The Author's customary prayer at the beginning of his sermons during the week
e shall call upon our good God, praying that it may please him to cast the eye of his fatherly mercy upon us, his poor servants — not
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imputing to us so many faults and offences by which we cease not, day after day, to provoke his anger against us. And forasmuch as we are far too unworthy to appear before his holy Majesty, may it please him to receive us in the name of his beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, accepting the merit of his death and passion as recompense for all our faults, since in our own works we can find nothing on which to stand before his face. And may it please him to enlighten us by his Holy Spirit unto the true understanding of his holy Word, granting us grace to handle it faithfully, to receive it in true fear and humility, and to be so instructed by it that we place our confidence fully in him, so as to serve and honour him as is fitting, to glorify his holy Name throughout our whole life, and to edify our neighbours by good example. We shall ask all these things of him, even as our good Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ has taught us to pray, saying, Our Father, which art in heaven, etc.
This following prayer is likewise said by the Author after the Psalm has been sung, both on Sunday and on Wednesday, the day of prayers
We shall call upon our good God and Father, beseeching him that, since all fullness of wisdom and light dwells in him, it may please him to enlighten us by his Holy Spirit unto the true understanding of his Word, granting us grace to receive it in true fear and humility, that we may be taught by it to place our confidence in him alone, to serve and honour him as is fitting, to glorify his holy Name throughout our whole life, and to edify our neighbours by good example — rendering to him the love and reverence which faithful servants and children owe to their masters and fathers, seeing that it has pleased him to grant us this grace, to receive us into the number of his servants and children. And we shall pray thus, even as our good Master has taught us: Our Father, which art in heaven, etc.
