Laws of Religion and the Common-wealth O Lord I am but an infirm man and know not how to decree certain sentences without erring in judgment but doe thou give to thy servant an understanding heart to judge this people that I may discern between good and evil Cause me to walk before thee and all the people in truth and righteousness and in sincerity of heart that I may not regard the person of the mighty nor be afraid of his terrour nor despise the person of the poor and reject his petition but that doing justice to all men I and my people may receive mercy of thee peace and plenty in our daies and mutual love duty and correspondence that there be no leading into captivity no complaining in our streets but we may see the Church in prosperity all our daies and religion established and increasing Doe thou establish the house of thy servant and bring me to a participation of the glories of thy kingdom for his sake who is my Lord and King the holy and ever blessed Saviour of the world our Redeemer Jesus Amen A Prayer to be said by Parents for their Children O Almighty and most merciful Father who hast pâ—omised children as a reward to the righteous 〈◊〉 hast given them to me as a testimony of thy mercy and an ingagement of my duty be pleased to be a Father unto them give them healthful bodies understanding souls and sanctified spirits that they may be thy servants and thy children all their daies Let a great mercy and providence lead them through the dangers and temptations and ignorances of their youth that they may never run into folly and the evils of an unbridled appetite So order the accidents of their livâ—s that by good education careful Tutors holy example innocent company prudent counsel and thy restraining grace their duty to thee may be secured in the midst of a crooked and untoward generation and if it seem good in thy eyes let me be enabled to provide conveniently for the support of their persons that they may not be destitute and miserable in my death or if thou shalt call me off from this World by a more timely summons let their portion be thy care mercy and providence over their bodies and souls and may they never live vitious lives nor die violent or untimely deaths but let them glorifie thee here with a free obedience and the duties of a whole life that when they have served thee in their generations and have profited the Christian Common-wealth they may be coheirs with Jesus in the glories of thy eternal Kingdom through the same our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen A prayer to be said by Masters of Families Curats Tutors or other obliged persons for their charger O Almighty God merciful and gracious have mercy upon my Family or Pupils or Parishioners c. and all committed to my charge sanctifie them with thy grace preserve them with thy providence guard them from all evil by the custody of Angels direct them in the waies of peace and holy Religion by my Ministery and the conduct of thy most holy Spirit and consigne them all with the participation of thy blessings and graces in this World with healthful bodies with good understandings and sanctified spirits to a full fruition of thy glories hereafter through Jesus Christ our Lord. A Prayer to be said by Merchants Tradesmen and Handicrafts men O Eternal God thou Fountain of justice mercy and benediction who by my education and other effects of thy Providence hast called me to this profession that by my industry I may in my small proportion work together for the good of my self and others I humbly beg thy grace to guâ—de me in my intention and in the transaction of my affairs that I may be diligent just and faithful and give me thy favour that this my labour may be accepted by thee as a part of my necessary duty and give me thy blessing to assist and prosper me in my Calling to such measures as thou shalt in mercy choose for me and be pleased to let thy holy Spirit be for ever present with me that I may never be given to covetousness and sordid appetites to lying and falshood or any other base indirect and beggerly arts but give me prudence honesty and Christian sinceâ—ity that my trade may be sanctified by my Religion my labour by my intention and thy blessing that when I have done my portion of work thou hast â—llotted me and improved the talent thou hast instrusted to me and served the Common-wealth in my capacity I may receive the mighty price of my high calling which I expect and beg in the portion and inheritance of the ever blessed Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Amen A Prayer to be said by Debtors and all persons obliged whether by crime or contract O Almighty God who art rich unto all the treasurie and fountain of all good of all justice and all mercy and all bounty to whom we owe all that we are and all that we have being thy Debtors by reason of our sins and by thy own gracious contract made with us in Jesus Christ teach me in the first place to perform all my Obligations to thee both of duty and thankfulness and next enable me to pay my duty to all my friends and my debts to all my Creditors that none be made miserable or lessened in his estate by his kindness to me or traffick with me Forgive me all those sins and irregular actions by which I entred into debt further then my necessity required or by which such necessity was brought upon me but let not them suffer by occasion of my sin Lord reward all their kindness into their bosoms make them recompense where I cannot and make me very willing in all that I can and able for all that I am obliged to or if it seem good in thine eyes to afflict me by the continuance of this condition yet make it up by some means to them that the prayer of thy servant may obtain of thee at least to pay my debt in blessings Amen V. LOrd sanctifie and forgive all that I have tempted to evil by my discourse or my example instruct them in the right way whom I have led to errour and let me never run further on the score of sin but doe thou blot out all the evils I have done by the spunge of thy passion and the blood of thy Crosse and give me a deep and an excellent repentance and a free and a gracious pardon that thou may est answer for me O Lord and enable me to stand upright in judgment for in thee O Lord have I trusted let me never be confounded Pity me and instruct me guide me and support me pardon me and save me for my sweet Saviour Jesus Christ his sake Amen A Prayer for Patron and Benefactors O Almighty GOD thou Fountain of all good of all excellâ—ncy both to Men and Aâ—gels exâ—end thine abundant favour and
to satisfie whom we have injur'd and to forgive them who have injur'd us without thoughts of resuming the quarrel when the solemnity is over for that is but to rake the embers in light and phantastick ashes it must be quenched and a holy flame enkindled no fires must be at all but the fires of love and zeal and the altar of incense will send up a sweet perfume and make atonement for us 7. When the day of the feast is come lay aside all cares and impertinencies of the World and remember that this is thy Souls day a day of traffique and entercourse with Heaven Arise early in the morning 1. Give God thanks for the approach of so great a blessing 2. Confess thy own unworthiness to admit so Divine a Guest 3 Then remember and deplore thy sins which have made thee so unworthy 4. Then confess Gods goodness and take sanctuary there and upon him place thy hopes 5. And invite him to thee with renewed acts of love of holy desire of hatred of his enemy sin 6. Make oblation of thy self wholy to be disposed by him to the obedience of him to his providence and possession and pray him to enter and dwell there for ever And after this with joy and holy fear and the forwardness of love address thy self to the receiving of him to whom by whom and for whom all faiths and all hope and all love in the whole Catholick Church both in Heaven and Earth is designed him whom Kings and Queens and whole Kingdomes are inlove with and count it the greatest honour in the World that their Crowns and Scepters are laid at his holy feet 8. When the holy man stands at the Table of blessing and ministers the rite of consecration then do as the Angels do who behold and love and wonder that the Son of God should become food to the souls of his servants that he who cannot suffer any change of â—essening should be broken into pieces enter into the body to support and nourish the spirit and yet at the same time remain in Heaven while he descends to thee upon Earth that he who hath essential felicity should become miserable and dye for thee and then give himself to thee for ever to redeem thee from sin and misery that by his wounds he should procure health to thee by his affronts he should entitle thee to glory by his death he should bring thee to life and by becoming a man he should make thee partaker of the Divine nature These are such glories that although they are made so obvious that each eye may behold them yet they are also so deep that no thought can fathome them But so it hath pleased him to make these mysteries to be sensible because the excellency and depth of the mercy is not intelligible that while we are ravished and comprehended within the infiniteness of so vast and mysterious a mercy yet we may be as sure of it as of that thing we see and feel smell and taste but yet is so great that we cannot understand it 9. These holy mysteries are offered to our senses but not to be placed under our feet they are sensible but not common and therefore as the weakness of the Elements adds wonder to the excellency of the Sacrament so let our reverence and venerable usages of them adde honour to the Elements and acknowledge the glory of he mysterie and the Divinity of the mercy Let us receive the consecrated Elements with all devotion and humility of body and spirits and do this honour to it that it be the first food we eat and the first beverage we drink that day unless it be in case of sickness or other great necessity and that your body and soul both be prepared to its reception with abstinence from secular pleasures Disâ—â—diâ—e alia is Qums tuliâ— hâ—stemaÌ„ gaudia necâ—e Venuâ— that you may better have attended fastings and preparatory prayers For if ever it be seasonable to observe the counsell of Saint Paul that married person by consent should abstain foâ— a time that they may attend to solemn Religion it is now It was not by Saint Paul nor the after ages of the Church called a duty so to do but it is most reasonable that the more solemn actions of Religion should be attended to without the mixture of any thing that may discompose the minde and make it more secular or less religious 10. In the act of receiving exercise acts of Faith with much confidence and resignation believing it not to be common bread and wine but holy in their use holy in their signification holy in their change and holy in their effect and believe if thou art a worthy Communicant thou dost as verily receive Christs body and blood to all effects and purposes of the spirit Cruci haremus sanguinem sugimus inâ—er ipsa Redemptoriâ— nostri vulnera figimus linguam Cyprian de caena Dom. as thou doest receive the blessed elements into thy mouth that thou puttest thy finger to his hand and thy hand into his side and thy lips into his fontinel of blood sucking life from his heart and yet if thou doest communicate unworthily thou eatest and drinkest Christ to thy danger and death and destruction Dispute not concerning the secret of the mystery and the nicety of the manner of Christs presence it is sufficient to thee that Christ shall be present to thy soul as an instrument of grace a pledge of the resurrection as the earnest of glory and immortality and a meanes of many intermediall blessings even all such as are necessary for thee and are in order to thy salvation and to make all this good to thee there is nothing necessary on thy part but a holy life and a true belief of all the sayings of Christ amongst which indefinitely assent to the words of institution and beleive that Christ in the holy Sacrament gives thee his body and his blood He that believes not this is not a Christian He that believes so much needs not to enquire further nor to intangle his faith by disbelieving his sense 11. Fail not this solemnity according to the custom of pious devout people to make an offering to God for the uses of religion the poor according to thy ability For when Christ feasts his body let us also feast our fellow members who have right to the same promises and are partakers of the same Sacrament and partners of the same hope and cared for under the same providence and descended from the same common parents and whose Father God is and Christ is their Elder brother If thou chancest to communicate where this holy custom is not observed publickly supply that want by thy private charity but offer it to God at his holy Table at least by thy private designing it there 11. When you have received pray and give thanks Pray for all estates of men for they also have an interest in the body
Baptisme Thou hast reconciled us by thy death justified us by thy Resurrection sanctified us by thy Spirit sending him upon thy Church in visible formes and giving him in powers and miracles and mighty signes and continuing this incomparable favour in gifts and sanctifying graces and promising that he shall abide with us for ever thou hast led us with thine own broken body and given drink to our soules out of thine own heart and hast ascended upon high and hast overcome all the powers of Death and Hell and redeemed us from the miseries of a sad eternity and sittest at the right hand of God making intercession for us with a never-ceasing charity O that men would therefore praise the Lord c. The grave could not hold thee long O holy eternal Jesus thy body could not see corruption neither could thy soul be left in Hel thou wert fre among the dead and thou brakest the iron gates of Death and the barrs and chains of the lower prisons Thou broughtest comfort to the souls of the Patriarchs who waited for thy coming who long'd for the redemption of Man and the revelation of thy day Abraham Isac and Jacob saw thy day and rejoyced and when thou didst arise from thy bed of darkness and leftest the grave-clothes behinde thee and put on a robe of glory over which for 40 dayes thou didst wear a veil and then entred into a cloud and then into glory then the powers of Hell were confounded then Death lost its power and was swallowed up into victory and though death is not quite destroyed yet it is made harmless and without a sting and the condition of Humane Nature is made an entrance to eternal glory and art become the Prince of life the first-fruits of the resurrection the first-born from the dead having made the way plain before our faces that we may also rise again in the Resurrection of the last day when thou shalt come again unto us to render to every man according to his works O that men would therefore praise the Lord c. O give thanks unto the Lord for he is gracious and his mercy endureth for ever O all ye angels of the Lord praise ye the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever O ye spirits and souls of the Righteous praise ye the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever And now O Lord God what shall I render to thy Divine Majesty for all the benefits thou hast done unto thy servant in my personall capacity Thou art my Creator and my Father my Protector and my Guardian thou hast brought me from my Mothers wombe thou hast told all my Joynts and in thy book were all my members written Thou hast given me a comely body Christian and carefull parents holy education Thou hast been my guide and my teacher all my dayes Thou hast given me ready faculties an unloosed tongue a cheerful spirit straight limbs a good reputation and liberty of person a quiet life and a tender conscience a loving wife or husband and hopefull children thou wert my hope from my youth through thee have I been holden up ever since I was born Thou hast clothed me and fed me given me friends and blessed them given me many dayes of comfort and health free from those sad infirmities with which many of thy Saints and dearest servants are afflicted Thou hast sent thy Angel to snatch me from the violence of fire and water to prevent praecipices fracture of bones to rescue me from thunder and lightning plague and pestilentiall diseases murder and robbery violence of chance and enemies and all the spirits of darkness and in the dayes of sorrow thou hast refreshed me in the destitution of provisions thou hast taken care of me and thou hast said unto me I will never leave thee nor forsake thee I will give thanks unto the Lord with my whole heart secretly among the faithfull and in the congregation Thou O my dearest Lord and Father hast taken care of my soul hast pitied my miseries sustained my infirmities relieved and instructed my ignorances and though I have broken thy righteous Laws and Commandements run passionately after vanities and was in love with Death and was dead in sin and was exposed to thousands of temptations and fell foully and continued in it and lov'd to have it so and hated to be reformed yet thou didst call me with the checks of conscience with daily Sermons and precepts of holiness with fear and shame with benefits and the admonitions of thy most holy Spirit by the counsell of my friends by the example of good persons with holy books and thousands of excellent arts and wouldest not suffer me to perish in my folly but didst force me to attend to thy gracious calling and hast put me into a state of repentance and possibilities of pardon being infinitely desirous I should live and recover and make use of thy grace and partake of thy glories I will give thanks unto the Lord with my whole heart secretly among the faithful and in the congregation For salvation belongeth unto the Lord and thy blessing is upon thy servant But as for me I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercies and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple * For of thee and in thee and through and for thee are all things Blessed be the name of God from generation to generation Amen A short Form of thanksgiving to be said upon any special deliverance as from Child-birth from Sickness from battel or imminent danger at Sea or Land c. O most mercifull and gracious God thou fountain of all mercy and blessing thou hast opened the hand of thy mercy to fill me with blessings and the sweet effects of thy loving kindness thou feedest us like a Shepherd thou governest us as a king thou bearest us in thy arms like a nurse thou dost cover us under the shadow of thy wings and shelter us like a hen thou ô Dearest Lord wakest for us as a Watchman thou providest for us like a Husband thou lovest us as a friend and thinkest on us perpetually as a carefull mother on her helpless babe and art exceeding mercifull to all that fear thee and now O Lord thou hast added this great blessing of deliverance from my late danger here name the blessing it was thy hand and the help of thy mercy that relieved me the waters of affliction had drowned me and the stream had gon over my soul if the spirit of the Lord had not moved upon these waters Thou O Lord didst revoke thy angry sentence which I had deserved and which was gone out against me Unto thee O Lord I ascribe the praise and honour of my redemption I will be glad and rejoyce in thy mercy for thou hast considered my trouble and hast known my soul in adversity As thou hast spred thy hand upon me for a covering so also enlarg my heart with thankfulness and fill my
door of my lips that I offend not in my tongue neither against piety nor charity Teach me to think of nothing but thee and what is in order to thy glory and service to speak nothing but thee and thy glories and to do nothing but what becomes thy servant whom thy infinite mercy by the graces of thy holy Spirit hath sealed up to the day of Redemption VII LEt all my passions and affections be so mortified and brought under the dominion of grace that I may never by deliberation and purpose nor yet by levity rashness or inconsideration offend thy Divine Majesty Make me such as thou wouldst have me to be strengthen my faith confirm my hope and giue me a daily encrease of charity that this day and ever I may serve thee according to all my opportunities and capacities growing from grace to grace till at last by thy mercies I shall receive the consummation and perfection of grace even the glories of thy Kingdom in the full fruition of the face and excellencies of God the Father the Son and the holy Ghost to whom be glory and praise honour and adoration given by all Angels and all Men and all creatures now and to all eternity Amen ¶ To this may be added the prayer of intercession for others whom we are bound to remember which is at the end of the foregoing Prayer or else you may take such special Prayers which follow at the end of the fourth Chapter for Parents for children c. After which conclude with this eâ—aculation Now and in all tribulation and anguish of spirit in all dangers of soul and body in prosperity and adversity in the hour of death and in the day of judgment holy and most blessed Saviour Jesus have mercy upon me save me and deliver me and all faithfull people Amen ¶ Between this and Noon usually are said the publick prayers appointe by â—uthority to which all the Clergie are obliged and other devout persons that have leisure to accompany them ¶ Afternoon or at any time of the day when a devout person retires into his closeâ— for private Prayer or spiritual exercises he may say the following devotions An exercise to be used at anytime of the day IN the name of the Father and of the Son c. Our Father c. The Hymn collected out of the Psalms recounting the excellencies and greatnesse of God O be joyful in God all ye lands sing praises unto the honour of his Name make his Name to be glorious * O come hither and behold the works of God how wonderful he is in his doings toward the children of men He ruleth with his power for ever He is the Father of the fatherlesse and defendeth the cause of the widow even God in his holy habitation He is the God that maketh men to be of one minde in a house and bringeth the prisoners out of captivity but letteth the runnagates continue in scarceness It is the Lord that commandeth the waters it is the glorious God that maketh the thunder * It is the Lord that ruleth the sea the voice of the Lord is mighty in operation the voice of the Lord is a glorious voice Let all the Earth fear the Lord stand in awe of him all ye that dwell in the world Thou shalt shâ—w us wonderfull things in thy righteousness O God of our salvation thou that art the hope of all the ends of the Earth and of them that remain in the broad Sea Glory be to the Father c. Or this O Lord thou art my God I will exalt thee I will praise thy Name for thou hast done wonderful things thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth Isa. 25.1 Thou in thy strength setst fast the Mountains and art girded about with power Thou stillest the raging of the Sea and the noise of his waves and the madness of his people They also that remain in the uttermost parts of the Earth shall be afraid at thy tokens thou that makest the out goings of the morning and evening to praise thee O Lord God of Hosts who is like unto thee thy truth most mighty Lord is on every side Among the gods there is none like unto thee O Lord there is none that can doe as thou dâ—est For thou art great and doest wondrous things thou art God alone God is very greatly to be feared in the councel of the Saints and to be had in reverence oâ— all them that are round about him Righteousness and equity is in the habitation of thy seat mercy and truth shall go before thy face Glory and worship are before him power and honour are in his Sanctuary Thou Lord art the thing that I long for thou art my hope even from my youth through thee have I been holden up ever since I was born thou art he that took me out of my mothers womb my praise shall be alwaies of thee Glory be to the Father c ¶ After this may be read some portion of holy Scripture out of the New Testament or out of the sapiential books of the Old viz Proverbs Ecclesiastes c. because these are of great use to piety and to civil conversation Vpon which when you have a while meditated humbly composing your self upon your knees say as followeth Eiaculations My help standeth in the name of the Lord who hath made Heaven and Earth Shew the light of thy countenance upon thy servant and I shall be safe Doe well O Lord to them that be true of heart and evermore mightily defend them Direct me in thy truth and teach me for thou art my Saviour and my great Master Keep me from sin and death eternal and from my enemies visible and invisible Give me grace to live a holy life and thy favour that I may die a godly and happy death Lord hear the prayer of thy servant and give me thy holy â—pirit The Prayer O Eternal God merciful and gratious vouchsafe thy favour and thy blessing to thy servant let the love of thy mercies and the dread and fear of thy Majesty make me careful and inquisitive to search thy will and diligent to perform it and to persevere in the practises of a holy life even till the last of my daies II. KEep me O Lord for I am thine by creation guide me for I am thine by purchase thou hast redeemed me by the blood of thy Son and love me with the love of a Father for I am thy child by adoption and grace let thy mercy pardon my sins thy providence secure me from the punishments and evils I have deserved and thy care watch over me that I may never any more offend thee make me in malice to be a childe but in understanding piety and the fear of God let me be a perfect man in Christ innocent and prudent readily furnished and instructed to every good work III. KEep me O Lord from the destroying Angel and from the wrath of God let thy anger never rise
against me but thy rod gently correct my follies and guide me in thy waies and thy staffe support me in all sufferings and changes Preserve me from fracture of bones from noisâ—me infectious and sharp sicknesses from great violences of Fortune and sudden surprises keep all my senses intire till the day of my death and let my death be neither sudden untimely nor unprovided let it be after the common manner of men having in it nothing extraordinary but an extraordinary piety and the manifestation of thy great and miraculous mercy IV. LEt no riches make me ever forget my self no poverty ever make me to forget thee Let no hope or fear no pleasure or pain no accident without no weakness within hinder or discompose my duty or turn me from the waies of thy Commandements O let thy spirit dwell with me for ever and make my soul just and charitable full oâ— honesty full of religion resolute and constant in holy purposes but inflexible to evil Make me humble and obedient peaceable and pious let me never envy any mans good nor deserve to be despised my self and if I be teach me to bear it with meekness and charity V. GIve me a tender conscience a conversation discreet and affable modest and patient liberal and obliging a body chaste and healthful compitency of living according to my condition contentedness in all estates a resigned will and mortified affections that I may be as thou wouldest have me and my portion may be in the lot of the righteous in the brightness of thy countenance and the glories of eternity Amen Holy is our God Holy is the Almighty * Holy is the immortal Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabaoth have mercy upon me A form of Prayer for the Evening to be said by such who have not time or opportunity to say the publick Prayers appointed for this office I. Evening Prayer O Eternal God Great Father of Men and Angels who hast established the Heavens and the Earth in a wonderful order making day and night to exceed each other I make my humble addresse to thy Divine Majestie begging of thee mercy and protection this night and ever O Lord pardon all my sins my light and rash words the vanity and impiety of my thoughts my unjust and uncharitable actions and whatsoever I have transgressed against thee this day or at any time before Behold O God my soul is troubled in the remembrance of my sins in the frailty and sinfulness of my flesh exposed to every temptation and of it self not able to resist any Lord God of mercy I earnestly beg of thee to give me a great portion of thy grace such as may be sufficient and effectual for the mortification of all my sins and vanities and disorders that as I have formerly served my lust and unworthy desires so now I may give my self up wholly to thy service and the studies of a holy life II. BLessed Lord teach me frequently and sadly to remember my sins and be thou pleased to remember them no more let me never forget thy mercies and doe thou still remember to doe me good Teach me to walk alwaies as in thy presence Ennoble my soule with great degrees of love to thee and consigne my spirit with great fear religion and veneration of thy holy Name and laws that it may become the great imployment of my whole life to serve thee to advance thy glory to root out all the accursed habits of sin that in holiness of life in humility in charity in chastity and all the ornaments of grace I may by patience wait for the coming of our Lord Jesus Amen III. TEach me O Lord to number my daies that I may apply my heart unto wisdom ever to remember my last end that I may not dare to sin against thee Let thy holy Angels be ever present with me to keep me in all my waies from the malice and violence of the spirits of darkness from evil company and the occasions and opportunities of evil from perishing in popular judgments from all the waies of sinfull shame from the hands of all mine enemies from a sinful life and from despair in the day of my death Then O brightest Jesu shine gloriously upon me let thy mercies and the light of thy countenance sustain me in all my agonies weaknesses and temptations Give me opportunity of a prudent and spiritual Guide and of receiving the holy Sacrament and let thy loving Spirit so guide me in the waies of peace and safety that with the testimony of a good conscience and the sense of thy mercies and refreshment I may depart this life in the unity of the Church in the love of God and a certain hope of salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord and most blessed Saviour Amen Our Father c. Another form of Evening Prayer which may also be used at bed-time Our Father c. Psal. 121. I Will lift up my eyes unto the hils from whence cometh my help My help cometh of the Lord which made heaven and earth He will not suffer thy foot to be moved he that keepeth thee will not slumber Behold he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep The Lord is thy keeper the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand The sun shall not smite thee by day neither the moon by night The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil he shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth for evermore Glory be to the Father c. I. VIsit I beseech thee O Lord this habitation with thy mercy and me with thy grace and salvation Let thy holy Angels pitch their tents round about and dwel here that no illusion of the night may abuse me the spirits of darkness may not come neer to hurt me no evil or sad accident oppresse me and let the eternall spirit of the father dwell in my soul and body filling every corner of my heart with light and grace Let no deed of darkness overtake me and thy blessing most blessed GOD be upon me for ever through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen II. INto thy hands most blessed Jesu I commend my soul and body for thou hast redeemed both with thy most precious blood So blesse and sanctifie my sleep unto me that it may be temperate holy and safe a refreshment to my wearied body to enable it so to serve my soul that both may serve thee with a never failing duty O let me never sleep in sin or death eternal but give me a watchfull and a prudent spirit that I may omit no opportunity of serving thee that whether I sleep or wake live or die I may be thy servant and thy childe that when the work of my life is done I may rest in the bosome of my Lord till by the voice of the Archangel the tâ—ump of God I shall be awakened and called to sit down and feast in the eternal supper of
they are excellent in order to certain ends And the second cannot be cause of sorrow because he hath no need to use them as the case now stands being provided for with the provisions of an Angel and the manner of Eternity However the sons and the parents friends and relatives are in the world like hours and minutes to a day The hour comes must pass and some stay but minutes and they also pass shall never return again But let it be considered that from the time in which a man is conceived from that time forward to Eternity he shall never cease to be and let him die young or old still he hath an immortal soul and hath laid down his body only for a time as that which was the instrument of his trouble and sorrow and the scene of sicknesses and disease But he is in a more noble manner of being after death then he can be here and the childe may with more reason be allowed to crie for leaving his mothers womb for this world then a man can for changing this world for another Sudden death or violent Others are yet troubled at the manner of their childes or friends death He was drowned or lost his head or died of the plague and this is a new spring of sorrow but no man can give a sensible account how it shall be worse for a childe to die with drowning in half an hour then to endure a feaver of one and twenty daies And if my friend lost his head so he did not lose his constancy and his religion he died with huge advantage Being Childelesse But by this means I am left without an Heir Well suppose that Thou hast no Heir and I have no inheritance and there are many Kings and Emperours that have died childlesse many Royal lines are extinguished And Augustus Caesar was forced to adopt his wives son to inherit all the Roman greatness And there are many wise persons that never married and we read no where that any of the children of the Apostles did survive their Fathers and all that inherit any thing of Christs kingdom come to it by Adoption not by natural inheritance and to die without a natural heir is no intolerable evil since it was sanctified in the person of Jesus who died a Virgin Evil or unfortunate Children And by this means we are freed from the greater sorrows of having a fool a swine or a goat to rule after us in our families and yet even this condition admits of comfort For all the wilde â—mericans are supposed to be the sons of Dodanim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epict. and the sons of Jacob are now the most scattered and despised people in the whole world The son of Solomon was but a silly weak man and the son of Hâ—zekiah was wicked and all the fools and barbarous people all the thieves and pirates all the slaves and miserable men and women of the world are the sons and daughters of Noah and we must not look to be exempted from that portion of sorrow which God gave to Noah and Adam to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob I pray God send us into the lot of Abraham But if any thing happens worse to us it is enough for us that we bear it evenly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our own death And how if you were to die your self you know you must Only be ready for it Ad sines cum pervanâ—reâ— ne reveâ—tilo Pythag by the preparations of a good life and then it is the greatest good that ever happened to thee else there is nothing that can comfort you But if you have served God in a holy life send away the women and the weepers tell them it is as much intemperance to weep too much as to laugh too much and when thou art alone or with fitting company die as thou shouldest but doe not die impatiently and like a fox catched in a trap For if you fear death you shall never the more avoid it but you make it miserable Faunius that kill'd himself for fear of death died as certainly as Portia that eat burning coals or Cato that cut his own throat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To die is necessary and natural and it may be honourable but to die poorly and basely and sinfully that alone is it that can make a man unfortunate No man can be a slave but he that fears pain or fears to die To such a man nothing but chance peaceable times can secure his duty and he depends upon things without for his felicity and so is well but during the pleasure of his enemy or a Thief or a Tyrant or it may be of a dog or a wilde bull Prayers for the several Graces and parts of Christian Sobriety A prayer against sensuality O Eternal Father thou that sittest in Heaven invested with essential Glories and Divine perfections fill my soul with so deep a sence of the excellencies of spiritual and heavenly things that my affections being weaned from the pleasures of the world and the false allurements of sin I may with great severity and the prudence of a holy discipline and strict desires with clear resolutions and a free spirit have my conversation in Heaven and heavenly imployments that being in affections as in my condition a Pilgrim and a stranger here I may covet after and labour for an abiding city and at last may enter into and for ever dwell in the Celestial Jerusalem which is the mother of us all through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen For Temperance O Almighty God and gracious Father of men and Angels who openest thy hand and fillest all things with plenty and hast provided for thy servant sufficient to satisfie all my needs teach me to use thy creatures soberly and temperately that I may not with loads of meat or drink make the temptations of my enemy to prevail upon me or my spirit unapt for the performance of my duty or my body healthless or my affections sensual and unholy O my God never suffer that the blessings which thou givest me may either minister to sin or sickness but to health and holiness and thanksgiving that in the strength of thy provisions I may cheerfully and actively and diligently serve thee that I may worthily feast at thy table here and be accounted worthy through thy grace to be admitted to thy table hereafter at the Eternal supper of the Lamb to sing an Allelujah to God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost for ever and ever Amen For Chastity to be said especially by unmarried persons ALmighty God our most holy and eternal Father who art of pure eyes and canst behold no uncleanness let thy gracious and holy Spirit descend upon thy servant and reprove the spirit of Fornication and Uncleannesse and cast him out that my body may be a holy Temple and my soul a Sanctuary to entertain the PRINCE of purities the holy and eternal Spirit of God O let
of Christ whereof they are members and you in conjunction with Christ whom then you have received are more fit to pray for them in that advantage and in the celebration of that holy sacrifice which then is Sacramentally represented to GOD * Give thanks for the passion of our dearest Lord remember all its parts and all the instruments of your Redemption and beg of GOD that by a holy perseverance in well doing you 〈◊〉 from shadows passe on to substances from eating his body to seeing his face from the Typicall Sacramentall and Transient to the Reall and Eternall Supper of the Lambe 13. After the solemnity is done let Christ dwell in your hearts by faith and love and obedience and conformity to his life and death as you have taken CHRIST into you so put CHRIST on you and conform every faculty of your soul body to his holy image and perfection Remember that now Christ is all one with you and therefore when you are to do an action consider how Christ did or would do the like and do you imitate his example and transcribe his copy and understand all his commandments and choose all that he propounded and desire his promises fear his threatnings and marry his loves and hatreds and contract all friendships for then you do every day communicate especially when Christ thus dwels in you and you in Christ growing up towards a perfect man in Christ Jesus 14. Do not instantly upon your return from Church return also to the world and secular thoughts and imployments but let the remaining parts of that day be like a post-Communion or an after-office entertaining your blessed Lord with all the caresses and sweetness of love and colloquies and entercourses of duty and affection acquainting him with all your needs and revealing to him all your secrets and opening all your infirmities and as the affairs of your person or imployment call you off so retire again with often ejaculations and acts of entertainment to your beloved Guest The effects and benefits of worthy communicating When I said that the sacrifice of the cross which Christ offered for all the sins and all the needs of the world is represented to God by the minister in the Sacrament and offered up in prayer and Sacramental memory after the maner that Christ himself intercedes for us in Heaven so far as his glorious Priesthood is imitable by his Ministers on earth I must of necessity also mean that all the benefits of that sacrifice are then conveyed to all that communicate worthily But if we descend to particulars Then and there the Church is nourished in her faith strengthned in her hope enlarged in her bowels with an increasing charity there all the members of Christ are joyned with each other and all to Christ their head and we again renew the covenant with God in Jesus Christ and God seals his part and we promise for ours and Christ unites both and the holy Ghost signes both in the collation of those graces which we then pray for and exercise and receive all at once there our bodies are nourished with the signes and our souls with the mystery our bodies receive into them the seed of an immortall nature our souls are joyned with him who is the first fruits of the resurrection and never can dye and if we desire any thing else and need it here it is to be prayed for here to be hoped for here to be received Long life and health and recovery from sickness and competent support and maintenance and peace and deliverance from our enemies and content and patience and joy and sanctified riches or a cheerfull poverty liberty and whatsoever else is a blessing was purchased for us by Christ in his death and resurrection and in his intercession in Heaven and this Sacrament being that to our particulars which the great mysteries are in themselves and by designe to all the world if we receive worthily we shall receive any of those blessings according as God shall choose for us and he will not onely choose with more wisdom but also with more affection then we can for our selves After all this it is advised by the Guides of souls wise men and pious that all persons should commuÌ„icate very often even as often as they can without excuses or delayes Every thing that puts us from so holy an imployment when we are moved to it being either a sin or an imperfection an infirmity or indevotion and an unactiveness of Spirit All Christian people must come They indeed that are in the state of sin must not come so but yet they must come First they must quit their state of death and then partake of the bread of life They that are at enmity with their neighbours must come that is no excuse for their not coming onely they must not bring their enmity along with them but leave it and then come They that have variety of secular imployments must come only they must leave their secular thoughts and affections behind them L'Evesque de Geneve introd a la vie dâ—vote and then come and converse with God If any man be well grown in grace he must needs come because he is excellently disposed to so holy a feast but he that is but in the infancy of piety had need to come that so he may gâ—ow in grace The strong must come lest they become weak and the weak that they may become strong The sick must come to be cured the healthfull to be preserved They that have leisure must come because they have no excuse They that have no leisure must come â—ither that by so excellent religion they may sanctifie their business The penitent sinners must come that they may be justified and they that are justified that they may be justified still They that have fears and great reverence to these mysteries and think no preparation to be sufficient must receive that they may learn how to receive thee more worthily and they that have a less degree of reverence must come often to have it heightned that as those Creatures that live amongst the snowes of the Mountains turn white with their food and conversation with such perpetual whitenesses so our souls may be transformed into the similitude and union with Christ by our perpetual feeding on him and conversation not onely in his Courts but in his very heart and most secret affections and incomparable purities Prayers for all sorts of Men and all necessities relating to the severall parts of the vertue of Religion A Prayer for the Graces of Faith Hope Charity O Lord God of infinite mercy of infinite excellency who hast sent thy holy Son into the world to redeem us from an intolerable misery and to teach us a holy religion and to forgive us an infinite debt give me thy holy Spirit that my understanding and all my faculties may be so resigned to the discipline and doctrine of my Lord that I may be prepared
the glory of pardoning all my sins and I may reap the fruit of all thy mercies and all thy graces of thy patience and long-suffering even to live a holy life here and to reign with thee for ever through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Ad Sect. 6. Special devotions to be used upon the Lords-day and the great Festvals of Christians In the Morning recite the following form of Thanksgiving upon the special Festivals adding the commēoration of the speciall blessings according to the following prayers adding such prayers as you shall choose out of the foregoing Devotions 2. Besides the ordinary publick duties of the day if you retire into your closet to read and meditate after you have performed that duty say the song of Saint Ambrose commonly called the Te Deum or We praise thee c. then adde the prayers for particular graces which are at the end of the former Chapters such and as many of them as shall fit your present needs and affections ending with the Lords prayer This form of devotion may for variety be indifferently used at other times A form of thanksgiving with a recital of publick and private blessings To be used upon Easter-day Whit-sunday Ascension day and all sundayes of the yeare but the middle part of it may be reserved for the more solemn Festivals and the other used upon the ordinary as every mans affections or leisure shall determine 1. Ex Liturgia S. Basilii magna ex parte O Eternal Essence Lord God Father Almighty maker of all things in Heaven and Earth it is a good thing to give thanks to thee O Lord and to pay to thee all reverence worship and devotion from a clean and prepared heart and with an humble spirit to present a living and reasonable sacrifice to thy holiness and Majesty for thou hast given unto us the knowledge of thy truth and who is able to declare thy greatness and to recount all thy mervellous works which thou hast done in all the generations of the world O Great Lord and Governour of all things Lord and Creator of all things visible and invisible who sittest upon the throne of thy glory and beholdest the secrets of the lowest abysse and darkness thou art without beginning uncircumscribed incomprehensible unalterable and seated for ever unmoveable in thy own essentiall happiness and tranquillity Thou art the Father of our Lord JESUS CHRIST who is Our Deerest and most Gracious Saviour our hope the wisdom of the Father the image of thy goodness the Word eternal and the brightness of thy person the power of God from eternal ages the true light that lighteneth every man that cometh into the World the Redemption of Man and the Sanctification of our Spirits By whom the holy Ghost descended upon the Church the holy Spirit of truth the seal of adoption the earnest of the inheritance of the Saints the first fruits of everlasting felicity the life-giving power the fountain of sanctification the comfort of the Church the ease of the afflicted the support of the weak the wealth of the poor the teacher of the doubtfull scrupulous and ignorant the anchor of the fearfull the infinite reward of all faithfull souls by whom all reasonable understanding creatures serve thee and send up a never-ceasing and a never-rejected sacrifice of prayer and praises and adoration All Angels and Archangels all thrones and Dominions all Principalities and Powers the Cherubims with many eyes and the Seraphims covered with wings from the terror and amazement of thy brightest glory These and all the powers of Heaven do perpetually sing praises and never-ceasing Hymns and eternall Anthems to the glory of the eternall God the Almighty Father of Men and Angels Holy is our God Holy is the Almighty Holy is the Immortal Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabaoth Heaven and Earth are full of the Majesty of thy glory Amen With these holy and blessed Spirits I also thy servant O thou great lover of souls though I be unworthy to offer praise to such a Majesty yet out of my bounden duty humbly offer up my heart and voice to joyn in this blessed quire and confess the glories of the Lord. * For thou art holy and of thy greatness there is no end and in thy justice and goodness thou hast measured out to us all thy works Thou madest man out of the earth and didst form him after thine own image thou didst place him in a garden of pleasure and gavest him laws of righteousness to be to him a seed of immortality O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness and declare the wonders that he hath done for the children of men For when man sinned and listned to the whispers of a tempting spirit and refused to hear the voice of God thou didst throw him out from Paradise and sentest him to till the Earth but yet left not his condition without remedy but didst provide for him the salvation of a new birth and by the blood of thy Son didst redeem and pay the price to thine own justice for thine own creature lest the work of thine owne hands should perish O that men would therefore praise the Lord c. For thou O Lord in every age didst send testimonies from Heaven blessings and Prophets and fruitfull seasons and preachers of righteousness and miracles of power and mercy thou spakest by thy Prophets and saidst I will help by one that is mighty and in the fulness of time spakest to us by thy Son by whom thou didst make both the Worlds who by the word of his power sustains all things in Heaven and Earth who thought it no robery to be equall to the Father who being before all time was pleased to be born in time to converse with men to be incarnate of a holy Virgin he emptied himself of all his glories took on him the form of a servant in all things being made like unto us in a soul of passions and discourse in a body of humility and sorrow but in all things innocent and in all things afflicted and suffered death for us that we by him might live and be partakers of his nature and his glories of his body and of his Spirit of blessings of earth and of the immortal felicities in Heaven O that men would therefore praise the Lord c. For thou O holy and immortal God O sweetest Saviour Jesus wert made under the Law to condemn sin in the flesh thou who knewest no sin wert made sin for us thou gavest to us righteous Commandements and madest known to us all thy Fathers will thou didst redeem us from our vain conversation and from the vanity of Idols false principles and foolish confidences and broughtest us to the knowledge of the true and onely God and our Father and hast made us to thy self a peculiar people of thy own purchase a royall Priest-hood a holy Nation Thou hast washed our soules in the Laver of Regeneration the Sacrament of
the heart and the want of this consideration was declared to be the cause why Israel sinned so grievously For they say the Lord hath forsaken the earth and the Lord seeth not Ezek. 9 9. Psal. 10.11 therefore the land is full of blood and the city full of perversness What a child would doe in the eye of his Father and a Pupil before his Tutor and a Wife in the presence of her Husband and a Servant in the sight of his master let us alwaies doe the same for we are made a spectacle to God to Angels and to men we are alwaies in the sight and presence of the All-seeing and Almighty God who also is to us a Father and a Guardian a Husband and a Lord. Prayers and Devotions according to the religion and purposes of the foregoing Considerations I. For grace to spend our time well O Eternal God who from all eternity doest behold and love thy own glories and perfections infinite and hast created me to doe the work of God after the manner of men and to serve thee in this generation and according to my capacities give me thy grace that I may be a curious and prudent spender of my time so as I may best prevent or resist all temptation and be profitable to the Christian Common-wealth and by discharging all my duty may glorifie thy Name Take from me all slothfulness and give me a diligent and an active spirit and wisdom to choose my imployment that I may doe works proportionable to my person and to the dignity of a Christian and may fill up all the spaces of my time with actions of religion and charity that when the Devil assaults me he may not finde me idle and my dearest Lord at his sudden coming may finde me busie in lawful necessary and pious actions improving my talent intrusted to me by thee my Lord that I may enter into the joy of my Lord to partake of his eternal felicities even for thy mercy sake and for my dearest Saviours sake Amen ¶ Here follows the devotion of ordinary daies for the right imploiment of those portions of time which every day must allow for religion The first prayers in the Morning as sâ—â—n as we are dressed ¶ Humbly and reverently compose your self with heart lift up to God and your head bowed and meekely kneeling upon your knees say the Lords Prayer after which use the following Collects or as many of them as you shall choose Our Father which art in Heaven c. I. An act of adoration being the song that the Angels sing in Heaven HOly Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come Heaven and Earth Angels and Men the Aire and the Sea give glory and honour and thanks to him that sitteth on the throne who liveth for ever and ever Rev. 11.17 All the blessed spirits and souls of the righteous cast their crowns before the throne and worship him that liveth for ever and ever 5.10.13 Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created Rev 15.3 Great and marvellous are thy works O Lord God Almighty Just and true are thy waies thou King of Saints Thy wisdome is infinite thy mercies are glorious and I am not worthy O Lord to appear in thy presence before whom the Angels hide their faces O Holy and eternal Jesus Lamb of God who wert slain from the beginning of the world thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every nation and hast made us unto our GOD Kings and priests and we shall reigne with thee for ever Blessing honour glory and power be unto him that sitteth on the throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever Amen II. An act of thanksgiving being the song of David for the Morning Sâ—ng praises unto the Lord O ye saints of his and give thanks to him for a remembrance of his holiness For his wrath indureth but the twinkling of an eye and in his pleasure is life heaviness may indure for a night but joy cometh in the morning Thou Lord hast preserved me this night from the violence of the spirits of darkness from all sad casualties and evil accidents from the wrath which I have every day deserved thou hast brought my soul out of hell thou hast kept my life from them that go down into the pit thou hast shewed me marvellous great kindness and hast blessed me for ever the greatness of thy glory reacheth unto the heavens and thy truth unto the clouds Therefore shal every good man sing of thy praise without ceasing O my God I will give thanks unto thee for ever Alleluâ—ah III. An act of oblation or presenting our selves to God for the day MOst Holy and Eternal God Lord and Soveraigne of all the creatures I humbly present to thy divine Majesty my self my soul and body my thoughts and my words my actions and intentions my passions and my sufferings to be disposed by thee to thy glory to be blessed by thy providence to be guided by thy counsel to be sanctified by thy Spirit and afterwards that my body and soul may be received into glory for nothing can perish which is under thy custody and the enemy of souls cannot devour what is thy portion nor take it out of thy hands This day O Lord and all the daies of my life I dedicate to thy honour and the actions of my calling to the uses of grace and the religion of all my daies to be united 〈◊〉 the merits and intercession of my holy Saviour Jesus that in him and for him I may be pardoned and accepted Amen IV. An act of repentance or contrition FOr as for me I am not worthy to be called thy servant much lesse am I worthy to be thy son for I am the vilest of sinners and the worst of men a lover of the things of the world and a despiser of the things of God proud and envious lustfulâ— and intemperate greedy of sin and impatient of reproof desirouâ— to seem holy and negligent of being so transported with interest fool'd with presumption and false principles disturbed with anger with a peevish and unmortified spirit and disordered by a whole body of sin and death Lord pardon all my sins for my sweetest Saviours sake thou who didst die for me Holy Jesus save me and deliver me reserve not my sinnes to be punished in the day of wrath and eternal vengeance but wash away my sins and blot them out of thy remembrance and purifie my soul with the waters of repentance and the blood of the crosse that for what is past thy wrath may not come out against me and for the time to come I may never provoke thee to anger or to jealousie O just and dear God be pitiful and gracious to thy servant Amen V. The Prayer or Petition BLesse me gracious God in my calling to such
advantages by publishing that person whose work is religion whose company is Angels whose thoughts must dwell in heaven and separate from all mixtures of the world 4. Virgins have a peculiar obligation to charity for this is the virginity of the soul as purity integrity and separation is of the body which doctrine we are taught by S. Peter 1 Pet. 1.22 Seeing ye have purified your soules in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently For a Virgin that consecrates her body to God and pollutes her spirit with rage or impatience or inordinate anger gives him what he most hates a most foul and defiled soul. 5. These Rules are necessary for Virgins that offer that state to God and mean not to enter into the state of marriage for they that only wait the opportunity of a convenient change are to steer themselves by the general Rules of Chastity Rules for Widowes or vidual Chastity For Widows the fontinel of whose desires hath been opened by the former permissions of the marriage-bed they must remember 1 That God hath now restrained the former license bound up their eyes and shut up their heart into a narrower compasse and hath given them sorrow to be a bridle to their desires A Widow must be a mourner and she that is not cannot so well secure the chastity of her proper state 2. It is against pulick honesty to marry another man so long as she is with childe by her former Husband and of the same fame it is in a lesser proportion to marry within the year of mourning but anciently it was infamous for her to marry till by common account the body was dissolved into its first principle of earth 3. A Widow must restrain her memory and her fancy not recalling or recounting her former permissions freer licenses with any present delight for then she opens that sluce which her Husbands death and her own sorrow have shut up 4. A Widow that desires her widowhood should be a state pleasing to God must spend her time as devoted Virgins should in fastings and prayers and charity 5. A Widow must forbid her self to use those temporal solaces which in her former estate were innocent but now are dangerous Rules for married persons or matrimonial chastity Concerning married persons Nisi fundamenta stirpis jucta sint probé miseros necesse est esse deinceps pesteros Eurip. besides the keeping of their mutual faith and contract with each other these particulars are useful to be observed 1. Although their mutual endearments are safe within the protection of marriage yet they that have Wives or Husbands must be as though they had them not that is they must have an affection greater to each other then they have to any person in the world but not greater then they have to God but that they be ready to part with all interest in each others person rather then sin against God 2. In their permissions and license they must be sure to observe the order of Nature and the ends of God Non debentus eodem amico uti 〈◊〉 atoâ—e nec eà dem ut uxor sâ—oâ—tâ— Plut conjug praecept He is an ill Husband that uses his Wife as a man treats â— Harlot having no other end but pleasure Concerning which our best rule is that although in this as in eating and drinking there is an appetite to be satisfied which cannot be done without pleasing that desire yet since that desire and satisfaction was intended by Nature for other ends they should never be separate from those ends but alwaies be joyned with all or one of these ends with a desire of children or to avoid fornication or to lighten and ease the cares and sadnesses of houshold affairs or to endear each other but never with a purpose either in act or desire to separate the sensuality from these ends which hallow it Onan did separate his act from its proper end and so ordered his embraces that his Wife should not conceive and God punished him Non rectè est ab Herodoto dictum simul cum tunica multerem verecundiam exuere Quae nâ— casta est positaÌ„ veste verecundiam ejus loco induit maâ—iâ—rtaue verecioidiâ conjuge tasserâ maximi invicenâ— moris uttentur Plut conjug praecept 3. Married persons must keep such modesty and decency of treating each other that they never force themselves into high and violent lusts with arts and misbecoming devices alwaies remembring that those mixtures are most innocent which are most simple and most natural most orderly and most safe 4. It is a duty of matrimonial chastity to be restrained and temperate in the use of their lawful pleasures concerning which although no universal Rule can antecedently be given to all persons any more then to all bodies one proportion of meat and drink yet married persons are to estimate the degree of their license according to the following proportions * 1. That it be moderate so as to consist with health * 2. That it be so ordered as not to be too expensive of time that precious opportunity of working out our salvation * 3. That when duty is demanded it be alwaies payed so farre as is in our powers and election according to the foregoing measures * That it be with a temperate affection without violent transporting desires or too sensual applications Concerning which a man is to make judgment by proportion to other actions and the severities of his religion and the sentences of sober and wise persons alwaies remembring that marriage is a provision for supply of the natural necessities of the body not for the artificial and procured appetites of the minde And it is a sad truth that many married persons thinking that the flood-gates of liberty are set wide open without measures or restraints so they sail in that channel have felt the final rewards of intemperance and lust by their unlawful using of lawful permissions Only let each of them be temperate and both of them be modest Socrates was wont to say that those women to whom Nature had not been indulgent in good features and colours should make it up themselves with excellent manners and those who were beautiful and comely should be careful that so fair a body be not polluted with unhandsome usages De conjug precept To which Plutarch adds that a Wife if she be unhandsome should consider how extremely ugly she should be if she wanted modesty but if she be handsome let her think how gracious that beauty would be if she superadds chastity 5. Married persons by consent are to abstain from their mutual entertainments at solemn times of devotion not as a duty of it self necessary but as being the most proper act of purity which in their condition they can present to God and being a good advantage for attending their preparation to the solemn duty and their demeanour in
love abroad * peace at home * and utter freedome from contention and * the sin of censuring others * and the trouble of being censured themselves For the humble man will not judge his brother for the moâ—e in his eye being more troubled at the beam in his own eye and is patient and glad to be reproved because himself hath cast the first stone at himself and therefore wonders not that others are of his minde 10. Remember that the blessed Saviour of the world hath done more to prescribe and transmit John 13.15 and secure this grace then any other his whole life being a great continued example of humility a vast descent from the glorious bosome of his Father to the womb of a poor maiden to the form of a servant to the miseries of a sinner to a life of labour to a state of poverty to a death of malefactors to the grave of death and the intolerable calamities which we deserved and it were a good designe and yet but reasonable that we should be as humble in the midst of our greatest imperfections and basest sins as Christ was in the midst of his fulness of the Spirit great wisdom perfect life and most admirable virtues 11. Drive away all flatterers from thy company and at no hand endure them for he that endures himself so to be abused by another is not only a fool for entertaining the mockery but loves to have his own opinion of himself to be heightned and cherished 12. Never change thy imployment for the sudden coming of another to thee But if modesty permits or discretion appear to him that visits thee the same that thou wert to God and thy self in thy privacy But if thou wert walking or sleeping or in any other innocent imployment or retirement snatch not up a book to seem studious nor fall on thy knees to seem devout nor alter any thing to make him believe thee better imployed then thou wert 13. To the same purpose it is of great use that he who would preserve his humility should choose some spiritual person to whom he shall oblige himself to discover his very thoughts and fancies every act of his and all his entercourse with others in which there may be danger that by such an openness of spirit he may expose every blâ—st of vain-glory every idle thought to be chastened and lessened by the rod of spiritual discipline and he that shall finde himself tied to confesse every proud thought every vanity of his spirit will also perceive they must not dwell with him nor finde any kindness from him and besides this the nature of pride is so shameful and unhandsome that the very discovery of it is a huge mortification and means of suppressing it A man would be ashamed to be told that he enquires after the faults of his last Oration or action on purpose to be commended and therefore when the man shall tell his spiritual Guide the same shameful story of himself it is very likely he will be humbled and heartily ashamed of it 14. Let every man suppose what opinion he should have of one that should spend his time in playing with drumsticks and cockle-shels and that should wrangle all day long with a little boy for pins or should study hard and labour to cousen a childe of his gauds and who would run into a river deep and dangerous with a great burden upon his back even then when he were told of the danger and earnestly importuned not to doe it and let him but change the Instances and the person and he shall finde that he hath the same reason to think as bad of himself who pursues trifles with earnestness spending his time in vanity and his labour for thaâ— which profits not who knowing the laws of God the rewards of virtue the cursed consequents of sin that it is an evil spirit that tempts him to it a Devil one that hates him that longs extreamly to ruine him that it is his own destruction that he is then working that the pleasures of his sinne are base and brutish unsatisfying in the enjoyment soon over shameful in their story bitter in the memory painful in the effect here and intolerable hereafter and for ever yet in despite of all this he runs foolishly into his sin and his ruine meerly because he is a fool and winks hard and rushes violently like a horse into the battel or like a mad man to his death He that can think great and good things of such a person the next step may court the rack for an instrument of pleasure and admire a swine for wisdom and go for counsel to the prodigal and trifling grashopper After the use of these and such like instruments and considerations if you would trie how your soul is grown you shall know that humility like the root of a goodly tree is thrust very farre into the ground by these goodly fruits which appear above ground Signes of Humility 1. The humble man trusts not to his own discretion but in matters of concernment relies rather upon the judgment of his friends counsellers or spiritual guides 2. He does not pertinaciously pursue the choice of his own will but in all things lets God choose for him and his Superiors in those things which concerne them 3. He does not murmur against commands Assai commanâ—a chi ub bidisâ— al saggiâ— 4. He is not inquisitive into the reasonableness of indifferent and innocent commands but believes their command to be reason enough in such cases to exact his obedience 5. He lives according to a rule and with complyance to publick customes without any affectation or singularity 6. He is meek and indifferent in all accidents and chances Verum humâ—lem patienâ—â—â— ostâ—ndet S. â—â—â—er 7. He patiently beares injuries 8. He is alwaies unsatisfied in his own conduct resolutions and counsels 9. He is a great lover of good men and a praiser of wise men and a censurer of no man 10. Hâ— is modest in his speech and reserved in his laughter 11 He fears when he hears himself commended lest God make another judgment concerning his actions then men doe 12. He gives no pâ—rt or saucy answers when he is reproved whether justly or unjustly 13. He loves to sit downe in private and if he may he refuses the temptation of offices and new honours 14. He is ingenuous free and open in his actions and discourses 15. He mends his fault and gives thanks when he is admonished 16. He is ready to doe good offices to the murderers of his fame to his slâ—nderers backbiters and detractors as Christ washed the feet of Judas 17. And is contented to be suspected of Indiscretion so before God he may be really innocent and not offensive to his neighbour nor wanting to his just and prudent interest SECT V. Of Modesty MOdesty is the appendage of Sobriety and is to Chastity to temperance and to Humility as the fringes are to a
fortune that was a great calamity But these are but single instances Almost all the ages of the world have noted that their most eminent Scholâ—rs were mâ—st eminently poor some by choice but most by chance and an inevitable decree of providence And in the whole sex of women God hath decreed the sharpest pains of child birth to show that there is no state exempt from sorrow and yet that the weakest persons have strength more than enough to bear the greatest evil and the greatest Queens and the Mothers of Saints and Apostles have no charter of exemption from this sad sentence But the Lord of men and Angels was also the King of sufferings and if thy course robe trouble thee remember the swadling cloathes of Jesus iâ— thy bed be uneasie yet iâ— is not worse then his Maâ—ger and it is no sadness to have a thin table if thou callest to minde that the King of heaven and earth was fed with a little breast-milk and yet besides this he suffered all the sorrows which we deserved We therefore have great reason to sit down upon our own hearths and warm our selves at our own fires and feed upon content at home for it were a strange pride to expect to be more gently treated by the Divine providence then the best and wisest men then Apostles and Saints nay the son of the Eternal God the heir of both the worlds This Consideration may be enlarged by surveying all the states and families of the world Seâ—vius Sulplum and he that at once saw Aegina and Megara Pyraeus and Corinth lie gasping in their ruines and almost buried in their own heaps had reason to blame Cicero for mourning impatiently the death of one woman In the most beauteous and splendid fortune there are many cares and proper interruptions and allayes In the fortune of a Prince there is not the course to be of beggery but there are infinite cares Hâ—â—â—n soâ—o beatus esse câ—editu 〈◊〉 â—o â—â—us aâ—eâ—â—â—s 〈◊〉 suis misâ—â—â—inus Impoâ—at mulieâ— jubet omniâ— sempeâ— letigâ—t Muâ—â—a adferuni illi dolorem nihil nube Fure quam soâ—tenâ— patiuntuâ— omnes â—emo recâ—sat and the Judge sits upon the Tribunal with great ceremony and ostentation of fortune and yet at his house or in his brest there is something that causes him to sigh deeply Pittacus was a wise and valiant man but his Wife overthrew the Table when he had invited his friends upon which the good man to excuse her incivility and his own misfortune said That every man had one evil and he was most happy that had but that alone And if nothing else happens yet sicknesses so often doe imbitter the fortune and content of a family that a Physician in a few years and with the practise upon a very few families gets experience enough to administer to almost all diseases And when thy little misfortuÌ„e troubles thee remember that thou hast kown the best of Kings and the best of Men put to death publickly by his own subjects 3. There are many accidents which are esteemed great calamities and yet we have reason enough to bear them well and unconcernedly for they neither touch our bodies nor our souls our health and our virtue remains intire our life and our reputation It may be I am slighted or I have received ill language but my head akes not for it neither hath it broke my thigh nor taken away my virtue unlesse I lose my charity or my patience Inquire therefore what you are the worse either in your soul or in your body for what hath happened for upon this very stock many evils will disappear since the body and the soul make up the whole man Si natus es Trophime solus omnium haelâ—ge Vt semper eant tâ—bi â—es arbitcio tuc Felâ—citatem hanc si quit promiâ—it Deus Irascereâ—is ure non malâ is side Et imprebej egiffâ—t Menan and when the daughter of Sâ—ilpâ— prov'd a wanton he said it was none of his sin and therefore there was no reason it should be his misery And if an enemy hath taken all that from a Prince whereby he was a king he may refresh himself by considering all that is left him whereby he is a Man 4. Consider that sad accidents and a state of affliction is a School of virtue it reduces our spirits to soberness and our counsels to moderation it corrects levity and interrupts the confidence of siniâ—ng It is good for me said David that I have been afflicted for thereby I have learned thy law Psalm 119 part 10. ver 3 And I know O â—oâ—d that thou of very faithfullnesse hast caused me to be troubled For God who in mercy and wisdome governes the world would never have suffered so many sadnesses and have sent them especially to the most virtuous and the wisest men but that he intends they should be the seminary of comfort the nursery of virtue the exercise of wisdom the tryall of patience the venturing for a crown and the gate of glory 5. Consider that afflictions are oftentimes the occasions of great temporal advantages and we must not look upon them as they sit down heavily upon us but as they serve some of Gods ends and the purposes of universal Providence And when a Prince sights justly and yet unprosperously if he could see all those reasons for which God hath so ordered it he would think it the most reasonable thing in the world and that it would be very ill to have it otherwise If a man could have opened one of the pages of the Divine counsel and could have seen the event of Josephs being sold to the Merchants of Amaleck he might with much reason have dried up the young mans tears and when Gods purposes are opened in the events of things as it was in the case of Joseph when he sustained his Fathers family and became Lord of Egypt then we see what ill judgment we made of things and that we were passionate as children and transported with sense and mistaken interests The case of Themitocles was almost like that oâ— Joseph for being banished into Egypt he also grew in favour with the King and told his wife He had been undone unlesse he had been undone For God esteems it one of his glories that he brings good out of evil and therefore it were but reason we should trust God to governe his own world as he pleases and that he should patiently wait till the change cometh or the reason be discovered And this consideration is also of great use to them who envy at the prosperity of the wicked and the successe of Persecutors and the baites of fishes and the bread of dogs God fails not to sow blessings in the long furrows which the plowers plow upon the back of the Church and this successe which troubles us will be a great glory to God and a great benefit to his Saints and servants and a great ruine to the
of the family should fear the Father would give meat to the chickens and the servants his sheep and his dogs but give none to them He were a very ill Father that should doe so or he were a very foolish son that should think so of a good Father * But besides the reasonableness of this faith and this hope we have infinite experience of it How innocent how careless how secure is Infancy and yet how certainly provided for we have lived at Gods charges all the daies of our life and have as the Italian Proverb saies set down to meat at the sound of a bell and hitherto he hath not failed us we have no reason to suspect him for the future we doe not use to serve men so and lesse time of tryal creates great confidences in us towards them who for twenty years together never broke their word with us and God hath so ordered iâ— that a man shall have had the experience of many years provision before he shall understand how to doubt that he may be provided for an answer against the temptation shall come and the mercies felt in his childehood may make him fear lesse when he is a man * Adde to this that God hath given us his holy Spirit he hath promised Heaven to us he hath given us his Son and we are taught from Scripture to make this inference from hence How should not he with him give us all things else The Charge of many Children We have a title to be provided for as we are Gods creatures another title as we are his Children another because God hath promised and every of our children hath the same title and therefore it is a huge folly and infidelity to be troubled and full of care because we have many children Every childe we have to feed is a new revenue a new title to Gods care and providence so that many children are a great wealth and if it be said they are chargeable it is no more then all wealth and great revenues are For what difference is it Titius keeps ten ploughs Cornelia hath ten children He hath land enough to imploy and to feed all his hindes she blessings and promises and the provisions and the truth of God to maintain all her children His hindes and horses eat up all his corn and her children are sufficiently maintained with her little They bring in and eat up and she indeed eats up but they also bring in from the store-houses of heaven and the granaries of God and my children are not so much mine as they are Gods he feeds them in the womb by waies secret and insensible and would not work a perpetual miracle to bring them forth and then to starve them Violent necessities But some men are highly tempted and are brought to a straight that without a miracle they cannot be relieved what shall they doe It may be their pride or vanity hath brought the necessity upon them and it is not a need of Gods making and if it be not they must cure it themselves by lessening their desires and moderating their appetites and yet if it be innocent though unnecessary God does usually relieve such necessities and he does not only upon our prayers grant us more then he promised of temporall things but also he gives many times more then we ask This is no object for our faith but ground enough for a temporal and prudent hope and if we fail in the particular God will turn it to a bigger mercy if we submit to his dispensation and adore him in the denial But if it be a matter of necessity let not any man by way of impatience crie out that God will not work a miracle for God by miracle did give meat and drink to his people in the wilderness of which he had made no particular promise in any Covenant and if all natural means fail it is certain that God will rather work a miracle then break his word He can doe that He cannot doe this Only we must remember that our portion of temporal things is but food and ralment God hath not promised us coaches and horses rich houses and jewels Tyrian silks and Persian carpets neither hath he promised to minister to our needs in such circumstances as we shall appoint but such as himself shall choose God will enable either thee to pay thy debt if thou beggest it of him or else he will pay it for thee that is take thy desire as a discharge of thy duty and Pay it to thy Creditor in blessings or in some secret of his providence It may be he hath laid up in the corn that shall feed thee in the granary of thy Brother or will clothe thee with his wool he enabled Saint Peter to pay his Gabel by the ministery of a fish and Elias to be waited on by a crow who has both his minister and his steward for provisions and his Holy Son rode in triumph upon an asse that grazed in another mans postures And if God gives to him the dominion reserves the use to thee thou hast the better half of the two but the charitable man serves God and serves thy need and both joyn to provide for thee and God blesses both But if he takes away the flesh-pots from thee he can also alter the appetite and he hath given thee power and commandment to restrain it and if he lessens the revenue he will also shrink the necessity or if he gives but a very little he will make it go a great way or if he sends thee but course diet he will blesse it and make it healthful and can cure all the anguish of thy poverty by giving thee patience and the grace of contentedness For the grace of God secures you of provisions and yet the grace of God feeds and supports the spirit in the want of provisions and if a thin table be apt to enfeeble the spirits of one used to feed better yet the cheerfulness of a spirit that is blessed will make a thin table become a delicacy if the man was as well taught as he was fed and learned his duty when he received the blessing Poverty therefore is in some senses eligible and to be preferred before riches but in all senses it is very tolerable Death of Children or nearest Relatives and Friends There are some persons who have been noted for excellent in their lives and passions rarely innocent and yet hugely penitent for indiscretions and harmless infirmities such as was Paulina one of the ghostly children of S. Hierom and yet when any of her children died she was arrested with a sorrow so great as brought her to the margent of her grave And the more tender our spirts are made by Religion the more easie we are to let in grief if the cause be innocent and be but in any sense twisted with piety and due affections * To cure which we may consider that all the world must die and therefore to be
impatient at the death of a person coÌ„cerning whom it was certain and known that he must die is to mourn because thy friend or childe was not born an Angel and when thou hast a while made thy self miserable by an importunate and uselesse grief it may be thou shalt die thy self and leave others to their choice whether they will mourn for thee or no but by that time it will appear how impertinent that greif was which served no end of life and ended in thy own funeral But what great matter is it if sparkes fly upward or a stone falls into a pit if that which was combustible be burned or that which was liquid be melted or that which is mortal doe die It is no more then a man does every day for every night death hath gotten possession of that day and we shall never live that day over again and when the last day is come there are no more daies left for us to die And what is sleeping and waking but living and dying what is Spring and Autumn youth and old age morning and evening but real images of life and death and really the same to many considerable effects and changes Untimely death But it is not meer dying that is pretended by some as the cause of their impatient mourning but that the childe died young before he knew good and evill his right hand from his leâ—t and so lost all his portion of this world and they know not of what excellency his portion in the next shall be * If he died young he left but little for he understood but little and had not capacities of great pleasures or great cares but yet be died innocent and before the sweetness of his soul was defloured and ravishd from him by the flames and follies of a froward age he went out from the dining-rooms before he had fallen into errour by the intemperance of his meat or the deluge of drink and he hath obtained this favour of God that his soul hath suffered a lesse imprisonment and her load was sooner taken off that he might with lesser delaies go and converse with immortal spirits and the babe is taken into Paradise before he knows good and evil For that knowledge threw our great Father out and this ignorance returnes the childe thither * But as concerning thy own particular remove thy thoughts back to those daies in which thy childe was not born and you are now but as then you was and there is no difference but that you had a son born and if you reckon that for evil you are unthankful for the blessing if it be good it is better that you had the blessing for a whilâ— then not at all and yet if he had never been born ItideÌ„ si puâ—r parvulus ocâ—â—dat aequâ—ae nimo ferendum puâ—ant si verò in cunis ne querendum quidem atqui hâ—c aoerbius exegis natura quòd dede it At id quidem in câ—etâ—tâ—s rebus inclius putatur aliquâ—m partem quà m nullum aâ—â—ingere Senec. this sorrow had not been at all but be no more displeased at God for giving you a blessing for a while then you would have been if he had not given it at all and reckon that intervening blessing for a gain but account it not an evil and if it be a good turn not into sorrow and sadness * But if we have great reason to complain of the calamities and evils of our life then we have the lesse reason to grieve that those whom we loved have so small a portion of evil assigned to them And it is no small advantage that our children dying young receive For their condition of a blessed immortality is rendred to them secure by being snatcht from the dangers of an evil choice and carired to their little cells of felicity where they can weep no more And this the wisest of the Gentiles understood well when they forbade any offerings or libations to be made for dead Infants as was usual for their other dead as believing they were entred into a secure possession to wich they went with no other condition but that they passed into it through the way of mortality and for a few months wore an uneasie garment And let weeping parents say if they doe not think that the evils their little babes have suffered are sufficient If they be why are they troubled that they were taken from those many and greater which in succeeding years are great enough to trie all the reason and religion which art and nature and the grace of God hath produced in us to enable us for such sad contentions And possibly we may doubt concerning men and women but we cannot suspect that to Infants death can be such an evil but that it brings to them much more good then it takes from them in this life Death unseasonable But others can well bear the death of Infants but when they have spent some years of childehood or youth and are entred into arts and society when they are hopeful and provided for when the parents are to reap the comfort of all their fears and cares then it breakes the spirit to lose them This is true in many but this is not love to the dead but to themselves for they misse what they had flattered themselves into by hope and opinion and if it were kindness to the dead they may consider that since we hope he is gone to God and to rest it is an ill expression of our love to them that we weep for their good fortune For that life is not best which is longest and when they are descended into the grave it shall not be inquired how long they have lived but how well and yet this shortening of their daies is an evil wholly depending upon opinion Juvenis â—euâ—vâ—ia â—inbuiâ— quem Diâ— diligant Menâ—ud For if men did naturally live but twenty years then we should be satisfied if they died about sixteen or eighteen and yet eighteen years now are as long as eighteen years would be then and if a man were but of a daies life it is well if he lasts till Even song and then saies his Compline an hour before the time and we are pleased and call not that death immature if he lives till seventy and yet this age is as short of the old periods before and since the flood as this youtâ—s age for whom you mourn is of the present fulness Suppose therefore a decree passed upon this person as there have been many upon all mankinde and God hath set him a shorter period and then we may as well bear the immature death of the young man as the death of the oldest man for they also are immature unseasonable in respect of the old periods of many generations * And why are we troubled that he had arts and sciences before he died or are we troubled that he does not live to make use of them the first is cause of joy for
upon God but five daies longer But deliverance stayed seven daies and yet came at last and take not every accident for an argument of despair but go on still in hoping and begin again to work if any ill accident have interrupted you Means of Hope and remedies against Despair The means to cuâ—e Despair and to continue or increase Hope are partly by consideration partly by exercise 1. Apply your minde to the cure of all the proper causes of Despair and they are weakness of Spirit or violence of passion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that greedily covets is impatient of delay and desperate in contrary accidents and he that is little of heart is also little of hope and apt to sorrow and suspicion 2. Despise the things of the World and be indifferent to all changes and events of providence and for the things of God the promises are certain to be performed in kinde and where there is lesse variety of chance there is lesse possibility of being (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer mocked but he that creates to himself thousands of little hopes uncertain in the promise fallible in the event and depending upon ten thousand circumstances as are all his things of this World shall often fail in the expectations and be used to arguments of distrust in such hopes 3. So long as your hopes are regular and reasonable though in temporal affairs such as are deliverance from enemies escaping a storm or ship wrak recovery from a sickness ability to pay your debts c. remember that there are some things ordinary and some things extraordinary to prevent despaire In ordinary Remember that the very hoping in God is an endearment of him and a meaâ—s to obtain the blessing I will deliver him because he hath put his trust in me 2. There are in GOD all those glorious Attributes and excellencies which in the nature of things can possibly create or confirme Hope GOD is 1. Strong 2. Wise. 3. True 4. Loving There cannot be added another capacity to create a confidence for upon these premises we cannot fail of receiving what is fit for us 3. GOD hath obligâ—d himselfe by promise that wee shall have the good of every thing we desire or even lâ—sses and denials shall work for the good of them that fear God And if we will trust the truth of GOD for performance of the geneâ—al we may well trust his wisdome to choose for us the particular * But the extraordinaries of GOD are apt to supply the deâ—ect of all natural humane possibilities 1. GOD hath in many instances give extraordinary virtue to the active causes and instruments to a jaw-bone to kill a multitude to 300 Men to destroy a great Army to Jonathan and his Armour-bearer to rout a wâ—ole Garrison 2. He hath given excellent sufferance and vigorousness to the sufferers arming them with strange courage heroical fortitude invincible resolution and glorious patience and thus he laies no more upon us then we are able to bear for when he increases our sufferings he lessens them by increasing our patience 3. His providence is extraregular and produces strange things beyond common rules and he that lead Israel through a â—ea and made a Rock powre forth waters and the Heavens to give them bread and flesh and whole Armies to be destroyed with phantastick noiâ—â—s and the fortune of all France to â—e recovered and intirely revolved by the arms and conduct of a Girle against the â—orrent of the English fortune Châ—valâ—y can doe what â—e please and still retains the same affections to his people and the same providence over mankinde as ever and it is impossible for that Man to despair Heb. 2.18 who remembers that his Helper is Omnipotent and can doe what he please let us rest thâ—â—e a while he can if he please And â—e is infinitely loving willing enough and he is infinitely wise choosing better for us then we can doe for our selves This in all ages and chances hath supported the afflicted people of GOD and carried them on drie ground through the Red Sea GOD invites and cherishes the hopes of Men by all the variety of his providence 4. If your case be brought to the last extremity and that you are at the pits brink even the very Margent of the Grave yet then despair not at least put it off a little longer and remember that whatsoever final accident takes away all hope from you if you stay a little longer and in the mean while bear it sweetly it will also take away all despair too For when you enter into the regions of death you rest from all your labours and your fears 5. Let them who are tempted to despair of their salvation consider how much Christ suffered to redeem us from sin and its eternal punishment and he that considers this must needs believe that the desires which God had to save us were not lesse then infinite and therefore not easily to be satisfied without it 6. Let no man despaire of Gods mercies to forgive him unlesse he be sure that his sins are greater then Gods mercies If they be not we have much reason to hope that the stronger ingredient will prevail so long as we are in the time and state of repentance and within the possibilities and latitute of the Covenant and as long as any promise can but reflect upon him with an oblique beam of comfort Possibly the Man may eâ—re in his judgment of circumstances and therefore let him fear but because it is not certain he is mistaken let him not despair 7. Consider that God who knows all the events of Men and what their final condition shall be who shall be saved and who will perish yet he treateth them as his own calls them to be his own offers fair conditions as to his own gives them blessings arguments of mercy and instances of fear to call them off from death and to call them home to life and in all this shows no despaire of happiness to them and therefore much lesse should any Man despaire for himself since he never was able to read the Scroles of the eternal predestination 8. Remember that despair belongs only to passionate Fools or Villains such as were Achitophel and â—udas or else to Devils and damned persons and as the hope of salvation is a good disposition towards it so is despair a certain consignation to eternal ruine A Man may be damned for despairing to be saved Despair is the proper passion of damnation God hath placed truth and felicity in Heaven V. â—eaâ— Curiosity and repentance upon Faith but misery and despaire are the portions of Hell 9. Gather together into your spirit and its treasure-house the Memory not only all the promises of GOD but also the remembrances of experience and the former senses of the Divine favours that from thence you may argue from times past to the present and enlâ—â—gâ— to the 〈◊〉 and to greater blessings
〈…〉 est in noluit 〈◊〉 Senâ—ctâ—◠〈…〉 brevis nec 〈◊〉 mâ—vendas In 〈…〉 facili dâ—â—funditur â—austu 〈…〉 amans culti villicus hâ—â—i â—â—de 〈◊〉 pâ—sâ—t◠〈…〉 Pythagoâ—as Est aliquid puecunque lico quocunque necessu Vnius dominum sese fecisse laceâ—tae Iuven. Sat. 3. but he that feasts every day feaâ—â—â— no day there being nothing left to which he may beyond his Ordinary extend his appetite that the rich man sleeps not so soundly as the poor labourer that his feares are more and his needs are greater for who is poorer he that needs 5 l or he that needs 5000 the poor man hath enough to fill his belly and the rich hath not enough to fill his eye that the poor mans wants are easy to be relieved by a common charity but the needs of rich men cannot be supplied but by Princes and they are left to the temptation of great vices to make reparation of their needs and the ambitious labours of men to get great estates is but like the selling of a Fountian to buy a Fever a parting with content to buy necessity a purchase of an unhandsome condition at the price of infelicity that Princes and they that enjoy most of the world have most of it but in title and supreme rights and reserved priviledges pepper corns homages trifling services and acknowledgements the real use descending to others to more substantial purposes These considerations may be useful to the curing of covetousnesse that the grace of mercifulness enlarging the heart of a man his hand may not be contracted but reached out to the poor in almes SECT IX Of Repentance Repentance of all things in the World makes the greatest change it changes things in Heaven and Earth for it changes the whole man from sin to grace from vitious habits to holy customes from unchast bodies to Angelical soules from Swine to Philosophers from drunkenness to sober counsels and God himself with whom is no variablenesse or shadow of change is pleased by descending to our weak understandings to say that he changes also upon mans repentance that he alters his decrees revokes his sentence cancels the bils of accusation throwes the Records of shame and sorrow from the Court of Heaven and lifts up the sinner from the grave to life from his prison to a throne from Hell and the guilt of eternal torture to Heaven and to a title to never ceasing felicities If we be bound on earth we shall be bound in Heaven if we be absolved here we shall be loosed there if we repent God will repent and not send the evil upon us which we have deserved But repentance is a conjugation and society of many duties and it contains in it all the parts of a holy life from the time of our returne to the day of our death inclusively and it hath in it some things specially relating to the sins of our former dayes which are now to be abolished by special arts and have obliged us to special labours and brought in many new necessities and put us into a very great deal of danger and because it is a duty consisting of so many parts and so much imployment it also requires much time and leaves a man in the same degree of hope of pardon as is his restitution to the state of righteousness holy living for which we covenanted in Baptism For we must know that there is but one repentance in a mans whole life if repentance be taken in the proper and strict Evangelicall Covenant sense and not after the ordinary understanding of the word That is we are but once to change our whole state of life from the power of the Devil and his intire possession from the state of sin and death from the body of corruption to the life of grace to the possession of Jesus to the kingdome of the Gospel and this is done in the baptisme of water or in the baptisme of the spirit when the first right comes to be verified by Gods grace coming upon us and by our obedience to the heavenly calling we working together with God After this change if ever wee fall into the contrary state and be wholly estranged from God and Religion and profess our selves servants of unrighteousness God hath made no more covenant of restitution to us there is no place left for any more repentance or intire change of condition or new birth a man can be regenerated but once and such are voluntary malicious Apostates Witches obstinate impenitent persons and the like But if we be overtaken by infirmity or enter into the marches or borders of this estate and commit a grievous sin or ten or twenty so we be not in the intire possession of the Devil we are for the present in a damnable condition if we dye but if we live we are in a recoverable condition for so we may repent often we repent or rise from death but once but from sickness many times and by the grace of God we shall be pardoned if so we repent But our hopes of pardon are just as is the repentance which if it be timely hearty industrious and effective God accepts not by weighing graues or scruples but by estimating the great proportions of our life a hearty endevour an effectual general change shall get the pardon the unavoidable infirmities and past evils and present imperfections and short interruptions against which we watch and pray and strive being put upon the accounts of the crosse and payed for by the holy Jesus This is the state and condition of repentance its parts and actions must be valued according to the following rules Acts and parts of Repentance 1. He that repents truly is greatly sorrowful for his past sins not with a superficial sigh or tear but a pungent afflictive sorrow such a sorrow as hates the sin so much that the man would choose to dye rather then act it any more This sorrow is called in Scripture a weeping sorely Ier. 13 17. Ioel 2.13 Ezek. 27 31. Iames 4.9 a weeping with bitternesse of heart a weeping day and night a sorrow of heart a breaking of the spirit mourning like a dove and chattering like a swallow and we may read the degree and manner of it by the lamentations and sad accents of the Prophet Jeremy when he wept for the sins of the nation by the heart breaking of David when he mourned for his murder and adultery and the bitter weeping of S. Peter after the shameful denying of his Master * The expression of this sorrow differs according to the temper of the body the sex the age and circumstance of action and the motive of sorrow and by many accidental tendernesses or masculine hardnesses and the repentance is not to be estimated by the tears but by the grief and the grief is to be valued not by the sensitive trouble but by the cordial hatred of the sin and ready actual dereliction of it and a resolution and real resisting
fear or when the appetites of Lust are newly satisfied or newly served and yet when the temptation comes again sins again and then is sorrowfull and resolves once more against it and yet fals when the temptation returns is a vain man but no true penitent nor in the state of grace and if he chance to dye in one of these good moods is very far from salvation for if it be necessary that we resolve to live well it is necessary we should do so For resolution is an imperfect act a term of relation signifies nothing but in order to the actions it is as a faculty is to the act as Spring is to the Harvest as Egges are to Birds as a Relative to its Correspondent nothing without it No man therefore can be in the state of grace and actual favour by resolutions holy purposes these are but the gate and portal towards pardon a holy life is the onely perfection of Repentance and the firm ground upon which we can cast the anchor of hope in the mercies of God through Jesus Christ. 7. No man is to reckon his pardon immediately upon his returns from sin to the beginnings of good life but is to begin hiâ— hopes and degrees of confidence according as sin dyes in him and grace lives as the habits of sin lessen and righteousness grows according as sin returns but seldom in smaller instances and without choice and by surprize without deliberation and is highly disrelished and presently dashed against the Rock Christ Jesus by a holy sorrow and renewed care and more strict watchfulness For a holy life being the condition of the Covenant on our part as we return to God so God returns to us and our state returns to the probabilities of pardon 8. Every man is to work out his salvation with fear and trembling and after the commission of sins his feares must multiply because every new sin and every great declining from the wayes of God is still a degree of new danger and hath increased Gods anger and hath made him more uneasie to grant pardon and when he does grant it it is upon harder terms both for doing and suffering that is we must do more for pardon and it may be suffer much more For we must know that God pardons our sins by parts as our duty increases and our care is more prudent and active so Gods anger decreases and yet it may be the last sin you committed made God unalterably resolved to send upon you some sad judgment Of the particulars in all cases we are uncertain and therefore we have reason alwaies to mourn for our sins that have so provoked GOD and made our condition so full of danger that it may be no prayers or tears or duty can alter his sentence concerning some sad judgment upon us Thus GOD irrevocably decreed to punish the Israelites for Idolatry although Moses prayed for them and God forgave them in some degree that is so that he would not cut them off from being a people yet he would not forgive them so but he would visit that their sin upon them and he did so Dâ—ndam interstitium poenitentiae Tacit. 9. A true penitent must all the days of his life pray for pardon and never think the work completed till he dyes not by any act of his own by no act of the Church by no forgiveness by the party injured by no restitution these are all instruments of great use and efficacy the means by which it is to be done at length but still the sin lyes at the door ready to return upon us in judgment and damnation if we return to it in choice or action And whether God hath forgiven us or no we know not (a) I â—ecâ—ati 〈◊〉 debiti sâ—u sempre â—in di quâ—l â—â—e fiâ—â—â—de and how far we know not and all that we have done is not of sufficient work to obtain pardon therefore still pray and still be sorrowfull for ever having done it and for ever watch against it and then those beginnings of pardon which are working all the way will at last be perfected in the day of the Lord. 10. Defer not at all to repent much lesse mayest thou out it off to thy death-bed It is not an easie thing to root out the habits 〈◊〉 sin 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arria which a mans whole life hath gathered and confirmed We find work enough to mortifie one beloved lust in our very best advantage of strength and time and before it is so deeply rooted as it must needs be supposed to be at the end of a wicked life â—nd therefore it will prove impossible when the work is so great and the strength 's so little when sin is so strong and grace so weak for they alwayes keep the same proportion of increase and decrease and as sin growes grace decayes so that the more need we have of grace the lesse at that time we shall have because the greatness of our sins which makes the need hath lessened the grace of GOD which should help us into nothing To which adde this consideration that on a Mans death bed the day of repentance is past for repentance being the renewing of a holy life a living the life of grace Mortem 〈◊〉 nemo 〈◊〉 excipâ—◠〈◊〉 qui ad 〈◊〉 sâ— d◠〈◊〉 postitas 〈…〉 it is a contradiction to say that a man can live a holy life upon his death-bed especially if we consider that for a sinner to live a holy life must first suppose him to have overcome all his evill habits and then to have made a purchase of the contrary graces by the labours of great prudence watchfulness self-denyall and severity Nothing that is excellent can be wrought suddenly 11. After the beginnings of thy recovery be infinitely fearfull of a relapse and therefore upon the stock of thy sad experience observe where thy failings were and by especiall arts fortifie that faculty and arm against that temptation For if all those argumâ—â—â— which God uses to us to preserve out innocence and thy late danger and thy fears and the goodness of God making thee once to escape and the shame of thy fall and the sense of thy own weaknesses will not make thee watchfull against a fall especially knowing how much it costs a man to be restored it will be infinitely more dangerous if ever thou fallest again not onely for fear God should no more accept thee to pardon but even thy own hopes will be made more desperate and thy impatience greater and thy shame turn to impudence and thy own will be â—ore estranged violent and refractory and tâ—y latter end will be worse then thy beginning To which adde this consideration That thy sin which was formerly in a good way of being pardoned wil not onely return upon thee with all its own loads but with the baseness of unthankfulnesse and thou wilt be set as far back from Heaven as ever and
our sins 1 John 3.5 If ye being evill know to give good things to your children how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to them that ask him Matth. 7.11 This is a faithfull saying and worthy of â—ll accepâ—ation that Jesus Christ came into the World to save sinners He that hath given us his â—on how should not he with him give us all things else Acts of hope to be used by sick persons after a pious life I Am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nâ—â— Principalities noâ— powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Rom. 8.38 I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me onely but unto all them also that love his appearing 2 Tim. 4.7 Blessed be the God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies and the God of all comforts who comforts us in all tribulation 2 Cor. 1.3 A prayer to be said in behalf of a sick or dying person O Lord God there is no number of thy dayes nor of thy mercies and the sins and sorrows of thy servant also are multiplied Lord look upon him with much mercy and pity forgive him all his sinnes comfort his sorrows ease his pain satisfie his doubts relieve his fears instruct his ignorances strengthen his understanding take from him all disorders of spiritâ— weakness and abuse of fancy Restrain the malice and power of the spirits of darkness and suffer him to be injured neither by his ghostly enemies noâ— his own infirmities and let a holy and a just peace the peace of God be within his conscience Lord preserve his senses till thâ— last of his time strengthen his faith confirm his hope and give him a never ceasing charity to thee our God and to all the world stir up in him a great and proportionable contrition for all the evills he hath done and give him a just measure of patience for all he suffers give him prudence memory and consideration rightly to state the accounts of his soul and do thou reminde him of all his duty that when it shall please thee that his soul goes out from the prison of his body it may be received by Angels and preserved from the surprize of evil spirits and from the horrors and amazements of new and stranger Regions and be laid up in the bosom of our Lord till at the day of thy second coming it shall be reunited to the body which is now to be layed down in weakness and dishonour but we humbly beg may then be raised up with glory and power for ever to live and to behold the face of God in the glories of the Lord Jesus who is our hope our resurrection and our life the light of our eyes and the joy of our souls our blessed and ever glorious Redeemer Amen Hither the sick persons may draw in and use the acts of several vertues respersed in the several parts of this book the several Letanies viz. of repentance of the passion and the single prayers according to his present needs A Prayer to be said in a storm aâ— Sea O My God thou didst create the Earth and the Sea for thy glory and the use of man and doest daily shew wonders in the deep look upon the danger and fear of thy servant my sins have taken hold upon me and without the supporting arm of thy mercy I cannot look up but my trust is in thee Do thou O Lord rebuke the Sea and make it calm for to thee the windes and the sea obey let not the waters swallow me up but let thy Spirit the Spirit of gentleness and mercy move upon the waters Be thou reconciled unto thy servants and then the face of the waters will be smooth I fear that my sins make me like â—onas the cause of the tempest Cast out all my sins and throw not thy servants away from thy presence and from the land of the living into the depths where all things are forgotten But if it be thy wil that wâ— shall go down into the waters Lord 〈◊〉 my soul into thy holy hands and preserve it in mercy and safety till the day of â—estâ—â—â—tion of all things and be pleased â—oâ—n â—e my dâ—â—th to the 〈◊〉 of thy Son and â—o accept of it so united as a punishment for all my sins that thou mayest forget all thine anger and blot my sins out of thy book and write my soul there for Jesus Christ his sake our dearest Lord and most mighty Redeemer Amen Then make an act of resignation thus TO God pertain the issues of life and death It is the Lord. Let him do what seemeth good in his own eyes Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven Recite Psalm 107. and 130. A form of a vow to be made in this or the like danger IF the Lord will be gracious and hear the Prayer of his servant and bring me safe to shore then I will praise him secretly and publickly and pay unto the uses of charity or Religion then name the sum you designe for holy uses O my God my goods are nothing unto thee I will also be thy servant all the dayes of my life and remember this mercy and my present purposes and live more to Gods glory and with a stricter duty And do thou please to accept this vow as an instance of my importunity and the greatness of my needs and be thou graciously moved to pity and deliver me Amen This form also may be used in praying for a blessing on an enterprize and may be instanced in actions of devotion as well as of charity A Prayer before a journey O Almighty God who fillest all things with thy presence and art a God afar off as well as neer at hand thou didst send thy Angel to bless Jacob in his journey and didst lead the children of Israel through the Red Sea making it a wall on the right hand and on the left be pleased to let thy Angel go out before me and guide me in my journey preserving me from dangers of robbers from violence of enemies and sudden and sad accidents from fals and errours and prosper my journey to thy glory and to all my innocent purposes and preserve me from all sin that I may return in peace and holyness with thy favour and thy blessing and may serve thee in thankfulness and obedience all the dayes of my pilgrimage and aâ— last bring me to thy country to the celestial Jerusalem there to dwell in thy house and to sing praises to thee for ever Amen Ad. Sect. 4. A prayer to be said before hearing or reading the word of God O
may be used upon our own Birth day or day of our Baptism adding the following prayer A Prayer to be said upon our Birth-day or day of Baptisme O Blessed and Eternall God I give thee praie and glory for thy great mercy to me in causing me to be born of Christian parents and didst not allot to me a portion with Misbelievers and Heathen that have not known thee thou didst not suffer me to be strangled at the gate of the womb but thy hand sustained brought me to the light of the world and the illumination of baptisme with thy grace preventing my election and by an artificiall necessity and holy prevention engaging me to the profession and practises of Christianity Lord since that I have broken the promises made in my behalf and which I confirmed by my after act I went back from them by an evil life and yet thou hast still continued to me life and time of repentance and didst not cut me off in the beginning of my dayes and the progress of my sins O Dearest God pardon the errours and ignorances the vices and vanities of my youth and the faults of my more forward years and let me never more stain the whiteness of my baptismal robe and now that by thy grace I still persist in the purposes of obedience and do give up my name to Christ and glory to be a Disciple of thy institution and a servant of Jesus let me never fail of thy grace let no root of bitterness spring up and disorder my purposes and defile my spirit O let my years be so many degrees of neerer approach to thee and forsake me not O God in my old age when I am gray-headed and when my strength faileth me be thou my strength and my guide unto death that I may reckon my years and apply my heart unto wisdom and at last after the spending a holy and a blessed life I may be brought unto a glorious eternity through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Then adde the form of thanksgiving formerly described A prayer to be said upon the dayes of the memory of Apostles Martyrs c O Eternal God to whom do live the spirits of them that depart hence in the Lord and in whom the souls of them that be elected after they be delivered from the burden of the flesh be in peace and rest from their labours and their works follow them and their memory is blessed I blesse and magnifie thy holy and ever glorious name for the great grace and blessing manifested to thy Apostles and Martyrs and other holy persons who have glorified thy name in the dayes of their flesh and have served the interest of religion and of thy service and this day we have thy servant name the Apostle or Martyr c. in remembrance whom thou hast lead through the troubles and temptations of this World and now hast lodged in the bosome of a certain hope and great beatitude until the day of restitution of all things Blessed be the mercy and eternal goodness of God and the memory of all thy Saints is blessed Teach me to practise their doctrine to imitate their lives following their example and being united as a part of the same mysticall body by the band of the same faith and a holy hope and a never ceasing charity and may it please thee of thy gracious goodness shortly to accomplish the number of thine elect and to hasten thy Kingdom that we with thy servant * and all others departed in the true faith and fear of thy holy Name may have our perfect consummation and bliss in body and soul in thy eternall and everlasting kingdom Amen A form of prayer recording all the parts and mysteries of Christs passion being a short history of it to be used especially in the week of the passion and before the receiving the blessed Sacrament ALl praise honour and glory be to the holy and eternal Jesus I adore thee O blessed Redeemer eternall God the light of the Gentiles and the glory of Israel for thou hast done and suffered for me more then I could wish more then I could think of even all that a lost and a miserable perishing sinner could possibly need Thou wert afflicted with thirst and hunger with heat and cold with labours and sorrows with hard journeys and restless nights and when thou wert contriving all the mysterious and admirable wayes of paying our scores thou didst suffer thy self to be designed to slaughter by those for whom in love thou were ready to dye What is man that thou art mindfull of him the Son of man that thou thus visitest him Blessed be thy Name O holy Jesus for thou wentest about doing good working miracles of mercy healing the sick comforting the distressed instructing the ignorant raising the dead inlightning the blinde strengthning the lame streightening the crooked relieving the poor preaching the Gospel and reconciling sinners by the mightiness of thy power by the wisdom of thy Spirit by the Word of God and the merits of thy Passion thy healthfull and bitter passion Lord what is man that thou art mindfull of him c. Blessed be thy Name O holy Jesus who wert content to be conspired against by the Jews to be sold by thy servant for a vile price to wash the feet of him that took money for thy life and to give to him and to all thy Apostles thy most holy Body and Blood o become a Sacrifice for their sins even for their betraying and denying thee and for all my sins even for my crucifying thee a fresh and for such sins which I am ashamed to think but that the greatness of my sins magnifie the infiniteness of thy mercies who didst so great things for so vile a person Lord what is man c. Blessed be thy Name O holy Jesus who being to depart the world didst comfort thy Apostles powring out into their ears hearts treasures of admirable discourses who didst recommend them to thy Father with a mighty charity and then didst enter into the Garden set with nothing but Bryers â—orrows where thou didst suffer a most unspeakable agony untill the sweat strain'd through thy pure skin like drops of blood and there didst sigh and groan and fall flat upon the earth and pray and submit to the intolerable burden of thy fathers wrath which I had deserved and thou sufferedst Lord what is man c. Blessed be thy Name O holy Jesus who hast sanctified to us all our natural infirmities and passions by vouchsafing to be in fear and trembling and sore amazement by being bound and imprisoned by being harrassed and drag'd with cords of violence and rude hands by being quench'd in the brook in the way by being sought after like a theif and us'd like a sinner who wert the most holy and the most innocent cleaner then an Angel and brighter then the Morning-Star Lord what is man c. Blessed be thy Name O holy Jesus and
ever in the unity of the holy Catholick Church and in the integrity of the Christian faith and in the love of God and of our neighbours and in hope of life Eternal Amen 2. For the whole Catholick Church O holy Jesus King of the Saints and Prince of the Catholick Church preserve thy spouse whom thou hast purchased with thy right hand and redeemed and cleansed with thy blood the whole Catholick Church from one end of the Earth to the other she is founded upon a rock but planted in the sea O preserve her safe from schisme heresie and sacrilege Unite all her members with the bands of Faith Hope and Charity and an externall communion when it shall seem good in thine eyes let the daily sacrifice of prayer and Sacramental thanksgiving never cease but be for ever presented to thee and for ever united to the intercession of her dearest Lord and for ever prevaile for the obtaining for every of its membres grace and blessing pardon and salvation Amen 3. For all Christian Kings Princes and Governours O King of Kings and Prince of all the Rulers of the Earth give thy grace and Spirit to all Christian Princes the spirit of wisdom and counsell the spirit of government and godly fear Grant unto them to live in peace and honour that their people may love and fear them and they may love and fear God speak good unto their hearts concerning the Church that they may be nursing Fathers to it Fathers of the Fatherless Judges and Avengers of the cause of Widowes that they may be compassionate to the wants of the poor and the groans of the oppressed that they may not vex or kill the Lords people with unjust or ambitious wars but may feed the flock of God and may inquire after and do all things which may promote peace publick honesty and holy religion so administring things present that they may not fail of the everlasting glories of the world to come where all thy faithfull people shall reign Kings for ever Amen 4. For all the orders of them that minister about H. things O thou great Shepherd and Bishop of our souls Holy and Eternall Jesus give unto thy servants the Ministers of the Mysteries of Christian religion the Spirit of prudence sanctity faith and charity confidence and zeal diligence watchfulnes that they may declare thy will unto the people faithfully dispense thy Sacraments rightly and intercede with thee graciously acceptably for thy servants Grant O Lord that by a holy life and a true belief by well doing and patient suffering when thou shalt call them to it they may glorifie thee the great lover of souls and after a plentifull conversion of sinners from the errour of their wayes they may shine like the stars in glory Amen Give unto thy servants the Bishops a discerning Spirit that they may lay hands suddenly on no man but may depute such persons to the Ministeries of religion who may adorn the Gospel of God and whose lips may preserve knowledge and such who by their good preaching and holy living may advance the service of the Lord Jesus Amen 5. For our neerest relatives as Husband Wife Children Family c. O God of infinite mercy let thy loving mercy and compassion descend upon the head of thy servants my wife or husband children and family be pleased to give them health of body and of spirit a competent portion of temporals so as may with comfort support them in their journey to Heaven preserve them from all evill and sad accidents defend them in all assaults of their enemies direct their persons and their actions sanctifie their hearts and words and purposes that we all may by the bands of obedience and charity be united to our Lord Jesus and alwayes feeling thee our mercifull and gracious Father may become a holy family discharging our whole duty in all our relations that we in this life being thy children by adoption and grace may be admitted into thy holy family hereafter for ever to sing praises to thee in the Church of the first-born in the family of thy redeemed ones Amen 6. For our Parents our Kindred in the flesh our Friends and Benefactors O God merciful and gracious who hast made my Parents my friends and my Benefactors ministers of thy mercy instruments of providence to thy servant I humbly beg a blessing to descend upon the heads of name the persons or the relations Depute thy holy Angels to guard their persons thy holy spirit to guide their souls thy providence to minister to their necessities and let thy grace and mercy preserve them from the bitter pains of eternal death and bring them to everlasting life through Jesus Christ. Amen 7. For all that lye under the rod of war famine pestilence to be said in the time of plague or war c. O Lord God almighty thou art our Father we are thy children thou art our Redeemer we thy people purchased with the price of thy most precious blood be pleased to moderate thy anger towards thy servants let not thy whole displeasure arise lest we be consumed and brought to nothing Let health and peace be within our dwellings let righteousness and holiness dwell for ever in our hearts and be express'd in all our actions and the light of thy countenance be upon us in all sufferings that we may delight in the service and in the mercies of God for ever Amen O gracious Father and mercifull God if it be thy will say unto the destroying Angel it is enough and though we are not better then our brethren who are smitten with the rod of God but much worse yet may it please thee even because thou art good and because we are timerous and sinfull not yet fitted for our appearance to set thy mark upon our foreheads that thy Angel the Minister of thy justice may pass over us hurt us not let thy hand cover thy servants and hide us in the clefts of the rock in the wounds of the holy Jesus from the present anger that is gone out against us that though we walk thorough the valley of the shadow of death we may fear no evill and suffer none and those whom thou hast smitten with thy rod support with thy staff and visit them with thy mercies and salvation through Jesus Christ. Amen 8. For all women with childe and for unborn children O Lord God who art the Father of them that trust in thee and shewest mercy to a thousand generations of them that fear thee have mercy upon all women great with childe * be pleased to give them a joyfull and a safe deliverance and let thy grace preserve the fruit of their wombs and conduct them to the holy Sacrament of Baptisme that they being regenerated by thy spirit and adopted into thy family and the portion and duty of Sons may live to the glory of God to the comfort of their parents and friends to the edification of
the Christian Common-wealth and the salvation of their own souls through Jesus Christ. Amen 9. For all estates of Men and Women in the Christian Church O Holy God King Eternal out of the infinite store-houses of thy grace and mercy give unto all Virgins chastity and a religious spirit to all persons dedicated to thee and to religion continence and meekness an active zeal and an unwearied spirit to all married paires faith and holiness to widows and fatherless an all that are oppressed thy patronage comfort and defence to all Christian women simplicity and modesty humility and chastity patience and charity give unto the poor to all that are robbed and spoiled of their goods a competent support and a contented spirit and a treasure in heaven hereafter give unto prisoners and captives to them that toil in the mines and row in the gallies strength of body and of spirit liberty and redemption comfort and restitution to all that travell by land thy Angel for their guide and a holy and prosperous return to all that travel by sea freedom from Pyrates and shipwrack and bring them to the Haven where they would be to distressed and scrupulous consciences to melancholy and disconsolate persons to all that are afflicted with evill and unclean spirits give a light from heaven great grace and proportionable comforts and timely deliverance give them patience and resignation let their sorrows be changed into grace and comfort and let the storm wast them certainly to the regions of rest and glory Lord God of mercy give to thy Martyrs Confessors and all thy persecuted constancy and prudence boldness and hope a full faith and a never failing charity To all who are condemned to death do thou minister comfort a strong a quiet and a resigned spirit take from them the fear of death and all remaining affections to sin and all imperfections of duty and cause them to die full of grace full of hope and give to all faithfull particularly to them who have recommēded themselves to the prayers of thy unworthy servant a supply of all their needs temporall and spirituall and according to their severall states and necessities rest and peace pardon and refreshment and shew us all a mercy in the day of judgment Amen Give O Lord to the magistrates equity sinceritie courage and prudence that they may protect the good defend religion and punish the wrong doers Give to the Nobilitie wisdom valour and loyaltie To Merchants justice and faithfulness to all Artificers and Labourers truth and honesty to our enemies forgiveness and brotherly kindness Preserve to us the heavens and the Ayre in healthful influence and disposition the Earth in plentie the kingdom in peace and good government our marriages in peace and sweetness and innocence of societie thy people from famine and pestilence our houses from burning and robbery our persons from being burnt alive from banishment prison from Widowhood destitution from violence of pains and passions from tempests and earth-quakes from inundation of waters from rebellion or invasion from impatience and inordinate cares from tediousness of spirit and despair from murder and all violent accursed and unusual deaths from the surprise of sudden and violent accidents from passionate and unreasonable fears from all thy wrath and from all our sins good Lord deliver and preserve thy servants for ever Amen Repress the violence of all implacable warring and tyrant Nations bring home unto thy fold all that are gone astray call into the Church all strangers increase the number and holyness of thy own people bring infants to ripeness of age and reason confirm all baptized people with thy grace and with thy Spirit instruct the novices and new Christians let a great grace and mercifull providence bring youthfull persons safely and holily through the indiscretions and passions and temptations of their younger years and those whom thou hast or shalt permit to live to the age of a man give competent strength and wisdom take from them covetousness and churlishness pride and impatience fill them full of devotion and charity repentance and sobriety holy thoughts and longing desires after Heaven and heavenly things give them a holy and a blessed death and to us all a joyfull resurrection through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Ad Sect. 10. The manner of using these devotions by way of preparation to the receiving the blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper The just preparation to this holy Feast consisting principally in a holy life and consequently in the repetation of the acts of all vertues and especially of Faith Repentance Charity and thanksgiving to the exercise of these four graces let the person that intends to communicate in the times set apart for his preparation and devotion for the exercise of his Faith recite the prayer or Letany of the passion For the exercise of Repentance the form of confession of sins with the prayer annexed And for the graces of thanksgiving charity let him use the speciall forms of prayer above described or if a less time can be allotted for preparatory devotion the two first will be the more proper as containing in them all the personal duty of the communicant To which upon the morning of that holy solemnity let him adde A prayer of preparation or address to the holy Sacrament An act of Love O Most gracious and eternall God the helper of the helpless the comforter of the comfortless the hope of the afflicted the bread of the hungry the drink of the thirsty and the Saviour of all them that wait upon thee I blesse and glorifie thy Name adore thy goodness and delight in thy love that thou hast once more given me the opportunity of receiving the greatest favour which I can receive in this World even the body and blood of my dearest Saviour O take from me all affection to sin or vanity let not my affections dwell below but soar upwards to the element of love to the seat of God to the Regions of Glory and the inheritance of Jesus that I may hunger and thirst for the bread of life and the wine of elect soules and may know no loves but the love of God and the most mercifull Jesus Amen An act of Desire O Blessed Jesus thou hast used many arts to save me thou hast given thy life to redeem me thy holy Spirit to sanctifie me thy self for my example thy Word for my Rule thy grace for my guide the fruit of thy body hanging on the tree of the cross for the sin of my soul and after all this thou hast sent thy Apostles Ministers of salvation to call me to importune me to constrain me to holiness and peace and felicity O now come Lord Jesus come quicly my heart is desirous of thy presence and thirsty of thy grace and would fain entertain thee not as a guest but as an inhabitant as the Lord of all my faculties Enter in and take possession and dwell with me for ever
that I also may dwell in the heart of my dearest Lord which was opened for me with a spear and love An act of contrition Lord thou shalt finde my heartfull of cares and worldly desires cheated with love of riches and neglect of holy things proud and unmortified false and crafty to deceive it self intricated and intāgled with difficult cases of conscience with knots which my own wildness and inconsideration and impatience have tied and shuffled together O my dearest Lord if thou canst behold such an impure seat behold the place to which thou art invited is full of passion and prejudice evill principles and evill habits peevish and disobedient lustfull and intemperate and full of sad remembrances that I have often provoked to jealousie and to anger thee my God my dearest Saviour him that dyed for me him that suffered torments for me that is infinitely good to me and infinitely good and perfect in himself This O dearest Saviour is a sad truth and I am heartily ashamed and truly sorrowfull for it and do deeply hate all my sins and am full of indignation against my self for so unworthy so careless so continued so great a folly and humbly beg of thee to increase my sorrow and my care and my hatred against sin and make my love to thee swell up to a great grace and then to glory and immensity An act of Faith This indeed is my condition But I know O blessed Jesus that thou didst take upon thee my nature that thou mightest suffer for my sins and thou didst suffer to deliver me from them and from thy Fathers wrath and I was delivered from this wrath that I might serve thee in holiness righteousness all my daies Lord I am sure thou didst the great work of Redemption for me and all mankinde as that I am alive This is my hope the strength of my spirit my joy and my confidence and do thou never let the spirit of unbelief enter into me and take me from this Rock Here I will dwell for I have a delight therein Here I will live and here I desire to die The Petition Therefore O blessed Jesu who art my Saviour and my God whose body is my food and thy righteousness is my robe thou art the Priest and the Sacrifice the Master of the feast and the feast it self the Physician of my soul the light of my eyes the purifier of my stains enter into my heart and cast out from thence all impurities all the remains of the Old man and grant I may partake of this holy Sacrament with much reverence and holy relish and great effect receiving hence the communication of thy holy body and blood for the establishment of an unreproveable faith of an unfained love for the fulness of wisdom for the healing my soul for the blessing and preservation of my body for the taking out the sting of temporall death and for the assurance of a holy resurrection for the ejection of all evill from within me and the fulfilling all thy righteous Commandements and to procure for me a mercy and a fair reception at the day of judgement through thy mercies O holy and ever blessed Saviour Jesus Amen Here also may be added the prayer after receiving the cup. * Ejaculations to be said before or at the receiving the holy Sacrament Like as the Hart desireth the water brooks so longeth my soul after thee O God My soul is a thirst for God yea even for the living God when shall I come before the presence of God O Lord my God great are thy wonderous works which thou hast done like as be also thy thoughts which are to us-ward and yet there is no man that ordereth them unto thee O send out thy light and thy truth that they may lead me and bring me unto thy holy hill and to thy dwelling And that I may go unto the Altar of God even unto the God of my joy and gladness and with my heart will I give thanks to thee O God my God I will wash my hands in innocency O Lord and so will I go to thine altar that I may shew the voice of thanks-giving and tell of all thy wonderous works Examine me O Lord and prove me try out my reins and my heart For thy loving kindness is now and ever before my eyes and I will walk in thy truth Thou shalt prepare a table before me against them that trouble me thou hast anointed my head with oil and my cup shall be full But thy loving loving kindness and mercy shall follow me all the dayes of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever This is the bread that cometh down from Heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him and hath eternall life abiding in him and I will raise him up at the last day Lord whether shall we go but to thee thou hast the words of eternall life If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink The bread which we break is it not the communication of the body of Christ and the cup which we drink is it not the communication of the blood of Christ What are those wounds in thy hands They are those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends Zech 13.6 Immediately before the receiving say Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof But do thou speak the word onely and thy servant shall be he led Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall shew thy praise O God make speed to save me O Lord make hast to help me Come Lord Jesus come quickly After receiving the consecrated and blessed bread say O tast and see how gracious the Lord is blessed is the man that trusteth in him * The beasts do lack and suffer hunger but they which seek the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good Lord what am I that my Saviour should become my food that the Son of God should be the meat of Worms of dust and ashes of a sinner of him that was his enemy But this thou hast done to me because thou art infinitely good wonderfully gracious and lovest to bless every one of us in turning us from the evill of our wayes Enter into me blessed Jesus let no root of bitterness spring up in my heart but be thou Lord of all my faculties O let me feed on thee by faith and grow up by the increase of God to a perfect man in Christ Jesus Amen Lord I believe help mine unbelief Glory be to God the Father Son c. After the receiving the cup of blessing It is finished Blessed be the mercies of God revealed to us in Jesus Christ. O blessed and eternall high Priest let the sacrifice of the Cross which thou didst once offer for the sins of the whole World and which thou doest now and always represent in