Now the precepts of Christianity which point us our duty may for brevity be reduced to these three general Heads For first they are either such as enjoyn Piety towards God Secondly or such that require the good government of our selves Or thirdly those that prescribe our carriage and be haviour towards others Of these I shall take a brief survey and as I go along excite men to the practice of every particular duty by rational motives and inducements and withal discover the perfection and compleatness of the Christian Rule above all the Institutions that ever were or can be devised First amongst those Laws of Christianity which enjoyn Piety towards God we find Love to him standing in the front and claiming the precedency This is as our blessed Saviour informs us the first and great Commandment it being indeed the scource and original of all acts of obedience To excite our Love let us but present to our view his infinite and transcendent perfections the undeserved favours he every minute bestows upon us the innumerable dangers and accidents we are daily preserved from Arguments forcible enough to draw Love from the most rocky and obdurate heart 'T is indeed an amazing thing to see those into whom he has breathed the Breath of Life on whom he has rained so many floods of favours to remain notwithstanding as frozen as ground which the Sun-rays never touch T is an odd and strange operation that streams of Love onely meet with contempt and disdain Sure I am there is a concurrence of all sorts of motives and arguments to engage us to love God and those indeed so charming and endearing that it is strange any body should fail in it Methinks the work it self is so sweet and delectable so ravishing and lovely that men need not be courted to it by perswasion O what a great deal of satisfaction of ineffable delight does the devout soul find in those actings of love towards God! And if the Voluptuous and Sensualist would but abandon those sinful delights he now findes so charming and bewitching and betake himself to the practice of holiness If he would change the object of his love and place it where it ought to be I doubt not but he should quickly perceive there is more pleasure more contentment and satisfaction in the love of God than in the enjoyment of all carnal pleasures That man that shall make a just estimate of things shall be easily convinced there is nothing worthy of love in comparison of God Alas the pleasures of this world are but shadows and fancies which will soon disappearâ— It s beauty and splendour is but gilded and delusory and is it reasonable nay is it not extream madness to place the strength of our affections on such uncertain and quickly-removed vanities The usual arguments of love amongst men are Relation Interest or the Beauty and Excellency of the Object Now all these lay much stronger obligations upon us to love God For Relation is he not our Lord and Maker who gave us life and being who as a tender Father kindely compassionates our condition and in our low estate has carefully minded us when our other Relations have accounted us aliens and strangers This the Royal Psalmist experimented and I make no question but many good men have been and are living instances of this truth And indeed that man that consults his own interest cannot but be strongly excited to love that God who is the best benefactor and equally willing and able to bestow favours upon him It is an argument of a very base and mean spirit to despise our benefactors but thus have we requited God who daily loadeth us with mercies and reneweth his blessings every morning we have God knows most insolently carried our selves even then when he has been displaying a banner of love over us As for Beauty and Excellency what in the world can compete with him who is glorious in holiness and whose Name is excellent in all the earth How quickly are all created beauties winked into darkness At the best they are but streams derived from this glorious being and is it not hugely reasonable that he who is the original of these should be the chief object of our love and make us with the Psalmist say Whom have I in the heaven but thee and there is none upon the earth I desire besides thee I know there is no man would take it well nay who would not be highly incensed and think himself much wronged to have his Love called in question but God knows how little reason the far greater part of Mankinde have to pretend love who stand not to break his Laws to cast behinde them and lightly esteem his precepts the obedience of which is made the best and surest character of Love Would God it were as easie to perswade as it is to propose our duty But how hard is it to convince men of the folly the extream and strange madness of being lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God But the truth is there is such a mire and puddle of pollution in our hearts that it quite choaks extinguisheth all sparks of Love makes us violate the principles of humanity and become more ungueate than the beasts who have no understanding But if this Divine flame be kindled in our Hearts if it be sincere and superlative as it ought to be it will easily employ all the faculties of our Soul in his service it will engage and enable us too to perform the several Duties of Piety the Laws of Christianity enjoyn which because they are some of the particular branches of Holiness I shall briefly mention with their encouragements and for method and order reduce to four Heads First it will instruct and enable us to trust and depend upon God Secondly to submit and obey his Will Thirdly to honour and reverence his great and sacred Name And Lastly to worship and adore him according to the method he hath himself prescribed I begin with the first namely That Love where it is sincere is a noble and generous passion apt to excite and enable us to depend on God This is I confess a duty very useful and never out of season the Psalmist wisely adviseth us to trust in him at all times when we are in the midst of all trouble as well as when our condition is serene and wholly exempt from outward fears When the divine Providence hath placed us in the most dismal circumstances even in this sad and comfortless state our fears ought to give place to faith we would do well to repose a special confidence in him who is hereby become engaged to secure and defend us This method the excellent Psalmist observed and resolved constantly to heed in times of imminent danger What time I am afraid I will trust in thee Psal 56.3 and we find that faithful men in former times took this course also We know not what to do onely our eyes are to thee 2
loathsome diseases is attended with a prodigious multitude of temporal evils Prov. 23.22 and threatned with lasting eternal torments hereafter Hence our Royal Master fails not to exhort his Disciples to Take heed to themselves lest at any time they be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness Luke 21.34 And one of his blessed Apostles tells us that Drunkards shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.10 And indeed daily experience puts it beyond all doubt that those ignoble sins naturally tend to impoverish men and fully verifie the wise mans prediction That the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty Prov. 23.21 But passing those vertues that concern our Bodies I come now to consider those that adorn our Souls and I shall confine my discourse to those which are the peculiar graces of Christians and which the Christian rule does more particularly recommend Such as Humility Meekness Contentment and Self-denial If we enquire narrowly into the Lives of Heathen Philosophers we shall finde their pride and vain-glory stained the best of their actions Self-denial was a vertue never taught in their Schools and for Contentment the rules they prescribed were but ineffectual to recommend it But the Gospel couples our Duty and Interest together it commands Humility and recommends its advantages and alluring attractives It discovers the dangers that attend Pride and the great folly of being vain of Beauty Strength Wit Riches Honours or Preferments Of all these I may use the Apostle's phrase 'T is not expedient doubtless for men to glory 2 Cor. 12.7 Are not these the free gifts of Divine goodness and what can be more unreasonable than for dependent creatures to be proud Humility is indeed so amiable so endearing dearing a quaâ—ity and so noble an embelishment of our nature that where this is wanting all other advantages are little regarded and not onely men but the great God also resists the proud it being a vice which besides Christianity Morality also condemns as universally unbecoming to Humane nature and that which not onely disturbs ones self but also disquiets whole societies But God gives grace to the humble he takes such persons into favour as being more pliable to receive the impress of his love And as a humble so also a meek and quiet spirit is in the sight of God of great price And can there be a more convincing motive than this to recommend meekness to Christians And indeed we cannot pretend to be the Disciples of holy Jesus if we refuse to learn that lesson he hath copied out to us Matth. 11.29 Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart Although a calm and quiet spirit is a reward to it self as every vertue is yet it wants not a claim to a temporal felicity also Matth. 5.5 Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth These be the persons to whom by right of promise this stately Fabrick of earth belongs And if we now view that unpleasant vice of Anger opposite to it this will yet adde more to its lustre and help to recommend it the more effectually Anger being such an unpleasant humour that it makes those men it possesses unfit for humane society it being not unfitly defined by the Poet to be a short madness which indeed agrees very well with the Wise mans verdict of it Eccl. Anger rests in the bosom of fools If then men would but compare the calm and happy serenity of Meekness with that inward and outward trouble and disquietment that is the effect of Anger they could not but esteem the one and declaim against the other In the next place our Christian rule recommends Contentment as the most precious Jewel in the Saints Diadem 't is that noble ingredient that makes the most bitter cup sweet and pleasant it renders things otherwise unsavory and burthensome to be indeed relishing and easie This is it that seasons the meanest meal makes a dish of herbs a feast and a cup of cold water please the palate This is that vertue which makes men in the midst of storms represent a calm and in the saddest circumstances to sing sweetly He who has learned St. Paul's lesson how to want and how to abound is not discomposed either by Prosperity or Adversity but in both cases can behave himself like a man in reason This is it which is inseparably connected with Godliness is the same thing expressed by different names This is a vertue so lovely and desirable attended with so many advantages that we have all imaginable encouragements to hearken to the Apostles advice Heb. 13.5 Be content with such things as ye have and in the evil day to heed that advice Christ gives his Disciples to possess our souls with patience But how disquieting and tormenting are its contraries Ambition makes men restless in raising their own value and esteem above others it prompts them to be always in dislike with their own present condition the least advancement of others above them gnaws and torments their spirits and oftentimes hurries them headlong to the greatest dangers Murmuring is a most fretting evil a most painful distemper a sin attended with the most dangerous consequents and which imbittereth the happiest state of life here Envy is a vice nothing less criminal attended with as dismal effects as any as the Apostle St. James tells Jam. 3.16 Where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work And lastly Covetousness is so mean and ignoble a vice that I think although it were not as the Apostle describes it the root of all evil yet gallant spirits should dislike it as being base and contemptible In the last place the Gospel recommends Self-denial as the Christians peculiar Character If any man says our Master Christ will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me And this precept he backs with the most powerful incitement For whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it Mat. 16.24 25. I doubt not but flesh and bloud will cry out as once Christ's own Disciples did in another case This is a hard saying who can bear it 'T is indeed no small matter to bring down the carnal part of man to submit to the loss of Relations Interest and Life But since the advantage and danger of both cases is so clearly revealed what fools will men prove if to gain this life they lose the recompence of a better rewad As the rule of Holiness does thus instruct us in those duties that concern our selves so it also teacheth us how to carry towards others And in the first place it recommends the Royal Law of love as the spring and source of all other duties Rom. 13.9 If there be any other commandment 't is briefly comprehended in this saying namely Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self This for its excellency and comprehensiveness is said to be the fulfilling of the Law as those
of the Lords mercy that we are not consumed sure many who have offended less have been justly sent to everlasting burnings do now dwell with devouring flames and why should a living man complain it were certainly more rational to be humbled for the evil that occasioned the rod that our present misery may not be the prelude to more lasting torments Nay there is nothing that more offends God that is more contrary to the pattern set before us than to murmur and repine let us therefore study to bear the resemblance of our eldest Brother that our Heavenly Father may acknowledge us for his Children In the next place Christ's obedience to the Will of his Father is set forth as our president and can any thing more powerfully perswade us to obedience than his example which not onely discovers our duty but also inspirits and enables us to perform it If the marvelous pattern of Christ's entire obedience does not form our wills to do what God enjoyns I scarce know any argument that will prove â—ffectual And now how serious was our Lord Christ in dispatching that business his Father intrusted him with The work that his Father gave him to do he finished it Joh. 17.4 and he testifieth of himself That he did always those things that pleased his Father Joh. 8.29 and that he might more emphatically express this he tells us Joh. 4.34 My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work and indeed in that he so entirely resigned the whole power of his Will to his Father Not my will but thy will be done we have the most unquestionable proof of his perfect obedience He was as the great Apostle tells us Obedient to the death of the Cross submitted to the most dreadful sufferings that he might instruct us to keep his commandments even as he kept his Fathers commandments Joh. 15.10 and that the same mind be in us that was in him But God knows how little we regard either his Precepts or Examples for although our great Master has made his obedience our rule yet how ready are we to despise it if in the least it cross our humors or carnal interest Alas little do we consider that obedience is essentially necessary in order to our supream happiness and that torments as severe and intolerable as they are lasting are the lot of the disobedient It were to be wished that the rebellious posterity of Adam would but seriously ponder what they will be able to say in the great day of Audit Sure I am the whole Contexture and Harmony of the divine Precepts and Doctrines are equitable and just and therefore call for our hearty compliance with them The wise God never issued out any Command which could not be obeyed He is not like the Aegyptian Task-masters to require Brick while there is no Straw Nay indeed our duty and interest are coupled together so closely that if we disobey and rebel we may thank our selves for the misery we have chosen And as his obedience is set before us for imitation so is his Love Charity and Compassion also His whole life was spent in doing good to men how transcendent is his love in pitying us in our degenerate and forlorn estate when we were at odds with Heaven and incapable to help our selves then even then did he commiserate our case and by his own Blood reconciled us to the Father It is the greatest demonstration of love imaginable for a man to lay down his life for his friend Joh. 15.13 and yet more wonderful was the love of our Redeemer in passing through so many cruel sufferings for us who were but Rebels and Enemies O how should the remembrance of his boundless compassions transport and ravish us with love how strange is it that the highest endearments of Love have not inflamed our spirits and made Love mutual and reciprocal Love is a most excellent affection of a noble original by which we resemble the best of beings the great God being by the beloved Disciple described to be Love and indeed well does this description sute with his dealings with men But alas how unlike are we to God in this there is scarce any duty more frequently inculcated by our Saviour than Love John 15.12 This is my commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you and yet how little efficacy has either his precept or example with us Blessed Redeemer how unworthy do impure Earth-worms require thy love thou hast not been wanting to conquer our affections and to inflame our frozen hearts with love to thee and to our Neighbours also Thy life and Death comprehend the most endearing arguments imaginable and yet well maist thou ask us as once thou didst Peter Love you me but God knows there are but a very few who can unfeignedly say as this Disciple did Lord thou knowest that I love thee We can remember all thy sorrows without tears and look upon thy agonies with an unconcerned eye We can view thee in the Garden when grief and pain made thee sweat drops of bloud and behold thee as thou stoodst accused as a Malefactor before Pilate as thou wert contemned scourged and derided by impure worms and most spitefully represented in a fools habit we can ascend Mount Calvary and contemplate thee as enduring the most shameful death of the Cross and hanging betwixt two Thieves and all this time have Adamantine hearts which receive no impression Blessed Redeemer come touch these hearts of ours that they may be overcome with love that our wills and affections may be perfectly moulded according to thy pleasure Sure if we had any sparks of Generosity or common Ingenuity we could not thus despise so much love The very Publicans who were reputed the worst of men yet loved those that loved them And it hath even in the most degenerate times been reckoned the highest baseness to contemn Benefactors yet more brutish are we become than these and may very fitly be ranked in a Category inferior to that of bruits For the Ass as sacred Writ tells us knoweth his masters crib and the Ox his owner Isa 1.3 The very beasts in their own manner express a kinde of love to their Benefactors and yet although our Redeemer hath made our peace by his blood on the Cross and hath reversed that sentence of Damnation passed upon us although he hath endured the greatest dishonour and pain imaginable that we might be delivered from the wrath to come yet this unparallel'd kindness the greatest endearment of love hath not had the kindly effect to quicken our dead and benummed hearts but like a lifeless carcass we remain insensible without the least return of love And indeed it can scarce be well expected that the example of his love to us should engage us to love one another since it hath produced so little love in us to himself But however I need not take much pains to prove that hereby we demonstrate
to be ministred unto but to minister And to correct the insolent pride and ambition of his followers how did he stoop to wash his Disciples feet a most admirable evidence of his lowliness of spirit And now since our great Lord and Master did so wonderfully debase himself to the form of a Servant since in all his actions he did manifest that he was meek and lowly how prodigiously incongruous is it for those who profess themselves to be his Disciples to be proud and lofty I confess Humility is a grace well becoming our state as creatures we are but dependent beings having life and motion and all those endowments we are proud of from the Father of spirits from whom every good giâ—â— cometh The fresh communications of his love we constantly participate of are freely bestowed which he may therefore when he thinks fit with an equal freedom and ease remove without being guilty of injuring us Humility is that peculiar grace that qualifies and fits us to receive the divine aid and assistance as the Apostle St. James tells us he gives grace to the humble Upon which account we may with the Wise man well conclude Better is it to be of an humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud Prov. 16.19 I doubt not but every considering man will finde his own Reason suggest a sufficient store of arguments to confute the imperious assaults of Pride and Ambition but methinks none can more powerfully prevail with ingenuous spirits than the consideration of Christ's humility with this how effectually may he repel every temptation to pride by saying Was my Master lowly of spirit and does it become me to be proud Thirdly Christ is also set forth as our Pattern in his sufferings If when ye do well saith the Apostle and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God for even hitherto were ye called for Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps c. 1 Pet. 2.20 21. c. Heb. 12.1 2. His patience under his sufferings was very admirable for although he was flouted and contemned by his unworthy creatures was exposed to the base outrages of scandalous sinners was made a spectacle set at nought spit upon and smitten by unworthy worms whom with a word he could have easily dashed into nothing in a word though he endured all that malice could invent suffered the worst of temporal evils and became obedient to the cursed death of the cross yet notwithstanding how patiently did he endure the contradiction of sinners how entirely did he submit to his Fathers Will Although he was extreamly sensible of the weight of his sufferings yet he did not in the least evidence any revengeful mind in the midst of his extream tortures but sweetly recommended his soul into his Fathers hands And now can any motive more effectually convince us to suffer patiently But God knows how much we set at nought this president fain would we enjoy a continual prosperity a life of ease without the least mixture or allay of trouble When we meet with any thing that imbitters our condition like the murmuring Israelites we fret and repine and our spirits begin to boil with rage and discontent we cannot endure to have our pleasures impaired but Jonah-like we are discontented and ready to say we do well to be angry we aggravate the most minute trouble with imagined circumstances and are ready to say Come behold and see if there be any affliction like mine And although we are assured that our repinings cannot remove or lighten our burthen cannot give us the least ease or relief yet we never rest till those puddled streams be stirred up Our grumblings are almost inseparable concomitants of our sufferings and if our Father smite us we begin to accuse his love and tenderness notwithstanding he hath instructed us that whom he loveth he chasteneth If we meet with reproaches our revenge is on the wing the least affront kindles this unsanctified fire No arguments can tame our Fury no president proves effectual to form our Souls to true patience If we drink of the waters of Marah we complain of their bitterness like foolish Children think we are hardly dealt with And although impatience enflames rather than allays the distemper though it augments the degrees of our trouble and disenables us to bear the stroke of Adversity yet we will not be perswaded to a calm and quiet submission to the Divine Will Though impatience exasperates the pain yet we think we do well to be angry If we meet with injuries our appetite of revenge is stirred up flesh and bloud we say cannot endure such affronts we imagine it stains our Reputation and Honour in the world and is degenerous and servile Thus do we sew Fig-leaves to cover our nakedness but the all-seeing God knows that all these repinings are arrows directed against his Providence otherwise we should with the Royal Psalmist say I will not open my mouth for thou didst it To this impregnable Fortress he had his recourse when causlesly cursed and reviled by Shimei it was this that silenced old Eli It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good he durst not quarrel at the message but quietly he submits There is a secret Providence which doth over-rule the most terrible accidents and is not accountable to humane Reason All those calamities and sufferings we undergo are ordered by infinite Counsel and in repining at such dispensations we indirectly blame Almighty Goodness and Wisdome Is it fit and congruous that God should take measures from men in his Oeconomy of the World is it reasonable that the whole course of things should be put out of order to satisfie every private mans humor can there be any greater madness than to prescribe rules of Government to infinite Wisdom Why then are we dissatisfied with our adverse state why do we repine and complain If we did indeed compare our Mercies with our Sufferings our Receipts with our Merits or our Condition with that of some others we could not but be convinced of our folly but we still pore upon the sore all our thoughts are taken up and in exercise about our affliction if we would deal rationally let us view the sufferings of our blessed Redeemer and see if we dare make a contrary conclusion to that of the Apostle 1 Pet. 4.1 Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh let us arm our selves likewise with the same mind He suffered patiently and calmly for us and it is but reasonable that Servants imitate their Master and suffer the disasters they meet with with the same mind that he did that being thus made conform to our head we may be also partakers with him of his joy 'T is indeed an unchild-like behaviour to quarrel at the dispensations of our Heavenly Father Alas all we merit by our sins is stripes and chastisements and it is
expedient to secure the obedience of Subjects And I confess I know not how that man can be a true Subject to his earthly Prince who stands not to offend the God of Heaven I know some who have pretended to much Holiness have been the greatest villains but this proves not that the rule of Holiness gives a Supersedeas or allowance to any to disobey Authority Art thou a Parent the rule of Holiness to which holy men conform will instruct thee to be gentle and tender to thy Children and not to provoke them to wrath which is the onely thing that lessens their affection Art thou a Childe it will teach thee to reverence and honour thy parents in doing of which thou entitlest thy self to the promise annexed to the fifth Commandment In a word it is profitable to make all manner of Relations live in quietness and peace and to bestow mutual offices of love upon each other It instructs men to be faithful in every calling and employment and certainly the good man is to be trusted far rather than the wicked for Religion lays an awe and restraint upon the one but the other pretends no such motive to engage him to fidelity especially if he may deceive and not be noticed To this purpose Plutarch hath a notable saying Pietate saith he Nat. Deor. lib. 1. sublata fides etiam Societas humanae generis una excellentissima virtus justitia tollitur There are several things useful for some men but altogether unprofitable for others but Holiness is equally profitable for all there are none exempt from tasting its utility but those who exclude themselves by a vitious conversation Secondly Holiness is attended with all outward blessings and wants not a claim to a temporal felicity Matth. 6.33 Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all other things shall be added unto you The promise of inheriting the Earth by which all temporal felicity is meant is made to the meek Matth. 5.8 Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth And indeed we finde this blessing even promised to the posterity of those that fear the Lord Psal 25.13 And to put this beyond all doubt we finde the Psalmist repeating this five times in one Psalm Psal 37.9 11 22 29 34. And the great Apostle tells us that it is Godliness that hath the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4.8 The God of Heaven hath also assured us that he will withhold no good thing from them that walk uprightly Upon this account well might Wisdom say Prov. 8.18 Riches and honour are with me a plain instance of which we have in Solomon who because of his asking Wisdom to govern his Subjects when he might as freely have ask'd Riches and Honour he receives this answer from God I have also given thee both riches and honour 1 King 3.13 But however this discriminating providence doth not so discernedly appear here yet there is no man but can attest Vice hath impoverished thousands there being several sins that have a natural tendency to poverty By means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread Prov. 6.26 The like we may truely enough say of several other sins I have seen saith the Psalmist the wicked great in power and spreading himself like a green bay-tree yet he passed away and lo he was not yea I sought him but he could not be found Psal 37.35 36. I confess good men may be reduced to great wants may be destitute of necessary provisions nay how frequently is this the lot of the most excellent and gallant Souls yet this may be safely said That a little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked But then those things that best deserve the name of riches because of their enriching the Soul which being more excellent than the Body must upon that account be of greater value than these things that onely respect the Body these are onely peculiar to holy men and such are the graces of the Holy Spirit the combination of Christian vertues the price of which is above that of Rubies These are riches which are of a more lasting nature than those which the ignoble of the world call riches they are not subject to the casualties which Gold and Silver and precious Stones are which upon that account cannot be called a mans own as Pagan Moralists have largely and excellently confirmed And if we will not dispute with God and contest his determination we shall finde one single vertue receiving a more ample commendation than ever riches did 1 Pet. 3.4 The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is in the sight of God of great price Although the holy and devout Soul may be reduced to our Savours straits not to have where to lay his head yet how can he be said to be poor since he possesses him who is All The most adverse chances that befal such a Soul cannot denominate it poor there is a Crown and Princely Inheritance which belongs to it Nay besides that glorious reversion we have express promises that such Souls shall not be altogether destitute of necessaries to sustain and support them in this their pilgrimage I have already shewed that Honour and Pleasures are the attendants of Holiness What in the world is more glorious than for a man to conquer those lusts and inordinate appetites that seek the mastery over him what pleasure is able to contest with those ravishing joys which result from a holy conversation There is nothing imaginable that so exhilarates and revives men as a calm and quiet Conscience But I pass this In the next place I come to shew that the enjoyment of all other blessings can never profit that man that wants Holiness This is plainly attested by our Saviour saying What hath a man profited if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul To have an affluence of temporal mercies cannot so much as contribute to a present felicity where the forementioned qualification is lacking Outward favours not attended and chained with real Holiness contribute onely to enhance the misery of their possessor they being proper fewel to increase the flame of inquietude and restlesness but unfit to allay it The greatest plenty of riches cannot satisfie the covetous minde which like the Grave cries Give give The whole world could not satisfie Alexander's insatiable ambition but as the Poet speaks Aestuat infoelix angusto limite mundi 'T is indeed impossible for a man to enjoy that earthly felicity he designs if he want Holiness For suppose he be possessed of it yet the secret acknowledgement of a superiour power impairs the delights that do arise from such a state and makes him in the height of his fancied felicity startle and quake Conscience upon the apprehension of guilt and the vengeance due to it recoils upon the sinner and disturbs his quiet enjoyment of the
may further my Salvation Keep me O Lord in my old age forsake me not when I am gray-headed And whensoever it shall please thee to cast me upon my sick bed grant that I may take my sickness patiently and at the last gasp let not either sin or Satan take such hold upon me that I depart this life with cryings and screechings and words of despair but that believing thy word and yielding to thine ordinance my last hour may be my best hour and I may say with the Psalmist Lord into thy hands I commend my Spirit for thou hast redeemed me O Lord God of Truth Pardon O Lord my misspending the time my unprofitableness my unthankfulness for thy goodness Supply what is wanting in me through the fire of compunction make me at all hours to seem a living sacrifice in thy sight Continue towards me thy love and make me to love thee again Without thee alas I die but when I think on thee I revive again To thee therefore be ascribed all honour and glory world without end Our Father c. A Prayer before the receiving of the Sacrament O Most gracious and merciful Lord God thou hast called all those that are weary and heavy laden with their sins to come unto thee and hast promised to ease and refresh them thou hast invited all those that hunger and thirst after thy Kingdom and the righteousness thereof to come to thy Table to tast of thy supper and hast promised that thou wilt satisfy them in assurance therefore of these promises I come to thee blessed Lord Jesus beseeching thee to ease me to refresh me to satisfy me with thy mercy for my Soul hungers and thirsts after thee and thy Salvation I confess and acknowledge that my daily sins have made me unworthy of my daily Bread much more of this Manna this Bread of Life that came down from Heaven I confess O Lord I am not prepared according to the preparation of thy sanctuary yet for as much as this day I have set my Heart to seek to thee thou O God be merciful unto me and though I cannot bring with me a clean Heart for who can say his Heart is clean yet behold O Lord I bring with me a contrite Heart and a broken Spirit despise not O God this Sacrifice As for the sins that I have committed against thee binde them up in one bundle and cast them into the bottomless Sea of thy mercy bury them in thy Wounds and wash them away in the blood of that immaculate Lamb Christ Jesus and for the time to come sprinkle my conscience with the same blood that being cleansed from dead works I may serve thee the Living God in righteousness and true holiness all the days of my life That so this blessed Sacrament may be a means to quiet my conscience to increase my Faith to inflame my Charity to amend my life to save my Soul and to assure me that I am of the number of those blessed ones who shall eat at thy Table and be called to the Marriage-supper of the Lamb. Grant this O Lord for Jesus Christ his sake in whose Name and words I conclude these my imperfect prayers saying as he himself hath taught me Our Father c. A Prayer after the receiving of the Sacrament O Most gracious God from whose bountie every good and perfect gist is derived I and all that is within me praise and magnify thy holy Name for all thy mercies and favours which from time to time thou hast bestowed upon me But especially I thank thee for Jesus Christ thy Son the fountain and foundation of all blessings and benefits that thou hast sent him into the World to take our nature upon him and to die for us and that thou hast fed me who am unworthy of the least of thy favours with the precious merits of his death and passion Blessed Lord God thou hast been pleased this day to set thy Seal to the Pardon and forgiveness of all my sins Oh let me not lose it again by unthankfulness or relapsing into my old sins from which thou hast purged me lest my last end be worse than my beginning But if hereafter I shall be tempted by the Devil allured by the World or provoked by my own flesh then set before mine eyes by the remembrance of thy Spirit how dear the expiation of my sins cost my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ even the effusion of his most precious and holy blood that in the contemplation of his death and application of his most bitter passion I may die daily unto sin and so may shew forth the Lords death till he come and bring his reward with him I may receive the Crown of Righteousness which he hath purchased and prepared for all those that love and expect the day of his appearing with the precious price of his incorruptible blood And whereas I have this day renewed my covenant with thee my God in vows and purposes of better obedience assist me by thy grace and strengthen me by thy power that I may pay the Vows which I have made unto thee and that by vertue of thy heavenly nourishment I may grow up in grace and godliness till at last I come to be a perfect man in Christ Jesus Preserve and maintain always this thine Ordinance that it may be a note and a badge of my publick profession and give unto all of us that have been partakers of thy body and blood one heart and one mind in the unity of Spirit for the worthy and reverend receiving of the same whensoever we shall come to thy holy Table again And for this thy mercy towards me do I yield unto thee all praise and glory and power and might and majesty through Jesus Christ our Lord in whose most blessed Name and words I further pray Our Father c. Another Prayer before the Sacrament DEpart from me Luk. 5.8 for I am a sinful man O Lord. I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof For the house of my Soul which thou hast made a fit Temple for thy holy Spirit to inhabit in I have defaced and defiled with all manner of pollutions and abominations It is become a den of ravenous Beasts and a cage of unclean Birds and every corner so crowded with filthiness that thou wilt not find where to lay thy head Luk. 9.58 But thou O Lord which despisest not a penitent sinner but hast promised to dwell with the humble and contrite Spirit I beseech thee cast me not away from thy presence but cast out all profaneness and uncleanness out of my Heart and remove every thing that may offend the pure Eyes of thy glory and the holiness of thy presence and then O Lord vouchsafe to come and enter in and dwell there and abide with me for ever Behold O Lord I am before thee in my sins Zach. 3.1 clothed with filthy garments and Satan standing at my right hand accusing