Gleanings from Puritan Prayers is a compilation by David John Askew. John Kettlewell, 1653-1695, a companion for the penitent. Prayers, upon the several parts of repentance in particular and distinct form. 1. A Confession of Sins O Almighty and most gracious Lord, look in mercy upon me, the meanest of your servants, who am less than the least of all your mercies, and have deserved the heaviest of your judgments, and am not worthy to lift up my eyes to the place where your honor dwells. I am a sinner, O Lord, yes, a sinner altogether, and one of the chief among sinners. I was born in sin, and ever since have led a life suitable to that beginning. For to the shame of my face, and to the praise of your long-suffering, O mighty God, I do here, with a truly humble and contrite heart, Confess to you that I have shamefully neglected and let alone those good things which I ought to have done, and have done those evil things which I ought to have foreborne. Of both these I am heinously guilty, both in thought, word, and deed, and have wickedly incurred the same against the innumerable endearments of your mercies, and terrors of your judgments. Against all the good motions of your grace, and against the many seasonable admonitions which I have had from spiritual advisors, and against the voice and strugglings of my own conscience, I have done thee things, and have continued to do them, repeating the same many times. Yes, alas, too many of them in ordinary course. Yes, and that after my own manifold and solemn promises and engagements that I would offend therein no more. Lord, Be merciful to me, a miserable sinner. And in all these transgressions I have acted as a most impudent sinner, flying in the face of infinite majesty and passing all these heinous affronts where I owe the utmost love and reverence. and is the most presumptuously venturous and daring sinner provoking that power which can torment and utterly destroy me at its pleasure. Lord, be merciful unto me, a bold and presumptuous sinner. I have therein dealt most disingenuously and ungratefully, O merciful Lord, Rising up against you, the author of all my blessings, and flying in the face of that mercy which fosters and sustains me, even while I'm thus basely affronting and despising it, and which is heaping new obligations upon me every moment, under all these grievous offenses I have first begged your patience and then fallen to abuse it. I have first prayed to be spared and then turned basely to provoke you after you have spared me and have abused all your mercies to an opportunity of committing more offenses and of re-returning hatred where I've received the greatest and most endearing love. Lord, be merciful to me a base and ungrateful sinner. Yes, O Holy Father, I have therein dealt falsely and deceitfully with you, promising obedience whilst I'm in need of your mercies, but practicing none after once I've received them. In the midst of all my pretenses to honor and honesty in regard to my word amongst men, I've been wretchedly careless of dealing honorably or justly with your divine majesty. and of keeping my word with you, though you are always faithful and cannot fail in the least tittle of your word with me. Lord, be merciful to me, a false and faithless sinner. The following prayer is taken from William Nicholson's David Harp, Strung and Tuned. Nicholson lived from 1591 to 1672. to prayer, out of the first psalm. O Almighty and most merciful God, who has taught us by your holy word that the only way to obtain felicity is to avoid evil and to do good, never allow me to walk in the counsels of the ungodly, nor to stand in the way of sinners, nor to acquiesce and sit down and rest in the chair of the deriders of religion and piety. But so renew and quicken all the faculties of my soul by the gracious assistance of your spirit, that my delight may be to walk in the paths of your commandments and the meditations of my heart day and night, taken up with the study of your sacred word and will. By nature I am a wild tree, barren of good fruit. Be pleased then to transplant me and engraft me into the true olive, root me in true faith, sustain me in charity, let those heavenly dews of grace and rivers of water which flow from your sanctuary moisten and comfort my dry soul, so that I may bud and knit and fructify, and in a fit season bring forth such fruits as may cheer you and be beneficial to man. Then I may expect happy successes and prosperity upon the work of my hand. O Lord, you know my frailties. No dream more subject to the violence of Tempest than I am to the fury and rage of enemies, who, if they may have their will, will not leave one leaf upon me. They will deprive me of my juice and divest me of my greenness. O let not in the scorching heat of any temptation wither, nor the storm of winter persecution beat off a leaf of grace with which you have beautified my soul. But in the midst of this fiery trial let me still flourish, and in the coldest blast let me retain my life and fresh vigor that howsoever I seem to mend to be in an unhappy condition, yet I may have the testimony of your spirit within. That you who disposes all things to the best for those who love you will make me prosper. Prosper me therefore in my ways, prosper me in my actions, prosper me in my afflictions, prosper me in life, prosper me in my death. Whatsoever I do, let it prosper. Should I sell myself to work wickedness, consent to ungodly counsels, or settle upon the leaves of sin and sit down in the chair of the scornful, I can expect no success from your hand. Your mouth has said it. As for the ungodly, it shall not be so with them, though they may seem to men to be well-rooted and exceedingly to flourish, yet their prosperity is but, for a moment, their happiness light and vain. Carried they are with every violent wind of lewd affections and empty doctrines, and therefore they shall be as a chaff which the wind dries from the face of the earth. Their way shall perish, they shall never be able to stand in judgment. But you, O Lord, are a sure protection for your people. Grant, therefore, that when I shall appear before your judgment seat, I may be able to stand with boldness in your presence, and let your mercy absolve me from my sins for the merits of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. The following prayer is collected out of Psalm number 2. O blessed God, to whom our hearts are opened, and from whom no secrets are hid, whose eyes are ten thousand times brighter than the sun, and path through the world, and behold all the thoughts and conspiracies and actions of men. Incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see the attempts of Satan and wicked men to heathen of rage furiously in a people of tumultuously assembled. And imagine vain things. Yes, the kings of the earth have risen together. They have taken counsel and joined their power against you and against him who is your anointed. These many in number, strong in power, encouraged themselves in mischief, saying, Come, let us break off these bonds of laws and religion from off our necks, by which they would yoke us and cast away their cords in which they would bind us, for we will not that he or his anointed reign over us. For of a truth, Lord, against you and your holy child Jesus, whom you have anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles, and the nation of the Jews, have gathered themselves together, and do whatsoever your hand and your counsel determined before to be done. And now, behold their threatenings for your name's sake, for your son's sake, and for your promise's sake. Let not the gates of hell prevail against your church. You who sit in heaven, laugh them to scorn. You who are the most high, have them in derision. Speak to them in your wrath and vex them in your sword as pleasure. Raise up your power and come amongst us. Set your king upon your holy hill of Zion. He is your only begotten Son from everlasting and yet was content for our redemption to humble himself to the womb and be born and made of a woman that he might preach your law and make known the glad tidings of salvation to all people. Give him the heathen for his inheritance and the utmost parts of the earth for his possession. Merciful God, who has made all men and hates nothing that you have made, nor would the death of a sinner. But rather that he should be converted and live, have mercy upon all Jews, Turks, infidels, and heretics, and take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of your word, and fetch them home. To your stock, that they may be saved among the remnant of your true Israelites, that there may be but one fold and one shepherd. As for such who obstinately and willfully and maliciously stop their ears that they may not hear, and shut their eyes that they may not see, lest they should hear with their ears and see with their eyes, and you should heal them, these are the men who will not have you reign over them. Pour therefore your indignation upon them and bring them down in their pride and obstinacy. Break them in pieces with a rod of iron and dash them into shivers like a potter's vessel, of which, being broken into smaller parcels, there is no use nor hope or possibility of reparation. Gracious God, pour down the graces of your Holy Spirit upon all your people, especially upon the kings and rulers of the earth. Give them those gifts that may make them wise and those graces that may make them good. Let them learn their duties and do their duties to you. Oh, so incline all our hearts that we may serve you in fear. Rejoice before you with reverence, that we kiss, bow down, and adore your son. Submit and be obedient to him. Receive his doctrine and acquiesce in his laws and never be at rest till our heart assures us that you are reconciled to us through him. Oh, who may stand in your sight when you are angry? We tremble, therefore, to fill it this time the effect of your hot wrath upon us, for you have allowed us to perish from the right way for truth. to embrace lying vanities, and for your gospel, to worship our own imaginations. This is a just reward of our disobedience. This is a just revenge and punishment of our sin, in that we have not served you in fear, nor come into your courts and rejoiced before you with reverence, nor bowed our knees and been obedient to your son. For this your wrath is kindled, and it burns not a little against us. Grant that this your severity may have a true impression upon our hearts. Let us be true penitents, and by your sighs and groans give you no rest in heaven, till you return and have mercy upon us. Recall us again to the right way and never let us more err and wander from it. Confirm our hope. Strengthen our faith. Always let us put our confidence in your mercy, knowing that they alone who put their trust in you are blessed. For when your wrath is kindled, they shall be gathered under your wings and shall be safe under your feathers. Call us to your truth. Justify us by your Son's blood. Sanctify us by His Spirit to make us of that number to whom you will say at the last day, Come, blessed of my Father, inherited kingdom prepared for you from the beginnings of the world. Amen. Psalm 3 O Omnipotent and Wise Jehovah, without whose providence nothing falls out in this world, who brought your own people through the Red Sea and wilderness before you gave them rest in the land of Canaan. We acknowledge that your wrath is just, and that all the punishments brought upon your people proceeds from your righteous hand, and that we have deserved for our disobedience and rebellion to be cast out of your sight, and to have your candlestick removed from us. But cast us not off as a people in whom ye have no delight. Once more make trial of us, whether we will not serve you with more fear. Rejoice before you with more reverence, and give kisses of love and obedience to your Son. So sanctify all afflictions to us, that they may be a means to bring us to rest. Behold, Lord, how are they increased who trouble your poor church? How many there are who rise up against us? How many that say there is no help for us and our God? Will the Lord absent Himself forever, and will He be no more entreated? Is His mercy clean gone forever, and is His promise come utterly to an end forevermore? Has God forgotten to be gracious, and will He shut up His lovingkindness in displeasure? Then I said, It is mine own infirmity, but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High. I will remember the works of the Lord and call to mind your wonders of old time. Our fathers, our Fathers trusted in you, and you delivered them. With their voice they cried to you, and you heard them out of your holy hill. They laid them down with a quiet mind and slept without anxiety, and you sustained and upheld them. We are the children of the same Fathers, sons of the same hope, heirs of the same promises. Be then a buckler to us to defend us, our glory, who are despised, and lift up the heads of your people that are brought very low. Secure us, and we will not fear. Save us, and allow us not to be afraid of the ten thousands of enemies that have set themselves against us round about. Put them in fear that they may know themselves to be butt-men, Arise and help us and save us, O our God, and smite all our enemies on the cheekbone and break the teeth of the ungodly. Repress their fierceness and break their strength. Who more cruel than brute beasts seek to devour us? Come, if we inhabit but you, and there is none we desire on earth in comparison of you. Salvation belongs only to you. Let, therefore, your blessing be upon the people who fear you and wait for deliverance from you. Your people of Israel many times by their sins provoked your anger, and you punished them by your just judgment. Yet, though their sins were never so grievous, if they once returned from their iniquity, you received them to mercy. We therefore, wretched sinners, beware our manifold sins, and earnestly repent to us of our former wickedness and ungodly behavior toward you. And whereas we cannot of ourselves purchase your pardon and blessing, yet we humbly beseech you, for the sake of Jesus Christ, to show your mercy upon us. and receive us again to your favor. Let the smell of his garment ascend into your nostrils, and through him let your blessing be upon the people. Let her sons be as young plants, and her daughters as the polished corners of the temple. Let her garners be plenteous with all manner of store. Let her sheep bring four thousands and ten thousands in her streets. Let her oxen be strong to labor, that there be no decay, no leading into captivity, no complaining in her streets. O Father, impart to us so great a share of your blessing that we may be fully persuaded that our help and salvation depends upon you alone. Ungracious children we are and deserve it not, yet out of your mere mercy we humbly beseech you to bestow your benediction upon us for his sake, whom you sent to bless us, Jesus Christ, our only Lord and Savior. Amen.