against me but thy rod gently correct my follies and guide me in thy waies and thy staffe support me in all sufferings and changes Preserve me from fracture of bones from noisâ—me infectious and sharp sicknesses from great violences of Fortune and sudden surprises keep all my senses intire till the day of my death and let my death be neither sudden untimely nor unprovided let it be after the common manner of men having in it nothing extraordinary but an extraordinary piety and the manifestation of thy great and miraculous mercy IV. LEt no riches make me ever forget my self no poverty ever make me to forget thee Let no hope or fear no pleasure or pain no accident without no weakness within hinder or discompose my duty or turn me from the waies of thy Commandements O let thy spirit dwell with me for ever and make my soul just and charitable full oâ— honesty full of religion resolute and constant in holy purposes but inflexible to evil Make me humble and obedient peaceable and pious let me never envy any mans good nor deserve to be despised my self and if I be teach me to bear it with meekness and charity V. GIve me a tender conscience a conversation discreet and affable modest and patient liberal and obliging a body chaste and healthful compitency of living according to my condition contentedness in all estates a resigned will and mortified affections that I may be as thou wouldest have me and my portion may be in the lot of the righteous in the brightness of thy countenance and the glories of eternity Amen Holy is our God Holy is the Almighty * Holy is the immortal Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabaoth have mercy upon me A form of Prayer for the Evening to be said by such who have not time or opportunity to say the publick Prayers appointed for this office I. Evening Prayer O Eternal God Great Father of Men and Angels who hast established the Heavens and the Earth in a wonderful order making day and night to exceed each other I make my humble addresse to thy Divine Majestie begging of thee mercy and protection this night and ever O Lord pardon all my sins my light and rash words the vanity and impiety of my thoughts my unjust and uncharitable actions and whatsoever I have transgressed against thee this day or at any time before Behold O God my soul is troubled in the remembrance of my sins in the frailty and sinfulness of my flesh exposed to every temptation and of it self not able to resist any Lord God of mercy I earnestly beg of thee to give me a great portion of thy grace such as may be sufficient and effectual for the mortification of all my sins and vanities and disorders that as I have formerly served my lust and unworthy desires so now I may give my self up wholly to thy service and the studies of a holy life II. BLessed Lord teach me frequently and sadly to remember my sins and be thou pleased to remember them no more let me never forget thy mercies and doe thou still remember to doe me good Teach me to walk alwaies as in thy presence Ennoble my soule with great degrees of love to thee and consigne my spirit with great fear religion and veneration of thy holy Name and laws that it may become the great imployment of my whole life to serve thee to advance thy glory to root out all the accursed habits of sin that in holiness of life in humility in charity in chastity and all the ornaments of grace I may by patience wait for the coming of our Lord Jesus Amen III. TEach me O Lord to number my daies that I may apply my heart unto wisdom ever to remember my last end that I may not dare to sin against thee Let thy holy Angels be ever present with me to keep me in all my waies from the malice and violence of the spirits of darkness from evil company and the occasions and opportunities of evil from perishing in popular judgments from all the waies of sinfull shame from the hands of all mine enemies from a sinful life and from despair in the day of my death Then O brightest Jesu shine gloriously upon me let thy mercies and the light of thy countenance sustain me in all my agonies weaknesses and temptations Give me opportunity of a prudent and spiritual Guide and of receiving the holy Sacrament and let thy loving Spirit so guide me in the waies of peace and safety that with the testimony of a good conscience and the sense of thy mercies and refreshment I may depart this life in the unity of the Church in the love of God and a certain hope of salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord and most blessed Saviour Amen Our Father c. Another form of Evening Prayer which may also be used at bed-time Our Father c. Psal. 121. I Will lift up my eyes unto the hils from whence cometh my help My help cometh of the Lord which made heaven and earth He will not suffer thy foot to be moved he that keepeth thee will not slumber Behold he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep The Lord is thy keeper the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand The sun shall not smite thee by day neither the moon by night The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil he shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth for evermore Glory be to the Father c. I. VIsit I beseech thee O Lord this habitation with thy mercy and me with thy grace and salvation Let thy holy Angels pitch their tents round about and dwel here that no illusion of the night may abuse me the spirits of darkness may not come neer to hurt me no evil or sad accident oppresse me and let the eternall spirit of the father dwell in my soul and body filling every corner of my heart with light and grace Let no deed of darkness overtake me and thy blessing most blessed GOD be upon me for ever through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen II. INto thy hands most blessed Jesu I commend my soul and body for thou hast redeemed both with thy most precious blood So blesse and sanctifie my sleep unto me that it may be temperate holy and safe a refreshment to my wearied body to enable it so to serve my soul that both may serve thee with a never failing duty O let me never sleep in sin or death eternal but give me a watchfull and a prudent spirit that I may omit no opportunity of serving thee that whether I sleep or wake live or die I may be thy servant and thy childe that when the work of my life is done I may rest in the bosome of my Lord till by the voice of the Archangel the tâ—ump of God I shall be awakened and called to sit down and feast in the eternal supper of
our sins 1 John 3.5 If ye being evill know to give good things to your children how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to them that ask him Matth. 7.11 This is a faithfull saying and worthy of â—ll accepâ—ation that Jesus Christ came into the World to save sinners He that hath given us his â—on how should not he with him give us all things else Acts of hope to be used by sick persons after a pious life I Am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nâ—â— Principalities noâ— powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Rom. 8.38 I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me onely but unto all them also that love his appearing 2 Tim. 4.7 Blessed be the God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies and the God of all comforts who comforts us in all tribulation 2 Cor. 1.3 A prayer to be said in behalf of a sick or dying person O Lord God there is no number of thy dayes nor of thy mercies and the sins and sorrows of thy servant also are multiplied Lord look upon him with much mercy and pity forgive him all his sinnes comfort his sorrows ease his pain satisfie his doubts relieve his fears instruct his ignorances strengthen his understanding take from him all disorders of spiritâ— weakness and abuse of fancy Restrain the malice and power of the spirits of darkness and suffer him to be injured neither by his ghostly enemies noâ— his own infirmities and let a holy and a just peace the peace of God be within his conscience Lord preserve his senses till thâ— last of his time strengthen his faith confirm his hope and give him a never ceasing charity to thee our God and to all the world stir up in him a great and proportionable contrition for all the evills he hath done and give him a just measure of patience for all he suffers give him prudence memory and consideration rightly to state the accounts of his soul and do thou reminde him of all his duty that when it shall please thee that his soul goes out from the prison of his body it may be received by Angels and preserved from the surprize of evil spirits and from the horrors and amazements of new and stranger Regions and be laid up in the bosom of our Lord till at the day of thy second coming it shall be reunited to the body which is now to be layed down in weakness and dishonour but we humbly beg may then be raised up with glory and power for ever to live and to behold the face of God in the glories of the Lord Jesus who is our hope our resurrection and our life the light of our eyes and the joy of our souls our blessed and ever glorious Redeemer Amen Hither the sick persons may draw in and use the acts of several vertues respersed in the several parts of this book the several Letanies viz. of repentance of the passion and the single prayers according to his present needs A Prayer to be said in a storm aâ— Sea O My God thou didst create the Earth and the Sea for thy glory and the use of man and doest daily shew wonders in the deep look upon the danger and fear of thy servant my sins have taken hold upon me and without the supporting arm of thy mercy I cannot look up but my trust is in thee Do thou O Lord rebuke the Sea and make it calm for to thee the windes and the sea obey let not the waters swallow me up but let thy Spirit the Spirit of gentleness and mercy move upon the waters Be thou reconciled unto thy servants and then the face of the waters will be smooth I fear that my sins make me like â—onas the cause of the tempest Cast out all my sins and throw not thy servants away from thy presence and from the land of the living into the depths where all things are forgotten But if it be thy wil that wâ— shall go down into the waters Lord 〈◊〉 my soul into thy holy hands and preserve it in mercy and safety till the day of â—estâ—â—â—tion of all things and be pleased â—oâ—n â—e my dâ—â—th to the 〈◊〉 of thy Son and â—o accept of it so united as a punishment for all my sins that thou mayest forget all thine anger and blot my sins out of thy book and write my soul there for Jesus Christ his sake our dearest Lord and most mighty Redeemer Amen Then make an act of resignation thus TO God pertain the issues of life and death It is the Lord. Let him do what seemeth good in his own eyes Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven Recite Psalm 107. and 130. A form of a vow to be made in this or the like danger IF the Lord will be gracious and hear the Prayer of his servant and bring me safe to shore then I will praise him secretly and publickly and pay unto the uses of charity or Religion then name the sum you designe for holy uses O my God my goods are nothing unto thee I will also be thy servant all the dayes of my life and remember this mercy and my present purposes and live more to Gods glory and with a stricter duty And do thou please to accept this vow as an instance of my importunity and the greatness of my needs and be thou graciously moved to pity and deliver me Amen This form also may be used in praying for a blessing on an enterprize and may be instanced in actions of devotion as well as of charity A Prayer before a journey O Almighty God who fillest all things with thy presence and art a God afar off as well as neer at hand thou didst send thy Angel to bless Jacob in his journey and didst lead the children of Israel through the Red Sea making it a wall on the right hand and on the left be pleased to let thy Angel go out before me and guide me in my journey preserving me from dangers of robbers from violence of enemies and sudden and sad accidents from fals and errours and prosper my journey to thy glory and to all my innocent purposes and preserve me from all sin that I may return in peace and holyness with thy favour and thy blessing and may serve thee in thankfulness and obedience all the dayes of my pilgrimage and aâ— last bring me to thy country to the celestial Jerusalem there to dwell in thy house and to sing praises to thee for ever Amen Ad. Sect. 4. A prayer to be said before hearing or reading the word of God O
no impure thoughts pollute that soul which God hath sanctified no unclean words pollute that tongue which God hath commanded to be an Organ of his praises no unholy and unchaste action rend the vail of that Temple where the holy JESUS hath been pleased to enter and hath chosen for his habitation but seal up all my senses from all vain objects and let them be intirely possessed with Religion and fortified with prudence watchfulness and mortification that I possessing my vessel in holiness may lay it down with a holy hope and receive it again in a joyful resurrection through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen A Prayer for the love of God to be said by Virgins and Widows professed or resolved so to live and may be used by any one O Holy and purest Jesus who wert pleased to espouse every holy soul and joyn it to thee with a holy union and mysterious instruments of religious society and communications O fill my soul with Religion and desires holy as the thoughts of Cherubim passionate beyond the love of women that I may love thee as much as ever any creature loved thee even with all my soul and all my faculties and all the degrees of every faculty let me know no loves but those of duty and charity obedience and devotion that I may for ever run after thee who art the King of Virgins and with whom whole kingdoms are in love and for whose sake Queens have died and at whose feet Kings with joy have laid their Crowns and Scepters My soul is thine O dearest Jesu thou art my Lord and hast bound up my eyes and heart from all strange affections give me for my dowry purity and humility modesty and devotion charity and patience and at last bring me into the Bride-chamber to partake of the felicities and to lie in the bosome of the Bride-groom to eternal ages O holy and sweetest Saviour Jesus Amen A Prayer to be said by married persons in behalf of themselves and each other O Eternal and gracious Father who hast consecrated the holy estate of marriage to become mysterious and to represent the union of Christ and his church let thy holy Spirit so guide me in the doing the duties of this state that it may not became a sin unto me nor that liberty which thou hast hallowed by the holy Jesus become an occasion of licentiousness by my own weakness and sensuality and doe thou forgive all those irregularities and too sensual applications which may have in any degree discomposed my spirit and the severity of a Christian. Let me in all accidents and circumstances be severe in my duty towards thee affectionate and dear to my Wife or Husband a guide and good example to my family and in all quietness sobriety prudence and peace a follower of those holy pairs who have served thee with godliness and a good testimony and the blessings of the eternal God blessings of the right hand and of the left be upon the body and soul of thy servant my Wife or Husband and abide upon her or him till the end of a holy and happy life and grant that both of us may live together for ever in the embraces of the holy and eternal Jesus our Lord and saviour Amen A prayer for the grace of Humility O Holy and most gracious Master and Saviour Jesus who by thy example and by thy precept by the practise of a whole life and frequent discourses didst command us to be meek and humble in imitation of thy incomparable sweetness and great humility be pleased to give me the grace as thou hast given me the commandment enable me to doe whatsoever thou commandest and command whatsoever thou pleasest O mortifie in me all proud thoughts and vain opinions of my self let me return to thee acknowledgment and the fruits of all those good things thou hast given me that by confessing I am wholly in debt to thee for them I may not boast my self for what I have received and for what I am highly accountable and for what is my own teach me to be ashamed and humbled it being nothing but sin and misery weakness and uncleanness Let me go before my brethren in nothing but in striving to doe them honour and thee glory never to seek my own praise never to delight in it when it is offered that despising my self I may be accepted by thee in the honours with which thou shalt crown thy humble and despised servants for Jesus his sake in the kingdome of eternal glory Amen Acts of Humility and Modesty by way of prayer and meditation I. Lord I know that my spirit is light and thorny my body is brutish and exposed to sickness I am constant to folly and inconstant in holy purposes My labours are vain and fruitless my fortune full of change and trouble seldom pleasing never perfect My wisdom is holly being ignorant even of the parts and passions of my own body and what am I O Lord before thee but a miserable person hugely in debt not able to pay II. Lord I am nothing and I have nothing of my self I am lesse then the least of all thy mercies III. What was I before my birth First nothing and then uncleanness What during my childehood weakness and folly What in my youth folly still and passion lust and wildness What in my whole life a great sinner a deceived and an abused person Lord pity me for it is thy goodness that I am kept from confusion and amazement when I consider the misery and shame of my person and the defilements of my nature IV. Lord what am I and Lord what art thou What is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou so regardest him V. How can Man be justified with God or how can he be clean that is born of a Woman Behold even to the Moon and it shineth not yea the Starres are not pure in his sight How much lesse Man that is a Worm and the son of Man which is a Worm Job 25. A Prayer for a contented spirit and the grace of moderation and patience O Almighty God Father and Lord of all the creatures who hast disposed al things and all chances so as may best glorifie thy wisdom and serve the ends of thy justice and magnifie thy mercy by secret and undiscernible waies bringing good out of evil I most humbly beseech thee to give me wisdome from above that I may adore thee and admire thy waies and footsteps which are in the great Deep and not to be searched out teach me to submit to thy providence in all things to be content in all changes of person and condition to be temperate in prosperity and to read my duty in the lines of thy mercy and in adversity to be meek patient and resigned and to look through the cloud that I may wait for the consolation of the Lord and the day of redemption in the mean time doing my duty with an
any cause but after a long growth of a temperate and well regulated love it is to be suspected for passion and forwardness rather then the verticall point of love 2. That zeal only is good which in a fervent love hath temperate expressions For let the affection boyl as high as it can yet if it boyl over into irregular and strange actions it will have but few but will need many excuses Elijah was zealous for the Lord of Hosts and yet he was so transported with it that he could not receive answer from God till by musick he was recomposed and tamed and Moses broke both the Tables of the Law by being passionately zealous against them that brake the first 3. Zeal must spend its greatest heat principally in those things that concern our selves but with great care and restraint in those that concern others 4. Remember that zeal being an excrescence of Divine love must in no sense contradict any action of love Love to God includes love to our Neighbour and therefore no pretence of zeal for Gods glory must make us uncharitable to our brother Phil. 3 6 for that is just so pleasing to God as hatred is an act of love 5. That Zeal that concerns others can spend it self in nothing but arts and actions and charitable instruments for their good and when it concerns the good of many that one should suffer it must be done by persons of a competent authority and in great necessity in seldom instances according to the Law of God or Man but never by private right or for trifling accidents of in mistaken propositions The Zealots in the Old Law had authority to transfix and stab some certain persons but God gave them warrant it was in the case of Idolatry or such notorious huge crimes the danger of which was insupportable and the cognizance of which was infallible and yet that warrant expired with the Synagogue 6. Zeal in the instances of our own duty and personal deportment is more safe then in matters of counsel and actions besides our just duty and tending towards perfection Though in these instances there is not a direct sin even where the zeal is lesse wary yet there is much trouble and some danger as if it be spent in the too forward vows of Chastity and restraints of natural and innocent liberties 7. Zeal may be let loose in the instances of internal personal and spiritual actions that are matters of direct duty as in prayers and acts of adoration and thanksgiving and frequent addresses provided that no indirect act passe upon them to defile them such as complacency and opinions of sanctity censuring others scruples and opinions of necessity unnecessary fears superstitious numbrings of times and hours but let the zeal be as forward as it will as devout as it will as Seraphicall as it will in the direct addresse and entercourse with God there is no danger Lavora cente 〈◊〉 â—avesti a comparâ— ogni horat adora come 〈◊〉 tu havesii â— moâ—ir alâ—ore no transgression Do all the parts of your duty as earnestly as if the salvation of all the world and the whole glory of God and the confusion of all Devils and all that you hope or desire did depend upon every one action 8. Let zeal be seated in the will and choice and regulated with prudence and a sober understanding not in the fancies affections for these will make it full of noise and empty of profit Rom. 10.2 but that will make it deep and smooth material and devout The summe is this That Zeal is not a direct duty no where commanded for it self and is nothing but a forwardness circumstance of another duty Tit. 2.14 Rev 3.16 and therefore is then only acceptable when it advances the love of God and our Neighbours whose circumstance it is That zeal is only safe only acceptable which increases charity directly and because love to our Neighbour and obedience to God are the two great portions of charity we must never account our zeal to be good but as it advances both these if it be in a matter that relates to both or severally if it relates severally S. Pauls zeal was expressed in preaching without any offerings or stipend in travelling in spending and being spent for his flock in suffering in being willing to be accursed for love of the people of God and his country-men Let our Zeal be as great as his was so it be in affections to others but not at all in angers against them In the first then is no danger in the second there is no safety In brief let your zeal if it must be expressed in anger be alwaies more severe against thy self 2 Cor. 7.11 then against others ¶ The other part of Love to God is Love to our Neighbour for which I have reserved the Paragraph of Alms. Of the external actions of Religion Religion teaches us to present to God our bodies as well as our souls for God is the Lord of both and if the body serves the soul in actions natural and civil and intellectual It must not be eased in the only offices of Religion unlesse the body shall expect no portion of the rewards of Religion such as are resurrection Rom. 12.1 reunion and glorification Our bodys are to God a living sacrifice and to present them to God is holy and acceptable The actions of the body as it serves to Religion and as it is distinguished from Sobriety and Justice either relate to the word of God or to prayer or to repentance and make these kindes of external actions of Religion 1 Reading and hearing the Word of God 2. Fasting and corporal austerities called by S Paul bodily exercise 3. Feasting or keeping daies of publick joy and thanksgiving SECT IV. Of Reading or Hearing the Word of God REading and Hearing the Word of God are but the several circumstances of the same duty instrumental especially to faith but consequently to all other graces of the Spirit It is all one to us whether by the eye or by the ear the Spirit conveys his precepts to us If we hear Saint Paul saying to us that Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge or read it in one of his Epistles in either of them we are equally and sufficiently instructed The Scriptures read are the same thing to us which the same doctrine was when it was preached by the Disciples of our blessed Lord and we are to learn of either with the same dispositions There are many that cannot read the Word and they must take it in by the ear and they that can read finde the same Word of God by the eye It is necessary that all men learn it in some way or other and it is sufficient in order to their practise that they learn it any way The Word of God is all those Commandments and Revelations those promises and threatnings the stories and sermons recorded in the Bible nothing else is the
in mind and will to dye for the testimony of Jesus and to suffer any affliction or calamity that shall offer to hinder my duty or tempt me to shame or sin or apostasie and let my faith be the parent of a good life a strong shield to repell the fiery darts of the Devil and the Author of a holy hope of modest desires of confidence in God and of a never failing charity to thee my God and to all the world that I may never have my portion with the unbelievers or uncharitable and desperate persons but may be supported by the strengths of faith in all temptations and may be refreshed with the comforts of a holy hope in all my sorrows and may bear the burden of the Lord and the infirmities of my neighbour by the support of charity that the yoak of Jesus may become easie to me and my love may do all the miracles of grace till from grace it swell to glory from earth to heaven from duty to reward from the imperfections of a beginning and little growing love it may arrive to the consummation of an enternall never ceasing charity through Jesus Christ the Son of thy love the Anchor of our hope and the Author and finisher of our faith to whom with thee O Lord God Father of Heaven and Earth and with thy holy Spirit be all glory and love and obedience and dominion now and for ever Amen Acts of love by way of prayer and ejaculation to be used in private O God thou art my God eaâ—ly will I seek thee my soul tâ—iâ—steâ—h for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is to see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary because thy loving kindness is better then life my lips shall praise thee Psal. 63. I am ready not only to be bound but to dye for the name of the Lord Jesus Acts. 23. How amiable are thy tabernacles thou Lord of Hosts my soul longeth yea even fainteth for the courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God Blessed are they that dwell in thy house they will still be praising thee Psal. 84. O blessed Jesu thou art worthy of all adoration and all honour and all love Thou art the Wonderfull the Counsellor the mighty God the Everlasting Father the Prince of peace of thy goverment and peace there shall be no end thou art the brightness of thy Fathers glory the express image of his person the appointed Heir of all things Thou upholdest all things by the word of thy power Thou didst by thy self purg our sins Thou art set on the right hand of the Majesty on high Thou art made better then the Angels thou hast by inheritance obtained a more excellent name then they Thou O dearest Jesus art the head of the Church the beginning and the first-born from the 〈◊〉 in all things thou hast the preheminence and it pleased the Father that in thee should all fulness dwell Kingdomes are in love with thee Kings lay their Crowns and Scepters at thy feet and Queens are thy handmaids and wash the feet of thy servants A Prayer to be said in any affliction as death of children of husband or wife in great poverty in imprisonment in a sad and disconsolate spirit and in temptations to despair O Eternall God Father of Mercies and God of all comfort with much mercy look upon the sadnesses and sorrows of thy servant My sins lye heavy upon me and press me sore and there is no health in my bones by reason of thy displeasure and my sin The waters are gone over me and I stick fast in the deep mire and my miseries are without comfort because they are punishments of my sin and I am so evill and unworthy a person that though I have great desires yet I have no dispositions or worthiness towards receiving comfort My sins have caused my sorrow and my sorrow does not cure my sins and unless for thy own sake and meerly because thou art good thou shalt pity me and relieve me I am as much without remedy as now I am without comfort Lord pity me Lord let thy grace refresh my spirit Let thy comforts support me thy mercy pardon me and never let my portion be amongst hopeless and accursed spirits for thou art good and gracious and I throw my self upon thy mercy Let me never let my hold go and do thou with me what seems good in thy own eyes I cannot suffer more then I have deserved and yet I can need no relief so great as thy mercy is for thou art infinitely more mercifull then I can be miserable and thy mercy which is above all thy own works must needs be far above all my sin and al my misery Dearest Jesus let me trust in thee for ever and let me never be confounded Amen Ejaculations and â—ort meditations to be used in time of sickness and sorrow or danger of Death HEar my Prayer O Lord and let my crying come unto thee * Hide not thy face from me in the time of my trouble incline thine ear unto me when I call O â—eâ—r me that right soon For my dayes are consumed like smoak and my bones are burnt up as it were a fire brand My heart is smitten down and withered like grass so that I forget to eat my bread and that because of tâ—ine indignation and wrath for thou hast taken me up and cast me down * Thine arrows stick fast in me and thy hand presseth me sore There is â—o health in my flesh because of thy displeasure neither is there any rest in my bonâ—s by reason of my sin * My wicked esses are gone over my head and are a sore burden too heavy for me to bear But I will confess my wickedness and be sorry for my sin O Lord rebuke me not in thy indignation neither chasten me in thy displeasure Lord be mercifull unto me heal my soul for I have sinned against thee Have mercy upon me O God after thy great goodness according to the multitude of thy mercies do away mine offences O remember not the sins and offences of my youth but according to thy mercy think thou upon me O Lord for thy goodness * Wash me thoroughly from my wickedness and cleanse me from my sin * Make me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me * Cast me not away from thy presence from thy all-hallowing and life-giving presence and take not thy holy Spirit thy sanctifying thy guiding thy comforting thy supporting and confirming Spirit from me O God thou art my God for ever and ever thou shalt be my guide unto death * Lord comfort me now that I lye sick upon my bed make thou my bed in all my sickness * O deliver my soul from the place of Hell and do thou receive me * My heart is disquieted within me and the fear of death is
fallen upon me * behold thou hast made my dayes as it were a span long and mine age is even as nothing in respect of thee and verily every man living is altogether vanity * When thou with rebukes doest chasten man for sin thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth fretting a garment every man therefore is but vanity And now Lord what is my hope truly my hope is even in thee * Hear my prayer O Lord and with thine ears consider my calling hold not thy peace at my tears * Take this plague away from me I am consumed by the means of thy heavy hand * I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner as all my fathers were * O spare me a little that I may recover my strength before I go hence and be no more seen * My soul cleaveth unto the dust O quicken me according to thy word * And when the snares of death compass me round about let not the pains of hell take hold upon me An Act of Faith concerning resurrection and the day of judgment to be said by sick persons or meditated I Know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold though my reins be consumed within me Job 19. God shall come and shall not keep silence there shall go before him a consuming fire and a mighty tempest shall be stirred up round about him he shall call the heaven from above and the earth that he may judge his people * O blessed Jesu thou art my judge and thou art my Advocate have mercy upon me in the houre of my death and in the day of judgment See John 5.28 and 1 Thessal 4.15 Short Prayers to be said by sick persons O Holy Jesus thou art a mercifull High-Priest and touched with the sense of our infirmities thou knowest the sharpness of my sickness and the weakness of my person The clouds are gathered about me and thou hast covered me with thy storm My understanding hath not such apprehension of things as formerly Lord let thy mercy support me thy spirit guide me and lead me through the valley of this death safely that I may pass it patiently holily with perfect resignation and let me rejoyce in the Lord in the hopes of pardon in the expectation of glory in the sense of thy mercies in the refreshments of thy spirit in a victory over all temptations Thou hast promised to be with us in tribulation Lord my soul is troubled and my body is weak and my hope is in thee and my enemies are busie and mighty now make good thy holy promise Now O holy Jesus now let thy hand of grace be upon me restrain my ghostly enemies and give me all sorts of spirituall assistances Lord remember thy servant in the day when thou bindest up thy Jewels O take from me all tediousness of Spirit all impatience and unquietness let me possesse my soul in patience and resign my soul and body into thy hands as into the hands of a faithfull Creator and a blessed Redeemer O holy Jesuâ— thou didst dye for us by thy sad pungent and intollerable pains which thou enduredst for me have pity on me and ease my pain or increase my patience Lay on me no more then thou shalt enable me to bear I have deserv'd it all and more and infinitely more Lord I am weak and ignorant timerous and inconstant and I fear lest something should happen that may discompose the state of my soul that may displease thee Do what thou wilt with me so thou doest but preserve me in thy fear and favour Thou knowest that it is my great fear but let thy spirit secure that nothing may be able to separate me from the love of God in Jesus Christ â—hen smite me here that thou mayest spare me for ever and yet O Lord smite me friendly for thou knowest my infirmities Into thy hands I commend my spirit for thou hast redeemed me O Lord thou God of truth * Come holy Spirit help me in this conflict Come Lord Jesus come quickly Let the Sick man often meditate upon these following promises and gracious words of God My help â—â—meth of the Lord who preserveth them that are true of heart Psal 7.11 And all they that know thy Name will put their trust in thee for thou Lord hast never failed them that seek thee Psal. 9.10 O how plentifull is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee and that thou hast prepared for them that put their trust in thee even before the sons of men Psal. 31. Behold the eye of the Lord is upon them that feare him and upon them that put their trust in his mercy to deliver their souls from death Psal. 33. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a contrite heart and will save such as are of an humble spirit Psal. 34.17 Thou Lord shalt save both man and beast how excellent is thy mercy O God! and the children of men shall put their trust under the shadow of thy wings Psal. 36.7 They shall be satisfied with the plenteousness of thy house and thou shalt give them to drink of thy pleasures as out of the rivers v. 8. For with thee is the well of life and in thy light we shall see light v. 9. Commit thy way unto the Lord and put thy trust in him and he shall bring it to passe Ps. 37.5 But the salvation of the righteous cometh of the Lord who is also their strength in the time of trouble v. 40 So that a man shall say verily there is a reward for the righteous doubtless there is a God that judgeth the earth Psal. 58.10 Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and receivest unto thee he shall dwell in thy court and shall be satisfied with the pleasures of thy house even of thy holy temple Psal. 65.4 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy Psaâ— 126.6 It is written I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13.5 The Prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up and if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven Jam. 5.15 Come and let us return unto the Lord for he hath torn and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will bind us up Hos. 6.1 If we sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins 1 John 2.2 If we confess our sins he is faithfull and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness 1 John 1.9 He that forgives shall be forgiven Luke 6.37 And this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us 1 John 5.14 And ye know that he was manifested to take away
Heaven to thy Father by thy never ceasing intercession and which this day hath been exhibited on thy holy Table Sacramentally obtain mercy and peace faith and charity safety and establishment to thy holy Church which thou hast founded upon a Rock the Rock of a holy Faith and let not the gates of Hell prevail against her nor the enemy of mankinde take any soul out of thy hand whom thou hast purchased with thy blood and sanctified by thy Spirit Preserve all thy people from Heresie and division of spirit from scandal and the spirit of delusion from sacriledge and hurtfull persecutions Thou O blessed Jesus didst die for us keep me for ever in holy living from sin and sinfull shame in the communion of thy Church and thy Church in safety and grace in truth and peace unto thy second coming Amen Dearest Jesu since thou art pleased to enter into me O be jealous of thy house and the place where thine honour dwelleth suffer no unclean spirit or unholy thought to come near thy dwelling lest it defile the ground where thy holy feet have trod O teach me so to walk that I may never disrepute the honour of my Religion nor stain the holy Robe which thou hast now put upon my soul nor break my holy Vows which I have made and thou hast sealed nor lose my right of inheritance my privilege of being coheir with Jesus into the hope of which I have now further entred but be thou pleased to love me with the love of a Father and a Brother and a husband and a Lord and make me to serve thee in the communion of Saints in receiving the Sacrament in the practise of all holy vertues in the imitation of thy life and conformity to thy sufferings that I having now put on the Lord Jesus may marry his love and his enmities may desire his glory may obey his laws and be united to his Spirit and in the day of the LORD I may be found having on the Wedding Garment and bearing in my body and soul the marks of the LORD JESUS that I may enter into the joy of my LORD and partake of his glories for ever and ever Amen Ejaculations to be used any time that day after the solemnity is ended LOrd if I had lived innocently I could not have deserved to receive the crums that fall from thy Table How great is thy mercy who hast feasted me with the Bread of Virgins with the Wine of Angels with Manna from Heaven O when shall I pass from this dark glass from this veil of Sacraments to the vision of thy eternal clarity from eating thy body to beholding thy face in thy eternal Kingdom Let not my sins crucifie the Lord of life again Let it never be said concerning me the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the Table O that I might love thee as well as ever any creature lov'd thee Let me think nothing but thee desire nothing but thee enjoy nothing but thee O Jesus be a Jesus unto me Thou art all things unto me Let nothing ever please me but what savors of thee and thy miraculous sweetness Blessed be the mercies of our Lord who of God is made unto me Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. Amen THE END A CATALOGUE of some Books Printed for Richard Royston at the Angel in Ivie-lane London A Parahphrase and Annotations upon all the Books of the New Testament by Henry Hammond D. D. in sol The Practical Catechisme with all other English Treatises of Henry Hammond D. D. in two volumes in 4 o. Dissertationes quatuor quibus Episcopatus Jura ex S. Scripturis Primaeva Antiquitate adstruuntur contra santentiam D. Blondelli aliorum Authore Henrico Hammond in 4 o. A Letter of Resolution of six Quaeries in 12 o. Of Schisme A Defence of the Church of England against the Exceptions of the Romanists in 12 o. Of Fundamentals in a notion referring to Practise by H. Hammond D. D. in 12 o The names of several Treatises and Sermons written by Jer. Taylor D. D. viz. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Course of Sermons for all the Sundayes of the Year together with a Discourse of the Divine Institution Necessity Sacredness and Separation of the Office Ministerial in sol 2. Episcopacy asserted in 4 o. 3. The History of the Life and death of the Ever-blessed Jesus Christ 2 d Edit in sol 4 The Lib. of Prophesying in 4 o. 5. An Apology for authorized and Set-forms of Liturgie in 4 o. 6. A Discourse of Baptisme its institution and efficacy upon all Believers in 4 o. 7. The Rule and Exercises of holy living in 12 o 8. The Rule and Exercises of holy dying in 12 o. 9. A Short Catechisme for institution of young persons in the Christian Religion in 12 o. 9 The Real Presence and Spirituall of CHRIST in the Blessed Sacrament proved against the Doctrine of Transubstantiation in 8 o. Certamen Râ—ligioâ—â—re or a Conference between the late King of England and the are Lord Marquis of Worcester concerning Religion at Ragland Castle Together with a Vindication of the Protestant Cause by Chr. Cartwright in 4 o. The Psalter of David with Titles and Collects according to the matter of each Psalm by the Right honorable Chr. Hatton in 12 o. Boareâ—gâ—s and Barnabas or Judgment and Mercy for wounded and afflicted souls in several Seliloquies by Francis Quarles in 12 o. The life of Faith in dead Tires by Chr. Hudson in 12 o. Motives for Prayer upon the seven dayes of the Week by Sir Richard Baker Knight in 12 o. The Guide unto True Blessedness or a Body of the Doctrine of the Scriptures directing man to the saving knowledge of God by Sam. Crook in 12 o. Six excellent Sermons upon several occasions preached by Edward Willan Vicar of Heane in 4 o. The Dipper dipt or the Anabaptists duck'd and plung'd over head and ears by Daniel Featly D.D. in 4 o. Hâ—rmes Theologus or a Divine Mercury new descants upon old Records by Theoph. Wodnote in 12 o. Philosophical Elements concerning Government and Civil society by Thomas Hobbs of Malmesbury in 12 o. An Essay upon Statius or the five first books of Publ. Papinius Statius his Thebais by Tho. Stephans School-master in S â—amonds bury 8 o. Nemenclatura Brevis anglo-Latina Graeca in usum Scolae Westmonasteâ—â—â—nsisâ—pâ—r F Gregory in 8 o. Grammatiâ—â—s Graecae Enchiâ—â—dâ—on in usum Scholae Colligialis Wigorniae in 8 o. A Discourse of Holy Love by Sir Geo Strode Knight in 12 o. The Saints Honey-Comb full of Divine Truths by Rich. Govâ— Preacher of Henâ—on S Gâ—oâ—ge in Soâ—â—cisethshire in 8 o. Devotions digested into several Discourses and Meditations upon the Lords most Holy Prayer Together with additional Exercitations upon Baptism The Lords Supper Heresies Blasphemy The Creatures Sin The souls pantings after God The Mercies of God The souls complaint of its absence from God by Peter Samwaies Fellow lately resident in Trinity College Cambridge in 12 o. Of the Division between the English and Romish Church upon Reformation by Hen Fern D D in 12 o. Directions for the profitable reading of the Scriptures by John whit M. A. in 8 o. The Exemplary Lives and Memorable Act. of 9. the most worthy women of the world 3 Jewes 3 Gentiles 3 Christians by Tho. Heywood in 4 o. The Saints Legacies or a Collection of premises out of the Word of God in 12 o. Judicium Vniversitatis Oxoniensis de Solemn Leg. â—â—dere Juramento Negativo c. in 8 o. Certain Sermons and Letters of Defence and Resolution to some of the late Controversaries of our times by Jasper Mayn D. D. in 4 o. Janua Linguarum Referta sive omnium Scientiarum Linguarum seminarium Auctore Cl. Viro J. A. Cemenio in 8 o. A Tratise concerning Divine providence very seasonable for all Ages by Tho. Morton Bishop of Duresme in 8 o. Animadversions upon M r Hobbs his Leviathan with some Observations upon Sir Walter Rawleighs History of the World by Alex. Râ—sse in 12 Fifty Sermons preached by that learned and reverend Divine John Donne in sol Wits-Common-wealth in 12 The Banquet of Jests new and old in 12 o. Balzâ—cs Letters the fourth part in 8 o. Quarles Virgin Widow a Play in 4 o. Solomons Recantation in 4 o. by Francis Quarles Amesii Antisynodalia in 12 o. Christs Commination against Scandalizers by John Tombes in 12 o. Dr. Stuart's Answer to Fountains Letter in 4 o. A Tract of Fortification with 22 brasse cuts in 4 o. D r Griffiths Sermon preached at S. Pauls in 4 o Blessed birth-day printed at Oxford in 8 o. A Discourse of the state Ecclesiastical in 4 o. An Account of the Church Catholick where it was before the Reformation by Edward Boughâ—n D. D. in 4 o. An Advertisement to the Jury-men of England touching Witches written by the Author of the Observations upon M r. Hobbs Leviathan in 4 o Episcopacy and presbytery considered by Hen. Fern D. D. in 4 o. A Sermon preached at the Isle of Wiâ—ht before His Majesty by Hen. Fern. D.D. in 4 o. The Commoners Liberty or the English-mans Birth-right in 4 o. An Expedient for composing Differences in Religion in 4 o. A Treatise of Self-denial in 4 o. The holy Life and Death of the late Viâ—countesse Falkland in 12 o. Certain Considerations of present Concernment Touching the Reformed Church of England by Henry Fern in 12 o. Englands Faithfull Reprover and Monitour in 12 o. Newly published The grand Conspiracy of the Members against the Minde of Jewes against their King As it hath been delivered in four Sermons by John Allington B. D. in 12 o The Quakers wild Questions obiected against the Ministers of the Gospel many sacred acts and offices of Religion with brief answers therunto Together with a Discourse of the holy Spirit his workings and impressions on the souls of men by R. Sherlock B. D. in 8 o. White Salt or a sober correction of a mad world By John Shaman B. D. a discontinuer in 12 o. The Matching of the Magistrates Authority and the Christians true liberty in matters of Religion By William Iyford B.D. and late Minister of Sherboâ—n in Dors. in 4 o.
case is so with us that we are reduced to that Religion which no man can forbid which we can keep in the midst of a persecution by which the Martyrs in the daies of our Fathers went to Heaven that by which we can be servants of God and receive the Spirit of Christ and make use of his comforts and live in his love and in charity with all men and they that doe so cannot perish My Lord I have now described some general lines and features of that Religion which I have more particularly set down in the following pages in which I have neither served nor desserved the interest of any party of Christians as they are divided by uncharitable names from the rest of their brethren and no man will have reason to be angry with me for refusing to mingle in his unnecessary or vitious quarrels especially while I study to doe him good by conducting him in the narrow way to Heaven without intricating him in the Labyrinths and wilde turnings of Questions and uncertain talkings I have told what men ought to doe and by what means they may be assisted and in most cases I have also told them why and yet with as much quickness as I could think necessary to establish a Rule and not to ingage in Homily or Discourse In the use of which Rules although they are plain useful and fitted for the best and worst understandings and for the needs of all men yet I shall desire the Reader to proceed with the following advises 1. They that will with profit make use of the proper instruments of virtue must so live as if they were alwaies under the Physicians hand For the Counsels of Religion are not to be applied to the distempers of the soul as men use to take Hellebore but they must dwell together with the Spirit of a man and be twisted about his understanding for ever They must be used like nourishment that is by a daily care and meditation not like a single medicine and upon the actual pressure of a present necessity For counsels and wise discourses applied to an actuall distemper at the best are but like strong smels to an Epileptick person sometimes they may raise him but they never cure him The following rules if they be made familiar to our natures and the thoughts of every day may make Virtue and Religion become easie and habitual but when the temptation is present and hath already seised upon some portions of our consent we are not so apt to be counsell'd and we finde no gust or relish in the Precept the Lessons are the same but the Instrument is unstrung or out of tune 2. In using the instruments of virtue we must be curious to distinguish instruments from duties and prudent advices from necessary injunctions and if by any other means the duty can be secured let there be no scruples stirred concerning any other helps onely if they can in that case strengthen and secure the duty or helpe towards perseverance let them serve in that station in which they can be placed For there are some persons in whom the Spirit of God hath breathed so bright a flame of love that they doe all their acts of virtue by perfect choice and without objection and their zeal is warmer then that it will be allayed by temptation and to such persons mortification by Philosophical instruments as fasting sackcloth and other rudenesses to the body is wholly uselesse It is alwaies a more uncertain means to acquire any virtue or secure any duty and if love hath filled all the corners of our soul it alone is able to doe all the work of God 3. Be not nice in stating the obligations of Religion but where the duty is necessary and the means very reasonable in it self dispute not too busily whether in all Circumstances it can fit thy particular but super totam materiam upon the whole make use of it For it is a good signe of a great Religion and no imprudence when we have sufficiently considered the substance of affairs then to be easie humble obedient apt and credulous in the circumstances which are appointed to us in particular by our spiritual Guides or in general by all wise men in cases not unlike He that gives Alms does best not alwaies to consider the minutes and strict measures of his ability but to give freely incuriously and abundantly A man must not weigh grains in the accounts of his repentance but for a great sin have a great sorrow and a great severity and in this take the ordinary advices though it may be a lesse rigour might not be insufficient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Arithmetical measures especially of our own proportioning are but arguments of want of Love and of forwardness in Religion or else are instruments of scruple and then become dangerous Use the rule heartily and enough and there will be no harm in thy errour if any should happen 4. If thou intendest heartily to serve God and avoid sin in any one instance refuse not the hardest and most severe advice that is prescribed in order to it though possibly it be a stranger to thee for whatsoever it be custome will make it easie 5. When many instruments for the obtaining any virtue or restraining any vice are propounded observe which of them fits thy person or the circumstances of thy need and use it rather then the other that by this means thou may'st be engaged to watch and use spiritual arts and observation about thy soule Concerning the managing of which as the interest is greater so the necessities are more and the cases more intricate and the accidents and dangers greater and more importunate and there is greater skill required then in the securing an estate or restoring health to an infirm body I wish all men in the world did heartily beleive so much of this as is true it would very much help to doe the work of God Thus My Lord I have made bold by your hand to reach out this little scroll of cautions to all those who by seeing your honour'd name set before my Book shall by the faireness of such a Frontispice be invited to look into it I must confesse it cannot but look like a design in me to borrow your name and beg your Patronage to my book that if there be no other worth in it yet at least it may have the splendor and warmth of a burning-glasse w th borrowing a flame from the Eye of Heaven shines burns by the rayes of the Sun its patron I will not quit my self from the suspicion for I cannot pretend it to be a present either of it self fit to be offer'd to such a personage or any part of a just return but I humbly desire you would own it for an acknowledgment of those great endearments and noblest usages you have past upon me But so men in their Religion give a piece of Gum or the fat of a cheap Lamb in Sacrifice
intention they degenerate and unlesse they be directed and proceed on to those purposes which God designed them to they return into the family of common secular or sinfull actions Thus alms are for charity fasting for temperance prayer is for religion humiliation is for humility austerity or sufferance is in order to the virtue of patience and when these actions fail of their several ends or are not directed to their own purposes alms are mispent fasting is an impertinent trouble prayer is but lip-labour humiliation is but hypocrisie sufferance is but vexation for such were the alms of the Pharisee the fast of Jezabel the prayer of Judah reproved by the Prophet Isaiah the humiliation of Ahab the martyrdom of Haereticks in which nothing is given to God but the body or the forms of Religion but the soul and the power of godliness is wholly wanting 3. We are to consider that no intention can sanctifie an unholy or unlawful action Saul the King disobeyed Gods commandment and spared the cattel of Amalek to reserve the best for sacrifice And Saul the Pharisee persecuted the Church of God with a designe to doe God service and they that killed the Apostles had also good purposes but they had unhallowed actions S. Beâ—n lib. de praecept When there is both truth in election and charity in the intention when we go to God in waies of his own choosing or approving then our eye is single and our hands are clean and our hearts are pure But when a man does evil that good may come of it or good to an evil purpose that man does like him that rowles himself in thorns that he may sleep easily he rosts himself in the fire that he may quench his thirst with his own sweat he turns his face to the East that he may go to bed with the Sun I end this with the saying of a wise Heathen Publiuâ— Mimus He is to be called evil that is good only for his own sake Regard not how full hands you bring to God but how pure Many cease from sin out of fear alone not out of innocence or love of virtue and they as yet are not to be called innocent but timerous SECT III. The third general instrument of holy living or the practise of the presence of God THat God is present in all places the he sees every action hears all discourses and understands every thought is no strange thing to a Christian ear who hath been taught this doctrine not only by right reason and the consent of all the wise men in the world but also by God himself in holy Scripture Am I a God at hand saith the Lord and not a God afarre off Ier. 23 24. Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him Heb. 4.13 saith the Lord Doe not I fill heaven and earth Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to doe Acts 17.28 for in him we live and move and have our being God is wholly in every place included in no place not bound with cords except those of love not divided into parts not changeable into several shapes filling heaven and earth with his present power and with his never absent nature Lib 7 de Cavit cap. 30 So S. Augustine expresses this article So that we may imagine GOD to be as the Aire and the Sea and we all inclosed in his circle wrapt up in the lap of his infinite nature or as infants in the wombs of their pregnant Mothers and we can no more be removed from the presence of God then from our own being Several manners of the divine presence The presence of God is understood by us in several manners and to several purposes 1. God is present by his essence which because it is infinite cannot be contained within the limits of any place and because he is of an essential purity and spiritual nature he cannot be undervalued by being supposed present in the places of unnatural uncleanness because as the sun reflecting upon the mud of strands and shores is unpolluted in its beams so is God not dishonoured when we suppose him in every of his Creatures and in every part of every one of them and is still as unmixt with any unhandsome adherance as is the soul in the bowels of the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Resp. ad Orthod 2. God is every where present by his power He rouls the Orbs of Heaven with his hand he fixes the Earth with his Foot he guides all the Creatures with his Eye and refreshes them with his influence He makes the powers of Hell to shake with his terrours and binds the Devils with his Word and throws them out with his command and sends the Angels on Embassies with his decrees He hardens the joynts of Infants and confirms the bones when they are fashioned beneath secretly in the earth He it is that assists at the numerous productions of fishes and there is not one hollowness in the bottom of the sea but he shows himself to be Lord of it by sustaining there the Creatures that come to dwell in it And in the wilderness the Bittern and the Stork the Dragon and the Satyr the Unicorn and the Elk live upon his provisions and severe his power and feel the force of his Almightinesse 3. God is more specially present in some places by the several and more special manifestations of himself to extraordinary purposes 1. By glory Thus his seat is in Heaven because there he sits incircled with all the outward demonstrations of his glory which he is pleased to show to all the inhabitants of those his inward and secret Courts And tâ—uâ— they that die in the Lord may be properly said to be goâ—e to God with whom although they were before yet now they enter into his Courts into the secret of his Tabernacle into the retinue and splendor of his glory That is called walking with God but this is dwelling or being with him I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ so said S. Paul But this manner of the Divine presence is reserved for the elect people of God and for their portion in their countrey 4. God is by grace and benediction specially present in holy places Mat. 18 20. Heb. 10.25 and in the solemn assemblies of his servants If holy people meet in grots and dens of the earth when persecution or a publick necessity disturbs the publick order circumstance and convenience God fails not to come thither to them but God is also by the same or a greater reason present there where they meet ordinarily by order and publick authority There God is present ordinarily that is at every such meeting God will go out of his way to meet his Saints when themselves are forced out of their way of order by a sad necessity but else
are check'd from violence and misdemeanour 4. In your retirement make frequent Colloquies or short discoursings between GOD and thy own soul. Seven times a day doe I praise thee and in the night season also I thought upon thee when I was waking So did David and every act of complaint or thanksgiving every act of rejoicing or of mourning every petition and every returne of the heart in these entercourses is a going to GOD an appearing in his presence and a representing him present to thy spirit and to thy necessity And this was long since by a spiritual person called a building to GOD a Chappel in our heart It reconciles Martha's imployment with Mary's Devotion Charity and Religion the necessities of our calling and the imployments of devotion For thus in the midst of the works of your Trade you may retire into your Chappel your Heart and converse with GOD by frequent addresses and returnes 5. Represent and offer to GOD acts of love and fear which are the proper effects of this apprehension and the proper exercise of this consideration For as GOD is every where present by his power he calls for reverence and godly fear As he is present to thee in all thy needs and relieves them he deserves thy love and since in every accident of our lives we finde one or other of these apparent and in most things we see both it is a proper and proportionate return that to every such demonstration of GOD we expresse our selves sensible of it by admiring the divine goodness or trembling at his presence ever obeying him because we love him and ever obeying him because we fear to offend him This is that which Enoch did who thus walked with God 6. Let us remember that God is in us and that we are in him we are his workmanship let us not deface it we are in his presence let us not pollute it by unholy and impure actions Isa 26.12 God hath also wrought all our works in us and because he rejoices in his own works if we defile them and make them unpleasant to him we walk perversly with God and he will walk crookedly toward us 7. God is in the bowels of thy brother refresh them when he needs it and then you give your alms in the presence of God and to God and he feels the relief which thou prouidest for thy brother 8. God is in every place suppose it therefore to be a Church and that decency of deportment and piety of carriage which you are taught by religion or by custome or by civility and publick manners to use in Churches the same use in all places with this difference only that in churches let your deportment be religious in external forms and circumstances also but there and every where let it be religious in abstaining from spiritual undecencies and in readiness to doe good actions Jer. 11.15 secund vulg Edit that it may not be said of us as God once complained of his people Why hath my beloved done wickedness in my house 9. God is in every creature be cruel towards none neither abuse any by intemperance Remember that the creatures and every member of thy own body is one of the lesser cabinets and receptacles of God They are such which God hath blessed with his presence hallowed by his touch and separated from unholy use by making them to belong to his dwelling 10. He walks as in the presence of God that converses with him in frequent prayer and frequent communion that runs to him in all his necessities that asks counsel of him in all his doubtings that opens all his wants to him that weeps before him for his sins that asks remedy and support for his weakness that fears him as a Judge reverences him as a Lord obeys him as a Father and loves him as a Patron The Benefits of this exercise The benefit of this consideration and exercise being universal upon all the parts of piety I shall lesse need to specifie any particulars but yet most properly this exercise of considering the divine presence is 1. an excellent help to prayer producing in us reverence and awfulness to the divine Majesty of God and actual devotion in our offices 2. It produces a confidence in God and fearlesness of our enemies patience in trouble and hope of remedy since God is so nigh in all our sad accidents he is a disposer of the hearts of men and the events of things he proportions out our trials and supplies us with remedy and where his rod strikes us his staf supports us To which we may adde this that God who is alwaies with us is especially by promise with us in tribulation to turn the misery into a mercy and that our greatest trouble may become our advantage by intitling us to a new manner of the Divine presence 3. It is apt to produce joy and rejoicing in God we being more apt to delight in the partners and witnesses of our conversation every degree of mutuall abiding and conversing being a relation and an endearment we are of the same houshold with God he is with us in our natural actions to preserve us in our recreations to restrain us in our publick actions to applaud or reprove us in our private to observe us in our sleeps to watch by us in our watchings to refresh us and if we walk with God in all his waies as he walks with us in all ours we shall find perpetual reasons to enable us to keep that rule of God Rejoice in the Lord alwaies and again I say rejoyce And this puts me in minde of a saying of an old religious person In vitam S. Antho. There is one way of overcoming our ghostly enemies spiritual mirth and a perpetual bearing of GOD in our mindes This effectively resists the Devil and suffers us ro receive no hurt from him 4. This exercise is apt also to enkindle holy desires of the enjoyment of God because it produces joy when we doe enjoy him The same desires that a weak man hath for a Defender the sick man for a Physician the poor for a Patron the childe for his Father the espoused Lover for her betrothed 5 From the same fountain are apt to issue humility of spirit apprehensions of our great distance and our great needs our daily wants and houâ—ly supplies admiration of Gods unspeakable mercies It is the cause of great modesty and decency in our actions it helps to recollection of minde and restrains the scatterings and loosness of wandring thoughts it establishes the heart in good purposes and leadeth on to perseverance it gains purity perfection according to the saying of God to Abraham Walk before me and be perfect holy fear and holy love and indeed every thing that pertains to holy living when we see our selves placed in the Eye of God who sets us on work and will reward us plentiously to serve him with an Eye service iâ—â—ery pleasing for he also sees
door of my lips that I offend not in my tongue neither against piety nor charity Teach me to think of nothing but thee and what is in order to thy glory and service to speak nothing but thee and thy glories and to do nothing but what becomes thy servant whom thy infinite mercy by the graces of thy holy Spirit hath sealed up to the day of Redemption VII LEt all my passions and affections be so mortified and brought under the dominion of grace that I may never by deliberation and purpose nor yet by levity rashness or inconsideration offend thy Divine Majesty Make me such as thou wouldst have me to be strengthen my faith confirm my hope and giue me a daily encrease of charity that this day and ever I may serve thee according to all my opportunities and capacities growing from grace to grace till at last by thy mercies I shall receive the consummation and perfection of grace even the glories of thy Kingdom in the full fruition of the face and excellencies of God the Father the Son and the holy Ghost to whom be glory and praise honour and adoration given by all Angels and all Men and all creatures now and to all eternity Amen ¶ To this may be added the prayer of intercession for others whom we are bound to remember which is at the end of the foregoing Prayer or else you may take such special Prayers which follow at the end of the fourth Chapter for Parents for children c. After which conclude with this eâ—aculation Now and in all tribulation and anguish of spirit in all dangers of soul and body in prosperity and adversity in the hour of death and in the day of judgment holy and most blessed Saviour Jesus have mercy upon me save me and deliver me and all faithfull people Amen ¶ Between this and Noon usually are said the publick prayers appointe by â—uthority to which all the Clergie are obliged and other devout persons that have leisure to accompany them ¶ Afternoon or at any time of the day when a devout person retires into his closeâ— for private Prayer or spiritual exercises he may say the following devotions An exercise to be used at anytime of the day IN the name of the Father and of the Son c. Our Father c. The Hymn collected out of the Psalms recounting the excellencies and greatnesse of God O be joyful in God all ye lands sing praises unto the honour of his Name make his Name to be glorious * O come hither and behold the works of God how wonderful he is in his doings toward the children of men He ruleth with his power for ever He is the Father of the fatherlesse and defendeth the cause of the widow even God in his holy habitation He is the God that maketh men to be of one minde in a house and bringeth the prisoners out of captivity but letteth the runnagates continue in scarceness It is the Lord that commandeth the waters it is the glorious God that maketh the thunder * It is the Lord that ruleth the sea the voice of the Lord is mighty in operation the voice of the Lord is a glorious voice Let all the Earth fear the Lord stand in awe of him all ye that dwell in the world Thou shalt shâ—w us wonderfull things in thy righteousness O God of our salvation thou that art the hope of all the ends of the Earth and of them that remain in the broad Sea Glory be to the Father c. Or this O Lord thou art my God I will exalt thee I will praise thy Name for thou hast done wonderful things thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth Isa. 25.1 Thou in thy strength setst fast the Mountains and art girded about with power Thou stillest the raging of the Sea and the noise of his waves and the madness of his people They also that remain in the uttermost parts of the Earth shall be afraid at thy tokens thou that makest the out goings of the morning and evening to praise thee O Lord God of Hosts who is like unto thee thy truth most mighty Lord is on every side Among the gods there is none like unto thee O Lord there is none that can doe as thou dâ—est For thou art great and doest wondrous things thou art God alone God is very greatly to be feared in the councel of the Saints and to be had in reverence oâ— all them that are round about him Righteousness and equity is in the habitation of thy seat mercy and truth shall go before thy face Glory and worship are before him power and honour are in his Sanctuary Thou Lord art the thing that I long for thou art my hope even from my youth through thee have I been holden up ever since I was born thou art he that took me out of my mothers womb my praise shall be alwaies of thee Glory be to the Father c ¶ After this may be read some portion of holy Scripture out of the New Testament or out of the sapiential books of the Old viz Proverbs Ecclesiastes c. because these are of great use to piety and to civil conversation Vpon which when you have a while meditated humbly composing your self upon your knees say as followeth Eiaculations My help standeth in the name of the Lord who hath made Heaven and Earth Shew the light of thy countenance upon thy servant and I shall be safe Doe well O Lord to them that be true of heart and evermore mightily defend them Direct me in thy truth and teach me for thou art my Saviour and my great Master Keep me from sin and death eternal and from my enemies visible and invisible Give me grace to live a holy life and thy favour that I may die a godly and happy death Lord hear the prayer of thy servant and give me thy holy â—pirit The Prayer O Eternal God merciful and gratious vouchsafe thy favour and thy blessing to thy servant let the love of thy mercies and the dread and fear of thy Majesty make me careful and inquisitive to search thy will and diligent to perform it and to persevere in the practises of a holy life even till the last of my daies II. KEep me O Lord for I am thine by creation guide me for I am thine by purchase thou hast redeemed me by the blood of thy Son and love me with the love of a Father for I am thy child by adoption and grace let thy mercy pardon my sins thy providence secure me from the punishments and evils I have deserved and thy care watch over me that I may never any more offend thee make me in malice to be a childe but in understanding piety and the fear of God let me be a perfect man in Christ innocent and prudent readily furnished and instructed to every good work III. KEep me O Lord from the destroying Angel and from the wrath of God let thy anger never rise
parts of it 1. Sobriety 2. Justice 3. Religion For the grace of God bringing salvation hath appeared to all men T it 2.11 12. teaching us that denying ungodlyness and wordly lusts we should live 1. Soberly 2. Righteously and 3. Godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. The first contains all our deportment in our personal and private capacities the fair treating of our bodies and our spirits The second enlarges our duâ—y in all relations to our Neighbour The third contains the offices of direct Religion and entercourse with God Christian sobriety is all that duty that concerns our selves in the matter of meat and drink and pleasures and thoughts and it hath within it the duties of 1. Temperance 2. Chastity 3. Humility 4. Modesty 5. Content It is a using severity denial and frustration of our appetite when it grows unreasonable in any of these instances the necessity of which we shall to best purpose understand by considering the evil consequences of sensuality effeminacy or fondness after carnal pleasures Evil consequents of voluptuousness or Sensuality 1. A longing after sensual pleasures is a dissolution of the spirit of a man and makes it loose soft and wandring unapt for noble wise or spiritual imployments because the principles upon which pleasure is chosen and pursued are sottish weak and unlearned Tu si animum vâ—â—isti pâ—tius quà m animus te est quod gaudeaâ— Qui animum vinâ—unt quà m quoâ— animus sâ—mper probiores cluent â—â—num such as preferre the body before the soul the appetite before reason sense before the spirit the pleasures of a short abode before the pleasures of eternity 2. The nature of sensual pleasure is vain empty and unsatisfying biggest alwaies in expectation and a meer vanity in the enjoying and leaves a sting and thoâ—n behinde it when it goes off Our laughing if it be loud and high commonly ends in a deep sigh and all the instances of pleasure have a sting in the tail though they carry beauty on the face and sweetness on the lip 3. Sensual pleasure is a great abuse to the Spirit of a man being a kinde of fascination or witchcraft blinding the understanding and enslaving the will And he that knows he is free-born or redeemed with the blood of the Son of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arrian c 2 l. 1. will not easily suffer the freedom of his soul to be intangled and rifled 4. It is most contrary to the state of a Christian whose life is a perpetual exercise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Epist. cap 34. a wrastling and warfare to which sensual pleasure disables him by yielding to that enemy with whom he must strive if ever he will be crowned And this argument the Apostle intimated 1 Cor 9 â—5 He that striveth for masteries is temperate in all things Now they doe it to obtain a corruptible crown but we an incorruptible 5. It is by a certain consequence the greatest impediment in the world to martyrdom that being a fondness this being a cruelty to the flesh to which a Christian man arriving by degrees must first have crucified the lesser affections for he that is overcome by little arguments of pain will hardly consent to lose his life with torments Degrees of Sobriety Against this voluptuousness sobriety is opposed in three degrees 1. A despite or disaffection to pleasures or a resolving against all entertainment of the instances and temptations of sensuality and it consists in the internal faculties of will and understanding decreeing and declaring against them disapproving and disliking them upon good reason and strong resolution 2. A sight and actual warre against all the temptations and offers of sensual pleasure in all evil instances and degrees and it consists in prayer in fasting in cheap diet and hard lodging and laborious exercises and avoiding occasions and using all arts and industry of fortifying the Spirit and making it severe manly and Christian. 3. Spiritual pleasure is the highest degree of Sobriety and in the same degree in which we relish and are in love with spiritual delights the hidden Manna Apoc. 2.17 with the sweetnesses of devotion with the joyes of thanksgiving with rejoicings in the Lord with the comforts of hope with the deliciousness of charity and alms-deeds with the sweetness of a good conscience with the peace of meekness and the felicities of a contented â—pirit in the same degree we disrelish and loath the husks of swinish lusts and the parings of the apples of Sodom and the tast of sinful pleasures is unsavoury as the Drunkards vomit Rules for suppressing voluptuousness The precepts and advices which are of best and of general use in the curing of sensuality are these 1. Accustom thy self to cut off all superfluity in thy provisions of thy life for our desires will enlarge beyond the present possession so long as all the things of this world are unsatisfying if therefore you suffer them to extend beyond the measures of necessity or moderated conveniency they will still swell but you reduce them to a little compasse when you make nature to be your limit Desideria tua parvo redime hoc n. tantum curaâ—e dâ—bes uâ— dâ—sinant Senec. We must more take care that our desires should cease then that they should be satisfied and therefore reducing them to narrow scantlings and small proportions is the best instrument to redeem their trouble and prevent the dropsie because that is next to an universal denying them it is certainly a paring off from them all unreasonableness and irregularity L. 3. Eth c. 12. For whatsoever covets unseemely things and is apt to swell to an inconvenient bulk is to be chastened and tempered and such are sensuality Facilius est initia affectuum pâ—ohibere quà m impetum â—egâ—re Senec cp 86. and a Boy said the Philosopher 2. Suppresse your sensual desires in their first approach for then they are least and thy faculties and election are stronger but if they in their weakness prevail upon thy strengths there will be no resisting them when they are increased and thy abilities lessened you shall scarce obtaine of them to end if you suffer them to begin 3. Divert them with some laudable imployment and take off their edge by inadvertency or a not attending to them For since the faculties of a man cannot at the same time with any sharpness attend to two objects if you imploy your spirit upon a book or a bodily labour or any innocent and indifferent imployment you have no room left for the present trouble of a sensual temptation For to this sense it was that Alexander told the Queen of Caria 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that his Tutor Leonidas had provided two Cooks for him Hard marches all night and a small dinner the next day these tamed his youthfull aptnesses to dissolution so long as he eat of
restraint and penalty of Laws and although they are superiour to the people yet they are not superiour to their own voluntary concessions and ingagements their promises and Oathes when once they are passed from them The duty of Superiours as they are Judges 1. Princes in judgment and their Delegate Judges must judge the causes of all persons uprightly and impartially without any personal consideration of the power of the mighty or the bribe of the rich or the needs of the poor For although the poor must fare no worse for his poverty yet in justice he must fare no better for it And although the rich must be no more regarded yet he must not be lesse And to this purpose the Tutor of Cyrus instructed him when in a controversie where a great Boy would have taken a large Coat from a little Boy because his own was too little for him and the others was too big he adjudged the great Coat to the great Boy his Tutor answered Sir If you were made a Judge of decency or witness you had judged well in giving the biggest to the biggest but when you were appointed Judge not whom the Coat did fit but whose it was you should have considered the title and the possession who did the violence and who made it or who bought it And so it must be in judgments between the Rich and the Poor it is not to be considered what the poor Man needs but what is his own 2. A Prince may not much lesse may inferiour Judges deny justice when it is legally and competently demanded and if the Prince will use his Prerogative in pardoning an offender against whom justice is required he must be careful to give satisfaction to the injured person or his Relatives by some other instrument and be watchful to take away the scandal that is lest such indulgence might make persons more bold to doe injury and if he spares the life let him change the punishment into that which may make the offender if not suffer justice yet doe justice and more real advantage to the injured person These Rules concern Princes and their Delegates in the making or administring Laws in the appointing rules of justice and doing acts of judgment The duty of parents to their Children and Nephews is briefly described by S. Paul The duty of Parents to their Children Ephes. 6.4 1. Fathers provoke not your Children to wrath that is be tender boweld pitiful and gentle complying with all the infirmities of the Children and in their several ages proportioning to them several usages according to their needs and their capacities 2. Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord that is secure their religion season their younger years with prudent and pious principles make them in love with virtue and make them habitually so before they come to choose or to discern good from evil that their choice may be with lesse difficulty and danger For while they are under discipline they suck in all that they are first taught and believe it infinitely Provide for them wise learned and virtuous Tutors Pâ—tiâ—r mihi ratio vivenâ—â— honestè quà m ut optimè dicendi viderâ—tuâ— Quintil. lib. 1. cap. 2. and good company and discipline * Heb. 1â— 9. Crates apud Plutarch de libeâ— educand 1 Tim. 5.4 seasonable baptism catechism and confirmation For it is a great folly to heap up much wealth for our Children and not to take care concerning the Children for whom we get it It is as if a man should take more care about his shooe then about his foot 3. Parents must shew piety at home that is they must give good example and reverent deportment in the face of their children and all those instances of charity which usually endear each other sweetness of conversation affability frequent admonition all significations of love and tenderness care and watchfulness must be expressed towards Children that they may look upon their Parents as their friends and patrons their defence and sanctuary their treasure and their Guide Hither is to be reduced the nursing of Children which is the first and most natural and necessary instance of piety which Mothers can shew to their Babes a duty from which nothing will excuse but a disability sickness danger or publick necessity 1 Tim. 5. â— 4. Parents must provide for their own according to their condition education and imployment called by S. Paul a laying up for the Children that is an enabling them by competent portions or good trades arts or learning to defend themselves against the chances of the world that they may not be exposed to temptation to beggery or unworthy arts and although this must be done without covetousness without impatient and greedy desires of making them rich yet it must be done with much care and great affection with all reasonable provision and according to our power and if we can without sin improve our estates for them that also is part of the duty we owe to God for them and this rule is to extend to all that descend from us although we have been overtaken in a fault and have unlawful issue they also become part of our care yet so as not to injure the production of the lawful bed 5. This duty is to extend to a provision of conditions and an estate of life (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eurip. Eâ—ectr Me tibi Tyndareus vità graevis auctor annis Tradidit arbitrium nâ—pâ—â—s habeiâ—t avus Ovid in â—pist pro Hermione Parents must according to their power and reason provide Husbands or Wives for their Children (b) Liâ—â—ri sine consensu parentum contraheâ—e nâ—n debent Aâ—dremacha apud Euripidem ciaâ— peâ—â—ta fâ—â—t ad nuptias respondiâ— patâ—is suâ— esse sponsalâ—um sucâ—um curam habere Achilles apud Homerum Regis filâ—â—m sine patris suâ— consensu noluit dâ— cere H. â— H 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Et Justinianus Imp. ait naturali simul civili rationè congruere ne filii ducant uâ—o es citra Parentum authoritatem Simo Terenâ—â—anus parat abdicatiâ—nem qâ—â—a Pamphilus câ—am ipso duxisset uxorem Isâ—â—â—smodi sponsalia fiunt iâ—rita nisi velint parentes At si sid sâ—quuta est copula nè temere rescindantur connubia multae suadent caâ—tiones pericula Lâ—beri autem quamdiu secundum leges patrias suâ—â—u is non sunt clandestinas nuptias si meant peccant centra quinâ—um praeceptum jus naturaâ—e Secundarium Propriè nâ— loquendo Parentes nâ—n habent 〈◊〉 fiâ—e potestatâ—m sed authoritatem g. habâ—nt jus jubendi aut prehiâ—endi sed non irritâ—m faciendi Atque etiam isla authoritas eâ— ercenda est secundum aequâ—m bonum seil ut nè moroâ—us difficâ—â—â— sit Pater Maâ—erâ—n vix habet aliquod Juâ—is praeter suasiâ—nes amoris gâ—atitudinis Si c. Pater filiam non collocasset ante â—5 annos â—â—â—ta nube â—poterat cuâ— voluerat
obliged person to whom it is more natural to love his friend and to doe good for good then to return evil for evil because a man may forgive an injury but he must never forget a good turn For every thing that is excellent and every thing that is profitable whatsoever is good in it self or good to me cannot but be beloved and what we love we naturally cherish and doe good to He therefore that reâ—uses to doe good to them whom he is bound to love or to love that which did him good is unnatural and monstrous in his affections and thinks all the world born to minister to him with a greediness worse then that of the sea which although it receives all rivers into it self yet it furnishes the clouds and springs with a returne of all thy need Our duty of benefactors is to esteem and love their persons to make them proportionable returns of service or duty or profit according as we can or as they need or as opportunity presents it self and according to the greatnesses of their kindnesses and to pray to God to make them recompense for all the good they have done to us which last office is also requisite to be done for our Creditors who in charity have releiv'd our wants Prayers to be said in relation to the several Obligations and Offices of Justice A Prayer for the Grace of Obedience to be said by all persons under Command O Eteâ—nal GOD Great Ruler of Men and Angels who hast constituted all things in a wonderful order making all the creatures subject to man and one man to another and all to thee the last link of this admirable chain being fastned to the foot of thy throne teach me to obey all those whom thou hast set over me reverencing their persons submitting indifferently to all their lawful commands cheerfully undergoing those burdens which the publick wisdome and necessity shall impose upon me at no hand murmuring against government lest the Spirit of pride and mutiny of murmur and disorder enter into me and consigne me to the portion of the disobedient and rebellious of the despisers of dominion and revilers of dignity Grant this O holy God for his sake who for his obedience to the Father hath obtained the glorification of eternall ages our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen Prayers for Kings and all Magistrates for our Parents spiritual and natural are in the following Letanies at the end of the fourth Chapter A prayer to be said by Subâ—ects when their Land is invaded and overran by barbarous or wicked people enemies of the Religion or the Government I. O Eternal God thou alone rulest in the Kingdoms of men thou 〈◊〉 the great God of battels and recompences and by thy glorious wisdom by thy Almighty power and by thy secret providence doest determine the events of warre and the issues of humane counsels and the returns of peace and victory now at last be pleased to let the light of thy countenance and the effects of a glorious mercy and a gracious pardon return to this Land Thou seest how great evils we suffer under the power and tyranny of warre and although we submit to and adore thy justice in our sufferings yet be pleased to pity our misery to hear our complaints to provide us of remedy against our present calamities let not the defendors of a righteous cause go away ashamed nor our counsels be for ever confounded nor our parties deâ—eated nor religion suppressed nor learning discountenanced and we be spoiled of all the exteriour ornaments instruments and advantages of piety which thou hast been pleased formerly to minister to our infirmities for the interests of learning and religion Amen II. WE confesse dear God that we have deserved to be totally extinct and separate from the Communion of Saints and the comforts of Religion to be made servants to ignorant unjust and inferiour persons or to suffer any other calamity which thou shalt allot us as the instrument of thy anger whom we have so often provoked to wrath and jealousie Lord we humbly lie down under the burden of thy rod begging of thee to remember our infirmities and no more to remember our sins to support us with thy staff to lift us up with thy hand to refresh us with thy gracious eye and if a sad cloud of temporal infelicities must still encircle us open unto us the window of Heaven that with an eye of faith and hope we may see beyond the cloud looking upon those mercies which in thy secret providence and admirable wisdom thou designest to all thy servants from such unlikely and sad beginnings Teach us diligently to doe all our duty and cheerfully to submit to all thy will and at last be gracious to thy people that call upon thee that put their trust in thee that have laid up all their hopes in the bosome of God that besides thee have no helper Amen III. PLace a Guard of Angels about the person of the KING and immure him with the defence of thy right hand that no unhallowed arm may doe violence to him Support him with aids from Heaven in all his battels trials and dangers that he may in every instant of his temptation become dearer to thee and doe then return to him with mercy and deliverance Give uâ—to him the hearts of all his people and put into his hand a prevailing rod of iron a scepter of power and a sword of justice and enable him to defend and comfort the Churches under his protection IV. BLesse all his Friends Relatives Confederates and Leiges direct their Counsels unite their hearts strengthen their hands blesse their actions Give unto them holiness of intention that they may with much candor and ingenuity pursue the cause of God and the King Sanctifie all the means and instruments of their purposes that they may not with cruelty injustice or oppression proceed towards the end of their just desires and doe thou crown all their endevours with a prosperous event that all may cooperate to and actuaâ—ly produce those great mercies which we beg of thee Honour and safety to our Soveraign defence of his just rights peace to his people establishment and promotion to religion advantages and encouragement to learning and holy living deliverance to all the oppressed comfort to all thy faithful people and from all these glory to thy holy Name Grant this O KING of Kings for his sake by whom thou hast consigned us to all thy mercies and promises and to whom thou hast given all power in Heaven and Earth our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen A Prayer to be said by Kings or Magistrates for themselves and their People O My God and King thou rulest in the Kingdoms of men by thee Kings reign and Princes decâ—ee justice thou hast appointed me under thy self * These words to be added by a Delegate or inferiour and under my Prince to govern this portion of thy Church according to the
what does he believe or what does he hope but what he loves The acts of Love to God are 1. Love does all things which may please the beloved person it performs all his commandments and this is one of the greatest instances and arguments of our love that God requires of us This is love that we keep his commandments Love is obedient 2. It does all the intimations and secret significations of his pleasure whom we love and this is an argument of a great degree of it The first instance is it that makes the love accepted but this gives a greatness and singularity to it The first is the least and lesse then it cannot doe our duty but without this second we cannot come to perfection Great love is also plyant and inquisitive in the instances of its expression 3. Love gives away all things that so he may advance the interest of the beloved person it relieves all that he would have relieved and spends it self in such real significations as it is enabled withall He never loved God that will quit any thing of his Religion to save his money Love is alwaies liberal and communicative 4. It suffers all things that are imposed by its beloved or that can happen for his sake or that intervenes in his service cheerfully sweetly willingly expecting that God should turn them into good and instruments of felicity 1 Cor. 13. Charity hopeth all things endureth all things Love is patient and content with any thing so it be together with its beloved 5. Love is also impatient of any thing that may displease the beloved person hating all sin as the enemy of its friend for love contracts all the same relations and marries the same friendships and the same hatreds and all affection to a sin is perfectly inconsistent with the love of God Love is not divided between God and Gods enemy we must love God with all our heart that is give him a whole and undivided affection having love for nothing else but such things which he allows and which he commands or loves himself 6. Love endeavours for ever to be present to converse with to enjoy to be united with its object loves to be talking of him reciting his praises telling his stories repeating his words imitating his gestures transcribing his copie in every thing and every degree of union and every degree of likeness is a degree of love and it can endure any thing but the displeasure and the absence of its beloved For we are not to use God and Religion as men use perfumes with which they are delighted when they have them but can very well be without them True charity is restlesse till it enjoyes God in such instances in which it wants him it is like hunger and thirst it must be fed or it cannot be answered Amoris in mâ—rsunt qui esse suit and nothing can supply the presence or make recompense for the absence of God or of the effects of his favour and the light of his countenance 7. True love in all accidents looks upon the beloved person and observes his countenance and how he approves or disproves it and accordingly looks sad or cheerful He that loves God is not displeased at those accidents which God chooses nor murmures at those changes which he makes in his family nor envies at those gifts he bestows but chooses as he likes and is ruled by his judgment and is perfectly of his perswasion loving to learn where God is the Teacher and being content to be ignorant or silent where he is not pleased to open himself 8. Love is curious of little things of circumstances and measures and little accidents not allowing to it self any infirmity which it strives not to master aiming at what it cannot yet reach at Plutarchus citans carmen de suo Apolline adjicit ex Herodoto quasi de suo de eo os meuÌ„ continens esto desiring to be of an Angelical purity and of a perfect innocence and a Seraphical fervour and fears every image of offence is as much afflicted at an idle word as some at an act of adultery and will not allow to it self so much anger as will disturbe a childe nor endure the impurity of a dream and this is the curiosity and niceness of divine Love this is the fear of God and is the daughter and production of Love The Measures and Rules of Divine Love But because this passion is pure as the brightest and smoothest mirrour and therefore is apt to be sullyed with every impurer breath we must be careful that our love to God be governed by these measures 1. That our love be sweet even and full of tranquillity having in it no violences or transportations but going on in a course of holy actions and duties which are proportionable to our condition and present state not to satisfie al the desire but all the probabilities and measures of our strength A new beginner in religion hath passionate and violent desires but they must not be the measure of his actions But he must consider his strength his late sickness and state of death the proper temptations of his condition and stand at first upon his defence not go to storm a strong Fort or attaque a potent enimie or doe heroical actions and fitter for gyants in Religion Indiscreet violences and untimely forwardness are the rocks of religion against which tender spirits often suffer shipwrack 2. Let our love be prudent and without illusion that is that it expresse it self in such instances which God hath chosen or which we choose our selves by proportion to his rules and measures Love turns into doting when religion turns into superstition No degree of love can be imprudent but the expressions may we cannot love God too much but we may proclaim it in undecent manners 3. Let our love be firm constant and inseparable not coming and returning like the tide but descending like a never failing river ever running into the Ocean of Divine excellency passing on in the chanels of duty and a constant obedience and never ceasing to be what it is till it comes to be what it desires to be still being a river till it be turned into sea and vastness even the immensity of a blessed Eternity Although the consideration of the Divine excellencies and mercies be infinitely sufficient to produce in us love to God who is invisible and yet not distant from us but we feel him in his blessings he dwells in our hearts by faith wee feed on him in the Sacrament and are made all one with him in the incarnation and glorifications of Jesus yet that we may the better enkindle and encrease our love to God the following advices are not uselesse Helps to increase our love to God by way of exercise 1. Cut off all earthly and sensual loves for they pollute and unhallow the pure and Spiritual love Every degree of inordinate affection to the things of this world and every
Word of God that we know of by any certain instrument The good books and spiritual discourses the sermons or homilies written or spoken by men are but the Word of men or rather explications of and exhortations according to the Word of God but of themselves they are not the Word of God In a sermon the Text only is in a proper sense to be called Gods Word and yet good Sermons are of great use and convenience for the advantages of Religion He that preaches an hour together against drunkenness with the tongue of men or Angels hath spoke no other word of God but this Be not drunk with wine wherein there is excesse and he that writes that Sermon in a book and publishes that book hath preached to all that read it a louder Sermon then could be spoken in a Church This I say to this purpose that we may separate truth from error popular opinions from substantial Truths For God preaches to us in the Scripture and by his secret assistances and spiritual thoughts and holy motions Good men preach to us when they by popular arguments and humane arts and complyances expound and presse any of those doctrines which God hath preached unto us in his holy Word But 1. The Holy Ghost is certainly the best Preacher in the world and the worst of Scripture the best Sermons 2. All the doctrine of salvation is plainly set down there that the most unlearned person by hearing it read may understand all his duty What can be plainer spoken then this Thou shalt not kill Be not drunk with wine Husbands love your Wives Whatsoever ye would that men should doe to you doe ye so to them The wit of man cannot more plainly tell us our duty or more fully then the Holy Ghost hath done already 3. Good Sermons and good books are of excellent use but yet they can serve no other end but that we practise the plaine doctrines of Scripture 4. What Abraham in the parable said concerning the brethren of the rich man is here very proper They have Moses and the Prophets Luk. 16 29 31. let them hear them But if they refuse to hear these neither will they believe though one should arise from the dead to preach unto them 5. Reading the holy Scriptures is a duty expresly * Deut. 31.13 Luke 24 45. Mat 22.29 Acts 15.21 Rev 1.3 2 Tim. 3.16 commanded us and is called in Scripture Preaching all other preaching is the effect of humane skill and industry and although of great benefit yet it is but an Ecclesiastical ordinance the Law of God concerning Preaching being expressed in the matter of reading the Scriptures and hearing that Word of God which is and as it is there described But this duty is reduced to practise in the following Rules Rules for Hearing or Reading the Word of God 1. Set apart some portion of thy time according to the opportunities of thy calling and necessary imployment for the reading of holy Scripture and if it be possible every day read or hear some of it read you are sure that book teaches all truth commands all holiness and promises all happiness 2. When it is in your power to choose accustome your self to such portions which are most plaine and certain duty and which contain the story of the Life and Death of our blessed Saviour Read the Gospels the Psalms of David and especially those portions of Scripture which by the wisdome of the Church are appointed to be publickly read upon Sundaies and holy-daies viz the Epistles and Gospels in the choice of any other portions you may advise with a Spiritual Guide that you may spend your time with most profit 3. Fail not diligently to attend to the reading of the holy Scriptures upon those daies wherein it is most publickly and solemnly read in Churches for at such times besides the learning our duty we obtaine a blessing along with it it becoming to us upon those daies a part of solemn Divine worship 4. When the Word of God is read or preached to you be sure you be of a ready heart and minde free from worldly cares and thoughts diligent to hear carefull to mark studious to remember and desirous to practise all that is commanded and to live according to it Doe not hear for any other end but to become better in your life and to be instructed in every good work and to increase in the love and service of God 5. Beg of God by prayer that he would give you the spirit of obedience and profit and that he would by his Spirit write the Word in your heart and that you describe it in your life To which purpose serve your self of some affectionate ejaculations to that purpose before and after this duty Concerning spiritual books and ordinary Sermons take in these advices also 6. Let not a prejudice to any mans person hinder thee from receiving good by his doctrine if it be according to godliness but if occasion offer it or espcially if duty present it to thee that is if it be preached in that assembly where thou art bound to be present accept the word preached as a message from God and the Minister as his Angel in that ministration 7. Consider and remark the doctrine that is represented to thee in any discourse and if the Preacher adds any accidental advantages any thing to comply with thy weaknesse or to put thy spirit into action or holy resolution remember it and make use of it but if the Preacher be a weak person yet the Text is the doctrine thou art to remember that containes all thy duty it is worth thy attendance to hear that spoken often and renewed upon thy thoughts and though thou beest a learned man yet the same thing which thou knowest already if spoken by another may be made active by that application I can better be comforted by my own considerations if another hand applies them then if I doe it my self because the word of God does not work as a natural agent but as a Divine instrument it does not prevail by the force of deduction and artificial discoursings only but chiefly by way of blessing in the ordinance and in the ministery of an appointed person At least obey the publick order and reverence the constitution and give good example of humility charity and obedience 8. When scriptures are read you are only to enquire with diligence and modesty into the meaning of the Spirit but if Homilies or Sermons be made upon the words of Scripture you are to consider whether all that be spoken be conformable to the Scriptures For although you may practise for humane reasons and humane arguments ministred from the Preachers art yet you must practise nothing but the command of God nothing but the Doctrine of Scripture that is the Text. 9. Use the advice of some spiritual or other prudent man for the choice of such spiritual books which may be of use and benefit for the
people so long GOD would have that to be the solemn manner of confessing these attributes but when the Priesthood being changed there was a change also of the Law the great dutie remain'd unalterable in changed circumstances We are eternally bound to confess God Almightie to bee the Maker of Heaven and Earth but the manner of confessing it is chang'd from a rest or a doing nothing to a speaking somthing from a day to a symbol from a ceremonie to a substance from a Jewish rite to a Christian dutie wee profess it in our Creed wee confess it in our lives wee describe it by every line of our life by every action of dutie by faith and trust and obedience and wee do also upon great reason complie with the Jewish manner of câ—nfessing the Creation so far as it is instrumental to a real dutie Wee keep one day in seven and so confess the manner and circumstance of the Creation and wee rest also that wee may tend holie duties so imitating God's rest better then the Jew in Synesius who lay upon his face from evening to evening and could not by stripes or wounds bee raised up to steer the ship in a great storm God's rest was not a natural cessation hee who could not labor could not bee said to rest but God's rest is to bee understood to bee a beholding and a rejoicing in his work finished and therefore wee truly represent God's rest when wee confess and rejoice in God's Works and God's glorie This the Christian Church does upon every day but especially upon the Lord's day which she hath set apart for this and all other Offices of Religion being determined to this day by the Resurrection of her dearest Lord it beeing the first day of joy the Church ever had And now upon the Lord's day wee are not tied to the rest of the Sabbath but to all the work of the Sabbath wee are to abstain from bodily labour not because it is a direct dutie to us as it was to the Jews but because it is necessarie in order to our dutie that wee attend to the Offices of Religion The observatioâ— of the Lord's daie differs nothing from the observation of the Sabbath in the matter of Religion but in the manner They differ in the ceremony and external rite Rest with them was the principal with us it is the accessory They differ in the office or forms of worship For they were then to worship God as a Creator and a gentle Father we are to adde to that Our Redeemer and all his other excellencies and mercies and though we have more natural and proper reason to keep the Lords day then the Sabbath yet the Jews had a divine Commandement for their day which we have not for ours but we have many Commandements to do all that honour to GOD which was intended in the fourth Commandement and the Apostles appointed the first day of the week for doing it in solemn Assemblies and the manner of worshipping God and doing him solemn honour and service upon this day we may best observe in the following measures Rules for keeping the Lords day â—nd other Christian festivals 1. When you go about to distinguish Festival daies from common do it not by lessening the devotions of ordinary daies that the common devotion may seem bigger upon Festivals but on every day keep your ordinary devotions intire and enlarge upon the Holy day 2. Upon the Lords day wee must abstain from all servile and laborous works except such which are matters of necessity of common life or of great charity for these are permitted by that authoritie which hath separated the day for holy uses The Sabbath of the Jewes though consisting principally in rest and established by God did yeeld to these The labour of Love and the labours of Religion were not against the reason and the spirit of the Commandement for which the Letter was decreed and to which it ought to minister And therefore much more is it so on the Lords day where the Letter is wholly turned into Spirit and there is no Commandement of God but of spiritual and holy actions The Priests might kill their beasts and dress them for sacrifice and Châ—ist though born under the Law might heal a sick man and the sick man might carry his bed to witness his recovery and confess the mercy and leap and dance to God for joy and an Ox might be led to water and an Ass be haled out of a ditch a man may take physick and he may eat meat and therefore there were of necessity some to prepare and minister it and the performing these labours did not consist in minutes and just determined stages but they had even then a reasonable latitude so onely as to exclude unnecessary labour or such as did not minister to charity or religion And therefore this is to be enlarged in the Gospel whose Sabbath or rest is but a circumstance and accessory to the principal and spiritual duties Upon the Christian Sabbath necessity is to be served first then charity then religion for this is to give place to charity in great instances and the second to the fiâ—st in all and in all cases God is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth 3. The Lords day being the remembâ—ance of a great blessing must be a day of joy festivitie spiritual â—ejâ—icing and thanksgiving and therefore it is a proper work of the day to let your devotions spend themselves in singing or reading Psalms in recounting the great works of God in remembring his mercies in worshipping his excellencâ—es in celebrating his attributes in admiâ—ing his person in sending portions of pleasant meat to them for whom nothing is provided and in all the arts and instruments of advancing God's glorie and the reputation of Religion in which it were a great decencie that a memorial of the resurrection should be inserted that the particular religion of the day bee not swallowed up in the general And of this wee may the more easily serve our selvs by rising seasonably in the morning to private devotion and by retiring at the leisures and spaces of the day not imploied in publick offices 4. Fail not to be present at the publick hours and places of praier entring early and cheerfully attending reverently and devoutly abiding patiently during the whole office piously assisting at the praiers and gladly also hearing the Sermon and at no hand omitting to receive the holy Communion when it is offered unless some great reason excuse it this being the great solemnitie of thanksgiving and a proper work of the day 5. After the solemnities are past and in the intervalls between the morning and evening devotion as you shall finde opportunitie visit sick persons reconcile differences do offices of neighbâ—uâ—hâ—od â—nquire into the needs of the poor especially house keepers relieve them as they shall need and as you are able for then wee truly rejoice in God when we make
Holy and Eternal Jesus who hast begotten us by thy word renewed us by thy Spirit fed us by thy Sacraments and by the daily ministery of thy word still go on to build us up to life eternall Let thy most holy Spirit be present with me and rest upon me in the reading or hearing thy sacred word that I may do it humbly reverently without prejudice with a minde ready and desirous to learn and to obey that I may be readily furnished and instructed to every good work and may practise all thy holy laws and commandments to the glory of thy holy name O holy and eternall Jesus Amen Ad Act. 5.9.10 A form of confession of sins and repentance to be used upon fasting dayes or dayes of humiliation especially in Lent and before the Holy Sacrament HAve mercy upon me O God after thy great goodness according to the multitude of thy mercies do away mine offences For I will confess my wickedness be sorry for my sin * O my dearest Lord I am not worthy to be accounted amongst the meanest of thy servants not worthy to be sustained by the least fragments of thy mercy but to be shut out of thy presence for ever with dogs and unbelievers But for thy names sake O Lord be mercifull unto my sin for it is great I am the vilest of sinners and the worst of men proud and vain-glorious impatient of scorn or of just reproof not enduring to be slighted and yet extremely deserving it I have been cousened by the colours of humility and when I have truly called my self vitious I could not endure any man else should say or think so I have been disobedient to my superiours churlish and ungentle in my behaviour unchristian and unmanly But for thy names sake c. O Just and dear God how can I expect pity or pardon who am so angry peevish with and without cause envious at good rejoycing in the evil of my neighbours negligent of my charge idle and useless timerous and base jealous and impudent ambitious and hard-hearted soft unmortified and effeminate in my life indevout in my prayers without fancie or affection without attendance to them or perseverance in them but passionate and curious in pleasing my appetite of meat and drink and pleasures making matter both for sin and sickness and I have reaped the cursed fruits of such improvidence entertaining undecent and impure thoughts and I have brought them forth in undecent and impure actions and the spirit of uncleanness hath entered in and unhallowed the temple which thou didst consecrate for the habitation of thy Spirit of love and holiness But for thy names sake O Lord be mercifull unto my sin for it is great Thou hast given me a whole life to serve thee in and to advance my hopes of heaven and this precious time I have thrown away upon my sins and vanities being improvident of my time and of my talent and of thy grace and my own advantages resisting thy Spirit and quenching him I have been a great lover of my self and yet used many wayes to destroy my self I have pursued my temporall ends with greediness and indirect means I am revengfull and unthankfull forgetting benefits but not so soon forgetting injuries curious and murmuring a great breaker of promises I have not loved my neighbours good nor advanced it in all things where I could I have been unlike thee in all things I am unmercifull and unjust a sottish admirer of things below and careless of heaven and the wayes that lead thither But for thy names sake O Lord be merciful unto my sin for it is great All my senses have been windows to let sin in and death by sin Mine eyes have been adulterous and covetous mine eares open to slander and detraction my tongue and palat loose and wanton intemperate and of foul language talkative and lying rash and malicious false and flattering irreligious and irreverent detracting and censorious My hands have been injurious and unclean my passions violent and rebellious my desires impatient and unreasonable all my members and all my faculties have been servants of sin and my very best actions have more matter of pity then of confidence being imperfect in my best and intolerable in most But for thy names sake O Lord c. Unto this and a far bigger heap of sin I have added also the faults of others to my own score by neglecting to hinder them to sin in all that I could and ought but I also have encouraged them in sin have taken off their feares and hardened their consciences and tempted them directly and prevailed in it to my own ruine and theirs unless thy glorious and unspeakable mercy hath prevented so intolerable a calamity Lord I have abused thy mercy despised thy judgments turned thy grace into wantonness I have been unthankfull for thy infinite loving kindness I have sinned and repented and then sinned again and resolved against it and presently broke it and then I tyed my self up with vows and then was tempted then I yeelded by little and little till I was willingly lost again and my vows fell off like cords of vanity Miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin And yet O Lord I have another heap of sins to be unloaded My secrets sins O Lord are innumerable sins I noted not sins that I willingly neglected sins that I acted upon wilfull ignorance and voluntary mispersuasion sins that I have forgot and sins which a diligent and a watchful spirit might have prevented but I would not Lord I am confounded with the multitude of them and the horrour of their remembrance though I consider them nakedly in their direct appearance without the deformity of their unhandsome and aggravating circumstances but so dressed they are a sight too ugly an instance of amazement infinite in degrees and insufferable in their load And yet thou hast spared me all this while and hast not throwne me into Hell where I have deserved to have been long since and even now to have been shut up to an eternity of torments with insupportable amazement fearing the revelation of thy day Miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin Thou shalt answer for me O Lord my God Thou that prayest for me shalt be my Judge The Prayer THou hast prepared for me a more healthfull sorrow O deny not thy servant when he begs sorrow of thee Give me a deep contrition for my sins a hearty detestation and loathing of them hating them worse then death with torments Give me grace intirely presently and for ever to forsake them to walk with care and prudence with fear and watchfulness all my dayes to doe all my duty with diligence and charity with zeal and a never fainting spirit to redeem the time to trust upon thy mercies to make use of all the instruments of grace to work out my salvation with fear and trembling that thou mayest have
blessed be that loving kindness and pity by which thou didst neglect thy own sorrows and go to comfort the sadness of thy Disciples quickning their dulness incouraging their duty arming their weakness with excellent precepts against the day of triall Blessed be that humility and sorrow of thine who being Lord of the Angels yet wouldest need and receive comfort from thy servant the Angel who didst offer thy self to thy persecutors and madest them able to seise thee and didst receive the Traytors kiss and sufferedst a veil to be thrown over thy holy face that thy enemies might not presently be confounded by so bright a lustre and wouldest do a miracle to cure a wound of one of thy spitefull enemies and didst reprove a zealous servant in behalf of a malicious adversary and then didst go like a Lamb to the slaughter without noise or violence or resistance when thou couldest have commanded millions of Angels for thy guard and rescue Lord what is man c. Blessed be thy Name O holy Jesus and blessed be that holy sorrow thou didst suffer when thy Disciples fled and thou wert left alone in the hands of cruel men who like evening Wolves thirsted for a draught of thy best blood and thou wert led to the house of Annas and there asked insnaring questions and smitten on the face by him whose ear thou hadst but lately healed and from thence wert dragged to the house of Caiaphas and there all night didst endure spittings affronts scorn contumelies blows and intolerable insolencies and all this for man who was thy enemy and the cause of all thy sorrows Lord what is man c. Blessed be thy Name O holy Jesus and blessed be thy mercy who when thy servant Peter denied thee and forsooke thee forswore thee didst look back upon him and by that gracious and chiding look didst call him back to himself and thee who were accused before the High Priest and rail'd upon and examined to evill purposes and with designes of blood who wert declar'd guilty of death for speaking a most necessary and most profitable truth who wert sent to Pilate and found innocent and sent to Herod and still found innocent and wert arayed in white both to declare thy innocence and yet to deride thy person and wert sent back to Pilate and examined again and yet nothing but innocence found in thee and malice round about thee to devour thy life which yet thou wert more desirous to lay down for them then they were to take it from thee Lord what is man c. Blessed be thy Name O holy Jesus and blessed be that patience charity by which for our sakes thou wert content to be smitten with canes and have that holy face which Angels with joy and wonder do behold be spit upon and be despised when compared with Barabbas and scourg'd most rudely with unhallowed hands till the pavement was purpled with that holy blood and condemned to a sad and shamefull a publick and painfull death and arayed in Scarlet and crown'd with thorns and strip'd naked and then cloathed loaden with the crosse and tormented with a tablet stuck with nails at the fringes of thy garment and bound hard with cords and dragg'd most vilely and most piteously till the load was too great and did sink thy tender and virginal body to the earth and yet didst comfort the weeping women and didst more pity thy persecutors then thy self and wert grieved for the miseries of Jerusalem to come forty yeares after more then for thy present passion Lord what is man c. Blessed be thy Name O holy Jesus and blessed be that incomparable sweetness and holy sorrow which thou sufferedst when thy holy hands and feet were nailed upon the crosse and the crosse being set in a hollowness of the earth did in the fall rend the wounds wider and there naked bleeding sick and faint wounded and despised didst hang upon the weight of thy wounds three long hours praying for thy persecutors satisfying thy Fathers wrath reconciling the penitent thief providing for thy holy and afflicted mother tasting vineger and gall and when the fulness of thy suffering was accomplished didst give thy soul into the hands of God didst descend to the regions of longing souls who waited for the revelatiō of this thy day in their prisons of hope and then thy body was transfixed with a spear and issued forth two Sacraments Water and blood and thy body was compos'd to buriall and dwelt in darkness three dayes and three nights Lord what is man that thou art mindfull of him and the Son of man that thou thus visitest him The Prayer THus O blessed Jesu thou didst finish thy holy passion with pain anguish so great that nothing could be greater then it except thy self and thy own infinite mercy and all this for man even for me then whom nothing could be more miserable thy self onely excepted who becamest so by undertaking our guilt and our punishment And now Lord who hast done so much for me be pleased onely to make it effectuall to me that it may not be useless and lost as to my particular lest I become etenally miserable ' and lost to all hopes and possibilities of comfort All this deserves more love then I have to give but Lord do thou turn me all into love and all my love into obedience and let my obedience be without interruption and then I hope thou wilt accept such a return as I can make make me to be something that thou delightest in and thou shalt have all that I am or have from thee even whatsoever thou makest fit for thy self Teach me to live wholly for my Saviour Jesus and to be ready to dye for Jesus and to be conformable to his life and sufferings and to be united to him by inseparable unions and to own no passions but what may be servants to Jesus and Disciples of his institution O sweetest Saviour clothe my soul with thy holy robe hide my sins in thy wounds and bury them in thy grave and let me rise in the life of grace and abide and grow in it till I arrive at the Kingdome of Glory Amen Our Father c. Ad. Sect. 7.8 10. A form of prayer or intercession for all estates of people in the Christian Church The parts of which may be added to any other formes and the whole office intirely as it lyes is proper to be said in our preparation to the holy Sacrament or on the day of celebration 1. For our selves O Thou gracious Father of mercy Father of our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon thy servants who bow our heads and our knees and our hearts to thee pardon and forgive us all our sins give us the grace of holy repentance and a strict obedience to thy holy word strengthen us in the inner man with the power of the holy Ghost for all the parts and duties of our calling and holy living preserve us for
that I also may dwell in the heart of my dearest Lord which was opened for me with a spear and love An act of contrition Lord thou shalt finde my heartfull of cares and worldly desires cheated with love of riches and neglect of holy things proud and unmortified false and crafty to deceive it self intricated and intāgled with difficult cases of conscience with knots which my own wildness and inconsideration and impatience have tied and shuffled together O my dearest Lord if thou canst behold such an impure seat behold the place to which thou art invited is full of passion and prejudice evill principles and evill habits peevish and disobedient lustfull and intemperate and full of sad remembrances that I have often provoked to jealousie and to anger thee my God my dearest Saviour him that dyed for me him that suffered torments for me that is infinitely good to me and infinitely good and perfect in himself This O dearest Saviour is a sad truth and I am heartily ashamed and truly sorrowfull for it and do deeply hate all my sins and am full of indignation against my self for so unworthy so careless so continued so great a folly and humbly beg of thee to increase my sorrow and my care and my hatred against sin and make my love to thee swell up to a great grace and then to glory and immensity An act of Faith This indeed is my condition But I know O blessed Jesus that thou didst take upon thee my nature that thou mightest suffer for my sins and thou didst suffer to deliver me from them and from thy Fathers wrath and I was delivered from this wrath that I might serve thee in holiness righteousness all my daies Lord I am sure thou didst the great work of Redemption for me and all mankinde as that I am alive This is my hope the strength of my spirit my joy and my confidence and do thou never let the spirit of unbelief enter into me and take me from this Rock Here I will dwell for I have a delight therein Here I will live and here I desire to die The Petition Therefore O blessed Jesu who art my Saviour and my God whose body is my food and thy righteousness is my robe thou art the Priest and the Sacrifice the Master of the feast and the feast it self the Physician of my soul the light of my eyes the purifier of my stains enter into my heart and cast out from thence all impurities all the remains of the Old man and grant I may partake of this holy Sacrament with much reverence and holy relish and great effect receiving hence the communication of thy holy body and blood for the establishment of an unreproveable faith of an unfained love for the fulness of wisdom for the healing my soul for the blessing and preservation of my body for the taking out the sting of temporall death and for the assurance of a holy resurrection for the ejection of all evill from within me and the fulfilling all thy righteous Commandements and to procure for me a mercy and a fair reception at the day of judgement through thy mercies O holy and ever blessed Saviour Jesus Amen Here also may be added the prayer after receiving the cup. * Ejaculations to be said before or at the receiving the holy Sacrament Like as the Hart desireth the water brooks so longeth my soul after thee O God My soul is a thirst for God yea even for the living God when shall I come before the presence of God O Lord my God great are thy wonderous works which thou hast done like as be also thy thoughts which are to us-ward and yet there is no man that ordereth them unto thee O send out thy light and thy truth that they may lead me and bring me unto thy holy hill and to thy dwelling And that I may go unto the Altar of God even unto the God of my joy and gladness and with my heart will I give thanks to thee O God my God I will wash my hands in innocency O Lord and so will I go to thine altar that I may shew the voice of thanks-giving and tell of all thy wonderous works Examine me O Lord and prove me try out my reins and my heart For thy loving kindness is now and ever before my eyes and I will walk in thy truth Thou shalt prepare a table before me against them that trouble me thou hast anointed my head with oil and my cup shall be full But thy loving loving kindness and mercy shall follow me all the dayes of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever This is the bread that cometh down from Heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him and hath eternall life abiding in him and I will raise him up at the last day Lord whether shall we go but to thee thou hast the words of eternall life If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink The bread which we break is it not the communication of the body of Christ and the cup which we drink is it not the communication of the blood of Christ What are those wounds in thy hands They are those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends Zech 13.6 Immediately before the receiving say Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof But do thou speak the word onely and thy servant shall be he led Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall shew thy praise O God make speed to save me O Lord make hast to help me Come Lord Jesus come quickly After receiving the consecrated and blessed bread say O tast and see how gracious the Lord is blessed is the man that trusteth in him * The beasts do lack and suffer hunger but they which seek the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good Lord what am I that my Saviour should become my food that the Son of God should be the meat of Worms of dust and ashes of a sinner of him that was his enemy But this thou hast done to me because thou art infinitely good wonderfully gracious and lovest to bless every one of us in turning us from the evill of our wayes Enter into me blessed Jesus let no root of bitterness spring up in my heart but be thou Lord of all my faculties O let me feed on thee by faith and grow up by the increase of God to a perfect man in Christ Jesus Amen Lord I believe help mine unbelief Glory be to God the Father Son c. After the receiving the cup of blessing It is finished Blessed be the mercies of God revealed to us in Jesus Christ. O blessed and eternall high Priest let the sacrifice of the Cross which thou didst once offer for the sins of the whole World and which thou doest now and always represent in
For although the coâ—jâ—ctâ—â—â—â— and expectations of Hope are not like the conclusions of Faith yet they are a Helmet against the scorchings of Despair in temporal things and an anchor of the soul sure and stedfast against the fluctuations of the Spirit in matters of the soul. S. Bernard reckons divers principles of Hope by enumerating the instances of the Divine Mercy and we may by them reduce this rule to practise in the following manner 1. GOD hath preserved me from many sins his mercies are infinite I hope he will still preserve me from more and for ever * 2. I have sinned and GOD smote me not his mercies are still over the penitent I hope he will deliver me from all the evils I have deserved He hath forgiven me many sins of malice and therefore surely he will pity my infirmities * 3. God visited my heart and changed it he loves the work of his own hands and so my heart is now become I hope he will love this tâ—o * 4. When I repented he received me graciously and therefore I Hope if I doe my endevour he will totally forgive me * 5. He helped my slow and beginning endevours and therefore I hope he will lead me to perfection * 6. When he had given me something first then he gave me more I hope therefore he will keep me from falling and give me the grace of perseverance * 7. He hath chosen me to be a Disciple of Christs institution he hath elected me to his Kingdom of grace and therefore I hope also to the Kingdom of his glory * 8. He died for me when I was his enemy and therefore I hope he will save me when he hath reconciled me to him and is become my friend * 9. God hath given us his Son how should not he with him give us all things else All these S. Bernard reduces to these three Heads as the instruments of all our hopes 1. The charity of GOD adopting us 2. The truth of his promises 3. The power of his performance which if any truly weighs no infirmity or accident can breake his â—â—pes into undiscernible fragments but some good plâ—â—ks will remain after the greatest storm and shipwrack This was Saint Pauls instrument Experience begets hope and hope maketh not ashamed 10. Doe thou take care only of thy duty of the means and proper instruments of thy purpose and leave the end to GOD lay that up with him and he will take care of all that is intrusted to him and this being an act of confidence in God is also a means of security to thee 11. By special arts of spiritual prudence arguments secure the confident belief of the Resurrection and thou canst not but hope for every thing the which you may reasonably expect or lawfully desire upon the stock of the Divine mercies and promises 12. If â— despair seises you in a particular temporal instance let it not defile thy spirit with impute mixture or mingle in spiritual considerations but rather let it make thee fortifie thy soul in matters of Religion that by being thrown out of your Earthly dwelling and confidence you may retire into the strengths of grace and hope the more strongly in that by how much you are the more defeated in this that despair of a fortune or a success may become the necessity of all virtue SECT III. Of Charity or the love of God LOve is the greatest thing that God can give us for himself is love and it is the greatest thing we can give to God for it will also give our selves and carry with it all that is ours The Apostle calls it the band of perfection it is the Old and it is the New and it is the great Commandement and it is all the Commandements for it is the fulfilling of the Law It does the work of all other graces without any instrument but its own immediate virtue For is the love to sin makes a Man sin against all his own reason and all the discourses of wisdom and all the advices of his friends and without temptation and without opportunity so does the love of God it makes a man chaste without the laborious arts of fasting and exteriour disciplines temperate in the midst of feasts and is active enough to choose it without any intermedial appetites and reaches at Glory through the very heart of Grace without any other arms but those of Love It is a grace that loves God for himself and our Neighbours for God The consideration of Gods goodness and bounty the experience of those profitable and excellent emanations from him may be and most commonly are the first motive of our love but when we are once entred and have tasted the goodness of God we love the spring for its own excellency passing from passion to reason from thanking to adoring from sense to spirit from considering our selves to an union with God and this is the image and little representation of Heaven it is beatitude in picture or rather the infancy and beginnings of glory We need no incentives by way of special enumeration to move us to the love of God for we cannot love any thing for any reason reall or imaginary but that excellence is infinitely more eminent in God There can but two things create love Perfection and Usefulness to which answer on our part 1. admiration and 2. Desire and both these are centred in love For the entertainment of the first there is in God an infinite nature immensity or vastness without extension or limit Immutability Eternity Omnipotence Omniscience Holiness Dominion Providence Bounty Mercy Justice Perfection in himself and the end to which all things and all actions must be directed and will at last arrive The consideration of which may be heightned if we consider our distance from all these glories Our smallness and limited nature our nothing our inconstancy our age like a span our weakness and ignorance our poverty our inadvertency and inconsideration our disabilities and disaffections to doe good our harsh natures and unmerciful inclinations our universal iniquity and our necessities and dependencies not only on God originally and essentially but even our need of the meanest of Gods creatures and our being obnoxious to the weakest and the most contemptible But for the entertainment of the second we may consider that in him is a torrent of pleasure for the voluptuous he is the fountain of honour for the ambitious an inexhaustible treasure for the covetous our vices are in love with phantastick pleasures and images of perfection which are truly and really to be found no where but in God And therefore our virtues have such proper objects that it is but reasonable they should all turn into love for certain it is that this love will turn all into virtue S. Aug l. 2. Confes. â— 6 For in the scrutinies for righteousness and judgment when it is inquired whether such a person be a good man or no the meaning is not