knowing that our light Affliction, which is but for a Moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal Weight of Glory ; and that after patient Continuance in well doing', we shall receivé Glory and Honour and Immortality, and drink of thy Pleasures as out of the River m Thou knoweft beft our Condition, our Defires, and our real Wants: Thine infinite Wisdom knows whether it be beft for us to abound, or to fuffer Need": O do thou, inexhaustible Fountain of Mercy, fuit thy Bleflings to our feveral Neceffities, leading us with thy Council, in order afterward to receive us to Glory, thro' Jefus Christ our Lord, who in Compaffion to our Infirmities has taught and commanded us when we pray to fay, Our Father, &c. [Then read the Collect for the Day out of the Common Prayer; and the two laft Prayers in the Morning or Evening Service, Almighty God who haft given us Grace, &c. The Grace of our Lord Jefus Christ, &c.. An Evening Prayer. LORD, the high and lofty One, that inhabiteft Eternity, whofe Name is Holy °*, who art of purer Eyes than to behold Evil, and canft not look on Iniquity P, how fhall we lift up our Eyes to thee, we who are encompassed about with Guilt and Mifery, and covered with Shame and Confufion ?----O Lord, we have finned and have committed Iniquity, and done wickedly, against the Light of our own Minds, and the (m) Pfal. xxxvi, 8. (00) Ifaiah Ivii, 15. (k) 2 Cor. iv, 17. (1) Rom. ii, 7. (n) Phil. iv, 12. (0) Pfal. Ixxiii, 24. (p) Hab. i, 13. (q) Dan. ix, 5. plain Precepts of thy holy Gofpel: Who can Stand before thine Indignation, and who can abide the Fierceness of thine Anger? What shall we fay unto thee, O thou Preferver of Men'? Shouldft thou deal with us after our Sins, and reward us after our Iniquities, we must be loft and undone for ever: But enter not into Judgment with thy Servants, for in thy Sight shall no Man living be juftified". Thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, flow to Anger, and of great Kindness, thy Mercy endureth for every, and thy Compaffions fail not; thou knoweft whereof we are made, and remembereft that we are but Duft. ---O thou Father of Mercies", O Lord, thou Lover of Souls, hide not thy Face from us, nor caft thy Servants away in Difpleafure: Let the Interceffion of thy beloved Son, in whom thou art well pleafed, prevail on our behalf, and for the Sake of what he has done and suffered for us forgive our paft Sins and Follies, which are more than we can number, and the Punishment due to them greater than we can bear. Give us, we beseech thee, a deep Contrition for having offended thee our great Benefactor, in whom we live, move, and have our Being here, and upon whofe Mercy alone we depend for confummate Happiness in that Eternity to which we are haftening. O gracious God, who haft promised to give thy holy Spirit to them that afk it", (r) Nahum i,.6. (u) Ibid. cxli, 2. (z) Lam. iii, 22. (c) Wifd. xi, 26. (f) Gen. iv, 13. (g) (f) Job vii, 20. (x) Neh. ix, 17. (a) Pfal. ciii, 14. (d) Pfal. xxvii, 9. Ats xvii, 28. (h) we humbly (t) Pfal. ciii, 10. (y) Pf. cxviii, 1. (b) 2 Cor. i, 3. (e) Matth. iii, 17. Luke xi, 13. and and from the very Bottom of our Souls, befeech thee to give us his gracious Influence, to purify our corrupt Natures, to strengthen our Weakness, to comfort us in Troubles, to fupport us in Difcouragements, to fuccour us in Temptations, and to affist us in all the Parts of our Duty. Give us, O Lord, that victorious Faith whereby we may overcome the World', that we may ever hereafter live in thy Fear, and in a fincere and univerfal Obedience to all thy righteous Laws. Let us never fall into a careless and unconcerned State of Mind, into Coldnefs and Indifference towards the Duties of Religion; but grant, O Lord, that we may continually bear in our Hearts the Value of the Prize that is set before us, and that all our Pains, all our Industry, and all our Might, are abfolutely neceffary, by thy Grace, to make us Partakers of that inconceivable and eternal Bleffing. O God whofe Providence watches thy People for Good: O thou Shepherd of Ifracl, who neither flumbereft nor fleepest, defend us under thy Wings, and let us be fafe under thy Feathers; keep us from all Evil and Mischief, and from the Dread and Fear of any; refresh us with comfortable Reft and Sleep, which may the better fit us for the Duties of the Day following. And, O Lord, make us ever mindful of that Time when we fhall lie down in the Duft, that that Day may never come upon us unawares", but that we may be always ready, like unto Men waiting for their Lord. (i) John v, 5. (k) Pfal. lxxx, 1. (1) Ibid. cxxi, 4. (m) Ibid. xci, 4, (n) Luke xxi, 34. (0) Ibid. xii, 36, 40. [Here, [Here, if Time permits, is to come in the general Interceffion at Page 56.] Accept, O Father of Mercies, and God of all Comforts P, our unfeigned Thanks for the Mercies of this Day. Every Day, nay every Moment of our Life, afford us new Inftances of thy boundless Mercy. We thank thee for preferving us from thofe Calamities to which thefe poor frail mortal Bodies of ours are continually liable to, and from those Punishments which are the too juft Rewards for our Sins. If we have escaped any Sin, it was the Effect of thy reftraining Grace: If we have avoided any Danger, it was thy Hand directed us: What shall we render unto the Lord for all his Benefits 9? ---O grant that the Senfe of thy Goodness may have fuch an Influence upon us, that we may fhew forth thy Praife, not only with our Lips, but in our Lives, by giving up ourselves to thy Service, and by walking in Holiness and Righteousness before thee all the Days of our Life", thro' Jefus Christ our Lord, in whofe moft bleffed Name and Words we farther call upon thee, faying: Our Father, &c. Unto God's gracious Mercy and Protection we most humbly commit ourselves: The Lord bless us and keep us; The Lord make his Face fhine upon us, and be gracious unto us; The Lord lift up his Countenance upon us, and give us Peace, both now and evermore. Amen. [P] 2 Cor. i, 3. [q] Pfal. cxvi, 12. [[] Numb. vi, 24, 25, 26. (r) Luke i, 75. ADVICE concerning Spiritual S there are many Places, especially in Country Parishes, where the Sacrament is very feldom adminiftered: And as it may happen that fometimes the best Christians are by Sicknefs, and other warrantable Impediments, hindered from partaking of it when it is; fome pious Divines have advised in these Cases a Spiritual Communion to fupply in fome Sort the Want of facramental. To this Purpose they advise us to fet apart the fame Portion of Time, and to ufe the fame Meditations and Prayers (changing only fuch Expreffions as relate to actual Participation) as if we were to receive the Sacrament. As this is Matter of Advice only, and not of divine Commandment, every Man may do herein as he is difpofed in bis Heart. But no doubt such a spiritual Communion cannot fail of having a very good Effect: By it, the Refolutions we make at the Lord's Table will be conftantly renewed, and will not be liable to be eafily forgotten, which is too often the Cafe, when Communions are at a great Diftance from each other: By this we may always preferve a lively Senfe of God's Mercies, an abfolute Hatred against Sin, and a fervent Charity *See Bifhop Taylor's Worthy Communicant, p. 386; Johnson's Unbloody Sacrifice, Part I, p. 349, 350; 2d Part, p. 261; Bishop Patrick's Advice to a Friend, p. 181; Bihop Wilfon's Inftruction for the Lord's Supper, p. 173; Spiritual Combat, p. 246. K towards |