The following volume gleaning from Puritan Prayers was compiled by David Joneskew. All these books are available for free in Kindle ePub or PDF format at monergism.com. From the Prayers of Robert Bolton 1631 A General Form of Prayers and Praise LORD Prepare our dull and unprepared souls to pour out our petitions with humility, zeal, and reverence unto your great majesty. Lord, make our hearts as mountains of myrrh and incense, to send up praises and thanksgiving to the sanctuary where your honor dwells. Most mighty and most glorious God, you who inhabits eternity and dwells in the light that no man can attain to, it whose terrible presence the mountains melt away and the angels hide their faces, Yet our most gracious and merciful Father in Christ Jesus, vouchsafing from the height of heaven a look upon us via worms and dust with the eye of tender compassion. We are wretched and sinful servants, heirs of corruption, children of wrath. Sons of disobedience, due in the name and mediation of your dear Son, our blessed Savior, prostrate ourselves before your throne of grace and mercy seat, begging and craving at your hands, pardon and remission for all our sins. Lord, they are most grievous and manifold, most horrible and intolerable. To the original corruption over sinful nature wherein we were conceived, we have added all kinds of actual transgressions. All the time before our calling we gave ourselves to wantonness. To work all uncleanness, even with greediness, we drank up sins like water and fed upon iniquity as a horse leech on corrupt blood. We drew iniquity with the cords of vanity and sin as with cart ropes. All our thoughts, words, and deeds were minstrels, filthy, and abominable. Nothing but a slavish service of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Since our calling, when we should have been most pure, sincere, and sanctified, we have sinned grievously, although not notorious to the world, yet horribly before your eyes in private. Pride, hypocrisy, dullness, security, a lack of zeal and forwardness in your service, No, Lord, we have had many fearful backslidings into our grossest sins, and so on, so that now there become as many in numbers as stars in heaven, and as great as the mountains, as red as scarlet. For the sake of Jesus Christ, for your infinite mercy's sake, and for your holy name's sake, bury them all in the blessed and bloody wounds of our dear Savior, that they never rise up at the dreadful day of judgment to give testimony against our souls to our utter confusion. Hide them all in a bottomless ocean of your endless mercy, that they die out of your remembrance everlastingly. In sin we beseech you into every one of our souls that happy and heavenly assurance of the remission of our sins, from where springs joy and contentment most precious and invaluable, infinite, more worth than ten thousand worlds. Lord, we bless, praise, and magnify your great and glorious name for all those great mercies, benefits, and comforts which out of your immeasurable bounty you have plentifully bestowed upon us. First and chiefly, we humbly thank you for that it has pleased you of your mere favor and love to elect us before the foundation of the world, to be heirs of your immortal kingdom, for creating us after your own image, for redeeming us with the precious blood of your dear Son, for calling us into the glorious liberty of your Sons, for justifying us, for sanctifying us with your Holy Spirit, for the joyful hope of glorification in the world to come. Confirm unto us we beseech you these great and incomparable blessings with the sacred testimony of your Holy Spirit. Let your blessed Spirit tell our spirits that we are your elect. Let our sweet Savior Christ Jesus say unto our souls, I am your salvation. Seal our salvation unto our souls with a pledge, still in earnest, of your Holy Spirit. Furthermore, we humbly thank you for that extraordinary and universal blessing vouchsafed to this land by your gracious and religious king. It is the greatest that ever the face of this earth enjoyed that ever you bestowed on your dearest children. For when wicked men in all the world, as you know, expected that this land should have been clothed with fiery persecutions, bloody wars, and all manner of calamities, as with a garment. Thou who sitteth in the heaven and laughs, divine plots and devices, and wicked men to scorn, against all expectation, have covered it with peace, joy, plenty, prosperity. The free passage of your gospel is a Caesar covered with water. But we pray to you and to the heart of everyone in this land a true and continual thankfulness. A godly and religious resolution to serve you in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives. And Lord, we beseech you, continue that good work that you have begun and let him and his posterity in your fear and true religion. If it be your blessed pleasure, sit upon the throne of this land so long as the sun and moon endure. Let his scepter long flourish in his hand. and set his crown fast upon his head, idly preserve him from all the sons of violence and mischief. Let all those who with foreign invasion attempt the destruction of his person and desolation of his land become like Jabin and Sisera. who perished at Endor, like Ziba and Zalmunna, who became as the dung of the earth. Let all natural practices and home-bred conspiracies perish as the untimely fruit of a woman and never see the sun. We thank you also, Father, for blessings more particularly concerning us, for delivering us from potpourri. idolatry and superstition, and enlightening our understanding with your blessed truth. Confirm it unto us daily more and more, that if need require we may confirm it with our dearest blood. We thank you for giving us a taste of the powers of the world to come. Crucify unto us continually the lusts and corruptions of our sinful flesh, that the graces and comforts of regeneration may daily receive in us strength and perfection. We thank you for removing from over our heads those heavy judgments and vials of your wrath that our crying sins have continually called for from heaven. Even all diseases and infirmities of body, all tears and vexations of conscience, all civil deaths and torments, all shame and confusion, even that the earth should have opened his mouth and swallowed us alive. The water drowned us, the fire consumed us, vengeance from heaven overtaken us, your other creatures devoured us. Grant, we beseech you, that hereafter by sound and undissembled repentance and by a godly life we may abandon them and fear them forevermore. From the prayers of Robert Hill 1623 A godly prayer to be used at all times, especially of such as delight in this exercise without weariness. Most High and Mighty God, and in Your Son, Christ Jesus, our merciful, loving, and gracious Father, You have commanded us to come unto You, and upon the knees of our hearts we do come to You, humbly entreating You, before we begin. to remove far from us all such impediments as usually Satan casts upon this exercise. And so to quicken us up by the spirit of supplication, that in fear and reverence of your great name, in faith and confidence of your gracious assistance, and in a feeling desire of the supply of our wants, we may put up and pour out our supplications to you, that as the messengers of our souls they may signify our wants. As petitioners of mercy, they may sue for our pardon. And as proclaimers of your grace, they may declare our thankfulness for all those mercies which we have received and all those judgments which we have escaped. O Lord, our God, we do hear in your presence, and blessed are we that we may come to your presence. We acknowledge and confess that we are of ourselves the most woeful, wicked, and cursed creatures. the corruption of our natures, the iniquities of our lives do generally bear witness against us. But more particularly, we confess that our hearts are full of infidelity. by reason whereof we do not, as we ought, either depend upon your providence for the things of this life, or believe your promises for the life to come. Do you visit us? We are impatient. Do you deny us our desires in this world? We are never contented with our estate. We are full of doubt for the life to come, and full of distrust for the things of this life. We are glued too much to this wicked world, and as though we said in our hearts there is no God. God, our minds are greatly estranged from you, and the last miserable wretches that we are we delight in doing our own wills. It is not meat and drink to us to do your will. In the pride of our hearts we exalt ourselves above you and our brethren, and boast ourselves as though we had received nothing from you. We put away from us the evil day and live as though we should never die. We walk on in the hardness of our hearts, and by reason of the abundance of vain glory we rather seek praise of men than your glory. Our souls are so filled with love to ourselves that we prefer our own pleasure, peace, and liberty before your majesty. or the love of our brethren. Yes, hypocrisy is so rooted in our souls that we contend to ourselves with a profession of piety and do not labor for the power of godliness. And as for our lives, they abound with actual transgression against every one of your Ten Commandments, having broken the same ten thousand times. We, Lord, have lived in contempt of your providence, Committing idolatry with your creatures, Taking your glorious name in vain, And profaning your most holy Sabbaths. We, even we, who should have been upright, Have not regarded our betters, but envied our brethren, Defiled our souls with unchaste desires, Labored to be rich by unlawful means, Disgraced our neighbors, and longed after that Which was none of ours. We have heard your word, but we have not believed it. We have known the word, but have not practiced it. We have come to your house without reverence, approached to your table without repentance, and practiced many sins without remorse. Do we any good? We please ourselves too much. Do we any evil? We fear you too little. We are weary of praying when we talk with you. We are careless in hearing when you speak to us. If we read your sacred and holy word, it is not sweet unto us as a honeycomb, but we delight more even in ungodly books. Yes, a pampering of our bellies, the pride of our apparel, the negligence in our calling, the misspending of our time, our vain conference at table. Our wandering eyes, our wanton lusts, our ambitious minds, our covetous desires, our ungodly speeches, our lascivious ears, our censuring of our brethren, our sin and recreations, our unwillingness to labor, our unfaithfulness in life. our forgetfulness of death, and our abuse of your mercies, especially in Christ, who testify against us, that we have sinned against heaven and against you, and are no more worthy to be called your children. Are we ashamed at this, and reclaimed from it? No, Lord, we are not ashamed, but howsoever it is pleased You to use many means is partly by Your Word, and partly by Your Spirit, and partly by Your mercies, and partly by Your judgments, to the end we might be reclaimed from our crooked ways. Yet we have contemned Your Word, the ministry of salvation, Grieve your spirit the earnest of our inheritance. Abuse your mercies, the pledges of your love, and forgotten your judgments, the messengers of your wrath. Enter not into judgment with us, your servants, for then shall no living flesh be justified in your sight. Be merciful to us in forgiving sins past, and be gracious to us in preventing sins to come. Correct us, but with mercy, not in your judgment, for then we shall be consumed and brought to nothing. Open our blind eyes so we may come to a particular knowledge of our particular sins, especially such as we are most given unto. Soften our hard and stony hearts so we may sigh and groan under the burden of them. Make us displeased with ourselves because by sin we have dishonored your majesty. Stir up our dead and dull hearts so we may hunger after Christ and His righteousness and every drop of His precious blood. In that Son of Yours, look on us, Your servant, and for His merits and righteousness, vouchsafe mercifully and freely to do away all our offenses. Wash them away in His blood, and by the purity of His Spirit, cleanse our hearts from the pollution and impurity of them all. Say to our souls, You are our salvation. Let your spirit in our hearts cry, Abba, Father, teach us your way and we shall walk in your truth. Knit our hearts to you that we may fear your name. And because, through corruption in our hearts and sin in our lives, our faith is feeble and our confidence small, we do humbly beseech you to strengthen our faith by the daily meditation and particular application of your merciful promises made to us in your Son, Christ. that neither in the dangers of this world nor in the troubles of conscience nor in the hour of death we may fall from you. Gracious Father, expel out of our hearts all carnal confidence, the underminer of our faith, and teach us in the spirit of true humility to deny ourselves and to rely only upon you in the merit of Christ and the manner of our salvation. And because it is not enough to come unto you by prayer and to sue unto you for pardon, but that all that are in Christ must be new creatures. Therefore we call upon you for the spirit of regeneration. Mortify thereby the corruptions of our flesh and quicken us thereby in the inner man. By the power of Christ's death, let us die in the sin. And by the power of his resurrection, let us rise to righteousness and newness of life. Let the one as a corrosive eat up the dead flesh of ungodliness and the other as a spurs stir us up to holiness. Illuminate our minds that we may know your will. Give us spiritual understanding to discern good and evil. Sanctify our memories to treasure up good things. Purify our consciences to have peace in you. Reform our wills to do your will, and let all our affections be ordered aright. Teach us to fear you continually, wheresoever we are, to neglect all things in regard of Christ, to love you and our brethren for your sake, to be zealous of your glory, to be grieved at our own and others' sins, and joyful when we can please you. Let our bodies, the instruments of sin, be ever hereafter cleansed by your Spirit. that they may be templates for that spirit to dwell in. Keep our eyes from beholding vanity, our ears from hearkening to variety, our mouths from speaking blasphemy, our hands from committing of iniquity, and our bodies from the action of adultery. Let our light so shine before men that they see in our good works may glorify you, our Heavenly Father. Make us to remember that we are sons. We must depend upon you as we are servants. We must obey you. And as we are Christians, we ought to walk worthy of our vocation and calling. And because we have all some particular calling, either of rule or service or trust or favor, make us from the highest to the lowest faithful in our callings and to remember that the day will come in which we must give an account unto you of all of our actions done in this flesh. whether they be good or evil. Take away from us all opportunity of sinning and make us ever thankful that we live so as we want to lure men to many sins. Cause us to see how deformed sin is in itself and to what confusion it is like to bring us. Lord, make us to fly to very occasions of sin and to resist the beginnings of all temptation. May a night never pass over our heads in which we examine not how we have spent the day. Never let us come into any company in which we may not do or receive some good. Keep us that we fashion not ourselves to this world, but rather imitate the fashion of the most godly in our callings. Let us never count any sin to be a little one because that our Savior died for the least, and because we live in dangerous times wherein many are withdrawn from the profession of your truth. Lord, give us hearts never to entertain any such doctrine which cannot be warranted out of your word, nor to admit of any such teachers as go about to withdraw from our obedience to our governors. And if anyone fall into any sin, let us restore such a one with the spirit of meekness, considering ourselves that we also may not be tempted. We further acknowledge, most gracious God, that our life is a warfare upon earth. Our enemies are sin, Satan, and the world. Help us in the spiritual combat. Are we weak? Be strong for us. Are we tempted? With the temptation, give a happy end. May we be overcome. Teach us to watch over our own hearts and ways. Is there any one sin which we are weak to resist? Any act of temptation give us power to resist it, that by this means we may have as just cause to praise you in our conquest, as we have many reasons to humble ourselves in our foils. We say also that none can live godly in this world, but they must suffer persecutions. Either Ishmael will revile them with a reproachful tongue, or Esau will pursue them with a bloody sword. What now must we do in these days of trial? Where shall we come for help but to you? To you, therefore, must we come. O Lord our God, craving wisdom to foresee, providence to prevent, patience to bear, and hearts to be prepared for this fiery trial. that by the denial of ourselves, distaste in the world, and liking of heaven and heavenly things, we may make a good use even of the least affliction. Confound in every one of us the cursed works of the devil. Increase in us daily the gifts of your spirit. Fit us for such callings in which you have or will place us, and make us to refer the strength of our bodies, the gifts of our mind. Our credit in this world and whatsoever grace you have already or will hereafter bestow upon us to the glory of your name, the good of your church, and the eternal salvation of our own souls. And howsoever we live here in this Babylon of the world, Lord, let our conversation be ever in heaven, that whether we eat or drink or whatsoever we do else, we may hear always His voice sounding in our ears, Arise, ye dead, and come into judgment. Many other things have we to beg for ourselves that our ignorance knows not how to ask. Our forgetfulness remembers not what to ask. Here is for them and your beloved son. And give us leave now to pray to you for others. There are no Christian people at any times assembled, but they are ready to pray for us. and therefore it is our duty to pray for them. We therefore commend to you your whole church and each member of the same. Be good and gracious to churches in England, Scotland, France, Ireland, and America. Give the Gospel a free passage everywhere and put on the means by which it may be published where it is not or maintained where it is. Divide not, O indivisible God, divide not Ephraim against Manasseh, nor Manasseh against Ephraim, nor both of them against Judah. The coat of your son was without seam. Let the church of your son be without seam. Our adversaries got ground and work upon our divisions, knit us so together that their work may be as the confusion of Babel. Are there any means to hinder the current of your gospel? Stop them in the head, poison them in a stream, stave them in a river, and let their labor be like his that would repair Jericho. To this end be good to the light of our eyes, the breach of our nostrils, the procurer of our happiness, your Solomon our King. Preserve his body and health, his soul and soundness, his heart and your truth, his life and honor, his honor from underminers and his ears from flatterers. the bane of each kingdom, and because the preachers of your word are the pillars of your church. Bless them all from the highest to the lowest, that both by life and doctrine they may set out your most holy word. Take from the great the spirit of ambition, and from the mean the spirit of contention, that both may labor as much as they may to oppose themselves against a common adversary and not to advantage him by intestine division. Blessed people of this land, such as are called, confirm them. Such as are not, convert them. And to that purpose send a faithful pastor into each congregation who may speak a word in due season to them. Touch all our hearts from the highest to the lowest with true repentance, that your judgments, present and imminent, may be prevented and removed. Your mercy still continue to us. And our posterity after us, especially in the true ministry of the Word and sacraments that such as survive us, may praise your name. But merciful to all your afflicted ones, be they sick in bed, distressed in conscience, pinched with poverty, disgraced for your truth, or kept in prison and delivered to death. Relieve them in their necessity. Strengthen them in their weakness. Comfort them in their distress. Mitigate their sorrows and turn all their troubles to your glory and their good. To this end give your servants comfort by your word, sufficiency of things needful for them. Bless the fruits of the earth. Disappoint both Turk and Pope from encroaching upon your inheritance. Let all such prosperous fight your battles and let your gospel be preached from the one end of the world to the other. In your good time, let the sun of your gospel shine upon Jews, Turks, infidels, atheists, and papists belonging to you. Be good to our kinsfolk in the flesh, our friends in the spirit, and those to whom we are anyways bound in our desire to be commended unto you in these our prayers and supplications. Have mercy upon us now, calling upon your name. Forgive our sins and manifold defects, and this holy duty accepting at our hands is our obedience in Christ. And because you have been good to us, many ways make us thankful to you for all your mercies, as our election in your love, our redemption by your Son, our sanctification through your Spirit, our preservation by your Providence, our health and body, peace of conscience, our life in your Church. Our gracious governors, our painful preachers, our Christian friends, our desires to please you, and that we have the ministration of your word and sacraments and can show love even to our enemies. We thank you for all graces of your Spirit, His faith in your promises. Hope of eternal life, fear of your name, love of your majesty, zeal to your glory, affection to our brethren, patience under the cross, strength against our several temptations, humility, gentleness, meekness, forbearing, and many other gifts and graces of your Spirit, all which we acknowledge have proceeded from your mere mercy. Let us not be negligent in the use of all good means by which your grace may daily grow up in us. We do also with all thankfulness remember all the blessings of this life, our deliverance from our enemies, our preservation from the pestilence, our protection from the gunpowder plot in 1605, as all other favors which we enjoy under the blessed government of our gracious Prince. And for all your goodness under our late noble queen, Elizabeth, of happy memory. We thank you that you have sustained us in great weakness, relieved us in much necessity, comforted us in much distress, resolved us in many doubts, delivered us from many dangers, preserved us from any fears, made us willing to desire to do your will, and bestowed upon us such a largesse of your good creatures. that we are more fit to give than to receive. Bless us now and ever hereafter. Keep us all in ours and all that are near about us from fire, water, pestilence, robbing, and all dangers whatsoever. And grant us all such a portion of your grace that whether we stay at home or go abroad, Watch or sleep, eat or drink, buy or sell, be in labor or recreation, we may ever labor to glorify your high and great name in the works of such callings, as ye shall call us unto, and fit us for, through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, in whose name and in whose words we further call upon you. O LORD, bless us and keep us. O LORD, make your face shine upon us. O LORD, grant unto us your sweet and everlasting peace, especially that peace of conscience which a world cannot give, with the pardon and forgiveness of all of our sins this day at this time, and heretofore committed against you, with a blessing upon your church and children everywhere, as well as so we have named them. Through Christ our Lord and only Savior. Amen. The Pathway to Prayer by Robert Hill, 1623.