shame and blushing our multiplied and ag gravated sins. We entreat thy pardon and mercy through Jesus Christ-through him who is the resurrection and the life, may we be raised from death in sin to a life of holiness. May our affliction be the mean of reconciling our hearts to thy government, and engaging us to give ourselves to thee entirely. May we live more disengaged from the vanities of the world, and view all our dear relatives and friends as uncertain in their continuance. May we view ourselves as frail and dying creatures, and live in an actual and habitual preparation for death, judgment and eternity. Oh, teach us so to number our days as to apply our hearts to wisdom. As our dearest comforts are dying around us, may we remember that our days are as an hands breadth and our age as nothing before thee that we must soon follow our friends who are gone down to the grave and into the eternal world-that we must soon stand at thy tribunal and give up our account to thee. Oh, prepare us by thy grace for the solemn hour of death that we may meet it with Christian fortitude, triumph in a dying hour and be welcomed to the joy of our Lord. Through Jesus Christ, who died and arose again as the first fruits of them that sleptto him be glory and praise for ever. Amen. A Prayer for the Closet. O THOU eternal source and fountain of Being and blessedness! with thee is everlasting strength with thee is mercy-with thee is the residence of the Spirit. To thine omniscient eye all hearts are naked, and every thought, and every secret desire, is perfectly known. Grant me thy Holy Spirit, and enable me, a lost and ruined sinner, to draw near to the mercy-seat and plead with thee, for the sake of Jesus thy beloved Son, for the blessings I need both for time and eternity. Help me to contemplate thy glory, the infinite purity and rectitude of thy nature, and as in thy presence, to commune with my own heart. But, O Lord, I am vile, what shall I say! I am inclined to evil as the sparks to fly upward. I have an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. I have broken all thy holy commandments in thought, word, and deed. Thou hast preserved my life amidst innumerable dangers, thou hast fed and clothed me from thy bounty, and comforted me with friends, and given me pious instructors, but I have been basely and stupidly ungrateful. Thou hast put into my hands thy holy word, that gospel that brings life and immortality to light, and in the most moving language of love, hast called upon me to repent and live-to fly from the wrath to come, to forsake sin and to believe in that Redeemer, who is full of grace and truth, and is able to save unto the uttermost all that come to God by him; but all this grace I have abused, and misimproved all the talents thou hast given me. I have nothing of my own to plead before thee, but wretchedness and want. O thou, who art merciful and gracious, who delightest not in the death of a sinner, help me to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ, by faith to plead his righteousness, and his only, before God. Give me not up to a hard heart and blinded mind. Save me from the sin that most easily besets me, and enable me to watch and pray, that I enter not into temptation. Keep me from a deceived heart. Grant me the spirit of Christ, and save me from pride, vain-glory, and selfishness. May the love of God reign in my heart, that I may render to him the glory due to his name, and to man the things that are his. Make the path of my duty plain in all the relations of life, and in all my dealings with my fellow creatures, and may I not do to others what I should be unwilling to receive from them. May I as freely forgive others as I hope God will forgive me, and be enabled sincerely to pray for them. Lord, help me to be temperate in all things, and to keep under those passions and appetites of the body, which war against the soul, that I may deny myself, take up the cross, and follow Christ. Grant me submission to thy providential hand under crosses and frowns; to commit all my ways to God, and wilt thou direct my steps. O thou who hearest the prayer of the contrite, who hast told me in thy word, to enter into my closet and pray in secret, of thy great mercy forgive what thou hast seen amiss in this duty. Thou knowest all my needs, better than I can ask or think, let me hope in thy mercy to the chief of sinners through Jesus Christ, my strength and my Redeemer, to whom with the Father and the Spirit, be glory for ever. Amen. |