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
Mind hast strengthened my Resolution and rendred it so successful and victorious 'T is to thy Grace that I owe all the good I have done and 't is by thy Aid that I have escap'd all the evils I have been tempted to wherefore not unto me O Lord not unto my Strength or Endeavours but unto thy Name be all the Glory and Praise of this days Deliverance and Preservation O never let the Remembrance of this thy Goodness towards me depart from my Mind but let it kindle in me such a grateful Sense as may more and more incite me to love and obey thee and depend upon thee for the future And as thou hast been pleased to conduct me safely by thy Grace through all the Dangers and Temptations of the Day so do thou take me into thy Care and Protection this Night and grant that I may awake in the Morning with a Heart so inflamed with the Remembrance of thy Goodness and so incourag'd with this Days success and so indeared to the Practice of Vertue by the growing Delights and Pleasures of it as that I may persist in my religious Course with greater Courage and Alacrity and this I humbly beg for Jesus Christs sake in whose name and words I farther pray Our Father c. If upon Enquiry you find that you have been failing in your Duty or that you have done any evil Action through meer Heedlessness or Surprize indeavour to affect your self with a sorrowful Sense of your own Folly Weakness and Carelesness and then conclude with this Form of Humiliation O Most blessed Lord God who art infinitely glorious in thy own Righteousness and Holiness and doest for ever will and act according to thy own Nature which is the most perfect Law and Pattern of Goodness To thy spotless Nature no Evil can approach who art of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity with what Confidence then can such a polluted Creature as I am appear in thy Presence how can I lift up my guilty Eyes to thy Throne who to my past Rebellions which have been more in number than the hairs on my Head have this day added so many sinful Failings and Defects that shouldest thou be severe to mark what I do amiss were sufficient to kindle thy Displeasure against me 'T was but this Morning that I ingag'd my self to thee not only to abstain from all wilful and deliberate Sins but also to set a watch upon my Mouth and Actions that I might not offend thee unawares but to my Shame I must acknowledg I have been wofully careless and remiss having this Day suffered my self through my own Inadvertency to be surprized into such Actions as nothing can render pittiable or excusable in thy Sight but the miserable Frailty and Weakness of my Nature What shall I say unto thee O thou Judg of all the Earth I am guilty I am guilty and have nothing to plead for my self but the Blood of Jesus that all-sufficient Propitiation for the Sins of the whole World O Lord I do earnestly repent and am heartily sorry for these my Misdoings the Remembrance of them is grievous unto me the Burthen of them is intolerable have mercy upon me have mercy upon me most merciful Father and for Jesus Christ his sake forgive me all that is past and grant that the Sense of these my Miscarriages may render me more careful and vigilant for the future And let thy blessed Spirit be always present with my Mind to recollect my Distractions and awake my Considerations and warn me of my Dangers that I may no more be surprized by sudden Temptations nor hurried into evil Actions by unexpected Hopes or Fears but do thou so subdue my lower Appetites to my Will my Will to my Vnderstanding and my Vnderstanding to thy Spirit as that under his blessed Conduct I may for the future be prepared against all Temptations and furnish'd to every good work And now O Lord let not the Failings I have been guilty of this Day deprive me of thy gracious Protection this Night but grant that after a safe and comfortable Repose I may awake in the Morning with such a sorrowful Sense of them as may for the future oblige me to be more watchful and resolute against them All which I beg for Jesus Christ his sake with whose Prayer I conclude this my evening Sacrifice Our Father c. If upon Enquiry it appear that you have commited any wilful deliberate Sin indeavour to affect your self with Horror Shame and Compunction for it by representing to your Conscience the monstrous Foulness and Ingratitude the deep Malignity and desperate Madness of your own Action and then conclude with this Form of particular Repentance O Thou most dreadful Majesty of Heaven and Earth who hatest Iniquity and hast proclaimed from Heaven thy fierce Indignation against all Vnrighteousness and Vngodliness of men look down I beseech thee upon me a vile and guilty Wretch who stand here arraigned at thy Tribunal by my own Conscience and am so confounded with the sense of my Sin and of thy just Displeasure against me that I tremble to draw near unto thee and yet I dare not stay from thee I acknowledg my self unworthy infinitely unworthy to come before thee and am prompted by my own Horror and Shame to hide my self from thee but yet I know I must come or I must perish And therefore here O Lord I cast my self at thy Feet and if thou shalt think meet to tread upon me and to spurn me from thy Presence for ever I must own that thou art just and righteous in all thy Ways For thou hast been wonderfully good beyond what I could modestly have wisht or am able to express thou tookest pity upon me when I was all wounded and polluted and weltring in my Blood when I was sleeping securely upon the brink of Perdition and had scarce any Sense or Feeling of my Guilt and Misery in this woful plight didst thou visit my poor Soul and with thy preventing Grace awake me to a sense of my Danger and effectually warn me to flee from the wrath to come And now when thou hadst brought me to my self and to a through Resolution of Amendment and my Soul was in a fair way of Recovery like an ungrateful Wretch as I am I have flown in the Face of my Physitian I have abused his Goodness and baffled his Grace and wilfully and deliberately torn open my Wounds again And this I have done most treacherously as well as ungratefully not only against all the Obligations of thy Goodness but also against my own repeated Vows and Engagements For 't was but this Morning that I solemnly renewed to thee my Promise of Obedience and therein vow'd not to offend thee wilfully upon any Temptation whatsoever but O vile Traytor that I am both to thee and to my own Soul I have by most base basely falsified this my Engagement and this I did with the most unpardonable Circumstance even
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
received by men of all Nations and Religions however it came to pass I know not that for sinful men to appease the incensed Divinity it was necessary first that some Life should be sacrificed to him by way of Satisfaction for their Sins and that the nobler it was the more propitious it rendred him 2. That some high Favourite of his should be prevailed with to intercede with him in their behalf Whereupon understanding by universal Tradition that there were a sort of middle Beings whom they called Demons between the sovereign God and Men they began to address to these and to bribe them with sacred Honours to interpose with God in their Behalf And if they could make a shift to rely upon Sacrifices the most precious of which were the Lives of sinful Men and to depend upon Intercessors of whose Interest with God they had little or no Security what a mighty ground of Confidence and Assurance have we for whom the Son of God once offered such a meritorious Sacrifice upon Earth and continues to make such a powerful Intercession in Heaven For besides that as he was a spotless and innocent Person his Sacrifice was wholly meritorious for guilty offenders and besides that as he was a Person of infinite Value and Dignity his Sacrifice was meritorious for a World of guilty offenders God upon whose good Pleasure the Admission or Refusal of it intirely depended has openly declared his Acceptation thereof as a Propitiation for the sins of the World and ingaged himself by a publick Grant and Charter of Mercy to indemnifie for the sake of it every sinner in the World that will but return to him by a serious and hearty Repentance neither of which great things could ever be said of any other Sacrifice And in the virtue of this Sacrifice as well as of his own personal Interest with his Father he now intercedes in our behalf and pleading our Cause as he doth with the price of our Souls in his hand even his precious Blood by which he redeemed them we may be sure that with that powerful Oratory he cannot fail of succeeding in our behalf For having purchased for us by his Blood all those favours which he intercedes for he is invested with the Right and Power of bestowing them upon us So that now for our greater Security all those Favours which God hath promised us are actually deposited in the hands of our Mediator and though his bare Promise is in it self as great an Assurance as can be given us yet it is to be considered that guilty Minds are naturally anxious and full of unreasonable Jealousies and consequently whilst they looked upon God as their adverse Party and a Party infinitely offended by them would have been very prone to suspect the worst had they had nothing but his bare Word to depend on And therefore in Condescension to this pitiable Infirmity of his sinful Creatures he hath not only promised them his Acceptance and Favour upon Condition of their Return to him but hath also put the Performance of his Promise into a third Hand even into the Hand of a Mediator who by the Nature of his Office is equally concerned for both Parties as well that God should perform his Promise if we performed our Duty as that we should perform our Duty if we received the Benefit of his Promise And hence Heb. vii 22 our Mediator is called the Sponsor or Surety of a better Covenant So that now we have no longer to do with God immediately as our adverse Party but by a Mediator who by his Office is obliged to be on our side as well as Gods and to take care that neither receive the others Part of the Covenant without performing his own Thus as he hath been sometimes pleased in Complyance with humane Weakness to enforce his Promise with his Oath not that the one is in its own Nature a greater Security from God than the other but because with Men an Oath is more obliging than a Promise so in great Condescension to the unreasonable Diffidence of our guilty Minds he hath not only promised us Pardon and Acceptance upon our Repentance but he hath also given us a collateral Security for the Performance of it even the Security of a Mediator in whose hands he hath deposited whatsoever he hath promised us Not that in it self this is a greater Security than his own bare Word and Promise which he cannot falsifie without renouncing his Being but because this way of giving Security by a third Person is more accommodate to the Method of our Covenants and Agreements with one another and consequently more apt to satisfie our anxious and diffident Minds AND thus the Conviction of our need of a Mediator and the Persuasion of the Reality and Excellency of his Mediation will powerfully work both on our Hope and Fear which are the main Springs of all our religious Endeavours and give us at once the most horrible Prospect of the Evil of Sin and the most comfortable Assurance of Pardon and Acceptance with God upon our Repentance and Amendment both which are absolutely necessary to our successful Entrance into the Christian Warfare IV. TO our Beginning of this Holy Warfare it is also necessary that we should be affected with a deep Sorrow and Shame and Remorse for our past Iniquities For this the Apostle calls sorrowing to repentance and tells us that godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of 2 Cor. vii 9 10. and accordingly it is recorded of St. Peter's Converts that the beginning of their repentance was their being pricked at the heart Acts ii 37 and even Repentance it self is in Scripture called a broken and contrite heart this being the most immediate Preparation to a true Repentance or Change of mind Psal. li. 17 And hence the ancient Penitents are described in Scripture as girding themselves with sackcloth and repenting in dust and ashes in Allusion to the antient manner of great and solemn Mournings which was to put on Sackcloth cover the Head with Ashes and sit in the Dust. And in the primitive and purest Ages of Christianity it is evident that the bitterest Sorrows and Remorses were looked upon as necessary Preparations to Repentance for the Penitents in those days as Tertullian and Nazianzen describes them lay prostrate at the Church Doors in Sackcloth and Ashes supplicating the Prayers of the Presbyters and Widows hanging on the Garments and Knees of those that entred into the Church kissing their Footsteps and with rivers of Tears in their eyes beseeching their Prayers to God for their Pardon Now though we are not under the Severities of such an Ecclesiastical Discipline yet are we equally obliged with those ancient Penitents to exercise it internally in our Hearts For sin is as bad now as it was then and as great an evil in us as it was in them and therefore ought to be lamented by us with an equal Sorrow and Remorse And indeed