are made partakers of Christ's Death and of his Resurrection teaching us that we should rise from the death of Sin to the life of Righteousness Quest. VVhat is the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Answ. A ceremony of eating Bread and drinking Wine being blessed and consecrated by God's Minister in publick Assemblies in remembrance of Christ's Death and Passion Quest. What benefits are done unto us by this Sacrament Answ. Our Souls are nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ our Bodies are sealed to a Blessed Resurrection and to Immortality our Infirmities are strengthned our Graces encreased our Pardon made more certain and when we present our selves to God having received Christ's Body within us we are sure to be accepted and all the good prayers we make to God for our selves and others are sure to be heard Quest. Who are fit to receive this Sacrament Answ. None but baptized Christians and such as repent of their Sins and heartily purpose to lead a good Life Quest. What other Ministeries hath Christ ordained in his Church to help us and to bring so many great purposes to pass Answ. Jesus Christ hath appointed Ministers and Embassadors of his own to preach his word to us to pray for us to exhort and to reprove to comfort and instruct to restore and reconcile us if we be overtaken in a fault to visit the sick to separato the vile from the precious to administer the Sacraments and to watch for the good of our Souls Quest. What are we tied to perform towards them Answ. To pay them honour and maintenance to obey them in all things according to the Gospel and to order our selves so that they may give account of our Souls with chearfulness and joy Quest. Which are the Commandments and Laws of Jesus Christ Answ. They are many but easy holy but very pleasant to all good minds to such as desire to live well in this world and in the world to come and they are set down in the Sermons of our Blessed Lord and of his Apostles but especially in the 5 6 7. Chapters of S. Matthew AN EXPOSITION OF The Apostles Creed I Believe in God I Believe that there is a God who is one true supreme and alone infinitely wise just good free eternal immense and blessed and in him alone we are to put our trust The Father Almighty I believe that he is 1. the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and 2. of all that believe in him whom he hath begotten by his Word and adopted to the inheritance of Sons and because he is our Father he will do us all that good to which we are created and designed by Grace and because he is Almighty he is able to perform it all and therefore we may safely believe in him and relie upon him Maker of Heaven Earth He made the Sun and the Moon the Stars and all the Regions of Glory he made the Air the Earth and the Water and all that live in them he made Angels and Men and he who made them does and he only can preserve them in the same being and thrust them forwards to a better He that preserves them does also govern them and intends they should minister to his Glory and therefore we are to do worship and obedience to him in all that we can and that he hath commanded And in Jesus Christ I also believe in Jesus Christ who is and is called a Saviour and the Anointed of the Lord promised to the Patriarchs whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power to become the Great Prophet and declarer of his Father's Will to all the world telling us how God will be worshipped and served he is anointed to be the Mediator of the New Covenant and our High-Priest reconciling us to his Father by the Sacrifice of himself and to be the Great King of all the world And by this Article we are Christians who serve and worship God the Father through Jesus Christ. His only Son Jesus Christ is the Son of God he alone of him alone For God by his Holy Spirit caused him to be born of a Virgin by his power he raised him from the dead and gave him a new Birth or being in the Body he gave him all power and all excellency And beyond all this he is the express Image of his person the brightness of his glory equal to God beloved before the beginning of the world of a nature perfectly Divine very God by essence and very Man by assumption as God all one in nature with the Father and as Man one Person in himself Our Lord Jesus Christ God's only Son is the Heir of all things and persons in his Father's house All Angels and Men are his servants and all the Creatures obey him We are to believe in him and by Faith in him onely and in his name we shall be saved Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost I believe that Jesus Christ was not begotten of a Man nor born by natural means but that a Divine Power from God God 's Holy Spirit did overshadow the Virgin-Mother of Christ and made her in a wonderful manner to conceive Jesus in her womb and by this his admirable manner of being conceived he was the Son of God alone and no Man was his Father Born of the Virgin Mary Though God was his Father and he begat him by the power of the Holy Ghost and caused him miraculously to begin in the womb of his Mother yet from her he also derived his humane Nature and by his Mother he was of the Family of King David and called the Son of Man his Mother being a holy person not chosen to this great honour for her wealth or beauty but by the good will of God and because she was of rare exemplar modesty and humility and she received the honour of being a Mother to the Son of God and ever a Virgin and all generations shall call her blessed Suffered under Pontius Pilate After that Jesus passed through the state of Infancy and Childhood being subject to his Parents and working in an humble Trade to serve his own and his Mother 's needs he grew to the estate of a man he began to preach at the age of thirty years and having for about three years and a half Preached the Gospel and taught us his Father's will having spoken the Gospel of his Kingdom and revealed to us the secrets of Eternal life and Resurrection of the Dead Regeneration and Renewing by the Holy Spirit perfect Remission of sins and Eternal Judgment at last that he might reconcile the world to his Father he
is easy to make them good Protestants unless they be abus'd with prejudice and suck venom with their milk they cannot leave our Communion till they have reason to reprove our Doctrine There is therefore in the following pages a Compendium of what we are to Believe what to do and what to Desire It is indeed very little but it is enough to begin with and will serve all persons so long as they need milk and not strong meat And he that hath given the following Assistances to thee desires to be even a door-keeper in God's House and to be a servant of the meanest of God's servants and thinks it a worthy employment to teach the most ignorant and make them to know Christ though but in the first rudiments of a holy Institution This only he affirms that there is a more solid comfort and material support to a Christian spirit in one article of Faith in one period of the Lord's Prayer in one Holy Lesson than in all the disputes of impertinent people who take more pains to prove there is a Purgatory than to perswade men to avoid Hell And that a plain Catechism can more instruct a Soul than the whole day's prate which some daily spit forth to bid them get Christ and persecute his Servants Christian Religion is admirable for its wisdom for its simplicity and he that presents the following Papers to thee designs to teach thee as the Church was taught in the early days of the Apostles to believe the Christian Faith and to understand it to represent plain Rules of good Life to describe easie Forms of Prayer to bring into your Assemblies Hymns of Glorification and Thanksgiving and Psalms of Prayer By these easy paths they lead Christ's little ones into the Fold of their great Bishop and if by this any service be done to God any ministery to the Soul of a Child or an ignorant Woman it is hoped that God will accept it and it is reward enough if by my Ministery God will bring it to pass that any Soul shall be instructed and brought into that state of good things that it shall rejoyce for ever But do thou pray for him that desires this to thee and endeavours it Jer. Taylor CREDENDA OR What is to be Believed A SHORT CATECHISM For the Institution of young persons in the Christian Religion Quest. IN what does true Religion consist Answ. In the knowledge of the one true God and whom he hath sent Jesus Christ and in the worshipping and serving them Quest. What doest thou believe concerning God Answ. 1. That there is is a God 2. That he is One 3. Eternal 4. Almighty 5. That he hath made all the world 6. That he knows all things 7. That he is a Spirit not of any shape or figure or parts or body 8. That he is present in all places 9. That his seat is in Heaven and he governs all the world so that nothing happens without his order and leave 10. That he is the Fountain of Justice 11. Of Mercy 12. of Bounty or Goodness 13. That he is unalterably happy and infinitely perfect 14. That no evil can come near him 15. And he is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Quest. What other Mystery is revealed concerning God Answ. That God being one in Nature is also three in Person expressed in Scripture by the names of Father Son and Holy Spirit The first Person being known to us by the name of The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The second Person is called The son and the Word of the Father The third is The Spirit and promise of the Father And these are Three and One after a secret manner which we must believe but cannot understand Quest. What is this God to us Answ. He is our Creator and Father and therefore he is our Lord and we are his Creatures his Sons and his Servants Quest. Wherefore did God create and make us Answ. That we might do him honour and service and receive from him infinite felicities Quest. How did God make man Answ. By the Power of his word out of the slime of the Earth and he breathed into him the breath of life Quest. Was man good or bad when God made him Answ. Man was made pure and innocent Quest. How then did man become sinful and miserable Answ. By listening to the whispers of a tempting spirit and breaking an easy Commandment which God gave him as the first tryal of his obedience Quest. What evils and chages followed this Sin Answ. Adam who was the first man and the first sinner did both for himself and his posterity fall into the state of death of sickness and misfortunes and disorder both of Body and Soul we were thrown out of Paradise and lost our Immortality Quest. Was man left in these evils without Remedy Answ. No but God pitying his creature promised That of the seed of the Woman he would raise up a Saviour and Redeemer who should restore us to God's favour and to the felicity which we lost Quest. How did God perform the promise Answ. By sending Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature to die for our sins to become our Lord and the Author of holiness and life and Salvation to mankind Quest. Who is Jesus Christ Answ. He is the Son of God the Second Person of the holy Trinity equal with the Fathe rtrue God without beginning of life or end of daies Quest. How then could he be our Redeemer and the promised seed of the Woman Answ. The Son of God in the fulness of time by the miracles of his Mercy took upon him Humane nature and united it after a wonderful manner to his Godhead so that he was both God and Man He was born of a Virgin who conceived him not by any natural means but by the power of the holy Ghost and was called Jesus Christ and his Mother's name was Mary of the seed of Abraham of the family of David And all these things came to pass when Augustus Caesar was Lord of the Roman Empire Quest. How did Jesus Christ work this promised Redemption for us Answ. By his holy and humble life and his obedient dying a painful death for us upon the Cross. Quest. What benefits do we receive by the life and death of Jesus Christ Answ. We are instructed by his Doctrine encouraged by his excellent Example we are reconciled to God by his death He hath given us an excellent Law and glorious Promises and himself hath received power to make good all those Promises to his Servants and fearfully to destroy them that will not have
him to reign over them Quest. What Promises hath Jesus Christ made us in the Gospel Answ. He hath promised to give us all that we need in this life That every thing shall work together for our good That he will be with us in tribulation and persecution He hath promised his Graces and his holy Spirit to enable us to do our duty and if we make use of these Graces he hath promised to give us more He hath promised to forgive us our sins to hear our prayers to take the sting of death from us to keep our souls in safe custody after death and in his due time to raise our bodies from the grave and to joyn them to our Souls and to give us eternal life and joys that shall never cease Quest. How is Jesus Christ able to do all this for us Answ. When he had suffered death and was buried three days God raised him up again and gave him all power in Heaven and Earth made him head of the Church Lord of Men and Angels and the judge of the quick and dead Quest. By what means doth Jesus Christ our Lord convey all these Blessings to us Answ. Jesus Christ had three Offices and in all he was Mediator between God and man He is our Prophet our Priest and our King Quest. What was his Office as he was a Phophet Answ. This Office he finished on earth beginning when he was thirty years old to â—…each the Gospel of the Kingdom Faith and Repentance Quest. When began his Priestly Office and wherein does it consist Answ. It began at his death for he was himself the Priest and the Sacrifice offering himself upon the Altar of the Cross for the sins of all the World Quest. Did his Priestly Office then cease Answ. No He is a Priest for ever that is unto the end of the world and represents the same Sacrifice to God in Heaven interceding and praying continually for us in the virtue of that sacrifice by which he obtains relief of all our necessities Quest. What doth Christ in Heaven pray for on our behalf Answ. That our sins may be pardoned our infirmities pitied our necessities relieved our persons defended our temptations overcome that we may be reconciled to God and be saved Quest. How is Jesus Christ also our King Answ. When he arose from his grave and had for forty days together conversed with his Disciples shewing himself alive by many infallible tokens he ascended into Heaven and there sits at the right hand of God all things being made subject to him Angels and Men and Devils Heaven and Earth the Elements and all the Creatures and over all he reigns comforting and defending his elect subduing the power of the Devil taking out the sting of Death and making all to serve the Glory of God and to turn to the good of his Elect. Quest. How long must his Kingdom last Answ. Till Christ hath brought all his enemies under his feet that is till the day of judgment in which Day shall be performed the greatest acts of his Kingly power for then he shall quite conquer Death triumph over the Devils throw his enemies into Hell-fire and carry all his Elect to never-ceasing glories and then he shall deliver up the Kingdom to his Father that God may be all in all Quest. How is Christ a Mediator in all these Offices Answ. A Mediator signifies one that stands between God and us As Christ is a Prophet so he taught us his Father's will and ties us to obedience As he is a Priest he is our Redeemer having paid a price for us even his most precious blood and our Advocate pleading for us and mediating our Pardon and Salvaon As he is a King so he is our Lord our Patron and our Judge yet it is the Kingdom of a Mediator that is in order to the world to come but then to determine and end And in all these he hath made a Covenant between God and us of an everlasting interest Quest. What is the Covenant which Jusus Christ our Mediator hath made between God and us Answ. That God will write his Laws in our hearts and will pardon us and defend us and raise us up again at the last day and give us an inheritance in his Kingdom Quest. To what Conditions hath he bound us on our parts Answ. Faith and Repentance Quest. When do we enter into this Covenant Answ. In our Baptism and at our ripe years when we understand the secrets of the kingdom of Christ and undertake willingly what in our names was undertaken for us in our infancy Quest. What is the Covenant of Faith which we enter into in Baptism Answ. We promise to believe that Jesus Christ is the Messias or he that was to come into the world That he is the Anointed of the Lord or the Lord 's Christ That he is the Son of God and the Son of the Virgin Mary That he is God incarnate or God manifested in the flesh That he is the Mediator between God and Man That he died for us upon the Cross and rose again the third day and ascended into Heaven and shall be there till the day of Judgment that then he shall be our Judge in the mean time he is the King of the world and head of the Church Quest. What is the Covenant of Repentance Answ. We promise to leave all our sins and with a hearty and sincere endeavour to give up our will and affections to Christ and do what he hath commanded according to our power and weakness Quest. How if we fail of this Promise through infirmity and commit sin Answ. Still we are within the Covenant of Repentance that is within the promise of pardon and possibility of returning from dead works and mortifying our lusts and though this be done after the manner of men that is in weakness and with some failings yet our endeavour must be hearty and constant and diligent and our watchfulness and prayers for pardon must be lasting and persevering Quest. What Ministeries hath Christ appointed to help us in this duty Answ. The Ministery of the Word and Secraments which he will accompany with his Grace and his Spirit Quest. What is a Sacrament Answ. An outward Ceremony ordained by Christ to be a sign and a means of conveying his grace unto us Quest. How many Sacraments are ordained by Christ Answ. Two Baptism and the Supper of our Lord. Quest. What is Baptism Answ. An outward washing of the Body in Water in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost in which we are buried with Christ in his death after a Sacramental manner and
and in God by him and rely entirely on the mercies of God through Jesus Christ. From thence he shall come In the Clouds shining and adorned with the glory of his Father attended by millions of bright Angels with the voice of an Archangel and a shout of all the Heavenly Army the Trump of God and every eye shall see him and they that pierced his hands and his â—…eet shall behold his Majesty his Terror and his Glory and all the families of the earth shall tremble at his presence and the powers of Heaven shall be shaken and the whole earth and sea shall be broken in pieces and confusion for then he shall come to put an end to this world and To Judge the Quick and the Dead For the Father judgeth no man but hath given all judgment to his Son And at this day of Judgment the Lord Jesus shall sit in the Air in a glorious Throne and the Angels having gathered together God's Elect from the four corners of the world all the kindreds of the earth being brought before the Judgment-seat shall have the Records of their Conscience laid open that is all that ever they thought or spake or did shall be brought to their memory to convince the wicked of the Justice of the Judge in passing the fearful Sentence upon them and glorify the mercies of God towards his Redeemed ones and then the righteous Judge shall condemn the wicked to the portion of Devils for ever to a state of torments the second and eternal and intolerabl death and the godly being placed on his right hand shall hear the blessed Sentence of absolution and shall be led by Christ to the participation of the glories of his Father's Kingdom for ever and ever Amen I believe in the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit Who is the third Person of the holy undivided ever-blessed Trinity which I worship and adore and admire but look upon with wonder and am not in a capacity to understand I believe that the Holy Spirit into whose name as of the Father and the Son I was baptized is the heavenly Author the Captain the Teacher and the Witness of all the Truths of the Gospel that as the Father sent the Son so the Son from Heaven sent the holy Spirit to lead the Church into all truth to assist us in all Temptations and to help us in the purchase of all Vertue This Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and our Lord Jesus received him from his Father and sent him into the world who receiving the things of Christ and declaring the same excellent Doctrines speaks whatsoever he hath heard from him and instructed the Apostles and builds the Church and produces Faith and confirms our Hope and increases Charity And this Holy Spirit our blessed Lord hath left with his Church for ever by which all the servants of God are enabled to do all things necessary to Salvation which by the force of Nature they cannot do and we speak by the Spirit and work by the Spirit when by his assistances any ways imparted to us we speak or do any thing of our duty He it is who enlightens our Understanding sanctifies our Will orders and commands our affections he comforts our sorrows supports our spirits in trouble and enables us by Promises and Confidences and Gifts to suffer for the Lord Jesus and the Gospel And all these things God the Father does for us by his Son and the Son by the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit by all means within and without which are operative upon and proportionable to the nature of reasonable creatures This is he who works Miracles gives the gifts of Prophecy and of Interpretation that teaches us what and how to pray that gives us Zeal and holy Desires who sanctifies Children in Baptism and confirms them with his grace in Comfirmation and reproves the world and consecrates Bishops and all the Ministers of the Gospel and absolves the Penitent and Blesses the Obedient and comforts the Sick and excommunicates the Refractory and makes intercession for the Saints that is the Church and those whom he hath Blessed appointed and sanctified to these purposes do all these Ministeries by his Authority and his Commandment and his Aids This is he that testifies to our Spirits that we are the Sons of God and that makes us to cry Abba Father that is who inspires into us such humble confidences of our being accepted in our hearty and constant endeavours to please God that we can with chearfulness and joy call God our Father and expect and hope for the portion of Sons both here and hereafter and in the certainty of this hope to work out our Salvation with fear and reverence with trembling and joy with distrust of our selves and mighty confidence in God By this holy and ever-blessed Spirit several persons in the Church and every man in his proportion receives the gifts of Wisdom and Utterance and Knowledge and Interpretation and Prophesie and Healing and Goverement and discerning of Spirits and Faith and Tongues and whatsoever can be necessary for the Church in several ages and periods for her beginning for her continuance for her in prosperity and for her in persecution This is the great Promise of the Father and it is the gift of God which he will give to all them that ask him and who live piously and chastly and are persons fit to entertain so Divine a Grace This Holy Spirit God gives to some more to some less according as they are capable They who obey his Motions and love his presence and improve his Gifts shall have him yet more abundantly but they that grieve the Holy Spirit shall loose that which they have and they that extinguish him belong not to Christ but are in the state of reprobation and they that blaspheme this holy Spirit and call him the spirit of the Devil or the Spirit of error or folly or do malicious despites to him that is they who on purpose considering and chusing do him hurt by word or by deed so far as lies in them shall for ever be separated from the presence of God and of Christ and shall never be forgiven in this world nor in the world to come Lastly this Holy Spirit seals us to the day of Redemption that is God gives us his Holy Spirit as a testimony that he will raise us again at the last day and give us a portion in the glories of his Kingdom in the inheritance of our Lord Jesus The holy Catholick Church I believe that there is and ought to be a visible company of men professing the service and discipline that is the Religion of the Gospel who agree together in the Belief of all the Truths of God revealed by Jesus Christ and in confession of the Articles of this Creed and agree together in praying and praising
Armour that all the Opinions of Hereticks may by this alone as with a Sword be cut in pieces AGENDA OR Things to be done THE DIARY OR A RULE to spend each day religiously SECT 1. 1. SUppose every day to be a day of business for your whole life is a race and a battel a merchandise and a journey Every day propound to your self a Rosary or a Chaplet of good works to present to God at night 2. Rise as soon as your health and other occasions shall permit but it is good to be as regular as you can and as early Remember he that rises first to Prayer hath a more early title to a Blessing Bnt he that changes night into day labour into idleness watchfulness into sleep changes his hopes of blessing into a dream 3. Never let any one think it an excuse to lie in bed because he hath nothing to do when he is up for whoever hath a Soul and hopes to save that Soul hath work enough to do to make his calling and election sure to serve God and to pray to read and to meditate to repent and to amend to do good to others and to keep evil from themselves And if thou hast little to do thou ought'st to imploy the more time in laying up for a greater Crown of Glory 4. At your opening your eyes enter upon the day with some act of piety 1. Of Thanksgiving for the preservation of you the night past 2. Of the Glorification of God for the works of the Creation or any thing for the honour of God 5. When you first go off from your bed solemnly and devoutly bow your head and worship the Holy Trinity the Father Son and Holy Ghost 6. When you are making ready be as silent as you can and spend that time in holy thoughts there being no way left to redeem that time from loss but by meditation and short mental prayers If you chuse to speak speak somthing of God's praises of his goodness his mercies or his greatness Ever resolving that the first fruits of thy Reason and of all thy Faculties shall be presented to God to sanctfie the whole harvest of thy conversation 7. Be not curious nor careless in your Habit but always keep these measures 1. Be not troublesome to thy self or to others by unhandsomness or uncleanness 2. Let it be according to your state and quality 3. Make Religion to be the difference of your habit so as to be best attired upon Holy or Festival daies 8. In your dressing let there be ejaculations fitted to the several actions of dressing as at washing your hands and face pray God to cleanse your Soul from sin in putting on your cloaths pray him to cloth your Soul with the righteousness of your Saviour and so in all the rest For Religion must not onely be the garment of your Soul to invest it all over but it must be also as the fringes to every of your actions that something of Religion appear in every one of them besides the innocence of all of them 9. As soon as you are dressed with the first preparation of your cloaths that you can decently do it kneel and say the Lord's Prayer then rise from your knees and do what is necessary for you in order to your farther dressing or affairs of the house which is speedily to be done and then finish your dressing according to the foregoing Rules 10. When you are dressed retire your self to your Closet and go to your usual devotions which it is good that at the first prayers they were divided into seven actions of Piety 1. An act of Adoration 2. Of Thanksgiving 3. Of Oblation 4. Of Confession 5. Of Petition 6. Of Intercession 7. Of Meditation or serious deliberate useful reading of the holy Scriptures 11. I advise that your reading should be governed by these measures 1. Let it not be of the whole Bible in order but for your devotion use the New Testament and such portions of the Old as contain the Precepts of holy life 2. The Historical and less useful part let it be read at such other times which you have of leisure from your domestick imployments 3. Those portions of Scripture which you use in your prayers let them not be long a Chapter at once no more But then what time you can afford spend it in thinking and meditating upon the holy Precepts w ch you read 4. Be sure to meditate so long till you make some act of piety upon the occasion of what you meditate either that you get some new arguments against a sin or some new incouragements to vertue some spiritual strength and advantage or else some act of Prayer to God or glorification of him 5. I advise that you would read your Chapter in the midst of your Prayers in the Morning if they be divided according to the number of the former actions because little interruptions will be apt to make your Prayers less tedious and your self more attent upon them But if you find any other way more agreeing to your spirit and disposition use your liberty without scruple 12. Before you go forth of your Closet after your Prayers are done set your self down a little while and consider what you are to do that day what matter or business is like to imploy you or to tempt you and take particular resolution against that whether it be matter of wrangling or anger or covetousness or vain courtship or feasting and when you enter upon it remember upon what you resolved in your Closet If yo are likely to have nothing extraordinary that day a general recommendation of the affairs of that day to God in your prayers will be sufficient but if there be any thing foreseen that is not usual be sure to be armed for it by a hearty though a short prayer and an earnest prudent resolution before-hand and then watch when the thing comes 13. Whosoever hath Children or Servants let him or her take care that all the Children and Servants of the Family say their Prayers before they begin their work The Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments with the short verse at the end of every Commandment which the Church uses and the Creed is a very good office for them if they be not fitted for more regular offices And to these also it were good that some proper Prayer were apportioned and they taught it It were well if they would serve themselves of this Form set down at the end of this Diary 14. Then go about the affairs of your house and proper imployment ever avoiding idleness or too much earnestness of affection upon the things of the world Do your business prudently temperately diligently humbly charitably 15. Let there be no idle person in or about your family of beggars or unimployed Servants but find them all work and meat call upon them carefully reprove them without reproaches or fierce railings Be a master or a mistress and a friend to them
Angels yet our obedience may be as humble our conformity to thy will may arise up to the degrees of Unity and theirs cannot be more that as they in Heaven so we on Earth May obey thy will promptly chearfully zealously and with all our faculties and grant that as they there so all the world here may serve thee with peace and concord purity and love unfeigned with one heart and one voice glorifying thee our heavenly Father Grant that we may quit all our own affections and suspect our reasonings and go out of our selves and all our own confidences that thou being to us all things disposing all events and guideing all our actions and directing our intentions and over-ruling all things in us and about us we may be Servants of thy Divine Will for ever Give us this day our daily Bread Thou O God which takest care of our Souls do not despise our Bodies which thou hast made and sanctified and designed to be glorious But now we are exposed to hunger and thirst nakedness and weariness want and inconvenience Give unno us neither poverty nor riches but feed us with food convenient for us and cloth us with fitting provisions according to that state and condition wherein thou hast placed thy Servants that we may not be tempted with want nor made contemptible by beggery nor wanton or proud by riches nor in love with any thing in this World but that we may use it as strangers and pilgrims as the relief of our needs the support of our infirmities and the oil of our lamps feeding us till we are quite spent in thy service Lord take from thy Servants sad carefulness and all distrust and give us only such a proportion af temporal things as may inable us with comfort to do our duty Forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us O dear God unless thou art pleased to pardon us in vain it is that we should live here and what good will our life do us O look upon us with much mercy for we have sinned grievously against thee Pardon the adherent imperfections of our life the weakness of our duty the carelesness of our spirit our affected ignorance our indiligence our rashness and want of observation our malice and presumptions Turn thine eyes from our impurities and behold the brightness and purest innocence of the holy Jâ—…sus and under his cover we plead our cause not that thou shouldst judge our sins but give us pardon and blot out all our iniquities that we may never enter into the horrible regions where there are torments without ceasing a prison without ransom reproaches without comfort anguish without patience darkness without light a worm that never dies and the fire that never goeth out But be pleased also to give us great charity that we may truly forgive all that trouble or injure us that by this Character thou mayest discern us to be thy Sons and Servants Disciples of the Holy Jesus lest our prayer be turned into sin and thy Grace be recalled and thou enter into a final anger against thy Servants Lead us not into Temptation Gracious Father we are weak and ignorant our affections betray us and make us willing to die our adversary the Devil goeth up and down seeking whom he may devour he is busie and crafty malicious and powerful watchful and envious and we tempt our selves running out to mischief delighting in the approaches of sin and love to have necessities put upon us that sin may be unavoidable Pity us in the midst of these disorders and give us spiritual strength holy Resolutions a watchful Spirit the whole Armour of God and thy protection the guard of Angels and the conduct of thy holy Spirit to be our security in the day of danger Give us thy grace to fly from all occasions to sin that we may never tempt our selves nor delight to be tempted and let thy blessed Province so order the accidents of our lives that we may not dwell near an enemy and when thou shalt try us and suffer us to enter into combat let us always be on thy side and fight valiantly resist the Devil and endure patiently and persevere constantly unto the end that thou mayest crown thy own work in us But deliver us from evil From sin and shame from the malice and fraud of the Devil and from the falseness and greediness of men from all thy wrath and from all our impurities good Lord deliver thy Servants Do not reserve any thing of thy wrath in store for us but let our sins be pardoned so fully that thou maiest not punish our inventions And yet if thou wilt not be intreated but that it be necessary that we suffer thy will be done Smite us here with a Father's rod that thou maiest spare us hereafter let the sad accidents of our life be for good to us not for evil for our amendment not to exasperate or weary us not to harden or confound us and what evil soever it be that shall happen let us not sin against thee For ever deliver us from that evil and for ever deliver us from the power of the evil one the great enemy of mankind and never let our portion be in that Region of Darkness in that everlasting burning which thou hast prepared for the Devil and his Angels for ever For thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen So shall we thy Servants advance the Mightiness of thy Kingdom the Power of thy Majesty and the Glory of thy Mercy from generation to generation for ever Amen LITANIES FOR All Things and Persons O God the Father of Mercies the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon thy Servants and hear the prayers of us miserable sinners O Blessed Jesus the Fountain of Peace and Pardon our Wisdom and our Righteousness our Sanctification and Redemption have mercy upon thy Servants refuse not to hear the Prayers of us miserable sorrowful and returning sinners O Holy and Divinest Spirit of the Father help our infirmities for of our selves we know not what to ask nor how to pray but do thou assist and be present in the desires of us miserable sinners I. For Pardon of Sins REmember not Lord the follies of our childhood nor the lusts of our youth the wildness of our head nor the wandrings of our heart the infinite sins of our tongue and the inexcusable errours of the days of vanity Lord have mercy upon us poor miserable sinners Remember not O Lord the growing iniquities of our elder age the pride of our spirit the abuse of our members the greediness of our purposes the peevishness and violence of all our passions and affections Lord have mercy c. Remember not O Lord how we have been full of envy and malice anger and revenge fierce and earnest in the purchases and vanities of the world and lazy and dull slow and soon weary in the things of God and of
humbly patiently charitably and diligently served thee change this robe into the shining garment of immortality my confusion into glory my folly to perfect knowledge my weaknesses and dishonours to the strength and beauties of the Sons of God V. IN the mean time use what means thou pleasest to conform me to the image of thy holy Son that I may be gentle to others and severe to my self that I may sit down in the lowest place striving to go before my brother in nothing but in doing him and the honour staying for my glory till thou shalt please in the day of recompences to reflect light from thy face and admit me to behold thy glories Grant this for Jesus Christ's sake who humbled himself to the death and shame of the Cross and is now exalted unto glory Unto him with thee O Father be glory and praise for ever and ever Amen For Monday A Prayer against Covetousness I. O Almighty God eternal Treasure of all good things thou fillest all things with plenteousness Thou clothest the lilies of the field and fecdest the young ravens that call upon thee Thou art all-sufficient in thy self and all-sufficient to us Let thy providence be my store-house my dispensation of temporal things the limit of my labour my own necessity the measures of my desire but never let my desires of this world be greedy nor my labour immoderate nor my care vexatious and distracting but prudent moderate holy subordinate to thy Will the measure thou hast appointed for me II. TEach me O God to despise the world to labour for the true riches to seek the Kingdom of Heaven and its Righteousness to be content with what thou providest to be in this world like a stranger with affections set upon Heaven labouring for and longing after the possessions of thy Kingdom but never suffer my affections to dwell below but give me a heart compassionate to the poor liberal to the needy open and free in all my communications without base ends or greedy designs or unworthy arts of gain but let my strife be to gain thy favour to obtain the blessedness of doing good to others and giving to them that want and the blessedness of receiving from thee pardon and support grace and holiness perseverance and glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. For Tuesday A Prayer against Lust. I. O Eternal Purity thou art brighter than the Sun purer than the Angels and the Heavens are not clean in thy sight with mercy behold thy servant apt to be tempted with every object and to be overcome by every enemy I cannot O God stand in the day of battel and danger unless thou coverest me with thy shield and hidest me under thy wings The fiery darts of the Devil are ready to consume me unless the dew of thy grace for ever descend upon me Thou didst make me after thine image be pleased to preserve me so pure and spotless chast and clean that my body may be a holy Temple and my Soul a Sanctuary to entertain thy divinest Spirit the Spirit of love and holiness the Prince of Purities II. REprove in me the spirit of Fornication and Uncleanness and fill my Soul with holy fires that no strange fire may come into the Temple of my body where thou hast chosen to dwell O cast out all those unclean spirits which have unhallowed the place where thy holy feet have trod pardon all my hurtful thoughts all my impurities that I who am a member of Christ may not become the member of an harlot nor the slave of the Devil nor a servant of lust and unworthy desires but do thou purifie my love and let me seek the things that are above hating the garments spotted with the flesh never any more grieving the holy spirit by filthy inclinations with impure and phantastick thoughts but let my thoughts be holy my Soul pure my body chast and healthful my spirit severe devout and religious every day more and more that at the day of our appearing I may be presented to God washed and cleansed pure and spotless by the blood of the holy Lamb through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen For Wednesday A Prayer against Gluttony and Drunkenness I. O Almighty Father of Men and Angels who hast of thy great bounty provided plentifully for all mankind to support his state to relieve his necessities to refresh his sorrows to recreate his labours that he may praise thee and rejoice in thy mercies and bounty be thou gracious unto thy servant yet more and suffer me not by my folly to change thy bounty into sin thy grace into wantonness Give me the spirit of temperance and sobriety that I may use thy creatures in the same measures and to the same purposes which thou hast designed so as may best enable me to serve thee but not to make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof Let me not as Esau prefer meat before a blessing but subdue my appetite subjecting it to reason and the grace of God being content with what is moderate and useful and easie to be obtained taking it in due time receiving it thankfully making it to minister to my body that my body may be a good instrument of the Soul and the Soul a Servant of thy Divine Majesty for ever and ever II. PArdon O God in whatsoever I have offended thee by meat and drink and pleasures and never let my body any more be oppressed with loads of sloth and delicacies or my Soul drowned in Seas of wine or strong drink but let my appetites be changed into spiritual desires that I may hunger after the food of Angels and thirst for the wine of elect Souls and may account it meat and drink and pleasure to do thy will O God Lord let me eat and drink so that my food may not become a temptation or a sin or a disease but grant that with so much caution and prudence I may watch over my appetite that I may in the strength of thy mercies and refreshments in the light of thy countenance and in the paths of thy Commandments walk before thee all the days of my life acceptable ot thee in Jesus Christ ever advancing his honour and being filled with his Spirit that I may at last partake of his glory through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen For Thursday A Prayer against Envy I. O Most gracious Father thou Spring of an eternal Charity who hast so loved mankind that thou didst open thy bosom and send thy holy Son to convey thy mercies to us and thou didst create Angels and Men that thou mightest have objects to whom thou mightest communicate thy goodness Give me grace to follow so glorious a precedent that I may never envy the prosperity of any one but rejoyce to honor him whom thou honourest to love him whom thou lovest to commend the vertuous to discern the precious from the vile giving honour to whom honour belongs that I may go to Heaven in the
my life and the unexhausted Fountain of Mercy which can never be drawn dry I have now by the assistance of thy holy Spirit gone through though with weak and trembling steps the whole exercise of Repentance for I have confessed my sins and thou hast promised upon my confession of them not to impute them to me I have gone one step farther for I have repented of my sins and thou hast promised again that upon my repentance thou wilt remember them no more and because thy holy Word hath taught me that a new life is the only life of a true Repentance I have this day in thy sight and in the presence of all the Holy Angels that attend thee in the Conversion of a Sinner made my firm resolution never to fall again into the sins which I have repented of And now what remains for a poor Penitent to do more but humbly and earnestly to beg thy Pardon The Penitent's Prayer O God the Father who canst not be thought so cruel as to make me only to destroy me Have mercy on me O God the Son who knowing thy Father's Will didst make it thy business to come into the world to save me Have mercy on me O God the Holy Ghost who to the same end didst sanctifie me in my Baptism and hast so often since breathed holy thoughts and motions on me Have mercy on me O Holy and Blessed and Glorious Trinity whom in three Persons I adore as my one and onely true God Have mercy on me Hear me O Lord. Help me O Lord. Save me or else I perish Lord carest thou not that I perish Thou that wouldest have all men saved Thou who wouldst have none to perish And wilt thou now shew thine anger against a Worm against a Leaf against a Vapour that vanisheth before thee O remember how short my time is and deliver not my Soul into the power of Hell For alas what profit is there in my Bloud or who shall ever give thee thanks in that bottomless pit No let me live in thy sight let me live O my God that my Soul may praise thee Forget me as I have been disobedient provoking thee to anger and regard me as I am distressed crying out to thee for help Look not upon me as I am a Sinner but consider me as I am thy Creature A Sinner I am I confess a Sinner of no ordinary strain but let not this hinder thee O my God for upon such sinners thou gettest the greatest glory O remember for whose sake it was that thou camest from the bosom of thy Father and didst let thy self down so low as to be content to be born of thine own humble handmaid Remember for whom it was that thy tender body was Torn Scourged and Crucified and thy precious Blood shed Was it not for the sins of the whole world and shall I be so narrow-hearted to my own Soul or so injurious to thy Glory as to think that in all this crowd thou hast particularly excepted me Or which is as great a dishonour to thee can I possibly imagine that thou diedst only for Sinners of a lower kind and leftest such as I am without remedy What had become then of him who filled Jerusalem with blood What of the noted Woman who had lived in a trade of Sin Nay what had become of thine own Disciple who with Oaths and Curses thrice denied thee O how easie is it for thee to forgive for it is thy Nature How proper is it for thee to save for it is thy Name How suitable is it to thy only End of coming into the World for it is thy Business And when I consider that I am the chief of Sinners may I not urge the Father and say Shall the very chief of thy business be left undone Mercy Mercy good Lord. I ask not of thee any longer the things of this world neither Power nor Honours nor Riches nor Pleasures No my God dispose of them to whom thou pleasest so that thou givest me Mercy O that I could hear thee once say as thou didst to him in the Gospel My Son be of good chear thy Sins are forgiven thee How would my drooping Spirits revive at such a sound and my now wounded Soul break forth into Hymns and Praises and Hallelujahs for a mercy so utterly undeserved of me and which the Angels which fell could never hear of But O my weak Soul what dost thou fear or what dost thou scruple at For thou art not yet in such a desperate condition but thou mayest expect that what was said to him may possibly be said to thee Nay be confident though it be with a mixture of fear and trembling that if thou dost not act the part of an Hypocrite all this while thy Saviour stands ready at the very doors of thy Heart to breath the very same words in a heavenly whisper to thee Be of good chear thy Sins are forgiven thee Return then unto thy rest O my Soul for thy Sins are forgiven thee Only take this Counsel along with thee Sin no more lest a worse thing fall unto thee O that I could never sin against thee more never purposely deliberately wilfully sin against thee more And for those sins of daily Incursion those over-familiar corruptions of my nature which thou hast not yet given me strength enough to conquer Lord either subdue them to me by degrees or lay them not to my charge But wherein soever my Conscience most accuseth me therein O my God be thou most merciful unto me Save me O God as a Brand snatched out of the Fire Receive me O my Jesu as a Sheep that hath wandred but is now returned to the great Shepherd and Bishop of my Soul The Jubile of the Penitent Soul after the sense of Pardon obtained REjoyce over me O God the Father that this thy Child was lost but is found was dead but is alive again Rejoyce over me O God the Son that thy loud Cries and Tears and bitter Agonies which for my sake thou enduredst upon the Cross were â—…ot so unhappily lost as to be cast away in vain upon me Rejoyce over me O God the Holy Ghost that thy so many secret and powerful touches have at last got the upper hand of me Rejoyce over me O ye holy Angels a great part of whose Ministery it is to rejoyce at the Conversion of a Sinner Rejoyce over thy self O my Soul that thou hast received so much grace from Heaven this day as sadly to confess thy Sins seriously to repent of them and stedfastly to resolve never to be guilty more of so much bruitishness as to be likened to the Dog that returns to his Vomit or to the Swine wallowing in the Mire The Penitent closeth all with this short Prayer LET this day O my God be noted in thy Book Do not thou forget my Prayers nor suffer me to forget my Resolutions For though I am weak though I am unworthy though I
A CHOICE MANUAL Containing What is to be Believed Practised and Desired or Prayed for the Prayers being fitted to the several Days of the Week ALSO FESTIVAL HYMNS According to the Manner of the ANCIENT CHURCH Composed for the use of the Devout especially of younger Persons By Jeremy Taylor D. D. LONDON Printed by J. Grover for R. Royston Bookseller to his most Sacred Majesty 1677. THE Golden Grove The Eleventh Edition THE GUIDE of Infant-Devotion together with a Guide for the PENITENT A CHOICE MANUAL Containing What is to be Believed Practised and Desired or Prayed for the Prayers being fitted to the several Days of the Week ALSO FESTIVAL HYMNS According to the Manner of the ANCIENT CHURCH Composed for the use of the Devout especially of younger Persons By Jeremy Taylor D. D. LONDON Printed by J. Grover for R. Royston Bookseller to his most Sacred Majesty 1677. TO THE Pious and Devout READER IN this sad declension of Religion the Seers who are appointed to be the Watchmen of the Church cannot but observe that the Supplanters and Underminers are gone out and are digging down the foundations and having destroy'd all publick forms of Ecclesiastical Government discouâ—…tenanc'd an excellent Liturgie taken off the hinges of Unity disgrac'd the Articles of Religion polluted publick Assemblies taken away all cognizance of Schism by mingling all Sects and giving Countenance to that against which all Power ought to stand upon their guard There is now nothing left but that we take care that men be Christians For concerning the Ornament and advantages of Religion we cannot make that provision we desire Incertis de salute de gloria minime certandum For since they who have seen Jerusalem in prosperity and have forgotten the order of the Morning and Evening Sacrifice and the beauty of the Temple will be tempted to neglect so excellent a ministration and their assembling themselves together for peace and holy Offices and be content with any thing that is brought to them though it be but the husks and acorns of Prodigals and Swine so they may enjoy their Lands and their Money with it we must now take care that the young men who were born in the Captivity may be taught how to Worship the God of Israel after the manner of their fore-fathers till it shall please God that Religion shall return into the Land and dwell safely and grow prosperously But never did the excellency of Episcopal Government apppear so demonstratively and conspicuously as now Under their conduct and order we had a Church so united so orderly so govern'd a Religion so setled Articles so true sufficient and confess'd Canons so prudent and so obey'd Devotions so regular and constant Sacraments so adorn'd and ministred Churches so beauteous and religious Circumstances of Religion so grave and prudent so useful and apt for edification that the enemies of our Church who serve the Pope in all things and Jesus Christ in some who dare transgress an Institution and Ordidinance of Christ but dare not break a Canon of the Pope did despair of prevailing against Us and Truth and knew no hopes but by setting their faces against us to destroy this Government and then they knew they should triumph without any enemy so Balaam the Son of Bosor was sent for to curse the People of the Lord in hope that the son of Zippor might prevail against them that had long prospered under the Conduct of Moses and Aaron But now instead of this excellency of Condition and Constitution of Religion the people are fallen under the Harrows and Saws of impertinent and ignorant Preachers who think all Religion is a Sermon and all Sermons ought to be Libels against Truth and old Governours and expound Chapters that the meaning may never be understood and pray that they may be thought able to talk but not to hold their peace they casting not to obtian any thing but Wealth and Victory Power and Plunder and the People have reap'd the fruits apt to grow upon such Crab-stocks they grow idle and false hypocrites and careless they deny themselves nothing that is pleasant they despise Religion forget Government and some never think of Heaven and they that do think to go thither in such paths which all the Ages of the Church did give men warning of lest they shoul that way go to the Devil But when men have try'd all that they can it is to be supposed they will return to the excellency and advantages of the Christian Religion as it is taught by the Church of England for by destroying it no end can be serv'd but of Sin and Folly Faction and Death eternal For besides that no Church that is enemy to this does worship God in that truth of Propositions in that unblameable and pious Liturgie and in preaching the necessities of holy life so much as the Church of England does besides this I say it cannot be persecuted by any Governour that understands his own Interest unless he be first abused by false Preachers and then prefers his secret Opinion before his publick Advantage For no Church in the World is so great a friend to Loyalty and Obedience as she and her Sisters of the same perswasion They that hate Bishops have destroy'd Monarchy and they that would erect an Ecclestical Monarchy must consequently subject the temporal to it and both one and the other would be supream in Consciences and they that govern there with an opinion that in all things they ought to be attended to will let their Prince govern others so long as he will be rul'd by them And certainly for a Prince to persecute the Protestant Religion is as if a Physician should endeavour to destroy all Medicaments and Fathers kill their Sons and the Master of Ceremonies destroy all Formalities and Courtships and as if the Pope should root out all the Ecclesiastick State Nothing so combines with Government if it be of God's appointment as the Religion of the Church of England because nothing does more adhere to the Word of God and disregard the crafty advantages of the World If any man shall not decline to try his Title by the Word of God it is certain there is not in the world a better guard for it than the true Protestant Religion as it is taught in our Church But let things be as it please God it is certain that in that day when Truth gets her Victory in that day we shall prevail against all God's enemies and ours not in the purchaces and perquisites of the world but in the rewards and returns of Holiness and Patience and Faith and Charity for by these we worship God and against this Interest we cannot serve any thing else In the mean time we must by all means secure the founndation and take care that Religion may be conveyed in all its material parts the same as it was but by new and permitted instruments For let us secure that our young men be good Christians it
became a Sacrifice for all our sins and suffered himself to be taken by the malicious Jews and put to a painful and shameful death they being envious at him for the number of his Disciples and the reputation of his person the innocence of his life the mightiness of his Miracles and the power of his Doctrine and this Death he suffered when Pontius Pilate was Governour of Judea Was crucified Jesus Christ being taken by the Rulers of the Jews bound and derided buffeted and spit upon accused weakly and persecuted violently at last wanting matter and pretences to condemn him they asked him of his person and office and because he affirmed that great Truth which all the world of good men long'd for that he was the Messias and designed to sit on the right hand of the Majesty on high they resolved to call it Blasphemy and delivered him over to Pilate and by importunity and threats forced him against his Conscience to give him up to be scourged and then to be Crucified The Souldiers therefore mocking him with a Robe and Reed and pressing a Crown of thorns upon his head led him to the place of his death compelling him to bear his Cross to which they presently nail'd him on which for three hours he hanged in extreme torture being a sad spectacle of the most afflicted and the most innocent person of the whole world Dead When the Holy Jesus was wearied with tortures and he knew all things were now fulfilled and his Father's wrath appeased towards Mankind his Father pitying his innocent Son groaning under such intolerable miseries hastned his Death and Jesus commending his Spirit into the hands of his Father cried with a loud voice bowed his head and died and by his death sealed all the Doctrines and Revelations which he first taught the world and then confirmed by his Bloud He was consecrated our merciful High-Priest and by a feeling of our miseries and temptations became able to help them that are tempted and for these his sufferings was exalted to the highest Throne and seat of the right hand of God and hath shewn that to Heaven there is no surer way than suffering for his Name and hath taught us willingly to suffer for his sake what himself hath already suffered for ours He reconciled us to God by his Death led us to God drew us to himself redeemed us from all iniquity purchased us for his Father and for ever made us his servants and redeemed ones that we being dead unto sin might live unto God And this Death being so highly beneficial to us he hath appointed means to apply to us and to represent to God for us in the Holy Sacrament of his last Supper And upon all these considerations that Cross which was a smart and shame to our Lord is honour to us and as it turned to his Glory so also to our Spiritual advantages And Buried That he might suffer every thing of humane nature he was by the care of his Friends and Disciples by the leave of Pilate taken from the Cross and embalmed as the manner of the Jews was to bury and wrapp'd linnen and buried in a new grave hewn out of a Rock And this was the last and lowest step of his Humiliation He descended into Hell That is He went down into the lower parts of the earth as himself called it into the heart of the earth by which phrase the Scripture understands the state of Separation or of Souls severed from their Bodies By this his descending to the land of darkness where all things are forgotten he sanctified the state of Death Separation that none of his servants might ever after fear the jaws of Death and Hell whither he went not to suffer torment because he finished all that upon the Cross but to triumph over the gates of Hell to verifie his Death and the event of his sufferings and to break the iron bars of those lower prisons that they may open and shut hereafter only at his command The third day he rose again from the Dead After our Lord Jesus had abode in the grave the remaining part of the day of his Passion and all the next day early in the morning upon the third day by the power of God he was raised from Death and Hell to Light and Life never to return to death any more and is become the first-born from the dead the first-fruits of them that slept and although he was put to death in the flesh yet now being quickned in the Spirit he lives for ever And as we all die in Adam so in Christ we all shall be made alive but every man in his own order Christ is the first and we if we follow him in the Regeneration shall also follow him in the Resurrection He ascended into Heaven When our dearest Lord was risen from the Grave he conversed with his Disciples for forty days together often shewing himself alive by infallible proofs and once to five hundred of his Disciples at once appearing Having spoken to them fully concerning the affairs of the Kingdom and the Promise of the Father leaving them some few things in charge for the present he solemnly gave them his Blessing and in the presence of his Apostles was taken up into Heaven by a bright Cloud and the Ministery of Angels being gone before us to prepare a place for us above all Heavens in the presence of his Father and at the foot of the Throne of God From which glorious presence we cannot be kept by the change of Death and the powers of the Grave nor the depth of Hell nor the height of Heaven but Christ being lifted up shall draw all his Servants unto him And sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty I believe that Jesus Christ sitteth in Heaven above all Principalities and Powers being exalted above every Name that is named in Heaven and Earth that is above every creature above and below all things being put under his feet That he is always in the presence of his Father interceding for us and governs all things in Heaven and Earth that he may defend his Church and adorn her with his Spirit and procure and effect her eternal Salvation There he sits and reigns as King and intercedes as our High-Priest He is a Minister of the Sanctuary and of the true Tabernacle which God made and not man the Author and Finisher of our Faith the Captain of our Confession the great Apostle of our Religion the Great Bishop of our Souls the Head of the Church and the Lord of Heaven and Earth And therefore to him we are to pay Dvino Worship Service and Obedience and we must believe in him
in which he can wound thee Remember how the Proud have fallen and they who have presumed upon their own strength have been disgraced and that the boldest and greatesttalkers in the days of peace have been the most dejected and pusillanimous in the day of temptation No man ought to think he hath found Peace when nothing troubles him or that God loves him because he hath no enemy nor that all is well because every thing is according to his mind nor that he is a holy person because he prays with great sweetness and comfort But he is at Peace who is reconciled to God and God loves him when he hath overcome himself and all is well when nothing pleases him but God being thankful in the midst of his afflctions and he is holy who when he hath lost his comfort loses nothing of his duty but is still the same when God changes his face towards him POSTULANDA OR Things to be prayed for A FORM of PRAYER By way of Paraphrase expounding The Lord's Prayer Our Father MErciful and Gracious thou gavest us being raising us from nothing to be an excellent creation efforming us after thy own Image tenderly feeding us and conducting and strengthening us all our days Thou art our Father by a more excellent Mercy adopting us in a new birth to become partakers of the ininheritance of Jesus Thou hast given us the portion and the food of Sons O make us to do the Duty of Sons that we may never loose our title to so glorious an inheritance Let this excellent Name and Title by which thou hast vouchsafed to relate to us be our Glory and our Confidence our Defence and Guard our Ornament and Strength our dignity and the endearment of Obedience the Principle of a holy Fear to thee our Father and of Love to thee and to our Brethren partakers of the same Hope and Dignity Unite every member of the Church to thee in holy bands Let there be no more names of Division nor Titles and Ensigns of Errour and Partiality Let not us who are Brethren contend but in giving honor to each other and glory to thee contending earnestly for the Faith but not to the breach of Charity nor the denying each others Hope But grant that we may all join in the promotion of the honour of thee our Father in celebrating the Name and spreading the Family and propagating the Laws and Institutions the Promises and Dignities of our Elder Brother that despising the transitory entertainments of this world we may labour for and long after the inheritance to which thou hast given us title by adopting us into the dignity of Sons For ever let thy Spirit witness to our spirit that we are thy children enable us to cry Abba Father Which art in Heaven Heaven is thy Throne the Earth thy Footstool From thy throne thou beholdest all the dwellers upon Earth and triest out the hearts of men and nothing is hid from thy sight And as thy Knowledge is infinite so is thy Power uncircumscribed as the utmost Orb of Heaven and thou sittest in thy own Essential Happiness and Tranquillity immovable and Eternal That is our Country and thither thy Servants are travelling there is our Father and that is our inheritance there our hearts are for there our treasure is laid up till the day of Recompence Hallowed be thy Name Thy Name O God is glorious and in thy Name is our hope and confidence According to thy Name so is thy praise unto the World's end They that love thy Name shall be joyful in thee for thy Name which thou madest to be proclaimed unto thy people is The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin and that will by no means clear the guilty In this glorious Name we worship thee O Lord and all they that know thy Name will put their trust in thee The desire of our Soul is to thy Name and to the remembrance of thee Thou art worthy O Lord of Honour and praise and glory for ever and ever we confess thy glories we rejoyce in thy mercies we hope in thy Name and thy Saints like it well for thy Name is praised unto the end of the World it is believed by Faith relied upon by a holy Hope and loved by a great Charity All thy Church celebrates thee with praises and offers to thy Name the Sacrifices of Prayers and Thanksgiving Thou O God didst frame our Nature by thy own Image and now thou hast imprinted thy Name upon us we are thy servants the relatives and domesticks of thy family and thou hast honoured us with the gracious appellative of Christians O let us never dishonour so excellent a Title nor by unworthy usages prophane thy holy Name but for ever glorifie it Let our Life be answerable to our dignity that our body may be chast our thoughts clean our words gracious our manners holy and our life usefull and innocent that men seeing our good works may glorifie thee our Father which art in Heaven Thy Kingdom come Thou reignest in Heaven and Earth O do thou rule also in our hearts advance the interest of Religion let thy Gospel be placed in all the Regions of the earth and let all Nations come and worship thee laying their proudâ—… wills at thy feet submitting their understandings to the obedience of Jesus conforming their affections to thy holy Laws Let thy Kingdom be set up gloriously over us and do thou reign in our Spirits by thy Spirit of Grace subdue every lust and inordinate appetite trample upon our pride mortifie all rebellion within us and let all thine and our enemies be brought into captivity that sin may never reign in our mortal Bodies but that Christ may reign in our Understanding by Faith in the Will by Charity in the Passions by Mortifications in all the Members by a right and a chast use of them And when thy Kingdom that is within us hath flourished and is advanced to that height whither thou hast designed it grant thy Kingdom of Glory may speedily succeed and we thy Servants be admitted to the peace and purity the holiness and glories of that state where thou reignest alone and art all in all Thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Thy Will O God is the measure of holiness and peace thy Providence the great disposer of all things tying all events together in order to thy glory and the good of thy Servants by a wonderful mysterious Chain of Wisdom Let thy Will also be the measure of our desires for we know that whatsoever thou saiest is true and whatsoever thou doest is good Grant we may submit our wills to thine being patient of evils which thou inflictest lovers of the good which thou commandest haters of all evil which thou forbiddest pleased with all the accidents thou sendest that though our nature is weaker than
came from Heaven which whosoever is rightly partaker of shall not perish but have life everlasting V. As for the precedent days of Preparation how many they should be or how they should be imployed you are to refer your self to your Guide who may advise you not to be over-scrupulous of the Time for the Primitive Christians communicated every day and if your life be innocent from great offences your Preparation need not be long Only be sure you bring with you Faith and Charity clean hands and a penitent heart which if you do be confident the Master of the Feast will not find fault with you for want of a Wedding-garment VI. That upon the blessed day of your Receiving you do more vigorously prepare your self by lifting up your Heart and Hands to God and offering up your private Prayers fitted for that purpose with all possible Devotion And that being done you may compose your self in quiet and in silence till the time of the Morning Sacrifice be come when being called to a more Publick Oratory you may be the fitter to go with an humbly Confidence to meet your Saviour and with that Ardour and Affection as a chaste Virgin goes to an holy Marriage VII That during the Celebration of this Holy Sacrament you attend earnestly to what is done by the Priest When he breaks the Bread imagine to your self that you see the Body of your dear Saviour torn and crucified and when he pours out the Wine consider that his Blood was thus poured out upon the Altar of the Cross and last of all when he that consecrates shall stand before you ready in particular to apply it you may then think that you see Christ himself reaching out his own Body and Blood to you to feed your Soul unto Eternal Life VIII That farther you are really to believe the words as they are spoken This is my Body This is my Blood and not to doubt but that it is effectually made good to you in the Receiving without any dispute at all or scrupulous inquiring into the manner of it which neither Christ hath revealed and neither Men nor Angels are able to pry into IX That the Celebration of these Holy Mysteries being ended you are to retire with all Thankfulness of heart for having been admitted to that Heavenly Feast wherein your Saviour who gave himself for you on the Cross hath now more particularly given himself to you in the Sacrament never to depart from you unless you again wilfully offend him which you are the more earnestly to beware lest by frequent Relapses the Sacrament it self prove not only useless but dangerous to you and your latter end prove worse than your beginning Advice concerning Fasting I. YOU are to consider Fasting either as a Duty enjoined by the Church or as a voluntary undertaking of your own Your Obedience is required to the former in every particular as far as it is enjoyned unless the want of Health or some other Accidents may unavoidably hinder you wherein not only the Bishop may dispense with you but he that hath the charge of your Soul especially if the Necessity be evident II. Besides the ordinary Fasts prescribed by the Church you are advised to set aside some Day either Weekly or at least Monthly wherein you may mourn in private not only for your own sins and personal calamities but for those publick Judgments now fallen on the whole Church and Nation and those crying sins which have occasioned them offering up your earnest prayers to God for the removing of them which when they come from a mortified Body and a contrite Heart are such a Sacrifice that God who deceives no man being true to his Promises cannot possibly despise III. That the Fast for the time designed be such as may in some measure be afflictive to you abstaining totally that day from all manner of food if the condition of your health will bear it or if that cannot be that you be so moderate in your feeding that it may appear that you rather serve your Necessities in eating than satisfie your Appetite IV. That you imploy this Day or such a part of it at least as you may keep free to your self as a Retreat from the world the business and the pleasures of it that so you may with the more freedom make up the Accounts between God and your own Soul and by Prayer and Penitence reconcile your self to him for without this Fasting is of no use Expressions of Humiliation preparatory to the following Devotions RIghteousness O Lord belongs unto thee but unto me confusion of face the vainest the vilest the sinfullest of all the children of men Lord I am vile in mine own eyes and I will be yet more vile because my sins have made me vile in thine I am not worthy of the Air I breath of the Earth I tread upon or of the Sun that shines upon me much less worthy to lift up either hands or eyes to Heaven For thou hast said that no unclean thing shall come within thy sight and how then shall I appear who am so miserably defiled If the Man according to thine own heart could say that he was a Worm and no Man O what am I If Abraham who had the honour to be called thy Friend could say that he was but Dust and Ashes O what am I O my God thou madest me of nothing and thou feest how I have spoiled this work of thine for I have made my self worse than nothing For I am still in my Sins and what to do I know not Acts of Resolution to second this Humiliation But this I will do I Will confess my wickedness and be sorry for my sins I will stand aloof with the Publican and smite my breast and say Lord be merciful to me a sinner I will return with the Prodigal and say Father I am not worthy to be called thy Child make me as one of thine hired Servants I will not suffer mine eyes to sleep nor mine eye-lids to slumber till I have by the mediation of thy dear Son obtained my pardon And what shall I say more I will pour out my prayers in the bitterness of my Spirit and if my dry Eyes want Tears I will call unto my Heart for Tears of Blood wherewith I may supply them And therefore now Lord call my sins to my remembrance and when thou hast done so blot them out of thy remembrance and pardon me A Litany of Confession to be made use of by the Penitent Soul that finds it self burthened with a true sense of Sin I. WO Wo unto me O God that being a Creature of thine and made by thee capable of enjoying everlasting felicity I have lived so wickedly and leudly that unless thy mercy prevent it I shall utterly forfeit the very End of my Creation But I Repent O my God I Repent I am utterly ashamed of it Lord be thou merciful to me a Sinner II. Wo Wo unto me O God that