Vera Effigies Rev. di in Christo Patris at D. D. Bryan Duppa quondam Episcopi Wintoniensis HOLY RULES and HELPS TO DEVOTION Both in Prayer and Practice IN TWO PARTS The fourth Edition Written by The right Reverend Father in God Bryan Duppa Late Lord Bishop of Winton In the time of his SEQUESTRATION London Printed for vp Hensman at the King's-Head in Westminster-Hall 1683. TO THE Christian Reader THe Name and Memory of the excellent Author of this Treatise needs not borrow or derive a Reputation from any Pen but its own There are already many useful Pieces and Helps to Devotion set forth both by Bishops and others of our Church more solid serviceable and advantagious to true Piety and the power of Godliness than all the gifted Impertinencies to say no worse of some Holy Pretenders For if Noise and Clamour might pass for Inspiration the Apostles must go for Weak-Brethren and mere Novices compared with our new Lights and Improvements That Set Forms of Prayer are altogether necessary in Publick cannot be denied and needs not now be represented They are abundantly useful even for private Christians also since it is not every one that can pray extempore in his Closet and he that can may notwithstanding be defective enough in the matter or manner of his Petitions For though God principally respects the Heart and Affections of his Servants and the Spirit helps our Infirmities with sighs and groans yet we ought even in private to have an awful orderly regard of the Great God to whom we address our selves and the Holy Spirit teaches us to pray as with ardent Affections so with reverend humble minds and not with disorderly confused or unprepared approaches and a rude confidence without just ground or foundation This is not to help or diminish our infirmities but to augment them more He that prays extempore must be one of better Faith and Principles Life and Conversation than many are who so familiarly pretend to it But whatever some mens Graces may be in this particular which God forbid I should seek to diminish or reproach yet for such who I doubt are far the greater number as yet have not attained to so great a Perfection in this holy Duty I cannot but recommend these Rules and Directions which answer the Title and will I hope the Expectation of those that use them to their benefit and comfort God grant us all that Unity of Spirit which intitles us to the Gifts and Graces of of the Spirit that so praying with one heart and mind as becometh Saints we may have our Communion in Glory among the Iust hereafter Ben. Parry HOLY Rules and Helps TO DEVOTION Both in Prayer and Practice But I will give my self unto Prayer O Eternal Wisdom who communicatest thy self unto thy Creatures in such measure as they are capable of vouchsafe to impart to my Soul that Heavenly Gift to be a Guide to me in all my Thoughts my Thoughts my Words my Actions that so being taught by Thy Holy Spirit I may so far know Thee as to love Thee and so far love Thee as ever to fix my thoughts upon Thee Of Prayer what it is THe several Properties and Excellencies of Prayer have afforded matter enough to the Ancient Fathers to mold as many several and different Descriptions of it which like many Stars cast into a Constellation may give all together a full and perfect Representation of it Gregory Nyssen defines Prayer to be the conversing or discoursing of the Soul with God concerning her Salvation Which being done by the outward Expressions of the Voice is called Vocal Prayer but if by the Mind alone Mental In this way of conversing with God the Soul makes use of her Three principal Faculties her Memory her Understanding her Will Her Memory to call to mind what she is to treat of her Understanding to weigh and to judge what she delivers Her Will to perform this Duty feelingly and affectionately For all these Faculties must concur in Prayer elevating the Soul and fixing it upon God as the highest Truth in which we are to believe the Soveraign Happiness which we are to hope for the Supream Goodness which we are to love and the infinite Excellence which we are to adore So that Prayer is principally grounded on a lively Faith of such things as God hath revealed an assured Hope of what he hath promised and a servent Love which serves as the Fire to kindle this Sacrifice and to carry the Soul upward till it arrive at the Throne of Grace From hence it is that Damascen describes Prayer to be an ascending of the Soul to God being therefore compared to the sweet Perfume that ascended from the Incense But as the Incense being cast into the Fire ascends only in the more subtile and delicate part of it which being converted into Air and Smoak leaves behind it the grosser and earthier part turn'd into Ashes So in this ascent the Soul leaves behind it the earthier parts as Abraham left his Servants behind him at the foot of the Mountain while he ascended to the top of it to sacrifice For this is a business that belongs to Eagles which as they fly high so in their flight they look stedfastly on the Sun It is not for those that intrench themselves in the Earth as in their proper Element nor yet for Birds of Prey which though they fly high yet their eyes are still cast downward Sursum Corda was the form in ancient Liturgies the Priest calling out to the People Lift up your hearts which the people as readily answered Habemus ad Dominum This ascending of the Soul by Prayer was figured as St. Austin conceives by that mysterious Ladder whose foot being upon the Earth the top of it reached unto Heaven seen by Iacob in a Vision with Angels ascending and descending on the Rundles of it carrying up our Prayers to God and bringing down Blessings upon him that offers them But because this ascent is not ordinarily by Rapture for the Angels were not seen to fly up the Ladder but to mount by degrees we are to consider the several Steps and Rundles we are to ascend by THe first Step is laid hold on by the Memory which begins this spiritual ascent by putting the Soul in mind to look up to the Majesty of him that stands above the Ladder to remember that though the place we chuse for our Devotion be never so solitary yet we are not alone that God hears what we say sees what we do that the whole Trinity is present as visible to thy eyes of Faith as grosser Objects are to the outward senses For there is God the Father the Fountain of good Thoughts ready to assist through his power and to keep us from distraction in our Prayers there is God the Son the eternal Truth prepared to direct us by his Wisdom and to deliver us from errour and delusion there is God the Holy Ghost the Source and Spring of
thy heart foments and cherisheth the least spark of the love of God which it finds there and makes it flame out into a servent prayer David found this by experience where he saith of himself while I was thus musing my heart kindled within me and I spake with my Tongue The Devotion of the heart saith St. Bernard is the Tongue of the Soul without this it is silent and shut up but actuated and heated with Love it poures it self forth in Supplications and Prayers and Discourses with God sometimes Praising him for the Infinite Blessings received from him sometimes Praying to him for those which we yet want This is that conversing of the Soul with God which Gregory Nyssen speaks of as a Son Conversing with his Father or a Friend with a Friend into whose bosom he may pour forth with confidence all the Secrets of his Soul as a Favourite with his Prince or a betrothed Virgin with her Lover What the result of these discourses is what words are spoken what secrets discovered what delights enjoyed may easier be felt than spoken of When the Soul being lifted up by the wings of Prayer and rarified into a flame by Love reacheth the very Bosom of God But though every devout Soul mounts not to this pitch this top of the Ladder let none be dismaied at it For God knows whereof you are made he sees the body of flesh which you bear about you and the Plummets which it hangs upon your Soul and therefore when you cannot rise high enough to him he comes down to you for so you find in this Vision there were descending as well as ascending Angels We do not read that St. Paul was often rapt into the third Heaven Notwithstanding his Raptures the Angel of Satan that buffeted him made him remember that he was still upon the Earth For one foot of the Compass will unavoidably be fixed there when the other moves in the circumference of divine contemplation Iacob himself was but at the bottom at the foot of the ladder when his Soul was at the highest and saw God at the top of it O Most wise God the Unction of whose Spirit can teach me all things teach me the Rules I am to observe in this Heavenly Exercise of Prayer Stir up my Memory to remember that thou art present fix my intention upon Thee upon Thee alone Awake my Understanding to consider what I am about and who I am to speak to But above all inflame my Affections that my heart being set on fire with Thy Love my Prayers may participate of that Fervency and be accepted of Thee for his sake who came to send this Fire upon the Earth even Iesus Christ my Saviour Amen Of the Excellencies and Fruits of Prayer as they may be drawn out of the Lords Prayer THere is no clearer glass to see the excellencies of Prayer in than that very Prayer which our Saviour thought fit to teach his Disciples Where the first entrance presents you with that unvaluable Priviledge to call God your Father that therefore you come not to treat with him as a Slave with his Master or a Vassal with his Prince but as a Son with your Father God infusing into you by Prayer that Spirit of Adoption by which you cry to him Abba Father This being saith St. Chrysostome the highest excellency of the Creature to treat familiarly as a Son with his Creator A Dignity that raiseth us poor Worms of the Earth to a kind of equality with the Angels themselves for though in Nature they are above us yet this duty makes us equal For Quid potest inveniri sanctius iis qui cum Deo commercium habent Saith the same Father What can be more holy than he who is admitted to treat familiarly with God Moses by talking with God had such a brightness shed upon his face that they who looked upon him were dazled with it For if they who have the ear of Princes as Favourites having freedom of access and opportunity at all times of presenting their Petitions cannot want the splendor of Worldly things which consequently will follow them much less can the beams of an higher glory be wanting unto them who live as if they were always in the presence of God talking with God by Prayer and God with them by holy Inspirations What can they want who are admitted to this Privacy And it is your fault if you are not For there are neither doors nor locks nor any greater Favourite to keep you out He that gives you leave to call him Father cannot exclude his Son that cries Father I have sinned O Gracious Father what thanks what praise can we offer to Thee for raising us to that honour of entring into thy presence as Sons and conversing with Thee on the Earth with the same Freedom as the Angels do in Heaven O grant us the Grace so to make advantages of so Divine a Priviledge that our sins may never make us forfeit it but rather by a devout and humble use of it acquire to our selves daily new degrees of Thy Favour till Thou hast brought us Thy unworthy Sons to that incorruptible Inheritance which can neither have encrease nor end Amen THe second Excellency of Prayer is That it is a means by which the name of God is hallowed both by us and in us We pray that his Name may be Sanctified and we Sanctifie his Name by praying so Our Tongues but much more our Lives being made Instruments to glorifie him God is glorified by our believing in him by our knowing him by our adoring him and in Prayer we do all this By Prayer we bring to light those graces and gifts of God which he hath hid for us in his eternal Predestination as we may see in that Prayer of Christ to his Eternal Father And now O Father glorifie thou me with thy own self with the glory which I had with thee before the World was From whence the School infers That Prayer is the principal means ordered by providence for the execution of what God hath decreed on our behalf God had decreed the Incarnation of his Son for the saving of the World he had promised and could not vary from it Yet this kept not Moses from his Petition Send him whom thou wilt send nor the Prophet from praying O that thou wouldest bow the Heavens and come down The Father had decreed to give his Son being Incarnate the Nations for his inheritance but the execution of this Decree was to be by Prayer the Son of God himself was to pay for it for Postula Dabo Ask of me and I will give them thee If therefore the Decree of your Predestination be yet dark to you and you would willingly know whether your name be written in the Book of Life there is no way of obtaining this but humble Prayer Do but pray fervently that God would glorifie himself in thee by making thee a Vessel for his Honour and
thou shalt find so much vertue in this Prayer as shall quiet thy thoughts and take away thy scruples O Most glorious God glorifie Thy unworthy Servant with that Gift of Prayer by which I may be enabled to glorifie Thee that so I being sanctified by Thee Thou mayest be sanctified in me by those Gifts and Graces which in all Eternity Thou didst decree to give me through Iesus Christ. Amen THe next Dignity of Prayer is that it is the effectual means of enstating the Kingdom of God in us not only the Kingdom of Grace in this World which in the Apostles Character is Righteousness and Peace and Joy the Holy Ghost but the Kingdom of Glory in the next to which Prayer not only gives us the Title but puts us in a kind of Possession by affording us a taste at least and an earnest of that Glory The first time that we find it written that our Saviour prayed we find in the very next words three passages of wonder whereof the first was that the Heavens were opened the next that the Holy Ghost descended on him as a Dove the third that there was a Voice that came from Heaven which said Thou art my Beloved Son in thee I am well pleased And wherefore this but to shew us the admirable effects of Prayer First that it is the Key to open Heaven to us next that it hath that attractive power as to draw down the Spirit of God upon us and Lastly that it puts us into the quality of Sons and of such Sons in whom he is well-pleased After this when he went up into a Mountain to pray What followed upon this The Evangelist tells us That as he was praying his face did shine as the Sun and his Garment was white as the Light So white saith St. Mark that no Fuller on earth could white them And though it is not said that this Transfiguration of our Saviour was absolutely and fully the Kingdom of Heaven come down to him yet we find there was so much of the Glory of it as Peter in his Amazement took to be Heaven and desired to fix his Tabernacle there and to go no higher You see here the strange effects of Prayer it draws down one Kingdom to you and lifts you up to another It bows down to you the Kingdom of Grace and draws you up to the Kingdom of Glory O God my Sovereign King who hast taught me to pray for the coming of Thy Kingdom set up the Throne of Thy Grace in my heart and so rule and govern all my affections that there may not be left a rebellious thought against Thee And when the time of my Transmigration comes change thy Kingdom of Grace into thy Kingdom of Glory and from obeying Thee in this life lift up my Soul to reign with Thee in the life to come Amen THE fourth Excellency of Prayer goes hand in hand with the former for where Gods Kingdom comes there must be a perfect submission to his Will which cannot be more effectually done than by the means of that Homage which we do to God in Prayer For by Prayer we not only obtain but exercise that Obedience which is better than Sacrifice we strip and divest our selves of our own Will and give our selves entirely up to the Will of God whom we pray unto And from hence it is that the Fathers say of fervent Prayer that it makes us live in the flesh as if we were out of it that it dis-intangles and unlooseth the Soul from the Ties and Fetters of the body and equals us unto the Angels For as they stand in the presence of God ready to execute his Commands without either delay or weariness so Prayer puts us into the like posture with those Angels and quickens us unto the Obedience of doing the Will of God in earth as it is done in Heaven But that you may not think that all the treasure and riches of Prayer are only in things invisible there is a fifth Excellency in Prayer in that it procures for us our daily bread which as it hath reference to our body in such things as concern our nourishment so it reacheth besides to the spiritual Refection of our Souls For by Prayer saith St. Bernard we are stored with three sorts of bread the bread of Truth for the Understanding the bread of Divine Love and Charity for the Will and in the last place that grosser and more earthly bread fitted for the sustaining of our weaker nature These be the three Loaves which Christ in his Parable encourageth us to ask for and never to give over our importunity till we obtain them for obtain them we shall and our Prayers if fervent cannot be denied Imagine therefore saith Climacus that you say Prayer is a Queen seated on her Throne calling out to you in the words of our Saviour Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you that refreshing as shall lighten your weight and ease your weariness For without me the burthen of the Law is heavy but with me it is light without me the exercise of Repentance is bitter but with me it is sweet without me the Cross is insupportable to be born but with me the Crown of Thorns shall be as easie as a Crown of Roses Christ is the Bread of Life but the means to make this Bread nourish you is Prayer By Prayer you receive Christ into your memory and ruminate upon him in your Meditations By Prayer your Affections tastes and relisheth this Bread and your love incorporates it Whatever therefore your necessities are fly to Prayer If this spiritual Bread be wanting and you hunger and thirst after it pray and you shall be satisfied Or if the food of your Body fails you and poverty lays hold upon you as an armed man fall to your Prayers again and be sure that he who hears the young Ravens when they call upon him will much more hear you who have the honour not only to be his Creatures but his Sons Thus far the Excellency of Prayer is in opening Heaven to us from whence all Blessings come We are now to look upon it as the Key that shuts up Hell and keeps all evil from us which is of three sorts 1. Evil of Sin 2. Evil of Temptation that leads to sin 3. Evil of Punishment for sin Against these three Prayer is the Remedy and first against sin already contracted For how came the Publican justified but by a short and humble Prayer What moved and softned the heart of the Father of the Prodigal Son to such a tenderness Was it not his Prayer Father I have sinned against Heaven and against thee The Debt of Ten thousand Talents which the Servant owed the King was no slight ordinary sum yet a few Words of Prayer had vertue enough to cancel that great Debt And because there is a condition required of pardoning the Trespasses done against us if
we look for pardon of our Trespasses against God Prayer helps you in the fulfilling of this condition too and though your hearts be as hard as Iron Prayer is of the nature of Fire and is able to soften that Iron and melt you into that compassion toward your enemies as to pray for them with the same earnestness as you do for your selves But then when our past sins are pardoned where shall we find a Remedy against future Temptations Our Saviour tells you where when he saith to his Disciples Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation If the fire of Lust begin to kindle in your hearts Prayer can extinguish that fire Or if a whole Sea of worldly Afflictions breaks in upon you Prayer can set a Bank to that Sea If you are compassed about with Enemies Temptations on all sides and are ready to be swallowed up by them remember that Moses's Prayer prevailed more against Amalek than Ioshuah's Arms. And then again in the close as Prayer hath the nature of a Charm to keep Temptations from you so when by Humane Weakness and the Arts of the Tempter you are led into them Prayer is as the thread to bring you out of this Labyrinth Or when you have unwarily taken in the poison of sin Prayer is the Antidote against the venom of it it doth not only remove the guilt but the evil of Punishment which is due to it whether it be in this Life or in the next And of this David was very sensible when he cryes out in a kind of Extasie of Thankfulness Blessed be God which hath not cast out my Prayer nor turned his Mercy from me Intimating by this as St. Austin understands the words that there is a kind of Contract or Bargain made between Prayer on Man's part and Mercy on God's That where Prayer led the way Mercy should always follow O Father of Mercies Give me that gift of Prayer by the means of which Thou dost use to dispense those Mercies suffer me never to be weary of praying lest that make Thee weary of forgiving For this I am sure of that if I cease not to pray Thou canst not cease to have mercy For because Thou art good Thou wilt always deliver me from evil Not for mine but for Thine own Goodness sake BY this which hath been said may be inferred the necessity of Prayer both in respect of your spiritual Life which it preserves And in regard of spiritual Enemies which otherwise would destroy you For as the Body without the Soul is dead loathsome and overspread with Worms so fares it with the Soul saith Chrysostome that doth not use to pray and consequently hath no spiritual Life in it For as soon as the Breath of Prayer fails the Soul putrifies and the Worm of Conscience gnaws upon it Daniel therefore chose rather to hazard his life than to omit his exercise of Prayer thrice a day as being willing that his Body should suffer rather than his Soul Would you know further how precious Prayer is devout Men will tell you That Prayer pierceth the Clouds reacheth the Heavens rejoyceth the Angels appeaseth God obtains whatsoever it sues for O Grace of Grace holy and heavenly FATHER what shall I say of thee either to express thy Excellency or the Necessity my Soul hath of thine help I am the Fountain of all Misery and thou art to me the Source and Spring of Mercy With thee I live without thee I die With thee I am able to do all things without thee I can do nothing O Divine Spirit whose Gift alone it is to know how to speak to Thee Give me the Spirit of Wisdom by which I may sanctifie Thy Name the Spirit of Understanding by whose Light I may see the secrets of Thy Kingdom the Spirit of Counsel which may guid me to do Thy Will on Earth as it is done in Heaven the Spirit of Knowledg to discover and to ask what is Necessary either for Body or for Soul the Spirit of Charity to move me to pardon my Enemies as I desire Thou shouldst pardon me the Spirit of Fear to avoid all Occasions and Approaches to sin and the Spirit of Might and Courage to overcome all Evil. Amen Of the Impediments and Enemies of Prayer HAving considered the glorious Fruits and admirable Efficacy of Prayer we are to look about and to discover what Enemies we are like to meet with to oppose and hinder us in the exercise of this Heavenly Duty For Prayer is in its own nature a kind of Wrestling and Striving for a Victory which presupposeth an opposition And rather than it shall be wanting God himself will enter into the Lists as he did with Iacob in that famous Wrestling when to shew the power of Prayer he that was invincible was content to be overcome by him who had no other weapons but Tears and Prayers When therefore you find your selves afflicted make use of our Saviour's Parable Arise though it be at Midnight repair speedily to the Gates of your true Friend God himself for you have no Friend like him though you find the doors shut and your Friend asleep begin your Battery and give not over knocking with importunate Cries and Prayers till he open to you as Iacob would not let the Angel go till he had blessed him O Omnipotent and Invisible GOD who lettest thy Self down to my Weakness and givest me strength to wrestle with Thee for a Blessing strengthen my Prayer to that height that when Thou seemest most to set thy Self against me I may prevail with Thee as Jacob did For my overcoming Thee is but the effect of Thy overcoming thy Self in me so that the glory of the Victory which I get over Thee will be intirely Thine Wrestle on therefore O my Soul give not over thy hold take no answer that brings not a Blessing with it For it is Thy God who strengthens thee and through him thou shalt at last be more than Conqueror Amen AS Prayer therefore is a Wrestling with God we look not upon this opposition as an hindrance but as an advantage to Devotion The true Enemies of Prayer exercise a more dangerous Hostility where the Van is led by those damned Spirits who being fallen from Heaven themselves endeavour the more enviously to obstruct the ways that may lead us thither and because nothing conduceth more to this than Prayer they order all their Temptations to this end chiefly either to divert us from it or disturb us in it If they tempt us to excess in Meats and Drinks their aim is not only to make us guilty of Intemperance but by it to render us the more unfit for Prayer Or if they prompt us to Anger and Impatience their design terminates not in that sin but rather makes use of it to a further end that the mind being thus disquieted may not be able easily to compose and settle it self to Prayer For the effecting this they
the feet As if he should say to thee Here I am even I thy God but come not near me till thou hast put off thine earthly Affections till thou hast devested thy self of whatsoever is displeasing in my sight if not take heed No man can see me and live that is saith St. Gregory None can see me spiritually that lives carnally It was an high expression of him who was so great an Admirer of Euripides that he was wont to say That if he were sure there were any sense in death he could be content to die only that he might see Euripides But then to see God who would not mortifie himself Say therefore with that earnestness as St. Austin did Moriar ut te videam O Thou Fountain of Life Make me die that I may see Thee Mortifie me that I may enjoy Thee Strangle me take away my breath that I may speak to Thee But then again Videam te ut Moriar Let me in some measure see Thee first that I may value Thee that I may be content to die to the end I may see Thee further For if I know not at all how to contemplate Thee I shall as little know how to mortifie my Affections so as to fit my self for Prayer THE third Assault that is made upon the Soul is by the Cares of this Life which like so many Thorns are ready to choak the seeds of Grace as soon as they are sown For overmuch solicitude and anxiety of Mind in worldly things casts such an heap of Earth upon our Prayers as will not suffer them to ascend taking up the Mind and all the Faculties of it and hardly admitting so much as a Thought of Heaven But as they say of Thorns That they may do well in an Hedg but ill in a Garden so is it with these Cares which being kept within their bounds and measures hurt not the Soul but if we admit them among our Prayers they corrupt the very nature of them and turn them into Sin When thou art therefore setting thy self to thy Devotions imagine that thou hearest thy Saviour calling to thee as he did to Martha Why art thou so careful why art thou troubled about many things One thing is only needful the saving of thy Soul Since therefore thou art come to treat about it dismiss whatsoever may disturb thee lay aside thy Cares as Mary did place thy self at my feet hear me in my Word that I may hear thee in thy Prayer O Gracious Iesu I am come at this time to humble my self at thy Feet and to beg Mercy for my Soul which ought to be dearer to me than a thousand Worlds O suffer not then any Worldly Cares to divert or hinder me Root out this Bed of Thorns and sow holy Thoughts instead of them Let me not be like Martha troubled about many things but fix me upon that One thing needful which I am come about that so having chosen the better part it may never be taken from me Amen BUt the Conflict is not yet done when these former Enemies are overcome there may be a swarm left of busie vain impertinent thoughts of which we may complain as David did that they have compassed us about like Bees For the Imagination being naturally unquiet and tumultuous interposeth it self many times without asking leave of us casting thoughts in our way and forcing the Understanding to reflect upon them And these she either fetcheth from Objects without from something that we have either seen or heard or done or if it fail of new plies from thence it presently busies it self within in forming of various Images Figures and Forms which like so many Atoms casting themselves into several Schemes trouble and vex the Soul in the midst of her Devotions not unlike the Birds which would have hindered Abraham in his Sacrifice And happy it were if we could as easily chase away these thoughts from us as Abraham drove away those Birds But their pertinacy is such that when you drive them out of one Form they assume another and are so importunately troublesome as makes many think it a thing impossible to be freed from them Cassianus confesseth of himself that he was brought very near to a dispairing of it till opening himself to a devout man of more experience himself being then but young he was brought off by this Similitude Should you ask saith he one that could neither swim himself nor ever saw others swim Whether he thought it possible that the heavy body of a Man could spread it self upon the water without sinking Would not he answer peremptorily That it was not possible But let the same man see once with what ease the Swimmer keeps his head above the water Would he not as suddenly change his mind upon the sight of this Experiment and apply himself to practise it You say it is impossible but you do not try whether it be so or no. For either holy Men have deceived us or some of them by the Grace of God assisting them have attained such a degree of Power over themselves as the Centurion in the Gospel had over his Souldiers they could have given the Law not only to their outward senses as Iob did to his eyes that they should not so much as look on Vanity but to their more inward Faculties they could command their Appetite to love or hate their rational Faculty to meditate their imaginative to think on this or not to think on that For the same St. Paul who humbled himself so low as to say that of himself he could do nothing could say too without arrogancy That he could do all things but then it was in Christ that strengthned him All things in Christ nothing of himself The Centurion whom we spake of that had his Souldiers so absolutely at his Command confesseth ingenuously that he himself exercised his Authority under another For in all powers subordinate the way to be obeyed is to obey Nor can these Imaginations be possibly subdued to Reason till Reason be subdued to Faith Submit thy self therefore to God O my Soul and there will follow a glorious Victory But you must strive for it for this unruly swarm of thoughts hurt none but those that yield to them When they buz about thee like Flies in a hot day drown their noise with the louder cry of thy Prayers And as Spiders cannot easily weave their Nets in a High Wind so neither shall whole Armies of vain Imaginations be able to ensuare thee as long as thy earnest Prayers like a vehement wind shall blow against them O Most mighty God who seest my Weather-beaten Soul tost and driven by vain and various Imaginations like a torn Bark by contrary Winds and not suffered to sail on in a straight Course towards Thee send thy Holy Spirit to calm this Tempest and to lay these Winds that they may no longer hinder me in my way to Heaven or disturb me in my Prayers
to sinners conditionally that they use it with that reverence as the converted Prodigal did who though he had the confidence to call him Father yet he had the humility withal to confess that he was not worthy to be called his Son and therefore his Petition reached no higher than to be made one of his hired Servants O Most Great God what shall I say in Thy presence when I come to pray to Thee By what Title shall I call thee or how shall I sufficiently adore Thee If I stile Thee a Iudge I adore thy Iustice If a Master I know my Obedience if I call Thee my Saviour I acknowledge Thy Mercy Whatsoever name I use I find cause enough of Reverence And since therefore I now appear before Thee to pay the Tribute of Adoration by a Thousand Titles due to the Thee let thy Truth direct me and Thy Spirit guide me that I may so adore Thee in Spirit and Truth as Thou requirest And that all the inward Faculties of my Soul may be as so many fiery Tongues to set forth thy praise for evermore Amen BUT as in a Watch though there must be Wheels within yet there must be a hand without too or else the inward Motion of the Wheels is useless so though the principal of all spiritual Motion is within yet the Virtue of it must have a time to work outward too or else our Adoration is not compleat For as the Nature of Man is not comprised singly either in Soul or Body but in both conjoyned so the Adoration due to God who made both is to flow from both And if the Soul be God's inward Chancel the Body must be the Temple that includes it For know you not saith St. Paul that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost that is in you Your own it is not For you are brought with a price therefore glorifie God in your Body as well as Spirit for both are his We are not therefore to think the Reverence of the Body to be an useless or an unprofitable Ceremony For besides this Argument of St. Pauls for the necessity of it St. Austin observes that this outward Adoration of the Body is a notable help to the more inward acts of the Spirit and adds much to the earnestness and fervour of it For the stretching forth of the hands the bowing of the knees the beating of the breasts the prostrating and casting down the Body with the like Gestures of Humiliation are not therefore used to discover to God what is within the heart or to move him the more but to move thy self and by these exterior acts as by a vigorous blowing to continue and increase that invisible fire of Devotion that burns within But then as these outward acts are not always absolutely necessary for you may many times be inwardly moved to pray when outward gesture cannot either easily or conveniently be used as Manasses praying in his Fetters Ezekiel in his Bed Susanna in a Throng of People so neither can I say that any one particular gesture of the Body in Prayer is so prescribed in Scripture either by way of Precept or Example as to oblige to that gesture only For in the exercise of Prayer we find several postures of Holy Men. Before the Law Abraham is said to have fallen on his face under the Law Moses did the like Among the Prophets Elias fell on the earth bowing his face between his knees Solomon stood before the Altar with his hands spread forth toward Heaven Saint Stephen kneel'd when he pray'd for his Enemies Saint Peter when he raised Doroas our Saviour himself in his Agony in the Garden not only kneel'd but prostrated himself as hath already been mentioned The acts of outward Adoration being of this diversity St. Austin's Rule is that in private Prayer for in publick we are to conform our selves to the Commands and Customs of the Church wherein we live rather than to the bent and inclination of our own Wills we are so to compose and order the outward man as may be of most advantage to the raising and continuing of the inward Devotion of the mind Of all these outward Gestures Prostration is the lowest act of bodily Reverence that can be used when the Supplicant casting himself upon the earth acknowledges by that act that he doth but cast dust to dust that he is more vile than the least grain of that earth he lies upon and this posture best becomes us in times of great Affliction and ever to be then lowest when our necessities are at the highest But though this casting of the body upon the ground hath been the practice of many Devout Men especially of those in the first Ages of Christianity who after a more strict way worshipping God in Desarts and solitary places yet because they found by experience as Cassian tells us that the continuance of their posture long might incline to ease and provoke to drousiness they us'd it rather upon some short Ejaculatory Prayers than in their larger and more continued Devotions casting themselves often down with some short and vehement breathings of the Soul but rising again so suddenly that some of them have been observed to have prostrated themselves in this manner an hundred times in the day and as often in the night But this we must leave to be imitated by those whose Devotion is of an higher strain than ordinary and which these latter times are hardly capable of But the more ordinary and more convenient for all persons is Genuflection Though we may have some excuse not to cast our whole body down shall we not cast our knees down at least Hath God said That every knee shall bow to him and shall any of us think to be dispenc'd with Our Saviour kneeled who knew no sin and is the posture too low for us that are nothing else but sin Whether Elephants have no joints in their knees and therefore cannot bend them I will not enquire But sure the Christian that hath not this excuse is a stranger Creature to be wondered at if he become once so sparing of his trouble or so over-familiar with his God as not to bend his knees in solemn Prayer unto him But then you will say Where is there Command for this No Gesture of the body can be other than a Ceremony which being in its own Nature a thing indifferent may either be used or laid aside But first Though it be a Ceremony every Ceremony is not of that indifferency especially such which the very Law of Nature dictates to all Nations in all Ages to fall down and kneel in the Veneration of their God whether true or false But then lest this inward Principle should apply and cast it self upon a wrong Object God hath expresly given his Precept too For every knee saith he shall bow to me And what terms can there be of higher command than these But yet because