Righteousness that now at last my foolish soul is persuaded to part with those sins which are its Plagues and Infelicities and to imbrace those blessed Duties by which thou hast designed to raise me to immortal Glory By these good Beginnings thou hast given me some Reason to hope for a happy Success upon my poor Endeavours Praised be thy Grace I am at present heartily willing to be thine and were I but sure to continue thus minded and disposed I would immediately make over my Heart and Will to thee by the most solemn Engagement But O Lord I am afraid of my self I dread my own Inconstancy and thou knowest I have too much Reason for it I have mocked thee too often already with my deceitful Promises and Engagements I have sin'd and then promised Amendment I have promised Amendment and then sin'd again as if all that I meant by my Promises were only to ask leave of thee to sin against thee anew Now after so many Falsifications I would not for all the World deal treacherously with thee any more wherefore before I solemnly resign and devote my self to thee by a new Purpose and Engagement I desire to make some farther Tryal of my own Stedfastness to see whether this present Inclination of my Will be the effect of Passion or a setled Judgment In the mean time therefore I do most humbly beseech thee to be present with me in all my ways and continually to influence my Mind with thy Grace and Spirit to strengthen my Faith to fix my Consideration to persuade my Will and feed and cherish these my holy Desires with good Thoughts and Inspirations that so I may remain stedfast and immoveable and no Temptation whatsoever may be able to alter the Temper of my mind or divert it from its good Inclination and that having had a sufficient Experience of the fixed Disposition of my Soul to obey thee I may devote my self to thee with a chearful Heart and an assured Hope of my own Sincerity and Constancy O Lord hear and help me for thy Mercies sake and for Jesus Christ his sake in whose most perfect Form of Prayer I farther pray Our Father c. If after a sufficient Tryal of your self you find you are constantly inclin'd to submit to God to part with every Sin comply with every Duty consider that now it is high time for you to devote your self to God and what abundant Reason you have for it and what a powerful Obligation you must lay upon your self by so doing and when you have seriously considered these things give up your self to God in this following Form of Prayer which for the greater Sanction and more awful Solemnity of your good Resolution you would do well to repeat at the next Sacrament O Most merciful Father so infinite is the Goodness of thy Nature that thou art always ready to pity and relieve the poor and needy and to extend thy timely Succours to us helpless Sinners whensoever we cry unto thee Of the truth whereof thou hast given me who am the vilest of Sinners a most sensible Proof and Experiment For not long ago I was so dead in Trespasses and Sins that hadst not thou took pity upon me and quickned me by thy Grace I had dyed for ever my Vnderstanding was so blind that I saw not my Danger my Conscience so sear'd that I felt not my Guilt my Will so inslaved to my Lusts that I could not indure to think of parting with them but now blessed be thy Grace which first excited my Endeavours and hath hitherto prospered them I do not only see the Danger my Sins have exposed me to and sensibly feel the Guilt of them but am freely willing to renounce them for ever and to part even with those darling Lusts that have heretofore been as dear to me as my right Eye And now O Lord I am come before thee and I hope with a truly Loyal and sincere Heart to offer up my Soul and Body to thee and vow an everlasting Obedience to thy blessed Will For Jesus sake refuse not this poor Oblation which though it be infinitely unworthy of thine Acceptance is the best thing I am able to present thee To thee O glorious Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost I do from henceforth eternally devote my self and all my Faculties And here at the Table of my blessed Saviour and upon these sacred Memorials of his Wounds and Blood I utterly abjure all known and wilful Sins and Rebellions and particularly all such as have been heretofore most dear to me faithfully promising by thy gracious Assistance from henceforth to observe thy Law without any Reserve or Exception This in the Sincerity of my Soul I do here vow to thy divine Majesty and however I may be hereafter tempted I will never wilfully depart from it or from any Part of it so help me O my God for Jesus Christ his sake in whose own words I farther pray Our Father c. Directions for the more profitable Exercise of our private Religion in the state of our actual Engagement in the Christian Life When you go into your Closet in the Morning consider seriously with your self the solemn Engagement you lye under what a crying guilt it would be to violate it what Madness and Folly to recede from it after you have taken so much pains to reduce your self to it what mighty Reasons you have to persist in it and what powerful Assistance is promised you if you be not wanting to your self and then offer up this following Prayer O Eternal God who art the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and dost through him bestow so many good and perfect Gifts upon thy Creatures I desire for ever to remember and adore thy Goodness towards me whom thou hast snatch'd as a Firebrand out of the Fire and at length reduced to a serious Purpose of Amendment after a long and obstinate Course of Disobedience in which if I had still persisted I must have perisht everlastingly O blessed be thy great Name that after so many years Rebellion against thee for which I have long ago deserved to be banish'd into utter Darkness I do yet behold the light of another Day and am allowed a farther Space to repent and execute my Purpose of Amendment And now O Lord as thou hast wrought my Will into a good Resolution in despite of all the corrupt Inclinations of my Nature leave not I beseech thee thy Workmanship unfinish'd but by the mighty Operation of thy Grace excite and inable me faithfully to perform what I have so seriously resolved It is a mighty Work that I have undertaken to cleanse a base polluted Nature and root up all its filthy Lusts and Affections and plant it with all the heavenly Dispositions and improve them into everlasting Happiness and thou knowest what strong Oppositions will be made against me and with what powerful Temptations I must struggle throughout the whole Course of my future
against the Dissuasions of thy Grace the Checks of my Conscience and the fairest Warnings of my Danger Had I done it Ignorantly or unawares or under a Surprize it had been pittiable but O my Guilt my Guilt 't was knowingly wilfully basely and maliciously that I did this evil in thy sight whereby I have forfeited my Soul my Innocence and thy Love and have got nothing in exchange but the Pleasure of a Minute and a lasting Shame and Repentance O vile Wretch O desperate Fool that I am what have I done whither am I fallen I have grieved thy Spirit contemn'd thy Authority trampled on thy Goodness and wounded my own Conscience and by one base Act have thrown my self headlong from all those glorious Hopes whereunto thou hadst raised me And now O God what can I say in my own behalf my Sin being so great my Folly so utterly inexcusable O I am asham'd I am asham'd of my self I lament and abhor the Madness and Wickedness of my own Choice and O that it were in my power to recall it But woe is me it is past into Act and by that Act my Innocence is already stained my Soul forfeited and it is no more in my Power to undo what I have done than to recall the Hours of yesterday What then shall I do or whether shall I turn my self 'T is against thee O Lord against thee I have sinned and now I have none but thee to flee to I have nothing of my own to plead in my own behalf my Conscience condemns me and my Sin my Sin cries aloud against me so that unless thou wilt be pleased to listen to the interceding Blood of thy Son and to consult thine own Bowels and Compassions and from thence to fetch Arguments of Mercy I am undone for ever by my own Folly Wherefore for Jesus Christ his sake for thy own Goodness and Mercies sake have pity have pity upon me heal my Soul for I have sin'd against thee be merciful to my Sin for it is great Thou hast promised to receive returning Sinners to blot out their Iniquities and to heal their Backslidings I desire O Lord to return unto thee I hate and renounce my Sin and do here abhor my self for it in Dust and Ashes before thee Wherefore for thy Praise sake O try me this once more and do not presently cast me away from thy Presence nor take thy holy Spirit from me but restrain me by his Grace from all presumptuous Sins and suffer them not to have Dominion over me And quicken me O Lord for thy Names sake that for the future I may watch more carefully resist more vigorously and walk more circumspectly than I have hitherto done And that from henceforth I may be intirely devoted to thee and serve thee without Interruption do thou so confirm me by thy Grace in my holy Resolution as that I may choose rather to die than to offend thee any more And now O Lord though by my Rebellion against thee this Day I have rendered my self most unworthy of thy fatherly Care and Protection yet I beseech thee to watch over me this Night for good and give me a safe Repose in the Arms of thy Providence that I may have yet a farther Space to repent of mine Iniquity And grant I beseech thee that when I awake in the Morning I may be warn'd by the woful Remembrance of this Days Fall to take more Care of my Steps and to shun or refuse those Snares and Temptations that lie all around me All which I do most humbly and earnestly beg of thee even for Jesus Christ his sake in whose name and words I farther pray Our Father c. Directions for the Exercise of our private Religion in the state of our Progress and Improvement in the Christian Life with Forms of private Devotion fitted for this State When you enter into your Closet in the Morning indeavour to affect your self with Gratitude and Thankfulness to God for his Grace by representing to your self the Danger and Misery of that sinful State out of which you are recovered and the great Incapacity you were in to recover without his Assistance and then make this thankful Acknowledgment to him O Most gracious and most merciful Father thou art a liberal Benefactor to thy Creation a never-failing Friend to Mankind and a most tender Lover of Souls for whose everlasting Welfare thou hast been always consulting and hast left no method of Love unattempted to rescue them from Sin and Misery O blessed for ever blessed be thy great Name for the Experience I have had of this thy fatherly Goodness I am a monument of thy Goodness a living Instance and Wonder of thy Mercy for me hast thou quickned who was dead in Trespasses and Sins and who had long ago perish'd in mine Iniquities hadst thou not been infinitely patient and long suffering I had forfeited my Soul to thee and thou mightest justly have cut me off and given me my Portion with Hypocrites and considering how I provok'd thee to it by my daily Rebellions I cannot but admire thy Forbearance towards me But that thou shouldest not only forbear me but follow me with thy Kindness and never cease importuning me to return to my Duty and Happiness till thou hadst conquered me by thy Gracious Persuasions O incomparable Love O amazing Goodness never to be sufficiently admired and adored Wherefore praised for ever praised be thy Grace which hath redeemed my Life from eternal Death and my Soul from the neathermost Hell which hath rescued me from the Snare of the Devil and the pernicious Bondage of my Lusts and implanted in my Nature these heavenly Graces and Dispositions and hitherto improv'd and advanc'd them towards my eternal Happiness This O my God all this I owe to thy free and undeserved Goodness that I that was dead am now alive that I that was lost am found that I that was a slave to my Lusts am made free from Sin and translated into the glorious Liberty of the sons of God is purely the Effect of thy free Grace and to be intirely ascribed to thy all-powerful Goodness Go on O Lord go on I beseech thee and perfect thine own Work that so the Glory of it may be for ever redounding to thee and that as I have been hitherto a signal Instance of thy Goodness so I may be an happy Instrument of thy Praise to eternal Ages And grant I beseech thee that the sense of thy unspeakble Kindness towards me may so captivate my Soul and all my Faculties as that I may be most intirely thine as that my Reason and Will my Fear and Hope and Love and Desire may from henceforth be all resign'd up to thee and for ever devoted to the Honour and Worship of thy infinite Glories and Perfections and this I most humbly beg for Jesus Christ his sake to whom with thy self and thy eternal Spirit be rendred all Honour Glory and Power from this time forth
to and fairly represent to our selves all the Difficulties and Temptations wherewith we must ingage and as much as in us lies render them actual and present to us by supposing our selves already ingaged in our Spiritual Warfare and surrounded with all the Temptations both from within and without that we can reasonably expect will oppose themselves against us and having thus placed our selves in the midst of the Difficulties of Religion we must never cease urging our selves with the great Arguments and Motives of it till we have throughly persuaded our stubborn Wills and obtained of them an explicit Consent to every Duty that calls for our Consent and Resolution III. TO our good Beginning of the Christian Warfare it is also necessary that we be deeply and throughly convinced of our great need of a Mediator to make a Propitiation for our Sins and render us acceptable to God For 't is to convince us of this necessary Truth that the Scripture doth so expresly declare that as there is one God so there is one Mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. ii 5 that if any man sin we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and that he is the Propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world and that 't is for his name sake that our sins are forgiven 1 John ii 1 2 12. that we have redemption through his blood Eph. i. 7 and that without the shedding his blood there is no remission and that 't was by the sacrifice of himself that Christ put away sin Heb. ix 22 26. that we are accepted of God through his beloved Son Eph. i. 6 that Christ is entred into heaven now to appear in the presence of God for us Heb. ix 24 and that there he ever lives to make intercession for us Heb. vii 25 that 't is through him that we have access unto the Father Eph. ii 18 and by him that we have admittance to his grace and favour Rom. v. 2 The design of all which is throughly to convince us of this great truth that by our Apostacy from God and Rebellion against him we have all rendred our selves so very obnoxious to his Vengeance that he would not pardon us upon any less Atonement than the precious Blood nor admit us into favour upon any less Motive than the powerful Intercession of his own Son that by the heinousness of our Guilt we have so highly incensed the Father of Mercies against us that no less consideration than the Death and Advocation of the greatest and dearest Person in the whole world will move him to admit of our Repentance and listen to our Supplications And certainly next to exacting the Punishment due to our sins at our own hands the most dreadful Severity he could have expressed was to resolve not to remit it upon any other consideration than that of his own Sons undergoing it in our stead by which he hath given us the greatest reason that Heaven and Earth could afford to tremble at his Justice even whilst we are inclosed in the Arms of his Mercy THIS therefore we ought to be deeply and throughly convinced of that our Sins have set us at such a distance from God that 't is nothing but the bloud of Christ will reconcile him to us and that though without our Repentance he will never be reconciled to us yet 't is not for the sake of that or any thing else we can do that he will be induced to receive us into favour but only for the sake of that precious Sacrifice which his eternal Son hath offered up for us The firm Persuasion and Consideration of which will mightily over-awe our minds and imprint upon them such gastly and horrible Apprehensions of sin as will scare us from all thoughts of Compliance with it the dreadful demonstration which God hath given us of his righteous severity against it in the very Reason of his pardoning it will effectually antidote us against all our sinful Securities and Confidences For this way of Gods pardoning us upon the Sacrifice of his Son guards his Mercy with such an awful Terror as is sufficient to dishearten the most desperate sinner from presuming upon it For he that dares presume to sin on upon a Mercy that cost the bloud of the Son of God hath courage enough to out-face the Flames of Hell and is not capable of any Mercy that the great God can indulge with safety to his own Authority For what Mercy can be safe from that mans Abuse and Presumption that dares abuse a Mercy so guarded and secured as this is by being founded upon such a dreadful Consideration AND as a through Persuasion of the Necessity of Christs Sacrifice to the Forgiveness of our Sins will fill us with awful Apprehensions of the divine Severity and set before us a most dismal Prospect of the vast demerit of our Sin both which are necessary to ingage us to a through Reformation so a through conviction of the Necessity of his Intercession to render our Duties our Prayers and Persons acceptable to God will effectually humble and abase us in our own eyes which as I shall shew you by and by is highly conducive to a good Beginning of this our Christian Warfare For next to banishing us from his Presence for ever the most effectual course God could take to abase us was to exclude us from all immediate Intercourse with him and not to admit of any more Addresses or Supplications from us but only through the hands of a Mediator which is a plain Demonstration how infinitely pure he is and how base and vile our Sins have rendred us insomuch that he will not suffer a sinful Creature to come near him otherwise than by a Proxy that he will not accept of a Service from a guilty Hand nor listen to a Prayer from a sinful Mouth till 't is first hallowed and presented to him by a pure and holy Mediator So that unless we are strangely inconsiderate we cannot but be touched with a deep sense of our own Vileness when we think at what a distance the pure and holy God keeps us how he stands off at the Stench of our Abominations and notwithstanding all his Benignity towards us will neither hear us nor have any thing to do with us without the powerful Intercession of his own Son AND as our Conviction of the Necessity we have of Christs Sacrifice and Intercession is very apt to affect us with holy Sorrow and Fear both which are very powerful Instruments of our Reformation so our persuasion of the Reality and Excellency of his Mediation is no less apt to inspire us with a mighty Hope and Assurance of Acceptance with God if we reform and amend For it seems that upon propitiatory Sacrifices and interceding Spirits guilty Minds have been always inclined to place their Confidence of Acceptance with God Hence it was a Principle generally
those Virtues which through our vicious Aversations to them seemed at first impossible will grow on by degrees from possible to easie and from easie to necessary and then the Sins will be more impossible to us than the Virtues NOW what a mighty Encouragement is this to make a good Beginning of the Christian Warfare that in so doing we are sure to conquer the main Difficulty of it that when we have broke through all those Oppositions that lie in the way to a wise and good Resolution we are past the Frontiers of Religion and having gotten over those steep Alps at its Entrance shall be sure to find the Region round about a plain and an easie Champain in which the further we go the smoother 't will be and so smoother and smoother till at last 't will be all sweet and delightful like the flowry Walks of Paradise Let us therefore be persuaded without any farther Delay to enter immediately upon this our holy Warfare and by Faith and Consideration c. to lay the Foundations of a religious Resolution that so when we are actually ingaged against our spiritual Enemies we may be able to stand our ground against all Temptations and that having finally conquered and subdued them we may receive that Immortal Crown which God the righteous Judge hath laid up for the victorious AND so I have done with the First Part of our Christian Warfare viz. our Entrance into it SECT III. Concerning the Second Part of the Christian Warfare with a particular Account of the Duties thereunto appertaining I SHALL now proceed to the Second Part of our Christian Warfare viz. the Course and Progress of it which consists in holy living For when once we have reduced our Wills to a firm and well-grounded Resolution of entring into this militant State that which is next incumbent upon us is to pursue our Resolution in the future Course of our Lives and Actions that is to abstain from all Sin and endeavour to mortifie our Inclination to it and to practise all the contrary Graces and Virtues and endeavour to improve them to farther and farther degrees of perfection or as the Scripture expresses it to cease to do evil and to learn to do well to strive against sin and to die to it and to grow in grace and perfect holiness in the fear of God In this consists the Course and Progress of our Christian Warfare In order whereunto it 's indispensably necessary that we should still repeat the Practice of those Duties by which we were first prepared to enter into it all those means by which our good Resolution was produced being naturally conducive to maintain and support it And therefore we find that Faith and Consideration c. are not enjoined as temporary Duties that are only to be practised in the Beginning of our Warfare but as means that will be always necessary for us throughout our whole Progress to Heaven For so we are commanded not only to acquire a sincere Faith or Belief of the Gospel but to continue and be stablished in it Col. i. 2 3. compared with Cap. ii 7 And so again we are injoined not only to admit the proposals of Religion into our Consideration but to keep them there Luk. viii 15 and suffer them to dwell richly in us Coll. iii. 16 And so for all those other preparatory Duties For that from a hearty Conviction of our need of Christ we should beg all Mercies of God in his Name and for his sake is a standing Precept of Christian Devotion John xvi 24 and so is also Confession of our sins to God 1 John i. 9 and Prayer for his Grace and Assistance Coll. iv 2 Nor is it only required that we should once repent or change our bad Resolution for a good one but that we should also repeat and confirm our good Resolution that we should stablish our hearts that is keep our Wills fixed and determined to all good Intentions and Purposes James v. 8 and stand fast in the Lord that is adhere to the Profession and Practice of Christianity with a firm and constant Resolution Phil. iv 1 For to proceed in our Christian Warfare is constantly to live up to our good Resolution which will require a continued Application of those means by which we were first prepared and disposed to enter into it Thus Faith is no less necessary to inable us to perform than it was to prepare us to make our good Resolution and still the more we believe our Religion the more we shall think our selves concerned in its proposals and consequently the more firmly we shall be resolved to close with and embrace them and so still as our Faith improves in degrees of Certainty our Resolution will proportionably grow stronger and stronger Again if it were necessary to the Birth of our Resolution that we should first duly weigh and consider the Motives and the Difficulties of the Duties we were resolving on then it will be no less necessary to the Growth and Emprovement of it that we should frequently consider over these Motives and Difficulties again and ballance them one against another And at first especially while our good Resolution is yet in its Infancy it will be very necessary that we should every day before we go abroad into the World spend some portion of Time in fore-thinking of the many Temptations that do lie in wait for us whether in our Business or Company or necessary Refreshments and Diversions and fore-arming our selves against them with the Motives and Arguments of our Religion that so we may have our Weapons ready when ever they shall assault us and be always provided to resist them Again if it were necessary to the forming our Resolution that we should be convinced of the Necessity and Reality of our Saviours Mediation then it will be no less necessary to the performance of it that our Hope and Fear which are the Springs of our Action should still be excited by the glorious Assurance of Mercy and horrid Prospect of Sin which this Conviction implies Once more was it necessary to the well making of our Resolution that we should affect our selves before-hand with a hearty Shame and Sorrow for our past Transgressions then will it be no less necessary for the strengthening and confirming it that we should ever and anon revive this our Shame and Grief by reflecting on the Filthiness of our past State and the Weakness and Imperfection of our present and by an ingenuous Confession of both to the high and holy God that so our Shame and Sorrow for our Sins being digested into Anger and Displeasure may sharpen our Resolution and animate it more and more against them In short if it be necessary to the founding of our Resolution that we should first earnestly implore the divine Grace and Assistance then it will be no less necessary for the continuance of it that for the same purpose we should continually apply our selves to the Throne
and for evermore Amen After this Thanksgiving consider briefly with your self the indispensible Necessity of your Perseverance to the End and how not only vain and fruitless but also hurtful and mischievous to you all your past Labour in Religion will be without it and then conclude your morning Devotion with this Prayer for Perseverance O God who art unchangeably holy and blessed who art the same yesterday to day and for ever and dost never swerve or vary from the essential Goodness and Purity of thy own Nature look down I beseech thee upon me a fickle weak and mutable Creature whom thou hast redeemed to thy self and hitherto conducted by thy Grace and Spirit Thou knowest O Lord the Weakness of my Nature and how unable I am without thy Strength and Assistance to finish the Race which thou hast set before me thou knowest what Temptations I must struggle with and what Difficulties I must yet overcome before I am seiz'd of the blessed Prize I am contending for wherefore since thou hast hitherto been my constant Support and Defence forsake me not now for thy Names sake but as thou hast begun a good Work in me so I beseech thee to finish and compleat it to uphold my feeble Soul by thy free Spirit under all Temptations and Difficulties that so by patient continuance in well-doing I may seek for and at last obtain honour and glory immortality and eternal life For which end O Lord preserve me from being over-confident of my own Abilities and inspire me with a holy Jealousie of my self that whilst I stand I may take heed lest I fall And if at any time I should be so base and so unhappy as to offend thee wilfully which I beseech thee to prevent for thy Mercy and Compassion sake O suffer me not to sleep in my Sin but recal me instantly by the Checks of my Conscience and the Convictions of thy Spirit lest while I add Sin to Sin and one degree of Wickedness to another my Lusts should regain their Dominion over me and thou shouldest be angry with me and reject me from thy Covenant for ever And that I may every Day serve thee more freely and stedfastly wean me I beseech thee more and more from those Temptations to Sin that are round about me and give me such a true understanding of the Nature of all the Goods and Evils of this World as that neither the Flatteries of the one nor the Terrors of the other may ever be able to withdraw me from my Duty And lest while I am mortifying my old Sins I should carelesly permit new ones to spring up in my Nature good God do thou mind me to search and try my own Heart and take a severe Account even of the smallest Defects and Imperfections within me that so I may correct and reform them in time before they are improved into inveterate Habits And grant that I may be always so sensible of my own Imperfection as that I may never rest in any present Attainment but may still be pressing forward to the mark of my high calling in Jesus Christ. Suggest to me I beseech thee frequent Thoughts of my Mortality that so while I have Time and Opportunity I may be preparing for my Departure hence and making provision for a dying hour In order whereunto assist me O Lord I beseech thee strictly to examin and review my past sinful Courses that so if there be any remains of Guilt abiding upon my Conscience I may purge them away by proper Acts of Repentance before I go hence and be no more seen And grant that as I have formerly abounded in Sin so I may now redeem that precious Time I have lost by abounding in the contrary Vertues that so as far as in me lies I may revoke and undo the multitude of my past Sins by doing all the Good I am able for the future And that I may hold out and persevere to the end preserve and continue me in the Communion of thy Church and suffer me not to be led away by the errors of the wicked and to fall from my own stedfastness And finally I beseech thee to grant that in the use of these blessed Means I may so far prevail over the Infirmities and Corruptions of my Nature as that at last I may have a clear and certain Feeling of my own Integrity and Vprightness towards thee that so being from thence assur'd of thy Love and of my Title to eternal Happiness I may run the ways of thy commandments more chearfully and at last finish my Course with unspeakable joy And now O Lord I resign my self to thee take me I beseech thee into thy Care and Protection this Day preserve me from all Evil but especially from Sin and quicken me by thy Spirit unto every good work that so I may serve thee with a free and cheerful Mind and make it my meat and drink to do thy blessed will All which I humbly beg for Jesus Christ his sake in whose Name and Mediation I further pray Our Father c. In the Evening when you enter into your Closet consider what is the present Frame and Temper of your Mind and upon Enquiry you will perceive either that through the present Prevalency of your corrupt Nature you are averse to divine Offices or that through bodily Infirmity you are indisposed to them or that through Worldly-mindedness and Vanity of Spirit you are cold and apt to be distracted in them or lastly that your Heart is very much enlarged and your Mind and Affections vigorously disposed towards divine and heavenly things If upon Enquiry you find that through the present Prevalency of your corrupt Nature you are averse to divine Offices indeavour to affect your self with Shame and Sorrow for it by representing to your Mind the great Impiety and Baseness the monstrous Folly and Ingratitude of this your present Temper and then offer up this following Prayer O My most gracious God and most kind and merciful Father thou art the best Friend I have in all the World and hast shewn a thousand times more Love to me than ever I shew'd to my self but after all the vast and most indearing Obligations thou hast laid upon me this vile and ungrateful Heart of mine still retains some Dregs of its antient Enmity against thee Had I but the common Sense and Ingenuity of a Man in me how could I think of thee without Raptures of Love how could I draw neer unto thee without Transports of Delight and Complacency But vile and ungrateful that I am I can think of all thy Goodness with cold and frozen Affections and can come into thy Presence not only with Indifference but Reluctancy Good God what am I made of what an insensible Soul do I carry about me O I am asham'd of my self I am confounded with the sense of my own Baseness and yet woe is me I cannot help it I strive to shake off this Clog of my corrupt