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either holding my peace where I should have spoken to thy honour and the good of my neighbour: dumb and tongue-tied to thy praise and to pious conference with thy servants; or else pouring out words to dishonour thy name, to wrong my own soul, and to offend and injure others. Forgive me, O merciful.God, I beseech thee, all my sinful silence, my vain and idle words, and my evil, corrupt communication, and help me so to speak, as to express thy grace in my heart, and to minister the same to my hearers. Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, and keep the door of my lips, that nothing thence may proceed but what shall be, some way or other, good for the use of edifying. Help me to keep my mouth as with a bridle, when I am provoked to speak unadvisedly with my lips; and let no profane or filthy speeches proceed out of my mouth, nor ány thing be said by me, that ought not to be named among Christians.

O Lord, open thou my lips, that my mouth may shew forth thy praise; make me forward to speak for thee, and for the service of thy truth, and the glory of thy name; but as slow to speak evil, and to defile myself, or to hurt my neighbour. Give me, Lord, a considerate mind to weigh what is fit to be said; and make we wise and serious, sober and modest, pious and charitable in what I speak, that it may be without offence, but not without some profit to the partners in my conversation. O fill my heart with such grace, that out of the good treasure I may be ever and anon producing somewhat to oblige the company, and to advance thy glory; and put such thoughts into my mind, and such words into my mouth, that my tongue may be as the pen of a ready writer, to utter things seasonable, and acceptable, for the benefit of my associates; and that I may

never abuse the liberty of speech into the licentiousness of vain or evil-speaking; but turn and employ it to the wise and good and worthy ends for which it was given; and speak of and for thy testimonies, even before the greatest, without being, ashamed. .. O Lord! restrain the blasphemous and brutish. generation, that set their mouths against heaven, and, out of those open sepulchres, belch forth impieties and impurities, to dishonour him that made them; to grieve the souls of thy servants, and to spread the contagion of their ungodliness. O fill their face with shame for what they have done and their hearts with dread, to stop them from proceeding so any farther. Confound the viperous brood that hiss and vent their venom against thy holy ways, and give them other tongues, that they may use thy gifts to better purpose. O let the lying lips be put to silence, that speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous. And let such as fear thee, and think upon thy name, speak often to one another; so as to promote and set forward their common edification and consolation, and eternal salvation, through thy goodness to them in Jesus Christ. Amen.

The convinced Sinner's Prayer.

EARKEN to the voice of my cry, my King

HEA

and my God; for unto thee will I pray ; but wherewithal shall I appear before the Lord, and bow myself to the most high God, whose holy laws I have broken, and whose just displeasure I have incurred! I acknowledge my transgression, O Lord, and my sin is ever before me. My iniqui ties are gone over my head, as a sore burden; they are too heavy for me to bear. When thou with rebukes dost chasten man for iniquity, thou makest T

his beauty to consume away like a moth. My sin now has found me out; and that which once I thought too little to be repented, seems now too great to be pardoned. I flattered myself in my own eyes, till my iniquity is found to be hateful. I thought I was rich and increased with goods, and had need of nothing; but now I find that I am mis erable, and wretched, and poor, and blind, and nak ed; so that there is nothing but disorder and ruin in my soul. I have undone myself; but to work my own recovery I have no sufficiency. O how wicked have I been to allow myself in the way and mind which is enmity against God! How ignorant, yet how confident! How vile, yet how arrogant ! In what need of mercy, yet how unmerciful; how sinful, yet how impenitent: how bold in the sins where conscience reproved me, but how cold in the cause where thy Spirit encouraged me! Oh the spoils, and ruins, and desolations which my sins have made in my soul; how have they darkened my mind, perverted my will, defaced my affections, disordered my passions, hardened my heart, and seduged it away from my most good and ever blessed God, to cleave unto the things displeasing in thy sight, and destructive to my soul!

There is no hiding any thing from thee, the infinite God, who fillest heaven and earth.-What shall I say unto thee, Lord? I scarce know how to say bad enough of myself. O woe is me that I have done so foolishly and wickedly; whither shall I betake myself when against thee, O Lord, I have so sinned, and done such evil in thy sight! Thou art the offended Majesty, out of whose reach I cannot escape, and under whose judgments I can never be able to bear up. A guilty consciousness should make me afraid to come unto thee; yet

I

know there is nothing but certain destruction to keep away from thee; and though there is no peace to the wicked so continuing; yet if the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and return to the Lord, thy promise then, O God, is to have mercy upon him, and abundantly to pardon. I have none to seek to for remedy against my sins, but unto the just and holy God, against whom I have grievously sinned; and how shall I stand in thy sight, O Lord, who hatest and condemnest the works of darkness, and the workers of iniquity, whose wrath against sin burns as deep as hell, and as long as eternity.

I submit, great Lord, to thy offended Majesty ! and I have no hopeful prospect, looking any way, but to thy Almighty power, thy super-abounding grace, and thy ever-enduring mercy, who at the lowest can raise, and at the worst art able to relieve us, Nothing is too hard for thee to effect; the most wretched case is not past thy cure; though our sins be as scarlet, thou canst make them as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, thou canst make them as wool; yea, thou hast found a ransom, and laid help upon one that is mighty, and able to save to the uttermost all that come to God through him. If I had not sinned, I had no need of such a Redeemer; but they were sinners whom he came to save; and therefore, to the Lord Jesus I look with the desire of my soul, to find a healing for this sinful soul of mine, in the precious blood of his cross. O good God! when my sins cry to thee for vengeance, be thou pleased to hear his blood and merits pleading and interceding for my soul; and speaking better things in my behalf than I am able to do for myself, in all my prayers.

Behold, O merciful Lord, a miserable object on

which to glorify thy power and compassion, thy wonderful work, and great salvation! O look upon me in my blood, and bid me live. Speak death to my sins, that my soul may live, and for ever bless thy name. Turn away thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. For thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon my sin, for it is great; too great for any but the God of infinite goodness and love ever to discharge me from. O magnify thy all sufficiency to help me out in this my woeful misery. Make the happy experiment upon my poor soul, how great things worthy of God thou canst do; that where sin hath abounded thy grace may much more abound. Return, O Lord, deliver my soul; O save me for thy mercy's sake: save me from the guilt and filth, from the power and curse of all my sins. And thou, Lord, that knowest how to deliver, make me some way to escape out of the desperate straits and perplexities into which my sins have cast me, that my iniquities may not hang upon me to be my ruin; but that they be taken away and forgiven, and washed out with the blood of Jesus Christ. O turn thou me, Lord God of my salvation, and I shall be turned from my sins, and from this present evil world, more effectually and fully to thy blessed self. O give me such conviction as may end in sound conversion; and let me experience in myself that grace of God which bringeth salvation. I want thy grace, O Lord; and want it I shall for ever, if thou be not pleased to look graciously upon me in my blessed Redeemer. But thou wilt never have the less, how much soever thou bestowest: and thou canst not bestow thy grace upon any one that more needs it. O God of all grace, that keepest mercy for thousands, hast thou not a blessing for me? a spiritual heavenly blessing! For thy dear Son, my

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