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one of us, then, know and believe the love which thou hast to us, and that thy name is love. Preserve us from the delusion and self-deception of a vain and dead faith without works. Give us true, living, saving faith, which justifies the soul, brings peace, works by love, purifies the heart, quenches the fiery darts of Satan, and overcomes the world, and finally brings us, happy in thy love, to dwell in thy presence for ever. O may we be numbered with the noble army of believers, who confess thy name before men, and at length enter thy holy kingdom and the full joy of our Lord. Hear us for his name's sake.

CCIV.

FOR FORGIVENESS OF SINS.

O God, our merciful Father, we, thy sinful children, come before thee in the name of Jesus. Lord, thou hast graciously promised, I will blot out as a thick cloud thy transgressions: I will blot out thine iniquities for my name's sake; and this thou hast said to those who have wearied thee with their iniquities, and made thee to serve with their sins. Oh amazing grace and love! thou wilt have such put thee in remembrance. Thou hast said, Declare thou, that thou mayest be justified; we do put thee in remembrance, we do call upon thee to pardon our sins; that, filled with the sense of thy pardoning love, we may with singleness of aim seek thy glory and do thy

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FOR EARNESTNESS IN RELIGION.

will, deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow thee. And now unto him who has washed us and cleansed us from our sins in his own blood, who has prepared a glorious kingdom for us, and made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, unto him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

CCV.

FOR EARNESTNESS IN RELIGION.

O thou, who hast commanded us to give diligence to make our calling and election sure, give unto us holy zeal and earnestness in serving thee. Is it a slight thing, O Lord, to come out of a world lying in wickedness, to obtain salvation, to escape eternal wrath, and to win eternal glory? Oh awaken our slumbering souls, let us not by a spirit of trifling and levity fall short of this eternal glory. Thou hast told us the ruin of those who make light of thy gospel; thou hast told us, straight is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life; oh, work in us then mightily according to thine own power; teach us to use that holy violence by which the kingdom of heaven is taken by force; the straight gate being set before us, may we press into it; may we hunger and thirst after righteousness, and desire spiritual blessings, with the same eager thirst with which men desire that which is absolutely necessary for their bodies. Hear us for his sake whose strength is made perfect in our weakness.

CCVI.

FOR LOVE TO GOD AND HIS PEOPLE.

Oh Lord, our heavenly Father, whose lovingkindness to us is from everlasting to everlasting, we may indeed say thou hast dealt bountifully with thy servants, only let our hearts answer to thine own full and overflowing thoughts of wisdom and love to us. Shed abroad, by the Holy Ghost, thy love in our hearts. Deliver us from the misery of selfishness, and teach us not to live to ourselves, but to him who loved us, even so that he spared not his own Son for us. Let our love to Jesus be fervent, like hers whose many sins were forgiven, and who loved much, and like that of Paul after his conversion. And grant, Lord, that we may love all our brethren in Christ with a pure heart fervently, and that the love of thy people towards each other may increase more and more. May we joy in the thought that there is one God and Father of us all, and that all we are brethren. Hasten that Philadelphian state of thy church when it shall every where be said, See how these Christians love one another! The Lord make us to increase and abound in love onc towards another, and towards all men, and thus establish our hearts unblameable in holiness before thee, O God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. Amen.

CCVII.

THANKS FOR FAMILY LOVE, AND PRAYER FOR ITS INCREASE AND ABOUNDING TO ALL MEN.

O our God, if we have been comforts to each other in times past, all praise and glory be to thee. Make us far more than hitherto, in times to come mutual blessings. The fountain of thy grace is exhaustless, O may we more and more be the means of conveying it to each other. Whether we be united or separated in body, may we be more closely bound by the ties of Christian affection, and all the tender bonds of faithful love. Knowing that there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, oh let not one among us forsake the Father of mercies or despise thy grace; but may we all walk in the ways of holiness here, that we may reach thy heavenly kingdom hereafter. O Lord, make us to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, according to the love of the first disciples, and establish our hearts unblameable in holiness. before thyself at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.

CCVIII.

FOR CHRISTIAN GRACES.

Amen.

Almighty Father, who hast in thy word called us to be partakers of the mind that was in Christ

Jesus, and to put on, as the elect of God, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing and forgiving one another, even as Christ forgave us, and above all to put on charity; we entreat together from thee grace thus to adorn thy gospel and glorify thy name day by day. Work in us to will, and work in us to do of thy good pleasure, that we may work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. O may all those dispositions which our divine Lord has pronounced to be blessed, be imparted to us. Give us poverty of spirit, mourning for sin, meekness of spirit, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, mercifulness and purity in heart; may we be peacemakers, and if persecuted for righteousness' sake may we rejoice and be glad. Thus may we be truly the salt of the earth, and the light of the world, and a real blessing to all around us. But, O Lord, our hearts are so full by nature of all that is opposite to the mind of Christ, and so evil and selfish, so proud and vain, that nothing but thine own Holy Spirit can deliver us from the pollution and slavery of sin, and produce this thine own holy likeness in us. O grant then that we with open face may behold, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, and be changed into the same image from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord, through Jesus our Redeemer.

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