certainly if we are dutiful Children we shall not suffer the remembrance of them to be buried in ungrateful silence but as the Heart will be filled with the sense so will the mouth with the acknowledgment of his Mercies Who can express the noble Acts of the Lord or shew forth all his praise Psal 106.2 Oh how great is the Sum of them If we tell them they are more in number than the Sand Psal 139.17 18. Praise the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me praise his Holy Name Praise the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits 3. And is God so merciful Then this O my Soul should teach thee humility and to have low thoughts of thy self If thou wert not miserable thou hadst no need of Mercy If thou wert righteous 't were but justice to receive good from the hands of God not mercy Every particular blessing I enjoy is the fruit and effect of the mercy of God and ought to each me a Lesson of Humility Many Stripes many Judgments indeed have I deserved but I must confess with holy Jacob That I am not worthy of the least of all his Mercies Gen. 32.10 4. Is God a God of such infinite Mercies This then should teach thee O my Soul in all thy difficulties and distresses in all thy wants and necessities to have recourse unto him to rest and depend upon him The Angel of the Lord saith holy David tarrieth round about them that fear him Psal 34.7 and delivereth them And Psal 34.22 The Lord delivereth the Souls of his Saints and all that put their trust in him shall not be destitute And as in temporal dangers so in temporal wants we must cast all our care upon him for he careth for us 1 Pet. 5.7 They that fear the Lordlack nothing Psal 34.9 and v. the 10. They that seek the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good God is a God all-sufficient and able to help me in my greatest necessities He is a God rich in Mercy and will not suffer me to want therefore I will cast my burden upon him I will put my trust in him 5. Is God so Merciful This should teach me to fear him This may perhaps seem strange What shall I fear him because of his Mercifulness I have great reason to trust him indeed and to love him but shall I fear him for it Yes certainly we ought to fear him even for his Mercy There is forgiveness with thee saith David therefore thou may'st be feared Psal 130.4 and 67. ult God shall bless us and all the ends of the Earth shall fear him Though he forgives though he blesses though he shews us mercy yet we must fear him Yea I must needs say that of all Gods Attributes Mercy is the dreadfullest for where-ever his Mercy lights and is neglected or returns empty without answering Gods Designs he will certainly recompense his abused Mercy with double Severity Laesa patientia furor fit 6. Is God thus Merciful This should teach us to imitate his Mercy by being merciful to our poor necessitous Brethren Let us imitate it in its universality it is over all his works Who is there under the Sun that hath not tasted of it in its reality He giveth liberally and upbraideth not It is far from God to do any thing seemingly 't is not enough to profess Compassion and to say as those in St. James ch 2.16 Depart in peace be ye warmed be ye filled and yet give nothing to cloath or to feed them But thou shall do according to the Precept in Deuteronomy ch 15.10 Thou shalt surely give him and thy heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him And to encourage thee take Gods own promise annex'd to it Because that for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy Works and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto Thus we must imitate God in being merciful unto all and in being really merciful All our acts of mercy to our poor Brethren Christ takes as done to him Matth. 25.40 In as much as ye have done it unto the least of these my Brethren ye have done it unto me The miseries of my Brethren are my own miseries and therfore your mercies to them are in a sense mercies to me Lastly Is God thus merciful This should teach thee O my Soul to be continually praising him for his Mercies Praise is a Duty incumbent on all the Sons of Men because that all have tasted of his goodness and his mercy Give the Lord saith David the honour due unto his Name Psal 29.2 Shewing that it is not an arbritrary or voluntary act but a just debt which we owe to God God not only supplieth but even daily loadeth us with his benefits as the Psalmist observes and as he expects no other so we can make no other retribution unto him but our Praises and Thanksgivings O let us never then defraud him of that so easie Tribute but let our Hearts be continually filled with the sense and our Mouths with the acknowledgment of his Mercies We confess O Lord that we are not worthy of the least of all thy Mercies and therefore the less we deserve them the more thou deservest our Praises O let us not by our ingratitude provoke thee to discontinue thy Mercies or to shut up thy tender Mercies in displeasure and so teach us to value them by making us feel the want of them Alelujah Of the certainty of Death and Judgment Hebrew 9.27 And as it it appointed unto Men once to die but after this the Judgment GOD at first Created Man in a state of Innocency and appointed him Laws to observe and gave him withal a power to keep them and to the keeping of which he annexed the continuation of a happy life and immunity from death and lest his credulous Nature might be too easily imposed upon to his own and his posterities ruin lest the ties of Love and promise of a Reward were not strong enough to bind him to his Duty and Allegiance God was pleased to hedg in his way with a denunciation of threatnings and judgments in case he should any way disobey those Laws set and tells him Gen. 2.17 In the day that thou eatest thereof transgressest my commands for I have told thee positively thou shalt not eat of it thou shalt surely die but Man degenerate Man soon cast off his primitive Innocence violates those Laws and thereby renders himself and all his posterity obnoxious to that Judgment of Death before threatned And now God ratifies his former denunciation establishes it by a perpetual Decree That unto dust he shall return Gen. 3.19 So that now we see whence Death had its first beginning Rom. 5.12 It is but the product and birth of Sin Sin having once conceived never prove abortive but brings forth Death James 1.15 It is now appointed unto Men once to die and as certain as the Decree of God is
my head and my Trespass is grown up even unto Heaven All the thoughts and imaginations of my heart have been Evil and only Evil and that continually I have wrought many and great provocations in thy sight especially O Lord c. Here enumerate thy old capital Sins and that in the mosâ— provoking manner They have not been only single but repeated acts of sin for O Lord of this black Cataloguâ— which I have now brought forth before thee how few are there which I have not often times committed nay which are not become even habitual and customary unto me And to this frequency I have added both agreediness and obstinacy in sinning turning into my course as the Horse rusheth into the Battel doing evil with both hands earnestly yea hating to be reformed and casting thy words behind me quenching thy Spirit within me which testified against me to turn me from my evil ways and frustrating all those outward means whether of Judgment or Mercy which thou hast used to draw me to thy self Nay O Lord even my Repentances may be numbred amongst my greatest Sins they have sometimes been feigned and hppocritical always so slight and ineffectual that they have brought forh no Fruit in amendment of Life but I have still return'd with the Dog to his vomit and the Sow to the mire again and have added the breach of many resolutions and vows both at thy Table and in private to all my former Guilts Yea O Lord I desire to confess to my own shame and confusion that since the last time that I humbled my self in thy sight and so solemnly vowed and purposed to forsake every Sin and not to regard any iniquity in my heart I have returned unto the same if not worse Sins than I then came to confess before thee and to beg pardon at thy hands for for my thoughts O Lord have been vain c. Here enumerate the sins My Words have been inconsiderate c. my Actions have been unweighed c. And besides all this O Lord I have still the same proneness to that which is evil aversness and obstinacy towards what is good I have still an impenitent hard heart which is not sufficiently mollified with the sense of my Sins or thy wrath due unto me for them O God! God be merciful to me a Sinner yea I know not how often I have offended O cleanse cleanse thou me from my secret faults Thus thus O Lord am I become out of measure sinful and since I have thus chosen death I am most worthy to take part in it even in the second death the lake of Fire and Brimstone which burneth for evermore This this O Lord is in Justice to be the portion of my Cup to me belongs nothing but shame and confusion of face and that eternally But to thee O Lord God belongeth mercy and forgiveness though I have â—â—belled against thee O remember not my Sins and Offences but according to thy mercy think thou upon me O Lord for thy goodness Thou sentest thy Son to seek and to save that which was lost be hold O Lord I have gone astray like a Sheep that is lost O seek thy servant and bring me back again to the Shepherd and Bishop of my Soul Let thy Spirit work in me a hearty sense and detestation of all my abominations that true contrition of heart which thou hast promised not to despise And then be thou pleased to look upon me in mercy to take away all my iniquity and to receive me graciously into thy favour and for his sake who hath done nothing amiss be thou reconciled to me who have done nothing well Wash away the guilt of all my Sins in his Blood bury them so deep in his grave and hide them in his Wounds that they may never rise up in Judgment against me either here to shame me or hereafter to condemn me and subdue the power of them by his grace and grant O Lord that I may from this hour bid a final adieu to all Vngodliness and Worldly Lusts that I may never once more cast a look toward Sodom or long after the Flesh Pots of Egypt but consecrate my self intirely to thee to serve thee in righteousness and true holiness all the days of my life reckoning my self to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our blessed Lord and Saviour Amen After this go on with your Devotions and pray over the One and fiftieth Psalm HAve mercy upon me O God after thy great goodness according to the multitude of thy mercies do away mine offences Wash me throughly from my wickedness and cleanse me from my sins For I acknowledg my faults and my sin is ever before me Against thee thee only have I sinned and done these Evils in thy sight that thou mightest be justified in thy saying and clear when thou art judged Behold I was shapen in Wickedness and in sin hath my Mother conceived me But lo thou requirest Truth in the inward parts and shalt make me to understand Wisdom secretly Thou shalt purge we with Hysop and I shall be clean thou shalt wash me and I shall be whither than Snow Thou shalt make me hear of joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce Turn thy face from my sins and put out all my misdeeds Make me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy Spirit from me O take away this stony this hard heart of mine and give me a heart of flesh O give me the comfort of thy help again and stablish me with thy free Spirit Then shall I teach thy ways unto the wicked and sinners shall be converted unto thee Deliver me from blood-guiltiness O God thou that art the God of my health and my tongue shall sing of thy righteousness Thou shalt open my lips O Lord and my mouth shall shew thy praise For thou desirest no Sacrifice else would I give it thee but thou delightest not in burnt Offering The Sacrifice of God is a troubled Spirit a broken and contrite Heart O God shalt thou not despise O be savourable and gracious unto Sion build thou the Walls of Jerusalem Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifice of Righteousness with the burnt Offerings and Oblations then shall they offer Young Bullocks upon thine Altar Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be World without end Amen Conclude your Penitentials with the following Collects ALmighty and everlasting God who hatest nothing that thou hast made and do'st forgive the sins of all them that are penitent create and make in me a new and contrite heart that I worthily lamenting my sins and acknowledging my wretchedness may obtain of thee the God of all mercy perfect remission and forgiveness through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen O
let not the Lights of the World any more be put under Bushels but keep them in their Candlesticks that they may give light to all that are in the House Let not Jeroboam's Priests profane thy service but let the seed of Aaron still minister before thee And O thou Father of mercies and God of all comfort succour and relieve all that are in affliction and deliver the outcast and poor help them to right that suffer wrong Let the sorrowful sighing of the Prisoners and the Captives come before thee and according to the greatness of thy Power preserve thou those that are appointed to die Grant easie to those that are in pain health to those that are in Sickness Here mention any that you know in that Condition Give them patience and contentation under this thy Visitation and a happy Issue out of all their Afflictions when and which way it shall seem best to thy godly Wisdom only so preserve them by thy Grace that Christ may be unto them whether in Life or Death advantage Give suitable supplies to all that are in want to all presumptuous sinners give a sense of their sins and to all despairing a sight of thy mercy and do thou O Lord for every one above what they can ask or think forgive my Enemies Persecutors or Slanderers overcome all their evil with thy infinite goodness turn their hearts and draw them powerfully to thy self Pour down thy blessings on all my Friends and Benefactors all that have commended themselves to my prayer or that I am bound to pray for especially c. Here specify thy nearest relations particular Friends and all committed to thy Charge O Lord infuse Grace where it is not and where it is weak do thou strengthen it give them all things necessary for their Souls and Bodies guide them here by thy counsel and afterwards receive them to thy self in glory And grant O merciful Father that through this Blood of the Cross we may all be presented pure and unblamable and unreproveable in thy sight that so we may be admitted into that place of Purity where no unclean thing can enter there together with Saints and Angels to sing eternal Praises Doxologies and Alelujahs to Father Son and holy Ghost for ever Amen Either before or immediately after this Intercession make an oblation unto God of something for the Poor or Pious Uses and if it be the tenth of all thy Acquists thou wilt in the end be no looser by it but 't will prove unto thee a piece of frugal prodigality He that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully 2 Cor. 9.6 We put our money into sure hands it is but lent though it be given We engage God himself and he will pay us again Pro. 19.17 This is the Fast that God hath chosen and delights in Isa 58.7 This stock that you thus lay up is the treasure that you send before you to heaven your Friend of the mammon of unrighteousness that when these earthly things fail will receive you into everlasting habitations 'T is call'd a Sacrifice wherewith God is well pleased Heb. 13.16 and again Phil. 4.18 a Sacrifice acceptable well pleasing to God St. Augustine saith that Jejunium sine Eleemosina Lampas sine Oleo Fasting without Alms is a Lamp without Oyl It may shew beautiful to the Eye but will never lead you by it's light to Heaven When you have separated that portion which you chearfully design for this Charitable Use it may not be amiss if you offer and devote it to God in this or the like manner O Blessed Lord God I know that my goodness extendeth not to thee thou art infinitely happy in and from thy self alone Lucret. and wants nothing of ours to make any addition to thy happiness Yea O Lord all that we have and enjoy is from thy bounty and goodness and I can retribute nothing to thee but what must first come from thee Yet O Lord seeing there are many of thy poor necessitous Servants that stand in need of our Charity and thou hast said that whatsoever we do unto these we do it unto thee in consideration of my duty and thy mercies I here offer and devote unto thee for pious and holy uses this small portion as thou hast been pleased to bless me the week past O let it be a Sacrifice acceptable and well pleasing in thy Sight throughâ— Jesus Christ Amen Put this up in the poor Man's Purse by it self By this course thou wilt have always something in store by thee to give all indigent persons as there is opportunity offered and this great advantage thou wilt have by it also thou wilt not give grudgingly as the Apostle terms it 2 Cor. 9.7 or murmur when a poor Man asks an Almes of thee Deut. 15.10 for thou lookest upon this stock as not thy own and thy self only as Gods Purser and the Hand to dispense it yea thou will rejoyce and give God thanks when thou hast a fit opportunity to distribute do good and refresh the hungry bowels of thy poor Brother After this spend some time in Reading or Meditating or both Then call to mind and consider your Mercies both Spiritual and Temporal which you have in the foregoing Week received at the hands of God and if they have been any way eminent omit not to commit them to your Diary where also you may place your Vows if you have made any the benefit which may accrue from hence I shall hereafter shew you If you have no other mercies but the preservation of you from your own vile-Lusts Lusts and Affections from Presumptuous Sins and from Death and Damnation for the Temporal Mercies of each particular day and the mercies even of this day thou hast Matter enough of thanksgiving therefore you cannot do better than conclude your Fast with Praises and Thanksgiving The Thanksgiving and Conclusion of the Work O Most holy and for ever blessed Lord God thy Name only is excellent and thy praise above Heaven and Earth Heaven is thy Throne and that thou fillest with thy Majesty the Earth is but thy Foot-stool and yet that thou fillest with thy Goodness O how great are thy tender Mercies to us O Lord how large is the Summ of them If I would declare them and speak of them they are more than I am able to express I may as well count the sands upon the Sea Shore or the drops of the Ocean as enumerate thy favours Thou didst at first create me out of nothing instamp thine own Image upon me and gavest me Dominion over the Works of thy hands Thou art he that took me out of my Mothers womb By thee have been holden up ever since I was Born thy Almighty hand hath constantly supported me and thy Providence watched over me and I still acknowledg my dependance on thee When Mankind had departed from thee by Disobedience and erased that Image and Innocency in which he was created and for feited that Right to all thy
Mercies which thou freely and undeservedly at first gavest him and made himself obnoxious to thy Wrath and eternal Misery thou hast not abhorred our Nature but hast so loved and honoured thy sinful Creatures as to manifest thy self in our Flesh O! that Men would therefore praise the Lord for his Goodness and declare the Wonders that he doth for the Children of Men. I revere and adore thee O Most Glorious Majesty for the Son of thy love and for all those mercies we enjoy in and through him I praise and magnifie thy holy Name for the Mission of thy holy Spirit to be the Seal of our Adoption the Sanctifier of our Souls the Earnest of the Inheritance of the Saints and the First Fruits of Everlasting Felicity that thou hast spared me so long and given me so large a time for Repentance whereas thou mightest have justly long since cut me off in my Sins and sent me headlong into eternal Destruction Had I no other Mercies but Here enumeraâ—â— thy spiritual Mercies I have sufficient matter for perpetual Praise and Thanksgiving O what what shall I render unto the Lord for all the benefits he hath done unto me I will take the Cup of Salvation and will call upon the Name of the Lord Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive Riches and Wisdom and Honour and Power and Glory and Blessing Wherefore Blessing and Honour Glory and Power be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever Besides O Lord those Spiritual Mercies I have infinite Obligations upon me to bless and praise thee for those Temporal ones I have and do yet enjoy Thou followest me with thy goodness day by day and loadest me with thy benefits every moment It is a great mercy that I live and a greater that I enjoy not only the necessaries but the comforts of Life Thou hast been wonderfully gracious unto me in thy protections of me from and deliverances out of many apparent dangers I desire with all thankfulness to remember here mention thy deliverances many more I have forgotten or which I have suffered to pass unregarded through inadvertency for all which my Soul doth magnifie the Lord and all that is within me praiseth his holy Name Praise thou the Lord O my Soul Blessed be thy holy Name in particular for the fresh Testimonies of thy mercies this day for that thou hast put it into my heart and given me an opportunity now to humble my self before thee by Prayer and Fasting to call my self to an account of my Sins to make stedfast Resolutions against them to beg thy preventing Grace to render thee thanks for thy Mercies and to endeavour a reconcilation with thee and for any assurance of thy love and favour which thou hast given in unto my Soul Praise the Lord O my Soul and forget not all or any of his benefits And now I beseech thee O blessed God to accept of my Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving of my Fasting and Humiliation Alms and Oblation and do thou smell a sweet savour from them Let it be a Sacrifice well pleasing and acceptable in thy sight though not for any worth in it self yet in and for the Merits of Jesus Christ I confess O Lord should'st thou be extreme to mark the Iniquities of my holy things my Prayers have need to be prayed for my Repentance to be repented of and my Humiliations and Fastings to be humbled and fasted for But O Lord consider I pray thee that I am flesh and blood yea dust and ashes and so pity and pardon all my Infirmities and deal with me not according to the weakness of my performances but according to the riches of thy mercy in and through Jesus Christ Seal unto my Soul the pardon of all those sins that I have this day confess'd before thee and beg'd pardon at thy hands for especially c. and not only those but all others known or secret of what Nature or what kind soever Grant unto me all those Graces I have this day desired or thou seest me to stand in need of especially c. give me Grace to resist all Sin for the time to come not to regard any Iniquity in my heart but to abstain from the very appearance of Evil to have respect unto all thy Commandments and to serve thee by a constant sincere uniform and impartial Obedience all the days of my Life O mind me continually of all my Vows and Obligations and I pray thee let me receive such strength from thee as may enable me readily to perform the same Of my self I am a frail weak Creature obnoxious to the arrests and victory of all temptations O do thou perfect thy strength in my weakness and let thy Grace be sufficient for me O deliver me Blessed God from my own self and save me or I perish everlastingly that so when I appear again before thee in this manner I may find I have gotten Strength over my Corruptions and that I can now run the way of thy Commandments because thou hast set my Feet at liberty And now O Lord seeing thou hast been pleased to promise that thou wilt give thy holy Spirit to them that ask it I most humbly and ardently beseech thee to send down this holy Spirit into my heart and let him take possession there and rule and reign and govern therein for ever And let this Spirit of thine also if thou see it fit in the close of this Exercise assure my Soul of my pardon and reconciliation with thee and let me have any even the least taste of those joys those ravishments of thy Love wherewith some of thy Saints have been so transported that I may never be weary of well-doing nor faint in my mind but may run the way of thy Commandments with chearfulness and alacrity and may very feelingly and in the sincerity of my heart confess that thy ways are ways of pleasantness and all thy paths are Peace Hear me O Lord for my self Hear me for others Hear others for me and hear the Intercessions of thy dear Son Jesus Christ for us all In whose prevailing Name and holy Words I conclude my imperfect Prayers and Services saying Our Father which art in Heaven c. Thy grace O Lord Jesus Christ thy love O heavenly Father thy sweet and comfortable Fellowship O holy blessed and glorious Spirit of Grace be with me and remain with me always Amen This being over leave thy Closet and carry thy self with a Chearful gravity towards thy own Family or others that thon appear not unto Mâ—n to fast Mat. 6.18 then receive the good Creatures of God with moderation and thankfulness and conclude the day as you do other Days You having been for some time constant in this Duty your Soul will still call for it as your hungry Stomack will for food and you will delight in the â—eturns of it Some time the Week after it may be very profitable if you
thee he sees all thy wants and necessities He is an All-sufficient God he is able and will always succour and relieve thee take up then holy David's resolution Why art thou cast down O my Soul and why art thou disquieted within me put thy trust in God Psalm 42.5 Or that of the Church Lamen 3.24 The Lord is my portion saith my Soul therefore will I hope in him 5. This should stir up in thee longing and ardent desires after the full enjoyment of his more immediate presence in Heaven where our joys shall be full and our pleasures everlasting Psalm 16.11 Draw nearer yet then O my Soul Is there in his presence such fulness of joy Bring forth then thy strongest love towards him that hath prepared such great things for so contemptible Worms as we are Thy strongest endeavours to please him here and desires to enjoy him hereafter I have had some prelibations or fore-tastes of the sweetness of thy presence in Praying Meditating Hearing thy Word and Receiving the Holy Sacrament but these have been incompleat and interrupted It will not be long before I shall by his Mercy be admitted unto a more full perfect and compleat enjoying of his more immediate presence where I shall for ever behold his Face and be united to him without any divorce or separation to all Eternity Eo feror quocunque feror Nihil aliud velim quam permanere illic in aeternum St. Aug. Conf. If those Servants were accounted happy that stood continually in the presence of an Earthly Prince 1 Kings 10.8 and if the Twelve Apostles were happy in the enjoyment of the sweet company of our Saviour here on Earth though in the State of his Humiliation then thrice happy are those Men and those Servants which shall stand continually before thee in thy Kingdom who art King of Kings and Lord of Lords One day in those Coelestial Courts is better than a thousand My Soul hath a desire and longing to enter into the Courts of the Lord my Flesh and my Heart rejoyce in the living God My Soul thirsteth for thee my Flesh also longeth after thee in a barren and dry land where no water is Like as the Hart desireth the VVater brooks so longeth my Soul after thee O God My Soul is athirst for God even for the living God when shall I come and appear before the presence of God Of the Mercy of God MErcy in God is an Attribute Essential to his Nature by which he pitieth those that are in Misery relieveth those that are in Necessity and passeth by many sins and frailties in his Creatures which he might in Justice severely punish Mercy and Misery are relatives and were there no Want nor Trespass there needed no Mercy Mercy is either in the Affection or Expression In the Affection it is termed Bowels of Mercy in the Expression Works of Mercy The former God always hath for it is one of his principal Attributes and cannot be separated from him no not at the time when he is in the Execution of his Justice for when his hand strikes his heart as I may so speak melts and pities and his Bowels yearn within him like a merciful Judge who at the same time being compell'd by justice that he condemns the Criminal relents in his heart for him In the very midst of Judgment God remembers Mercy The latter every Man living hath daily fresh Experiences of in the plentiful Largesses of his undeserved Bounty That thou yet livest is an unparallell'd Mercy for thou mightest have been now in Hell beyond the Hopes of any more Mercy as well as many thousands who perhaps have deserved it less than thy self It is of the Lords Mercy that we are not consumed Lam. 3.22 Should I go about to enumerate the variety of Gods Mercies towards us as Men and as Christians I might in the next page recount what the Philosopher foolishly attempted the sands of the Sea-shore or the drops of the Ocean Gods Mercies towards us as they are undeserved so they are free he hath no other motive than what proceeds from his own goodness and pleasure He hath Mercy on whom he will have Mercy Rom. 9.18 Alass there is nothing in us that could invite his Mercy but our own misery and wretchedness he pitied us when we lay in our blood and said unto us live God's mercy is universal illimitable His mercy is over all his Works Psalm 145.9 The wicked as well as the godly daily taste of his mercies for he sendeth Rain upon the just and the unjust Matt. 5.45 but yet his Mercy is more special towards his Elect Servants 1 Tim. 1.16 for those he hath mercies tender mercies yea multitudes of tender mercies Psalm 51.1 God is great in mercy Psalm 119.156 2 Sam. 24.14 He is rich in Mercy Eph. 2.4 The duration and constancy of God's mercy it is for everlasting Psal 100. ul◠136.1 God is delighted in mercy He is mercy in the abstract and therefore David calls him his mercy Psal 59.10 It it said that Mercy rejoyceth or triumpheth over Judgment 2 Jam. 2.13 as if there were a pretty kind of contention between them and mercy had gotten the upper-hand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God in the Second Commandment threatens to punish to the third and fourth Generation but his mercy extendeth to thousands There is no perfection in God the Acts of which are more manifest than in that of his Mercy Let us Consider it's opposite Justice How few Acts can we find of this for multitudes of his mercies And when he does smite how many warnings doth he give before-hand How long is he whetting his Sword and lifting up his hand to strike He seems even to lay aside his Omnisciency that he might be frustrated in doing this work This his strange Work Isaiah 28.21 I will go down saith God and see if their wickedness be altogether so great as the Cry which is come up unto me and if not I will know Genes 18.21 God delighteth in mercy Micah 7.18 But it grieves him to the very heart if I may so speak when he is forced to execute his Justice Dolet Deus quoties cogitur esse Deus Who is there that can say he hath been punished according to his demerits Nay canst thou find out any Act of his Justice which hath not an Alloy or Mixture of his Mercy for his tender mercies are over all his Works Psal 145.9 1. Learn then hence O my Soul to admire and adore this infinite perfection of Almighty God and to labour after a due Sense and Consideration of it that rhou mayst glorifie him for it 2. Learn hence to acknowledge God's mercy in all that thou hast and dost enjoy All thy mercies come from him 1 Chron. 29.14 What hast thou which thou hast not received from his benign hand Every good gift comes down from above James 1.17 and St. Paul tells us 2 Corinth 1.3 That he is the Father of all mercies and
that they may never rise to shame me here or to condemn me hereafter and I pray thee O Lord to give me every day a deeper sense of my sins and a more compleat repentance for them a loathing and detestation of them and let their remembrance be bitter unto my soul Send down thy holy Spirit into my heart and let him root out every accursed unmortified Lust and sinful corruption from my Soul and destroy in me all the remaining affections unto Sins and dispose my Soul to a constant obedience of all thy Commandments and keep me in an habitual frame and temper of Piety all the days of my Life O Lord give me daily a clearer sight of my Duty and incline my heart to walk exactly and so acceptably continually before thee make me sensible of thy exuberent Love and let not all thy mercies longanimity and patience towards me a miserable Sinner prove successless but raise in my heart all grateful acknowledgments Blessed be thy great and glorious Name O Lord God for all the mianfestations of thy love and goodness towards me unto this day for the Mercies of thy right as well as thy left hand but especially for the Fountain and Foundation of all our Mercies Jesus Christ for the means of Grace for the hopes of Glory for thy particular preservation of me and mine this Night past and for all other thy goodness and loving kindness and I pray thee O Lord Give me that due sense of all thy Mercies that my heart may be unfeignedly thankful and that I may shew forth thy praise not only with my lips but in my life by giving up my self to thy Service and by walking before thee in Holiness and Righteousness all my days And now O Lord since thou hast been pleased in thy Mercy to bring me safe to the beginning of another day preserve me I beseech thee in the same by thy mighty power from all sin and from all danger Let thy spirit and providence direct and preside over all my Actions this day and keep me by the power of thy Grace from those Sins to which my wicked and disorderly Nature subjects me to but especially free me from Here mention thy most prevailing Sins or such as thy Nature Business or Company may that day incline thee to Make me exactly watchful over my self to behave my self as in thy presence and to set thee always before my Eyes that so I do nothing which may dishonour thee my God or wound my own Soul and grant that by the conduct of thy Grace I may be directed and assisted in keeping strictly close unto all thy Commandments and in the discharge of my Duty in that place and Calling in which thou hast set me Let thy blessing O Lord attend me in my Studies Labours or Employments this day give me holiness of intention in them and succeed all with thy benediction Let thy Providence signally watch over me and thy Presence secure me from all evil either of Soul or Body this day and for ever Hear me O Lord and answer me graciously and do for me more abuundantly then I can ask or think and all I beg for Jesus Christ his sake for whom my Soul desires to bless thee and in whosemost prevailing name and holy words I farther pray unto thee saying Our Father which art in heaven c. A Prayer for the Morning in publick with thy Family which with little variation may be also used in private It is a good thing to give thanks unto thee O Lord and to sing praise unto thy name O thou most high to shew forth thy loving kindness in the Morning and thy faithfulness every Night Hear our Prayers O Lord and accept of our praises in Jesus Christ O Most Gracious Lord our God whose Mercies endures for ever and thy Remembrance throughout all generations Thou art boundless in thy compassions towards all thy Creatures and art infinitely good unto them not only beyond what they can deserve but what they can wish We the unworthyest of them desire at this time to give glory unto thee in a humble and hearty acknowledgment of those many mercies and favours both Spiritual and Temporal which thou from time to time hast vouchsafed unto us and most liberally heaped upon us We confess O Lord that we are not worthy of the least of all thy Mercies but most worthy of the greatest and severest of all thy Judgments especially when we consider the sinfulness and wickedness of our lives past for we have drank iniquity like water gone on very Stubbornly and Rebelliously against thee and thy Commandments all the days of our lives continually committing those things thou forbiddest and leaving undone those things which thou commandest yea all the thoughts and imaginations of our hearts have been evil and only evil and that continually and which is worst of all we have still the same proneness to all that is evil but aversness and obstinacy towards that which is good We have still impenitent hard hearts that are not mollified with the sense of our Sins or of thy Wrath due unto us for them But O thou who art a God of infinite Mercies and Compassions manifest the same unto us in the full pardon and forgiveness of all the Sins that ever we have committed against thy Divine Majesty Accept of that satisfaction and attonement made by thy innocent and beloved Son Jesus Christ and for the merits of his suffering pardon all that is past and be thou fully reconciled unto us And so assist us with thy Grace and Holy Spirit that we may be able for the time to come to repel all the temptations of the Devil the World and the Flesh and to live more Soberly Righteously and Godly in this present evil World that so having our fruits unto holiness here we may have our ends everlasting Life O make us stedfastly resolved to despise all the pleasures of sin rather than offend thee our God and to chuse the most difficult parts of Virtue and Piety to obtain and secure thy Love O let us delight in thy Service and desire thy favour above alâ— things which is better than life it self and all the comforts of it Let us love what thou lovest and hate what thou hatest wish nothing so much as to please thee fear nothing so much as to offend thee and in all things be conformable to thy holy Will and walk before thee in all well pleasing O Lord put us in mind of Death and Judgment that every day we draw nearer to our last day and that we shall all shortly give a severe account of all that we have done in the Body and all that we have left undone of all that we have spoken nay of all that we have thought So teach us therefore O Lord to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto Wisdom and continually so to demean our selves as those that must one day appear before the Judgment seat
of Christ As to all our outward concerns here in this life we desire to refer our selves wholly unto thee our good God Thou art infinitely wise and knowest what condition is best for every one of us give us therefore any measure of prosperity or adversity riches or poverty health or sickness whereby we may most of all glorifie thy holy Name and in every condition give us grace to look up unto thee as the author and disposer of it and therein to be really content Together with us we beseech thee to be mindful of all mankind Let thy ways be known upon earth and thy saving health among all nations Bless thy universal Church lead it into all truth and let not the Gates of Hell be ever able to prevail against it Be gracious unto our Soveraign Lord the King the Queen and all the Royal Family to all the Ministers and Magistrates toall that fear thee and call upon thyname Remember all the Sons and Daughters of sorrow and affliction in what case or state soever and relieve them all according to thy Mercies and their several necessities for thou only knowest them all Bless all our Friends Kindred and Benefactors and all that we are under any Obligation to pray for whether Friends or Enemies infuse Grace where it is not and where it is weak do thou strengthen it give them all things necessary for their Souls and Bodies guide them here by thy Counsel and at length receive them to thy self in Glory And now O Lord because it is very meet right and our bounden duty at all times and in all places to give thanks unto thee we desire at this time to praise and magnifie thy holy Name for all the freeness and fulness of thy Mercy and loving kindness towards us and others Thou daily loadest us with thy benefits spiritual and temporal who art the God of our Salvation thou hast given a fresh Testimony of thy Goodness and Mercy to us in our preservation this Night past from those many sad Casualties and Accidents which might justly by reason of our sins fall upon us and brought us safe unto another day O Lord thou mightest have made our Beds our Graves our Sheets our Winding Sheets and our rising again this Morning a rising unto judgment What is man that thou art mindful of him Or the Son of Man that thou visitest him Praise the Lord O our Souls and all that is within us praise his holy Name Praise the Lord O our Souls and forget not all his benefits and grant that we may render thee not only the fruit of our Lips but the obedience of our Lives by consecrating our selves entirely to thy Service and walking before thee in a sincere and impartial observance of thy holy Commandments all the days of our lives And seeing thou hast been graciously pleased to add another day unto our Lives so we beseech thee to give us Grace to add more Wariness Repentance and Circumspection unto our days Make us O Lord carefully to watch against all Sin especially those that do so easily beset us and that we have been so often conquered by Teach us by the Strength of thy holy Spirit to deny our selves to pluck out even our right Eyes to cut off even our right hands to undergo the severest afflictions rather than to offend so Sacred a Majesty Let our thoughts be always holy and heavenly and when we are about our Studies and Employments let them be often carried up unto thee by holy Meditations and Divine Ejaculations Let our words be seasoned with Salt with prudence and discretion not stained with filthiness and vanity lying detraction or any other sin but such as may tend to the use of Edifying and minister Grace unto the hearer Set a watch O Lord before our Mouths and keep the doors of our Lips Let our Actions O Lord be always holy and just or at least innocent and unblameable give us grace to walk as in thy sight and evermore to set thee before our Eyes Make us careful in the well spending of our time so as we may best prevent or resist Temptations and by discharging our Duties in our places and callings may glorifie thy holy Name Take from us O Lord all slothfulness and give us diligent and active Spirits that when the Devil assaults us he may not find us idle but improving those Talents intrusted to every one of us that we may at length receive from our great Lord and Master Jesus Christ that blessed Sentence Of Well done ye good and faithful Servants enter ye into your Masters Joy Do thou O Lord be with us in our labours and employments this day and bless us bless and prosper O Lord the works of our hands upon us yea prosper thou our handy-work Give thy holy Angels charge over us to keep us in all our ways that we rush not into any Temptation nor fall into any kind of bodily danger which our sins may justly expose us to but preserve us as the Apples of thine Eye and hide us under the shadow of thy Wings that in our going out and in our coming in we may be blessed and have always thy watchful protection over us These and whatever other Mercies thou knowest needful and requisite for us for all thine and thy whole Church we humbly begg in the Name and for the sake of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and in whose words we shut up our imperfect Petitions saying as he hath taught us Our Father which art in Heaven c. A Prayer at Noon Morning and Evening and at Noon will I praise thee and thou wilt hear my Voice Open thou my Lips O Lord and my Mouth shall shew forth thy praise O Father of Mercies and God of all Comfort and Consolation Thou art to be Worshipped and Adored with my continual Praises and Thanksgivings for thou continually followest me with thy Goodness and thy Mercies are renewed upon me every moment In thee I live and move and have my being and without thy succour and support I should quickly return to my first Principle of no being at all Thou hast created me redeemed me and by thy Fatherly care and providence constantly provided for me Thou art the God of my life and the Author of all those Mercies I enjoy whether Spiritual or Temporal and therefore thou alone deservest my praises and unto thee I ascribe as is most due all honour praise and glory both now and for evermore More especially I desire to bless and praise thy holy Name for thy particular Mercies towards me at this time that thou hast so plentifully refreshed my Body with thy good Creatures and filled me with the Flower of Wheat Blessed be the Lord God who daily loadeth me with his benefits even the God of my Salvation O Lord refresh my Soul also with the Spiritual Manna of thy Heavenly Grace and grant my pursuiâ— may not be after the Meat that perisheth but after that
which endureth to Everlasting Life Pardon I beseech thee O Lord as all my sins in general so especially whatever amiss hath passed from me this day and for Jesus Christ his sake do thou become unto me a reconciled Father own me for thy Child and continually preservr me by thy providence keep in me always a Religious Sense of thee and of thy goodness towards me and sanctifie my heart with thy holy Spirit that I may walk before thee the remaining part of this day and all the days of my life to thy honour and glâ—ry through Jesus Christ my blessed Lord and Saviour in whose Name and Words I continuâ— to implore thy Mercies saying Our Father c. A Prayer for the Evening in private O Most holy holy Lord God Heaven and Earth are full of the Majesty of thy Glory Thou art a God of purer Eyes then to behold the least Iniquity with the least Approbation thou chargest thine Angels with folly yea the Heavens are not pure in thy sight How shall I then so sinful and impure a Wretch dare to appear before thee or to take so holy a Name into my sinful and unhallowed Lips But O Lord thou art God and not Man thy ways are not as our ways nor thy thoughts as our thoughts but as high as the Heavens are above the Earth so are thy thoughts of Love and Peace higher than our thoughts and therefore relying on thy Mercies and gracious Promises I am bold at this time to prostrate my self before thee humbly confessing that I am corrupt in my very Nature having an inability and aversness to that which is good and an aptitude and proneness to all that is evil but I have corrupted my self yet much worse by many vicious Customs and sinful Habits I have transgressed my duty to thee my Neighbour and my self followed too much the devices and desires of my own wicked heart and not only not obeyed but many times wilfuâ—ly broken thy Commandements which are holy just and good and to my former provocations I have added the sins of the day past of omission and commission of thoughts words and actions Here particularize any sin Yea I know not how often I have offended O cleanse cleanse thou me from my secret faults And now O Lord should'st thou be extream to mark what I have done amiss I could not be justified in thy sight nor be able to answer thee for the sins of this one day but thou O God delightest in Mercy and there is forgiveness with thee that thou may'st be feared O I beseech thee let Repentance and Contrition prepare me for that Mercy of thine and then be thou pleased to take away all mine Iniquity and to receive me graciously into thy favour Neither do I desire thee only for the pardon of my past sins but do most bumbly beg for a Divine Power that I may be able to subdue them for the time to come and get a compleat Victory over all the Temptations of the World the Flesh and the Devil To that end let thy Grace and goodness and tender mercies prevent and follow me all the days of my life and bring into obedience whatsoever exalteth it self against thy blessed will that at last I may come to be such as thou would'st have me to be even holy in all manner of Conversation And as I pray unto thee so I desire likewise from an unseigned heart to praise and to bless thee for thy infinite Mercies for those which relate to this life and a better particularly for the Mercies of the day past Here enumerate them O Lord the least of these deserves my hearty Thanksgivings let not the universality and commonness of thy goodness make me to have the slighter regard of it but fill my Soul with a Sense of thy Love and my Tongue with sincere acknowledgments that as I daily receive blessings from thee so I may daily from an affectionate and devout heart offer up thanks unto thee and let my whole life and all my actions be the verification of my Praises And now I beseech thee O Lord receive me this Night into the Arms of thy providence hide me under the shadow of thy Wings Give thy holy Angels charge over me to pitch their Tents round about me that no evil happen unto me nor any plague come nigh unto my Dwelling but that I and mine and all my Concerns may be safe under thy gracious protection that lying down in thy fear and being refreshed with moderate rest I may be the fitter to serve thee in the duties of the ensuing day And all I beg in the Name and for the sake of Jesus Christ my alone Saviour and Redeemer for whom my Soul hath endless cause to bless and to praise thee to whom with thy self and Holy Spirit of Grace be by me ascribed as is most due and all thy Saints and Servants both in Heaven and in Earth all possible Praise Might Majesty and Dominion both now and for evermore Amen A Prayer in publick with the Family for the Evening HEar us O Lord in the multitude of thy Mercies even in the truth of thy Salvation and let not O let noâ— the loud cry of our sins hinder our Prayers from coming up unto thee or thy Graces and Mercies from coming down upon us but pardon our sins which make us unworthy to appear in thy presence and our services to be accepted by thee and assist us we pray thee with thy holy Spirit which may make us fervent and earnest in our Devotions that so we may obtain our Requests at thy hands in and through Jesus Christ O Eternal and Everliving Lord our God thou art in thy self most glorious and in thy Son most gracious Heaven is thy Throne and that thou fillest with thy Majesty the Earth is but thy Foot-stool and yet that thou fillest with thy Goodness both Heaven and Earth loudly proclaim the exceeding greatness of thy Glory and transcendent Excellencies We thy sinful Creatures who are not worthy to lift up our Eyes unto Heaven for we have sinned against Heaven and before thee are yet bold in the Bowels and Mercies of Jesus Christ to cast our selves down at the Foot-stool of thy Majesty desiring in all humility of Souls and Bodies to acknowledg our own vileness and wretchedness O Lord we brought into the World with us evil and wicked Inclinations and we have since made it our business to improve them into practice As the thoughts and imaginations of our hearts so the very words of our Lips and actions of our Lives have been evil and only evil and that continually Our provocations against thee our God have been very great and hainous and as for their number more than the Sands of the Sea We have lived in an universal disobedience to thy Laws and violated all thy holy Commandments in the keeping of which there is great Reward And this O Lord not only through ignorance and frailty but too many
times knowingly and wilfully against the Motions of thy holy Spirit against the Checks of our own Consciences against those various methods of thy Mercies and thy Judgments which thou hast used to draw us to thy self yea against those many Promises Vows and Resolutions which we have so often made betwixt thee and our own Consciences both in publick and in private of better obedience and amendment of Life And now O Lord what belongeth unto us but shame and confusion of Face And should'st thou abandon and cast us out of thy favour for ever we must needs confess that the Lord our God is Righteous and that we reap but the fruit of our ways but unto thee our God belong Mercies and Forgiveness though we have rebelled against thee Thou hast published thy self to be the Lord Merciful and Gracious slow to Anger and abundant in goodness and in truth A God forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin and therefore it is that we yet hope and because we hope we pray Have Mercy therefore upon us O God according to thy loving kindness and according to the multitude of thy tender Mercies blot out all our Transgressions washus throughly from our Iniquities and cleanse us from our Sins for we acknowledg our faults and our sins are ever before us We know O Lord that though our sins are exceeding great and many yet they cannot exceed the multitude of thy Mercies nor the greatness of Christ his Merits O we beseech thee therefore remember thy tender Mercies which have been ever of old and remember the bitter Sufferings of our blessed Redeemer and for the Merits thereof pardon all that is past and become unto us a reconciled Father and own us for thy Children Neither do we desire thee only to forgive unto us our past sins but we pray thee also to sanctifie our Natures to instruct our Understandings that we may know the things that belong to our Peace to regulate our Affections and place them on their right Objects and to dispose and incline our Wills readily to choose and cheerfully to imbrace what relates to thy Glory and our own Eternal Happiness Subdue all our Lusts mortifie all our Corruptions and bring into obedience whatsoever exalteth it self against thy most holy and blessed will that at last we may come to be such as thou wouldest have us and canst delight in Strengthen us O Lord against all the Temptations of the Devil the World and our own corrupt Flesh O Lord thou knowest the Frailties and weaknesses of our Natures and the number and strength of those Temptations we have to struggle with We humbly pray thee leave us not to our selves for then we shall quickly leave thee but assist us with thy Grace perfect thy Strength in our weakness and where thou feest we are either by Nature or Custom Company or Temptation most apt to be drawn aside to sin there do thou more especially magnifie thy power in our preservation Set a watch O Lord before our Mouths and keep the doors of our Lips Turn away our Eyes from beholding Vanity our hearts lest they think on Vanity and our hands lest they at any time act it and quicken thou us in thy way Search us O God and know our hearts O try us and know our thoughts and see what ways of Wickedness there are in us and lead us in the way Everlasting Give us grace to abstain from the very appearance of Evil and to watch and pray that we enter not into Temptation Possess our Souls continually with an holy fear and love of thee our God Make us holy as thou art holy pure as thou art pure and merciful as thou our heavenly Father art Merciful and Crown all thy Graces in us with Patience and Perseverance that notwithstanding all those discouragements and oppositions which we may meet withal here in this sinful World we may go on chearfully and constantly to do and suffer those things which thou requirest of us in order to thy Glory and the Salvation of our precious and immortal Souls O grant that we may not recede from any Christian performance upon the sight of any Obstruction lying in the way but may be willing to resist even unto Blood for the Name and for the sake of Jesus Christ Fit and prepare us O Lord for all Estates and Conditions whatsoever thou in thy Divine Providence hast allotted for us for Adversity as well as prosperity for Sickness as well as health for an Evil as well as a good Report But above all fit and prepare us for the hour of Death and the day of Judgment that so whensoever wheresoever or howsoever it shall please thee to call for us out of this Vale of Tears we may be found prepared for thy coming and may cheerfully and contentedly resign our Souls up into thine hands as into the hands of a faithful Creator But seeing that whilst we are here below we have a continual need of supply of all those outward things for supportance of these Houses of Clay we humbly beseech thee give us such a portion of them as thou knowest may make most for the glory of thy Name and the good of our selves and others Grant that we may seek first thy Kingdom and the Righteousness thereof and then let all those outward things be added unto us in such a measure as thou in thy Divine Wisdom seest best for us and in every condition that it shall please thee to place us give us Grace to be content Take away from us O Lord both the Evil of Sin and the Evil of Punishment O keep thy Servants from presumptuous Sins deliver us from thine Anger from the withdrawing of thy Grace and from Everlasting Damnation and as for all Temporal Afflictions not as we will O Lord but thy holy and blessed will be done in all things only whatsoever thou shalt please to inflict upon us give us patience and contentment under it and then chasten us here O Lord as thou pleasest that we be not condemned with the World With us we humbly beseech thee to be mindful of all thine the World over give thy Enlightning Grace to all that are in darkness Thy Converting Grace to all that are in Sin O be favourable and gracious unto Zion Build thou the Walls of Jerusalem look upon the Tribe of thine own Inheritance and the place where thou hast dwelt Let thy Mercies and Blessings rest upon all people of this Nation from the highest to the lowest more especially bless with thy choicest blessings our Gracious King Charles The Queen and all the Royal Family Bless all our Ministers and Magistrates Grant that they may be Men fearing God and hating Coverousness Charge thy Providence with all our Friends and Relations Let those that are near and dear unto us be near and dear unto thee let their Souls be bound up in the bundle of Life give them all things necessary for their Souls and Bodies guide them here by thy
Give us grace to apply it to our selves and to reduce it into practice that thy word may be unto us the savour of life unto life and not unto any Soul of us the savour of death unto death These Mercies O most merciful Father for our selves or any of thine and whatever else thou knowest fitting for us together with the acceptance of our praises we humbly beg at thy hands though not for any worthiness that is in our selves for we utterly disclaim all but for the Merits of him who alone is worthy Jesus Christ the Righteous in whose endearing Name and holy Words we continue to pray unto thee saying Our Father c. Thy Grace O Lord Jesus Christ c. A Prayer for Sunday Evening in the Family Open thou our Lips O Lord and our Mouths shall shew forth thy praise O Most blessed and glorious Lord God Father of Mercies and of our Lord Jesus Christ Thou fillest Heaven with thy Glory and the Earth with thy Goodness All thy works praise thee O Lord and thy Saints give thanks unto thee Thy Name only is excellent and thy praise above Heaven and Earth but because thou art good and delightest in doing good thou art pleased to permit us thy poor unworthy Creatures here on Earth to offer up our Prayers and our Praises unto thee who dwellest in the highest Heavens that thou may'st reward them with thy favour and loving kindness And that we might never be wanting to our selves thou art daily pleased to give us new and fresh occasions of Praising and Magnifying thy Holy Name Even this very day we have had large Experiences of thy Goodness which call for our highest Thanksgivings The temporal Mercies we have received in thy protection of us from those many dangers to which we were exposed by reason of our sins and the plentiful refreshment we have had in the use of thy good Creatures deserve our due acknowledgments but that thou hast given us Dust and Ashes an opportunity and leave to come into thy more immediate presence to wait upon thee in thy House to speak unto thee the glorious Majesty of Heaven before whom Angels cover their Faces and to hear thee speaking unto us instructing us in our Duties and offering unto us terms of Reconciliation most justly challenge our devoutest Affections and most exalted Praises Thou hast given thine only Son to be a Sacrifice for us by whom we have Redemption through his Blood thou hast given him Victory over Hell and the Grave by his Resurrection from the dead and he is now sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high making continual Intercession for us Thou hast given us the constant Solicitations of thy blessed Spirit of Truth the Seal of our Adoption and the earnest of the Inheritance of the Saints together wih a succession of Pastors and Teachers to be the Dispensers of thy Word and Will and the Guides of our Souls And thou hast prepared such things for those that fear thee as Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor ever entred into the heart of Man to conceive Lord what is Man that thou art mindful of him Or the Son of Man that thou hast done such great things for him Praise the Lord O our Souls and all that is within us praise his holy Name Praise the Lord O our Souls and forget not all his benefits O that all this Goodness of thine might ingage us by way of just return to thy free and undeserved Mercies more heartily to love thee more devoutly to worship thee and more diligently to live after thy Commandments Give us a due savour and relish of those Divine Truths we have learned this day Grant that we may not be only hearers but doers of thy Word lest we deceive our own Souls Cherish those holy Thoughts Affections and Resolutions which thy good Spirit hath raised in us O Let not them pass out of our minds with the day but leave Impressions upon our hearts the whole Week following and all our days that as we have received how we ought to walk and to please thee our God so we may abound more and more Bless all the faithful Dispensers of thy Word and Sacraments however dignified or distinguished More especially bless him O Lord who hath this day blessed us in thy Name Pour down a double portion of thy holy Spirit into his heart make him an eminent Instrument for thy Glory Let him turn many from their wicked ways unto thee the living God and hereafter let his Soul shine as a Star in the Firmament of thy Kingdom Continue unto us O Lord such holy opportunities and seasons of Grace as thou now affordest us and send them where they are not Let not O let not the loud cry of our national Sins provoke thee to remove thy Candlestick from us or to quench the Light of our Israel but blessed God whatever temporal Judgments thou art pleased to bring upon us whatever Mercies thou art pleased to deny us yet for thy Names sake and for thy Truth and Righteousness sake be pleased still to continue unto us the free liberty of thy House of thy Word Sacraments and Ordinances in their primitive purity and regularity until time shall be no more Pardon we pray thee good God whatever thou hast seen amiss in us the day past even the many frailties and imperfections of our holiest Duties and Performances Look not upon the weakness of our Flesh but upon the sincerity of our Hearts and Desires Pity all our Infirmities and let those Sacrifices which we have this day offered unto thy Divine Majesty be accepted in and for that Sacrifice which thy Son Christ Jesus hath offered up upon the Cross for us Finally O Lord we commend into thine hands this Night our Selves Souls and Bodies and all our Friends every where to be protected by thy providence refreshed with moderate rest and raised again the next Morning by thy power to serve thee with more cheerfulness and to praise thee for thy renewed Mercies And all we beg for the alone sake and love of thy Son who is the Son of thy love Jesus Christ our Lord In whose holy Name we are bold to beg the acceptance of our Petitions and Thanksgivings and to continue to supplicate thy Divine Majesty Saying as he hath taught us Our Father which art in Heaven c. Thy Grace O Lord Jesus Christ c. A Prayer preparatory for Death to be often used in the time of Health O Immortal and Everliving Lord God thy years endure throughout all Generations from everlasting to everlasting thou art God I thy frail Creature created at first by thy power to a state of Immortality with thy self which by Adams Transgression the representative of all mankind I have long since forfeited my right to and am become liable to Death I acknowledg thy mercy towards me in my Creation and thy justice and faithfulness in the execution of thy Threatnings upon breach
already by better Heads been so largely and learnedly discussed nor yet pretend to the invention of many new but only cull out a few which seem to me most cogent and convincing and which have given me the greatest confirmation of my own Faithin the Existence of a Deity SECTION I. Concerning God and what he is IT was not without great Reason advised by the Wisest of Kings that when we had a mind to speak any thing before God we should not be hasty to utter it and Aristotle teaches us Nunquam nos-verecundiores esse debere quam cum de diis agitur That we never ought to be more modest than when we have to do about God and there is no doubt but that when we speak not only before God but of him we ought most seriously to weigh our thoughts and words and with much caution produce them lest we should any way derogate from the Purity and Excellencies of so transcendent Majesty But when we have weighed and considered all that we can of him our Apprehensions are very narrow and scant and our Notions of him come infinitely short of his Divine Perfections For as he is Invisible to the Eye so he is Incomprehensible to the Mind Whatsoever we conceive it is but in part there is much more we cannot perceive nor comprehend He is represented to us a Spiritual and Incorporal Essence and till we come to be unbodied our selves we cannot perfectly conceive what he is so that we may conclude with Aristotle Hoc tantum scio me nihil scire This only we know that we know nothing or with a Diviner Authori Elihu Job 37.23 Touching the Almighty we cannot find him out There is no question but those that duly Worship and Honour God duly agnise and are acquainted with him But if the Atheist to whom the greatest part of this Discourse is directed should interrogate Where is your God Jovis omnia plena And bid us Worship what we know we answer God fills every place John 4.22 and we know what we Worship and that is the true God whose Nature and Infinity though we who are but finite Creatures cannot sufficiently comprehend yet he is more cognoscible to us by his Perfections and Attributes than any other thing whatsoever Under the Notion therefore of a God I understand a Being that is Eternal Omniscient Omnipotent the Fountain of all Goodness Mercy and Truth the Creator of all things and finally that hath in himself the Complement of all Perfections This is a Glympse a general Notion that we now have of that most glorious God we Revere and Adore Job 26.14 We now hear of him but a little portion saith Job We know but in part 1 Cor. 13.12 and see him but darkly as through a Perspective Glass in the Works of his Creation but hereafter when this earthy Tabernacle of ours shall be dismantled We shall know him as we are known and see him face to face Our Eyes are now too weak to behold this dazling Sun but then they shall be strenghened and enlightned all mists dispelled and we shall with Cherubims and Seraphims admire its lustre and bear our part to him in that Divine Anthem Revel 4.11 Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Glory and Honour and Power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created Let us learn then hence this Corollary That though God be invisible to the Eye and incomprehensible to the Mind and as Job says We cannot find him out in his perfection Job 11.7 Let us lay by our Sense and Reason and apprehend him now by Faith that so we may know him to our Salvation for ever SECT II. That the Existence of a God and a Providence in the World is as cleerly demonstrable as any Truth whatsoever IT hath been often disputed if there ever were and whether it is possible there ever should be such a Prodigy in Nature as a Speculative Atheist and it hath been generally carried in the Negative and for my part I can hardly believe that there is such a Monster in the World for amongst the immense number of Deities that remoter Nations have had and their disagreeings what Gods they ought to have yet none were so wild and barbarous as totally to renounce all Nulla gens est neque tam immansueta neque tam fera quae non etiamsi ignoret qualem habere deum deceat tamen habeâ—dum sciat Cicero de Legib. lib. 1. And again Nulla gens tam fera nemo omnium tam sitim manis cujus mentem non imbuerit deorum opinio Tusc Qu. lib. 1. So Seneca Nulla gens usquam estadeo extra leges moresque projecta ut non aliquos deos credat Epist 118. In omnium animis deorum notionem impressit ipsa natura Nature it self hath herein given Laws to the minds of Men. This is one of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 common Notions The Law written in our hearts and were there an Absolute impossibility to have this Notion ab Extra yet it is too deeply impress'd there by the God of Nature ever to be errased or obliterated Otherwise what can we think of those who have been born both Deaf and Dumb and understood nothing of any Character to be instructed by yet will give manifest Discoveries of their Apprehension of a God by paying him in their unintelligible way Homage and Adoration and often prostrating themselves on the Earth with their Eyes and Hands lifted up towards Heaven with the greatest seriousness and reverence imaginable This is a part of Piety St. Basil says we never learn'd but brought with us into the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as an impression made in us by the hand of Nature it self Men were heretofore so superstitious in the belief of a Deity that they those rather to err on the right hand than the left and would have too many rather then none at all They would have a Deity for every thing their Corn and their Wine and their Cattel and so that the Romans by that method had multiplied their Gods to above Thirty thousand and other Nations came not much behind them But alass our Age pretends to more light and indeed I think only too much hath dazled our Eyes that we cannot see as far as the Wisest Heathens Non praestat fides quod praestat infidelitas Even Fabricius Cato and Regulus will upbraid and shame many of us who call our selves Christians Heretofore only a few poor Indians Inhabitants of Soldania in Affrick and Cannibals of Ammerica or single persons as Diagoras Milesius Protagoras Abderites Lucian and no number much less Societies of Men ever denyed a Deity but now we need not go so far as those dark and barbarous Corners of the World to search for such Monsters as these who differ but little from the very Brutes we may find them much nearer home in Europe as
sonat sed Deum certè which bespeaks God and not Man the Author of it and therefore he alone deserves the Glory And if we shall be so impudent to appropriate that to our selves which belongs only to him we may justly expect to fare as the Man in the Gospel Acts 12.23 who was eaten up of Worms for not giving the Glory to the right Proprietor It is of his pleasure and goodness that we our selves enjoy our health and beings and of his great mercy that we can be any way Instrumental to convey the one or preserve the other to any person let us not be therefore so unreasonable and ungrateful to defaulk from God what is his due and of right pertains to him but as his is the Work so let him have the glory Moreover neither doth this only correspond with Divinity but common Prudence for since it is in the power of God to bless or frustrate our proceedings to prosper or blast the operation of our Medicines For it is he that maketh sore and bindeth up he woundeth and his hands make whole Job 5.18 we cannot rationally imagine but that he will do better when he sees them turn to so bad an account And I do not doubt but this one sin is that which renders them so often unprosperous and ineffectual Now that they may better succeed for the future and that the Physician may discharge his duty in his place I should with submission to more pious and learned persons offer these following Rules and Directions 1. Having premised that a Physician ought to live a Holy and Vertuous Life let him in the first place when any sick person desires his assistance cast himself on his knees or if the suddainness or multitude of business or want of privacy interrupts he may supply it by silent Ejaculation and most humbly implore the great Phpsician to instruct his Judgment and bless his Undertakings for whatever the Second Cause be God is the First and therefore the Divine presence and assistance is absolutely necessary and first to be invoked in all weighty affairs and what greater than those which concern the Lives of Men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plin. in Paneg. Bene sapienter majores instituerunt ut rerum agendarum initium à praecationibus caperetur and it was a high pitch of a Heathens mind namely Epictetus Enchirid. Cap. 78. In quovis incaepto haec optanda sunt duc me ô Jupiter et tu factum Guid me O God and thou divine providence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plaâ—o in Tymaeo If Hippocrates thought it necessary for those who had taken any Cure in hand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to ask Advice of all even of Ideots and those who knew but little in that Art much rather then ought we 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ask Counsel of God by Prayer and then perhaps our Prayer may do as much as our Medicine or if both prove successless tho we are assur'd to the contrary James 5.15 That the Prayer of Faith shall save the Sick yet we have this satisfaction in our Consciences that we have done our duties 2. Neither must we rest here but must joyn our Studies and Endeavours to our Prayers and after we have fully inform'd our selves of our Patients condition and throughly examin'd all Circumstances carefully and advisedly prescribe them abstaining from trying any new Experiments or extreme Remedies except in extreme and desperate Diseases or where they are very consentaneous to the Rules of Physick and highly probable to answer those designs which a known and tried Medicine would not effect that to they make not themselves accessory to the destruction of their Patients and ruin of their own Reputation 3. That we do not peremptorily promise a Cure in uncertain and dangerous Diseases It is too well known how many Physicians there are who are so Dogmatical in their Opinions confident of their own Abilities and Success of their Medicines that they will not stick even in the most difficult Cases at first sight to warrant a perfect Cure by which at last when they find themselves defeated in their hopes and their prognosticks deceive them they expose their Judgments and many times forfeit their Repute And it were well if this were all but alass the consequence is far more dangerous for by this means the Patient is careless of putting his House in order and which is worse of trimming and preparing his Soul for Death The best Christians altho they live in an habitual holiness and constant preparation for their end and like the Wise Virgins have Oyl in their Lamps in expectation when the Bride-groom will come yet they would willingly then yet once more dress their Wedding Garments and trim their Lamps by Repetition of Acts of Repentance Faith Hope Devotion Patience Charity and Resignation of themselves to God And who is there who when he is ready to breath his last thinks so well of his Condition that he would not pray Davids Prayer O spare me a little that I may recover my Strength before I go hence and be no more seen Or cry out with Crisorius in Gregory Iuducias vel usque ad mane iuducias vel usque ad mone Truce respite Lord until the Morning But I fear the far greater number of those we are concern'd for are such as need not only trimming but Oyl in their Lamps too not only the Ornaments but the Garment it self and then certainly when there is time for it and God may in mercy accept of a Death-bed Repentance how much have we to answer for either for flattering them with the hopes of Recovery or not acquainting them with their approaching danger I know the common Objection to this is that by incouraging the Patient his langushing Spirits are upheld he more readily submits to the use of means and bears his Sickness with a greater cheerfulness and on the contrary by telling him the truth his Spirits are dejected he becomes impatient and rejects the Prescription To these it is easily answered that either the Patient is a Religious good Man or a Vicious and Wicked Man If the former he loves not to be flattered but will certainly have the better esteem of his Physician for dealing so plainly with him and because he thinks the time of his deliverance from his present Pains and Sickness and inauguration into a State of everlasting Joy and Blessedness so near approaches his Spirits instead of being dejected are exalted and because he knows that his time is in Gods hand that neither he nor the Physician can infallibly know the time of his departure and that God hath commanded the use of means he is content to submit to the Rules prescrib'd him and leave the success to God On the contrary If he be a Vicious and Wicked Man it is but fit that if more gentle and mild perswasions will not prevail that he should be fright'ned into a sense of his desperate condition and not suffer'd to go like
an Oxe to the slaughter to his eternal perdition without some Monition and Advice which for ought we know being given prudently and in season may with the Operation of Gods Spirit concurring work so good an effect upon him as to draw him to a true tho late Repentance and then he hath pull'd him out of the Fire as a Fire-brand ready to be consumed and saved a Soul from Death as St. James saith Chap. 5.20 and then let any one tell me if this be not a sufficient recompence for his pains and amongst all sober and prudent persons salve enough for his Reputation It may be farther urged that Physicians are only to take care of the Body and the Divine of the Soul It is true for that purpose they were consulted and it were to be wished the Divine might never be forgotten but acquainted early with the Diseased's Case and earnestly in treated to visit the Patient as well as the Physician but yet I humbly conceive that the Physician hath many better opportunities than he can have and which is much to be lamented he is seldom so early or so often advised with as the Physician and though the later be not so much obliged by his Profession as the former yet certainly even he cannot be excused in point of Charity The last Caution or Advice is That if it shall please God to make us successful in our Endeavours we do not ascribe the praise of it as is too common unto our selves but unto God to whom alone it is due I have in the former part of this Section shew'd the reasonableness of it and therefore all I shall add by way of Conclusion shall be this That this is the â—eadiest way to find success in our Undertakings By this shall we be more famous than our Neighbours round about â—s This will most advantage both Paâ—ient and Physician and cause God to continue such his Mercies toward us Whilst on the contrary by arrogating the â—ole praise to our selves we rob God of â—he honour due unto him and our selves of the reward of our good Action Therefore let us all unanimously from our hearts â—ay Non nobis Domine non nobis sed â—omini too sit gloria Not unto us not â—nto us but unto God be the praise both â—ow and for evermore Amen The Physicians Prayer O Thou great Creator both of Heaven and Earth and of all things contained therein Thou art the Fountain of all Goodness Mercy and Benediction who by my Education and other Effects of thy Providence hath call'd me to this Profession of Physick that by my industry therein I may in my small proportion be instrumental for the bringing of some good and benefit both to my self and others I humbly begg thy grace to guide me in my intention and in the transaction of my Affairs that I may be diligent studious and faithful and grant me thy Favour that these my Endeavours may be accepted as a part of my necessary Duty and grant me thy Blessing to assist and prosper me in all my Studies and Vndertakings And seeing O Lord I am a Man not God to heal be thou graciously pleased to let thy Wisdom go before me to direct my Judgment for thy good of thy Servant who desires my Assistance Let thy blessing accompany what I shall direct giving unto all things a due and kindly Operation that so a prosperous and happy success come after it And I pray thee O Lord give me and all my Patients who by thy blessing have received benefit by my hands hearts truly thankful unto thee for thy Mercies and Grace to ascribe as is most due all the Praise Honour and Glory unto thy holy Name And grant me O Lord a quiet and cheerful Submission unto thy all-wise Providence when ever it shall please thee to deny me the Blessing of Success Let thy holy Spirit be ever present with me to direct me in all my Vndertakings that I may manage my Affairs with Prudence Honesty and most Christian Sincerity that so my Profession may be sanctifi'd by my Religion and all my Actions by thy Blessing that when I have done that portion of Work thou hast allotted â—ne and improved that Talent thou hast intrusted unto me and served the Common-wealth in my Capacity I may receive the mighty price of my high Calling which I most earnestly beg may be in the portion and inheritance of my ever blessed Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Amen Those who by reason of the multitude of Patients may not find leisure for the using of the aforesaid or any other set Form of Prayer at the time of their Address to them may yet do it every Morning before they leave their Closet and only use this or the like short Ejaculation at the time when they are to treat with their Patient or to direct for him O Lord the Giver of Health and all good things let thy Wisdom I beseech thee iâ—struct my Judgment in order to the Health and Recovery of thy Sick Servant who now next to thee commits him or her self to my care and succeed my Directions with thy Benediction for Jesus Christ his sake Amen When you enter into the Sick Persons Chamber Ejaculate thus Peace O Lord and Health be unto this Sick Person through Jesus Christ Raise him or her up again O Lord that we may reward thee with Praises and Thanksgivings Amen Finis Partis Prioris The Christian PHYSICIAN The Second PART By H. A. M. D. Non magna loquimur sed vivimus Quanto plus melius scis tanto gravius inde judicaberis nisi sanctius vixeris Gerson De Imitatione Christi LONDON Printed by T. James for William Leach at the Crown in Corn-hill 1683. TO THE Right Honourable the Lady LAETITIA ISABELLA Countess of RADNOR MADAM THis following small Treatise comes to beg your Honours shelter and acceptance which if it be ever safe I am very certain it must be with your Ladyship who without flattery are so generally known to be the Patroness and Protectrix of all that is Pious and Vertuous that I can never in the least doubt of it till even Vertue it self comes to want a Patronage I dare not nay indeed I cannot tell the World how much you deserve that Title it being a Task too difficult far for my undertakings for who can paint the Heavens besides I am so well acquainted with your Ladyships Temper that I know your Noble Mind loves the substance only not the outward shew and delights more in being Vertuous than in appearing or being known to be so which makes me decline those praises which really and deservedly your Vertues call for I cannot in the least think that your Honour stands in need of any of those following Helps and Directions your whole life being indeed nothing else but a Map or Transcript of Piety and had I consulted your Ladyship I know they would have been much more compleat however at least I hope it may
contribute some assistance to them who have not better advice And being to make this publick I know no person that I have so many Obligations to dedicate it to as your Ladyship and having nothing better to present by way of an ackonwledgment I hope your Ladyship will not refuse to accept this though of a small value from From Newcastle upon Tine Nov. 2d 1682. Your Honours most Faithful and most Obedient Servant Henry Atherton THE PREFACE HAving in the former Treatise I hope satisfied all rational persons concerning the Existence of a Deity it will I judge naturally follow that this Deity is to be Worshipped I say Naturally because I never read of any of the Heathens who acknowledged gods but they paid them homage and adoration Qualescunque sunt saith Cicero in his Book De Natura deorum after he had reckoned up the variety of gods hos does venerari colere debemus Whatsoever they are if we own them gods we ought to honour and worship them Nay He though a Heathen goes farther Cultus autem deorum est optimus idemque castissimus atque sanctissimus plenissmusque pietatis ut eos semper pura integra incorrupta mente voce veneremur For indeed the worship of the gods is best of all most pure most holy and most full of Piety and he advises that when we worship them it should be always with a sincere honest Heart and undefiled Tongue There are many ways by which God may be worshipped but that which I only intend to mention here is by Prayer and Invocation which I shall not curiously dissect neither into its various parts but only tell you that this being a part of Gods Worship those that own his Existence and their dependance upon him are indispensably obliged to pay him that so easie Tribute and Adoration Prayer is the great duty and greatest priviledge of a Christian By it we have intercourse with Heaven and bear a part with Angels and beautifi'd Spirits It is the Medium by which we discover all our wants and necessities unto God the Key to unlock Heaven and draw down all Blessings spiritual and temporal upon us Is any Man Afflicted let him Pray Doth any Man lack Wisdom James 1.5 Let him ask of God who giveth to all Men liberally and it shall be given him Therefore seeing it is so much our interest as well as our priviledg and duty let us not be wanting to our selves in it You will find in the following Sheets a small Manual of Directions and Devotions which as by the homeliness of the dress you may easily see were composed only for my own private use and addresses and never intended that they should as much as peep out of my Closet door And now I shall not tell you as many do that they were press'd out or extorted from me by importunity of Friends or the like but indeed after a little pause and consideration with my self they came out voluntarily hoping at least they may have some good influence on some or other either for Direction or Encouragment to a Holy Life and if not they will only remain useless to others as they did before in my Closet and yet however I shall have this satisfaction in my own Conscience that I intended them well and I hope the purity of the Intention will some way sanctifie the Action and procure Acceptance if not with Men yet with God I am very sensible of the most excellent and unparallell'd composure of the Liturgy of our Church for all publick and most private concerns and how the deficiency of this as to particular wants if any such be is supplied by the incomparable Authors of the Whole Duty of Man Practice of Piety Method of Private Devotions Devout Christian by Bishop Taylor and many other worthy and pious Persons whose Shoes I am not worthy to bear out of some of which you will find several Collections in the following pages But yet give me leave to east in my Mite too and take in good part my weak endeavours also which probably in some things may be more particular than what you meet in them Neither dare I being a Laick prescribe them as Forms for others but only acquaint my Reader that they are such as I use my self and may perhaps be beneficial to him upon the like occasions These I know are very defective too and as he grows more prolifick in Grace so he will be able to supply my defects by a new Additament of his own And if these may give any such encouragment or have any good effect upon any one I have my aim and shall think my self well recompenced for my Studies Hic Rhodus Hic saitus I know this little Tract will fall into the hands of many a Momus who will either carp at or deride it The Learned will perhaps think it impertinent or at least not dainty enough for their curious Paluts and the looser vulgar taunt and scoff at it This is the best usage I can expect it shall meet withal in this profligate Age but however I doubt not but amongst sober and pious Christians it will find better entertainment which will make me dis-esteem the Censures of the one and the revilings of the other it being my design to gratifie â—ot the most but the best Directions how to spend every day in the Fear of God EVery Morning as soon as thou awakest out of Sleep endeavour to get thy Soul Affected with the Majesty and Mercy of God Consider his Power that he was able to raise thee again and his Goodness that he would not suffer thee to sleep in death his Mercy that he hath carefully defended thee and thine from the many sad Casualties and Accidents which might have justly faln either upon thee or them by reason of your Sins and then lift up thy Soul to God in these or the like short Prayers or Ejaculations O Almighty God who hast in thy Mercy awak'ned my Body out of Sleep so I beseech thee by thy grace awaken my Soul from the sleep of Sin and grant I may so walk before thee this day and all the days of my life hereafter that when the last Trumpet shall awaken my Body out of the Grave I may rise to the Life Immortal through Jesus Christ My Voice shalt thou hear in the Morning O Lord in the Morning will I direct my Prayer unto thee and will look up I will sing of thy Power yea I will sing aloud of thy Mercy in the Morning for thou hast been my Defence and my Refuge in the time of my Trouble My Soul desires to wait for thee O Lord more than they that wait for the Morning O God therefore be thou merciful unto me and bless me and cause thy Face to shine upon me O fill me with thy Mercy this Morning so shall I rejoyce and be glad even all the days of my life So teach me to number my days that I may apply
much less can I perform any good Action that might please thee I most humbly beseech thee that as by thy special Grace preventing me thou dost put into my Mind good desires and intentions so by thy continual help I may bring the same to good Effect To that end I beseech thee cleanse the thoughts of my Heart by the Inspiration of thy Holy Spirit and give me such a preparation of Soul as may qualifie me for the Duties of the ensuing day and grant that I may perfectly love thee delight in thy service and worthily magnifie thy holy Name through Christ Jesus our Lord. The Morning being come consider what necessary business you have to do that day and dispose as prudently of it as you can that it may not interfere with your Holy Exercises of Religion when you begin upon it And if any such be you may do well to dispatch it in the Morning In your private Morning Devotions be not unmindful to continue your Requests unto God for his assistance in the Duties of the day in these or the like Expressions which you may find place to insert among your other Petitions O Most gracious God thou hast been pleased to discover unto me my Duty and hast given me an hearty desire to perform the same But O Lord I know without thee I can do nothing but through thine assisting Grace I shall be able to offer up such a Sacrifice this day as may be well pleasing and acceptable in thy sight Let that Grace O Lord be sufficient for me to quicken my Devotions to kindle my Zeal and to work in me a Godly Humiliation for all my past Sins together with stedfast Resolutions of forsaking them for the time to come And tho O Lord I know thou hearest not Sinners wilfully resolved to persevere in their Sins yet thou wilt hear those that confess and abandon them Hear me therefore O Lord in the multitude of thy Mercies even in the Truth of thy Salvation and remove my Sins from before thy sight that they may not hinder good things from me this day but set them full in mine and let them ever be before me that I may not only confess them with an humble lowly penitent and obedient Heart but also actually forsake them that so 〈◊〉 may obtain forgiveness of the same by thy infinite goodness and mercy in and through Jesus Christ Amen Another to this purpose out of the Method of Private Devotions O Lord who seest the purposes of alâ— Hearts and hast been privy to the Intentions of thy Servant touching calling himself this day to an account of his ways and humbling himself before thee for all his Transgressions and rendring thee praise and thanks for all thy Mercies Be thou in Mercy present to mâ— by the preventings and assistings of thy Grace that I may with a true Hearâ— and contrite Spirit perform what I intend Grant that no worldly cares oâ— business may so take off my mind from thee but that I may be able forthwitâ— to return and without distraction to imploy my whole Soul in my designeâ— Devotions to the Glory of thy Name my own amendment and comfort here and everlasting Blessedness hereafter iâ— and through thy Son Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen 1. First abstain from all Food and Sustenance unless thouart of a weak and valetudinary temper until the Solemnity be over If thou art if thou eat and drink sparingly with a design only to strengthen thy self the better for the carrying on of thy Duty I think thou hast not broken thy Fast The Fast it self being not injoyned so much for its own sake but as it is a help and furtherance to other Duties 2. Have a care that you do not only fast from Meat but from Sin also for if you abstain from the former and not from the latter it is a great Argument of your Hypocrisie and that your Righteousness doth not exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees who fasted to be seen of Men Matth. 6.16 and are promised their Reward shall go no farther than that of Men too This is not such a Fast as God hath chosen or will accept 3. Abstain likewise this day from all gratification of your Senses from all Pleasures and Recreations This day you have design'd for condemning your self for your sins for humiliation of your self for them and mourning over them then how inconsistent will this be with Mirth and Jollity Altogether as great a Soloecism as Musick and Dancing at a Funeral to have silence in the Kitchin and the noise of Mirth in the Chamber is a thing very indecent and incongruous 4. Lastly let not Intemperance be either the Preface or Conclusion to your Fast least the Fast be so far from taking off your old sins that it be an occasion to draw on new guilt Thus I have led you through those previous Acts towards this Duty of Fasting we now come more closely to the Exercises of it Being retired to thy Closet about Noon thy mind being as much as possible disburthen'd of Worldly Thoughts cast thy self down upon thy knees and humbly say In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Amen Prevent me O Lord in all my doings with thy most gracious favour and further me with thy continuual help that in all my Works begun continuued and ended in thee I may glorifie thy holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Our Father which art in Heaven c. And then taking Gods Holy Book into thy hands â—ay Sanctifie unto me O Lord my present Reading and Meditations that it may in some measure prepare me for that great Work I am now about Take off my mind from all Vain and Earthly Things and inspire it with a holy Zeal that I may with spiritual desires and affections perform this spiritual Duty and grant that nothing may find admitâ—ance into my heart but what shall reaâ—ilysubmit to thy Laws and Discipline Grant this O Lord for Jesus Christ â—is sake Amen After you have spent half an hour in â—he reading of that portion of Scripture which you have thought fit to select for his purpose or that good practical â—ook which you have made choice of â—pend another half hour in digesting it â—r Meditating upon it and make partiâ—ular applications of it to your self This â—roximate preparation also you will find â—ery necessary in Order to the calling â—f your Mind from Vain and Worldly â—houghts which without it would be too apt to Straggle and be Distracted and to fix and intend them on that Exercise which you are about This being done you begin again with Prayer after this manner O Lord thou High and Holy one whose glory is above the Heavens and hast Thousands of Angels Ministring unto thee and yet are pleas'd to humble thy self to behold the things that are done by us poor wretched Mortals here on Earth In confidence therefore
us and then most strongly assails us when we have the least power to resist him There was a time when Satan did suspend his Tyranny sit close in the heart feeding on those lusts he found there without any outward shew of violence Certa quiscendi tempora fata dabant But now he awakes as a Lion out of sleep and as a young Lion greedy of his prey ready to tear the poor Languishing Soul in pieces calls in all his powers and artifices because he knows that he hath but a short time and if he miss this opportunity he must then let it alone for ever Therefore it will be very necessary that you pre-arme your self against his Objections or Assailings and they may be such as these 1. First He may assail thee by setting before thee the multitude and hainousness of thy Sins that they are so many and so great that thou canst not expect that God should pardon them and so endeavour to draw thee to a despondency of God's mercy But then presently oppose this Temptation of his by calling to Mind the multitude and infinitness of God's mercies which cannot be out-numbred by our Sins nor out-weighed by our most presumptuous transgressions Remember that place of Micah 7 and 18. Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgressions of thine heritage Who retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy and that other in Isa 1.18 Though your Sins were as Scarlet they shall be white as Snow though they be Red like Crimson they shall be as Wooll Consider also that the greatest Sinners repenting have found Mercy as Manasses Mary Magdelen Peter Paul yea the Thief on the Cross who at the last breath found mercy 2. The Devil may in the time of thy Sickness assail thee by setting before thee the Strictness and Severity of God's Justice and tell thee It is true God is merciful indeed but he is just too Zephan 3.5 Psal 92 15. And he will not let the Wicked go unpunished his justice runs parallel with his mercy and as the one is infinite so is the other too To this oppose Christ's full and compleat Satisfaction Indeed by the Law no Man could be justified but Christ was made a Curse for us that he might redeem us from the Curse of the Law That he might receive the Adoption of Sons Gala. 3.13 Christ by one Oblation of himself once offered made a full perfect and sufficient Sacrifice Oblation and Satisfaction for the Sins of the whole World Christ himself will answer for thee These are mine and shall be made up with my Jewels for their transgressions was I stricken and cut off from the Earth for them was I bruised and put to grief my Soul was made an offering for their Sins and I bare their transgressions they are my seed and the travel of my Soul I have healed them by my Stripes I have justified them by my Knowledge they are my sheep who shall take them out of my hands 3. Satan may object that thou hast no part in these promises because thou art not elected To this oppose God's free Covenant all are invited to receive mercy God excludes none but such as exclude themselves Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the Waters and drink is the Language of God by the Prophet Isa 55.1 Nay our blessed Saviour confirms it also John 7.37 If any excluding none Man thirst let him come unto me and drink and again in the 55. of Isa 7. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous Man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon And so in the 33. of Ezekiel 11. As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the Wicked but that the Wicked turn from his way and live turn ye turn ye from your evil way for why will ye die O house of Israel And therefore if thou be one that hath turned from thy evil ways never dispute thy election but as sure as God lives and that his Oath and Word are Truth so sure shalt thou live with him in everlasting bliss and happiness and therefore here thou may'st call to mind some of the fruits of thy Faith that thou hast at any time found in the Course of thy Life and thence comfort thy drooping Soul concluding that thou art certainly of the number of those that are ordained to Salvation 4. Fourthly The Devil may perhaps endeavour to perswade thy Soul that because thou art as it were in some kind of desertion and wantest that clear evidence which formerly thou hadst by reason of Gods present dealings with thee that God is not thy God that thy unpardoned Sins causeth him now to hide his Face from thee in thy greatest Extremity and that he will no more be intreated by thee Indeed if thou hast not repented of thy Sins the Devil's argument is good but if thou hast the Testimony of thy Conscience that thou hast truly repented of all thy sins and that in simplicity and godly sincerity thou hast had thy conversation in this life never be discouraged but assure thy self that though God seems to hide himself from thee yet he has no other design in it but to try thee and the strength of thy Faith thy Christian courage and resolution This will be but for a short time and then the sweetness of his return will abundantly compensate for his short with-drawing For a small moment saith God Isa 54.7 have I forsaken thee but with great Mercies will I gather thee Job had sufficient confidence of the return of God's favour and mercy though for the present there was no manifest appearance of it but lay under the greatest pressure of affliction that a poor mortal could bear and was advised because God had forsaken him to curse God and die and therefore with a generous and noble Spirit resolves that though he kill him yet will he trust in him Job 13.15 Holy David's faith and courrage was no less when he could confidently say though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death yet will I fear none evil Psalm 23.4 I have read of a Martyr that during the time of his Imprisonment being under some trouble of Mind had often besought God for some irradiations of his Love and Favour and that he would send him the Comforter but could receive nothing of it but rather more disquiet and anxiety of mind but yet he was resolved to wait God's leisure which he did and when he was fastened to the Stake he cries out with a heart too full of joy to express it in larger terms He is come He is come I shall conclude this with the words of the Prophet Isaiah ch 50.10 Though a Man walk in darkness and see no light yet may he trust in the Lord and lean upon his God Of Meditation IT is