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A93419 The safe vvay to glory, in several exercises of general use. / By William Smyth M. Ar. R. of Cotton in Suff. Smith, William, b. 1615 or 16. 1656 (1656) Wing S4280; Thomason E1686_2; ESTC R209170 74,414 270

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inspirations of the Spirit to guide men to and in it For such a profession must be very unsafe and dangerous for these reasons First because there hath been no succession of any such immediate light or revelations since the Apostles age when they were necessary that the whole way of Christs first planting his Church might in all circumstances be purely miraculous Since which time no Church of Christ in any place or at any time have made profession upon that ground till the late Enthusiasts in Germany and England For certainly if that had been the ground of professing Christ that Church which is a City on a hill and that Gospel which is the Mountaine of the Lord would not have left us without all evidence and president in such a long space of time But if they please to conclude the whole Christian world in darknesse from the Apostles times to this period though they think it nothing to condemn so many ages to uphold their own phantasmes yet I ask them how the promise to the Church was effected when Christ engaged to send the Spirit of truth to guide them into all truth if fourteen or fifteen hundred years together the whole Church so foully erred by a false unlawful and Antichristian profession But because they lay clayme to such immediate gifts of the Spirit without the subministration of learning education in Sciences and Tongues and such like preparations of the understanding for spirituall knowledge from the examples of the Apostles I further require of them why they pretend to some of those miraculous gifts and not to all as gifts of tongues healing and the like which were the significations and proofs that the other gifts and themselves were of God When therefore their ordinary discourses pretended raptures prayings and preachings are delivered by them owned to be the inspirations of the Spirit which may proceed from other naturall dexterities and acquired helps and having no other miraculous gifts as of tongues and healing and the like as the Apostles had to prove them to be so their own assertions are very fallible and the profession dangerous and unsafe Secondly such a professinn is unsafe because upon that ground the devill hath the most certain advantage of deceiving men indiscoverably when they shall once be perswaded to follow the voyce and dictate of an indemonstrable spirit in themselves or others Whence is that seasonable inhibition of the Apostle Beleeve not every spirit but try the spirits whether they be of God for many false Prophets are gone out into the world From which Scripture I inferre these observations to strengthen the argument against such a profession First Beleeve not every spirit because there be several sorts of spirits all false but one There is a lying spirit and a perverse spirit or the spirit of errour as the Septuagint renders it A mans own spirit which is his opinion and fancy there is also the spirit of the world which is the common humour and bent of every present time These and many of this sort will be pretenders to guide as the Spirit of God Therefore when I am tempted to beleeve any thing upon the bare pretence of the Spirit in what great danger am I in to be guided by a false spiitit there being many to one true Spirit of God Secondly But try the spirits that is those false spirits shall be so likened to the true Spirit of God in so great an assimulation that they are not to be distinguished without trial and examination And this is no wonder when Satau himself can transform himself into an Angel of light and his deceitful agents to be like the true Apostles of Christ Now as the difficulty of discerning and consequently the danger of such a profession of the true Spirit from the false ariseth from their similitude so also much more in respect of what reason I have to suspect my self as unable to try and examine them aright First because when I consider how easily my judgement is deceived in things obvious to sense as in civil differences and outward affaires how much more fallible must that my judgement be in discriminating secret and invisible spirits lying under the cunning artificies of devils and evil men who by them attempt to seduce weak soules Secondly when I consider how easily I may be prejudicated and if fo how soon and certainly deceived When a prejudgement hath once passed upon the mind in the worst cause that ever was how doth every likelyhood make an argument every fallacious argument growes into a demonstration and every mans discourse of the same judgement shall have an indulgence and a beleefe But every argument and advising person to the contrary shall be sufficiently answered with nothing but a suspicion and a contempt Therefore when I am tempted to a religion or profession upon the pretence of the Spirit to what dangers do I expose my self lest I should not through the want of or a prejudicated judgement distinguish the true Spirit from the false when they are both made as like as light to light Thirdly because many false Prophets c. which inferres that false Prophets when they come because their ●ofession is against the ground of all visible evidences must pretend a Spirit It being the common artifice of seducers to muffle up the understandings of their followers by alledging something that is high and undiscernable like some Astronomers who betray their disciples to a ditch or a cheat by causing them to look up with wonder to some imaginary Scheme of nothing So that still fuch a profession must needs be unsafe because it is forewarned and prophesied that false Prophets when they come shall have this mark upon them they shall pretend a Spirit Lastly if the pretended ground of being directed by an immediate light of the Spirit were true and consequently safe there could be no profession more regular and certain the same Spirit will alwayes dictate the same thing But we see that the pretenders to the Spirit are divided into Legions of factions Anabaptists Catabaptists Antitrinitarians Antiscripturists Ranters Quakers and many such of like sort among which not one Sect agrees with another nor two Congregations of the same Sect among themselves nor scarcely the members of the same Congregation one with another and very seldome the same member at any one time with what he was himself a little before And yet all pretend the Spirit of God for their guide from whence their several opinions are as unlikely to proceed as that the two Poles should center in one point or that contradictions might be reconciled How then canst thou be safe with what Sect wilt thou joyn profession with what Congregation of that Sect with what part of that Congregation and then in what opinions wilt thou joyn such as they maintained last year or those they now hold or such as they are like to take up the next Now to
what heavenly members of Christs Kingdome have shined in every part of this nation no way inferiour to the most renowned Saints of ancient times but that the frequency of professors and as it were familiarity of piety have eclipsed their own excellencies And without doubt weighing those extenuating expressions of Christs Kingdom as the little Flock few that find it and the like we might with facility observe in this nation plentiful additions of souls to the Church above any nation in the world proportion of places considered Whence then these effects and demonstrations of religion but from Gods pleasure to preserve a never-failing succession of Ministery who disserninated in every part of the nation have laboured in Word and Doctrine among us for it canuot be supposed that this Church have received these grapes of thornes or figges of thistles or that a corrupt tree that is a false or Anti-christian Ministery should bring forth such good fruit as our Saviour argues in this very case And after all this lest these eminent graces and blessed effects should still be attributed to any other either immediate or mediate proceediug of God I desire any of our adversaries to shew that ever any nation was converted to or continued in a Christian profession or that ever the Religion of a Nation hath not verged to a Period with the fall of its Ministery and then I may be induced to suspect this Church received such graces from some other instrument then the Ministery And for further confirmation it is no hard matter to observe how much the interest of Religion is concerned in this Ministeries preservation by considering how piety peace charity reverence to Gods worship and the whole frame of religion have declined and the contrary evils of prophanenesse sacriledge blasphemy Atheisme oppression violence and injustice have generally improved by their fall Now the force of the argument is this There being these effects of piety and salvation as unparalel'd consequences of the work of the Ministery of this National Church and there being no other ordinary means the mehod of grace under the Gospel from whence otherwise they should proceed we therefore cunclude them lawful instruments of Gods work and a blest and truly Christian Ministery to this Church The fecond argument for brevity sake I make as general and comprehensive as I can and thus it is If the Ministers of the Churches of Christ in all ages and places through the whole succession of Christian Religion had the same separation to their offices that we of this Church of England have then by necessary consequence either the universal Ministery of Christ were alwayes Antichristian which would be next to blasphemy to assert as well as we or we Christian and lawful as well as they Now let our enemies shew that in any age of that great space of time or in any place where Christs Name was ever professed that the received Ministery thereof were otherwise in substance ordained whereby to raise any plea to their new or rather no call we will acknowledge the lawfulnesse of our calling to be justly questioned This argument hath its foundation upon a promise of Christ to his universal Church in the name of his Apostles Howbeit when the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth Which promise had apparently in a considerable point been unaccomplished had the universal Church of Christ so many hundred years successively erred by an Antichristian and unlawful Ministery and by consequence all the Christian world all that great while had been deprived of lawfull ordinances the outward means of grace which depend upon the lawful Mission of the Ministery How shall they hear to a success of beleefe but by their preaching who are lawfully sent Quest These arguments are convincing and now as it seems to me a man may as soon and upon as good ground question a great part of his Christian Religion as the lawfulnesse of the Ministery of this Church being inferred from those premisses which conclude and prove one as well as the other I desire therefore rather to venture my soule with all the Churches of Christ and under a Ministery that have been received as lawful by them and of whom we have had experience in this national Church in excellent effects of all spirituall blessings then to embrace the judgement of a few who study new things such as the Churches of Christ never knew before and to submit to such a Ministery as descend in no succession and without any character either extraordinary or ordinary to demonstrate their mission and of which in a short time we have had sad experiences as appears by the divisions blasphemies fond opinions and great impieties that have prospered under them There remaines one scruple more What canst thou say to satisfy them that urge the present fall of this Church and sufferings and contempt of its Ministery as an argument against the truth of the profession and Religion Ans. It is true I cannot deny there be a great many that follow the disingenuous practice of that sort of people of which the holy Psalmist complaines that love to persecute him whom God hath smitten and to talk how to vex him whom he hath wounded Crying out against us like another untoward generation God hath forsaken them persecute and take them for there is none to deliver them But it is a wonder to me that persons pretending light in Religion and an understanding in the Scriptures should make outward providences the guidance of their judgement in determining the justice or unjustice of Causes Conclusions by events prove nothing but the folly of a vulgar judgement that is byassed by them When most frequent it is that the wicked prosper in their way and they are happy that deale very treacherously yea God plants them till they take root God suffers oft-times evill men to flourish like a green bay-tree in worldly successes when he permits them to blast the honour and safety of the just If prosperous providence gives the sentence of justice The Turk that sets up his trophies in the most renowned parts of Christendome already and if he should poure in his forces to the overthrow of all the Christian nations that remain could never want an argument to justify his usurpations and Tyrannies Nor doth the Churches unsuccesseful attempts for its preservation disprove its truth and being But rather if it were lawful or indeed possible to determine from exteriour providences the frequent tragedies of its continual snfferings might induce us to a beleef that Truth and persecution have gone hand in hand Hence the worthy observers of the Churches instability in worldly safety have found out a reason of its happinesse from its miseries The Church hath increased with persecutions and is crowned with martyrdomes saith St. Hierome Then it conquers when it is oppressed and obtaines when forsaken saith St. Hilary For if its
strengthen the argument it is observed that such divisions and subdivisions among those that fall from the Churches unity are significant marks of their falsity and that they are not of the true Spirit of God Irenaeus reports of the Valentinians that when they were very numerous scarce two or three agreed in the same opinions And S. Austin of the Donatists that in his time they were cut asunder and divided into very many small pieces factions and the same may be observed by almost all the ancient remarkable heresies And how much of this observation falls upon such as have departed from us I leave to the impartial Reader to judge Qu. But do you follow no directions of the Spirit in your profession Ans. Yes in these foure wayes or respects First I follow the guidance of the holy Scriptures as they were given by inspiration of the holy Spirit Secondly I follow the examples pattern and Doctrines of the first Churches which were planted by the Apostles and Apostolick men of the first age who were directed by the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit as of prophesying tongues and miraculous healing as was then expedient for the conviction of the world that they were from God Thirdly I follow that light of truth which the universall Church of Christ have kept and preserved as to all times and places which I beleeve to be the effect of Christs promise of sending his Spirit of truth to guide into all truth Fourthly I follow the direction of the holy Spirit whereby I am taught of God that is instructed and inabled by his preventing and assisting grace to lead a holy life and to have my judgement spiritualized that I may mind desire discern and design spiritual things Now whatsoever new light is pretended inconsistent with the holy Scriptures so interpreted by the common judgement of the first planters and the Churches nearest them or that shall destroy the All-truth of the Spirit in fundamentals maintained and confirmed by universal profession or that consists not with godlines and the Gospel-rules of a holy life mercy charity peaceablenesse justice and the like I dare not embrace any new light upon the grounds forementioned Quest What is your second direction or caveat Ans. To beware of such a profession that hath no other ground then a plea from Sripture upon private interpretation which ground though it hath not produced such monstrous effects of errour as the former yet hath been more dangerous and destructive to the Churches peace and unity Now the unsafetinesse of such a profession in the first place appeares because the most absurd hereticks of the ancient Church in bringing in their then novel errours as plainly and undeniably appeares by the practices and histories of the Manichees Arians Sabellians Pelagians Donatists and others when they would no otherwise accomplish their enviousnesse against the then present Church departed from its communion upon new principles of dangerous consequence and cried up Scripture for their cause A testimony or two I may instance in from the Ancients instead of many Tertullian speaking of hereticks saith That when they perswade of matters of faith but out of the writings of faith they pretend the Scriptures and by such boldnesse move many to them To the same purpose Athanasius Endure not those that perswade you to new things contrary to the faith received although they anthorize them from the holy Scriptures In the next place I shall further adde as a reason to suspect the unsafetinesse of such a profession the fatall infelicities and irreconcileable differencies that have alwayes befallen the Church but especially in these last ages upon the presumption of private interpretation whereby every man as he hath been indulgent to his own opinion which either education prejudice advantage or ignorance hath inclined his spirit to so hath he decided and determined the controversies of the Church or made new ones worse then the former And I am confident were there a thousand cells and so many of our private Interpreters in them obliged to passe their judgements to determine the controverted doctrines to make a confession of faith to marshall a Church-government to form a service and worship of God from the Scriptures by their private interpretations and they all supposed to lay aside those few principles which they have continued from the received doctrines and practices of the Church and no singling of principles one to another we should soon and certainly find a progeny of a thousand several religions and professions Now the main reason is this though the holy Scriptures be in themselves most perspicuous and plain as to the direction of life and manners for which cause David calls them a light to his feet and lanthorn to his paths yet as to the deep mysteries of faith and the determination of many considerable emergent controversies of doctrine and government God hath pleased to deliver his truths in so dark and abstruse a manner that they that want humility to hear the common judgement of the Churches of Christ and their received interpretations may easily be delivered over by God to find arguments enough in Scripture to captivate and satisfy a private and prejudicate spirit in any errour of religion wresting the Scripture to their own destruction Quest In what manner do you hold the direction of the Scriptures and their interpretation as to your profession Ans. First I acknowledge the Blessed Scriptures to be the rule of faith the end and decision of all controversies and where they are clear and evident I submit my soul to them as to the final end of all my enqu●ries and doubts Secondly in the things that God hath pleased should be doubtfully delivered which is occasioned either from some difficulty in the Idiome or from seeming difference with other places requiring curious distinctions or when the expressions are clad and darkened with tropes and figures which are frequent in Scriptures or Lastly when the Scriptures are occasionall and a due consideration of the time when and the persons to whom they were spoken or written is necessary to the understanding of them I say in things so doubtfully delivered as to doctrine or government I submit my private reason and opinion to the grand interpretation and common consent of the first Churches for these reasons First because they were uninterested in our present controversies so without danger of being byassed by passion and they ordinarily lying under persecutions were not likely to gratify an errour for any private or worldly regards Secondly because they had most reason to know what were the practices of the Apostles and Apostolical men most certain guides to follow in controverted and doubtful points of Government and the circumstantial parts of religion Their footsteps which had so lately planted the Churches of Christ could not be so soon worn out but that they left discernable tracts for their immedate successors to walk in Thirdly they
is thy goodnesse that I can still sing a song of praise for mercies when I might justly at this instant have been in sackcloth and ashes breaking my soule with sorrow for some great infelicity Especially my soul blesse the thee that my Redeemer liveth and that I still live capable of that redemption and have had another opportunity to sorrow for my sins in an hour of acceptance and am not desperately howling for them in a remediless eternity I praise thee for every portion of preventing and assisting grace for everie good thought desire and work I have done by the help of grace and for every comfort I have this day enjoyed They are thine O Lord thy Name be praised And now to the same protection that hath this day and all the dayes of my life preserved me I commit my soule and body and all that I have this night Lord cover me with the wings of thy power and fatherly mercies keep my soul in my integritie to thee and let me enjoy my natural rest as thy blessing free from all sad accidents and trouble through Iesus Christ my Saviour Amen Intercessions to be used both morning and evening which the supplicant may shorten by using an intercession of the lesser forms For the universal Church O Lord defend the borders and peace of thy whole Church from the invasion of the Turk and all other enemies abroad and from the great increases of Atheisme and ruining factions in its own bosom Direct all Christian Kings Princes and Magistrates to lay aside the interests of the world and to concurre sincerely to uphold the Kingdom of Christ Enlarge the borders of the Gospel that the nations that sit in darkness may see the great light of Christ and that the Iewes may be convinced to an acknowledgement of him Reduce all those to Christ that are departed from the faith bring into the way of truth all that have erred and are deceived and let all that profess the Name of Iesus agree in truth unitie and concord through Iesus Christ my Saviour Amen For the Churches of CRIST in these Nations O merciful Father bless the Churches planted in these Nations let them be precious in the eye of thy mercie and defend them with an especial protection Let them not have the reward of this peoples crying sins nor feel the effects of thy just deserved vengeance O disapppoint the designs of the enemies of their peace preserve a never-failing Ministerie to uphold thy wotship keep thine ordinances from contempt and though thine enemies have disturbed their peace and dishonoured their profession yet let them not have power totally to waste thy holy vineyard Let this poor people see their seducements that they may return from their follies and factions to serve thee with peace unitie and holy lives through the might of Iesus Christ Amen For the afflicted O most dear and gracious Lord who delightest in the exercises of mercie and art a strong tower for the distressed to flie unto I humbly beseech thee to give the comforts of thy countenance and ready help to all that are in distress and miserie Have mercie O Lord upon all that are now a dying assist their spirits in the difficulties of that hour Appear with comfort and peace to the soules that are oppressed with the heavie sense of their sins Raise up friends and supports for the desolate fatherless and diseonsolate widowes Pitie and help all prisoners captives and all that suffer banishment povertie and oppression hear their cries and help them Let these and all others that are in misery and heaviness find peace patience and contentmen in thee And grant that their light afflictions here through thy infinite mercies in Christ may be exchanged for an exceeding weight of glorie eternally hereafter for Iesus Christ his sake my Saviour Amen For Parents Look down O Lord with thy especial mercies upon my Parents and make them thy children by adoption and grace Accept of their repentance receive their prayers and assist them to do the will of Christ Comfort them in their ages and afflictions Teach them to number their daies and everie day to be providing for their departure in the peace of Christ Lord pardon all my acts of disobedience to them and give me an heart alwayes ready to honour obey and comfort them all their dayes through Iesus Christ my ever blessed Saviour Amen For Children O merciful Father as thou hast given me the blessing to have children born to me in the flesh so give them grace to be born to thee in the Spirit Make them true lovers of Thee and Religion and tender in the preservation of every circumstance of it Keep them in these common departures from the faith that they may not be seduced to errour and faction nor be betrayed by ill examples to prophaneness and Atheisme Let their estate in the world be neither too prosperous lest they forget thee nor too adverse lest they be discouraged let their educations and callings be honest and not subject to great temptations Lord make them just merciful sober and true followers of Christ in this world and partakers of his glories in the world to come through Iesus Christ my blessed Lord Amen Occasional PRAYERS A prayer to be used before the receiving the blessed Sacrament O Merciful Lord I being invited at this time to receive the blessed Sacrament to the performance of which I stand bound by my obedience to the Gospel and those many excellent ends for which it was ordained do humbly beseech thee to create in me a value esteem and desire of it proportionable to so great a blessing O make my soul hunger and thirst after my blessed Iesus and the excellent purposes of his death and passion which are communicated to me in that Sacrament Lord make me as willing to shew forth his death by this part of my Christian dutie as I would be to partake of the comfort of the same death to the salvation of my soul And then fit me with thy grace that I may be a worthy receiver of it Give me a beleeving penitent and charitable heart such as befits the entertainment of so great a guest especiallie give me grace to come with that reverence of soul and body that may signifie a discerning the Lords body And grant O Lord that the bread and wine that shall be blessed for me may spiritually become the communion of the Body and blood of Christ to the salvation of my soul through the same Iesus my blessed Saviour Amen In time of sicknesse Most merciful Father who hast pleased to visit me with sickness and to lay thine hand upon me make me to acknowledge my visitation to be an effect of thy particular and fatherly providence upon me that my soul may say thou of very faithfulness hast afflicted me Lord sanctifie it unto me and make me capable through thy grace of all those blessed ends which thou propoundest to thy self when thou correctest thy children
my countenance and my God Thou hast created me by thy power redeemed me by thy Christ sanctified me by thy Spirit and preserved me by thy watchful providence through the whole course of my life Lord I praise thee for the safety of my soul and body this day that thy grace hath kept me from grosse sins and thy protection from sad accidents O keep me this night by the covert of the same fatherly goodness through Jesus Christ my Lord Amen Let the intercession be the same that was used for the morning Service Now I commend this office as the fittest to be taught to servants in families and to be used by children before they come to mens and womens estate THE Third Form This third office I have here inserted for the benefit of those who usually accustoming themselves to the next and largest formes shall sometime be necessitated to shorten their service and may be ordinarily used by those who are not yet come up to so great designs of zeal for longer formes Morning PRAYER Our Father which art in c. Confession of sin O Lord God Almighty the God of all Glory Majesty and Power and the fountain of mercies I confesse I am unworthy to appear before thy holy presence having sinned against heaven and before thee and in thought word and deed continually rebelled against thee I have too much followed my lusts and desires and have not endeavoured to bring under my affections to the yoak of Christ I have loved the vanities of the world but too much undervalued thy Kingdom and promises I have not been so sincere and frequent in thy services so diligent in my calling so just and merciful in my carriage to others nor so sober and temperate in the use of my mind body and thy blessings as the strict holinesse of the Gospel hath required of me here make confession of particulars For which I stand here guilty of the breach of thy righteous commandments and lie lyable to the effects of thy wrath and displeasure Prayer for Pardon and Grace But O thou preserver of men for thine own compassion sake and for thy Iesus sake pity the troubles of a burthened soul and pardon all those sins I have committed against thee Let the blood of Christ satisfy thy justice and his intercession obtain thy mercy for a peace and reconciliation with thee that my sins may not separate from thy grace here nor thy glory hereafter And O Lord strenthen my weak soul with the graces of thy Spirit that I may hereafter overcome all the temptations of the devil the world and the flesh and may lead a new and holy life before thee Turn the stream of my affections to thee and take possession of my soul that all my thoughts words and actions may be subject to the law of Christ And having kept the faith and finished my conversation in holines I may at last through thy mercies in Christ obtain the crown of eternal glory Amen The Thanksgiving O merciful and Gracious Lord as I acknowledge my dependence upon thee for every part of my being so I desire to bless thy holy Name for all thy mercies to me especially for the redemption of my soul by the blood of thy Son and for the portion of thy grace that thou hast given me I praise thee O Lord for all temporall blessings as my health provision of food and rayment friends understanding senses and limbs and that I enjoy any thing that I have seen any others to want Blessed be thy Name for the safety of my soul and body this night past O keep me under the shadow of thy wings this day that I may fall into no sad accidents nor dangers and so defend me with thy grace that I may do nothing that may displease thee or that may occasion sin in others or give offence to the holy profession of Christ for his merits sake who is my blessed Jesus Amen Intercession Lord defend thy universall Church from all enemies persecutions and factions Preserve thy Churches in these nations restore them to their former peace and keep them from the dangers of their own divisions and enmities Grant that Magistrates and Ministers may concurre to the upholding thy truth and worship in this needful time Blesse my Parents children and all my near relationss with all spiritual blessings in Christ and all temporall comforts Relieve and comfort all that are in distresse all prisoners captives sick and poor persons distressed widowes and friendless children with every oppressed and sorrowful soul Convert the impenitent confirm the weak turn into the way of truth all that have erred and forgive and bless all mine enemies Lord hear these my prayers and grant me my requests for the mediation of Jesus Christ my Saviour to whom with thee and the holy Spirit be given all Glory Honour and Praise this day and for evermore Amen Evening PRAYER Our Father which c. O Most infinite Majesty and gracious Father in mercy thou hast added another day to my age O wretch that I am I have added many sins to my former score How often O Lord have I this day forgotten my obedience to thee How many vain thoughts hath my mind harboured How many vain and impertinent words hath my mouth uttered With how many passions have I been transported beyond the bounds of Religion How many sinful acts have I committed How many opportunities of doing good have I omitted wherein I might have glorified thy Name And whereas thou hast given it me as another day of grace to be getting oyle for my lamp and to be working out my salvation O unhappy Creature I have rather gone back upon the accounts of the Spirit Trifling away that precious time in my indulgencies to my carnal affections or pursuits of worldly advantages neglecting the great prize of Christ and treasures of eternity So that had I but the sins of this day to answer for at the barre of thy divine justice O Lord I might justly suffer thy wrath to all eternity O what hath my soul to plead for the sins of my whole life if the sins of this one day may confound me For Pardon and Grace And now Lord where is my hope truly my hope is even in thee who though thou art justly displeased with me for my sins yet hath thy Iesus fully satisfied thy justice for them and by the dear price of his blood purchased at thy hand forgiveness of them O my dear Lord I beseech thee therefore shut not up the bowels of thy compassion from me nor deny me the benefit of the death and passion of my Saviour Lord let his wounds heal me his blood cleanse me his death reconcile me to thy divine Majesty for ever And grant that in the residue of my dayes I may wholly conforme to the Kingdom of Christ that I may have peace of conscience here a comfortable death and a blessed eternitie through the merits of Iesus Christ my Saviour Amen