into the extremest misery In a word we may Lose them in Hell whence there is no fetching them back and so they are lost for ever Nay in this consideration our very bodies are concerned those Darlings of ours for which all our care is layed out for they must certainly after Death be Raised again and be joyned again to the Soul and take part with it in whatever state if then our care for the body take up all our Time and Thoughts and leave us none to bestow on the poor Soul it is sure the Soul will for want of that care be made for ever Miserable But it is as sure that that very Body must be so too And therefore if you have any true kindness to your Body shew it by taking Care of your Souls Think with your selves how you will be able to Endure Everlasting Burnings if a small spark of Fire lighting on the least part of the body be so intolerable what will it be to have the Whole cast into the hottest flames And that not for some few hours or days but for ever so that when you have spent many Thousands of years in that unspeakable Torment you shall be no nearer coming out of it then you were the First Day you went in think of this I say and think this withal that this will certainly be the end of Neglecting the Soul and therefore afford it some care if it be but in pity to the Body that must bear a part in its Miseries 7. The Third Motive to tke care of any thing is its being in DANGER now a thing may be in danger two ways first by Enemies from without This is the Case of the Sheep which is still in danger of being Devoured by Wolves and we know that makes the Shepherd so much the more watchful over it Thus is it with the Soul which is in a great deal of Danger in respect of its enemies those we know are the World the Flesh and the Devil which are all such noted enemies to it that the very First Act we do in behalf of our Souls is to Vow a continual War against them This we all do in our Baptisme and whoever makes any Truce with any of them is false not only to his Soul but to his Vow also becomes a Forsworn creature A Consideration well worthy our laying to heart But that we may the better understand what Danger the Soul is in let us a little consider the quality of these enemies 8. In a War you know there are divers things that make an Enemy terrible The first is Subtilty and Gunning by which alone many victories have been won and in this respect the Divel is a dangerous Adversary he long since gave sufficient proof of his Subtilty in beguiling our first Parents who yet were much wiser then we are and therefore no wonder if he deceive and cheat us Secondly the Watchfulness and Diligence of an Enemy makes him the more to be Feared and here the Divel exceeds it is his trade and business to destroy us and he is no loiterer at it he goes up and down seeking whom he may devour 1 Pet. 5. 8. He watches all Opportunities of Advantage against us with such diligence that he will be sure never to let any slip him Thirdly an Enemy neer us is more to be feared then one at a Distance for if he be far off we may have time to arm and prepare our selves against him but if he be near he may steal on us unawares And of this sort is the flesh it is an Enemy at our Doors shall I say Nay in our Bosoms it is always near us to take occasion of doing us mischiefs Fourthly the Baser and Falser an Enemy is the more dangerous he that Hides his malice under the shew of Friendship will be able to do a great deal the more hurt And this again is the flesh which like Joab to Abner 2 Sam. 3. 27. Pretends to speak peaceably to us but wounds us to death t is forward to purvey for Pleasures and Delights for us and so seems very kinde but it has a hook under that bait and if we bite at it we are lost Fifthly the Number of Enemies make them more Terrible and the World is a vast Army against us There is no state or condition in it nay scarce a creature which doth not at sometime or other fight against the Soul The Honours of the world seek to wound us by pride the Wealth by covetousness the Prosperity of it tempt us to Forget God the Adversities to murmur at him Our very Table becomes a snare to us our me at draws us to Gluttony our drink to Drunkenness our Company nay our nearest Friends often bear a part in this War against us whilest either by their example or perswasions they intice us to sin 9. Consider all this and then tell me whether a Soul thus beset hath leasure to sleep even Dalilah could tell Sampson it was time to awake when the Philistines were upon him And CHRIST tells us if the good man of the house had known in what houre the Thief would come he would have watched and not have suffered his house to be broken up Mat. 24. 43. But we live in the midst of Thieves and therefore must look for them every houre and yet who is there among us that hath that common providence for this precious part of him his Soul which he hath for his house or indeed the meanest thing that belongs to him I fear our Souls may say to us as Christ to his Disciples Mat. 26. 40. What could ye not watch with me one houre For I doubt it would pose many of us to tell when we bestowed one Houre on them though we know them to be continually beset with most Dangerous Enemies And then alas What is like to be the case of these poor Souls when their Adversaries bestow so much Care and Diligence to destroy them and we will afford none to preserve them Surely the same as of a Besieged Town where no Watch or Guard is kept which is certain to fall a prey to the enemy Consider this ye that forget God nay ye that forget your selves lest he pluck you away and there be none to deliver you Psal. 50. 22. 10. But I told you there was a Second way whereby a thing may be in Danger and that is from some Disorder or Distemper within it self This is often the case of our Bodies they are not only lyable to outward Violence but they are within themselves Sick and Diseased And then we can be sensible enough that they are in danger and need not to be taught to seek out for means to recover them But this is also the case of the Soul we reckon those parts of the body diseased that do not rightly perform their office we account it a sick palate that tastes not aright a sick stomack that digests not And thus it is with the Soul
our Love 39. But I fear there are not many have this to shew for it as appears by the common backwardness and unwillingness of men to come to these and their negligence and heartlesness when they are at them and can we think that God will ever own us for lovers of him whilest we have such dislikes to his company that we will never come into it but when we are drag'd by fear or shame of men or some such worldly Motive It is sure you would not think that man loved you whom you perceived to shun your company and to be loath to come in your sight And therefore be not so unreasonable as to say You love God when yet you desire to keep as far from him as you can 40. But besides this there is another Enjoyment of God which is more perfect and compleat and that is our perpetual enjoying of him in heaven where we shal be for ever united to him and enjoy him not now and then only for short spaces of time as we do here but continually without interruption or breaking off And certainly if we have that degree of love to God we ought this cannot but be most earnestly desired by us so much that we shall think no labour too great to compass it The seven years that Jacob served for Rachel Gen. 29. 20. seemed to him but a few dayes for the love that he had to her surely if we have love to God we shall not think the service of our whole lives too dear a price for this full Enjoyment of him nor esteem all the Enjoyments of the world worth the looking on in comparison thereof 41. If we can truly tell our selves we do thus long for this enjoyment of God we may believe we love him But I fear again there are but few that can thus approve their love For if we look into mens lives we shall see they are not generally so fond of this Enjoyment as to be at any pains to purchase it And not only so but it is to be doubted there are many who if it were put to their choice whether they would live here alwayes to enjoy the profit and pleasure of the world or go to heaven to enjoy God would like the children of Gad and Reuben set up their rest on this side Jordan Num. 32. and never desire that heavenly Canaan so close do their affections cleave to things below which shews clearly they have not made God their treasure for then according to our Saviours Rule Mat. 6. 21. their heart would be with him Nay further yet it is too plain that many of us set so little value on this Enjoying of God that we preser the vilest and basest sins before him and chuse to Enjoy them though by it we utterly lose our parts in Him which is the case of every man that continues wilfully in those sins 42. And now I fear according to these Rules of Trial many that prefess to love God will be found not to do so I conclude al with the words of S. John 1 Ep. 3. 18. Which though spoken of the love of our brethren is very fitly appliable to this love of God let us not love in word neither in tongue but in deed and in truth 43. A Fourth duty to God is FEAR this arises from the consideration both of his Justice his Power his Justice is such that he will not clear the wicked his Power such that he is able to inflict the sorest punishments upon them and that this is a reasonable cause of fear Christ himself tells us Mat. 10. 18. Fear him which is able to destroy both body and soul in hell Many other places of Scripture there are which commend to us this duty as Ps. 2. 11. Serve the Lord with fear Psal. 34. 9. Fear the Lord ye that be his Saints Pro. 9. 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and divers the like and indeed all the threatnings of wrath against sinners which we meet with in the Scripture are only to this end to work this fear in our hearts 44. Now this fear is nothing else but such an awful regard of God as may keep us from offending him This the wise man tells us Pro. 16. 17. The fear of the Lord is to depart from evil so that none can be said truly to fear God that is not thereby withheld from sin this is but answerable to that common fear we have towards man who ever we know may hurt us we wilbeware of provoking therefore if we be not as wary of displeasing God it is plain we fear men more then we do him 45. How great a madness this is thus to fear men above God will soon appear if we compare what man can do to us with that which God can And first it is sure it is not in the power of man I might say Devils too to do us any hurt unless God permit and suffer them to do it so that if we do but keep him our friend we may say with the Psalmist The Lord is on my side I fear not what man can do unto me For let their malice be never so great he can restrain and keep them from hurting us nay he can change their mindes toward us according to that of the wise man Prov. 16. 7. When a mans wayes please the Lord he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him A notable example of this we have in Jacob Gen. 32. who when his brother Esau was coming against him as an enemy God wonderfully turned his heart so that he met him with all the expressions of brotherly kindness as you may read in the next Chapter 46. But secondly suppose men were left at liberty to do thee what mischief they could alas their power goes but a little way they may perhaps rob thee of thy goods it may be they may take away thy liberty or thy credit or perchance thy life too but that thou knowest is the utmost they can do But now God can do all this when he pleases and that which is infinitely more his vengeance reaches even beyond death it self to the eternal misery both of Body and Soul in hell in comparison of which death is so inconsiderable that we are not to look upon it with any dread Fear not them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do saith Christ Luke 12. 4. And then immediately adds But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you Fear him In which words the comparison is set between that greatest ill we can suffer from man the loss of life and those sadder evils God can inflict on us and the latter are found to be the onely dreadful things and therefore God only to be feared 47. But there is yet one thing farther considerable in this matter
privily for the innocent without a cause c. and verse the 13. you may see what is the bait by which they seek to allure them we shall find all precious substance we shall fill our houses with spoil cast in thy lot among us let us all have one purse Fourthly there is assistance in sin that is when men aid and help others either in contriving or acting a sin Thus Jonadab helpt Amnon in plotting the Ravishing of his sister 2 Sam. 13. all these are direct means of bringing this great evil of sin upon our brethren 8. There are also others which though they seem more indirect may yet be as effectual towards that ill end As first example in sin he that sets others an ill pattern does his part to make them imitate it and too often it hath that effect there being generally nothing more forcible to bring men into any sinful practice then the seeing it used by others as might be instanced in many sins to which there is no other temptation but their being in fashion Secondly there is incouragement in sin when either by approving or else at least by not shewing a dislike we give others confidence to go on in their wickedness A third means is by justifying and defending any sinful act of anothers for by that we do not only confirm him in his evil but endanger the drawing others to the like who may be the more inclinable to it when they shall hear it so pleaded for Lastly the bringing up any reproach upon strict and Christian living as those do who have the ways of God in derision this is a means to affright men from the practice of duty when they see it will bring them to be scorned and despised this is worse then all the former not only in respect of the man who is guilty of it as it is an evidence of the great profaneness of his own heart but also in regard of others it having a more general ill effect then any of the former can have it being the betraying men not only to some single acts of disobedience to Christ but even to the casting off all subjection to him By all these means we may draw on our selves this great guilt of injuring and wounding the souls of our brethren 9. It would be too long for me to instance in all the several sins in which it is usual for men to ensnare others as drunkenness uncleannness rebellion and a multitude more But it will concern every man for his own particular to consider sadly what mischiefs of this kinde he hath done to any by all or any of these means and to weigh well the greatness of the injury Men are apt to boast of their innocency towards their neighbours that they have done wrong to no man but God knowes many that thus brag are of all others the most injurious persons perhaps they have not maimed his body nor stoln his goods but alas the body is but the case and cover of the man and the goods some appurtenances to that 't is the soul is the man and that they can wound and pierce without remorse and yet with the adulteress Prov. 30. 20. say They have done no wickedness but glory of their friendly behaviour to those whom they thus betray to eternal ruine for whomsoever thou hast drawn to any sin thou hast done thy part to ascertain to those endless flames And then think with thy self how base a treachery this is thou wouldst call him a treacherous villain that should while he pretends to embrace a man secretly stab him but this of thine is as far beyond that as the soul is of more value then the body and hell worse then death And remember yet farther that besides the cruelty of it to thy poor brother it is also most dangerous to thy self it being that against which Christ hath pronounced a woe Matth. 18. 7. and ver 6. he tells us that whoever shall offend that is draw into sin any of those little ones it were better for him that a milstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the Sea Thou maist plunge thy poor brother into perdition but as it is with wrestlers he that gives another a fall commonly falls with him so thou art like to bear him company to that place of torment 10. Let therefore thy own his danger beget in thee a sense of the greatness of this sin this horrid piece of injustice to the precious soul of thy neighbour Bethink thy self seriously to whom thou hast bin thus cruel whom thou hast enticed to drinking advised to rebellion allured to lust stirred up to rage whom thou hast assisted or encouraged in any ill course or discouraged and disheartned by thy profane scoffings at piety in general or at any conscionable strict walking of his in particular and then draw up a bill of indictment accuse and condemn thy self as a Cain a murderer of thy brother heartily and deeply bewail all thy guilts of this kinde and resolve never once more to be a stumbling block as S. Paul calls it Rom. 14. in thy brothers way 11. But this is not all there must be some fruits of this repentance brought forth now in all sins of injustice restitution is a necessary fruit of repentance and so it is here thou hast committed an act perhaps many of high injustice to the soul of thy brother thou hast robbed it of its innocency of its title to heaven thou must now endeavour to restore all this to it again by being more earnest and industrious to win him to repentance then ever thou wert to draw him to sin use now as much art to convince him of the danger as ever thou didst to flatter him with the pleasures of his vice in a word countermine thy self by using all those methods and means to recover him that thou didst to destroy him and be more diligent and zealous in it for 't is necessary thou shouldst both in regard of him and thy self First in respect of him because there is in mans nature so much a greater promptness and readiness to evil then to good that there will need much more pains and diligence to instil the one into him then the other besides the man is supposed to be already accustomed to the contrary which wil adde much to the difficulty of the work Then in respect of thy self if thou be a true penitent thou wilt think thy self obliged as S. Paul did to labour more abundantly and wilt be ashamed that when thou art trading for God bringing back a soul to him thou shouldest not pursue it with more earnestness then while thou art an agent of Satans besides the remembrance that thou art a means of bringing this poor soul into this snare must necessarily quicken thy diligence to get him out of it So much for the first part of negative justice in respect of the souls of our
The Whole DUTY of MAN laid down IN A PLAIN WAY for the use of the MEANEST READER Dwided into XVII CHAPTERS One whereof being read every LORDS DAY the whole may be Read over thrice in the Year Necessary for all Families With PRIVATE DEVOTIONS London Printed for T. Garthwait at the little North Door of S. Pauls 1659 Mr. GARTHWAIT YOu needed not any Intercession to recommend this task to me which brought its Invitations and Reward with it I very willingly read over all the sheets both of the Discourse and the Devotions annext and finde great cause to bless God for both not discerning what is wanting in any part of either to render it with Gods blessing most sufficient and proper to the great End designed the Spiritual supplies and advantages of all those that shall be exercised therein The Subject matter of it is indeed what the Title undertakes The Whole Duty of Man Set down in all the Branches with those advantages of brevity and Partitions to invite and support and engage the Reader That Condescension to the meanest capacities but with all That weight of Spiritual Arguments wherein the best Proficients will be glad to be assisted that it seems to me equally fitted for both sorts of Readers which shall bring with them a sincere desire of their own either present or future advantages The Devotion part in the Conclusion is no way inferiour being a seasonable aid to every mans Infirmities and hath extended it self very particularly to all our principal concernments The Introduction hath supplyed the place of a Preface which you seem to desire from me and leaves me no more to add but my Prayers to God That the Author which hath taken care to convey so liberal an Alms to the Corban so secretly may not miss to be rewarded openly in the visible power and benefit of this Work on the hearts of the whole Nation which was never in more need of such supplyes as are here afforded That his All-sufficient Grace will blesse the seed sown and give an abundant encrease is the humblest request of March 7. 1657 Your assured Friend H. HAMMOND A PREFACE To the ensuing TREATISE shewing the Necessity of Careing for the Soul Sect. 1. THE only intent of this ensuing Treatise is to be a short and Plain Direction to the very meanest Readers to behave themselves so in this world that they may be happy for ever in the next But because 't is in vain to tell men their Duties till they be perswaded of the necessity of performing it I shall before I proceed to the Particulars required of every Christian endeavour to win them to the practice of one general Duty preparatory to all the rest and that is the Consideration and CARE of their own SOULS without which they will never think themselves much concern'd in the other 2. MAN We know is made up of two parts a BODY and a SOUL The Body only the husk or shell of the Soul a lump of flesh subject to many diseases and pains while it lives and at last to Death it self and then 't is so far from being valued that 't is not to be endured above ground but layed to rot in the Earth Yet to this viler part of us we perform a great deal of Care all the labour toil we are at is to maintain that But the more precious part the Soul is little thought of no care taken how it fares but as if it were a thing that nothing concern'd us is left quite neglected never consider'd by us 3. This Carelesness of the Soul is the root of all the sin we commit therefore whosoever intends to sit upon a Christian course must in the first place amend that To the doing whereof there needs no deep learning or extraordinary parts the simplest man living that is not a natural fool hath understanding enough for it if he will but act in this by the same Rules of cōmon Reason whereby he proceeds in his worldly business I will therefore now briefly set down some of those Motives which use to stir up our care of any outward thing and then apply them to the Soul 4. There be FOUR things especially which use to awake our care the first is the Worth of the thing the Second the Usefulness of it to us when we cannot part with it without great damage and mischief the Third the great Danger of it and the Fourth the Likelihood that our care will not be in vain but that it will preserve the Thing cared for 5. For the First we know our care of any worldly thing is answerable to the worth of it what is of greatest Price we are most watchful to preserve most fearful to lose no man locks up dung in his chest but his money or what he counts precious he doth Now in this respect the Soul deserves more care then all the things in the world besides for t is infinitely more worth First in that it is made after the Image of God it was God that breathed into man this breath of life Gen. 2. 7. Now God being of the greatest Excellency and worth the more anything is like him the more it is to be valued But 't is sure that no Creature upon the earth is at all like God but the Soul of man and therefore nothing ought to have so much of our care Secondly the Soul never Dies We use to prize things according to their Durableness what is most Lasting is most Worth Now the Soul is a thing that will last for ever when Wealth Beauty Strength nay our very bodies themselves fade away the Soul still Continues Therefore in that respect also the Soul is of the greatest worth and then what strange madness is it for us to neglect them as we do We can spend Days and Weeks and Moneths and Years nay our whole lives in hunting after a little wealth of this world which is of no Durance or continuance and in the mean time let this great durable treasure our Souls be stollen from us by the Divel 6. A second Motive to our care of any thing is the USEFULNES of it to us or the great Mischief we shall have by the loss of it Common Reason teaches us this in all things of this life If our Hairs fall we do not much regard it because we can be well enough without them But if we are in danger to lose our Eyes or Limbs we think all the care we can take little enough to prevent it because we know it will be a great misery But certainly there is no Misery to be compared to that misery that follows the Loss of the Soul 'T is true we cannot Lose our Souls in one sense that is so lose them that they shall cease to Be but we may lose them in another that we shall wish to lose them even in that That is we may lose that happy estate to which they were created and plunge them
when its parts do not rightly perform their Offices 11. The parts of the Soul are especially these three The UNDERSTANDING the WILL and the AFFECTIONS And that these are disordered there needs little proof let any man look seviously into his own Heart and consider how little it is he knows of spiritual things and then tell me whether his Understanding be not dark How much apter is he to Will evil then good and then tell me whether his Will be not Crooked And how strong Desires he hath after the pleasures of sin and what cold and faint ones towards God and goodness and then tell me whether his Affections be not disordered and rebellious even against the voice of his own Reason within him Now as in bodily diseases the first step to the cure is to know the Cause of the sickness so likewise here it is very necessary for us to know how the Soul first fell into this Diseased condition and that I shall now briefly tell you 12. GOD created the first Man Adam without Sin and indued his Soul with the full knowledg of his Duty and with such a strength that he might if he would perform all that was required of him Having thus created him He makes a COVENANT or agreement with him to this purpose that if he continued in Obedience to God without committing Sin then first that Strength of Soul which he then had should still be continued to him and secondly That he should never Die but he taken up into Heaven there to be Happy for ever But on the other side if he committed Sin and Disobeyed God then both He and all his Children after him should lose that Knowledg and that perfect strength which enabled him to do all that God required of him and Secondly should be subject to death and not only so but to Eternal damnation in Hell 13. This was the Agreement made with Adam and all mankind in him which we usually call the FIRST COVENANT upon which God gave Adam a particular commandment which was no more but this That he should not eat of one only tree of that garden wherein he had placed him But he by the perswasion of the Devil eats of that Tree disobeys God and so brings that curse upon himself and all his posterity And so by that one Sin of his he lost both the full Knowledge of his Duty and the Power of performing it And we being born after his Image did so likewise and so are become both Ignorant in Discerning what we ought to Do and Weak and unable to the Doing of it having a backwardness to all good and an aptness and readiness to all evil like a sick stomack which loaths all wholsome food and longs after such trash as may nourish the disease 14. And now you see where we got this Sickness of soul and likewise that it is like to prove a Deadly one and therefore I presume I need say no more to assure you our Souls are in danger It is more likely you will from this description think them hopeless But that you may not from that conâ—eit excuse your Neglect of them I shall hasten to shew yâ—â— the contrary by proceeding to the fourth Motive of Care 15. That Fourth Motive is the likelyhood that our CARE will not be in VAIN but that it will be a means to preserve the thing cared for where this is wanting it disheartens our care A Physician leaves his Patient when he sees him past Hope as knowing it is then in vain to give him any thing but on the contrary when he sees hopes of recovery he plies him with Medicines Now in this very respect we have a great deal of reason to take care of our souls for they are not so far gone but they may be recovered nay it is certain they will if we do our parts towards it 16. For though by that Sin of Adam all mankinde were under the sentence of eternal condemnation yet it pleased God so far to pity our misery as to give us his Son and in him to make a new Covenant with us after we had broken the first 17. This SECOND COVENANT was made with Adam and us in him presently after his Fall and is briefly contained in those wards Gen. 3. 15. Where God declares that THE SEED OF THE WOMAN SHALL BREAK THE SERPENTS HEAD and this was made up as the first was of some mercies to be afforded by God and some duties to be performed by us 18. God therein promises to send his only Son who is God equal with himself to earth to become man like unto us in all things sin only excepted and he to do for us these Several things 19. Frst to make Known to us the whole Will of his Father in the performance whereof we shall be sure to be Accepted and rewarded by him And this was one great part of his business which he performed in those many Sermons and Precepts we finde set down in the Gospel And herein he is our PROPHET it being the work of a Prophet of old not only to foretel but to Teach Our Duty in this particular is to hearken diligently to him to be most ready and desirous to learn that will of God which he came from heaven to reveal to us The Second thing He was to do for us was to Satisfie God for our Sins not only that one of Adam but all the Sins of all Mankind that truly repent and amend and by this means to obtain for us Forgiveness of sins the Favour of God and so to Redeem us from Hell and eternal damnation which was the punishment due to our sin All this he did for us by his death He offered up himself a Sacrifice for the Sins of all those who heartily bewail and forsake them And in this He is our PRIEST it being the Priests Office to Offer Sacrifice for the sins of the people Our Duty in this particular is first truly and heartily to Repent us of and forsake our Sins without which they will never be forgiven us though Christ have died Secondly stedfastly to Believe that if we do that we shall have the benefits of that Sacrifice of his all our sins how many and great soever shall be forgiven us and we saved from those eternal punishments which were due unto us for them Another part of the PRIESTS Office was Blessing and Praying for the people and this also Christ performs to us It was his especial Commission from his Father to Bless us as St. Peter tells us Acts 3. 26. God sent his Son Jesus to Bless you the following words shew wherein that blessing consists in turning away every one of you from his iniquity those means which he has used for the turning us from our Sins are to be reckoned of all other the greatest blessings and for the other part that of Praying that he not only performed on earth but continues still to do it in
and all these we must undoubtingly acknowledg that is we must firmly believe all these Divine Excellencies to be in God and that in the greatest degree and so that they can never cease to be in him he can never be other then insinitely Good Merciful True c. 13. But the acknowledging him for our God signifies yet more then this it means that we should perform to him all those several parts of Duty which belong from a Creature to his God What those are I am now to tell you 14. The first is FAITH or Belief not only that forementioned of his Essence and Attributes but of his word the believing most firmly that all that he saith is perfectly true This cessarily arises from that Attribute his Truth it being natural for us to believe whatsoever is said by one of whose Truth we are confident Now the Holy Scriptures being the Word of God we are therefore to conclude that all that is contained in them is most true 15. The things contained in them are of these four sorts First Affirmations such are all the stories of the Bible when it is said Such and such things came so and so to pass Christ was born of a Virgin was laid in a Manger c. And such also are many points of Doctrine as that there are three Persons in the God-head that Christ is the Son of God and the like All things of this sort thus delivered in Scripture we are to believe most true And not only so but because they are all written for our instruction we are to consider them for that purpose that is by them to lay that Foundation of Christian knowledge on which we may build a Christian life 16. The Second sort of things contain'd in the Scripture are the Commands that is the several things enjoyned us by God to perform these we are to believe to come from him and to be most just and fit for him to command But then this Belief must bring forth Obedience that what we believe thus fit to be done be indeed done by us otherwise our belief that they come from him serves but to make us more inexcusable 17. Thirdly The Scripture contains threatnings many Texts there are which threaten to them that go on in their sins the wrath of God and under that are contained all the punishments and miseries of this life both spiritual and temporal and everlasting destruction in the life to come Now we are most stedfastly to Believe That these are Gods threats and that they will certainly be performed to every impenitent sinner But then the use we are to make of this belief is to keep from those sins to which this destruction is threatned otherwise our belief addes to our guilt that will wilfully go on in spight of those threatnings 18. Fourthly The Scripture contains Promises and those both to our Bodies and our Souls for our bodies there are many promises that God will provide for them what he sees necessary I will name only one Mat. 6. 33. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things that is all outward necessaries shall be added unto you But here 't is to be observed that we must first seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness that is make it our first and greatest care to serve and obey him before this promise even of temporal good things belongs to us To the soul there are many and high promises as first that of present ease and refreshment which we find Matth. 11. 29. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me and ye shall finde rest to your souls But here it is apparent that before this rest belongs to us we must have taken on us Christs yoke become his servants and Disciples Finally there are promises to the soul even of all the benefits of Christ but yet those only to such as perform the Condition required that is Pardon of Sins to those that repent of them Increase of Grace to those that diligently make use of what they have already and humbly pray for more and Eternal salvation to those that continue to their lives end in hearty obedience to his Commands 19. This Belief of the Promises must therefore stir us up to perform the Condition and till it do so we can in no reason expect any good by them and for us to look for the benefit of them on other terms is the same mad presumption that it would be in a Servant to challenge his Master to give him a reward for having done nothing of his work to which alone the reward was promised you can easily resolve what answer were to be given to such a servant and the same are we to expect from God in this case nay further it is sure God hath given these Promises to no other end but to invite us to holiness of life yea he gave his Son in whom all his Promises are as it were sum'd up for this end We usually look so much at Christs comming to satisfie for us that we forget this other part of his errand But there is nothing surer then that the main purpose of his coming into the world was to plant good life among men 20. This is so often repeated in Scripture that no man that considers and believes what he reads can doubt of it Christ himself tells us Mat. 9. 13. He came to call sinners to repentance And S. Peter Acts 3. 26. tells us That God sent his Son Jesus to bless us in turning every one of us from his iniquities for it seems the turning us from our iniquities was the greatest special Blessing which God intended us in Christ. 21. Nay we are taught by S. Paul that this was the end of his very death also Tit. 2. 14. Who gave himself for our sins that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works And again Gal. 1. 4. Who gave himself for us that he might deliver us from this present evil world that is from the sins and ill customes of the world Divers other Texts there are to this purpose But these I suppose sufficient to assure any man of this one great truth That all that Christ hath done for us was directed to this end the bringing us to live Christianly or in the words of Saint Paul To teach us that denying ungodlinesse and worldly lusts wee should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world 22. Now we know Christ is the foundation of all the Promises in him all the promises of God are yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1. 20. And therefore if God gave Christ to this end certainly the Promises are to the same also And then how great an abuse of them is it to make them serve for purposes quite contrary to what they were intended viz. To the encouraging us in sins which they will certainly do if we perswade our selves they belong
For though there be sins both against our selves and our neighbours yet they being forbidden by God they are also breaches of his Commandments and so sins against him This repentance is in short nothing but a turning from sin to God the casting off all our former evils and in stead thereof constantly practising all those Christian duties which God requireth of us And this is so necessary a duty that without it we certainly perish we have Christs word for it Luke 13. 5. Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish 27. The directions for performing the several parts of this duty have been already given in the preparation to the Lords Suppor and thither I refer the Reader Only I shall here mind him that it is not to be lookt upon as a duty to be practised only at the time of receiving the Sacrament For this being the onely remedy against the poyson of sin we must renew it as often as we repeat our sins that is daily I mean we must every day repent of the sins of that day for what Christ saith of other evils is true also of this sufficient to the day is the evil thereof we have sins enough of each day to exercise a daily repentance and therefore every man must thus daily call himself to account 28. But as it is in accounts they who constantly set down their daily expences have yet some set time of casting up the whole sum as at the end of the week or moneth so should it also be here we should set aside some time to humble our selves solemnly before God for the sins not of that day onely but of our whole lives And the frequenter these times are the better For the oftner we thus cast up our accounts with God and see what vast debts we are run in to him the more humbly shall we think of our selves and the more shall thirst after his mercy which two are the special things that must qualifie us for his pardon He therefore that can assign himself one day in the week for this purpose will take a thriving course for his soul. Or if any mans state of life be so busie as not to afford him to do it so often let him yet come as near to that frequency as is possible for him remembring alwayes that none of his worldly imployments can bring him in near so gainful a return as this spiritual one will do and therefore it is very ill husbandry to pursue them to the neglect of this 29. Besides these constant times there are likewise occasional times for the performance of this duty such especially are the times of calamity and affliction for when any such befals us we are to look on it as a message sent from heaven to call us to this duty and therefore must never neglect it when we are thus summoned to it lest we be of the number of them who despise the chastisements of the Lord Heb. 12. 5. 30. There is yet another time of repentance which in the practice of men hath gotten away the custome from all those and that is the time of death which it is true is a time very fit to renew our repentance but sure not proper to begin it and it is a most desperate madness for men to defer it till then For to say the mildest of it it is the venturing our Souls upon such miserable uncertainties as no wise man would trust with any thing of the least value For first I would ask any man that means to repent at his death how he knows he shall have an hours time for it do we not daily see men snatch'd away in a moment and who can tell that it shall not be his own case But secondly suppose he have a more leisurely death that some disease give him warning of its approach yet perhaps he will not understand that warning but will still flatter himself as very often sick people do with hopes of life to the last and so his death may be sudden to him though it comes by never so slow degrees But again thirdly if he do discern his danger yet how is he sure he shall then be able to repent Repentance is a grace of God not at our command and it is just and usual with God when men have a long time refused and rejected that grace resisted all his calls and invitations to conversion and amendment to give them over at last to the hardness of their own hearts and not to afford them any more of that grace they have so despised Yet suppose in the fourth place that God in his infinite patience should still continue the offer of that grace to thee yet thou that hast resisted it may be thirty or forty or fifty years together how knowest thou that thou shalt put off that habit of resistance upon a sudden and make use of the grace afforded It is sure thou hast many more advantages towards the doing it now then thou wilt have then 31. For first The longer sin hath kept possession of the heart the harder it will be to drive it out It is true if Repentance were nothing but a present ceasing from the acts of sin the death bed were fittest for it for then we are disabled from committing most sins but I have formerly shewed you repentance contains much more then so there must be in it a sincere hatred of sin and love of God Now how unlikely is it that he which hath all his life loved sin cherisht it in his bosome and on the contrary abhorred God and goodness should in an instant quite change his affections hate that sin he loved and love God and goodness which before he utterly hated 32. And secondly The bodily pains that attend a death bed will distract thee and make thee unable to attend the work of repentance which is a business of such weight and difficulty as will employ all our powers even when they are at the freshest 33. Consider those disadvantages thou must then struggle with and then tell me what hope there is thou shalt then do that which now upon much easier terms thou wilt not But in the third place there is a danger behind beyond all these and that is that the repentance which death drives a man to will not be a true repentance for in such a case it is plain it is only the fear of hell puts him on it which though it may be a good beginning where there is time after to perfect it yet where it goes alone it can never avail for Salvation Now that death bed repentances are often onely of this sort is too likely when it is observed that many men who have seemed to repent when they have thought Death approaching have yet after it hath pleased God to restore them to health been as wicked perhaps worse as ever they were before which shews plainly that there was no real change
before God Secondly have a special care to flye Idleness which is the proper soil for these filthy weeds to grow in and keep thy self always busied in some innocent or virtuous employment for then these fancies will be less apt to offer themselves Thirdly never suffer thy self to recal any unclean passages of thy former life with delight for that is to act over the sin again and will be so reckoned by God nay perhaps thus deliberately to think of it may be a greater guilt then a rash acting of it For this both shews thy heart to be set upon filthiness and is also a preparation to more acts of it Fourthly forbear the company of such light and wanton persons as either by the filthiness of their discourse or any other means may be a snare to thee Fifthly pray earnestly that God would give thee the Spirit of Purity especially at the time of any present temptation Bring the unclean Divel to Christ to be cast out as did the man in the Gospel and if it will not be cast out with Prayer alone add Fasting to it but be sure thou do not keep up the flame by any high or immoderate feeding The last remedy when the former prove vain is Marriage which becomes a duty to him that cannot live innocently without it But even here there must be care taken lest this which should be for his good become not to him an occasion of falling for want of sobriety in the use of marriage But this I have toucht on already and therefore need adde no more but an earnest intreaty That men would consider seriously of the foulness and danger of this sin of uncleanness and not let the commonness of it lessen their hatred of it but rather make them abhor that shameless impudence of the world that can make light of this sin against which God hath pronounced such heavy curses Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge Heb. 13. 4. and so he will certainly do all sorts of unclean persons whatsoever 25. The second VIRTUE that concerns our bodies is TEMPERANCE And the exercises of that are divers as first temperance in Eating secondly In Drinking thirdly in Sleep fourthly in Recreation fifthly in apparel I shall speak of them severally and first of temperance in eating This temperance is observed when our eating is agreeable to those ends to which eating is by God and Nature designed those are first the being secondly the well-being of our bodies 26. Man is of such a frame that Eating becomes necessary to him for the preserving his life hunger being a natural disease which will prove deadly if not prevented and the onely Physick for it is Eating which is therefore become a necessary means of keeping us alive And that is the first end of eating and as men use not to take Physick for pleasure but remedy so neither should they eat 27. But secondly God hath been so bountiful as to provide not only for the being but the well being of our bodies and therefore we are not tyed to such strictness that we may eat no more then will just keep us from starving but we may also eat whatsoever either for kind or quantity most tends to the health and welfare of them Now that eating which is agreeable to these ends is within the bounds of temperance as on the contrary whatsoever is contrary to them is a transgression against it he therefore that sets up to himself other ends of eating as either the pleasing of his taste what is yet worse the pampering of his body that he may the better serve his lust he directly thwarts and crosses these ends of Gods for he that hath those aims doth that which is very contrary to health yea to life it self as appears by the many diseases and untimely deaths which surfetting and uncleanness daily bring on men 28. He therefore that will practice this Virtue of Temperance must neither eat so much nor of any such sorts of meat provided he can have other as may be hurtful to his health what the sorts or quantities shall be is impossible to set down for that differs according to the several constitutions of men some men may with temperance eat a great deal because their stomacks require it when another may be guilty of intemperance in eating but half so much because it is more then is useful to him And so also for the sort of meat it may be niceness and luxury for some to be curious in them when yet some degree of it may be necessary to the infirmities of a weak stomach which not out of wantonness but disease cannot eat the courser meats But I think it may in general be said That to healthful bodies the plainest meats are generally the most wholsome but every man must in this be left to judge for himself and that he may do it aright he must be careful that he never suffer himself to be enslaved to his palate for that will be sure to satisfie it self whatever becomes of health or life 29. To secure him the better let him consider First How unreasonable a thing it is that the whole body should be subjected to this one Sense of Tasting that it must run all hazards only to please that But it is yet much more so that the diviner part the Soul should also be thus enslaved and yet thus it is in an intemperate person his very soul must be sacrificed to this Brutish appetite for the sin of intemperance though it be acted by the Body yet the Soul must share in the eternal punishment of it Secondly Consider how extreme short and vanishing this pleasure is it is gone in a moment but the pains that attend the excess of it are much more durable and then surely it agrees not with that common reason wherewith as men we are indued to set our hearts upon it But then in the third place it agrees yet worse with the temper of a Christian who should have his heart so purisied and refined with the expectation of those higher and spiritual joyes he looks for in another world that he should very much despise these gross and brutish pleasures which beasts are as capable of as we and to them we may well be counted to leave them it being the highest their natures can reach to but for us who have so much more excellent hopes it is an intolerable shame that we should account them as any part of our happiness Lastly The sin of Gluttony is so great and dangerous that Christ thought fit to give an especial warning against it take heed to your selves that your hearts be not overcharged with surfetting c. Luk. 21. 34. And you know what was the end of the rich glutton Luk. 16. He that had fared deliciously every day at last wants a drop of water to cool his tongue So much for that first sort of Temperance that of Eating PARTITION VIII Of Temperance in
place of happiness tells us also that drunkards are of the number of those that shall not inherit it 1 Cor. 6. 10. And again Gal. 5. 21. Drunkenness is reckoned among those works of the flesh which they that do shall not inherit the kingdom of God And indeed had not these plain texts yet meet reason would tell us the same That is a place of infinite purity such as flesh and blood till it be refined and purified is not capable of as the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 15. 53. and if as we are meer men we are too gross and impure for it we must sure be more so when we have changed our selves into Swine the soulest of beasts we are then prepared for the Devils to enter into as they did into the herd Mark 5. 13. and that not only some one or two but a Legion a troop and multitude of them And of this we daily see examples for where this sin of drunkenness hath taken possession it usually comes as an harbinger to abundance of others each act of drunkenness prepares a man not only for another of the same sin but of others lust and rage and all brutish appetites are then let loose and so a man brings himself under that curse which was the saddest David knew how to foretel to any Psal. 69. 28 The falling from one wickedness to another If all this be not enough to affright thee out of this drunken fit thou must still wallow in thy vomit continue in this sottish sensless condition till the flames of Hell rowse thee and then thou wilt by sad experience find what now thou wilt not believe that the end of those things as the Apostle saith Rom. 6. 21. is death God in his infinite mercy timely awake the hearts of all that are in this sin that by a timely forsaking it they may flie from that wrath to come I have now done with this second part of Temperance concerning Drinking PARTITION IX Temperance in SLEEP the rule of it c. Of RECREATION Of APPAREL § 1. THE Third part of TEMPERANCE concernes SLEEP And Temperance in that also must be measured by the end for which sleep was ordained by God which was only the refreshing and supporting of our frail bodies which being of such a temper that continual labour and toil tires and wearies them out Sleep comes as a Medicine to that weariness as a repairer of that decay that so we may be enabled to such labours as the duties of Religion or works of our Calling require of us Sleep was intended to make us more profitable not more idle as we give rest to our beasts not that we are pleased with their doing nothing but that they may do us the better service 2. By this therefore you may judge what is temperate sleeping to wit that which tends to the refreshing and making us more lively and fit for action and to that end a moderate degree serves best It will be impossible to set down just how many hours is that moderate degree because as in eating so in sleep some constitutions require more then others Every mans own experience must in this judge for him but then let him judge uprightly and not consult with his sloth in the case for that will still with Solomons sluggard cry A little more sleep a little more slumber a little more folding of the hands to sleep Prov. 24. 33. But take only so much as he really findes to tend to the end forementioned 3. He that doth not thus limit himself falls into several sins under this general one of sloth as first he wastes his time that precious talent which was committed to him by God to improve which he that sleeps away doth like him in the Gospel Matth. 25. 18. Hides it in the earth when he should be trading with it and you know what was the doom of that unprofitable servant vers 30. Cast ye him into outer darkness he that gives himself to darkness of sleep here shall there have darkness without sleep but with weeping and gnashing of teeth Secondly he injures his body immoderate sleep sils that full of diseases makes it a very sink of humours as daily experience shews us Thirdly he injures his Soul also and that not only in robbing it of the service of the body but in dulling its proper faculties making them useless and unfit for those imployments to which God hath designed them of all which ill husbandry the poor Soul must one day give account Nay lastly he affronts and despises God himself in it by crossing the very end of his creation which was to serve God in an active obedience but he that sleeps away his life directly thwarts and contradicts that and when God saith Man is born to labour his practice saith the direct contrary that man was born to rest Take heed therefore of giving thy self to immoderate sleep which is the committing of so many sins in one 4. But besides the sin of it it is also very hurtful in other respects it is the sure bane of thy outward estate wherein the sluggish person shall never thrive according to that observation of the Wise man Pro. 23. 21. Drowsiness shall cover a man with rags that is the slothful man shall want convenient clothing nay indeed it can scarce be said that the sluggard lives Sleep you know is a kind of death and he that gives himself up to it what doth he but die before his time Therefore if untimely death be to be lookt upon as a curse it must needs be a strange folly to chuse that from our own sloth which we dread so much from Gods hand 5. The fourth part of Temperance concerns Recreations which are sometimes necessary both to the body and the minde of a man neither of them being able to endure a constant toil without somewhat of refreshment between and therefore there is a very lawful use of them but to make it so it will be necessary to observe these Cautions 6. First We must take care that the kind of them be lawful that they be such as have nothing of sin in them we must not to recreate our selves do any thing which is dishonourable to God or injurious to our neighbour as they do who make profane or filthy backbiting discourse their recreation Secondly we must take care that we use it with moderation and to do so we must first be sure not to spend too much time upon it but remember that the end of recreation is to fit us for business not to be it self a business to us Secondly we must not be too vehement and earnest in it not set our hearts too much upon it for that will both ensnare us to the using too much of it and it will divert and take off our minds from our more necessary imployments Like School-boyes who after a play time know not how to set themselves to their books again Lastly we
excess yet it is possible there may be one on the other hand men may deny their bodies that which they necessarily require to their support and well being This is I believe a fault not so common as the other yet we sometimes see some very niggardly persons that are guilty of it that cannot find in their hearts to borrow so much from their chests as may feed their bellies or cloth their backs and that are so intent upon the world so moiling and drudging in it that they cannot afford themselves that competent time of sleep or recreation that is necessary If any that hath read the former part of this Discourse be of this temper let him not comfort himself that he is not guilty of those excesses there complained of and therefore conclude himself a good Christian because he is not intemperate for whoever is this covetous creature his abstaining shall not be counted to him as the vertue of temperance for it is not the love of temperance but wealth that makes him refrain And that is so far from being praise-worthy that it is that great sin which the Apostle tells us 1 Tim. 6. 10. is the root of all evil such a mans body will one day rise in judgement against him for defrauding it of its due portion those moderate refreshments and comforts which God hath allowed it This is an Idolatry beyond that of offering the children to Moloch Lev. 20. 3. they offered but their children but this covetous wretch sacrifices himself to his god Mammon whilest he often destroys his health his life yea finally his Soul too to save his purse I have now done with the second head of duty that to our selves contained by the Apostle under the word soberly PARTITION X. Of DUTIES to our NEIGHBOURS Of JUSTICE Negative Positive Of the sin of MURTHER Of the Hainousness of it the Punishments of it and the strange Discoveries thereof Of Maiming wounds and stripes § 1. I Come now to the third part of Duties those to our Neighbour which is by the Apostle summed up in gross in the word righteousness by which is meant not onely bare justice but all kind of charity also for that is now by the law of Christ become a debt to our neighbor and it is a piece of unrighteousness to defraud him out of it I shall therefore build all the particular duties we ow to our neighbor on those two general ones Justice and Charity 2. I begin with JUSTICE whereof there are two parts the one Negative the other Positive the negative justice is to do no wrong or injury to any The positive justice is to do right to all that is to yield them whatsoever appertains or is due unto them I shall first speak of the negative justice the not injuring or wronging any Now because a man is capable of receiving wrong in several respects this first part of justice extends it self into several branches answerable to those capacities of injury A man may be injured either in his Soul his body his possessions or credit and therefore this duty of negative justice lays a restraint on us in every of these That we do no wrong to any man in respect either of his Soul his body his possessions or credit 3. First This JUSTICE tyes us to do no hurt to his Soul and here my first work must be to examine what harm it is that the soul can receive it is we know an invisible substance which we cannot reach with our eye much less with our swords and weapons yet for all that it is capable of being hurt and wounded and that even to death 4. Now the Soul may be considered either in a natural or spiritual sense in the natural it signifies that which we usually call the mind of a man and this we all know may be wounded with gries or sadness as Solomon saith Prov. 15. 13. By sorrow of heart the spirit is broken Therefore whoever does causlesly afflict or grieve his neighbour he transgresses this part of justice and hurts and wrongs his soul. This sort of injury malicious and spiteful men are very often guilty of they will do things by which themselves reap no good nay often much harm onely that they may vex and grieve another This is a most savage inhumane humour thus to take pleasure in the sadness and afflictions of others and whoever harbours it in his heart may truly be said to be possest with a Devil for it is the nature only of those accursed spirits to delight in the miseries of men and till that be cast out they are fit onely to dwell as the possest person did Mar 5. 2. Among graves and tombs where there are none capable of receiving affliction by them 5. But the Soul may be considered also in the spiritual sense and so it signifies that immortal part of us which must live eternally either in bliss or woe in another world And the Soul thus understood is capable of two sorts of harm First That of sin Secondly That of Punishment the latter whereof is certainly the consequent of the former and therefore though God be the inflicter of punishment yet since it is but the effect of sin we may justly reckon that he that draws a man to sin is likewise the betrayer of him to punishment as he that gives a man a mortal wound is the cause of his death therefore under the evil of sin both are contained so that I need speak onely of that 6. And sure there cannot be a higher sort of wrong then the bringing this great evil upon the Soul sin is the disease and wound of the Soul as being the direct contray to Grace which is the health and soundness of it Now this wound we give to every Soul whom we do by any means whatsoever draw into sin 7. The wayes of doing that are divers I shall mention some of them whereof though some are more direct then others yet all tend to the same end Of the more direct ones there is first the commanding of sin that is when a person that hath power over another shall require him to do something which is unlawful an example of this we have in Nebuchadnezzars commanding the worship of the golden Image Dan. 3. 4. and his copy is imitated by any parent or master who shall require of his childe or servant to do any unlawful act Secondly there is counselling of sin when men advise and perswade others to any wickedness Thus Jobs wife counselled her husband to curse God Job 27. And Achitophel advised Absolom to go into his Fathers concubines 2 Sam. 16. 21. Thirdly there is enticing and alluring to sin by setting before men the pleasures or profits they shall reap by it Of this sort of enticement Solomon gives warning Prov. 1. 10. My son if sinners entice thee consent thou not if they say Come with us let us lay wait for blood let us lurk
brethren 12. The second concernes the bodies and to those also this justice binds thee to do no wrong nor violence Now of wrongs to the body there may be several degrees the highest of them is killing taking away the life this is forbid in the very letter of the sixth Commandement Thou shalt do no murder 13. Murder may be committed either by open violence when a man either by sword or any other instrument takes away anothers life immediately and directly or it may be done secretly and treacherously as David murdered Uriah not with his own sword but with the sword of the Children of Ammon 2 Sam. 11. 17. And Jozabel Naboth by a false accusation 1 Kings 21. 13. And so divers have committed this sin of murder by poyson false-witness or some such concealed wayes The former is commonly the effect of a sudden rage the latter hath several originals sometimes it proceeds from some old malice fixt in the heart towards the person sometimes from some covetous or ambitious desires such a one stands in a mans way to his profit or preferment and therefore he must be removed and sometimes again it is to cover shame as in the case of Strumpets that murder their Infants that they may not betray their filthiness But besides these more direct wayes of killing there is another and that is when by our perswasions and enticements we draw a man to do that which tends to the shortning of his life and is apparent to do so he that makes his neighbour drunk if by that drunkenness the man come to any mortal hurt which he would have escaped if he had been sober he that made him drunk is not clear of his death or if he die not by any such sudden accident yet if drinking cast him into a disease and that disease kill him I know not how he that drew him to that excess can acquit himself of his murder in the eyes of God though humane Laws touch him not I wish those who make it their business to draw in customers to that trade of debauchery would consider it There is yet another way of bringing this guilt upon our selves and that is by inciting and stirring up others to it or to that degree of anger and revenge which produces it as he that sets two persons at variance or seeing them already so blows the coales if murder ensue he certainly hath this share in the guilt which is a consideration that ought to aflright all from having any thing to do in the kindling or encreasing of contention 14. Now for the hainousness of this sin of murder I suppose none can be ignorant that it is of the deepest dye a most loud crying sin This we may see in the first act of this kinde that ever was committed Abels blood cryed from the earth as God tells Cain Genesis 4. 10. Yea the guilt of this sin is such that it leaves a stain even upon the land where it is committed such as is not to be washt out but by the blood of the murderer as appears Deut. 19. 12 13. The land cannot be purged of blood but by the blood of him that shed it and therefore though in other cases the flying to the Altar secured a man yet in this of wilful murder no such refuge was allowed but such a one was to be taken even thence and delivered up to justice Exodus 21. 14. Thou shalt take him from my Altar that he may dye And it is yet farther observable that the only two precepts which the Scripture mentions as given to Noah after the flood were both in relation to this sin that of not eating blood Gen. 9. 4. being a ceremony to beget in men a greater horror of this sin of murder and so intended for the preventing of it The other was for the punishment of it Gen. 9. 6. He that sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed and the reason of this strictuess is added in the next words For in the Image of God made he man where you see that this sin is not only an injury to our brother but even the highest contempt and despight towards God himself for it is the defacing of his image which he hath stamped upon man Nay yet further it is the usurping of Gods proper right and authority For it is God alone that hath right to dispose of the life of man 't was he alone that gave it and it is he alone that hath power to take it away but he that murders a man does as it were wrest this power out of Gods hand which is the highest pitch of rebellious presumption 15. And as the sin is great so likewise is the punishment we see it frequently very great and remarkable even in this world besides those most fearful effects of it in the next blood not only cryes but it cryes for vengeance and the great God of recompences as he stiles himself will not fail to hear it very many examples the Scripture gives us of this Ahab and Jezabel that murdered innocent Naboth for greediness of his vineyard were themselves slain and the Dogs licked their blood in the place where they had shed his as you may read in that Story so Absalom that slew his brother Amnon after he had committed that sin fell into another that of rebellion against his King and Father and in it miserably perished Rechab and Baanah that slew Ishbosheth were themselves put to death and that by the very person they thought to endear by it many more instances might be given of this out of the Sacred Story and many also out of Humane there having been no age but hath yielded multitudes of examples of this kinde so that every man may furnish himself out of the observations of his own time 16. And it is worth our notice what strange and even miraculous meanes it hath often pleased God to use for the discovery of this sin the very bruit creatures have often been made instruments of it nay often the extream horrour of a mans own conscience hath made him betray himself so that it is not any closeness a man uses in the acting of this sin that can secure him from the vengeance of it for he can never shut out his own conscience that will in spight of him be privie to the fact and that very often proves the means of discovering it to the world or if it should not do that yet it will sure act revenge on him it will be such a Hell within him as will be worse then death This we have seen in many who after the commission of this sin have never been able to enjoy a minutes rest but have had that intolerable anguish of minde that they have chosen to be their own murderers rather then live in it These are the usual effects of this sin even in this world but those in another are yet more dreadful where surely the highest degrees of
to the counsel of their parents But the youth of our Age set up for wisdom the quite contrary way and think they then become wits when they are advanced to the despising the counsel yea mocking the persons of their parents Let such if they will not practice the exhortations yet remember the threatning of the wise man Pro. 30. 17. The eye that mocketh his father and despiseth to obey his mother the ravens of the valley shall pick it out and the young Eagles shall eat it A second duty to them is love we are to bear them a real kindness such as may make us heartily desirous of all manner of good to them and abhor to do any thing that may grieve or disquiet them This will appear but common gratitude when 't is remembred what our parents have done for us how they were not only the instruments of first bringing us into the world but also of susteining and supporting us after and certainly they that rightly weigh the cares and fears that go to the bringing up of a child will judge the love of that childe to be but a moderate return for them This love is to be exprest several ways fiâ—st in all kindness of behaviour carrying our selves not only with an awe and respect but with kindness and affection and thâ—refore most gladly and readily doing those things which may bring joy and comfort to them and carefully avoiding whatever may grieve and afflict them Secondly this love is to be exprest in praying for them The debt a childe owes to a parent is so great that he can never hope himself to discharge it he is therefore to call in Gods aid to beg of him that he will reward all the good his parents have done for him by multiplying his blessings upon them what shall we then say to those children that in stead of calling to heaven for blessings on their parents ransack hell for curses on them and powre out the blackest execrations against them This is a thing so horrid that one would think there needed no perswasion against it because none could be so vile as to fall into it but we see God himself who best knows mens hearts saw it possible and therefore laid the heaviest punishment upon it He that curseth father or mother let him die the death Exod 21. 17 And alas our dâ—yly experience tells us 't is not only possible but common even this of uttering curses But 't is to be fâ—ared there is another yet more common that is the wishing cuâ—ses thâ—ugh fear or shame keep them from speaking out How many children are there that either through impatience of the Government or greediness of the possessions of the Parents have wisht their deaths But whoever doth so let him remember that how slâ—ly and fairly soever he carry it before men there is one that sees those secretest wishes of his heart and in his sight he assuredly passes for this hainous offender a curser of his Parents And then let it be considered that God hath as well the power of punishing as of seeing and therfore since he hath pronounced death to be the reward of that sin 't is not unreasonable to expect he may himself inflict it that they who watch for the death of their Parents may untimely meet with their own The fifth Commandment promiseth long life as the reward of honouring the Parent to which 't is very agreeable that untimely death be the punishment of the contrary and sure there is nothing more highly contrary to that duty then this we are now speaking of the cursing our Parents 14. The third duty we owe to them is Obedience This is not onely contained in the fifth Commandment but expresly injoyned in other places of Scripture Ephes. 6. 1. Children obey your Parents in the Lord for this is right and again Col. 3. 20. Children obey your Parents in all things for this is well-pleasing to the Lord. We owe them an obedience in all things unless where their commands are contrary to the commands of God for in that case our duty to God must be preferred and therefore if any Parent shall be so wicked as to require his childe to steal to lie or to do any unlawful thing the childe then offends not against his duty though he disobey that command nay he must disobey or else he offends against a higher duty even that he owes to God his Heavenly Father Yet when 't is thus necessary to refuse obedience he should take care to do it in such a modest and respectful manner that it may appear 't is conscience onely and not stubbornness moves him to it But in case of all lawful commands that is when the thing commanded is either good or not evil when it hath nothing in it contrary to our duty to God there the childe is bound to obey be the command in a weightier or lighter matter How little this duty is regarded is too manifest every where in the world where Parents generally have their children no longer under command then they are under the rod when they are once grown up they think themselves free from all obedience to them or if some do continue to pay it yet let the motive of it be examined and 't will in too many be found only Worldly Prudence They fear to displease their Parents least they should shorten their hand toward them and so they shall lose somewhat by it but how few are there that obey purely upon conscience of duty This Sin of Disobedience to Parents was by the Law of Moses punishable with death as you may read Deut. 21. 18. but if Parents now a dayes should proceed so with their children many might soon make themselves childless 15. But of all the acts of disobedience that of marrying against the consent of the Parent is one of the highest Children are so much the goods the Possessions of the Parent that they cannot without a kind of theft give away themselves without the allowance of those that have the right in them and therefore we see under the Law the Maid that had made any vow was not suffered to perform it without the Consent of the Parent Numb 30. 5. the right of the Parent was thought of force enough to cancel and make void the Obligation even of a vow and therefore surely it ought to be so much considered by us as to keep us from making any such whereby that right is infringed 16. A fourth duty to the Parent is to assist and minister to them in all their wants of what kind soever whether weakness and sickness of body decayedness of understanding or poverty and lowness in estate in all these the child is bound according to his ability to relieve and assist them for the two former weakness of body and infirmity of minde none can doubt of the duty when they remember how every child did in his infancy receive the very same benefit from the
Gospel Luk. 10. who came looked on the wounded man but did no more which will never be accepted by God These are common and ordinary exercises of this charity for which we cannot want frequent opportunities But besides these there may sometimes by Gods especial providence fall into our hands occasions of doing other good offices to the bodies of our neighbours we may sometimes find a wounded man with the Samaritan and then 't is our duty to do as he did we may sometimes find an innocent person condemned to death as Susanna was and then are with Daniel to use all possible endeavour for their deliverances This case Solomon seems to refer to Prov. 24. 11. If thou forbear to deliver him that is drawn unto death and them that are ready to be slain if thou sayst behold we knew it not doth not he that pondereth the heart consider and he that keepeth thy sâ—â—l doth not he know it shall not be render to every man according to his deeds we are not lightly to put off the matter with vain excuses but to remember that God who knows our most secret thoughts will severely examine whether we have willingly omitted the performance of such a charity sometimes again nay God knowes often now a dayes we may see a man that by a course of intemperance is in danger to destroy his health to shorten his dayes and then it is a due charity not only to the soul but to the body also to endeavour to draw him from it It is impossible to set down all the possible acts of this corporal charity because there may sometimes happen such opportunities as none can foresee we are therefore alwayes to carry about us a serious resolution of doing whatever good of this kind we shall at any time discern occasion for then whenever that occasion is offered we are to look on it as a call as it were from heaven to put that resolution in practice This part of charity seems to be so much implanted in our natures as we are men that we generally account them not only unchristian but inhumane that are void of it and therefore I hope there will not need much perswasion to it since our very nature inclines us but certainly that very consideration wil serve hugely to increase the guilt of those that are wanting in it For since this command is so agreeable even to flesh and blood our disobedience to it can proceed from nothing but a stubborness and resistance against God who gives it PARTITION XVII Of Charity Alms giving c. Of Charity in respect of our Neighbours Credit c. Of Peace-making Of going to Law Of Charity to our Enemies c. Christian Duties both possible and pleasant § 1 THE third way of expressing this Charity is towards the goods or estate of our neighbour we are to endeavour his thriving and prosperity in these outward good things and to that end be willing to assist and farther him in all honest wayes of improveing or preserving them by any neighbourly and friendly office Opportunities of this do many times fall out A man may sometimes by his power or perswasion deliver his neighbours goods out of the hands of a thief or oppressor sometimes again by his advice and counsel he may set him in a way of thriving or turn him from some ruinous course and many other occasions there may be of doing good turns to another without any loss or damage to our selves and then we are to do them even to our rich neighbours those that are as wealthy perhaps much more so as our selves for though Charity do not bind us to give to those that want it lesse then our selves yet whenever we can further their profit without less'ning our own store it requires it of us Nay if the damage be but light to us in comparison of the advantage to him it will become us rather to hazard that light damage then lose him that greater advantage 2. But towards our poor brother Charity tyes us to much more we are there only to consider the supplying of his wants and not to stick at parting with what is our own to relieve him but as far as we are able give freely what is necessary to him This duty of Alms-giving is perfectly necessary for the approving our love not only to men but even to God himself as St. John tels us 1 Jo. 3. 17. Whoso hath this worlds goods and seeth his brother have need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him 'T is vain for him to pretend to love either God or man who loves his mony so much better that he will see his poor brother who is a man and bears the image of God suffer all extremities rather then part with any thing to relieve him On the other side the performance of this duty is highly acceptable with God as well as with men 3. 'T is called Heb. 13. 16. A sacrifice wherewith God is well pleased and again Phil. 4. 18. St. Paul calls their almes to him a Sacrifice acceptable wel-pleasing to God and the Church hath alwayes look't on it as such and therefore joyned it with the soleumest part of worship the holy Sacrament But because even sacrifices themselves under the Law were often made unacceptable by being maimed and blemished it will here be necessary to enquire what are the due qualifications of this Sacrifice 4. Of these there are some that respect the motive some the manner of our giving The motive may be threefold respecting God our neighbour and our selves That which respects God is obedience and thankfulnesse to him he has commanded we should give alms and therefore one speciall end of our doing so must be the obeying that precept of his And it is from his bounty alone that we receive all our plenty and this is the properest way of expressing our thankfullness for it for as the Psalmist saith our goods extend not unto God Psal. 16. 2. That tribute which we desire to pay out of our estates we cannot pay to his person 'T is the poor that are as it were his Proxey and receivers and therefore what ever we should by way of thankfullness give back again unto God our alms is the way of doing it Secondly in respect of our neighbour the motive must be a true love and compassion to him a tender fellow-feeling of his wants and desire of his comfort and relief Thirdly in respect of our selves the motive is to be the hope of that eternall reward promised to this performance This Christ points out to us when he bids us lay up our treasure in heaven Mat. 6. 20. And to make us friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness that they may receive us into everlasting habitations Luk. 16. 9. That is by a charitable dispencing of our temporall goods to the poor to lay up a stock in heaven to gain a title to
Peter tells us that if any suffer as a Christian he is to glorifie God for it 1 Pet. 4. 16. There is such a force and vertue in the testimony of a good Conscience as is able to change the greatest suffering into the greatest triumph and that testimony we can never have more clear and lively then when we suffer for righteousnes sake so that you see Christianity is very amiable even in its saddest dress the inward comforts of it do far surpass all the outward tribulations that attend it and that even in the instant while we are in the state of warfare upon earth But then if we look forward to the crown of our victories those eternal rewards in heaven we can never think those tasks sad though we had nothing at present to sweeten them that have such recompences await them at the end were our labours never so heavy we could have no cause to faint under them Let us therefore when ever we meet with any discouragements in our course fix our eye on this rich prize and then run with patience the race which is set before us Heb. 12. 2. Follow the Captain of our salvation through the greatest sufferings yea even through the same red sea of blood which he hath waded whenever our obedience to him shall require it for though our fidelity to him should bring us to death it self we are sure to be no losers by it for to such he hath promised a Crown of life the very expectation whereof is able to keep a Christian more cheerful in his fetters and dungeon then a worldling can be in the midst of his greatest prosperities 22. All that remains for me farther to add is earnestly to entreat and beseech the Reader that without delay he puts himself into this so pleasant and gainful a course by setting sincerely to the practise of all those things which either by this Book or by any other means he discerns to be his duty and the further he hath formerly gone out of his way the more haste it concerns him to make to get into it and to use the more diligence in walking in it He that hath a long journey to go and finds he hath lost a great part of his day in a wrong way will not need much intreaty either to turn into the right or to quicken his pace in it And this is the case of all those that have lived in any course of sin they are in a wrong road which will never bring them to the place they aim at Nay which will certainly bring them to the place they most fear and abhor much of their day is spent how much will be left to finish their journey in none knowes perhaps the next hour the next minute the night of death may overtake them what a madness is it then for them to defer one moment to turn out of that path which leads to certain destruction and to put themselves in that which will bring them to bliss and glory Yet so are men bewitched and enchanted with the deceitfulness of sin that no entreaty no perswasion can prevail with them to make this so reasonable so necessary a change not but that they acknowledge it needful to be done but they are unwilling to do it yet they would enjoy all the pleasures of sin as long as they live then they hope at their death or some little time before it to do all the business of their Souls But alass Heaven is too high to be thus jumpt into the way to it is a long and leasurely ascent which requires time to walk The hazards of such deferring are more largely spoken of in the Discourse of Repentance I shall not here repeat them but desire the Reader seriously to lay them to heart and then surely he will think it seasonable counsel that is given by the wise man Eccles. 5. 7. Make no tarrying to turn to the Lord and put not off from day to day FINIS PRIVATE DEVOTIONS For several OCCASIONS ORDINARY and EXTRAORDINARY LONDON Printed for T. Garthwait at the little North Door of S. Pauls Church 1660. CHRISTIAN READER I Have for the help of thy Devotions set down some FORMS of PRIVATE PRAYER upon several occasions If it be thought an omâ—ssion that there are none for Families I must answer for my self that it was not from any opinion that God is not as well to be worship'd in the Family as the Closet but because the Providence of God and the Church hath already furnish'd thee for that purpose infinitely beyond what my utmost care could do I mean the PUBLICK LITURGY or COMMON PRAYER which for all publick addresses to God and such are Family prayers are so excellent useful that we may say of it as David did of Goliah's sword 1 Sam. 21. 9. There is none like it DIRECTIONS for the MORNING As soon as ever thou awakest in the morning lift up thy heart to God in this or the like short Prayer LORD As thou hast awaked my Body from sleep so by thy grace awaken my Soul from sin and make me so to walk before thee this day and all the rest of my life that when the last trumpet shall awake me out of my grave I may rise to the life immortal through Jesus Christ. WHen thou hast thus begun suffer not without some urgent necessity any worldly thoughts to fill thy mind till thou hast also paid thy more solemn Devotions to Almighty God and therefore during the time thou art dressing thy self which should be no longer then common decency requires exercise thy mind in some spiritual thoughts as for example consider to what Temptations thy business or company that day are most like to lay thee open and arm thy self with Resolutions against them or again consider what Occasions of doing service to God or good to thy neighbour are that day most likely to present themselves and resolve to embrace them and also contrive how thou mayest improve them to the uttermost But especially it will be sit for thee to Examine whether there have any sin escaped thee since thy last nights examination If after these considerations any further leisure remain thou mayest profitably imploy it in meditating on the general Resurrection whereof our rising from our beds is a Representation and of that dreadful Judgement which shall follow it and then think with thy self in what preparation thou art for it and resolve to husband caâ—â—fully every minute of thy time towards the fitting thâ—e for that great account As soon as thou art ready retire to some private place and there offer up to God thy Morning Sacrifice of Praise and Prayer PRAYERS for the MORNING At thy first kneeling down say O Holy Blessed and Glorious Trinity three Persons and one God have mercy upon me a miserable sinner LORD I know not what to pray for as I ought O let thy Spirit help my infirmities and enable me to offer up a spiritual
of those sins which have provoked thy Judgements that thou also mayest turn and repent and leave a blessing behinde thee Bless those whom thou hast appointed our Governours whether in Church or State so rule their hearts and strengthen their hands that they may neither want will nor power to punish wickedness and vice and to maintain Gods true Religion and Vertue Have pity O Lord on all that are in affliction be a Father to the fatherless and plead the cause of the widow comfort the feeble minded support the weak heal the sick relieve the needy defend the oppressed and administer to every one according to their several necessities let thy blessings rest upon all that are near and dear to me and grant them whatsoever thou seest necessary either to their bodies or their Souls Here name thy neerest Relations Reward all those that have done me good and pardon all those that have done or wisht me evil and work in them and me all that good which may make us acceptable in thy sight through Jesus Christ. For PRESERVATION OMerciful God by whose bounty alone it is that I have this day added to my life I beseech thee so to guide me in it by thy grace that I may do nothing which may dishonour thee or wound my own soul but that I may deligently apply my self to do all such good works as thou hast prepared for me to walk in and Lord I beseech thee give thy Angels charge over me to keep me in all my wayes that no evil happen unto me nor any plague come nigh my dwelling but that I and mine may be safe under thy gracious protection through Jesus Christ. O Lord pardon the wandrings and coldness of these petitions and dâ—al with me not according either to my prayers or deserts but according to my needs and thine own rich mercies in Jesus Christ in whose blessed Name and Words I conclude these my imperfect Prayers saying Our Father c. DIRECTIONS for NIGHT. AT NIGHT when it draws towards the time of rest bethink thy self how thou hast passed the day examine thine own heart what sin either of Thought Word or Deed thou hast committed what opportunity of doing good thou hast omitted and what soever thou sindest to accuse thy self of confess humbly and penitently to God renew thy purposes and resolutions of amendment and beg his pardon in Christ and this not slightly and only as of course but with all devout earnestness and heartiness as thou wouldest do if thou were sure thy death were as near approaching as thy sleep which for ought thou knowest may be so indeed and therefore thou shouldest no more venture to sleep unreconciled to God then thou wouldest dare to die so In the next place consider what special and extraordinary mercies thou hast that day received as if thou hast had any great deliverance either in thy inward man from some dangerous temptations or in thy outward from any great and apparent danger and offer to God thy hearty and devout praise for the same or if nothing extraordinary have so happened and thou hast been kept even from the approach of danger thou hast not the less but the greater cause to magnifie God who hath by his protection so guarded thee that not so much as the fear of evil hath assaulted thee And therefore omit not to pay him the tribute of humble thankfulness as well for his usual and dayly preservations as his more extraordinary deliverances And above all endeavour still by the considerations of his mercies to have thy heart the more closely knit to him remembring that every favour received from him is a new engagement upon thee to love and obey him PRAYERS for NIGHT. O Holy blessed and glorious Trinity three persons and one God have mercy upon me a miserable sinner Lord I know not what to pray for as I ought O let thy Spirit help my infirmities and enable me to offer up a spiritual Sacrifice acceptable unto thee by Jesus Christ. A CONFESSION O MOST Holy Lord God who art of purer eyes then to behold iniquity how shall I abominable wretch dare to appear before thee who am nothing but pollution I am defiled in my very nature having a backwardness to all good and a readiness to all evil but I have defiled my self yet much worse by my own actual sins and wicked customes I have transgrest my duty to thee my neighbour and my self and that both in thought in word in deed by doing those things which thou hast expresly forbidden and by neglecting to do those things thou hast commanded me And this not only through ignorance and frailty but knowingly and wilfully against the motions of thy Spirit and the checks of my own conscience to the contrary And to make all these out of measure sinful I have gone on in a dayly course of repeating these provocations against thee notwithstanding all thy calls to and my own purposes and vows of amendment yea this very day I have not ceased to adde new sins to all my former guilts Here name the Particulars And now O Lord what shall I say or how shall I open my mouth seeing I have done these things I know that the wages of these sins is death but O thou who willest not the death of a sinner have mercy upon me work in me I beseech thee a sincere contrition and a perfect hatred of my sins and let me not dayly confess and yet as dayly renew them but grant O Lord that from this instant I may give a bill of Divorce to all my most beloved lusts and then be thou pleased to marry me to thy self in truth in righteousness and holiness And for all my past sins O Lord receive a reconciliation accept of that ransome thy blessed Son hath paid for me and for his sake whom thou hast set forth as a propitiation pardon all my offences and receive me to thy favour And when thou hast thus spoken peace to my soul Lord keep me that I turn not any more to folly but so establish me with thy grace that no temptation of the world the Divel or my own flesh may ever draw me to offend thee that being made free from sin and becoming a servant unto God I may have my fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Lord. A THANKSGIVING O Thou Father of Mercies who art kind even to the unthankful I acknowledge my self to have abundantly experimented that gracious propertie of thine for notwithstanding my dayly provocations against thee thou still heapest mercy and loving kindness upon me All my contempts and despisings of thy spiritual favours have not yet made thee withdraw them but in the riches of thy goodness and long suffering thou still continuest to me the offers of grace and life in thy Son And all my abuses of thy temporal blessings thou hast not punished with an utter deprivation of them but art still pleased to afford me
Flatâ—ering him in his faults Forsaking his friendship upon slight or no cause Making leagues in sin in stead of vertuous friendship SERVANTS Servants disobeying the lawful commands of their Masters Purloining their goods Carelesly wasting them Murmuring at their rebukes Idleness Eye service MASTERS Masters using servants tyrannically and cruelly Being too remiss and suffering them to neglect their duty Having no care of their souls Not providing them means of instruction in Religion Not admonishing them when they commit sins Not allowing them time and opportunity for prayer and the worship of God CHARITY Want of bowels and Charity to our neighbours Not heartily desiring their good spiritual or temporal Not loving and forgiving enemies Taking actual revenges upon them Falseness professing kindness and acting none Not labouring to do all the good we can to the soul of our neighbour Not assisting him to our power in his bodily distresses Not defending his good name when we know or believe him slandered Denying him any neighbourly office to preserve or advance his estate Not defending him from oppression when we have power Not relieving him in his poverty Not giving liberally or chearâ—ully GOING to LAW Not loving PEACE Going to Law upon slight occasions Bearing inward enmity to those we sue Not labouring to make peace among others The use of this Catalogue of sins is this Upon days of Humiliation especially before the Sacrament read them consideringly over and at every particular ask thine own heart Am I guilty of this â— And whatsoever by such Examination thou findest thy self faulty in Confess particularly and humbly to God with all the heightning circumstances which may any way increase their guilt and make serious Resolutions against every such Sin for the future after which thou â—â—ayest use this Form following O LORD I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee for my iniquities are increased over my head and my trespass is grown up even unto Heaven I have wrought all these great provocations and that in the most provoking manner they have not been only single but repeated acts of sin for O Lord of all this black Catalogue which I have now brought forth before thee how few are there which I have not often committed nay which are not become even habitual and customary to me And to this frequency I have added both a greediness and obstinacy in sinning turning into my course as the Horse rusheth into the battel doing evil with both hands earnestly yea hating to be reformed and casting thy words behinde me quenching thy Spirit within me which testified against me to turn me from my evil ways and frustrating all those outward means whether of judgement or mercy which thou hast used to draw me to thy self Nay O Lord even my repentances may be numbred amongst my greatest sins they have sometimes been feigned and hypocritical always so slâ—ght and ineffectual that they have brought forth no fruit in amendment of life but I have still returned with the dog to his vomit and the sow to the mire again and have added the breach of resolutions and vows to all my former guilts Thus O Lord I am become out of measure sinful and since I have thus chosen death I am most worthy to take part in it even in the second death the lake of fire and brimstone This this O Lord is in justice to be the poâ—tion of my cup to me belongs nothing but shame and confusion of face eternally But to thee O Lord God belongeth mercy and forgiveness though I have rebelled against thee O remember not my sins and offences but according to thy mercy think thou upon me O Lord for thy goodness Thou sentest thy Son to seek and to save that which was lost behold O Lord I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost O seek thy servant and bring me back to the Shepherd and Bishop of my Soul let thy Spirit work in me a hearty sense and detestation of all my abominations that true contrition of heart which thou hast promised not to despise And then be thou pleased to look on me to take away all iniquity and receive me graciously and for his sake who hath done nothing amiss be reconciled to me who have done nothing well wash away the guilt of my sins in his blood and subdue the power of them by his grace and grant O Lord that I may from this hour bid a final adieu to all ungodliness and worldly lusts that I may never once more cast a look toward Sodom or long after the flesh-pots of Egypt but consecrate my self intirely to thee to serve thee in Righteousness and true Holiness reckoning my self to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord and blessed Saviour This PENITENTIAL PSALM may also fitly be used PSALM 51. HAVE mercy upon me O God after thy great goodness according to the multitude of thy mercies do away mine offences Wash me throughly from my wickedness and cleanse me from my sin For I acknowledge my faults and my sin is ever before me Against thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou mightest be justified in thy saying and clcer when thou art judged Behold I was shapen in wickedness and in sin hath my moâ—her conceived me But lo thou requirest truth in the inward parts and shalt make me to understand wisdom secretly Thou shalt purge me with Hysop and I shall be clean thou shalt wash me and I shall be whiter then snow Thou shalt make me hear of joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoycè Turn thy face from my sins and put out all my misdeeds Make me a clean heart O God and renew a right Spirit within me Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy Spirit from me O give me the comfort of thy help again and stablish me with thy free Spirit Then shall I teach thy ways unto the wicked and sinners shall be converted unto thee Deliver me from blood guiltinesâ— O God thou that art the God of my health and my tongue shall sing of thy righteousness Thou shalt open my lips O Lord and my mouth shall shew thy praise For thou desirest no sacrifice else would I give it thee but thou delightest not in burnt offering The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit a broken and contrite heart O God shalt thou not despise O be favourable and gracious unto Sion build thou the walls of Jerusalem Then shalt thou be pleased with the Sacrifice of righteousness with the burnt offerings and oblations then shall they offer young bullocks upon thine altar Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end Amen PRAYERS BEFORE the Receiving of the blessed SACRAMENT OMost merciful God who hast in thy great goodness prepared this spiritual feast for sick
hear me and grant I may now approach thee with such humility and contrition love devotion that thou mayest vouch safe to come unto me abide with me communicating to me thy self all the merits of thy Passion And then O Lord let no accusations of Satan or my own conscience amaze or distract me but having peace with thee let me also have peace in my self that this Wine may make glad this Bread of life may strengthen my heart enable me chearfully to run the way of thy Commandments Grant this merciful Saviour for thine own bowels compassions sake EJACULATIONS to be used at the LORDS TABLE LORD I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof I have sinned What shall I do unto thee O thou preserver of men Here recollect some of thy greatest sins If thou Lord shouldst be extream to mark what is done amiss O Lord who may abide it But with the Lord there is mercy and with him is plenteous Redemption Behold O Lord thy beloved Son in whom thou art well pleased Hearken to the cry of his blood which speaketh better things then that of Abel By his Agony and bloody Sweat by his Cross and Passion good Lord deliver me O Lamb of God which takest away the sins of the world grant me thy Peace O Lamb of God which takest away the sins of the world have mercy upon me Immediately before Receiving THOU hast said That he that eateth thy flesh and drinketh thy blood hath eternal life Behold the servant of the Lord be it unto me according to thy word At the Receiving of the Bread BY thy Crucified body deliver me from this body of death At the receiving of the Cup. O LET this blood of thine purge my conscience from dead works to serve the living God Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean O touch me and say I will be thou clean After Receiving WHAT shall I render unto the Lord for all the benefits he hath done unto me I will take the Cup of Salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing Therefore blessing honour glory and power be to him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever Amen I have sworn and am stedfastly purposed to keep thy righteous judgements O hold thou up my goings in thy paths that my footsteps slip not A Thanksgiving after the Receiving of the Sacrament O Thou fountain of all goodness from whom every good and perfect gift cometh and to whom all honour and glory should be returned I desire with all the most fervent and inflamed affections of a grateful heart to bless and praise thee for those inestimable mercies thou hast vouchsafed me Lord what is man that thou shouldst so regard him as to send thy beloved Son to suffer such bitter things for him But Lord what am I the worst of men that I should have any part in this attonement who have so oft despised him and his sufferings O the height and depth of this mercy of thine that art pleased to admit me to the renewing of that Covenant with thee which I have so often and so perversly broken that I who am not worthy of that dayly bread which sustains the body should be made partaker of this bread of life which nourisheth the soul and that the God of all purity should vouchsafe to unite himself to so polluted a wretch O my God suffer me no more I bâ—seech thee to turn thy grace into wantonness to make thy mercy an occasion of security but let this unspeakable love of thine constrain me to obedience that since my blessed Lord hath died for me I may no longer live unto my self but to him O Lord I know there is no concord between Christ and Belial therefore since he hath now been pleased to enter my heart O let me never permit any lust to chace him thence but let him that hath so dearly bought me still keep possession of me and let nothing ever take me out of his hand To this end be thou graciously pleased to watch over me and defend me from all assaults of my spiritual enemies but especially deliver me from my self from the treachery of my own heart which is too willing to yield it self a prey And where thou seest I am either by nature or custome most weak there do thou I beseech thee magnifie thy power in my preservation Here mention thy most dangerous temptations And Lord let my Saviours sufferings for my sins and the Vows I have now made against them never depart from my minde but let the remembrance of the one enable me to perform the other that I may never make truce with those lusts which nailed his hands pierced his side and made his soul heavy to the death But that having now anew listed my self under his banner I may fight manfully and follow the Captain of my Salvation even through a sea of blood Lord lift up my hands that hang down and my feeble knees that I faint not in this warfare O be thou my strength who am not able of my self to struggle with the slightest temptations How often have I turned my back in the day of battel How many of these Sacramental vows have I violated And Lord I have still the same unconstant deceitful heart to betray me to the breach of this O thou who art Yea and Amen in whom there is no shadow of change communicate to me I beseech thee such a stability of minde that I may no more thus start aside like a broken bow but that having my heart whole with thee I may continue stedfast in thy Covenant that not one good purpose which thy Spirit hath raised in me this day may vanish as so many have formerly done but that they may bring forth fruit unto life eternal Grant this O merciful father through the merits and mediation of my Cruâ—ified Saviour A Prayer of Intercession to be used either before or after the receiving of the Sacrament O MOST gracious Lord who so tenderly lovedst mankind as to give thy dear Son out of thy Bosome to be a propitiation for the sins of the whole word grant that the effect of this Redemption may be as universal as the design of it that it may be to the salvation of all O let no person by impenitence and wilful sin forfeit his part in it but by the power of thy grace bring all even the most obstinate sinners to repentance Inlighten all that sit in darkness all Jews Turks Infidels and Hereticks take from them all blindness hardness of heart and contempt of thy Word and so fetch them home blessed Lord unto thy fold that they may be saved among the number of the true Israelites And for all those upon whom the Name of thy Son is called grant O Lord that their conversations may
thy blessed will be done I cast my self O Lord at thy feet do with me what thou pleasest Try me as silver is tried so thou bring me out purified And Lord make even my flesh also to subscribe to this resignation that there may be nothing in me that may rebel against thy hand but that having perfectly supprest all repining thoughts I may cheerfully drink of this cup. And how bitter soever thou shalt please to make it Lord let it prove medicinal and cure all the diseases of my soul that it may bring forth in me the peaceable fruit of righteousness That so these light afflictions which are but for a moment may work for me a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory through Jesus Christ. A Thanks giving for Deliverance O BLESSED Lord who art gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and repentest thee of the evil I thankfully acknowledge before thee that thou hast not dealt with me after my sins nor rewarded me according to my iniquities My rebellions O Lord deserve to be scourged with Scorpions and thou hast corrected them only with a gentle and fatherly Rod neither hast thou suffered me to lie long under that but hast given me a timely and a grcaious issue out of my late distresses O Lord I will be glad and rejoyce in thy mercy for thou hast considered my trouble and hast known my soul in adversity Thou hast smitten and thou hast healed me O let these various methods of thine have their proper effects upon my soul that I who have felt the smart of thy chastisements may stand in awe and not sin and that I who have likewise felt the sweet refreshings of thy mercy may have my heart ravished with it and knit to thee in the firmest bands of love and that by both I may be preserved in a constant entire obedience to thee all my days through Jesus Christ. Directions for the time of Sickness WHEN thou findest thy self visited with Sickness thou art immediately to remember that it is God which with rebukes doth chasten man for sin And therefore let thy first care be to find out what it is that provokes him to smite thee and to that purpose Examine thine own heart search diligently what guilts lie there confess them humbly and penitently to God and for the greater security renew thy Repentance for all the old sins of thy former life beg most earnestly and importunately his mercy and pardon in Christ Jesus and put on sincere and zealous resolutions of forsaking every evil way for the rest of that time which God shall spare thee And that thy own heart deceive thee not in this so weighty a business it will be wisdome to send for some godly Divine not only to assist thee with his prayers but with his counsel also And to that purpose open thy heart so freely to him that he may be able to judge whether thy Repentance be such as may give thee confidence to appear before Gods dreadful Tribunal and that if it be not he may help thee what he can towards the making it so And when thou hast thus provided for thy better part thy Soul then consider thy Body also and as the Wise man saith Eccluâ— 38. 12. Give place to the Physician for the Lord hath created him Use such means as may be most likely to recover thy health but always remember that the success of them must come from God and beware of Asa's sin who sought to the Physicians and not to the Lord 2 Chro. 6. 12. Dispose also betimes of thy temporal affairs by making thy Will and setting all things in such order as thou meanest finally to leave them in and defer it not till thy sickness grow more violent for then perhaps thou shalt not have such use of thy Reason as may fit thee for it or if thou have it will be then much more seasonable to imploy thy thoughts on higher things on the world thou art going to rather then that thou art about to leave we cannot carry the things of this world with us when we go hence and it is not fit we should carry the thoughts of them Therefore let those be early dispatched that they may not disturb thee at last A Prayer for a sick Person O MERCIFUL and Righteous Lord the God of health and of sickness of life and of death I most unfeignedly acknowledg that my great abuse of those many days of strength and welfare which thou hast afforded me hath most justly deserved thy present visitation I desire O Lord humbly to accept of this punishment of mine iniquity and to bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him And O thou merciful Father who designest not the ruine but the amendment of those whom thou scourgest I beseech thee by thy grace so to sanctifie this correction of thine to me that this sickness of my body may be a means of health to my soul make me diligent to search my heart and do thou O Lord enable me to discover every accursed thing how closely soever concealed there that by the removal thereof I may make way for the removal of this punishment Heal my soul O Lord which hath sinned against thee and then if it be thy blessed will heal my body also restore the voice of joy health unto my dwelling that I may live to praise thee and to bring forth fruits of repentance But if in thy wisdom thou hast otherwise disposed if thou have determined that this sickness shall be unto death I beseech thee to fit prepare me for it give me that sincere and earnest repentance to which thou hast promised mercy and pardon wean my heart from the world and all its fading vanities and make me to gasp and pant after those more excellent and durable joys which are at thy right hand for ever Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me and in all the pains of my body in all the agonies of my spirit let thy comforts refresh my soul and enable me patiently to wait till my change come And grant O Lord that when my earthly house of this Tabernacle is dissolved I may have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens And that for his sake who by his precious blood hath purchased it for me even Jesus Christ. A THANKSGIVING for RECOVERY O GRACIOUS Lord the God of the spirits of all flesh in whose hand my time is I praise and magnifie thee that thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption and restored me to health again it is thou alone O Lord that hast preserved my life from destruction thou hast chastned and corrected me but thou hast not given me over unto death O let this life which thou hast thus graciously spared be wholy consecrated to thee Behold O Lord I am by thy mercy made whole O make me strictly careful
to sin no more least a worse thing come unto me Lord let not this reprieve thou hast now given me make me secure as thinking that my Lord delayeth his coming but grant me I beseech thee to make a right use of this long suffering of thine and so to imploy every minute of that time thou shalt allow me that when thou shalt appear I may have confidence and not be ashamed before thee at thy coming Lord I have found by this approach towards death how dreadful a thing it is to be taken unprepared O let it be a perpetual admonition to me to watch for my Masters Coming And when the pleasures of sin shall present themselves to entice me O make me to remember how bitter they will be at the last O Lord hear me and as thou hast in much mercy afforded me time so grant me also grace to work out my own salvation to provide oil in my lamp that when the Bridegroom cometh I may go in with him to the marriage Grant this I beseech thee for thy dear Sons sake A Prayer at the approach of Death O ETERNAL and everliving God who first breathedst into man the breath of life and when thou takest away that breath he dies and is turned again to his dust look with compassion on me thy poor creature who am now drawing near the gates of death and which is infinitely more terrible the bar of Judgement Lord my own heart condemns me and thou art infinitely greater then my heart and knowest all things The sins I know and remember fill me with horrour but there are also multitudes of others which I either observed not at the time or have since carelesly forgot which are all present to thee Thou settest my misdeeds before thee and my secret sins in the light of thy countenance and to what a mountainous heap must the minutely provocations of so many years arise How shall one so ungodly stand in thy Judgement or such a sinner in the Congregation of the Righteous And to adde yet more to my terrour my very repentance I fear will not abide the trial my frequent relapses heretofore have sufficiently witnessed the unsincerity of my past resolutions And then O Lord what can secure me that my present dislikes of my sins are not rather the effects of my amazing danger then of any real change And O Lord I know thou art not mocked nor wilt accept of any thing that is not perfectly sincere O Lord when I consider this fearfulness and trembling comes upon me and an horrible dread overwhelmeth me my flesh trembleth for fear of thee and my heart is wounded within me But O Lord one deep calleth upon another the depth of my misery upon the depth of thy mercy Lord save now or I perish eternally O thou who willest not that any should perish but that all should come to repentance bring me I beseech thee though thus late to a sincere Repentance such as thou wilt accept who triest the heart Create in me O God a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me Lord one day is with thee as a thousand years O let thy mighty Spirit work in me now in this my last day whatsoever thou seest wanting to fit me for thy mercy and acceptation Give me a perfect and entire hatred of my sins and enable me to present thee with that sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart which thou hast promised not to despise that by this I may be made capable of that attonement which thy dear Son hath by the more excellent oblation of himself made for all repenting sinners He is the propitiation for our sins he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was on him O heal me by his stripes and let the cry of his blood drown the clamour of my sins I am indeed a childe of wrath but he is the Son of thy loue for his sake spare me O Lord spare thy creature whom he hath redeemed with his most precious blood and be not angry with me for ever In his wounds O Lord I take Sanctuary O let not thy vengeance pursue me to this city of refuge my Soul hangeth upon him O let me not perish with a Jesus with a Saviour in my arms But by his Agony and bloody Sweat by his Cross and Passion by all that he did and suffered for sinners good Lord deliver me deliver me I beseech thee from the wages of my sins thy wrath and everlasting damnation in this time of my tribulation in the hour of death and in the day of Judgement Hear me O Lord hear me and do not now repay my former neglects of thy calls by refusing to answer me in this time of my greatest need Lord there is but a step between me and death O let not my sun go down upon thy wrath but seal my pard on before I go hence and be no more seen Thy loving kindness is better then the life it self O let me have that in exchange and I shall most gladly lay down this mortal life Lord thou knowest all my desire and my groaning is not hid from thee deal thou with me O Lord according to thy Name for sweet is thy mercy take away the sting of death the guilt of my sins and then though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil I will lay me down in peace and Lord when I awake up let me be satisfied with thy presence in thy glory Grant this merciful God for his sake who is both the Redeemer and Mediator of sinners even Jesus Christ. PSALMS PUT me not to rebuke O Lord in thine anger neither chasten me in thy heavy displeasure There is no health in my flesh because of thy displeasure neither is there any rest in my bones by reason of my sins For my wickednesses are gone over my head and are a sore burden too heavy for me to bear My wounds stink and are corrupt through my foolishness Therefore is my spirit vexed within me and my heart within me is desolate My sins have taken such hold upon me that I am not able to look up yea they are more in number then the hairs of my head and my heart hath failed me But thou O Lord God art full of compassion and mercy long-suffering plenteous in goodness and truth Turn thee unto me and have mercy upon me for I am desolate and in misery If thou Lord shouldst be extream to mark what is done amiss O Lord who may abide it O remember not the sins and offences of my youth but according to thy mercy think thou upon me for thy goodness Look upon my adversity and misery and forgive me all my sin Hide not thy face from thy servant for I am in trouble O haste thee and hear me Out of the deep do I call unto thee Lord hear my voice Turn thee O Lord and deliver my
of my heart and my portion for ever I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better Lord I gâ—oan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with that house from heaven I desire to put off this my tabernacle O be pleased to receive me into everlasting habitations Bring my soul out of prison that I may give thanks unto thy name Lord I am here to wrestle not only with flesh and blood but with principalities and powers spiritual wickedness O take me from these tents of Kedar into the heavenly Jerusalem where Satan shall be utterly trodden under my feet I cannot here attend one minute to thy service without distraction O take me up â—o stand before thy Throne where I shall serve thee day and night I am here in heaviness through many tribulations O receive me into that place of rest where all tears shall be wiped from my eyes where there shall be no more death nor sorrow nor crying nor pain I am here in a state of banishment and absence from the Lord O take me where I shall for ever behold thy face and follow the Lamb whither soever he goeth 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 OBlessed Jesu who hast loved me and washed me from my sins in thine own blood receive my soul. Into thy hands I commend my Spirit for thou hast redeemed me O Lord thou God of truth Come Lord Jesu come quickly PRAYERS for their use who Mourn in secret for the PUBLICK CALAMITIES c. Psalm 74. O God wherefore art thou absent from us so long why is thy wrath so hot against the sheep of thy pasture c. Psal. 79. O God the Heathen are come into thine inheritance thy holy temple have they defiled and made Jerusalem an heap of stones c. Psal. 80. Hear O thou shepherd of Israel thou that leadest Joseph like a sheep shew thy self also thou that sittest upon the Cherubims c. A Prayer to be used in these times of Calamity O Lord God to whom vengeance belongeth I desire humbly to confess before thee both on my own behalf and that of this Nation that these many years of calamity we have groaned under are but the just yea mild returns of those many more years of our provocations against thee and that thy present which is but the due punishment of thy abused mercy O Lord thou hast formerly abounded to us in blessings above all people of the earth Thy candle shined upon our heads and we delighted our selves in thy great goodness peace was within our walls and plenteousness within our palaces there was no decay no leading into captivity and no complaining in our streets but we turned this grace into wantonness we abused our peace to security our plenty to riot and Luxury and made those good things which should have endeared our hearts to thee the occasions of estranging them from thee Nay O Lord thou gavest us yet more precious mercies thou wert pleased thy self to pitch thy Tabernacle with us to establish a pure and glorious Church among us and give us thy word to be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our paths but O Lord we have made no other use of that light then to conduct us to the chambers of death we have dealt proudly and not hearkened to thy comandments and by rebelling against the light have purchased to our selves so much the heavier portion in the outer darkness And now O Lord had the overflowings of thy vengeance been answerable to that of our sin we had long since been swept away with a swift destruction and there had been none of us alive at this day to implore thy mercy But thou art a gracious God slow to anger and hast proceeded with us with much patience and long-suffering thou hast sent thy judgements to awake us to repentance and hast also allowed us space for it But alas we have perverted this mercy of thine beyond all the former we return not to him that smiteth us neither do we seek the Lord we are slidden back by a perpetual backfliding no man repenteth him of his wickedness or â—aith what have I done 'T is true indeed we fear the rod we dread every suffering so that we are ready to buy it off with the foulest sin but we fear not him that hath appointed it but by a wretched obstinacy harden our necks against thee and refuse to return And now O God what balm is there in Gilead that can cure us who when thou wouldest heal us will not be healed we know thou hast pronounced that there is no peace to the wicked and how shall we then pray for peace that still retain our wickedness This this O Lord is our sorest disease O Give us Medicines to heal this sickness heal our souls and then we know thou canst soon heal our land Lord thou hast long spoken by thy word to our ears by thy judgments even to all our senses but unless thou speak by thy Spirit to our hearts all other calls will still be uneffectual O send out this voice and that a mighty voice such as may awake us out of this Lethargy thou that didst call Lazarus out of the grave O be pleased to call us who are dead yea putrified in trespasses and sins and make us to awake to righteousness And though O Lord our frequent resistances even of those inward calls have justly provoked thee to give us up to the lusts of our own heart yet O thou boundless ocean of mercy who art good not only beyond what we can deserve but what we can wish do not withdraw the influence of thy grace and take not thy holy spirit from us Thou wert found of those that sought thee not O let that act of mercy be repeated to us who are so desperately yet so insensibly sick that we cannot so much as look after the Physitian and by how much our case is the more dangerous so much the more sovereign remedies do thou apply Lord help us and consider not so much our unworthiness of thy aid as our irremediable ruine if we want it save Lord or we perish eternally To this end dispense to us in our temporal interest what thou seest may best secure our spiritual if a greater degree of outward misery will tend to the curing our inward Lord spare not thy rod but strike yet more sharply cast out this devil though with never so much foaming tearing But if thou seest that some return of mercy may be most likely to melt us O be pleased so far to condescend to our wretchedness as to afford us that and whether by thy sharper or thy gentler methods bring us home to thy self And then O Lord we know thy hand is not shortned that it cannot save when thou hast delivered us from our sins thou canst and wilt deliver
Assertory Oathes Promissory Vnlawful Oaths God greatly dishonoured by Perjury The punishments of it Vain Oaths The sin of them They lead to Perjury No temptation to them Necessity of abstaining from them Means for it Sense of the guilt and danger Truth in speaking Forsaking the occasioâ— Reverence of God â—atchfulâ—â—ss Prayer What it is to honâ—r Gods Name WORSHIP Prayer its parts Confession Petitions For our Souls Bodies Deprecation Of Sin Of Punishment Intercession Thanksgiving Spiritual Mercies Temporal Publick prayer in the Church In the Family Private Prayer Frequency in Prayer The advantages of Prayer Honour Benefit Pleasantness Carnality one reason of its seeming otherwise Want of use another To ask nothing unlawful To ask in Faith In humility With attention Helps against wandring Consideration of Gods Majesty Our needs Prayer for Gods aid Watchfulness With Zeal With purity To right ends Bodily Worship REPENTANCE A turning from sin to God Times for this Duty Daily At set times In the time of affliction At death The danger of deferring it till then The disadvantages of a death bed repentance The custom of sin Bodily pains Danger of unsincerity Fasting Fasting a revenge upon ourselvs Such revenges acceptable with God Yet no satisfaction for sins Times of fasting Second Branch of our Duty to God Inward Idolatry Duty to our SELVES Humility The great sin of Pride The danger Drawing into other sins Frustrating of remedies Betraying to punishment The Folly In respect of the goods of Nature The goods â—â— Fortune The goods of grace Means of Humility Vain glory The sin The danger The Folly Helps against vain-glory MEEKNES Advantages fit Means of obtaining it CONSIDERATION Of our State The Rule by which to try our State The danger of Inconsideration Our Actions Before we do them After they are done â—requency of â—onsideraâ—â—â—n Danger of omitting it CONTENTEDNES â—ontrary to â—â—rmuring To Ambition To Covetousness Covetousness contrary to our duty to God To our Selves To our neighbours Contentedness contrary to envy Helps to conâ—edness DILIGENCE Watchfulness against sin Industry in improving gifts Of Nature Of Grace To improve good motions The danger of the contrary CHASTITY Uncleanness forbidden in the very lowest degrees The mischiefs of it To the Soul To the Body The Judgements of God a gainst it It shuts out from Heavâ— Helps to Chastity TEMPERANCE In Eating Ends of eating Preserving of life Of Health Rules of Temperance in Eating Means of it Temperance in Drinking False ends of drinking Good Fellowship Preserving of kindness Chearing the spirits Putting away cares Preventing reproach Pleasure of the drink Bargaining Degrees of this sin The great guilt of the strong drinkers The great mischiefs of this sin Exhortation to forsake it The difficulties of doing â—o considered Seeming â—â—â—essity of drink Want of imployment Perswasions and reproaches of men The means of resisting them Weigh the advantages with the hurt Reject the temptation at the very beginning The security of doing so The esficacy of these means if not hindred by love of the sin That love makes men loth to believe it dangerous Sleep The rule of Temperance therein The many Sins that follow the transgression of it Other mischiefs of sloth Temperance in Recreation Cautions to be observed in them Unlue End of Sports Temperance in Apparel Apparel designed for covering of shame Fencing from cold Distinction of persons Too much sparing a â—ault as well as excess DUTY to our NEIGHBOUR JUSTICE Negative To the Soul In the natural sence In the spiritual Drawing to in the greatest injury Direct means of it Indirect Men sadly to consider whom they have thus injured Heartily to bewail it Endeavour to repair it Negative justice to the body In respect of the life Several wayes of being guilty of murder The hainousness of the sin The great punishments attending it The strange discoveries of it We must watch diligently against all approaches of this sin Maiming a great injury That which every man dreads for himself Yet worse if the man be poor Necessity of making what satisfaction we can Wounds and stripes injuries also This cruelty to others the effect of pride His Possession His Wife The enticing a mans wife the greatest injustice To the woman To the man The most irreparable His goods Malicious injustice Covetous injustice Oppression Gods vengeance against it Theft Not paying what we borrow What we are bound for What we have promised Stealing the goods of our neighbour Deceit In Trust. In Traffick The sellers concealing the faults of his ware His over-rating it Fraud in the Buyer Many temptations to deceit in Traffick The commonness of injustice a reproach to Christianity It is not the way to enrich a man It ruines the Soul eternally The necessity of Restitution His credit False witnes Publick slanders Whispering Several steps toward this sin Despising and scoffing For infirmities For calamities For sins Destroying the credit a great injury And irrepairable Yet every guilty person must do all he can to repair the injury Justice in the thoughts Positive Justice Speaking Truth a due to all men Lying expresly forbidden in Scripture The great commonness and folly of this sin Courteous behaviour a due to all men Not payed by the proud man Meekness a due to all men Brauling very insufferable It leads to that great sin of cursing Particular dues A respect due to men of extraordinary gifts We are not to envy them Nor detract from them The folly of both those sins A respect due to men in regard of their ranks and qualities Dues to those that are in any sort of want To the poor God withdraws those abilities which are not thus imployed Duties inspect of relation Gratitude to Benefactors The contrary too common Duty to Parents Duties to the Supream Magistrate Honour Tribute Prayers for them Obedience Duties to our Pastors Love Esteem Maintenance Obedience Prayers for them Duties to our natural Parents Reverence Love Obedience Especially in their Marriage Ministring to their wants Duty to be paid even to the worst of Parents Duty of Parents to Children To nourish them Bring them to Baptism Educate them Means towards the education of children The parent to watch over their souls even when they are grown up To provide for their subsistence To give them good example To bless them To give no unreasonable commands Dues to Brethren Natural The necessity of Love among Brethren Spiritual brotherhood Our duty to hold communion with these brethren To bear with their infirmities To restore them after falls To sympathize with them The wife owes to the husband obedience Fideâ—ty Love The faults of the husband acquits not from these duties The Husband owes â—o the Wife love Faithfulness Maintenance Instruction Husbands and Wives mutually to pray for and â—ssist each â—ther in all good The vertue of the person the chief consideration in Marriage Unlawful Marriages Friendship Its duties Faithfulness Assistance Admonition Prayer Constancy Servants owe to their Masters obedience Fidelity Submission to rebuke Diligence Masters owe to their Servants Justice Admonition Good example Means of Instruction Moderation in Command Encouragement in well doing Charity In the Affections To mens Souls To their Bodies Goods and Credit Effects of this Charity It casts ouâ— Envy Pride ensoriousss Dissembling Self-seeking Revenge This charity io be extended even to enemies Motives thereunto Command of Christ. Example of God The disproportion between our ofâ—ences against God and mens against us Pleasantness of this Duty â—f we forâ—ive not â—od will â—ot forgive â—s Gratitude â—o God â—e first â—ng of â—ncour to supprest Charity in the Actions Towards the mind of our Neighbour His Soul Charity in respect of the Body Charity in respect of the Goods Towards the rich Towards the Poor Motives of Alms giving Manner of Alms-giving Cheerfully The fear of â—mpoverish â—ng our â—lves by it â—ain and â—pious Give seasonably Prudently Charity in respect of the Credit The acts of Charity in some respects acts of Justice also The great rule of Charity Peace making He that undertake it must be peaceable himself Of going to Law This charity of the actions must reach to enemies Self-love an hindrance to this Charity Prayer â— means to procure it Christian duties both possible and pleasant Even when they expose us to outward sufferings The danger of delaying our turning to God Sunday I. Sunday II. Sunday III. Sunday IV. Sunday V. Sunday VI. Sunday VII â—unday VIII â—unday IX â—unday X. Sunday XI Sunday XII Sunday XIII Sunday XIV Sunday XV. Sunday XVI Sunday XVII