woman to lust after her And supposing all the other members restrained yet if the eye be permitted to lust the man can no otherwise be called chast then he can be called severe and mortified that sits all day seeing playes revellings and out of greedinesse to fill his eye neglects his belly There are some vessels which if you offer to lift by the belly or bottom you cannot stir them but are soon removed if you take them by the ears It matters not with which of your members you are taken and carried off from your dutie and severity 4. To have a heart and minde chast and pure that is detesting all uncleannesse disliking all its motions past actions circumstances likenesses discourses and this ought to be the chastity of Virgins and Widows of old persons and Eunuchs especially and generally of all men according to their several necessities 6. To Discourse chastly and purely with great care declining all undecencies of language chastening the tongue and restraining it with grace as vapours of wine are restrained with a bunch of myrrhe 6. To disapprove by an after act all involuntary and natural pollutions for if a man delights in having suffered any natural pollution and with pleasure remember it he chooses that which was in it self involuntary and that which being natural was innocent becoming voluntary is made sinful 7. They that have performed these duties and parts of Chastity will certainly abstain from all exteriour actions of uncleannesse those noon-day and mid-night Devils those lawlesse and ungodly worshippings of shame and uncleannesse whose birth is in trouble whose growth is in folly and whose end is in shame But besides these general acts of Chastity which are common to all states of men and women there are some few things proper to the severals Acts of virginal Chastity 1. Virgins must remember that the virginitie of the body is onely excellent in order to the puritie of the soul who therefore must consider that since they are in some measure in a condition like that of angels it is their duty to spend much of their time in Angelical imployment for in the same degree that Virgins live more spiritually then other persons in the same degree is their virginity a more excellent state But else it is no better then that of involuntary or constrained Eunuchs a misery and a trouble or else a mere privation as much without excellency as without mixture 2. Virgins must contend for a singular modesty whose first part must be an ignorance in the distinction of sexes or their proper instruments or if they accidentally be instructed in that it must be supplied with an inadvertency or neglect of all thoughts and remembrances of such difference and the following parts of it must be pious and chast thoughts holy language and modest carriage 3. Virgins must be retired and unpublick for all freedom and loosenesse of society is a violence done to virginity not in its natural but in its moral capacity that is it looses part of its severity strictnesse and opportunity of advantages by publishing that person whose work is religion whose company is Angels whose thoughts must dwell in heaven and separate from all mixtures of the world 4. Virgins have a peculiar obligation to charity for this is the virginity of the soul as puritie integrity and separation is of the body which doctrine we are taught by Saint Peter Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth thorough the spirit unto unfaigned love of the brethren see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently For a Virgin that consecrates her body to God and pollutes her spirit with rage or impatience or inordinate anger gives him what he most hates a most foul and defiled soul. 5. These rules are necessary for Virgins that offer that state to God and mean not to enter into the state of marriage for they that onely wait the opportunity of a convenient change are to steer themselves by the general rules of Chastity Rules for Widows or vidual Chastity For Widows the fontinel of whose desires hath been opened by the former permissions of the marriage-bed they must remember 1. That God hath now restrain'd the former license bound up their eyes and shut up their heart into a narrower compasse and hath given them sorrow to be a bridle to their desires A Widow must be a mourner and she that is not cannot so well secure the chastity of her proper state 2. It is against publick honesty to marry another man so long as she is with childe by her former Husband and of the same fame it is in a lesser proportion to marry within the year of mourning but anciently it was infamous for her to marry till by common account the body was dissolved into its first principle of earth 3. A Widow must restrain her memory and her fancy not recalling or recounting her former permissions and freer licenses with any present delight for then she opens that sluce which her Husbands death and her own sorrow have shut up 4. A Widow that desires her widowhood should be a state pleasing to God must spend her time as devoted Virgins should in fastings and prayers and charity 5. A Widow must forbid her self to use those temporal solaces which in her former estate were innocent but now are dangerous Rules sor married persons or matrimonial chastity Concerning married persons besides the keeping of their mutual faith and contract with each other these particulars are useful to be observed 1. Although their mutual endearments are safe within the protection of marriage yet they that have Wives or Husbands must be as though they had them not that is they must have an affection greater to each other then they have to any person in the world but not greater then they have to God but that they be ready to part with all interest in each others person rather then sin against God 2. In their permissions and license they must be sure to observe the order of Nature and the ends of God He is an ill Husband that uses his Wife as a man treats a Harlot having no other end but pleasure Concerning which our best rule is that although in this as in eating and drinking there is an appetite to be satisfied which cannot be done without pleasing that desire yet since that desire and satisfaction was intended by Nature for other ends they should never be separate from those ends but alwayes be joyned with all or one of these ends with a desire of children or to avoyd fornication or to lighten and ease the cares and sadnesses of houshold affairs or to endear each other but never with a purpose either in act or desire to separate the sensuality from these ends which hallow it Onan did separate his act from its proper end and so ordered his embraces that his Wife should not conceive and God punished him 3. Married persons must keep
thy own soul. Seven times a day do 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 rejoycing or of mourning every petition and every return 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 Chappell in our heart It reconciles Martha's im ployment with Maries 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 returns 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 goodnesse 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 God hath also wrought all our works in us and because he rejoyces in his own workes 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 almes in the presence of God and to God and he feels the relief which thou providest 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 onely 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 readinesse to do good actions that it may not be said of us as God once complained of his people Why hath my beloved done wickednesse 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 weaknesse that fears him as a Judge reverences him as a Lord obeyes him as a Father and loves him as a Patron The Benefits of this exercise The benefit of this consideration and exerâ—ise being universal upon all the parts of piety I shall lesse need to speciâ—ie 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 awfulnesse to the divine Majesty of God and actual devotion in our offices 2. It produces a confidence in God and fearlessenesse of our enemies patience in trouble and hope of remedie 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 tryals and supplyes us with remedie and where his rod strikes us his staffe supports us To which we may adde this that God who is alwayes 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 rejoycing in God we being more apt to delight in the partners and witnesses of our conversation every degree of mutual 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 wayes as he walks with us in all ours we shall finde perpetual reasons to enable us to keep that rule of God Rejoyce in the Lord alwayes and again I say rejoyce And this puts me in minde of a saying of an old religious person There is one way of overcoming our ghostly enemies spiritual mirth and a perpetual bearing of God in our mindes This effectively refists the Devil and suffers us to 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 do enjoy him The same desires that a weak man hath for a Defender the sick man for a Physitian 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 hourly 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 loosnesse of wandring thoughts it establishes the heart in good purposes and leadeth on to perseverance it gains purity and 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 plenteously to serve him with an Eye-service is very pleasing for he also sees the heart and the want of this consideration was declared to be the cause why Israel sinned so grievously For they say the Lord hath forsaken the earth and the Lord
that supposes our duty to answer his grace that God will be our God so long as we are his people The other is not Faith but Flattery 6. To professe publickly the doctrine of Jesus Christ openly owning whatsoever he hath revealed and commanded not being ashamed of the word of God or of any practises enjoyned by it and this without complying with any mans interest not regarding favor nor being moved with good words not fearing disgrace or losse or inconvenience or death it self 7. To pray without doubting without wearinesse without faintnesse entertaining no jealousies or suspitions of God but being confident of Gods hearing us and os his returns to us whatsoever the manner or the instance be that if we do our duty it will be gracious and merciful These acts of Faith are in several degrees in the servants of Jesus some have it but as a grain of mustard-seed some grow up to a plant some have the fulnesse of faith but the least faith that is must be a perswasion so strong as to make us undertake the doing of all that duty which Christ built upon the foundation of believing but we shall best discern the truth of our faith by these following signes S. Hierom reckons three Signes of true Faith 1. An earnest and vehement prayer for it is impossible we should heartily believe the things of God and the glories of the Gospel and not most importunately desire them For every thing is desired according to our belief of its excellency and possibility 2. To do nothing for vain glory but wholly for the interests of religion and these Articles we believe valuing not at all the râ—mours of men but the praise of God to whom by faith we have given up all our intellectual faculties 3. To be content with God for our Judge for our Patron for our Lord for our friend desiring God to be all in all to us as we are in our understanding and affections wholly his Adde to these 4. To be a stranger upon earth in our affections and to have all our thoughts and principal desires fixed upon the matters of Faith the things of Heaven For if a man were adopted heir to Caesar he would if he believed it real and effective despise the present and wholly be at court in his Fathers eye and his desires would outrun his swiftest speed and all his thoughts would spend themselves in creating Ideas and little phantastick images of his future condition Now God hath made us Heirs of his Kingdom and Coheirs with Jesus if we believed this we would think and affect and study accordingly But he that rejoyces in gain and his heart dwells in the world and is espoused to a fair estate and transported with a light momentany joy and is afflicted with losses and amazed with temporal persecutions and esteems disgrace or poverty in a good cause to be intolerable this man either hath no inheritance in Heaven or believes none and believes not that he is adopted to be the Son of God the Heir of eternal Glory 5. S. Iames's signe is the best Shew me thy faith by thy works Faith makes the Merchant diligent and venturous and that makes him rich Ferdinando of Arragon believed the story told him by Columbus and therefore he furnished him with ships and got the west Indies by his Faith in the undertaker But Henry the seventh of England believed him not and therefore trusted him not with shipping and lost all the purchase of that Faith It is told us by Christ He that forgives shall be forgiven if we believe this it is certain we shall forgive our enemies for none of us all but need and desire to be forgiven No man can possibly despise or refuse to desire such excellent glories as are revealed to them that that are servants of Christ and yet we do nothing that is commanded us as a condition to obtain them No man could work a dayes labor without faith but because he believes he shall have his wages at the dayes or weeks end he does his duty But he onely believes who does that thing which other men in the like cases do when they do believe He that believes money gotten with danger is better then poverty with safety will venture for it in unknown lands or seas and so will he that believes it better to get Heaven with labour then to go to Hell with pleasure 6. He that believes does not make haste but waits patiently till the times of refreshment come and dares trust God for the morrow and is no more sollicitous for next year then he is for that which is past and it is certain that man wants faith who dares be more confident of being supplied when he hath money in his purse then when he hath it onely in bills of exchange from God or that relyes more upon his own industry then upon Gods providence when his own industry fails him If you dare trust to God when the case to humane reason seems impossible and trust to God then also out of choice not because you have nothing else to trust to but because he is the onely support of a just confidence then you give a good testimony of your faith 7. True Faith is confident and will venture all the world upon the strength of its persuasion Will you lay your life on it your estate your reputation that the doctrine of JESUS CHRIST is true in every Article Then you have true Faith But he that fears men more then God believes men more then he believes in God 8. Faith if it be true living and justifying cannot be separated from a good life it works miracles makes a Drunkard become sober a lascivious person become chast a covetous man become liberal it overcomes the world it works righteousnesse and makes us diligently to do and cheerfully to suffer whatsoever God hath placed in our way to Heaven The Means and Instruments to obtain Faith are 1. An humble willing and docible minde or desire to be instructed in the way of God For persuasion enters like a sun-beam gently and without violence and open but the window and draw the curtain and the Sun of righteousnesse will enlighten your darknesse 2. Remove all prejudice and love to every thing which may be contradicted by Faith How can ye believe said Christ that receive praise one of another An unchast man cannot easily be brought to believe that without purity he shall never see God He that loves riches can hardly believe the doctrine of poverty and renuntiation of the world and alms and Martyrdom and the doctrine of the crosse is folly to him that loves his ease and pleasures He that hath within him any principle contrary to the doctrines of Faith cannot easily become a Disciple 3. Prayer which is instrumental to every thing hath a particular promise in this thing He that lacks wisdom let him ask it of God and if you give good things to your children how
beam of comfort Possibly the Man may erre in his judgement of circumstances and therefore let him fear but because it is not certain he is mistaken let him not despair 7. Consider that God who knows all the events of Men and what their final condition shall be who shall be saved and who will perish yet he treateth them as his own calls them to be his own offers fair conditions as to his own gives them blessings arguments of mercy and instances of fear to call them off from death and to call them home to life and in all this shews no despair of happinesse to them and therefore much lesse should any Man despair for himself since he never was able to reade the Scrols of the eternal predestination 8. Remember that despair belongs onely to passionate Fools or Villains such as were Achitophel and Iudas or else to Devils and damned persons and as the hope of salvation is a good disposition towards it so is despair a certain consignation to eternal ruine A Man may be damned for despairing to be saved Despair is the proper passion of damnation God hath placed truth and felicity in Heaven Curiosity and repentance upon Earth but misery and despair are the portions of Hell 9. Gather together into your spirit and its â—reasure-house the Memory not onely all the promises of GOD but also the remembrances of experience and the former senses of the Divine favours that from thence you may argue from times past to the present and enlarge to the future and to greater blessings For although the conjectures 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. Saint Bernard reckons divers principles of Hope by enumerating the instances of the Divine Mercy and wee may by them reduce this rule to practise in the following manner 1. GOD hath preserved mee from many sinnes 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 chang'd it he loves the work of his own hands and so my heart is now become I hope he will love this too * 4. When I repented he receiv'd me graciously and therefore I hope if I do my endeavour he will totally forgive me 5. He help'd my slow and beginning endeavours 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 reconcil'd me to him 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 break his hopes into undiscernable fragments but some good planks will remain after the greatest storm and shipwrack This was S. Pauls instrument Experience begets hope and hope maketh not ashamed 10. Do thou take care onely 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 and arguments secure the confident belief of the Resurrection and thou canst not but hope for every thing else which you may reasonably expect or lawfully desire upon the stock of the Divine mercies and promises 12. If a despair seizes you in a particular temporal instance let it not defile thy spirit with impure 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 successe may become the necessity of all vertue Sect. 3. 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 cals 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 vertue For as the love to sinne makes a Man sinne 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 chast 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 thorough 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 goodnesse 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 goodnesse of God we love the spring for its own excellency passing from passion to reason from thanking to adoring from sence 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 real or imaginary but that excellency is infinitely more eminent in God There can but two things create love Perfection and Vsefulnesse to which answer on our part first 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 vastnesse without extension or limit Immutability Eternity Omnipotence Omniscience Holinesse 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 heightened if we consider our distance from all these glories Our smallnesse and limited nature our nothing our inconstancy our age like a span our weaknesse and ignorance our poverty our inadvertency and inconsideration our disabilities and disaffections to do good our harsh natures and unmerciful inclinations our universal iniquitie and our necessities dependencies not onely 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 truely and really to be found no where but in God And therefore our vertues 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 vertue For in the scrutinies for righteousnesse and judgement when it is inquired whether such a person be a good man or no the meaning is not what does â—e 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 Loue 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 greatnesse and singularity to it The first is the least and lesse then it cannot do 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 alwayes 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 â—elicity 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 â—in 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 els 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 copy in every thing and every degree of union and every degree of likenesse 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 chariâ—y is resâ—lesse 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 and nothing can supply the presence or make recompence for the absence of God or of the effects of his favour and the light of his countenance 7. True love in all accidents locks 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 murmurs at those changes which he makes in his family nor envies at those gifts he bestowes but chooses as he likes and is ruled by his judgement and is perfectly of his persuasion 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 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 disturb a childe nor endure the impurity of a dream and this is the curiosity and nicenesse of divine Love this is the fear of God and is the daughter and production oâ— 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 tranquility 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 all 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 sicknesse 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 enemy or do heroical actions and fitter for gyants in Religion Indiscreet violences and untimely forwardnesse 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
duty the greatest love that God requires of Man And yet he that is the most imperfect must have this love also in preparation of minde and must differ from another in nothing except in the degrees of promptnesse and alacrity And in this sense he that loves God truly though but with a beginning and tender love yet he loves God with all his heart that is with that degree of love which is the highest point of duty and of Gods charge upon us and he that loves God with all his heart may yet increase with the increase of God just as there are degrees of love to God among the Saints and yet each of them love him with all their powers and capacities 2. But the greater state of love is the zeal of love which runs out into excrescencies and suckers like a fruitful and pleasant tree or bursting into gums and producing fruits not of a monstrous but of an extraordinary and heroical greatnesse Concerning which these cautions are to be observed Cautions and rules concerning zeal 1. If zeal be in the beginnings of our spiritual birth or be short sudden and transient or be a consequent of a mans natural temper or come upon any cause but after a long growth of a temperate and well regulated love it is to be suspected for passion and forwardnesse rather then the vertical point of love 2. That zeal onely 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 recompos d and tam'd 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 for that is just so pleasing to God as hatred is an act of love 5. That zeal that concernes others can spend it self in nothing but arts and actions and charitable instruments for their good and when it concernes the good of many that one should suffer it must bee 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 or 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 insuportable 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 vowes 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 houres 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 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 and affections for these will make it full of noise and empty of profit 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 forwardnesse and circumstance of another duty and therfore is then onely acceptable when it advances the love of God and our Neighbours whose circumstance it is That zeal is onely safe onely 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 Countreymen 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 alwayes more severe against thy self 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 onely offices of Religion unlesâ—e the body shall expect no portion of the rewards of Religion such as are resurrection reunion and glorification Our bodies 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 dayes 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
of secular imployments must come onely they must leave their secular thoughts and affections behinde them and then come and converse with God If any man be well grown in grace he must needs come because he is excellently disposed to so holy a feast but he that is but in the infancy of piety had need to come that so he may grow in grace The strong must come lest they become weak the weak that they may become strong The sick must come to be cured the healthful to be preserved They that have leisure must come because they have no excuse They that have no leisure must come hither that by so excellent religion they may sanctifie their businesse The penitent sinners must come that they may be justified and they that are justified that they may be justified still They that have fears and great reverence to these mysteries and think no preparation to be sufficient must receive that they may learn how to receive the more worthily and they that have a lesse degree of reverence must come often to have it heightned that as those Creatures that live amongst the snowes of the Mountains turne white with their food and conversation with such perpetual whitenesses so our souls may be transformed into the similitude and union with Christ by our perpetual feeding on him and conversation not onely in his Courts but in his very heart and most secret affections and incomparable purities Prayers for all sorts of Men and all necessities relating to the several parts of the vertue of Religion A Prayer for the Graces of Faith Hope Charity O Lord God of infinite mercy of infinite excellency who hast sent thy holy Son into the world to redeem us from an intolerable misery and to teach us a holy religion and to forgive us an infinite debt give me thy holy Spirit that my understanding and all my faculties may be so resigned to the discipline and doctrine of my Lord that I may be prepared in minde 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 apostacy 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 easy 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 eternal and 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 early will I seek thee my soul thirsteth 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 kindnes 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 Wondeâ—ful the Counsellor the mighty God the Everlasting Father the Prince of peace of thy government and peace there shall be no end thou art the brightnesse of thy Fathers glory the expresse 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 purge 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 obtain'd a more excellent name then they Thou O dearest Jesus art the head of the Church the beginning and the first born from the dead in all things thou hast the preheminence and it pleased the Father that in thee should all fulnesse dwell Kingdoms 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 in temptations to despair O Eternal God Father of Mercyes and God of all comfort with much mercy look upon the sadnesses and sorrowes of thy servant My sins lye heavy upon me and presse 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 evil 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 merely because thou art good thou shalt pity me 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 hopelesse and accursed spirits for thou art good and gracious and I throw my self upon thy mercy Let me never let my hold go 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 merciful then I can be miserable and thy mercy which is above all thy own works must needs be far above all my sin and all my misery Dearest Jesus let me trust in thee for ever and let me never be confounded Amen Ejaculations and short meditations to be used in time of sickness and sorrow or danger of
indifferent actions to be adopted into the family of religion 2. That there are some actions which are usually reckoned as parts of our religion which yet of themselves are so relative and imperfect that without the purity of 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 sinful actions Thus almes are for charity fasting for temperance prayer is for religion humiliation is for humility austerity or sufferance is in order to the vertue 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 Iezabel the prayer of Iudah reproved by the Prophet Isaiah the humiliation of Ahab the martyrdome of Hereticks in which nothing is given to God but the body or the forms of religion but the soul and the power of godlinesse is wholly wanting 3. We are to confider 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 do God service and they that kild the Apostles had also good purposes but they had unhallowed actions When there is both truth in election and charity in the intention when we go to God in wayes 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 rowls 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 He is to be called evil that is good onely 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 vertue 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 that 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 onely 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 afar off Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him saith the Lord Do 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 do 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 So S. Augustine expresses this article So that we may imagine God to be as the Aire and the Sea and we all inclos'd 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 than 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 uncleannesse 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 Creaturer and in every part of every one of them and is still as unmixt with any unhandfome adherence as is the soul in the bowels of the body 2. God is every where present by his power He roules 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 Embaâ—â—ies 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 hollownesse in the bottom of the sea but he shows himself to be Lord of it by sustaining these the Creatures that come to dwell in it And in the wildernesse the Bittern and the Stork the Dragon and the Satyr the Unicorn and the Elk live upon his provisions and revere 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 fear is in Heaven because there he fits 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 thus they that die in the Lord may be properly said to be gone 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 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 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
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 vastnesse even the immensitie 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 we 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 encrease our love to God by way of exercise 1. Cut off all earthly and sensual loves for they pollute and unhallow the pure Spiritual love Every degree of inordinate affection to the things of this world and every act of love to a sin is a perfect enemy to the love of God and it is a great shame to take any part of our affection from the eternal God to bestow it upon his creature in defiance of the Creator or to give it to the Devil our open enemy in disparagement of him who is the fountain of all excellencies and Coelestial amities 2. Lay fetters and restraints upon the imaginative and phantastick part because our fancie being an imperfect and higher facultie is usually pleased with the entertainment of shadowes and gauds and because the things of the world fill it with such beauties and phantastick imagery the fancy presents such objects as amiable to the affections and elective powers Persons of fancy such as are women and children have alwayes the most violent loves but therefore if we be careful with what representments we fill our fancy we may the sooner rectifie our loves To this purpose it is good that we transplant the instruments of fancy into religion and sor this reason musick was brought into Churches and ornaments and persumes and comely garments and solemnities and decent ceremonies that the busie and lesse discerning fancy being bribed with its proper objects may be instrumental to a more coelestial and spiritual love 3. Remove solicitude or worldly cares and multitudes of secular businesses for if these take up the intention and actual application of our thoughts and our imployments they will also possesse our passions which if they be filled with one object though ignoble cannot attend another though more excellent We alwayes contract a friendship and relation with those with whom we converse our very Countrey is dear to us for our being in it and the Neighbours of the same Village and those that buy and sell with us have seized upon some portions of our love and therefore if we dwell in the affairs of the World we shall also grow in love with them and all our love or all our hatred all our hopes or all our fears which the eternal God would willingly secure to himself and esteem amongst his treasures and precious things shall be spent upon trifles and vanities 4. Do not onely choose the things of God but secure your inclinations and aptnesses for God and for Religion For it will be a hard thing for a Man to do such a personal violence to his first desires as to choose whatsoever he hath no minde to A Man will many times satisfie the importunity and daily solicitations of his first longings and therefore there is nothing can secure our loves to God but stopping the natural Fountains and making Religion to grow neer the first desires of the soul. 5. Converse with God by frequent prayer In particular desire that your desires may be right and love to have your affections regular and holy To which purpose make very frequent addresses to God by ejaculations and communions and an assiduous daily devotion Discover to him all your wants complain to him of all your affronts do as Hezekiah did lay your misfortunes and your ill news before him spread them before the Lord call to him for health run to him for counsel beg of him for pardon and it is as natural to love him to whom we make such addresses and of whom we have such dependancies as it is for children to love their parents 6. Consider the immensity and vastnesse of the Divine love to us expressed in all the emanations of his providence 1. In his Creation 2. In his conservation of us For it is not my Prince or my Patron or my Friend that supports me or relieves my needs but God who made the Corn that my friend sends me who created the Grapes and supported him who hath as many dependances and as many natural necessities and as perfect disabilities as my self God indeed made him the instrument of his providence to me as he hath made his own Land or his own Cattel to him with this onely difference that God by his ministration to me intends to do him a favour and a reward which to natural instruments he does nor 3. In giving his Son 4. In forgiving our sins 5. In adopting us to glory and ten thousand times ten thousand little accidents and instances hapning in the doing every of these and it is not possible but for so great love we should give love again for God we should give Man for felicity we should part with our misery Nay so great is the love of the holy Jesus God incarnate that he would leave all his triumphant glories and dye once more for Man if it were necessary for procuring felicity to him In the use of these instruments love will grow in several knots and steps like the Sugar-canes of India according to a thousand varieties in the person loving and it will be great or lesse in several persons and in the same according to his growth in Christianity but in general discoursing there are but two states of love and those are Labour of love and the zeal of love the first is duty the second is perfection The two states of love to God The least love that is must be obedient pure simple and communicative that is it must exclude all affection to sin and all inordinate affection to the World and must be expressive according to our power in the instances of duty and must be love for loves sake and of this love Martyrdom is the highest instance that is a readinesse of minde rather to suffer any evil then to do any Of this our blessed Saviour affirmed That no man had greater love then this that is this is the highest point of
thou doest receive the blessed elements into thy mouth that thou puttest thy finger to his hand and thy hand into his side and thy lips to his fontinel of blood sucking life from his heart and yet if thou doest communicate unworthily thou eatest and drinkest Christ to thy danger and death and destruction Dispute not concerning the secret of the mystery and the nicety of the manner of Christs presence it is sufficient to thee that Christ shall be present to thy soul as an instrument of grace as a pledge of the resurrection as the earnest of glory and immortality and a means of many intermedial blessings even all such as are necessary for thee and are in order to thy salvation and to make all this good to thee there is nothing necessary on thy part but a holy life and a true belief of all the sayings of Christ amongst which indefinitely assent to the words of institution and believe that Christ in the holy Sacrament gives thee his bodie and his blood He that believes not this is not a Christian He that believes so much needs not to enquire further nor to intangle his faith by disbelieving his sence 11. Fail not this solemnity according to the custom of pious and devout people to make an offering to God for the uses of religion and the poor according to thy ability For when Christ feasts his body let us also feast our fellow members who have right to the same promises and are partakers of the same Sacrament and partners of the same hope and cared for under the same providence and descended from the same common parents and whose Father God is and Christ is their Elder Brother If thou chancest to communicate where this holy custom is not observed publickly supply that want by thy private charity but offer it to God at his holy Table at least by thy private designing it there 12. When you have received pray and give thanks Pray for all estates of men for they also have an interest in the body of Christ whereof they are members and you in conjunction with Christ whom then you have received are more fit to pray for them in that advantage and in the celebration of that holy sacrifice which then is Sacramentally represented to GOD. * Give thanks for the passion of our Dearest Lord remember all its parts and all the instruments of your Redemption and beg of GOD that by a holy perseverance in well doing you may from shadowes passe on to substances from eating his body to seeing his face from the Typicall Sacramentall and Transient to the Reall and Eternall Supper of the Lambe 13. After the solemnity is done let Christ dwell in your hearts by faith and love and obedience and conformity to his life and death as you have taken CHRIST into you so put CHRIST on you and conforme every faculty of your soul and body to his holy image and perfection Remember that now Christ is all one with you and therefore when you are to do an action consider how Christ did or would do the like and do you imitate his example and transcribe his copy and understand all his Commandments and choose all that he propounded and desire his promises and fear his threatnings and marry his loves and hatreds and contract all his friendships for then you do every day communicate especially when Christ thus dwells in you and you in Christ growing up towards a perfect man in Christ Iesus 14. Do not instantly upon your return from Church return also to the world and secular thoughts and imployments but let the remaining parts of that day be like a post-Communion or an after-office entertaining your blessed Lord with all the caresses and sweetnesse of love and colloquies and entercourses of duty and affection acquainting him with all your needs and revealing to him all your secrets and opening all your infirmities and as the aâ—fairs of your person or imployment call you off so retire again with often ejaculations and acts of entertainment to your beloved Guest The effects and benefits of worthy communicating When I said that the sacrifice of the crosse which Christ offered for all the sins and all the needs of the world is represented to God by the Minister in the Sacrament and offered up in prayer and Sacramental memory after the manner that Christ himself intercedes for us in Heaven so far as his glorious Priesthood is imitable by his Ministers on earth I must of necessity also mean that all the benefits of that sacrifice are then conveyed to all that communicate worthily But if we descend to particulars Then and there the Church is nourished in her faith strengthened in her hope enlarged in her bowels with an increasing charity there all the members of Christ are joyn'd with each other and all to Christ their head and we again renew the Covenant with God in Jesus Christ and God seals his part and we promise for ours and Christ unites both and the holy Ghost signes both in the collation of those graces which we then pray for and exercise and receive all at once there our bodies are nourished with the signes and our souls with the mystery our bodies receive into them the seed of an immortal nature and our souls are joyned with him who is the first fruits of the resurrection and never can dye and if we desire any thing else and need it here it is to be prayed for here to be hoped for here to be received Long life and health and recovery from sicknesse and competent support and maintenance and peace and deliverance from our enemies and content and patience and joy and sanctified riches or a cheerful poverty and liberty and whatsoever else is a blessing was purchased for us by Christ in his death and resurrection and in his intercession in Heaven and this Sacrament being that to our particulars which the great mysteries are in themselves and by designe to all the world if we receive worthily we shall receive any of these blessings according as God shall choose for us and he will not onely choose with more wisdom but also with more affection then we can for our selves After all this it is advised by the Guides of souls wise men and pious that all persons should communicate very often even as often as they can without excuses or delayes Every thing that puts us from so holy an imployment when we are moved to it being either a sin or an imperfection an Infirmity or indevotion and an unactivenesse of Spirit All Christian people must come They indeed that are in the state of sin must not come so but yet they must come First they must quit their state of death and then partake of the bread of life They that are at enmity with their neighbours must come that is no excuse for their not coming onely they must not bring their enmity along with them but leave it and then come They that have variety
for him the salvation of a new birth and by the blood of thy Son didst redeem and pay the price to thine own justice for thine own creature lest the work of thine own hands should perish O that men would therefore praise the Lord c. For thou O Lord in every age didst send testimonies from Heaven blessings and Prophets and fruitful seasons and preachers of righteousness and miracles of power and mercy thou spakest by thy Prophets and saidst I will help by one that is mighty and in the fulnesse of time spakest to us by thy Son by whom thou didst make both the Worlds who by the word of his power sustains all things in Heaven and Earth who thought it no robbery to be equal to the Father who being before all time was pleased to be born in time to converse with men to be incarnate of a holy Virgin he emptied himself of all his glories took on him the form of a servant in all things being made like unto us in a soul of passions and discourse in a body of humility and sorrow but in all things innocent and in all things afflicted and suffered death for us that we by him might live and be partakers of his nature and his glories of his body and of his Spirit of the blessings of earth and of immortal felicities in Heaven O that men would therefore praise the Lord c. For thou O holy and immortal God O sweetest Saviour Jesus wert made under the Law to condemn sin in the flesh thou who knewest no sin wert made sin for us thou gavest to us righteous Commandements and madest known to us all thy Fathers will thou didst redeem us from our vain conversation and from the vanity of Idols false principles and foolish confidences and broughtest us to the knowledge of the true and onely God and our Father and hast made us to thy self a peculiar people of thy own purchase a royal Priesthood a holy Nation Thou hast washed our soules in the Laver of Regeneration the Sacrament of Baptisme Thou hast reconciled us by thy death justified us by thy Resurrection sanctified us by thy Spirit sending him upon thy Church in visible formes and giving him in powers and miracles and mighty signes and continuing this incomparable favour in giâ—ts and sanâ—tifying graces and promising that hee shall abide with us for ever thou hast fed us with thine own broken body and given drink to our soules out of thine own heart and hast ascended up on high and hast overcome all the powers of Death and Hell and redeemed us from the miseries of a sad eternity and sittest at the right hand of God making intercession for us with a never-ceasing charity O that men would therefore praise the Lord c. The grave could not hold thee long O holy eternal Jesus thy body could not see corruption neither could thy soul be left in Hell thou wert free among the dead and thou brakest the iron gates of Death and the bars and chains of the lower prisons Thou broughtest comfort to the souls of the Patriarchs who waited for thy coming who long'd for the redemption of Man and the revelation of thy day Abraham Isaac and Iacob saw thy day and rejoyced and when thou didst arise from thy bed of darknesse and leftest the grave-clothes behinde thee and put on a robe of glory over which for 40 dayes thou didst wear a vail and then entred into a cloud and then into glory then the powers of Hell were confounded then Death lost its power and was swallowed up into victory though death is not quite destroyed yet it is made harmlesse and without a sting and the condition of Humane Nature is made an entrance to eternal glory art become the Prince of life the first fruits of the resurrection the first-born from the dead having made the way plain before our faces that we may also rise again in the Resurrection of the last day when thou shalt come again unto us to render to every Man according to his works O that men would therefore praise the Lord c. O give thanks unto the Lord for he is gracious and his mercy endureth for ever O all ye angels of the Lords praise ye the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever O ye spirits and souls of the Righteous praise ye the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever And now O Lord God what shall I render to thy Divine Majesty for all the benefits thou hast done unto thy servant in my personal capacity Thou art my Creator and my Father my Protector and my Guardian thou hast brought me from my Mothers wombe thou hast told all my joynts and in thy book were all my members written Thou hast given me a comely body Christian and careful parents holy education Thou hast been my guide and my teacher all my dayes Thou hast given me ready faculties and unloosed tongue a cheerful spirit strait limbs a good reputation and liberty of person a quiet life and a tender conscience a loving wife or husband and hopeful children thou wert my hope from my youth through thee have I been holden up ever since I was born Thou hast clothed me and fed me given me friends and blessed them given me many dayes of comfort and health free from those sad infirmities with which many of thy Saints and dearest servants are afflicted Thou hast sent thy Angel to snatch me from the violence of fire and water to prevent praecipices fracture of bones to rescue me from thunder and lightning plague and pestilential diseases murder and robbery violence of chance and enemies and all the spirits of darknesse and in the dayes of sorrow thou hast refreshed me in the destitution of provisions thou hast taken care of me and thou hast said unto me I will never leave thee nor forsake thee I will give thanks unto the Lord with my whole heart secretly among the faithful and in the congregation Thou O my dearest Lord and Father hast taken care of my soul hast pitied my miseries sustained my infirmities relieved and instructed my ignorances and though I have broken thy righteous Lawes and Commandements run passionately after vanities and was in love with Death and was dead in sin and was exposed to thousands of temptations and fell foully and continued in it and lov'd to have it so and hated to be reformed yet thou didst call me with the checks of conscience with daily Sermons and precepts of holinesse with fear and shame with benefits and the admonitions of thy most holy Spirit by the counsel of my friends by the example of good persons with holy books and thousands of excellent arts and wouldest not suffer me to perish in my folly but didst force me to attend to thy gracious calling and hast put me into a state of repentance and possibilities of pardon being infinitely desirous I should live and recover and make use of thy grace and partake
prayer of preparation or addresse to the holy Sacrament An act of Love O most gracious and eternal God the helper of the helplesse the comforter of the comfortlesse the hope of the afflicted the bread of the hungry the drink of the thirsty and the Saviour of all them that wait upon thee I blesse and glorifie thy Name and adore thy goodnesse and delight in thy love that thou hast once more giveâ— me the opportunity of receiving the greatest favour which I can receive in this World even the body and blood of my dearest Saviour O take from me all affection to sin or vanity let not mâ— affections dwell below but soar upwards to the element of love to the seat of God to â—he Regions of Glory and the inheritance of â—esus that I may hunger and thirst for the bread of life and the wine of â—lect soules and may know no loves but the love of God and the most merciful Jesus Amen An act of Desire O blessed Jesus thou hast used many arts to save mee thou hast given thy life to redeem me thy holy Spirit to sanctifie me thy self for my example thy Word for my Rule thy grace for my guide the fruit of thy body hanging on the tree of the crosse for the sin of my soul and after all this thou hast sent thy Apostles and Ministers of salvation to call me to importune me to constraine me to holinesse and peace and felicity O now come Lord â—esus come quickly my heart is desirous of thy presence and thirsty of thy grace and would fain entertain thee not as a guest but as an inhabitant as the Lord of all my faculties Enter in and take possession and dwell with me for ever 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 heart full of cares and worldly desires cheated with love of riches and neglect of holy things proud unmortified false and crafty to deceive it self intricated and intangled with difficult cases of conscience with knots which my own wildnesse 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 evil principles and evil habits peevish and disobedient lustful 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 sor me that is infinitely good to me and infinitely good and perfect in himself This O dearest Saviour is a sad truâ—h and I am heartily ashamed and truly sorrowful for it and do deeply hate all my fins and am full of indignation against my self for so unworthy so carelesse so continued so great a folly and humbly beg of thee to increase my sorrow and my care and my hatâ—ed 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 holinesse and righteousnesse all my dayes Lord I am as 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 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 dye The Petition Therefore O blessed Jesu who art my Saviour and my God whose body is my food and thy righteousnesse 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 fulnesse of wisdom for the healing my soul for the blessing and preservation of my body for the taking out the sting of temporal death and for the assurance of a holy resurrection for the ejection of all evil 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 athirst for God yea even for the living God when shall I come before the presence of God O Lord my God great are thy wondrous 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 gladnesse and with my heart will I give thanks to thee O God my God I will wash my hands in innocency O Lord so will I go to thine altar that I may shew the voice of thanksgiving tell of all thy wondrous works Examine me O Lord and prove me try out my reins and my heart For thy loving kindnesse 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 kindnesse 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 dye Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him and hath eternal life abiding in him I wil raise him up at the last day Lord whither shall we go but to thee thou hast the words of eternal life If any man thirst let him come unto me 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