out of his throne Our Lord Jesus Christ thy dear Son Lord Jesus Christ shew forth thy might That thou art Lord of lords by right Thy poor afflicted flock defend That we may praise thee without end God holy Ghost our Comforter Be our patron help and succour Give us one minde and perfect peace All gifts of grace in us increase Thou living God in persons three Thy name be prais'd in unitie In all our need so us defend That we may praise thee without end FINIS PRAYERS A form of prayer to be used in private houses every morning and evening Morning prayer ALmighty God and most merciful Father we do not present our selves here before thy Majesty trusting in our own merits or worthiness but in thy manifold mercies which hast promised to hear our prayers and grant our requests which we shall make to thee in the name of thy beloved Son Jesus Christ our Lord who also hath commanded us to assemble ourselves together in his name with full assurance that he will not onely be amongst us but also be our Mediatour and Advocate towards thy Majesty that we may obtain all things which shall seem expedient to thy blessed will for our necessities Therefore we beseech thee most merciful Father to turn thy loving countenance towards us and impute not unto us our manifold sins and offences whereby we justly deserve thy wrath and sharp punishment but rather receive us to thy mercy for Jesus Christs sake accepting his death and passion as a just recompence for all our offences in whom thou art well pleased and through whom thou canst not be offended with us And seeing that of thy great mercies we have quietly passed this night grant O heavenly Father that we may bestow this day wholly in thy service so that all our thoughts words and deeds may redound to the glory of thy great name and good example to all men who seeing our good works may glorify thee our heavenly Father And forasmuch as of thy mere favour and love thou hast not onely created us to thine own similitude and likeness but also hast chosen us to be heirs with thy dear Son Jesus Christ of that immortal kingdom which thou preparedst for us from the beginning of the world we beseech thee to increase our faith and knowledge and to lighten our hearts with thy holy Spirit that we may in the mean time live in godly conversation and integrity of life knowing that idolaters adulterers covetous men contentious persons drunkards gluttons and such like shall not inherit the kingdom of God And because thou hast commanded us to pray one for another we do not onely make request O Lord for our selves and for them that thou hast already called to the true understanding of thy heavenly will but for all people and nations of the world who as they know by thy wonderful works that thou art God over all 〈◊〉 they may be instructed by thy holy Spirit to beleeve in thee their onely Saviour and Redeemer But forasmuch as they cannot beleeve except they hear nor cannot hear but by preaching and none can preach except they be sent therefore O Lord raise up faithful distributers of thy mysteries who setting apart all worldly respects may both in their life and doctrine onely seek thy glory Contrarily confound Satan and Antichrist with all hirelings whom thou hast already cast off into a reprobate sense that they may not by sects schisms heresies and errours disquiet thy little flock And because O Lord we be fallen into the latter days and dangerous times wherein ignorance hath gotten the upper hand and Satan by his ministers seeketh by all means to quench the light of thy gospel we beseech thee to maintain thy cause against those ravening wolves and strengthen all thy servants whom they keep in prison and bondage Let not thy long-suffering be an occasion either to increase their tyranny or to discourage thy children neither yet let our sins and wickedness be an hinderance to thy mercies but with speed O Lord consider these great miseries For thy people Israel many times by their sins provoked thine anger and thou punishedst them by thy just judgement yet though their sins were never so grievous if they once returned from their iniquity thou receivedst them to mercy We therefore most wretched sinners bewail our manifold sins and earnestly repent us of our former wickedness and ungodly behaviour towards thee and whereas we cannot of our selves purchase thy pardon yet we humbly beseech thee for Jesus Christs sake to shew thy mercies upon us receive us again to thy favour Grant us dear Father these our requests and all other things necessary for us and thy whole Church according to thy promise in Jesus Christ our Lord In whose name we beseech thee as he hath taught us saying Our Father which art c. Evening prayer O Lord God Father everlasting and full of pity we acknowledge and confess that we be not worthy to lift up our eyes to heaven much less to present our selves before thy Majesty with confidence that thou wilt hear our prayers and grant our requests if we consider our own deservings for our consciences do accuse us and our sins do witness against us and we know that thou art an upright Judge which dost not justify the sinners and wicked men but punishest the faults of all such as transgress thy commandments yet most merciful Father since it hath pleased thee to command us to call on thee in all our troubles and adversities promising even then to help us when we feel our selves as it were swallowed up of death and desperation we utterly renounce all worldly confidence and the to thy sovereign bounty as our onely stay and refuge beseeching thee not to call to remembrance our manifold sins and wickedness whereby we continually provoke thy wrath and indignation against us neither our negligence and unkindness which have neither worthily esteemed nor in our lives sufficiently expressed the sweet comfort of thy gospel revealed unto us but rather to accept the obedience and death of thy Son Jesus Christ who by offering up his body in sacrifice once for all hath made a sufficient recompence for all our sins Have mercy therefore upon us O Lord and forgive us our offences Teach us by thy holy Spirit that we may rightly weigh them and earnestly repent us for the same And so much the rather O Lord because that the reprobate and such as thou hast forsaken cannot praise thee nor call upon thy name but the repenting heart the sorrowful minde the conscience oppressed hungring and thirsting for thy grace shall ever set forth thy praise and glory And albeit we be but worms and dust yet thou art our Creatour and we be the work of thy hands yea thou art our Father and we thy children thou art our Shepherd and we thy flock thou art our Redeemer and we thy people whom thou hast bought thou art our God and
we thine inheritance Correct us not therefore in thine anger O Lord neither according to our deserts punish us but mercifully chastise us with a fatherly affection that all the world may know that at what time so ever a sinner doth repent him of his sins from the bottom of his heart thou wilt put away all his wickedness out of thy remembrance as thou hast promised by thy holy prophet Finally forasmuch as it hath pleased thee to make the night for man to rest in as thou hast ordained him the day to travail in grant O dear Father that we may so take our bodily rest that our souls may continually watch for the time that our Lord Jesus Christ shall appear for our deliverance out of this mortal life and in the mean season that we not overcome by any fantasies dreams or other temptations may fully set our minds upon thee love thee fear thee and rest in thee furthermore that our sleep be not excessive or overmuch after the insatiable desires of the flesh but onely sufficient to content our weak nature that we may be the better disposed to live in all godly conversation to the glory of thy most holy name and the profit of our brethren So be it A godly prayer to be said at all times HOnour and praise be given to thee O Lord God almighty most dear Father of heaven for all thy mercies and loving kindness shewed unto us in that it hath pleased thy gracious goodness freely and of thine own accord to elect and choose us to salvation before the beginning of the world and even like continual thanks be given to thee for creating us after thine own image for redeeming us with the precious bloud of thy dear Son when we were utterly lost for sanctifying us with thy holy Spirit in the revelation and knowledge of thy holy word for helping and succouring us in all our needs and necessities for saving us from all dangers of body and soul for comforting us so fatherly in all our tribulations and persecutions for sparing us so long and giving us so large a time of repentance These benefits O most merciful Father like as we acknowledge to have received them of thy onely goodness even so we beseech thee for thy dear Son Jesus Christs sake grant us always thy holy Spirit that we may continually grow in thankfulness towards thee to be led in all truth and comforted in all our adversities O Lord strengthen our faith kindle it more in ferventness and love towards thee and our neighbours for thy sake Suffer us not most dear Father to receive thy word any more in vain but grant us always the assistance of thy grace and holy Spirit that in heart word and deed we may sanctify and do worship to thy name help to amplify and increase thy kingdom and whatsoever thou sendest we may be heartily well content with thy good pleasure and will Let us not lack the thing O Father without the which we cannot serve thee but bless thou so all the works of our hands that we may have sufficient and not be chargeable but rather helpful to others Be merciful O Lord to our offences and seeing our debt is great which thou hast forgiven us in Jesus Christ make us to love thee and our neighbours so much the more Be thou our Father our captain and defender in all temptations hold thou us by thy merciful hand that we may be delivered from all inconveniences and end our lives in the sanctifying and honouring of thy holy name through Jesus Christ our Lord and onely Saviour So be it Let thy mighty hand and out-stretched arm O Lord be still our defence thy mercy and loving kindness in Jesus Christ thy dear Son our salvation thy true and holy word our instruction thy grace and holy Spirit our comfort and consolation unto the end and in the end So be it O Lord increase our faith A confession for all estates and times O Eternal God and most merciful Father we confess and acknowledge here before thy divine Majesty that we are miserable sinners conceived and born in sin and iniquity so that in us there is no goodness For the flesh evermore rebelleth against the spirit whereby we continually transgress thy holy precepts and commandments and so purchase to our selves through thy just judgement death and damnation Notwithstanding O heavenly Father forasmuch as we are displeased with our selves for the sins the we have committed against thee and do unfeignedly repent us of the same we most humbly beseech thee for Jesus Christs sake to shew thy mercy upon us to forgive us all our sins and increase thy holy Spirit in us that we acknowledging from the bottom of our hearts our own unrighteousness may from henceforth not onely mortifie our sinful lusts and affections but also bring forth such fruits as may be agreeable to thy most blessed will not for the worthiness thereof but for the merits of thy dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ our onely Saviour whom thou hast already given an oblation and offering for our sins and for whose sake we are certainly perswaded that thou wilt deny us nothing that we shall ask in his name according to thy will for thy Spirit doth assure our consciences that thou art our merciful Father and so lovest us thy children through him that nothing is able to remove thy heavenly grace and favour from us To thee therefore O Father with thy Son and the holy Ghost be all honour and glory world without end Amen A prayer to be said before a man begin his work O Lord God most merciful Father and Saviour seeing it hath pleased thee to command us to travail that we may relieve our need we beseech thee of thy grace so to bless our labours that thy blessing may extend unto us without the which we are not able to continue and that this great favour may be a witness unto us of thy bountifulness and assistance so that thereby we may know the fatherly care that thou hast over us Moreover O Lord we beseech thee that thou wouldst strengthen us with thy holy Spirit that we may faithfully travail in our estate and vocation without fraud or deceit and that we may endeavour our selves to follow thy holy ordinance rather then to seek to satisfie our greedy affections or desire to gain And if it please thee O Lord to prosper our labour give us a minde also to help them that have need according to that ability that thou of thy mercy shalt give us And knowing that all good things come of thee grant that we may humble our selves to our neighbours and not by any means lift up our selves above them which have not received so liberal a portion as thou of thy mercy hast given unto us And if it please thee to try and exercise us by greater poverty and need then our flesh would desire that thou wouldst yet O Lord grant us grace to know that
all the world and all that therein doth endure verse 2 For he hath fastly founded it above the seas to stand And laid alow the liquid flouds to flow beneath the land verse 3 For who is he O Lord that shall ascend into thy hill Or pass into thy holy place there to continue still verse 4 Whose hands are harmless and whose heart no spot there doth defile His soul not set on vanity who hath not sworn to guile verse 5 Him that is such a one the Lord shall place in blissful plight And God his God and Saviour shall yeeld to him his right verse 6 This is the brood of travellers in seeking of his grace As Jacob did the Israelite in that time of his race verse 7 Ye princes ope your gates stand ope the everlasting gate For there shall enter in thereby the king of glorious state verse 8 Who is the king of glorious state the strong and mighty Lord The mighty Lord in battel stout and trial of the sword verse 9 Ye princes ope your gates stand ope the everlasting gate For there shall enter in thereby the king of glorious state verse 10 Who is the king of glorious state the Lord of hosts it is The kingdom and the royalty of glorious state is his Ad te Domine Psal xxv T. S. I Lift my heart to thee my God and guide most just Now suffer me to take no shame for in thee do I trust verse 2 Let not my foes rejoyce nor make a scorn of me And let them not be overthrown that put their trust in thee verse 3 But shame shall them befal which harm them wrongfully Therefore thy paths and thy right ways unto me Lord descry verse 4 Direct me in thy truth and teach me I thee pray Thou art my God and Saviour on thee I wait alway verse 5 Thy mercies manifold I pray thee Lord remember And eke thy pity plentiful for they have been for ever verse 6 Remember not the faults and frailty of my youth Remember not how ignorant I have been of thy truth Nor after my deserts let me thy mercy finde But of thine own benignity Lord have me in thy minde verse 7 His mercy is full sweet his truth a perfect guide Therefore the Lord will sinners teach and such as go aside verse 8 The humble he will teach his precepts for to keep He will direct in all his ways the lowly and the meek verse 9 For all the ways of God are truth and mercy â—oth To them that keep his testament the witness of his troth The second part verse 10 Now for thy holy name O Lord I thee intreat To grant me pardon for my sin for it is wondrous great verse 11 Whoso doth fear the Lord the Lord will him direct To lead his life in such a way as he doth best accept 12 12 His soul shall evermore in goodness dwell and stand His seed and his posterity inherit shall the land verse 13 All those that fear the Lord know his secret intent And unto them he doth declare his will and testament verse 14 Mine eyes and eke my heart to him I will advance That pluckt my feet out of the snare of sin and ignorance verse 15 With mercy me behold to thee I make my mone For I am poor and desolate and comfortless alone verse 16 The troubles of my heart are multipli'd indeed Bring me out of this misery necessity and need verse 17 Behold my poverty mine anguish and my pain Remit my sin and mine offence and make me clean again verse 18 O Lord behold my foes how they do still increase Pursuing me with deadly hate that lain would live in peace verse 19 Preserve and keep my soul and eke deliver me And let me not be overthrown because I trust in thee verse 20 Let my simple pureness me from mine enemies shend Because I look as one of thine that thou shoudst me defend verse 21 Deliver Lord thy folk and lend them some relief I mean thy chosen Israel from all their pain and grief Judica me Domine Psal xxvi T. S. LOrd be my Judge and thou shalt see my paths be right and plain I trust in God and hope that he will strength me to remain verse 2 Prove me my God I thee desire my ways to search and try As men do prove their gold with fire my reins and heart espy verse 3 Thy goodness said before my face I durst behold always For of thy truth I tread the trace and will do all my days verse 4 I do not lust to haunt or use with men whose deeds are vain To come in house I do refuse with the deceitful train verse 5 I much abhor the wicked sort their deeds I do despise I do not once to them resort that hurtful things devise verse 6 My hands I wash and do proceed in works to walk upright Then to thine altar I make speed to offer there in sight verse 7 That I may speak and preach the pralse that doth belong to thee And so declare how wondrous ways thou hast been good to me verse 8 O God the house I love most dear to me it doth excel I have delight and would be near whereas thy grace doth dwell verse 9 O shut not up my soul with them in fin that take their fill Nor yet my life among those men that seek much bloud to spill verse 10 Whose hands are heapt with craft and guile their lives thereof are full And their right hand with wrench and wile for bribes doth pluck and pull verse 11 But I in righteousness intend my time and days to serve Have mercy Lord and me defend so that I do not swerve verse 12 My foot is stay'd for all assays it standeth well and right Wherefore to God will I give praise in all the peoples sight Dominus illuminatio Psal xxvii J. H. THe Lord is both my health and light shall man make me dismaâ—d Sith God doth give me strength and might why should I be afraid verse 2 While that my foes with all their strength begin with me to brall And think to eat me up at length themselves have caught the fall verse 3 Though they in camp against me lie my heart is not afraid In battel pight if they will try I trust in God for aid verse 4 One thing of God I do require that he will not deny For which I pray and will desire till he to me apply verse 5 That I within his holy place my life throughout may dwell To see the beauty of his face and view his temple well verse 6 In time of dread he shall me hide within his place most pure And keep me secret by his side as on a rock most sure verse 7 At length I know the Lords good grace shall make me strong and stout My foes to foil and clean deface that compass me about verse 8 Therefore within his house will I give sacrifice of praise With
thou wilt nourish us continually through thy bountiful liberality that we be not so tempted that we fall into distrust but that we may patiently wait till thou fill us not onely with corporal graces and benefits but chiefly with thy heavenly and spiritual treasures to the intent that we may always have more ample occasion to give thee thanks and so wholly to rest upon thy mercies Hear â—s O Lord of mercy through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord and Saviour Amen A prayer for the whole estate of Christs Church ALmighty God and most merciful Father we humbly submit our selves and fall down before thy divine Majesty beseeching thee from the bottom of our hearts that the seed of thy word now sown amongst us may take such deep root that neither the burning heat of persecution cause it to wither neither the thorny cares of this life choke it but that as seed sown in good ground it may bring forth thirty sixty and an hundreâ—-fold as thy heavenly wisdom hath appointed And because we have need continually to crave many things at thy hands we humbly beseech thee O heavenly Father to grant us thy holy Spirit to direct our petitions that they may proceed from such a fervent minde as may be agreeable to thy most blessed will And seeing that our infirmity is able to do nothing without thy help and that thou art not ignorant with how many and great temptations we poor wretches are on every side inclosed and compassed let thy strength O Lord sustain our weakness that we being defended with the force of thy grace may be safely preserved against all assaults of Satan who goeth about continually like a roaring lion seeking to devour us Increase our faith O merciful Father that we do not swerve at any time from thy heavenly word but augment in us hope and love with a careful keeping of all thy commandments that no hardness of heart no hypocrisie no concupiscence of the eyes nor inticements of the world do draw us away from thy obedience And seeing we live now in these most perilous times let thy fatherly providence defend us against the violence of our enemies which do seek by all means to oppress thy truth Furthermore forasmuch as by thy holy Apostle we be taught to make our prayers and supplications for all men we pray not onely for our selves here present but beseech thee also to reduce all such as be yet ignorant from the miserable captivity of blindness and errour to the pure understanding and knowledge of thy heavenly truth that we all with one consent and unity of minde may worship thee our onely God and Saviour and that all pastours shepherds and ministers to whom thou hast committed the dispensation of thy holy word and charge of thy chosen people may both in their life and doctrine be found faithful setting onely before their eyes thy glory and that by them all poor sheep which wander and go astray may be gathered and brought home to thy fold Moreover because the hearts of all rulers are in thy hands we beseech thee to direct and govern the hearts of all kings princes and magistrates to whom thou hast committed the sword Especially O Lord according to our bounden duty we beseech thee to maintain and increase the honourable estate of the Kings majesty and all his most noble counsellers and magistrates with all the spiritual pastours and ministers and all the whole body of this common-weal Let thy fatherly favour so preserve them and thy holy Spirit so govern their hearts that they may in such sort execute their office that thy religion may be purely maintained manners reformed and sin punished according to the precise rule of thy holy word And for that we be all members of the mystical body of Jesus Christ we make our requests unto thee O heavenly Father for all such as are afflicted with any kinde of cross or tribulation as war plague famine sickness poverty imprisonment persecution banishment or any other kinde of thy rods whether it be calamity of body or vexation of minde that it would please thee to give them patience and constancy till thou send them full deliverance out of all their troubles Root out from hence O Lord all ravening wolves which to fill their bellies seek to destroy thy flock And shew thy great mercies upon those our brethren in other countreys which are persecuted cast into prison and daily condemned for the testimony of thy truth and although they be utterly destitute of all mans aid yet let thy sweet comfort never depart from them but so inflame their hearts with thy holy Spirit that they may boldly and cheerfully abide such trial as thy good wisdom shall appoint so that at length as well by their death as by their life the kingdom of thy dear Son Jesus Christ may increase and shine through all the world In whose name we make our humble petitions unto thee as he hath taught us Our Father which art c. The confession of the Christian Faith I Beleeve and confess my Lord God eternal infinite unmeasurable incomprehensible and invisible one in substance and three in person Father Son and holy Ghost who by his almighty power and wisdom hath not onely of nothing created heaven and earth and all things therein contained and man after his own image that he might in him be glorified but also by his fatherly providence governeth maintaineth and preserveth the same according to the purpose of his will I beleeve also and confess Jesus Christ the onely Saviour and Messias who being equal with God made himself of no reputation but took on him the shape of a servant and became man in all things like unto us except sin to assure us of mercy and forgiveness For when through our father Adams transgression we were become children of perdition there was no means to bring us from the yoke of sin and damnation but onely Jesus Christ our Lord who giving us that by grace which was his by nature made us through faith the children of God Who when the fulness of time was come was conceived by the power of the holy Ghost born of the virgin Mary according to the flesh and preached in earth the Gospel of salvation till at length by tyranny of the priests he was guiltless condemned under Pontius Pilate then President of Jewry and most slanderously hanged on the cross between two theeves as a notorious trespasser where taking upon him the punishment of our sins he delivered us from the curse of the law And forasmuch as he being onely God could not feel death neither being onely man could overcome death he joyned both together and suffered his humanity to be punished with most cruel death feeling in himself the anger and severe judgement of God even as he had been in extreme torments of hell and therefore cried with a loud voice My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Thus of his mercy without compulsion he