PSALM C.

A Psalm of Praise to God for his Mercy and Truth.

O Lord our God, who hast created us out of nothing, and hast redeemed us from misery and death when we were thine enemies, showing great expresses of thy loving-kindness, when we were vessels of wrath and inheritors of perdition, revealing thy truth unto us in the sermons of the Gospel; teach us to walk as thou hast commanded us, to believe as thou hast taught us, that we may inherit what thou hast promised us; for thou art the way, the truth, and the life. We are thy people, and the sheep of thy pasture; thou art our guide and our defence: let thy grace teach us to serve thee, and thy Holy Spirit assist and promote our endeavours with the blessings of gladness and cheerfulness of spirit, that we may love to speak good of thy name, and at last may go into the courts of thy temple with praise and a song in our mouths, to thy honour and eternal glory, whose mercy and truth is everlasting, and revealed unto the church in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

PSALM CI.

A Prayer for a holy Life.

O Lord God of eternal purity, who art of pure eyes, and canst behold no unrighteousness or impurity, enlighten our understandings, that we may have knowledge in the way of godliness; make our paths straight and our hearts perfect; take from us the sins of unfaithfulness, correct and mortify in us all froward and peevish dispositions; let us love the society of the saints, and hate the fellowship of the wicked, that we may not be destroyed with the ungodly, nor be rooted out with the ungodly, nor be rooted out from the city of the Lord, and banished from the sweetness of thy presence; for with thee is light, and health, and salvation: to thy name be all honour, and glory, and praise ascribed, world without end. Amen.

THE TWENTIETH DAY.

Morning Prayer.

PSALM CII.

A Prayer for Comfort in Sadness, Anxiety of Spirit, Sickness, or any other Affliction.

O ETERNAL God, who endurest for ever, and thy remembrance throughout all generations, have pity upon us according to the infinite treasures of thy loving-kindness; hear the voice of our groaning, for thy indignation and thy wrath lieth hard upon us, and our sins have put an edge upon thy sword, and a thorn into our wounded consciences. O build up the ruins of our souls, repair the breaches of our comforts and our hopes, and let thy glory now appear, for that shines brightest in the beams of thy mercy, and when thou turnest unto the prayer of poor wretched destitutes, it becomes an eternal monument and a record of thy honour, and all generations which shall be born, shall praise thee. Look down, O Lord, from thy sanctuary; hear the mournings of us and of all distressed people; send us health and life so long, as it may be a blessing; and do not shorten our days in wrath : but give us grace so to spend all our time in the works of repentance and holiness, that when our years fail, and our change is come, we may be translated to the new heavens, which shall never perish nor wax old, there to continue and stand fast in thy sight for ever; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

PSALM CIII.

A Thanksgiving to God for all his Benefits and Mercies.

O most merciful God, whose mercy is as high as the heavens, as great and many as the moments of eternity; thou hast opened thy hand wide to fill us with blessings, and the sweet effects of thy loving-kindness; thou art pitiful as a father, tender as a mother, careful as a guardian, and exceeding merciful to all them that fear thee: we pray thee to fill our souls with great apprehensions and impresses of thy unspeakable mercies, that our thankfulness may be as great

as our needs of mercy are: and let thy merciful loving-kindness endure for ever and ever upon us all. Keep no anger in store for us, chide us not in thy displeasure, satisfy our mouths with good things, remove all our sins from us as far as the east is from the west, heal all our infirmities, and save our lives from destruction; for these are mercies thou delightest in: and because we cannot praise thee according to thy excellences, take our souls, in thy due time, into the land of everlasting praises, that we may spend a whole eternity in ascribing to thy name praise, and honour, and dominion. Grant this for Jesus Christ's sake, our Lord and only Saviour. Amen.

Evening Prayer.

PSALM CIV.

A Contemplation of the Wisdom and Goodness of God
manifested in his Creatures.

O LORD GOD, who art exceeding glorious, who art clothed with majesty and honour, thou hast created all things with admirable wisdom, established them with excellent order, and hast provided for them with mercy, and singular providence; be pleased to give us grace that we may remember thou hast created us all for thy glory, that thou hast planted thine image on us, and hast crowned all our years with thy mercies and loving-kindness; let us never disobey thy will, forget thy mercies, or deface thine image in us; but, when all thy creatures praise thee in their manner, let not us, whom thou hast made in dignity next to angels, disturb the blessed order of creation by our sins and irregular disobedience. Open thy hand, O Lord, and fill us with good things, both spiritual and temporal; that when thou takest away our breath, that we die, and turn again to our dust, thou mayest not hide thy face away from us, but communicate to us the light of thy countenance, and the glories of thy kingdom, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

THE TWENTY-FIRST DAY.

Morning Prayer.

PSALM CV.

A Commemoration of God's Care of his Church, and Blessings to his People.

O LORD GOD, who art alway mindful of thy covenant and promise to a thousand generations, and didst deliver the seed of Abraham, the children of Jacob thy chosen, from the slavery of Egypt, from the waves of the sea, from the rage of Pharaoh, from the thirst and famine of the wilderness, continue the like mercies to all Christian people; deliver us from the bondage of our sins, preserve us in the ark of the church, that we perish not in the waves of this troublesome world: save us from the fury of all our temporal and ghostly enemies, feed us from heaven, and give us a competency of good things on earth, that we may keep thy statutes, and observe thy laws, and at last receive the promises of a blessed eternity, which, in the covenant of thy Gospel, thou hast made unto all that believe in thee, and are obedient to thy Word. Grant this, O blessed Jesu, to whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

Evening Prayer.

PSALM CVI.

A Commemoration of God's frequent Pardons and Mercies to the Penitent.

O LORD GOD, full of mercy and pity, who didst many times deliver thy people from their adversity, when thou, for their rebelling against thee with their inventions, hadst given them into the hands of the heathen; remember us, O Lord, according to the favour thou bearest unto thy people, and visit us with thy salvation; and though we have done amiss, and dealt wickedly against thee and against thy covenant, yet be pleased to help us for thy name's sake, and make thy

power to be known in the mighty deliverance and redemption of us from so great danger and misery. Give us grace to believe thy words, to abide thy counsels, to walk in thy laws, to relinquish our own sinful and vain desires, to obey our governors, ecclesiastical and civil; that we may not have the lot of Dathan and Abiram, but at last may receive our portion in the felicity of thy chosen, giving thee thanks with thine inheritance, for that thou hast turned from us thy wrathful indignation, pitying us, and saving us, according to the multitude of thy mercies. Thy name be blessed, O Lord God, everlastingly and world without end, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

THE TWENTY-SECOND DAY.

Morning Prayer.

PSALM CVII.

A Thanksgiving for Deliverance from Miseries and Danger. O LORD GOD, gracious and good, whose mercy endureth for ever, have mercy upon us when in our trouble we cry unto thee; for when our hearts are brought down through heaviness, there is none to help us up, or to deliver us out of our distress, but only thou, O Lord. We have sinned, we have rebelled against thee, and lightly regarded thy counsels; we have walked and sat in darkness and in the shadows of death, being fast bound in the captivity and misery of sin. O bring us out of darkness, and break our bonds asunder; guide us through the desert of this world, in which grows nothing but sadness and discontent; still the tempests, and smooth the floods of misery which are ready to overwhelm us; and in thy due time bring us to eternal rest, and to the haven where we would fain be; that in the congregation of thy holy people we may praise thee for thy goodness, and declare the wonders thou hast done for us, in delivering us from sin, and misery, and death, and bringing us to a city to dwell in, where there is life, and light, and joy eternal, in the beholding the face of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.