of secular imployments must come onely they must leave their secular thoughts and affections behinde them and then come and converse with God If any man be well grown in grace he must needs come because he is excellently disposed to so holy a feast but he that is but in the infancy of piety had need to come that so he may grow in grace The strong must come lest they become weak the weak that they may become strong The sick must come to be cured the healthful to be preserved They that have leisure must come because they have no excuse They that have no leisure must come hither that by so excellent religion they may sanctifie their businesse The penitent sinners must come that they may be justified and they that are justified that they may be justified still They that have fears and great reverence to these mysteries and think no preparation to be sufficient must receive that they may learn how to receive the more worthily and they that have a lesse degree of reverence must come often to have it heightned that as those Creatures that live amongst the snowes of the Mountains turne white with their food and conversation with such perpetual whitenesses so our souls may be transformed into the similitude and union with Christ by our perpetual feeding on him and conversation not onely in his Courts but in his very heart and most secret affections and incomparable purities Prayers for all sorts of Men and all necessities relating to the several parts of the vertue of Religion A Prayer for the Graces of Faith Hope Charity O Lord God of infinite mercy of infinite excellency who hast sent thy holy Son into the world to redeem us from an intolerable misery and to teach us a holy religion and to forgive us an infinite debt give me thy holy Spirit that my understanding and all my faculties may be so resigned to the discipline and doctrine of my Lord that I may be prepared in minde and will to dye for the testimony of Jesus and to suffer any affliction or calamity that shall offer to hinder my duty or tempt me to shame or sin or apostacy and let my faith be the parent of a good life a strong shield to repell the fiery darts of the Devil and the Author of a holy hope of modest desires of confidence in God and of a never failing charity to thee my God and to all the world that I may never have my portion with the unbelievers or uncharitable and desperate persons but may be supported by the strengths of faith in all temptations and may be refreshed with the comforts of a holy hope in all my sorrows and may bear the burden of the Lord and the infirmities of my neighbour by the support of charity that the yoak of Jesus may become easy to me and my love may do all the miracles of grace till from grace it swell to glory from earth to heaven from duty to reward from the imperfections of a beginning and little growing love it may arrive to the consummation of an eternal and never ceasing charity through Jesus Christ the Son of thy love the Anchor of our hope and the Author and finisher of our faith to whom with thee O Lord God Father of Heaven and Earth and with thy holy Spirit be all glory and love and obedience and dominion now and for ever Amen Acts of love by way of prayer and ejaculation to be used in private O God thou art my God early will I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is to see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary because thy loving kindnes is better then life my lips shall praise thee Psal. 63. I am ready not only to be bound but to dye for the name of the Lord Jesus Acts 23. How amiable are thy Tabernacles thou Lord of Hosts my soul longeth yea even fainteth for the courts of the Lord My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God Blessed are they that dwell in thy house they will still be praising thee Psal. 84. O blessed Jesu thou art worthy of all adoration and all honour and all love Thou art the Wondeâ—ful the Counsellor the mighty God the Everlasting Father the Prince of peace of thy government and peace there shall be no end thou art the brightnesse of thy Fathers glory the expresse image of his person the appointed Heir of all things Thou upholdest all things by the word of thy power Thou didst by thy self purge our sins Thou art set on the right hand of the Majesty on high Thou art made better then the Angels thou hast by inheritance obtain'd a more excellent name then they Thou O dearest Jesus art the head of the Church the beginning and the first born from the dead in all things thou hast the preheminence and it pleased the Father that in thee should all fulnesse dwell Kingdoms are in love with thee Kings lay their crowns and scepters at thy feet and Queens are thy handmaids and wash the feet of thy servants A Prayer to be said in any affliction as death of children of husband or wife in great poverty in imprisonment in a sad and disconsolate spirit in temptations to despair O Eternal God Father of Mercyes and God of all comfort with much mercy look upon the sadnesses and sorrowes of thy servant My sins lye heavy upon me and presse me sore and there is no health in my bones by reason of thy displeasure and my sin The waters are gone over me and I stick fast in the deep mire and my miseries are without comfort because they are punishments of my sin and I am so evil and unworthy a person that though I have great desires yet I have no dispositions or worthiness towards receiving comfort My sins have caused my sorrow and my sorrow does not cure my sins and unless for thy own sake and merely because thou art good thou shalt pity me relieve me I am as much without remedy as now I am without comfort Lord pity me Lord let thy grace refresh my Spirit Let thy comforts support me thy mercy pardon me and never let my portion be amongst hopelesse and accursed spirits for thou art good and gracious and I throw my self upon thy mercy Let me never let my hold go do thou with me what seems good in thy own eyes I cannot suffer more then I have deserved and yet I can need no relief so great as thy mercy is for thou art infinitely more merciful then I can be miserable and thy mercy which is above all thy own works must needs be far above all my sin and all my misery Dearest Jesus let me trust in thee for ever and let me never be confounded Amen Ejaculations and short meditations to be used in time of sickness and sorrow or danger of
what seemeth good in his own eyes Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven Recite Psalm 107. and 130. A form of a vow to be made in this or the like danger If the Lord will be gracious and hear the prayer of his servant and bring me safe to shore then I will praise him secretly and publickly and pay unto the uses of charity or Religion then name the sum you designe for holy uses O my God my goods are nothing unto thee I will also be thy servant all the dayes of my life and remember this mercy and my present purposes and live more to Gods glory and with a stricter duty And do thou please to accept this vow as an instance of my importunity and the greatnesse of my needs and be thou graciously moved to pity and deliver me Amen This form also may be used in praying for a blessing on an enterprize and may be instanced in actions of devotion as well as of charity A prayer before a journey O Almighty God who fillest all things with thy presence and art a God afar off as well as neer at hand thou didst send thy Angel to blesse Iacob in his journey and didst leade the children of Israel through the Red Sea making it a wall on the right hand and on the left be pleased to let thy Angel go out before me and guide me in my journey preseving me from dangers of robbers from violence of enemies and sudden and sad accidents from falls and errours and prosper my journey to thy glory and to all my innocent purposes and preserve me from all sin that I may return in peace and holinesse with thy favour and thy blessing and may serve thee in thankfulnesse and obedience all the dayes of my pilgrimage and at last bring me to thy countrey to the coelestial Jerusalem there to dwell in thy house and to sing praises to thee for ever Amen Ad Sect. 4 A prayer to be said before hearing or reading the word of God O Holy and Eternal Jesus who hast begotten us by thy word renewed us by thy Spirit fed us by thy Sacraments and by the dayly ministery of thy word still go on to build us up to life eternal Let thy most holy Spirit be present with me and rest upon me in the reading or hearing thy sacred word that I may do it humbly reverently without prejudice with a minde ready and desirous to learn and to obey â—hat I may â—e readily furnished and instructed to every good work and may practise all thy holy laws and commandments to the glory of thy holy name O holy and eternal Jesus Amen Ad Sect. 5 9 10. A form of confession of sins and repentance to be used upon fasting dayes or dayes of humiliation especially in Lent and before the Holy Sacrament Have mercy upon me O God after thy great goodnesse according to the multitude of thy mercies do away mine offences For I will conâ—esse my wickednesse and be sorry for my sin * O my Dearest Lord I am not worthy to be accounted amongst the meanest of thy servants not worthy to be sustained by the least fragments of thy mercy but to be shut out of thy presence for ever with dogs unbelievers But for thy names sake O Lord be merciful unto my sin for it is great I am the vilest of sinners and the worst of men proud and vain glorious impatient of scorn or of just reproof â—ot enduring to be slighted and yet extreamly deserving it I have been cosened by the colours of humility and when I have truly called my self vitious I could not endure any man else should say so or think so I have been disobedient to my Superiours churlish and ungentle in my behaviour unchristian and unmanly But for thy names sake c. O Just and Dear God how can I expect pitty or pardon who am so angry and peevish with and without cause envious at good rejoycing in the evil of my neighbours negligent of my charge idle and uselesse timerous and base jealous and impudent ambitious and hard hearted soft unmortified and effeminate in my life indevout in my prayers without fancie or affection without attendance to them or perseverance in them but passionate and curious in pleasing my appetite of meat and drink and pleasures making matter both for sin and sicknesse and I have reâ—ped the cursed fruits of such improvidence entertaining undecent and impure thoughts and I have brought them forth in undecent and impure actions and the spirit of uncleanness hath entred in and unhallowed the temple which thou didst consecrate for the habitation of thy Spirit of love and holinesse But for thy names sake O Lord be merciful unto my sin for it is great Thou hast given me a whole life to serve thee in and to advance my hopes of heaven and this pretious time I have thrown away upon my sins and vanities being improvident of my time and of my talent and of thy grace and my own advantages resisting thy Spirit and quenching him I have been a great lover of my self and yet used many wayes to destroy my self I have pursued my temporal ends with greedinesse and indirect means I am revengful and unthankful forgetting benefits but not so soon forgetting injuries curious and murmuring a great breaker of promises I have not loved my neighbours good nor advanced it in all things where I could I have bin unlike thee in all things I am unmerciful and unjust a sottish admirer of things below and careless of heaven and the wayes that lead thither But for thy names sake O Lord be merciful unâ—â— my sin for it is great All my senses have been windows to let sin in and death by sin Mine eyes have been adulterous and covetous mine ears open to slander and detraction my tongue and palate loose and wanton intemperate and of foul language talkative lying rash and malicious false and flattering irreligious and irreverent detracting and censorious My hands have bin injurious and unclean my passions violent and rebellious my desires impatient and unreasonable all my members and all my faculties have been servants of sin and my very besâ— actions have more matter of pity then of confidence being imperfect in my best and intolerable in most But for thy names sake O Lord c. Unto this and a far bigger heap of sin I have added also the faults of others to my own score by neglecting to hinder them to sin in all that I could and ought but I also have encouraged them in sin have taken off their fears and hardened their consciences and tempted them directly and prevailed in it to my own râ—ine and theirs unlesse thy glorious and unspeakable mercy hath prevented so intolerable a calamity Lord I have abused thy mercy despised thy judgements turned thy grace into wantonnesse I have been unthankful for thy infinite loving kindnesse I have sinned and repented and then sinned again and resolved
of thy glories I will give thanks unto the Lord with my whole heart secretly among the faithful and in the congregation * For salvation belongeth unto the Lord and thy blessing is upon thy servant But as for me I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercies and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple * For of thee and in thee and through thee and for thee are all things Blessed be the name of God from generation to generation Amen A â—hort Form of thanksgiving to be said upon any special deliverance as from Châ—ld-birth from Sickness from baâ—â—el or imminent danger at sea or Land c. O most merciful and gracious God thou fountain of all mercy and blessing thou hast opened the hand of thy mercy to fill me with blessings and the sweet effects of thy loving kindnesse thou feedest us like a Shepherd thou governest us as a king thou bearest us in thy arms like a nurse thou doest cover us under the shadow of thy wings and shelter us like a hen thou O Dearest Lord wakest for us as a Watchman thou providest for us like a Husband thou lovest us as a friend and thinkest on us perpetually as a careful mother on her helplesse babe and art exceeding merciful to all that fear thee and now O Lord thou hast added this great blessing of deliverance from my late danger here name the blessing it was thy hand and the help of thy mercy that relieved me the waters of affliction had drowned me and the stream had gone over my soul if the spirit of the Lord had not moved upon these waters Thou O Lord didst revoke thy angry sentence which I had deserved and which was gone out against me Unto thee O Lord I ascribe the praise and honour of my redemption I will be glad and rejoyce in thy mercy for thou hast considered my trouble and hast known my soul in adversity As thou hasâ— sâ—râ—ad thy hand upon me for a covering so also enlarge my heart with thankfulnesse and fill my mouth with praises that my duty and returns to theâ— may be great as my needs of mercie are and let thy gracious favours and loving kindnesâ—e endure for ever and ever upon thy servant and grant that what thou hast sown in mercy may spring up in duty and let thy grace so strengthen my purposes that I may sin no more lest thy threatning return upon me in anger and thy anger break me into pieces but let me walk in the light of thy favour and in the paths of thy Commandments that I living here to the glory of thy name may at last enter into the glory of my Lord to spend a whole eternity in giving praise to thy exalted and ever glorious name Amen We praise thee O God we knowledge thee to be the Lord * All the earth doth worship thee the Father Everlasting * To thee All Angels cry aloud the Heavens and all the powers therein * To thee Cherubim and Seraphim continually do cry * Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabaoth * Heaven and Earth are full of the Majesty of thy glory * The glorious company of the Apostles praise thee * The goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise thee * The noble army of Martyrs praise thee * The holy Church throughout all the world doth knowledge thee * The Father of an infinite Majesty * Thy honourable true and only Son * Also the Holy Ghost the Comforter * Thou art the King of glory O Christ. * Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father * When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man thou didst not abhor the Virgins womb * When thou hadst overcome the sharpnesse of death thou didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers * Thou sittest at the right hand of God in the glory of the Father * We believe that thou shalt come to be our Judge * We therefore pray thee help thy servants whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood * Make them to be numbered with thy Saints in glory everlasting * O Lord save thy people and blesse thine heritage * Govern them and lift them up for ever * Day by day we magnifie thee * And we worship thy name ever world without end * Vouchsafe O Lord to keep us this day without â—in * O Lord have mercy upon us have mercy upon us * O Lord let thy mercy lighten upon us as our trust is in thee O Lord in thee have I trusted let me never be confounded Amen A Prayer of thanksgiving after the receiving some great blessing as the birth of an Heir the successe of an honest designe a victory a good harvest c. O Lord God Father of mercies the fountain of comfort and blessing of life and peace of plenty and pardon who fillest Heaven with thy glory and earth w th thy goodnes I give thee the most earnest most humble and most enlarged returnes of my glad and thankful heart for thou hast refreshed me with thy comforts and enlarged me with thy blessing thou hast made my flesh and my bones to rejoyce for besides the blessings of all mankinde the blessings of nature the blessings of grace the support of every minute and the comforts of every day thou hast opened thy bosom and at this time hast powred out an excellent expression of thy loving kindnesse here name the blessing What am I O Lord and what is my Fathers house what is the life and what are the capacities of thy servant that thou should'st do this unto me * that the great God of men and Angels should make a special decree in Heaven for me and send out an Angel of blessing and instead of condemning and ruining me as I miserably have deserved to distinguish me from many my equals and my betters by this and many other special acts of grace and savour Praised be the Lord daily even the Lord that helpeth us and powreth his benefits upon us He is our God even the God of whom cometh salvation God is the Lord by whom we escape death Thou hast brought me to great honour and comforted me on every side Thou Lord hast made me glad through thy works I will rejoyce in giving praise for the operation of thy hands O give thanks unto the Lord and call upon his name tell the people what things he hath done As for me I will give great thanks unto the Lord and praise him among the multitude Blessed be the Lord God even the Lord God of Israel which only doth wondrous gracious things And blessed be the name of his Majesty for ever and all the earth shall be filled with his Majesty Amen Amen Glory be to the Father c. As it was in the beginning c. A Prayer to be said on the Feast of Christmas or the birth of our bleâ—sed Saviour Iesus the same also may be said upon the Feast of the Annunciation and Purification of the B. Virgin
the ends of God or 2. When it is principally intended in an action of religion For sometimes a temporal end is part of our duty and such are all the actions of our calling whether our imployment be religious or civil We are commanded to provide for our family but if the Minister of Divine offices shall take upon him that holy calling for covetous or ambitious ends or shall not designe the glory of God principally and especially he hath polluted his hands and his heart and the fire of the Altar is quenched or it sends forth nothing but the smoak of mushromes or unpleasant gums And it is a great unworthinesse to prefer the interest of a creature before the ends of God the Almighty Creator But because many cases may happen in which a mans heart may deceive him and he may not well know what is in his own spirit therefore by these following signes we shall best make a judgement whether our intentions be pure and our purposes holy Signes of purity of intention 1. It is probable our hearts are right with God and our intentions innocent and pious if we set upon actions of religion or civil life with an affection proportioned to the quality of the work that we act our temporal affairs with a desire no greater then our necessity and that in actions of religion we be zealous active and operative so far as prudence will permit but in all cases that we value a religious designe before a temporal when otherwise they are in equal order to their several ends that is that whatsoever is necessary in order to our souls health be higher esteemed than what is for bodily and the necessities the indispensable necessities of the spirit be served before the needs of nature when they are required in their several circumstances Or plainer yet when we choose any temporal inconvenience rather than commit a sin and when we choose to do a duty rather than to get gain But he that does his recreation or his merchandise cheerfully promptly readily and busily and the works of religion slowly flatly and without appetite and the spirit moves like Pharaohs chariots when the wheels were off it is a signe that his heart is not right with God but it cleaves too much to the world 2. It is likely our hearts are pure and our intentions spotlesse when we are not solicitous of the opinion and censures of men but onely that we do our duty and be accepted of God For our eyes will certainly be fixed there from whence we expect our reward and if we desire that God should approve us it is a signe we do his work and expect him our pay-Master 3. He that does as well in private between God and his own soul as in publick in Pulpits in Theatres and Market-places hath given himself a good testimony that his purposes are full of honesty noblenesse and integrity For what Helkanah said to the Mother of Samuel Am not I better to thee then ten sons Is most certainly verified concerning God that he who is to be our Judge is better then ten thousand witnesses But he that would have his vertue published studies not vertue but glory He is not just that will not be just without praise but he is a righteous man that does justice when to do so is made infamous and he is a wise man who is delighted with an ill name that is well gotten And indeed that man hath a strange covetousnesse or folly that is not contented with this reward that He hath pleased God And see what he gets by it He that does good works for praise or secular ends sells an inestimable jewel for a trifle and that which would purchase Heaven for him he parts with for the breath of the people which at the best is but aire and that not often wholsome 4. It is well also when we are not sollicitous or troubled concerning the effect and event of all our actions but that being first by Prayer recommended to him is left at his dispose for then in case the event be not answerable to our desires or to the efficacy of the instrument we have nothing left to rest in but the honesty of our purposes which it is the more likely we have secur'd by how much more we are indifferent concerning the successe S. Iames converted but eight persons when he preacht in Spain and our blessed Saviour converted fewer then his own Disciples did And if thy labours prove unprosperous if thou beest much troubled at that it is certain thou didst not think thy self secure of a reward for your intention which you might have done if it had been pure and just 5. He loves vertue for Gods sake and its own that loves and honours it wherever it is to be seen but he that is envious or angry at a vertue that is not his own at the perfection or excellency of his Neighbour is not covetous of the vertue but of its reward and reputation and then his intentions are polluted It was a great ingenuity in Moses that wished all the people might be prophets but if he had designed his own honour he would have prophecyed alone But he that desires onely that the work of God and religion shall go on is pleased with it who ever is the instrument 6. He that despises the world and all its appendant vanities is the best Judge the most secur'd of his intentions because he is the furthest removed from a temptation Every degree of mortification is a testimony of the purity of our purposes and in what degree we despise sensual pleasure or secular honours or worldly reputation in the same degree we shall conclude our heart right to religion and spiritual designes 7. When we are not sollicitous concerning the instruments and means of our actions but use those means which God hath laid before us with resignation indifferency and thankfulnesse it is a good signe that we are rather intent upon the end of Gods glory than our own conveniency or temporal satisfaction He that is indifferent whether he serve God in riches or in poverty is rather a seeker of God than of himself and he that will throw away a good book because it is not curiously guilded is more desirous to please his eye than to inform his understanding 8. When a temporal end consisting with a spiritual and pretended to be subordinate to it happens to fail and be defeated if we can rejoyce in that so Gods glory be secured and the interests of religion it is a great signe our hearts are right and our ends prudently designed and ordered When our intentions are thus ballanced regulated and discerned we may consider 1. That this exercise is of so universal efficacy in the whole course of a holy life that it is like the soul to every holy action and must be provided for in every undertaking and is of it self alone sufficient to make all natural and
glory and power be unto him that sitteth on the throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever Amen Holy is our God * Holy is the Almighty Holy is the Immortal Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabaoth have mercy upon me Ejaculations and short meditations to be used in the Night when we wake Stand in awe and sin not commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still I will lay me down in peace and sleep for thou Lord onely makest me dwell in safety O Father of Spirits and the God of all flesh have mercy and pity upon all sick and dying Christians and receive the souls which thou hast redeemed returning unto thee Blessed are they that dwell in the heavenly Jerusalem where there is no need of the Sun neither of the Moon to shine in it for the glorie of God does lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof And there shal be no night there they need no candle for the Lord God giveth them light and they shall reign for ever and ever Revel 21.23 Meditate on Iacobs wrastling with the Angel all night be thou also importunate with God for a blessing and give not over till he hath blessed thee Meditate on the Angel passing over the children of Israel and destroying the Egyptians for disobedience and oppression Pray for the grace of obedience and charity and for the divine protection Meditate on the Angel who destroyed in a night the whole army of the Assyrians for fornication Call to minde the sins of thy youth the sins of thy bed and say with David My reins chasten me in the night season and my soul refuseth comfort Pray for pardon and the grace of chastity Meditate on the agonies of Christ in the garden his sadnesse and affliction all that night and thank and adore him for his love that made him suffer so much for thee and hate thy sins which made it necessary for the Son of God to suffer so much Meditate on the four last things 1. The certainty of death 2. The terrours of the day of judgement 3. The joyes of Heaven 4. The pains of Hell and the eternity of both Think upon all thy friends which are gone before thee and pray that God would grant to thee to meet them in a joyful resurrection The day of the Lord will come as a thiefe in the night in the which the heavens shall passe away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godlinesse looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God 2 Pet. 3.10.11 Lord in mercy remember thy servant in the day of Judgement Thou shalt answer for me O Lord my God In thee O Lord have I trusted let me never be confounded Amen I desire the Christian Reader to observe that all these offices or forms of prayer if they should be used every day would not spend above an hour and a halfe but because soâ—e of them are double and so but one of them to be used in one day it is much lesse and by affording to God one hour in 24. thou mayest have the comforts and rewards of devotion But he that thinks this is too much either is very busie in the world or very carelesse of heaven However I have parted the prayers into smaller portions that he may use which and how many he please in any one of the forms Ad Sect. 2. A prayer for holy Intention in the beginning and pursuit of any considerable action as Study Preaching c. O Eternal God who hast made all things for man and man for thy glory sanctifie my body and soul my thoughts and my intentions my words and actions that whatsoever I shall think or speak or do may he by me designed to the glorification of thy Name and by thy blessing it may be effective and successeful in the work of God according as it can be capable Lord turn my necessities into vertue the works of nature into the works of grace by making them orderly regular temperate subordinate and profitable to ends beyond their own proper efficacy And let no pride or self-seeking no covetousnesse or revenge no impure mixture or unhandsome purposes no little ends and low imaginations pollute my Spirit and unhallow any of my words and actions but let my body be a servant of my spirit and both body and spirit servants of Jesus that doing all things for thy glory here I may be partaker of thy glory hereafter thorough Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Ad Sect. 3. A prayer meditating and referring to the divine presence This prayer is especially to be used in temptation to private sins O Almighty God infinite and eternal thou fillest all things with thy presence thou art every where by thy essence and by thy power in heaven by Glory in holy places by thy grace and favour in the hearts of thy servants by thy Spirit in the consciences of all men by thy testimony and observation of us Teach me to walk alwayes as in thy presence to fear thy Majesty to reverence thy wisdom and omniscience that I may never dare to commit any undecency in the eye of my Lord and my Judge but that I may with so much care and reverence demean my self that my Judge may not be my accuser but my Advocate that I expressing the belief of thy presence here by careful walking may feel the effects of it in the participation of eternal glory thorough Jesus Christ. Amen CHAP. II. Of Christian Sobriety Sect. I. Of sobriety in the general sense CHristian Religion in all its moral parts is nothing else but the Law of Nature and great Reason complying with the great necessities of all the world and promoting the great profit of all relations and carrying us through all accidents of variety of chances to that end which God hath from eternal ages purposed for all that live according to it and which he hath revealed in Jesus Christ and according to the Apostles Aâ—ithmetik hath but these three parts of it 1. Sobriety 2. Justice 3. Religion For the grace of God bringing salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodlinesse and worldly lusts we should live 1. Soberly 2. Righteously and 3. Godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the greaâ— God and our Saviour Iesus Christ. The first contains all our deportment in our personal and private capacities the fâ—ir treating of our bodies and our spirits The second eâ—larges our duty in all relations to our Neighbour The third contains the offices of direct Religion and entercourse with God Christian sobriety is all that duty that concerns our selves in the matter of meat and drink and pleasures and thoughts and it hath within it
be cured and therefore commonly grows it upon him with age a drunkard being still more a fool and lesse a man I need not adde any sad examples since all story and all ages have too many of them Amnon was slain by his brother Absalom when he was warm and high with wine Simon the High Priest and two of his sons were slain by their brother at a drunken feast Holofernes was drunk when Iudith slew him and all the great things that Daniel spake of Alexander were drowned with the surfet of one nights intemperance and the drunkennesse of Noah and Lot are upon record to eternal ages that in those early instances and righteous persons and lesse criminal drunkennesse then is that of Christians in this period of the world God might show that very great evils are prepared to punish this vice no lesse then shame and slavery and incest the first upon Noah the second upon one of his sons and the third in the person of Lot Signes of drunkennesse But if it be enquired concerning the periods and distinct significations of this crime and when a man is said to be drunk To this I answer That drunkennesse is in the same manner to be judged as sicknesse As every illnesse or violence done to health in every part of its continuance is a part or degree of sicknesse so is every going off from our natural and common temper and our usual severity of behaviour a degree of drunkennesse He is not onely drunk that can drink no more for few are so but he hath sinned in a degree of drunkennesse who hath done any thing towards it beyond his proper measure But its parts and periods are usually thus reckoned 1. Apish gestures 2. Much talking 3. Immoderate laughing 4. Dulnesse of sence 5. Scurrility that is wanton or jeering or abusive language 6. An uselesse understanding 7. Stupid sleep 8. Epilepsies or fallings and reelings and beastly vomitings The least of these even when the tongue begins to be untyed is a degree of drunkennesse But that we may avoyd the sin of intemperance in meats and drinks besides the former rules of measures these counsels also may be useful Rules for obtaining Temperance 1. Be not often present at feasts nor at all in dissolute company when it may be avoyded for variety of pleasing objects steals away the heart of man and company is either violent or enticing and we are weak or complying or perhaps desirous enough to be abused But if you be unavoidably or indiscreetly ingaged let not mistaken civilitie or good nature engage thee either to the temptation of staying if thou understandest thy weaknesse or the sin of drinking inordinately 2. Be severe in your judgement concerning your proportions and let no occasion make you enlarge far beyond your ordinary For a man is surprized by parts and while he thinks one glass more will not make him drunk that one glasse hath disabled him from well discerning his present condition and neighbour danger while men think themselves wise they become fools they think they shall tast the aconite and not dye or crown their heads with juice of poppy and not be drowsie and if they drink off the whole vintage still they think they can swallow another gobler But remember this when ever you begin to consider whether you may safely take one draught more it is then high time to give over let that be accounted a signe late enough to break off for every reason to doubt is a sufficient reason to part the company 3. Come not to table but when thy need invites thee and if thou beest in health leave something of thy Appetite unfilled something of thy natural heat unimployed that it may secure thy digestion and serve other needs of nature or the spirit 4. Propound to thy self if thou beest in a capacity a constant rule of living of eating and drinking which though it may not be fit to observe scrupulously lest it become a snare to thy conscience or indanger thy health upon every accidental violence yet let not thy rule be broken often nor much but upon great necessity and in small degrees 5. Never urge any man to eat or drink beyond his own limits and his own desires He that does otherwise is drunke with his brothers surfet and reeles and falls with his intemperance that is the sin of drunkennes is upon both their scores they both lye wallowing in the guilt 6. Use S. Pauls instruments of Sobriety Let us who are of the day be sober putting on the brestplate of faith and love and for an helmet the hope of Saluation Faith Hope and Charity are the best weapons in the world to fight against intemperance The faith of the Mahometans forbids them to drink wine and they abstain religiously as the sons of Rechab and the faith of Christ forbids drunkennesse to us and therefore is infinitely more powerful to suppresse this vice when we remember that we are Christians and to abstain from drunkennesse and gluttony is part of the Faith and Discipline of Jesus and that with these vices neither our love to God nor our hopes of heaven can possibly consist and therefore when these enter the heart the other goes out at the mouth for this is the Devil that is cast out by fasting and prayer which are the proper actions of these graces 7. As a pursuance of this rule it is a good advice that as we begin and end all our times of eating with prayer and thanksgiving so at the meal we remove and carry up our minde and Spirit to the Coelestiall table often thinking of it and often desiring it that by enkindling thy desire to heavenly banquets thou mayest be indifferent and lesse passionate for the Earthlie 8. Mingle discourses pious or in some sence profitable and in all sences charitable and innocent with thy meal as occasion is ministred 9. Let your drink so serve your meat as your meat doth your health that it be apt to convey and digest it and reâ—resh the spirits but let it never go beyond such a refreshment as may a little lighten the present load of a sad or troubled spirit never to inconvenience lightnesse sottishnesse vanity or intemperance and know that the loosing the bands of the tongue and the very first dissolution of its duty is one degree of the intemperance 10. In all cases be carefull that you bee not brought under the power of such things which otherwise are lawful enough in the use All things are lawful for me but I will not be brought under the power of any thing said Saint Paul And to be perpetually longing and impatiently desirous of any thing so that a man cannot abstaine from it is to lose a mans liberty and to become a servant of meat and drink or smoke And I wish this last instance were more considered by persons who little suspect themselves guilty of intemperance though their desires are strong and impatient and
who brought a part of the stars with his tail from Heaven 4. Of all carnal sins it is that alone which the Devil takes delight to imitate counterfeit communicating with Witches impure persons in no corporal act but in this onely 5. Uncleannesse with all its kindes is a vice which hath a professed enmity against the body Every sin which a man doth is without the body but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body 6. Uncleannesse is hugely contrary to the spirit of Government by embasing the spirit of a man making it effeminate sneaking soft and foolish without courage without confidence David felt this after his folly with Bathsheba he fell to unkingly arts and stratagems to hide the crime and he did nothing but increase it and remaind timorous poor spirited till he prayed to God once more to establish him with a free and a Princely spirit And no superiour dare strictly observe discipline upon his charge if he hath let himself loose to the shame of incontinence 7. The Gospel hath added two arguments against uncleannesse which were never before used nor indeed could be since GOD hath given the holy Spirit to them that are baptized and rightly confirmed and entered into covenant with him our bodies are made temples of the holy Ghost in which he dwels and therfore uncleanness is Sacriledge defiles a Temple It is S. Pauls argument Know ye not that your body is the temple of the holy Ghost He that defiles a Temple him will God destroy Therfore Glorifie God in your bodies that is flee fornication To which for the likeness of the argument adde That our bodies are members of Christ and therefore God forbid that we should take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot So that uncleannesse dishonours Christ and dishonours the holy Spirit it is a sin against God and in this sence a sin against the Holy Ghost 8. The next special argument which the Gospel ministers especially against adultery for preservation of the purity of marriage is that Marriage is by Christ hallowed into a mystery to signifie the Sacramental and mystical union of Christ and his Church He therefore that breaks this knot which the Church and their mutual faith hath tyed and Christ hath knit up into a mystery dishonours a great rite of Christianity of high spiritual and excellent signification 9. S. Gregory reckons uncleannesse to be the parent of these monsters Blindnesse of minde inconsideration precipitancy or giddinesse in actions self love hatred of God love of the present pleasures a despite or despair of the joyes of religion here and of Heaven hereafter Whereas a pure minde in a chast body is the Mother of wisdom and deliberation sober counsells and ingenuous actions open deportment and sweet carriage sincere principles and unprejudicate understanding love of God and self-denyall peace and confidence holy prayers and spiritual comfort and a pleasure of Spirit infinitely greater then the sottish and beastly pleasures of unchastity For to overcome pleasure is the greatest pleasure and no victory is greater then that which is gotten over our lusts and filthy inclinations 10. Adde to all these the publick dishonesty and disreputation that all the Nations of the world have cast upon adulterous and unhallowed embraces Abimelech to the men of Gerar made it death to meddle with the wife of Isaac and Iudah condemned Thamar to be burnt for her adulterous conception and God besides the Law made to put the adulterous person to death did constitute a setled and constant miracle to discover the adultery of a suspected woman that her bowels should burst with drinking the waters of Jealousie The Egyptian Law was to cut off the nose of the adulteresse and the offending part of the adulterer The Locrians put out the adulterers both eyes The Germanes as Tacitus reports placed the Adulteresse amidst her kinred naked and shaved her head and caused her husband to beat her with clubs thorough the city The Gortinaeans crowned the man with wool to shame him for his effeminacy and the Cumani caused the woman to ride upon an asse naked and hooted at and for ever after called her by an appellative of scorn A rider upon the asse All nations barbaroâ—s and civil agreeing in their general designe of rooting so dishonest and shameful vice from under heaven The middle ages of the Church were not pleased that the Adulteresse should be put to death but in the primitive ages the civil Lawes by which Christians were then governed gave leave to the wronged husband to kill his adulterous wife if he took her in the fact but because it was a priviledge indulg'd to men rather than a direct detestation of the crime a consideration of the injury rather then of the uncleannesse therefore it was soon altered but yet hath caused an inquiry whether is worse the Adultery of the man or the woman The resolution of which case in order to our present affair is thus In respect of the person the fault is greater in a man then in a woman who is of a more plyant and easie spirit and weaker understanding and hath nothing to supply the unequal strengths of men but the defensative of a passive nature and armour of modesty which is the natural ornament of that sex And it is unjust that the man should demand chastity and severity from his wife which himself will not observe towards her said the good Emperour Antoninus It is as if the man should perswade his wife to fight against those enemies to which he had yielded himself a prisoner 2. In respect of the effects and evil consequents the adultery of the woman is worse as bringing bastardy into a family and disinherisons or great injuries to the Lawful children and infinite violations of peace and murders and divorces and all the effects of rage and madnesse 3. But in respect of the crime and as relating to God they are equal intollerable and damnable And the Church anciently refused to admit such persons to the holy Communion until they had done seven yeers penances in fasting in sackcloth in severe inflictions and instruments of chastity and sorrow according to the discipline of those ages Acts of chastity in general The actions and proper offices of the grace of chastity in general are these 1. To resist all unchast thoughts at no hand entertaining pleasure in the unfruitful fancies and remembrances of uncleannesse although no definite desire or resolution be entertained 2. At no hand to entertain any desire or any phantastick imaginative loves though by shame or disability or other circumstance they be restrained from act 3. To have a chast eye and hand for it is all one with what part of the body we commit adultery and if a man lets his eye loose and enjoyes the lust of that he is an adulterer Look not upon a
immortal felicity and beauty is not made by white or red by black eyes a round face by a strait body and a smooth skin but by a proportion to the fancy No rules can make amability our mindes apprehensions make that and â—o is our felicity and we may be reconcil'd to poverty and a low fortune if we suffer contentednesse and the grace of God to make the proportions For no man is poor that does not think himself so But if in a full fortune with impatience he desires more he proclaims his wants and his beggerly condition But because this grace of contentednesse was the sum of all the old moral Philosophy and a great duty in Christianity and of most universal use in the whole course of our lives and the onely instrument to ease the burdens of the World and the enmities of sad chances it will not be amisse to presse it by the proper arguments by which God hath bound it upon our spirits it being fastned by Reason and Religion by duty and interest by necessity and conveniency by example and by the proposition of excellent rewards no lesse then peace and felicity 1. Contentednesse in all estates is a duty of Religion it is the great reasonablenesse of complying with the Divine Providence which governes all the World and hath so ordered us in the administration of his great Family He were a strange fool that should be angry because Dogs and Sheep need no shoes yet himself is full of care to get some God hath supplyed those needs to them by natural provisions and to thee by an artificial for he hath given thee reason to learn a trade or some means to make or buy them so that it onely differs in the manner of our provision and which had you rather want shoes or reason And my Patron that hath given me a Farm is freer to me then if he gives a loafe ready bak'd But however all these gifts come from him and therefore it is fit he should dispense them as he please and if we murmure here we may at the next melancholy be troubled that God did not make us to be Angels or Stars For if that which we are or have do not content us we may be troubled for every thing in the World which is besides our being or our possessions God is the Master of the Scenes we must not choose which part we shall act it concerns us onely to be careful that we do it well alwayes saying If this please God let it be as it is and we who pray that Gods will may be done in Earth as it is in Heaven must remember that the Angels do whatsoever is commanded them and go where ever they are sent and refuse no circumstances and if their imployment be crossed by a higher decree they sit down in peace and rejoyce in the event and when the Angel of Iudea could not prevail in behalf of the people committed to his charge because the Angel of Persia opposed it he onely told the story at the command of God and was as content and worshipped with as great an extasie in his proportion as the prevailing Spirit Do thou so likewise keep the station where God hath placed you and you shall never long for things without but sit at home feasting upon the Divine Providence and thy own reason by which we are taught that it is necessary and reasonable to submit to God For is not all the World Gods family Are not we his creatures Are we not as clay in the hand of the Potter Do we not live upon his meat and move by his strength and do our work by his light Are we any thing but what we are from him And shall there be a mutiny among the flocks and herdâ— because their Lord or their Shepherd chooses their pastures and suffers them not to wander into Deserts and unknowne wayes If we choose we do it so foolishly that we cannot like it long and most commonly not at all but God who can do what he please is wise to choose safely for us affectionate to comply with our needs and powerful to execute all his wise decrees Here therefore is the wisdome of the contented man to let God choose for him for when we have given up our wills to him and stand in that station of the battel where our great General hath placed us our spirits must needs rest while our conditions have for their security the power the wisdom and the charity of God 2. Contentednesse in all accidents brings great peace of spirit and is the great and onely instrument of temporal felicity It removes the sting from the accident and makes a man not to depend upon chance and the uncertain dispositions of men for his well being but onely on GOD and his own Spirit Wee our selves make our fortunes good or bad and when God le ts loose a Tyrant upon us or a sicknesse or scorne or a lessened fortune if we fear to dye or know not to be patient or are proud or covetous then the calamity sits heavy on us But if we know how to manage a noble principle and fear not Death so much as a dishonest action and think impatience a worse evil then a Feaver and Pride to be the biggest disgrace and poverty to be infinitely desirable before the torments of covetousnesse then we who now think vice to be so easie and make it so familiar and think the cure so impossible shall quickly be of another minde and reckon these accidents amongst things elegible But no man can be happy that hath great hopes and great fears of things without and events depending upon other men or upon the chances of Fortune The rewards of Vertue are certain and our provisions for our natural support are certain or if we want meat till we dye then we dye of that disease and there are many worse then to dye with an atrophy or Consumption or unapt and courser nourishment But he that suffers a transporting passion concerning things within the power of others is free from sorrow and amazement no longer then his enemy shall give him leave and it is ten to one but he shall be smitten then and there where it shall most trouble him for so the Adder â—eaches us where to strike by her curious and fearfull defending of her head The old Stoicks when you told them of a sad story would still answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What is that to me Yes for the Tyrant hath sentenced you also to prison Well! what is that He will put a chain upon my leg but he cannot binde my soul. No but he will kill you Then I 'le dye If presently let me go that I may presently be freer then himself but if not till anon or to morrow I will dine first or sleep or do what reason and nature calls for as at other times This in Gentile Philosophy is the same with the discourse
that supposes our duty to answer his grace that God will be our God so long as we are his people The other is not Faith but Flattery 6. To professe publickly the doctrine of Jesus Christ openly owning whatsoever he hath revealed and commanded not being ashamed of the word of God or of any practises enjoyned by it and this without complying with any mans interest not regarding favor nor being moved with good words not fearing disgrace or losse or inconvenience or death it self 7. To pray without doubting without wearinesse without faintnesse entertaining no jealousies or suspitions of God but being confident of Gods hearing us and os his returns to us whatsoever the manner or the instance be that if we do our duty it will be gracious and merciful These acts of Faith are in several degrees in the servants of Jesus some have it but as a grain of mustard-seed some grow up to a plant some have the fulnesse of faith but the least faith that is must be a perswasion so strong as to make us undertake the doing of all that duty which Christ built upon the foundation of believing but we shall best discern the truth of our faith by these following signes S. Hierom reckons three Signes of true Faith 1. An earnest and vehement prayer for it is impossible we should heartily believe the things of God and the glories of the Gospel and not most importunately desire them For every thing is desired according to our belief of its excellency and possibility 2. To do nothing for vain glory but wholly for the interests of religion and these Articles we believe valuing not at all the râ—mours of men but the praise of God to whom by faith we have given up all our intellectual faculties 3. To be content with God for our Judge for our Patron for our Lord for our friend desiring God to be all in all to us as we are in our understanding and affections wholly his Adde to these 4. To be a stranger upon earth in our affections and to have all our thoughts and principal desires fixed upon the matters of Faith the things of Heaven For if a man were adopted heir to Caesar he would if he believed it real and effective despise the present and wholly be at court in his Fathers eye and his desires would outrun his swiftest speed and all his thoughts would spend themselves in creating Ideas and little phantastick images of his future condition Now God hath made us Heirs of his Kingdom and Coheirs with Jesus if we believed this we would think and affect and study accordingly But he that rejoyces in gain and his heart dwells in the world and is espoused to a fair estate and transported with a light momentany joy and is afflicted with losses and amazed with temporal persecutions and esteems disgrace or poverty in a good cause to be intolerable this man either hath no inheritance in Heaven or believes none and believes not that he is adopted to be the Son of God the Heir of eternal Glory 5. S. Iames's signe is the best Shew me thy faith by thy works Faith makes the Merchant diligent and venturous and that makes him rich Ferdinando of Arragon believed the story told him by Columbus and therefore he furnished him with ships and got the west Indies by his Faith in the undertaker But Henry the seventh of England believed him not and therefore trusted him not with shipping and lost all the purchase of that Faith It is told us by Christ He that forgives shall be forgiven if we believe this it is certain we shall forgive our enemies for none of us all but need and desire to be forgiven No man can possibly despise or refuse to desire such excellent glories as are revealed to them that that are servants of Christ and yet we do nothing that is commanded us as a condition to obtain them No man could work a dayes labor without faith but because he believes he shall have his wages at the dayes or weeks end he does his duty But he onely believes who does that thing which other men in the like cases do when they do believe He that believes money gotten with danger is better then poverty with safety will venture for it in unknown lands or seas and so will he that believes it better to get Heaven with labour then to go to Hell with pleasure 6. He that believes does not make haste but waits patiently till the times of refreshment come and dares trust God for the morrow and is no more sollicitous for next year then he is for that which is past and it is certain that man wants faith who dares be more confident of being supplied when he hath money in his purse then when he hath it onely in bills of exchange from God or that relyes more upon his own industry then upon Gods providence when his own industry fails him If you dare trust to God when the case to humane reason seems impossible and trust to God then also out of choice not because you have nothing else to trust to but because he is the onely support of a just confidence then you give a good testimony of your faith 7. True Faith is confident and will venture all the world upon the strength of its persuasion Will you lay your life on it your estate your reputation that the doctrine of JESUS CHRIST is true in every Article Then you have true Faith But he that fears men more then God believes men more then he believes in God 8. Faith if it be true living and justifying cannot be separated from a good life it works miracles makes a Drunkard become sober a lascivious person become chast a covetous man become liberal it overcomes the world it works righteousnesse and makes us diligently to do and cheerfully to suffer whatsoever God hath placed in our way to Heaven The Means and Instruments to obtain Faith are 1. An humble willing and docible minde or desire to be instructed in the way of God For persuasion enters like a sun-beam gently and without violence and open but the window and draw the curtain and the Sun of righteousnesse will enlighten your darknesse 2. Remove all prejudice and love to every thing which may be contradicted by Faith How can ye believe said Christ that receive praise one of another An unchast man cannot easily be brought to believe that without purity he shall never see God He that loves riches can hardly believe the doctrine of poverty and renuntiation of the world and alms and Martyrdom and the doctrine of the crosse is folly to him that loves his ease and pleasures He that hath within him any principle contrary to the doctrines of Faith cannot easily become a Disciple 3. Prayer which is instrumental to every thing hath a particular promise in this thing He that lacks wisdom let him ask it of God and if you give good things to your children how
much more shall your Heavenly Father give his Spirit to them that ask him 4. The consideration of the Divine Omnipotence and infinite wisdom and our own ignorance are great instruments of curing all doubting and silencing the murmures of infidelity 5. Avoid all curiosity of inquiry into particulars and circumstances and mysteries for true faith is full of ingenuity and hearty simplicity free from suspicion wise and confident trusting upon generals without watching and prying into unnecessary or undiscernable particulars No Man carries his bed into his field to watch how his corn grows but believes upon the general order of Providence and Nature and at Harvest findes himself not deceived 6. In time of temptation be not busie to dispute but relye upon the conclusion and throw your self upon God and contend not with him but in prayer and in the presence and with the help of a prudent untempted guide and be sure to esteem all changes of belief which offer themselves in the time of your greatest weaknesse contrary to the perswasions of your best understanding to bee temptations and reject them accordingly 7. It is a prudent course that in our health and best advantages we lay up particular arguments and instruments of perswasion and confidence to be brought forth and used in the great day of expence and that especially in such things in which we use to be most tempted and in which we are least confident and which are most necessary and which commonly the Devil uses to assault us withal in the days of our visitation 8. The wisdom of the Church of God is very remarkable in appointing Festivals or Holidayes whose solemnity and Offices have no other special businesse but to record the Article of the day such as Trinity Sunday Ascension Easter Christmas day and to those persons who can onely believe not prove or dispute there is no better instrument to cause the remembrance and plain notion and to endear the affection and hearty assent to the Article then the proclaiming and recommending it by the festivity and joy of a Holy day Sect. II. Of the Hope of a Christian. FAith differs from Hope in the extension of its object and in the intension of degree Saint Austin thus accounts their differences Faith is of all things revealed good and bad rewards and punishments of things past present and to come of things that concern us and of things that concern us not But Hope hath for its Object things onely that are good and fit to be hoped for future and concerning our selves and because these things are offered to us upon conditions of which we may so fail as we may change our will therefore our certainty is lesse then the adherences of faith which because Faith relyes onely upon one proposition that is the truth of the Word of God cannot be made uncertain in themselves though the object of our Hope may become uncertain to us and to our possession for it is infallibly certain that there is Heaven for all the godly and for me amongst them all if I do my duty But that I shall enter into Heaven is the object of my Hope not of my Faith and is so sure as it is certain I shall persevere in the wayes of God The Acts of Hope are 1. To relye upon God with a confident expectation of his promises ever esteeming that every promise of God is a magazine of all that grace and relief which we can need in that instance for which the promise is made Every degree of hope is a degree of confidence 2. To esteem all the danger of an action and the possibilities of miscarriage and every crosse accident that can intervene to be no defect on Gods part but either a mercy on his part or a fault on ours for then we shall be sure to trust in God when we see him to be our confidence and our selves the cause of all mischances The hope of a Christian is prudent and religious 3. To rejoyce in the midst of a misfortune or seeming sadnesse knowing that this may work for good and will if we be not wanting to our souls This is a direct act of Hope to look through the cloud and look for a beam of light from God and this is called in Scripture Rejoycing in tribulation when the God of hope fils us with all joy in believing Every degree of hope brings a degree of joy 4. To desire to pray and to long for the great object of our hope the mighty price of our high calling and to desire the other things of this life as they are promised that is so far as they are made necessary and useful to us in order to Gods glory and the great end of fouls Hope and Fasting are said to be the two wings of Prayer Fasting is but as the wing of a Bird but Hope is like the wing of an Angel soaring up to Heaven and bears our prayers to the throne of Grace Without Hope it is impossible to pray but Hope makes our prayers reasonable passionate and religious for it relyes upon Gods promise or experience or providence and story Prayer is alwayes in proportion to our Hope zealous and affectionate 5. Perseverance is the perfection of the duty of hope and its last act and so long as our hope continues so long we go on in duty and diligence but he that is to raise a Castle in an hour sits down does nothing towards it and Herod the Sophister left off to teach his son when he saw that 24 Pages appointed to wait on him and called by the several Letters of the Alphabet could never make him to understand his letters perfectly Rules to govern our Hope 1. Let your Hope be moderate proportioned to your state person and condition whether it be for gifts or graces or temporal favours It is an ambitious hope for a person whose diligence is like them that are least in the Kingdom of Heaven to believe themselves endeaâ—'d to God as the greatest Saints or that they shall have a throne equal to S. Paul or the blessed Virgin Mary A Stammerer cannot with moderation hope for the gift of Tongues or a Peasant to become learned as Origen or if a Beggar desires or hopes to become a King or asks for a thousand pound a year we call him impudent not passionate much lesse reasonable Hope that God will crown your endeavours with equal measures of that reward which he indeed freely gives but yet gives according to our proportions Hope for good successe according to or not much beyond the efficacy of the causes and the instrument and let the Husbandman hope for a good Harvest not for a rich Kingdom or a victorious Army 2. Let your hope be well founded relying upon just confidences that is upon God according to his revelations and promises For it is possible for a Man to have a vain hope upon God and in matters of Religion it is presumption to hope
is declared In the fourth Commandement hee proclaims himself the Maker of Heaven and Earth for in memory of Gods rest from the work of six dayes the seventh was hallowed into a Sabbath and the keeping it was a confessing GOD to bee the great Maker of Heaven and Earth and consequently to this it also was a confession of his goodnesse his Omnipotence and his Wisdom all which were written with a Sun beam in the great book of the Creature So long as the Law of the Sabbath was bound upon Gods people so long GOD would have that to be the folemn manner of confessing these attributes but when the Priesthood being changed there was a change also of the Law the great duty remain'd unalterable in changed circumstances We are eternally bound to confesse God Almighty to be the Maker of Heaven and Earth but the manner of confessing it is chang'd from a rest or a doing nothing to a speaking something from a day to a symbol from a ceremony to a substance from a Jewish rite to a Christian duty we professe it in our Creed we confesse it in our lives we describe it by every line of our life by every action of duty by faith and trust and obedience and we do also upon great reason comply with the Jewish manner of confessing the Creation so far as it is instrumental to a real duty We keepe one day in seven and so confesse the manner and circumstance of the Creation and we rest also that we may tend holy duties so imitating Gods rest better then the Jew in Synesius who lay upon his face from evening to evening and could not by stripes or wounds be raised up to steer the ship in a great storm Gods rest was not a natural cessation hee who could not labour could not be said to rest but Gods rest is to be understood to be a beholding and a rejoycing in his work finished and therefore we truly represent Gods rest when we confesse and rejoyce in Gods works and Gods glory This the Christian Church does upon every day but especially upon the Lords day which she hath set apart for this and all other Ofâ—ices of Religion being determined to this day by the Resurrection of her dearest Lord it being the first day of joy the Church ever had And now upon the Lords day we are not tyed to the rest of the Sabbath but to all the work of the Sabbath and we are to abstain from bodily labour not because it is a direct duty to us as it was to the Jews but because it is necessary in order to our duty that we attend to the Offices of Religion The observation of the Lords day differs nothing from the observation of the Sabbath in â—he matter of Religion but in the manner They differ in the ceremony and external rite Rest with them was the principal with us it is the accessory They differ in the office or forms of worship For they were then to worship God as a Creator and a gentle Father we are to adde to that Our Redeemer and all his other excellencies and mercies and though we have more natural and proper reason to keep the Lords day then the Sabbath yet the Jews had a Divine Commandement for their day which we have not for ours but we have many Commandements to do all that honour to GOD which was intended in the fourth Commandement and the Apostles appointed the first day of the week for doing it in solemne Assemblies and the manner of worshipping God and doing him solemn honour and service upon this day we may best observe in the following measures Rules for keeping the Lords day and other Christian Festivals 1. When you go about to distinguish Festival dayes from common do it not by lessening the devotions of ordinary dayes that the common devotion may seem bigger upon Festivals but on every day keep your ordinary devotions intire and enlarge upon the Holy day 2. Upon the Lords day wee must abstaine from all servile and laborious workes except such which are matters of necessity of common life or of great charity for these are permitted by that authority which hath separated the day for holy uses The Sabbath of the Jewes though consisting principally in rest and established by God did yeeld to these The labour of Love and the labours of Religion were not against the reason and the spirit of the Commandement for which the Letter was decreed and to which it ought to minister And therefore much more is it so on the Lords day where the Letter is wholly turned into Spirit and there is no Commandement of God but of spiritual and holy actions The Priests might kill their beasts and dresse them for sacrifice and Christ though born under the law might heal a sick man and the sick man might carry hâ—s bed to witnesse his recovery and confesse the mercy and leap and dance to God for joy and an Ox might be led to water and an Asse be haled ouâ— of a ditch and a man may take physick and he may eat meat and therefore there were of necessity some to prepare and minister it and the performing these labours did not consist in minutes and just determined stages but they had even then a reasonable latitude so onely as to exclude unnecessary labour or such as did not minister to charity or religion And therefore this is to be enlarged in the Gospel whose Sabbath or rest is but a circumstance and accessory to the principal and spiritual duties Upon the Christian Sabbath necessity is to be served first then charity and then religion for this is to give place to charity in great instances and the second to the first in all and in all cases God is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth 3. The Lords day being the remembrance of a great blessing must be a day of joy festivity spiritual rejoycing and thanksgiving and therefore it is a proper work of the day to let your devotions spend themselves in singing or reading Psalms in recounting the great works of God in remembring his mercies in worshipping his excellencies in celebrating his attributes in admiring his person in sending portions of pleasant meat to them for whom nothing is provided in all the arts and instruments of advancing Gods glory the reputation of religion in which it were a great decency that a memorial of the resurrection should be inserted that the particular religion of the day be not swallowed up in the general And of this we may the more easily serve our selves by rising seasonably in the morning to private devotion and by retiring at the leisures and spaces of the day not imployed in publick offices 4. Fail not to be present at the publick hours and places of prayer entring early and cheerfully attending reverently and devoutly abiding patiently during the whole office piously assisting at the prayers and gladly also hearing the Sermon and at no hand omitting to
labour extreamly and watch carefully and suffer affronts and disgrace that he may get money more then he uses in his temperate and just needs with how much ease might this man be happy And with how great uneasinesse and trouble does he make himself miserable For he takes pains to get content and when he might have it he lets it go He might better be content with a vertuous and quiet poverty then w th an artificial troublesom vitious The same diet a less labor would at first make him happy and for ever after rewardable 6. The sum of all is that which the Apostle sayes Covetousnesse is Idolatry that is it is an admiring money for itself not for its use it relyes upon money and loves it more then it loves God and religion and it is the root of all evil it teaches men to be cruel and crafty industrious in evil full of care and malice it devours young heirs and grindes the face of the poor and undoes those who specially belong to Gods protection helpless craftlesse and innocent people it inquires into our parents age and longs for the death of our friends it makes friendship and art of rapine and changes a partner into a Vultur and a companion into a thief and after all this it is for no good to it self for it dare not spend those heaps of treasure which it snatched and men hate Serpents and Basilisks worse then Lyons and Beâ—rs for these kill because they need the prey but they sting to death and eat not * And if they pretend all this care and heap for their Heirs like the Mice of Africa hiding the golden oare in their bowels and refusing to give back the indigested gold till their guts be out they may remember that what was unnecessary for themselves is as unnecessary for their sons and why cannot they be without it as well as their Fathers who did not use it and it often happens that to the sons it becomes an instrument to serve some lust or other that as the gold was uselesse to their Fathers so may the sons be to the publick fools or prodigals loads to their Countrey and the curse and punishent of their Fathers avarice and yet all that wealth is short of one blessing but it is a load coming with a curse and descending from the family of a long derived sin However the Father transmits it to the son and it may be the son to one more till a Tyrant or an Oppressour or a War or a change of government or the Usurer or folly or an expensive vice makes holes in the bottom of the bag and the wealth runs out like water and flies away like a Bird from the hand of a childe 7. Adde to these the consideration of the advantages of poverty that it is a state freer from temptation secure in dangers but of one trouble safe under the Divine Providence cared for in Heaven by a daily ministration and for whose support God makes every day a new decree a state of which Christ was pleased to make open profession and many wise Men daily make vows that a rich Man is but like a pool to whom the poor run and first trouble it and then draw it dry that he enjoyes no more of it then according to the few and limited needs of a Man he cannot eat like a Wolf or an Elephant that variety of dainty fare ministers but to sin and sicknesses that the poor Man feasts oftner then the rich because every little enlargement is a feast to the poor but he that feasts every day feasts no day there being nothing left to which he may beyond his Ordinary extend his appetite that the rich Man sleeps not so soundly as the poor labourer that his fears are more and his needs are greater for who is poorer he that needs 5 l. or he that needs 5000 the poor Man hath enough to fill his belly and the rich hath not enough to fill his eye that the poor Mans wants are easie to be relieved by a common charity but the needs of rich Men cannot be supplyed but by Princes and they are left to the temptation of grâ—at vices to make reparation of their needs and the ambitious labours of Men to get great estates is but like the selling of a Fountain to buy a Fever a parting with content to buy necessity a purchase of an unhandsome condition at the price of infelicity that Princes and they that enjoy most of the world have most of it but in title and supreme rights and reserved priviledges pepper-corns homages trifling services acknowledgements the real use descending to others to more substantial purposes These considerations may be useful to the curing of covetousnesse that the grace of mercifulnesse enlarging the heart of a Man his hand may not be contracted but reached out to the poor in almes Sect. 9. Of Repentance REpentance of all things in the World makes the greatest change it changes things in Heaven and Earth for it changes the whole Man from sin to grace from vitious habits to holy customes from unchaste bodies to Angelical soules from Swine to Philosophers from drunkennesse to sober counsels and GOD himself with whom is no variablenesse or shadow of change is pleased by descending to our weak understandings to say that he changes also upon Mans repentance that he alters his decrees revokes his sentence cancels the Bils of accusation throws the Records of shame and sorrow from the Court of Heaven and lifts up the sinner from the grave to life from his prison to a throne from Hell and the guilt of eternal torture to Heaven and to a title to never ceasing felicities If we be bound on earth we shall be bound in heaven if we be absolved here we shall be loosed there if we repent God will repent and not send the evil upon us which we had deserved But repentance is a conjugation and society of many duties and it containes in it all the parts of a holy life from the time of return to the day of our death inclusively and it hath in it somethings specially relating to the sins of our former dayes which are now to be abolished by special arts and have obliged us to special labours and brought in many new necessities and put us into a very great deal of danger and because it is a duty consisting of so many parts so much imployment it also requires much time and leaves a Man in the same degree of hope of pardon as is his restitution to the state of righteousness and holy living for which we covenanted in Baptism For wee must know that there is but one repentance in a Mans whole life if repentance be taken in the proper and strict Evangelicall Covenant-sense and not after the ordinary understanding of the word That is wee are but once to change our whole state of life from the power of the Devil and his intire possession from
lust in our very best advantage of strength and time and before it is so deeply rooted as it must needs be supposed to be at the end of a wicked life and therefore it will prove impossible when the work is so great and the strength 's so little when sinne is so strong and grace so weak for they alwayes keep the same proportion of increase and decrease and as sin growes grace decayes so that the more need wee have of grace the lesse at that time wee shall have because the greatnesse of our sinnes which makes the need hath lessened the grace of GOD which should help us into nothing To which adde this consideration that on a Mans death-bed the day of repentance is past for repentance being the renewing of a holy life a living the life of Grace it is a contradiction to say that a Man can live a holy life upon his death-bed especially if we consider that for a sinner to live a holy life must first suppose him to have overcome all his evil habits and then to have made a purchase of the contrary graces by the labours of great prudence watchfulnesse self denyal and severity Nothing that is excellent can be wrought suddenly 11. After the beginnings of thy recovery be infinitely fearful of a relapse and therefore upon the stock of thy sad experience observe where thy failings were and by especial arts fortifie that saculty and arm against that temptation For if all those arguments which God uses to us to preserve our innocence and thy late danger and thy fears and the goodnesse of God making thee once to escape and the shame of thy fall and the sence of thy â—own weaknesses will not make thee watchful against a fall especially knowing how much it costs a man to be restored it will be infinitely more dangerous if ever thou fallest again not onely for fear God should no more accept thee to pardon but even thy own hopes will be made more desperate and thy impatience greater and thy shame turn to impudence and thy own will be more estranged violent and refractory and thy latter end will be worse then thy beginning To which adde this consideration That thy sin which was formerly in a good way of being pardoned will not onely return upon thee with all its own loads but with the basenesse of unthankfulnesse and thou wilt be set as far back from Heaven as ever and all thy former labours and fears and watchings and agonies will be reckoned for nothing but as arguments to upbraid thy folly who when thou hadst set one foot in Heaven didst pull that back and carry both to Hell Motives to Repentance I shall use no other arguments to move a sinner to repentance but to tell him unlesse he does he shall certainly perish and if he does repent timely and intirely that is live a holy life he shall be forgiven and be saved But yet I desire that this consideration be enlarged with some great circumstances and let us remember 1. That to admit mankinde to repentance and pardon was a favour greater then ever God gave to the angels devils for they were never admitted to the condition of second thoughts Christ never groaned one groan for them he never suffered one stripe nor one affront nor shed one drop of blood to restore them to hopes of blessednesse after their first failings But this he did for us he paid the score of our sins only that we might be admitted to repent and that this repentance might be effectual to the great purposes of felicity and salvation 2. Consider that as it cost Christ many millions of prayers and groans and sighs so he is now at this instant and hath been for these 1600 years night and day incessantly praying for grace to us that we may repent and for pardon when we do and for degrees of pardon beyond the capacities of our infirmities and the merit of our sorrows and amendment and this prayer he will continue till his second coming for he ever liveth to make intercession for us and that we may know what it is in behalf of which he intercedes S. Paul tells us his designe we are Embassadours for Christ as though he did beseech you by us we pray yoâ— in Christs stead to be reconciled to God and what Christ prayes us to do he prayes to God that we may do that which he desires of us as his servants he desires of God who is the fountain of the grace and powers unto us and without whose assistance we can do nothing 3. That ever we should repent was so costly a purchase and so great a concernment and so high a favour and the event is esteemed by God himself so great an excellency that our blessed Saviour tells us there shall be joy in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth meaning that when Christ shall be glorified and at the right hand of his Father make intercession for us praying for our repentance the conversion and repentance of every sinner is part of Christs glorification it is the answering of his prayers it is a portion of his reward in which he does essentially glory by the joyes of his glorified humanity This is the joy of our Lord himself directly not of the Angels save onely by reflexion The joy said our blessed Saviour shall be in the presence of the Angels they shall see the glory of the Lord the answering of his prayers the satisfaction of his desires and the reward of his sufferings in the repentance and consequent pardon of a sinner For therefore he once suffered and for that reason he rejoyces for ever and therefore when a penitent sinner comes to receive the effect and full consummation of his pardon it is called an entring into the joy of our Lord that is a partaking of that joy which Christ received at our coversion and enjoyed ever since 4. Adde to this that the rewards of Heaven are so great and glorious and Christs burden is so light his yoke is so easy that it is a shamelesse impudence to expect so great gloryes at a lesse rate then so little a service at a lower rate then a holy life It cost the heart blood of the Son of God to obtain Heaven for us upon that condition and who shall dye again to get Heaven for us upon easier terms What would you do if God should command you to kill your eldest son or to work in the mines for a thousand years together or to fast all thy life time with bread and water Were not Heaven a very great bargain even after all this And when God requires nothing of us but to live soberly justly and godly which things of themselves are to a man a very great felicity and necessary to our present well being shall we think this to be an intolerable burden and that Heaven is too little a purchase at that price and that God in meer justice will
take a death-bed sigh or groan and a few unprofitable tears and promises in exchange for all our duty If these motives joyned together with our own interest even as much as felicity and the sight of God and the avoyding the intolerable pains of Hell and many intermedial judgements comes to will not move us to leave 1. The filthinesse and 2. The trouble and 3. The uneasinesse and 4. The unreasonablenesse of sinne and turn to God there is no more to be said we must perish in our folly SECT X. Of preparation to and the manner how to receive the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper THe celebration of the holy Sacrament is the great mysteriousnesse of the Christian religion and succeeds to the most solemn rite of natural and Judaical religion the Law of sacrificing For God spared mankinde and took the sacrifie of beasts together with our solemn prayers for an instrument of expiation But these could not purifie the soul from sin but were typical of the sacrifice of something that could But nothing could do this but either the offering of all that sinned that every man should be the anathema or devoâ—ed thing or else by some one of the same capacity who by some superadded excellency might in his own personal sufferings have a value great enough to satisfie for all the whole kinde of sinning persons This the Son of God JESUS CHRIST God and Man undertook and finished by a Sacrifice of himself upon the Altar of the Crosse. 2. This Sacrifice because it was perfect could be but one and that once but because the needs of the world should last as long as the world self it was necesâ—ary that there should be a perpeâ—ual ministery established whereby this one sufficient sacrifice should be made eternally effectual to the several new aâ—iâ—ing needs of all the world who should desire it or in any sence be capable of it 3. To this end Christ was made a Priest for ever he was initiated or consecrated on the crosse and there began his Priesthood which was to last till his coming to judgement It began on earth but was to last and be officiated in Heaven where he sits perpetually representing and exhibiting to the Father that great effective sacrifice which he ofâ—ered on the crosse to eternal and never failing purposes 4. As Christ is pleased to represent to his Father that great Sacrifice as a means of atonement and expiation for all mankinde and with special purposes and intendment for all the elect all that serve him in holinesse so he hath appointed that the same ministery shall be done upon earth too in our manner and according to our proportion and therefore hath constituted and separated an order of men who by shewing forth the Lords death by Sacramental representation may pray unto God after the same manner that our Lord and high â—riest does that is offer to God and represâ—nt in this solemn prayer and Sacrament Christ as already offered so sending up a gracious instrument whereby our prayers may for his sake and in the same manner of intercession be offered up to God in our behalf and for all them for whom we pray to all those purposes for which Christ dyed 5. As the Ministers of the Sacrament do in a Sacramental manner present to God the sacrifice of the crosse by being imitators of Christs intercession so the people are sacrificers too in their manner for besides that by saying Amen they joyn in the act of him that ministers and make it also to be their own so when they eat and drink the consecrated and blessed Elelements worthily they receive Christ within them and therefore may also offer him to God while in their sacrifice of obedience thanksgiving they present themselves to God with Christ whom they have spiritually received that is themselves with that which will make them gracious and acceptable The offering their bodies and souls and services to God in him and by him and with him who is his Fathers well-beloved and in whom he is well pleased cannot but be accepted to all the purposes of blessing grace and glory 6. This is the sum of the greatest mystery of our Religion it is the copy of the passion and the ministration of the great mystery of our Redemption and therefore whatsoever intitles us to the general priviledges of Christs passion all that is necessary by way of disposition to the celebration of the Sacrament of his passion because this celebration is our manner of applying or using it The particulars of which preparation are represented in the following rules 1. No Man must dare to approach to the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper if he be in a state of any one sin that is unlesse he have entred into the state of repentance that is of sorrow and amendment lest it be said concerning him as it was concerning Iudas the hand of him that betraieth me is with me on the Table and he that receiveth Christ into an impure soul or body first turns his most excellent nourishment into poyson and then â—eeds upon it 2. Every communicant must first have examined himself that is tried the condition and state of his soul searched out the secret Ulcers enquired out its weaknesses and indiscretions and all those aptnesses where it is exposed to temptation that by finding out its diseases he may finde a cure and by discovering its aptnesses he may secure his present purposes of future amendment and may be arm'd against dangers and temptations 3. This examination must be a Man 's own act and inquisition into his life but then also it should leade a Man on to run to those whom the Great Physician of our souls Christ Jesus hath appointed to minister physick to our diseases that in all dangers and great accidents we may be assisted for comfort and remedy for medicine and caution 4. In this affair let no Man deceive himself and against such a time which publick Authority hath appointed for us to receive the Sacrament weep for his sins by way of solemnity and ceremony and still retain the affection but he that comes to this feast must have on the Wedding garment that is he must have put on Iesus Christ and he must have put off the old man with his affections and lusts and he must be wholly conformed to Christ in the image of his minde For then we have put on Christ when our souls are clothed with his righteousnesse when every faculty of our foul is proportioned and vested according to the patern of Christs life And therefore a Man must not leape from his last nights Surfet and Bath and then communicate but when he hath begun the work of God effectually and made some progresse in repentance and hath walked some stages and periods in the wayes of godlinesse then let him come to him that is to minister it and having made known the state of his soul he is to be admitted but to
Death Hear my Prayer O Lord and let my crying come unto thee * Hide not thy face from me in the time of my trouble incline thine ear unto me when I call O hear me and that right soon * For my dayes are consumed like smoaâ— my bones are burnt up as it were a firebrand * My heart is smitten down withered like grass so that I forget to eat my bread that because of thine indignation and wrath for thou hast taken me up cast me down * Thine arrows stick fast in me and thy hand presseth me sore There is no health in my flesh because of thy displeasure neither is there any rest in my bones by reason of my sin * My wickednesâ—es are gone over my head and are a sore burden too heavy for me to bear * But I will confesse my wickednesse and be sorry for my sin * O Lord rebuke me not in thy indignation neither chasten me in thy displeasure * Lord be merciful unto me heal my soul for I have sinned against thee Have mercy upon me O God after thy great goodnesse according to the multitude of thy mercies do away mine offences * O remember not the sins and offences of my youth but according to thy mercy think thou upon me O Lord for thy goodnesse * Wash me thoroughly from my wickednesse and cleanse me from my sin * Make me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me * Cast me not away from thy presence from thy all-hallowing and life-giving presence and take not thy holy Spirit thy sanctifying thy guiding thy comforting thy supporting and confirming Spirit from me O God thou art my God for ever and ever thou shalt be my guide unto death * Lord comfort me now that I lye sick upon my bed make thou my bed in all my sicknesse * O deliver my soul from the place of Hell and do thou receive me * My heart is disquieted within me and the fear of death is falen upon me * Behold thou hast made my dayes as it were a span long mine age is even as nothing in respect of thee and verily every man living is altogether vanity * When thou with rebukes doest chasten man for sin thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth fretting a garment every man therefore is but vanity And now Lord what is my hope truly my hope is even in thee * Hear my prayer O Lord and with thine ears consider my calling hold not thy peace at my tears * Take this plague away from me I am consumed by the means of thy heavy hand * I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner as all my Fathers were * O spare me a little that I may recover my strength before I go hence and be no more seen * My soul cleaveth unto the dust O quicken me according to thy word * And when the snares of death compasse me round about let not the pains of hell take hold upon me An Act of Faith concerning resurrection and the day of judgment to be said by sick persons or meditated I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my self mine eyes shal behold though my reins be consumed within me Iob 19. God shall come and shall not keep silence there shall go before him a consuming fire and a mighty tempest shall be stirred up round about him he shall call the heaven from above and the earth that he may judge his people * O blessed Jesu thou art my judge and thou art my Advocate have mercy upon me in the hour of my death and in the day of judgment See Iohn 5.28 1 Thessal 4.15 Short Prayers to be said by sick persons O Holy Jesus thou art a merciful High Priest and touched with the sense of our infirmities thou knowest the sharpnesse of my sicknesse and the weaknesse of my person The clouds are gathered about me and thou hast covered me with thy storm My understanding hath not such apprehension of things as formerly Lord let thy mercy support me thy spirit guide me and lead me through the valley of this death safely that I may passe it patiently holily with perfect resignation and let me rejoyce in the Lord in the hopes of pardon in the expectation of glory in the sence of thy mercies in the refreshments of thy spirit in a victory over all temptations Thou hast promised to be with us in tribulation Lord my soul is troubled and my body is weak and my hope is in thee and my enemies are busy and mighty now make good thy holy promise Now O holy Jesus now let thy hand of grace be upon me restrain my ghostly enemies and give me all sorts of spiritual assistances Lord remember thy servant in the day when thou bindest up thy Jewels O take from me all tediousnesse of Spirit all impatience and unquietnesse let me possesse my soul in patience and resigne my soul and body into thy hands as into the hands of a faithful Creator and a blessed Redeemer O holy Jesu thou didst dye for us by thy sad pungent intolerable pains which thou enduredst for me have pity on me ease my pain or increase my patience Lay on me no more then thou shalt enable me to bear I have deserv'd it all more and infinitely more Lord I am weak and ignorant timerous and inconstant and I feâ—r lest something should happen that may discompose the state of my soul that may displease thee Do what thou wilt with me so thou doest but preserve me in thy fear and favour Thou knowest that it is my great â—ear but let thy Spirit secure that nothing may be able to separate me from the love of God in Jesus Christ then smite me here that thou mayest spare me for ever and yet O Lord smite me friendly for thou knowest my infirmities Into thy hands I commend my spirit for thou hast redeemed me O Lord thou God of truth * Come holy Spirit help me in this conflict Come Lord Jesus come quickly Let the sick person often meditate upon these following promises and gracious words of God My help cometh of the Lord who preserveth them that are true of heart Psal. 7.11 And all they that know thy Name will put their trust in thee for thou Lord hast never failed them that seek thee Psal. 9.10 O how plentiful is thy goodnesse which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee and that thou hast prepared for them that put their trust in thee even before the sons of men Psal. 31. Behold the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him upon them that put their trust in his mercy to deliver their souls from death Ps. 33. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a contrite heart
for him the salvation of a new birth and by the blood of thy Son didst redeem and pay the price to thine own justice for thine own creature lest the work of thine own hands should perish O that men would therefore praise the Lord c. For thou O Lord in every age didst send testimonies from Heaven blessings and Prophets and fruitful seasons and preachers of righteousness and miracles of power and mercy thou spakest by thy Prophets and saidst I will help by one that is mighty and in the fulnesse of time spakest to us by thy Son by whom thou didst make both the Worlds who by the word of his power sustains all things in Heaven and Earth who thought it no robbery to be equal to the Father who being before all time was pleased to be born in time to converse with men to be incarnate of a holy Virgin he emptied himself of all his glories took on him the form of a servant in all things being made like unto us in a soul of passions and discourse in a body of humility and sorrow but in all things innocent and in all things afflicted and suffered death for us that we by him might live and be partakers of his nature and his glories of his body and of his Spirit of the blessings of earth and of immortal felicities in Heaven O that men would therefore praise the Lord c. For thou O holy and immortal God O sweetest Saviour Jesus wert made under the Law to condemn sin in the flesh thou who knewest no sin wert made sin for us thou gavest to us righteous Commandements and madest known to us all thy Fathers will thou didst redeem us from our vain conversation and from the vanity of Idols false principles and foolish confidences and broughtest us to the knowledge of the true and onely God and our Father and hast made us to thy self a peculiar people of thy own purchase a royal Priesthood a holy Nation Thou hast washed our soules in the Laver of Regeneration the Sacrament of Baptisme Thou hast reconciled us by thy death justified us by thy Resurrection sanctified us by thy Spirit sending him upon thy Church in visible formes and giving him in powers and miracles and mighty signes and continuing this incomparable favour in giâ—ts and sanâ—tifying graces and promising that hee shall abide with us for ever thou hast fed us with thine own broken body and given drink to our soules out of thine own heart and hast ascended up on high and hast overcome all the powers of Death and Hell and redeemed us from the miseries of a sad eternity and sittest at the right hand of God making intercession for us with a never-ceasing charity O that men would therefore praise the Lord c. The grave could not hold thee long O holy eternal Jesus thy body could not see corruption neither could thy soul be left in Hell thou wert free among the dead and thou brakest the iron gates of Death and the bars and chains of the lower prisons Thou broughtest comfort to the souls of the Patriarchs who waited for thy coming who long'd for the redemption of Man and the revelation of thy day Abraham Isaac and Iacob saw thy day and rejoyced and when thou didst arise from thy bed of darknesse and leftest the grave-clothes behinde thee and put on a robe of glory over which for 40 dayes thou didst wear a vail and then entred into a cloud and then into glory then the powers of Hell were confounded then Death lost its power and was swallowed up into victory though death is not quite destroyed yet it is made harmlesse and without a sting and the condition of Humane Nature is made an entrance to eternal glory art become the Prince of life the first fruits of the resurrection the first-born from the dead having made the way plain before our faces that we may also rise again in the Resurrection of the last day when thou shalt come again unto us to render to every Man according to his works O that men would therefore praise the Lord c. O give thanks unto the Lord for he is gracious and his mercy endureth for ever O all ye angels of the Lords praise ye the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever O ye spirits and souls of the Righteous praise ye the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever And now O Lord God what shall I render to thy Divine Majesty for all the benefits thou hast done unto thy servant in my personal capacity Thou art my Creator and my Father my Protector and my Guardian thou hast brought me from my Mothers wombe thou hast told all my joynts and in thy book were all my members written Thou hast given me a comely body Christian and careful parents holy education Thou hast been my guide and my teacher all my dayes Thou hast given me ready faculties and unloosed tongue a cheerful spirit strait limbs a good reputation and liberty of person a quiet life and a tender conscience a loving wife or husband and hopeful children thou wert my hope from my youth through thee have I been holden up ever since I was born Thou hast clothed me and fed me given me friends and blessed them given me many dayes of comfort and health free from those sad infirmities with which many of thy Saints and dearest servants are afflicted Thou hast sent thy Angel to snatch me from the violence of fire and water to prevent praecipices fracture of bones to rescue me from thunder and lightning plague and pestilential diseases murder and robbery violence of chance and enemies and all the spirits of darknesse and in the dayes of sorrow thou hast refreshed me in the destitution of provisions thou hast taken care of me and thou hast said unto me I will never leave thee nor forsake thee I will give thanks unto the Lord with my whole heart secretly among the faithful and in the congregation Thou O my dearest Lord and Father hast taken care of my soul hast pitied my miseries sustained my infirmities relieved and instructed my ignorances and though I have broken thy righteous Lawes and Commandements run passionately after vanities and was in love with Death and was dead in sin and was exposed to thousands of temptations and fell foully and continued in it and lov'd to have it so and hated to be reformed yet thou didst call me with the checks of conscience with daily Sermons and precepts of holinesse with fear and shame with benefits and the admonitions of thy most holy Spirit by the counsel of my friends by the example of good persons with holy books and thousands of excellent arts and wouldest not suffer me to perish in my folly but didst force me to attend to thy gracious calling and hast put me into a state of repentance and possibilities of pardon being infinitely desirous I should live and recover and make use of thy grace and partake
and will save such as are of an humble spirit Psal. 34.17 Thou Lord shalt save both man and beast how excellent is thy mercy O God and the children of men shall put their trust under the shadow of thy wings Psal. 36.7 They shall be satisfied with the plenteousness of thy house and thou shalt give them to drink of thy pleasures as out of the rivers v. 8. For with thee is the well of life and in thy light we shall see light v. 9. Commit thy way unto the Lord and put thy trust in him he shall bring it to passe Ps. 37.5 But the salvation of the righteous cometh of the Lord who is also their strength in the time of trouble v. 40. So that a Man shall say verily there is a reward for the righteous doubtlesse there is a God that judgeth the earth Psal. 58.10 Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and receivest unto thee he shall dwell in thy court and shall be satisfied with the pleasures of thy house even of thy holy temple Psal. 65.4 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy Psal. 126.6 It is written I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13.5 The prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up and if he have committed sins they shal be forgiven Iam. 5.15 Come and let us return unto the Lord for he hath torn and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will binde us up Hos. 6.1 If we sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins 1 Iohn 2.2 If we confesse our sins he is faithful righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse 1 Iohn 1.9 He that forgives shall be forgiven Luke 6.37 And this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us 1 Iohn 5 14. And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins 1 Iohn 3.5 If ye being evil know to give good things to your children how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to them that ask him Matth. 7.11 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the World to save sinners * He that hath given us his Son how should not he with him give us all things else Acts of hope to be used by sick persons after a pious life I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Rom. 8.38 I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me onely but unto all them also that love his appearing 2 Tim. 4.7 Blessed be the God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies and the God of all comforts who comforts us in all our tribulation 2 Cor. 1.3 A prayer to be said in behalf of a sick or dying person O Lord God there is no number of thy dayes nor of thy mercies and the sins and sorrowes of thy servant also are multiplied Lord look upon him with much mercy and pity forgive him all his sinnes comfort his sorrowes ease his pain satisfie his doubts relieve his feares instruct his ignorances strengthen his understanding take from him all disorders of spirit weaknesse and abuse of fancy Restraine the malice and power of the spirits of darknesse and suffer him to be injured neither by his ghostly enemies nor his own infirmities and let a holy and a just peace the peace of God be within his conscience Lord preserve his senses till the last of his time strengthen his faith confirm his hope and give him a never ceasing charity to thee our God and to all the world stir up in him a great and proportionable contrition for all the evils he hath done and give him a just measure of patience for all he suffers give him prudence memory and consideration rightly to state the accounts of his soul and do thou remind him of all his duty that when it shall please thee that his soul goes out from the prison of his body it may be receiv'd by Angels and preserved from the surprize of evil spirits and from the horrors and amazements of new and stranger Regions and be laid up in the bosom of our Lord till at the day of thy second coming it shall be reunited to the body which is now to be laid down in weaknes and dishonour but we humbly beg may then be raised up with glory power for ever to live and to behold the face of God in the glories of the Lord Jesus who is our hope our resurrection and our life the light of our eyes and the joy of our soules our blessed and ever glorious Redeemer Amen Hither the sick person may draw in and use the acts of several vertues respersed in the several parts of this book the several Letanies viz. of repentance of the passion and the single prayâ—rs according to his present needs A prayer to be said in a storm at Sea O my God thou didst create the earth and the Sea for thy glory and the use of Man and doest daily shew wonders in the deep look upon the danger and fear of thy servant my sins have taken hold upon me and without the supporting arm of thy mercy I cannot look up but my trust is in thee Do thou O Lord rebuke the Sea and make it calm for to thee the windes and the sea obey let not the waters swallow me up but let thy Spirit the Spirit of gentlenesse and mercy move upon the waters Be thou reconcil'd unto thy servants and then the face of the waters will be smooth I fear that my sinnes make me like Ionas the cause of the tempest Cast out all my sins and throw not thy servants away from thy presence and from the land of the living into the depths where all things are forgotten But if it be thy wil that we shall go down into the waters Lord receive my soul into thy holy hands and preserve it in mercy and safety till the day of restitution of all things and be pleased to unite my death to the death of thy Son and to accept of it so united as a punishment for all my sinnes that thou mayest forget all thine anger and blot my sinnes out of thy book and write my soul there for Jesus Christ his sake our dearest Lord and most mighty Redeemer Amen Then make an act of resignation thus To God pertain the issues of life and death It is the Lord let him do