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A Sacred Poem wherein the Birth Miracles

Death Resurrection and Ascension of the Most Holy Jesus are delineated With His Prayer before his Apprehension: Also Eighteen of David's Psalms with the Book of Lamentations Paraphrased. Together with Poems on several Occasions. By James Chamberlayne

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A Prayer for the Church.

Eternal God, to whom all Knees shall bow,
Unto whose goodness we our Beings owe:
How have we all from thy Commandments gone,
Following our vain Imagination?
Hast thou not seen thy Mercies slighted, all
Thy Laws and Judgments in contempt to fall?
And heard how we, with impious Mouths, have said,
There is no God, no God who hath us made?
I cannot, Lord, but tremble, when I muse
On these our fearful Sins; nor can I chuse
But burst into a sad and doleful Cry;
What merit we for our Impiety?
We here deserve to feel thy heaviest Doom;
And those eternal Flames i'th' World to come.
But thou, who art an ever gracious God,
To anger slow, unwilling with thy Rod
To grieve the Sons of Men: who ready art
Fully to pardon the returning heart,
But a consuming Fire, that will burn
The Soul that will not be induc'd to turn;
Make us sincerely sorrowful for all

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Make us sincerely sorrowful for all
Our crying Sins, that for thy Vengeance call.
Forgive us all our secret, and our known
Transgressions, which we against thee done:
And grant, that we may willingly no more
Provoke thy furious Wrath, as heretofore.
And since our Hearts are in thy Hands, O Lord,
Make them obed'ent to thy Will and Word:
Send into ev'ry Breast that peaceful Dove,
Thy holy, and eternal Sp'rit of Love,
To rule and lead us in the way of Peace;
Whose end is everlasting Happiness.
That, for the future, there may not arise
Amongst us, baneful Animosities.
Be gracious to thy Church, and scatter all
That dayly seek and Plot to make her Fall.
Make them to perish in their strange device,
And never rise to work her Miseries.
But let thy Goodness, and thy Mercies flow
Upon her Head, & with her always go.
And since a dismal Cloud with frowning Brow,
Hovers o're thy despised Sion now;
O let thy Goodness, a quick piercing-Ray
Send down, and chase this direful Cloud away;
That it upon her may not fall, and we
For our Offences thereby Ruin'd be.
But chiefly, Lord, we here do thee invoke,
To save her from Romes hateful hellish Yoke.
Let not that Man of Sin, wh' exalts his Throne
Above the Powers that on Earth are known,

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Subject her to his most imperious Sway,
And make her to his Avarice a Prey.
Infat'ate his Designs, and on him lay
The Mischiefs purpos'd to Her day by day.
Cover with thy out-stretched Wings the Great
And Gracious Sov'raign of our Church & State:
In spight of those, who rage, and cursing stand,
To see the Scepter flourish in his Hand;
Preserve his sacred Life, and make them all,
Who seek his Ruine, by his Hand to fall.
Here Crown him with a long and blessed Peace,
And, when he Dyes, with endless Happiness.
Bless likewise those, who at thy Altar serve;
Grant that their Lips may right'ous Truths preserve:
Let both their Lives and Doctrins be sincere,
And let them, like the Stars, shine bright and clear.
Bless all inferiour Ministers of State,
Fill them with wholsome Justice in the Gate;
Let well weigh'd Judgment from their Mouths proceed,
And not the name of Friend or Foe to heed.
Be good to all thy People ev'ry where,
And keep them in thy Faith, and in thy Fear;
Convert the unconverted; make us all
To own one Shepheard, and to know his Call.
Then we thy People, who to thee belong,
From day to day will with a thankful Song
Set forth thy Praise, and to the World declare
How great thy Goodness and thy Mercies are.