we hew out to our selves broken cisterns that can hold no water and forsake Thee the Fountain of living waters In thee alone is true content and full satisfaction to be found O Lord as sensible of this our very guilty and very dangerous Errour we desire for the future to return unto thee to esteem thee our chiefest Good and to desire thee above all things Our Hearts are now ready to say each of us for our selves Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me praise his holy Name We desire O Lord to praise and to honour thee with all the excellent Faculties and Powers that thou hast given us We devote our Reason and Understanding to thee to learn and meditate on thy glorious Excellencies thy wonderful works and the instances of thy obliging Goodness We devote all the power of our Wills to thee to chuse thee to fix upon thee as our chief Good to submit to thy will as the rule and law of ours We devote our Affections to love thee above all things to fear and reverence thee to hope and trust in thee to hate what thou hatest and love what thou dost love We devote all our Members unto thee to be governed by thy wise and righteous Laws We desire O Lord we purpose to love and serve thee the Eternal Infinite and most Bounteous Good with all our Heart and Soul and Strength O Lord strengthen we pray thee and confirm our too feeble and wavering Resolutions Create thou us again in Christ Jesus unto good works Let us not live estranged from thee whom we are made capable to enjoy both here and hereafter Make us in love with Holiness and Vertue as the health and rectitude of our Minds as our brightest and most advantageous Ornaments and the most useful and most durable Riches Renew in us most loving Father thy decayed Image and create us to righteousness and true holiness Learn us to see thy glorious Perfections in the visible things about us to make a religious Use of all that we enjoy in this World in loving thee for what is Good praising thee for what is Excellent in them and giving thee Thanks for whatever we enjoy of them We humbly recommend to thy infinite Mercies all Estates and Conditions of Men O Lord lover of Souls pity those that sit in darkness and bless them with the Knowledge of thee and of thy Christ whom to know is Life everlasting rescue them from their miserable Bondage under the Enemy of Mankind and bring them into the Kingdom of thy Son We pray thee bless and defend the Christian Church let the Gifts and Graces of thy good Spirit be abundantly poured out upon it purge it from all things displeasing to thee and give it peace and great enlargement Be merciful to that Part of it which thou hast planted amongst us in these Nations Water it plenteously with the Dew of thy Heavenly Blessing make it fruitful in all good Works and a Praise in the Earth We pray thee bless our King and Queen and all subordinate Magistrates and those that are the Ministers of thy holy Word and Sacraments make them all in their several Places and Stations useful to the promoting Piety and Vertue amongst us And make all those that are under them peaceable and obedient teachable and submissive to their Laws and godly Counsels Grant that we may all lead peaceable and quiet lives in all Godliness and Honesty Visit and relieve all those that are in any Trouble or Affliction Bless our Relations requite our Friends and Benefactors and forgive our Enemies Persecutors and Slanderers and turn their Hearts Finally O Father of Mercies we give thee Thanks for all thy Care of our Immortal Souls for all that thou hast done for their Happiness and Well-fare We pray thee bless to our spiritual Advantage those Ordinances of thine which we have this Day been partakers of Give us leave to commit our selves to thy Protection for this Night and reward our trust in thee with safe and comfortable Rest that being well refresh'd we may return the next Morning chearfully to our several Businesses and Duties and do thou accept us in all we pray through Jesus Christ in whose Name we present our selves and all our poor Services unto thee and in whose most comprehensive Words we conclude these our imperfect Prayers saying Our Father c. OF Vain Thoughts OR INCONSIDERATION With the Mischiefs and Remedies Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Psalm 119. 113. I hate Vain Thoughts but thy Law do I love OUR Care and Endeavour to live well must begin within us or it will prove vain and ineffectual We must keep the Heart with all diligence for out of it are the Issues of Life Solomon says Prov. 4. 23. According to which our Saviour teaches us That out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh and out of the good or evil treasure there proceed good or evilactions We must then take notice what our Thoughts are if we would have our Life good and not neglect them as Men too commonly do and this is what the Psalmist plainly intimates in these Words I hate vain thoughts but thy Law do I love I shall not trouble you with long Criticizing upon the words lest I should be guilty my self of what I intend to discourse against It shall suffice to observe for the justifying of our translation that the Original word here translated Thoughts is used with that significancy in other places of Scripture Particularly 1 Kings 18. 21 Where it seems to signify unsetled and irresolute Thoughts such as could not determine them to a fixed and steady Obedience to the Truth and in Job 4. 13. where it signifies such Thoughts as the roving Imaginations of the Night are wont to be employed in In both these places it signifies such as are not well guided nor directed And by reason of this use of the word in those places I doubt not but it is very fitly done that our Translators have added the word Vain in the Text to determine and signify what sort of Thoughts the Psalmist meant by the use of the word here I shall therefore understand this Text according to the import of the word Vain in our Language and shall represent it as signifying thus much I hate all idle roving and useless Thoughts such as are not considerate and designed and directed to some good and worthy purpose all inconsiderate Thinking As there are a great many idle impertinent words spoken among Mankind many very useless and unprofitable conversations and as there are especially in the briskness and activity of Childhood and Youth a great many very idle and trifling actions done by
wickedness and impiety debase and disparage us These latter deform us into the likeness of the Devil and so make us truely more vile than the Beasts that perish So much reason is there that we earnestly endeavour then to adorn our Souls with Piety and Vertue 4. And Lastly The Excellency and Immortality of our Souls should make us greatly concerned to secure and attain for them an Everlasting Happiness Since we are capable of such an one we should not rest till we have some good assurance of it It would become us and it were our Wisdom to give all diligence to make our calling and election sure as the Apostle advises We should work out our salvation with fear and trembling Let every man then take it into his most deliberate Thoughts What shall become of him to all Eternity Let this be a great concern with us all When this frail Tabernacle of my Body shall be taken down in which my Soul now dwells Where then shall my poor banisht Soul abide Where Oh where shall that be then disposed of To what company shall I go for I cannot be happy alone And what good things shall I then enjoy for I have not a self-sufficiency within me I am told and assured of two very different States after this Life the one of perfect Happiness and the other of perfect Misery To which of these two States am I likely to be doom'd since I am immortal and must abide forever in that I am sent to it greatly concerns me to know which of them it shall be The one is designed for good Men and the other for the Bad Which is it then of these two Characters that I bear Since the course of my Life has a certain tendency towards the one or the other of these and I shall fare hereafter according as I have lived here let me consider well what a Course I take Am I sit to dwell in the kind and loving World above if I harbour any Malice or Envy or Hatred in my Heart Am I fit for the pure Mansions of Heaven if I live in sensual and brutish Sins Am I fit to live with those who are all faithful and true with the God of Truth and Righteousness if I am deceitful and unjust and had rather be cunning than sincere Am I fit to be in the presence of God and in the Company of those that Reverence and Adore him if I am habitually Prophane and accustomed to despise all things that are Sacred and to abuse the awful Name of God in vain Oaths and Perjuries Am I sit to leave this World and to be happy out of it if my Heart be so set upon it that I can love I can relish and delight in nothing but what is of this World If this be my Condition and this has been my Course of Life certainly this will not bring me to Heaven If a man finds then that it has been thus with him he should resolve to stop and divert his Course Since without Holiness no man shall see God we must follow after Holiness we must follow after these Divine Qualifications that have been mentioned as things necessary to our everlasting Happiness We must cease to do evil and learn to do well and devote our selves to the Service of God in a course of universal Obedience to his Commands we must repent of our past Sins that they may be blotted out we must purify our selves as God is pure Blessed says our Saviour are the pure in heart for they shall see God We must cleanse our selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the fear of God and present our selves and our repentance and obedience all in the Name of Jesus Christ hoping for acceptance through him and for the favour of God to be bestowed upon us only for his sake Let it be consider'd that we must either dwell with God and his holy Angels in everlasting Joy and Bliss or be doom'd to the Prisons of the Devils and confin'd to dwell with enraged and wicked and spiteful Companions If we must not dwell in the Regions of Light we shall be dismissed to the gloomy Caves of everlasting Darkness If we are not admitted to the Joys and Hymns and Praises of Heaven we shall be condemned to the Howlings and Discords and Torments of Hell and there bear a sad part our selves in those Everlasting Sorrows There is no Middle State but the one or the other of these will be our everlasting and unalterable Portion Life and Death are set before us and we have leave to chuse between them But it is so That if we will not chuse Life we shall not be at Liberty to refuse Death If we do not chuse Life and Happiness and earnestly and steadily engage in the Course that leads to it we must fall into the other destruction and misery will come of themselves How shall we escape says the Apostle If we neglect so great Salvation Let it be consider'd that we must determine our choice between these two things while our present Life lasts not a moment more will be allowed us to do it in and this Life is of uncertain duration and most certainly is hastning away It is best for us therefore to hasten our choice in this Matter and to be very constant and steady in the way to Happiness when we have chosen that THE PRAYER OEternal and Almighty God! Before the Mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the Earth or the World even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God Thy duration is without beginning or end and thou art the Author and End of all things besides thy self It is thou O Lord that hast made us and not we our selves Thou hast sent us into this world to enjoy it a while to study and see Thee in the things about us to praise Thee for their Excellency and Goodness to love Thee for them and more than them as being the Fountain and Center of all that Goodness which is scattered and dispersed among them And thou hast made us for the high and noble Happiness of enjoying thy self O Lord how great and good things hast thou designed us for and how low and mean things do we consine our selves to We are ashamed to think how seldom we think of thee we use thy Creatures and thy Gifts and forget thy Self we are charmed and detained with that little Goodness that is in them and neglect that infinite Abundance which is in thee we commonly make but a low animal use of the things of this world considering in them only their suitableness to the Appetites and Necessities of our Bodies and valuing and delighting in them only for that and so they do not raise up our minds to thee And thus it comes to pass that we seek none but these things we live as if we were not made capable of better we seek our Happiness where it is not and neglect it where it is
shew Mercy to all Mankind Pour out thy Spirit upon all Flesh that they may know thee and seek thee and find and praise thee and rejoice in thy abundant Goodness Let thy continual Pity cleanse and defend thy Church Lord look down in mercy upon us and bless us that all the ends of the World may fear thee We pray thee do good to these Nations in which we live according thy infinite Sufficiency and our Necessities Oh let not our Iniquities with-hold good things from us but according to the multitude of thy tender Compassions blot out all our Transgressions Bless our Gracious King and Queen and make the one a Nursing Father and the other a Nursing Mother to that part of thy Church which thou hast planted among us and let their good Influence extend further to the Benefit of it and make Them the Honourable Instruments of Establishing Peace and Truth not only in these but also in the Neighbouring Nations to the Glory of thy great Name Bless all Ranks and Degrees of Men among us and make them to live to thy Glory to be conformable and obedient to our Governours and useful peaceable righteous and charitable one towards another in their several Stations We humbly pray for all Friends Relations Benefactors bless and preserve them from every evil Work and conduct them to thy Heavenly Kingdom Let this Day Oh Lord be happy to us in the fruitful and effectual Influences of thy Ordinances upon our Hearts and Lives Let us not be forgetful Hearers but be Doers of thy Word that we may be blest in our Deed. Grant us to lie down in Peace this Night to rest in Safety And be thou O God our Portion and Refuge in the Land of the Living and hereafter our exceeding great Reward for the sake of Jesus Christ in whose Name and Words we further present our Requests unto thee saying OVR Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil Amen THE Heavenly Mind DESCRIBED and URGED Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Colos 3. 2. Set your Affections on Things above and not on things on the Earth HOW well did the Bounteous Creatour of all things contrive the Nature of Man for the making him exceedingly Happy He put into our Constitution an Immortal Spirit join'd to a Living and Sensible Body And so he made us capable of the Delights of both Worlds the Spiritual and the Material By our Souls we are capable to enjoy and delight in Spiritual Objects and their Properties and Qualities We are capable of a rational spiritual Delight in sensible Objects and we are capable to enjoy and delight in God himself and his Infinite Eternal Perfections And by our Bodies which are allied to this World we are capable of a sensual Delight in the things of it to enjoy and please our selves with the Properties Vertues and Qualities belonging to Material things So bounteous and kind was the Creatour to Man in the Forming of him But alas Man has not been kind to himself He did not remain long in the happy State which he was first set in but by following too much the Pleasures of his Sense he lost all the greatest Pleasures of his Mind By eating the Forbidden Fruit he sinned against God lost his Favour and the Enjoyment of him became alienated from God and his Mind became subject to the shameful Disease of Sensuality A low and sordid Propensity to Earthly things did from henceforth possess him and a wretched Incapacity and Averseness towards Heavenly and Spiritual things We are condemned to enjoy only the lowest and weakest and the least part of our Happiness to gnaw as it were on the Shell of Pleasure and enjoy no more than the Brute Beasts do We following the unhappy Fall of our Nature do amuse and entertain our selves only with the poor Objects of Sense utterly forget and neglect our higher Capacities and our true Happiness It is the whole Business of our Religion in all the parts of it to recover us from this shameful and deadly Fall to draw us off from this our wretched Attachment to this World and turn us from a false Happiness to a true one The scope and aim of all its Doctrins Precepts Promises Threatnings Motives and Assistances is this to make us truly happy And the Sum of all is to bring us to what the Apostle here exhorts to in saying Set your Affections on Things above not on Things on the Earth By Things above he means those very things which were recommended to you by the Discourse immediately foregoing this as the chiefest and the true Objects of our Happiness He means God himself who is our Chief Good and the Expressions and Exercises of his peculiar Favour and Love He meâ—â—â— the Graces which the Holy Spirit works 〈◊〉 the Souls of Men which perfect and adorn and compose the Mind He means the everlasting Blessedness which is to come the Happiness and Joys of Heaven By advising to set our Affections on those things he means they should be much the Objects of our Minds he intends the Application of the whole Soul to them and the employing of all our Powers about them The Original word which we render here set your Affections has this large Import and Signification and might be rendered Mind those things which are above Let your Judgments esteem them your Wills chuse and your Affections follow them And not on Things on the Earth that is rather than the Things of the Earth It is according to the Custom and Phrase of the Hebrew Language to express thus when it only intends to prefer the former things it speaks of before the latter So in Hos 6. 6. The Prophet in the Person of God says I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice that is rather than Sacrifice he intended to express God's preference of Mercy before Sacrifice Here then the Apostle who was an Hebrew of Hebrews speaking after the Phrase and Manner of his own Language must be understood to mean Set your Affections on Things above rather than on Things on the Earth Mind those Things most let them have the preference with you He does not forbid nor does our Religion forbid the moderate seeking and enjoyment of the Good things of this World We are not bound to be unsensible of their Goodness to take no delight in them nor absolutely and wholly to refuse or reject all sensual Pleasures The things of this World are good in their Kind and
that thou hast been pleased to make us capable to know and meditate on thy Self to chuse and love thee to desire and enjoy thee who art an Infinite Eternal Good and in whose presence is fulness of Joy Oh how ready should our Hearts be at all times to say Whom have we in Heaven but thee and there is none on Earth that we can desire besides thee But alas we are degenerated we are fallen from our Original Excellency we are sunk into Sensuality we need to be put in mind and told wherein our true Happiness lies and to be excited urged and exhorted to pursue it We hover here below and seldom have any thoughts or desires moving upwards the objects of Sense detain us with them and we feed on Husks among Beasts we stay and abide upon the lowest and the smallest part of our Happiness Lord we are miserable we are undone and shall perish for ever if thy pity do not rescue us from the Love of these low Things Oh Pardon our guilty and heal our distempered Souls Discover thy self to us and make us love thee shed abroad thy Love abundantly in our Hearts Make us to rise by the Creature to the Creator Guide us by the streams to thee the Fountain of their Goodness and make us as we ought to love thee above all things Let us be governed by thy Love in the whole course of our lives and readily deny our selves to please thee and keep thy Commandments Let us firmly believe the glorious Things which thou hast prepared for them that love thee and draw our Hearts after them to endeavour that our Treasure may be in Heaven in Immutable things And direct us we pray thee so to pass through things Temporal as that we finally lose not the things Eternal Have mercy O Lord upon all Mankind Let the Earth be filled with Knowledge of the Lord as waters cover the Sea and all Men be directed and led in the way to true Happiness Give to all Nations Unity Peace and Concord Pour down an abundant measure of thy Spirit upon thy Church that the Gospel may run and be glorified from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same Let them prosper that love it and let not the Gates of Hell ever prevail against it We pray especially for that part of it which thou hast graciously placed in these Nations and hitherto wonderfully detended Lord make it a very fruitful Vineyard and purge out of it all that is contrary to true Doctrin and Godliness Bless we pray thee our Gracious King and Queen and the Royal Family with all Spiritual and Eternal Blessings and give them long and happy Possession of the Throne of these Kingdoms to thy Glory and our Comfort Bless all in Authority under them help them truly and indifferently to administer Justice to the punishment of Wickedness and Vice and to the maintainance of thy true Religion and Vertue Give grace O Heavenly Father to all Bishops and Curates that they may both by their Life and Doctrin honour thee and guide thy People committed to them in the way of Blessedness Let all the Subjects of this Realm be subject to thee in Loyalty and Subjection and due Obedience to those that are over them in Church and State and let Piety Love Righteousness and Peace and Truth abound among us We commend to thy Fatherly goodness all that are in any Distress and Affliction all our Friends and Relations we pray for our Enemies do for all beyond what we are able to ask or think We humbly ask a comfortable and safe rest this Night and that it may please thee to make the out-goings of the Morning to rejoice Let thy word which we have heard this Day guide our Conversations and let us bring forth in them the Fruits of the Spirit let not the Cares of this World or the Deceitfulness of Riches choke the Word and render it unfruitful but grant we may live to the Glory of thy Name and to the Peace and Salvation of our own Souls by Jesus Christ in whose most comprehensive words we sum up our Requests saying OVR Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil For thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen THE Necessity of Obedience TO THE COMMANDS of GOD Proved and Stated Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Mat. 7. 21. Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven HOW common a thing is it among those that have heard the glad Tidings of the Gospel for Men to take up a presumptuous reliance upon the Merits of Jesus Christ with neglect of Obedience to the Commands of God! Some of the most profligate and careless Sinners will hope to be saved And if one ask them how They will say by the Merits of Jesus Christ Many indulge themselves in their darling Sins and yet hope to be saved by the Merits of Christ And most certain it is that the Doctrins of some Teachers give occasion to this presumption They occasion Men to think there is nothing necessary to their Salvation but strong Believing and so to endeavour nothing but that and to rely upon the Righteousness of Christ so as to neglect all Endeavour after any Righteousness of their own And this Error and Delusion where it obtains does often prove able to harden a Man against the most earnest Exhortations to leave his Sins yea and even against the most plain Rebukes of Providence for them and to frustrate all other Means of Grace and Conversion whatever It is therefore of great Importance to remove it out of the way and this I shall endeavour by discoursing on these words of our Saviour which if they had been well considered together with many other plain Scriptures it had prevented the entertainment of such Imaginations in the Minds of Men. He had been in a long Discourse enforcing many of the Commands of the Moral Law And now towards the close of this Discourse he begins in this Verse to tell them of what importance and necessity it was to them to practise what he had taught He plainly teaches that no belief in him would avail them any thing if they did not together with it keep the Commands of God Not every one says he that saith to me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven
perform it that I will keep thy righteous Judgments We must in our Judgments esteem the Law of God to be in all things right and good our Wills must chuse it as such and we should be possest with a hearty and sincere Love of it We must love his Law and hate every false way Every one must say to himself This shall shall be the Guide and Rule of my Life By this I will govern as far as I can my Thoughts and my Words and my Actions I will follow no common Customs or Fashions I will regard no wicked Maxims of the World I will not cherish or allow any Inclinations contrary to this Rule Nothing must be allowed or tolerated in our Hearts or Lives but what is according to the Law of God 2. From hence there must spring a constant Care and Endeavour to cease from Evil and do Good I will take heed to my ways says David that I offend not And it cannot be that a man can sincerely desire and purpose to keep the Commands of God and yet not diligently endeavour this We must then exercise a constant Watchfulness and Observance over our Hearts and Ways We must be willing to know our Duty be ready to be convinced of it We must endeavour to know it in the use of all fit means We must endeavour to do well and mind the keeping up our good Resolutions we must strive against the perverseness and backwardness of our Nature to do good silence and despise all Excuses and watch for and lay hold of all opportunities of well-doing in any kind In like manner we must constantly endeavour to abstain from doing evil We must avoid Temptations as much as we can and resist such as we cannot avoid The Scripture says Resist the Devil and he will fly from you We must endeavour to mortify and weaken and subdue all corrupt and evil Inclinations that are in us These things are meant when we are bid to work out our Salvation with Fear and Trembling And to strive to enter in at the strait Gate This then must be the grand Care and Concern of our whole Lives that which we do chiefly mind and that which must direct and influence every other Concern namely the keeping of the Commands of God 3. We must for the most part actually perform our Purpose and Resolution and live according to the Commands of God and we must always abstain from any wilful Violations of them in gross and scandalous Sins Certainly he may not be denominated a good Man that is not in the greater part good and that does not most commonly perform the Duties God requires of him in his Place and Station Therefore we must not live in the constant and habitual practice of any known Sin or of such an one as we might know to be a Sin The good Man will not allow not excuse himself in any the least Sin He may be surprised and drawn sometimes into that which is evil but he will not run into it and then there is nothing ill that shall be his constant Course for if he be surprised into a Sin he will not stay in it as we may say he severely rebukes himself for it he earnestly repents and sets himself to renew his Resolutions and care to abstain from it for the future And then besides all gross and high acts and degrees of Wickedness must be totally forsaken as we may learn from what the Apostle very plainly says in Gal. 5. 19 20 21. Now the works of the flesh are manifest says he which are Adultery Fornication Vncleanness Lasciviousness Witchcraft Hatred Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies Envyings Murders Drunkenness Revellings and such like Of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in times past That they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Such things shew a Man to be out of a State of Grace and Salvation they cut him off from all right to the Benefits of the Covenant of Grace He that commits such Enormities is a Sinner and his Repentance and recovery to a good Condition is not well assured till he he has for some time heartily grieved for such Sin and liv'd at a great distance from it and practised even against Temptations and Provocations the contrary Vertues These things are absolutely and indispensibly required And if we do thus God will look mercifully upon our Infirmities he will accept our Obedience tho it be imperfect and we shall be justified by him upon the Account of the most perfect and compleat Righteousness of Jesus Christ tho we cannot work out such an one of our own Application It remains now that I close up the Discourse with a brief Application of what has been said 1. And in the first Place we may from hence justify the frequent Preaching up of Vertue and Holiness The too common corruption and wickedness of Men's Lives do greatly require such Discourses and the Gospel allows them Shall we not urge and insist upon those things which are necessary to Salvation Upon those things which Christ himself and his Apostles much insisted upon and made them the aim and scope of all their Preachings and Writings Indeed without the frequent and earnest insisting upon the necessity of a Holy Life the corrupted Nature of Man is mightily apt to abuse the pleasant Doctrins of the Gospel when we hear of a sure Attonement for Sin we are apt to be less careful to avoid Sin than we ought to be It is certainly necessary and very fitting to tell Men they have nothing to do with the Benefits and Priviledges purchased by Christ till they are obedient to his Laws since this is very true and it were to betray their Souls into Perdition to be often telling what Christ has done for Mankind and seldom to insist upon what he requires of them Such would by no means deserve the Name of the most edifying Preaching such might indeed build Men up in a presumptuous Faith but not in the Holy Faith that is Saving And if the Gospel its self doth require Men's Obedience to the Laws of God then the urging of this is true Gospel-Preaching it is not obsolete legal Preaching nor is it dry mean Moral Preaching It is such Gospel-Preaching as Christ Himself and his Apostles employed themselves in To this Truth we have the Testimony of one of the greatest Lights of the Church since the Days of Inspiration and he a Zealous Advocate for Free Grace and all the glory of it I mean St. Austin This is to preach the Gospel of Christ says he Evangelizare Christum Not only to say what things are to be believed concerning Christ but also what things are to be observed and done by him that comes to join or incorporate himself into the Body of Christ And in speaking of the things that are to be believed concerning Christ It is not enough says he to say whose Son he was whence he came
let us betake our selves to repent and turn to thee to mortifie all carnal and corrupt Affections to cease from all Evil and to Good Make us O Lord seriously to consider the great uncertainty to us of what is to come let us not presume upon thy Mercy and so encourage our selves to continue in our Sins lest we thereby put an end to the Exercises of thy Mercy towards us Let us not be so foolish as to provoke thee by our unnecessary delays to cut us off by a sudden and untimely Death or to Doom us to a final and judicial Hardness let us not put off our Repentance to such a time as is not convenient to do it in or to such a time when we are likely to be deceiv'd and imposed upon by our own false Hearts in the doing it but make us now to set about it while thou callest us to it and art ready to assist us and to make us sincere and art certainly willing and ready to accept it O Lord thy ready Grace should find us always ready to receive it and thy pardoning Mercy should find us always ready to seek it Let this O Lord we pray be the Day of thy Power upon every one of us and make us willing to renew our baptismal Covenant now to devote our selves to thee again and to resolve that we will not henceforth live to our selves but to thee to make thy Holy Laws the rule of our Actions and to endeavour in all things to Honour and Glorifie thee And do thou Graciously accept us according to thy Promises declared unto Mankind in Christ Jesus and give strength and stability to these our Resolutions Extend we humbly beseech thee thy Goodness to all the Heathen and Infidel Nations let a mighty and powerful Call go forth among them and turn them to the knowledge of thee the only true God and of Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Be mindful of thine ancient People the Jews and bring them to the acknowledgment of the true Messiah Pour out an abundant measure of thy Spirit upon thy Church that we may see and understand what is evil among us and may repent and do our first Works Lord in thy Mercy reform these Nations wherein we live from Atheism and Profaneness from Pride and Schism from Envy and Malice and all Uncharitableness from Luxury and Riot and Sloth and Idleness Uncleanness and Intemperance Let us not go on to provoke thee by these our Sins lest our Iniquity prove our ruine We pray thee to Bless abundantly our King and Queen and all that are in Authority under them in Church and State make them a Terrour to all that is evil and a Praise to them that do well that we may be all Happy in a great increase of Vertue and true Godliness amongst us Bless all our Relations and Friends and Acquaintance and keep their Hearts and Minds in the Knowledge and Love of God and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. In whose Name we humbly beg the Mercies of the Night we thank thee for those of the Day past for all that we have received and for our good hopes of more to come To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory World without End Our Father c. FINIS Books Printed for John Wyat at the Rose in St. Paul 's Church-Yard A Practical Exposition on the Ten Commandments by Ezekiel Hopkins late Lord Bishop of London-Derry An Enquiry into several Remarkable Texts of the Old and New Testament which contain some difficulty in them with a probable Resolution of them By John Edwards B. D. Sometime Fellow of St. John's Colledge Cambridge in 2 parts Octavo An Enquiry into the Constitution Discipline Government Unity and Worship of the Primitive Church that flourished within the first three Hundred Years after Christ Faithfully Collected out of the Extant Writings of those Ages in 2 parts by an impartial hand The Christian Virtuoso shewing that by being addicted to Natural Philosophy a man is rather assisted than indisposed to be a good Christian by the Honourable Robert Boyle Esquire The History of the Life of Katharine de medicis Queen Mother and Regent of France or the Exact Pattern of the Present French King's Policy The Subjects of the following Discourses Sermon I. THE Great Excellency of the Soul of Man demonstrated and improved Pag. 1 Serm. II. Of Vain Thoughts or Inconsideration with the Mischiefs and Remedies p. 27 Serm. III. Of true Happiness wherein it lies demonstrated p. 49 Serm. IV. The Heavenly Mind described and urged p. 75 Serm. V. The Necessity of Obedience to the Commands of God proved and stated p. 98 Serm. VI. The Great Duty of Thankfulness urged directed p. 116 Serm. VII The Pleasantness of Religion demonstrated and improved p. 134 Serm. VIII The Easiness of Religion explained and improved p. 152 Sermon IX The Unprofitableness of Sin demonstrated p. 177 Serm. X. God's Hatred of Sin demonstrated and improved p. 201 Serm. XI The Meanness of this present Life proved and applied p. 225 Serm. XII The Usefulness of Early Religion to Old-age demonstrated p. 249 Serm. XIII Of a Death-Bed Repentance shewing how unreasonable it is for any Man to rely upon it p. 273 Jer. 10. 25. Pour out thy Fury upon the Heathen that know thee not and upon the Families that call not on thy Name Joshua 24. 15. As for me and my House we will serve the Lord. Deut. 6. 6 7. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine Heart And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy Children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine House ERRATA PAg. 29. l. 31. r. he might p. 51. l. 26. for that r. than p. 77. l. 23. r. to them p. 87. l. 5. dele p. 103. l. 2. r. Eph. 6. 1 2 3. p. 143. l. 16. dele p. 155. l. 2. for ' tit r. ' t is p. 184. l. ult r. interests Books Written by John Norris M. A. Rector of Bemerton near Sarum A Collection of Miscellanies consisting of Poems Essays Discourses and Letters in large Octavo Price 4 s. Theory and Regulation of Love a Moral Essay in Two Parts To which are added Letters Philosophical and Moral between the Author and D. More in Octavo Price 2 s. Reason and Religion or the Grounds and Measures of Devotion considered from the nature of God and the nature of Man in several Contemplations with Exercises of Devotion applyed to every Contemplation in Octavo Price 2 s. Reflections upon the Conduct of Human Life with Reference to the Study of Learning and Knowledge in a Letter to the Excellent Lady the Lady Masham To which is annexed a Visitation Sermon by the same Author The Second Edition with large Additions Price bound 1 s. 6d Christian Blessedness or Discourses upon the Beatitudes of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ To which are added Reflections upon a late Essay concerning Human Understanding in large Octavo Price 3 s. Practical Discourses upon several Divine Subjects Vol. II. and Vol. III. In large Octavo Price of each 3 s. The Charge of Schism continued being a Justification of the Author of Christian Blessedness for his charging the Separatists with Schism notwithstanding the Toleration In a Letter to a City Friend in 12o. Price bound 1 s. Two Treatises concerning the Divine Light The First being an Answer to a Letter of a Learned Quaker which he is pleased to call A Just Reprehension to John Norris for his Unjust Reflections on the Quakers in his Book entituled Reflections upon the Conduct of Human Life The Second being a Discourse concerning the Grossness of the Quakers Notion of the Light within with their Confusion and Inconsistency in explaining it All these Printed for and Sold by Samuel Manship at the Black-Bull near the Royal-Exchange in Cornhil SEneca's Morals by way of Abstract by Sir Rogar L'Estrange Printed for Samuel Manship