48. Mr. Lye's Prayer at Allhallows Lumber-street

48. Mr. Lye's Prayer at Allhallows Lumber-street
O Lord our great God, thou canst do all things, for thou dost dispose and govern all the wayes, and works and words of thy Creature to thine own praise; We thy poor Creatures, the workmanship of thy hands, the price and purchase of thy Sons blood do desire this morning to fall down and humble our selves at the Throne of thy Grace; we desire to lift up an eye of Faith to thee, that thou mayest dart an eye of Love to us: since thou hast commanded us to come unto thee, Oh bless us now we come: Let it not be in vain for any of us, from the high'st to the low'st, from the richest to the poorest, that we have sought thy Face this morning Blessed Father, pour down a spirit of Prayer, a Spirit of preaching, a Spirit of Rejoycing, a spirit of Practising in the midst of us; let us not only be enabled to know what to do, but to do what we know. Thou that distd cure the eyes of the blind with clay and spittle. Oh heel that natural dimness that is in the best of us: Thy Rod in the hand of Moses, brought water out of the Rock: Oh do thou strike upon those rocky hearts, that our adamantine hearts being softned, may gush out into Rivers of tears. Oh drown our sins in the Red sea of our saviours blood; help us to smite upon our thigh, and to ask ourselves what we have been, and what we have done? and humble us under the omission of any commanded duty and the comission of any for bidden sin; sins of thoughts, wordes and dieds; sins against the Law, against the Gospel, of youth, manhood, and old-age; sins before, under, and since conversion; sins against prayers, vows, promises, covenants and oaths. Oh Lord, if thou didst prefer thy Bill against us, we could not stand; if we were weighed in the balance of the Sanctury, we should be found too light: but holy Father, remember not against us our former sins, but rather have mercy upon us according to thy loving kindness; cross, and blot out our iniquities, blot them out so fully and wholly, that it may be to us as to Judath in the promise, that the sins of Judath should be sought for and not found.
O bathe our souls in that Fountain that was set open for Judah and Jerusalem; though our sins have been as Scarlet, let them be as white as Snow; though they be red like Crimson, let them be like Wool.
We have read that a flood of sin brought down a deluge of water, that they covered the tops of the mountains. Oh let thy deluge of mercy cover the tops of the mountains of our sins.
It is the glory of a God to pardon great sins: We desire to turn unto thee with our whole hearts; do thou subdue our iniquities; let us be not only cleansed, but let us have the efficacy of the spirit of Christ to wash us from the guilt of sin, because we boast we are not under the Law but under Grace.
Be gracious to our Sovereign Lord Charles, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland: It is thy promise that Kings shall be Nursing Fathers to thy children; grant that under the shadow of his Majesty thy people may be protected, that we may live a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty. Oh let thy people possess the Land from Dan to Beersheba. Oh give us Scripture-Magistrates, and Gospel-Ministers, as long as the Sun and Moon endures.
Let thy Word be sanctified to us; let it not be only as water, to get out our spots, but as a Refiners fire to purge our dross, and take away our tin.
And holy Father, where thou hast begun a good work, do thou go on and bring it to perfection; let not the light that is in us, be like the glimmering light of the evening, but as the light of the morning that shineth more and more to the day. Let our best wine be kept to the last; let the end of our lives, be the end of sinning.
Thou hast cast our lot in the midst of temptations of all sorts, thou hast brought many of us through the red Sea; but we are in the wilderness with Zeba and Zalmunna, and those that dwell at Tyre, the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, and all the forces that Hell can make against us: Oh put upon us all the whole Armour of God. Now in these days of Errour, gird us with the Girdle of Truth: Oh now in these days of falsity, give us a helmet of Hope
Now the Devil darts at us, give us the Sheild of Faith: Oh, give us the Sword of the Spirit, of the word of God, that it may enable us to confute the gain-saying of foolish men.
Oh help us to pray with all manner of prayer constantly, fervently, faithfully, feelingly, that we stand and not fall, and that not in our strength, but in Gods.
To this end be with us, upon this thine own day; our Manna falls every day, and it is doubled upon the Lords Day: Oh let us be as thy servant John, in the Spirit upon thine own day; let God by his Spirit come into our spirits, understandings, consciences, wills, memories and affections, that all our conversations without, and affections within, may be obedient to thy Word.
Enable thy Servant to deliver thy Word faithfully: God forbid thy Servant should stand upon so sandy a foundation, as the Wisdome of Man: one iota of thy Word hath more wisdome in it, then all men and Angels have.
Good Father give thy people a hearing ear it is too much they have played by the light of the Candle, slighted thy Manna so long: Oh now therefore to day give us to hear and know, and believe, and do the things that concern our everlasting peace: Hear us for Christ his sake: to whom, with thy blessed Self and Spirit, be glory now and forever: