the graine of corne as God giveth every seed his own body so Job saith hee shall see his Redeemer with the same eyes so they shall see Christ come to judge who peirâ—ed him only the Saint shall change for glory and immortality 5. In the resurrection God will send out his Angells his harvesters to gather the elect from all parts The last trump shall blow the graves open and sea land give up their dead it was shewed in the Prophets vision Ezek 47. 2. 3. c. the dry bones lay scattered up and downe the fields when the power of the Almighty breathed on them the sinewes and flesh came upon them the skinne covered them and they lived so shall it be in the resurrection of the dead The power of God who made us all of dust and infused a living soule into every one of us will then bring back every soule into his own body and so Christ who is the resurrection and the life will convent them and set them before him in judgement who now sleep in death He that raised Jesus from the dead shall also quicken our mortall bodies The truth hereof may appeare 1. From the word of God evidently testifying the same Job 19. 20. Isai 26. 19. Dan 12. 2. 1. Cor 15. 1. Thes 4. Joh 5. 28. 29. The Apostle proveth it from divers grounds as the preaching of the Gospell and our beleeving which otherwise were vaine but so great and powerfull an evidence of God's spirit cannot bee vaine From the communion we have with Christ who is risen for we are indeed his members flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone he is the first fruits of the dead Now in his manhood is our slesh and blood glorified where he lives wee live as he hath begun we shall follow from the comparision of the first and second Adam as in Adam all dye even so in Christ shall all bee made alive from the power of Christ able to subdue all things from the earnest of the spirit dwelling in us Rom 8. 11. If the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken your mortall bodies by the spirit that dwelleth in you by the universality of Christs kingdome to which all must be subdued Ephes 1. 14. The same is proved from the blessednesse of the dead Rev 14. 13. as also from that Christ saith God is the God of the living not of the dead Math 22. 31. 32. 2. The truth hereof may appeare from the consents even of the prudent heathen much more of all the Saints seeking another city Heb 11. 3. From the wisedome of God which cannot be frustrate now in vaine had he made man in his owne image had it beene to perish with so shore a life 4. From the justice of God if the body should not rise againe then that which had sinned with the soule should not also suffer with it the blasphemous mouth which hath so highly dishonoured â—â—od the raylers tongue which hath wounded the innocent the lying lips the theevish and murderous hands the mischievous head which hath beene a full storehouse of pernitious inventions for hereâ—ies schâ—smes seditions ravage and oppression should escape the power of justice and eternally sleepe in the dust without any sense of evill as securely as if they had never beene stained with confederacy in sinne a thought so vaine as that the conscience of an heathen could not admit it and can wee thinke that the poore afflicted and tortured bodies of the Martyrs bearing life and death the markes of the Lord Jesus shall never live againe and see a time of refreshing Certainely justice must needs put great difference betweene the wicked and the just and it must be true which God saith We must all appeare before the tribunall of Christ that every man may receive in his body according to that which he hath done whether good or evill 5. From the power of God with whom all things are possible he that made all of nothing cannot he raise the dead He that created cannot he change creatures He made the dust of the earth of nothing and man out of that dust and is his arme shortned so that he caÌ„not repaire who made of nothâ—ng consider the agent and take away all doubting Some instances as praeludiums of the generall resurâ—ection Christ made to assure us that he that raised the Rulers daughter the widows sonne Lazarus and others appearing at his owne resurrection could and would accordiâ—g to his promise raise us also He gave the Apostles themselves then subject to mortality power to raise the dead Tabitha and Eutichus were examples and shall not he who gave others this power be able himselfe to doe the same He made Aarons withered rod as it were rise againe from the dead and shall not he raise Aaron himself 6. From the common course of nature which is God's ordinary power the seed is sowed lyeth long under winter clouds except it corrupt it remaineth alone but by a kind of yearly death and resurrection every seed bringing forth its owne body that which without such changes could have lasted but few yeares continueth to the use of man since the creation unto this present 7. Lastly from the consciences of the most obstinate unbelievers tell mee Atheist if there be nothing after death why art thou so afraid to die Of these things we are to make these uses 1. It must teach us to be afraid to sinne death cannot conceale thee thou must rise againe Cain Judas Dives would think themselves happy if with a thousand thousand deaths they could but once die to live no more it is a great part of the reprobates torment that he cannot die but must be raised to an eternall torment of body and soule 2 To be comforted against all pressures and calamities of this life persecutions imprisonments sicknesse sorrow contempt death it shall not be long be an impious and ingratefull world nover so malicious before a joyfull resurrection shall assert and acquit thee from all these grievances 3. To use the deceased Saints bodies with humane and holy reverence not to handle them despicably whom God will once glorifie 4. To make death familiar to us by frequent meditation on our resurrection from the dead feare not death seeing thou shalt certainly rise againe there shall be incorruption glory and immortality See Psal. 16. 9 10. 2 Cor. 5. 1. 5. Not to sorrow as men without hope for them that sleepe in Christ remember they shall rise againe This was the very argument wherewith Christ who shewed his sympathy at Lazarus grave weeping with the living if not for the dead allayed the sorrow of Mary and Martha and comforted them in their teares I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in mee if he were
thou immoderately lament it 2. Remember that this losse neither tooke much time of life from him who went before thee nor left thee much to come who must ere long follow him 3. Remember Gods graces the sweet and certain effects whereof thou sawest in thy now deceased friend undoubtedly they were not bestowed on him in vaine but that in his translation God might perfect the worke of grace with glory and crowne his owâ—e gifts in him David as wee noted bewailed his impious sonne but hee mourned for the innocent no longer then he lay sicke To comfort our selves against the feares and sorrowes of death let us ever remember 1 Our resurrection and immortality in the life to come is assured us by the infallible word of God 1. Cor 15. 1. 2. 4. 20. 54. c. 1. Thess. 4. 14. 15. 18. Dan 12. 2. 3. 13. Joh 5. 28. 29. Joh 11. 23. 25. Rom 6. 23. This we are therefore sure of Democritus beleeved it not Socrates disputed of the soules immortality Pythagoras dreamed of it but as feverish men of things uncertaine and inconsistent the eternitie we beleeve is that to which God created us by his own image impressed on us unto which we are repaired in our baptisme and regeneration by that vertue which raised Jesus from the dead who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body that is in immortality and deliverance from death and corruption In that state our daies shall not come and goe as in this world they doe neither shall the beginning of one bee the end of another all shall be to gather termelesse where life it selfe shall have no end 2 That death is but a sleepe none feare that it is a separation of the soule and intermission of life and the acts thereof for a time which it endeth not because the immortall soule ever liveth in it's separation from the mortall body which shall be raised againe to immortality which shall be the soules sanctuary and haven of rest This is a truth so certaine that Gods word aboundeth with proofes and so confessed that the prudent heathens as I have noted constantly asserted it That the feare of death is much worse then death it is a servile and a miserable condition to feare that which cannot be avoided feare may be long but death or the sense thereof can be but short That which is a sick or miserable life is not to bee put on accompt to death which endeth all secular griefes death were to be feared if it could stay with thee as paine and sicknesse may but neither it commeth not when thou fearest it or it must quickly dispatch and passe from thee leaving thee free from feare and sorrow if thou dye in Christ. This is a lesson long learning that when that inevitable houre commeth thou maist willingly depart which because it is a certaine uncertainety a condition common to all men of every age seeing the longest life must have one last houre which bringeth up the rere it shall be thy wisdome as hath been said ever to expect it and to live so as that a guilty conscience doe not then terrifie thee when thou shalt most want comfort the only way to be willing to die and cheerefull in dying is to live well and to fix thy confidence in Jesus Christ wretched is hee who for want hereof is afraid of death 4 Remember that Christ dying for thee hath pulled out the sting of death and destroyed the malitious enemie that had the power thereof Christ is the resurrection and the life he that beleeveth in him though he were dead yet shall he live the only Antidote against death is a lively faith in Christ let thy maine care and hearts desire be upon it give God no rest importune him with earnest and constant prayers to strengthen thy faith he cannot deceive who hath promised herein to satiate the thirsty and weary soule 5 Consider the power of God to save from death and in death what greater evidence could hee have given to men in desperate hazards then he did in Jonah buried but not dead whose living sepulchre carried him as it were to a second birth the Lord spake unto the fish and it cast out Jonah upon the dry land he can deliver in death so doth he all the elect he can raise this dying flesh againe who saith he will who made this universe of nothing he translated Enoch and Eliah certainely those chariots of God are thousand thousands which though not seene by mortall eyes are ever pressed to carry up the soules of the just in their departure into the presence of God a blessed and endlesse life 6 Consider that death is that physitian who can at once cure all diseases and is to the deceased Saints the ende of sinne and misery not of them the medicine of all griefs the debt of corrupted nature the sanctuary against all secular feares the port of a fluctuant and troublesome world the gate of eternall life as Jacob said of Luz Gen 28 17. b This is the gaâ—e of heaven opened that the righteous nation which keepeth truth may enter Now whereas there are divers waies to death some rough some smooth some short some long it is just that thou patiently submit to the providence of God who can and will best dispose of thee let me adde this to them that are impatient or fearefull of death Who is there so constant in infirmity that he would not rather wish to dye then still live weake Who is so hardy in sorrow that hee would not rather desire that death might once end it then life continue it stil If we are displeased with life when yet we knowe there is a determined end neere us how much more impatient should we bee if we knew there were no end of our miseries and labours What is more intolerable then miserable immortalitie And what is long life better then long torment 7 Lay up the promises of God concerning Christs suffering and rising againe comforting and assisting his in life and death c. Joyne here to fervent and constant prayer that God would be pleased so to direct thee in thy whole life and to strengthen thee in thy death that thou maist be willing to dy not for feare of this life's miseries for they that for that cause only are willing to dye would possibly be glad rather to live to pleasures then sanctity but for love of Gods presence and the assurance of his truth That he would proportion his grace to thy trialls the more thou art cast downe and helplesse in thy selfe that he would the more lift thee up and let thee feele his gratious hand susteining thee so he that in mercy hath borne with thy many failings and taken no advantages to judge and cast
of death I will sing my nune dimittis Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace securely may hee dare Death and Hell Death where is thy sting Hell where is thy victory who can indeed say Thankes be unto God which giveth us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2. Confesse and repent thee of all thy sinnes that is forsake them and thou shalt find mercy if thou hidest them under any pretence of merit or pleading not guilty thou canst not prosper God's family saith not I am whole but heale mee O Lord and I shall be whole repentance is the second table after the shipwracke of our soules wee read that Peter after his fall repented wee read hee wept wee read not that hee satisfied repentance is no cause but a condition of our pardon without which it cannot be obtained because God is just as well as mercifull if God should forgive before we repent it were approbation of the fact rather then mercy nor could it stand with his justice This repentance is 1. in knowledge of our sinne without which we cannot repent therefore David prayeth Lord open mine eyes that I sheep not in death it is a fearfull judgement of God not to know our sinnes that we may repent The first degree of happinesse is not to sinne the second to knowe our sinnes there in entire innocency to save here followeth the medicine to heale 2. In hearty sorrow for all our sinnes without which we doe not repent 3. In a constant change of the minde purpose to sinne no more and forsaking our evill waies 't is not only in saying God be mercifull to me but in turning to him that hee may shew mercy who had not had any Saint had hee not pardoned sinners therefore the Prophet bids us search and try our waies turne againe unto the Lord. 3. Apply the word of God home to thy conscience that thou maist understand thy sinne and misery comming on thee and be toucht at heart as Peters hearers were Act 2. 37. 4. Pray earnestly to God to take away the stony heart which hindereth thy repentance and the comfortable effects thereof this lieth like the cover on the wells mouth at Padan Aram till it be roled away the flocks cannot bee watred the rocks at Horeb could not yeeld a drop of water till the rod of God smote it nor can mans harder heart one teare of faithfull repentance untill God touch it 5. Beware of living in or relapsing into any knowne sinne least the end be worse then the beginning in such case it had beene better for thee not to have knowne the way of righteousnesse then after the knowledge thereof to returue with the dog to the vomit 6. Be sure thou forgive 't is the condition of remission of thy sinne which Christ annexeth to thy petition for forgivenesse as we forgive them that trespasse against us and repeateth it to teach us the necessitie thereof for if we forgive them their trespasses your heavenly father will also forgive you but if yee forgive not â—neither will your father forgive your trespasses malice is strange fire which never came from heaven no sacrifice of prayer can be acceptable therewith be resolved then seeing thy daily infirmities put thee upon a daily asking mercy to shew it that thou maist find it that thou be not with the evill servant who would receive but shew no pitty delivered to the tormentors for the exaction of that which thou canst never satisfie A Prayer for repentance and remission of sinnes O Lord God of mercy and compassion slow to anger and more ready to forgive then we can be to beg pardon forgive us all our sinnes which we have at any time committed in thought word or action give us hearts to consent and obay that thou maist bee pleased according to thyne owne gratious promise to make our scarlet sinnes white as snow to take away those filthy habits where with we are naturally clothed and to put us on the robe of Christ's innocency give us hearty and unfeigned repentance of all our sins that we may abandon all our evill vaine and unprofitable waies whereby we have provoked thy wrath against our owne soules Seale up our pardon by the certaine testemonie of thy spirit of truth which cannot deceave in a comfortable peace of conscience and assurance of our reconciliation by the merits of our Lord Jesus Give us security on the second table of repentance who have unhappily let goe the first of innocency As thou hast in the pretious blood of thy deare sonne Jesus cancelled the hand writing of ordinances which was against us fastning them on his crosse so accomplish thine owne mercy cancelling them to the sense of our consciences by a certaine assurance of our salvation that the stings of death may not afflict us nor the gates of hell ever prevaile against us but that our sinnes being covered and no more imputed to us we may cheerefully thankfully and holily live before thee to thy glory the good example of of others and the assurance of our owne hearts before thee that thoâ—â— who hast in some measure sanctified hast also freely and fully pardoned us Lord answer unto our soules with good and comfortable words through Jesus Christ our Lord and only Saviour AMEN CHAP. X. § 1. Of the resurrection from the dead § 2. How the truth thereof may appeare § 3. What wee are to make of the meditation hereof 1 THe third benefit of the Church shall be the Resurrection from the dead in the first Adam all dye in the second all live hope of a joyfull resurrection is the root of all good workes Act 24. 15. 16. Act 26. 6 7. 2. It is necessary that sinne which brought death into the world like a viperous brood eating through its mothers bowels should be destroyed by death and as necessary that sins kingdome so ended all should rise againe that they may come to judgement 3. Resurrection is of the dead body of man for first death is not only a bare negation but a privation of life so dead and livelesse differ that only which had life and after died riseth againe Secondly there are two sorts of dead bodies the first sine potentiâ ad vitam without possibilitae of rising againe so beasts dye never to live againe or in potentiâ ad vitam in abilitie once to rise againe by the power of God so determining it so man dyeth and shall assuredly rise againe all men elect and reprobates shall come from death as Pharaohs two servants from their prison one to honour the other to execution some to the joyes of heaven eternall blessednesse of body and soule the other to endlesse shame and unspeakable torments in hell sire with the Devill and his Angells 4. The same body which dyeth shall be raised againe the same substance as
and change of the Leviticall Law and Priesthood he ordained for this new covenant of grace a new Sacrament and seale thereof that it succeeding the Passeover might declare him to be the only Lamb of God which taketh away the sinnes of the world to shew and represent his death untill his comming againe to leave his Church a badge of distinction from insidells and a parting token and pledge of his love assuring the faithfull of his continuall love toward them 4. The visible signes herein are Bread and Wine the thing signified is the participation of the body and blood of Christ the benefits of whose death and passion being apprehended by faith accrew to us as our mysticall union with Christ our incorporation into him our reconciliation with God and the nourishment of our soules to eternall life 5. These signes doe not barely represent the body blood of Christ unto us but doe also truly exhibit the same so that Christ is truly there and we doe by faith truly eate his flesh drinke his blood but spiritually and mystically not carnally and bodily for neither is the bread converted into the body of Christ nor is that with or under the species thereof for if there be not visible signes distinct from that which is thereby signified it can be no Sacrament we do indeed eate his body and drink his blood as we who are many are yet indeed truly one body in and with Christ that is mystically and spiritually 1. Cor 6. 17. To eate the body and drinke the blood of Christ is by a true faith in these outward signes bread and wine in the Sacrament inwardly to apprehend all the benefits of his passion and thereby to become partakers of his body so as that we are made flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone he dwelling in us and we in him The faithfull now eate drinke the same in this sacrament which the faithfull did before the incarnation of Christ in the Pascall Lambe and out of the rock that followed them that was Christ but they did not in the Passeover or out of the rock eate and drinke the body blood of Christ carnally but spiritually and sacramentally for how could they otherwise eat his body whâ—Ì„ as yet he had not taken any humane body on him so that whereas Christ said take eate this is my body we must remember that it was a sacrament he then instituted and therefore used a sacramentall phrase and manner of speaking wherein sometimes the signe is put for the thing signified as 1. Cor 11. 25. this cup is the new Testament sometimes the thing signified is put for the sign thereof Exod 12. 11. it is the Lords Passeover so they used to say eate the Passeover meaning the lambe the signe thereof so here this is my body that is a sacrament or signe thereof 1. The reprobate and elect communicate sometimes together in the elements and outward signes but the reprobate hath no part nor fellowship in the inward grace which was signified in that no part of the Pascall lambe might be carried out of the house nor any uncircumcised person eate of it 2. The elect here receiveth that spirituall refection which nourisheth his soule to eternall life but the reprobate eateth and drinketh his own damnation not discerning the Lords body but taking it as a thing of common use not sacred if the elect come unworthily he shall be punished with some temporall punishment for this cause many are weake sick among you and many sleep so the red sea was a defence to Israâ—l and destruction to the Egyptians 3. They receive unworthily who not understanding the end and institution or duty in this holy and dreadfull mystery required will yet presume for feare of humane censure fashion or company to venture on it without due reverence or preparation also unbelievers hypocrites malicious people and they who purpose to continue in any knowne sinne 4. They may be said to be fit or worthy ghests for the Lords table which understanding and well considering the institution end and due reverence herein required have the eye of faith fixed on Christ and on his merits for their redemption who out of a deep and inward sense of their owne unworthinesse judge and condemne themselves to prevent God's judgements who rest on the sole merits of Christ for their salvation who with all their hearts desire to forsake all their sinnes that they may serve God sincerely who are in charity with all men who with humble and reverend hearts receive this sacrament with all thankfulnesse shewing their dependance on Christs sacred ordinance obedience to his holy will and their expectation of his making good all his promises therein Seeing this is a matter of so high concernment it importeth every Christian. 1. to consider how he ought to prepare for his receiving it 2. how to receive it 3. what to doe after receiving 1. For thy preparation 1. Examine thy self before thou presume to come whether thou do understand the institution meaning and end of this Sacrament and if not learne of them that are able to instruct thee herein 2. Examine whether thou hast true faith assuring thee that Christ dyed for thee and with his eye of mercy and omniscience in his passion as well looked on thee as those believers who stood by his crosse then though thy faith be weake if thou hunger and thirst for righteousnesse come to this table that thou maist be strengthened The woman was cured who said in her heart If I may but touch the hem of his garment if thou beleeve in touching and tasting these signes and seales which he hath appointed to derive vertue to thy soule thou shalt be healed 3. Examine whether Christ dwell in thee by his holy spirit daily mortifying thy corrupt affections and quickning thee to the life of grace which will shew it selfe in sanctified desires thoughts words and actions at lest in sincere intention of the heart and some ability to keep Gods holy lawes without any the least purpose to yeeld indulgence to the breach of any of them The soule cannot be in the body but it shall be discovered by some acts of life and motion the being of the Arke at Obed Edoms house appeared in his thriving how much more shall the presence of Christ. 4. Examine whether thou do heartily repent thee of every sinne which thou hast committed if so then though remorse of conscience create thee feares and doubtings come to the Lords table who inviteth the heavy laden to comfort them the brazen serpent was a type of Christ that had the forme of a serpent without venome and Christ the forme and nature of man without sinne he that was stung with fiery serpents by looking up to the brazen serpent was presently cured and he
the destroyer may not enter send into my soule that heavenly fire of love to thy sacred Majestie and charity to all men which may assure mee of thy acceptance of me and my sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving clens out of mee all the old leaven of sinne and maliciousnesse open my understanding increase my faith that I may see and know the assurance of my sinnes remission in the seale of eternall life which by thy mercies I am now to receive Thou hast taught mee O Lord that my blessed Saviour in the night that he was betrayed made this holy testament wherein as he tooke flesh and blood of us that he might dye for us so hee bequeathed his body and blood to us that wee might live in him and left this Sacrament as a faithfull pledge of his love to remember us of his dying for us till he come againe O Lord I know thou art the life and truth and wouldst not leave thy Church any effectlesse earnest of their salvation Lord Jesus therefore be present with my spirit worke powerfully on thine owne ordinance that it may indeed seale up my salvation in my soule with that conconstant assurance that the gates of hell may never prevaile against it that no terrour of conscience nor any delusions of Satan may be able to overthrow it but that I may with a lively faith lay hold on all thy merits that I may find therein an inward peace in confidence of my sinnes remission reconciliation with my God sound joy in the Holy Ghost my comforter sanctified will and affections purity of life and holy obedience which hath the testimony of a good conscience to be a sweet comfort both in life and death assuring me that I have fought a good fight with entire faith and therefore shall enjoy the crown of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous Judge shall at that day give to all them that love his appearing Grant this O Lord and whatever else thou knowest to be needfull for me for Jesus Christ his sake who with thee and the holy spirit liveth and raigneth ever one God world without end AMEN An other private Prayer for one ready to receive the Lords Supper HOly Lord I humbly beseech thee for Christ Jesus sake whose sacred body and blood are here represented forgive me all my sinnes and give me a stedfast hearty and constant resolution never to commit the like againe give mee a lively faith that through these signes which my Saviour hath appointed to be received in remembrance of his death and passion untill his comming againe I may really apprehend the spirituall relish of the bread of life and to be assured that Christ's body was given for me and his most pretious blood shed for my redemption Lord lift up my soule above all worldly thoughts that I may by a steady and confident application of all the benefits of his death and passion see Christ Jesus sitting at thy right hand feed on him by a justifying faith and thereby be nourished to eternall life Holy Father heare and assist direct and guid me according to thine owne will Lord Jesus who gavest thy selfe to death for my salvation deny not the requests of my feeble soule longing for the assurance of thy saving health hungring and thirsting for thee and thy righteousnesse O holy Ghost the sanctifier of all the elect throughly cleanse me from all the old leaven of sin prepare me body and soule to an holy reverend and effectuall receiving these sacred mysteries that my soule and conscience may thereby be sealed up to redemption and salvation through Jesus Christ my Lord and blessed Saviour AMEN A private Prayer after receiving the Lords Supper MOst gratious God and mercifull Father who of thine owne free love and good pleasure hast elected created redeemed regenerated reconciled justified and preserved me unto this present who hast also bestowed â—on me unworthy of the least of thy mercies the peaceable use of thy holy word and sacraments I humbly thanke thee as for all other thy favours so for this present comfort which I have now received Lord accept this sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving through Jesus Christ whose oblation of himselfe once offered for a full and perfect price of our redemption and satisfaction for all our sins we have hereby according to his owne ordinance remembred Lord perfect the worke which thou hast begun in me make good thine owne institution unto my soule seale me up unto the day of redemption worke in mee a full assurance of my sinnes remission and my reconciliation to thee by the death and merit of thy holy sonne Jesus give me a lively sense of my union with him and his living in me so guiding me by his holy spirit that his life may appeare in all my thoughts words and actions that I may henceforth live no more to sinne but being freed from the power and laws thereof may have my fruit unto holinesse and eternall life Lord make me every day more and more able to doe thy will and to abandon mine owne corrupt desires let me now feele in my soule conscience the reall benefit of thy word and sacraments which thou hast promised to all those that truely seek thee give me that longing desire of right cousnesse which is by thy grace secured from despaire and preserved from vaine glory and presumption satisfie me with that measure of grace which thy wisdome knoweth sufficient for me Lord make me knowe assuredly that I have not now received this holy sacrament in vaine nourish me hereby to eternall life give me a greater strength to walke righteously before thee with sound faith cheerefulnesse of minde firme and comfortable peace of conscience and that joy of the holy Ghost which may ascertaine me that thy kingdome is established in me Give me a zealous love of thy glory ready obedience to thy law feare to displease thee innocency of life and that holy charity towards all men which may give me boldnesse in the great and terrible day of the Lord Jesus order thou my conversation so that it may be unblamable towards all men and holy before thee to thy glory and the good example of those with whom I live assist me with such a measure of thy sanctifying spirit that I may indeed performe all those vowes which I have made before thee that every day of my life may be to mee as this Sabbath an holy rest from sinne Lord who powerfully commandest all thy creatures prevent the mischievous subtiltie of the tempter let thy holy spirit keepe me body and soule give me an holy contempt of this present world and affections set on high where my blessed Saviour sitteth at thy right hand who shall in the appointed time appeare in judgement and gather his elect unto him These things and whatsoever else thou knowest needfull for me or any part of thy whole Church militant I begge at thy gratious hands who hast commanded us to aske and
Rebecca cry I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. Now though it be true he that doubteth whether he ought to worship God and honour his parents rather wanteth stripes then arguments yet seeing the corrupt nature of man is prone to all impiety I will hereto adde some motives to this duety 1. It is the only commandement with promise of reward Honour thy father and thy mother that thy dayes may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee that it may goe well with thee the son of Sirach saith Honour thy father and thy mother that a blessing may come upon thee from them 2. This is just before God and pleasing to him releeving thy father shall not be forgotten in the day of thy affliction it shall be remembred 3. A third motive may be taken from the contrary curse to him that any way dishonoreth father or mother 1. Cursed is he that setteth light by his father or his mother there is no more evident signe of an impious minde then contempt of parents 2. He that wasteth his father and chaseth away his mother is a son that causeth shame and whosoever robbeth father or mother and saith it is no transgression the same is the companion of a destroyer 3. The eie that mocketh at his father and despiseth to obey his mother the ravens of the valley shall pick it out 4. Whoso curseth his father or his mother his lamp shall be put out in obscure darknesse every one that curseth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death his blood shall be upon him so he that smiteth father or mother there is no lesse punishment severe enough for such an unnatural prodigie as a parricide or hee that retributeth injury where he oweth highest gratitude 5. Lastly I wish all disobedient children to read Deut. 21. 18 c. If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son which will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother and that when they have chastened him will not hearken unto them then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him and bring him unto the Elders of his city c. and the men of the city shall stone him with stones that he dye so shalt thou put away evil from among you A Praier for children to use O Lord God who hast ordained strength in the mouthes of babes and sucklings sanctifying them from the womb open our lips that wee may shew forth thy praise holy Lord Jesus who taking up children into thy sacred armes declaredst that unto such belongeth the kingdome of God who for our redemption becamest an infant and for our instruction obedient to humane parents who art the eternal son of God have mercy on us sanctify us bodies and soules unto thy kingdom and service keep us in our tender years by thy holy spirit from all the errors sins and pollutions of youth make us sincerely obedient to our God that in him wee may honor and obey our parents in all things in reverence and thankefulnesse for their tender care over us blesse their endeavours to provide for us spare them that they may live to bring us up in thy faith feare and love that thy great name may be glorified and they comforted in us and we with them preserved unto thine everlasting kingdom through Jesus Christ our ever blessed Lord and Saviour AMEN CHAP. XXVI Of the wounded spirit or conscience afflicted by the apprehension of Gods wrath against some great sinnes spiritual wants or fear of tentations § 1. What a wounded spirit is how great an affliction what the conscience is how comfortable the peace thereof why God afflicteth his § 2. What things principally wound the conscience § 3. What they who are afflicted with the apprehension of Gods wrath against them must consider § 4. What they must examine § 5. What they must practice 1. I Have spoken concerning the guidance of the Thoughts Words and Actions in generall and in some particular relations to external dueties I shall now endeavour to give directions suitable to some conditions first of the inward man and next of the outward The spirit of man will bear his infirmity but a wounded spirit who can beare saith Solomon The word signifieth a smitten contrite or broken spirit It is a manner of speaking borrowed from bodily afflictions by stripes contusions bruises or wounds wherein by cutting or hurting the sinews and veins the body weakened and endangered without cure to death disabled so that it cannot support it self is apt to inflammations and distempers every light touch hurteth it it depriveth a man of rest so that he is impatient of this present posture and more grieved at the change To expresse the intense sorrow of the soule weak confidence and enfeebled life of the spirit God calleth it a wounded spirit 2. This affliction is so great as it exceedeth all other temporal sorrows and is such as none can truely judge of but they who have with David seen confinia inferni as he saith Psal. 116. 3. The sorrowes of death compassed me and the paines of hell gat hold upon me or found me Other sorrowes may be eased by giving the afflicted something equivalent to that whose losse grieveth him as where one treasure is lost and another found or by some compensation and repair as Job had a second brood and encrease of wealth Elkanah intimated such a medium consolationis when hee said to afflicted Hannah Am not I better to thee then ten sonnes but so can this never be if you give a man of an afflicted spirit riches company of dearest friends or that which might relieve refresh or delight some others you do no more ease him then you could the broken bones by putting on some purple or rich robes no no the grief is within and there must be cured nothing external can do it in other griefes time will mitigate sunt verba voces excellent lenitives of sorrow in some other kindes wine merry company musick or the like meanes may have some part as the wise man saith Give strong drink to him that is ready to perish and wine to those that be of heavy hearts let him drinke and forget his poverty and remember his misery no more So Davids harp could for the time refresh Saul and charme the evil spirit but this grief admitteth of no efficacy in such comforts In other pressures wee may be eased or conveyed away from the evil as Paul was from the Jews conspiracy as David from Saul but there is no flight from a wounded spirit Whither ever we goe we carry our affliction with us our secret tormenter in us In fine as it is in sense of a separation from God the reality whereof is the second death so no creature in heaven or earth can cure it there can be
same sometimes want of patience want of love to God and charity to men in fine such a general debility or distemper of the inward man that hee readily concludeth with Paul I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing for to will is present with mee but how to perform that which is good I finde not for the good that I would I do not but the evil which I would not that I do O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death These are great maladies of the soule and wounds of the spirit but the sense hereof as I sayed is a good sign of a bad cause where these are and the sinner is not sensible thereof they are desperate Symptoms For comfort herein let us as was proposed in case of the precedent distresse consider 1. That the very same measure of grace which to the present sense of a regenerate man seemeth incompetent may yet be a sufficient measure to save him and he is then strong by the power of Christ resting upon him and shewing it perfection in mans weaknesse when crying out for God's assistance he is most weak in his own sense so in Paul's distresse the Lord thus answered his petitions My grace is sufficient for thee hee saith not it shall be as relating to a greater supply but it is sufficient as speaking of the present measure of grace which then hee had when hee seemed to himselfe weakest 2. That the saints present measure of assurance is such as that they must not only give diligence to make their calling and election sure that so an entrance may be administred to them abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of Christ but though it be God which worketh in them both to will and to do they must also work out their own salvation with fear and trembling 3. All unbeleefe concludeth not a reprobate sense there is an unbeleefe in the elect before and a perplexing remainder thereof after their calling yea in their best estate here why else did the Apostles pray Encrease our faith and why did our Saviour upbraid them with unbeleefe 4. That saving faith differeth in degrees so that there is a stronger and a weaker faith yet both true and justifying so do all other graces one hath a greater and more excellent measure of the spirit of prayer then another one hath a more discerning and attentive spirit of hearing then another and yet in either instance the least may be true and sufficient for to every man is given according to the measure of Christ one hath ten talents another but two yea in one and the same mans faith there is sometimes a greater sometimes a lesser measure of confidence and assurance and so wee must judge of other gifts sometimes there is more fervency in praier sometimes lesse the sun-beams fall not on us at all times alike neither doth the light of grace 5. That a true saving faith may be very weak and the beleever may have very little sense thereof for the time and yet the gates of hell shall never prevaile against it as may appear in Peter's example 6. That there are doubtings and failings in the best on earth because wee are here but partly spirit wee are not yet come to perfection faith here must receive contintuall encreases and be subject to tryals so must all other graces 7. That true faith can never never shall finally fall away or utterly faile though it be subject to intension and remission because Christ intercedeth for us as hee said to Peter Behold Satan hath desired that hee may sift you as wheat but I have prayed for thee that thy faith faile not because his grace by which wee are called and stand is immutable in the counsell and decree of God and because hereto wee are scaled up by the holy spirit of promise and the like wee are to judge of all the fruits of sanctification which being the gifts and graces of God are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as God repenteth not of neither finally with-draweth Wee must here againe examine the conscience I have spoken something concerning the examination of faith in the 2. Chap. but intend here onely those things which concerne this present Argument of comforting the afflicted soule aske thy conscience therefore whether 1. Thou hast indeed a true sense of thy spirituall wants and grievest at thy corruptions of heart which on every occasion breake out into acts of sin against God is this a grievous burden unto thee be comforted thy sin is out of it proper place a stranger unto thee for nothing in it owne place is heavy The danger is want of sense and taking pleasure in unrighteousnesse if a man feele not when hee is wounded hee is either dead or in some dangerous ectasie No part hath sense but the living though it were for the present more comfortable to be whole yet sense of smart in thy wounds concludeth life and indeed in God's cures who maketh all things work for the best to them that love him a better state in respect of the quiet fruits of righteousnesse accrewing to them that are thereby exercised and the ulcerous corruptions of our souls often necessitating our wounding that we may be healed then the secure prosperity of sinners it is good at the last for the saint that he hath been troubled When thou hearest or readest the Scriptures doest thou feele the want of saith assurance sanctification the spirit and fervency of praier be comforted as the sunnes eclipse and failing of light towards us can be discerned by no light but it own so neither can the want of grace be possibly discerned by any thing but grace 2. Hast thou an hearty desire to have these wants of grace supplied feare not that very desire of grace is grace without which thou couldst not desire it Blessed are they who doe hunger and thirst after righteousnesse for they shall be filled God will never famish that soul which desireth him and his saving health none can hunger but the living none hunger for grace but hee that liveth thereby but thy desire of grace must be hearty not languid such as cannot rest unsatisfied with any thing else in the world there may be a feeble or oblique appetiâ—e of salvation in Balaam for feare of damnation but hee more loved the wages of unrighteousnesse the most happy thirst for the waters of life is that which afflicteth the soule till it be obtained which can never rest or joy in any thing without it so that indeed this very condition which so much afflicteth and affrighteth thee is the most secure and happy and thou shalt once know that which hee said in the happy event of his unhappy ship-wrack Wee had perished if wee had not thus perished And when thou hast received the spirit of God in such
him until fast bound to the gibbet to be put over the fire he cryed out O Solon Solon ◠Riches cannot deliver from death nor in the day of the day of the Lords wrath and how vainely doe wee call them goods in whose abundance the owner may perish with hunger 2. Set not thy soule at stake for any worldly price what shall it profit a man if hee shall gaine the whole world and loose his owne soule especially at so poor a one that usually hurteth the possessor I appeale herein to any thriving man doe but remember the change of thine owne minde so soon as thy estate encreased or descended to thee how quickly hadst thou learned an unstudied pride and elation of minde Estates and the owners mindes commonly rise together like those beasts and wheeles in the Prophets vision When the creatures were lifted up from the earth the wheels were lifted up this maketh it so hard for a rich man to be saved because it is very hard to be rich and not proud or not to trust in riches Adde hereto that unjust gaine maketh thee not a proprieter but an usurper and robber and hee that swallowed down riches shall vomit them up againe either hee must restore them or perish with them whether they were seized into his hands by violence or by wicked balances or the bag of deceitful weights treasures of wickednesse profit nothing moreover at the best thou canst have but a short use of any worldly thing wee brought nothing into the world and it is certain wee shall carry nothing away and is it not therefore an admirable madnesse to loose eternal happinesse for temporal riches the soule for the bodies supplies The time shall come and it is as sure and neere as death when the body shall have no use of riches the soule never had why do men tyre themselves for vaine shadowes too great possessions have commonly debauched the unhappy owners as may appeare in the Romane conquests of Asia Hannibal's of Alexander's of Persia and the like wherein it was doubtful whether they more conquered those nations or those nations them Their riches were to them but as Demetrius Lamià taken in the Egyptian spoiles aurea mala golden mischiefes and as Seneca said of prosperity viscata beneficia limed baits gifts to take men with and so desperately besotting their lovers that they passe not for any wickednesse to gaine them save that onely which may bring them into future danger of loosing them It was not said amisse Were Justice as free as once it shall be all our goales could not hold our rich men This mischiefe wealth addeth to the rest that it now freeth the wicked from punishment that they may recive it hereafter No wonder that our Saviour pronounced a woe to the rich who usually blesse themselves as the only wise and good men riches so seldom being good to the owners Why settest thou thine heart on that which is neither truely good nor truely thine if they are truely good let them make thee good and blessed if truely thine carry them with thee in death What can be more unworthy of a wise man then the love of false and transitory goods or of a Christian then to sell a soul whose redemption cost more then all the world was worth the precious blood of Christ for that which is neither truely good truely thine nor beyond necessity of safe use or possession If thou use them thou art neer luxury if thou spare them to a dangerous parsimony on the one side is the nures of idlenesse the mother of all mischiefe on the other the gulfe of insatiable avarice 3. Let thy riches serve thee there is no little necessity of the use of this rule for as the Philosopher said Most rich men doe not use their goods for extream covetousnesse others abuse them to pleasures so rich men become slaves all their life time some to pleasure others to profit but beyond all that the Philosophers could know the Scripture sheweth that if wee serve riches we cannot serve God hee that keepeth riches to himselfe is a servant to them and hee the worst of all servants a foole and a knave who grown rich with an ill conscience can be contented to live poore only that hee may die rich And hee that prodigally spendeth them is little better this may be sure his riches cannot serve him long the others doe never Yet thus parsimonious are some as they should live ever and others as lavish as if they should presently die 'T is vaine to deprive they soule of rest only to possesse and not to use riches in trueth such have not riches their riches have them buried in the foolish monument of their avarice It is no sinne to be rich if justly it is to be uncharitable to thy selfe or others How dwelleth the love of God in him God weigheth mens hearts not their chests and in his esteeme who cannot be deceived hee onely is master of his wealth not who keepeth it close but hee who bestoweth it well Ask thy conscience how thou possessest and usest riches and thou shalt know whether God hath given them for a blessing or a curse There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun saith Solomon riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt It is a blessing to know how to use them well every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth and hath given him power to eate thereof and to take his portion and to rejoice in his labour this is the gift of God 4. Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with those things that you have Let our meat satisfie hunger our drinke thirst and our decent garments keepe our bodies warm let our houses be to defend us from wet and cold a wise and good man is so contented with himself not that he would not gladly have friends goods to entertain them but because he can patiently bear the want of either riches are more safely had them desired They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtfull lusts which drown men in destruction an inheritance may be gotten hastily but the end thereof shall not be blessed A man with a wicked eie hasteth to riches and knoweth not that poverty shall come upon him Hee that heapeth up treasure as the dust knoweth not who shall spend it in the mean time no man wanteth more then he that coveteth most he lacketh not only that which hee hath not but that also which he hath so that the covetous mans wealth leaveth him guiltiness and taketh away the comfortable use of that which hee hath it being a kinde of drunken thirst encreasing by having more Great Alexander was not contented with one world Death only confesseth
mercies and the God of all comfort who comforteth us in all our tribulation that wee may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith wee our selves are comforted of God 1. That Gods dearest servants have been imprisoned others had tryals of cruel mockings and scourgings of bonds and imprisonment being destitute afflicted tormented of whom the world was not worthy True Christians must suffer persecution in this kinde Ieremy Ioseph Michaiah Iohn Baptist and the Apostles might be cited for examples but that wee have so many modern and now sighing in their bonds 2. The Heathen boldly affirmed that it could not be a prison in which Socrates was I am certaine it can be no lesse then an happy place and condition in which Christ is as hee was with Joseph in prison so hee is still with his and hee giveth them favour oft-times with men as hee did to Joseph Jeremy Paul and Silas sometimes deliverance as hee sent his Angel to Peter with an habeas corpus and enlarged him the word and power of God cannot be bound neither canst thou any more imprison an holy minde or shut out Christ from it then binde up the sun-beames Christ is imprisoned with his servants as he saith When I was in prison yee visited mee the prison cannot shut out thy praiers from heaven nor Christ from thee and therefore is it thine honour not thy unhappinesse 3. No man knoweth the value of liberty who never wanted it nor commonly the true use of it we best know Gods blessings by wanting them for a time and so intermitted liberty is sweeter then continued 4. There hath no tentation overtaken you but such as Christ fore-told should come for the tryal of his They shall lay their hands on you and persecute you delivering you up to the Synagogues and into prison the time cometh saith hee that whosoever killeth you will think that hee doth God service this hee fore-told that wee might not be scandaled and that wee might be assured that hee whose providence layeth these things on us is faithfull and will not suffer us to be tempted above that wee are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape so that wee may be able to beare it 5. Better is an injurious prison then an impious liberty the prison hath been a Sanctuary to some whose liberty was beset with dangers so that experience made them sorry that their imprisonment was no longer which before they esteemed too long all enlargement is not alike successfull as the examples of Pharoah's servants shew the worst prison is to be shut up within the command of our own sinful affections sinne is the worst bond they are not stone-walls locks bolts chaines geives fetters or manacles which make the worst prison Manasses was most dangerously bound when hee had most liberty to commit those purple-faced sinnes and so most free when hee was in bondage chaines and captivity the mindes pure freedome is the best hee is the most wretched vassal who is taken captive at Satan's will or subjected to his own the guilty conscience followed as the impious Aristobulus or bloody Nero with the memory of horrid acts is more straitned then the prisoner whose bodies consinement impeacheth not but sometimes advanceth the blessed liberty of his minde The rich Libertine is the basest captive it is not happinesse to have power over other mens lives and liberties of which that odious L. Sylla gloried that he could proscribe and kill so many thousand citizens but over a mans own he whose wealth is a snare to him furnishing him with meanes and opportunity to sin is the most wretched captive bound Darius-like with golden chains as heavy restraining as the most vulgar in the mindes captivity by so much more heavy and destructive by how much more of value an immortal soul is then the body The old prosecuters wont to binde a dead body to a living Christian so that it might be not only his burden but his perpetual torment to death a thousand-fold worse is the burden which sin layeth on a captivated soule Wretched man that I am cryed Paul who shall deliver mee from the body of this death External bonds and imprisonment can make a man unhappy if so much but a little while Sinne if not here discharged will to eternity Bonds and prisons to the servant of Christ are but exercises encreasing their mindes more happy liberty and resolution I had rather he any mans captive then mine owne 6. If thou make a good use of thy imprisonment thou maist finde many considerable advantages therein it will teach thee which are thy fast friends it enlargeth a well resolved minde it bringeth to minde the errour and abuse of former liberty that thou maist thereby be disposed to repentance for the same it acquainteth thee with exercises of patience fixeth in thee holy resolutions guards the eare from many turbulent clamours which torment the more free eare it restraineth the roving eies from seeing that vanity of the world which made Democritus laugh and Heraclite continually weep it restraineth many from destructive liberty it is a riged and unpleasing but profitable school of temperance and patience It is the glasse that more truely sheweth a man himselfe then liberty ever can not to deject the minde to despair and worldly sorrow but to raise it to a due consideration of the causes of Gods judgments which being ever just must bring a good man to the deep consideration of the end of his suffering and prove an happy stimulus to repentance as it did to Manasses who found his best liberty in prison and captivity It may be God permits it to try thee then it must raise and comfort thy minde to a ready meeting with Gods will therein It may be for the testimony of the Lord Jesus and his trueth then it must highthen thy resolution to an unmoved constancy to be ready not to be bound only but also to dye for the name of the Lord Jesus Great and good mindes cannot be subject to servile captivity either they will in their strength and invincible resolution grounded on the reward they look upon and assured on them by the trueth of God endure the crosse and despise the shame and sufferings which are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in them or make such use of God's fatherly corrections as shall render them no lesse then happy in the quiet fruits of righteousnesse lastly it will teach a man how subject this vaine world is to perpetual changes and wean him from the pernicious love thereof 7. The Prison is the conâ—ines of death in health and so must teach a wise man to prepare there before the evil daies and restlesse paines death's importunate harbingers
come and leave no roome for good counsel and resolution Here thou maist finde some liberty to serve God as Paul and Silas did to pray and sing Psalmes at least and who can say that God did not therefore confine thee seeing thee too attentive to the world and carelesse of holy duties that the prison might teach thee devotion which thy liberty could not There are many things which may befall thee for thy good and there are unexspected revolutions both in prosperity and adversity out of the prison hee cometh to reigne whereas also hee that is borne in his kingdome becometh poor Thou maist securely exspect that which God knoweth best for thee it may be there is but one doore into the prison there are many out either mercy or violence innocency reward favor of men or the Angel of God either man or death which hath a key to open every doore shall set thee free if nothing else enlarge thee that will not faile thee at the appointed houre and variable are the conditions to which the prison rendreth men as I. Caesar to an Empire Marius to a consul-ship Regulus and Sâ—crates to death I need not these who read of Pharoah's servants James Peter Joseph John Baptist the prison sendeth some to heaven some to destruction sooner or later one way or other it rendreth all I only note that the most infamous temporal end it rendreth men unto can be no obstruction and hindrance to their eternal happinesse in Christ who therefore submitted himselfe to the then most infamous death that hee might take away the curse of the law which saith cursed is every one which hangeth on a tree The main skill therefore is and the only certain comfort against imprisonment or death to gain assurance that thou arâ— in Christ in every place and condition doing those things which may further thy certainty thereof to which observe such like rules 1. Keepe innocency that if thou suffer it may be wrongfully for this is thanke worthy if a man for conscience toward God endureth griefe suffering wrongfully if when yee doe well and suffer for it yee take it patiently this is acceptable to God And if thou hast lost the first parts of innocency despaire not but lay hold on the second table of repentance the penitent theefe on the crosse who confessed hee justly suffered yet heard of Christ this day thou shalt be with mee in Paradise 2. Search thy heart diligently least some secret sin causeth this affliction in case it appear not that thou justly sufferest of men See Isai. 42. 22 23 24. 3. Think how long these imperious masters can hold thee there and feare not them who only can imprison and destroy the body but fear and trust in him who can cast body and soule into hell and save thee from thy oppressors prepare thee to entertain death cheerfully hee shall once come like the Angel to Peter and take thee out in spight of the most rigid keepers there the prisoners rest together that shall free thy body from a loathed prison and thy soul from an afflicted body 4. Improve thy time to some good some birds sing sweetest in the cage that excellent monument which beareth the title of the first part of the worlds general history is an example hereof 5. Keep thy minde free from all reigning sin and in spight of all geives and fetters and the bespattering of black and unhallowed mouths thou shalt have a more happy freedom in prison then thy persecuters have in their liberty besides that their accompt with the eternal justice of God is to come and yet not closed nothing but sinnes can miserably enthral wee may well say to them as Sampson to the men of Judah Swear to mee that you will not fall upon mee I fear none other bonds hee is a free-man whose conscience accuseth him not God's service in every state is the best freedom 6. Subject thy minde to inevitable necessity by patient bearing the way to make bonds more heavy and intolerable is vainly to struggle with them if thy minde were to stay within thy confinement were no prison it were a punishment to command thee out if thy minde be reluctant thou straitnest thy selfe a nè exeat regnum may make some man think England a prison the old man who had never gone out of the city gates receiving a warrant from the Prince prohibiting his going out could not rest till he had stollen out it was his city before but the restraint made it a prison to an impatient minde if thy minde having a willing compliance thy prison becometh no prison to thee an impatient wearisome minde maketh a kingdome no more 7. Be thou meek in affliction and thou shalt be temperate in thy liberty if God restore it so this shall not corrupt thee more then that break thee however if thou canst but learne this one lesson as thou hast the best tutor that ever suffered so shalt thou finde the best fruit rest to thy soule 8. To conclude let the prison make thee more zealous in Gods service more fervent in prayer more attentive in hearing more charitable and pitiful to others that suffer and more fruitful in all good works and thou shalt owe thanks to thy persecuters and oppressors more then thy friends deserved of thee it skilleth not much who bettereth thee if thou be indeed made better for whosoever be the instrument it 's Gods favour to thee Hee is never wanting to them that call upon him faithfully but surely he is neerest them that are in greatest troubles hee heard Jonah out of the whales belly Daniel out of the lions denne the three Israëlites out of the fiery fornace the Disciples in the storme Joseph Jeremy Paul Silas all his servants in prison the Churches praiers brought an Angel from heaven to deliver Peter No wards can shut up thy praiers remember you that are free what you owe to Christs prisoners little comfort will he afford them who cannot his earnest praiers remember you that are in bonds what you owe your selves it is in you to make the prison evil or good to you be you holy and it shall make you happy pray instantly God hath promised to heare and helpe you The prisoners Petition O Holy and merciful Lord God who hast made heaven and earth the sea and all that therein is which keepest trueth for ever which excusest judgement for the oppressed givest food to the hungry raisest them that are down and loosest thy prisoners though thou afflict and try thy children thou wilt not cast them off for ever though thou causest grief yet thou wilt shew compassion according to thy mercies thou afflictest not willingly nor grievest the children of men to crush under foot the prisoners of the earth to turn aside their right and subvert them in their cause our sinnes have provoked thy justice and put this rod into thy fatherly hand thou wouldst not the
sinners death but his conversion Lord convert my soule remove my sins frame my heart affections and life according to thine own will thou who hearest the poor and despisest not the wretched captive visit all that are bound Lord our redeemer hear them in an acceptable time and help them in the day of salvation preserve the oppressed and despised of men say unto the prisoners Goe forth and to them that are in darknesse Shew your selves binde up the broken hearted proclaime liberty to the captives and opening the prison to them that are shut up comfort them that mourne let their deep sighing come before thee according to the greatnesse of thy power preserve thou them that are appointed to dye Lord lift thou up my head enlarge my feet bring me out of bondage that I may live to serve and praise thee in the assemblies of thy servants however thou pleasest to dispose of mee let all my sufferings redound to thy glory and my salvation give me patience to endure constancy to depend on thee firme faith to apprehend thy promises and hope to expect thy saving health Consider my weaknesse and lay no more upon mee then thou wilt enable mee to bear cheerfully sanctifie my afflictions and make them good to mee in the fruits of righteousnesse which thou hast laid up for all those who rest on thee Heare mee O Lord let my cry come unto thee and have mercy upon me through Jesus Christ our Lord and blessed Saviour AMEN A Morning Praier for prisoners O Eternal and Almighty God Creator Preserver and Governer of all things in heaven and earth before whom the Thrones and Dominions Powers Cherubims and Seraphims vaile their faces with their wings not able to behold the brightnesse of thy Majesty nor to comprehend thy being known to none but thine owne infinite wisedome At the blasting of the breath of thy displeasure the earth is moved and the pillars of heaven doe tremble yet in thy unspeakable mercy thou vouchsafest to looke downe from thy throne of glory and to take care for man yea the poorest and most despised among the sonnes of men and not only to bow downe a gracious eare to their petitions but to command them to call upon thee that thou maist relieve and deliver them to this end hast thou made so many instances of that word of thine The fervent praier of the righteous availeth much Such praiers have divided the Seas and made their swelling waves stand on heapes beat down the armies of aliants stopped the mouthes of lions restrained the devouring flames opened and shut heaven made the Sunne and Moone stand still converted the revengeful malice of enemies into pity and compassion broken the heavy yokes of bondage shaken off the chaines opened the prison doores and delivered those that were appointed to death so that thou hast not in â—ain sayed Call upon mee in the day of thy trouble so will I heare thee and thou shalt glorifie mee Lord thy mercy is not changed thine arme shortened nor thine eare heavy only our sins have separated between thee and us this is that filthy leprosie over-spreading every part and faculty of our bodies and souls which hath covered our mouths and hindred our praies from thy graecious presence turning away thy merciful eares so that as wee have not hearkned when thou spakest unto us by thy Prophets to warn us from the waies of death and destruction so thou maist justly refuse to heare our cries But O Lord God if thy mercy could have been hindred by mans sin thou hadst never elected him to salvation for thou fore-sawest all things from eternity to all times to come If any evil could have overcome thy goodnesse thou hadst never redeemed us with so great a price as the blood of thy sonne Jesus for thou fore-knewest that they to whom thou sentest him as a redeemer would crucifie the Lord of life if the iniquity of an impious world could intercept thy bounty this sun should not shine nor thy rain descend upon the wicked neither wouldst thou have preserved us this night past that we might now meet to call upon thee for mercy and deliveraâ—ce if thy justice had not given place to mercy we therefore humbly acknowledge thy goodnesse and our own vilenesse and unworthinesse and for thy mercy sake beseech thee to pardon and put all our sins out of thy remembrance that they may no more appeare to provoke thine anger to our destruction O Lord we know not what or how to pray as wee ought help thou our infirmities by thy holy Spirit who maketh intercession for us according to thy will with groanings inuterable it is the same spirit of thine which indited the praiers of thy Prophets and Apostles by which they obtained such marvellous things which now also moveth in and for thy poore afflicted children crying unto thee Good Father give us that lively faith fervency and evidence of spirit to which thou who art the God of trueth and canst not deceive hast made the promise of audience and attaining Lord shew us the effects of that good word which saith Ask and you shall have Now give unto us that aske forgive us all our sinnes and give us an happy deliverance out of the pressures which lie so heavily upon us Give us peace with thee in the testimony of a good conscience and if it be thy holy will peace with all men as thou hast passed by us with fire storme and earth-shaking indignation so now speake unto us in the still voice of thy mercy and compassion Lord if it be possible let this cup of anger passe â—rom us if not thy will be done Give us patience and perseverance give the blessed issue who givest the bitter tryal consider whereof thou hast made fraile man Remember that wee are but poore dust and earth and as the grasse soon withering away deale with us so here that wee may not faile of living to thee in this life and with thee in that eternal life to come And now O Lord who causest the out-goings of the morning and evening to praise thee wee bless thy holy name for thy gracious providence preserving of us this night past and giving us this present oportunity of presenting our supplications unto thee Good Father continue thy mercy to us and ours this day sanctifie us unto thy service direct all our thoughts words and actions so as that in the several waies of our callings they may all tend to the glory of thy holy name the good example of our brethren and the further assurance of our consciences before thee Lord blesse thy holy Church in all nations specially that which thy right hand hath planted in this Blesse Lord our several families let our innocency appeare as the light lift up our heads from these bonds and in thy good time restore us to them againe hear their praiers for us and ours for them and both for thy sonne Jesus sake O Lord who art the
God into its own bitter relish and humility not to bee prowd of beauty youth strength subject to so many diseases as pose art it selfe and overcome the old remedies with accession of new sicknesses so that it is true Bodily infirmities stir up the vigor of the minde and transmit the strength of body into it so that it is a kinde of health sometimes to be unhealthy diseases overcomming the body the soule overcommeth sinne sicknesse is an harbinger or quartermaster to death the monitor of our ends approaching and that which taketh off the bewitching love of this world the historians tell us of a kinde of fire which rageth the more by how much more water thou castest on it is quenched only by casting on of dust it may bee true in the morall for such a kind of heat is there in the love of the world the more thou givest it the more thou inâ—lamest it it is quenched only with the dust of the grave and that which bringeth thereto The life of man is like a lovely rivers streame neere the rising set with flowrie bancks plants houses pleasant walkes gardens sweet meddowes and delightfull seats but if you follow it toward the end you shall â—inde it more and more troublesome stormy deepe dangerous and so engulâ—ing into bitternesse as the Lord permitted Israël to bitter pressures in Egypt that they might more willingly depart thence toward the promised rest so is it here the healthy and prosperous say in their hearts as the Reubenites and Gadites Numb 32. 5. when they saw the pleasant Jazer and the fruitfull Gilead if we have found grace in thy sight let this land be given unto thy servants for a possession they would not goe hence now God though he give us sweet comforts in the first fruits of his spirit like clusters from Escol Deut. 1. 24. 25. yet he embittereth our worldly delights our places of pleasure are toucht with some griefe our beds of rest become places of sicknesse and death Eden was the theatre for mans first tragoedie Christ began his passion in a garden the easterne people made their sepulchres in gardens to teach them what may and must come of their pleasures Sicknesse maketh the prudent loath sinne in the sense of the bitter effects thereof the victories of sinne are destructive if they are againe intangled therein and overcome the latter end is worse with them then the beginning as it was said in the name of those white sacrifices which Marcus Caesar used to offer in his triumphs if thou overcommest we perish we truely may say of sin happy affliction therefore which maketh us out of love with that which cannot destroy except it overcome nor overcome except we love it Sicknesse awaketh us from security except we are like those sleepy beares which cannot be awaked no not with wounds and stirreth them up to seek the Lord as hee saith in their affliction they will seeke me early Though wicked Asa in his great sicknesse sought not to the Lord Yet to the Saints sicknesse is a sweet enditer of prayers as it is written in the day of my trouble I will call upon thee for thou wilt heare me How many men for bodily sicknesse were brought to Christ and had their soules cured who being in health lived in unbeleefe before Terrour of conscience oppression poverty and sicknesse are profitable for the elect in that they serve like those foure bearers of the paralyticall man to bring them to Christ. That thou maist therefore make a right use of thy sicknesse observe these rules 1. Search thy heart and turne unto the Lord in serious repentance make thy peace with him quickly considering the cause of thy sicknesse thy sinnes judge and condemne thy selfe for them that God may acquit thee and render unto the Lord that for which he delivereth thee if thou recover 2 Set thy house in order and dispose of thy estate which God hath given thee if thou have not before done it 3 Use the help of the learned Physitian but rely on God for the blessing on the meanes there are divers pernitious errours in this case to be avoided some to their losse neglect all meanes these betray their own lives undervallew Gods favours and despise his ordinance in the good creatures made for the reliefe and recovery of the sick and the Physitian who is to be honoured some trust too much to second causes neglecting the first so did Asa some seeke to evill and unlawfull meanes Witches Charmers c. so Ahaziah sent to Baal-zebub the idol of Ekron some as fâ—olish if not so wicked seeke to the unskilfull and ignorant trusting a pretious life into the hands of those who without learning or calling are many times venterous murderers as if God were not the God of wisdome and what wonder seeing upon the like hazard they venture their immortall soule 4 Watch and pray as in all estates so specially in this that as God hath given thee this warning to prepare thee to meet him so that he would sit thee for himselfe and so sanctifie thy trialls that they may better thee and make thee ready for his kingdome that he would restore thy health and give thee an heart to make a more thankfull prudent and holy use thereof then thou hast formerly dore to give thee patience masure thy trials in mercy proportion thy strength to the affliction and to keep thee in life and death as one of his 5 Endeavour what humane infirmitie will permit to beare patiently not stupidly but in confidence of Gods mercy For 1. Impatience is but an accession to thy griefe so much worse then the disease as the soule is better then the body and the distempers thereof more dangerous then the bodily 2. All that we now can suffer commeth inâ—initely short of that we shall enjoy in Christ. 3. God can if he see it best deliver us from the greatest dangers 4. He will lay no more upon us then he will make us able to beare and give and issue out of every triall 5. Our sufferings if with patience are to his glory as Christ said of some 6. We must through many trials enter into glory 7. Christ is toucht with a feeling of our misery 8. These afflictions are but trialls and exercises of our faith and patience 9. Christ suffered inâ—initely more for thee 10. Many of the Saints have suffered long infirmities 11. As this earthly house of this tabernacle must by little and little be destroyed so must our afflictions therein have an end so that they cannot last long it is of excellent use to patience or moderation to consider well in all temporall interest how long we can suffer or enjoy 12. Sicknesse is the soules physick nothing will amend him whom sicknesse cannot we endure hard things patiently for the cure of the body and what is the health
provoked by our sinnes O Lord thou art a God of mercy and wouldst not destroy but the importunitie of our sinnes hath put this heavy rod into thy hands and our iniquities have so much dâ—faced thy glorious Image in us that thou maist justly hide away thy face from our miseries no more owne us for thy Children but O Lord our onely hope is in the merit and mediation of thy sonne Jesus Christ whome thou gavest to death for us it is he O Lord who beareth all our names in his secret brest-plate it is he that appeareth hefore thee for us let our petitions ascend to thy throne of mercy like sweet incense from the precious censer of his merits it is he who standeth betweene the living and the dead O let this plague which now consumeth us be stayed Lord looke not on our sinnes but his merits in whome thou art well pleased for his sake in whome we beleeve and whose holy name we beare say unto the destroying angell it is enough cause him to sheath the sword againe and let this plague cease Lord God of all consolation comfort all those whom thou hast smitten with the infection heale them that they may recover and praise thy glorious name however thou shalt be pleased to deale with their mortall bodies speake peace to their soules and save them give them full assurance of thy mercy and their redemption in Christ Jesus let thy holy spirit the comforter ever remaine with them to prâ—serue them against all the malitious assaults of the adversary that he may never make his advantages on their surrowes infirmities or the distracting and astonishing violence of their disease comfort them at the last gaspe and breathing out their afflâ—cted soules with present sense and assurance of the eternall joyes in thy Kingdome free from death sicknesse sorrow feare and all the wretched effects of sinne preserue those whom thou hast hitherto spared let no plague come nigh their dwelling and make them in their preservation understand that thou only hast kept them to serve thee more carefully and thankefully and to shew mercy to those who are visited and shut up Lord heare and help us Lord spare thy people and restore us health that we may glorifie thy name through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN A Thanksgiving at the ceasing of the plague GRatious God and mercifull Father we are come before thee with an humble and hearty desire to present an acceptable sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving unto thy holy Majestie for all thy gracious mercies spirituall and temporall bestowed upon us unworthy of the least of them it was thy free mercy not our merit that electedst us when we were not that thou createdst us to thine own holy image that thou redeemest us that thou didst sanctify and justify us that thou hast preserved us sparing us when now thy fierce wrath came our against us in a noisome and devouring pestilence that thou was pleased to regard our teares and accept our unworthy humiliation all this was thy free mercy had we suffered as we have all deserved not one of the multitude apearing before thee this day had beene left alive to have praised thee And now O thou Saviour of Israel in the time of trouble and the blessed preserver of man whose mercies are as the unsounded deeps and can never be drawn dry give us sanctified bodies and soules that we may render them which thou hast redeemed from death a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto thee Lord who hast the key of David who sang thy praises opening so that none can shut open our lips that our mouths may shew forth thy praise that we may now pay all our vows in our distresse and feare made unto thee As thou hast put a new song of thansgiving into our mouthes so give us new hearts new obedience new lives and conversations renew thy covenant with us and with our children to be our God and protector untill thou shalt be pleased to translate us to that Kingdome of thy Sonne where shall be joy secure from feare of loosing health without sicknesse life without death blessednesse without all measure or end where we whose hearts and soules this day praise thee shall with thy holy angels sing eternall Hallelu-jahs to the glory of thy great name through the merits of thy holy Son Jesus Christ our Lord to whom with thee O Father of mercy and the Holy Ghost the Comforter be rendred all honour praise thanksgiving and glory in heaven and earth this day and to all eternity AMEN Another forme of thanksgiving on the like occasion O Lord God Father of mercy and compassion we humbly acknowledge that our sinnes have beene so great and grievous that when thy wrath went out against us in thy late dreadfull visitation by the plâ—gue of pestilence it might justly have consumed us the aged with the infant the mother with the child untill thou hadst laid our habitations wast and our cities without inhabitants but seeing thou hast been pleased to remember mercy in the midst of thy judgements and to spare our lives from destruction we can do no lesse nor more then present our humble and hearty thankes unto thee in the congregation of thy people what shall wee give thee for all thy mercies what can we seeing our goods are nothing unto thee we have nothing but thankes to returne thee nor could we that except thou gavest us hearts and tongues so to doe Lord make us thankfull give us that we may give thee again and be acceptable unto thee fill our hearts with thy feare and love and our mouthes with thy praise let it come up into thy presence as the sweete incense from the Censer of the great Angell of thy covenant Christ Jesus Be thou pleased through his mediation to smell a favour of rest that thy severe judgements may be turned to mercies and fatherly corrections for our amendment that wee may truely profit thereby that we may feare and reverence thy just judgements and praise thee for thy elemency and mercy which thou hast shewed unto us in this deliverance Particularly we blesse thy holy name for these thy servants who now appeare before thee with their sacrifice of praise end thonkesgiving for that thou hast spared and delivered them from the grave and destruction which was come up into their houses Lord now grant them true thankefulnesse with holy and constant resolutions to spend the remainder of their daies to the glory of thy great name and good example of their brethren And seeing thou hast given us all the same argument of thankesgiving whom thou hast preserved and kept further off from the noisome contagion we pray thee also to accept our oblation of praise set our hearts to meditate and our tongues to sound out those praises to thy holy name which wee shall through thy mercy in Christ sing to thee for ever in the sacred Quieres of Saints and Angells in thy kingdome of glory
which grant us O good Lord for the same thy sonne our Sauiour Jesus Christ his sake who with thee and the holy spirit liveth and reigneth one glorious God for ever and ever AMEN CHAP. XXXVI Meditations concerning death § 1. Seeing all must dye how to prepare that death may not be terrible § 2. Meanes to comfort in the death of deare friends § 3. Comforts against death THat needeth no proofe whereof all are examples to themselves such is that easiest and hardest lesson that All must dye that death is the undoubted issue of sinne that it is a separation of the soule from the body for a time But because it stealeth on as they that sleepe in a ship undersaile arrive at their port while they thinke not of going so goe wee with a restlesse pace to that same terra incognita the unknowne limit of our present life consuming while we are not sensible thereof and because it is terrible to flesh and blood the maine care must be to knowe 1 What preparation we are to make that neither life may be tedious nor death terrible 2 How to comfort our selves against it in case of sorrow for others 3 How we must be comforted against feare of death We must prepare for death because in the place where the tree falleth there it shall be as death leaveth us judgement shall finde us now as the passage to the promised rest which was a type of heaven to the Israël of God was terrible so is this to heaven we are presently ripe though not ready for death all are subject to this pale prince to whom we are going every moment this day wee now live wee divide with death that which is past thereof being unrecoverably gone rhe houre is uncertaine but they are certainly happy who are then provided thou wouldst watch against the comming of theeves who can take nothing from thee but only that which a little time must what a stupid security is it not to watch and provide against death which thou knowest will certainly and quickly come and take away body soule heaven and all to eternity from the secure sinner Thinkest thou of youth and strength Alas how many young and strong men have died before thee Doest thou in others funeralls thinke as the Pharise said I am not as other men What priviledge hast thou Let not Satan delude thee but prepare for the day that it may bee thy happiest To prepare so that thou maist not feare death it is necessary that thou 1 Put thy house in order so that when the houre is come that thou shalt be taken hence all secular cares falling off like Eliahs mantle thou maist quietly fix thy minde on those things which are above to which thou art going 2. That thou alwaies keepe innocency for so thy end shall be peace Psal. 37. 37. The sting of death is sinne 1. Cor. 15. 56. and more greivous then it into which when our first parents fell they became mortall and so death went over all for as much as all have sinned so that which was their punishment became naturall to all borne of them The best preparation against death is as much as we can to avoid the cause thereof but for which as it could never have prevailed so neither can it now be terrible what is the serpent when his venemous teeth are broken or his sting pulled out what is death to those who are fully assured of their sinnes remission death where is thy sting cryed Paul certaine of victory in Christ and insulting over death otherwise even Aristippus how excellently soever disputing of the contempt of death will looke pale in the storme at sea yea where some remaindes of the first Adam appeare and therein some degrees of unbeleefe the saints thinke of death as Jacob said of his Luz how dreadfull is this place this is the gate of heaven for the guilt of sin presenteth the conscience with apprehension and feare of Gods anger as faith doth with confidence of attonement in Christ hence is the conflict in the soule desiring to be with Christ and flesh and blood naturally fearing its owne destructiō look how Moses assured that the rod turn'd into a serpent should not sting him yet fled it with a kind of fearfull willingnesse tooke it up so is it here the guilt of sinne afflicting the conscience is the onely terrour of death therefore as the Philistins said of David we may say of it let him not goe downe into the battel with us lest he be an enemy to us sinne is the mother of unbeliefe feare and doubting it leaveth the conscience wounded and affrighted with feare of judgment whereof death is but the execution most embittred with present sorrow and apprehension of the future which maketh death evill that can be no evill death whith endeth a good life the heathen could say that they that will be immortall must live holily and justly if thou feare death so But why may some say is not death the punishment of sinne taken away from those who by the grace of regeneration are acquitted from the guilt of sinne We must know that if the bodies immortalitie should ever presently follow the sacrament of regeneration faith it selfe should be enervated which then hath being when it expecteth that in hope which is not yet actually seen also the feare of death must be overcome by the strength and conflict of faith in men of ripe yeares as it appeared in the Martyres wherein there could be neither victory nor glory if no conflict as there could not be if the Saints had present immunity from bodily death who would not then runne to the grace of Christ with infants to be baptised that they might not dye And so should faith not be tryed by an invisible reward nor indeed by faith in that it now sought and obtained reward But now by a greater and more admirable grace of our Savicur the punishment of sinne is converted to the use of righteousnesse for then it was said to man if thou sinne thou shalt dye but now it is said to the martyr dye that thou maist not sinne so by the unspeakable mercy of God the very punishment of sinne became the armour of vertue and so death which endeth this mortall and sinfull life becommeth a passage to the eternall in which shall be no sinne and so the punishment is turned into mercy and death become againe by which sinne and misery are cut off lest the evill should be immortall 3 It is necessary that thou strive to live an heavenly life in all godlinesse to set thy affections on things above to reckon that thou art here but a pilgrime and stranger not having in this world any continuing city that thou art a fellow citizen with the Saints and of the houshold of God that being here in this earthly
tabernacle thou art absent from the Lord thus resolved thou shalt bee willing to be dissolved that thou maist live with Christ when Peter saw onely a glimpse of the future glory in Christ's transfiguration on the mount he cryed out it is good for us to be here let us make here three tabernacles he shall easily contemne death whose love and desires are fixed on heaven so travellers regard not dangerous and rough waies that they may come home death is greivous to the lovers of the world 4 Consider the advantages that death shall bring thee it shall quit thee from all sicknesse sorrow feare of dying and all those temporall calamities which flesh and blood now groaneth under instead of earth and these transitory things which at best serve but to necessitie and perish in their use it shall invest thee in the heavenly which excell all present thoughts of man it shall set thee free from sinne and make thee a perfect servant of God The husbandman is content to cast his pretious graine into the earth where hee knoweth it must perish because hee is assured it shall rise againe with encrease and advantage to him Whereas if it dye not it abideth alone how much more should the gaine of heaven make us willing to part with this vaine and evill world therefore Lucius the martyr thanked Vrbicius because bydeath freeing him from wicked maisters he sent him to God the father 5 It is necessary that thou often thinke on death which will we nill we cannot be farre off Easily shall he contemne all secular things who alwaies thinketh he must dye Make death familiar to thee by often thinking of it the tempter once said yee shall not dye at all hee knoweth it were a folly to say so now experience teaching the contrary yet now he doth what he possibly can to put death out of the sinners memory now he perswadeth them they shall not dye these many yeares hereby he first leadeth into security of sinning and at last into despaire by sodain terrours of unexpected death But when God gave Israël Manna he had them gather only as much as would sufâ—ice for a day because hee would have them to expect death that they might not provide for the morrow So taught he us to pray for daily bread to take away care for the morrow Truely the whole life of a wise man should be a meditation of death 6 Because the houre is hidden from thee watch for it God hath not revealed it that wee might expect it every houre And he calleth men of all ages that none might bee secure it is uncertaine where death expecteth thee therefore looke for it every where it is as uncertaine when therefore live every day as if it were thy last When thou goest to sleep reckon as Paâ—uviâ—s woont that thou t hast lived thy time if God give more daies make good use of them he is the most secure and happy possessour of himselfe who without solicitousnesse expecteth the morrow He that saith he hath lived riseth every day to a new gaine It is a chiefe part of deaths bitternesse that it commeth sodainly upon him who promised himselfe a longer life the best way to make it tolerable is to render thy minde to a present expectation of it 7 Patiently subject to that which must be and use thy best skill that it may be well with thee The goodnesse of the Pilot is seene in the storme and the wisdome of a man in the greatest triall Meekly submit to that to which all the world is liable Zerxâ—s is reported to have wept when he saw his numerous army remembring that in a little time they must bee all dead if we could view all the world at once what calamities and destructions should we see Nation against nation kingdome clashing against kingdome some gasping under cruell tormenters hands some swallowing up of the deafe sea some in their birth some breathing their last all ere long peperishing as all the starres greater and lesser in larger and smaler orbs doe finish their courses and set in their appointed times so men of all conditions dye death equally knocketh at the cottage and palace doore sparing no estate it is so appointed appointed all must dye it pittieth not the poore nor spareth the rich it regardeth neither wisdome valour excellency it is folly to have for exemption from its rigid and inevitable law which hath past on all thy fathers before thee thy friends besides thee and shall take away all thou leavest behinde thee Toward death thou goest every moment and canst not stay till thou fall to the earth now too much feare of death depriveth not only of the comfort but also of the fruits of life and vaine struggling under the burden which thou canst neither cast off by any impatience nor comfortably beare without a cheerefull subjection to necessitie maketh it more heavy know thy condition and that thou hast not only many but all men partners therein When they told Anaxagoras of the sentence of death pronounced against him he replied it is the same which nature long since pronounced on them and me 8 Strive for sound â—aith the onely cure for an Israëlite stung with a fiery serpent was looking up to the brazen serpent the morall is that the onely remedy against the sting of death is to look up to Christ the resurrection of life who by dying hath conquered death and the tyrant that had the power of death so that they that naturally feare it believing in Christ looke on it as children use to gaze upon some fierce enemie vanquished and led in chaines to the believer death is but like the Melita viper more feare then danger like Moses serpent terrible but eating up the worlds enchanters serpent and becomming a key to let us into our rest certainly if there be any evill in death it is onely to the evill and unbeliever be thou good and faithfull and it cannot hurt thee it must benefit thee the faithfull thinke of their deaths as of their journeyes end 9 Looke for thy conforts agaist death in Gods Word which onely is infallible the Heathens had many false and unsound comforts against death as assiming it to be but a sleepe or refreshing an haven and refuge to which they desired to come a pleasant journey after which there shall be no more care and discoursing confidently of the â—oules immortality all which served possibly to appease a beguiled soule ready to be cast into hell fire not much unlike those African mothers lullabies who as we noted use to still their weeping babes which they offered to Molocke with songs and kisses that they might not cast à crying sacrifice into those flames no better was Plato his admired discourse of the soules eternity to Cleombrotus which when hee had
thee away in thy daily sinnes will like a tender father pitty thee when thou art not able to pray he will remember what thou hast prayed yea what Christ Jesus sitting at his right hand then speaketh for thee when thou hast most need of a mediator when stupified with paines of approaching death thou canst not utter one word for thy selfe then hee will open the heavens to thee and give thee a cleere sight of those joyes as he did S. Stephen then will he give his holy Angells charge over thee to receive thy soule breathed out of thy gasping body to convey it to his gratious and ever blessed presence This world is full of labour sorrow misery there 's no rest here heaven is the arke to which the tired dove the holy soule returneth for rest the morall men seemed to know it who placed their Temple of rest without the gate of Agony How much more must we who beleeve that we shall live eternally with Christ who shall come to save and give us life in death Even so come Lord Jesus AMEN A Prayer for him who hath recieved the sentence of death in himselfe O Lord God almighty preserver of man father of the spirits of the just God of all true consolation the hope of Israel and deliverer thereof in the day of trouble who givest a gratious eare to the afflicted faithfully calling on thee through him whom thou hast appointed to be the only mediator betweene thee and Wretched man Christ Jesus the righteous I humbly acknowledge that I have nothing of my selfe to present unto thy Majestie but confession of mine owne vilenesse nothing in my sinfull flesh but corruption matter of severe judgement to thee who art a God of pure eies and argument of terrour and despaire to my selfe most impure in sinne was I conceived and borne a child of wrath and disobedience my whole life hath abounded with that which bringeth forth fruit only unto death I have not done the good which thy sanctifying spirit made me willing to doe the evill that I would not I have done I have not rendred unto thee according to thy goodnesse when I would summe up my sins they so much exceed all numbers that my heart faileth mee my conscience telleth me of my wilfull neglects of thy service and disobedience to thy word concluding my whole life no better then sinfull but how many waies I have offended thee when I observed not thou only knowest how many are the failings which though I through spirituall blindnesse and carnall security have not observed that I might judge and condemne my selfe for them thereby to prevent thy severe judgement shall yet by no meanes escape thy strict examination and now O Lord what can I more doe then humbly beg thy pardon condemne my selfe renounce all confidence in the world and plead only thy mercy and the merits of thy sonne Jesus for my justification Lord looke upon me through him in whom thou art well pleased Nothing can be past or future to thy eternall wisdome look therefore on his bleeding wounds who did not in vaine dye for me let thy justice be satisfied in his obedience and suffering for all my sins And now O Lord seeing according to thy sentence on all mankind the time of my departure hence draweth high I humbly acknowledge this fraile condition to be the due wages of sinne which brought mortality into the world but thou who didst put thine owne image on me hast not made me for so short a life only as thou givest unto the beasts which perish thou hast no need of my miserie nor advantage in my destruction nor could so inestimable a price of my redemption as the blood of thy holy sonne Jesus be given for that which thou wouldst have perish eternally He must surely live for whom the resurrection and the life of Christ Jesus died Lord therefore seale up my redemption in my afflicted heart now that the Bride is neere send those holy comforters faith and assurance of thy mercy to adorne his own temple to lift up the everlasting doores of my soule that the king of glory and Lord of life may come in and change my vaine love of the world to love of heaven who will change my vile body that it may be like his own glorious body let me hence forth live his life no more mine own assured thereby of the repaire of mine inward man to a joyfull resurrection and life of glory that he may be to me in life and death advantage that in full confidence of my union with and interest in him I may be willing to bee dissolved that I may be with him O holy Saviour who hast through death abolished death and him that had the power thereof take from me all carnall feare by bringing life and immortality to light unto my conscience thou that hast in thy hands the keyes of death and hell restraine the tempters malice and mischievous charges of my sinne-wounded soule make me faithfull unto the death and assure mee of the crowne of righteousnesse laid up for all that love thy appearing Raise me now to the life of grace that the second death may not touch mee And though thou bring this fraile flesh to the dust of the earth yet let not death have dominion over me Though it must to the appointed time separate my soule from this decaying tabernacle of clay let neither life nor death things present nor future seperate my soule from thee and thy Christ. I acknowledge thy mercy who justly mightest have taken me away in my sins by some sodaine and untimely death or set me who am by sinne a sonne of death in the condition of those who in horrour of a restlesse conscience and bitternesse of spirit seeke death and cannot finde it but O good God whose eye is upon them that feare thee to deliver their soules from death in whose hands are the issues thereof seeing thou hast thus long spared me now accomplish thy mercy in me be thou my God for ever and my guide unto my end and comfort in my end now when my heart trembleth in me the terrours of death are fallne upon me give me the long expected fruits of my hopes proposed to me in thy word O blessed Jesus who art the death of death now shew thy selfe my Saviour take from my afflicted soule the sting of death assure me of victory loose the paines allay the feare and sorrowes and sweeten the bitternesse of death untill in my enjoying thy presence it be swallowed up in victory O holy Saviour who hast had experience of all our miseries for sin wiâ—hout sin and hast admitted us to be baptized into the similitude of thy death and resurrection let me now feele in my languishing soule the power thereof O Christ whose humane soule in thy passion for my redemption was heavy to the death now mercifully consider my infirmitie who am going the way of all flesh now give
Prayer for one ready to receive the Lords Supper pag. 111. A private Prayer after reâ—eiving the Lords Supper pag. 112. Another private Prayer immediately after receiving the Lords Supper pag. 113. 15 Of the Sabbath the name institution things considerable for the sanctification the beginning and ending reasons of the institution the change of the Lords day now to be observed of all Christians how we must sanctifie it p. 114. A Prayer for the Sabbath day morning pag. 125. To the ordinary evening prayer may be added this private prayer for the Sabbath p. 128. 16 Of Love and Charity what they are how they differ in their objects love to God considerable in the object and measure severall states degrees perpetuity and opposition signes thereof common lets meanes on our part to be used c. motives to incite us thereto pag. 129. A prayer for love to God pag. 14â— 17 Of love to our selves kinds thereof love to our neighbour the necessity and excellency thereof conditions and signes of friendship what and how excellent it is the true end and lawes thereof what choice we are to make of friends and whom to avoid of love to our enemies we ought to love them without any malice and to make a right use of them p. 144. A Prayer for Love and Charity p. 180. 18 Of the soule affections mind and thoughts in generall corruption of the heart danger difficulty of the cure necessity of a right ordering our thoughts rules of practice pag. 181. 19 Of right ordering the thoughts in respect of some particular passions affections and perturbations of the mind in their distempers of love delight joy rejoycing mirth sorrow anger hatred malice envy impatience discontent a contented mind pag. 201. The Prayer for patience pag. 226. 20 Of Hope Feare Cares Iealousies pag. 227. A prayer for hope p. 233. A Prayer against feare p. 240. A Prayer against cares pag. 241. A Prayer for sanctification of the thoughts pag. 250. 21 Guidance of the tongue excellent use abuse evils of the tongue concluding the necessity of a right guidance thereof motives thereto rules by which it may be done pag. 252. A Prayer pag. 265. 22 Of externall actions in generall whence the good are how requisite how regulated rules concerning them pag. 266. The Prayer pag 270. 23 Government of Families duties of Masters and Servants motives to their duties pag. 271. A short morning prayer with a Family p. 277. Another Morning Prayer for a Family pag 278. A short Evening Prayer p. 282. An Evening Prayer for a Family more enlarged p. 283. 24 Of Marriage institution end and fruits thereof of choice in generall and particular who are to be avoided Duties of the married mutuall and peculiar advice to widdowes p. 287. the prayer pag 299. 25 Duties of Parents and Children honour to parents want of children good parents of evill children duty of the parent rules thereto belonging duties of children rules thereof motives thereâ—to p. 299. the parents Prayer p. 310. the childrens prayer p. 315. 26 Of the wounded spirit or afflicted conscience what it is how great an affliction what the conscience iâ— How comfortable the peace thereof why God afflicteth his What things principally wound the conscience What they who are afflicted with the apprehension of Gods wrath against their sinnes must consider What they must examine and practise p. 316. the prayer p. 336 27 Sense of spirituall wants afflicteth but not so much endangereth the soule what we are herein to consider examine and practise p 337. the prayer 344. 28 Of the conscience afflicted with feare of tentations and falling away what we are herein to consider examine and practise pag 346 an ejaculation to be used as soone as thou awakest pag 354 another for thy last waking pag. ib. the prayer of a wounded spirit against temptations p. 355. 29 Guidance of the mind in encrease of wealth afflictions common their fruit in good men poverty a great tryall riches great temptations commonly mistaken how to guide the minde in encrease of riches or a full inheritance pag. 357. the rich mans petition pag. 364. 30 Poverty a great temptation yet having a capacity of true happinesse what we are to consider herein and what to practise pag. 365. the poore mans petition pag 373 31 Of liberty and restraint misplaced by an injurious world comforts for prisoners rules hereto appertaining p 374 the prisoners petition pag 384. 32 Of Banishment severall kinds generall cause what we must doe to be comforted herein pag. 391. the banished mans petition pag. 399. 33 Of old age common evills thereof the foundation must be happily laid in youth how the evills of age may be lesâ—ed or more patiently borne by what rules of practise it may be improved to comfort pag 400. the old mans supplication pag 414. 34 Meditations for women neere their travell all misery is from sin sins pardoned in Christ why the punishments are not taken away womens comforts therein directions necessary thereto p. 415 a prayer for them in or neere their travaile pag 422. â— thankesgiving pag 425. 35 Directions for the sicke as all afflictions sanctified so sicknesse is profitable for Gods children many waies how it may become so to us duties of those that visit the sick pag 425. a prayer for the sicke pag 430. thankesgiving for health recovered pag 434. another after the ceasing of the plague p. 435. 36 Meditations concerning death seeing all must dye how to prepare that death may not be terrible meanes to comfort in death of deare friends comforts against death pag 439 a prayer for him that is at the point of death or hath received the sentence of death in himselfe pag 454. ERRATA Pag. 2. marg read invenâ—rint p. 4. m. r. placat p. 5. m. sin r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 7. l. 2. our soules p. 8. l. 3. r. Satan Subtile p. 13. m. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p 15. m. r. hac mundi domo ib. l. 32. r he must therefore p 17 l. 28. the first cause 22. l. 18. holy ascentions p. 24. l. penâ—lt r. marketh the Church p. 25. l. 10. was reserved 29. l. 35 by the power p. 31. l ult so was fulfilled p. 32 l. 16. r. as the heire ib. l. ult changes p. 37. l. 4. the place p. 38. l. â—3 encrease thy p. 48. l. 9. r. in thee ib. r. Concerning the Holy Ghost § 1. what we are p. 51. l. 2. r. whereof he â—b l. 3. sheepfold p. 52. l. 6. are but onâ— p. 62. l. 2. there is entire p. 64. l. 3. what use we p. 66. l. 16. bearing in life p. 72. l. 21. beare all p. 74. 19. the confidence p. 78. l. 33. he looketh on 79. l. 11. his brethren 93 l. 27. preserve thee 95 l. 30. to the deafe 98. l. 7. in their legends 117 l. 14. to intimate 137. l. 14. and have his 146. l. 19. not so for it â—nd 174. l. 4. feeding on thee
to the people in scorne and diâ—ision the chiefe Priests and Officers lead the peoples suffrages ringing out their crucify him crucify him Pilat startled as by his dreaming wives admonition so more at their mentioning his being the sonne of God goeth againe into the Pretory reexamineth him seekâ—s to deliver him yet for feare of complaint to Caesar so powerfull an adversary to good conscience is the love of this world against his often acquitting him as innocent he once for all condemneth him us guilty and delivereth him to the popular rage to crucifie him 8 They lead him away bearing his Crosse to Golgatha the place of skulls called also Calvarie where some thinke Adam was buried but others are of a contrary judgement One thing is certaine it was the area damnatorum and place of execution and it is most likely that Gods providence so disposed that he should there be crucified as there to set up the Trophe of his victory on the Crosse in that where sinne and the punishment thereof had abounded in the execution of notorious malefactors grace should manifest it selfe in his suffering there and that most ignominious kinde of death so also that he might take away the curse from the elect so suffering and that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet he made his grave with the wicked and was counted with transgressours Isai 53. 9 12. this place was without the city having a resemblance of that which was to come that is that the maine benefit of his passion was not to be shut up in Jerusalem but to be derived also to the Gentiles who were without so he suffered in the place of sinners that it might import his suffering for sinners other moralls the Apostle openeth as to teach us to goe out of our carnall affections and love of the world to Christ and so he shewed himselfe the only satisfactory sacrifice prefigured in all the legall sacrifices whose bodies were burnt without the gates of Jerusalem Here they crucified him betweene two theeves the one converting the other dying in his obstinacy having so done they parted his garments among them and cast lots for his seamelesse coat thus was fulfilled that of the Psal 22. 18. Jesus commended his mother to John thirsting they gave him vinegre to drinke as was also foretold Psal 69. 21. having received that he said it is finished that is all the types have their meaning accomplished and the justice of God is satisfied so bowing his head he gave up the ghost 9 The certainty of his death appeared when the â—ouldiers comming to breake the leggs of the other two finding him already dead they spared him that the Scripture might be fulfilled which saith a bone of him shall not be broken but pierced his side with a speare so that blood and water came out At this time the Sunne was darkned so fearefully that some are said to have concluded that either the Godhead suffered or sympathized with that which did so The vaile of the Temple rent to shew the way into the holiest made manifest and that the stop or middle wall of partition betweene Jewes and Gentiles is taken away The stones clave in sunder the graves opened the earth trembled And after his resurrection many of the dead Saints arose and were seene in the holy city to shew that in his death death was conquered and that the vertue of his resurrection should shortly after declare it selfe in the Saints rising from the death of sinne The Centurian seeing this acknowledged him the Sonne of God the multitude smote their breasts and returned home 10 Joseph of Arimathea begg's the body of Jesus takes it from the Crosse he and Nicodemus imbalme it put it into linnen cloaths with the spices and bury it in a new Sepulcher in a garden nigh the place the providence of God thus disposing to convince their malitious cavills who might pretend that either his resurrection was caused by the vertue of some other servant of God there formerly buried as one was at the touch of Elisha's bones or that it was some other rose againe not Jesus He was buried according to the Scriptures 1. Cor 15. 4. Psal 16. 10. thou wilt not leave my life in grave There were many witnesses thereof Joseph Nicodemus the women the Centurian with his band the Jewes sealing the tombe Thus he descended to the lowest step of his humiliation that he might follow death into the heart of his dominion and conquer him in his imperiall seat destroying as it were with his own sword the Goliah who had the power of death as it is written O death I will be thy plagues O grave I will be thy destruction that he might sanctifie our house of rest taking away the horrour of the grave the curse of death being abolished and the dead loosed from their bonds as shall appeare in the appointed houre We are next to beleeve the first degree of Christ's exaltation in that he rose againe from the dead the third day according to the Scriptures 1. Cor 15. 4 reckning the later part of the first day the second entire and the beginning of the third So Christ told his Disciples that he must goe to Jerusalem suffer many things of the Elders and be killed and raised againe the third day this was so publikely knowne before his death that his enemies remembred and spake of it so that this was the reason why they sealed up and set a guard upon the Sepulchre God so disposing that they should be made witnesses of the truth thereof who most opposed it which had they not beene they might with lesse impudency have said his Disciples came by night and stole him away The Angell testifying his resurrection referreth them to that he had told them before the type also agreeth as Jonas was three daies and three nights in the Whales belly so shall the Sonne of man be three daies and three nights in the heart of the earth so long he would lye in grave to manifest the truth of his death but no longer because he was not to see corruption and least the faith of his Disciples should by a longer delay have beene in hazard and lastly to fulfill his word concerning the same for the confirmation of our faith seeing his word concerning his own death and resurrection came truely to passe why should we doubt of the same word concerning our resurrection In this three daies the Deity was the middle band betweene the body and the humane soule that it might see corruption proper to sinners as before the humane soule was betweene the Deity and body in all he became a pledg of our incorruption and immortalitie in the life to come to consirme us herein he manifested himselfe to many after his resurrection by the space of forty daies See 1. Cor 15. 5.
perish so long as thou reignest over all The next is his comming to judge the quicke and the dead properly annexed to the foregoing because he so sitteth at Godâ—s right hand as that he both exerciseth the patience of the elect under the crosse and long permitteth the wicked enemies to insult over them to comfort us herein 't is necessary to beleeve that Christ who now sitteth at God's right hand will thence come to judge all men those whom he shall finde surviving who shall be changed in a moment at the sound of the last trump and the dead raised againe all elect and reprobate some to eternall absolution from sin and death and others to eternall shame and destruction of bodies and soules This judgement shall be of all our thoughts words and actions the books shall be opened and every secret thing manifested the evidence of every fact shall speak as Abels blood did The time of this judgment shall be at the second comming of Christ the particular yeare or day no creture knoweth neither the son of man himselfe here knew it in the state of humiliatioÌ„ nor need it seem strang how being God and man in one person the manhood could be ignorant of any thing the deity being omniscient seeing he tooke on him all our infirmities sinne excepted amongst which natiue ignorance was not a little one therefore t is said that from his childhood he encreased in wisedome which no infinite can doe and why shall I not as easily beleeue that there was a vaile of the slesh betweene the deity and humane soule intercepting some light of knowledge as I certainly know there was intercepting the present sense of his fathers assistance and of the comfort of the deity in his passion when he cried out My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee The signes of this judgements approach are 1. preaching the Gospell to all Nations 2. revelation of the man of sinne 3. a generall departing from the faith 4. Universall corruption of manners 2 Tim. 3. 1. 5. warres and rumours of warres 6. hardnesse of heart so that no importunity of the lowdest sonnes of Thunder can awake men out of sinne as it was in the dayes of Noah 7. Calling of the Jewes Rom. 11. 25. The signe which shall accompany the comming of Christ shall be the signe of the sonne of man in heaven Math. 24. 30. The Summe is Christ shall come againe to judge all men Act. 17. 31. Math. 25. 31. Jud. 14. 14. 1 Thes. 4. 16. and Math. 24. 30. where he joyneth the declaration of the judgement with the prediction of Jerusalems destruction to the end that men might be assured of the judgement to come by that which they saw or knew fulfilled in that City Concerning the place whether in the valley of Jehoshaphat or the time and lasting of this great Assizes the manner of proceeding and the like it is vaine to enquire after that which God hath not revealed specially seeing his word directeth to make better use hereof 1 To deterre men from sinne in respect of the inevitable terrour of that day 2 Not to judge one another Rom 14. 1 Cor 4. 5. 3 To prepare because the day is neere fearing God Eccles 12. 14. Rev 14. 7. keeping a good conscience Act 24. 15 16. watching that we may lift up our heads at that day Luk 22. 28. 35 36. Repenting Act 17. 30 31. Without delay 2. Pet 3. 2. Loving one another 1. Joh 3. 18. 19. That wee may assure our hearts before him and have boldnesse in the day of judgment 1. Joh 4. 17. Comforting our selves in all our sufferings our Saviour shall be our judge and who shall condemne us seeing he died to acquit us He cannot but avenge for us though he suffer long therefore we must be patient expecting his sentence Come yee blessed of my father inherit the kingdome prepared for you A Prayer O Lord God of mercy and compassion who in thy eternall and infinite love to man gavest thy onely Sonne to become man to take experience of our miseries to be tempted in all things like us sinne onely excepted and to suffer the severity of thy wrath against us sinners by offering him up a living sacrifice for us who were dead in trespasses and sins the just for the unjust that by his stripes we might be healed and hast revealed unto us that great mystery of godlinesse so much desired of the faithfull from the beginning the inestimable riches of thy grace and mercy hid from all ages unto the fulnesse of time God manifested in the flesh justified in the spirit seene of Angells preached unto the Gentiles beleeved on in the world and received up into glory make us truly thankefull to thee for all thy unspeakeable favours give us true faith to apprehend and finde our interest in him with assurance that he is our God and Saviour O ever blessed Jesus whose name is as sweet ointment powred forth whom the Virgin soules therefore love draw us that we may runne after thee let the annointing which we have received of thee whereby we have the honour to be called and to be Christians and the happinesse to be enlightned with thy truth and led in thy paths abide in us and teach us all things necessary for the advancement of thy glory and our salvation let it bee like that precious nard wherewith thou wast imbalmed against the day of thy death to fill our hearts and affections with that comfortable savour of life unto life that thou maist wholy season us dwell in us and be all in all with us that the merit of thy death and vertue of thy resurrection may both mortify all our sinfull corrupt affections and raise us to the life of righteousnesse that dying to sinne governed here by thy power to which all things are committed in heaven and earth and hereafter acquitted by thy finall sentence when thou shalt come to judge the living and the dead we may at last come to the perfect union with thee in a full view and eternall enjoying of thee and thy blessed presence who hast suffered all these things to redeeme us and to purchase the kingdome prepared for us from eternity that wee may attaine that true blessednesse in the which thy holy Gospell hath preached unto us Grant this through thy mercies O heavenly Father thy merits O gracious Lord Jesus and thy assistance O holy Spirit three persons one onely wise omnipotent and immortall God to whom belongeth all honour glory praise might Majestie and dominion in heaven and earth from this time forth and to endlesse eternitie AMEN CHAP. VI. § 1. What we are to beleeve § 2. Rules thereto belonging 1 ALL knowledge of God the Father and Sonne with man can attaine to availeth him not except it be made good to him by a blessed application thereof to himselfe wrought by the
known to his brethren the joy was so great that it pleased Pharaoh and all his servants Genes 45. 16. how great shall the joy be when all the Saints that ever have beene shall meet together in the court of the king of glory and Christ shall manifest himselfe unto us If John Baptist not seeing Christ with his bodily eyes did yet spring in his mothers wombe at the salutation of the blessed Virgin how shall we rejoyce when we come not only to see him face to face but to be fully and eternally united to him At Solomons coronation there was such joy as that the earth range with the sound of them but how unspeakeable shall our rejoycing be when Christ our peace shall appeare in his kingdome of glory of which shall be no ende Certainely no wise and considering man looketh on any worldly joy otherwise then on a dreame and soone vanishing vision but here shall be an interminable joy which no sorrow shall ever interrupt no time or age end As the Psalmist saith of Jerusalem many excellent things are spoken of thee O city of God yet as the Queene of Sheba said of Solomons magnificence I may of this life halfe was not told me Comfort thy selfe in all pressures of life and death what ever thou now canst suffer can be but short but the happinesse of the life to come shall be eternall The Prayer O Lord God Almighty the resurrection and life of all them that beleeve in thee strengthen our faith and comfort us in all our present sorrowes and decayes with a lively and full assurance that in the ruine and dissolution of these earthly tabernacles thou wilt repaire us to eternall incorruption and glory by the same power of thy quickning spirit which raised up our Lord Jesus the first fruits of the dead Give us a part in the first resurrection from the death of sinne unto the life of righteousnesse that the second death may have no power over us Give us grace to evercome all the messengers of Satan and the sinfull corruptions of flesh and blood which fight in us against our owne soules that we may triumph and rest secure in the victory of our faith that the gates of hell powers of death shall never prevaile against us give us that puritie of heart and sanctity of life wherewith thou here preparest all those whom thou wilt hereafter perfect with glory and eternall salvation Give us firme hope for the Anchor of our soule which in the fiercest rages that afflict our present life may lay sure and stedfast hold on the land of the living entring into that which is within the vaile whither the fore-runner Christ Jesus is for us entred Give us patience to â—eare all our present wants and greivances with that cheerefulnesse which becommeth those who are confident that thou who hast laid up the crowne of life for them wilt never faile them nor forsake them let it be a sure and never fading comfort to us a strong consolation for us who have fied for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us by thy owne word the Gospell when the sorrowes and terrours of death arest us and at our last gasp that our Lord Jesus dyed and rose againe to abolish death and bring life and immortality to light to purchase eternall glory for us â—nd that our death is but a short passage to blessednesse the gates of everlasting life and the sorrowes thereof but an entrance into eternall joyes and true endlesse and unspeakable happinesse through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN CHAP. XII Concerning Prayer § 1. What and how necessary it is § 2. The conditions thereof § 3. Motive to the earnest practice hereof § 4. Rules hereto belonging 1 WE have considered those things which wee are to beleeve that we may be saved we are next to consider those things which we must doe to Gods honour our consolation and assurance that our faith is sound seeing that not not every one that saith Lord Lord shall be saved but he that doth the will of God 2. The things which we must do are comprehended in the Law the first table whereof cencerneth our duty to God the second our duty to man Among our duties to God prayer is one of the chiefe 3. Prayer is a divine worship wherein we speake to God in true humility and devotion of the heart according to his will in true faith fervency of the spirit through the merit and mediation of Christ begging the things we want deprecating that we feare interceding for others or giving thanks for that we or others have receaved It is a colloquie of the soule with its Creatour when we read or heare his oracles the holy Scriptures he speaketh to us when wee pray we speake to him 'T is a kinde of reâ—luous grace which he only giveth who giveth the spirit of prayer helping our infirmities who know not what to pray as we ought it is a Postilion for heaven passing betweene God and man ariving in the moment 't is sent out nay before we speake hee will answer and while we are speaking heare who knowes all our wants before we aske it is the Dove of the soules Arke going and returning till it bring assurance of peace it is the ascension of the minde to God without which bended knees out spread hands and eyes lifted up the most decent and devout gestures with the most excellent compture and composure of words are but worthlesse shells of religion and vaine drawing neere to God with our lips the heart being farre from him The fervent intention of minde the silent language of the heart God heareth without any voice uttered when Moses was in an exigent at the red sea we read of no vocall prayer yet God said wherefore cryest thou unto mee 'T is better pray in silence then in attention of minde God heareth the heart what can lowd words availe where that is mute 4. He that will walk with God must often pray and heare prayer like Jacobs ladder lands thee in heaven and sets thee in Gods presence and the foot thereof is in humility The foundation of all vertue without which whatsoever and how high soever is built is but magnificent confusion Pride cast the apostate Angells from heavâ—â— how easily shall it keepe the presuming Pharisee thence The Publican going home justified only as a selfe condemning sinner not worthy nor daring to lift up his eyes to heaven but crying God be mercifull to mee a sinner sheweth humility to be a safe vertue 5. God's spirit inditeth and giveth audience to our prayers This is confidence we have in him if we aske any thing according to his will he heareth us prayer is a divine antidote and remedy against the venome of sinne grounded on Gods promises extracted and gathered out of the Eden of his word whence we must collect both lawes to
promised to give Lord give therefore a gratious answere through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom with thee O Father of mercy and the holy Spirit the Comforter be all honour and glory in heaven and earth to all eternity AMEN Another private Prayer immediatly after receiving the Lords Supper LOrd make us thankefull for all thy mercies especially for the knowledge of thy sonne our ever blessed Redeemer and for these seales of our salvation now received Holy Jesus who even now from the right hand of the father hearest and beholdest what we have done according to thine owne institution in remembrance of thy death and passion forgive us all our failings and imperfections accept our wills to obey thee more perfectly and as thy selfe gavest the signes so give thou who only canst the powerfull effects thereof that every one of us may evidently feele the vigour and strength of this spirituall refection in our soules and consciences more and more to a full assurance of our interest in thee peace of conscience through thee sanctified wills and affections by thee and that candor of manners holinesse of words and actions which may cleerely shine in our conversations before all men to thy glory and our comfort in life and death Lord heare and help us Lord encline thy mercifull eare unto us and doe it for his merit who now intercedeth for us thy sonne our holy Saviour Jesus Christ. AMEN CHAP. XV. § 1. Of the Sabbath the name institution things considerable for the sanctification the beginning and ending reasons of Gods institution thereof § 2. Of the change to the Lords day now to be observed of Christians § 3. How we must now sanctifie it 1 SAbbath signifieth a rest from motion or worke hence this day set a part for holy conventions and the publike service of God is called a Sabbath thereto sanctified and hallowed by Gods appointment for every rest or cessation from worke is not the Sabbath of the Lord. 2. The Lord having perfected the worke of creation rested on the Seaventh day that is ceased from creation blessed it sanctified or appointed it to be kept holy by man as is repeated and interpreted in the morall law given by the ministry of Moses 3. In this praecept are considerable those things which are 1. Morall and Naturall 2. Positive and ceremoniall 1. The Morall part is that a seaventh day be set apart and kept holy for divine worship and rest from servill workes and this as all morall precepts having their ground in the law of nature concernes and bindes all men in all ages whose reason telleth them that there must be a time for the publike service of God 2. The Positive and Ceremoniall part is that which bound all men to the observation of the seaventh day from the creation untill it was changed as all the Leviticall ceremoniesâ— for a seaventh day to begin from Christs resurrection from the dead and also that which bound the Jewes to the observation of certaine ceremoniall rests and solemnities thereon untill the substance of those shadowes were come so wee read of their severall Sabbaths as first their great Sabbath which was that on which concurred a double solemnity as the last day of the Pasover and the seaventh day Sabbath secondly their holidaies or solemne feast daies wherein they were to feast and rejoyce before the Lord see Levit 23 24. c. Deut. 16. 14. and these were also to them Sabbaths Lam 1. 7. the adversaries saw her and did mock at her Sabbaths Thirdly their Sabbath of the earth every seventh yeare to rest Exod 23. 11. Levit 25. 4. Numb 28. 10. Fourthly Sabbaths of yeares seven times seven yeares 49. after which the trumpet was to â—ound the Jubile Levit 25. 8 9. Fitly their Sabbath of weekes see Levit. 23. 15 16. Deuâ— 16. 9 10. these were ceremoniall appertaining to the Levitie all law and therefore determined and ended with the rest of those ceremonies so Paul arrangeth them and would have no man judge Christians in respect of any such Sabbath Colos 2. 16. yea hee counteth it returning to weake and beggerly elements to observe daies c. Galat. 4. 10. 4. The seventh day Sabbath began at Evening and so ended the next day Evening according to the beginning and ending of naturall daies from the Creation as 't is saide the evening the morning made the first day from Even unto Even shall you celebrate your Sabbath but our Lords day beginneth in the morning from the resurrection of Christ on the morning of the third day and that 's not without a mystery that the Legall sabbath began with darknesse and the Evangelicall beganne with light 5. God appointed the observation of the Sabbath for many reasons 1. That it might be a day for Gods publike service as it was and is observed that men might come together to heare the Law pray receave the holy Sacraments c. Luk 4. 16. Act 20. 7. 1. Cor 16. 2. 2. To keepe in memory the work of creation Exod 20. 10 11. 3. In the giving of the law was added that which concerned Israels deliverance from their Egyptian servitude a type of our freedome from the bondage of sinne and Satan remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keepe this Sabbath day 4. That it might be a signe betweene God and his people that they might knowe that he is the Lord that sanctifieth them and a signe of the eternall rest in the life to come as it is said there remaineth therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sabbath keepping to the people of God 5. To move masters to be just and equall to their servants and beasts in remembrance of their owne condition on the seventh day thou shalt rest that thy Ox and thy Asse may rest and the sonne of thy hand-maid and the stranger may bee refreshed Exod 23. 12. that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou and remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt c. 6. That God and his lawes may be remembered that in case any forgetfulnesse of him should fall on man most apt to forget God the very solemnity of the day might remember him 6. Sanctification of the Sabbath on Gods part was his appointment to keepe it holy on mans the setting it apart from common use and ordinary workes to spend it in holy exercises according to God's commandement profanation of the Sabbath was and is by doing those workes which God prohibited to be done on that day as servile workes or on any day as sinne or any thing hindering his workship on that day to bee performed as humane servile or ordinary workes of ourcallings all workes are not prohibited on the Sabbath the Preists by the law did sacrifice thereon this as other like were divine or such as appertained to the
parity of manners conciliateth love but Gods love createth our likenesse to him hence is it that the most excellent creatures love him most whereby they are made such some think that ardency of love denominateth those Angells which stand in Gods presence Seraphim certaine it is such are we as is our love our manners are not estimable by that which we knowe but by that we love good or evill love maketh us such if we love God we are godly if the world worldly if sinne sinfulf all men the best of all doe sinne but the wicked only love sinne looke how the glasses species are as is the posture thereof if you turne it to heaven you see only heaven in it if to the earth only earth so is it in our love the soules looking-glasse wherein we may see and judge of our selves 6. Without this love there can be no true happinesse for the wrath of God the severity of his justice remaineth for those who hate him give him all that a sinfull soule can desire make him times minion the worlds favorite you can make him nothing better then a devill But with the love of God though a man may possibly seeme or be said unhappy he cannot be so for all things worke together for good to them that love God prosperity adversity life death all things shall finally advantage them he that seeketh the love of God must looke for many enemies but contrary to their intentions they shall doe him good the love of the world is sweet at first but bitternesse in the end and the love of God hath many sharpe trialls at first but in the end shall be most comfortable This love is that divine Elixer which maketh the vile pretious an indeficient treasure which whosoever hath can never lack that which is good he that hath it not can never be the better for all hee hath what good or salvation can he expect who is so unhappy as not to love the fountaine of all blessednesse what can hee reasonably feare who loveth an omniscient and righteous God who is a pleanteous rewarder of those that love him Though we cannot be saved for any desert of Love to God for it is his mercy not our merit wee cannot be saved without it if any man love not the Lord Jesus let him be anathema maranatha 1. Cor 16. 22. 7. So excellent is this one possession that Paul counted all but meere losse for it dying Joshua left this as the chiefe legacie to his friends and family concerning whom hee resolved as for me and my house we will serve the Lord take good heed therefore unto your selves that yee love the Lord your God he need no more it is better to love God then to be heire of the world if thou canst not know this living thou shalt when thou art dying let my children faithfully love God I wish them no greater blessing who with my soule pray they may be truly blessed A Prayer for love to God O Lord God Almightie great and glorious who art cloathed with Majestie the beauty of holinesse perfection of beauty who hath filled heaven earth with the gratious effects of love and goodnesse I thy poore creature prostrating my selfe before thy mercy seat humbly acknowledge the many sinnes which render me utterly unworthy ever to appeare before thee specially that great ingratitude which maketh me ashamed to speake unto thee who art the searcher of all hearts yet in assurance of my acceptance in the son of thy love who now sitting at thy right hand maketh requests for me I am bold to pray thee to fill my heart with thy love which is better then all things that with my soule I may desire thee in the night with my spirit within me seeke thee early O Lord though the remainder of sinne in me create me many distractions though fraile flesh and blood starteth at the apprehension and feare of thy just judgments or murmur at the bitternes of thy present corrections yet thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee though with a fraile yet with a sincere heart and love with thine owne spirit infused into me O Lord my soule thirsteth after thee and thy holy presence in my sanctification and full assurance of thy mercy Therefore according to thine owne promise who caâ—st not deceive sanctifie me herein that I may love thee more and more cleanse me from all my sinnes create that purity of heart in me which may assure me of a capacity to behold thy goodnesse in the land of the living fill my lips with grace diffusive of it selfe to thy glory and the ministration of grace to the hearers guide me in the whole course of my life in that holinesse which may please thee disburden my conscience of all that guilt which leaveth me in any feare of that way by which thou hast appointed me to come unto thee and thy kingdome of glory that no afflictions paines feaâ—es or terrours of life or death may be able to separate me from thy love in Christ Jesus Blessed Lord only assure me of thy love and let thy holy will bee done with me I am thine thou madest me to thine owne image thou redeemedst and repairedst the same by thy free spirit when I was dead in trespasses and sinnes thou neither madest redeemâ—dst nor sanctifiedst me for my selfe therefore when thou doest that with me which shall best please thee in the advancement of thy glory in my salvation thou makest me happy in the end of my creation redemption and sanctification Lord it was thine owne free love which by revealing thy selfe and the inestimable riches of thy mercy to mee made me knowe what I had to love in thee neither didst thou finde in me any thing worthy of thee but the effects of thine owne love which in my election before I was determined to make me an object of thy mercy therefore thou who art Love didst set thine own image on me thou best knowest that I am of my selfe but worthlesse dust and earth and by my sinnes a masse of corruption such as onely can displease thee and deserve thine anger but O Lord God of mercy who foundest me a child of wrath and madest me a sonne an enemy and reconciledst me by the death of thy holy sonne Jesus accomplish the worke of thine owne mercy in me and love me still give mee an heart to love thee so above all with all my soule minde and might love that which thou hast wrought in my heart cherish thine owne graces in me though my love be full of imperfections yet thy worke is perfect in thee is no shadow of change Lord for thine owne loves sake now make me such as thou maist love me to eternitie through the merits of thy sonne Jesus Christ my Lord and blessed Saviour AMEN CHAP. XVII § 1. Of love to our selves of the kindes thereof § 2. Of Love to our
neighbour the necessitie and excellency thereof the conditions and signes of it § 3. Of friendship what it is of what excellent fruits of the true end and lawes thereof what choice we are to make of friends and whom to avoid § 4. Of love to enimies how we ought to love without any malice and to make a right use of them 1 LOve towards that which God loveth is love of all that which is good and that which beareth his image as the rationable creatures Angells and men this is either to our selves neighbours or enemies 2. Love to our selves either is such as is 1. Common to all men who by the instinct of nature desire to preserve themselves though blinded by sinne they eftsoone mistake the meanes and end or overmastered by some malignant power to which they have dangerously yeelded themselves they doe somethings to the contraâ—y the Epicure thinketh the meanes to make him happy is to indulge to sensuality and pleasures taken up at any rate because hee taketh them to be his chiefe good and end to which hee liveth he beleeveth himselfe to be only that externall man whom hee endeavoureth to preserve by a brutish pleasing himselfe so that indeed he loveth not himselfe 2. Proper to the good who justly love the inward man the image of God in themselves whom they strive to preserve in his integrity they wish spirituall good to him carefully use Gods ordinances thereto in him they delight as in present good thoughts memory of good past and hope of future for this they mainely care this they defend though with losse of things externall and secular for this they beat downe the body with fastings watchings and prosecution of holy duties Philautiâ— proper to evill men is that blind foolish selfe-love which measureth all love and friendship by that most ignoble scale of the vulgar some temporall advantage to the selfe-lover a crewing who therefore truely loveth no man because neither in nor for God but for his owne sake such doe not truly love themselves but being selfe-deluded hate their owne soules because they love sinne the souls distemper sicknesse and destruction this commonly goeth with a vaine complacency admiring the Minerva's of their own braine and liking themselves in those things which they readily condemne in others as Judah did Gen 38. 24. the selfe-lovers hieroglyphick may be the Ape easily taken while shee sitteth admiring the beauty of her hard-favoured young this vice is an uncharitable living to our selves our own ease and pleasures as if we were borne only for our selves or that our country neighbours friends naturall affections or God himselfe had no part in us so Nabal loved himselfe That wee must love our selves in God is more then evident by reason who so neere us as our selves and Scripture which saith thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe thy selfe first charity beginneth at home and truely that thy love may be a rule and measure unto others He that will be evill to himselfe to whom will he be good Thou wouldest not have thy servant drunken nor thy son an adulterer least they perish eternally and wilt thou be such thy selfe For shame love not thy selfe lesse then others and doe not thinke it lesse necessary for God to have good servants then that thy selfe have such We are the Temples of Gods spirit the image of God the purchase of Christ Jesus for whom hee gave no lesse then himselfe to death it were desperate impietie to undervallew that which cost more then a thousand worlds were worth with profane Esau to set so poore a rate as a portion of meat or a little temporall pleasure upon an immortall soule if we love God wee shall love our selves for him which must be only in that true sanctity which pleaseth him we shall not love our selves more then him that were an inordinate selfe love concerning which it is saied he that loveth his life shall loose it 1. Love to our neighbour is charity to him that needeth our helpe to whom we are holily and constantly united in God he is our neighbour to whom we can administer or of whoÌ„ we may receive help This love hath for its object all men respectively without exception of enemies neither is it as some vainly dreame an arbitrary affection for if we love God is in us but if not against us but that which is simply necessary to the essence and being of true religion without which it can no more be then fire without heat then a man without a soule some therefore call it the forme of vertue giving it name and being There can be no religion without wisedome nor any acts thereof better then the unsavoury sacrifice of fooles with which the all-wise God can never be pleased wisdome is that same salt of the covenant with which every oblation must be seasoned nor can there be any more true wisdome without charity then that which is in the devill who is as malicious as subtile if any thing be contrary to love that wisdome descendeth not from above but is earthly sensuall and devillish without charity speaking with tongues of men or angells is but as a sounding brasse and tinkling cymball prophesie faith almes martyrdome and whatever els seemeth or is externally excellent without this is worth nothing there can be no sanctimony without love Love is the summe and fullfilling of the law the end of the commandement and nothing is good which is not for it end but rather a false image a counterfet of vertue as the covetous mans wisdome to devise meanes of gaine is noe true vertue neither his seeming justice wherein he absteineth from oppression and extortion for feare of some greater losse to himselfe nor his temperance for love of mony forbearing all costly luxury nor his valour venturing sea and land to gett riches so neither is the malicious mans almes any good worke to himselfe he not doing it for Gods sake did he then for the same love he should love his enemies also his prayers are no obedience to God who commandeth in case of enmity to leave the gift before the altar and first endeavour reconciliation Christ in effect saieth as we have formerly noted herein as Joseph to his brethren Genes 43. 3. yee shall not see my face except your brother be with you let men joyne in heareing Gods word and say Amen at the Churches prayers let them be baptized receive the Lords supper be called Christians seeme the most strict men in religion yet is it only charity which distinguisheth between the sons of God reprobates in this the children of God are manifest the children of the devill whosoever doth not righteousnes is not of God neither he that loveth not his brother nor can there be love of God without it if any man say he loves God
will I hide my selfe from him 6. Suspect not thy friend unjust suspition overthroweth freindships fundamentall lawes if thou count thy freind faithfull thou shalt thereby make him such Nor is this against the rule of wisedome which bids thee keepe the power of that which may nourish freindship in thine own hand Give not saith the wise man thy sonne and wife thy brother and friend power over thee while thou livest give not thy selfe over unto any Yet no man loveth those whom hee cannot beleeve nor beleeve those he cannot love as hatred and suspect so love and confidence are indivisibly united 7. Be constant to thy freind in every estate prosperous and adverse in presence and absence Thine own friend and thy fathers freind forsake not levity and inconstancy of mind is inconsistent with friendship That the prosperous man may reckon many freinds the afflicted but few sheweth that among many acquaintance there are but very few freinds that many love thy fortune not thee freindship which can change with externall estate was never true a freind loveth at all times and a brother is borne for adversity in prosperity 't is hard to judge whether the person or estate be loved prosperity findeth friends but adversity tryeth them a true friend therefore is neither knowne in prosperity nor hid in adversity Like the starre of a cleare heaven neither seen in the day nor concealed in the darkest shades of night as the wise man saith there is a freind that sticketh closer then a brother a false freind like Jobs brooke in the winter when wee have no need of him overfloweth with tenders of his service and shews of kindnesse but when it is hot they are consumed out of their place the troupes of Tema looked the companies of Sheba waited for them and were ashamed as are they who finde contempt neglect where they looked for the love of a constant freind there are shadowes of freinds which will goe with you in all your actions you cannot shake them off which yet vanish so soone as your prosperitie commeth under the clowd there are some vaine â—iphers whom place only brings to some accompt whose honours so much change their manners that they cannot looke so low as an old freind which concludeth levity weaknesse of minde selfe-love foolish pride and ignorance of the rules of wisdome piety and true honour which knoweth a faithfull compliance in every estate and like the sun to shine with the same unchanged though more perfect light in his exaltation or heigth and in his rising on the mole-banke and on the mountaine on the smooth and on the troubled waters it was a rare piety in Ruth to resolve concerning the afflicted Naomi entreat me not to leave thee for whether thou goest I will goe where thou dyest I will dye and there will I bee buried the Lord doe so to me and more also if ought but death depart thee and mee and it was a patterne of the most noble freindship which was betweene Jonathan and David there was a nexus animarum more then the love of women the soule of Jonathan was knit with the soule of David he loved him as his owne soule which he demonstrated in his constant fidelity to him on all occasions 8. Beare with the seeming injuries which proceed from thy freinds weaknesse considering that we yet converse not with Angells of heaven but imperfect men and that our selves must have the same favour of candid interpretations in many of our actions wherein we may bee misunderstood or possibly besides our intentions hurt our freind 't is wisdome to passe by offences love to cover faults and piety to beare each others burden where all are infirme without this we can hold no amity with men but shal be foolish freinds overcaptioâ—s querulous or like Jobs miserable comforters injuriously bitterly censorious ever finding fault displeased withall of bitter spirits like contentious Ismaël our hand against every man and every mans against us or rugged Nabal living to none but himselfe this vanity of impatience drave that humane monster the times prodigie nature's paradox man-hating man the dogged Timon from the society of men 9. Reveale no secret of thy freind he that is of a faithfull spirit concealeth the matter rehearse not unto another that which is told unto thee if thou hast heard a word let it dy with thee and be told it will not hurt thee a foole travaileth with a word his minde who useth to tell newes is like the breaches in water banks you shall hardly make it hold but who sodiscovereth a secret looseth his credit and shall never finde a freind to his minde love thy freind and be faithfull unto him but if thou bewraiest his secrets follow no more after him a wound may be bound up and after reviling there may bee reconcilement but he that bewraieth secrets is without hope 10. Conceale not thy frends vertues if by speaking thou maist encourage him therein or wherein thou maist laudando praecipere teach him by praising him neither his faults if thou maist by detection amend or better him least thy silence make them thine Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart thou shalt rebuke him and not suffer sinne upon him or that thou beare not sinne for him hee loveth not who had rather venture his freinds soule then his favour in case he should distast a reproofe every one that spareth is not a freind nor every one that smiteth an enemie it is better to love with severitie then to deceive with lenity the wounds of a lover are faithfull but flattery in evill is treason against the soule of thy freind by so much worse then any other but how much greater heaven is then earth eternity then time a wise man will be glad to be reprooved and amended by any and take him to be a freind by whose tongue hee may cleanse the spots of his soule before the appearance of the strict judge A faithfull freind like a true glasse will shew thee to thy selfe as thou art how many men are unhappy only in the want hereof who having in them many excellent parts imitable qualities mixed as 't is with men with some apparent blemishes taking much off from the opinion of their worth were easily mended because wise had they but a prudent frend to discover their failings to them I beleeve hence was the complaint of the Philosopher so frequent in his mouth O freinds there 's none to freind we easily discover others faults but our owne hardly with inconvenience we owe to our native selfe-love herein we ought to helpe one another not fearing how that will be taken which is our freinds advantage and our duty Certainly if thou rebuke a wise man hee will love thee for it seeing thy sincerity which if he be not hee is better lost then
nolle let no man be thy freind who is not God's least thou heare Jehoshaphats reproofe from Jehu the Seer shouldst thou helpe the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord. 4. Lastly we are to consider whom to avoid as not accommodate to true frendship 1. The Parasite or flatterer hee must bee a very wise and good man who can safely heare his own praises they beat me said Ignatius the Martyr who praise me what praises doe to the foolish I observe not how they affect the prudent may appeare in Demosthenes taken with the whisper of a silly woman saying as he passed by this is that Demosthenes if they said Augustine with whom thou livest well commend thee not they are in fault but if they doe thou art in danger Betweene Pride and selfe-love too vaine credulity of a mans owne worth on the one part and inactive and fruitlesse dejection of mynde on the other the soule is in danger of the rocke in one extreame the safest use of praises is a serious calculation of that summe of merit which we owe to opinion if false or to God if true that we may strive to be such as we are reported though perhaps falsely The Philosopher said of all wild beasts the railer is most dangerous of tame the flatterer that can be no true friendship where there is deceitfull flattery when he speaketh faire beleeve him not for there are seven abominations in his heart Prov 26. 25. 2. The Backbiter he that will secretly raile at others absent is of an ill kinde and if thou displease him will not spare thee 't is their nature to bite beware of such trust them not with any interests of freindship when thou art present he will speake sweetly and will admire thy words but at last he will alter his speech and slander thy sayings I have hated many things but nothing like him for the Lord will hate him To this classis may be referred they who be of bitter spirits and so by reason of that gall overflowing the tongue distastfull acrimony of censuring all men and rugged morosity are rather company for beares then men such was churlish Nabal so wicked that a man could not speake to him David sent a civill message to him and he railed on the messengers 3. The Proud man can never bee a true freind who overvalueth himselfe and despiseth others he is apt to conceive indignity quarrell or some secret bitternesse on every occasion 4. The Talkative man can be no good freind because he cannot keep counsell there bee some men of such unguarded lips then rather then not tell some secrets they will reveile their owne never thinke they will conceale thine 5. Neither the man of a treacherous nature if thou wouldest ingratiate with a serpent feed him warme him in thy bosome thou shalt never make him better then a serpent hee will sometimes make use of his venome 't is so wtih a treacherous freind 6. Neither the contentious froward factious or seditious man make no freindship with the angry with a furious man thou shalt not goe meddle not with them that are seditious or given to change 7. Neither the wicked my sonne walke not thou in the way with them refraine thy foot from their path they are blessed who walke not in their counsell as Jacob said of Simeon and Levi O my soule come not thou into their secret unto their assembly mine honour be not thou united Take heed of any familiarity with those who must render thee suspected of that which any waies may whatsoever may bee probably feigned of thee prevent it that it may not be which rule of his owne if Jerom had practised he had avoided that malitious censure and calumny of some concerning his familiarity with Eustachium and others 8. Lastly take heed of him that loveth no man but for his owne ends 't was noted of Alexander's two freinds Craterus and Hephestion he loved the King but this Alexander there are table-freinds which like those domestick vermine daily on thee will be sure to leave thee when thy house is falling the wise man noted it Ecclus. 6. 10. c. So come we to speake of love towards men considerable in the last branch therof how it ought to be even to our enemies There is no good man liveth without some enemies who liveth by men which of the Prophets have they not persecuted There 's nothing so sacred with that sad Erynnis malice will not â—ly at no wonder that kings the greatest of men Solomon the wisest of kings and David the best of wise men had enemies Christ Jesus the king of kings had no fault but yet many enemies and to shew us the bitternesse of the enmity he suffered for us those the seeming holiest of that age the austere Scribes and Pharisees the reason is because there is a malitious devill who being truly hatefull by the enmity set betweene man and him ceaseth not to infuse the bitternesse of his own cursed spirit into men that they may be like him hating one another The maine businesse therefore is not so much to strive that we may have enemies as to make a right use of them which may be if we can 1. Beare no malice 2. Love them 3. Better our selves by their wickednesse 1. Malice is inveterate anger unadvised anger is murder of the heart but if deliberate wilfull Let not the sunne goe downe on thy wrath What shall they doe at the day of judgement on whose anger many yeares sonnes go down witnesses The parents of anger are opinion of injurie and vaine elation and pride of minde making men thinke none so good as themselves God forbiddeth this bitternesse of soule Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart Levit 19. 17. it maketh men homicides and like Cain murderers of their brethren subject to eternall death it is that which separateth a man from the love and knowledge of God it is the mother of contention a devillish influence on the soules of men and Satan's lively image in the wicked as love is of God in the regenerate whom hee laboureth to destroy by each others hands at whose contentions and actions of hostility he stands and secretly rejoyceth while hee who hateth all can set them one upon another to their mutuall destruction so he engaged Paul with unreasonable men not only with beasts at Ephesus but sundry other places The heathens seemed to knowe this venome of society in the fable of the Serpents teeth sowed by Cadmas of which sprang up those earth-borne brethren who with intestine discord and warre presently destroyed each other The Apostle warned hereof If yee bite and devouer one another take heâ—d yee bee not consumed one of another Serpents live quietly with Serpents what a shame is it for
a sicknesse of the mind proceeding from severall causes indignation anger envy so Caine to Hamon were impatient sorrow apprehension of injuries affliction deluded hopes and the like as the diseased body can neither indure heat nor cold so neither can an impatient and discontented minde comply with prosperity or adversity every present estate disliketh it because it cannot make good use of any it is not only a sinne but a punishment of the sinne of ingratitude to God therefore God threatned to send them trembling hearts sorrow of minde pendulous thoughts and feare In the morning thou shalt say would God it were even and at even thou shalt say would God it were morning sick of this wayward distemper was he who being at Rome liked Tybur best at Tybur Rome The sick man changeth roomes and beds as the wounded Hart goeth from brake to brake but cannot find ease in any because he carrieth that messenger of death the fatall Arrow in his side so doe impatient malecontents change between dislike of present and vaine hopes of future but he changeth the aire not his minde who only goeth beyond Sea where ever thou goest thou findest thy selfe in whom as the evill is not in the externall condition so must it be cured so must the remedy be as small matters distemper not a man in good health the least thing will the sick he will rest any where but the sick in a bed of Gold or Wood in the Pallace oâ— cottage is alike restlesse so is it here a sound mind will rest contented in any estate I have learned said Paul in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content and that very minde is health to the sick enlargment to the Prisoner and better then a Kingdome to the possessour the sick mind is troubled and discomposed with every trifle I doe well said pettish Jonah to be angry even unto death 't was but for a poore Gourd when many a thousand lives at stake troubled him not The way to cure is not by change of any thing externall but by cleering the mende of the malignant perturbations which disaffect it and to strengthen it by a right information of the understanding and rectifying the distempered affections untill the mind enjoy a calme of patience Patience is afflictions cordiall despares antidote Daughter and Nurse of hope the Saints share with Christ. the way to the inheritance and Heb. 12. 1. The proceed of confidence Jam. 1. 3. Heb. 6. 12. The operatory of perfection Jam. 1. 4. The seale of salvation 2. Pet. 1. 10. Symptome of Faith and Hope in Christ. 1. Thes. 1. 3. 2. Thes. 1. 4. Patience is an equanimity in bearing adversity and a fruit of charity as it is written the fruit of the spirit is Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gal. 5. 22. and Charity suffereth long 1 Cor. 13. 4. Impatience is a perturbation of the mind a selfe-fretting tormenting bitternesse of the Soule proceeding of impotency or levity of minde a secret contest with and repining at the providence of God the shame of Rich men and vexation of the poore the Mother of despaire sad fury and Asmodeus of the inward house every roome and recesse whereof it disturbeth with hideous cries like Ziim and Ohim dolefull beasts in the desolations of Babylon it is a folly and sober madnesse wherein the sick minde rejecteth all remedy striketh at the Physitian recrudeth and teareth open it own wounds an heart-eating canker the inward mans wolfe which devoureth that which feedeth it the worme which biteth the Soule which Prometheus-like feeds the vulture which afflicteth it delighted in that which grieves it nor is this sicknesse peculiar to the wicked the best men have some fitts Davids expostulation with himselfe why art thou so sad ô my soule and why art thou so disquieted within me declareth it yea Christ who bare all our sorrowes without sinne in the sense of his fathers wrath acknowledged that his soule was heavy to the death and wrestling with that most sad passion he cryed on the Crosse my God my God why hast thou forsaken me he could no otherwise feel the torments of Hell due to us in his humane soule then by loosing the present sense of the Deiâ—ies assistance which wheresoere it is makes Heaven he lost in that agony a present sense not an indeficient interest for even then he called God his God which sheweth a vast distance between the impatience of desperate unrecoverable sinners and the estate of the soule-sick holy men who though like the Israëlites marching with the Egyptians into the same waters have there a way opened to their promised rest where the enemy is drowned Concerning this evill we must know it groweth on by degrees first in unadvised anger mixt with sorrow which are the seeds of impatience next to a dislike of every accident and estate then to an inward murmuring so like a Gangren it invadeth the Souls vitalls hope content and cheerefull dependance on Gods providence creeping on to violent despare so that it concerneth a man highly to prevent this evill by staying its beginnings learning to make a prudent use of every affliction and to expell all those discomposed thoughts which any way feed it to practice in the whole course of life that Saint like patience and moderation which becometh those who depend on the providence of God which that thou maist doe consider these like motives to Patience and contentednesse 1. God commandeth it Rom. 12. 12. 1 Thes. 5. 18. 1 Tim. 6. 8. Heb. 13. 5. Psal. 37. 7. c. 2. Consider the disadvantages of Impatience and the advantages of Patience no man can be happy who doth not think himselfe so what matter is it what thy condition is if thoâ— thinkest it evill the patient man is happy in every estate because God will heare him Psalm 40. 1. Psal. 37. 7. The patient is better then the proud in spirit Eccles. 7. 8. The Lord will give him eternall life Rom. 2. 7. By patience a man possâ—sseth his own soule Luke 21. 19. All affliction to him is but bitter Physick which he willingly swalloweth because 't is given to cure him and to bring him the quiet fruits of righteousnesse Heb. 32. Herewith Godlinesse is great gaine I Tim. 6. 6. Patience maketh a burthen lighter and therein defeateth the malicious adversary the fruit of whose injury is the griefe and impatience of the injured when Job bare patiently the Devill was beaten at his own weapon as the Balas if it be solodged that it cannot move or shoote bringeth the Sayling ship to rights but otherwise foundreth her so is it with Patience in the soule it was a blessed victory obtained at Job's first encounter at which the Angells of heaven could doe no lesse then give a plaudite when Satan had charged him with all his machinations and Job received all those fierce blowes on his shield of patience the
Lord God wee humbly pray thee for Christ Jesus sake to pardon all our sins and failings in our dueties this day strengthen our faiths unto our ends and in our ends Suffer us not for any tryals to fall from thee neither lay thou more upon us then thou wilt make us able to beare cheerfully create clean hearts in us renew right spirits mortifie all our corrupt affections subdue and subject them all to thy holy will and pleasure enable us daily more carefully and holily to serve thee so that the neerer we draw unto our deaths the more conâ—idently we may rest assured of immortality and eternal life in the world to come assist us with a measure of thy grace proportionable to our tryals so that at our last houre against all the feares and terrors paines and sorrows of death we may be enabled to render up our soules into thy gracious hands in full assurance of thy mercy and our redemption and salvation in Jesus Christ. Blesse the universall Church specially that part thereof in Great Britan and Ireland let thy blessing and mercy rest on this family from the first to the last Keep us bodies and soules forgive all our sins let our sleep be refreshing and comfortable this night grant us grace to plant all our confidence in thee that wee may love thee fear thee and rest in thee assured of thy gracious protection whose providence sleepeth not into thy hands O Lord wee commend and commit our selves bodies and soules all that we have and are sleeping waking living and dying let us be ever thine through Jesus Christ our Lord and blessed Saviour AMEN An Evening Praier for a Family more enlarged O Lord God great and glorious who hast made the heavens thy throne and the earth thy foot-stoole God of justice and mercy terrible in thy wrath against obstinate sinners but long-suffering and of great mercy to them who with sincere hearts can seek thee and thy saving health our miseries compell us and thine owne gracious mercy inviteth us wretched creatures to call upon thee in the day of trouble But O Lord thou art a God of pure eies and canst not behold iniquity and wickednesse in which as we are conceived and born the children of wrath disobedience so have we continually walked therein and wherewithall shall we now come before our Lord and how our selves before the high God a thousand burnt-offerings and ten thousand rivers of oile cannot satisfie an infinite justice for the sinne of one soule and we are a sinful nation a people laden with iniquity wee have forsaken the covenants of our God and provoked the holy one of Israel to anger wee have gone backward and revolted more and more from the sole of the foot unto the head there is no soundnesse in us but dangerous wounds bruises and putrifying sores ripe for the lancet of thy judgments so that we deserve to have this good land laid waste that we who have forsaken thee should as thou hast threatned be consumed with the sword famine and pestilence until this numerous people be leâ—t as a cottage in vineyard a besieged city like Sodom and Gomorrha sad monuments of the fire of thine indignation that thou shouldst take no delight in us when we tread in thy courts and appear before thee with petitions for mercy but that our oblations of praise and incense of praiers should be abomination and our solemne assemblies a tâ—ouble and wearinesse unto thee that when wee spread forth our hands and make many praiers with strong cries thou shouldst hide away thy face from our miseries and stop thine ears to our cries as we have done ours to those gracious conditions of mercy which thou hast continually offered us by thy Prophets whom thou sentest to warn us that wee might retur from our vaine and unprofitable wayes and not die wee humbly acknowledge that such are we that the severest curses of the law and all the judgments sealed up therein are due to us confusion and helplesse destruction in this present woâ—â—d and unspeakable torments in hell fire in the eternity to come And now whereas wee must all appeare before thy judgement seat what shall wee plead before thee O thou great and just Iudge of all the world what can wee but guilty what shall wee say unto thee O merciful preserver of men what can wee more then be merciful unto us for our Lord Jesus sake Wee know O Lord that wee neither doe nor can deserve any favour at thy gracious hands whom wee have so often and so wilfully provoked to shew thy justice on our sinnes but therefore didst thou give thy sonne Christ Jesus that his merits might satisfie for us wee condemne our selves that thou maist spare us for his sake who dyed not in vaine O Lord though our iniquities testifie against us deale with us according to thy name wee have sinned against thee O thou hope of Israel and the saviour thereof in the time of trouble wee acknowledge our sinnes are for greatnesse unmeasurable and for multitude innumerable but as is the price of our redemption so are thy mercies infinite abhorre us not for thine owne mercy sake thou art our strength and refuge in the day of affliction correct us not in thine anger chasten us not in thy heavy displeasure but heale us that we may be saved Lord though we have many waies failed yet thou knowest all things thou knowest that the desire of our soule is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee through thine owne grace giving us that desire we would above all things in the world become so holy that we might no more displease thee O our God who only canst make us holy and unblameable give us ability to do that which thou hast given us grace to desire thou hast caused us to put our confidence in thee O God who canst not deceive trust let us not be disappointed of our hope restrain not from us thy zeal thy strength and the multitude of thy mercies and compassions O Lord our God if thou wilt thou canst make us clean cleanse us from all our iniquities that we may put away the wickedness of our doings from before thine eies that we may indeed cease to do evil and learn to do well that thou mayest make our scarlet sins twice died in original and actual guilt white as snow in Salmon that we may consent and obey and so enjoy the good things of this land and not be devoured by the sword as we are this day for our transgressions Though we deserve that the fire of thine anger should consume us as the stubble that our root should be as rottennesse and that our blossom when we hope should go up as the dust until our cities become desolate and our houses without a man because we have cast away the law of the Lord of hostes yet O Lord unto thee belongeth mercy and the issues from death though thou hast been terrible in thy
no sanctuary for a troubled soul but only Gods favourable presence till hee return and comfort nothing can So terrible in the meane time is this affliction that the desperate Judas took death for his sanctuary against that which to him was more tolerable then death how heavily it sitteth upon the hearts of Gods elect may appeare in the words of Job and others Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery and life unto the bitter in soule which long for death but it cometh not and dig for it more then for hid treasures which rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they can finde the grave See Jer. 20. 14 15 16 17 18. 1 King 19. 4. Jonah 4. 8. 3. The conscience is the knowledge of the heart knowing that which God knoweth with it it is a divine light in us which we cannot extinguish if wee would a supream court in us above us a silent register of all we do or say a thousand witnesses accusing or excusing an impartial Judge which cannot be bribed to justifie the wicked or condemn the just the first revenge of impiety wherein none guilty can be absolved though there were none other Judge 4. In true peace of conscience the heart is cheerful in every estate and condition Rom. 5. 1. 3. it feareth no judge nor witnesse it is a continuall feast the soules Eden the mindes faire haven an unvalueable possession which maketh every owner happy a riches which shall never be taken away the first fruits of heaven an immoveable comfort as no winde can move or shake the sun beams so can neither life nor death prosperity or adversity this as long as this is safe though men receive many sharpe charges as did the citizens of Ai yet are they confident to resist they can resolve with Job though he kill me yet will I trust in him but if that faile and the smoke arise thence their hearts fail them 5. God woundeth and healeth it is his justice and mercy wee wound our selves by sin and God healeth us by afflictions as Chirurgions doe with the lancet and cautery Sins are the theeves which spoil us and leave us wounded by the way till the good Samaritan come with his wine and oile to cleanse supple and binde up our wounds he smiteth the conscience with sense of his anger danger and bitter smart to make us sensible of our sins and bring us to a loathing of them this he doth sometimes by external afflictions sometimes by the word of the Spirit the word preached wounding the heart terrifying the conscience and then Peters hearers cry out Men and brethren what shall wee do sometimes by smiting the conscience with an inward sense and apprehension of his fierce wrath and severe judgements imminent in which an horrible feare overtaketh them like the earth-quake at Horeâ— preceding the still voice of mercy in sense of a spiritual disertion while he hideth away his face spiritual wants or permission to some grievous tentation cold fits of despair and buffeting by the messengers of Satan in all which though there be meanes of comfort appointed yet none can prevaile till the spirit of God the comforter return and heale the same hand giveth vulnus opemque the wound and plaister as it was said the Assyrians and Jareb could not heal Judah and Ephraim of their wound so no creature can the wounded spirit till he who correcteth in measure cometh and bindeth up he onely hee healeth the broken hearts and bindeth up their wounds even hee who was wounded for our sins and bruised for our iniquities by whose stripes wee are healed 1. There are some things principally wounding and afflicting the conscience coming up like those Philistim spoilers in three companies to destroy and drive men into despair first apprehension of Gods wrath for some grievous sins committed so â—ain having murdered his brother cryed My sinne or punishment is greater then I can beare Judas having betrayed Christ durst not come to him to beg mercy because he apprehended an implacable anger in Christ it is true that the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience for their sinnes that his wrath is revealed from heaven against all ungodlinesse and unrighteousnesse of men that the impenitent by their hardnesse of heart treasure up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath that there shall be indignation and wrath to them that obey not the trueth but when thou who art of a wounded spirit and broken heart hast well considered it may be thou shalt finde that these things concerne thee not but those who live in sin and so would do 2. The second thing wounding the conscience is sense of spiritual wants as of hope faith assurance of salvation the spirit of sanctification praier c. which being Gods grace and the presence of his holy Spirit in the regenerate may yet for the time be an hidden treasure an immortall seed under the frozen clods without any appearance of life and the saints may weep and complain like Magdalen in the garden of the losse of Christ when he is with them speaketh to them and they know him not 3. The third is fear of some strong tentations and trials in which the afflicted and affrighted conscience startleth as the Disciples when Jesus slept in the storm their ship filled with waves and ready to founder in the sea or like Peter on the water when he saw the rough billows coming and cryeth out Save Master we perish when 't is sure enough they cannot perish who are with Christ. Now concerning him that will receive any solid comfort in any of these cases it is very necessary that he 1. Well consider that state in which he seemeth to be 2. Examine his conscience throughly 3. Practice some rules proper for any of these estates Concerning the conscience afflicted with the apprehension of Gods anger against his sinnes let him consider that 1. As God is just so is he merciful he is no inexorable Radamanth he is easie to be entreated concerning whom we have a word more sure then any testimony of man God sufficiently known to himselfe onely hath thus proclamed himself Exod. 34. 6. The Lord God merciful and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodnesse and trueth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression Now if that which others said of the Kings of Israël that they were mercifull Kings could perswade them to seek mercy and desire quarter that they might be saved how much more should that which God who cannot lie as fame can and commonly doth hath declared of himself move the afflicted soule to submit and beg mercy of him more ready to grant it then wee are or can be to entreat it for aske it wee never could except his preventing grace moved us thereto 2. God
quickly to the throne of Grace to implore mercy before wrath come out against thee catch hold quickly on this second table repentance who hast lost the first of innocency condemne thy selfe and Christ will justifie thee hee onely expecteth thy voice when thou sayest I have sinned hee saith I forgive thee Doe but mark how quickly the pardon followed David's confession no sooner had hee said I have sinned against the Lord but the Lord said by the Prophet the Lord also hath put away thy sinne Peter quickly repented and as quickly found mercy Esau staied too long and so found no place for repentance though hee sought it carefully with teares If the grando fiered be suddenly cast back againe it proves only the assailants harme or danher such shall Satan's fire-works prove if thou presently cast out his tentations and heartily repent thee where any of his darts touch thee 9. Give not thy selfe over to pensive dedolency worldly sorrow and fruitlesse solitarinesse that will but feed the bitternesse of spirit think not too much of thy afflictions but sweeten them with the frequent remembrance of God's mercy toward thee take heed of worldly sorrow that is unto death cheer up thy selfe in God as David did Why art thou so sad O my soule and why art thou so disquieted within mee trust in God for I shall yet praise him a merry heart doth good like a medicine but a broken spirit drieth the bones A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance but by the sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken 10. Hearken diligently to the word of God hee is the God of all consolation and the word is his minde and revealed will for our good that is a full store-house there is no affliction incident to man which may not there finde a proper cure here thou shalt finde rules to guide thee and keep thee from sinne here thou shalt finde the sweet mercy of God in Christ Jesus to wash away the guilt of all thy transgressions but be thou not only a hearer but a constant doer of the word and lay the gracious promises up in thine heart so shalt thou in due season feele the work of God's spirit distilling the former and the later rain upon the seed to make it take root and be fruitfull 11. Hereto adde zealous and frequent prayer as the Saints have done in all their distresses and be assured that hee will not leave thee comfortlesse but at last coming with great assurance of thy salvation will abundantly recompence thy patience in suffering and perseverance in praying for pardon Satan is never more foiled and fooled in his own work then when hee gets leave to wound the hearts of the elect for as Romanus the martyr told the tormenter look how many wounds hee gives them so many mouthes hee setteth open for them to cry to God for helpe and indeed these jewels cannot come to their glorious lustre without hard grinding by afflictions A Praier for them who are of a wounded spirit in respect of their grievous sins O Lord God gracious and merciful rebuke not in thine anger neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure my soule is sore vexed and Lord how long Have mercy on mee for I am weak Lord heale my soule and deliver it O save mee for thy mercy sake I am weary of my groaning mine eie is consumed with griefe Lord heare my supplications receive my praier I am sorely afflicted Lord quicken mee according to thy word in thy loving kindenesse and multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions wash me throughly from my sinnes cleanse me from all mine iniquities the greatnesse and number whereof is such as that I am ashamed and afraid of thy blessed presence I acknowledge my selfe unworthy to look up to heaven to appeare before thee with petition for mercy who have so uncessantly provoked thy justice the filthy leprosie of my sinnes stop mine own mouth my heart answereth that I am unworthy that ever thou shouldst encline thy gracious eare unto so wretched a sinner These terrors of conscience wherewith thou hast now afflicted my soule are thy just judgments the fears of hell and eternal condemnation wherewith thou hast wounded mee are incomparably lesse then my sinnes but Lord remember them not who canst not forget the sufferings of thy holy sonne Jesus for them all I am not able to answer thee one of a thousand nor can thy justice require that of mee for which my Saviour and redeemer hath satisfied therefore I renounce my selfe that I may be found in thy Christ not having on our owne righteousness according to the condemning letter of the law but that I may be clothed in his righteousnesse who hath long since cancelled the hand-writing of ordinances that were against me and payed the debt for me Lord for his sake I humbly entreat thee to turne this judgement under which I now labour into mercy let it beget in my soule a true loathing of all sinne a stedfast purpose to forsake all my evil waies a comfortable experience of thy mercy pronouncing pardon to my afflicted conscience by the infallible evidence of thy holy spirit and assurance of peace with thee make mee to hear of joy and gladnesse that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice in thee cast me not away from thy presence take not the holy Spirit the comforter from mee but restore mee to the joy of thy salvation and uphold mee with thy free spirit despise not a broken and contrite heart but heale my wounded spirit then will I teach transgressors thy way that they may fear thee who art so terrible in thy justice and convert unto thee who art so abunâ—amt in thy mercy Lord heare mee Lord encline thine eare to a poore distressed soule Lord consider and do it for thy only sonne our Saviour Jesus Christ his sake to whom with thee O heavenly father and the holy spirit be all honour and glory in heaven and earth from this time forth and for ever Amen CHAP. XXVII § 1. Sense of spiritual wants afflicteth but not so much endangereth the soule § 2. What we are herein to consider § 3. How we must examine the conscience § 4. Rules of practice hereto necessary THe second thing wounding and afflicting the conscience is sense of defects and spiritual wants as want of faith hope assurance of salvation want of sanctification purity of heart the spirit of praier and hearing want of ability rightly to performe other holy dueties In these the spirit is stupified and fearfully darkned in the saint for a time a man sometimes feeleth dulnesse to and want of fervency in praier and want of comfortable assurance that God heareth or regardeth it because hee doth not presently answer or not at all grant that which wee aske sometimes hee feeleth a deviation of his minde and discomposure of thoughts in attention and unbeleef in hearing the word or reading the
he may neither perplexe nor disturb it Lord whose providence sleepth not preserve us and ours sleeping waking living and dying that in every estate it may appeare wee are thine through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN The prayer of a wounded spirit against temptations O Lord God Almighty all-seeing examiner of the heart and reines who knowest before wee aske what wee have need of who by thy holy spirit helpest our infirmities who know not what to pray as wee ought and thereby makest requests for us according to thy will with nnutterable groanes which thou only understandest helpe my infirmities endite my praiers and restraine the busie malice of the tempter Direct my praiers as incense in thy sight let them come into thy presence through Jesus Christ our onely redeemer and advocate Trueth it is O Lord that all things shall worke together for the best to them that love thee and are called according to thy purpose for thou hast said it and that it shall be good for mee which thou doest to mee I am confident O my God that it shall once appeare that it is happy for mee that I have been in trouble when after the tryal of my faith and exercise of my patience thou shalt give mee the quiet fruits of righteousnesse I beleeve that they shall not finally miscarry who trust in thy mercy this is the voice of my faith in thee whom I beleeve and know to be the God of trueth but O Lord thou best knowest that I am also fraile flesh and blood full of infirmities feares doubtings and failings because mine iniquities have taken such hold on mee that I cannot looke up they are more in number then the haires of my head so that my heart faileth mee neither have I to deale with flesh and blood onely Lord thou knowest those unseen powers of darknesse which wth restlesse encounters assault my soule to destroy it O Lord God of my salvation be not thou farre from mee shew thy power and deliâ—iver mee from the messengers of Satan which are too mighty for mee rescue mee bridle their insolent malice binde the stâ—ong man and deliver thy vessel from his usurping tyranny that I may in every faculty of my soule serve and please thee pardon all my sinnes for thy holy sonne Jesus sake who died for mee heale my wounded soule which hath to the present sorrow of my heart so often sinned against thee hide not thy face from mee in the time of my trouble forget not my bitter affliction which maketh mee goe mourning all the day long while the insulting enemy oppresseth mee thou art my King command deliverances I am poore and needy destitute of helpe and strength to resist Satan's fiery darts put thy whole armour upon mee that I may be able to stand arise for my helpe O thou Preserver of men redeeme mee from the devouring lyons mouth for for thy mercy sake thinke upon mee make haste to helpe mee make no long tarrying O my God suffer mee not for any tryals to fall from thee lay no more upon mee then thou wilt give mee strength patience and perseverance to beare cheerfully confirme mee unto my end that I may be blamelesse unto the day of our Lord Christ give mee a blessed effect of and issue out of every tryal that the more thou permittest mee hereto the more certaine experience I may have of thy mercy and the greater assurance that thou wilt never faile mee nor forsake mee that I may through him who hath by suffering vanquished death hell and him who had the power of death overcome all these spiritual wickednesses which fight against my soule I have trusted onely in thy mercy holy Father who hast ordained strength in the mouths of babes and inâ—â—â—s strengthen mee unto the end that my heart may rejoyce in the salvation spare mee that I may recover my strength put thou a new song into my mouth that I may praise thee for my deliverance and declare unto afflicted sinners what thou hast done for my soule Lord heare mee and have mercy upon mee Lord who art ever more ready to give then wee can be to aske deny not the requests of a poore sinful soule crying unto thee for Jesus Christ his sake our only Lord and Saviour AMEN CHAP. XXIX Concerning the guidance of the minde in the encrease of wealth § 1. Afflictions common their fruit in good men Poverty a great tryall riches great temptations commonly mistaken § 2. How to guide thy selfe in the encrease of riches or a full inheritance 1. TEmporal afflictions are common to the just and wicked wee are here like the clean and unclean in Noah's ark shut up in one condition into afflictions wee goe like Israël and the Egyptians into the red-sea to events most contrary deliverance or destruction to the saint they are but as the raine to the arke the more it fell the more that was lifted up Being sanctified they give understanding and are though rough-handed yet excellent masters of vertue like biting frosts to the trees restraining the luxuriant sap and rendring them more fruitfull 2. Among other afflictions in this life want and poverty as among temptations wealth is not the least These are commonly the minds Scylla and Charybdis the two great and antient diseases of Republicks Families and incautious soules there being great hazard in either concludeth a necessity of a right guidance of the minde herein so great as that the wise man deprecated both extreames Give mee not poverty nor riches Having spoken of those things which appertain to man are in man or incident to him within it is requisite that wee consider him in the discomposures which proceed from things external as poverty imprisonment banishment old age sicknesse and death In these first estates which I proposed my purpose is to lay down some rules directing how happily to use the one and bear the other 3. Because riches are great temptations and men are commonly deceived in judging of them too much admiring and affecting these and as much impatient of poverty whereas indeed they are neither absolutely good nor alwaies signes of an happy owner but good or evil according to their use and therefore are they commonly evil because as Aristides said Many use riches ill few can well therefore it highly concerneth those who enjoy encrease or great riches to mark and practice these and the like rules 1. If riches encrease set not your heart thereon Psal 62. 10. where they have the heart there is no place for faith charity humility equity modesty or honesty He saith not Get not riches but set not your heart upon them for so they carry it away from God many of the Saints have been rich but their rule was not to trust in uncertain riches all earthly possessions often change their owners often desert and leave them to wants The heathen Solon told Croesus as much though he could not beleeve
God of all true consolation who defendest the fatherlesse and widowes leave them not comfortless be thou their guider and protector though thou pleasest to take us from them take not thy grace and holy spirit from us nor them and so thy will be done Blesse all those who any where suffer in the like durance with us blesse us all here present grant that wee may make a right use of our present afflictions that they may better us give us hearts to trust in thee what ever thou doest to us cheerfully to discern thy mercies in the midst of our corrections and ever to blesse thy holy name for that thou hast corrected and not given us over to final destruction Lord encline thine eare and heare Lord help us Lord consider in mercy and do it for Jesus Christ his sake in whose ever blessed name we conclude our petitions in that absolute forme of prayer which hee hath taught us in his Gospel saying Our Father which art in heaven c. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ c. AMEN An Evening praier for the same O Most gracious and glorious Lord God we do not here appear before thee with any confidence in our own merits being such in respect of our unhallowed thoughts corrupt words and sinful actions as that if there were neither in earth or heaven among men or Angels any witnesse of our iniquities our owne consciences would accuse and convict us and if there were no other judge our own hearts could not but condemne us and thou art greater then our hearts and nothing can be hid from thee the just and all-seeing judge of the living and the dead who must all stand before thy tribunal wee therefore in all humility of soules appeale from thy justice in which wee can looke for nothing lesse then death and destruction the due wages of sin unto the sanctuary of thy mercy there laying hold on that altar on which thy sonne Christ Jesus was offered up a living sacrifice for us who were dead in trespasses and sinnes hee is that lamb of God which taketh away the sinnes of the world and that great Angel of the Covenant who in the precious censer of his merits offereth the praiers of the Saints as Sweet odors holy and acceptable to thee for his sâ—ke â—arden all our sinnes which have rendred us not onely lesse then the least of thy mercies but also worthy of thy severest judgments temporal and eternal for his sake let our complaints come before thee and from thy mercy seat 〈◊〉 thou our supplications which come not out of feigned 〈◊〉 but from the depth of our afflicted soules Trueth it is O Lord wee have procured all these miseries unto our selves and the bitternesse wherewith thou hast filled us is none other but the fruit of our owne inventions who have obstinately followed our owne vain and unprofitable waies refusing the guidance of thy good spirit and holy word recalling us to the paths of eternal life But O Lord God of mercy thou desirest not the death of sinners but that they may be converted and live thou art the sole fountain of holinesse every good and perfect giving descendeth from thee who art the father of light enlighten thou our understandings open our eies that wee sleep not in death sanctifie our depraved wills rectifie our sinful affections and subject them all to thine owne holy will and pleasure frame every faculty of our soules and bodies to a new and sincere obedience to thy law that wee may neither decline to the right hand nor to the left but may henceforth make strait steps to our salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. In his name wee continue our supplications to thee in the behalfe of thy Church universal Lord gather dayly to her such as thou hast elected to salvation enlighten those who have not yet known thy name take off the vaile from the hearts of thy ancient people the Jewes that now neer the fulnesse of time they may see unto Christ the end of the law to every one that beleeveth both of Jewes and Gentiles shew more and more mercy in the confirmation of us whom thou hast called until our fulness be come in Discover and confound the man of sinne daily abolishing the mystery of iniquity by the brightnesse of thy coming the sword of the spirit and evident preaching the Gospel to all nations until thou shalt at thy second coming manifest thy selfe our Saviour and Redeemer and wipe all teares from our eies even so come Lord Jesus And now O Lord who lookest with a tender eie upon the pressures of thy servants let the sighing of the Prisoners come before thee and according to the greatnesse of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to die be merciful to us here present before thee we have indeed at thy hands against whom wee have sinned deserved this rod but O our God correct us in mercy not in thine anger for what are wee in thy hands and who can stand before thee when thou art angry Wee have not rendred unto thee according to thy goodnesse wee have surfeited on the sweet blessings of peace and abused our liberties not valuing the benefit thereof but vainly reckoning it among our hereditary possessions as if it might never be taken from us when we had freedom to goe into the assemblies of thy children the places where thine honour dwelleth to hear thy word and present our supplications unto thee Lord how often have vain pleasures or worldly profits detained us or coming before thee how seldom have wee returned with any fruits of amendment therefore doest thou now teach us by wanting these comforts their estimate which wee would not know while wee enjoyed them But O good God seeing thy fatherly corrections are not to destroy but to amend us give us now good understanding by these chastisements give us discerning spirits that through these afflictions we may look up to the hand that smiteth us and by our corrections gain a true loathing and detestation of all the sins for which thou art displeased with us Lord if it may stand with thine honor enlarge and deliver us in mercy restore every man to his own family to the mutual comfort of us and ours that with them we may praise thy holy name and better serve thee then ever wee have done if otherwise Lord proportion our patience to our tryals forsake us not in our sad distresses be thou ever present with us that we may rest assured of thy mercies give us peace of conscience and a blessed freedom from the bondage of sin that wee may therein know that neither stone walls nor armed guards can shut thy holy spirit the comforter from us nor bar our praiers from ascending up to thee Lord as our tryals encrease encrease our comforts in thee so that as the more it rained the more the arke was listed up in which thou hadst enclosed those whom thou didst thereby save in a
yesterday or are to day precipitate hours by their succeding moments pass with the flight of a thought quickly changing us from secure youth to solicitous age which stealeth on with so slie a foot that like the remoter lights of heaven in their vast orbes the speed of their motion is not so much perceived passing as passed away and so wee become old before wee have well composed our youth or thought of age like men sailing wee make our port sleeping and waking as the Prophet said of Ephraim Strangers have devoured his strength and hee knoweth it not yea gray haires are here and there upon him yet hee knoweth not Truely the age of man is but of a short date as the flowers beauty of few houres continuance will wee nill we wee grow old and that which David once said 1 Sam. 20. there is but a step between me and death the strongest in every age may truely There is some little difference between the yong and the old which as little time will take away the old decrepid man was a flourishing youth not long since and the young man must quickly be old the end evens all whether the last yeere of Methusalah's long-spun life or of the dying infant which like those water sourses rising neer the sea and by a short and speedy course rendring themselves into the bitter depths again whether the long lasting Patriarcks before the flood or the now epitomized lives of men in this worlds senio which like Winter's sunnes but rise shew themselves above the horizon creep a low course quickly set againe exchanging the short day for a long-some night all comes to one invariable conclusion at last hee dyed Vain and fraile life of man on which wee set so high a rate there 's nothing long in the longest life of man nothing lasting in which there is something last which being come that which was is eternally past that which wee call old age is but the circuites of a few yeeres surrendring to death 3. Death hath three messengers to arrest and Sub poena up to that high court whence there 's no appeale chance or accident infirmity and old age The first telleth of doubtfull things the second of grievous the last of certain No man is secure of one houre to come death cometh to the young man like Rechaâ— and Baana to Ishbosheth about the heat of the day to slay him insidiis but to the old man aperto marte there by ambush here with displayed banners flying colouâ—s so that it concerneth all the living to be prudent in not sleeping without oile in their lampes least the Bridegroom coming in an houre they dreame not of while they endeavour too late a preparation the door be shut and they knock in vain Being here to lay down some directions and comforts against the sorrowes and evils of age I shall consider 1. What must be done for prevention or where the foundation of an happy age must be layed 2. How the evils of age may be lessened 3. Or how more patiently born 4. How they may be used to the good of the aged 1. For the prevention of evils incident to age wee must lay the foundation in youth it is a good rule in thy youth study to live well and in thy age to dye well The vices and distempers of youth deliver up a surfeited body to age whereby they not only incommodate but dishonour it with the faults of youth making it not onely heare evill as wretched unhappy and contemptible a burthen continuall disease and worse then death but also to be so in respect of the decayes paines and aches and specially the conscience of an ill-spent life but for these age hath often a capacity of health sufficiency of strength and solidity of comfort as appeareth not only in Moses whose eye was not dim nor his naturall force abated at the age of 120 years Deut. 34. 7. but also Joshuah's defectlesse strength Josh. 14. 10 11. at 85. and in the cheerefull health of divers moderne examples of temperance wherein it is a more happy part of life then youth which at best is not far from if not in danger of mischievous incentives to sinne for what good man ever doubted but that an holy reformed age is incomparably better then a vitious youth and who seeth not the way in consideration hereof to make the age which greiveth them more blessed then that which did vainely delight them 2. Set the Lord ever before thee and remember thy Creator in the daies of thy youth then recken that thou maist quickly provide for it by the studies of young men you may probably conjecture what fruits they will beare in age if they be not blasted they that would make their provision by gathering Manna went out betimes the scorching sunne once rising all was gone happy are they as I noted that have a grave Lois and an holy Eunice to season their tender yeares with knowledge of God before the heat of corrupted youth which permitteth not the dew of heaven to lye upon the heart 3. Suspect thine own judgement many had been happily wise had they not by too early an opinion thereof anticipated that fruit and thought themselves such before they were so youth is the age of folly and precipitate errour which few discover untill they are past it it is the age of vaine hopes and overgrown confidence so dangerous that it hath not only subverted some persons and families but States and Kingdomes as Israël found in Rehoboams young Counsellors The Hebrews expresse a young man by a word which in the root importeth an â—eadlong falliâ—g into any thing the opinion of selfe ability and daring ambition to rule the day hath too often set the World on fire 4. Be thou as circumspect as a man considering the dangers he is to passe or perish in them the Prodigall had many dangerous companions power of himselfe his estate in his hand company of enticing harlots place farre from his fathers sight none but trustlesse strangers to advise him but the worst of all was his youth without which all the rest could not have hurt him youth is neere dangerous falls easy to be transported with pleasures then which there are no more dangerous Sirens or capitall mischiefes they are Lusts panders Treasons brokers universall incentives of all impiety which could never be hatched did they not bewitch the unhappy actors with some pleasure pleasures are unconsistent with vertues monarchy they blind reason and pervert the will they are counsailes enemies and the affections corrupters no wonder that M. Curius wished that the Samnites and their enemy Pyrrhus could have been given to pleasures that they might the easier have been overcome how pernicious a dreame is it of those who think young men may securely indulge to their genius walk
and art delivered from so many unjust and pernicious tyrants in that the incentives of sinne are grown inactive in age 2. Study to be wise it is great misery to be old and not wise it was too much to be guided by the affections of youth if that be past remember that age is wisdomes flower or fruitfull autumne rather venerable not for number of years but merit if thou encrease in this strength of minde thou shalt so much the more recompence the decay of bodily strength as the soule is more excellent then these walls of clay or man then beast this wisdome is not in gray haires but in such a guidance of the minde as that the aged be sober grave temperate sound in faith charity and patience and that Women be in behaviour such as becometh holinesse teachers of good things that the younger may by them learne to be wise to love their Husbands and their Children to be discreet chast keepers at home good obedient to their Husbands that the word of God be not blaspheamed some extreamly erre thinking it the only wisdome of age to be attent to worldly gaines some heathens could say what can be more absurd then the lesse way we have to goe the more solicitous to be to get viands and that they grew old every day learning something how much more studious ought we to be true wisdome which Gods word teacheth 3. Be holy the feare of God is the old mans glory whereof the hoary head is the crowne if it be found in the way of righteousnesse such shall flourish like the Palme tree and Cedar in Lebanon bringing forth fruit in age those I say that are planted in the howse of the Lord. as they that gathered Manna on the Sabbath eve gathered twice as much as for an other day so they that are holy lay up a double store in age for their eternall rest at hand their encreasing sanctity like shadowes of the setting sunne is then multiplied They injure age who casting their faults on it entertaine it as some unwelcome guest some evill it is their errour which makes it so it can never be well with the sinner but every age is good to the just as evill to the sinner is that most which is neerest his judgement 4. Live to God and thine own eternall blessednesse if thou wilt live to men in temporall relations these gray haires wrinkles and ruines of youth strength and beauty may create thee some contempt but if the centre of thy desires be the chiefe good that must best please thee which makes thee best and so these sorrowes of thy aged brow fraitfull of counsaile gravity temperance holy contempt of the world and preparation for a passage to a better life as thy hoary head wisedomes banners shall be welcome to thee make use therefore of time for eternity and provide for that state to which this decaying earthly tabernacle shall againe be so repaired that the glory of the second house shall be greater then that of the first so shall thy life seem long enough if in an age long or short thou canst reckon but few mispent daies so shall thy bodily defects not be so grievous a little strength will be enough to lift up the hands to God where the heart is right neither those of the minde as decay of memory and the like old men can remember that they most care for and age hath a capacity of amendment in those evills which blemish it as talkativenesse anger frowardnesse and such like which removed it shall be more lovely winning by a milde gravity and of more authority with men however God taketh no advantages on our weaknesse so shall this age appeare most happy he lived not unprofitably who dyeth happily 5. Consider the vanity and frailty of this present life and learne to live which few doe though they number many years none truly doe who live not to God the end of their creation and living she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth living to God shall make that age more happy which bringeth thee neere as that most happy which brings thee to him The Old Mans supplication O Lord God of my salvation I humbly desire to render thee all due and hearty thankes for thy abundant mercies and favours spirituall and temporall thy gracious preservation of me from my youth up unto my hoary haires that thou sparedst me in thy fatherly mercy when thy justice might often have destroyed me Lord as thou hast given me place for repentance reserving me to age who mightest justly have cut off the daies of a mispent youth so now accomplish thine own worke give me an heart faithfully to turne unto thee that I may constantly endeavour to redeeme the vaine errours of my time past by becomming a patterne of faith and obedience to all those with whom I converse Lord fill me with thy holy spirit that I may beare more fruit in my age Forsake me not now I am old and gray headed Remember not the sinnes and follies of my youth let thy power appeare in my weaknesse and the work of thy spirit in the decaies and ruins of this earthly tabernacle by the evident repaire of thine own image in me mortifying the remaindes of sinne and assuring me of my election and calling in Christ Jesus and now ô Lord that the time of my departure draweth nigh give me a watchfull spirit that I may be ready when thou callest seeing there are but few steps between me and this worlds end Lord strengthen me give me a lively faith invincible and constant perseverance in this race the few and evill daies of this earthly pilgrimage that by thy mercifull assistance who workest both the will and the deed and shewest mercy where thou pleasest I may so runne that I may obtaine that when thou pleasest to give me rest from my labours and gather me to my Fathers I may against all the paines and sorrowes of death willingly and cheerefully yeeld up my soule into thy gracious hands in full assurance of my redemption and salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN CHAP. XXXIV Meditations for Woemen neere their Travaile § 1. All misery proceedeth from sinne § 2. Our sinnes pardoned in Christ Why the punishments are not taken away Woemens comfort therein § 3. Directions necessary hereunto 1. ALL misery is the undoubted issue of sinne man was happy in his pure naturalls and creation to the Image of God the only fountaine of blessednesse untill sinne defacing the same subjected him to the curse The first sinner heard the terrible sentence of the almighty peculiar to her sex I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy Conception in sorrow shalt thou bring forth Children these paines in travaile are the first fruits of misery appearing in that Sex which was first in the transgression so dangerous is it to be leaders into sinne
thereof without the soules health Of what certainty or continuance is it at our best strength Are the flowers or bubles more fraile If we are wise we will not quarrell the bitternesse of the medicine so that wee may be recovered 13. Hereby we learne what we owed to God for health and in recovery what use to make thereof which is that wee be truely thankfull that we more holily employ the same knowing that God restored us not to sin that we accompt it lent us for a time to prove us ever remembring that wee must againe be sick and dye that wee betray not the good health which God hath restored us that we might serve him and be blessed to death and selfe-destruction by surfetting drinking gluttony lust this is no better then selfe-murder that wee learne in sommer to provide for winter in the calme against the storme in health against sicknesse 14. God doth herein that which he knoweth best for us though flesh and blood be impatient health hurteth many how much more happily had the theefe murderer adulterer been upon his sick bed then laying wait to sin Innocentius aegrotaret sceleratè sanus this good is in sicknesse it keepeth men more innocent 15. The hand that smiteth us should make us patient as Eli said it is the Lord let him doe what seemeth him good it cannot but bee best which he doth to his children he cannot erre who correcteth those he loveth it is great anger when he smiteth not where sin aboundeth without any apparent judgement as it was with Elies sons who hearkned not unto the voice of their father because the Lord would slay them 6 Fix thy soule affections on the life to come meditate on the resurrectioÌ„ of the dead eternall life where shall be no more sin death curse sicknes old age or infirmity where the tree of life Christ Jesus is in the midest to give eternall perpetuity of happines so shalt thou be more willing to leave this miserable inconstant world for heaven if God restore thee health thou wilt pay thy vowes and spend the remainder of thy life more cheerfully in his service The duties of them that visit the sicke are 1. To remember them of the state of all men in sinne and what neede they have of the grace in Christ thereby to move them to repentance an repaire of all injuries by them done to any 2 To recount to them the promises of God in Christ endeavouring to apply them to them and to exhort them to a chearfull confession of the faith to their own and others comfort and confirmation 3. To be instant with them that they be reconciled to all with whom they have had any enmity or contention 4. To dispose of their estates for the prevention of future controversies 5. To comfort them against the feare of death by those scriptures which have Gods promises for assistance in tryalls and and a serious pressing of the resurrection of the dead and state of future glory 6. To pray with them and for them 7. To moove them faithfully to vow if God restore them to live more holily and carefully or patiently to beare their tryalls and to expect constantly the salvation and deliverance of the Lord. A prayer for the sicke MOst holy iust and mercifull Lord God we thy unworthy servants according to thyne own gratious command and promise to heare us calling on thee in the day of our trouble now appearing before thee humbly acknowledge thy fatherly hand smiting us with sicknesse thy corrections are just and so allayed with mercy that thy chastisements are few to our numberlesse sinnes thou mightest sodainly haue smitten us with death the wages of sinne and given us no more warning after our many contempts of thy law threatning and thy gospell promising but haue permitted us to a sodaine perishing in our sins whome thy long suffering could not leade home to repentance now therefore in thy judgment remember mercy correct us not in thine anger chasten us not in thy heavy displeasure Thy holy sonne Jesus hath taught us to call thee Father O let his spirit assure us that our afflictions are but fatherly chastisments smiting that thou maist heale our soules let them be occasions to make us judge our selves that we may not be condemned with an impenitent world our soules have surfetted on the sweet blessings of health and it is but just that thou now smitest us with want thereof it is mercy by these stripes to shew us our sinnes and bring us to thy mercy seat to beg pardon and obtaine remission thou hast with inâ—inite invincible patience expected our repentance and amendment thou hast allured us with every daies favours powred out upon us when that prevailed not thou doest with greater mercy shew thy justice and compell us by thy chastisements to come unto thee we come now gratious Father as out-worne prodigalls driven home by necessity but it is because when thou sawest us far off in our sinnes and miseries thou madest hast to meet us with thy preventing grace and embraced'st us with thy fatherly mercy and what can wee now say more then that we have sinned against heaven and against thee and are no more worthy to be called thy sonnes have mercy on us turne thy face from our sinnes blot out all our iniquities heale our soules cloath us with the best robe of thy righteousnesse make us as the meanest in thy kingdome doe thy will with us in health or sicknesse life or death only let us be thine It was thy eternall counsaile to redeeme sinfull man by thy sonne Christ Jesus by his righteousnesse to kill sinnes in the flesh to give us eternall life by his death and thou hast accomplished it in the appointed time it remaineth only that thou wilt be pleased to apply the assurance thereof to our consciences that after our afflictions we may enjoy the quiet fruits of righteousnesse the end of our faith salvation of bodies and soules O Lord we could looke for nothing but rejection from thy gracious presence for ever if we were to appeare before thee in our deservings but now that we come in the spotlesse robe of thy sonne Christ his righteousnesse wee are confident of the blessing because thou art faithfull in thy promises for his sake cover our sinnes let thy justice be satisfied in his merit seale up the assurance of our pardon by the spirit of truth which cannot deceave us make us fruitfull in all those workes which may give a comfortable testimony to our consciences that we are thine give us strength to fight the good fight finish our course and keep the faith against the fallacies of Satan corruptions of flesh and blood and seducements of an evill worldt o continue grounded and established that wee may be certaine that for us is laid up that immortall crowne of Righteousnesse which thou wilt give at the last day to all that love thy
appearing meane time make us patient cheerefully to endure our trialls give us hearts rightly composed to wait all the daies of our lives till our changing come And now O gracious Father though wee are most unworthy to speake unto thee for our selves yet seeing thou hast commanded us to call upon thee one for another with promise that the prayers for the righteous shall be available if they be fervent so that they shall save the sick that thou wilt raise them up and if they have committed sinnes they shall be forgiven them we humbly pray thee for this our sick brother Lord assure him of his sinnes remission by the merits of Christ Jesus give him that peace of conscience and inward comfort of thy holy spirit which may manifest thy favour and mercy to him There is nothing impossible to thee which thou wilt doe heare therefore and have mercy on him only speake the word and blesse the meanes that he may be healed if otherwise thou hast determined thy holy will be done Lord who canst make all things happy to thy children give him patience meekely to beare thy fatherly hand remember whereof thou hast made fraile man consider his infirmity measure out his tryalls with that tender hand which best knoweth how to proportion the affliction to that strength which thy selfe hast given him O Lord God of all comfort leave him not comfortlesse but as the outward man decayeth strengthen the inward suffer not the malicious tempter to cast down or shake his confidence in Christ Jesus let not the sonne of violence come neere him as thou hast all his life time from his mothers wombe unto this present given thyne angells charge over him to pitch their tents about him so be pleased in this time of tryall to open to him the eie of faith whereby he may cleerely perceive that they are more and stronger with him then can be against him send the holy spirit the comforter to his afflicted soule to bring to memory and apply all these gracious promises which thou hast made thine elect Blessed Jesus who hast therefore taken our fraile nature on thee that thou mightst have experience of our miseries who best knowest what it is to dy having in thyne own death and bitterest passion overcome death and him that had the power thereof to deliver us from sinne and destruction the bitter fruite and effect therof now appeare his comforter assuring him of his interest in thy sufferings give him such a sense of thy mercy that the gates of hell may never prevaile against it such experience of the life of thy spirit and power by which thou didst rise againe from the dead that hee may certainely know that his Redeemer liveth and shall at last shew the same power in his resurrection in which he shall with the rest of thine elect at the voyce of the last trumpet be raised from the dust of the earth to meet thee in the clouds of heaven to see thee with those now languishing eyes which must at and to the appointed time be cloased to sleep in thee that hee may rest from his labours And now O Lord who hast hid from us the houre of our dissolution that we might alwaies expect thee let thy good spirit which sleepeth not set a carefull watch over every one of our soules that we may never sleepe without oyle in our lamps but be ready at thy appearance to enter with thee into thy kingdom where all sorrow shall cease in the fulnes of joy faith in the fruition of thy promises and this state of misery and corruption in a never ending life of glory and immortality Lord heare and help us Lord grant us these requests and whatsoever else thou knowest more needfull what thou hast promised or we should aske for thy Sonne Christ Jesus sake in whose words and mediation we conclude our imperfect prayers Our Father which art in heaven c. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ c. Thanksgiâ—ing for health recovered O Lord God gracious and mercifull aboundant in goodnesse and truth heaven and earth sound out thy praise all thy creatures tasting of thy providence and preservation praise thee and what have I more to present thee with them what can I lesse then my humble and hearty thanks for thy tender mercy toward me whom thou hast therefore delivered from sicknesse and sorrowes of death that I might yet live to glorifie thy name among the living and for the comfort of others to declare what thou hast done for my poore soule how thou hast raised me by casting mee down and healed me by wounding an afflicted conscience with a terrible sense of thy severe judgements how thou didst sanctify my sicknesse by giving me an heart to looke up to thy fatherly hand which smote me to acknowledge my sinnes for which thou correctedest me to repent me of the same assured of thy mercy in Christ Jesus to resolve and vow to forsake all my sinfull waies to doe a more holy and faithfull endeavour to serve and please thee And now O Lord I humbly pray thee enlarge my heart and tongue to praise and glorifie thy holy and great name all things are of thee and what can any creature give thee but of thine owne hand Lord give mee that sacrifice of praise and thankesgiving which may be acceptable to thee that I may henceforth not onely speake but live thankefully and holily before thee that I may pay my vowes which I made in my distresse and feare so that it may be good for me that I have beene afflicted that I may in all temperance and godlinesse make a right use of health restored me and of the daies which thou addest to my life to thy glory and the comfortable assurance of my conscience both in life and death That thou who hast begun to shew mercy maist be pleased to continue the same in thy gratious preservation of me so that at my last houre which thou hast appointed me the former experience of thy mercy may give me a sound hope and full assurance that thou wilt keepe me unto and in my end that when this house of clay shall be dissolved I shall rest with my Saviour Jesus Christ untill the time determined to raise the dead in him to the life of glory in which our Forerunner now sitteth at thy right hand to whom with thee O Father of mercy and God of all consolation and the holy spirit bee rendred all honour praise and glory in Heaven and on Earth for ever and ever AMEN A Prayer for the sicke of the Plague O Allmighty God great and terrjble in thy judgments yet of infinite mercy and compassion to those who truly seeke thee wee humbly acknowledge that not only this plague wherein thou now afflictest this land is due unto our sinnes but also allother thy severe judgments to our destruction and desolation and to whome shall we seek for helpe but to the whome we haue so continually
read hee cast himselfe into the sea what ever other speculations they had with Adrian Caesars uncertainty what should become of the soule after death there could be no solid and true comfort in it nor can any thing be so infallible as to comfort an afflicted soule in death but that onely which God saith where that pronounceth blessed are the dead their spirits rest in Christ they shall rise againe and see God in the same flesh we may rest assured of those comforts heaven and earth shall passe away but no tittle of Gods Word shall faile 10 Repent and turne unto the Lord quickly deferre not with the foolish virgins untill the bridegroome come it will be too late to knocke when the doore of mercy is shut up remember that profane Esau sought the blessing too late he that hath promised mercy to the penitent hath not promised thee to morrow nor to give thee an heart to repent then Fly youthfull lusts 2 Tim. 2. 22. but as the Angell said to Lot going out of Sodome Genes 19. 22. Hast thee now while thou art in health fly from the wrath to come in death thy slight will be heavy after death impossible the evill thou wilt not now fly thou canst not then those things which thou here committest with delight shall there follow thee with revenge Ever feare least this day may be the last because thou art not sure thou shalt live to morrow how many seeming healthfull how many young and strong hast thou knowne sodainly taken away If thy youth be past in sinne yet amend thy age Happy shall he be who under the stroke of death can with the penitent theefe turne unto the Lord. 11 So ever behave thy selfe towards men that thou needest not be ashamed to live longer and so make thy peace with God that thou maist not feare to dye As dying Ambrose said because we have a good God Knowing the strict examination of Gods justice he saith he trusted in the good God not in any merits of his own though men knew nothing of him whereof he might be ashamed It is an happy temper of the minde wherein we neither wish nor feare to dye The misery of the unbeleever is that being weary of life he is yet afraid of death Only assurance of thy sinnes remission and eternall salvation in Christ can give thee comfort against and in death seeke thy peace with God through him To comfort our selves in our deare friends death the rule is that we sorrow not as men without hope sorrow we may that is humane sorrow hath its place in man and justification in Christs teares at Lazarus grave but it must hold a mean the Saints have mourned for the dead but moderatly and not without the resolution which David expressed 2. Sam. 12. 23. I shall goe to him but he shall not returne to me least too much affection should be mistaken and piety toward the dead misconstrued by unbeleevers for dispaire in God The apathie of Pericles Zenophon and others in their sonnes deaths are not examples for us The meanes to comfort herein is 1 To consider and firmely beleeve that they are but gone before us they are not lost that the living body which thou now sowest with teares shall rise againe with joy a glorified creature that we shall meet in heaven and never part againe and that with greater advantage of love and perfection the most perfect secular amity hath some bitternesse because the best have some imperfection but there shall bee nothing in friends to grieve and discontent each other because no sinne nor imperfection Now if wee are indeed confident of such a resurrection why should we bewaile the dead Why too much if we believe they are not lost Why should wee impatiently take it that they are withdrawne for a time whom we beleeve returning to eternity Why should we immoderatly grieve that our friends goe before us seeing wee must quickly followe them 2 To consider that thou lamentest thine own losse not thy good friends wherein as I said thou shouldst rationally rejoyce rather that thou hadst such a one then mourne that hee is gone to God could the deceased Saint for whom thou grievest but heare and speake from heaven to thee what would he else say then that which our blessed Saviour going to overcome death by dying said to the daughters of Jerusalem weepe not for mee but weepe for your selves They need not ever sorrow who are arrived there where there can be no sorrow 3 To consider what state wee have in any thing secular and for what terme what canst thou so call thine as being certaine thou shalt enjoy it one day more and shal we for want of wisedome to hold these temporall blessings with a loose hand ready to let goe when God will resume make them bitter to us also did our deare friends qualities therefore delight us when they lived with us that their memory might afflict us when they are deceased Telamon and Anaxagoras knew but they had mortall children and shall not wee know that our immortality is not here but in the world to come It is a shame to Christians if their faith come short of others infidelity Heathens could say that we ought not to bewaile that death which immortalitie followeth that the deceased lived a more happy life that the soule is divine and heavenly how unexcusable is it for us to thinke the Saints were made for earth onely and to be imprisoned in these houses of clay for ever They condemned immoderate sorrow for the dead how doe we bewray our carnall dissidence or perverse affections in our excesse when we grieve for them who are incomparably more happy then we They stand on the blessed shore expecting our arrivall from this sea of glasse mingled with â—ire And who can say that those new inhabitants of the heavenly Jerusalem doe not daily looke for us among the happy soules as Joseph and Mary sought Christ at the earthly The old Massilians buried their dead without mourning The Easterne people with musick some bewailed their births and rejoyced in their funerals others crowned their dead as then victorious it is enough to comfort us concerning them did not flesh and blood beare too great a part that God pronounceth them blessed There are three things which are counted sorrowes lenitives Time Reason and Religion the first will prevaile to asswage sorrow even in bruits The first and second in carnall men and why then dost thou immoderately mourne who hast the helpe of religion the comfort of knowledge and Gods oracles to allay thy griefe Why should not rather sanctified reason then time asswage thy sorrow To conclude remember these three things 1. That it is no extraordinary thing to loose a deare frrend and why then should'st
me an invincible faith in thee against which the gates of hell may never prevaile now speake peace and comfort to my poore soule Thou who powredst out thy soule to death for me receive my wearied spirit to eternall life let not this fearefull passage be too bitter to mee bee thou ever present with me in all my sufferings O holy Ghost the comforter of all the elect leave me not comfortlesse let me be gathered to my fathers in peace bring me to that life wherein thou hast promised to wipe away all teares from our eyes where shall bee no more death sorrow paine nor any bitter effects of sinne Lord heare me Lord who despisest not a broken and contrite heart have mercy upon me Lord receive my petitions and in the appointed houre come Lord Jesus my Saviour and Redeemer deliver me from this bondage of corruption O Lord consider and doe it Lord come quickly even so come LORD JESUS AMEN 1. TIM 1. 17 Now unto the king eternall imortall invisible the only wise God he honour and glory for ever and everâ— AMEN FINIS MARCH 23. 1649 In the perusing of this Treatise entituled a Guide to the Holy City I have found it every way so learned and judicious sound and solid pious and profitable that I approve it well worthy to be printed and published John Downame a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sap. Sol. c. 16. v. 20. b Febri fâ—â—um in palatio dicatum estâ— malae fortunae c. Plin. nat hist l. 2. c. 7. vid. Aug. de c. Dei l. 2. c. 14. Cic. de leg lib. 2. Quid mirum inquit Lactan. l. 1. c. 20 de Graeciâ 〈◊〉 hac geâ—e universa flagitia manarunt apud quam vitia ipsa religiosa sunt eaque non modo non vitantur vâ—rum 〈◊〉 coluntur c Bovem aut oâ—em qui sacrficando par non esset 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril Alex. proëm com in â—oh d Exod. 35. 5 6. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spontancum cor ejus Ar. Montan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 70. aut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hutter e Quisquis hac legit ubi pariter â—â—rtus est pergat â—â—cum ubi pariter haesitat quarat â—â—cum ubi errorâ—m suum cognoscit redeat ad me ubi mâ—um revocet me ita ingrediamur simul charitatis viam c. August de Trin. l. 1. c. 3. f Non fratrum mâ—orum vocâ—ri Magister aut Doctor affecto quorum in veritate condiscipulus semper esse desiâ—ero quapropter hoc ab illo vero Domino ac Magistro nostro postulare non desino ut ea me sive per eloquia scripturarum c. docâ—re dignetur quae sic proponam sic asseram ut in propositionibus atquâ— assertionibus meis veritati quae nec fallit nec fallitur semper inhaeream c. Fulgent de praedest l. 1. g Act. 20. 32. h 2. Tim. 2 7. a Sicut omnis artis â—st aliquis â—inis 〈◊〉 est vitâ—e nostrae â—inis quidam propter quâ—m geruntur omnia quae geruntur in vita nostra vâ—l propter quem mundus ipse vel institutus est vel constat cujus finis etiam Apostolus meminit diâ—câ—s deinde finis c. Orig. in Ps. 38. ho 2. b Finis enim indicat perfectionem rerum ib in Rom. 1. l. 8. c. 10. In non valet in 〈◊〉 suum c nihilum valet quod d Finis eorum non â—st sinis Bernard sup Cant. Ser. 9. e Psal. 87. 37. f Math. 7. 13. g Latam non quaerimus nec inventione opus est sponte se oâ—â—ert errantium viaâ—st â—ngustam vero nec omnes invâ—ni unt nec qui invenirint statim ingreâ—iuntur per cam rapti seculi voluptatibus de medio in itinere revertuntur Hieronym in Mat. h Deut 29. 19 20. i Act. 14. 22. k Gen 25. 32. l Num. 32. 1 2 5. m Rev. 4. 11. R. 5. 13. n Psal. 16. 11. 17. 15. 1 Thes. 4. 17. 2 Cor. 5 6. 8. Phil. 1. 23. o Epicurus summum bonum in voluptate auimi â—sse censet Aristippus in volâ—ptate corporiâ— Peripateâ—ici autemin bonis animi corporis fortunae Hevilli summâ—m bonum est sciâ—â—â—ia Lactan. l. 3. c. 8. 9. p Genes 11. 4. q 1 Tim. 1. 5. r Gen. 4. 5. s Prov. 15. 8. Rom. 14. 2. t Jam. 2. 20. u Gen. 30. 1. w 2 Tim. 3. 15 Deut. 32. 47. x Unde abest scientia id totii possidet opinatio Scientia certi est opinatio incerti Lactan. l. 3. c. 3. Nec enim valet quicquam mortalis hominis auctoritas sed divinis c. ib l. 5. c. 20. y Cui falsum subesse non potest z Tit. 1. 2. a Cic. Tusâ— q. l. 1. b Rom. 1. 19. c Vitam colâ—nâ—ium Dâ—us proqualitate nominis sui formet quoniam religiosissimus cultus est imitatio Lact. l. 5. c. 10. Non profanus meliùs esset quaâ—â—ic religiosus quomodo Deum â—iolat qui hoc modo placatur Min. Foel Oct. d Heb. 11. 6. e Joh. 1. 11. f Hic nec videri potest visu clarior nec comprehendi tactu purior nec estimari sensibus major est insinitus immensus soli sibi tantus quantus est notus c ibid. Min. Fael Oct. g 2 Cor. 5. 7. h Joh. 20. 29. i Hebr. 11. 1. k Ephes. 2. 8. Sect. II. l Neque enim quis cogi potest sed invitatur quia non extorquatur sed suadetur Ambrosi in Rom. 4. m Ro. 10. 17. n Regula quidem fidei una omnino est sola immobilis Tertul de virg veland â— 1. o Rom. 8. 16. p Act. 16 14. q 1 Cor. 3. 5 6. r 1 Cor. 2. 14. animalem dicit naturalem c. Theophilact in 1 Cor. 2. s 2 Thes. 3. 2. t 〈◊〉 Ap. c. 24 u 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Occumen w Act. 13. 48. x Eph. 1. 13. 14. y 2 Cor. 1. 22. Cor. 5. 5. Math. 6. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Theophilact ib. a Gall. 3. 11. b Heb. 11. 6. c Ro. 14. 23. d Joh. 3. 16. e Rom. 5. 1. f 1 Joh. 1. 7. Rom. 4. 5 6. g Rom. 8. 1. h Rom. 4. 24 25. i Act. 15. 9. k Mat. 16. 18. l Ephes. 6. 16. Rom. 4. 11. 17. 18. m Jam. 2. 23. n 2 Tim. 4. 6 7 8 18. 2 Tim. 1. 12. o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cytil Catec 5. p Laudo fidem quae ante credit obsâ—rvandii esse quam didicit Tettul de coron mil. q Tertul. de bapt c. 20. r Hebr. 11. 9 10. 33 34. s Math. 21. 22. t 1 Cor. 3. 21 22 23. u 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oecumen w 〈◊〉 3. 12. x 1 Pet. 1. 9. y Rom. 12. 3. Ephes. 4. 7. z Exod. 16. 18. 2 Cor. 8. 15. a Credo domine side sateor imbeciâ—li side tamen b 2 Cor. 12. 9. c Vincentes coronat retributione pietatis paternae