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A64109 The rule and exercises of holy living. In which are described the means and instruments of obtaining every vertue, and the remedies against every vice, and considerations serving to the resisting all temptations. Together with prayers containing the whole duty of a Christian, and the parts of devotion fitted to all occasions, and furnish'd for all necessities. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.; Vaughan, Robert, engraver. 1650 (1650) Wing T371; ESTC R203748 252,635 440

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a sad necessity but else Gods usual way is to be present in those places where his servants are appointed ordinarily to meet But his presence there signifies nothing but his readinesse to hear their prayers to blesse their persons to accept their offices and to like even the circumstance of orderly and publick meeting For thither the prayers of consecration the publick authority separating it and Gods love of order and the reasonable customes of Religion have in ordinary and in a certain degree fixed this manner of his presence and he loves to have it so 5. God is especially present in the hearts of his people by his holy Spirit and indeed the hearts of holy men are Temples in the truth of things and in type and shadow they are of Heaven it self For God reigns in the hearts of his servants There is his Kingdom The power of grace hath subdued all his enemies There is his power They serve him night and day and give him thanks and praise that is his glory This is the religion and worship of God in the Temple The temple it self is the heart of man Christ is the High Priest who from thence sends up the incense of prayers and joyns them to his own intercession and presents all together to his Father and the Holy Ghost by his dwelling there hath also consecrated it into a Temple and God dwels in our hearts by faith and Christ by his Spirit and the Spirit by his purities so that we are also Cabinets of the Mysterious Trinity and what is this short of Heaven it self but as infancy is short of manhood and letters of words The same state of life it is but not the same age It is Heaven in a Looking-glasse dark but yet true representing the beauties of the soul and the graces of God and the images of his eternal glory by the reality of a special presence 6. God is especially present in the consciences of all persons good and bad by way of testimony and judgement that is he is there a remembrancer to call our actions to minde a witnesse to bring them to judgement and a Judge to acquit or to condemne And although this manner of presence is in this life after the manner of this life that is imperfect and we forget many actions of our lives yet the greatest changes of our state of grace or sin our most considerable actions are alwayes present like Capital Letters to an aged and dim eye and at the day of judgement God shall draw aside the cloud and manifest this manner of his presence more notoriously and make it appear that he was an observer of our very thoughts and that he onely laid those things by which because we covered with dust and negligence they were not then discerned But when we are risen from our dust and imperfection they all appear plain and legible Now the consideration of this great truth is of a very universal use in the whole course of the life of a Christian. All the consequents and effects of it are universal * He that remembers that God stands a witnesse and a judge beholding every secrecy besides his impiety must have put on impudence if he be not much restrained in his temptation to sin For the greatest part of sinnes is taken away if a man have a witnesse of his conversation And he is a great despiser of God who sends a Boy away when he is going to commit fornication and yet will dare to do it though he knows God is present and cannot be sent o●● as if the eye of a little Boy were more awful then the all-seeing eye of God He is to be fear'd in publick he is to be fear'd in private if you go forth he spies you if you go in he sees you when you light the candle he observes you when you put it out then also God marks you Be sure that while you are in his sight you behave your self as becomes so holy a presence But if you will sin retire your self wisely and go where God cannot see For no where else can you be safe And certainly if men would alwayes actually consider and really esteem this truth that God is the great Eye of the World alwayes watching over our actions and an ever open ear to hear all our words and an unwearied arm ever lifted up to crush a sinner into ruine it would be the readiest way in the world to make sin to cease from amongst the children of men and for men to approach to the blessed estate of the Saints in Heaven who cannot sin for they alwayes walk in the pres●nce and behold the face of God * This instrument is to be reduced to practise according to the following Rules Rules of exercising this consideration 1. Let this actual thought often return that God is omnipresent filling every place and say with David Whither shall I go from thy Spirit or whither shall I flee from thy presence If I ascend up into heaven thou art there If I make my bed in hell thou art there c. This thought by being frequent will make an habitual dread and reverence towards God and fear in all thy actions For it is a great necessity and ingagement to do unblameably when we act before that Judge who is infallible in his sentence all knowing in his information severe in his anger powerful in his providence and intolerable in his wrath and indignation 2. In the beginning of actions of Religion make an act of adoration that is solemnly worship God and place thy self in Gods presence and behold him with the eye of faith and le● thy desires actually six on him as the object of thy worship and the reason of thy hope and the fountain of thy blessing For when thou hast placed thy self before him and kneelest in his presence it is most likely all the following parts of thy devotion will be answerable to the wisdom of such an apprehension and the glory of such a presence 3. Let every thing you see represent to your spirit the presence the excellency and the power of God and let your conversation with the creatures lead you unto the Creator for so shall your actions be done more frequently with an actual eye to Gods presence by your often seeing him in the glasse of the creation In the face of the Sun you may see Gods beauty In the fire you may feel his heat warming in the water his gentleness to refresh you he it is that comforts your spirit whē you have taken Cordials it is the dew of Heaven that makes your field give you bread and the breasts of God are the bottles that minister drink to your necessities This Philosophy which is obvious to every mans experience is a good advantage to our piety and by this act of understanding our wills are check'd from violence and misdemeanour 4. In your retirement make frequent colloquies or short discoursings between God and
but when we have an object present to our eye then we must pity for there the providence of God hath fitted our charity with circumstances He that is in thy sight or in thy Neighbourhood is fallen into the lot of thy charity 16. If thou hast no money yet thou must have mercy and art bound to pity the poor and pray for them and throw thy holy desires and devotions into the treasure of the Church and if thou doest what thou art able be it little or great corporal or spiritual the charity of almes or the charity of prayers a cup of wine or a cup of water if it be but love to the brethren or a desire to help all or any of Christs poor it shall be accepted according to what a man hath not according to what he hath not For Love is all this and all the other Commandments and it will expresse it self where it can and where it cannot yet it is love still and it is also sorrow that it cannot Motives to Charity The motives to this duty are such as holy Scripture hath propounded to us by way of consideration and proposition of its excellencies and consequent reward 1. There is no one duty which our blessed Saviour did recommend to his Disciples with so repeated an injunction as this of Charity and Almes To which adde the words spoken by our Lord It is better to give then to receive and when we consider how great a blessing it is that we beg not from door to door it is a ready instance of our thankfulnes to God for his sake to relieve them that do 2. This duty is that alone wherby the future day of judgment shall be transacted For nothing but charity almes is that whereby Christ shall declare the justice and mercy of the eternal sentence Martyrdom it self is not there expressed and no otherwise involved but as it is the greatest charity 3. Christ made himself the greatest and daily example of almes or charity He went up down doing good preaching the Gospel healing all diseases and God the Father is imitable by us in nothing but in purity and mercy 4. Almes given to the poor redound to the emolument of the Giver both temporal and eternal 5. They are instrumental to the remission of sins Our forgivenesse and mercy to others being made the very rule and proportion of our confidence and hope and our prayer to be forgiven our selves 6. It is a treasure in Heaven it procures friends when we dye It is reckoned as done to Christ whatsoever we do to our poor brother and therefore when a poor man begs for Christ his sake if he have reason to ask for Ch i st his sake give it him if thou canst Now every man hath title to ask for Ch ists sake whose need is great and himself unable to cure it and if the man be a Christian. Whatsoever charity Christ will reward all that is given for Christs sake and therefore it may be asked in his name but every man that uses that sacred name for an endearment hath not a title to it neither he nor his need 7. It is one of the wings of prayer by which it flyes to the throne of grace 8. It crowns all the works of piety 9. It causes thanksgiving to God on our behalf 10. And the bowels of the poor blesse us and they pray for us 11. And that portion of our estate out of which a tenth or a fifth or a twentieth or some offering to God for religion and the poor goes forth certainly returns with a greater blessing upon all the rest It is like the effusion of oyl by the Sidonian woman as long as she poures into empty vessels it could never cease running or like the Widows barrel of meal it consumes not as long as she fed the Prophet 12. The summe of all is contained in the words of our blessed Saviour Give almes of such things as you have ●nd behold all things are clean unto you 13. To which may be added that charity or mercy is the peculiar character of Gods Elect and a signe of predestination which advantage we are taught by S. Paul Put on therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercy kindnesse c. forbearing one another and forgiving o●e another if any man have a quarrel against any The result of all which we may reade in the words of S. Chrysostome To know the art of almes is greater then to be crowned with the Diadem of kings And yet to convert one soul is greater then to poure out ten thousand talents into the baskets of the poor But because giving Almes is an act of the vertue of mercifulnesse our endeavour must be by proper arts to mortifie the parents of unmercifulnesse which are 1. Envy 2. Anger 3. Covetousnesse in which we may be helped by the following rules or instruments Remedies against unmercifulnesse and uncharitablenesse 1. Against Envy by way of consideration Against Envy I shall use the same argument I would use to perswade a man from the Fever or the dropsie 1. Because it is a disease it is so far from having pleasure in it or a temptation to it that it is full of pain a great instrument of vexation it eats the flesh and dries up the marrow and makes hollow eyes and lean cheeks and a pale face 2. It is nothing but a direct resolution never to enter into Heaven by the way of noble pleasure taken in the good of others 3. It is most contrary to God 4. And a just contrary state to the felicities and actions of Heaven where every star encreases the light of the other and the multitude of guests at the supper of the Lamb makes the eternal meal more festival 5. It is perfectly the state of Hell and the passion of Devils for they do nothing but despair in themselves and envy others quiet or safety and yet cannot rejoyce either in their good or in their evil although they endeavour to hinder that and procure this with all the devices and arts of malice and of a great understanding 6. Envy can serve no end in the world it cannot please any thing nor do any thing nor hinder any thing but the content and felicity of him that hath it 7. Envy can never pretend to justice as hatred and uncharitableness sometimes may for there may be causes of hatred and I may have wrong done me and then hatred hath some pretence though no just argument But no man is unjust or injurious for being prosperous or wise 8. And therefore many men prosesse to hate another but no man owns envy as being an enmity and displeasure for no cause but goodnesse or felicity Envious men being like Cantharides and Caterpillars that delight most to devour ripe and most excellent fruits 9. It is of all crimes the basest for malice and anger are appeased with benefits but
take a death-bed sigh or groan and a few unprofitable tears and promises in exchange for all our duty If these motives joyned together with our own interest even as much as felicity and the sight of God and the avoyding the intolerable pains of Hell and many intermedial judgements comes to will not move us to leave 1. The filthinesse and 2. The trouble and 3. The uneasinesse and 4. The unreasonablenesse of sinne and turn to God there is no more to be said we must perish in our folly SECT X. Of preparation to and the manner how to receive the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper THe celebration of the holy Sacrament is the great mysteriousnesse of the Christian religion and succeeds to the most solemn rite of natural and Judaical religion the Law of sacrificing For God spared mankinde and took the sacrifie of beasts together with our solemn prayers for an instrument of expiation But these could not purifie the soul from sin but were typical of the sacrifice of something that could But nothing could do this but either the offering of all that sinned that every man should be the anathema or devo●ed thing or else by some one of the same capacity who by some superadded excellency might in his own personal sufferings have a value great enough to satisfie for all the whole kinde of sinning persons This the Son of God JESUS CHRIST God and Man undertook and finished by a Sacrifice of himself upon the Altar of the Crosse. 2. This Sacrifice because it was perfect could be but one and that once but because the needs of the world should last as long as the world self it was neces●ary that there should be a perpe●ual ministery established whereby this one sufficient sacrifice should be made eternally effectual to the several new a●i●ing needs of all the world who should desire it or in any sence be capable of it 3. To this end Christ was made a Priest for ever he was initiated or consecrated on the crosse and there began his Priesthood which was to last till his coming to judgement It began on earth but was to last and be officiated in Heaven where he sits perpetually representing and exhibiting to the Father that great effective sacrifice which he of●ered on the crosse to eternal and never failing purposes 4. As Christ is pleased to represent to his Father that great Sacrifice as a means of atonement and expiation for all mankinde and with special purposes and intendment for all the elect all that serve him in holinesse so he hath appointed that the same ministery shall be done upon earth too in our manner and according to our proportion and therefore hath constituted and separated an order of men who by shewing forth the Lords death by Sacramental representation may pray unto God after the same manner that our Lord and high ●riest does that is offer to God and repres●nt in this solemn prayer and Sacrament Christ as already offered so sending up a gracious instrument whereby our prayers may for his sake and in the same manner of intercession be offered up to God in our behalf and for all them for whom we pray to all those purposes for which Christ dyed 5. As the Ministers of the Sacrament do in a Sacramental manner present to God the sacrifice of the crosse by being imitators of Christs intercession so the people are sacrificers too in their manner for besides that by saying Amen they joyn in the act of him that ministers and make it also to be their own so when they eat and drink the consecrated and blessed Elelements worthily they receive Christ within them and therefore may also offer him to God while in their sacrifice of obedience thanksgiving they present themselves to God with Christ whom they have spiritually received that is themselves with that which will make them gracious and acceptable The offering their bodies and souls and services to God in him and by him and with him who is his Fathers well-beloved and in whom he is well pleased cannot but be accepted to all the purposes of blessing grace and glory 6. This is the sum of the greatest mystery of our Religion it is the copy of the passion and the ministration of the great mystery of our Redemption and therefore whatsoever intitles us to the general priviledges of Christs passion all that is necessary by way of disposition to the celebration of the Sacrament of his passion because this celebration is our manner of applying or using it The particulars of which preparation are represented in the following rules 1. No Man must dare to approach to the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper if he be in a state of any one sin that is unlesse he have entred into the state of repentance that is of sorrow and amendment lest it be said concerning him as it was concerning Iudas the hand of him that betraieth me is with me on the Table and he that receiveth Christ into an impure soul or body first turns his most excellent nourishment into poyson and then ●eeds upon it 2. Every communicant must first have examined himself that is tried the condition and state of his soul searched out the secret Ulcers enquired out its weaknesses and indiscretions and all those aptnesses where it is exposed to temptation that by finding out its diseases he may finde a cure and by discovering its aptnesses he may secure his present purposes of future amendment and may be arm'd against dangers and temptations 3. This examination must be a Man 's own act and inquisition into his life but then also it should leade a Man on to run to those whom the Great Physician of our souls Christ Jesus hath appointed to minister physick to our diseases that in all dangers and great accidents we may be assisted for comfort and remedy for medicine and caution 4. In this affair let no Man deceive himself and against such a time which publick Authority hath appointed for us to receive the Sacrament weep for his sins by way of solemnity and ceremony and still retain the affection but he that comes to this feast must have on the Wedding garment that is he must have put on Iesus Christ and he must have put off the old man with his affections and lusts and he must be wholly conformed to Christ in the image of his minde For then we have put on Christ when our souls are clothed with his righteousnesse when every faculty of our foul is proportioned and vested according to the patern of Christs life And therefore a Man must not leape from his last nights Surfet and Bath and then communicate but when he hath begun the work of God effectually and made some progresse in repentance and hath walked some stages and periods in the wayes of godlinesse then let him come to him that is to minister it and having made known the state of his soul he is to be admitted but to