for such a particular occasion Our Saviour himself in the History of his Family by the Evangelists has left a pattern of this last sort which may justly be regarded as a direction in this case both by Ministers and People His Disciples desired him to teach them to pray he complyed with their Desire and did so by composing a Form for them It is without doubt part of the Duty of his Ministers in the Church after this example of the great Pastour to teach the faithful People to pray and this they may do in the same way as he did and the People shall certainly do well if they use the Prayers which such have composed for them Thus they shall be edified and profited by the Gifts which God has communicated to his Ministers Whatever Gift or Spirit of Prayer can reasonably be pretended to be afforded the Church in these days it may be exercised in the composing and writing down our Prayers before we offer them to God and there is no man but must needs exercise his Gift more suitably to the great God he worships and more to his own or other Peoples edification and to a better degree of performance truly in this way than in depending upon sudden and unpremeditated Thoughts and Expressions So that without doubt both Ministers and People ought to use composed Forms of Prayer ordinarily to perform this duty in the fittest manner I shall only add to this matter thus much that if any Master of a Family uses these Prayers in his Family it is but as if he should desire a Minister to pray with them as People are commonly wont to do when such a Person happens to stay a Night at their House And I have said so much to this matter because I have observed the unjust and erroneous disparaging of Prayer by a Form which has been amongst us has had a great influence towards the too frequent omission of Family Worship Now to conclude this Preface I shall only suggest these advices concerning the use of this Book That it is as I think ordinarily most fitting that this Exercise be performed by the Master of the Family himself But if any Circumstances hinder that it may be done by a Child or Servant but should always be done in his presence if possible that his Authority may give it the more respect with the inferiour parts of the Family When the introductory Prayer is said all should be standing to make themselves sensible of the Presence of God and to dispose them to a reverent and serious frame of Mind and so to make the more solemn and fit enterance upon what they are going about The latter Prayer should be used by all the Company kneeling and joining in it with heart and devout Affection If any young Persons who are devoutly inclined have it their lot to live under such Governours of their Families as are negligent of their duty in this matter I advise them if they may be permitted it to spend an hour in their Chamber alone on the Lord's Day in these Meditations and Prayers This they may very profitably do and perhaps their good Example in such a practice may shame the Master of the Family out of his neglect Now I commit this Endeavour to the Providence of God humbly dedicating it to his service And I do most willingly say Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give the Glory for thy loving Mercy and thy Truths sake And that it may be accepted with him through the Mediation of Jesus Christ and accompanied with his powerful Blessing so as it may also be well accepted in the Church and succesful to the promoting of true and pure Religion in many Souls to their Comfort and Salvation and his Glory thereby I heartily pray THE EXCELLENCY OF THE SOUL Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Zach. 12. Last Part of the First Verse And formeth the Spirit of Man within him THE Words that I have now read from the Holy Scripture are part of a very Majestick Preface or Introduction to a favourable Prophecy concerning Judah and Jerusalem which is understood to foretell the Times of the Maccabees the distresses of those times and the mighty Deliverances which God would give the Jews by the Conduct and Courage and Resolution of those Men. In so great and lofty Expressions the Prophet was directed to introduce it that he might encourage the Faith and raise the Expectations of that People who were now in a very weak and low Condition For they were but newly returned from their Captivity and were envied and hated and opposed in their present Interests by wicked and powerful Neighbours He reminds them herein of the great Works of that God in whom he would have them now put their trust The whole Verse and Preface contains thus much The Burden of the Word of the Lord for Israel saith the Lord Who stretcheth forth the Heavens and layeth the Foundations of the Earth and formeth the Spirit of Man within him That which we may observe in this Text is That the Prophet places this work of God His forming the Spirit of Man within him together with his stretching out the wide and spacious Heaven and his laying the Foundations of the ponderous Earth and that when he design'd to represent the Greatness of God his ability and fitness to do what he had promised by shewing them the works he had already done This then we may reckon is here intimated to be a workparallel with those that are mentioned with it and fit to be mention'd with them to the same purpose This is a great and mighty Work as well as the other two All God's Works of Creation do declare their Authors Greatness and as the Psalmist speaks Praise him But some do this more than others as they are more excellent and greater than others Elsewhere also the Scripture mentions the making of Man as one of the more excellent and wonderful Works of God and sets it together with his making the Earth and stretching out the Heavens As in Isa 45. 12. where God to magnify himself in the Esteem of that People and to assure them that he could raise up one that should deliver them from Captivity says by his Prophet I have made the Earth and created man upon it I even my Hands have stretched forth the Heavens Now when the making of Man is here spoken of as one of the greatest Works of God this must needs be understood with relation to the Soul of Man For certainly a thing so small and weak so gross and heavy and so dark and so decaying as is the Humane Body cannot justly be reckoned worthy of this great comparison
is vain and impertinent but when it is intended and directed to the instructing of our selves for our own good Behaviour in those Circumstances when they are such as we are in or are likely to come into Or when our Neighbour whom we censure is such an one as we may be supposed able to advise and direct him and whom it is not a thing above us to pretend to direct him as it is certainly above the Subject to direct and dictate to his Governours in Church or State Further the Thoughts that are unseasonable and do interrupt us in our present Duty whatever it is are in that respect vain Thoughts and these proceed from the Vanity of the Mind these are commonly at that time unconsidered and unchosen and such as the roving of the Mind accidentally falls upon But if they are chosen and designed at such an unseasonable time yet are they vain and fruitless because they divert a Man from that which is his present Duty they either hinder him from doing it at all or from doing it well Such are the Thoughts of wordly Affairs and Businesses which may be lawful enough and fitting at another time when we are or should be engaged in the worship of God and in Exercises of Devotion and doubtless such may also be those that are upon Divine and Religious Matters when Men are in the Affairs of an honest Calling as when they intrude and mingle themselves so with a mans Business as to disturb his mind to beat him off from or hinder the due performance of it We are not bound to be actually thinking of God and Heaven or the Day of Judgment at all times or to have our Discourse when we are in Company always taken up with Speculations in Religion which some unjustly appropriate the name of good Discourse to It is good discourse to direct and advise and assist one another in our Duty of any kind and then it is good Discourse which does direct or encourage a Neighbour in his worldly Business and Calling in its proper Season They have a wrong Notion of Religion and it is just such an one as that of the Papists when they call a Monkish Life by way of Eminence a Religious one who think no Thoughts or Discourse good or religious but when the Mysteries of our Religion or our future hopes and passages of Scripture are the Subject of them A man may be religious in the Actions and so in the Thoughts about the meanest Trade because he may do all that he does to the Glory of God and he does in his worldly Business that which God has commanded and set him to do accordingly the Thoughts about those things so far as they are necessary and in their season are dutiful obedient and religious Ones they are such as Religion does allow and indeed oblige a man to have He that should neglect his Trade tho it was the meanest Handicraft to meditate on Divine things or that should do his work ill by reason of having his mind unseasonably employed and taken up with these things would transgress as truly as he that should neglect the due acknowledgment of God to apply himself to his worldly Business or should perform the worship of God slightly by reason of having his mind wandering from that to his worldly Business In a word those Thoughts which are loose and undirected which do no way concern our Duty or which do impertinently divert us from present Duty they come under the name of Vain Thoughts And these were they which David hated together with by consequence that vain roving inconsiderate Disposition of Mind which produces them Thus much may suffice to shew distinctly what it is the Psalmist speaks of The next part of our Business is to justifie this good Man's Hatred of this unhappy Disposition of Mind and these Exercises of it The reason of which his hatred of them he intimates to be their contrariety to the due observance of the Law of God And that this is the mischievous Nature of them will fully appear in short by these two things 1. They are a mighty hinderance of doing good 2. They greatly expose and commonly betray a Man into the doing of Evil. 1. This Disposition of Mind must needs be a great hinderance of all good and worthy Actions Some are so foolish as even to affect this Disposition to endeavour cherish and indulge a roving unfixed Thought they allow and follow all the wild Freaks of the Imagination and this is the admir'd Wit of our Times But the Imagination is the wildest and most ungovernable and dangerous Faculty in the Mind of Man and it cannot chuse but be very unhappy for any man to indulge it and give himself up to follow it Such as do so are commonly Lawless in their Opinions and Manners they are not capable of any fixed Principles or of a steady Course of Actions and by consequence they cannot set themselves to any useful or creditable way of living Hence we often see the great Wits of the Times good for nothing they can squander away their Time their Health or an Estate but cannot get any good or do any and doubtless to be thus a Wit is to be a Fool. The inconsiderate and wandering Disposition of Mind is a great hinderance of all the Improvement of the Mind and of furnishing it for honourable and good Actions A man under the power of this can never study his Duty carefully cannot learn or understand the Laws and Rules of the several Vertues therefore he knows not how or what it is to do well He can never seriously ponder and deliberately consider the motives and inducements to do well and therefore these have no force upon him and then he must needs live a wild and ungovern'd Life he cannot be vertuous and good unless he could be so by chance and indeed an House may be regularly built by chance or an excellent Discourse be composed accidentally by the throwing of the Letters carelesly together as well as Man can live a wise and well-composed and good Life without consideration And herein lies I doubt not one ground of the common differences between man and man especially between those who have equal advantages for Improvement One man steadily fixes and applies his mind to some good Purpose to serve God and Man in some particular way of living and he is of some use in the World Another applies his mind to no one thing and he is good for nothing So when several men enjoy the same means of Grace and Goodness one becomes good and religious and another receives no Benefit at all by them The reason is because the one uses them with design to improve by them and with careful application of his mind to the obtaining this end the other has no care or endeavours about this matter His roving and vain Imaginations leave no room for better Thoughts they do not give him leave to attend to and consider
according to his Divinity and whence according to his Humanity what things he suffer'd and why what is the Vertue of his Resurrection what Gifts of the Spirit he promised and gave to the Faithful But it should also be taught what sort of Men the Members must be to whom he may and will be the Head What sort he requires and makes and loves and redeems and brings to everlasting Life When these things are insisted upon says he then Christ is preached Christus Evangelizatur Aug. de Fide Operibus Tom 4. This Preaching then does not take men off from relying upon Christ it does not tend to make them depend upon themselves for Salvation but it shews them in what way they must rely upon Christ for Salvation that they may certainly succeed in the doing it 2. To improve yet a little further what has been said we may thence learn the Vanity and Deceitfulness of their hopes of Salvation who lead wicked and ungodly Lives they that live in their Sins and yet hope to be saved expect to come to Heaven by the way to Hell they depend upon the Mercy of God and the Merits of Christ without taking the only course to have an Interest in them 3. There is not only folly and deceit in these Hopes but also there is great guilt and provocation in them For this is to turn the Grace of God into Wantonness which is that St. Jude Ver. 4. earnestly condemns when we encourage our selves in Sin from the undertaking of the Redeemer What is said of him in the Gospel is an encouragement for Men to forsake their Sins but not to continue in them This is the greatest abuse that can be of redeeming Love it is contrary to the end and design of it The Mediator took the Name Jesus to signify that his purpose is to save his People from their Sins And indeed his design had been a very strange one if he had come to procure a Dispensation for our Love of infinite Goodness for our Reverence of an infinite Majesty and of our Obedience to the Creator of all things if he had come to dispense with the Laws of Equity and Justice of Mercy and Charity of Truth and Faithfulness towards our Neighbour This is a design unworthy of the Holy Jesus this had not been to glorify the Father and how can it be but highly displeasing to impute to him such a Design as this Opinion and Practice must be reckon'd to do And yet further This is contrary to the Obligation of redeeming Love as well as to the Design of it and must needs be upon that account very displeasing It was the greatest Instance of divine Love to give his Only begotten Son to Die for us and then it is the greatest Obligation to the Love of God And is it not a most enormous and unjust requital to make this an encouragement to the living in hatred against him To live in constant rebellion and contempt This must needs give the highest and most guilty Aggravation to the Sins of Men that can be Let us consider then how much we are obliged by the Love of God to love him and that if we love him we must keep his Commandments The PRAYER OH most merciful and gracious God thy mercy is everlasting and thy truth endures from Generation to Generation Thou hast helped us in our low Estate through the greatness of thy Mercy When we had rendred our selves deserving of everlasting Misery and utter Rejection from thy favour and care thou didst then take care for us and laidst help upon One that is mighty and able to save to the uttermost Oh who can conceive or express the Love of God to us in Christ Jesus It passes knowledge We give thee O Lord most humble and hearty Thanks for this thy unspeakable Gift We thank thee for our Saviour's excellent Doctrins and Instructions whereby he shews us the way to happiness for his most holy and good Life whereby he leads us in the way to it and is become an encouraging Pattern and Example of Well-doing We bless thee for his meritorious Death whereby he has made an Attonement for our Sins has purchased for us thy sanctifying Grace and thy infinite eternal Favour Oh what reason have we to say what shall we render unto the Lord for all his Benefits How many ways O Lord hast thou deserved our highest praises our supream Affections and our best Obedience But Oh how unsensible have we ungrateful wretches been of this thy great Mercy How backward and slow to comply with the just and reasonable Terms of Salvation We are loth to part with our Sins even for the Love of Jesus or to wean our Affections from this World for the hopes of Heaven Yea we are apt to fall into the guilty and pernicious folly of turning the Grace of God into wantonness of encouraging our selves to continue in our Sins upon presumption on thy Mercy in Christ Jesus and of expecting Salvation by him while we have neglected the terms and conditions of obtaining it O Lord awaken us at length to a due and wise Care of our own Souls Of thy infinite Mercy pardon our past Neglects and give us for the sake of Jesus Christ what thou requirest that we may be partakers of the great Salvation Give us an unfeigned Repentance for all our past Transgressions stedfast and sincere purposes of new Obedience Give us an humble lively Faith in him such as may engage us to follow him make us love and chuse his Commands ready to deny our selves for his sake and to devote our selves entirely to him to live to him that died for us let it bring forth much fruit in a diligent and industrious Obedience and seek and expect our acceptance and reward only by Vertue of his Merits and spotless Righteousness Let such a Faith we pray thee be formed or promoted in us by the Ordinances we have this day enjoyed Let us lie down in peace with thee this Night and repose our selves under the protection of thy Providence If it please thee that we shall awake again in this World let our Hearts be full of a thankful Sense of thy Mercies and a Concern to shew forth thy Praise in the Course of our Lives We humbly recommend to thy Mercy and Favour all Mankind beseeching thee to enlighten those that sit in darkness and in the shadow of Death to bring into the way of thy Truth all such as have erred and are deceived To replenish thy Church abundantly with the Gifts and Graces of thy good Spirit to comfort and relieve any of thy Servants that are desolate and afflicted to prosper those that seek the Peace of thy Jerusalem We implore thy Mercy upon the Land of our Nativity Lord let Peace and Righteousness Charity and Piety setle and abound among us Rule and guide thou our Rulers in thy Fear Teach our Teachers Bless comfort and encourage thy Ministers both in Church and
State with a Loyal Obedient Peaceable and Loving People Grant that we may all live to thy Glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. In whose own words we further say Our Father c. THE GREAT DUTY OF THANKFULNESS Urged and Directed Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen 1 Thes 5. 18. In every thing give Thanks THere is an exceeding great evil and disorder which we may too frequently observe in the World and which every Man's reason condemns in others and yet all are apt to be often guilty of it themselves It is that we we do commonly remember long and retain a very deep resentment of an Injury whether it be a real or but an imagined one but we soon forget the Benefits we receive and lose the Impressions of them Thus do Mankind often deal with one another and thus also do they behave themselves towards God Tho he cannot wrong or injure us yet we are apt to think he does so when he does in any thing displease us and we behave our selves towards him as if he did We murmur against him and grow discontented and froward are ready to think 't is in vain to serve him and to throw off our Duty And on the other side we do at the same time forget his Benefits and take no notice of what we have many times through desire of what we want We are very earnest and importunate in our Requests for what we would have and are cold in our Thanksgivings or neglect to be thankful at all when we have obtain'd it The Spirit of God taking notice of this Fault in Mankind repeats his Instructions in Holy Scripture to the contrary He bids us take care to join with all our Prayers Thanksgivings in Phil. 4. 6. he says by the Apostle Be careful for nothing but in every thing by Prayer and Supplication with Thanksgiving let your request be made known to God However desirous ye are however sollicitous to obtain what ye want of God be sure to be thankful for what ye have Again in this Chapter where our present Text is he joins the Command of Thanksgiving with that of Prayer the 17th Ver. bids us Pray without ceasing and this 18th says In every thing give Thanks whatever your condition be recommend it to Almighty God by Prayer and how long soever it pleases God to deny or delay what you desire yet continue to pray And with your Prayers remember also to give Thanks In every thing give Thanks that is in every State and Condition endeavour to retain always a Sense of the Divine Benefits to praise him for what he has done for you and be free from all hard Thoughts of God and undecent Murmurings against him I confess this Command in this place seems to be chiefly directed to those Holy and good Men who are the peculiar Favourites of Heaven by the Interest of Jesus Christ But because this Duty is urged more generally elsewhere and there is no Duty requir'd of such good Men but it is also required of all Men at least by consequence and as all Men are required to be good I shall therefore take the words as exhorting to an universal Duty And I conclude from them that all Men are bound to express a thankful Acknowledgement unto God of the Benefits they receive from him and that in all Estates and Circumstances whatsoever In discoursing upon this Matter I shall endeavour these 2 things 1. To prove that every Man has Reason for great Thankfulness to Almighty God 2. To direct the right Expressions and Declarations of our Thankfulness In the first place I shall endeavour to make it evident That every Man has some reason to be thankful to God some reason to praise and love him and to be patient and contented in every Condition And this I think will evidently appear upon the making good the following Particulars 1. Let us consider That all Men are in some measure Partakers of the Divine Benefits There is not one among the Race of Mankind that can justly reckon himself not at all obliged to God Every man is beholden to God for his Being for the preservation and continuance of his Being so long as he subsists and for some things that comfort him in his Being and without doubt the Death of Christ is in some sense an universal Benefit Every Man is beholden to God for that Being which he has It is God that hath made us and not we our selves And from that sort of Being which God has given us are we engaged to be thankful We were made but little lower than the Angels and crowned with Honour and Dignity as the Psalmist says of all Men Psal 8. The meanest Man is next in Dignity to them in the Order of the Creation It is an exceeding Honour of our Bodies and their greatest Worth and Commendation that they are made fit to serve and entertain so noble a Guest as an immortal Spirit and this Honour the most deformed the weakest and the most crazy Body has belonging to it But our greatest Worth and Dignity lies in the Soul which God has given us There is in every Man an excellent Spirit which is capable of very great things however it is in some Men wretchedly neglected and deprest By this are all Men capable of the sublime Knowledge of the Creatour capable to love and praise and delight themselves in him by such a Being then we are capable of Happiness to a great and excellent Degree and even of the highest kind of Happiness that can be as we can enjoy or delight our selves in him who is the highest Good And our immortal Soul renders us capable of Everlasting Happiness in the Eternal fruition of an Infinite Eternal Good Every Man may reach this Happiness if he will This is that he was made and designed for and no Man shall fall short of it but by his own default Thus our Being then should engage us to be thankful to God that gave it Further 'T is to him we owe the continuance of our Being he supports and maintains us in this Life while it lasts and after it in the other This is a continual Obligation to Thankfulness it is a continual Creation As no Being can make its self so none can preserve or continue its self at all but all things have always a most necessary dependance upon the great Creatour We ought then all of us to acknowledge it is he that holds our Soul in Life And while he continues this Life he obliges us in that we are so long capable in some measure to see and enjoy the pleasant and good things of this World If we have good and vertuous Souls and are free from Envy and
Malice we can see with satisfaction and pleasure the Happiness and satisfaction of others tho we are not so happy our selves especially may this please us in those that are vertuous and good and in those that are dear to us Besides while a Man lives tho it be in an afflicted State he has that important term and space lengthened to him wherein alone he can make his peace with God and fit and prepare his Soul for Heaven The time of this Life is the only space allowed us for the seeking and serving the Interest of Eternity And if our Life be continued tho in the midst of continual or succeeding vexations and miseries as these give us opportunity of exercising long Patience an invincible Trust in God the most commendable love to him and the most difficult resignation and submission so we have herein opportunity to gain the greater applause hereafter the brighter Crown of Glory and the more excellent degrees of reward by a patient continuance in well-doing We have reason then to be thankful for the continuance of our Being even in such a State as this Further There is no Man but does enjoy at one time or other and in a greater or less measure the comforts of this present Life Those things which do for the time elevate and chear him and make him joyful and merry Every man has some intervals of bright and calm Weather no one's day is always clouded and stormy This Life is to none a State of pure misery We are born to trouble in this World yet none do meet with only trouble and affliction Besides there is commonly a mixture of Good and Evil in every Condition Every inconvenient State has some conveniencies to allay it These we may find out if we will impartially consider our Circumstances And from thence we shall always have some reason to be thankful Lastly The Death of Christ is without doubt in some sense an universal Benefit Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners He by his one Oblation of himself once offer'd has made a full perfect and sufficient Sacrifice and Satisfaction for the Sins of the whole World He has by his Death brought it to pass that every Man upon his Repentance and Faith in him may be saved that Salvation may be offer'd to all therefore he bid his Disciples go and preach the Gospel to all And this Salvation may be obtained by all to whom it is offer'd if they are not wanting to themselves None of them perish but by their own perversness All in the Christian Church are beholden for the Knowledge of God and Christ which is offer'd to them for the Means of Grace and Salvation Thus it appears that all Men are in some measure Partakers of the Divine Benefits 2. Another thing that makes this an universal Duty is that God has with such admirable Wisdom distributed his Gifts among Men that every one almost has in some respects or other the Advantage of some other Men. As none are in this Life perfectly miserable so we can see none that are perfectly and compleatly happy No man shall have good reason to think himself worse dealt with and harder used by God's Providence than all Men besides him There is hardly a Man but may say If I want what others have I may also see some at least of others wanting what I have and what I delight in what I would not be without and perhaps would not exchange with many for theirs If the Rich have greater Dainties the Poor have usually the stronger and better Appetites The Labourer has greater strength and more health many times than he that lives at ease If one Man has less Honour than another he has less care and trouble too an obscure Station is blest with greater safety is exposed to less Envy than the contrary How many Cares and Griefs and Fears do attend Riches and Greatness of which the mean and poor Man may say I have none of these to trouble me It pleases God many times to lodge a vertuous and brave Soul in a deformed and contemptible Body and oftentimes are great Beauty or Strength and great Folly joined together It was very sitly replied by the Philosopher who being pitied by one for the Loss of a Farm answer'd his Condoler thus You have but one Field and I have yet three left and why should not I then rather pity and grieve for you If our mind is apt to grow sick with Envy or discontent at seeing the advantages in some respects which others have of us we should cure them again by reflecting on those which in other respects perhaps we may have of them or of some other Persons And thus may every man see something in his Condition to be thankful for upon a fair comparison of it with that of other Men. 3. It is yet another ground of Thankfulness common to all Men That the Gifts which we receive from God are undeservedly and freely bestowed upon us As he is the Sole Fountain of all the good we enjoy so he is the absolute and free Dispenser of all his Gifts God is a Debtor to no man We cannot draw any of his Blessings from him by previous Merit It was the meer and free Goodness of God which mov'd him to give us our Being Certainly before we were we could not oblige him All our Faculties and Powers then are free Gifts and render us indebted and obliged to him Therefore no exercise of these in any service of him can merit any thing from him for in all we do we only pay our own Debt if indeed we could do so much as that Well might the Apostle make that Challenge Who hath given any thing to God and it shall be recompenced to him again Rom. 11. 5. He can receive no advantage from his Creatures and therefore he designs none to himself in what he bestows upon them He may then very justly expostulate with our murmuring and discontent as the Housholder in the Parable Friend I do thee no wrong Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own We should always consider he is at liberty whether he will give what we ask of him or not What we want is his and what we have is so too even whilst we have it and so he is at liberty also to take that away We are entirely beholden to him for all that we have And should not this make us always thankful He deserves this from us if he gives and continues any thing to us since he does this freely Since God is kind Let us be ashamed to be unjust since he gives us the good Things which we do not deserve from him Let us not be so guilty as to deny him the Praise and Thanksgiving which he does deserve from us Should we not thank him for those things which we cannot demand of him which he gives and needs not give us Tho we have not all that we desire