therefore from the bar of thy justice to the bowels of thy mercy beseeching thee in that day to deal with the soul of thy servant not as a severe Judge but as a mercifull Jesus It will be O Lord a day of wrath but gather me under the shadow of thy wings untill the indignation be past over It will be a day of darknesse of gloominesse but lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me and I shall be saved It will be a day of Judgment but in that day by thine agony and bloody passion and by whatsoever thou hast done or suffered for me good Lord deliver me And to this end I beseech thee give me grace to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world to keep a good conscience void of offence towards thee my God and towards all men to abound always in the works of charity and mercy and to judg and condemn my self here that I may not be condemned hereafter That so whensoever this day shall seise upon me I may not be bound up with the bundle of tares which shall be cast into unquenchable fire but gathered with the wheat into thy garners and set with the sheep upon thy right hand and called in the number of those blessed ones to inherit a Kingdom that Crown of righteousnesse which thou hast purchased and prepared for all those that love and expect that day of thy appearing Now unto thee ô Christ together with thy Father thy blessed Spirit be ascribed all power praise dignity and dominion now and for ever Amen A PRAYER FOR the Morning OEternall and most glorious Lord God and in Iesus Christ our merciful and loving Father we thine unworthy creatures sinful dust and ashes are here in all humility of souls bodies prostrate at the lowest footstool of thy glorious Majesty beseeching thee to bow down thine ears unto our prayers and to open thine eyes upon our supplication who from the ground bottom of our hearts do acknowledg and confess that we have been unprofitable servants prodigall children bad stewards of that time which thou hast afforded us for repentance good works of those talents which thou hast committed to our improvement If we put our hands into our bosomes we must needs draw them out all leprous For we are the brood of rebellious and disobedient Parents our hearts are cages of unclean birds of noisome lusts and the thoughts thereof have been evil and only evill and that continually And if ô Lord we look forth unto the actions of our lives there is no sin which we have not committed no commandment which we have not broken These eys which now look up unto heaven have beheld vanity these tongues which now call upon thee have blasphemed thee and these hands which we now lift up unto thee have been many times lift up against thee and thy Statutes So that we have made our selves unworthy of the least of thy mercies but worthy of the greatest of thy judgments But deal not with us after our sins neither reward us according to our iniquities Spare us good Lord spare thy people whom thou hast created after thine own Image and redeemed with thine own Blood And according to the multitude of thy tender compassions which have ever been of old to us blot out the multitude of our transgressions Pardon our sins and receive us again unto thy favour for his sake and sufferings who hath satisfied thy Justice to the utmost farthing And for the short residue and remainder of our days give us grace to consecrate it to thy service to redeem that time which we cannot recall and to make our calling and election sure before we go hence and be no more seen And because the corruptions of our nature are too many and too strong for us and the Divel like a roaring Lion goes about continually to devour us leave us not to our selves but assist us by thy grace perfect thy strength in our weaknesse and preserve both our bodies and souls spotlesse and unblameable that when we shall have finished our course and run the race of our naturall Pilgrimage we may receive that crown of righteousnesse which thou the righteous and just Judg hast laid up for all them that love and expect the day of thy appearing And together with us we intreat thee for a blessing upon our King Queen Prince and the rest of the Roiall Progeny upon our Councellors Ministers Magistrates upon our friends kinred and acquaintance upon the whole Church and every afflicted member of it And accept of our morning sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving for all the mercies and favours comforts and deliverances which from time to time thou hast afforded and continued to us We thank thee for thy last mercy in preserving us from the dangers of this night past for refreshing our bodies with seasonable rest and bringing us safe to the beginning of this day Lord what is man that thou art so mindfull of him or the Son of man that thou shouldest thus visit remember him Give us grace O Lord to remember thee and to be mindfull of thy mercies that we may praise thee for all the truth and faithfulnesse which thou shewest to us in the land of the living that as thou hast brought us to the comforts of this day so thou mayest go along with us in the same to enable us for the duties of those callings wherein we are placed and to deliver us from those dangers to which we are exposed even for Jesus Christ his sake in whose most blessed name and words we conclude these our weak and imperfect prayers saying as he himself hath taught us in his holy Gospel O our Father c. A PRAYER FOR the Evening O Most glorious and ever living LORD God which inhabitest eternity and dwellest in that light which no mortall eye can attain unto the God in whom we live and move and have our being we thine unworthy servants do here in all lowlinesse and humility present our persons and prayers before thy divine Majesty confessing acknowledging that we were conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity and as if that had been but a smal matter we have heaped up our actuall transgressions as the sand upon the Sea shore and as the stars in the firmament for number We have broken thy Commandements we have prophaned thy Sabbaths we have dishonoured thy name we have abused thy creatures we have neglected the day of our visitation turned thy grace into wantonness whereby we have most justly provoked thy wrath and everlasting displeasure we have wounded our own consciences weakned our assurance of salvation grieved thy good Spirit which sealeth us up unto the day of our redemption And now Lord if thou shouldest deal with us after our deservings thou mightest pour upon us the deluge of thy wrath and fury to sweep us out of the land of the living into that place
own conscience I have quenched the motions of thy Spirit I have put off the good works whereby I might have glorified thee bettered my self benefited my neighbour Lord be merciful to me a sinner I have corrupted the best of my thoughts words works and ways by cherishing the corruptions of mine own nature by entertaining the secret temptations of Satan and the open inticements of the wicked world Lord be merciful to me a sinner I have been an evill husband of the talent of grace which was committed to my improvement I have been an unthrift of that time which was lent me for repentance and the work of my salvation Lord be merciful to me a sinner I have belied my corrupt heart with fair semblances of goodness and have hypocritically deceived the good opinion of charity which beleeveth the best I have boasted in the praise that I deserved not to thy offence who requirest truth in the inward parts Lord be merciful to me a sinner I have overweened the measure of grace in my self corrupted it with my pride I have undervalued the goodness of my neighbour and either have lessened it with abatements or depraved it with unjust imputations Lord be merciful to me a sinner I have heard and seen thee my God dishonoured my neighbour traduced and wronged I have done right to neither but either for fear of offence for partial affection for base flattery or ungodly modesty or for uncharitable envy I have forborn to arise in their just defence Lord be merciful to me a sinner I have not alwayes sought the outward blessings of life by good meanes sanctified by prayer I have not alwayes received them with thanksgiving and contentednesse I have not alwayes used them with sobriety nor dispensed the over-measure with the piety and charity that I ought Lord be merciful to me a sinner I have not used my lawful pleasures so seasonably so moderately so religiously so thankfully as I ought but I have offended thee my God in my mirth Lord be merciful to me a sinner I have not sought peace with all men nor always imbraced it when it hath been offered I have not loved mine enemy nor blessed him that cursed me nor done good to him that meant or did me hurt I have not given him such pardon as I begged from thee for my self Lord be merciful to me a sinner I have sinned in vaine thoughts in vast desires in ungodly hopes in unchaste dreams in secret covetings of the goods or delights of my neighbour Lord be merciful to me a sinner I have sinned in the unconscionable practice of these sins without remorse or repentance or if any good motions of thy Spirit have bred in me a godly sorrow for them the next temptation hath either replased me into the old or implunged mee in some new sin Lord be merciful to me a sinner I have hid some of these sins as Adam some of them I have excused with pretences some I have denied against the testimony of my accusing conscience some I have wickedly maintained none I have throughly repented amended Lord be merciful to me a sinner I have committed many secret sins that I have not been aware of I have sinned in the best of my works and intentions of piety and charity even when I most laboured to doe thee service Lord be merciful to me a sinner I have sinned all these wayes and done many evils that I have forgotten many that I have past over without consideration and repentance and now what shall I do to thee O thou preserver of men and Judge of the whole world Lord be merciful to me a sinner Have mercy upon me O Lord according to thy loving kindnesse according to the multitude of thy tender compassions blot out all my offences Amen Amen And that for Jesus Christ his sake in whose most blessed name and words we conclude these our imperfect prayers saying as he himself hath taught us OUR Father which art in heaven Hallowed be thy name Thy Kingdome come Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil For thine is the Kingdome the power and the glory for ever and ever Amen Morning Prayer OLord our heavenly Father almighty everlasting God which hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day defend us in the same with thy mighty power and grant that this day we fall into no sin neither run into any kinde of danger but that all our doings may be ordered by thy governance to do always that is righteous in thy sight through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Evening Prayer LIghten our darknesse we beseech thee O Lord and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night for the love of thy onely Son our Saviour Jesus Christ Amen THe grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the holy Ghost be with us all evermore Amen II. DEPRECATION DEprecation is a branch of prayer directed to God either for the aversion and prevention of an evill before it comes or for the removing and taking it away when it is come And the evil which we deprecate may be either the evill of sin or the evill of punishment When we either feel or fear an evil we must not with Eliah or Jonah sit down and in a sullen humour wish our selves out of the world but we must pray as Christ did for his Disciples Joh. 17.15 not that he would take us out of the world but that he would keep us from the evil And so doing we have Gods promise not to be tempted above our strength For either he will abate the crosse or increase our strength to bear it either he will remove the temptation or give us his grace which is sufficient for us Deliver us from evil Luke 11.4 Deliver me from all my transgressions Make me not the reproach of the foolish Psal 39. Remove thy stroke from me Deliver my soul from the sword my darling from the dog Save me from the Lions mouth from the horns of the Unicorns Psal 22.20 21. THE LETANY of Deprecation FRom all the sinnes that I have done and from all that I would have done if thy grace had not prevented and restrained me Good Lord deliver me From my close bosome sins and from those sins to which I am inclined by nature or inticed by company or allured by pleasure and profit or drawn by the example of this evil world Good Lord deliver me From all the sins that I have felt in my conscience and confessed with my mouth and bewailed with my heart and begged pardon of thee with my tongue Good Lord deliver me From all the secret unknown sins which my conscience hath not felt nor my mouth confessed nor my heart bewailed
nor my tongue begged pardon Good Lord deliver me From the whole corruption of my nature from all the temptations of the Divel from the allurements of the world from the lusts of the flesh and eyes Good Lord deliver me From all vanity of minde dulness of understanding perversnesse of will crookedness of affections deadness hardness of heart and from a benummed blinded or seared conscience Good Lord deliver me From all wandring imaginations from all loosness of desires from all transgressions of thy holy and just commandments and from the first motions to any sin against thee or my neighbour Good Lord deliver me From relapsing into the sins that I have repented from turning thy grace into wantonnesse from treading under foot the bloud of thy covenant from neglect and contempt of the meanes of salvation Good Lord deliver me From all schism heresie from infidelity and apostasie from the sin against the holy Ghost Good Lord deliver me From famine scarcity from plague and pestilence and from all other thy sore and heavy judgements at this time and ever hereafter Good Lord deliver me From poverty and extreme necessity from sickness and diseases in my body from grief and vexation of mind from losse of liberty goods or friends from blemish and scādal of my good name Good Lord deliver me From giving offence unadvisedly and from taking offence unjustly Good Lord deliver me From thy wrath and indignation from final despair of thy grace and pardon and from sudden death Good Lord deliver me From the sentence of condemnation from the Lake of brimstone from the chains of everlasting darkness from the worm that dies not and the fire that shall never be quenched Good Lord deliver me O Lord I beseech thee deliver my soul Psal 116.4 Amen Amen And that for Jesus Christ his sake in whose most blessed name and words we conclude these our imperfect prayers saying as he himself hath taught us OUR Father which art in heaven c. Morning Prayer O Lord our heavenly Father almighty everlasting God which hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day defend us in the same with thy mighty power grant that this day we fall into no sin neither run into any kind of danger but that all our doings may be ordered by thy governance to doe alwayes that is righteous in thy sight through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Evening Prayer LIghten our darkness we beseech thee O Lord and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night for the love of thy only Son our Savior Jesus Christ Amen THE grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the holy Ghost be with us all evermore Amen III. SUPPLICATION SUpplication is another branch of praier whereby we intreat of God that hee would give us such blessings as we want or continue and inlarge such blessings as we have received And these blessings are either corporal or spiritual temporal or eternal For such blessings as are spiritual and accōpany salvation pray for them in the first place First seek the Kingdom of God the righteuosness thereof we may pray for them absolutely for the other we must pray conditionally with a reference submission of our will to Gods will who best knows what is good for us Not my will but thine be done Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven O Thou that hearest prayer unto thee shall all flesh come Psal 65.2 Lord hear my voice let thine eares be attentive to my supplications Psal 130.2 Behold now that I have taken upon me to speak to the Lord who am but dust and ashes O let not the Lord bee angry and I will speak THE LETANY of Supplication THat it may pleafe thee to fill mine heart and my mouth with thy praise all my life long for all thy faithfulnesse and truth and loving kindness shewed to me in the land of the living I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to give me a clear judgment to see my sins holy affections to hate and abhorre them true repentance to bewail and forsake them with a stedfast purpose and resolution against them for the time to come I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to wash mee throwly from mine iniquities and to cleanse me from my sins that I may be whiter then snow I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to apply to my conscience the obedience of the life and the sacrifice of the death of Jesus Christ for the assurance of thy favour and my pardon I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to create in me a clean heart to renew a right spirit within me to give me truth in my inward parts and to establish me with thy free Spirit I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to give me such graces as I want and to increase those which I have that I may grow frō strength to strength till I become a perfect man I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to make me an instrument of thy glory to direct all my thoughts words works for the inlargement advancement of thy Kingdome I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to establish in mee the Kingdome of thy power to rule and awe me and the Kingdome of thy grace to sanctifie me to the knowledge love and obedience of thy will I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to enable me to doe thy will with chearfulness alacrity with perseverance and constancy as thy blessed Angels and Saints in heaven do it I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to open thy full hand to bestow upon me the necessaries of this life the fruits of the earth in due season with the continuance of health liberty and peace I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to give me thy blessing with them that I may use them wisely soberly justly charitably thankfully and contentedly I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to blesse me in all the works of my calling with grace and strength to obtain to keep and to use a good conscience towards thee my neighbours to my lives end I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to sanctifie my life to sweeten my death and to raise up my body in the day of the Lo Jesus I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. Finally that it may please thee to give me my masters joy my fathers inheritance the Crown of righteousness the glory of the new Jerusalem to satisfie me with that fulness of joy which is in thy presence I beseech thee to heare me
Lastly death like the Angell plucks us out of Sodom and conducts us to Zoar a city of refuge and safety It translates us out of a prison to a Palace from a vale of misery to a kingdome of glory from Leeks and Onions to Rivers of Milk and Honey From the Tents of Kedar and Tabernacles of the wicked to mount Sion the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem to an innumerable company of Angels to the generall Assembly and Church of the first born which are inrolled in heaven to God the Judge of all to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediator of the new Testament Heb. 12.22 23. Death is like the common gate of a city thorow which the Malefactor passes to execution but the honest Citizen to his recreation We know that if the earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternall in the heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 Where God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes and there shall be no more death nor sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain Rev. 21.4 These things considered we may with Solomon praise the dead that are already dead more then the living that are yet alive Eccles 4.2 And say with S. Paul To me to live is Christ and to die is gain Phil. 1.21 CAP. IV. There shall bee a Resurrection IT troubles us not to see the Sun set because we know it will rise again the next morning God restored to Iob every thing double but his children they were not amissi but praemissi not lost but laid up and then shall be a day of restitution Though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold and not another though my reins be consumed in me Job 19.26 27. Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise awake and sing yee that dwell in the dust for thy dew is as the dew of herbs and the Earth shall cast out her dead Isa 26.19 So then death is but a Parenthesis and the soul and body though disjoyned by it will meet again together Nay the body shall not onely arise but it fares with the body as with old houses which being pull'd down new ones are erected in their rooms better and more stately then the former It is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption It is sown in dishonor it is raised in glory It is sown in weakness it is raised in power It is sown a naturall body it is raised a spirituall body 1 Cor. 15.42 43. Thus death like a rare Alchy mist dissolves the base metal of our bodies and converts it to a purer substance The body when it rots in the grave is as linnen worn to rags and cast upon the dunghill but at the resurrection it is like those Rags gathered up and made into paper which many times becomes gilt and capable of noble and divine impressions The fire burnt the bands of the three children but sindged not so much as a haire of their heads Dan. 3.27 Death looses us from the bands of our sins but shall not cozen us of a nail of the hand or an hair of the head for all our hairs are numbred CAP. V. The goodness of God SAint Ambrose being asked by his friends whether he was not afraid to die answered he was not because he had a good Lord. What time I am affraid I will trust in thee Psal 56.3 Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evill for thou art with me Psal 23.4 Into thy hands I commit my spirit for thou hast redeemed it ô Lord God of truth Psal 31.5 He that hath created our souls after his own Image and redeemed them with his owne bloud will not refuse them when they are commended and given up unto him When Stephen was giving up the ghost he saw the heavens opened and the Sonne of man standing at the right hand of God Acts 7.56 Christ who sits at the right hand of God was then said to stand to shew how ready he is to receive the souls of his servants These considerations being applyed and wrought well upon our hearts will make us cry out with David Oh when shall I come and appear before him Psal 42.2 O that I had wings like a dove that I might flie hence and be at rest Psal 55.6 Woe is me that I sojourn in Mesech that I dwell in the Tents of Kedar Psal 120.5 With old Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word Lu. 2.29 With Paul I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Phil. 1.23 With Saint Iohn Come Lord Jesus come quickly Rev. 22.20 SECTION IV. EVery man desires with Balaam that he may dye the death of the righteous and that his last end may be like his and I cannot blame them For to die well is a point of the greatest consequence in the world because eternity depends upon it And as the tree fals so it must ly whether it be to the North of Gods judgment or to the South of his mercy Eccles 11.3 Now this work of dying well cannot be done extempore I have therefore in the last place contracted the art of dying well into a few precepts CAP. I. Live well TO live well is to fear God and to keep his Commandements Eccles 12.13 To love God and our neighbour Mat. 22.37 To deny all ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously godly in this present world Tit. 2.12 To doe justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God Micah 6.8 To repent of our sins to beleeve in Christ to keep his Commandments Who so doth these things shall never fall Psal 15.5 A fair day may have a foul evening but a good life cannot have a bad death Such as the premisses are such will be the conclusion It is said of Moses that he died according to the word of the Lord or at the mouth of the Lord for the Hebrew will bear this reading and the Chaldee paraphrases it He died at a kisse of the Lords mouth God kisses the righteous in their deaths and as it were sucks in those souls which he breathed into them Deut. 34.5 Old Hilarion when he lay a dying bespake his soul in this manner Get thee out of me O my soul get thee out of me why fearest thou that hast served God almost this seventy years Jerom in vita Hilarionis Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace Psal 37.37 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints Ps 116.15 Blessed are they that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their works follow them Rev. 14.13 CAP. II. Particular directions IN the time of thy sickness with