thou enterest the Church remember that it is the house of God a place where he is in an especial manner present and therefore take the counsel of the wise man Eccles. 5. 1. And keep thy foot when thou goest into the house of God that is behave thy self with that godly awe and reverence which belongs to that great Majestie thou art before Remember that thy business there is to converse with God and therefore shut out all thoughts of the world even of thy most lawful business which though they be allowable at another time are here sinful How fearful a guilt is it then to entertain any such thoughts as are in themselves wicked It is like the treason of Judas who pretended indeed to come to kiss his Master buâ— brought with him a band of souldiers to apprehend him Mat. 26. We make shew in our coming to Church of serving and worshipping God but we bring with us a train of his enemies to provoke and despite him This is a wickedness that may outâ—ie the profaneness of these dayes in turnâ—ng Churches into stables for sinful and â—olluted thoughts are much the worst sort of â—beasts 14. The Second thing to which respect belongs is his revenue or income that is whatsoever is his peculiar possessions set apart for the maintenance of those that attend his service those were the Priests in time of the Law and Ministers of the Gospel now with us And what ever is thus set apart we must look on with such respect as not to dare to turn it to any other use Of this sort some are the free-will-offerings of men who have sometimes of their own accord given some of their goods or lands to this holy use and whatsoever is so given can neither by the person that gave it nor any other be taken away without great that sin of sacriledg 15. But besides these there was among the Jews and hath alwayes been in all Christian Nations something allotted by the Law of the Nation for the support and maintenance of those that attend the service of God And it is but just and necessary it should be so that those who by undertaking that Calling are taken off from the wayes of gaining a livelyhood in the world should be provided for by them whose souls they watch over And therefore it is most reasonable which the Apostle urges in this matter 1 Cor. 9. 11. If we have sown unto you spiritual things is it a great thing if we shal reap your carnal things That is the most unreasonable for men to grudg the bestowing a few carnal things the outward necessaries of this temporal life on them from whom they receive spiritual things even instruction and assistance towards the obtaining an eternal life 16. Now whatsoever is thus appointed for this use may by no means be imployed to any other And therefore those tithes which are here by Law allotted for the maintenance of the Ministry must by no means be kept back nor any tricks or shifts used to avoid the payment either in whole or in part For first it is certain that it is as truly theft as any other robbery can be Ministers having right to their tithes by the same Law which gives any other man right to his estate But then Secondly it is another manner of robbery then we think of it is a robbing of God whose service they were given to maintain and that you may not doubt the truth of this it is no more then God himself hath said of it Mal. 3. 8. Will a man rob God yet ye have robbed me yet ye say wherein have we robbed thee in tithes and offerings Here it is most plain that in Gods account the withholding tithes is a robbing of him And if you please you may in the next verse see what the gains of this robbery amounts to Yea are cursed with a curse A curse is all is gotten by it and common experience shews us that Gods vengeance doth in a remarkable manner pursue this sin of Sacriledg whether it be that of withholding tithes or the other of seizing on those possessions which have been voluntarily consecrated to God Men think to inrich themselves by it but it usually proves directly contrary this unlawful gain becomes such a Canker in the estate as often eates out even that we had a just title too And therefore if you love I will not say your souls but your estates preserve them from that danger by a strict care never to meddle with anything set a part for God 17. A Third thing wherein we are to express our reverence to God is the hallowing of the times set apart for his service He who hath given all our time requires some part of it to be paid back again as a rent or tribute of the whole Thus the Jews kept holy the seventh day and we Christians the Sunday or Lords day the Jews were in their Sabbath especially to remember the Creation of the world and we in ours the resurrection of Christ by which a way is made for us into that better world we expect hereafter Now this day thus set a part is to be imployed in the worship and service of God and that first more solemnly and publickly in the Congregation from which no man must then absent himself without a just cause and Secondly privatly at home in praying with and instructing our families or else in the yet more private duties of the closet a mans own private prayers reading meditating and the like And that we may be at leisure for these a rest from all our worldly business is commanded therefore let no man think that a bare rest from labour is all that is required of him on the Lords day but the time which he saves from the works of his calling he is to lay out on those spiritual duties For the Lords Day was never ordained to give us a pretence for idleness but only to change our imployment from worldly to heavenly much lesse was it meant that by our rest from our callings we should have more time free to bestow upon our sins as too many do who are more constant on that day at the Alehouse then the Church But this rest was commanded first to shadow out to us that rest from sin which we are bound to all the dayes of our lives And secondly to take us off from our worldly business and to give us time to attend the service of God and the need of our souls 18. And surely if we rightly consider it it is a very great benefit to us that there is such a set time thus weekly returning for that purpose We are very intent and busy upon the world and if there were not some such time appointed to our hands it is to be doubted we should hardly allot any our selves And then what a starved condition must these poor soules of ours be in that shall never be afforded a meal
It is just matter of sadness to any Christian heart to see some in these dayes who profess much of Religion and yet live in such sins as a meer heathen would abhor men that pretending to higher degrees of light and holiness then their brethren do yet practice contrary to all Rules of common honesty and make it part of their Christan liberty so to do of whose seducement it concerns all that love their soules to beware and for that purpose let this be laid as a foundation That that Religion or opinion cannot be of God which allowes men in any wickedness 5. But though we must not put out this light which God hath thus put into our soules yet this is not the only way whereby God hath revealed his will and therefore we are not to rest here but proceed to the knowledg of those other things which God hath by other means revealed 6. The way for us to come to know them is by the Scriptures wherein are set down those several commands of God which he hath given to be the Rule of our duty 7. Of those some were given before Christ came into the world such are those precepts we find scattered throughout the Old Testament but especially contained in the Ten Commandments and that excellent book of Deuteronomy others were given by Christ who added much both to the Law implanted in us by Nature and that of the Old Testament and those you shall find in the New Testament â—n the several precepts given by him and his Apostles But especially in that divine Sermon â—n the Mount set down in the fifth sixth â—eventh Chapters of S. Matthews Gosâ—el 8. All these should be severally spoke to but because that would make the discourse very long and so less fit for the meaner sort of men for whose use alone it is intended I chuse to proceed in another manner By summing all these together and so as plainly as I can to lay down what is now the duty of every Châ—istan 9. This I find briefly contained in the words of the Apostle Tit. 2. 12. That we should live soberly righteously and Godly in this present world where the word soberly contains our duty to our selves righteously our duty to our neighbour and Godly our dâ—ty to God These therefore shall be the heads of my discourse our duty to God our selves and our neighbour I begin wâ—th that to God that being the best ground-work whereon to build bâ—th the other 10. There are many parts of our duty to God The two chief are these First to acknowledg him to be God Secondly to have no other under these are contained all those particulars which make up our whole duty to God which shall be shewed in their order 11. To aâ—knowledg him to be God is â—o believe him to be an infinite glorious Spirit that was from everlasting without beginning and shâ—ll be to everlasting without end That he is our Creator Redeemer Sanctifier Fatâ—er Son and Holy-Ghost one God blessed for eve That he is suject to no alterations but is unchangeable that he is no bodilâ— substance such as our eyes may behold but Spiritual and invisible whom no man hath seen nor can see as the Apostle tell us 1 Tim. 6. 16. That he is infinitely great and excellent beyond all that our wit or conceit can imagine that he hath received his being from none and gives being to all things 12. All this we are to believe of him in regard of his essence and being But besides this he is set forth to us in the Scripture by several excellencies as that he is of infinite goodness and Mercy Truth Iustice Wisdom Power All-sufficiency Majesty That he disposes and governs all things by his providence that he knows all things and is present in all places these are by Divines called the Attributes of God and all these we must undoubtingly acknowledg that is we must firmly believe all these Divine excellencies to be in God and that in the greatest degree and so that they can never cease to be in him he can never be other then infinitely Good Merciful True c. 13. But the acknowledging him for our God signifies yet more then this it means that we should perform to him all those several parts of duty which belong from a Creature to his God what those are I am now to tell you 14. The first is Faith or belief not only that forementioned of his essence and Attributes but of his word the believing most firmly that all that he saith is perfectly true This necessarily arises from that Attribute his truth it being natural for us to believe whatsoever is said by one of whose truth we are confident Now the holy Scriptures being the word of God we are therefore to concluâ—e that all that is contained in them is most true 15. The things contained in them are of these four sorts First affirmations such are all the stories of the Bible when it is said such and such things came so and so to pass Christ was born of a virgin was laid in a manger c. And such also are many points of Doctrine as that there are three Persons in the God-head that Christ is the Son of God and the like All things of this sort thus delivered in Scripture we are to believe most true And not only so but because they are all written for our instruction we are to coâ—sider them for that purpose that is by them to lay that foundation of Christian-knowledg on which we may build a Christian life 16 The Second sort of things contain'd in the Scripture are the Commands that is the several things enjoyned us by God to perform these we are to believe to come from him and to be most just and fit for him to Command But then this belief must bring forth obedience that what we believe thus fit to be done be indeed done by us otherwise our belief that they come from him serves but to make us more inexcusable 17. Thirdly the Scripture contains threatnings many texts there are which thâ—eaten to them that go on in their sins the wrath of God and under that are contain'd all the punishments and miseries of this life both spiritual and temporal and everlasting destruction in the life to come Now we are most stedfastly to believe that these are Gods threats and that they will certainly be performed to every impenitent sinner But then the use we are to make of this belief is to keep from those sins to which this destruction is threatned otherwise our belief adds to our guilt that will willfully go on in spight of those threatnings 18. Fourthly the Scripture contains Promises and those both to our bodies and our soules for our bodies there are many promises that God will provide for them what he sees necessary I will name only one Mat. 6. 33. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and
that is the concealing from the buyer a defect in the quantity as the other was in the quality of the commodity and is again the making him pay for what he hath not This sort of fraud is pointed at particularly by Solomon Prov. 11. 1. with this note upon it that it is an abomination to the Lord. 6. The second part of fraud in the seller lyes in over-rating the commodity though he have not disguised or concealed the faults of it and so have dealt fairly in that respect yet if he set an unreasonable price upon it he defrauds the buyer I call that an unreasonable price which exceeds the true worth of the thing considered with those moderate gains which all tradesmen are presumed to be allowed in the Sale Whatever is beyond this must in all likelyhood be fetcht in by some of these wayes As first by taking advantage of the buyers ignorance in the value of the thing which is the same with doing it in the goodness which hath already been shewed to be a deceit or secondly by taking advantage of his necessity thou findest a man hath present and urgent need of such a thing and therefore takest this opportunity to set the dice upon him but this is that very sin of extortion and oppression spoken of before for it is sure nothing can justly raise the price of any thing but either its becoming dearer to thee or its being some way better in its self but the necessity of thy brother causes neither of these his nakedness doth not make the clothes thou fâ—llest him stand thee in ever the more neither doth it make them any way better and therefore to rate them ever the higher is to change thy way of trading and sell even the wants and necessities of thy neighbour which sure is a very unlawful vocation Or thirdly it may be by taking advantage of the indiscretion of the chapman A man perhaps earnestly fancies such a thing and then suffers that fancy so to over-rule his reason that he resolves to have it upon any termes If thou findest this in him and thereupon raisest thy rate this is to make him buy his folly which is of all others the dearest purchase 't is sure his fancy adds nothing to the reall value no more then his necessity did in the former case and therefore should not add to the price He therefore that will deal justly in the business of selling must not catch at all advantages which the temper of his chapman may give but consider soberly what the things is worth and what he would afford it for to another of whom he had no such advantage and accordingly rate it to him at no higher a price 7. On the buyers part there are not ordinarily so many opportunities of fraud yet it is possible a man may sometimes happen to sell somewhat the worth whereof he is not acquainted with and then it will be as unjust for the buyer to make gain by his ignorance as in the other case it was for the seller but that which oftner fals out is the case of necessity which may as probably fall on the sellers side as the buyers A mans wants compell him to sell and permit him not to stay to make the best bargain but forces him to take the first offer and here for the buyer to grate upon him because he sees him in that strait is the same fault which I before shewed it to be in the seller 8. In this whole business of traffick there are so many opportunities of deceit that a man had need fence himself with a very firm resolution nay love of justice or he will be in danger to fall under temptation for as the wise man speaks Eccles. 27. 2. As a nail sticks fast between the joinings of the stones so doth sin stick close between buying and selling it is so interwoven with all trades so mixt with the very first principles and grounds of them that it is taught together with them and so becomes part of the Art so that he is now a dayes scarce thought fit to manage a Trade that wants it while he that has most of this black Art of defrauding applauds and huggs himself nay perhaps boasts to others how he hath over-reacht his neighbour What an intolerable shame is this that we Christians who are by the precepts of our Master set to those higher duties of Charity should in stead of practising them quite unlearn those common rules of justice which meer nature teaches For I think I may say there are none of those several branches of injustice towards the possessions of our neighbour which would not be adjudged to be so by any sober Heathen so that as Saint Paul tels those of the Circumcision that the name of God was Blasphemed among the Gentiles by that unagreeableness that was betwixt their practice and their Law Rom. 2. 24. So may it now be said of us that the Name of Christ is Blasphemed among the Turks and Heathens by the vile and scandalous lives of us who call our selves Christians and particularly in this sin of injustice For shame let us at last endeavour to wipe off this reproach from our profession by leaving these practices to which me thinks this one single consideration should be enough to perswade us 9. Yet besides this there want not other Among which one there is of such a nature as may prevail with the arrantest worldling and that is that this course doth not really tend to the enriching of him there is a secret curse goes along with it which like a canker eats out all the benefit was expected from it This no man can doubt that believes the Scripture where there are multitudes of Texts to this purpose thus Prov. 22. 16. He that oppresseth the poor to encrease his riches shall surely come to want So Hab. 2. 6. Woe to him that encreaseth that which is not his how long And he that ladeth himself with thick clay shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee and awake that shall vex thee and thou shalt be for booties to them This is commonly the fortune of those that spoil and deceive others they at last meet with some that do the like to them But the place in Zachary is most full to this purpose Chap. 5. where under the sign of a flying roll is signified the curse that goes forth against this sin ver 4. I will bring it forth saith the Lord of Hosti and it shall enter into the house of the thief and into the house of him that sweareth falsly by my Name and it shall consume it with the timber thereof and with the stones thereof Where you see theft and perjury are the two sins against which this curse is aimed and they too often go together in the matter of defrauding and the nature of this curse is to consume the house to make an utter destruction of all that
intreaty no perswasion can prevail with them to make this so reasonable so necessary a change not but that they acknowledge it needful to be done but they are unwilling to do it yet they would enjoy all the pleasures of sin as long as they live and then they hope at their death or some little time before it to do all the business of their Souls But alas Heaven is too high to be thus jumped into the way to it is a long and leasurely ascent which requires time to walk The hazards of such deferring are more largely spoken of in the discourse of Repentance I shall not here repeat them but desire the Reader seriously to lay them to heart and then surely he will think it seasonable counsel that is given by the wise man Ecclus 5. 7. Make no tarrying to turn to the Lord and put not off from day to day PRIVATE DEVOTIONS For Several OCCASIONS London Printed for T. Garthwait at the little North Door of St. Pauls CHRISTIAN READER I Have for the help of thy devotions set down some FORMS of PRIVATE-PRAYER upon several occasions If it be thought an omission that there are none for Families I must answer for my self that it was not from any opinion that God is not as well to be worship'd in the Family as in the Closet but because the providence of God and the Church hath already furnish'd thee for that purpose infinitely beyond what my utmost care could do I mean the PUBLICK LITURGY or COMMON-PRAYER which for all publick addresses to God and such are family-Prayers are so excellent and useful that we may say of it as David did of Goliah's sword 1 Sam. 21. 9. There is none like it DIRECTIONS for the MORNING As soon as ever thou awakest in the morning lift up thy heart to God in this or the like short Prayer LORD As thou hast awaked my body from sleep so by thy grace awaken my soul from sin and make me so to walk before thee this day and all the rest of my life that when the last trumpet shall awake me out of my grave I may rise to the life immortal through Jesus Christ. WHEN thou hast thus begun suffer not without some urgent necessity any worldly thoughts to fill thy mind till thou have also payd thy more solemn devotions to Almighty God and therefore during the time thou art dressing thy self which should be no longer then common decency requires exercise thy mind in some spiritual thoughts As for example Consider to what temptations thy business or company that day are most like to lay thee open and arm thy self with resolutions against them or again consider what occasions of doing service to God or good to thy neighbour are that day most likely to present themselves and resolve to embrace them and also contrive hoâ— thou maist improve them to the uttermost But especially it will be fit for thee to examine whether there have any sin escaped thee since thy last nights examination If after these considerations any farther leisure remain thou maist profitably imploy it in meditating on the general resurrection whereof our rising from our beds is a representation and of that dreadful judgment which shall follow it and then think with thy self in what preparation thou art for it and resolve to husband carefully every minute of thy time towards the fitting thee for that great account As soon as thou art ready retire to some private place and there offer up to God thy Morning Sacrifice of Praise and Prayer PRAYERS for the MORNING At thy first kneeling down say O Holy Blessed and Glorious Trinity three Persons and one God have mercy upon me a miserable sinner Lord I know not what to pray for as I ought O let thy spirit help my infirmities and enable me to offer up a spiritual sacrifice acceptable to thee by Jesus Christ. A THANKSGIVING O Gracious Lord whose mercies endure for ever I thy unworthy servant who have so deeply tasted of them desire to render thee the tribute of my humblest prayses for them In thee O Lord I live and move and have my being thou first madest me to be and then that I might not be miserable but happy thou sentest thy Son out of thy bosome to redeem me from the power of my sins by his grace and from the punishment of them by his blood and by both to bring me to his glory Thou hast by thy mercy caused me to be born within thy peculiar fold the Christian Church where I was early consecrated to thee in Baptism and have been partaker of all those spiritual helps which might aid me to perform that Vow I there made to thee and when by my own willfulnesse or negligence I have failed to do it yet thou in thy manifold mercies hast not forsaken me but hast graciously invited me to repentance afforded me all means both outward and inward for it and with much patience hast attended and not cut me off in the acts of those many damning sins I have committed as I have most justly deserved It is O Lord thy restraining grace alone by which I have been kept back from any the greatest sins and it is thy inciting and assisting grace alone by which I have been enabled to do any the least good therefore not unto me not unto me but unto thy name be the praises For these all other thy spiritual blessings my Soul doth magnify the Lord all that is within me praise his Holy Name I likewise praise thee for those many outward blessings I enjoy as Health Friends Food and Raiment the comforts as well as the necessaries of this life for those continual protections of thy hand by which I and mine are kept from dangers and those gracious deliverances thou hast often afforded out of such as have befallen me and for that mercy of thine whereby thou hast sweetned and alayed those troubles thou hast not seen fit wholy to remove For thy particular preservation of me this night and all other thy goodness towards me Lord grant that I may render thee not onely the fruit of my lips but the obedience of my life that so these blessings here may be an earnest of those richer blessings thou hast prepared for those that love thee and that for his sake whom thou hast made the Authour of eternal Salvation to all that obey him even Jesus Christ. A CONFESSION O Righteous Lord who hatest iniquity I thy sinful creature cast my self at thy feet acknowledging that I most justly deserve to be utterly abhorred and forsaken by thee for I have drunk iniquity like water gone on in a continued course of sin and rebellion against thee daily committing those things thou forbiddest and leaving undone those things thou commandest mine heart which should be an habitation for thy Spirit is become a cage of unclean birds of foul and disordered affections and out of this abundance of the heart my mouth speaketh my
of danger thou hast not the less but the greater cause to magnify God who hath by his protection so guarded thee that not so much as the fear of evil hatâ— assaulted thee And therefore omit not to pay him the tribute of humble thankfulness as well for his usual and daily preservations as his more extraordinary deliverances And above all endeavour still by the considerations of his mercies to have thy heart the more closely knit to him remembring that every favour received from him is a new engagement upon thee to love and obey him PRAYERS for NIGHT. O Holy blessed and glorious Trinity three persons and one God have mercy upon me a miserable sinner Lord I know not what to pray for as I ought O let thy Spirit help my infirmities and enable me to offer up a spiritual Sacrifice acceptable unto thee by Jesus Christ. A CONFESSION O MOST Holy Lord God who are of purer eyes then to behold iniquity now shall I abominable wretch dare to appear before thee who am nothing but pollution I am defiled in my very nature having a backwardness to all good and a readiness to all evil but I have defiled my self yet much worse by my own actual sins and wicked customes I have transgrest my duty to thee my neighbour and my self and that both in thought in word in deed by doing those things which thou hast expresly forbidden and by neglecting to do those things thou hast commanded me And this not onely through ignorance and frailty but knowingly and wilfully against the motions of thy Spirit and the checks of my own conscience to the contrary And to make all these out of measure sinful I have gone on in a daily course of repeating these provocations against thee notwithstanding all thy calls to and my own purposes and â—owes of amendmeut yea this very day I have not ceased to add new sins to all my former guilts Here name the Particulars And now O Lord what shall I say or how shall I open my mouth seeing I have done these things I know that the wages of these sins is death but O thou who willest not the death of a sinner have mercy upon me work in me I beseech thee a sincere contrition and a perfect hatred of my sins and let me not daily confess and yet as daily renew them but grant O Lord that from this instant I may give a bill of divorce to all my most beloved â—lusts and then be thou pleased to marry me to thy self in truth in righteousness and holiness And for all my past sins O Lord receive a reconciliation accept of that ransom thy blessed Son hath paid for me and for his sake whom thou hast set forth as a propitiation pardon all my offences and receive me to thy favour And when thou hast thus spoken peace to my soul Lord keep me that I turn not any more to folly but so establish me with thy grace that no temptation of the world the Divel or my own flesh may ever draw me to offend thee that being made free from sin and becoming a servant unto God I may have my fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Lord. A THANKSGIVING O Thou Father of mercies who art kind even to the unthankful I acknowledg my self to have abundantly experimented that gracious property of thine for notwithstanding my daily provocations against thee thou still heapest mercies and loving kindness upon me All my contempts and despisings of thy spiritual favours have not yet made thee withdraw them but in the riches of thy goodness and long-suffering thou still continuest to me the offers of grace and life in thy Son And all my abuses of thy temporal blessings thou hast not punished with an utter deprivation of them but art still pleased to afford me a liberal portion of them The sins of this day thou hast not repayed as justly thou might'st by sweeping me away with a swift destruction but hast spared and preserved me according to the greatness of thy mercy Here mention the particular mercies of that day What shall I render unto the Lord for all these benefits he hath done unto me Lord let this goodness of thine lead me to repentance and grant that I may not only offer thee thanks and praise but may also order my conversation aright that so I may at the last see the salvation of God through Jesus Christ. Here use the Prayer for Grace and that of Intercession appointed for the Morning For PRESERVATION O Blessed Lord the Keeper of Israel that neither slumbrest nor sleepest be pleased in thy mercy to watch over me this night keep me by thy grace from all works of darkness and defend me by thy power from all dangers grant me moderate and refreshing sleep such as may fit me for the duties of the day following And Lord make me ever mindful of that time when I shall lye down in the dust and because I know neither the day nor the hour of my Masters coming grant me grace that I may be always ready that I may never live in such a state as I shall fear to dye in but that whether I live I may live unto the Lord or whether I dye I may dye unto the Lord so that living and dying I may be thine through Jesus Christ. Vse the same concluding prayer as in the Morning As thou art putting off thy clothes thiâ—k with thy self that the time approaches that thou must put off thy body also and then thy soul must appear naked before Gods judgment feat and therefore thou hadst need be careful to make it so clean and pure by repentance and holiness that he who will not look on iniquity may graciously behold and accept it Let thy bed put thee in mind of thy grave and when thou lyest down say O Blessed Saviour who by thy precious death and burial didst take away the sting of death and power of the grave grant me the joyful fruits of that thy victory and be thou to me in life and death advantage I will lay me down in peace and take my rest for it is thou Lord only that makest me dwell in safety Into thy hands I commend my spirit for thou hast redeemed it O Lord thou God of truth IN the ANCIENT CHURCH there were besides morning and night Four other times every day which were called HOURS OF PRAYER and the zeal of thosâ— first Christians was such as made them constantly observed It would be thought too great a strictness now in this lukewarm age to enjâ—yn the like frequency yet I cannot but mention the example and say that for those who are not by very necessary business prevented it will be but reasonable to imitate it and make up in publick and private those FOUR TIMES of PRAYER besides the OFFICES already set down for MORNING and NIGHT and that none may be to seek how to exer I se their devotions at these