bless us and keep us The Lord make his Face to shine upon us and be gracious unto us The Lord lift up his Countenance upon us and give us Peace both now and evermore Amen Our Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name c. Evening Prayers ALmighty God Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Maker of all things Judge of all Men we acknowledge and bewail our manifold Sins and Wickedness which we from time to time most grievously have committed by Thought Word and Deed against thy Divine Majesty provoking most justly thy Wrath and Indignation against us We do earnestly repent and are heartily sorry for these our Misdoings the remembrance of them is grievous unto us the Burthen of them is intolerable Have mercy upon us most merciful Father for thy Son our Lord Jesus Christs sake forgive us all that is past and grant that we may ever hereafter serve and please Thee in Newness of Life to the Honour and Glory of thy Name through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen LIghten our Darkness we beseech thee O Lord and by thy great Mercy defend us from all Perils and Dangers of this Night for the Love of thy only Son our Saviour Jesus Christ Amen O Everlasting God who hast ordained and constituted the Services of Angels and Men in a wonderful Order mercifully grant that as thy Aoly Angels alway do thee Service in Heaven so by thy Appointment they may succour and defend us on Earth through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen GRant O Lord that as we are Baptized into the Death of thy blessed Son our Saviour Jesus Christ So by continual mortifying our corrupt Affections we may be buried with him and that through the Grave and Gate of Death we may pass to our joyful Resurrection for his Merits who Died and was Buried and Rose again for us thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen ALmighty and Everlasting God who art always more ready to hear than we to pray and are want to give more than either we desire or deserve pour down upon us the Abundance of thy Mercy forgiving us those things whereof our Conscience is afraid and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask but through the Merits and Mediation of Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. Amen Our Father which art in Heaven c. FINIS BOOKS Printed for and Sold by John Everingham at the Star in Ludgate-street A Further 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. sometimes Fellow of St. John's Colledge in Cambridge Octavo A Discourse concerning the Authority Stile and Perfections of the Books of the Old and New Testament with a continued Illustration of several difficult Texts of Scripture throughout the whole Work By John Edwards Fellow of St. John's Colledge in Cambridge Octavo Miscellany Essays By Monsieur St. Euremont with a Character by a Person of Honour here in England Continued by Mr. Dryden In Two Volumes Octavo The True Royal English School for their Majesties Three Kingdoms being a Catalogue of all the Words in the Bible Together with a Praxis in Prose and Verses and Variety of Pictures all beginning with one Syllable and proceeding by degrees to Eight divided and not divided whereby all Persons both Young and Old of the meanest Abilities may with little Help be able to read the whole Bible over distinctly easily and more speedily than in any other Method with Directions to find out any Word Together with an Exposition on the Creed By Tobias Ellis late Minister of the Gospel Octavo Letters on several Subjects By the late Pious Dr. Henry Moore With several other Letters To which is added by the Publisher Two Letters One to the Reverend Dr. Sherlock Dean of St. Paul's and the other to the Reverend Mr. Bentley With other Discourses Published by the Reverend Mr. Elys Octavo An Answer to the Brief History of the Unitarians call'd also Socinians By Will. Basset Rector of St. Swithin London Octavo The Commonwealth's-man Unmask'd Or a Just Rebuke to the Author of the Account of Denmark In Two Parts Twelves A New Family Book Or The True Interest of Families Being Directions to Parents and Children and to those who are instead of Parents shewing them their several Duties and how they may be happy in one another Together with several Prayers for Families and Children and Graces Before and After Meat To which is Annexed A Discourse about the Right Way of Improving our Time By James Kirkwood Rector of Astwick in Bedfordshire with a Preface by Dr. Horneck The Second Edition Monarchia Microeosmi The Origin Vicissitudes and Periods of Vital Government in Man for a further Discovery of Diseases incident to Humane Nature By Everard Maynwaring M. D. Twelves The Gauger and Measurer's Companion being a Compendious Way of Gaging Superficies and Solids with the Reasons of most Multiplications and Divisions used in Measurations and all difficult Points made plain and easie with a Way to Gage all Quantities under a Gallon Also a Brief Description of the Gage-Point for Ale and Wine Gallons with Directions to find the same and the Contents of a Circle in all its Parts the exact Method of measuring Land Board Glass Pavement Stone be it of what Form soever together with a Globe and Round Timber both Decimals and Vulgarly With Useful Tables a Table of Cylinders and a Treatise of Weights and Measures To which is added at the Request of some Gentlemen a True Method of Brewing Strong Ale in London as well and as good as in any Place in the Country With Directions for Clarifying any Ale be it never so thick in few Hours with Thirty Cuts By James Lightbody Philomath Twelves Moral Maxims and Reflections In Four Parts Written in French by the Duke of Rochefoucault and now made English Twelves
Man unto the Measure of the Stature of the Fulness of Christ. CHAP. IX V. and ANother Effectual Way of Redeem-Lastly Aing our Time is To spend as much as may be of the remainder of it upon Devotion especially upon the Solemnities of Publick Devotion in the House of God A Day in thy Courts is better than a thousand saith the devout Psalmist Psal 84. 10. It is better spent and will turn to better Account than all the Years that Vice and Vanities consume To withdraw our selves from the World to take away as it were by Reprisal that Time which the World usually steals from us to Dedicate Offer up Appropriate that Time to God and to bestow it upon God This is such a plain way to recover our lost Hours as is obvious to all who have a true Sense of Religion But because there are many Duties which we own in the Theory to be Good and yet are wanting to in point of Practice to encourage our Endeavours as to this Particular Two Things require our serious Consideration I. First That to attend diligently upon the Ordinances and Institutions of our Religion is an excellent way for us to do the Great Work for which the redeeming of our best Time is prescrib'd and intended II. Secondly That it is a ready way to keep us from losing our time for the Future 1. First To attend diligently upon the Ordinances and Institutions of our Religion is an excellent way for us to do that great Work for which the Redeeming of our Lost time is prescribed and Intended By the Ordinances of our Religion I mean the Listning to and Meditating upon the Word of God the use of the holy Sacrament and the lifting up of our Hearts in Prayers and Thanksgivings and the like And by the great Work we are to do I understand the preparing and fitting our Souls for a Blessed Eternity Now for the effectual doing of this nothing serveth as a more proper and direct means than diligent attendance upon those Religious Offices For it is by the constant use of these Ordinances that the Spirit of God is Ministred unto us and worketh in us that our Lusts are gradually mortified that our Hearts are transform'd and changed as God would have them that the Virtues which are necessary to qualifie us for an heavenly State are confirm'd and increased in us and that we grow in Grace and in the saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ To illustrate this Matter particularly Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God Rom. 10. 17. Whether this Word be Preach'd or Read it is an instrument of Grace to all whose Hearts are open to receive and obey it Therein the most precious Promises are exhibited and the most terrible Threats denounced against all Ungodliness and Unrighteousness of Men especially against such as hold the Truth in unrighteousness Therein all those Doctrines are contained which are according unto godliness the whole Counsel of God is declared and all those Things revealed which are profitable for instruction in Righteousness that every Man may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good Works Therein are given those divine Laws which are apt to renew our Minds and to cleanse us from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit that we may perfect Holiness in the fear of God Therein also we see a great cloud of Witnesses who by their Exemplary Lives have taught us to lay aside every weight and the Sin that doth so easily beset us and to run with patience the Race that is set before us Above all therein we behold the Example of the Lord Jesus whose most holy Life was intended for a Pattern unto us that we should follow his steps and whose ignominious and most painful Death was intended partly to Frighten us from Sin that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works All these things we find in the Scriptures and by these means the Scriptures if duly considered and meditated upon are of vast use to us and serve to produce in us Faith Hope Charity and all manner of Righteousness and true Holiness Upon which account it must needs be a very necessary and profitable way of Redeeming our Time to bestow as much of it as we can upon Learning Hearing Reading and inwardly digesting the good word of God which is thus able in all respects to save our Souls In like manner the frequent Participation of Christ's Body and Blood is a vast help towards those Spiritual improvements which should take up the greatest part of our time For as that heavenly Ordinance puts us in mind of God's adorable Perfections especially his Wisdom Righteousness and Mercy which shined so bright in the complicated Mystery of our Redemption so it serves to raise our Hearts into the highest Admirations of God and stirs us up to stand in awe of his Justice to rely upon his Compassions to express all possible Gratitude for Mercies so undeserved so stupendious to submit with all Humility to his Commands and Providence to shew the Sense we have of his great Goodness by suitable returns of Affection and to love one another because God hath so loved us all In short by preparing our selves duly for this Blessed Sacrament and by a Reverent and Religious use of it our Faith becomes the stronger our Hope 's the more vigorous our Charity the more Ardent our Minds the more Circumspect our Care and Caution the more strict and all the ordinary Gitfs and Graces of God's Spirit are thereby the more Exercised Confirmed and increased in us This shews what an admirable way of Redeeming our lost time this is to attend diligently upon the Institutions of our Religion because the great work we are to do in order to a blessed Eternity and to fit us for it is thereby carried on with constant Dispatch and with the quicker Hand But we should consider moreover how profitably we may employ our time and recover in some measure what is lost by daily setting aside some part and portion of the time we have for the Ordinance of Prayer alone even when we are not Communicants at the Altar nor hearers of the Word after the most solemn manner Every day will I bless thee saith the Psalmist Ps 145. 2. And indeed the thing is grounded upon an eternal Law of Reason For we stand in Need of his Goodness and Receive of his Goodness daily and therefore it is necessary and equal that we should address our selves to him daily with Supplications and Thanksgivings Now if we would do this I mean do it with such devout Hearts as ought to be applied to so sublime a Duty besides the advantage we get by attending Weekly and Monthly upon other Ordinances our daily attendance upon This would be of infinite use to us For hereby we do not only fit and prepare our Souls for an heavenly State but are indeed a Doing the works of Heaven
actually fix'd upon them already imployed and Engaged in those Exercises which are the Life of Angels and of the Spirits of Just Men made Perfect To admire and adore and love and praise God is the everlasting business of the Blessed above And this we do here below though not in that intense Degree when we worship him in Truth and in the Beauty of Holiness when we prostrate our selves before him under a profound and awful Sense of his super-excellent Majesty when our Minds are fix'd upon him as the Glorious and Ravishing Object of our Contemplations when the Faculties of our Souls are acting vigorously upon him when we Exalt and Magnifie him in our Hearts when our Desires stream out after him as the only Good we long for when our Thoughts are full of rapturous Idea's of his Perfections when we celebrate and set him forth as the greatest wisest and best of all Beings when our Hearts are inflamed with the Love of him and when we offer up our Prayers and Praises to him with Affections as high as Heaven and as large as the Universe And can any time be better or so well spent as that which is thus employed This is to Redeem ones Time to the best purpose and in some Sense to live it over again by following the great Work of ones whole life close and so by living much in a little And the design of this Consideration is to stir you up to the Love and Practice of Devotion as a proper way of making your Life up wherein soever you may have been hitherto defective To recover what hath been mis-spent and to fit your self for God and Heaven without frequent Acts of Piety is impossible Rather it is a way to lose on and spend amiss still and to make your Condition every day worse and worse And this is one great Reason that there are so many Evil People in the World because they neglect a Course of Devotion which if diligently and rightly followed could not chuse but make them better I do not mean that every one is a Saint that resorts to the Church or that the repeating of so many good Prayers is enough to dispose and qualifie People for Eternal Happiness No there are some that content themselves with the bare performance of the outward Work and there are others that go to the Temple rather in compliance with a Custom or out of Compliment and Civility to the Laws than for Conscience sake towards God But this is my meaning that when Men apply their Souls to the use of God's Ordinances as a necessary Duty and seriously intend to do themselves good by the use of them and go about it with Sincerity of Mind and Exercise themselves in it with attentive Zeal and with Humble Fervent and Devout Spirits when their Hearts are thus Honestly dispos'd they take such a ready Course to fit themselves for Heaven as God will be sure to Bless and Prosper with success if they persevere unto the end in so doing They are then in God's way and in the way of the Holy Spirit to enlighten their Understandings to guide them into the Truth to renew their Minds to sanctifie their Affections to direct their Wills to improve and perfect their Natures and to assist and strengthen them unto every good work And by this means as they obtain pardon for their past Miscarriages so they gradually retrieve their former Losses and make the time past their own again by their extraordinary Husbandry of the remainder and by filling up an Hiatus with a proportionable Supplement 2. Secondly As the diligent attendance upon God's Ordinances helps us to redeem the time that is Gone so it serves to keep us from Losing more for the Future We may reckon that time to be Lost which is spent either after a Wicked or after a Vain manner That is when the Conscience contracteth some great Guilt in the spending of it or when the Man gets no solid Benefit or Satisfaction by it though strictly speaking we cannot affirm it is sinned away and in both these respects we shall see that a course of Devotion secures us from being any considerable Losers 1. First That time is to be accounted Lost which is spent in Wickedness When Vice takes it up so much of our Life is gone to our eternal Prejudice and Hurt unless the Wickedness be retracted by timely Repentance And when it is retracted a Man doth what he can to undo his Actions and to unlive his former Life and so begins as it were his days again To be sure he himself reckons so much of his time quite thrown oway is willing to rase it out of his own Memory and heartily wisheth that the just Judge of all the Earth would forget it too and never impute or account it unto him Now People that are ever mindful of their Devotions are not in danger of losing their time This way because they are assured that if they regard Iniquity in their Hearts the Lord will not hear them Psal 66. 18. Nay that their Sacrifice will be an Abomination Prov. 15. 8. Upon which account 't is morally impossible for them to Sin and Pray too lest instead of Mercies they should draw down a Thunderbolt and instead of Bread should receive a Stone or a Scorpion They who have a sense of God must needs be shie of offering up such Prayers as are enough to put them out of Countenance and out of Hope too such Prayers as they know will Recoil upon them and not only fly in their faces but terrifie and gall their very Consciences also But in truth we cannot suppose Men of Pious Minds to spend their precious Time to such bad purposes as these because the Notions they have of God's Majesty of his Omnipresence and Omniscience of his Justice Holiness and the like are a continual check upon them to govern their natural Inclinations and to restrain them from those evil Courses into which others run without Fear or Wit as the Horse rusheth into the Battel as the Prophet speaks Jer. 8. 6. Besides as they have not the Heart or Face to Sin so neither have they those Temptations and Opportunities which the Devil Ministreth daily to those who are such Strangers to the Throne of Grace as if they lived Without God in the World Such Men are never out of the Devil's road and therefore it is no wonder if Vice be the trade they bestow their Time upon no wonder if a Luxurious Table or a Dalilah's Lap or a Drunken Society or Prophane Discourse or the study of Mischief or the Drudgery of Covetousness or the Pride of Life taketh up those Hours which God hath a right to Ungodly Principles and Contempt of things Sacred do always betray Men to some wickedness or other nor cannot be but Irreligion and Vice must go together so that ' mongst other Arguments that might be heaped up to encourage us to a life of Devotion this is one that
is that by the help of these mean and trifling ways so much time is gone The Fool 's Fingers are eas'd of it which will be so far from being a comfort to him that when Sickness and Death shall come it will be excessive Bitterness to consider how well so many Hours might have been employed by working out his Salvation in the Church and in the Closet To conclude all The design of this whole Discourse is to shew how much it is our Duty our Interest and our Wisdom to make a good use of our Time and what Course is proper for us to take that it may turn to very good account to our Present and Future advantage And would God we would be perswaded to consider seriously what an Important thing this is the main business indeed we should be mindful of in this Life because it is the Measure of our Lives and when Death comes 't will be equally as impossible to recal the One as it will be again to live over the Other We use to call Time the most Precious thing in the World and use to Think it such when Matters of great Consequence require quich dispatch in that case a Day an Hour a Minute is thought too valuable to be neglected lest the Loss though but of one Moment should at once defeat the Hopes and spoil all the Labours of an whole Year So that the Improvidence of many People is astonishing and unaccountable that when their very Souls lie at stake and Hell and Damnation is before them they should then only be most careless of their Time though the Case be of the Greatest Concernment and the Hazards they run be the most Fatal and the Loss that follows will most certainly be utterly Irreparable to all Eternity But the truth is Time is One of those Many Blessings which Men never so Prize as when they Want them The Sad Reflexions of a Death-Bed the Weeping Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth beyond it do plainly argue that nothing can be more Worth recalling than Time and nothing more Worth our husbanding than the Present time because when once gone it is Never to be recall'd That there may be no room for such Late Sorrows I have laid before you the most necessary and most profitable Rules I can think of how you may employ that time which is now in your Hands and in a Moral sense redeem too what is slipt Away as by Industrious Resolutions by an active and vigorous Repentance by an operative and universal Charity by caution and watchfulness every remaining day of your Life and more especially by devoting all the time you can to the Service and Worship of God which of the several Particulars hath taken up the greatest share of my Meditations because it is the Employment of Heaven it self and that which justly claimeth all possible Portions of our time here By the diligent performance of these things we may so redeem our Time as to make a great deal of a few Days and do that in one Third of one's Life which some hardly do in their whole Age though it be a long one and then is a Man's Life to good purpose For 't is not how long but how well a Man lives which God considers nor is it his Years but his Works that will be regarded in God's Day In short He that exerts all the Faculties and Powers of his Soul in a Course of Virtue and to the utmost of his Abilities endeavoues to rectifie what hath been amiss He that doth all the Good he can in his Generation and spends not a Day without setting forward in some measure his own and other Men's Salvation He that gives himself to God's Service and continually makes an Oblation of his Heart and Incense of his Prayers He it is that Redeems his Time indeed so that be it longer or shorter as God shall see it best for him however he Began he shall Einish his Course well And as Eliphas said Job 5. 26. He shall come to his Grave in a full Age like as a Shock of Corn cometh in in his season Morning Prayers O Lord teach us so to number our Days that we may apply our Hearts unto Wisdom Amen O Lord save us thy Servants who put our whole Trust in Thee Send us Help from thy Holy Place and evermore mightily defend us Let the Enemy have no Advantage of us nor the Wicked approach to us But be unto us a Strong Tower from the Face of all our Enemies Amen O Lord our Heavenly Father Almighty and Everlasting God who hast safely brought us to the Beginning of this Day defend us in the same with thy mighty Power and grant that this Day we fall into no Sin neither run into any kind of Danger but that all our Doings may be ordered by thy Governance to do always that is righteous in thy Sight through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen O God who knowest us to be set in the midst of so many and great Dangers that by reason of the Frailty of our Nature we cannot always stand upright grant to us such Strength and Protection as may support us in all Dangers and carry us through all Temptations through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen ALmighty God who seest that we have no Power of our selves to help our selves keep us both outwardly in our Bodies and inwardly in our Souls that we may be defended from all Adversities which may happen to the Body and from all Evil Thoughts which may assault and hurt the Soul through Cstrist our Lord. Amen ALmighty God who hast given thine only Son to be unto us both a Sacrifice for Sin and also an Ensample of Godly Life Give us Grace that we may always most thankfully receive that his inestimable Benefit and also daily endeavour our selves to follow the blessed Steps of his most Holy Life through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen O Almighty God who alone canst order the Unruly Wills and Affections of sinful Men Grant unto thy People that they may love the things which thou commandest and desire that which thou dost promise that so among the sundry and manifold Changes of the World our Hearts may surely there be fixt where True Joys are to be found through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen O God the Protector of all them that trust in thee without whom nothing is strong nothing is holy increase and multiply upon us thy Mercy that Thou being our Ruler and Guide we may so pass through things Tenporal that we finally lose not the things Eternal Grant this O Heavenly Father for Jesus Christ's sake our Lord. Amen LOrd of all Power and Might who art the Author and Giver of all Good Things graft in our Hearts the Love of thy Name increase in us True Religion nourish us with all Goodness and of thy great Mercy keep us in the same through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen UNto thy Gracious Mercy and Protection O God we commit our selves The Lord