the Kings Majesty his Queen and all the Royal Family Let all thy Priests be cloathed with Righteousness and let thy work prosper in their hands and especially within this Parish of which I am a part let the knowledge and fear of thee increase Visit all my Kinred Relations and Acquaintances ** with such blessings as they need Reward a thousand fold all who have shewn any kindness to thy servant especially ** Forgive In all these vacancies thus marked ** make such particular mention as thy condition shall require or prudence suggest and have mercy upon all mine enemies and let not one of them ever fare the worse for any wrong done to me Deliver in thine own good time thy righteous ones out of all their afflictions and in the mean time support them sanctifying all unto them ** Shew thy self every way all-sufficient unto all thine Finally O Lord I bless and praise thy glorious grace for all those blessings which I enjoy and those particular deliverances whether ancient or later which thou hast vouchsafed me ** Above all for thy redeeming not onely me but the whole humane nature by the precious bloud of thy well-beloved Son for that knowledge which I have of thee in him my Saviour Christ Jesus for any sight and sense of my sin which through thy grace I have for any hopes of finding mercy in that great day ** I O Lord Here bless God for any inward ioy enlargements c. am far less than the least of these mercies It is thy goodness thy goodness alone which is the fountain whence they came and mayest thou from me and from Heaven and Earth ever receive the glory of that thy goodness May I ever serve thee in newness of life and answerable walking And do thou forgive not onely my former ingratitude but my present want of thankfulness together with all the sins of these my holy things washing me and my very teares prayers and penitence in the bloud of my Saviour Christ Jesus in whose words thy servant will speak yet once more Our Father c. It is not to be supposed that this Prayer without any alteration will suit with the condition of every Reader God forbid all should have sinned at that rate to come up to which this prayer was framed The prudent Christian therefore is to add leave out alter what he sees good or if able himself to do better to lay aside all Nothing is here obtruded on any onely directions and help intended to some who need them Sect. 10. Of offerings to God for the use of the poor departure out of the Closet and behaviour afterwards MY prayers being thus finished I should not hastily run out but pause a while and remember that there is one work remaining which is not to be neglected if I have wherewithall to do it being it is required by God in an acceptable Fast and that is to add something every fast though it be the less to what I have formerly laid aside for the poor or if there be no such stock already made by me much more than to design and devote somewhat to that purpose This is the fast I have chosen to deal thy bread unto the hungry c. It being thus given I may deal it when Isa 58. 7. I shall see occasion Now as to the particular manner of this practice directions have been above given which especially upon these dayes it will be expedient to observe And this being done let me with chearfulness depart my Closet let not my behaviour be without innocent alacrity and let it be my special care so to order all my carriage on these my fasts that they may not if possible be taken notice of by any but my self and God as being mindful of that command of my Saviours Anoint thine head and wash thy face that thou appear not unto men to fast that is behave thy self with such outward chearfulness of which anointing the head and washing the face are Arguments that no man ordinarily beholding thee would take the day he sees thee so to be one of thy fast or mourning dayes Chap. VII Of great and more extraordinary Fasts and the work of them BEsides these my Fasts which come in course at least once a week several occasions may befal me which may require an extraordinary fast Such is any great evil hanging over mine head or my friends or the Nations any considerable change of my way of living or the like but especially when I am to receive the Holy Communion My work upon such occasions will be the same as is formerly directed to only my Christian discretion will order it with a particular respect to that my great occasion which calls me to fast which occasion I am especially to meditate upon and that not without a regard had to my sins if there be any evil which I deprecate to consider how my sins have been the causes of it if any good which I beseech for how again my sins may blast that and accordingly to commend it to God in my prayers in which case also the form of prayer delivered in the foregoing Chapter will not be useless Particularly as to that which will most frequently come in practice my humiliations preparatory for the Lords Supper In these besides that examination of my self which in ordinary course I make I am to look over mine Accomptal to see every week since my last communicating what my carriage hath been how I have amended especially in those particulars in which I had formerly taken notice of my miscarriages and vowed reformation All my revolts and backslidings are to be attentively viewed in themselves and in their aggravations and repentance as before taught to be with all diligence and servour that I can exercised Yea and besides these times of special exigence ought I to be often surveying and looking over mine Accomptal In mine ordinary daily devotions or in my devotions upon my fast-dayes I shall find both need and opportunity for it And if Schollars find it necessary to peruse their own Collections or Common-place books if Shopkeepers review often their books to the end they may by seeing what they have formerly done know how to order their future proceedings in their business so as not to go backward or be diligent to no purpose how much more care ought I to take in the concernments of my soul and for that Jewel which if I loose although I should gain the whole world I am irreparably undone Chap. VIII The Conclusion THe Author of this small piece Christian Reader is very sure that be thou who thou wilt thou canst not but approve for the main that practice which is here commended to thee although there should be some particulars as to the observation of Holy-dayes or the like which may not suit with the humour of every mans devotion Confident he is he saith that the daily practice of Reading Meditation Self-Examination Prayer the orderly and due practice of Humiliation Mortification and the rest of those Substantials which are here directed to cannot be gainsaid It might have been better taught but he hath done it as well and as plainly as he could Being therefore that thou canst not but say he is a good man who thus lives and wish that thou ever hadst lived so he chargeth it again upon thy conscience thus to live else art thou self-condemned and guilty of known negligence and omission Thou doest not endeavour what notwithstanding thy conscience cannot but approve He is confident further that if thou didst but feel that peace quiet joy and happiness which such practice leaves behind it if thou hast any sense what it is to have a clear Conscience and therefore free and chearful access to God and an humble fearlessness of the face of men which without some such practice as this thou canst never have thou needest no other argument to quicken thee to this practice Find a greater happiness on earth than for a man to be at peace with and like himself and get that peace by any other course than such exercise of godliness such circumspection over all thy wayes as hath been here taught and thou shalt have leave to neglect all but if thou canst not then think thy self bound to these practices For directions in the making use of the Book thou hast them in the Admonition to the Reader in the beginning of the Book whither return and read the whole over again It will be no whit worse the second time read And so God bless it and thee FINIS
preparatory discourse and introduction to the rest Chap. 1. OF the necessity of Privacy and those Christian duties which require it Chap. 2. Of the situation and furniture of their closet who have choice Chap. 3. Of the most common entrance into our closets The Second Part treateth of solemn retirement to our Closet and our daily duties there Chap. 1. That if I am a person of leisure I ought daily twice in the day to retire into my closet for devotion sake Chap. 2. Considerations to perswade to daily devotion and prayer in private Chap. 3. Of the substance of every dayes private devotion to persons of leisure Reading Meditation and Prayer Chap. 4. Of reading the holy Scripture the most edifying method and manner of reading it consulted of Chap 5. Of Meditation and the most edifying course in it Chap. 6. Of Prayer First of its substance and parts Chap. 7. Of the right manner of Prayer First of its inward manner Some considerations to quicken to sincerity and heartiness in prayer What graces are to be exercised in each part of prayer Chap. 8. Of the best outward manner of prayer in sit postures and fit words Of praying by gift and the inconveniencies alledgable in this case against it Of praying by form and the inconveniencies in this case alledgable against it An accommodation and reconcilement of both Chap. 9. A form of prayer made according to the former Accommodation which may be used in our morning privacy Chap. 10 A form of prayer made as the other which may be used in our evening privacy Chap. 11. Some further directions touching the use of these prayers The third Part treateth of a more solemn retirement into the Closet upon Holy-dayes and Sundayes and duties then and there Chap. 1. That our devotion should be greater upon Holy-days than on ordinary days The end of Festivals and their vindication from abuses and cavils Chap. 2. What there should be of new in our private devotions upon Holy-dayes Chap. 3. An Exemplification or Practice of the former rules in Christmass day with a fit prayer to be added to my ordinary prayers thereupon Chap. 4. An exemplification of the same rules in St. stephens-Stephens-day with a prayer which may be used on any Saints day Chap. 5. Of what remains to compleat our private Festival devotions viz. Alms giving Chap 6. That the Lords day ought to be kept holy and what the keeping it holy means Chap. 7. Of preparation for the Lords day A preparatory prayer thereto Chap. 8. Of the true manner of sanctifying the Lords day § 1. Before going to Church § 2. Of secret devotion in the closet before going to Church § 3. Of devotion in the family before going to Church A digression touching what our devotion in the family is alwayes to consist of § 4. Of resorting to the Church § 5. Of due behaviour in the Church § 6. Of due behaviour betwen morning and evening service § 7. Of resorting to evening service § 8. Of the duties after retun from evening service The fourth Part treateth of most solemn retirement into the Closet for humiliation of our selves and duties there Chap. 1. An account of what is to be treated of particularly in this part Ch 2. Of the nature ends of fasting Chap. 3. That fasting is a Christian duty Ch. 4. How often a Christian is to fast Chap. 5 Of preparatory acts for private fasting dayes Chap. 6. The order of true humiliation or penitentiary devotions § 1. The entrance unto this work how it should be § 2. Of reading so as to fit my self for self-examination § 3. Of self examination and the view of our life § 4. Of the endeavour of godly sorrow How to work our selves to it § 5. Of Repentance which is the effect of godly sorrow its true nature and way of practice § 6. An exemplification of the former rules in two sins § 7. A further consideration of Repentance in regard to some particular sins § 8. Of that faith which is required in order to the pardon of sin § 9. Of prayer upon such fasting dayes A prayer which may be used on such dayes made according to the rules of the former § 10. Of my offerings to God for the use of the poor requisite on my fasts and of my carriage after my devotions finished Chap. 7. Of great and more solem Fasts and the work thereof Chap. 8. The Conclusion of all ERRATA PAge 9 line 12. read or p. 26. l 14. r. one p. â— l. 26. r. as to the p. 49. l. 16. r. an end P. 57. l. â—â— r. they may be P. 71. l. 21. r admiration P. 79. l. 7. â— cannot except P. 84. l. 7. add off P. 111. l. 19. â—â— prayer P. 124 l 24. r. light P. 150. l. 26. r. lamentatine P. 156. l. 9. r. comprise P. 158. l. 17 r my P. 152. l. 16. â— will I presume be P. 178. l. 3. r. dispence P. 184. l. 1. 1. left P. 222. l. 20. dele fully P. 243. l. 12. dele not p. 26â— l. 3. r. righteousness To trust Enter into thy Closet OR A METHOD For Private Devotion Part I. Chap. I. Of the necessity of Privacy and those Christian duties which require it THat person can no wise be esteemed a serious and through Christian uprightly and cordially discharging his duty towards God who is a stranger unto privacy and useth not to withdraw himself from company even the company of his neerest friends presenting himself alone before God For that besides the worship of God which we performe to him in the publick assemblies and joyntly with the rest of the Family of which we are members besides I say praying hearing and receiving c. in the Church and praying with the people of our own house there are several religious duties to be performed by us without which the power of godlinesse can never be kept alive in our hearts nor the service which before or with others we do unto God almighty be through hearty and compleat which duties I say can never be performed as they should be if we are in company To wit First it is indispensibly necessary that a Christian often examine himself take account of his own state and actions whether his heart be so sted fast in holy purposes as it hath been or ought to be or as he hath vowed to God it should be whether his practices of late have been answer able to such resolutions and engagements as he hath made or whether his heart be more indifferent and careless than it was his actions more loose and irregular This I say is absolutely necessary to an holy life for that without it he may insensibly go back and grow worse he may delay his returns unto God or not return after several wandrings and if suddenly catcht die without the particular repentance of many sins Secondly it is as necessary that a Christian confesse himself to Almighty God that is that having taken such
and such mercies as we want c. according as we shall see occasion and either use the ground-work and substance of those our usual prayers with such amplifications as we shall judge meetest or for that time in stead of them use such other prayers as we shall find best to suit with our temper and occasions for the preparation of which prayers directions will hereafter be given In the mean time for better understanding and comprehending the precepts given as also for the supply of such who may haply be scarce able to frame to themselves such a form it may not be amiss to subjoyn one for morning and another for evening framed according to the former rules Chap. IX A Form of Prayer made according to the former accommodation which may be used in our morning Privacy THe Christian then having read and meditated as before directed let him reverently kneel down lifting up his hands and eyes but most surely his heart to Heaven say O Almighty and most Blessed God Lord of heaven and earth who makest the outgoings both of morning and evening and by whose good hand upon me thy creature I am awaked out of my last nights sleep and being risen here present my self before thee I humbly bow to thee my knees and therewith my heart and soul and desire with all that is within me to adore thy blessed Majesty But most unworthy and of my self most unsufficient am I to perform unto thee any worship or service What is dust and ashes and such am I if I were innocent to take upon it to speak unto the Lord But I O God am a guilty wretch one whom i◠becommeth to stand a farre and shame covering my face to cry Vnclean Vnclean My soul is naturally overrun with lusts as with an universal Leprofie there is no free part of me My childhood and youth have not onely been vanity but sin I have done nothing else therein but fulfilled the desires of my flesh and mind My corruptions have onely grown with me and my sins since become so much the more sinful by how much the more knowledge I have had of thy will and strength and engagements to have performed it To this very day as indeed I ever have done I daily break thy holy Laws in thought word and actions by choosing what thou hast forbidden and neglecting what thou hast commanded ** * Here confess any particular or fresh sin committed or duty neglected which in thy examination of thy self thou hast found In all my ways I most miserably transgress My very a sleep it self O Lord is not innocent Nor is it thus onely in the common and more ordinary actions of my life Those few good deeds which I do have many not onely †Remember in the use of these or any such words to reflect in thy thoughts upon any particulars which thy conscience tels thee they may fitly represent to God touching thee infirmities but sins in them and I have need to repent of my very righteousness of my †*** I therefore so desire to do and am here come before thee as thou hast commanded me to confess my sin unto thee with hopes according to thy promise that I shall find mercy I have O God confessed to thee as I am able Now Mercy Mercy let me find with thee through Christ Jesus my Saviour Remember that atonement which he made by the bloud of his Cross In those streames throughly wash away my filth By those Wounds let me be healed and by his Death let me atttain a blessed immortality * * Particularly let me obtain the pardon of * And send down thine holy Spirit abundantly into mine heart which may renew me throughout according to thine Image healing all the naughty inclinations of my soul and begetting in me an hearty love unto holiness and a constant fear of thee my God that I may have respect unto all thy Commandments and walk before thee all my dayes with a perfect heart Quicken me also by the same thy good Spirit to give all diligence in every duty and especially in ** that I may grow in grace and in thy favour and daily come nearer unto salvation and thee And forasmuch as I my self am unstable as water preserve me by thy power through Faith that I fall not from my integrity nor depart wickedly from thee my God Especially keep thy servant from his iniquity or his iniquites of *** and make me most watchful against all those * Here thou maist have many private and proper reslexions and so generally wheresoever the same mark is set occasions and wiles of sin by which I have been formerly insnared My outward condition during all the dayes of my pilgrimage here on earth do thou order to thy glory and my own good and if it may be thy holy Will grant that it may be so far quiet and prosperous as that I may serve thee chearfully and without distraction Be gracious also O Lord unto thine Holy Church and to this Church especially Watch over us daily for good and be pleased to bless and preserve the Kings Majesty his Queen and all the Royall Family Grant that all Magistrates may be faithful both to thee and to their Prince and Country in their trust and that all Ministers of what degree soever may be sober watchful servent and successful in thy work Let the whole Nation and especially this neighbourhood grow in the true knowledge and fear of thee Visit with thy grace and blessing all my †Relations my †Friends and †Benefactors Forgive and reconcile both to thy self and me all mine †enemies Comfort relieve and in thine own good time deliver all thy servants †who are in any distress inward or outward and sanctifie both to them and me all thy dealings causing all things in the end to work together for good according to thine infinite Power and Wisdome whereby thou over-rulest all events For which thy gracious administration of the whole course of nature and the multitude of blessings appertaining both to this life and that which is to come which thy providence incessantly heapes upon all mankind and particularly upon me thy most undeserving servant for ever blessed be thy holy Name Especially may Heaven and Earth ever praise thee for the redemption of the world by thy Son and the knowledge of thee through him revealed in thy Word and the mighty workings of thy Spirit thereby And be thou pleased to accept of that praise which thy servant hereby returnes thee as great as he can for them all and particularly for this last nights refreshings together with the comfortable restoring him to the enjoyment of day Grant me thy special Grace that I may spend my time to thy Glory and may be all the day long in thy fear Keep me that I fall into no sin nor run into any danger And accept thou this my morning service and to gather me who here devote my self to
name for all thy servants departed this life in thy faith and fear beseeching thee to giue us grace to follow their good examples c. which prayer we know is one part of the Service of the Church upon every Festival and both this and the formentioned Collects expresly prosess as much as we affirm Now these as they cannot be rejected by any sober men and so the end being right and the power just and the thing it self as just which two last because I see no reason for the questioning them I let pass without any other proof than the evidence which they carry with them it cannot be seen how the institution should be amiss wherefore the factious have an answer so they are directly frustrated by those who look upon Festivals as meerly a time of liberty and so many daies devoted to pleasure or idleness I will not say but that both the Church and State in setling their institutions by Law might have some aime at allowing servants and those who live a servile life some rest and time for lawful recreations which sometimes the covetousness of some Masters sometimes some persons own covetousness would not allow them And this is justifiable even by the practise of God himself in the fourth Commandement that thy servant may rest c. but that it was never either the Churches or States intention that they should wholy be spent to this purpose I do affirm and for proof hereof at home alledge our Laws which enjoyn all on such daies to resort to places of publick worship for the service of God and abroad that â—mperial Constitution We will not that Holydaies which are consecrate to the supreme Majesty be imployed or spent upon pleasures And it would be a right pious work and as much for the vindication of Festivals as any other if Magistrates would according as I am sure they may punish those who use to spend whole Holydaies in their pleasures dauncing hunting runnings footballs c. by the legal mulct for absence from Divine Service But may no recreation then be taken upon Holydaies I do not say nor intend that nor doth I presume the Law neither new or old But the rest and if by the rest we will understand any thing but a dull idleness the refreshment of labouring persons being one thing which by the way was designed in their institution plain it is that lawful recreations as they are exercises of refreshment may on them be used But as to such recreations which shall supplant or thrust out the service of God which is the main end to which the Festivals were ordained I see not how they can without sin be frequented practised or tolerated I am sure our Ecclesiastical Laws tolerate them not Further I presume the genuine sense of the fourth Commandement enforceth as much as I press For that enjoyning a Jew to sanctifie the seventh day that is the time which by their Law was set apart to the worship of God will also at least in equity and reason enjoyn a Christian to sanctifie such times as their Laws have consecrated to the Divine worship which Laws touching the particular setting apart of times to the worship of God though they are not all extant in Scripture nor immediately delivered by the mouth of God yet being made by them whom he to whom all power both in Heaven and Earth was given hath commissionated and made his delegates to wit his Apostles and their successours the governours of the Church cannot be looked upon as altogether humane but have a certain stamp of Divinity according as ordinarily we interpret the commands of the Kings officers in such things wherein they are commissionated to be the Kings commands Now that Holydaies were ordained by the lawful governours of the Church is too evident to be denied And I should not fear to say that some of our present Feasts were at the least observed by some of the Apostles our Saviours immediate Substitutes How therefore can we neglect to sanctifie such times which are thus confecrated to God that is not imploy them to those separate uses to which they were appointed which is the meaning of sanctifying in this regard in Scripture without the unhallowing holy or devoted things or withour the evident breach of this Commandement I will add no more to this purpose bnt that every one being bound to proportion his time for his devotion according to the opportunities and leisure which he hath and it being unlawful by the very municipal law or law of the Land for such is the Ecclesiastical law in this case totally to follow the work of my calliug on Festivals or Holy-daies I cannot but have more leisure on them for the service of God and therefore consequently a greater portion of it is to be spent in my devotions Which being concluded as most lawfully and rightfully it may in general what hath been said holds as well concerning private as publick devotions I ought therefore to think my self bound on every Holyday to somewhat more of devotion in private than what every day calls for Chap. II. What there should be of Nero in our Private devotions upon Holy daies THe question now will be what that is of new which Festivals may seem properly to require of a Christian in his Closet devotions To which it must be said that as to the general substance of my devotions it can scarce be other at any time than what hath been already delivered to wit Reading Meditation and Prayer But yet each of these may be imployed a while upon some new specialty or particular matter which that daies occasion and solemnity directs untoâ— to wit upon the life or vertues of that particular Saint or Martyr whose memory the day celebrates or if the day be such which was intended onely to praise God for some particular transaction relating to our redemption as the Nativity of our Lord his Circumcision c. to bend my devotions hitherward To this purpose it may be proper besides what I read in Holy Scripture that day by my constant course which should not at any time except upon evident necessity or very considerable business be broken to read those particular portions of Scripture which are by the Church appointed for that day I mean the Epistle and Gospel for the day And these being read over with such care as is before prescribed to spend some time according to former rules in Meditation upon them and then either to my own prayers to take in the Collect of the day or to add some other petitions and praises as my Christian discretion shall judge seasonable To this imployment if I allot an hour or if need so require half an hour besides what I ordinarily on other daies spend on my devotions the work may in some good measure be done And it cannot be thought but so much time may well be spared by reason of that leisure and rest which the Law on that day enjoyns me Chap.
who was ever with God and ever God heir of all things by whom aell things were made he was made slesh O ths depth of the love of God and Christ Whose soul can well hold to contemplate it Besides this admiration and dissolution of soul the thoughts hereof cannot but be thus further useful to me First seeing from what an infinite glory to what a mean nature and condition the Son of God himself the infinite God stooped for the help and saving of men I cannot but see my self in duty bound to the like humility meekness and condescension not to stand upon mine own petty interests and consult nothing but self when I have opportunity to do good to any infcriour that wants my succour Had Christ done so he had never been made flesh for me Now let the same mind be in me which was also in Christ Jesus And again seeing to what an height of excellency the nature of mankind is now advanced it should prevail with me to put a due price upon it and never willingly to dishonour by any unworthy action what God himself hath so honoured Did God stoop to vindicate my nature from the contempt and tyranny of the devil and shall I notwithstanding all the condescensions of his grace still wilfully enslave and destroy my self Further God having united the nature of which I am a partner to him I should be ambitious of all meanes of uniting my self to him that is of doing all that may be on my part to further this union And especially the thoughts hereof should quicken me this day to a zealous participating his body and bloud Can I consider God made flesh for me God debasing himself to be one with me and is it possible that I can neglect what is so much for my honour and interest as the means of sealing my particular union with him How can I esteem my self doly to have celebrated the memory of his being made flesh if having means of partaking of that flesh which he took I neglect it And how much ingratitude must such neglect have in it Lastly seeing that one great end of our Saviours being incarnate was to be the true light to man in the pur suit of his happiness let me account it a noble degree of assimilation or being like my Saviour if I can in any measure be a light to any herein And if God have by office made me such let me prize and honour my imployment and manifest my value of it by my diligence in it The more light I give the nearer do I in my office come unto my Saviour Thus much then of incitement have I hence to my duty My other rules are not here so applicable Wherefore in the conclusion of my Maditations I consider what of new all that I have meditated doth suggest See Part. 11 ch 5. unto this dayes prayers And that I shall find to be matter of As to the first Praise Petition 1. The infinite goodness of God that he would at all think of restoring that nature which was now an enemy to him having wilfully fallen from him cannot if duly considered but melt my heart into thankful praise of him 2. That yet greater commendation of his goodness his infinite condescension his redeeming our nature in a way so glorious to it as was the assumption of it unto his own nature methinks should overcome my soul and wrap it into an extasie of praise and admiration In all likelihood infinite Wisdome might have thought of a course which would have been less honourable to man and would nor so much if I may so speak have humbled the Deity But he would not bring us to glory ingloriously The meer consideration therefore of the honour which our Lords Incarnation puts upon our ill deserving nature will not suffer me to be silent this day in his praises And as to matter of petition surely it cannot but be right seasonable to beseech 1. That all this may not be in vain unto me And 2. That to that end I may transcribe these Copies of goodness humility and purity which shone in our Saviours incarnation and walk in the light as well of his example as doctrine And all this I may do in some such words as these A Prayer to be added to my other daily Prayers on christmas-Christmas-day O God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who out of thy meer goodness and pitty having promised thy Son to redeem faln mankind didst in the fulness of time faithfully performe with thine hand what thou hadst spoken with thy mouth and send him into the world made and about this time born of a woman I one of that redeemed though vile nature humbly adore this thy Grace and faithfulness Eternity Lord is too little to bless thee for it But Eternal praise is the greatest that I can wish thee and maist thou to eternity receive due glory for this thine infinite Goodness and Mercy O Thou the onely begotten Son by whom thine eternal Father made the Worlds who wast ever with God and ever God the brightness of his Glory and express Image of his Person yet wast pleased in time to be made flesh and pitch thy Tabernacle in our nature I part of the purchase of thy bloud poor dust and ashes but such as thine infinite Glory was pleased for my sake once to wear and now to glorifie and set above Angels most humbly bless thee as well for this thy condeseension as for the honour done to man Thou tookest not upon thee the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham thou did'st take Even so O Saviour for so it hath seemed good to thee Thou thoughtest not the Angelical nature low enough for thine Infinity to stoop to Most dear Jesus thou hast overcome me I would praise thee but I cannot further Accept my silent ravishment admiration and faith I believe Lord help my unbelief O holy Spirit the power of the most High who after an unconceiveable sort overshadowing the Virgin Mother did'st frame in her sacred Womb that Holy Thing which * That is was the Son of God For in Scripture many times being called and being word and thing are one and the same was called the Son of God For this thy most wonderful and fearful but to man most happy operation I unworthy man bless thee beseeching thee to inspire my heart that I may from this blessed Copy transcribe these Virtues of Goodness Humility Love Purity and what soever mine holy Saviour either by his Life or Doctrine hath caught me that so I walking in his light he may be to me life ever lasting to the praise of thee O Father Son and holy Spirit one undivided God Eternally Amen Chap. IV. An Exemplification of the former Rules in St. Stephen ' s day's With a Prayer which may be used on any Saints day FOr the Epistle Acts 7. 2. 55. to the end Which having read I find to be a narrative or relation of St.
thou hast observed the Saint whose memory thou celebratest to excell diligence resolution and perseverance in all holiness Let me as they both in life and death glorifie thee according to my measure so that amongst those heavenly Hosts and blessed Society of thy Servants I may have some though it should be the lowest place eternally to praise and enjoy thee O Fathers Son and Holy Ghost one most glorious God Amen Chap. V. Of what remains to compleat my private Festival-devotions to wit Almes-giving SOme time besides what my ordinary course requires being thus spent in Reading Meditation and Prayer suitable to the particular regard of the day it onely remaines to compleat my devotions that according as God hath blessed me I set apart somewhat for the poor for it is not certainly my self or my rich neighbours onely which I am to feast upon Holydaies and however it may be I cannot give in my closet yet I may in my closet and at the end of my devotions most conveniently cheerfully and religiously and it may be most liberally consecrate what I can spare to such pious use by separating it from the rest which I reserve for ordinary uses And somewhat every Holyday would I cast to have thus to consecrate to God though it were the less By the observing this course I shall commonly if not alwaies have wherewithall to relieve the wants of such whom I meet with and find to be truly indigent which if I do not use my self to some such method I may haply many times want a stock for Whether to distribute it in money or in that which is bought with my money may be more suitable to the wants of those whom I relieve a little Christian discretion will easily direct And the more to enforce this practice let me consider how naked miserable and stingy solemn thanksgiving is without somewhat of Almes giving Then surely I rejoyce in a way most becoming the mercies I and mankind have received when as many as I have wherewithall coveniently to help have cause to rejoyce for my rejoyeing and on the contrary if being able by doing but what is my duty at least what I well may to revive poor and disconsolate persons I suffer them through my close-handedness to groan under their distresses upon daies of publick joy what a blemish is it to those daies joy and what want of Christian goodness and charity doth it bespeak in me I should rather be greedy and ambitious to make all the world rejoyce with me Now for the making at least thus much of Almesgiving an act of my private devotion no one willj presume to be dissatisfied who either considers the premises and the nature of the thing or what our Saviour saith touching this matter Let not thy right hand know what in this Mat. 6 3. case thy left hand doth Let therefore I say my charity crown my devotions and as I put out that whatsoever it is which I have to devote unto God for the relief of his wanting servants it will not be amiss to use some short ejaculation directed unto his allseeing Majesty by which I may express my chearful offering it unto him that is my setting it apart for the poor whom he hath commanded me to succour and promised me a blessing if I consider Psa 41. 1 Now that may be done in some such words as these O Lord whose is the earth and the fulness thereof I offer unto thee what by thy gift and blessing I have this small testimony of my thankfulness and duty to be bestowed upon those wanting ones whom thy providence shall give me opportunity to relieve Be thou pleased through the bloud of my Saviour to accept it and pardon all my vain expences The using some such course as this proposed will make me more liberal in these my acts of charity for how can I offer niggardly to this my bountiful God when I am conscious to my self I have somewhat considerable if I will well husband all which I may devote to him yet not abridge my self or mine either of necessaries or conveniencies and hereto I shall be the more quickned if I remember I offer to God who both gave me and sees all I have Now whether I may upon such a day meet with opportunity to my mind or such a person to bestow it on as the discretion of my charity could wish or whether I cannot yet let me account it really given to God and therefore separate it from the rest of the store so that ever after I may look upon it as devote and not to be touched except to distribute it to the poor But if any fatal necessity should constrain the meddling with any part of ought thus separated let me religiously observe to return it again to the poor mans purse or stock with an expiatory usury that is with somewhat more which may make recompence for my first diminishing it And thus we will leave the private devotions of Festivals and consider in the next place what will be meet to be performed on the Lords day Chap. V I. That the Lords day ought to be kept holy and what that means TOuching the observation of the Lords day though I judge them indiscreet friends unto it who referre the institution of it mainly to the fourth Commandement yet I put the keeping of it holy so far out of all question that I cannot but account him very unchristian who either is slightly herein himself or goes about to possess others that they may be so without sin The 1. naturall justice of the The true gro 3nds of sanctifying the Lords nay sum med up 1 Cor. 16 1 2. thing that there should be some time set apart amongst the Christian community for the publick and solemn worship of God 2. The antiquity and authority of that Apostolick canon recorded partly in express terms in Scripture and if it were not sufficiently manifest by their practice which hath set apart this time 3. Our Saviours honouring this day with his resurrection thereupon which gave occasion to its being set apart 4. The custom of all Christian Churches through all ages and from the very Apostles daies 5. Nay the practice of our Lord himself on this day meeting his assembled Disciples are all of them arguments beyond contradiction and warrant sufficiently divine that it is to be esteemed consecrate or set apart to the worship of God And then the force which the fourth Commandement in equity bears that what time is set apart or consecrated to God should be sanctified that is spent to those separate purposes and intents for which it was set apart which I say is the meaning of sanctifying or keeping holy any time sufficiently and beyond all evasion enjoyns its being kept holy it being supposed once to be set apart as it is before proved to have been And certainly if as is undeniable it be the duty of every Christian as much as may be to
keep all his life as a perpetual Sabbatism Hebr. 4. 10. or holy rest unto God it must needs be an argument of a very profane worldly and unchristian spirit not to afford God this day free from sensual pleasures and worldly cares or labours Wherefore I say the keeping holy of the Lords day I put out of all question and would have no man flatter himself that he is a devout Christian who useth either by idleness or pleasures or unnecessary worldly business to profane what the Church and being that the Church hath done it by good warrant and power transmitted to her by Christ God himself hath allowed Profanation I call it for if the spending it to holy purposes be to sanctifie it then the spending it contrarily upon ordinary or unworthy practices is to profane it And if we may not give that which is holy unto dogs it is then surely most intolerable to take that time which by divine Law ought to be holy unto God and give it to his enemies the devil this world and our own lusts which we do when we spend the Lords day either in idleness pleasures or needless worldly matters Works of charity or mercy are acts of holiness and works of necessity so far forth as they are works of necessity are acts of mercy and consequently the doing of either of these that is works of Charity or Necessity when due occasion calls me thereto is rather sanctifying than unhallowing the Lords day especially if I do them out of duty towards God and in his fear and for this I have his warrant who tels Mat. 9. 13. me that he better accepts Mercy than Sacrifice Chap. VII Of Preparation for the Lords day A preparatory Prayer thereto SEeing then that the Lords day is to be kept holy that is to be spent in the worship and service of God for which it is set apart it concerns me to consider how I may spend it in a way most complying with this its design or intendment And I shall easily upon the very consideration of the nature of Gods worship be convinced that it is in a manner impossible for me duely to sanctifie it if I come unto it hot and wreaking from my worldly business For being I am to worship God in spirit and in truth with all my mind soul and strength and in a word with my whole man evident it is that I am unable so to do while my heart yet remains unemptied of the world and being unfit to worship God I am not while so in a due state to sanctifie this day Wherefore the right sanctification of the Lords day is to begin with Preparation And it is a right wholsome institution that upon the Evening before it there should be Prayers in every Parish Church which is grown now too much into disuse by reason onely that I can imagine of the degeneracy of the age If there be such custome kept up in my Parish I would not but upon necessity be absent from those preparatory prayers At which though I should be supposed to have been present yet would I not content my self therewith but whether I have been imployed publickly in preparations or not in my course of devotion on Saturday night take so much more time than I do ordinarily as might serve for some preparatory Meditations and Prayers The least which I can do to this purpose in my Meditations is First To examine whether there be not some sin or sad miscarriage of the week past which lies unrepented of and so may blast my next daies performances And if any there be secondly to consider of it more particularly its aggravations its nature whether it be not such an one part of the Repentance for which must be Reconciliation Restitution or somewhat like and accordingly to apply my self to what I in my conscience and in the fear of God do judge due repentance Thirdly to endeavour the emptying my head of worldly at least distracting cares to bid them be gone now till a day for them return And lastly so to contrive as neer as I can all my affairs for the next day that both I and my family may have as little avocations or matters to call away our minds from holy duties as may be This by way of Meditation My Prayers must be suitable to my condition If any such sin as before mentioned be found that must be confessed bewailed and pardon craved together with grace for the future against it which may be done by putting in the mention of that sin in the proper space left for such purpose But besides this it will be necessary to add some particular petitions for due preparation or disposition of heart for the duties of the next day First for a quiet setled and composed mind so that I may attend with all my soul my holy concerns or business Secondly for enlivened affections that I may not be dull and heartless but of a tender and melting spirit Thirdly for a pliable ductile yielding and easie mind that I may mix the word with faith and render the obedience of faith Lastly because both my own and the Congregations benefit and edification much depends upon the Ministers due and affectionate discharge of his office it is therefore fit I forget not him but commend him to the assistance of the Spirit To which purpose the following prayer may be either inserted in some fit place towards the end of my prayers or added to them O Lord from whom the preparations of the heart are The day now approacheth which being holy unto thee I am to spend in thy more solemn worship Many sins there are by me not duely repented of which may justly bring upon me a curse instead of a blessing Especially my * Here insert the mention of such particular sinnes which thou hast found thy self guilty of c. may make my very prayers an abomination to thee But accept thou I beseech thee of this my confession of them and at least desired sorrow for them Turn my heart from them for the future and through the bloud of my Saviour so remove the guilt of them that they may not hinder good things from me Let the effusions of thy grace both upon me and all the Congregations of thy people be plentifull Let my heart be fixed and none either vain or worldly thoughts lodge within me this night Quicken me by thy Holy Spirit that I may draw neer unto thee with a true heart and be fervent in Spirit in thy service and with a good and honest heart receiving thy word may understand and keep it and bring forth fruit with patience and unto perfection Remember thou thy servants who are to dispense thy Mysteries unto thy people and especially him upon whose teaching I am to wait Pardon their sins and frailties Open their mouths guide their minds and tongues that they may deliver thy truths in the demonstration of thy Spirit and let thy work so prosper
about my business remembring not onely how displeasing it is to God but how unprofitable to my self to draw near unto him with my body onely and honour him with my lips when my soul is afar off Whatsoever I hear of the Word read or preached I must remember all along to apply unto my self not carping at or censuring the Preacher but taking all in the best sense Possibly it may be long of my sins he did no better or so ill nor looking so much how it concerns others as my own particular state and manners And if there be any thing which more nearly toucheth and concerneth me that let me be sure by some means or other to keep or set home upon my memory perhaps there may be some place of Scripture cited to confirm explain or illustrate it let me note that place and the being able to find it may in case I am forgetful bring the matter to my remembrance The exercises of divine worship being all ended I am with the same reverence to depart the Church with which I entred it not rudely hastily and disorderly as the common manner of the multitude is courteously saluting any of my neighbours which I have occasion to salute and that with inward love and good will remembring that the ancient Christians had such an usage at their Assemblies as the Kiss of Charity it is but Christian therefore for me to use a charitable and chearful Salutation of any of my Christian neighbours Sect. 6. Of due behaviour between the Moruing and Evening Service My return with my family home should be with the same gravity and care with which was my passage to the Church my talk rather of what I heard or learnt than of any worldly matter except necessary occasions enforce the contrary And being come home one of my first businesses should be to step aside into my Closet if possibly I can and there according as I have found my my self affected to apply my self unto God If I have been awakened to any duty raised to any hopes of Gods favour strengthened in any of my holy resolutions informed of any thing touching which I was ignorant or the like there briefly to bless God for it if I have been dull and improfitable there to bewail it both which may be done after this or some such sort I Bless thee O Lord my God for the comforts of thy House for thy awakenings of me to my duty for any softenings of my heart and sense of thy love or hopes of injoying thee hereafter Not unto me O Lord not unto me who am a vain hard-hearted sinful wretch of my self but to thy holy Name be the praise Now encrease I beseech thee this thy goodness to me and confirm me in thy Grace evermore Let me grow in the knowledge fear and love of thee and any impressions thereof which I have this day received suffer me not to loose but enable me to bring forth fruit unto perfection to the glory of thy Name through Jesus Christ my blessed Lord and Mediatour Amen If this prayer may not suit with my condition it may be presumed that as I have knowledge enough to see it doth not so I have abilities enough in some tolerable way to represent and bewail before God my barrenness heedlesness worldliness carnality and whatever other great distempers I find in my soul which accordingly I ought briefly to do And this being done let me recollect my self and view over in my mind those severals which I have that day learned or been affected with for this will further imprint them upon my memory Less than a quarter of an hour may suffice hereto and though haply sometimes I may see occasion to allow more yet so much sure I may afford at all times Having thus fastened upon my spirit my spiritual gains I now depart to my company for the necessary refreshment of my body which this day was not appointed to abridge me of Let me therefore be chearful and eating my meat in singleness of heart rejoyce before my God but let not my joy by any means be wanton idle vain or intemperate Of the rest of the time which passeth between the publick duties of the day the imployment ought to be sacred at least wholesome and such which may not indispose me for the remaining part of the daies work and hereof much care is to be had First As to my discourse touching which if it be the Apostles Precept at all times to be observed that our speech be alway with grace seasoned Col. 4. 6. with salt certainly more specially ought it to be such on this day And though it cannot be accounted absolutely sinful to converse about secular matters of concernment if occasion so require yet 1. To be wholly taken up with these cannot but argue a greater care of this world than sense of Christianity if so be there be any truth in that speech of him who is infallible Out of the abundance of the heart the Mat. 74. 34. mouth speaketh And 2. To be needlesly meddling with such affairs or idly busying our selves about other mens actions and concernes which are the ordinary subject of mens discourses after dinner on the Lords day is at the best but a mixture of worldliness and vanity and it is made the character of naughty men that their tongues walk through Psal 73. the earth Secondly As to my actions care too is to be taken It is not questionless unlawful upon due occasion that is on account of mine own or others necessity or considerable conveniency to put mine hands to an ordinary action as is evident Luk. 13. 9 5. from our Saviours both doctrine and practice But as abovesaid of discourse so now of business to be needlesly imployed in worldly matters and ordinary work cannot but be some kind of profanation of the day as being contrary to its sanctification that is the spending it to other uses and ends than those for which it was set apart And albeit in this case no certain perpetual rule is to be set the conditions of men being various but each mans Christian discretion and piety ought to mete out to himself what he in his own conscience and in the fear of God considering his occasions judgeth fit in which we are not one to judge another notwithstanding I cannot think that man takes such care of himself as he ought or is duly cautious of indisposing his heart for his duty who can constantly suffer all this time between Morning and Evening service to pass over with him without any thing of devotion either in his privacy or family or just as the same time passeth over every day This I say cannot be to sanctifie the day because not to separate it from common and to use it to distinct ends Soon therefore after dinner ended amongst all the family it is meet that I call the younger sort and set them to the learning their Carechisme and as to
ever take heed what matters here we do I would not choose this as a place of my vainer discourse or freer hours as some do who are ever severest in company and allow themselves liberty in private or amongst their confidents whom if they can but get into such a place where neither mens eye nor ear can reach them as the closet for the main is supposed to be their company shall be vain and srolick to as high a degree almost as any mens I take it and I am greatly deceived if I mistake it for a certain argument that the serious belief of a God and of the World to come is much wanting in his heart who dare be naught idle or sinfully merry if he can but get out of mans sight and cognizance PART II. Treating of Daily Closet-Duties Chap. I. That if I am a person of leisure I ought daily twice in the day to retire into my Closet for devotions sake It followeth now to be considered of my more solemn retirement or entrance into my Closet Now that I account a solemn recourse thither when my businesse there is purely devotion And such recourse is either ordinary or more speciall My ordinary retirement into my Closet should be daily and that if my condition will conveniently admit as most mens may twice a day oftener I may as at noon seldomer I well cannot I am bound thereto upon the same grounds upon which I am bound to pray twice a day and the sum of them is that the command saith Pray continually the meaning of which we cannot but take to be 1 either pray alwaies when you may for other duties that is so much time as thou canst spare from the work of thy calling and due care of thy body and other offices of Charity and Piety spend in that duty of prayer or else 2. parallel to that of the continual burnt Offering which was called Continual because ever continued in its course twice a day Keep a continuall course of prayer morning and evening And this the practices of the Saints in Scripture which we may look upon as Exemplâ—fications of that forenamed command to wit the Practice of David praying Evening Morning and at Noon of Psal 55. 7. Dan. 6. Daniel as many times and none that we read of less than twice cannot but enforce upon us as the least which can be our duty in this case If any think they are excused from private prayer twice a day by their praying twice a day with the Family of which they are a part They are to understand that there is no particular strict command touching the nature of our daily devotions prescribing them to be either publick or private or both but that it is most just and equitable that God should have a liberal part of our time as well as of our estates Dr. Ham Pract. Catech. Lib. 3. sect 2. that therefore if our condition be such that besides the time which we spend in prayer with the Family which no one who would have God to bless his Family can think he may neglect we have convenient leisure from other necessary matters it cannot be better bestowed than in our Closet and upon our Soules And it will questionlesse be a piece of very sinfull vanity to trifle it away and omit what it might so well have been imployed upon According as in matter of my estate if after sufficient necessaries and conveniences provided for my self and Family there do yet remain in my hand a portion of what God hath given me I cannot but look upon it as my duty to supply therewith the necessities of those who want and as my sin for me idly to squander it away which might have fild so many hungry bellies or cloathed so many naked or ragged backs Further God having in joyned me the duty of prayer but left the particular frequency of it after the nature of other freewill offerings to my Christian discretion I ought not to be therefore the more heedless but rather because I know my sacrifice will be ever accepted how often soever brought with an honest heart out of an holy ambition of pleasing God and sending up an odour of a sweet savour unto heaven to bring it as often as I can And surely twice a day I may present even my private devotions If I be single and in my own power there is no question but I may If I be the Master or Mistris of a Family there is little question of it If I be a servant or one who works for my living there is indeed somewhat the more question for that not only I may be straightned in time but want the conveniency of privacy But yet even in this case what hinders but that being I cannot do so well as I would I may do so well as I can to wit rising one piece of an hour ordinarily sooner or lying down so much latter fall down upon my knees by my self at my beds side and privately poure out my confessions and prayers before God And what if my fellow servant be with me Why should I be ashamed to do before him what he cannot but acknowledg he also ought to do shall I not one day much more blush and be confounded at the omission of my duty before Men and Angels and God himself than here at the performance of it And which shame rather to be chosen That before God all Men Angels Devils than this before one or two That which is eternall or this which after I have once or twice despised I shall be troubled with no more Begin to do so and after the first or second time thou wilt never be ashamed of it I assure thee at least thou wilt never repent This then should be my ordinary retirement twice a day Our more special retirement ought to be upon Lords daies Holy-daies and our own private Fast-daies each of which will come hereafter to be considered In the mean time our daily retirement and devotions must be proceeded with Chap. II. Considerations to perswade to daily devotion and prayer in private ANd to the end I may be sure to keep such course as beforesaid let me sit down and seriously weigh First the concernment importance and vast moment of those things which by prayer I am to seek and may obtain above the other upon which most of my time is spent What is it of worldly goods which will not pass away at least as to me and my injoyment of it with my self I dying all dyes with me my estate my honours my friends and all such are no more comfortable to me when death once appears but haply a torment being that they are all now to be left It is therefore but to the end of my threescore years and ten if I should live so long or thereabouts that these can be good at all And of these my threescore years and ten which it is a thousand to one whether ever I reach how
it Men rejected what their reason would have guided them to choose And this being that I was led thereto by considering the drift of the words and find now that the words will to my best judgment very well bear I conceive may probably be the meaning of this place But here it may be very necessary to admonish especially ordinary people that they proceed not too far upon their own judgments in interpreting darker places of Scripture of which this haply may seem one We have only in what we have said shewn the best way which can be taken for the finding out the sense of Scripture But if so be that using this method I particularly could not have found out so much touching the sense of this Scripture as hath been above declared yet had not either my reading or my meditation been fruitless I could very well and very profitably have rested in this that I observed these verses to testifie to me that Christ is God and by him all things were made and that from him came life and all the light which in life men have And thus much by observation a plain person might have found from hence But usually plain persons will do best not to trust the strength of their own reason which commonly is none of the best judge of consequences and dependances but rather get to themselves such helps as above directed to and follow their wholsome guidance Well having found out as I conceive thus much of the meaning of this Scripture if there be any thing else I doubt of in that part of it which remains I proceed to consider it carrying still in my mind the scope of the whole and thus much as I have learnt of the sense of the former part The substance of the remaining part seems to me thus much That when it pleased the Word to be made flesh that is the Son of God to take upon him our nature and in that nature to dwel John the Baptist was sent for a witness to testifie that this was the true true light to the end that men might believe And to as many of mankind as did believe upon and receive this light this light himself being the eternal and natural Son of God gave the priviledge right or power to become through him the Sons of God being now born unto a new viz a godly life by their receiving him Now here it may be as I look through the particular verses are one or two things more of moment which doubt of and touching which I will consult the best helps I have or otherwise consider with as much attention and modesty as I can First in what sense should Christ be termed the true light This considering of I remember that before there was mention of a certain light which all men did partake from the Word as created by him to wit their Reason and this light though it shone in them yet as the first man did not follow its shine so the rest did reject his guidance and the darkness received or comprehended it not But now it is said that the Word that is Christ made flesh is the true light both which considering together the import of all seems to be this That whereas the natural light of reason being not comprehended but rather overcome by the darkness of mans corrupt nature was insufficient of it self to lead man unto his salvation or true happiness and being sophisticated by the same corruption had led him to seek happiness in many false and by paths Jesus Christ came into the world to bring to light the true way to happiness and so was the true light From whence also I begin to see somewhat into the second passage which I doubted of to wit what should be the meaning of that as many as received him For considering how the Evangelist in the verses immediately foregoing speaks of Christ to wit as the true light I easily see that to receive him is to embrace him as the light and so to apply my self to those holy waies which he hath discovered alone to lead unto happiness Which also the following words further intimate them that believe in his name that is them who by their imbracing the discovery which he hath made and doing accordingly do manifest that they are perswaded he is the true light which thing they do not as they are born by the will of man of flesh and bloud for the darkness comprehendeth not the light but as begotten or created over again by God hereto So then now I conceive I understand the Gospel for this day and all the most concerning particulars in it The substance of it therefore I recollect after this my search to the end it may sink the deeper into me and I be the better verst hereafter in this Scripture And that is this That Christ being eternally God was also with God with whom he ever was the Creator of all things and particularly of man that man in his creation received a certain light viz his reason which he opposed and overcome rather than followed that therefore it pleased Christ to be made man and coming into the world to discover the true way to happiness unto degenerate man and as many of mankind who embraced this discovery and manifested their belief of Christs being the true light by their receiving him as such he restored into the blessed state of being the Sons of God as Adam was before his fall And Luke 3. 38. of all this John the Baptist was sent before to be a witness that by his testimony men might be prepared to believe in this true light Thus much then I am improved in point of knowledge But is there nothing which may be further useful to me as to practicals No promise of mercy No threat of punishment to any Nothing to quicken me to my duty There is surely First that is a remarkable expression As many as received him to thâ—m he gave power to become the sons of God I cannot expect ever to be by my incarnate Lord made a Son of God and Heir with him in the Kingdome of his Father except I receive him as the true light except I look for happiness by the method by him delivered a holy Christian practice according to his Gospel I see therefore hence the necessity of heing conformable to all the Commands of the Gospel He is salvation to none to whom he is not light If therefore I am not faithful meek charitable holy c. as the Gospel directs salvation it self will not save me Further both the Epistle and Gospel put me in mind of what the day celebrates the incarnation of our Saviour at least his visible Incarnation for to the eye he was not incarnate till born The Word was made flesh and so himself spake unto us and by himself be purged our sins The Word who was that The Son of God the brightness of his Fathers glory the express Image of his Person he
Steâ—ben's martyrdom And the chief substantials that my thoughts fix upon are That Encouraging vision vouchsafed to him in his entrance upon his suffering and the manner of his taking his suffering St. Stephen the first of those who were to pass to Heaven in the fiery Chariot of a violent death for the witness of Jesus was now as good as sentenced for the defence which he had made had onely further incensed his persecutors But he who should take first so bold a step had need of some more than ordinary encouragement It pleased therefore him whose Witness he was to command away the Clouds and through the opened Heavens to shew himself standing at the right hand of God ready to receive him thither And seeing the passage now so clear and the end so glorious it was not likely that good Stephen should stumble at a stone or two This method doth the gracious providence of God observe that where he gives a bitterer cup there he secretly provides greater encouragements and thereby raiseth the strength of his suffering servants Answerable to his encouragement do I find St. Stephens carriage For being cast out of the City and stoned all is so far from daunting him that it scarce seems to have disturbed him for he readily prayes to his Saviour both in his own and his murtherers behalf Particularly these Virtues I cannot but observe livelily shining in him suffering 1. Constancy Resolution and Christian Magnanimity in those sufferings which a truly Christian cause engaged him in 2. Notwithstanding all his extraordinary assurances of glory Christ witnessing it to him from Heaven in that blessed Vision perseverance in earnest prayer to the last When the stones now struck him he called upon God and said c. 3. Quietness patience and serenity The injustice of his sufferings exasperates not his Spirit nor puts him into any passion or indisposition for his duty 4. Meekness Charity Forgiveness even towards them who in that they were enemies to him were enemies also to Christ He kneeled down An expression of the solemnity of his Prayers and cried with a loud voice an expression of the earnestness and fervour of them A pattern most worthy imitation in suffering A double benefit then the substance of this portion of Scripture recollected according to direction Part. 11. Chap. 5. yields to me The first an Antidote or Remedy against dejection under and slavish fear of suffering If God at any time call me to the bearing a greater weight of afflictions than ordinary let not me basely or sinfully decline them but rather remember what St. Stephen and indeed all the Children of God have found by experience that strength shall be given in proportionably and that suitable to my misery shall comfort and refreshment come in to sustain my spirit if I nobly engage Secondly St. Stephen's example is to me a copy how I ought to suffer Hence should I transcribe Constancy Dutifulness Patience Charity and what ever other Virtues I can observe him to have exercised in his sufferings Now as to particular expressions here that which concludes the relation cannot well pass without notice And when he had said this he fell asleep In sweetness and love he breathed out his soul and he doing so pitty it was but that to so sweet a soul death it self should be sweetned and so it was He fell a sleep It teacheth me how I am to look on death To all men death is but a sleep good or bad they must awake from it But a good mans death should be looked upon onely as a falling asleep or as another Scripture saith Resting from his labours Death is much the easiest to good men Of these notes or remarks which I have thus in my Meditations on this Reading made those which I have mind chiefly to fasten upon my self though I would not forget any are these which follow of which therefore I register in my Memorial some hints perhaps so as follows St. Stephen's day 1 6 6 4. Acts 7. Vers 54 55. God ever proproportions his Servants comforts to their sufferings Verse 60. He sell asleep How sweetly do good men dye Also a fit Petition to use when I pray for enemies Lord lay not this sin to their charge I noted all along in St. Stephen these Christian Graces 1. Constancy and Courage 2. Perseverance in Prayer notwithstanding the immediate revelation of his instant Glory 3. Patience 4. Charity and Forgiveness This Pattern will serve for direction in what we ordinarily intend and it is brief because it is supposed a pattern to be followed in what we in daily course observe or set down But if on Holy dayes any have a mind to be larger in their setting down their Meditations this hinders not The Gospel Matt. 23. v. 34. to the end Observing the scope of this Scripture I find it to be a Prophecy of the dismal calamity which should befal the Jâ—ws by reason of their wilful rejecting the Gospel and cutting off them who were sent to preach it according as their stubborn forefathers had cut off the Prophets A judgment should befall them which should be in some measure a proportionable revenge of all the righteous bloud which had been shed from Abel to Zachary Ver. 35. and this by reason that they did persist in shedding such righteous bloud as they indeed did in the case of our Saviour and his persecuted followers Their City therefore should become a desolation and the very worship of God being laid wast they should expect the Messiah Ver. 38. so long that they should even bless him that could tell them any thing of him This is the general substance of this Scripture Difficulty in it I find none to stop me I proceed therefore to inquire what of advantage I can make by the reading of it according to my proposed course And 1. I find my self by the observing the two first verses of it much satisfied touching one case in which I have many times thought God to deal very hardly to wit touching his visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children Verse 3 5. It is said that upon that generation should fall all the righteous bloud spilt from Abel to Zachary which at the first look seems very severe But the reason is rendred ver 34. because of the Prophets wise men and scribes which Christ sent amongst them some they would kill and erucifie some scourge in their Synagogues others persecute from City to City according as their forefathers ever had served the Prophets Which gives me ground to conclude That children seldome or never inherit their fathers punishments or the wrath due to their fathers sins but where they first prove inheritors of those sins And in this case because they have seen their fathers sins and the punishments which have befallen them for them and yet not mended by their examples it is but justice that their fathers sins should be visited upon them that they should have
the same or like punishments as their fathers had and greater Then 2. I cannot but note how slowly and unwillingly God comes to judgment Thus much those words O Jerusalem Jerusalem suggest to me Our Saviour I see cannot foretell this desertion and rejection of the Jews without a lamentable taken up O Jerusalem Jerusalem So unwilling is he to punish that he even weeps at the very thoughts of it This is a very affecting consideration and of special force to quicken me to repentance and is therefore to be noted to that purpose Lastly Examining further according to the rules proposed whether there be no instance of Gods judgments against sinners no threat to deterre me from any sin or the like I find there is and cannot but stay my thoughts a while upon this heavy denunciation of woe against those who were outwardly Gods own people for their rejecting the offers of grace and upon foolish prejudices not acknowledging or not being willing to see the light which yet they could not but see And if God spared not the natural branches how much less will he spare me who am onely grafted in out of the wild olive if I be guilty of the same sin It concernes me therefore in this case to look into my self the very reading of this Scripture ought to be to me a warning And let me see Am I not guilty of the like resisting light and rejecting grace What do I else when I sin presumptuously and onely not wilfully Do not I then shut mine eyes against the light and offer violence to the convictions which come from those Scriptures whose Authors the Jews were rejected for offering violence unto They rejected their living testimony I not onely that for that I have in the Scripture but the very voice of their bloud by which they sealed the truth of their testimony Oh sinful and ungracious wretch Now if any such as this be my case let my meditations here rest a while Let me consider whether in this Scripture which hath thus convinced me of sin there be not somewhat which may reclaim me And truly there is 1. That which hath already been mentioned Gods unwillingness to punish his patience and forbearance And hath not this been great towards me How often have the warm offers of love and pardon invited me as they did them May not I say God would have many a time gathered me under his wings And do not these very warnings that if I am not reclaimed I must be forsaken speak Gods present unwillingness if any thing will work to forsake me Is not this as much as an O Jerusalem Jerusalem Again 2. I here see that though God bore long with his people he would not bear alwayes being that they did persist in resistance of his Grace And truly I know not how soon God may call home from me his opposed Spirit and suffering his Grace no longer to be abused leave me as he did the Jews in my own stubbornness and wilfulness to perish After this sort may I employ a while my thoughts and if time will suffer thus oughâ— I so long to meditate till my moved heart have taken up full resolutions of following the guidance of Gods Spirit and yielding to his Grace And these warnings or convictions from the Word together with my resolutions upon them should I if able register in that other of my Books which I call my Accomptal or if not take such solemn notice of that I forget not But if any necessary matter force me to depart my privacy before my meditations arive at such a ripeness yet let me not fail to take notice of the warning which I received and set it down in my Accomptal that so upon my * fasting day when I review the actions of that week I may be sure not to forget it but to humble my self for my former miscarriages and consider for the future how I may turn my feet into new wayes But to return to the devotions of this present day So much onely remains now to compleat my present meditations as to consideâ— what of new from all will be seasonable to be added to my accustomed Prayers And here will be First Matter of confession touching my resisting Grace and not walking according to the light which I have had Secondly Matter of praise 1. For these warnings which are so many calls to repentance and invitations to happiness 2. For the testimony which the Gospel received and doth to this day receive by the doctrine and death of St. Stephen and for the constancy faithfulness patience charity and meekness which shone forth in him Thirdly Matter of Peâ—ition 1. For grace that I may from henceforth yield unto all motions of Gods holy Spirit 2. That when ever God shal call me to suffer as he doth frequently by the crosses oppositions frustrations c. which I meet with in the course of my life I may manifest the like meekness patience charity holy resolution and mindfulness of God by prayer and all other seasonable duties All which having considered how I may in some sober and orderly way express or represent before God let me either insert in my wonted prayers or in some short prayer to be added to them comprisâ— as well as I can A pattern whereof very particular it will not be so expedient to set down here but rather so to frame a Prayer with some respect to the foregoing heads as that it may in general be accommodated to or used upon the Feasts of any Saints or Martyrs A short Prayer which may be added to our ordinary prayers upon the feast of any Saint or Martyr by our Church appointed to be kept O Lord the God of truth and holiness who at sundry times and in sundry waies hast revealed thy self unto the world by thy holy Prophets of old and in these last daies by thy Son of whom thou hast since in all ages raised up thy Saints and Servants to be witnesses I humbly bless thee as for all the revelations of thy will confirmations of thy truth so especially for the testimony given thereunto by the life a The word doctrine is chiefly to be used upon the feasts of the blessed Apostles doctrine and b If the feast be not the memorial of a Martyr the word death is to be left out death of thy servant St. S. whom thou madest unto the world not onely a witness of thy truth but a pattern of holiness and I beseech thee to pardon both all my opposing and all my holding in unrighteousness those truths which either he or any other of thy servants have preached or left on record I acknowledge and bewaile may guiltiness herein Keep me blessed Father for the future at least from all such presumptuous sins and grant that the same Spirit resting upon me which dwelt upon them may beget in me the like humility charity * * Here insert the mention of any Christian virtue in which
in their hands that both themselves and others may be built up in our most holy faith to the perfecting thy Church and the eternal glory of thy name thereby through our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus Amen Chap. VIII Of the true manner of sanctifying the Lords day Sect. 1. Generally before I go to Church NOw as to my Closet duties upon this day least the sole consideration of them should breed any neglect forgetfulness or disturbance of the duties to be performed in the family and in the publick assembly it will be most expedient to consider the whole duties of that day both publick private and secret and set down each in their natural order First then as upon no day we suppose our Christian to be slothfull so least of all upon the Lords day but to be up in a convenient season both himself and if any are under his charge to see that they are so to A convenient season I call that which every mans health and occasions being considered will agree therewith and leave time sufficient for the discharge of the duties of the day And supposing the publick service to begin generally about nine of the clock between six and seven will be a good hour and all things being well ordered may consist very well with most mens health and occasions And of this time which passeth between my rising and going to Church if an hour and the odd parts be divided between the devotions of the family and the closet so that half an hour be spent in the one and the other half with the odd time in my closet it may do very well and the common occasions of most houses being considered so much time may be allowed If so much cannot be afforded to this work yet let some and what day soever I spend with double prayers I mean prayer in my closet and prayer in my family yet this day let me omit neither It is a bad omen to begin the sanctification of the Lords day by the breach of my ordinary course of devotion and an argument it is likely to be but negligently sanctified by me Besides many in my family may perhaps make no other preparation for the worship of God than what they make by joyning in the family-devotions it will be therefore the more necessary to make sure of thus much Sect. 2. Of secret devotion in the Closet before going to Church NOw my private devotions will be for the main the same this day as others Only in my Meditations it is to be remembred that I examine my self touching my preparations for the solemn worship of God that day and if any thing in my preparatory devotion be wanting any sin unconfessed unrepented of c. in these my morning devotions let that be done And how compleat soever I may conceive my preparations to have been yet let me not in my prayers in private that morning forget to send up some petitions for preparing and assisting grace to the end I may more spiritually go through the duties of the day for the doing of which I cannot Chap. 7. now want directions after a preparatory prayer already considered upon And these my closet devotions it will be necessary be first performed for that they will very well fit me to perform my devotions in my family with more fervency Sect. 3. Of Private devotion in the family before going to Church A digression touching what our devotion in the family is alwaies to consist of THese therefore being done and it being now somewhat above half an hour till the time we usually go to Church I am to call all my family except in extraordinary cases of sickness c. together to prayer at which time all of them who that day can go to Church which should be as many as may be should appeare dressed as they are to go that so after the family devotions performed within a very short space we might all together resort to the publick place of Gods worship Now if question be made what the devotions of the family are to consist of the answer is they cannot well consist of more or less than these two parts Reading and Prayer By Reading here I understand chiefly the reading of the Word of God and that it is the duty of the head of the family either himself to read or cause by some other to be read the holy Scriptures in the hearing of the family none can question who considers those frequent Commands to the ancient people of God to teach their children the Law of God and his judgments and dealings Deut. 4. 9. c. with them Now how they can be taught those things by their parents from whom they never hear of them cannot be understood nor will any reasonable person think thefe commands fulfilled by the meer teaching their children the Belief Lords prayer and ten Commandements though this must be most sure to be done for we find of old they were to acquaint their children of Gods wonderful works in delivering them out of the Land of Egypt And in like manner we Christians to teach our children Gods Miracles of grace in freeing us by his Son out of the bondage of sin which how it can be better done than as God hath thought fit to teach it to the world to wit by the Holy Scriptures none will easily find out Now for the method to be observed in reading the Scriptures in our family that which was above commended for use in the Closet may haply be most proper And if I so order it that I read the same portion of Scripture in my family and in my closet it may be much for my edification the double reading it will set it deeper both in my memory and in my understanding But then least I read faster and more in my family than in my closet and for other reasons it will be necessary that either my Closet devotions go before my Family devotions or that at least I so contrive my readings that what I last read in my Closet I the next time read in my Family Instead of Meditation which was one part of my Closet devotion if in my family I use to examine my people what they have learnt or observed out of what hath been read and where none takes notice of what is mainly observable there suggest it to them it may not be amiss provided it be done soberly without a long deal of prate and medling with curious matters and without vain-glory The Prayers which I use in my family except upon some very eminent occasions may best be the Prayers of the Church These are easie and best understandable and the use of them in our families will sit the plainest people in our family to use them with more devotion and understanding in the publick Notwithstanding I confess my judgment in this case to be that the Injunction of them doth not in strictness reach to private families but there is a liberty leâ—st
yet if we use that liberty only thus so as freely and of our own accord to prefer the Prayers of the Church I really judge generally it will be the best Some particular cases there may be as when any great judgment lies upon a family or the like which may be admitted as exceptions to the general rule and in which cases it may be expedient to use either other or more Prayers than those extant in our Church Liturgy The general course then of my family devotions will be this First he who prayes begins with the last clause of that Exhortation thus I pray and beseech you as many as c. Then follows the Confession Almighty and most Merciful The Absolution is to be left out except he be a Minister who read Then comes the Lords Prayer and Versicles Which being done all rising give attention to one reading a Psalm and a Chapter or so much of them as the chief of the family shall appoint This being ended if the Master of the family or any by him deputed will at that time examine or briefly as beforesaid instruct any touching what hath been read here such examination will most seasonably come in After which he who reads the prayers saying Let us pray all kneel down and he begins with the Versicles O Lord shew thy mercy c. and so proceeds with the Prayers in their order as they stand morning and evening Upon the Lords day in the morning after the prayer for the Bishops Clergy and people that is just before the Blessing it may be convenient to add for preparing grace unto all the prayer in the beginning of the Communion service Almighty God to whom c. or if there be any sitter in the Liturgy found and that at the end of the Communion service Prevent us O Lord in all our doings with c. And in the evening upon the Lords day after the same prayer for the Bishops c. to add that prayer for fruitfulness by the means of grace which is in the end of the Communion service Grant we beseech thee Almighty God that c. Thus much then as to the order of devotion in the family both ordinarily and upon the Lords day Sect. 4. Of resorting to the Church THese devotions both in my Family and Closet being thus performed it will soon be time to appear before God in the Church And I am to account no celebrating of the Lords day like to that in publick with a full Congregation of Christian people Hither therefore I early with as many of my family as possibly at least conveniently I can resort both my self taking with me if I can read my Bible and Common-prayer book and seeing that the rest of my family who can read do the same And especially if the way be long I watch very narrowly over my self and those of mine with me that our discourse be not vain and idle much less purely worldly so as to unfit our hearts and as to my private self the same care am I to have of my thoughts Seasonable it will be to think of the happiness which I enjoy in that I come into the Courts of God and feed upon the fat things of his House and to praise God in my heart that I have such freedome of access unto him In which case many happy and proper Ejaculations may I furnish my self with out of Holy David's Psalmes Sect. 5. Of due behaviour in the Church BEing come to the place which is holy to Gods worship I enter it with all reverence bare if my sex so require remembring that though God be present every where yet is he more specially in the places where his people are worshipping him and any postures of reverence that I use there are acts of worship unto his unseen but present Majesty and therefore cannot but be mistaken very much if judged by any superstitious Having therefore orderly taken my place I should not out of custom but devotion how to God my knees and beg his gracious presence and blessing towards me and the congregation of his people that shall there meet that day which I may do in this or the like form O Lord who though thou dwellest not in Temples made with hands yet hast promised to meet and bless thy people wherever thou hast recorded thy Name be pleased to be graciously present to thy servant here worshipping before thee and to the Congregation of thy people which shall here assemble themselves this day for thy worship Pardon every one who hath not prepared himself according to the preparation of the Sanctuary Quicken us all for thy Names sake teach us to do thy Will and build us up in our most holy faith through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen I know there are some who object against this practice but I could never yet see any reason in their pretensions This therefore being done if the Congregation be not yet fully met it is not for me to employ my self in vain discourse with any of my neighbours but either to meditate on somewhat which may be seasonable or if I can to read And it may not be improper till I am well verst in it and know my duty therein well to read the Church Liturgy Rubrick that is the directions which are mingled with the prayers for their use and all taking one day some part of it and another day another till I have gone through it wholly By this means discreetly used I shall be able mere readily to join with the publick in the use thereof But if the Congregation be fully met and service beginning or begun I am to yield all possible attention remembring God requires my whole man all mine heart soul and mind yea and my very body too Where fore so am I to place and order even that I mean my very body as the worship of God and the Churches instructions for the worship of that God require kneeling standing and answering still wheresoever I ought Nor am I to censure any thing if I do not yet understand its use for by so much as I do understand I cannot but in a good measure see the Wisdom and pious intentions of the Church By those answers which I with the rest of the people are to make I find my self much quickened and my wandring heart many times call'd home the use therefore of these as I should not omit so should the benefit which I have found by them be an argument to me to conform my self to every other practice injoined not doubting but that all of them will in the end have as good an effect as this upon me During the celebration of Gods worship if my mind at any time be run away from my work I am as soon as ever I perceive it secretly to check my self to call it home and in my heart say Lord pardon and help thy servant or some such thing and in a word to imploy it as fully as I can
but the recompence of it with many signal blessings recorded in Scripture which recompence God doth not use to give to will-worship Thus we find Anna commended for her continuing in the Temple day and night serving God with Fastings and Prayers And it Luke 2. 36. is observable that fasting is there reckoned as one part of her serving God That blessed vision which led Cornelius to the knowledge of Act. 10. Christ was vouchsafed to him upon a day when he had fasted till about the ninth hour which is with us three a clock and then too we find him not at meat but prayer All which cannot but enforce that though it be not alwaies and indispensibly a duty as is Faith Repentance Charity and such others yet is it as far a duty as any thing can be that is not required absolutely and for it self and that therefore whensoever there is occasion for it and no Christian can be long without due occasions requiring it it is to be performed and being so if it should be performed in manner of a free will offering or oftner than in strictness the Christian might seem to have need of it yet if it be done as it should be it is likely to be acceptable to God But this makes it seasonable to enquire how often a Christian is to fast Chap. IV. How often a Christian is to fast IN answer whereunto it must be said that no certain or constant rule as to all persons can or may be given herein nor will the times of fasting be the same to all some men having more need others less if not need yet opportunity We are assured by the ends to which it serves that many mens particular conditions which haply leave them none other means to mortifie the flesh but this make it a duty very necessary for them to be much in On the other side those who ever feed sparingly and temperately and have an evener constitution less inclined to carnality and inordinate affections than have other men seem to have least need of this taming discipline And those whose labours are daily and hard and whose life is servile many times neither have so much need nor so much opportunity of fasting as have those whose life is easier Yet forasmuch as it is according to what hath been above insinuated a piece of Afflicting a mans soul and so a necessary piece of contrition and repentance which hath commonly somewhat of indignation against a mans self in it there is none who can think himself wholy dispensed with for it or to have no need at all of it But I say every mans conscience and Christian discretion must in the fear of God set to himself the rule how often he is to fast for that every one best knows his own needs and it would be very sinful in some not to use more strict and oftner fastings than others and some on the contrary must be very injurious to themselves should they use so much fasting as others if they duely consider their leisure and condition cannot but think themselves in duty bound to This is the sum of what in general may be positively determined as to all Yet it is worthy our consideration and may be a guide to particular persons to remember First that it is a practice of very great antiquity to fast twice a week and was in use as is evident before our Saviours daies and by him not censured in the Pharisee upon any other account than because he was proud and conceited of it using to reflect upon it in oftentation of his own holiness and scorn of others And it is a very worthy note of St. Chrysostomes that we should onely avoid the Pharisees pride but not neglect his performances as on the other side forsake the Publicans sins but retain his humility I here is also a constitution which although perhaps it pretend to more authority and antiquity than it ought yet must be acknowledged to be ancient and not unreasonable that we should fast Wednesdaies and Fridaies because on the one the Lord was betrayed and on the other crucified and it is beyond controversie Constitute a Clem. Roman collect Lib 5. Cap. 14. that the primitive Christians used to have their solemn assemblies upon those daies not much less constant than upon the Lords daies Secondly that if this course be not alwaies to be used which yet I know not what should hinder except a man want leisure yet at certain seasons as in Lent and Ember weeks the commands and custom of the Church will engage me to as much as this amounts to if not to more And he to whom the commands of our present and continued practice of the Catholick Church in devotionals signifie nothing is surely a man of a strange humourous sanctity Lastly It is out of question that there is no Christian can walk strictly and keep a good conscience towards God and man who hath not Dr. Hâ—mmons Pract. Catech Lio 2. Sect 3. his solemn set daies for the performing that great and weighty duty of humiliation in calling himself to an account for all his waies and confessing his sins more particularly before God and those daies should not be too slow in their returns that is too seldom least his soul should be too deep in arrears that is least there should be such a long score of his sins unrepented of that he think it an infinite and endless work to repent of them and so be loath to come to account at all It is very reasonable therefore for every man and woman of any tolerable leisure to set apart one day in a week for this purpose or if the whole day or any other part of it may not be spared from the business of his calling yet the dinner time that day may be borrowed from eating and thus more usefully imployed without disturbance to the affairs or injury to the health of any ordinary person I do not say that this day ought alwaies to be one and the same it may be one week one day and the next another according as my occasions will best bear nay even after I have appointed it upon unexpected events it may undoubtedly be altered without sin but wholy neglected it cannot be without a sinful omission except upon some urgent or more than ordinary business Chap. V. Of the Preparatory acts for Private Fasting daies THe worship of God is ever best celebrated when some kind of preparation is made for it It will be meet therefore that somewhat I do by way of preparation for my private fasts And one piece of Preparation as well for these daies as for the Lords day it self though indeed somewhat remote or afarre off it will be to be diligent other daies in my calling and well to husband both my time and estate For if he who hath not by his six daies labour made such provision for himself and his as that he may be without care of providing upon
the seventh day will scarce rest that seventh day unto God without distraction as seems to be suggested to us by those words Six daies shalt thou labour being put into the fourth Commandement much less will he be able to allow himself constantly more time in a week than a seventh day comes to to wit some part of every day and a considerable part besides of one of the six daies which is to be his fast to the service of God I would therefore have every man not to incumber himself in this world more than he needs must We should learn to know when we have enough and allow our selves some part of our time to enjoy as well as all to get But this is preparation very far off The first act of more immediate preparation for these my fasting daies will be prudently to contrive upon foresight and consideration of my weeks business what day or daies they are in which I can best spare time for this work and those daies or that day will be the fittest to be pitched upon in which I may the most freely converse with God without the disturbance which much business necessarily brings Besides the time spent in my ordinacy course of devotions which are not upon my fasts to be omitted under pretence of making amends for them or running them up into my penitentiary performances I cannot upon those daies when I allow least allow less than two hours and upwards to the peculiar work of my fasts So much time therefore at the least I say I must resolve such a day to devote Which being resolved upon it will be sit as a second act of my more immediate preparation in the devotions of the evening before to spend a petition or two in my prayers to God that he would by his gracious Spirit prepare me for the work which I intend the next day softning my heart and giving me to understand my errours that I may duely â—â—ment them and truly amend them which petitions I may easily see a fit place to insert in my prayers And the day being come unto my morning devotions it will be expedient to add some such short prayer as this which follows O Lord who sees the purposes of all hearts and hast been privy to the intentions of thy servant touching calling himself this day to an account of his waies and humbling himself before thee for all his transgressions Be thou in mercy present to me by the preventings and assistance of thy grace that I may with a true heart and contrite spirit perform what I intend Grant that no worldly cares or business may so take off my mind from thee but that I may be able forthwith to return and without distraction to employ my whole soul in my designed devotions to the glory of thy Name my own amendment and comfort here and everlasting blessedness hereafter in and through thy Son Jesus Christ my Lord Amen And lastly my morning devotions being thus finished untill the time come that I have resolved to retire I must endeavour to converse and behave my self in my ordinary affairs so warily as that nothing may discompose disorder or disturb me no worldly design too much possess my thoughts according as above I have prayed Chap. VI. The order of Humiliation or Renitentiary Devotions Sect. 1. The entrance unto the work THat time being now come which I appointed to spend with God in my Closet I must religiously observe mine appointment For albeit the resolve was onely private and never proceeded without my own breast or closet yet hath God taken notice of it and it stands on record in his omniscience and by breaking these my private and as happily I may judge less material resolutions I shall soon learn to break my word and vows too in other matters both with God and man Coming therefore at my time appointed into my Closet I reverently kneel down before God and having the sense of his presence and all-seeing eye upon mine heart humbly begin in some such short prayer as is this which follows I Am come O Lord into thy presence upon work which no one hath more need to do than my self to consider my wayes and repent of my sins and turn to thee But I have an hard heart not apt to relent and dry eyes such at least which seldom shed tears for my sins O that thou would'st bow the Heavens and come down and melt my soul that it might kindly flow forth before thee in godly sorrow which might work repentance not to be repented of Open mine eyes and help me to see into mine heart Bâ—ing my sins to my remembrance and set them in order before me that an holy shame and confusion may cover my face for them and thou beholding my contrition maist accept it and both pardon me and assist me hereafter by thy grace that I may live more godlily righteously and soberly in this present world and attain unto blessedness with thy self in the world to come through the merits of Christ Jesus my Lord and Saviour Amen Sect. 2. Of Reading so as to fit my self for self-examination SOme such supplication being with aâ—l my heart made unto God I may haply find it not to be alwayes the best course forthwiâ—h to fall upon the examinaâ—ion of my self For for this I shall be the fitter when awakened and made more attentive to my self by some other exercise It may be proper therefore to spend and hour in the reading some honest practical Book which treateth severally of those duties which we owe both to God others and our selves to wit upon that particular Book which knowing to be very good I have chosen and singled out to my self to read and practice such as are the never enough commended Doctor Hammond's Practical Catechisme or if that seem to any too difficult that excellent Book The whole Duty â—f Man And in reading hereof I must endeavour to read First with understanding so that it is not so much the repeating to my self the words as considering and digesting the substance of them which I must account reading of them I must therefore read and study the Book as Schollars do their Books and if there be any material thing which I do not understand mark it so that I may inform my self by advising with some more able person than my self Secondly I must read all with application to my self remembring that all this concerns me and endeavouring to see how it concerns me whether I perform the duty I read of as I should or how I neglect it c. By this means taking upon every of my fasting dayes a part my Book will in convenient season be read over which when it is it must not be thrown aside but read through again and again with the same diligence till I am perfect in it Nor ought the third or fourth reading of a good profitable and practical Treatise to be tedious or unpleasant to me for that Christian duties
have invited and lead me to repentance 3. Gods judgments and heavy hand many times upon me which should have taught me righteousness 4. Had I no hinderances in the way which I broke through It may be Gods holy providence cast somewhat in which did a while retard my commission of the sin and if I had not been lesperately bent upon it might have diverted me and dasht the temptation 4. Was not I the tempter and Devil to my self in them Did not I set my self on work without Saâ—ans incitation of me thereto 5. Whether or no have not many of them been publickly dishonourable to God and scandalous to my Christian profession Hath not mine example if not mine enticements drawn in others to the same sin or driven others out of conceit with Religion Wretched man that I am that I should so hold perhaps teach the faith as to make infidels Lastly Something of grievousness the circumstances of time and Place c. may add thereto which ought not to be overlooked Through such heads as these should I trace my sins especially those of them which are most gross and in my Meditations dwell so upon these considerations as may if possible move my sorrow at least breed an utter â—aversion of the sin and a loathing of my self for it And if it be so that I cannot shed tears and really mourn over my sins yet if I can find in my self a through displeasure with my self for sin and an hatred of it together with an earnest desire to be freed from the habit and power of the sin as well as from the guilt of it this I may conclude to be a sorrow of mind and ought therefore to cherish in my soul Sect. 5. Of Repentance which is the effect of godly sorrow its true nature and way of practice THe Apostle saith Godly sorrow workith repentance which need not to be repented of Now that repentance may seem to consist of two things Of a full purpose of heart to forsake sin and of hearty endeavours against it First I say I may not think I have repented of my sin till I have taken up a full purpose and resolution of mind against it for the future As long as there is in me any intention of returning to it again I am an impenitent wretch Now such purpose and resolution the foregoing consideration of my sin is apt to beget and therefore by laying such thoughts truly home unto mine heart by employing my mind much on them I ought to endeavour to work my self up to such resolution and never to sit down contented or think my self penitent till I am so wrought upon I shall not much need to be minded that during such endeavours I ought to intermix with my meditations frequent petitions to Almighty God whose Grace onely it is which is sufficient for me for the turning my heart from sin Now purposes and resolutions are rotten except endeavours to fulfil them follow This therefore is the second part of repentance that as I have resolved so I endeavour against sin And this endeavour against sin seems to have two parts the one of which may best be acted in my Closet the other must be acted any where and every where The first part of the endeavour against sin is to do what we can to mortifie the habit that is the inclination readiness and customary proneness which we have to the sin which is to be forsaken And that must be done 1. By considering with my self what means or remedies I can find out against that sin Certain it is the more I can restrain or keep back my self from the actual commission or doing of any sin the more will the power of that sin decay in me the less inclined shall I be thereto Wherefore if I cannot at the first root out the habit or overcome that miserable inclinedness which I find thereto yet let me endeavour to find out such means which may keep me from the acting the sin and I say that customary proneness unto the sin will by the grace of God decay Now in general it will be a true and proper remedy against any sin to consider the occasions or inducements which chieflly lead me thereunto and to provide as well as I can against them Whether or no is it a sin which is deeply rooted in my nature and constitution or whether or no is it such an one which by my way of living converse and custome I have settled in my self If it be of the latter sort the breaking my self of that custome the altering as far as is possible such converse as hath brought me into it is a very good remedy against it But if it be a sin innate and after a sort planted in my very make and complexion it is more difficult to subdue But the way will be 1. To take such course with my self as that for the future I may keep my self from the acting of it as much as may be And 2. To make it a constant petition in my daily prayers to God that he by that Spirit by which he is able to subdue all things unto himself would mortifie in me the affection and lust which I have after that sin And by persevering in such course no doubt but at length through the divine Grace I shall overcome it These means therefore having consulted of attending to my particular sin the next step which I am to take in the mortifying of it is 2. To resolve there before God diligently to use those means which I have particularly consulted of and so forthwith to order and contrive all my affairs as far as in me lies that I may without any partiality use them all according to the best of my skill and in the most effectual manner that I know The second part of the endeavour against sin which will not be so much the work of my Closet as of my life is diligence in the using of these means which I have thus considered of found out and resolved upon whereever I am and when soever I have opportunity Now that I may so do it will very much help if I write down these resolutions before God in my privacy which I am to do in mine Accomptal where also I am to record every dayes fasting and the issue thereof what I found new in mine estate what I resolved on what means I considered of against such and such sins We find they not onely made a Covenant but put it in writing and sealed it before the Lord in their solemn Fast Nehem. 9. 38. This will be one way to secure me against being slighty in my Penitentials and it may besides much both confirm and quicken me in my execution of these my resolves to read them over written by my mine own hand before God And being thus registred it will be good for me to be often when I come into my Closet about my devotions and examine my self looking on and reading them over least
through Christ according to the promise of the Gospel that I doing thus my sins shall not be laid to my charge as being taken away by the cross of Christ in whose merits I have through this my faith and the mercy of God to me a share Sect. 9. Of Prayer upon such Fasting dayes THat which will much heighten my affection in this my repentance and further complete all its parts yet remains to wit prayer which as it must on this occasion and day be more large and particular than ordinary so I cannot now want matter for it after such consideration of my condition and of the way how I am to seek for pardon of sin as is supposed if the former rules have been observed to have foregone particularly I am to frame my prayers or at least to alter them as neer as I can to my condition 1. Confessing my several sins and that not without those aggravating circumstances in which I formerly considered them 2. Representing before God my sorrow my resolution of heart against them 3. Begging his grace to assist me in the fulfilling my godly purposes and pardon for all my sins whether known and confessed or as yet unknown to me To these heads my Christian discretion may add more according to my particular condition To wit if any judgment rest on me or mine or is feared by reason of these my sins I may implore deliverance from it If any mercy is expected or by me aimed at which I fear my sins may most justly hinder or blast I may importune God for the granting it or otherwise apply my self as occasion serves Now as to the form or outward manner of my prayer if I am able to pray otherwise I shall not haply on these occasions see it alwaies fit or convenient to use set or composed forms for that there may be many particular affecting circumstances of my sins which no form will express so plainly as I have need to express them for the moving my sorrow If therefore I find my heart ready and so composed that I dare venture upon what we call a conceived prayer which being of mine own invention by the assistance of the Spirit may more perfectly suit with my condition in all than one framed by another to my hand having either noted in a paper before me the substance or matter of my Confessions Petitions and Thanksgiving which paper for memories sake I lay before me when I kneel down to prayer oâ— else so considered of as that it will be ready I may spend a few thoughts touching the particular expressions by which I intend to represent this my mind to God To this purpose these two practices may be helpfull 1. To read any part of the woâ—d of God which being I dayly read some of it I may know to be suitable to my present case If I find mine heart hard let me read some affecting working place Such I may be presumed to have noted as I have read in my course If I find it tender let me read such place or places as may nourish this tenderness or raise me to to an holy joy and delight in God and these duties which I perform to him And in like manner in other cases 2. To recall and consider such fit expressions of the particular materials which I am to set forth before God as I may be presumed to have observed and treasured up in my memory or book in my ordinary course of reading After such premeditation with an holy fear I am to endeavour to pour out my inward conceptions before God as fitly and as fervently as I can But I must not think that fervency lies in loud speaking but in the inward affection of the soul notwithstanding if my closet be so situate that I may judge I cannot be heard without I may many times find that it will conduce if not to the affecting me more yet to the keeping my mind more close to my business for me to speak in a voice exceeding a private whisper But let me be never so able a person and my heart never so fixt to use a form so far as where occasion shall serve to leave it a while to wit where I would confess or ask more particularly may keep my prayers from being loose imperfect broken and disorderly and consequently make my devotions riper Now such an one is this which followes O Thou Great Holy and Fearful God unto whom all things are naked and open and before whom as being of purer eyes than to behold iniquity nothing that is unrighteous shall stand I even blush and dread to appear before thee For in me there is nothing but iniquity that thou canst behold Iniquity indeed is too soft a word I am nothing but filth I have sinned against Heaven and before thee and am so far unworthy of being called thy son that I am not fit to be called thy servant but deserve rather as a rebell as a faithless and treacherous wretch against thy Majesty to be destroyed of the Destroyer to have all thy wrath and plagues to meet in me and to be made unto the world an example of thy severity and revenging justice that by me men might learn no more to presume and backslide But there is mercy with thee O Lord that thou mayest be feared and sought unto Nor hast thou as thou hast protested any pleasure in the death of sinners but art so desirous that they might return and be healed that thou hast not spared thy very onely begotten Son but hast given him to seek and by death it self to save the lost sons of men promising that of all those who through him come home unto thee thou wilt by no means cast off any I come O Lord at least I have here set my self in the way to come and bewail my departures And let not my Lord be angry and I will consess I have O God a most corrupt nature and heart full of impurities and abominable things as a cage of unclean birds She was innocent in comparison of me out of whom came but seven devils I may most truly stile my self Legion such swarmes of lusts do possess me The Wheresoever in this prayer the mark †is found the Reader must not forgot to consider particularly touching those expressions whether they fit his condition lusts of the flesh †Intemperance Idleness Uncleanness the lusts of the eyes †Covetousness Envy the Pride of life †conceitedness of my self Ambition and proud Wrath are things familiar to me rooted and grounded in my heart And that truly Lord not so much by nature as by continued custome and wicked practice I have my self made my soul more depraved than I ever received it from corrupt nature That I am dull and heartless in the performance of all holy duties that I am vigorous and active in the serving my lusts and pleasures and the fulfilling the desires of my flesh and mind that I am vain heedless and
commonly void of thy fear in all my wayes I owe very much unto my own vitious conversation unto my giving my self up to walk in my own wayes unto my choosing vanity and addicting my self thereto unto my either total neglect or slighty discharge of thy worship Impossible in a manner it is that any one who lives as I have done should have a better heart than I have And at this rate O Lord have I ever lived My childhood the innocentest part of my life was a state of necessary ignorance of thee yet even herein how soon did the accursed fruits of inborn lusts begin to shew themselves My youth what was it but a vain and brutish a mad and sensual age As to that small notice which therein I had of thy will and nature how little credit did I give unto it and how ineffectual was it upon me either to the quickening me to my duty or restraining me from any wickedness But as to my riper years O Lord I know not what to say I should in truth sit down astonished before thee but that I want a due sense of my sinfulnesse Mine iniquities are gone over my head That they are greater than I can bear is little they are greater than I can comprehend or number Nay if I should let pass my sins of ignorance of infirmity of heedlesness and inadvertency by which notwithstanding I seriously acknowledge my self times without number to have dishonoured and provoked thee If I should insist only upon my knowing presumptious and wilful sins even these O Lord it were impossible for me to reckon up For besides that vast number of them which I cannot call to mind all which notwithstanding are upon record before thee what a black and tedious Catalogue of them have I here open or which I can spread before thee How many wilful neglects yea even contempts of my duty How many resolute perpetrations of horrid crimes such which I now am ashamed even to think of yet did not then blush to commit sins the heinousness whereof being considered if I could do nothing else but mourn over them all my dayes though I should weep as my Saviour sweat in bloud under unknown agonies I could not but account my self impenitent Nay had I onely that one sin of ** so often by me repeated to bewail what sorrow could suffice for its due lamentation Here are to be mentioned thy chiefest and most frequent sin or sins But if I add hereunto my ** my ** c. what reason have I were my fasts confessions prayers and teares a thousand fold to what they are or can be to sit down and lament my notorious impenitence And besides this weight of guilt which the heinous nature of my sins themselves load me with what a sad additional pressure do their dismal aggravations bring What circumstance almost can there be that makes sin grievous which I may not find in most of mine It is but an ordinary aggravation of my sins that they have been committed against knowledge that I have held thy truth in unrighteousnesse and being convinced of my duty have both neglected it and done contrary unto it †The very instant dictates of conscience protesting against the sins which I have been about to commit the smitings of mine own heart not onely after and before but amidst the very commission of them have not restrained my head-strong will †Nay O Lord hath not the voice of thy Spirit joyned with the voice of my Conscience and the united perswasions of both striven with me but all in vain †Have I not known that if I would resist through thy grace I should overcome And might I not through the same grace have resisted if I would †Have not I at the very same time thought of thy wrath and eternal flames belonging to those who do such things and yet this in vain too And besides the vow of my Baptisme which I have owned and acknowledged my self to stand bound by Ah! Lord have I not made many a particular vow against those very sins which after as a Dog to his vomit I have returned to And †those vows brought to thy Table and sealed in the Bloud of thy Son Have not I tasted thy mercies encouraging mine obedience and on the contrary sometimes wrung out almost the drâ—gs of thy wrath in punishment of my backslidings Further hast not thou many a time hindred me in my prosecution of these sins and by some interposing providence dulled the temptation which I lay under towards them †When yet I have proved so far a Divel to my self as to retrieve the temptation and over-bearing the voice of my conscience the resistance of thy Spirit breaking through all engagements to obedience which either thou or my self have laid upon me yea and the very hindrances and lets which have been put in my way against those sins I have returned to the attempts and practices of them Ah Lord what can such a sinner be fit for but destruction And yet after this sort how long have I lived sinning And how have I hardened my heart against all those means which thou hast used for my betterment Besides How many of these my sins have been committed openly and in the sight of the Sun to the dishonour of thee and to the scandal of others who beholding my practices have blasphemed at least been provoked to blaspheme and speak evil of Christianity All this O Lord is but my old wickedness I have later and †therefore if possible some of them more grievous sins to confess unto thee It is but such or such a time or day that I ** Here mention later falls Ah! how can I lift up my face or look towards thee my so oft offended God! And yet notwithstanding all this I have not yet done O Lord. For besides these sins of mine own what a multitude of the sins of other men do I stand accessary unto and guilty of How many for ought I know have I undone by my example What a multitude is there for whose profaneness and unbelief being occasioned by the scandal against Religion which my looseness hath possest them with I am to answer for †Some there are whom I have more directly and nearly corrupted And how many more may they have corrupted who haply had not been in that case corrupt themselves had not I propagated such sins to them Ah! wretched man that I am who have not been so far innocent as to be wicked alone and destroy no more than my self And now O Lord after I have confessed thus much notwithstanding all which I have confessed and much more which I am not able to express nor so much as my self to know what an hard unbroken and stupid heart have I The truth is the multitude and grievousness of my sins is such as is enough to make me impenitent and desperate upon the meer sight of them †I may well doubt whether it be
possible that such a backsliding wretch as my self should ever be renewed again unto repentance or thereby restored But forasmuch as I understand that to turn thus desperate and to neglect repentance and amendment of life would be worse than all the wickedness which I have hitherto wrought I am here prostrate before thee to bewail my self and with sorrow and grief of heart for my former wayes do I here cast my self upon thee If thou wilt have mercy thou canst still save me If thou wilt not Lord I perish But doest thou use to suffer those to perish who thus with such repentance as they can submit and humble themselves at thy footstool crying unto thee for help Far be it from thee thou Father of Mercies Notwithstanding inasmuch as I being much worse than ordinary sinners do more justly deserve to find no place for repentance and have therefore more reason to fear how thou maist deal with me deal with me as thou wilt †through thy grace I will sin no more no more knowingly and presumptuously as I have done And to that end I have here in thy presence this day considered my wayes †I have endeavoured to find out those wiles and methods by which the Devil and mine own lusts have ensnared me in such grievous sins †I have resolved upon impartial diligence as well in my endeavours against these particular evils as against all other and in performing unto thee hearty and intire obedience These Resolutions I here humbly present before thee sacredly engaging my self to do my utmost to keep them and beseeching thee by thy grace to engage my heart more firmly to them And Lord let not any dulness or want of that affection with which I ought to have confessed my sins to have bewailed my guilt and to have passed these resolutions hinder that this my serious humiliation of my self should not be accepted before thee Such contrition as thou hast enabled me to I have endeavoured sorrowing that I am not more deeply humbled Such which is wanting do thou bestow For it is no less thy property to bestow than to accept the contrite heart The broken spirit is O Lord from thee When thou of old commandedst water out of the flinty Rock it forthwith yielded obedient streams nor can my heart dry and hard as it is but dissolve into holy tears if thou wilt bid it melt Give forth then the word O God Speak thy servant is here ready to hear Turn thou me and I shall be turned Send out thy good Spirit let it inlighten the eyes of my mind in the knowledge both of my self and thee let it savingly perswade me of the truth of all that thou hast spoken and especially of the defiling cursed and damning nature of sin of the sufficiency and efficacy of the merits of Christ Jesus unto all those who by a right faith apply themselves to thee through him I do O Lord believe help my unbelief And grant that this sight and perswasion both of my sin and Saviour may affect mine heart so that I may sorrow after a godly sort and that sorrow may bring forth in me those wholesome fruits which after all my endeavours of repentance I cannot but lament to be much wanting in me to wit carefulness against sin vehement desire and zeal of holiness indignation and an holy revenge against my self by all which I may for the future clear my self and ever approve mine heart honest upright and sincere before thee Suffer not this my righteousness to be onely as a morning cloud or early dew soon passing away but let thy grace alwayes dwelling in me keep open in my soul an ever flowing fountain of such penitence that I may go on thus mourning to mourn over my sins and perfecting holiness in thy fear accounting all little enough if so be I may but in the end obtain mercy And this my penitent return at least hearty endeavour of such return accompanied with persevering study of impartial obedience to thee do thou however most unworthy in it self through the perfect merits of thy Son accept washing away all my sins both the iniquities of my youth and transgressions of my riper years as well known as unknown especially Here mention thy chiefest sin or sins my ** in his bloud and reckoning according to thy gracious Covenant this my faith which by such works as these shall discover it self to be alive and true unto me for righteousness And if thine infinite Wisdome shall see it to be good for me do thou grant me this further happiness that I thus living in thy fear may be ever filled with peace and joy through a comfortable assurance of thy favour and hopes of eternal glory As to all my outward affaires by thy good providence be thou pleased so to overrule all events that whatsoever befals me may work together to me for good My sins indeed O Lord deserve quite contrary even the severest inflictions of thy wrath and fiery displeasure And I do most seriously acknowledge that in all the judgments which thou hast at any time laid upon me thou hast used much mercy All the paines which my body hath felt all the losses which have impaired my estate all the slanders which have blasted my name particularly ** I embrace as infinitely less than my deserts That †I am in any straits ** that I Here mention any particular afflictions suffer otherwise in my body relations c. ** were all a thousand sold to what it is I should confess it to be most just Were I to enjoy no more good than I do deserve I should have just nothing Righteous therefore art thou O Lord when I plead with thee Yet if thou wilt be intreated by thy repenting servant to †withdraw * These and such like expressions are to be used according to persons particular conditions or withhold thy hand to remove the punishment I feel or not to inflict the punishments which I fear but through the bloud of Christ to deliver me from thy present wrath as well as from the wrath to come thy servant shall ever bless and praise thee and be able to serve thee with more chearful diligence However Lord thy Will be done Bring me surely to thy self let it be by what means thou wilt Please thy self thy servant will endeavour to be content Deny me what things thou wilt onely deny me not Grace Pardon and thy Self And not onely upon me O Lord but upon all men do thou have mercy according to the gracious pleasure of thine own most holy Will Especially upon the universal Church Enlarge thou its bounds provide for its safety and purity delivering any part of it which is in danger and reforming whatsoever of it is corrupted Do thou with all suitable mercies bless this particular Church Forgive the publick sinnes ** Heal the publick Here mention such sins or calamities Calamities ** Preserve and every way be gracious unto