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THANKSGIVING S.

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A General Thanksgiving.

Lmighty God, Father of all mercies, we thine unworthy fervants do give thee most humble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and loving kindness to • This to be faid us, and to all men [* particularly to those when any that have who defire now to offer up their praises and been prayed for, de- thanksgivings for thy late mercies vouchsafed fire to return praise. unto them.] 2. We bless thee for our creation, preservation, and all the bleffings of this life; but above

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fon and mercy, thou wouldft deliver us from the fame; and this we pray thee to grant, for the honour of Jefus Chrift, who is our mediator, and at thy right hand makes interceffion in our behalf. Amen.

1. O thou omnipotent being, Father of all mercies and God of all comfort, (2 Cor. i. 3.) who art the author and giver of all the good things which thy creatures are bleffed with: we thy finful fervants, who are not worthy of the leaft of thy merits, (Gen. xxii. 10.) fince thou haft been graciously pleased to bestow fo many of them upon us with a boun. teous hand, we do, with the utmost devotion and refpect to thee, and with the moft fincere fenfe of thy favours, in this congregation pay our public thanks unto thee, for the numerous and reiterated examples of thy benevolence towards us, thanking thee, not only for favours conferred upon ourselves, but as, in thy holy word, we are particularly commanded fo to do, giving thanks for all men. 1 Tim. ii. 1.

2. We render thee our most grateful acknowledgments for the bleffing of our creation, that thou didst not fuffer us to lie in a state of non-existence, but haft raised us into glorious beings endowed with reafon and capable of attaining to eternal blifs in a future ftate. We blefs thee for our prefervation, whereby thou haft defended us, during the whole courfe of our lives, from all thofe cafualties, to which we have been every day expofed; from pain, fickness, want, and all that variety of external accidents to which we might have become a prey; praifing thee likewise for all the bleffings of this life, for health, food, friends, benefactors, and many other bleffings whereof we all partake; but above all, we extol thy holy name, for that ineftimable love to us, (without which all temporal enjoyments had availed us nothing,) in redeeming the whole world which was loft and undone, and forever fubject to the divine wrath, by the precious blood of our Saviour Jefus Chrift. We bless thee likewife for the means of obtaining grace, which thou haft afforded us, for our reception into the church by baptifm, for the confirmation of our faith and our

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all, for thine ineftimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jefus Chrift; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. 3. And we beseech thee, give us that due fenfe of all thy mercies, that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful; and that we may fhew forth thy praife, not only with our lips, but in our lives; by giving up ourselves to thy fervice, and by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days, through Jefus Chrift our Lord; to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghoft, be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

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For Rain.

Father, who

vidence doft cause the former and the latter Rain to defcend upon the earth. that it may bring forth fruit for the ufe of man; We give thee humble thanks, that it hath

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reflitution to thy favour after our fall, by the facrament of the Lord's fupper, for the advantages we receive by being edified by public prayer and the preaching of God's word: and finally, we bless thee for the hope which thou haft given us of existing in a blessful state to all eternity, when thou fhalt remove us out of this world; by which bleffed hope we are enabled to overcome the terrors of death; which prevents us from defponding under the greatest preffure of worldly affliction, and fecures to us an everlafting happinefs in the life to come.

3. We moreover befeech thee to encrease, in one particular, thy mercies yet farther to us, and that is, to impart to us thy grace, that we may have a proper fenfe of all these mercies; that we may feel a fincere gratitude for them, and that we may let the remembrance of them fink deep into our hearts, not confining our gratitude to a verbal thanksgiving, but refolving to make the beft returns in our power, by devoting ourselves entirely to thy fervice, and forming a fteady purpofe, never, wilfully, to offend fo gracious a God, but to pafs our whole lives in that holiness and righteoufnefs which the rules laid down in thy gofpel oblige us to; these favours we intreat thee to grant, for the fake of Jefus Christ our Lord; to whom, with thee, and the Holy Ghoft, the three perfons of the glorious and bleffed Trinity, to whom we are indebted for all these bleffings, be afcribed eternal honour and glory. Amen.

Paraphrafe on the Thanksgiving for Rain.

O God, who tho' thou dwelleft in thy immortal glory in heaven, doft nevertheless protect us, thy poor creatures, with a fatherly care, and makeft all things tend to promote their good and emolument, who doft,

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pleafed thee in our great neceffity to fend us at thee last a joyful Rain upon thine inheritance, and to refresh it when it was dry; to the great comfort of us thy unworthy fervants, and to the glory of thy holy Name, through thy mercies in Jefus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Fer Fair Weather.

Lord God, who haft juftly humbled us by thy late plague of immoderate rain and waters, and in thy mercy haft relieved and comforted our fouls by this feafonable and bleffed change of weather: We praise and glorify thy holy Name for this thy mercy; and will always declare thy loving kindness from generation to generation, through Jefus Chrift our Lord. Amen.

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For Plenty.

Most merciful Father, who of thy gracious goodness haft heard the devout Prayers of thy Church, and turned our dearth and scarcity into cheapnefs and plenty;

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for their fakes, fend the former and the latter rain (that is, the rains which in the eaft ufually fall in fpring or autumn) on the earth, that men may gather their corn, wine, and oil; (Deut. ix. 14.) we, in deep and humble fenfe of thy goodness, do, as in duty bound, return thee thanks for relieving us in our late great neceffity, by fending a gracious rain upon thine inheritance, and refreshing it when it is weary, (Pfal. xlviii. 9.) and as we acknowledge this bleffing to be a greater comfort to us, we hope, by making a good ufe thereof, to cause it to promote thy honour and glory, which we heg, for thy mercies fake vouchfafed us in Jefus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For Fair Weather.

O righteous Lord God, who, on account of our disobedience and our innumerable tranfgreffons of thy holy laws, didft, of late, punish us by heavy rains and floods, but was afterwards pleafed in thy great mercy, to fpare us and relieve us, by fending this happy and feafonable change of weather; we, for this mercy, return thee our most hearty thanks in the congregation of thy people here affembled, and do promife, from hence forward, conftantly to bear in mind this extraordinary love and kindness which thou haft fhewn us, and, during the remainder of our lives, to be always fhewing forth thy praise from generation to generation, (Pfal. Ixxix. 13.) Amen.

Almighty

We give thee humble thanks for this thy fpecial bounty; beleeching thee to continue thy loving kindness unto us, that our land may yield us her fruits of increafe, to thy glory, and our comfort, through Jefus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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For Peace and Deliverance from our Enemies.

Almighty God, who art a ftrong tower of defence unto thy fervants against the face of their enemies; We yield thee praife and thanksgiving for our deliverance from thofe great and apparent dangers wherewith we were compaffed. We acknowledge it thy goodnefs, that we were not delivered over as a prey unto them; befeeching thee fill to continue fuch thy mercies towards us, that all the world may know that thou art our Saviour and mighty deliverer, through Jefus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For reftoring public Peace at Home.

Eternal God, our heavenly Father, who alone makest men to be of one mind in a house, and stilleft the outrage of a violent and unruly people; We bless thy holy Name, that it hath pleafed thee to appeafe the feditious tumults which have been lately raised up amongst us; most humbly befeeching thee to grant to all of us grace, that we may henceforth obediently walk in thy holy commandments; and leading a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty, may continually offer unto thee our facrifice of praife and thanksgiving for thefe thy mercies towards us, through Jefus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For Deliverance from the Plague, or other common fickness. Lord God, who haft wounded us for our fins, and confumed us for our tranfgreffions, by thy late heavy and dreadful vifitation; and now in the midft of judgment, remembering mercy, haft redeemed our fouls from the jaws of death; We offer unto thy Fatherly goodness ourselves, our fouls, and bodies, which thou haft delivered, to be a living facrifice unto thee; always praifing and magnifying thy mercies in the midst of thy Church, through Jefus Chrift our Lord.

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E humbly acknowledge before thee, O moft merci. ful Father, that all the punishments which are threatened in thy law, might juftly have fallen upon us, by reafon of our manifold tranfgreffions and hardness of heart: yet feeing it hath pleafed thee of thy tender mercy, upon our weak and unworthy humiliation, to affwage the conta gious fickness, wherewith we lately have been fore afflicted, and to restore the voice of joy and health into our dwellings; we offer unto thy Divine Majefty the facrifice of praise and thanksgiving; lauding and magnifying thy glorious Name for fuch thy prefervation and providence over us, through Jefus Chrift our Lord. Amen.

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