Prayers

And seeing these performances are not within the compass of our mere natural power and command, we do here, in the Access to this work, pour forth humblest and most ardent supplications to God the Father, God the Word, God the Spirit, that they being mindful of the miseries of mankind, and of the pilgrimage of this life, wherein we wear out few and evil days, they would vouchsafe to endow mankind, by my hand, with new donatives. And moreover, we humbly pray that human knowledges may in no way impeach or prejudice Divine Truths; nor that from the disclosing of the ways of sense, and the letting in of a more plentiful Natural Light, any mists of incredulity or clouds of darkness arise in our minds touching Divine Mysteries; but rather that from a purified intellect, purged from fancies and vanity, and yet yielded and absolutely rendered up to Divine Oracles, the tributes of Faith may be rendered to Faith. In the last place, that the venom of knowledge infused by the Serpent, whereby the mind of man is swelled and blown up, being voided, we may not be too aspiringly wise, or above sobriety, but that we may improve and propogate Verity in Charity.

Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning (1640), Preface.

Thou soundest the Depths, thou knowest the Upright, thou ponderest their doings as in a Balance, thou Measurest their intentions as with a Line, and Crooked Ways cannot be hid from Thee. I have been as a Dove. I have Sought Thee in the Courts, Fields, Gardens, but I have found Thee in Thy Temples.

Francis Bacon’s Masonic Prayer, opening lines.

Most Gracious Lord God, my merciful Father, my Creator and Redeemer, and my Comforter. Thou, oh Lord, searcheth the depths and secrets of all hearts. Thou acknowledgest the upright of heart. Thou judgest the hypocrite; Thou ponderest man's thoughts and doings as in a balance; Thou measurest his intentions as with a line; vanity and crooked ways cannot be hidden from Thee. Remember, oh Lord, how Thy servant has walked before Thee; remember what I have sought, and what has been principal in my intentions. I have loved Thine assemblies; I have mourned for the divisions of Thy Church; I have delighted in the brightness of Thy sanctuary. The vine which Thy right hand hath planted in this nation; I have ever prayed unto Thee, that it might have the first and the latter rain, and that she might stretch her branches to the sea and to the flood. The state and bread of the poor and oppressed have been precious in mine eyes. I have hated all cruelty and hardness of heart; I have, though in a despised weed, laboured with good-will for all men. If any have been enemies, I thought not of them; neither hath the sun set upon my displeasure; but I have been as a dove, free from all superfluity of maliciousness. Thousand have been my sins, and ten thousand my transgressions; but Thy sanctifications have remained within me, and mine heart, through Thy grace, hath been an unquenched coal upon Thine altar.

Oh Lord my strength! I have since my youth, met with Thee in all my ways; by Thy fatherly compassions; by Thy comfortable chastisements; by Thy visible providences. As Thy favours have increased upon me, so have Thy corrections. Thus Thou hast always been near me, oh Lord, and ever as my worldly blessings were exalted; so secret darts from Thee have pierced me; that when I have ascended before men, I have descended in humiliation before Thee.

And now, when I thought most of peace and honour, Thine hand is heavy upon me, and hath humbled me according to Thy former loving kindness; keeping me still in Thy school, not as an alien, but as a child. Just are Thy judgments upon me for my sins, which are more in number than the sands of the sea, but have no proportion to Thy mercies; or what are the sands of the sea? Earth, heavens, and all these, are nothing to Thy mercies! I confess before Thee, that I am debtor to Thee, for the precious talent of Thy gifts and graces, which I have neither put into a napkin, not put out as I ought, to exchangers, where it might have made best profit; but misspent it in things for which I was least fit; so I may truly say, my soul hath been a stranger in the house of her pilgrimage. Be merciful unto me, O Lord, for my Saviour's sake; and receive me into Thy bosom, or guide me in Thy way.

Francis Bacon’s Prayer.

And when we have cleared these points, and made it plain what is the Nature of Things, and what that of the Mind, then we think we shall have prepared and decked the marriage bed for the Mind and the Universe, under the eye of Divine Goodness. Let the prayer of our bridal song be, that from this marriage may spring aids for mankind, and progeny of Inventions, which shall overcome, to some extent, and subdue our needs and miseries.

Francis Bacon, Instauratio Magna (1623), ‘Plan of Work’ (transl.),