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We have a great weight of sin which works fast upon us, and bears down our souls, and such a weight that we of ourselves are not able to get it shaken off? We can take on the burden of sin, but we cannot put it off again. We have a conscience, (if so be that our consciences were wakened, and although that they sleep so long as we are here, yet they shall be wakened at that great day,) of the guiltiness of many sins since the beginning of our life; and when thou art pleased to set the sins of thine own people in order before them, O but they make a terrible spectacle! For at the end of each sin, they see a chain that ties them hard and fast to that unquenchable flame. And, Lord, when thou pleasest thou canst set our sins in order in thy sight, and be avenged upon us for them. And therefore it were very meet and expedient for us in time to take order with our own hearts, and to labor, before the day of our visitation be at an end, to find ourselves to be within the compass of thy favor and love, and within the skirts of thy kindness, and that we are in the estate of grace; and we being assured of that, then call upon us when thou wilt, thou cannot call upon us wrong. For these whom thou enterest in the estate of grace, when thou callest upon them out of this life, thou possessest them in glory; but if so be that we live all our days in nature, and die in nature also, that is sure we shall never see glory. Shall we presume upon that which we never heard of any who had the proof of it? There was never one who was immediately translated from nature to glory, but all come there by that way of grace; and therefore enter us in that happy estate here. And as many of us as have received any note of this, or have given testimony of it before the world, Lord, increase it. We would fain have the world, and we are like to break our heart when we thrive not in the things thereof; but, Lord, if we were as diligent to grow in spiritual things, Lord, could we do this, and seek first the kingdom of heaven, and the righteousness thereof, then the things which we seek so fast after would be added to us. But because we are careless of the principal thing, and spend all our time upon things accessory thereto, therefore it is that we get none of them; but if so be that we would set our hearts upon these things that are above, then we would not only get these, but we would get rest and peace to our souls; and then we would not wish nor desire any more but what thou art pleased to met and measure out to us. And therefore give us grace to walk in thy ways; albeit that men would mist the way to us and make it dark, yet it is clear to thine own what is thy will. Lord, set us into it, and keep us, we beseech thee, from the by-paths of error. Lord, thy word presents the way to us, but except thou enlightenest our eyes, we will not see it; and when we are in the way, then we are ready to turn to the right hand or to the left, unless we have thy Spirit to hold us in, and to say, “This is the way, walk in it:” yea, rather, or we go out of the way, Lord, hedge us in it with thorns. And because we be now come to receive instruction from thee how to walk in thy ways, Lord, give us grace humbly to submit ourselves to the receiving thereof; and give us believing and obedient hearts. And above all, Lord, because there is no good to be gotten without faith, (for faithless and graceless,) thou, Lord, who hast infused it in the hearts of thine own, infuse it in us also. Albeit we have but narrow-mouthed hearts, yet we have ado with thee, the Lord, who knowest our shape and our mould, and how we are but dust; and thou canst enlarge the heart. Few drops of the oil of grace, it will help us very much, it will make our faces shine before men, and the face of our souls before thee; it will make us quick, ready, and nimble, to walk in thy ways. Lord, accompany both speaker and hearers now by thy Spirit: the more unworthy that we are, the more glory will be to thee in making the means effectual; and the more unworthy that we be, the more mercy will be seen in showing good to us. Lord, give us that, and set us forward in that which may enable us to serve thee: and Lord, oppose thyself against all hindrances and impediments, both without us and within us; especially set our hearts right, for if so be that we had a right heart, then Satan nor his temptations would not prevail over us. But it is a pitiful thing that he has darts, and shoots them at poor souls, and we are ready to receive them, and then we cannot get them out again; and therefore we beseech thee to arm us with the breastplate of righteousness, that so we may stand out against all the fiery darts of the devil. Let us not think it strange that we are assaulted; but, Lord, give us a testimony that we are thy children, in not suffering us to be overcome; and make us to be content to go on from day to day in fighting against thine enemies and ours. And make us to remember that there is no day wherein our care ought to be so great as this day; that so in thy strength we may do thine own work, and the enemies may be overcome; that thus thou, the Lord, mayest receive honor by us, and we may receive comfort to our souls, in and through the merits of thy Son, in whose, etc.