Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	good_a	peace_n	quiet_a	5,023	5	9.5882	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A71231	Enter into thy closet, or A method and order for private devotion A treatise endeavouring a plain discovery of the most spiritual and edifying course of reading, meditation, and prayer; and so, of self examination, humiliation, mortification, and such most necessary Christian duties, by which we sue out the pardon of our sins from Heaven, and maintain an holy converse with God. Together with particular perswasives thereunto, and helps therein.	Wettenhall, Edward, 1636-1713.	1666 (1666)	Wing W1495B; ESTC R217163	97,436	340

the Kings Majesty his Queen and all the Royal Family Let all thy Priests be cloathed with Righteousness and let thy work prosper in their hands and especially within this Parish of which I am a part let the knowledge and fear of thee increase Visit all my Kinred Relations and Acquaintances ** with such blessings as they need Reward a thousand fold all who have shewn any kindness to thy servant especially ** Forgive In all these vacancies thus marked ** make such particular mention as thy condition shall require or prudence suggest and have mercy upon all mine enemies and let not one of them ever fare the worse for any wrong done to me Deliver in thine own good time thy righteous ones out of all their afflictions and in the mean time support them sanctifying all unto them ** Shew thy self every way all-sufficient unto all thine Finally O Lord I bless and praise thy glorious grace for all those blessings which I enjoy and those particular deliverances whether ancient or later which thou hast vouchsafed me ** Above all for thy redeeming not onely me but the whole humane nature by the precious bloud of thy well-beloved Son for that knowledge which I have of thee in him my Saviour Christ Jesus for any sight and sense of my sin which through thy grace I have for any hopes of finding mercy in that great day ** I O Lord Here bless God for any inward ioy enlargements c. am far less than the least of these mercies It is thy goodness thy goodness alone which is the fountain whence they came and mayest thou from me and from Heaven and Earth ever receive the glory of that thy goodness May I ever serve thee in newness of life and answerable walking And do thou forgive not onely my former ingratitude but my present want of thankfulness together with all the sins of these my holy things washing me and my very teares prayers and penitence in the bloud of my Saviour Christ Jesus in whose words thy servant will speak yet once more Our Father c. It is not to be supposed that this Prayer without any alteration will suit with the condition of every Reader God forbid all should have sinned at that rate to come up to which this prayer was framed The prudent Christian therefore is to add leave out alter what he sees good or if able himself to do better to lay aside all Nothing is here obtruded on any onely directions and help intended to some who need them Sect. 10. Of offerings to God for the use of the poor departure out of the Closet and behaviour afterwards MY prayers being thus finished I should not hastily run out but pause a while and remember that there is one work remaining which is not to be neglected if I have wherewithall to do it being it is required by God in an acceptable Fast and that is to add something every fast though it be the less to what I have formerly laid aside for the poor or if there be no such stock already made by me much more than to design and devote somewhat to that purpose This is the fast I have chosen to deal thy bread unto the hungry c. It being thus given I may deal it when Isa 58. 7. I shall see occasion Now as to the particular manner of this practice directions have been above given which especially upon these dayes it will be expedient to observe And this being done let me with chearfulness depart my Closet let not my behaviour be without innocent alacrity and let it be my special care so to order all my carriage on these my fasts that they may not if possible be taken notice of by any but my self and God as being mindful of that command of my Saviours Anoint thine head and wash thy face that thou appear not unto men to fast that is behave thy self with such outward chearfulness of which anointing the head and washing the face are Arguments that no man ordinarily beholding thee would take the day he sees thee so to be one of thy fast or mourning dayes Chap. VII Of great and more extraordinary Fasts and the work of them BEsides these my Fasts which come in course at least once a week several occasions may befal me which may require an extraordinary fast Such is any great evil hanging over mine head or my friends or the Nations any considerable change of my way of living or the like but especially when I am to receive the Holy Communion My work upon such occasions will be the same as is formerly directed to only my Christian discretion will order it with a particular respect to that my great occasion which calls me to fast which occasion I am especially to meditate upon and that not without a regard had to my sins if there be any evil which I deprecate to consider how my sins have been the causes of it if any good which I beseech for how again my sins may blast that and accordingly to commend it to God in my prayers in which case also the form of prayer delivered in the foregoing Chapter will not be useless Particularly as to that which will most frequently come in practice my humiliations preparatory for the Lords Supper In these besides that examination of my self which in ordinary course I make I am to look over mine Accomptal to see every week since my last communicating what my carriage hath been how I have amended especially in those particulars in which I had formerly taken notice of my miscarriages and vowed reformation All my revolts and backslidings are to be attentively viewed in themselves and in their aggravations and repentance as before taught to be with all diligence and servour that I can exercised Yea and besides these times of special exigence ought I to be often surveying and looking over mine Accomptal In mine ordinary daily devotions or in my devotions upon my fast-dayes I shall find both need and opportunity for it And if Schollars find it necessary to peruse their own Collections or Common-place books if Shopkeepers review often their books to the end they may by seeing what they have formerly done know how to order their future proceedings in their business so as not to go backward or be diligent to no purpose how much more care ought I to take in the concernments of my soul and for that Jewel which if I loose although I should gain the whole world I am irreparably undone Chap. VIII The Conclusion THe Author of this small piece Christian Reader is very sure that be thou who thou wilt thou canst not but approve for the main that practice which is here commended to thee although there should be some particulars as to the observation of Holy-dayes or the like which may not suit with the humour of every mans devotion Confident he is he saith that the daily practice of Reading Meditation Self-Examination Prayer the orderly and due practice of Humiliation Mortification and the rest of those Substantials which are here directed to cannot be gainsaid It might have been better taught but he hath done it as well and as plainly as he could Being therefore that thou canst not but say he is a good man who thus lives and wish that thou ever hadst lived so he chargeth it again upon thy conscience thus to live else art thou self-condemned and guilty of known negligence and omission Thou doest not endeavour what notwithstanding thy conscience cannot but approve He is confident further that if thou didst but feel that peace quiet joy and happiness which such practice leaves behind it if thou hast any sense what it is to have a clear Conscience and therefore free and chearful access to God and an humble fearlessness of the face of men which without some such practice as this thou canst never have thou needest no other argument to quicken thee to this practice Find a greater happiness on earth than for a man to be at peace with and like himself and get that peace by any other course than such exercise of godliness such circumspection over all thy wayes as hath been here taught and thou shalt have leave to neglect all but if thou canst not then think thy self bound to these practices For directions in the making use of the Book thou hast them in the Admonition to the Reader in the beginning of the Book whither return and read the whole over again It will be no whit worse the second time read And so God bless it and thee FINIS

many are already gone Perhaps one Moyety perhaps more So then all those things which my other time seeks are of a pitifull short and transient concernment But the graces of Gods spirit an holy heart a good conscience reconciliation with my heavenly Father these and such like are not only of concernment for my present happiness but for my eternall The richest honorablest and most worldly-happy Man if devoid of grace an enemy unto God conscious to himself of villany cannot in all his abundance here enjoy or like himself much less either account himself or be accounted an happy person For what can that Man acquiesce in whose own heart calling him a rogue laye● a fatall necessity upon him to hate and to be ever and anon ready to execrate himself Certainly there is no present possible happinesse which is comparable to that blessed calm and quiet which ariseth from the sense of a Mans one upright heart heart and discharged duty Insomuch that were there no such thing as an heaven to come I should not fear to pronounce that that man neglects those things which are of greatest conducement to his present happinesse who neglects to seek unto God to commune with his own heart to set all straight and to reclaim himself to an holy life the great means by which such peace the most reall felicity in the world can be had But suppose we such a person ready to die and it said unto Luk. xii 20. him Thou fool this night shall thy soule be taken from thee his peace being unmade with God himself unacquainted with heaven his conscience telling him that all his time hath been spent on what he must now leave and no provision made but of a treasure of wrath again the day of wrath for that etern● slate into which death is his entrance Rom. 11. 12. is he not now a most unhappy wretch Is it not to him a pa●equal to the paines of death to thi● he must leave all Hath he 〈◊〉 therefore by devoting himself to this world and scraping togeth●● such an ample portion thereof o● made himself more miserable a● that in this present life For is th● any misery here like to that ●●guish which racks such a soul up his now instant departure A●● would I then so spend my time that I might by the spending of become more miserable than a● save those who have lived as Would I so spend it as that the v●● thinking or reflecting how I spent it should then most torm● me when I have most need of co●fort to wit in my dying hour 〈◊〉 yet thus do all men spend their d● who neglect their devotions ot●●ies of daily addresse unto God But further suppose we such a person dead and we have him stript of all even his imaginary happinesse naked of every thing save his sins Of these his bones are full and they shall lye down with him in the dust Job 10. 11. His workes follow him and his wayes meet him Evident therefore it is that what he hath spent his life upon is now of no concernment or moment to him at all any otherwise than to render him for ever as miserable as he can be And is this a desirable end for a man all his dayes to be driving at to be miserable in life by reason of an evill conscience or an impossibility of liking and loving himself to be miserable in death by the advancing of that disquiet his former torment and most miserable after death by the perfection of that and all other mischiefs Whereas if some of those dayes which the world employed been taken up in seeking unto God how might that portion have sanctified all the rest have led him to a right improvement of what he got and that improvement of all been an unspeakable pleasure and content to him here and hereafter have wrought him an eternity of blessedness Not to mention that unspeakable satisfaction which the hearty performance of such devotions through the bloud of Christ would have filled him with which we may hereafter consider Whoso therefore truly loves himself will love his Closet and his Prayers Secondly Let me weigh the Reasonablenesse hereof that God should have a considerable part of my Time who hath given me so much for my self and the unreasonablenesse of the contrary Let me deal ingeniously may not God well expect more of my time than what is by any law set apart or consecrate to this worship And it being the genuine Evangelicall sense of the fourth commandement Keep all thy life an holy rest from doing thy own workes delighting thy self and acquiescing ever in the Lord will it not in a good measure hold thus Rest as much as thou canst to thy devotions spend Isai 58. 13 14. as many houres as thou canst with God Or suppose that this law would not in equity bind me hereunto which yet it seems to do is it not reasonable that there should be free will offerings of our time as well as of our estates And will there be any better way found for the imploying of what we can spare thereof than the thus sanctifiing and devoting it unto God I am confident whatever mens practices may be their consciences cannot gainsay but do highly approve and commend to them what is pressed We may complain fondly of the shortnesse of time but evident it is that we spend much upon this world much upon our games much upon our pleasures much upon our ambitions much also upon those necessary acts of life Eating Drinking Sleeping and much to upon God knowes we know not what Now let those who account themselves to have least leisure find but time enough to consider when they go to bed every night how much time they have lost or trifled away that day and setting it down every night reckon at the weeks end and see to how many hours it will amount Do so but one week o● two and see if you do not blush at the ordinary excuse for neglect of prayer that you have not time Fo● the issue will be of these two the own either my whole time hath been really imployed and that upon my common affaires and necessary care of my body or else some part of it to wit so much as hath not been imployed hath been trifled away Now utrum horum Let me take which I please If it be supposed all to have been imployed is it not most unreasonable that worldly businesse and my body should have all and God and my soul have none or next to none Did God make me for himself and allot me such a measure of time for his glory and for provision for my soul and are they only some few minutes which I can find either for him or it Was I say every day given me for these ends and can I spend all without considerable seeking either as I do if I allow nothing to private devotion Ought I not therefore to lessen my

and such mercies as we want c. according as we shall see occasion and either use the ground-work and substance of those our usual prayers with such amplifications as we shall judge meetest or for that time in stead of them use such other prayers as we shall find best to suit with our temper and occasions for the preparation of which prayers directions will hereafter be given In the mean time for better understanding and comprehending the precepts given as also for the supply of such who may haply be scarce able to frame to themselves such a form it may not be amiss to subjoyn one for morning and another for evening framed according to the former rules Chap. IX A Form of Prayer made according to the former accommodation which may be used in our morning Privacy THe Christian then having read and meditated as before directed let him reverently kneel down lifting up his hands and eyes but most surely his heart to Heaven say O Almighty and most Blessed God Lord of heaven and earth who makest the outgoings both of morning and evening and by whose good hand upon me thy creature I am awaked out of my last nights sleep and being risen here present my self before thee I humbly bow to thee my knees and therewith my heart and soul and desire with all that is within me to adore thy blessed Majesty But most unworthy and of my self most unsufficient am I to perform unto thee any worship or service What is dust and ashes and such am I if I were innocent to take upon it to speak unto the Lord But I O God am a guilty wretch one whom i● becommeth to stand a farre and shame covering my face to cry Vnclean Vnclean My soul is naturally overrun with lusts as with an universal Leprofie there is no free part of me My childhood and youth have not onely been vanity but sin I have done nothing else therein but fulfilled the desires of my flesh and mind My corruptions have onely grown with me and my sins since become so much the more sinful by how much the more knowledge I have had of thy will and strength and engagements to have performed it To this very day as indeed I ever have done I daily break thy holy Laws in thought word and actions by choosing what thou hast forbidden and neglecting what thou hast commanded ** * Here confess any particular or fresh sin committed or duty neglected which in thy examination of thy self thou hast found In all my ways I most miserably transgress My very a sleep it self O Lord is not innocent Nor is it thus onely in the common and more ordinary actions of my life Those few good deeds which I do have many not onely † Remember in the use of these or any such words to reflect in thy thoughts upon any particulars which thy conscience tels thee they may fitly represent to God touching thee infirmities but sins in them and I have need to repent of my very righteousness of my † *** I therefore so desire to do and am here come before thee as thou hast commanded me to confess my sin unto thee with hopes according to thy promise that I shall find mercy I have O God confessed to thee as I am able Now Mercy Mercy let me find with thee through Christ Jesus my Saviour Remember that atonement which he made by the bloud of his Cross In those streames throughly wash away my filth By those Wounds let me be healed and by his Death let me atttain a blessed immortality * * Particularly let me obtain the pardon of * And send down thine holy Spirit abundantly into mine heart which may renew me throughout according to thine Image healing all the naughty inclinations of my soul and begetting in me an hearty love unto holiness and a constant fear of thee my God that I may have respect unto all thy Commandments and walk before thee all my dayes with a perfect heart Quicken me also by the same thy good Spirit to give all diligence in every duty and especially in ** that I may grow in grace and in thy favour and daily come nearer unto salvation and thee And forasmuch as I my self am unstable as water preserve me by thy power through Faith that I fall not from my integrity nor depart wickedly from thee my God Especially keep thy servant from his iniquity or his iniquites of *** and make me most watchful against all those * Here thou maist have many private and proper reslexions and so generally wheresoever the same mark is set occasions and wiles of sin by which I have been formerly insnared My outward condition during all the dayes of my pilgrimage here on earth do thou order to thy glory and my own good and if it may be thy holy Will grant that it may be so far quiet and prosperous as that I may serve thee chearfully and without distraction Be gracious also O Lord unto thine Holy Church and to this Church especially Watch over us daily for good and be pleased to bless and preserve the Kings Majesty his Queen and all the Royall Family Grant that all Magistrates may be faithful both to thee and to their Prince and Country in their trust and that all Ministers of what degree soever may be sober watchful servent and successful in thy work Let the whole Nation and especially this neighbourhood grow in the true knowledge and fear of thee Visit with thy grace and blessing all my † Relations my † Friends and † Benefactors Forgive and reconcile both to thy self and me all mine † enemies Comfort relieve and in thine own good time deliver all thy servants † who are in any distress inward or outward and sanctifie both to them and me all thy dealings causing all things in the end to work together for good according to thine infinite Power and Wisdome whereby thou over-rulest all events For which thy gracious administration of the whole course of nature and the multitude of blessings appertaining both to this life and that which is to come which thy providence incessantly heapes upon all mankind and particularly upon me thy most undeserving servant for ever blessed be thy holy Name Especially may Heaven and Earth ever praise thee for the redemption of the world by thy Son and the knowledge of thee through him revealed in thy Word and the mighty workings of thy Spirit thereby And be thou pleased to accept of that praise which thy servant hereby returnes thee as great as he can for them all and particularly for this last nights refreshings together with the comfortable restoring him to the enjoyment of day Grant me thy special Grace that I may spend my time to thy Glory and may be all the day long in thy fear Keep me that I fall into no sin nor run into any danger And accept thou this my morning service and to gather me who here devote my self to

〈◊〉 through my Saviour Christ Jesus in whose Name I further pray as by him taught when I pray to say Our Father c. Chap. X. A form of prayer made as the other which may be used in our Evening Privacy IN like manner the Christian having entred his Closet with some such ejaculatory or short prayer as before directed to and having read and meditated as in the morning may I presume very profitably use with such alteration as his condition shall require and his discretion direct the ensuing Prayer O Most Holy and Gracious Father the searcher of all hearts who seest my down-lying as well as up-rising darkness and light being both alike to thee who art near unto all my wayes and espiest my thoughts while they are yet afar off I have here set my self before thee to pay my evening homage and desire to present both my soul and body as is most due a living Sacrifice to thee my God who hast made and redeemed both But most unfit O Lord are they to be to thee presented every part of both being naturally corrupt and abominable and nothing in me free from the loathsome defilement of sin My soul is desperately wicked and all its powers perverse and bent upon evil My mind alienated from thee through the ignorance that is within me My affections unruly and masterless My will full of enmity to thy Law and enslaved to the service of divers lusts and pleasures And as to my body in iniquity O Lord was I shapen and in sin did my Mother conceive me And ever since have all my members been servants unto iniquity and instruments of wickedness With my whole man have I obeyed the law of sin and fulfilled the desires of my flesh and corrupt mind I scarce can think of that sin in which I have not had my hands one part of my time or other In sin O God have I spent not onely my vainer age and the days of my ignorance but my ripest years and those of fullest discretion which I have yet attain'd to Since the light of thy Gospel hath shone into my opened eys since thou hast touched my heart with a sense of that evil which there is in sin so wicked and perverse a servant have I been that knowing my Lords will I have both neglected to do accordingly and presumptuously done contrary unto it To the very present time O Lord how † frequently and how † sadly do I backslide What † liberty do I allow my self How † heedlesly do I converse I walk at a meer peradventure with thee my God Notwithstanding all my vows and promises of watchfulness unto obedience this very day how little hath thy fear been in my heart and from hence comes it to pass that I have so miserably departed from thee by ** * Here confess any of the miscarriages of the day which thou hast been supposed to have taken notice of in thy meditation With what stripes therefore do I deserve to be beaten And how righteous a quarrel against me hath not onely thy Justice but thy very Grace and Mercy Notwithstanding O Blessed Father give thy poor creature leave to beseech and let him prevail with thee not to take that advantage against him which justly thou mayest Rather now thou hast borne so long break my heart by this thy goodness and make thy forbearance and long-suffering to lead me to repentance Vouchsafe unto me thy sanctifying Spirit Let it fill me with an holy shame of my former wayes And let the sense of my own unworthiness towards thee beget in me an holy indignation against my self a passionate and constant zeal by future diligence as far as is possible to redeem and repair some of my lost and most sadly mis-spent time Let my heart be never void of a stedfast purpose of serving thee in the impartial performance of every known duty especially of *** and careful avoidance of every sin * Here put in any thing for which thou findest occasion And having thus given to will do thou of the same thy good pleasure give also to do following the preventions of thy Grace by the continual assistances thereof so that I may proceed from one virtue unto another perfecting holiness in thy fear and keeping a conscience void of offence towards thee and all men And this my cordial purpose and perseverance in endeavours of pleasing thee do thou through the bloud of my Saviour graciously accept laying not to my charge any of my former sins nor visiting upon me either the neglects or transgressions of my duty At least however thou shalt here deal with thy servant in the last day acquit him of all guilt and through the merits of thy Son let him obtain remission of his sin and an inheritance in thine everlasting Kingdom In the mean while as to the necessaries of this present life give thy servant what thou pleasest and what thou seest best for him even food convenient Thou needest not O God my service but accept my ambition of being serviceable unto thee and bless me both with strength and opportunities for it and if it may be thy holy will with success therein Father I pray unto thee also for all men forasmuch as thou art a God who wouldest have all to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of thy truth especially for all and every member and members of thy Universal Church and for the particular Church of this the Land of my nativity For the Kings Majesty the Queen and the whole Royal Family for all that are in authority for the several Stewards of thy Mysteries the Ministers of thy Gospel for him in particular to whose oversight thou hast committed me that thou wilt give unto them all according to thy most gracious pleasure the blessings both of this life and that which is to come especially such measures of thy Spirit that every shoulder may be fitted for its burden and all amongst us may faithfully serve thee according to their several degrees so that this whole Land may be blessed with abundance of prosperity and peace so long as the Sun and Moon endureth Forget not peculiarly to shew mercy unto the relations friends helpers and well-wishers of thy servant Reward I beseech thee all their love and forgive good Lord divert and put an end unto all others malice or enmity Let thine eyes be ever open upon and the bowels of thy compassion be moved towards all thy wanting and suffering servants Support them under and graciously deliver them out of all their distresses and let the end be peace and righteousness and blessedness for ever Thy servant will speak yet once more and praise thee for thine infinite love and compassion to that miserable nature of which he is a partaker in revealing to us when we had lost or corrupted it the knowledge of thy self both by the light of Nature and most clearly by thy holy Word in sending thy Son for our redemption

but the recompence of it with many signal blessings recorded in Scripture which recompence God doth not use to give to will-worship Thus we find Anna commended for her continuing in the Temple day and night serving God with Fastings and Prayers And it Luke 2. 36. is observable that fasting is there reckoned as one part of her serving God That blessed vision which led Cornelius to the knowledge of Act. 10. Christ was vouchsafed to him upon a day when he had fasted till about the ninth hour which is with us three a clock and then too we find him not at meat but prayer All which cannot but enforce that though it be not alwaies and indispensibly a duty as is Faith Repentance Charity and such others yet is it as far a duty as any thing can be that is not required absolutely and for it self and that therefore whensoever there is occasion for it and no Christian can be long without due occasions requiring it it is to be performed and being so if it should be performed in manner of a free will offering or oftner than in strictness the Christian might seem to have need of it yet if it be done as it should be it is likely to be acceptable to God But this makes it seasonable to enquire how often a Christian is to fast Chap. IV. How often a Christian is to fast IN answer whereunto it must be said that no certain or constant rule as to all persons can or may be given herein nor will the times of fasting be the same to all some men having more need others less if not need yet opportunity We are assured by the ends to which it serves that many mens particular conditions which haply leave them none other means to mortifie the flesh but this make it a duty very necessary for them to be much in On the other side those who ever feed sparingly and temperately and have an evener constitution less inclined to carnality and inordinate affections than have other men seem to have least need of this taming discipline And those whose labours are daily and hard and whose life is servile many times neither have so much need nor so much opportunity of fasting as have those whose life is easier Yet forasmuch as it is according to what hath been above insinuated a piece of Afflicting a mans soul and so a necessary piece of contrition and repentance which hath commonly somewhat of indignation against a mans self in it there is none who can think himself wholy dispensed with for it or to have no need at all of it But I say every mans conscience and Christian discretion must in the fear of God set to himself the rule how often he is to fast for that every one best knows his own needs and it would be very sinful in some not to use more strict and oftner fastings than others and some on the contrary must be very injurious to themselves should they use so much fasting as others if they duely consider their leisure and condition cannot but think themselves in duty bound to This is the sum of what in general may be positively determined as to all Yet it is worthy our consideration and may be a guide to particular persons to remember First that it is a practice of very great antiquity to fast twice a week and was in use as is evident before our Saviours daies and by him not censured in the Pharisee upon any other account than because he was proud and conceited of it using to reflect upon it in oftentation of his own holiness and scorn of others And it is a very worthy note of St. Chrysostomes that we should onely avoid the Pharisees pride but not neglect his performances as on the other side forsake the Publicans sins but retain his humility I here is also a constitution which although perhaps it pretend to more authority and antiquity than it ought yet must be acknowledged to be ancient and not unreasonable that we should fast Wednesdaies and Fridaies because on the one the Lord was betrayed and on the other crucified and it is beyond controversie Constitute a Clem. Roman collect Lib 5. Cap. 14. that the primitive Christians used to have their solemn assemblies upon those daies not much less constant than upon the Lords daies Secondly that if this course be not alwaies to be used which yet I know not what should hinder except a man want leisure yet at certain seasons as in Lent and Ember weeks the commands and custom of the Church will engage me to as much as this amounts to if not to more And he to whom the commands of our present and continued practice of the Catholick Church in devotionals signifie nothing is surely a man of a strange humourous sanctity Lastly It is out of question that there is no Christian can walk strictly and keep a good conscience towards God and man who hath not Dr. H●mmons Pract. Catech Lio 2. Sect 3. his solemn set daies for the performing that great and weighty duty of humiliation in calling himself to an account for all his waies and confessing his sins more particularly before God and those daies should not be too slow in their returns that is too seldom least his soul should be too deep in arrears that is least there should be such a long score of his sins unrepented of that he think it an infinite and endless work to repent of them and so be loath to come to account at all It is very reasonable therefore for every man and woman of any tolerable leisure to set apart one day in a week for this purpose or if the whole day or any other part of it may not be spared from the business of his calling yet the dinner time that day may be borrowed from eating and thus more usefully imployed without disturbance to the affairs or injury to the health of any ordinary person I do not say that this day ought alwaies to be one and the same it may be one week one day and the next another according as my occasions will best bear nay even after I have appointed it upon unexpected events it may undoubtedly be altered without sin but wholy neglected it cannot be without a sinful omission except upon some urgent or more than ordinary business Chap. V. Of the Preparatory acts for Private Fasting daies THe worship of God is ever best celebrated when some kind of preparation is made for it It will be meet therefore that somewhat I do by way of preparation for my private fasts And one piece of Preparation as well for these daies as for the Lords day it self though indeed somewhat remote or afarre off it will be to be diligent other daies in my calling and well to husband both my time and estate For if he who hath not by his six daies labour made such provision for himself and his as that he may be without care of providing upon