Father Almighty though thou fillest all places yet thy Glory is most manifested in Heaven and there thy Majesty does most Illustriously dwell and to thy Throne there are we to lift up our hearts when we Pray O let my soul fly up to thee when I pray in Heavenly Thoughts and Desires and Love O let me savour nothing of the earth whenever I treat with thee in Heaven Glory be to thee O Gratious Lord who in the Petitions of thy most Divine Prayer hast taught us for what we are to Pray for all blessings Temporal and Eternal for all things lawful and acording to thy will Glory be to thee O Jesu who in ranking the Petitions for Spiritual blessings first hast taught us to seek Heaven in the first place grant Lord that I may always beg thy blessings in their due order that I may pray for blessings Spiritual with holy violence with importunity and resolution not to be denyed as being the proper ingredients of thy Love and absolutely necessary to my eternal welfare and for Temporal with Indifference and Resignation to thy will since I may Love thee and be eternally happy without them Hallowed be thy Name O Lord God may Thy Name thy own Glorious and Amiable self have a Love and Honour separate and incommunicable May thy infinite Goodness and Greatness be for ever by all Men and all Angels Confest and Admired and Adored and Magnified both in Private and Publick in our Hearts our Mouths and our Lives All Creatures share in thy Goodness O God O let all Creatures help us to Glorifie thy Name O may every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Thy Kingdom come O thou King of Kings may Thy Kingdom of Grace the Church Militant the Catholick Seminary of Divine Love come to its utmost Evangelical perfection in this life O may thy Gospel Lord be dayly propagated Unbelieving Nations Converted and the number of thy Saints augmented Grant O Lord God that thy true Religion thy Word thy Conveyances of Grace all the Holy Institutions Laws and Governours fixt by thee in thy Spiritual Kingdom may be Loved and Honoured and Obeyed and that thy faithful Subjects may be protected against all the malice of wicked men or the powers of darkness O my God let it be thy good Pleasure to put a period to sin and misery to infirmity and death to compleat the number of thine Elect and to hasten thy Kingdom of Glory that s and all that wait for thy Salvation may in the Church Triumphant eternally Love and I Praise thee Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven O my God thy Will and thy Commands are most Holy Iust and Good and condescending to our weakness and by no means grievous O give me Grace Conscientiously to observe them Thy blessed Angels O Lord always behold thy Face in Heaven They have the Beatifick Vision of thy incomparable Amiableness they cannot but unalterably choose thee they must needs to their utmost capacity Praise and Love thee they cannot possibly offend thee they ever perfectly obey thee and are always upon the Wing at thy Command Lord give me Grace in imitation of the blessed spirits above to set thee always before me O six my serious Contemplation on thee Ravish my soul with a lively sense of thy infinite Amâ—ableness O vouchsafe me one short glimps of thy Goodness O may I once tast and see how Gratious Thou art that all things besides thee may be tastless to me that my desires may be always flying up towards thee that I may render thee Love and Praise and Obedience Pure and Chearful Constant and Zealous Universal and Uniform like that the Holy Angels render thee in Heaven Give us this day our dayly Bread Glory be to thee O Heavenly Benefactor who openest thy hand and fillest all things living with plenteousness O let it be thy good pleasure to give me and all the wait on thy Beneficent Love our food in due season Give us Bread and all that is comprehended by it Health Food Raiment and all the necessaries of Life Give us O Heavenly Father Dayly Bread nothing to gratifie our Luxury but such a competence as thy Divine wisdom sees fittest for us Give us O bountiful Creatour Dayly Bread this day Teach us to live without covetous anxiety for to morrow with a fiducial dependance on thy Fatherly Goodness and to be content and thankful for the present portion thy Love has indulged us O merciful Lord give us Our Bread that which is our own Bread by honest Labour or a lawful Title and grant that we may never eat the Bread of Idleness or of deceit Do Thou Lord Give us our Bread for unless thou givest it we cannot have it and together with our Bread give us thy blessing otherwise our very Bread will not nourish us Above all O Lord God give us the Bread of Life the Bread that came down from Heaven the Body and Blood of thy most Blessed Son to feed our Souls to Life eternal Blessed Jesus O that it might be my meat as it was thine to do the will of thy Heavenly Father And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us For thy own inâ—inite mercies sake and for the Merits of the Son of thy Love Forgive me and all penitent sinners Our trespasses our sins Known or Secret of Omission or Commission which are the vast debts we owe to thy vindictive justice Forgive us O Lord as we forgive all them even our greatest Enemies that tâ—â—esâ—â—ss against us their trespasses which are infinitely inconsiderable in comparison of our trespasses against thee Glory be to thee O Lord who to teach us Charity hast made our forgiveness the condition of obtaining Thine O Easie O Gratious condition of Pardon who would not forgive his Brother a few pence in this Life to have ten Thousand Talents forgiven in the next O let my love Lord learn from thine not only to forgive my Enemies but to be Zealous also to do them good And lead us not into temptation O Lord God thou seest how our Ghostly Enemies the World the Flesh and the Devil are every moment soliciting inticing alluring or tempting us to evil O be merciful to us save and help and deliver us Thou seest O my God how infirm I am and how ready my own deceitful heart is to surrender it self to the Tempter and I know that Satan cannot tempt me without thy permission O lead me not if it be thy good pleasure suffer me not to fall into violent or lasting Temptations that may endanger my perseverance I know O heavenly Father that to be tempted is no sin for thy own beloved Son God incarnate was tempted to the most horrid of all Sins to fall down and worship the very
XII And the life everlasting Amen Q. What dost thou chiefly learn in these Articles of thy belief A. First I learn to believe in God the Father who hath made me and all the world Secondly in God the Son who hath redeemed me and all mankind Thirdly In God the Holy Ghost who sanctifieth me and all the Elect people of God Q. What is the method of the Creed A. The Creed teaches me to believe in God and to believe his Church Q. How in God A. It teaches me to believe in God with respect to his Unity and then to the Trinity of Persons in that Unity Father Son and holy Ghost Q. How does it teach you to believe the Church A. It teaches me to believe the Church with regard to its two different states either Militant below or Triumphant above Q. How are the Articles of the Creed Motives of Love A. Every Article includes a Blessing as well as a Mystery and is as proper to excite our Love as to engage our Faith Q. Give me such a Paraphrase on the Creed that throughout the whole your Faith may work by Love A. I shall doe it to the best of my power in such Instructive and Pathetical Aspirations as follow I Believe My Lord and my God with a full free and firm assent I believe all the Articles of my Creed because thou hast revealed them I know thou art infallible Truth and canst not thou art infinite Love and wilt not deceive me Glory be to thee With all my heart O my God do I love and praise thee who art so infinitely amiable in thy self and so full of love to us that all I can know or believe of thee excites me to love thee Lord daily increase my Faith make it active and fruitfull that I may believe and love thee as entirely as becomes one entirely devoted to thee In God I believe O my God that thou art One and that there is no other God besides thee thou art that One infinite and independent Being that One onely true God whom all Men and all Angels are to Adore All glory be to thee O Lord God help me to love and to praise thee with God-like affections and a sutable Devotion I believe O my God that in the Unity of thy Godhead there is a Trinity of Persons I believe in thee O Father Son and Holy Ghost in whose Name I was baptized to whose Service I am religiously devoted All glory be to thee I believe I admire I love I praise I adore thee O most blessed and glorious Trinity God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost for being the joint Authours of our Salvation All glory be to thee O sacred and dreadfull and mysterious Trinity though I cannot conceive thee yet let me daily experiment thy goodness Let thy Grace O Lord Iesus let thy Love O God the Father let thy Communications O Holy Spirit be ever with me The Father I believe and love and praise thee O my God the first Person in the most Adorable Trinity the Fountain of the Godhead the Eternal Father of thy coeternal Son Jesus my Saviour Glory be to thee O God the Father for so loving the world as to give thy onely begotten Son to redeem us Glory be to thee O Heavenly Father for first loving us and giving the dearest thing thou hadst for us O help me to love again and to think nothing too dear for thee Almighty I believe O my God that thou art a Spirit most pure and holy and infinite in all perfections in Power and Knowledge and Goodness that thou art Eternal Immutable and Omnipresent all love all glory be to thee I believe O Lord that thou art most wise and just most happy and glorious and all-sufficient most gratious and mercifull and tender and benign and liberal and beneficent all love all glory be to thee I believe thy Divine Nature O my God to be in all respects amiable to be Amiableness it self to be Love it self and therefore I love I admire I praise and fear and adore thee Thou Lord art my Hope my Trust my Life my Joy my Glory my God my All my Love Maker of Heaven and Earth I believe that thou O Father Almighty didst create Heaven and Earth the whole World and all things in it visible and invisible out of nothing and by thy Word onely All glory be to thee I believe O thou great Creatour that thy Divine Love made thee communicate Being to thy Creatures that thou lovest all things and hatest nothing thou hast made Glory be to thee I believe O God that thou art the sole Lord and Proprietour of all things thou hast made that all things do necessarily depend on thee that 't is in thee onely we live and move and have our Being All Love all Glory be to thee I believe O thou Communicative Goodness that thou dost preserve and sustain and protect and bless all things thou hast made sutably to the Natures thou hast given them All Love all Glory be to thee I believe O mighty Wisedom that thou dost most sweetly order and govern and dispose all things even the most minute even the very sins of men to conspire in thy Glory O do thou conduct my whole life steer every motion of my soul towards the great End of our Creation to love and to glorifie thee I believe O Lord that thy Love was more illustrious in the Creation of Man than in all the rest of the visible World thou wert pleased to make him in thy own Image and after thy own divine likeness All Love all Glory be to thee Thou Lord didst make Man for thy self and all things visible for Man Thou designedst all creatures for his use and didst subject them to his Dominion the very Angels thou didst charge to keep him in all his ways All Love all Glory be to thee Thy Works O Lord are wonderfull and amiable I love and admire and praise thy Universal Providence over the whole World the perpetual flux of thy Goodness on every Creature All glory be to thee I love and praise thee O my God for all the particular vouchsafements of thy love to me for all thy deliverances and blessings either to my body or to my soul known or unknown for all that I do not remember or did not consider All Love all Glory be to thee The longer I live O my God the more reason I have to love thee because every day supplies me with fresh experiments and new motives of thy manifold love to me and therefore all Love all Glory be to thee And in Iesus I believe in thee O Jesus and I rejoice in that dear Name which is so full
my heart shall ever be jealous of thy Name I can have no true love no real concern for thee if I do not to the utmost of my power assert and vindicate the Name of my Beloved whenever I hear it dishonour'd O my God O my Love fix in my Soul an habitual pure intention of thy glory in all my actions that whether I eat or drink or whatever I doe I may doe all to the glory of my Beloved Oaths O my God O my Love fill me with a religious awe of Oaths in which the honour of thy beloved Name is so highly concern'd I know O great Iehovah that in an Oath I solemnly invoke thee as a Witness to attest the truth of what I swear as a Judge to punish me if I swear falsly Far be it from me O Lord God ever to swear and in swearing to invoke thee unless upon inducements lawfull and important when thy Glory the Command of my Superiours the visible good of my Neighbour the ending of strife or my own Innocence obliges me to it O Lord God whenever I am duly call'd to an Assertory Oath grant I may swear in truth in righteousness and in judgment Whatever lawfâ—â—â— Promissory Oaths I â—â—ke Lord give me grace 〈◊〉 iously to perform them though to my own hinâ—â—ance Uows The glory of thy most beloved Name O great Iehovah next to the truth of our Oaths we invoke thee to attest is câ—â—cern'd in the sincerity of those Vows we oâ—â—er thee â—o accept O do thou therefore create in me a serious sense of the religiousness of Vows that my Vows may not dishonour thee O my God O my Love whenever I voluntarily vow a Vow to thee give me grace to vow with all the due caution I can that I may vow those things onely which are lawfull and acceptable to thee and which thou hast put in my power that I may vow with deliberation and ghostly advice and on weighty and considerable occasions onely and with a design of glory and thankfulness and love to thee O my God O my Love give me grace faithfully to perform all the Vows I make to thee especially my Baptismal Vow and all my repeated Vows of amendment in which I have so often vow'd to glorify and love thy Name O my God O my Love let thy All-powerfull Love abound in my heart and in the hearts of all that profess thy name that in all these and in all other possible instances of thy Love our Souls may be continually employed to praise and to love thee O my God O my Love who is there that knows thy great thy beloved Name can ever in the least dishonour it O my God O my Love I renounce and detest and bewail as odious and offensive to thee as directly opposite to thy love and to thy glory All taking of thâ— Name in vain All use of it on trivial occasions and without holy awe All abuse of it in impious Jests in Charms or Curses or Imprecations or telling Fortunes or exploratory Lots all irreverent thoughts of thy Name profaneness and blasphemy All denying thee by my works or refusing publickly to confess thee when call'd to it or tamely enduring to hear thee dishonour'd All heathenish or customary or rash Oaths or swearing in ordinary communication or by any Creature All breaking of lawfull Oaths Perjury false-swearing and invoking thee O God of truth to attest a lye sins most destructive to publick Faith and Society and to our own Souls and most dishonourable and hatefull to thee All hasty or unlawfull or superstitious or impossible Vows all breaking those that are regularly made All the least tendencies to any of these impieties From all these and the like hatefull violations of thy Love and from that vengeance they justly deserve O my God O my Love deliver me and deliver all faithfull People O great Iehovah thou art jealous for thy glorious and beloved Name and without a particular and serious repentance thou wilt not hold him guiltless that taketh it in vain thou wilt pour on him the vials of thy wrath thy wrath eternal and yet thy ever blessed Name is alas alas daily hourly blasphemed O Apostate Infamous World wherein Infinite Goodness is so oft blasphem'd were not thy Name Love O Lord as well as Iehovah thou hadst long agoe aveng'd thy self of the blasphemous World with a vengeance worthy of God Glory be to thee O Long-suffering Love for thy forbearance efficacious of its self to convert the whole World did the World but seriously consider it O Almighty Love thou canst as easily diffuse thy Love over the World as thou didst at first diffuse Light O let thy Fear and thy Love so universally affect the Age that thy great and beloved Name may be universally ador'd and lov'd The Fourth Commandment Glory be to thee O my God O my Love who in compassion to humane weakness which is not capable of an uninterrupted contemplation of thee such as the Saints have above hast appointed a solemn day on purpose for thy remembrance Glory be to thee O my God my Love for proportioning a seventh part of our time to thy self and liberally indulging the remainder to our own use O my God O my Love let me ever esteem it my privilege and my happiness to have a day of rest set apart for thy service and the concerns of my own Soul to have a day free from distractions disengaged from the World wherein I have nothing to doe but to praise and to love thee Lord grant that I may not onely on thy day give thee due worship my self but may give rest and leisure also to my Family to all under my charge to serve thee also to indulge ease to my very Beasts since good men are mercifull even to them Glory be to thee O blessed Spirit who on the first day of the week didst descend in miraculous gifts and graces on the Apostles O descend upon me that I may be always in the spirit on the Lord's day O my God O my Love give me grace on thy day to worship thee in my Closet and in the Congregation to spend it in doing good in works of necessity devotion and charity in prayer and praise and meditation O let it ever be to me a day sacred to Divine Love a day of heavenly rest and refreshment Thou O my God O my Love didst ordain the Jewdaical Sabbath as a shadow of the true Gospel-sabbath O may I every day keep an Evangelical Sabbath and rest from my sins which are my own works while I live here and may I celebrate an eternal Sabbath with thee in Heaven hereafter O my God O my Love for the like purposes of Piety and of thy Glory give me grace to sanctify the Feasts
AN EXPOSITION ON THE Church-Catechism OR THE PRACTICE OF Divine Love COMPOSED For the Diocese of Bath Wells LONDON Printed for Charles Brome at the West-end of St. Paul's and William Clarke in Winchester 1685 Imprimatur Io. Battely RR mo P. D no. Wilhelmo Archiep. Cantuar. Ã Sacris domesticis Ex Aedibus Lamb. Aug. 9. 1685. To the Inhabitants within the Diocese of Bath and Wells THOMAS their Unworthy Bishop wisheth the Knowledge and the Love of God Dearly Beloved in our Lord THE Church has provided this short Catechism or Instruction to be learn'd of every person before he be brought to be Confirm'd by the Bishop wherein she teaches all things that a Christian ought to know and believe for his Soul's health and she has enjoyn'd All Fathers and Mothers Masters and Dames to cause their Children and Servants and Prentices to come to the Church at the time appointed and obediently to hear and be ordered by the Curate untill such time as they have learn'd all that is here appointed to be learn'd How seasonable and necessary this Injunction is in these days our wofull experience does sufficiently convince us when we reflect on the gross Ignorance and Irreligion of persons in those places where Catechizing is neglâ—cted which all sober Christians do sadly deplore Since then the Providence of God who is wont to glorifie his strength in the weakness of the Instruments he uses has caught me up from among the meanest Herdmen into the Pastoral Throne and has been pleased to commit you to my care The Love I ought to pay to the chief Shepherd obliges me to feed all his Lambs and his Sheep that belong to my flock and according to my poor abilities to teach them the Knowledge and the Love of God and how they may make them both their daily study and practice One thing onely I most earnestly beg of you all whether old or young that ye would help me to save your own Souls that ye would learn and seriously consider again and again the terms on which your Salvation is to be had As for you who have Families I beseech you to instill into your Children and Servants their Duty both by your Teaching and your Example In good earnest it is less cruel and unnatural to deny them Bread for their mortal Bodies than saving Knowledge for their immortal Souls Ye that are Fathers or Masters I exhort you to tread in the steps of Abraham the Father of the faithfull and the friend of God and like him to command your Children and Housholds to keep the way of the Lord. Ye that are Mothers or Mistresses I exhort you to imitate that unfeigned Faith which dwelt in young Timothy's Grandmother Lois and his Mother Eunice who taught him from a Child to know the Holy Scriptures which were able to make him wise to Salvation and like them to bring up your Children and Servants in the nurture and admonition of the Lord I passionately exhort and beseech you all of either Sex never to cease your conscientious zeal for their instruction till you bring them to Confirmation To renew their Baptismal vow To make open profession of their Christianity To discharge their Godfathers and Godmothers To receive the solemn Benediction of the Bishop To share in the publick Intercessions of the Church and to partake of all the Graces of God's Holy Spirit implor'd on their behalf that God who has begun a good work in them may perfect it till the day of Christ and that I my self at that dreadfull day may render an account of you with joy How much the Catechism of our Church may conduce to so desirable an end you will in some measure judge by the following Explication as imperfect as it is and which by God's gratious assistence I have so contriv'd that at one and the same time it may both inform your understanding and raise your affections and that it might the better sute with every ones leisure and infirmities it is Pen'd in short Forms of Devotion to be us'd in whole or in part in separate Collects or Ejaculations or occasionally as your Spiritual necessities shall require God of his infinite mercy bless the whole to his own Glory and to your Edification through Iesus the Beloved Amen Amen AN EXPOSITION ON THE Church-Catechism c. Question WHAT is your Name Answer N. or M. Q. Why do you answer by that Name rather than by your Sirname A. Because it is my Christian Name and was given me when I was made a Christian and puts me in mind both of the Happiness and duty of a Christian. Q. Where do you learn the Happiness and the Duty of a Christian A. The very next answer teaches me the Happiness and all the rest of the Catechism the Duty of a Christian. Q. Who gave you this Name A. My Godfathers and Godmothers in my Baptism wherein I was made a Member of Christ the Child of God and an Inheritour of the Kingdom of Heaven Q. Shew me from hence the Happiness of a Christian. A. The Happiness of a good Christian is altogether unutterable he is one who has Christ for his Head God for his Father and Heaven with all its joys and glories which are all eternal for his Inheritance Q. Shew me on the contrary the condition of a bad Christian. A. The misery of a bad Christian is altogether insupportable He has Christ for his Enemy the Devil for his Father and Hell with all its miseries and torments and despair which are all eternal for his Doom Q. Which of these Conditions do you chuse A. I adore the goodness of God who has set before me life and death blessing and cursing and in great compassion to my Soul has bid me chuse life and with all my heart I chuse life even life eternal Q. Are there not many in the World that chuse death A. It is too too visible there are such is the extreme madness and folly of obstinate Sinners that they chuse the Service of the Devil before the Service of God and Hell before Heaven the damnation of such men is wholly from themselves and having chosen death even death eternal it is most just with God to give them their choice Q. Blessed be God who has given you grace to make a right choice Tell me what you must doe to obtain that which you have chosen life eternal A. All that I am to doe is reduc'd to one word onely and that is Love This is the first and the great Command which comprehends all others the proper Evangelical Grace and eternal Truth has assured me This doe and thou shalt live So that if I truly love God I shall live beloved by God to all eternity Q. Tell me wherein the love of God doth consist A. The love of God is a grace rather to be felt than defin'd So that I can doe no
bodily Sufferings O almighty Love were intolerable but yet thy inward were far greater I grieve I love I melt all o'er when I hear thee on the Cross crying out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Ah sinfull Wretch that I am how infinite and unconceivable were the inward Dolours and Agonies thou didst undergo for us Sinners when thou didst tread the Winepress of thy Father's wrath alone when it pleas'd thy own most beloved Father to bruise thee and to put thee to grief when the iniquities of the whole World were laid on thee and my numerous sins increast thy load and heightned thy torment when thy own Deity withdrew all consolation from thee when God offended by our sins did afflict thee in the day of his fierce anger no sufferings no love was ever like unto thine for me no grief no love but thy own should exceed mine for thee For whom O unutterable goodness didst thou suffer the extreme bitterness oâ— sorrow but for the vilest of all thy Creatures sinfull man and for me one of the worst of Sinners and therefore I praise and love thee For what end didst thou suffer O most ardent Charity but to save Sinners from all things that were destructive the Curse of the Law the Terrours of Death the Tyranny of Sin the Powers of Darkness and Torments Eternal to purchase for us all things conducible to our Happiness Pardon and Grace Consolation and Acceptance and the everlasting Joys and Glories of the Kingdom of Heaven and therefore I praise and love thee Out of what motive didst thou suffer O boundless Benignity but out of thy own preventing love free mercy and pure compassion and therefore I praise and love thee When no other Sacrifice could attone thy Father's Anger O thou the beloved Son of God and reconcile Divine Justice and Mercy together but the Sacrifice of God incarnate who as man was to die and to suffer in our stead as God was to merit and make satisfaction for our sins 't was then that thou O God the Son didst become Man the very meanest of Men didst take upon thee the form of a Servant and didst on the Cross shew us the mystery and the Miracle of Love God crucified for Sinners and Sinners redeem'd by the bloud of God O thou propitious Wonder God incarnate on the Cross by what Names shall I adore thee all are too short too scanty to express thee Love onely nothing but Love will reach thee thou art Love O Jesu thou art all love O tenderest O sweetest O purest O dearest Love soften sweeten refine love me into all Love like thee By the love of thy Cross O Jesu I live in that I will onely glory that above all things will I study that before all things will I value by the love of thy Cross I will take up my Cross daily and follow thee I will persecute and torment and crucify my sinfull Affections and Lusts which persecuted tormented and crucify'd thee and if thy love calls me to it I will suffer on the Cross for thee as thou hast done for me How illustrious and amiable were thy Graces amidst all thy Sufferings O thou afflicted Jesu I admire and I love thy profound Humility unwearied Patience Lamb-like Meekness immaculate Innocence invincible Courage absolute Resignation compassionate love of Souls and perfect Charity to thy Enemies O my Love I cannot love thee but I must desire above all things to be like my Beloved O give me grace to tread in thy steps and conform me to thy Divine Image that the more I grow like thee the more I may love thee and the more I may be lov'd by thee And Buried He descended into Hell I believe O crucified Lord that thou wast really dead and that there was a separation of thy Body and Soul That thy side was mortally wounded and pierced with a Spear on the Cross and thy sacred Body was buried to assure us of thy death All love all glory be to thee I believe O pierced O wounded Love that thy Soul in the state of separation did descend into Hell to vanquish Death and all the Spirits of darkness in their own Dominions and therefore I adore and love thee Glory be to thee O thou great Champion of Love who didst for our sakes singly encounter all our ghostly Enemies who didst thy self taste of death that thou mightst take away the sting of death who didst wrestle with principalities and powers and all the force of Hell that we might share in thy Victory for which wonderfull Salvation I will always praise and love thee The third day he rose again from the dead I believe O Almighty Love that according to the Types and Prophecies which went before of thee and according to thy own infallible predictions thou didst by thy own power rise from the dead the third day All love all glory be to thee Glory be to thee who didst lie so long in the Grave to undergo the full condition of the dead and to convince all the world thou wert dead and didst rise so soon that thou mightst not see corruption or retard our joy All love all glory be to thee He ascended into Heaven I believe O Victorious Love that thou after thy conquest over Death and Hell didst ascend in triumph to Heaven that thou mightst prepare Mansions for us and from thencâ— as Conquerour bestow the gifts of thy conquest on us and above all the gift of thy Holy Spirit that thou mightst enter into the Holy of Holies as our great High-priest to present to thy Father the sweet-smelling Sacrifice of his crucified Son the sole propitiation for Sinners and therefore all Love all glory be to thee Glory be to thee O Jesu who didst leave the world and ascend to Heaven about the 33 d year of thy age to teach us in the prime of our years to despise this world when we are best able to enjoy it and to reserve our full vigour for Heaven and for thy Love O thou whom my Soul loveth since thou hast left the world what was there ever in it worthy of our Love O let all my affections ascend after thee and never return to the earth more for whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none â—pon earth that I desire in comparison of thee And sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty I believe O Triumphant Love that thou now sittest in full and peacefull possession of bliss and at the right hand of God that thy humane Nature is exalted to the most honourable place in Heaven where thou sittest on thy throne of glory ador'd by Angels and interceding for Sinners and therefore all love all glory be to thee Glory be
Greatness and make them signal instruments of thy Glory and examples of thy Love O my God give grace to me and all my fellow-subjects next to thy own infinite self to love and honour to fear and obey our Sovereign Lord the King thy own Vicegerent for Conscience sake and for thy own sake who hast placed Him over us O may we ever faithfully render Him his due tribute O may we ever pray for His prosperity sacrifice our fortunes and our lives in His defence and be always ready rather to suffer than resist Glory be to thee O Lord who hast ordained Pastours and hast given them the Power of the Keys to be our Ecclesiastical Parents to watch over our Souls to instruct us in saving Knowledge to guide us by their Examples to pray for and to bless us to administer spiritual discipline in thy Church and to manage all the conveyances of thy Divine Love O my God for thy Love's sake let me ever honour and love the Ministers of thy Love the Ambassadours thou dost send in thy stead to beseech us sinners to be reconciled to thee to offer thy Enemies conditions of Love of love eternal O may I ever hear them attentively practise their heavenly doctrine imitate their holy examples pay them their dues and revere their censures O my God for the sake of thy love grant I may ever love and provide for my Servants servant and may treat them like Brethren let me never exact from them immoderate work O may I always give them just wages and equitable commands and good example and mercifull correction Grant Lord I may daily allow them time for their prayers indulge them due refreshments and may take care of their souls and persuade them to love thee remembring that I also have a Master in Heaven Give me grace O my God for the sake of thy Love to honour and love and obey my Master and Mistress and to serve him her with diligence and faithfulness and readiness to please and to pray for him her them and whatever I doe to doe heartily as to thee O Lord and not to him her them O my God let thy love incline me to love and to honour all whom thou hast any way made my superiours sutably to their quality or age or gifts or learning or wisedom or gravity or goodness O my God grant that for thy sake I may ever love and honour all that are or have been instruments of thy love to me in doing me good O may I reverence my teachers be gratefull to my benefactours and may I have always a peculiar respect to my particular Pastour O my God let thy love engage me to love those whom thou hast obliged to love me to shew constancy and fidelity and sympathy and love and communicativeness to my Friend to be affectionate to my Brethren and Sisters to be kind and affable to my Equals condescending to my Inferiours to be all the possible ways I can universally helpfull and obliging and loving to all O my God O my Love let thy All-powerfull Love abound in my heart and in the hearts of all that profess thy Name that in all these and in all other possible instances of duty our lives may be continually employed to love thee and for thy sake to love our Neighbour and to excite our Neighbour to love thee The several Forms which contain the Duties of Parent and Child of Master and Servant c. are to be used by every one according as may sute with his Circumstances or as he stands in any of those Relations O my God O my Love I renounce and derest and bewaâ—l as odious and offensive to thee as directly opposite to thy love and the love of my neighbour for thy sake All dishonour to our Superiours in either despising them speaking evil of them or in irreverent behaviour All unnaturalness to Children All undutifulness or stubbornness or disobedience or disrespect to Parents All rebelling or reviling or murmuring against the King or against his Ministers All defrauding undervaluing or rejecting lawfull Pastours All Schism and contempt of their regular censures All falseness or negligence or refractariness to Masters or Mistresses All rudeness ingratitude treachery want of brotherly love and unfaithfulness All the least tendencies to any of these impieties From all these and the like hatefull violatious of thy love and of the love of my neighbour and from the vengeance they justly deserve O my God O my Love deliver me and all faithfull people O my God O my Love I earnestly pray that thy love and the love of our neighbour may so prevail over our hearts that we may sadly lament and abhor all these abominations and may never more provoke thee Glory be to thee O Lord who to teach us the importance of this duty of subjection hast placed it the first of all the second Table of all that relate to our neighbour and hast made it the first Commandment with a promise to every soul that conscientiously keeps it that thy days shall be â—â—ng in the â—and which the Lord thy God giveth thee Who would not love and obey thee O my God and for thy sake his Superiours when thou hast promised to reward our Duty with a long happy life here or if thou seest it best for us and to take us away from the evil to come by living a long tract of Holiness in a little time and at last by prolonging our bliss to all eternity in Heaven for which gratious promise all love all glory be to thee The Sixth Commandment O my God O my Love I renounce and detest and bewail as odious and offensive to thee as directly opposite to thy love and to the love of my neighbour for thy sake All duels and unlawfull War All doing hurt to the body and life of my neighbour directly by wounding or murthering him Indirectly by contriving or employing others to harm him All the ways of procuring Abortion All malice and envy hatred and revenge contention and cruelty All injury and violence all rash causeless immoderate or implacable anger or contumelious speaking and reviling All wilfull vexing grieving or disquieting him All threatning ill-wishes or curses All needless endangering our selves and self-murther All murthering of Souls by encouraging ensuaring tempting commanding them to sin All the least tendencies to any of these impieties From all these and the like c. O my God O my Love let thy unwearied and tender love to me make my love unwearied and tender to my neighbour and zealous to procure promote and preserve his health and safety and happiness and life that he may be the better able to serve and to love thee O my God O my Love make me like thy own self all meekness and benignity
profess thy Name that in all these and all other possible instances of duty our lives may be continually employ'd to love thee and for thy sake to love our neighbour and to excite our neighbour to love thee The Ninth Commandment O my God O my Love I renounce as p. 52. All manner of bearing false Witness against my Neighbour All false accusations or glosses or pleadings or testimonies or sentences in Courts of Judicature by concealing or overspeaking or perverting right and truth All things prejudicial or destructive to my neighbours good name All censoriousness and slander detraction and calumny forc'd consequences or invidious reflexions All scoffing or exposing the infirmities of others All whispering and tale-bearing or raising of evil reports suspicions or jealousies and all evil-speaking All equivocations and dissembling flattery and lying All the least tendencies to any of these injurious falshoods From all these and the like hatefull violations of thy love and of the love c. as page 52. O my God O my Love who dost love truth and dost hate a lie as perfectly Diabolical instill into my Soul an unalterable love of truth that nothing may tempt me to deviate from an intire veracity in my whole conversation or become a liar which thy Soul abhors O Lord give me grace ever to speak the truth and let my heart and my tongue always go together O my God give me grace to be tender of my neighbour's good name since I cannot love him if I take that from him which I know to be most dear to him Grant O my God for the sake of thy own love that I may be always ready to vindicate my neighbour's good name on all occasions that I may judge the best and speak well of him and conceal or excuse his infirmities that I may be impatient to hear slow to believe and unwilling to propagate evil reports that I may put candid interpretations on his actions since the more he is defamed the less able he is to serve thee the less credit he has to perswade others to love thee O my God O my love let thy c. as page 51. The Tenth Commandment O my God O my Love I renounce as p. 51. All the inordinate desire of what is my neighbour's All coveting his House or Wife or Servant or Maid or Ox or Ass or any thing that is his All discontentedness with my worldly condition and worldly solicitude All covetousness or repining at the happiness of others All taking pleasure in sin or complacence in past impurities All the first motions all the least tendencies to concupiscence From all these and the like hatefull c. as p. 52. O my God O my Love thou art the great searcher of hearts and dost not onely require outward acts of duty but the inward disposition of the heart the heart is the chief sacrifice thou requirest the heart is the proper seat of thy love and my heart I wholly devote to thee O my God create in me a clean heart that the fountain of action being clean the streams may run clean also Give me a heart O thou who onely canst change the heart entirely turn'd to thee that may suppress and resist all the first springings of Lust before they shoot up into consent approbation and desire before lust conceiving brings forth sin Lord make me contented and thankfull and well-pleased with that portion thy providential love has allotted me and to acquiesce in thy choice as best for me O great Lord of hearts lodge my neighbour in my heart next to my self let all my desires be for his good and let it be the subject of my joy and praise and love to see thy love liberal to him to see him abounding in thy blessings O my God my love what can a Soul enamour'd of thee ever desire but thee O let the world never more have place in my heart all my affections I withdraw from that to fix on thee Forgive me O my God if I am unmeasurably ambitious it is onely of thy favour forgive me if I am unsatiably covetous it is onely of thy fruition forgive me if I am perpetually discontented it is onely because I cannot love thee more O unconceivable happiness of Heaven where my Ambition shall rest on a Throne where my Covetousness shall be filled with the â—eartifick Vision and where I shall be eternally satisfied with love O my God O my Love let thy c. as page 51. Q. My good child know this that thou art not able to do these things of thy self nor to walk in the Commandments of God and to serve him without his special grace which thou must learn at all times to call for by diligent Prayer Let me hear therefore if thou canst say the Lords Prayer A. Our Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy name Thy kingdom come Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil Amen Q. What desirest thou of God in this prayer A. I desire my Lord God our heavenly Father who is the giver of all goodness to send his grace unto me and to all people that we may worship him serve him and obey him as we ought to do And I pray unto God that he will send us all things that be needful both for our souls and bodies And that he will be merciful unto us and forgive us our sins and that it will please him to save and defend us in all dangers ghostly and bodily and that he will keep us from all sin and wickedness and from our ghostly enemy and from everlasting death And this I trust he will do of his mercy and goodness through our Lord Iesus Christ. And therefore I say Amen So be it O infinite Lord it is my duty and my happiness to love thee but alas my own sad experience teaches me how little able I am to love Ah Lord there is a dark cloud of Ignorance spread over my Soul that intercepts thy beams I cannot clearly see I cannot fully know how lovely thou art Ah Lord when ever any gleams of thy loveliness break in upon my Spirit and attract my will a crowd of strange Loves importune and tempt me to wander after them Since O my God I can of my self neither know nor love thee since I cannot by my own strength do those things thou requirest nor walk in thy Commandments nor serve thee nor think so much as one good thought whither can I fly but only to thy free and unbounded love Thou art my hope my help and my salvation thou only canst teach and enable me to know and to love thy own goodness By thy special Grace
and Fasts of thy Church as in the number of those happy days set apart for the remembrance of thy love Glory be to thee O Lord God who didst command the Sabbath or seventh day to be kept holy and strictly observed by the Jews as thy Sabbath in memory of the Creation of thy making Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and of thy resting the seventh day of thy blessing the seventh day and hallowing it We Christians O Lord God following the moral equity of thy Command and authorised by Apostolical Practice celebrate the Lord's day the first day of the week in memory of our Redemption in memory of thy Resurrection from the dead O most beloved Jesu when thou didst rest from the labours and sorrows of the New Creation O may I ever remember thy day and thee Glory be to thee O my God my Love who hast under the Gospel delivered us from the Rigours but not from the Piety of the Jewish Sabbath Lord since the blessing of everlasting Salvation which we Christians on thy day commemorate does wonderfully exceed the Creation commemorated by the Jews O let our love and praise and devotion and zeal proportionably exceed theirs also O my God O my Love let thy All-powerfull Love abound in my heart and in the hearts of all that profess thy Name that in all these and all other possible instances of thy love our Souls may be continually employ'd to praise and to love thee O my God O my Love I renounce and detest c. as p. 39. All profanations of thy hallow'd Day and of all other holy Times dedicated to thy praise and thy love All Jewdaizing Severities all Worldly-mindedness and unnecessary business or not allowing those under my care liberty and leisure for thy service on thy day All unmercifulness to my very Beasts All indevotion or forgetfulness of thee All the least tendencies From all these and the like c. as p. 39. Next to thy glorious self O my God O my Love and for the sake of thy supreme independent Love thou hast commanded me to love my Neighbour allied to me by nature or by grace all Strangers and Enemies as well as Friends To honour all men as being made after thy likeness and the greater likeness they retain to thee to honour them the more Glory be to thee Thou O my God O my Love hast commanded me to love my Neighbour as my self O for the sake of thy love give me love to relieve and assist him in all instances wherein he may need my help as freely as fully as affectionately as I my self would desire to be treated were I in his condition O my God O my Love for the sake of thy dearest Love give me grace to love my Neighbour not in word and in tongue onely but in deed and in truth to wish well to all men and to contribute my hearty prayers and endeavours and to give them for thy sake all lawfull and reasonable and necessary succours Glory be to thee O my God O my Love who by commanding me to love my Neighbour as my self dost imply the regular love of my self that I should doe all I can to preserve my self free and vigorous to glorify thee in my station 'T is for thy sake onely I can love my self and he does not wish or endeavour his own happiness he really hates himself that does not love thee Thou Lord by enjoining me to love my Neighbour as my self hast intimated my duty of loving those best which either in bloud are nearest my natural self or in grace nearest my Christian self O let thy love teach me to observe the true order of Charity in loving others O thou eternal source of Goodness give me grace to imitate that boundless Goodness let thy love work in me an universal propension to love and to doe good to all men to be mercifull to others as thou Lord art mercifull Q. Shew me how the love of your Neighbour is in the Second Table divided A. The love of my Neighbour which is the fulfilling of the Law of all the Commands of the Second Table is divided according to those different conditions of our Neighbour wherein we most exercise our love or hatred to him Q. In how many ruling Instances may we exercise that love or hatred A. Either in outward acts or inward disposition Q. How in outward acts A. Five several ways in respect of his superiority in the Fifth Commandment His Safety in the Sixth His Bed in the Seventh His Propriety in the Eighth or His good Name in the Ninth Q. How in our inward disposition A. By regulating our very Desires in relation to him as the Tenth obliges us to doe Q. Let me hear how Divine Love moves in each of these Commands A. It moves in such acts as follow The Fifth Commandment Let thy reverential Love O my God teach and incline me to shew respectfull Love to all my superiours in my inward esteem in my outward speech and behaviour Glory be to thee O Lord who hast comprehended all that are above me under the tender and venerable Names of Father and Mother that I looking on them as Resemblances and Instruments of thy Sovereign Power and Paternal Providence to me may be the more effectually engaged for thy sake to reverence and love them O my God give me grace to imitate thy Paternal Goodness and for the sake of thy Love to love and cherish and provide for to educate and instruct and pray for my Children to take conscientious care to give them medicinal correction and good example and to make them thy children that they may truly love thee O my God give me grace for the sake of thy love to Honour my Father and Mother to render them all love and reverence and thankfulness and all that regard which is due from a Child that I may pay obedience to their commands submission to their corrections attention to their instructions and succour to their necessities and may daily pray for their welfare Thou O Lord hast set our most Gratious King over us as our Political Parent as thy Supreme Minister to govern and protect us and to be a terrour to those that doe ill O grant Him a long and happy Reign that we may all live a peaceable and quiet life under Him in all godliness and honesty Defend Him from all His Enemies let Him be ever beloved by thee and let Him ever love thee and ever promote thy love Multiply O Lord God the blessings of thy love on our most Gratious Queen Mary Catharine the Queen Dowager their Royal Highnesses Mary Princess of Orange and the Princess Anne of Denmark and on all the Royal Family Give them grace to exceed others as much in Goodness as in