thy heart foments and cherisheth the least spark of the love of God which it finds there and makes it flame out into a servent prayer David found this by experience where he saith of himself while I was thus musing my heart kindled within me and I spake with my Tongue The Devotion of the heart saith St. Bernard is the Tongue of the Soul without this it is silent and shut up but actuated and heated with Love it poures it self forth in Supplications and Prayers and Discourses with God sometimes Praising him for the Infinite Blessings received from him sometimes Praying to him for those which we yet want This is that conversing of the Soul with God which Gregory Nyssen speaks of as a Son Conversing with his Father or a Friend with a Friend into whose bosom he may pour forth with confidence all the Secrets of his Soul as a Favourite with his Prince or a betrothed Virgin with her Lover What the result of these discourses is what words are spoken what secrets discovered what delights enjoyed may easier be felt than spoken of When the Soul being lifted up by the wings of Prayer and rarified into a flame by Love reacheth the very Bosom of God But though every devout Soul mounts not to this pitch this top of the Ladder let none be dismaied at it For God knows whereof you are made he sees the body of flesh which you bear about you and the Plummets which it hangs upon your Soul and therefore when you cannot rise high enough to him he comes down to you for so you find in this Vision there were descending as well as ascending Angels We do not read that St. Paul was often rapt into the third Heaven Notwithstanding his Raptures the Angel of Satan that buffeted him made him remember that he was still upon the Earth For one foot of the Compass will unavoidably be fixed there when the other moves in the circumference of divine contemplation Iacob himself was but at the bottom at the foot of the ladder when his Soul was at the highest and saw God at the top of it O Most wise God the Unction of whose Spirit can teach me all things teach me the Rules I am to observe in this Heavenly Exercise of Prayer Stir up my Memory to remember that thou art present fix my intention upon Thee upon Thee alone Awake my Understanding to consider what I am about and who I am to speak to But above all inflame my Affections that my heart being set on fire with Thy Love my Prayers may participate of that Fervency and be accepted of Thee for his sake who came to send this Fire upon the Earth even Iesus Christ my Saviour Amen Of the Excellencies and Fruits of Prayer as they may be drawn out of the Lords Prayer THere is no clearer glass to see the excellencies of Prayer in than that very Prayer which our Saviour thought fit to teach his Disciples Where the first entrance presents you with that unvaluable Priviledge to call God your Father that therefore you come not to treat with him as a Slave with his Master or a Vassal with his Prince but as a Son with your Father God infusing into you by Prayer that Spirit of Adoption by which you cry to him Abba Father This being saith St. Chrysostome the highest excellency of the Creature to treat familiarly as a Son with his Creator A Dignity that raiseth us poor Worms of the Earth to a kind of equality with the Angels themselves for though in Nature they are above us yet this duty makes us equal For Quid potest inveniri sanctius iis qui cum Deo commercium habent Saith the same Father What can be more holy than he who is admitted to treat familiarly with God Moses by talking with God had such a brightness shed upon his face that they who looked upon him were dazled with it For if they who have the ear of Princes as Favourites having freedom of access and opportunity at all times of presenting their Petitions cannot want the splendor of Worldly things which consequently will follow them much less can the beams of an higher glory be wanting unto them who live as if they were always in the presence of God talking with God by Prayer and God with them by holy Inspirations What can they want who are admitted to this Privacy And it is your fault if you are not For there are neither doors nor locks nor any greater Favourite to keep you out He that gives you leave to call him Father cannot exclude his Son that cries Father I have sinned O Gracious Father what thanks what praise can we offer to Thee for raising us to that honour of entring into thy presence as Sons and conversing with Thee on the Earth with the same Freedom as the Angels do in Heaven O grant us the Grace so to make advantages of so Divine a Priviledge that our sins may never make us forfeit it but rather by a devout and humble use of it acquire to our selves daily new degrees of Thy Favour till Thou hast brought us Thy unworthy Sons to that incorruptible Inheritance which can neither have encrease nor end Amen THe second Excellency of Prayer is That it is a means by which the name of God is hallowed both by us and in us We pray that his Name may be Sanctified and we Sanctifie his Name by praying so Our Tongues but much more our Lives being made Instruments to glorifie him God is glorified by our believing in him by our knowing him by our adoring him and in Prayer we do all this By Prayer we bring to light those graces and gifts of God which he hath hid for us in his eternal Predestination as we may see in that Prayer of Christ to his Eternal Father And now O Father glorifie thou me with thy own self with the glory which I had with thee before the World was From whence the School infers That Prayer is the principal means ordered by providence for the execution of what God hath decreed on our behalf God had decreed the Incarnation of his Son for the saving of the World he had promised and could not vary from it Yet this kept not Moses from his Petition Send him whom thou wilt send nor the Prophet from praying O that thou wouldest bow the Heavens and come down The Father had decreed to give his Son being Incarnate the Nations for his inheritance but the execution of this Decree was to be by Prayer the Son of God himself was to pay for it for Postula Dabo Ask of me and I will give them thee If therefore the Decree of your Predestination be yet dark to you and you would willingly know whether your name be written in the Book of Life there is no way of obtaining this but humble Prayer Do but pray fervently that God would glorifie himself in thee by making thee a Vessel for his Honour and
in the very first motions and approaches of my Devotions and so order the beginnings of my Prayers as they may go on and never end till they are accepted of Thee Amen Of the Reverence and Adoration that is to be used in Prayer AMong all the Duties that relate to Prayer whether of Preparation to it or of Deportment in it there is none of more prime Concernment than to consider that when we pray we do place or set our selves in the immediate presence of God whose eyes though they are at all times over us yet then we must imagine them more particularly and earnestly fixed upon us And as from this Consideration flows all the care and solicitude of fitting our selves by the former preparatives so besides it suggests to us with what reverence we should present our selves before so infinite a Majesty not only because God expects it from us though this were enough to oblige For if I am your Father where is mine honour If I am your Master where is my fear The words of him that looks for Reverence but because our Prayers are then only effectual when they are presented with acts of Adoration For so saith Siracides The Prayer of him that humbleth himself goes through the Clouds and ceaseth not till it come near and will not depart till the most High have respect thereunto Nor doth the Son of God himself disdain to be a President to us in this whose prayers upon the Cross being offered with strong cries and tears were heard as St. Paul saith Propter Reverentiam importing as Aquinas observes not so much the Reverence due to his own Person but rather the Reverence which he did in his own Person to God the Father But because the Reverence which was done there was only the act of his Mind for his Body being then nail'd unto the Cross was not in a Capacity of performing outward Adoration he gave us before that pattern in the Garden where St. Luke saith that he kneeled St. Matthew that he fell on his face when he prayed Having shewn this of the Son of God Incarnate of whom it is said Let all the Angels of God Worship him It were much to descend to tell you of the four Beasts or the twenty four Elders that fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever But then if this lowly Reverence was done by them who were in such a nearness to God when they offered up to him the Prayers of the Saints what posture can be low enough for us miserable men whose Prayers those are and who in comparison of those heavenly Spirits are viler than the Worms we tread upon That Adoration therefore is necessary none will deny that either know the Excellency of God or their own baseness But because this may be done either by the mind alone or by the Body alone or by both conjoyned which makes the compleat Adoration let us inform our selves first what the inward act of it is For as our Saviour taught the Woman of Samaria God who is himself a Spirit must be worshipped in Spirit for the most profound outward Reverence if not accompanied with this is but a Body without a Soul a Pharisaical Ceremony or an Adoration of Complement of which God sadly complains when he saith of his people That they drew near to him with their lips but their heart was far from him The inward Adoration therefore is the humbling of our spirit to God in regard of the excellency that is in him submitting our very Soul with all the powers and faculties of it to his Divine Disposal as being the necessary Homage of the Creature due to the Greatness and Majesty of the Creator The exercise of this Adoration consists in several acts partly of the Understanding partly of the Will For first there is an act of Reverence required before you begin your Devotions in an humble Recognition of your unworthiness of which the Patriarch Abraham hath left you so excellent a pattern when being about to beseech God that he would spare Sodom he doth not only acknowledg himself to be dust and ashes but upon every return of speaking to God in that Cause he doth it with that fear and reverence as to ask leave and to deprecate his anger before he spake O let not the Lord be angry and I will speak I Confess O Lord it is an excess of holdness in me that I so poor a Worm so vile so contemptible a Creature should presume to speak to Thee Yet be not angry with me for this for it is not because I value my self more than Abraham did for if he were but dust and ashes what am I but because I dare not under value Thy Mercy that I make my humble approaches to Thee Behold I am nothing in mine own eyes O let me be something in Thine and disdâ—in me not when I speak unto Thee for Christ his sake Amen THis humble Recognition being made of your own vileness there is a second way of spiritual Adoration when the Soul humbled by this Reflex upon it self changeth the Object and raiseth a further Reverence by the consideration of the Excellencies and several perfections that are in God sometimes crying out in such Ejaculations as these O most excellent God I adore Thee for Thine Infinite Wisdom I reverence Thee for Thine Incomprehensible Goodness I glorifie Thee for Thine Immense Charity Sometimes again by a profound silence making a tacite acknowledgment that all that can be said by thee is nothing For not only the tongues of men but of Angels must fail in the expression of his Glory Besides there is a Reverence to be used to God in the Stile or Titles which you give to him and these you may vary according to the variety of the matter of your petitions wherein the Psalms of David are admirable and afford you no less than forty several ways of Compellation of him some relating to his Power as when he calls him by the names of The King of Heaven the King of Glory The God of my Strength The God that doth Wonders the very stile striking a kind of fear and reverence into the Soul Others again relating to his Goodness My Saviour My God My Might My Hope My Refuge in the time of trouble Which though they run in a stile of Confidence yet are not without reverence too But then as Gerson observes the stile that is best fitted for all persons on all occasions to use is the compellation of Father which our Saviour first taught his Disciples to make use of in that excellent Prayer never to be disus'd nor laid aside by us Before the time of Grace published to the World we do not find this Title in the prayers of Holy Men either Patriarchs or Prophets But after the Son of God by taking our Nature upon him became our Brother then was the boldness given to call God our Father given even
Vera Effigies Rev. di in Christo Patris at D. D. Bryan Duppa quondam Episcopi Wintoniensis HOLY RULES and HELPS TO DEVOTION Both in Prayer and Practice IN TWO PARTS The fourth Edition Written by The right Reverend Father in God Bryan Duppa Late Lord Bishop of Winton In the time of his SEQUESTRATION London Printed for vp Hensman at the King's-Head in Westminster-Hall 1683. TO THE Christian Reader THe Name and Memory of the excellent Author of this Treatise needs not borrow or derive a Reputation from any Pen but its own There are already many useful Pieces and Helps to Devotion set forth both by Bishops and others of our Church more solid serviceable and advantagious to true Piety and the power of Godliness than all the gifted Impertinencies to say no worse of some Holy Pretenders For if Noise and Clamour might pass for Inspiration the Apostles must go for Weak-Brethren and mere Novices compared with our new Lights and Improvements That Set Forms of Prayer are altogether necessary in Publick cannot be denied and needs not now be represented They are abundantly useful even for private Christians also since it is not every one that can pray extempore in his Closet and he that can may notwithstanding be defective enough in the matter or manner of his Petitions For though God principally respects the Heart and Affections of his Servants and the Spirit helps our Infirmities with sighs and groans yet we ought even in private to have an awful orderly regard of the Great God to whom we address our selves and the Holy Spirit teaches us to pray as with ardent Affections so with reverend humble minds and not with disorderly confused or unprepared approaches and a rude confidence without just ground or foundation This is not to help or diminish our infirmities but to augment them more He that prays extempore must be one of better Faith and Principles Life and Conversation than many are who so familiarly pretend to it But whatever some mens Graces may be in this particular which God forbid I should seek to diminish or reproach yet for such who I doubt are far the greater number as yet have not attained to so great a Perfection in this holy Duty I cannot but recommend these Rules and Directions which answer the Title and will I hope the Expectation of those that use them to their benefit and comfort God grant us all that Unity of Spirit which intitles us to the Gifts and Graces of of the Spirit that so praying with one heart and mind as becometh Saints we may have our Communion in Glory among the Iust hereafter Ben. Parry HOLY Rules and Helps TO DEVOTION Both in Prayer and Practice But I will give my self unto Prayer O Eternal Wisdom who communicatest thy self unto thy Creatures in such measure as they are capable of vouchsafe to impart to my Soul that Heavenly Gift to be a Guide to me in all my Thoughts my Thoughts my Words my Actions that so being taught by Thy Holy Spirit I may so far know Thee as to love Thee and so far love Thee as ever to fix my thoughts upon Thee Of Prayer what it is THe several Properties and Excellencies of Prayer have afforded matter enough to the Ancient Fathers to mold as many several and different Descriptions of it which like many Stars cast into a Constellation may give all together a full and perfect Representation of it Gregory Nyssen defines Prayer to be the conversing or discoursing of the Soul with God concerning her Salvation Which being done by the outward Expressions of the Voice is called Vocal Prayer but if by the Mind alone Mental In this way of conversing with God the Soul makes use of her Three principal Faculties her Memory her Understanding her Will Her Memory to call to mind what she is to treat of her Understanding to weigh and to judge what she delivers Her Will to perform this Duty feelingly and affectionately For all these Faculties must concur in Prayer elevating the Soul and fixing it upon God as the highest Truth in which we are to believe the Soveraign Happiness which we are to hope for the Supream Goodness which we are to love and the infinite Excellence which we are to adore So that Prayer is principally grounded on a lively Faith of such things as God hath revealed an assured Hope of what he hath promised and a servent Love which serves as the Fire to kindle this Sacrifice and to carry the Soul upward till it arrive at the Throne of Grace From hence it is that Damascen describes Prayer to be an ascending of the Soul to God being therefore compared to the sweet Perfume that ascended from the Incense But as the Incense being cast into the Fire ascends only in the more subtile and delicate part of it which being converted into Air and Smoak leaves behind it the grosser and earthier part turn'd into Ashes So in this ascent the Soul leaves behind it the earthier parts as Abraham left his Servants behind him at the foot of the Mountain while he ascended to the top of it to sacrifice For this is a business that belongs to Eagles which as they fly high so in their flight they look stedfastly on the Sun It is not for those that intrench themselves in the Earth as in their proper Element nor yet for Birds of Prey which though they fly high yet their eyes are still cast downward Sursum Corda was the form in ancient Liturgies the Priest calling out to the People Lift up your hearts which the people as readily answered Habemus ad Dominum This ascending of the Soul by Prayer was figured as St. Austin conceives by that mysterious Ladder whose foot being upon the Earth the top of it reached unto Heaven seen by Iacob in a Vision with Angels ascending and descending on the Rundles of it carrying up our Prayers to God and bringing down Blessings upon him that offers them But because this ascent is not ordinarily by Rapture for the Angels were not seen to fly up the Ladder but to mount by degrees we are to consider the several Steps and Rundles we are to ascend by THe first Step is laid hold on by the Memory which begins this spiritual ascent by putting the Soul in mind to look up to the Majesty of him that stands above the Ladder to remember that though the place we chuse for our Devotion be never so solitary yet we are not alone that God hears what we say sees what we do that the whole Trinity is present as visible to thy eyes of Faith as grosser Objects are to the outward senses For there is God the Father the Fountain of good Thoughts ready to assist through his power and to keep us from distraction in our Prayers there is God the Son the eternal Truth prepared to direct us by his Wisdom and to deliver us from errour and delusion there is God the Holy Ghost the Source and Spring of
we look for pardon of our Trespasses against God Prayer helps you in the fulfilling of this condition too and though your hearts be as hard as Iron Prayer is of the nature of Fire and is able to soften that Iron and melt you into that compassion toward your enemies as to pray for them with the same earnestness as you do for your selves But then when our past sins are pardoned where shall we find a Remedy against future Temptations Our Saviour tells you where when he saith to his Disciples Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation If the fire of Lust begin to kindle in your hearts Prayer can extinguish that fire Or if a whole Sea of worldly Afflictions breaks in upon you Prayer can set a Bank to that Sea If you are compassed about with Enemies Temptations on all sides and are ready to be swallowed up by them remember that Moses's Prayer prevailed more against Amalek than Ioshuah's Arms. And then again in the close as Prayer hath the nature of a Charm to keep Temptations from you so when by Humane Weakness and the Arts of the Tempter you are led into them Prayer is as the thread to bring you out of this Labyrinth Or when you have unwarily taken in the poison of sin Prayer is the Antidote against the venom of it it doth not only remove the guilt but the evil of Punishment which is due to it whether it be in this Life or in the next And of this David was very sensible when he cryes out in a kind of Extasie of Thankfulness Blessed be God which hath not cast out my Prayer nor turned his Mercy from me Intimating by this as St. Austin understands the words that there is a kind of Contract or Bargain made between Prayer on Man's part and Mercy on God's That where Prayer led the way Mercy should always follow O Father of Mercies Give me that gift of Prayer by the means of which Thou dost use to dispense those Mercies suffer me never to be weary of praying lest that make Thee weary of forgiving For this I am sure of that if I cease not to pray Thou canst not cease to have mercy For because Thou art good Thou wilt always deliver me from evil Not for mine but for Thine own Goodness sake BY this which hath been said may be inferred the necessity of Prayer both in respect of your spiritual Life which it preserves And in regard of spiritual Enemies which otherwise would destroy you For as the Body without the Soul is dead loathsome and overspread with Worms so fares it with the Soul saith Chrysostome that doth not use to pray and consequently hath no spiritual Life in it For as soon as the Breath of Prayer fails the Soul putrifies and the Worm of Conscience gnaws upon it Daniel therefore chose rather to hazard his life than to omit his exercise of Prayer thrice a day as being willing that his Body should suffer rather than his Soul Would you know further how precious Prayer is devout Men will tell you That Prayer pierceth the Clouds reacheth the Heavens rejoyceth the Angels appeaseth God obtains whatsoever it sues for O Grace of Grace holy and heavenly FATHER what shall I say of thee either to express thy Excellency or the Necessity my Soul hath of thine help I am the Fountain of all Misery and thou art to me the Source and Spring of Mercy With thee I live without thee I die With thee I am able to do all things without thee I can do nothing O Divine Spirit whose Gift alone it is to know how to speak to Thee Give me the Spirit of Wisdom by which I may sanctifie Thy Name the Spirit of Understanding by whose Light I may see the secrets of Thy Kingdom the Spirit of Counsel which may guid me to do Thy Will on Earth as it is done in Heaven the Spirit of Knowledg to discover and to ask what is Necessary either for Body or for Soul the Spirit of Charity to move me to pardon my Enemies as I desire Thou shouldst pardon me the Spirit of Fear to avoid all Occasions and Approaches to sin and the Spirit of Might and Courage to overcome all Evil. Amen Of the Impediments and Enemies of Prayer HAving considered the glorious Fruits and admirable Efficacy of Prayer we are to look about and to discover what Enemies we are like to meet with to oppose and hinder us in the exercise of this Heavenly Duty For Prayer is in its own nature a kind of Wrestling and Striving for a Victory which presupposeth an opposition And rather than it shall be wanting God himself will enter into the Lists as he did with Iacob in that famous Wrestling when to shew the power of Prayer he that was invincible was content to be overcome by him who had no other weapons but Tears and Prayers When therefore you find your selves afflicted make use of our Saviour's Parable Arise though it be at Midnight repair speedily to the Gates of your true Friend God himself for you have no Friend like him though you find the doors shut and your Friend asleep begin your Battery and give not over knocking with importunate Cries and Prayers till he open to you as Iacob would not let the Angel go till he had blessed him O Omnipotent and Invisible GOD who lettest thy Self down to my Weakness and givest me strength to wrestle with Thee for a Blessing strengthen my Prayer to that height that when Thou seemest most to set thy Self against me I may prevail with Thee as Jacob did For my overcoming Thee is but the effect of Thy overcoming thy Self in me so that the glory of the Victory which I get over Thee will be intirely Thine Wrestle on therefore O my Soul give not over thy hold take no answer that brings not a Blessing with it For it is Thy God who strengthens thee and through him thou shalt at last be more than Conqueror Amen AS Prayer therefore is a Wrestling with God we look not upon this opposition as an hindrance but as an advantage to Devotion The true Enemies of Prayer exercise a more dangerous Hostility where the Van is led by those damned Spirits who being fallen from Heaven themselves endeavour the more enviously to obstruct the ways that may lead us thither and because nothing conduceth more to this than Prayer they order all their Temptations to this end chiefly either to divert us from it or disturb us in it If they tempt us to excess in Meats and Drinks their aim is not only to make us guilty of Intemperance but by it to render us the more unfit for Prayer Or if they prompt us to Anger and Impatience their design terminates not in that sin but rather makes use of it to a further end that the mind being thus disquieted may not be able easily to compose and settle it self to Prayer For the effecting this they
to sinners conditionally that they use it with that reverence as the converted Prodigal did who though he had the confidence to call him Father yet he had the humility withal to confess that he was not worthy to be called his Son and therefore his Petition reached no higher than to be made one of his hired Servants O Most Great God what shall I say in Thy presence when I come to pray to Thee By what Title shall I call thee or how shall I sufficiently adore Thee If I stile Thee a Iudge I adore thy Iustice If a Master I know my Obedience if I call Thee my Saviour I acknowledge Thy Mercy Whatsoever name I use I find cause enough of Reverence And since therefore I now appear before Thee to pay the Tribute of Adoration by a Thousand Titles due to the Thee let thy Truth direct me and Thy Spirit guide me that I may so adore Thee in Spirit and Truth as Thou requirest And that all the inward Faculties of my Soul may be as so many fiery Tongues to set forth thy praise for evermore Amen BUT as in a Watch though there must be Wheels within yet there must be a hand without too or else the inward Motion of the Wheels is useless so though the principal of all spiritual Motion is within yet the Virtue of it must have a time to work outward too or else our Adoration is not compleat For as the Nature of Man is not comprised singly either in Soul or Body but in both conjoyned so the Adoration due to God who made both is to flow from both And if the Soul be God's inward Chancel the Body must be the Temple that includes it For know you not saith St. Paul that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost that is in you Your own it is not For you are brought with a price therefore glorifie God in your Body as well as Spirit for both are his We are not therefore to think the Reverence of the Body to be an useless or an unprofitable Ceremony For besides this Argument of St. Pauls for the necessity of it St. Austin observes that this outward Adoration of the Body is a notable help to the more inward acts of the Spirit and adds much to the earnestness and fervour of it For the stretching forth of the hands the bowing of the knees the beating of the breasts the prostrating and casting down the Body with the like Gestures of Humiliation are not therefore used to discover to God what is within the heart or to move him the more but to move thy self and by these exterior acts as by a vigorous blowing to continue and increase that invisible fire of Devotion that burns within But then as these outward acts are not always absolutely necessary for you may many times be inwardly moved to pray when outward gesture cannot either easily or conveniently be used as Manasses praying in his Fetters Ezekiel in his Bed Susanna in a Throng of People so neither can I say that any one particular gesture of the Body in Prayer is so prescribed in Scripture either by way of Precept or Example as to oblige to that gesture only For in the exercise of Prayer we find several postures of Holy Men. Before the Law Abraham is said to have fallen on his face under the Law Moses did the like Among the Prophets Elias fell on the earth bowing his face between his knees Solomon stood before the Altar with his hands spread forth toward Heaven Saint Stephen kneel'd when he pray'd for his Enemies Saint Peter when he raised Doroas our Saviour himself in his Agony in the Garden not only kneel'd but prostrated himself as hath already been mentioned The acts of outward Adoration being of this diversity St. Austin's Rule is that in private Prayer for in publick we are to conform our selves to the Commands and Customs of the Church wherein we live rather than to the bent and inclination of our own Wills we are so to compose and order the outward man as may be of most advantage to the raising and continuing of the inward Devotion of the mind Of all these outward Gestures Prostration is the lowest act of bodily Reverence that can be used when the Supplicant casting himself upon the earth acknowledges by that act that he doth but cast dust to dust that he is more vile than the least grain of that earth he lies upon and this posture best becomes us in times of great Affliction and ever to be then lowest when our necessities are at the highest But though this casting of the body upon the ground hath been the practice of many Devout Men especially of those in the first Ages of Christianity who after a more strict way worshipping God in Desarts and solitary places yet because they found by experience as Cassian tells us that the continuance of their posture long might incline to ease and provoke to drousiness they us'd it rather upon some short Ejaculatory Prayers than in their larger and more continued Devotions casting themselves often down with some short and vehement breathings of the Soul but rising again so suddenly that some of them have been observed to have prostrated themselves in this manner an hundred times in the day and as often in the night But this we must leave to be imitated by those whose Devotion is of an higher strain than ordinary and which these latter times are hardly capable of But the more ordinary and more convenient for all persons is Genuflection Though we may have some excuse not to cast our whole body down shall we not cast our knees down at least Hath God said That every knee shall bow to him and shall any of us think to be dispenc'd with Our Saviour kneeled who knew no sin and is the posture too low for us that are nothing else but sin Whether Elephants have no joints in their knees and therefore cannot bend them I will not enquire But sure the Christian that hath not this excuse is a stranger Creature to be wondered at if he become once so sparing of his trouble or so over-familiar with his God as not to bend his knees in solemn Prayer unto him But then you will say Where is there Command for this No Gesture of the body can be other than a Ceremony which being in its own Nature a thing indifferent may either be used or laid aside But first Though it be a Ceremony every Ceremony is not of that indifferency especially such which the very Law of Nature dictates to all Nations in all Ages to fall down and kneel in the Veneration of their God whether true or false But then lest this inward Principle should apply and cast it self upon a wrong Object God hath expresly given his Precept too For every knee saith he shall bow to me And what terms can there be of higher command than these But yet because
Affirmative Precepts though they bind always in the Habit cannot be said always to bind in the Act this cannot be pressed so indispensably as that neither sickness nor weakness nor any other accident can be a bar to it For where necessity intervenes the bended knees of the heart may well excuse the Body There is therefore one posture more that we find hath been used in Prayer which though it may hear ill being practised by the Pharisees who as our Saviour describes them loved to pray standing not only in their Synagogues but in the corners of their Streets yet this is not enough utterly to exclude it from our Devotions For not only the proud Pharisee but the humble Publican stood at his Prayers although with this note of difference He stood but it was afar off in the lowest place of the Temple as thinking himself unworthy to come higher His body stood upright but his eyes were cast downward to the Earth But not to stop either upon these Particulars or upon the Custom of the Iews in general for it was their Custom to pray standing we find in the best times the Christians had their seasons to make use of it For besides that as between Easter and Whitsontide to express their Exultation for the Resurrection of their Saviour and their Expectation of the Descent of the Holy Ghost they were not seen to kneel openly in their publick Service of God So many times in their private Devotions especially when they continued them long upon their knees they relieved themselves with that change of Posture But to avoid all necessary Scruples in cases of this nature the result of all is this 1. That Adoration is an act of Religious Worship exhibited to God in Recognition of his Supreme Dominion 2. That as in Man the heart is first framed so the heart must be first offered as a spiritual Sacrifice of inward Reverence 3. That the outward Adoration by Prostration or kneeling is not so much a Ceremony as a part or duty in Divine Worship not to be omitted but either in case of necessity or when we find some other posture upon some occasion really to be of more advantage to us in our Devotion 4. That this Duty of external Reverence doth not then necessarily oblige when the Soul being suddenly and inwardly moved to lift it self up by Prayer the outward man is as it were surprized in some other posture as walking standing sitting or lying down in which case God will rather look to the inward Motions and Raptures of the Mind than to the outward Form and Composure of the Body Someother though more minute yet usual Circumstances of Adoration are summed up by Bonaventure as the uncovering of the head as it relates to Men the posture of either looking up to Heaven with the confidence of Saint Stephen or fastened down to the Earth with the humility of the Publican The hands lifted and stretched out a Gesture which God honoured with that famous Miracle Thus as long as Moses in this manner held up his hands the Israelites prevailed but when he let them down his Enemies prevailed But the choice of these must be regulated by the former Rule of Saint Austin and so far made use of as they shall conduce most to every particular Man's Devotion FINIS HOLY RULES and HELPS TO DEVOTION Both in Prayer and Practice BY The right Reverend Father in God Bryan Duppa Late Lord Bishop of Winton The Second Part. London Printed for W. Hensman at the King's-Heaâ— in Westminster-Hall 1683. HOLY Rules and Helps TO DEVOTION Both in Prayer and Practice Of Prayer what it is PRAYER is an Humble Address of the Soul towards God for whatsoever we stand in need of either in relation to this life or the life to come Prayer is The lifting up of the Soul The pouring out of the Soul A wrestling with God A Sacrifice to God A Succour to the Soul A Scourge to the Tempter A Sanctuary in Troubles A Remedy for sins A Key to open the Morning A Lock to shut in the Evening Of Morning and Evening Prayer I. MOrning and Evening Prayer are instead of that Morning and Evening-Sacrifice which God enjoined to be daily offered in the Temple II. They are out-goings of the Morning and Evening which David speaks of The out-goings of the Morning and Evening shall praise thee III. They are to every devout Soul like that Pillar which guided Israel through the Wilderness as a Cloud by day to shadow them and as a Fire by night to comfort them IV. By Morning Prayer thou openest the windows of thy Soul to the Sun of Righteousness and by Evening Prayer thou shuttest them against the danger of the night V. In your Morning Devotions you are to say within your self What shall I do this day which God hath given me How shall I employ it In the Evening What have I done this day How have I spent it Short Ejaculations or Occasional Prayers for the Morning BLessed art thou O God who hast sent the Day-spring from on high to visit me who hast given my body rest and preserved this night my Soul in safety Blessed art thou who 〈◊〉 â—â—newest thy Mercies to me every morning and hast given me one day more to serve thee and call upon thy name Or this Psal. cxliii 5. 8. Let me hear thy loving-kindness O God betimes in the morning for in thee is my trust Shew thou me the way that I should walk in for I lift up my soul unto thee Or this Numb vi 24. The Lord God bless and preserve me make his face to shine upon me and be gracious unto me that it may go well with me this day and evermore A short Prayer at up-rising O Blessed Saviour who hast taught me that the dead shall hear thy voice let me no longer lie in the grave of sloth but raise me as thou didst thy servant Lazarus unbind my hands and feet set me in some good way that I may glorifie thee by serving thee this day with a pure mind and humble heart Amen At your Cloathing O My God as I came into the World a weak a naked and a wretched Creature so am I still if destitute of thy grace Reach out therefore unto me the unspotted Robe of thy Sons Righteousness and so clothe me with all the graces of thy holy Spirit that thy Image may be daily renewed in me and thy Name honoured by me for evermore Amen At the washing of your Hands O My dear Saviour who hast opened a fountain for sin and for all uncleanness wash me throughly with those saving Waters that being purified from the stains of sin and the guilt of my natural corruption I may with the more confidence draw near to thy Throne of Grace and bow myself before thy Mercy-seat Amen Eccles. xviii 5. 23. Before thou prayest prepare thy self and be not as one that tempts the Lord. Three Rules of Preparation I.
me not when my strength fails me But in the multitude of my sorrows that are in my heart let thy comforts be the refreshing of my soul. O my God the more weak I am the more let thy strength be made known in my weakness And suffer no temptation to seize upon me but such as thou shalt give me grace to overcome O Lord hear my Prayer And let my cry come unto thee Amen sweet Jesu Amen Amen The Prayer O My dear God and most merciful Father who hast not only directed but encouraged me in all my troubles to call upon thee Hear I beseech thee the complaints that I now make and the Prayers which I pour forth in the anguish and bitterness of my spirit for thou hast shewn me heavy things O God And in the midst of all my prosperity hast been pleased to mingle a bitter Cup for me What the troubles of my heart are how heavy they lie upon me how deeply they wound me I need not labour to express to thee for all my comfort is that nothing is hid from thee For not only the Blessings which thou hast poured upon me through all the minutes and moments of my Life but the Afflictions which I now groan under come from the same hand to rouse me and awake me to a more devout and earnest way of serving thee And since it is thy own work look down with the more pity on this wounded Soul of mine See O my God how I pant and labour under the heavy scourge of thy displeasure a scourge which my own sins have twisted and mine own iniquities have drawn down upon me But O my dear Father to whom it is more easie to do all things than for me to ask any thing that is good Thou that hast promised to all them that love thee that they shall not be tempted farther than they are able Give I beseech thee that measure of grace and patience to thy sad and afflicted Servant that I may not only endure what thou layest upon me but entirely willingly and chearfully submit my will to thine And O thou God of Comfort and Spirit of all Consolation be not only with me but with all of my Relations that mourn in secret either for their own sins or sufferings or whatsoever Bitterness thou shalt think fit to lay upon us O teach us all to look up to the hand from whence these Judgments come to kiss and to adore it And when thou hast done so let thy mercy go one step further with me and compose my troubled mind into such a calm that none of my Sufferings whatsoever they are or may be may either make me repine at thy Judgments or despair of thy mercies but rather let all that is afflictive to me serve only to wean me from the World and to draw me the nearer to thee but because this cannot be done without thee O thou Preserver of the Children of Men behold I throw my self and all that is dear to me clearly and intirely into thine arms to do with me whatsoever shall be good in thine eyes And therefore amidst all the unquiet thoughts which now trouble and disorder me say unto me as thou didst to thy Disciples in the Storm Fear not for it is I. Or else if thou shalt find it better for me that I should find no calm abroad in the midst of the various changes and chances of this World let me find it at least in my own breast and bosom and possess my soul in patience whatever other storms thou shalt please to raise against me that so placed under the shadow of thy wings and refreshed here with the comforts of thy Spirit I may long earnestly for that blessed day when all tears shall be wiped from mine eyes and all sorrows shall be forgotten Grant this O my God for thy Son's sake who sits at thy right hand to meditate for me Grant it for thy Holy Spirit 's sake who pleads for me and all that love thee with Groans that cannot be expressed Grant it for thy own sake O my God who art never more thy self than when in the midst of Judgment thou remembrest Mercy Amen Amen Amen FINIS Joh. 17. 5. Psal. 2. 8. Luke in 21 22. Luke 9. 28. Mat. 17. â— Mark ix 3. Mark ix 5. Psal. lxvl. 13. Mat. xvil Dan. 6. Gen. xxxii 24. Hos. xii 4. Luke xi 5. Ephes. vi 12. 18. Matth. xvii 16. 21. Tob. viii 3. Lam. iii. 44. Isa. i. 13. 14. 15. 16. 18. Exod. xxxiii 20. Dan. vi Luke x. 41. Gen. XV. 11. Matth. viii 9. Eccles. xvlli 22. Lam. iii. 44. 1 Kings xviii Esther ii 12. 1 Kings XIX 13. Matth. vi 6. Mark XIV 15. Psalm lxxxvili l. Cxli. 2 xxviii 2. xiii 1 2. xxviii 1. Mal. i. 6. Ecclus. xxxv 17. Heb. v. 7. Luke xxii 41. Matth. xxvi 39. Heb. i. 6. Rev. v. 8. 14. John iv 24. Isa xxix 13. Matth. xv 8. Gen. xviii 29. 30. 1 Cor. VI. 19 20. Gen. xvii 3. Deut. ix 18. 1 Kings xviii 42. 1 Kings viii 22. Acts vii 60. 20. 36. Matth. xxvi 30. Isa. xiv 23. Mark vi 5 Luke xviii 13. 2 Chron. vi 13. Exod. xvii 11.