to satisfie whom we have injur'd and to forgive them who have injur'd us without thoughts of resuming the quarrel when the solemnity is over for that is but to rake the embers in light and phantastick ashes it must be quenched and a holy flame enkindled no fires must be at all but the fires of love and zeal and the altar of incense will send up a sweet perfume and make atonement for us 7. When the day of the feast is come lay aside all cares and impertinencies of the World and remember that this is thy Souls day a day of traffique and entercourse with Heaven Arise early in the morning 1. Give God thanks for the approach of so great a blessing 2. Confess thy own unworthiness to admit so Divine a Guest 3 Then remember and deplore thy sins which have made thee so unworthy 4. Then confess Gods goodness and take sanctuary there and upon him place thy hopes 5. And invite him to thee with renewed acts of love of holy desire of hatred of his enemy sin 6. Make oblation of thy self wholy to be disposed by him to the obedience of him to his providence and possession and pray him to enter and dwell there for ever And after this with joy and holy fear and the forwardness of love address thy self to the receiving of him to whom by whom and for whom all faiths and all hope and all love in the whole Catholick Church both in Heaven and Earth is designed him whom Kings and Queens and whole Kingdomes are inlove with and count it the greatest honour in the World that their Crowns and Scepters are laid at his holy feet 8. When the holy man stands at the Table of blessing and ministers the rite of consecration then do as the Angels do who behold and love and wonder that the Son of God should become food to the souls of his servants that he who cannot suffer any change of â—essening should be broken into pieces enter into the body to support and nourish the spirit and yet at the same time remain in Heaven while he descends to thee upon Earth that he who hath essential felicity should become miserable and dye for thee and then give himself to thee for ever to redeem thee from sin and misery that by his wounds he should procure health to thee by his affronts he should entitle thee to glory by his death he should bring thee to life and by becoming a man he should make thee partaker of the Divine nature These are such glories that although they are made so obvious that each eye may behold them yet they are also so deep that no thought can fathome them But so it hath pleased him to make these mysteries to be sensible because the excellency and depth of the mercy is not intelligible that while we are ravished and comprehended within the infiniteness of so vast and mysterious a mercy yet we may be as sure of it as of that thing we see and feel smell and taste but yet is so great that we cannot understand it 9. These holy mysteries are offered to our senses but not to be placed under our feet they are sensible but not common and therefore as the weakness of the Elements adds wonder to the excellency of the Sacrament so let our reverence and venerable usages of them adde honour to the Elements and acknowledge the glory of he mysterie and the Divinity of the mercy Let us receive the consecrated Elements with all devotion and humility of body and spirits and do this honour to it that it be the first food we eat and the first beverage we drink that day unless it be in case of sickness or other great necessity and that your body and soul both be prepared to its reception with abstinence from secular pleasures Disâ—â—diâ—e alia is Qums tuliâ— hâ—stemaÌ„ gaudia necâ—e Venuâ— that you may better have attended fastings and preparatory prayers For if ever it be seasonable to observe the counsell of Saint Paul that married person by consent should abstain foâ— a time that they may attend to solemn Religion it is now It was not by Saint Paul nor the after ages of the Church called a duty so to do but it is most reasonable that the more solemn actions of Religion should be attended to without the mixture of any thing that may discompose the minde and make it more secular or less religious 10. In the act of receiving exercise acts of Faith with much confidence and resignation believing it not to be common bread and wine but holy in their use holy in their signification holy in their change and holy in their effect and believe if thou art a worthy Communicant thou dost as verily receive Christs body and blood to all effects and purposes of the spirit Cruci haremus sanguinem sugimus inâ—er ipsa Redemptoriâ— nostri vulnera figimus linguam Cyprian de caena Dom. as thou doest receive the blessed elements into thy mouth that thou puttest thy finger to his hand and thy hand into his side and thy lips into his fontinel of blood sucking life from his heart and yet if thou doest communicate unworthily thou eatest and drinkest Christ to thy danger and death and destruction Dispute not concerning the secret of the mystery and the nicety of the manner of Christs presence it is sufficient to thee that Christ shall be present to thy soul as an instrument of grace a pledge of the resurrection as the earnest of glory and immortality and a meanes of many intermediall blessings even all such as are necessary for thee and are in order to thy salvation and to make all this good to thee there is nothing necessary on thy part but a holy life and a true belief of all the sayings of Christ amongst which indefinitely assent to the words of institution and beleive that Christ in the holy Sacrament gives thee his body and his blood He that believes not this is not a Christian He that believes so much needs not to enquire further nor to intangle his faith by disbelieving his sense 11. Fail not this solemnity according to the custom of pious devout people to make an offering to God for the uses of religion the poor according to thy ability For when Christ feasts his body let us also feast our fellow members who have right to the same promises and are partakers of the same Sacrament and partners of the same hope and cared for under the same providence and descended from the same common parents and whose Father God is and Christ is their Elder brother If thou chancest to communicate where this holy custom is not observed publickly supply that want by thy private charity but offer it to God at his holy Table at least by thy private designing it there 11. When you have received pray and give thanks Pray for all estates of men for they also have an interest in the body
Holy Living In which are described The Means and Instruments of obtaining every Virtue and the Remedies against every Vice and Considerations serving to the resisting all Temptations Together with PRAYERS containing the whole duty of a Christian and the parts of Devotion fitted to all Occasians and furnished for all Necessities By JER TAYLOR D. D. The 5 th Edition corrected With Additionals LONDON Printed for Richard Royston at the Angel in Ivie-lane 1656. TO THE Right Honourable and truly Noble RICHARD Lord VAUGHAN Earl of Carbery Knight of the honourable Order of the Bath My Lord I Have lived to see Religion painted upon Banners and thrust out of Churches and the Temple turned into a Tabernacle and that Tabernacle made ambulatory and covered with skins of Beasts and torn Curtains and God to be worshipped not as he is the Father of our Lord Jesus an afflicted Prince the King of sufferings nor as the God of peace which two appellatives God newly took upon him in the New Testament and glories in for ever but he is owned now rather as the Lord of Hosts which title he was pleased to lay aside when the Kingdome of the Gospel was preached by the Prince of peace But when Religion puts on Armor and God is not acknowledged by his New Testament titles Religion may have in it the power of the Sword but not the power of Godliness and we may complain of this to God and amongst them that are afflicted but we have no remedy but what we must expect from the fellowship of â—hrists sufferings and the returns of the God of peace In the mean time and now that Religion pretends to stranger actions upon new principles and men are apt to preferre a prosperous errour before an afflicted truth and some will think they are religious enough if their worshipings have in them the prevailing ingredient and the Ministers of Religion are so scattered that they cannot unite to stop the inundation and from Chairs or Pulpiâ—s from their Synods or Tribunals chastise the iniquity of the errour and the ambition of evil Guides and the infidelity of the willingly seduced multitude and that those few good people who have no other plot in their religion but to serve God and save their souls doe want such assistances of ghostly counsel as may serve their emergent needs and assist their endeavours in the acquist of virtues and relieve their dangers when they are tempted to sinne and death I thought I had reasons enough inviting me to draw into one body those advices which the severall necessities of many men must use at some time or other and many of them daily that by a collection of holy precepts they might lesse feel the want of personall and attending Guides and that the Rules for conduct of souls might be committed to a Book which they might alwaies have since they could not alwaies have a Prophet at their needs nor be suffered to go up to the house of the Lord to inquire of the appointed Oracles I know my Lord that there are some interested persons who adde scorn to the afflictions of the Church of England and because she is afflicted by Men call her forsaken of the Lord and because her solemn Assemblies are scattered think that the Religion is lost and the Church divorc'd from God supposing Christ who was a Man of sorrows to be angry with his Spouse when she is like him for that 's the true state of the Errour and that he who promised his Spirit to assist his servants in their troubles will because they are in trouble take away the Comforter from them who cannot be a comforter but while he cures our sadnesses and relieves our sorrows and turns our persecutions into joyes and Crowns and Scepters But concerning the present state of the Church of England I consider that because we now want the blessings of external communion in many degrees and the circumstances of a prosperous unafflicted people we are to take estimate of our selves with single judgments every man is to give sentence concerning the state of his own soul by the precepts and rules of our Law-giver not by the after-decrees and usages of the Church that is by the essential parts of Religion rather then by the uncertain significations of any exteriour adherencies for though it be uncertain when a Man is the Member of a Church whether he be a Member to Christ or no because in the Churches Net there are fishes good and bad yet we may be sure that if we be members of Christ we are of a Church of all purposes of spiritual religion and salvation and in order to this give me leave to speak this great truth That Man does certainly belong to God who 1 Believes and is baptized into all the Articles of the Christian faith and studies to improve his knowledge in the matters of God so as may best make him to live a holy life 2 He that in obedience to Christ worships God diligently frequently and constantly with naturall Religion that is of prayer praises and thanksgiving 3 He that takes all opportunities to remember Christs death by a frequent Sacrament as it can be had or else by inward acts of understanding will and memory which is the spiritual communion supplies the want of the external rite 4 He that lives chastly 5 And is merciful 6 And despises the World using it as a Man but never suffering it to rifle a duty 7 And is just in his dealing and diligent in his calling 8 He that is humble in his spirit 9 And obedient to Government 10 And content in his fortune and imployment 11 He that does his duty because he loves God 12 And especially if after all this he be afflicted and patient or prepared to suffer affliction for the cause of God The Man that have these twelve signes of grace and predestination does as certainly belong to God and is his Son as surely as he is his creature And if my brethren in persecution and in the bands of the Lord Jesus can truly shew these marks they shall not need be troubled that others can shew a prosperous outside great revenues publick assemblie uninterrupted successions of Bishops prevailing Armies or any arm of flesh or lesse certain circumstance These are the marks of the Lord Jesus and the characters of a Christian This is a good Religion and these things Gods grace hath put into our powers and Gods Laws have made to be our duty and the nature of Men and the needs of Common-wealths have made to be necessary the other accidents and pomps of a Church are things without our power and are not in our choice they are good to be used when they may be had and they help to illustrate or advantage it but if any of them constitute a Church in the being of a society and a Government yet they are not of its constitution as it is Christian and hopes to be saved And now the
against me but thy rod gently correct my follies and guide me in thy waies and thy staffe support me in all sufferings and changes Preserve me from fracture of bones from noisâ—me infectious and sharp sicknesses from great violences of Fortune and sudden surprises keep all my senses intire till the day of my death and let my death be neither sudden untimely nor unprovided let it be after the common manner of men having in it nothing extraordinary but an extraordinary piety and the manifestation of thy great and miraculous mercy IV. LEt no riches make me ever forget my self no poverty ever make me to forget thee Let no hope or fear no pleasure or pain no accident without no weakness within hinder or discompose my duty or turn me from the waies of thy Commandements O let thy spirit dwell with me for ever and make my soul just and charitable full oâ— honesty full of religion resolute and constant in holy purposes but inflexible to evil Make me humble and obedient peaceable and pious let me never envy any mans good nor deserve to be despised my self and if I be teach me to bear it with meekness and charity V. GIve me a tender conscience a conversation discreet and affable modest and patient liberal and obliging a body chaste and healthful compitency of living according to my condition contentedness in all estates a resigned will and mortified affections that I may be as thou wouldest have me and my portion may be in the lot of the righteous in the brightness of thy countenance and the glories of eternity Amen Holy is our God Holy is the Almighty * Holy is the immortal Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabaoth have mercy upon me A form of Prayer for the Evening to be said by such who have not time or opportunity to say the publick Prayers appointed for this office I. Evening Prayer O Eternal God Great Father of Men and Angels who hast established the Heavens and the Earth in a wonderful order making day and night to exceed each other I make my humble addresse to thy Divine Majestie begging of thee mercy and protection this night and ever O Lord pardon all my sins my light and rash words the vanity and impiety of my thoughts my unjust and uncharitable actions and whatsoever I have transgressed against thee this day or at any time before Behold O God my soul is troubled in the remembrance of my sins in the frailty and sinfulness of my flesh exposed to every temptation and of it self not able to resist any Lord God of mercy I earnestly beg of thee to give me a great portion of thy grace such as may be sufficient and effectual for the mortification of all my sins and vanities and disorders that as I have formerly served my lust and unworthy desires so now I may give my self up wholly to thy service and the studies of a holy life II. BLessed Lord teach me frequently and sadly to remember my sins and be thou pleased to remember them no more let me never forget thy mercies and doe thou still remember to doe me good Teach me to walk alwaies as in thy presence Ennoble my soule with great degrees of love to thee and consigne my spirit with great fear religion and veneration of thy holy Name and laws that it may become the great imployment of my whole life to serve thee to advance thy glory to root out all the accursed habits of sin that in holiness of life in humility in charity in chastity and all the ornaments of grace I may by patience wait for the coming of our Lord Jesus Amen III. TEach me O Lord to number my daies that I may apply my heart unto wisdom ever to remember my last end that I may not dare to sin against thee Let thy holy Angels be ever present with me to keep me in all my waies from the malice and violence of the spirits of darkness from evil company and the occasions and opportunities of evil from perishing in popular judgments from all the waies of sinfull shame from the hands of all mine enemies from a sinful life and from despair in the day of my death Then O brightest Jesu shine gloriously upon me let thy mercies and the light of thy countenance sustain me in all my agonies weaknesses and temptations Give me opportunity of a prudent and spiritual Guide and of receiving the holy Sacrament and let thy loving Spirit so guide me in the waies of peace and safety that with the testimony of a good conscience and the sense of thy mercies and refreshment I may depart this life in the unity of the Church in the love of God and a certain hope of salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord and most blessed Saviour Amen Our Father c. Another form of Evening Prayer which may also be used at bed-time Our Father c. Psal. 121. I Will lift up my eyes unto the hils from whence cometh my help My help cometh of the Lord which made heaven and earth He will not suffer thy foot to be moved he that keepeth thee will not slumber Behold he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep The Lord is thy keeper the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand The sun shall not smite thee by day neither the moon by night The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil he shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth for evermore Glory be to the Father c. I. VIsit I beseech thee O Lord this habitation with thy mercy and me with thy grace and salvation Let thy holy Angels pitch their tents round about and dwel here that no illusion of the night may abuse me the spirits of darkness may not come neer to hurt me no evil or sad accident oppresse me and let the eternall spirit of the father dwell in my soul and body filling every corner of my heart with light and grace Let no deed of darkness overtake me and thy blessing most blessed GOD be upon me for ever through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen II. INto thy hands most blessed Jesu I commend my soul and body for thou hast redeemed both with thy most precious blood So blesse and sanctifie my sleep unto me that it may be temperate holy and safe a refreshment to my wearied body to enable it so to serve my soul that both may serve thee with a never failing duty O let me never sleep in sin or death eternal but give me a watchfull and a prudent spirit that I may omit no opportunity of serving thee that whether I sleep or wake live or die I may be thy servant and thy childe that when the work of my life is done I may rest in the bosome of my Lord till by the voice of the Archangel the tâ—ump of God I shall be awakened and called to sit down and feast in the eternal supper of
parts of it 1. Sobriety 2. Justice 3. Religion For the grace of God bringing salvation hath appeared to all men T it 2.11 12. teaching us that denying ungodlyness and wordly 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 great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. The first contains all our deportment in our personal and private capacities the fair treating of our bodies and our spirits The second enlarges our duâ—y 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 the duties of 1. Temperance 2. Chastity 3. Humility 4. Modesty 5. Content It is a using severity denial and frustration of our appetite when it grows unreasonable in any of these instances the necessity of which we shall to best purpose understand by considering the evil consequences of sensuality effeminacy or fondness after carnal pleasures Evil consequents of voluptuousness or Sensuality 1. A longing after sensual pleasures is a dissolution of the spirit of a man and makes it loose soft and wandring unapt for noble wise or spiritual imployments because the principles upon which pleasure is chosen and pursued are sottish weak and unlearned Tu si animum vâ—â—isti pâ—tius quà m animus te est quod gaudeaâ— Qui animum vinâ—unt quà m quoâ— animus sâ—mper probiores cluent â—â—num such as preferre the body before the soul the appetite before reason sense before the spirit the pleasures of a short abode before the pleasures of eternity 2. The nature of sensual pleasure is vain empty and unsatisfying biggest alwaies in expectation and a meer vanity in the enjoying and leaves a sting and thoâ—n behinde it when it goes off Our laughing if it be loud and high commonly ends in a deep sigh and all the instances of pleasure have a sting in the tail though they carry beauty on the face and sweetness on the lip 3. Sensual pleasure is a great abuse to the Spirit of a man being a kinde of fascination or witchcraft blinding the understanding and enslaving the will And he that knows he is free-born or redeemed with the blood of the Son of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arrian c 2 l. 1. will not easily suffer the freedom of his soul to be intangled and rifled 4. It is most contrary to the state of a Christian whose life is a perpetual exercise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Epist. cap 34. a wrastling and warfare to which sensual pleasure disables him by yielding to that enemy with whom he must strive if ever he will be crowned And this argument the Apostle intimated 1 Cor 9 â—5 He that striveth for masteries is temperate in all things Now they doe it to obtain a corruptible crown but we an incorruptible 5. It is by a certain consequence the greatest impediment in the world to martyrdom that being a fondness this being a cruelty to the flesh to which a Christian man arriving by degrees must first have crucified the lesser affections for he that is overcome by little arguments of pain will hardly consent to lose his life with torments Degrees of Sobriety Against this voluptuousness sobriety is opposed in three degrees 1. A despite or disaffection to pleasures or a resolving against all entertainment of the instances and temptations of sensuality and it consists in the internal faculties of will and understanding decreeing and declaring against them disapproving and disliking them upon good reason and strong resolution 2. A sight and actual warre against all the temptations and offers of sensual pleasure in all evil instances and degrees and it consists in prayer in fasting in cheap diet and hard lodging and laborious exercises and avoiding occasions and using all arts and industry of fortifying the Spirit and making it severe manly and Christian. 3. Spiritual pleasure is the highest degree of Sobriety and in the same degree in which we relish and are in love with spiritual delights the hidden Manna Apoc. 2.17 with the sweetnesses of devotion with the joyes of thanksgiving with rejoicings in the Lord with the comforts of hope with the deliciousness of charity and alms-deeds with the sweetness of a good conscience with the peace of meekness and the felicities of a contented â—pirit in the same degree we disrelish and loath the husks of swinish lusts and the parings of the apples of Sodom and the tast of sinful pleasures is unsavoury as the Drunkards vomit Rules for suppressing voluptuousness The precepts and advices which are of best and of general use in the curing of sensuality are these 1. Accustom thy self to cut off all superfluity in thy provisions of thy life for our desires will enlarge beyond the present possession so long as all the things of this world are unsatisfying if therefore you suffer them to extend beyond the measures of necessity or moderated conveniency they will still swell but you reduce them to a little compasse when you make nature to be your limit Desideria tua parvo redime hoc n. tantum curaâ—e dâ—bes uâ— dâ—sinant Senec. We must more take care that our desires should cease then that they should be satisfied and therefore reducing them to narrow scantlings and small proportions is the best instrument to redeem their trouble and prevent the dropsie because that is next to an universal denying them it is certainly a paring off from them all unreasonableness and irregularity L. 3. Eth c. 12. For whatsoever covets unseemely things and is apt to swell to an inconvenient bulk is to be chastened and tempered and such are sensuality Facilius est initia affectuum pâ—ohibere quà m impetum â—egâ—re Senec cp 86. and a Boy said the Philosopher 2. Suppresse your sensual desires in their first approach for then they are least and thy faculties and election are stronger but if they in their weakness prevail upon thy strengths there will be no resisting them when they are increased and thy abilities lessened you shall scarce obtaine of them to end if you suffer them to begin 3. Divert them with some laudable imployment and take off their edge by inadvertency or a not attending to them For since the faculties of a man cannot at the same time with any sharpness attend to two objects if you imploy your spirit upon a book or a bodily labour or any innocent and indifferent imployment you have no room left for the present trouble of a sensual temptation For to this sense it was that Alexander told the Queen of Caria 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that his Tutor Leonidas had provided two Cooks for him Hard marches all night and a small dinner the next day these tamed his youthfull aptnesses to dissolution so long as he eat of
our neighbours the poor members of Christ rejoice together with us 6. Whatsoever you are to do your self as necessarie you are to take care that others also who are under your charge do in their staâ—ion and manner Let your servants bee called to Church and all your familie that can be spared from necessarie and great houshold ministeries those that cannot let them go by turns and be supplied otherwise as well as they may and provide on these daies especially that they be instructed in the articles of faith and necessary parts of their dutie 7. Those who labour hard in the week must bee eased upon the Lord's day such ease beeing a great charity alms but at no hand must they be permitted to use any unlawful games any thing forbidden by the Laws any thing that is scandalous or any thing that is dangerous and apt to mingle sin with it no games prompting to wantonness to drunkenness to quarrelling to ridiculous and superstitious customs but let their refreshments bee innocent and charitable and of good report and not exclusive of the duties of Religion 8. Beyond these bounds because neither God nor man hath passed any obligation upon us wee must preserv our Christian libertie and not suffer our selvs to be intangled with a yoke of bondage for even a good action may become a â—â—are to us if we make it an occasion of scruple by a pretence of necessity binding loads upon the conscience not with the bands of God but of men and of fancy or of opinion or of tyranny Whatsoever is laid upon us by the hands of man must be acted and accounted of by the measures of a man but our best measure is this He keeps the Lords day best that keeps it with most religion and with most charitie 9. What the Church hath done in the article of the resurrection she hath in som measure done in the other articles of the Nativity of the Ascention and of the Descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost and so great blessings deserve an anniversary solemnity since he is a very unthankful person that does not often record them in the whole year and esteem them the ground of his hopes the object of his faith the comfort of his troubles and the great effluxes of the divine mercy greater then all the victories over our temporal enemies for which all glad persons usually give thanks And if with great reason the memory of the resurrection does return solemnly every week it is but reason the other should return once a year * To which I adde that the commemoration of the articles of our Creed in solemn daies and offices is a very excellent instrument to convey and imprint the sense and memory of it upon the spirits of the most ignorant person For as a picture may with more fancie convey a story to a man then a plain narrative either in word or writing so a real representment and an office of remembrance and a day to declare it is far more impressive then a picture or any other art of making and fixing imagery 10. The memories of the Saints are precious to God and therefore they ought also to be so to us and such persons who served God by holy living industrious preaching and religiouâ— dying ought to have their names preserved in honour and God be glorified in them and their holy doctrines and lives published and imitated and we by so doing give testimony to the article of the communion of Saints But in these cases as every Church is to be sparing in the number of daies so also should she be temperate in her injunctions not imposing them but upon voluntary and unbusied persons without snare or burden But the Holy day is best kept by giving God thanks for the excellent persons Apostles or Martyrs we then remember and by imitating their lives this all may do and they that can also keep the solemnity must doe that too when it is publikly enjoyned The mixt actions of Religion are 1. Prayer 2. Alms. 3. Repentance 4. Receiving the blessed Sacrament SECT VII Of Prayer THere is no greater argument in the world of our spiritual danger and unwillingness to religion then the backwardness which most men have alwaies and all men have sometimes to say their praiers so weary of their length so glad when they are done so wittie to â—xcuse and frustrate an opportunitie and yet all is nothing but a desiring of God to give us the greatest and the best things wee can need and which can make us happie it is a work so easie so honorable and to so great purpose that in all the instances of religion and providence except onely the incarnation of his Son God hath not given us a greater argument of his willingness to have us saved and of our unwillingness to accept it his goodness and our gracelesness his infinite condescention and our carelesness and follie then by rewarding so easie a duty with so great blessings Motives tâ— Praier I cannot say any thing beyond this very consideration and its appendages to invite Christian people to pray often But wee may consider That first it is a duty commanded by God his holie Son 2. It is an act of grace and highest honour that wee dust and ashes are admitted to speak to the Eternal God to run to him as to a Father to laie open our wants to complain of our burdens to explicate our scruples to beg remedie and ease support and counsel health and safety deliverance and salvation and 3. God hath invited us to it by many gracious promises of hearing us 4. Hee hath appointed his most glorious Son to bee the President of Praier and to make continual intercession for us to the throne of Grace 5. Hee hath appointed an Angel to present the Praiers of his servants and 6. Christ unites them to his own and sanctifies them and makes them effective and prevalent and 7. Hath put it into the hands of men to rescind or alter all the decrees of God which are of one kinde that is conditional and concerning our selvs and our final estate and many instances of our intermedial or temporal by the power of praiers 8. And the praiers of mâ—n have saved câ—ties and kingdoms from ruine praier hath raiseâ— dead men to life hath stopped the violence of fire shut the mouths of wilde beasts hath altered the course of nature caused rain in Egypt and drought in the sea it made the Sun to go from West to East and the Moon to stand still and rocks and mountains to walk it cures diseases without physick and makes physick to do the work of nature and nature to do the work of grace and grace to do the work of God and it does miracles of accident and event and yet praier that does all this is of it self nothing but an ascent of the minde to God a desiring things fit to bee desired and an expression of this desire to
that I also may dwell in the heart of my dearest Lord which was opened for me with a spear and love An act of contrition Lord thou shalt finde my heartfull of cares and worldly desires cheated with love of riches and neglect of holy things proud and unmortified false and crafty to deceive it self intricated and intāgled with difficult cases of conscience with knots which my own wildness and inconsideration and impatience have tied and shuffled together O my dearest Lord if thou canst behold such an impure seat behold the place to which thou art invited is full of passion and prejudice evill principles and evill habits peevish and disobedient lustfull and intemperate and full of sad remembrances that I have often provoked to jealousie and to anger thee my God my dearest Saviour him that dyed for me him that suffered torments for me that is infinitely good to me and infinitely good and perfect in himself This O dearest Saviour is a sad truth and I am heartily ashamed and truly sorrowfull for it and do deeply hate all my sins and am full of indignation against my self for so unworthy so careless so continued so great a folly and humbly beg of thee to increase my sorrow and my care and my hatred against sin and make my love to thee swell up to a great grace and then to glory and immensity An act of Faith This indeed is my condition But I know O blessed Jesus that thou didst take upon thee my nature that thou mightest suffer for my sins and thou didst suffer to deliver me from them and from thy Fathers wrath and I was delivered from this wrath that I might serve thee in holiness righteousness all my daies Lord I am sure thou didst the great work of Redemption for me and all mankinde as that I am alive This is my hope the strength of my spirit my joy and my confidence and do thou never let the spirit of unbelief enter into me and take me from this Rock Here I will dwell for I have a delight therein Here I will live and here I desire to die The Petition Therefore O blessed Jesu who art my Saviour and my God whose body is my food and thy righteousness is my robe thou art the Priest and the Sacrifice the Master of the feast and the feast it self the Physician of my soul the light of my eyes the purifier of my stains enter into my heart and cast out from thence all impurities all the remains of the Old man and grant I may partake of this holy Sacrament with much reverence and holy relish and great effect receiving hence the communication of thy holy body and blood for the establishment of an unreproveable faith of an unfained love for the fulness of wisdom for the healing my soul for the blessing and preservation of my body for the taking out the sting of temporall death and for the assurance of a holy resurrection for the ejection of all evill from within me and the fulfilling all thy righteous Commandements and to procure for me a mercy and a fair reception at the day of judgement through thy mercies O holy and ever blessed Saviour Jesus Amen Here also may be added the prayer after receiving the cup. * Ejaculations to be said before or at the receiving the holy Sacrament Like as the Hart desireth the water brooks so longeth my soul after thee O God My soul is a thirst for God yea even for the living God when shall I come before the presence of God O Lord my God great are thy wonderous works which thou hast done like as be also thy thoughts which are to us-ward and yet there is no man that ordereth them unto thee O send out thy light and thy truth that they may lead me and bring me unto thy holy hill and to thy dwelling And that I may go unto the Altar of God even unto the God of my joy and gladness and with my heart will I give thanks to thee O God my God I will wash my hands in innocency O Lord and so will I go to thine altar that I may shew the voice of thanks-giving and tell of all thy wonderous works Examine me O Lord and prove me try out my reins and my heart For thy loving kindness is now and ever before my eyes and I will walk in thy truth Thou shalt prepare a table before me against them that trouble me thou hast anointed my head with oil and my cup shall be full But thy loving loving kindness and mercy shall follow me all the dayes of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever This is the bread that cometh down from Heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him and hath eternall life abiding in him and I will raise him up at the last day Lord whether shall we go but to thee thou hast the words of eternall life If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink The bread which we break is it not the communication of the body of Christ and the cup which we drink is it not the communication of the blood of Christ What are those wounds in thy hands They are those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends Zech 13.6 Immediately before the receiving say Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof But do thou speak the word onely and thy servant shall be he led Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall shew thy praise O God make speed to save me O Lord make hast to help me Come Lord Jesus come quickly After receiving the consecrated and blessed bread say O tast and see how gracious the Lord is blessed is the man that trusteth in him * The beasts do lack and suffer hunger but they which seek the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good Lord what am I that my Saviour should become my food that the Son of God should be the meat of Worms of dust and ashes of a sinner of him that was his enemy But this thou hast done to me because thou art infinitely good wonderfully gracious and lovest to bless every one of us in turning us from the evill of our wayes Enter into me blessed Jesus let no root of bitterness spring up in my heart but be thou Lord of all my faculties O let me feed on thee by faith and grow up by the increase of God to a perfect man in Christ Jesus Amen Lord I believe help mine unbelief Glory be to God the Father Son c. After the receiving the cup of blessing It is finished Blessed be the mercies of God revealed to us in Jesus Christ. O blessed and eternall high Priest let the sacrifice of the Cross which thou didst once offer for the sins of the whole World and which thou doest now and always represent in