Praying With The Puritans

The Great God

Destroy in me every lofty thought

Break pride to pieces and scatter it to the winds

Annihilate each clinging shred of self-righteousness

Implant in me true lowliness of spirit

Abase me to self-loathing and self-abhorrence

Open in me a fount of penitential tears

Break me, then bind me up

Thus will my heart be a prepared dwelling for my God

Then can the Father take up his abode in me

Then can the blessed Jesus come with healing in his touch

The can the Holy Spirit descend in sanctifying grace

O holy Trinity, three Persons and one God

Inhabit me, a temple consecrated to thy glory

When thou art present, evil cannot abide

In thy fellowship is fullness of joy

Beneath thy smile is peace of conscience

By thy side no fears disturb

No apprehensions banish rest of mind

With thee my heart shall bloom with fragrance

Make me meet, through repentance, for thine dwelling

Nothing exceeds thy power

Nothing is too great for thee to do

Nothing too good for thee to give

Infinite is thy might, boundless thy love

Limitless thy grace, glorious thy saving name

Let angels sing for sinners repenting, prodigals restored

Backsliders reclaimed, Satan's captives released

Blind eyes opened, broken hearts bound up

The despondent cheered, the self-righteous stripped

The formalist driven from a refuge of lies

The ignorant enlightened, and saints built up in their holy faith

I ask great things of a great God

- Taken from "The Valley of Vision" A Collection of Puritan Prayers

Day By Day With The English Puritans

I took this quote from my morning devotional "Day By Day With The English Puritans"

“Christ is the most amiable person and the most suitable object for your love... if you seek from one side of heaven to the other; if you make inquiry into all the parts of the earth, you will never find that there ever was or is to be found any person so lovely, so beautiful and so in every way deserving of your love, as the Lord Jesus Christ.”

- Thomas Vincent, Day By Day With The English Puritans, pg 33

"Gaze upon the beauty of the Lord."

- Psalm 27:4

Quoting the Puritans

I took this quote from the book I am currently reading called "Attending Upon God Without Distraction", written by Nathanael Vincent in the year 1695.  In this quote Nathanael stresses the importance of not only attending (serving) God, but also to continually rely on God for the very ability and strength in which to do the serving, and to use His Word as our rightful guide.

"Man must plainly discern his ignorance and impotence to give a right attendance upon God, without the direction and aid of His Word and Spirit.  Nay, as man lacks both skill and strength to serve the Lord, so he has no will to do it; there is an indisposition and even an ill disposition in him, which plainly shows that the light and grace of the Word and Spirit are of absolute necessity for an attendance upon God that is acceptable to Him.  When man goes off from God and takes himself to himself in matters of religion, he ranges infinitely, like a seafaring man who has lost his compass in a mist, moving swiftly, but to no purpose.  Then there shall be more words than what is written, more articles than what God has put into our creed, more commands that the Lawgiver ever gave; nay, more gods and more mediators than one.  Man's invention will be fruitlessly fruitful, and himself restless and endless in his own ways.  We should see our need of instruction and help from the Spirit of the Lord.  Both light and liberty, strength and liveliness in all holy duties are from Him."

- Nathanael Vincent, Attending Upon God Without Distraction, Chapter 1, pg 12