of charity that this day and ever I may serve thee according to all my opportunities and capacities growing from grace to grace till at last by thy mercies I shall receive the consummation and perfection of grace even the glories of thy Kingdom in the full fruition of the face and excellencies of God the Father the Son and the holy Ghost to whom be glory and praise honour and adoration given by all Angels and all Men and all Creatures now and to all eternity Amen To this may be added the prayer of intercession for others whom we are bound to remember which is at the end of the foregoing prayer or else you may take such special prayers which follow at the end of the fourth Chapter for parents for children c. After which conclude with this ejaculation Now and in all tribulation and anguish of spirit in all dangers of soul and body in prosperity and adversity in the hour of death and in the day of judgement holy and most blessed Saviour Jesus have mercy upon me save me and deliver me and all faithful people Amen Between this and Noâ—n usually are said the publick prayers appointed by Authority to which all the Clergy are obliged and other devout persons that have leisure do accompany them Afternoon or at any time of the day when a devout person retires into his closer for private prayer or spiritual exercises he may say the following devotions An exercise to be used at any time of the day In the name of the Father and of the Son c. Our Father c. The hymn collected out of the Psalms recounting the excellencies and greatnesse of God O be joyful in God all ye lands sing praises unto the honour of his Name make his Name to be glorious * O Come hither behold the works of God how wonderful he is in his doings toward the children of men He ruleth with his power for ever He is the Father of the fatherlesse and defendeth the cause of the widow even God in his holy habitation He is the God that maketh men to be of one minde in a house and bringeth the prisoners out of captivity but letteth the runnagates continue in scarcenesse It is the Lord that commandeth the warers it is the glorious God that maketh the thunder * It is the Lord that ruleth the sea the voice of the Lord is mighty in operation the voice of the Lord is a glorious voice Let all the Earth fear the Lord stand in awe of him all ye that dwell in the world Thou shalt shew us wonderful things in thy righteousnesse O God of our salvation thou that art the hope of all the ends of the Earth and of them that remaine in the broad Sea Glory be to the Father c. Or this O Lord thou art my God I will exalt thee I will praise thy Name for thou hast done wonderful things thy counsels of old are faithfulnesse and truth Isay 25.1 Thou in thy strength â—etst fast the Mountains and art girded about with power Thou stillest the raging of the Sea and the noise of his waves and the madnesse of his people They also that remain in the uttermost parts of the Earth shall be afraid at thy tokens thou that makest the out-goings of the morning and evening to praise thee O Lord God of Hosts who is like unto thee thy truth most mighty Lord is on every side Among the gods there is none like unto thee O Lord there is none that can do as thou doest * For thou art great doest wondrous things thou art God alone God is very greatly to be feared in the counsel of the Saints and to be had in reverence of all them that are round about him Righteousnesse and equity is in the habitation of thy seat mercy and truth shall go before thy face * Glory and worship are before him power and honour are in his Sanctuary Thou Lord art the thing that I long for thou art my hope even from my youth through thee have I been holden up ever since I was born thou art he that took me out of my mothers womb my praise shall be alwayes of thee Glory be to the Father c. After this may be read some portion of holy Scripture out of the New Testament or out of the sapiential bookes of the Old viz. Proverbs Ecclesiastes c. because these are of great use to piety and to civil conversation Vpon which when you have a while meditated humbly composing your self upon your knees say as followeth Ejaculations My help standeth in the Name of the Lord who hath made Heaven and Earth Shew the light of thy countenance upon thy servant and I shall be safe Do well O Lord to them that be true of heart and evermore mightily defend them Direct me in thy truth and teach me for thou art my Saviour and my great Master Keep me from sin and death eternal and from my enemies visible and invisible Give me grace to live a holy life and thy favour that I may dye a godly and happy death Lord hear the prayer of thy servant and give me thy holy Spirit The prayer O Eternal God mercifull and gracious vouchsafe thy favour and thy blessing to thy servant let the love of thy mercies and the dread and fear of thy Majesty make me careful and inquisitive to search thy will and diligent to perform it and to persevere in the practises of a holy life even till the last of my dayes II. KEep me O Lord for I am thine by creation guide me for I am thine by purchase thou hast redeemed me by the blood of thy Son and love me with the love of a Father for I am thy childe by adoption and grace let thy mercy pardon my sins thy providence secure me from the punishments and evils I have deserved and thy care watch over me that I may never any more offend thee make me in malice to be a childe but in understanding piety and the fear of God let me be a perfect man in Christ innocent and prudent readily furnished and instructed to every good work III. KEep me O Lord from the destroying Angel and from the wrath of God let thy anger never rise against mee but thy rod gently correct my follies and guide me in thy ways and thy staffe support me in all sufferings and changes Preserve me from fracture of bones from noisome infections and sharp sicknesses from great violences of Fortune and sudden surprizes keep all my senses intire till the day of my death and let my death be neither sudden untimely nor unprovided let it be after the common manner of men having in it nothing extraordinary but an extraordinary piety and the manifestation of thy great and miraculous mercy IV. LEt no riches ever make me forget my self no poverty ever make me to forget thee Let no hope or fear no pleasure or pain no accident without no weaknesse within hinder or
out that the people is a Heard of unlearned and ignorant persons ill judges loud trumpets but which never give certain sound let us use the same art to humble our selves and never take delight and pleasure in publike reports and acclamations of assemblies and please our selves with their judgement of whom in other the like cases we affirm that they are mad 4. We change our opinion of others by their Kindnesse or unkindnesse towards us If he be my Patron and bounteous he is wise he is noble his faults are but warts his vertues are mountainous but if he proves unkinde or rejects our importunate suite then he is ill natured covetous and his free meal is called gluttony that which before we called civility is now very drunkennesse and all he speakes is flat and dull and ignorant as a swine This indeed is unjust towards others but a good instrument if we turn the edge of it upon our selves we use our selves ill abusing our selves with false principles cheating our selves with lies and pretences stealing the choice and election from our wils placing voluntary ignorance in our understandings denying the desires of the Spirit setting up a faction against every noble and just desire the least of which because we should resent up to reviling the injurious person it is but reason we should at least not flatter our selves with fond and too kinde opinions 5. Every day call to minde some one of thy foulest sinnes or the most shameful of thy disgraces or the indiscreetest of thy actions or any thing that did then most trouble thee and apply it to the present swelling of thy spirit and opinion and it may help to allay it 6. Pray often for this grace with all humility of gesture and passion of desire and in thy devotion interpose many acts of humility by way of confession and addresse to God and reflection upon thy self 7. Avoid great Offices and imployments and the noises of worldly honour For in those states many times so many ceremonies and circumstances will seeme necessary as will destroy the sobriety of thy thoughts If the number of thy servants be fewer and their observances lesse and their reverences lesse solemn possibly they will seeme lesse then thy dignity and if they bee so much and so many it is likely they will be too big for thy spirit And here bee thou very carefull lest thou bee abused by a pretence that thou wouldest use thy great Dignity as an opportunity of doing great good For supposing it might be good for others yet it is not good for thee they may have encouragement in noble things from thee and by the same instrument thou mayest thy self be tempted to pride and vanity And certaine it is GOD is as much glorified by thy example of humility in a low or temperate condition as by thy bounty in a great and dangerous 8. Make no reflexe acts upon thy owne humility nor upon any other grace with which GOD hath enriched thy soul. For since GOD oftentimes hides from his Saints and Servants the sight of those excellent things by which they shine to others though the darke side of the Lanterne be towards themselves that hee may secure the grace of humility it is good that thou doe so thy self and if thou beholdest a grace of GOD in thee remember to give him thanks for it that you may not boast in that which is none of thy own and consider how thou hast sullyed it by handling it with dirty fingers with thy own imperfections and with mixture of unhandsome circumstances Spiritual pride is very dangerous not onely by reason it spoiles so many graces by which wee drew nigh to the Kingdome of GOD but also because it so frequently creeps upon the spirit of holy persons For it is no wonder for a Beggar to call himself poor or a Drunkard to confesse that he is no sober person But for a holy person to be humble for one whom all men esteeme a Saint to fear lest himselfe become a Devil and to observe his own danger and to discern his own infirmities and make discovery of his bad adherencies is as hard as for a Prince to submit himself to be guided by Tutors and make himself subject to discipline like the meanest of his servants 9. Often meditate upon the effects of Pride on one side and Humility on the other 1. That Pride is like a Canker and destroyes the beauty of the fairest flowers the most excellent gifts and graces but Humility crownes them all Secondly That Pride is a great hinderance to the perceiving the things of GOD and Humility is an excellent preparative and instrument of spiritual wisdom Thirdly That Pride hinders the acceptation of our prayers but Humility pierceth the clouds and will not depart till the most High shall regard Fourthly That Humility is but a speaking truth and all Pride is a lye Fifthly That Humility is the most certain way to reall honour and pride is ever affronted or despised Sixthly That Pride turnd Lucifer into a Devil and Humility exalted the Son of God above every Name and placed him eternally at the right hand of his Father Seventhly That GOD resisteth the proud professing open defiance and hostility against such persons but giveth grace to the humble * Grace and pardon * remedy and relief against misery and oppression * content in all conditions * tranquillity of spirit * patience in afflictions * love abroad * peace at home * and utter freedom from contention and * the sin of censuring others * and the trouble of being censured themselves For the humble man will not judge his brother for the mote in his eye being more troubled at the beam in his own eye and is patient and glad to be reproved because himself hath cast the first stone at himself and therefore wonders not that others are of his minde 10. Remember that the blessed Saviour of the world hath done more to prescribe and transmit and secure this grace than any other his whole life being a great continued example of humility a vast descent from the glorious bosom of his Father to the womb of a poor mayden to the form of a servant to the miseries of a sinner to a life of labour to a state of poverty to a death of malefactors to the grave of death and the intolerable calamities which we deserved and it were a good designe and yet but reasonable that we should be as humble in the midst of our greatest imperfections basest sins as Christ was in the midst of his fulnesse of the spirit great wisdom perfect life and most admirable vertues 11. Drive away all flatterers from thy company and at no hand endure them for he that endures himself so to be abused by another is not onely a fool for entertaining the mockery but loves to have his own opinion of himself to be heightned and cherished 12. Never change thy imployment for the sudden
coming of another to thee But if modesty permits or discretion appear to him that visits thee the same that thou wert to God and thy self in thy privacy But if thou werâ— walking or sleeping or in any other innocent imploiment or retirement snatch not up a book to seem studious nor fall on thy knees to seem devout nor alter any thing to make him believe thee better imployed then thou wert 13 To the same purpose it is of great use that he who would preserve his humilitie should choose some spiritual person to whom he shall oblige himself to discover his very thoughts and fancies every act of his and all his entercourse with others in which there may be danger that by such an opennesse of spirit he may expose every blast of vain glory every idle thought to be chastened and lessened by the rod of spiritual discipline and he that shall finde himself tyed to confesse every proud thought every vanity of his spirit will also perceive they must not dwell with him nor finde any kindnesse from him and besides this the nature of pride is so shameful and unhandsome that the very discovery of it is a huge mortification and means of suppressing it A man would be ashamed to be told that he enquires after the faults of his last Oration or action on purpose to be commended therefore when the man shall tell his spiritual Guide the same shameful story of himself it is very likely he will be humbled and heartily ashamed of it 14. Let every man suppose what opinion he should have of one that should spend his time in playing with drumsticks and cockle-shells and that should wrangle all day long with a little boy for pins or should study hard and labour much to cozen a childe of his gauds and who would run into a river deep and dangerous with a great burden upon his back even then when he were told of the danger and earnestly importuned not to do it and let him but change the Instances and the person and he shall finde that he hath the same reason to think as bad of himself who pursues trifles with earnestnesse spending his time in vanity and his labour for that which profits not who knowing the laws of God the rewards of vertue the cursed consequents of sin that it is an evil spirit that tempts him to it a Devil one that hates him that longs extreamly to ruine him that it is his own destruction that he is then working that the pleasures of his sin are base and bruitish unsatisfying in the enjoyment soon over shameful in their story bitter in the memory painful in the effect here and intolerable hereafter and for ever yet in despite of all this he runs foolishly into his sin and his ruine meerly because he is a fool and winks hard and rushes violently like a horse into the battel or like a mad man to his death He that can think great and good things of such a person the next step may court the rack for an instrument of pleasure and admire a swine for wisdom and go for counsel to the prodigall and trifling grashopper After the use of these and such like instruments and considerations if you would try how your soul is grown you shall know that humility like the root of a goodly tree is thrust very farre into the ground by these goodly fruits which appeare above ground Signes of Humility 1. The humble man trusts not to his own discretion but in matters of concernment relyes rather upon the judgement of his friends counsellers or spiritual guides 2. He does not pertinaciously pursue the choice of his own will but in all things lets God choose for him and his Superiours in those things which concern them 3. He does not murmur against commands 4. He is not inquisitive into the reasonableness of indifferent and innocent commands but believes their command to be reason enough in such cases to exact his obedience 5. He lives according to a rule and with compliance to publick customs without any affectation or singularity 6. He is meek and indifferent in all accidents and chances 7. He patiently bears injuries 8. He is alwayes unsatisfied in his own conduct resolutions and counsels 9. He is a great lover of good men and a praiser of wise men and a censurer of no man 10. He is modest in his speech and reserv'd in his laughter 11. He fears when he hears himself commended leâ—t God make another judgment concerning his actions than men do 12. He gives no pert or saucy answers when he is reproved whether justly or unjustly 13. He loves to sit down in private and if he may he refuses the temptation of offices and new honours 14. He is ingenuous free and open in his actions and discourses 15. He mends his fault and gives thanks when he is admonished 16. He is ready to do good offices to the murderers of his fame â—o his slanderers backbiters and detractors as Christ washed the feet of Iudas 17. And is contented to be suspected of Indiscretion so before God he may be really innocent and not offensive to his neghbour nor wanting to his just and 〈◊〉 in terest SECT V. Of Modesty MOdesty is the appendage of Sobriety and is to Chastity â—o Temperance and to Humility as the fringes are to a Garment It is a grace of God that moderates the over-activenesse and curiosity of the minde and orders the passions of the body and external actions and is directly opposed to Curiosity to Boldnesse to Vndecency The practise of Modesty consists in these following rules Acts and duties of Modesty as it is opposed to Curiosity 1. Inquire not into the secrets of God but be content to learn thy duty according to the quality of thy person or imployment that is plainly if thou beest not concerned in the conduct of others but if thou beest a teacher learne it so as may best enable thee to discharge thy office Gods commandments were proclaimed to all the world but Gods counsels are to himself and to his secret ones when they are admitted within the veil 2. Inquire not into the things which are too hard for thee but learn modestly to know thy infirmities and abilities and raise not thy mind up to enquire into mysteries of State or the secrets of Government or difficulties Theological if thy imployment really be or thy understanding be judged to be of a lower rank 3. Let us not enquire into the affairs of others that concerne us not but be busied within our selves and our own spheres ever remembring that to pry into the actions or interests of other men not under our charge may minister to pride to tyranny to uncharitablenesse to trouble but can never consist with modesty unlesse where duty or the mere intentions of charity and relation do warrant it 4. Never listen at the doors or windows for besides that it contains in it
for his beauty or Achitophel for his policy It is likely he would wish all these and yet he would be the same person still For every man hath desires of his own and objects just fitted to them without which he cannot be unlesse he were not himself And let every man that loves himself so well as to love himself before all the world consider if he have not something for which in the whole he values himself far more then he can value any man else There is therefore no reason to take the finest feathers from all the winged nation to deck that bird that thinks already she is more valuable then any the inhabitants of the ayre Either change all or none Cease to love your self best or be content with that portion of being and blessing for which you love your self so well 3. It conduces much to our content if we passe by those things which happen to our trouble and consider that which is pleasing and prosperous that by the representation of the better the worse may be blotted out and at the worst you have enough to keep you alive and to keep up and to improve your hopes of Heaven If I be overthrown in my suit at Law yet my house is left me still and my land or I have a vertuous wife or hopeful children or kinde friends or good hopes If I have lost one childe It may be I have two or three still left me or else reckon the blessings which already you have received and therefore be pleased in the change and variety of affairs to receive evil from the hand of God as well as good Antipater of Tarsus used this art to support his sorrows on his death bed and reckoned the good things of his past life not forgetting to recount it as a blessing and argument that God tooke care of him that he had a prosperous journey from Cilicia to Athens Or else please thy self with hopes of the future for we were not born with this sadnesse upon us and it was a change that brought us into it and a change may bring us out again Harvest will come and then every farmer is rich at least for a moneth or two It may be thou art entered into the cloud which will bring a gentle shower to refresh thy sorrows Now suppose thy self in as great a sadnesse as ever did load thy spirit wouldest thou not beare it cheerfully and nobly if thou wert sure that within a certain space some strange excellent fortune would relieve thee and enrich thee and recompence thee so as to overflow all thy hopes and thy desires and capacities Now then when a sadnesse lies heavy upon thee remember that thou art a Christian designed to the inheritance of Jesus and what dost thou think concerning thy great fortune thy lot and portion of eternity Doest thou think thou shalt be saved or damned Indeed if thou thinkest thou shalt perish I cannot blame thee to be sad sad till thy heart-strings crack but then why art thou troubled at the losse of thy money what should a damned man do with money which in so great a sadnes it is impossible for him to enjoy Did ever any man upon the rack afflict himself because he had received a crosse answer from his Mistresse or call for the particulars of a purchase upon the gallows If thou doest really believe thou shalt be damned I do not say it will cure the sadnesse of thy poverty but it will swallow it up * But if thou believest thou shalt be saved consider how great is that joy how infinite is that change how unspeakable is the glory how excellent is the recompence for all the sufferings in the world if they were all laden upon thy spirit So that let thy condition be what it will if thou considerest thy own present condition and compare it to thy future possibility thou canst not feel the present smart of a crosse fortune to any great degree either because thou hast a far bigger sorrow or a far bigger joy Here thou art but a stranger travelling to thy Countrey where the glories of a kingdom are prepared for thee it is therefore a huge folly to be much afflicted because thou hast a lesse convenient Inne to lodge in by the way But these arts of looking forwards and backwards are more then enough to support the spirit of a Christian there is no man but hath blessings enough in present possession to outweigh the evils of a great affliction Tell the joynts of thy body and do not accuse the universal providence for a lame leg or the want of a finger when all the rest is perfect and you have a noble soul a particle of Divinity the image of GOD himself and by the want of a finger you may the better know how to estimate the remaining parts and to account for every degree of the surviving blessings Aristippus in a great suit at law lost a Farm and to a Gentleman who in civility pitied and deplored his losse He answered I have two Farms left still and that is more then I have lost and more then you have by one If you misse an Office for which you stood Candidate then besides that you are quit of the cares and the envy of it you still have all those excellencies which rendred you capable to receive it and they are better then the best Office in the Common-wealth If your estate be lessened you need the lesse to care who governs the Province whether he be rude or gentle I am cross'd in my journey and yet I scaped robbers and I consider that if I had been seâ— upon by Villanes I would have redeem'd that evil by this which I now suffer and have counted it a deliverance or if I did fall into the hands of theeves yet they did not steal my land or I am fallen into the hands of Publicans and Sequestrators and they have taken all from me what now let me look about me They have left me the Sun and the Moon Fire and Water a loving wife and many friends to pity me and some to relieve me and I can still discourse and unlesse I list they have not taken away my merry countenance and my cheerful spirit and a good conscience they still have left me the providence of God and all the promises of the Gospel and my Religion and my hopes of Heaven and my charity to them too and still I sleep and digest I eat and drink I reade and meditate I can walk in my Neighbours pleasant fields and see the varieties of natural beauties and delight in all that in which God delights that is in vertue and wisdom in the whole creation and in God himself and he that hath so many causes of joy and so great is very much in love with sorrow and peevishness who loses all these pleasures and chooses to sit down upon his little handful of thorns such a person were fit to bear Nâ—ro
but if you desire this you must lose that and unlesse you be content with one you lose the comfort of both If you covet Learning you must have leisure and a retired life if to be a Polititian you must go abroad and get experience and do all businesses and keep all company and have no leisure at all If you will be rich you must be frugal If you will be popular you must bee bountiful If a Philosopher you must despise riches The Greek that design d to make the most exquisite picture that could be imagined fancyed the eye of Chionâ— and the hair of Paegnium and Tarsia's lip and Philenium's chinne and the forehead os Delphia and set all these upon Milphidippas neck and thought that he should out do both Art and Nature But when he came to view the proportions he found that what was excellent in Tarsia did not agree with the other excellency of Philenium and although singly they were rare pieces yet in the whole they made a most ugly face The dispersed excellencies and blessings of many men if given to one would not make a handsome but a monstrous fortune Use therefore that faculty which Nature hath given thee and thy education hath made actual and thy calling hath made a duty but if thou desirest to be a Saint refuse not his persecution If thou wouldest be famous as Epaminondas or Fabricius accept also of their poverty for that added lustre to their persons and envy to their fortune and their vertue without it could not have been so excellent Let Euphorion sleep quietly with his old rich Wife and let Medius drink on with Alexander and remember thou canst not have the riches of the first unlesse you have the old Wife too nor the favour which the second had with his Prince unlesse you buy it at his price that is pay thy sobriety down at first and thy health a little after and then their condition though it look d splendidly yet when you handle it on all sides it will prick your fingers 2. Consider how many excellent personages in all Ages have suffered as great or greater calamities then this which now tempts thee to impatience Agis was the most noble of the Greeks and yet his Wife bore a Childe by Alcibiades and Philip was Prince of Iâ—urea and yet his Wife run away with his Brother Herod into Galilee and certainly in a great fortune that was a great calamity But these are but single instances Almost all the ages of the world have noted that their most eminent Scholers were most eminently poor some by choice but most by chance and an inevitable decree of providence And in the whole sex of women God hath decreed the sharpest pains of childebirth to show that there is no state exempt from sorrow and yet that the weakest persons have strengths more then enough to bear the greatest evil and the greatest Queens and the Mothers of Saints and Apostles have no charter of exemption from this sad sentence But the Lord of men and Angels was also the King of sufferings and if thy course robe trouble thee remember the swadling clothes of Jesus if thy bed be uneasy yet it is not worse than his Manger and it is no sadnesse to have a thin table if thou callest to minde that the King of heaven and earth was fed with a little breast milk and yet besides this he suffered all the sorrows which we deserved We therefore have great reason to sit down upon our own hearths and warme our selves at our own fires and feed upon content at home for it were a strange pride to expect to be more gently treated by the Divine providence then the best and wisest men then Apostles and Saints nay then the son of the Eternal God the heir of both the worlds This Consideration may be enlarged by surveying all the states and families of the world and he that at once saw Aegina and Megara Pyraeus and Corinth lye gasping in their ruines and almost buried in their own heaps had reason to blame Cicero for mourning impatiently the death of one woman In the most beauteous and splendid fortune there are many cares and proper interruptions and allayes In the fortune of a Prince there is not the course robe of beggery but there are infinite cares and the Judge sits upon the Tribunal with great ceremony and ostentation of fortune and yet at his house or in his breast there is something that causes him to sigh deeply Pittacus was a wise and valiant man but his wife overthrew the Table when he had invited his friends upon which the good man to excuse her incivility and his own misfortune said that every man had one evil and he was most happy that had but that alone And if nothing else happens yet sicknesses so often do imbitter the fortune and content of a family that a Physician in a few years and with the practise upon a very few families gets experience enough to minister to almost all diseases 3. There are many accidents which are esteemed great calamities and yet we have reason enough to bear them well and unconcernedly for they neither touch our bodies nor our souls our health and our vertue remains intire our life and our reputation It may be I am slighted or I have received ill language but my head akes not for it neither hath it broke my thigh nor taken away my vertue unlesse I lose my charity or my patience Inquire therefore what you are the worse either in your soul or in your body for what hath happened for upon this very stock many evils will disappeare since the body and the soul make up the whole man and when the daughter of Stilpo proved a wanton he said it was none of his sin and therefore there was no reason it should be his misery And if an enemy hath taken all that from a Prince whereby he was a King he may refresh himself by considering all that is left him whereby he is a man 4. Consider that sad accidents and a state of affliction is a School of vertue it reduces our spirits to sobernesse and our counsels to moderation it corrects levity and interrupts the confidence of sinning It is good for me said David that I have been afflicted for thereby I have learned thy Law And I know O Lord that thou of very faithfulnesse hast caused me to be troubled For God who in mercy and wisdom governs the world would never have suffered so many sadnesses and have sent them especially to the most vertuous and the wisest men but that he intends they should be the seminary of comfort the nursery of vertue the exercise of wisdom the tryal of patience the venturing for a crown and the gate of glory 5. Consider that afflictions are oftentimes the occasions of great temporal advantages and we must not look upon them as they sit down heavily upon us but as they
serve some of Gods ends and the purposes of universal Providence And when a Prince fights justly and yet unprosperously if he could see all those reasons for which God hath so ordered it he would think it the most reasonable thing in the world and that it would be very ill to have it otherwise If a man could have opened one of the pages of the Divine counsel and could have seen the event of Iosephs being sold to the Merchants of Amalek he might with much reason have dried up the young mans tears and when Gods purposes are opened in the events of things as it was in the case of Ioseph when he sustained his Fathers family and became Lord of Egypt then we see what ill judgement we made of things and that we were passionate as children and transported with sence and mistaken interest The case of Themistocles was almost like that of Ioseph for being banished into Egypt he also grew in favour with the King and told his wife He had been undone unlesse he had been undone For God esteems it one of his glories that he brings good out of evil and therfore it were but reason we should trust God to govern his own world as he pleases and that we should patiently wait till the change cometh or the reason be discovered And this consideration is also of great use to them who envy at the prosperity of the wicked and the successe of Persecutors and the baits of fishes and the bread of dogs God fails not to sow blessings in the long furrows which the plowers plow upon the back of the Church and this successe which troubles us will be a great glory to God and a great benefit to his Saints and servants and a great ruine to the Persecutors who shall have but the fortune of Theramenes one of the thirty Tyrants of Athens who scap'd when his house fell upon him and was shortly after put to death with torments by his Collegues in the Tyranny To which also may be added that the great evils which happen to the best and wisest men are one of the great arguments upon the strength of which we can expect felicity to our souls and the joyes of another world And certainly they are then very tolerable and eligible when with so great advantages they minister to the faith and hope of a Christian. But if we consider what unspeakable tortures are provided for the wicked to all eternity we should not be troubled to see them prosperous here but rather wonder that their portion in this life is not bigger and that ever they should be sick or crossed or affronted or troubled with the contradiction and disease of their own vices since if they were fortunate beyond their own ambition it could not make them recompence for one houres torment in Hell which yet they shall have for their eternall portion After all these considerations deriving from sence and experience grace and reason there are two remedies still remaining and they are Necessity and Time 6. For it is but reasonable to bear that accident patiently which God sends since impatience does but intangle us like the fluttering of a bird in a net but cannot at all ease our trouble or prevent the accident it must be run thorough and therefore it were better we compose our selves to a patient then to a troubled and miserable suffering 7. But however if you will not otherwise be cured time at last will do it alone and then consider do you mean to mourne alwayes or but for a time If alwayes you are miserable and foolish If for a time then why will you not apply those reasons to your grief at first with which you will cure it at last or if you will not cure it with reason see how little of a man there is in you that you suffer time to do more with you then reason or religion you suffer your selves to be cured just as a beast or a tree is let it alone and the thing will heal it self but this is neither honourable to thy person nor of reputation to thy religion However be content to bear thy calamity because thou art sure in a litle time it will sit down gentle and easy For to a mortal man no evil is immortal And here let the worst thing happen that can it will end in death and we commonly think that to be neer enough 8. Lastly of those things which are reckoned amonstg evils some are better then their contraries and to a good man the very worst is tolerable Poverty or a low Forâ—une 1. Poverty is better then riches and a mean fortune to be chosen before a great and splendid one It is indeed despised and makes men contemptible it exposes a man to the insolence of evil persons and leaves a man defencelesse it is alwayes suspected its stories are accounted lies and all its counsells follyes it puts a man from all imployment it makes a mans discourses tedious and his society troublesome This is the worst of it and yet all this and â—arre worse then this the Apostles suffered for being Christians and Christianitie it selfe may be esteemed an affliction as well as poverty if this be all â—hat can be said against it for the Apostles and the most eminent Christians were really poor and were used contemptuously and yet that poverty is despised may be an argument to commend it if it be despised by none but persons vitious and ignorant However certain it is that a great fortune is a great vanity and riches is nothing but danger trouble and temptation like a garment that is too long and bears a train not so useful to one but it is troublesome to two to him that bears the one part upon his shoulders and to him that bears the other part in his hands But poverty is the sister of a good minde the parent of sober counsels and the nurse of all vertue For what is it that you admire in the fortune of a great King Is it that hee alwayes goes in a great company You may thrust your self into the same croud or goe often to Church and then you have as great a company as he hath and that may upon as good ground please you as him that is justly neither for so impertinent and uselesse pomp and the other circumstances of his distance are not made for him but for his Subjects that they may learne to separate him from common usages and be taught to be governed But if you looke upon them as fine things in themselves you may quickly alter your opinion when you shall consider that they cannot cure the toothach nor make one wise or fill the belly or give one nights sleep though they help to break many nor satisfying any appetite of Nature or Reason or Religion but they are states of greatnesse which onely makes it possible for a Man to be made extremely miserable And it was long agoe observed by the Greeke
the spirits of one used to feed better yet the cheerfulnesse of a spirit that is blessed will make a thin table become a delicacy if the man was as well taught as he was fed and learned his duty when he received the blessing Poverty therefore is in some sences eligible and to be preferred before riches but in all sences it is very tolerable Death of Children or neerest Relatives and Friends There are some persons who have been noted for excellent in their lives and passions rarely innocent and yet hugely penitent for indiscretions and harmlesse infirmities such as was Paulina one of the ghostly children of S. Hierom and yet when any of her children dyed she was arrested with a sorrow so great as brought her to the margent of her grave And the more tender our spirits are made by Religion the more easy we are to let in grief if the cause be innocent and be but in any sence twisted with piety and due affections * To cure which we may consider that al the world must die therfore to be impatient at the death of a person concerning whom it was certain and known that he must die is to mourn because thy friend or childe was not born an Angel and when thou hast a while made thy self miserable by an importunate and uselesse grief it may be thou shalt die thy self and leave others to their choice whether they will mourn for thee or no but by that time it will appear how impertinent that grief was which served no end of life and ended in thy own funeral But what great matter is it if sparks fly upward or a stone falls into a pit if that which was combustible be burned or that which was liquid be melted or that which is mortal do die It is no more then a man does every day for every night death hath gotten possession of that day and we shall never live that day over again and when the last day is come there are no more dayes left for us to die And what is sleeping and waking but living and dying what is Sping and Autumne youth and old age morning and evening but real images of life and death and really the same to many considerable effects and changes Vntimely death But it is not mere dying that is pretended by some as the cause of their impatient mourning but that the childe died young before he knew good and evil his right hand from his left and so lost all his portion of this world and they know not of what excellency his portion in the next shall be * If he dyed young he lost but little for he understood but little and had not capacities of great pleasures or great cares but yet he dyed innocent and before the sweetnesse of his soul was deflour d and ravished from him by the flames and follies of a forward age he went out from the dining-rooms before he had fallen into errour by the intemperance of his meat or the deluge of drink and he hath obtain'd this favour of God that his soul hath suffered a lesse imprisonment and her load was sooner taken oâ—f that he might with lesser delayes goe and converse with immortal spirits and the babe is taken into Paradise before he knows good and evil For that knowledge threw our great Father out and this ignorance returns the childe thithe * But as concerning thy own particular remove thy thoughts back to those dayes in which thy childe was not born and you are now but as then you was and there is no difference but that you had a son born and if you reckon that for evil you are unthankful for the blessing if it be good it is better that you had the blessing for a while then not at all and yet if he had never been born this sorrow had not been at all but be no more displeased at God for giving you the blessing for a while then you would have been if he had not given it at all and reckon that intervening blessing for a gain but account it not an evil and if it be a good turn it not into sorrow and sadnesse * But if we have great reason to complain of the calamities and evils oâ— our life then we have the lesse reason to grieve that those whom we loved have so small a portion of evil assigned to them And it is no small advantage that our children dying young receive for their condition of a blessed immortality is rendred to them secure by being snatcht from the dangers of an evil choice and carried to their little cells of felicity where they can weep no more And this the wisest of the Gentiles understood well when they forbade any offerings or libations to be made for dead infants as was usual for their other dead as believing they were entred into a secure possession to which they went with no other condition but that they passed into it thorough the way of mortality and for a few moneths wore an uneasy garment And let weeping parents say if they do not think that the evils their little babes have suffered are sufâ—icient If they be why are they troubled that they were taken from those many and greater which in succeeding years are great enough to try all the reason and religion which art and nature and the grace of God hath produc'd in us to enable us for such sad contentions And possibly we may doubt concerning men and women but we cannot suspect that to infants death can be such an evil but that it brings to them much more good then it takes them from in this life Death unseasonable But others can well bear the death of infants but when they have spent some years of childehood or youth and are entred into arts and society when they are hopeful and provided for when the parents are to reap the comfort of all their fears and cares then it breaks the spirit to loose them This is true in many but this is not love to the dead but to themselves for they misse what they had flatterd themselves into by hope and opinion and if it were kindnesâ—e to the dead they may consider that since we hope he is gone to God and to rest it is an ill expression of our love to them that we weep for their good fortune For that life is not best which is longest and when they are descended into the grave it shall not be inquired how long they have lived but how well And yet this shortening of their dayes is an evil wholly depending upon opinion For if men did naturally live but twenty years then we should be satisfied if they dyed about sixteen or eighteen and yet eighteen years now are as long as eighteen years would be then and if a man were but of a dayes life it is well if he lasts till even long and then sayes his compline an hour before the time and we are pleased and call not that death
immature if he lives till seventy and yet this age is as short of the old periods before and since the flood as this youths age for whom you mourn is of the present fulnesse Suppose therefore a decree passed upon this person as there have been many upon all mankinde and God hath set him a shorter period and then we may as well bear the immature death of the young man as the death of the oldest men for they also are immature and unseasonable in respect of the old periods of many generations * And why are we troubled that he had arts and sciences before he dyed or are we troubled that he does not live to make use of them the first is cause of joy for they are excellent in order to certain ends And the second cannot be cause of sorrow because he hath no need to use them as the case now stands being provided for with the provisions of an Angel and the maner of Eternity However the sons and the parents friends and relatives are in the world like hours and minutes to a day The hour comes and must passe and some stay but minutes and they also passe and shall never return again But let it be considered that from the time in which a man is conceived from that time forward to Eternitie he shall never cease to be and let him dye young or old still he hath an immortal soul and hath laid down his body onely for a time as that which was the instrument of his trouble and sorrow and the scene of sicknesses and disease But he is in a more noble manner of being after death then he can be here and the childe may with more reason be allowed to cry for leaving his mothers womb for this world then a man can for changing this world for another Sudden deaths or violent Others are yet troubled at the manner of their childes or friends death He was drowned or lost his head or dyed of the plague and this is a new spring of sorrow but no man can give a sensible account how it shall be worse for a childe to dye with drowning in half an hour then to endure a feaver of one and twenty dayes And if my friend lost his head so he did not lose his constancy and his religion he dyed with huge advantage Being Childelesse But by this means I am left without an Heir Well suppose that Thou hast no Heir and I have no inheritance and there are many Kings and Emperors that have died childlesse many Royal lines are extinguished And Augustus Caesar was forced to adopt his wives son to inherit all the Roman greatnesse And there are many wise persons that never marryed and we read no where that any oâ— the children of the Apostles did survive their Fathers and all that inherit any thing of Christs kingdom come to it by Adoption not by natural inheritance and to dye without an natural heir is no intolerable evil since it was sanctified in â—he person of Jesus who dyed a Virgin Evil or unfortunate Children And by this means we are freed from the greater srorows of having a fool a swine or a goat to rule after us in our families and yet even this condition admits of comfort For all the wilde Americans are supposed to be the sons of Dodonaiâ— and the sons of Iacob are now the most scattered and despised people in the whole world The son of Solomon was but a silly weak man and the son of Hezekiah was wicked and all the fools and barbarous people all the thieves and pirates all the slaves and miserable men and women of the world aâ—e the sons and daughters of Noah and we must not look to be exempted from that portion of sorrow which God gave to Noah and Adam to Abraham to Isaack and to Iacob I pray God send us into the lot of Abraham But if any thing happens worse to us it is enough for us that we bear it evenly Our own death And how if you were to die your self you know you must Onely be ready for it by the preparations of a good life and then it is the greatest good that ever happened to thee else there is nothing that can comfort you But if you have served God in a holy life send away the women and the weepers tell them it is as much intemperance to weep too much as to laugh too much and when thou art alone or with fitting company dye as thou shouldest but do not dye impatiently and like a fox catch'd in a trap For if you fear death you shall never the more avoid it but you make it miserable Fannius that kild himself for fear of death dyed as certainly as Portia that eat burning coals or Cato that cut his own throat To dye is necessary and natural and it may be honourable but to dye poorly and basely and sinfully that alone is it that can make a man unfortunate No man can be a slave but he that fears pain or fears to die To such a man nothing but chance and peaceable times can secure his duty and he depends upon things without sor his felicity and so is well but during the pleasure of his enemy or a Thief or a Tyrant or it may be of a dog or a wilde bull Prayers for the several Graces and parts of Christian Sobriety A Prayer against Sensuality O Eternal Father thou that sittest in Heaven invested with essential Glories and Divine perfections fill my soul with so deep a sence of the excellencies of spiritual and heavenly things that my affections being weaned from the pleasures of the world and the false allurements of sin I may with great severity and the prudence of a holy discipline and strict desires with clear resolutions and a free spirit have my conversation in Heaven and heavenly imployments that being in affections as in my condition a Pilgrim and a stranger here I may covet after and labour for an abiding city and at last may enter into and for ever dwell in the Coelestial Jerusalem which is the mother of us all through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen For Temperance O ALmighty God and gracious Father of Men and Angels who openest thy hand and fillest all things with plenty and hast provided for thy servant sufficient to satisfie all my needs teach me to use thy creatures soberly and temperately that I may not with loads of meat or drink make the temptations of my enemy to prevail upon me or my spirit unapt for the performance of my duty or my body healthlesse or my affections sensual and unholy O my God never suffer that the blessings which thou givest me may either minister to sin or sicknesse but to health and holinesse and thanksgiving that in the strength of thy provisions I may cheerfully and actively and diligently serve thee that I may worthily feast at thy table here and be accounted worthy through thy grace to be admitted to thy
labour extreamly and watch carefully and suffer affronts and disgrace that he may get money more then he uses in his temperate and just needs with how much ease might this man be happy And with how great uneasinesse and trouble does he make himself miserable For he takes pains to get content and when he might have it he lets it go He might better be content with a vertuous and quiet poverty then w th an artificial troublesom vitious The same diet a less labor would at first make him happy and for ever after rewardable 6. The sum of all is that which the Apostle sayes Covetousnesse is Idolatry that is it is an admiring money for itself not for its use it relyes upon money and loves it more then it loves God and religion and it is the root of all evil it teaches men to be cruel and crafty industrious in evil full of care and malice it devours young heirs and grindes the face of the poor and undoes those who specially belong to Gods protection helpless craftlesse and innocent people it inquires into our parents age and longs for the death of our friends it makes friendship and art of rapine and changes a partner into a Vultur and a companion into a thief and after all this it is for no good to it self for it dare not spend those heaps of treasure which it snatched and men hate Serpents and Basilisks worse then Lyons and Beâ—rs for these kill because they need the prey but they sting to death and eat not * And if they pretend all this care and heap for their Heirs like the Mice of Africa hiding the golden oare in their bowels and refusing to give back the indigested gold till their guts be out they may remember that what was unnecessary for themselves is as unnecessary for their sons and why cannot they be without it as well as their Fathers who did not use it and it often happens that to the sons it becomes an instrument to serve some lust or other that as the gold was uselesse to their Fathers so may the sons be to the publick fools or prodigals loads to their Countrey and the curse and punishent of their Fathers avarice and yet all that wealth is short of one blessing but it is a load coming with a curse and descending from the family of a long derived sin However the Father transmits it to the son and it may be the son to one more till a Tyrant or an Oppressour or a War or a change of government or the Usurer or folly or an expensive vice makes holes in the bottom of the bag and the wealth runs out like water and flies away like a Bird from the hand of a childe 7. Adde to these the consideration of the advantages of poverty that it is a state freer from temptation secure in dangers but of one trouble safe under the Divine Providence cared for in Heaven by a daily ministration and for whose support God makes every day a new decree a state of which Christ was pleased to make open profession and many wise Men daily make vows that a rich Man is but like a pool to whom the poor run and first trouble it and then draw it dry that he enjoyes no more of it then according to the few and limited needs of a Man he cannot eat like a Wolf or an Elephant that variety of dainty fare ministers but to sin and sicknesses that the poor Man feasts oftner then the rich because every little enlargement is a feast to the poor but he that feasts every day feasts no day there being nothing left to which he may beyond his Ordinary extend his appetite that the rich Man sleeps not so soundly as the poor labourer that his fears are more and his needs are greater for who is poorer he that needs 5 l. or he that needs 5000 the poor Man hath enough to fill his belly and the rich hath not enough to fill his eye that the poor Mans wants are easie to be relieved by a common charity but the needs of rich Men cannot be supplyed but by Princes and they are left to the temptation of grâ—at vices to make reparation of their needs and the ambitious labours of Men to get great estates is but like the selling of a Fountain to buy a Fever a parting with content to buy necessity a purchase of an unhandsome condition at the price of infelicity that Princes and they that enjoy most of the world have most of it but in title and supreme rights and reserved priviledges pepper-corns homages trifling services acknowledgements the real use descending to others to more substantial purposes These considerations may be useful to the curing of covetousnesse that the grace of mercifulnesse enlarging the heart of a Man his hand may not be contracted but reached out to the poor in almes Sect. 9. Of Repentance REpentance of all things in the World makes the greatest change it changes things in Heaven and Earth for it changes the whole Man from sin to grace from vitious habits to holy customes from unchaste bodies to Angelical soules from Swine to Philosophers from drunkennesse to sober counsels and GOD himself with whom is no variablenesse or shadow of change is pleased by descending to our weak understandings to say that he changes also upon Mans repentance that he alters his decrees revokes his sentence cancels the Bils of accusation throws the Records of shame and sorrow from the Court of Heaven and lifts up the sinner from the grave to life from his prison to a throne from Hell and the guilt of eternal torture to Heaven and to a title to never ceasing felicities If we be bound on earth we shall be bound in heaven if we be absolved here we shall be loosed there if we repent God will repent and not send the evil upon us which we had deserved But repentance is a conjugation and society of many duties and it containes in it all the parts of a holy life from the time of return to the day of our death inclusively and it hath in it somethings specially relating to the sins of our former dayes which are now to be abolished by special arts and have obliged us to special labours and brought in many new necessities and put us into a very great deal of danger and because it is a duty consisting of so many parts so much imployment it also requires much time and leaves a Man in the same degree of hope of pardon as is his restitution to the state of righteousness and holy living for which we covenanted in Baptism For wee must know that there is but one repentance in a Mans whole life if repentance be taken in the proper and strict Evangelicall Covenant-sense and not after the ordinary understanding of the word That is wee are but once to change our whole state of life from the power of the Devil and his intire possession from
thou doest receive the blessed elements into thy mouth that thou puttest thy finger to his hand and thy hand into his side and thy lips to his fontinel of blood sucking life from his heart and yet if thou doest communicate unworthily thou eatest and drinkest Christ to thy danger and death and destruction Dispute not concerning the secret of the mystery and the nicety of the manner of Christs presence it is sufficient to thee that Christ shall be present to thy soul as an instrument of grace as a pledge of the resurrection as the earnest of glory and immortality and a means of many intermedial blessings even all such as are necessary for thee and are in order to thy salvation and to make all this good to thee there is nothing necessary on thy part but a holy life and a true belief of all the sayings of Christ amongst which indefinitely assent to the words of institution and believe that Christ in the holy Sacrament gives thee his bodie and his blood He that believes not this is not a Christian He that believes so much needs not to enquire further nor to intangle his faith by disbelieving his sence 11. Fail not this solemnity according to the custom of pious and devout people to make an offering to God for the uses of religion and the poor according to thy ability For when Christ feasts his body let us also feast our fellow members who have right to the same promises and are partakers of the same Sacrament and partners of the same hope and cared for under the same providence and descended from the same common parents and whose Father God is and Christ is their Elder Brother If thou chancest to communicate where this holy custom is not observed publickly supply that want by thy private charity but offer it to God at his holy Table at least by thy private designing it there 12. When you have received pray and give thanks Pray for all estates of men for they also have an interest in the body of Christ whereof they are members and you in conjunction with Christ whom then you have received are more fit to pray for them in that advantage and in the celebration of that holy sacrifice which then is Sacramentally represented to GOD. * Give thanks for the passion of our Dearest Lord remember all its parts and all the instruments of your Redemption and beg of GOD that by a holy perseverance in well doing you may from shadowes passe on to substances from eating his body to seeing his face from the Typicall Sacramentall and Transient to the Reall and Eternall Supper of the Lambe 13. After the solemnity is done let Christ dwell in your hearts by faith and love and obedience and conformity to his life and death as you have taken CHRIST into you so put CHRIST on you and conforme every faculty of your soul and body to his holy image and perfection Remember that now Christ is all one with you and therefore when you are to do an action consider how Christ did or would do the like and do you imitate his example and transcribe his copy and understand all his Commandments and choose all that he propounded and desire his promises and fear his threatnings and marry his loves and hatreds and contract all his friendships for then you do every day communicate especially when Christ thus dwells in you and you in Christ growing up towards a perfect man in Christ Iesus 14. Do not instantly upon your return from Church return also to the world and secular thoughts and imployments but let the remaining parts of that day be like a post-Communion or an after-office entertaining your blessed Lord with all the caresses and sweetnesse of love and colloquies and entercourses of duty and affection acquainting him with all your needs and revealing to him all your secrets and opening all your infirmities and as the aâ—fairs of your person or imployment call you off so retire again with often ejaculations and acts of entertainment to your beloved Guest The effects and benefits of worthy communicating When I said that the sacrifice of the crosse which Christ offered for all the sins and all the needs of the world is represented to God by the Minister in the Sacrament and offered up in prayer and Sacramental memory after the manner that Christ himself intercedes for us in Heaven so far as his glorious Priesthood is imitable by his Ministers on earth I must of necessity also mean that all the benefits of that sacrifice are then conveyed to all that communicate worthily But if we descend to particulars Then and there the Church is nourished in her faith strengthened in her hope enlarged in her bowels with an increasing charity there all the members of Christ are joyn'd with each other and all to Christ their head and we again renew the Covenant with God in Jesus Christ and God seals his part and we promise for ours and Christ unites both and the holy Ghost signes both in the collation of those graces which we then pray for and exercise and receive all at once there our bodies are nourished with the signes and our souls with the mystery our bodies receive into them the seed of an immortal nature and our souls are joyned with him who is the first fruits of the resurrection and never can dye and if we desire any thing else and need it here it is to be prayed for here to be hoped for here to be received Long life and health and recovery from sicknesse and competent support and maintenance and peace and deliverance from our enemies and content and patience and joy and sanctified riches or a cheerful poverty and liberty and whatsoever else is a blessing was purchased for us by Christ in his death and resurrection and in his intercession in Heaven and this Sacrament being that to our particulars which the great mysteries are in themselves and by designe to all the world if we receive worthily we shall receive any of these blessings according as God shall choose for us and he will not onely choose with more wisdom but also with more affection then we can for our selves After all this it is advised by the Guides of souls wise men and pious that all persons should communicate very often even as often as they can without excuses or delayes Every thing that puts us from so holy an imployment when we are moved to it being either a sin or an imperfection an Infirmity or indevotion and an unactivenesse of Spirit All Christian people must come They indeed that are in the state of sin must not come so but yet they must come First they must quit their state of death and then partake of the bread of life They that are at enmity with their neighbours must come that is no excuse for their not coming onely they must not bring their enmity along with them but leave it and then come They that have variety
of secular imployments must come onely they must leave their secular thoughts and affections behinde them and then come and converse with God If any man be well grown in grace he must needs come because he is excellently disposed to so holy a feast but he that is but in the infancy of piety had need to come that so he may grow in grace The strong must come lest they become weak the weak that they may become strong The sick must come to be cured the healthful to be preserved They that have leisure must come because they have no excuse They that have no leisure must come hither that by so excellent religion they may sanctifie their businesse The penitent sinners must come that they may be justified and they that are justified that they may be justified still They that have fears and great reverence to these mysteries and think no preparation to be sufficient must receive that they may learn how to receive the more worthily and they that have a lesse degree of reverence must come often to have it heightned that as those Creatures that live amongst the snowes of the Mountains turne white with their food and conversation with such perpetual whitenesses so our souls may be transformed into the similitude and union with Christ by our perpetual feeding on him and conversation not onely in his Courts but in his very heart and most secret affections and incomparable purities Prayers for all sorts of Men and all necessities relating to the several parts of the vertue of Religion A Prayer for the Graces of Faith Hope Charity O Lord God of infinite mercy of infinite excellency who hast sent thy holy Son into the world to redeem us from an intolerable misery and to teach us a holy religion and to forgive us an infinite debt give me thy holy Spirit that my understanding and all my faculties may be so resigned to the discipline and doctrine of my Lord that I may be prepared in minde and will to dye for the testimony of Jesus and to suffer any affliction or calamity that shall offer to hinder my duty or tempt me to shame or sin or apostacy and let my faith be the parent of a good life a strong shield to repell the fiery darts of the Devil and the Author of a holy hope of modest desires of confidence in God and of a never failing charity to thee my God and to all the world that I may never have my portion with the unbelievers or uncharitable and desperate persons but may be supported by the strengths of faith in all temptations and may be refreshed with the comforts of a holy hope in all my sorrows and may bear the burden of the Lord and the infirmities of my neighbour by the support of charity that the yoak of Jesus may become easy to me and my love may do all the miracles of grace till from grace it swell to glory from earth to heaven from duty to reward from the imperfections of a beginning and little growing love it may arrive to the consummation of an eternal and never ceasing charity through Jesus Christ the Son of thy love the Anchor of our hope and the Author and finisher of our faith to whom with thee O Lord God Father of Heaven and Earth and with thy holy Spirit be all glory and love and obedience and dominion now and for ever Amen Acts of love by way of prayer and ejaculation to be used in private O God thou art my God early will I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is to see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary because thy loving kindnes is better then life my lips shall praise thee Psal. 63. I am ready not only to be bound but to dye for the name of the Lord Jesus Acts 23. How amiable are thy Tabernacles thou Lord of Hosts my soul longeth yea even fainteth for the courts of the Lord My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God Blessed are they that dwell in thy house they will still be praising thee Psal. 84. O blessed Jesu thou art worthy of all adoration and all honour and all love Thou art the Wondeâ—ful the Counsellor the mighty God the Everlasting Father the Prince of peace of thy government and peace there shall be no end thou art the brightnesse of thy Fathers glory the expresse image of his person the appointed Heir of all things Thou upholdest all things by the word of thy power Thou didst by thy self purge our sins Thou art set on the right hand of the Majesty on high Thou art made better then the Angels thou hast by inheritance obtain'd a more excellent name then they Thou O dearest Jesus art the head of the Church the beginning and the first born from the dead in all things thou hast the preheminence and it pleased the Father that in thee should all fulnesse dwell Kingdoms are in love with thee Kings lay their crowns and scepters at thy feet and Queens are thy handmaids and wash the feet of thy servants A Prayer to be said in any affliction as death of children of husband or wife in great poverty in imprisonment in a sad and disconsolate spirit in temptations to despair O Eternal God Father of Mercyes and God of all comfort with much mercy look upon the sadnesses and sorrowes of thy servant My sins lye heavy upon me and presse me sore and there is no health in my bones by reason of thy displeasure and my sin The waters are gone over me and I stick fast in the deep mire and my miseries are without comfort because they are punishments of my sin and I am so evil and unworthy a person that though I have great desires yet I have no dispositions or worthiness towards receiving comfort My sins have caused my sorrow and my sorrow does not cure my sins and unless for thy own sake and merely because thou art good thou shalt pity me relieve me I am as much without remedy as now I am without comfort Lord pity me Lord let thy grace refresh my Spirit Let thy comforts support me thy mercy pardon me and never let my portion be amongst hopelesse and accursed spirits for thou art good and gracious and I throw my self upon thy mercy Let me never let my hold go do thou with me what seems good in thy own eyes I cannot suffer more then I have deserved and yet I can need no relief so great as thy mercy is for thou art infinitely more merciful then I can be miserable and thy mercy which is above all thy own works must needs be far above all my sin and all my misery Dearest Jesus let me trust in thee for ever and let me never be confounded Amen Ejaculations and short meditations to be used in time of sickness and sorrow or danger of
of thy glories I will give thanks unto the Lord with my whole heart secretly among the faithful and in the congregation * For salvation belongeth unto the Lord and thy blessing is upon thy servant But as for me I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercies and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple * For of thee and in thee and through thee and for thee are all things Blessed be the name of God from generation to generation Amen A â—hort Form of thanksgiving to be said upon any special deliverance as from Châ—ld-birth from Sickness from baâ—â—el or imminent danger at sea or Land c. O most merciful and gracious God thou fountain of all mercy and blessing thou hast opened the hand of thy mercy to fill me with blessings and the sweet effects of thy loving kindnesse thou feedest us like a Shepherd thou governest us as a king thou bearest us in thy arms like a nurse thou doest cover us under the shadow of thy wings and shelter us like a hen thou O Dearest Lord wakest for us as a Watchman thou providest for us like a Husband thou lovest us as a friend and thinkest on us perpetually as a careful mother on her helplesse babe and art exceeding merciful to all that fear thee and now O Lord thou hast added this great blessing of deliverance from my late danger here name the blessing it was thy hand and the help of thy mercy that relieved me the waters of affliction had drowned me and the stream had gone over my soul if the spirit of the Lord had not moved upon these waters Thou O Lord didst revoke thy angry sentence which I had deserved and which was gone out against me Unto thee O Lord I ascribe the praise and honour of my redemption I will be glad and rejoyce in thy mercy for thou hast considered my trouble and hast known my soul in adversity As thou hasâ— sâ—râ—ad thy hand upon me for a covering so also enlarge my heart with thankfulnesse and fill my mouth with praises that my duty and returns to theâ— may be great as my needs of mercie are and let thy gracious favours and loving kindnesâ—e endure for ever and ever upon thy servant and grant that what thou hast sown in mercy may spring up in duty and let thy grace so strengthen my purposes that I may sin no more lest thy threatning return upon me in anger and thy anger break me into pieces but let me walk in the light of thy favour and in the paths of thy Commandments that I living here to the glory of thy name may at last enter into the glory of my Lord to spend a whole eternity in giving praise to thy exalted and ever glorious name Amen We praise thee O God we knowledge thee to be the Lord * All the earth doth worship thee the Father Everlasting * To thee All Angels cry aloud the Heavens and all the powers therein * To thee Cherubim and Seraphim continually do cry * Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabaoth * Heaven and Earth are full of the Majesty of thy glory * The glorious company of the Apostles praise thee * The goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise thee * The noble army of Martyrs praise thee * The holy Church throughout all the world doth knowledge thee * The Father of an infinite Majesty * Thy honourable true and only Son * Also the Holy Ghost the Comforter * Thou art the King of glory O Christ. * Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father * When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man thou didst not abhor the Virgins womb * When thou hadst overcome the sharpnesse of death thou didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers * Thou sittest at the right hand of God in the glory of the Father * We believe that thou shalt come to be our Judge * We therefore pray thee help thy servants whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood * Make them to be numbered with thy Saints in glory everlasting * O Lord save thy people and blesse thine heritage * Govern them and lift them up for ever * Day by day we magnifie thee * And we worship thy name ever world without end * Vouchsafe O Lord to keep us this day without â—in * O Lord have mercy upon us have mercy upon us * O Lord let thy mercy lighten upon us as our trust is in thee O Lord in thee have I trusted let me never be confounded Amen A Prayer of thanksgiving after the receiving some great blessing as the birth of an Heir the successe of an honest designe a victory a good harvest c. O Lord God Father of mercies the fountain of comfort and blessing of life and peace of plenty and pardon who fillest Heaven with thy glory and earth w th thy goodnes I give thee the most earnest most humble and most enlarged returnes of my glad and thankful heart for thou hast refreshed me with thy comforts and enlarged me with thy blessing thou hast made my flesh and my bones to rejoyce for besides the blessings of all mankinde the blessings of nature the blessings of grace the support of every minute and the comforts of every day thou hast opened thy bosom and at this time hast powred out an excellent expression of thy loving kindnesse here name the blessing What am I O Lord and what is my Fathers house what is the life and what are the capacities of thy servant that thou should'st do this unto me * that the great God of men and Angels should make a special decree in Heaven for me and send out an Angel of blessing and instead of condemning and ruining me as I miserably have deserved to distinguish me from many my equals and my betters by this and many other special acts of grace and savour Praised be the Lord daily even the Lord that helpeth us and powreth his benefits upon us He is our God even the God of whom cometh salvation God is the Lord by whom we escape death Thou hast brought me to great honour and comforted me on every side Thou Lord hast made me glad through thy works I will rejoyce in giving praise for the operation of thy hands O give thanks unto the Lord and call upon his name tell the people what things he hath done As for me I will give great thanks unto the Lord and praise him among the multitude Blessed be the Lord God even the Lord God of Israel which only doth wondrous gracious things And blessed be the name of his Majesty for ever and all the earth shall be filled with his Majesty Amen Amen Glory be to the Father c. As it was in the beginning c. A Prayer to be said on the Feast of Christmas or the birth of our bleâ—sed Saviour Iesus the same also may be said upon the Feast of the Annunciation and Purification of the B. Virgin
a vile price and to wash the feet of him that took moneâ— for thy life and to give to him and to all thy Apostles thy most holy Body and Blood to become a Sacrifice for their sins even for their betraying and denying thee and for all my sins even for my crucifying thee afresh and for such sins which I am ashamed to think but that the greatnesse of my sins magnifie the infinitenesse of thy mercies who didst so great things for so vile a person Lord what is man c. Blessed be thy Name O holy Jesus who being to depart the World didst comfort thy Apostles powring out into their ears and hearts treasures of admirable discourses who didst recommend them to thy Father with a mighty charity and then didst enter into the Garden set with nothing but Bryers and sorrowes where thou didst suffer a most unspeakable agony until the sweat strain'd through thy pure skin like drops of blood and there didst sigh and groan and fall flat upon the earth and pray and submit to the intolerable burden of thy Fathers wrath which I had deserved and thou sufferedst Lord what is man c. Blessed be thy Name O holy Jesus who hast sanctified to us all our natural infirmities and passions by vouchsafing to be in fear and trembling and sore amazement by being bound and imprisoned by being harrassed and drag d with cords of violence and rude hands by being drench d in the brook in the way by being sought after like a thief and us'd like a sinner who wert the most holy and the most innocent cleaner then an Angel and brighter then the Morning-Star Lord what is man c. Blessed be thy Name O holy Jesus and blessed be that loving kindnesse and pity by which thou didst neglect thy own sorrows and go to comfort the sadnesse of thy Disciples quickning their dulnesse incouraging their duty arming their weaknesse with excellent precepts against the day of trial Blessed be that humility and sorrow of thine who being Lord of the Angels yet wouldest need and receive comfort from thy servant the Angel who didst offer thy self to thy persecutors and madest them able to seiz thee and didst receive the Traytors kisse sufferedst a veil to be thrown over thy holy face that thy enemies might not presently be confounded by so bright a lusâ—re and wouldest do a miracle to cure a wound of one of thy spiteful enemies and didst reprove a zealous servant in behalf of a malicious adversary and then didst go like a Lamb to the slaughter without noise or violence or resistance when thou couldest have commanded millions of Angels for thy guard and rescue Lord what is man c. Blessed be thy Name O holy Jesus and blessed be that holy sorrow thou didst suffer when thy Disciples fled and thou wert left alone in the hands of cruel men who like evening Wolves thirsted for a draught of thy best blood and thou wert led to the house of Annas and there asked insnaring questions and smitten on the face by him whose ear thou hadst but lately healed and from thence wert dragged to the house of Cajaphas and there all night didst endure spittings affronts scorn contumelies blowes and intolerable insolencies and all this for man who was thy enemy and the cause of all thy sorrows Lord what is man c. Blessed be thy Name O holy Jesus and blessed be thy mercy who when thy servant Peter denied thee and forsook thee and forswore thee didst look back upon him and by that gracious and chiding look didst call him back to himself and thee who wert accused before the High Priest and rail'd upon and examined to evil purposes and with designes of blood who wert declar'd guilty of death for speaking a most necessary and most profitable truth who wert sent to Pilate and â—ound innocent and sent to Herod and still found innocent and wert arrayed in white both to declare thy innocence and yet to deride thy person and wert sent back to Pilate and examined again and yet nothing but innocence found in thee and malice round about thee to devour thy life which yet thou wert more desirous to lay down for them then they were to take it from thee Lord what is man c. Blessed be thy Name O holy Jesus and blessed be that patience and charity by which for our sakes thou wert content to be smitten with canes and have that holy face which Angels with joy and wonder do behold be spit upon and be despised when compar'd with Barabbas and scourg'd most rudely with unhallowed hands till the pavement was purpled with that holy blood and condemned to a sad and shameful a publick and painful death and arayed in Scarlet and crown'd with thorns and strip'd naked and then cloth'd and loaden with the crosse and tormented with a tablet stuck with nails at the fringes of thy garment and bound hard with cords dragged most vilely and most piteously till the load was too great and did sink thy tender and virginal body to the earth and yet didst comfort the weeping women and didst more pity thy persecutors then thy self and wert grieved for the miseries of Jerusalem to come forty years after more then for thy present passion Lord what is man c. Blessed be thy Name O holy Jesus and blessed be that incomparable sweetnesse and holy sorrow which thou sufferedst when thy holy hands and feet were nailed upon the crosse and the crosse being set in a hollownesse of the earth did in the fall rend the wounds wider and there naked and bleeding sick faint wounded and despised didst hang upon the weight of thy wounds three long hours praying for thy persecutors satisfying thy Fathers wrath reconciling the penitent thief providing for thy holy and afflicted mother tasting vineger and gall and when the fulnesse of thy suffering was accomplished didst give thy soul into the hands of God and didst descend to the regions of longing souls who waited for the revelation of this thy day in their prisons of hope and then thy body was transfixed with a spear and issued forth two Sacraments Water and blood and thy body was compos'd to burial and dwelt in darkness 3 dayes and 3 nights Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him and the Son of man that thou thus visitest him The prayer Thus O blessed Jesu thou didst finish thy holy passion with pain and anguish so great that nothing could be greater then it except thy self and thy own infinite mercy and all this for man even for me then whom nothing câ—uld be more miserable thy self onely excepted who becamest so by undertaking our guilt and our punishment And now Lord who hast done so much for me be pleased onely to make it effectual to me that it may not be uselesse and lost as to my particular lest I become eternally miserable and lost to all hopes and possibilities of comfort All this deserves more