A Looking-glass for the SOUL, AND A DEFINITION thereof.  
WRITTEN By Edward Popham Gentleman.  
LONDON, Printed by T. S. for Nathanael Newberry, and are to be sold at the sign of the Star in Popes-head Alley, and under S. Peter's Church in Cornhill 1619.   

TO HIS BEST, worthy, and most endeared Friend, Mr. john de Hempskirke, Merchant of this Honourable City of London, Edward Popham wisheth all terrestrial blessings in this world, and the fullness of all celestial blessings in the Life to come.  
MY most loved and best esteemed Friend, I have read, that 'mongst that little laborious Commonwealth of Bees, they have a law, that if a Drone having lost his sting (which gave him spirit to labour, because being armed with that he was able to encounter with his adversary) & now giving himself to sloth, and suck the honey from the rest, he is (by a general consent) presently thrust out, and banished, or put to death, as an unprofitable member: To avoid which imputation, I have gathered up some remnants of time, to meditate upon an everlasting subject (which is the Soul) a subject being created to serve her immortal King, and everlasting, because a blessed everlasting life is her reward if she persevere in her Creator's service to the end. I confess it is a large field, whereon in expert Artist may frame and build a goodly City; ●ut I being but a simple labourer, dare not presume to speak of Colossus, or build pyramids (wonders of the world) lest in piercing too high, I meet with Babel, and so fall to ruin. Yet as the poor widow in the Gospel, amongst the many great superfluous gifts did not doubt but her mite would be accepted; so I doubt not but 'mongst those many huge volumes that swarm in the world, some well-iudging Christian may cast his eye on my poor work, & so may give a gentle conclusion, saying, this poor man hath cast in his Mite into the treasury, and brought one little stone to the eternal building. To give a better gloss to my small commodity, I have thought good (my dear Friend) to patronize it under your protection, conjuring you by all the laws of friendship, not to refuse the guardiance of this poor Infant, but nourish it with your best love, for which you shall be sure to find double requital; first, you shall bind my poor love and labour to your service; and last, (which is best) you shall find God's blessing to your soul and body; to whose protection I leave you, and rest yours, ever devoted  
Edward Popham.   

THE PREFACE, OR Introduction.  
THe sovereign decree of God, enacted by the Father of Heaven, ratified by his Son, and daily repeated by the instinct of the Holy Ghost, bindeth every good Christian to distribute according to their measure lent, be it more or less, so it may any ways profit, following that saying of Plato, Non solum nobis nati sumus. For it is a motive that alloweth of no excuse, but of necessity presseth every good mind to the performance of duty. Nature by grace is not abolished but perfected, not murdered but manured; neither are her impressions quite razed or annulled, but suited to the colours of faith and virtue.  
And if Nature's affections be so forcible, that even ●n Hell (where rancour and 〈◊〉 spite raineth, and all feeling of God's goodness is overwhelmed in malice) it moved the rich glutton by experience of his own misery, to carry a desire of admonition to his friends; much more in the Church of God, where grace quickeneth, charity inflameth, and Nature's inclination (directed by supernatural grace) provoketh aught the duty of piety to prevail.  
And who but more merciless than damned Creatures, could see their Christian Brethren, almost plunged in like peril, and not be wounded with deep remorse, of their lamentable & imminent hazard. If in beholding a mortal enemy, wrung and tortured with deadly pangs, the toughest heart softeneth with some Sorrow. If the most fierce mind cannot but thaw & melt with pity, when it seethe the worst Miscreant suffer his deserved torments? how much less can a Christian heart consider the number of such which daily fall into far more bitter extremities, and not bleed in grief for their uncomfortable case; nay, rather employ all their cares, studies, and endeavours to win and reclaim them from that dangerous brink of perdition?  
Surely, though I challenge not the prerogative of the best disposition; yet my desire is, with young Tobias, to travel and bring home spiritual substance, and medicinable receipts to cure such ghostly malady, as evidently at this day is to be seen, and did in no former Age more exceedingly abound. I have with Esau provided Venison which may procure a blessing, and bread, with joseph, for the repast of their souls, which most carelessly they oppress with famine in time of plenty. Let it not therefore be thought any dishonour to men of more gravity, or disparagemement to any person whatsoever that I, in all humility, offer my advise in a case so much to be pitied, and a time so dangerous. One man cannot be perfect in all faculties, neither is it any disgrace to the Goldsmith if he be ignorant of the Miller's trade. Many are deep Lawyers, but shallow Divines, and are far to seek in religious actions.  
If therefore I offer the fruits of my labours, and make you apresent of my zealous endeavours, I hope you will censure thereof, rather as of the part of a dutiful Christian, then of any point of presumption. And so I humbly refer you to the rest, as followeth.  Demidium facti qui bene coepit habet.  

Jbi res humanae nunquàm prosperè succedunt ubi negliguntur divinae.   

A DEFINITION OF The Soul.  
FIRST, it is an immaterial substance: While it doth revive the body, it is the Soul; when it willeth or chooseth any thing, it may (though improperly) be called the Mind: While is knoweth any thing, it may be called (though improperly again) the Understanding: While it judgeth, some have termed is Reason: While it doth breath or contemplate, a Spirit: While it calls any thing to mind, the Memory: While it thinketh any thing (though more grossly) the Sense. But to speak of the Soul as it is, it is an immaterial substance, and Reason, Memory, Sense, etc. are the several faculties and divers operations thereof.   

A Looking-glass for the Soul.  
MOst necessary and behoveful it is for every good Christian humbly and hearty to beseech God for his Son Christ his sake, the honour of his glorious Name, our duty towards the Church, and the comfort of our Souls, that we may seriously consider the terms of our present estate wherein we stand, and weigh ourselves in a Christian balance, taking for our counterpoyze the judgements of God.  
Let us take heed in time that the word Tekel, written 
Dan 5. 25.  of old against Balthasar, and interpreted by Daniel, be not verified in us, whose exposition was; You have been poyzed in the Balance, and found of too light weight. Let us remember that we are in the wain, and the date of our Pilgrimage is well-near expired. Now therefore it behoveth us to look to our Country; our forces languish, our senses impair, our bodies droop, and on every side the ruinous Cottage of our faint and feeble flesh threateneth fall.  
Having then so many harbingers of death for to premonish us of our end, O let us then with all care endeavour ourselves to be prepared for so dreadful a stranger. The young may die quickly, but the old cannot live long; young men's lives may by casualties be abridged, but the old men's can by no physic be long adjourned: If then green years ought to be mindful of the grave, the thoughts of sere Age, must continually dwell in the same: Whereby we may see that old and young of what estate and condition soever, are seriously to provide for the entertainment of so fearful a stranger. The prerogative of Infancy is innocency, of Childhood reverence, of Manhood maturity, and of Age wisdom: the chief properties of wisdom are to be mindful of things past, careful of things present, and provident of things to come. Let us use then the privilege of Nature's talent to the benefit of our Souls, and endeavour hereafter to be wise, and delight in well-doing, and watchful in foresight of future harms: for to continue our course in service of the world we have little cause, seeing it yieldeth but an unhappy welcome, a churlish entertainment, and doth abandon us with an unfortunate farewell. Who then would sow in such a flinty field, where we shall reap nothing but a crop of cares, and affliction of spirit, rewarding our labours with remorse, and affording us for gain eternal damage?  
It is now more than a seasonable time to alter the course of so unthriving a husbandry, and enter into the field of God's Church, in which sowing the seeds of repentant sorrow, and watering them with the tears of humble contrition, we may have a more beneficial harvest, and gather the fruits of everlasting comfort. Let us remember that our spring is spent, our Summer overpast, and we are now arrived at the fall of the leaf. And that S. Augustine saith, Though our loving Lord bear long with offenders, be not careless, for the longer he stayeth, not finding amendment, the sorer will he scourge when he cometh to judgement, and his patience in long expecting is only to lend us respite to repent, and not any way to enlarge our leisure to sin.  
He that is tossed with variety of storms, and cannot come to his desired port, maketh not much way, but is turmoiled; So he that hath passed many years, and purchased little profit, hath had a long being but a short life: for life is more to be measured, by goodness then number of days, seeing most men by many days do but procure many deaths; and others in short space of time do attain the life of infinite Ages.  
What is the body without the Soul, but a corrupt carcase? And what is the Soul without God, but a Sepulchre of sin? If God be the way, the truth, and the life, he that goeth without him strayeth, he that liveth without him dieth, and he that is not taught by him erreth, Well said S. Augustine, God is our true and chief life, revolting from whom is falling, to whom returning is rising, in whom staying is sure standing. God is he, from whom to departed is to die, in whom to dwell is to live. Be not therefore like to those that begin not to live, until they be ready to die; and after a foes desert, come to crave of God a friendly entertainment.  
Some think to snatch heaven in a moment, which the best could scarce do in the continuance of many years: and when they have glutted themselves with many delights, they would jump from Dives diet to Lazarus Crown, and from the service of Satan, to the solace of Saints; But let them be well assured, that God is not so penurious of friends, as to hold himself & kingdom saleable for the reversion & refuse of their lives, who have sacrificed the principal part thereof to his enemies, and their own brutish appetites, then only ceasing to offend, when ability of offending is taken away.  
And true it is a Thief may be saved upon the Cross, and mercy found at the last gasp: But well said S. Augustine, Though with God it be possible, yet is it scarce credible, that his death should find favour, whose whole life hath earned wrath; And that his Repentance should be accepted that more for fear of Hell, and love of himself, then for the love of God crieth for mercy. Wherefore let us make no longer delay, but being so nigh the breaking up of our mortal house, take time before extremity, to appease God's justice.  
Though we have suffered the bud to be blasted, and the flower to fade, and though we have permitted the fruit to perish, and the body of the Tree to decay, yet let us keep life in the root, for fear lest the whole become fuel for hell fire: for surely wheresoever the Tree falleth, there shall it be, whether to the South or North, Hell or Heaven. Such sap as it yieldeth, such fruit shall it ever bear.  
And now seeing we are left unto the remisals of our wearish and dying days, the remainder whereof as it cannot be long, so it doth warn us speedily to return, and to ransom our former losses, that against the approaching of our dissolution and period of our course, we may not be unprovided of such appurtenances as are behoveful in such a perilous and perplexed a journey.  
Death in itself is very fearful, but much more terrible in respect of the judgement it summoneth us unto. If we were laid on our departing Bed, burdened with the load of our former trespasses, and gored with the sting and prick of a festered conscience, if we felt the cramp of death wresting our heartstrings, and ready to make the rueful divorce between body and Soul. If we lay panting for breath, and swimming in a cold & fatal sweat, wearied with struggling against our deadly pangs. How much would we give for an hour of repentance? At what rate would we value a days contrition? Then worlds would be worthless in respect of a little respite, a short truce would seem more precious than all the treasures of empires, nothing would be so much esteemed as a trice of time, which now by months and years, is lavishly spent. How deep it would wound our hearts, when looking back into our lives, we consider so many faults committed and not repent of, many good works omitted and not recovered, our service to God promised, and not performed. How inconsolable were our case, our friends being fled, our senses frighted, our thoughts amazed, and our memory decayed, our whole minds aghast, and no part able to perform that it should, but only our guilty consciences pestered with Sin, that would continually upbraid us with most bitter accusation.  
What would we think when stripped out of our mortal weed, and turned out of the service & house-room of this world, we were forced to enter into uncouth and strange paths; and with unknown, strange, and ugly company, be convented before a most severe judge, carrying in our consciences our judgement written, and a perfect register of our misdeeds, when we should see him prepared to pass sentence upon us, against whom we have grievously transgressed; and the same to be our umpire, whom by many offences we have urged to be our adversary, when not only the Devils but Angels should plead against us; and ourselves maugre our wills should be our sharpest appeachers: What should we do in these dreadful exigents, when we saw that ghastly Dungeon, and huge gulf of Hell, breaking out with most dreadful flames? when we should see the weeping, howling, and gnashing of teeth, the rage of hellish Monsters, the horror of the place, the rigour of the pain, the terror of the company, and eternity of the punishment, we would not think it time to delay such weighty matters, and idly to play away the time allotted to prevent those intolerable punishments.  
And would we then think it secure to nurse in our bosoms as many Serpents as sins, or to foster in our Souls so many malicious accusers, as mortal faults, would we not think one life too little to do penance for so many Sins? Why then do we not devote thesmall remnant of our time, and surplusage of our days to make Atonement with God by the blood of jesus Christ?  
What have we gotten by being so long a customer to the world, but false ware, suitable to the shop of such a Merchant, whose traffic is toil, & wealth is trash; and whose gain is misery? What interest have we got that may equal our detrements in grace and virtue? Or what could we find in a Vale of tears proportionable to the favour of God, with the loss whereof we were contented to buy it?  
Let us not still be inueagled with the passions of youth, which make a partial estimate of things, setting no difference between currant and counterfeit. But let such passions either now be worn out of force by tract of time, or fall into reproof by the trial of folly.  
If this carnal security be but an ungrounded presumption of the mercy of God, and the flattering hope of his assistance at the last plunge, but the ordinary Lure of the Devil to reclaim Sinners from the pursuit of virtue, (as it is with many) it were too palpable a collusion to misled sound sensible people, howsoever it prevail with sick and infected judgements. For who would rely eternal affairs upon the gliding slipperiness, and running stream of our uncertain life? Or who but of distempered wits, would offer fraud, to the decipherer of all thoughts? With whom dissemble we may to our costs, but to deceive him it is unpossiible. Shall we esteem it cunning to rob the time from him & bestow it on his enemies? who keepeth a tall of the lest minutes of our life, and will examine in the end, how each moment hath been employed.  
It is a preposterous policy, in any wise conceit, to fight against God, till our weapons be blunted, our forces consumed, our limbs impotent, and our best time spent; and when we fall for faintness, and have fought ourselves almost dead, to presume of his mercy; The wounds of his sacred Body so often rubbed and renewed by our sins, and every parcel of our own so sundry ways abused, being so many whetstones to edge and exasperate his revenge against us; why should we then presume of mercy?  
It were a strange piece of Art, and a very exorbitant course while the Ship is sound, the Pilot well, the Sailors strong, and the Gale forcible, to lie idly at Road, burning so seasonable weather; and when the Ship leaketh, the Pilot is sick, the Mariners faint, the storm boisterous, and the Sea a turmoil of outrageous surges; to hoist up sails and set out for a far voyage into a strange Country. Such is the skill of these evening Repenters, who though in the soundness of health, and perfect use of reason, they cannot endeavour to cut the Cables, and weigh the Anchors that withhold them from God. Nevertheless, they feed themselves with a strong persuasion, that when their senses are astonished, their wits distracted, their understanding dusked, and both body and mind racked, & tormented with the throbs and gripes of a mortal sickness. Then forsooth they will think of the weightiest matters, and become sudden Saints, when they are scarce able to behave themselves like reasonable creatures.  
If neither the Cannon, Civil, nor Common Law alloweth that a man perished in judgement shall make any Testament or bequest of his temporal substance, being then thoughtto be lesse than a man: How can he that is turmoiled with inward garboils of an unsettled Conscience, distrained with the wring fits of his dying flesh, maimed in all his abilities, and circled in with so strange encumbrances, bethought of due discretion to dispose of his chiefest treasure (which is his Soul) and to dispatch the whole managing of eternity, and the treasures of heaven in so short a space of time. No, no, they that loiter in seed time, and begin only to sow when others reap, they that will riot out their health, and cast their accounts when they can scarce speak, they that do slumber out the day, and enter their journey, when the light doth fail them; let them thank their own folly if they die in debt, and eternal beggary, and fall headlong into the lapse of everlasting perdition. Let such hearken unto S. Cyprians lesson, who saith, Let the grievousness of our sin, be the measure of our sorrow: let a deep wound have a diligent cure, let no man's contrition be less than his crime.  
Think we that our Lord, can so soon be appeased, whom with perditious words we have offended? No, we must fall prostrate on the ground, humbling ourselves in sackcloth and Ashes, and having forced our stomachs with the surfeit of the Devil, we must now desire to fast from all earthly food, applying ourselves to good works instead of offences, and in singleness of heart effect our Christian duties, to avoid the death of our Souls, that Christ may receive that which the persecuter would have spoiled.  
Every short sigh will not be a sufficient satisfaction, nor every knock a warrant to get in, many cry Lord, Lord, and are not accepted, the foolish Virgins knocked, and were not admitted, judas had some sorrow, and yet died desperate: foreslow not the time saith the Holy Ghost to be converted to God, linger not off from day to day, for suddenly will his wrath come, and in his revenge, he will destroy thee.  
Let us not sojourn long in sinful security, nor pass over Repentance till fear enforce us to it, let us frame our premises, as we would find our conclusion, and endeavour to live, as we desire to die. Shall we offer the main crop to the devil, and set God to glean the remainder of the harvest, or gorge the devil with the fairest fruits, & turn God to feed on the filthy scraps of his leavings?  
How great a folly were it, when a man pineth away in perilous languor, to provide gorgeous Apparel, and take order for the rearing of stately buildings, and never think of his own recovery, but let the disease take root in him?  
Chrysostome saith, When man's Soul hath surfeited in all kind of sin, and is drenched in manifold diseases, they pamper the body, with all possible delight: Where as the Soul should have the sovereignty, and the body follow the sway of her directions; but servile senses and lawless appetites, rule her as superior, and so make her as a Vassal, or servile in her own dominions.  
What is there (saith S. Augustine) in thy meanest necessaries, that thou wouldst not have good; Thou wouldst have a good house, good furniture, good apparel, good fare, good cattle, and not so little as thy Hose and Shoes, but thou wouldst have it good, only thy Life and poor Soul; thy principal charge, & of other things the most worthiest, thou art content should be nought, by cankering and rusting in all kind of evil.  
Oh unspeakable blindness, to prefer our shoes before our Souls, refusing to wear an unseemly shoe, and not caring to carry an ugly Soul! Alas, let us not set so light by that which God prized so high, let us not rate ourselves at so base a worth, being bought to so peerless a dignity. The Soul is such, that all the gold in the world, nor any thing less worth than the body, blood and death of the Son of God, was able to buy it. If not all the treasures of the world, nor any thing that wit can devise, but only Gods own precious body, was by him deemed, a fit repast to feed it; If not all the creatures of the world, nor Millions of worlds, if so many were created, but only the illimitable Majesty and goodness of God can satisfy the desire, and fill of the capacity of it, who but one of lame judgement or perverse will; yea, who but of incredulous mind, and pitiless spirit, could set more by his old shoes then by his Soul, and suffer so noble a Paragon so long time to be channelled in ordure, and mired in sin.  
If we see our servant sick we allow him a Physician, if our Horse be diseased, we send for a Leech, nor our garment torn, but we seek to amend it; and yet malign our own Soul, and let it die for want of Cure, and being mingled with so many vices, never seek means to restore it to the former integrity.  
If any should call us Epicures, Atheists, or Rebels, we should take it a reproach and think it a most disgraceful and approbrious calumniation, yea but to live Epicures, to fin like Atheists, or like violent Rebels to scorn God's commandments, and daily with damnable wounds barbarously to stab in our unfortunate Souls, we account no contumely, but rather register it in the vaunt of our chief praises. O yec sons of Men, how long will you carry this carelessness of heart, following Vanity and seek after Lies? how long will Children love the follies of Infancy, and sinners run wilfully to their own ruin and destruction?  
You keep your Chickens from the Kite, your Lambs from the Wolf; you will not suffer a Spider in your bosom; nay, scarce in your house: And yet nestle in your Soul so many Vipers as vices, and suffer it to be long chewed with the poisoned jaws and Tusks of the Devil. And is your Soul so vain a substance, as to be had in so little estimation? Had Christ made shipwreck of his wisdom? Or was he but in a fit of passion? when he became a wandering Pilgrim, exiling as it were himself from the comfort of his godhead, and passing three and thirty years in pain & penury for the behoof of our Souls? Or was he surprised with a distempered spirit, when in the Tragedy of his Passion so grievously in flicted, & patiently endured, he made his body as a cloud to dissolve into showers of most innocent blood, and suffered the dearest veins of his heart to be lanced, to give full issue to the prize of our Souls redemption.  
But if (as indeed) Christ did not ere, or deem amiss when it pleased him to redeem us with so excessive a ransom. Then what shall we deem of our most monstrous abuses, that sell our Souls to the Devil for every vain delight, and rather venture the hazard thereof, than the silly pittance of worldly pelf.  
Oh that a creature of so incomparable a price should be in the demain of so unnatural keepers; and that which in itself is so gracious and amiable, that the Angels and Saints delight to behold it; alas, if the care of our own Soul move us no more, but that we remain negligent of the better portion of ourselves, let us at least fear to do injury to an other very careful & jealous over it, who will never endure so deep an impeachment of his interest to pass unrevenged.  
We must remember that our Soul is not only a part of us, but also the Temple, the Paradise and Spouse of Almighty God, by him in Baptism garnished, stored, and endowed with most gracious ornaments. And how (think ye) he can brook to see his Temple profaned, and turned into a den of Devils; his Paradise displanted, & changed into a wilderness of Serpents; his Spouse deflowered, and become an Adulteress to his utter Enemy?  
If Man, offering such usage to one of mean estate, for fear of the law and popular shame, forbeareth to effect the same; shall not then the reverend Majesty of God, and the unabated justice of his angry sword terrify us from offering the like to his own Spouse, shall we think God either so impotent, that he cannot, or so base and sottish that he will not, or so weak witted that he knoweth not how for to wreak himself on such daring offenders? Will he so neglect and lose his honour, which of all things he claimeth as his chief peculiar? Will he that for the Souls sake keepeth a reckoning of our very hairs, which are but the excrements of our earthly weed, see himself so much wronged in the principal, & pass by it without demonstration of his just indignation.  
Oh let us remember that the Scripture termeth it a fearful thing to fall into the hands and justice of God, who is able to crush the proud spirit of the obstinate, and make his enemies his footstool. Let us then wrestle no longer with the cries of our own conscience, and the forcible inspirations of the Holy Ghost.  
Let us, I say, embrace his mercy before the time of rigour, and like penitent children return to the obedience of his will, lest he debar us of his Kingdom: And as the members of one body (whereof Christ is the head) let us live in humble obedience of the Church militant here on earth, that we may achieve to the Church triumphant in Heaven; knowing that we have been long aliens in the Tabernacles of sinners, and strayed too long from the fold of God's flock.  
Let us now turn the biace of our hearts towards the Sanctuary of Salvation, and City of refuge, seeking to recompense our wandering steps trodden in sin and wickedness, with a swift gate, and zealous progress to Christian perfection, redeeming the time because the days be evil.  
The fall of our spring is past, and the stream of our life runneth at a low rate or ebb, our tired Ship beginneth to leak, and grateth on the gravel of our grave; it is high time for us to strike sail and put in harbour, lest remaining in the scope of wicked winds and weather, some unexpected gulf and sudden storm, dash us upon the Rock of eternal ruin.  
Let us tender the pitiful estate of our distressed Souls, and be hereafter more fearful of Hell, and more desirous of Heaven, then worldly repose, that at the great day of our Lord, Christ jesus may acknowledge us to be his; and that our Souls and bodies may enjoy the fruition of his most glorious death and passion; unto which God for his mercy sake, say yea, and Amen.  

The Conclusion.  
IF God the Father had been the indicter hereof, God the Son the sender, and God the holy Ghost the Scribe and writer of the same; If he had dipped his pen in the wounds of our Saviour and used his precious blood in lieu of Ink? If one of the highest Seraphins had been form into some visible parsonage, and come in most solemn embassage for to deliver this unto you, would it not strain your hearts and enforce your thoughts to fulfil the contents, and alter your courses according to the Tenor of it; Oh I beseech you let it take a proportionable effect, knowing that the Scripture teacheth us, that God revealeth to little ones, that which he oft times concealeth from the wisest Sages, and his truth is not abased by the means of the speaker, for if men should be silent, he would cause the very stones to cry out in these times, wherein sin and wickedness so exceedingly aboundeth.  
Wherefore I humbly pray and exhort you, for to surrender your Assents that we may yield ourselves happy Captives to God's merciful inspirations. That he may in the temptations of our three ghostly enemies the World, the Flesh, and the Devil, (even for his sons sake) shroud us under the shadow of his merciful wings, and close up the day of our life with a clear Sunset; that leaving all darkness behind us, and carrying in our consciences the light of grace, we may escape the horror of an eternal Night, and pass from a Mortal day, to an everlasting Morrow.  
The God of peace who hath brought again from the dead our Lord jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make us perfect in all good works to do his will, working in us that which is pleasant in his sight, through jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.   

The Prayer.  
WHat was I Lord? what am I? what shall I be? I was nothing, I am now nothing worth, and am (without thy grace) in hazard to be worse than nothing. I was conceived in original sin, now full of actual sin, and (but for thy goodness) may hereafter feel the eternal smart for sin. I was in my mother a loathsome substance. I am in the world a sack of corruption, and I shall be in the Grave a prey for vermin: when I was nothing I was without hope to be saved, or fear to be damned: I am now (if I look upon myself rightly) in no hope of the one, and in manifest danger of the other. I was so that I could not then be damned; and now such are my sins, that in thy justice I cannot be saved: But I know (sweet jesus) thy grace is sufficient for me. Wherefore I humbly beseech thy Majesty to turn from me those plagues which my sins cry out for. I confess (oh Saviour jesus) that my sins are exceeding many, and fearful; yet thy Mercy is far greater, for thou art infinite in mercy, but I cannot be infinite in sinning, and thy righteousness is more for me, than my own unrighteousness can be against myself. I beseech thee therefore strengthen my weakness, correct my sinfulness, direct my future frailty, and through thy precious Blood and Passion convert my passed evils to present good, and future joys in thy eternal and most glorious Kingdom.  
Amen.   
FINIS.