PRAYER AND HUMILIATION FOR A PUBLIC FAST-DAY.

(See also Page 55.)

O LORD GOD, glorious in holiness, and of purer eyes than to behold iniquity without abhorrence of it, and indignation against it! How shall man, sinful man, that drinks iniquity like water, appear before thee! And how shall we, vile and frail, polluted and depraved as we are, show ourselves in the presence of such a just and holy God as thou art! When we look upon thy perfect law, and see what we should be, what manner of persons in all holy conversation and godliness; and when we reflect on our own hearts and lives, and find what we are, how wanting in our duty, and how contrary to what thou requirest of us; we cannot come into thy presence, O Lord, without confusion of face, and anguish of soul, and remorse of conscience, to think how foolishly and wickedly we have acted; and how abject and wretched we have made ourselves.

Besides that we brought with us a corrupt nature into the world, full of strangeness to thee, our God, and full of enmity against thy holy, good, and righteous laws; we have misspent the most of our time here in a neglect of thy work, and in disobedience to thy word; daily multiplying our offences against thee, as thou hast multiplied thy blessings unto us. O the precious time that we have lost, the means that we have neglected, the mercies that we have abused, the calls and warnings, the offers and invitations, that we have disregarded! What little regard have we had of thee; what little fear of offending thee! Alas! O Lord, we have grievously

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insulted thy glorious Majesty, and daringly trampled upon thy holy laws.

O the crying sins and abominations that prevail in every place! [The swearing and drunkenness, the pride and uncleanness, the cruel enmity and injustice, the corrupt communication and ungodly conversation whereby God is so greatly dishonoured and provoked every day.] And O how large a share have we had in adding to the public guilt! sinning as we have done, in all estates and affairs, in all relations and circumstances of our lives! And not only through weakness and surprise, and the violence of temptations; but many times knowingly, wilfully, and presumptuously; with a high hand, and stiff neck, against thee, our Maker and our Judge! And O how great a weight have we added to all our other sins, by the hardness of our hearts and our impenitent continuance in our sins! committing great sins with little remorse, little penitent concernment for all the evils whereof we have been guilty! Yea, Lord, how unsuitable still are our hearts and lives to those holy rules, which thy word gives us in charge to follow! So much is there still amiss with us, and wanting in us, that it is of thy great mercy we are not consumed: it is because thy compassions fail not, that we have still these opportunities, to humble ourselves before thee, and to cry for mercy.

We have not glorified thee, O Lord, in bearing fruits of holiness answerable to thy revealed will; but we desired to give glory to God, in confessing our sins, and humbling our souls, and acknowledging our desert and more especially would we admire and magnify the riches of thy grace, which has spared us so long a time, and showed us such mar

vellous kindness still, notwithstanding all the high provocations of our sins. Lord, we have heard (and, blessed be thy name, we have found) that the King of heaven is a merciful king; that with thee, our God, there is mercy; that our sins, though great and manifold, may be pardoned; and that our souls may yet be recovered, and healed, and saved. O help us so to judge and condemn ourselves, that we may not be judged of the Lord, and condemned with the world. Lay not our sins to our charge; but put them to the account of thy Son, our Saviour, whom thou hast given to be the propitiation for our sins; and in whom thou art reconciled to a guilty world. For his sake, O good Lord, give us repentance and pardon for all the sins whereby we have offended thee; whether they be our sins of omission, or commission; our sins of weakness or wilfulness; our failings or presumptions; our sins of ignorance, or such as we have committed against light and knowledge; O gracious Lord, humble us duly under the sense of them, and absolve us thoroughly from the guilt of them. O set our sins in order before us, and make us to know our transgressions; make every one of us to search and try our ways, that we may turn to the Lord, and bring forth fruits meet for repentance. May we not only loathe ourselves in our own sight for all the evils whereof we have been guilty, but also loathe, as much as ever we have loved, the things which have displeased thee. O that we may forsake our sins, not only in the outward commission, but in the inward affection; not reserving to ourselves any sin or lust to be spared, but keeping at a distance from every evil and accursed thing; cleansing ourselves from all filthiness

of flesh and spirit, and endeavouring to perfect holiless in the fear of God!

We have been accessary to the accumulated heinous guilt that endangers us all, and calls for judgements on the land. O that we may now contribute our help, by the humiliation of our souls and the reformation of our lives, to save our nation; and to turn away the anger which is gone out against us, that we perish not! Save us, O Lord, from our sins, which are the enemies of our own house; more mischievous to us than any other evils or enemies abroad. O pour out a spirit of serious repentance and reformation upon the whole nation; to heal the distempers of our souls, to curb the disorders of our lives, and to recover the decayed power of godliness in the land: yea, Lord, prepare and dispose us, not only for thy temporal mercies, but for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. Help us so to turn from the evil of our ways, that thou mayest turn from the fierceness of thy wrath, and cause thine anger towards us to cease. O that we may fear the rod, and him who has appointed it! and so prepare to meet thee, in the way of thy judgements, that thou mayest have thoughts of peace towards us, and not of evil; to give us an expected end, and the desired issue out of all our troubles.

Thou canst show us great and mighty things, which we know not, and canst exceed all our expectations, as well as our deservings, by thy bountiful favours: and though thou mightest make us know the worth of slighted mercies, by the want of them, and deprive us of all the good which we have so greatly abused, yet, O how do the promises of thy word, and the frequent experience which we have had of thy mercy, encourage us still with hope

to look unto our God, and to wait for the salvation of the Lord! O how long (in all our provocations) hast thou spared us! And how often (in our distresses) sent a wonderful redemption to us! To thee who hast helped and delivered, we still look for help and deliverance. O our God! arise and help us, and deliver us, for thy mercy's sake; for the sake of that mercy which first made us thy people, and still has owned us for thy peculiar care. O do not abhor us, nor forsake us, for thy name's sake; but be jealous for thy land, and pity thy people. Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.

But, O our God, if thou dost not see fit to turn away the evils from us, prepare us for them, and support us under them, and bring us out of them purified as gold! Let us not sink and perish in our calamities, but receive spiritual good from temporal evils; and find the light momentary afflictions to work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. And though thou shouldest feed us with bread of adversity, and water of affliction, yet let not our teachers be removed into corners: bring us not under a famine of the word; nor give us over to the formality of a lifeless profession: but whilst thou continuest to us the means of grace, O continue thy blessing upon them, and send not leanness withal into our souls. Though thou permit the floods and storms to arise; yet fortify us so by thy grace, that we may not be moved by any of the afflictions; nor turn the advantage of suffering for thee, into an occasion of falling from thee.

Seeing the truth itself will not make us free if we are not true to it; nor the purest religion be our defence if we continue to walk unworthy of our pro