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[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 tua', 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.]
[To set my house in order.-ED.]

who, being without any sin, was made a curse and sacrifice for all my sins, that I might be made the righteousness of God in him; who in his own body bare all my transgressions upon the tree, that by smart of his stripes, and blood of his wounds, I might be healed; who hath cancelled upon the cross the whole hand-writing that was against me, that I might not only be entertained as a servant and reconciled as a friend, but adopted as a son and accepted as an heir with God the Father, and an heir together with Jesus Christ, who is also made unto me wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. And as in this faith and full assurance of my perfect redemption by the death and only deserts of Jesus Christ, the true Lamb of God, and very Lion of the tribe of Juda, I have and do live; so in the same firm and stedfast faith and hope I end my sinful life, and gladly yield up withal my soul immortal and mortal body.

Secondly, although this body of mine is but a clod of clay, a prison of my soul; my will is, it shall be buried neither in superstitious nor superfluous manner; yet, for that it hath been and is, I trust, not only a vessel of the gospel, but likewise a temple of the Holy Ghost, I require that the same be so decently and conveniently brought to ground, as appertaineth to a Christian, a servant of Almighty God, and a man of my calling; putting no doubt but that I shall see my Redeemer with mine own eyes, and be covered with mine own skin, and that the Lord Jesus shall make this my vile body like unto his glorious body, whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself: Reposita est hæc mihi spes in sinu meo'.

Thirdly, because I have lived an old man in the ministry of Christ, a faithful disposer of the mysteries of God, and to my power an earnest labourer in the vineyard of the Lord, I testify before God, and his angels, and men of this world, I rest resolute and yield up my spirit in that doctrine which I have privately studied and publicly preached, and which is this day maintained in the church of England; both taking the same to be the whole counsel of God, the word and bread of eternal life, the fountain of living water, the power of God unto salvation to all them [This hope I have laid up in my bosom.-ED.]

that believe, and beseeching the Lord besides to turn us unto him that we may be turned, lest, if we repent not, the candlestick be moved out of it place, and the gospel of the kingdom for our unthankfulness taken from us and given to a nation that shall bring forth the fruits thereof; and further protesting in an upright conscience of mine own and in the knowledge of his majesty, before whom I stand, that in the preaching of the truth of Christ I have not laboured to please man, but studied to serve my Master, who sent me not to flatter either prince or people, but by the law to tell all sorts of their sins, by the Spirit to rebuke the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, and by the gospel to testify of that faith which is in Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Fourthly, concerning rites and ceremonies by political constitutions authorized amongst us, as I am and have been persuaded, that such as are now set down by public authority in this church of England, are no way either ungodly or unlawful, but may with good conscience for order and obedience sake be used of a good Christian; for the private baptism to be ministered by women I take neither to be prescribed nor permitted; so have I ever been and presently am persuaded, that some of them be not so expedient in this church now, but that in the church reformed, and in all this time of the gospel (wherein the seed of the scripture hath so long been sown), they may better be disused by little and little, than more and more urged. Howbeit, as I do easily acknowledge our ecclesiastical policy in some points may be bettered, so do I utterly mislike even in my conscience all such rude and indigested platforms as have been more lately and boldly, than either learnedly or wisely, preferred, tending not to the reformation, but to the destruction of the church of England. The particularities of both sorts reserved to the discretion of the godly wise, of the latter I only say thus, that the state of a small private church, and the form of a learned christian kingdom, neither would long like nor can at all brook one and the same ecclesiastical government.

Thus much I thought good to testify concerning these ecclesiastical matters, to clear me from all suspicion of double and indirect dealing in the house of God, wherein

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