Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	miserable_a	remember_v	sinner_n	2,141	5	9.4364	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23775	The whole duty of man laid down in a plain way for the use of the meanest reader divided into XVII chapters : one whereof being read every Lords day, the whole may be read over, thrice in the year, necessary for all families : with private devotions.; Whole duty of man	Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681.; Fell, John, 1625-1686.; Sterne, Richard, 1596?-1683.; Henchman, Humphrey, 1592-1675.; Pakington, Dorothy Coventry, Lady, d. 1679.	1659 (1659)	Wing A1170_PARTIAL; Wing A1161_PARTIAL; ESTC R22026	270,427	508

of those sins which have provoked thy Judgements that thou also mayest turn and repent and leave a blessing behinde thee Bless those whom thou hast appointed our Governours whether in Church or State so rule their hearts and strengthen their hands that they may neither want will nor power to punish wickedness and vice and to maintain Gods true Religion and Vertue Have pity O Lord on all that are in affliction be a Father to the fatherless and plead the cause of the widow comfort the feeble minded support the weak heal the sick relieve the needy defend the oppressed and administer to every one according to their several necessities let thy blessings rest upon all that are near and dear to me and grant them whatsoever thou seest necessary either to their bodies or their Souls Here name thy neerest Relations Reward all those that have done me good and pardon all those that have done or wisht me evil and work in them and me all that good which may make us acceptable in thy sight through Jesus Christ. For PRESERVATION OMerciful God by whose bounty alone it is that I have this day added to my life I beseech thee so to guide me in it by thy grace that I may do nothing which may dishonour thee or wound my own soul but that I may deligently apply my self to do all such good works as thou hast prepared for me to walk in and Lord I beseech thee give thy Angels charge over me to keep me in all my wayes that no evil happen unto me nor any plague come nigh my dwelling but that I and mine may be safe under thy gracious protection through Jesus Christ. O Lord pardon the wandrings and coldness of these petitions and d●al with me not according either to my prayers or deserts but according to my needs and thine own rich mercies in Jesus Christ in whose blessed Name and Words I conclude these my imperfect Prayers saying Our Father c. DIRECTIONS for NIGHT. AT NIGHT when it draws towards the time of rest bethink thy self how thou hast passed the day examine thine own heart what sin either of Thought Word or Deed thou hast committed what opportunity of doing good thou hast omitted and what soever thou sindest to accuse thy self of confess humbly and penitently to God renew thy purposes and resolutions of amendment and beg his pardon in Christ and this not slightly and only as of course but with all devout earnestness and heartiness as thou wouldest do if thou were sure thy death were as near approaching as thy sleep which for ought thou knowest may be so indeed and therefore thou shouldest no more venture to sleep unreconciled to God then thou wouldest dare to die so In the next place consider what special and extraordinary mercies thou hast that day received as if thou hast had any great deliverance either in thy inward man from some dangerous temptations or in thy outward from any great and apparent danger and offer to God thy hearty and devout praise for the same or if nothing extraordinary have so happened and thou hast been kept even from the approach of danger thou hast not the less but the greater cause to magnifie God who hath by his protection so guarded thee that not so much as the fear of evil hath assaulted thee And therefore omit not to pay him the tribute of humble thankfulness as well for his usual and dayly preservations as his more extraordinary deliverances And above all endeavour still by the considerations of his mercies to have thy heart the more closely knit to him remembring that every favour received from him is a new engagement upon thee to love and obey him PRAYERS for NIGHT. O Holy blessed and glorious Trinity three persons and one God have mercy upon me a miserable sinner Lord I know not what to pray for as I ought O let thy Spirit help my infirmities and enable me to offer up a spiritual Sacrifice acceptable unto thee by Jesus Christ. A CONFESSION O MOST Holy Lord God who art of purer eyes then to behold iniquity how shall I abominable wretch dare to appear before thee who am nothing but pollution I am defiled in my very nature having a backwardness to all good and a readiness to all evil but I have defiled my self yet much worse by my own actual sins and wicked customes I have transgrest my duty to thee my neighbour and my self and that both in thought in word in deed by doing those things which thou hast expresly forbidden and by neglecting to do those things thou hast commanded me And this not only through ignorance and frailty but knowingly and wilfully against the motions of thy Spirit and the checks of my own conscience to the contrary And to make all these out of measure sinful I have gone on in a dayly course of repeating these provocations against thee notwithstanding all thy calls to and my own purposes and vows of amendment yea this very day I have not ceased to adde new sins to all my former guilts Here name the Particulars And now O Lord what shall I say or how shall I open my mouth seeing I have done these things I know that the wages of these sins is death but O thou who willest not the death of a sinner have mercy upon me work in me I beseech thee a sincere contrition and a perfect hatred of my sins and let me not dayly confess and yet as dayly renew them but grant O Lord that from this instant I may give a bill of Divorce to all my most beloved lusts and then be thou pleased to marry me to thy self in truth in righteousness and holiness And for all my past sins O Lord receive a reconciliation accept of that ransome thy blessed Son hath paid for me and for his sake whom thou hast set forth as a propitiation pardon all my offences and receive me to thy favour And when thou hast thus spoken peace to my soul Lord keep me that I turn not any more to folly but so establish me with thy grace that no temptation of the world the Divel or my own flesh may ever draw me to offend thee that being made free from sin and becoming a servant unto God I may have my fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Lord. A THANKSGIVING O Thou Father of Mercies who art kind even to the unthankful I acknowledge my self to have abundantly experimented that gracious propertie of thine for notwithstanding my dayly provocations against thee thou still heapest mercy and loving kindness upon me All my contempts and despisings of thy spiritual favours have not yet made thee withdraw them but in the riches of thy goodness and long suffering thou still continuest to me the offers of grace and life in thy Son And all my abuses of thy temporal blessings thou hast not punished with an utter deprivation of them but art still pleased to afford me

Peter tells us that if any suffer as a Christian he is to glorifie God for it 1 Pet. 4. 16. There is such a force and vertue in the testimony of a good Conscience as is able to change the greatest suffering into the greatest triumph and that testimony we can never have more clear and lively then when we suffer for righteousnes sake so that you see Christianity is very amiable even in its saddest dress the inward comforts of it do far surpass all the outward tribulations that attend it and that even in the instant while we are in the state of warfare upon earth But then if we look forward to the crown of our victories those eternal rewards in heaven we can never think those tasks sad though we had nothing at present to sweeten them that have such recompences await them at the end were our labours never so heavy we could have no cause to faint under them Let us therefore when ever we meet with any discouragements in our course fix our eye on this rich prize and then run with patience the race which is set before us Heb. 12. 2. Follow the Captain of our salvation through the greatest sufferings yea even through the same red sea of blood which he hath waded whenever our obedience to him shall require it for though our fidelity to him should bring us to death it self we are sure to be no losers by it for to such he hath promised a Crown of life the very expectation whereof is able to keep a Christian more cheerful in his fetters and dungeon then a worldling can be in the midst of his greatest prosperities 22. All that remains for me farther to add is earnestly to entreat and beseech the Reader that without delay he puts himself into this so pleasant and gainful a course by setting sincerely to the practise of all those things which either by this Book or by any other means he discerns to be his duty and the further he hath formerly gone out of his way the more haste it concerns him to make to get into it and to use the more diligence in walking in it He that hath a long journey to go and finds he hath lost a great part of his day in a wrong way will not need much intreaty either to turn into the right or to quicken his pace in it And this is the case of all those that have lived in any course of sin they are in a wrong road which will never bring them to the place they aim at Nay which will certainly bring them to the place they most fear and abhor much of their day is spent how much will be left to finish their journey in none knowes perhaps the next hour the next minute the night of death may overtake them what a madness is it then for them to defer one moment to turn out of that path which leads to certain destruction and to put themselves in that which will bring them to bliss and glory Yet so are men bewitched and enchanted with the deceitfulness of sin that no entreaty no perswasion can prevail with them to make this so reasonable so necessary a change not but that they acknowledge it needful to be done but they are unwilling to do it yet they would enjoy all the pleasures of sin as long as they live then they hope at their death or some little time before it to do all the business of their Souls But alass Heaven is too high to be thus jumpt into the way to it is a long and leasurely ascent which requires time to walk The hazards of such deferring are more largely spoken of in the Discourse of Repentance I shall not here repeat them but desire the Reader seriously to lay them to heart and then surely he will think it seasonable counsel that is given by the wise man Eccles. 5. 7. Make no tarrying to turn to the Lord and put not off from day to day FINIS PRIVATE DEVOTIONS For several OCCASIONS ORDINARY and EXTRAORDINARY LONDON Printed for T. Garthwait at the little North Door of S. Pauls Church 1660. CHRISTIAN READER I Have for the help of thy Devotions set down some FORMS of PRIVATE PRAYER upon several occasions If it be thought an om●ssion that there are none for Families I must answer for my self that it was not from any opinion that God is not as well to be worship'd in the Family as the Closet but because the Providence of God and the Church hath already furnish'd thee for that purpose infinitely beyond what my utmost care could do I mean the PUBLICK LITURGY or COMMON PRAYER which for all publick addresses to God and such are Family prayers are so excellent useful that we may say of it as David did of Goliah's sword 1 Sam. 21. 9. There is none like it DIRECTIONS for the MORNING As soon as ever thou awakest in the morning lift up thy heart to God in this or the like short Prayer LORD As thou hast awaked my Body from sleep so by thy grace awaken my Soul from sin and make me so to walk before thee this day and all the rest of my life that when the last trumpet shall awake me out of my grave I may rise to the life immortal through Jesus Christ. WHen thou hast thus begun suffer not without some urgent necessity any worldly thoughts to fill thy mind till thou hast also paid thy more solemn Devotions to Almighty God and therefore during the time thou art dressing thy self which should be no longer then common decency requires exercise thy mind in some spiritual thoughts as for example consider to what Temptations thy business or company that day are most like to lay thee open and arm thy self with Resolutions against them or again consider what Occasions of doing service to God or good to thy neighbour are that day most likely to present themselves and resolve to embrace them and also contrive how thou mayest improve them to the uttermost But especially it will be sit for thee to Examine whether there have any sin escaped thee since thy last nights examination If after these considerations any further leisure remain thou mayest profitably imploy it in meditating on the general Resurrection whereof our rising from our beds is a Representation and of that dreadful Judgement which shall follow it and then think with thy self in what preparation thou art for it and resolve to husband ca●●fully every minute of thy time towards the fitting th●e for that great account As soon as thou art ready retire to some private place and there offer up to God thy Morning Sacrifice of Praise and Prayer PRAYERS for the MORNING At thy first kneeling down say O Holy Blessed and Glorious Trinity three Persons and one God have mercy upon me a miserable sinner LORD I know not what to pray for as I ought O let thy Spirit help my infirmities and enable me to offer up a spiritual

A second step is the giving too easie credit to them for this helps them to attain part of their end they desire to beget a general ill opinion of such a man but the way of doing it must be by causing it first in particular men and if thou suffer them to do it in thee they have so far prospered in their aim And for thy own part thou dost a great injustice to thy neighbour to believe ill of him without a just ground which the accusation of such a person certainly is not A third step is the reporting to others what is thus told thee by which thou makest thy self directly a party in the slander and after thou hast unjustly withdrawn from thy neighbour thy own good opinion endeavourest to rob him also of that of others This is very little below the guilt of the first whisperer and tends as much to the ruine of our neighbours credit And these several degrees have so close a dependance one upon another that it will be very hard for him that allows himself the first to escape the other and indeed he that can take delight to hear his neighbour defamed may well he presumed of so malitious a humour that 't is not likely he should stick at spreading the slander He therefore that will preserve his innocence in this matter must never in the least degree cherish or countenance any that brings these false reports And it is not less necessary to his peace then to his innocency for he that once entertains them must never expect quiet but shall be continually incited and stirred up even against his neerest and deerest relations so that this whisperer and slanderer is to be look't on by all as a common enemy he being so as well to those to whom as of whom he speaks 6. But besides this grosser way of slandering there is another whereby we may impair and lessen the credit of our neighbour and that is by contempt and despising one common effect whereof is scoffing and deriding him This is very injurious to a mans reputation for the generality of men do rather take up opinions upon trust then judgement and therefore if they see a man despised and scorned they will be apt to do the like But besides this effect of it there is a present injustice in the very act of despising and scorning others There are ordinarily but three things which are made the occasions of it unless it be with such with whom virtue and godliness are made the most reproachful things and such despising is not only an injury to our neighbour but even to God himself for whose sake it is that he is so despised those three are first the infirmities secondly the calamities thirdly the sins of a man and each of these are very far from being ground of our triumphing over him 7. First for infirmities be they either of body or mind the deformity and unhandsomness of the one or the weakness and folly of the other they are things out of his power to help they are not his faults but the wise dispensations of the great Creator who bestows the excellency of body and minde as he pleases and therefore to scorn a man because he hath them not is in effect to reproach God who gave them not to him 8. So also for the calamities and miseries that befall a man be it want or sickness or whatever else these also come by the providence of God who raiseth up and pulleth down as seems good to him and it belongs not to us to judge what are the motives to him to do so as many do who upon any affliction that befals another are presently concluding that sure it is some extraordinary guilt which pulls this upon him though they have no particular to lay to his charge This rash judgement our Saviour reproves in the Jews Luk. 13. where on occasion of the extraordinary sufferings of the Galileans he asks them vers 2. Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things I tell you nay but except you repent ye shall all likewise perish when we see Gods hand heavy upon others it is no part of our business to judge them but our selves and by repentance to prevent what our own sins have deserved But to reproach and revile any that are in affliction is that barbarous cruelty taken notice of by the Psalmist as the heighth of wickedness Psal. 69. 26. They persecute him whom thou hast smitten and they talk to the grief of them whom thou hast wounded In all the miseries of others compassion becomes a debt to them how unjust are they then that in stead of paying them that debt afflict them with scorn and reproach 9. Nay the very sins of men though as they have more of their wills in them they may seem more to deserve reproach yet certainly they also oblige us to the former duty of compassion and that in the highest degree as being the things which of all others make a man the most miserable in all these cases if we consider how subject we are to the like our selves and that it is only Gods mercy to us by which we are preserved from the worst that any man else is under it will surely better become us to look up to him with thankfulness then down on them with contempt and despising Thus you see the direct injustice of scorning and contemning our brethren to which when that other is added which naturally followes as a consequent of this to wit the begetting the like contempt in others there can sure be no doubt of its being a great and horrible injustice to our neighbour in respect of his credit 10. Now how great the injury of destroying a mans credit is may be measured by these two things first the value of the thing he is rob'd of and secondly the difficulty of making reparations For the first 't is commonly known that a mans good name is a thing he holds most precious oftentimes dearer then his life as we see by the hazards men sometimes run to preserve even a mistaken reputation but 't is sure it is that which hath even by sober men been esteemed one of the greatest happinesses of life And to some sort of men such especially as subsist by dealings in the world t is so necessary that it may well be reconed as the means of their livelyhood and then sure 't is no slight matter to rob a man of what is thus valuable to him 11. Secondly the difficulty of making reparations increaseth the injury and that is such in this case of defamation that I may rather call it an impossibility then a difficulty For when men are possest of an ill opinion of a person 't is no easie matter to work it out so that the slanderer is herein like a yong Conjurer that raises a Devil he knowes not how to lay again Nay suppose men

one the lesson of the other and therefore 't is the greatest absurdity and contradiction to profess themselves Christians and yet at the same time to resist this so express Command of that Christ whom they own as their Master If I be a Master saith God where is my fear Mal. 1. 6. Obedience and reverence are so much the duties of servants that no man is thought to look on him as a Master to whom he payes them not Why call ye me Lord Lord and do not the things that I say saith Christ Luke 6. 46. The whole world is divided into two great Families Christs and Satans and the obedience each man payes signifies to which of these Masters he belongs if he obey Christ to Christ if Satan to Satan Now this sin of malice and revenge is so much the dictate of that wicked spirit that there is nothing can be a more direct obeying of him 't is the taking his livery on our backs the proclamation whose servants we are What ridiculous impudence is it then for men that have thus entred themselves of Satans Family to pretend to be the Servants of Christ Let such know assuredly that they shal not be owned by him but at the great day of accompt be turned over to their proper Master to receive their wages in fire and brimstone A second consideration is the example of God this is an argument Christ himself thought fit to use to impress this duty on us as you may see Luk. 6. 35. 36. Where after having given the Command of Loving Enemies he encourages to the practise of it by telling that it is that which will make us the Children of the Highest that is 't will give us a likeness and resemblance to him as children have to their Parents for he is kind to the unthankfull and the evil And to the same purpose you may read Mat. 5. 45. He maketh his sin to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust And sure this is a most forcible consideration to excite us to this duty God we know is the fountain of perfection and the being like to him is the summe of all we can wish for and though it was Lucifers fall his ambition to be like the most high yet had the likeness he affected been only that of Holyness and goodness he might still have been an Angell of light This desire of imitating our Heavenly Father is the especial mark of a child of his Now this kindness and goodness to enemies is most eminently remarkable in God and that not only in respect of the temporal mercies which he indifferently bestowes on all his sun and rain on the unjust as in the text forementioned but chiefly in his spiritual Mercies We are all by our wicked works Col. 1. 21. Enemies to him and the mischief of that enmity would have fallen wholly upon our selves God had no motive besides that of his pity to us to wish a reconciliation yet so far was he from returning our enmity when he might have revenged himself to our eternal ruine that he designes and contrives how he may bring us to be at peace with him This is a huge degree of mercy and kindness but the means he used for effecting this is yet far beyond it He sent his own Son from Heaven to work it and that not only by perswasions but sufferings also So much did he prize us miserable crea●ures that he thought us not too dear bought with the blood of his Son The like example of mercy and patience we have in Christ both laying down his life for us Enemies and also in that meek manner of doing it which we finde excellently set forth by the Apostle 1 Pet. 2. 22 23 24. and commended to our imitation Now surely when all this is considered we may well make S. Johns inference Beloved if God so loved us we ought also to love one another 1 John 4. 11. How shameful a thing is it for us to retain displeasures against our brethren when God thus layes by his towards us and that when we have so highly provoked him This directs to a third consideration the comparing our sins against God with the offences of our brethren against us which we no sooner shall come to do but there will appear a vast difference between them and that in several respects For first there is the Majesty of the person against whom we sin which exceedingly encreases the guilt whereas between man and man there cannot be so great a distance for though some men are by God advanced to such eminency of dignity as may make an injury offered to them the greater yet still they are but men of the same nature with us whereas he is God blessed for ever Secondly there is his soveraignity and power which is original in God for we are his creatures we have received our whole being from him and therefore are in the deepest manner bound to perfect obedience whereas all the soveraignty that one man can possibly have over another is but imparted to them by God and for the most part there is none of this neither in the case quarrels being most usual among equals Thirdly there is his infinite bounty and goodness to us all that ever we enjoy whether in relation to this life or a better being wholly his free gift so there is the foulest ingratitude added to our other crimes in which respect also 't is impossible for one man to offend against an other in such a degree for though one may be too many are guilty of unthankfulness towards men yet because the greatest benefits that man can bestow are infinitely short of those which God doth the ingratitude cannot be neer so great as towards God it is Lastly there is the greatness and multitude of our sins against God which do infinitely exceed all that the most injurious man can do against us for we all sin much oftner and more heinously against him then any man be he never so malicious can find opportunities of injuring his brethren This inequality and disproportion our Saviour intimates in the parable Mat. 18. where our offences against God are noted by the ten thousand talents whereas our brethrens against us are described by the hundred pence a talent hugely out-weighs a penny and ten thousand outnumbers a hundred yet so and much more does the weight and number of our sins exceed all the offences of others against us Much more might be said to shew the vast inequality between the faults which God forgives us and those we can possibly have to forgive our brethren But this I suppose may suffice to silence all the objections of cruel and revengefull persons against this kindness to enemies They are apt to look upon it as an absur'd and unreasonable thing but since God himself acts it in so much a higher degree who can without blasphemy say 't is unreasonable If this or

Sacrifice acceptable to thee by Jesus Christ. A THANKSGIVING O Gracious Lord whose mercies endure for e-ever I thy unworthy servant who have so deeply tasted of them desire to render thee the tribute of my humblest praises for them In thee O Lord I live and move and have my being thou first madest me to be and then that I might not be miserable but happy thou sendest thy Son out of thy bos●me to redeem me from the power of my sins by his Grace and from the punishment of them by his Blood and by both to bring me to his glory Thou hast by thy mercy caused me to be born within thy peculiar fold the Christian Church where I was early consecrated to thee in Baptism and have been partaker of all those spiritual helps which might aid me to perform that Vow I there made to thee and when by my own wilfulness or negligence I have failed to do it yet thou in thy manifold mercies hast not forsaken me but hast graciously invited me to repentance afforded me all means both outward and inward for it and with much patience hast attended and not cut me off in the acts of those many damning sins I have committed as I have most justly deserved It is O Lord thy restraining grace alone by which I have been kept back from any the greatest sins and it is thy inciting and assisting grace alone by which I have been enabled to do any the least good therefore not unto me not unto me but unto thy name be the praises For these and all other thy spiritual blessings my soul doth magnifie the Lord and all that is within me praise his holy Name I likewise praise thee for those many outward blessings I enjoy as health friends food and raiment the comforts as well as the necessaries of this life for those continual protections of thy hand by which I and mine are kept from dangers and those gracious deliverances thou hast often afforded out of such as have befallen me and for that mercy of thine whereby thou hast sweetned and all●yed those troubles thou hast not seen sit wholly to remove for thy particular preservation of me this night and all other thy goodness towards me Lord grant that I may render thee not only the fruit of my lips but the obedience of my life that so these blessings here may be an earnest of those richer blessings thou hast prepared for those that love thee and that for his sake whom thou hast made the Author of Eternal Salvation to all that obey him even Jesus Christ. A CONFESSION O Righteous Lord who hatest iniquity I thy sinful creature cast my self at thy feet acknowledging that I most justly deserve to be utterly abhorred and forsaken by thee for I have drunk iniquity like water gone on in a continued course of sin and rebellion against thee dayly committing those things thou forbiddest and leaving undone those things thou commandest mine heart which should be an habitation for thy spirit is become a cage of unclean birds of foul and disordered affections and out of this abundance of the heart my mouth speaketh my hands act so that in thought word and deed I continually transgress against thee Here mention the greatest of thy sins Nay O Lord I have despised that goodness of thine which should lead me to Repentance hardning my heart against all those means thou hast used for my amendment And now Lord what can I expect from thee but judgment and fiery indignation that is indeed the due reward of my sins But O Lord there is mercy with thee that thou may est be feared O fit me for that mercy by giving me a deep and hearty Repentance and then according to thy goodness let thy anger and thy wrath be turned away from me look upon me in thy Son my blessed Saviour and for the merit of his sufferings pardon all my sins And Lord I beseech thee by the power of thy grace so to renew and purifie my heart that I may become a new creature utterly forsaking every evil way and living in constant sincere universal obedience to thee all the rest of my days that behaving my self as a good and faithful servant I may by thy mercy at the last be received into the joy of my Lord Grant this for Jesus Christ his sake A PRAYER for GRACE O Most gracious God from whom every good and perfect gift cometh I wretched creature that am not able of my self so much as to think a good thought beseech thee to work in me both to will and do according to thy good pleasure inlighten ●● 〈◊〉 that I may know thee and let me not be barren or unfruitful in that knowledg Lord work in my heart a true faith a purifying hope and an unfeigned love towards thee give me a full trust on thee zeal for thee reverence of all things that relate to thee make me fearful to offend thee thankful for thy mercies humble under thy corrections devout in thy service sorrowful for my sins and grant that in all things I may behave my self so as befits a creature to his Creator a servant to his Lord enable me likewise to perform that duty I owe to my self give me that meekness humility and contentedness whereby I may always possess my soul in patience and thankfulness make me diligent in all my duties watchful against all temptations perfectly pure and temperate and so moderate in my most lawful injoyments that they never become a snare to me make me also O Lord to be so affected towards my neighbour that I never transgress that royal Law of thine of loving him as my self grant me exactly to perform all parts of justice yielding to all whatsoever by any kinde of right becomes their due and give me such bowels of mercy and compassion that I may never fail to do all acts of charity to all men whether friends or enemies according to thy command and example Finally I beseech thee O Lord to sanctifie me throughout that my whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory for ever Amen INTERCESSION OBlessed Lord whose mercy is over all thy works I beseech thee to have mercy upon all men and grant that the precious ransome which was paid by thy Son for all may be effectuall to the saving of all Give thy inlightning grace to those that are in darkness and thy converting grace to those that are in sin look with thy tenderest compassions upon the Universal Church O be favourable and gracious unto Sion build thou the walls of Jerusalem unite all those that profess thy Name to thee by Purity and Holiness and to each other by Brotherly love Have mercy on this desolate Church and sinful Nation thou hast moved the Land and divided it heal the sores thereof for it shaketh make us so truly to repent

vanities hath seized it and like a strong man armed keeps possession O thou who art stronger come upon him and take this unworthy heart of mine as thine own spoil refine it with that purifying fire of thy love that it may be a fit habitation for thy Spirit Lord if thou see it fit be pleased to let me taste of those joys those ravishments of thy love wherewith thy Saints have been so transported But if in this I know not what I ask if I may not chuse my place in thy Kingdom yet O Lord deny me not to drink of thy cup let me have such a sincerity degree of love as may make me endure any thing for thy sake such a perfect love as may cast out all fear all sloth too that nothing may seem to me too grievous to suffer or too difficult to do in obedience to thee that so expressing my loue by keeping thy Commandments I may by thy mercy at last obtain that Crown of life which thou hast promised to those that love thee through Jesus Christ our Lord. For SINCERITY O Holy Lord who requirest truth in the inward parts I humbly beseech thee to purge me from all hypocrisie and unsincerity The heart O Lord is deceitful above all things and my heart is deceitful above all hearts O thou who searchest the heart and reins try me and seek the ground of my heart and suffer not any accursed thing to lurk within me but purifie me even with fire so thou consume my dross O Lord I cannot deceive thee but I may most easily deceive my self I beseech thee let me not rest in any such deceit but bring me to a sight and hatred of my most hidden corruptions that I may not cherish any darling lust but make an utter destruction of every Amalekite O suffer me not to speak peace to my self when there is no peace but grant I may judge of my self as thou judgest of me that I may never be at peace with my self till I am at perfect peace with thee and by purity of heart be qualified to see thee in thy Kingdom through Jesus Christ. For DEVOTION in PRAYER O Gracious Lord God who not only permittest but invitest us miserable and needy creatures to present our petitions to thee grant I beseech thee that the frequency of my prayer may be some what proportionable to those continual needs I have of thy mercy Lord I confess it is the greatest honour and greatest advantage thus to be allowed access to thee yet so sottish and stupid is my profane heart that it shuns or frustrates the opportunities of it My Soul O Lord is possest with a spirit of infirmity it is bowed together and can in no wise lift up it self to thee O be thou pleased to cure this sad this miserable disease to inspirit and inliven this earthy drosly heart that it may freely mount towards thee that I may set a true value on this most valuable priviledge and take delight in approaching to thee and that my approaches may be with a reverence some way answerable to that awful Majesty I come before with an importunity and earnestness answerable to those pressing wants I have to be supplied and with such a fixedness and attention of mind as no wandring thoughts may interrupt that I may no more incur the guilt of drawing neer to thee with my lips when my heart is far from thee or have my prayers turned into sin but may so ask that I may receive seek that I may finde knock that it may be opened unto me that from praying to thee here I may be translated to the praising thee eternally in thy glory through the merits and intercession of Jesus Christ. For HUMILITY O Thou High and Lofty one that inhabitest Eternity yet art pleased to dwell with the humble spirit pour into my heart I beseech thee that excellent grace of Humility which may utterly work out all those vain conceits I have of my self Lord convince me powerfully of my own wretchedness make me to see that I am miserable and poor and blinde and naked and not only dust but sin that so in all thy dispensations towards me I may lay my hand upon my mouth and heartily acknowledge that I am less then the least of thy mercies and greater then the greatest of thy judgements And O Lord grant me not only to walk humbly with my God but even with men also that I may not only submit my self to thy rebukes but even to those of my fellow Christians and with weekness receive and obey their admonitions And make me so to behave my self towards all that I never do any thing through strife or vain glory and to that end grant that in low liness of mind I may esteem every other man better then my self and be wiling that others should esteem them so also that I neither nourish any high opinion of my self nor covet one among others but that despising the vain praise of men I may seek that praise which cometh from thee onely That so in stead of those mean servile Arts I have used to recommend me to the esteem of men I may now imploy all my industry and care to approve my self to thee who resistest the proud and givest grace to the humble grant this O Lord for his sake who humbled himself unto the death of the Cross Jesus Christ. For the FEAR of GOD. O Glorious Majesty who only art high and to be feared possess my soul with a Holy awe and reverence of thee that I may give thee the honour due unto thy Name and may bear such a respect to all things which relate to thee that I may never prophane any Holy thing or sacrilegiously invade what thou hast set apart to thy self And O Lord since thou art a God that wilt not clear the guilty let the dread of thy justice make me tremble to provoke thee in any thing O let me not so misplace my fear as to be afraid of a man that shall die and of the Son of man who shall be made as grass and forget the Lord my Maker but replenish my Soul with that fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom which may be as a bridle to all my brutish appetites and keep me in a constant conformity to thy Holy will Hear me O Lord I beseech thee and put this fear in my heart that I may not depart from thee but may with fear and trembling work out my own Salvation through Jesus Christ. For TRUST on GOD. O Almighty Lord who never failest them that must on thee give me grace I beseech thee in all my difficulties and distresses to have recourse to thee to rest and depend on thee thou shalt keep him O Lord in perfect peace whose mind is staid on thee O let me always rest on this firm P●llar and never exchange it for the broken ●eeds of worldly succours suffer not my heart to be overcharged with the