the pious Examples of the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and others of God's chosen Saints and Servants But above all of our blessed Saviour Jesus In the next place a great number of passionate and earnest Exhortations to incite us to fight manfully as valiant and good Souldiers under Christ's Banner all our Lives to which are annexed large Promises of spiritual Graces and Comforts to support us during our Pilgrimage in this Valley of Tears and after this painful Life ended Crowns of Glory and Everlasting Happiness with blessed Saints and Angels in the highest Heavens But on the other side to deter us from continuing in Sin and Disobedience we have in the last place not only Threats but also Examples of God's dreadful Judgments here in this Life upon wilful Offenders and the Vengeance of Eternal Fire denounced against all impenitent Sinners in the World to come with the Devil and his Angels Ejaculation and Prayer O blessed JESUS whose coming down from Heaven to take upon Thee our Nature for the Redemption of lost Sinners was the true foundation of the Holy Scriptures and of the Promises therein contained of Eternal Life and Happiness to all true Penitents and Believers Let therefore O Lord this holy Word of Thine be from henceforth a Lamp unto my feet and a Light unto my Paths And O that my ways were so directed that I might keep thy Statutes and never more turn aside unto lying Vanities Honnēni elohim keckhasdēkah kerov Rahamēka pheseangāi kerov kabbesseni mengavoui ou meckhatāti taharēni Have mercy upon me O God according to to thy loving Kindness according to the Multitude of thy tender Mercies do away my Offences wash me throughly from mine Iniquities and cleanse me from my Sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Forsake me not O God in mine Old Age now that I am gray-headed and my Strength faileth me and the Light of mine Eyes is gone from me Now that I am as a Pelican in the Wilderness as an Owl in the Desert and as a Sparrow upon the House top Behold thou hast made my Days as an hand-breadth and mine Age is as nothing before Thee O spare me a little that I may recover my Strength before I go away from hence and be no more seen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In thee O Lord I have trusted let me never be confounded And here I crave leave before my Departure out of this World to leave behind me a friendly Caution to all young Gentlemen and Students to beware of a certain pernicious Treatise which does in effect make a Jest of the Holy Scriptures and turns Angels and Spirits into Phantasms and Heaven and Hell into meer Metaphors It is a Book that very well deserves a Noli me tangere or a Caveat Emptor to be stamped in Capital Letters upon its Cover I am very tender of naming the Author who now stands or falls to his own Master and hope that he made his Peace with Heaven by a sincere and hearty Repentance before he went from hence besides that Christian-Charity obliges me to make very soft and gentle steps over dead Men's Graves though at the same time Christian-piety prompts me to declare to all the World That had I the vanity to think my self equal to him both for Natural Parts and acquired Learning I would not have been the Writer and Publisher of such a Discourse to have gained the Wealth of both the Indies The Company of Stationers may do God and their Country very signal Service and possibly not at all impair thereby their private Fortunes if instead of applauding and vending that impious Treatise they would join together in buying up all the Copies and converting them to Ashes The Psalmist speaking of the vast and wide Ocean tells us of a Leviathan that God had made to play therein But sure I am that God could never be pleased that any Man should make a Leviathan here upon Earth to play with his Divine Attributes and Holy Scriptures This Treatise may not be improperly called the Authors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or The Sinner's Common-Hall where all Persons concerned may be furnished at very easy Rates with new invented Mattocks Spades and all other Instruments and Utensils of politick Pioneers to undermine Civil and Church-Governments I must needs acknowledge That the Method of this Treatise is very pleasant the Stile elegant and the Expressions very proper and significant and is interlaced with specious Touches of Learning and that of divers kinds politely extracted and wittily digested but let me tell thee mi figliolo mi Jovane and timely forewarn thee Guardati d' aceto di vin dolce It is only to beguile the Readers and ere they are aware to lead them into Labyrinths and make them swallow down most pernicious Principles Thus the skilful Angler covers the fatal hook with a pleasant Bait and the cunning Fowler carefully hides the Snare from the unwary Bird. Thus the appearance of a Sepulchre is oft times very glorious when the inside is full of Rottenness dead Men's Bones and all Uncleanness Thus a lewd Strumpet being adorned with gay Cloths and set off with rich Jewels false Teeth Hair and Eye-brows and a painted Face seems beautiful to the beholders who if she did but once lay aside those Ornaments and Disguises would soon affright her most voluptuous Lovers and become a Soveraign Remedy for their incontinence Leviathan It is the Devil 's Alcoran Beware ingenious young Men There 's Death in the Pot There 's Poison in the Cup There 's a Snake in the Grass You are near the Hole of an Asp And the Den of a Cockatrice Leviathan It s the Author's imaginary Golden Image set up in the Year 52 in a place which he then lookt upon as the English Babylon whose height of Impudence was much more than thirty Cubits to which he did then really believe that both the Leaders and the Populace of those Times being wonderfully charm'd with his witty Fancies and pleasing Novelties would as readily fall down and do Obeisance as Nebuchadnezzar's Subjects did of old to his real Golden Image at the sound of the Sackbut Psaltery Dulcimer and other Musical Instruments Reflection How apt are frail Mortals on whom God has at any time bestowed some extraordinary Gifts of Nature to be transported with their own wild Fancies and to be drunk with the New Wine 't is what the Author calls his own Treatise of their vain and foolish Imaginations and then How ready is Satan at hand who too well knows their Nature and Constitutions their Tempers and Dispositions with their Inclinations and Infirmities to improve those humane Frailties and to push and drive them to all manner of extravagant Actions and presumptuous Undertakings Ejaculation King of Kings and Lord of Lords Who pullest down the Mighty from their Seats and exaltest the Humble and Meek whenever Pride and Vain-glory puffs us up and makes us become wise in our own Eyes Let the remembrance that we
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
to the Horizontal Line or 90 Degrees which Experiment being exactly performed gives great light to young Practitioners in the Mechanicks Lastly I know by Experience that an Engineer standing on the top of a Tower may by the help of Ropes and Pullies with a small force heave up a Tun weight or more to the perpendicular height of 10 or 20 Foot provided there be proportionable time given him for that Operation and also that he has a sufficient Fulcrum or place to which he may fasten one of his Blocks I can likewise imagine the Soul of a Man whilst his Body stands bolt up right to be a spiritual Engineer and to be seated in the Brain as in its Watch-Tower and there to make use of each hand and arm to lift up a ponderous Weight to the perpendicular height of 6 or 12 Inches But I must at the same time ingeniously acknowledge that I do not at all apprehend neither have I any Idea or Imagination by what secret power the Soul contracts or dilates the Muscles how it elaborates and sends forth the Animal Spirits or how it makes use of any of the ten pair of Nerves whose Origin is derived from the Medulla substance of the Brain which is in a manner as soft as Butter And I leave to the Contemplation of the most skilful and subtil Mechanick or Philosopher in the World the innumerable Difficulties that will arise from all the following Instances 1. Of a Porter taking up great and ponderous Burthens from off the ground and heaving them on his shoulders 2. Of a Waterman who upon a Wager pulls in his Oars with both his Arms towards his body and at the same time thrusts from him with his Thighs and Legs in which Motion viz. that of his Arms and Hands he works with a Quintiple disadvantage according to the Doctrine of Staticks because the Muscle of the Humerus is fastned but to a 6th part of the Cubitus or Radius as I my self have measured upon a dead Man's bones 3. Of a Seaman working at a Drum-Capstan a Contrivance I presented to the late King Charles the Second many years ago to weight up the ponderous Anchors of great Ships which has since saved great Numbers of English Sea-men's lives 4. Of one who distorts all the Parts Members and Joints of his Body so as to make it appear in many different Figures and strange Shapes Such a one I have seen at Paris and such a one there was not long since in the City of London who went by the Name of Posture John 5. Of one who jumps wrestles throws the Bar runs a Race or fights a Prize 6. Of one who performs strange Feats of Activity Vaults and cuts Capers in the Air to a great height as he is dancing on the Stage or on the Ropes 7. A skilful and active Musician the different Motions of whose Fingers are of incredible swiftness Ejaculation O Almighty GOD Maker of all things Visible and Invisible How wonderful and unsearchable are all thy Works How deep are all thy Thoughts and thy Ways past finding out by us poor Mortals or indeed by any finite Creatures All that I shall add to what has been already mentioned upon this Subject shall be only this That if there are so many insuperable Difficulties about Bodily Operations as to Motion and Sense how much greater must of necessity be the Difficulties of the Souls Operations which are wholly abstracted from and have no Correspondence at all with Bodies or Sense Of this Sort as I think is a late learned Philosopher's Cogito though I understand not at all his Inference of Ergo sum But whatever he intends my meaning is the Soul 's drawing necessary Conclusions from undoubted Premises and so forming within it self Syllogisms As likewise its Apprehensions of a Supreme Diety or an Almighty MAKER of all Things who is from Everlasting to Everlasting and depends upon none And its Reflections of Conscience either Accusing or Excusing Moral Actions Forgive me Courteous Reader I am already lost in a Labyrinth of Thoughts and my Soul is over-whelmed with a Deluge of Imaginations and can make no further progress At the Resurrection you and I shall know more and be much wiser than we now are When this Mortal shall put on Immortality When our Understandings shall be more illuminated and when the Eyes of our Souls shall be no longer forced to look or peep through such thick Humors muddy Waters dull Tunicks and horny Spectacles The Second Question THE Second Question Q. Where hast thou been Answer Alas I do not well know where Nor how Nor when Nor what I have been doing Of my Infant-days I have no Knowledge or Remembrance but admire God's infinite Goodness who I verily believe sends his blessed Angels to watch over young Babes and tender Infants who of all other living Creatures are the least able to help themselves Ejaculation Thou O Lord art he who took'st me from the Womb And thou hast been my hope ever since I hung upon my Mothers Breasts In the Morning of my Life for several Hours I stood idle in the Market-place with others of my Companions pleasing my self with childish Toys and youthful Vanities In my more mature Age though I had frequent Calls and Invitations to labour in God's Vineyard yet nevertheless I rather chose to gratify my own roving Fancy and satisfy my vain Curiosity in ranging Abroad and making enquiry into the Customs and Manners of foreign Countries and then to enter into the secret Intregues and mysterious Transactions of my own where I had opportunity to hear see and observe many things which must be buried in Oblivion And here I must acknowledge I met with no small variety of Cares and Troubles Fears and Jealousies Crosses and Disappointments and found my self at the brink of many a deep pit and steep precipice and in great danger to have perished without a wonderful preservation and deliverance Besides all this I leave it to Men of greater Wisdom and Experience to consider how hard and difficult a thing it is to be entangled with the Cross-purposes of publick Affairs and yet have leisure to mind that one Thing necessary The Salvation of our Souls with which all the Riches Honours and Pleasures which this World affords are not worthy to be laid in the Ballance Ejaculation Remember not O Lord the unaccountable Follies and Vanities of my Childhood and Touth nor the innumerable Transgressions of my riper Tears Blot out of thy Remembrance the many Breaches of solemn Vows and Promises by me made in Times of Danger and Sickness or any prevarications with the God and Father of Mercies and the hazarding my Soul's Eternal Welfare and Happiness for the sake of a few sinful and short-liv'd Pleasures Methinks this World does not unfitly resemble a Theatre or Stage whereon every Man presents himself Acts his Part and so makes his Exit But in all the various Passages of his Life and frequent
shifting of Scenes the Devil and his Agents are always at hand to disturb and hinder the Actor in his performances both of Religious and Moral Duties and at last to carry him off the Stage with Eternal Dishonour and Disgrace It will not be difficult to trace his Cloven-Footsteps from the first Creation to this present Time Having beguiled our first Parents he resolved to mischief their two Sons First by polluting Cain's Offering and laying Sin at his door then by urging him to be wroth and angry with his Maker for not accepting it And lastly by provoking him to break all the Bonds of Nature and to become his own Brother's Murtherer This done he proceeds to tempt the Old World to the Commission of gross and enormous Impieties till God destroyed them with a Deluge After the Flood when Noah's Posterity was multiplied the Devil turned Architect and drew a Design for the Children of Men to build a Tower in the Plain of Shinaar whose top was to reach to Heaven from which he himself had so lately fallen When God had dispersed those Builders by the Confusion of Languages he took upon him the Office of an Infernal Prophet Priest and King instructing his Disciples and Followers to forsake the Worship of the True God to yield Obedience to all his Commands and to erect Altars plant Groves and to offer Sacrifice to Devils under various Forms of Beasts Birds and Creeping Things And so great was his Malice that he would not spare that Grove of Oaks at or near the Plains of Mamre which the good old Patriarch Abraham had planted and made use of as an Oratory orselect place of Divine Worship for himself and his numerous Family but caused it to be converted to Idolatrous Uses till such time as Constantine the Great took care to have the Heathen Altars and Images demolished by the Bishop of Jerusalem and those of Palestine and a Christian Church erected in their stead It would be endless to make enquiry into all the Actions and various Forms of Worship among the Men of the Old Gentile World and Heathen Idolaters Or to make an Enumeration of the Names of their respective Idols I shall only entertain the Reader with a brief Narrative of what I have collected out of a late Traveller of no small Credit amongst us which may give him some light into the Practices of former Ages There is saith my Author a Kingdom in the East Indies called Tunquin where some of the Inhabitants worship four Gods whose Names are Rauma Betols Ramonu and Brama and a Goddess called Satisbana Others of them hold Transmigration of Souls and have a great Veneration for a certain Hermit called Chacabout one of the greatest Impostors that ever was in Asia A third Sort have great esteem for one Lanthu one of the greatest Magicians of the East That Impostor's Disciples having given it out that his Mother carried him in her Womb without losing her Virginity for the space of Seventy years which I am apt to believe is a Mock the Devil puts upon our blessed Saviour's being carried Ten Months in the Womb of a Virgin It is the Custom of the Tunquineses to Adore three things The first is the Hearth of their Chimney made of Three Stones The second is an Idol which they call Tiensa the Patroness of Handy-Crafts The Third is the Idol Buabin which they implore before they build their Houses They likewise present Offerings to Trees Elephants Horses Cows and almost all kinds of Animals Besides all this they have great Veneration for two Magicians and one Magicianess The first Magician foretells future Events To the second they have recourse in all their Sicknesses And sometimes after several Apish-tricks he himself together with the sick Party and those who brought him do Homage and the Devil and the sick Party's friends present him and the Devil with an Entertainment of their choisest Meats But if the sick Person after all their Offerings do not recover his Friends and Relations with as many Soldiers as they can get together discharge their Guns and Musquets three times to drive away his Devilship from those parts Sometimes the chief Magician Thaybou being consulted and finding that the Distemper arises from the Souls of the Dead he or his Brother Thay-phouthouy finds ways to draw to him that Soul that is the Author of the Disease and then shuts it up in a bottle of water well stopt till the Party be cured afterwhich he breaks the Bottle and lets that Soul loose to go about its business The Magicianess Bacoti keeps constant Correspondence with the Devil to whom if she has a Daughter she offers her as soon as she is born and if any Mother happen to lose a Child she makes her Address to this Magicianess who by the beat of a Drum pretends to Summon the Soul of that Child and tell the Mother whether its Condition in the other World be Good or otherwise When the Moon is in an Eâ—clipse they believe it is assaulted by a Dragon and therefore they make a hideous noise with Drums Trumpets Bells and Musquets till the Ecclipse be over and then make great Rejoycings for having conquered that monstrous Creature It is very wonderful to consider what cruel Tyranny the Devil exercises over many of the poor Idolatrous Indians Some he makes to carry their Arms over their Heads during their Lives which causes certain Carnosities to breed in their Joints that they can never bring them down again Others he makes to stand upon one Foot holding a Chaffing-dish in one hand and with the other pouring out Incense as an Offering to their God fixing their Eyes all that while upon the Sun When the Inhabitants of the City Malde in Bengala on a certain Day go out of that City great Numbers of them hang themselves by the flesh of their Bodies upon iron Hooks fastned to Trees for that purpose till the weight of their Bodies tearing away the Flesh they fall off themselves to the ground and which is almost incredible not a Drop of Blood issues out of the Wounds nor the least bit of Flesh is left upon the Hooks and within the space of two Days they are cured by the Bramans Ejaculation I bless and praise Thee with my whole heart O Lord of Heaven and Earth for thy distinguishing Goodness and Mercy to me the meanest and most unworthy of all Adam's Posterity in permitting me to be Born within the Pale of the True Church where the Gospel of Thy Son is openly preacht and profest in the publick Assemblies And not among Pagans Turks or other Infidels It is very remarkable that the Devil notwithstanding his great Power and Dominion over the Heathen World for so many Thousand Years has never yet been able utterly to deface those Principles of Right Justice and Conscience which the Almighty Maker has stampt upon Men's Souls though at the same time in most places he has extreamly sullied them with hellish Impostures
I have yet one question to ask of certain Persons who are rightly stiled Modern Sadduces and that is For what Reason they deny the Resurrection Or why they should at all doubt God's Omnipotence Or once imagine That He who made all things out of nothing should not be able when ever he pleases out of something to make any thing How many Emblems of the Resurrection have we frequently before our Eyes The Night lies down and the Day arises again The Day departs and the Night comes on The Year that dies in Autumn has a Resurrection in the Spring The seed of Herbs Corn and Fruit-Trees first suffer a Dissolution in the Earth some for a few Days others for a few Weeks and then by the Power of the Almighty Maker of all things have a new Body given them of the same Kind or Species If that be true which some have related of the Phoenix a thing I would rather believe than undertake to disprove since there are so many strange things to be found among the Works of the Creation It is a wonderful Type of the Resurrection In Arabia say they there is a certain Bird called a Phoenix of which there is but one at a time and that one lives 500 Years and when the time draws near that it must die it makes it self a Nest of Frankincense and Myrrh and other Spices into which when its time is fulfilled it enters and dies but its Flesh putrifying breeds a certain Worm which being nourished by the Juice of the dead Carcass brings forth a new Phoenix and when it is grown to a perfect Age it takes up the Nest in which the Bones of its Parent lie and carries it from Arabia into Egypt to a City called Heliopolis and flying in open Day in the sight of all Men lays it on the Altar of the Sun and so returns into the Country from whence it came This done the Priests make search into the Records of Time and find that it returneth at the end of 500 Years Whether this Report be true or no sure I am that nothing can be too hard for the Almighty Let us suppose in two or three Instances things that are within the reach of our apprehensions viz. First a Mariner in a Sea-fight to be shot to death and thrown over-board and afterwards the Flesh of his Body to be eaten up by a great number of small Fishes and these Fishes to be taken in Nets and eaten by hundreds of Men Women and Children of different places and abodes and some of them to be drowned in the Sea and devoured by other Fishes and some to be cast into the Earth and eaten up by Worms In the next place Let us suppose a Man to die in a wide Forest or Wilderness and part of his Carcass to be devoured by wild Beasts part by the Fowls of the Air and part by Flies and creeping Things and again those Beasts and Fowls and creeping things to die and part of them to be eaten up by other Creatures Lastly Let us suppose a Man-Child born into the World and as 't is believed the Flesh of that Infant in a few Years to be evaporated and new Flesh grown up in the room of the other and let us suppose this Body to live and change for the space of threescore or fourscore years and then be buried in the Sands as is practised in some very hot Countries and there remain a Thousand or fifteen Hundred Years till such time as it is grown perfectly dry and fit to be made use of for Mummie and this Mummie to be distributed into the hands of several hundreds of Apothecaries and each of these Apothecaries to make use of it in their physical Doses Potions or otherwise and to administer it to as many hundreds of their Patients and each of those Patients to void the same or any part of it by stool and those stools to be carried away by the Scavengers into some common place and there mingled with the Ordours of ten Thousand other Persons and from that place taken up by the Salt-Peter Men and converted into Gun-powder and that Powder shot away into the Air. Give me leave to tell those unbelieving Sadduces my life for theirs that the Almighty God and Maker of Heaven and Earth is able to recall every Particle Dust or Atom of a Human Body in any of the aforesaid Instances to its Original and proper Mass and to form that Mass into its first Original and infant Body As also to give that infant Body its full stature and perfect Dimensions and this done from a Natural and Corruptible to change it into a Spiritual and incorruptible Substance And lastly to reunite it to its own proper and immortal soul and all this in a moment in the twinkling of an Eye at the last Trump and the Voice of the Arch-angel calling for the Dead to arise and come to Judgment I must needs acknowledge That the Disbelief of a future Resurrection is no small encouragement to either Atheist or Libertine to go on in his sin with great presumption For if the Dead rise not our Faith is altogether vain And if this Corruptible shall never put on Incorruption nor this Mortal Immortality then go to Let us Eat Drink and be Merry for to Morrow we die There are some who satisfie themselves that God is so merciful and so just in his Judgments that he will never punish finite Sins with everlasting Punishments but such Men little think how miserably they deceive themselves while they ascribe less Power to the Almighty Maker over his Creatures than an ordinary Potter has over his Clay and earthen Vessels Besides that in the Gospel Dispensation there are propos'd to Fallen Man two things which very well counterballance one the other both as to Time and Measure namely on the one side Eternal and inexpreslible Happiness and on the other endless and unspeakable Miseries Now if the Sinner do voluntarily and with deliberation choose the last of these Volent non fit Injuria he has his choise and desire and has no reason in the World to complain of any hardship much less of any Injury done to him it being a greater Mercy to grant Eternal Life upon a bare Repentance and Believing during our earthly pilgrimage than it is a Severity to inflict eternal Torment for continuing in actual Sin for the very same term of time The Author of Leviathan will by no means admit of a Local Hell or indeed of a Local Heaven For the first of which he has no better Reason than this trusting to his own skill in Geometry and Staticks that it cannot be either in the Cavity of the Earth or any other body of the like magnitude hanging in the expanse forasmuch as in any circumscribed Bodies there cannot be included a Bottomless-Pit which in sacred Stile is sometimes called Hell Whereas if he had considered that our Antipodes tread as heavy on the superficies of the
for removing them or else for giving sufficient strength to withstand them If at any time we are threatned with outward and temporal Dangers by our Enemies or Persecutors we are to rest upon Him knowing that the God whom we serve is able to deliver us and that He will surely do it if He sees it best for us if not that He will as certainly allay our Sufferings with that inward peace and those spiritual Comforts that neither the World can give us nor the worst of our Enemies can ever take from us and therefore we must be careful never to attempt or seek to deliver our selves from such like dangers by any unlawful or indirect means forasmuch as in so doing we utterly forfeit God's more powerful aid and assistance If we are in want either of Spirituals or Temporals we are to trust and rely upon Him for a seasonable and plentiful supply of both kinds He having graciously promised to give the Holy Spirit to those that ask Him 11 Luke 13. And as for bodily wants those who truly serve and fear him are assured that they shall want no good thing that is sit for them 34 Psal 10. And again Behold the Eye of the Lord is upon them that hope in his Mercy to deliver their souls from death and to feed them in the time of Famine 33. Psal 18 19. Why should we distrust a God who is able whenever he pleases to make Rivers flow out of hard Rocks or prepare a Table in the Wilderness who clothes the Lillies and feeds the young Ravens with whom the very hairs of our Heads are all numbred and in whom none ever trusted and were confounded 6. To submit entirely and with all humility to His holy Will and heavenly Wisdom in all His Dispensations and dealings with us and that from a deep sense of our own meaness and vileness and his transcendent Excellencies and Perfections and that infinite distance and disproportion that is between him and us To be fully perswaded that the State and Condition in which He places us for the time being is that which is best and most convenient for us however contrary to our own Desires and Inclinations And to bear our Afflictions with Christian Patience that so all His Fatherly Chastisements may have their blessed Effects and bring forth the fruits of Righteousness in our future Lives and Conversations 7. To Honour Him and to pay a due Reverence and Respect to whatever immediately relateth to His Worship and Service To have no other Gods besides Him whether Idols made with hands or those of our own beloved Lusts Not to take His holy Name in vain in our ordinary Discourses much less to prophane it with wicked Oaths bitter Curses or horrid Blasphemies To pay a due Respect to the Ministers of His Word and Sacraments and never to defraud them of their Dues and Maintenance which is in effect to rob God of his Tythes and Offerings and to commit the highest Sacriledge To keep holy His own Day and indeed all other Days solemnly set apart for His Worship and Service not following our own Ways nor speaking our own Words nor thinking our own Thoughts much less going to Church to hear News or to make Bargains with our Neighbours as the custom of some is and so to make their Fathers house a House of Merchandize or else to observe and reflect upon each others Dresses and which is much worse than all this to employ a great part of the time in Whispers Slaunders and Back-bitings or else in wanton Looks lascivious Glances or amorous Courtships and so to turn the House of Prayer and Supplications into a Scene of Pride and Vain-glory Slander and Calumny Lasciviousness and wanton Behaviour Lastly to come to the Lord's Table with due preparation and a sincere Intention to renew our Covenant made with him in Baptism then to receive with all Humility and Thankfulness those blessed Pledges of Eternal Life and Happiness 8. To be meek and lowly and to have a very mean Opinion of our selves which is the only Soveraign Remedy against Pride and Vain-glory and the best Expedient we can make use of throughout the whole Course of our Lives for the conquering our unruly Passions and subduing our inordinate Affections And this we must do unless we intend to make God our profest and open Enemy and what the issue and end of that will be with obstinate Offenders the following Texts will soon inform and satisfy us 16 Prov. 18. Pride goeth before Destruction and an haughty Spirit before a Fall Again 16 Prov. 5. Every one that is proud in Heart is an abomination to the Lord and though hand join in hand he shall not be unpunished Nebuchadnezzar was in his time for ought we know the greatest King upon Earth and yet for his Pride was driven from among Men to dwell and feed with the Beasts of the Feild 9. To be modest and chast in all our Actions Words and Thoughts and not to spend the flower of our Age and the choicest part of our Lives in Chambering Wantonness Adultery Fornication and all Uncleanness and to pull down many grievous and heavy Judgments upon our own heads 10. To be Temperate in all things that is to say in our Eating and Drinking and not squander our precious Time throw away our Estates and ruin our Families most shamefully wast such quantities of God's good Creatures as might relieve great numbers of indigent Persons prejudice our own Healths beget Quarrels and Contentions and many times shorten our days and bring our selves to untimely Ends and which is worst of all forfeit our precious and immortal Souls by Gluttony and Drunkenness and all manner of Riot and Excess To be temperate in our Sleep which was ordained by God for the refreshment of our frail Bodies that so they might not be wearied out with continual Toil and Labour and that we might be enabled from time to time to perform such Duties as Religion or Works of our Calling require of us And forasmuch as some Constitutions require more than others every Man must be governed by his own Experience for whoever does not limit himself does not only wast his precious time but also injures his Body and makes it a very sink of Humors and subject to sundry Diseases and Distempers To be moderate in our Recreations which are sometimes necessary both for the Body and Mind always provided that they are such as neither dishonour God injure our Neighbour take up too much of our time or divert our Minds from our more necessary Imployments in the number of which lawful and useful Recreations can very hardly be reckoned the sitting up whole Days and Nights at Cards and Dice and immoderate use of other Pastimes which I forbear to mention but leave the consideration of all such Excesses to every Man 's private Conscience To be moderate in Apparel and Dresses since Apparel and Garments were the Effects of the Transgression of our First
all Things that may be hurtful either to our Spuls or Bodies From all Evil and Mischief from Sin from the Grafts and Assaults of the Devil from thy Wrath and everlasting Damnation Good LORD deliver us From saying in our Hearts that there is no God or openly denying the Divine Essence and glorious Attributes of which either the highest Presumption or utmost Desperation are the usual and woful Effects Let the visible things of the Creation and the Restections of our own Consciences in our Solitudes and private Retirements be sufficient to disswade and restrain us Against Idolatry and having other Gods besides Thee and from bowing down to and Worshipping either Idols made with hands or those of our beloved Lusts Lord strengthen us by thy Grace To keep us from taking the NAME of the LORD our GOD in vain in our ordinary Discourses or prophaning it with wicked Oaths on bitter Curses Let us remember that the same LORD hath assured all such Offenders that he will in no wise hold them guiltless To observe religiously the Lord's Day and all other Times solemnly set a part for Divine Worship and Service not following our own Ways nor speaking our own Words nor thinking our own Thoughts Let thy good Spirit dispose and encline our hearts Let us never attempt to sow Discord and Divisions in the Church or to offend our blessed Saviour's Little Ones or any way to disturb the Communion of Saints as knowing who hath told us That it would be much better for us to be thrown into the midst of the Sea with Mill-stones hung about our Necks than to be guilty of such Offences Let us always be conscientiously careful to Honour and Obey our Parents and all others under whose Rule and Government thou hast placed us behaving ourselves with all humility and singleness of heart not as Eye-servants or Men-pleasers And whenever Pride and Vain-glory would puff us up and make us become wise in our own Eyes let the remembrance that we are but Dust and Ashes and born like the wild Asses Colt pull down our haughty Looks and abate our swelling Thoughts From sinful Anger and unbridled Passion from provoking Language and reviling Speeches from Envy Hatred and Malice and all the mischievous and fatal consequences that may thereby happen either to our selves or others LORD ever keep us by thy restraining Grace From Rioting and Drunkenness from Chambering and Wantonness from Adultery Fornication and Uncleanness or living in any known Sin Let the fear of thy Wrath and the Vengeance of Eternal Fire deterr us To wrong our Neighbours by open Violence or by Secret and fraudulent Practises Let it never enter into our Thoughts That we may never Slander speak Evil of or rashly censure others or bear false Witness against them Let us set a watch before our Mouths and strictly guard the Doors of our Lips Let us be afraid of oppressing the Poor and Needy in the Gate or ploughing in the field of the Fatherless because their Redeemer is mighty or of devouring Widow's Houses lest the Stones out of the Walls should one Day be our Accusers and the Beams out of the Timber make Answer and testifie against us To covet our Neighbour's House to covet our Neighbour's Wife his Man-servant his Maid-servant his Ox his Ass or any thing that is his Let no worldly Advantage or carnal Delight be ever able to tempt or allure us From Thieves and Robbers from the Hands of bloody Men and Murderers from Invasion of foreign Foes from the Conspiracies of Domestick Enemies and Treachery of false Friends do Thou O LORD to whom alone all Hearts are open all Designs known and from whom no Secrets are hid defend us by thy good Providence confounding their Counsels and bringing to nought their Devices From Plague Pestilence and Famine from bodily Torments Tempests and Earth-quakes and all the sad Accidents of Fire and Water for thy Mercies sake save and protect us Neither do we pray for our selves alone but for the whole Race of Mankind now living upon or working within the Bowels of the habitable Earth or else floating upon the face of the deep Waters and particularly for the Church Militant where-ever scattered or dispersed that the Gates of Hell may never prevail against it Look down with the Eye of pitty upon all who in this transitory Life are in Trouble Sorrow Need Sickness or any other Adversity more especially upon those thy Servants on whom thou hast laid thine afflicting Hand either for a Tryal of their Patience or a Punishment of their Disobedience Make them sensible that Affliction comes not forth of the Dust neither doth Trouble spring out of the Ground but that the Hand of the LORD hath done it to whom alone belong the Issues of Life and Death and who doth whatever pleaseth him in Heaven and in Earth but never willingly asslicts or grieves the Children of Men and then Why should we receive Good Things at the hands of the LORD and not Evil things And Why should a living Man complain for the punishment of his Sins In the mean time be thou graciously pleased who art the great Physician of Soul and Body to mitigate their Pains and to asswage their Griefs and to lay no more upon Dust and Ashes than thou enablest them to bear with Christian patience and a lively Faith in the Merits and Mediation of JESUS CHRIST the Righteous for the Remission of their Sins and the Salvation of their Souls That so thy Fatherly Chastisements may have their blessed Effects and those thy Children may come out of the Furnace of Affliction like Gold and Silver that hath been tried in the fire and purified seven times Be merciful to these Kingdoms and avert those heavy Judgments which we have done as much as in us lay by our crying Sins and Provocations to pull down upon our Heads Let the choicest of thy Blessings descend upon the Head and Heart of Him whom by thy especial Providence thou hast placed in supream Authority over us together with all His Royal Relations Give Grace and Wisdom to all the Senators and great Counsellors in all their Debates and Consultations Clean Hands and clear Consciences to the Judges and chief Magistrates that so they may help the Fatherless and hear the Cause of the Widow and upon all occasions act in their several Places without the least partiality or respect of Persons Spiritual Gifts and Graces to the Ministers of thy Word and Sacraments however Dignified or Distinguished that they may truly and faithfully feed the Flocks committed to their Charge Sobriety and Godliness to the Governors and Inhabitants of foreign Plantations that by their good Conversations and Examples they may convert Pagans and Insidels to the Faith of JESUS and turn many Souls to Righteousness The Dew and Blessing of Heaven to Schools and Universities that out of those Seminaries and Nurseries may grow up Plants that may be useful both to Church and State in their several Capacities and Generations Health and Happiness here and the Joys of Heaven hereafter to our Parents Brethren Sisters Kindred or Christian Acquaintance and to all our Friends and Benefactors who have at any time generously and readily shewed us Kindness in our Distress and when we truly stood in need of their Aid and Assistance A Spirit of Reformation to the whole Commonalty within these Realms and Dominions that so they may live in the true Faith and Fear of Thee our GOD in humble Obedience to their Superiors and in Brotherly Love and Charity one towards another Finally we beseech Thee to be present with us and all those who shall this day meet in any of the publick Assemblies to assist at thy Divine Worship and Service Let our Prayers come up before thee as Incense and the lifting up of our hands as an acceptable Sacrifice Touch with a Cole from thine Altar the Tongues of those who are to speak that they may not spare but cry aloud and lift up their Voices like Trumpets and shew the People of England their Transgressions and tell every Congregation their Sins And let us and all their Hearers receive the Word with meekness and pure Affections laying it up in our Hearts and bringing forth the fruit thereof in our future Lives and Conversations All which with what ever else thou knowest to be needful for us we humbly beg in the Name and for the Sake of JESUS CHRIST the Righteous concluding these our imperfect Prayers with that absolute Form which he himself while he was yet upon Earth taught his Disciples 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 FINIS and