Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	believe_v	faith_n	preach_v	2,636	5	7.0466	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66403	A manual, or, Three small and plain treatises viz. 1. Of prayer, or active, 2. Of principles, or positive, 3. Resolutions, or oppositive [brace] divinity / translated and collected out of the ancient writers, for the private use of a most noble lady, to preserve her from the danger of popery, by the Most Reverend Father in God, John, Lord Arch-Bishop of York.	Williams, John, 1582-1650.	1672 (1672)	Wing W2711; ESTC R38653	30,581	162

favours vanquish with ●hy mighty hand all open enemies and privy Conspirators who oppugn ●heir Religion Life Diadem or Dignity Crown each of them with all virtues these virtues with ●ong lives and their lives at the last with eternal glory Amen For Charity or the works of Mercy O Lord of mercy and compassion I beseech thee by the tender bowels of thy Son Christ Jesus to move my stony heart to the works of mercy that I may keep my hours of Prayers mourn with them that mourn counsel them that are amiss help them that are in misery relieve the poor comfor● the sorrowful help the oppressed forgive them tha● trespass against me pray for them that hate me requite good for evil despise no man or woman reverence my betters respect my equals be humble and courteous to my inferiours Imitate those that are good shun those that are bad embrace virtue eschew vice Be patient in adversity modest in prosperity thankful in either Keep a watch over my tongue Scorn this world and thirst after Heaven Amen For the receiving of the Blessed Sacrament O Lord Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God through whom only is granted forgiveness of sins and life everlasting who didst justifie the Publican when he confessed the woman of Canaan when she prayed Peter when he repented and the thief upon the Cross when he called upon thee grant unto me a most miserable and wretched sinner pardon and forgiveness of all my transgressions which I most humbly confess I have committed against thee that I may receive this Communion of thy Body and Blood not to my judgement and condemnation but to my everlasting comfort and salvation who livest and reignest with the Father and the holy Ghost one God world without end Amen Meditation When you have newly received O Lord increase my faith O Lord let the Body and Blood of Christ be fixed in my soul to my comfort in this life and eternal salvation in the life to come Amen For that day you expect to hear a Sermon or when you read upon your Bible ALmighty and everlasting God whose Word 〈◊〉 a lanthorn to our feet and a light unto our paths open and enlighten my understanding that I may learn the mysteries of thy Word so far forth as is necessary to my salvation purely and sincerely And be so transfigured in my life and conversation unto that which I shall learn as to please thee in will and deed through Jesus Christ my Lord and only Saviour Amen For Sickness and all other Vses you have excellent Prayers in the Book of Common-Prayer PRINCIPLES Few Notes for the private Use of a most Noble LADY A Prayer to be said upon your knees before the reading over of these Notes ALmighty God the Fountain of true Wisdom and Knowledg send thy Holy Spirit into my heart that I may sufficiently understand and stedfastly believe all the Doctrins necessary to my Salvation and adde such practice and obedience to this Faith through the whole course of my life and conversation as I may so serve thee in thy Kingdom of Grace that hereafter I may be made partaker of thy Kingdom of Glory through the only merit and mediation of thy dear Son and my dear Saviour Jesus Christ Amen I. MAn since his fall in Adam hath no hope of salvation but by the Covenant of Grace betwixt God and Man Whereby God promiseth unto man Mercy and Forgiveness of Sins and man unto God true Faith in Christ and holiness of life and conversation II. CHrist is the Saviour as of all so especially of them that believe and these alone are of God's Church Now the Church of God is Any Company or Congregation of men wheresoever living called by God through the sound of the Gospel unto the Faith of Christ and distinguished from other Societies by these five Marks especially 1. hearing and reading the Word 2. Faith thereunto 3. the use of the Sacraments 4. Prayer and 5. Sanctity of life Where these five things are there is ever a Church of God and sufficient means of salvation III. THe Word must be read often upon your Bible with modesty and short desires of the heart unto God to give you grace to understand it to believe it and to practise it It must be heard upon all convenient occasions especially in those two hours of the Lords day appointed by the Church and the State for that Divine Worship and then you must observe four Rules 1. Observe the Preacher with attention and modesty 2. Secondly apply unto your self in particular the Doctrins and Uses which are delivered in general 3. Examin your conscience if you be guilty of the sins there reproved and presently call to God for grace to amend them 4. Think upon these things again when you come to your Chamber IV. THis outward hearing and reading of the Word together with the inward working of the Holy Ghost in your hearts doth beget a true lively and saving faith which is A full belief without doubting that all is true which God hath spoken or promised in the Scripture and that you rest wholly and confidently upon God that he will grant unto your self in particular forgiveness of sins upon your Repentance and Amendment and perseverance unto the end This is the main point you are seriously to meditate upon and therefore observe these precepts 1. If you do not believe or if you do doubt of any thing in Scripture presently pray unto God to strengthen and enlighten you 2. If you doubt whether you may have any particular interest in those general promises of grace in Christ propounded in the Gospel fall again to your prayers for an increase of Faith 3. If you doubt and yet can find in your heart to pray for more faith let your conscience never be troubled with such a doubting 4. Mark well when the Creed is in reading and give an assent with your heart to every Article And as I doubt not you have learn'd it so keep it still in memory V. NOw as this practical and working Faith is wrought in us by the reading and hearing of the Word joyned with Prayer so is it signed and sealed in our hearts by the two Blessed Sacraments Baptism The Lords Supper Observe in either Sacrament two parts A visible sign Water in Baptism Bread Wine in the Supper An invisible grace Remission of sins in Baptism The benefit of Christ passion in the Supper VI. BAptism is the first Sacrament of the New Testament to wit An outward washing of Water appointed by Christ in his Church with this promise that upon your being Baptized you were as certainly washed from your sins Original being an infant and actual if you had been of years by the Holy Ghost and the Blood of Christ as you were rinsed outwardly in body by this Element of Water Mark then these Vses of Baptism 1. It assures us we are washed from our sins by the Holy Ghost

and the Blood of Christ 2. It keeps us from despair because it assures us our sins are washed away 3. It keeps us from sin For it is a shame for one washed to soil himself again 4. It gives an entrance ●nto the Church 5. It hath a visible sign Water Grace invisible Forgiveness of sins by the blood of Christ VII THe Lords Supper is a distribution of Bread ●nd Wine which seals signs ●nd exhibits or gives unto you Christs true Body offe●ed and his true Blood pou●ed out upon the Cross for ●…our sins as certainly as ●he Priests exhibite unto your hands the Bread and ●he Wine And withal the Supper assures your heart that Christs Body and Blood nourish your soul to eternal life as surely as Bread and Wine doth nourish your body to the offices of this temporal life Mark then the Vses of this Sacrament of the Supper 1. It assures you of all the benefit that is to be expected from the Body and blood of Christ 2. It puts you continually in mind that Christ died for you 3. It strengthens and ascertains your faith if it be received worthily And therefore you must not neglect thrice in the year at the least to approach with all reverence to this heavenly Table VIII THat this Sacrament may be received worthily you must examin your self before the receiving Pray unto God for Faith in the receiving and take heed of gross and premeditated sins after the receiving of this Sacrament IX BEfore the receiving you must examin four things 1. You must examin your knowledge 1. Whether you know how you ought to Live To this end read over the Ten Commandements 2. Whether you know how to Believe Read over attentively your Creed 3. Whether you know how to Pray Say over advisedly the Lords Prayer Without this little knowledge at the least you are not fit to Receive 2. You must examin your Faith Whether you are assured in your heart that Christ hath fully satisfied for your sins and perfectly on your repentance reconciled you unto God not others only but your self also Without this assurance in some measure you may not receive 3. You must examin your Repentance 1. Whether you are sorry for your sins 2. Whether you hate sin 3. Whether you resolve to indeavour to sin no more Without this Repentance you cannot Receive worthily 4. You must examin your Charity 1. Whether you forgive all the world 2. Whether you are free from malice and hutred When you have examined these four points you may receive worthily X. NOw your faith in Christ which you have gotten in Gods Church being thus hatched by the holy Ghost in your heart brought forth by your hearing cherished by your reading of the word sealed by your Baptism and strongly confirmed and strengthened by your part a king of the blessed Sacrament of the Supper must be continually maintained and preserved by these two means Prayer unto God and him only And Good works or holiness of life And this is the sum of all your Notes which I recommend unto you for this time 1. Salvation is only by such faith in Christ as worketh by Love 2. Faith only in Gods Church 3. Where by the Word read or heard Faith is nourished 4. By the Sacrament of Baptism assured 5. By the Sacrament of the Supper ratified and confirmed 6. By Prayer and Good works for ever established A Prayer after the reading of these few Notes O Lord God that I may be partaker of thy Covenant of Grace make me a believing member of thy Church send thy Holy Spirit into my heart to beget there a confidence and full assurance of the remission of all my sins in Christ Jesus let this assurance be still nourished with my hearing and reading of the Word let it be sealed unto me by my Baptism confirmed by the Sacrament of the Supper and fully established by my serving of thee in Prayer and Good Works to the glory of thy Name and the endless comfort and salvation of mine own soul through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen A SHORT CATECHISM CONCERNING Faith and good Works To be Read and Meditated upon once every Week at the least which may be well called The Catechism of the Conscience Quest WHy hath God made me a reasonable Creature and not as well he might of a meaner kind Answ That with your whole heart that is with your will and understanding you might serve him and love him Which creatures only indued with reason can do Quest How is God principally served and loved of me Answ By your faith and good works which God commands you in his Word And these good works of yours are twofold Prayer to God Charity to men Quest What is Faith Answ A full belief and perswasion of your heart sometimes called an Assurance whereby you are resolved of these three points 1. That there is one only God one Essence and Three Persons The Father who created you Son who redeemed you Holy Ghost who sanctified you 2. That God the Son came into the world to do all that was to be performed and to suffer all that was to be endured by you for your sins actual and original And hereby obtained for you perfect forgiveness of all your sins and hath bestow'd upon you his own perfect righteousness by the means whereof you are reckon'd just and guiltless before the throne of God on a supposal that you repent and are become a new creature by bringing forth fruits meet for repentance 3. That God hath prompted with his Holy Spirit the Pen-men of the Scriptures to teach you all this faith and belief as also all the course of his worship And that every thing contained in these Scriptures is true Q. Why doth God so much require of me faith and belief A. Because without believing in him you cannot love nor reverence him As if you did not believe your father to be your father you would not love him or reverence him as your father Q. How is this Faith first wrought A. By your hearing of Gods word and using those two Sacraments appointed by Christ in his Church Baptism and the Lords Supper And withal by praying continually unto God and doing of good works Q. How shall I know that I begin to have Faith A. If you find in your self these alterations 1. If you find that you have gotten more knowledge of God and of Religion and are glad thereof 2. If you do desire more than you did to have the Son of God to become your Saviour and to stand betwixt you and Gods wrath for the sins you have committed against God 3. If you take more delight than you did in Reading and hearing the Word of God Receiving the Sacrament 4. If when you find doubtings in your mind you can pray unto God to strengthen your Faith 5. If you endeavour to abstain from fin for fear of offending so good a God 6. If you begin to endeavour to live godly and

you now put me in mind of another objection which usually we make against the Protestants of England that they bring in too much good fellowship in Religion and make Salvation a flower which grows in every mans Garden Seeing that according to their Tenets Papist Protestant Anabaptist and Familist may every one of them by means offered in his own Church as a portion or fragment of the Catholick Church attain unto Salvation Prot. If you were learned I could answer you in a word that none of these three Sectaries considered in his own Formality Quatalis as he is a Papist Anabaptist or Familist can ever attain unto Salvation but only as he is a Christian man admitted by Baptism unto the visible Church and there made partaker of Gods word and Sacraments For then although these blessed means are very much weak'ned and obscured in their Synagogues by the malice of Sathan and inventions of men yet may that holy Spirit that bloweth where he listeth work in such a mans heart by these weak instruments and the rather the more the Word is faithfully preached and the Sacraments be in those places sincerely administred a true faith in Christ Jesus to bring him to salvation So then we do not hold that Papists Anabaptists and Familists but only that some Christians living in their congregations may though with great difficulty in comparison of this flourishing Church of ours and these admirable means of Salvation tendered in the same by the special mercy of God be saved and preserved If we be in an errour it is safer to erre in Charity than in Malice and precipitancy considering the event hereof is unknown to either of us Pap. I but where was your Church before this reformation began Prot. 1. When our Saviour Christ with-drew the people from the leaven of the Scribes and Pharises to the bread which came down from Heaven and to salvation by faith in his Name was it fitting to demand of him where his Church was before that Reformation 2. When these Churches of Corinth Galatia Pergamus and Thiatyra were full of abuses if some part only upon the preaching of the Apostles had reformed themselves and so a division had grown would you straight waies have tax'd them of Novelty or ask'd them where their Church had been before this reformation 3. When the Apostles cast off the Law of Moses excepting only those three or four Ceremonies and when the primitive Church some hundred years after cast off those Ceremonies also for I find them breathing of their last as it were about the times of Justin Martyr had it not been a poor challenge of the Jews or Traskists of those times to demand where this unceremonial Church lay hid before the reformation I answer then that our Church before this reformation began lived together in one communion with yours with toleration of all those abuses which you have still retained and we most justly rejected Pap. I but I hope you dare not compare in the gifts of the Spirit with Christ his Apostles or those worthies of the primitive Church And therefore how presumed you to reform your selves Reformation being a work fitter for a general Councel to have gone about than for a small handful of Northern people Prot. The Court of Rome had so gained upon the Church of Rome that is the Pope and his Conclave of Cardinals had wriggled in themselves to that transcendency of power over the rest of the Clergy and well minded laity that it appeared both at Constance and Trent there was small hope of Reformation from such a Council where the Pope the party to be reformed became the party reforming and supream Judge and president of the Reformation it self Although poor seduced ignorant women are much carried away with the name of the Councel of Trent yet you will quickly find out this ridiculous absurdity In a general Council as now it is held since the decay of the Empire the Pope is the party to be accused yet puts up his own endictment passeth a jury of his own vassals and find they what they will being to give final judgement he will be sure to do as his supposed predecessor taught our Saviour to do to wit favour himself So as there was no hope of doing good by a General Councel unless it were a generous and free Councel and such a one the Pope you may be sure would never abide And therefore one of your own writers concludes that in such a case several Kingdoms are to reform themselves by National Councels which England and Denmark did put in practise Pap. Yea but it is too well known it was no zeal of Reformation but carnal respects that moved King Henry to touch upon Religion Prot. To you it seems it is given to know these secrets but I see no reason we should think so The King could not be induced to this reformation as a means to possess himself of the Abbeies for they were already swallowed up Nor as a preparative for his woing as Saunders thinks because Fisher the Bishop of Rochester who opposed his Marriage made up the one and twentieth prelate in banishing the Pope out of this Kingdom But without doubt the finger of God was the cause whatsoever was the hint or occasion Festus his popularity and humour of pleasing gave S. Paul occasion to appeal to Caesar and to visit Rome where and when he laid the first Stone of the Romane Church Would you like it well a Protestant should say that your Church was founded upon Courtship and popularity If any carnal respect whetted on the King that was but the opportunity God only was the first mover and prime Agent in this reformation Pap. Nay surely God is the God of unity but your Church being once severed from the Roman was presently can●l'd out into as many factions almost as there are Countries witness the Lutherans soft and rigid the Calvinists Puritans Conformitans Brownists Anabaptists c. So as one may easily ghess from what Lerna and fenny ground this Hydra of so many heads had her first Original Protest This Argument sounds very bigg in a Ladies closet and weighs much with the ignorant and unlearned people but with a man but of a reasonable understanding this seeming division is no scandal at all to our reformed Churches What man of any reading in the Histories of the time but knows well that after the trumpet for this reformation had blown the first warning by Wicklef Hus and Hierome of Prage and then the second by Gerson Peter de Aliaco Cardinal Cusanus Picus Mirandula Savanorola and many others of whom we read in Guicchiardyn when Luther in Germany blew the last and that there appeared no hope of a free and indifferent Council so as several Kingdoms were thus necessitated to provide and take care for themselves this worthy

to be the ground of your Faith and reason of your believing so as you do therefore believe all the points of your salvation to be true because the Church doth teach and instruct you in the same Or have you any other rule and ground of your faith Prot. The Authority and good conceipt we have of Gods Church prepareth us to believe the points of our Salvation and serveth as an introduction to bring us to the discerning and perfect apprehension of these Mysteries of our faith but the Scripture only is the ground and reason of our believing For as the Samaritans were induced and drawn on to believe in Christ by that talk of the woman but having heard Christ himself profess plainly they believe no longer for her saying but because they heard him speak himself So do we begin to believe moved thus to do by the good conceipt we have of the Church but rest not in it as the ground of our believing but only in the infallible assurance of God's truth in the Book of Scriptures Pap. Then God help you if that be your last resolution For our Church cannot erre but your Scriptures without the help of the Church to tell you so much can never be ascertained unto you to be the word of God and therefore what assuredness of belief can you propose your selves upon so unsetled a foundation Protest The Catholick Church indeed spread over the world cannot erre damnably though the Church of Rome and all other particular Churches may as your own Writers confess But the Scriptures we know to be the word of God not because the Church or Church-men do tell us so much but by the Authority of God himself whom we do most certainly discern to speak in his word when it is preached unto us For if we bring pure eyes and perfect senses the Majesty of God forthwith presenteth it self unto us in the Holy Scriptures and beating down all thoughts of contradicting or doubting things so Heavenly forceth our hearts to yield assent and obedience unto the same And therefore if you doubt whether that which you read in your Bible be the Word of God or find any reluctancy in your understanding to the Doctrin of the same it is in vain to flie unto either Church or Church-men to be perswaded in this point but down upon your knees and pray fervently unto God for Faith and the illumination of the Holy Ghost which can only assure you of the truth of the Scriptures For after we are enlightned by the Spirit we do no longer trust either our own judgement or the judgement of other men or of the Church that the Scriptures are of God but above all certainly of humane judgement we most certainly resolve as if in them we saw the Majesty and Glory of God that by the ministery of men they came unto us from Gods own most sacred mouth Pap. But what certain ground of faith can you place on the Scriptures seeing by the several interpretations of men and women they are turned and wrested like a nose of wax to every private design and purpose Do not you observe how the Catholicks Protestants and especially the Brownists and Anabaptists do fit all their turns out of the Holy Scriptures on which of these senses and imaginations is your faith rooted or peradventure have you some odd capritchious kind of interpretation of your own apprehension to direct you in these businesses Prot. We Lay-folks are licensed in the Church of England to read but not to interpret Scriptures excepting only those passages which contain the necessary points of our Salvation the which passages are so plain and easie every where that any man or woman of the meanest capacity especially if he or she be instructed in their Catechism or grounds of Religion may perfectly conceive and understand them But for the harder and more difficult places we leave them to be interpreted by our Church-men in their Sermons and daily Ministery For the ordering of which interpretations there are as I have been told ten several helps the which if they be followed will be sure and unfallible guides to boult out the true meaning of each place of Scripture 1. An illumination of the understanding by the Holy Ghost 2. A mind free from other thoughts and desirous of the truth 3. Knowledge of the Scriptures Creeds Catechismes Principles and other Axiomes of Divinity 4. A consideration how our meaning suits with other points of Christianity 5. The weighing of circumstances antecedents and consequents 6. Knowledge of Histories Arts and Sciences 7. Continual Reading Meditating and Praying 8. Joint and unjarring expositions of the Fathers 9. Consenting decrees of Synods and Councils 10. Knowledge in the tongues Because therefore Lay-men and women Papists Brownists and Anabaptists are wanting in all or some of these helps they bring forth many times such lame and prodigious interpretations Pap. If we make the Scripture and not the Church the rule of our Faith how shall we believe the Creed the Trinity the Sacraments the unity of Essence the Three Persons in the Deity c. words never read in the Bible and yet necessarily to be apprehended of us upon pain of damnation Prot. I say that all these things are set down in Scriptures either in so many syllables or at leastwise by necessary inferences and deductions And we do not therefore believe them because they are only taught by the Church but because they are rooted and grounded in the Holy Scriptures the only stay and pillar of our affiance To sum up therefore all this Chapter 1. The Church doth prepare us but the Scripture only doth force us to believe 2. The whole Church cannot any part thereof may erre damnably 3. We are taught the Scriptures to be the Word of God by the Holy Ghost moving in our hearts and not by the Church sounding in our ears 4. Lay-men are to read not to interpret Scriptures 5. The miss of some rules causeth wrong expositions of Scriptures 6. All things necessary to be believed are either found in or collected and inferred from the Scriptures CHAP. III. Of Iustification Papist HOw then do you learn out of the Scriptures that you are to be justified and saved before God Prot. I am to be justified before God by an Act single in it self but double in our apprehension which is by Gods not imputing unto me my sins and the same Gods imputing unto me Christs righteousness and withall by his creating of faith in my heart by the Holy Ghost I mean an operative a lively a working Faith to assure my Soul that God for the Active and Passive obedience of Christ Jesus hath accomplished those two former Acts of not imputing my Sin and of imputing unto me Christs Righteousness Pa. A very easie no doubt and reasonable Religion which you have learned out of the Scriptures Here is no burthen left for your own back you cast all

excellent worth and made to serve God 9. That thou hast no happiness to the peace of Conscience 10. Think how good thy God hath been unto thee 11. Think of the Cross of Christ who there died for thee 12. Of examples of holy men and Saints who lived before thee Walk about your Chamber a turn or two after your Prayers and meditate upon these points seriously and you shall find that temptations to sin will vanish away and leave to assault you The four last things to be first thought upon by all good Christians 1. The day of thy Death thou knowest not how suddenly 2. The day of Judgment that will come certainly 3. The Joyes of Heaven if thou live Religiously 4. The pains of Hell if thou continuest to do wickedly The end of Morning Prayer Evening Prayer to bed-ward O Lord hear my Prayer And let my cry come unto thee Our Father which art c. A Prayer for Even O Lord I do confess to my shame confusion that this day hath been spent by me with less purity and piety than it should have been I have augmented since this morning the score of my sins My thoughts have been polluted my wit prophane and unsanctified my tongue more rash and unbridled than became any one of that rank and calling wherein thou hast set me I have sinned through idleness ignorance slothfulness and malice And this darkness of the night puts me in mind of that eternal darkness my sins have deserved Pardon and forgive me all my transgressions Let this darkness be a fit time unto me of rest and sleep and no opportunity of snares and temptations Send thy Holy Ghost into my heart to free and purifie the same from all rolling motions suggestions of Sathan and from the usual terrours affrightments of the night Preserve this house in safety O Lord and all the people that are therein Let my prayer ascend up unto thy presence as the incense and let this lifting up of mine hands be as an Evening sacrifice through Jesus Christ our Lord and only Saviour Amen Another HAving spent the day we betake our selves to our repose in the night So after the troubles of this present life we shall rest our selves in death Nothing doth more resemble our life than the day our death than sleep our grave than the bed our resurrection than our awaking in the morning Do thou then O God my protector and defender preserve me in my sleep from the incursions and temptations of the devil in my death from the guilt punishments of my sins I have no strength to resist in the one nor merits of mine own to display in the other Look only upon the merits of my Lord Saviour give me a strong and stedfast faith to apply his righteousness to mine own soul In confidence full assurance of whose satisfactions for all my sins I do for this night lie me down in peace and take my rest for it is thou Lord only that maketh me to continue in safety Amen Another ALmighty and everlasting God who makest the light to succeed the darkness give me the grace to spend this night freed from the snares of sin and Sathan and to be here again upon my knees in the morning to give thee thanks for the same through Jesus Christ my Lord and only Saviour Amen Meditations When your maid is getting you to bed HE that willingly goes to bed should as willingly go to his grave We willingly put off our cloaths being to put them on again in the morning and should as willingly put off our bodies being to put them on again in the Resurrection 2. After the troubles of the day comes the quietness of the night in the which the King and the swain differ nothing So after this life comes death where poor and rich are alike and equal 3. Here is a fit time especially laid in your bed to fall to your Audite for the day past What evil you have committed by 1. Swearing 2. Lying 3. Taunting 4. Being too angry 5. Vain talking especially of Religion 6. Exceeding in fare or apparel 7. Injuring of another Repent of it Detest it Resolve to do it no more What good you have omitted as Saying grace when you eat Praying Releiving of a poor body Respecting your husband parents Spending some time upon Meditations Works of charity Desire Gods grace to be more wary What good you have performed If you have learned any thing that day If you have done any man good that day If you have kept your private and publick Prayers that day If you have given any Alms that day If you have heard the Word or received the Sacrament that day If you have spent any time upon your Meditations that day Rejoyce in it give God thanks for it When you have run over these accompts and find sleep coming say Into thy hands I commit my Spirit for thou hast redeemed me O Lord thou God of truth Amen The end of Evening Prayer Some other Collects For Faith MAn is blinded by fin but thou O Christ by the goodness and mercy of God the Father art become our guide in the way of salvation And yet such is our wretchedness and misery that we stagger for all this sometimes not understanding sometimes not believing many times not applying to our souls with a sure confidence thy promises of salvation set down in the Gospel O miserably blind that we are that can neither see ourselves nor believe our guider and instructer O thou eternal and pure verity vouchsafe so to slide into our hearts that we may be more certainly perswaded of thee thy truth than of those things we see with our eyes hear with our ears and handle with our hands the weak apprehensions of our bodily senses upon which this flesh and blood doth so much depend Appease asswage those rollingthoughts and wandring ●…otions of the flesh that make us to doubt and stagger in those high mysteries of the which we ought most firmly to be fixed resolved Faith is thy gift and therefore work it by the holy Ghost in my heart that all my senses and imaginations may become slaves and captives to the fame Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief O Lord increase my faith Amen Meditations 1. How easily we believe a lewd lying man yet how scrupulous w● are to believe God himsel● 2. We believe a man i● things which nothing concern us we believe no God in matters of our salvation Man is impotent God omnipotent 3. We believe our senses which often delude u● as in all tricks of Legey● demain we distrust Christ who can neither be deceived nor deceive us For the King and the Royal Issue I Humbly beseech thee Almighty God to present with all blessings of goodness our King and His Royal Issue Increase upon them day by day all ●hy