forewarned us like a thief at a time when we are asleep and think less of it than at other times we do Now this imagined great distance still from our death chiefly ariseth from every ones reckoning his own end only from deficiency of nature which yet not one of 1000 dyes of and not from accidental distempers when as most commonly this our lamp goes out either choaked with its own nourishment or violently extinguished by some external accident before its Oyl is half consumed And since nothing is more common then example of this in others on every side what self love and dotage is it to promise our selves a better destiny till we also surprized become the like example to others 23. And consider likewise and think with your self how many are dying in that very time you are thinking and meditating of it 24. 2 When this time shall come your impotency and unfitness from your fears your pains and many times the want of your senses that will then be to order either the matter of your Soul or of your worldly affairs to do any thing with sufficient devotion or prudence and also your friends at that time hiding from you as much as they can the danger of your sickness Nay your self perhaps when decumbent under the stroke of death yet removing it a far off still and certainly presuming being loath to imagine the worst of a recovery only because some few so sick have not dyed of whom your unkind friends will not be wanting to mind you also because your self formerly have recovered 25. For exciting your resolutions and affections Indeavour to make the same judgment of things for the present and to have the same opinion now of your sins of the world and its pleasures and its cares and your designs in it and what you imagine you should in such a case at such a time purpose now resolve upon 26. Prepare your self for that terrible and dreadful hour in some of those Duties set down before 27. Avoid not but use and seek out all the sad memorials of death that may be as visiting Hospitals the sick sore and putrifying dying persons hearing their speeches their groans looking on the skeletons of the dead frequenting funerals Making many reflections on the passing of time decays of your own Body or other mens c. Remembring often Eccl. 7.2 3 4. Repeating often the 90 Psalm Recalling to mind and keeping a Catalogue sometimes to be reviewed of your friends and acquaintance deceased Considering what they were did are Thus much for Sickness and Death §. 169. For Consideration of the General day of Judgment some more particulars may yet be added Consider 1. That that is the proper day of justice and wrath as the present is of Grace and Mercy See Rom. 2.5.8 9. 2. Thes 1.7 8. Rev. 11.18 6.16 Luk. 18.7 2. Cor. 5.11 God's justice upon sin by Christ's Mediation being delayed till that time that many might come to repentance 2. Pet. 3.9 and these his present temporal punishments being inflicted chiefly not for vengeance but for other ends either for their good that suffer or other mens that behold it Therefore the present called our day Luk. 19.42 2. Cor. 6.2 wherein our free will doth as it pleaseth That the day of the Lord 2. Pet. 3.10 1. Thes 5.2 wherein removing this free power we yet enjoy God will gather out of his Kingdome all things that offend and all that do iniquity and cast them into the furnace Matt. 13.41 2. The dreadful signs that shall be then of God's wrath and the terribleness of the appearance of that day beyond all other terrors and the alteration of Heaven and Earth and putting out of the Sun before the sitting in judgment Rev. 20.11 comp 12. tho not till after the resurrection 1. Thes 4.16 See 2. Pet. 3.10.12 Psal 18.7 c. Nahum 1.3 c. Esai 30.27 c. Matt. 24.29 c. Rev. 20.11 Joel 3.2.12 c. to 17. Zechariah 14.4 Luk. 21.36 3. As the Bodies of the righteous raised in great beauty and glory so those of the wicked in great filthiness and deformity 4. The horrible fear and trembling of the wicked then living Matt. 30. Luk. 21.25 26. Rev. 1.7 6.16 11.18 Rev. 1.7 this day coming upon them when full of sin and security Matt. 24.12.38 Luk. 18.8 21.35 1. Thes 5.3 2. Thes 2 3. And of the Souls of the formerly dead then being brought out of their prisons 1. Pet. 3.19 and reunited to their loathsome companion the Body Now to be sentenced together with the devil to eternal torments whom also we may suppose deprecating as the Devils Luk. 8.31 5. The confidence and joy of the righteous then living and of the Souls of the dead then coming out of the place of rest and bliss and reunited to their Bodies their Bodies carefully gathered up and brought together by the Angels and such as they are described 1. Cor. 15.42 c. 2. Thes 1.10 both these being then caught up in the clouds and having their ascension like our Saviour's and meeting the Lord coming in his Glory with his Blessed Angels to Judgment in the air 1. Thes 4.17 Luk. 21.28 1. Jo. 2.28 1. Cor. 7.7 2 Tim. 4.8 Tit. 2.13 1. Thes 5.4 2. Pet. 3.12 whom we may suppose singing together as in Rev. 19.6 7 8. 6. A particular appearance and examination of all the Sons of Adam assembled together Sodom and Gomorrah in Abraham's time then confronting Corazin and Bethsaida in Christ's time c. And every one giving account of himself to God the Counsels of all their hearts being made manifest and secrets divulged Rom. 14.10.12 1. Cor. 4.5 Matt. 10.15 Rev. 20.12 Rom. 2.16 Ecclesiastes 12.14 7. Books kept containing all mens works then brought forth and opened Rev. 12.20 In which how many sins never thought of for Repentance shall be then brought to our Remembrance for Condemnation And besides them a peculiar Book of life called also a Book of remembrance Mal. 3.16 being not of actions but only of names i. e. of those who have here served and pleased God that none of them might be forgotten or unrewarded in that day All the rest who are not writ in that happy book being abandoned to eternal destruction Exod. 32.32 33. Phil. 4.3 Rev. 3.5 20.15 Luk. 10.20 Jo. 10.28 29. 8. The manifestation at that time of God's just judgment the manner whereof is set down by St. Paul Rom. 2. from 6. to 17. verse which shall be upon no other point but down-right according to works Rom. 2.6 Rev. 20.12 Matt. 16.27 c. In which works words Matt. 12.37 Jud. 15. and thoughts Rom. 2.16 are contained According to works either those that men have persevered in without any repentance of them at all or where any repentance of them hath been which cancels all the work before it Ezech. 18.21 22. according to the works done after it whether these be good or whether they be evil which being evil
judge the living and the dead Give rest to the Souls of the Faithful departed O Lamb of God at whose presence the earth shall be moved and the heavens melt away Give rest to the Souls of the Faithful departed O Lamb of God in whose blessed book of Life their names are written Give eternal rest to the Souls of the Faithful departed The Antiphon DEliver us O Lord and all thy Faithful in that day of terror when the Sun and Moon shall be darkned and the Stars fall down from heaven in that day of calamity and amazement when heaven it self shall shake and the Pillars of the earth be moved and the glorious Majesty of Jesus come with innumerable Angels to judge the world by fire Deliver us O Lord in that dreadful day And place us with thy blessed at thy right hand for ever O Lord hear our Prayers And let our Supplications come to thee ALmighty God with whom do live the Spirits of the perfect and in whose holy custody are deposited the Souls of all those that depart hence in an inferior degree of thy grace who being by their imperfect Charity rendred unworthy thy presence are detained in a state of grief and from thy beatifical sight as we bless thee for the Saints already admitted to thy glory so we humbly offer our Prayers for thy afflicted servants who continually wait and sigh after the day of their deliverance Pardon their sins supply their unpreparedness and wipe away the tears from their eyes that they may see thee and in thy glorious light eternally rejoyce Thro Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen O Eternal God who besides the general precepts of Charity hast commanded a particular respect to parents kindred and benefactors grant we beseech thee that as they were the instruments by which thy providence bestowed on us our birth education and innumerable other benefits so our Prayers may be a means to obtain for them a speedy delivery from any privation of bliss which they may suffer for their sins and a free admittance to thy infinite joys Thro Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen MOst wise and merciful Lord who hast ordained this life as a passage to the future confining our Conversion to the time of our Pilgrimage here and reserving for hereafter the state of punishment and reward vouchsafe us thy grace who are yet alive and still have opportunity of reconcilement to thee so to watch over all our actions and correct every least deviation from the true way to Heaven that we be neither surprised with our sins uncancelled nor our duties imperfect but when our Bodies go down into the grave our Souls may ascend to thee and dwell for ever in the mansions of eternal felicity Thro Jesus Christ our Lord and only Saviour Amen The LITANY of Christian Virtues O God the Father of Heaven Have mercy on us O God the Son Redeemer of the world Have c. O God the Holy Ghost Have mercy on us O Sacred Trinity one God Have mercy on us O Lord just and good and a rewarder of all those that seek thee diligently Have mercy on us Who createdst our first Parents in innocency and holiness after thine own image and gavest a testimony to the offerings of just Abel Have mercy on us Who savedst in the Ark from the Flood Noah a Preacher of Justice and deliveredst from the Fire just Lot vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked Have mercy on us Who gavedst the Promise to Abraham found faithful after many trials Have mercy on us Who deliveredst Jacob endued with a wonderful patience and confidence in adversities from all evils and gavest a joyful end to thy servant Job that pattern of patience Have mercy on us Who rewardest the singular modesty and chastity of Joseph with the rule over Aegypt Have mercy on us Who choosest Moses the meekest man upon earth to be Ruler over thy people and electedst Joshuah notable for valour and constancy to lead thy people into the land of Promise Have mercy on us Who gavest the Priesthood to the Sons of Levi for their great courage in vindicating thine honor and deliveredst from all dangers the Prophet Elias for his incomparable Zeal for thy true worship against the false Prophets and at length took'st him up into heaven Have mercy on us Who set'st Samuel Judge over thy people a lover of Justice and free from bribes And liftedst up David a man after thy own heart in the faithful service of thee to be King of Israel Have mercy on us Who replenishedst Solomon humbly begging Wisdome of thee both with it and many other Graces And adornedst Daniel and his Companions being singularly temperate and sober with wisdome and beauty Have mercy c. Who chosest the Blessed Virgin Mary adorned with singular chastity humility obedience and all other Virtues to be the Mother of thy Son Have mercy on us Who sentest John Baptist a fore-runner of thy Son a Preacher of penance and of great austerities and abstinence Have mercy on us Who sentest JESUS Christ thy only begotten Son into the world the pattern of all Holiness that we should follow his example Have mercy on us Who hast chosen us in him before the foundations of the world that we also should be holy and unblameable in thy sight Have mercy on us Who hast predestinated us that we should be made conformable to the image of thy Son and hast created us in him to good works which thou hast ordained that we should walk in them Have mercy on us Who hast redeemed us from our vain conversation by the precious blood of Christ and hast regenerated us by thy word unto a lively hope of an eternal inheritance Have mercy on us O Jesu who knewest no sin neither was guile found in thy mouth but appearedst to take away the sins of the world Have mercy on us JESUS who barest our sins in thy body on the Cross that we being dead unto sin may live unto Justice and Holiness Have mercy on us Who hast delivered us out of darkness into light from the power of Satan into thy Kingdome and hast bestowed upon us the remission of sins and an inheritance amongst thy Saints Have mercy on us Who promisedst thy Disciples that forsook all for thee twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel who committedst unto St. Peter notably confessing and loving thee the feeding of thy sheep Have mercy on us Who vouchsafest to St. John notable for chastity the singular priviledge of thy love Have mercy on us Who sendedst thy holy Spirit whereby divine Charity is spread abroad in our hearts Have mercy on us Be merciful and spare us O Lord. Be merciful and grant unto us O Lord The virtue of humility and patience spiritual poverty and meekness longanimity and obedience to those that are set over us Grant unto us O Lord A quiet mind and contented with our present condition true peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Grant us c.
things to which we are neither affectioned nor yet indifferent but which are things expensive or things painful amongst which the most precious in God's sight are alms and sufferings And if in all things deliberated on which of them you should do the same rule be observed you shall seldome err whilst that which is only by the inclinations of sense to it commended and made equiballancing to the other ought to be counted always of it self too light and at length procure a perfect mortification both of your lusts and will 6. Not relying wholly on the practice of the exterior acts and that of some virtues that are more plausible to the world in which there may be some secret ingredient of vain glory and to be seen of men Nor looking more diligently to your words and actions which may partly come from some awe and reverence to your company your profession or fame c. whilst you give more liberty to your thoughts which defile the soul But taking more special care of doing your duty in those acts thereof which are contrary to your reputation some acts of the same virtue being honourable others disgraceful As in charity honourable to give an almes but to put up an injury base 7. Not practising them partially much addicted to some wholly neglecting others The Pharisees not others-but self-deceiving hypocrysy Luk. 18.11 As to be so great a servant to several works of charity to your neighbor as not to borrow any time from these for your own more necessary Devotions or for the service of God Again so constant at your devotions as to neglect your vocation and the duties you owe to your Family or the Common-wealth But striving as far as possible to be eminent in many things setting before you the lives of the Saints 8. Nor yet despising others who practice not the same things with you tho they be perchance in some other more worthy Grace far more eminent as the Publican was than the Pharisee paying so much tithe and eating so little c. in humility Digr Of our Hypocrisies unknown to us and wherein not others but our selves are deceived As other Hypocrisies are so called because we are not what we seem to others so this because we are not what we seem to our selves The others estate may be more sinful but this more incurable See Examples of such Luk. 18.9.11 Matt. 15.14 7.3 Jo. 9.41 Apoc. 3.1.17 Prov. 14.12 30.12 9. Not being so ambitious to do some great good as to neglect a little aspiring to do some good you cannot and neglecting the good you can do Very valiant about things future and vanquished by things present Earnest to do some great services to God but such still as are out of our reach and meanwhile omitting those which are offered to and ready for us Whereas desiring to perform all good according to what present talent you have is the direct way to have what you farther desire and he that is not faithful first in a little shall never be trusted with much Luk. 16.10 11 12. 1. Cor. 7.24.27 10. Being very studious of and circumspectly practising those virtues whose use is more common and general and therefore they are less admired or regarded in our practice as mildness humble behaviour contentedness smaller temperances and charities and offices of Love admonitions silence and modesty diligence in business exact fidelity Christian simplicity entire patience in petty injuries in lesser pains in smaller losses dedicating to God's service and resigning to his good pleasure your smallest actions 1. Cor. 10.31 In the smallest matters not giving scandal c because the occasions of such virtues often return and the greater number of these equals the greater magnitude of some others in acquiring of heaven 11. Not for doing what may seem a greater good that is impertinent to you neglecting a lesser your duty As a Clergy-man following lay-business The Apostles serving Tables Our Saviour dividing land doing rather what is conformable to your Calling than agreeable to your Will 12. Not prosecuting what you conceive good or avoiding what is evil with too much passion All vehement desires tho seeming good that discompose the mind and breed inquietude hastiness and discontent are temptations and much hinder the judgment in the prudence it should use in the prosecution of its work Action therefore is to be deferred till these heats are a little overpast He that though in good things is governed by his passions is subject to many errors Using therefore ordinarily in good designs also a suppression of the excess of your affections As not rebuking your self or others too angrily for a fault Not being too angry against your self for being angry Least from this indulgence your passions sometimes debord where you would not have them and lest from this custome where they are more innocent you use the same when faulty 13. Never doing the least evil that appears so that good may come of it for more evil than good comes to us of every evil not omitting any good of obligation lest evil should come of it 14. In all things avoiding extreams neither affirming nor denying neither commending nor condemning all Nor always at your Devotions nor always at your Works 15. Towards all worldly things trespassing rather in the defect than in the excess the contrary in spiritual and divine 16. In all those actions which cannot utterly be forborn and quitted and yet an excess in them is a sin and the same action that is now lawful if continued presently becomes unlawful As Eating going-on to intemperance providing for your self or family into covetousness particular affection into concupiscence recreations into voluptuosity c. Keeping ever a more strict watch over your self leaning rather to the defects and never wholly justifying your self in using them where it is so easy to transgress 17. Not judging of your spiritual condition your religion c by your coolness or fervency in Devotion by God's ways towards you of mercy or judgments prosperity or afflictions the Book of Job was written to undeceive us in this by your former sins by quietness of conscience which is many times caused by a faulty ignorance but only by the fruits of godliness and that not some partial holiness in some one or few duties but universal sincere constant nor yet in freedome from the acts of any vice when no occasions offered but in conquering these when tempted Digr Of a certain quietness of conscience common to the Orthodox and erroneous to good men and bad so far as they are either ignorant or forgetful and not considering and so undoing most men who instead of labouring out of a pious fear a reform or better information of their conscience judge only of their condition by its present perswasions and presume of safety in not going against it This of a right ordering of our Judgment as to Good and Evil. §. 45. 2. Right ordering of the Judgment concerning Truth and Error
the patterns of all prayer and praise for the passion of love many times holily dotes and useth to be exorbitant and unjudicial 45. Of several other ways of enlarging prayer As using the repetition of Psalms got by heart in them these being the chief stock and treasure of devotion of which whoso is well provided can never be barren or at a stand in them Meditating upon the several parts one after another of the Lord's Prayer Creed Ten Commandments Jo. 17. c. Any Psalm or Hymn Magnif Benedict Te Deum Staying upon every part so long as your imagination suggests any acceptable matter and exercising several acts of devotion as Confession Petition Praise c. according to the subject Or staying only a short set time on every one and so running through many such prayers c. at once Or staying only one respiration upon every substantial word this only to cause you to say it with more attention and devotion Taking some other place of Scripture which are not Prayers as our Saviour's Sermon the later ends of St. Paul ' s Epistles turning precepts and commands into requests Making a swift cursory over some of the Psalms and offering up what petitions and Confessions concern you Good Lord we have so many wants Spiritual and Temporal to petition thee for so many sins especially those wherein we still offend thee to ask thy pardon for so many Benefits Spiritual and Temporal to thank thee for So much wisdome mercy and justice seen in all thy works to praise thee for so many temptations and dangers from which to beg thy preservation So many businesses of our own or our Friends wherein to ask thy counsel or happily dispatched to return thee thanks So many designs of some good wherein to beg thy necessary assistance So many ways of promoting thy Glory the end of our Creation wherein to offer thee our poor service So many snares and inticements to sin to resolve against and resolutions to reiterate and further strengthen So many Relatives Spiritual and Temporal and their necessities to intercede to Thee for And will any one when he kneels down before thee say he finds nothing to say to thee or knows not how to continue prayer This will be a strange excuse of neglecting this holy duty when Thou shalt cast up our Accounts Nay what moment of our life is there wherein some or other of these do not call on us for prayer §. 128. Particularizing in our Prayers 46. Making your prayers in whatever kind Confessions or Petitions Thanksgivings or Resignations very particular and circumstantial So punctual in confessing your sins as if at the opening of the books at the last day those only of them should be found cancelled which you had often and freely confessed to him And so punctual in confessing his benefits as if the non-acknowledgment of any one received would stop the receit of any more thereafter or that those also you had should be retracted when they ceased to be commemorated 47. Laying open before him your innermost bowels communicating with him as with a friend all your counsels and purposes which will make you entertain none but good discovering to him again and again all his gifts mercies deliverances bemoaning your self to him of all your infirmities opening unto him all your wants with that particularity as if he knew nothing of them The one will make you more sensible of his goodness the other of your need of his help Reciting to and minding him of all his promises as if he had forgot them for this is as more prevalent with God so more profitable to the Soul making you to put greater confidence in them So in your petitions for any grace As for temperance c. with your prayers joyn the motives such as may conduce to breed it in you or perswade you to practice it For any necessity with your prayers joyn the motives which may incline God to grant it for these will enflame you more passionately to ask it Jer. 10.1 Jer. 32.24 Act. 22.19 20. Esa 37.14 48. Amongst many particulars singling out some more eminent sins benefits wants for which you shall more constantly beg pardon give thanks petition c. 49. Keeping a Catalogue of all your greater sins Of all God's greater and more special benefits and favors still adding to them what shall happen hereafter at set times more solemnly to be reviewed and confessed unto him 50. So likewise keeping a collection of all the Offices and eminent actions and passions of our Saviour and of the Holy Spirit in order to your Salvation to be more punctually enumerated at some times in more solemn doxologies unto them §. 129. Colloquies to be used in Prayer 51. Using in Prayer frequent Prosopopeia's Colloquies Solliloquies whereof there are five more usual 1. God speaking i. e. the Promises and Threats mentioned in Scripture unto you 2. Our Saviour Christ speaking unto you according to what he hath said in the Gospel 3. You speaking to your own Soul Ps 44. 4. Speaking to God the Father 5. Speaking to your Saviour by your imagination set before you in some such familiar posture in the Gospel as much animates your addresses These will serve much to strengthen your faith and your endeavors by thus assuming another person and being abstracted from your self We thus speaking things not so easily thought on when we act only our own persons counselling more impartially comforting more powerfully c. See Kemp. 3. l. To these Colloquies may be added sometimes those with the Creatures to praise God with us Psal 103.20 Psal 148. To submit to his Kingdome c. with us Psal 4.2 c. and those expostulations with the vain or wicked world with our flesh with our spiritual enemies with our former sins c. Wisd 5.8 1. Cor. 15.55 Psal 119.115 9.6 139.19 Mic. 7.8 Psal 118.13 4.2 §. 130. Scripture expressions 52. In all your spiritual exercises using rather scripture expressions sanctified by the Holy Spirit that spake in holy men Accepted with God and answered with blessings breeding also in your more confidence In using these changing universals into particulars instead of our we us I me c. for we are more passionate for our selves §. 131. Advantages to Prayer 53. Using when you can those advantages your Prayers receive 1. From the communion of other Saints in publick Assemblies where is your worship of God more openly profest and so he by you more glorified See Heb. 10.25 a greater promise of God's presence Matt. 18.20 a greater presence of the Angels 1. Cor. 11.10 in religious assemblies 1 1. From publick Assembles and Communion of Saints your common prayers as forces united whilst every one in the plural prays for all more powerful Graces and spiritual favours more ordinarily then bestowed Act. 2.1 4.41 13.2 1. Cor. 14.24 25.30 2. Chron. 20.14 add to these the presence of the Priest and of some men of greater sanctity more favourably heard