spread so far and wide among us When so many so boldly deny the Providence and very Being of God the Immortality of the rational Soul and a Life and State of Retribution in another World the Divine Authority Perfection and Perspicuity of the sacred Scriptures the eternal Duration of Hell-torments the Divinity and Satisfaction of our Saviour Christ the divine Institution of the Lord's-Day deny the Necessity of the Moral Law disown Original Sin and any such Thing as Special Effectual Discriminating Grace infallibly securing the Event as to the Elect assert Perfection contend for Papal Infallibility plead for Idolatry and gross Superstition and design and endeavour and hope to make Popery become the Religion of the Nation it concerns you surely carefully now to redeem the Time The Evil of Errour mightily prevails in these our Daies Seducers and Impostors are subtil and industrious and Errour is of a catching spreading Nature therefore as St. Paul said to the Corinthians * 2 Câ—r 11.3 I fear lest by any means as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his Subtilty so your Minds should be corrupted from the Simplicity that is in Christ. Take heed that the Leprosie get not into your Head In that case you know the Priest was to pronounce a Man †Levit. 13.44 utterly unclean That Errour take not Possession of your Mind for that is the Eye the leading Faculty and it it slip into the Mind and Judgment it will steal and creep into the Conscience and that is so active a Faculty that it will engage all O do your utmost and best endeavour to keep your selves clear and free from the foul and infectious Errours of the Times you live in ‖ 2 Pet. 3 17. Beware lest ye being led away with the Errour of the Wicked fall from your own Stedfastness 1. Be not too credulous (*) 1 Joh. 4.1 Believe not every Spirit not every one that pretends to a Spirit of Truth acting and breathing in him Now the Air abroad is so pestilentially infected take heed what Air you suck in be very wary what Money you take since the Markets are so full of adulterate Coin 2. Be careful to avoid the Meetings and to shun the Society of Seducers From (†) 1 Tim. 6.5 Men of corrupt Minds and destitute of the Truth from such withdraw thy self Don't venture to keep them Company and to take their Breath who have the Plague of wicked Errour upon them and whose Converse is Death and the eternal Ruin of your Souls Forbear to hear their Discourses or to read their Writings You are bidden indeed to (‖) 1 Joh. 4.1 try the Spirits that is to try all you hear but you must not be bold to hear all when you can shift it The Wise Man forbids that * Prov 19.27 Cease my Son to hear the Instruction that causeth to err from the Words of Knowledg Remember the sad Event of Eve's Rashness in venturing to listen to the Discourse of the Serpent 3. And that you may be the better secured from Errour labour to get a good Understanding of your Catechism to be well grounded in the Principles and Essentials and setled in the radical sundamental and practical Truths of Religion and throughly acquainted with the Necessaries to Salvation Do not stick to say with [h] Fateor me Catechismi descipulum Luther I confess I am still a Learner and Studier of my Catechism Learn it your selves and teach it your Children and Servants understandingly The want of Peoples being well instructed and throughly grounded in the Principles of Religion is a great [i] If this Duty of Catechising be neglected we may preach our Lungs our if we will but wich little Effect When we have spent all our Wind upon the Ears of our People their Hearts will be still apt to be carried away with every Wind of Doctrine Ep. Hali's Peace-maker p. 202. Reason of the many Errours that have been so rife in these late Times Men have not lyen fast in the Building upon the Foundation and therefore it is that they have so easily been tumbled up and down like loose Stones Converse with your Catechism 4. And confirm your Belief of the Divinity of the Scripture by getting rational Evidence and an inward Sence and Experience of it And search and study the Scriptures and compare the Doctrines taught by Men with the Word of God and try and examine them by that Rule 5. Again Beg the Spirit of Truth to lead and guide you into all necessary Truth As it is not a strong Constitution that will secure you from the Plague so it is not your best Parts that will preserve you from the Infection of Errour if the Spirit of God do not keep and protect you if the Spirit of Christ the Spirit of Truth withdraw from you 6. Add to all your earnest Endeavour to get your Hearts * Rom. 12.2 Heb. 13.9 2 Pet. 3.17 18. renewed and seasoned and * Rom. 12.2 Heb. 13.9 2 Pet. 3.17 18. stablish'd with Grace which will prove an excellent Preservative a soveraign Antidote and Defensative against the Contagion and Infection of Errour Any Errour will easily slip into an ignorant uncatechized Head and an unmortified unsanctified ungrà cious Heart The †2 Tim. 3 6. silly Women that were led captive were such as were laden with Sins led away with divers Lusts So they were ‖ Jude vers 4. ungodly Men who turned the Grace of our God into lasciviousness and denied the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ They that walk in loose Garments soon take Wind Loose Lives will gather in and breed loose Principles If you don't take in sufficient Ballast of Grace to settle you you will be tossed to and fro and carried about with every Wind of strange Doctrine If you want a good Biass of Sincerity for God carnal Interests and Ends will easily mis-lead you If you be devoid and destitute of Grace you will be proud and conceited rash and unwary you will never distrust your selves you will never weigh and consider Things well before you take them up Want of Grace will also breed an Itch of vain Curiosity in your Minds and cause you to linger and hanker after Novelties Further your depraved Wills will have a malign Influence on your Understandings and your carnal Affections will too often bribe and pervert your Judgments so that whatever your Wills and Affections are vehemently set upon must be allowed by the Authority of your Judgments and secretly if not openly maintained and pleaded for Those various Opinions about the Chief Good might arise and proceed from their Over-affection to some created and inferiour Good Your foul Stomach will infect your Brain your unsound Heart will cause a corrupt Head And an ill Life will engage you to entertain and take up such corrupt Principles as may favour and foster your Viciousness give allowance and countenance to your Wickedness Your Sin
and delightful Communion with God to exercise thy Graces in this holy Duty and to feel thy Heart warm'd and inflam'd and thy Soul refresh'd and repair'd before thou departest out of God's Presence To [e] Oratio clavis diei sera nâ—ctis begin and end with God every Day to be with the Lord first and last to call upon God Morning and Evening In the Morning to praise him for the Mercies of the Night past to ask Wisdome of God to order our Conversation aright to beg his Favour Presence Guidance Spirit Grace and Strength his Protection of us his * Psal 90 17. Beauty on glorious Blessing upon us and his establishing and [f] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pythag Aur. Cam. prospering the Works both of our Heads and Hands the whole Day following And in the Evening to bless and praise God for the Mercies and Favours of the Day past to confess our Faults and Failings in it and so to lie down with no heavy Guilt of any unrepented Sin lying upon us To pray for the hPardon and Healing of the Miscarriages of that Day and to commit our selves and ours to the Divine Keeping the Night following beseeching God to prevent any sinful Dreams which might proceed from the Corruption of our Natures and Constitutions Hearts and Imaginations Conversations and Actions and to spiritualize and sanctify our Thoughts and Cogitations in the vacant Spaces and broken Hours of our Sleep To keep and maintain the set Times of personal secret Closet-Prayer and the stated Times of Oeconomical Houshold Family-Prayer this is a well-spending so much of our Time as is employed in that Duty and this is the right and ready way to redeem and improve every Day to the Honour and Glory of God and to our own and others Profit and Benefit Satisfaction and Comfort This is a likely hopeful good way to prevent or remove Miscarriages in our selves and Disorders in our Families to keep every Member of our Family in their Station and Duty to season them all with a religious Fear and high Respect to God and his Waies and to train and bring up Children and Servants to a competent Ability to express their Desires in Prayer to God for themselves and others to teach our Servants with * Gen. 24.12 Eliezar Abraham's good oand faithful Servant to follow their earthly Master's Business with hearty Prayers to their heavenly Master for a Blessing upon it Be careful and diligent wise and prudent to redeem Time for Prayer that you may redeem Time by Prayer Find Time sufficient to work this Work of God and so to workout your own Salvation as well as to follow the Works and Businesses of your particular Callings to attend and wait upon God in Prayer as well as to wait upon your Customers and to attend your secular Occasions and Concerns Let not worldly Cares and civil or domestick Affairs hinder and divert thee from due Performance of Prayer in thy Family and in thy private Closet Though David had the Care of the Kingly Government upon him yet his usual Course and Practice was to pray to God †Psal 55.17 Evening and Morning and at Noon yea ‖ 119.154 seven times a day did he praise God as he himselfe professes If he did not exactly and punctually observe so many Hours but a certain Number is put here for an uncertain yet the meaning must be that he did it very often Love sweetned the Duty to him and caused him to praise God * Ps 71.14 more and more to be nover weary of praising him here as knowing that it would be his sole Employment to praise him hereafter for evermore Though Daniel was deeply engag'd in Publick Business and State Affairs yet he took not any Occasion from these to neglect his daily Duty and wonted Service to his God He kept his former Course and Order for every day and constantly †Dan. 6.10 three Times a Day he kneeled upon his Knees and prayed and gave thanks before his God though he knew he hazarded his high Preferment and endanger'd his very Life by it So Cornelius a Centurion taken up with many Martial Occasions yet suffer'd not himself to be taken off from his Devotion thereby but ‖ Acts 10.2 prayed to God alway He did not do it only by fits but daily and constantly observ'd his usual Seasons It is reported of the famous [g] In the Serm. preached at his Fun. at the end of his Sermons p. 21. Bp. Andrews that though he had many weighty Employments as Bishop of Winchester and Privy Counsellor yet his Life was a Life of Prayer and a great part of five Hours every day did he spend in Prayer and Devotion to God The holy and excellent [h] His Life written by Dr. Bernard p. 58. Bp. Vsher had Prayer in his Family four times a day In the Morning at six in the Evening at eight and before Dinner and Supper in the Chappel at each of which he was alwaies present [i] His Life written by Mr. Clark Mr. William Whately Minister of Banbury had much Work lying upon him continually catechising and preaching twice every Lord's-day and a weekly Lecture besides well studying and usually penning his Sermons at large and yet his constant Practice was besides Family-Prayer twice a day and sometimes catechizing to pray also with his Wife and alone both Morning and Evening And with what shew of Reason can any of you excuse your selves Have you Time to eat and drink and sleep and not only to labour and works but to play and sport Leisure to recreate your selves and visit your Friends and take your pleasure a Spare-Hour to spend in discourse and it may be to waste in empty and idle talk with another Have you Time to do nothing Time to do Evil and have you no Time to serve and worship God in your Families no Time for religious Retirements and hidden Repairs to God in your privy Chambers and secret Closets Have you so many Sins and Wants Corruptions and Temptations and can no Time be spared and set apart to seek God for the Pardon of your Sins and the Supply of all your spiritual Wants and to pray to him for Strength and Power to mortify the Corruptious with which you are infested and to resist the Temptations with which you are assaulted 2. We should moreover betake our selves to solemn continued Prayer when we have Place and Space for such a Duty upon the Emergency of any weighty important Business or on any special extraordinary occurrent and urgent Occasion to beg of God the prudent Conduct of our Affairs Success in and a Blessing upon our lawful and honest Undertakings Strength to go through Trials Afflictions and Temptations Freedom and Deliverance from Evils and Sufferings felt or feared or to return God thanks for the receit of his Mercies in any such particulars and to engage our selves to walk answerably and to
which are of so strange and weighty an importance that the * 1 Pet. 1 1◠Angels themselves desire [o] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is an Allusion to the Cherubims which were made with their Eyes looking down towards the Mercy-Seat slooping down to look to peep and pry into them In gaining Knowledg and Understanding of the Wisdome Counsel Mind and Will of God In acquainting our selves with the Rule of our Lives in learning the Laws of the Kingdome and studying the Statutes of Heaven in using the Means of getting and growing in saving Grace in opening and reading our Elder Brother's Will and Testament in sucking those full Breasts of strong Consolation and in drawing the refreshing Water of Life out of those Wells of Salvation Let it be the shame and sorrow and trouble of our Souls that we have been careless of the Scriptures in any part of our whole Lives [p] In his Life written by Mr. W. Durham p. 2. Dr. Robert Harris President of Trinity-Colledg in Oxford was not a little afflicted to his dying day that even in his Childhood he was more willing of play than of reading the Scriptures to his pious Parents at their Call And let 's lament and sadly lay to heart the slight Thoughts that too many have of the holy Scriptures and their gross neglect and great disregard of the precious and venerable Book of God Mr. Fuller in his [p] Pag. 148. History of the University of Cambridge does give us a Relation of an excellent Meditation of the Reverend Dr. Richard Holdesworth which the Relater himself heard drop from him a little before his expiring I admire saies he at David 's gracious Heart who so often in Scripture but especially in the 119th Psalm extolleth the Worth and Value of the Word of God and yet Quantillum Scripturae how little of the Word had they in that Age the Pentateuch or five Books of Moses the Book of Job and some of the Hagiography a little of other holy Writ How much have we now thereof since the accession of the Prophets but especially of the New Testament and yet alas the more we have of the Word of God the less it is generally regarded Lastly let 's do our honest and utmost endeavour to win and draw others on to the Love and Liking to the Reading and Studying of the sacred Scriptures * Deut. 6.6 7. Let them be in thine Heart and teach them diligently unto thy Children and talk of them when thou sittest in thine House and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thon risest up †4.9 Teach them thy Sons and thy Son's Sons ‖ Gen. 18.19 Command thy Children and engage thy Houshold and Servants to reade the Scriptures and to mind what they reade and allow them Time for so necessary a Duty and let not any in thy Family want a Bible for their Use and Benefit [q] The Life of Dr. Rob. Harris written by Mr. W. Durham pag. 57. In all the Wills made by the forementioned Dr. Robert Harris this Legaey was alwaies renewed Item I bequeath to all my Children and their Childrens Children to each of them a Bible with this Inscription None but Christ The eighth Direction If we would effectually redeem the Time we must give our selves to frequent and serious [a] Meditatio soror lectionis nutrix orationis directrix oporis emntumque pariter perfectio consummatrix Gerson Meditation Meditation is more excellent than mere Study for the End of Meditation is not the filling our Heads with Notions but the quickening of our Affections and strengthning of our Resolutions the warming of our Hearts and putting them upon Duty the bringing them to an inward lively Sense of God to the Love and Fear of God to Thankfulness and Obedience to him to the Enjoyment of him and Fellowship and Communion with him Let 's use and inure our selves [b] See Dr. T. Goodwin of the Vanity of Thoughts pag. 8 9 10. to raise and extract holy Observations and spiritual Considerations from all ordinary Occurrences and Occasions and as the Bee sucks Honey out of every Flower let 's endeavour to distil heavenly and savory sweet and useful Meditations out of all God's Dealings with us and Dispensations towards us out of all Accidents that befall us or any about us out of the Things we see hear or hear of and out of all the Objects that any way come into our Thoughts This was the Practice of our blessed Saviour when he came to * Joh. 4. a Well he took occasion to discourse of the Water of Life And this has likewise been the Vsage of the most eminent practical Christians The Reverend and holy [c] His Life among Clark's Lives of ten em Div. p. 166 167. Mr. Jeremy Whitaker as he was riding with one of his intimate Friends by Tiburn which he had not seen or not observ'd before he asked what that was and being answered that it was Tiburn where so many Malefactors had lost their Lives he stop'd his Horse and utter'd these Words with much Affection O what a shame is it that so many thousands should die for the Satisfaction of their Lusts and so few be found willing to lay down their Lives for Christ Why should not we in a good Cause and upon a good Call be ready to be hanged for Jesus Christ It would be an everlasting Honour and it is a thousand times better to die for Christ to be hanged or to be burn'd for Christ than to die in our Beds When we are riding walking sitting alone in the day time or when we are awake in the night season let us commune with our own Hearts and fill up such spaces of Time and employ such Spare-Hours in holy Thoughts of the best Things yea let us set some Time apart for the solemn Duty of Meditation That which comes into our Souls by Meditation is like a Shower of Snow which falls soft and sinks deep 'T is a good Saying of St. Austin Intellectus cogitabundus principium omnis boni A thinking Mind is a Principle productive of all good [d] Dr. Annesly M. E. Serm. i. p. 9. The Father of a Prodigal lying on his Sick and Death-bed straitly charg'd his only Son that he would spend a Quarter of an Hour every day in serious solitary Thoughts leaving to himself the particular Subject of his retired Meditation The Son accordingly following this Advice at last cast in his Thoughts what might be his Father's Intention in such Injunction He concluded that his Father being a wise and a good Man designed to direct and lead his Thoughts to the consideration of somewhat of Religion which did so mightily operate upon him that he quickly became rationally religious Upon all Occasions particularly and especially often meditate and frequently think of the four last Things Death Judgment Heaven and Hell the serious Thoughts of which
be raised good Estates in the World is not that of the same excellent Philosopher too true concerning too many of us [d] Adhuc non pueritia in nobis sed quod est gravius puerilitas remanet hoc qui lem pejus est quòd authoritatem habemus senum vitia putrorum Id. ep 4. Not Childhood but which is more grievous Childishness remains and continues still with us And truly this is yet worse says he that we have the Authority of old Men and the Vices of very Boies If as Alexander counted his Life by Victories not by Daies or Years So we should reckon our several Lives by our spiritual Victories and good Works and our answering the Ends the true Ends and proper Purposes of Life which is the justest Account and the rightest Reckoning of our Living Should not the most of us find that we have liv'd but a few Daies but a few Hours yea that many have hardly liv'd at all have scarcely as yet begun to live that little or nothing has been done that is truly worthy of a Man or Christian Have not we been wretched Scatter-Hours and desperate Prodigals of our precious Time We have some of us lived a great while in the World but the question is Whether yet we have learn'd to know God and Christ and to know our Selves to be just and honest to be modest and chast to be sober and temperate to deny a strong unruly Appetite to refuse a superfluous Morsel of Meat a forbidden intemperate Cup of Drink Have we learn'd in the many Years of our Lives to master and moderate one Passion to subdue and mortify [e] Raro unum vitium perfectè vincimus ad quotidianum profectnm non accendimur A Kempis l. 1. c. 11. n. 2. one Lust to break off one evil Custom to root out one vicious Habit to answer one Objection to resist one Assault to defeat one Art of the Devil Who of us have been careful all this while to run our Race to trim our Lamps and to dress up our Souls for a blessed Etetnity Did not we spend our Youth in Vanity Which of us was so forward in good as to shun and flie youthful Lusts To how few of us can it be said as * 2 Tim. 3.15 St. Paul said to Timothy that from a Child thou hast known the holy Scriptures Tell me how have many of you desperately omitted and lamentably neglected the Reading of the Scriptures all your Life long which alone are able to store your Mind with divine Knowledg and to make you wise unto Salvation What Numbers are there who know but little what is contained in the Scripture any otherwise than as they hear a Chapter now and then read in the Church and God knows too too many give but little heed to it and so are but little the better for it then neither How few among us who have liv'd long under the Enjoyment of the Means of Grace are yet so well acquainted with divine Things and so well versed and exercised in Religion as to be able to put up a pertinent Praier and to commend their own or another's Case and Condition to God as Occasion does require How many Lord's-Daies have we profan'd How many Sermons have we wilfully missed How many good Opportunities have we negligently lost How careless have we been of our own spiritual Good How regardless of the eternal Welfare of those who belong to us How ignorant are many of our selves of the Things of God and of the Duties of Religion How far not only from doing but from understanding our spiritual Business who had we taken Pains might now have been very knowing Christians How ignorant through our gross Neglect of them are our Children and Servants and those about us in the very Rudiments of Religion who might have had a good Understanding therein had we done our Duty in first informing our selves and then instructing them [f] Quemadmodum omnibus annis studere honestum est it a non omnibus institui Turpis ridiculares est elementatius senex Juoent parandum seni utendum est Sen. ep 36. How ridiculous and uncomely is it to see an Old Man ignorant of his Letters or to seek in his Primer But how much more absurd is it to find so many Old Men who * Heb. 5.12 for the Time ought to have been Teachers yet to have need that one teach them again which be the first Principles of the Oracles of God Which of us have ever gone about doing and receiving good in the Places where we have a long Time liv'd Who are we the better for Who is spiritually the better for us How very little Good have we done nay how much Hurt have we done in the World What Mischief have many Parents and Masters done in their Families by gross Neglect of Family Duties such as Reading Praying Catechizing and by their Loosness and Licentiousness before those that belong unto their Charge whose ungovern'd Youth had more need to be curbed and restrain'd by their sober Counsels and seasonable Reproofs than desperately misled and hurried head-long by their ill Examples into Sin and Wickedness Oh what a sad Consideration is it for any of us all to think with our selves how that for ought we know there may be some this Day in Hell who were occasionally brought thither by our unholy Walking and ungodly Living It may be some of our Friends and Companions some of our Neighbours and Relations some of our very Children and Servants are at present in Hell bitterly exclaiming against us and cursing the Daies in which they liv'd with us and were acquainted with us Instead of growing better and better are not some of us [g] Nemo inquit Epicurus aliter quà m quomodo natus est exit è vita Fulsum est pejores mor mur quà n nascimur en epist 22. worse now than we were many Years since more profane or worldly more sensual more hardened from the Fear of the Lord more without God and Christ in the World more useless more unprofitable than ever more unfit to live more unprepared to die now than we found we were many Years ago Have not some of us so ill husbanded our Time that the older we have grown the less Hope we have had of Heaven and Happiness As Pius Quintus is reported by [h] Cùm essem Religiosus sperabam bene de salute animae meae Cardmalis sact us extimui nunc Pontifex creatus penè despero Corn. à Lap. in Numb l. 1.11 Cornelius à Lapide to have said When I was first of a Religious Order I hoped well of the Salvation of my Soul But when I was made Cardinal I began to fear it But since I was created Pope I almost despair of it How many may be found in like manner who in their Youth have had it may be some reason to hope well of themselves but in their Middle Age more
go in the Strength of the Lord and work out your Salvation with fear and trembling 3. Take heed of the Prophanation and beware of a partial formal observation of the Lord's-Day Where it is partial it is likely to be formal Read attentively and frequently the earnest Exhortation to a thorough Redemption of the Lord's-Day Chap. 2. pag. 32 to 73. There you are inform'd that a due Redemption of the whole Lord's-Day is the way to redeem all other Days to the greatest Advantage * See p. 66 67. as to Spirituals and as to Temporols too And in reference to this latter I shall here confirm what is said there by proposing the Experience and producing the notable considerable Testimony of a wise and learned a great and very good Man the worthily renowned late Chief Justice Hale who was as Seneca says of good Men natus ad exemplar born to be an Example to others In a short Discourse of his about Redemption of Time I find these Words [m] Sir Mat. Hale's Contempl. Mor. and Div. 1 Part pag. 258 259. Be sure says he to spend the Lord's-Day intirely in those Religious Duties proper to it and let nothing but an inevitable Necessity divert you from it It is that which will sanctify and prosper all the rest of your Time and your secular Employments I am not apt to be superstitious says he but this I have certainly and infallibly found true that by my deportment in my Duty towards God in the Times devoted to his Service especially on the Lord's-Day I could make a certain conjecture of my success in my Secular Occasions the rest of the Week after If I were loose and negligent in the former the latter never succeeded well if strict and conscientious and watchful in the former I was successful and prosperous in the latter And again in a Godly Letter to his Children * Gal. 4.19 of whom he travail'd in birth that Christ might be formed in them he freely opens his mind in these remarkable Words to them [n] In his Directions for keeping the Lord's-Day in a Letter to his Children Ibid. p. 324. I now write something to you says he of your observation of the Lord's-Day because I find in the World much Looseness and Apostacy from this Duty People begin to be cold and careless in it allowing themselves Sports and Recreations and Secular Imployments in it without any necessity which is a sad spectacle and an ill presage And he there makes this Profession and Declaration to them I have found by a strict and diligent Observation that a due Observation of the Duties of this Day has ever had joined to it a Blessing upon the rest of my time and the Week that has been so begun has been blessed and prosperous to me And on the other side when I have been neglignet of the Duties of this Day the rest of the Week has been unsuccessful and unhappy to my own Secular Imployments so that I could easily make an estimate of my successes in my own Secular Imployments the Week following by the manner of my passing of this Day And this I do not write lightly or inconsiderately but upon a long and sound Observation and Experience You see how this was much upon his Heart and how ready he was to remark this upon all Occasions 4. Let me charge and press it upon your Consciences that on a Lord's-Day you would be so kind and charitable so true and faithful to your Souls as not to lose the Season of a Sacrament if you can by any means redeem it Let none among you live in a sinful shameful Disuse and an unwarrantable inexcusable Neglect of the holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Let me solemnly invite you in the moving pathetical Words of the devout Herbert [o] The Invitation Come ye hither all whose taste Is your waste Save your cost and mend your fare God is here prepar'd and drest And the Feast God in whom all dainties are I do not call you to a Prophanation but to a worthy Participation of this sacred Ordinance They that do customarily live unholily must needs receive unworthily Are they fit to partake of the Lord's Supper who allow themselves in the Love and Practice of any known Sin Are they dispos'd to eat Christ's Flesh who will not abstain from fleshly Lusts but usually walk after the Flesh Are they prepar'd to drink Christ's Blood who commonly drink in Iniquity like Water and frequently drown themselves and others in Drink Are they that walk unworthy of their Baptism in a condition to venture upon the holy Communion I invite you to all that is duly previous and preparatory to the Duty and to a right and requisite manner of the performance of it Come but take God along with you whenever you intend to come By the help of God you may receive this Sacrament as you ought Excuse not your Aâ—stinence and Forbearance by pretending your Vnfitness but set your selves in good earnest with an honest willing resolved Mind under God to fit your selves and you shall quickly find that God will readily assist and enable you promote and further you in the way of your Duty Come but competently understand the nature and ends of this Ordinance and impartially try and examine your selves before you come Come with a hearty willingness to part with your Sins for him who lost his Blood and laid down his Life for you and with a firm Resolution to live to him that died for you Labour by habitual Devotedness to God and by continual circumspect walking and holy living to be in a general disposition for worthy Receiving A well-ordered Conversation is the best Preparation for the Communion and will most certainly make all other Preparations more easy Come for I tell you plainly it is not at your own liberty and choice to come or keep away There is a special Mandate for your coming * Luke 22.19 1 Cor. 11.24 25. This do in remembrance of me says Christ. He does not only simply allow or barely recommend it to his Church but as a Lawgiver strictly commands and requires it and as a dying Testator orders and enjoins the Observance of it Christ says as clearly and expresly Do this as God in any Precept of the Decalogue says Thou shalt not do this Now the Law of Christ should be more forcible and prevalent with you than any Statute or Law of the Land to accelerate the Practice of this Duty There is as much Danger in an unworthy Refusing this Sacrament as there is in an unworthy Receiving it You can go for no more than Half-Christians if you totally abstain from this Ordinance which is equally with the reception of the Sacrament of Baptism a Badg and Cognizance Note and Character of your Discipleship an Evidence and Demonstration Sign and Expression Token and Testimony of your Profession of Christianity To live in a constant Neglect of this Sacrament is a manifest
quo nemo te eji iâ—t sub evabunt Sen. de brev vit c. 14 15. There is not one of these but will call thee to hear them speaking to thee not any one of them but if you come to them will send you away more happy and more in love with them none of them will suffer you to go empty-handed away from them They may be met and spoken with visited and conversed with by all both Day and Night None of these will press you to die presently but all will teach you to die well at last None of these will waste your Years but will readily contribute and give their own to you for your Use and Service Profit and Benefit None of their Discourse will ever be dangerous none of their Friendship will prove pernicious your Acquaintance with them and Observance of them will not be costly and chargeable to you You may receive what you want and carry away what you will from them They will never hinder you from drawing as much out of them as you are capable of containing What an happy and lovely old Age is like to befal him who has given himself into their Tuition He will have those continually at hand with whom he may deliberate both of the smallest and greatest Matters whom he may daily advise with about himself from whom he may hear the Truth without Reproach by whom he may be commended without Flattery and after whose Similitude he may form and fashion himself These will set you in the way that will surely bring you to an happy Eternity and will mount you up into that Place out of which none shall be able to eject you This is in a sense a gaining of a great deal of Time that is past and an happy converting it to our own spiritual Profit and Use Our perusing the notable useful Histories and instructive Passages of the sacred Pages will after a sort make all that Time [c] Animus humanus arctam aetatem sibi dari non sinit Omnes inquit anni mei sunt nulium saecalum magnis ingentis clusam est nullum non cogitationi pervium tempus Seneca epist 102. ours and serve in a manner as much to our advantage as if we our selves had liv'd in the several Ages in which those eminently pious Persons appeared and acted that are recorded in sacred Writ 2. Our Reading the holy Books of scripture is a proper redeeming that Time in particular which is denied to worldly Profit or Pleasure and applied to such a spiritual Use It is a good husbanding and well improving the present Time that is spent and employed in this religious Duty for this is our Attendance on an Ordinance of God and in that respect an honouring of God It is also a Means of attaining divine Knowledg heavenly Grace and spiritual Comfort 1. Divine Knowledg By reading the Scripture we may be taught of God and come to be acquainted with the Mind and Will of our supreme Ruler and Governour with the righteous Laws of our Creator and Redeemer There we may sind * Ps 119.105 a Light unto our Feet and a Lanthorn unto our Paths a Pillar of Fire by Night to conduct us through the Wilderness unto Canaan a Star still before us to lead us unto Christ From thence we may receive suitable and seasonable Information Resolution Direction if with holy David we take God's Testimonies for our * Ps 119.24 Counsellers The Scriptures are apt to preserve and powerful to reduce Men from erroneous Opinions as Junius was mightily wrought upon and with clear Conviction and full Satisfaction recovered out of Atheism and converted to the Truth by reading the Beginning of [d] Lego partem capitis ita commoveor legens ut repentè divinitatem argum nti ser pti majest tem authoritatémque senserim longo intervabo omnibus eloquentiae humanae sluminilus praeeantem c. Junius ipse in descript vit suae St. John's Gospel The Scriptures are †2 Tim. 3.15 able to make us wise unto Salvation to make us so wise as to become truly good For 2. Our reading the Scripture is a means of obtaining heavenly Grace The holy Scripture is apt to terrify and affright the Sinner out of the Way of Sin The pure and clean Word of God is able to make thee pure and clean The holy just and good Law of God is able to make thee holy just and good St. Austin in his younger Years was an incontinent Person but being at length admonished by this Voice Tolle lege tolle lege take up the Book and reade he presently caught up and opened [e] Cod. cem Apestols St. Paul's Epistles and happily first cast his Eyes upon those Words in the thirteenth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans ‖ Rom. 13.13 14. Not in Rioting and Drunkenness not in Chambering and Wantonness not in Strife and Envying But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not Provision for the Flesh to fulfill the Lusts thereof With which his Heart was powerfully affected and touched to purpose [f] Nec ultra volui legere nec epus erat c. Jam liber erat animus meus à curis mordacibus ambiends acquirendi volutandi atque scalpendi scabiem libidinum Aug. Conf. l. 8. c. 12. §. 3. l. 9 c. 1. §. 2. I had no need to reade any further saies he How sweet and pleasant did I presently find it to want those trifling Pleasures of Sin How glad was I now to let go quite what a little before I was so much afraid to lose Thou didst make those seeming Sweetnesses vanish O Christ Jesus who art the true and highest Sweetness and didst come thy self in their Room and Stead sweeter than all the Pleasures in the World The Word of God's Grace is that holy * 1 Pet. 1.23 Seed of which you may be born again and is able when once you are truly converted from Sin and the World to God to †Acts 20.32 build you up and to give you an Inheritance among all them which are sanctified 3. Out reading the Scripture is a ready Way and proper Means of finding spiritual Peace and Comfort [g] Locus ille Pauli suit mihi verè porta Paradisi That Place of Paul was truly to me the Gate of Paradise So said Luther of the 17th Verse of the first Chapter to the Romans The Righteousness of God is revealed in the Gospel from Faith to Faith as it is written The Just shall live by Faith Mr. Bilney or rather St. Bilney as [h] In his first Sermon before the Dutches of Suffolk fol. 5. Fox Act. and Mon. 2 v. p. 919. Father Latimer did not stick to stile him that holy and blessed Martyr of God that suffer'd Death for God's Word's sake was raised and revived cheered and refreshed by the 15th Verse of the first Chapter of the first to Timothy He confesses of himself
is the sincere Milk and strong Meat by which you may grow and be daily nourished the Wine with which you may be refreshed when weak the Physick with which you may be cured when sickâ— the Sword of the Spirit with which you may defend your selves when assaulted and resist and repel your spiritual Enemies Will you not readily and gladly repair to the Precepts which counsel you in all your Doubts and quicken you in all your Deadness and get and keep a spiritual Acquâ—lâ—tance with those exceeding great and precious Pronâ—â—ses that strengthen and stay relieve and refresh support and comfort you in all your Sorrow and Afflictions Troubles and Trials Dejection and Heart-breakings Disquietments and Discouragements Me-thinks a Man should never take up the Bible when he reads in private but with the greatest Comfort and Joy that can be and should say within himself Here 's that which very plainly proposeth the most excellent End and withal the most proper and sure Means to reach and attain it which clearly holds forth a sufficient Rule of Faith and Life which plentifully affords me most admirable Precepts and most select exact Patterns of exercising Graces and performing Duties most rare Exemplars of strong believing and holy Living Here 's that which contains the grand Charter of all my Spiritual and Heavenly Priviledges Here 's that that keeps me from Horrour and Despair notwithstanding all my Sin and Guilt Here 's that that teaches me how to live and that makes me able to think of Death without sinking and dying at the Thoughts of it Here 's that that makes me hold my Head above Water in the blackest Hour and saddest Condition that can befal me Love and delight in the Scriptures chiefly and especially for their Sanctity and Purity because they reveal and discover the holy Nature and Law of God the Necessity and Beauty of Holiness the Evil and Folly and Danger of Sin and are apt to win and draw us off from Sin and to bring us to a real universal Conformity to the Will of God and to a Participation of the Divine Nature an happy Participation of God's Holiness And apply thy self to the daily reading and diligent studying of the holy Scriptures with a sincere Desire to [b] This is the thankful Glass that mends the Lookers Eyes this is the VVell that washes what it shews Herb. Poem H. Script be made really holy in Heart and Life by them to be transform'd and renewed assimilated and made like to God by them to be conformed to Scripture-Precepts and Examples and to gain a Frame of Heart and a Conversation and Course of Life every way becoming the Gospel of Christ Whenever thou takest the Bible into thy Hand to reade a Chapter or any Portion of Scripture lift up thy Heart to God and say Now let me be made * Jo. 15.3 clean through the Word which thou shalt speak unto me Now let me be †17.17 sanctified through thy Word of Truth and Holiness Now let me gain some Degree of Grace and make some Improvement and Proficiency in Holiness by thy holy Word by this sacred Writ Allot and allow and ordinarily employ some Portion of Time every day for reading and considering the holy Scriptures If we don't in a manner task our selves usually to observe some certain set Times for this Use and Purpose our slothful Hearts will easily admit yea catch at any trifling Excuse to put by the Performance of this Duty and by Degrees we shall be drawn to an habitual Neglect of it We should therefore charge and enjoin our selves not to dispense with our stated Hours but upon very necessary and just Occasions and in such Cases be very careful that what we were forc'd to omit at such a Time we faithfully and honestly endeavour to supply and make up another It is convenient to reade commonly if it may be some portion of Scripture every Morning and every Evening [c] Luxin's Introduct to the holy Script p. 28. A worthy Divine well observes that our reading some Scripture in the Morning will be a good Antidote against the Infection of those Corruptions which we live amongst and is apt to fortify us against the Temptations of the ensuing Day as those who live where there is any Contagion do usually drink something in the Morning to prevent Infection And our reading Scripture in the Evening will be a means to compose our Minds and furnish us with matter of Meditation for the Night-season as Cattel feed towards the Evening that they may have something to ruminate or chew over again when they lie down to take their Rest That nothing may prove an Hindrance and impediment in this Employment 1. Redeem the Time from unnecessary wordly Businesses Nay let no ordinary Occasions of your Calling make you generally careless and negligent of the sacred Scriptures Do not idly pretend want of Leisure to reade the weightiest Matters in the World things of greatest Importance and nearest Concernment to your immortal Souls They that enjoy much Leisure from worldly Assairs God expects that such should employ and bestow more of their Time in this spiritual Exercise Yet they that have fullest Business and fewect Spare-hours cannot wholly be exempted from this Duty 'T is very remarkable that the * Deut. 17.18 19 20. King himself was expresly commanded to write him a Copy of the Law in a Book to write out the Book of Deuteronomy which is a Compendium of the Law yea to write out the whole Pentateuch saies [d] Totum Pentateuchum tenebatur describere primùm ut Israel ta quivis deinde iterum ut Rex ut sciret in privatis in publicis negotiis Legem sibi sequendam Sic legere eam debebat sibi peivatim in Templo audiente populo ut sciret populus neminem à lege excipi Grot. in loc Grotius to write it with his own Hand saies Philo that the divine Precepts might be the better imprinted and fastened in his Mind It was to be with him and he was to reade therein all the Daies of his Life notwithstanding the Multiplicity and Greatness of the Affairs of his Kingly Office 2. Redeem the Time from fruitless Pleasures from Play-Books Romances Fansyful Poems feigned Stories common Histories witty or elegant Speeches Never suffer these or the like to fill your Hands to entertain your Eyes to please your Phansies to get into your Hearts so as to keep the sacred Scriptures and divine Oracles out of your Hands and Hearts Alexander would find Time to reade Homer even in the Camp and chose to lay up Homer's Poems in a most precious Casket taken out of the Spoils of Darius And the Emperour Aelius Verus was so in love with Ovid de arte amandi as to reade it in his Bed and to lay it under his Pillow when he went to sleep But these were utterly ignorant of the Scriptures O let not us Christians have
but only Death for I did not think I should have died so soon How troublesome will it be to thee when thy Soul is about to be divorced from thy Body to be at best uncertain then what will become of thee To express thy self with dying Aristotle [u] Dubius morior quò vadam nescio I die doubtful not well knowing whither I am going Or with the Emperour Adrian [w] Animula vagula blandula Hospes com esque corporis Quae nunc abibis in loca Pallsdula frigidula nudula Nec ut soles dabis jocos Ah dear departing wandring Soul the old and sweet Companion of my Body into what Region art thou now going surely thou wilt never be so merry and pleasant as thou hast been How intolerably vexatious will it be to change for Vncertainties or to make a certain Change for the worse To die unsatisfied what will become of thee as to thy future unchangeable State Or sure and certain that thou shalt enter into a worse State and Place and shalt be miserable to all Eternity To see then but a Step but a Breath between thee and everlasting Death To have all the horrid and heinous sins of a whole misled and misspent Life fiercely fly in thy very Face and thy enraged furious guilty Conscience to be then most active to torment thee the nearer thou apprehendest thy self approaching to the End of thy mortal Life As usually bodily Aches and Wounds do prick and pain and shoot most the nearer it draweth unto Night What a lamentable sad Case was that of Cardinal Wolsey to cry out in his extreme unhappy Circumstances Had I been as careful and diligeut to please and serve the God of Heaven as I have been to comply with the Will of my earthly King he would not have left and for saken me now in my gray Hairs and old Age as the other has done So think what a doleful Case it will be for thee in thy last Hours to pour forth thy Soul in such Words as these If I had served my God as earnestly and unweariedly as I have constantly served the world served diverse Lusts and Pleasures served the Devil himself Had I been at Church when I was in Bed been in my Closet upon my Knees when I was sitting tippling upon the Ale-bench or was quaffing at Tavern and drinking of Healths upon my Knees Had I satisfied the Reason of a Man as I gratified my brutish Appetite and sensual Desire Had I done the Will of God and of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as I have done the Will of the Devil the Will of the Flesh and fulfilled my own carnal corrupt Will I had then been own'd by God and approv'd by my own Conscience inwardly strengthned and supported and sweetly comforted and refresh'd who now am deserted and rejected by God and miserably perplexed and disquieted rent and racked torn and tormented in my own Conscience Then thou wilt certainly count and call thy self unhappy and him the only happy Man who as dying [x] Beatus es Abba Arseni qui semper hanc horam ante oculos habuisti Bibl. Patr. Theophilus said of devout Arsenius has had the Hour of his Departure ever before his Eyes That is the first Conider what a dreadful Thing it is to be found unprovided at the Hou◠of Death When Friends and Physicians cannot keep thee and God and his good Angels will not take thee O then O then what will become of thee 2. Seriously think on the other hand what [y] Considera quà n pulchra res sit consummare vitam ante mortom deinde expectare securum reliquam tempor is sui part m◠Sen. ep 32. an happy and comfortable Thing it will be to find your Time well improved and your self prepared to die before you die 'T is a true Saying of the Wise Man that to a good man the * Eccl. 7.1 Day of Death is better than the Day of his Birth For is not that Day which perfectly frees and fully delivers a good Man from the many Vanities and great Vexations which the Life of Man is obnoxious to and the Troubles and Sufferings which the Life of a Christian is expos'd to far better than that Day which let 's him into the Possession of them Again The Time when a Person has attain'd the End of his Being made good the Hopes of others answer'd god's and Man's expectation concerning him walked himself in the Fear of the Lord brought up Children in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord walked worthy of his Vocation fill'd up every Relation with suitable Duties and Graces serv'd his Generation according to the Will of God liv'd and acted with reference to Eternity The Time when he most willingly leaves this wicked World and leaves an holy Seed to stand up in his room and stead leaves a good Name and a good Example behind him and goes to Heaven to the Spirits of just Men made perfect goes to God his heavenly Father and to Christ his Redeemer to receive the gracious and glorious Reward of all his Works and Labours and the Crown he has striven and contended for Surely the Day when this falls out which is the Day of his Death gives cause of more abundant Comfort than can the Day of his Birth together with all the Daies of his Life Is not that Day better wherein a Man has truly and really answered the Ends of Life than that in which he only began at first to live Is not that Day better in which he has fully and compleatly acted his Part well quitted and behav'd himself like a Man and Christian and is gone off the Stage of this lower world with Credit and Esteem Approbation and Applause of God himself good Angels and Men than the Day of his first appearing upon the Stage or Theater of this World in a way of Probation and Trial and in Hope of his future good Performance Is not the Day of his actual Admission and honourable Reception into a blissful Condition and happy Mansion far better than the Day of his Entrance into a State of Preparation for it Think well with thy self what a joyful Day what a [z] Cùm ecquid lumen molestiae afferret rogarent pectus tangens Oecolampadius abundè lucis est inquit Melch. Adam in vita Oecolamp p. 56. lightsome Hour what a Time of refreshing it will be to thee to be able to say with thy Saviour a little before thy Departure * Joh. 17.4 Father I have glorified thee on Earth I have finished the Work which thou hast given me to do And with the Apostle St. Paul †2 Tim. 4 6 7. The Time of my Departure is at hand I have fought a good Fight [a] Vixi quem dederat cursum fortuna peregi I have finished my course I have kept the Faith ‖ 2 Cor. 1.12 My rejoicing is this the Testimony of my Conscience that in
Thoughts of ever becoming the unhappy Instruments of hurrying any others to Hell And will incline thee in Pity and Charity to the Souls of Sinners to do thy best by all means possible to keep all about thee from running and falling into that ‖ Luke 16.28 place of Torment to be zealous and industrious to [b] Si fieri possit abâ—spsis inferis extrahendi nobis sunt homints Calv. in Act. 8.22 (*) James 5.20 save Souls from Death to save (†) Jude 23. them with Fear pulling them out of the Fire as the (‖) Gen. 19.16 Angels of old plackt lingning Lot out of Sodom Not to suffer thy Neighbour ever to go to Hell quietly but rather to territy thy sinful Brother than to permit him to miscarry for ever Obj. But is not this a slavish Tomper to be moved to my Duty out of Fear of Hell Should not the Love of God be the Principle that acts us and [*] 1 Joh. 4.18 perfect Love is said to cast out Fear I answer When all the Motives and Incentives that possibly can be made use of will scarcely effectually put us upon Duty surely we have [c] Bonum tamen est ut si necdum amor à malo te revocat saltem timor gehennalis coerceat Thomas a Kempis l. 1. c 24. n. 7. little reason to let go or lay aside any one of them but to use whatever may work upon us Love or Hope or Fear And as for a Christians Love to God it does not here exclude all Fear because it is not perfect in this Life It will indeed in the future Life cast out all Fear of Damnation And it may be so perfect in this Life as to banish and expel all distrustful tormenting Fear which consisteth in terrifying disquieting Apprehensions that God will deal with a Man as a Slave take Advantages of him condemn and destroy him whenever he does amiss But the true sincere Love of God is fairly consistent with a filial cautelous preserving preventing Fear [d] Mr. Baxter in his Directions for Peace and Comfort Doult 6. A judicious Divine well observes that it is a great Mistake to think that filial Fear is only the Fear of temporal Chastisement and that all Fear of Hell is slavish Even filial Fear is a Fear of Hell which yet is join'd with such a Perswasion of God's Love to us that we conclude he will not cast us off upon every provocation and is accompanied with some Love in us to God and with Care and Watchfulness lest we should by Apostasy and final Impenitency miscarry eternally The ninth Direction If you would redeem the Time you must endeavour to spiritualize your common and ordinary worldly Employments and must take care that your natural as well as civil Actions partake of Religion 1. You must endeavour to spiritualize your ordinary civil or domestical Employments by doing them all in Oâ—edience of Faith and making them the Instruments whereby to shew forth your Honesty Equity Righteousness Justice and whatever Vertues may be exercis'd therein You must make conscience to follow your Calling out of an awful respect to the Command of God to do what you do even in civil Business in the Name of Christ as the Work of Christ so as you may say at that time Now I am about the Work of God and of Jesus Christ I thank God my Conscience bears me witness I am acting in Obedience to Christ expecting a Blessing from Christ upon what I do and I look to receive a Reward from Christ The Apostle commands Servants * Col. 3.23 24. whatsoever they do for Men to do it heartily as to the Lord to serve the Lord Christ in the Service they do to their earthly Masters Thus to work for God and Christ is for that time to honour God and Christ as much nay more by the meanest servile worldly Act than if you should spend all that time in Prayer Meditation or any other spiritual Employment to which you had no sufficient Call at such a time The devout Herbert in one of his sacred [a] The Elixir Poems desiring God to teach him what he did in any thing to do it as for him expresses himself thus sweetly and spiritually All may of thee partake Nothing can be so mean Which with this Tincture for thy sake Will not grow bright and clean A Servant with this Clause Makes Drudgery divine Who sweeps a Room as for thy Laws Makes that and th' Action fine This is the famous Stone That turneth all to Gold For that which God doth touch and own Cannot for less be told 2. We must take care that our natural as well as civil or oeconomical Actions partake of Religion be inscribed with * Zech. 14.20 21. Holiness unto the Lord and by the purity of our end and intention therein become as acceptable [b] Vt quiequid aggrediantur homines sit sacrisicium Calv. in loc Sacrifices unto God That on all occasions we [c] In cilo potu homines sacri erunt Deo sanctitatem colent Id. ib. eat and drink not merely to indulge and gratify our Appetite [d] Seâ—ing there must be in us a sensitive Appetite whilst we are in this animal State iâ— is to be endeavoured a far as may be that we gratify the Appetite nor aâ— it is a sensitive Appetite but under this notion as the thing that it desires makes for our real good and tends to the enjoyment of the supreme Good to eat and drink not because we are hungry or thirsty because the Appetite desires it but with reference to the main end with respect to the highest Good that the Body may be enabled strengthned and quickned to wait upon the Soul chearfully in the Actions of a holy Life Mr. S. Shaw in his Voice of one Crying in a Wilderness p. 149 150. as it is a sensitive Appetite not only or chiefly to [e] It is lawful in all hences to comply with a weak and a nice Stomach but not with a nice and curious Palate Bp. Taylor 's Rule and Exerc. of holy Liv. c. 2. § 2. meas 3. please our Taste That we do not cover a Business of Pleasure under a pretence of preserving Health or the fair colour of supplying Nature as [f] Ad hoc incertum hilarescit infalix anima ut obtentu salutis obumbret negocium voluptatis Aug. Conf. l. 10. c. 31. §. 2. St. Austin confesses he found himself too apt to do And more especially that we never offer to pamper our Bodies that we may be the stronger to serve our Lusts That we do not eat and drink our selves either into Lust or out of Duty But that we take our Meat as our Medicine as [g] Hoc me docuisti ut quemadmodum medicamenta sic alimenta sumpturus accedam Id. ib. §. 1. St. Austin acknowledges God had taught him to do use Meat-and Drink as remedies to cure