comes to their share 6. For this reason God sends such tempestuous and dark weather at Sea to the skilfull Navigatour that he shall not be able readily to know or say where he is till the restored calme Light better informes him And sends Shipwracks sometimes to the subtill Merchant that he may understand better who it is that gives skill and strength to get Riches And diappointeth the hopes of the understanding and painfull Husbandman And as the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 44. maketh diviners mad and turneth wise men backward and maketh their knowledge foolish teaching them all and us too and that in all senses more perfectly that necessary lesson of humility Deuteronomy 8. 18. Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God. For it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth c. And as it is with the riches of this world it is with the riches of the world to come or being rich towards God as the Scripture speaks Luke 12. 21. For undoubtedly God may and doth apparently denie the ordinary meanes of Salvation sound knowledge and holy faith in him and of divine mysteries to some To others he grants to be initiated and to have some knowledge of the saving trueth who there stop and proceed no farther as tender plants rising out of the earth wither and perish for want of the blessings of heaven falling on them without which they can proceed no farther towards perfection and some proceed farther and promise fair and for the same reason attain not to the intended end 7. But nothing of this nature can reasonably be taken into an Apologie or defence of the unprofitable servant whom God hath delivered such talents and meanes unto that in themselves tend unto such progressions and consummations as are saving and beatificall But admit thou art becalmed and canst make no way through want of divine aspirations and influence How canst thou how darest thou impute this cessation and oscitancie of thine in not doing the known Will of God unto an unknown cause or rather a not cause of doing which whether it is so as thou imaginest or givest out at least that thou imaginest when thy heart contradicteth thy tongue thou knowest not For who can say that God denies him the inward power and meanes of Salvation that is of effectuall Grace to whom he giveth the outward meanes of Illumination Faith and Salvation Whatsoever may be wanting in the abstruse counsell and dispensations internall of God and known to him cannot be so known to a man without divine Revelations It is an uncharitable and rash act in any man directly to charge his Neighbour with denying him his due or taking away his goods from him when he can prove nothing against him and much more injust it is and impious for a man to say directly that God denies him grace or doth harden his heart so that Rules and exhortations and sufficient reasons of becoming faithfull righteous and holy before God and man are of no effect upon him 8. It is not so much pardonable as commendable in all Good Christians to be sensible of their naturall insufficiencie and infirmity to doe any good act St. Paul having taught us 2 Corinth 3. v. 5. That we are not able to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiencie is of God. But doe not the very next words as well as the latter part of that argument plainly tell us that God hath a sufficiencie for us and God doth make us able Ministers of his Will And doth not St. James tell us that every good and perfect gift cometh down from the Father of lights James 1. 17. And doth not our Saviour Christ direct us how we should fill our selves from that Fountain when he saith Matth. 7. 11. If ye being evill know how to give good gifts unto your Children how much more should your Father which is in heaven give you good things that ask him And this good thing is the best and fullest of all good things being interpreted in St. Lukes Gospell Chap. 11. 13. to be the Holy Spirit it selfe the fountain of all Grace which he giveth to them that ask him The Querie then must needs be made to our selves whether upon sense of our infirmities and defects we ever did and that as we ought invoke Almighty God implore the gift of his Spirit and its concurrence and whether we ever submitted to its Dictates and directions to that power God hath given us For to doe this as well as believe that we have an excellent president from the wise Man Wisdome 8. v. 21. Neverthelesse I perceived I could no otherwise obtain her i. e. True Wisedome comprehending all intellectuall graces except God gave her me and that was a point of Wisedome also to know whose gift she was I prayed unto the Lord and besought him and with my whole heart I said O God of my Fathers and Lord of mercie c. Which prayer for that illuminating gift and Grace so necessarie might not very unfitly be transcribed hither and used by all true lovers of light rather than darknesse at least untill the Day-star shall arise in their hearts according to which true Believers may shape their course more steadily towards Heaven but I shun prolixnesse SECT VI. Of the Gift and guidance of Gods Spirit towards true Illumination The abuse and true use of the same and necessity of Believing 1. BUT the use or act of the grace of Faith resteth not here but is wonderfully assistant to the naturall understanding in discerning the minde of God revealed unto us in his Word For as the discreet and diligent Master doth not only set his Schollar whom he teacheth to write an exact and fair Copie to imitate and follow but also guides his hand in the making the Letters and joyning them together according to their true shape and order in like manner doth he whose Chair is in heaven teaching the hearts as his Instruments and Officers doe the eares and eyes of men below to understand receive believe and act according to the Rule and scope prescribed For man naturally is apt to believe those things only which his Reason assures him of but his reason how acute soever cannot demonstrate the Scriptures to be the Word of God which we believe and must believe to be so if we would be accounted good Christians And having the Scriptures in that esteem we cannot out of our promptitude and acutenesse of wit discerne clearly and readily many usefull things therein contained without the direction of that great Authour the Blessed Spirit principall in the composing them For 't is truly said The Scriptures must be understood by the Spirit that indited them According therefore to the gifts and grace given unto Mee doe they understand the mysteries of Faith Rom. 12. 6. And to every man is given grace according to the measure of Christ Ephes 4. 7. whereby that light revealed shineth unto the true Believer as out of a dark place So that
lost their understanding but like to that Great Example set by Christ for imitation here and salvation hereafter SECT III. That in purifying our selves principall care is to be taken of the puritie of our Faith and of the affections of the Inward Man not neglecting outward severities 1. FAith is not only by the Reformed very often but sometimes by the Unreformed also of great note compared to and call'd an Hand But if this hand of Faith be all on the taking side and little on the giving both which are properties equally of the spirituall hand then is it verie defective For the Philosopher termed the hand of the Bodie the Organ of Organs or Instrument of all other Instruments usefull to us and such is Faith to our spirituall life and actions given us to work the work of God with If therefore it be only extended to receive Christ and justification by him to the quietation of the sollicitous and troubled Conscience and not to prepare the way by diligent and dutifull actions our faith being first unfaithfull to God will in the end also prove treacherous to our own Souls And that Instrument which is blunt or ill framed in it selfe is very apt to marr the work intended Without a good Pen a man how expert soever cannot make a good letter and much lesse write a fair hand And not only an hereticall Faith subverting the true Faith but an Orthodox and sound yet barren credulous presumptuous unactive impatient of both good and evill fond contumacious turbulent or unnecessary querulous and quarrelsome being entertained and rested on drawes neerer to perdition than salvation how flattering soever it may appear to the owner of it 2. And on the other side blinde zeal and violence rather than zeal going about to reforme the Soule with an unreformed or unsanctified Faith doe oftentimes expose the Bodie and Soule to unprofitable and dangerous injuries perhaps upon a mistake of perfection commended to us in the Holy Gospell For instance If a man should put out his own Eyes lest they should or because they had misled him or to the end he might become a better Philosopher as they write of some Philosophers and it is said of Didymus the Alexandrian otherwise an holy Christian given to contemplation or if a man should mutilate himselfe because he would not be chosen a Bishop of which Antiquitie gives us instances or to prevent or to revenge acts of unlawfull Lusts should destroy what Nature hath ordained or in fine should having fallen into any great and shamefull sin think to make propitiation for the same by laying violent hands upon himselfe all this must be imputed rather to want than abundance of Faith and to impenitence accumulating sin unto sin till the Soule sinks under the weight which by true Faith might have been removed or lightened 2. The inordinate passions therefore of the minde are to be the task of every good Christian and the purging or chastizing of the irregular appetites and casting out of doors and so purging the Temple of God as Nehemiah did the profane Stuffe of Tobiah the Samaritan out of the Chambers of the House of the Lord polluted thereby Severall Inmates there are which either creep in for entertainment or perhaps plead prescription which must be dislodged or there will in a short time be found no room for the Master of the House himselfe to reside in or rule over the Soule To wash the outside of the Bouls Platters and Cups is not amisse for it is required of every man not only to be religious but to appear so lest he comes under the condemnation of those who are ashamed of Christ his Doctrine and holie Discipline but to content our selves with that pittance of performance is to rank our selves with the Pharisees and Hypocrites condemned by Christ Oh that there were such an heart in them was the wish of God himselfe to his peculiar people the Israelites Deuteron 5. 19. when they promised fair and spake well concerning obedience which God requires But not the obedience of the tongue which without the heart ends only in aery Complements absurdly used towards men and ridiculously towards God when the heart is far from him And far is that heart and must needs be so from God which is unclean and unclean it must needs be which entertains such a Rabble of lusts which like drunken Companions in Taverns or Alehouses quarrel notoriously one with another but agree to foul the Room with their Pipes Pots Glasses Liquor and perhaps with their own vomit and other evacuations The sober man seeing this disorder and hearing such noise and havock sayes I would not be bound to dwell there if I might have never so much And can we think that Gods pure and piercing Eye beholding such distempers of the Spirit and disorders which the lusts of the flesh make in the Soule and the uncleannesse contracted thereby can or will condescend to take up his habitation there Into a malicious Soule wisdome shall not enter nor dwell in the bodie which is subject to sin Wisdome 1. 4. For all sin consisteth of two things contrary to Wisdome and to God the Fountaine of Wisdome Folly and Foulnesse which cannot consist with the Spirit of Holinesse and the true Wisdome which cometh from above and is first pure and then peaceable c. 3. If it were therefore only because God so frequently so earnestly so pressingly requires inward Puritie Puritie of intention and understanding which qualifie exceedingly actions otherwise irregular and faulty Puritie of affections freed from smuttie delectations and cleer and sincere and fixed and fervent towards the best Objects and that upon the best Grounds and Motives Gods service and honour who well advised would not apply himselfe to so noble and necessary a task as the searching and trying his heart and casting out thence whatever may corâ—upt the rest of his exteriour services and offend the eyes of his heavenly Father though not scandalous to man. 4. And this may be another Motive to interiour holinesse the powerfull influence the inward temper and disposition of the minde hath upon all exteriour actions whether good or evill For according to the Regencie of the minde is the obedience of the outward man as our most wife and holie Master Christ informes us saying Mark 7. 21. From within out of the heart of men proceed evill thoughts adulteries fornications murders thefts covetousnesse wickednesse deceit lasciviousnesse an evill eye blasphemie pride foolishnesse All these evill things come from within and defile the man. All sin defiles but principally and in the first place the inward man and thence as from a bitter or corrupt Fountain-head unsound and impure actions doe flow Or as we see in Clocks and Watches the Hand outward pointing to the hour goes true or false according to the Spring and inward frame of them so our externall practices are right just and holy or on the contrarie false and depraved according to the
corrupt or sound principles of Reason and Faith and the sober affections of the heart purified by Faith. For untill the Spirit of Sanctification and mortification and renovation hath wrought our corrupt nature to a blessed and thorow change little may be expected from us outwardly either acceptable to God who looks more upon the manner and forme of the Deed than the Deed it selfe or profitable to our selves For to continue a little farther our similitude as we see men having bad Watches will with their Finger or Thumb place the Hand aright to give some credit to them which presently according to their ill frame returne to their wonted errour So Hypocrites to appear fair and good to men push themselves on sometimes to regular and laudable acts and sometimes restrain and set back their rank course of sin for some imperfect if not evill end but soon relapse to their accustomed excesses for want of the principle of holinesse and a constitution heavenly inclined the only true Spring of good and laudable actions 5. Again The inward man may well be compared to the Market-place of a strong Citie The Enemie may surprise or by some suddain violence may possesse himselfe of the out-workes and yet be repelled again and the Citie stand firme and safe and faithfull to its Soveraign but if the Enemie once possesses himselfe of the Market-place there is no hopes of standing true to the Owner or withstanding the Adversarie So is it with them who have suffered the Legions of foul Spirits to enter into their hearts and there to nestle and triumph All attempts are but feeble and insufficient to exhibit just and reasonable service to God. For no sooner doe some good inclinations arise no sooner doe we offer at good but a partie of vain thoughts dishonest motions are sent forth to suppresse all good but weak purposes of returning to our allegiance to God and the doing of his Will. Great circumspection therefore must be used strong resolutions must be taken and many difficulties of hunger thirst and hot service must first be passed through before our Redemption draweth nigh and we be restored to the Masterie of our selves and the ministrie we owe to God. 6. But adde hereunto fourthly a more intrinsick argument to the stirring us up to the cleansing our hearts the great benefit redounding to a mans selfe who shall so acquitt himselfe For however this conflict with the powers of flesh and blood and this Conquest is very difficult and tedious and therefore is called in Scripture Mortification and crucifying the Old man with the affections and lusts yet the work once done and the victory obtained brings wonderfull ease quiet satisfaction and cheerfulnesse unto the Spirit rendering it much more expedite and lightsome than it was before strugling against a contrarie Principle which evermore clogged it obstructed and either wholly impeded or grievously retarded the performance of Divine Services For men being scarce able to extinguish the cleer notice of a Deity in them and little lesse able to deny wholly such a service as is due to God doe with an unwilling will divers times submit to Religious acts but wearisome and tedious are they to them through the prevalencie of unsubdued lusts which by this necessary Discipline being master'd and expelled a great change is made in the Soule and then with lightnesse and readinesse is that done which before was irksome and grievous As David himselfe found it in himselfe when he said Psal 119. 32. I will run the way of thy Commandements when thou hast set my heart at liberty And then are our hearts at liberty when the Bond-servant Hagar with her off-spring which would domineer are cast out Then are we free indeed when the Son shall make us free then doth the Son make us free when he delivers us fo far as St. Peter speaks 2 Epist 1. 4. as by a Divine nature given unto us we escape the corruption that is in the world through lust Then shall we not fear the Law of the Land constraining us to Gods service more than God then shall we not shrinke and murmure at Fasting-dayes nor repine when on dayes of publique Thanksgiving to him that is glorious in all his Saints it is expected we should suspend and intermitt our lawfull labours and wholly cut off and denie our unlawfull pleasures We shall not need then as Beasts under the Leviticall Law one or more to drive us to the House of God nor drag us with violence to the Altar of God to offer an holy living and acceptable sacrifice to him which is our reasonable service But with Davids Spirit we shall say I was glad when they said unto me Let us goe up unto the House of the Lord. And how much better is it we should doe a thing with Alacritie and great content than with constraint But this we may doe if we can but free our selves from that load of corruption we are apt to lye under And what effect in this kinde and progresse a man hath made in himselfe may be competently discerned from the sense a man hath in himselfe of the fear of God and love to his service and worship which though the most pure and perfect in this life is not without some tepiditie of spirit sometimes yet the seed of God sown in the heart will generally spring up with gladnesse 7. This therefore should be our great and chiefe endeavour which is the Counsell of Solomon Prov. 4. 23. Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life And if as Solomon saith Prov. Chap. 18. 21. Death and life are in the power of the tongue much more true is it that both of them are in the power of the Heart as it stands affected or disaffected to God seeing the Poison or Balsome which distilleth from the Tongue is originally owing to the Heart as the Heart doth comprehensively signifie the entire bodie of affections which must be dedicated to God. But given to God it cannot be without a mock or derision but as it is whole and sound clear and clean according to the ballance of the Sanctuarie of the Gospell which consists much of Christian Equitie We never heard of any that liv'd a life of nature with halfe an heart only neither of any that was sick on one side of his heart and well on the other no more is it possible to please God with one part of our heart and to please the world with the other or at the same time to live the life of this sinfull world and of Christ My son saith God give me thy heart and not a piece of it for that must needs be dead flesh odious to man and much more to God. SECT IV. Of the proper Means and Methode of cleansing the Soule and first of Baptisme 1. SUCH is the contagion of sin naturally infecting the very Soule as inheriting our Forefathers corruption that being in love with it as all men love
capable and many times sensible is the minde so erected to God separated from businesses of the world of the sweetnesse of abstractions of that nature And the Trances of Daniel Peter and most probably of Paul befell them in such retirements without the concurrence of a Congregation or the Mediation though not Ministration of Holy Spirits which we never read in Scripture to be Intercessours in any kinde to God in behalfe of the Saints here labouring but onely Ministers and Delegates of God to perfourme his pleasure to such as so wait for him and call upon him And as for Saints in Heaven we never so much as read in Holy Scripture that they were sent at any time by God to minister unto his Servants here on Earth as Angells have been neither are we directed by the Word of God to have any communication with them visible or sensible It must needs therefore be a third Oeconomie of God as yet unrevealed besides that of Moses or Christ which assignes us new intermediate Objects or Vehicles of our Prayers to God no wayes made known by God but devised by humane ratiocinations intruding into things not seen and founded on presumptions not known nor demonstrable but by such instances and examples of miraculous Apparitions which may more than suffice to turne the stomach from swallowing them 4. But presumption it is not to goe directly in Scripturall Road prescribed us to Allmighty God but to goe out of it neither is it modesty but rather a double impudence to alter the course of our Devotion to God in importuning them to sollicite for us who never gave us the least intimation or encouragement so to doe and in not following the direct Precept given by Christ as our Great Mediatour and by God himselfe as our heavenly Lord and Father Whence doth it appear that God is of more difficult accesse since the coming of Christ than he was before Or when and how became the priviledges of Gods faithfull Children under Christ inferiour to them under Moses Did the souls of the faithfull then make immediate approaches unto God and claspe him and may we not or in trueth ought we not much rather so to doe as well for the glorie of God some of which must needs fall short of God and stick to the hands that should so offer our worship to God and that whether those holy Spirits will or not we failing in the puritie of our intention and modestie and innocencie of our expressions so applying our selves as allso for our comfort and satisfaction which must needs be more full the more immediate and strict our conjunction is with God our fellowship as Saint John tells us being with the Father and the Son and that surely will bear us out in all immediate approaches to God but scarce allow application to others which are onely commendable where the bond of civill Charitie in this life the ground of the exercise of spirituall Offices to one another is not dissolved as it is when we are separated by Death So that we can onely in Christ exclusively come with that boldnesse and accesse with confidence by the faith of him as the Apostle speakes Ephes 3. 12. but with suspicions fears and doubtings untill customarinesse hath blinded the minde so far that it cannot see afar off And then if it fares with us as it happens to poor Suppliants suing to an earthly King surrounded with his Guards and Nobles that they cannot come at his Majestie no wonder unlesse it could appear that it was any ones appointed Office or Office of all to be Masters of request to God on our behalfe SECT VI. Of the defects incident to the Act of Prayer and their Remedies 1. AS there are Guards of Princes whose Office it is to push off with Pikes and Staffs such as would presse into their presence so Evill Spirits are allwayes at hand making it their Office to hinder devout Soules coming to God by their temptations and obstructions and either by wholly putting us off that we approach not at all or by pulling us off engaged so that we cease in spirit when we proceede in words and outward appearance so that we may be said to draw nigh unto him with our Lips while our Hearts are far from him a thing much disallowed by God yet not in all alike For the spirit and minde of Man are naturally fickle light vain various musing on many things and Dinah-like gadding abroad to see the Daughters of the Land and visiting strange Objects while they should keep home and minde their Fathers businesse And of the heart it may be said what was said of Ruben Vnstable as waters thou shalt not excell For what powerfullnesse may be expected in that Prayer which is prepared for God and designed but falls short of him as an Arrow shot from an unbent or halfe broken Bow. And how unreasonable as well as unlikely is it that God should heare us when we scarce heare our selves For as when the outward Eye seemes to be fixed stedfastly on an Object the minde in the mean time carried strongly after another Object doth not see what is before it many times so though in appearance outward a man seems wholly bent to Godward yet his heart being drawn off him to private Objects which it more phansies he speaketh in Prayer not to God but to men or the open Air. And it must needs be no small derogation from the greatnesse of God to be thus mocked by the world catching up that by the way which is passing towards him and the Sacrifice maimed or blemished by the fingring of Evill Spirits which was devoted wholly to God and at the same time that we have warme affections towards the world to set cold Meat before God. So that in this manner supinely and slothfully to request any thing at Gods hands must needs be a provocation to God to denie us rather than to gratifie us It is little better than an Idoll which is set up in the heart which drawes the current of Devotion to it selfe intended for God and such God threatens in Ezechiel to answere by himselfe but not in Mercie but in Justice And it was the opinion of an Auncient and devout Scholar in the School of Christ that if God should judge a man for no other thing but his wandring and vain thoughts in praying to him he were not able to stand before him 2. This in trueth is the Law of Prayer and this is the end of praying that we should have and keep our mindes erected unto God and to attain this should be the endeavour of all good Christians But if not onely God should be so extreme to mark what is thus done amisse but man should be so rigorous to himselfe to judge himselfe according to his demerits he might fear and despair to undertake this sacred Dutie For who can say on this side of Heaven I am clean from this common Contagion So vigilant and active is
the Devill so fugitive and fickle is mans minde naturally so many Acquaintances hath he in the world that are constantly knocking at his Door as it were to speak with him a little even while he is busie with God himselfe that very difficult it is without great circumspection and obstinacie and to use these is allso very difficult to attend upon the Lord without distraction though but for a season When Complaint was made to an Auncient Holy Man by a Novice in severe life that he was wonderfully infested with idle thoughts in praying unto God he willed him to goe abroad and gather the Winde into his Lap But said he Father I cannot doe it No more said he canst thou stay thy thoughts at thy pleasure from waving and wandering Which we mention not for Persons under pretence of frailty and humane infirmitie to connive at such failings in themselves suffering them patiently so to rule without any Censure or due sense of such evill For it is one part of a Christians Militarie Office in this life to war against the Law of his minde thus opposing him and accordingly to arme himselfe for the Encounter by these or the like meanes and helps in Prayer 3. First then it is necessarie he should understand what he sayes to God and consequently that the language he uses at such times should be known to him For next to if not alltogether impossible it is that a man should minde that which was never in his minde as strange Languages are not And how can the heart be actually united to God in it knowes not what 4. Secondly To avoid alienation of minde in Prayer it is requisite a man should be well preadvised of his danger in erring and thereupon stand more upon his watch and guard and especially not give way to strange thoughts though civill modest yea religious in another kinde For the experience of divers have found it to be true and matter of complaint that at no other time a man shall have so manie prettie wittie and often usefull cogitations come into his head as in the time of Prayer Better contrivances of worldly affairs will be then injected than at other times he could hit of Somtimes some acute and usefull distinction in scholasticall and difficult Points of Divinity And perhaps a very plausible notion of praying right shall fall into his minde hindering him from actually praying aright These and such like are mighty temptations to divert and hold the minde from its more proper Dutie But more grosse and avoidable much are they which are the remains of some evill affection or passion we generally carrie about us and onely formally put by for the present which will not be put off so but as rude Fellowes in a Croud or great Concourse where civill distance is to be observed having heard the word of some in Autority saying Stand off give back for the present and suddenly again presse forward among their betters so idle and vain if not directly evill thoughts being put off for a moment while we attend Gods service suddenly break their bounds and molest us These Contingencies as we may Civilly call them ought duely to be considered and the minde fortified with great resolutions against the assaults so made And be well assured against the appearance of the usefullnesse of some cogitations that whatever is not seasonable as these are not cannot be reasonable nor religious And as for those thoughts which proceed from some lurking Vice covered for the present as they are evill at all times so are they of a double guilt interposing in sacred Actions And the best no better than golden Apples thrown in our way by the Envier of all good Actions to stop our direct course to Godward 5. Another proper meanes to constancie in the good intended is to begin well and set out at first with good advice considering with our selves what we doe whose we are before whome we come whome we serve and for what we so draw nigh unto him whose Majestie is incomparable whose seat is in Heaven and we upon Earth and that to trifle with him is to arme him against our own Soules and pull down a Curse upon our heads instead of a Blessing But trifle we doe when with our mouthes we worship him and our hearts are far from him But though no man is to allow in himselfe such deviations yet where they are involuntarie rather than affected a mitigation of their evill may be in some degree expected from the first generall and habituall designe of offering an entire Sacrifice to God. A man was by no meanes to offer any thing to God which was maimed or imperfect but if he had chose an absolutely perfect Sheep Lamb or Heifer to give to God and it happened to fall lame by the way as it was driving to Hierusalem I know not whether such were refused A man must therefore choose and intend the best he can and if in praying it happens against his will and desire to halt by the way God may accept the same a man not approving that accessorie imperfection 6. A fourth expedient then may be the obtaining the Spirit of Prayer And by the Spirit of Prayer not that presumptuous giftednesse vain men boast of but that spirituall Disposition that habituall Prayer which Saint Paul commends to us when he said Pray without ceasing not requiring that our Tongue should allwayes be going but that as the Prophet speakes Isaiah 26. 8. The desire of our soule is to thy Name and to the remembrance of thee And the heart is fixed the heart is fixed as David's was Psalm 57. 9. and 108. 1. Upon and from such a generall addiction of the minde to God doe flow a readinesse and regularnesse in the actuall exercise of Prayer towards God the Mouth speaking and the minde moving according to the good stock treasured in the heart 7. Fifthly Habituall Pietie not alone sufficing to bear a man up in his Dutie herein frequent reflexions upon our selves is very necessary to recover our selves faultring or tripping in such cases Some hot mettall'd Jades will set out too fiercely but soon flagge in travailing and must be spurred up and quickened often to perfourm their Journey as they ought and so must the fickle fervour of divers which endureth for a time and faileth without fresh excitations and remembrances 8. And sixthly Peradventure care is to be had that a man be not too anxious or sollicitous in praying lest he should not pray as becometh him and so by the Artifice of the Devill a man becomes distracted in his thoughts lest he should be distracted For the minde of man cannot be very intent upon two things at a time no more than by his will he can serve two Masters at the same time A fault apprehended in a mans selfe suddenly condemned presently corrected by applying himselfe to the true Object may suffice without such a long censuring himselfe as may hinder rather than farther
him the exception lying onely good where there can be no accesse to the publique Place 4. But I know not what vitious and very blameable modesty hath possessed so many of late dayes as to be affraid to be seen or taken praying and sundry devout Persons are startled and shrink to be seen unawares at their Prayers in Gods House it selfe which is the House of Prayer unlesse when the Bells publish the dutie at hand and an Assembly is made professedly and so likewise at their domestick and separate Devotion as if they were taken in a fault or some Crime whereof a man should be ashamed and affraid some men being more abashed seen to doe well than others are taken in an evill Action This cannot be well thought of by God whose service a man is then engaged in and cannot but be an infirmitie in men praying For though a man is not hypocritically and with no better designe than to be noted and praised by men to expose studiously himselfe to the view of others while he prayes he is no lesse obliged not to forbear what place and time and just occasion require at his hands or otherwise may be expedient because people see him For God sayes Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven and the manifestation of our Adoration and service is likewise a manifestation of his honour and glorie And if at length we could recover and bring into Reputation such lost good Actions as publique Prayer in private Persons Religion would be more renowned and many more than now doe would allso fall down and say God is in you of a trueth and so be excited to the same good work or worship in use 5. But a known time of Gods Worship being assigned a sound entire tryed approved Sacrifice and reasonable service of God being appointed for Confession Humiliation Supplications Petitions Deprecations Intercessions Thanksgivings and Benedictions as Saint Paul directeth 1 Tim. 2. 1. with sobrietie or good Conscience to contemne these either ignorantly or presumptuously and to foist in private Inventions scarce so good as humane all things considered what amounts this to but a despising of Christ himselfe and a provocation of God to cast the officious zeal of such as dung upon their own faces For how can it be supposed that God should be pleased with that Oblation obtruded upon him and others without Autoritie which is often put up without Faith and never with Charitie or Humilitie convenient But if our Prayers themselves offend how should we hope for pardon of our offences by them That therefore they should have favourable accesse to God is necessarie they should be dulie qualified themselves and that such as these Conditions here onely to be named be found in them 1. That we pray in Faith that God is and that he is a rewarder of all that call upon him 2. That we pray in trueth without any hereticall or erroneous Dogmes or corrupt Opinions of God of his Word or holy Worship 3. Praying in puritie of intention seeking even when our Prayers consist of spirituall or temporall benefits to our selvles primarily the glorie and good will of God. 4. In Puritie or holinesse of hands that is innocencie of life as David when he said I will wash my hands in innocencie and so will I goe to thine Altar or at least a dislike of our guilt and contaminations making them part of our humiliation and supplications to God. 5. In Charitie towards others so far as Justice and Pietie will permitt And lastly In zeal to Gods service and to our own Soules in so praying which is that lifting up the Soule we so much speak of here and leaving it with him to preserve to his greater service and glorie and our immortall happinesse SECT VIII Of the severall sorts of Prayer viz. Sensible Mentall Supramentall Extemporarie Formed and fixed as allso Singing of Psalmes 1. NOw because there are usually distinguished severall kinds of Prayer to God as well according to the matter as manner of putting up our requests to him all concurring in this one thing that the minde and heart should be thereby united to God and fixed it will not be amisse to glance at the principall in this second order having touched the former from the Apostles words 1 Tim. 2. 1. All which relate to the matter of Prayer and may be perfourmed in any one of those which great Artists have cast into this threefold Prayer viz. Sensible Mentall and Supramentall Sensible they make that which is common to all Christians praying to God in a vocall sensible manner to themselves and others Mentall they would have that called which is contemplative and whereby the minde is throughly directed to God not without affection For if the Understanding onely be erected and directed to God it can scarce deserve the name of Prayer to God as Philosophizing about him therefore it is necessarie that affectionatenesse and adherence to God by love which are acts of the will allso should be found in all due Prayer yea in all Treaters of the nature and use of Prayer otherwise acute and learned men may prescribe better than teach or affect A manifest Example we have in the two great Chieftains amongst Schoolmen Thomas the Angelicall and Bonaventure the Seraphicall Doctour as they call them Both which have in their Opuscula written Treatises of the Love of God. In which the former keeping closer than in such a Subject is expedient to Scholasticall Methods and termes of writing hath left but a dry Monument and insipide to a spirituall Palate of his gift in that kinde whereas Bonaventure speaking out of the abundance of the heart and affection as the Subject required rather than by the rule of humane disquisitions hath much more divinely commendably and profitably as to practice treated thereof And spirituall Doctrine and devotion towards God seem much to resemble the Notion we generally have of the nature of Spirits in themselves which they say consisteth in not being circumscribed by limits as our Bodies are but indefinite and diffusive very much like to the bodie of the Air in which we are inclosed which is capable of any figure but determined to none In like manner Spirituall Prayer and the gifts God bestoweth upon the Soule are not to be limited by the lineaments and parts of humane Methods which as it were fetters the Spirit from expatiating according to its pleasure which like the Winde bloweth and breatheth and leadeth as it listeth and is in very deed as Phanatiques terme it stinted and obstructed by the Arts of Men modelling their Devotion and not subject rather to it and following rather than going before its dictates and impulses For however I finde many Commentatours ingeniously enough and acutely methodizing holy Scripture and Analyzing it so as if it had been the very intent and designe of the Holy Spirit therein to speak Logically and