grace in the world without the grace of God Some pray for an almes which yet will giue no almes they would receiue good but they will doe no good they would not be denyed in their own desires but they will not sticke to crosse the desires and good déeds of others but doubtlesse hée that will giue no almes to man is vnworthy to receiue an almes of God he that can without pitty sée the wants of christians deserues that his owne wants should be vnpittied of Christ â—ee that crosseth the good desires and good déedes of others deserues a crosse to his owne and a curse to himselfe I will therefore doe good that I may find good I will heare the cry of others that I may be heard my selfe I will not denie my good will to man least God should deny his good will to me I will not crosse men in their lawfull desires least that God should deny me mine Euery man wil pray for his friendes but few for their enemies yet he that will not heartily pray for his enemies as our Lord did and Saint Sâ—euen hee shall not be partaker of the prayer of our Sauiour nor the praise of his Saintes For Christ prayed onely for those that should haue his Spirit and those onely haue the spirit of Christ which doe resemble Christ And indéed it is iust that he that will not pray for his enemies should be debarr'd of Christ who out of his loue did pray for his foes doth make theÌ„ his friends The Psalmist saith Iâ— I incline vnto wickednes with my heart the Lord will not heare me For in déed Gods eare inclineth to vs as our hart inclineth to him and if we decline from him and with our hearts incline to wickednes we mooue him to decline from vs and to incline to wrath If we regard not him in our harts why should hée lend vs his eares If we wil listen vn to that which hee would haue vs loath why should not he loath that to which we would haue him listen I will therefore expell my sinnes least God should repell my suites I wil wash mine hands in innocencie O Lord and so will I goe to thine altar Not to pray or to contemne prayer is a certain signe of a wicked man I will therefore prouoke my selfe to pray that I may be assured that the Spirit of God is in me and that the miscrie of the wicked belongs not to me assuring my selfe that they that wil not pray to God make themselues a prey vnto the Diuell It is a rule of wisedome To serue the season and wisely to bee followed of them that delight in prayer For there is a time in which God is neere and ready to bee found Let vs therefore séeke him whiles he may bee found and call vpoÌ„ him whiles he is near or otherwise we may call and not be heard wee may séeke him and yet not find him There is also a time in which a man may be better disposed to pray then at an other let vs therefore beware we loose it not lest if we will not pray when we may we shall not be able when we would I haue heard some complaine of their dulnes and bewaile their in disposition to pray Let them but lengthen their complaint and lamentation strike their rockie hearts with a serious remembring of their owne miseries and Gods mercies to them and by the grace of God prayers shall gush out of their harts as waters did out of the Rock Neither despair though thou feelst thy selfe as dead for it is a true tokeÌ„n of the life of the spirit to séel and lament the deadnesse of spirit Some imagine if God heare them not as soone as they desire that he will not heare them at all and that they are of no reckoning with him in which they are iniurious to theÌ„selues and to God to themselues because this fansie doth quench their feruencie and hinder their perseuerance and to God who doth not alwaies hate when hée makes as though he heares not For by séeming to neglect vs and by denying our suites at the first heâ— wold rouze vp our spirits he would try our patience and exercise our saith hee would shewe vs that not our merits but his owne mercy moues him to heare vs and finally he would instruct vs to make more account of his benefits when they come For commonly things lightly obtained are lightly estéemed Many men pray for things that are hurtfull to them I will therefore beg temporal blessings as they may be blessings to mee and whatsoeuer I pray for I will submit my selfe to his wisedome and desire him to heare me not to my prayer but to my profit not as I thinke but in what hee knowes to bee fitting for me There are certaine men deuoted to their wicked lusts that stick not sometimes to say that they care not so they may haue halfe an houre before their death to repent them of their sinnes and to pray to God for mercie These men by their presuming of mercy are in great danger to féele the seueritie of iustice They speake as if they had repentance in a string as if they could pray when they listed and as if they could haue God to heare them when they would themselues But I will repent and pray for mercy in my youth least I should be reiected in mine age I wil cry now that I may bée heard now I will not refuse to séeke him now least I should not find him anon I will sue vnto him for his grace whiles I am like to liue that I may not be refused when I am like to die I will die whiles I liue that I may liue when I am dead and I wil pray whiles I may least I cannot when I would I will liue whiles I liue that I may not die when I die I will sue for grace now whiles it is offered least for contemning grace now I should bée denied grace hereafter Because God hath set downe all things in an vnchangeable and eternall decrée and hath determined from eternitie what gifts hee will giue vnto the sonnes of men therefore some imagine that it is to little or no purpose for a man to pray This is a profane and foolish fansie profane because it drawes a side the heart from dutie For the rule of our obedience is not the secret decrées of God but his reuealed pleasure Now his will which he hath disclosed to vs is that wée ought to pray vnto him and that continually I say again it is a foolish fansie for as God hath ordained the end so hée hath appointed meanes vnto it as hée hath ordained to giue men these and these gifts so hée hath ordained commanded that men should aske them And if hée giue temporall things to any man that is not deuout pious and vnderstanding know that such things which should haue béene for his good doe make for his destruction
father that sent him O Lord grant that I may follow his steps endeuouring to please thée in the whole course of my life through the same Iesus Christ our Lord and only Sauiour Amen A Praier containing humble confession of Sinne and desire of pardon O Eternall God and mercifull father infifinite in iustice and truth taking vengance vpon all disobedient children and yet abundant in goodnesse and mercy towards al such as vnfainedly feare thy name and return vnto thée in sincerity of heart and contrition of spirit prostrating their soules before thée I most vile and wretched sinner doe humbly beséech thée of thy infinite mercy to haue compassion vpon my sinnes which are so grieuous and so vile and loathsome as thy pure eies can not abide to looke vpon them I confesse O Lord that all my life hath béen in sinne our fathers and mothers were sinnefull euen from the sâ—ock of our great grandfather Adam whose blindnesse should haue béen our light and whose sight was turned to our blindnesse and darkenesse by the deceitfull entisements of that enemy of our saluation that subtill serpent Satan by whose baites our forefather being clothed with innocency and integretie and vnspeakable hapinesse was moued by the desire of the knowledge of that which thou wouldest he should haue béene ignorant of by breaking of which thy commandement he with the woman which thou gauest to bee a help comfort vnto him were according to thy determinate will cast out of Paradice a place of ioy to a place of miserie and labour I beseech thee most gratious God smite my hard and stonie heart and make it euen to melt with in me at the sight of my manifold transgressions settle in it I pray thée that godly sorrow which causeth repentance vnto saluation not to be repented of humble my soule vnder thy mighty hand and suffer it not to fréeze in the dregs of mine owne corruptions and make my head full of water mine eies a fountaine of teares which may run down like a riuer day night and grant O Lord that I may sorrow not so much because of hell and damnation which is due vnto me for my sinnes but that my chiefest sorrow may be this that I haue offended so good and gratious a God as thou art in abusing thy mercies and requiting thy excéeding loue with so greiuous sins O Lord I am bold to come vnto thée at this time not in my owne name for who am I that I should dare to presse into thy presence but in the name and mediation of thy déere and welbeloued son Christ Iesus Let his death passion be a full satisfaction for all my sinnes wash me throughly in his blood from mine iniquities and clense me from my sinnes let not thy hand of iustice destroy me but giue me the comfort of thy help and stablish me with thy truth Most gratious father thou which art the father of mercies and the God of consolations of thée I aske mercy and forgiuenesse of all my sinnes thou wouldest that none should perish but that all should be saued and come to the knowledge of thy truth thou hast commanded me most gratious God in thy holy word to call and knock vnto thée whereupon thou hast gratiousty promised so to finde as to enter into me and to entertaine me I beséech thée make good my promise vnto me at this time and regard my teares my sighes and my groanes which doe knock at the gate of thy mercies I endeuour most gracious God and striue to do thy will Lord make good thy promise I beséech thée in thy word and accept my desire and howsoeuer vilde wretch that I am euer since I Couenanted with thée to doe thée seruice I haue either vngratiously forgotten or vngratefully remembred all thy benefits and haue not so estéemed thée for them as I would haue done a mortall friend for a few common Curtesies yet neuer the lesse haue mercy vpon me I can not excuse my faults and If I should yet my consciense would condemne mée for I had thy expresse word to stay me and mine owne conscience to bridle me yea I would haue allowed those things which I did if any other had done them but my selfe now when my memorie is the handwriting of my debt and my thoughts are willing wâ—â—nesses against me and mine owne knowledge condemneth me what remaineth but that I must néeds fall into thy hands O Lord I beséech thée according to thy wonted mercy and old louing kindnesse haue pity vpon me miserable sinner and grant me a frée remission of all my sinnes and a perfect reconciliation with thée in Christ Iesus this O Lord I earnestly craue at thy hands euen for the same Iesus Christ sake our Lord and sauiour Amen A godly Prayer in time of sicknesse or at the point of Death ALmightie God and in Iesus Christ my most mercifull Father I thy poore wretched seruant which doe here lye vnder thy hand féeling thy punishment of the corruption and transgression that is in me and in all flesh euen this same sicknesse which at this time thou hast sent vnto mee I doe here humble my selfe vnder thy hands and acknowledge against my selfe my heinous sins and corruptions so that I confesse that I haue not only deserued sicknes of body yea the separation of my soule from my body but also the separation both of bodie and soule from thée and thy kingdome for euer but good Father I humbly beseech thee looke vpon me in the righteousnesse of Christ Iesus in whome thou hast loued mee before the foundations of the world were laid though sinne haue brought sicknes and sicknes bee an vndoubted messenger of death at the time thou hast appointed yet grant good Lord that I may be vndoubtedly perswaded in this that death is swallowed vp in victorie and that this death can no more hold me vnder then it hath done Iesus Christ into whom I am translated therefore I beseech thée giue me a swéet féeling of my incorporation into Christ Iesus in whose death though I dye yet I shall liue by y â— vertue of his resurrection eternally O Lord in this my sicknesse giue me I beséech thée a déep touch and a sensible vnderstanding of my sinnes past that I haue not vsed this temporall life which thou didst lend mee more to thy glorie that I did not so watch for death as that I was no better prepared for it that I was no more diligent in my calling to seeke the aduancement of thy glory Now O Lord I pray thee take from me all guile of Spirit all disposition to flatter or to sooth vp my selfe or to lessen either the number or the qualitie of my sinnes cause mee euen to breake vp my hart and to search and trie my waies that so out of the abundance of my feeling I may poure out a most plentifull and sincere confession before thee knowing it to be in vaine to endeuour
by reason of his corruptions But this is a certain truth God giues nothing to any which is a true blessing vnto him but he giues him grace truly to desire it I will therefore aske least I should not receiue I will séeke least I shold not find I wil knock lest the gates of grace should not bée opened to me I wil sincerely instantly and incessantly pray for glorie that I may haue hope that God will vouchsafe me glorie These things good Reader I haue written for thy profit which I commend to thée and thée to God farewell in Christ Trin-vni Deo gloria Thine in Christ T. T. CERTAINE NECESSARIE Rules to be remembred of euerie Christian concerning Praier viz. IF thou wouldest make such a praier as God may bée pleased to heare thou must repent thée of thy sinnes and so daily renue thy repentance as thou renuest thy sins as Isay 1. 15. Dan. 9. 5. 6. 2. Before thou makest thy praier to almighty god thou must bee or at least desire to bée reconciled to those whom thou hast offended as néede requireth Math. 5. 23. Mark 11. 25. 3. Thou must prepare thy selfe both in heart and minde as one that is to speake familiarly vnto god Eccles 5. 1. 4. Euery petition thou makest must procéede from a liuely sence and féeling of thine owne wants of thy spirituall pouertie for otherwise no praier can bée powerfull and harty and consequently acceptable vnto God 5. Thou must endeuor that thy praier do procéede from an earnest desire of that grace thou wantest and this desire indéede before God is praier it selfe Exod. 14. 15. Rom. 8. 26. 6. Thy praier must procéede from sauing and true iustifying Faith because it is impossible that either thy person or thy praier or any other dutie thou performest should bée pleasing vnto God without Faith Heb. 11. 6. 7. It must be grounded vpon Gods word and not framed after the carnall opinion and fancie of thine owne braine as 1. Epist Iohn 5. 14. 8. Thou must present thy praier to God alone to none other for none else can héere all men in all places and at all times but he only 9. It must be presented to God in the name merit and meditation of Christ alone for we our selues are not worthy of any thing but shame and confusion Coloss 3. 17. Iohn 16 23. 10. Thy affections should be instant and perseuere in praier and that not only in the time of praier but also afterward and till the thing asked bée granted Luke 18. 1. Esay 62. 7. 11. Euery praier should ordinarily haue in it if it bée set and solemne some thanks-giuing vnto God for his benefits both for soule and body Phil. 4. 6. 12. When praier is ended thou must haue a particular Faith whereby thou maiest depend vpon God for the granting of thy particular requests so far forth as god shall sée them fitting for thée Marke 11. 24. 13. Lastly thou must labour to doe and practise that which thou praiest for and not only to pray for blessings but to vse all lawfull meanes whereby those blessings which thou askest may be obtained 12. Briefe notes shewing the necessitie of Praier BEause without praier wée cannot giue vnto God his due glory which belongs vnto him 2. Wée can neither bée assured that we are Gods Children nor that we haue right vnto any creature before we make conscience to practise this dutie daily Rom. 8. 15. 16. 3. All things are sanctified vnto vs by the word and by praier therefore without praier euery thing workes to our condemnation 1. Tim. 4. 5. 4. Without praier wée cannot looke to obtain any thing from God as a blessing nor to turne away any euil from vs Math. 7. 7. 5. Wée are no better then earth-wormes and worldlings and not fit to speake of any thing well without praier Rom. 8. 5. 6. The Lord our God commandes vs all to step into the breach with godly Moses and by harty praier to stay his hands from being auenged of the iniquities raigning amongst vs Ezek. 22. 30. 7. God requires a dayly and constant course of praier at our hands which hath béene the practise of the Saints of God in all ages Iob. 1. 1. Psal 1. 8. God doth daily bestow blessings vpon vs therefore wée must daily serue him Lament 3. 23. Psal 103. 2. 9. Because Satan is neuer wearie of tempting vs therefore wee should haue our loines girt and bee alwaies vpon our watch to resist him 1. Pet. 5. 8. 10. We haue not a daies warrant no not an houres certaintie of life therefore wée are at no time to bée vnprepared because wee know not the houre when our master commeth Math. 24. 42. 11. Wee are Pilgrimes and Trauellers in this World and therefore wée must trauell each day home ward to our owne countrie Heb. 11. 10. 12. By ourâ—calling wée are watchmen Souldiers c. and therefore we must daily be exercised in this spiritual warefare as 2. Tim. 2. 6. FINIS Set a watch O Lord before my mouth and keepe the doore of my lips Psal 141. 3. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my hart he acceptable in thy sight ô lord my strength my redeemer Psa â—9 4. A GODLY AND necessarie Praier to be said at all times O Eternall God and in Iesus Christ our most mercifull and loning father wee thy vnworthy and vnprofitable seruants doe héere in thy sight fréely confesse and acknowledge before thy Deuine Maiestie that wée are most miserable and wretched sinners and grieuous transgressors of all thy holy Lawes and Commandements that as wee were borne and bred in sinne and stained in the wombe so haue wee continually since that time multiplied many actuall transgressions against thy Maiestie both in thought word and déed so that our sins are grown more in number than the haires of our head and heauier in waight than the sands by the Sea shore therefore it is thy méere mercie long ere this they haue not pressed vs downe to the verie pit of Hel thou only O Lord knowest our sinnes who knowest our hearts nothing can bee hid from thy al-séeing eye thou knowest both what we haue béene what wee are yea our conscience doe accuse vs of many and greiuous euils and thou being farre greater than our conscience art able to lay much more vnto our charge we appeale therefore from thy iustice to thy mercy which is aboue all thy workes how much more aboue our sinnes Intreating thée to looke vpon vs in the face and countenance of thy well pleased sonne Christ Iesus for his sake O Lord we pray thée bee good and gratious to all our sinnes iniquities past of what nature or kind soeuer they be whether of ignorance or of knowledge of commission of euill or of omission of our duties wash them all away in the blood of thy déere sonne burie them in his graue and lay such a waight of his righteousnesse vpon them
we thank thée for those inestimable blessings which concerne a better life and our eternall happinesse as our Election before the foundations of the world our Creation into the world our Redemption by the bloud of thy deare Sonne Christ Iesus when wee were worse then nothing our Sanctification by the holy Spirit our Uocation from the world our blessed hope of Glorification in the world to come O Lord we confesse we haue not deserserued the least of all these thy blessings either temporall or spirituall but haue rather giuen thée iust cause to depriue vs of euery one of them by reason of our manifold sinnes both Originall and Actuall which we haue multiplied against thée from time to time O Lord we confesse that our Conception our birth yea and our whole liues haue béene in sinne liuing in the breach of all thy Commandements our fathers and mothers were sinfull deriuing it euen from our first parents Adam and Eue and so to vs that as Adam purchased for vs his Children none other inheritance but the vnhappy entrance into sinne and corruption and we béeing in his loynes and engrafted into this detestable stocke of sinne we are sorie O Lord that wee haue offended thée so willingly and disobediently strayed from thy holy Lawes yea we do vnfainedly condemn our selues in thy presence for euery one of our sins purposing in our hearts by the grace of thy Holy Spirit to forsake our former euill wayes and to make more conscience of sinne then euer we haue done heretofore Now for as much as it hath pleased thée to make the night for man to rest in as thou hast ordained him the day to trauell in grant deare father that wee may so take our bodily rest that our soules may continually watch for the time that our Lord Iesus Christ shal appeare for our deliuerance out of this mortall life in the meane season wée beséech thée grant that in our sléepe we be not ouercome by any fantasies dreames or other tentations but that we may fully set our minds vpon thée loue thée feare thée and rest in thée and that our sléepe be not â—â—cessiue or ouermuch after the vnsatiable desire of the flesh but onely sufficient to content our weake natures that wee may be the better enabled the day following to liue in all godly conuersation in the discharge of our callings to the glorie of thy holie name and profit of our brethren through Iesus Christ our Lord. Blesse with vs wee beséech thée thy Children and Church in all places poure downe thy blessings in especiall manner vpon the Kings most excellent Maiesty the Quéene and her Royall Progeny blesse all the Nobilitie and Magistrates of the land Blesse the Ministers and teachers of thy holy Word Lord giue a blessing to their labours that by their ministerie such may daily be woon vnto thee as belong vnto thine Election of grace Blesse and succour all the afflicted members of thy Church wheresoeuer or howsoeuer distressed bée with them in all their sicknesse lay no more vpon them then thou shalt make them able to beare giue them the true sight and féeling of their sinnes so far as may leade them to true repentance a hartie sorrow for the same howsoeuer it shall please thée to deale with them let it bee in mercy and not in iustice knowing they are but flesh and in thy good time send them a happy deliuerance out of their miserie either by life or by death as it shall séeme best tâ— thy maiestie Lastly as duty bindes vs we commend vnto thy fatherly protection all our friends and kindred according to the flesh whether they bee néere or deare vnto vs in affinitie or consanguinity and all whomsoeuer thou wouldest we should commend vnto thy maiesty for them as for our selues wée beséech thee continue thy mercies and goodnesse towards vs euen for thy deare sonnes sake Iesus Christ our Lord and onely Sauiour to whom with thee and the blessed Spirit our Comforter be ascribed as is most due all honour and glorie now and for euer Amen Another prayer for Morning O Most mercifull God and heauenly father we thy seruants doe hers humbly prostrat our selues before thy diuine maiesty acknowledging here in thy sight our heinous offences committed against thée both in thought word and worke so that our sinnes are growne more in number then the haires of our heades and if thou shouldest enter into Iudgement with vs we could not be able to answere thée one of a thousand they are so heinous that the very least of them being but conceiued in thought is sufficient in iudgement to throw vs down to the lake that burneth with fire brimstone besides O Lord wee are guilty before thy Maiestie of a huge masse of corruption which we haue drawn from the loines of our first parents which of it owne nature is inough to condemne vs if thou shouldest deale with vs according to Iustice though we had neuer committed actuall sin all the daies of our leues Further O Lord wee are full of blindnes and sencelesse securitie running on headlong to destruction and committing sinne after sinne although not notorious to the world yet horrible before thy pure eyes which seest all things but O Lord wee dayly grone vnder the burden of our sinnes inwardly lamenting our own folie In Heauen Earth or Hell we see none able to sustain thy wrath for them but euen thy deare Son Christ Iesus the Son of thy loue who in mercy infinite and in compassion endles hath suffered and ouercome that endlesse punishment which was due vnto vs for them In him therfore most mercifull Father and through him do we come vnto thee beingful assured according to thy promise that thou wilt accept and take that full recompence which he our Sauiour hath made for vs on his Crosse In him therefore we see thine anger towards vs appeased and thy wrath satisfied and our debt payed O Lord enlarge our hearts with thankefulnesse to thy Maiestie for the same and make sinne to dye in vs more and more that wee may hate detest and vtterly abhorre all sinne in all men but especially in our selues and strongly through thy spirit set our selues in open war against all sinne and wickednesse that we may not please our selues in the least sinne but streightly examine sinne by the strict Rules of thy holyword we may alwaies walke not onely before the eyes of man but circumspectly in this respect that we haue the eies of thy maiestie to take a view of our doings we humbly thank thy maiesty for all thy mercies bestowed vpon vs either for soule or bodie amongst the rest wee acknowledge this not to bee the least that we haue quietly passed this night and that thou hast giuen vs quiet rest and sléepe for the refreshment of our weake bodies which without the same could not endure grant we beseech thée that we may bestowe this day and the residue of our life wholly in thy