A short Prayer for Children and Servants.

EVer-living and most Glorious God, Father, Son and Holy-Ghost! Infinite is thy Power, thy Wis­dom and thy Goodness! Thou art the Maker of all the World, the Redeemer of lost and sinful Man, and the Sanctifier of the Elect! Thou hast made me a living reasonable Soul, placed a while in this Flesh and World to Know, and Love, and serve thee my Creator, with all my Heart and Mind, and Strength, that I might obtain the Reward of the heavenly Glory. This should have been the greatest care, and business, and pleasure of all my Life: I was bound to it by thy Law: I was invited by thy Mercy. And in my Baptism I was devoted to this holy life, by a solemn Covenant and Vow! But alas, I have proved too unfaithful to that Covenant: I have forgotten and neglected the God, the Saviour, and the Sanctifier, to whom I was engaged: And have too much served the Devil, the World and the Flesh, which I renounced: I was born in sin, and sinfully I have lived. I have been too care­less of my Immortal Soul, and of the great work for which I was created and redeemed; I have spent much of my precious time in vanity, in minding and pleasing this corruptible Flesh; And I have hardned my heart against those Instructions, by which thy Spirit, and my Teachers, and my own Conscience, did call upon me to repent and turn to thee.

And now, Lord, my convinced Soul doth confess, that I have deserved to be forsaken by thee, and given over to my lust and folly, and to be cast out of thy glorious Presence into Damnation. But seeing thou hast given a Saviour to the World, and made a par­doning and gracious Law, promising forgiveness and salvation through his Merits, to every true penitent Believer, I thankfully accept the mercy of thy Cove­nant in Christ; I humbly confess my sin and guilti­ness: [Page 2] I cast my miserable Soul upon thy Grace, and the Merits, and Sacrifice and Intercession of my Saviour. O pardon all the sins of my corrupted heart and life; And as a Reconciled Father take me to be thy Child; And give me thy renewing Spirit, to be in me a Principle of holy Life, and Light and Love, and thy Seal and Witness that I am thine; let him quicken my dead and hardned heart; let him enlighten my dark unbelieving Mind, by clearer knowledge and firm belief; let him turn my will to the ready Obedience of thy holy Will; let him reveal to my Soul the wonders of thy love in Christ, and fill it with love to Thee and my Redeemer, and to all thy holy word and works; till all my sinful carnal love be quenched in me, and my sinful pleasures turned into a sweet Delight, in God; give me self-denial, humility and lowliness, and save me from the great and hateful sins of Selfishness, Worldliness and Pride. O set my Heart upon the Heavenly Glory, where I hope e're long to live with Christ and all his holy Ones, in the joyful sight and love and praise of Thee the God of love for ever. Deny me not any of those helps and mercies, which are needful to my Sanctification and Salvation. And cause me to live in a continual readiness, for a safe and comfortable Death: For what would it profit me to win all the World, and lose my Soul, my Saviour, and my God

Additions for Children.

Let thy Blessing be up­on my Parents and Go­vernours; Cause them to instruct and Educate me in thy fear, and cause me with thankfulness to re­ceive their Instructions; and to love, honour and obey them, in Obedience [Page 3] to thee. Keep me from the snares of Evil Com­pany, Temptations, and Youthful Pleasures; and let me be a Companion of them that fear thee. Let my daily delight be to Meditate on thy Law; and let me never have the mark of the Ungodly, to be a Lover of Pleasures more than of God. Fur­nish my Youth with those Treasures of Wisdom and Holiness, which may be daily increased and used to thy Glory.

Additions for Servants.

And as thou hast made me a Servant, make me conscionable and faithful, in my place and trust, and careful of my Masters Goods and Business, as I would be if it were my own. Make me submis­sive and obedient to my [Page 3] Governours; Keep me from self-will and pride, from murmuring and un­reverent speeches, from falshood, slothfulness and all deceit; That I might not be an eve-servant, plea­sing my lust and fleshly ap­petite; but may chearfully and willingly do my duty, as believing that thou art the revenger of all un­faithfulness; and may do my service not only as un­to man but as to the Lord, expecting from thee my chief Reward.

All this I beg and hope for, on the account of the Merits and Intercession of Jesus Christ, concluding in the words which he hath trught us, Our Father which art in Heaven, hallowed be thy Name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven, Give us this day our daily Bread. And forgive us our Trespasses, as we forgive them that Trespass against us. And lead us not into Temptation; But deliver us from Evil. For thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory, for ever,

Amen.

A plain and short Prayer for Families, for Morning and Evening.

ALmighty, All-seeing and most Gracious God the World and all therein is made, maintained and ordered by thee: Thou art every where present being more than the soul of all the World. Though thou art revealed in thy Glory to those only that are in Heaven, thy Grace is still at work on Earth to pre­pare men for that Glory: Thou madest us not as the [Page 4] Beasts that perish, but with reasonable immortal Souls to know and seek, and serve thee here, and then to live with all the blessed, in the everlasting sight of thy Heavenly Glory, and the Pleasures of thy perfect Love, and Praise. But we are ashamed to think how foolish­ly and sinfully we have forgotten and neglected our God and our Souls, and our hopes of blessed Immor­tality, and have overmuch minded the things of this visible transitory World, and the Prosperity and Plea­sure of this corruptible flesh, which we know must turn to rottenness and dust. Thou gavest us a Law which was just and good, to guide us in the only way to life, and when by sin we had undone our selves, thou gavest us a Saviour, even thy eternal Word made man, who by his holy life and bitter sufferings recon­ciled us to thee, and both purchased Salvation for us, and revealed it to us, better than an Angel from Hea­ven could have done, if thou hadst sent him to us sinners on such a message: But alas how light have we set by our Redeemer! And by all that Love which thou hast manifested by him, and how little have we studied and understood, and less obeyed that Covenant of Grace, which thou hast made by him to lost man­kind?

But O God be merciful to us vile and miserable sinners! Forgive the sins of our natural pravity and the follies of our youth, and all the ignorance, neg­ligence, omissions and commissions of our lives: And give us true Repentance for them, or else we know that thou wilt not forgive them. Our life is but as a shadow that passeth away, and it is but as a moment till we must leave this world, and appear before thee to give up our account, and to speed for ever as here we have prepared. Should we die before thou hast turned our hearts from this sinful flesh and world to thee by true Faith and Repentance, we shall be lost for evermore. O woe to us that ever we were born, if thou forgive not our sins, and make [Page 5] us not holy before this short uncertain life be at an end: Had we all the riches and pleasures of this world, they would shortly leave us in the greater sorrows. We know that all our life is but the time which thy mercy allotteth us to prepare for death: Therefore we should not put off our repentance and preparation to a sick bed: But now Lord, as if it were our last and dying words, we earnestly beg thy pardoning and sanctifying Grace through the merits and inter­cession of our Redeemer: O thou that hast pitied and saved so many millions of miserable sinners, pity and save us also, that we may glorifie thy Grace for ever; surely thou delightest not in the death of sinners, but rather that they return and live: Hadst thou been unwilling to shew mercy, thou wouldst not have ransomed us by so precious a price, and still [...]ntreat us to be reconciled unto thee; We have no cause to distrust thy Truth or Goodness; but we are afraid left unbelief, and pride, and hypocrisie, and a worldly fleshly mind, should be our ruine. O save us from Satan, and this tempting world, but especially from our selves: Teach us to deny all ungodliness and fleshly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously and godly in this World. Let it be our chiefest daily work to please thee, and to lay up a treasure in Hea­ven, and to make sure of a blessed life with Christ, and quietly to trust thee with soul and body. Make us faithful in our callings, and our duties to one another, and to all men, to our superiours, equals and in [...]eriours: Bless the King, and all in Authority, that we may live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty: Give wise, holy, and peace­able Pastors to all the Churches of Christ, and holy and peaceable minds to the People: Convert the Heathen and Infidel Nations of the world; And cause us and all thy people to seek first the Hallowing of thy name, the coming of thy [...]ingd [...]m, the doing of thy will on Earth as it is do [...] in Heaven. Gi [...] [Page 6] our daily bread, even all things necessary to life and godliness, and let us be therewith content. Forgive us our daily sins, and let thy love and mercy constrain us to love thee above all; and for thy sake to love our Neighbours as our selves, and in all our dealings, to do justly and mercifully, as we would have others do by us. Keep us from hurtful temptations, from sin, and from thy judgments, and from the malice of our spiritual and corporal enemies: And let all our Thoughts, Affections, Passions. Words and Actions, be governed by thy Word and Spirit to thy Glory; Make all our Religion and Obedience pleasant to us; and let our souls be so delighted in the praise of thy Kingdom thy Power and thy Glory, that in may se­cure and sweeten our labour by day, and our rest by night, and keep us in a longing and joyful hope of the heavenly Glory; And let the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Love of God our Father, and the Communion of the holy Spirit be with us now and for ever, Amen.

POEMS UPON CHRISTMAS-DAY. By the late Lord Chief-Justice Hale.

I.

ALmighty God, when he had rais'd the Frame
Of Heaven and Earth, and furnished the same
With works of equal wonder, framed then
A piece of greater Excellence, call'd Man:
Gave him a comprehensive Soul, that soar'd
Above the Creatures, and beheld their Lord;
Inscrib'd him with his Image, and did fill
The compass of his Intellect and Will,
With Truth and Good; gave him the Custody
Of his own Bliss and Immortality.
And justly now his Soveraign might demand,
Subjection and Obedience at his hand:
Were only Being given, 'twere but right
His Debt of Duty should be infinite:
But here was more, a super-added dress
Of Life, Perfection, and Happiness.
Yet this great King, for an Experiment
Of Man's deserv'd Allegiance, is content
To use an easie Precept, such as stood
Both with his Creatures Duty and his Good;
Forbids one Fruit, on pain of death, and gives
Freely the rest which he might eat and live.
But Man Rebels, and for one tast doth choose,
His Life, his God, his Innocence to loose.
And now death-stricken, like a wounded Deer,
Strictly pursu'd by Guilt, and Shame, and Fear,
He seeks to lose himself; from God he flies,
And takes a Wilderness of Miseries;
A Land of new transgressions, where his Curse
Is closer bound, his Nature growing worse.
And whiles in this condition Man-kind lay,
A man should think his injur'd God should say,
There lies Accursed Man, and let him lie
Intangled in that Web of Misery,
Which his own Sin hath spun; I must be True
And Just. Ʋnthankful Man, thou hast thy due.
But 'twas not so. Though Man the Mastery,
With his Creator's Power and Will, dares try;
And being over-matcht with Power, disdains
To seek a Pardon from his Soveraign;
The Great and Glorious God, the Mighty King
Of Heaven and Earth, despis'd by such a thing
As man, a Worm of his own making, breaks
The rules of Greatness, and his Creature seeks,
His froward Creature; not in such a way
As once he did in the cool of that day,
Wherein Man sinn'd, and hid; such Majesty
Had been too great for Man's necessity:
But the Eternal Son of God, the Word,
By which all things were made, the Mighty Lord,
Assumes our Flesh, and under that he lays,
And hides his Greatness, and those Glorious Rayes
Of Majesty, which had been over bright,
And too respl [...]ndent for poor Mortals sight;
And under this disguise, the King of Kings,
The Message of his Fathers Mercy brings;
Solicits Man's return; pays the Price
Of his Transgression by the Sacrifice
Of his own Soul; and undertakes to cure
Their Sins, their Peace and Pardon to procure;
To conquer Death for him; and more than this,
To settle him in Everlasting Bliss.
And now, O Man, could this excess of Love,
Thy Thankfulness to such a height improve,
That it could fire thy Soul into me flame
Of Love, to only him that bought the same
At such a rate, yet still it were too small
To recompense thy Saviours Love withal;
Once did he give thee Being from the dust,
And for that only Being, 'twere but just
To pay thy utmost self: But when once more
Thy Being, and thy Bliss he did restore
By such a means as this, it doth bereave
Thy Soul of hopes of recompence, and leaves
Thy Soul insolvent. Twice to him this day
Thou ow'st thy self, yet but One self canst pay.

II.

The Prince of Darkness, flesht with Victory
In our first Parents first Apostacy,
Ʋsurpt a Lawless Soveraignty on Man,
Revolted thus from his first Soveraign:
And though by that Apostacy he found,
Ʋnder the chains of death his Vassal bound,
Yet to secure his Empire, he o're-spread
The World with Darkness, and thereby did lead
His Captives as he pleased: Thus he bears
His Rule usurped, near four thousand years;
Except some small confin'd Plantation,
Within a Family or Nation.
But now to put a period to this Reign
Of this Ʋsurper, and reduce again,
Man to his Just Subjection, 'tis decreed
That Man from this Subjection shall be Freed;
And this not by the absolute Command
Of an immediate Power; nor shall the Bands
Of Angels Glorious Hosts ingaged be,
To rescue Man from this Captivity:
But God an unsuspected means intends,
And yet most suitable unto this end.
Sin stain'd our Nature, and the Serpents wile,
Did man of Innocence and Life beguile:
By Man his head is crush'd; the Lawful Lord
Ʋnto his Creature, Man to his Life restor'd;
A Virgins Son is Born: This Rising Sun,
The Worlds inthralling darkness over-runs;
A Child to us is Born, whose Innocence,
Our Natures spot and stain doth purge and cleanse;
His Wounds, our Cure; his Bonds, our Liberty;
His Death becomes our Life, our Victory.
And this is He, whose Birth we Celebrate,
And from this Day our Happiness do Date.
FINIS.

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