me the just shall press me round about Domine exaudi Psal cxliii N. LOrd hear my prayer heark the plaint that I do make to thee Lord in thy native truth and in thy justice answer me verse 2 In judgement with thy servant Lord O enter not at all For justifi'd be in thy sight not one that liveth shall verse 3 The enemy hath pursu'd my soul my life to ground hath thrown And laid me in the dark like them that dead are long agone verse 4 Within me in perplexity was mine accumbred sprite And in me was my troubled heart amazed and affright verse 5 Yet I record time past in all thy works I meditate Yea in thy works I meditate that thy hands have create verse 6 To thee O Lord my God lo I do stretch my craving hands My soul desireth after thee as do the thirsty lands verse 7 Hear me with speed my spirit doth fail hide not thy face me fro Else shall I be like them that down into the pit do go verse 8 Let me thy loving kindness in the morning hear and know For in thee is my trust shew me the way where I shall go verse 9 For I lift up my soul to thee O Lord deliver me From all mine enemies for I have hidden me with thee verse 10 Teach me to do thy will for thou thou art my God I say Let thy good Spirit unto the land of mercy me convey verse 11 For thy Names sake with quickning grace alive do thou me make And out of trouble bring my soul even for thy justice sake verse 12 And for thy mercy slay my foes O Lord destroy them all That do oppress my soul for I thy servant am and shall Benedictus Dom. Psal cxliv. N. BLest be the Lord my strength that doth instruct my hands to fight The Lord that doth my fingers frame to battel by his might verse 2 He is my goodness sort and tower deliverer and shield In him I trust my people he subdues to me to yeeld verse 3 O Lord what thing is man that him thou holdest so in price Or son of man that upon him thou thinkest in such wise verse 4 Man is but like to vanity so pass his days to end verse 5 As fleeting shade Bow down O Lord the heavens and descend verse 6 The mountains touch and they shall smoke cast forth thy lightning flame And scatter them thine arrows shoot consume them with the same verse 7 Send down thine hand even from above O Lord deliver me Take me from waters great from hand of strangers make me free verse 8 Whose subtil mouth of vanity and fondness doth entreat And their right hand is a right hand of falshood and deceit verse 9 A new song will I sing O God and singing will I be On viol and on instrument ten-stringed unto thee verse 10 Even he it is that onely gives deliverance to kings Unto his servant David help from hurtful sword be brings verse 11 From strangers hand me save and shield whose mouths talks vanity And their right hand is a right hand of guiâ—e and subtilty verse 12 That our sons may be as the plants whom growing youth doth rear Our daughters as carv'd corner-stones like to a palace fair verse 13 Our garners full and plenty may with sundry sorts be found Our sheep bring thousands in our streets ten thousands may abound verse 14 Our oxen be to labour strong that none do us invade There be no goings out nor cries within our streets be made verse 15 The people blessed are that with such blessings are so stor'd Yea blessed all the people are whose God is God the Lord. Exaltabo te Psal cxlv N. THee will I laud my God and King and bless thy Name for ay verse 2 For ever will I praise thy Name and bless thee day by day verse 3 Great is the Lord most worthy praise his greatness none can reach verse 4 From race to race they shall thy works praise and thy power preach verse 5 I of thy glorious majesty the beauty will record And meditate upon thy works most wonderful O Lord. verse 6 And they shall of thy power and of thy fearful acts declare And I to publish all abroad thy greatness will not spare verse 7 And they into the mention shall break of thy goodness great And I aloud thy righteousness in singing shall repeat verse 8 The Lord our God is gracious and merciful also Of great abounding mercy and to anger he is slow verse 9 Yea good to all and all his works his mercy doth exceed verse 10 Lo all thy works do praise thee Lord and do thy honour spread verse 11 Thy saints do bless thee and they do thy kingdoms glory show verse 12 And blaze thy power to cause the sons of men thy power to know The second part And of his mighty kingdom eke to spread the glorious praise verse 13 Thy kingdom Lord a kingdom is that doth endure always And thy dominion through each age endures without decay verse 14 The Lord upholdeth them that fall their sliding he doth stay verse 15 The eyes of all do wait on thee thou dost them all relieve And thou to each sufficing food in season due dost give verse 16 Thou openest thy plenteous hand and bounteously dost fill All things what soever do live with gifts of thy good will verse 17 The Lord is just in all his ways his works are holy all verse 18 Near all he is that call on him in truth that on him call verse 19 He the desires which they require that fear him will fulfill And he will hear them when they cry and save them all he will verse 20 The Lord preserves all those to him that bear a loving heart But he them all that wicked are will utterly subvert verse 21 My thankful mouth shall gladly speak the praises of the Lord All flesh to praise his holy Name for ever shall accord Lauda anima Psal cxlvi J. H. MY soul praise thou the Lord always my God I will confess verse 2 While breath and life prolong my days my tongue no time shall cease verse 3 Trust not in worldly princes then though they abound in wealth Nor in the sons of mortal men in whom there is no health verse 4 For why their breath doth soon depart to earth anon they fall And then the counsels of their heart decay and perish all verse 5 O happy is that man I say whom Jacobs God doth aid And he whose hope doth not decay but on the Lord is staid verse 6 Which made the earth and waters deep the heavens high withall Which doth his word and promise keep in truth and ever shall verse 7 With right always doth he proceed for such as suffer wrong The poor and hungry he doth feed and loose the fetters strong verse 8 The Lord doth send the blinde their sight the lame to limbs restore The Lord I say doth love the right and
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
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