fects, and reconcile me to God, and make my peace, through the blood of thy cross. Thou tookest upon thee our mortal nature, that thou mightest, through death, destroy him who had the power of death, and deliver them who thro' fear of death, were all their life-time subject to bondage. Have compassion, Lord, I beseech thee, on my infirmities, and suffer me not to fall a prey to my own fears; but be surety for thy servant, to undertake for all thy heavy scores, wherein I have run myself in arrears to the justice of heaven; and give me everlasting consolation, and good hope, through grace; and being justified by faith, O let me have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.Hide not thy face from me, O my Lord, lest I be like them that go down to the pit; and revive my soul with the sense of thy love, and the hopes of thy full absolution, and everlasting salvation, that I may give thee thanks from the ground of the heart, and shew with gladness what thou hast done for my redeemed soul, and joyfully sing thy praise, and keep in thy love, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, to eternal life. Amen. A Prayer under strong Temptations. HOLY God! I desire to humble myself here before thee, for that continual proneness which is in me to sin against thee; that I am so unlike to thee, and so contrary to what thy holy laws require me to be. After all the great things thou hast done for me, alas! how apt am I still to spoil and undo myself! The malicious tempter is laying snares for me everywhere; and the things of this world are still pressing hard upon me, either to terrify me out of my duty, or to humour me into my ruin. And O how ready is my sinful flesh to side with the cruel enemy against my own soul! Innumerable evils have compassed me about; my iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up: they are more than the hairs of my head, therefore my heart fails me. O the sin that still dwelleth in me, that is so nigh to me, that does so easily beset me, and is so apt to prevail against me, to pull me away from the obedience of thy blessed will, and to engage me in forbidden things, displeasing in thy sight, and distructive to my soul! O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death: when the custom of sinning has so increased my sinful inclinations, that the leopard may as soon change his spots, and the Ethiopean his skin, as I who am accustomed to evil can (of myself) cease from it, if the Lord of hosts be not with me; if the God of Jacob be not my refuge. But with thee, the Almighty God, all things are possible; yea, thou canst as easily make us holy as bid us be so. To thee the very powers of hell are weakness: nothing in the world can resist thy will. O pity thy poor tempted creature, and give me not up, in justice, to a reprobate sense, and to vile affections, nor to such blindness of mind, and hardness of heart, as would render me past feeling; nor ever punish my former sins, by giving me over to their sway and power; but let it be thy gracious pleasure, O Lord, that all my prevailing iniquities may flee and perish at thy presence. O give out the commanding word to those filthy corruptions,-Hitherto shall ye go, and no further. Speak death to my sins, that my soul may live, and for ever bless thy name. Stop and heal the running sores, that they may no more break out, as they have done, to the dishonour of thy name, the wounding of my conscience, and hindering the concerns of my own and others' present peace, and eternal bliss; yea, to sanctify my nature, O Lord, and renew me, even in the spirit of my mind, that my heart may rise against the sinful evils, and that I may hate all iniquity, and every false way; so resisting the devil that I may not conspire with the deadly enemy of souls, to undo myself. O give me power from on high, to set me above the power of my sins; and give me grace sufficient to turn my heart against the love of my sins, that I may not be false in thy covenant, or false to my own chief interest, but manfully fight thy battles, and approve myself thy faithful soldier and servant to my life's end; that being so faithful until death, thou mayest give unto me the crown of life, and take me at last from this warfare to reign with thee, world without end. Amen. A Prayer for Chastity. GOD of infinite purity, thou hast called us, not to uncleanness, but unto holiness! thou hast commanded us to be holy as thou art holy; and hast promised to none but the pure in heart to see and enjoy thee in the beauties of holiness, and the joys above. O how shall I, a polluted wretch, shew myself before thy heavenly Majesty, who art perfect purity, and in whose sight even heaven itself is not clean. O most gracious Lord, look not upon me as I am in myself, and as I through my sins have made myself vile, even in my own eyes: for then thou canst not chuse but abhor my soul, and pour out all thy wrath upon me. But wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from all my sin and guilt in that fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, the precious blood of the Lamb of God, slain to take away the sins of the world. Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean! O create a clean heart in me, and say to my sindefiled soul, as thou didst to the leper,—I will, be thou clean,—and I shall be cleansed, and fitted now for thy service, and hereafter for thy heavenly glory. O my God! cast the unclean spirit out of the temple; and if he will not go out but by prayer and fasting, let me add such abstinence to my prayers as may help to starve the fleshly lusts that war against my soul and by any means help me, my Strength and Redeemer, to possess my vessel in sanctification and honour; not in the lust of concupiscence, as those that know not God. Holy Lord, chase away the birds of prey that would devour thy sacrifice; and drive out these unclean beasts that would trample down the plantation of thy grace in my soul. O let me not live after the flesh let me hate the very garment spotted with it; and not without detestation once name the filthy lusts. Help me, my God, to avoid every occasion of falling, and to abstain from all appearance of evil, and so to delight in purity, and to keep myself from all iniquity, that I may lead the noble spiritual life as becomes the child of my heavenly Father, and not grieve thy Holy Spirit, O God; but be pleasing in thy blessed sight, through Jesus Christ. Amen. A Prayer for the Mortification of all fleshly HAVE vowed and promised unto thee, my God, to renounce all the sinful lusts of the flesh, and am devoted as holy to the Lord ; that having put on Jesus Christ, I should not make provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lust thereof, but cleanse myself from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. But though I have some delight in the law of God, after the inner man, yet I find another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members; and this I acknowledge and bewail to thee, O Lord Almighty, who alone canst set me free from the lusts that are too hard upon me. O help me, Lord God of my salvation, against the power of these prevailing iniquities, and purge away all my sins, for the glory of thy name: may the time past of my life suffice to have served my own lusts and pleasures. O |