PRAYER BOOK.
The following ADMONITION, read occasionally before
Family-worship, is very proper to produce seriousness
of mind, and to keep up a godly jealousy, lest hypocrisy
and formality should render this important duty of no
use.
My Friends and Fellow-Christians:
WE, dust and ashes, are assembled to speak unto the holy Lord God of heaven and earth, our Maker and our Judge, who deserves from us all possible reverence whenever we presume to call upon him. We are going to pray to that God who strictly charges us to take heed that we draw not nigh to him with our lips whilst our hearts are far from him— to that God who is of purer eyes than to regard our services without the mediation of the Holy One and the Just, who died for our sins, but hath promised to give us whatever we shall ask of him in his name, and to perform all our petitions.
Now therefore let us lift up our hearts to him that he may fill us with reverence and godly fear, with sincerity and lowliness of mind, with lively faith in the blood and prevailing intercession of Jesus, and with assurance that we shall receive whatever we ask according to his will. With these holy dispositions we should desire always to bow down our knees before God.
