counsel and friendly mind. The most high and good God protect his church, overthrow the enemies of the truth, and grant to our pious desires happy and prosperous results. Amen. Bishopthorp, 13 February, 1583, Your brother in Christ, E. EBOR.] PRAYERS TO BE USED AT HAWKSHEAD SCHOOL. From Abingdon's Antiquities of the Cathedral Church of Worcester, corrected by an original preserved at Hawkshead. Also I ordain and constitute, that certain godly prayers hereafter set down, and immediately following in these constitutions, be made in the said school by the schoolmaster for the time being, the usher, and scholars of the same school, every morning before the said schoolmaster and usher begin to teach the said scholars, and every evening immediately before the breaking up of the said school, and every day before they go to dinner to sing a psalm in metre in the said school. A PRAYER FOR THE MORNING. MOST mighty God, and merciful Father, we sinners by nature, yet thy children by grace, here prostrate before thy Divine Majesty, acknowledge our corruption in nature by reason of our sins to be such, that we are not able of ourselves to think one good thought, much less able to profit in good learning and literature, and to come to the knowledge of thy Son Jesus Christ, our Saviour, except it shall please thee, of thy great grace and goodness, to illuminate our understandings, to strengthen our feeble memories, to instruct us by thy Holy Spirit, and so to pour upon us thy good gifts of grace, that we may learn to know, and know to practise those things in these our studies, that may most tend to the glory of thy name, to the profit of thy church, and to the performance of our christian duties. Hear us, O God, and grant these our petitions, and bless our studies, O heavenly Father, for thy Son Jesus Christ's sake, in whose name we call upon thee, and say, Our Father, &c. 66 [Here follows the prayer for the Queen's Majesty in the form of common prayer, beginning, "O Lord our heavenly Father, high and mighty, &c.] EVENING PRAYER, AT THE BREAKING UP OF THE SCHOOL. MOST gracious God, and most merciful Father, we acknowledge how much we are bound to thy Divine Majesty for all those great gifts and manifold mercies, which thou of thy mere grace and favour hast bestowed upon us, as well for our election, creation, redemption, justification, and sanctification, with all other good gifts of body and mind; and what else soever we have, of thy grace and favour we have received it; as also for that thou hast moved the mind, and stirred up the heart of Edwin Archbishop of York, our founder, to purchase and provide this Free Grammar-School for us, for our education and breeding in good literature and learning. Grant, O God, that we may ever be thankful for the same; and give us grace not to abuse this great gift of mercy, but that we may so apply our studies, holpen and directed by thy Holy Spirit, that we may increase in all good knowledge and learning, to the glory and praise of thy name. Grant this, O God, for thy Son Jesus Christ's sake, our only Redeemer and Saviour. Amen. ANOTHER PRAYER FOR EVENING. ALL honour, glory, and praise be given to thee, most merciful Father, and gracious God, for all thy loving-kindnesses and manifold graces poured down upon us, namely, that it hath pleased thee to protect us this day from all dangers of the enemy, bodily and ghostly, and to increase thy gifts of knowledge and godliness in us. Grant us, O good God, to love thee, and for these thy great mercies still to grow in thankfulness more and more towards thee. And, forasmuch as thou hast appointed the night to rest in, and the day to travail in, give unto us such quiet and moderate sleep, as may strengthen our weak bodies to bear those labours whereunto thou shall appoint them. Suffer not the prince of darkness to prevail in the darkness of this night, nor for ever against us. But watch thou still over us with thine eye, and guard us with thy hand against all his deceits and assaults; and though our bodies do sleep, make thou our souls to watch, looking for the appearance of thy Son, Jesus Christ, that we may be waking to meet him in the clouds, to enter with him into eternal joy and blessedness. These things we crave at thy hands, for thy Son, Christ Jesus' sake, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be rendered all praise, glory, and majesty, for ever and ever. Amen. PREAMBLE TO THE ARCHBISHOP'S WILL. DATED AUGUST 1, 1587. Extracted from the Registry of the Consistory Court of York. In Dei nomine, Amen. I, Edwin Sandes, Minister of God's holy word and sacraments, Archbishop of York, although most unworthy, often minding the frailty and uncertainty of man's life in general, and withal feeling mine own manifold infirmities in particular both by my years and for my sins; and also remembering, that, when the Lord shall say, Redde rationem villicationis tuæ', I amongst other shall appear before the tribunal seat of Christ, to receive in this body according to that I have done, be it good or evil: I reckon it in myself a christian duty with Ezekias, disponere domui mec2; and, considering that as I brought nothing in this world, for naked I came out of my mother's womb, so can I carry nothing thereout, but naked must I return again, even earth to dust, and carcase to worms, the way of all flesh; while the Lord God hath lent me the leisure, being presently in sound health of body and perfect memory, (I humbly thank him for both) even thus I discharge myself of those talents, which the Lord hath committed to my charge, and make my last Will and Testament in such sort as followeth : First, and above all, my soul and spirit I commend, with David and Stephen, into the merciful hands of my gracious God and loving Father; assuredly believing by faith, and certainly trusting by hope, that he in the fulness of his good time, best known unto himself and least unto me, will receive the same unto himself, not in respect of any my deserts, (for my righteousness is but a very dunghill and defiled cloth,) but of his own free mercies, and for the alone merits of his only Son, mine only Saviour Jesus Christ; [Render an account of thy stewardship.-ED.] |