I. If the Heart must be created a new before it can be a clean Heart Certainly before it is thus new formed is is an Impure and unclean Heart And this that is here implyed is frequently in the Scriptures directly affirmed Gen. 7.5 The imagination of the thoughts of the Heart of Man is only Evil continually Jer. 17.9 The Heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it Mark 7.21 Out of the Heart proceed evil Thoughts Adulteries c. And indeed all the Evils that are in the World are but evidences of the Impurity of the Heart that unclean Fountain and Original of them II. Concerning the second wherein the Vncleanness of the Heart consists The Heart is indeed the Crasis or Collection of all the Powers of the Soul in the full extent of it and therefore takes in not only the Will and Affections but the Understanding and Conscience and accordingly hath its Denomination proper to those several faculties as a Wise Heart a Foolish Heart a Believing Heart an Unbelieving Heart an Hard Heart a Soft Heart and the like But answerable to the propriety of the Epithete Clean or Unclean it principally concerns the Heart under the notion of Will or Desire and the Consequents that are thereupon and consequently according to the propriety of Application a Clean Heart is such a Heart as hath Clean Desires and Affections an unclean Heart is that which hath unclean and impure Desires a Heart full of evil Concupiscence And because the Cleanness or Uncleanness of the Desires are denominated from their Objects and not from the Affections or Desires themselves which are diversified according to their Objects Hence it is that a Heart that fixeth her Desires upon pure and clean Objects is said in that act to be a Clean Heart and that which fixeth its Desires upon Unclean or Impure Objects is an Unclean Heart in that Act Therefore before we can determine what an Unclean Heart is it is necessary to know what are Vnclean Objects the tendency of the Desires of the Heart whereunto doth denominate an Unclean Heart Generally whatsoever is a thing prohibited by the Command of GOd carries in it an Immundities an Impurity and Uncleanness in it But that is not the Uncleanness principally intended it is more Large and Spacious than the intent of the Text bears But there are certain Lusts and Impure or Immoderate Propensions in our Natures after certain Objects which come under the name of Vnclean Lusts and those are of two kinds the Lusts of the Mind and the Lusts of the Flesh for so they are called and distinguished by the Apostle The Lusts of the Mind are such as have their Activity principally in the Mind though they may have their Improvements by the Crasis and Constitution of the Body as the Lusts of Envy Revenge Hatred Pride Vain-glory. These are more Spiritual Lusts and therefore though they are more Devillish yet they are not properly so Unclean as those we after mention The Lusts of the Flesh are such Lusts as arise from our sensual Appetites after sensual Objects as the Lusts after Meats Drink and Carnal Pleasures And though these Objects are not in themselves sinful nor consequently the Appetites of them unlawful for they are planted in our Natures by the Wise and Pure God of Nature to most necessary and excellent Ends for the Preservation of our selves and our Kind yet they do accidently become Impurities and Uncleanness to us when inordinately Affected or Acted And these are those Vnclean Objects the Desires whereof do denominate an Vnclean Heart but principally the Latter the Lust of Carnal Concupiscence called by the Scriptures in an eminent manner the Lust of the Flesh 1 John 2.16 Fleshly Lusts that fight against the Soul 1 Pet. 2.11 Walking after the Flesh in the Lusts of Vncleanness 2 Pet. 2.10 Perchance bearing some Analogy to those Legal Uncleannesses in the Levitical Law especially to those of Levit. 15. Even the very natural Infirmities nay those that are not only tolerated but allowed carry in them a kind of Impurity and Uncleanness And hence grow those many Legal Impurities which disabled the Jews from coming into the Camp or Tabernacle till they were Purified as that of Leprosie touching of dead bodies unclean issues uncleanness after Child-birth uncleanness of natural Commixtions Lev. 15.18 Exodus 19.15 The uncleanness of natural Secessions Deut. 23.13 14. The washings of Aaron and his Sons Exod. 30.20 All which are but Emblems of the Impurity of the Heart and of the great Care that is to be used in the keeping of it Clean and the Reason is Morally and Excellently given Deut. 23.14 For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of the Camp to deliver thee and to give up thine Enemies before thee therefore shall thy Camp be Holy that he see no Vnclean thing in thee and turn away from thee The Conclusion therefore is that this Carnal Concupiscence the Lust of the Flesh predominate in the Heart is that which principally and by way of Eminence in respect of the subject matter of it denominates an Unclean Heart But in as much as this Concupiscence hath somewhat in it that is natural and consequently is not simply of it self Sin or Uncleanness therefore it is requisite to give a denomination of Uncleanness and Impurity to those desires that there be some Formalities requisite to the denomination of this to be Unclean and Sinful which is when those Desires are not in subjection to right Reason for it being a proceed of the inferior Faculties the sensual Appetite when the same is not in subordination to that Empire which God hath given the more Heavenly and Noble Powers of the Soul it becomes Confusion and inverting of the order of Nature and this is principally Discovered when these Desires are 1. Immoderate 2. Unseasonable 3. Without their proper end 4. Irregular 5. Unruly and without the Bridle of Reason III. The Causes of this Uncleanness of the Heart are principally these two 1. The Impetuousness and continual solicitations of the sensual Appetite which continually sends up its foul Exhalations and Steems into the Heart and thereby taints and infects it The Soul of Man is like a kind of Fire which if it be fed with clean and sweet materials it yields sweet and comfortable Fumes but if it be fed with impure and unclean and stinking oyl and exhalations it is tainted with them and makes unsavory thoughts which are a kind of Fume that rise from this Fire and therefore if the distemper of the Body or sensual Appetite send up cholerick Steems into this sacred Fire it yields nothing but thoughts of Anger and Indignation If it sends up Melancholy and Earthy fumes it fills the Soul with black and dismal and discontented thoughts If it send up as most ordinarily it doth sensual and fleshly Steems it fills the Heart with sensual and wanton thoughts 2. The Weakness and Defect of the imperial part
persons themselves in whom they are and to others Jam. 4.1 We may easily trace almost all the Sins and Enormities and Distempers and Troubles and Disorders that we observe in our selves or others to the Immoderation and Disorder of the Passions And therefore the due Moderation of them is of great consequence both for the attaining of true Tranquillity of Mind of great Regularity in all we do or say and to the common Peace Order and Benefit of Mankind The Moderation therefore of all our Passions consists principally in these two things 1. That they be not mis-placed or set upon wrong Objects as to Love that which we should not Love but possibly Hate or to Hate that which we should Love and so for the rest 2. That being rightly placed in respect of their Objects yet that they be not intended or acted beyond that degree that may be justly allowed to those Objects And this is properly Immoderation the former is merely Misprision Errour Enormity Folly And therefore when we speak of Moderation of our Passions it is intended in relation to those things about or upon which our Passions may be lawfully used or exercised so that they be kept within their just bounds and measures And since all the Objects of our Passions are either something that is Good or so thought as the Objects of our Love Joy Hope or something that is Evil or so esteemed as the Objects of our Hatred or Anger Sorrow Fear the true measure of these Affections or Passions is to be made according to the true measure of that Good or that Evil that is the present Object of my Passion If the Good or Evil be Great it deserves a greater intention of that Passion or Affection that is imployed about them if it be but little the measure of my Passion or Affection ought not to exceed it if it doth it becomes Immoderate And hence it is that the same Passion or Affection may be and indeed ought to be variously acted or intended about Objects of the same Nature yet under different degrees of Good or Evil I may at the same time have different objects of my Love different sorts or kinds of Good and of different allayes some more some less Good and my Love may be extended to them all at the same time but the degrees of my Love are diversified according to the diversity of the degrees of Good that each Object hath all circumstances adjuncts and consequences being considered The like may be said touching Evils that are the Objects of my Hatred Anger Sorrow or Fear The Moderation therefore of Affections requires these things principally 1. A Right Judgment or Estimate of things Good or Evil according to their true natures or degrees for without this we shall not only mistake in the degrees of Good or Evil but even in their very natures we shall not only take the Lesser Good or Evil for the Greater or the Greater for the Less but we shall be apt to mistake the things themselves and call Evil Good and Good Evil. Now it is certain that according to the Judgment that we have touching things Good or Evil and their Values and Degrees accordingly are our Passions and their Extents and Transports measured out If I Judg or Esteem that to be truly Good which indeed is not I deliver over to it my Affection of Love Joy or Hope and if I Judg that to be a Great and Important Good which is but Small or Inconsiderable yet according to the measure or proportion of such Estimate I measure out the degree of my Love Joy or Delight in such Good A Child will set as great a Rate and consequently allow as great a measure of his Love or Delight to a Rattle as a Boy doth to his Top and Scourg or as a Man doth to a Diamond all arising from the variety of their Judgment or Estimate of the Value of the thing And the like may be said of Evils and their several Degrees with relation to the Passions of Hatred Sorrow or Fear 2. The second thing required to Moderation is a Prudent staied Deliberation before the Passion be put into motion that so the Judgment be consulted touching the nature of the Object first whether it be Good or Evil and then what Degree of Good or Evil it hath for be the judgment never so Good yet if Passion run before it and be precipitate upon the first and sudden apprehension of the thing proposed or objected and so antivert the use of Deliberation and the ripening of the Judgment there must necessarily or at least ordinarily follow either Mistake or Disorder or Immoderation in the Passion of what kind soever and then the Mind is disturbed and put into disorder suddenly 't is difficult then to make a right Judgment or at least it comes too late and many times after the mischief is done by the hasty and precipitate Passion either without or at least within the Mind thus transported with Passion of any kind And therefore the General Rule for Moderation of all kind of Passions is resolutely to prescribe to a Mans self this Law That before he any way gives leave to his Passion he will pause and consider a while touching the Object presented what it is whether Good or Evil and if either then what Degree or Value it bears And when once a Man hath thus peremptorily resolved to give himself this Law and hath a little while inured himself to the practice of it he will find it easie and familiar This will better appear in the several instances of the several Affections or Passions of the mind principally in these of Love and Hatred or Anger Joy and Sorrow Hope and Fear 1. The Affection of Love is the Principal and Governing Affection of the Mind and the Root of all other Passions For whatsoever I love renders that hateful and displeasing which either prevents me from it or deprives me of it and so occasions the Passion of Hatred or Anger whatsoever I love makes me joyful or delighted in the Enjoyment of it or Sorrowful in the loss or deprivation of it and so produceth Joy and Sorrow whatsoever I love I hope for if absent or I fear the loss or deprivation of it and so produceth Hope and Fear The Object of this Affection is something that is Good or so apprehended The greater that Good is the greater is the Love of it Therefore the chiefest Good drawes out the chiefest Love and an Infinite Good an Unmeasurable and Boundless Love and since Almighty God is the chiefest and an Infinite Good there cannot be any Immoderation or Excess of Love to him and therefore this Moderation of our Affection of Love hath no place in relation to my Love of God for I cannot love him too much But this Moderation of this Affection principally respects the good things of this World as Wealth Honour Power Reputation Relations Friends Health of Body Pleasures and External
me take no contentment or satisfaction at all in all or any of these enjoyments the truth is they are but Provisions for the Flesh and in order to the Body and when the Body is under a distemper they become but insignificant useless things He that is under a strong Pain or Disease finds as little contentment though he lie on a soft Bed richly furnished in a Chamber richly hanged in it a Cupboard furnished with massie Plate as if he lay in a Cottage 3. They are but for a time Death will at last overtake me and as all my Riches and Pleasures and Honours and Worldly Accommodations cannot prevent or buy it off so neither will they be of any comfort or value to me in that hour Indeed they may make death more troublesom and unwelcome to me but they cannot at all secure me against it The plain truth is Death doth undeceive and open the eyes of the Children of Men it teacheth us to put the true value upon every thing as it deserves My Riches and my Honour my Pleasures and my Profits my Gallantry and my Policy which I made much reckoning of in my life time when Death comes I shall perceive them to be but Vanity at the best and set no Esteem upon them but Piety and Prayers and Charity and Interest in God and in the Merits of Christ and the Promises of the Gospel that perchance in my life time I esteemed as dry and useless things I shall then see to be of greatest value and accordingly prize them These I shall carry with me into the succeeding World but all my Worldly Comforts when I pass through this strait Gate of Death I shall leave behind me as a Snake leaves behind his antiquated Skin when he passeth through a brake and never make use of them or take comfort in them more And when I come unto the other side of this dead Lake the Fruitions of all my life past will be forgotten or at least remembred as a Man remembers a Dream when he awakes only the Good or Evil of my past life will stick upon me unto all Eternity Why then should I set my Heart upon that which is of so small a value so little use so short and so uncertain a continuance they are things which I may lose while I live but I am sure I cannot keep them when I die and if they take their farewel sooner they do but their kind and at best do but a little anticipate their last and necessary valediction I resolve therefore I will not set my Heart upon them but carry a loose and flaccid Affection towards them And if I lose them I will not over-much afflict my Soul for the loss of that which I had not much reason to value while I had it And as thus a Man should tutor himself to a just Estimate of the Good things of the World so a Man should bring himself to a just and due Esteem of the Evil things of the World such as Sickness and Pain and Imprisonments and Reproach and Want and the like There are these two things that do much allay the severity of those Evils 1. They are but Corporal they reach no farther than the Body the Husk the outward Man the Cottage they cannot at all get so deep as the Soul 2. They are but Temporal It is most certain that Death will cure and heal these Evils and possibly these Distempers and Sufferings the less severe they are the more tolerable the more severe the more in probability they will hasten and advance the cure As nothing that hath an end can make a Man truly Happy so nothing that hath an end can make a Man truly Miserable because he hath under his greatest Misery the Lenitive of Hope and Expectation of a Deliverance 6. But yet farther Gain Assurance of thy Peace with God in Christ and consequently of thy future Happiness and be frequent in the Contemplation and Improvement of it This is the great Engine of a Christian a Magistery that was never attained by the most exquisite Philosopher nor is attainable but in and by the knowledge of Christ who brought Life and Immortality to Light It is the great expedient whereby a Man attains Victory over the World whereby he is able to injoy Prosperity with Moderation and undergo Affliction with Patience 1 Joh. 5.4 This is the Victory which overcometh the World even your Faith When a Man under the severest Afflictions shall have this Assurance and these Contemplations It is true I am in as low a condition as the World can cast me my Estate torn from me by the basest of Men and I and my Children exposed to extream Want and Necessity so that I am become little better than a Vagabond upon the Earth for the very attaining of Bread or at best am driven to the hardest and most sordid imployment that can be consistent with honesty for my supplies of Necessaries and if by chance my own sweat or others charity supply me to day I cannot imagine what shift to make for to morrow and if this were a condition to which I had been born or in which I had been bred use might have made it easie and familiar but it is not so I am fallen into this low condition from a plentiful and liberal condition wherein I had my Table crowned with plenty and as I wanted not Charity to imploy my Plenty so I wanted not Plenty to supply my Charity Again I was in the greatest Reputation and Esteem among Men that may be but now I am fallen under the saddest the basest Scorn and Obloquy and Reproach and Imputation that can be and all this without any cause my Enemies Triumph over me with Scorns Derisions and Exprobrations my former Friends bestow upon me a kind of Scornful Pity that is more bitter than the upbraidings of my Enemies the abjects and dregs of the people make me their by-word and the Calumnies under which I suffer are of such a nature that none dares be my Advocate but the silent Testimony of my own Conscience and Innocence Again under all these pressures it had been some allay if I were but a Citizen of the World that I had but the liberty to forsake the place of my suffering and go to some more auspicious or tolerable corner of the World but in that I am also prevented my liberty is taken from me and I am penned up in the narrow dark loathsome stinking confines of a most odious Prison without the benefit of Light or Friends or indeed of any other Company than such as make my Imprisonment the more intolerable Chains and Vermine and the most accursed Malefactors Again I suffer not only under restraint of a loathsome Goal but I am exposed to lingring Torments Racks and Whips and Famine and Nakedness and Cold and continual Threats and sad Expectations of worse to follow if worse there may be Again dismal and painful and tormenting Diseases
this God published in the infancy of the World Gen. 4.7 If thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted and if thou dost not well sin lyes at the door Psal 62.12 Thou rendrest to every man according to his works Disobedience to this Law of God obligeth to Punishment upon a double ground 1. As a natural and a Just consequence of an unjust violation of a Just Duty in as much as every Creature owes an infinite subjection and obedience to the Soveraign Commands of him that gives it Being 2. As a consequence of that Sanction that is expresly annexed to the Law so given In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death Obedience on the other side is followed with a Reward not out of a natural consequent or a proportion between the Obedience and the Reward for every Creature owes obedience to God though there were no reward at all we have therein done but our Duty and God cannot be a debtor to the best of his Creatures for their best works Job 35.7 If thou be righteous what givest thou him but out of the Free Goodness and Bounty of our Law-giver who is pleased to make himself a debtor to his Creatures obedience by his Free Promise of a Reward and annexing of it to the Obedience of this Law Psal 62.12 Also to thee O Lord belongeth Mercy for thou renderest to every man according to his works As if he should have said O Lord all thy Creatures owe an universal Subjection and Obedience to thy Command and when they have done what thou commandest they pay but the just tribute unto Thee for their Being and therefore when they have done all that thou requirest they must sit down and say We are unprofitable servants we have done but what was our duty and cannot challenge any reward at thy hands They owe thee more for their Being that thou hast already given them than all their service and obedience can amount unto It is thy Mercy not thy Justice that hath annexed any further Reward to that Duty which we owe unto thee All the challenge that thy Creature can make to any Reward of his choicest Obedience is still founded upon thy Mercy who though we are in all this but unprofitable Servants art pleased to be to us a Bountiful Master in giving that Reward to the obedience of thy Creature which only thine Own Free Goodness did at first freely promise Even so Lord because Mercy pleaseth thee 3. In his most Wise and Special Providing for them Disposing of them and Protecting of them The General Providence of God reacheth every Creature but if that Infinite Wisdom and Power can admit of any degrees in the way of its execution it is more eminently at least acted in his Kingdom over his reasonable Creatures Luke 12.7 Fear not ye are of more value than many Sparrows Matth. 6.30 Shall he not much more cloath you And this Special Dispensation of this Kingdom is seen in more especially disposing and ordering of the ways and events of Particular men 2 Pet. 1.11 Prov. 20.24 Man's goings are of the Lord. How can a man then understand his own way of Societies or Companies of Men. Acts 17.26 hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitations in protecting them against the power and malice of Evil Angels restraining them from those Evils that their malice and natural power is able and willing to Effect Job 1.12 3. His Kingdom over his Church and this in a more special manner is the Kingdom of God And herein we consider 1. The King of this Kingdom God by an Eternal Decree hath appointed his Son our Lord Jesus Christ the King of this Kingdom Psalm 26.7 I have set my King upon my holy Hill Psalm 110.2 Rule thou in the middest of thine Enemies And hence it is called frequently the Kingdom of Christ Colos 1.13 the Kingdom of his dear Son 1 Pet. 2.11 the Everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and sometime the Kingdom of Christ and of God Ephes 5.5 The Kingdom of Christ in the immediate administration of it and the Kingdom of God who hath delegated and substituted him unto this administration Angels and Authorities and Powers being made subject unto him 1 Pet. 3.22 first the Kingdom of Christ till he shall have Judged all men and then the Kingdom of the Father when he shall deliver up the Kingdom to his Father that God may be all in all 1 Cor. 15.24 28. And the Regal Office of Christ over his Church principally respecteth these two things 1. In conquering to himself a people The whole World was by Sin reduced under a subjection to an Usurper the Prince of the power of the air the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience And this Kingdom of his was a Kingdom of darkness Colos 1.13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness And the Subjects of this Kingdom were a People of darkness Ephes 5.8 Ye were sometimes darkness And by the advantage of this darkness this Prince of darkness governed the World as he pleased for they knew not whither they went and by and from this darkness this Prince led them into another Continent or rather condition of his Kingdom a Kingdom of Sin and Sin as the Vice-Roy of this Prince of darkness did reign in the World and had dominion over it Rom. 6.12 14. and by Sin he led his Subjects into another Region of his Kingdom into the Kingdom of death Sin reigned unto death Rom. 5.21 and then death reigned Rom. 5.14 Now as God was pleased by a Mighty hand to go and take him a Nation from the mid'st of another Nation Deut. 4.34 So Christ redeems him a People out of every Tongue and Kindred and People and Nation Revel 6.9 out of the mid'st of his Enemies He came to destroy the works of the Devil 1 Joh. 3.8 binds this strong man that kept the house and rescues his prisoners from him 1. He came a Light into the World and dispelled and scattered that darkness which was the principal Engine whereby the Prince of this world did rule John 1.5 The Light shined into darkness and the darkness comprehended it not And at the very dawning of this Light into the World the Prince of darkness falls from Heaven like Lightning Luke 10.18 And this was that whereby the Prince of this world was Judged that is all his deceits and methods and wiles and abuses of Mankind were discovered and detected John 18.11 And by this Light we are translated from the power of darkness into the Kingdom of his Son Colos 1.13 are become partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1.12 are become light and children of the light Ephes 5.8 And as he came with Light to take away that Egyptian darkness which overspread the World Isa 9.1 So 2. he came with a Treasury of Merit to expiate the guilt and a Treasury of Righteousness to cover
the taking away of good Men good Governours good Laws So much Goodness as is in these is his own and he may justly call home what is his As the restraining Grace that he lends to a particular Man is not due to him so these External Restraints they are not due to us but they are the free Mercy and Favour of God and yet as in the former so in this the removal of them is seldom but upon some eminent sin When Jerusalem had offended against God he takes from them the Prudent and the Antient and the Honourable Man and the Counsellor and gives them Children to be their Princes Isa 3.2 when his Vineyard brings forth wild grapes he takes away the hedge thereof Isa 5.5 the good Order and Rule and Laws among them When God is angry with a Man or a People Governours of exemplary goodness are taken away not only from the Evil to come but by their being taken away Evil succeeds evil Manners and then evil Events 2. By proposing of Objects which though they have no evil in them nor are they propounded to the end to draw Men to Evil yet the Evil heart of Man takes opportunity by them to act unto Evil. The Egyptian Inchanters could have no more made Blood by their Inchantments without a Permission than they could make Lice Exo. 8.18 yet by that act of theirs Pharaoh his heart was hardned Exod. 7.22 Again when upon the importunity of Pharaoh and the Prayer of Moses the Plague of Frogs was removed it was an act of Mercy in God yet when Pharaoh saw there was respite he hardned his heart Exod. 8.15 And here appears that Sea of Poyson that is in our heart by Nature that will corrupt an innocent object as was the wedg of gold a Mercy as was this to Pharaoh nay the very Grace and Goodness and Patience and Bounty of God into a Temptation to Covetousness Presumption Wantonness Now from this Petition we learn our Duty in reference unto these Temptations 1. In reference to such Temptations which God is pleased oftentimes to send for Tryal such as are Afflictions and Persecutions 1. That we are not to seek them Our Savious teacheth us to pray against all Temptationr they are not in themselves good but are turned to good by the Wise and Merciful hand of God 2. That if we fall into them to be quiet and contented and to discern the hand that hath led us into them and the end why he did and to co-operate to that end to learn by them Patience under the hand of God Confidence in his Grace and Power to support us still to hold our Integrity not to be amazed and disordered as if some strange thing had befallen us but rest upon that Promise of his who is faithful and will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able but with the Temptation will make a way to escape 1 Cor. 10.13 Know that it is he whose Will thou hast before prayed may be done that hath led thee into this Temptation And by this means thy Temptarion shall be only a Temptation of Tryal and for thy Advantage not a Temptation of Seduction 3. To pray unto God 1. To prevent us from them for as they are not to be sought so all due means is to be used to avoid them 2. To be delivered out of them 3. To be supported in them 1. with Patience to bear them 2. with Grace to improve them to Gods End and if God say unto thee as once he did to Paul My Grace is sufficient for thee it will become an act of Heavenly Chymistry to turn thy Iron into Gold thy Temptation into Advantage 2. In reference to Temptations unto sin we learn two special Duties Watchfulness and Prayer both joyned together by our Saviour for this purpose Matt. 26.41 Watch and pray that ye enter not into Temptation 1. Watch 1 That thou be not a Tempter and therein 1. Beware of Tempting God for such Tempters there have been 1 By Presumption and presumptuous casting our selves upon unnecessary dangers Matt. 4.6.7 2 by Murmuring and discontent Exod. 17.2 Why tempt ye the Lord Deut. 6.16 Psal 78.18 They tempted God in their Heart by asking meat for their Lusts 2. Beware of Tempting the Devil for such is the Villany of our Nature that we are ready even to solicite the Devil himself unto Temptation by adventuring upon secret and unwarrantable Arts unreasonable practices going to Witches using Charms Invocations or willingly being in such places where they are used adventuring into unwarrantable places or companies without any just or reasonable calling thereunto 3. Beware of tempting Others unto any sin either by thy Perswasion or by thy Practice The former is more gross the latter well near as dangerous 1. to the person offending Matt. 18.7 Wo be unto the World because of offences 2. unto others especially when the occasion is given by a person in eminence of Place or Reputation Peters dissimulation proves a compulsion Gal. 2.14 and this extends not only to things simply evil but also to the practice of things in themselves indifferent 1 Cor. 8.11 Rom. 14.15 Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ dyed The thing that to thee is indifferent and so esteemed by thee when it shall draw another into the like practice upon thy Example but against his Conscience becomes an occasion to lose his Soul 4. Beware of tempting Thy self and this may be done divers ways 1. By giving way to wandering and vain Thoughts They mislead the heart indispose for Good corrupt the mind possess it with vanity as for Example when a Man will raise an imagination to himself that if he had such a degree of Wealth and then what Houses he would build what Retinue he would have what Table he would keep what Equipage he would have or fancy to himself that if he had such a degree of Power then how he would revenge such an Enemy how he would honour such a Friend and the like Such is the vanity of our minds that it can and often doth frame such similitudes to it self and upon them beget such follies and vain resolutions as these The temptation and sin that ariseth out of Wealth and Power really injoyed are those very workings of the mind upon them viz. Confidence Ostentation Pride Revenge and the like Now in these Imaginations and vain Thoughts the Soul tempts it self in a double way First he tempts his understanding into a Lye and a falsehood by putting himself into that imaginary condition in which he is not 2. He tempts himself in his Will and Affections drawing from those very imaginations that he hath thus framed those very same mischiefs and that very same poison if not worse which his corrupted Heart would have drawn from the real injoyment of that very Power or Wealth which he hath imagined himself to have and thereby improveth this very Imagination into a real Temptation staining corrupting
more than ten thousand talents Yet blessed Lord give us leave to lay hold upon thy Promise which thou haft freely made and to strengthen our hearts in this that that God that hath commanded us to forgive our repenting Brother will not deny a Pardon to his repenting Children and that God that hath been pleased to promise forgiveness to us upon our forgiveness of others is a God of Truth and Faithfulness as well as a Father of Mercies and though our forgiveness of our Brother cannot in any proportion deserve our God's forgiveness of us yet when the God of Truth hath freely ingaged himself by his Word to forgive us if we forgive he will never break it and he that hath raised in our hearts by his Grace this Merciful temper and disposition towards others hath thereby given us a pledge of his Mercy and Goodness unto us in Pardoning all our offences And lead us not into Temptation And because we are weak and frail Creatures subject to be overcome with every Temptation to depart from our duty to thee and we hourly converse with all varieties of Temptations Temptations from the World Temptations from Satan the Prince of this World and which is the worst of all Temptations from our own sinful hearts corrupt natures unruly affections and without thy continual Grace Preventing or Assisting us the least of all these our Enemies and Temptations are able to over-match us And because we are obnoxious to Temptations in all our actions in all our conditions in all our wants and in all our enjoyments in our lawful actions we are subject to the Temptation of Immoderation and Excess in our religious actions to Formality and Vain-Glory in our Prosperity to Pride and Forgetfulness of thee in Adversity to Murmuring and Discontent and Accusing of thy Providence under Injuries to Vindictiveness and immoderate Anger under Comforts and Enjoyments to Security and Abatement of our Love to thee and setting up our hopes and our rest upon the present World in our Knowledge to vain and impertinent Curiosity Pride and Self-conceit in cases of Wants to unlawful Means for our supplies in case of Abundance to Luxury Intemperance and Contempt of others in Sickness to Impatience in Health to Presumption and Forgetfulness of our latter ends in our Callings either to Negligence Unfaithfulness and Idleness on the one hand or to overmuch Solicitousness and vexation on the other hand If we are in Company we are in danger to be misguided by evil Perswasions or Examples from others if we are alone we are apt to be corrupted by the evil suggestions of our own corrupt hearts or of that evil one that watcheth all opportunities either to seduce or mischief us And since all our ways are before thee and thou knowest the snares that are in them and how to prevent them or to prevent us from them or to preserve us against them we beseech thee by thy Providence preserve us from all those Temptations which thou knowest to be too strong for us and by thy Grace preserve us from being overcome by those Temptations that unavoidably occur in all our actions and conditions Grant us the Spirit of Watchfulness and Sobriety the Spirit of Moderation and Humility the Spirit of Patience and Wisdom the Spirit of Faith and Dependance and the Spirit of the Love and Fear of thy Majesty that may support us against all those Temptations unto any sin that may occur in the course and passages of our Lives that though thy Providence should permit us to fall into Temptation we may not fall under it but by thy Grace be delivered from the evil of it But deliver us from Evil. Deliver us therefore we pray thee from Evil of all kinds and natures from the Evil of Sin and from the evil of Suffering from such Evils as may befal our Souls either to disturb and discompose them or to defile and corrupt them from the Evils that may befal our Bodies by Casualties or Diseases from the Evils that may befal our Estates by Losses and Calamities from the Evils that may befal our good Names by Calumnies and Slanders from the Evil that may befal our Relations in any kind from Publique Evils to the Church or State wherein we live from Private Evils to our selves or others For thine is the Kingdome And though in this short Prayer we have been bold to ask of thee many large and ample Benefits and Mercies which if we look upon our selves only seem too great for us to ask yet they are not too great for thee to give for thou art the great King and Soveraign Lord of all the World in comparison of whom all the Kings of the Earth are but small inconsiderable things and yet even their Honour is much advanced by Beneficence and Bounty all which nevertheless is but a drop in comparison of that Ocean of Goodness and Bounty and Beneficence that resides in and hourly flows from Thee the great Monarch of the whole World Thy Subjects are all of thy own making and all the good that is in them or enjoyed by them is derived from thee to them The Strength and Glory and Beauty and Excellence of thy Kingdom is not derived from thy Subjects but from thy Self to them And therefore though my Petitions be great they are fit to be such because directed to the Mighty Creator and King and Monarch of the whole Universe the Root and Fountain of all Being and Goodness The Power And as thou art the Great Soveraign of all the World and art invested with the Supream Authority so thou art the great Creator of all things and art invested with Infinite Power and All-Sufficiency And as thou hast the Supream Authority so thou hast Boundless Power to grant and effect what we have asked As thou art the Great and Glorious King of Heaven and Earth and the Father of all Mankind we have reason to be confident in thy Goodness and Beneficence And as thou art the Almighty Creator we have assurance of thy Power to give us whatsoever thy Wisdom and Goodness doth move thee to bestowe And therefore upon both accounts we have reason to be confident in the obtaining of what we ask in this Prayer from the great Lord of all things that is Abundant in Goodness and All-sufficient in Power And the Glory And although thy Infinite All-sufficiency and Glory can receive no increase from thy Creatures yet give us leave with Humility to press Thee ever with this argument also Thou hast been pleased to declare unto us That thy Glory is thy great end of all thy Works and art pleased to set the greatest value that may be upon thy own Glory and art pleased to command thy Creatures to Glorifie Thee and dost accept that small Tribute of Praise and Thanksgiving and Glorifying of thy Name from thy Creatures in good part Thou hast the Glory of our Dependance upon Thee which we testifie by invoking thy Great Name thou wilt have the Glory of thy Goodness thy Power thy Bounty in granting these our Petitions and Requests and the Glory of our Praises and Thanksgivings for thy Bounty and Goodness in accepting and answering them which though it cannot benefit Thee yet it is all thy poor Creatures can return unto Thee and thou hast declared thy self well pleased with it Psal 50.32 He that offereth Praise glorifieth Thee Amen Blessed Lord therefore be it according to these our Petitions and Desires and so much the rather because these our Requests are not the product of our own Imaginations and weak Judgments but that Son of thine who best knew thy Will and what thou wouldest grant hath taught us thus to Ask and commanded us thus to thus to Pray Luk. 11.2 When ye pray say Our Father c. FINIS