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DEVOTIONS

For the USE of

FAMILIES and Particular PERSONS.

Directions and Papers for Morning.
Directions.

THE best preparation for Spending the day well is to refolve when you first awake in the morning, and to frive, as earnestly as you can, to keep all worldly thoughts out of your mind, till you have prefented the first fruits of the day to God, lifting up with your first breath your foul to the Creator and Preferver of all things, in fuch-like pious fentences as thefe that follow:

AWake,

Wake, O my foul, and fing praises to thy God. I laid me down and flept, and rofe up again, for the Lord fuftained me.

Lord, raise me up at the laft day, that I may enter into the joy of thee, my Lord.

Awake, O my foul, to righteousness, and fin not; that we may be glorified together, when I fhall be awakened by the last trumpet to appear before the judgment-feat of Christ.

Glory be to thee, O Lord, for watching over me this night past.

Directions.

While your body is bufied in dreffing itself, adorn your mind with spiritual and religious meditations. Let the miscarriages of others, and your own daily experience, teach you to guard against those temptations into which business or company too frequently lead us: nd to refolve to embrace, and contrive to the utmost how to improve, every occafion that fall offer itself, for the fervice of God, the good of your neighbour, and the falvation of your own foul, in the course of that day.

Then being dreffed according to your ability and prefent calling, kneel down before God, and feal your good refolution with the following preparatory prayer:

A Preparatory Prayer for God's Grace and Affiftance. AS Sfift me mercifully, O Lord, in all my fupplications

and prayers, and difpofe the way of me thy fervant towards the attainment of everlasting falvation: that among all the changes and chances of this mortal life, f may ever be defended by thy most gracious and ready help, through Jefus Chrift, my Lord. Amen.

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The

The Morning Prayer for Every Day.

OST gracious Lord God, the fpring of all our com

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forts here, and the sure and certain foundation of all our hopes hereafter, in whom 7 live, move, and have my being; look down from heaven upon me, who humbly beg leave to renew my thanks to thy Divine Majefty. confess, that under thy protection have this night flept fecure; and praised be thy holy name, that I am now in health and safety; therefore as long as I live, will magnify thee for my creation, my preservation, and all the bleffings and comforts

enjoy. O then! moft merciful Father, forgive me all the unworthy returns have made for the manifold favours J have received from thee, and grant me for the time to come. fuch a fenfe of thine infinite goodnefs and mercy, that may love thee with all my heart, with all my foul, and with all my strength; that may study to please thee in all things, and be afraid of nothing fo much as thy wrath and indignation. And that I may serve thee as I ought to do, preferve me from all the power of infnaring objects, and make me truly fenfible of the vanity of this world; neither permit me to be brought under the dominion of those lufts, which war against the soul. Grant me a right understanding of thy will and grace, so to ufe this world, as not to abuse it; so that neither the cares of this life nor the deceitfulness of riches may ever make me neglect the great work of my falvation. Create in me, O God, a clean heart, and root out thereof all covetous affections and defires, and let it be my great care and concern to lay up a treasure in heaven, and provide for eternity; fo that being delivered from pride and vain-glory, from a fond conceit of myself, or a mean opinion of others, from a cenforious and uncharitable fpirit, from an envious and malicious temper, and from all those finful and corrupt affections, that are fo hateful in thy fight, may be endued with that wisdom which is from above, which is firft pure and then peaceable; with that meekness and humility, which is in thy fight of fo great price; and with all thofe holy and chriftian difpofitions that thou lovest, and which thou delighteft to find in the fons of men. Oh grant me always a true fenfe of my own 3

frailty,

frailty, of the shortnefs and uncertainty of this life, and of the eternity of that which is to come, that may always be careful so to live, as 7 fhall with 7 had done when I come to die. Let neither fickness nor death ever surprise me, nor find me in a state unprovided: but grant that may finish the great work of my falvation before the night comes, when no man can work; that fo having laid up a good foundation of hope and comfort against the day of trouble and fickness,

may, whenever thou shalt be pleased to call me hence, chearfully refign up my foul into thy hands. And this most humbly pray through the merits and for the fake of thy dear Son Jefus Chrift, my Saviour.

Affift me, O Lord, this day in all my ho

On Sunday Morning, inftead of the oppofite
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neft labours and en⚫ blefs thee alfo for the appointment of deavours, and grant one day in feven for our reft, and thy more that may take no-peculiar worship. Difpofe my heart, O of thing in hand but Lord, 7 humbly befeech thee, to a feriwhat is agreeable to ous attendance upon thee in all holy duthee, my God; to ties. Make me duly mindful of all thy facred inftitutions, and grant that I may newhom also hum- ver fo far forget the intereft of my foul, as bly beg leave to com-to neglect the religious obfervance of the mend my foul and chriftian fabbath. And grant that 7 may body, and all that obferve it according to thy commandftand in any relation ment, as a means to promote a holy and to me; befeeching virtuous life, and to prepare my foul for thee of thy great lightful praifes, which is the happiness and the enjoyment of the most glorious and degoodness to take us employment of angels and the fouls of just under thy protecti- men made perfect. And wherein 7 have on, and defend us offended thee by my negligent performfrom all evil, and ance of thefe holy duties, which ought lead us in the way we to perform on this thy holy day, be not fhould go; fo that, provoked to withdraw the affiftance of thy whilft we are en-Holy Spirit from me, and to leave me to gaged about things forgive me all my paft offences, and merthe folly and vanity of my own will, but temporal, we may cifully hear my prayer, and let my cry not forget the things come unto thee in the day of my neceffithat are eternal, nor ty. Withdraw my mind from the care, and be unmindful of that bufinefs, and pleafures of this life; that 7

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great account which may more freely attend upon the great we must give when concerns of a far better life, and that thou shalt call us to my prayers and praises, and all my services, judgment at the last may be offered up in fuch a ferious and devout manner, as may render them acday. Oh! leave us ceptable in thy fight. Make me attentive not to ourselves, but to thy holy word, and to all the good inguard us from thofe ftructions that fhall this day be given me; Ihares and temptati-and grant that may not reft in any outons that every where ward performances; but, by a right ufe of furround us in this thy holy ordinances, may grow in grace, and every day become a better chriftian, body of corruption. and fo improve in all virtuous and godly Guide us by thy living, that when this short life fhall have good Spirit thro' the an end, I may dwell with thee in life everaffairs and bufinefs lafting. Preferve the univerfal church, and of this life, that weblefs every christian affembly with thy may at last arrive at gracious prefence; hear the prayers they that place of e- hall this day put up, and make the word verlafting reft and effectual to the pulling down the kingdom of Satan, and to the building up of the peace, which thou church of Chrift in found faith and real haft prepared for virtue; that fo thy word, coming with those who truly and power into every confcience, may have a fincerely love and lue and faving effect upon the minds of fear thee, thro' thell that hear and read the fame. Give a merits and intercef-plentiful portion of thy good Spirit unto fion of the fame thy all who by fickness, imprisonment, or any other impediment, are detained from parbeloved Son Jefus taking of the means of grace 7 enjoy; and Chrift, our Lord; inmercifully relieve and help them in their whofe moft com-traits and afflictions. And, O moft graprehenfive words cious Father, pardon my fins and imperoffer up my imper-fections, and relieve all my neceffities, for fect prayers, faying the fake of Jefus Chrift, who has taught as he hath taught me, me thus to pray:

Our Father, &c. Our Father, &c.

Directions.

Here, if your time will permit, add the prayers of general Interceffion and Thanksgiving, as you find them on the pages following, before you use the concluding prayer. The concluding Prayer.

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HE grace of our Lord Jefus Chrift, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all now and for evermore. Amen.

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The Interceffion.

OST gracious God, whofe mercy is over all thy works, beseech thee to extend thy pity and compaffion to the whole race of mankind; let the bright beams of thy gospel shine into the corners of all the earth, that those that fit in darkness may come to the knowledge and practice of thy laws, and their fouls be faved in the great day when thy Son Chrift Jefus fhall come to judge the earth. And most humbly pray, that thou wilt pardon the great and crying fins of this nation, and turn from us theevils which we have most justly deserved; ftop all profanenefs, irreligion, and impiety, and compofe all our unhappy animosities in church and state; fo that truth and juftice, brotherly love and charity, may ever flourish and abound. Defend thy holy catholick church, and that part especially of the communion of faints, which thou haft planted in thefe kingdoms; heal the breaches and divifions thereof; and for the fake of us all preserve thy fervant GEORGE, our king: protect his perfon, direct his counfels, profper his government, and make him an instrument, in thy hand, of great good to these kingdoms and all his fubjects. Direct the pastors and governors of thy church, with a spirit of true religion and goodness, and make them zealous and diligent to promote it in all those whom thou haft committed to their care. Adorn the nobility, magiftrates and gentry, and commons of thefe realms, with wifdom, grace, and good understanding, that they may all study to ferve thee, and to discharge the duties of their feveral stations, always remembering the great account which they must one day give at the judgment-feat of Chrift. Relieve all that are in any affliction or diftrefs; that labour under poverty or perfecution, under bodily pains or difeafes, or under temptation or trouble of mind; and in thy good time deliver them out of all their trouble and diftrefs. Blefs with the choiceft of thy graces all my friends and relations, [particularly my father and mother, my brothers and fifters, my dear wife and children, if you have any fuch near relations,] pardon all our fins, unite our hearts in a mutual love of each other, and vouchfafe to every one of us, and to all others that

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