466 DIRECTIONS FOR GETTING AND KEEPING, Sm. a Christian, which God is best pleased with, and which the bless- ed angels and saints shall be exercised in forever. And O thou, the blessed God of love, the Father ofmercy, the Prince of peace, the Spirit of consolation, compose the disquieted spirits of thy people, and the tumultuous, disjointed state of thy churches ; and pardon our rashness, contentions, and blood-guilti- ness, and give us not up to the state of the wicked, who .ar% like the raging sea, and to whom there is no peace ! Layby com- mand on our winds and waves, before thy shipwrecked vessel per- ish ; and rebuke that evil spirit whose name is Legion, which bath possessed so great a part of thine inheritance.' Send forth the spir- it of judgment and meekness into thy Churches, and save us from our pride and ignorance with their effects; and bring our feet into the way of peace, which hitherto we have not known. O Close all thy people speedily in loving consultations, and earnest inqui- ries after peace. Let them return from their corruptions, conten- tions, and divisions, and jointly seek thee, asking the way'to Zion, with their faces thitherward ; saying, Come, let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten. Blast all opposing policies and powers. Say to these dead and dry bones, Live. And out of these ruins do thou yet erect a cityof righteous- ness, where thy people may dwell together in peaceable habita- tions ; and in the midst thereof a temple to thy holiness : let the materials of it be verity and purity : let the Redeemerbe its foun- dation : let love and peace cement it into unity : let thy laver and covenant be the doors ; and holiness to the Lord be engraven there- on ; that buyers and sellers may be cast out, and the common and unclean may know their place ; and let no desolating abomination be there set up. But let thy people, all in one name, in one faith, with one mind, andone soul, attend to thine instructions, and wait for thy laws, and submit unto thine order, and rejoice in thy salva- tion; that the troubled spirits may be there exhilarated, the dark enlightened, and all may offer thee the sacrifice of praise, (without disaffections, discords, or-divisions) that so thy people maybe thy delight, and thou mayest be the chiefest delight of thy people, and they may please thee through him that hath perfectly pleased thee. Or ifour expectation of this happiness on .earth be too high, yet give us so much as may enlighten our eyes, and heal those corruptions'which'estrange us from thee, and may propagate thy truth, increase thy church, and honor thyholiness, and may quick- en our desires, and strengthen us in our way, and be a företaste to us of the everlasting rest.
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