away mine offences. For I will confess my wickedness, and be sorry for my sin. O my dearest Lord, I am not worthy to be accounted amongst the meanest of thy servants; not worthy to be sustained by the least fragments of thy mercy, but to be shut out of thy presence for ever with dogs and unbelievers. But for thy name's sake, O Lord, be merciful unto my sin, for it is great.

I am the vilest of sinners, and the worst of men; proud and vain-glorious, impatient of scorn or of just reproof; not enduring to be slighted, and yet extremely deserving it: I have been consumed by the colours of humility, and when I have truly called myself vicious, I could not endure any man else should say so or think so. I have been disobedient to my superiors, churlish and ungentle in my behaviour, unchristian and unmanly. But for thy name's sake, O Lord, be merciful unto my sin, for it is great.

O just and dear God, how can I expect pity or pardon, who am so angry and peevish with and without cause, envious at good, rejoicing at the evil of my neighbours, negligent of my charge, idle and useless, timorous and base, jealous and impudent, ambitious and hard-hearted, soft, unmortified and effeminate in my life, indevout in my prayers, without fancy or affection, without attendance to them, or perseverance in them; but passionate and curious in pleasing my appetite of meat and drink, and pleasures, making matter both for sin and sickness and I have reaped the cursed fruits of such improvidence, entertaining indecent and impure thoughts: and I have brought them forth in indecent and impure actions, and the

spirit of uncleanness hath entered in, and unhallowed the temple which thou didst consecrate for the habitation of thy spirit of love and holiness. But for thy name's sake, O Lord, be merciful unto my sin, for it is great.

<Thou hast given me a whole life to serve thee in, and to advance my hopes of heaven and this : precious time I have thrown away upon my sins and vanities, being improvident of my time and of my talent, and of my grace, and of my own advantages, resisting thy Spirit and quenching him. I have been a great lover of myself, and yet used many ways to destroy myself. I have pursued my temporal ends. with greediness and indirect means. I am revengeful and unthankful, forgetting benefits, but not so soon forgetting injuries, curious, and murmuring; a great breaker of promises. I have not loved my neighbour's good, nor advanced it in all things where I could. I have been unlike thee in all things. I am unmerciful and unjust; a sottish admirer of things below, and careless of heaven and the ways that lead thither. But for thy name's sake, O Lord, be merciful unto my sin, for it is great.

All my senses have been windows to let sin in, and death by sin. Mine eyes have been adulterous and covetous; mine ears open to slander and detraction; my tongue and palate loose and wanton, intemperate, and of foul language, talkative and lying, rash and malicious, false and flattering, irreligious and irreverent, detracting and censorious; my hands have been injurious and unclean, my passions violent and rebel

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lious, my desires impatient and unreasonable, all my members and all my faculties have been servants of sin; and my very best actions have more matter of pity than of confidence, being imperfect in my best, and intolerable in most. But for thy name's sake, O Lord, be merciful unto my sin, for it is great.

Unto this and a far bigger heap of sin I have added also the faults of others to my own score, by neglecting to hinder them to sin in all that I could and ought: but I also have encouraged them in sin, have taken off their fears, and hardened their consciences, and tempted them directly, and prevailed in it to my own ruin and theirs, unless thy glorious and unspeakable mercy hath prevented so intolerable a calamity.

Lord, I have abused thy mercy, despised thy judgments; turned thy grace into wantonness. I have been unthankful for thy infinite loving kindness, I have sinned and repented, and then sinned again, and resolved against it, and presently broke it; and then I tied myself up with vows, and then was tempted, and then I yielded by little and little, till I was willingly lost again, and my vows fell off like cords of vanity.

Miserable man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of sin?

And yet, O Lord, I have another heap of sins to be unloaded. My secret sins, O Lord, are innumerable; sins I noted not, sins that I willingly neglected, sins that I acted upon wilful ignorance and voluntary mispersuasion, sins that I have forgot, and sins which a diligent and watchful spirit might have prevented, but

I would not. Lord, I am confounded with the multitude of them, and the horror of their remembrance, though I consider them nakedly in their direct appearance, without the deformity of their unhandsome and aggravating circumstances; but so dressed, they are a sight too ugly, an instance of amazement, infinite in degrees, and insufferable in their load.

And yet thou hast spared me all this while, and hast not thrown me into hell, where I have deserved to have been long since, and even now to have been shut up to an eternity of torments with insupportable amazement, fearing the revelation of thy day.

Miserable man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of sin?

Thou shalt answer for me, O Lord my God. Thou that prayest for me, shalt be my Judge.

The Prayer.

THOU hast prepared for me a more healthful sorrow: O deny not thy servant when he begs sorrow of thee. Give me a deep contrition for my sins, a hearty detestation and loathing of them, hating them worse than death with torments. Give me grace entirely, presently, and for ever to forsake them; to walk with care and prudence, with fear and watchfulness all my days; to do all my duty with diligence and charity, with zeal and a never-fainting spirit; to redeem the time, to trust upon thy mercies, to make use of all the instruments of grace, to work out my salvation with fear and trembling; that thou mayest have the glory of pardoning all my sins, and I may reap the fruit of all No. 17.

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thy mercies and all thy graces, of thy patience and long-suffering, even to live a holy life here, and to reign with thee for ever, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Ad Sect. 6.] Special Devotions to be used upon the Lord's-Day and the great festivals of Christians. In the Morning recite the following Forms of Thanksgiving; upon the special Festivals, adding the Commemoration of the special Blessings, according to the following Prayers; adding such Prayers as you shall choose out of the foregoing Devotions. 2. Besides the ordinary and public Duties of the Day, if you retire into your closet to read and meditate after ye have performed that Duty, say the Song of St. Ambrose, commonly called the [Te Deum] or [We praise thee, &c.] then add the Prayers for particular Graces which are at the end of the former Chapters, such and as many of them as shall fit your present needs and affections; ending with the Lord's Prayer. This Form of Devotion may, for variety, be indifferently used at other times.

A Form of Thanksgiving, with a recital of public and private Blessings; to be used upon Easter-day, Whit-Sunday, Ascension-day, and all Sundays of the Year: but the middle part of it may be reserved for the more Solemn Festivals, and the other used upon the Ordinary; as every Man's affections or leisure shall determine.