Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A75019
|
Private devotions for several occasions, ordinary and extraordinary
|
Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681.
|
1660
(1660)
|
Wing A1161; ESTC R231157
|
45,195
|
96
|
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 daily 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 daily confess and yet as dayly renew them but grant O Lord that from this instant I may give a bill of Divorce to to all my most beloved lusts and then be thou pleased to marry me to thy self in truth in righteousnes holiness And for al 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 offencies 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 Divil 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 a liberal portion of them The sins of this day thou hast not repayed as justly thou might'st by sweeping me away with a swift destruction but hast spared and preserved me according to the greatness of thy mercy Here mention the particular mercies of that day What shal I render unto the Lord for all these benefits he hath done unto me Lord let this goodness of thine lead me to repentance and grant that I may not only offer thee thanks and praise but may also order my conversation aright that so I may at the last see the salvation of God through Jesus Christ Here use the Prayer for Grace and that of Intercession appointed for the Morning For Preservation O blessed Lord the Keeper of Israel that neither slumbrest nor sleepest be pleased in thy mercie to watch over me this night keep me by thy grace from all works of darkness and defend me by thy power from all dangers grant me moderate and refreshing sleep such as may fit me for the duties of the day following And Lord make me ever mindful of that time when I shall lie down in the dust and because I know neither the day nor the houre of my Masters coming grant me grace that I may be always readie that I may never live in such a state as I shall fear to die in but that whether I live I may live unto the Lord or whether I die I may die unto the Lord so that living and dying I may be thine through Jesus Christ Vse the same concluding prayer as in the Morning AS thou art putting off thy clothes think with thy self that the time approaches that thou must put off thy body also and then thy Soul must appear naked before Gods judgment Seat and therefore thou hadst need be careful to make it so clean and pure by repentance and holiness that he who will not look on iniquity may graciously behold and accept it Let thy Bed put the in mind of thy Grave and when thou lyest down say O Blessed Saviour who by thy precious death and burial didst take away the sting of death and power of the grave grant me the joyful fruits of that thy victory and be thou to me in life and death advantage I will lay me down in peace and take my rest for it is thou Lord only that makest me dwell in safety Into thy hands I commend my spirit for thou hast redeemed it O Lord thou God of truth IN the ANTIENT CHURCH there were besides morning and night four other times every day which were called HOURS OF PRAYER and the zeal of those first Christians was such as made them constantly observed It would be thought too great a strictness now in this luke-warm age to enjoyn the like frequency yet I cannot but mention the example and say that for those who are not by very necessary business prevented it will be but reasonable to imitate it and make up in publick and private those FOUR TIMES of PRAYER besides the OFFICES already set down for MORNING and NIGHT and that none may be to seek how to exercise their devotions at these times I have added divers COLLECTS for several Graces whereof every man may use at each such time of prayer so many as his zeal and leisure shall point out to him adding if he please one of the confessions appointed for morning or night and never omitting the LODRS PRAYER But if any mans state of life be really so busie as will not allow him time for so long and solemn devotions yet certainly there is no man so overlayed with business but that he may finde leisure oftentimes in a day to say the LORDS PRAYER alone and therefore let him use that if he cannot more But because it is the Character of a Christian Phil. 3. 20. That he hath his conversation in Heaven it is very fit that besides these set times of Prayer he should divers times in a day by short and suddain EJACULATIONS dart up
and patience prevail against all the tremblings of my corrupt heart that no terrors may ever be able to shake my constancie but that how long soever thou shalt permit the rod of the wicked to lie on my back I may never put my hand unto wickedness Lord thou knowest whereof I am made thou remembrest that I am but flesh and flesh O Lord shrinks at the approach of any thing grievous It is thy Spirit thy Spirit alone that can uphold me O stablish me with thy free Spirit that I be not wearie and faint in my mind And by how much the greater thou discernest my weakness so much the more do thou shew forth thy power in me and make me O Lord in all temptations stedfastly to look to thee the author and finisher of my faith that so I may run the race which is set before me and resist even unto blood striving against sin O dear Jesus hear me and though Satan desire to have me that he may winnow me as wheat yet do thou O blessed Mediator pray for me that my faith fail not but that though it be tried with fire it may be found unto praise and glorie and honour at thy appearing And O Lord I beseech thee grant that I may preserve not only constancie towards God but charitie also towards men even those whom thou shalt permit to be the instruments of my sufferings Lord let me not fail to imitate that admirable meekness of thine in loving and praying for my greatest persecutors and do thou O Lord overcome all their evil with thy infinite goodness turn their hearts and draw them powerfully to thy self and at last receive both me and mine enemies into those mansions of peace and rest where thou reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost one God for ever A Prayer in time of Affliction O JUST and holy Lord who with rebukes dost chasten man for sin I desire unfeignedly to humble my self under thy mightie hand which now lies heavie upon me I heartily acknowledge O Lord that all I do all I can suffer is but the due reward of my deeds and therefore in thy severest inflictions I must still say righteous art thou O Lord and upright are thy judgements But O Lord I beseech thee in judgement remember mercie and though my sins have inforced thee to strike yet consider my weakness and let not thy stripes be more heavie or more lasting then thou seest profitable for my soul correct me but with the chastisement of a father not with the wounds of an enemie and though thou take not off thy rod yet take away thine anger Lord do not abhor my soul nor cast thy servant away in displeasure but pardon my sins I beseech thee and if yet in thy Fatherly wisdome thou see fit to prolong thy corrections thy blessed will be done I cast my self O Lord at thy feet do with me what thou pleasest Trie me as silver is tried so thou bring me out purified And Lord make even my flesh also to subscribe to this resignation that there may be nothing in me that may rebel against thy hand but that having perfectly supprest all repining thoughts I may chearfully drink of this cup And how bitter soever thou shalt please to make it Lord let it prove medicinal and cure all the diseases of my soul that it may bring forth in me the peaceable fruit of righteousness That so these light afflictions which are but for a moment may work for me a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glorie through Jesus Christ A Thanksgiving for Deliverance O Blessed Lord who art gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and repentest thee of the evil I thankfully acknowledge before thee that thou hast not dealt with me after my sins nor rewarded me according to my iniquities My rebellions O Lord deserve to be scourged with Scorpions and thou hast corrected them only with a gentle and fatherly Rod neither hast thou suffered me to lie long under that but hast given me a timely and a gracious issue out of my late distresses O Lord I will be glad and rejoyce in thy mercie for thou hast considered my trouble and hast known my soul in adversitie Thou hast smitten and thou hast healed me O let these various methods of thine have their proper effects upon my soul that I who have felt the smart of thy chastisements may stand in awe and not fin and that I who have likewise felt the sweet refreshings of thy mercie may have my heart ravished with it and knit to thee in the firmest bands of love and that by both I may be preserved in a constant entire obedience to thee all my dayes through Jesus Christ Directions for the time of Sickness WHEN thou findest thy self visited with Sickness thou art immediately to remember that it is God which with rebukes doth chasten man for sin And therefore let thy first care be to find out what it is that provokes him to smite thee and to that purpose Examine thine own heart search diligently what guilts lie there confess them humbly and penitently to God and for the greater security renew thy Repentance for all the old sins of thy former life beg most earnestly and importunately his mercy and pardon in Christ Jesus and put on sincere and zealous resolutions of forsaking every evil way for the rest of that time which God shall spare thee And that thy own heart deceive thee not in this so weighty a business it will be wisdome to send for some godly Divine not only to assist thee with his prayers but with his counsel also And to that purpose open thy heart so freely to him that he may be able to judge whether thy Repentance be such as may give thee confidence to appear before Gods dreadful Tribunal and that if it be not he may help thee what he can towards the making it so And when thou hast thus provided for thy better part thy Soul then consider thy Body also and as the Wise man saith Ecclus. 38. 12. Give place to the Physician for the Lord hath created him Vse such means as may be most likely to recover thy health but always remember that the success of them must come from God and beware of Asa's sin who sought to the Physicians and not to the Lord 2 Chro. 6. 12. Dispose also betimes of thy temporal affairs by making thy Will and setting all things in such order as thou meanest finally to leave them in and defer it not till thy sickness grow more violent for then perhaps thou shalt not have such use of thy Reason as may fit thee for it or if thou have it wil be then much more seasonable to imploy thy thoughts on higher things on the world thou art going to rather then that thou art about to leave we cannot carry the things of this world with us when we go hence and it is not fit we should carry the