from all immodest looks unchast thoughts and discourses from wanton songs books and pictures from lascivious dalliance light carriage and attire from idleness and intemperance the usual occasions of farther wickedness Q. What is the eighth Commandment A. Thou shalt not steal Q. What is forbidden in the eighth Commandment A. The eighth Commandment forbiddeth our doing any thing unjustly to the lessening of our neighbours estate whether by stealing from him or by cozenage and cheating in our bargains by wilful neglect to pay our debts or by oppression and extortion Q. Is this all that is required of us not to rob others of their wealth A. No But we must moreover be ready to lend or give to those that need according to our ability Q. What especially is to be done by us that we may avoid the breach of this Commandment A. We ought diligently to follow our several honest callings and employments and to live in such a sober and thrifty manner suitable to our estates and conditions that we may be able to pay our debts and relieve the poor and so shall not be put upon stealing gaming cheating or any wicked course for our livelihood Q. What is the ninth Commandment A. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour Q. What are we especially enjoyned in this ninth Commandment A. That when in any case we are called to be witnesses we speak nothing but the truth Q. What farther ought we to abstain from A. We ought to abstain from raising receiving or spreading false reports of our neighbour and from doing any thing to lessen his just esteem from rash and uncharitable censures from tale-bearing and tatling of other mens matters and from all lying in our communication one with another Q. What is the tenth Commandment A. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours house thou shalt not covet thy neighbours wife nor his man servant nor his maid-servant nor his ox nor his asse nor any thing that is thy neighbours Q. What are we enjoyned in this Commandment A. The tenth Commandment enjoyneth us to be so thoroughly well content with our own condition that we should not envy or repine at any thing our neighbour enjoys nor covetously desire it from him Q. What are those general rules in the Gospel which include the whole of our duty to one another A. That we should love our neighbour as our selves and deal with all others as we our selves desire to be dealt with were we in their case Q. Give me some particular instances of this last Rule A. Masters ought to deal with their Servants as they themselves were they servants would in reason desire to be dealt with we must not give that ill language to others nor raise or entertain such stories of them as we our selves cannot bear when we are so us'd The Seller must deal as honestly and justly as he desires to be dealt with when he comes to buy c. Q. Can you by your own power perform these duties required of you A. No but we need the assistance of Gods grace which we are to seek for by prayer Q. To whom ought our prayers to be made A. To God only in the name of Iesus Christ. Q. May we not then pray to Angels and Saints A. No for we have no warrant for it from Scripture which in so weighty a matter of religion is necessary but very much against it Q. Name to me some one Text of Scripture where we are commanded to worship God only A. Mat. 4. 10. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Q. Where are we expresly forbidden the worship of Angels A. In Rev. 22. 9. when St. Iohn being about to worship the Angel he said to him see thou do it not for I am thy sellow-servant worship God Q. But may we not pray to Saints and Angels as our Mediatours that they would pray to God for us as when we put up a petition to the King we make use of some Courtier to present it for us A No for there is no likeness in the case God himself being most gracious and always near to us and moreover it tends to the great dishonour of the Lord Jesus who is our only Mediatour by whom we are to offer up our prayers to God Q. Name me some one Text to prove that Christ is our onely Mediatour A. 1 Tim. 2. 5. There is one God and one Mediatour betwixt God and Men the Man Christ Iesus Q. What farther reason can you alledge against praying to Saints and Angels A. It is in vain to pray to them because we have no reason to believe that they can hear the prayers that are made to them from several parts of the world it being proper to God only to be in all places at once Q. Is it lawful before hand to know the words we intend to use in prayer that is to use a form of our own or others making A. Yes it is lawful since it is no where forbidden in Scripture and the directions there given concerning prayer may be practised either with or without a form Q. But we are taught in Scripture to pray with or in the Script and does not that forbid the use of a Form A. No not at all since we may pray with the Spirit even then when we use a Form Q. When therefore may a man be said to pray with the Spirit A. When in his prayers he is hearty and serious his soul being filled with those holy desire and affections which are wrought in him by the Spirit of God Q. Is there in the Gospel any Form given us for our direction in prayer A. Yes that which Christ taught his Disciples and therefore called the Lords prayer Q. Let me hear you repeat it A. Our Father which art in heaven Hallowed be thy name Thy kingdom come Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us and Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the Kingdom the power and the glory for ever and ever Amen Q. Into what parts may this prayer fitly be divided A. The Preface six petitions and the Conclusion Q. What learn you from the Preface Our Father which art in heaven A. That in all our addresses to God we ought to come before him with humility and reverence and yet with a firm confidence in his fatherly mercy and goodness Q. What do you pray for in the first Petition Hallowed be thy name A. That God may be known honoured and worshiped aright both by us and the whole world Q. What do you pray for in the second Petition Thy kingdom come A. That God may rule in the hearts and lives of men by his Spirit and laws that the Church may be enlarged by the conversion of
eat and drink and sleep nor should you any more leave it to them only to pray to God and to read and hear his word since these works of religion are for your own interest even for the health and happiness of your souls as those common actions are for the preserving of your bodily life Moreover I am fully perswaded that if you cast up your accounts right you shall never find your selves one penny the poorer at the years end for having spent every day one quarter or half an hour in prayer to God in reading and meditating on his holy word or in any other such good employment And yet more for your encouragement I dare assure you that at your lives end you shall never repent of the time thus spent no not though it had been twice as much if in all other parts of religion you shall have been equally careful Much more might be said but I shall only add to you that cry out how little time you have and therefore grudge to allow any of it for holy duties I very much suspect that you can every day spend much more than these would take up in idleness and vanity nay perhaps in the Alehouse to the great hurt of body soul and estate Bethink you then soberly when all your time comes to be reckoned for which way of spending it will be most to your comfort and now do accordingly Or if you say you have no time to throw away thus idly yet what a great matter would it be to rise one quarter of an hour sooner than usual and to spend that time in prayer you could do more than this for your own pleasure or for a small profit and shall not the love of God and your duty to him prevail as much with you Nor yet think it will be enough for your excuse to pretend that your employment is of that nature that your Family cannot come together for prayer especially not in the morning which is like to be the plea of the Husbandman rather than the Tradesman This I say will not excuse your neglect since I question not but that by appointing your time of prayer a little earlier or by a prudent contrivance of your affairs you may ordinarily avoid this difficulty This I speak upon good grounds since there are many whose business in the world is as great as yours and their callings the very same who can yet well enough keep up Family prayer without any such inconvenience as you would pretend And what pray should hinder but you may do the same if you have but the same love to God and zeal for his worship that they have But however when some of the Family are necessarily absent let as many come together as can and lay a charge upon your children or servants when at any time they cannot joyn with you in the Family that they be sure to take some time to pray to God by themselves in private for which purpose I have added two shorter Forms for those of the younger sort And indeed I would advise all beside their performance of Family-duties to set apart some little time once in a day at least for their more secret prayer to God which seems plainly enjoyned by our Saviour himself Mat. 6. 6. When thou prayest enter into thy Closet and when thou hast shut thy door pray to thy Father which is in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly Nor can I well see how that man is ever like to hold on in a religious course of life who is not wont thus privately to betake himself to God there to make his particular confessions petitions and returns of praise and to ease himself of whatever burden lies on his mind which before others he cannot so freely do And in these private prayers there is not commonly so much need of a Form all our work now being to express the desires of our own souls to God only even to such a God as looks at the sincerity of the heart and not at the nimbleness or eloquence of our tongues Nor indeed is it likely any Form should fully reach to every mans particular case But your best help will be to get well acquainted with the state of your own souls to know well your sins your temptations your necessities and dangers and to get deeply affected with the sense of your spiritual and eternal concernments and then do but with uprightness and humility represent the very inward sense of your souls to God in the name of his Son Iesus and you shall never fail of acceptance through any weakness of expression Yea remember it is this inward sincerity of heart that must at all times accompany your prayers if ever you hope for acceptance And therefore before I conclude let me make it my earnest request to you that you take special heed to the frame of your hearts whenever you come before God in prayer as in all other holy duties you ought Think it not enough to speak a few good words upon your knees evening and morning with a seeming reverence whilst in the mean time your hearts are never moved or affected with what you are doing This is such a lip-service as neither will be acceptable to God nor will do any good to your selves Leave it to poor ignorant and deluded Papists to number their prayers by their beads and to think they have served God very well when they have patter'd over so many Creeds Pater-nosters and Ave-maries a devotion which a Parrot might go near to learn and sufficiently shews that Ignorance is the Mother of it but you who through the mercy of God do live in a Church where you have been better taught do you shew forth the fruit of your teaching and knowledge and that by offering up to God those services which beseem reasonable creatures and which are suited to the nature of him whom you serve who is a spirit and will be worshiped in spirit and truth who is a living God and will not be put off with a dead carkase with the bare moving of lips the noise of words or posture of the body but will have all the powers and faculties of our souls employed in the duties we perform to him This is part of that reasonable service which he now especially requires from us instead of the sacrifice of beasts and the burden of lifeless ceremonies which were used in the Iewish Church before Christs coming Rom. 12. 1. See then I beseech you that your very hearts and souls go along with your tongues in prayer and let your affections be suited to the several parts thereof This is the true praying in the Spirit whether with or without a Form Let your confession of sin be attended with a deep sorrow and humiliation for it with a bitter hatred of and strong resolutions against it Think what a frame you should be in and what earnestness you should use if begging for your life
of a Prince or Iudge and labour to be like affected whilst you are begging from God forgiveness of sins and eternal life Whilst you are blessing God for his goodness let your hearts be drawn sorth to the exercise of holy love and delight in him Inwardly thirst after that grace you pray for resolving with diligence to labour for it c. And by what I have now said you may plainly perceive that the sincerity of your hearts in prayer is to be known not so much by your present servour and affection as by your behaviour afterward and by the constant tenour of your lives He and he only is the true worshipper of God and prays to him aright who by his daily actions and endeavours doth manifest the same inward setled apprehensions and desires which his words express whil'st he is praying For instance you beg of God to take off your hearts from the world and all things here below and to increase in you a love to himself to his Son Iesus and to the glory which is above Now to manifest that you are sincere in this request you must do your part toward the obtaining of what you beg that is you must set your selves to the serious consideration of the vanity the shortness and emptiness of present things you must consider the nature of your own souls and the allsufficiency of God you must reflect upon the goodness he hath already shown the love of Christ in dying for us and the great and precious promises of the Gospel and by this means you shall find the Spirit of God working in you those graces which you pray for So when you pray against this or that sin to which you are most enclined and in danger of you must both use particular considerations against it and must keep out of the temptations avoid the place and company where you are like to be drawn to it c. Otherwise what do you but solemnly mock God As if one man should come to another and with a great deal of adoe beg his help in any labour and then run away and never set's own hand to 't Or as if a man should pray to have his house kept from burning and then straight way go and put fire to it In prayers for temporal mercies you do not do thus for beside praying for your daily bread you take pains to get it in your several trades and employments And do you think you are not bound to do as much for your souls as for your bodies Or have you promises of grace any more than of daily bread without endeavouring for it in the way God hath set you Nay rather whereas you are oft restrained from too much care about the world you are again and again enjoyned to labour for the meat which endures to everlasting life Ioh. 6. 27. For the Lords sake then beware of cheating your souls with that common mistake which is the ruine of thousands both of this party and that whilst they foolishly imagine that their much praying and hearing will serve turn for their salvation instead of an holy heart and life and so they are but devout in the Church or Closet it matters not what liberty they take in the market in the shop or at the Alehouse and when they have but said a good prayer in the morning they may do what they list all the day after or at least they can make all whole by praying devoutly at night How grosly do such men abuse themselves and their services who would by these excuse themselves from holiness when as one great reason of them is to help and strengthen us for strict and holy living And therefore have I endeavoured so to contrive the ensuing Forms that they who use them might even thereby find themselves instructed and engaged to be holy in all manner of Conversation For which there seems sufficient warrant in our Blessed Saviours own example in that most absolute Form which he hath given us whilst with the petition for that great and comprehensive mercy of the Gospel Forgiveness of sins he hath interwoven an engagement to that great duty which will prove us to be Christians indeed the forgiving of all those who who have trespast against us Let this then be firmly believed and deeply fixt in your minds that as you would be loth to take up with a parcel of good words from your servants every day instead of the work you set them so no more will God be put off with prayers Sermons or any thing instead of a sincere and hearty endeavour to render a constant universal obedience to his pure and righteous commands Christ himself hath plainly enough told us what 's like to become of all those who only cry Lord Lord and yet do not obey the will of God Mat. 7. 21. We must wash our hands in innocency and so compass Gods Altar if we would have our offerings accepted of him Psal. 26. 6. And beside our endeavours to glorifie God by offering up of praise we must order our conversation aright if ever we would see the salvation of God Psal. 50. 23. Of almost all men I know I pray God deliver my soul from the state of those who can pray devoutly be it with book or without and yet go on in sin securely But 't is time for me to conclude though I have much ado to confine my self on so needful a Subject To shut up all then who-ever thou art that readest this Let thy soul to use the Psalmists phrase Psal. 63. 8. follow hard after God in earnest prayer both in the Church thy Closet and thy Family and beside this do thou follow after peace and holiness Heb. 12. 14. in thy life and conversation so shalt thou certainly see and enjoy God in that glory where prayers shall be turned into everlasting praises Amen MORNING PRAYER for a Family MOst Holy and ever-blessed Majesty Thou renewest thy mercies upon us every Morning and every Morning we desire to renew our thanksgivings And here we are now come before thee humbly to offer up thanks and praise for our safety and refreshment this last night to thee the God of love who givest us daily cause to admire thy bounty and to speak good of thy name We acknowledge thee oh God to be our Maker and Preserver thou didst at first give us life and reason and from thee it is we have received all the comforts of life from the very day of our birth to this present morning Through thy goodness it is we have enjoyed any measure of health and strength and have been furnisht with things needfull and convenient for this present state Thy good hand of providence hath still been over us either in keeping us out of dangers and troubles or else in supporting and helping us under them or in delivering us out of the same For these and all other thy mercies at any time bestowed on us or ours or any of the Sons