this night and for the time to come give me grace to fly all youthful lusts and to remember Thee my Creatour in the days of my youth Shower down Thy graces and blessings on me and on all my Relations on my Father and Mother on my Brethren and Sisters on all my Friends on all my Governours in this place and on all my Fellow-Scholars and give Thy Angels charge over us to protect us all from sin and danger Lord bless me in my Learning this day that I may every day grow more fit for Thy service O pardon my failings and do more for me then I can ask or think for the merits of Jesus my Saviour in whose holy words I sum up all my wants Our Father which art in heaven c Evening Prayer GLory be to Thee O Lord God for all the blessings I dayly receive from Thee and for Thy particular preservation of me this day O Lord have mercy uâ—on me and forgive whatsoever Thou hast seen amiss in me this day past and for the timk to come give me grace to fly all youthful lusts and to remember Thee my Creatour in the days of my youth Lord receive me and all my Relations and all that belong to this Colledge into Thy gracious protection this night and send me such seasonable rest that I may rise the next morning more fit for thy service Lord hear my prayers and pardon my failings for the merits of my blessed Saviour in whose holy words I sum up all my wants Our Father which art in Heaven c. This good Pbil. is the lowest degree of duty and it should be your dayly endeavour to improve in your devotion as well as in your learning and the more effectually to move you to so happy an improvement I advise you on Sundays and Holy-days attentively to read over this following Meditation and to propose to your self the Holy Child Jesus for your example A Meditation on the Holy â—hild Jesus GLory be to Thee O Lord Jesus Glory be to Thee who when Thou wert twelve years old didst go up to Jerusalem with Thy Parents after the custom of the Feast to eat the Passover and to worship Thy Heavenly Father O blessed Saviour give me grace like Thee to make Religion my first and chiefest care and devoutly to observe all solemn times and all holy Rites which relate to Thy worship Glory be to Thee O Lord Jesus Glory be to Thee who when Thy Parents returned home didst stay behind in Jerusalem and after three days wast found of them in the Temple sitting in the midst of the Doctors both hearing them and asking them questions O blessed Saviour who in Thy very Childhood didst triumph over all the vain delights of youth and wouldst choose no place but the Temple to reside in Mortifie in me all inordinate love of sensual pleasure which may pervert me from my duty raise in me an awful reverence of Thy House an early devotion in my Prayers and a delight in Thy Praises O blessed Jesu who didst choose before all others the company of the Doctors and didst both hcar them and ask them Questions give me grace to abhor all lewd company and all filthy communication give me grace to love wise and sober and profitable and religious conversation and to be diligent and inquisitive after learning and whatsoever is good Glory be to Thee O Lord Jesus Glory be to Thee who when Thy Father and Mother had sought Thee sorrowing didst reply to them How is it that ye sought me wist ye not that I must be about my Fathers business O blessed Jesu who from Thy infancie didst make it Thy whole imployment to do Thy Fathers will kindle in me a forward zeal for Thy Glory that I may consecrate my youth to Thy service and make it the great business of my life to know and fear to love and obey my Heavenly Father Glory be to Thee O Lord Jesus Glory be to Thee who didst at last return home with Thy Parents and wert subject to them O blessed Jesu give me grace to honour my Parents and Governours and readily to obey all their lawful commands Glory be to Thee O Lord Jesus Glory be to Thee who in those tender years wert blessed with such Heavenly wisdom that all that heard Thee were astonished at Thy understanding and answers who didst dayly increase in this Heavenly wisdom and in favour with God and Man O Lord Jesu bless me with all abilities of mind and body that may make me daâ—ly increase in my Learning but above all bless me with Wisdom from above and give me Thy Holy Spirit to assist and enlighten me that as I grow in Age I may dayly grow in Grace and in the knowledge of Thee and in favour with God and Man and every day more and more conformable to Thy Unsinning and Divine example Amen Lord Jesus Amen Directions for those that are more grown in years WHen you have attained to more knowledge and proficiencie in grace and are of an Age capable of receiving the Holy Sacrament God then expects more from you and 't is high time for you good Philotheus to lengthen your prayers and to begin to add some ejaculations over and above such as these are which follow Ejaculations at waking or rising AWake O my Soul and Sing praises to God Glory be to Thee O God for watching over me this night Lord raise me up at the last day to life everlasting Morning Prayer EArly in the morning will I cry unto Thee Lord hear my Prayer Glory be to Thee Lord God Almighty Glory be to Thee for renewing Thy mercies to me every morning Glory be to Thee for refreshing me this night with sleep and for preserving me from the perils of darkness O do away as the night so my transgressions scatter my sins as the Morning Cloud Lord forgive whatever Thou hast seen amiss in me this night my Here if you are conscious to your self of any sin committed in the night confess it O Father of Mercies wash me throughly from my wickedness and cleanse me from my sin And let Thy Holy Spirit so prevent and accompany and follow me this day that I may believe in Thee and love Thee and keep Thy Commandments and continue in Thy fear all the day long Lord make me chaste and temperate humble and adviseable diligent in my studies obedient to my Superiours and charitable to all men Lord deliver me from sloth and idleness from youthful lusts and ill company from all dangers bodily and ghostly and give me grace to remember Thee my Creatour in the days of my youth Bless and defend and save the King and all the Royal Family and all Orders of men amongst us Ecclesiastical or Civil Lord give them all grace in their several stations to be instrumental to Thy glory and the publick good Together with them I commend to Thy Divine Providence my Father and Mother my Brethren and Sisters all
have inclined unto wickedness with my heart but for the sake of thy well-beloved Son Cast not out my prayer nor turn Thy Mercy from me Miserable wretch that I am I have gone astray from the very womb I was shapen in wickedness and in sin did my Mother conceive me Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean What is man then O God that he should be clean or he that is born of a woman that he should be righteous Thou Lord puttest no trust in Thy Saints and the Heavens are not clean in Thy sight and the very Angels Thou chargest with folly How much more abominable then and filthy am I who dayly drink iniquity like Water Lord pity and cleanse and forgive and save me for Thy Mercies sake I know O God that in my slesh dwelleth no good thing for when I would do good evil is present with me and I see a Law in my Members warring against the Law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin Lord have mercy upon me and deliver me from this body of death from this Tyranny of sin Alas alas My whole Nature is Corrupt Infinitely prone to all evil and averse to all that is good my Understanding is full of Ignorance and Errour my Will is perverse my Memory tenacious of all things that may pollute me and forgetful of my duty my Passions are inordinate my Senses the inlets of all impurity and I have abused all my faculties I am Unclean Unclean Lord Pity and Cleanse and forgive and save me for Thy Mercies fake O Lord God How have I through my whole life violated the solemn Vow I made to Thee in my Baptism by eagerly pursuing the vanities of this wicked World by easily yielding to the temptations of the Devil by greedily indulging my own Carnal desires and lusts by a fruitless and dead faith and by disobedience to thy Holy Will and Commands Father I have sinned against Heaven and in Thy sight and am no more worthy to be called Thy Son I have sinned O Lord God I have sinned Against Thee by Here confess out of your Paper the sins which you have committed more immediately against God with those aggravations that accompany them For instance Lord I have committed this sin or these sins frequently against Checks of Conscience c. and then add Father I have sinned against Heaven and in Thy sight and am no more worthy to be called Thy Son O Pity and Cleanse and forgive and save me for Thy Mercies sake I have sinned O Lord God I have sinned Against Thee and against my own self by Here confess the sins you have committed more immediately against your self with their aggravations c. and say as before Father I have sinned against Heaven c. I have sinned O Lord God I have sinned Against Thee and against my Neighbour by Here confess the sins you have committed more immediately against your Neighbour with their aggravations c. and add as before Father I have sinned against Heaven c. O Lord God my wickedness is great and my iniquities are infinite they are more in number then the hairs of my head and my heart would fail me but that I well know Thy mercies are more Numberless then my sins Have mercy upon me therefore O Lord according to Thy great goodness according to the multitude of Thy mercies do away my offences Who alas can tell how oft he offendeth O cleanse Thou me from my secret faults from all my sins of Ignorance or Infirmity or Omission or which I have not observed or which I have forgot Lord lay none of them to my charge Father forgive me Lord Jesus have mercy on me O remember not the sins and offences of my youth but receive me O Heavenly Father into the arms of Thy Fatherly Compassion as Thou didst the returning Prodigal and forgive me all my transgressions for the merits of Jesus Thy only well-beloved Son and my Saviour Amen Amen When you have thus confest your sins good Phil. endeavour to be still more sensible of them and to bewail them with a true Penitential Hatred and Shame and Sorrow for them then make steady resolutions of forsaking them and cry earnestly to God for pardon and grace for you must as well put on the New man as put off the Old of all which acts of Repentance I give you the following instances and advise you to say them over as devoutly as possibly you can Acts of Shame O Lord God I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to Thee for my iniquities are increased over my head and my trespasses are grown up unto the Heavens O my Soul what fruit have I reapt from all the pleasures of sin which flattered me but vanity and vexation of Spirit Lord I am ashamed of my own folly and madness and disingenuity when I call to mind how greedily I have sucked in my own Pollution How treacherously I have betrayed my own Soul to temptations and combined with the very Devils to hasten and increase my own damnation How obstinately I have fled from Thee when Thy Mercy pursued me with promises of Pardon How unworthily I have abused Thy Goodness and forbearance and long-suffering which should have led me to Repentance Surely after I was turned I repented and since I have considered my ways I am ashamed yea even confounded because I bear the Reproach of my youth Acts of Abâ—orrence I hate all evil ways O Lord but Thy Law will I love O Lord God nothing is more abominable in Thy sight or more Diabolical Nothing more defaces Thy Divine Image or makes me more odious in Thy Purest Eyes then Sin and therefore I hate and abhor it O Lord God I confess I have Nothing good in me Nothing that can any way move Thee to compaâ—ionate so loathsome a Sinner but Thy own free and Undeserved and Infinite Mercy and the merits of my Saviour O Lord God I cannot but admire the Riches of Thy Goodness who hast spared me so long and hast given me this opportunity of Repentance O do Thou yet Magnifie Thy mercy more in my forgiveness O Cleanse me from all that Filth my soul hath contracted which now renders me odious to my own self as well as to Thee Acts of Contrition Miserable Wretch that I am that I should begin so early to offend my Creatour and sin so much in so short a time Lord I fear I never yet throughly considered how evil and how bitter a thing it is to depart from Thee O make me every day more and more seusible of the errour of my ways and of my own Infinite vileness Miserable wretch that I am that ever I should commit those sins which expose me to all the vials of Thy wrath to all the Curses of Thy Law to all Thy Judgments temporal or spiritual in this life and to all the Horrors and despair
A MANUAL of PRAYERS For the Use of the SCHOLARS of Winchester Colledge HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE Manners makyth man W W LONDON Printed for John Martyn 1675. Academiae Cantabrigiensis Liber A MANUAL OF PRAYERS For the Use of the Scholars of Winchester Colledge An Exhortation to young Philotheus IF you have any regard good Philotheus to your own eternal happiness it ought to be your chiefest care to serve and glorifie God 'T is for this end God both made and redeemed you and two excellent rules He hath given you in Holy Scripture by the conscientious observation of which you will be able through His grace to dedicate your tender years to His glory The one teaches you what you are to do Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youtb The other teaches you what you are to avoid Fly youthful lusts that is all those sins which are usually incident to young persons You cannot imagine the unspeakable advantages a pious youth gains by the practice of these two Rules and how many ghostly dangers that Soul escapes which is seasoned betimes with the fear of God before he is sullied with ill Company before he hath contracted vitious habits which will cost him infinite pains to unlearn before his affections are too far engaged in the World to be easily recalled and before the Devil hath got too strong a hold in him to be suddenly dispossessed O Philotheus do but ask any one old Penitent what fruit what satisfaction he hath purchast to himself by all those pleasures of sin which slattered him in his youth and of which he is now ashamed Will he not sadly tell you he has found them all to be but vanity and vexation of Spirit How will he befool himself for the many good opportunities he hath lost and wish a thousand times that he were to live over his mispent days again And how bitterly will he with David bewail the sins of his youth Learn then good Phil. by the dear-bought experience of others to accustom your self to bear Christs yoke from your youth and his yoke will sit easie on your neck for your duty will grow natural to you by beginning betimes Do but consider how welcome a young Convert is to God it was to young Samuel that God revealed himself and that at such a time too when the Word of God was pretious and very rare to shew how much God honoured a young Prophet and you know that St. John the youngest of all the Disciples is the only person of all the twelve who was permitted to lean on our Saviours bosome at the last Supper as dearest to Him in affection and who is emphatically called the Disciple whom Jesus loved and this is suitable to that gracious promise which God hath made to encourage all young persons to serve him I love them that love me and they that seek me early shall find me O Philotheus let this Heavenly promise excite in you a great zeal to sâ—ek God and to seek Him early for if you do seek you are sure to find Him you are sure when you have found Him He will love you and you shall reap all the happy effects of Gods infinite Love and of an early Piety An early Piety then which nothing will make you a greater comfort to all your friends or a greater blessing to the very Colledge where you are bred nothing will make you more universally esteemed and beloved by all men or more successful in your Studies and besides that peace of Conscience and the pleasure of well-doing you will at present feel think if you can how unconceivable a joy it will be to you when in your elder years you can reflect on your well spent time and the innocence of your Youth how great a Consolation it will be to you on your death-bed how easie it will render your accounts at the great Day of Judgment and how much a whole life spent in Gods service will increase your glory in Heaven God of his great mercy Philotheus make these and the like considerations effectual to create holy Resolutions in you and give you grace to make good use of these following Directions which are designed to teach you to fear the Lord from your youth and are suited to your particular Age and Condition in hope they may the more affect you God grant they may Amen Directions in general AS soon as ever you awake in the morning good Philoâ—heus strive as much as you can to keep all worldly thoughts out of your mind till you have presented the first fruits of the day to God which will be an excellent preparative to make you spend the rest of it the better and therefore be sure to sing the Morning and Evening Hymn in your Chamber devoutly remembring that the Psalmist upon happy experience assures you that it is a good thing to tell of the loving kindness of the Lord early in the morning and of his truth in the night season When you are ready look on your Soul as still untill you have said your Prayers Remember that God under the Law ordained a Lamb to be offered up to Him every Morning and Evening A Lamb which is a fit emblem of Youth and Innocence Think then that you arâ— to resemble this Lamb and be sure every day to offer up your self a Morning and Evening Sacrifice to God If you are a Commoner you may say your prayers in â—our own Chamber but if you are a Child or a Chorister then to avoid the interruptions of the Common Chambers go into the Chappel between first and second Pcal in the Morning to say your Morning Prayer and say your Evening Prayer when you go Circum Now that every one may have his duty proportioned to his capacity the best way is to distinguish two degrees of young Christians in this Colledge namely those that are of an Age capable of receiving the Holy Sacrament and those that are not and in one of theâ—e two degrees you are to rank your self Directions for the Youngest IF you are very young good Philotheus that Gods commands may not seem grievous to you at your first setting out I shall advise you to no more then your Infant Devotion will bear and that is To take great care to learn your Catechism without Book and to learn to understand it for 't is impossible you can ever perform your duty unless you first know what it is 't is impossible you can ever go to Heaven unless you learn the way thither and that you may beg Gods dayly blessing and his grace to assist you learn these two short Prayers by heart and say them every day Morning Prayer GLory be to Thee O Lord God for all the blessings I dayly receive from Thee and for Thy particular preservation and refreshment of me this night past O Lord have mercy upon me and forgive whatsoever Thou hast seen amiss in me