sire, and the merciful Withholder of all the evils that our sins deserve. We acknowledge thy great and daily goodness to us, and our own exceeding unworthiness of the least of all thy mercies. We take shame and confusion to ourselves, that we have so little improved, and so greatly abused, all thy patience with us, and all the various instances of thy bounty to us. For even thy mercies help to inflame the heavy reckoning of our offences, because we have done so much against thee, after all the great things thou hast done for us. We desire, O Lord, to be penitent, and humbled for our sins; and to entreat thy gracious favour in Jesus Christ, for the pardon of them. Forgive us, we pray thee, for his sake, all the sins that ever we have committed against thee, and absolve us from all the evils whereof we now stand guilty before thee. And being justified by faith, grant us peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And we pray that thou wilt be to us a Father of mercies, and a God of consolation; so that thou wilt make us followers of God, as dear children; ever jealous over our hearts, and watchful over our ways: continually fearing to offend, and endeavouring to please thee; and keeping our hearts with all diligence, that they may not be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Thou knowest, O Lord, our weakness, and danger of temptation; our danger from the cruel, subtle enemy of our souls: and from this present world that is so full of snares; and from our own vile flesh and deceitful hearts, so apt to betray us into the enemy's hands: we pray, therefore, good Lord, that thou wilt arm us with the whole armour of God, and uphold us with thy free Spirit, and watch over us for good evermore. Especially in the times of our sorest trials, let us expe

ce the strongest aids of thy heavenly grace, that we may never fall a miserable prey to those deadly enemies that seek to devour us.

And teach us, our God, to know the day of grace, and the time of our visitation, and to see the things of our peace, and duly to mind and settle the great eternal affairs of our souls, in this our day, before they be hid from our eyes. And while we have time, O enable us to use and improve it, to those great ends for which thou art pleased to put that precious talent into our hands, that we may make the short and uncertain stay which we have here, an opportunity of securing to ourselves a sure and everlasting well being, when we shall depart from hence.

And seeing thou art pleased yet to hold our souls in life, and to make us find and feel, by every day's experience, how abundantly gracious and merciful thou art, with much patience and long-suffering, enduring us, and with loving kindness and manifold blessings, still preventing and following us. O give us hearts more sensible of thy love, more affected with thy mercy, and more thankful for those continued favours which thou art pleased to multiply upon us. And help us to show forth thy praise and the truth of our thanks, not only in speaking good of the name of God, but so ordering our conversations as becomes the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And to thy mercy in him, most merciful Father, we do now humbly recommend ourselves, and all that we are, and have, this present night: beseeching thee to preserve and defend, and bless and keep us both in soul and body, from all evils and dangers, to which the weakness of our frame, and the greatness of our sins, do expose us. And grant us such comfortable repose, whereby our frail nature

may be refreshed, and our decayed strength recov ered, that we may rise again better fitted and enabled to serve thee according to thy will in all the duties of the following day, if thou shalt be pleased to make addition of another day to our lives. And as thou addest days and mercies, be pleased also to add repentance and amendment to our lives; that as we come nearer to our end, we may be made still fitter to the enjoyment of thy heavenly kingdom; that every day may bring us still so much nearer to those everlasting joys and glories which thou hast prepared for them that love thee. And for all the good things that ever we have had, and do at present enjoy, and yet hope for from thy bountiful hands, thine, O blessed glorious Lord our God, be the praise, and honour, and glory, offered up with all grateful hearts, by us, and the whole church, now and for evermore. Amen.

A third Evening Prayer.

LORD, thou art our gracious God, our chiefest good and our most merciful Father in Jesus Christ in whose great name, and prevailing mediation, alone it is, that we, who have multiplied our offences against thee, are encouraged still to present our persons, and our prayers here before thee. It is a privilege which we must acknowledge ourselves utterly unworthy to enjoy, that thou shouldst admit us into thy service: yea into fellowship with thy blessed self. We durst not appear in the presence of such a holy glorious Majesty, in our own names, or trusting in any merits or righteousness in ourselves; being conscious to so much of our sin and guilt, as may make us ashamed to come before thy face, and to tremble for fear of thy judg

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But we come in the name and mediation of thy dear Son, whom thou dost infinitely love above all, who has fully satisfied thy justice for our sins, and does continually intercede at thy right hand for our souls; whom thou delightest to honour in sparing, accepting, and saving poor unworthy sinners upon his account. O deliver us, most gracious Lord, for his sake, from all our transgressions, for which our hearts condemn us: and from all, of which thou, that are greater than our hearts, knowest us to be guilty. And seal to us a pardon, in his most precious blood, which speaks better things in our behalf, than we are able to do ourselves, in all our prayers.

And may the time past of our lives suffice to have lived to ourselves, and to have served our own lusts and pleasures. O put an end to all our presumptuous and treacherous dealings with thy heavenly all-seeing Majesty; and grant us new and clean, humble and contrite hearts, to tremble at thy word and presence, and to hate and abandon all our foolish and sinful misdoings. And wilt thou engage to thyself, O blessed Lord, the best and frequentest thoughts of our minds, the chief and choicest affections of our hearts, and the main tendency and activ. ity of our souls: O let us be taken up with such content and delight in attendance upon thee, and communion with thee, that the most tempting things of this world may not pull us down into an inordinate or immoderate love of them; nor disturb and hinder us in the pursuit of what our faith foresees, and what thy love has prepared for, and promised to thy servants.

Hear us, O Lord, for ourselves, and let our sup. plications also ascend before thee in the behalf of all men living. Send thy word, and the means of grace

to such as are yet destitute of them; and make them efficacious, and the savour of life in those that do enjoy them. Convert the unconverted, and perfect thy good 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 land, and to the head and governors thereof, and to all inferior and par.. ticular members of it. O do thou rule all our rulers, counsel all our counsellors, teach all our teachers, and turn and order all our public affairs, to the glory of thy name, to the welfare of thy church, and to the happiness of this nation. Avert from us, we beseech thee, the judgments which we feel or fear, and continue 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 upon them. Be good to all our friends, and neighbours, reward our benefactors, bless our relations with the best of thy blessings, making 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 sev