The following reading is from a book called Family Prayers by William J. First week, Sunday morning. O come, let us worship and fall down. Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. Yes, O Lord, we are Yours, and You we are bound to serve. We grieve to think How many of our fellow creatures live without you in the world, and confess with shame that other lords have had dominion over us? But henceforth by you only will we make mention of your name. We hope that you have subdued the insensibility and indifference towards yourself so awfully natural to us, and awakened in us the inquiry, where is God, my maker, that gives songs in the night? We hope we are disposed to acknowledge you in all our ways, but we feel our need of the exercises of devotion. We trust we hold communion with you every day, but we find week days to be worldly days, and our allowed intercourse with secular concerns tends to reduce our heavenly impressions and to make us forgetful of our work and our rest. We therefore bless you for the return of a day sacred to our souls and eternity, a time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord in which, by waiting upon you, Our hearts are enlarged and our strength is renewed so that we can mount up with wings as angels, run and not be weary, and walk and not faint. This is a day which the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. Oh, let our minds be withdrawn from the world as well as our bodies. Let our retirement be devout. Let our meditation be sweet. Let our conversation be edifying. Let our reading be pious. Let our hearing be profitable. And on you may we wait all the day. Afford us the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. None can need your succors more than we. You know our infirmities. Let your strength be made perfect in our weakness. Our duties are far above our own power. Let your grace be sufficient for us. Our dangers are numberless, and we are utterly unable to keep ourselves from falling. Hold us up and we shall be safe. The burdens we feel would press our lives down to the ground. Lay underneath us your everlasting arms. Fears alarm us, cares corrode us, losses impoverish us. Our very affections are the source of all our afflictions. Surely man walks in a vain show. Surely we are disquieted in vain. All, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. While in the world we have tribulation, in you may we have peace. And in the multitude of our thoughts within us may your comforts delight our souls. Yet, O Lord, we would remember that gratitude becomes us much more than complaint. Our afflictions have been light compared with our guilt, and few compared with the sufferings of others. They have all been attended with numberless alleviations. They have all been needful, all founded in a regard to our welfare, all designed to work together for our good. We bless you for what is past, and trust you for what is to come. and cast all our care upon you, knowing that you care for us. You have commanded us to pray for all men, that we may be bound by our varied emotions, as we have opportunity to do good to all men, especially to them that are of the household of faith. May we always cherish and display benevolent dispositions towards our dependents, forgiving dispositions towards our enemies, peaceful dispositions towards our neighbors, and candid dispositions towards our fellow Christians. May we be able to say with our Lord and Savior, whosoever shall do the will of my Father that is in heaven, the same as my brother and sister and mother. And pray with Paul, grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. May the goings of our God and King be seen this day in every Christian's sanctuary. Go with us to your house and give testimony to the word of your grace. May it have free course and be glorified in the hearts and lives of those who shall hear it. May it enlighten the ignorant, awaken the careless, reclaim the wandering, establish the weak, comfort the feeble-minded, and make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Remember those who are to this day denied our advantages. Be a little sanctuary to them in the midst of their privations and let them know that you are not confined to temples made with hands. And don't forget those who never enjoyed our privileges, never smiled when a Sabbath appeared, never heard of the name of a Savior. And let your way be known on earth, your saving health among all nations. Amen. Prayer number two. Who is like unto you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? May we approach you with the humility which is due to your greatness, and the hope that becomes your goodness. For though you are high, yet have you respect unto the lowly, and though continually adored by thrones and dominions, principalities and powers, Yet ye despise not the prayer of the destitute, but will hear their prayer. Our fathers cried to you, and were delivered. They trusted in you, and were not confounded. And you never said to the seat of Jacob, seek ye me in vain. Behold a company of sinners at your footstool, earnestly praying to be remembered with a favor you bear to your people, and to be visited with your salvation. We would not overlook the blessings of the life that now is. If we have food and raiment, and agreeable connections, and ease and health, and safe abode, we would bless you, for we have no claim to these bounties, and our present condition renders them valuable. But they are not our God. You are the strength of our hearts and our portion forever. Whom have we in heaven but You? There is none upon earth that we desire beside You. And praise waits for You, O God, in Zion. We long to be able with unshaken confidence to apply the promises of your grace to ourselves, and to say, you shall guide me with your counsel and afterward receive me to glory. Oh, say to our souls in language our consciences can understand, I am your salvation. And give us a token for good that we may rejoice in you. Yet, O God, we would not rest satisfied with the conviction of our relation with you while we are regardless of improving it. May we walk worthy of the Lord, unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to His gracious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness, giving thanks to the Father who has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, We can never discharge the obligations your abundant mercy has laid us under. But may we ever show that we are sensible of them, and that our impressed hearts are asking, what shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits towards me? While we hear you saying, O do not that abominable thing which I hate, may we be effectually deferred from sin and induced to watch and pray lest we enter into temptation. May your love be shed abroad in our hearts, that none of your commandments may be grievous. May your glory be dear to us. May we inquire after your will with impartiality and conform ourselves to it with diligence. Uphold us by your free spirit and let the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. Before this we have been compelled to exclaim, my leanness, my leanness. We have been no better in religion than a bruised reed or smoking flax. But it is our mercy that you do not despise a day of small things and our encouragement. that you give more grace, and you have promised to perfect that which concerns us, and commanded us to ask and receive that our joy may be full. May we, therefore, not only be humble but active. May we not only shake off sloth but despondency. May we be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might and increase with all the increase of God till we are filled with all the fullness of God. You know what is in man and what is necessary to him. You are not only addressing us continually by the voice of creation and the varying events of your providence, but you have given us by your word and your ordinances. We behold our Sabbath, our eyes see our teachers, and our ears hear the joyful sound of salvation by the cross and the grace of our Lord Jesus. Prophets and righteous men desired to see the things that we see, and did not see them, and to hear the things that we hear, and did not hear them. But blessed are our eyes, for they see, and our ears, for they hear. Yet we would remember that our responsibility will be answerable to our talents, that our chief danger results from our greatest privileges, and that our very blessings may be converted into a curse. We would therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into your rest, any of us should seem to come short of it. Bless us, family. May those of us who are at the head of it walk within our house with a perfect heart and set no wicked thing before our eyes. May we have a testimony in the bosoms of those who have the best opportunities of observing us, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by your grace, we have our conversation in the world and more especially with them. May we conduct ourselves towards those who serve us, as knowing that we have a Master in heaven, and that there is no respect of persons with God. And may our servants, in fulfilling the duties of their station, serve the Lord Christ. May we train up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and have the inexpressible satisfaction of seeing them walk in the truth. We don't ask great things for them of a worldly nature, only give them health of body and soundness of mind and food and raiment convenient and sufficient for them. But oh, bless them with all spiritual blessings and number them with your saints in glory everlasting. Pity those parents whose hearts are bleeding over children of disobedience. And here all the pious whose irreligious relations are forcing them off and to exclaim, How shall I endure to see the destruction of my kindred? Have ye not made of one blood all the nations of men that dwell upon the face of all the earth? Remember the work of your hands. Have respect to your holy covenant and let the world know that you have so loved it as to give your only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Hearken favorably to the prayers that have this day been offered up to you for our beloved country and for those who have been entrusted with the government of it. You have given us a pleasant land to dwell in. You have made us to rejoice in the many and great things that you have done for us. May we never be ungrateful for the privileges we enjoy, nor provoke you by your sins to remove them. May they be continued to the latest posterity and be sanctified to us and to our children. As you have given us such a distinguished rank among the nations, may we be for a name and a praise to you in the whole earth. And as we have been the objects of your loving kindness, may we ever be the instruments in your hands of good to others. And from us, may the word of the Lord sound out into every land. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. The following prayer is from Philip Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, chiefly in scripture language, in which the several branches of the Christian temper are more briefly enumerated in the order laid down above. Blessed God, I humbly adore you as a great father of lights and the giver of every good and every perfect gift. James 1 verse 17 From you, therefore, I seek every blessing, and especially those which may lead me to yourself and prepare me for the internal enjoyment of you. I adore you as a God who searches the hearts and drives the reins of the children of men. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. May I know what manner of spirit I am of, and be preserved from mistaking where the error might be infinitely fatal. May I, O Lord, be renewed in the spirit of my mind. A new heart, give me. And a new spirit, put within me. Make me a partaker of the divine nature. And as He who has called me is holy, may I be holy in all manner of conversation. May the same mind be in me which was also in Christ Jesus. May I so walk even as He walked. Deliver me from being carnally minded, which is death. and make me spiritually minded, since that is life and peace. And may I, while I pass through this world of sense, walk by faith and not by sight, and be strong in faith, giving glory to God. May your grace, O Lord, which has appeared unto all men, and appeared to me with such glorious evidence and luster, effectually teach me to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, And to live soberly, righteously, and godly. Work in my heart that godliness which is profitable unto all things. And teach me, by the influence of your blessed Spirit, to love you, the Lord my God, with all my heart, and with all my soul, with all my mind, and with all my strength. May I yield myself to you as alive from the dead, and present my body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable in your sight, which is my most reasonable service. May I entertain the most faithful and affectionate regard to the blessed Jesus, your incarnate Son, the brightness of your glory in the express image of your person. Though I have not seen him, may I love him and in him. Though now I don't see him, yet believe in me, I rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. And may the life which I live in the flesh be daily by the faith of the Son of God. May I be filled with the Spirit and may I be led by it. And so may it be evident to others and especially to my own soul that I am a child of God and an heir of glory. May I not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but the spirit of adoption in which I may be enabled to cry, Abba, Father. May He work in me as a spirit of love and of power and of a sound mind, that so I may add to my faith virtue. May I be strong and very courageous and quit myself like a man and like a Christian and the work to which I am called, and end that warfare which I had in view when I listed under the banner of the great Captain of my salvation. Teach me, O Lord, seriously to consider the nature of my own soul, and to set a suitable value upon it. May I labor not only or chiefly for the meat that perishes, but for that which endures to eternal life. May I humble myself under your mighty hand and be clothed with humility, decked with the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of great price. May I be pure in heart that I may see you, mortifying my members which are on the earth, so that if a right eye offend me, I may pluck it out, and if a right hand offend me, I may cut it off. May I be temperate in all things, content with such things as I have, and instructed to be so in whatever state I am. May patience also have its perfect work in me, that I may be in that respect complete in wanting nothing. Form me, O Lord, I beseech you, to a proper temper toward my fellow creatures. May I love my neighbor as myself, and whatsoever I would that others should do to me, may I also do the same unto them. May I put on meekness under the greatest injuries and provocations, and if it be possible, as much as lies in me, may I live peaceably with all men. May I be merciful, as my Father in heaven is merciful. May I speak the truth from my heart, and may I speak it in love, guarding against every instance of a sincerious and malignant spirit, and taking care not to judge severely, as I would not be judged with the severity which you, Lord, know, which mine own conscience knows, I should not be able to support. I entreat you, O Lord, to work in me all those qualifications of the Christian temper, which may render it peculiarly acceptable to you, and may prove ornamental to my profession in the world. Renew, I beseech you, a right spirit within me. Make me an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile. And will I feast on Christ as my Passover sacrifice for me? May I keep the feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Make me, I beseech you, O Thou Almighty and Unchangeable God, steadfast and immovable. Always abounding in Your work is knowing that my labor in the Lord shall not be finally in vain. May my heart be tender, easily impressed with Your Word and providence, touched with an affectionate concern for Your glory. and sensible of every impulse of your spirit. May I be zealous for my God with His ill according to knowledge and charity, and teach me in your service to join the wisdom of the serpent with the boldness of the lion and the innocence of the dove. Thus render me by your grace a shining image of my dear Redeemer, and at length bring me to wear the bright resemblance of His holiness and His glory in that world where He dwells, that I may ascribe everlasting honors to Him and to you, O Father of mercies. whose invaluable gift he is, and to your Holy Spirit, through whose gracious influence I would humbly hope I may call you my Father, and Jesus my Savior. Amen. The following prayer is from a book called Morning and Evening Prayer by John McDuff, 1856. Prayer for Sanctifying Grace Sanctify them through your truth. Your word is truth. Blessed Lord, bend your pity and eye of love and mercy upon me today. Draw near to me as I venture once more on praying and on pleading ground. I desire to feel that I am one night nearer to glory. Enable me to feel as night after night is silently stealing over my head that my seasons and opportunities of grace are fleeting fast away. And that soon the night comes in which I can work no more. Alas, O my father, how little have I improved the time that is past. I am a wonder to myself, that with all my deep ingratitude and utter vileness, I am yet permitted to approach your footstool. I ascend against light and love, warning and mercy, grace and privilege. The retrospective life is a retrospective guilt. I mourn over my manifold shortcomings, the alienation of my heart from you, the fitfulness of my spiritual frames, the ebbings and flowings in the tide of my love. When tried by the lofty and erring standard of your law, How are my best actions and duties marred with defilement? How much self-seeking and self-glorying, and how little animated by the predominating motive of love to you and singleness of eye to your service? Blessed Jesus, I fully anew to the pavilion of your love. I have no other hope, no other refuge, but in your finished work, your matchless atonement, your spotless righteousness. There is in you an all-sufficiency for every need. Finite necessities cannot exhaust infinite fullness. Let me hear your voice saying, your sins, which are many, are all forgiven you. Oh, sprinkle me with your blood. Sanctify me body, soul, and spirit. Transform me more and more into your own image. May I know more and more the happiness of true holiness, that I am really blessed in seeking to walk so as to please God. May the power of grace wax stronger and stronger, and the power of sin weaker and weaker. May trials and crosses become light and easy to me, when born in a spirit of meek, and repining submission to the divine will. May this quiet every doubt and misgiving. Your Heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. Lord, may every providential dealing prove a heart searcher, testing the reality of my love to you and my fitness and preparedness for your heavenly kingdom. Extend, Lord, your cause and gospel everywhere. Strengthen your missionary and ministering servants. May they ever hear the sound of their master's footsteps behind them. May your churches walk in the fear of God and in the comfort of your Holy Spirit. Bless all my beloved friends wherever they are. Be their almighty protector and guide. Let the angel come at the time of evening incense, touching all our hearts and granting us an answer to our several petitions. Let us rise tomorrow refreshed for your service and fitted for whatever in your good providence. We may be called either to do or to suffer. Hear me, gracious God, for the sake of him whom you always hear. Amen. Let my prayer be set forth before you as incense and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. Amen. The following prayer is recorded in a book by Richard Elistry. Elistry died in 1681, but this prayer was published in 1692. It is called a prayer for one near any temptation. O merciful God, you exercise your children with a number of trials and temptations, leaving them to themselves, as you did Hezekiah, to the end he might see its frailty. Or like Peter, who you exposed to the winds of Satan's winnowings, and others like Paul to the blows of the adversary's vehement buffetings. O God, your only Son, you did not exempt from Satan's sharpest and stoutest trials when you conducted him into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. If you, O Lord, should permit me in like manner to be tried and tempted, allow me not at any time to be overcome. But hold me up by your almighty power. Animate by your presence of the Blessed Spirit. And let your grace be ever sufficient for me in which I may foil my enemy and in the end get to victory. Detect his policies. Discover his subtleties. Defeat his doings and dealings which are against me. To this end, endue me with such wisdom as may make me foresee his strategies. Such vigilancy as I may avoid his snares which he prepared for my soul's destruction. Let no temptation take me but what is common to man. Try me not above my strength, but with the temptation make me a way of escape. Let me never yield to the motions of Satan, suggesting to me death or desperation, but grant me patience to expect the hour of my departure, my soul's separation, the dissolution of my body and deliverance from the misery of this wretched world. Let my trouble be without distress, my perplexity without despair, my persecution without forsaking, and my casting down without destruction. If tears fall from my eyes in your good time, wipe them away and preserve them in your bottle, that they may be precious in your sight. Oh Lord, if you leave me for a while, draw near again to me in great compassion, Cover my head in my spiritual conflicts. Let your love be my banner, your faithfulness and truth my shield and buckler. Let no trial surprise me, but give me a right judgment, that I may count it all joy when I fall into diverse temptations. O let not my heart be hardened by them, as the Israelites were who provoked you in the wilderness. But sanctify all your visitations to me, that I may be the bettered and reformed by them, that my faith being tried, patience may have her perfect work in me entire, lacking nothing. I know, O Lord, in all your temptations, you ever have had an end, and Satan another end. You try me to the end, that, being faithful, you might give me the crown of life. But Satan seeks to seduce me to wickedness. But, O Holy Spirit, you preserve her of all men. Keep me by your grace and strengthen me by your power. Be present with me and preside in me. And as your sufferings abound in me, so let your consolation much more abound. And in the midst of your greatest agonies of mind, let your comforts refresh my disquieted soul. Lord, Let Your mighty hand and stretched out arm be now and always my defense, Your mercy and lovingkindness in Christ Jesus, Your dear Son, my salvation, Your true and holy word my instruction, Your grace and Holy Spirit my comfort and consolation. The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep my heart and mind in the love of God, and of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, be with me, and remain with me, and mine, and with the whole Church of God, from this time forth, and forevermore. God be merciful to me and bless me. The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon me and be merciful to me and grant me his everlasting peace, oh man. The following reading is from prayers from Thomas Beacon. Chaplain to Archbishop Cranmer, Prebendary of Canterbury. A prayer for the morning. O Heavenly Father, which, like a diligent watchman, attends always upon your faithful people, whether they wake or sleep, and mightily defends them, not only from Satan, that old enemy of mankind, but also from all other their adversaries. so that through your godly power they may be harmless, preserved. I most heartily thank you that it is pleased your fatherly goodness so to take care of me, your unprofitable servant, this night past, that you have both safely kept me from all mine enemies, and also given me sweet sleep to the great comfort of my body. I most entirely beseech you, O most merciful Father, to show the like kindness toward me this day, and preserving my body and soul, that as my enemies may have no power over me, so I likewise may neither think, breathe, speak, or do anything that may be displeasant to your fatherly goodness. dangerous to myself or hurtful to my neighbor, but that all my enterprise may be agreeable to your most blessed will, which is always good and godly, doing that that may advance your glory. Answer to my vocation, and profit my neighbor, Whom I ought to love as myself. That whensoever you call me from this veil of misery, I may be found a child not of darkness, but of light, And so forever reign with you in glory, Which art the true and everlasting light. To whom, with your dearly beloved Son, Jesus Christ, our alone Saviour and the Holy Ghost, that most sweet Comforter, be all honour and glory. Amen. Thomas Beckham lived from 1512 to 1567. The following recorded prayers from Robert Bolton, 1572 to 1631. From certain devout prayers of Mr. Bolton upon solemn occasions. 1638. Eternal God. Most holy and most glorious, which dwells in the highest heaven, and with righteousness and truth sways the scepter of the whole world. You that are, to the wicked and rebellious wretches a terrible judge and a consuming fire, but to the humble and repentant sinner a strong tower of defense, and their exceeding great reward. We, the most miserable and wretched of all your creatures, though the most noble by creation, for they and their kinds in several conditions do you honor and service, but we, whom you have placed in this world for a more singular and extraordinary glorifying of you, have not only made ourselves more vile than the basest creatures and more senseless in your service than the beasts that perish. but even combined with Satan, with hell, and with all the powers of darkness, to blaspheme and dishonor your great name, to profane your Sabbath, to break all your holy laws and commandments. O Lord, we are thus sinful and unworthy, are here ashamed and confounded in your presence, for our iniquities are increased over our heads, and our trespasses are grown up unto the heavens. So that if now in your just judgment you should come against us as we have many times and do daily most justly provoke you, it had been far better for us that we had never been born. Satan would challenge us for his own. We should never see your face again, nor the heavens, nor the earth, nor all the goodness which you have prepared for man. from the soul pollution of original sin, which is universally infected and possesses all the powers and parts, both of our souls and bodies, is from a filthy puddle, have issued all kinds of impurities, many works of darkness and fearful transgressions, both in our thoughts, words, and actions, much profaneness and hardness of heart, pride and hypocrisy, contempt of the power of godliness and godly men, a senseless neglect of your word and judgments, of the way to heaven and the salvation of our own souls, Even the best of us, before our calling, wearied ourselves in the vain pleasures and sinful fashions of this wretched world, being detained by the policies of hell, either in notorious sinfulness or only formal hypocrisy. We walked with boldness in the way of darkness and of death, after the devices and desire of our own wicked hearts. and much bitterness and malice against your children in their sincerity. Nay, and since it has pleased you to enlighten our understandings with saving knowledge, and to pull us by the power of your good spirit out of the slavery of sin and Satan, to the glorious liberty of your children, our best actions and your good graces in us have been foully stained by privy pride and secret hypocrisy. We many times stay your blessings from us by our dullness and untowardness at religious exercises, and by reason we do not faithfully those good things which we know. We have the knowledge of many evil things kept from us which we unadvisedly commit. And whereas before this and our new birth the sins of our unregeneration have woefully vexed and disquieted our consciences, Yet such is the wretchedness of our corrupted nature, that we have sometimes looked back upon them even with delight. If we have escaped relapse and backsliding, we do not with that thankfulness and cheerfulness, as we ought, embrace in this happy time of grace and peace those good means which you have ordained for our comfort and salvation. So that indeed we walk not worthy of that blessed vocation in which we are called, but by our many slips, imperfections, and carelessness, we bring much discomfort upon our souls, disgrace to our Christian profession, dishonor to your majesty, and offense to our brethren. O Lord, we beseech you for your holy name's sake. And for your rich mercies in Christ Jesus to pardon us all these, our offenses, and to forgive us all our sins, known and unknown, howsoever or whensoever committed, since or before our calling, and to bury them in the death and passion of our blessed Savior, and to hide them in his righteousness forevermore. There is no comfort to be expected to our conscience wounded with the terror of sin, either in heaven or in earth, in angel, saint, or mortal man, but only in the spotless justice of your dear Son. Persuade, therefore, we beseech you, upon a good ground, with plentiful assurance, every one of our souls, that His precious blood was shed for our sins in particular. that we may sensibly feel your forgiveness of our sins and rejoice in the hope of eternal life. And for the time to come we humbly entreat you to mortify in us all sinful affections, unruly lusts, and unlawful desires, to subduing us the power of sin and every corruption in which Satan keeps us anyway in his slavery, or at any time gets the dominion over us. Save us, we beseech you, from idleness, worldliness, profaneness, security, and all occasions in which your good Spirit is grieved in us, our graces weakened, and your great name dishonored. Vow safest the spirit of judgment, that we may discern between the short span of this wretched life and the length and breadth of immortality, that we never prefer the pleasures of sin for a moment, and a little glory and preferment in this world before the testimony of a good conscience and that excellent weight of glory laid up in heaven for all your children. Make us faithful and conscionable in our callings, zealous and sincere in all our religious duties and services, and wisely resolute to stand for your honor and truth against all opposition, either by devils or wicked men. And so direct we beseech you, and sanctify all our courses, that for a few and evil days in this veil of tears we may so store ourselves with spiritual comfort, with a sound heart, with a strong faith, and a good conscience, that we may stand firm and sure at the day of our visitation, And when upon our deathbed we shall be set upon by the weakness of our own flesh, the terrors of death, the fearfulness of the grave, and the fiery darts of Satan, we may comfortably pass through them all in the name and power of your son, and be received with joyfulness and triumph into those sacred mansions which he has already made ready in heaven for all those that truly love and fear you. Amen. The following prayer is from a book called Christian Prayers and Holy Meditations, collected by Henry Bole in the year 1566. In the evening and morning and in noon will I pray to the Lord and he will hear my prayer. Psalm 55. When you awake, out of your sleep, pray thus. O most dear Father of our Savior Jesus Christ, whom none does know but of your gift, amongst others your manifold and great benefitants, grant me this also, that like as you have awakened my body from sleep, so you would thoroughly awake and deliver my soul from the sleep of sin and darkness of this world. And that which now is awakened out of sleep, you would after death restore to life. For that is but sleep to you which is death to us. Dear God, I most heartily beseech and humbly pray your goodness to make my body such a companion, or rather a minister of godliness to my soul in this present life. that in the life to come it may be partaker with the same of everlasting happiness by Jesus Christ our Lord. Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give you light. As soon as you behold the daylight, pray thus, O Lord, you great and most true light, from whence this light of the day and sun springs, O light, which does lighten every man that comes into this world, O light, which knows no night nor evening, but you are always a midday most clear and fair, without whom all is most dark darkness, by whom all things are most splendid. O you wisdom of the Eternal Father of mercies, lighten my mind that I may only see those things that please you and may be blinded to all other things. Grant that I may walk in your ways and that nothing else may be light and pleasant to me. Lighten my eyes, O Lord, that I don't sleep in death, lest mine enemies say I have prevailed against Him. Amen. The following reading is from the Book of Public Prayers, including John Calvin. NOW O MOST HIGH, WHEN WE PRAY TO YOU, WE WOULD REMEMBER AND MAKE SUPPLICATION FOR ALL THE CHILDREN OF MEN. EXTEND WE BESEECH YOU, YOUR MERCY TO A GUILTY WORLD, AND LET ALL THE ENDS OF THE EARTH SEE THE SALVATION OF OUR GOD. Let your gospel be preached to every creature, and add unto your church daily such as shall be saved. Give to your son the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession. O Lord, gather into the gospel church your ancient people, the Jews. Hasten the latter-day glory. Accomplish all the purposes of your grace. Remove everything which is a let or hindrance to the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom. Take away all error and idolatry, anti-christian superstition and Muslim delusion. We pray for your blessing upon the church universal and upon every branch of it in particular. O Lord, pity any part of your church that may be suffering affliction or persecution. Let not the rod of the wicked rest upon the lot of the righteous. Strengthen the faith and patience of your suffering saints, that they may hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. Pour out your Spirit upon all your churches. Revive your work in the midst of the years. Cause pure and undefiled religion universally to prevail. Arise, have mercy upon Zion, and let the time to favor her, yea, the set time, come. Heavenly Father, bless all the ministers of your Gospel. Purify the sons of Levi, and make those holy who bear the vessels of the Lord, make them burning and shining lights in your golden candlesticks. And may they turn many to righteousness, and shine as stars in the firmament of glory for ever and ever. O Lord, we pray for your special favor to your churches in this land. Be very gracious to all the congregations and pastors of this church. May your deliberations at all times have a happy tendency to promote true religion and to advance more and more of the interests of the Redeemer's kingdom. Make all our people holy in their lives and godly in their conversation. May they be an ornament to their profession and may our church be a praise in the land. O God, who art King among the nations, visit all the nations and kingdoms of the earth with your goodness, your mercy, and your salvation. Deal favorably, O Lord, with the land in which we live. O the help of Israel, the Savior, thereof in time of trouble. Be not as a stranger in our land and as a wayfaring man that turns aside to tarry for a night. Make this Emmanuel's land. May it be a valley of vision, a land in which truth, peace, and righteousness shall always dwell. Give, O Lord, we entreat, the prosperity to the inhabitants of this country in their husbandry, their trades, and their merchandise. Make not our heaven brass, nor our earth iron, but grant us, we pray, the rain in due season, and reserve to us the appointed weeks of harvest. Let our land yield her increase, and our trees their fruit. Abundantly bless our provision, and satisfy our poor with bread. O Lord, bless all in authority over us, supreme and subordinate. Counsel our counselors, and teach our senators wisdom. Make our officers peace, and our exactors righteous. May all our magistrates and rulers rule in the fear of God. Be able men, men of truth, fearing God and hating covetousness. May judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream. O Lord, we pray for all schools, colleges, and other seminaries of learning. From these fountains may streams issue which shall make glad the city of our God. Bless all teachers in them, and may the youth be trained up in the fear of the Lord. Most gracious God, we beseech you to extend compassion to the sons and daughters of affliction, heal the sick, ease the pained, support the distressed, succor the tempted, comfort mourners, restore to their right mind those who are deprived of the use of their reason, Be the God of the widow, the father of the fatherless, and the orphan's stay. And now, O Lord our God, we commit ourselves to you. We hope in your mercies, and we wait for your salvation. Pardon the iniquity of our holy things. We ask and offer all in the name of our once crucified, but now exalted Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. To whom with the Father and the Spirit of all grace be ascribed glory, honor, dominion, and praise forever and ever. Amen.