Acts and Monuments Volume 2 Part 2, Book 11 · Account 18 · Prayer
A prayer to be sayd at the stake, of all them that God shall account worthy to suffer for his sake.
MErcifull God and father, to whome oure sauiour Christ approched in his feare and neede by reason of death,A godly prayer to be sayd at the tyme of Martyrdome. & found comfort: Gracious God and most bounteous Christe on whome Stephen called in his extreeme neede, and receiued strength: Most benigne holy spirite, whiche in the middest of all Crosses and death, diddest comfort the Apostle S. Paule, with more consolations in Christ, then he felt sorowes and terrors, hauehave mercy
❧The martirdome of maister Iohn Philpot Archdeacon, with the manner of his kneeling, and praying at the stake.
vponupon me miserable, vile, and wretched sinner, which now drawe neare the gates of death, deserued both in soule and body eternally, by reason of manifold, horrible, olde and new transgressions, which to thyne eyes (O Lorde) are open and knowne: Oh be mercifull vntounto me, for the bitter death and bloudshedding of thine owne onelyonly sonne Iesus Christ. And though thy iustice do require (in respecte of my sinnes) that nowe thou shouldest not heare me, measuring me with the same measure I hauehave measured thy Maiesty contemning thy dayly calles: yet let thy mercy whiche is aboue all thy works, and wherewith the earth is filled, let thy mercy (I say) preuaile towardes me, through and for the mediation of Christ our sauiour. And for whose sake in that it hathe pleased thee to bring me forth now as one of his witnesses, and a record bearer of thy veritye and trueth taught by him, to geue my life therefore (to which dignitie I do acknowledge dear God that ther was neuer any so vnworthy and so vnmeet, no not the theef that hāged with him on the Crosse): I most hūbly therfore pray thee that thou wouldest, accordingly, ayde, helpe, & assiste me with thy strength and heauenly grace, that with Christe thy sonne I may finde comfort, with Stephen I may see thy presence, and gracious power, with Paule and all others whiche for thy names sake hauehave suffered affliction and death, I may finde so present with me thy gracious consolations, that I may by my deathe glorifie thy holy name, propagate, and ratifie thy veritie, comfort the hartes of the heauy, confirme thy Church in thy veritie, conuert some that are to be conuerted, and so depart foorth of thys miserable world, where I do nothing but daily heape sinne vponupon sinne, and so enter into the fruition of thy blessed mercy: wherof now geue and encrease in me a liuely truste, sense, and feelinge, wherethrough the terrours of death, the tormentes of fire, the panges of sinne, the dartes of Sathan, and the dolours of hel may neuer depresse me, but may be driuen away thorough the working of that most gracious spirite: which now plenteously endue me withall, that through the same spirite I may offer (as I nowe desire to do in Christ by him) my selfe wholy soule and body, to be a liuely sacrifice, holy and acceptable in thy sight. Deare Father, whose I am, and alwayes hauehave bene, euen from my mothers wombe, yea euen before the world was made, to whome I commend my selfe, soule and body, family, and frendes, countrey and all the whole Churche, yea euen my very enemies, accordynge to thy good pleasure,He prayeth for restoring of the Gospell and peace in England. beseeching thee intirely to geue once more to this Realme of England, the blessing of thy word agayn, with godly peace, to the teaching & setting forth of the same. Oh dear father, now geue me grace to come vntounto thee. Purge and so purifie me by this fire in Christes death and Passion through thy spirite, that I may be a burnt offering of sweete smell in thy sight which liuest and raignest with the sonne and the holy God, nowe and euermore world without end. Amen.