labours to refound back in dolefull and despairing Ecchoes How sadly doth it expostulate with heaven My dearest God what is become of that Lovely attribute thy Mercy are the treasures of it shut up from a poore sinner and wilt thou be a God of mercy to the whole world and wilt not to me O let me for ever dwell in dungeons deep beyond the reach and sight of man so I may but enjoy the brightnesse of thy face Let me live more poore and disconsolate then Job upon his Dunghill in a naked and forsaken deformity so I may but hide my spots and put on a Beauty in my soul which may invite thine eye again Who ever thou art that now riotts it in the world and dalliest with damnation didst thou but know the agonies of guilt the cruelties of a Murdering sin and the stings thy pleasures leave behind them how quickly wouldest thou sacrifice thy life to nobler services and employ thy time in sweeter thoughts Wert thou now to die how would the terrours of an evill Life affright thee when every sin would appear a Messenger of horrour and the flattering world prove but an infernall Comforter Shew me that Gyant-Conscience this would not at length Master that frozen soul these flashes would not melt and blast againe that Steel-backt sinner whom gentle loades will not at length numerously over-burden The world knowes not a misery like it the terrours of the Grave are trifles to it which could it but shroud the Guilty soul and in it's dark and solitary regions promise a freedome from future Misery how willingly will it buy its peace with death and beg its sharpest Dart for a speedier passage losse of friends or fortune Crosses to the very bone are but Scratches to these wounds give me a Catalogue of afflictions and there is none I think except this which is not tolerable But a wounded spirit who can bear How unsupportable O Lord is the burden of a Wounded Spirit how terrible are the Stings of Conscience and the apprehensions of thy wrath how miserable is he that securely wraps himselfe in Sinne and grows insensible of his guilt till the memory of his Crimes revive it and when death puts him in mind of the World to come hath nothing but the horrours of his Life before him Thou hast plac't an impartial Register in our bosomes which no flattery can bribe nor teares Silence from reminding us of thy Justice and yet how many are there whose Leviathan-consciences break the Silver Cords of thy Law like threds of Towe and are so farre from acknowledging their guilt that they are hardned in impenitence But teach me O Lord as I sinne so to sorrow dayly that so when I shall come and appeare before Thee I may find no other terrours no other sins my accusers then those which I have if not throughly crucified yet at least seriously repented of in my selfe before Eccles Chap. 12. v. 13. Feare God and Keepe his Commandements for this is the whole Duty of Man ANd yet how few are there that performe it which yet is not so much our duty as it ought to be our delight He that hath but once got the habit of adoring his Maker will quickly finde Religion but a pleasure and that Law which seemes so hard and unpleasing to the World will be but a recreation to his Soul But alas How little is there of Davids piety amongst us now when instead of delighting in Gods Law we deface it more are so far from meditating in it either day or night that we never think upon it at all 'T is the duty of the world now to sin confidently and an argument of much valour to banish this timorous religion of fearing either God or his Law The Preachers doctrine is now grown worse then a paradox mere Apocrypha 't is heresie to revive it To tell us of our duty is to scandalize the times that so officiously break the Law And no wonder there are so many Atheists there was never such a time to engender them as now Track Antiquity to its first rise and you cannot match this age again The world never multiplied so fast in sin abhominable Sects like Colonies new plant the earth prophaness is grown hereditary and sprouts out by propagation so that in time posterity may perhaps become Heathens Were God and his promise mutable a deluge would be but a sleight punishment We do not onely sin but glory in it more whilst some not content to be private and silent Atheists proclaim it loud and are mad to have the credit of being known so as if we could not be ingenious enough unless we denyed our Maker No wonder religion is out of tune when there is no harmony of a Church of that Christianity sounds low when common Morality is not heard And yet it is a lesson we cannot learn too well a tribute we cannot pay too much too often We owe our beeings to the bounty of his hand what homage then can we better pay then that which by glorifying of him purchaseth a Crown for our selves Tell me ye blind followers of the world what 's the glory ye pretend to Ye that laugh at heaven and make divinity a mantle for unrighteousnesse that with the Pharisee count formality your religion and make an outside-piety your duty Alass Heaven is not got by pious frauds guilded crimes or fortunate transgressions nor the divine Eye to be deluded with a painted zeal 'T is not a pretended sanctity that can cloathe us with immortality nor a fashionable devotion onely that will carry us to heaven How miserable is he whose god is the world and makes it his religion to neglect his Maker What didst Thou bestow our reason on us for O Lord but to harken unto the voice of thy Law that the Celestiall Oratory of thy Word might at least win us from an ignorant prophanesse Shall Heathens that had no other end no other reward for their piety than some temporary applause or the inward triumphs of their Spirits for doing well out-strip us in the beauties of a Morall life and we that have higher and purer hopes be scarce honest for thy sake Shall they that knew Thee not be more passionately Good than we that have found out Heaven and expect eternity to succeed Though it was not in the power of Man to find Thee till Thou didst reveal thy selfe in Christ yet now having so richly and fully shewn us the Treasures of thy Love shall we not strive to doe something for thy Glory Make us we beseech Thee to consider the advantages that are in thy Service the happinesse that attends obedience and that Crown which is the reward of Faith that so out affections being mortified unto these perishing objects here below may be enlivened onely with desires after those Eternall Excellencyes that are in Thee Luke Chap. X. v. 25. And a certaine Lawyer stood up and tempted him Saying Master what shall I doe
they will be at no Expences in their Worship like the thrifty Disciple they will not goe to the Cost of Serving God Handsomely How happy was Zacheus whose poore habitation our Saviour pickt out beyond the rest to harbour in and Honour with his presence nor yet was so Rich a Mercy confined to him alone but extended to the whole World too Every family may if they will share in the same fortune This day is Salvation come to every one Hear this then whoever thou art that Sacrificest thy Soul to any thing but Heaven that dancest to the Musick of the World and makest Eternity a Stranger to thy thoughts Canst thou deny thy Saviour an admission or thinke it a trouble to leave the foolish interests of the World and welcome the most Holy Jesus Behold the Miseries of our Natures which will not be perswaded to become happy but suffer an immortall joy to be lost for ever in embraces heere Thou hast brought us from Nothing O Lord that we might see thy Salvation that we who might have been for ever without Thee might through the Knowledge of Thy selfe be made partakers of thy Glory O Enliven us that we may give up our selves wholly to thy Service and perpetually study to do something to the Honour of thy Name that we may not throw away those Soules on the vanities of the world which thou hast given us for Thy selfe and to be employed in thy Service but that Sacrificing our Wills to Thine and our lives to a perfect Love of Thee we may find that joy which accompanies thy Grace heere and that Glory which knows no end or change hereafter in Thy presence for evermore Math. Chap. 13. v. 43. Then shall the Righteous shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdome of their Father WHo then would not be ambitious of so bright a change to become purely Coelestiall to have his body turn'd into a Luminary and every part transformed to lustre when man shall become not onely a Living soul but a Living splendour too and his immortal breath in it's reunion instead of parts find beames to quicken Heare this ye blind admirers of the world that look no higher then a Diadem a purple robe or some honourable trifle and sell your brightest inheritance for a splendid toy Heare this ye Beauries that carry charmes of Lustre in your faces and think your eyes are not onely spheares but treasuries of Light whose attire Emulates the starrs and carries splendour with it that weare your happiness on your back and count a silver vanity your Glory Heare this who ever thou art that canst dote on shadowes the flashes of a transitory pomp and for a glorious Mortality bidst adiew to heaven and an Immortall-blisse Couldst thou put on a roabe of Starrs or pull rayes from that Royall luminary that embrightens the world they would be but gloomy splendours bright obscurities to that Glory that enwraps a Saint The lustre of the heavens is but an emblem of our owne the Prince of planets that dishevells his rays and revels it in splendour the great Magazine that stocks the world with light is but a Curtaine to that Tabernacle that shall invest us Our toombs are our wardrobes for heaven and those Chambers of death whose hangings are winding sheets overlaid with dust are the out-rooms that strip us for our robe of immortality the opening of our Graves is the beginning of our happinesse and we are gather'd to our fathers that we may be gather'd to eternity If that Glimpse which the Disciples saw in the mount made them wish for three tabernacles or an eternall abode there how shall the beauty of revealed Heaven and the glory of an ascended Saviour ravish us with desires after its enjoyment It was the Martyrs comfort amidst their tortures that though their members were in peeces yet the haires of their head were numbred Wert thou bottomed in the seas depth his power can buoy the up if crusted into the earths rubbish he can abstract and forme thee a finer creature then ever thou wert If Peters shadow could cure the sick how powerfull must He be who is Peters Glory He whose name is in the Book of Life dies here but to be laid as it were in a Presse to be extracted a purer modell for eternity Who then would not onely despise the world but welcome even misery for so invaluable a reward triumph in his greatest eclipse and become cheerfull in the midst of chaines He that knowes the glory of his inheritance will little value those pleasant trifles those rich nothings the world admires the painted joyes of an imaginary felicity but in nobler and Diviner expectations prepares himselfe for that change which knowes none where he shall have nothing else to do but to live forever and be eternally received as once the Disciple into the Bosome of his Saviour Thou didst make us for thy selfe O Lord and when we by our sins and follies had for ever lost thee Thou didst restore us to thy selfe againe that we might not be eternally deprived of Thee our onely Good O fill us with perpetuall meditations of thy Love let those joyes which are so much above our thoughts be ever in them let our inability to comprehend the happiness of thy kingdome heighten the piety of our ambition after it more that we may walke in some measure worthy of so Divine a purchase as heaven and as thou hast prepared it for us do thou prepare us for it Prepare us with all those heavenly graces that may entitle us to it and with all those spirituall desires that may make us breathe and long after it that so our hearts being there before we our selves may come after and being transported in our desires may be also in our persons to everlasting enjoyments Luke 18. v. 11. The Pharisee stood up and prayed thus God I thanke thee that I am not as other men are c. HOw ungratefully does the Proud Pharisee thank heaven how strangely hath pride altered him He that used to make long prayers intends to be but short now he stands up He comes not to pray but to bray not to adore God but to commend himself Here is not in the humour of being very devout being so taken up and ravisht with his owne graces that he had scarce either the time or the patience to remember the divine Author whose goodnesse he would seem to acknowledg but t is so colldy 't were better he were unthankfull still He exceeded other men indeed for his impudence was superlative Had he known himselfe better he would have been more thankfull and lesse proud How largely doth he urge heaven with his worth but makes no apology for his Pride he thanks God indeed but t is in transitu rather a complement then a Prayer though it be a sin to worship images he thinks it none to be his owne idolater and therefore dares present God with a catalogue of his own merits How perfectly
hath the world learnt his lesson How do the Catholicke Pharises pride themselves in a supererogatory devotion and thinke to climbe heaven by a ladder of their owne making glorying in a superabundant piety and triumphing in a meritorious excesse of dooing even more then they need How nimbly do our Trembling Enthusiasts too follow their leaders steps here in a sanctimonious pride by a supercilious purity presuming to reforme the world and new modell it againe That saint themselves Stylo novo and with the Pharisee not onely thanke but tell God plainly they are not as other men That raylingly proclaime themselves the great light of the world and in a pious Lunacy would new gospell it againe extravagantly proscribing all religions but their own These melancholy Pretenders seclude themselves from others and by a sullen devotion are become so strangely divine that they have almost lost their humanity So that if the Pharisee was not as other men yet these are as like the Pharisee as may be having so exactly learnt both his nature and religion So naturall is it for us O Lord to be deluded even in our best Performances and whilst we vainly thinke our selves not onely better then others but good enough in Thy Sight to be carried into presumption 'T is humility crownes all our Graces and puts a Beauty on our requests whilst the confidence of our owne merits does not onely deforme but seclude us from thee Teach us therefore with such gratitude to use thy gifts that we become not forgetfull of our selves or Thee Whilst others Pride themselves in a meritorious supererogation let us indeavour humbly to confesse and bewaile our imperfections Let not a spirituall Pride seise upon our souls so shall we be innocent from the Great Transgression Romans Chap. 6. v. 21. For the end of those things is death WHo then would propose that for his happinesse which shall perish with himself whose end is not only death but hell and will destroy him not onely now but hereafter too Indeed were there no hope that our remains should revive again or the ruins of our frame rise up to a finer shape we might well drown our selves in enjoyments heere and fixe our felicity in pleasures Every man might then without sin become an Epicure and he that could invent new fashions of luxury would not only be more ingenious but more fortunate too Morality would be all vice yet vice it self no more a crime but our felicity not to be extravagant then were a sin against nature he that is most Brutish would be most Rational Law would then become an enemie to Humanity there could be no society but in confusion and in spight of policy were there no heaven no hell we should pleasantly mingle to a chaos and obey no other discipline then that of riot Every one might then turne Atheist without scandall to be without God in the world would be no misfortune every man might be his own without blasphemy Could they that live dye like Brutes too and revive no more the comfort of not being damned would be greater then the sweets of sin But alas he that dies now must live againe that his life may be rememberd nor yet is it somuch the feare of Death as the horrours of a guilty conscence the terrible presages of a future eternity that scares the departing soul The pangs of expiring nature are nothing to those stings the memory of our crimes bring with them The sorrowes of the Grave and our being here no more for ever are joyes to the miseries that are to come Tell me thou that hug'st the world then and gropest for paradise in a grove of sins thou that makest earth thy treasure and wrap'st up the riches of thy hopes in time's bosome or the enclosure of a span when those bright and nimble guides of life thy eyes shall grow weak with age or weary with paine when every limbe shall become an object of sorrow and those parts that were so officiously employed in sin shall become instruments of despaire When that delicious frame that darling edifice thy Body shall by its tottering qualmes and trembling convulsions affrighten its disconsolate owner how will the flashes of a future justice and the terrours of thy end confound thee Can those enjoyments that flattered away thy soul restore it now can those pleasures that stole heaven from thee recover it again can thy vanities asswage thy sorrowes or the memory of thy sins the misery of thy end Where 's that musick whose aires like Davids harpe might charme the cries of conscience and by its straines drop a harmony that might still the trouble of thy anguisht soul Where are those trophies thy ambition purchased at the easy rate as onely sinning for that Honour for which thou hast sold heaven that soveraignty for which thou becamst a slave thy selfe and lost the freedome of thy soul Cannot all thy Greatnesse raise thee up a litle and by a power once so much feared and applauded reprieve thee from the grave or a more eternall prison Where are those treasures thou soldest thy best inheritance for whose ravishing splendours took away thy sight and made thee blinder then themselves Can they neither bribe nor buy thy pardon or will the grave know no other fee then so rich a misery Where are all those diversions that robb'd thee of thy piety and the thoughts of thy Maker those pleasing vanities that took away all sense of heaven and foresight of thy end Are all vanisht to a toomb and an unwelcome period are all thy jollities terminated in a Coffin and no other object left to keep thee company but thy Crimes and those terrours thy guilt presents Behold now then ye Lovers of the world more then of God and see the picture of your end those ruines you have so smoothly built on Try if all your imaginary felicities are proofe against this shaft or can secure you from this intruder the single Conquerour of the world whose very prison is but a reserve for a worse and its execution here but a repriefe for a more lasting and yet living death He that liv'd in pleasures must live in flames and having revell'd it in sin riot it in tortures and the misery is that wishing not to live he can never die And yet how vaine are our desires still after the world O Lord how soon how smoothly are we led by the false and transitory pleasures of this life from Thee The wages of sin is death and yet how foolishly do we preferre its service before thine whose reward is life The end of prophaness is eternall ruine and the pleasures of impiety period in confusion and yet we sadly embrace the proffers of sin before the promises of thy glory Pitty O Lord the frailties of our natures and forgive the irregularities of our lives fill us with noble desires after Thee that the vanities of the world may be our scorne and thy Glory onely our Ambition
wounded me before thee O shall my sins be stronger then thy grace and the errours of my life more powerfull then thy law The pious incense of a contrite spirit is a sacrifice thou dost not usally despise and O that I could exhale my selfe in showres and drop away my soul in teares that my iniquities could fly away in sighs and the guilt of my life be wip't off in religious streams Pitty my irregularities O Lord and forgive my crimes how long shall I groan under the bondage of sin and weary thee too with the burden of my corruptions Thou delight'st to pardon sin and shall mine remaine Thou desirest not the death of thy creatures and shall I be forsaken I cannot live without Thee nor enjoy the comfort of my very being till thou revive me 't is better I had not beene than that I should lose Thee and 't is better I should be no more for ever then not regain and find Thee Return O thou comfort of my soule and fill me with thy love Purge the stains and wash away the blemishes of my life by thine own blood renew quicken my spirit with the joyes of Thine Sanctifie my will with a pleasing obedience unto thine let the merits of my Saviour's righteousness beautifie my soule cloathing me with innocence and purity of heart here and everlasting immortality in thy kingdome hereafter A Prayer of Thanksgiving MY deare and glorious Maker what shall I render unto Thee for all thy mercies There hath not a moment of my life past by without being made happy to me by some token of thy love Thou didst purifie my birth by Baptism I was no sooner come into the world but thou didst seale me for Heaven taking away the guilt which no innocency but that of Jesus could conceal or pardon and abolishing those characters of sin and death which were so inseparably imprinted on my nature that no law but that of thy spirit could wipe away and having brought mee into the bosome of thine owne Spouse and plac't me amongst thy children hast fed me with continuall mercies and meanes of grace that I might see there hath been no defect in thy goodness but my acknowledgments nor in thy promises but my performances And indeed my God I cannot looke upon these obligations without horrour for my ingratitude nor remember these pretious testimonies of thy love without a religious confusion of soul for my great neglect and forgetfullnesse of thee Nor can I plead an excuse in the weakenesse of nature onely for those sins I have been too willing a comitter of And yet my God behold how thou hast loved me sending thy son to reconcile me to thy selfe that I might find access unto thy Throne and inherit the joyes of thy kingdom Behold how thou hast loved me in reprieving me from that wrath my sins have long ago deserved and as if thou didst not or wouldst not take notice of my crimes hast made me an object of thy care and an example of thy love abounding in perpetuall dispensations of mercy to my soul I will therfore sacrifice my selfe O Lord in prayses to thy name and in the memory of thy goodnesse keep an everlasting Jubilee in my soul thou hast shewn me the way unto thy Selfe and that in Thee onely are hid all the treasures of my happinesse I will be no longer then a servant to the world and bestow the nobler addresses of my soul on perishing and empty nothings and for a poor fugitive drop here below lose Thee the ocean of bliss and glory And that I may despise the flatteries of the world O Lord do thou inspire me with desires after Thee only and inable me to do something for thy sake who hast don somuch to make me happy that so my life may be a sacrifice of obedience ever pleasing in thy eyes The Index Meditations on Eccles 12. v. 1. Remember now thy Creatour in the dayes of thy Youth Fol. 1. Gen. 12. v. 8. And the Lord God Planted a Garden East-ward in Eden 5 1 Kings 10. v. 18. Moreover the King made a great throne of Ivory and over-laid it with the best Gold 9. 1 Kings 19.9 And He came thither unto a Cave and lodged there 11 Job 11.10 In all this did not Job sin with his Lips 14 Canticles 2.1 I am the Rose of Sharon and the Lillie of the Valleys 17 Gen. 28.12 And he dreamed and behold a Ladder set upon the Earth c. 19 Prov. 18.14 But a wounded Spirit who can beare 23 Eccles 12.13 Feare God and keep his Commandements c. 27 Luke 10.25 And a certaine Lawyer stood up and Tempted him saying Master What shall I do c. 31 Matth. 15.28 And He said unto her O woman great is thy faith 35 Joh. 20.11 And she stooped down and looked into the sepulcher 39 John 11.35 Jesus wept 42 Joh. 12.2 But Lazarus was one of those that sate at the Table with Him 45 Joh. 13.23 Now there was Leaning on Jesus Bosome one of his Disciples whom Jesus loved 48 Matth. 16.26 For what is a man profited if he gaine the whole world and lose c. 51 Matth. 5. v. 8. Blessed are the Pure in heart for they shall see God 56 Matth. 8.2 Lord if thou wilt Thou canst make me cleane 60 Matth. 24.39 And knew not untill the flood came and took them all away 64 Luke 7.5 For He Loved our Nation and hath built us a Synagogue 67 Luke 9.57 Lord I will follow Thee wheresoever Thou goest 71 Matth. 9.38 Pray yee therefore the Lord of the Harvest that he would send forth more labourers into his Harvest 75 Matth. 2.10 And when they saw the Star they rejoyced with exceeding c. 78 Philip. 4.12 I know both how to abound and to suffer need 81 Luke 19.9 This day is Salvation come to this house 85 Matth. 13.43 Then shall the Righteous shine forth as the Sun c. 89 Luke 18.11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed thus God I thank thee c. 93 Rom. c. 6. v. 21. For the end of those things is Death 96 Luke c. 15. v. 10. There is joy in the presence of the Angells of God over one sinner that repenteth 101 Matth. c. 6. v. 33. But seek ye first the Kingdome of God and his Righteousnesse and all these things shall be added unto you 104 A Prayer 111 A Penitentiall Prayer 114 A Prayer of Thanksgiving 119 FINIS