n whose sacred name and words, we close up these our imperfect requests to thee, Our Father, &c.

Let thy grace, O Lord Jesus Christ; thy love, O heavenly Father; thy comfortable fellowship, O holy blessed Spirit, 'be with us, and with all whom we ought to beg thy mercy for in our prayers, this day, and for evermore. Amen..

217

Another Morning Prayer for a Family.

LORD, thou art the God, whose we are, and whom we ought to serve with all the endowments and abilities for thy service wherewith thou hast blessed us. For thou hast laid upon us all the obligations of thy laws, and all the endearments of thy Love, to be faithful in the covenant of our God, and to abound in the work of the Lord. But we desire to humble our sinful selves here before thee, that the dishonour which we have done thee, O Lord, has, by ma-ny degrees, exceeded all the service: that we have lived to ourselves more than to the Lord and Giver of our lives; and have served our own lusts and pleasures more than thy holy blessed will; which is the rule of all righteousness and in the performance whereof there is the greatest reward. O how have we disbelieved thy truths, disobeyed thy commands, disregarded thy promises and threats! and resisted and defeated all thy gracious methods to reclaim us from the evil of our ways, and to bring us over. entirely to thyself.

We have sinned against thee our God, to the infinite wrong and damage of our own souls;

and by our sins we have spoiled and destroyed ourselves: but it is not in us to recover and save ourselves: no, in thee alone is all our help. Yea, Thou hast laid help upon one that is mighty, and able to save to the uttermost all that come to God through him: through whom thou hast encouraged us to come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of our need. In him therefore, we beg, Lord, that thou wilt be reconciled to us, and at peace with us, as a Father of mercies, and a God of consolation.

And for his sake, enable us also, we beseech thee, to demean ourselves as becomes the children of God, the redeemed of the Lord, and the members and followers of Jesus Christ. O put such principles of grace and holiness into our hearts, as may make us to hate all iniquity and every false way. And put thy spirit within us, causing us to walk in thy statutes, and to keep thy judgments, and to do them. Not only lay thy commands upon us; but be pleased, O Lord, to enable us for the performance of every duty required of us. And so engage our hearts to thyself, that we may make it our meat, and drink to do thy will; and with enlarged hearts, run the way of thy commands. O make our services acceptable to thee while we live, and our souls ready for thee when we die. As long as we are in this world, keep us, O Lord our God, froin the evil of it, and from the snares and dangers which thou knowest we are continually exposed to in it. O make our passage safe and sure, through all the changes, troubles,

ten:ptations and various conditions of this mortal life, to the unchangeable glories and felicities of everlasting life.

Be merciful to us, good Lord, and bless us, and keep us this day, in all our ways, and in all our lawful designs and undertakings: and may we take nothing in hand, but what is tearranted by thy word. O let us be in the fear of the Lord, all the day long : let thy fear be ever before our eyes to restrain us from the things provoking to our God and destructive to our souls. And let thy love abound in our hearts, and sweetly and powerfully constrain us to all faithful and cheerful obedience, acceptable in thy sight, through him that hath loved and redeemed us, even the Lord our righteousness ; in whose blessed name, and the words of prayer which himself has taught us, we continue praying. Our Father, &c.

The blessing of GOD ALMIGHTY, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, be with us, and with all that belong to us, this day, and for evermore. Amen.

A third Morning Prayer.

LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth! thou keepest mercy for thousands, pardonest iniquity, transgression and sin; and doth not retain thy anger for ever, because thou delightest in mercy. How excellent is thy loving kindness, O God! Therefore do the sons of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. And therefore do we desire still to look up to that bountiful hand of thine, from whence

we evermore have received all our good things. O Lord our God! be thou pleased to look down mercifully upon us, and be gracious and favourable to us, as thou usest to be unto those

that love thy name. O look not upon the sin of our nature, nor the sins of our hearts and lives; which are more than we can remember, and greater than we can express; and such as make us seem vile, even in our own eyes, and so highly guilty before thy holy Majesty, that it is of the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because thy compassions fail not. But behold us in mercy, through the merits and mediation of thy Son our Saviour, who did no sin, and was manifested that he might take away our sins by whom it is, that we have this access to the Majesty on high, and encouragement to come into thy presence, for what we need, and what thou aboundest with, and art inclinable to make thy poor creatures happy in the enjoyment of.

And seeing there is in Christ Jesus an infinite fulness of all that ever we can want or wish, to make us holy, and to make us most blessed eternally. O that we may all receive of his fulness, grace sufficient for us, to pardon our sins, and to subdue our iniquities; to justify. our persons, and to sanctify our souls; to complete upon our hearts and lives that holy renovating change, which may still more and more transform us into the blessed image after which thou didst create us; and make us still more meet to be partakers of the inheritance of thy saints in light.

C

And teach us, O Lord our God, to use this world without abusing it, and to enjoy the things of it, without losing our part in thy love, which is better than life. Whatever we have of the world, O may we have the same, with thy leave and love, sanctified to us by the word of God, and prayer; and by the right employment and improvement thereof to thy glory, who art the gracious Giver of all our good things. And whatsoever we want of the things of this life, O Lord our heavenly Father, leave us not destitute of any of those things that accompany salvation; but adorn our souls with all such graces of thy Holy Spirit, as may enable us to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things, by such a conversation as does become it.

Help us, O gracious Lord, in the whole of our duty to thee our God; and also in the discharge of all relative duties which we owe to men, whether superiors, equals, or inferiors, (all with whom we have our conversation in the world,) that we may walk wisely toward them that are without, and kindly toward them that are within, and not be justly offensive unto any, but what inus lies, useful and beneficial to all. And thus let us pass the time of our sojourning here in thy fear and favour, and to thy honour and glory; that, at our last review thereof, thy name may have the praise, and our souls the comfort, in the hour of death, and in the great day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And now that thou hast renewed our lives