Christian letters full of spiritual instructions tending to the promoting of the power of…

LETTER. XL. [Directions to the Ministers of Somersetshire and Wiltshire, for the instructing of Families by way of Catechising.]

Sir,

This Letter cometh to you, like the men of Macedonia to Paul, crying to you, Come and help us. O how insufficient do we find our selves for the praises of God! what reason have we to call upon our selves, and to call upon all our Friends! and yet we foresee that all will be too little a Sacrifice at last, and to slender a return to the most High God, God, who hath made us such wonders of Mercy, and such signal instances of his Divine Power and rich Grace. You are not ignorant of our Estate, how the Sentence of death had passed upon us; how our flesh and our hearts failed, and friends an Physicians gave up their hopes: but God, that raised the Dead, was pleased to make us the Monuments of his wondrous mercy. O that the same God would make us the special instruments of his praise and glory. Of a Truth Sir, we perceive our hearts are too little, our Tongues are too short, our expressions are too low, either to conceive or utter what we owe to the great God. O help! help! bless the Lord, O our souls: bless the Lord, O our friends: O that all that have wrestled with God for us, might join hand in hand to make some suitable returns to the God of our lives, and may bring in every one his Sacrifice, and all contribute to make one common stock of Praises, that many thanksgivings may abound to God on our behalfs. O what hath Prayer done for us! while we live we must honour Prayer, and admire the power of Prayer, we owe our limbs and our lives to prayer. O that a goodly crop of praise may grow up unto God as a return for his Mercies: that the seed of prayers, and showers of tears, may procure sheaves of joy, and songs of deliverance.

THis Letter cometh to you, like the men of Macedonia to Paul, crying to you, Come and help us. O how insufficient do we find our selves for the praises of God! what reason have we to call upon our selves, and to call upon all our Friends! and yet we foresee that all will be too little a Sacrifice at last, and to slender a return to the most High God, God, who hath made us such wonders of Mercy, and such signal instances of his Divine Power and rich Grace. You are not ignorant of our Estate, how the Sentence of death had passed upon us; how our flesh and our hearts failed, and friends an Physicians gave up their hopes: but God, that raised the Dead, was pleased to make us the Monuments of his wondrous mercy. O that the same God would make us the special instruments of his praise and glory. Of a Truth Sir, we perceive our hearts are too little, our Tongues are too short, our expressions are too low, either to conceive or utter what we owe to the great God. O help! help! bless the Lord, O our souls: bless the Lord, O our friends: O that all that have wrestled with God for us, might joyn hand in hand to make some suitable returns to the God of our lives, and may bring in every one his Sacrifice, and all contribute to make one common stock of Praises, that many thanksgivings may abound to God on our behalfs. O what hath Prayer done for us! while we live we must honour Prayer, and admire the power of Prayer, we owe our limbs and our lives to prayer. O that a goodly crop of praise may grow up unto God as a return for his Mercies: that the seed of prayers, and showers of tears, may procure sheaves of joy, and songs of deliverance.