O LORD, thou wast before all, thou art above all, and thy years shall not fail. Thou art the searcher of our hearts. Thou knowest the dulness and hardness, the vanity and deceitfulness of them: we were born sinners, and so have we lived. We have added sin to sin. We have abused thy great and manifold mercies, tempted thy patience, and despised thy goodness. And justly mightest thou have cast us into outer darkness, where is wailing and gnashing of teeth.
But of thy loving kindnesses there is no number. Thou still callest us to return to thee: and _whosoever cometh to thee, thou wilt in no wise cast out_. O meet us with thy heavenly grace, that we may be able to come to thee. Be thou graciously pleased to stretch forth thy hand, and loose the chains wherewith our souls are entangled. O free us from every weight of sin, from every yoke of bondage. O help us to feel, and bewail, and forsake all our sins. And let us never want the comfortable assurance of thy forgiveness of them, thy acceptance of us, and thy love to us, in the blessed Son of thy eternal love.
Thou art never weary, O Lord, of doing us good. Let us never be weary of doing thee service. But as thou hast pleasure in the prosperity of thy servants, so let us take pleasure in the service of our Lord, and abound in thy work, and in thy love and praise evermore. O fill up all that is wanting, reform whatever is amiss in us, and perfect the thing that concerneth us. Let the witness of thy pardoning love ever abide in all our hearts. O speak into every one of our souls the peace which passeth all understanding: and let us always look upon thee as our Father, reconciled to us in Jesus Christ.
In his great name we cry unto thee in the behalf of the whole race of mankind. O that all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God. Continue thy mercies to this sinful land; teach us at length to know thy will concerning us: and oh! turn thou all our hearts unto thee, as the heart of one man. Bless the king; O Lord prolong his days and prosper his government; make him always a _terror to evil-doers, and a praise to them that do well_. And grant unto all magistrates and ministers of thy word, a continual supply of all the needful gifts and graces of the holy Spirit. Be thou a father to the fatherless, a husband to the widow, a refuge to the oppressed, a physician to the sick, a helper of the friendless, a God of consolation to the sorrowful and distressed. Bless to us whatsoever thou art pleased to allot us, and every thing that befals us. Make all work for our good, to build us up in thy grace, and to help us on to thy glory.
Continue thy fatherly care over us this night. O preserve and defend, and bless and keep us, that no evil may befal us, _nor any plague come nigh our dwelling_. Give us comfortable sleep to strengthen us for thy service. And whenever thou callest us to the sleep of death, let us chearfully resign our spirits into thy hands, through the riches of thy grace, and the worthiness of thy Son, in whose merits and mediation alone we put our trust. And for all that he hath done and suffered 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, now and for evermore. “Our Father, &c.”
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