Death Hear my Prayer O Lord and let my crying come unto thee * Hide not thy face from me in the time of my trouble incline thine ear unto me when I call O hear me and that right soon * For my dayes are consumed like smoaâ— my bones are burnt up as it were a firebrand * My heart is smitten down withered like grass so that I forget to eat my bread that because of thine indignation and wrath for thou hast taken me up cast me down * Thine arrows stick fast in me and thy hand presseth me sore There is no health in my flesh because of thy displeasure neither is there any rest in my bones by reason of my sin * My wickednesâ—es are gone over my head and are a sore burden too heavy for me to bear * But I will confesse my wickednesse and be sorry for my sin * O Lord rebuke me not in thy indignation neither chasten me in thy displeasure * Lord be merciful unto me heal my soul for I have sinned against thee Have mercy upon me O God after thy great goodnesse according to the multitude of thy mercies do away mine offences * O remember not the sins and offences of my youth but according to thy mercy think thou upon me O Lord for thy goodnesse * Wash me thoroughly from my wickednesse and cleanse me from my sin * Make me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me * Cast me not away from thy presence from thy all-hallowing and life-giving presence and take not thy holy Spirit thy sanctifying thy guiding thy comforting thy supporting and confirming Spirit from me O God thou art my God for ever and ever thou shalt be my guide unto death * Lord comfort me now that I lye sick upon my bed make thou my bed in all my sicknesse * O deliver my soul from the place of Hell and do thou receive me * My heart is disquieted within me and the fear of death is falen upon me * Behold thou hast made my dayes as it were a span long mine age is even as nothing in respect of thee and verily every man living is altogether vanity * When thou with rebukes doest chasten man for sin thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth fretting a garment every man therefore is but vanity And now Lord what is my hope truly my hope is even in thee * Hear my prayer O Lord and with thine ears consider my calling hold not thy peace at my tears * Take this plague away from me I am consumed by the means of thy heavy hand * I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner as all my Fathers were * O spare me a little that I may recover my strength before I go hence and be no more seen * My soul cleaveth unto the dust O quicken me according to thy word * And when the snares of death compasse me round about let not the pains of hell take hold upon me An Act of Faith concerning resurrection and the day of judgment to be said by sick persons or meditated I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my self mine eyes shal behold though my reins be consumed within me Iob 19. God shall come and shall not keep silence there shall go before him a consuming fire and a mighty tempest shall be stirred up round about him he shall call the heaven from above and the earth that he may judge his people * O blessed Jesu thou art my judge and thou art my Advocate have mercy upon me in the hour of my death and in the day of judgment See Iohn 5.28 1 Thessal 4.15 Short Prayers to be said by sick persons O Holy Jesus thou art a merciful High Priest and touched with the sense of our infirmities thou knowest the sharpnesse of my sicknesse and the weaknesse of my person The clouds are gathered about me and thou hast covered me with thy storm My understanding hath not such apprehension of things as formerly Lord let thy mercy support me thy spirit guide me and lead me through the valley of this death safely that I may passe it patiently holily with perfect resignation and let me rejoyce in the Lord in the hopes of pardon in the expectation of glory in the sence of thy mercies in the refreshments of thy spirit in a victory over all temptations Thou hast promised to be with us in tribulation Lord my soul is troubled and my body is weak and my hope is in thee and my enemies are busy and mighty now make good thy holy promise Now O holy Jesus now let thy hand of grace be upon me restrain my ghostly enemies and give me all sorts of spiritual assistances Lord remember thy servant in the day when thou bindest up thy Jewels O take from me all tediousnesse of Spirit all impatience and unquietnesse let me possesse my soul in patience and resigne my soul and body into thy hands as into the hands of a faithful Creator and a blessed Redeemer O holy Jesu thou didst dye for us by thy sad pungent intolerable pains which thou enduredst for me have pity on me ease my pain or increase my patience Lay on me no more then thou shalt enable me to bear I have deserv'd it all more and infinitely more Lord I am weak and ignorant timerous and inconstant and I feâ—r lest something should happen that may discompose the state of my soul that may displease thee Do what thou wilt with me so thou doest but preserve me in thy fear and favour Thou knowest that it is my great â—ear but let thy Spirit secure that nothing may be able to separate me from the love of God in Jesus Christ then smite me here that thou mayest spare me for ever and yet O Lord smite me friendly for thou knowest my infirmities Into thy hands I commend my spirit for thou hast redeemed me O Lord thou God of truth * Come holy Spirit help me in this conflict Come Lord Jesus come quickly Let the sick person often meditate upon these following promises and gracious words of God My help cometh of the Lord who preserveth them that are true of heart Psal. 7.11 And all they that know thy Name will put their trust in thee for thou Lord hast never failed them that seek thee Psal. 9.10 O how plentiful is thy goodnesse which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee and that thou hast prepared for them that put their trust in thee even before the sons of men Psal. 31. Behold the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him upon them that put their trust in his mercy to deliver their souls from death Ps. 33. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a contrite heart
what seemeth good in his own eyes Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven Recite Psalm 107. and 130. A form of a vow to be made in this or the like danger If the Lord will be gracious and hear the prayer of his servant and bring me safe to shore then I will praise him secretly and publickly and pay unto the uses of charity or Religion then name the sum you designe for holy uses O my God my goods are nothing unto thee I will also be thy servant all the dayes of my life and remember this mercy and my present purposes and live more to Gods glory and with a stricter duty And do thou please to accept this vow as an instance of my importunity and the greatnesse of my needs and be thou graciously moved to pity and deliver me Amen This form also may be used in praying for a blessing on an enterprize and may be instanced in actions of devotion as well as of charity A prayer before a journey O Almighty God who fillest all things with thy presence and art a God afar off as well as neer at hand thou didst send thy Angel to blesse Iacob in his journey and didst leade the children of Israel through the Red Sea making it a wall on the right hand and on the left be pleased to let thy Angel go out before me and guide me in my journey preseving me from dangers of robbers from violence of enemies and sudden and sad accidents from falls and errours and prosper my journey to thy glory and to all my innocent purposes and preserve me from all sin that I may return in peace and holinesse with thy favour and thy blessing and may serve thee in thankfulnesse and obedience all the dayes of my pilgrimage and at last bring me to thy countrey to the coelestial Jerusalem there to dwell in thy house and to sing praises to thee for ever Amen Ad Sect. 4 A prayer to be said before hearing or reading the word of God O Holy and Eternal Jesus who hast begotten us by thy word renewed us by thy Spirit fed us by thy Sacraments and by the dayly ministery of thy word still go on to build us up to life eternal Let thy most holy Spirit be present with me and rest upon me in the reading or hearing thy sacred word that I may do it humbly reverently without prejudice with a minde ready and desirous to learn and to obey â—hat I may â—e readily furnished and instructed to every good work and may practise all thy holy laws and commandments to the glory of thy holy name O holy and eternal Jesus Amen Ad Sect. 5 9 10. A form of confession of sins and repentance to be used upon fasting dayes or dayes of humiliation especially in Lent and before the Holy Sacrament Have mercy upon me O God after thy great goodnesse according to the multitude of thy mercies do away mine offences For I will conâ—esse my wickednesse and be sorry for my sin * O my Dearest Lord I am not worthy to be accounted amongst the meanest of thy servants not worthy to be sustained by the least fragments of thy mercy but to be shut out of thy presence for ever with dogs unbelievers But for thy names sake O Lord be merciful unto my sin for it is great I am the vilest of sinners and the worst of men proud and vain glorious impatient of scorn or of just reproof â—ot enduring to be slighted and yet extreamly deserving it I have been cosened by the colours of humility and when I have truly called my self vitious I could not endure any man else should say so or think so I have been disobedient to my Superiours churlish and ungentle in my behaviour unchristian and unmanly But for thy names sake c. O Just and Dear God how can I expect pitty or pardon who am so angry and peevish with and without cause envious at good rejoycing in the evil of my neighbours negligent of my charge idle and uselesse timerous and base jealous and impudent ambitious and hard hearted soft unmortified and effeminate in my life indevout in my prayers without fancie or affection without attendance to them or perseverance in them but passionate and curious in pleasing my appetite of meat and drink and pleasures making matter both for sin and sicknesse and I have reâ—ped the cursed fruits of such improvidence entertaining undecent and impure thoughts and I have brought them forth in undecent and impure actions and the spirit of uncleanness hath entred in and unhallowed the temple which thou didst consecrate for the habitation of thy Spirit of love and holinesse But for thy names sake O Lord be merciful unto my sin for it is great Thou hast given me a whole life to serve thee in and to advance my hopes of heaven and this pretious time I have thrown away upon my sins and vanities being improvident of my time and of my talent and of thy grace and my own advantages resisting thy Spirit and quenching him I have been a great lover of my self and yet used many wayes to destroy my self I have pursued my temporal ends with greedinesse and indirect means I am revengful and unthankful forgetting benefits but not so soon forgetting injuries curious and murmuring a great breaker of promises I have not loved my neighbours good nor advanced it in all things where I could I have bin unlike thee in all things I am unmerciful and unjust a sottish admirer of things below and careless of heaven and the wayes that lead thither But for thy names sake O Lord be merciful unâ—â— my sin for it is great All my senses have been windows to let sin in and death by sin Mine eyes have been adulterous and covetous mine ears open to slander and detraction my tongue and palate loose and wanton intemperate and of foul language talkative lying rash and malicious false and flattering irreligious and irreverent detracting and censorious My hands have bin injurious and unclean my passions violent and rebellious my desires impatient and unreasonable all my members and all my faculties have been servants of sin and my very besâ— actions have more matter of pity then of confidence being imperfect in my best and intolerable in most But for thy names sake O Lord c. Unto this and a far bigger heap of sin I have added also the faults of others to my own score by neglecting to hinder them to sin in all that I could and ought but I also have encouraged them in sin have taken off their fears and hardened their consciences and tempted them directly and prevailed in it to my own râ—ine and theirs unlesse thy glorious and unspeakable mercy hath prevented so intolerable a calamity Lord I have abused thy mercy despised thy judgements turned thy grace into wantonnesse I have been unthankful for thy infinite loving kindnesse I have sinned and repented and then sinned again and resolved
discompose my duty or turn me from the wayes of thy Commandements O let thy Spirit dwell with me for ever and make my soul just and charitable full of honesty full of religion resolute and constant in holy purposes but inflexible to evil Make me humble and obedient peaceable and pious let me never envy any mans good nor deserve to be despised my self and if I be teach me to bear it with meeknesse and charity V. GIve me a tender conscience a conversation discreet and aâ—fable modest and patient liberal and obliging body a chaste and healthful competency of living according to my condition contentednesse in all estates a resigned will and mortified affections that I may be as thou wouldst have me and my portion may be in the lot of the righteous in the brightnesse of thy countenance and the glories of eternity Amen Holy is our God * Holy is the Almighty * Holy is the Immortal Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabbath have mercy upon me A form of Prayer for the evening to be said by such who have not time or opportunity to say the publick prayers appointed for this office I. O Eternal God Great Father of Men and Angels who hast established the Heavens and the Earth in a wonderful order making day and night to succeed each other I make my humble addresse to thy Divine Majesty begging of thee mercy protection this night ever O Lord pardon all my sins my light and rash words the vanity and impiety of my thoughts my unjust and uncharitable actions and whatsoever I have transgressed against thee this day or at any time before Behold O God my soul is troubled in the remembrance of my sins in the frailty and sinfulnesse of my flesh exposed to every temptation and of it self not able to resist any Lord God of mercy I earnestly beg of thee to give me a great portion of thy grace such as may be sufficient and effectual for the mortification of all my sins and vanities and disorders that as I have formerly served my lust and unworthy desires so now I may give my self up wholly to thy service and the studies of a holy life II. BLessed Lord teach me frequently and sadly to remember my sins and be thou pleased to remember them no more let me never forget thy mercies and do thou still remember to do me good Teach me to walk alwayes as in thy presence Ennoble my soul with great degrees of love to thee and configne my spirit with great fear religion and veneration of thy holy Name and laws that it may become the great imployment of my whole life to serve thee to advance thy glory to root out all the accursed habits of sin that in holinesse of life in humility in charity in chastity and all the ornaments of grace I may by patience wait for the coming of our Lord Jesus Amen III. Teach me O Lord to number my dayes that I may apply my heart unto wisdom ever to remember my last end that I may not dare to sin against thee Let thy holy Angels be ever present with me to keep me in all my wayes from the malice and violence of the spirits of darknesse from evil company and the occasions and opportunities of evil from perishing in popular judgements from all the wayes of sinful shame from the hands of all mine enemies from a sinful life and from despair in the day of my death Then O brightest Jesu shine gloriously upon me let thy mercies and the light of thy Countenance sustain me in all my agonies weaknesses and temptations Give me opportunity of a prudent and spiritual Guide and of receiving the holy Sacrament let thy loving spirit so guide me in the wayes of peace and safety that with the testimony of a good conscience and the sense of thy mercies and refreshment I may depart this life in the unity of the Church in the love of God and a certain hope of salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord and most blessed Saviour Amen Our Father c. Another form of Evening Prayer which may also be used at bed-time Our Father c. I Will lift up my eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help My help cometh of the Lord which made heaven and earth He will not suffer thy foot to be moved he that keepeth thee will not slumber Behold he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep The Lord is thy keeper the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand The sun shall not smite thee by day neither the moon by night The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil he shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth for evermore Glory be to the Father c. I. VIsit I beseech thee O Lord this habitation with thy mercy and me with thy grace and salvation Let thy holy Angels pitch their tents round about and dwell here that no illusion of the night may abuse me the spirits of darknesse may not come neer to hurt me no evil or sad accident oppresse me and let the eternal spirit of the Father dwell in my soul and body filling every corner of my heart with light and grace Let no deed of darknesse overtake me and thy blessing most blessed God be upon me for ever through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen II. INto thy hands most blessed Jesu I commend my soul and body for thou hast redeemed both with thy most precious blood So blesse and sanctifie my sleep unto me that it may be temperate holy and safe a refreshment to my wearied body to enable it so to serve my soul that both may serve thee with a never failing duty O let me never sleep in sin or death eternal but give me a watchful a prudent spirit that I may omit no oportunity of serving thee that whether I sleep or wake live or die I may be thy servant and thy childe that when the work of my life is done I may rest in the bosom of my Lord till by the voice of the Archangel the trump of God I shall be awakened and called to sit down and feast in the eternal supper of the Lamb. Grant this O Lamb of God for the honour of thy mercies and the glory of thy name O most merciful Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Amen III. BLessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus who hath sent his Angels and kept me this day from the destruction that walketh at noon and the arrow that flyeth by day and hath given me his Spirit to restrain me from those evils to which my own weaknesses and my evil habits and my unquiet enemies would easily betray me Blessed and for ever hallowed be thy name for that never ceasing showre os blessing by which I live and am content and blessed and provided for in all necessities and set forward in my duty and way to heaven * Blessing honour
that Gods mercies will be powred forth upon lazy persons that do nothing towards holy and strict walking nothing I say but trust and long for an event besides and against all disposition of the means Every false principle in Religion is a Reed of Egypt false and dangerous * Relye not in temporal things upon uncertain prophecies and Astrology not upon our own wit or industry not upon gold or friends not upon Armies and Princes expect not health from Physicians that cannot cure their own breath much lesse their mortality use all lawful instruments but expect nothing from them above their natural or ordinary efficacy and in the use of them from God expect a blessing A hope that is easie and credulous is an arm of flesh an ill supporter without a bone 3. Let your hope be without vanity or garishnesse of spirit but sober grave and silent fixed in the heart not born upon the lip apt to support our spirits within but not to provoke envy abroad 4. Let your hope be of things possible safe and useful He that hopes for an opportunity of acting his revenge or lust or rapine watches to do himself a mischief All evils of our selves or Brethren are objects of our fear not hope and when it is truly understood things uselesse and unsafe can no more be wish'd for then things impossible can be obtain'd 5. Let your hope be patient without tediousnesse of spirit or hastinesse of prefixing time Make no limits or prescriptions to God but let your prayers and endeavours go on still with a constant attendance on the periods of Gods providence The Men of Bethulia resolved to wait upon God but five dayes longer But deliverance stayed seven dayes and yet came at last and take not every accident for an argument of despair but go on still in hoping and begin again to work if any ill accident have interrupted you Means of Hope and remedies against Despair The means to cure Despair and to continue or increase Hope are partly by consideration partly by exercise 1. Apply your minde to the cure of all the proper causes of Despair and they are weaknesse of spirit or violence of passion He that greedily covets is impatient of delay and desperate in contrary accidents and he that is little of heart is also little of hope and apt to sorrow and suspition 2. Despise the things of the World and be indifferent to all changes and events of providence and for the things of God the promises are certain to be performed in kinde where there is lesse variety of chance there is lesse possibility of being mocked but he that creates to himself thousands of little hopes uncertain in the promise fallible in the event and depending upon ten thousand circumstances as are all the things of this World shall often fail in his expectations and be used to arguments of distrust in such hopes 3. So long as your hopes are regular and reasonable though in temporal affairs such as are deliverance from enemies escaping a storm or shipwrack recovery from a sicknesse ability to pay your debts c. remember that there are some things ordinary and some things extraordinary to prevent despair In ordinary Remember that the very hoping in God is an endearment of him and a means to obtain the blessing I will delivâ—r him because he hath put his trust in me 2. There are in God all those glorious Attributes and excellencies which in the nature of things can possibly create or confirm Hope God is 1. Strong 2. Wise. 3. True 4. Loving There cannot be added another capacity to create a confidence for upon these premises we cannot fail of receiving what is fit for us 3. God hath oblig'd himself by promise that we shall have the good of every thing we desire for even losses and denials shall work for the good of them that fear God And if we will trust the truth of God for performance of the general we may well trust his wisdome to choose for us the particular * But the extraordinaries of God are apt to supply the defect of all natural and humane possibilities 1. God hath in many instances given extraordinary vertue to the active causes and instruments to a jaw-bone to kill a multitude to 300 Men to destroy a great Army to Ionathan and his Armour-bearer to rout a whole Garrison 2. He hath given excellent sufferance and vigorousnesse to the sufferers arming them with strange courage heroical fortitude invincible resolution and glorious patience and thus he layes no more upon us then we are able to bear for when he increases our sufferings he lessens them by increasing our patience 3. His providence is extraregular and produces strange things beyond common rules and he that lead Israel through a Sea and made a Rock powre forth waters and the Heavens to give them bread and flesh and whole Armies to be destroyed with phantastick noises and the fortune of all France to be recovered and intirely revolv'd by the arms and conduct of a Girle against the torrent of the English fortune and Chivalry can do what he please and still retains the same affections to his people and the same providence over mankinde as ever and it is impossible for that Man to despair who remembers that his Helper is Omnipotent and can do what he please let us rest there awhile he can if he please And he is infinitely loving willing enough and he is infinitely wise choosing better for us then we can do for our selves This in all ages and chances hath supported the afflicted people of God and carried them on dry ground through a red Sea God invites and cherishes the hopes of Men by all the variety of his providence 4. If your case be brought to the last extremity and that you are at the pits brink even the very Margent of the Grave yet then despair not at least put it off a little longer and remember that whatsoever final accident takes away all hope from you if you stay a little longer and in the mean while bear it sweetly it will also take away all despair too For when you enter into the Regions of death you rest from all your labours and your fears 5. Let them who are tempted to despair of their salvation consider how much Christ suffered to redeem us from sin and its eternal punishment and he that considers this must needs believe that the desires which God had to save us were not lesse then infinite and therefore not easily to be satisfied without it 6. Let no Man despair of Gods mercies to forgive him unlesse he be sure that his sinnes are greater then Gods mercies If they be not we have much reason to hope that the stronger ingredient will prevail so long as we are in the time and state of repentance and within the possibilities and latitude of the Covenant and as long as any promise can but reflect upon him with an oblique
Guide in all my actions my protector in all dangers give me a healthful body and a clear understanding a sanctified and just a charitable and humble a religious and a contented spirit let not my life be miserable and wretched nor my name stained with sin and shame nor my condition lifted up to a tempting and dangerous fortune but let my condition be blessed my conversation useful to my Neighbours and pleasing to thee that when my body shall lie down in its bed of darknesse my soul may passe into the Regions of light and live with thee for ever through Jesus Christ. Amen VI. An act of intercession or prayer for others to be added to this or any other office as our devotion or duty or their needs shall determine us O God of infinite mercy who hast compassion on all men and relievest the necessities of all that call to thee for helpe hear the prayers of thy servant who is unworthy to ask any petition for himself yet in humility and duty is bound to pray for others * O let thy mercie descend upon the whole Church preserve her in truth and peace in unity and safety in all stormes and against all temptations and enemies that she offering to thy glory the never ceasing sacrifice of prayer and thanksgiving may advance â—he honour of her Lord and be filled with his Spirit and partake of his glory Amen Remember them that minister about holy things let them be clothed with righteousnesse and sing with joyfulnesse Amen Blesse thy servant my Wife or Husband with health of body and of spirit O let the hand of thy blessing be upon his or her head night and day and support him in all necessities strengthen him in all temptations comfort him in all his sorrows and let him be thy servant in all changes and make us both to dwell with thee for ever in thy favour in the light of thy countenance and in thy glories Amen Blesse my children with healthful bodies with good understandings with the graces and gifts of thy Spirit with sweet dispositions and holy habits and sanctifie them throughout in their bodies and souls and spirits and keep them unblameable to the coming of the Lord Jesus Amen Be pleased O Lord to remember my friends all that have pray'd for me and all that have done me good here name such whom you would specially recommend Do thou good to them return all their kindnesse double into their own bosome rewarding them with blessings and sanctifying them with thy graces and bringing them to glory Let all my family and kinred my neighbours and acquaintance here name what other relation you please receive the benefit of my prayers and the blessings of God the comforts and supports of thy providence and the sanctification of thy Spirit Relieve and comfort all the persecuted and afflicted speak peace to troubled consciences strengthen the weak confirm the strong instruct the ignorant deliver the oppressed from him that spoileth him and relieve the needy that hath no helper and bring us all by the waters of comfort and in the wayes of righteousnesse to the kingdom of rest and glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen To God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ To the eternal Son that was incarnate and born of a Virgin To the Spirit of the Father and the Son be all honour and glory worship and thanksgiving now and for ever Amen Another form of prayer for the Morning In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Our Father c. I. MOst glorious and eternal God Father of mercy and God of all comfort I worship and adore thee with the lowest humility of my soul and body and give thee all thanks and praise for thy infinite and essential glories and perfections and for the continual demonstration of thy mercies upon me upon all mine and upon thy holy Catholick Church II. I acknowledge dear God that I have deserved the greatest of thy wrath and indignation and that if thou hadst dealt with me according to my deserving I had now at this instant been desperately bewailing my miseries in the sorrows and horrours of a sad eternity But thy mercy triumphing over thy justice and my sins thou hast still continued to me life and time of repentance thou hast opened to me the gates of grace and mercy and perpetually callest upon me to enter in and to walk in the paths of a holy life that I might glorifie thee and be glorified of thee eternally III. BEhold O God for this thy great and unspeakable goodnesse for the preservation of me this night and for all other thy graces and blessings I offer up my soul and body all that I am and all that I have as a Sacrifice to thee and thy service humbly begging of thee to pardon all my sins to defend me from all evil to lead me into all geod and let my portion be amongst thy redeemed ones in the gathering together of the Saints in the Kingdom of grace and glory IV. GUide me O Lord in all the changes and varieties of the world that in all things that shall happen I may have an evennesse and tranquillity of spirit that my soul may be wholly resign'd to thy Divinest will and pleasure never murmuring at thy gentle chastisements and fatherly correction never waxing proud and insolent though I feel a torrent of comforts and prosperous successes V. FIx my thoughts my hopes and my desires upon Heaven and heavenly things teach me to despise the world to repent me deeply for my sins give me holy purposes of amendment and ghostly strength assistances to perform faithfully whatsoever I shall intend piously Enrich my understanding with an eternal treasure of Divine truths that I may know thy will and thou who workest in us to will and to do of thy good pleasure teach me to obey all thy Commandments to believe all thy Revelations and make me partaker of all thy gracious promises VI. TEach me to watch over all my wayes that I may never be surpriz'd by sudden temptations or a carelesse spirit nor ever return to folly and vanity Set a watch O Lord before my mouth and keep the door of my lips that I offend in my tongue neither against piety nor charity Teach mee to think of nothing but thee and what is in order to thy glory and service to speak nothing but thee and thy glories and to do nothing but what becomes thy servant whom thy infinite mercy by the graces of thy holy Spirit hath sealed up to the day of Redemption VII LEt all my passions and affections be so mortified and brought under the dominion of grace that I may never by deliberation and purpose nor yet by levity rashnesse or inconsideration offend thy Divine Majesty Make me such as thou wouldest have me to bee strengthen my faith confirm my hope and give me a daily increase
of charity that this day and ever I may serve thee according to all my opportunities and capacities growing from grace to grace till at last by thy mercies I shall receive the consummation and perfection of grace even the glories of thy Kingdom in the full fruition of the face and excellencies of God the Father the Son and the holy Ghost to whom be glory and praise honour and adoration given by all Angels and all Men and all Creatures now and to all eternity Amen To this may be added the prayer of intercession for others whom we are bound to remember which is at the end of the foregoing prayer or else you may take such special prayers which follow at the end of the fourth Chapter for parents for children c. After which conclude with this ejaculation Now and in all tribulation and anguish of spirit in all dangers of soul and body in prosperity and adversity in the hour of death and in the day of judgement holy and most blessed Saviour Jesus have mercy upon me save me and deliver me and all faithful people Amen Between this and Noâ—n usually are said the publick prayers appointed by Authority to which all the Clergy are obliged and other devout persons that have leisure do accompany them Afternoon or at any time of the day when a devout person retires into his closer for private prayer or spiritual exercises he may say the following devotions An exercise to be used at any time of the day In the name of the Father and of the Son c. Our Father c. The hymn collected out of the Psalms recounting the excellencies and greatnesse of God O be joyful in God all ye lands sing praises unto the honour of his Name make his Name to be glorious * O Come hither behold the works of God how wonderful he is in his doings toward the children of men He ruleth with his power for ever He is the Father of the fatherlesse and defendeth the cause of the widow even God in his holy habitation He is the God that maketh men to be of one minde in a house and bringeth the prisoners out of captivity but letteth the runnagates continue in scarcenesse It is the Lord that commandeth the warers it is the glorious God that maketh the thunder * It is the Lord that ruleth the sea the voice of the Lord is mighty in operation the voice of the Lord is a glorious voice Let all the Earth fear the Lord stand in awe of him all ye that dwell in the world Thou shalt shew us wonderful things in thy righteousnesse O God of our salvation thou that art the hope of all the ends of the Earth and of them that remaine in the broad Sea Glory be to the Father c. Or this O Lord thou art my God I will exalt thee I will praise thy Name for thou hast done wonderful things thy counsels of old are faithfulnesse and truth Isay 25.1 Thou in thy strength â—etst fast the Mountains and art girded about with power Thou stillest the raging of the Sea and the noise of his waves and the madnesse of his people They also that remain in the uttermost parts of the Earth shall be afraid at thy tokens thou that makest the out-goings of the morning and evening to praise thee O Lord God of Hosts who is like unto thee thy truth most mighty Lord is on every side Among the gods there is none like unto thee O Lord there is none that can do as thou doest * For thou art great doest wondrous things thou art God alone God is very greatly to be feared in the counsel of the Saints and to be had in reverence of all them that are round about him Righteousnesse and equity is in the habitation of thy seat mercy and truth shall go before thy face * Glory and worship are before him power and honour are in his Sanctuary Thou Lord art the thing that I long for thou art my hope even from my youth through thee have I been holden up ever since I was born thou art he that took me out of my mothers womb my praise shall be alwayes of thee Glory be to the Father c. After this may be read some portion of holy Scripture out of the New Testament or out of the sapiential bookes of the Old viz. Proverbs Ecclesiastes c. because these are of great use to piety and to civil conversation Vpon which when you have a while meditated humbly composing your self upon your knees say as followeth Ejaculations My help standeth in the Name of the Lord who hath made Heaven and Earth Shew the light of thy countenance upon thy servant and I shall be safe Do well O Lord to them that be true of heart and evermore mightily defend them Direct me in thy truth and teach me for thou art my Saviour and my great Master Keep me from sin and death eternal and from my enemies visible and invisible Give me grace to live a holy life and thy favour that I may dye a godly and happy death Lord hear the prayer of thy servant and give me thy holy Spirit The prayer O Eternal God mercifull and gracious vouchsafe thy favour and thy blessing to thy servant let the love of thy mercies and the dread and fear of thy Majesty make me careful and inquisitive to search thy will and diligent to perform it and to persevere in the practises of a holy life even till the last of my dayes II. KEep me O Lord for I am thine by creation guide me for I am thine by purchase thou hast redeemed me by the blood of thy Son and love me with the love of a Father for I am thy childe by adoption and grace let thy mercy pardon my sins thy providence secure me from the punishments and evils I have deserved and thy care watch over me that I may never any more offend thee make me in malice to be a childe but in understanding piety and the fear of God let me be a perfect man in Christ innocent and prudent readily furnished and instructed to every good work III. KEep me O Lord from the destroying Angel and from the wrath of God let thy anger never rise against mee but thy rod gently correct my follies and guide me in thy ways and thy staffe support me in all sufferings and changes Preserve me from fracture of bones from noisome infections and sharp sicknesses from great violences of Fortune and sudden surprizes keep all my senses intire till the day of my death and let my death be neither sudden untimely nor unprovided let it be after the common manner of men having in it nothing extraordinary but an extraordinary piety and the manifestation of thy great and miraculous mercy IV. LEt no riches ever make me forget my self no poverty ever make me to forget thee Let no hope or fear no pleasure or pain no accident without no weaknesse within hinder or
glory and power be unto him that sitteth on the throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever Amen Holy is our God * Holy is the Almighty Holy is the Immortal Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabaoth have mercy upon me Ejaculations and short meditations to be used in the Night when we wake Stand in awe and sin not commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still I will lay me down in peace and sleep for thou Lord onely makest me dwell in safety O Father of Spirits and the God of all flesh have mercy and pity upon all sick and dying Christians and receive the souls which thou hast redeemed returning unto thee Blessed are they that dwell in the heavenly Jerusalem where there is no need of the Sun neither of the Moon to shine in it for the glorie of God does lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof And there shal be no night there they need no candle for the Lord God giveth them light and they shall reign for ever and ever Revel 21.23 Meditate on Iacobs wrastling with the Angel all night be thou also importunate with God for a blessing and give not over till he hath blessed thee Meditate on the Angel passing over the children of Israel and destroying the Egyptians for disobedience and oppression Pray for the grace of obedience and charity and for the divine protection Meditate on the Angel who destroyed in a night the whole army of the Assyrians for fornication Call to minde the sins of thy youth the sins of thy bed and say with David My reins chasten me in the night season and my soul refuseth comfort Pray for pardon and the grace of chastity Meditate on the agonies of Christ in the garden his sadnesse and affliction all that night and thank and adore him for his love that made him suffer so much for thee and hate thy sins which made it necessary for the Son of God to suffer so much Meditate on the four last things 1. The certainty of death 2. The terrours of the day of judgement 3. The joyes of Heaven 4. The pains of Hell and the eternity of both Think upon all thy friends which are gone before thee and pray that God would grant to thee to meet them in a joyful resurrection The day of the Lord will come as a thiefe in the night in the which the heavens shall passe away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godlinesse looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God 2 Pet. 3.10.11 Lord in mercy remember thy servant in the day of Judgement Thou shalt answer for me O Lord my God In thee O Lord have I trusted let me never be confounded Amen I desire the Christian Reader to observe that all these offices or forms of prayer if they should be used every day would not spend above an hour and a halfe but because soâ—e of them are double and so but one of them to be used in one day it is much lesse and by affording to God one hour in 24. thou mayest have the comforts and rewards of devotion But he that thinks this is too much either is very busie in the world or very carelesse of heaven However I have parted the prayers into smaller portions that he may use which and how many he please in any one of the forms Ad Sect. 2. A prayer for holy Intention in the beginning and pursuit of any considerable action as Study Preaching c. O Eternal God who hast made all things for man and man for thy glory sanctifie my body and soul my thoughts and my intentions my words and actions that whatsoever I shall think or speak or do may he by me designed to the glorification of thy Name and by thy blessing it may be effective and successeful in the work of God according as it can be capable Lord turn my necessities into vertue the works of nature into the works of grace by making them orderly regular temperate subordinate and profitable to ends beyond their own proper efficacy And let no pride or self-seeking no covetousnesse or revenge no impure mixture or unhandsome purposes no little ends and low imaginations pollute my Spirit and unhallow any of my words and actions but let my body be a servant of my spirit and both body and spirit servants of Jesus that doing all things for thy glory here I may be partaker of thy glory hereafter thorough Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Ad Sect. 3. A prayer meditating and referring to the divine presence This prayer is especially to be used in temptation to private sins O Almighty God infinite and eternal thou fillest all things with thy presence thou art every where by thy essence and by thy power in heaven by Glory in holy places by thy grace and favour in the hearts of thy servants by thy Spirit in the consciences of all men by thy testimony and observation of us Teach me to walk alwayes as in thy presence to fear thy Majesty to reverence thy wisdom and omniscience that I may never dare to commit any undecency in the eye of my Lord and my Judge but that I may with so much care and reverence demean my self that my Judge may not be my accuser but my Advocate that I expressing the belief of thy presence here by careful walking may feel the effects of it in the participation of eternal glory thorough Jesus Christ. Amen CHAP. II. Of Christian Sobriety Sect. I. Of sobriety in the general sense CHristian Religion in all its moral parts is nothing else but the Law of Nature and great Reason complying with the great necessities of all the world and promoting the great profit of all relations and carrying us through all accidents of variety of chances to that end which God hath from eternal ages purposed for all that live according to it and which he hath revealed in Jesus Christ and according to the Apostles Aâ—ithmetik hath but these three parts of it 1. Sobriety 2. Justice 3. Religion For the grace of God bringing salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodlinesse and worldly lusts we should live 1. Soberly 2. Righteously and 3. Godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the greaâ— God and our Saviour Iesus Christ. The first contains all our deportment in our personal and private capacities the fâ—ir treating of our bodies and our spirits The second eâ—larges our duty in all relations to our Neighbour The third contains the offices of direct Religion and entercourse with God Christian sobriety is all that duty that concerns our selves in the matter of meat and drink and pleasures and thoughts and it hath within it
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
it made the Sun to go from West to East and the Moon to stand still and rocks and mountains to walk and it cures diâ—eases without physick and makes physick to do the work of nature and nature to do the work of grace and grace to do the work of God and it does miracles of accident and event and yet prayer that does all this is of it self nothing but an ascent of the minde to God a desiring things fit to be desired and an expression of this desire to God as we can and as becomes us And our unwillingnesse to pray is nothing else but a not desiring what we ought passionately to long for or if we do desire it it is a choosing rather to misse our satisfaction and felicity then to ask for it There is no more to be said in this affair but that we reduce it to practise according to the following Rules Rules for the practise of Prayer 1. We must be careful that we never ask any thing of God that is sinful or that directly ministers to sin for that is to ask of God to dishonour himself and to undoe us we had need consider what we pray for before it returns in blessing it must be joyn'd with Christs intercession and presented to God Let us principally ask of God power and assistances to do our duty to glorifie God to do good works to live a good life to dye in the fear and favour of God and eternal life these things God delights to give and commands that we shall ask and we may with confidence expect to be answered graciously for these things are promised without any reservation of a secret condition if we ask them and do our duty towards the obtaining them we are sure never to misse them 2. We may lawfully pray to God for the gifts of the Spirit that minister to holy ends such as are the gift of preaching the spirit of prayer good expression a ready and unloosed tongue good understanding learning opportunities to publish them c. with these onely restraints 1. That we cannot be so confident of the event of those prayers as of the former 2. That we must be curious to secure our intention in these desires that we may not ask them to serve our own ends but only for Gods glory and then we shall have them or a blessing for desiring them In order to such purposes our intentions in the first desires cannot be amisse because they are able to sanctifie other things and therefore cannot be unhallowed themselves 3. We must submit to Gods will desiring him to choose our imployment and to furnish out our persons as he shall see expedient 3. Whatsoever we may lawfully desire of temporall things wee may lawfully ask of God in prayer and we may expect them as they are promised 1. Whatsoever is necessary to our life and being is promised to us and therefore we may with certainty expect food and raiment food to keep us alive clothing to keepe us from nakednesse and shame so long as our life is permitted to us so long all things necessary to our life shall be ministred we may be secure of maintenance but not secure of our life for that is promised not this onely concerning food and raiment we are not to make accounts by the measure of our desires but by the measure of our needs 2. Whatsoever is convenient for us pleasant and modestly delectable we may pray for so we do it 1. with submission to Gods will 2. Without impatient desires 3. That it be not a trifle and inconsiderable but a matter so grave and concerning as to be a fit matter to be treated on between God and our souls 4. That we ask it not to spend upon our lusts but for ends of justice or charity or religion and that they be imployed with sobriety 4. He that would pray with effect must live with care and piety For although God gives to sinners and evil persons the common blessings of life and chance yet either they want the comfort and blessing of those blessings or they become occasions of sadder accidents to them or serve to upbraid them in their ingratitude or irreligion and in all cases they are not the effects of prayer or the fruits of promise or instances of a fathers love for they cannot be expected with confidence or received without danger or used without a curse and mischief in their company * But as all sin is an impediment to prayer so some have a special indisposition towards acceptation such are uncharitablenesse and wrath Hypocrisie in the present action Pride and Lust because these by defiling the body or the spirit or by contradicting some necessary ingredient in prayer such as are Mercy Humility Purity and Sincerity do defile the prayer and make it a direct sin in the circumstances or formality of the action 5. All prayer must be made with Faith and Hope that is we must certainly believe wee shall receive the grace which GOD hath commanded us to ask and wee must hope for such things which hee hath permitted us to ask and our Hâ—pe shall not bee vain though wee misse what is not absolutely promised because we shall at least have an equal blessing in the denial as in the grant And therefore the former conditions must first be secured that is that we ask things necessary or at least good and innocent and profitable and that our persons be gracious in the eyes of God or else what God hath promised to our natural needs he may in many degrees deny to our personal incapacity but the thing being secur'd and the person dispos'd there can be no fault at all for whatsoever else remains is on Gods part and that cannot possibly fail But because the things which are not commanded cannot possibly be secur'd for we are not sure they are good in all circumstances we can but hope for such things even after we have secur'd our good intentions Wee are sure of a blessing but in what instance we are not yet assured 6. Our prayers must be fervent intense earnest and importunate when we pray for things of high concernment and necessity Continuing instant in prayer striving in prayer labouring fervently in prayer night and day praying exceedingly praying alwayes with all prayer so S. Paul calls it watching unto prayer so Saint Peter praying earnestly so S. Iames and this is not at all to be abated in matters spiritual and of duty for according as our desires are so are our prayers and as our prayers are so shall be the grace and as that is so shall be the measure of glory But this admits of degrees according to the perfection or imperfection of our state of life but it hath no other measures but ought to be as great as it can the bigger the better we must make no positive restraints upon it our selves In other things we are to use a bridle and as we must limit
but when we have an object present to our eye then we must pity for there the providence of God hath fitted our charity with circumstances He that is in thy sight or in thy Neighbourhood is fallen into the lot of thy charity 16. If thou hast no money yet thou must have mercy and art bound to pity the poor and pray for them and throw thy holy desires and devotions into the treasure of the Church and if thou doest what thou art able be it little or great corporal or spiritual the charity of almes or the charity of prayers a cup of wine or a cup of water if it be but love to the brethren or a desire to help all or any of Christs poor it shall be accepted according to what a man hath not according to what he hath not For Love is all this and all the other Commandments and it will expresse it self where it can and where it cannot yet it is love still and it is also sorrow that it cannot Motives to Charity The motives to this duty are such as holy Scripture hath propounded to us by way of consideration and proposition of its excellencies and consequent reward 1. There is no one duty which our blessed Saviour did recommend to his Disciples with so repeated an injunction as this of Charity and Almes To which adde the words spoken by our Lord It is better to give then to receive and when we consider how great a blessing it is that we beg not from door to door it is a ready instance of our thankfulnes to God for his sake to relieve them that do 2. This duty is that alone wherby the future day of judgment shall be transacted For nothing but charity almes is that whereby Christ shall declare the justice and mercy of the eternal sentence Martyrdom it self is not there expressed and no otherwise involved but as it is the greatest charity 3. Christ made himself the greatest and daily example of almes or charity He went up down doing good preaching the Gospel healing all diseases and God the Father is imitable by us in nothing but in purity and mercy 4. Almes given to the poor redound to the emolument of the Giver both temporal and eternal 5. They are instrumental to the remission of sins Our forgivenesse and mercy to others being made the very rule and proportion of our confidence and hope and our prayer to be forgiven our selves 6. It is a treasure in Heaven it procures friends when we dye It is reckoned as done to Christ whatsoever we do to our poor brother and therefore when a poor man begs for Christ his sake if he have reason to ask for Ch i st his sake give it him if thou canst Now every man hath title to ask for Ch ists sake whose need is great and himself unable to cure it and if the man be a Christian. Whatsoever charity Christ will reward all that is given for Christs sake and therefore it may be asked in his name but every man that uses that sacred name for an endearment hath not a title to it neither he nor his need 7. It is one of the wings of prayer by which it flyes to the throne of grace 8. It crowns all the works of piety 9. It causes thanksgiving to God on our behalf 10. And the bowels of the poor blesse us and they pray for us 11. And that portion of our estate out of which a tenth or a fifth or a twentieth or some offering to God for religion and the poor goes forth certainly returns with a greater blessing upon all the rest It is like the effusion of oyl by the Sidonian woman as long as she poures into empty vessels it could never cease running or like the Widows barrel of meal it consumes not as long as she fed the Prophet 12. The summe of all is contained in the words of our blessed Saviour Give almes of such things as you have â—nd behold all things are clean unto you 13. To which may be added that charity or mercy is the peculiar character of Gods Elect and a signe of predestination which advantage we are taught by S. Paul Put on therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercy kindnesse c. forbearing one another and forgiving oâ—e another if any man have a quarrel against any The result of all which we may reade in the words of S. Chrysostome To know the art of almes is greater then to be crowned with the Diadem of kings And yet to convert one soul is greater then to poure out ten thousand talents into the baskets of the poor But because giving Almes is an act of the vertue of mercifulnesse our endeavour must be by proper arts to mortifie the parents of unmercifulnesse which are 1. Envy 2. Anger 3. Covetousnesse in which we may be helped by the following rules or instruments Remedies against unmercifulnesse and uncharitablenesse 1. Against Envy by way of consideration Against Envy I shall use the same argument I would use to perswade a man from the Fever or the dropsie 1. Because it is a disease it is so far from having pleasure in it or a temptation to it that it is full of pain a great instrument of vexation it eats the flesh and dries up the marrow and makes hollow eyes and lean cheeks and a pale face 2. It is nothing but a direct resolution never to enter into Heaven by the way of noble pleasure taken in the good of others 3. It is most contrary to God 4. And a just contrary state to the felicities and actions of Heaven where every star encreases the light of the other and the multitude of guests at the supper of the Lamb makes the eternal meal more festival 5. It is perfectly the state of Hell and the passion of Devils for they do nothing but despair in themselves and envy others quiet or safety and yet cannot rejoyce either in their good or in their evil although they endeavour to hinder that and procure this with all the devices and arts of malice and of a great understanding 6. Envy can serve no end in the world it cannot please any thing nor do any thing nor hinder any thing but the content and felicity of him that hath it 7. Envy can never pretend to justice as hatred and uncharitableness sometimes may for there may be causes of hatred and I may have wrong done me and then hatred hath some pretence though no just argument But no man is unjust or injurious for being prosperous or wise 8. And therefore many men prosesse to hate another but no man owns envy as being an enmity and displeasure for no cause but goodnesse or felicity Envious men being like Cantharides and Caterpillars that delight most to devour ripe and most excellent fruits 9. It is of all crimes the basest for malice and anger are appeased with benefits but
may very much be helped if we take in the assistance of a spiritual Guide therefore the Church of God in all ages hath commended and in most ages enjoyn'd that we confesse our sins and discover the state and condition of our souls to such a person whom we or our superiours judge fit to help us in such needs For so if we confesse our sins one to another as S. Iames advises wee shall obtaine the prayers of the holy Man whom God and the Church hath appointed solemnly to pray for us and when he knowes our needs he can best minister comfort or reproof oyl or Causticks he can more opportunely recommend your particular state to GOD he can determine your cases of conscience and judge better for you then you do for your self and the shame of opening such Ulcers may restrain your forwardnesse to contract them and all these circumstances of advantage will do very much towards the forgivenesse And this course was taken by the new Converts in the dayes of the Apostles For many that believed came and confessed and shewed their deeds And it were well if this duty were practised prudently and innocently in order to publick Discipline or private comfort and instruction but that it be done to God is a duty not directly for it self but for its adjuncts and the duties that go with it or before it or after it which duties because they are all to be helped and guided by our Pastors and Curates of souls he is careful of his eternal interest that will not lose the advantage of using a private guide and judge He that hideth his sins shall not prosper Non dirigetur saith the Vulgar Latin he shall want a guide but who confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy And to this purpose Climaâ—us reports that divers holy persons in that age did use to carry Table-books with them and in them describ'd an account of all their determinate thoughts purposes words and actions in which they had suffered infirmity that by communicating the estate of their souls they might be instructed and guided and corrected or incouraged 6. True repentance must reduce to act all its holy purposes and enter into and run through the state of holy living which is contrary to that state of darknesse in which in times past we walked For to resolve to do it and yet not to do it is to break our resolution and our faith to mock God to falsifie and evacuate all the preceding acts of repentance and to make our pardon hopelesse and our hope fruitlesse He that resolves to live well when a danger is upon him or a violent fear or when the appetites of Lust are newly satisfied or newly served and yet when the temptation comes again sins again and then is sorrowful and resolves once more against it and yet fals when the temptation returns is a vain Man but no true penitent nor in the state of grace and if he chance to dye in one of these good moods is very far from salvation for if it be necessary that we resolve to live well it is necessary we should do so For resolution is an imperfect act a term of relation and signifies nothing but in order to the action it is as a faculty is to the act as Spring is to the Harvest as Egges are to Birds as a Relative to its Correspondent nothing without it No Man therefore can be in the state of grace and actual favour by resolutions and holy purposes these are but the gate and portal towards pardon a holy life is the onely perfection of Repentance and the firme ground upon which we can cast the anchor of hope in the mercies of God through Jesus Christ. 7. No Man is to reckon his pardon immediately upon his returnes from sin to the beginnings of good life but is to begin his hopes and degrees of confidence according as sin dyes in him and grace lives as the habits of sin lessen and righteousnesse growes according as sin returnes but seldom in smaller instances and without choice and by surprize without deliberation and is highly disrelished and presently dash'd against the Rock Christ Jesus by a holy sorrow and renewed care and more strict watchfulnesse For a holy life being the condition of the Covenant on our part as we return to God so God returns to us and our state returns to the probabilities of pardon 8. Every Man is to work out his salvation with fear and trembling and after the commission of sinnes his feares must multiply because every new sin and every great declining from the wayes of God is still a degree of new danger and hath increased Gods anger and hath made him more uneasie to grant pardon and when he does grant it it is upon harder terms both for doing and suffering that is we must do more for pardon and it may be suffer much more For we must know that God pardons our sins by parts as our duty increases and our care is more prudent and active so Gods anger decreases and yet it may be the last sin you committed made God unalterably resolv'd to send upon you some sad judgement Of the particulars in all cases wee are uncertain and therefore wee have reason alwayes to mourn for our sinnes that have so provoked GOD and made our condition so full of danger that it may be no prayers or tears or duty can alter his sentence concerning some sad judgement upon us Thus GOD irrevocably decreed to punish the Israelites for Idolatry although Moses prayed for them and God forgave them in some degree that is so that he would not cut them ofâ— from being a people yet he would not forgive them so but he would visit that their sin upon them and he did so 9. A true penitent must all the dayes of his life pray for pardon and never think the work completed till he dyes not by any act of his own by no act of the Church by no forgivenesse by the party injured by no restitution these are all instruments of great use and efficacy and the means by which it is to be done at length but still the sin lyes at the door ready to return upon us in judgement and damnation if we return to it in choice or action and whether God hath forgiven us or no we know not and how far we know not and all that we have done is not of sufficient worth to obtain pardon therefore still pray and still be sorrowful for ever having done it and for ever watch against it and then those beginnings of pardon which are working all the way will at last be perfected in the day of the Lord. 10. Defer not at all to repent much lesse mayest thou put it off to thy death-bed It is not an easie thing to root out the habits of sin which a Mans whole life hath gathered and confirmed We finde work enough to mortifie one beloved
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
and will save such as are of an humble spirit Psal. 34.17 Thou Lord shalt save both man and beast how excellent is thy mercy O God and the children of men shall put their trust under the shadow of thy wings Psal. 36.7 They shall be satisfied with the plenteousness of thy house and thou shalt give them to drink of thy pleasures as out of the rivers v. 8. For with thee is the well of life and in thy light we shall see light v. 9. Commit thy way unto the Lord and put thy trust in him he shall bring it to passe Ps. 37.5 But the salvation of the righteous cometh of the Lord who is also their strength in the time of trouble v. 40. So that a Man shall say verily there is a reward for the righteous doubtlesse there is a God that judgeth the earth Psal. 58.10 Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and receivest unto thee he shall dwell in thy court and shall be satisfied with the pleasures of thy house even of thy holy temple Psal. 65.4 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy Psal. 126.6 It is written I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13.5 The prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up and if he have committed sins they shal be forgiven Iam. 5.15 Come and let us return unto the Lord for he hath torn and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will binde us up Hos. 6.1 If we sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins 1 Iohn 2.2 If we confesse our sins he is faithful righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse 1 Iohn 1.9 He that forgives shall be forgiven Luke 6.37 And this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us 1 Iohn 5 14. And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins 1 Iohn 3.5 If ye being evil know to give good things to your children how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to them that ask him Matth. 7.11 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the World to save sinners * He that hath given us his Son how should not he with him give us all things else Acts of hope to be used by sick persons after a pious life I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Rom. 8.38 I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me onely but unto all them also that love his appearing 2 Tim. 4.7 Blessed be the God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies and the God of all comforts who comforts us in all our tribulation 2 Cor. 1.3 A prayer to be said in behalf of a sick or dying person O Lord God there is no number of thy dayes nor of thy mercies and the sins and sorrowes of thy servant also are multiplied Lord look upon him with much mercy and pity forgive him all his sinnes comfort his sorrowes ease his pain satisfie his doubts relieve his feares instruct his ignorances strengthen his understanding take from him all disorders of spirit weaknesse and abuse of fancy Restraine the malice and power of the spirits of darknesse and suffer him to be injured neither by his ghostly enemies nor his own infirmities and let a holy and a just peace the peace of God be within his conscience Lord preserve his senses till the last of his time strengthen his faith confirm his hope and give him a never ceasing charity to thee our God and to all the world stir up in him a great and proportionable contrition for all the evils he hath done and give him a just measure of patience for all he suffers give him prudence memory and consideration rightly to state the accounts of his soul and do thou remind him of all his duty that when it shall please thee that his soul goes out from the prison of his body it may be receiv'd by Angels and preserved from the surprize of evil spirits and from the horrors and amazements of new and stranger Regions and be laid up in the bosom of our Lord till at the day of thy second coming it shall be reunited to the body which is now to be laid down in weaknes and dishonour but we humbly beg may then be raised up with glory power for ever to live and to behold the face of God in the glories of the Lord Jesus who is our hope our resurrection and our life the light of our eyes and the joy of our soules our blessed and ever glorious Redeemer Amen Hither the sick person may draw in and use the acts of several vertues respersed in the several parts of this book the several Letanies viz. of repentance of the passion and the single prayâ—rs according to his present needs A prayer to be said in a storm at Sea O my God thou didst create the earth and the Sea for thy glory and the use of Man and doest daily shew wonders in the deep look upon the danger and fear of thy servant my sins have taken hold upon me and without the supporting arm of thy mercy I cannot look up but my trust is in thee Do thou O Lord rebuke the Sea and make it calm for to thee the windes and the sea obey let not the waters swallow me up but let thy Spirit the Spirit of gentlenesse and mercy move upon the waters Be thou reconcil'd unto thy servants and then the face of the waters will be smooth I fear that my sinnes make me like Ionas the cause of the tempest Cast out all my sins and throw not thy servants away from thy presence and from the land of the living into the depths where all things are forgotten But if it be thy wil that we shall go down into the waters Lord receive my soul into thy holy hands and preserve it in mercy and safety till the day of restitution of all things and be pleased to unite my death to the death of thy Son and to accept of it so united as a punishment for all my sinnes that thou mayest forget all thine anger and blot my sinnes out of thy book and write my soul there for Jesus Christ his sake our dearest Lord and most mighty Redeemer Amen Then make an act of resignation thus To God pertain the issues of life and death It is the Lord let him do
against it and presently broke it and then I tyed my self up with vows then was tempted and then I yielded by little little till I was willingly lost again and my vows fell ofâ— like cords of vanity Miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin And yet O Lord I have another heap of sins to be unloaded My secrets sins O Lord are innumerable sins I noted not sins that I willingly neglected sins that I acted upon willfull ignorance and voluntary mispersuasion sins that I have forgot and sins which a diligent and a watchful spirit might have prevented but I would not Lord I am confounded with the multitude of them and the horrour of their remembrance though I consider them nakedly in their direct appearances without the deformity of their unhandsome and aggravating circumstances but so dressed they are a sight too ugly an instance of amazement infinite in degrees and insufferable in their load And yet thou hast spared me all this while and hast not thrown me into Hell where I have deserved to have been long since and even now to have been shut up to an eternity of torments with insupportable amazement fearing the revelation of thy day Miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin Thou shalt answer for me O Lord my God Thou that Prayest for me shalt be my Iudge The Prayer Thou hast prepared for me a more healthful sorrow O deny not thy servant when he begs sorrow of thee Give me a deep contrition for my sins a hearty detestation and loathing of them hating them worse then death with torments Give me grace intirely presently and for ever to forsake them to walk with care and prudence with fear and watchfulnesse all my dayes to doe all my duty with diligence and charity with zeal and a never fainting spirit to redeem the time to trust upon thy mercies to make use of all the instruments of grace to work out my salvation with fear and trembling that thou mayest have the glory of pardoning all my sins and I may reap the fruit of all thy mercies and al thy graces of thy patience and long-suffering even to live a holy life here and to reign with thee for ever through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Ad Sect. 6. Special devâ—tions to be used upon the Lords-day and the great Festivalls Of Christians In the Morning recite the following forme of Thanksgiving upon the special Festivalls adding the commemoration of the special blessing according to the following prayers adding such prayers as you shall choose out of the foregâ—ing Devotions 2. Besides the ordinary and publick duties of the day if you retire into your closet to read and meditate after you have performed that duty say the song of S. Ambrose commonly called the Te Deum or We praise thee c then add the prayers for particular graces which are at the end of the former Chapters such and as many of them as shall fit your present needs and affections ending with the Lords prayer This form of devotion may for variety be indifferently used at other times A forme of thanksgiving with a recital of publick and private blessings To be used upon Easter-day Whit-sunday Ascension-day and all Sundayes of the year but the middle part of it may be reserved for the more solemn Festivals and the other used upon the ordinary as every mans affections or leisure shall determine I. Ex Liturgiâ S. Basilii magnâ ex parte O Eternal Essence Lord God Father Almighty Maker of all things in Heaven and Earth it is a good thing to give thanks to thee O Lord and to pay to thee all reverence worship and devotion from a clean and prepared heart and with an humble spirit to present a living and reasonable sacrifice to thy holinesse and Majesty for thou hast given unto us the knowledge of thy truth and who is able to declare thy greatnesse and to recount all thy marvellous works which thou hast done in all the generations of the world O Great Lord and Governour of all things Lord and Creator of all things visible and invisible who sittest upon the throne of thy glory and beholdest the secrets of the lowest abysse and darknesse thou art without beginning uncircumscribed incomprehensible unalterable and seated for ever unmoveable in thy own essential happinesse and tranquillity Thou art the Father of our Lord JESU SCHRIST who is Our Dearest and most Gracious Saviour our hope the wisdom of the Father the image of thy goodnesse the Word eternal and the brightnesse of thy person the power of God from eternal ages the true light that lightneth every Man that cometh into the World the Redemption of Man and the Sanctification of our Spirits By whom the holy Ghost descended upon the Church the holy Spirit of truth the seal of adoption the earnest of the inheritance of the Saints the first fruits of everlasting felicity the life-giving power the fountain of sanctification the comfort of the Church the ease of the afflicted the support of the weak the wealth of the poor the teacher of the doubtful scrupulous and ignorant the anchor of the fearful the infinite reward of all faithful souls by whom all reasonable and understanding creatures serve thee and send up a never-ceasing and a never-rejected sacrifice of prayer and praises and adoration All Angels and Archangels all Thrones and Dominions all Principalities and Powers the Cherubins with many eyes and the Seraphinâ— covered with wings from the terror and amazement of thy brightest glory These and all the powers of Heaven do perpetually sing praises and never-ceasing Hymns and eternal Anthems to the glory of the eternal God the Almighty Father of Men and Angels Holy is our God Holy is the Almighty Holy is the Immortal Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabaoth Heaven and Earth are full of the Majesty of thy glory Amen * With these holy and blessed Spirits I also thy servant O thou great lover of souls though I be unworthy to offer praise to such a Majesty yet out of my bounden duty humbly offer up my heart and voice to joyn in this blessed quire and confesse the glories of the Lord. * For thou art holy and of thy greatnesse there is no end and in thy justice and goodnesse thou hast measured out to us all thy works Thou madest man out of the earth and didst form him after thine own image thou didst place him in a garden of pleasure and gavest him laws of righteousnesse to be to him a seed of immortality O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse and declare the wonders that he hath done for the children of men For when man sinned and listned to the whispers of a tempting spirit and refused to hear the voice of God thou didst throw him out from Paradise and sentest him to till the Earth but yet left nor his condition without remedy but didst provide
love then I have to give but Lord do thou turn me all into love and all my love into obedience and let my obedience â—e without interruption and then I hope thou wilt accept such a return as I can make make me to be something that thou delightest in thou shalt have all that I am or have from thee even whatsoever thou makest fit for thy self Teach me to live wholly for my Saviour Jesus and to be ready to dye for Jesus and to be conformable to his life and sufferings and to be united to him by inseparable unions and to own no passions but what may be servants to Jesus and Disciples of his institution O sweetest Saviour clothe my soul with thy holy robe hide my sins in thy wounds and bury them in thy grave and let me rise in the life of grace and abide and grow in it till I arrive at the Kingdom of Glory Amen Our Father c. Ad. Sect. 7 8 10. A â—orm of prayer or intercession for all estates of people in the Christian Church The parts of which may be added to any other formes and the whole office intirely as it lyes is proper to be said in our preparation to the holy Sacrament or oâ— the day of celebration 1. For our selves O thou gracious Father of mercy Father of our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon thy servants who bow our heads and our knees and our hearts to thee pardon and forgive us all our sins give us the grace of holy repentance and a strict obedience to thy holy word strengthen us in the inner man with the power of the holy Ghost for all the parts and duties of our calling holy living preserve us for ever in the unity of the holy Catholick Church in the integrity of the Chrâ—stian faith and in the love of God and of our neighbours and in hope of life Eternal Amen 2. For the whole Catholick Church O holy Jesus King of the Saints and Prince of the Catholick Church preserve thy spouse whom thoâ— hast purchased with thy right hand and redeemed and cleansed with thy blood the whole Catholick Church from one end of the Earth to the other she is founded upon a rock but planted in the sea O preserve her safe from schisme heresy and sacriledge Unite all her members with the bands of Faith Hope and Charity and an external communion when it shall seem good in thine eyes let the daily sacrifice of prayer and Sacramental thanksgiving never cease but be for ever presented to thee and for ever united to the intercession of her dearest Lord and for ever prevail for the obtaining for every of its members grace and blessing pardon and salvation Amen 3. For all Christian Kings Princes and Governours O King of Kings and Prince of all the Rulers of the Earth give thy grace and Spirit to all Christian Princes the spirit of wisdom and counsel the spirit of government and godly fear Grant unto them to live in peace and honour â—hat their people may love and feare them and they may love and fear God speak good unto their hearts concerning the Church that they may be nursing Fathers to it Fathers of the Fatherlesse Judges and Avengers of the cause of Widowes that they may be compassionate to the wants of the poor and the groans of the oppressed that they may not vex or kill the Lords people with unjust or ambitious wars but may feed the â—lock of God and may inquire after and do all things which may promote peace publick honesty and holy religion so administring things present that they may not fail of the everlasting glories of the world to come where all thy faithful people shall reign Kings for ever Amen 4. For al the orders of them that minister about H. things O thou great Shepherd and Bishop of our souls Holy and Eternal Jesus give unto thy servants the Ministers of the Mysteries of Christian religion the Spirit of prudence and sanctity faith and charity confidence and zeal diligence and watchfulnesse that they may declare thy will unto the people faithfully and dispense the Sacraments rightly and intercede with thee graciously and acceptably for thy servants Grant O Lord that by a holy life and a true beliefe by well doing and patient suffering when thou shalt call them to it they may glorifie thee the great lover of souls and after a plentiful conversion of sinners from the errour of their wayes they may shine like the stars in glory Amen Give unto thy servants the Bishops a discerning Spirit that they may lay hands suddenly on no man but may depute such persons to the Ministeries of religion who may adorn the Gospel of God whose lips may preserve knowledge such who by their good preaching holy living may advance the service of the Lord Jesus Amen 5. For our neerest relatives as Husband Wife Children Family c. O God of infinite mercy let thy loving mercy and compassion descend upon the head of thy servants my wife or huâ—band children and family be pleased to give them health of body and of spirit a competent portion of temporals so as may with comfort support them in their journey to Heaven preserve them from all evil and â—ad accidents defend them in all assaults of their enemies direct their persons their actions sanctify their hearts and words and purposes that we all may by the bands of obedience and charity be united to our Lord Jesus and alwayes feeling thee our merciful and gracious Father may become a holy family discharging our whole duty in all our relations that we in this life being thy children by adoption and grace may be admitted into thy holy family hereafter for ever to sing praises to thee in the Church of the first-born in the family of thy redeemed ones Amen 6. For our Parents our Kinred in the flesh our Friends and Benefactors O God merciful and gracious who hast made my Parents my Friends and my Benefactors ministers of thy mercy and instruments of providence to thy servant I humbly beg a blessing to descend upon the heads of name the persons or thâ— relations Depute thy holy Angels to guard their persons thy holy spirit to guide their souls thy providence to minister to their necessities and let thy grace and mercy preserve them from â—he bitter pains of eternal death and bring them â—o everlasting life through Jesus Christ. Amen 7. For all that lye under the rod of war famine pestilence to be said in the time of plague or war c. O Lord God Almighty thou art our Father we are thy children thou art our Redeemer we thy people purchased with the price of thy most precious blood be pleased to moderate thy anger towards thy servants let not thy whole displeasure arise lest we be consumed and brought to nothing Let health and peace be within our dwellings let righteousness and holyness dwell for ever in our hearts
in thy hands They are those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends Zech. 13.6 Immediately before the receiving say Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof But do thou speak the word onely and thy servant shall be healed Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall shew thy praise O God make speed to save me O Lord make hasâ—e to help me Come Lord Iesus come quickly After receiving the consecrated and blessed bread say O taste and see how gracious the Lord is blessed is the man that trusteth in him * The beasts do lack and suffer hunger but they which seek the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good Lord what am I that my Saviour should become my food that the Son of God should be the meat of Wormes of dust and ashes of a sinner of him that was his enemy But this thou hast done to me because thou art infinitely good and wonderfully gracious and lovest to blesse every one of us in turning us from the evil of our wayes Enter into me blessed Jesus let no root of bitternesse spring up in my heart but be thou Lord of all my faculties O let me feed on thee by faith and grow up by the increase of God to a perfect man in Christ Jesus Amen Lord I believe help mine unbelief Glory be to God the Father Son c. After the receiving the cup of blessing It is finished Blessed be the mercies of God revealed to us in Jesus Christ. O blessed and eternal high Priest let the sacrifice of the Crosse which thou didst once offer for the sinnes of the whole World and which thou doest now and alwayes represent in Heaven to thy Father by thy never ceasing intercession and which this day hath been exhibited on thy holy Table Sacramentally obtain mercy and peace faith and charity safety and establishment to thy holy Church which thou hast founded upon a Rock the Rock of a holy Faith and let not the gates of Hell prevail against her nor the enemy of mankinde take any soul out of thy hand whom thou hast purchased with thy blood and sanctified by thy Spirit Preserve all thy people from Heresie and division of spirit from scandal and the spirit of delusion from sacriledge and hurtful persecutions Thou O blessed Jesus didst dye for us keep me for ever in holy living from sin and sinful shame in the communion of thy Church and thy Church in safety and grace in truth and peace unto thy second coming Amen Dearest Jesu since thou art pleased to enter into me O be jealous of thy house and the place where thine honour dwelleth suffer no unclean spirit or unholy thought to come near thy dwelling lest it defile the ground where thy holy feet have trod O teach me so to walk that I may never disrepute the honour of my Religion nor stain the holy Robe which thou hast now put upon my soul nor break my holy Vows which I have made and thou hast sealed nor lose my right of inheritance my priviledge of being coheir with Jesus into the hope of which I have now further entred but be thou pleased to love me with the love of a Father and a Brother and a Husband and a Lord and make me to serve thee in the communion of Saints in receiving the Sacrament in the practise of all holy vertues in the imitation of thy life and conformity to thy sufferings that I having now put on the Lord Jesus may marry his loves and his enmities may desire his glory may obey his laws and be united to his Spirit and in the day of the LORD I may be found having on the Wedding Garment and bearing in my body and soul the marks of the LORD JESUS that I may enter into the joy of my LORD and partake of his glories for ever and ever Amen Ejaculations to be used any time that day after the solemnity is ended Lord if I had lived innocently I could not have deserved to receive the crumbs that fall from thy Table How great is thy mercy who hast feasted me with the Bread of Virgins with the Wine of Angels with Manna from Heaven O when shall I passe from this dark glasse from this vail of Sacraments to the vision of thy eternal clarity from eating thy Body to beholding thy face in thy eternal Kingdom Let not my sins crucifie the Lord of life again Let it never be said concerning me the hand of him that betraieth me is with me on the Table O that I might love thee as well as ever any creature lov d thee Let me think nothing but thee desire nothing but thee enjoy nothing but thee O Jesus be a Jesus unto me Thou art all things unto me Let nothing ever please me but what favours of thee and thy miraculous sweetnesse Blessed be the mercies of our Lord who of God is made unto me Wisdom and Righteousnesse and Sanctification and Redemption He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. Amen The End LONDON Printed by R. Norton MDCL 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arrian Epict. l. 1. c. 13. Ezekiel 16.49 Sâ—nec * â—ee Chap. 4. â—â—ct 6. S. Bern. de tripli ci custodia Laudatur Augustus Caesar apud Lucanum media inter praelia semper stellaâ—um caelique plagiâ— superisque vacabat Casâ—â—an Collâ—â— 24 c. â—1 Jerem. 48.10 Plutarch â—e Curioâ—t 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—rocop 2. Vandal 1 Cor. 7.5 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pythag. Carm. 1 Cor. 1â— 31. Seneca â—ui furatur ut â—â—â—chetur moechus est tragis quam fur Arist. Eth. See Sect. 1. of this Chapt. Rule 18. Seneca Ep. 113. S. Chrys. l. 2. de compan cordis S. Greg. moral 8. cap. 25. S. â—ern lib. de praecept Publius Mimuâ—â—â— Jer. 23.24 Hebr. 4. â—3 Acts. 17.28 Lib 7. de Civit. â—â—p 3â— Mat. 18.20 Heb. 10.25 1 King 5 9. Psal. 138 â— 2 1 Cor. 3 16. 2 Cor. 6 16. S. Aug. de verbis Don. c. 3 Psâ—l 13â— 7. ◠〈…〉 de conâ—ol â—sa 26..12 Jâ—â—em â—1 15 Secâ—nd 〈◊〉 Edic â—n vitâ—â— S. 〈◊〉 Ezek. 9.9 Psal. 10. â—â— Rev. 11. â—7 â— 5.10.13 Revel â— â— 3 For the Chuâ—ch For the Glory For wife or husband For our children For Friends Benefaâ—tors For our family For al in misery Evening prayer Psal. 121 Psal. 4. 〈◊〉 2.11 12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arrian c. 2. l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Epist. c. 34 1 Cor. 9.25 Apoc. 2.17 〈…〉 tum 〈…〉 desinant 〈◊〉 L. 3 〈◊〉 c. 12. Facâ—llus 〈…〉 qua◠〈…〉 86. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 voluptateâ— abâ—untes feâ—laâ— paenitentia plenas animis nostris natâ—â—a â—ubiâ—cit quo minus câ—pide repetantur Senec. Lâ—ta veniâ—e Venâ—s trisâ—is abire so â—et 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Foâ—lix initium prior aetas contenta dâ—lcibus arvis Facileque seâ—a solebat jejunia solvere glande â—oeth l. 1. de consol Arbuteos â—erus montanaque fragâ—a legeâ—
the publick wisdom and necessity shall impose upon me at no hand murmuring against government lest the Spirit of pride and mutiny of murmur and disorder enter into me and consigne me to the portion of the disobedient and rebellious of the Despisers of dominion and revilers of dignity Grant this O holy God for his sake who for his obedience to the Father hath obtained the glorification of eternal ages our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen Prayers for Kings and all Magistrates for our Parents spiritual and natural are in the following Letanies at the end of the fourth Chapter A Prayer to be said by Subjects when their Land is invaded and over-run by barbarous or wicked people enemies of the Religion or the Government I. O Eternal God thou alone rulest in the Kingdoms of men thou art the great God of battels and recompences and by thy glorious wisdom by thy Almighty power by thy secret providence doest determine the events of war and the issues of humane counsels and the returns of peace and victory now at least be pleased to let the light of thy countenance and the effects of a glorious mercy a gracious pardon return to this Land Thou seest how great evils we suffer under the power tyranny of war although we submit to adore thy justice in our sufferings yet be pleased to pity our misery to hear our complaints and to provide us of remedy against our present calamities let not the defenders of a righteous cause go away ashamed nor our counsels be for ever confounded nor our parties defeated nor religion suppressed nor learning discountenanced and we be spoiled of all the exteriour ornaments instruments and advantages of piety which thou hast been pleased formerly to minister to our infirmities for the interests of learning and religion Amen II. WE confesse dear God that we have deserved to be totally extinct and separate from the Communion of Saints and the comforts of Religion to be made servants to ignorant unjust and inferiour persons or to suffer any other calamitie which thou shalt allot us as the instrument of thy anger whom we have so often provoked to wrath and jealousie Lord we humbly lye down under the burden of thy rod begging of thee to remember our infirmities and no more to remember our sins to support us with thy staff to lift us up with thy hand to refresh us with thy gracious eye and if a sad cloud of temporal infelicities must still encircle us open unto us the window of Heaven that with an eye of faith and hope we may see beyond the cloud looking upon those mercies which in thy secret providence and admirable wisdom thou designest to all thy servants from such unlikely and sad beginnings Teach us diligently to do all our duty and cheerfully to submit to all thy will and at last be gracious to thy people that call upon thee that put their trust in thee that have laid up all their hopes in the bosome of God that besides thee have no helper Amen A Prayer to be said by Parents for their Children O Almighty and most merciful Father who hast promised children as a reward to the Righteous and hast given them to me as a testimony of thy mercy and an engagement of my duty be pleased to be a Father unto them and give them healthful bodies understanding souls and sanctified spirits that they may be thy servants and thy children all their dayes Let a great mercy and providence lead them through the dangers and temptations and ignorances of their youth that they may never run into folly and the evils of an unbridled appetite So order the accidents of their lives that by good education careful Tutors holy example innocent company prudent counsel and thy restraining grace their duty to thee may be secured in the midst of a crooked and untoward generation and if it seem good in thy eyes let me be enabled to provide conveniently for the support of their persons that they may not be destitute and miserable in my death or if thou shalt call me off from this World by a more timely summons let their portion be thy care mercy and providence over their bodies and souls and may they never live vitious lives nor dye violent or untimely deaths but let them glorifie thee here with a free obedience and the duties of a whole life that when they have served thee in their generations and have profited the Christian Common-wealth they may be coheirs with Jesus in the glories of thy eternal Kingdom through the same our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen A Prayer to be said by Masters of Families Curats Tutors or other obliged persons for their charges O Almighty God merciful and gracious have mercy upon my Family or Pupils or Parishioners c. and all committed to my charge sanctifie them with thy grace preserve them with thy providence guard them from all evil by the custody of Angels direct them in the wayes of peace and holy Religion by my Ministery and the conduct of thy most holy Spirit and consigne them all with the participation of thy blessings and graces in this World with healthful bodies with good understandings and sanctified spirits to a full fruition of thy glories hereafter through Jesus Christ our Lord. A Prayer to be said by Merchants Tradesmen and Handicrafts men O Eternal God thou Fountain of justice mercy and benediction who by my education and other effects of thy providence hast called me to this profession that by my industry I may in my small proportion work together for the good of my self and others I humbly beg thy grace to guide me in my intention and in the transaction of my affairs that I may be diligent just and faithful and give me thy favour that this my labour may be accepted by thee as a part of my necessary duty and give me thy blessing to assist and prosper me in my Calling to such measures as thou shalt in mercy choose for me and be pleased to let thy holy Spirit be for ever present with me that I may never be given to covetousnesse and sordid appetites to lying and falsehood or any other base indirect and beggerly arts but give me prudence honesty and Christian sincerity that my trade may be sanctified by my Religion my labour by my intention and thy blessing that when I have done my portion of work thou hast allotted me and improv'd the talent thou hast intrusted to me and serv'd the Common-wealth in my capacity I may receive the mighty price of my high calling which I expect and beg in the portion and inheritance of the ever blessed Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Amen A Prayer to be said by Debtors and all persons obliged whether by crime or contract O Almighty God who art rich unto all the treasure and Fountain of all good of all justice and all mercy and all bounty to whom we owe all that we are and all
that we have being thy Debtors by reason of our sins and by thy own gracious contract made with us in Jesus Christ teach me in the first place to perform all my Obligations to thee both of duty and thankfulnesse and next enable me to pay my duty to all my friends and my debts to all my Creditors that none bee made miserable or lessened in his estate by his kindenesse to me or traffick with me Forgive me all those sins and irregular actions by which I entered into debt further then my necessity required or by which such necessity was brought upon me but let not them suffer by occasion of my sin Lord reward all their kindnesse into their bosomes and make them recompence where I cannot and make me very willing in all that I can and able for all that I am oblig'd to or if it seem good in thine eyes to afflict me by the continuance of this condition yet make it up by some means to them that the prayer of thy servant may obtain of thee at least to pay my debt in blessings Amen II. LOrd sanctifie and forgive all that I have tempted to evil by my discourse or my example instruct them in the right way whom I have lead to errour let me never run further on the score of sinne but do thou blot out all the evils I have done by the spunge of thy passion and the blood of thy Crosse and give me a deep and an excellent repentance and a free and a gracious pardon that thou mayest answer for me O Lord and enable me to stand upright in judgement for in thee O Lord have I trusted let me never be confounded Pity me and instruct me guide me and support me pardon me and save me for my sweet Saviour Jesus Christ his sake Amen A Prayer for Patron and Benefactours O Almighty GOD thou Fountain of all good of all excellency both to Men and Angels extend thine abundant favour and loving kindnesse to my Patron to all my friends and Benefactors Reward them and make them plentiful recompence for all the good which from thy merciful providence they have conveyed unto me Let the light of thy countenance shine upon them and let them never come into any affliction or sadnesse but such as may be an instrument of thy glory and their eternal comfort Forgive them all their sins let thy Divinest Spirit preserve them from all deeds of Darknesse Let thy ministring Angels guard their persons from the violence of the spirits of Darknesse And thou who knowest every degree of their necessity by thy infinite wisdom give supply to all their needs by thy glorious mercy preserving their persons sanctifying their hearts and leading them in the wayes of righteousnesse by the waters of comfort to the land of eternal rest and glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen CHAP. IV. Of Christian Religion REligion in a large sense does signifie the whole duty of Man comprehending in it Justice Charity and Sobriety because all these being commanded by God they become a part of that honour and worship which we are bound to pay to him And thus the word is used in S. Iames Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this To visit the fatherlesse and Widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world But in a more restrained sense it is taken for that part of duty which particularly relates to God in our worshippings and adoration of him in confessing his excellencies loving his person admiring his goodnesse believing his Word and doing all that which may in a proper and direct manner do him honour It containes the duties of the first Table onely and so it is called Godlinesse and is by Saint Paul distinguished from Iustice and Sobriety In this sense I am now to explicate the parts of it Of the internal actions of Religion Those I call the internal actions of Religion in which the soul onely is imployed and ministers to God in the special actions of Faith Hope and Charity Faith believes the revelations of God Hope expects his promises and Charity loves his excellencies and mercies Faith gives our understanding to God Hope gives up all the passions and affections to Heaven and heavenly things and Charity gives the will to the service of God Faith is oppos'd to Infidelity Hope to Despair Charity to Enmity and Hostility and these three sanctifie the whole Man and make our duty to God and obedience to his Commandments to be chosen reasonable and delightful and therefore to be intire persevering and universal SECT I. Of Faith The Acts and Offices of Faith are 1. TO believe every thing which God hath revealed to us and when once we are convinced that God hath spoken it to make no further enquiry but humbly to submit ever remembring that there are some things which our understanding cannot fathom nor search out their depth 2. To believe nothing concerning God but what is honourable and excellent as knowing that belief to be no honoring of God which entertains of him any dishonourable thoughts Faith is the parent of Charity and whatsoever Faith entertains must be apt to produce love to God but he that believes God to be cruel or unmerciful or a rejoycer in the unavoidable damnation of the greatest part of mankinde or that he speaks one thing and privately means another thinks evil thoughts concerning God and such as for which we should hate a man and therefore are great enemies of Faith being apt to destroy charity Our Faith concerning God must be as himself hath revealed and described his own excellencies and in our discourses we must remove from him all imperfection and attribute to him all excellency 3. To give our selves wholly up to Christ in heart and desire to become Disciples of his doctrine with choice besides conviction being in the presence of God but as Ideots that is without any principles of our own to hinder the truth of God but sucking in greedily all that God hath taught us believing it infinitely and loving to believe it For this is an act of Love reflected upon Faith or an act of Faith leaning upon Love 4. To believe all Gods promises and that whatsoever is promised in Scripture shall on Gods part be as surely performed as if we had it in possession This act makes us to rely upon God with the same confidence as we did on our Parents when we were children when we made no doubt but whatsoever we needed we should have it if it were in their power 5. To believe also the conditions of the promise or that part of the revelation which concerns our duty Many are apt to believe the Article of remission of sins but they believe it without the condition of repentance or the fruits of holy life and that is to believe the Article otherwise then God intended it For the Covenant of the Gospel is the great object of Faith and