plague come nigh our dwelling. Give us sleep and rest to refresh and strengthen us for thy service, and our duty and prepare us, O Lord, for our last sleep, in death, and for our departure out of this mortal life, and those great accounts that we must make before the judgment-seat of Jesus Christ. O instruct us, and assist us, in that great work of preparation for our everlasting condition; that we may, in this only time of preparation, finish the great work which thou hast given us to do, before the night of death overtake us, wherein we cannot work. That, whenever thou shalt be pleased to give us the summons of death, we may find nothing to do but to die, and cheerfully resign our spirits into thy gracious hands, who gavest them to us, through the riches of thy grace, and the worthiness of thy Son; in whose merits alone we trust, and for all that he has so wonderfully effected to recover and help us, and to obtain eternal redemption for us, to thy name, O blessed God of our salvation, be the praise, and honour, and glory, given by us and all thy people, from this time forth for ever. Amen.

more.

A fifth Evening Prayer.

LORD, we desire to seek thy face, and to wait upon thee in the duties of thy worship; intreating thy gracious favour with our whole hearts, that we may do all as we ought, with good acceptance to our God. And to whom should we make our applications, but unto thee, the Father of mercies and the fountain of all goodness, who art able to do exceeding abundantly for us, even above all that we can ask or think; and who hast declared thy willingness to be importuned and solicited by us;

and thy readiness to hear, and help, and answer us, in those things which we beg at thy gracious and bountiful hands, in the name and mediation of our great Lord and Saviour: O let our prayer be set before thee as incense, and the lifting up of our hands be as the evening sacrifice, pleasing to thee our God, in the Son of thy love. It is in his blessed name alone, that we have the encouragement and boldness to beg of thy infinite goodness all that thou knowest to be needful and expedient for us; seeing there is in ourselves no good thing to recommend us to thy favour and acceptance; but a proneness and inclination to what is displeasing in thy eyes, and destructive to our souls. For besides that we were by nature the children of wrath, a seed of evil-doers, the sinful offspring of rebellious parents; we have been daily trespassing upon thee, and still adding to the heavy score of our offences against thee. There is nothing in us, O Lord, but what may provoke thee to reject us: but there is enough in thy beloved Son, of all grace and goodness, to move thee mercifully to accept us. He was made sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him; and that we might be saved through faith in his merits, where we could not be saved by any desert of our own works. O see our sins punished in our Saviour, who was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities and as the chastisement of our peace was upon him, so let the merits of his righteousness be upon us; and by his stripes let our souls be healed.

Nor do we only beg for pardon of our sins, but also for power against them, and grace sufficient for us to break them off, and to walk more pleasingly before thee, in all the ways and duties of righteousness and holiness, which thy word prescribes to us.

O never suffer us to be tempted above what we are able; to make our temptations less, or thy grace in us, and our spiritual strength, still greater than all our temptations; that no iniquities may prevail against us, nor any presumptuous sin have dominion over us. O make us more comfortable to the pattern and the precepts of our Saviour; and more transformed into his holy image and likeness: that we may not profess the religion of Jesus Christ to the wrong and disparagement of it; nor make the way of truth, by reason of us, to be evil spoken of; but let our light shine before men, to the glory of thee our heavenly Father, and to the edification of those with whom we have our conversation.

And seeing the time of our abode in this transitory world is so very short and uncertain, and we have an everlasting estate to abide in after our departure hence; where we must be happy or miserable eternally, according to what we do now in the body O let us not here set up our rest, as if we were at home upon earth, nor flatter ourselves with the thoughts of long life, or sure enjoyment of any of those things that perish in the using; but all the days of our appointed time, may we wait till our change comes; and not only live in expectation of it, but in the daily serious preparation for it; in the exercise of all those graces and good works that may make it unto us Christ to live, and gain to die! that in life and death we may be always thine; still safe in thy hands, and acceptable in thy sight.

And together with our own, we commend to thy mercy, O God of the spirits of all flesh, the necessities and distresses of all our brethren throughout the world. O enlighten the ignorant, quicken the careless, awake the secure, convince the erroneous, reclaim the vicious, establish the unsettled, and com

fort the dejected. Bring all to the knowledge and love of thy truth, and to the participation of thy grace, and the obedience of Christ; and so to the blessed hope of thy heavenly glory, and to the eternal salvation of our souls. We pray, as more particularly bound, for all our magistrates and ministers of the gospel; and all our friends and relations; and all thy servants, and all the afflicted every where; especially those for whose happiness and salvation thou knowest us to be chiefly concerned. O do thou for us, and for them, as thou knowest best, and most needful and expedient, for thy own mercy's sake in Jesus Christ.

As we pray to thee for what we want, so we desire to praise thee for all that we have received at thy hands. And blessed be thy name, O Lord, that we have any thing, yea that we have so many things, to bless and praise thee for. O what shall we render to the Lord for all his benefits! What can we give to thee our God, but the glory of thy own gifts and goodness unto us. O dear Lord! let not our hearts be shut and straitened towards thee, whose hand is every day so open unto us; but do thou possess and enlarge these hearts of ours with more and greater love and thankfulness to thee, that hast so abounded in mercy and loving kindness towards us, that we may give thee thanks with all our hearts, and glorify thy name for evermore.

And now that the night is upon us, and we are ready to partake ourselves to our rest, we commit ourselves to thy gracious protection, who never sleepest nor slumberest, but hast still a watchful eye open upon thy people. O watch over us, our God, we pray thee for good, that none of the evils or harms which our sins have deserved may befal us. Preserve us from the works, and from the powers of

darkness, and from all the terrors and dangers of the night. Let all our sins, to-day, or any time heretofore committed, be removed out of thy sight, and show us the light of thy countenance, O Lord, to refresh us with the sense of thy blessed love and favour in our dear Redeemer: for whom and to whom, with thy eternal self, and Holy Spirit, be all thanks and praise, and honour, and glory, ascribed of us and all thy church, from this time forth, world without end. Amen.

A sixth Evening Prayer.

LORD, our God, most high and mighty, most wise and holy, thou art and good! Thou art, and for ever wast, and for ever shall continue, unspeakably blessed and glorious, above all that we are able to express or to conceive. Thou dost not need the services of men or angels to make the least addition to thy glory and bliss. Men cannot be profitable unto God: our goodness will not extend to the Lord. But in kindness and love to our souls it is, that thou art pleased to lay thy commands upon us, to wait upon thee in these duties of thy immediate service; which is the blissful employment of all the glorious liost of heaven. Thou humblest thyself even to behold the things that are in heaven, to take notice of the worship of those blessed creatures above. O how wonderful is thy condescension then, to look down upon us, poor sinful worms, that dwell here in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust! Lord, what is man that thou takest knowledge of him, and the son of man that thou makest account of him! Thou canst not at all need us,nor any thing of ours, O blessed God: but we all do stand in great and continual need of thee, our only sovereign good: in need