said on this Subject 1. Let us with great Thankfulness acknowledge to the Creatour what he has made us and praise him for his Bounty towards us Let us consider and own it is God that hath made us and not we our selves It is one part of thankfulness to acknowledge the Benefits we have received Let us own this and endeavour to render to God all that which is due from us for it To shew forth his praise not only with our lips but in our lives by giving up our selves to his service Let each of us heartily say within himself Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his Holy Name Bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his Benefits We may hereupon very justly thus expostulate with and admonish our selves Have I a power to think and shall my Thoughts neglect the excellent Being that gave it me Should he be seldom in my Thoughts by whom I constantly think How base and ungrateful a Character of a man is this That God is not in all his thoughts Am I capable of Knowledge and shall it not be my greatest Ambition to know him that made me so to know the most excellent of all Beings that I might thereby be inabled to render him the Homage that belongs to him Have I a Will to chuse good and shall I fix my choice on any thing before him Shall I not cleave to him by it who is the chiefest Good and who gave me this power for that Purpose Should I not always say it to him as the full Sense of my Soul Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none on Earth that I can desire besides thee Shall I not pay him the Homage of my Affections from whom I have them and the reason that I have wherewith to guide them I ought to love him above all things to fear him alone to entettain my Hope with the pleasing expectations of enjoying him I should be angry only with that which provokes his Anger and hate what he hates and forbids Thus ought we to admonish our selves upon this Foundation and to resolve accordingly Thus should we endeavour to honour him who hath crowned us with such Dignity and Honour 2. What has been said concerning the Excellency of our Souls should make all men prefer them before their Bodies and chiefly regard them The Soul of Man is plainly the chief and most important part of him as it is a Spirit and Immortal This ought then to have the chief Dominion in us All the Appetites and Passions of the Inferior Body ought to be subject to the Faculties of the Mind We should not suffer our Senses or the desires of the Flesh to force Objects and Thoughts upon the Mind but make it rather to chuse its own employment upon consideration and advice of our Judgment and Reason How much Folly and Sin would such a Course prevent And it highly becomes and concerns us to give this as absolute a Dominion in us as we can that it may not be clogg'd or biassed by particular Temper or Constitution The Obedience to Temper is a most effectual Hinderance both of Wisdom and Religion No man can govern himself well that does not set his Reason above his Constitution and make his Temper subject to the Rules of that and of Religion I confess that in some cases some severity towards the Body may be necessary to this purpose and a great deal of Self-denial and Mortification may be requisite to the bringing our selves to this But let us observe what our Saviour says to this Case If thy right hand says he offend thee cut it off and cast it from thee for it is better for thee to enter into life maimed than having two hands to be cast into Hell Fire We were better wrong the Flesh if that must be than to endanger the Spirit and a little hurt the Body than damn the Soul To bring our selves to this State of the Bodies absolute and compleat subjection to the Mind is of so great use and advantage as that 't is worth all that it can cost us For so we shall become free and easy in all our Actions We shall possess and enjoy our own Souls we shall will to do what we should and shall do it the more readily and do it the better and the more perfectly Thus shall a man have the greatest Comfort in his Actions He shall exercise the brighter vertues and obtain by them the more praise and favour with God and Man Let us prefer our Souls above our Bodies and chiefly mind the Interests of them We should make the Interests of the Body stand by when they come into competition with those of the Soul We should govern our selves in all things as far as this can be done with a chief regard of these It were but just and fitting and due to our selves that we govern our selves so in what we chuse to love or hate in what we pursue or avoid and that it be the grand business of our Lives to promote the advantage of our Immortal Souls 3. Let us be greatly ambitious of those Divine and high Qualifications that we have been made capable to possess since we may be wise and holy just and good faithful and prudent let us earnestly endeavour to be so To be endowed with these Vertues is to put on the greatest excellency and worth The Scripture very justly says The righteous is more excellent than his Neighbour These Vertues in truth are the greatest and the most becoming Ornaments These make the brightest and most lasting Beauty such as Angels love and God himself takes delight in These will encrease and not fade or decay with Time and will last to Eternity These are the truest and the most useful Riches they do in a sense deliver the Soul from Hell and entitle it to everlasting Blessedness These are not uncertain Riches but are such a sure and durable Possession as Moth and Rust cannot corrupt nor can Thieves break through to and steal them These in the Exercises of them in good Works do lay up a treasure in Heaven Let it be consider'd that as we are capable of these Vertues we are also capable of being the Subjects of the contrary Vices And that if we are not vertuous and holy we must needs be vicious and impious He that is not just and true in his dealings must be unjust and persidious He that is not merciful and good must be hard-hearted and cruel And as we are acceptable and lovely to God by those Vertues in us so we are odious and detestable with these Vices The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord but he loveth him that followeth after Righteousness The pure Angels abhor Sinners and do not care to be near them to see what is so odious and offensive as the sins of men are to them As Holiness and Vertue do exalt and honour and become us so does
for such a particular occasion Our Saviour himself in the History of his Family by the Evangelists has left a pattern of this last sort which may justly be regarded as a direction in this case both by Ministers and People His Disciples desired him to teach them to pray he complyed with their Desire and did so by composing a Form for them It is without doubt part of the Duty of his Ministers in the Church after this example of the great Pastour to teach the faithful People to pray and this they may do in the same way as he did and the People shall certainly do well if they use the Prayers which such have composed for them Thus they shall be edified and profited by the Gifts which God has communicated to his Ministers Whatever Gift or Spirit of Prayer can reasonably be pretended to be afforded the Church in these days it may be exercised in the composing and writing down our Prayers before we offer them to God and there is no man but must needs exercise his Gift more suitably to the great God he worships and more to his own or other Peoples edification and to a better degree of performance truly in this way than in depending upon sudden and unpremeditated Thoughts and Expressions So that without doubt both Ministers and People ought to use composed Forms of Prayer ordinarily to perform this duty in the fittest manner I shall only add to this matter thus much that if any Master of a Family uses these Prayers in his Family it is but as if he should desire a Minister to pray with them as People are commonly wont to do when such a Person happens to stay a Night at their House And I have said so much to this matter because I have observed the unjust and erroneous disparaging of Prayer by a Form which has been amongst us has had a great influence towards the too frequent omission of Family Worship Now to conclude this Preface I shall only suggest these advices concerning the use of this Book That it is as I think ordinarily most fitting that this Exercise be performed by the Master of the Family himself But if any Circumstances hinder that it may be done by a Child or Servant but should always be done in his presence if possible that his Authority may give it the more respect with the inferiour parts of the Family When the introductory Prayer is said all should be standing to make themselves sensible of the Presence of God and to dispose them to a reverent and serious frame of Mind and so to make the more solemn and fit enterance upon what they are going about The latter Prayer should be used by all the Company kneeling and joining in it with heart and devout Affection If any young Persons who are devoutly inclined have it their lot to live under such Governours of their Families as are negligent of their duty in this matter I advise them if they may be permitted it to spend an hour in their Chamber alone on the Lord's Day in these Meditations and Prayers This they may very profitably do and perhaps their good Example in such a practice may shame the Master of the Family out of his neglect Now I commit this Endeavour to the Providence of God humbly dedicating it to his service And I do most willingly say Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give the Glory for thy loving Mercy and thy Truths sake And that it may be accepted with him through the Mediation of Jesus Christ and accompanied with his powerful Blessing so as it may also be well accepted in the Church and succesful to the promoting of true and pure Religion in many Souls to their Comfort and Salvation and his Glory thereby I heartily pray THE EXCELLENCY OF THE SOUL 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 Zach. 12. Last Part of the First Verse And formeth the Spirit of Man within him THE Words that I have now read from the Holy Scripture are part of a very Majestick Preface or Introduction to a favourable Prophecy concerning Judah and Jerusalem which is understood to foretell the Times of the Maccabees the distresses of those times and the mighty Deliverances which God would give the Jews by the Conduct and Courage and Resolution of those Men. In so great and lofty Expressions the Prophet was directed to introduce it that he might encourage the Faith and raise the Expectations of that People who were now in a very weak and low Condition For they were but newly returned from their Captivity and were envied and hated and opposed in their present Interests by wicked and powerful Neighbours He reminds them herein of the great Works of that God in whom he would have them now put their trust The whole Verse and Preface contains thus much The Burden of the Word of the Lord for Israel saith the Lord Who stretcheth forth the Heavens and layeth the Foundations of the Earth and formeth the Spirit of Man within him That which we may observe in this Text is That the Prophet places this work of God His forming the Spirit of Man within him together with his stretching out the wide and spacious Heaven and his laying the Foundations of the ponderous Earth and that when he design'd to represent the Greatness of God his ability and fitness to do what he had promised by shewing them the works he had already done This then we may reckon is here intimated to be a workparallel with those that are mentioned with it and fit to be mention'd with them to the same purpose This is a great and mighty Work as well as the other two All God's Works of Creation do declare their Authors Greatness and as the Psalmist speaks Praise him But some do this more than others as they are more excellent and greater than others Elsewhere also the Scripture mentions the making of Man as one of the more excellent and wonderful Works of God and sets it together with his making the Earth and stretching out the Heavens As in Isa 45. 12. where God to magnify himself in the Esteem of that People and to assure them that he could raise up one that should deliver them from Captivity says by his Prophet I have made the Earth and created man upon it I even my Hands have stretched forth the Heavens Now when the making of Man is here spoken of as one of the greatest Works of God this must needs be understood with relation to the Soul of Man For certainly a thing so small and weak so gross and heavy and so dark and so decaying as is the Humane Body cannot justly be reckoned worthy of this great comparison
as Idleness and that do and must needs dwell together If we apply our selves to this accomplishment in the proper Seasons for it that is on the Lords-Days and in the Intervals of Business and necessary Refreshment on other Days we shall have of this endeavour after such Knowledge a good Employment and we shall be so long kept from Idle and Vain Thoughts And then when a man does know much especially of Sacred things his Mind will not want good and useful Objects to entertain its self with at any time when he is at leisure for thinking He needs not at any time be idle but may be meditating on the Rules of Vertue and good living he may be applying them to his Actions and examining and regulating his Course of Life encouraging himself in the good he finds and rebuking himself for his Errours He may be very profitably meditating on the perfections of the Divine Nature and thereby raising in himself all those pious and devout Dispositions of Mind which are a suitable acknowledgment of those Perfections He may be often thinking of the World to come to which all Mankind are hastning and sending his Thoughts before him into Eternity and musing upon those two different States which will hereafter divide all Mankind between them and in one or other of which we must have our longest abode even to all Eternity These are Thoughts very fit to make the Mind wise and serious and to cure the levity of it and are certainly very good and profitable employment for it when no duty requires it attendance But he that is not acquainted with subjects worthy of his Thoughts will still think too and then he must needs think for the most part very idly and vain His Thoughts will seldom be employed about that which is his Duty nor will they be such as will dispose or lead him to it 3. We should accustom our selves frequently to review and reflect upon our Thoughts to think what we have been thinking upon and in what strain and way our Thoughts have been employed Let us endeavour always to know what passes within us what we do with our own Minds how we employ their noble powers and commune with our own Hearts as the Psalmist advises If we often do thus reflect upon our selves we cannot be long idle but we shall find our selves so and so may rectify our selves we shall apprehend our wanderings and may prevent our wild Imagination from polluting us with evil Thoughts and such as would actuate and cherish evil Inclinations and without this frequent reflection 't is impossible but we shall be often drawn away Besides if we are wont to call our selves thus to account we shall come to reverence our selves as the Philosophers speak we shall become desirous to be always able to give a good account to our own Consciences of the employment of our Thoughts we shall be liable to an wholesome Shame for all the Follies and Vagaries of our Minds and so by degrees we shall easily cure and prevent the vanity of them 4. Lastly We should endeavour to accustom our selves to good and pious Ejaculations Our constant dependance upon God and Obligations to him every moment and our constant danger and proneness to fall into Sin do greatly require this and without doubt it is a rule of special Usefulness to cure the vanity and levity of the Mind and to make it always serious and wise and directed to its main End the glorifying of God That which I mean by it is this Let us accustom our selves to make little short Addresses to God upon all occasions that occur to us to which purpose the Holy Scripture affords us an abundant Supply As for instance When we awake in the Morning to say I laid me down and slept I awaked for the Lord sustained me When the Light of the Day comes The Heavens declare the glory of God the Firmament sheweth his Handy-work When a man goes forth about his Business Hold up my goings in thy paths that my foot-steps slip not When we hear of any other mens Faults and Sins Lead me not into temptation but deliver me from evil When we see Children One Generation shall praise thy Name unto another and shall declare thy mighty Acts. Thus we shall well employ our Minds and besides thus we may set the Lord always before us as the Psalmist speaks and so be possest with such a constant Reverence of the Almighty as shall make us careful of our Duty and prevent this Idleness of Thoughts and all the Mischiefs of it Which Grace that may obtain let us earnestly seek it of Almighty God and join the constant use of this Means with all the other THE PRAYER O Lord the Infinite and Eternal Spirit and Father of Spirits who searchest the Hearts and triest the Reins of Men and from whom no secrets are hid Thou O Lord we believe knowest us altogether and thou seest our Thoughts even afar off We are ashamed to think how much vanity and folly and sin thou hast seen within us How little our Minds have attended and applied themselves to our Duty and to the main end of our Beings the living to thy Honour and Glory How seldom this comes into our Thoughts What we were made for what the Creator justly expects from us Hence are our Minds so often engaged in that which does not concern us and that which will not at all profit us and so often employed in gratifying and exercising inwardly some sinful and foolish Inclination While we neglect to set our Minds to that good Employment which our Business and Duty gives us our Adversary the Devil or our sinful Inclinations or the evil Company of the World find them very ill Employment And from hence do our Lives and Actions wretchedly and shamefully wander from the ways of thy excellent Commandments Thus we do instead of serving thee in Body Soul and Spirit most unjustly and unworthily sin against thee in all We ought to meditate on thy Law Day and Night that we might bring forth fruit in due season to study thy Law and learn thy Statutes but we have been those that care not for the Knowledge of thy ways and therefore we have not followed thy Paths This our way O Lord is our folly we condemn we abhor our selves for it and own our selves obnoxious to thy wrath and deserving that thou shouldst reject us from thy Care but since thy Goodness has yet been mindful of us even while we forgot thee we hope thy Mercy will receive us when we return unto thee Our Hope is in thy Word which tells us that to the Lord our God belong Mercies and Forgiveness tho we have rebelled against him Forgive us then O Lord we pray thee all our transgressions upon the account of that great Propitiation and Attonement which is made for us by the precious Blood of thy Son our only Saviour for his sake look mercifully upon our Infirmities and heal
Degree and are useful and necessary to us in our present State and we may enjoy them with delight and give God Thanks for them But still we must prefer the things above to these below Spiritual Things to Material the better and nobler things to those that are worse and of a meaner Nature It shall be the Business of this Discourse by God's Assistance to explain or express to you more largely and particularly the Import and Meaning of the Apostle's exhortation here And then to urge our Obedience to it with a few proper Motives And thus will this Discourse as it was intended be very Applicatory of that which goes before it Explication In the first Place I shall shew you how we ought to mind and apply our selves to the things above With how much Concern and Care we should seek the Favour of God the matchless Blessings of his Love and the enjoyment of him therein This I shall represent to you under these three Heads 1. The Things above must have the Preference of our Judgments We must esteem and value them before all other 2. They must have the Preference of our Wills and Affections We must chuse and love them desire and delight in them more than in any other 3. They must have the Preference of our Actions and Course of Life We should seek and pursue them more than all other things I shall particularly insist and enlarge my Discourse upon each of these severally for the better Illustration of them 1. Those things ought to have the Preference of our Judgments We should esteem and value them as the best things We must account God our Chiefest Good and the enjoyment of him in his Love the highest Felicity This should be the setled and fixed Judgment of our Souls a Conclusion deliberately and firmly made The Apostle who gives this Direction in our present Text expresses thus concerning himself when he says Phil. 3. 8. I count all things but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him that is That I may through him have an Interest in God and in the Blessings of his peculiar Love This has been the constant Practice and State of all good and rectified Souls Thy loving kindness is better than life says David Psal 63. 3. More to be desired are thy Commandments than Gold yea than much fine Gold sweeter also than the Hony and the Hony-comb Psal 19. This preference and esteem of things above is several times exprest by Solomon in the words which he puts into the Mouth of a Holy Soul in his Book of Canticles in Chap. 1. Verse 2. She says to Christ Thy Love is better than Wine The expressions and exercises of thy Favour are better far and more chearing and refreshing to the Mind than the richest Wines are to the faint and thirsty Body Again she says Chap. 2. 3. As the Apple Tree among the Trees of the Wood so is my Beloved among the Sons He is to be preferred before all other Yea she says in plain Terms Chap. 5. 10. He is the chiefest among Ten thousand These are all of them the expressions of such Souls as mind the things above rather than those below and prefer Spiritual Objects before Sensual God must have the Ascendant in our Souls He who truly is the Chiefest Good must be accounted so We must believe him the Center and Source of all Goodness the Fountain and Giver of all that which is in the Creatures And that he has not given away from himself what he has communicated to them but is still an inexhaustible Fulness of Good That in him does all desirable Fulness dwell and that he alone is able to afford full Content and Happiness to the Soul of Man We must account it a much happier State to enjoy the things above than the things below Much better to be vertuous and good than rich and great to enjoy the Favour of God than the Esteem of Men. And if we have the greatest value and esteem for the things above we shall value all other things according to the relation which they bear to them Those things which have a subserviency to them and are means of attaining them will be valued next to them and will for their sakes be in great esteem too Such are Prayer Hearing the Word of God Reading and Meditating on it and the Attendance upon Sacraments And again Those things which are contrary and opposite to these which hinder the enjoyment of them will not be lookt upon as Indifferent they will be accounted very evil things and be absolutely rejected from all esteem with us Such are all manner of Sins and Wickednesses Thus must the things above have the Preference of our Judgments 2. They must also have the Preference of our Wills and Affections We must chuse them before all other things love desire and delight most in them When those things are proposed described and offered to us we must not regard them with indifferent and careless Minds Our Souls must be moved towards them in chusing accepting and desiring above all things to be Partakers of them This also has been the Temper of good Souls as the Expressions that have fallen from such do abundantly declare The Holy Author of Psal 73. says to God Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none on Earth that I can desire besides thee The Spouse in the Canticles says Cant. 1. 2. Let him kiss me with the Kisses of his Mouth That which I chiefly desire is to receive the expressions of thy matchless Love And in Verse 4. she says We will be glad and rejoice in thee we will remember thy Love more than Wine If we can enjoy thy Favour Oh Jesus lover of Souls This is that we most value This is all we care for This is that will be most pleasing to us Ardent Desires after God the Psalmist expresses Psal 42. 1 2. As the Hart panteth after the Water Brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God My Soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God! If we are not assured of an Interest in the peculiar Love of God we should most earnestly and incessantly desire this We should make it the chief subject and matter of our Prayers The want of this should not be satisfied and madeup with any thing else Let us never say to our selves upon the mostplentiful Enjoyment of these things as that Man whom our Saviour describes Luke 12. who said Soul take thine ease because thou hast Goods laid up for many years Our Souls must take no Ease nor ever be at Rest till we have Goods laid up for Eternity God must be the only Center of our Hopes and Aims We should love him with a transcendent Love Nothing should grieve or trouble us so much as what does damp our Hopes of Heaven nothing so much transport and please as what does raise and promote and confirm them If we have been
my behaviour here this short Life has an influence upon the Eternal one If I have lived well and well used the Talents I was entrusted with here I shall enjoy better and more lasting good things there I may justly content my self to be denyed any of these things below if the wise disposer sees fit to do so since better things to full satisfaction are reserved for me But if I live wickedly I must expect that alittle time will put an end for ever to all my present ease and prosperity I must part with all my lov'd Enjoyments and bid a farewell to all mirth and pleasure All my portion of good is in this World and I can enjoy it no longer than while this short and transitory Life lasts It is but a small portion of good then that falls to my share if this be all I must have And it was not worth the being born to be exposed to so many evils to bear so many afflictions to feel the wrackings of so many violent passions as this mortal Life and vale of Tears are acquainted with for the sake of enjoying so little good so short and small a felicity And besides my pleasant Circumstances here will quickly end in Torments and Miseries that will continue for ever Let us I say think much of that other World and divert our thoughts from this That so our affections may be disengaged and we may not be entangled with the Charms and Allurements of this World to our everlasting perdition And having got our selves at liberty from those fatal snares and fetters let us earnestly apply our selves to prepare for and secure a happy State in the Life to come This ought to be our greatest care in this World and employ the most of our endeavours In every other care and endeavour this should be minded and should direct them We should so pursue this World as at the same time to pursue a better and so enjoy this World as that we at the same time may hope for a better Ought we not to be most concerned that we may be happy there where we must be longest Let us behave our selves always in this World as going out of this and going into another where we shall abide and stay Shall we be carefull about a few days to come of this Life and not much rather be solicitous what shall become of us to all Eternity Now to secure our happiness hereafter we must endeavour to make our peace with God to regain his favour by repenting truly of our former Sins by stedfastly purposing to lead a new Life by devoting our selves to Jesus Christ to be followers of him with whom the Father was well-pleased We must then deny all angodliness and worldly Lusts and live soberly righteously and godly in this present World We must cease to do evil and learn to do well and follow after holiness without which no man can see God no man can be admitted into that presence of God which makes Heaven Let us endeavour to grow reconciled to a very serious and religious Life to become acquainted with and to relish the joys and pleasures of devotion and communion with God To delight in him in meditating on his Nature and Works in praising adoring and worshipping of him Which things will be the great entertainment and happiness of Heaven and therefore till we are suited to such things till we can find the highest pleasure in them and in all acts of Vertue till we can satisfie our selves in such things even with the want of many worldly Enjoyments we are not fit for Heaven nor can be happy in another World But thus to prepare our selves for and secure a happy State hereafter is the best use we can possibly put this our mean Life to And though this Life be so short and transitory we shall have time enough for the securing a better if we do not cheat our selves of it by unnecessary delays and if we apply our selves diligently to this matter And how great an Improvement of our present Life is this How great a gain How much to advantage To employ this Life for the gaining a happy one hereafter is as if a man should lay out Pebbles for Pearls should exchange Dirt for Gold and short liv'd Sparkles for lasting and glorious Stars 'T is to lay out Earth for Heaven to spend time for the purchase of Eternity to use the Creatures so as to make them bring us to God to labour for a very few days that we may enjoy an Eternal rest to deny our selves in a few things and for a little while that we may ere long enjoy full satisfactions everlasting pleasures This is truly and greatly to redeem our time This if we do we shall not regret that our time on Earth was so short and transitory THE PRAYER O Eternal and Almighty God thou art always the same and thy years do not fail thou art the same yesterday and to day and for ever without Variableness or shadow of Change It is upon thee O Lord and thy unchangeable Power that all things else do depend in their Beings and in all their Operations thou fillest Heaven and Earth and thou workest all in all All thy Works praise thee O God and thy Saints bless thee The invisible Things of thee are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even thy Eternal power and Godhead And we O Lord are amongst the number of those whom thou hast Created and dost preserve thou in thy due time didst bring us into Being at our Birth and by thee we are hitherto sustained It is thou that supportest our frail Natures that they fall not into the Dust by thy careful Providence over us we have escaped many Dangers we have got through the weakness of Infancy and the Heedlesness of Childhood by thy Blessing has our Food nourisht and our Cloaths warmed us for we live not by these things alone but by the Word which proceeds out of the mouth of God We are in thy Hands then O thou the Sovereign Arbiter of Life and Death when ever thou pleasest we return to the Dust from whence we were Created We acknowledge it is of thy Mercy that we are not consumed and because thy Compassions fail not And we are afraid when we think how easily thou canst crush and destroy us how frail our Life is and how short and Transitory how little a distance we are from Eternity and how exposed our Lives are how many Evils and Dangers compass us about and how small a Matter is able to put an end to our Days These things when we consider them make us look upon our selves as always just at the brink of the Grave and Eternity And while we have liv'd careless of our Duty to thee while we have liv'd in Rebellion against thee we have been upon the brink of Hell and in continual Danger of falling into it Had thy wrath been kindled against us but for a