50. Mr. Venning's Prayer at Olaves

50. Mr. Venning's Prayer at Olaves
Oh Lord God, thou art the Fountain of Life, yea, thou givest to all Life; It is necessity draws us now unto thee, and we acknowledge it is a very great favour that thou wilt admit us to come into thy presense: Indeed the services we do, are not worthy thy acceptance, thou gettest nothing by them, but the gain of godliness is to ourselves. But wo unto us what a loss, and what a curse will it be to us, to have a form of Godliness, and yet be ungodly? Oh Lord, how should this indear thee, and thy word and thy service, that thou wouldst have us do good for our own sakes! thou turnest our obedience into priviledges; thou hast made the means of our happiness a part of it: If there were no other glory but to glorifie thee, oh what a glory would it be to be found doing thy will! there is a sweetness to be found in it more than in the Honey or in the Honey comes. It is a great happiness to be conformable to God, to be loving to God, to be like to God, is the greatest happiness that we can be capable of; if we were now in heaven; we could not have other happiness, but this in a greater degree. O Lord, how should our souls be drawn forth to acknowledge thee? may we not cry out in admiration, Lord what is man? and among the sons of men, what are we that thou art so mindful of us? Thou mightest have displayed thy Word to many thousands in the world, and we left ignorant: But blessed be thy Name, thou art pleased to admit even us also thereunto: Oh let it not be a small thing unto us, seeing we may yet live to serve God. Oh Lord, in Christ it will be worth our while to live; and in him 'twill be worth our while to die: Oh that we may mind the end of living, and the end of dying that whether we live or die, we may be the Lords. Indeed, it were not worth our while to live, and spend so much time in the world, if it were only to have pleasure and honour, and gratifie ourselves to eat and drink, and to be merry; this is not worth our while: What would it be, O Lord, to die in our sin, and be eased of the miseries of this world, and be sent to the place of torment? But seeing thou hast provided for our living and our dying well, give us to improve these means, and that we may live and dye well, let not our affections though our bodies be upon the earth, though we converse with flesh yet let not our conversation be after the flesh, but let us be like them which have sent their hearts up to heaven, and do but tarry here to finish their Masters business, and then we shall go where our hearts are and where our dear Lord Jesus Christ is.
Indeed, Lord, we have cause to complain of our hearts, how we minde this world, as it never would have an end: and the world to come, as if it would never have any beginning: as if we had no souls to mind, or had no mind to look to our souls.
We live as if all those glorious Reports thou hast made, were but as a tale that is told; we have cause to be ashamed that we have the means and the names of Christians, and have not lived answerable to the discovery of the Lord Jesus Christ: Indeed we have cause to bear our shame; & yet how few of us know what it is to be ashamed, to sigh over our sins, and groan over our iniquities I how few out of tenderness do mouru for sin, but as if it were indifferent to us, whether we have our sins pardoned, or the grace that we beg to be granted; and if we do beg to be pardoned, where are the souls that desire to be purged? If thou shouldst let us have our wills, Oh then we should think thou wert a good God; whereas it is thy great Love that thou dost deny us our wills: we poor wretched, we are up and down as the things of this world do come into us, and go from us; if God give us great things, then we think our selves in Paradise, and if God take from us, then we fall out with God himself, Oh! how I'll do we take it at thy hands, if thou dost not give us what we would, or take from us what we would, The doctrine of self-denial is a mere riddle to us; we would fain spend the strength of our youth in following the lust of the eye, and gratifie our sensual affections; and when we come to die it may be we would have a Lord have mercy upon us in our mouths, and think it strange if God should not give us what we ask.
O Lord, convince us now, that we may be willing to be crucified to the world, and to die to sin: Lord, we may flatter with our selves, but our hearts do but abuse us, while we think there is such contentment in the enjoying of this world; what is this when we come to die. Alas, if we were not besotted, content is sooner gained by self-denial, than by pleasing ourselves. Can we think we shall be at ease till we come to God? Is it like to be well with us while our wayes are contrary to the wayes of God? are not thy wayes the wayes of peace? Oh! how can we be at rest when our waies are contrary to thine? Oh! un-lust us; we had better part from our idols here, that that they should part us from God hereafter. Lord, if there were no other hell, this is damnation to be a sin, for this is the nature of sin to separate us from God. Oh help us to account the reproaches of Christ, better than the honors of the Cross of Christ, better than the Crown of the world. O shew us the sinfulness of sin, and the emptiness of the world, that we may take thy Counsel and mind thy Glory, and be ruled by thy Will: Oh how happy would it be with us if our souls were brought into such a frame! We are, Lord, as yet great strangers to the life of God; Oh! let us know what it is to live with thee, and to thee, and with thee, that we may say, for us to live in Christ, and to die is gain; and that we may say, Whom have we in Heaven but thee, O Lord? We depend upon thee, let thy goodness be seen, do not put us off with the means of grace, but give us grace itself. And seeing thou art pleased to make use of such a poor thing as the preaching of the Gospel is, and seeing this is the means to bring our souls to eternal life, Oh let it be so to us, that we may repent from sin, and believe in the righteousness of the Gospel: Oh Lord, thou knowest all our frailties, and all our necessities: find out them that are dead in sins, and quicken them; find out the hard hearts, and soften them; find out the proud hearts, and humble them; find out the formalists, and bring them to the power of godliness and pour in wine and oil into the wounds of the wounded in spirit; and let the administration of the Gospel, be in the demonstration of the Spirit, that as the truth is delivered to us, we may be delivered to the truth, that while we touch the hem of thy garment, Vertue may come out from thee. Thou hast said that mercy pleaseth thee, we are sure it will pleasure us, Oh let us not lose our time, but do thou teach us to profit, and supply our wants, for the sake of our dear Lord; to whom with Thee and thy Spirit, be given more Glory, from now, unto eternity.