grows cold in his esteem and love of the greatest places of honor and profit which he hath long inâ—oyed he is still pursuing and grasping at more and greater either he would make an addition to what he already hath or find out greater than they are This reality and fervency of affection is truly a very great benefit supposing the affections to be rightly and in due degree directed to things true and useful but if that be not supposed it may be as great a mischief For great inordinate and immoderate affections miserably corrupt the judgments and inclinations they render them erroneous and superstitious and I think one of the principal causes why of late diverse premeditated nay extempore Prayers have been preferred before Forms whether publick or private is an immoderate love to great and busling affections for any thing though never so unworthy of them to which we may add great variety and quickness of conceit and invention as in extempore Prayers The Advantage of Variety and Copiousness of Conceit is both in premeditated and extempore Prayers and is because there are many of them used in Opposition to but one as often a repeated Form as is before said But quickness of Conceit or Invention is only seeâ— in extempore Prayers where if the thing invented be but indifferently good there hardly any Quality of our Minds that is â— much esteemed and applauded by the geneâ—lity of Men. Of which one reason is and may be the principal because it is judged sign of an extraordinary Ability in the Persâ— to invent and apprehend most excellent thinâ— easily and clearly if he did premeditate Hâ— that can do so much extempore think theâ— what would he do if he were allowed Time which is very oft a great mistake There is another reason also very generâ— and that is That Men are much pleased wiâ— Dispatch or Performance of any useful thing in a short time And in truth he that â—â— perform the same thing in half the time which another can do it is in that particular twice â— valuable These things in Prayers although they naturally do and may much please the mindâ— Man yet they may do it too much in comparâ— with others which are better viz. the Truth and Usefulness of what is said A Fault that is very often committed in Sermons and Books and other Performances by those Persons who observe and complain of it in Prayers If we separate things and compare them without doubt it is better that one and the same excellent good thing should be apprehended and willed by us though never so sluggishly and dully than that many and a great number either of unprofitable trifling useless mischievous and bad things should be known by us and fly about in our Imaginations and be violently and vigorously with strong Passions willed and pursued The first indeed doth less good but yet some but this last doth a great deal of hurt If we must lose or part with one of these it is better to lose that of Variety and Celerity and Copiousness of Conceit and strength of Passion than that of the Certainty and Profitableness of the Objects of our Knowledge and Wills It is better to have no Passions at all and consequently in this state generally but languid and weak Inclinations than to have them directed to wrong Objects or to right ones in an excessive degree And yet men generally are incomparably more pleased with Life and Activity which is caused much and exerted in Variety and Celerity of Conceit and Greatness of Passions than with its right Determination and Goodness And as Men are for the most part unduely pleased with premeditated and even extempore Prayers upon the account of Variety and quickness of Conceit So there are others too who are pleased with publick or private Forms or very well content with them not so much upon the account of the truth and usefulness of the things there contained or other common advantages â— men thereby as because of the slowness and dulness of their own conceit and passions â— is difficult to them and consequently painful which all men naturally shun to apprehend any new thing to examine the truth and goodness thereof and to excite their heavy arâ— sluggish affections thereto but they easie conceive and are affected with that whiâ— they have been accustomed to that whiâ— they have very frequently heard and to whiâ— their affections have been used to be conjoyned Contrariwise those who are of quâ— conception and moveable affections they apprehend new and various things with eâ— and delight and are presently naturally â—â—fected with them It is observable that oâ— of the most general causes of mens incliâ—tions choices and esteems of things is thâ— own ability easily to obtain and possess theâ— Hence it may partly come to pass that mâ— advanced in years and of staid and sloâ— tempers are usually pleased with Forms â—â— any performance but young and hot persoâ— with Variety So little most commonly dotâ— reason or the foresight of the good or bad effectâ— of things determine Mens Judgments concerning their general Worth and Value And accordingly I believe it may be remembred that lately those who were against all Forms were generally of an active and passionate temper but those who were for some Forms at least were of a more staid and composed one Those Prayers in which are Variety Celerity and great Affections do more generally please Men and are preferr'd before those in which there is Truth and Usefulness for two reasons among others First Because Men are amiss and depraved in their Inclinations and love those qualities better than these Secondly Because those of variety quickness and affectionateness are discerned more easily by every body in a Prayer those other of the Truth or Usefulness not without more difficulty and but by very few it is a difficult thing to examine and see them The best is to make use of them all as there may be just reason First Be we sure that the Objects of our Knowledge and Wills be true and good and then let us furnish our selves with as plentiful a knowledge of them and have as strong Affections to them in compare with other things as they deserve Let us be sure the Matter be true and good and then know as much as we can and in proportion as it is so be zealously affected And here as to Affection I would propound this to be often remembred viz. That we should always regard not what doth strongly affect our selves or others what we seel to dâ— so but what should do so Possibly we have been or may be deceived and be mightily in love with and passionately desire whaâ— is of little or no worth while we are colâ— to things which are really of much more excellent Use Benefit and Concern in the World We must have a care of measuring the Goodness of Things by our Affections bâ— contrariwise we must adjust our Affections to the goodness of
is certainly our Duty we cannot alter the due Relations of our Actions to their Objects no more than we can conceive that God will ever do it And so our present and suture Condition are and shall be what he decrees or appoints The good or evil things we at present enjoy or suffer from the least to the greatest are and must be all from him whether we will acknowledge or ask or deprecate or thank him for them or no. Our future State of unspeakable Happiness or Misery after a short time shall be by his Sentence which shall be passed upon us without our leave according as we have observed or violated his Commands for all our affectation of Liberty and even Superiority We be lawless We the Governors and Judges of the World What Sottishness is it in Mortals or any Creatures to affect such things which are neither fit nor possible Nor is it at all a sign of a great Mind to arrogate and aspire to such things for its own self not abiding it any where else but rather of a stingy and contracted one which refers all to it self though never so little and contemptible No Selsishness can be great except in him who is at least virtually all himself and upon whom all other Being and Happiness necessarily depend A great Mind is equally pleased with the existence of Infinite Perfection and consequently of the greatest Happiness in the World either fit or possible in any other as well as himself It is indifferent to him where it be so it be he is infinitely in Love with it and rejoyceth in it he despiseth and hateth such a selfish Temper as to wish it no where because it is not in himself Wherefore there is nothing more inexcusable more odious and despicable than a licentious and proud and consequently a negligent ungrateful disobedient Creature towards God his and all the World's Maker and Universal Benefactor To see Ignorance Folly and Wickedness exalt it self against Infinite Wisdom and Goodness and a pitiful Worm to wriggle his dirty Body and turn up his contemptible Snout against Heaven meer Impotency and Weakness which cannot stand of it self to strutt against Almighty Power To see him defying and huffing at God who must by and by ly sprawling and grunting and suffer himself to be insulted over by every Fly and Worm What can more move Indignation Contempt or Pity These are the Creatures too who have made Religion and Piety the Worship of their Maker a Droll and Jest Who have not only hated them but endeavoured to render them the Objects of their Contempt A thing very easie to do There is not the most excellent thing that may not be represented contemptible and ridiculous For it is but observing something therein or related to it which compared with others greater is really mean and small or made to appear so but to conceal what is truly great in it as its being the cause of some small effect compared with others greater or being like to something that is mean and contemptible And in this consists the whole Art of Drollery Nor there is nothing which hath not some such things belonging to it Even God himself with Reverence be it spoken may by an Atheistical lâ—'itt when he shall hear it affirmed that there is not the least Motion but what is produced and communicated by him only be called contemptuously more than is convenient to be named or plenus negotii Deus as the Epicureans slouted because it is in part like to a Man who impertinently prying into and employing himself about every trisling matter though in very truth it is demonstrable and it is absolutely necessary to Infinite Wisdom and Poxer that all things greatest and least together should be known to him and proceed from him and be dependent upon him Nor can a Sparrow fall to the ground as our Saviour saith without his Providence Now the Passions of Hatred and Contempt as all other Passions naturally farnish the Invention or cause to come to mind those things which maintain them and that is any mischievous Quality or Imperfection but they keep back or conceal any thing that may abate them Whence it is manifest how easie it is for an ordinary Witt but proud and â—â—iteful to render any thing it pleaseth contemptible or odious And thus may it do by Religion observing only that it is reverenced by the poor and ignorant weak and fearful Minds but not taking notice that it is in the most wise and generous and that always the greatest and wisest Soâ—ls not influenced by any Appetiâ—es but those of Truth and Right have had the most profound and serious Reverence and Love for it But they can be none but those who have no Understanding themselves which can suffer their Judgments and Affections to be determined by such Persons To thâ—se it is Religious and Godly are become the most ordinary words of scorn But would one ever have thought that that which signifies something appertaining to our Duty to our Maker should have been so Or that it should not be deemed the most honourable Quality and Condition to be a Servant to the infinitely Great Wise and good Soveraign of the Universe In the mean time they may assure themselves that there are some such saithful Servants of God who are so sensible thereof as to contemn and hate such degenerate Souls be they as big as they will so far as they are the Causes or Subjects of such Impiety and yet seriously to pity them as capable of better things Wise and vertuous Souls as much despise and detest hectoring Vice though I say with deep compassion for the Persons as it can Religion and Piety Nor is this humour but too much among the rich and great only but as is usual the fashion is followed by the inferiour sort And it is ordinary enough for them to think that they have wit and worth enough to despise Religion and the Priest And although the Office if it be discreâ—ly and conscientiously discharged is certainly in it self of all publick Employments the most truly profitable to Mankind the most uneasie painful and solicitous to men generally while in this fleshly Life yet by experience it seems at present generally the most thankless and even too much useless For the bad examples of those who administer it do a great deal of harm and yet their good ones do little good If they misdemean themselves which cannot be too seldom their faults are magnified and published with no good intent but out of Envy Contemptuousness or to justifie and excuse mens own licentiousness But if they demean themselves never so worthily and blamelessly as if they only were by way of punishment bound to their good behaviour their good example is little heeded and less imitated I think there are no Persons in a Common-wealth who better deserve what may be esteemed â— reward and consequently Honour and Revenue than those who are constantly in any
contemptible It must be oftimes done with frequent Repetitions and Inculcations many homely Similitudes many most easie and obvious Inferences and general Prooss or else the greatest part of Auditors and even of those who are of good understanding in other Affairs will never take the pains themselves to mind understand remember or be affected with what is delivered For the frequency of the performance of this Office it seems necessary to augment the number of those who are to discharge it that so it might be done the better The too often and frequent performance of it by one Person doth cause it to be done generally very meanly and injudiciously sometimes very coldly and dryly and sometimes with a great deal of non-sense and noise to supply the place of sound Sense and discreet Affection In sumn oftimes to little and sometimes to had purpose Nor is it long since that this very mean performance of Preaching was one principal cause why the Office was so shamefully invaded by every one who had a hot Head and great Lungs with such success as to be thought by themselves and the people too to be as good Preachers as the best and even to be inspired For how else thought they could illiterate men Extempore equalize and exceed those who had the advantage of Education and Study And as it may be of great use to multiply and encourage accommodate and fit Instructers of the People So it seems necessary that there should be some of more speculative calm and subtill and others of more prudent Tempers who should be the Judges and Determiners of the Truth of Doctrine and the Expediency of Discipline For neither these Popular nor yet more Courtly Orators are usually so sit for that though generally they are apt to take it upon them and often have done it despising the other Sort of Persons of fitter Qualities for it They have much more pleased and been more applauded by the Generality of Men than the other whence they have not only judged themselves in general more deserving and valuable which may be oft-times but particularly more fit to be Governors and Directors which hath seldom proved so For commonly as they are Persons of great and it may be good Passions so they are but of general confused and narrow Appre hension and oft-times of too much employment and besides extraordinarily prejudiced by the frequency of their Zeal and other Passions to judge things true and great which are often not so It seems certain they are very excellent and useful Instruments but not so fit to be the uppermost Masters and Governors And we see Men sensible of this in Civil and Secular Matters where every Haranguer is not thought sit to be a Judge or Privy Counsellor Finally it is to be heartily wished and endeavoured without the least envy or contention that every one might have Opportunity and just Encouragement to make use of his Talent greater or less in the Church of God and every where else for his Master's Service the doing of good And as to direct and improve it for that End is every Man's greatest Perfection so it is we know the only Condition of his Reward But many of these things and many more seen in this our Age to be rather wished by those who Cordially desire the Propagation of Religion than hoped that they should be so much as taken into Consideration However we may and ought by our humble importunate Petition perpetually solicite the Great King and Lord of all things that he would without or with what Means he pleaseth erect his Kingdom in the Hearts of Rebellious Mortals and dispose their Souls to a free Obedience to his Laws howsoever promulated or made known As for the following Treatise to which this somewhat long Preface leads It pretends to no great Matters The Subject of it being the most common and beaten in our own Tongue and a great part of it composed at first for a very plain Auditory it cannot be expected but that a great many things which Occur therein should be ordinary well known and more vulgarly expressed in a dress suitable to it and probably with too many little defects of style left hanging about them Nor is it fit that in a Treatise of the whole argument they should be emitted provided they be but true and profitable though but to meaner capacities Nevertheless I think I shall not be mistaken in saying that there are in it many things of good Importance not at all observed many not so distinctly many not so much with their respective Reasons delivered by others If it should be otherwise and there should be no valuable difference between this and other Discourses of the same Subject in our Tongue yet it might not be altogether superfluous For this might fall into the Hands of some and be read by them for some Consideration or other when others would not I look upon such Books as many Shops of the same Trade which sell the same Commodities Though one might be sufficient to furnish all Buyers if they would come thither yet many would omit their own Conveniencies and never buy at all if there were not others nearer hand or in their way or belonging to some Friend or Acquaintance Finally if it should happen that the same things may be had elsewhere better and with more advantage I shall be seriously glad of it and much more pleased at such a reason of my Mistake than troubled at my Mistake it self However it was thought best to err on the safest hand and considered that Superfluity doth less Harm than Want I pray God it may be somewhat serviceable to his Honour and the good of Men. G. B. THE Contents CHAP. 1. COncerning the Principal Parts or Ingredient of a Prayer Sect. 1. The Introduction to the following Treatise Page 1 Sect. 2. The Definitions of Prayer and of A Prayer the principal ingredients of a prayer recited pag. 9 Sect. 3. The first Ingredient An express attention to and acknowledgment of the Divine Perfections the proper and other occasional uses thereof in a prayer 12 Sect. 4. The second Ingredient A Confession of past and present sinfulness or iniquity of our actions and temper or inclinations Of this also the proper other good uses in a Prayer pag. 27 Sect. 5. The third Ingredient A solemn profession of future obedience and amendment Of which briefly the proper and collateral good effects 35 Sect. 6. The Fourth Ingredient Thanks giving or an actual loving of God for his favours already conferred The like here as in the foregoing particulars p. 40 Sect. 7. The Fifth Ingredient A rehearsal or particular proposal of ones wants and what one is about to desire The uses of this p. 46 Sect. 8. The Sixth Ingredient An express petition or desire that God would relieve and grant them unto us A Prayer thus performed containeth all the parts of Divine Worship p. 52 CHAP. II. Contains some of the most usual
as the great Consequence of the things nay their Necessity which is nothing but so great a Goodness of the things as we cannot be content to want nor help it but that the want thereof will afflict and pain us Here sometimes the many good effects of the granting our desires may be more particularly reckoned up and insisted on as also the many difficulties and improbabilities of our desires being effected by anâ— second causes we see For these more distinctly and longer attended to do make our Prayers directed to God immediately for hâ— Care and Influence more strong and fervent Things judged of little moment will hardly draw any or but a slight Prayer from us Things that we see in the Power of seconâ— Causes which we can command to effect we judge them in a manner done and effecâ— already we see the thing future in the Cause and therefore rather to be praised than prayer for Things also that are easie to be done â— second Causes have a great probability of theâ— being done and accomplished without oâ— Prayer and therefore much slackens or cooâ— our Desires But here we must provide that all these grounds be true that the things we judgâ— of such particular good Consequence and Effect really be so that there is really so much Improbability Difficulty or Impossibility to us in the obtaining our Desires any other way than by God's special Influence as we say there is of which somewhat hereafter The Example of this we have in Hezekiah's Prayer before cited 2 Kings 19. Ver. 17. Of a truth Lord saith he the Kings of Assyria have destroyed the Nations and the Lands and have cast their gods into the Fire c. This seems to intimate some Danger that they might do so to him and his People too some Probability of it some Difficulty to prevent it But yet he gives himself a reason why the Lord their God could prevent it though those other Nation 's gods could not though there was Difficulty or Danger as to second Causes yet none as to the Lord Jehovah their God and therefore he prayed to him to save him out of Sennacherib's Hâ—nds Verse 19. with this reason That all the Kingdoms of the Earth may know that thou art the Lord God even thou only This reason is an Instance of the Goodness of the thing he desires it is one good Effect and Consequence of his Deliverance by the Lord which therefore made him more bold and earnestly to desire it viz. the Knowledge and Honour of him the only true God in the World and especially in their neighbouring Idolatrous Nations In the Psalms most of which have some Prayer or other in them it is very frequent The 88. Psalm most of it is oâ— this Nature From the 3d Verse to the 9th is David's recital to God of his Case most in general Terms only one Verse is more particular Verse 3. My Soul is full of Troubles and my Life draweth nigh unto the Grave I am counted with them that go down into the Pit I am as a Man that hath no Strength That is his Anxiety and Grief was so great so heavy that it was near killing and oppressing him quite And Verse 7. Thy Wrath lyeth hard upon me and thou hast afflicted me with all thy Waves That is with many and many sorts of Afflictions And in the 8th Verse more particularly Thou hast put away my acquaintance far from me c. One Evil he complain'd of was that his Friends were false unconstant turned his Enemies either theâ— dared not or could not help him As in the 18. Verse again His Acquaintance were it Darkness viz. in Prison or Affliction oâ— they were gone he knew not where Anâ— then in the 13. and 14. Verses He prays tâ— God for his Favour to help and rescue him From the 15. Verse again to the end he proceeds in his rehearsal of his pitiful Condition In the 10 11 12 Ver. too he mentions thâ— Necessity and one good Consequence of hiâ— Deliverance from these great Pressures Wilt thou shew Wonders to the Dead c. Anâ— shall thy Loving-kindness be declared in thâ— Grave or thy Faithfulness in Destructionâ— shall thy Wonders be known in the dark and thy Righteousness in the Land of Forgetfulness The sense of this is That he should soon die if God did not help him and put him into a better Condition That these kinds or instances of Favours viz. Deliverance from such his Enemies and the like could not be shewn but in this Life not after Death And then again one good Effect of God's Pleasure to deliver him here would be great Thanks to him and Praises and honouring of him by his publishing and proclaiming this his especial Goodness and that in particular of his Faithfulness which would not be in the State after Death or at least his Death and Destruction by such means would be no such Argument of his Goodness to him as his Life and Preservation would be The like we have again in the 79. Psalm which is a publick Prayer and most probably was written after the Captivity of Babylon And the Title Psalm of Asaph may signifie that it was composed either by some Asaph about that time or else by some other devout Person in Imitation of Asaph From the first to the fourth Verse is a Declaration of the miserable State of the Jews O God the Heathen are come into thine Inheritance thy holy People have they defiled they have laid Jerusalem upon Heaps And then Verse 5. How long Lord wilt thou be angry for ever That is we earnestly beseech thee that thou wouldst not c. and so on in Verse 6. the rest is a mixture of those two viz. Declaration or Proposal of their Condition and Petition Only in Verse 10 and 13 are mentioned good Consequences of the granting their humble Desires as Reasons of their Hopes and Prayers viz. the Prevention of the dishonouring the God of Israel among the idolatrous Heathen Wherefore should the Heathen say where is now their God And then their Love Praise and Thankfulness to him for his Deliverance So we thy People and Sheep of thy Pasture will give thee Thanks for ever c. These are but for Instances we may observe the like in most Psalms SECT VIII THe Sixth and last Ingredient in a VI. Prayer is Petition an express Desire that God would bestow upon us some thing This I make the very essence of Prayer without which no Prayer A Prayer may be without the rest of the ingredients but no Prayer could be without this It would be called by another Name they are all principally for the sake of this as I have in every Particular shew'd They are but Helps to make this more fervent or more comprehensive particular and distinct or more continued and lasting c. Now there are two things generally herein to be considered and regarded the Sâ—nse and the Passion together with some consequent
want of Honour to any Person with whom we converse or from whoâ— we desire any thing and therefore to God but it is not so among the Eastern People the Chineses and Turks Wherefore the covering of the head in Prayer is not except in some rare Circumstances to be permitted among us but it may amongst them as it is And consequently neither of them could have been universally commanded by Christ or his Apostles It is true this Power of the Church maâ— be also ill used and Constitutions in the external Worship of God may be such and so many as to hinder and not help his internal Worship and so may the Legislative and Exâ—cutive Power of every Government in many things be ill applied but the Inconveniencies or Mischiefs of taking this Power quite away are infinitely greater than those of the ill use of it according to Reason and the Experience of all Ages or else there had been no Government in the World before this For usually what hath been always the general Practice of the World hath been found by Experience to be better than its Omission alâ— Circumstances considered It is possible too that Constitutions may be so mischievous as to be sufficient Causes of Separation from any particular Church And then only they are so when there are greater Mischiefs and evil Consequences of them than there are of Separation and great indeed must they then be Which can only be determined by Revâ—lation God prohibiting them or by our own Prudence The Ignorance or the necessary or wilful Prejudices of some Men are strangely great who easily make every Constitution of little or no Inconveniâ—nce and sometimes even useful and convenient ones a sufficient Cause of Separation Which Perswasion or Temper tends most certainly and speedily to an utter Dissolution of every Christian Society or Church a truely great Instrument or Means of the Reformation and Happiness of Mankind For there will hardly ever be any Constitution which will long have the Approbation of all But enough of this in this Place I shall only moreover very briefly mention some few general things concerning these Constitutions in external publick Worship with all due Deference and Submission As first and principally that they be such as may have more good Consequences than bad more Conveniencies than Inconveniencies I mean universally in respect of Subject Degree and Time or of Extension Intension and Duration I know this is a Consideration of vast and unlimited Extent but I am well assured that there is no other absolutely universal Rule of all our Actions And there are but two Ways to know what is so viz. Testimony divine and humane and Reason Or but one viz. our Reason informed by Testimony and Prudence that is by others or our own perception and sight of things If God hath universally by undoubted Revelation to others or our selves commanded or forbidden us any Action we may be sure that always to do or abstain from it hath most Conveniencies and is the best though possibly to our Prudence there may appear sometimes the contrary But if there be nothing in Revelation our own Reason must comprehend as well as it can all good and bad Effects or Consequences of any Action or Omission of any Action making all just and prudent Use herein of humane Testimony and direct us to chuse that which hath the most good and the fewest evil ones There is no Action whatsoever except the Will of the last End viz. the Universal good in which alone formal Virtue and Rectitude is to be found which hath not both And therefore we are not presently to throw away a Constitution or Law because we observe some one or more Inconveniencies in it to some Persons at one Time nor to receive it because we take notice of some few Conveniencies but we are to comprehend all of both as far as we can as to Persons Degree and Time and accordingly determine But Secondly One very general Sign or Instance yet possibly not without its Exception as sometimes in case of many good mens very zealous and sierce opposition through ignorance or bad mens through perversness and of complyance with other Churches that a constitution in the external Worship of God is of more good Effect than if it were omitted or than another in its Place is it's Tendency the most in those present Circumstances to beget and increase both in us that use it and in others that see it the internal Worship of God viz. the most perfect or best Knowledge Apprehensions and Opinions concerning God his Nature Will and Actions the greatest Admiration Honour and Reverence Love Gratitude Desire Trust Joy Obedience and Imitation of God and consequently the most perfect inward Holiness Righteousness Virtue of Soul in all particular Branches and Instances in four Words the most sincere universal vigorous and constant Holiness And this is that which is or should be principally meant by their being for Edification And as for the precise notion of decent or decorous It is nothing but a Thing 's being a Sign of some useful or commendable Quality in us as contrariwise an indecent thing is that which is a Sign of some imperfection within us either natural or moral as imprudence rudeness irreligion but more ordinarily of that which is natural oâ— that which is rather only contemptible than hateful And it is principally in order to edification by good Example Some of the most considerable Ways or Means how we may come to know what external Signs or any other Circumstances do most tend to this Effect of Edification are First A most sincere and generous Love â— this internal Worship of God in the Constituters themselves and a hearty and fervent Desire to beget and propagate it in Men alâ— they can and consequently to aim at it and propose it to themselves in all their Constitutions and that the most immediately they can and the shortest way I say the most immediately and the shortest way For it seemâ— to have been a frequent mistake or non-attendance in some who have really desired and intended the promotion of this internal Worship of God which may be called Piety thaâ— they have applied themselves to those meanâ— which are so indeed but in small degree and very remote and therefore uncertain and take up a great deal of time and pains which might have been elsewhere better employed for the same purpose They require so much time and constancy to drive them through a long train of successive causes to their end that men seldom have the patience or list to pursue them so far but sit down and rest themselves and are well pleased with the means themselves forgetting or neglecting the end of them We are not to take presently and make use of every real means which may effect our proposed end but only those which will the most speedily and fully do it and even of those the sewest we possibly can It is also certainly
one of the best Ways to obtain an End by any certain Means to have it perpetually and only in our Mind and Intention when we are using that Means Like as it is a most probable Means to hit the Mark to have it steadily in our Eye or to come to a certain Place to have it as frequently in our Thoughts as needs whither we are going And in truth the neglect of this seems to be one of the most frequent Causes why in many particular Churches as the Church of Rome they have so many Constitutions and Rites either perfectly useless to this great End of the inward Worship of God and universal Holiness of Soul or so little and remotely subservient thereto that either they have seldom attained it or it is not worth the trouble of the Governor and Governed to constitute and observe them or finally they are contrary thereto and more Obstructions and Hindrances thereof Other meaner and more puerile or vulgar Ends and Designs as Beauty Ornament and Pomp or sometimes wicked and selfish ones as Honour Power and Wealth have interposed and quite intercepted the End above mentioned Not but that I think they all of them may honestly and prudently be adhibited in some degree in order to that End but we are to scorn that such mean things should terminate our View and be the ultimate end of our Constitutions Secondly A second means to know what external Worship constituted tends to the promoting of the internal Worship of God is the most exact Knowledge of humane Nature we can get to know what external Signs or other Circumstances of the internal Actions or Operations of our Minds do most naturally cause them in us which are exceeding various according to the Variety of Tempers Usages and Constitutions of single Persons or whole Nations some there are which may be general and well near universal And here we must use principally our own Reason Experience and Observation both in our selves and others We may also make use of others Observation and Experience and consequently their Usages and Constitutions as it follows in the next Particular For what may be further observed in this I refer the Reader to what he will find in the latter end of this Treatise viz. concerning the due Qualifications of the external Signs both of Sense and Operations of Soul in Prayer Thirdly A third Means is all Testimony both divine and humane whether we have it from express Words and Injunctions as in Scripture Commands or Canons of Councils c. or from Examples and Practice Which Testimony is so much more valuable as the Persons are more sincere in the End before mentioned and more prudent and discreet to know and observe the Means which will best attain it Moreover it is carefully to be observed whether their Testimony be concerning the same thing to be constituted i. e. the same or rather the like in all Circumstances which may alter the case Whether that the Circumstances be not so different as that that external Worship which was then and there for Edification or promoting of the internal Worship of God or universally of more good Consequence than bad be not so now amongst those who are to make use of their Testimony Particular respect must be had to the Extent of the Constitution whether it were to all Christians of all Places and Times or directed only to a particular Church and for a certain time And here in the first place comes in divine Testimony any Constiâ—utions to all Christians made by God himself which are undoubtedly to be perpetually observed as tending to the true end thereof before mentioned These if there be any besides the general one of Decency and Order are to be sought for in the New Testament Next may be taken notice of all the particulars of the external Worship of the Jews appointed by God himself also in the Old Testament where all Circumstances are to be considered before they are imitated and whether there were not some peculiar ones which made them necessary then or very subservient to the internal Worship of God or other good Effects the which now being wanting may render them useless or of more bad than good Effect It is certain most of their Constitutions in their external Worship were of this kind as all their Sacrifices their distinction of Meats their legal Uncleannesses their Festivals c. It is as certain that some of them were such as may be well imitated by most Christian Churches now in order to the aforesaid Ends. As a setled Maintenance for the Officers of Religious Worship and perhaps their Age when they should be admitted to minister in those holy Offices and their number and abundance more A great many of them have been by way of imitation introduced into very ancient Christian Churches some sooner some later as much of the Situation Division Form of our Churches and Church-yards in Imitation of their Temple The Habits of those who officiate in Religious Assemblies Caps Hoods Surplices Cassocks Girdles seem to have been in Imitation of the Priests Bonnet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Ephod or half-Coat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Robe as our Translation calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the long Coat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Belt or Girdle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Canon for all persons communicating three times in the year at least seems likewise an imitation of the Jewish Law that all Males should appear three times in the year before the Lord in Jerusalem There are others yet which might be named of somewhat more consequence The Church of Rome have had some Rites possibly with no bad intent at first from the Heathens among whom the Christians for many hundreds of years lived promiscuously as their sprinkling Things and Persons with their holy Water Villas Domos Templa totasque Urbes aspergine circumlatae aquae expiant passim saith Tertullian Tertull. de baptis of the Heathens Lastly may be observed the Constitutioâ— of external Worship in all particular Christian Churches from the beginning to thâ— time and more especially the most ancient anâ— therefore in those which were founded anâ— governed by the Apostles Where again 〈◊〉 Circumstances are as is before said to be coâ—sidered with Reason and Prudence before uâ—proceed to Imitation We are not to thiâ—â— presently that every Constitution or Practiâ—â— we meet with in every Urban or Provinciâ—â— Church nay in many or most is to be imitted in ours Many might there be very laâ—dable and which then might the most obtain the Ends so often mentioned which 〈◊〉 our Circumstances may not but be useleâ—â— or may hinder or in general may be of veâ—â— much more ill consequence than good 〈◊〉 particularly their Quantity or Quality 〈◊〉 Fasting Plunging in Baptism c. in whicâ— things there is great Difference to be madâ— meerly upon the account of the Climate lived in The indiscreet and promiscuous Retention and
Introduction of Constitution may well be one cause of their too great Multitude and Unâ—difyingness And I do not see why a Bishop of Londoâ— with his Clergy or an English Synod maâ— not be as well instructed in the means jusâ— now suggested and all others to know what Constitutions aâ—e of best Effect and most for Edification to their own Church in their Circumstances as a Bishop of Hippo or Constantinople or a Carthaginian Synod to their Church in theirs but much better sure may they constitute for their own Church than these can do And particularly I hope it is not impossible but that in Conjunction with their use of these and other Means especially the first of sincere Intention they may also have some special Influence of God to direct them I am sure it is but too much their own fault if they be not as capable of it as other Christian Churches have been Thirdly It seems of most good Effect and particularly most conducible to the Promotion of the internal Worship of God that there should be some external Signs thereof or some other besides those that are absolutely necessary as Time and Place Circumstances constituted but not many The good Use of some to be constituted is a constant standing sensible Testimony of the publick Opinion of wise and good Men concerning the internal Worship of God what Honour Love Obedience c. we ought to have towards him and how we ought to shew and express it by the most sit and proper Signs not only in those few that are constituted but also by all other which our own Prudence shall determine Those few are but for an Example of our inward Affectioâ— and external Behaviour and for a Directiâ— to our general Practice Further The feâ— external things that are constituted may â—â— somewhat helpful really to introduce and â—â— up in us the due inward Operations of oâ— Souls to God as hath been before observeâ— Further It will prevent at least some perfoâ— appearing to others to be utterly negligeâ— and careless thereof to be senseless or ecâ— temptuous of them and consequently â—â— offending our Brethren both grieving anâ— displeasing the more pious and drawing tâ— more weak and indifferent in Piety to â—â— Imitation of the like Irreligion and Prophanâ— ness And however Men for a few yeâ— may be so serious in the Worship of God â— not to need this Help yet in a Nationâ— Church after some time of settlement theâ— will be found to be need enough as theâ— seems to be in this very prophane Age. â— the mean time it can do little or no Hurt â— them who may think they do not or maâ— not really want it If none of these external Circumstances of Worship be instituted then they must all be left to the Desire anâ— Advice only of the Publick or of each particular Governour of any Religious Assembly and consequently to the Judgment and Choice of every particular Member though never so ignorant and bad But I believe it doth now by Experience appear and whether it will ever be otherwise in larger Churches especially God knows when in Liberty and Peace that a very great number of Persons are not yet so inwardly Religious as to abstain from many indecent things and some which are Signs of sottish Irreligion contemptuous Prophaneness and Pride or to follow the Advices and Intreaties and Examples of their Superiours especially Ecclesiastical though of acknowledged Prudence and Piety Nay I think at this time in this Nation Persons are generally disposed rather to do clean contrary even in things manifestly enough of good use and which it would become Prudence Piety and Charity to appoint Which Humour seems still to be of the growing side and is just the contrary Extreme to the receiving all Institutions though manifestly hurtful or useless with Veneration Which one consideration may afford a sufficient reason for some diversity of external circumstances in the Celebration of the Lords Supper even from the practice of our Lord himself and his Apostles Jesus himself is not now present to distribute it Nor are the Communicants Apostles to receive it There was no need of commanding any external rite to help their seriousness attention and affection or to secure them from neglect or contempt But as it seems to be of very good Consequence to constitute some things in external Worship so it seems best to constitute buâ— few how few Governors must determine especially if they be such as do in themselveâ— strongly affect the Sense or excite much thâ— Passions of Admiration Love or Delight or take up much Time and Pains that sâ— Mens Attention be not taken off from the internal Worship of God It is certain theâ— may be so many so garish so operose and so long as to take up all a Man's Attention pleasing the Vulgar especially in the same manner as some things in a Comedy do As if â—â— Man should be obliged to cross himself at every Verse of Scripture read or to say Lorâ— have mercy upon us just thirty times and Hallelujah ten times as I think it is reported of the Russians of the Greek Church Nor seems it less advisable that the few things which are constituted be of great and manifest good use and particularly for Edification that so those who enjoyn teach or use them may the more easily justifie them and not spend too much time in dispute about them and those who are enjoyned them being without scruple may the more chearfully observe them This will also prevent their too great multiplication of which there is danger in some tract of time For if any be admitted for the reason of some small though real convenience it will make way for all those and they are none knows how many which can alledge as much Fourthly It is undoubtedly best that the Persons who constitute and appoint should be not the People who are generally so ignorant and selfish but the Governors of each Church who are generally more wise and generous of more publick Spirits The larger the Church also the better for by that means the Constitutions are of greater Authority and more freely observed generally also they are both wiser and fewer as being made by a greater Number of wiser and honester Persons and those of different Apprehensions and Tempers and then as being to fit a greater Number of Persons The same may be said of Articles of Belief The Conditions of Communion both in Doctrine and Discipline are likely in equal Time to be far more numerous and of less consequence in lesser Churches such as some amongst us affect and contend for than in larger such as Diocesan Provincial National and if it were possible one Universal Church and consequently there will be less of Liberty in them It is true the wisest and best men are not the greatest number But yet it is more probable that more of them should be found in a greater number of men than in a less Nor
habitual Temper or Inclination Prayer therefore thus performed by a rightly informed discrect and knowing Soul according to its Fervency and Frequency hath a most natutural Influence to preserve and strengthen us to make us grow in all Goodness And the neglect of it may reasonably very often not always because there are other Means be the Cause of Persons declining and growing more cold and indifferent in all their Duty I do not say that all Prayer is a necessary Means of Mens growth in Goodness not are we presently to expect such mighty difference between all those who pray and those who do not And then upon any disappointment by the miscarriages of some who use it gladly take occasion to reproach or despise the Duty as a useless but troublesome thing as some naughty men are apt to do For men may perform it very erroneously idly and carelesly And then they may so engage their Affections with that Concern and Constancy to other Objects in the World after they have done their Prayer that they may quite forget it or drown and overcome the good Sense and Affections they had therein Whence their Prayers are but little effectual From all these Causes it often comes to pass that you may see those that are not negligent in this Duty or Performance but frequent and constant and long too so bad in their Tempers Lives and Actions all the Day that you can see little Difference between them and those who do not pray at all Little I say for I am apt to think there is some general good usually by the meanest performance of it and Men who are bad would otherwise generally be much worse and therefore though Men seem to be very little the better for their Prayers I would not have them to leave them quite off for all that As for Acknowledgment of God's excellent Perfections his infinite Power Wisdom Universal Goodness his Bounty Mercy Justice c. which is another Ingredient in a Prayer It is manifest That the oftner we do this the more Spiritual our Minds are and we see that by Exercise and Use we apprehend and conceive these spiritual things more strongly and clearly and our Affections too of Honour Admiration Reverence Fair Faith Hope Joy in God and Love to him grow more substantial and real more strong and vigorous not so faint and languid so that we feel them in our Breasts as really and as powerfully as to any other Object we come to have a real Understanding Perception Sense and Affection for those things when they are named we know and feel them in our Minds and Hearts we know what it is and have it as really in our selves to honour fear and love God for his infinite Perfections though invisible as a Prince attended with all his Ensigns of Majesty and Greatness and whom we know to be as wise and good as great By our frequent Converse thus of our Minds with God he becomes readily a very real thing to us is really perceived by us and hath real Influence upon our Affections whereas before we thus begun to use our selves the Name of God and of all his Attributes and Perfections was an insignificant thing to us we understood little or nothing by it and no more affected with it most times than our Statues of Wood or Stone would be We might hear much talk and read much of God indeed or his excellent Nature and Attributes but little know what they meant We apprehended better and more were much more affected with some little particular kindness of any honest or good Neighbour than with the infinite Bounâ—y and Goodness of God who is the constant Cause and Author to us and to all things of all the good things we all have and enjoy Moreover in some Prayers as secret Prayers where we may have time to apply our Thoughts to what we please we do not only transiently which if frequent will do a great deal but also fixedly and for a longer time attend sometimes to one or more of these infinite Perfections of God when we acknowledge them whence a more particular discovery and clear apprehension of the Greatness thereof insomuch that the Soul may break forth into Raptures of sutable Passions that is great and sudden Violences thereof As for Example If a Man contemplating the Power of God should attend to the Greatness and Vastness Excellency and Nobleness and Strangeness of the Nature of things he hath made were it but only of the indefinitely extended material World much more of the intellectual or the World of Spirits Or contemplating his Wisdom should attend to this that all things that we and all the rational Creatures in Heaven and Earth know by little Parcels and successively to Eternity it self are all present at once to that infinite Understanding or contemplating his Goodness should take notice of the Freedome of it he being infinitely powerful thâ— Immutability of it the Universality anâ— that all the greatest Evils that so seem to uâ— are permitted or appointed out of Goodnesâ— and the least of things and most miâ—uâ— disposed by the same Goodness the best waâ— that can be or should take notice of somâ— one or more excellent Instances thereof â— his free and ready pardoning upon Repentance the fottish Heedlesness and sometime the malicious Rebellion and insolent Contempt of his own pitiful Creatures againâ— him I say a Man contemplating these Perfections thus and attending to some such thingâ— therein will more strongly apprehend them and sometimes be affected and seized wiâ— the greatest Violence and Raptures of sutabâ— Passions Such as we often meet withal iâ— the Psalms when David in his Acknowledgement of God glanced at and discovered or â—â—â— more steadily and clearly his Wisdom Power Mercy Goodness Righteousness in some Instances or Effects As in Psalm 36. Verse 5. Thy Mercy O Lord is in the Heavens and thy Faithfulness reacheth unto the Clouds That is thy Mercy and Goodness particularly expressing it self in thy faithful performing thy Promises is every where and in all thy Creation manifesteth it self thy Righteousness â— like the great Mountains That is again thy Universal Goodness is vast as to Extension and unmoveable and unchangeable as to Duraâ—ion For so are the Mountains as far as we observe compared with other things thy â—udgments are a great Deep The infinite Decrees and Resolutions of thy Will few of them known and all done with an incomprehensible Wisdom and Knowledge O Lord thou preservest Man and Beast All Creatures are maintained by thee Then upon this Contemplation and Reflection he breaks forth in the next Verse O how excellent and â—recious is thy Loving-kindness therefore the Children of Men shall put their trust in the shadow of thy wings Now the real clear strong and vigorous Apprehension of and Affections towards these divine Attributes or this excellent Nature of God do more powerfully dispose our Minds to Imitation of and Obedience to God and consequently to
even of Contemplative persons who have made tryal of both with equal advantages hath always confirmed and sincerely declared to the rest of the sensual World The first of which do very heartily complain of and groan under the unhappy circumstances of this fleshly Life which so much hinders them from the enjoyment of those nobler and sweeter delights and for that Reason among others greater full often breath out their thanks to God for the discovery and assurance of the heavenly Life hereafter and their secret welcomes of the approaching time thereof whither steals from them many a privy glance where is fixed many a yearning look II. The Second good Effect or Benefit of this last sort from Prayer is an Enlargedness or Greatness of Soul By which I mean that temper of Soul whereby it is sufficient and fitted to apprehend and be affected with great Objects to understand contemplate will desire love be pleased with pursue and endeavour after them or in one word to converse with them By the greatness of Objects I mean their having great good Effects or a capacity and sufficiency or some causality for such all which good Effects indeed are either immediately or mediately nothing but happiness they are either that in the end immediately or the same in the means mediately All goodness is either the goodness of the end which is pleasurable good or the good of the means to obtain that end which is profitable good and indeed this last is nothing but the first in the means to obtain it So that all Good is nothing but Happiness But to leave this small but very important digression The greatness of the goodness of Objects or the happiness of which they are the cause is measured only by three things viz. its Intention Extention and Duration Those Objects therefore are the greatest which are or are most the cause of the most intense the most universal or extended as to subjects and the most during happiness of which there are infinite degrees The highest of which is that being infinite in all perfection and happiness which we call God who formally or causally contains all things According to the several degrees of this good which each man minds pursues and converseth withal is his Greatness Nobleness Excellency or what words are usual among men to express the confused notion hereof to be judged and esteemed He is the noblest and greatest soul of all who minds and pursues perpetually the greatest good of the whole Universe in these three Respects of Intention Extention Duration that in all other things or all other things as parts or more generally means thereof and therefore spiritual good as much as may be being the greatest in respect of its intention universal good or that of the whole as the greatest in respect of extension and the most publick indeed eternal good lastly as the greatest in respect of duration On the contrary he is the meanest and basest soul who minds and pursues only personal sensible and present good It is manifest that in Prayer as it is before described the objects with which the Soul converseth are of the greatest and noblest sort and that by frequent usage of her self to such conversation she gets a habit thereof so that she doth with ease and delight so employ her self and if this fleshly Life would permit her she would soon make it her constant and perpetual entertainment Further It is alike plain and evident how this greatness of Soul is the cause of Virtue or Goodness and of Comfort or Joy For Goodness Righteousness Holiness Virtue all signifie the same principal thing with some small difference in its greatest degree is nothing but the sincerest strongest constantest habitual inclination and bent of will to the rectitude of our wills or actions which is only to be found in having the greatest good of the whole Universe taking in God himself for the ultimate object or end of our wills and renouncing and quitting that of any part and therefore of our selves It is therefore nothing but a preference of the most Publick and Universal Good before that of any part and therefore before our own And contrariwise Vice and Sin is the preference of the good of any part and almost always our own personal good before that of the whole which is the most Universal and Publick It is the having that the ultimate object and end of all our wills and neglecting or refusing this Holiness and Virtue therefore are great and noble and excellent things which tend to an infinite good and if compared they are as much greater than Sin or Vice as infinite Extension if there can be any such thing is bigger than a single Atome The soul consequently which is inclined to and aspires after the greatest and most noble objects must needs be so far prepared to have the highest honour the ardentest love the keenest desire the most intense and ravishing joy and delight in the most sincere generous and constant Virtue and must perfectly both contemn and hate all Vice and Sin as the most mean base and sordid thing The same greatness or largeness of Soul disposeth us infinitely to prefer one sort of our own personal good viz. the favour of God as our most comprehensive good and particularly Eternal happiness which he hath promised as the Reward of Holiness and Virtue before another sort thereof viz. the Temptations to Sin and Vice at longest the momentany pleasures of this present Life and utterly to despise them in compare with the other and consequently to endeavour and pursue after Virtue and to slight and scorn all Vice It is certain That it is nothing but Ignorance or a pityable and contemptible littleness and stinginess of Soul in the greatest Huffs of the Age whatever they may pretend to generosity which exposeth them to Vice and Wickedness and makes them so easily to neglect or despise all the Laws and Rewards of Virtue and true Religion either they are not able to conceive things beyond the Mud-walls of their own Cottage or they are so stuffed and dryed with its Reeks and Smoaks as never to desire them Nay when no less than Eternal Felicity is proposed and profered to them they are no more moved with it than a Bedlam-Sot is with the offer of a Kingdom or sometimes they laugh at it like one of those poor merry Fools and prefer their own nasty Cell before it One would think the dullest Soul should hardly forbear to enquire after it and be willing it should be true or at least without any prejudice against it endeavour to be satisfied whether it be so or no. Lastly Nothing is more manifest than that the greater and nobler the objects are with which our mind converseth the fuller and mightier is our joy and pleasure Surely we cannot think that Boys have as great pleasure in Conquering at Cob-Nutt as a great Captain hath in subduing a Kingdom or which is better That a fond Child hath
1. The First is the truth of them We are to take care that that which is capable thereof be true All things that are the sense or matter of our Prayers besides that which is the proper matter of Petition or Desire may be false or true The matter or objects of our desire indeed cannot because they are all of them as so considered simple not complex things in such manner as Propositions are in which only there is that truth I now mean For Example In acknowledgment of the Divine Perfections we must have a care that what we acknowledge to be in God be really a pure perfection and implies necessarily no imperfection or defect in the least and therefore that it is really in him Thus when we make an acknowledgment of God's absolute Power and Sovereignty of doing whatsoever he willeth and pleaseth we must have a care of thinking he can by his own intrinsick Power or that it is in his Nature to determine himself contrary to the Laws of Righteousness or Universal Goodness which is all one As for Instance That he can or that there is any capacity in his most perfect Nature to will all his Creatures to be miserable and to make them for that purpose nay or to will any number of them nay any one of them absolutely and ultimately to be so nay or the least evil to any of them without any further respect to any other good but only that he pleaseth himself therein this is contrary to Reason and express Revelation It is true there is no superiour cause to God's Will or his active Power that makes him to be good or restrains him from making any of his Creatures unhappy or miserable we should be mistaken again if we thought so but we neither ought nor can conceive if we attend to the Nature of God and Perfection that it is possible ever for him to will absolutely and ultimately the least evil or misery of his Creatures his Will can never be so disposed it is not in his Nature to will so cannot please him That which I conceive the best disposed men mean confusedly and are not offended with when they acknowledge God's Soveraignty so unlimitedly as that he can do what he will with his innocent Creatures and either immediately though such or mediately first contriving a necessity of sinning throw them into Hell if he pleaseth is that there is no superiour cause to his own Will why he doth not so which is true not that it is possible for him ever so to will or to be pleased therewith That even the due Relations of our Actions to their Objects or their Justice or Righteousness is something and therefore made by God or dependent upon his Will for all things must have his Will or active Power to be the Cause But then we cannot conceive his Nature such as ever to have willed contrary or not to have willed these Relations not to have willed that which is just and right There have been both of the most prophane and of the greatest Religionists but mistaken who have I think entertained these false and most mischievous Opinions concerning God So on another hand in the acknowledgment of the Divine Goodness men may have a conceit and acknowledge that God is so good that he will make all men happy and therefore pass over all their sins though never so great and heinous numerous and many that he will not punish them neither here nor hereafter and this though they do not repent and their minds and natures are not changed at all or very slightly They say they are sinners but God they hope will forgive them for God is merciful as they use to express it This is a very mischievous falshood and implies him even not to be Universally good to all his Creation not to do the greatest good to it for he cannot be so unless he restrain sometimes wickedness and sinful mischievous Purposes and Resolutions of Will and put a difference as to Happiness between the Righteous and the Wicked sometime and in some measure or other according as seems best to his infinite Wisdom This also is contrary to Reason and the express revealed Will of God So again Those who may acknowledge the Divine Tenderness and peculiar Love to them and to some certain others that he will not see any sin in them and will not punish them in the least for it but that they are peculiarly destined to an unconceivable Glory and Felicity in another World notwithstanding they live in their Sins and are no better than others and are very well content so to do and be who say further that God hath provided and found out a way to excuse them from actual obedience to his Laws and from punishment in case of constant failure without any amendment that they indeed have very corrupt hearts but God for Christ's sake will pardon all These persons make God and Christ the worst Patrons of sin the most unrighteous the most partial to bear with and pardon it in a few whom he pleaseth but to punish it in all the rest with the greatest severity Nothing more repugnant to Reason and Scripture in Rom. 2. In Confession in like manner we must have the like care and as near as we can say nothing but what we know to be certainly true Wherefore we must have a care that we do not confess that we deserve punishment in such things which are not sins nor that we are guilty in those things which really are sins when we are not Nor on the contrary perhaps excuse our selves or think our selves innocent or good when we are bad think those things no sins nay very good actions which are bad ones That which may often be in those which are done with pretended or some little real zeal confusedly for the glory of God mixed with much more or other undue selfish ends and unlawful appetites Nor must we acquit slatter connive at our selves and think our selves not guilty of any sins and it may be thank God for it too when we are being either ignorant and forgetful of our selves or wilfully vainly conceited The greatest part of the World are very presumptuous and conceited generally of their own innocency though they may sometimes in words only or very slightly say they are sinners insomuch that if you should enquire of them what they have been or how they have lived they 'l tell you that no man can say any harm by them and they know nothing amiss they thank God by themselves they hardly know one sin by themselves or one bad action to confess or they must study upon it or be put in mind of something or other whence they conclude themselves very innocent and take it for granted and act accordingly as if it really were so and God knew as little by them as they do by themselves when perhaps they have rarely done any good action and they have little good in them If they should
unregarded and not taken notice of by themselves being alas oft-times very ignorant inept careless or partial examiners of themselves Men may thank God that they are not guilty of some sins when they are not knowing their own hearts which is a very difficult thing and that they have some graces as sincere Zeal Humility c. when they have not but instead thereof or at least mixed therewith Wrath Pride Vain-glory or in general that they have greater degrees of holiness than they truly have as the Pharisee did They may thank God for owning their Cause by Success in War or Law when he doth not but only chastiseth it may be or correcteth another They may also apply general or particular Promises made to other good men to themselves and thank God for them that he hath made such Promises to them when they do not appertain to them And lastly In the particular deduction and recital of our Cases or Conditions or the reasons and grounds of our Hopes we must observe the same still not aggravate nor extenuate more than is true As a man may propose to God in his Prayers the great machination and malice of his Enemies their insulting over him the dishonour of God himself by them if he be not delivered by him when little of this may be true most of it being only conceited so out of Pride to render himself more considerable or to shew that he can or will deal with them all or out of Wrath or it is more feared than real many other Instances of these Particulars might be given SECT II. II. THe Second due Qualification of the Sense of our Prayers is that the things be Just And this respects only that part of Prayer called Petition When we desire that God should give or grant any positive or privative good thing to us let us be as sure as we can that it is just he should grant it to us Justice is a property of an action and that which we immediately desire in Prayer is God's granting any thing to us And here we are especially to use Divine Revelation or God's Word rightly interpreted and our own best Reason to know what is Just Thus for Example we must not pray to God that he would grant us any thing which may gratifie our Revenge Envy Ambition Covetousness Wrath Vain-glory or any other Lust as sometimes the ruine or destruction or hurt of our Enemies indeed because ours Prosperity for our selves and ours and success in an unjust or wicked Undertaking great Riches Relations Employments Parts and Gifts without taking any notice of serving God or doing good therewith but only that we might be superiour to others or acquire Name or Reputation or be able to advance and propagate certain Opinions and Usages because ours and abolish or remove others because contrary to ours in which case our Request is not that God would grant these things to be done because good for the World and pleasing therefore to himself but indeed to gratifie us only and that in hurtful mischievous and therefore unlawful desires This oft-times lies at the bottom and is the only cause And though we may sometimes slightly or it may be confidently judge the things beneficial to the World to others as well as our selves and acceptable to God yet 't is the gratification of those unlawful desires may make us to judge so Sometimes indeed and most ordinarily perhaps there is a mixture St. James tells his fellow Christians that some of them asked and received not because they asked amiss to consume it upon their lusts or pleasures those viz. of pride and sensuality James 4. Verse 3. The Sacrifice of the wicked is abomination how much more when he bringeth it with a wicked mind Prov. 21. Verse 27. We shall often hear of Fastings and Prayers of contrary and diverse Parties for Victory and Success in any Affairs and Thanksgivings too when both cannot be just In such Cases it is a very good Petition that God would favour or prosper the just Cause And yet this may not always seem good to God neither but we ought to refer it to him as all other Petitions Thus Sects and Parties in Religion pray with a great earnestness and confidence for the Conversion or Extirpation of each other when it is sure but one of those Prayers can be just If when we Petition God for any thing we be careless and negligent whether it be just or no and yet perhaps very confident and bold too in asking we greatly dishonour God For hereby we beget an Opinion in our selves and others and such a suitable behaviour that God is more fond of us and our concerns than of what is just and right that is in effect that he loves us in particular better than all the World besides as if he must needs do what we desire him whether it be right or wrong But if we do attend to and examine with as much care as we ought before we pray whether what we pray be just and fit for God to give and do without any prejudice from self-love conclude it may be so and yet should be mistaken this is only a defect of our knowledge the ill consequence of which is soon amended by referring all our Petitions to the unerring Wisdom of God of which hereafter But we may through undue self-love so flatter our selves and think our selves so acceptable and dear to God that we may conceit it cannot but be just for him to do what especially we with great earnestness and zeal as if he were the inspirer of it and put it into our hearts when it is it may be our own Pride or other self-love Petition him to do More modesty better becomes us whereby we may have a true and due judgment of our selves And when we have that and do with good reason think our selves so far good only as we really are and consequently in the favour of God yet we are to be so modest too as to remember that we can but very rarely certainly tell in particulars with all their circumstances what is absolutely best for the World and consequently what is just for him to do He who is All-comprehending in his knowledge always certainly knows and to him therefore we refer the Justice and consequently the granting of our desires The confidence of some persons in their Prayers proceeding from Ignorance and Pride when their tempers have been heated especially how blameable how hateful and contemptible The wiser sort of Heathens had so good an opinion of their Deities and consequently of their Duty towards them that they would be sure to ask nothing from them but what was just 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pindar Py. Od. 3. We Mortals ought to desire from the Gods those things which are fitting and just minding the present of what condition we no◠are SECT III. III. THe Third due Qualification of the Sense of our Prayers is That they be in the first place
and mostly of the greatest importance and concernment Not but that there may be some time or other too in which we may mention in our Prayers many lesser things Things of greatest concernment and use must in proportioâ— to their concernment compared with those of less be more and more frequent in our Prayers And this concerns all the parts or Ingredients of a Prayer As in Acknowledgment let us be careful to be well instructed in the greatest the most comprehensive and general the most useful and beneficial Perfections iâ— God that we make our Acknowledgments of those principally and chiefly as that of his infinite and general goodness to all more than his particular goodness to us And so when we make an Acknowledgment of the Instances of his Power Wisdom Goodness Mercy Justice let us take those chiefly which are the greatest and largest and endeavour to be affected with them such as are God's Creation of all things Preservation Providence throughout the whole Universe that towards Mankind and especially the making of us Reâ—sonable Creatures and giving us such Faculties Aid Sufficiency Opportunities Helps to improve our Reason and Understanding also the Revelation of such excellent Doctrines and Truths to the World by especial Messengers the Prophets of old and lastly by Jesus Christ his beloved Son In Confession let us take notice of and bewail most our greatest Sins that have most of Iniquity in them where there is the greatest degree of the depravedness Inordinacy of our Wills included the greatest Aversation from Righteousness the greatest degree of unreasonable and mischievous Self-love in a usual Phrase our most aggravated Sins Consequently let us confess our dearest most pleasing and delightful sins for our greater degree of delight in any thing more than in our Duty argues a degree of the inordinacy and depravedness of our wills as to Intenseness those also which are most frequent Contrariwise let us not confess little sins much and neglect great ones or more than those confess those which we can more easily forsake and neglect those which are most sweet pass over them or slightly only take notice of them confess those which we commit rarely and neglect those which we do frequently When this fault is in our Confession purely through ignorance through want of understanding of the degrees of sin and there is no fault in the will which I scarce believe it begets in us a great deal of superstition that is an opinion that some actions are more or less displeasing to God than indeed they are compared with others and consequently being more afraid of doing some of them and of God's anger or punishment for them than we should be and in others again less which is a very bad effect and doth much deprave and corrupt the Inclinations of the will as to the Instances of our duty and renders us less capable of any happy condition till we are better instructed in them though we should be truly conscientious and love that which we judge right and our duty which possibly may be But I am apt to think that most ignorant superstition proceeds from unconscientiousness But when this fault proceeds out of a desire to indulge our selves in some sin both the Cause and the Effect is extremely bad If we have occasion to confess National Sins or those which are most practised frequently by the generality of a Nation have we a care to confess those principally and most which are indeed the greatest both as to the Principle and the Effect those that argue and include the greatest degree and neglect of and aversation from our duty and the great instance thereof compared with other objects or the greatest degree of ultimate self-love compared with or opposed to the common good and those which are the most mischievous or do the greatest hurt in the World Such as are some the more colourable and undiscerned sins of Malice Pride Envy Ambition Affectation of Superiority Equality Liberty add Tyranny Disobedience Revenge Oppression Covetousness Fraud Hypocrisei or want of Integrity and others more notorious of Prophaneness Irreligion Atheism Unbelief Disbelief of Christian Religion Sensuality Lasciviousness Intemperance c. Those Sins also which are the most frequent and continual in several or the same persons are to be principally confessed In thankfulness likewise it is much to be attended to and we ought to give thanks in the first place and most frequently and most ardently for the greatest favours those that are most publick diffused and general those that are spiritual or intellectual those that appertain more immediately to the Soul those among spiritual ones which concern our wills or inclinations and in order thereto our affections called generally by the names of Sanctiâ—ication or Regeneration purifying and renewing of the heart or in one word usually by the name of Grace then afterwards for the good things that appertain to our Knowledge or Understandings as quick and plentiful Suggestion Revelation Illumination in Truths of the greatest Excellency Use and good Effect for ability to signifie convey or propagate these such as ready Invention Memory Utterance c. all which have been known by the name of Gifts Then for the good things appertaining to the Body or in it as the subject as Strength Health Comeliness plenty of such things as Food and Diet Raiment Habitations with their Ornaments c. which gratifie our Senses and secure us from Corporeal Pain which the most necessarily affects us and consequently from necessary care and solicitude to prevent it c. Then for the External good things without us of Riches Reputation Liberty Magistracy Friends Relations c. The Reason of all this is because to thank God more for personal than publick benefits as it doth usually proceed from so it will increase a particular and selfish spirit To thank him more for bodily or external sensible good things than for spiritual is both a sign and cause of sensuality in us i. e. it doth proceed from and confirm our excessive love to corporeal and sensible good in compare with spiritual as well as keep us in some respect to God It is that which may be ordinarily observed viz. that men are usually much more sensible of and grateful to God for bodily good and the things of this life than for spirtual or intellectual And so likewise to thank God more for Gifts than Graces though both spiritual things confirms one in too great an esteem and love for Gifts compared with Graces which notwithstanding are incomparably inferiour to them Gifts sometimes may be â—ill used be mischievous and hurtful which sincere Virtue and Grace can never in the least be Knowledge puffeth up without Charity and is contentious affecting contemptuous but Charity edifieth saith the Apostle Charity even without Knowledge can do no harm but in its own nature necessarily tends to do good Now although this be better than not to be thankful to God at all than to thank him
the Lord's Prayer But then 2ly after these general Petitions as oft as we have opportunity let there be others as particular as may be especially in things of the greatest Importance and sometimes in lesser Matters according to the degree of their Importance to us and of our apprehending them and being affected with them For the most part we better apprehend and are more affected with particular things than with generals Thus let us pray sometimes for particular Virtues or Graces Parts or Gifts bodily or external good things sometimes for many and a great number together At one time we may longer insist upon some one or a few only at another time upon others much according to our Need and Wants and consequently also the Importance of the thing to us according to our apprehending our want thereof and being affected therewith And in order hereunto Men should make reflection upon their spiritual and corporal Condition see what they want and what they have and accordingly direct their Endeavours and their Prayers They should observe whether they want any Grace or Virtue or strength against any Sin or Lust or any other especially more useful thing and remember the next time to propound it and beseech it of God more earnestly and solemnly as they may then and at other times with frequent ejaculatory Prayers Men are commonly here more careless of their Relation to God than they might or should be Every thing which they ought to take any care to obtain they ought also to ask God's Favour in it For whatsoever we our selves can already do our whole power and ability both to will and to do is from God and perpetually dependent upon his will and pleasure which he can increase in us as much as he pleaseth as he can do all things for us without making any use of us St. Paul commands it Philip. 4. Verse 6. saying in every thing by Prayer and Supplication with Thanksgiving let your Request be made known unto God And the Heathens themselves in any considerable affair of Life nay the Vulgar in the small and trifling used to invoke or by some Rite to apply themselves to some of their greater or lesser Deitys Again Let our Petitions be as extensive as may be in respect of Persons too even to all who want any thing that we can and ought to desire for them we are not to â—onsine our Prayers and Petitions to our â—elves For Confessions let them be at least mostâ—hat very comprehensive and sometimes as â—ften as is meet which our Prudence must â—etermine more or less particular especially of frequent sins of sins we are most in danger of for the future We may add our Profession of Obedience to be also the most universal in the most general Terms and sometimes more or less particularly And these are some Directions concerning the Sense of our Prayers or the Objects of the various Operations of our Souls in them SECT V. II. SOme Directions concerning the Actions or Operations of our Souls iâ— Prayer The principal of which very briefly to recite them once more are attention to and acknowledgment of the Divine Perfections consequent Affections anâ— motions of our Will such as are fear of hâ— Power and Justice if we do offend and persâ— so to do trust in his Power and Merâ—â— one Branch of his Goodness to the Worlâ— as Justice strictly so called is the other â—â— far as we are innocent or repent Admiration Honour and Reverence to him for aâ— his Perfections together or for any in particular unreserved Obedience and Submiâ—sion to him upon the account of his Infinitâ— Wisdom and Righteousness or Universâ— Goodness desire of him and dependence upon him and trust in him for all things fit and just to be given to us upon the account of his Infinite Power Wisdom and Universal Goodness Love to him for his Universal Goodness Thankfulness for his Instances of Bounty to all and to us in particular which is also a distinct particular Ingredient of Prayer Add to these the other Ingredients of Prayer before mentioned Confession of our Sins Profession of â—ur Obedience Thanksgiving Recital of â—ur Cases or Conditions unfeigned Desires â—r Petitions These I say are the principal Actions or Operations of Soul in Prayer concerning which I propound these followâ—ng Directions 1. That they be all sincere by which I mean two things 1. That they be not pretended only but â—eally in thy Soul and in that degree of which thou usest the fit and proper Signs â—hat there be not only the External or other â—igns but also the things signified That â—here be not only Words with their loudness â—r lowness quickness or flowness and vaâ—ous order and position of these and so â—ther gestures of the parts of the Body beâ—re named when there is wanting sense â—nd understanding of some thing and atâ—â—tion thereto and all other those inward Motions and Actions of Soul so often mentioned or the degrees thereof which are properly signified by them When thou conceivest or utterest words know what thou sayest Attend to what is or may be best signified thereby as much as thou canst Talk not like a Parrot or rather like young Children at School when they say their Lessons When thy Voice is vehement or loud let it not be meerly customary or because thou affectest it only for some undue end for some undue end I say nor it may be to quicken thy Invention or Memory or clear thy Conception or because being assured of the goodness of any thing thou on purpose excitest and usest the help of thy corporeal Passions to affect or determine thy Soul all which sometimes are and may appear to others with approbation to be no unfit reasons Let thy affection in thy own heart and a great desire to convey it and to excite it more in others or thy self or thy great Admiration of the Excellency of the thing or whatever passion or operation of Soul in any degree is properly and fitly signified by thy vehemency of Voice go before it and be really inherent in thy Soul and be the cause from whence it proceeds If thou composest thy countenance or takest thy senses from other objects let there really be great and serious attention If thou liftest up thy eyes or hands let it proceed from inward desire Address to God and Approbation If thou bendest thy Knee or Body or erectest it by standing up let there be truly and really these things in thy Soul Although I know too that many of these Signs are not so necessarily proper to these â—ffections and actions of Soul but that they may also be done from and sometimes signifie no more in some circumstances than unwillingness to give a needless offence and a certain Christian Humanity and Civility Nay not only words and gestures of Body are to be true Signs of inward Operations of Soul but also some Actions or Operations of Soul truly signified are much signs again of others
Thus great Affections and Passions for things in men especially who study and are supposed to consider and examine whose business it much is or should be are signs to the generality of people of their clear understanding of the certain truth and excellent usefulness of them And this together with a pretended or real great love to the Souls of men which is indeed a truly generous and divine temper have been some of the causes that some men have had so many followers and admirers and whatsoever hath been said by them hath been believed to be as true and excellent as the Word of God it self without any scruple When therefore our Affections are great and strong let there be also preceding an understanding and conviction of the truth and usefulness of things either from our own sight and perception if we can or from Divine Testimony or which is most common easie and much safe from the most general Testimony of the wisest and best men Let not our great Passions be only an affected bussle to make people believe we are in earnest for some great matters which we have discovered 2. By sincerity in these Actions in Prayer I mean that they all or thy whole Prayer have their due Ultimate end unmixed with any other Let thy Ultimate End in general be sincerely to do thy Duty that which thou judgest thou oughtest and to be more disposed to be universally constantly couragiously good and virtuous to love and please God to be the most beneficial to the World and to perfect and make happy thy self by possessing thy Soul with the Graces of a most universal constant and generous Charity and that in the best Instances viz. in spiritual things as much as thou canst and in all others when they may be fittest or the only Instances thou canst then perhaps be charitable in of self-denyal humility spirituality by the mortification of all inordinacy and immoderacy of thy Appetites of all Lusts by being sober advised discreet and wise and by the use of all other good things we are capable of receiving possessing enjoying from God Let these things I say be purely and sincerely thy Ultimate End If thou acknowledgest God's Infinite Perfections let it be to produce in thee some way or other as it will Obedience and Imitation and consequently Universal Righteousness Holiness and all the Instances thereof now mentioned If thou confessest thy Sins let it be to excite and stir up whet and sharpen thy hatred against all Sin and when thou professest thy obediential Resolution let it be to confirm strengthen and invigorate thy love and liking resolution and bent of Soul to all Obedience and to thy Duty universally When thou thankest God ingenuously for his great kindness and love for his benefits to thee let it be sincerely to engage thee to love him again consequently to imitate obey please him and consequently to be universally holy and righteous When thou propoundest or recitest thy Case or Condition or that of any others for whom thou prayest let it be sincerely to cause thy self some way to be better by causing thee more to attend to thy dependence upon God and to be more sensible thereof and consequently to behave thy self so as to please him And lastly When thou desirest or petitionest any thing let thy Ultimate end be still the same quicken thy acknowledgment and sense of thy entire dependence upon God by which thou may'st be engaged to love and please him which cannot be without holiness Universal Most expresly Petition God for his Grace and Assistance to make thee the most perfectly holy and righteous thou art capable of in such manner and instances as is aforesaid trusting in God he will grant those thy Petitions then which none are more acceptable to him and using the utmost of thy endeavours in complyance with his supervenient help Finally When thou beseechest God for all or any other good things let it be that thou may'st be disposed and enabled thereby to serve him and the world to live profitably and comfortably here and at last to obtain an immortal and everlasting reward These things I say again are to be purely sincerely and unmixedly the Ultimate end of thy Praying in general and of all the parts thereof Let no other thing come in the place hereof or mix and blend therewith Let not for Example meer dull Custom be the end that is meer pleasing a man's self with so doing and especially the external or bodily part because a man hath used so to do he will so do Not the meer Action or Usage so much as the good effect of it is to please such as the name of our Duty includes and supposes We must not pray as aged men in part use old fashions or some other little actions as walking eating drinking at certain times viz. principally because they have been used so to do it is easie it is delightful meerly to do so and it would be painful and troublesome to them to abstain or to live after any other manner Let not again the procuring a great Opinion of us for Sanctity for Consciensciousness Honesty Spirituality for great Parts or Gifts for Readiness Copiousness variety of Invention Memory Judgment both in Things and Words Sense and Phrase for the usefulness and general goodness also of both that we can Pray much or are well furnished with Matter that we can Pray long and often or are very frequent in Prayer that we are good Church-men that we never miss Prayers that we can Pray with an acceptable and pleasing Delivery or Voice let not this vain glory of Praying long and frequently in every place in Synagogues corners of Streets reproved by Christ in the Hypocrites of his Age Matt. 6. I say let not this be the End Again more Universally Let not the Gratification of any Lust as Sensuality Luxury Ease and Sloth Malice Ill-will Pride Affectation of Superiority Equality or Liberty Revenge Envy Ambition Vain-glory Covetousness not the Procurement of some Advantage for Employment Preserment Rule Gain Trade or the like in the least peep in and mix with the noble end before mentioned Let not lastly even the pleasure satisfaction and delight we may find in all the Operations of our Souls in Prayer such as clear perception and understanding of God his Attributes of things spiritual future sublime and of great concernment especially our being affected with them not the pleasure of our both great and good Passions as Admiration and Honour Love Joy Faith and Truth c. though rightly and duly excited according to the true goodness of things understood usually signified by the names of Transports Ravishments Extasies I say let not even this be our Ultimate end but rather one exceeding little and very inconsiderable part thereof the other of being bent and resolved to please God by doing all good being infinitely more valuable as tending to an infinitely greater good Notwithstanding let us maintain and cherish this
but men of more active tempers which are far the greatest number will hardly believe him that useth it to be at all in earnest to mind and be affected much with what he saith they will think him dull because always when they themselves or those with whom they have generally conversed have been seriously and much concerned for any thing they have accustomed themselves to be loud and unequal in their speech and quick fierce multifarious in their gestures In such case it may be advisable to use in part only those gestures which those men do and that with some marks of condescension whereby a man may convey his sense and affections to them and yeâ— not confirm them in their bad usage but rather admonish them of their imperfection For indeed they are not only signs but causes too of strong and ungovernable passions most commonly for little things and consequently of rash and blind actions Rude and vulgar speech and carriage are commonly the causes of rude and vulgar manners But there is no greater breach of this direction than to make Prayers in a Foreign Tongue For here the words are so far from being signs of conceptions to all the Auditory that they are signs to none at all perhaps And this is the foul fault of that Church which pretends to so much wisdom and care in all her Constitutions when hardly any thing can argue a greater folly and tyranny Of this they have heard enough though their pride and other self-interests will never suffer them to acknowledge or amend any thing though never so foolish and mischievous which others shall admonish and advise them of Nay these men do not only appoint those who pray with others to use such a Language wich the Auditors do not understand but also private persons to pray Pater Noster's Ave Maria's and Gloria Patri's a judicious Prayer indeed for they use it for Petition too when sometimes they understand not one Sentence of what they say SECT XIII 5. LEt the signs of all the operations and actions of our Soul particularly of our affections be the most natural Such which are conjoyned in men generally with the things signified even without their wills or endeavours nay they are not disjoyned without some difficulty These signs more certainly convey to others not only the knowledge or conception of the affections which are in us but also the like affections themselves nay sometimes they may be the cause of and excite maintain or increase affections in our selves For which reasons as well as others all instituted and appointed signs are to be the most natural and as little as may be purely arbitrary These last are very often separated from the thing signified which is called formality A common instance too of the unnaturalness of the signification of our affections c. is that we call over-doing i. e. too many and too great a vehemency of gestures and words as it seems to most Auditors These although sometimes in some persons that use them they may be signs natural enough to themselves of good affections for there are degrees in respect of time and persons yet by the generality of Auditors they are judged to proceed from ostentation or meer heat of bodily temper And here we may be admonished that we do not use those which are very natural signs to the generality of an Auditory hypocritically that we do not use them on purpose to beget in them a good opinion of us and to judge that we have such good affections or other worthy qualities in us when we have not nor care perhaps much whether we have them at all really so we may but seem so We may be further advised that they do not proceed from or are consequent upon meerly the heat motion agitation temper of body For there are some persons in whom sighs tears loudness or vehemency of speech for Example do not proceed from nor are conjoyned with their respective passions of sadness grief earnest desire towards any certain objects apprehended evil or good but meerly from the frame and temper or in one word from the mechanism of their body they cannot tell you what it is that so affects them In others again they are very easie and great from every small degree of real passion in them We may see in their abundance of tears deep and frequent sighs great vehemency and variety of speech and gesture whence generally we may think they are brim-full of extraordinary passions when in truth it is not so and either there is none of those passions at all or but in very mean and slight degree Those that affect and endeavour these natural signs of sanctity in Prayers and so in Preaching and all other their Conversation without the things signified for reputation and good opinion or any other self-interest are Hypocrites in intention and design The other in whom they proceed from other causes than those they for the most part naturally signifie but without their will or endeavour are Hypocrites only in event and effect They both often deceive the World but the first more seldom and chiefly by their own fault the second more frequently and by others fault viz. by reason of their ignorance and thinking those signs universal which are not and oft-times they are discovered especially by more observing Auditors which when it happens offends much and causeth them to be a verse from and not to attend to what shall be said by such persons All external signs used before there is the thing signified in us are not hypocritical They may be prudently used on purpose to excite or increase good thoughts and affections in us and to prevent the ill consequence of our bad example As kneeling and intention of the voice may not only be signs of reverence and affection but also the causes they may beget preserve and increase them in our selves and others by our Examples And it may be one good effect of a set Tone in Prayers as well as in other parts of Divine Worship to excite and signifie sutable affections SECT XIV 6. LEt the expressions or signs of our conceptions and thoughts convey them the most clearly in opposition to obscurity Obscurity and confusion of perception of a thing are not the same A man may see with his eye remote objects confusedly without distinction of their parts yet strongly and clearly and on the contrary near objects very distinctly but yet darkly or obscurely And so it is in the minds perception of objects Contrary to this direction generally are Tropical Speeches as Metaphors Metonymies by which names if we respect their Etymology all sigurative speeches might be called i. e. when a thing is signified or expressed not by a word proper to its essential nature but by some one which is proper to something related to it as its cause effect part like contrary The use of this tropical speech seems to me to have been one of the greatest impediments of good knowledge
to think they oblige the Divinity by the honour they do it by their Prayers to grant them what they desire The Jews at this day think and say that God cannot withstand their Prayers It hath been said I doubt but too often vainly and presumptuously that God could not hold out against a praying People But too well known hath been the confidence of many private persons that their Prayers should be answered and as well known hath been their disappointment Many Prayers also may be stuffed with things very trivial and slight comparatively while the greater things are neglected smaller sins and other sins may be confessed eagerly but greater and their own not taken notice of or but slightly Petitions may be made for Worldly things importunately but for Spiritual negligently or coldly We may pray for Gifts or excellent Qualities of Understanding more than for Graces or holy Dispositions of Will For Pardon more than for Goodness For Priviledges more than for Dutys For Justification more than for Sanctification For Peace and Assurance before and more than for Regeneration Renewal of our Natures Mortification of our Lusts Love to God for his Excellencies Charity Humility Spirituality In Prayers also may be very much Insincerity the things desired may be selfish to gratifie immoderate Lusts of Revenge Pride Superiority Envy Covetousness Sensuality Luxury or the like Some Prayers I wish I could not say most may be very cold formal meer words Be not I say very well satisfied so thou hast but prayed though it may be very badly Endeavour not only to pray but pray well and as thou oughtest and therefore make use of such Means and Directions as have been prescribed I add here too as an useful Caution by the by Be not content and satisfied with thy having prayed well If thy Prayers have been such as have proceeded from good Qualities in thee and tend to make thee more so too and thou feelest thy self very much delighted with the Performance thereof and much disposed thereby to the Universal Practice of thy Duty think not that thou hast been good enough at the time of thy Prayers and mayst be negligent every where else In all thy succeeding Actions pursue thy good Disposition begun by thy Prayers at any time by Watchfulness and Reflection all the following day by frequent Checks when thou doest ill and Encouragements and Joy when thou doest well by frequent Ejaculations and Resolutions And so I have done with the Fifth General Head viz. Directions concerning Prayer CHAP. V. SECT I. VI. THe last General Head was the Excuses or Pretences Men usually make why they do not Pray especially in Private or Secret in which I shall be but short They are most commonly but these three 1. That they need not Pray 2. They have not Ability to Pray 3. They have not Time The first Pretence some Men have for not praying is that there is no need of it it is to no purpose and that therefore it is a foolish thing The Reason of which their Opinion is either because they think there is no God at all nor any Being superior to themselves in Power Wisdom and Goodness who hears them when they do pray or else because all future things are willed and determined by God already and that he is unchangeable As to the first of these Reasons if it were true it would render all Prayers and all things contained in them ridiculous indeed But I shall return no other Answer to these Monsters of Insolency and Dulness but that though they hereby call all Mankind except one or two of themselves if there be any Sots and Fools in spending so considerable a part of their time yet the World will have better Demonstrations and they ought to be no less against so Universal a Testimony than ever they have brought to prove them â—o before they will believe it or before these Objectors themselves ought to believe it Moreover there have been in this last Age such and so many Proofs of God's and Spirits Existence both highly probable and some absolutely necessary as I have upon the longest consideration judged that it is nothing but an obstinate Affection of Uncontroulableness and Licentiousness in those who do or may know them or a pitiable dulness which must make them capable of a contrary perswasion As to the Second Reason of God's predetermination of all things It must mean more particularly one of these two things First That it is needless to set our selves to Pray meaning all Ingredients of a Prayer because it is predetermined by God whether we shall or no. Or else Secondly That it is needless to Pray to God for any good thing meaning by Prayer Petition only because he hath predetermined whether we shall have the thing we pray for or no. To the First of these it is to be answered That there is the same reason against all will endeavor action whatsoever to obtain any good thing we want For Example Against the chewing and swallowing our Food that we may be nourished For the Argument runs thus God hath determined before we pray whether we shall pray or not If the first then we shall do it without our will or endeavor If the second then we shall not do it with them In the same manner we may argue God hath determined before we chew and swallow our Food to nourish us whether we shall do those actions or no. If the first we shall do them without our will and endeavour if the second we shall not though we do will and endeavour to do them But we do not see men in this and the like cases abstain from their will and endeavor for such a Reason though it be suggested to them But they always use both where they believe them to be the cause or condition of their obtaining any good thing they desire And indeed they have the greatest reason so to do which is a Second thing to be answered For briefly and not to spend much time here in these subtilties since men must of necessity will and endeavour after something or not whether it be or be not predetermined they shall will and endeavour or not there being no middle surely it is most manifest that they are to take that part of which there appears to them the best Effects and consequences but it is as manifest that there doth appear better effects and consequences of willing and endeavouring after that which is the cause or caution of any good thing than of omitting so to do or lying idle because God hath predetermined we know not which of the two viz. either we shall will and endeavor or not But this is not the ordinary sense of this Objection here though it be in a controversie which hath filled many Volumes To the Second therefore viz. That it is needless to petition God for any thing because he hath predetermined whether we shall have it or no many things may be replyed As 1. Let
we now ask And the more still if the Favours we have already received be of the same kind with those we do now desire If it were before it may be now for ought we see just and reasonable for God to hear us And this emboldens animates and enlivens our Petition or Desire still more There are besides these more proper other collateral good Effects of Thanksgiving to God It is a very pleasant thing For what more so than Love what more delicious and sweet And what Friend is capable of being loved more than God Where 's such a Friend and Benefactor as he from whom we have all Again the Reflection upon our own Security upon our own Assurance of good things for the future from the Experience of and Attention to the Divine Benignity and Goodness is a very pleasing and satisfactory thing that we are in the Hands of Infinite Goodness all which our Thanksgiving gives occasion for And this we are most sensible of when under any Frights or Fears of some great Evils just ready to fall upon us then we greedily call to mind God's past Goodness But here we must have a care of loving God ultimately and only for being particularly good to us without at least some habitual reference of it to the use of pleasing him by doing the most Good we can as a Man might love a good Master or any Person or Thing that is useful to himself not much caring whether he be so to any body else all which indeed is no better than selfishness But we must look upon God's Goodness to us as one particular Instance of that Universal Goodness to all for which we love him and whereby we are engaged to love and please him and consequently to do good to all himself doth and to be perfect and happy iâ— so being and doing all which together is tâ— be our last End We are indeed for the mâ— part more sensible of those his personal Eâ—vours because ordinarily we cannot so we apprehend others Satisfaction and Please as our own But we ought equally to that God for his Benefits to others and our selveâ— if we could alike apprehend them And here we may do well sometimes 〈◊〉 to aggravate God's Goodness that is to tâ— notice of those Circumstances which aâ—signs of the greatness thereof As that is the most free and undeserved For whâ— Addition of Good can we make to him 〈◊〉 what can we give him that is not his owâ— or what Law or Power superiour to Himsâ—â—â— to his own Nature obligeth and controlle him We may also remember our selves 〈◊〉 God is good to us when we are bad whâ— we are negligent and take no notice there ungrateful undutiful nay make ill use his Favours abuse them for this God mâ— do for some reasons though we have 〈◊〉 advantage of probability to expect it whiâ—â— is a sign of more pure free and sincere Gooâ—ness or Love to others For we think no Peâ—son can expect any Recompence for his Gooâ—ness from one he knows is unable much leâ— from one he knows unwilling and loves hiâ— not All this is to be done that we may be more deeply affected with the Divine Goodness for the Ends aforesaid We may read Jacob's Prayer to be delivered from his Brother Esau as an Instance Gen. 32. Verse 9 10 11. In the 10th Verse before his Prayer he takes notice of God's manifold Mercies to him without doubt with Thanks and particularly of his Wealth and Increase that God had blessed him withal I am not worthy of the least of all thy Mercies and of all the Truth which thou hast shewed to thy servant for with my Staff I passed over this Jordan and now I am become two Bands In the Psalms we meet often with Thanksgivings and Petitions Praises and Prayers joyned together Psalm 144 in the two first Verses David blesseth and thanketh God Blessed be the Lord my strength who teacheth my Hands to war c. who subdueth the People under me And then Verse the 5th he petitions and prays for the long continuance of the like Goodness in God and Verse 7. Send thine Hand from above rid me and deliver me out of great Waters from the Hands of strange Children And Psalm 3. Verse 3 4 7. And Psalm 9. to Verse 13. is most Acknowledgments and Praises and then a Prayer Have Mercy upon me O Lord consider my Troubles which I suffer of them that hate me thou that liftest me up from the Gates of Death And Psalm 13 after his Petition in the 6th Verse he saith he will sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with him SECT VII V. A Fifth Ingredient in a Prayer is somâ—times particular explication of oâ— Case either of the one or more goâ— things we desire to have or of the Evil thing we desire to be delivered from a more â—â—stinct Representation and View of them â—rected to God And this then especially wheâ— we intend to make a more particular expreâ—â— Address to God in secret or in publick aloâ— or with others for one or for some few coâ—tain things It may be done sometimes as when 〈◊〉 find our selves very sensible and clearly apprehensive of and affected with the goodneâ—â— of any thing in our Prayers for ordinaâ—â— and general good things Here also mâ— come in the reasons or grounds of our greâ—â— Desires at this time such as now the greâ—â— Goodness of the things their Necessity Diffâ—culty if not Impossibility by any second Caâ—ses we yet see or the like Now the use of this is not to acquaint God more particularly with our Case or to move him to be the more favourable to us or pitâ— us by giving him a distinct Knowledge of what we need or desire not so much as the most general Prayer and Desire is needful for that such as the Poets was approved by Socrates and extant in Brodaeus's Collection of Greek Epigrams Plat. Alcib 2. Brod. Epig. lib. 1. Xenoph. Memorab lib. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. That Jupiter would give him good things whether he asked them or no and keep evil things from him though he should pray for them And another of his mentioned by Xenophon viz. That the Gods would give him good things leaving it to them as best knowing what were such to choose for him No but one principal reason is to cause our selves longer to attend to our Wants we doing it more particularly and distinctly and consequently to be more affected with them and so more passionately earnestly and importunately to desire the supply of them A very confused general short transient Apprehension of the Goodness or Badness of things doth not generally so deeply affect us or raise up such strong Passions in us as a more particular distinct and longer one by frequent smart Bouts yet not so continuedly long as to tyre us doth For the same cause may the grounds or reasons of the Greatness of our Desires be mentioned such