Daily devotions, or, The Christians morning and evening sacrifice digested into prayers and meditations, for every day in the week, and other occasions : with some short directions for a godly life / by John Colet ...

An Evening Prayer.

O Heavenly Father, I with all humility and reverence of heart and mind, be∣seech thee this night, which thou hast or∣dained for man to rest in, that thou wilt guard and protect me with thy good guid∣ing Spirit; and albeit my sinful flesh shall slumber and sleep, yet grant that my soul may continually keep watch and ward; let not the enemy find me slumbering and sleeping, as careless in the cradle of sin∣ful security, lest that whilst I am unarm∣ed, that is, naked and destitute of thy help and favour, he enter in and break up the house of my sinful body; and make such havock and spoil, and that my in∣fected leprous soul, deformed by means of mine iniquity, and wounded with the dangerous darts of transgression, be thrown with the body of sin, unto the lake of destruction; make me still, O good Lord, to consider that the bed is the plain pat∣tern of the grave; make me to under∣stand, that when I am laid of my self; without thy Heavenly Providence, I can∣not be able to rise again; make me also to acknowledge that sleep is the very Figure of death, to whose stroke, at thy appoint∣ed

pleasure I must submit my self; endue me with love and charity to all men; let my lamp, O Lord, be garnished with oyl, that whensoever thy messenger death shall draw nigh, and knock at the gate of my body, I may at his summons in the day of the Resurrection of the dead, be ready to attend on thee my Bride with my burning lamp; that is with a stedfast faith, when as by Faith I shall be cloathed with a new: for my mortal body shall be then covered with immortality and the corruption of my sinful and rebellious flesh then changed to incorruption and perfect purity: thy righteousness shall be mine, thy merits shall make me perfect and holy, by vertue whereof, hell shall lose his victory, death shall lose his sting, my faith and hope shall have its end and reward; and I with thy Saints, continually dwell in love and cha∣rity with thee and my Heavenly Bride∣groom Christ Jesus; to whom with the Fa∣ther, and the holy Ghost, be ascribed all power and glory, for ever and ever. A∣men.