into the New Jerusalem a better portion cannot be expected for us Rev. 21.8 and 22.15 then to be shut out with Dogs and Socerers and Whore-mongers and Murderers and Idolaters and Forgers and approvers of lyes into that utter darknesse where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth and the worm dyeth not and the fire goeth not out But that which may be more useful for you my Daughters and more consonant to prayer which we have in hand is Imprecation or Cursing how farre that is to be detested and yet in some cases to be allowed as a commendable Prayer Such Imprecations then may either be upon unreasonable creatures or reasonable So the Serpent is cursed above all cattel Gen. 3.14 for being an Instrument of the Divel to seduce Man The ground is cursed for mans sake that had yeilded to the divel so easily to transgress his Makers command Likewise in the New Testament Mat. 21.9 did the Figtree that yeilded only leaves in stead of fruit escape the curse of our blessed Saviour These things are not for our practice but observation to catechize us that as nothing prospereth without Gods blessings so when he curseth the least good or scruple of comfort cannot be expected It is a fashion of divers when their horse stumbleth to wish The Divel take him or when any thing thwarts their will to bid a vengeance upon it or the like Such Imprecations are intolerable abuses in Christianity and give no further content then that which the Psalmist speaks of Psa 109.16 His delight was in cursing and it shall happen unto him he loved not blessing therefore it shall be far from him Imprecations against reasonable creatures may be either against such as are blasphemers profaneners of Gods Name and Worship Destroyers or persecuters of his Church and Saints Oppressors of their Countries wholesome Lawes and Liberties or against other persons or Societies that by private injuries have wronged us or ours That Blasphemers and Profaneners of Gods Name and Worship Destroyers and Persecuters of his Church and Saints oppressors of their Countries Laws and Liberties or making any approaches that way lye under the curse of God and all good people no man may doubt that findeth a mongrel boy stoned to death for blasphemy Levit. 24.14 Achan and all his family executed for Sacriledg Josh 7.22 Meroz cursed bitterly for not coming to help Gods people against the mighty Judg. 5. So that those Psalmes of David the eighty third and the one hundred and ninth with like passages in others may be thought not so much Prophecies what will befal the wicked as Imprecations to implore Gods justice to take vengeance on them that continue still in their obstinate courses Smite through the loines of Church-Opposers is a passage of Moses blessing upon Levies enemies Deut. 33.11 Let him be Anathema Maran-atha saith Saint Paul whosoever loveth not the Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 16.22 And from the same incensed zeal proceeded that against the Factors for a new Gospel amongst the giddy Galatians Galat. 1.8 Though wee or an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you then that which we have preached let him be accursed And As we said before so say I now again If any man preach any other Gospel unto you then that ye have received let him bee accursed Here is Curse upon Curse but upon just cause and a supposal that damnable Seducers should make head to affront Gods truth Where the Imprecation or Curse as you see is in a publick Cause and levelled against the sins rather then the persons of the offenders For those if it so please God by prayer and repentance may be recocovered as Peter after denying his Master when he had cursed and sworn that he knew not the man Matth. 26.74 All this will stand well with our Saviours mildest Doctrine and Practise I say unto you Love your enemies blesse them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use and persecute you Matth. 5.44 For personal wrongs may and must be forgiven where a curse is ever due to the opposers of all true peace and piety Whence wee have that highest pitch of charity in his extremest Agony on the Crosse towards his scorning and brutish Executioners Father forgive them for they know not what they do Luke 23.34 Thus when he was reviled he reviled not againe when he suffered hee threatned not 1 Pet. 2.23 No such words ever proceeded from his sacred lips I may forgive but I will never forget I shall find a time to cry quits with you or The plague of God fall upon him that so divellishly wrongs me or the like No he commits himself only to him that judgeth righteously who will plead the cause of the innocent Psal 35.1 with them that strive with him and fight against them that fight against him and say unto his soul I am thy salvation For vengeance is mine Rom. 12.19 and I will repay saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head And according to this calme and Christian temper I make no doubt but Gods Spirit directed the learned pious and judicious Compilers of our Church-Leiturgy to insert that charitable prayer to be tendred to God on Good-friday as we call it for all sorts of people for whom our Saviour suffered that by believing in him they might apprehend the only meanes of their salvation Merciful God who hast made all men and hatest nothing that thou hast made nor wouldst the death of a sinner but rather that he should be converted and live have mercy upon all Jews Turks Infidels and Hereticks c. To such Charity and Blessing we all are called as the blessed Apostle instructs us that we should inherit a blessing 1 Pet. 3.9 The exemplary King David in settling of his family as it was touched before would not endure that any 1. Psal 101. Unfaithful 2. Froward 3 Scandalous 4 Slanderous 5 Proud 6 Cheating 7 Lying person should have any residence in it And if you my Daughters do ever expect Gods Blessings upon you or yours 1. Irreverent mention of Gods holy name 2 Lying 3 Swearing 4 Cursings 5 Calumnies 6 Profane jestings especially on Gods Word or Ministers 7 Rotten communication that corrupts good manners must not once bee countenanced or named amongst you but knockt as it were in the head with your most effectual reproofs and correction Which if you shall religiously do in zeal to Gods glory and not out of a passionate disposition to vent your own mis-beseeming harshnesse then shall you bee delivered from the hand of strange children Psa 144.11 whose mouth talketh of vanity and their right hand is a right hand of iniquity then shall your sonnes grow up as the young plants and your Daughters be as the polished corners of the Temple your garners shall bee full of all manner of store your sheep shall increase your Oxen bee strong to labour without decay leading into captivity or complaining in your streets And thus have you my dear Daughters the best Legacy which my ruined worldly estate amongst so many distractions could lay together for you Wherein you may take notice that of purpose I have tyed my selfe to the Scriptures and Church-Book not adding any Quotation of any other Authours who yet notwithstanding are plentiful and profitable in this kind or Prayer of mine owne making to let you to understand that in those two books you shall have sufficient if you set your hearts to make true use of them without coasting about for any newer refined Directories I end with that Collect appointed for the fourth Sunday after Epiphany which especially sorts with the times wherein we live and was commended unto mee by your Grand father John Prideaux my dear Father when I was a boy in the time of a Plague The words are these O God That knowest us to bee set in the midst of so many and great dangers that for Mans frailenesse we cannot alwayes stand uprightly grant to us the health of Body and Soul that all those things which we suffer for sinne by thy help wee may well passe and overcome through Jesus Christ our Lord. To this you may add if you please the Collect for the second Sunday in Lent Almighty God which dost see that we have no power of our selves to help our selves keep thou us both outwardly in our Bodies and inwardly in our Souls that wee may bee defended from all adversities which may happen to the Body and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the Soul through Jesus Christ our Lord. Who make You and Yours Partakers abundantly of all Temporal and Spiritual Heavenly Blessings External Internal Eternal To Whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost Three Persons and One God be all Honour Might and Majesty in Prayer Prayses and Thanksgiving ascribed both now and evermore Amen FINIS
a Spirit Joh. 4.24 and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and Truth Those that tell you that Statua's and Images are good memorials to mind us what we should worship you may answer Psal 19. That the Heavens declare the glory of God and all other Creatures his handy works direct us to the worshipping of him that made them Thus shall ye say unto them as the Prophet charged the Israelites to tell the Idolatrous Chaldeans in their own language The Gods that have not made the heavens and the earth Jer. 10.12 even they shall perish from the earth and from under those heavens Images for Worship saith another are but Teachers of lies Hab. 2.18 and the promoters of the Doctrine of Divels 2 Tim. 4.1 They may otherwise have an Historical use and adorne buildings but for Worship we have the Words direction not a painted Crucifix to set before the foolish Galatians Christ crucified Gal. 3.1 And for Remembrance of our Saviours Passion why should not the Breaking of bread and drinking of wine in the Sacrament of his last Supper be accounted the best Art of Memory seeing hee himself hath taught us Do this in remembrance of me Luk. 22.19 And would not any wise man take the Sermons of our Saviour and the Writings of his Apostles to be better Relicks then a chip of the material Crosse or the shewing of Saint Peters Chaines to inform us what they taught for our salvation or did for our imitation Last of all Against the Proctors for praying to Saints or Angels that which our Saviour replyed to the Lawyer may be well made use of Luk. 10.26 What is written in the Law how readest thou Can you shew me any Precept or Example of such prayer throughout all the Old or New Testaments Or can wee think in reason that Saints will bee more readie to hear or tender our wants or promote our Petitions then our blessed Redeemer and our only Mediatour and Advocate Christ Jesus The Woman of Canaan found small comfort upon earth of Saints Intercession Mat. 15.23 Send her away say they for she cryeth after us Wee believe the Saints are most happy in heaven and honour their persons and memory here on earth in appointing Holy-Dayes wherein their Doings and Doctrine are commended to our Assemblies for their pious Imitation But what they know of us or may do for us by way of Intercession in heaven is not revealed unto us Build you therefore upon certainties my Daughters Christ hath taught you to say Our Father which art in heaven and the Church wherein you were borne and baptized teacheth you accordingly That when you direct your Prayers severally to any of the Persons in whose Names you were baptized or jointly to the Blessed Trinity you direct them to One God which is Three in One and One in All. And as many as walk according to this Rule peace be on them and mercy Gal. 6.16 and upon the Israel of God which prevailing with God they shall the more comfortably and assuredly enjoy if they take with them as an Antidote Saint Johns conclusion Little children John 5.13 keep your selves from Idols CHAP. III. What wee are to ask in our prayers TO know the Necessity of Prayer and to whom we are to pray will but little avail if we are not well advised what to ask Joh 21 22 Peter may enquire what shall become of John but receive a check What is that to thee Inquire not after that which belongs not to thee do that I bid thee Follow thou me And when the mother of Zebedees children became a suiter for the preferment of them to that which they were uncapable of Mat. 20.20 wee know what a cold satisfaction they obtained from our Saviour Mar. 10.35 Ye know not what ye ask Neither the joint petition of the Apostles afterwards concerning an earthly Kingdom found better successe Acts 1.7 It is not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father hath put into his own power Those therefore that trust to speed must petition only for those things which may be convenient for them to receive and for God to grant as the entrauce to our Liturgy tells us They must ask those things which are requisite for the soul and body Otherwise their prayers may be turned into sin Psa 109.7 and instead of an expected Blesing a deserved curse may fall upon them Gen. 27.12 The caveat therefore of the preacher as well for the mouth as for the foot is to be observed of all suiters that shall present themselves before the throne of grace First learne by hearing what to doe before thou tender a fooles sacrifice without consideration in hope to obtaine Eccles 5.1 and be not rash with thy mouth and hasty with thy heart to multiply many words where few would be more to the purpose and better accepted for how can it chuse but prove lost labour to beg that of God which may not be granted by reason of his revealed will to the contrary Hence the salvation of Judas and damned spirits the foreknowledg of the day of Judgment and secrets of God in election or reprobation of this or that party must not come within the compasse of our petitions And if the tree must lye where it falleth Eccles 11.3 and the condition of the dead from worse to better be unchangeable those Masses dirges and prayers for any friend departed may very well be spared which some are so missled to purchase and others to sell at so dear a rate for who hath required this at your hands Isa 1.12 Psal 49.8 It cost more to reedem a soul therfore that must be let alone for ever upon the same ground Samuel might not pray for Saul nor Jeremiah for preventing Judahs captivity where the immutable purpose of God was once made known unto them Things then spiritual which concerne our salvation and temporal that make for our preservation in the condition God hath put us or furtheering us to a better according to his good will and disposition not our restlesse and itching ambition must bee the line and compasse of our approveable devotions And this brings in that confidence the beloved disciple speaks of That if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us Joh 5.14 and if we know that he heareth whatsoever we aske wee know wee have the petition that we desired of him Many scruples are here suggested whether we may pray for one blaspemously sinning to death or obstinately standing excommunicate or rebelliously persecuting the Church and State seeing the petition of the Psalmist is expresse Stand up O Lord God of hostes Psal 59.5 thou God of Israel to visit all the heathen and be not mercifull unto them that offend of malicious wickednesse But the Prophets prayer runs against those that God shal find so not against such as we
humble Supplicants and dismisse them with the Seal of Amen set to their just requests You cannot therefore my Daughters be ignorant what to pray for or what to decline as impertinent to your Devotions being so compendiously instructed by our Saviours owne heavenly Directory It will do well therefore in the next place to take some notice what Gestures in our Prayers may be most conveniently used CHAP. IV. Of External Gestures beseeming Religious Devotions HOwsoever Superstition as praying in an unknown tongue upon Beads before a Crucifixe or the like be as wild Goards 2 Kin. 4.40 that throwne in among good herbs makes the pottage deadly yet a distinction must be ever made between that and due reverence This is required not only of the mind but also of the Body Exod. 4.5 Josh 5.15 Moses and Joshuah must put off their shooes when they approach near to have conference with God Job Job 42.6 that was somewhat too forward upon his integrity when the Lord had schooled him was quickly brought to professe that he abhorred himself and repented in dust and ashes And it may well be thought that the heavy doome pronounced against the Intruder at the Kings Marriage Supper for his Son Mat. 22.13 without a Wedding garment was especially inflicted upon him for his irreverence in that behalf For would an earthly Prince endure a Tradesman invited by him to a Feast to come regardless out of his shop in his worst Apparrel without respect of the Person or place or honor of his Superiour that vouchsafed so much to owne him Joseph must not be presented to Pharaoh without trimming Gen. 41.74 and changing his rayment And what adoe was there with the Purification of the Virgins Esth 2.12 before they were thought fit to come into Ahasuerus his presence To this purpose God himself lessoneth grieved Aaron for the unexpected death of his two rash sons Nadab and Abihu I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me and before all the people I will be glorified It is a plot of Satan to brand due reverence of the body with the scandal of Superstition Bowing at the name of Jesus standing up at the Creed kneeling at the Receiving of the Blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper must be held with some Superstitious to smel of Popery as though it were too much for him that created the body aswel as the soul to have the due reverence from both And because Papists are too peevish in over acting we should performe nothing at all That mean therefore must be kept between warrantable Ceremonies and superstitious fooleries that in detesting the one wee prove not profane in the other Herein our Church hath been very careful and judicious in giving a reason of Ceremonies in a Preface to our Leiturgy why some be abolished and some retained which those that dislike will dislike any thing that comes not out of the forge of their owne fancies and that most commonly as our fashions endures no longer then the starting up of another whimzy whose noveltie takes more with the people Jude such clouds without water fruitlesse trees raging waves of the sea foaming out their owne shame gifts without grace shifts withont blushing drifts without the least touch of conscience and Christianity our late experience hath taught us how ruinous they prove to Church and Commonwealth The smarts whereof should rather make us to recollect our selves and recover that we have lost both in external and internal Devotions then to proceed in such dangerous wayes which in the end must needs undo us for this falleth in with that of the Prophet Jer. 18.15 16 17. Because my people have forgotten me they have burnt Incense unto vanity and they have caused them to stumble in their wayes from the ancient paths to walk in paths in a way not cast up to make their Land desolate and a perpetual hissing Every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and wag his head But mark the issue if timely repentance prevent it not I will scatter them as with an East wind before the enemy I will shew them the back and not the face in the day of their calamity Amendment therefore for the present and prevention for the future will prove at this time especially more seasonable then complaints for that which is past and cannot be recalled That which the Apostle requireth 1 Cor. 14.40 Let all things be done decently and in order is of a large extent and hath a more evident reflex in our devotions upon the outward postures of our body then the inward affection of the mind Such Gestures therefore as these 1. Casting our eyes on the earth and smiting our brests as unworthy to behold heaven by reason of our false-hearted exorbitancies 2. Standing up at the Creed in token of our free profession of it and resolution ever to stand to it 3. The lifting up of our eyes and hands to heaven as to the Mercy-Seat of that only God to whom only our prayers are to bee directed 4 Strong cryes and tears Heb 5.7 which make our Supplications prevalent with him that puts them in his bottle and is able to save us from death provided they be as well meant as they are oftentimes expressed 5. Bowing of the head and body 6. Kneeling on the knees 7. Prostrating our whole body upon the earth have pattern and warrant in Scripture and may be used of us in our private or publick devotions as variety of occasions shall be offered 1 For casting down the eyes to the earth as unworthy to look on heaven and smiting his brest Luk. 18.13 were the penitent Publicans postures that went home more justified thereby then the self-pleasing vaunting Pharisee 2. Ps 106.30 Phineas stood up and prayed therewith executing judgment the word bears both senses and so the plague ceased Judg. 3 26 Eglon the fat King of Moab had so much goodness in him as to rise from his seat when he was to hear a Message from God And may Christians hold it superstitious to rise up reverently when their Faith is to be professed And Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost in acknowledgment of the blessed Trinity to be given unto God 3. Moses holding up his hands that purchased victory against Amalek Exod. 17.11 Davids practice and prayer I have lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help Psal 123.1 Psal 141.2 And let the lifting up of my hands be as the evening sacrifice Our Saviours confirmation in that excellent prayer for his disciples These things spake Jesus Joh. 17.1 and lift up his eyes to heaven and said are uncontrollable patterns for the lifting up of our eyes and hands to God in prayer 4. And he that observeth Davids watering his couch with tears by night Psal 6.6 and mingling his drink with weeping by day Psal 102.4 Jeremies wishing his
head to be a fountain of tears Jer. 9.11 St. Peters bitter tears Luk. 7.38 and Marie's bath of tears for our Saviours feet and towel of her locks to wipe them must acknowledge that tears with prayer make a happy mixture to procure pity from him who shed tears over Jerusalem and wept in compassion with the sisters Luk. 19.41 Joh. 11.35 that lamented their dead brother Lazarus For bowing the knees and body that humble posture of the afflicted Israelites when they received the hopefull message of their deliverance may be a lending case to bee imitated when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and that he had looked upon their affliction Then they bowed their heads saith the Text and worshiped Exod. 4.31 And what can be the meaning of that prohibition from falling down and worshiping images or any other similitudes in the second commandment but that God hath retained unto himself such a religious worship of the body Those that make scruple of such kneeling in prayer must needs set themselves against that solemne proclamation of the King of heaven I have sworn by my selfe the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousnesse Isa 45.23 and shall not return That unto mee every knee shall bow and every tongue shall swear The same posture when we find allowed to our Saviour incarnate that at Phil. 2.10 or in the Name of Jesus every knee should bow of things inheaven and things on the earth and things under the earth confirmeth the Onenesse of the Son with the Father which novellists now question and make it their glory to cavil at where confutation is impossible 1 King 8.54 Solomon with these now masters for kneeling on his knees and spreading of his hands toward heaven in his dedication prayer of the Temple Dan. 6.10 shall be held unwise Daniel for praying on his knees three times a day shall be scarce thought worthy to be beloved And Saint Paul might save his labour for bowing his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Ephes 3.14 Christ in the behalfe of the Ephesians because sitting as many doe at Sermons with their heads covered would be farre more easie and in those mens discipline doe as well And last of all when I find my Saviour falling on his face Matth. 26.39 and praying O my Father if it be possible let this cup passe from me neverthelesse not as I will but as thou wilt I should hold him far from superstition that in time and place and where it may be fitly performed shall prostrate his whole body or doe more if it were possible put his face between his knees as Elias did on mount Carmel in adoring him in whose book are all our members written 1 King 18.24 and day by day were fashioned when there was yet none of them Psal 139.16 With great judgment therfore is the 95 Psalm set in the fore front of our leiturgy as a preface to the ensuing devotions wherein that passage O come let us worship fal down and kneel before the Lord our maker consorting with that in the 132. we will go into his Tabernacle we will fall low before his footstoole should shame the irreverent behaviour of too many in the house of prayer which Turks and Infidels would hold abominable to be used in their Idoll Temples Moreover wherein women most offend Gods house is not a place for the displaying of plaited hair 3 Pet. 3.3 or wearing of gold or putting on of apparel or out-vying one another in more then the 24 fashions of the daughters of Sion taxed particularly by the prophet but for meek and quiet spirits Isai 3.16 to humble themselves before God to set forth his most worthy praise to hear his most holy word and to aske those things that be requisite as well for the body as the soule And that is not to be slighted 1 Cor. 11. which the Apostle reproves in the Corinthian Assemblies that men presumed to pray with their heads covered and women with their heads uncovered I would have you my daughters so to look to your feet when you enter into the hous of God that your devotions through irreverent unseemlinesse prove not the sacrifice of fools It was the modesty humility of some of your fore-mothers not to seat themselves in the Church before they had performed a reverent respect to the Minister then officiating which howsoever the high spirits of these times hold derogatory to their greatnesse yet the Son of God will take it as done to himself if it be done to the meanest of his Matth. 10.41 for his sake And the B. Virgin his mother will informe the stateliest that God will exalt the meek and humble when the mighty shall be put down from their seat Luk. 1.52 and the rich sent empty away This submisse and religious deportment of the body in Gods worship hath been too shamefully neglected amongst us surely such that slight Gods Ministers so much would hardly be induced to wash their Masters feet with their tears Luk 7.38 and wipe them with their curled locks but those that have ears to hear will hear 1. Bowing of the head And 2. The body to the earth Gen. 24.26 52 Psal 9 6. 3. Kneeling 4. Prostration or falling on the face 5. Lifting up of the eyes to heaven 6. And spreading forth the hands to the same place Mat. 26.39 Jo. 17.1 as also 7. Smiting of the brest with the penitent publican are postures of the body warranted to be used by precept and practice 1 King 8.22 out of the word of God which if they were seasonably and devoutly frequented more of us Luk. 18.13 in our private and publick prayers according to the example of our religious predecessors Mat. 23.6 would better then any Jewish phylacteries or fringes put us in mind of the weight of the business we are about set an edge on our dulnesse Deut. 6.8 and stirre up others to offer violence as it were and take by force the kingdome of heaven Jam. 5.16 Mat. 11.12 but this sacred fervency will meet with many Impediments to be considered in the next place CHAP. V. Of Impediments that disturb or frustrate our Prayers PRayer is so effectual against Satan and all his drifts and depths that he sets his utmost plots and stratagems to frustrate or hinder it and therefore he that seriously composeth himself to prayer shall bee sure to meet with a world of Impediments Amongst which these especially may be taken notice of to be carefully opposed 1. Wandring thoughts 2. Presumption 3. Ostentation 4. Superstition 5. Bosom sins retained 6. Irreconciliation 7. Despair 1. Concerning wandring thoughts we should eespecially attend that caveat of the Apostle Jam. 1.5 If any man ask wisdom let him as kit not by by Intercession of Saints or Angels but of God himselfe that giveth
his brother Esaus coming with four hundred men against him he betakes himself to this effectual personal prayer dictated to him by feare upon the present occasion O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaak thou Lord which saidst unto me return unto thy country and to thy kindred and I will deal well with thee I am not worthy of thy mercies and all thy truth which thou hast shewed unto thy servant for with my staffe I passed over this Jordan and now I am become two hands Deliver me I pray thee from the hand of my brother Esau for I feare him lest he should come and smite mee with the mother upon the children Gen. 32 6. Thus wrestled he with God and obtained a blessing and thus must all that generation of them doe that seek him even of them that seek thy face O Jacob. What was St. Psal 24.6 Pauls thorne in the flesh that buffeted him into humiliatie Cor 12.9 nonewas sensible of but himself but what remedie doe we find he used to take it off no other but personal praier For this thing saith he I besought the Lord that it might depart from me and the return he received from God was most gracious My Grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weaknesse In these and the like practices of Piety you have Samplers my daughters how to fit your selves with personal prayers upon any private occurrences Bosome sins peculiar temptations and secret defects are incident to the best and none knowes so well where a fair shooe wrings as hee that weares it In such cases therefore the urgency of the matter will quickly frame a form correspondent to our desires vexed and barren Hannah needed not a prompter besides the bitternesse of her soul to teach her thus to pray unto the Lord O Lord of hosts if thou wilt indeed look upon the affliction of thine handmaid and remember me and not forget thine handmaid but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man-child 1 Sam. 1.11 then will I give him unto the Lord all the dayes of his life I need not relate how well this prayer took the story of Samuel being so well known From Esthers trembling at the hazardous venture shee made upon majestick Ahasucrus and the importance of the suit shee had in hand we have this pertinent prayer Esth 14.3 O my Lord thou only art our king helpe me desolate woman who have no helper but thee for my danger is in mine hand O thou mighty God above all vers 4. hear the voice of the forlorn vers 4. and deliver us out of the hand of the mischievous and deliver mee out of my feare This prayer howsoever Apocriphal the calamities of these times have made in a sort Canonical The dangers are not unslike all upon the point to be lost and no hopes of redress but by publick and private prayers deliberate and occasional which need not justle one the other but duly take their turnes in their several places Extemporal and personal conceptions upon private occasions which are too often emergent we must commend and be stored with but in publick Assemblies where Gods people come together not only to hear that whereby they may be instructed but especially to confesse their sinnes and to professe their faith and give God thanks with their own mouthes in an uniforme manner for all his blessings and to ask those things which shall be requisite and necessary as well for the body as the soul not only for themselves but for their brethren wheresoever dispersed present or distressed in such publick devotions young men and maidens Psal 148.12 old men and children every one according to his abilitie must act their proscribed parts with the Minister and Praise the Name of the Lord. All must joyne in saying Almighty and most mercifull Father we have erred and strayed from thy waies like lost sheepe All answer the Ministers entrance O Lord open thou our lips and our mouth shall shew forth thy praise All stand up and professe with him leading the way I Believe in God the Father Almightie Maker of Heaven and Earth For was not the Hosanna of the children in the Temple Mat. 21.16 justified by our Saviour against those that would have none heard in the Church but themselves And why may not the Congregation joyne as well with the Minister in praying as in singing or to speak to the point in prayers in prose in a set form as consonantly as in a set form of prayers in verse must they come together to admire or censure their Ministers gifts and performe nothing themselves And is there such antipathy betweene Religious preaching to men and publick set prayers to God that they may not stand both together and the one the better for the other Men as religious and judicious heretofore as for ought wee find now are have determined otherwise whom you may do well to follow till you are convinced with better reasons then have yet beene produced CHAP. II. Of Houshold or Prayers in Family IF any provide not for his own and especially those of his own house or kindred that belong to him saith the Apostle hee hath denied the faith 1 Tim. 5 88 and is worse than an infidel Now if this be required in matters temporal why should it not be urged more earnestly in cases spirituall by how much heaven is to be preferred before earth and the soule before the body For except the Lord build the house Ps 127.1 the labour is but lost of them that build it as except the Lord keepe the city the watchman waketh but in vain labor and wake and toile we may early and late and eat the bread of carefulnesse and be never the nearer Psalm 90. except the glorious Majestie of the Lord our God be upon us to prosper the workes of our hands and impart successe and sleep to his beloved Those house-keepers therfore that expect the blessings of the marriage Psalme so pertinently used in our leiturgie upon them and theirs Psal 128. must be carefull as Abraham was to have them religiously instructed and well chatechized as those three hundred and eighteen were Gen. 14.14 with whom he routed the four Eastern victorious Kings and recovered the spoiles they had taken And this God makes a motive for communicating to him his purpose in the ensuing destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha And the Lord said Gen. 18.19 Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do c. For I know that he will command his children and his houshold after him and they shall kee the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment The fruit of which houshold Instruction we find afterwards in the prayer and faithfulnesse of his chiefest servant whom he sent into Mesopetamia to fetch a wife for his son Isaac The prayer of the Servant is very remarkable O Lord of my
dismal spectacle of this flourishing Commonwealth so late famous amongst neighbor Nations and now so ruinated who can chuse but take up those Lamentations of the Prophet Jer. 4.19 My bowels my bowels I am pained at the very heart my heart maketh a noise within me I cannot hold my peace because thou hast heard O my soul the sound of the Trumpet and alarm of War destruction upon destruction for the whole land is spoiled And all this is done by foolish children who are wise to do evil but to do good they have no knowledg 4. And may not our owne particular sufferings turne us to the lamentable expressions of the 69 Psalm Save me O God Psalm 69.1 for the waters are come into my soul I stick fast in the deep mire where no ground is I am come into deep waters so that the flouds run over me Thy rebuke hath broken my heart I am so full of heaviness Ver. 21 I looked for some to have pity on me but there was no man neither found I any to comfort me And surely the perfidiousness of friends the fraud of flatterers and the impudent insultations of the basest of the people may 5. Chap. 30 Put us upon Jobs complaint They who are younger then I have me in derision whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock They were cried after as a thief They were the children of fools and base men But now I am their song they abhor me and flee from me and spare not to spit in my face 6 Upon survey and sense of our own disabilities to procure the least refreshing to our galling grievances how feelingly may that of Isaiah vent our sorrowes Chap. 24.16 My leannesse my leannesse wo unto me the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously yea the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously Fear and the snare and the pit are so ordered upon us that he who flyes for fear shall fall into the pit and he that cometh out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare 7. Last of all Psalm 119 If Davids eyes gusht out with water because men kept not Gods Law what rivers of tears should run down our cheeks at the beholding of our obstinate offending under the rod of Gods confounding punishment Even in the sight of Moses and the lamenting congregation by reason of the plague amongst them an impudent Zimri will trace along with his shameless Cozbi Num. 25.6 In stead of true humiliation we shall have obtruded deluding dissimulation and dogs shall prove more pitiful to disconsolate Lazarus Luke 16. then purple Dives or any of his full-fed attendants To all which what have we to say Psalm 64.1 but O God to whom vengeance belongeth Thou God to whom vengeance belongeth shew thy self c. and to comfort our selves in this Gen. 19 16 that in Sodoms destruction from heaven Lot shal find a protection to escape And Baruch shall obtain his life for a prey in all places whithersoever he goes Jer. 45.5 In the destruction of that Temple and City which was the beauty of the whole earth a Mark shall be set upon those that sigh and cry for all the abominations that they see committed Ezek. 9.4 Rev. 7. that so in the day of vengeance they may be passed over preserved Whereupon we may safely conclude with the experienced Psalmist as much in this kind Psal 126.6 as any of Gods children They that sow in tears shall reap in joy He that now goeth on his way weeping and beareth forth good seed shall doubtlesse come again with joy bring his sheavs with him For expressing of which rejoycing we may use for a Directory the Helps that follow CHAP. VII Of Excitation or Incouragements to all kind of Christian cheerfulness and Alacrity SUch is our stupid dulnesse since the Fal and loathing averfenesse from all goodnesse that though it be erected by grace and directed in the plainest paths that lead to happiness yet without continual goadings on it will look back with Lots wife Gen. 19.20 and be like the Horse and Mule which will follow us no longer then they are drawn to it with the bit and bridle in our hands Psal 32.10 Hence the Psalmist being exceeding sensible of this original Lethargy no lesse then seven times in one Psalm sues to the Physician of our souls for spiritual quickning Aqua vitae in these and the like expressions Quicken me Psal 119.25 37.88 O Lord according to thy word in the way according to thy loving kindnesse And the blessed Apostle thinks it not enough to put his Scholer Timothy to indure hardnesse 2 Tim. 2.3 except he joyned with it the stirring up of the gifts which God had given him Ibid. c. 1.6 and improving them to the utmost in the vocation the Church had set him When the people told blind Bartimeus whom they had blamed before for his balling that our Saviour made a stand Mar. 10.46 and called for him O how nimbly the blind begger bestirs himself Ver. 50 off goes his garment up hee starts scrambles to Jesus as well as he could was presently healed and followed after with all alacrity praising the heavenly Donor of so inestimable a blessing Such cheerful and confident alacrity the Lord himselfe in peculiar manner gives in charge to General Joshuah Have not I commanded thee Josh 1.9 Be strong and of a good courage be not afraid neither be thou dismayed for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest Psal 57.5 Amongst teeth as spears and arrowes and tongues of his enemies as sharp as swords and nets to entangle his foot and pits to swallow his whole body observe how the Prophet David chears up himselfe My heart is fixed O God Ver. 1 my heart is fixed I will sing and give praise Awake up my glory awake Lute and Harp I my self will awake right early And this is the ready Psal 108 the willing the cheerful Worship the dancing of the heart for joy Psal 28 the praising of God with the best member we have that was prophesied to be performed after our Saviours erecting his Church of Jewes and Gentiles Psalm 110 In the day of thy power the people shal offer thee free-will offerings with an holy Worship or as our latter translation hath it thy people shal be willing in the day of thy power in the beauties of holinesse The dew of thy birth is of the womb of the morning gentle for the descending in drops innumerable For putting life into and hearting this Free-will Worship which is only acceptable unto God when it proceeds according to his own Directory three things in the Scripture our Church Book are especially to be taken notice of 1. Proclamations from God 2. Excitations of our selvs 3. Incitations of others I. Of those which may be termed