Timothy 4:5.
Matthew 4.4. Matthew 14:19. Psalm 132:15.
Lord, grant that we may not feed ourselves without fear, that we may not make a god of our belly, that our hearts may never be overcharged with surfeiting or drunkenness, but that whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, we may do all to the glory of God.
Jude 12. Philippians 3:19. Luke 21:34. 1 Corinthians 10:31.
4. IN RETURNING THANKS AFTER OUR MEAT Now we have eaten and are full, we bless you for the good land you have given us. You preparest a table for us in the presence of our enemies, you anoint our head, and our cup runs over. Deuteronomy 8:10. Psalm 23:5.
You, Lord, are the portion of our inheritance and of our cup, you maintain our lot, so that we have reason to say, The lines are fallen to us in pleasant places, and we have a goodly heritage. Psalm 16:5,
Especiallywe bless you for the bread oflife, which came down from heaven, which was given for the life of the world, Lord, evermore give us that bread; and wisdom to labor less for the meat which perishes, and more for that which endures to everlasting life. John
The Lord gives food to the hungry and sends portions to them for whom nothing is prepared. Psalm 146.7.
Let us be of those blessed ones that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God, that shall eat of the hidden manna. Luke 14:15. Revelation
5. WHEN WE ARE GOING A JOURNEY Lord, keep us in the way that we go, and let no evil thing befall us:
Let us have a prosperous journey by the will of God, and with your favor let us be compassed wherever we go as with a shield. Genesis
28:20. Psalm 91:10. Romans 1:10. Psalm 5:12.
Let us walk in our way safely, and let not our foot stumble, or dash against a stone. Proverbs 3:23. Psalm 91:12.
Direct our way in everything and enable us to order all our affairs with discretion, and Lord, send us good speed and show kindness to us. 1 Thessalonians 3:11. Psalm 112:5. Genesis 24:12.
And the Lord watch between us when we are absent one from the other. Genesis 31:49.
6. WHEN WE RETURN FROM A JOURNEY Blessed be the Lord God ofAbraham, who hath notleft us destitute of his mercy and his truth. Genesis 24:27.
All our bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto you, for you keep all our bones. Psalm 35:10. Psalm 34.20.
It is God that girds us with strength and makes our way perfect.
7. IN THE EVENING BEFORE THE LORD'S DAY Now give us to remember that tomorrowis the sabbath ofthe Lord, and that it is a high day, holy of the Lord and honorable, and give us grace so to sanctify ourselves, that tomorrow the Lord may do wonders among us; and to mind the work of our preparation now the sabbath draws on. Exodus 16:23. John 19:31. Isaiah 58:13. Joshua
When you saw everything that you had made in six days, behold, all was very good, but in many things, we have all offended. O that by repentance and faith in Christ's blood we may wash not our feet only, but also our hands and our head, and our heart, and so may compass your altar, O Lord. Genesis 1:31. James 3:2. John 13:9.
Now give us to rest from all our own works, and to leave all our worldly cares at the bottom of the hill, while we go up into the mount to worship God and return again to them. Hebrews 4:10.
8. ON THE MORNING OF THE LORD'S DAY We bless you, Lord, who hath shewed us light, and that the light we see is the Lord's; that we see one more of the days of the Son of man; a day to be spent in your courts, which is better than a thousand elsewhere. Psalm 118:27. Luke 17:22. Psalm 84:10.
We thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that the things which were hid from the wise and prudent, are revealed unto us babes, even so, Father, because it seemed good in your eyes: That our eyes see, and our ears hear that which many prophets and kings desired to see, desired to hear, and might not; That life and immortality are brought to light by the gospel. Luke 10:21, 23, 24.
And now, O that we may be in the Spirit on the Lord's day! that we may call the sabbath a delight, and may honor the Son of man, who is Lord also of the sabbath day, not doing our own ways, or finding our own pleasure, or speaking our own words. Revelation
1:10. Isaiah 58:13. Mark 2:28. Isaiah 58:13.
9. AT THE ENTRANCE UPON THE PUBLIC WORSHIP ON THE LORD'S DAY BY THE MASTERS OF THE ASSEMBLIES Thou (O God) are greatly to be feared in the assembly ofthe saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about you. O give us grace to worship you with reverence and godly fear, because you our
God are a consuming fire. Psalm 89:7. Hebrews 12:28, 29.
This is that which you have said that you will be sanctified in them which come nigh unto you, and before all the people you will be glorified. You are the Lord that sanctifies us, sanctify us by your truth, that we may sanctify you in our hearts, and make you our fear and our dread. Leviticus 10:3. Ezekiel20:12.John 17:17. Isaiah 8:13.
We come together to give glory to the great Jehovah, who in six days made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day, and therefore blessed a sabbath day, and hallowed it. And our help stands in the name ofthe Lord, who made heaven and earth. Exodus 20:11. Psalm 124 (v. 8).
O let us be new creatures, your workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works; And let that God who on the first day of the world commanded the light to shine out of darkness, on this first day ofthe week shine into our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 2
Corinthians 5:17. Ephesians 2:10. 2 Corinthians 4:6.
We come together to give glory to the Lord Jesus Christ, and to sanctify this sabbath to his honor, who was the stone that the builders refused, but is now become the head stone of the corner.
This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes: This is the day which the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it: He is the first and the last, who was dead and is alive. Psalm 118:22, 23,
O that we may this day experience the power of Christ's resurrection, and may be planted together in the likeness of it, that as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life, and may sit with him in heavenly places; and by seeking the things that are above, may make it to appear that we are risen with him. Philippians 3:10.
Romans 6.5, 4. Ephesians 2:6. Colossians 3:1.
We come together to give glory to the blessed Spirit of grace, and to celebrate the memorial of the giving of that promise of the Father, in whom the apostles received power on the first day of the week, as on that day Christ rose. Acts 1:4, 8. Acts 2:1.
O that we may this day be filled with the Holy Ghost, and that the fruit of the Spirit in us may be in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth. Ephesians 5:18, 9.
We come together to testify our communion with the universal church, that though we are many, yet we are one; that we worship one and the same God, the Father, ofwhom are all things, and we in him, in the name ofone Lord Jesus Christ, bywhom are all things, and we by him; under the conduct of the same Spirit, one and the selfsame Spirit, who divides to every man severally as he will, walking by the same rule, looking for the same blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior. 1
Corinthians 12:4, 11.
Galatians 6:16. Titus 2:13.
10. INOUR PREPARATION FOR THE LORD'S SUPPER Now we are invited to come eat of wisdom's bread, and drink the wine that she has mingled, give us to hunger and thirst after righteousness; And being called to the marriage supper of the Lamb, give us the wedding garment. Proverbs 9:5. Matthew 5:6.
Revelation 19:9. Matthew 22:11.
Awake, O north wind, and come you south, and blow upon our garden, that the spices thereof may flow forth; and then let our beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits. Canticle
(Song of Solomon) 4.16.
Draw us, and we will run after you; bring us into the chambers, that there we may be glad and rejoice in you and may remember your love more than wine. And when the king sits at his table, let our spikenard send forth the smell thereof. Canticle (Song ofSolomon)
And the good Lord pardon everyone that prepares his heart to seek God, the Lord God of his fathers, though he be not cleansed according to the purification ofthe sanctuary: Hear our prayers and heal the people. 2 Chronicles 30:18, 19, 20.
11. IN THE CELEBRATING OF THE LORD'S SUPPER Let this cup of blessing, which we bless, be the communion of the blood of Christ; let this bread which we break be the communion of the body of Christ, and enable us herein to shew the Lord's death, till he come. 1 Corinthians 10:16. 1 Corinthians 11:26.
Now let us be joined to the Lord in an everlasting covenant; so joined to the Lord, as to become one spirit with him. Now let us be made partakers of Christ by holding fast the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. Jeremiah 50:5. 1 Corinthians 6:17.
Hebrews 3:14, Let Christ's flesh be meat indeed to us, and his blood drink; indeed, and give us so by faith to eat his flesh, and drink his blood, that he may dwell in us, and we in him, and we may live by him. John 6:55,
Let the cross of Christ, which is to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness, be to us the wisdom of God and the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:23, 24.
Seal to us the remission of sins, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the promise of eternal life, and enable us to take this cup of salvation, and to call on the name of the Lord. Acts 2:38. 1 John 2:25. Psalm
12. AFTER THE CELEBRATING OF THE LORD'S SUPPER And now, Lord, give us to hold fast that which we have received, that no man take our crown: And keep it always in the imagination of the thought of our heart, and prepare our hears unto you.
Revelation 3:11. 1 Chronicles 29:18.
Give us grace, as we have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so to walk in him, that our conversation may be in everything as becomes his gospel. Colossians 2:6. Philippians 1:27.
O that we may now bear about with us continually the dying of the Lord Jesus, so as that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal body, that to us to live may be Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:10.
Your vows are upon us, O God: O that we may be daily performing our vows. Psalm 56:12. Psalm 61:8.
13. UPON OCCASION OF THE BAPTISM OFA CHILD To you, O God, whose all souls are, the souls ofthe parents and the souls of the children, we present this child a living sacrifice, which we desire may be holy and acceptable, and that it may be given up and dedicated to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Ezekiel 18:4.
Romans 12:1. Matthew 28:19.
It is conceived in sin, but there is a fountain opened: O wash the soul of this child in that fountain, now it is by your appointment washed with pure water. Psalm 51:5. Zechariah 13:1. Hebrews
It is one of the children ofthe covenant, one ofthe children that is borne unto you, it is your servant born in your house: O make good your ancient covenant, that you will be a God to believers and to their seed; for this blessing ofAbraham comes upon the Gentiles, and the promise is still to us and to our children. Acts 3:25. Ezekiel
16.20. Psalm 116:16. Genesis 17:7. Galatians 3:14. Acts 2:39.
You have encouraged us to bring little children to you; for you have said, that ofsuch is the kingdom ofGod: Blessed Jesus, take up this child in the arms ofyour power and grace, put your hands upon it, and bless it; let it be a vessel of honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and owned as one ofyours in that day when you make up your jewels. Mark 10:14, 16. 2 Timothy 2:21. Malachi 3:17.
O pour your spirit upon our seed, your blessing upon our offspring, that they may spring up as willows by the water-courses, and may come to subscribe with their own hands unto the Lord, and to surname themselves by the name of Israel. Isaiah 44-3, 4, 5.
14. UPON OCCASION OF A FUNERAL Lord, give us to find it good for us to go to the house ofmourning, that we may be minded thereby ofthe end of all men, and may lay it to our heart, and may be so wise as to consider our latter end; for we also must be gathered to our people, as our neighbors and brethren are gathered: And though whither those that are dead in Christ are gone we cannot follow them now, yet grant that we may follow them afterwards, everyone in his own order. Ecclesiastes 7:2.
Deuteronomy 32:29. Numbers 27:13.
John 13:36. 1 Corinthians 15:23.
We know that you will bring us to death, and to the house appointed for all living; but let us not see death, till by faith we have seen the Lord Christ, and then let us depart in peace according to your word; And when the earthly house of this tabernacle shall be dissolved, let us have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Job 30:23. Luke 2:26, 29. 2
And give us to know that our redeemer lives, and that though after our skins, worms destroy these bodies, yet in our flesh we shall see
God; whom we shall see for ourselves, and our eyes shall behold, and not another. Job 19:25, 26, 27.
15. UPON OCCASION OF A MARRIAGE Give to those that marryto marry in the Lord; and let the Lord Jesus by his grace come to the marriage and turn the water into wine. 1
Corinthians 7:39. John 2:1, 2, 9.
Make them helps meet for each other, and instrumental to promote one another's salvation, and give them to live in holy love, that they may dwell in God, and God in them. Genesis 2:18.
1 Corinthians 7:16. 1 John 4:16.
Let the wife be as a fruitful vine by the side of the house, and the husband dwell with the wife as a man of knowledge; and let them dwell together as joint heirs of the grace of life, that their prayers be not hindered. And make us all meet for that world where they neither marry, nor are given in marriage. Psalm 128:3. 1 Peter 3:7.
16. UPON OCCASION OF THE ORDAINING OF MINISTERS Let the things of God be committed to faithful men, who may be able also to teach others, and make them such burning and shining lights, as that it may appear it was Christ Jesus who put them into the ministry; and let not hands be suddenly laid on any. 2 Timothy
2:2. John 5:35. 1 Timothy 1:12. 1 Timothy 5:22.
Give to those who are ordained to take heed to the ministry which they have received of the Lord, that they fulfil it, and to make full proofof it by watching in all things. Colossians 4:17.2 Timothy 4:5.
Let those who in Christ's name are to preach repentance and remission of sins, be endued with power from on high, give them another spirit, and make them good ministers of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and good doctrine. Luke 24:47,
49. 1 Samuel 10:9. 1 Timothy 4-6.
17. UPON OCCASION OF THE WANT OF RAIN You have withheld the rain from us, and caused it to rain upon one city, and not upon another, yet have we not returned unto you. Amos
But you have said when heaven is shut up that there is no rain, because we have sinned against you, if we confess your name, and turn from our sins, you will hear from heaven, and forgive our sin, and give rain upon our land. 1 Kings 8:35, 36.
We ask ofyou the former and later rain and depend upon you for it; for there are not any of the vanities of the heathen that can give rain, nor can the heavens give showers; but we wait on you, for you have made all these things. Zechariah 10:1. Jeremiah 14.22.
18. UPON OCCASION OF EXCESSIVE RAIN Let the rain you send be in mercy to our land, and not for correction; not a sweeping rain, which leaves no food. Job 37:13.
You have sworn that the waters of Noah shall no more return to cover the earth; Let fair weather therefore come out of the north, for with you is terrible majesty. Isaiah 54:9. Job 37:22.
19. UPON OCCASION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES Take sickness away from the midst of us and deliver us from the noisomepestilence. Exodus 23:25. Psalm 91:3.
Appoint the destroying angel to put up his sword into the sheath, and to stay his hand. 2 Samuel 24:16.
20. UPON OCCASION OF FIRE You call to contend by fire, we bewail the burning which the Lord hath kindled: O Lord God, cease, we beseech you, and let the fire be quenched, as that kindled in Israel was at the prayer of Moses.
Amos 7:4, Leviticus 10:6. Amos 7:5. Numbers 11:2.
21. UPON OCCASION OF GREAT STORMS Lord, you have the winds in your hands, and bring them out of your treasures, even stormy winds fulfil your word: O preserve us and our habitations, that we be not buried in the ruins of them, as Job's children were. Proverbs 30:4. Psalm 135:7. Psalm 148-8. Job
22. UPON OCCASION OF THE CARES, AND BURDENS, AND AFFLICTIONS OF PARTICULAR PERSONS 22.1. When wepray with orfor those that are troubled in mind, and melancholy, and under doubts andfears about their spiritual state.
Lord, enable those that fear you, and obey the voice ofyour servant, but walkin darkness, and have no light, to trust in the name of the Lord, and to stay themselves upon their God; And at evening time let it be light. Isaiah 50:10. Zechariah 14:7.
O strengthen the weak hands, confirm the feeble knees, say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: Answer them with good words and comfortable words; saying unto them, Be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven you; Be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid,Iam your salvation, And make them to hear this voice of joy and gladness, that broken bones may rejoice. Isaiah 35:3, 4.
Zechariah 1:13. Matthew 9:2. Mark 6:50. Psalm 35:3. Psalm 51:8.
Let those who now remember God and are troubled, whose spirits are overwhelmed, and whose souls refuse to be comforted, be enabled to trust in your mercy, so that at length they may rejoice in your salvation, though you slay them yet to trust in you. Psalm 77:3,
2. Psalm 13:5. Job 13:15.
Though deep calls unto deep, and all your waves and your billows go over them; yet do you command your loving-kindness for them in the daytime, and in the night let your song be with them, and their prayer to the God of their life; Though their souls are cast down, and disquieted within them, give them to hope in God, that they shall yet praise him, and let them find him the health of their countenance and their God. Psalm 42:7, 8, 11.
O renewa right spirit within them, cast them not away from your presence, and take not your holy spirit from them, but restore unto them the joy of your salvation, and uphold them with your free spirit, that their tongues may sing aloud ofyour righteousness, and shew forth your salvation. Psalm 51:10, 11, 12,
O bring them up out of this horrible pit, and this miry clay, and set their feet upon a rock, establishing their goings, and put a new song into their mouth, even praises to our God: O comfort them again now after the time that you have afflicted them. Psalm 40:2,
Though for a small moment you have forsaken them, and hid your face from them, yet gather them, and have mercy on them with everlasting kindness. Isaiah 54.7, 8.
O let your Spirit witness with their spirits, that they are the children of God; and by the blood of Christ let them be purged from an evil conscience. Romans 8:16. Hebrews 10:22.
Lord, rebuke the tempter, even the accuser of the brethren, the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke him, and let poor tempted troubled souls be as brands plucked out of the burning. Revelation
12:10. Zechariah 3:2.
22.2. Those that are under convictions ofsin, and begin to be concerned about their souls, and their salvation, and to enquire after Christ.
Those that are asking the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, that are lamenting after the Lord, and are pricked to the heart for sin, O shew them the good and the right way and lead them in it.
Jeremiah 50:5. 1 Samuel 7:2. Acts 2:37. 1 Samuel 12:23.
To those who are asking what they shall do to inherit eternal life, discover Christ as the way, the truth and the life, the only true and living way. Matthew 19:16. John 14:6.
O do not quench the smoking flax, nor break the bruised reed, but bring forth judgment unto victory. Let the great shepherd of the sheep gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead them, and help them against their unbelief.
Matthew 12:20. Isaiah 40:11. Mark 9:24.
Let not the red dragon devour the man child as soon as it is born, but let it be caught up to God and to his throne. Revelation 12:4,
22.3. When wepray with orfor those that are sick and weak, and distempered in body; that those who are sick and in sin may be convinced, those who are sick and in Christ comforted.
Lord, you have appointed those that are sick to be prayed for, and prayed with, and have promised that the prayer of faith shall save the sick; Lord, help us to pray in faith for the sick, and as being ourselves also in the body. James 5:14, 15. Hebrews 13:3.
When our Lord Jesus was here upon earth, we find that they brought to him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and he healed all manner of sickness and all manner ofdisease among the people: And he hath still the same power over bodily diseases that ever he had; he saith to them, Go, and they go;
Come, and they come; Do this, and they do it; and can speak the word, and they shall be healed. And he is still touched with the feeling ofour infirmities; In the beliefof this, we do by prayer bring our friends that are sick and lay them before him. Matthew 4:24,
23. Matthew 8:9, 8. Hebrews 4:15. Luke 5:18.
Lord, grant that those who are sick may neither despise the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when they are rebuked of him, but that they may both hear the rod, and him that has appointed it, and may kiss the rod, and accept of the punishment of their iniquity. Hebrews 12:5. Micah 6:9. Leviticus 26:41.
Give them to see that affliction cometh not forth out of the dust, nor springs out of the ground, that they may therefore seek unto
God, to the Lord more than to the physicians, because unto God the Lord belong the issues of life and death. Job 5:6, 8.
2 Chronicles 16:12. Psalm 68:20.
Lord, shew them wherefore you contend with them, and give them in their affliction to humble themselves greatly before the God of their fathers, and to repent and turn from every evil way, and make their ways and their doings good, that being judged and chastened of the Lord, they may not be condemned with the world. By the sickness of the body, and the sadness of the countenance let the heart be made better. Job 10:2. 2 Chronicles 33:12. Jeremiah 18:11. 1
Corinthians 11:32. Ecclesiastes 7.3.
O Lord, rebuke them not in your anger, neither chasten them in your hot displeasure: Have mercy upon them, O Lord, for they are weak: Lord heal them, for their bones are vexed, their souls also are sore vexed: Return, O Lord, and deliver their souls, save them for your mercy's sake; and lay no more upon them than you will enable them to bear, and enable them to bear what you dost lay upon them.
Psalm 6-1-4. 1 Corinthians 10:13.
When you with rebukes dost chasten man for sin, you make his beauty to consume away like a moth; surely every man is vanity. But remove your stroke, we pray you, from those that are even consumed by the blow ofyour hand: O spare a little, that they may recover strength before they go hence and be no more. Psalm 39:11,
Those that are chastened with pain upon their bed, and the multitude of their bones with strong pain, so that their life abhors bread, and their soul dainty meat, shew them your uprightness, be gracious to them. Deliver them from going down to the pit, for you have found a ransom. Job 33:19, 20, 23, 24.
Let the eternal God be their refuge, and underneath them be the everlasting arms; Consider their frame, remember that they are but dust. Deuteronomy 33:27. Psalm 103:14.
O deliver those that are yours in the time oftrouble, preserve them and keep them alive: O strengthen them upon their bed of languishing, and make all their bed in their sickness: Be merciful to them, and heal their souls, for they have sinned. Psalm 41:1-4.
O turn to them and have mercy upon them, bring them out oftheir distresses; look upon their affliction and their pain, but especially forgive all their sin. Psalm 25:16, 17, 18.
Make your face to shine upon them, save them for your mercy's sake: The God that comforts them that are cast down, comfort them; and let the soul dwell at ease in you, when the body lies in pain. Psalm 31:16. 2 Corinthians 7:6. Psalm 25:13.
(Ifit be the beginning ofa distemper) Lord, set bounds to this sickness, and say, Hitherto it shall come, and no further: Let it not prevail to extremity, but in measure when it shoots forth do you debate, and stay your rough wind in the day of your east wind; and by this let iniquity be purged, and let this be all the fruit, even the taking away of sin. Job 38:11. Isaiah 27:8, 9.
(Ifit have continued long) Lord, let patience have its perfect work, even unto long-suffering, that those who have been long in the furnace may continue hoping and quietly waiting for the salvation of the Lord:
Let tribulation work patience, and patience experience, and experience a hope that makes not ashamed; and enable them to call even this affliction light and but for a moment, seeing it to work for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. James 1:4. Lamentations 3:26. Romans 5:3,
(Ifthere be hopes ofrecovery) Lord, when you have tried them let them come forth like gold; Let their souls live, and they shall praise you, let your judgments help them: O deal bountifully with them that they may live, and keep your word. In love to their souls deliver them from the pit of corruption and cast all their sins behind your back. Recover them and make them live. Speak the word, and they shall be healed; say unto them, Live, yea, say unto them, Live, and the time shall be a time of love. Father, ifit be possible, let the cup pass away; however not as we will, but as you wilt: The will of the Lord be done. Perfect that which concerns them; your mercy, O
Lord, endures forever, forsake not the work ofyour own hands; but whether they live or die, let them be the Lord's. Job 23:10. Psalm
119:175, 17. Isaiah 38:17, 16. Matthew 8:8. Ezekiel 16:6, 8.
Matthew 26:39. Acts 21:14. Psalm 138:8. Romans 14.8.
(Ifthey be in appearance at the point ofdeath) Now the flesh and the heart are failing, Lord, be you the strength of the heart, and an everlasting portion: In the valley of the shadow of death, Lord, be you present, as the good shepherd with a guiding rod, and a supporting staff. O do not fail them nor forsake them now. Be a very present help: Into your hands we commit the departing spirit, as into the hands of a faithful Creator, by the hands of him who has redeemed it. Let it be carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. Let it be presented to you without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. Lord Jesus, receive this precious soul, let it come to the spirits of just men made perfect; when it is absent from the body, let it be present with the Lord! This day let it be with you in paradise. Now let it be forever comforted, and perfectly freed from sin; and prepare us to draw after, as there are innumerable before, that we may be together for ever with the Lord, there where there shall be no more death, and where all tears shall be wiped away.
Psalm 73:26. Psalm 23:4. Hebrews 13:5. Psalm 46:1. Psalm 31:5. 1
Peter 4 (v. 19). Luke 16:22. Ephesians 5:27. Acts 7:59. Hebrews 12:23. 2 Corinthians 5:8. Luke 23:43. Luke 16:25. Romans 6:7. Job
21:33. 1 Thessalonians 4 (v. 17). Revelation 21:4.
22.4. When wepray with orfor those that are deprived ofthe use of their reason.
O look with pity upon those that are put out of the possession of their own souls, whose judgment is taken away, so that their soul chooses strangling and death rather than life: O restore them to themselves and their right mind. Deliver them from doing themselves any harm: And whatever afflictions you lay upon any of us in this world, preserve to us the use of our reason, and the peace ofour consciences. Luke 21:19. Job 27:2. Job 7:15. Luke 15:17. Mark
22.5. When wepray with orfor sick children.
Lord, we see death reigning even over them that have not sinned after the similitude ofAdam's transgression; but Jesus Christ hath abolished death and admitted even little children into the kingdom of God. O let sick children be pitied by you, as they are by their earthly parents. They have come forth like flowers, O let them not be cut down again: Turn from them, that they may rest till they shall have accomplished as a hireling their day. Be gracious to us, and let the children live. However, Father, your will be done. O let their spirits be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Romans 5:14. 2
Timothy 1:10. Matthew 18:3. Psalm 103-13. Job 14:2, 6.
2 Samuel 12:22. Acts 21:14. 1 Corinthians 5:5.
22.6. When wepray with orforfamilies where death is, especially such as have lost their head.
Visit the houses ofmourning, as our Savior did, and comfort them, by assuring them that Christ is the resurrection and the life, that their relations which are removed from them, are not dead, but sleep; and that they shall rise again, that they may not sorrow as those that have no hope: And enable them to trust in the living
God, the rock ofages, and enjoy the fountain ofliving waters, when creatures prove broken reeds and broken cisterns. John 11:25, 23.
Matthew 9:24. 1 Thessalonians 4.13. 1 Timothy 6:17. Psalm 146-4, 5.
Isaiah 26-4. Jeremiah 2:13.
Bea Father to the fatherless, and a husband to the widows, O God, in your holy habitation.
With you let the fatherless find mercy, keep them alive, and let the widows trust in you, that they may be widows indeed, who being desolate, trust in God, and continue instant in prayer night and day. And where father and mother have forsaken, let the Lord take up the children, and not leave them orphans, but come to them. Psalm 68.5. Hosea 14:3. Jeremiah 49:11.
1 Timothy 5-5. Psalm 27:10. John 14.18.
22.7. When wepray with orfor those women that are near the time oftravail, or in travail.
Lord, you have passed this sentence upon the woman that was first in the transgression, that in sorrow she shall bring forth children.
But let this handmaid of yours be saved in childbearing, and continue in faith, and charity, and holiness, with sobriety. Enable her to cast her burden upon the Lord, and let the Lord sustain her; and what time she is afraid, grant that she may trust in you, and may encourage herself in the Lord her God. O let not the root be dried up from beneath, nor let the branch be withered or cut off, but let both live before you. Be you her strong habitation, her rock, and her fortress, give commandment to save her. And when travail comes upon her, which she cannot escape; be pleased, O Lord, to deliver her:
O Lord make haste to help her: Be you yourself her help and deliverer, make no tarrying, O our God: Let her be safely delivered, and remember the anguish no more, for joy that a child is born into the world, is born unto you. 1 Timothy 2:14. Genesis
1 Timothy 2(v. 15). Psalm 55:22. Psalm 56:3. 1 Samuel 30:6.
Job 18:16. Psalm 71:3. 1 Thessalonians 5:3. Psalm 40:13, 17. John 16:21.
22.8. When wepray with orfor those that are recoveredfrom sickness, or are delivered in childbearing, and desire to return thanks unto Godfor His mercy.
We will extol you, O Lord, upon the account of those whom you have lifted up, whose souls you have brought up from the grave, and kept them alive, that they should not go down to the pit. Those that were brought low you have helped, have delivered their souls from death, their eyes from tears, and their feet from falling. Now give them grace to walk before you in the land of the living, to offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving, to call upon your name, and to pay their vows unto the Lord. Psalm 30-1, 2, 3. Psalm 116:6, 8, 9,
The grave cannot thus praise you, death cannot celebrate you, they that go down to the pit cannot hope for your truth; but the living, the living they shall praise you, as we do this day. Lord, grant that those who are delivered from death may not be as the nine lepers, who did not return to give thanks, or as Hezekiah, who rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him, but that they may so offer praise, as to glorify you, and so order their conversation, as to see the salvation of God. Isaiah 38:18, 19. Luke 17:18. 2
Chronicles 32:25. Psalm 50.23.
Those whom the Lord hath chastened sore, yet he has not delivered over unto death: O that they may therefore praise him, who is become their salvation. Psa/m 118-18, 21.
22.9. When we pray with orfor those parents, whose children area griefto them, or such as they are infear about.
Lord, give to parents the desire of their souls concerning their children, which is to see them walking in the truth, form Christ in their souls. O give them betimes to know the God of their fathers, and to serve him with a perfect heart and a willing mind. Let children of the youth, that are as arrows in the hand, be directed aright, that those parents may have reason to think themselves happy, that have their quiver full of them, and they may never be arrows in the heart. 2 John 4. Galatians 4:19. 1 Chronicles 28:9.
Let those foolish children, that are the grief of the father, and the heaviness of her that bare them, that mock at their parents, and despise to obey them, be brought to repentance; and let those that have been unprofitable now at length be made profitable. O turn the hearts of the children to the fathers, even the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that they may be made readya people prepared for the Lord. O show them their work, and their transgression, that they have exceeded, and open their ear to discipline. Proverbs 17:25.
Proverbs 30:17. Philemon 11. Malachi 4:6. Luke 1:17. Job 36:9, 10.
22.10. When we pray with orfor those that are in prison.
Those that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron, because they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel ofthe Most High, give them grace to cry unto you in their trouble, and ina day ofadversity to consider.
Psalm 107:10, 11, 13. Ecclesiastes 7:14.
In their captivity give them to bethink themselves, to humble themselves, and pray, and seek your face, to repent, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, and to return unto you with all their heart, and with all their soul; and thus bring their souls out of prison, that they may praise your name: Bring them into the glorious liberty of the children of God, out of the bondage of corruption. Let the Son make them free, and then they shall be free indeed. 1 Kings 8:47, 48. Psalm 142:7. Romans 8:21. John 8:36.
Those that are wrongfully imprisoned be you with them, as you were with Joseph in the prison, and shew them mercy. Hear the poor, and despise not your prisoners, but let their sorrowful sighing come before you, and according to the greatness of your power preserve those that are unjustly appointed to die. Genesis 39:21.
Psalm 69:33. Psalm 79:11.
22.11. When wepray with orfor condemned malefactors, that have but a little while to live.
O look with pity upon those, the number ofwhose months is to be cut off in the midst for their sin: O give them repentance unto salvation, as you didst to the thief upon the cross, that they may own the justice of God in all that is brought upon them, that he has done right, but they have done wickedly. O turn them, and they shall be turned, that being instructed they may smite upon the thigh, and may be ashamed, yea even confounded, because they do bear the reproach of their own iniquity. O pluck them as brands out of the fire; let them be delivered from the wrath to come. Jod
21:21. 2 Corinthians 7:10. Nehemiah 9:33. Jeremiah 31:18, 19. Jude 23. 1 Thessalonians 1:10.
Enable them to give glory to God by making confession, that they may find mercy, and that others may hear and fear, and do no more presumptuously. Joshua 7:19. Proverbs 28:13. Deuteronomy 17:13.
Lord Jesus, remember them now who are in your kingdom: O let them not be hurt of the second death: Deliver them from going down to that pit! Though the flesh be destroyed, O let the spirit be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. The God of infinite mercy be merciful to these sinners, these sinners against their own souls. Luke
23:42. Revelation 2:11. Job 33:24. 1 Corinthians 5:5. Luke 18:13.
22.12. When we pray with orfor those that are at sea.
Let those that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters, observe the works ofthe Lord there, and his wonders in the deep; And acknowledge what a great God he is whom the winds and the seas obey; who hath 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. Psalm 107:23, 24. Matthew 8:27.
O preserve them through the paths of the seas, and in perils by waters, and perils by robbers. If the stormy wind be raised, which lifts up the waves, so that they are at their wits end, deliver them out of their distresses, make the storm a calm, and bring them to their desired haven: And O that those who are delivered may praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men. Psalm 8:8. 2 Corinthians 11:26. Psalm 107:25, 2731.
THE CONCLUSION OF PRAYER We are commanded to pray always, to pray without ceasing, to continue in prayer, because we must always have in us a disposition to this duty, must be constant to it, and never grow weary of it, or throw it up; and yet we cannot be always praying, we must come down from this mount; nor may we be over-long, so as to make the duty a task or a toil to ourselves, or those that join with us. We have other work that calls for our attendance. Jacob wrestles with the angel; but he must go, for the day breaks: We must therefore think of concluding. The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, must be ended. But how shall we conclude, so as to have the impressions of the duty kept always in the imagination ofthe thought ofour heart.
1. WE MAY THEN SUM UP OUR REQUESTS IN SOME COMPREHENSIVE PETITIONS, AS THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER Now the God ofpeace, that brought again from the dead our Lord
Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make us perfect in every good work to do his will, working in us that which is well pleasing in his sight through Christ Jesus. Hebrews 13:20, 21.
Now the Lord direct our hearts into the love of God, and into a patient waiting for Christ.
And the God of all grace, who hath called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that we have suffered a while, make us perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle us.
And now, Lord, what wait we for? Truly our hope is even in you, and on you do we depend to be to us a God all-sufficient. Psalm
Do for us exceeding abundantly above what we are able to ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us: And supply all our needs according to your riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 3:20. Philippians 4:19.
2. WE MAY THEN BEG FOR THE AUDIENCE AND ACCEPTANCE OF OUR POORWEAK PRAYERS, FOR CHRIST'S SAKE Now the God of Israel grant us the things we have requested of him. 1 Samuel 1:17.
Let the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
Let your eyes be open unto the supplication of your servants, and unto the supplication of your people Israel, to hearken unto them in all that they call unto you for; for they be your people and your inheritance. 1 Kings 8:52, 51.
O our God, let your ears attend unto the prayers that we have made:
O turn not away the face ofyour anointed; remember the mercies of David your servant; even Jesus, who is at your right-hand making intercession for us.
2 Chronicles 6:40, 42. Romans 8:34.
Lord, you have assured us that whatever we ask the Father in Christ's name, he will give it us: We ask all these things in that name, that powerful name, which is above every name, that precious name which is as ointment poured forth.
O make your face to shine upon us for the Lord's sake, who is the Son of your love, and whom you hear always: Good Lord, give to us to hear him, and be well pleased with usin him. John 16:23. Philippians
Canticle (Song ofSolomon) 1:3. Daniel 9:17. Colossians 1:13. John 11:42. Matthew 17:5.
3. WE MAY THEN BEG FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF WHAT HAS BEEN AMISS IN OUR PRAYERS Lord,we have not prayed as we ought; who is there that doth good, and sins not? Even when we would do good evil is present with us; and if to will be present, yet how to perform that which is good we know not, for the good that we would we do not; so that you might justly refuse to hear even when we make many prayers. But we have a great high priest, who bears the iniquity ofthe holy things, which the children ofIsrael hallow in all their holy gifts; for his sake take away all that iniquity from us, even all the iniquity of our holy things, and receive us graciously, and love us freely; And deal not with us after our folly. Romans 8:26. Ecclesiastes 7:20. Romans 7:21,
18, 19. Isaiah 1:15. Exodus 28:38. Hosea 14-2, 4. Job 42:8.
4. WE MAY THEN RECOMMEND OURSELVES TO THE CONDUCT, PROTECTION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE DIVINE GRACE, IN THE FURTHER SERVICES THAT LIE BEFORE US, AND IN THE WHOLE COURSE OF OUR CONVERSATION And now let us be enabled to go from strength to strength, until we appear before God in Zion, and while we pass through this valley ofBaca, let it be made a well, and let the rain ofthe divine grace and blessing fill the pools. Psalm 84:7, 6.
Now, speak, Lord, for your servants' heart. What saith our Lord unto his servants? Grant that we may not turn away our ear from hearing the law; for then our prayers will be an abomination; but may hearken unto God, that he may hearken unto us. 1 Samuel3:9.
Joshua 5:14. Proverbs 28:9. Judges 9:7.
And now the Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers; let him not leave us nor forsake us; That he may incline our hearts unto him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments; And let our hearts be perfect with the Lord our God all our days, and continue so till the end be, that then we may rest, and may stand in our lot, and let it be a blessed lot in the end ofthe days. 1 Kings 8:57, 58, 61. Daniel 12:13.
5. WE MAY CONCLUDE ALL WITH DOXOLOGIES, OR SOLEMN PRAISES OF GOD, ASCRIBING HONOR AND GLORY TO THE FATHER, THE SON, AND THE HOLY GHOST, AND SEALING UP ALL OUR PRAISES AND PRAYERS WITH AN AFFECTIONATE AMEN Now blessed be the Lord God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting, Amen and Amen. Psalm 41:13.
Forever blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doth wondrous things, and blessed be his glorious name for ever, and let the whole earth be filled with his glory, Amen and Amen. Yea, let all the people say, Amen, Hallelujah. Psalm 72:18, 19. Psalm 106:48.
To God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ forever, Amen.
Now to God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father, be glory for ever and ever, Amen. Galatians 1:3, 4, 5.
To God be glory in the church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end, Amen. Ephesians 3:21.
Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honorand glory for ever and ever, Amen: To him be honorand power everlasting, to him be glory and dominion, Amen. 1 Timothy
1:17. 1 Timothy 6:16. 1 Peter 5:11.
Now unto him that is able to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, now and ever, Amen. Jude 24, 25.
Hallelujah, salvation and glory, and honor, and power unto the Lord our God, Amen, Hallelujah. Revelation 19:1, 4.
And now, we prostrate our souls before the throne, and worship God, saying, Amen, blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever, Amen. Revelation 7:11, 12.
Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever; And let the whole creation say, Amen, amen. Revelation 5:13. Psalm 150.6.
6. IT IS VERY PROPER TO SUM UP OUR PRAYERS IN THAT FORM OF PRAYER WHICH CHRIST TAUGHT HIS DISCIPLES Our Father which art in heaven; Hallowed by thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven; Give us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses As we forgive us our trespasses As we forgive them that trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil; For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, Forever and ever,
Amen. Matthew 6:9-13.
A PARAPHRASE ON THE ) LORD S PRAYER A paraphrase on the Lord's Prayer, in Scripture expressions. The Lord's prayer being intended not only for a form of prayer itself, but a rule of direction, a plan or model in little, by which we may frame our prayers; and the expressions being remarkably concise, and yet vastly comprehensive, it will be of good use sometimes to lay it before us, and observing the method and order of it, to dilate upon the several passages and petitions of it, that when we use it only as a form, we may use it the more intelligently; of which we shall only here give a specimen in the assistance we may have from some other scriptures.
1. OUR FATHER WHICH ART IN HEAVEN O Lord, our God, doubtless you are our Father, though Abraham be ignorant ofus, and Israel acknowledge us not; you, O Lord, are our Father, our redeemer, your name is from everlasting; And we will from this time cry unto you, Our Father, you are the guide of our youth. Isaiah 63:16. Jeremiah 3:4.
Have we not all one Father, has not one God created us? You are the Father ofour spirits, to whom we ought to be in subjection and live. Malachi 2:10. Hebrews 12:9.
You are the Father oflights, and the Father ofmercies, and the God of all consolation: The eternal Father, of whom, and through whom, and to whom are all things. James 1:17.
Isaiah 9:6. Romans 11:36.
You are the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose glory was that of the only begotten of the Father, who is in his bosom, by him as one brought up with him, daily his delight, and rejoicing always before him. Ephesians 1:3. John 1:14, 18. Proverbs 8:30.
You are in Christ our Father, and the Father of all believers, whom you have predestinated to the adoption of children, and into whose hearts you have sent the Spirit of the Son, teaching them to cry,
Abba, Father. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God;
That the Lord God Almighty should be to us a Father, and we should be to him for sons and daughters; And that as many as receive Christ, to them you should give power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name; which are born not of the will of man, but of God, and his grace. Ephesians 1:5.
Galatians 4:6. 1 John 3:1. 2 Corinthians 6 (v. 18). John 1:12, 13.
O that we may receive the adoption of sons, and that as obedient and genuine children we may fashion ourselves according to the example of him who hath called us, who is holy; and may be followers of God as dear children, and conformed to the image of his Son, who is the first born among many brethren. Galatians 4:5.
1 Peter 1:14, 15. Ephesians 5:1. Romans 8:29.
Enable us to come to you with humble boldness and confidence, as to a Father, a tender Father, who spares us as a man spares his son that serves him; and as having an advocate with the Father, who yet has told us, that the Father himselfloves us. Ephesians 3:12.
Malachi 3:17. 1 John 2:1. John 16:27.
You are a Father, but where is your honor? Lord, give us grace to serve you as becomes children, with reverence and godly fear.
Malachi 1:6. Hebrews 12:28.
You are a Father, and if earthly parents, being evil, yet know how to give good gifts unto their children, how much more shall our heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him. Lord, give us the spirit of grace and supplication. Luke 11:13. Zechariah
We come to you as prodigal children that have gone from our Father's house into the far country; but we will arise and go to our
Father, for in his house there is bread enough and to spare, and if we continue at a distance from him, we perish with hunger. Father, we have sinned against heaven and before you and are no more worthy to be called your children, make us even as your hired servants. Luke 15:13, 17, 18, 19.
You are our Father in heaven, and therefore unto you, O Lord, do we lift up our souls. Unto you lift we up our eyes, O you that dwellest in the heavens: As the eyes of a servant are to the hand of his master, and the eyes of a maiden to the hand of her mistress, so do our eyes wait upon you, O Lord our God; a God whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, and yet whom we may have access to, having a high-priest that is passed into the heavens, as our forerunner. Psalm 86:4. Psalm 123:1, 2.
1 Kings 8:27. Ephesians 3:12. Hebrews 4:14. Hebrews 6:20.
You, O God, dwellest in the high and holy place, and holy and reverend is your name. God is in heaven, and we are upon earth, therefore should we choose out words to reason with him; and yet through a mediator we have boldness to enter into the Holiest.
Isaiah 57:15. Psalm 111:9. Ecclesiastes 5:2. Job 9:14. Hebrews 10:19.
Look down (we pray you) from heaven and behold from the habitation ofyour holiness and ofyour glory and have compassion upon us and help us. Isaiah 63:15. Mark 9:22.
Heaven is the firmament ofyour power: O hear us from your holy heaven with the saving strength of your right hand; send us help from the sanctuary and strengthen us out of Sion. Psalm 150:1.
And O that since heaven is our Father's house; we may have our conversation there and may seek the things that are above. John
14.2. Philippians 3:20. Colossians 3:1.
2. HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME And nowwhatis our petition, and what is our request? What would we that you should do for us? This is our heart's desire and prayer in the first place, Father in heaven, let your name be sanctified.We pray that you may be glorified as a Holy God. Esther 5:6. Matthew
20:32. Romans 10:1. Leviticus 10:3.
We desire to exalt the Lord our God, to worship at his footstool, at his holy hill, and to praise his great and terrible name, for it is holy, for the Lord our God is holy. You are holy, O you that inhabits the praises of Israel. Psalm 99:5, 3, 9. Psalm 22:3.
We glory in your holy name, and therefore shall our hearts rejoice, because we have trusted in that holy name ofyours, to which we will always give thanks, and triumph in your praise. Psalm 105:3. Psalm
Lord, enable us to glorify your holy name for evermore, by praising you with all our hearts, and by bringing forth much fruit, for herein is our heavenly Father glorified. O that we may be to our God for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory, that being called out of darkness, into his marvelous light, to be to him a peculiar people, we may shew forth the praises of him that hath called us. Psalm
86:12. John 15:8. Jeremiah 13:11. 1 Peter 2:9.
O that we may be your children, the work of your hands, that we may sanctify your name, and sanctify the Holy One ofJacob, and fear the God of Israel, and may be to the praise of his glory. Isaiah
29:23. Ephesians 1:12.
Enable us, as we have received the gift, so to minister the same as good stewards ofthe manifold grace of God, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ: And ifwe suffer, enable us to suffer as Christians, and to glorify God therein; for this is our earnest expectation and hope, that always Jesus Christ may be magnified in our bodies in life and death. 1 Peter 4:10, 11, 16.
Lord, enable others to glorify you, let even the strong people glorify you, and the city of the terrible nations fear you; but especially let the Lord be magnified from the border of Israel. Let them glorify the Lord in the fires, even the Lord God of Israel in the isles ofthe sea. O let all nations whom you have made come and worship before you, O Lord, and glorify your name; for you are great, and dost wondrous things, you are God alone. Isaiah 25:3. Malachi 1:5.
Isaiah 24:15. Psalm 86:9, 10.
O let the Gentiles glorify God for his mercy, let his name be known and confessed among the Gentiles, and let them rejoice with his people. O let your name be great among the Gentiles and let all the ends of the world remember and turn to the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations worship before you; and let them declare your righteousness to a people that shall be born. Romans 15:9, 10.
Malachi 1:11. Psalm 22:27, 31.
Lord, do you yourself dispose of all things to your own glory, both as King of nations, and as King of saints: Do all according to the counsel of your own will, that you mayest magnify yourself, and sanctify yourself, and mayest be known in the eyes ofmany nations, that you are the Lord. O sanctify your great name, which has been profaned among the heathen, and let them know that you are the Lord, when you shalt be sanctified in them. Jeremiah 10:7.
Revelation 15:3. Ephesians 1:11. Ezekiel 38:23. Ezekiel 36:23.
Father, glorify your own name: You have glorified it, glorify it yet again: Father, glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you.
O give him a name above every name, and in all places, in all things let him have preeminence. John 12:28. John 17:1. Philippians 2:9.
Lord, what will you do for your great name? Do this for your great name; Pour out of your spirit upon all flesh; and let the word of Christ dwell richly in the hearts of all. Be you exalted, O Lord, among the heathen, be you exalted in the earth; Be you exalted, O
God, above the heavens, let your glory be above all the earth; Be you exalted, O Lord, in your own strength, so will we sing and praise your power. Do great things with your glorious and everlasting arm, to make unto yourself a glorious and an everlasting name.
Joshua 7:9. Joel 2:28. Colossians 3:16. Psalm 46:10. Psalm 57:11.
Psalm 21:13. Isaiah 63:5, 12, 14.
O let your name be magnified forever, saying, The Lord ofhosts is the God of Israel, even a God to Israel. 1 Chronicles 17:24.
3. YOUR KINGDOM COME In order to the sanctifying and glorifying of your Holy name, Father in heaven, let your kingdom come, for yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all: Both riches and honor come of you; you reign over all, and in your hand is power and might, in your hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. And we desire to speak of the glorious majesty of your kingdom, for it is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. You rule by your power forever, your eyes behold the nations. O let not the rebellious exalt themselves, but through the greatness of your power let your enemies submit themselves unto you. 1 Chronicles 29:11, 12. Psalm
145:11, 13. Psalm 66:7, 3.
O make it to appear that the kingdom is yours, and that you are the governor among the nations, so evident, that they may say among the heathen, The Lord reigns; that all men may fear, and may declare the work ofGod, and may say, verily he is a God that judges in the earth. Make all the kings of the earth to know that the heavens do rule, even that the most High rules in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and to praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment, and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.
Psalm 22:28. Psalm 96:10. Psalm 64:9. Psalm 58:11. Daniel 4:25, 26, 37.
O let the kingdom ofyour grace come more and more in the world, that kingdom of God which cometh not with observation, that kingdom of God which is within men. Let it be like leaven in the world, diffusing its relish till the whole be leavened, and like a grain of mustard-seed, which though it be the least of all seeds, yet when it is grown, is the greatest among herbs. Luke 17:20, 21. Matthew
Let the kingdoms of the world become the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ: Take unto yourself your great power, and reign, though the nations be angry. Set up your throne there where Satan's seat is; let every thought be brought into obedience to you and let the law of your kingdom be magnified and made honorable.
Revelation 11:15, 17, 18. Revelation 2:13. 2 Corinthians 10:5. Isaiah 42.21.
Let that kingdom of God, which is not in word, but in power, be set up in all the churches of Christ. Send forth the rod of your strength out of Zion, and rule by the beauty of holiness. 1
Corinthians 4:20. Psalm 110.2, 3.
Where the strong man armed hath long kept his palace, and his goods are in peace, let Christ, who is stronger than he come upon him, and overcome him, and take from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and divide the spoil. Luke 11:21, 22.
O give to the Son ofman dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages may serve him, and the judgment may be given to the saints of the Most High. Daniel 7:14, 22.
Let the kingdom of your grace come more and more in our land, and the places where we live. There let the word of the Lord have free course and be glorified and let not the kingdom of God be taken from us, as we have deserved it should, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.
2 Thessalonians 3:1. Matthew 21:43.
Let the kingdom ofyour grace come into our hearts, that they may be the temples of the Holy Ghost. Let no iniquity have dominion over us: Overturn, overturn, overturn the power of corruption there, and let him come whose right our hearts are, and give them him; make us willing, more and more willing in the day of your power. Rule in us by the power of truth, that being of the truth, we may always hear Christ's voice; and may not only call him Lord,
Lord, but do the things that he saith. And let the love of Christ command us, and constrain us, and his fear be before our eyes, that we sin not. 1 Corinthians 3:16. Psalm 119:133. Ezekiel 21:27. Psalm
110:3. John 18:37. Luke 6:46. 2 Corinthians 5:14. Exodus 20:20.
O let the kingdom of your glory be hastened; we believe it will come, we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus, to come in the clouds ofheaven with power and great glory; we hope that he shall appear to our joy; we love his appearing; we are looking for, and hasting to the coming of the day of God: Make us ready for it, that we may then lift up our heads with joy, knowing that our redemption draws nigh. And O that we may have such first fruits ofthe Spirit, as that we ourselves may groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, even the redemption ofour body; and may have a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is best of all. Philippians 3:20.
Matthew 24:30. Isaiah 66:5.
2 Timothy 4:8. 2 Peter 3:12. Matthew 24:44. Luke 21:28. Romans 8:23. Philippians 1.23.
Blessed Jesus, be with your ministers and people (as you have said) always even unto the end of the world: And then (as you have said) surelyIcome quickly, even so, come, Lord Jesus, come quickly:
When the mystery of God shall be finished, make haste, our beloved, and be you like to a roe, or to a young hare upon the mountains of spices. Matthew 28:20. Revelation 22:20. Revelation
10:7. Canticle (Song ofSolomon) 8:14.
4. YOUR WILL BE DONE ON EARTH ASIT IS IN HEAVEN And as evidence that your kingdom comes, and in order to the sanctifying of your name, Father in heaven, let your holy will be done. We know, O Lord, that whatsoever you please, that you dost in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and in all deep places; Your counsel shall stand, and you will do all your pleasure: Even so be it,
Holy Father, not our will, but yours be done. As you have thought, so let it come to pass, and as you have purposed, let it stand. Do all according to the counsel ofyour own will. Make even those to serve your purposes, that have not known you, and that mean not so, neither doth their heart think so. Psalm 135:6. Isaiah 46:10. Luke
22:42. Isaiah 14:24. Ephesians 1:11. Isaiah 45:4. Isaiah 10:7.
Father, let your will be done concerning us and ours: Behold, here we are; It is the Lord, let him do to us as seems good unto him:
The will of the Lord be done. O give us to submit to your will in conformity to the example of the Lord Jesus, who said, Not as I will, but as you wilt, and to say, The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Shall we receive good at the hand ofthe Lord, and shall we not receive evil also? 1 Samuel
3:12. 1 Samuel 3:18. 2 Samuel 15:26. Acts 21:14. Matthew 26:39. Job 1:21. Job 2:10.
Father, let the scriptures be fulfilled; the scriptures ofthe prophets, which cannot be broken. Though heaven and earth pass away, let not one iota or tittle ofyour word pass away. Do what is written in the scriptures of truth; and let it appear that forever, O Lord, your word is settled in heaven. Matthew 26:56. John 10:35. Matthew
24:35. Matthew 5:18. Daniel 10:21. Psalm 119.89.
Lord, give grace to each ofus to know, and do the will ofour Father which is in heaven. This is the will ofGod, even our sanctification.
Now the God of peace sanctify us wholly. O let us be filled with the knowledge of your will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, and make us perfect in every good work to do your will. O let the time past of our life suffice us to have wrought the will of the flesh, and to have walked according to the course ofthis world; And from henceforth grant that it may always be our meat and drink to do the will of our Father, and to finish his work; not to do our own will, but his that sent us, that we may be of those that shall enter into the kingdom ofheaven, and not those that shall be beaten with many stripes. Matthew 12:50. 1 Thessalonians 4:3.
1 Thessalonians 5:23. Colossians 1:9. Hebrews 13:21. 1 Peter 4:3.
Ephesians 2.2. John 4:34. John 6:38. Matthew 7:21. Luke 12:47.
Lord, give grace to others also to know and do your will; to prove what is the good and acceptable, and perfect will of God; not to be unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is; and then give them to stand perfect and complete in all the will of God: And let us all serve our generations according to that will. Romans 12:2.
Ephesians 5:17. Colossians 4:12. Acts 13:36.
And when we have done the will ofGod, let us inherit the promises:
And let that pare of the will of God be done; Lord, let the word which you have spoken concerning your servants be established forever, and do as you have said. Hebrews 10:36. 1 Chronicles 17:23.
We rejoice that your will is done in heaven, that the holy angels do your commandments, and always hearken to the voice ofyour word; that they always behold the face of our Father. And we lament it that your will is so little done on earth, so many of the children of men being led captive by Satan at his will. O that this earth may be made more like heaven! and saints more like the holy angels!
And that we who hope to be shortly as the angels ofGod in heaven, may now like them, not rest from praising him; may now like them, resist and withstand Satan, may be as a flame of fire, and fly swiftly, and may go straight forward whithersoever the spirit goes; may minister for the good of others, and thus may come into communion with the innumerable company of angels. Psalm
103:20. Matthew 18.10. 2 Timothy 2:26. Matthew 22.30. Revelation 4:8. Daniel 10:13. Psalm 104:4. Daniel 9:21. Ezekiel 1:9, 12. Hebrews
5. GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD You, O God, who have appointed us to seek first the kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof, have promised that ifwe do so, other things shall be added unto us: And therefore having prayed for the sanctifying ofyour name, the coming ofyour kingdom, and the doing ofyour will, we next pray, Father in heaven, Give us this day, give us day by day our daily bread. Matthew 6:33. Luke 11:3.
Remove far from us vanity and lies; give us neither poverty nor riches, feed us with food convenient for us, lest we be full, and deny you, and say, who is the Lord? or lest we be poor and steal, and take the name of our God in vain. Proverbs 30:8, 9.
Lord, we ask not for dainties; for they are deceitful meat; nor do we pray that we may fare sumptuously every day, for we would not in our lifetime receive our good things; but we pray for that bread which is necessary to strengthen man's heart. We desire not to eat the bread of deceit, nor to drink any stolen waters, nor would we eat the bread of idleness, but that if it be your will we may eat the labor of our hands, that with quietness we may work, and eat our own bread; And having food and raiment, give us to be therewith content, and to say, We have all and abound. Proverbs 23:3. Luke
16:19, 25. Psalm 104:15. Proverbs 20:17. Proverbs 9:17. Proverbs 31:27. Psalm 128:2. 2 Thessalonians 3:12.
1 Timothy 6:8. Philippians 4:18.
Bless, Lord, our substance, and accept the work of our hands; and give us wherewithal to provide for our own, even for those of our own house; and to leave an inheritance, as far as is just, to our children's children. Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us; prosper you the work of our hands upon us, yea the work of our hands establishes it. Bless, Lord, our land with the precious things of the earth, and the fulness thereof; but above all let us have the good-will ofhim that dwelt in the bush, even the blessing that was upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of the head of him that was separated from his brethren. Deuteronomy 33:11.
1 Timothy 528. Proverbs 13:22. Psalm 90:17. Deuteronomy 33:13-16.
But ifthe fig-tree should not blossom, and there should be no fruit in the vine, if the labor of the olive should fail, and the field should yield no meat, ifthe flock should be cut offfrom the fold, and there should be no herd in the stall yet let us have grace to rejoice in the Lord, and to joy in the God of our salvation. Habakkuk 3:17, 18.
Father, we ask not for bread for a great while to come, but that we may have this day our daily bread; for we would learn, and the Lord teach us not to take thought for the morrow, what we shall eat, or what we shall drink, or wherewithal we shall be clothed; but we cast the care upon you, our heavenly Father, who knows that we have need of all these things; who feeds the fowls ofthe air, though they sow not, neither do they reap, and will much more feed us, who are ofmore value than many sparrows. Matthew 6:31, 32, 26.
Nor do we pray for daily bread for ourselves only, but for others also. O satisfy your poor with bread: Let all that walk righteously and speak uprightly, dwell on high: Let the place of their defense be the munitions of rocks, let bread be given to them, and let their waters be sure. Psalm 132:15. Isaiah 33:15, 16.
6. AND FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS AS WE FORGIVE OUR DEBTORS AND, Lord, as duly as we pray every day for our daily bread, we pray for the forgiveness of our sins: For we are all guilty before God, have all sinned, and have come short of the glory of God: In many things we all offend every day; who can tell how oft he offends? If you should mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with you that you mayest be feared. God be merciful to us sinners! Romans 3:19, 23.James 3:2. Psalm 19:12. Psalm 130:3, 4.
We have wasted our Lord's goods, we have buried the talents we were entrusted with, nor have we rendered again according to the benefit done unto us, and thus we come to be in debt. The scripture has concluded us all under sin: We have done such things as are worthy of death, things for which the wrath of God comes upon the children of disobedience. Our debt is more than ten thousand talents, it is a great debt; and we have nothing to pay, so far are we from being able to say, Have patience with us, and we will pay you all. Justly therefore might our adversary deliver us to the judge, and the judge to the officer, to be cast into prison, the prison ofhell, till we should pay the last farthing. Luke 16:1. Matthew 25:18. 2
Chronicles 32:25. Galatians 3:22. Romans 1:32. Ephesians 5:6.
Matthew 18:24, 32, 25, 26. Matthew 5:25, 26.
But blessed be God there is a way found out of agreeing with our adversary; for if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the Righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins. For his sake we pray you blot out all our transgressions and enter not into judgment with us. He is our surety, who restored that which he took not away, that blessed day's-man which hath laid his hand upon us both; through him let us be reconciled unto God, and let the hand-writing which was against us, which was contrary to us, be blotted out, and taken out of the way, being nailed to the cross of Christ, that we may be quickened together with Christ, having all our trespasses forgiven us. Be merciful to our unrighteousness, and our sins and our iniquities do you remember no more. 1 John 2:1, 2. Psalm 51:1. Psalm 143:2. Hebrews 7:22.
Psalm 69:4. Job 9:33. 2 Corinthians 5:20.
And give us, we pray you, to receive the atonement, to know that our sins are forgiven us; speak peace to us and make us to hear joy and gladness. Let the blood of Christ your Son cleanse us from all sin and purge our consciences from dead works to serve the living
God. Romans 5:11. 1 John 2:12. Psalm 85:8. Psalm 51:8. 1 John 1:7.
And as an evidence that you have forgiven our sins, we pray you give us grace to forgive our enemies, to love them that hate us, and bless them that curse us; for we acknowledge that ifwe forgive not men their trespasses, neither will our Father forgive our trespasses:
And therefore we forgive, Lord, we desire heartily to forgive, ifwe have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave us. Far be it from us to say that we will recompense evil, or that we should avenge ourselves. But we pray that all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil-speaking may be put away from us, with all malice; and that we may be kind one to another, and tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake we hope hath forgiven us. O make us merciful as our Father which is in heaven is merciful, who hath promised that with the merciful he will shew himself merciful. Matthew 5:44. Matthew 6:15. Mark 11:25.
Colossians 3:13. Proverbs 20:22. Romans 12:19. Ephesians 4.31, 32.
Luke 6:36. Psalm 18:25.
7. AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION, BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL And, Lord, forasmuch as there is in us a bent to backslide from you, so that when our sins are forgiven, we are ready to return again to folly, we pray that you will not only forgive us our debts, but take care ofus, that we may not offend any more: Lord, lead us not into any temptation. We know that no man can say when he is tempted, that he is tempted of God, for God tempts not any man: But we know that God is able to make all grace abound towards us, and to keep us from falling, and present us faultless. We therefore pray that you will never give us up to our own hearts lust, to walk in our own counsels, but restrain Satan, that roaring lion that goes about seeking whom he may devour and grant that we may not be ignorant of his devices. O let not Satan have us to sift us as wheat, or however let not our faith fail. Let not the messengers of Satan be permitted to buffet us; but ifthey be, let your grace be sufficient for us, that where we are weak, there we may be strong, and may be more than conquerors through him that loved us. And the God of peace tread Satan under our feet and do it shortly. And since we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, and the rulers ofthe darkness ofthis world, let us be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Hosea 11:7. Psalm 85:8.
Job 34:32. James 1:13. 2 Corinthians 9:8. Jude 24. Psalm 81:12. 1
Peter 5:8. 2 Corinthians 2:11. Luke 22:31, 32.
2 Corinthians 12:7, 9, 10. Romans 8:37. Romans 16:20. Ephesians 6:12, 10.
Lord, grant that we may never enter into temptation, but having prayed, may set a watch, and let your wise and good providence so order all our affairs, and all events that are concerning us, that no temptation may take us, but such as is common to men, and that we may never be tempted above what we are able, to discern, resist, and overcome through the grace of God. Lord, do not lay any stumbling blocks before us, that we should fall upon them and perish. Let nothing be an occasion of falling to us but give us that great peace which they have that love your law, whom nothing shall offend. Matthew 26:41. Nehemiah 4:9.
1 Corinthians 10:13.Jeremiah 6:21. Romans 14:13. Psalm 119:165.
And lead us, we pray you, into all truth; lead us in your truth, and teach us, for you are the God of our salvation. Shew us your ways,
O God, and teach us your paths; the paths ofrighteousness; O lead us in those paths for your name's sake, that so we may be led beside the still waters. John 16:13. Psalm 25:5, 4. Psalm 23:3, 2.
And deliver us, we pray you, from the evil one; keep us that the wicked one touch us not, that he sow not his tares in the field of our hearts, that we be not ensnared by his wiles, or wounded by his fiery dares, let the word of God abide in us, that we may be strong, and may overcome the wicked one. 1 John 5:18. Matthew 13:25.
Ephesians 6:11, 16. 1 John 2:14.
Deliver us from every evil thing, we pray, that we may do no evil:
O deliver us from every evil work, save us from our sins, redeem us from all iniquity, especially the sin that doth most easily beset us;
Hide pride from us; Remove from us the way oflying; Let us not eat of sinners dainties; Incline our hearts to your testimonies, and not to covetousness; And keep us that we never speak unadvisedly with our lips; but especially keep back your servants from presumptuous sins, let not them have dominion over us. 2
Corinthians 13:7. 2 Timothy 4:18. Matthew 1:21.
Hebrews 12:1. Job 33:17. Psalm 119:29. Psalm 141:4. Psalm 119-36.
Psalm 106:33. Psalm 19:13.
Preserve us, we pray you, that no evil thing may befall us; let your hand be with us, and keep us from evil, that it may not hurt us. O you that saves by your right hand them which put their trust in you, from those that rise up against them, show us your marvelous loving-kindness, and keep us as the apple ofyour eye, hide us under the shadow of your wings. Keep that which we commit unto you.
You that have delivered dost deliver, and we trust and pray that you will yet deliver, will deliver us from all our fears.
O make us dwell safely, and grant that we may be quiet from the fear of evil. And bring us safe at last to that holy mountain, where there is no pricking brier, or grieving thorn; nothing to hurt or destroy. Psalm
Chronicles 4:10. Psalm 17:7, 8. 2 Timothy 1:12. 2
Corinthians 1:10. Psalm 34.4. Proverbs 1:33. Ezekiel 28:24. Isaiah 11:9.
8. YOURS IS THE KINGDOM, THE POWER, AND THE GLORY FOREVER, AMEN Father in heaven, let your kingdom come; for yours is the kingdom, you are God in heaven, and rules over all the kingdoms of the heathen: Let your will be done, for yours is the power, and there is nothing too hard for you: Let your name be sanctified, for yours is the glory, and you have set your glory above the heavens. 2
Chronicles 20-6. Jeremiah 32:17. Psalm 8:1.
Father in heaven, supply our wants, pardon our sins, and preserve us from evil, for yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, and you are Lord over all, who are rich to all that call upon you; None can forgive sins but you only; Let your power be great in pardoning our sins; And since it is the glory ofGod to pardon sin, and to help the helpless, Help us, O God ofour salvation, for the glory ofyour name deliver us, and purge away our sins, for your names sake.
Romans 10:12. Mark 2:7. Numbers 14:17. Proverbs 25:2. Psalm 79:9.
We desire in all our prayers to praise you, for you are great, and greatly to be praised. We praise your kingdom, forit is an everlasting kingdom, and endures throughout all generations, and the scepter of your kingdom is a right scepter, you love righteousness, and hates wickedness, to you belongs mercy, and you render to every man according to his work. We praise your power, for you have a mighty arm, strong is your hand, and high is your right hand, and yet judgment and justice are the habitation ofyour throne, mercy and truth shall go before your face. We praise your glory, for the glory ofthe Lord shall endure forever. Glory be to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. O let God be praised in his sanctuary, and praised in the firmament ofhis power, let him be praised for his mighty acts, and praised according to his excellent greatness: Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord; Hallelujah. Psalm 145:3, 13. Psalm 45:6, 7.
Psalm 62:12. Psalm 89:13, 14. Psalm 104:31. Psalm 150-1, 2, 6.
And forasmuch as we know that he hears us, and whatsoever we ask, according to his will, in faith, we have the petitions that we desired of him, we will triumph in his praise. Now know we that the Lord hearth his anointed, and for his sake will hear us from his holy heaven with the saving strength ofhis right hand: And therefore in token, not only of our desire, but of our assurance to be heard in Christ's name, we say, Amen, amen. 1 John 5:15. Psalm 106:47.
SOME FORMS OF PRAYER Some short forms of prayer for the use of those who may not be able to collect for themselves out of the foregoing materials.
1. A PRAYER TO BE USED BY CHILDREN O God, you are my God, early will I seek you. You are my God, and I will praise you, my father's God andI will exalt you.
Who is a God like unto you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?
Whom have I in heaven but you? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides you. When my flesh and my heart fail, you are the strength ofmy heart, and my portion forever.
You made me for yourselfto shew forth your praise.
But I ama sinner; I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
God be merciful to me a sinner.
O deliver me from the wrath to come, through Christ Jesus who died for me, and rose again.
Lord, give me a new nature. Let Jesus Christ be formed in my soul, that to me to live may be Christ, and to die may be gain.
Lord, I was in my baptism given up to you; receive me graciously and love me freely.
Lord Jesus, you have encouraged little children to come to you, and have said, that of such is the kingdom of God; I come to you; O make mea faithful subject of your kingdom, take me up in your arms, put your hands upon me, and bless me.
O give me grace to redeem me from all iniquity, and particularly from the vanity which childhood and youth are subject to.
Lord, give me a wise and understanding heart, that I may know and do your will in everything, and may in nothing sin against you.
Lord, grant that from my childhood I may know the Holy Scriptures and may continue in the good things which I have learned.
Remove from me the way of lying and grant me your law graciously.
Lord, be a Father to me; teach me, and guide me; provide for me, and protect me; and bless me, even me, O my Father.
Bless all my relations [father, mother, brothers, sisters] and give me grace to do my duty to them in everything.
Lord, prepare me for death, and give me wisely to consider my latter end.
O Lord, I thank you for all your mercies to me; for life and health, food and raiment, and for my education; for my creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus
Christ, for the means of grace, and the hopes ofglory.
Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift; Blessed be God for Jesus Christ. None but Christ, none but Christ for me.
Now to God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, that great name into which I was baptized, be honorand glory, dominion, and praise, for ever and ever, Amen.
2. ANOTHER PARAPHRASE ON THE LORD'S PRAYER IN THE WORDS OF THE ASSEMBLY'S SHORTER CATECHISM Our Father in heaven, we come to you as children to a Father able and ready to help us.
We beseech you, Let your name be sanctified, enable us and others to glorify you in all that whereby you have made yourself known, and dispose of all things to your own glory.
Let your kingdom come; Let Satan's kingdom be destroyed and let the kingdom of your grace be advanced; let us and others be brought into it, and kept in it, and let the kingdom of your glory be hastened.
Let your will be done on earth as it is done in heaven, make us by your grace able and willing to know, obey, and submit to your will in all things, as the angels do in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, of your free gift let us receive a competent portion of the good things of this life and let us enjoy your blessing with them.
Andforgive us our trespasses as weforgive them that trespass against us. We pray that for Christ's sake you would freely pardon all our sins, and that by your grace you would enable us from the heart to forgive others.
Andleadus not into temptation butdeliver usfrom evil: Either keep us (O Lord) from being tempted to sin, or support and deliver us when we are tempted.
For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Lord, we take our encouragement in prayer from yourself only, and desire in our prayers to praise you, ascribing kingdom, power, and glory to you: And in testimony of our desires and assurance to be heard through Jesus Christ, we say Amen.
3. ANOTHER PRAYER DRAWN OUT OF MY PLAIN CATECHISM FOR CHILDREN First published in the years 1703, this prayer will be easy to those children who have learned that catechism.
O Lord, you are an infinite and eternal Spirit, most wise and powerful, holy, just, and good.
You are the great God that made the world and are my Creator; and you that made me preserves and maintains me, and in you I live and move and have my being. O that I may remember you as my Creator in the days ofmy youth, and never forget you.
Lord, give me grace to serve and honor you, to worship and obey you, and in all my ways to trust in you and to please you.
Lord, I thank you for your holy word, which you have given me to be the rule of my faith and obedience, and which is able to make me wise unto salvation.
I confess, O Lord, that the condition I was born in is sinful and miserable.Iam naturally prone to that which is evil, and backward to that which is good, and foolishness is bound up in my heart; and I am by nature a child of wrath, so that ifyou had not raised up a Savior for me, I had been certainly lost and undone forever. I have been disobedient to the command of God and have eaten forbidden fruit.
But blessed and forever blessed be God for the Savior Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, and the only mediator between God and man, who took our nature upon him, and became man, that he might redeem and save us.
Lord, I bless you for his Holy life, give me to follow his steps; I bless you for the true and excellent doctrine which he preached, give me to mix faith with it; I bless you for the miracles which he wrought to confirm his doctrine: And especially that he died the cursed death of the cross to satisfy for sin, and to reconcile us to God; and that he rose again from the dead on the third day, and ascended up into heaven, where he ever lives making intercession for us, and hath all power both in heaven and in earth; and that we are assured he will come again in glory to judge the world at the last day.
Lord, I thank you thatI am one ofhis disciples; forIam a baptized Christian; and I give glory to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in whose name I was baptized.
Lord, be you in Christ to me a God, and make me one of your people.
Be you my chief good and highest end; let Jesus Christ be my Prince and Savior; and let the Holy Ghost be my sanctifier, teacher, guide, and comforter.
Lord, enable me to deny all ungodliness, and worldly fleshly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, always looking for the blessed hope.
Work in me repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ; and give me to live a life of faith and repentance.
Lord, make me truly sorry that I have offended you in what I have thought, and spoken, and done amiss, and give me grace to sin no more.
And enable me to receive Jesus Christ, and to rely upon him as my prophet, priest, and king, and to give up myself to be ruled, and taught, and saved by him.
Lord, grant unto me the pardon of my sins, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and eternal life.
And give me grace to manifest the sincerity of my faith and repentance by a diligent and conscientious obedience to all your commandments.
Enable me to love you with all my heart, and to love my neighbor as myself.
Give me grace always to make mention of your name with reverence and seriousness, to read and hearyourword with diligence and attention, to meditate upon it, to believe it, and to frame my life according to it.
Lord, grant that I may receive all your mercies with thankfulness and bear all afflictions with patience and submission to your holy will.
Lord, grant that my heart may never be lifted up with pride, disturbed with anger, or any sinful passion; and that my body may never be defiled with intemperance, uncleanness, or any fleshly lusts; and keep me from ever speaking any sinful words.
Lord, give me grace to reverence and obey my parents and governors; I thank you for their instructions and reproofs: I pray you bless them to me, and make me in everything a comfort to them.
Lord, pity, help, and succor the poor, and those in affliction and distress.
Lord, bless my friends, forgive my enemies, and enable me to do my duty to all men.
Wherein I have in anything offended you, I humbly pray for pardon in the blood of Christ, and grace to do my duty better for the time to come, and so to live in the fear of God, as that I may be happy in this world, and that to come.
Lord, prepare me to die, and leave this world; O save me from that state ofeverlasting misery and torment, which will certainly be the portion of all the wicked and ungodly, and bring me safe to the world of everlasting rest and joy with you and Jesus Christ.
And give me wisdom and grace to live a holygodly life, and to make it my great care and business to serve you, and to save my own soul.
All this I humbly beg in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ, myblessed Savior and Redeemer, to whom with you, O Father, and the eternal Spirit, be honor, glory, and praise henceforth, and for evermore. Amen.
A MORNING PRAYER FOR A FAMILY O Lord, our God, we desire with all humility and reverence to adore you as a Being infinitely bright, and blessed, and glorious, that have all perfection in yourself, and are the fountain ofall being, power, life, motion, and perfection.
You are good to all, and your tender mercies are over all your works; and you are continually doing us good, though we are evil and unthankful.
We reckon it an unspeakable privilege, that we have liberty of access to you through Jesus Christ, and leave to call you our Father in him. O look upon us now, and be merciful to us, as you used to do unto those that love your name.
O give us all to account our daily worship ofyou in our family, the most needful part of our daily business, and the most pleasant of our daily comforts.
You are the God of all the families ofIsrael, be you the God of our family, and grant that whatever others do, we and ours may always serve the Lord; that you mayest cause the blessing to rest on our house from the beginning of the year to the end of it. Lord, bless us, and we are blessed indeed.
We humbly thank you for all the mercies ofthis night past, and this morning, that we have laid us down and slept, and waked again, because you have sustained us; That no plague has come nigh our dwelling; but that we are brought in safety to the light and comforts of another day.
It is of your mercies, O Lord, that we are not consumed, even because your compassions fail not, they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
We have rested and are refreshed, when many have been full of tossing to and fro till the dawning of the day: We have a safe and quiet habitation, when many are forced to wander and lie exposed.
We own your goodness to us, and ourselves we acknowledge less than the least of all the mercy, and of all the truth you have shewed unto us.
We confess we have sinned against you; we are guilty before you, we have sinned and have come short of the glory of God: We have corrupt and sinful natures and are bent to backslide from you, backward to good and prone to evil continually.
Vain thoughts come into us, and lodge within us, lying down and rising up, and they defile or disquiet our minds, and keep out good thoughts. We are too apt to burden ourselves with that care which you have encouraged us to cast upon you.
We are very much wanting in the duties of our particular relations and provoke one another more to folly and passion than to love and to good works. We are very cold and defective in our love to God, weak in our desires towards him, and unsteady and uneven in our walking with him; and are at this time much out of frame for his service.
We pray you forgive all our sins for Christ's sake and be at peace with us in him who died to make peace, and ever lives making intercession.
There are many that say, "Who will show us any good? but, Lord, let not us be put off with the good of this world for a portion: for this is our heart's desire and prayer, Lord, lift up the light of your countenance upon us, and that shall put gladness into our hearts more than they have whose corn and wine and oil increases.
Lord, let your peace rule in our hearts, and give law to us, and let your peace keep our hearts and minds, and give comfort to us; and let the consolations ofGod, which are neither few nor small, be our strength and our song in the house of our pilgrimage.
Lord, we commit ourselves to your care and keeping this day:
Watch over us for good; compass us about with your favor as with a shield; preserve us from all evil, yea, the Lord preserve and keep our souls; preserve our going out and coming in.
Our bodies and all our worldly affairs we commit to the conduct ofyour wise and gracious providence and submit to its disposal. Let no hurt or harm happen to us; keep us in health and safety; bless our employments, prosper us in all our lawful undertakings, and give us comfort and success in them. Let us eat the labor of our hands, and let it be well with us.
Our precious souls and all their concerns we commit to the government ofyour Spirit and grace. O let your grace be mightyin us, and sufficient for us, and let it work in us both to will and to do that which is good, ofyour own good pleasure.
O give us grace to do the work of this day in its day, according as the duty ofthe day requires, and to do even common actions after a godly sort; acknowledging you in all our ways, and having our eye ever up to you, and be you pleased to direct our steps.
Lord, keep us from sin; give us rule over our own spirits, and grant that we may not this day break out into passion upon any provocation, or speak unadvisedly with our lips: Give us grace to live together in peace and holy love, that the Lord may command the blessing upon us, even life for evermore.
Make us conscientious in all our dealings, and always watchful against sin, as becomes those who see your eye ever upon us: Arm us against every temptation, uphold us in our integrity, keep us in the way of our duty; and grant that we may be in your fear every day, and all the day long.
In every doubtful case let our way be made plain before us; and give us that wisdom of the prudent, which is at all times profitable to direct; and let integrity and uprightness preserve us, for we wait on you.
Sanctify to us all our losses, crosses, afflictions, and disappointments, and give us grace to submit to your holy will in them and let us find it good for us to be afflicted, that we may be partakers ofyour holiness.
Prepare us for all the events of this day, for we know not what a day may bring forth: Give us to stand complete in your whole will; to deny ourselves, to take up our cross daily, and to follow Jesus Christ.
Lord, fit us for death, and judgment, and eternity, and give us grace to live every day as those that do not know but it may be our last day.
Lord, plead your cause in the world; build up your church into perfect beauty; set up the throne of the exalted Redeemer in all places upon the ruins of the Devil's kingdom. Let the reformed churches be more and more reformed and let everything that is amiss be amended; and let those that suffer for righteousness' sake be supported and delivered.
Do us good in these nations; bless the queen and all in authority; guide public counsels and affairs; over-rule all to your own glory; let peace and truth be in our days and be preserved to those that shall come after us.
Be gracious to all our relations, friends, neighbors, and acquaintances, and do them good according as their necessities are. Supply the wants of all your people. Dwell in the families that fear you and call upon your name. Forgive our enemies, and those that hate us; give us a right and charitable frame of spirit towards all men, and all that is theirs.
Visit those that are in affliction, and comfort them, and be to them a very present help. Recover the sick, ease the pained, succor the tempted, relieve the oppressed, and give joy to those that mourn in Zion.
Deal with us and our family according to the tenor of the everlasting covenant, which is well ordered in all things and sure, and which is all our salvation and all our desire; however it pleases
God to deal with us and with our house.
Now blessed be God for all his gifts both of nature and grace, for those that concern this life, and that to come; especially for Jesus
Christ the fountain and foundation of all; Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift.
We humbly beseech you for Christ Jesus' sake to pardon our sins, accept our services, and grant an answer ofpeace to our prayers, even for his sake who died for us and rose again, who hath taught us to pray...
5. AN EVENING PRAYER FOR A FAMILY Most holy and blessed and glorious Lord God, whose we are, and whom we are bound to serve; for because you made us, and not we ourselves, therefore we are not our own but yours, and unto you, O
Lord, do we lift up our souls: Your face, Lord, do we seek; whither shall we go for a happiness but to you from whom we derive our being?
You are the great benefactor of the whole creation: You give to all life and breath, and all things: You are our benefactor; the God that has fed us and kept us all our life long unto this day. Having obtained help ofGod, we continue hitherto, monuments ofsparing mercy, and witnesses for you that you are gracious, that you are God and not man; for therefore it is that we are not cut off.
One day tells another, and one night certifies to another, that you are good and do good, and never fail those that seek you and trust in you.
You make the outgoings ofthe morning and ofthe evening to praise you.
It is through the good hand of our God upon us, that we are brought in safety to the close of another day, and that after the various employments of the day, we come together at night to mention the loving kindness of the Lord, and the praises of our
God, who is good, and whose mercy endures forever.
Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with his benefits, even the God ofour salvation; for he that is our God is the God ofsalvation.
We have from you the mercies of the day in its day, according as the necessity ofthe day requires, though we come far short ofdoing the work of the day in its day, according as the duty of the day
We bless you for the ministration ofthe good angels about us, the serviceableness of the inferior creatures to us, for our bodily health and ease, comfort in our relations, and a comfortable place of abode, and that you have not made the wilderness our habitation, and the barren land our dwelling; and especially that you continue to us the use of our reason, and the quiet and peace of our consciences.
We bless you for our share in the public tranquility that you have given us good land, in which we dwell safely under our own vines and fig trees.
Above all we bless you for Jesus Christ, and his mediation between God and man, for the covenant ofgrace made with us in him, and all the exceeding great and precious promises and privileges ofthat covenant, for the throne ofgrace erected for us, to which we may in his name come with humble boldness, and for the hope ofeternal life through him.
We confess we have sinned against you; this daywe have sinned and done foolishly: O God, you knowest our foolishness, and our sins are not hid from you: we misspend our time, we neglect our duty, we follow after lying vanities, and forsake our own mercies. We offend with our tongues: Are we not carnal and walk as men, below
Christians? Who can understand his errors? Cleanse us from our secret faults.
We pray you give us repentance for our sins of daily infirmity, and make us duly sensible of the evil of them, and of our danger by them, and let the blood of Christ your Son, which cleanses from all sin, cleanse us from them, that we may lie down to night at peace with God, and our souls may comfortably return to him, and repose in him as our rest.
And give us grace so to repent every day for the sins of every day, as that when we come to die, we may have the sins but ofone day to repent of, and so we may be continually easy.
Do us good by all the providences we are under, merciful or afflictive; give us grace to accommodate ourselves to them, and by all bring us nearer to you, and make us fitter for you.
We commit ourselves to you this night, and desire to dwell in the secret place of the Most High, and to abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Let the Lord be our habitation, and let our souls be at home in him.
Make a hedge ofprotection (we pray you) about us, and about our house, and about all that we have round about, so that no evil may befall us, nor any plague come nigh our dwelling. The Lord be our keeper, who neither slumbers nor sleeps; Lord, be you a sun and a shield to us.
Refresh our bodies (we pray you) with quiet and comfortable rest, not to be disturbed with any distrustful disquieting cares or fears; but especially let our souls be refreshed with your love and the light of your countenance, and your benignity, which is better than life.
When we awake, grant that we may be still with you, and may remember you upon our beds, and meditate upon you in the night watches, and may improve the silence and solitude ofour retirements for communing with God and our own hearts; that when we are alone we may not be alone, but God may be with us, and we with him.
Restore us to another day in safety, and prepare us for the duties and events of it; and by all the supports and comforts of this life, let our bodies be fitted to serve our souls in your service, and enable us to glorify you with both, remembering that we are not our own, we are bought witha price.
And forasmuch as we are now brought one day nearer our end, Lord, enable us so to number our days, as that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom: Let us be minded by our putting off our clothes, and going to sleep in our beds, of putting off the body, sleeping the sleep ofdeath, and ofmaking our bed in the darkness shortly, that we may be dying daily in expectation of and preparation for our change, that when we come to die indeed, it may be no surprise or terror to us, but we may with comfort put off the body, and resign the spirit, knowing whom we have trusted.
Lord, let our family be blessed in him, in whom all the families of the earth are blessed, blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things by Christ Jesus, and with temporal blessings as far as you see good for us: Give us health and prosperity, but especially let our souls prosper and be in health, and let all that belong to us belong to Christ, that we who live in a house together on earth, may be together for ever with the Lord.
Look with pity upon a lost world, we beseech you, and set up Christ's throne there where Satan's seat is; send the gospel where it is not, make it successful where it is; let it be mighty through God to the pulling down of the strong holds of sin.
Let the church of Christ greatly flourish in all places; and make it to appear that it is built upon a rock, and that the gates of hell cannot prevail against it; and suffer not the rod of the wicked anywhere to rest upon the lot of the righteous.
Let the land of our nativity be still the particular care of your good providence, that in the peace thereofwe may have peace. Let glory dwell in our land, and upon all the glory let there be a defense.
Rule in the hearts of our rulers: We pray you continue the queen's life and government long a public blessing; make all that are in places ofpublic trust faithful to the public interest; and all that bear the sworda terror to evil doers, and a protection and praise to them that do well. Own your ministers in their work and give them skill and will to help souls to heaven.
Be gracious to all that are dear to us: Let the rising generation be such as you will own and do you more and better service in their day than this has done.
Comfort and relieve all that are in sorrow and affliction, lay no more upon them than you will enable them to bear, and enable them to bear what you dost lay upon them.
Do for us, we pray you, abundantly above what we are able to ask or think, for the sake of our blessed Savior Jesus Christ, who is the Lord our Righteousness. To him with the Father and the eternal
Spirit be glory and praise now and forever. Amen.
A FAMILY PRAYER FOR THE LORD'S DAY MORNING Most gracious God, and our Father in our Lord Jesus Christ: It is good for us to draw near to you; the nearer the better, and it will be best of all when we come to be nearest of all in the kingdom of glory.
You have your Being ofyourself, and your happiness in yourself, we therefore adore you as the great Jehovah: We have our being from you, and our happiness in you, and therefore it is both our duty and our interest to seek to you, to implore your favor, and to give unto you the glory due to your name.
We bless you for the return ofthe morning light, and that you cause the dayspring to know its place and time. O let the dayspring from on high visit our dark souls, and the Sun ofrighteousness arise with healing under his wings.
We bless you that the light we see is the Lord's: That this is the day which the Lord hath made, hath made for man, hath made for himself, we will rejoice and be glad in it. That you have revealed unto us your holy sabbaths, and that we were betimes taught to put a difference between this day and other days, and that we live in a land, in all parts ofwhich God is publicly and solemnly worshipped on this day.
We bless you that sabbath liberties and opportunities are continued to us; and that we are not wishing in vain for these days ofthe Son ofman; that our candlestick is not removed out ofits place, as justly it might have been, because we have left our first love.
Now we bid this sabbath welcome: Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. O that we may be in the Spirit on this Lord's Day; That this may be the sabbath of the Lord in our dwelling; in our hearts, a sabbath of rest from sin, and a sabbath ofrest in God. Enable us, we pray you, so to sanctify this sabbath, as that it may be sanctified to us, and be a means of our sanctification: That by resting to day from our worldly employments, our hearts may be more and more taken offfrom present things, and prepared to leave them; and that by employing our time to day in the worship ofGod, we may be led into a more experimental acquaintance with the workofheaven, and be made more meet for that blessed world.
We confess we are utterly unworthy of the honor, and unable for the work ofcommunion with you; but we come to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is worthy, and depend upon the assistances ofyour blessed Spirit to work all our works in us, and so to ordain peace for us.
We keep this day holy to the honor ofGod the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth, in remembrance of the work of creation, that work of wonder, in which you made all things out of nothing, by the word of your power, and all very good; and they continue to this day according to your ordinance, for all are your servants. You are worthy to receive blessing and honorand glory and power, for you have created all things, and for your pleasure they are and were created. O you who at first didst command the light to shine out of darkness, who said on the first day of the first week, Let there be light, and there was light; we pray you shine this day into our hearts, and give us more and more of the light of the knowledge of the glory ofGod in the face ofJesus Christ; and let us be your workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works; a kind of first fruits ofyour creatures.
We likewise sanctify this day to the honor ofour Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, and our exalted Redeemer, in remembrance of his resurrection from the dead on the first day of the week, by which he was declared to be the Son of God with power. We bless you that having laid down his life to make atonement for sin, he rose again for our justification, that he might bring in an everlasting righteousness. That the stone which the builders refused, the same is become the headstone of the corner; this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. We bless you that he is risen from the dead as the first fruits of them that slept, that he might be the resurrection and the life to us. Now we pray that while we are celebrating the memorial of his resurrection with joy and triumph, we may experience in our souls the power and virtue of his resurrection, that we may rise with him, may rise from the death ofsin, to the life ofrighteousness, from the dust of this world to a holy, heavenly, spiritual and divine life. O that we maybe planted togetherin the likeness ofChrist's resurrection, that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory ofthe Father, so we also may walk in newness of life.
We sanctify this day also to the honor of the eternal Spirit, that blessed Spirit ofgrace the Comforter, rejoicing at the remembrance of the descent of the Spirit upon the apostles on the day of Pentecost, the first day of the week likewise. We bless you that when Jesus was glorified, the Holy Ghost was given to make up the want of his bodily presence, to carry on his undertaking, and to ripen things for his second coming; and that we have a promise that he shall abide with us forever. And now we pray that the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead, may dwell and rule in every one ofus, to make us partakers ofa new and divine nature. Come, O blessed Spirit ofgrace, and breathe upon these dry bones, these dead hearts of ours, that they may live, and be in us a spirit of faith and love and holiness, a spirit ofpower and of a sound mind.
O Lord, we bless you for your holy word, which is a light to our feet, and a lamp to our paths, and which was written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope: That the scriptures are preserved pure and entire to us, and that we have them in a language that we understand. We beg that we may not receive the grace of God herein in vain. We bless you that our eyes see the joyful light, and our ears hear the joyful sound of a Redeemer and a Savior, and of redemption and salvation by him; that life and immortality are brought to light by the gospel. Glory be to God in the highest, for in and through Jesus
Christ there is on earth peace, and good-will towards men.
We bless you for the great gospel record, That God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Lord, we receive it as a faithful saying, and well worthy of all acceptations; we will venture our immortal souls upon it; and we are encouraged by it to come to you, to beg for an interest in the mediation of your Son. O let him be made of God to us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption; let us be effectually called into fellowship with him, and by faith be united to him, so that Christ may live in us, and we may grow up into him in all things who is the head; that we may bring forth fruit in him, and whatever we do in word or deed, we may do all in his name. O let us have the Spirit of Christ, that thereby it may appear we are his. And through him we pray that we may have eternal life, that we may none of us come short of it but may all ofus have the first fruits and earnests of it abiding in us.
We bless you for the new covenant made with us in Jesus Christ; thatwhen the covenant ofinnocence was irreparablybroken, so that it was become impossible for us to get to heaven by that covenant, you were then pleased to deal with us upon new terms, that we are under grace and not under the law; that this covenant is established upon better promises in the hand of a mediator. Lord, we fly for refuge to it, we take hold of it as the hope set before us. O receive us graciously into the bond ofthis covenant, and make us accepted in the beloved, according to the tenor of the covenant. You have declared concerning the Lord Jesus, that he is your beloved Son in whom you are well pleased, and we humbly profess that he is our beloved Savior, in whom we are well pleased: Lord, be well pleased with us in him.
O that our hearts may be filled this day with pleasing thoughts of Christ, and his love to us, that great love wherewith he loved us. O the admirable dimensions of that love, the height, and depth, and length, and breadth of the love of Christ, which passes knowledge:
Let this love constrain us to love him and live to him, who died for us and rose again. O that it may be a pleasure and mighty satisfaction to us to think, that while we are here praying at the footstool ofthe throne of grace, our blessed Savior is sitting at the right hand of the throne ofglory interceding for us: We earnestly beg that through him we may find favor with you our God and may be taken into covenant and communion with you.
We humbly pray you for his sake forgive all our sins, known and unknown, in thought, word, and deed: Through him let us be acquitted from guilt, and accepted as righteous in your sight: Let us not come into condemnation, as we have deserved; let our iniquity be taken away, and our sin covered; and let us be clothed with the spotless robe of Christ's righteousness, that the shame of our nakedness may not appear. O let there be no cloud of guilt to interpose between us and our God this day, and to intercept our comfortable communion with him. And let our lusts be mortified and subdued, that our own corruptions may not be as a clog to us, to hinder the ascent ofour soul's heaven-wards.
We pray you assist us in all the religious services of this your own holy day: Go along with us to the solemn assembly; for if your presence goes not up with us, wherefore should we go up? Give us to draw nigh to you with a true heart, witha free heart, with a fixed heart, and in full assurance of faith. Meet us with a blessing: Grace your own ordinances with your presence, that special presence of yours which you have promised there where two or three are gathered together in your name. Help us against our manifold infirmities, and the sins that do most easily beset us in our attendance upon you: Let your word come with life and power to our souls, and be as good seed sown in good soil, taking root, and bringing forth fruit to your praise: And let our prayers and praises be spiritual sacrifices, acceptable in your sight through Christ Jesus, and let those that tarry at home divide the spoil.
Let your presence be in all the assemblies of good Christians this day: Grace be with all ofthem that love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity; let great grace be upon them all. In the chariot of the everlasting gospel let the great Redeemer ride forth triumphantly, conquering and to conquer, and let every thought be brought into obedience to him: Let many be brought to believe the report ofthe gospel, and to many let the arm ofthe Lord be revealed: Let sinners be converted unto you, and your saints edified and built up in faith, holiness and comfort, unto salvation: Complete the number ofyour elect, and hasten your kingdom.
Now the Lord of peace himself give us peace always by all means.
The God of hope fill us with joy and peace in believing, for Christ Jesus' sake our blessed Savior and Redeemer, who hath taught us to pray...
7. A FAMILY PRAYER FOR THE LORD'S DAY EVENING O Eternal and forever blessed and glorious Lord God: You are God over all, and rich in mercy to all that call upon you, Most wise and powerful, holy, just, and good; the King ofkings and Lord oflords; our Lord and our God.
You are happy without us, and have no need of our services, neither can our goodness extend unto you; but we are miserable without you, we have need of your favors, and are undone, forever undone, if your goodness extend not unto us; and therefore, Lord, we intreat your favor with our whole hearts; O let your favor be towards us in Jesus Christ, for our happiness is bound up in it, and it is to us better than life. We confess we have forfeited your favor; we have rendered ourselves utterly unworthy of it; yet we are humbly bold to pray for it in the name of Jesus Christ, who loved us, and gave himself for us.
We bewail it before you, that by the corruption of our natures, we are become odious to your holiness, and utterly unfit to inherit the kingdom of God; and that by our many actual transgressions we are become obnoxious to your justice, and liable to your wrath and curse. Being by nature children of disobedience, we are children of wrath and have reason both to blush and tremble in all our approaches to the holy and righteous God. Even the iniquity of our holy things would be our ruin, ifGod should deal with us according to the desert of them. But with you, O God, there is mercy and plenteous redemption: You have graciously provided for all those that repent and believe the gospel, that the guilt of their sin shall be removed through the merit of Christ's death, and the power of their sins broken by his Spirit and grace; and he is both ways able to save to the uttermost all those that come unto God by him, seeing he ever lives making intercession for us.
Lord, we come to you as a Father by Jesus Christ the mediator, and earnestly desire by repentance and faith to turn from the world and the flesh to God in Jesus Christ, as our ruler and portion. We are sorry that we have offended you, we are ashamed to think of our treacherous and ungrateful carriage towards you. We desire that we may have no more to do with sin, and pray as earnestly that the power of sin may be broken in us, as that the guilt of sin may be removed from us: and we rely only upon the righteousness ofJesus
Christ, and upon the merit of his death, for the procuring of your favor. O look upon us in him, and for his sake receive us graciously, heal our backslidings, and love us freely; and let not our iniquity be our ruin.
We beg, that being justified by faith, we may have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation for sin, that he may be just, and the justifier of them which believe in Jesus. Through him who was made sin for us, though he knew no sin, let us who know no righteousness of our own, be accepted as righteous.
And the God of peace sanctify us wholly; begin and carry on that good work in our souls; renew us in the spirit of our minds and make us in everything such as you would have us to be. Set up your throne in our hearts, write your law there, plant your fear there, and fill us with all the graces of your Spirit, that we may be fruitful in the fruits of righteousness, to the glory and praise of God.
Mortify our pride, and clothe us with humility; mortify our passion, and put upon us the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight ofGod ofgreat price. Save us from the power ofa vain mind, and let your grace be mighty in us to make us serious and soberminded. Let the flesh be crucified in us with all its affections and lusts, and give us grace to keep under our body, and to bring it into subjection to the laws of religion and right reason, and always to possess our vessel in sanctification and honor.
Let the love ofthe world be rooted out ofus, and that covetousness which is idolatry; and let the love of God in Christ be rooted in us.
Shed abroad that love in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, and give us to love you the Lord our God with all our heart, and soul, and mind, and might; and to do all we do in religion froma principle of love to you.
Mortify in us all envy, hatred, malice, and uncharitableness; pluck up these roots ofbitterness out ofour minds and give us grace to love one another with a pure heart fervently, as becomes the followers of the Lord Jesus, who has given us this as his new commandment.
O that brotherly love may continue among us, love without dissimulation.
We pray you rectify all our mistakes; ifin anything we be in an error discover it to us, and let the Spirit oftruth lead us into all truth, the truth as it is in Jesus, the truth which is according to godliness; and give us that good understanding which they have that do your commandments; and let our love and all good affections abound in us yet more and more, in knowledge and in all judgment.
Convince us, we pray you, of the vanity of this world, and its utter insufficiency to make us happy, that we may never set our hearts upon it, nor raise our expectations from it; and convince us of the vileness ofsin, and its certain tendencyto make us miserable, that we may hate it and dread it, and everything that looks like it, or leads to it.
Convince us, we pray you, of the worth of our own souls, and the weight of eternity, and the awfulness of that everlasting state which we are standing upon the brink of, and make us diligent and serious in our preparation for it, laboring less for the meat that perishes, and more for that which endures to eternal life; as those who have set their affections on things above, and not on things that are on the earth, which are trifling and transitory.
O that time and the things of time may be as nothing to us in comparison with eternity, and the things of eternity; that eternity may be much upon our heart, and ever in our eye; that we may be governed by that faith which is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen; looking continually at the things that are not seen that are eternal.
Give us grace, we pray you, to look up to the other world with such a holy concern, as that we may look down upon this world with a holy contempt and indifferency, as those that must be here but a very little while, and must be somewhere forever; thatwe may rejoice as though we rejoiced not, and weep as though we wept not, and buy as though we possessed not, and may use this world as not abusing it, because the fashion ofthis world passes away, and we are passing away with it.
O let your grace be mighty in us, and sufficient for us to prepare us for that great change which will come certainly and shortly, and may come very suddenly, which will remove us from a world ofsense to a world of spirits; from our state of trial and probation to that of recompence and retribution; and to make us meet for the inheritance of the saints in light, that when we fail we may be received into everlasting habitations.
Prepare us, we beseech you, for whatever we may meet with betwixt and the grave: We know not what is before us, and therefore know not what particular provision to make, but you dost; and therefore we beg ofyou to fit us by your grace for all the services and all the sufferings which you shalt at any time call us out to; and arm us against every temptation which we may at any time be assaulted with, that we may at all times and in all conditions glorify God, keep a good conscience, and be found in the way ofour duty, and may keep up our hope and joy in Christ, and a believing prospect ofeternal life, and then welcome the holy will of God.
Give us grace, we pray you, to live a life ofcommunion with you both in ordinances and providences, to set you always before us, and to have our eyes ever up unto you; and to live a life of dependance upon you, upon your power, providence, and promise, trusting in you at all times, and pouring out our hearts before you; and to live a life of devotedness to you, and to your honor and glory, as our highest end: And that we may make our religion not only our business, but our pleasure, we beseech you enable us to live a life ofcomplacency in you, to rejoice in you always; that making God our heart's delight, so we may have our heart's desire; and this is our heart's desire, to know, and love, and live to God, to please him, and to be pleased in him.
We beseech you, preserve us in our integrity to our dying day, and grant that we may never forsake you, or turn from following after you, but that with purpose of heart we may cleave unto the Lord; and may not count life itself dear to us, so we may but finish our course with joy and true honor.
Let your good providence order all the circumstances of our dying, so as may best befriend our comfortable removal to a better world; and let your grace be sufficient for us then to enable us to finish well; and let us then have an abundant entrance ministered to us into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
And while we are here, make us wiser and better every day than other; more weaned from the world, and more willing to leave it; more holy, heavenly, and spiritual; that the longer we live in this world, the fitter we may be for another world, and our last days may be our best days, our last works our best works, and our last comforts our sweetest comforts.
We humbly pray you accomplish all that which you have promised concerning your church in the later days: Let the earth be filled with your glory. Let the fulness of the Gentiles be brought in, and let all Israel be saved. Let the mountain of the Lord's house be established upon the top of the mountains, and exalted above the hills, and let all nations flow unto it.
Propagate the gospel in the plantations and let the enlargement of trade and commerce contribute to the enlargement ofyour church.
Let the kingdom of Christ be set up in all places upon the ruins of the Devil's kingdom.
Hasten the downfall of the man of sin, and let primitive Christianity, even pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father, be revived, and be made to flourish in all places; and let the power of godliness prevail and get ground among all that have the form of it. Let the wars of the nations end in the peace of the church, the shakings of the nations in the establishment of the church, and the convulsions and revolutions ofstates and kingdoms in the settlement and advancement ofthe kingdom ofGod among men, that kingdom which cannot be moved.
Let Great Britain and Ireland flourish in all their public interests:
Let your everlasting gospel be always the glory in the midst of us, and let your providence be a wall of fire round about us: Destroy us not, but let a blessing be among us, even a meat offering and a drink offering to the Lord our God.
Be very gracious to our sovereign lady the queen, protect her person, preserve her health, prolong her days, guide her counsels, let her reign be prosperous, and crown all her undertakings for the public good.
Bless the privy counsellors, the nobility, the judges, and magistrates in our several counties and corporations; and make them all in their places faithful and serviceable to the interests of the nation, and every way public blessing.
Bless all the ministers of your holy word and sacraments; make them burning and shining lights, and faithful to Christ, and to the souls of men. Unite all your ministers and people together in the truth, and in true love one to another; pour out a healing spirit upon them, a spirit of love and charity, mutual forbearance and condescension, that with one shoulder and with one consent all may study to promote the common interests ofour great Master, and the common salvation of precious souls.
We pray you prosper the trade of the nation, guard our coasts, disappoint the devices of our enemies against us, preserve the public peace, and keep all the people of these lands in quietness among themselves, and due subjection to the authority God hath set over us; and let the Lord delight to dwell among us, and to do us good.
Bless the fruits of the earth, continue our plenty, abundantly bless our provision, and satisfy even our poor with bread.
We bless you for all the mercies ofthis your own holy day; we have reason to say that a day in your courts is better than a thousand.
How amiable are your tabernacles, O Lord ofhosts! Bless the word we have heard this day to us, and to all that heard it: Hear our prayers, accept our praises, and forgive what your pure eye hath seen amiss in us and our performances.
Take us under your protection this night, and enable us to close the day with you, that we may lie down, and our sleep may be sweet. Be with us the week following in all our ways; forgive us that we brought so much of the week with us into the sabbath, and enable us to bring a great deal ofthe sabbath with us into the week, that we may be the fitter for the next sabbath, ifwe shall live to it.
Make us meet for the everlasting Sabbath, which we hope to keep within the vail, when time and days shall be no more: And let this day bring us a sabbath day's journey nearer heaven and make us a sabbath day's work fitter for it.
As we began this Lord's Day with the joyful memorials of Christ's resurrection, so we desire to conclude it with the joyful expectations of Christ's second coming, and of our own resurrection then to a blessed immortality, triumphing in hope of the glory of God.
Bless the Lord, love the Lord, O our souls, and let all that is within us love and bless his holy name; for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. In praising God, we desire to spend as much as may be ofour time, that we may begin our heaven now; for in this good work, we hope to be spending a happy eternity.
Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, and our God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, be honor and glory, dominion and praise henceforth and forever. Amen.
A PRAYER PROPER TO BE PUT UP BY PARENTS FOR THEIR CHILDREN O Lord our God, the God of the spirits of all flesh; all souls are yours, the souls of the parents and the souls of the children are yours, and you have grace sufficient for You are our father's God, and as such we will exalt you; you are our children's God, and that also we will plead with you; for the promise is to us and our children; and you are a God in covenant with believers, and their seed.
Lord, it is your good providence that hath built us up into a family:
We thank you for the children you have graciously given your servants; the Lord that hath blessed us with them make them blessings indeed to us, that we may never be tempted to wish we had been written childless.
We lament the iniquity which our children are conceived and born in and that corrupt nature which they derive through our loins.
But we bless you that there is a fountain opened for their cleansing from that original pollution, and that they were betimes by baptism dedicated to you, and admitted into the bonds and under the blessings of your covenant; that they are born in your house, and taken in as members ofyour family upon earth.
It is a comfort to us to think that they are baptized, and we desire humbly to plead with you. They are yours, save them; enable them as they become capable to make it their own act and deed, to join themselves unto the Lord, that they may be owned as yours in that day when you make up your jewels.
Give them a good capacity of mind, and a good disposition, make them towardly and tractable, and willing to receive instruction; incline them betimes to religion and virtue: Lord, give them wisdom and understanding, and drive out the foolishness that is bound up in their hearts.
Save them from the vanity which childhood and youth are subject to and fit them every way to live comfortably and usefully in this world. We ask not for great things in the world for them: Give them, if it pleases you, a strong and healthy constitution of body, preserve them from all ill accidents, and feed them with food convenient for them, according to their rank.
But the chiefthing we ask ofGod for themis, that youwill pour your Spirit upon our seed, even your blessing, that blessing, that blessing of blessings upon our off-spring, that they may be a seed to serve you, which shall be accounted unto the Lord for a generation: Give them that good pare, which shall never be taken away from them.
Give us wisdom and grace to bring them up in your fear, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, with meekness and tenderness, and having them in subjection with all gravity. Teach us how to teach them the things ofGod as they are able to bear them, and how to reprove and admonish, and when there is need to correct them in a right manner; and how to set them good examples of everything that is virtuous and praise-worthy, that we may recommend religion to them, and so train them up in the way wherein they should go, that if they live to be old, they may not depart from it.
Keep them from the snare ofevil company, and all the temptations to which they are exposed, and make them betimes sensible how much it is their interest as well as their duty to be religious: And,
Lord, grant that none that come of us may come short of eternal life, or be found on the left hand of Christ in the great day.
We earnestly pray that Christ may be formed in their souls betimes, and that the seeds ofgrace may be sown in their hearts while they are young; and we may have the satisfaction ofseeing them walking in the truth and setting their faces heavenwards. Give them now to hear counsel and receive instruction, that they may be wise in their latter end: and if they be wise, our hearts shall rejoice, even ours.
Prosper the means of their education; let our children be taught of the Lord, that great may be their peace; and give them so to know you the only true God, and Jesus Christwhom you have sent, as may be life eternal to them.
O that they may get wisdom and get understanding and never forget it: As far as they are taught the Truth as it is in Jesus, give them to continue in the things which they have learned.
It is our heart's desire and prayer that our children may be praising God on earth when we are gone to praise him in heaven, and that we and they may be together for ever serving him day and night in his temple.
If it should please God to remove any of them from us while they are young, let us have grace submissively to resign them to you, and let us have hope in their death.
If you remove us from them while they are young, be yourself a Father to them, to teach them and provide for them, for with you the fatherless finds mercy.
You know our care concerning them; we cast it upon you; ourselves and ours we commit to you. Let not the light ofour family religion be put out with us, nor that treasure be buried in our graves, but let those that shall come after us do you more and better service in their day than we have done in ours, and be unto you for a name and a praise.
In these prayers we aim at your glory: Father, let your name be sanctified in our family, there let your kingdom come, and let your will be done by us and ours as it is done by the angels in heaven; for Christ Jesus sake our blessed Savior and Redeemer, whose seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven. Now to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that great and sacred name into which we and our children were baptized, be honorand glory, dominion and praise henceforth and forever. Amen.
A PRAYER FOR THE USE OF A PARTICULAR PERSON, BEFORE THE RECEIVING OFTHE SACRAMENT OF THE LORD'S SUPPER Most holy, and blessed, and gracious Lord God, with all humility and reverence I here present myselfbefore you, to seek your face, and intreat your favor, and as an evidence of your good will towards me, to beg that I may experience your good work in me.
I acknowledge myself unworthy, utterly unworthy, of the honor; unfit, utterly unfit for the service to which I am now called. It is an inestimable privilege thatIam admitted so often to hear from you in your word, and to speak to you in prayer, and yet as if this had been a small matter, I am now invited into communion with you at your holy table, there to celebrate the memorial ofmy Savior's death, and to partake by faith of the precious benefits which flow from it. I who deserve not the crumbs, am called to eat of the children's bread.
O Lord, I thank you for the institution of this blessed ordinance, this precious legacy and token oflove, which the Lord Jesus left to his church, that it is preserved to this age; that it is administered in this land, that I am admitted to it, and have now before me an opportunity to partake of it; Lord grant that I may not receive your grace herein in vain.
O youwho have called me to the marriage supper ofthe Lamb, give me the wedding garment; work in mea disposition ofsoul, and all those pious and devout affections which are suited to the solemnities of this ordinance, and requisite to qualify me for an acceptable and advantageous participation ofit. Behold the fire and the wood, all things are now ready; but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? Lord, provide yourself a Lamb, by working in me all that which you require of me upon this occasion. The preparation of the heart, and the answer of the tongue are both from you; Lord, prepare my unprepared heart for communion with you.
Lord, I confess I have sinned against you, I have done foolishly, very foolishly, for foolishness is bound up in my heart; I have sinned and have come short of the glory of God; I have come short of glorifying you, and deserve to come short of being glorified with you.
The imagination ofmy heart is evil continually, and the bias ofmy corrupt nature is very strong towards the world and the flesh, and the gratifications ofsense, but towards God and Christ and heaven
I move slowly, and with a great many stops and pauses. Nay, there is in my carnal mind, a wretched aversion to divine and spiritual things.
I have mis-spent my time, trifled away my opportunities, have followed after lying vanities, and forsaken my own mercies.
God be merciful to me a sinner! for how little have I done since I came into the world ofthe great work that I was sent into the world about.
You have taken me into covenant with you, for I am a baptized Christian, set apart for you, and sealed to be yours; you have laid me, andI also have laid myselfunder all possible obligations to love you, and serve you, and live to you. But I have started aside from you like a deceitful bow, I have not made good my covenant with you, nor hath the temper of my mind, and the tenor of my conversation been agreeable to that holy religion which ] make profession of, to my expectations from you, and engagements to you. I am bent to backslide from the living God; and if] were under the law I were undone; but I am under grace, a covenant of grace which leaves room for repentance, and promises pardon upon repentance, which invites even backsliding children to return, and promises that their backslidings shall be healed. Lord, I take hold of this covenant, seal it to me at your table. There let me find my heart truly humbled for sin, and sorrowing for it after a godly sort:
O that I may there look on him whom I have pierced and mourn, and be in bitterness for him; that there I may sow in tears, and receive a broken Christ into a broken heart: And there let the blood ofChrist, which speaks better things than that ofAbel, be sprinkled upon my conscience, to purify and pacify that: there let me be assured that you are reconciled to me, that mine iniquities are pardoned, and that I shall not come into condemnation. There say unto me, "Be ofgood cheer, your sins are forgiven you."
And that I may not come unworthily to this blessed ordinance, I beseech you lead me into a more intimate and experimental acquaintance with Jesus Christ, and him crucified; with Jesus Christ and him glorified; that knowing him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, and being by his grace planted in the likeness ofboth, I may both discern the Lord's body, and shew forth the Lord's death.
Lord, I desire by a true and lively faith to close with Jesus Christ, and consent to him as my Lord, and my God; I here give up myself to him as my prophet, priest, and king, to be ruled and taught and saved by him; this is my beloved, and this is my friend. None but Christ, none but Christ. Lord, increase this faith in me, perfect what is lacking in it; and enable me in receiving the bread and wine at your table bya lively faith to receive Christ Jesus the Lord. O let the great gospel doctrine of Christ's dying to save sinners, which is represented in that ordinance, be meat and drink to my soul, meat indeed and drink indeed. Let it be both nourishing and refreshing to me, let it be both my strength and my song, and be the spring both of my holiness and of my comfort. And let such deep impressions be made upon my soul, by the actual commemoration of it, as may abide always upon me, and have a powerful influence upon me in my whole conversation, that the life I now live in the flesh I may live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Lord, I beseech you fix my thoughts; let my heart be engaged to approach unto you, that I may attend upon you without distraction.
Draw out my desires towards you; give me to hunger and thirst after righteousness that I may be filled; and to draw near to you with a true heart, and in full assurance of faith; and since I am not straitened in you, O let me not be straightened in my own bosom.
Draw me, Lord, and I will run after you. O send out your light and your truth, let them lead and guide me; pour your spirit upon me, put your Spirit within me, to work in me both to will and to do that which is good; and leave me not to myself. Awake O north wind, and come you south, and blow upon my garden, come O blessed Spirit ofgrace, and enlighten my mind with the knowledge of Christ, bow my will to the will of Christ, fill my heart with the love ofChrist, and confirm my resolutions to live and die with him.
Work in me (I prayyou) a principle ofholy love and charity towards all men, that I may forgive my enemies, (which by your grace I heartily do) and may keep upa spiritual communion in faith, hope and holy love, with all that in every place call on the name ofJesus
Christ our Lord. Lord, bless them all, and particularly that congregation with which I am to join in this solemn ordinance.
Good Lord, pardon everyone that engages his heart to seek God, the Lord God ofhis fathers, though not cleansed according to the purification ofthe sanctuary. Hear my prayers and heal the people.
Lord, meet me with a blessing, a Father's blessing at your table; grace your own institutions with your presence; and fulfil in me all the good pleasure of your goodness, and the work of faith with power, for the sake of Jesus Christ my blessed Savior and Redeemer, to him with the Father, and the eternal Spirit, be everlasting praises.
10. ANOTHER AFTER THE RECEIVING OF THE LORD'S SUPPER Lord, my God and my Father in Jesus Christ, I can never sufficiently admire the condescension ofyour grace to me; what is man that you dost thus magnify him, and the son ofman that you visit him! Who am I? and what is my house that you have brought me hitherto; have brought me into your banqueting house, and your banner over me hath been love? I have reason to say, That a day in your courts, an hour at your table, is better, far better, than a thousand days, than ten thousand hours elsewhere; it is good for me to draw near to God. Blessed be God for the privileges of his house; and those comforts with which he makes his people joyful in his house of prayer.
But] have reason to blush and be ashamed ofmyself, that I have not been more affected with the great things which have been set before me and offered to me at the Lord's table. O what a vain foolish trifling heart have I! when I would do good, even then evil is present with me; good Lord, be merciful to me, and pardon the iniquity ofmy holy things, and let not my manifold defects in my attendance upon you be laid to my charge, or hinder my profiting by the ordinance.
I have now been commemorating the death of Christ, Lord grant that by the power of that, sin may be crucified in me, the world crucified to me, and I to the world; and enable me so to bear about with me continually the dying ofthe Lord Jesus, as that the life also ofJesus may be manifested in my mortal body.
I have now been receiving the precious benefits which flow from Christ's death, Lord grant that I may never lose, may never forfeit those benefits, but as I have received Christ Jesus the Lord, give me grace so to walk in him, and to live as one that am not my own, but am bought witha price, glorifying God with my body and spirit which are his.
I have now been renewing my covenant with you and engaging myself a-fresh to you to be yours, now Lord, give me grace to perform my vow. Keep it always in the imagination of the thought of my heart, and establish my way before you; Lord, preserve me by your grace that I may never return again to folly; after God has spoken peace, may never by my loose and careless walking undo what I have been doing today: But having my heart enlarged with the consolations of God, give me to run the way of your commandments with cheerfulness and constancy, and still to hold fast my integrity.
This precious soul of mine, which is the work ofyour own hands, and the purchase ofyour Son's blood, I commit into your hands, to be sanctified by your Spirit and grace, and wrought up into a conformity to your holy will in everything: Lord set up your throne in my heart, write your law there, shed abroad your love there, and bring every thought within me into obedience to you, to the commanding power ofyour law, and the constraining power ofyour love; Keep through your own name that which I commit unto you, keep it against that day when it shall be called for; let me be preserved blameless to the coming of your glory, that I may then be presented faultless with exceeding joy.
All my outward affairs I submit to the disposal of your wise and gracious providence; Lord save my soul, and then as to other things do what you please with me; only make all providences to work together for my spiritual and eternal advantage. Let all things be pure to me, and give me to taste covenant-love in common mercies; and by your grace let me be taught both how to want and how to abound, how to enjoy prosperity, and how to bear adversity as becomes a Christian; and at all times let your grace be sufficient for me, and mighty in me, to work in me both to will and to do that which is good ofyour own good pleasure.
And that in everythingImay do my duty, and stand complete in it, let my heart be enlarged in love to Jesus Christ, and affected with the height and depth, the length and breadth ofthat love ofhis to me, which passes all conception and expression.
And as an evidence of that love let my mouth be filled with his praises; Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive blessing and honor, and glory and power; for he was slain, and hath redeemed a chosen remnant unto God by his blood, and made them to him kings and priests. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and let all that is within me bless his holy name, who forgives all mine iniquities, and heals all my diseases; who redeems my life from destruction, and crowns me with loving kindness and tender mercy; who having begun a good work, will perform it unto the day of Christ. As long as I live,
I will bless the Lord, I will praise my God while I have any being; and when I have no being on earth, I hope to have a being in heaven to be doing it better. O let me be borne up in everlasting arms, and carried from strength to strength, till ] appear before God in Zion; for Jesus' sake, who died for me, and rose again, in whomI desire to be found living and dying. Now to God the Father, Son, and Spirit, be ascribed kingdom, power and glory, henceforth and forever. Amen.
11. AN ADDRESS TO GOD BEFORE MEAT Lord our God, in you we live and move and have our being, and from you we receive all the supports and comforts ofour being: You spread our table and fill our cup and comfort us with the gifts of your bounty from day to day. We own our dependance upon you, and our obligations to you: Pardon our sins, we pray you; sanctify your good creatures to our use, and give us grace to receive them soberly and thankfully, and to eat and drink not to ourselves, but to your glory, through Jesus Christ our blessed Lord and Savior.
12. ANOTHER Gracious God, you are the protector and preserver of the whole creation, you have fed us all our life long unto this day with food convenient for us, though we are evil and unthankful. We pray you forgive all our sins by which we have forfeited all your mercies, and let us see our forfeited right restored in Christ Jesus: Give us to taste covenant-love in common mercies, and to use these and all our creature-comforts to the glory ofour great benefactor, through the grace of our great Redeemer. Amen.
13. AN ADDRESS TO GOD AFTER MEAT Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with his benefits, and gives us all things richly to enjoy, though we serve him but poorly: O
Lord, we thank you for present refreshments in the use ofyour good creatures, and for your love to our souls in Jesus Christ, which sweetens all: We pray you pardon our sins, go on to do us good, provide for the poor that are destitute of daily food, fit us for your whole will, and be our God and guide, and portion forever, through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
14. ANOTHER We thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for all the gifts both of your providence and of your grace, for those blessings which relate to the life that now is, and that to come; for the use of your good creatures at this time: Perfect,
O God, that which concerns us, nourish our souls with the bread of life to life eternal; and let us be of those that shall eat bread in the kingdom of our
Father, for Christ Jesus sake our Lord and Savior. Amen.