God rule in my heart. And though I am a soldier, let me not be a man of blood, delighting in war, but a ready servant of my country, a faithful instrument for our common defence and safety, and a dutiful subject to the powers ordained by God, for the Lord's sake. O my strength and my Redeemer, strengthen my heart and hands for the service to which I am called. And make me successful and victorious through thy blessing and power from on high. It is thou, Lord, only that makest us to dwell in safety: O cover my head in the day of battle; and in all times of danger, be thou my shield and buckler. Keep me, if it may please thee, from the calamities to which I am exposed, or overrule them for my spiritual and eternal good; that wounds in my body may be the health of my soul, and temporal death prove to me the gate of everlasting life. And seeing that I go with my life in my hands, and am more exposed than other men to dangers and death, O make me more careful of my soul, more mindful of my latter end, and more diligent to maintain a constant readiness to meet my God. And whether I prosper or miscarry in the attempts and enterprises wherein I am now concerned, O let my soul be ever precious in thy sight, and safe in thy hands. Help me, O thou my Leader and Commander, thou great Captain of my salvation, so to live, that I may find it the greatest gain to die; and let me go on (as Christ's faithful soldier) so conquering and to conquer, that having overcome all the enemies of my soul, I may sit down in thy kingdom, and participate thy glory, and triumph in thy praise, for ever and ever. Amen.

PRAYER FOR A SAILOR.

ALMIGHTY and ever-blessed God, whose eyes are in every place beholding the evil and the good, look down, I beseech thee, on thine unworthy servant, that desires now to obtain mercy at thy hands. Thou seest that my lot is cast in a situation where my temptations are manifold, and my advantages for religious improvement but few. Alas! O Lord, how baneful have I found the influence of evil company; and how often have I myself proved a snare to my companions; but pardon, I pray thee, all the guilt which I have contracted; and lay not to my charge my multiplied iniquities. Wash me in the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness; and let the blood of Christ, which cleanseth from all sin, purge my conscience from dead works, to serve the living God.

Let me not, O Lord, be any longer regardless of my eternal interests. Surely in a peculiar manner it becomes me to stand ready for death and judgment. Exposed as I am to continual dangers, and not knowing what an hour may bring forth, Olet me be mindful of my latter end, and live every day, as if I knew that it would be my last. And if, by reason of stormy winds and tempests, I be lifted up to the heavens, and go down again into the depths, and the hearts of all around me melt because of their trouble, let me know in whom I have believed, and be enabled with composure to commit my soul into thy hands; let me have the comfort of knowing that thou art reconciled to me in the Son of thy love, and that death will be to me a door of entrance into thy heavenly kingdom.

Let me not be afraid to confess thee before men, or be ashamed of having it known that I am thy servant. Let me rather be emboldened to let my light shine before men, and to be a witness for thee amongst those with whom I live. Let me be deeply grieved at all the evil which I behold, and labour to the utmost of my power to turn my fellow-sinners from the error of their ways.

Blessed God! infinite are my obligations to thee for the many kind interpositions of thy providence which I have experienced, and for that measure of grace which, of thine own love and mercy, thou hast seen fit to bestow upon me. O that thou wouldst fill my heart with a grateful sense of thy mercies, and dispose me to render unto thee according to the benefits conferred upon me. Let me especially live nigh to thee in secret prayer. Let me delight in reading thy blessed word, and in meditating on the great things of thy law. Make up to me the want of public instruction, by the special assistance of thy good Spirit. Open my understanding, that I may understand thy word; and incline my heart to obey it with all cheerfulness. Enable me in the most unreserved manner to devote myself to thee, and to glorify thee with my body and my spirit, which are thine.

This, O my God, I would regard as my chief happiness on earth; and this I humbly ask at thy hands, through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, my blessed Lord and Saviour. Amen.

PRAYER FOR LAND OR SEA.

O LORD, who can understand his errors? Who can call to mind the innumerable offences of his past life? Since the time that I began to act, what, alas! have I ever done that was free from sin? And, O the heinous offences and presumptuous sins, the great transgressions whereof I have been guilty; which stare me in the face, and alarm my conscience, and cast down my soul within me! When I consider the circumstances under which I have committed them, that they have been done against such light and love, such calls and warnings, such convictions and encouragements as I have experienced from the Lord, I am covered with confusion, O my God, and filled with bitter remorse, and terrible apprehensions. O if they should rise up in judgment against me, they could not but utterly sink me into perdition. But, O Lord my God, help me so to remember them, that thou mayest blot them out of the book of thy remembrance; and so to humble myself for them, that thou mayest never lay them to my charge. For thine own mercy's sake hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities, especially those which have taken such hold upon me, that I am not able to look up. And though thou hast kept me from my deserved shame in this world, O let not thy indulgence embolden me to repeat my sins; but let this thy goodness, O my God, work in me a more deep and serious repentance.

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And thou, Lord Almighty, who alone canst bring good out of evil, be thou pleased to make my past falls

an occasion of my surer standing for the future. O embitter the pleasures of sin to me, and hedge up the ways of wickedness (as with thorns and briers) before me; that I may loathe, as much as ever I have loved, my hateful ways, and never return again to such baseness and folly. And let the remembrance of all my former offences not only lead me to repentance, but stimulate me to more circumspection and watchfulness in future; that I may not live so far from thee as I have done, nor trespass against thee any more; but may pass the time of my sojourning here in fear. O grant it for the sake of him whom I have so impiously trodden under foot, and to whose Spirit I have done so great despite, even thy Son, Jesus Christ, my only Mediator and Advocate. Amen,

PRIVATE PRAYER FOR A CONVINCED SINNER.

HEARKEN to the voice of my cry, my King and my God; for unto thee will I pray. But wherewithal shall I appear before the Lord, and bow myself before the Most High God, whose holy laws I have broken, and whose just displeasure I have incurred? I acknowledge my transgression, O Lord, and my sin is ever before me. My iniquities are gone over my head, as a sore burthen; they are too heavy for me to bear. When thou with rebukes dost chasten man for his iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth. My sin now has found me out, and that which once I thought too little to be repented of, seems now too great to be pardoned. I flattered