PRAYERS for FAMILIES,

On COMMON DAYS.

WITH

Some preparatoryThoughts, and quickening Confiderations intermixed.

First CONSIDERATION.

Job xxxv. 10. None fays, where is God my Maker? Ch. xxii. 21. Acquaint now thyself with him.

H'

ERE I live in a world, which is the mighty frame, fearfully and wonderfully made in all its parts; fome fo great and glorious, others fo neat and curious, and every creature fuch an index, pointing directly to him that made them all, without whom none of them could ever have been, nor can fubfift fo much as a moment; that I fhall be for ever without excuse if I do not fee, and own, and admire, and adore the eternal Maker in all. Whatever knowledge elfe I am proud of will turn to no account but a very fad one, and I know nothing as I ought to know, if I do not understand and feek after God; and, let me be dipped and platted in never fo great acquaintance on earth, if I keep no fair correfpondence with heaven, to acquaint myself with him, whom to know is life eternal, I have too : B

much

much caufe to dread that he will not know and own me in that great day when I must receive from him my eternal doom.

O, my foul! my almighty Maker is my abfolute owner, who has all the right and authority over me to do whatever he pleases with me, and I am not at my own difpofal to live as I have a-mind, but bound to ftudy his will and to ferve his ends. This I fhould have done, but am filled with confufion and horror to think how ftupidly forgetful I have been of the God that made me and keeps me, that I have lived fo much in the world without him, and deserve to be fent away in the next world for ever accursed from him.

But O, thou that didft make me, forgive me, I befeech thee, and forfake not the work of thine own hands, but create and new-make me in Christ Jefus, and bring me into a frame and fitness to ferve thy holy pleasure, and to carry acceptably in thy fight through the Son of thy love. Amen.

The First MORNING PRAYER.

BLeffed Lord God, thou haft formed us for thy

felf, and to thee we do owe ourselves and all that ever we are and have. Thou haft not only made us capable of this immediate attendance upon thee, but every way obliged and encouraged us to it: yet O how much have we neglected, and how ill have we performed it? and not only flighted thy holy and happy fervice, but run into rebellion against thy exprefs charge and commands; to follow after this vain world, and to ferve our own hurtful lufts, preferring them even above our God and our chiefeft good; for which how justly mightest thou, O Lord, forfake us and reject us, and give us all our portion in this life, fhutting us out of

thy

thy heavenly kingdom, and leaving us for ever to perifh in our fins: But O, gracious God, we befeech thee, for thy mercy's fake, in the bleffed Saviour of poor loft finners, pity our frailty, forgive our apoftacy, turn again our captivity, and receive us graciously, that we may experience and for ever magnify thy pardoning and faving mercy.

And because the infirmity of our nature exposes us daily to fin against thee, and without the help of thy grace we have not the leaft power to keep ourselves even from the greatest fins, O good Lord we pray thee leave us not to ourselves, nor withdraw from us the reftraining and affifting grace of thy Holy Spirit, but keep us evermore from prefumptuous fins, and from all things fcandalous to men and provoking to our God, that we may not wilfully fin against light and warning, nor make light of any fin, nor abuse thy grace and mercy to embolden our continuance in it. O preferve us, Lord, from the ways of death, and fhew us the path of life, yea, lead us in it for thy name's fake; give us the grace, and will, and power, to deny ourselves, to mortify our members which are upon earth, and so to strive and run, that we may not only escape the danger and ruin which threaten our fouls, but may win and obtain the incorruptible crown of life and glory eternal in the heavens.

go

O give us thy Spirit to lead us into all truth that is needful for us to know, and to frame and vern our hearts and lives according to that light and understanding of our duty which thou haft given us; that it may be our meat and drink to do the will of our heavenly father, and the care of our hearts, the defire of our fouls, and the endeavour of our lives, to follow the bleffed God our Saviour through the ways of his holy gofpel to the joys of his heavenly kingdom.

B 2..

Yea

Yea give us, Lord, fuch a faith as may be like the wings of our fouls to carry us up in the holy heavenly life, and make us (above all other things) to feek and affect thofe things above, where our Lord fits at the right hand of God; and let our converfation here in the world be without offence, but not without fome benefit to those among whom we live, that we may not wrong and hinder, but help and further them, in the way of their duty and happiness, nor lie as ftones of ftumbling, but fhine as lights in the world, to the honour of our Lord, that God in all things may be glorified by us, through Jefus Chrift.

And as thou haft kept us in fafety, and refreshed us with thy mercy the last night, for which we bless thy holy name, and with all thankfulness acknowledge thy fatherly care; fo let us find the continuance of fuch thy goodness, O Lord, this day in preferving us from the evils of it, and teaching us to understand, and helping us to perform, the duties owing to our God, to our neighbours, and ourfelves, in fuch a manner as thou wilt be pleased to accept, through thy dear fon our bleffed Saviour, who has taught us to pray, Our Father, &c.

Second CONSIDERATION.

Mal. i. 6. If I be a mafter, where is my fear, faith the Lord of Hofis?

IS

S not God the fupreme Lord and uncontroulable ruler of his own world, king of kings, and lord of lords, the moft high commander of all the powers in heaven and earth, to whom all things every where do bow and obey, or, at their peril, refift and make oppofition? And fhall I, a little contemptible worm, fet up my vile perverfe humour to thwart his holy will and all-ruling plea

fure?