work where thou hast begun it. Give a check from heaven to all profaneness, vice, and ungodliness, that presumptuous sinners may be ashamed and the wickedness of the wicked may come to an end. O make thy church to increase and flourish, and thy servants to prevail and rejoice. Be gracious and favourable to this our native land, to the head and governors, and to all the inferior and particular members of it. O do thou rule our rulers, counsel all our counsellors, teach all our teachers, and turn and order all the public affairs to the glory of thy name, and to the welfare of this church and state wherein we live. Avert from us, good Lord, we beseech thee, the judgments which we feel or fear, continuing to us the blessings and comforts for our bodies, and especially the helps and advantages for our souls, which, through thy favour we do enjoy. And notwithstanding all the devices of the enemies of our peace, and all the great and crying provocations of our sins, O be thou still our God, and let us be thy people.

Think thoughts of pity and compassion to all the sons and daughters of affliction. O sanctify thy Fatherly corrections to them, support them under their several burdens, and in thy good time deliver them from all the pressures that are upen them. Be good to all our friends and neighbours, reward our benefactors, bless our relations with the best of thy blessings, make them near to thyself by grace, as they are to us by alliance. Preserve us from our enemies, and reconcile them both to us and to thyself. O

that all the habitations of Christians may be houses of prayer, and be thou especially kind to the several families where thy blessed name is called upon. Let thy heavenly blessings, and thy saving grace descend and rest upon us here in this family. O guide us, and keep us; make us wise and faithful in our duty, and prosperous and blessed in the issue. Bless all our present estates to us, and fit us all for whatsoever thou shalt be pleased to call us to. O teach us how to want, and how to abound; and both in a prosperous and a suffering condition, secure our hearts to thyself, and make us ever to approve ourselves sincere and faithful in thy service.

And now, O Lord, be pleased to accept our evening sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, to thee the Father of mercies, and fountain of all goodness, for the mercies of the day past, and for thy great mercy and goodness, that has hitherto followed us all the days of our life. For our lives have been filled with thy mercies, and thou hast abounded towards us in loving-kindness, and variety of thy sweet and comfortable blessings, pertaining to this world and a better; passing by our innumerable sins, as if thou sawest them not, thou goest on still to oblige us with new favours. Ŏ dear Lord, imprint and preserve upon our hearts a lively grateful sense and remembrance of all thy kindness unto us, that our souls may bless thee, and all that is within us may praise thy holy name. Yea, let us give thee thanks from the ground of the heart, and praise our God, whilst we

have our being. And for all thy patience with us, thy care over us, and thy continual mercy, to us, blessed be thy name, O Lord God, our heavenly Father: and unto thee be all thanks, and praise, and love, and obedience, and honour and glory, offered by us, and all thine, every where, now and evermore. Amen.

A fourth Evening Prayer.

LORD, the infinite, incomprehensible God, who art before all, art above all, and wilt be for ever the same, when time shall be no more. Thou hast heaven for thy throne, and the earth for thy footstool, and all the things in both continually in thy sight, and at thy disposal. Thou art the Searcher of our hearts, and the Overseer of our whole lives, here and everywhere present, and now and evermore thou seest us, and compassest our path, and our lying down, and art thoroughly acquainted with all our ways. Thou knowest, O Lord, the dulness and hardness, the vanity and deceitfulness of our hearts; how much ado we have to bring and keep them in an holy frame, fit to attend upon thy heavenly Majesty: for that we were born sinners, and so have lived and continued; and by custom of sinning, and still adding sin unto sin, we have made ourselves more the children of wrath than we were by nature; transgressing thy holy, good and righteous laws; abusing thy great and manifold mercies; tempting thy patience, despising thy goodness, offending thee more, even for thy long forbearance with us, and making the very E

abundance of thy grace our encouragement to continue in our sins: so that the least of all those mercies which we do enjoy, is far above any thing that we have reason to expect at the hands of that God whom we have so greatly provoked. And justly mightest thou, O Lord, withdraw thy tender mercies from us, and pour out thy wrath and indignation to the uttermost upon us; making us to find and feel, by woeful experience, what an evil and bitter thing it is to trespass upon thee, as we have done. Thou mightest make us experience the same in the place of torment and outward darkness, where is weeping and wailing and knashing of teeth, and from whence there is no redemption.

But thou art a God of wonderful patience, to bear with sinners; and a God of infinite goodness and mercy, to forgive the sins of all them that are penitent. Thon hast said, that if the wicked forsake his way, and the unrigh teous man his thoughts, and return to the Lord, thou wilt have mercy upon him, and abundantly pardon. But, O Lord, thou knowest that without thee we cannot so much as come unto thee, unless thou meet us with thy heavenly grace, and help us with thy Almighty assistance. We humbly beg, We humbly beg, therefore, that thou wilt be graciously pleased to stretch forth thy powerful and merciful hand, to loose the captive chain wherein our sins have entangled our souls. And let it be thy gracious pleasure, O blessed Lord, to set us free from every weight of sin, and yoke of bondage, that lies heavy upon our souls, and unfits us to serve thee with

that sincerity, and readiness, and gladness, which thou requirest of thy people. O help us to see and feel, to hate and bewail, and confess and forsake our sins, that we may have the well-grounded apprehension, and the comfortable persuasion of thy forgiveness of them; thy acceptance of us, and that love to us, in the blessed Son of thy eternal love!

And for his sake, wilt thou grant us, O Lord, the increase of thy grace, and such aids of thy Holy Spirit, as may enable us against our sins, and fit us for all the duties of thy service, which either we have neglected, or but unduly or faultily performed: that we may serve thee, our God, sincerely, without hypocrisy; cheerfully, without dulness; universally, without partiality; and constantly, without falling away, or being weary in well- doing. Thou art not weary in doing us good; O let us never be weary in doing thy service! but as thou has pleasure in the prosperity of thy servants, so let us take pleasure in the service of our Lord, and abound in thy work, and in thy love and pleasure evermore. O fill up all that is wanting, and reform whatever is amiss in us, and perfect that which concerns us; making us such in our hearts, and in our lives, towards thee our God, that we may obtain thy blessed peace here, and thy heavenly glory hereafter. And be thou pleased to grant us now, out of the riches of thy grace, the comfortable sense of thy gracious acceptance of us, and thy merciful intentions towards us. O, speak peace to our consciences, and say to our souls,-thou art our