great compassion antevert that great day that fearfull day that day of teares and groanes prepare me by death to the commencement of life that I may fill the whole creation with encomiums of thy mercy Behold O Lord behold the posture of my soule behold the streights my concupiscence hath brought it in behold the stripes of that Fury preserve me from the power of an enemy that will prove inconquerable unlesse thy auxiliary forces intervene Knock off the shackles bolts of death O my God that I may chaine my selfe to thee who alone art the true life and that haveing cast away the care of all things I may follow thee who art more considerable then all things Lord my God God of mercy and salvation whisper to my soul I am thy safeguard thy prayers are accepted let it be done unto thee according to thy petition let such a voice my God draw my attention that following thee I may encounter thee encountring thee I may never depart from thee untill thou returns me whole For where shall I find physick for my greifs if I repair not to thee my God and who can prove a more expert physitian for my infirmities than he who hath stoop'd from heaven for the reparation of mankin'd and to apply remedies to his maladies who can better bestow life than he in whose hands is both life and death who can be a better pledge for my salvation amongst the gulphs and precipices of this world than my God and my Saviour Save me then enlighten me then thou art both the author of salvation and life to those repose their trust in thee And as thy power my God had no alpha let thy glory have no omega that we may magnifie thee that we may adore thee that we may erect immortal trophics to thy honour and render everlasting thanks to thee who art the eternall fountaine of mercyes I have bin estranged from thee and although my estrangenesse was an act of my owne will thou hast not failed to answer the beginning of my invocations with a timely assistance The quick applications of thy remedies have even prevented my complaints the very will to be cured perfects the cure and to will life is a motive sufficient to thy goodnesse that we receive it the extent of thy bounty is so large thy graces commonly anticipate the prayers of a repenting sinner I will confess my God and that will be a satisfactory allay to thy indignation how that I am conscious of my Iniquities how that I am acquainted with my evill doings and do wil a present cure Yea my God it is necessary I know them that the horrour I have may be implanted in my bones and that my soul may be affrighted at the terrible Image my memory copieth forth I discover to thy Divine Majesty my imperfections and my sins to the end thy Mercy may rase and pumice them forth and thou maiest enlighten the darke capacity of my soule that misleads me to a rebellion against thee As thou wilt not the Iniquity so thou desires not the death of a sinner but that he be converted and live the dead shall not praise thee my God none but thee living none but we shall be thy Panegyriks Quiresters and Trump through all ages the fullnesse of thy mercies and the tenor of thy bounties PSALM V. BEfore thee my God have I summed up my miseries not for thy information not to make known the Condition wherein I stand nor the paths I trace in the world because already they are fallen under thy eternall prescience and from eternity thou hast numbered my foot-steps Thou piercest through the obscurity of darkness thou disclosest all clossets there is nothing can withdraw it self from thy sight to thee are all things present thou dive'st into the Cabinet-counsells of our hearts our most secret thoughts to thee are patent I will therefore lay open my miseries that thou maist uncover thy mercy and spread over me thy protecting wing I will reveale my secrets that thou mayest conceale them that thou mayest be satisfied with the humility and brokennesse of my heart that by a sacrifice so propitiatory I may invite a plenary expiation of my offences I have hitherto cast up an audit of things horrible yet the reckoning falls short of what I have committed My conscience allarums me with continuall assaults continually represents the horrid Ideas of my trespasses and ingenders in my soul a worm that bites and corrodes without intermission but why may not the knawing corrosive of this worm consume all impurities and in consuming them consume it selfe My God let it not so feed that it may live eternally let it feed that it may dye and that by feeding by degrees it may leave to feed But alas how deplorable is my case I believed the latitude of my confession had circumscribed my sins but I must confesse it admits of larger bounds my memory still affords fresh instances of a deserved fear from thy Justice and as it swells with the whole iniquity of my life it is no sooner delivered of one particular but it groweth big with particulars more heinous more criminall Were the sand of the sea multiplied into figures it were an arithmetick too skant to cast up my transgressions Were my tongue centupled it were still impossible to count one of a million so that my greif is the more intense by reason all my impurities come not within the compasse of my memory because the wedgery of new offences drive and peg out the old ones But my God those I will not wrap up in silence my remembrance hath bundled up I will remove my affection from them that I may the more firmly settle it on Thee that thou weighing the humility of my soul and an eye floating in teares thy severity may be abated and thy tender sweetnesse encouraged Thou who art the reall sweetnesse the sweetnesse that entraps not the blessed sweetnesse the sweetnesse most assured and permanent I have entertained kindnesse with envy and malice charity with disrespect Kings Princes and the ministers of the Gospel have been under the lash of my tongue with outragious murmurings I have scandalized them encomiums of the good received reproof the actions of the wicked approbation if at any time the just were justly applauded at the same time my endeavours were to sully their reputations with impostures I have sifted out their most hidden failings I have bin so censoriously rigid towards them into grand crimes have I aggravated their petty trespasses on the contrary if the wicked received their due salary of a just infamy and consequently fell into disrespute and discredit with the world I have immediatly backed them I have extolled their imaginary vertues and prefer'd them before the just and perhaps have proved the ultimate cause to their perdition I have combined with the thiefe in purloyning my neighbor's goods and that nothing may be wanting to compleate my iniquity I have fathered the scandall on
ROYALL PSALMES OR SOLILOQUIES OF D. ANTHONY KING OF PORTINGALL Wherein the Sinner confesseth his Sinnes and imploreth the Grace of GOD. Translated into French By P. DURIER Into English by Baldwin St George Gent. LONDON Printed for Humphrey Moseley and are to be sold at his shop at the Prince's Armes in S. Pauls Church-yard 1659. A Tres-Haute et Tres Illustre PRINCESSE Francois de Lorraine Duchesse DE VENDOSME MADAM IL me semble que ces Pseames qui sont sortis d'une main Royale ne pouvient r'entrer en de plus illustres mains que les vostres Ils ont esté Composez par un Roy Je les presente à une Princesse dont la vertue n'est pas moins estimable que les sceptres les Courronnes Je scaybien que n'ayant pas cet'esprit de pieté qui est si necessaire pour faire valoir les ouvrages de cette nature Je n'ay pû aussy leur donner cette ardeur salutaire qui touche les pecheurs que leur premier autheur leur a si utilement donnee mais c'est Assez que l'on scache que vostre Grandeur ne les a pas ded'aigne pour croire qu'ils seront profitables Ainsi Madame je les ay seulement comencez en leur donnant des paroles pour les faire entendre en nostre Langue j'espere que vous les acheverez par vostre approbation Je ne chercheray point icy d'artifice pour obliger vostre Grandeur de les recevoir favorablement Je suis assuré Madame que vous n'y verrez rien qui ne vous plaise puis que vous n'y verrez rien qui ne réjouisse les Anges Mesmes C'est un pecheur qui se repent de ses fautes qui implore la miserecorde de son dieu qui fait de sa conversion la plus grande felicité qu'il puisse trouver sur la terre Il ne parle pas de langage de la cour parce qu'il scait bien que ce n'est pas le langage de dieu Il aime mieux concevoir de bons desirs que de prononcer de belles paroles pour-veu qu'il puisse dire qu'a pecche ill croit estre assez eloquent Je m'imagine done Madame que vouz aimerez le pecheur en ce glorieux estat que vous vous divertirez quelquesfois à luy voir répandre des larmes dont le repentir est la source C'est un divertisement qui n'est jamais desagreable aux ames vertueuses sainctes y est en cette occasion qu'on peut legitiment souhaiter de voir souspirer son pro chain Jesuis Madame De vostre Grandeur le tres-humble tres-obeissant tres-fidelle Serviteur DURYER To the truly HONORABLE Noble and most vertuous Lady The Lady ANNE INGOLDSBY MADAM MY apprehensive quil drew-in its bashfull Inke at the presumption to frontispiece so mean a present as a Translation with an Inscription to a Person of so much Honour so much worth so thronged an Inventory and so compleat a Synopsis of all Perfections But emboldned first by the Precedent of the French Translator secondly encouraged by the Piety of the Subject moved thirdly by the Noblenesse of the Author It hath distilled some obliged drops towards this Dedication to your Ladyship of a French treatise done into the English dialect to an unparallel'd Mistriss in both of a Pious subject to a pious Patronesse of a Noble Author to a Noble Lady Madam you shall here behold a Royal Convert The Angells rejoyce at the Conversion of a sinner and as your vertues intitle you to their Fellowship and something above mortall in your beauty to their resemblance you must necessarily partake of their Joy and fill up the quire of that Coelestiall Hierarchy with your Allelujah's And seeing nothing but a little Clay which although in reference to your Ladyship 's amiable Symmetry is stamped with a preparative Angelicall Impresse detaineth you from the present enjoyment of their blessed Society you cannot neverthelesse but be alike moved with them and will I hope afford the Gracious Influence of your Protecting beames to the unworthy Interpreter of these welcome Tydings and crown him which is the highest ayme his ambition levells at with a Crown studded and enammell'd with your smiles As this Consideration seemed to extenuate my boldnesse So the Universall engaging sweetnesse of your disposition the obliging Prodigallity of your favours to me in particular and the deep sense of gratitude to your noble family and relations VVarranted the Inscription and Commands the Subscription of Madam Your Ladiship 's most humble and vowed Servant B. St. George ROYALL PSALMES OR SOLILOQUIES OF D. ANTHONY KING OF PORTVGALL Wherein the Sinner confesseth his Sinnes and imploreth the Grace of GOD. WHence shall I exhale tears enough to pay a deluge for the strayings and disorders of my soul When I throw my Considerations on the pasttrod paths of my life and cast a speculative optick on the passages of my youth horror and sadnesse arrests my survey This reflection on my selfe reverberates to my soul nothing but trembling nothing but condemnation nothing but dispaire nothing but confusion I know what I have bin I have known what I ought to have bin I know not now what I am I apprehend what I shall bee And the lesse my sorrow is for offending God the more the apprehensions of it is enlarged Why cannot I repent more that I may fear lesse Alas I have bin long under thy scourge O Lord and the heavinesse of thy hand makes me feel the weight of my transgressions yet cannot I fix a repentant kisse to that Rod. Long hast thou lured me yet I remaine still unreclaimed long hast thou rais'd and plai'd thy Batteries to force a passage to my heart yet I so much my owne enemy deny an amicable Interveiw to one who brings and offers life A thousand evills cast up their trenches round about me death threateneth me in the van flank and reare and although I am storm'd with all sorts of calamities and afflictions yet my soul hath not one hostage-teare to ransome my salvation These ills have not only ataqued mine age my life and sufferings comenced together from my youth I am a man of sorrow In fine I may on the counters of my dysasters cast up the single moments of my life and now I suffer because suffering taught me not repentance for my faults O the admirable prudence of the heavenly and great Physitian O the immense goodness of the King of kings the Soveraign of heaven and earth O the bountifull opennesse of that hand that stroweth about its favours O my God thou underbladders't me with greifs that I may not sink in pleasures that I may learne to rejoyce without making my Joyes criminall thou delegates sorrows finite to attone for sorrowes Infinite thou dismantles my body of comforts to cloathe my soul with salvation The wounds
that thou inflicts are but to open an easier expedient to my cure and thou endangerest not my present life but as a preservative to a life more happy more glorious more triumphant But alas what is necessary for me falls so little under my cognizance that I check at the physick of thy mercifull prescripts I dread those afflictions whose rigorous violence ought to instruct and ought to be received as effects rather of mercy then of choler so that I fail in distinguishing the counter-poysons thou tenderest and how shall I distinguish them being not to be cured but by affliction yet I desire to be freed from an affliction so wholsome To conclude can there bud any hopes of a cure but from griefs Seeing sicknesse and disseases are the fruits of pleasure let me suffer them O Lord my God but to the end that my sorrows may be converted into Ioyes and I rejoyce with thee teach me how my sufferings may meet with thy divine pleasure and my owne salvation PSALM II. TIme with a swift current tides away yeares and dayes yet my unhappinesse still fixeth my condition I am still a sinner still call downe the viall of my God's Indignation Having been constantly wracked on the wheel of so many afflictions so many miseries they have not forced from me so much as one good thought one sensible detestation of my sins the sole Axletree whereon my misfortunes turne I regard not how I lend an advantageous foot to each dayes sinfull trips but have not regard to recover my foyls I still patch up my old iniquities with new offences and step from petty trespasses to capital how shall I entertaine the stroak of my last hour how shall I fly where shall I conceal my guilty head when Judgment summons to an appearance and I am cited to bring in my audit for my manifold receipts at what a blush will my inexcusable sloath negligence tongue-tied stand when I shall behold the awe of thy enthroned Majesty and must passe a strict scrutiny for the least peccadilloes in my behaviour and concernments I wil reply then my God I am over-charged O let thy mercy be an advocate in my cause who am I and where shall I find eloquence to make my tongue fertill with a rejoynder to thy Justice but what shall I do if thou urge a plea I must with a trembling bashfullnesse wrap my face in confusion and acknowledge I have not improved the stock wherewith I was entrusted I must confesse I have misdisbursed it in vanities and that it hath served as an exchequer to maintaine my lusts and that I have lavished it in living sinfully Alas did I say in living it is not an expression fit to cloath that condition I should rather say in dying I imagin'd I lived in the dayes of my voluptuousnesse but now a thorough-conviction lyes upon my soul I was dead because I lived without Thee the only true life How should I live when my memory affords not one instance that I have lived with thee In fine O my God since the life of a sinner is death I may truly conclude my death anticipated my life as yet I am not acquainted with life but stil remain in an empty channel cut off from my God the head and fountaine of life My corrupt inclinations still impregnated my tender age with occasions of offending thee I was scarce enfranchised from the womb when I sell into the bondage of sin At my nativity my cheeks were bedewed with teares for sins I was conceived in and knew not And I had scarce dryed up the teares for the sins of another but I began to commit sins my self which I did know yet have not lent them one teare I have delighted my selfe in the sins of my infancy and with my impurities prophan'd the innocency of that age which nature intended the Sanctuary and sacred treasury of all the purity of this life I have breathed nothing but concupiscence I have been the shamefull triumph of my base and sinfull affections and a web so thick hath spread it selfe over the eye of my understanding that I could not discern between light and darknesse between the smooth calmenesse of the mind and the tempestuous Billows of sensuallity In an age so ignorant and so little studious of good I have given a quicker care to the world then to heaven I have bin driven down the swift torrent of a deceitfull voluptuous stream and as if I had been carried away more with the love of torments then rewards I have acted here on Earth whatsoever might further my inevitable precipice into hell From a corrupted infancy I have proceeded to a debauched puberty my sins have shooted up with my yeares and have grown whilst I grew My vaine and vitious loves put on me the shape of a mad-man or barbarian and at the same time I was philtred and enchanted by their lushious witchcrafts I became mine own enemy and willingly ran into the fatall embraces of my own ruine The dayes of my puberty were graduates in the schooles of sinne Through the course of sinning I passed to the degree of my Youth which has left behind it no other tracts but the soyls and sullyings of vice every moment that adds to my age adds to my sins I have bin young I have attain'd the viril consistency of a man and disseising vice hath alwayes held the signiory of my Soul which owed allegiance unto virtue Age hath swan-plum'd my elder head yet it so little maturates my judgment that I tread not in the paths of thy heavenly directions and as if I were a child at a double Jubilee of yeares old and crasie as I am yet do I the actions of a Child What time hath bin so unprivy to my faults that it may encourage the least plea of Innocency Alas my God if thou should'st gratifie me to expect untill I pick'd out one moment of Innocency in my whole life to move in arrest of Judgement what advantage could I take of that favour since my life affords not one minute but loaden with a sin Thou art Just my God thy Judgements are Justice it selfe thy decisions match the merits of the cause When I seek for appeasing inducements I find in me nothing but provoking motives All my accounts carry the justice of a merrited fear And I cannot reckon them without summing up my transgressions I have bin alwayes active in iniquity I have constantly footed the dances of the wicked their instructions have been alwayes my charming musick I have wallowed in vices like a swine in the mire whose repast is ordure and filth nor have I fancied my selfe in other than in things vaine detractious and blasphemous whatsoever was wholesome became nauseous and that only had the gust to tickle my wanton palate which was mortiferous my Bosome-councell were the wicked I had no enjoyment but in the society of the reprobate my ambition was to aim at the wretched grandure of an
eminent sinner I was dextrous in excusing slow in accusing my selfe To steel and harden my heart was the butt of my bended endeavours and the not-acknowledging my selfe a sinner the more aggravation it heaped on my sins the lesse minorations is left my excuses I was negligent in procuring Balsome for my wounded soul sleighted all recipe's and grew enraged against those beyond the limits of all reason and respect vvho forced a seasonable Chirurgy I have knit my fists at the instructor and opened my armes to the flatterer my eares have not admitted-in thy peace-propounding-trumpets but given audience to those that came without thy orders In fine my God the vanity of the world hath been the whole course of my studies All my discourses were lies in the addresses of all my affaires I have courted darknesse before light See here the landskip of my actions see the card of my whole life Where is there any thing to be found but provocatives of thy just indignation So that I will answer thy interrogatories with nothing but humble confessions and since thou hast taught me selfe-accusation proves the most acceptable excuse I will sue out my Justification with the bare acknowledgment of my crimes rase out from thy memory the disorders of my youth and indite me not at the Barre of thy Justice It is impossible for man to be justified before thee but if I must passe thorough thy judgments turne me over O God to the Bench of thy Mercy and remember I am the workmanship of thy own hands although a sinner If my sins provoke let thy mercy appease let its intercession merit the repentance of him that adores thee let it bound thy justly-incensed wrath In fine let it snatch me out of the fiery embraces of hell to the end my soul may eccho forth thy praises and trump throughout all the corners of the earth the effects of thy clemency PSALM III. WHat an aggravated unhappiness is it to have incensed the author of happiness to have offended the purchaser of Salvation and to have despised so superciliously his precepts I have willingly quitted the pathes of felicity and like a stray sheep wandred and straggled within the shot and command of all occasions that might gape after and design my destruction I have roved every where and every where been assayled by troops of sorrows griefs and misfortunes I have been wildred in the Meanders of perdition and iniquity I have left no place unbeaten that I might spring to my self repose and consolation but I retriv'd them not because I minded not Thee my God Without enquiring after the territories of peace I have travelled through a Barren land the demeansns of death and sinne where horror and pain encamp and where the Soul lyes sentenced to the Marshalsey of everlasting torments Whilst I glittered in pomp and dignity I was dasl'd with their coruscancy and as if I had been Nabucadonoser'd into a beast Woods and Caves were my shelters Whilst I was mired in pleasures I was plung'd in troubles my couche was prepar'd on a precipice at the same instant both sleep and ruine crept upon me such a mist interposed the beames of my reason that I expected anchorage in the midst of so many stormes and so many perils What course shall I steere in what creek shall I secure my selfe being beaten on a lee-shore amidst the shelves and shoales of encompassing dangers The hopes that convoyed my youth are dispersed and vanished and I am become like to one shipwracked who having lost his vessell sends a watery eye after his floating treasures scourged hither and thither by the tyrannous winds and no less imperious waves I am farre from harbors can kenne no land that gives hopes of escape I let my self be driven on the rocks where I must most miserably perish The Enimy hath planted his Ambuscadoes and I never mistrusted I have walked without fear or suspition over the pit-falls he hath covered for me and as if I were accessary to my owne perdition I have clapp'd an extinguisher on the light that should guide to their discovery I have soothed my self in my sinnes nor could I fasten in my Imagination the least opinion of homage due from my youth to the Signiorie of death Thus my Soul being over-reached by the vanity of that false position gave entertainment to all extravagant appetites I held forth a willing arme to ushering sensuality and was carried wheresoever her policy and tyranny led me Why said I disputing with my self should I dream of death why should I fixe my thoughts on the end before the middle hath taken up my considerations life enough is left unspunne to meditate a recollection a suddain conversion waites on my will at all seasons Thus have I grown old in my impieties thus are my ill customes become habituall and thus as a Gally-slave to sinne chain'd to its oare I must obey I am like unto a lunatique that hates both life and body and armes his fury against the one and the other untill his totally sopited and besotted reason leaves to command his actions But alass the bent of my hate is of a nature more strange more pernitious The lunatick fastens on his body bends but his fist and blows against clay but my obduratenesse in sinne makes me fasten on my Soul and conclude its wounds in murther Having thus climbed by degrees to the top of Iniquity day after day I irritate my God and my obstinacy calls upon the justice of his fury and my perdition I have been often forced to smoother the inveterate and wicked flames that prey upon me But it is impossible to secure my heart from them their fewell is in mee they are lodg'd in my bones O my God spread thy gracious wings over me I am not able to quench this destroying fire but with the saving fire of thy divine love I have not strength enough to cast off the yoke of sinne thy assistance must work my dis-ingagement and thy succors must prove the reserves to my weaker forces My deserts I must confesse dare not move for these favours but since thy goodnesse causeth the sunne to comfort the good and bad with the radiancy of an equall Influence and that thou layest thy obligations on the unworthy and on those that beg them not at thy hands I cannot conceive thou wilt be so thrifty of thy spirituall riches towards one that begs with the vehemency of so Intent an ardour and with the deep sense of so much sorrow for his offences Move thy compassion towards me give eare to the humble sute of a poor wretch thou that art rich in mercies thou that gloriest in the facility of pardoning thou that washest away the evill habits of the will thou that hearkens to the complaints of the captives thou that breakest the Netts we pitch for our selves thou that buyest our liberty when we sell our selves to slavery and imploy the false liberty men think they injoy without thee against
the son of my mother my friends and relations could not secure themselves from my frauds nor shelter themselves from my calumnies What inundations of miseries and misfortunes was possible to breake in upon mortalls my malicious wishes poured on my neighbor's head In his death have I often laied the foundation of my hopes I have not spred a protecting wing over the innocent and as if the dysasters of the unfortunate were a pleasing harmony to me with inhumane reproaches I have tun'd their afflictions to the highest key The greatest part in the world hath suffered in the rashness of my judgment I have condemned for sins things without the evidence of the least suspition I have perceived the moate in my brothers eye without seeing the beame in my owne I have bin lulled in sloath and Idlenesse shunn'd honest labors and vertuous exercises I have drowned my time in a voluntary lethargie My God my thoughts were never busied about thankefull returnes for thy favours nor hath thy lawes and thy power taken up my meditations Thou knowest O God how sleep hath often quitted its nightly quarters on my eylids and my minde that entertain'd the thought of every thing else was only unhospitable to the thought of thee It hath flown every where but never perched on thee I have prepared for bed I have setled my selfe to sleep I have awaked without dreaming of thee I have been alwaies without thee because I dwelt so much with my self nor persued I any thing but dark passions which constantly widned the distance from thee If at any time ejaculatory thoughts soared towards thee and pried into the wonders thou hast perpetrated for mankind before they vvere yet flegg I smoothered them I have permitted my selfe to be philtred by the svveet poyson of the vvorld's vanity The endeavours I use to teach my speculations thy grandeurs are not unlike the endeavours used tovvard that of sleep vvhich vvhen the enchanting flattery of it once overcomes there ensueth none more sound I have voted often the settlement of my conscience but still adjourn'd it till the morrovv the hopes to amend one day hath cutt off all hopes of amendment I have placed my felicity on a tottering and deceitfull basis I leaned on a reed a broken staffe vvhen I thought my footing most sure I miserably dropped into the fire and nothing but my fall could convince me of the seeblenesse of my support My ambition hath snatched at unlavvfull honors I burnt vvith an imoderate desire of hoarding up riches and squeezing profit out of every thing These uncurb'd lusts have bogued me in sinfull plunges and troubles I have shaken hands vvith all the vvicked vvith all the unrighteous and all those vvhose lives vvere irregular and disorderly I have dishonoured friendship that sacred tye that ought to obleige to none but the vertuous yes my God I have disgraced it vvith concupiscences and have prophaned its sanctity vvith the impurity of my affections I have fancied my selfe in pastimes vvherein lodg'd the cause of my perdition and the fuell to that fire vvhich consumed me and instead of blocking up the passages to obstruct the inroades of death I have opened him fresh avenues All my members have been so many portalls to receive him into my soul VVhen I have ben sullied vvith new offences I have not bin clensed from my old iniquities on the contrary they have rather bin the seeds of so many crimes which estranged me from thy face That is the reason I have been deprived of the consolation thy presence affords and that I wander like a desparado a stranger to his own pathes But alas what will betide me if I depart from thee who will throw his eyes on me if thou avert thine and as a reprobate deny me the favour of thy aspect No doubt I shall prove odious to men both a subject of scorne and derision vvhen they shall demand of me Where is thy God why hath he eclipsed his face from thee What shall I do when outlawed from thy Protection whither shal I go hemmed in on all sides and deserted of thee With teares and sobbes will I search thee out I will implore thy mercie I will beseech thee not to abandon me and that thy just indignation may not move thee to draw off thy lookes from the guard of thy servant because my enemies persue me as if I fled before them they persue me My God to inslave me and to carrouse my blood It behoofs me therefore to take covert under thee to flye to thy Protection from whom I have so long fled Thou art my strength O God my refuge my assurance It is thy power alone can countenance me thy consolation which can cheere me in the day of my miseries and afflictions As there is no God but thee there is no Saviour but thee Thou my God to whom my miseries and infirmities are patent before whom Hypocrisie is unvailed forget both my old and my new offences let thy mercies divert the pursuites of my enemies file off the bolts I have so cruelly been shackled with there is none my God can do it but thee who crowneth with salvation those that put their trust in thee and renders the poore and weake triumphant over the proud and the mighty shade not the divine radiancy of thy lookes from me Disdaine me not O God be unto me a salvation and assurance a redeemer I am poore and miserable thou art accustomed to glad the poore and the miserable with the splendor of thy rayes If thy justice hunt to unkennell me let thy mercy earth me defend me through thy goodnesse that makes thee patient and me penitent Thou art meek thou art patient thy mercy overpoiseth thy wrath there is nothing more proper to thee than to compassionate the miserable to pardon sinners the whole world hath tasted of thy loving kindnesse because thou art omnipotent thou connives at the transgressions of mortalls that thou maiest be pleased with their repentance thou forgives because thou loves the world because it is the architecture of thy owne hands Dart thy saving glances on me that I may turne towards thee disingage my afflicted soul from the desperate extremities it is reduced to that my lips may overflow with thy praises and that I may break forth and say Blessed be the Lord who hath not permitted me to fall into the hands of my enemies they had destroyed me had not thy timely succour prevented my soul was like to a bird entangled in the snares of the fowler The nets are broken and I am delivered PSALM VI. WHat shall I do a miserable and unfortunate object The monster sinne spawn of the bottomlesse pit hath stained his jawes with the slaughter of my soul I have bin led a sad spectacle of my enemie's triumph My God! he hath stript me of all those habiliments wherewith thou didst cloath me I am now abashed to lay open my nakednesse before thee I issued out of thy hands
accomplished with all the graces and riches might furnish out a compleat happiness and without seriously weighing the slēderness of my guard to secure them I have picquered with all occasions that might dismount me and cast me into perdition The Blazon of my soul is char-cole-sable it hath forfeited the livery colour of innocency and hath bartered for poison celestiall viands That I might habit my selfe in the mode of a sinner I have cast off thy pretious equipage and accoutrements I have bin to my selfe both a defacement and a destruction me-thinks I am moulded into the absolute portraiture of the first mans disobedience In fine my God sin hath so miserably metamorphosed my condition thou wilt scarce discern in me the stamp of thy creating impression Is it not justice then like a rotten sheep to exclude me the flock If an awfull trembling creep through the heavens at thy sight what confidence can lead me into thy presence who am nothing but impurity If from sinfulnesse I am lapsed to brutishness what impudence can brazen me to discover my face amongst the Elect I will neverthelesse returne to thee although feare and shame struggle within me I will lay hold on that fatherly bounty wherewith thou embraces all men as a guide to conduct me into thy bosome as the affection of a parent persues his run-away child and metes with usury his submissive return So I hope my God as thy love was abundant in my flight my reclaiming will give it encrease But alas want of force and ability lameth the will I have to return I feel the resistance of a cruell power that stayes me I feel not the interruption of chains and cords but the interruption of my own will wherewith my enemy hath forged fetters impossible to be knocked a sunder My shelter is farre from thee because thy Salvation is far from sinners I shall expire in this so wild a bondage unlesse thy heavenly supplies sally forth and my God have an eye over me I am plunged in the mire and have no strength to recover my selfe a Harricane of temptations doth no lesse wrack my soul then the foaming waves of an enraged sea buffets a miserable Bottome All hope of disingagement from these encompassing dangers fades if the hopes of thy protection blossomes not Alas the more I essay to preserve my self from Shipwrack the more I strike upon the rocks and flats Both within and without to my selfe I am my owne fatall foe domestique enemies are every where embattailed against me I throw me eyes on every side and discover not one in whom to repose a trust a Lacquey Fear waites at my heeles and wheresoever I go not one faithfull friend answers the diligent scrutiny of my search but how should I find faith why should I challenge it from men when I have forfeited mine to God In my miseries and afflictions I have appealed to every one for comfort I have found none amongst those that filled the van in my affliction that would lend me any consolation I have never been happy in a true friend such have been numerous that were nothing but aire and smoaked forth volleys of vaine promises they have been rather dumb my God because they vented nothing concerning thee and because their words were so many sins I have met with men void of charity who swelled my faults with aggravations that I might burst into dispaire who outragiously loaded me with detractions and endeavoured that my soul might sink under their malice as well as my reputation the impious swam in my favours and declining the right paths I have been a proselyte to their prophanenesse I am by little and little arrived to that pitch of irregularity that although through the interposition of thy grace I have not bid farewell to religion yet have I taxed many things in it as frivolous and worthy of disdaine In fine my God I cannot borrow an excuse from any Consideration I have known thee in truth but worshipped thee neither in truth nor in spirit on the contrary I have turned truth into lies I have obeyed the creature before the creator I have fished for delight in things deceitfull and transitory instead of diving for it in truth eternall But O my God since thou hast informed my knowledg with thy true religion shake off that drowsinesse my iniquities hath hung upon me so guard my eyes that it may resist the sleep of death which invades my soul enlighten my eyes draw them up towards thee to the end that through thy light they may behold thee who art the light eternall which is never deficient never extinguished which comprehends whatsoever can be imagined sweet and delectable that they may greedily feast themselves on the vision of thee that they may run-over with joy that they may wish for nothing but thee that they may be convinced thou alone art truely amiable Thou art the true light that conveyes light to all that come into the world Dart one of thy rayes that it may dissipate the gloomy darknesse is gathered about me worke in me a disposition to come under thy wholsome lawes to the end that my soul enflamed with the fire of thy love may languish after none but thee and seek for no pleasures but what thou reaches to her O Lord. I say my soul let me say Thine thine it is by creation mine only by gift and donation preserve a creature thou hast framed according to thine own image of whom thou wert pleased to become both the moulder and the modell Let not the pretious gift wherewith thou hast endowed me wherewith thou hast honoured me with precedence above all the workes of thy hands miserably perish and become a prey to the mouth of Hell Stigmatize me in every part let corroding ulcers and putrefactions creep through my flesh let wormes and noysome vermin consume me doe but thou pardon my soul and stretch not forth thy hand towards it armed with tempests conduct me into thy pathes before our Hemispheare do leave off the departing sunn who being now upon his last complement add force to thy call and compells me to thee force me ô God with all the Artillery of violence that I may surrender my self to thee and not perish Supplant my heart of marble with a heart of flesh let thy spirit wield the scepter there that thy precepts may oblige my footsteps and thy commands my observance let not anything in me my God be the motive of these savours whose unworthinesse in the abuse of so many mercyes hath wholly incapacitated but thy holy and venerable name alone I must acknowledge the tardinesse of my arrivall at thee and to me it is punishment enough it was no timelier But my God I am satisfied thou streightens not the time and limits it to those would come and find thee out with an equall acceptancy thou receives the tardy and the early Although sin be an object of thy hatred it overskips the sinner nor dost thou rejoyce