Thou
wast our fathers’ God, and as such we will exalt thee; thou art our
children’s God, and also we will plead with thee, for the promises to us
and our children; and thou art a God in covenant with believers and
their seed.
Lord,
it is thy good providence that hath built us up into a family: We thank
thee for the children thou hast graciously given thy servants; the
Lord, who has blessed us with them, make them blessings indeed to us,
that we may never be tempted to wish we had been childless.
We
lament the iniquity which our children are conceived and born in, and
that corrupt nature which they derive through our loins.
But
we bless thee that there is a fountain opened for their cleansing from
that original pollution, and that they were betimes by baptism dedicated
to thee, and admitted into the bonds, and under the blessings, of thy
covenant; that they are born in thy house and taken in as members of thy
family upon earth.
It
is a comfort to us to think that they are baptized, and we humbly
desire to plead it with thee. They are thine; save them; enable them, as
they become capable, to make it their own act and deed, to join
themselves unto the Lord, that they may be owned as thine in that day
when thou makest up thy jewels.
Give
them a good capacity of mind and a good disposition, make them towardly
and tractable and willing to receive instruction; incline them betimes
to religion and virtue. Lord, give them wisdom and understanding, and
drive out the foolishness that is bound up in their hearts.
Save
them from the vanity which childhood and youth are subject to, and fit
them every way to live comfortably and usefully in this world. We ask
not for great things in this world for them; give them, if it please
thee, a strong and healthy constitution of body, preserve them from all
ill accidents, and feed them with food convenient for them, according to
their rank.
But
the chief thing we ask of God for them is that thou wilt pour thy
Spirit upon our seed, even thy blessing, that blessing of blessings,
upon our offspring, that they may be a seed to serve thee, which shall
be accounted unto the Lord for a generation: Give them that good part
which never shall be taken away from them.
Give
us wisdom and grace to bring them up in thy fear, in the nurture and
admonition of the Lord, with meekness and tenderness, and having them in
subjection with all gravity. Teach us how to teach them the things of
God as they are able to bear them, and how to reprove and admonish, and
when there is need, to correct them in a right manner, and how to set
them good examples of every thing that is virtuous and praiseworthy,
that we may recommend religion to them, and so train them up in the way
wherein they should go, that if they live to be old, they may not depart
from it.
Keep
them from the snare of evil company and all the temptations to which
they are exposed, and make them betimes sensible how much it is their
interest, as well as their duty, to be religious; and, Lord, grant that
none who come of us may come short of eternal life or be found on the
left hand of Christ in the great day.
We
earnestly pray that Christ may be formed in their souls betimes, and
that the seeds of grace may be sown in their hearts while they are
young, and we may have the satisfaction of seeing them walking in the
truth and setting their faces heavenwards. Give them now to hear counsel
and receive instruction, that they may be wise in their latter end; and
if they be wise, our hearts shall rejoice, even ours.
Prosper
the means of their education; let our children be taught of the Lord,
that great may be their peace: And give them so to know thee the only
true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent, as may be life eternal to
them.
O
that they may betimes get wisdom and get understanding and never forget
it. As far as they are taught the truth as it is in Jesus, give them to
continue in the things which they have learned.
It
is our heart’s desire and prayer that our children may be praising God
on earth when we are gone to praise him in heaven, and that we and they
may be together for ever, serving him day and night in his temple.
If
it should please God to remove any of them from us while they are
young, let us have grace submissively to resign them to thee, and let us
have hope in their death.
If
thou remove us from them while they are young, be thou thyself a Father
to them, to teach them and provide for them, for with thee the
fatherless findeth mercy.
Thou
knowest our care concerning them, we cast it upon thee; ourselves and
ours we commit to thee. Let not the light of our family religion be put
out with us, nor that treasure be buried in our graves, but let those
that come after us do thee more and better service in their day than we
have done in ours, and be unto thee for a name and a praise.
In
these prayers we aim at thy glory. Father, let thy name be sanctified
in our family, there let thy kingdom come and thy will be done by us and
ours, as it is done by the angels in heaven; for Christ Jesus’ sake,
our blessed Saviour and Redeemer, whose seed shall endure forever, and
his throne as the days of heaven. Now to the Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost, that great and sacred name, into which we and our children were
baptized, be honour and glory, dominion and praise, henceforth and
forever. Amen."
