Thursday, February 10, 2011

A Godly Prayer

While reading a 19th C. book of Bidding Prayers (you know me), I came across the following devout orison by a learnèd Anglican divine, "Dr. Featly, or, more properly, Fairclough,... the son of the cook of Magdalen College" (1582-1644):

O Lord, who desirest not that we should die in our sinnes, but our sinnes in us, mortifie our fleshly members by the power of thy Son's death, and renew us in the spirit of our mindes by vertue of his resurrection, that we may die daily to the world but live to heaven, die to sinne, but live to righteousnesse, die to ourselves but live to thee. Thou by the prophet professest thy desire of our conversion, say but the word and we shall be converted; call us by thy Spirit and we shall hear thee, and hearing thee turn from our wicked waies, and turning live a new life of grace here, and an eternall life of glory hereafter in heaven with thee, O Father the infuser, O Son the purchaser, O Holy Spirit the preserver of this life. Amen.

—Henry Octavius Coxe, Forms of Bidding Prayer, with Introduction and Notes (Oxford: Parker, 1840) pp. 147f (note) & 152f.

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