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Lord, thou art just and righteous in all thy ways, and holy in all thy works; and when the wicked have treasured up wrath against the day of wrath, thou hast also laid up a treasure of judgments to punish them with. And albeit the judgments be long in coming, yet, when they come, the slowness of them is recompensed with their weight, and they are very sore, for thy wrath is not as man’s wrath; his is soon come, and then it is soon gone. Yet, this is the comfort of thy people, that even when thou destroyest thine enemies, then thou art good to them, in guarding them about with thy providence, as with a fiery wall, and in giving them peace within; and albeit they cannot tell particularly how it is done, yet they know that it is only thou who art the doer of it. Lord, we beseech thee, therefore, to guard us so also. We cannot tell how soon thy judgments may come upon us who are in this land; now, for Jesus' sake, when the destroyer comes, draw thou thy sword against thine enemies and the wicked in the world, and save thine own people, and let them know that verily there is a deliverance and outlet for the righteous in all their distresses. And, therefore, give us grace in time to be better acquainted with Christ, that so we may know him, and know the virtue of his blood, and that it is he who rules his kirk, and does all things in his wise providence for holding his people together, and that he shall make everything that comes to be comfortable to his own children. And we beseech thee, O Lord, because everything that we do is but unprofitable without faith, and when we have any measure of faith, then we find sense to be very strong, and many exorbitant corruptions, Lord, therefore make it sensible to us that there is some other thing in us than nature, even this grace of God which he bestows upon his own children. Lord, give unto us repentance for our ignorance, for, alas, we are very ignorant; we know not the gospel, nor Christ that is revealed in the gospel, as it becomes us. And because we are full of doubts, and ready to fall away from thee, therefore give us faith to believe thy word, and to believe in Christ, and to put our whole trust in him: and let us know also to whom it is that we entrust ourselves. And, Lord, we beseech thee, in thine own time, to give us the persuasion and assurance of the remission of our sins, and a testimony in our own souls of our adoption here, and that we shall hereafter be coheirs with Jesus Christ in glory. When prosperity is with us, then we think the world to be the best of it, but when we are in trouble any way, then we say that it is good and necessary for us to be seeking to heaven; therefore, we beseech thee to check such thoughts as these in us, and give us grace to be content with thy dealing, for thou canst put us to a light trial. And, therefore, dispose of us according to thy wisdom and mercy, and give us grace to draw in to thee in time, while thou art calling upon us? And albeit we see nothing in ourselves wherein we can glory, yet give us grace to draw near to thee, and to glory in thee. Lord, be merciful to all thine own people in all the parts of the world. Thou hast some of thine own among the most wicked in the world: we beseech thee to hasten their calling. Lord, oppose thyself against the kingdom of Antichrist and all the supporters thereof: and we beseech thee to be merciful to thy kirk that is born down by afflictions; help her out of them, and bear down Antichrist. Thou hast begun to consume him; Lord, spend him quite, that so he may be seen no more. Be merciful, O Lord, we beseech thee, to thy kirk within this land. We have entered ourselves in a covenant with thee, and who knows the excellency of that, to have thee to be their God? And who is there who can ponder sufficiently the weight of that, to bind themselves to serve thee, the Lord? And, therefore, we beseech thee to give us grace to think upon it, that so we bring not on heavier wrath upon ourselves now, than we could have done before; for these who have still gone on into a course of defection, their judgments shall not be so heavy as ours, if so be that we endeavor not to keep our covenant that we have made, and to do as we have said. We beseech thee, O Lord, to find out the way for peace and comfort to thine own people, and for establishing of thy worship among us. Lord, thou hast the hearts of all men in thy hand, even the hearts of great men and princes; and therefore we beseech thee to settle our King’s Majesty his heart to a peaceable course,1 that so he may not be an enemy to these who are in friendship with thee, but only to thine enemies, and that he may not be a terror to these who stand for thy truth, but to these who stand for idolatry. Lord, remove ill counselors far from him and all Balaams, who would teach him a way how to get thy people destroyed; and furnish him with good counsel and counselors, and give him grace to follow their counsel, who would instruct him in the right way. And give him grace to count it his glory to stand for the truth of Christ, and let him not be ashamed to count and esteem Christ to be a King above him.2 Bless his Queen; make her to hate all superstition and idolatry,3 and to know thy truth and to love it. Bless their children, especially the young prince, that so, when he shall be advanced to the throne of the kingdom he may be a profitable instrument for setting up thy glory, and holding down all errors.4 Bless the Nobility in the land, specially those of them who have given up their names to thee, and hazarded all for thee, and have gone far on. This land, indeed, has gone far on, even from profession to confession, which is the next part to martyrdom; therefore give us grace to stand to it, and what we have yet of the gospel, let us be laboring to give testimony to it, in living in faith, truth, holiness, etc. Lord, thou who hast our hearts in thy hand, help us forward, for we cannot continue nor go on into a good course; and therefore, we beseech thee to create clean hearts, and renew right spirits within us.
And any who have a good and an honest mind to thy truth, and have access to kings, Lord, we beseech thee to assist them when they have a purpose to speak anything for thee. And thou who put it in the heart of good Nehemiah, when he was speaking to a king, to lift up a secret ejaculation to thee, give them grace to do so also; and then the king was moved to grant his request; let it be so with them also; that so they may find comfort in this, to stand to serve both God and the king. Lord, be merciful to all the assemblies of thy people in this land. Many of them has found thy presence these days bygone: if so be that thou had had a mind to destroy us, there had been no such work as this, and therefore, we trust that thou will dwell still with us. It may be, indeed, that we shall have a foul stormy hour yet, but we hope that we shall have a fair sunny day after it. And, therefore, we beseech thee, O Lord, to deal mercifully with us, and dwell thou still among us, and let us hear thee speaking to us; and when we speak to thee, be thou found of us; that so thy people may seek to thee, and thou mayest be found of them; that so they may rejoice in thee. Lord, pity us in this poor congregation: for there is none in the land who has greater need to fear thy judgments than we have, for we have gone far on, and know not what we have been doing. Lord, if it would please thee to make this to be an occasion to us, to set our hearts off all other trifles only upon the knowledge of thee! Lord, we beseech thee to send in thy light and thy Spirit into our hearts, to touch them; that so, while the day of our visitation lasts, we may know the things that belongs to our peace. Lord, we beseech thee to pity and deliver the poor once among us, who are lying under any distress or affliction, and furnish them with patience to bear it, so long as thou pleasest to hold it on; that they may acknowledge it to be the only best which thou dost. And Lord, prepare every one of us for our own visitations; either to be removed out of this life, or for any change that thou shall be pleased to bring upon us, while we are in it: for in that which we think to be most heritable and permanent here, there is nothing but a continual change in all; for if it change not from us, of necessity we must change from it. There is nothing that is unchangeable but only thou, O Lord, and thy love to thy own, in Jesus Christ. And therefore, give us grace to seek after that; and then, when we shall be separate from our trifling portions in the world, we shall not be frustrated, but shall be fully satisfied with that rich portion purchased to us in Jesus Christ. To whom, etc.