Meditations and Motives for Prayer Upon the Seven Days of the Week, Prayer 4 – Half title 4
A Prayer for Wednesday.
O Heavenly Lord God, I depend upon thy goodnesse for the like favour, as thou shewedst to thy servant Abraham: for I come a suiter to thee for another Sodome; at least for one as sinfull as ever Sodome was: and therefore have need to have as many petitions granted mee, as Abraham had: for although thou hast beene pleased, O God, to heare my Petition for health, to make mee able: and for grace to make mee willing to labour in my vocation: yet if thou shouldst stay there, and grant mee no more, I should make but little benefit, of either health or labour: for seeing thine ordinance is, that I should labour sixe dayes, and do in them all that I have to doe; although I should labour never so much, yet if I should not doe all that I have to doe, I should not performe thine ordinance; and not performing it, bee never the better for all my labour. O therefore be pleased O God, to direct my labour to other true end, and to guide mee in the way I am to walke, as thou didst guide the Israelites in the wildernesse: for, alas, O Lord, I have a greater wildernesse to passe, than ever the Israelites passed; a wildernesse of troubles and temptations, a wildernesse of ignorance and errours: that if thou guide mee not, as thou didst them, with a pillar of a cloud by day; with the Gospell of thy sonne Christ Jesus; and with a pillar of fire by night; with the grace of thy most holy Spirit: I shall never be able to find the way to Canaan, but shall wander perpetually, and die miserably in the wildernesse: for although thine ordinance, to doe in sixe dayes all that I have to doe, be folded up in that unum necessarium, that one necessary thing, which Christ told Martha: and being but one, may be thought soone done: yet when that one thing is opened, and comes to be put in execution; I find it to containe such a world of duties, that I am confounded with the number; duties towards thee my God; duties towards my neighbour; duties towards my selfe; and if any of these duties be omitted, how can I say, I have performed thine ordinance, and done all that I have to doe? And what account then shall I be able to make of it, at my sixe dayes end? And if I cannot make my account to thee: in what account can I hope to be with thee? When I consider my duty towards thee: that I should love thee with all my soule, with all my mind, with all my strength: can I say, I have done so, and not kept a a part of my soule to love the world? When I thinke of my duties to my neighbour; that I should love him as my self; can I say, I have done so, and not suffered him to want, when I have my selfe abounded? when I remember the duties to my selfe; that I should preferre the care of my soule before my body; can I say, I have done so: and not rather preferred the care of my body before my soule? O therefore, most gracious God, be pleased to supply all these defects; vouchsafe to rectifie all my labours; and make mee so to love thee, that I may love nothing besides thee, nothing but what conduceth to the glory of thy Name: Make mee to love my neighbour as my selfe; and to doe unto others, as I would others should do unto mee: make mee so to have a care of my soule, that no pleasures of the world, no delights of the flesh may withdraw mee from it: as knowing, that the world perisheth: the flesh will shortly returne to dust: onelyonly my soule is my selfe, and will continue with mee. And when thou hast thus directed my labours, and made mee to do all that I have to do, I shall then acknowledge; thou hast done more for mee, than thou didst for Abraham: and therefore shall be ready to do more for thee, than Abraham did: sacrifice not onelyonly my Isaac, all my delights, but my whole selfe, all my desires, all I am, and all I hope to be unto thee.
MOTIVES FOR PRAYER VPONUPON THVRSDAY.