mitting many duties I ought to do, and committing many vices thou
hast forbidden under pain of thy heavie Displeasure: as for my sins,
O Lord, they are innumerable: wherefore I stand here liable to all the
miseries in this life, and everlasting Torments in that to come, if
thou shouldst deal with me according to my deserts. I confesse,
O Lord, that it is thy Mercie (which endureth for ever) and thy
compassion (which never fails) which is the cause that I have not
been long ago consumed: but with thee there is Mercie and plenteous
Redemption; in the multitude therefore of thy mercies, and by the
Merits of Jesus Christ, I intreat thy Divine Majestie, that thou
wouldst not enter into judgment with thy servant, nor be extreme to
mark what is done amisse, but be thou mercifull unto Me, and wash away
all my sins with that precious bloud that my Saviour shed for me. And
I beseech thee, O Lord, not onely to wash away all my sins; but also
to purge my heart by thy holy Spirit, from the dross of my natural
corruption: And as thou dost add days to my life, so good Lord, I
beseech thee to add repentance to my dayes, that when I have past this
mortall life, I may be partaker of thy everlasting Kingdom, through
the Merits of Jesus Christ our Lord, _Amen_.

* * * * *

_A_ PRAYER _and_ CONFESSION _made in and for the times of Affliction._

Almighty and most mercifull Father, as it is onely thy Goodnesse that
admits of our imperfect Prayers, and the knowledge that thy mercies
are infinite, which can give Us any hope of thy accepting or granting
them: so it is our bounden and necessary duty to confesse our sins
freely unto thee; And of all men living, I have most need, most reason
so to do; no man having been so much obliged by thee, no man more
grievously offending thee: that degree of knowledge which thou hast
given me adding likewise to the guilt of my transgressions. For, was
it through ignorance, that I suffered innocent bloud to be shed by a
false pretended way of Justice? or that I permitted a wrong way of
thy Worship to be set up in _Scotland?_ and injured the Bishops in
_England?_ O no; but with shame and grief I confesse, that I therein
followed the perswasions of worldly Wisdome, forsaking the Dictates
of a right-informed Conscience: Wherefore, O Lord, I have no excuse to
make, no hope left, but in the multitude of thy mercies; for I know
my repentance weak, and my prayers faulty: Grant