Thanks be unto thee, O most merciful and gracious God, for having devoted this day to thy service. Never can we sufficiently express the obligations we owe thee for this stated season of rest from labour; for this delightful opportunity afforded us of imitating the heavenly host, whilst we assemble ourselves with one heart and voice to glorify thee, O God, our heavenly Father; and thee O Christ, our Advocate, Righteousness, and Life; and thee, O eternal Spirit, the Comforter and Sanctifier of the Church of God.
We praise thee, who instead of loathing our persons for our sinful pride and stubborn forgetfulness of thee, hast taken the most effectual methods to teach us the knowledge and plant in us the love of thy name. We praise thee that thou hast commanded us to make, on this day, public confession of our guilt, and of thy hatred of sin; of our disobedience and the riches of thy forbearance towards us; of our weakness, depravity, and need of thy perpetual grace to help us. We praise thee for commanding us to make public intercession for all sorts and conditions of men, in order that our hearts may be the more enlarged towards them, and our hands the more ready to minister to their necessities. We praise thee for this opportunity of hearing thy holy scripture, which is profitable for our reproof, for our correction, and for our instruction in righteousness.
We bless thee that we have our habitation fixed in the land of liberty, under the bright beams of thy glorious gospel; that we can worship thee according to our conscience, no one making us afraid; that we are not required to pay adoration to those who by nature are not gods, nor compelled to bow down at the altar of idols. We praise thee that we are in health and strength to use the sacred opportunity of going with the multitude that keep thy holy day, into the house where thou hast recorded thy name, and promised to meet and bless us. How amiable are thy dwellings, O Lord of hosts; one day employed in them is better than a thousand engrossed by the business of the world.
We praise thee also for passing by all the provocations and insults which we have offered unto thee by abusing and profaning this holy day, by our detestable presumption in compassing thee about with deceit and lies. O how often have we rushed into the courts of thy house without meditation, without prayer, without any desire to worship thee with an holy worship! how often have we dissembled and pretend to give thee glory, when we were yet living in our sins, making thee angry with us every day, and casting thy law behind us!
O, our God, let the time past suffice for us to have entered into thy courts thoughtless and unhumbled, self-satisfied, and self-sufficient. Now teach us effectually to reverence thy sanctuary: make us feel awful conceptions of the God with whom we have to do, and of the infinite importance of the holy exercises in which we are going to engage. Thou knowest our souls cleave to the very dust of the ground. O send thy quickening Spirit to raise our thoughts and desires up to thee in every part of thy holy worship. Shield us on every side from the flesh, the world, and the devil, that they may have no power to fill us with sinful distractions, and make us absent in spirit while we are presenting our bodies in thy temple.
While we confess our guilt, open thou our understanding, we beseech thee, that we may understand all the aggravations of our wickedness. Call back to remembrance whatever at any time has made us appear most vile in our own eyes, that we may now feel a godly sorrow, and be really ashamed and confounded at the sight of our iniquity.—Accompany, we beseech thee, the reading of thy most holy word with the power of thy own Spirit, that so the practice of thy saints, and thy peculiar favour towards them, may stir us up to be diligent followers of their examples: that we may receive the strong consolation from thy promises, which in Christ Jesus are all sure and infallibly certain, and, by hearing the gospel proclaimed, attain to clearer views of thy great salvation. When we are offering up our intercession to thee, give us to feel tenderness of heart, melting pity towards all our fellow creatures in distress, and very fervently desire that thou wouldst immediately appear for their relief. When we ask for mercy and forgiveness, strength and holiness of heart, may we ask with an earnestness suited to the value of these gifts, and with a strong conviction of our unavoidable misery, if our suit is rejected.
When we join in giving thanks unto thy name, O make all thy goodness to pass before us. Excite in us such a lively remembrance of the multitude of thy mercies towards us, as shall fill our souls as it were with marrow and fatness, whilst our mouths are praising thee with joyful lips.—From the beginning to the conclusion of the service of thy sanctuary, by the perpetual influence of thy free Spirit, do thou uphold us, that we may be satisfied with the pleasures of thy house, and offer to thee a pure offering in righteousness.
And, as thou, O Lord, hast ordained that the people should seek thy law at the mouth of thy ministers, do thou fill them with knowledge and sound doctrine; that they may preach not themselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord. Under their instructions delivered according to thy will, may our ignorance be dispelled, our slothful hearts quickened, our fears removed, our hope encouraged, and our souls established in grace.
Finally, we beseech thee, O God, to incline our hearts to sanctify this whole day. Make it our delight to employ our time in reading thy word, in meditation and privacy, not yielding to the sinfulness of our hearts, or the custom of the world, in speaking our own words, in thinking our own thoughts, and finding our own pleasure on thy holy day. And grant us grace so to use this day of rest and of public worship in this life that we may none of us fail of having a part in the everlasting adoration, praise, and love of thy name in the life to come, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.