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
woman to lust after her And supposing all the other members restrained yet if the eye be permitted to lust the man can no otherwise be called chast then he can be called severe and mortified that sits all day seeing playes revellings and out of greedinesse to fill his eye neglects his belly There are some vessels which if you offer to lift by the belly or bottom you cannot stir them but are soon removed if you take them by the ears It matters not with which of your members you are taken and carried off from your dutie and severity 4. To have a heart and minde chast and pure that is detesting all uncleannesse disliking all its motions past actions circumstances likenesses discourses and this ought to be the chastity of Virgins and Widows of old persons and Eunuchs especially and generally of all men according to their several necessities 6. To Discourse chastly and purely with great care declining all undecencies of language chastening the tongue and restraining it with grace as vapours of wine are restrained with a bunch of myrrhe 6. To disapprove by an after act all involuntary and natural pollutions for if a man delights in having suffered any natural pollution and with pleasure remember it he chooses that which was in it self involuntary and that which being natural was innocent becoming voluntary is made sinful 7. They that have performed these duties and parts of Chastity will certainly abstain from all exteriour actions of uncleannesse those noon-day and mid-night Devils those lawlesse and ungodly worshippings of shame and uncleannesse whose birth is in trouble whose growth is in folly and whose end is in shame But besides these general acts of Chastity which are common to all states of men and women there are some few things proper to the severals Acts of virginal Chastity 1. Virgins must remember that the virginitie of the body is onely excellent in order to the puritie of the soul who therefore must consider that since they are in some measure in a condition like that of angels it is their duty to spend much of their time in Angelical imployment for in the same degree that Virgins live more spiritually then other persons in the same degree is their virginity a more excellent state But else it is no better then that of involuntary or constrained Eunuchs a misery and a trouble or else a mere privation as much without excellency as without mixture 2. Virgins must contend for a singular modesty whose first part must be an ignorance in the distinction of sexes or their proper instruments or if they accidentally be instructed in that it must be supplied with an inadvertency or neglect of all thoughts and remembrances of such difference and the following parts of it must be pious and chast thoughts holy language and modest carriage 3. Virgins must be retired and unpublick for all freedom and loosenesse of society is a violence done to virginity not in its natural but in its moral capacity that is it looses part of its severity strictnesse and opportunity of advantages by publishing that person whose work is religion whose company is Angels whose thoughts must dwell in heaven and separate from all mixtures of the world 4. Virgins have a peculiar obligation to charity for this is the virginity of the soul as puritie integrity and separation is of the body which doctrine we are taught by Saint Peter Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth thorough the spirit unto unfaigned love of the brethren see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently For a Virgin that consecrates her body to God and pollutes her spirit with rage or impatience or inordinate anger gives him what he most hates a most foul and defiled soul. 5. These rules are necessary for Virgins that offer that state to God and mean not to enter into the state of marriage for they that onely wait the opportunity of a convenient change are to steer themselves by the general rules of Chastity Rules for Widows or vidual Chastity For Widows the fontinel of whose desires hath been opened by the former permissions of the marriage-bed they must remember 1. That God hath now restrain'd the former license bound up their eyes and shut up their heart into a narrower compasse and hath given them sorrow to be a bridle to their desires A Widow must be a mourner and she that is not cannot so well secure the chastity of her proper state 2. It is against publick honesty to marry another man so long as she is with childe by her former Husband and of the same fame it is in a lesser proportion to marry within the year of mourning but anciently it was infamous for her to marry till by common account the body was dissolved into its first principle of earth 3. A Widow must restrain her memory and her fancy not recalling or recounting her former permissions and freer licenses with any present delight for then she opens that sluce which her Husbands death and her own sorrow have shut up 4. A Widow that desires her widowhood should be a state pleasing to God must spend her time as devoted Virgins should in fastings and prayers and charity 5. A Widow must forbid her self to use those temporal solaces which in her former estate were innocent but now are dangerous Rules sor married persons or matrimonial chastity Concerning married persons besides the keeping of their mutual faith and contract with each other these particulars are useful to be observed 1. Although their mutual endearments are safe within the protection of marriage yet they that have Wives or Husbands must be as though they had them not that is they must have an affection greater to each other then they have to any person in the world but not greater then they have to God but that they be ready to part with all interest in each others person rather then sin against God 2. In their permissions and license they must be sure to observe the order of Nature and the ends of God He is an ill Husband that uses his Wife as a man treats a Harlot having no other end but pleasure Concerning which our best rule is that although in this as in eating and drinking there is an appetite to be satisfied which cannot be done without pleasing that desire yet since that desire and satisfaction was intended by Nature for other ends they should never be separate from those ends but alwayes be joyned with all or one of these ends with a desire of children or to avoyd fornication or to lighten and ease the cares and sadnesses of houshold affairs or to endear each other but never with a purpose either in act or desire to separate the sensuality from these ends which hallow it Onan did separate his act from its proper end and so ordered his embraces that his Wife should not conceive and God punished him 3. Married persons must keep
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
entertainment of the first there is in God an infinite nature immensity or vastnesse without extension or limit Immutability Eternity Omnipotence Omniscience Holinesse Dominion Providence Bounty Mercy Justice Perfection in himself and the end to which all things and all actions must be directed and will at last arrive The consideration of which may be heightened if we consider our distance from all these glories Our smallnesse and limited nature our nothing our inconstancy our age like a span our weaknesse and ignorance our poverty our inadvertency and inconsideration our disabilities and disaffections to do good our harsh natures and unmerciful inclinations our universal iniquitie and our necessities dependencies not onely on God originally and essentially but even our need of the meanest of Gods creatures and our being obnoxious to the weakest and the most contemptible But for the entertainment of the second we may consider that in him is a torrent of pleasure for the voluptuous he is the fountain of honour for the ambitious an inexhaustible treasure for the covetous our vices are in love with phantastick pleasures and images of perfection which are truely and really to be found no where but in God And therefore our vertues have such proper objects that it is but reasonable they should all turn into love for certain it is that this love will turn all into vertue For in the scrutinies for righteousnesse and judgement when it is inquired whether such a person be a good man or no the meaning is not what does â—e believe or what does he hope but what he loves The acts of Love to God are 1. Love does all things which may please the beloved person it performs all his commandments and this is one of the greatest instances and arguments of our love that God requires of us This is love that we keep his commandments Loue is obedient 2. It does all the intimations and secret significations of his pleasure whom we love and this is an argument of a great degree of it The first instance is it that makes the love accepted but this gives a greatnesse and singularity to it The first is the least and lesse then it cannot do our duty but without this second we cannot come to perfection Great love is also plyant and inquisitive in the instances of its expression 3. Love gives away all things that so he may advance the interest of the beloved person it relieves all that he would have relieved and spends it self in such real significations as it is enabled withall He never loved God that will quit any thing of his Religion to save his money Love is alwayes liberal and communicative 4. It suffers all things that are imposed by its beloved or that can happen for his sake or that intervenes in his service cheerfully sweetly willingly expecting that God should turn them into good and instruments of â—elicity Charity hopeth all things endureth all things Love is patient and content with any thing so it be together with its beloved 5. Love is also impatient of any thing that may displease the beloved person hating all â—in as the enemy of its friend for love contracts all the same relations and marries the same friendships and the same hatreds and all affection to a sin is perfectly inconsistent with the love of God love is not divided between God and Gods enemy we must love God with all our heart that is give him a whole and undivided affection having love for nothing els but such things which he allows and which he commands or loves himself 6. Love endeavours for ever to be present to converse with to enjoy to be united with its object loves to be talking of him reciting his praises telling his stories repeating his words imitating his gestures transcribing his copy in every thing and every degree of union and every degree of likenesse is a degree of love and it can endure any thing but the displeasure and the absence of its beloved For we are not to use God and Religion as men use perfumes with which they are delighted when they have them but can very well be without them True chariâ—y is resâ—lesse till it enjoyes God in such instances in which it wants him it is like hunger and thirst it must be fed or it cannot be answered and nothing can supply the presence or make recompence for the absence of God or of the effects of his favour and the light of his countenance 7. True love in all accidents locks upon the beloved person and observes his countenance and how he approves or disproves it and accordingly looks sad or cheerful He that loves God is not displeased at those accidents which God chooses nor murmurs at those changes which he makes in his family nor envies at those gifts he bestowes but chooses as he likes and is ruled by his judgement and is perfectly of his persuasion loving to learn where God is the Teacher and being content to be ignorant or silent where he is not pleased to open himself 8. Love is curious of little things of circumstances and measures and little accidents not allowing to it self any infirmity which it strives not to master aiming at what it cannot yet reach at desiring to be of an Angelical purity and of a perfect innocence and a Seraphical fervour and fears every image of offence is as much afflicted at an idle word as some at an act of adultery and will not allow to it self so much anger as will disturb a childe nor endure the impurity of a dream and this is the curiosity and nicenesse of divine Love this is the fear of God and is the daughter and production oâ— Love The Measures and Rules of Divine Love But because this passion is pure as the brightest and smoothest mirrour and therefore is apt to be sullyed with every impurer breath we must be careful that our love to God be governed by these measures 1. That our love be sweet even and full of tranquility having in it no violences or transportations but going on in a course of holy actions and duties which are proportionable to our condition and present state not to satisfie all the desire but all the probabilities and measures of our strength A new beginner in religion hath passionate and violent desires but they must not be the measure of his actions But he must consider his strength his late sicknesse and state of death the proper temptations of his condition and stand at first upon his defence not go to storm a strong Fort or attaque a potent enemy or do heroical actions and fitter for gyants in Religion Indiscreet violences and untimely forwardnesse are the rocks of religion against which tender spirits often suffer shipwrack 2. Let our love be prudent and without illusion that is that it expresse it self in such instances which God hath chosen or which we choose our selves by proportion to his rules and measures Love turns into doting
the state of sin and death from the body of corruption to the life of grace to the possession of Jesus to the kingdom of the Gospel and this is done in the baptism of water or in the baptism of the Spirit when the first rite comes to be verified by Gods grace coming upon us and by our obedience to the heavenly calling we working together with God After this change if ever we fall into the contrary state and be wholly estranged from God and Religion and professe our selves servants of unrighteousnesse God hath made no more covenant of restitution to us there is no place left for any more repentance or intire change of condition or new birth a Man can be regenerated but once and such are voluntary malicious Apostates Witches obstinate impenitent persons and the like But if we be overtaken by infirmity or enter into the marches or borders of this estate and commit a grievous sin or ten or twenty so we be not in the intire possession of the Devil we are for the present in a damnable condition if we dye but if we live we are in a recoverable condition for so we may repent often we repent or rise from death but once but from sicknesse many times and by the grace of God we shall be pardoned if so we repent But our hopes of pardon are just as is the repentance which if it be timely hearty industrious and effective God accepts not by weighing granes or scruples but by estimating the great proportions of our life a hearty endeavour and an effectual geâ—neral change shall get the pardon the unavoidable infirmities and past evils and present imperfections and short interruptions against which we watch and pray and strive being put upon the accounts of the crosse and payed for by the Holy Jesus This is the state and condition of repentance its parts and actions must be valued according to the following rules Acts and parts of Repentance 1. He that repents truely is greatly sorrowful for his past sins not with a superficial sigh or tear but a pungent afflictive sorrow such a sorrow as hates the sin so much that the man would choose to dye rather then act it any more This sorrow is called in Scripture a weeping sorely a weeping with bitternesse of heart a weeping day and night a sorrow of heart a breaking of the spirit mourning like a dove and chattering like a swallow and we may read the degree and manner of it by the lamentations and sad accents of the Prophet Ieremy when he wept for the sins of the nation by the heart breaking of David when he mourned for his murder and adultery and the bitter weeping of S. Peter after the shameful denying of his Master The expression of this sorrow differs according to the temper of the body the sex the age and circumstance of action and the motive of sorrow and by many accidental tendernesses or Masculine hardnesses and the repentance is not to be estimated by the tears but by the grief and the grief is to be valued not by the sensitive trouble but by the cordial hatred of the sin and ready actual dereliction of it and a resolution and reall resisting its consequent temptations Some people can shed tears for nothing some for any thing but the proper and true effects of a godly sorrow are fear of the divine judgements apprehension of Gods displeasure watchings and strivings against sin patiently enduring the crosse of sorrow which God sends as their punishment in accusation of our selves in perpetually begging pardon in mean and base opinion of our selves and in all the natural productions from these according to our temper and constitution for if we be apt to weep in other accidents it is ill if we weep not also in the sorrows of repentance not that weeping is of it self a duty but that the sorrow if it be as great will be still expressed in as great a manner 2. Our sorrow for sins must retain the proportion of our sins though not the equality we have no particular measures of sins we know not which is greater of Sacriledge or Superstion Idolatry or Covetousnesse Rebellion or Witchcraft and therefore God ties us not to nice measures of sorrow but onely that we keep the general Rules of proportion that is that a great sin have a great grief a smaller crime being to be washed off with a lesser shower 3. Our sorrow for sins is then best accounted of for its degree when it together with all the penal and afflictive duties of repentance shall have equalled or exceeded the pleasure we had in commission of the sin 4. True repentance is a punishing duty and acts its sorrow and judges and condemns the sin by voluntary submitting to such sadnesses as God sends on us or to prevent the judgement of God by judging our selves and punishing our bodies and our spirits by such instruments of piety as are troublesome to the body such as are fasting watching long prayers troublesome postures in our prayers expensive alms and all outward acts of humiliation For he that must judge himself must condemn himself if he be guilty and if he be condemned he must be punished and if he be so judged it will help to prevent the judgement of the Lord. S. Paul instructing us in this particular But I before intimated that the punishing actions of repentance are onely actions of sorrow and therefore are to make up the proportions of it For our grief may be so full of trouble as to outweigh all the burdens of fasts and bodily afflictions and then the other are the lesse necessary and when they are used the benefit of them is to obtain of God a remission or a lessening of such temporal judgements which God hath decreed against the sins as it was in the case of Ahab but the sinner is not by any thing of this reconciled to the eternal favour of God for as yet this is but the Introduction to Repentance 5. Every true penitent is obliged to confesse his sins and to humble himself before God for ever Confession of sins hath a special promise If we confesse our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins meaning that God hath bound himself to forgive us if we duly confesse our sins and do all that for which confession was appointed that is be ashamed of them own them no more For confession of our sins to God can signifie nothing of it self in its direct nature He sees us when we act them and keeps a record of them we forget them unlesse he reminds us of them by his grace so that to confess them to God does not punish us or make us asham'd but confession to him if it proceeds from shame and sorrow and is an act of humility and self condemnation is a laying open our wounds for cure then it is a duty God delights in in all which circumstances because we
be express'd in all our actions and the light of thy countenance be upon us in all our sufferings that we may delight in the service and in the mercies of God for ever Amen O gracious Father and merciful God if it be thy wil say unto the destroying Angel it is enough and though we are not better then our brethren who are smitten with the rod of God but much worse yet may it please thee even because thou art good and because we are timerous and sinful not yet fitted for our appearance to set thy mark upon our foreheads that the Angel thy Minister of thy justice may passe over us and hurt us not let thy hand cover thy servants and hide us in the clefts of the rock in the wounds of the holy Jesus from the present anger that is gone out against us that though we walk thorough the valley of the shadow of death we may fear no evil and sufâ—er none and those whom thou hast smitten with thy rod support with thy staff and visit them with thy mercies and salvation through Jesus Christ. Amen 8. For all women with childe and for unborn children O Lord God who art the Father of them that trust in thee and shewest mercy to a thousand generations of them that fear thee have mercy upon all women great with childe * be pleased to give them a joyful a safe deliverance let thy grace preserve the fruit of their wombs and conduct them to the holy Sacrament of Baptisme that they being regenerated by thy Spirit and adopted into thy family and the portion and duty of Sons may live to the glory of God to the comfort of their parents and friends to the edification of the Christian Common-wealth and the salvation of their own souls thorough Jesus Christ. Amen 9. For all estates of Men and Women in the Christian Church O Holy God King Eternal out of the infinite stâ—re-houses of thy grace and mercy give unto all Virgins chastity and a religious spirit to all persons dedicated to thee and to religion continence and meekness an active zeal and an unwearied spirit to all married paires faith and holinesse to widows and fatherless and all that are oppressed â—hy paâ—ronage comfort and defence to all Christian women simplicity and modâ—sâ—y humility and chastity pâ—tience aâ—d charity give unto the poor to all â—hat are robbed and spoiled of their goods a competent supporâ— and a contented spirit and a treasure in heaven hereafter give unto prisoners and captives to them that toil in the mines and row in â—he gallâ—es strength of body and of spirit liberty and redemption comfort and restitution to all that travel by land thy Angel for their guide and a holy and prosperous return to all that travel by sea freedom from Pirates and shipwrack and bring them to the Haven where they would be to distressed and scrupulous consciences to melancholy and disconsolate persons to all that are afflicted with evil and unclean spirits give a light from heaven great grace and proportionable comforts and â—imely deliverance give them patience and resignation let their sorrows be changed into grace and comfort and let the sâ—orm waft them certainly to the regions of rest and glory Lord God of Mercy give to thy Martyrs Confessors and all thy persecuted constancy and prudence boldness and hope a full faith and a never failing charity To all who are condemned to death do thou minister comfort a strong a quiet and a resigned spirit take from them the fear of death and all remaining affections to sin and all imperfections of duty and cause them to dye full of grace full of hope and give to all faithfull and particularly to them who have recommended themselves to the prayers of thy unworthy servant a supply of all their needs temporal and spiritual and according to their several states and necessities rest and peace pardon and refreshment and shew us all a mercy in the day of judgment Amen Give O Lord to the Magistrates equity sinceritie courage and prudence that they may protect the good defend religion and punish the wrong doers Give to the Nobility wisdom valour and loyalty To Merchants justice and faithfulnesse to all Artificers and Labourers truth and honesty to our enemies forgivenesse and brotherly kindnesse Preserve to us the Heavens and the Ayre in healthful influence and disposition the Earth in plenty the kingdom in peace and good government our marriages in peace and sweetnesse and innocence of society thy people from famine and pestilence our houses from burning and robbery our persons from being burnt alive from banishment and prison from Widowhood destitution from violence of pains and passions from tempests and earth-quakes from inundation of waters from rebellion and invasion from impatience and inordinate cares from tediousnes of spirit and despair from murder and all violent accursed and unusual deaths from the surprize of sudden and violent accidents from passionate and unreasonable fears from all thy wrath and from all our sins good Lord deliver and preserve thy servants for ever Amen Represse the violence of all implacable warring and tyrant Nations bring home unto thy fold all that are gone astray call into the Church all strangers increase the number and holinesse of thy own people bring infants to ripenesse of age and reason confirm all baptized people with thy grace and with thy Spirit instruct the Novices and new Christians let a great grace and merciful providence bring youthful persons safely and holily through the indiscretions and passions and temptations of their younger years those whom thou hast or shalt permit to live to the age of a man give competent strength and wisdom take from them covetousnesse and churlishnesse pride and impatience fill them full of devotion and charity repentance and sobriety holy thoughts and longing desires after Heaven and heavenly things give them a holy and a blessed death and to us all a joyful resurrection through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen Ad. Sect. 10. The manner of using these devotions by way of preparation to the receiving the blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper The just prepararion to this holy Feast consisting principally in a holy life and consequently in the repetition of the acts of all vertues and especially of Faith Repentance Charity and Thanksgiving to the exercise of these four graces let the person that intends to communicate in the times set apart for his preparation and devotion for the exercise of his faith recite the prayer or Letany of the passion For the exercise of Repentance the form of confession of sins with the prayer annexed And for the graces of thanksgiving and charity let him use the special formes of prayer above described or if a lesse time can be allotted for preparatory devotion the two first will be the more proper as containing in them all the personal duty of the communicant To which upon the morning of that holy solemnity let him adde A