to us, that we may never be tempted to with we had been written childless.

We lament the iniquity which our children are conceived and born in, and the corrupt nature which they derive through our loins.

But we bless thee that there is a fountain opened for their cleaning from that original pollution, and that they were betimes by baptifm dedicated to thee, and admitted into the bonds, and under the bleffings of thy covenant; that they are born in thy houfe, and taken in as members of thy family upon earth.

It is a comfort to us to think that they are baptized, and we humbly defire to plead it with thee. They are thine, fave 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 thine in the day when thou makeft up thy jewels.

Give them a good capacity of mind, and a good difpofition, make them towardly and tractable, and willing to receive instruction; incline them betimes to religion and virtue: Lord, give them wifdom and understanding, and drive out the foolishness which is bound up in their hearts.

Save them from the vanity which childhood and youth is fubject to, and fit them every way to live comfortably and ufefully in this world. We afk not for great things in the world for them; give them, if it pleafe thee, a ftrong and heal constitution of body, preferve them from all ill accidents, and feed them with food convenient for them, according to their rank.

But the chief thing we afk of God for them is, that thou wilt pour thy fpirit upon our feed, even thy bleffing, that bleffing, that blefling of bleffings, upon our offspring, that they may be a feed to ferve thee, which fhall be accounted to the Lord for a generation; give them that good part which fhall never be taken away from them.

Give us wisdom and grace to bring them up in thy fear, in the norture and admonition of the Lord, with meeknefs and tenderness, and having them in fubjection with all gravity. Teach us how to teach them the things of God as they are able to bear them, and how to reprove and admonith, and when their is need to correct them in a right manner, and how to fet them good examples of every thing that's virtuous and praife worthy, that we may recommend religion to them, and to train them up in the way wherein they thould go, that if they live to be old, they may not depart from it.

Keep them from the fnare of evil company, and all the temptations to which they are expofed, and make them betimes fenfible how much it is their interests as well as their duty to be religious: and, Lord, grant that none who come of us may come fhort of eternal life, or be found on the left hand of Christ in the great day.

We earnestly pray that Chrift' may be formed in their fouls betimes, and that the feeds of grace may be fown in their hearts while they are young, and we may have the fatisfaction of feeing them walking in the truth, and fetting 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 wife, our hearts thall rejoice, even ours.

Profper the means of their education; let our children be taught of the Lord, that great may be their peace and give them fo to know thee the only true God and Jefus Chrift whom thou haft fent, as may be life eternal to them,

:

O that they may betimes get wisdom, and get understanding, and never forget it: As far as thy are taught the truth as it is in Jefus, give them to continue in the things which they have learned.

It is our hearts defire and prayer that our children may be praising God on earth when we are gone to praife him in heaven, and that we and they may be

together for ever, ferving him day and night in his temple.

If it fhould please God to remove any of them from us while they are young, let us have grace fubmiffively to refign them to thee, and let us have hope in their death.

If thou remove us from them while they are young, be thou thyfelf a father to them, to teach them, and provide for them, for with thee the fatherlefs findeth mercy.

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Thou knoweft our care concerning them, we cast upon thee; ourselves and ours we commit to thee. Let not the light of our family religion be put out with us, nor that treasure be buried in our graves, but let thofe who fhall come after us do thee more and better service in their day than we have done in ours, and be unto thee for a name and a praise.

In these prayers we aim at thy glory: Father, let thy name be fanctified in our family, there let thy kingdom come, and thy will be done by us and ours, as it is done by the angels in heaven; for Chrift Jefus fake, our bleffed Saviour and Redeemer, whose feed fhall endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven. Now to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, that great and facred name into which we and our children were baptized, be honour and glory, domis. nion and praife, henceforth and for ever..

Amen.

A Prayer for the ufe of a particular perfon before the receiving of the Sacrament of the Lord's fupper.

M humility, and reverence. I here prefent

[OST holy, bleffed, and gracious Lord God,

myself before thee, to feek thy face and entreat thy favour, and as an evidence of thy good will towards me, to beg that I may experience thy good work in

me.

I acknowledge myfelf unworthy, utterly unworthy of the honour; unfit, utterly unfit for thy fervice to which I am now called. It is an ineftimable priviledge that I am admitted fo often to hear from thee in thy word, and to fpeak to thee in prayer; and yet (as if this had been a small matter) I am now invited into communion with thee at thy holy table, there to celebrate the memorial of my Saviour's death, and to partake (by faith) of the precious benefits which flow from it. I who deferve not the crumbs, am called to eat of the childrens bread.

O Lord, I thank thee for the inftitution of this bleffed ordinance, this precious legacy and token of love, which the Lord Jefus left to his church; that it is preferved to this age, that it is adminiftered 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 thy grace herein in vain.

O thou who haft called me to the marriage fupper of the lamb, give me the wedding-garment; work in me a difpofition of foul, and all thofe pious and devout affections which are fuitable to the folemnities of this ordinance, and requifite to qualify me for an acceptable and advantageous participation of it. Behold the fire and the wood, all things are now ready, but where is the lamb for the burnt-offering? Lord, provide thy felf a lamb, by working in me all that which thou requireft of me upon this occafion, The preparation of the heart, and the answer of the tongue are both from thee; Lord, prepare my unprepared heart for communion with thee.

Lord, I confefs I have finned against thee, I have done foolishly, very foolishly, for foolishness is bound up in my heart. I have finned, and have come short of the glory of God; I have come fhort of glorifying thee, and deferve to come fhort of being glorified with thee. The imagination of my heart is evil continually, and the biafs of my corrupt nature is very ftrong towards the world, the flesh, and the gratifi

cations of fenfe; but towards God, and Christ, and heaven I move flowly, and with a great many ftops and paufes. Nay, there is in my carnal mind a wretched averfion to divine and fpiritual things. I have mifpent my time, trifled away my opportunities, have followed after lying vanities, and forfaken my own mercies. God be merciful to me a finner! For how little have I done, fince I came into the world, of the great work that I was fent into the world as bout.

Thou haft taken me into covenant with thee, for I am a baptized christian, fet apart for thee, and fealed to be thine, thou hast laid me, and I have also laid myself under all poffible obligations to love thee, and serve thee, and live to thee. But I have started afide from thee like a deceitful bow, I have not made good my covenant with thee, nor hath the temper of my mind, and the tenor of my converfation been agreeable to that holy religion which I make profeffion of, to my expectations from thee, and engagements to thee. I am bent to backflide from the living God; and if I were under the law I was undone; but I am under grace, a covenant of grace, which leaves room for repentance, and promifeth pardon upon repentance, which invites even backfliding children to return, and promifes that their backflidings fhall be healed. Lord, I take hold of this covenant, feal it to me at thy table: There let me find my heart truly humbled for fin, and forrowing for it after a godly fort: O that I may there look on him whom I have pierced, and mourn, and be in bitterness for him; that there I may fow in tears, and receive broken Chrift into a broken heart! And there let the blood of Christ, which speaks better things than that of Abel, be fprinkled upon my confcience, to purifie and pacifie that: There let me be affured that thou art reconciled to me, that my iniquities are pardoned, and that I fhall not come into condemnation.