But for my sins against thee my God I must lay my hand upon my mouth for ever for I have nothing to return or answer But the comfort is and blessed shall be my Soul if rightly I lay hold on it that it is thou O my blessed Iesu who hast satisfied for me one drop of whose bloud is enough to satisfie for the sins of a thousand worlds And this being so will thy offended Father be so rigorous as to require the same paiment again Especially will he require it of me a poor a broken and a bankrupt Sinner Canst thou exact the utmost farthing of him who hath not a mite of his own to pay thee The Transition which the Penitent makes from the Acts of Contrition to the Acts of Resolution for amendment of life without which all sorrow for sin is in vain BUT because by thy infinite Mercy O my God thou hast satisfied for me already shall I therefore fold my Arms and sit down and doe nothing towards it Or which is worse shall I goe on Shall I continue in my Sins that Grace may abound Now God forbid No I here resolve rather to die the Death then ever wilfully to sin against thee more I do here resolve utterly to avoid the temptations and approaches towards those former sins which have hitherto so miserably betraied me I do here resolve thy holy Spirit assisting me upon all the duties of a new life to be hereafter more wary in my waies and more constant to good resolutions to love thee above all the pleasures and interests of this life and sadly to consider what an infinite loser I should be if to gain all that my corrupt heart desires I should lose thee If after all this I should be so miserably forgetfull both of my self and thee as shamefully to relapse into any of those sins which I have now repented of I do here once more resolve to abhor and loath my self for it and not to let my Conscience sleep or admit of any rest till I have with bitter Tears and a sharp reiterated Repentance obtained my pardon Having thus far made his Resolution the Penitent betakes himself to Praier AND now O thou great searcher of all Hearts who seest that I am of my self weak and mutable and no better then a Reed shaken with the winde O shew thy strength in my weakness fasten and confirm me in these good purposes and so binde them with Cords unto thine Altar that â— may never start from thee more or be any longer of that Herd whose good resolutions are as a dream in the night or if they last longer they are but as the next morning dew and as soon vanish away O give me the Resolution of thy Servant Joshua I and my house will serve the Lord. O give me the Heart of thy Servant David who so passionately makes his Protestations I will take no wicked thing in hand I hate the sins of unfaithfulness there shall no such cleave unto me I will walk in my house with a perfect heart I have sworn and am stedfastly purposed to keep thy righteous Judgments Lord I am not able to think one of these good thoughts without thee much less to resolve upon them But I who without thee am able to doe nothing may venture to say as thine Apostle did that in thee I am able to doe all things Lord give me the strength to doe what thou requirest and then require of me what thou pleasest Amen After these Resolutions the Penitent prepares himself with an humble Soul and bended knees to beg Pardon O The God of my life and the unexhausted Fountain of Mercy which can never be drawn dry I have now by the assistence of thy holy Spirit gone through though with weak and trembling steps the whole exercise of Repentance for I have confessed my sins and thou hast promised upon my confession of them not to impute them to me I have gone one step farther for I have repented of my sins and thou hast promised again that upon my repentance thou wilt remember them no more and because thy Holy Word hath taught me that a new life is the onely life of a true Repentance I have this day in thy fight and in the presence of all the holy Angels that attend thee in the Conversion of a Sinner made my firm resolution never to fall again into the sins which I have repented of And now what remains for a poor Penitent to doe more but humbly and earnestly to beg thy Pardon The Penitent's Praier O God the Father who canst not be thought so cruell as to make me onely to destroy me Have mercy on me O God the Son who knowing thy Father's Will didst make it thy business to come into the world to save me Have mercy on me O God the Holy Ghost who to the same end didst sanctifie me in my Baptism and haft so often since breathed holy thoughts and motions on me Have mercy on me O Holy and Blessed and Glorious Trinity whom in three Persons I adore as my one and onely true God Have mercy on me Hear me O Lord. Help me O Lord. Save me or else I perish Lord carest thou not that I perish Thou that wouldest have all men saved Thou who wouldest have none to perish And wilt thou now shew thine anger against a Worm against a Leaf against a Vapour that vanisheth before thee O remember how short my time is and deliver not my Soul into the Power of Hell For alas what profit is there in my Bloud or who shall ever give thee thanks in that bottomless pit No let me live in thy sight let me live O my God that my Soul may praise thee Forget me as I have been disobedient provoking thee to anger and regard me as I am distressed crying out to thee for help Look not upon me as I am a Sinner but consider me as I am thy Creature A Sinner I am I confess a Sinner of no ordinary strain but let not this hinder thee O my God for upon such Sinners thou gettest the greatest glory O remember for whose sake it was that thou camest from the bosome of thy Father and didst let thy self down so low as to be content to be born of thine own humble handmaid Remember for whom it was that thy tender Body was Torn and Scourged and Crucified and thy precious Bloud shed Was it not for the sins of the whole world and shall I be so narrow-hearted to my own Soul or so injurious to thy Glory as to think that in all this crowd thou hast particularly excepted me Or which is as great a dishonour to thee can I possibly imagine that thou diedst onely for Sinners of a lower kinde and leftest such as I am without remedy What had become then of him who filled Ierusalem with Bloud What of the noted Woman who had lived in a trade of Sin Nay what had become of thine own Disciple who
those publick Judgments now fallen on the whole Church and Nation and those crying sins which have occasioned them offering up your earnest praiers to God for the removing of them which when they come from a mortified Body and a contrite Heart are such a Sacrifice that God who deceives no man being true to his Promises cannot possibly despise III. That the Fast for the time designed be such as may in some measure be afflictive to you abstaining totally that day from all manner of food if the condition of your health will bear it or if that cannot be that you be so moderate in your feeding that it may appear that you rather serve your Necessities in eating then satisfie your Appetite IV. That you employ this Day or such a part of it at least as you may keep free to your self as a Retreat from the world the businesses and the pleasures of it that so you may with the more freedom make up the Accounts between God and your own Soul and by Praier and Penitence reconcile your self to him for without this Fasting is of no use Expresses of Humiliation preparatory to the following Devotions RIghteousness O Lord belongs unto thee but unto me confusion of face the vainest the vilest the sinfullest of all the children of men Lord I am vile in mine own eyes and I will be yet more vile because my sins have made me vile in thine I am not worthy of the Air I breath of the Earth I tread upon or of the Sun that shines upon me much less worthy to lift up either hands or eyes to Heaven For thou hast said that no unclean thing shall come within thy fight and how then shall I appear who am so miserably defiled If the Man according to thine own heart could say that he was a Worm and no Man O what am I If Abraham who had the honour to be called thy Friend could say that he was but Dust and Ashes O what am I O my God thou madest me of nothing and thou seest how I have spoiled this work of thine for I have made my self worse then nothing For I am still in my Sins and what to doe I know not Acts of Resolution to second this Humiliation But this I will doe I Will confess my wickedness and be sorry for my sins I will stand aloof with the Publican and smite my breast and say Lord be mercifull to me a sinner I will return with the Prodigal and say Father I am not worthy to be called thy Child make me as one of thine hired Servants I will not suffer mine eyes to sleep nor mine eye-lids to slumber till I have by the mediation of thy dear Son obtained my pardon And what shall I say more I will pour out my praiers in the bitterness of my Spirit and if my dry eyes want Tears I will call unto my heart for Tears of Bloud wherewith I may supply them And therefore now Lord call my sins to my remembrance and when thou hast done so blot them out of thy remembrance and pardon me A Litany of Confession to be made use of by the Penitent Soul that finds it self burthened with a true sense of Sin I. WO Wo unto me O God that being a Creature of thine and made by thee capable of enjoying everlasting felicity I have lived so wickedly and leudly that unless thy mercy prevent it I shall utterly forfeit the very End of my Creation But I Repent O my God I Repent I am utterly ashamed of it Lord be thou mercifull to me a Sinner II. Wo unto me O God that I have trifled away so many of my Youngest daies without knowing thee or taking any notice of those strict duties which I did owe unto thee that I was so long a Child in all things excepting Innocence and that onely by an over-hasty Spring of early Wickedness I was more then a Child But I Repent O my God I Repent I Accuse and Iudge and Condemn my self for it Lord be thou mercifull to me a Sinner III. Wo Wo unto me O God that as I grew up the seeds of Corruption which I brought with me into the world grew up along with me and by insensible degrees which I observed not Pride and Folly and Lust took possession of me and Sin hath reigned in my mortal Body But I Repent O my God I Repent I am infinitely confounded at it Lord be thou mercifull to me a Sinner IV. Wo Wo unto me O God that being washed in the Waters of Baptism from the guilt of that Original Corruption which I brought with me into the World I have since that time so many waies actually defiled my self that I can no longer pretend by any former contract with thee that I am either a Child of thine a member of thy Christ or an heir of the Kingdom of Heaven But I Repent O my God I Repent I am utterly confounded at it Lord be thou mercifull to me a Sinner V. Wo unto me O God that having been received into the Bosom of thy Church which so many millions of Souls have not had the happiness to be so I have ingratefully dishonoured thy holy Faith by an unholy Life and having so often confessed thee with my tongue I have denied thee in my life and actions But I Repent O my God I Repent I Accuse and Iudge and Condemn my self for it Lord be thou mercifull to me a Sinner VI. Wo Wo unto me O God that having abjured the Devil and all his works and given up my name to Christ to fight under the Banner of his Cross I have on the contrary treacherously complied with his Enemy in many things and shall be found I fear to have been more diligent in serving him then I have been in serving thee But I Repent O my God I Repent I am confounded and astonished at it Lord be thou mercifull to me a Sinner VII Wo Wo unto me O God that being obliged by that high calling of being a Christian to renounce the Pomps and Vanities of the World I have so infinitely failed in this that I have doted on nothing more for those very Vanities have been my Idols and my seduced Heart hath gone a Whoring after them But I Repent O my God I Repent I am ashamed and confounded at it Lord be thou mercifull to me a Sinner VIII Wo Wo unto me O God that being farther bound by that most Solemn Vow utterly to forsake the sinfull Lusts of the Flesh I have in stead of forsaking them pursued and hunted after them and when other temptations have failed have been apt enough to kindle my own Fire and to be a Tempter to my self But I Repent O my God I Repent I bate and loath and abhor my self for it Lord be thou mercifull to me a Sinner IX Wo Wo unto me O God that knowing thy revealed Will to be the Law to which I was bound in all obedience to submit my self I like an
with Oaths and Curses thrice denied thee O how easie is it for thee to forgive for it is thy Nature How proper is it for thee to save for it is thy Name How suitable is it to thy onely End of coming into the World for it is thy Business And when I consider that I am the chief of Sinners may I not urge the Father and say Shall the very chief of thy business be left undone Mercy Mercy good Lord. I ask not of thee any longer the things of this world neither Power nor Honours nor Riches nor Pleasures No my God dispose of them to whom thou pleasest so that thou givest me Mercy O that I could hear thee once say as thou didst to him in the Gospel My Son be of good chear thy Sins are forgiven thee How would my drooping Spirits revive at such a Sound and my now wounded Soul break forth into Hymns and Praises and Hallelujahs for a Mercy so utterly undeserved of me and which the Angels which fell could never hear of But O my weak Soul what dost thou fear or what dost thou scruple at For thou art not yet in such a desperate condition but thou maist expect that what was said to him may possibly be said to thee Nay be confident though it be with a mixture of fear and trembling that if thou dost not act the part of an Hypocrite all this while thy Saviour stands ready at the very doors of thy Heart to breath the very same words in a heavenly whisper to thee Be of good chear thy Sins are forgiven thee Return then unto thy rest O my Soul for thy Sins are forgiven thee Onely take this Counsel along with thee Sin no more lest a worse thing fall unto thee O that I could never sin against thee more never purposely deliberately wilfully sin against thee more And for those sins of daily Incursion those over-familiar corruptions of my nature which thou hast not yet given me strength enough to conquer Lord either subdue them to me by degrees or lay them not to my charge But wherein soever my Conscience most accuseth me therein O my God be thou most mercifull unto me Save me O God as a Brand snatched out of the Fire Receive me O my Jesu as a Sheep that hath wandred but is now returned to the great Shepherd and Bishop of my Soul The Iubile of the Penitent Soul after the sense of Pardon obtained REjoice over me O God the Father that this thy Child was lost but is found was dead but is alive again Rejoice over me O God the Son that thy loud Cries and Tears and bitter Agonies which for my sake thou enduredst upon the Cross were not so unhappily lost as to be cast away in vain upon me Rejoice over me O God the Holy Ghost that thy so many secret and powerfull touches have at last got the upper hand of me Rejoice over me O ye holy Angels a great part of whose Ministery it is to rejoice at the Conversion of a Sinner Rejoice over thy self O my Soul that thou hast received so much grace from Heaven this day as sadly to confess thy Sins seriously to repent of them and stedfastly to resolve never to be guilty more of so much brutishness as to be likened to the Dog that returns to his Vomit or to the Swine wallowing in the Mire The Petinent closeth all with this short Praier LEt this day O my God be noted in thy Book Do not thou forget my Praiers nor suffer me to forget my Resolutions For though I am weak though I am unworthy though I am unprofitable yet I am thy Servant And here upon my bended Knees I humbly beg of thee that I may live and die so Lord hear my Praiers and let my cry come unto thee Lord pardon my Praiers and let not my coldness and wandrings and infinite unworthiness turn them into Sin Lord hear my Praiers and let my cry come unto thee Amen Amen FINIS