The sinner's tears, in meditations and prayers. By Tho. Fettiplace. Dom: Pet: Cantab.

O thou great God, who hast tender bowels of compassions, and multitudes of mercies for us mi∣serable sinners, who art not easy to be provoked, but ever ready to forgive, who sufferest not thy whole displeasure to arise against us, but even in thy very judgements remembrest mercy, and art then moved with the sight of our misery, have mercy upon me a great and grievous finner.

Lord I have sinned, I have transgressed, I have done foolishly, in departing from thy judgements: But righteousness belongeth unto thee (O Lord) and unto me shame and confusion of face; O let thy bowels of compassions remove out thy sight my multitudes of transgressions, that I may now ap∣pear before thee with a joyfull heart, and happy soul.

Let thy words be sweeter to me than the hony and the hony comb (than the vain pleasures, and false profits of this life) O let my chiefest joy be in thy service, my greatest delight to walk in thy waies,

and all false waies (of pollution and unclean∣ness) let me utterly abhorr.

Give me that inward peace, that quietness of conscience, which the world cannot take from me, that when I am afflicted by it, I may not be con∣demned with it.

Lord let me faithfully believe, and gratiously improve the constancy of thy love, in the worlds great unconstancy, the richness of thy mercy in this wretched ages misery.

O that my eye might drop without ceasing, that my heart might break forth into complaints, and my soul be melted into sorrows, for mine own and others sins, that have occasioned these heavy judgements, these sad complainings of thy peo∣ple.

Lord, as I have been a great and grievous sin∣ner amongst them, so let me be a constant and a true mourner for them; as thou hast beheld us sinning, so now allso behold us sorrowing, that as our sins have provoked thee to anger, so our tears may move thee to compassion, that thy mercy may be magnified, our miseries relieved, our sorrows comforted.

O let not these bitter aggravations of thy judge∣ments extort from us the least measure of im∣patience, nor beget in us the least degree of dis∣trust; let us neither complain of thy justice, nor despair of thy mercy, but quietly and thankfully rely upon thee, and in thy blessed hour enjoy a sweet inlargement by thee.

Lord pity the forlorn condition of thy sons and daughters in affliction, repair their outward losses by thine inward graces, that what is wanting to them of these earthly comforts, may be abun∣dantly supplied in thy heavenly joyes.

Forgive the great disturbers of the peace of this thy Sion, Lord open their eyes, that they may see how much they have erred from thy waies; Lord sanctifie their hearts, that they may speedily re∣turn unto thee, and be for ever gratiously accepted of thee; O that thou wouldst give us one heart, and one voyce, that we might serve thee without ceasing, that we may be all truly humbled before thee, and truly joyfull in thee.

Restore me (for thy rich mercy sake) unto that blessed union of Love, which is the bond of Peace; that as thou our God art one, so thy distressed Church may be one, thy divided people one, their wishes and desires, their prayers and tears, their actions and endeavours one, for thy glory, the Churches safety, and the Nations happiness, That we may have peace with thee our God, peace with our enemies, peace with our own souls, and ever∣lasting peace with thee in thy Kingdome. Amen.