Prayer we have to do Have we that importunity and Earnestness of Supplication that warmth and Zeal of Devout Address which is any way suitable to those pressing Indigencies we have to be supply'd To those burthensome miseries we have to be delivered from Or does not coldness and indifferency of affection wandering and distraction of thoughts Dulness and weariness of mind mix with and deprave our Divine Worship Ah how Little fervour of Spirit have we in serving the Lord how Little of the true Spirit of Prayer in our praying unto him Do not Gods Sabbaths his Religious Ordinances seem Tiresome unto us A very Toil and Burthen does not his Easie Yoak of precept sit Heavy on our Necks And 〈◊〉 Commandments appear Grievous by reason of our want of Approbation Love and Affection towardâ— them which would breed pleasure and Delight in their performance Ah 't is for that we are Ignoranâ— how God's Service is perfect freedom and hat a Slavery there is in serving diverse Lusts and Passions which makes us so Dead and Listless in his service when otherwise we should be all Spirit and Life whilst Employed in pious Exercises Ah had we more Love for God it would render us more Active more Warm and spirightly in his Worship it would put us upon doing our utmost to please him and we should not Endure coldness and flagging of affection in our religious Addresses But Lukewarmness of Devotion would appear to us â—igh as distasteful as perfect Deadness in Duty and we should never think that flat Lifeless Service Acceptable to God which we could not Approve of to our selves The Prayer BLessed and Glorious Lord God who infinitely Deservest our most warm and Zealous Services who makest thy Angels Spirits and those thy Ministers a flame of fire flames indeed of Devotion of Divine Love and Gratitude of Delight and fervour in holy Obedience O make us also all flame and Spirit in thy Worship that we may worship thee with Zeal and Ardour of Affection as well as with Sincerity and uprightness of heart Produce in us holy Father a Zealous importunity in prayer Suitable to 〈◊〉 wants we have to be Supplyed suitable to the Dangers and Evils we have to 〈◊〉 delivered from suitable to the worâ—â— the Necessity the Importance of thâ—â— Divine blessings Temporal Spiritual and Eternal which we stand in Neeâ— of and which are only to be derived froâ— thee the fountain of all Blessedness O cause us to Evidence our high Value and Esteem of thy Heavenly favours of the Gifts and Graces of thy Holy Spirit by our Zealous Concernment for the obtaining them by our coveting Earnestly those best Gifts and Seeking 〈◊〉 such things which are more Excellent Give us Give us Good Lord more Love to thee our God that we may have a greater Zeal for thy Honour and Glory that we may boldly Rebuke vice Earnestly promote Holyness be Grieved principally for sin because thy blessed Spirit is Grieved thereby may our hearts burn within us with pious Love Reverence and Delight when we Read and meditate on thy Sacred Word when we Pray when we return Thanksgivings or are any ways Employed in Religious Duties let our hearts be sad when our Affections are cold and languid in thy Service O Endue us with the burning Love with the flame and Zeal of holy Cherubims that we may Experience also their Transports of Delight their Extasies of Joy and Satisfaction in thy Worship make us we beseech thee thus Exceeding Jealous for Thee the Lord God of Hosts may the Zeal of thine House well nigh Consume us may we account it our very Meat and Drink to be doing thy Will and let nothing flat and lifeless mingle it self with our piety and Devotion Does Gracious God our Eternal Salvation depend upon our aright worshipping thee and do we worship thâ—â— with a faint and heartless Service Aâ—â— cure the Deadness and formality of thy Servants best Religious performances cure the indifferency and Earthlyness 〈◊〉 our Affections Make s rather tobe on the wing of Devotion to be always Zealously affected in a Good matter 〈◊〉 be fervent in Spirit Serving the Lordâ— that so we may Anticipate much of 〈◊〉 Heavenly State and Temper which shall be compleated hereafter that our lives at present may be full of inward peace and comfort our Deaths of Joy and Consolidation in believing and our Eternity full of Glory and Celestial Happyness Amen for the sake of our dying Redeemer Amen Meditation XII On Trust in God TRust and Relyance on God is our Duty and our Priviledge 't is our Duty as we were created frail impotent Necessitous Beings and for that reason Confiding Dependant ones as also God our Sustainer is a Self-sufficient and All sufficient Store of Happyness whose infinite Perfections render him an object of our Hope and Trust proportionable to our greatest Wants of Ability to Remove or Relieve our most extream acutest Distresses And what more Natural and Reasonable than that we should there place our Confidence and Relyance where we have our Support and Dependance But that we should there found our Trust where we cannot be Disappointed But that a poor helpless distress'd Creature should seek abroad for Succour and Relief And where should he Seek it so Suitably and Effectually as in God-Almighty the fountain oâ— all Strength the inexhaustible Magazine of Relief the protecting Sanctuary of the distress'd who fly unto him for Refuge A God as Willing and Ready as Sufficient and Powerful to Relieve us And that this flying to God for Help and Succour and reposing all his Trust and Confidence in the Deity is the Confiding person's Priviledge and Advantage as well as bounden-Duty is evident for what can give that Man inward Quiet and Tranquillity even in his best Condition who is subject every moment to the uncertainties and vicissitudes of Human Affairs to all the Dangers all the Hazards all the Actual Evils and Misfortunes of this mortal life but a Relying Assurance that nothing can befall him beside the wise Counsel gracious Will and Ordination of that God in whom he puts his Trust Whose power is of that extent as to furnish all our Needs and Satisfie all our desires as to secure to us his favours and blessings and to keep off from us or else Sanctifie our troubles and afflictions whose Omnipotence is directed by infinite Wisdome to Know that 's best for us his Wisdom exercised in Contriving and Ordering what 's best for us and both his Power and Wisdom vigorously moved in their operations by infinite Love and Goodness to Do what 's best for us An humble confidence in God makes us deâ—â—e the worst of the Creature 's Threatenings frees us from Carking troubles within our selves preserves a firm peaceful temper in the midst of Storms and Adversities giving us an unbroken Magnanimity of Spirit a true Dominion of Mind over all outward things and occurrences All our inordinate Care taken without Gods immediately Ordaining
and may we at length be blest with the Enravishing Approbation of well-done Good and faithful Servants enter ye into your Master's Joy Amen Amen Meditation XVIII On Heaven HEaven A place where God's Honour dwells where his Honour and Glory dwell in the most Supereminent Degree Where is the blessed Jesus in all the pompous Resplendencies of his Exaltation Surrounded with infinite Honours of his perfect Obedience and most meritorious Sufferings Where the Reflected Rays of the Divine Majesty add New lustre to the brightest Cherubims and the innumerable Host of Heaven the Glorified Company of Saints and Angels drink plentifully of those Rivers of pleasure which are at God's Right hand for Evermore Pleasures Refin'd and Spiritual Sincere and unallay'd with any mixture of Sorrow pleasures fixt and Durable as God the Unchangeable Author of them so compleat as to Satisfie and yet so Recreatively Satisfying as not to become Dull and Cloying For in Heaven a Continual fresh Addition of Happyness flowing in upon the Soul both Gratifies its appetites and also Quickens and New-Excites them There the blessed Inhabitants beholding constantly the Beatifick Presence are changed thereby from Joy to Joy from Glory to Glory Receive incessant Communications of the Divine inherent Fulness and have their Desires hereby the more Enflamed their Capacities the more Enlarged to receive still further participations of God's inexhaustible bounty And thus they spend a Rapturous Eternity ever-Loving ever-Praising ever-Adoring and Delighting in God their Saviour And the more they Love and Praise and Delight in Him still they find more Cause more Reason more Desire and Longing of Soul to do so Here 't is the happy Residentiaries Understandings are wide open'd to all the amazing Lights and Discoveries of Truth to the Mysteries of Creation and Providence of Redemption and Sanctification to the now puzling Difficulties of Nature and of Grace of God's Prescience and Man's Free-will Here 't is the Wills also of the Glorified are render'd conformable unto are Swallowed up in and made one with God's Holy Will and Pleasure that their Affections become Seraphickly pure Spiritual and servent that both the Spirits of Just Men made perfect and their brethren Angels burn with Divine Love are enflamed with holy Ardours of Devout Gratitude and Thanksgiving to God the Author of their Beings and kind bestower and preserver of all their Enjoyments Heaven The bright Aboad of all bright and pure and clarified Souls Of all those who have had Heavenly Tempers and Dispositions implanted in them here who have Contemned the World Triumph'd over its depraving pomps and Vanities who have Crucified the flesh with the Corrupt Lusts and Affections thereof who have vanquish'd Hell overcome the Temptations of the Devil offer'd a Grateful violence to Heaven by the importunities of servent Effectual Prayer by the Severities of Repentance Mortification and Self-denyal There in the happy Regions Above they reap the fruit of their pious labours with a plentiful Interest and Encrease of Glory There all the Good all the truely Wise all the Just and Chaste and Charitable Souls of whom this World was not Worthy who were burning and shining Lights amidst a crooked and perverse Generation by their Singularly holy Examples shine as Scars of the first Magnitude in the Kingdom of Heaven they Love God with the Intensest most Dutiful Affection and they Love one another as themselves without any Envying or Repining at their Neighbours happyness who enjoy a Greater Degree thereof than they but each Beatified Spirit enjoying as much of God and Heaven as he is capable of Receiving is fully Satisfied with his own measure of blessedness and derives also pleasure and Contentment from the possessions of his brethren though more highly Glorifyed There in Heaven they Love there they Adore and there they Enjoy for an Endless Duration there their United Employ of Loving Praising and Worshipping God of Returning him Thanksgivings for all the Miracles of his Stupendious Love Unite them the more intimately unto God and Unite them also more closely in Affections to one another a Glorified Saint not repining at the more Advanced Glory of an Angel an Angel of an inferiour Order not Grudging at the Happyness of a Superiour nor any of those Morning Stars of the Creation Envying the Saints their most Illustrious Honour in having the Humanily Dignified with a Personal Union to the Godhead O Heaven The Glorious Receptacle of Heaven-born Souls of the Favourites and Sons of God when shall I come and Appear before him When shall I be made more exactly Like unto him seeing him as he Is When shall I be joyn'd to the Devout Adoring Quire of Angels O Celestial Temple how my Soul Longs to Enter Thee the Holy of Holies One Day in thy Courts is better than a Thousand elsewhere Gracious God deny me what Thou wilt of this Earth so thou givest me at last an inheritance in Heaven That will make ample Amends for all my wants here below That will fully Recompence all the Sufferings of this Mortal Life O my Soul is such a Glorious prize as that of thy high Calling in Christ set before thee and shall not this incite thee to press forward to that Mark To Run the Race of holy Obedience with patience chearfulness and a pious Contention Is such an Heaven such an Exceeding Great and Eternal weight of Glory the Object of thy Hopes and hast thou the Stupidity not to let it be the Object of thine Endeavours also Hast thou the heart to neglect so Great Salvation Shall it not encourage and stir thee up to give all Diligence to make thy Calling and Election Sure Oh how unworthy are they of Eternal Life who will not Exert their utmost power and industry to obtain it Blessed Lord Bring down much of an Heavenly Frame and Temper into our Souls which may Qualifie us for an Enjoyment of Heaven hereafter let there be Divine God-like habits of mind wrought and implanted in us at present that Awaking up at the Resurrection after thy Likeness we may he Satisfied therewith Amen Amen holy Saviour The Prayer O Soveraign Excellency and most Exalted Blessedness whose Delight some Presence makes Heaven and the hiding away of whose face in Displeasure is the chiefest Constituent of Hell O grant that having Such an Heaven such an Exceeding and Eternal weight of Glory the Object of our Faith and Hopes we may labour after an Heavenly frame and Disposition in our Souls which may Qualifie us for the celestical State hereafter Grant that we having Given unto us such Great and precious promises as those appertaining to this Life and a better may by the incitement of these become partakers of thy Divine Nature escaping the Corruptions which are in the World through lust O Holy Father give us a Lively View of Heaven by an Eye of Faith and so Raise up our minds thither that we may always have our Thoughts our Desires our Conversation there whence we look for the
thy allowance of Grace and the opportunity of making use of it may be over with thee Which God grant that it may not be Amen Amen The Prayer MOST Merciful Father Patitient and Long-suffering who waitest to be Gracious and yet whose Spirit will not always strive with obstinate impenitent sinners dost Thou O Lord call unto us Behold Now is the Accepted Time behold Now is the Day of Salvation and do we cry to morrow is soon enough some Days or Years hence will be as Acceptable a time as this present one Ah Mad-men that we are Ah foolish Self-deceiving Creatures who should know best the Day of our Salvation Thou our God the Author of it or We Who should know best how Long thy Spirit will strive with us How Long Thou wilt wait to be Gracious O cause us to Day while 't is call'd to Day to hear thy voice and not harden our hearts against thy Invitations to Repentance Convince us blessed Lord in order to a present amendment that 't is some degree of hardening our hearts not to hearken to thy Voice this Day That every continuance in sin is one Advance more towards final Impenitence a rendering our future Conversion the more Grievous and Difficult and our Confirmation in wickedness the Greater and nearer to irretrievable And in a sense of all this make us we beseech thee to Retire out of the ways of Iniquity immediately For would we be willing to be surprized by Death Judgment and Eternal Torments in an Impenitent State Would we be willing to be summon'd before thy Judgment-seat to give an Account of our Stewardship before our Accompts are duely Stated and made up If we would not O cause us then to give all Diligence at present to make our Calling and Election Sure to work the Religious work for which we were sent into this World while 't is Day before the Night of Death cometh wherein 't is impossible to work out our Salvation Is there Lord any one of us but would willingly Repent and turn unto Thee sometime before he Dyes because otherwise he knows he cannot be saved but who of us can be sure he shall Repent before Death that delays the work till to morrow For who can tell what a Day may bring forth Cause us therefore Gracious God to live every day as if it were to be our last for that we know not but it may be such Cause us to live so at present as we shall wish we had done when we come to Dye O grant we may not Dye with any Guilt upon our Consciences or any known sin unrepented of Grant that we may not put far from us the Evil Day and thereby flatter our selves into a state of impenitence and endless Destruction but give us Grace to use well the means of Grace and improve the opportunities of Salvation while they are mercifully afforded us lest we provoke thee our God to swear in thy wrath that such obstinate sinners shall never enter into thy Rest Let holy Father the uncertainty of the time of our Saviour's coming to Judgment either to the universal one or that of each particular person soon after his Death make every one of us live in a continual Readiness and Preparation for it that we may not have our Oyl of Grace to seek our Lamp of an holy Conversation to Trim and Replenish when we should enter in with the Bridegroom of our Souls Christ Jesus into his Marriage-Feast But grant that at what Season soever our Lord comes to call us to an Account of the Talents committed to our trust he may behold all our Debts to his Divine Justice ready Cancell'd by our Repentance through the Merits of his Blood and finding us perseveringly employ'd in Good Works he may say unto us Well done Good and Faithful Servants Enter ye into your Master's Joy Amen blessed Jesu Amen Meditation IV. On the Malignity and Evil Nature of Sin O Sin how common art thou and yet how little understood How Common and therefore how little Dreaded and Abhorr'd Did men consider and understand thee more they would sure Love and Practice thee Less Alass they consider not thy direct opposition to God's Soveraign Authority Rectitude of Will and purity of Divine Essence thy contrariety to the Laws of Nature of Reason and of Grace How thou art a Violation of God's Revealed Will and Pleasure in the Sacred Scriptures Writings which contain nothing but precepts Holy Just and Good and which consequently 't is our greatest Interest and Advantage as well as Bounden-Duty to observe and our greatest Disadvantage as well as Disobedience to break and violate They consider not Sin how opposite thou art to their own Personal Welfare and Happiness Temporal Spiritual and Eternal how Degrading and Defiling to their Souls and Consciences what an Ignominy and Reproach to our Understandings what a Violence and Affront to our Reasons what a perversion and wrong-byass of our Wills and Affections what a cause of Regret and Disquietude of Mind to those who voluntarily Commit thee how offensive to God how injurious to Man how prejudicial to the Common Order Peace and Prosperity of the Universe What an ungrateful Return thou art to the Divine Goodness Patience and Forbearance how thou art an offering despite to the Spirit of Holiness a Grieving a Quenching a total Driving it away from us a Crucifying afresh the blessed Son of God a Treading him under foot and accounting the Blood of the New-Covenant an unholy thing a Rejection of all the Merciful Terms and offers of Gospel-Reconciliation a rendering the means and instruments of begetting Grace in us ineffectual a choosing Death Eternal Death rather than Life Eternal Life a wilful Treasuring up of Wrath against the day of Wrath and Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of a provok'd offended Deity All this and much more the Commission of known voluntary Sin implies and can we be so irrational so Vile and Dis-ingenuous so even like Beasts before God as to continue practicing vicious Impurity with Greediness after having thus weigh'd and consider'd how Evil how bitter and Lothsom a thing it is Oh is there no knowledge no understanding in the Workers of Impiety is there no Shame no Fear no Regard in them to their Everlasting Salvation that they drink down Iniquity like Water and Rush into the occasions of their own Ruin into the performance of all Wickedness as the War-Horse rusheth into the Battle fearlessly and inconsiderately Ah Vice how stupifying a thing art thou What a polluter first of our Souls and Consciences and after long Custom of sinning what a layer of them Asleep what an hardener of our hearts through thy continued and dayly advancing deceitfulness Thou Wickedness art pleasurable indeed in the Act but alass how transient the Act how vain and inconsiderable the pleasure whereas the after-Memory of thee is tormenting and much more exquisite much more Durable a Pain than thy vicious Enjoyment was a Delight
Loss of the Enjoyment of God for their Loss of Heavenly Joys unspeakable and full of Glory they should be tormented with the positive sufferings of infernal Regions should be banish'd into fire into fire Everlasting into fire Everlasting prepared for the Devil and his Angels the worst of Company the most Dismal Society Oh how Doubly afflictive and vexatious must this prove unto them We believe O Lord all this most solemne process of a final Judgment we believe and tremble thereat O make it an ingenuous fear converting our Souls We behold with an Eye of faith this thy Judiciary Tryal and Enquiry as clearly as if it was the Object of our bodyly vision O Grant it may have such an Effectual influence upon our hearts as to make us live in continual Expectation of it as if the last Trump were already sounding in our Ears and we saw the Graves open'd the Dead coming forth and the Divine Judge Seated on his Dreadful Tribunal May our habitual mindfulness of this Day of future Reckoning cause us to place a watch over our most Secret Thoughts a Guard over our most Innocently pleasant words over our most conceal'd Retired actions always remembring that God is about our path and our bed and will bring every Secret thought and purpose of the heart into Judgment with every Idle word and most clandestine performance O the brightness of the Discoveries of that time of Tryal How Searching how penetrating No Defence no Palliation no Denyal will that Day serve either to countenance or to cover our unrepented sins in vain will it be to offer at either Excuse or Concealment the Darkness of hidden wickedness shall appear no Darkness at all but shall be unto God as clear as the Noon-day Then shall not a well-dissembled Hypocrisie in Religion any longer pass for Sincerity and the power of Godliness then shall not habitually indulged vicious appetites and passions any longer pass for pardonable humane Infirmities a bare Negative holyness the not having done any Enormous evil shall not then Satisfie for the want of Real Positive piety for the want of having done all the Good we could neither shall bare Desires after Grace without the effectual Endeavours be reputed Grace it self But all false Disguises shall be taken off from both our selves and others and a Man shall be accepted only for that he Really hath of Vertue and Goodness not for that which he seem'd to have of it in this World but truely had not The Just shall then be Hardly found Just the Righteous shall Scarcely be Saved O where then shall the Sinner and Ungodly appear How shall they Stand as Justified when Judged O may we in serious thoughtfulness thereon fancy our selves before the Judgment-Seat of Christ may we Examine our selves whether we are Ready prepared for the giving up our Accounts Whether our Lives are able to bear a strict Scrutiny at the Day of our Judges Appearance What holy work we would then more especially desire to be found Eminent in And that let us Now more peculiarly be busied about what it is we would then be most Ashamed of and wish it had never been acted or sincerely Repented of And that let us Repent of Immediately in this our season of Grace and Salvation May we think no Religious pains too Great no Self-denyals too severe no Addresses to Heaven too frequent or too fervent to render us provided for our future Tryals but may we enter at present into Judgment with our selves Accusing and Condemning our own ways that when we shall appear before the Great Judge he may find that before-hand we are accused and Judged Let us often meditate Lord who can Stand before Thee when Thou art Angry Who can be cleared when judged shouldst not thou in the midst of Judgment remember Mercy Woe were it to the most innocent unblameable Life if Thou O God laying aside thy Clemency shouldst sift and Judge it Rigorously The Prayer O Blessed Saviour Thou most Righteous Judge Eternal ordain'd by thy Father to be Judge both of the Quick and Dead whereof he hath given us Assurance in that he hath raised thee from the Dead O Raise us from the Death of sin unto the Life of Righteousness and hereby fit and prepare us for the Day of Judgment Cause us so Effectually to think on it at present as that we may not Dread its Terrors hereafter but may be Justified by thy Sentence and cleared when we are Judged not Trusting in our own Righteousness which is but as filthy Rags but being cloathed with the imputed Righteousness which is of God through faith in Christ Jesus O that when we are Judged we may be found in Him having an Interest in the Merits of his Death and passion O that he who is to be our Judge may likewise be our Advocate and Acquitter Blessed be God the Father blessed be the holy Trinity that thou merciful Jesu art to be our Judge who by Assuming humane Nature wast toucht with a fellow-feeling of our infirmities being in all points Tempted as we are yet without sin that thou mightest have Compassion on us thy brethren who are Tempted and that we might come the more boldly to thy Judgment-seat finding Grace to help in that Greatest time of Need O may we obtain Mercy when our Lord enters into Judgment with us May we be Acquitted when Tryed May our Saviour look on all he has Done on all he has Suffered in our behalf when making tion what we have done Spoke or Thought and may he for the Satisfaction purchased by his Blood be Gracious unto us Give us Gracious God so to Accuse and Condemn our selves for sin by a penitent abhorrence of it that we may not be Accused and Condemned in thy fearful Judgment but may stand in the Judgment as found upright and Absolved therein O that our own hearts may pass that True Judgment on us in this world which Thou blessed Redeemer wilt pass on us in the other and if upon Calling our selves to an Account at present we find that our Consciences Condemn us Grant that we may make void that Condemnation by immediate Amendment considering that if our hearts condemn us Thou our God art Greater than our hearts and knowing all things will much more Condemn us Allay holy Saviour by the pleadings of thy Mediation and Intercession the Rigour and Severity of thy final Sentence cause us to live as if we ever heard that arouzing Summons in our Ears Awake ye dead and come to Judgment O make us in apprehension hereof to Judge and Examine our past Courses and to Correct and Reform whatever we find Amiss in them let the habitual Remembrance of the last Day of Tryal Quicken us unto a more than ordinary holy preparation for it That we may Expect it with comfortable Hope meet it with an humble well-grounded Assurance be Acquitted in it pleading our Lord 's most perfect Obedience and Relying wholely on his Meritorious Expiation
all probability renders his Distemper desperate and incurable To delay Amendment and continue in Sin with intent of quitting it hereafter is to wound our Consciences with the stings and remorses of Guilt on purpose of healing them again some time hence 'T is to refuse to do what is in our power and to defer the doing it till it may be out of our power 't is to make our future work of Repentance much greater more grievous and difficult than it would be at present and yet to hope to set about it more Advantagiously in time to come 'T is to increase our Task to lessen both our Will and Ability to perform it with and yet to think to perform it better under these Disadvantages To defer Conversion is to persist becoming vain in our Imaginations erroneous in our Elections corrupt in our Performances that afterwards we may become Wise and retract with Bitterness of Self-condemning thoughts our former vain Judgments wrong Choices evil Practices that we may upon change of Mind Will and Affections call our selves fools a thousand times for our former wicked goings astray and may be ashamed of may abhor and grieve for our past Impieties as much as ever heretofore we loved and delighted in them all these Absurdities and Foilies Delay of Repentance implies 'T is a refusing to become well and safe and happy at present and a referring our spiritual Welfare our everlasting safety and happiness to the hazardous uncertainties of Futurity But do we act thus imprudently in other Affairs of far lesser moment No certainly when Sick we delay not the use of means for our Recovery when Maim'd or Wounded we apply our selves immediately to a Cure but when sick with Sin nigh unto death Eternal when wounded in Mind by the Rebukes of Guilt contracted and maimed in all the Faculties of our Souls by the disorders of Impiety so that from the Crown of the head to the sole of the feet there is no whole part in us yet here we hug our Distemper seem unwilling to be cured at present and defer the healing remedy Repentance till some further season but ah that we should be so wise and provident in Temporals and so careless and inconsiderate in Spirituals Ah that we should be so much concern'd for the Body and so little for the Soul Oh that men should judge it too early to become instantly secure of endless Salvation when they are not secure of living till to morrow till the next moment Vain inadvertent Wretches That they should be daily a dying hourly subject to Death and yet promise themselves some years hence the making sure of Eternal Life Certainly they know not what it means of what value and importance it is that they thus stupidly neglect it Ah can they think God will lengthen out that Life which is a design'd Course of Audacious Defiance and wicked Rebellion against him Ah can they think he will so unweariedly wait to be Gracious unto them Alas they consider not what Bonds and Fetters an Evil Custom puts upon the Soul how frequent Acts of doing wickedly improve into a confirm'd habit and an habit of Impiety becomes a second Nature almost unrelinquishable and yet do they imagine they shall be freer to break loose from Sin after a long-continued Bondage thereunto That their Chains of Iniquity will be the easier shaken off after they are Rivited by Custom and Inveteracy of wicked Practice Can we make too much haste to be Saved To get out of a state liable to Eternal Death and Condemnation into a state of Divine Grace and Favour Are our Minds Wills and Affections likely to be softer more melting and impressible with the sorrows of Repentance after they are Harden'd through the Deceitfulness of continued sinning Will God's Grace the more abound towards us the more we abound in Transgressing against him What Surety hast thou impenitent Delayer but thy day of Grace may be ended before the day of thy Life But that not Believing and Repenting at present hereafter may be too Late He that Believeth and Repenteth not says our Saviour is condemned Already The Irreversible Sentence may be Pronounc'd on thee here though Executed in another World Repent Hereafter Why dost thou consider what Hereafter means It imports the utmost Hazard and Uncertainty In reckoning on Futurity thou reckonest on a thing out of thine own Power and only in God Almighty's Disposal for the Grace of Repentance as all other Graces is the Divine Gift and He who has promised pardon to the Penitent has no where told us we can be penitent when we Please On the contrary God has inform'd us that 't is his Spirit which works in us both to Will and to do of his Own Good pleasure and canst thou think he will work it though never so long Resisted in the endeavour That his Divine Patience will never be tired the Treasures of his Long-suffering be never exhausted The Holy Scripture indeed tells us God waits to be Gracious but how Long he waits we are not acquainted on the contrary it is written My Spirit shall not Always strive with manâ— To Day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts Seek the Lord while he may be found call upon hiâ— while he is near What can be thâ— meaning of these places of Sacreâ— Writ but that if we neglect thiâ— present Accepted time hereafteâ— may be an unacceptable one buâ— that if we hear not Now God's Voice calling us to Repentance he may hereafter refuse to hear our Voice calling to him for Grace Mercy and Acceptance But that if we neglect the instant Season of seeking the Lord while he may be found and calling upon him while he is near there may and will come a time when he will not be found a season when he will be afar off with his Divine help and Assistance and when as holy David says in the great water-floods in the time of our bitterest Distress and Calamity we shall not come nigh him Read Proverbs the First the 28 and 29 verses God despises that Death bed Repentance when men leave sin meerly because sin must leave them because they can keep that and the World no longer when being by constraint a going hence they desire to go unto God rather than into the place of Torments prepared for the Devil and his Angels But no imposing upon Omnisciency The searcher of Hearts sees that such a forsaking of sin is forced imperfect flowing from no right Principle and therefore he values it not Ah there is a time when God leaves sinners to themselves when they will not by any means be perswaded to leave their sins There is a certain measure of God's Grace and of man's Impieties after which the Holy Spirit withdraws himself and will not any longer be entreated And how knowest thou persevering Impenitent but that if thou neglectest Grace and the season thereof Now the measure of thy sins may hereafter be compleated and both
beat down Satan under our feet we are beset with Spiritual Enemies we have no might to help our selves against the Great Company of Temptations which dayly assault us our eyes are only upon thee from whom alone cometh our Health and Salvation Help Lord or we perish help or we are Ruin'd Eternally stretch forth thy Right hand to save us or we sink in the waves of vicious Allurements which so impetuously beat against us O be Thou pleased to speak those Tempests into a Calm do Thou either Restrain the unruly waters of strife sinful Assaults which aâ—â— ready to come in even unto our Souls or else Assist and bear us up that they may not overwhelm us Suffer us noâ— O Lord to be Tempted above that 〈◊〉 are Able but together with the Temptation make a way to escape that we may resolutely withstand it and having done all may stand O make us diligent in all our Duties watchful against all Temptations that they never become a snare to catch and entangle us but cause us to Resist manfully according to our Baptismal Engagement the World the Flesh and the Devil striving against sin against alâ— wicked Enticements Provocations and Opportunities leading thereunto And in all our pious conflicts makes us more than Conquerors through Christ which strengthens us O holy Father Thou Preserver of men the Prince of this world Satan cometh he cometh to search and to Try us O Grant he may find nothing in us to close with his Temptations keep us from sin keep us from every evil way of the Destroyer Deliver us from all our Ghostly Adversaries for we fly unto Thee to secure and hide us O pluck our feet out of the wicked Net which they have privily layd for our souls We fly unto thee O thou Refuge of all those who put their Trust in thee we fly unto thee to Repel and Quench all the fiery darts of the Devil let him not have any Advantage over us but give us strength in the day of battle and holy Contention Grant that thy Kingdom may daily Rise and the Kingdom of Satan dayly fall in our hearts Lord We wrestle not only with flesh and blood with the Corruptions of our own Nature but with Principalities and Powers with Spiritual wickednesses in high places O Give us therefore Power in thee our God let thy Spirit be sufficient for us let thy strength be manifested in our weakness and make us in the conclusion mightily to prevail Cause us to take unto our selves the whole Armour of God to watch and pray to fast and mourn and strive our utmost against sin and Temptation that having fought a good fight and finished our course and kept the faith henceforth may be laid up for us a Crown of Righteousness a Crown which fadeth not away Eternal in the Heavens Amen Amen Meditation VI. Against the Sin of Pride PRide How incongruous a thing to a poor Indigent Dependant Creature To a compound of Vileness and Corruption of Misery and Folly whose foundation being in the Dust ought to humble him thither from whence he was taken Pride was not made for Man says Solomon it Becomes better any other part of the Creation for they still Retain that beautiful Goodness at first impress'd upon them by their Divine Maker the Stormy wind and Tempest the Sea and raging Floods as boisterous and unruly as they be are yet Elements fulfilling God's Word The Moon observes her certain seasons and the Sun knoweth his going down All Nature keeps its Regular Course at first ordain'd it only Man Irregular Man has Deviated from his primitivâ— state of Order and Innocence anâ— thereby has Degraded himself belovâ— the very Beasts which perish so thaâ— 't is much more a matter of profounâ— humbling to Man that immortal Corruption was his Off-spring than thâ— Mother Earth Natural Corruption was the Parent-principle of his formation To be proud and yet to be a Beggar to live upon Alms what a Solâ—cism what an inconsistency is it And yet thus it is with us we aâ— Beggars of our dayly Bread froâ— God or at least should be such alâ— we possess all we Are was Originally from him we are his Pensiâ—ners and Alms-People And how in sufferable a thing then is Pride 〈◊〉 Man how indecorous What hast thoâ— says the Apostle St. Paul which thoâ— didst not Receive and yet boastest thâ—â— as if thou hadst not Received it Surely all boasting is excluded where whatever we have is of Grace and not 〈◊〉 Debt is ours in Trust only not in Propriety Ah 't was this sin of Pride which first brought sin into the world which first came into it and which will Last go out of it Ambition was as early as Nature and Adam was little sooner a Man than he Aspired to be as God knowing Good and Evil But alass 't was this his undue Aiming at so Great a height which was the occasion of his fall and he knows now Evil only by the Loss and Privation of Good Pride 'T was this turned the Apostate Angels out of Heaven which made even that infinitely Blissful place uneasie to them while proudly reaching at the incommunicable Prerogatives of the Deity that Aspiring sin changed their Angelick Nature into that of Devils And 't is this Vice of pride which is more or less an ingredient in all the wickedness committed by degenerate Mankind foâ— every wilful iniquity is a rejecting the Divine Authority and Soveraignty of God and a Vertual saying within our selves Who is Lord oveâ— us 'T is this sin of excessive Self-Loveâ— and too good an opinion of our own Endowments which includes in itâ— mixture of the greatest folly for 〈◊〉 implies misapprehension and Error Ignorance and Inconsideration Ignorance of those Imperfections and Deformities Sins and Seeds of Misery within us which were they discovered must needs humble and abase us An how troublesome a Guest 〈◊〉 Pride in a Man's bosome it create both uneasieness to himself and alâ— others about him while it makes him Envy Superiours take to Heart the slights of Equals and even to rage with passion at the Disrespect of Inferiours O 't is this vice of over-rating our selves keeps us Strangers at home makes us unjust Censurers abroad Causes us to think too highly of our own worth too meanly of that of others 't is this hinders our growing Wiser and Better our imagining we are wise and good enough already But alass did we see all we lack we should soon fall in our own Conceit and wish for much more Wisdom and Goodness than we have Pride nothing more looses a man Friends and Gains him Enemies nothing more renders him an object of universal Scorn and Contempt so that the proud person by Pride defeats his own Aims he challenges Honour as his due but by unduly challenging it he reaps Dis-respect and Derision But above all nothing more than Pride renders us the Scorn and Hatred of God the Lord beholdeth the lowly with an Eye
of Love and Approbation but the proud heâ— knoweth afar off Psalm 138. versâ— the 6th Nothing also more obstructs the holy Influences of the Divine Spirit upon our Hearts God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to thâ— humble 1 Pet. 5. 5. He has but two Habitations wherein he more especially delights to dwell Heaven and the Soul of him who is of a contriâ— and humble spirit Isa 57. 15. On the contrary nothing is more oppositâ— to the Nature of the Deity or to the Humiliation of his blessed Son Christ Jesus than Pride and Haughtiness And therefore our Saviour thougâ— the Brightness of his Father's Glory and the Express Image of his Person who thought it no Robbery to be equal with God yet took on hiâ— the form of a Servant came not to be minister'd unto but to Minister appeared in a mean and low condition that he might teach us Meekness and Lowliness of Heart the first Good disposition for the Receipt of his Self-denying Gospel and of all Evangelical Graces And indeed What have we poor silly Worms and no Men to be proud of What should hinder our Humility Alass how do Angels so much Rais'd above us in Excellency Angels who see our Vileness by reason of sinning how do they both pity and wonder at our Pride At our Folly of being exalted in our own Conceits above Measure They though they much transcend us in Knowledge in Beauty in Strength and all other Endowments both Natural and Moral yet are they Humble and Modest they cover their faces before God and cast down their Crowns at the feet of the Lamb Christ Jesus acknowledging him alone worthy to be prais'd The sense they have that their Angelick Excellencies however Great and Glorious are yet Finite and derived from their Creator their sense of hiâ— Divine Perfections infinitely suâ— mounting theirs keeps them meek anâ— lowly and the Abundance of theiâ— Celestial Revelations by this meaâ— no way puffs them up but render them the more Thankful the morâ— sensible of God's Goodness unto theâ— Let Them therefore be our Patterâ— of Humility nay rather let the eveâ— blessed Jesus be our Example herein who has directed us to learn of him for he was meek and lowly thougâ— the most High God! Ah 't is but comparing our selveâ— with the Deity and then 't will appear how there is no comparison between us what vile Creatures an miserable Sinners we are and whaâ— an infinitely Glorious Being and imâ—maculate Purity is God! and theâ— the sense of his Greatness and Glorâ— will lessen and humble us in cur owâ— Conceits Amen blessed Saviour Amen The Prayer O THOV King of Glory who dwellest in the Heaven of Heavens and yet condescendest to look down from the habitation of thy Holyness on us poor Vnworthy Mortals whose foundation is in the Dust and our Soujourning in houses of Clay we beseech thee take up thy Glorious Residence in our Hearts by banishing thence the sin of pride and Self-conceit by possessing us with high Reverential thoughts of thy Divine Majesty which may make us appear Mean and Low and Despicable in our own apprehensions O that we may appear such Now in thy Presence for that thou Resistest the Proud but givest Grace an Increase of Grace unto the Humble humble us therefore O Lord amidst these our Devotions that thou mayst exalt us in thy due season Mortifie in us at present all Haughtiness of Spirit for what more incongruous than Pride and a Lowly Begging Supplication What more incongruous than a Display of our wants 〈◊〉 Acknowledgment of our Vileness and Dependance an Imploring of Mercy and Relief all which import thâ— deepest Humility and yet a self-conâ—ceited Arrogant and Lofty temper 〈◊〉 Mind O grant it may no longer beaâ—â— Sway over us Grant that we may 〈◊〉 cloathed with Humility that we 〈◊〉 see the imperfections of our best Services Make us pure in Heart yet poor 〈◊〉 Spirit vile in our own Eyes that 〈◊〉 may be precious in thy sight Strike 〈◊〉 with a deep and lively sense of our wreâ—â— chedness by reason of sinning and maâ—â— us as Humble as we are Wicked What O Lord are all the Nationâ— of the Earth if compared with Thee 〈◊〉 Creator and Supream Governour of 〈◊〉 things What but as a drop of 〈◊〉 Bucket and as the small dust of 〈◊〉 ballance How may we then justly 〈◊〉 with shame when we consider our multiplyed hainous transgressions against so great and glorious a God! when we consider in what manner we lift up our hearts against Thee the Giver of every Good and Perfect Gift by arrogating to our selves the propriety of thy free beneficence O make us account our highest Attainments in Humane Knowledge as Dung and Dross for the Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord make us Ambitious of being found in him cloathed with his Spotless imputed Righteousness Suffer us not O our God to exalt our selves above measure by placing undue Confidence in any thing we do or in what-ever we Suffer for thy Names sake lest we fall not only from the Stedfastness of our holy profession but also into the Condemnation of the Devil sinning according to the Similitude of his transgression O let him not Rule in our hearts by the Disobedience of pride permit us not to Resemble him in so foul a Vice which will Deface thine Image within us but teach us to tread in the Steps of our blessed Saviour and to learn of him who was Meek and Lowly 〈◊〉 shall we find Rest unto our souls Grant Holy Father that in Lowlyness of mind we may think meanly of our selves in honour preferring each other that neglecting the praise of men or making it a subordinate motive in our practice of things vertuous we may have a principal Regard to the Testimony of a Good Conscience and may seek in the first place that praise which cometh of thee our God O let us be nothing in our own account that Thou mayest be all in all unto us Make us to imploy all industry and care in Approving our selves unto Thee that being Conformed unto our Redeemer in Humility who humbled himself unto Death even the Death of the Cross we may become thy workmanship O God ready prepar'd unto every Good work and may Abound therein without any vain ostentation Amen for thy Mercies sake Amen Meditation VII Against the Sin of Vnchastity UNchastity Ah how small is its Temptation when placed in Equal View with the deterring evil consequents thereof For who can be allured with Poverty and Beggery with Shame and Ignominy with Rottenness and Corruption which are the usual Attendants of impure Embraces Ah to burn in Lust is to Anticipate Hell-flames and to burn in uneasie Torments of Mind even in this life for the eager appetite of Lust is full of Anxiety and disquieting impatience till such time as 't is Gratified Hence the usual terms of expressing a violent Amour are Flames and Darts are Feavours and
Righteous in all thy Works Just and True in all thy ways and stedfastly believing that in very Faithfulness thou hâ—st caused us to be troubled Nay even to Bless and Praise thy holy Name amidst the greatest 〈◊〉 that thou dost so far condescend to take Notice of us worthless Creatures as to punish us with thine own hand and chasten us with afflictions that we should not be condemned with the sinfuâ—â— World O how know we but we are more indebted to thee for thy Corrections than for thy more Apparent favours and Benefits and shall we then murmur and be impatient under them God forbid Convince us rather Good Lord that whom thou Lovest thou Chastenest and Correctest every Son whom thoâ— Receivest that if we are without Chastisements then are we bastards and not Sons Convince us that 't was through many Tribulations that the Glorious Company of the Apostles that the Noble Army of Martyrs made their Entranâ—â— into the Kingdom of Heaven that it was through such violences that they took it as it were by force Remind us that 't was through Sufferings that our blessed Saviour was made perfect that He himself went not up to Joy efore he first suffer'd Pain that He enter'd not into Glory before he was Crucified O make us in Conformity to him the Captain of our Salvation patiently to charge thorough all Adversities Losses and Disappointments till we arrive at the mark for the prize of our high calling in Christ Give us holy Father to lye Prostrate at thy feet whenever thou contendest with us let us Repent to the Amendment of our evil ways and not Repine at those smarting Sufferings which tend to Rebuke our foolish forsaking Thee the Author of our Blessedness let us be dumb with a silent Reverence whenever thy heavy hand of Chastisement is upon us O cause us then in all lowliness and Humility to submit to thyProvidence to make diligent Search after the Accursed thing for which thou art Displeas'd with us to Kiss thy Rod of Correction and Learn that Reforming Lesson which it dictates lest otherwise it Breaks us in pieces and there be none to Deliver us O Suppress in us all Repining thoughts and make us drink chearfully the cup of Affliction how bitter soever it is we shall have reason to Thank thee O Lord for it if it proves Medicinal to our Souls O make it such we entreat thee Let this be the use of Temporal Calamities their weaning our Affections from the Vanities below their Raising and Setling our desires on the infinitely more valuable things Above their rendering us Meek Humble Contented Resign'd that so our Faith Hope and Patience may be found in the Day of our Lord Laudable Glorious and Honourable and that being Afflicted for a season we may be endlesly comforted Amen Blessed Saviour Amen Meditation X. On Love to God 'T IS our Duty and 't is our Interest and Priviledge our Duty we being commanded to Love him with all our hearts souls and strengths and our Interest for what greater Love to our selves than to Love the fountain of all Loveliness than to Love him in whom are compriz'd all those Excellencies in infinite Degrees which Scatteringly and imperfectly reside in the Creatures and yet render them Amiable and Admired Nothing is more Reasonable also than to Love God a being so transcendently Good in himself so Gracious and Loving unto us for to Him we owe all the powers of our Bodies all the noble faculties of our Souls all that we Are all that we have comes Entirely from him we should be very ungrateful persons should we Love any thing so well as him much more should we Love any thing Above him for he hath not only created us doth not only preserve and provide for us Comforts as well as Necessaries but he hath also dearly Redeem'd us from everlasting Destruction not with corruptible things such as Silver and Gold but with no Less a Ransom than the precious Bloodshed of his Dear Son God Co-equal with the Father He hath likewise Sanctified us with the Regeneration of his blessed Spirit Thus hath God not only provided us all the Coveniences of this life but also all things appertaining to a Better has given us Spiritual Blessings as well as Corporal means of Grace and hopes of Glory So that He hath layd on us the Strongest obligations to Love him and if any thing else in the whole Creation is Lovely much more Eminently so is the Divine Majesty who is owner of all his Creatures Lovelyness and of Infinite more If Beauty is an object of Love behold God the most beautiful Being in whom dwells perfection of Comelyness If Riches are attractives of Esteem and Valuation behold the Deity the Treasury of all Wealth and of whatever is valuable If pleasure is a thing Lovely and desirable behold in God's presence Fullness of Joy and at his Right hand pleasures for Evermore Sure I must hate my self if I Love not God for therein consists my Wellfare and Happyness Shall I love other things and not Him from whom they Borrowed their Lovelyness Shall I Love the Stream and not the Fountain of blessedness What Joy do I deprive my self of if I Love not God If I hate not all other things in comparison of him He that Loveth Father or Mother sayes our Blessed Saviour more than me is not worthy of me and he that Loveth Son or Daughter the most Near and Dear things more than me is not worthy of me O who know the Enravishing Delights but those who have experienced them of Loving the Deity and being beloved by him of holding such Sweet Communion with the God of all Consolation It is a very Great Favour and Condescension that the Majesty of Heaven and Earth will Admit of our imperfect Love will Graciously Accept it for 't is imperfect though never so Sincere 't is finite Love though never so Seraphical What an inconceivable Honour is it to be vouchsafed the Loving our Creator 'T is certain we can have no better Object no one so Good the benefit of Loving God redounds wholly to our selves not at all to him However I will Love the Lord not so much for my own Ends as because he hath Commanded my Love as because he is a supereminently Amiable Being infinitely Deserving my Love as because 't is a Debt due from me a Dependant Creature to my Maker and the Author of all my Enjoyments I will Delight in Loving and Obeying him as long as I live and I by his Grace will Evidence the Truth of my Love by paying an Universal Respect unto all his Commandments Amen Amen The Prayer O Thou Supream Excellency whom to know is Life Eternal whom to Love is Heaven upon Earth Thou Being infinitely Lovely in thine own Nature Exceeding kind nad Loving unto us manifest thy self more and more unto us that we may Love Thee more and more and that Loving Thee with increase we may Enjoy Thee in a
much Larger measure Wean we pray Thee our affections from the Creature which can make no Suitable Return to our Love which cannot Satisfie the Longing of our Souls and win them unto Thee who by thy Mercies preventest our Love by thy Mercies dost nourish and improve it canst fully Gratifie the Good desires of our hearts and wil't amply Recompence and Reward them O Thou Joy of Angels and Soveraign Happynes of all thy Saints Oh that our Souls cold Love Thee without Limits as Thou art without Limits Lovely and Amiable Oh that we may Love Thee for thy Essential Goodness in Thy self as much as for thy Derived imparted Goodness unto us Let our thoughts let our desires and affections zealously Embrace Thee and may we be embraced with a peculiar love and favour by Thee may still new Degrees of thy Love widen and enlarge our Capacities of Receiving them and as they Enlarge do Thou flow in with an increase of Divine Communications Convince us O Lord that those Excellencies which are Borrowed which are Imperfect which are variously Dispers'd in the Creation are all concenter'd in Thee the Original in infinite Beauty and Perfection and shall we not Love Thee the Spring head of Blessedness more than the Derived Streams than the lesser Rivulets of felicity O perswade us that we are unkind to our selves if we Love not Thee the Author the Treasury of our Happyness Temporal Spiritual and Eternal Alass we find our hearts Cold Dead and Sluggish in thy Service Lord Quicken Lord enflame them Enflame them with thy Divine Love Quicken them in thy Righteousness They have gone Astray they have wander'd after many other Lovers after the pleasures profits and honours of this world which have miserably Deceived them O fix them upon Thee who wilt everlastingly Love them Everlastingly Contiâ—â— Lovely and never Disappoint them Make holy God our Love of Thee an Vniting an Assimilating Love that We may Love what Thou Lovest and hate what Thou hatest that we may do whatever will please Thee forbear whatever will offend Thee conforming our selves to thine Image in Holyness O that our Affections could Ever continue such towards Thee as they are at present O that we may demonstrate the Truth of our Love to Thee by our obeying with all Willingness Zeal and Chearfulness thy Divine precepts by obeying them Vniversally Sincerely and Constantly to our lives End Then only O Heavenly Father can we have Confidence towards Thee shall we be Assured we Love Thee aright when we Love Thee for thine Own self when we Love Thee Soveraignly and Supreamly when our Love is so Exalted as that we may be said to hate and Despise all other things in Comparison of Thee O give us thus Zealously to be affected towards Thee Grant that the Love of thy Self may Crucifie in us the Vndue Love of our selves the inordinate Love of the World or of any our Dearest Relations and that being Empty of our selves and of all Confidence in the Creature we may be wholely taken up with Admiration Love and Delight in Thine infinite Perfections and in the Astonishing Expressions of thy Goodness and Loving-kindness to the Lost Sons of Adam O may thy Love Conquer and Over-power our hearts Melt them into Gratitude and Obedience may it Disingage their Affections from every Narrow and particular Good and Setile them upon Thee the Vniversal One Causing us to Love Thee Above all things every created blessing as it bears the impressions of thy Wisdom Beauty and Power and all mankind for Thy sake and in Obedience to thy Commands Preserve 〈◊〉 us Good Lord such Devout flames of a Godly Affection and let us be our Beloved's and Thou our Beloved ours to all Eternity Amen Amen Meditation XI On Zeal in the Service of God HOW natural a Consequent is this of the Love of God Zeal to please him Zeal to Resemble him Zeal to promote his Honour and Glory Where if not here is Zeal Becoming Where else can it be so Suitably placed Nay our Divine Services how can they well be Acceptable without it For where there is Sincerity of Intention in doing our Duty without which no Duty can be pleasing to Heaven we can scarce conceive Fervency of Spirit to be wanting unless through weakness and indisposition of Body And for the Service of God the most Glorious and Excellent of Beings to be a cold and Languid Worship how Great an Absurdity how Great an Inconsistency is this Certainly the Service of the Temple the Sacrifice of the Altar requires the flame and Fire of the Altar to render it of a sweet-smelling Savour To perform Duty to God with formality and indifferency of Spirit is neither to consider the Nature of the Work we are about the Greatness and Excellency of the Divine Majesty nor yet what Earnestness and Zeal the Care of our own Salvation exacts from us The Love of God demands our whole heart Soul and Strength and consequently the keeping his Commandments the Genuine Evidence of our Love demands the utmost Exercise of our Powers and Faculties both bodily and Spiritual That is not a Service of God which is carelesly discharged but rather an Affront rather a Contempt of him 'T is a doing somewhat in Religion to Still and Quiet the uneasie Reproofs of our own Consciences but not doing any thing with a design of pleasing God out of Obedience and Love to his Commandments or from a desire of becoming Like unto him in Holiness which Regards alone can consecrate and render acceptable our Services Zeal where is it due if not in the Divine Worship Than which nothing is of greater Importance nothing of greater Worth nothing more for our Interest and Advantage Where the safety of our Immortal Souls our Heaven and Eternal Happiness are concern'd there certainly no warmth of Heart no Diligence of endeavour can be too much Ah did we but consider God's Zeal the sounding of his Bowels and tenderness of his Compassion toward us we could not sure want Zeal and Ardency of Affection towards him The holy Angels above who best understand the Value of God's Service who know best how Exalted a pitch of Love and Duty an infinitely Good and Gracious Divine Majesty merits at our hands what a Pattern do They set us of Industry Zeal and joyful Alacrity in Religious worship And how does their intense and flaming Affection in God's Service Shame and Reprove our doing the work of the Lord negligently Can we serve either a Greater Master or a Better One who Deserves better our Services or who is more willing and Able to Reward them plenteously Do we pray thy Will be done on Earth as 't is in Heaven with a like Universality Constancy Fervour and Chearfulness of holy Duty and yet do we contradict this our Petition by a partial formal and undelightful Obedience Have we that pious Reverence amidst our Devotions which is answerable to the Great and Glorious Presence of God with whom in
Essentials of his Religion let our Wills also be conjoyn'd for what an Absurdity is it that we who are to live together in Heaven if our Uncharitableness hinder not should live at variance here below O Heavenly Samaritan Thou holy Jesu Prince of peace Look down Look down behold here a miserably torn and Divided Church torn with Schisme and Faction fallen among Robbers and Spoilers who most inhumanely have Entreated her behold with a succouring compassion her bleeding wounds which are as so many Mouths importunately begging it Pour thy suppling Oyl and Wine of Union into her Sores bind up with the bond of Love and Concord her broken and Disjoynted Members Pass not by on the other side of the way as did the Relentless Levite but let the Distress'd sight of our misery move thee to compassion and thy Compassion produce a Speedy Relieving us Suppress in us blessed Saviour Entirely banish from us that Stingy Selfishness of Spirit that narrow Confinement of Love to a Sect or Party which so much abounds in the Nation and make us of a more publick Generous Temper more Consultive of the Good of the Community both in Church and State And then the Spirit of God the Spirit of Love and Unity shall dwell amongst us Love shall be our Guide and Love shall be our Guard and Defence Love shall fit us for Heaven and Love shall Conduct us thither Nay Love shall bring down Heaven upon Earth unto us shall make us live in Peace in Amity in a Joyous Complacency at each others Happyness Amen Amen The Prayer O OUR God who hast taught us that all our doings without Charity are nothing worth that he only who dwelleth in Love dwelleth in Thee and Thou in him send thy Holy-Ghost and pour into our hearts that most Excellent Gift of Charity the very bond of Peace and of all Vertues make us Children of thee our God Disciples of our Dear Lord and Master in loving one another as he hath loved us in being Merciful as Thou our Heavenly Father art Merciful O that the same mind may be in us which was in Christ Jesus who went about doing Good healing the Diseas'd comforting the Afflicted compossionating the Distressed and whose pity did not content it self with a bare saying Be ye warmed be ye cloathed be ye filld and deliver'd from your Sufferings but which did always Exert it self in Real Acts of Mercy and Beneficence O make us also thus followers of our Redeemer's Steps being Exceeding pittyful and compassionate and actually employing all our abilities for our necessitous Brethrens Succour and Relief Give us we beseech thee O most merciful God such a Sympathizing Tenderness of Spirit that we may be deeply affected with both the miseries and Prosperities of our Neighbours mourning with those that mourn and Rejoycing with those that Rejoyce as Living Members of our Saviours mystical body his Church O that it may become the Center of Unity and Concord the very Joy and Delight of the whole Earth Fulfil O Lord that promised blessing of thine unto the Christian State whereby the Wolf is to dwell with the Lamb the Loeopard to lie down with the Kid the Calf and the young Lyon together a little Child to lead them a weaned Child to put his hand on the Cockatrice-Den and nothing to hurt or destroy in thy holy mountain but all fury malice and bitterness being done away Gospel-Love and Peace and Gentleness of Spirit is to succeed O may this Gracious Promise be near its Accomplishment may this blessed State this Kingdom of thy Dear Son come Quickly O thou Composer of differences thou God of all Peace Compose those unhappy Animosities which are too much propagated among Christians let them not any longer Dishonour thy Name bring an evil Report upon our Holy Profession in General nor weaken the Interest of the Protestant Religion in particular But grant that by Brotherly Love and Concord we may Adorn the Gospel of our Saviour may win over Converts thereunto and thereby Enlarge Strengthen and Advance the Kingdom of the Ever-blessed Jesus Let the Peace of Thee our God Rule in our Hearts to the which we are call'd in one and the same hope of an Heavenly Inheritance that as we have one Lord one Faith one Baptisme one God and Father of us all so we may henceforth be all of one Heart and of one Soul united in one holy bond of Truth and Peace of Faith and Charity And being thus Studious of Emulating each other in kindness provoking thus one another to Love and Good works and being in such a manner the Sons of Peace on Earth we shall be fitted and made meet for the joynt participation of Heavenly Glory where may we all Reign Rejoycing in each others Happyness as Sincerely if not Equally as in our own Amen Blessed Jesus Amen Meditation XV. On Improvement in Grace THe Life of Grace is best evidenc'd by Growth therein Spiritual Life no more than the Natural one can subsist without Activity and progressive Motion where-ever the seed of God is sown in Truth and Reality it will fructifie and become prolifick In the School of Grace as well as in that of Humane Learning not to Go forward and make improvement is to Go backward and Vertue like a tender young Plant if it does not Thrive and Flourish is in a Tendency to Decay and Wither The slothful unprofitable Servant who did not improve his Talent is in the Scripture-reckoning in our Lord and Saviour's account nigh as bad and as severely punish'd as the unjust Steward who wickedly embezzled it and not to make use of Grace is here reputed the same thing as not to have had it To have it by Exercise and Improvement is judg'd by God the only true Possession and he who has not the Gifts and Graces of the Spirit in this manner is said in Holy Writ only to seem to have them And instead of encreasing their Store 't is denounced there that he shall loose even those measures of Divine Vertues which were once afforded him Genuine Grace cannot stand at a stay if it does not Ascend and improve it infallibly Declines And when God gives us this Talent to Trade withal and encrease it shall we frustrate his End of Giving it by letting it lye Dead and unexercised Did Christ purchase us the Graces of the holy Spirit at the Dear and inestimable Rate of his own Bloodshed and shall we Neglect them when so purchased Did He by his precious Death and All-prevalent Intercession procure the Effusion and sending down of those Graces and shall we slight them when so sent and bestow'd on us Ah what will not obstinate Ingratitude of Sinning do It will make us turn the blessed means of Grace into occasions of Damnation make what was intended towards us a Savour of Life unto Life to become the Savour of Death unto Death through our mad folly and supine Negligence If we would but cooperate with Divine
Life Amen Amen The Prayer O Holy Jesu thou Lord of Life and Glory who by thy Death hast overcome Death and open'd unto us the Gate of Everlasting Life at the hour of Death and in the Day of Judgment Good Lord Deliver us Grant that the End of our life on Earth may be the Beginning to us of a blessed Eternity in Heaven that the Second Death the never-ceasing one may have no Dominion over us but that when we discontinue Living with men we may dwell with thee our God and Converse with all the blessed Society Above Grant Heavenly Father that when we come to lye on a Death-bed we may be able to look backward with Comfort and Consolation on a well spent Life and forward with a bright prospect of Glory and Immortality beyond the Grave that when we are nigh unto Death and our bodyly strength Languishing our faith and hope may Revive and become vigorous and we may then feel the joyous Approaches of that Salvation which we before had wrought out with fear and trembling We know O Lord that 't is appointed for all men once to Dye and that no one can rescue his life from the pit of Destruction and yet do we live as if we had made an Agreement with Hell and had an unforfeitable Lease of our lives O give us to Dye unto sin Now that we may sleep in Christ at our Departure and be Awaken'd be Rais'd to life again in the Restitution of all things Afford us some Refreshing beams of the Light of thy Reconciled Countenance when passing through the dark valley of the Shadow of Death grant that we may then fear no evil but may have the Testimony of a Good Conscience which may be a supporting Cordial to our weak and fainting Spirits Grant that we may not live in such an unprepar'd state of Soul as that we should be afraid to Dye and Appear before thy Judgment seat but cause us so to Demean our selves as that the Sting and Terrour of Death Sin may be taken away before Death it self lays hold on us that when it comes we may welcome it with Smiles and Gladness may lift up our heads with Joy at our hastening Dissolution as knowing that then the time of our Redemption draweth near Be Thou present with us at the hour of Death O blessed Jesu who sufferedst Death for us upon the Cross by the vertue of that thy precious Death Sweeten we beseech thee the bitterness of ours When our Eyes shall be Darkned in the Agonies of Death kindle in our hearts the Light of saving Faith when our Speech shall fail and leave us O do thou speak Inwardly unto us by the Comforts of thy Spirit and grant that we may speak mentaily unto Thee by Devoul Sighs and Groans which cannot be utter'd when we are nigh unto the End of our Days may we be nigh the end of our Hopes even the Salvation of out Souls O give us in our last Exiremities Joy in believing Hope in our Latter End humble Resignation of our Spirits into thy hands an holy Contempt of this Earth an Enflamed Love of Heaven Longing desires to be with Thee with our Saviour christ with Angels and Glorified Saints which is much better than being here Amen Amen for thy Mercies sake Meditation XVII On the Last Judgment MEthinks I view the Judge of the whole Earth Terrible and yet Gracious coming in the Clouds of Heaven with all his Glorious Retinue of holy Angels methinks I hear the Arowzing Call of the last Trumpet see the innumerable Dead take the Alarm Awake Move and Rise at its all-powerful Summons I behold methinks the Righteous Rising first with Smiles and Exultation in their Faces as knowing that their Redemption that the Reward of all their Pious Labours draweth near I behold also the ungodly Rising Last and yet even then most unwillingly shaking and trembling for fear of their approaching Tryal and Condemnation Heaven above Threatning them Hell beneath Gaping wide for their Reception I bâ—hold too the Court-Book of an Universal Registry open'd each Mans Indictment and Accusation publickly Read his own Conscience the while bearing Witness and either Accusing or Excusing him in that fearful Judgment I hear methinks the Decisive Sentence 〈◊〉 ronourced of either Eternal Happyness or Misery of either come ye Blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepar'd for you before the foundations of the World or else of Depart from me ye Accursed into Everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Oh the different Effects these different Sentences have on the Persons they are directed unto The Righteous receive their Sentence with Joy and Acclamations with transporting Thanks and Hallelujahs with an humble Admiration that the Recompence of their finite Defective Services should be a far more Exceeding and Eternal weight of Glory The ungodly Reprobates entertain their Doom with hideous Howlings and Lamentations with heart-piorcing Sorrows and Affrightments with fruitless desires to return again into their Graves or to be perfectly destroyed and Annihilated Come ye blessed O Delightsome sound O wellcome hearing wellcome especially from the moâ—â—â— of our Judge Come There is no need sure of a pressing Invitation to accept of so much Bliss and Happyness behold they Run they draw near upon the first Intimation of it they fly with haste into the possession of their Eternal Inheritance They now please themselves in the Remembrance of their former Godly Sorrows Mortifications and Self-denyals which through the Mercy 's of God and Merits of their Saviour have procured them such an exceeding Great Rejoycing All their former Tears dry up at the sight of their Glorious Redemption and they would not for a World but they had Denyed themselves in the Life past that now in the Resurrection of the Just they may be own'd and Approved of by their Advocate and Acquitter Depart ye Cursed blessed Lord whither should they depart Can they Goe any where where thou art not present who sillest all things tho' they descend into the Deep and remain in the uttermost parts of the Sea yet Thou art there though they make the Darkness of Hell their hiding-place yet thou art there also thine Omniscient Eye shall even there find them out and thine Almighty Arm shall punish them Depart from Me A Dâ—parture from thy Beatifick presence O God must needs render the Departed Accursed for Thou art all that 's Good the Loss therefore of Thee is an Universal Loss Thou art the Center and Rest of the Soul and therefore to be separated from Thee must be the most unquiet and miserable Condition imaginable A Departure from the Joyous Light of thy Countenance O blessed Jesu who only hast the words of Eternal Life can certainly be no other than Eternal Death One would have thought indeed that to be Deprived of Thy Sight might have been punishment enough without the Damneds Entrance in Hell-flames and tortures but that besides the mental Anguish for their
Saviour O make us such obedient Subjects of this thy Kingdom of Grace that we may become capable of thy Kingdom of Glory Convince us blessed Lord that Grace and Glory differ not in Kind but only in Degree of purity Grace being Glory in its Dawn in its progressive light of Sanctisication and Glory being Grace Ripened into Maturity Consummated into perfection and therefore as we hope for and would become partakers of Celestial Glory bring down Holy Jesu much of an Heavenly Temper and habit into our hearts at present Make us to conceive of Heaven as of a pure and holy State of Life rather than of it as a place and Seat of Enravishing Enjoyments to Conceive of it as consisting more in the blissful frame and pious Qualities of our Souls than in the fruition of any External Heavenly Objects and consequently cause us to be Equally desirous that Heaven should enter into us by the way of Holyness here as that we may enter into Heaven by the way of Happyness hereafter That considering Heaven as a place whereinto no Unclean thing can enter considering it as a City wherein only dwelleth Righteousness we may purifie our selves even as Thou the Author of it art pure perfecting of Holyness in thy fear O our God make us more and more meet for an inheritance with the Saints in Light and Glory more and more Resemblant of such a State in our Spiritual Tempers and Dispositions of mind We are as yet in Haile we are Strangers and Sâ—journers here as all our Fathers were O make us fit for our Fathers House for an Heavenly Countrey and safely Conduct us thither whilst on Earth in the midst of Life we are in Death O cause us to see the Goodness of thee our Lord in that Land of the Living Above which only deserves that Name There I here will be no need of the Sun by Day neither of the Moon by Night for the Glory of thee our God will Enlighten it and in the Light of Thy Countenance we shall be Sure to see Light O lift up the partial Light of that Countenance upon us at present causing us to long after a more plentiful manifestation thereof in the Life to come Enable us Heavenly Father more to Admire those inexhaustible Treasures of thy Goodness prepared for such as Love and fear Thee which Eye hath not Seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of Man to conceive O thy unmeasurable Goodness whereby we are not only deliver'd from suffering the vengeance of Hell-torments but also made capable of the Enjoyments of Heaven What shall we render unto the Lord for these inestimable benefits which he Designs to bestow upon us O give us to conform our selves to thine Image in Holyness that we may behold Thee our God in Glory where certainly we can want nothing where all our Desires and Expectations will be compleatly Gratified because Thou our Supream Happyness will be All in All unto us O let us be Thine and be Thou Ours to all Eternity Amen Amen Blessed Redeemer Meditation XIX On Hell and the Eternity of its Torments WHAT can the Wrath of God do more than punish with an Eternity of Misery O the malignity of Sin whose Short pleasures and Empty profits whose false Honours and Transient acts of wickedness have an Infinity of punishment their Recompence O who would buy the pleasures of sin which are but for a moment at the Dear rate of never-ceasing Sufferings Who would refuse the initial troubles of a Religious Course since in the End it srees us from the Torments of Hell and instates us in all the Joys and Glories of Heaven Hell the punishment of the Disobedient and Rebellious of the haters of God Despisers of Goodness and wilful Rejecters of their own Everlasting Mercies Hell A place where is Variety of torments Extremity of torments and Eternity of torments not one way but a Thousand ways to make a poor Soul miserable Everlastingly miserable And who can be ar Variety Who can bear Extremity Who can bear Eternity of torments And yet all this we must bear if ever it be the sad lot of any of us to be cast into Hell Here a mixture and interchange of Mercies allays our Afflictions and Occasions of sorrow but in Hell there 's nothing but pure unmigled misery nothing to be seen but Objects of Terrour and Affrightment nothing to be heard but hideous howlings and Self-Execrations nothing to be felt but utmost pain and torment Not one merry Day and one sad not one hour of Grief and another of Ease not one Cross and another Comfort as it fares with us on Earth but all Crosses and all Curses without any the least mitigation do concur in Hell like lines meeting in their proper Center And no wonder they do so for t is the doleful Residence of the miserably Depraved and sinfully Degenerate of the fearful and unbelieving of the abominable and Murtherers of the proud Angry malicious and Revengeful Qualities of mind which are their own torment and Damnation which render the unhappy possessors of them Suitable Associates only for Devils and Reprobate Spirits Lost to Goodness Sunk into the very Dregs of sin and impiety O Hell where nothing Good inhabits where Darkness fills both the place and minds of those banished from God's Presence blackness of Darkness for ever fills the place blackness of Guilt horrour and Despair their Spirits Oh the Sense of their Loss afflicts more those wretched Souls than does the sense of their pain and Anguish The sense of what the Righteous enjoy and of what themselves might have done had it not been their own fault afflicts more the Damn'd than do all their Hellish Sufferings for that there should be an Heaven which they shall never Enter into that there should be a God whose blissful sight they shall ever be excluded from O this is the bitterest ingredient in Hell A Consideration which pains more the Objects of Divine wrath than all their flames and fire and brimstone O Eternity Eternity A thing which is a Rack to our minds but to Think of it even Abstracted from the Notion of annext misery how much more Amazing then and Dreadful must be the joynt Consideration of Torment accompanying Eternity Ah is it not enough that the Miseries of the Damned are the most Intense and Exquisite but must they be Endless also As Intense they are intolerable as Endless how much more so Alass Alass what are the Greatest Temporal Punishments when compared with those which are Eternal No more than painted fires and tortures compared with the Real Sensible ones whereof they are Representatives To be miserable as Long as God shall continue to be who is Everlasting what an insupportable what an Inconceivable misery is that And O the Just Judgment of an Incons'd Deity provoakt by Irreclaimable wickedness Impâ—nitent Sinners Seek Death Eternal in the wilful Error of their ways they chusing Sin the procuring Meritorious
may be as an Evening Sacrifice that this our Religious Address may prove the fervent effectual prayer of the Righteous which Availeth much Blow therefore holy Spirit of Grace upon the Garden of our hearts and the sweet-smelling Odours of our Faith and Hope of our Reverence Zeal and holy fervour in prayer shall instantly flow forth Grant O God that we may pray with understanding with a due Regard to thy Greatness and Majesty with a prepared Deliberate and Devout temper of Mind that our prayer may not become the Sacrifice of fools through our rash unadvisedness but that it may prove a Grateful and Acceptable Sacrifice unto Thee an instrument of holyness a Restraintive from sin a Defence against Temptation a procurer of every Corporal and Spiritual Good Gift Oh that we might be thus ever worshipping ever Adoring thee Oh that we might pray without ceasing as to the habitual pious frame and Devout Disposition of our hearts But alas O Lord how are our souls possest with a Spirit of Infirmity How are they bow'd down with Listlessness and formality in thy Service O raise them up by the fervours and elevations of Devotion Quicken them with thy Graces enflame them with thy Divine Love purifie and spiritualize their corrupt Earthly Affections Give us to be in earnest amidst these our Supplications Give us to ask blessings of thee so believingly so fervently and indesinently as to Receive them by Asking Oh that we may set a true value upon this most valuable priviledge of Prayer that our Souls may be filled as with marrow and fatness when our mouths thus praise thee with joyful lips Hast Thou O Lord promised to prepare the hearts of thy Servants to seek thee and that then thou wilt Graciously incline thine ear to hear and fulfil their Requests and shall not we on our parts contribute what we can to the preparation and set our selves to worship thee with an holy worship Oh suffer us not to let thee Go permit us not to give over entreating thee till thou hast Granted us our hearts desires fulfill'd the Requests of our Lips and bless'd us with Spiritual Blessings in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus O that thou wouldst be pleas'd at present to wing our Souls with holy Devotion to let down of thy heat and of thy Light into them to create in us upright hearts and most vehement desires after a fuller Communion with thee in Religious Ordinances As the Hart pantetâ—â— after the water-brooks so may our spirits in heav'nly Aspirations Long and pant after thee O God! Crying out Oh when shall we come and appear before God When shall we see and experience of his beauteous of his comfortable Goings forth in the Sanctuary as in former seasons Grant O munificent Jesus with whom the most urgent importunities are very Acceptable and Delightful grant that we may obtain all convenient Temporal Spiritual and Eternal blessings by the humble violence of fervent uncessant Supplication O thou God of all Consolation thou foundation of Blessedness who Delightest to 〈◊〉 the â—eek and Lowly desires of thy â—â—digent Dependant Creatures Enlarge our hearts in this thy Service Give us to taste of the sweets of Devotion let us experience the mighty efficacy of prayer O suffer us not to come down from this holy mount of exalted praise and Adoration till it has proved a mount of Transfiguration unto us till we are made thereby more Resemblant of thy Divine Nature in Purity and Holiness Oh may we take such a prospect of the promised Land of Rest and Happiness above from the towering Ascent of Prayer that we may Anticipate the Joys Celestial may contemn these Earthly vanities and disdain every meanner Satisfaction than what thou our God the things Spiritual and Eternal can yeild us Accept holy Father of this as a Tribute of Thanksgiving for all thine inestimable benefits from time to time conferr'd upon us Accept of this poor unworthy Retribution but however all that our Indigency and Poverty all that thy self-sufficiency and fullness will allow us to pay thee O may we Live and Dye thus pouring out our souls to thee in humble Supplication and Gratulatory praises And when we have pray'd and prais'd and adored thee our ut most our appointed measure here on Earth O Grant we may be taken up into Heaven and there be joyn'd to the Eternally praising worshipping and Adoring Quire of Glorisied Saints and Angels Amen for our Redeemer's sake Amen Amen A PRAYER FOR THE MORNING MOst Great most Glorious and Gracious Lord God Glorious in Majesty fearful in Power infinite in Holiness with what holy Awe and Reverence with what pious Humility and Prostration of Soul ought we vile Creatures we sinful Dust and Ashes to approach this thy more immediate Presence Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him or the Son of man that thou so Regardest him as to watch over him with thy Good Providence as to visit him with thy faithfulness in the Night-season and with thy Loving-kindness every Morning O how indebted are we to thy Goodness and Forbearance that we are yet in the Land of the Living praising thee We pray thee make this thy Goodness and Long-suffering instrumental to the leading us out of a principle of Gratitude to a more compleat and advanced Repentance Blessed be thy Name for the Protection afforded us the Night past for thy Renewed Mercies of this Day O Grant that they may Excite us to a Renewing of our holy purposes and Resolutions of stricter and better Obedience for the future may thy Adding days to our Lives cause us to Add Diligence to our religious endeavours Give us Grace to spend our present continued season in such a Godly manner as if it were to be our Last as Ready prepared against its being such Let not we beseech Thee the increase of our years contribute to the increase of our Guilt and Number of our Sins but cause this further indulged space of Time to be so well-improved by us as that it may bring us the nearer to an happy Eternity But O our God how have we given thee occasion by our Abuse of former means of Grace and opportunities of Salvation to Deny us any further ones and to cut us off in the midst of our Transgressions How mayst thou resolve in thy wrath having been so Long Grieved so Long Resisted by our sinful obstinacy that thy holy Spirit shall not Allways strive with such Refractory Offenders The Number of our Impieties is Great the Heinousness of them much Greater we have forgotten thee too too often have sinn'd against thee Days without Number tho thou hast pardon'd hast Spared us days without number though thou hast given us our Being though thou hast plentifully provided for our well-being yet have we forgotten thee though thou hast given us thy Son to Redeem us though thou hast given us thy Holy-Ghost to Purifie Assist and Comfort us yet have we ungratefully Rebell'd against
unto Thee who art of purer Eyes than to behold the least iniquity with Approbation With what Joy and Thankfulness ought we to acknowledge this thine inestimable favour that thou who art so highly Exalted wilt humble thy self to take notice of such Despicable polluted Beings as we are For ever blessed be thy Goodness who hast made Prayer our Duty which is so much our Interest and Priviledge O how inexcusable should we be should we neglect so Great a means of Grace and Salvation Wilt thou O Lord Admit and Accept our poor unworthy Services and shall not we Gladly Embrace the Vouchsafement Since our Righteousness Extendeth not unto Thee since we only are the Gainers by thy Service which is its own Reward which is our perfect freedom O cause therefore all that is within us to bless thy holy Name Cause all that is within us to render thee most willing and Chearful Obedience But O God most Glorious whose Transcendent Excellency is Exalted above all Glory and Praise the more we Speak of thine Honour the more we become Sensible how infinitely we fall short of it O make us to shew forth thy praise not only with our Lips but in our Lives by giving up our selves to thy Service by conforming our selves to thy Likeness in Holyness by â—aising Spiritualizing and Enflaming by thy help our Affections towards thee in Prayer Yet Alass Alass how soon are we weary of this most Delightsome most Beneficial Duty of Devotion How much Averseness is there in us unto the Vndertaking how much Distraction of Thoughts and Deadness of Spirit in the performance What formality want of Relish want of Zeal and fervour is there mingled with the best of our Religious Services How prone have we been to Deceive our selves with Shadows of Piety and Devotion instead of the Substance With a form of Godlyness instead of the Life and power thereof How prone to Content our selves with the bare praises of thy Divine perfections which we have not had the Godly Ambition the Sincerity of heart to imitate O pardon the sins and iniquities of these our Holy things But besides the imperfections of our best performances how many ways have we presumptuously offended thee our God! By innumerable Omissions and Commissions Omissions of Duty Commissions of Evil by many frequently Repeated and long Continued acts of wickedness by sinful provocations in Thought Word and Deed against thy Divine Majesty O how often have we Stifled the Convictions the Reproofs of our own Consciences How often Resisted the holy motions the Restraints of thy blessed Spirit How long neglected the Great Salvation of thy Gospel How many times violated our most Solemn Baptismal Vow and Covenant The very Multitude of our sins is Enough to Amaze and Affrighten us to cover us with Shame and Confusion of face but the Heinousness the Baseness the Ingratitude of our mis-demeanours towards so Gracious and heavenly a Father so Long-suffering a preserver so Mercyful a Benefactor Sanctifier and Redeemer O how Grievous is the Remembrance thereof to us the burthen of so much wickedness how Intolerable O our God Strong and patient hadst thou not been God how couldst thou have had patience with such perfidious such ungrateful such willfully Disobedient Rebells Well for us is it that thy mercy and forbearance Exceed that of Man are like the self unlimited O the Riches of thy Grace wilt thou again Receive such prodigal Children into thy favour Wilt thou Still be Reconciled unto us Ah let thy Goodness let thy Reconcileableness lead us to Repentance to a more compleat consummated one and our Repentance may it fit us for thy pardon and Acceptance And not meerly for the Pardon of our sins implore we mercy at thy hands but for a Divine power to enable us to subdue them Set we beseech thee O Lord our hearts in such a perfect Enmity against all things contrary to thy blessed Will and Nature that we may never be Reconciled to them any more dispose us to such an Entire Affection to thy Commandments that they may become our Choice our Desire our Exceeding Great Rejoycing O that we may walk more circumspectly Redeeming the time because the days are Evil O that we may give all Diligence to make our Calling and Election Sure O that the life the pure unspotted life of Christ Jesus may be formed within us the hope of Glory Fill us Gracious God with the whole Knowledge of thy Will in all Wisdom and Spiritual Understanding and Assist us with thy Grace unto the Conscientious practice of such knowledge Increase in us that faith which worketh by Divine Love which purisieth the heart and life and overcometh the wicked world Excite in us that ardent Affection to thee which may make us chearfully Do thy Will or patiently suffer it in all instances and which will cause us to Love our brethren as our selves for Christ's sake with a pure heart out of Love unfeigned not in Tongue only but also in Deed and in Truth Keep us O Lord pure and unspotted with the World Temperate Chaste and Unspotted with the flesh keep us Safe and unseduced by our own hearts lusts by Satans wicked Suggestions and Allurements Cause us to have our Conversation without Covetousness to have it more in Heaven less on Earth teach us contempt of Earthly things teach us to deny our selves to conquer all Temptations to live above the corruptions which so much abound in the Age Give us Patience give us supporting comfort and quiet submission in Adversity let a contented mind be instead of all we want and a thankful heart sweeten all our Enjoyments O that we may mind more the one thing Necessary that we may seek in the first place the Kingdom of Heaven and its Righteousness and whatever other things we leave undone we may be still working out our Salvation with fear and trembling Make us O our God more careful of pleasing thee fearful of offending thee diligent and industrious in thy Service more observant of thy Good Providence in every thing more grateful for thy benefits Received more readily disposed in all conditions to every good thought word and work * Stir us up we entreat thee to a frequent mindfulness of our Latter End and fit and prepare us for it let our approaching sleep this Night put us in mind of our last sleep our Bed remind us of our Grave and the darkness of the evening of the days of Darkness which shall be many in the Chambers of Death Lighten our Eyes O Lord that they sleep not therein but that we may Awake with the morning Light unto thy Praise and Glory Forgive those actual sins of thy servants which the day past hath been witness unto Lord give us a Godly sorrow for them a perfect hatred of them and more carefulness to avoid them for the future and whether we sleep this night in death or awake to the fresh Mercies of the following day O Grant that Christ
Jesus may be unto us both in Life and Death great Advantage Grant this for the Merits and Mercy's-sake of him who dyed for our sins and rose again for our Justification and who hath left us this most Absolute form of Prayer wherewith to conclude our imperfect ones Our Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name c. A Prayer for a Sick Person O OUR God full of Compassion and Truth whose Ears are ever open to the Cryes of the Distressed who afflictest not neither Grievest willingly the Children of Men but in very Faithfulness Causest us to be Troubled Chastising us for our Profit that we may be Partakers of thy Holyness We thy Poor Unworthy Creatures Address our selves to the Throne of thy Grace in behalf of this thy Servant Grieved with Sickness O let his Grief of body move thy Succouring Pity behold him with the Eyes of thy Mercy Rescue him with the Al-Almightiness of thy Power however Grant that the Infirmity of his outer-Man may tend to the Health and Improvement of his Soul in all Gracious Qualifications O make him by means of thy Divine Chastisements Resemblant in a larger Measure of thy Divine Nature make him Perfect through Sufferings Train him up a Good Souldier of Jesus Christ by such Disciplining Hardships Teach him a more Compleat Obedience and Conformity to thy Will by the things which he Endures Relieve him under all his Distresses Give him Patience Repentance and Submission under all his Uneasiness Support him under all Tryals and Temptations O suffer not his Faith to fail in this Day of Adversity Strengthen him in the Inner-Man especially now he lyes on a Bed of Languishing O make Thou his Bed in all his Sickness In the midst of the pains of his Body let thine Inward Comforts Refresh his Soul make all things Tribulation as well as Prosperity work together for his Good may he Continue to be thy Servant under all Conditions Permit him not Gracious God for any troubles of Life or fears of Death to fall from Thee but Give him Joy and Consolation in Believing when encompassed with the Sorest Distresses Encrease therefore his Faith Confirm his Hopes Enlarge his Contentedness and Resignation Wean his Affections more and more from the things Below and Raise and Settle them on the Good things Above Free Blessed Lord this thy Servant from all Murmuring and Repining at thy Afflictive Providence and Cause him rather to Rejoyce and Glory in Tribulation as knowing that the Tryal of his Faith worketh Patience and Patience Experience and Experience Hope and Hope maketh not Ashamed O let Patience have its Perfect work in him that he may be Compleat and Entire wanting no Vertuous Endowment let thy Grace be Sufficient for him that he may not faint in the time of Calamity O may his Affliction prove an Exercise and Enlargement of all his Graces Let it beget in him greater Trust and Affiance in thy Divine Mercy less Relyance on and Confidence in the Creature a being Crucified to the World and the World to him as to the immoderate Love of it Cause Holy Father this thy Afflicted Son to Humble himself under thy Correcting hand that Thou mayst Exalt him in thy due Season make him to Cast all his Care upon Thee because Thou carest for him Give him to feel now in this his Distress what is the Hope of his Spiritual Calling and what the Exceeding Greatness of thy Mercy and Power towards them who Believe in Thee O Give him that Saving Faith which worketh by Love and Purifieth the Heart and Overcometh the World Give him Repentance unto Newness of Life never to be Repented of Cause him by means of this Affliction to Search and Try his wayes and turn him unto Thee his God who in Mercy Chastisest him Afford him Gracious Lord afford this Sick Person the Comfort of an holy Hope that thou Acceptest his Penitential Tears and Contrition of heart Support him by this Hope under all his Sickness and Distemper Say unto him by the inward Testimonies of thy Spirit I am thy Salvation Son be of Good Chear thy Sins are forgiven thee I have heard thee in an Acceptable time I have laid Help for Thee on one who is mighty to Save Jesus Christ the Righteous He is the Propitiation for thy sins O Apply the Merits and Satisfaction of his Dying Redeemer unto the Soul of this thy Servant for Pardon and Acceptance wash it clean in the Blood of that Immaculate Lamb which was Slain to take away the sins of the world and through his Saviour's Stripes let him be Heal'd Bless and Succeed we beseech Thee those Remedies which have or shall be used for the Recovering this weak Afflicted Person to his former Health Command Deliverance for him Thou who art the God of Nature Speak Nature within him into a due Temper and Composure Known unto Thee are the most hidden things O do Thou therefore adapt suitable Medicines to any unknown Cause or hidden Spring of this present Distemper Suffer us Heavenly Father to have Power with thee in Prayer and mightily to Prevail on this thy Servants behalf Thou hast Promised that the Prayer of Faith shall Save the Sick and that the Effectual fervent Prayer of the Righteous shall Avail much O make us Pray in Faith and Believing so as to be Heard make us fervent and Zealous in Prayer so as to have our Prayers Answered Restore we entreat Thee this Diseas'd Person that he may be continued a Blessing and Comfort to his Relations that he may live to Performe his pious Vows and Resolutions made in time of Sickness that he may spend the Residue of his Life more to thy Honour and Glory But if in thy Fatherly wisdom thou seest it fitting to Prolong his Corrections thy Blessed Will be done and may thy Afflicted Servant say Amen with an Entire Submission May he bear further Chastisement in his Body so that his Soul be but Saved in the Day of our Lord. Yet O God most Gracious O most Holy and Mercyful Saviour Thou most worthy Judge Eternal be not Thou Extream to mark whatever he has done Amiss Correct him O Lord but with Judgment not in thine Anger lest Thou bring him to nothing and though thou take not off the Rod of Affliction yet take away thy Displeasure we beseech thee far from him Remember O Lord thy tender Mercies and thy Loving-kindnesses which have been ever of old and Cause this our Sick Friend in Thankful Recollection of former Divine Rescues to put his Trust in thee for a Present Deliverance O suffer him not for any Anguish of Body to let Go his Faith and Confidence in Thee but give him to say with the Stedfastness of holy Job though he Kills me yet will I hope in him Fit O God this Languishing Person for whatever Condition thou shalt call him unto that thy Son Christ Jesus may be unto him whether in Life or Death great Advantage O permit him