Temptation Good Lord deliver me From the Flatteries of the Great and the Snares of Prosperity from the hardship and temptations of Poverty from the Luxury aâ—â— Wantonness of Plenty from Pride and Haughtiness in good Circumstances and Dejection and Discontent in had Good Lord deliver me From peevishness and spiritual Pride the mischiefs of vain and fond Opinions an uneafie Temper and unruly Tongue from rash words and the surprizes of lust and folly and uncharitable thoughts and censures Good Lord deliver me From an hard Heart and an evil Conscience from wilful Ignorance and Error and Knowledge that puffs up from resisting or discouraging Truth and promoting Error for secular ends from appearing or doing good for bad purposes promoting chief under pretence of Religion the abuse of thy Grace and the dangers of a late repentance Good Lord deliver me O Blessed Lord from whom every good thing comes to whom every thing is possible and who out of Stones canst raise up Children unto Abraham have Mercy upon me and make me such as thou wouldst have me to be good Lord I beseech thee O Lord in whose Hand are the Hearts of Men and who turnest them where thou wilt create a clean Heart and a new Spirit within me and turn me Good Lord that I may be turned Thou knowest how imperfect my Sorrows are how easily my Vows are broken and my best resolutions brought to nothing O do thou that dwellest with the humble and scontrite Heart make mine truly â—uch make my Sorrows sincere and my Resolutions steddy and let it be ever my studdy and delight to do thy will O God my God Let thy Word be my Rule thy Grace my Guide and Assistance thy Goodness my Pattern and Example thy Promises my Encouragement and thy Joys my everlasting Recompence and Reward O let my Words be such as may minister Grace to the Hearers my demeanour innocent inoffensive humble and easie my Affections governable and my Life exemplary Let every Mercy have its due effect upon me every opportunity of repentance make me better and if a temptation prove too hard for me let me not sleep with an unrepented Sin in my Bosom but give me a penitent Heart a watchful and upright Conscience Let thy Goodness and Beneficence be my Pattern and make me useful in the station thou hast placed me in give me a Heart and give me Wisdom and ability to do good and let such a temper and disposition of Soul as delights in the good of others recommend me to that Charity that is pleased with the Sacrifices of well doing O good God! to whom every thing is possible sanctifie my corrupt Nature and let thy gracious aids supply all my defects and so help my Infirmities that I may live in thy Love and Fear may die in thy Favour and be prepared for the account I am to give and be received with thy Faithful Servants to the joy of thy rest A concluding Prayer recommending himself to God imploring his Pardon Favour and Acceptance and grace to live in his Fear and Love O Blessed Father by whose Grace and Goodness I have been brought to some sense of my sins and some imperfect endeavours to make my peace with thee by Repentance In pity and compassion look down upon a poor sinner thy Grace has brought into thy presence Prosper O Lord the work of thine own hand Receive a Prodigal thy Mercy has brought back to thy Arms Forgive all thou hast seen amiss in my approaches to thee and accept and perfect my desires of being reconciled to thee and living in thy Love and Favour and give me such assistances of thy Grace that for the time to come I may live in thy fear and favour and by Peace and Charity by Temperance and Integrity by Holiness and Righteousness approve the sincerity and truth of my sorrow and repentance for my past transgressions O Lord into thy hands I commend my self To thy keeping O my God I commit my Soul and my Body Preserve me from every sin every danger keep me always mindful of my promises and resolutions of Obedience of Death and Judgment of thy presence and the great Account I am to give that so I may be always fitted and prepared to serve and glorifie thee by a right use of those Blessings thou hast committed to my trust fitted to be received amongst thy faithful Servants into the Joys of thy Rest O Lord hear and answer pity and forgive me and be good to me beyond what I can ask or think And all for his sake who died for sinners To whom with Thee and thy holy Spirit be ascribed all Adoration and Honour all Praise and Thanks both now and for evermore Amen CHAP. V. His behaviour after his retirement or some short Rules by which he endeavours to manifest the sincerity of his Repentance and Love of God 1. In his diligence in his Calling Justice in his Dealings c. 2. Good of fices to all men 3. Peaceableness as a Subject 4. Charity as a Christian 5. Watchfulness over all his Actions and wise and sober use of God's Blessings THe devout Christian having thus enquired into the state and condition of his own soul returns to his station in the world and chearfully sets himself to do his Duty in which each circumstance has a particular regard He is industrious in his Calling and his justice in all his dealings consecrate his Cares and his Wealth to God He knows that Godliness has the promise of this as well as the other world and assures himself of God's Blessing upon his Industry But if God withhold his hand or keep back his bounty he believes the wise Disposer of all things sees it fittest for him and quietly submits if God prosper his Cares he is humble and thankful and charitable and God has the honour of his own Beneficence 2. The frailties of his own Nature and that immense Goodness that with an universal charity embraces Mankind give him so lively a sense of that regard he owes to human Nature that he loves and prays for all Mankind that he studies to imitate the Divine Beneficence in his endeavour to do good and be useful in the world and and by all the good offices of Humanity Charity and Friendship transcribe the Beneficence that is ever pleased with doing good 3. That tendency to society which he finds rivetted into his Natures is cultivated and improved by a just regard to that Power and Providence by which the world is govern'd He believes Government the Ordinance of God and tho it always carries some marks of the frailties of men yet this he looks upon as the infelicity essential to the present state of things and thinks it a very unreasonable peevishness to disturb the publick Peace because God thinks fit to govern us by men that have failings but since this is the common state of mankind and till all Power be swallowed up in the Kingdom of the Father there can be neither Governour nor Government without a fault he believes he ought to contribute all he can to publick Peace and study to be quiet 4. He blesses God for his unspeakable Mercy in admitting him into the place of his Church as a Member whereof he believes there is a new tie laid upon him to preserve the Peace and further the Welfare of all his fellow Christians if they fall into Error and violate either the Faith or the Unity of that blessed Society he believes Christ is the Head and Judge to and leaves the matter in his hand and whilst he adores the Goodness that has kept him in the ways of Truth and Peace he preserves a charity for those who have departed from them The holy ardour which inspired the Devotions of his Closet returns with him to his Calling where he feels the rewards of it in a chearful access to and holy warmth in the publick Worship of God and the satisfaction he tasts in the care of his own Soul impresses a value and esteem on those that watch for it 5. The peace and joys of a holy Conscience and the ease and pleasure of being reconciled unto God grow up into a resolution to break through the tyranny of evil customs to fly every danger and temptation that have betray'd him to sin to watch every opportunity to serve God or be useful to men especially not to bring a reproach on Religion by being sowr or uneasie or fright men from a holy austerity and frequent Accounts with God by denying himself the innocent joys of Conversation but on the contrary his care is to do justice to the Honour of his Lord by such useful converse and decent and chearful use of God's Blessings as may convince his enemies that the Christian may be temperate in plenty humble in greatness pious and devout in the highest station or most publick Trust and hope for an inheritance in another world without abandoning the innocent pleasures and true joys of this or doing any thing unworthy the greatness of his Birth his Quality or his Trust his Honour or Friendship his good Breeding or good Temper Thus resolved the Devout Christian carries his Repentance into the light and his Sorrows and Vows become visible in Piety and Good Works He lives over his Resolutions of a better Obedience and his publick Actions bespeak his Soul consecrated to God till some unhappy temptation break in upon him some new Blessings call him back again or the Joys of Peace and conversing with God or his care of a future Account call him afresh to his Father that sees in secret ERRATA Page 8. line 16. for removed read renewed p. 26. l. 8. for sins r. sense p. 69. l. 24. for hardiness r. hardness FINIS
Second of September being the Fire of London O Almighty God whose Judgments are terrible and whose Mercies are infinite who hast testified thy displeasure at our sins in permitting the destroying Angel to kill thousands in our streets and even surfeiting the Grave with our Dead and when this would not reclaim us in laying waste our Dwellings and giving us so dreadful a remembrance of Sodom and Gomorrha in our punishment by fire O Lord make us all sensible of our provocations that have drawn down thy anger and let thy Judgments drive or thy Goodness lead us all to Repentance Awake us from our Security and drive out that unhappy Spirit of Profaneness and Luxury that has so long prevailed and raise up amongst us a Spirit of Holiness and Wisdom of Temperance and Charity and teach us all to live in thy fear and in thy favour O Lord forgive whatever I have contributed to the crying sins of the Nation and let my iniquity never draw thy anger upon thy People but make me an Instrument of doing thee service for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen For any Day of publick Fasting O Almighty God who hast premised to forgive the sins and hear the Prayers of all such as turn to thee by Repentance In mercy look down on thy People humbling themselves before thee in Fasting and Prayer O Lord make us all sensible of our great provocations and how just it would be in thee to give us up into the hands of those men whose mercies are cruel and pour out thy indignations upon us But with thee O Lord there is mercy that thou maist be feared O do thou spare us though we deserve punishment and in thy wrath think upon mercy Give us not over unto confusion nor let our Enemies say We have prevailed but by a general Repentance and Reformation fit us for thy mercy and then be good unto us as thou usest to be to those that love thy Name Forgive especially whatever I have contributed to the publick Guilts or done to hinder thy Blessings whether to Church or State and give me such a sense thereof that my present Repentance and future practice may be exemplary and the course of my life fit me for ever to live with thee in Glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen A Prayer before Receiving the Sacrament MOst gracious Lord our God who wouldest not have the Prodigal lost and hast no pleasure in the death of him that dies but wouldst have men come to the knowledge of themselves thy Mercy and thy Truth that they may be saved O holy Father receive a relenting Prodigal to thy Arms a Sinner to thy Mercy and let thy Goodness so cover the errors of my past life my present sorrows for them and my resolutions of a better obedience that I may be accepted at thy Table that I may be admitted to all the benefits of thy Son's Death and Passion and his Blood may seal my pardon and the assistance of thy Grace direct and enable me so to live for the time to come that I may at last be received with all true Penitents to thy Mercy through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen In the time of Sickness O Merciful Lord who usest thy rod in anger as well as love and expectest that we should be bettered by every correction With the compassions of a Father look upon me teach me to call my ways to remembrance and find out the accursed thing that has brought this affliction upon me and make me so sensible of my manifold provocations and so sincerely to lament and abhor and forsake them that this correction may appear the effect of thy love and pity and by a serious and hearty Repentance a lively Faith and a just affiance in thy Mercy fit me for the Night in which none can work that if thou thinkest fit to spare me I may live an example of one bettered by thy Judgment or else reap the benefits of thy fatherly correction in an entire submission to thy will here and being received to thy Glory hereafter All for Christ Jesus his sake Amen CHAP. IV. His method of arming himself against the temptations of the world and strengthening his resolutions by reflecting 1. On Death and the dangers of delaying Repentance 2. The Judgment to come 3. Love of God 4. Prayer for Love of God 5. General Litany THus the Penitent having discharged his Soul into the bosom of a God forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin is ravished with the hopes of pardon and a prospect of that Goodness he is henceforward to adore and imitate and the peace and joy of an easie conscience raise so amiable an Idea of Vertue and Holiness that he fears nothing more than that the impressions should be lost that his resolutions should languish 'T is therefore his next care to fix a sense of his past transgressions and perpetuate the satisfactions of the change he has made and carry back with him to his station in this world such a passion for the Honour and Service of God as may animate the whole course of his conversation and lest the objects of sense or his too partial regard to his worse part lessen his concern for that better Subject of his love and care the blessed Image of his great Creator he endeavours to arm himself with such Reflections as these 1. His Reflections on Mortality and Death and the danger of a late Repentance 1. WHilst I carelesly tread upon the ashes of my Ancestors and the pleasures of sense cloud the notices my Creator has given me of Mortality my Senses do the business of my Reason for my Body gives me such certain notices of its own mortal state that I am as certain I must die as I can be that I am not a Stock or a Stone that I have the sense of feeling or am uneasie when my blood is in a flame or when I am crying out of the pains of the Gout or Stone But whether the thread of my life shall regularly consume or make but one short flame is a secret I cannot penetrate the time and manner of my Death are equally unknown to me I have no better assurance in what manner I must leave the world than when I must do it my Reason and my Senses may go before me and Death may seize me when I am able neither to speak nor think much less reflect or beg pardon and there is no Repentance in the Grave but as I leave this world Judgment will overtake me in the other or it may seize me in the very act of sin when my soul is poured out upon my Lusts and all my faculties and all my affections are engaged in my Folly and should I be thus surprized with what confusion and astonishment should I appear before Him that hates my sin and all in vain did so much to prevent my ruine and what can I hope for when my life shall appear but one long scene of
Notices and Conceptions of the Understanding have a tincture from the matter of which the Body is formed is as manifest as the different Impressions which the Things of this and the other World make on the Minds of Men by a similitude of Nature and the immediate access they have to our Senses The former have a mighty influence whilst the latter having no access to the Soul but by the Ministry of the Body are discoloured by the Medium through which they pass and are so lessened in our estimation and regard that every Trifle becomes a Rival and our sensitive part so favours the pretensions of the World that it is very apt to engross our time and our care Israel-like we fix so passionately on the Earthly Canaan that 't is some pain to bring our selves to due reflections on the Joys which lie beyond it and 't is so difficult to entertain the thoughts of both together that 't is hard if not impossible for the best of Men to preserve a just Idea of another Life whilst they give up themselves to the hurry and the noise of This. Hence the Devout Christian concludes it necessary to set a-part certain Portions of his time when laying aside all thoughts of This he may entertain himself with those of the other World 2. He does not abandon the Station God has set him in he does not fly to a Cloyster or a Desart nor believe he shall be more serviceable to God by rendring himself useless to Men that Walls will purge the Corruptions which lodge in his Nature or Solitude quench the Fire he carries thither in his Blood Though he has a reverence for those Holy Men whom Persecution or Choice led to a Solitude yet he cannot believe that the Holy Solitaires of old ever intended by their Examples to unpeople the World or that God ever intended we should banish our selves from Society to which he planted a tendency in our very Natures or that he who made us to be helpful to one another will put a value on a perpetual Affront and Contradiction to the Law of our Natures or that the highest Institution of Charity the Gospel will ever allow the best pretensions to defeat it and render Men unuseful to the World 3. Yet he believes it of great moment to make frequent retreats from the World to abandon and lay aside the pursuit and thoughts thereof to entertain himself with the considerations of and his pretensions to a better State and this he looks upon as necessary as Temperance and Physick to his Body or Accounts to his Estate If the Health of his Body will permit Abstinence accompanies him to his Closet and his Body feels the resentment his Sin deserves at least he Fasts to his Father that sees in secret he does not serve his Vanity on his retreat it does not make him sowre uneasie or out of Humour nor does he think his Conversation ought to carry the marks of those sad reflections that possessed his Soul 't is enough to him that God is the Witness to his sorrow and resentment that he has poured out his Soul before him that he who can reward him openly can hear the gentlest sigh or the softest Prayer and thus assured a profound Humility and an awful senâ—e of the Divine Presence accompany him in his retirement to his Closet where his Repentance and his Prayers have their due place he knows that he who fills the Heavens will dwell with the humble and contrite Heart and the high and lofty one who inhabits Eternity will hear and not despise the Prayer of the destitute that he whose Mercy is over all his Works whose Grace is sufficient for the impotent Offender will grant Repentance unto Life to those that sincerely seek for it And in this assurance his first Address is to God that he who is the Creator and Lover of Souls who thought fit to make Men after his own Image and redeem them with the inestimable Merits of his Son and in his Name has Preached repentance to all the World and to whom nothing is impossible would enable him to make a right judgment of his own state and condition and grant him repentance unto Life Eternal and that this may not end in ineffectual wishes his first care is to inform himself of the Nature of that Duty God and the interest of his own Soul have made so necessary CHAP. II. 1. The Penitents opinion of the possibility and necessity of Repentance and the danger of deferring it 2. His sorrow for sin 3. His resolution to forsake it 4. His behaviour when surprized to the sin he resolved against 5. His thoughts of the second part of Repentance the measures by which he distinguishes it from the ineffectual Repentance and judges of his sincerity in the practice thereof 6. Arguments against his relapse and neglect of the duty of Repentance 7. Practice of it how managed 8. When removed 1. THe natural notices of God's Goodness and Mercy render it so reasonable to believe that he has made that plain and intelligible and practicable which he has made necessary that when he finds Repentance charged upon the sinner and enforced with the Sanctions of Death eternal the devout Christian concludes it a duty in the reach of every capacity and by the Grace of God within the power of the sinner and does neither disturb himself with nice and elaborate speculations and enquiries about it nor with dangerous conceits of its being impracticable but relying on that All-wise Goodness that designed it a Remedy and a Blessing to fallen Mankind he conducts his search by those discoveries that God has given and his hopes by the Grace and Aids he has promised assures himself the Repentance God describes in his Word is that he requires and the Merits of the Blessed Jesus which in favour of sinners have changed he Primitive method of Salvation And advanced sorrow and remorse and a hearty endeavour of pleasing God into the room of integrity and unsinning obedience will not only give a value to the duty being done but procure ability to perform it Having thus laid the foundations of his Faith and Hopes in the Goodness of God and the Merits of his Son he addresses himself to the Treasury of Holy Truths God intended for his Guide where Repentance is described sometimes by the perturbation which is raised in the soul of the Offender by a reflection on his sin or the frightful apprehensions that a sense of sin produces in us Thus St. Paul calls it a godly sorrow and faith That a godly sorrow works Repentance to Salvation Sometimes it is described by the effect which the sense of sin and the hopes of pardon produce in the Heart and Affections or in the Lives and Manners of Men. Thus in the common expression of the Prophets Repentance is making a clean and a new spirit turning from our evil ways or doing that which is lawful and right and turning unto God
contempt and disobedience to his Law and the very last act of it a defiance of the remedy God had tendred to me But if Death make a gentle and easie approach and the mercy of God deliver me from the numberless contingencies that may prevent all possibility of a late Repentance what assurance can I have that what till then had been my choice will not then become my doom or that God will not give me up to a penal hardiness But if God permit me to be sensible of my danger yet with what face can I hope for or ask the assistance of his Grace that I not only not desired but refused and resisted till I am become uncapable of using it to his Honour But if God give me grace to be sensible of my past sins yet this is at the most but one part of Repentance and such as can afford me little comfort when my circumstances put me out of a possibility of reducing my sorrow into practice for tho's God who knows the heart and does sometimes accept the will for the deed when that will is sincere yet He only is a competent Judge of that sincerity and not the Christian unless he have time to try it by his practice So that the best assurance the late Penitent can have of the truth of his sorrow is at the most but the assurance he has of the sincerity of his heart which is deceitful above all things What madness is it then to venture Eternity on that which is but the shadow of a well-grounded hope a shadow that may flie away in a moment a shadow that the Harbingers of Death so frequently remove from us that if God had made a promise to accept the sorrows of dying persons to all the ends of Repentance the methods by which Death makes its approach would very often render it ineffectual by putting it out of the power of dying persons so much as to remember what they had done Thus the Christian views the precipice and beholds the dangers of those delays corrupted Nature or the flatteries of the world would lead him to and concludes it as necessary to be always provided for it as it is certain he is to die and looks upon it as his most important care not to lose the happy minute on which an eternity of Bliss or Misery depends but the danger of a sad Eternity keeps him always upon his guard and the consideration that the justice of God or the frailties of his Nature may in a minute ravish from his power the opportunity to make his peace possesses him with a steddy resolution to live over his sorrows his vows and promises and endeavour that the practice or fruits of true Repentance amendment and doing better may fit him for the change God and Nature have made inevitable 2. His Reflections on Judgment 2 COuld I hide my sins in the dust would the same kind Fate that closes up mine eyes hide me to eternal Ages or the Grave spread night over all my actions could I lie forgotten there and share the portion of the Worm that must then be my brother or could that corruption and rottenness that are to be my sister and my mother entitle me to an everlasting oblivion and neglect a short-liv'd shame and the uneasiness and dishonour of doing an unworthy action might possibly be too little to restrain my unruly passions But whilst my Lust thus fondly entertains me my Reason breaks through the scene of Folly the regret every sin leaves behind it the secret pleasures of well-doing the seeming inequality in the dispensations of Providence the indelible notices of the Divine Being and Justice give me such certain presages of a future Account that amidst the charms of sin I find something like St. Jerom's sound To Judgment something that spreads a secret pleasure or regret through my Soul for actions unknown to all the world and leaves such impressions upon me that 't is as easie to put off my Nature and cease to be whilst I am as to deliver my Soul from the apprehensions of a future Judgment But had Nature been silent He that made and governs the world has given us a prospect of futurity and shewed us how he will rectifie the seeming inequalities that appear in the conduct of human affairs and with an impartial hand deal Reward or Punishment to all his Subjects But can nothing be hid from the discerning Eye must my youthful follies must the elaborate sins I have spun so fine as to carry the face of Virtue to the world pass the censure of just Omniscience must my varnished Lusts my gilded Passions and my painted Sins be stripped naked and thus appear to the Judge of Secrets must my avowed Impieties and customary Sins my known and unobserved Omissions every tumor in my Passions every indecency in my Words every foolish Thought be brought into Account and will God enter into Judgment for them must the follies I did not dare to trust to a mortal eye nay scare to the censure of my own conscience be proclaimed to Men and Angels must I answer to God for every Mercy I have abused every opportunity of Repentance I have lost for every instance of that patience and forbearance that have been vouchsafed to me in vain Good God! what must a sinner do If thou wilt be extreme to mark all I have done amiss I cannot answer thee one for a thousand and how then shall I stand in judgment and yet I cannot flie from nor avoid or illude it If I climb up into Heaven thou art there if I go down into Hell thou art there also Thy Omnipresence frustrates all my hopes of flying on the wings of the morning and thy Power the kindness of the Mountains should they fall upon me From thy presence then I cannot flee from thy Spirit I cannot hide me and which is more dreadful not the least of all my fins But whilst this dreadful prospect fills the soul of the Penitent with confusion and horror the comforts of the blessed Spirit that ever watch the motions of the wounded soul break in upon him and carry his thought to new reflections on the compassions of his Judge He remembers that he who must come to call him to Account is the same blessed Person that died to save him and in charity to him came from Heaven to shew him how to flie from the wrath to come and has offered him his hand to conduct him to his arms Thus his fears resolve into a nobler passion and his confusion breaks up in resolutions to accept the tenders of his Lord to measure all his future actions by a regard to this great Account and this one thought That his Lord may come in a day or an hour that he looks not for him and appoint him his portion with unbelievers is guard to all the rest the flatteries with which his Lust or Vanity used to possess his fancy appear empty Dreams the charms of this