we look for pardon of our Trespasses against God Prayer helps you in the fulfilling of this condition too and though your hearts be as hard as Iron Prayer is of the nature of Fire and is able to soften that Iron and melt you into that compassion toward your enemies as to pray for them with the same earnestness as you do for your selves But then when our past sins are pardoned where shall we find a Remedy against future Temptations Our Saviour tells you where when he saith to his Disciples Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation If the fire of Lust begin to kindle in your hearts Prayer can extinguish that fire Or if a whole Sea of worldly Afflictions breaks in upon you Prayer can set a Bank to that Sea If you are compassed about with Enemies Temptations on all sides and are ready to be swallowed up by them remember that Moses's Prayer prevailed more against Amalek than Ioshuah's Arms. And then again in the close as Prayer hath the nature of a Charm to keep Temptations from you so when by Humane Weakness and the Arts of the Tempter you are led into them Prayer is as the thread to bring you out of this Labyrinth Or when you have unwarily taken in the poison of sin Prayer is the Antidote against the venom of it it doth not only remove the guilt but the evil of Punishment which is due to it whether it be in this Life or in the next And of this David was very sensible when he cryes out in a kind of Extasie of Thankfulness Blessed be God which hath not cast out my Prayer nor turned his Mercy from me Intimating by this as St. Austin understands the words that there is a kind of Contract or Bargain made between Prayer on Man's part and Mercy on God's That where Prayer led the way Mercy should always follow O Father of Mercies Give me that gift of Prayer by the means of which Thou dost use to dispense those Mercies suffer me never to be weary of praying lest that make Thee weary of forgiving For this I am sure of that if I cease not to pray Thou canst not cease to have mercy For because Thou art good Thou wilt always deliver me from evil Not for mine but for Thine own Goodness sake BY this which hath been said may be inferred the necessity of Prayer both in respect of your spiritual Life which it preserves And in regard of spiritual Enemies which otherwise would destroy you For as the Body without the Soul is dead loathsome and overspread with Worms so fares it with the Soul saith Chrysostome that doth not use to pray and consequently hath no spiritual Life in it For as soon as the Breath of Prayer fails the Soul putrifies and the Worm of Conscience gnaws upon it Daniel therefore chose rather to hazard his life than to omit his exercise of Prayer thrice a day as being willing that his Body should suffer rather than his Soul Would you know further how precious Prayer is devout Men will tell you That Prayer pierceth the Clouds reacheth the Heavens rejoyceth the Angels appeaseth God obtains whatsoever it sues for O Grace of Grace holy and heavenly FATHER what shall I say of thee either to express thy Excellency or the Necessity my Soul hath of thine help I am the Fountain of all Misery and thou art to me the Source and Spring of Mercy With thee I live without thee I die With thee I am able to do all things without thee I can do nothing O Divine Spirit whose Gift alone it is to know how to speak to Thee Give me the Spirit of Wisdom by which I may sanctifie Thy Name the Spirit of Understanding by whose Light I may see the secrets of Thy Kingdom the Spirit of Counsel which may guid me to do Thy Will on Earth as it is done in Heaven the Spirit of Knowledg to discover and to ask what is Necessary either for Body or for Soul the Spirit of Charity to move me to pardon my Enemies as I desire Thou shouldst pardon me the Spirit of Fear to avoid all Occasions and Approaches to sin and the Spirit of Might and Courage to overcome all Evil. Amen Of the Impediments and Enemies of Prayer HAving considered the glorious Fruits and admirable Efficacy of Prayer we are to look about and to discover what Enemies we are like to meet with to oppose and hinder us in the exercise of this Heavenly Duty For Prayer is in its own nature a kind of Wrestling and Striving for a Victory which presupposeth an opposition And rather than it shall be wanting God himself will enter into the Lists as he did with Iacob in that famous Wrestling when to shew the power of Prayer he that was invincible was content to be overcome by him who had no other weapons but Tears and Prayers When therefore you find your selves afflicted make use of our Saviour's Parable Arise though it be at Midnight repair speedily to the Gates of your true Friend God himself for you have no Friend like him though you find the doors shut and your Friend asleep begin your Battery and give not over knocking with importunate Cries and Prayers till he open to you as Iacob would not let the Angel go till he had blessed him O Omnipotent and Invisible GOD who lettest thy Self down to my Weakness and givest me strength to wrestle with Thee for a Blessing strengthen my Prayer to that height that when Thou seemest most to set thy Self against me I may prevail with Thee as Jacob did For my overcoming Thee is but the effect of Thy overcoming thy Self in me so that the glory of the Victory which I get over Thee will be intirely Thine Wrestle on therefore O my Soul give not over thy hold take no answer that brings not a Blessing with it For it is Thy God who strengthens thee and through him thou shalt at last be more than Conqueror Amen AS Prayer therefore is a Wrestling with God we look not upon this opposition as an hindrance but as an advantage to Devotion The true Enemies of Prayer exercise a more dangerous Hostility where the Van is led by those damned Spirits who being fallen from Heaven themselves endeavour the more enviously to obstruct the ways that may lead us thither and because nothing conduceth more to this than Prayer they order all their Temptations to this end chiefly either to divert us from it or disturb us in it If they tempt us to excess in Meats and Drinks their aim is not only to make us guilty of Intemperance but by it to render us the more unfit for Prayer Or if they prompt us to Anger and Impatience their design terminates not in that sin but rather makes use of it to a further end that the mind being thus disquieted may not be able easily to compose and settle it self to Prayer For the effecting this they
thou shalt find so much vertue in this Prayer as shall quiet thy thoughts and take away thy scruples O Most glorious God glorifie Thy unworthy Servant with that Gift of Prayer by which I may be enabled to glorifie Thee that so I being sanctified by Thee Thou mayest be sanctified in me by those Gifts and Graces which in all Eternity Thou didst decree to give me through Iesus Christ. Amen THe next Dignity of Prayer is that it is the effectual means of enstating the Kingdom of God in us not only the Kingdom of Grace in this World which in the Apostles Character is Righteousness and Peace and Joy the Holy Ghost but the Kingdom of Glory in the next to which Prayer not only gives us the Title but puts us in a kind of Possession by affording us a taste at least and an earnest of that Glory The first time that we find it written that our Saviour prayed we find in the very next words three passages of wonder whereof the first was that the Heavens were opened the next that the Holy Ghost descended on him as a Dove the third that there was a Voice that came from Heaven which said Thou art my Beloved Son in thee I am well pleased And wherefore this but to shew us the admirable effects of Prayer First that it is the Key to open Heaven to us next that it hath that attractive power as to draw down the Spirit of God upon us and Lastly that it puts us into the quality of Sons and of such Sons in whom he is well-pleased After this when he went up into a Mountain to pray What followed upon this The Evangelist tells us That as he was praying his face did shine as the Sun and his Garment was white as the Light So white saith St. Mark that no Fuller on earth could white them And though it is not said that this Transfiguration of our Saviour was absolutely and fully the Kingdom of Heaven come down to him yet we find there was so much of the Glory of it as Peter in his Amazement took to be Heaven and desired to fix his Tabernacle there and to go no higher You see here the strange effects of Prayer it draws down one Kingdom to you and lifts you up to another It bows down to you the Kingdom of Grace and draws you up to the Kingdom of Glory O God my Sovereign King who hast taught me to pray for the coming of Thy Kingdom set up the Throne of Thy Grace in my heart and so rule and govern all my affections that there may not be left a rebellious thought against Thee And when the time of my Transmigration comes change thy Kingdom of Grace into thy Kingdom of Glory and from obeying Thee in this life lift up my Soul to reign with Thee in the life to come Amen THE fourth Excellency of Prayer goes hand in hand with the former for where Gods Kingdom comes there must be a perfect submission to his Will which cannot be more effectually done than by the means of that Homage which we do to God in Prayer For by Prayer we not only obtain but exercise that Obedience which is better than Sacrifice we strip and divest our selves of our own Will and give our selves entirely up to the Will of God whom we pray unto And from hence it is that the Fathers say of fervent Prayer that it makes us live in the flesh as if we were out of it that it dis-intangles and unlooseth the Soul from the Ties and Fetters of the body and equals us unto the Angels For as they stand in the presence of God ready to execute his Commands without either delay or weariness so Prayer puts us into the like posture with those Angels and quickens us unto the Obedience of doing the Will of God in earth as it is done in Heaven But that you may not think that all the treasure and riches of Prayer are only in things invisible there is a fifth Excellency in Prayer in that it procures for us our daily bread which as it hath reference to our body in such things as concern our nourishment so it reacheth besides to the spiritual Refection of our Souls For by Prayer saith St. Bernard we are stored with three sorts of bread the bread of Truth for the Understanding the bread of Divine Love and Charity for the Will and in the last place that grosser and more earthly bread fitted for the sustaining of our weaker nature These be the three Loaves which Christ in his Parable encourageth us to ask for and never to give over our importunity till we obtain them for obtain them we shall and our Prayers if fervent cannot be denied Imagine therefore saith Climacus that you say Prayer is a Queen seated on her Throne calling out to you in the words of our Saviour Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you that refreshing as shall lighten your weight and ease your weariness For without me the burthen of the Law is heavy but with me it is light without me the exercise of Repentance is bitter but with me it is sweet without me the Cross is insupportable to be born but with me the Crown of Thorns shall be as easie as a Crown of Roses Christ is the Bread of Life but the means to make this Bread nourish you is Prayer By Prayer you receive Christ into your memory and ruminate upon him in your Meditations By Prayer your Affections tastes and relisheth this Bread and your love incorporates it Whatever therefore your necessities are fly to Prayer If this spiritual Bread be wanting and you hunger and thirst after it pray and you shall be satisfied Or if the food of your Body fails you and poverty lays hold upon you as an armed man fall to your Prayers again and be sure that he who hears the young Ravens when they call upon him will much more hear you who have the honour not only to be his Creatures but his Sons Thus far the Excellency of Prayer is in opening Heaven to us from whence all Blessings come We are now to look upon it as the Key that shuts up Hell and keeps all evil from us which is of three sorts 1. Evil of Sin 2. Evil of Temptation that leads to sin 3. Evil of Punishment for sin Against these three Prayer is the Remedy and first against sin already contracted For how came the Publican justified but by a short and humble Prayer What moved and softned the heart of the Father of the Prodigal Son to such a tenderness Was it not his Prayer Father I have sinned against Heaven and against thee The Debt of Ten thousand Talents which the Servant owed the King was no slight ordinary sum yet a few Words of Prayer had vertue enough to cancel that great Debt And because there is a condition required of pardoning the Trespasses done against us if
which are then most acceptable to Thee when they flow from an undivided and untroubled Mind Of Preparation to Prayer and the Helps that conduce to it THough Prayer may well be reckoned amongst those gifts which are not of Earthly race but rather immediate Emanations from the Father of Lights yet this doth not exclude the preparing and disposing our selves for the receiving this Gift from Heaven according to that Counsel of the Son of Sirach Before thou prayest prepare thy self and be not as one that tempts the Lord For what is it to tempt God but to come into his presence with less regard than you would into the presence of some earthly Prince What is it to tempt him but to try experiments with him whether he will hear you upon any terms though you neither prepare your self nor order the manner nor dispose the matter which you petition for But be not deceived Heaven is not gained at so cheap a rate Qualem ie paraveris Deo saith St. Bernard talis apparebit tibi Deus If you slight God so far as to come carelesly into his presence without consideration of what you come about be sure he will slight you as much and regard your Prayers as little David who was a great Master in this heavenly Art of Prayer tells us that God hears the desires of the humble he hearkens to the preparation of the heart he hears your desires before they are molded and formed into Prayers and he listens to the very preparations of those desires he cherisheth them he goes along with them he leaves them not till you can say as that Divine Prophet did My heart is ready O God my heart is ready For as the Knife must be sharpened before you cut with it and the Lute tuned before you begin the Musick so there is something to be done some tuning of the heart required before your Prayers can yield that Musick which God listens after It is an excellent Rule which Eusebius Emissenus gives Quantum Tu apposueris ad diligentiam tantum Deus addit ad Gratiam The more care you take in fitting your self to your Devotions the more Grace he gives Elias was to prepare the Sacrifice though the Fire was to come from Heaven which did consume it To come therefore unprepared before him is an Argument say the Fathers that we do not esteem God we do not set such a Rate upon him as we ought to do For if the Virgins before they were brought into the presence of Ahasuerus were to be purified first with sweet Oyls and Odours what an impudence were it for a foul unwashed Soul to press into the presence of God himself But then if you would know more punctually wherein this Preparation consists your spiritual Guide will tell you There are some Rules more remote some more immediate of the remote the main is a watchfulness over the whole course of your life For if the Devil order his Temptations with a design in chief to blast and corrupt your Prayers your care must be the greater to countermine him in this design and to live so as far as humane frailty will give way as not to be at any time unqualified or unfit to pray To compass this there will be a need first of temperance in Diet for the body once heavy with Excess and Surfeits hangs plummets on the nobler part and weighs the Soul down with it This being done there will be use of setting a guard upon your Senses and stopping the Avenues so far as nothing may from without be admitted to divert you as Elias is observ'd to have wrap'd his Face in a Mantle when he prepared himself to speak with God To this must be added the frequent reading of Books especially the Book of Psalms where the Spirit of Devotion breaths with such a vigor as is able to kindle a fire in the coldest breast to stir up and excite the drousiest Soul which being thus awaked and heated may be more easily prepared to break forth in fervent Prayer But then if we come to the more immediate Dispositions and Qualifications of Prayer we shall be pointed to them by our Saviour who gives this main Rule of private Prayer When thou prayest enter into thy Closet and when thou hast shut the door pray to the Father which is in secret Wherein you are not only directed to the place of Prayer you are to chuse a place private and retired but further as the Fathers observe you are put in mind of a more inner Retirement the Closet of your breast for there you must enter too and shut that door by some setled Resolution to admit no thoughts that may disturb you for otherwise there may be noise and tumult in that inward Closet when there is Quiet and Silence in the other But then this is not all but as the place must be secret the door shut so the room must be furnished For as our Saviour would not eat the Passover in an unfurnished room but sent Peter and Iohn first to prepare it so there is a Furniture necessary for this little Chappel of ours the Heart There must be Faith to prepare the Materials and there must be Love to kindle the Sacrifice But then after all this Remember that there is no Preparative more effectual to Prayer than Prayer it self For as the Sun in its approaches to us is ushered in by its own beams and begins the dawning so in our approaches to God Prayer must make way for Prayer For though the severe Judges of the Areopage would admit of no Civilities of Preface to be used by them that pleaded before them yet God deals not so harshly with us when we plead before him but is content to let himself down to be wrought upon by the Rhetorick of a devout Soul This David knew well who so frequently makes use of it Sometimes with all lowliness suing for admittance O let my Prayer enter into Thy presence Let it be set forth in Thy sight as the Incense Let the lifting up of mine hands be as an evening Sacrifice Hear the voice of my humble Petitions when I cry unto Thee when I hold up my hands towards the Mercy-Seat of Thy Holy Temple Sometimes after a more passionate way How long wilt thou forget me O Lord For ever How long wilt Thou hide Thy face from me How long shall I seek counsel in my Soul and so vexed in my heart Hear me O God make haste to hear me Think no scorn of me for if Thou makest as if Thou hearest not I shall become like them that go down into the Pit With these or such as these the devout Soul summons God to a Parley pleads for Admittance opens the Windows of Heaven qualifies her self to receive Grace and works God to a readiness in giving it O Most gracious God who hearkenest to the preparations of the heart that prays to Thee assist me
Affirmative Precepts though they bind always in the Habit cannot be said always to bind in the Act this cannot be pressed so indispensably as that neither sickness nor weakness nor any other accident can be a bar to it For where necessity intervenes the bended knees of the heart may well excuse the Body There is therefore one posture more that we find hath been used in Prayer which though it may hear ill being practised by the Pharisees who as our Saviour describes them loved to pray standing not only in their Synagogues but in the corners of their Streets yet this is not enough utterly to exclude it from our Devotions For not only the proud Pharisee but the humble Publican stood at his Prayers although with this note of difference He stood but it was afar off in the lowest place of the Temple as thinking himself unworthy to come higher His body stood upright but his eyes were cast downward to the Earth But not to stop either upon these Particulars or upon the Custom of the Iews in general for it was their Custom to pray standing we find in the best times the Christians had their seasons to make use of it For besides that as between Easter and Whitsontide to express their Exultation for the Resurrection of their Saviour and their Expectation of the Descent of the Holy Ghost they were not seen to kneel openly in their publick Service of God So many times in their private Devotions especially when they continued them long upon their knees they relieved themselves with that change of Posture But to avoid all necessary Scruples in cases of this nature the result of all is this 1. That Adoration is an act of Religious Worship exhibited to God in Recognition of his Supreme Dominion 2. That as in Man the heart is first framed so the heart must be first offered as a spiritual Sacrifice of inward Reverence 3. That the outward Adoration by Prostration or kneeling is not so much a Ceremony as a part or duty in Divine Worship not to be omitted but either in case of necessity or when we find some other posture upon some occasion really to be of more advantage to us in our Devotion 4. That this Duty of external Reverence doth not then necessarily oblige when the Soul being suddenly and inwardly moved to lift it self up by Prayer the outward man is as it were surprized in some other posture as walking standing sitting or lying down in which case God will rather look to the inward Motions and Raptures of the Mind than to the outward Form and Composure of the Body Someother though more minute yet usual Circumstances of Adoration are summed up by Bonaventure as the uncovering of the head as it relates to Men the posture of either looking up to Heaven with the confidence of Saint Stephen or fastened down to the Earth with the humility of the Publican The hands lifted and stretched out a Gesture which God honoured with that famous Miracle Thus as long as Moses in this manner held up his hands the Israelites prevailed but when he let them down his Enemies prevailed But the choice of these must be regulated by the former Rule of Saint Austin and so far made use of as they shall conduce most to every particular Man's Devotion FINIS HOLY RULES and HELPS TO DEVOTION Both in Prayer and Practice BY The right Reverend Father in God Bryan Duppa Late Lord Bishop of Winton The Second Part. London Printed for W. Hensman at the King's-Heaâ— in Westminster-Hall 1683. HOLY Rules and Helps TO DEVOTION Both in Prayer and Practice Of Prayer what it is PRAYER is an Humble Address of the Soul towards God for whatsoever we stand in need of either in relation to this life or the life to come Prayer is The lifting up of the Soul The pouring out of the Soul A wrestling with God A Sacrifice to God A Succour to the Soul A Scourge to the Tempter A Sanctuary in Troubles A Remedy for sins A Key to open the Morning A Lock to shut in the Evening Of Morning and Evening Prayer I. MOrning and Evening Prayer are instead of that Morning and Evening-Sacrifice which God enjoined to be daily offered in the Temple II. They are out-goings of the Morning and Evening which David speaks of The out-goings of the Morning and Evening shall praise thee III. They are to every devout Soul like that Pillar which guided Israel through the Wilderness as a Cloud by day to shadow them and as a Fire by night to comfort them IV. By Morning Prayer thou openest the windows of thy Soul to the Sun of Righteousness and by Evening Prayer thou shuttest them against the danger of the night V. In your Morning Devotions you are to say within your self What shall I do this day which God hath given me How shall I employ it In the Evening What have I done this day How have I spent it Short Ejaculations or Occasional Prayers for the Morning BLessed art thou O God who hast sent the Day-spring from on high to visit me who hast given my body rest and preserved this night my Soul in safety Blessed art thou who 〈◊〉 â—â—newest thy Mercies to me every morning and hast given me one day more to serve thee and call upon thy name Or this Psal. cxliii 5. 8. Let me hear thy loving-kindness O God betimes in the morning for in thee is my trust Shew thou me the way that I should walk in for I lift up my soul unto thee Or this Numb vi 24. The Lord God bless and preserve me make his face to shine upon me and be gracious unto me that it may go well with me this day and evermore A short Prayer at up-rising O Blessed Saviour who hast taught me that the dead shall hear thy voice let me no longer lie in the grave of sloth but raise me as thou didst thy servant Lazarus unbind my hands and feet set me in some good way that I may glorifie thee by serving thee this day with a pure mind and humble heart Amen At your Cloathing O My God as I came into the World a weak a naked and a wretched Creature so am I still if destitute of thy grace Reach out therefore unto me the unspotted Robe of thy Sons Righteousness and so clothe me with all the graces of thy holy Spirit that thy Image may be daily renewed in me and thy Name honoured by me for evermore Amen At the washing of your Hands O My dear Saviour who hast opened a fountain for sin and for all uncleanness wash me throughly with those saving Waters that being purified from the stains of sin and the guilt of my natural corruption I may with the more confidence draw near to thy Throne of Grace and bow myself before thy Mercy-seat Amen Eccles. xviii 5. 23. Before thou prayest prepare thy self and be not as one that tempts the Lord. Three Rules of Preparation I.
FIrst you are to remember when you settle to Prayer you then place your self in the presence of God whose eyes are upon all men but especially upon such as call upon him II. Secondly the consideration of his presence is to put you in mind with what humble Reverence both of Soul and Body you ought to appear before so great a Majesty III. Thirdly before you begin to Pray you are to resolve within your self seriously to intend the Duty you are about that your heart may not wander but go along with your Prayers or if through weakness it happen to stray to call it back again and to ask pardon for it in some such short Prayer as this Lord strengthen me and restrain me and lay not this weakness to my charge A Prayer preparative O My dear and blessed Saviour who with so much zeal didst drive out those who turned thy House of Prayer into a Den of Thieves clear at this time the Temple of my Soul from vain and sinful thoughts cast out all wandring Imaginations leave nothing behind that may either disturb or distract me in the performance of this my duty that my Prayers may ascend as Incense and thy Grace and Mercy may descend as Dew to the saving of my Soul and to the glory of thy Name Amen Morning Prayers collected out of the Psalms I. DEfend me O God under thy Wings and keep me safe this day under thy Feathers Give thine Angels charge over me to keep me in all my ways Preserve me as the Apple of thine eye hide me under the shadow of thy Wings That no evil may happen unto me nor no plague come nigh my dwelling Create in me a clean heart and renew a right Spirit within me O hold thou up my goings in thy Path that my footsteps slip not Who can tell how oft he offendeth O cleanse thou me from my secret sins but above all keep me from presumptuous sins lest they get the Dominion over me so shall thy Servant be undefiled and innocent from the great offence Amen II. Unto thee O GOD lift I up mine eyes O thou that dwellest in the Heavens Yea unto the Hills will I lift up mine eyes from whence cometh my Salvation For whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of thee Into thy hands therefore I commend my Spirit for thou hast redeemed me O Lord thou God of truth Blessed art thou who hast lightned mine eyes that I sleep not in death Who hast delivered me from the terrors of the night and from the evil that walketh in darkness Who hast driven sleep from mine eyes and slumber from my eye-lids Thou art my God and I will thank thee thou art my God and I will praise thee Amen III. O Lord thou hast searched me out and known me thou seest my down-lying and uprising Thou understandest my thoughts long before For thou art about my path and about my bed and spiest out all my ways Through thee have I been holden up ever since I was born thou art he that took me out of my Mothers womb my praise shall be always of thee Lead me then O Lord in thy Righteousness and make thy way plain before my face Teach me to do the thing that pleaseth thee for thou art my God let thy loving Spirit lead me forth into the ways of Righteousness Shew thy servant the light of thy countenance and save me this day for thy mercies sake Amen IV. My voice shalt thou hear betimes O Lord early in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee For thou art the thing that I long for thou art my hope from my youth O be thou a place to hide me in and compass me about with Songs of Deliverance For all the earth is full of darkness and cruel Habitations Set me up therefore upon the Rock that is higher than I and I will not fear what man can do unto me For thou alone canst deliver my Soul from death mine eyes from tears and my feet from falling Osatisfie me therefore with thy mercy and that soon that I may rejoice in thee all the days of my life Lead me forth in thy truth and learn me for thou art the God of my Salvation in thee shall be my hope all the day long Amen V. Set a Watch this day O Lord before my mouth and keep the door of my lips Turn away mine eyes that they behold no vanity and let not mine heart be inclined to any evil thing Teach me thy way O Lord and I will walk in thy truth O knit my heart unto thee that I may fear thy Name Order my steps in thy Word that no wickedness may have dominion over me Hide me privily by thine own presence from the provoking of all men Keep me secretly in thy Tabernacle from the strife of Tongues For I will set thee always before me thou shalt be on my right hand therefore I shall not greatly fall Thou hast been my succour Leave me not neither forsake me O God of my Salvation But let thy merciful kindness be this day upon me like as I do put my trust in thee Glory be to the Father c. As it was in the beginning c. Amen A Thanksgiving to God for his Protection in the night O Most gracious GOD whose eyes have been open over me when mine were shut and under the shadow of whose wings I have past this night in safety I do with all possible thankfulness humbly acknowledge it as thy great mercy that thou hast not taken away my soul this night as in justice thou mightest have done but hast given me respite and afforded me one day more to call upon thy Name O Lord make me ashamed of my former unthankfulness and wound my heart with the consideration of mine own dulness whom so many favours have not wrought unto more obedience Give me grace to consecrate the rest of my life unto thy service and to redeem the time at least which I cannot recall And O thou who turnest the shadow of Death into the light of the Morning enable me powerfully to cast off all the Works of Darkness and to keep my body and soul spotless and unblameable And as thou hast brought me to the Comforts of this day So go along with me I beseech thee through all the parts and minutes of it that in all my ways being guided by thy counsel here I may hereafter be received into thy glory even for the merits of my dearest Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen A Morning Prayer O My dear Lord and Maker from whom alone I look for blessing continue I beseech thee to be the guide of my life counsel me govern me lead me in the way that I should go or else I shall wander from thee into infinite Errors O possess then all my bodily senses that my sinful affections may find no place Leave me no more to my own weakness
to single at least some one passage or more out of it to be laid up in your Memory and to be made use of in the practice of an holy life III. That in this time of retirement you lay all things aside that may divert you from Holy and Heavenly thoughts considering that you set your self in the presence of God that you are to give him an account of what you are doing w ch that you may the better do you may begin with this Prayer A Prayer upon the Entrance into your Closet O My great and gracious God whose infinite mercy it is that I have this minute of my life left me I here appear in thy presence lamenting sadly that so much of my time is already lost either in doing ill or doing nothing or in doing that which hath been unprofitable and vain O grant that I may redeem the hours that are past dispose of those that are to come in serving thee hereafter with a devout heart earnest and passionate affections draw me off more and more from the pleasures and vanities of this life that I may the better settle my wavering and divided Soul upon thee alone and since at this time I have here retired my self that I might the more freely commune with my own heart and meditate on thine only Word let thy Blessed Spirit assist me that I may not only barely remember what I read but digest it into the practice of an holy Life to the comforts of my soul and the Glory of thy Name through Jesus Christ Amen Prayers towards Bed time I. LET my Prayer O Lord be set forth in thy sight as the Incense and let the lifâ—ing up of my hands be as an Evening Sacrifice For thou O Lord hast granted me thy loving kindness in the day-time and therefore in the night-season I will think on thee and make my prayer to the God of my life O thou that saidest Let therebe light and there was light open mine eyes that I sleep not in death Make me to commune with my own heart upon my bed and to search out all my ways That I may lament my sins as thy servant David did and cry unto thee for mercy Consider and hear me O God and hide me under the shadow of thy wings and let my soul rest in thee Amen II. Blessed art thou O God who makest the out-goings of the Morning and Evening to praise thee Who hast not cut off my life this day nor shut me up in the grave where all things are forgotten I will not suffer therefore my eyes to sleep nor my eye-lids to slumber till I have prepared my heart for my God to rest in For thou art my God from my youth thou hast numbred out my days and nights that I might serve thee thou givest thy beloved sleep and makest them that fear thee to rest in safety Thou deliverest me from the terrors of the night and from the evil that walketh in darkness Return then unto thy rest O my soul for God taketh care for thee Amen III. Lord let me make my Prayer unto thee in an acceptable time Teach me to remember thee in my bed and to think of thee when I am waking O thou Watchman of Isreal that neither slumberest nor sleepest watch over me this night Give thy Angels charge over me that the spirits of darkness may not come near me That no evil thoughts may betray me nor any sad or sinful dreams disturb my quiet For into thy hands O Lord I commend my spirit for thou hast redeemed me O keep then what thou hast redeemed and let not thy servant for whom thou hast died perish for ever Amen A short Prayer O GOD my everlasting keeper blessed be thy Name for evermore for thou madest me when I was nothing thou redeemedst me when I was worse than nothing thou hast so multiplied thy mercies on me through all the minutes of my life that the Sun hath never yet rose or set upon me without new Blessings from thee And as thou hast done so much for me already for which I pour out my very Soul in thankfulness so in the same degree of lowest humility I humbly beseech thee to continue thy care of me this night and so to shadow me under the Wings of thy Protection that neither visible nor invisible Enemies neither sin nor danger may approach to hurt me That so when the joyful Light of the day shall return again I may rise in safety with an unspotted Soul and a Body fitted to be the Temple of the Holy Ghost even so Lord Jesu Amen Amen Is any afflicted let him pray The Complaint of an afflicted Soul I. BEhold O Lord I am as a bruised reed before thee O break it not I am as smoaking flax O Lord quench it not Send down from on high and visit me Save me out of many waters that are come into my Soul For I have been left unto thee ever since I was born Thou hast been my God even from my Mothers womb O go not then far from me for trouble is near at hand and there is none to help me The sorrows of my heart are enlarged O bring thou me out of all my troubles Thou hast formerly been my succour leave me not now neither forsake me O God of my salvation For from the ends of the Earth will I call unto thee when my heart is in heaviness O forgive all the offences of thy servant which have justly brought these bitter things upon me Take away at last all thy displeasure and turn away from thy wrathful Indignation Arise and help me and deliver me for thy Mercies sake O God make speed to save me O Lord make hast to help me II. IN the time of my trouble I will call upon thee O God in my heaviness I will cry unto thee and unto thee alone For whom have I in Heaven but thee or whom shall I desire on earth in comparison of thee My flesh and my heart fails me but thou art the strength of my heart and my portion for ever But how long wilt thou forget me Lord for ever How long wilt thou hide away thy face from me How long shall I seek counsel in my soul and my spirit be thus troubled within me In my Prosperity I said I shall never be moved But as soon as thou didst hide away thy face from me I was troubled But will the Lord absent himself for ever Will he be no more intreated Hath God forgotten to be gracious or will he shut up his loving kindness in displeasure Alas innumerable troubles are come upon me They have laid such hold upon me that I am not able to look up There is no strength left in me O my God neither know I what to do but mine eyes are towards thee I am troubled above measure help me O God or else I shall sink under the burthen O consider what thou hast laid upon me forsake
thy heart foments and cherisheth the least spark of the love of God which it finds there and makes it flame out into a servent prayer David found this by experience where he saith of himself while I was thus musing my heart kindled within me and I spake with my Tongue The Devotion of the heart saith St. Bernard is the Tongue of the Soul without this it is silent and shut up but actuated and heated with Love it poures it self forth in Supplications and Prayers and Discourses with God sometimes Praising him for the Infinite Blessings received from him sometimes Praying to him for those which we yet want This is that conversing of the Soul with God which Gregory Nyssen speaks of as a Son Conversing with his Father or a Friend with a Friend into whose bosom he may pour forth with confidence all the Secrets of his Soul as a Favourite with his Prince or a betrothed Virgin with her Lover What the result of these discourses is what words are spoken what secrets discovered what delights enjoyed may easier be felt than spoken of When the Soul being lifted up by the wings of Prayer and rarified into a flame by Love reacheth the very Bosom of God But though every devout Soul mounts not to this pitch this top of the Ladder let none be dismaied at it For God knows whereof you are made he sees the body of flesh which you bear about you and the Plummets which it hangs upon your Soul and therefore when you cannot rise high enough to him he comes down to you for so you find in this Vision there were descending as well as ascending Angels We do not read that St. Paul was often rapt into the third Heaven Notwithstanding his Raptures the Angel of Satan that buffeted him made him remember that he was still upon the Earth For one foot of the Compass will unavoidably be fixed there when the other moves in the circumference of divine contemplation Iacob himself was but at the bottom at the foot of the ladder when his Soul was at the highest and saw God at the top of it O Most wise God the Unction of whose Spirit can teach me all things teach me the Rules I am to observe in this Heavenly Exercise of Prayer Stir up my Memory to remember that thou art present fix my intention upon Thee upon Thee alone Awake my Understanding to consider what I am about and who I am to speak to But above all inflame my Affections that my heart being set on fire with Thy Love my Prayers may participate of that Fervency and be accepted of Thee for his sake who came to send this Fire upon the Earth even Iesus Christ my Saviour Amen Of the Excellencies and Fruits of Prayer as they may be drawn out of the Lords Prayer THere is no clearer glass to see the excellencies of Prayer in than that very Prayer which our Saviour thought fit to teach his Disciples Where the first entrance presents you with that unvaluable Priviledge to call God your Father that therefore you come not to treat with him as a Slave with his Master or a Vassal with his Prince but as a Son with your Father God infusing into you by Prayer that Spirit of Adoption by which you cry to him Abba Father This being saith St. Chrysostome the highest excellency of the Creature to treat familiarly as a Son with his Creator A Dignity that raiseth us poor Worms of the Earth to a kind of equality with the Angels themselves for though in Nature they are above us yet this duty makes us equal For Quid potest inveniri sanctius iis qui cum Deo commercium habent Saith the same Father What can be more holy than he who is admitted to treat familiarly with God Moses by talking with God had such a brightness shed upon his face that they who looked upon him were dazled with it For if they who have the ear of Princes as Favourites having freedom of access and opportunity at all times of presenting their Petitions cannot want the splendor of Worldly things which consequently will follow them much less can the beams of an higher glory be wanting unto them who live as if they were always in the presence of God talking with God by Prayer and God with them by holy Inspirations What can they want who are admitted to this Privacy And it is your fault if you are not For there are neither doors nor locks nor any greater Favourite to keep you out He that gives you leave to call him Father cannot exclude his Son that cries Father I have sinned O Gracious Father what thanks what praise can we offer to Thee for raising us to that honour of entring into thy presence as Sons and conversing with Thee on the Earth with the same Freedom as the Angels do in Heaven O grant us the Grace so to make advantages of so Divine a Priviledge that our sins may never make us forfeit it but rather by a devout and humble use of it acquire to our selves daily new degrees of Thy Favour till Thou hast brought us Thy unworthy Sons to that incorruptible Inheritance which can neither have encrease nor end Amen THe second Excellency of Prayer is That it is a means by which the name of God is hallowed both by us and in us We pray that his Name may be Sanctified and we Sanctifie his Name by praying so Our Tongues but much more our Lives being made Instruments to glorifie him God is glorified by our believing in him by our knowing him by our adoring him and in Prayer we do all this By Prayer we bring to light those graces and gifts of God which he hath hid for us in his eternal Predestination as we may see in that Prayer of Christ to his Eternal Father And now O Father glorifie thou me with thy own self with the glory which I had with thee before the World was From whence the School infers That Prayer is the principal means ordered by providence for the execution of what God hath decreed on our behalf God had decreed the Incarnation of his Son for the saving of the World he had promised and could not vary from it Yet this kept not Moses from his Petition Send him whom thou wilt send nor the Prophet from praying O that thou wouldest bow the Heavens and come down The Father had decreed to give his Son being Incarnate the Nations for his inheritance but the execution of this Decree was to be by Prayer the Son of God himself was to pay for it for Postula Dabo Ask of me and I will give them thee If therefore the Decree of your Predestination be yet dark to you and you would willingly know whether your name be written in the Book of Life there is no way of obtaining this but humble Prayer Do but pray fervently that God would glorifie himself in thee by making thee a Vessel for his Honour and
the feet As if he should say to thee Here I am even I thy God but come not near me till thou hast put off thine earthly Affections till thou hast devested thy self of whatsoever is displeasing in my sight if not take heed No man can see me and live that is saith St. Gregory None can see me spiritually that lives carnally It was an high expression of him who was so great an Admirer of Euripides that he was wont to say That if he were sure there were any sense in death he could be content to die only that he might see Euripides But then to see God who would not mortifie himself Say therefore with that earnestness as St. Austin did Moriar ut te videam O Thou Fountain of Life Make me die that I may see Thee Mortifie me that I may enjoy Thee Strangle me take away my breath that I may speak to Thee But then again Videam te ut Moriar Let me in some measure see Thee first that I may value Thee that I may be content to die to the end I may see Thee further For if I know not at all how to contemplate Thee I shall as little know how to mortifie my Affections so as to fit my self for Prayer THE third Assault that is made upon the Soul is by the Cares of this Life which like so many Thorns are ready to choak the seeds of Grace as soon as they are sown For overmuch solicitude and anxiety of Mind in worldly things casts such an heap of Earth upon our Prayers as will not suffer them to ascend taking up the Mind and all the Faculties of it and hardly admitting so much as a Thought of Heaven But as they say of Thorns That they may do well in an Hedg but ill in a Garden so is it with these Cares which being kept within their bounds and measures hurt not the Soul but if we admit them among our Prayers they corrupt the very nature of them and turn them into Sin When thou art therefore setting thy self to thy Devotions imagine that thou hearest thy Saviour calling to thee as he did to Martha Why art thou so careful why art thou troubled about many things One thing is only needful the saving of thy Soul Since therefore thou art come to treat about it dismiss whatsoever may disturb thee lay aside thy Cares as Mary did place thy self at my feet hear me in my Word that I may hear thee in thy Prayer O Gracious Iesu I am come at this time to humble my self at thy Feet and to beg Mercy for my Soul which ought to be dearer to me than a thousand Worlds O suffer not then any Worldly Cares to divert or hinder me Root out this Bed of Thorns and sow holy Thoughts instead of them Let me not be like Martha troubled about many things but fix me upon that One thing needful which I am come about that so having chosen the better part it may never be taken from me Amen BUt the Conflict is not yet done when these former Enemies are overcome there may be a swarm left of busie vain impertinent thoughts of which we may complain as David did that they have compassed us about like Bees For the Imagination being naturally unquiet and tumultuous interposeth it self many times without asking leave of us casting thoughts in our way and forcing the Understanding to reflect upon them And these she either fetcheth from Objects without from something that we have either seen or heard or done or if it fail of new plies from thence it presently busies it self within in forming of various Images Figures and Forms which like so many Atoms casting themselves into several Schemes trouble and vex the Soul in the midst of her Devotions not unlike the Birds which would have hindered Abraham in his Sacrifice And happy it were if we could as easily chase away these thoughts from us as Abraham drove away those Birds But their pertinacy is such that when you drive them out of one Form they assume another and are so importunately troublesome as makes many think it a thing impossible to be freed from them Cassianus confesseth of himself that he was brought very near to a dispairing of it till opening himself to a devout man of more experience himself being then but young he was brought off by this Similitude Should you ask saith he one that could neither swim himself nor ever saw others swim Whether he thought it possible that the heavy body of a Man could spread it self upon the water without sinking Would not he answer peremptorily That it was not possible But let the same man see once with what ease the Swimmer keeps his head above the water Would he not as suddenly change his mind upon the sight of this Experiment and apply himself to practise it You say it is impossible but you do not try whether it be so or no. For either holy Men have deceived us or some of them by the Grace of God assisting them have attained such a degree of Power over themselves as the Centurion in the Gospel had over his Souldiers they could have given the Law not only to their outward senses as Iob did to his eyes that they should not so much as look on Vanity but to their more inward Faculties they could command their Appetite to love or hate their rational Faculty to meditate their imaginative to think on this or not to think on that For the same St. Paul who humbled himself so low as to say that of himself he could do nothing could say too without arrogancy That he could do all things but then it was in Christ that strengthned him All things in Christ nothing of himself The Centurion whom we spake of that had his Souldiers so absolutely at his Command confesseth ingenuously that he himself exercised his Authority under another For in all powers subordinate the way to be obeyed is to obey Nor can these Imaginations be possibly subdued to Reason till Reason be subdued to Faith Submit thy self therefore to God O my Soul and there will follow a glorious Victory But you must strive for it for this unruly swarm of thoughts hurt none but those that yield to them When they buz about thee like Flies in a hot day drown their noise with the louder cry of thy Prayers And as Spiders cannot easily weave their Nets in a High Wind so neither shall whole Armies of vain Imaginations be able to ensuare thee as long as thy earnest Prayers like a vehement wind shall blow against them O Most mighty God who seest my Weather-beaten Soul tost and driven by vain and various Imaginations like a torn Bark by contrary Winds and not suffered to sail on in a straight Course towards Thee send thy Holy Spirit to calm this Tempest and to lay these Winds that they may no longer hinder me in my way to Heaven or disturb me in my Prayers
in the very first motions and approaches of my Devotions and so order the beginnings of my Prayers as they may go on and never end till they are accepted of Thee Amen Of the Reverence and Adoration that is to be used in Prayer AMong all the Duties that relate to Prayer whether of Preparation to it or of Deportment in it there is none of more prime Concernment than to consider that when we pray we do place or set our selves in the immediate presence of God whose eyes though they are at all times over us yet then we must imagine them more particularly and earnestly fixed upon us And as from this Consideration flows all the care and solicitude of fitting our selves by the former preparatives so besides it suggests to us with what reverence we should present our selves before so infinite a Majesty not only because God expects it from us though this were enough to oblige For if I am your Father where is mine honour If I am your Master where is my fear The words of him that looks for Reverence but because our Prayers are then only effectual when they are presented with acts of Adoration For so saith Siracides The Prayer of him that humbleth himself goes through the Clouds and ceaseth not till it come near and will not depart till the most High have respect thereunto Nor doth the Son of God himself disdain to be a President to us in this whose prayers upon the Cross being offered with strong cries and tears were heard as St. Paul saith Propter Reverentiam importing as Aquinas observes not so much the Reverence due to his own Person but rather the Reverence which he did in his own Person to God the Father But because the Reverence which was done there was only the act of his Mind for his Body being then nail'd unto the Cross was not in a Capacity of performing outward Adoration he gave us before that pattern in the Garden where St. Luke saith that he kneeled St. Matthew that he fell on his face when he prayed Having shewn this of the Son of God Incarnate of whom it is said Let all the Angels of God Worship him It were much to descend to tell you of the four Beasts or the twenty four Elders that fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever But then if this lowly Reverence was done by them who were in such a nearness to God when they offered up to him the Prayers of the Saints what posture can be low enough for us miserable men whose Prayers those are and who in comparison of those heavenly Spirits are viler than the Worms we tread upon That Adoration therefore is necessary none will deny that either know the Excellency of God or their own baseness But because this may be done either by the mind alone or by the Body alone or by both conjoyned which makes the compleat Adoration let us inform our selves first what the inward act of it is For as our Saviour taught the Woman of Samaria God who is himself a Spirit must be worshipped in Spirit for the most profound outward Reverence if not accompanied with this is but a Body without a Soul a Pharisaical Ceremony or an Adoration of Complement of which God sadly complains when he saith of his people That they drew near to him with their lips but their heart was far from him The inward Adoration therefore is the humbling of our spirit to God in regard of the excellency that is in him submitting our very Soul with all the powers and faculties of it to his Divine Disposal as being the necessary Homage of the Creature due to the Greatness and Majesty of the Creator The exercise of this Adoration consists in several acts partly of the Understanding partly of the Will For first there is an act of Reverence required before you begin your Devotions in an humble Recognition of your unworthiness of which the Patriarch Abraham hath left you so excellent a pattern when being about to beseech God that he would spare Sodom he doth not only acknowledg himself to be dust and ashes but upon every return of speaking to God in that Cause he doth it with that fear and reverence as to ask leave and to deprecate his anger before he spake O let not the Lord be angry and I will speak I Confess O Lord it is an excess of holdness in me that I so poor a Worm so vile so contemptible a Creature should presume to speak to Thee Yet be not angry with me for this for it is not because I value my self more than Abraham did for if he were but dust and ashes what am I but because I dare not under value Thy Mercy that I make my humble approaches to Thee Behold I am nothing in mine own eyes O let me be something in Thine and disdâ—in me not when I speak unto Thee for Christ his sake Amen THis humble Recognition being made of your own vileness there is a second way of spiritual Adoration when the Soul humbled by this Reflex upon it self changeth the Object and raiseth a further Reverence by the consideration of the Excellencies and several perfections that are in God sometimes crying out in such Ejaculations as these O most excellent God I adore Thee for Thine Infinite Wisdom I reverence Thee for Thine Incomprehensible Goodness I glorifie Thee for Thine Immense Charity Sometimes again by a profound silence making a tacite acknowledgment that all that can be said by thee is nothing For not only the tongues of men but of Angels must fail in the expression of his Glory Besides there is a Reverence to be used to God in the Stile or Titles which you give to him and these you may vary according to the variety of the matter of your petitions wherein the Psalms of David are admirable and afford you no less than forty several ways of Compellation of him some relating to his Power as when he calls him by the names of The King of Heaven the King of Glory The God of my Strength The God that doth Wonders the very stile striking a kind of fear and reverence into the Soul Others again relating to his Goodness My Saviour My God My Might My Hope My Refuge in the time of trouble Which though they run in a stile of Confidence yet are not without reverence too But then as Gerson observes the stile that is best fitted for all persons on all occasions to use is the compellation of Father which our Saviour first taught his Disciples to make use of in that excellent Prayer never to be disus'd nor laid aside by us Before the time of Grace published to the World we do not find this Title in the prayers of Holy Men either Patriarchs or Prophets But after the Son of God by taking our Nature upon him became our Brother then was the boldness given to call God our Father given even
to sinners conditionally that they use it with that reverence as the converted Prodigal did who though he had the confidence to call him Father yet he had the humility withal to confess that he was not worthy to be called his Son and therefore his Petition reached no higher than to be made one of his hired Servants O Most Great God what shall I say in Thy presence when I come to pray to Thee By what Title shall I call thee or how shall I sufficiently adore Thee If I stile Thee a Iudge I adore thy Iustice If a Master I know my Obedience if I call Thee my Saviour I acknowledge Thy Mercy Whatsoever name I use I find cause enough of Reverence And since therefore I now appear before Thee to pay the Tribute of Adoration by a Thousand Titles due to the Thee let thy Truth direct me and Thy Spirit guide me that I may so adore Thee in Spirit and Truth as Thou requirest And that all the inward Faculties of my Soul may be as so many fiery Tongues to set forth thy praise for evermore Amen BUT as in a Watch though there must be Wheels within yet there must be a hand without too or else the inward Motion of the Wheels is useless so though the principal of all spiritual Motion is within yet the Virtue of it must have a time to work outward too or else our Adoration is not compleat For as the Nature of Man is not comprised singly either in Soul or Body but in both conjoyned so the Adoration due to God who made both is to flow from both And if the Soul be God's inward Chancel the Body must be the Temple that includes it For know you not saith St. Paul that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost that is in you Your own it is not For you are brought with a price therefore glorifie God in your Body as well as Spirit for both are his We are not therefore to think the Reverence of the Body to be an useless or an unprofitable Ceremony For besides this Argument of St. Pauls for the necessity of it St. Austin observes that this outward Adoration of the Body is a notable help to the more inward acts of the Spirit and adds much to the earnestness and fervour of it For the stretching forth of the hands the bowing of the knees the beating of the breasts the prostrating and casting down the Body with the like Gestures of Humiliation are not therefore used to discover to God what is within the heart or to move him the more but to move thy self and by these exterior acts as by a vigorous blowing to continue and increase that invisible fire of Devotion that burns within But then as these outward acts are not always absolutely necessary for you may many times be inwardly moved to pray when outward gesture cannot either easily or conveniently be used as Manasses praying in his Fetters Ezekiel in his Bed Susanna in a Throng of People so neither can I say that any one particular gesture of the Body in Prayer is so prescribed in Scripture either by way of Precept or Example as to oblige to that gesture only For in the exercise of Prayer we find several postures of Holy Men. Before the Law Abraham is said to have fallen on his face under the Law Moses did the like Among the Prophets Elias fell on the earth bowing his face between his knees Solomon stood before the Altar with his hands spread forth toward Heaven Saint Stephen kneel'd when he pray'd for his Enemies Saint Peter when he raised Doroas our Saviour himself in his Agony in the Garden not only kneel'd but prostrated himself as hath already been mentioned The acts of outward Adoration being of this diversity St. Austin's Rule is that in private Prayer for in publick we are to conform our selves to the Commands and Customs of the Church wherein we live rather than to the bent and inclination of our own Wills we are so to compose and order the outward man as may be of most advantage to the raising and continuing of the inward Devotion of the mind Of all these outward Gestures Prostration is the lowest act of bodily Reverence that can be used when the Supplicant casting himself upon the earth acknowledges by that act that he doth but cast dust to dust that he is more vile than the least grain of that earth he lies upon and this posture best becomes us in times of great Affliction and ever to be then lowest when our necessities are at the highest But though this casting of the body upon the ground hath been the practice of many Devout Men especially of those in the first Ages of Christianity who after a more strict way worshipping God in Desarts and solitary places yet because they found by experience as Cassian tells us that the continuance of their posture long might incline to ease and provoke to drousiness they us'd it rather upon some short Ejaculatory Prayers than in their larger and more continued Devotions casting themselves often down with some short and vehement breathings of the Soul but rising again so suddenly that some of them have been observed to have prostrated themselves in this manner an hundred times in the day and as often in the night But this we must leave to be imitated by those whose Devotion is of an higher strain than ordinary and which these latter times are hardly capable of But the more ordinary and more convenient for all persons is Genuflection Though we may have some excuse not to cast our whole body down shall we not cast our knees down at least Hath God said That every knee shall bow to him and shall any of us think to be dispenc'd with Our Saviour kneeled who knew no sin and is the posture too low for us that are nothing else but sin Whether Elephants have no joints in their knees and therefore cannot bend them I will not enquire But sure the Christian that hath not this excuse is a stranger Creature to be wondered at if he become once so sparing of his trouble or so over-familiar with his God as not to bend his knees in solemn Prayer unto him But then you will say Where is there Command for this No Gesture of the body can be other than a Ceremony which being in its own Nature a thing indifferent may either be used or laid aside But first Though it be a Ceremony every Ceremony is not of that indifferency especially such which the very Law of Nature dictates to all Nations in all Ages to fall down and kneel in the Veneration of their God whether true or false But then lest this inward Principle should apply and cast it self upon a wrong Object God hath expresly given his Precept too For every knee saith he shall bow to me And what terms can there be of higher command than these But yet because
whereof my frequent falls have given me many and sad experiments Restrain rather those inclinations to which my nature is chiefly prone that their violence may never have power over me to make me swerve from thy holy will Let not the corruption of these evil times prevail upon me but keep me from the flattering and the lying lips the profane and blaspheming tongue stop my ears and shut up my heart against them Strike such an awful reverence into my soul that I may watch over all my actions and carefully avoid whatever may be dangerous to my self pernicious to others or any way displeasing unto thee that so living in thy fear I may die in thy favour rest in thy peace and reign with thee in thy glory World without end Amen A Prayer for forgiveness of Sins O My God when I call sadly to mind what I have done and what I have left undone how careless I have been to please thee how diligent to offend thee how passionately I have been transported toward the pleasures of this life how cold and heavy in pursuing my everlasting happiness When I seriously consider the vanity of my affections the folly of my thoughts the idleness of my words and above all the sinfulness of my actions I stand amazed at my self that such a Contemplation as this makes not my flesh to tremble and my heart break at the very thought of it For O my Lord if thou shouldest be extreme to mark what I have done amiss if thou shouldest enter into Judgment with me what would become of me for of so many millions of sins that I have committed alas I cannot answer thee one of a thousand But O my Saviour thou who hast revealed it to me as a faithful saying that thou camest into the World for no other end but to save Sinners thou who hast so solemnly sworn thy delight is not in my death but rather that I should live what shall hinder thee to do that which thou delightest in or what can hinder thee to save the Soul thou camest into the World for O pardon and forgive then all my sins past that nothing may hinder thee Lay them no longer to my charge cast them behind thee bury them drown them scatter them as a mist and as a Morning-cloud let them vanish away And when thou hast done this O my merciful GOD leave not here but go on Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me let me feel once the powerful effects the saving operations of thy Grace in fervency of devotion toward thee in bitterness of repentance for offending thee in holy resolutions never wilfully to sin against thee more and in perseverance in those resolutions till I shall pass out of this valley of tears into those everlasting Joys where no evil can approach me Amen A Prayer against Relapses into sin O My gracious GOD the only stay and comfort of my soul seeing thy will is that in all things I should sincerely serve thee and I through thy grace desire nothing more than to do the same How is it O my Lord that I still offend thee or why fall I so often into my former follies Alas thy Grace is not wanting to me but my ungraciousness and the corruption of my nature my slipperiness and easiness to offend my inconstancy in my best resolutions and my forgetfulness of my former purposes is the cause of it And for this once more I humble my soul before thee beseeching thee to lay aside thy rigour and not to multiply thy anger according to the measure that I have multiplied my sins but rather to remember whereof I am made that I am as a flower a wind a vapour that passeth away nay I am viler than all this even weak and sinful dust and ashes And thou hast visited and considered me in these my despicable and wretched Principles O then shew thy strength in my weakness thy glory in my infirmities increase in me daily thy renewing grace and strengthen me against all future temptations that I may never start aside again like a broken bow but go on from grace to grace though it be with weak and trembling steps till I shall appear before the God of Gods in Sion Amen A Prayer to be prepared for our last End O Eternal GOD my Maker my Redeemer I adore and bless thy Holy Name that thou hast with such admirable patience not only suffered me to live this hour but withal hast multiplied thy daily blessings on me even then when I by my sinful life have most unkindly and treacherously rebelled against thee But who knows O merciful Lord how soon thy abused patience may end or how speedily thou maist call me to a sad account for all my former days so miserably mispent For O how many are they on whom the Morning Sun hath shined that shall not live to see it set And how know I but this may be my last day too the only day which thou O GOD hast left me to set my soul in order and to prepare for that day which never shall have end O my dear Lord suffer me not then to neglect this blessed season but by an hearty repentance speedily even this day this instant to return unto thee that how soon soever thou shalt call me to my Transmigration from this life my accounts may be found audited my sins cancelled and my soul acquitted by the bloud of that Lamb that takes away the sins of the World Grant this O my God for his sake that vouchsafeth to die for me thy only Son Jesus Christ the righteous Amen Advice concerning the Examination of the Conscience THE only Heaven that is afforded us upon Earth is Peace of Conscience the only way to preserve that Peace is to keep our selves unspotted from the World or if we fail of this as who doth not in some degree to call our selves speedily to a strict account for it for upon this depends not only our present Peace but our future Happiness according to that of our Saviour If you judge your selves you shall not be judged The oftner this is done the cleaner and the quieter your Soul will be If you make it not your daily task yet find a time for it at least once a week But especially omit it not when you prepare your self for the blessed Sacrament for as the benefit of it being well managed amounts to no less than the saving of your soul so the danger is as great on the other side if you carelesly or wilfully neglect it St. Paul therefore is punctual and vehement in pressing the Corinthians with it where he lays a peremptory command upon them Let every man examine himself For this is no trivial ordinary Duty no exercise on the by but a work of high concernment wherein the soul of a Christian seriously reflects upon it self and the penitent Sinner laying all the Actions of his life before him arraigns accuseth and condemneth
himself And that this may be done with the more advantage some hours at least if not some day must be set apart for this examination Especially let the immediate preceding day be kept as the Eve to this great Feast wherein you are to humble your self by Prayer and Fasting that you may be the better disposed and qualified for the performance of this Duty For the carrying on this private Assize and Trial of our selves devoutmen have proposed many several methods but the most general and approved way is to set before you as the most clear and impartial glass the Moral Law of God with such heightnings of it and deductions from it as either our Saviour in the Gospel hath drawn from it or our own reason well informed to make use of The Examination by way of Articles upon the Moral Law to every particular of which the Soul is to answer it self whether guilty or not guilty The Examnation upon the first Commandment I. DOst thou really believe O my Soul that there is a God or hast thou set some secret touches of Atheism within thee II. Hast thou doubted at any time of his Providence or of his Power of his Justice Mercy or any other of his Attributes III. Hast thou been willing to entertain scruples of this nature and to listen to their discourses who turn the reason that God hath given as a weapon against himself IV. Hast thou proudly ascribed the good that thou hast done unto thy own strength or imputed thy sins and follies to the necessitating and inevitable Decrees of God V. Dost thou think thy self obliged to obey God as well as to believe in him to love him as thy Father to fear him as thy Judge to praise him as thy Maker with daily and most humble Thanks for all his Mercies to thee Hast thou done this or wherein hast thou failed VI. Hast thou really in thy Thoughts no other Gods but him Hast thou set up nothing in Competition with him no Pride no Pleasure no Ptofit no Self-Love no Self-Interest of thine own VII Hast thou given credit to vain Predictions of men to Dreams or Fortune-tellers or gone about to know any secret thing by lot VIII Hast thou in thy Prosperity forgot thy God or in thy Adversity hast thou put thy confidence more in worldly helps than in him The Examination upon the Second Commandment I. DOst thou apprehend God as an infinite incomprehensible Essence without framing to thy self any bodily shape or form of him that is invisible II. Dost thou worship God in or by an image or any other way which either he hath forbidden or not commanded III. Dost thou give the worship that is due unto the Creat or to any of his Creatures either Saint or Angel Or dost thou consider that he is a jealous God who will have nothing lov'd nothing honour'd by thee like himself IV. Dost thou in all thy Addresses to him either of Publick Prayers or Private come into his presence with reverence kneeling and religiously bowing thy self before him and before him alone The Examination upon the third Commandment I. HAst thou used vain impertinent customary Swearing II. Hast thou sworn any thing false knowing it to be so making the Name of God a Broker to thy Lies III. Hast thou been perjur'd by violating any publick Oath made to thy lawful Superiors or failed in any private engagement which hath been in thy power to perform IV. Hast thou broken any voluntary religious deliberate Vow made purposely to God and his glory V. How far hast thou kept that great and solemn Vow which was made for thee in Baptism or hast thou seriously considered thy frequent and dangerous violations of it VI. Hast thou given God upon all occasions offered the honour due unto his Name or hast thou any ways spoken of him without fear or reverence VII Hast thou abused either God's Name or any of his Creatures in Curses or bitter Execrations The Examination upon the fourth Commandment I. HAst thou kept the Lord's day holy or hath it been as a common day unto thee II. Hast thou constantly sanctified this day either by being present at the Publick Service of the Church or being hindred of this by private Prayer and reading of holy Books III. Dost thou shew forth thy Charity this day in works of mercy to them that stand in need of thee The Examination upon the fifth Commandment I. HAst thou loved honoured and obeyed thy Parents thy King and Sovereign and all that have a lawful authority over thee II. Hast thou upon all occasions assisted them to thy power and offered up daily Prayers to God for them III. Hast thou respected thy spiritual Guides such as labour for thy Soul or hast thou grieved or despised any of those whom thou art bound to honour The Examination upon the sixth Commandment I. DOst thou endeavour as much as in thee lies to preserve the lives of all men as bearing the same Image of thy Maker with thee II. Art thou a lover a follower a procurer of Peace among those with whom thy conversation is III. Hast thou been either causelesly or sinfully angry Hast thou born Malice Hatred or Revenge in thine heart Hast thou forgiven hast thou loved thy Enemy for Christ's sake who loved thee when thou wert yet his Enemy IV. Hast thou compassionate bowels Hast thou to thy power fed and clothed them whom thou hast known to be ready to perish with cold and hunger V. Hast thou been careful of thine own life or hast thou any way hastened thine own end by wilful Intemperance or Disorder The Examination on the seventh Commandment DOst thou consider that thy body was made to be a Temple of the Holy Ghost that whosoever therefore shall presume to pollute this Temple him shall God destroy II. Hast thou preserved it in that purity which is required of thee or hast thou defiled it by Fornication Adultery Lasciviousness or any other Uncleanness of which the Apostle pronounceth that they who do such things shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven III. Hast thou deliberately pleased thy self with any foul lascivious thoughts or continued in them to a delight Hast thou consented to them or hast thou rejected them IV. Hast thou been careless in avoiding the occasions and approaches that lead into those sins or hast thou exposed thy self either unwarily or wilfully to temptation V. Hast thou delighted in wanton company in unchaste songs or unclean discourses The Examination on the eighth Commandment I. HAst thou taken away from others by deceit or violence that which belongs not to thee Hast thou injured no man in his rights II. Hast thou defrauded Servants of their wages Labourers of their hire or Creditors of such debts as thou art able to satisfie The Examination upon the ninth Commandment I. HAst thou upon all occasions been witness to the truth without fear or flattery II. Hast thou said any thing falsly that hath been injurious to
the good name and reputation of another Or hast thou pleased thy self either in inventing or spreading rumors of that kind III. Dost thou willingly give ear to Slanderers and to such as go about with lies or dost thou abhor them both in thy self and others The Examination upon the tenth Commandment I. DOst thou rest contented in that condition or state of life wherein God hath placed thee or hast thou at any time inordinately lusted after that which belongs to others II. Hast thou entertained secret covetings in thy thoughts with any delight or complacency Or hast thou labour'd to restrain them and quench them in their first beginnings When you have consider'd seriously and answered your self in these particulars one by one sum up the Account you have made where you find your self innocent give the glory to God whose Grace hath kept you from falling into those sins but where you find your self guilty humble your self before God in Prayer confessing sadly the evil you have done and imploring mercy in these or such other words as the devotion of your heart shall suggest to you An humble Confession after Examination O The God of my Soul with all humble Reverence I appear this day before thee not as the proud Pharisee to justifie my self but as the poor Publican who striking his breast durst not lift up his eyes towards Heaven nor say any more than this Lord be merciful to me a sinner For I have sinned O Lord I have sinned Wo is me I cannot cast my searching eyes into any corner of thy Commandments but I find my self miserably guilty But in what manner soever I have offended thee O my merciful Lord whether in Thought Word or Deed whether secretly or openly I am now sorry for it from the very root and bottom of my heart beseeching thee to look compassionately upon the frailty and ignorance the wilfulness and presumption of my life and graciously to forgive all that I have done amiss For alas I am neither able to stand thine indignation nor present thee with any thing of mine own but tears and prayers to appease thine anger Be reconciled therefore to me O God in the blood of thy dear Son which was so freely offered up to thee as a full ransom for the sins of the whole World O require not that payment again of me a poor and bankrupt sinner but for his sake for his abundant Satisfactions sake cancel the hand-writings that are against me blot out all my sins past new and old and for the time to come let there be an everlasting tie between my Soul and thee that thou maist be my God and I may live and die thy servant Amen A Protestation to be made after Confession O My great and glorious God I who am less than the grain of dust that hangs upon the balance profess seriously and with the remorse of a wounded spirit that I am not only sorry but ashamed and confounded within my self that I have so many ways sinned against so good a God so gracious a Father But what is past I cannot recal though thy mercy may forgive But for the time to come I call all thy holy Angels to witness that I this day sacrifice my self wholly to thee resolving to break of from all sinful courses and fully purposing never to offend thee more But because thou knowest my failings and my weakness is not hid from thee I beg of thee O my God to shew thy strength in my weakness and to confirm my infirm mind in this holy Resolution That so never repenting of this Repentance nor wavering in those Resolute Purposes which I have now by thy Grace fo deliberately made I may go on constantly in a pure and holy life till in the end of my days I come to everlasting joys which thou hast prepared for them that love thee through Jesus Christ my Lord Amen A Prayer before the receiving the holy Sacrament O My most blessed Saviour who in the bowels of thy Mercy towards Mankind didst not only offer thy self a Sacrifice for the sins of the whole world but didst institute this heavenly and holy Sacrament as the means to convey the Benefits of thy precious death to all such as with humility and repentance come unto thee Accept I beseech thee this my humble Address who here present my self a woful sinner I confess but such a one who am heartily sorry for my sins and penitent for my offences Direct me therefore O my God in this great action with such a reverent and awful fear that all the faculties of my soul may be attentive rightly to apprehend and joyfully to receive this wonderful Mystery of thy Body and Blood O my Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof let thy Holy Spirit therefore before thy coming prepare and dress up a Lodging for thee in my Soul cleansing it from the stains of sin and suffering nothing to abide in it that may keep thee out so that being wholly possest by thee all sinful thoughts and unclean suggestions may not only presently vanish but never find entrance more Grant this O my Jesu and so this day receive me into thy favour that I may with joy receive thee into my soul and being once united with thee thy Grace may never depart from me that so thou maist live in me and I in thee for ever Amen A Thanksgiving after the Receiving of the Sacrament O Lord the only Spring and everlasting Fountain of all good who hast this day revived and quickned my poor Soul by giving thy self unto me after a wonderful way in this Blessed Sacrament I praise and glorifie thy holy Name for this thine infinite mercy beseeching thee to crown what thou hast begun by a continual supply of thy heavenly grace that I may never forget whom or what I have received but being purified by thy Blood and strengthned by thy Body against all future Temptations I may constantly run through all the parts of an holy life to the possession of thy glorious Kingdom World without end Amen Amen Rules of Devotion to be observed toward the Evening or some time of the Afternoon I. THat you fail not unless some extraordinary or unavoidable accidents hinder you to allot some part of the Afternoon or toward the Evening for the advantage of your soul when freeing your self from business and company you may retire into your Closet or private Oratory and there direct your thoughts without disturbance upon God alone II. That being thus retired you constantly make it your business to read some part of the Holy Scripture especially in the Psalms which if all other Books of Devotion were lost are sufficient to supply us in that kind having begun there go on to the reading of some part of the New-Testament not carelesly or in haste as if you had a mind to have done but so attentively as to be able to give some account of what you have read or