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thing, by prayer and fupplication, to make our requefts known to God.

Thou haft directed us to afk, and feek, and knock, and haft promifed that we fhall receive, we fhall find, and it fhall be opened to us.

Thou haft appointed us a great High Prieft, 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.

Thou haft affured us, that while the facrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, the prayer of the upright is his delight; and, that he that offers praife glorifies thee; and, the facrifice of thankfgiving fhall please the Lord better than that of an ox or bullock, that has horns and hoofs.

Thou art he that heareft prayer, and therefore unto thee fhall all flesh come.

Thou fayeft, Seek ye my face, and our hearts anfwer, Thy face, Lord, will we. feek. For, fhould not a people feek unto their God? Whither shall we go but to thee? Thou haft the words of eternal life. 9. We must exprefs the fenfe we have of our own meanness and unworthinefs to draw near to God, and fpeak 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 fon of man that is a worm ?

Who are we, O Lord God, and what is our father's houfe, that thou haft brought us hitherto, to perfent ourselves before the Lord; that we have through Chrift an accefs, by one fpirit, unto the Father? And yet, as if it had been a small thing in thy fight, thou haft fpoken concerning thy fervants for a great while to come; and, Is this the manner of men, O Lord God?

What is man, that thou art thus mindful of him, and the fon of man that thou vifiteft him, and doft thus magnifie him?

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Olet not the Lord be angry, if we, that are but duft and ashes, take upon us to speak unto the Lord of glory.

We are not worthy of the leaft of all thy mercies, and of all the truth which thou haft fhewed unto thy fervants; nor is it meet to take the childrens bread and caft it to fuch as we are; yet the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from their mailer's table: And thou art rich in mercy to all that call upon thee.

10. We must humbly profefs the defire of our hearts towards God, as our felicity and portion, and the fountain of life and all good to us.

Whom have we in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that we defire befides thee, or in comparison of thee: When our fiefh and cur hearts fail, be thou the ftrength of our heart, and our portion for ever; the portion of our inheritance in the other world, and of our cup in this, and then we will fay, that the lines are fallen to us in pleasant places, and that we have a goodly heritage.

The defire of our fouls is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee; with our fouls have we defired thee in the night, and with our fpirits within us will we feek thee only.

As the hart panteth after the water-brook, fo panteth our fouls after thee, O God; our fouls thirfteth for God, for the living God, who will command his loving-kindness in the day-time, and in the night his fong thall be with us, and our prayer to the God of our life.

O that we may come hungering and thirsting after righteoufnefs; for thou fillelt the hungry with good things, but the rich thou fendeft empty away.

O that our fouls may thirst for thee, and our flesh long for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is, that we may fee thy power and thy glory, as we have feen thee in the fanctuary. Thy loving-kindnefs is better than life; our fouls fhall be fatisfied with

that as with marrow and fatnefs, and then our mouths fhall praise thee with joyful lips.

11. We must likewife profefs our believing hope and confidence in God and his all-fufficience, in his power, providence, and promife.

In thee, O God, do we put our trust, let us never be ashamed; yea, let none that wait on thee be afhamed.

Truly our fouls wait upon God, from him cometh our falvation; he only is our rock and our falvation : In him is our glory, our ftrength, and our refuge, and from him is our expectation.

When refuge fails us, and none cares for our fouls, we cry unto thee, O Lord; thou art our refuge and our portion in the land of the living.

Some truft in chariots, and fome in horfès; but we will remember the name of the Lord our God: We will truft in thy mercy, O God, for ever and ever, and will wait on thy name, for it is good, before thy faints.

We have hoped in thy word, O remember thy word unto thy fervants, upon which thou haft caufed us to hope.

12. We must entreat God's favourable acceptance of us and our poor performances.

There be many that fay, Who will fhew us any good but this we fay, Lord, lift up the light of thy countenance upon us, and that shall put gladnefs into our hearts, more than they whofe corn and wine encreaseth.

We entreat thy favour with our whole hearts, for in this we labour, that whether prefent or abfent, we may be accepted of the Lord.

Hear our prayers, O Lord, give ear to our fupplications; in thy faithfulness anfwer us; and be nigh unto us in all that which we call upon thee for; for thou never faideft to the feed of Jacob, seek ye me in vain.

Thou that heareft the young ravens which cry, be not filent to us, left if thou be filent to us, we be like them that go down to the pit.

Let our prayers be fet forth before thee as incenfe, and the lifting up of our hands be acceptable in thy fight as the evening facrifice.

13. We must beg for the powerful affistance and influence of the bleffed fpirit of grace in our prayers.

Lord, we know not what to pray for as we ought, but let thy fpirit help our infirmities, and make interceffion for us.

O pour upon us the fpirit of grace and fupplication, the fpirit of adoption, teaching us to cry Abha, father; that we may find in our hearts to pray this prayer,

O fend out thy light and thy truth, let them lead us, let them guide us to thy holy bill and thy tabernacles; to God, our exceeding joy.

Lord, open thou our lips, and our mouth fhall fhew forth thy praife.

14. We must make the glory of God our highest end in all our prayers.

This is that which thou, O Lord, haft faid, That thou wilt be fanctified in them that come nigh unto thee, and before all the people thou wilt be glorified; we therefore worship before thee, O Lord, that we may glorifie thy name; and therefore we call upon thee, that thou mayeft deliver us, and we may glorifie thee.

For of thee, and through thee, and to thee, are. all things.

15. We must profefs our entire reliance on the Lord Jefus Chrift alone for acceptance with God, and come in his name.

We do not prefent our fupplication before thee for our righteousness, for we are before thee in our trefpaffes, and cannot stand before thee because of them: But we make mention of Chrift's righteoufnefs, even of his only, who is the Lord our righteoufnefs.

We know that even fpiritual facrifices are acceptable to God only through Chrift Jefus, nor can we hope to receive any thing but what we afk of thee in his name, and therefore make us accepted in the beloved; that other angel, who puts much incenfe to the prayers of faints, and offers them up upon the golden altar before the throne:

We come in the name of the great High Priest, who is paffed into the heavens, Jefus, the Son of God, who was touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and is therefore able to fave to the utmost all that come to God by him, because he ever lives, making interceflion.

Behold, O God, our fhield, and look upon the face of thine anointed, in whom thou haft, by a voice from heaven, declared thyfelf to be well pleafed: Lord, be well pleafed with us in him.

CHA P. II.

Of the Second Part of Prayer, which is confeffion of fin, complaints of ourselves, and humble professions of repentance.

HAVING given glory to God, which is his due,

we must next take fhame to ourselves, which is our due, and humble ourselves before him in the fense of our own finfulness and vilenefs; and herein also we must give glory to him, as our judge, by whom we deserve to be condemned, and yet hope, through Chrift, to be acquitted and abfolved.

In this part of our work,

1. We must acknowledge the great reafon we have to lie very low before God, and to be afhamed of ourfelves when we come into his prefence, and to be afraid of his wrath, having made ourselves both. odious to his holiness, and obnoxious to his juftice.

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