is declared In the fourth Commandement hee proclaims himself the Maker of Heaven and Earth for in memory of Gods rest from the work of six dayes the seventh was hallowed into a Sabbath and the keeping it was a confessing GOD to bee the great Maker of Heaven and Earth and consequently to this it also was a confession of his goodnesse his Omnipotence and his Wisdom all which were written with a Sun beam in the great book of the Creature So long as the Law of the Sabbath was bound upon Gods people so long GOD would have that to be the folemn manner of confessing these attributes but when the Priesthood being changed there was a change also of the Law the great duty remain'd unalterable in changed circumstances We are eternally bound to confesse God Almighty to be the Maker of Heaven and Earth but the manner of confessing it is chang'd from a rest or a doing nothing to a speaking something from a day to a symbol from a ceremony to a substance from a Jewish rite to a Christian duty we professe it in our Creed we confesse it in our lives we describe it by every line of our life by every action of duty by faith and trust and obedience and we do also upon great reason comply with the Jewish manner of confessing the Creation so far as it is instrumental to a real duty We keepe one day in seven and so confesse the manner and circumstance of the Creation and we rest also that we may tend holy duties so imitating Gods rest better then the Jew in Synesius who lay upon his face from evening to evening and could not by stripes or wounds be raised up to steer the ship in a great storm Gods rest was not a natural cessation hee who could not labour could not be said to rest but Gods rest is to be understood to be a beholding and a rejoycing in his work finished and therefore we truly represent Gods rest when we confesse and rejoyce in Gods works and Gods glory This the Christian Church does upon every day but especially upon the Lords day which she hath set apart for this and all other Ofâ—ices of Religion being determined to this day by the Resurrection of her dearest Lord it being the first day of joy the Church ever had And now upon the Lords day we are not tyed to the rest of the Sabbath but to all the work of the Sabbath and we are to abstain from bodily labour not because it is a direct duty to us as it was to the Jews but because it is necessary in order to our duty that we attend to the Offices of Religion The observation of the Lords day differs nothing from the observation of the Sabbath in â—he matter of Religion but in the manner They differ in the ceremony and external rite Rest with them was the principal with us it is the accessory They differ in the office or forms of worship For they were then to worship God as a Creator and a gentle Father we are to adde to that Our Redeemer and all his other excellencies and mercies and though we have more natural and proper reason to keep the Lords day then the Sabbath yet the Jews had a Divine Commandement for their day which we have not for ours but we have many Commandements to do all that honour to GOD which was intended in the fourth Commandement and the Apostles appointed the first day of the week for doing it in solemne Assemblies and the manner of worshipping God and doing him solemn honour and service upon this day we may best observe in the following measures Rules for keeping the Lords day and other Christian Festivals 1. When you go about to distinguish Festival dayes from common do it not by lessening the devotions of ordinary dayes that the common devotion may seem bigger upon Festivals but on every day keep your ordinary devotions intire and enlarge upon the Holy day 2. Upon the Lords day wee must abstaine from all servile and laborious workes except such which are matters of necessity of common life or of great charity for these are permitted by that authority which hath separated the day for holy uses The Sabbath of the Jewes though consisting principally in rest and established by God did yeeld to these The labour of Love and the labours of Religion were not against the reason and the spirit of the Commandement for which the Letter was decreed and to which it ought to minister And therefore much more is it so on the Lords day where the Letter is wholly turned into Spirit and there is no Commandement of God but of spiritual and holy actions The Priests might kill their beasts and dresse them for sacrifice and Christ though born under the law might heal a sick man and the sick man might carry hâ—s bed to witnesse his recovery and confesse the mercy and leap and dance to God for joy and an Ox might be led to water and an Asse be haled ouâ— of a ditch and a man may take physick and he may eat meat and therefore there were of necessity some to prepare and minister it and the performing these labours did not consist in minutes and just determined stages but they had even then a reasonable latitude so onely as to exclude unnecessary labour or such as did not minister to charity or religion And therefore this is to be enlarged in the Gospel whose Sabbath or rest is but a circumstance and accessory to the principal and spiritual duties Upon the Christian Sabbath necessity is to be served first then charity and then religion for this is to give place to charity in great instances and the second to the first in all and in all cases God is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth 3. The Lords day being the remembrance of a great blessing must be a day of joy festivity spiritual rejoycing and thanksgiving and therefore it is a proper work of the day to let your devotions spend themselves in singing or reading Psalms in recounting the great works of God in remembring his mercies in worshipping his excellencies in celebrating his attributes in admiring his person in sending portions of pleasant meat to them for whom nothing is provided in all the arts and instruments of advancing Gods glory the reputation of religion in which it were a great decency that a memorial of the resurrection should be inserted that the particular religion of the day be not swallowed up in the general And of this we may the more easily serve our selves by rising seasonably in the morning to private devotion and by retiring at the leisures and spaces of the day not imployed in publick offices 4. Fail not to be present at the publick hours and places of prayer entring early and cheerfully attending reverently and devoutly abiding patiently during the whole office piously assisting at the prayers and gladly also hearing the Sermon and at no hand omitting to
Tragedians and from them by Arrianus saying That all our Tragedies are of Kings and Princes and rich or ambitious personages but you never see a poor man have a part unlesse it be as a Chorus or to fill up the Scenes to dance or to be derided but the Kings and the great Generals First sayes he they begin with joy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 crown the houses but about the third or fourth Act they cry out O Citheron why didst thou spare my life to reserve me for this more sad calamity And this is really true in the great accidents of the World for a great estate hath great crosses and a mean fortune hath but small ones It may be the poor man loses a Cow for if his Childe dyes he is quit of his biggest care but such an accident in a rich and splendid Family doubles upon the spirits of the parents Or it may be the poor man is troubled to pay his rent and that 's his biggest trouble but it is a bigger care to secure a great fortune in a troubled estate or with equal greatnesse or with the circumstances of honour and the nicenesse of reputation to defend a Law-suit and that which will secure a common mans whole estate is not enough to defend a great mans honour And therefore it was not without mystery observ'd among the Ancients that they who made gods of gold and silver of hope and fear peace and fortune Garlick and Onions Beasts and Serpents and a quartan Ague yet never deified money meaning that however wealth was admired by common or abused understandings yet from riches that is from that proportion of good things which is beyond the necessities of Nature no moment could be added to a mans real content or happinesse Corn from Sardinia herds of Calabrian cattel meadows through which pleasant Liris glides silkes from Tyrus and golden Chalices to drown my health in are nothing but instruments of vanity or sinne and suppose a disease in the soul of him that longs for them or admires them And this I have otherwhere represented more largely to which I here adde that riches have very great dangers to their souls not onely who covet them but to all that have them For if a great personage undertakes an action passionately and upon great interest let him manage it indiscreetly let the whole designe be unjust let it be acted with all the malice and impotency in the World he shall have enough to flatter him but not enough to reprove him He had need be a bold man that shall tell his Patron he is going to Hell and that Prince had need be a good man that shall suffer such a Monitor And though it bee a strange kinde of civility and an evil dutifulnesse in Friends and Relatives to suffer him to perish without reproofe or medicine rather then to seem unmannerly to a great sinner yet it is none of their least infelicities that their wealth and greatnesse shall put them into sinne and yet put them past reproof I need not instance in the habitual intemperance of rich Tables nor the evil accidents and effects of fulnesse pride and lust wantonnesse and softnesse of disposition huge talking and an imperious spirit despite of Religion and contempt of poor persons At the best it is a great temptation for a man to have in his power whatsoever he can have in his sensual desires and therefore riches is a blessing like to a present made of a whole Vintage to a Man in a Hectick Feaver he will be much tempted to drink of it and if he does he is inflam d and may chance to dye with the kindnesse Now besides what hath been already noted in the state of poverty there is nothing to be accounted for but the fear of wanting necessaries of which if a man could be secured that he might live free from care all the other parts of it might be reckoned amongst the advantages of wise and sober persons rather then objections against that state of fortune But concerning this I consider that there must needs be great security to all Christians since CHRIST not onely made expresse promises that we should have sufficient for this life but also took great pains and used many arguments to create confidence in us and such they were which by their own strength were sufficient though you abate the authority of the Speaker The Sonne of GOD told us his Father takes care of us Hee that knew all his Fathers counsels and his whole kindnesse towards mankinde told us so How great is that truth how certain how necessary which CHRIST himself proved by arguments The excellent words and most comfortable sentences which are our Bills of Exchange upon the credit of which we lay our cares down and receive provisions for our need are these Take no thought for your life what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink nor yet for your body what ye shall put on Is not the life more then meat and the body then raiment Behold the fowls of the air for they sow not neither do they reap nor gather into barns yet your heavenly Father feedeth them Are ye not much better then they which of you by taking thought can adde one cubit to his stature And why take ye thought for raiment Consider the Lillies of the field how they grow They toil not neither do they spin and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arayed like one of these Therefore if God so clothe the grasse of the field which to day is and to morrow is cast into the oven shall he not much more clothe you O ye of little faith Therefore take no thought saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithall shall we be clothed for after all these things do the Gentiles seek For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousnesse and all these things shall bee added unto you Take therefore no thought for the morrow for the morrow shall take thought for the things of it self sufficient to the day is the evil thereof The same discourse is repeated by S. Luke and accordingly our duty is urged and our confidence abetted by the Disciples of our Lord in divers places of holy Scripture So S. Paul Be careful for nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God And againe Charge them that are rich in this world that they bee not high minded nor trust in uncertaine riches but in the living GOD who giveth us richly all things to enjoy and and yet again Let your conversation be without covetousnesse and be content with such things as ye have for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee So that we may boldly say the Lord is my helper And all
I most humbly bâ—seech thee to give me wisdom from above that I may adore thee and admire thy wayes and footsteps which are in the great Deep and not to be searched out teach me to submit to thy providence in all things to be content in all changes of person and condition to be temperate in prosperity and to reade my duty in the lines of thy mercy and in adversity to be meek patient and resign'd and to look through the cloud that I may wait for the consolation of the Lord and the day of redemption in the mean time doing my duty with an unwearied diligence and an undisturbed resolution having no fondnesse for the vanities or possessions of this World but laying up my hopes in Heaven and the rewards of holy living and being strengthned with the Spirit in the inner man through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen CHAP. III. Of Christian Iustice. IUstice is by the Christian Religion enjoyn'd in all its parts by these two propositions in Scripture Whatsoever yee would that men should do to you even so do to them This is the measure of communicative justice or of that justice which supposes exchange of things profitable for things profitable that as I supply your need you may supply mine as I do a benefit to you I may receive one by you and because every man may be injur'd by another therefore his security shall depend upon mine if he will not let me be safe he shall not be safe himself onely the manner of his being punish'd is upon great reason both by God and all the World taken from particulars and committed to a publick dis-interested person who will do justice without passion both to him and to me If he refuses to do me advantage he shall receive none when his needs require it And thus God gave necessities to men that all men might need and several abilities to severall persons that each Man might help to supply the publick needs and by joyning to fill up all wants they may be knit together by justice as the parts of the world are by nature and he hath made us all obnoxicus to injuries and made every little thing sâ—râ—ng enough to do us hurt by some instrument or other and hath given us all a sufficient stock of self love and desire of self preservation to be as the chain to tye together all the pars of society and to restrain us from doing violence lest we be violently dealt withall our selves The other part of justice is commonly called distributive and is commanded in this rule Render to all their dues tribute to whom tribute is due custome to whom custome fear to whom fear honour to whom honour Owe no man any thing but to love one another This justice is distinguished froÌ„ the first because the obligation depends not upon contract or express bargain but passes upon us by vertue of some command of God or of our Superiour by nature or by grace by piety or religion by trust or by office according to that Commandment As every man hath received the gift so let him minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God And as the first considers an equality of persons in respect of the contract or particular necessity this supposes a difference of persons and no particular bargains but such necessary entercourses as by the Laws of God or man are introduced But I shall reduce all the particulars of both kindes to these four heads 1. Obedience 2. Provision 3. Negotiation 4. Restitution Sect. I. Of Obedience to our Superiours OUr Superiours are set over us in affairs of the World or the affairs of the Soul and things pertaining to Religion and are called accordingly Ecclesiastical or Civil Towards whom our duty is thus generally described in the new Testament For Temporall or Civill Governours the Commands are these Render to Caesar the things that are Caesars and Let every soul be subject to the higher powers For there is no power but of God The powers that be are ordained of God whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation and Put them in minde to be subject to principâ—lities and powers and to obey Magistrates and Submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as supreme or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and the praise of them that do well For Spiritual or Ecclesiastical governours thus we are commanded Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as they that must give an account and Hold such in reputation and to this end did I write that I might know the proof of you whether ye be obedient in all things said S. Paul to the Church of Corinth Our duty is reducible to practise by the following rules Acts and duties of Obedience to all our Superiours 1. We must obey all humane laws appointed and constituted by lawful Authority that iâ— of the supreme power according to the constitution of the place in which we live all laws I mean which are not against the law of God 2. In obedience to humane laws we must observe the letter of the Law where we can without doing violence to the reason of the Law and the intention of the Law-giver but where they crosse each other the charity of the Law is to be preferred before its discipline and the reason of it before the letter 3. If the general reason of the Law ceases in our particular and a contrary reason rises upon us we are to procure dispensation or leave to omit the observation of it in such circumstances if there be any persons or office appointed for granting it but if there be none or if it is not easily to be had or not without an inconvenience greater then the good of the observation of the Law in our particular we are dispensed withall in the nature of the thing without further processe or trouble 4. As long as the Law is obligatory so long our obedience is due and he that begins a contrary câ—stom without reason sins but he that breaks the law when the custom is entred and fixed is excused because it is supposed the legislative power consents when by not punishing it suffers disobedience to grow up to a custome 5. Obedience to humane laws must be for conscience sake that is because in such obedience publick order and charity and benefit is concerned and because the Law of God commands us therefore we must make a conscience in keeping the just Laws of Superiors and although the matter before the making of the Law was indifferent yet now the obedience is not indifferent but next to the Laws of God we are to obey the Laws of all our Superiours who the more publick they are
that supposes our duty to answer his grace that God will be our God so long as we are his people The other is not Faith but Flattery 6. To professe publickly the doctrine of Jesus Christ openly owning whatsoever he hath revealed and commanded not being ashamed of the word of God or of any practises enjoyned by it and this without complying with any mans interest not regarding favor nor being moved with good words not fearing disgrace or losse or inconvenience or death it self 7. To pray without doubting without wearinesse without faintnesse entertaining no jealousies or suspitions of God but being confident of Gods hearing us and os his returns to us whatsoever the manner or the instance be that if we do our duty it will be gracious and merciful These acts of Faith are in several degrees in the servants of Jesus some have it but as a grain of mustard-seed some grow up to a plant some have the fulnesse of faith but the least faith that is must be a perswasion so strong as to make us undertake the doing of all that duty which Christ built upon the foundation of believing but we shall best discern the truth of our faith by these following signes S. Hierom reckons three Signes of true Faith 1. An earnest and vehement prayer for it is impossible we should heartily believe the things of God and the glories of the Gospel and not most importunately desire them For every thing is desired according to our belief of its excellency and possibility 2. To do nothing for vain glory but wholly for the interests of religion and these Articles we believe valuing not at all the râ—mours of men but the praise of God to whom by faith we have given up all our intellectual faculties 3. To be content with God for our Judge for our Patron for our Lord for our friend desiring God to be all in all to us as we are in our understanding and affections wholly his Adde to these 4. To be a stranger upon earth in our affections and to have all our thoughts and principal desires fixed upon the matters of Faith the things of Heaven For if a man were adopted heir to Caesar he would if he believed it real and effective despise the present and wholly be at court in his Fathers eye and his desires would outrun his swiftest speed and all his thoughts would spend themselves in creating Ideas and little phantastick images of his future condition Now God hath made us Heirs of his Kingdom and Coheirs with Jesus if we believed this we would think and affect and study accordingly But he that rejoyces in gain and his heart dwells in the world and is espoused to a fair estate and transported with a light momentany joy and is afflicted with losses and amazed with temporal persecutions and esteems disgrace or poverty in a good cause to be intolerable this man either hath no inheritance in Heaven or believes none and believes not that he is adopted to be the Son of God the Heir of eternal Glory 5. S. Iames's signe is the best Shew me thy faith by thy works Faith makes the Merchant diligent and venturous and that makes him rich Ferdinando of Arragon believed the story told him by Columbus and therefore he furnished him with ships and got the west Indies by his Faith in the undertaker But Henry the seventh of England believed him not and therefore trusted him not with shipping and lost all the purchase of that Faith It is told us by Christ He that forgives shall be forgiven if we believe this it is certain we shall forgive our enemies for none of us all but need and desire to be forgiven No man can possibly despise or refuse to desire such excellent glories as are revealed to them that that are servants of Christ and yet we do nothing that is commanded us as a condition to obtain them No man could work a dayes labor without faith but because he believes he shall have his wages at the dayes or weeks end he does his duty But he onely believes who does that thing which other men in the like cases do when they do believe He that believes money gotten with danger is better then poverty with safety will venture for it in unknown lands or seas and so will he that believes it better to get Heaven with labour then to go to Hell with pleasure 6. He that believes does not make haste but waits patiently till the times of refreshment come and dares trust God for the morrow and is no more sollicitous for next year then he is for that which is past and it is certain that man wants faith who dares be more confident of being supplied when he hath money in his purse then when he hath it onely in bills of exchange from God or that relyes more upon his own industry then upon Gods providence when his own industry fails him If you dare trust to God when the case to humane reason seems impossible and trust to God then also out of choice not because you have nothing else to trust to but because he is the onely support of a just confidence then you give a good testimony of your faith 7. True Faith is confident and will venture all the world upon the strength of its persuasion Will you lay your life on it your estate your reputation that the doctrine of JESUS CHRIST is true in every Article Then you have true Faith But he that fears men more then God believes men more then he believes in God 8. Faith if it be true living and justifying cannot be separated from a good life it works miracles makes a Drunkard become sober a lascivious person become chast a covetous man become liberal it overcomes the world it works righteousnesse and makes us diligently to do and cheerfully to suffer whatsoever God hath placed in our way to Heaven The Means and Instruments to obtain Faith are 1. An humble willing and docible minde or desire to be instructed in the way of God For persuasion enters like a sun-beam gently and without violence and open but the window and draw the curtain and the Sun of righteousnesse will enlighten your darknesse 2. Remove all prejudice and love to every thing which may be contradicted by Faith How can ye believe said Christ that receive praise one of another An unchast man cannot easily be brought to believe that without purity he shall never see God He that loves riches can hardly believe the doctrine of poverty and renuntiation of the world and alms and Martyrdom and the doctrine of the crosse is folly to him that loves his ease and pleasures He that hath within him any principle contrary to the doctrines of Faith cannot easily become a Disciple 3. Prayer which is instrumental to every thing hath a particular promise in this thing He that lacks wisdom let him ask it of God and if you give good things to your children how
duty the greatest love that God requires of Man And yet he that is the most imperfect must have this love also in preparation of minde and must differ from another in nothing except in the degrees of promptnesse and alacrity And in this sense he that loves God truly though but with a beginning and tender love yet he loves God with all his heart that is with that degree of love which is the highest point of duty and of Gods charge upon us and he that loves God with all his heart may yet increase with the increase of God just as there are degrees of love to God among the Saints and yet each of them love him with all their powers and capacities 2. But the greater state of love is the zeal of love which runs out into excrescencies and suckers like a fruitful and pleasant tree or bursting into gums and producing fruits not of a monstrous but of an extraordinary and heroical greatnesse Concerning which these cautions are to be observed Cautions and rules concerning zeal 1. If zeal be in the beginnings of our spiritual birth or be short sudden and transient or be a consequent of a mans natural temper or come upon any cause but after a long growth of a temperate and well regulated love it is to be suspected for passion and forwardnesse rather then the vertical point of love 2. That zeal onely is good which in a fervent love hath temperate expressions For let the affection boyl as high as it can yet if it boyl over into irregular and strange actions it will have but few but will need many excuses Elijah was zealous for the Lord of Hosts and yet he was so transported with it that he could not receive answer from God till by Musick he was recompos d and tam'd and Moses broke both the Tables of the Law by being passionately zealous against them that brake the first 3. Zeal must spend its greatest heat principally in those things that concern our selves but with great care and restraint in those that concern others 4. Remember that zeal being an excrescence of Divine love must in no sense contradict any action of love Love to God includes love to our Neighbour and therefore no pretence of zeal for Gods glory must make us uncharitable to our brother for that is just so pleasing to God as hatred is an act of love 5. That zeal that concernes others can spend it self in nothing but arts and actions and charitable instruments for their good and when it concernes the good of many that one should suffer it must bee done by persons of a competent authority and in great necessity in seldom instances according to the Law of God or Man but never by private right or for trifling accidents or in mistaken propositions The Zealots in the Old Law had authority to transfix and stab some certain persons but GOD gave them warrant it was in the case of Idolatry or such notorious huge crimes the danger of which was insuportable and the cognizance of which was infallible And yet that warrant expired with the Synagogue 6. Zeal in the instances of our own duty and personal deportment is more safe then in matters of counsel and actions besides our just duty and tending towards perfection Though in these instances there is not a direct sin even where the zeal is lesse wary yet there is much trouble and some danger as if it be spent in the too forward vowes of Chastity and restraints of natural and innocent liberties 7. Zeal may be let loose in the instances of internal personal and spiritual actions that are matters of direct duty as in prayers and acts of adoration and thanksgiving and frequent addresses provided that no indirect act passe upon them to defile them such as complacency and opinions of sanctity censuring others scruples and opinions of necessity unnecessary fears superstitious numbrings of times and houres but let the zeal be as forward as it will as devout as it will as Seraphicall as it will in the direct addresse and entercourse with God there is no danger no transgression Do all the parts of your duty as earnestly as if the salvation of all the world and the whole glory of God and the confusion of all Devils and all that you hope or desire did depend upon every one action 8. Let zeal be seated in the will and choice and regulated with prudence and a sober understanding not in the fancies and affections for these will make it full of noise and empty of profit but that will make it deep and smooth material and devout The summe is this That zeal is not a direct duty no where commanded for it self and is nothing but a forwardnesse and circumstance of another duty and therfore is then onely acceptable when it advances the love of God and our Neighbours whose circumstance it is That zeal is onely safe onely acceptable which increases charity directly and because love to our Neighbour and obedience to God are the two great portions of charity we must never account our zeal to be good but as it advances both these if it be in a matter that relates to both or severally if it relates severally S. Pauls zeal was expressed in preaching without any offerings or stipend in travelling in spending and being spent for his flock in suffering in being willing to be accursed for love of the people of God and his Countreymen Let our zeal be as great as his was so it be in affections to others but not at all in angers against them In the first then is no danger in the second there is no safety In brief let your zeal if it must be expressed in anger be alwayes more severe against thy self then against others The other part of Love to God is Love to our Neighbour for which I have reserved the Paragraph of Alms. Of the external actions of Religion Religion teaches us to present to God our bodies as well as our souls for God is the Lord of both and if the body serves the soul in actions natural and civil and intellectual it must not be eased in the onely offices of Religion unlesâ—e the body shall expect no portion of the rewards of Religion such as are resurrection reunion and glorification Our bodies are to God a living sacrifice and to present them to God is holy and acceptable The actions of the body as it serves to religion and as it is distinguished from Sobriety and Justice either relate to the word of God or to prayer or to repentance and make these kindes of external actions of religion 1. Reading and hearing the word of God 2. Fasting and corporal austerities called by S. Paul bodily exercise 3. Feasting or keeping dayes of publick joy and thanksgiving SECT IV. Of Reading or Hearing the Word of God REading and Hearing the word of God are but the several circumstances of the same duty instrumental
especially to faith but consequently to all other graces of the Spirit It is all one to us whether by the eye or by the eare the Spirit conveyes his precepts to us If we hear S. Paul saying to us that Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge or read it in one of his Epistles in either of them we are equally and sufficiently instructed The Scriptures read are the same thing to us which the same doctrine was when it was preached by the Disciples of our blessed Lord and we are to learn of either with the same dispositions There are many that cannot reade the word and they must take it in by the ear and they that can reade finde the same word of God by the eye It is necessary that all men learn it some way or other and it is sufficient in order to their practise that they learn it any way The word of God is all those Commandments and Revelations those promises and threatnings the stories and sermons recorded in the Bible nothing else is the word of God that we know of by any certain instrument The good books and spiritual discourses the sermons or homilies written or spoken by men are but the word of men or rather explications of and exhortations according to the Word of God but of themselves they are not the Word of God In a Sermon the Text onely is in a proper sence to be called Gods Word and yet good Sermons are of great use and convenience for the advantages of Religion He that preaches an hour together against drunkennesse with the tongue of men or Angels hath spoke no other word of God but this Be not drunk with wine wherein there is excesse and he that writes that Sermon in a book and publishes that book hath preached to all that reade it a louder Sermon then could be spoken in a Church This I say to this purpose that we may separate truth from error popular opinions from substantial Truths For God preaches to us in the Scripture and by his secret assistances and spiritual thoughts and holy motions Good men preach to us when they by popular arguments and humane arts and complyances expound and presse any of those doctrines which God hath preached unto us in his holy Word But 1. The Holy Ghost is certainly the best Preacher in the world and the words of Scripture the best sermons 2. All the doctrine of salvation is plainly set down there that the most unlearned person by hearing it read may understand all his duty What can be plainer spoken then this Thou shalt not kill Be not drunk with wine Husbands love your wives whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye so to them The wit of man cannot more plainly tell us our duty or more fully then the Holy Ghost hath done already 3. Good sermons and good books are of excellent use but yet they can serve no other end but that we practise the plain doctrines of Scripture 4. What Abraham in the parable said concerning the brethren of the rich man is here very proper They have Moses and the Prophets leâ— them hear them But if they refuse to hear these neither will they believe though one should arise from the dead to preach unto them 5. Reading the holy Scriptures is a duty expressely commanded us and is called in Scripture Preaching all other preaching is the effect of humane skill and industry and although of great benefit yet it is but an Ecclesiastical ordinance the Law of God concerning Preaching being expressed in the matter of reading the Scriptures and hearing that word of God which is and as it is there described But this duty is reduced to practise in the following Rules Rules for hearing or reading the word of God 1. Set apart some portion of thy time according to the opportunities of thy calling and necessary imployment for the reading of holy Scripture and if it be possible every day reade or hear some of it read you are sure that book teaches all truth commands all holinesse and promises all happinesse 2. When it is in your power to choose accustome your self to such portions which are most plain and certain duty and which contain the story of the Life and Death of our blessed Saviour Read the Gospels the Psalms of Daâ—id and especially those portions of Scripture which by the wisdom of the Church are appointed to be publikely read upon Sundayes and holy-dayes viz. the Epistles and Gospels In the choice of any other portions you may advise with a Spiritual Guide that you may spend your time with most profit 3. Fail not diligently to attend to the reading of holy Scriptures upon those dayes wherein it is most publickly and solemnly read in Churches for at such times besides the learning our duty we obtain a blessing along with it it becoming to us upon those dayes apart of the solemn Divine worship 4. When the word of God is read or preached to you be sure you be of a ready heart and minde free from worldly cares and thoughts diligent to hear careful to mark studious to remember and desirous to practise all that is commanded and to live according to it Do not hear for any other end but to become better in your life and to be instructed in every good work and to increase in the love and service of God 5. Beg of God by prayer that he would give you the spirit of obedience and profit and that he would by his Spirit write the word in your heart and that you describe it in your life To which purpose serve your self of some affectionate ejaculations to that purpose before and after this duty Concerning spiritual books and ordinary Sermons take in these advices also 6. Let not a prejudice to any mans person hinder thee from receiving good by his doctrine if it be according to godlinesse but if occasion offer it or especially if duty present it to thee that is if it be preached in that assembly where thou art bound to be present accept the word preached as a message from God and the Minister as his Angel in that ministration 7. Consider and remark the doctrine that is represented to thee in any discourse and if the Preacher addes any accidental advantages any thing to comply with thy weaknesse or to put thy spirit into action or holy resolution remember it and make use of it but if the Preacher be a weak person yet the text is the doctrine thou art to remember that contains all thy duty it is worth thy attendance to hear that spoken often â—nd renewed upon thy thoughts and though thou beest a learned man yet the same thing which thou knowest already if spoken by another may be made active by that application I can better be comforted by my own considerations if another hand applyes them then if I do it my self because the word of God does not work as a natural agent but as a
Divine instrument it does not prevail by the force of deduction and artificial discoursings onely but chieâ—ly by way of blessing in the ordinance and in the ministery of an appointed person At least obey the publick order and reverence the constitution and give good example of humility charity and obedience 8. When Scriptures are read you are onely to enquire with diligence and modesty into the meaning of the Spirit but if homilies or sermons be made upon the words of Scripture you are to consider whether all that be spoken be conformable to the Scriptures For although you may practise for humane reasons and humane arguments ministred from the Preacherâ— art yet you must practise nothing but the command of God nothing but the Doctrine of Scripture that is the text 9. Use the advice of some spirituall or other prudent man for the choice of such spiritual books which may be of use and benefit for the edification of thy spirit in the wayes of holy living and esteem that time well accounted for that is prudently and affectionately imployed in hearing or reading good books and pious discourses ever remembring that God by hearing us speak to him in prayer obliges us to hear him speak to us in his word by what instrument soever it be conveyed SECT V. Of Fasting FAsting if it be considered in it self without relation to Spiritual ends is a duty no where enjoyned or counselled But Christianity hath to do with it as it may be made an instrument of the Spirit by subduing the lusts of the flesh or removing any hindrances of religion And it hath been practised by all ages of the Church and advised in order to three ministeries 1. To Prayer 2. To Mortification of bodily lusts 3. To Repentance and is to be practised according to the following measures Rules for Christian Fasting 1. Fasting in order to prayer is to be measured by the proportions of the times of prayer that is it ought to be a total faft from all things during the solemnity unlesse a probable necessity intervene Thus the Jews eate nothing upon the Sabbath-dayes till their great offices were performed that is about the sixth hour and S. Peter used it as an argument that the Apostles in Penteâ—ost were not drunk because it was but the third hour of the day of such a day in which it was not lawful to eat or drink til the sixth hour and the Jews were offended at the Disciples for plucking the ears of corn upon the Sabbath early in the morning because it was before the time in which by their customs they esteemed it lawful to break their fast In imitation of this custom and in prosecution of the reason of it the Christian Church hath religiously observed fasting before the Holy Communion and the more devout persons though without any obligation at all refused to eat or drink till they had finished their morning devotions and further yet upon dayes of publick humiliation which are designed to be spent wholly in Devotion and for the averting Gods judgements if they were imminent fasting is commanded together with prayer commanded I say by the Church to this end that the Spirit might be clearer and more Angelical when it is quitted in some proportions from the loads of flesh 2. Fasting when it is in order to Prayer must be a total abstinence from all meat or else an abatement of the quantity for the help which fasting does to prayer cannot be served by changing flesh into fish or milk-meats into dry diet but by turning much into little or little into none at all during the time of solemn and extraordinary prayer 3. Fasting as it is instrumental to Prayer must be attended with other aids of the like vertue and efficacy such as are removing for the time all worldly cares and secular businesses and therefore our blessed Saviour enfolds these parts within the same caution Take heed lest your hearts be overcharged with surfetting and drunkennesse and the cares of this world and that day overtake you unawares To which adde alms for upon the wings of fasting and alms holy prayer infallibly mounts up to Heaven 4. When Fasting is intended to serve the duty of Repentance it is then best chosen when it is short sharp and afflictive that is either a total abstinence from all nourishment according as we shall appoint or be appointed during such a time as is separate for the solemnity and attendance upon the imployment or if we shall extend our severity beyond the solemn dayes and keep our anger against our sin as we are to keep our sorrow that is alwayes in a readinesse and often to be called upon then to refuse a pleasant morsel to abstaine from the bread of our desires and onely to take wholsome and lesse pleasing nourishment vexing our appetite by the refusing a lawful satisfaction since in its petulancie and luxurie it preyed upon an unlawfull 5. Fasting designed for repentance must be ever joyned with an extream care that we fast from sin for there is no greater folly or undecency in the world then to commit that for which I am now judging and condemning my self This is the best fast and the other may serve to promote the interest of this by increasing the disaffection to it and multiplying arguments against it 6. He that fasts for repentance must during that solemnity abstain from all bodily delights and the sensuality of all his senses and his appetites for a man must not when he mourns in his fast be merry in his sport weep at dinner and laugh all day after have a silence in his kitchen and musick in his chamber judge the stomack and feast the other seâ—ses I deny not but a man may in a single instance punish a particular sin with a proper instrument If a man have offended in his palate he may choose to fast onely if he have sinned in softnesse and in his touch he may choose to lye hard or work hard and use sharp inflictions but although this Discipline be proper and particular yet because the sorrow is of the whole man no sense must rejoyce or be with any study or purpose feasted and entertained softly This rule is intended to relate to the solemn dayes appointed for repentance publickly or privately besides which in the whole course of our life even in the midst of our most festival and freer joyes we may sprinkle some single instances and acts of self condemning or punishing as to refuse a pleasant morsel or a delicious draught with a tâ—cit remembrance of the sin that now returns to displease my spirit and though these actions be single there is no undecency in them because a man may abate of his ordinary liberty bold freedom w th great prudence so he does â—t without singularity in himself or trouble to others but he may not abate of his solemn sorrow that may be caution but this would be softnesse effoeminacy and undecency 7· When
receive the Holy Communion when it is offered unlesse some great reason excuse it this being the great solemnity of thanksgiving and a proper work of the day 5. After the solemnities are past and in the intervalls between the morning and evening devotion as you shall finde op portunity visit sick persons reconcile differences do offices of Neighbourhood inquire into the needs of the poor especially house-keepers relieve them as they shall need and as you are able for then we truely rejoyce in God when we make our neighbours the poor members of Christ rejoyce together with us 6. Whatsoever you are to do your self as necessary you are to take care that others also who are under your charge do in their station manner Let your servants be called to Church and all your family that can be spared from necessary great houshold ministeries those that cannot let them go by turns and be supplyed otherwise as well as they may and provide on these dayes especially that they be instructed in the articles of faith and necessary parts of their duty 7. Those who labour hard in the week must be eased upon the Lords day such ease being a great charity and alms but at no hand must they be permitted to use any unlawful games any thing forbidden by the laws any thing that is scandalous or any thing that is dangerous and apt to mingle sin with it no games prompting to wantonnesse to drunkennesse to quarrelling to ridiculous and superstitious customs but let their refreshments be innocent and charitable and of good report and not exclusive of the duties of religion 8. Beyond these bounds because neither God nor man hath passed any obligation upon us we must preserve our Christian liberty and not suffer our selves to be intangled with a yoke of bondage for even a good action may become a snare to us if we make it an occasion of scruple by a pretence of necessity binding loads upon the conscience not with the bands of God but â—f men and of fancy or of opinion or of tyranny Whatsoever is laid upon us by the hands of man must be acted and accounted of by the measures of a man but our best measure is this He keeps the Lords day best that keeps it with most religion and with most charity 9. What the Church hath done in the article of the resurrection she hath in some measure done in the other articles of the Nativity of the Ascension and of the Descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost And so great blessings deserve an anniversary solemnity since he is a very unthankful person that does not often record them in the whole year and esteem them the ground of his hopes the object of his faith the comfort of his troubles and the great effluxes of the divine mercy greater then all the victories over our temporal enemies for which all glad persons usually give thanks And if with great reason the memory of the resurrection does return solemnly every week it is but reason the other should return once a year * To which I adde that the commemoration of the articles of our Creed in solemn dayes and offices is a very excellent instrument to convey and imprint the sense and memory of it upon the spirits of the most ignorant person For as a picture may with more fancy convey a story to a man then a plain narrative either in word or writing so a real representment and an office of remembrance and a day to declare it is fâ—r more impressive then a picture or any other art of making and fixing imagery 10. The memories of the Saints are precioâ—s to God and therefore they ought also to be so to us and such persons who served God by holy living industrious preaching and religious dying ought to have their names preserved in honour and God be glorified in them and their holy doctrines and lives published and imitated and we by so doing give testimony to the article of the communion of Saints But in these cases as every Church is to be sparing in the number of dayes so also should she be temperate in her injunctions not imposing them but upon voluntary and unbusied persons without snare or burden But the Holy day is best kept by giving God thanks for the excellent persons Apostles or Martyrs we then remember and by imitating their lives this all may do and they that can also keep the solemnity must do that too when it is publickly enjoyned The mixt actions of religion are 1. Prayer 2. Alms. 3. Repentance 4. Receiving the blessed Sacrament Sect. 7. Of Prayer THere is no greater argument in the world of our spiriâ—ual danger and unwillingness to religion then the backwardnesse which most men have alwayes and all men have sometimes to say their prayers so weary of their length so glad when they are done so witty to excuse and frustrate an opportunity and yet all is nothing but a desiring of God to give us the greatest and the best things we can need and which can make us happy it is a work so easy so honourable and to so great purpose that in all the instances of religion and providence except onely the incarnation of his Son God hath not given us a greater argument of his willingnesse to have us saved and of our unwillingnesse to accept it his goodnesse and our gracelessenesse his infinite condescension and our carelessenesse and folly then by rewarding so easy a duty with so great blessings Motives to prayer I cannot say any thing beyond this very consideration its appendages to invite Christian people to pray often But we may consider That first it is a duty commanded by God and his holy Son 2. It is an act of grace and highest honour that we dust and ashes are admitted to speak to the Eternal God to run to him as to a Father to lay open our wants to complain of our burdens to explicate our scruples to beg remedy and ease support and counsel health and safety deliverance and salvation and 3. God hath invited us to it by many gracious promises of hearing us 4. He hath appointed his most glorious Son to be the president of prayer and to make continual intercession for us to the throne of grace 5. He hath appointed an Angel to present the prayers of his servants and 6. Christ unites them to his own and sanctifies them and makes them effective and prevalent and 7. Hath put it into the hands of men to rescind or alter all the decrees of God which are of one kinde that is conditional and concerning our selves and our final estate and many instances of our intermedial or temporal by the power of prayers 8. And the prayers of men have saved cities and kingdoms from ruine prayer hath raised dead men to life hath stopped the violence of fire shut the mouths of wilde beasts hath altered the course of nature caused rain in Egypt and drowth in the sea
it made the Sun to go from West to East and the Moon to stand still and rocks and mountains to walk and it cures diâ—eases without physick and makes physick to do the work of nature and nature to do the work of grace and grace to do the work of God and it does miracles of accident and event and yet prayer that does all this is of it self nothing but an ascent of the minde to God a desiring things fit to be desired and an expression of this desire to God as we can and as becomes us And our unwillingnesse to pray is nothing else but a not desiring what we ought passionately to long for or if we do desire it it is a choosing rather to misse our satisfaction and felicity then to ask for it There is no more to be said in this affair but that we reduce it to practise according to the following Rules Rules for the practise of Prayer 1. We must be careful that we never ask any thing of God that is sinful or that directly ministers to sin for that is to ask of God to dishonour himself and to undoe us we had need consider what we pray for before it returns in blessing it must be joyn'd with Christs intercession and presented to God Let us principally ask of God power and assistances to do our duty to glorifie God to do good works to live a good life to dye in the fear and favour of God and eternal life these things God delights to give and commands that we shall ask and we may with confidence expect to be answered graciously for these things are promised without any reservation of a secret condition if we ask them and do our duty towards the obtaining them we are sure never to misse them 2. We may lawfully pray to God for the gifts of the Spirit that minister to holy ends such as are the gift of preaching the spirit of prayer good expression a ready and unloosed tongue good understanding learning opportunities to publish them c. with these onely restraints 1. That we cannot be so confident of the event of those prayers as of the former 2. That we must be curious to secure our intention in these desires that we may not ask them to serve our own ends but only for Gods glory and then we shall have them or a blessing for desiring them In order to such purposes our intentions in the first desires cannot be amisse because they are able to sanctifie other things and therefore cannot be unhallowed themselves 3. We must submit to Gods will desiring him to choose our imployment and to furnish out our persons as he shall see expedient 3. Whatsoever we may lawfully desire of temporall things wee may lawfully ask of God in prayer and we may expect them as they are promised 1. Whatsoever is necessary to our life and being is promised to us and therefore we may with certainty expect food and raiment food to keep us alive clothing to keepe us from nakednesse and shame so long as our life is permitted to us so long all things necessary to our life shall be ministred we may be secure of maintenance but not secure of our life for that is promised not this onely concerning food and raiment we are not to make accounts by the measure of our desires but by the measure of our needs 2. Whatsoever is convenient for us pleasant and modestly delectable we may pray for so we do it 1. with submission to Gods will 2. Without impatient desires 3. That it be not a trifle and inconsiderable but a matter so grave and concerning as to be a fit matter to be treated on between God and our souls 4. That we ask it not to spend upon our lusts but for ends of justice or charity or religion and that they be imployed with sobriety 4. He that would pray with effect must live with care and piety For although God gives to sinners and evil persons the common blessings of life and chance yet either they want the comfort and blessing of those blessings or they become occasions of sadder accidents to them or serve to upbraid them in their ingratitude or irreligion and in all cases they are not the effects of prayer or the fruits of promise or instances of a fathers love for they cannot be expected with confidence or received without danger or used without a curse and mischief in their company * But as all sin is an impediment to prayer so some have a special indisposition towards acceptation such are uncharitablenesse and wrath Hypocrisie in the present action Pride and Lust because these by defiling the body or the spirit or by contradicting some necessary ingredient in prayer such as are Mercy Humility Purity and Sincerity do defile the prayer and make it a direct sin in the circumstances or formality of the action 5. All prayer must be made with Faith and Hope that is we must certainly believe wee shall receive the grace which GOD hath commanded us to ask and wee must hope for such things which hee hath permitted us to ask and our Hâ—pe shall not bee vain though wee misse what is not absolutely promised because we shall at least have an equal blessing in the denial as in the grant And therefore the former conditions must first be secured that is that we ask things necessary or at least good and innocent and profitable and that our persons be gracious in the eyes of God or else what God hath promised to our natural needs he may in many degrees deny to our personal incapacity but the thing being secur'd and the person dispos'd there can be no fault at all for whatsoever else remains is on Gods part and that cannot possibly fail But because the things which are not commanded cannot possibly be secur'd for we are not sure they are good in all circumstances we can but hope for such things even after we have secur'd our good intentions Wee are sure of a blessing but in what instance we are not yet assured 6. Our prayers must be fervent intense earnest and importunate when we pray for things of high concernment and necessity Continuing instant in prayer striving in prayer labouring fervently in prayer night and day praying exceedingly praying alwayes with all prayer so S. Paul calls it watching unto prayer so Saint Peter praying earnestly so S. Iames and this is not at all to be abated in matters spiritual and of duty for according as our desires are so are our prayers and as our prayers are so shall be the grace and as that is so shall be the measure of glory But this admits of degrees according to the perfection or imperfection of our state of life but it hath no other measures but ought to be as great as it can the bigger the better we must make no positive restraints upon it our selves In other things we are to use a bridle and as we must limit
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
may very much be helped if we take in the assistance of a spiritual Guide therefore the Church of God in all ages hath commended and in most ages enjoyn'd that we confesse our sins and discover the state and condition of our souls to such a person whom we or our superiours judge fit to help us in such needs For so if we confesse our sins one to another as S. Iames advises wee shall obtaine the prayers of the holy Man whom God and the Church hath appointed solemnly to pray for us and when he knowes our needs he can best minister comfort or reproof oyl or Causticks he can more opportunely recommend your particular state to GOD he can determine your cases of conscience and judge better for you then you do for your self and the shame of opening such Ulcers may restrain your forwardnesse to contract them and all these circumstances of advantage will do very much towards the forgivenesse And this course was taken by the new Converts in the dayes of the Apostles For many that believed came and confessed and shewed their deeds And it were well if this duty were practised prudently and innocently in order to publick Discipline or private comfort and instruction but that it be done to God is a duty not directly for it self but for its adjuncts and the duties that go with it or before it or after it which duties because they are all to be helped and guided by our Pastors and Curates of souls he is careful of his eternal interest that will not lose the advantage of using a private guide and judge He that hideth his sins shall not prosper Non dirigetur saith the Vulgar Latin he shall want a guide but who confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy And to this purpose Climaâ—us reports that divers holy persons in that age did use to carry Table-books with them and in them describ'd an account of all their determinate thoughts purposes words and actions in which they had suffered infirmity that by communicating the estate of their souls they might be instructed and guided and corrected or incouraged 6. True repentance must reduce to act all its holy purposes and enter into and run through the state of holy living which is contrary to that state of darknesse in which in times past we walked For to resolve to do it and yet not to do it is to break our resolution and our faith to mock God to falsifie and evacuate all the preceding acts of repentance and to make our pardon hopelesse and our hope fruitlesse He that resolves to live well when a danger is upon him or a violent fear or when the appetites of Lust are newly satisfied or newly served and yet when the temptation comes again sins again and then is sorrowful and resolves once more against it and yet fals when the temptation returns is a vain Man but no true penitent nor in the state of grace and if he chance to dye in one of these good moods is very far from salvation for if it be necessary that we resolve to live well it is necessary we should do so For resolution is an imperfect act a term of relation and signifies nothing but in order to the action it is as a faculty is to the act as Spring is to the Harvest as Egges are to Birds as a Relative to its Correspondent nothing without it No Man therefore can be in the state of grace and actual favour by resolutions and holy purposes these are but the gate and portal towards pardon a holy life is the onely perfection of Repentance and the firme ground upon which we can cast the anchor of hope in the mercies of God through Jesus Christ. 7. No Man is to reckon his pardon immediately upon his returnes from sin to the beginnings of good life but is to begin his hopes and degrees of confidence according as sin dyes in him and grace lives as the habits of sin lessen and righteousnesse growes according as sin returnes but seldom in smaller instances and without choice and by surprize without deliberation and is highly disrelished and presently dash'd against the Rock Christ Jesus by a holy sorrow and renewed care and more strict watchfulnesse For a holy life being the condition of the Covenant on our part as we return to God so God returns to us and our state returns to the probabilities of pardon 8. Every Man is to work out his salvation with fear and trembling and after the commission of sinnes his feares must multiply because every new sin and every great declining from the wayes of God is still a degree of new danger and hath increased Gods anger and hath made him more uneasie to grant pardon and when he does grant it it is upon harder terms both for doing and suffering that is we must do more for pardon and it may be suffer much more For we must know that God pardons our sins by parts as our duty increases and our care is more prudent and active so Gods anger decreases and yet it may be the last sin you committed made God unalterably resolv'd to send upon you some sad judgement Of the particulars in all cases wee are uncertain and therefore wee have reason alwayes to mourn for our sinnes that have so provoked GOD and made our condition so full of danger that it may be no prayers or tears or duty can alter his sentence concerning some sad judgement upon us Thus GOD irrevocably decreed to punish the Israelites for Idolatry although Moses prayed for them and God forgave them in some degree that is so that he would not cut them ofâ— from being a people yet he would not forgive them so but he would visit that their sin upon them and he did so 9. A true penitent must all the dayes of his life pray for pardon and never think the work completed till he dyes not by any act of his own by no act of the Church by no forgivenesse by the party injured by no restitution these are all instruments of great use and efficacy and the means by which it is to be done at length but still the sin lyes at the door ready to return upon us in judgement and damnation if we return to it in choice or action and whether God hath forgiven us or no we know not and how far we know not and all that we have done is not of sufficient worth to obtain pardon therefore still pray and still be sorrowful for ever having done it and for ever watch against it and then those beginnings of pardon which are working all the way will at last be perfected in the day of the Lord. 10. Defer not at all to repent much lesse mayest thou put it off to thy death-bed It is not an easie thing to root out the habits of sin which a Mans whole life hath gathered and confirmed We finde work enough to mortifie one beloved
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
what seemeth good in his own eyes Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven Recite Psalm 107. and 130. A form of a vow to be made in this or the like danger If the Lord will be gracious and hear the prayer of his servant and bring me safe to shore then I will praise him secretly and publickly and pay unto the uses of charity or Religion then name the sum you designe for holy uses O my God my goods are nothing unto thee I will also be thy servant all the dayes of my life and remember this mercy and my present purposes and live more to Gods glory and with a stricter duty And do thou please to accept this vow as an instance of my importunity and the greatnesse of my needs and be thou graciously moved to pity and deliver me Amen This form also may be used in praying for a blessing on an enterprize and may be instanced in actions of devotion as well as of charity A prayer before a journey O Almighty God who fillest all things with thy presence and art a God afar off as well as neer at hand thou didst send thy Angel to blesse Iacob in his journey and didst leade the children of Israel through the Red Sea making it a wall on the right hand and on the left be pleased to let thy Angel go out before me and guide me in my journey preseving me from dangers of robbers from violence of enemies and sudden and sad accidents from falls and errours and prosper my journey to thy glory and to all my innocent purposes and preserve me from all sin that I may return in peace and holinesse with thy favour and thy blessing and may serve thee in thankfulnesse and obedience all the dayes of my pilgrimage and at last bring me to thy countrey to the coelestial Jerusalem there to dwell in thy house and to sing praises to thee for ever Amen Ad Sect. 4 A prayer to be said before hearing or reading the word of God O Holy and Eternal Jesus who hast begotten us by thy word renewed us by thy Spirit fed us by thy Sacraments and by the dayly ministery of thy word still go on to build us up to life eternal Let thy most holy Spirit be present with me and rest upon me in the reading or hearing thy sacred word that I may do it humbly reverently without prejudice with a minde ready and desirous to learn and to obey â—hat I may â—e readily furnished and instructed to every good work and may practise all thy holy laws and commandments to the glory of thy holy name O holy and eternal Jesus Amen Ad Sect. 5 9 10. A form of confession of sins and repentance to be used upon fasting dayes or dayes of humiliation especially in Lent and before the Holy Sacrament Have mercy upon me O God after thy great goodnesse according to the multitude of thy mercies do away mine offences For I will conâ—esse my wickednesse and be sorry for my sin * O my Dearest Lord I am not worthy to be accounted amongst the meanest of thy servants not worthy to be sustained by the least fragments of thy mercy but to be shut out of thy presence for ever with dogs unbelievers But for thy names sake O Lord be merciful unto my sin for it is great I am the vilest of sinners and the worst of men proud and vain glorious impatient of scorn or of just reproof â—ot enduring to be slighted and yet extreamly deserving it I have been cosened by the colours of humility and when I have truly called my self vitious I could not endure any man else should say so or think so I have been disobedient to my Superiours churlish and ungentle in my behaviour unchristian and unmanly But for thy names sake c. O Just and Dear God how can I expect pitty or pardon who am so angry and peevish with and without cause envious at good rejoycing in the evil of my neighbours negligent of my charge idle and uselesse timerous and base jealous and impudent ambitious and hard hearted soft unmortified and effeminate in my life indevout in my prayers without fancie or affection without attendance to them or perseverance in them but passionate and curious in pleasing my appetite of meat and drink and pleasures making matter both for sin and sicknesse and I have reâ—ped the cursed fruits of such improvidence entertaining undecent and impure thoughts and I have brought them forth in undecent and impure actions and the spirit of uncleanness hath entred in and unhallowed the temple which thou didst consecrate for the habitation of thy Spirit of love and holinesse But for thy names sake O Lord be merciful unto my sin for it is great Thou hast given me a whole life to serve thee in and to advance my hopes of heaven and this pretious time I have thrown away upon my sins and vanities being improvident of my time and of my talent and of thy grace and my own advantages resisting thy Spirit and quenching him I have been a great lover of my self and yet used many wayes to destroy my self I have pursued my temporal ends with greedinesse and indirect means I am revengful and unthankful forgetting benefits but not so soon forgetting injuries curious and murmuring a great breaker of promises I have not loved my neighbours good nor advanced it in all things where I could I have bin unlike thee in all things I am unmerciful and unjust a sottish admirer of things below and careless of heaven and the wayes that lead thither But for thy names sake O Lord be merciful unâ—â— my sin for it is great All my senses have been windows to let sin in and death by sin Mine eyes have been adulterous and covetous mine ears open to slander and detraction my tongue and palate loose and wanton intemperate and of foul language talkative lying rash and malicious false and flattering irreligious and irreverent detracting and censorious My hands have bin injurious and unclean my passions violent and rebellious my desires impatient and unreasonable all my members and all my faculties have been servants of sin and my very besâ— actions have more matter of pity then of confidence being imperfect in my best and intolerable in most But for thy names sake O Lord c. Unto this and a far bigger heap of sin I have added also the faults of others to my own score by neglecting to hinder them to sin in all that I could and ought but I also have encouraged them in sin have taken off their fears and hardened their consciences and tempted them directly and prevailed in it to my own râ—ine and theirs unlesse thy glorious and unspeakable mercy hath prevented so intolerable a calamity Lord I have abused thy mercy despised thy judgements turned thy grace into wantonnesse I have been unthankful for thy infinite loving kindnesse I have sinned and repented and then sinned again and resolved
against it and presently broke it and then I tyed my self up with vows then was tempted and then I yielded by little little till I was willingly lost again and my vows fell ofâ— like cords of vanity Miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin And yet O Lord I have another heap of sins to be unloaded My secrets sins O Lord are innumerable sins I noted not sins that I willingly neglected sins that I acted upon willfull ignorance and voluntary mispersuasion sins that I have forgot and sins which a diligent and a watchful spirit might have prevented but I would not Lord I am confounded with the multitude of them and the horrour of their remembrance though I consider them nakedly in their direct appearances without the deformity of their unhandsome and aggravating circumstances but so dressed they are a sight too ugly an instance of amazement infinite in degrees and insufferable in their load And yet thou hast spared me all this while and hast not thrown me into Hell where I have deserved to have been long since and even now to have been shut up to an eternity of torments with insupportable amazement fearing the revelation of thy day Miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin Thou shalt answer for me O Lord my God Thou that Prayest for me shalt be my Iudge The Prayer Thou hast prepared for me a more healthful sorrow O deny not thy servant when he begs sorrow of thee Give me a deep contrition for my sins a hearty detestation and loathing of them hating them worse then death with torments Give me grace intirely presently and for ever to forsake them to walk with care and prudence with fear and watchfulnesse all my dayes to doe all my duty with diligence and charity with zeal and a never fainting spirit to redeem the time to trust upon thy mercies to make use of all the instruments of grace to work out my salvation with fear and trembling that thou mayest have the glory of pardoning all my sins and I may reap the fruit of all thy mercies and al thy graces of thy patience and long-suffering even to live a holy life here and to reign with thee for ever through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Ad Sect. 6. Special devâ—tions to be used upon the Lords-day and the great Festivalls Of Christians In the Morning recite the following forme of Thanksgiving upon the special Festivalls adding the commemoration of the special blessing according to the following prayers adding such prayers as you shall choose out of the foregâ—ing Devotions 2. Besides the ordinary and publick duties of the day if you retire into your closet to read and meditate after you have performed that duty say the song of S. Ambrose commonly called the Te Deum or We praise thee c then add the prayers for particular graces which are at the end of the former Chapters such and as many of them as shall fit your present needs and affections ending with the Lords prayer This form of devotion may for variety be indifferently used at other times A forme of thanksgiving with a recital of publick and private blessings To be used upon Easter-day Whit-sunday Ascension-day and all Sundayes of the year but the middle part of it may be reserved for the more solemn Festivals and the other used upon the ordinary as every mans affections or leisure shall determine I. Ex Liturgiâ S. Basilii magnâ ex parte O Eternal Essence Lord God Father Almighty Maker of all things in Heaven and Earth it is a good thing to give thanks to thee O Lord and to pay to thee all reverence worship and devotion from a clean and prepared heart and with an humble spirit to present a living and reasonable sacrifice to thy holinesse and Majesty for thou hast given unto us the knowledge of thy truth and who is able to declare thy greatnesse and to recount all thy marvellous works which thou hast done in all the generations of the world O Great Lord and Governour of all things Lord and Creator of all things visible and invisible who sittest upon the throne of thy glory and beholdest the secrets of the lowest abysse and darknesse thou art without beginning uncircumscribed incomprehensible unalterable and seated for ever unmoveable in thy own essential happinesse and tranquillity Thou art the Father of our Lord JESU SCHRIST who is Our Dearest and most Gracious Saviour our hope the wisdom of the Father the image of thy goodnesse the Word eternal and the brightnesse of thy person the power of God from eternal ages the true light that lightneth every Man that cometh into the World the Redemption of Man and the Sanctification of our Spirits By whom the holy Ghost descended upon the Church the holy Spirit of truth the seal of adoption the earnest of the inheritance of the Saints the first fruits of everlasting felicity the life-giving power the fountain of sanctification the comfort of the Church the ease of the afflicted the support of the weak the wealth of the poor the teacher of the doubtful scrupulous and ignorant the anchor of the fearful the infinite reward of all faithful souls by whom all reasonable and understanding creatures serve thee and send up a never-ceasing and a never-rejected sacrifice of prayer and praises and adoration All Angels and Archangels all Thrones and Dominions all Principalities and Powers the Cherubins with many eyes and the Seraphinâ— covered with wings from the terror and amazement of thy brightest glory These and all the powers of Heaven do perpetually sing praises and never-ceasing Hymns and eternal Anthems to the glory of the eternal God the Almighty Father of Men and Angels Holy is our God Holy is the Almighty Holy is the Immortal Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabaoth Heaven and Earth are full of the Majesty of thy glory Amen * With these holy and blessed Spirits I also thy servant O thou great lover of souls though I be unworthy to offer praise to such a Majesty yet out of my bounden duty humbly offer up my heart and voice to joyn in this blessed quire and confesse the glories of the Lord. * For thou art holy and of thy greatnesse there is no end and in thy justice and goodnesse thou hast measured out to us all thy works Thou madest man out of the earth and didst form him after thine own image thou didst place him in a garden of pleasure and gavest him laws of righteousnesse to be to him a seed of immortality O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse and declare the wonders that he hath done for the children of men For when man sinned and listned to the whispers of a tempting spirit and refused to hear the voice of God thou didst throw him out from Paradise and sentest him to till the Earth but yet left nor his condition without remedy but didst provide