XXXI. A FORM OF PRAYER, thought fit to be daily used in the Imprinted at London by the Deputies of Christopher Barker, After the Confession, Absolution, and the Lord's prayer; say these psalms following, or one of them. And then the prayers following, or one of them, together with the prayers in the Litany made for the time of war, and with the prayer for her Majesty there also: or some other to that effect. A confession of sins. ALMIGHTY and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep, we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts, we have offended against thy holy Laws, (we have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done, and there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us miserable offenders, spare thou them, O God, which confess their faults, restore thou them that be penitent, according to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesu our Lord; and grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake, that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, to the glory of thy holy name. Amen. ALMIGHTY God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which desireth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he may turn from his wickedness, and live, and hath given power and commandment to his ministers, to declare and pronounce to his people, being penitent, the absolution and remission of their sins he pardoneth and absolveth all them which truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy Gospel. Wherefore we beseech him to grant us true repentance and his holy Spirit, that those things may please him which we do at this present, and that the rest of our life hereafter may be pure and holy, so that at the last we may come to his eternal joy, through Jesus Christ our Lord. OUR Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom 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. Amen. The Psalm. WE have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have Psalm 44. told us what thou hast done in their time of old. How thou hast driven out the heathen with thy hand, and planted them Psalm 44. in: how thou hast destroyed the Nations, and cast them out. For they gat not the land in possession through their own Psalm 44. sword: neither was it their own arm that helped them. But thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance: Psalm 44. because thou hadst a favour unto them. Thou art my king, O God: send help unto Jacob. Psalm 44. Through thee will we overthrow our enemies: and in thy name will Psalm 44. we tread them under that rise up against us. For I will not trust in my bow: it is not my sword that Psalm 44. shall help me. But it is thou, that savest us from our enemies, and puttest them to Psalm 44. confusion that hate us. We make our boast of God all the day long and will Psalm 44. praise thy Name for ever. Be not thou far off, O Lord: put us not to confusion, go forth with our Armies. Make our enemies to turn their backs upon us. Suffer us not to be rebuked of our Neighbours: to be laughed to scorn, and had in derision of them, that are round about us. Make us not a byword among the heathen: up, Lord, and sleep not, awake and be not absent from us. Hide not thy face from us: forget not our trouble. Psalm 44. Another Psalm. HEARKEN to the voice of our prayer, our King and our Psalm 5. God for unto thee do we make our complaint. Psalm 22. Psalm 22. Psalm 3. Psalm 7. Psalm 10. Psalm 7.& 22. Psalm 74. Psalm 59. Psalm 7. Psalm 22. O Lord, the counsel of the wicked conspireth against us: and our enemies are daily in hand to swallow us up. They gape upon us with their mouths, as it were ramping and roaring Lions. But thou (O Lord) art our defender: thou art our health, and our salvation. We do put our trust in thee, O God: save us from all them that persecute us, and deliver us. O take the matter into thy hand, thy people commit themselves unto thee: for thou art their helper in their distress. Save us from the Lions' mouths, and from the horns of the Unicorns: lest they devour us, and tear us in pieces, while there is none to help. O deliver not the soul of thy Turtle-dove unto the multitude of the enemies and forget not thy poor congregation for ever. : Deliver us from our enemies, O God: defend and save us from them that imagine mischief, and rise up against us. And we shall give thanks unto thee (O Lord) according to thy great mercies; and will praise the name of the Lord most high. We will declare thy Name unto our brethren: in the mids of the congregation will we praise thee, and magnify thy salvation, world without end. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen. Psalm 115.1 A prayer. O LORD God of Hosts, most mighty and merciful Father. who in thy unspeakable wisdom and mercy hast gathered unto thyself a Church truly professing thine holy Name and Gospel: We do here most humbly acknowledge, that through our manifold sins and offences against thy heavenly Majesty. committed by unthankful receiving of thy holy word, and by wicked led lives, we have made ourselves unworthy of the least of these and other thy singular blessings hitherto very abundantly poured upon us. Nevertheless (O heavenly Fa ther) with an assured confidence relying upon thy promises, we make bold to draw near unto the throne of thy grace, [This Psalm has not the Gloria Patri.] humbly craving forgiveness of our sins, and the continuance of thy blessings upon us, and upon all Princes, Countries, and Commonwealths, that have received and do embrace thine holy Gospel. Therefore, being cast down in soul, we do bewail our iniquities, setting the bitter death and precious bloodshed of thy dear Son Christ Jesus betwixt us and thy just wrath conceived against us. Turn (O Lord) thy wrathful indignation from us: And forasmuch as it is not for these our sins, that our enemies in their purpose have thus banded themselves against us, but for the sincere profession of thy word and Gospel; with thy mighty arm confound, and bring to nought, the devices, power, and strength, of all such, as set themselves against the same. Thou knowest (O Lord) how the heathen, and such as hold of superstitious vanities, do everywhere rush into thine inheritance, to make thy chosen Jerusalem, even thy Church, a desolate heap of stones, to lay waste thy holy Sanctuary; yea, even to give up the flesh of thy dear children to the birds of the air, and the slain carcases of thy saints to the beasts of the field. Wherefore (most mighty God of Hosts) which art the Lord of glory and power, that canst arm the most base and meanest of thy creatures to the overthrow of all the mighty of the world, that be enemies to us for thy truth's sake: Avance thyself like a mighty Giant with a swift and terrible judgment against them frustrate the counsels of all their Achitophels: break them down with an iron rod like an earthen vessel: send an host of Angels to scatter their armies both by sea and land: confound them as thou didst the host of the Assyrians: Let thine own sword fight for us and devour up them be thou as fire unto them, and let them be as stubble before thee. Finally, let them be as Oreb and Zeb: yea, like unto Zebah and Salmanah, and be made as dung on the face of the earth. Send (good Lord) upon them the spirit of fear and trembling, that they may fly before the host of thine Israel as chaff before the wind, to the end they may be discomfited, and overthrown by thy mighty hand. Neither give thou us up (O Lord) to be a prey to their teeth, or a byword and reproach to such as hate the true profession of the Gospel: For we do only rest assured under the shadow of thy wings. Protect us in mercy as the apple of thine eye, and mercifully pour upon us the spirit of wisdom, foresight, counsel, strength and courage: that, in full assurance of thine heavenly help fighting for us, ten of us may chase an hundred, and an hundred of us put to flight a thousand of them. Be thou (O Lord) our continual refuge and strong rock of defence: Let thine holy Angels pitch their tents round about us, that we may know thine holy hand both stretched out for our help, and strongly set against them: teach our hands to war, and our fingers to fight: prosper that we shall take in hand, O prosper thou our handy work, and make us always to rejoice in thy salvation and deliverance: that so all such as love not the truth of thy Gospel, hearing thereof, may be discomforted; and that thy fear may fall upon them, to the perpetual glory of thy holy name: That we, escaping the rage and fury of those which seek after our lives, may in thine holy Church here militant, and after in the Church triumphant in heaven, eternally sing praises to thee our heavenly Father, the only giver of all victory. Grant these things for thy Son Christ Jesus' sake: to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost, three persons and one eternal, immortal, invisible, and only wise God, be all honour, praise, glory and dominion now and for ever. Amen. ¶ Another prayer. MOST mighty God, and merciful Father: Forasmuch as thou hast promised to maintain and defend the cause of thy Church, so dearly purchased and redeemed, even with the precious blood of thy dearly beloved Son: we, thy humble servants, confessing our own unworthiness through the infinite. number of our wilful transgressions, do at this time prostrate ourselves here before thy divine Majesty, and, wholly relying upon thy promises, most heartily beseech thee through the merits of Jesus Christ our Saviour, to protect us this day and ever hereafter from the fury of our enemies, to pardon our sins past, and to have mercy upon us. Thou knowest, O Lord, how they that fight against us have entered into a league, and combined themselves, never to desist, until they have destroyed all such as profess thy Gospel, and laid the glory of Sion in the dust. And though our offences do most justly deserve, that we should be delivered to the edges of their swords: Yet seeing that they do hate us only for thy cause, and that we are noted in the world for such as outwardly |