Musick-meetings publick Shows or other vain and sinful Pastimes I have been present at either to please my self or to gratify others On the contrary What would I now give or rather What would I not give to have spent the greatest part of those precious Hours in private Prayer and Meditation And the expence of all in casting my Bread upon the Waters and administring to the Necessities of the Poor the Widow and the Fatherless As for Stage-plays not to mention other vain and unnecessary Divertisements I am inclined to believe that the Original intent of them was to applaud Vertuous Actions and to discountenance Vitious Livers But I appeal to all sober Persons whether the Practice of this last Age has not produced contrary effects And I crave leave to ask one short Question of young Gentlemen and Ladies and their Inferiours of both Sexes What satisfaction they hope to have when they come to lie on their sick or Death-beds none of them knowing how soon they may receive the fatal Summons for having been the Auditors and Spectators of so many Prophane and and Obscene Plays Or to have read so many vain and idle Romances where they learn little else than to make or receive unlawful Courtships or to gain such a kind of Knowledge as their Mother Eve got by eating the Forbidden Fruit or to be instructed in those Intregues which otherwise its possible they had never known or thought of all their lives I would also demand of the Authors and Actors of some certain Plays with what face they can ask of God from day to day a Blessing upon their Labours and Endeavours Or what Account they will one day give at the Bar of his Tribunal for having been the unhappy Instruments of corrupting and debauching so many hopeful Persons of both Sexes who otherwise might have been eminent Examples of Piety and Godliness in their several Generations Prayer And I beseech God Almighty of His infinite Goodness and Mercy to incline the Hearts of all those Writers and Readers Authors and Actors Auditors and Spectators while they have Time and Opportunities to make suitable and seasonable Reflections I am going But O blessed Redeemer How shall I ever find the way or get to my Journeys end with safety unless Thou be pleased to send some Guardian Angel as well to lead and guide as to aid and assist me When I stumble in rugged and uneven Ways to hold me up in his Arms. When I turn aside into crooked and by-paths to pull me back by force When I am near a Pit or Precipice to give me a friendly Item and timely notice When I am dull and heavy and grow slothful in the performance of my Duty to stir up and awaken me When I am Hungry and Thirsty as Travellers are led by their Guides into their Oberges for a Viaticum and there refresh themselves to conduct me to thine House and holy Place there to sit down at thine own Table and be fed with the true Bread which came down from Heaven and to drink of the Fruit of the true Vine and the Water of Life of which whoever once drinks shall never thirst again Parlate Parlate i cadaveri sepolti When I am assaulted with Enemies from without or from within whether they be my own private Lusts and Passions or whether they be Principalities or Powers the Rulers of the Darkness of this World and spiritual Wickednesses in high Places those invisible Enemies of mighty Power and perfect knowledge of wonderful Subtilty and long Experience then gracious Father let me be furnished with all sorts of spiritual Armour the Breast-plate of Righteousness the Shield of Faith the Helmet of Salvation and the Sword of the Spirit That so as a valiant Souldier I may sight under thy Banner and be able to resist all the Wiles Assaults and fiery Darts of the Devil and all his Infernal Spirits and to subdue and bring under my own unruly Lusts and Passions When I meet with Troubles and Afflictions Crosses and Disappointments Wrongs and Injuries let me be armed with such a measure of Humility Meekness Long-suffering Patience and Equanimity as may bear me up through all the Changes and Chances of this Mortal Life and during my earthly Pilgrimage When I fall into Fainting-Fits through Age and Bodily Distempers let thy blessed Spirit administer to me such comfortable Cordials as may support my drooping Spirits Reflection Why then art thou cast down so often O my Soul And why for the Trifles of Mortality art thou so disquieted within me Trust still in God who will never leave nor forsake thee For sure I am that I shall yet praise Him for His loving Kindness and tender Mercies to me the least and meanest of all his Servants When I draw nigh to my last Agonies then blessed Lord O then be pleased of thy infinite Mercy and Goodness to chain up that great Enemy of Souls and Prince of Darkness with all his Infernal Legions who always make their most furious and fierce Assaults upon poor departing Souls that so neither Height nor Depth nor Things present nor Things to come may ever be able to separate me from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord or make me let go my hold or quit my hope of Eternal Life and Happiness In the last and critical Moment of my departure out of this troublesome World let my Soul be safely conveyed by some Guardian Angel to the place appointed for the Spirits of God's Elect there to rest with chearfulness and to wait with patience for a joyful Re-union with this Body of mine at the Resurrection when it shall be raised out of the Dust with Immortality and Incorruption And then let both Soul and Body thus united be received into that Coelestial Paradise where being very far from imitating the rebuked Ambition of Zebedee's two Children to be the meanest and lowest of all the Redeemed and happy Individuals of Human Race is the height of my Ambition and the utmost of my Desires A MORNING-PRAYER FOR Ordinary Week-Days LET now the Words of our Mouths and the Meditations of our Hearts find Grace and Favour with Thee O LORD our Strength and our Redeemer Almighty GOD and most merciful FATHER who of thy wonted Goodness and Mercy hast protected and preserved us this last Night from many calamitous Accidents which otherwise might have befallen us and safely brought us to the Light of another Day defend us we pray Thee in the same with thy mighty Power and so prevent us with thy gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our Works begun continued and ended in Thee we may ever seek thy HONOUR and GLORY and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through JESUS CHRIST our blessed LORD and SAVIOUR For whose SAKE We humbly pray Thee to blot out of thy Remembrance all our past Sins and Provocations and to work in our Hearts a godly Sorrow and a sincere
Repentance with a stedfast and firm Resolution to reform and amend our Lives Bless us in our going out and our coming in when we are upon the Way when we lay us down and when we rise up When we are in our private Closets lend an Ear to our Prayers and answer the Desires of our Souls When we are employed about our Lawful Callings give success to our honest Labours and Endeavours When we are conversing with others let us behave our selves with all humility and meekness in all our Words and Actions esteeming others better than our selves and doing to others what we would be willing they should do unto us Being patient gentle and easy to be entreated slow to wrath and ready to forgive all those who have trespassed against us until seventy seven times Loving our Enemies doing good and shewing kindness as we have opportunities to those who hate persecute and despitefully use us Living in humble Obedience to and heartily praying for Him who hath the supreme Power over us together with all those who are related to Him or who are in Authority under Him Being no Busy-bodies in other Men's Matters no Whisperers Tale-bearers Slanderers or Back-biters No Deceivers or Covenant-breakers but sincere and upright in all our Dealings and Transactions No lovers of Earthly Treasure no Worshippers of Gold or Silver or greedy of filthy Lucre. With all chearfulness and alacrity dealing our Bread to the Hungry giving Drink to the Thirsty Clothing the Naked visiting the Sick relieving Prisoners redeeming Captives helping the Fatherless and Widows comforting and assisting the Desolate and Oppressed and never shutting up the Bowels of our Compassion from any who want our Help or Assistance And forasmuch as we are here but Strangers and Pilgrims let thy good Spirit guide and conduct us in our Way to our long Homes through the vast and wide Wilderness of this sinful World where there are so many Turnings and Windings Cross-ways and By-paths Thorns and Briars Pits and Precipices Traps and Snares laid for us by the Devil and his Emissaries to entice us to Sin and Wickedness and then to plunge us into endless Woe and Miseries Where there is no true content or Satisfaction to be found and where the most refined of Human Pleasures and Delights are allayed with the mixture of Cares and Troubles Fears and Jealousies Sicknesses and Diseases Crosses and Disappointments where Love and Kindness is often repaid with Hatred and Malice and the most bountiful Actions with ungrateful Returns Where the Poor are oppressed by Men of Power and innocent Lambs made a prey to ravenous Wolves where our Eyes are too often entertained with doleful Spectacles and our Ears filled with Sighs and Groans and bitter Lamentations And therefore Gracious FATHER be thou pleased to give us such a measure of Faith Hope and Patience as may bear us up in all the Changes and Chances of this Mortal Life and enable us in whatever State or Condition we are therewith to be content as well to be abased as to be exalted to want as to abound to have nothing as to possess all things And though the Fig-tree should be withered and no Fruit be found on the Vine the labour of the Olive fail and the Field yield no increase though there should be no Sheep in the Fold or Herd in the Stall no Cattel in the pasture or Stores in the Garner no Water in the Bottle or Oil in the Cruce yet still to trust in that GOD who feeds the Ravens and the young Lions when they call upon him who can make Rivers to flow out of hard Rocks and furnish a Table in the Wilderness With whom the very Hairs of our heads are all numbred and in whom none ever trusted and were confounded That so having finished our Course and run our Race and lived the Life of the Righteous our last END may be like unto his And whenever these Houses of Clay shall be dissolved our Souls may be safely conveyed by some blessed Guardian Angels to the place appointed for the Spirits of GOD's Elect there to wait with patience for a joyful Re-union with their respective Bodies at the Resurrection and second coming of CHRIST in Glory with all his holy Angels in whose Name and Words we farther desire to call upon Thee Saying Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy NAME thy Kingdom come thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this Day our daily Bread and forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that Trespass against us and lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from Evil for thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen AN EVENING-PRAYER FOR Every Day in the Week MOST Glorious LORD GOD and merciful Father in Christ Jesus who inhabitest the highest Heavens and yet art pleased to dwell in the lowest Hearts and hast graciously promised That where-ever Two or Three are gathered together in thy Name and Fear Thou wilt be there in the midst of them Look down in mercy upon us who are now before Thee and dare not give sleep to our Eyes or slumber to our Eye-lids till we have renewed our Covenant with the GOD and FATHER of Mercies and have humbly offered unto Him our Selves our Souls and Bodies as a reasonable service Be therefore pleased O Lord to forgive all the Sins of our past Lives particularly the Omissions and Commissions of this Day for which alone shouldst Thou enter into Judgment with us Thou mightst justly condemn us to the lowest Hell and give ns our portion with Hypocrites in utter Darkness Blessed LORD we desire from the bottom of our Hearts to be sensible of our manifold Frailties and Infirmities and of that Law in our Members that is always Warring against the Law of our Minds so that whenever we would do Good Evil is present with us and intermingles with our very Prayers and disturbs our most religious Duties and Performances And therefore it is that utterly renouncing our own Righteousness as Dung â—nd Dross we fly to Him who is our Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous to wash away our Sins with his own precious Blood and to present us unto Thee our GOD pure and spotless And for his sake we humbly beseech Thee O LORD to lighten our Darkness and by thy great mercy to defend us from all perils and dangers this Night giving us a moderate and refreshing Rest free from frightful Dreams and sinful Imaginations which are the evil Effects of our corrupt Natures When we awake let our Souls be filled with heavenly Thoughts and pious Meditations always remembring That we are in the presence of a God who knows our down-sitting and our up-rising who understands our Thoughts a farr off and is acquainted with all our ways If we should be so vain and foolish to believe that the Darkness would cover us the Night shall be light about us the Darkness hideth not from Thee but
the Night shineth as the Day The Darkness and the Night are both alike to Thee And forasmuch as the closing of our Eyes to Rest so nearly resembles Death and our Beds are but models of our Graves out of which we must one Day be called by the sound of the last Trump to Arise and come to Judgment Let this and every Evening and every Morning of our Lives put us in mind of our dying Hours And let no worldly Affairs hinder us from being always in a readiness for our last and final Conflict with the Prince and Powers of Darkness who knowing their time is but short will be sure to make their fiercest Assaults upon Departing-Souls when they find them struggling with Bodily pains and sharp Diseases and drawing nigh to their last Agonies And sometimes to terrify them with frightful Dreams and Visions to make them if possible utterly to despair of God's Mercies and to let go their hold and quit their Hopes of Eternal Life and Happiness Make us therefore sensible how highly it concerns us while we have Health of Body and soundness of Mind to arm our selves like good Souldiers with Christian Courage and Resolution for those Death-bed Combats and critical Hours Minutes and Moments of our Lives And because we are to wrestle with invisible Enemies of mighty Power and wonderful Knowledge great Subtilty and long Experience who know too well our Tempers Inclinations and Infirmities and where and how to set upon us with the greatest Advantage Be pleased to send thy blessed Angels and Ministring-Spirits to comfort and assist us in all those siery Tryals and Temptations That so Death which is to so many others the King of Terrors may be to us a kind Friend and a welcome Guest and we may with all cheerfulness quit these Houses of Clay and fleshy Tabernacles and exchange the Troubles and Sorrows of a painful Pilgrimage in a Valley of Tears for the Joys of Heaven and Everlasting Happiness with blessed Saints and Angels in the highest Heavens All which with whatever else Thou knowest to be needful either for us or for any of ours or for any of Thine we humbly beg in the Name and for the sake of the blessed Jesus who in compassion to our Infirmities has taught us thus to pray Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy NAME thy Kingdom come thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this Day our daily Bread and forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that Trespass against us and lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from Evil for thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen A MORNING-PRAYER FOR Sundays Fasts and Festivals LET us now fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker Most Holy Blessed Glorious and incomprehensible Triniry Father Son and Holy Ghost Three Persons and One God Almighty Maker of all Things and Judge of all Men Have mercy upon us miserable Sinners who are by Nature Children of Disobedience and by our actual Sins every Day and Hour of our Lives liable to Divine Wrath and Vengeance Remember not O Lord the many Follies and Vanities of our Child-hood and Youth nor the innumerable Transgressions of our riper Years and how we have always erred and strayed from the Ways of Truth and Righteousness and trod in forbidden Paths through the several Stages of our Lives leaving undone those things which thou hast absolutely commanded and doing those things which thou hast exprelly forbidden and many times drawing upon our selves the guilt of other Men's Sins by our Encouragement Connivance or ill Examples breaking the solemn Vows and Promises either made for us by others in Baptism or by our selves in Times of Danger or Sickness unthankful for Mercies and incorrigible under Judgments rejecting the Motiors of thy blessed Spirit and following the Devices Desires and vain Imaginations of our own Hearts and so running the hazard of losing our precious and immortal Souls for the enjoyment of a few sinful and short-liv'd Pleasures Blessed LORD we cannot but confess and acknowledge with shame and confusion of face that it is a wonder of thy patience and forbearance that we are yet alive and that thou hast not cut us of in the midst of our Sins and Doom'd us to dwell with everlasting Burnings among damned Souls and Spirits But this is our hope and humble confidence that we have to do with the God and Father of Mercies who takes no delight in the death of Sinners but is slow to Anger and ready to forgive all those who sincerely repent and truely believe in our blessed Lord and Saviour CHRIST JESUS for whose coming into the world to save lost Sinners and to open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers with Angels and Arch-Angels and all the Company of Heaven we laud and magnify thy great and holy NAME as we likewise do for thy other Mercies and Favours daily and hourly bestowed upon us We bless and praise Thee for giving us a Being in the World for that admirable Frame and Structure of our Bodies while we lay inclosed in our Mother's Wombs for breathing into us the Breath of Life and enduing us with reasonable Souls after thine own Image and Likeness for being Born where the Gospel of thy SON is openly preached and professed and not among Heathens Turks or Infidels For the unparallel'd Pattern of all Goodness in the Life of the holy JESUS and for the pious Examples of the blessed Patriarchs Prophets Apostâ—â—s and Martyrs who are gone before us and with their own Blood have traced out for us the true Way to Life and Happiness beseeching thee that we following their good Examples may with them be made partakers of Everlasting Life in the World to come We thank Thee LORD of Heaven and Earth for the wonderful Works of the Creation of which we all enjoy our shares and proportions for the Sun that shines by Day and for the Moon and Stars That rule by Night and by their regular Motions and sweet Influences serve for Signs and Seasons Days and Years for the Clouds that give Rain and drop Fatness upon our Fields and Pastures and for the Springs that go up by the Mountains and run down among the Vallies for reserving to us the appointed Times of Harvest and giving us the kindly Fruits of the Earth in their due and proper Seasons for our Food and Raiment and all the good things of this Life and our manifold preservations from sundry Dâ—â—â—â— and Dangers ever since we hung upon our Mother's Breasts for protecting us this last Night from many calamitous Accidents which in a Night might have befallen us and bringing us safely to the light of another Day and so giving us a longer time and space for Repentance and Amendment of our Lives most humbly beseeching Thee to continue these thy Mercies and Favours to us and to keep us the remainder of this Day and of our Lives from