1 Another Form of Evening Prayer which may also Our Father, &c. Will lift mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh Pfal. 121.t my help. My help cometh of the Lord which made heaven and earth. He will not fuffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not number. Behold, he that keepeth Ifrael shall neither flumber nor fleep. The Lord is thy keeper, the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The Sun fhall not fmite thee by day, neither the moon by night. The Lord fhall preferve thee from all evil; he shall preferve thy foul. The Lord fhall preferve thy going out and thy coming in,from this time forth for evermore. Glory be to the Father, &c: I. I beseech thee, O Lord, this habitation with thy mercy, and me with thy grace and falvation. Let thy holy Angels pitch their tents round about. and dwell here, that no illufion of the night may abufe me, the fpirits of darkness may not come near to hurt me. no evil or fad accident opprefs me; and let the eternal Spirit of the Father dwell in my foul and body, filling every corner of my heart with light grace. Let no deed of darknets over-take me; and let thy bleffing, most bleffed God, be upon me for ever, through Jefus Chrift our Lord. Amen. and INto II. Nto thy hands, moft bleffed Jefu, I commend my foul and body for thou haft redeemed both with thy most precious blood. So blefs and fanctify my fleep un &c. Pfal.4.4.3. to me, that it may be temperate, holy and fafe, a refreshment to my wearied body, to enable it to ferve my Soul, that both may ferve thee with a never failing duty. O let me never fleep in fin or death eternal, but give me a watchfull and a prudent fpirit, that I may omit no opportunity of ferving thee; that whether I fleep or wake, live or die, I may be thy fervant and thy child: that when the work of my life is done, I may reft in the bofom of my Lord, till by the voice of the Archangel, and trump of God, I fhall be awakened and called to fit down and feast in the eternal fupper of the Lamb. Grant this, O Lamb of God, for the honour of thy mercies, and the glory of thy name, O most mercifull Saviour and Redeemer Jefus. Amen. BLeffed II. Leffed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, who hath fent his Angels, and kept me this day from the deftruction that walketh at noon, and the arrow that flieth by days and hath given me his Spirit to restrain me from thofe evils to which my own weaknelles, and my evil habits, and my unquiet enemies would easily betray me. Bleffed and for ever hallowed be thy name for that never ceafing fhower of bleffing by which I live, and am content and bleffed, and provided for in all neceffities, and fet forward in my duty and way to Heaven. Bleffing, honour, glory and power be unto him that fitteth on the Throne, and to the Lamb, for ever and ever. Amen. ** * Holy is our God. *Holy is the Almighty. *Holy is the Immortal. Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Sabbaoth, have mercy upon me. Ejaculations and short Meditations to be used in the Night when we awake. Stand in awe and fin not: commune with jour own heart upon your bed, and be still. I will lay me down in peace and fleep, for thou, Lord, onely makest me to dwell in Jafety, OFÁ O Father of Spirits and the God of all flesh, have mercy and pity upon all fick and dying Chriftians, and receive the Souls which thou haft redeemed returning unto thee. Rev. 21:23. Bleiled are they that dwell in the heavenly Ferufalem, where there is no need of the Sun, neither of the "Moon to fhine in it: for the glory of God does lighten it, and the lamb is the light thereof. And there shall be no Rev. 22. night there, and they need no candle; for the Lord God giveth them light and they shall reign for ever and ever. Meditate on Jacob's wrestling with the Angel all night: be thou alfo importunate with God for a bleffing, and give not over till he hath bleffed thee. Meditate on the Angel paffing over the children of Ifrael, and destroying the Egyptians for difobedience and oppreffion. Pray for the grace of obedience and charity, and for the divine protection. Meditate on the Angel who deftroyed in a night the whole Army of the Affyrians for fornication. Call to mind the fins of thy youth, the fins of thy bed; and fay with David my reins chaften me in the night feafon, and my foul refufeth comfort. Pray for pardon and the grace of chastity. Mediate on the agonies of Chrift in the garden, his fadness and affliction all that night; and thank and adore him for his love that made him tuffer fo much for thee; and hate thy fins which made it neceffary for the Son of God to fuffer fo much. Meditate on the four laft things, 1. The certainty of Death 2. The Terrors of the Day of Judgment. 3. The joys of Heaven. 4. The pains of Hell, and the eternity of both. Think upon all thy friends which are gone before thee, and pray that God would grant to thee to meet them in a joyfull refurrection. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the Heavens shall pass away with agreat noife and the Element shall melt with fervent heat, the Earth alfo and the works that are therein shall be burnt up. Seeing then that all these things shall be diffolved, what manner of perfons ought we to be in all holy converfa a Pet. 3.10 12. tion and godliness, looking for, and hafting unto the coming of the day of God? Lord, in mercy remember thy fervant in the day of Judgment. Thou fhalt anfwer for me, O Lord my God. In thee, O Lord, have I trusted: let me never be confounded. Amen. I Defire the Chriftian Reader to obferve that all these Offices, or Forms of Prayer (if they should be used every day) would not spend above an hour and an half : but becaufe fome of them are double (and fo but one of them to be used in one day) it is much less: and by affording to God one hour in twenty four, thou mayeft have the comforts and rewards of Devotion. But he that thinks this is too much, either is very bufie in the world, or very careless of heaven. However, Ihave parted the Prayers into fmaller portions, that he may use which and how many he pleafes in any one of the Forms. Ad Sect. 2. A Prayer for holy intention in the beginning and purfuit of any confiderable Action, as Study, Preaching, &c. Eternal God, who haft made all things for man, and man for thy glory, fanctifie my body and foul, my thoughts and my intentions, my words and actions, that whatfoever I fhall think, or speak, or doe, may be by me defigned to the glorification of thy Name, and by thy bleffing it may be effective and fuccefsful in the work of God, according as it can be capable. Lord, turn my neceffities into vertue, the works of nature into the works of grace, by making thern orderly, regular, temperate, fubordinate and profitable to ends beyond their own proper efficacy: and let no pride or felf-teeking, no covetoufnels or revenge, no impure mixture or unhandsome purposes, no little ends and low imaginations pollute my fpirit, and unhallow any of my words and actions: but let my body be a fervant of my fpirit, and both body and fpirit fervants of Jefus; that doing all things for thy the glory here, I may be partaker of thy glory hereafter, through Jefus Christ our Lord. Amen. Ad Sect. 3. A Prayer meditating and referring to the This Prayer is fpecially to be used in temptation Almighty God, infinite and eternal, thou fillest all things with thy prefence; thou art everywhere by thy effence, and by thy power, in heaven by glory, in holy places by thy grace and favour, in the hearts of thy fervants by thy Spirit, in the confciences of all men by thy teftimony and obfervation of us. Teach me to walk always as in thy prefence; to fear thy Majefty, to reverence thy Widom and Omnifcience, that I may never care to commit any undecency in the eye of my Lord and my Judge; but that I may with fo much care and reverence demean my felf, that my Judge inay not be my Accufer, but my Advocate; that I expreffing the belief of thy prefence here by care full walking, may feel the effects of it in the participation of eternal glory, though Jefus Chrift. Amen. CHAP |