our Souls we therefore thine unworthy Cereatures sinful Dust and Ashes present our Selves before Thee to praise thee for the infinite Perfections of thy Nature and to beg of Thee the necessary Supplies of thy Grace and Holy Spirit that we may give thee the Honour due unto thy Name and Worship thee suitably to thy Nature with an holy and a spiritual Worship Thou art of purer Eyes than to behold the least Iniquity and therefore how shall such polluted Wretches as we are dare to approach thy dreadful Majesty who by our Sins and Follies have made our selves so unlike to thee who art righteous in all thy Ways and holy in all thy Works How then shall we presume to come into thy holy Presence who are defiled in our very Natures having nothing but Vanity and Blindness in our Minds Perversness in our Wills both spiritual and carnal Iniquity in our Affections and Appetites and what is worse have defiled our Selves yet much more by our many actual and habitual Sins against thee so that we are altogether unworthy to approach thy Presence or expect thy Favour and yet have so great need of both that without them we are lost for ever O therefore cast us not away from thy Presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from us but out of Pity to thy defective and diseased Creatures receive us graciously and heal our Souls though we have sinned against Thee Rescue us from the Power and Bondage of our Lusts by the greater Power of thy Grace Renew and purifie our corrupted Natures Create in us a clean Heart O God and renew a right Spirit within us Teach us a perfect Denial of all our Sins and establish us in a stedfast Obedience to all thy Laws To which End enlighten our Minds to form clear and true Notions of Thee and open our Hearts to attend upon all the Means that may help us to discharge our various Obligations to Thee Inspire our Souls with thy heavenly Graces Strengthen our Faith confirm our Hope encrease our Love quicken our Fear establish our Trust inspire us with Patience Constancy and Sincerity Enflame our Devotions and envigorate our Endeavours in a faithful Discharge of our Duty to Thee Give us thy Grace also to assist us in the Peformance of our Duty to our Neighbour that we may ever remember and constantly observe thy great and righteous Law to love him as our selves and to this End grant That we may never defraud Him of his Right but give him his due in all the Relations towards us wherein he stands Dispose us therefore good Lord chearfully to obey Them that have the Rule over us whether in Church or State and bless them in an happy Government of us that under them we may lead qulet and peaceable Lives in all Godliness and Honesty Bless all Sorts of Parents and Masters grant that they may faithfully discharge the various Duties of their Stations and their respective Inferiours may in a grateful Return thereof ever Love Honour and Obey them Grant to all Men we beseech thee the Spirit to think and do all such Things as be rightful ever adhering to that equitable Rule the dâ—ing as they would be dealt by And grant us O thou Fountain of Mercy and Love a universal Charity towards all Men even to our Enemies that we may be ever ready both to forgive and also to provide that they which are in need and necessity have Righte in a suitable Relief of their various Wants and because our Prayers to Thee from whom every good and perfect Gift cometh are oft the best and only Helps we can afford them therefore do thou O Lord abundantly for them more than we can ask or think Suit thy Mercies according to their various Necessities sanctifie their Afflictions to them and when thou seest it best for them give them a happy Deliverance out of all their Troubles And Lastly O Lord we come unto thee for a Blessing upon our Selves who as we are here Living Instances of thine Almighty Power and Goodness so be pleased to make us the happy Instruments of thy Praise and Glory to which Purpose enable us to subject all the Faculties of our Souls and the Powers of our Bodies to thy blessed Will which is the Law and Perfection of our reasonable Nature Direct our Understandings to the Knowledge of those glorious Manifestations which thou hast been pleased to give us of thy self Clear up our Apprehensions both of the Perfections of thy Nature and the Excellency of those Perfections Direct our Wills to the Choice and Imitation of such thy Perfections as are imitable by us Teach us the Wisdom to proportion our Affections of Things according to the Nature and Value of them that having a less Concern for this World we may fear thee more and love thee better Give us a râ—ght Understanding of our Selves of our own Insufficiency and of our entire Dependance upon thee that so we may not think more highly of our selves than we ought to think Teach us a chearful Submission to thine all-wise Dispensations and in whatever State we are therewith to be content Endue us with a calm and gentle Temper of Soul such as may invite thy Blessed Spirit to come and take up his Abode with us that through his Blessed Operations we may bring forth the Fruits of the Spirit in Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness and Temperance Subdue our bodily Appetites to the Laws of our Reason and the End of their Creation ever remembring that our Bodies are the Temples of the Holy Spirit and that he who defileth the Temple of God him thou hast threatned to destroy Out of an holy Fear and Dread of this and all other thy reasonable Threats grant that we may be ever careful to keep under our Bodies and cleanse our Selves from all Filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit that so we may as we are in Duty bound glorifie thee in our Body and in our Spirit which are Thine and we not only beg thy Grace to assist us in but thy heavenly Wisdom to shew us the reasonableness and necessity of our Performance of these Duties that we may make haste and delay not to keep thy Commandments AND as we desire this Morning to enter into For the Morning the World upon our lawful Occasions with this holy Frame and Disposition of Soul so grant that we may never lose it either through Surprize or wilful Neglect but guide us safely by thy Grace through all the Dangers and Temptations of this and all other Days of our Life that escaping the Corruption that is in the World through Lust we may live and die thy faithful and obedient Servants AND now O Lord that we are going to repose For the Evening our selves keep us from all Dangers and Adversities that may happen to our Bodies and from all evil Thoughts and Dreams which may assault and hurt our Souls that we may rise in the Morning with a fresh sense upon our Minds of thy Mercies to us and a full Conviction of the absolute necessity of expressing our Thankfulness not only with our Lips but in the constant Obedience of our Lives spending that Strength which thou hast given us to thy Honour and Service to whom we owe our utmost Praises for all thy free and undeserved Mercies Therefore We not only pray unto thee but desire to bless thee for all thy Benefits from time to time conferred upon us for thy Creation of us out of Nothing for thy Preservation of us ever since we had a Being for all the Accommodations of this Life and the plentiful Provision thou hast made for our Happiness in the other for all that thy Son our dear Redeemer has done and suffer'd for us for his wonderful Incarnation and Birth for his exemplary Life his meritorious Death and Passion for his glorious Resurrection and Ascension and for his sending the Holy Ghost to comfort us for all thy Saints and Servants departed this Life in thy true Faith and Fear beseeching thee to give us Grace so to follow their good Examples that with them we may be Partakers of thy heavenly Kingdom These Prayers and Praises with whatever else thou in thine infinite Wisdom seest most necessary and expedient for us we humbly offer up in the Name and for the Sake of thy Son our blessed Saviour and Redeemer who has commanded us when we pray to say Our Father which art in c. This Prayer may be used by one Person only changing the Words We Vs and Our into I Me and My and saying instead of Creatures Creature c. FINIS
Experience both confirming this as an undeniable Truth that the Hand of the Diligent maketh Prov. 10. 4. rich So that when all is done 't is most certainly the best Husbandry to be Religious Thirdly I would further urge you to the Practice of the forementioned Duties from the great Assistances that are given us to render them not only easie but pleasant to us For God has recommended them to our faithful Observance with all the most powerful Means and Arguments to engage our Practice of them he has shewed thee O Man what is Good and what does the Lord require of thee but to do Micah 6. 8. Justly and to love Mercy and to walk humbly with thy God He has not only proposed these Duties to us in the Gospel with the Promises and Terrors of the Life that now is and of that 1. Tim. 4. 8. 1 which is to come with the Examples of the best of Men especially with that more pregnant one of our Blessed Saviour together with all those prevalent 1 Pet. 2. 21. Motives arising from what he did and suffered for us with those mighty Arguments that may be drawn from his Life Death Resurrection Ascention and his Return to judge both the Quick and the Dead with Pleasure and Peace from the Nature of the Duties themselves Ps 119. 165 and with all the Endearments of Love and Kindness from him that enjoins them he not only urgeth us I say to our Duty upon these many and weighty Considerations and that with all the Importunity possible to gain our Practice but has also promised the Assistance of his Almighty-Spirit to make all things 1 Cor. 2. 12. easie and pleasant to us So that if we do but set our selves in good earnest to the Practice of the forementioned Duties if we do but heartily beg the Divine Grace which we are assured shall be sufficient for us and then apply 2 Cor. 12. 9. our own Endeavours in a faithful and diligent use of it 't is impossible that we should fail of Success for I can do all things says the Phil. 4. 13. Apostle through Christ that strengthens me And this Omnipotent Assistance we may have upon the easie terms of putting up a Petition for it for God has engaged to give the holy Spirit to them that ask him And what more easie condition Luke 11. 13 can we desire than this that If we seek we shall find if we ask we shall receive receive too that which Mat. 7. 7. though we cannot of our selves will yet impower us through our joint Endeavours to do our Duty with Pleasure and Delight and so render us both happy here and hereafter too for This In the 4th and last Place is or ought to be a further Inducement to our Practice of all the Duties of Religion because God has made our Duty the indispensable Condition of our future Mat. 7. 21. Rom. 8. 13. Happiness and as I shewed you in the â—eginning of this Discourse the necessary Preâ—aration Heb. 12. 14 1 Tim. 4. 8. for it So that 't is just as necessary â—or us to be Religious or to do our Duty as â—t is to go to Heaven or to keep out of the â—lames of Hell And this ought to be a Conâ—deration of great Weight with us because â—hatever our Condition be in the other World Whether a happy or a miserable one it must Luke 16. 26 2 Pet. 1. 10. â—e so for ever so that we had need give all Digence to make our calling and Election sure Thus having I hope by these Considerations â—onvinced you of the Necessity of doing the â—orementioned Duties my next Work is to tell â—ou that what is thus necessary to be done at â—ne time or other had best be done now out Eccles 9. 10. â—f hand And indeed unless we set our selves â—â— the immediate Practice of these Duties is plain that we are not heartily convinced â—f the Necessity of doing them at all Because â—ur continuance in our Sins do too manifestly â—rove our Good-liking to them and if we â—â—ll approve and cherish them we are not â— good Earnest reconciled to the Practice of â—â—e contrary Duties because we can neither â—pprove of two different things nor act two â—ifferent ways at the same time So that if â—â—ve be the Servants of Sin as our Intentions â—o continue in it for a while plainly shew â—e cannot be the Servants of Christ Either thereâ—ore we must quit our Sins and our favourable â—â—oughts of them immediately upon the Spot â—r else foregoe our Intentions to fall to the â—ractice of Religion some Years hence â—or he that is a true Convert is suppoâ—â—d to be perfectly convinced of the Mischiefs â—f his Sin and the reasonableness of his Duty â—â—d therefore immediately strikes in with his â—â—st Conviction which by being full and clear â—revents him making those little Shifts and friâ—olous Excuses which others take sanctuary in â—â— excuse their Delay of this necessary Work Though with what little or rather against what great reason may be made appear from the following Considerations First 'T is extreamly necessary that Men immediately betake themselves to their Duty because it is as appears from what hath been already said of very great Concern and Consequence to them and what is so we are apt in other Cases to bestow our first and chiefest Care upon Thus we see in wordly Affairs how every prudent Man is more especially careful to drive on what he calls the main Chance is at little ease till this be secured or at least is in a fair way of being so Now would but the Children of Light be as wise in their Generation Mat. 5. 33. as the Children of this World are they would be as sollicitous about the Concerns of their Souls as these Men are of their Bodies They would no more delay securing the Life of the one than these men do of the other when it lyes at Stake which if any Man should be so fool-hardy as to nelect and by that Neglect lose his Life which his care would have saved he would be deservedly thought to die like a Fool. And certainly much more would that Christian deserve the Imputation of Folly who when his eternal Interest is in Danger shall yet suffer it to continue so and not exert his utmost Endeavours for the Security of it and consequently embrace the first Occasion to secure it in especially considering in the Second Place that the Nature of Religion is such as requires a great deal at our hands before it gives us any Right or Title to that great and necessary Reward without which we are undone for ever our sensual Appeties must be subdued the Deeds of the Body mortified Rom. 8. 13. Eph. 2. 22 23 24. Col. 3. 2. our Desires resigned our Affections weaned from this World and raised to the things above in short our Minds must be transformed â—â—om
if he had it might not have been proposed to him with sufficient Motives of Credibility and if this as I could shew you we have reason to think was his Case it was more his Unhappiness than his Crime that He converted and believed no sooner Yet when He was converted and did believe He lived up strictly to the Terms of the Gospel that little while he had to live For he here on the Cross confesseth his Sin begs Pardon for it accepts the Luke 23. 40 41 42. Punishment of his Iniquity commiserates that unhappy Condition that was but just now his own He pityeth the Innocent confesseth with his Mouth the Lord Jesus believeth in his Heart And these were the only Things he had then at liberty and therefore he could do nothing more to shew himself a Faithful Disciple of the Crucified Jesus He owns him King even when there was the least Appearance of his being such and fixeth his Hope as firmly in Him as if all Power in Heaven and Earth had been already given to him He shews an extraordinary Charity both in Opinion and Action in Opinion in judging our Saviour to have done nothing amiss 41. His Charity in Action in endeavouring to reclaim his Fellow by reproving him for his Sin 40 41. which he does as St. Chrysostom observes before he asks any Thing for himself Now what is it that Sinners do like this in all their Life to give them Hope in their Death Can they who from their Baptism have lived the rest of their Time to the Lusts of Men and not to the Will of God pretend to an immediate Acceptance of the Terms of the Gospel Can He who lives in open Contradiction to the Divine Commands intending only to conform to Them when he has no further Strength to break Them can such a one say that he strictly adheres to the Covenant of Grace Or can He who by his long continued Habits of sinning has weakned all the Powers of his Soul and strengthned nothing but his Lusts can He I say in reason suppose that he has not made himself twofold more a Child of Hell than a Saint of Heaven Can he be said to be strong in Faith who notwithstanding our Saviour's Resurrection the Consent of the best and wisest Men the wonderful Conquest made by the Gospel over the Hearts and Lives of many shewing It to be the Power of God unto Salvation Rom. 1. 16. who I say notwithstanding all this clear Evidence of Belief can yet shew themselves the only obdurate Wretches and disown their Saviour now that He is in his Kingdom And what reasonable Grounds of Hope can such Men have who are so far from being pure from their Sins that they daily strengthen Themselves in their 1 Joh. 3. 3. Wickedness And as to their Charity Is it possible that they should have any true Love for their Brother who have little or none for themselves How can they commiserate anothers unhappy Condition when they do not so much as pity their own Or How can they pretend to any Love for God whom they intend to affront John 14 15. 15. 14. all their Life-time and at their Death to seek him more out of Dread and Fear of him than an ardent Affection towards him How shall they delight in the Presence of him hereafter whom they could not endure to think of here or supposing They could hereafter relish any Pleasure in the sweet Society of Him who now is least in all their Thoughts yet what Foundation have they laid for such a Conversation in Heaven Alas their Graces are all to seek and yet without these it is impossible that they should ever be meet to be Partakers of the Inheritance Heb. 12. 14. of the Saints in Light But further The Circumstances and Manner of this Penitent's Death were such as never any Sinners were before Him nor ever can be again unless our Blessed Lord should once more become obedient unto Death even the Death of the Cross and one of those who desires to make this Penitent's Case his own had never heard of the Name of Christ till he chance to suffer with him and then by instantly believing in him should once again procure an extraordinary share of Mercy from our merciful High Priest who was pleased to give the first Proof of his being such to this Blessed Penitent when he said to Him To day thou shalt be with me in Paradise Now such another lucky juncture as this can never occur again because Christ was not to offer himself often Heb. 9. 25. but supposing it could yet this surpassing the standing Measures and Methods of God's Grace cannot be fairly drawn into Example no more than Acts of Mercy and Oblivion from a Prince upon extraordinary Occasions can encourage his rebellious Subjects always to expect the like Favour The only Ground whereon they can found any reasonable Hopes of Pardon is their immediate return to their Duty and Obedience and this must be every Man 's great Care and constant Lev. 26. 41 42. Luke 15. 12 c. Job 8. 5 6. 1 Joh. 3. 3. Prov. 10. 9. Prov. 14. 32. Psal 23. 4. Prov. 12. 2. Rom. 2. 7. Endeavour in respect to God in order to procure Pardon and Acceptance of him His early Application to all the Duties of Religion and his final Perseverance in Them is the only hope of Mercy This is certainly most acceptable to God most safe to himself and will afford him the greatest Comfort when he shall stand in the greatest need of it I mean at a dying Hour For a well-spent Life infallibly secures to us as ye have seen the Favour of God here which is better than Life and his Glory and Happiness hereafter which is the Life and Perfection of our Souls A short Prayer to be said upon our first Kneeling down at Church PArdon O Lord all my Sins which make me unworthy to come into thy Presence or to tread thy Courts Quicken my Devotions to Thee Open my Heart to attend unto Things that shall be spoken and grant that we may all come together for the better and not for the worse for Jesus Christ his sake Amen A short Prayer to be said at Church immediately after Prayers or Sermon BE pleased O Lord to accept this my Duty and Service and to pardon the Imperfections of it Grant it may so tend to my Spiritual Improvement as may enable me to serve Thee better for the future that going from Strength to Strength I may at length appear before thee in Zion even in thy heavenly Kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen A Prayer for the Divine Grace to assist us in the performance of the various Duties mentioned in the foregoing Treatise MOST glorious Lord God the great Creator of Heaven and Earth and our most merciful Father in Christ Jesus Thou art the Fountain of all Perfections and the very Life and Happiness of all