eschewing evil follows the Third Viz. The positive Sanctity that God our Creator requireth of and in us consisting in the Practice of all Holy Duties and Christian Virtues Of these First In diligently doing all good we can Secondly In patiently suffering all evil together with the means to procure and preserve these Virtues For the former The practising all Holy Duties and doing Good The Duties required of a Christian are threefold 1. Towards your self Duties Moral 2. Towards your Neighbour Civil 3. Towards God Religious Living 1. Soberly 2. Righteously 3. Holily The three grand Duties mentioned in our Lord's Sermon 1. Fasting Matt. 6.16 2. Alms 6.1 3. Prayer 6.5 In the prosecution of which so far as the former Counsels are subservient to the promoting of them I shall refer you to them and forbear here a repetition §. 38. 1. To your Self 1. Then The Duties I have chosen more specially to recommend to you concerning your self and which may prepare you for the Duty you are charged with to your Neighbour and Service you owe unto God For the third depends on the second He that loveth not his Brother how can he love God 1. Jo. 4.20 And the second again depends on the first whilst your Neighbour is to be loved only as your self Matt. 22.39 are these 1. The purity and sanctification of Body By §. 39. 1. Temperance and Sobriety in Food in Apparel Lodging modest Deportment c. For the better attaining of some perfection in which Virtue I must refer you to review the former Counsels concerning diet sleep recreation sensual pleasures the avoiding usual and former occasions of sinning in § 17.20.21.22.26 Digr 1. Of the great influence the several treatment of the Body hath upon the Soul and all its actions Therefore much care to be spent upon a right government of It by him who aspires to any Holiness or Virtue Digr 2. Of the Vices opposite §. 40. n. 1. 2. Chastity where I remit you to what hath been said before of the Gift of Continency § 17. n. 4. Digr 1. Of its Contraries Adultery Fornication Self-pollution and Vncleanness unlawful and unnatural Lusts §. 40. n. 2. Of which it may be observed That with no other Passion men are so strongly assaulted as with lusts and sensual loves Therefore Hos 4.11 It is said to take away the heart No Passion that so much increaseth the desire of it the more we descend to a particular cogitation and discussion of it So that it is not to be conquered by wrestling with it but by running away from it None that in its acts so captivates and incarnates the Soul and restrains its liberty of reasoning or thinking of any thing else Therefore God in pitty to man hath provided him a lawful remedy thereof by Marriage But yet still left him under under great restraints confining him to one single person and most severely prohibiting the satiating thereof in any other way either with any other person or by himself And such sins great varieties of which are left in man's power we find above most other faults exceedingly aggravated both for the great offence they give to God's own Holiness and Purity and for the great dishonour and defilement they bring to the bodies of such persons whom he first created after his own Image and since hath made Members of the Body of Christ and Temples of the Holy Ghost and from the beginning hath cast a natural shame and modesty upon him as to the committing of these more than of any other Crimes And such carnal sins we also find beyond almost any other pursued with most severe judgments For all which I must recommend these Texts and Passages of Holy Scripture to your serious meditation §. 40. n. 3. 1. That amongst the works of the Flesh these sins of Vncleanness are usually set in the Front See Gal. 5.19 The works of the flesh are manifest which are these Adultery Fornication Vncleanness Lasciviousness c. Again Col. 3.5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth that is Fornication Vncleanness inordinate Affection evil Concupiscence c. After which in the second place Vers 8. follow Anger wrath malice evil speaking or blaspemy Again 1. Cor. 6.9 Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind c shall inherit the kingdome of God Rom. 1.29 Being filled with all unrighteousness Fornication See the like 1. Cor. 5.10 11. 1. Pet. 4.3 2. Pet. 2.10 Still you see these sins as the greatest darlings of the flesh lead the whole band And these sins of Lust are they with which the Gentiles every where stand principally charged before the Light of the Gospel shone amongst them See Rom. 1.25 26 27. 1. Thess 4 5. Eph. 4.19 and which are ordinarily linked together with that of Idolatry See 1. Cor. 5.10 11. 6 9. Rev. 22.15 being a usual companion of their Idol-feasts or with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether this be taken for the coveting of persons as some understand it or of riches which is said to be Idolatry too Eph. 5.3.5 Col. 3.5 These two Harlots and Money being the two great Idols in this lower world the one or the other of which steal away mens hearts §. 40. n. 4. 2. That in these Scriptures See 1. Thess 4.3.7 8. And 1. Cor. 6. from the 13. verse to the end These Vices of Carnal Lusts are aggravated as peculiarly opposite to a certain Holiness which ought to be in the Body as well as in the Soul of all those who profess themselves Members of Christ or Members of that chast Virgin as the Apostle calls her 2. Cor. 11.2 his Spouse the Church whom he bought and purchased to himself with his own blood and life and whom he cherisheth as the same flesh and bone Eph. 5.29 30. c. and as the same Spirit 1. Cor. 6.17 with himself and for whom now is our Body as well as the Soul and the Lord for it 1. Cor. 6.13 Therefore is this Holiness of the Body both conjugal and virginal as well as of the Spirit often mentioned by the Apostle 1. Thess 4.4 This is the Will of God saith he your Sanctisication that ye should abstain from Fornication that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel i. e. his Body See 1. Sam. 21.5 in sanctification and honour not in Lusts of Concupiscence For ver 8. God hath called us not to Vncleanness but unto Holiness And 1. Cor. 6.20 compared with Eph. 5.29 c. to the end Ye are bought with a price to be the Spouse of our Lord therefore glorify God in your Body and in your Spirit which are God's his Members now not yours according to 1. Cor. 7.4 The wife hath not power of her own Body No more then hath Christ's Wife or Spouse but the husband Ibid. vers 34. The Virgin saith he careth for the things of the Lord how she may please him that she
Nay When as our Lord took this way without any need on purpose to recommend to us his own Example Go on then If you keep the Precept and stand firm all is well but if you fall and miscarry know that because you have despised her Counsels Wisdome will laugh at your Calamity And That if you stand and all be well to you keeping the Precept yet to those who keep the Counsel too all shall be better For the higher degrees of the Precepts or of those vertues that are in Precepto as for Example the higher degrees of temperance are Counsels which though not observed they bring no guilt yet practised they are highlier rewarded And besides this the observance of the Counsels in one vertue very much conduceth to the performance of the necessary Precept in another as the higher degrees of temperance to the observance of necessary Chastity And hence upon a double account are Counsels recommended to your Christian Practice both as disposing you more easily to keep the Precepts and as in themselves rewardable beyond them and as to both these may advance your Perfection §. 13 The Practice of a holy and spiritual Life chiefly consists in these four 1. Humbling and judging and taking revenge on our selves for our sins past 2. Vsing all means for subduing and preventing sins for the future 3. Diligently practising all Christian Duties or doing good 4. Willingly undergoing all afflictions for Christ's and our Duty 's sake or Suffering evil Counsels Counsels for the more facilitating and advancing the performance of these Duties and especially of the two first §. 14 1. In forbearing many things not probibited 1. Forbearing the practice or use of many things permitted and lawful and the doing or using of which is no sin because considering humane nature corrupt they are very frequent temptations to sin and though lawful seldome lawfully used where know that forbearance and abstinence from them is far more easy t than moderation in them and constant forbearance than that which is sometimes intermitted Estava to do el danno en no quictar de raiz laes occasiones S. Teresa's life 6. chap. 2. And practising many things not commanded 2. Practising many things not commanded i. e. under guilt of sin because they are very expedient helps for the prevention of sin Or also advantages for the better exercise of Christian vertues and the more patient endurance of usual afflictions 3. Being always of the two more careful to avoid the temptations to evil than in a hazardous passage through them zealous perchance to do some good because innocence is far more acceptable than a good work without it Neither may we venture someway to offend God that we may some otherways please him These Counsels recommended to Practice especially in these Particulars following 1. In the matter of Riches and Wealth §. 15. In the Particulars 1. Of Riches and Wealth 1. Not seeking after or also freely parting with wealth and riches by riches I mean whatever exceeds St. Paul's sufficiency or competency or enough to satisfy just necessities 1. Tim. 6.6 8. Well weighing and often meditating on these and such like Texts 1. Tim. 6.9 10. Matt. 19.23 24. 13.22 Luk. 12.20 Prov. 1.32 Again these Luk. 6.24 25. 16.25 Rev. 18.7 Psal 17.14 Again these Matt. 19.21 Luk. 12.33 Act. 2.44 45. Luk. 19.8 19. Luk. 16.9 1. Tim. 6.19 Which Texts after you have well considered I suppose you will not so much wonder at this Advice as at the Christian 's common contrary Practice I said parting with them which at once cures all Trust in Cares for Quae possident homines student augere Temptations of them and removes by reason of these all those difficulties and only to God possibilities of a rich man's being saved mentioned by Christ Matt. 19.23 24. Especially if you suspect your self inclined to Avarice giving plentifully and often for as some Vices are best overcome by flying as Carnal lusts so others by resisting and fighting them amongst which is Covetousness 2. Practising at least sometimes the inconveniencies and sufferings of Poverty to try by the tolerableness of these the unnecessariness of Wealth The Philosopher's Advice Seneca Epist 18.20 3. Putting some bounds to unsatiable desires due respect being had to a competency by making a firm resolution after you have attained such a moderate proportion of Wealth for your self or for the Portions of your Children or other Relations for whom you are obliged to provide unless you may judge your present Estate sufficient to dedicate all future gain or increase to pious and charitable Uses Or alotting to God and his Poor constantly such a set Portion a fifth or tenth or some other part out of your Revenue and Gains to be unviolably observed and laid by for their service Recommendation of Poverty or a Competency only 4. Chusing or it already possessed continuing as the most happy the State of Poverty or competency and having only what is necessary which voids all the temptations and dangers of Wealth and is the most proper Nurse and Guardian of many excellent Vertues and Graces of the Holy Spirit Parens quaedam Generatioque vertutum saith St. Ambrose and therefore put the first amongst the Beatitudes Parent of humility the poor in fortunes being more commonly poor in Spirits Of Evangelical obedience and devotion dependance on God and consequently Prayer Of tranquility and contentedness cares always accompanying the possession of that which every one strives for si vis vacare animo aut pauper sis oportet aut pauperi similis Seneca Of Sobriety as it were necessitated in all the several kinds of it and consequently of better health and temper of Body and moderation of passions Of diligence in some imployment meekness gentleness patience the putting up and not revenging injuries and not gainsaying qualities more suitable to inferiors which State is always the most fitly prepared for divine favours both by the vertuous endowments of the Soul and also meaness of our condition God most magnifying himself in the lowest both least flesh should glory before him and that his power may be the more seen in our weakness For which see and meditate on these Texts 1. Cor. 1.26 27 28. 2. Cor. 12.9 10. Jam. 4.6 Matt. 11.5 Luk. 14.21 comp 18 19. Jam. 2.5 Luk. 6.20 21 22. 16.25 But above all this condition is the more amiable as being the chosen secular condition of our Lord Christ and of his holy Apostles See Matt. 8.20 Zech. 9.9 Matt. 10 9. 1. Cor. 4.9 c. 2. Corin. 6.4 c. 12.10 c. Jer. 35.7 comp 18 19. ver §. 1◠2. Of Honor Preferment 1. Not seeking Honor Preferments or publick Offices you having a competency and a present lawful imployment things of which few are destitute whether this proceeds from other Ambitions or as you think from that of doing more good thereby Not seeking them Because of a greater charge and duty always accompanying them for
fervore labora Sic erit lora brevis labor ille levis 26. Therefore always entertaining besides Prayer another continual and daily employment for as no vocation may be entertained that very much or wholly hinders our devotions so neither are our devotions amongst so many other Christian duties and interests to be made our whole vocation §. 119. Ejaculations in the Intervals of Prayer 27. In the intervals of set times using continually short versicles of Devotion pious ejaculations and aspirations to God for one is always thinking on what he most loves and these ejaculations belonging to any part of Prayer i. e. thanking or praising or confessing or petitioning c. And let these oblations continually ascend from the Altar of your Soul even whilst you follow your worldly affairs stealing as it were from them into the temple of your heart to worship God and to fan and keep in there the fire of your Devotion 28. Taking occasion from any thing that occurs to your senses to bless God and to use those called occasional meditations See Introd Part. 2.13 cap. Digr A Collection of some Exemplary Forms §. 120. Reciting of Psalms 29. Committing to memory Psalms altered to your purpose or other Hymns which may be continually ready to be offered to God in your Soul now the temple of his Spirit as God required concerning the law Deut. 6.7 when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way when you lye down and when you rise up and when you put on your cloaths when in impertiment company when at meals c. to prevent evil thoughts vain discourse or attention to it intemperate eating to divert any temptation to recover your self out of a passion c. Eph. 5.19 20. Col. 3.16 Jam. 5.13 the saying of which will put the mind into devotion when they find it not so 30. Many times the Soul is more affected with them when sung or used in verse 31. At a set time of the day saying such a Psalm fitted for your purpose which needs to take up no time almost from your employment and will renew in you the Spirit 32. For better fitting them for your purose Omitting transposing some verses Joyning some parts of several Psalms into one Changing David's professions into petitions As for I love Let me love c. Changing the present or preter tense into the future and è contra Making universals every where particulars as for we our us I me my Using your praises c rather in the second than third person and discoursing not only of God but with him as O Lord thou art rather than the Lord is which causeth to you more reverence and attention to what you say and minds you more of God's presence Applying to Christ and the Church and their triumphs or troubles all said of David and Sion And to your and the Church's spiritual enemies flesh or its lusts world and devil all his deprecations against his foes doing this also in your mind whenever you hear them read Furthering your self with some of a several devotion according to the several parts of Prayer i. e. for Confession for Thanksgiving for Doxology for Aspiration c. §. 121. Length of Prayer 33. As tasking your self to set times so at every of these times to a large proportion thereof measured by a glass clock or watch indispensably to be bestowed on this holy exercise This time of Prayer being the chief and most proper season of all good thoughts and holy inspirations and strong resolutions to Piety 34. And this set and large proportion of time Both because so all festination and sudden riddance of a set form which most are liable-to in this so burthensome-accounted duty may be prevented And also because much hesitancy dulness unpreparedness coldness evagation of thoughts hardly yet diuerted from our last employments do accompany the beginning of Prayer but much tenderness and consolation and complacency and incalescence of holy affections arise from the continuance of it long meditation of God as it were irresistibly kindling and then inflaming our passions towards him For which reason it is said motto pict vale il fin d'oratione ch'il principio So that who makes hast to end their Prayers entertain only the pain and toil but forbear to tast the sweetness and benefit thereof See several ways for enlarging Prayer below §. 122. Digr 1. Of the exceeding small number of those minutes of the day which are ordinarily spent in this negotiation of our Salvation and intercourse with Heaven And of the gross abuse of that text Matt. 6 7. urged in general by slothful and carnal Christians against all repetitions and long Prayers notwithstanding the known contrary practice of our Saviour who continued whole nights in Prayer and rose a great while before day to pray c. and of the Saints See Luk. 6.12 Mark 1.35 Luk. 2.37 1. Tim. 5.5 Act. 12.12 comp 6. Eph. 6.18 1. Thess 5.17 c. Digr 2. That Holy men have recommended an hours time to be spent in it the half of which seems the least that may be for those of less practise herein to perform them with any considerable devotion It being observed that any extraordinary visitations and consolations of the Spirit happen not but after long time of Prayer unless only to those who have a long time exercised themselves in this divine duty Digr 3. That to those in whom the love of God is perfectly formed Prayer is the chiefest pleasure of their life nor do they force themselves to lengthen but to restrain the time spent therein nor to heighten their passions therein but to abate them And the vehement desire of this perpetual converse with God makes company eating the necessary exercises and recreations of the Body c. that hinder them from it very painful to them §. 123. 35. One long time of Prayer better than many short ones 36. A short time better spent in some one head of Prayer than in hastily running through all for devotions continually flitting are frigid and languishing and so often changing of the fewel hinders the enkindling of the passions nor have they that earnestness and importunity with them which is required in this wrestling with God Yet where is a sterility in thinking on any subject there is a necessity to change it 37. Avoiding taedium and wearisomeness of mind if any happen before our time expired by change of our meditations and of our posture or by spending part of our time in meditation recitation of Psalms c. part in prayer or part in a set form and part in mental prayer and abiding in that wherein we are most affected §. 124. Repetitions 38. Often using Repetition especially in set forms of Prayer by which if we passed over any thing slightly the first time we may better remind it the second or if at first any thing said do much move us we may the longer continue the same passion A great help
unto God for any mercies received c. God being pleased with nothing that we can render unto him but only in his Son so often iterated Matt. 3.17 17.5 12.18 and in what is offered unto him by and through and upon the Sacrifice of the Lamb of God through whom be all praise and thanks to God for ever Heb. 13.12.15 Levit. 3.5 Col. 3.17 §. 156. The danger and loss inneglecting the use of these Holy Mysteries Digr I. Of the great danger and loss of infinite benefits by neglecting the use of these holy Mysteries Numb 9.13 Act. 20.27 Which being the Holy Sacrament and instrument of the most intimate union between Christ and the Soul many times the devout Soul is replenished with an extraordinary sence and ravishing delight of this union at the time of the using them Digr Recommendation of frequentation 2. Using the help and seeking the benefit of this holy mystery upon any special occasion and with relation to some particular end As for remission of your sin for obtaining a remedy of some infirmity deliverance out of some affliction for receiving some grace and benefit for a thanksgiving for some benefit received for the helping your neighbour in some necessity for the increasing the Spirit and the love of God in you 1. Cor. 12 13. 3. Seting apart an hour or some good space of time immediately after your Communion to abide with and entertain our Lord in Prayer now entred in Person into your house and present to the Soul in so extraordinary a manner Using the acts of Mary Magdalen in lamenting your self to him and kissing his feet and attentively hearkning what then he shall say to you For this seems the least duty and observance you can pay to so divine a Guest to stay with him in your devotions and shut out all other thoughts and business for so small a season 4. Often examining your self concerning the fruits which only can be wanting by your default of your having so many times received it §. 157. The danger of using them unworthily Digr 2. Of the great danger of using them without due preparation 2. Chron. 30.20 Exod. 12.3.6 Jo. 15.5 1. Cor. 11.28 29. 1. Sam. 11.4 Matt. 22.12 Digr That the conditions and preparations required to make us partakers of the benefit of Christ's death and passion are also required to make us partakers of the benefit of this Sacrament Thus much of our diligent practising all Christian Duties whether towards God our Neighbor or our Selves Or doing good and what Actions are required of us §. 158. Of the Four Sufferings Now in the last place concerning our passive duty and suffering Evils 1. Exercising Christian Patience 1. Sanctifying with our willingness and concurrence with God's pleasure all those sufferings and judgments for our sins which we undergo upon necessity Levit. 26.41 As being all sent by God much greater than these deserved by us effective instruments and inducements to God's pardoning our former offences and averting his eternal wrath from us All redounding if it be not our fault to our further benefit and to God's greater Glory in and by us Heb. 12.11 Lastly in all ability being given us to endure according to the intenseness of the sufferings Dum auget Dolorem auget patientiam Offering them up unto God to be accepted through the more perfect sufferings of Christ This was Job's patience so much celebrated 2. Since God useth out of Evil to bring some greater good especially for those who fear and serve him when any cross and afflictive Accident happens to you considering presently what greater good may possibly come to you from it which thing will set your heart much at rest and facilitate your due correspondence with the Divine good pleasure As also the imagining that God sends every cross whoever is the instrument thereof on purpose to try your patience and behaviour in receiving it will suddenly change your anger against such instrument into thanksgiving and the practice of this virtue For indeed Crosses are great favours if well-husbanded 3. Not complaining nor bemoaning your self of them This being a lesser degree of impatience 4. Patiently undergoing any natural infirmities or defects and the shame that accompanies them according to which being not in our power God and his Angels whose praise only we ought to look after make no estimate of us but according to our virtues which by their growing out of infirmity become so much more praise-worthy Meanwhile our defects being the best preservers of humility 5. Patiently undergoing and not disquieting your self for any shame coming from some otherwise harmless deficiencies or also avoidable faults As some ignorances fooleries and incivilities undiscreet words or actions Separating as it were the shame from the defect and whilst you implore God's pardon and endeavour to redress and to prevent for the future the one accepting and thanking God and pardoning your self for the other Contrary to the custome of men who are angry at themselves only in respect of the shame not the fault or no less for the shame where they are not all faulty But know that all such anger and impatience proceeds from some degree of pride Digr Of all mens some or other infirmities which may make us more contented with our own 6. Chiefly arming your self with patience against such Crosses which no honor accompanies but shame and infamy and that with good men for honorable calamity any one can endure as disgraces contempts c either for your natural infirmities or also misdeserts Whoever hath perfectly quitted the solicitude of worldly reputation hath took away the sting of the most of mishaps 7. Not too solicitously avoiding and striving to remove afflictions incumbent both for the former considerations Numb 12.14 and also because that many times by humane wisdome avoiding one tolerable by God's judgment we fall into another worse 8. Advices concerning Sickness the most common and ordinarily the greatest and the last of all evils that happen to men §. 159. 1. For your behaviour before sickness in preparing for it Often premeditating of it which makes all Evils easier and not surprizing Often making your will and disposing of your temporals in which special care to be taken of dedicating some particular proportion thereof for the poor and setting in order your affairs in your intention at least as if you were then warned like Aaron or Moses or Hezekiah to leave the world And doing these not only That being in perfect health and use of faculties you may better perform this great duty of your stewardship in disposing more wisely of your Master's Goods for which disposal you must be called to account or That you may be eased of such a trouble in your sickness when most unfit for it and then may be wholly vacant for spiritual affairs But also undertaking it as an exercise most beneficial for quenching worldly cares Quantulumcunque ut relicturus satis habet minding you of your being a stranger here as
MOTIVES TO Holy Living OR Heads for Meditation Divided into CONSIDERATIONS COUNSELS DUTIES Together with some Forms of Devotion in Litanies Collects Doxologies c. OXFORD Printed in the Year MDCLXXXVIII 1. Jo. 5.19 The whole world lyeth in wickedness 1. Cor. 2.14 The natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit for they are foolishness unto him Jo. 15.19 If you are not of the world the word will hate you Maxima pendent ex minimis Qui modica spernit paulatim decidit Qui sibi benè temperatat in licitis nunquam cadet in illicita Ex hoc momento pendet Aeternitas Matt. 20.16 Many are called but few are chosen Luk. 13.24 Strive to enter in at the strait Gate for many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able Ecclesiasticus 5.5 Concerning Propitiation be not without fear to add sin to sin Prov. 28.14 Blessed is the Man that feareth always 1. Cor. 13.15 If any mans work shall be burnt he shall suffer loss Himself shall be saved yet so as by fire Act. 10.34 Non est Personarum acceptor Deus Matt. 11.12 The violent take heaven by force 1. Cor. 9.6 He that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly Matt. 25.29 To him that hath shall be given from him that hath not shall be taken away Luk. 14.17 Well thou good servant bear thou authority over ten Cities 19. ver Be thou over five Cities Matt. 19.12 There be Eunuchs who have made themselves Eunuchs for the Kingdome of Heavens sake he that is able to receive it let him receive it 1. Cor. 7.38 He that giveth her in Marriage doth well ver 36. sinneth not but he that giveth her not in Marriage doth better Matt. 19.16 Good Master what good thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life ver 17. Keep the Commandments ver 20. What lack I yet ver 21. If thou wilt be perfect Go and fell that thou hast and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven Vers 27. We have forsaken all c. What shall we have therefore ver 29. Every one that hath forsaken c shall receive a hundred fold c. Tacit. Hist 5. l. of the Christians Nec quicquam prius imbuuntur quam contemnere Deos Gentilium exuere Patriam Parentes Liberos Fratres vilia habere Luk. 12. Sell that ye have and give Alms and provide a treasure in the heavens that faileth not ver 33. compare 31 32 34. Act. 2.37 Men and Brethren what shall we do ver 45. And they that believed sold their possessions and parted them as every one had need Matt. 13.45 46. The Kingdome of Heaven is like unto a Merchant Who when he had found out one Pearl of great price he went and sold all that he had and bought it Luk. 16.8 The Children of this world are in their Generation wiser than the Children of Light Gal. 5.24 They that are Christ's will crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof Esay 58.13 Not doing thy own ways nor finding thy own pleasure nor speaking thy own words Membra Christi Quales oportet nos esse in Sanctis conversationibus Pietatibus 2. Pet. 3.11 Templa Spiritus Sancti Quales oportet nos esse in Sanctis conversationibus Pietatibus 2. Pet. 3.11 Filii Dei Quales oportet nos esse in Sanctis conversationibus Pietatibus 2. Pet. 3.11 Eph. 5.19 Loquentes vobismetipsis in psalmis Hymnis Phil. 3.20 Cantantes in cordibus Deo 1. Thess 5.17 Sine Intermissione orantes In omnibus Gratias agentes Spiritum non extinguentes Phil. 4.13 We can do all things through Christ who strengthneth us 2. Pet. 1.3 His Divine Power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness Matt. 11.28 c. Come ye that labour Take my yoke upon you and ye shall find rest For my yoke is easy 1. Jo. 5.3 And his Commandments are not grievous Prov. 3.17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace Par mundus dat onus graviusque THE CONTENTS I. CONSIDERATIONS Concerning 1. OVR present and future Condition § 1. Pag. 1 2. The Condition of all present things about us § 2. p. 2. 3. The unreasonableness and hurt of Sin § 3. p. 3. 4. The difficulty of Repentance § 4. p. 10. 5. The measure of this Reformation § 5. p. 12. 6. The Reasonableness and Benefits of Piety § 6. p. 18. 7. The Faisibility Easiness Excellencies of it § 10. p. 25. II. COUNSELS Concerning 1 the forbearing many things lawful and not prohibited 2 And practising many things not commanded i. e. under guilt of sin in the matters § 14. p. 38. 1. Of Riches and Wealth § 15. p. 39. Recommendation of Poverty p. 40. 2. Of Honor Preferment and Reputation § 16. p. 41. Recommendation of a low Condition § 16. n. 4. not minding Reputation § 16. n. 4. p. 42 43. Recommendation of Self-contempt § 16. p. 46. 3. Of lawful Sensual Pleasures § 17. p. 47. Recommendation of Celibacy § 17. n. 2. p. 47. 4. Of Affection to Earthly things § 18. p. 56. 5. Of Temporal Employments § 19. p. 57. Reliance on God's Providence for Necessaries § 19. n. 6. p. 59 6. Of Meat and Drink § 20. p. 60 The Happiness of Old Age § 20. Digr 3. p. 65. 7. Of Sleep § 21. p. 67. 8. Of Recreation and Vacancy from Employment § 22. p. 69. 9. Of Company and Secular Converse § 23. p. 69. Recommendation of Solitude p. 73. 10. Of Discourse and Compliance § 24. p. 74. Recommendation of Silence p. 83. 11. Of extraordinary abilities and perfections natural or acquired § 25. p. 84. 12. Concerning the avoiding usual and former occasions of sinning § 26. p. 84. 13. Resisting first and small Temptations c. § 27. p. 85. 14. Suppressing evil thoughts and first Motions of Sin c. § 28. p. 87. Ways to break ill Habits p. 88. 15. Cherishing all good Motions in the Soul § 29. p. 89. Of the great power of Custome p. 90. 16. Subjecting your Actions to anothers Conduct § 30. p. 91. 17. Restraining your liberty with Resolutions and Vows § 31. p. 91. 18. Imposing voluntary Mortifications § 32. p. 92. A Catalogue of several sorts of Mortifications § 33. p. 94. 19. Confessing frequently your Sins to your Spiritual Guide § 34. p. 95. 20 Openly professing a zeal of Piety and Christian Virtues § 35. p. 96. 21. Strongly apprehending God's presence § 36. n. 1. p. 93. 22. Reflecting on his Omni-Agency § 36. n. 2. p. 97. III. DUTIES 1. Active Doing Good § 37. p. 99. 1 Towards your Self Moral § 38. p. 99. The Purity and Sanctification of the Body p. 100. 1. Temperance § 39. p. 100. Of its Opposites Ibid. 2. Chastity § 40. p. 100. Of its Opposites Ibid. 3. Humility 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 § 41. p. 105. Of its Opposites § 42. p. 105. 4. A sober and right ordering of the Judgment § 44.
may be attained in this life And that our future glorification cheifly consists in a higher degree of Sanctification and Vnion with God and with Christ And this also then to be enjoyed in a higher degree by those who have acquired it here in a higher measure Hic esse incipimus quod futuri sumus 26. The holy Pattern of our Lord and of the Saints that have gone before us shewing the Evangelical Precepts practicable and inviting and incouraging our imitation Ecce Ecclesia plena gregibus c. St. Aust Confess 8. l. 11. c. Behold the Church full of Societies of good Examples There are embraced within her arms so many children Boys and Girles so much flourishing Youth and all other Ages c. Tu non poteris quod isti istae Art not thou able to do what those Youths and Maidens are 27. The high estimation and value the good works of his Saints have with God As being the acts of his adopted Children of his Son whose Members they are and he in them and they in him Of his Holy Spirit always to be acknowledged the principal Author of all these in them 28. The Progress of Piety to consist in an holy emulation and coveting and pursuing still higher spiritual Gifts 1. Cor. 12.31 14.1 in inventing and beginning every day some new resolutions of holiness thinking no Sanctity already acquired worthy to gain eternal life Not as though I had attained or were already perfect but I pursue c. said the great Apostle Phil 3.12 13 14. Matt. 11 12. And that it is not want of Grace but of our indeavour and using at first some force upon our selves according to which the Spirit is encreased that hinders us from being Saints the violent take heaven by force Et il Paradiso non è fatto Per ì Poltroni 29. The chief advance of our spiritual Estate to be assiduity of Prayer with the neglect of which those who attempt Holiness seem only to indeavour to serve God with more pains and trouble and to deprive themselves in their work of all content and solace and besides of those strong inclinations to the attempting still something more excellent which the very exercise of Prayer is not only a Means to procure but by exciting in us the love of God an Instrument to effect 30. The just aggravations of our continuance in Sin when we are by the former considerations left without any Plea of inability to Vertue and Piety Digr 1. Of the hainousness and danger of returning to Sin or looking back towards forsaken pleasures after having escaped their former pollutions 2. Pet. 2.21 and tasted the heavenly Gift Heb. 6.4 Digr 2. Of the great Peril and also Ingratitude of neglecting or resisting the Motions of the Holy Spirit in us or incurring those Sins whereby it is offended and grieved and of the desolate condition of such as are once thus forsaken PART II. COUNSELS §. 11. COncerning these Counsels by way of Introduction Consider That you are obliged to the observance of all God's Precepts and Commands and that as the Reward is very high eternal life so these Precepts are very pure and contrary to carnal and secular Lusts Now many Counsels there are delivered by our Lord by his Apostles by the Saints of following times in the observance of which Counsels though recommended only not enjoined to any the Precepts are much more easily kept because such Counsels practised put us out of the occasions and temptations of sinning but without these Counsels much more difficultly the Precepts observed Because such persons retaining still the temptations engage themselves as it were upon a perpetual Fight that they may not fall into the Sin in which as the Victory is very honorable so the Battle is very hazardous for their Enemies being thus allowed all the advantages and preparations they can make against them without receiving any disturbance therein are hereby very much strengthned and Experience shews that the most of such Combatants lose the day and little Apology they can make for themselves since they choose to work out their Salvation rather with such pain and uncertainty when they are shewed a way to do it with much ease and security A difficulty indeed there is also in the Counsel but it is only at the first namely resolutely to accept and embrace it the practice of which Custome afterwards renders most easy but the difficulty of avoiding Sin where the Counsels are neglected and all temptations and occasions indulged is perpetual and never at an end §. 12 Again there being a certain Latitude in all Christian Vertues and Duties amongst which also I number our repentance and humiliations for Sin in which you may go so high as that the degree wherein you perform it as to the quantity frequency c. is indeed for encouraging our best endeavors by the Divine wisdome allowed commended or if you will required upon the title of perfection and lastly highly rewarded but out of his mercy to our weakness is not strictly commanded upon the forfeiture of our being any longer good or vertuous nor the omission of them punished So on the other side you may go so low as that the degree wherein you perform it as to the quantity frequency c. is the most inferior that the Vertue to exist at all can admit and further than which if you descend you fall short of it and break the Precept concerning it and commit a Sin Again The bounds of this lowest degree less than which transgresseth the Precept being also very uncertain so that it is hard to say thus much done if no more is sufficient as it may be certainly concluded of the higher degrees that the more the better I say from these Considerations a wise man would rather have something over than something wanting something of what is in Consilio only than fall short of what is in Praecepto and not to divide a hair in his obedience and choose to walk still upon the brink of Sining And this especially When as the most of men upon what confidence I know not but de facto so it is fall short of Salvation See before § 5. n. 3. And again Whenas we shall not lose a mite of the over-measure we make for attaining heaven which shall not have its peculiar reward Eccl. 11.23 Say not what profit is there of my service and what good thing shall I have hereafter When as all the Contest is whether we should love God so much more who so without all measure loveth us or how far sinless we may love the world i. e. God's Enemy When at least as to one main matter Repentance and Humiliations for Sin perhaps our past offences have been so high as they also require an excessive proportion of Penitences and self-revenges Lastly When as the Saints that have gone before us have walked in all these Counsels and thought this perhaps little enough to preserve Innocence and gain Heaven
many times things of the greatest consequence and no external sins occur so often as those of the tongue knowing that there are two fountains within us of our thoughts and speeches Nature and Grace or the Spirit and their Dictates contrary and nature commonly preventing the other in her Suggestions and our second our better thoughts Weigh thy words in a ballance and make a door and a bar for thy mouth Prepare what to say and then shalt thou be heard bind up instruction and then make answer Ecclesiasticus 28.25 33.4 And The words of such as have understanding are weighed in a ballance Ecclesiasticus 21.25 And The heart of the Righteous studieth to answer saith the wise man Prov. 15.28 And lastly Seest thou a man saith he that is hasty in his words there is more hopes of a fool than of him Prov. 29.20 6. Not speaking verbously but as much as you can contracting your sense If silence ordinarily makes none less talk makes fewer oversights Let thy speech be short comprehending much in few words and be as one that knoweth and yet holdeth his peace Ecclesiasticus 32.8 And A fool is known by multitude of words Ecclesiasticus 5.3 7. Not speaking vehemently or passionately but so as it may be accompanied with and mastered or checked by your judgment which much passion clouds and troubles Not using your self to exaggerate any thing to hyberbolize and exceed the truth though a common custome but moderating your expressions and rather speaking the least Not delivering things with much asseveration by this as it were to add more weight and authority to your words which if there be any fault in what we say makes it much greater All these things savour of pride self-love vain glory men-pleasing and the contrary of discretion moderation and humility For this often remembring our Lord's holy Lesson Matt. 5.37 Let your Communication be yea yea nay nay and his note upon it Quod autem his abundantius est a Malo est Iterated also by St. James 5. c. 12. v. with this Caveat least you fall into condemnation i. e. some guilt or other condemnable 8. Avoiding much ceremony and dissimulation and compliance the later corruptions of Christian simplicity When our words swerve from our hearts our actions again do so from our words and so we only fall at last into the more shame and confusion Avoiding these I say so far as this may expose you to any temptation or peril of offending God your best your highest friend and always one of your company not professing your self to be what you are not which is lying or what you ought not to be which is disloyalty to God to be loyal to your Friend Nihil deformius quam Scenam in vitam transferre especially for a Christian Membra Christi Templa Spiritus Sancti Filii Dei Nolite fieri servi hominum 1. Cor. 7.23 If we have so little esteem for the world within why shew we so much without or any further than Christian duty and charity obligeth us for God's sake See Jo. 5.41.44 12.43 Rom. 12.2 Jud. 1.6 v. Jam. 1.10 1. Cor. 7.22 2. Cor. 11.20 1. Cor. 9.19 St. Paul's becoming omnia omnibus was only omnia licita and not this done on any terms but first being a perfect Saint and running no hazard in using these licita ut plures lucrifaceret But we that are unperfect may not venter so far when we hazard instead of gaining others the losing our selves 9. 1 In company forbearing the relating or inquiring after news stories other-mens affairs impertinent and no way concerning us distractions of the mind and commonly ending in censure and detraction especially concerning great persons and publick Magistrates of whom we ought to think and speak with great reverence Carefully avoiding the first engagement in such discourses easilier wholly abstained from than discreetly moderated See 1. Tim. 5.13 1. Pet. 4.15 Psal 73.9 Meddle not with many matters for in medling much thou shalt not be innocent Ecclesiasticus 11.10 And If thou hast heard a word let it dye with thee and be bold it will not burst thee 9. 2 Forbearing any presaging of future events and reverencing in all things God's Counsels and Providence which often works contrary to probable conjectures and likeliest appearances of things 10. Not speaking reprehending or contradicting and disputing in your own or others anger or when you or they are any other way distempered 1. Not in your own anger because then you are apt to make a false judgment of things neither will your reprehension or contradiction be performed with that moderation and discretion it should be Nor if it be so yet doth it appear so to or hath the same weight with the reprehended because they see you angry but stay a little in silence and let your passion cool and by and by things will have another appearance and faults seem now of a less magnitude than they did before so that he who resolves not to find fault in his anger will much seldomer find fault and when he doth will do it more moderately and his reproof be more justly proportioned to the Sin 2. Nor replying or reprehending in anothers anger For neither then do their errors faults or oversights appear to them so great as they are and besides your reproofs at such time receive ill answers from them and these serve to kindle anger in your self also where there was none before But when their passion is cooled they more clearly see the greatness of their fault and so more profitably and patiently receive your reproof and counsel Much caution therefore hath the wiseman given concerning this passion The discretion of a man saith he deferreth his anger and it is his glory to pass over a transgression Psal 19.11 And He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he that ruleth his Spirit than he that takes a City Prov. 16.32 14.29 And on the other side A fool's wrath is presently known Ps 12.16 11. Not contending and striving in words with any one for any thing but abstaining from second answers and replies though most reasonable after that by some resistance made the person at that time seems indisposed and imagining that we look after victory hath shut the Gate to Reason It is not passion but gentleness on truth's side that overcomes passion on the other and in such meekness the victory is only deferred not lost And this to suffer our selves to be overborne when Reason is on our side rather than contend especially in truths not so necessary to be maintained is an act of great mortification and humility and whilst you yield to another the getting a great victory over your self and we shall receive that praise from God which we willingly for peace-sake lose with men Yielding to all the world as much as you can in point of opinion and doing their will sooner than your own 12. Not
so long on such a subject Repeating committing to memory so many Psalms Multiplying extraordinary hours of Prayer Visiting some loathed objects of mortality or pitty Confessing our fault to another every time we commit it c. Many of which and many more may be largely exemplified in the practices of our Lord Himself §. 34. 19. Confessing frequently your sins to your spiritual Guide 1. Confessing very frequently all your sins to your spiritual Father and Director to receive his ministerial Absolution from them upon judgment of your penitence his Sacerdotal Benediction and prescription of such Humiliations and Penances as may be thought further necessary for the appeasing of God's wrath towards them and your present cure from them to receive his spiritual advice and Consolations his Prayers and Intercessions to God for you to put your self to the oftener shame and the taking revenge on your self for them to glorify the justice of God's judgments if then you lye under any and to avert them For Confession of sin is a special means to the sick or otherwise afflicted for their recovery and deliverance out of their distress Jam. 5.14 15 16. The resolution of such frequent confessing keeps a modest man in awe from sinning the preparing for Confession helps him better to know his Sins the testifying to another of his sorrow for them binds him more to forsake them and God's grace and illumination accompanies such Humiliation 2. Your Confession to reap the more benefit therefrom to be always very particular that by the more exact knowledge of the state of your conscience both concerning the several facts and especially concerning the motives to and the continuance of them your spiritual Physitian may apply more proper remedies to your disease 3. Vncovering your sins especially your greater sins and those that more afflict your conscience to other your confidents and amongst them to those rather by whom you are esteemed and who are more eminent than you in Piety for your greater Mortification And very beneficial it is to do the same upon the rising of any temptation for this much confounds your spiritual adversary that suggests them to see himself ministerial to your vertues instead of faults 4. Ordering with some others daily conversation with you a mutual conscientious and free admonition of your faults Even the wisest and holiest of men being not so well as others much inferior able to discern some of their imperfections §. 35. 20. Openly professing a zeal of Piety and Christian Vertues 1. Making open profession of your extraordinary desire and affection to Devotion and Piety Forbearing no holy Action because to be done openly and in publick and resolved for this willingly to undergo the imputation as it must be at first of Hypocrisy or Vain-glory. Remembering Ecclesiasticus 20.22 There is that destroyeth his own Soul through bashfulness and by accepting of persons overthroweth himself By this course you shall never afterward be ashamed of your duty when it happens to be contrary to fashion having once for all pre-occupated this shame in your former Profession By this you shall stand at all times engaged to make good what you so openly pretend By this others as knowing your resolution will cease to tempt or seduce you from it and will abandon you to your better inclinations 2. Contemning utterly and scorning worldly Reputation and Disgrace the pleasing or the offending of men which are the greatest enemies of Piety 3. Contemning in the exercise of Religious Duties scandals and offences unjustly taken at you §. 36. 21. Strongly apprehending God's presence n. 1. Strongly imagining or rather apprehending what is a truth the presence of God as also of his Holy Angels standing always by you in the place where you are and looking into your deeds words and thoughts and much rejoycing in your Virtues This Imagination thro God's Grace is easily attained by accustoming your fancy awhile thereto and will much enliven your prayers and discourses with God and sanctify and solace your Solitudes c. But without often weighing and pondering this presence your general knowledge thus unapplied that God is present in all things will not benefit you so much See larger Directions concerning this below § 94. §. 36. n. 2. 22. Contemplating his Omni-Agency Considering God's Omni-agency and that nothing small or great in this world happens to us by chance but that God's Creatures only perform and execute what his hand and his counsel determined before to be done i e. that nothing here is done without the Divine knowledge permission and providence directing it to the Divine i. e. to some good or also the very best End The Benefits of which Meditation are always exceeding great For who strongly believes and remembers this conforms himself peaceably to all events as to God's Will and is contented with whatever happens as knowing this Divine Will to be steered also with infinite Wisdome Therefore as he is diligent in his labours directed to many particular good ends so he trusts not in these to effect such ends but looks more at the motions of the Divine Will and Co-operation and so soon as ever this by the event discovers it self to him whether it dis-appoint or prosper his works and those ordered in the best manner he could for God's Service He sides with this Divine Will it being as the main end his actions aimed at And thus he is never defeated in his purpose Is ready to praise God on all occasions whether seeming as to particular ends good or bad as knowing indeed all best that God doth Entertains with chearfulnes and resignation to this Superior Power all cross accidents gives God particular thanks for every thing that falls out well suffers none of God's excellent works to be lost and passed by unregarded but observes them speaks of them acknowledgeth them for his and gives him Glory and admires and commends no persons else for any good but only as his Instruments and with an eyeing of him as the chief Principle thereof Is displeased with the actions of none of God's Creatures in order to himself and especially not with those of his enemies cannot think ill of them for this but always excuseth and pardoneth them as looking beyond and above them at the Divine Providence which by them exerciseth a necessary tryal of his patience and other Christian Virtues Finally in all things that befall him he sees as it were God's Will writ upon them and so out of the love of God admits them into his affections saying continually in his heart Domine fiat voluntas tua Pater mi non sicut ego volo sed sicut Tu. And so continues always in repose is seldome or never much angry or discontented And by this way exceedingly pleaseth God for he is always undissemblingly commending whatever He doth PART III. DUTIES §. 37. AFter these Considerations and Counsels the two first parts chiefly directing to the cure and preventing of Sin our negative Holiness in
Lastly According to the greater or less value it sets upon the Fathers Councils and her own authority For those whose doctrines more agree to those of the Fathers and Councils seem rather to be adhered-to and those more agreeing with them are likely more to value and ascribe to them an higher authority and also who lessen Church-authority seem to have the less Title to it And she who more earnestly challengeth a filial obedience seems stronglier to believe her self the true Mother On the contrary Step-mothers and the little-favoured by former Authority and Antiquity endeavour more according to their interest to prejudice weaken and depress all these do much insist upon Christian liberty and quote frequently the texts that may seem to caution against any such rash submission to or dependance on others as Matt. 15.9.14 1. Jo. 4.1 1. Thess 5.21 And to render their Sons full of unsettledness unconstancy and dispute §. 48. 4. Avoiding curiosities of Science and the inquiring into and dispute about the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quomodo Quatenus of things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Gregory Nazianzen For besides that of such silly languishing of one not content with sound words 1. Tim. 6.4 comp 3. about many questions and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they are called by the Apostle do come envies contentions railings and evil surmisings and perverse disputings and mis-interpretations of other men's meanings 1. Tim. 6.4 It also happeneth many times that from an only-excluded quatenus in the dispute the whole substance of a necessary duty is prejudic'd and omitted in mens practice §. 49. 5. In these matters of Controversy more willingly embracing those tenents that give more than that give less efficacy to any Christian practice or duty Since the one increaseth the other diminisheth your affection to it and the necessity of it As two teaching good works necessary he of them that should say they are so only out of gratitude or as signs of true Faith c. would more weaken mens study of them So for Alms and deeds of Charity he that should teach them necessary as a duty in obedience to a precept not also as a special means for procuring remission of sins and receiving many as well temporal as spiritual blessings from God c would more weaken mens practice of them So for Fasting he that should teach it to be a means indeed to weaken our lusts but no duty required by God §. 50. 6. Not hearkning to your reason against what seems clear Revelation nor against strongly-confirmed Tradition or common Ecclesiastical History nor against the professed experience of other Saints of God That Philosophical Caution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems mischievous in Divinity especially against the common authority and credulity of so many others And that thing may be most credible and conformable to a well-rectified Reason that disagrees with ours as yet not so clear-sighted or otherwise prejudiced and mis-seasoned Not opposing God's wisdome or justice such as we fancy them to what is his work or his Power to what is his promise and not stating what is and what is not to him possible But captivating our reason for other things in the former Circumstances as far as we do for the Trinity For our Reason is very weak and all true Reason hath an anti-reason and verity a verisimility always opposing it 7. Taking heed also of using negative argumentations from former Authority against better As That if such a thing were a truth or a truth of such consequence It would have been mentioned by our Lord the Apostles the Fathers of such and such times As if any in the Apostles times should have argued That the Mosaical Ceremonies were not abrogated by Christ because our Lord who foresaw such a grand Controversy yet in the Gospels hath expresly said nothing of nullifying them Or again That he had said nothing of them because the Apostles quote not any such his commands Or should have argued That the Gentiles were not to be admitted into the Church c. because so many at Pentecost when inspired with the Holy Ghost as yet knew nothing of it Or because afterward it a matter of such consequence was revealed to none of the rest and discovered to Peter only by a Vision and an Experiment See Acts 11.3.15 comp Act. 10.28.34 not by a clear command Again Not rejecting any thing as the Invention or Institution only of later times from this negative arguing That it cannot be shewed in the Writings Histories or Registers of the former For many things may be believed or practised in such times when they are not mentioned in the Records thereof Especially if those times less abound with Writings Nor is every thing to be concluded new that is newly spoken of or agitated Which agitation first happens to be upon some new opposition made to things formerly received Not using also Negative Argumentations from former times to the disparaging or disswading any practice of the later on this account such practice was not in former or then was less frequent For many such very beneficial for the augmenting of Piety or Devotion may be discovered or also instituted anew in any age And it is a sufficient licence of them if nothing therein can be shewed contrary to the Divine Prohibitions or Commands The same thing also may be said concerning the Divine Favours and Honors done to God's Servants and Saints not in all ages perhaps dispensed altogether after the same manner but some more frequent in one some in another And for such varying practices of later Church or Favours of the Divine Grace if a considerable benefit appears of the first and an evident proof of the second Voluntas Dei as St. Austine De Inventione S. Stephani Fidem quaerit non quaestionem this is sufficient for allaying our further inquisition and establishing our acquiescence in them For God seems to be pleased that the successive ages of the World should be entertained with some variety And the Oeconomy of the Church after Constantine's times differing in many things from the former yet was entertained with general approbation §. 51. Digr Of the great confidence and little strength notwithstanding the conformity which truth hath to the Intellect beyond error of Humane Reason made mostwhat a slave to our secular Interests and Passions discerned by the serious contemplation 1. Of the learned of one nation from several education and interest and concatenation of Tenents embracing a contrary Sect of Religion to those of another both with the same zeal and pretended evidence on their side yet both perusing the same Scriptures and one another's Arguments And this so unanimously that it is almost a Miracle if one among many hundreds deserts his Party So that as any one happens to be educated in his Studies For Example in Spain or in England accordingly he is prepared to suffer the like Martyrdome in Defence of the Roman or the Reformed Tenents 2. Of the general
acquiring Christian perfection §. 90. 1. Concerning Prayer Concerning Preparatives to Prayer 1. BEfore your appearing before God in Prayer clearing your self as God hath commanded so far as it is in your power from your sins towards your Neighbour and quitting all his toward you In satisfaction either already performed to him or seriously promised to God where injuring and in forgiveness presented likewise then to God where injured Matt. 5.23 24. 1. Tim. 2.8 Mark 11.25 Jam. 3.9 10. 2. Performing your devotions either when fasting or very temperate and at some reasonable distance from your meals and sometimes also preparing your self son them by some acts of mortification Nothing is so opposite to devotion and the Spirit as intemperance strong drink and excess in diet See Eph. 5.18 Act. 10.30 Matt. 17.21 Luk. 1.15 Psal 35.13 Dan. 10.1 2. 12. Act. 13.2 3. 3. 1 Not coming to them with your mind and thoughts already tired out and spent in other business which accordingly must needs be less serviceable to you in this your greatest duty and some little time before them if you can deserting other employments 'T is beneficial before you go to Prayer to read something pious or if you please to read some Prayer before praying so to retire your mind from secular thoughts and dispose it to Divine 3. 2 When you go to Prayer with an hour-glass measuring your time and taking some Book of Devotion or Saints life with which you use to be much affected to lye by you and for this also chusing a place of Prayer convenient for light and reading and when sterilities and dulness or much distraction of thoughts assault you reading so long till something affect you This hath been the practice of many great Saints And he who useth this stome will go much more chearfully to this spiritual exercise and spend longer time in it having these Arms about him to repel the ordinary disturbers of it 4. In the morning performing your Devotions first whilst the mind is clear and not engaged in other thoughts 5. In the Evening last when the mind hath for that day taken her leave of all other business and that so your time of Prayer also may not be limited by them 6. Since for every day you perform and renew them applying your Prayers Confessions Petitions c. more chiefly to the occurrences of the present day as that of our Lord Give us this day c. which will make your Requests as being for things near at hand more affectionate and your endeavours that day in the seconding of your Prayers and rendring them not frustrate more vigilant and earnest 7. Using all humble reverence of the Body Corporal Reverence in Prayer c where opportunity yet not confining your self for all the time of Prayer to any one posture thereof after it begins to be painful or tedious whilst you retain the same humility and devotion in all nor omitting the substance of the Duty of Prayer for being hindered perchance of such circumstances Freely expressing also and venting the holy passions of your mind and of the Spirit by the exterior indications and effects thereof As by sighing groaning weeping c. §. 91. Digr 1. Of the great impression the behaviour of the Body makes upon the Soul And that the devotion is much increased by the body's humiliation and the more if this sometimes varied Digr 2. Of the several postures and deportments of the body used by holy men in the time of Prayer As Standing up Prostration and falling on the face and lying on the ground Contemplating the heavens therefore going up to the house top to pray Lifting up casting down the eyes Lifting up spreading forth the hands Smiting of the breast Bowing down of the head Bowing baring the knee kissing the ground Covering the Body with sackcloth or raggs Sighing groaning weeping §. 92. Guard of the Eyes 8. In all places and business where you would enjoy a greater recollection of your mind and thoughts but especially in the service and meditations of God publick or private keeping a strict guard over your eyes which having liberty to wander the mind is filled with many fancies and very difficulty fixed Custodia Oculorum Custodia Cordis §. 93. Exciting of a suitable Passion 9. Striving before hand to excite in your self a passion suting to the particular act of your devotion As great sadness in confession of sin Great humility and lowliness and self-abjection in petitioning Chearfulness and joy in thanking and praising The passion of love in oblation and resignation c. Compassion in Intercession And observe that our intention much helpeth the production of such passion by the lively presentation of such an object to our mind as viz. Death Corruption Hell Heaven Light Glory Musick c. usually excites it the affections being thus subject to the understanding and the will as well as in other respects these faculties are to them Praying before to God to give you such a passion whereby you may be helped to do such a duty Not entertaining at the same time of prayer a contrary passion though it be very pious for so neither can it be so well prosecuted §. 94. Imagination of God's presence 10. In the time of Prayer Imagining God or our Saviour not a far off but present by or within Ps 16.8 you so speaking and discoursing with him hearkning to and attending upon him as one that is present in the innermost part of your soul and heart as indeed if our eyes were but opened as were those of Elisha and his Servant we should see him in all things and in our selves and all things and our selves also in him for these are both one compassing us round as the air or the light doth and again throughly penetrating all things and us as the light doth the air or the fire the glowing iron Omnia implendo continens continendo implens Austin and see our selves again moving in him as fishes or spunges in the Ocean or Atoms in a Sun-beam See Acts 17.27 28 For if the whole earth be but as a small point to the Sun how much less are we to God! But above all creatures more specially we should see him dwelling in the hearts of the faithful therefore called his Temple See 2. Cor. 6.16 1. Cor. 6.17.19 or see them dwelling in him for where things are perfectly united these two expressions are the same and promiscuously used See 1. Jo. 4.13 6.56 Rom. 8.10 comp 2. Cor. 5.17 1. Cor. 1.30 comp 2. Cor. 5.21 See him there speaking to the Soul and visiting it with frequent inspirations the signs of his presence and the interior language wherein God speaks to us and therefore is there to be attentively hearkened to by us Luk. 17.21 Jo. 16.32 8.29 Heb. 11.27 1. Jo. 14.13 4.16 As for those words in the Lords Prayer which art in Heaven they are not mentioned to direct the petitioner to him as a far off but to magnify to
us Holy Mary whose voice made St. John Baptist leap in his Mother's Womb who when being found great with Child barest patiently the purpose of putting thee away Pray for us Holy Mary a Virgin conceiving and bringing forth a Son Immanuel who in one receivedst many Sons and thereby wast made the Mother of us all Pray for us Holy Mary that was turned out of the Inn and laid'st the Saviour of the world in a Manger Pray for us Holy Mary who at the Circumcision of thy only Son gavedst him that sweet and amiable Name JESUS Pray for us Holy Mary who most thankfully presentedst in the Temple that ever Blessed Jesus as a most precious Oblation to God his Father Pray for us Holy Mary that fled'st into Aegypt with thy new-born Babe and thy Husband St. Joseph Pray for us Holy Mary who soughtst thy lost Son three days sorrowing and with great joy foundst him in the Temple so early employed in his Father's business Pray for us Holy Mary who laidst up in thy heart all thou heardst spoken of thy Son Pray for us Holy Mary whose life was intirely dedicated to the constant serving of Jesus with the tenderness of a Mother the duty of a Handmaid and religion of a Votary Pray c. Holy Mary whose Soul was pierced as with a Sword at the crucifying of thy Son Pray for us We beseech thee By thy eternal Election to be the Mother of God Pray for us By the sweetness of thy love whereby thou embracedst thy Infant Son and suckledst him with thy Virgin Breasts Pray for us By the joy of the Angels rejoycing at the Nativity of thy Son Pray for us By the affections of love joy gratitude admiration and praise which thou conceivedst at the beholding of so many Miracles wrought by him Pray for us By all the hardships fears troubles and discommodities which thou didst undergo at Bethlehem in thy flight into Egypt and return from thence to Nazareth Pray for us By the sorrow of a heart of a Mother wherewith thou followedst thy Son going to Mount Calvary by the Sword of most bitter sorrow which pierced thy Soul standing by the Cross of thy Son Pray for us By that joy conceived at the Resurrection of thy Son and which now thou enjoyest for ever Pray for us We beseech Thee That thou wouldest vouchsafe to commend and reconcile us to thy Son Pray for us We c. That thou would'st help comfort and protect us like tender Sons with thy Motherly and most prevalent Intercessions Pray for us We c. That in all our necessities and straits especially at the hour of our deaths thou wouldst obtain for us the clemency of thy Son Pray for us We c. O Son of the B. Virgin which takest away the sins c. Have mercy on us O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world Have mercy on us O Lamb of God that takest c. Have mercy on us Our Father c. Hail MARY full of Grace c. Blessed is the Womb that bare thee and the Breasts that gave thee suck Blessed are they that hear thy Word and faithfully in their lives observe it O Lord hear our Prayers And let our supplications come unto thee MY Soul doth magnify the Lord and my Spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour Because he hath regarded the humility of his hand-maid Holy Virgin all generations shall call thee Blessed For he that is mighty hath done to thee great things and holy is his Name And his mercy is on them that fear him throughout all generations He hath shewed strength in his arm he hath scattered the proud in the imaginations of their hearts He hath put down the mighty from their seats and exalted the humble He hath filled the hungry with good things and the rich he hath sent empty away He hath holpen his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy As he spake to their Fathers Abraham and to his seed for ever Let us pray DEfend O Lord with the protection of peace thy servants trusting in the merits of Jesus and the patronage of the Blessed Virgin his Mother and keep us from all our enemies and from all dangers Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen GRant to thy servants O Lord to enjoy continual health of body and mind and that by the glorious intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary we may be delivered from present sorrows and obtain eternal felicity thro Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen ALmighty God and most merciful Father who gavest thy only begotten Son to be born of an humble Virgin that we might be advanced to the adoption of thy children favourably regard the imperfect Prayers of thy servants which we here present unto thee by the efficacious intercession of the blessed Virgin Mary and grant that as her Purity is exalted by thee to the highest degree of glory so her Charity may obtain for us the especial assistance of thy grace through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen O Almighty Eternal God who didst so prepare the Body and Soul of the glorious Virgin Mary by the eo-operation of the Holy Ghost that it became a worthy habitation for thy Son Grant that in whose commemoration we rejoyce by her pious and prevalent intercession we may be delivered both from present evils and everlasting death thro Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour Amen LITANIES of the Holy Angels O God the Father of Heaven Have mercy on us O God the Son Redeemer of the World Have c. O God the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son Have mercy on us Holy Mary Mother of God and Queen of Angels Pray for us Holy Angels who standing before the high and mighty Throne of God sing continually Holy Holy Holy Pray for us Holy Angels who always behold the face of God in Heaven and serve before his Throne and who always obey his word and do his will Pray for us Holy Angels who have committed to you from God the care and custody of Man ministring Spirits sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of Salvation Pray for us Holy Angels Governors of Provinces Protectors of Kingdomes Defenders of the Church Conservators of the Elect Pray for us Holy Angels carrying up the prayers and services of men to God and bringing down God's blessings unto men Pray for us Holy Angels that excel in strength restraining the power of evil Spirits and malice of wicked men Pray for us Holy Angels that rejoyce in the Conversion of any one Sinner that doth penance Pray for us St. Michael Prince of the heavenly Host who castedst out of heaven the Dragon with his Apostate Angels mighty Prince who always standest to help the people of God Pray for us St. Michael the Receiver of the Souls of the faithful and Conducter of them into Paradise Pray for us St. Gabriel who revealedst to Daniel the sacred Visions who warredst against the Prince of the Persians for the people of