in their hands that both themselves and others may be built up in our most holy faith to the perfecting thy Church and the eternal glory of thy name thereby through our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus Amen Chap. VIII Of the true manner of sanctifying the Lords day Sect. 1. Generally before I go to Church NOw as to my Closet duties upon this day least the sole consideration of them should breed any neglect forgetfulness or disturbance of the duties to be performed in the family and in the publick assembly it will be most expedient to consider the whole duties of that day both publick private and secret and set down each in their natural order First then as upon no day we suppose our Christian to be slothfull so least of all upon the Lords day but to be up in a convenient season both himself and if any are under his charge to see that they are so to A convenient season I call that which every mans health and occasions being considered will agree therewith and leave time sufficient for the discharge of the duties of the day And supposing the publick service to begin generally about nine of the clock between six and seven will be a good hour and all things being well ordered may consist very well with most mens health and occasions And of this time which passeth between my rising and going to Church if an hour and the odd parts be divided between the devotions of the family and the closet so that half an hour be spent in the one and the other half with the odd time in my closet it may do very well and the common occasions of most houses being considered so much time may be allowed If so much cannot be afforded to this work yet let some and what day soever I spend with double prayers I mean prayer in my closet and prayer in my family yet this day let me omit neither It is a bad omen to begin the sanctification of the Lords day by the breach of my ordinary course of devotion and an argument it is likely to be but negligently sanctified by me Besides many in my family may perhaps make no other preparation for the worship of God than what they make by joyning in the family-devotions it will be therefore the more necessary to make sure of thus much Sect. 2. Of secret devotion in the Closet before going to Church NOw my private devotions will be for the main the same this day as others Only in my Meditations it is to be remembred that I examine my self touching my preparations for the solemn worship of God that day and if any thing in my preparatory devotion be wanting any sin unconfessed unrepented of c. in these my morning devotions let that be done And how compleat soever I may conceive my preparations to have been yet let me not in my prayers in private that morning forget to send up some petitions for preparing and assisting grace to the end I may more spiritually go through the duties of the day for the doing of which I cannot Chap. 7. now want directions after a preparatory prayer already considered upon And these my closet devotions it will be necessary be first performed for that they will very well fit me to perform my devotions in my family with more fervency Sect. 3. Of Private devotion in the family before going to Church A digression touching what our devotion in the family is alwaies to consist of THese therefore being done and it being now somewhat above half an hour till the time we usually go to Church I am to call all my family except in extraordinary cases of sickness c. together to prayer at which time all of them who that day can go to Church which should be as many as may be should appeare dressed as they are to go that so after the family devotions performed within a very short space we might all together resort to the publick place of Gods worship Now if question be made what the devotions of the family are to consist of the answer is they cannot well consist of more or less than these two parts Reading and Prayer By Reading here I understand chiefly the reading of the Word of God and that it is the duty of the head of the family either himself to read or cause by some other to be read the holy Scriptures in the hearing of the family none can question who considers those frequent Commands to the ancient people of God to teach their children the Law of God and his judgments and dealings Deut. 4. 9. c. with them Now how they can be taught those things by their parents from whom they never hear of them cannot be understood nor will any reasonable person think thefe commands fulfilled by the meer teaching their children the Belief Lords prayer and ten Commandements though this must be most sure to be done for we find of old they were to acquaint their children of Gods wonderful works in delivering them out of the Land of Egypt And in like manner we Christians to teach our children Gods Miracles of grace in freeing us by his Son out of the bondage of sin which how it can be better done than as God hath thought fit to teach it to the world to wit by the Holy Scriptures none will easily find out Now for the method to be observed in reading the Scriptures in our family that which was above commended for use in the Closet may haply be most proper And if I so order it that I read the same portion of Scripture in my family and in my closet it may be much for my edification the double reading it will set it deeper both in my memory and in my understanding But then least I read faster and more in my family than in my closet and for other reasons it will be necessary that either my Closet devotions go before my Family devotions or that at least I so contrive my readings that what I last read in my Closet I the next time read in my Family Instead of Meditation which was one part of my Closet devotion if in my family I use to examine my people what they have learnt or observed out of what hath been read and where none takes notice of what is mainly observable there suggest it to them it may not be amiss provided it be done soberly without a long deal of prate and medling with curious matters and without vain-glory The Prayers which I use in my family except upon some very eminent occasions may best be the Prayers of the Church These are easie and best understandable and the use of them in our families will sit the plainest people in our family to use them with more devotion and understanding in the publick Notwithstanding I confess my judgment in this case to be that the Injunction of them doth not in strictness reach to private families but there is a liberty leâ—st
observation that is the particular duties to be on them performed But forasmuch as most men keep them ordinarily no otherwise than by a little change of diet taking perhaps fish c. for flesh and feeding neither more sparingly nor much less deliciously than they do on other daies and so make them indeed no fasting daies we must consider both of the Setting apart of daies for private fasting and of their Observation when set apart But first of all it will be necessary to spend a few thoughts upon the nature and ends of Fasting Chap. II. Of the Nature and Ends of Fasting BY Fasting here is meant the Religious abstaining from our lawfull food Lawful food at present we will account that which according to the common practice of sober and discreet persons of our rank and quality is neither too much nor too dainty for us For we may account a man intemperate in his feeding as well by being too delicate and fine and eating constantly on things which are fit chiefly for persons above his degree as by eating overmuch Now not all abstaining from this my lawful food is that Fasting which is here intended for I may abstain for my healths sake or through business or by some accidents upon necessity and all it may very well be without sin and yet not fast as fasting signifies a duty or an act acceptable to God but it must be a Religious abstaining which I can duely call Fasting as at present that name is used Now it will be best discerned to be Religious by the ends which I design to my self therein and by my imployment of my self upon such my Fasting daies First as to the ends and designs See Dr. Hammon Pract. Catech. Lib. 3. Sect. 4. of him who abstaines or fasts religiously The chiefe of them are 1 Devotion or the performance of religious exercises when I fast that I may have more leisure and be fresher for Reading Meditation and Prayer 2. Mortification when I fast to tame my flesh to keep under and beat down my body that it may be in due obedience to the commands of God and reason 3. Liberality when I fast to deal my bread unto the hungry and either deprive my self or feed more slenderly that I may have the more wherewith to relieve others 4. Sympathising with the sufferings of others when I fast out of a fellow feeling of the afflictions of Gods people commiserating their condition and through an abundance of charity desiring as it were to partake with them in their sufferings 5. Exercising my self to the obedience of Christs commands when I fast out of self denial and when I both would and could eat by fasting as by one particular act of obedience to that generall command of denying my self exercise my self unto godliness 6. Diverting or removing Gods wrath and expressing my sorrow and humiliation for sin when Gods wrath either resting upon my country or friends or self or hanging over any of our heads I fast and deprecate it and beg pardon of all those evils which have brought us into such misery and danger 7. An holy revenge or punishment of my self when having repented of some sin for which I am 2 Cor. 7. 11. holily angry with my self I choose thus to punish and chastise my self for my former it may be luxury wantonness or the like When I say out of any of these intentions or with these designs I abstain from my lawful meat I then fast in the sense that fasting â—is now taken for this is thus far Religiously to abstain and no doubt but such abstaining is acceptable unto God if all be as right as my intentions that is if suitable performances or devotions be added touching which rules will anon be considered when the nature of fasting is a little further looked into and it is evident that it is a duty and no such needless matter as men usually seem to take it for if we may judge of what they think by what they do Chap. III. That Fasting is a Christian Duty NOw that none either suspicion touching its necessity or excuse for its neglect may be left it will be expedient to consider what Evidence may be brought that Fasting is a Christian duty And 1. Indeed there needeth little more to be urged for the proving it a duty besides the recollection and summing up those excellent ends to which it serves and conduceth No doubt but to humble my self for my sins to pray earnestly for pardon and for the turning away of Gods wrath are duties No doubt but to keep under my body and make it subject to relieve the poor to sympathize with the afflictions of Joseph are duties now to all these is fasting a meanes and of some of them besides an expression No doubt but to deny my self and to take upon my self an holy revenge for my former extravagancies are duties Now of these is Fasting a part It may therefore hence sufficiently be concluded a duty 2. A further evidence of the same I take it to be that Fasting is Mat. 62 6 15. compared by our Saviour in that Sermon of his upon the Mount which delivers to us the sum of the Christian law or rule of Evangelical duties ranked with Prayer and Almes giving which are undoubted duties and rescued from the Pharisaical abuses of it the true manner of it being insinuated Insomuch that it may be justly demanded how comes it to stand in the Christian law to what end needed its practice to be vindicated from corruption and asserted as it is by Christ to its purity if it were not a Christian duty Besides 3. We find God in its season calling for it of old by his prophet Joel Sanctifie a Fast call an Assembly which place though it intend a publick Fast yet it is evident our Saviour Joel 2. 15 in St. Matthew spoke of those private Fasts which every one is by him supposed to consecrate unto God Who knows not that the Afflicting of the soul touching which we meet with so many commands and such frequent mention in the old Testament doth mainly intend fasting And as to the new Testament further yet though our Saviour once tell us the season for his Disciples fasting was not then come while the Bridegroom was with them Mat. 9. 15 yet at the same time he tells us its season would not be long too and then they should fast 4. Again the constant sense of the world and of all the Saints of God in all ages amongst whom by how much soever any have been more zealous by so much the more hath he been in the exercise of fasting is an argument no whit contemptible of its being a duty Not onely the Saints under the Law fasted and the pharisee too twice a week but the devout Christians have ever been to us ensamples hereof And 5. Which sets it off with more advantage we find not onely the commendation of them for this practice
preparatory discourse and introduction to the rest Chap. 1. OF the necessity of Privacy and those Christian duties which require it Chap. 2. Of the situation and furniture of their closet who have choice Chap. 3. Of the most common entrance into our closets The Second Part treateth of solemn retirement to our Closet and our daily duties there Chap. 1. That if I am a person of leisure I ought daily twice in the day to retire into my closet for devotion sake Chap. 2. Considerations to perswade to daily devotion and prayer in private Chap. 3. Of the substance of every dayes private devotion to persons of leisure Reading Meditation and Prayer Chap. 4. Of reading the holy Scripture the most edifying method and manner of reading it consulted of Chap 5. Of Meditation and the most edifying course in it Chap. 6. Of Prayer First of its substance and parts Chap. 7. Of the right manner of Prayer First of its inward manner Some considerations to quicken to sincerity and heartiness in prayer What graces are to be exercised in each part of prayer Chap. 8. Of the best outward manner of prayer in sit postures and fit words Of praying by gift and the inconveniencies alledgable in this case against it Of praying by form and the inconveniencies in this case alledgable against it An accommodation and reconcilement of both Chap. 9. A form of prayer made according to the former Accommodation which may be used in our morning privacy Chap. 10 A form of prayer made as the other which may be used in our evening privacy Chap. 11. Some further directions touching the use of these prayers The third Part treateth of a more solemn retirement into the Closet upon Holy-dayes and Sundayes and duties then and there Chap. 1. That our devotion should be greater upon Holy-days than on ordinary days The end of Festivals and their vindication from abuses and cavils Chap. 2. What there should be of new in our private devotions upon Holy-dayes Chap. 3. An Exemplification or Practice of the former rules in Christmass day with a fit prayer to be added to my ordinary prayers thereupon Chap. 4. An exemplification of the same rules in St. Stephens-day with a prayer which may be used on any Saints day Chap. 5. Of what remains to compleat our private Festival devotions viz. Alms giving Chap 6. That the Lords day ought to be kept holy and what the keeping it holy means Chap. 7. Of preparation for the Lords day A preparatory prayer thereto Chap. 8. Of the true manner of sanctifying the Lords day § 1. Before going to Church § 2. Of secret devotion in the closet before going to Church § 3. Of devotion in the family before going to Church A digression touching what our devotion in the family is alwayes to consist of § 4. Of resorting to the Church § 5. Of due behaviour in the Church § 6. Of due behaviour betwen morning and evening service § 7. Of resorting to evening service § 8. Of the duties after retun from evening service The fourth Part treateth of most solemn retirement into the Closet for humiliation of our selves and duties there Chap. 1. An account of what is to be treated of particularly in this part Ch 2. Of the nature ends of fasting Chap. 3. That fasting is a Christian duty Ch. 4. How often a Christian is to fast Chap. 5 Of preparatory acts for private fasting dayes Chap. 6. The order of true humiliation or penitentiary devotions § 1. The entrance unto this work how it should be § 2. Of reading so as to fit my self for self-examination § 3. Of self examination and the view of our life § 4. Of the endeavour of godly sorrow How to work our selves to it § 5. Of Repentance which is the effect of godly sorrow its true nature and way of practice § 6. An exemplification of the former rules in two sins § 7. A further consideration of Repentance in regard to some particular sins § 8. Of that faith which is required in order to the pardon of sin § 9. Of prayer upon such fasting dayes A prayer which may be used on such dayes made according to the rules of the former § 10. Of my offerings to God for the use of the poor requisite on my fasts and of my carriage after my devotions finished Chap. 7. Of great and more solem Fasts and the work thereof Chap. 8. The Conclusion of all ERRATA PAge 9 line 12. read or p. 26. l 14. r. one p. â— l. 26. r. as to the p. 49. l. 16. r. an end P. 57. l. â—â— r. they may be P. 71. l. 21. r admiration P. 79. l. 7. â— cannot except P. 84. l. 7. add off P. 111. l. 19. â—â— prayer P. 124 l 24. r. light P. 150. l. 26. r. lamentatine P. 156. l. 9. r. comprise P. 158. l. 17 r my P. 152. l. 16. â— will I presume be P. 178. l. 3. r. dispence P. 184. l. 1. 1. left P. 222. l. 20. dele fully P. 243. l. 12. dele not p. 26â— l. 3. r. righteousness To trust Enter into thy Closet OR A METHOD For Private Devotion Part I. Chap. I. Of the necessity of Privacy and those Christian duties which require it THat person can no wise be esteemed a serious and through Christian uprightly and cordially discharging his duty towards God who is a stranger unto privacy and useth not to withdraw himself from company even the company of his neerest friends presenting himself alone before God For that besides the worship of God which we performe to him in the publick assemblies and joyntly with the rest of the Family of which we are members besides I say praying hearing and receiving c. in the Church and praying with the people of our own house there are several religious duties to be performed by us without which the power of godlinesse can never be kept alive in our hearts nor the service which before or with others we do unto God almighty be through hearty and compleat which duties I say can never be performed as they should be if we are in company To wit First it is indispensibly necessary that a Christian often examine himself take account of his own state and actions whether his heart be so sted fast in holy purposes as it hath been or ought to be or as he hath vowed to God it should be whether his practices of late have been answer able to such resolutions and engagements as he hath made or whether his heart be more indifferent and careless than it was his actions more loose and irregular This I say is absolutely necessary to an holy life for that without it he may insensibly go back and grow worse he may delay his returns unto God or not return after several wandrings and if suddenly catcht die without the particular repentance of many sins Secondly it is as necessary that a Christian confesse himself to Almighty God that is that having taken such
Steâ—ben's martyrdom And the chief substantials that my thoughts fix upon are That Encouraging vision vouchsafed to him in his entrance upon his suffering and the manner of his taking his suffering St. Stephen the first of those who were to pass to Heaven in the fiery Chariot of a violent death for the witness of Jesus was now as good as sentenced for the defence which he had made had onely further incensed his persecutors But he who should take first so bold a step had need of some more than ordinary encouragement It pleased therefore him whose Witness he was to command away the Clouds and through the opened Heavens to shew himself standing at the right hand of God ready to receive him thither And seeing the passage now so clear and the end so glorious it was not likely that good Stephen should stumble at a stone or two This method doth the gracious providence of God observe that where he gives a bitterer cup there he secretly provides greater encouragements and thereby raiseth the strength of his suffering servants Answerable to his encouragement do I find St. Stephens carriage For being cast out of the City and stoned all is so far from daunting him that it scarce seems to have disturbed him for he readily prayes to his Saviour both in his own and his murtherers behalf Particularly these Virtues I cannot but observe livelily shining in him suffering 1. Constancy Resolution and Christian Magnanimity in those sufferings which a truly Christian cause engaged him in 2. Notwithstanding all his extraordinary assurances of glory Christ witnessing it to him from Heaven in that blessed Vision perseverance in earnest prayer to the last When the stones now struck him he called upon God and said c. 3. Quietness patience and serenity The injustice of his sufferings exasperates not his Spirit nor puts him into any passion or indisposition for his duty 4. Meekness Charity Forgiveness even towards them who in that they were enemies to him were enemies also to Christ He kneeled down An expression of the solemnity of his Prayers and cried with a loud voice an expression of the earnestness and fervour of them A pattern most worthy imitation in suffering A double benefit then the substance of this portion of Scripture recollected according to direction Part. 11. Chap. 5. yields to me The first an Antidote or Remedy against dejection under and slavish fear of suffering If God at any time call me to the bearing a greater weight of afflictions than ordinary let not me basely or sinfully decline them but rather remember what St. Stephen and indeed all the Children of God have found by experience that strength shall be given in proportionably and that suitable to my misery shall comfort and refreshment come in to sustain my spirit if I nobly engage Secondly St. Stephen's example is to me a copy how I ought to suffer Hence should I transcribe Constancy Dutifulness Patience Charity and what ever other Virtues I can observe him to have exercised in his sufferings Now as to particular expressions here that which concludes the relation cannot well pass without notice And when he had said this he fell asleep In sweetness and love he breathed out his soul and he doing so pitty it was but that to so sweet a soul death it self should be sweetned and so it was He fell a sleep It teacheth me how I am to look on death To all men death is but a sleep good or bad they must awake from it But a good mans death should be looked upon onely as a falling asleep or as another Scripture saith Resting from his labours Death is much the easiest to good men Of these notes or remarks which I have thus in my Meditations on this Reading made those which I have mind chiefly to fasten upon my self though I would not forget any are these which follow of which therefore I register in my Memorial some hints perhaps so as follows St. Stephen's day 1 6 6 4. Acts 7. Vers 54 55. God ever proproportions his Servants comforts to their sufferings Verse 60. He sell asleep How sweetly do good men dye Also a fit Petition to use when I pray for enemies Lord lay not this sin to their charge I noted all along in St. Stephen these Christian Graces 1. Constancy and Courage 2. Perseverance in Prayer notwithstanding the immediate revelation of his instant Glory 3. Patience 4. Charity and Forgiveness This Pattern will serve for direction in what we ordinarily intend and it is brief because it is supposed a pattern to be followed in what we in daily course observe or set down But if on Holy dayes any have a mind to be larger in their setting down their Meditations this hinders not The Gospel Matt. 23. v. 34. to the end Observing the scope of this Scripture I find it to be a Prophecy of the dismal calamity which should befal the Jâ—ws by reason of their wilful rejecting the Gospel and cutting off them who were sent to preach it according as their stubborn forefathers had cut off the Prophets A judgment should befall them which should be in some measure a proportionable revenge of all the righteous bloud which had been shed from Abel to Zachary Ver. 35. and this by reason that they did persist in shedding such righteous bloud as they indeed did in the case of our Saviour and his persecuted followers Their City therefore should become a desolation and the very worship of God being laid wast they should expect the Messiah Ver. 38. so long that they should even bless him that could tell them any thing of him This is the general substance of this Scripture Difficulty in it I find none to stop me I proceed therefore to inquire what of advantage I can make by the reading of it according to my proposed course And 1. I find my self by the observing the two first verses of it much satisfied touching one case in which I have many times thought God to deal very hardly to wit touching his visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children Verse 3 5. It is said that upon that generation should fall all the righteous bloud spilt from Abel to Zachary which at the first look seems very severe But the reason is rendred ver 34. because of the Prophets wise men and scribes which Christ sent amongst them some they would kill and erucifie some scourge in their Synagogues others persecute from City to City according as their forefathers ever had served the Prophets Which gives me ground to conclude That children seldome or never inherit their fathers punishments or the wrath due to their fathers sins but where they first prove inheritors of those sins And in this case because they have seen their fathers sins and the punishments which have befallen them for them and yet not mended by their examples it is but justice that their fathers sins should be visited upon them that they should have
the same or like punishments as their fathers had and greater Then 2. I cannot but note how slowly and unwillingly God comes to judgment Thus much those words O Jerusalem Jerusalem suggest to me Our Saviour I see cannot foretell this desertion and rejection of the Jews without a lamentable taken up O Jerusalem Jerusalem So unwilling is he to punish that he even weeps at the very thoughts of it This is a very affecting consideration and of special force to quicken me to repentance and is therefore to be noted to that purpose Lastly Examining further according to the rules proposed whether there be no instance of Gods judgments against sinners no threat to deterre me from any sin or the like I find there is and cannot but stay my thoughts a while upon this heavy denunciation of woe against those who were outwardly Gods own people for their rejecting the offers of grace and upon foolish prejudices not acknowledging or not being willing to see the light which yet they could not but see And if God spared not the natural branches how much less will he spare me who am onely grafted in out of the wild olive if I be guilty of the same sin It concernes me therefore in this case to look into my self the very reading of this Scripture ought to be to me a warning And let me see Am I not guilty of the like resisting light and rejecting grace What do I else when I sin presumptuously and onely not wilfully Do not I then shut mine eyes against the light and offer violence to the convictions which come from those Scriptures whose Authors the Jews were rejected for offering violence unto They rejected their living testimony I not onely that for that I have in the Scripture but the very voice of their bloud by which they sealed the truth of their testimony Oh sinful and ungracious wretch Now if any such as this be my case let my meditations here rest a while Let me consider whether in this Scripture which hath thus convinced me of sin there be not somewhat which may reclaim me And truly there is 1. That which hath already been mentioned Gods unwillingness to punish his patience and forbearance And hath not this been great towards me How often have the warm offers of love and pardon invited me as they did them May not I say God would have many a time gathered me under his wings And do not these very warnings that if I am not reclaimed I must be forsaken speak Gods present unwillingness if any thing will work to forsake me Is not this as much as an O Jerusalem Jerusalem Again 2. I here see that though God bore long with his people he would not bear alwayes being that they did persist in resistance of his Grace And truly I know not how soon God may call home from me his opposed Spirit and suffering his Grace no longer to be abused leave me as he did the Jews in my own stubbornness and wilfulness to perish After this sort may I employ a while my thoughts and if time will suffer thus oughâ— I so long to meditate till my moved heart have taken up full resolutions of following the guidance of Gods Spirit and yielding to his Grace And these warnings or convictions from the Word together with my resolutions upon them should I if able register in that other of my Books which I call my Accomptal or if not take such solemn notice of that I forget not But if any necessary matter force me to depart my privacy before my meditations arive at such a ripeness yet let me not fail to take notice of the warning which I received and set it down in my Accomptal that so upon my * fasting day when I review the actions of that week I may be sure not to forget it but to humble my self for my former miscarriages and consider for the future how I may turn my feet into new wayes But to return to the devotions of this present day So much onely remains now to compleat my present meditations as to consideâ— what of new from all will be seasonable to be added to my accustomed Prayers And here will be First Matter of confession touching my resisting Grace and not walking according to the light which I have had Secondly Matter of praise 1. For these warnings which are so many calls to repentance and invitations to happiness 2. For the testimony which the Gospel received and doth to this day receive by the doctrine and death of St. Stephen and for the constancy faithfulness patience charity and meekness which shone forth in him Thirdly Matter of Peâ—ition 1. For grace that I may from henceforth yield unto all motions of Gods holy Spirit 2. That when ever God shal call me to suffer as he doth frequently by the crosses oppositions frustrations c. which I meet with in the course of my life I may manifest the like meekness patience charity holy resolution and mindfulness of God by prayer and all other seasonable duties All which having considered how I may in some sober and orderly way express or represent before God let me either insert in my wonted prayers or in some short prayer to be added to them comprisâ— as well as I can A pattern whereof very particular it will not be so expedient to set down here but rather so to frame a Prayer with some respect to the foregoing heads as that it may in general be accommodated to or used upon the Feasts of any Saints or Martyrs A short Prayer which may be added to our ordinary prayers upon the feast of any Saint or Martyr by our Church appointed to be kept O Lord the God of truth and holiness who at sundry times and in sundry waies hast revealed thy self unto the world by thy holy Prophets of old and in these last daies by thy Son of whom thou hast since in all ages raised up thy Saints and Servants to be witnesses I humbly bless thee as for all the revelations of thy will confirmations of thy truth so especially for the testimony given thereunto by the life a The word doctrine is chiefly to be used upon the feasts of the blessed Apostles doctrine and b If the feast be not the memorial of a Martyr the word death is to be left out death of thy servant St. S. whom thou madest unto the world not onely a witness of thy truth but a pattern of holiness and I beseech thee to pardon both all my opposing and all my holding in unrighteousness those truths which either he or any other of thy servants have preached or left on record I acknowledge and bewaile may guiltiness herein Keep me blessed Father for the future at least from all such presumptuous sins and grant that the same Spirit resting upon me which dwelt upon them may beget in me the like humility charity * * Here insert the mention of any Christian virtue in which
thou hast observed the Saint whose memory thou celebratest to excell diligence resolution and perseverance in all holiness Let me as they both in life and death glorifie thee according to my measure so that amongst those heavenly Hosts and blessed Society of thy Servants I may have some though it should be the lowest place eternally to praise and enjoy thee O Fathers Son and Holy Ghost one most glorious God Amen Chap. V. Of what remains to compleat my private Festival-devotions to wit Almes-giving SOme time besides what my ordinary course requires being thus spent in Reading Meditation and Prayer suitable to the particular regard of the day it onely remaines to compleat my devotions that according as God hath blessed me I set apart somewhat for the poor for it is not certainly my self or my rich neighbours onely which I am to feast upon Holydaies and however it may be I cannot give in my closet yet I may in my closet and at the end of my devotions most conveniently cheerfully and religiously and it may be most liberally consecrate what I can spare to such pious use by separating it from the rest which I reserve for ordinary uses And somewhat every Holyday would I cast to have thus to consecrate to God though it were the less By the observing this course I shall commonly if not alwaies have wherewithall to relieve the wants of such whom I meet with and find to be truly indigent which if I do not use my self to some such method I may haply many times want a stock for Whether to distribute it in money or in that which is bought with my money may be more suitable to the wants of those whom I relieve a little Christian discretion will easily direct And the more to enforce this practice let me consider how naked miserable and stingy solemn thanksgiving is without somewhat of Almes giving Then surely I rejoyce in a way most becoming the mercies I and mankind have received when as many as I have wherewithall coveniently to help have cause to rejoyce for my rejoyeing and on the contrary if being able by doing but what is my duty at least what I well may to revive poor and disconsolate persons I suffer them through my close-handedness to groan under their distresses upon daies of publick joy what a blemish is it to those daies joy and what want of Christian goodness and charity doth it bespeak in me I should rather be greedy and ambitious to make all the world rejoyce with me Now for the making at least thus much of Almesgiving an act of my private devotion no one willj presume to be dissatisfied who either considers the premises and the nature of the thing or what our Saviour saith touching this matter Let not thy right hand know what in this Mat. 6 3. case thy left hand doth Let therefore I say my charity crown my devotions and as I put out that whatsoever it is which I have to devote unto God for the relief of his wanting servants it will not be amiss to use some short ejaculation directed unto his allseeing Majesty by which I may express my chearful offering it unto him that is my setting it apart for the poor whom he hath commanded me to succour and promised me a blessing if I consider Psa 41. 1 Now that may be done in some such words as these O Lord whose is the earth and the fulness thereof I offer unto thee what by thy gift and blessing I have this small testimony of my thankfulness and duty to be bestowed upon those wanting ones whom thy providence shall give me opportunity to relieve Be thou pleased through the bloud of my Saviour to accept it and pardon all my vain expences The using some such course as this proposed will make me more liberal in these my acts of charity for how can I offer niggardly to this my bountiful God when I am conscious to my self I have somewhat considerable if I will well husband all which I may devote to him yet not abridge my self or mine either of necessaries or conveniencies and hereto I shall be the more quickned if I remember I offer to God who both gave me and sees all I have Now whether I may upon such a day meet with opportunity to my mind or such a person to bestow it on as the discretion of my charity could wish or whether I cannot yet let me account it really given to God and therefore separate it from the rest of the store so that ever after I may look upon it as devote and not to be touched except to distribute it to the poor But if any fatal necessity should constrain the meddling with any part of ought thus separated let me religiously observe to return it again to the poor mans purse or stock with an expiatory usury that is with somewhat more which may make recompence for my first diminishing it And thus we will leave the private devotions of Festivals and consider in the next place what will be meet to be performed on the Lords day Chap. V I. That the Lords day ought to be kept holy and what that means TOuching the observation of the Lords day though I judge them indiscreet friends unto it who referre the institution of it mainly to the fourth Commandement yet I put the keeping of it holy so far out of all question that I cannot but account him very unchristian who either is slightly herein himself or goes about to possess others that they may be so without sin The 1. naturall justice of the The true gro 3nds of sanctifying the Lords nay sum med up 1 Cor. 16 1 2. thing that there should be some time set apart amongst the Christian community for the publick and solemn worship of God 2. The antiquity and authority of that Apostolick canon recorded partly in express terms in Scripture and if it were not sufficiently manifest by their practice which hath set apart this time 3. Our Saviours honouring this day with his resurrection thereupon which gave occasion to its being set apart 4. The custom of all Christian Churches through all ages and from the very Apostles daies 5. Nay the practice of our Lord himself on this day meeting his assembled Disciples are all of them arguments beyond contradiction and warrant sufficiently divine that it is to be esteemed consecrate or set apart to the worship of God And then the force which the fourth Commandement in equity bears that what time is set apart or consecrated to God should be sanctified that is spent to those separate purposes and intents for which it was set apart which I say is the meaning of sanctifying or keeping holy any time sufficiently and beyond all evasion enjoyns its being kept holy it being supposed once to be set apart as it is before proved to have been And certainly if as is undeniable it be the duty of every Christian as much as may be to
keep all his life as a perpetual Sabbatism Hebr. 4. 10. or holy rest unto God it must needs be an argument of a very profane worldly and unchristian spirit not to afford God this day free from sensual pleasures and worldly cares or labours Wherefore I say the keeping holy of the Lords day I put out of all question and would have no man flatter himself that he is a devout Christian who useth either by idleness or pleasures or unnecessary worldly business to profane what the Church and being that the Church hath done it by good warrant and power transmitted to her by Christ God himself hath allowed Profanation I call it for if the spending it to holy purposes be to sanctifie it then the spending it contrarily upon ordinary or unworthy practices is to profane it And if we may not give that which is holy unto dogs it is then surely most intolerable to take that time which by divine Law ought to be holy unto God and give it to his enemies the devil this world and our own lusts which we do when we spend the Lords day either in idleness pleasures or needless worldly matters Works of charity or mercy are acts of holiness and works of necessity so far forth as they are works of necessity are acts of mercy and consequently the doing of either of these that is works of Charity or Necessity when due occasion calls me thereto is rather sanctifying than unhallowing the Lords day especially if I do them out of duty towards God and in his fear and for this I have his warrant who tels Mat. 9. 13. me that he better accepts Mercy than Sacrifice Chap. VII Of Preparation for the Lords day A preparatory Prayer thereto SEeing then that the Lords day is to be kept holy that is to be spent in the worship and service of God for which it is set apart it concerns me to consider how I may spend it in a way most complying with this its design or intendment And I shall easily upon the very consideration of the nature of Gods worship be convinced that it is in a manner impossible for me duely to sanctifie it if I come unto it hot and wreaking from my worldly business For being I am to worship God in spirit and in truth with all my mind soul and strength and in a word with my whole man evident it is that I am unable so to do while my heart yet remains unemptied of the world and being unfit to worship God I am not while so in a due state to sanctifie this day Wherefore the right sanctification of the Lords day is to begin with Preparation And it is a right wholsome institution that upon the Evening before it there should be Prayers in every Parish Church which is grown now too much into disuse by reason onely that I can imagine of the degeneracy of the age If there be such custome kept up in my Parish I would not but upon necessity be absent from those preparatory prayers At which though I should be supposed to have been present yet would I not content my self therewith but whether I have been imployed publickly in preparations or not in my course of devotion on Saturday night take so much more time than I do ordinarily as might serve for some preparatory Meditations and Prayers The least which I can do to this purpose in my Meditations is First To examine whether there be not some sin or sad miscarriage of the week past which lies unrepented of and so may blast my next daies performances And if any there be secondly to consider of it more particularly its aggravations its nature whether it be not such an one part of the Repentance for which must be Reconciliation Restitution or somewhat like and accordingly to apply my self to what I in my conscience and in the fear of God do judge due repentance Thirdly to endeavour the emptying my head of worldly at least distracting cares to bid them be gone now till a day for them return And lastly so to contrive as neer as I can all my affairs for the next day that both I and my family may have as little avocations or matters to call away our minds from holy duties as may be This by way of Meditation My Prayers must be suitable to my condition If any such sin as before mentioned be found that must be confessed bewailed and pardon craved together with grace for the future against it which may be done by putting in the mention of that sin in the proper space left for such purpose But besides this it will be necessary to add some particular petitions for due preparation or disposition of heart for the duties of the next day First for a quiet setled and composed mind so that I may attend with all my soul my holy concerns or business Secondly for enlivened affections that I may not be dull and heartless but of a tender and melting spirit Thirdly for a pliable ductile yielding and easie mind that I may mix the word with faith and render the obedience of faith Lastly because both my own and the Congregations benefit and edification much depends upon the Ministers due and affectionate discharge of his office it is therefore fit I forget not him but commend him to the assistance of the Spirit To which purpose the following prayer may be either inserted in some fit place towards the end of my prayers or added to them O Lord from whom the preparations of the heart are The day now approacheth which being holy unto thee I am to spend in thy more solemn worship Many sins there are by me not duely repented of which may justly bring upon me a curse instead of a blessing Especially my * Here insert the mention of such particular sinnes which thou hast found thy self guilty of c. may make my very prayers an abomination to thee But accept thou I beseech thee of this my confession of them and at least desired sorrow for them Turn my heart from them for the future and through the bloud of my Saviour so remove the guilt of them that they may not hinder good things from me Let the effusions of thy grace both upon me and all the Congregations of thy people be plentifull Let my heart be fixed and none either vain or worldly thoughts lodge within me this night Quicken me by thy Holy Spirit that I may draw neer unto thee with a true heart and be fervent in Spirit in thy service and with a good and honest heart receiving thy word may understand and keep it and bring forth fruit with patience and unto perfection Remember thou thy servants who are to dispense thy Mysteries unto thy people and especially him upon whose teaching I am to wait Pardon their sins and frailties Open their mouths guide their minds and tongues that they may deliver thy truths in the demonstration of thy Spirit and let thy work so prosper
the Elder if I suspect any of them to be apt to trifle away their time let them be kept in my presence and if all of them be able let them read by course somewhat out of the Scripture or some plain and honest book if all be not then such as can Sect. 7. Of resorting to Evening service WHen it is now almost time to resort to Evening service let all be called together to the end that all may orderly repair with me to the publick Assembly And it may not be amiss but right edifying if some one person read a Psalm suitable to the present undertaking of going to worship God such as is the lxxxiv or the cxix one or two parts of it being taken at a time as occasion or time shall serve to which reading all ought reverently to attend And this being done let the same rules and directions which were given touching going to Church in the Morning be observed in the Evening and all as before â—esort to the publick worship Which if they do I and my family are now a second time attentively and reverently placed before God in his House of Prayer where my carriage ought to be the same as is before directed to And surely unless I and my house appear thus the second time before God I cannot account my self duly to sanctifie the Lords day I have done it onely by halfes The Church was never in a settled condition but it had the Evening as well as Morning sacrifice Vespers as well as Martins If therefore any thing should so sall out that I or mine are hindred from the second part of the publick duties of the day it ought to be my grief and sorrow Psal 42. 4. Sect. 8. Of the duties after return from Evening service MY departure from the Church and my retirement as soon as I come home for about a quarter of an hour or as I see occasion should be after the same sort as in the former part of the day Which being done it will be expedient to come amongst my people and see that all things are wisely ordered that so sometime before night the Devotions of the family may be performed In the mean time both I my self and as many of the family as can be spared from necessary services are free to our private devotions Onely if there are any triflers let them and the younger sort be dealt with as after dinner that is kept where the people most commonly sit reading and attending to the Word of God at least for some certain space Let them not spend their time as they do ordinarily for the Lords day should look with another face than common dayes all the day long This care being taken of my self and family I see not but my Christian liberty permits me any honest refreshment such as may be walking forth in my garden in the fields or open air Onely let me observe these cautions 1. That my walk be some such as Isaac's Evening walk was that my Meditations be Gen. 24. 63. good Unquestionably I shall not find the fields an unfit place for good thoughts There are many in the world whom the very breathing the free air the beholding the glorious light of Heaven the passing clouds the verdant earth and smiling face of all things transports into a rapture of devotion affects very much with the admiration of the Creator of all things makes too long for the time when either they shall ascend above them all or see them pass away and dwell ever with their God beholding his face without any such interpositions And with much advantage may a man spend an hour thus mixing often prayers or ejaculations with these his thoughts 2. Another caution I should observe is That I return so early as that neither my Devotions in my Closet nor in my family may be omitted And truly most convenient will it be that my own private devotions which being that I look on my self bound to on other dayes I cannot this day omit be performed before that supper which I take for then shall I be freshest then will what I have learnt that day be better in my memory than after the diversions which my supper and company may cause Besides that the performance of them will have fixed and prepared my spirit against any such diversions and for the performance of devotion in the family Now as to what I am this evening to perform in my Closet it is the same for the most part as at other times My course of reading must be the same onely if so be that I see fit the portion which I read larger My Meditations besides what is every dayes task upon what I read may take in a view of my carriage that day an enquiry what I have learnt a considering it so as to affect my self with it and a setting down a resolution to endeavour in all my waies a practice of it My prayers may take in some new Confessions of my unprofitableness hardheartedness unsetledness petitions for pardon memory to retain and grace to perform what I have learned Thanksgivings for any quicknings of heart resolution of holiness any instruction or improvement of my Christian knowledge c all suitable to what in my Meditations I have found mine oslate to be for the inserting or putting in of which I shall easily find in my usual prayers fit places My Closet devotions being thus performed time it will now be for me and my family to take what Evening meale we use which being done in some convenient time before we go to bed which ought not for many reasons to be too late if I am a pious Christian I cannot but look upon my self bound to shut up the day in my family with some such devotions as I begun it with Touching which some directions have been already given as to Reading and Prayer and it is onely to be added that I am to make some enquiry severally into those who are under my charge touching their improvements that day to help out and instruct the ignorant to rebuke and that sharply the negligent and heedless to encourage the careful as my Christian discretion shall see meet the properest place for which will be either before the prayers begin or just after the reading of the Scriptures so that the family may be dismissed and the day ended with prayers PART IV. Of my most solemn Retirement into my Closet for the Humiliation of my self Chap. I. An Account of what is to be treated particularly in this part MY most solemn retirement into my Closet and that for which the place is most principally designed is upon such daies or times which I set apart to humble my self for my sin before God by Fasting and Prayer and Mourning and all acts of Contrition And truly if the ordinary Fasting daies of the Church were duly by all observed all that our present design would seem to call for were to deliver the manner of their private
commonly void of thy fear in all my wayes I owe very much unto my own vitious conversation unto my giving my self up to walk in my own wayes unto my choosing vanity and addicting my self thereto unto my either total neglect or slighty discharge of thy worship Impossible in a manner it is that any one who lives as I have done should have a better heart than I have And at this rate O Lord have I ever lived My childhood the innocentest part of my life was a state of necessary ignorance of thee yet even herein how soon did the accursed fruits of inborn lusts begin to shew themselves My youth what was it but a vain and brutish a mad and sensual age As to that small notice which therein I had of thy will and nature how little credit did I give unto it and how ineffectual was it upon me either to the quickening me to my duty or restraining me from any wickedness But as to my riper years O Lord I know not what to say I should in truth sit down astonished before thee but that I want a due sense of my sinfulnesse Mine iniquities are gone over my head That they are greater than I can bear is little they are greater than I can comprehend or number Nay if I should let pass my sins of ignorance of infirmity of heedlesness and inadvertency by which notwithstanding I seriously acknowledge my self times without number to have dishonoured and provoked thee If I should insist only upon my knowing presumptious and wilful sins even these O Lord it were impossible for me to reckon up For besides that vast number of them which I cannot call to mind all which notwithstanding are upon record before thee what a black and tedious Catalogue of them have I here open or which I can spread before thee How many wilful neglects yea even contempts of my duty How many resolute perpetrations of horrid crimes such which I now am ashamed even to think of yet did not then blush to commit sins the heinousness whereof being considered if I could do nothing else but mourn over them all my dayes though I should weep as my Saviour sweat in bloud under unknown agonies I could not but account my self impenitent Nay had I onely that one sin of ** so often by me repeated to bewail what sorrow could suffice for its due lamentation Here are to be mentioned thy chiefest and most frequent sin or sins But if I add hereunto my ** my ** c. what reason have I were my fasts confessions prayers and teares a thousand fold to what they are or can be to sit down and lament my notorious impenitence And besides this weight of guilt which the heinous nature of my sins themselves load me with what a sad additional pressure do their dismal aggravations bring What circumstance almost can there be that makes sin grievous which I may not find in most of mine It is but an ordinary aggravation of my sins that they have been committed against knowledge that I have held thy truth in unrighteousnesse and being convinced of my duty have both neglected it and done contrary unto it †The very instant dictates of conscience protesting against the sins which I have been about to commit the smitings of mine own heart not onely after and before but amidst the very commission of them have not restrained my head-strong will †Nay O Lord hath not the voice of thy Spirit joyned with the voice of my Conscience and the united perswasions of both striven with me but all in vain †Have I not known that if I would resist through thy grace I should overcome And might I not through the same grace have resisted if I would †Have not I at the very same time thought of thy wrath and eternal flames belonging to those who do such things and yet this in vain too And besides the vow of my Baptisme which I have owned and acknowledged my self to stand bound by Ah! Lord have I not made many a particular vow against those very sins which after as a Dog to his vomit I have returned to And †those vows brought to thy Table and sealed in the Bloud of thy Son Have not I tasted thy mercies encouraging mine obedience and on the contrary sometimes wrung out almost the drâ—gs of thy wrath in punishment of my backslidings Further hast not thou many a time hindred me in my prosecution of these sins and by some interposing providence dulled the temptation which I lay under towards them †When yet I have proved so far a Divel to my self as to retrieve the temptation and over-bearing the voice of my conscience the resistance of thy Spirit breaking through all engagements to obedience which either thou or my self have laid upon me yea and the very hindrances and lets which have been put in my way against those sins I have returned to the attempts and practices of them Ah Lord what can such a sinner be fit for but destruction And yet after this sort how long have I lived sinning And how have I hardened my heart against all those means which thou hast used for my betterment Besides How many of these my sins have been committed openly and in the sight of the Sun to the dishonour of thee and to the scandal of others who beholding my practices have blasphemed at least been provoked to blaspheme and speak evil of Christianity All this O Lord is but my old wickedness I have later and †therefore if possible some of them more grievous sins to confess unto thee It is but such or such a time or day that I ** Here mention later falls Ah! how can I lift up my face or look towards thee my so oft offended God! And yet notwithstanding all this I have not yet done O Lord. For besides these sins of mine own what a multitude of the sins of other men do I stand accessary unto and guilty of How many for ought I know have I undone by my example What a multitude is there for whose profaneness and unbelief being occasioned by the scandal against Religion which my looseness hath possest them with I am to answer for †Some there are whom I have more directly and nearly corrupted And how many more may they have corrupted who haply had not been in that case corrupt themselves had not I propagated such sins to them Ah! wretched man that I am who have not been so far innocent as to be wicked alone and destroy no more than my self And now O Lord after I have confessed thus much notwithstanding all which I have confessed and much more which I am not able to express nor so much as my self to know what an hard unbroken and stupid heart have I The truth is the multitude and grievousness of my sins is such as is enough to make me impenitent and desperate upon the meer sight of them †I may well doubt whether it be