Imagens da página
PDF
ePub

fortable fleep; and for bringing us fafe to the light of this day. We blefs thee for our food and raiment, for our health and friends, and for all the comforts and accommodations of this life. But above all, we praise and magnify thy holy name, for thine ineftimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jefus Chrift, for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory: And we befeech thee give us fuch a sense of these and all thy mercies, that our thankfulness may display itself in a devotion to thy fervice, and by our walking before thee in the paths of holiness and righteousness, during the remainder of our lives.

We acknowledge, O Lord! that we have rendered ourselves unworthy of thy favours by our frequent breaches of thy holy laws, in thought, word, and deed: we have left undone the things thou haft commanded, and have done thofe things thou haft forbidden, and it is of thy mercy alone that we are not confumed. But O most mighty and merciful God, who wouldest not the death of a finner, but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and be faved; mer

[ocr errors]

cifully forgive us our trefpaffes, and receive and comfort us, who are wearied with the burden of our fins; that by thy pardon and peace, we may be cleansed from all our iniquities, and may ferve thee with a quiet mind to the end of our days,

And thou, O God! who art the protector of all who put their trust in thee, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy, increase and multiply upon us thy mercy; be thou our ruler and guide, and fo teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto heavenly wifdom. Wean us, O Lord, from the vanities and pleasures of the world, and give us a full conviction of their emptinefs and infufficiency, and grant that we may fo pass through things temporal, that we finally lofe not the things eternal.

Give unto us, O Lord! the increase of faith, hope, and charity; and that we may obtain that which thou doft promise, make us to love that which thou doft command. Thou haft taught us, that all our doings without charity are nothing worth; fend, therefore thy Holy Spirit, and pour into our

. hearts that moft excellent gift, the very bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whoever liveth is counted dead be- . fore thee. And fince thou haft permitted thy only Son to become both a facrifice for fin, and an example of a godly life, give us grace moft thankfully to receive that his ineftimable benefit, and to follow his bleffed steps until time with us fhall be no more.

Preferve, O Lord! in our minds fuch a lively fenfe of thy prefence; of thy conftant privity to our most secret thoughts, as may influence every action of our lives; but more particularly we beseech thee to direct and fanctify every part of our conduct this day Keep us chafte in all our thoughts, temperate in all our enjoyments, humble in all opinions of ourselves, and charitable in our opinions of others make us meek and peaceable under every provocation, fincere and faithful in our profeffions, and . fo strictly just and upright in all our dealings, that no neceflity may force, nor prospect of gain allure us to take advantage of, or defraud our neighbour in any refpect; but

B b

grant, O Lord! that in our intercourse with mankind, the invariable rule of our lives may be, to do unto others as we would they they should do unto us.

We make our humble fupplications unto thee, O Lord! for the profperity of these United States, for all our benefactors, friends and relations, for our enemies, and for all eftates and conditions of men: Give thy Son the heathen for his inheritance, and the utmost parts of the world for his poffeffion; grant fuccefs to the endeavours of those who are engaged in the propagation of chriftian know. ledge throughout the world, that thy way may be known upon earth, and thy faving health among all nations. May it please thee, O Lord! to purify and defend thy church; to bless all who are in authority, either as minifters of thy gospel or as officers of the government under which we live, that in their fe veral stations they may be instrumental to thy glory and the public good; to comfort the diftreffed of every defcription, to fhorten their fufferings, and to give them a happy deliverance out of all their af

flictions. Accept, O merciful Father! of these our humble praises and fupplications, in the name, and for the fake, of our bleffed Redeemer Jefus Chrift, who hath taught us thus to pray:

Our Father, &c.

An Evening Prayer for a Family.

ALMIGHTY God, who dwellest in

that light which no mortal eye can approach, yet condefcendeft to regard the children of men, we thy finful creatures present ourselves before thee in an humble fense of our own unworthiness. We ac

knowledge, O Lord! our manifold tranfgreffions of thy righteous laws in thought, word, and deed; we have followed the devices of our own corrupt hearts, we have done the things which thou haft forbidden, and have left undone the things which thou

« AnteriorContinuar »