then 't is so far from being valued that 't is not to be endured above ground but layed to rott in the Earth Yet to this viler part of us we perform a great deal of care all the labour and toil we are at is to maintain that But the more precious part the Soul is little thought of no care taken how it fares but as if it were a thing that nothing concerned us is left quite neglected never consider'd by us 3. This carelesnesse of the Soul is the root of all the sin we commit and therefore whosoever intends to set upon a Christian course must in the first place amend that To the doing wherof there needs no deep learning or extraordinary parts the simplest man living that is not a natural fool hath understanding enough for it if he will but act in this by the same rules of common reason whereby he proceeds in his worldly business I will therefore now briefly set down some of those motives which use to stir up our care of any outward thing and then apply them to the Soul 4. There be four things especially which use to awake our care the first is the worth of the thing the second the usefulnesse of it to us when we cannot part with it without great damage and mischief the third the great danger of it the fourth the likelyhood that our care will not be in vain but that it will preserve the thing cared for 5. For the first we know our care of any worldly thing is answerable to the worth of it What is of greatest price we are most watchful to preserve and most fearful to lose no man locks up dung in his chest but his money or what he counts precious he doth Now in this respect the Soul deserves more care then all the things in the world besides for 't is infinitly more worth First in that is made after the image of God it was God that breathed into man this breath of life Gen 27. Now God being of the greatest excellency and worth the more any thing is like him the more it is to be valued But 't is sure that no creature upon the earth is at all like God but the Soul of man and therefore nothing ought to have so much of our care Secondly the Soul never dies We use to prize things according to their durablenesse what is most lasting is most worth Now the Soul is a thing that will last for ever when Wealth Beauty Strength nay our very bodies themselves fade away the Soul still continues Therefore in that respect also the Soul is of the greatest worth and then what strange madnesse is it for us to neglect them as we do We can spend Days and Weekes and Moneths and Years nay our whole lives in hunting after a little wealth of this world which is of no durance or continuance â—nd in the mean time â—et this great durable treasure our Souls be stoâ—â— from us by the Divel 6. A second motive to our care of any thing is the usefulnesse of it to us or â—he great mischief we shall have by the â—osse of it Common reason teaches us â—his in all things of this life If our â—aires fall we do not much regard 〈◊〉 because we can be well enough withâ—ut them But if we are in danger to lose our eyes or limbs we think all the care we can take little enough to prevent it because we know it will be a great misery But certainly there is no misery to be compared to that misery that followes the losse of the Soul 'T is true we cannot lose our Souls in one sense that is so lose them that they shall cease to be but we may so lose them in another that we shall wish to lose them even in that That is we may lose that happy estate to which they were created and plunge them into the extremest misery In a word we may lose them in Hell whence there is no fetching them back and so they are lost for ever Nay in this consideration our very bodies are concerned those darlings of ours for which all our care is layed out for they must certainly after death be raised again and be joyned again to the soul and take part with it in whatever state if then our care for the body take up all our time and thoughts and leave us none to bestow on the poor Soul it is sure the Soul will for want of that care be made for ever miserable But it is as sure that that very body must be so too And therefore if you have any true kindnesse to your body shew it by taking care of your Souls Think with your selves how you will be able to endure everlasting burnings if a small spark of fire lighting on the least part of the body be so intolerable what will it be to have the whole cast into the hottest flames and that not for some few howres or days but for ever so that when you have spent many thousand of years in that unspeakable torment you shall be no neerer comâ—ng out of it then you were the first day you went in think of this I say and think this withall that this will certainly be the end of neglecting the Soul and therefore afford it some care if it be but in pity to the body that must bear a part in its miseries 7. The third Motive to the care of any thing is its being in danger now a thing may be in danger two wayes first by enemies from without This is the case of the sheep which is still in danger of being devoured by wolves and we know that makes the Shepheard so much the more watchful over it Thus is it with the soul which is in a great deal of danger in respect of its enemies Those we know are the World the Flesh and the Divel which are all such noted enemies to it that the very first act we do in behalfe of our Souls is to vow a continual war against them This we all do in our Baptism and whoever makes any truce with any of them is false not only to his Soul but to his vow also becomes a forsworn creature A consideration well worthy our laying to heart But that we may the better understand what danger the Soul is in let us a little consider the quality of these enemies 8. In a war you know there are divers things that make an enemy terrible The first is subtilty and cunning by which alone many victories have been won and in this respect the Divel is a dangerous adversary he long since gave sufficient proof of his subtlety in beguiling our first parents who yet were much wiser then we are and therefore no wonder if he deceive and cheat us Secondly the watchfulness and diligence of an enemy makes him the more to be feared and here the Divel exceeds it is his trade business to destroy us and he is no loiterer
the fountain of happiness and at his right hand there are pleasures for evermore Psal. 16. 11. And therefore the nearer we draw to him the happier we must needs be the very joys of heaven arising from our neerness to God Now in this life we have no way of drawing so neer to him as by this of Prayer and therefore surely it is that which in it self is apt to afford abundance of delight and pleasure if it seem otherwise to us it is from some distemper of our own hearts which like a sick palate cannot relish the most pleasant meat Prayer is a pleasant duty but it is withal a spiritual one and therefore if thy heart be carnal if that be set either on the contrary pleasures of the flesh or dross of the world no marvail then if thou taste no pleasantness in it if like the Israelites thou despise Manna whilst thou longest after the flesh pots of Egypt Therefore if thou find a weariness in this duty suspect thy self purge and refine thy heart from the love of all sin and endeavour to put it into a heavenly and spiritual trance and then thou wilt find this no unpleasant exercise but full of delight and satisfaction In the mean time complain not of the hardness of the duty but of the untowardness of thy own heart 18. But there may also be another reason of its seeming unpleasant to us and that iâ— want of use You know there are many things which seem uneasie at the first tryal which yet after we are accustomed to them seem very delightful and if this by thy case then thou knowest a ready cure viz to use it oftner and so this consideration naturally inforces the exhortation of being frequent in this duty 19. But we are not only to consider how often but how well we perform it Now to do it well we are to respect first the matter of our Prayers to look that we ask nothing that is unlawful as revenge upon our enemies or the like secondly the manner and that must be first in faith we must believe that if we ask as we ought God will either give us the thing we ask for or else something which he sees better for us And then secondly in humility we must acknowledg our selves utterly unworthy of any of those good things we beg for and therefore sue for them only for Christs sake thirdly with attention we must mind what we are about and not suffer our selves to be carried away to the thought of other things I told you at the first that Prayer was the business of the soul but if our minds be wandering it is the work only of the tongue and lips which makes it in Gods account no better then vain babbling and so will never bring a blessing on us Nay as Jacob said to his mother Gen. 27. 12. It will be more likely to bring a curse on us then a blessing for it is a profaning one of the most solemn parts of Gods service it is a piece of Hypocrisie the drawing neer to him with our lip when our hearts are far from him and a great slighting and despising that dreadful Majesty we come before And as to our selves it is a most ridiculous folly that we who come to God upon such weighty errands as are all the concernments of our souls and bodies should in the midst forget our business and pursue every the lightest thing that either our own vain fancies or the Divel whose business it is here to hinder us can offer to us It is just as if a malefactor that comes to sue for his life to the King should in the midst of his supplication happen to espie a butterflie and then should leave his suit run a chace after that butterflie Would you not think it pitty a pardon should be cast away upon so wretchless a creature And sure it will be as unreasonable to expect that God should attend grant those suits of ours which we do not at all consider our selves 20. This wandring in Prayer is a thing we are much concerned to arm our selves against it being that to which we are naturally wonderful prone To that end it will be necessary first to possess our hearts at our coming to Prayers with the greatness of that Majesty we are to approach that so we may dread to be vain and trifling in his presence Secondly We are to consider the great concernment of the things we are to ask some whereof are such that if we should not be heard we were of all creatures the most miserable yet this wandring is the way to keep us from being heard Thirdly We are to beg Gods aid in this particular And therefore when thou settest to Prayer let thy first petition be for this grace of attention 21. Lastly Be as watchful as is possible over thy heart in time of prayer to keep out all wandering thoughts or if any have gotten in let them not find entertainment but as soon as ever thou discernest them suffer them not to abide one moment but cast them out with indignation and beg Gods pardon for them And if thou dost thus sincerely and diligently strive against them either God will enable thee in some measure to overcome them or he will in his mercy pardon thee what thou canst not prevent But if it be through thy own negligence thou art to expect neither so long as that negligence continues 22. In the fourth place we must look our Prayers be with zeal and earnestness it is not enough that we so far attend them as barely to know what it is we say but we must put forth all the affection and devotion of our souls and that according to the several parts of Prayer before mentioned It is not the cold faint request that will ever obtain from God We see it will not from our selves for if a beggar should ask relief from us and do it in such a scornful manner that he seemed indifferent whether he had it or no we should think he had either little want or great pride and so have no heart to give him Now surely the things we ask from God are so much above the rule of an ordinary almes that we can never expect they should be given to slight and heartless petitions No more in like manner will our Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving ever be accepted by him if it be not offered from a heart truly affected with the sence of his mercies it 's but a kind of formal complementing which wil never be approved by him who requires the heart and not the lips only And the like may be said of all the other parts of Prayer Therefore be careful when thou drawest nigh to God in Prayer to raise up thy soul to the highest pitch of zeal and earnestness thou art able And because of thy self alone thou art not able to do any
they can wound and pierce without all remorse and yet with the adulteress Prov. 30. 20. say they have done no wickedness but glory of their friendly behaviour to those whom they thus betray to eternal ruine for whomsoever thou hast drawn to any sin thou hast done thy part to ascertain to those endless flames And then think with thy self how base a treachery this is thou wouldst call him a treacherous villain that should while he pretends to embrace a man secretly stab him but this of thine is as far beyond that as the soul is of more value then the body and hell worse then death And remember yet farther that besides the cruelty of it to thy poor brother it is also most dangerous to thy self it being that against which Christ hath pronounced a woe Mat. 18. 7. ver 6. he tells us that whoever shall offend that is draw into sin any of those little ones it were bettter for him that a milstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the Sea Thou maist plunge thy poor brother into perdition but as it is with wrestlers he that gives another a fall commonly falls with him so thou art like to bear him company to that place of torment 10. Let therefore thy own and his danger beget in thee a sense of the greatness of this 〈◊〉 this horrid peece of injustice to the precious soul of thy neighbour Bethink thy self seriously to whom thou past bin thus cruel whom thou hast enticed to drinking advised to rebellion alured to lust stirred up to rage whom thou hast assisted or encouraged in any ill course or discouraged and disheartned by thy profane scoffings at piety in general or at any conscionable strict walking of his in particular and then draw up a bill of indictmtnt accuse and condemn thy self as a Cain a murderer of thy brother heartily and deeply bewail all thy guilts of this kind and resolve never once more to be a stumbling block as St. Paul calls it Rom. 14. in thy brothers way 11. But this is not all there must be some fruits of this repentance brought forth now in all sins of injustice restitution is a necessary fruit of repentance and so it is here thou hast committed an act perhaps many of high injustice to the soul of thy brother thou hast robbed it of its innocency of its title to heaven thou must now endeavour to restore all this to it again by being more earnest and industrious to win him to repentance then ever thou wert to draw him to sin use now as much art to convince him of the danger as ever thou didst to flatter him with the pleasures of his vice in a word countermine thy self by using all those methods and means to recover him that thou didst to destroy him and be more diligent and zealous in it for 't is necessary thou shouldst both in regard of hâ—m and thy self First in respect of him because there is in mans nature so much a greater promptness and readiness to evil then to good that there will need much more pains and diligence to instil the one into him then the other besides the man it supposed to be already accustomed to the contrary which will add much to the difficulty of the work then in respect of thy self if thou be a true penitent thou wilt think thy self obliged as St. Paul did to labour more abundantly and wilt be ashamed that when thou art trading for God bringing back a soul to him thou shouldst not pursue it with more earnestness then while thou wert an agent of Satans besides the remembrance that thou wert a means of bringing this poor soul into this snare must necessarily quicken thy diligence to get him out of it So much for the first part of negative justice in respect of the souls of our brethren 12. The second concerns the bodies and to those also this justice binds thee to do no wrong nor violence Now of wrongs to the body there may be several degrees the highest of them is killing taking away the life this is forbid in the very letter of the sixth Commandment Thou shalt do no murder 13. Murder may be committed either by open violence when a man either by sword or any other instrument takes away anothers life immediately and directly or it may be done secretly and tracherously as David murdered Vriah not with his own sword but with the sword of the Children of Ammon 2 Sam. 11. 17. And Jezabel Nâ—both by a false accusation 1 Kin 21. 13. And so divers have committed this sin of murder by poison false witness or some such concealed ways The former is commonly the effect of a sudden rage the latter hath several originals sometimes it proceeds from some old malice fixt in the heart towards the person sometimes from some covetous or ambitious desires such a one stands in a mans way to his profit or preferment and therefore he must be removed and somtimes again it is to cover shame as in the case of strumpets that murder their infants that they may not betray their filthiness But besides these more direct ways of killing there is another and that is when by our perswasions and enticements we draw a man to do that which tends to the shortning of his life and is apparent to do so he that makes his neighbour drunk if by that drunkenness the maâ—â—â—ome by any mortal hurt which he would have escaped if he had been sober he that made him drunk is not clear of his death or if he die not by any such sudden accident yet if drinking cast him into a disease and that disease kill him I know not how he that drew him to that excess can acquit himself of his murder in the eys of God though humane Laws touch him not I wish those who make it their business to draw in customers to that trade of debauchery would consider it There is yet another way of bringing this guilt upon our selves and that is by inciting and stirring up others to it or to that degree of anger and revenge which produces it As that sets two persons at variance or seeing them already so blowes the coales if murder ensue he certainly hath his share in the guilt which is a consideration that ought to affright all from having any thing to do in the kindling or encreasing of contention 14. Now for the hainousness of this sin of murder I suppose none can be ignorant that it is of the deepest dye a most loud crying sin This we may see in the first act of this kind that ever was committed Abels blood cryed from the earth as God tels Cain Gen. 4. 10. Yea the guilt of this sin is such that it leaves a stain even upon the land where it is committed such as is not to be washt out but by the blood of the murderer as appears Deut. 19. 12 13. The
intreaty no perswasion can prevail with them to make this so reasonable so necessary a change not but that they acknowledge it needful to be done but they are unwilling to do it yet they would enjoy all the pleasures of sin as long as they live and then they hope at their death or some little time before it to do all the business of their Souls But alas Heaven is too high to be thus jumped into the way to it is a long and leasurely ascent which requires time to walk The hazards of such deferring are more largely spoken of in the discourse of Repentance I shall not here repeat them but desire the Reader seriously to lay them to heart and then surely he will think it seasonable counsel that is given by the wise man Ecclus 5. 7. Make no tarrying to turn to the Lord and put not off from day to day PRIVATE DEVOTIONS For Several OCCASIONS London Printed for T. Garthwait at the little North Door of St. Pauls CHRISTIAN READER I Have for the help of thy devotions set down some FORMS of PRIVATE-PRAYER upon several occasions If it be thought an omission that there are none for Families I must answer for my self that it was not from any opinion that God is not as well to be worship'd in the Family as in the Closet but because the providence of God and the Church hath already furnish'd thee for that purpose infinitely beyond what my utmost care could do I mean the PUBLICK LITURGY or COMMON-PRAYER which for all publick addresses to God and such are family-Prayers are so excellent and useful that we may say of it as David did of Goliah's sword 1 Sam. 21. 9. There is none like it DIRECTIONS for the MORNING As soon as ever thou awakest in the morning lift up thy heart to God in this or the like short Prayer LORD As thou hast awaked my body from sleep so by thy grace awaken my soul from sin and make me so to walk before thee this day and all the rest of my life that when the last trumpet shall awake me out of my grave I may rise to the life immortal through Jesus Christ. WHEN thou hast thus begun suffer not without some urgent necessity any worldly thoughts to fill thy mind till thou have also payd thy more solemn devotions to Almighty God and therefore during the time thou art dressing thy self which should be no longer then common decency requires exercise thy mind in some spiritual thoughts As for example Consider to what temptations thy business or company that day are most like to lay thee open and arm thy self with resolutions against them or again consider what occasions of doing service to God or good to thy neighbour are that day most likely to present themselves and resolve to embrace them and also contrive hoâ— thou maist improve them to the uttermost But especially it will be fit for thee to examine whether there have any sin escaped thee since thy last nights examination If after these considerations any farther leisure remain thou maist profitably imploy it in meditating on the general resurrection whereof our rising from our beds is a representation and of that dreadful judgment which shall follow it and then think with thy self in what preparation thou art for it and resolve to husband carefully every minute of thy time towards the fitting thee for that great account As soon as thou art ready retire to some private place and there offer up to God thy Morning Sacrifice of Praise and Prayer PRAYERS for the MORNING At thy first kneeling down say O Holy Blessed and Glorious Trinity three Persons and one God have mercy upon me a miserable sinner Lord I know not what to pray for as I ought O let thy spirit help my infirmities and enable me to offer up a spiritual sacrifice acceptable to thee by Jesus Christ. A THANKSGIVING O Gracious Lord whose mercies endure for ever I thy unworthy servant who have so deeply tasted of them desire to render thee the tribute of my humblest prayses for them In thee O Lord I live and move and have my being thou first madest me to be and then that I might not be miserable but happy thou sentest thy Son out of thy bosome to redeem me from the power of my sins by his grace and from the punishment of them by his blood and by both to bring me to his glory Thou hast by thy mercy caused me to be born within thy peculiar fold the Christian Church where I was early consecrated to thee in Baptism and have been partaker of all those spiritual helps which might aid me to perform that Vow I there made to thee and when by my own willfulnesse or negligence I have failed to do it yet thou in thy manifold mercies hast not forsaken me but hast graciously invited me to repentance afforded me all means both outward and inward for it and with much patience hast attended and not cut me off in the acts of those many damning sins I have committed as I have most justly deserved It is O Lord thy restraining grace alone by which I have been kept back from any the greatest sins and it is thy inciting and assisting grace alone by which I have been enabled to do any the least good therefore not unto me not unto me but unto thy name be the praises For these all other thy spiritual blessings my Soul doth magnify the Lord all that is within me praise his Holy Name I likewise praise thee for those many outward blessings I enjoy as Health Friends Food and Raiment the comforts as well as the necessaries of this life for those continual protections of thy hand by which I and mine are kept from dangers and those gracious deliverances thou hast often afforded out of such as have befallen me and for that mercy of thine whereby thou hast sweetned and alayed those troubles thou hast not seen fit wholy to remove For thy particular preservation of me this night and all other thy goodness towards me Lord grant that I may render thee not onely the fruit of my lips but the obedience of my life that so these blessings here may be an earnest of those richer blessings thou hast prepared for those that love thee and that for his sake whom thou hast made the Authour of eternal Salvation to all that obey him even Jesus Christ. A CONFESSION O Righteous Lord who hatest iniquity I thy sinful creature cast my self at thy feet acknowledging that I most justly deserve to be utterly abhorred and forsaken by thee for I have drunk iniquity like water gone on in a continued course of sin and rebellion against thee daily committing those things thou forbiddest and leaving undone those things thou commandest mine heart which should be an habitation for thy Spirit is become a cage of unclean birds of foul and disordered affections and out of this abundance of the heart my mouth speaketh my
hands act so that in thought word and deed I continually transgress against thee Here mention the greatest of thy sins Nay O Lord I have despised that goodness of thine which should lead me to Repentance hardning my heart against all those means thou hast used for my amendment And now O Lord what can I expect from thee but judgment and fiery indignation that is indeed the due reward of my sins But O Lord there is mercy with thee that thou mayest be feared O fit me for that mercy by giving me a deep and hearty Repentance and then according to thy goodness let thy anger and thy wrath be turned away from me look upon me in thy Son my blessed Saviour and for the merit of his sufferings pardon all my sins And Lord I beseech thee by the power of thy grace so to renew and purify my heart that I may become a new creature utterly forsaking every evil way and living in constant sincere universal obedience to thee all the rest of my dayes that behaving my self as a good and faithful servant I may by thy mercy at last be received into the joy of my Lord grant this for Jesus Christ his sake A PRAYER for GRACE O Most gracious God from whom every good and perfect gift cometh I wretched creature that am not able of my self so much as to think a good thought beseech thee to work in me both to will and to do according to thy good pleasure inlighten my mind that I may know thee and let me not be barren or unfruitful in that knowledg Lord work in my heart a true faith a purifying hope and an unfeigned love towards thee give me a full trust on thee zeal for thee reverence of all things that relate to thee make me fearful to offend thee thankful for thy mercies humble under thy corrections devout in thy service sorrowful for my sins and grant that in all things I may behave my self so as befits a creature to his Creator a servant to his Lord enable me likewise to perform that duty I owe to my self give me that meekness humility and contentedness whereby I may alwayes possess my soul in patience and thankfulness make me diligent in all my duties watchful against all temptations perfectly pure and temperate and so moderate in my most lawful in joyments that they never become a snare to me make me also O Lord to be so affected towards my neighbour that I never transgress that royall Law of thine of loving him as my self grant me exactly to perform all parts of justice yeâ—lding to all whatsoever by any kind of right becomes their due and give me such bowels of mercy compassion that I may never fail to do al acts of charity to all men whether friends or enemies according to thy command and example Finally I beseech thee O Lord to sanctifie me throughout that my whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blamelesse unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory for ever Amen INTERCESSION O Blessed Lord whose mercy is over all thy works I beseech thee to have mercy upon all men and grant that the precious ransome which was paid by thy Son for all may be effectual to the saving of all Give thy inlightning grace to those that are in darkness and thy converting grace to those that are in sin look with thy tenderest compassions upon the Universal Church O be favourable and gracious unto Sion build thou the wals of Jerusalem unite all those that profess thy Name to thee by Purity and Holiness and to each other by Brotherly love Have mercy on this desolate Church and sinful Nation thou hast moved the Land and divided it heal the sores thereof for it shaketh make us so truly to repent of those sins which have provoked thy Judgments that thou also mayest turn and repent and leave a blessing behind thee Bless those whom thou hast appointed our Governours whether in Church or State so rule their hearts and strengthen their hands that they may neither want will nor power to punish wickedness and vice and to maintain Gods true Religion and Vertue Have pity O Lord on all that are in affliction Be a Father to the fatherless and plead the cause of the widow comfort the feeble minded support the weak heal the sick releeve the needy defend the oppressed and administer to every one according to their several necessities let thy blessings rest upon all that are near and dear to me and grant them whatsoever thou seest necessary either to their bodies or their Souls Here name thy neerest Relations Reward all those that have done me good and pardon all those that have done or wisht me evil and work in them and me all that good which may make us acceptable in thy sight through Jesus Christ. For PRESERVATION O Merciful God by whose bounty alone it is that I have this Day added to my life I beseech thee so to guide me in it by thy grace that I may do nothing which may dishonour thee or wound my own Soul but that I may diligently apply my self to do all such good works as thou hast prepared for me to walk in and Lord I beseech thee give thy Angels charge over me to keep me in all my wayes that no evil happen unto me nor any plague come nigh my dwelling but that I and mine may be safe under thy gracious protection through Jesus Christ. O Lord pardon the wandrings and coldness of these petitions and deal with me not according either to my prayers or deserts but according to my needs and thine own rich mercies in Jesus Christ in whose blessed Name and Words I conclude these my imperfect prayers saying Our Father c. DIRECTIONS for NIGHT. AT NIGHT when it drawes towards the time of rest bethink thy self how thou hast passed the day examine thine own heart what sin either of Thought Word or Deed thou hast committed what opportunity of doing good thou hast omitted and whatsoever thou findest to accuse thy self of confess humbly and penitently to God renew thy purposes and resolutions of amendment and beg his pardon in Christ and this not slightly and onely as of course but with all devout earnestness and heartiness as thou wouldst do if thou wert sure thy death were as neer approaching as thy sleep which for ought thou knowest may be so indeed and therefore thou shouldest no more venture to sleep unreconciled to God theâ— thou wouldest dare to die so In the next place consider what special and extraordinary mercies thou hast that day received as if thou hast had any great deliverance either in thy inward man from some dangerous temptations or in thy outward from any great and apparent danger and offer to God thy hearty and devout praise for the same Or if nothing extraordinary have so happened and thou hast been kept even from the approach
impenitence and unworthiness frustrate these so inestimable mercies to me but qualifie me by thy grace to receive the full benefit of them O Lord I have abundant need of thee but am so clog'd with guilt so holden with the cords of my sins that I am not able to move towards thee O lose me from this band wherewith Satan and my own lusts have bound me and draw me that I may run after thee Lord thou seest daily how eagerly I pursue the paths that lead to death but when thou invitest me to life and glory I turn my back and forsake my own mercy How often hath this feast been prepared and I have with frivilous excuses absented my self or if I have come it hath been rather to defie then to adore thee I have brought such troops of thy professed enemies unrepented sins along with me as if I â—ame not to commemorate but renew thy passion crucifying thee afresh and putting thee to open shame and now of what punishment shall I be thought worthy who have thus trampled under foot the Son of God and counted the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing yet O merciful Jesu this blood is my onely râ—â—â—ge O let this make my atonement or I perish eternally wherefore didst thou shed it but to save sinners neither can the merit of it be overwhelmed either by the greatness or number of sins I am a sinner a great one O let me find its saving efficacy Be merciful unto me O God be merciful to me for my soul trusteth in thee and in the clefts of thy wound shall be my refuge until thy fathers indignation be overpast O thou who hast as my high Priest sacrificed for me intercede for me also and plead thy meritorious sufferings on my behalfe and suffer not O my Redeemer the price of thy blood to be utterly lost And grant O Lord that as the sins I have to be forgiven are many so I may love much Lord thou seest what faint what cold affections I have towards thee O warm and enliven them and as in this Sacrament that transcendent love of thine in dying for me is shewed forth so I beseech thee let it convey such grace into me as may enable me to make some returns of love O let this divine fire descend from heaven into my soul and let my sins be the burnt offering for it to consume that there may not any corrupt affection any accursed thing be shelterd in my heart that I may never again defile that place which thou hast chosen for thy temple Thou dyedst O dear Jesu to redeem me from all iniquity O let me not again sell my self to work wickedness but grant that I may approach thee at this time with most sincere and fixed resolutions of an entire reformation and let me receive such grace and strength from thee as may enable me faithfully to perform them Lord there are many old habituated diseases my soul groanes under Her mention thy most prevailing corruptions And though I lye never so long at the pool of Bethesda come never so often to thy table yet unless thou be pleased to put forth thy healing vertue they will still remain uncured O thou blessed Physician of souls heal me and grant I may now so touch thee that every one of these loath some issues may immediately stanch that these sicknesses may not be unto death but unto the glory of thy mercy in pardoning to the glory of thy grace in purifying so polluted a wretch O Christ hear me and grant I may now approach thee with such humility and contrition love and devotion that thou maist vouchsafe to come unto me and abide with me communicating to me thy self and all the merits of thy passion And then O Lord let no accusations of Satan oâ— my own conscience amaze or distract me buâ— having peace with thee let me also have peace in my self that this wine may make glad this bread of life may strengthen my heart and enable me cheerfully to run the way of thy Commandments Grant this merciful Saviour I beseech thee for thine own bowels and compassions sake EjACULATIONS to be used at the LORDS TABLE LOrd I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof I have sinned what shall I do unto thee O thou preserver of men Here recollect some of thy greatest sins If thou Lord shouldst be extreme to mark what is done amiss O Lord who may abide it But with the Lord there is mercy and with him is plenteous Redemption Behold O Lord thy beloved Son in whom thou art well pleased Hearken to the cry of his blood which speaketh better things then that of Abel By his Agony and bloody Sweat by his Cross and Passion good Lord deliver me O Lamb of God which takest away the sins of the world grant me thy Peace O Lamb of God which takest away the sins of the world have mercy upon me Immediately before Receiving THou hast said that he that eateth thy flesh and drinketh thy blood hath eternal life Behold the servant of the Lord be it unto me according to thy word At the Receiving of the Bread BY thy Crucified Body deliver me from this body of death At the Receiving of the Cup. O let this blood of thine purge my conscience from dead works to serve the living God Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean O touch me and say I will be thou clean After Receiving WHat shall I render unto the Lord for all the benefits he hath done unto me I will take the Cup of Salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing Therefore blessing honour glory and power be to him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever Amen I have sworn and am stedfastly purposed to keep thy righteous judgments O hold thou up my goings in thy paths that my footsteps slip not A Thanksgiving after the Receiving of the Sacrament OThou Fountain of all goodness from whom every good and perfect gift cometh and to whom all honour and glory should be returned I desire with all the most fervent and inflamed affections of a grateful heart to blesse and praise thee for those inestimable mercies thou hast vouchsafed me Lord what is man that thou shouldst so regard him as to send thy beloved Son to suffer such bitter things for him But Lord what am I the worst of men that I should have any part in this atonement who have so oft despised him and his sufferings O the height and depth of this mercy of thine that art pleased to admit me to the renewing of that Covenant with thee which I have so often so perversly broken that I who am not worthy of that daily bread which sustains the body should be made partaker of this bread of life which nourishes the Soul and
its parts Confession Petitions For our Souls Bodiâ—â— Deprâ—cation Of sin Of punishmâ—â—t Intercession Thankâ—â—â—ving Spiritual Mercies Temporal Publick Prayer in the Church In the family Private Prayer Frequency in Prayer The advantages of Prayer Honour Benefit Pleasantness Carnallity one reason of its seeming otherwise Want of one another To ask nothing unlawful To ask in Faith In humility With attention Helps against wandring 〈…〉 〈◊〉 Prayer for Gods aid Watchfulnesse With Zeal With purity To right ends Bodily worship Repentance A turning from sin to God Times for this Duty Daily At set times In the time of affliction At Death The danger of deferring it till then The disadvantages of a death-bed repentance The custom of sin Bodily pains Danger of unsincerity Fasting Fasting a a revenge upon our selves Such revenges acceptable with God Yet no satisfaction for sins Times of fasting Second branâ—h of our dâ—ty to God Inward Idolatry Duty to our selves Humility The great sin of pride The danger Drawing into other sins Frustrating of remedies Betraying to punishment The folly In respect of the goods of Nature The goods of fortune The goods of grace Means of Humility Vain glory The sin The danger The folly â—elps aâ—â—inst vain â—â—â—ry Meekness Advantages of it Means of obtaining it Consideration Of our state The rule by which to trie our state The danger of inconsideration Our actions Before we do them After they are done Frequency of consideration Danger of omitting it Contentedness Contrary to murmuring To ambition To covetâ—usness Covetousness contrary to our duty to God To our selves To our neighbourâ— Contentedness contrary to envy Helps to contentedness Diligence Watchfulness against sin Industry in improving gifts Of Nature Of Grace To improve good motions The dangâ—â— of the contrary Chastity Uncleanness forbidden in the very lowest degrees The mischiefs of it To the Soul To the Body The Iudgments of God against it It shuts out from Heaven Helps to chastity Temperance In Eating Ends of eating Preserving of life Of Health Ru'es of Temperance in eating Means of it Temperancâ— in Drinkâ—ing False ends of drinking Good fellowship Preserving of kindness Cheering the spirits Putting away cares Passing away time Preventing reproach Pleasure of the drink Bargaining Degrees of this sin The great guilt of the strong drinkers The great mischiefs of this sin Exhortation to forsake it The difficulties of doing so considered Seeming nâ—â—â—ssity of drink Want of imployment Perswasions and reproaches of men The means of resisting them Which the advantages 〈◊〉 the hurt Reject the temptationâ— at the veâ—â— beginning The seâ—urity of doing so The efficaâ—y of these means if not hindred by love of the sin That lovâ— makes mâ—â— loth to beâ—lieve it dangerouâ— Sleep The rule of temperance therein The many sins that fâ—â—lâ—w tâ—e transgressing of it Other mischiefs of sloth Temperance in Recreation Cautions tâ—he observeâ— in them Undue end of sports Temperance in Apparel Apparel designed foâ— covering of shame Fencing from cold Distinction of persons Too much sparing a fault as well as excess Duty to our Neighbour Iustice. Negative To the Soul In the natural sence In the spiritual Drawing to sin the greatest injury Direct means of Indirect Men sadly to consider whom they have thus injured Heartily to bewail it Endeavour to repair it Negative justice to the body In respect of the life Several ways of being guilty of murder The Hainousness of the sin The great punishments attending it The strange discoveries of it We must waâ—ch diligently aâ—gainst all approaches of this sin Maiming â— great injury That which every man dreads for himself Yet worse if the man be poor Necessity of making what satisfaction we can Wounds and stripes injuries also This cruelty to others the effect of pride His possession Hâ—s wife The enticing a mans wife the greatest injustice To the woman To the man The most irrepairable His goods Malicious injustice Covetous injustice Oppression Gods vengeance against it Theft Not paying what we borrow What we are bâ—und for What we have promised Stealing the goods of our neighbour Deceit In Trust. In Traffick The sellers concealing the faults of his ware His over-rating it Fraud in the Buyer Many Temptations to deceit in Traffick The commonness of injustiee a reproach to Christianity It is not the way to enrich a man It ruines the Soul Eternally The necessity of Restitution His credit False witness Publick slanders Whispering Several steps towards this sin Despising and scoffing For infirmities For calamities Forsi â— Destroying the credit a great injury And irrepairable Yet every guilty person must do all he can to repaire the injury Iustice in the thoughts Positive Iustice. Speaking Truth a due to all men Lying expresly forbiden in Scripture The great commonness and folly of this sin Courteous behaviour a due to all men Not payed by the proud man Meekness a due to all men Brauling very inâ—ufferable It leads to that great sin of cursing Particular dues A respect due to men of extraordinary gifts We are not to envy them Nor detract from them The folly of both those sins A respect due to men in regard of their râ—nks and qualities Dues to those that are in any sort â—f want To the poor God withdraws those abilities which are not thus imployed Dues in respect of relations Gratitude to Benefactors The contrary too common Duty to Parents Dues to the Supreme Magistrate Honour Tribute Prayers for them Obedience Duties to our Pastors Love Esteem Maintenance Obedience Prayer for them Duties to our natural Parents Reverence Love Obedience Especially in their Marriage Ministring to their wants Duty to be paid even to the worst Parents Duty of Parents to children To Nourish them Bring them to Baptism Educate them Meane towards the educating of children The parent to watch over their souls even when they are grown up To provide for their subsistence To give them good example To bless them To give no unreasonable commands Dues to brethren Natural The necessity of love among brethren Spiritual brotherhood Our duty to hold communion with these brethren To bear with their infirmities To restore them after falls To sympathy with them The wife owes to the husband obedience Fidelity Love The faults of the Husband acquits not from these duties 〈…〉 Faithfulness Maintenance Instruction Husbands and Wâ—ves mutuâ—lly to pray for and assist each other in all good The vertue of the person the chief consideration in Marriage Unlawful Marriages Friendship It s dutiâ—â— Faithfulness Assistance Admonition Prayer Constancy Servantâ— owe to the Masters â—â—bedience Fidelity Submission to rebuke Diligence Masters owe to their Servants Iustice. Admonition Good example Means of Instruction Moderation in commandâ— Encouragement in well-doing Charity In the Affections To mens Souls To their Bodies Goods and Credit Effects of this Charity It casts out Envy Pride Censoriousness Dissembling Self-seeking Revenge Tâ—is charity to be extended even to enemies Motives thereunto Command of Christ. Example of God The disproportion between our offences against God and mens against us Pleasantness of this Duty Compared with the painfulness of the contrary If we forgive not God will not forgive us Gratitude to God The first riâ—ing of rancour to be supprest Charity in the Actions Towards the mind of our Neighbour His Soul Charity in respect of the Body Charity in respect of the Goods Towards the rich Towards the poor Motives of Alms-giving Manner of Alms giving Cheerfully The fear of impoverishing our selves by it vain and impious Give seasonably Of cruâ—lâ—y Prudâ—ntly Liberally Charity in respect of the Credit The acts of Charity in some respects acts of Iustice also The great rulâ— of Charity Peace Making He that undertakes it must be Peaceable himself Of going to Law This Chariâ—y of the Actions must reach to Enemies Self love 〈◊〉 hinderance to this Charity Prayer a means to procure is Christian duties both possible and pleasant Even when they expose us to outward sufferings The danger of delâ—ying our turning to God
necessary for us according to that of the Psalmist The eyes of all wait upon thee O Lord and thou givest them meat in due season And our Saviour hath taught us to pray for our daily-bread thereby teaching us that we are to live in continual dependance upon God for it Yet I mean not by this that we should so expect it from God as to give up our selves to idleness and expect to â—e fed by miracle No our honest industry and labour is the means by which God ordinarily gives us the necessaries of this life and therefore we must by no means neglect that He that will not labour let him not eat sayes the Apostle 2 Thes. 3. 10. And we may believe God will pronounce the same sentence and suffer the slothful person to want even necessary food But when we have faithfully used our own endeavour then we must also look up to God for his blessing on it without which it can never prosper to us And having done thus we may comfortably rest our selves on his providence for such a measure of these outward things as he sees fittest for us 56. But if our condition be such that we are not able to labour and have no other means of bringing in the necessaries of life to our selves yet even then we are cherfully to rest upon God believing that he who feeds the Ravens will by some means or other though we know not what provide for us so long as he pleases we shall continue in this world and never in any case torment our selves with Carking and distrustful thoughts but as the Apâ—stle 1 Pet. 5. 7. Cast all our care on him who careth for us 57. This is earnestly prest by our Saviour Mat. 6. Where he abundantly shews the folly of this sin of distrust The place is a most excellent one and therefore I shall set it down at large Ver 25 Therefore I say unto you take no thought for your life what you shall eat or what you shall drink neither for your body what you shall put on is not the life more then meat and the body then rayment Behold the fowles of the air for they sow not neither do they reap nor gather into barnes yet our heavenly Father feedeth them Are ye not much better then they which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature and why take ye thought for rayment consider the lilies of the field how they grow they toil not neither do they spin and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arayed like one of these Wherefore if God so clothe the grass of the field which to day is and to morrow is cast into the oven shall he not much more clothe you O ye of little Faith Therefore take no thought saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or where with all shall we be clothed for after all these things do the Gentiles seck for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and then all these things shall be added unto you Take therefore no thought for the morrow for the morrow shall take thought for the things of it self sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof I might add many other texts to this purpose but this is so full and convincing that I suppose it needless 58. All therefore that I shall say more concerning this duty is to put you in mind of the great benefits of it as first that by this trusting upon God you engage and hind him to provide for you Men you know think themselves highly concern'd not to fail those that depend and trust upon them and certainly God doth so much more But then Secondly there is a great deal of ease and quiet in the practice of this duty it delivers us from all those carkings and immoderate cares which disquiet our minds break our sleep and grieves even our very heart I doubt not but those that have felt them need not be told they are uneasie But then methinks that uneasiness should make us forward to imbrace the means for the removing of them and so we see it too often doth in unlawful ones men will cheat and steal and lie and do any thing to deliver themselves from the fear of want But alas they commonly prove but deceitful remedies They bring Gods curse on us and so are more likely to betray us to want then to keep us from it But if you desire a certain and unfailing cure for cares take this of relying upon God 59. For what should cause that man to fear want that knows he hath one that cares for him who is al-sufficient and will not suffer him to want what is fit for him If a poor man had but a faithful promise froâ— a wealthy person that he would never suffer him to want it is sure he would be highly cheered with it and would not then think fit to be as carking as he was before and yet a mans promise may fail us he may either grow poor and not be able or he may prove false and not be willing to make good his word But we know God is subject neither to impoverishing nor deceit And therefore how vile an injury do we offer to him if we dare not trust as much upon his promise as we would on that of a man yea and how great a mischief do we do our selves by loading our minds with a multitude of vexatious and tormenting cares when we may so securely cast our burden upon God I conclude this in the words of the Apostle Phil. 4. 6. Be careful for nothing but in every thing by Prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God PARTITION II. Of HUMILITY Of Submission to Gods Wil in respect of Obeâ—ience of Patience in all sorts of sufferings and of HONOUR â—ue to God in several wayes in his House Possessions His Day Word Sacraments c. § 1. A Sixth duty to God is humility that is such a sense of our own meanness and his excellency as may work in us a lowly and unfeigned submission to him This submission is twofold First to his will Secondly to his Wisdom 2. The submission to his will is also of two sorts the submission either of obedience or patience That of obedience is our ready yielding our selves up to do his will so that when God hath by his command made known to 〈◊〉 what his pleasure is cheerfully and readily to set about it To enable us to this humility is exceeding necessary for a proud person is of all others the unaptest to obey and we see men never pay an obedience but where they acknowledg the person commanding to be some way above them And so it is here if we be not throughly perswaded that God is infinitely above us that we are vileness and nothing in comparison
till that be done 3. The second part of prayer is petition That is the begging of God whatsoever we want either for our Souls or bodies For our Souls we must first beg pardon of sins and that for the sake of Jesus Christ who shed his blood to obtain it Then we must also beg the grace and assistance of Gods Spirit to enable us to forsake our sins and to walk in obedience to him And herein it will be needful particularly to beg all the several vertues as faith love zeal purity repentance and the like but especially those which thou most wantest And therefore observe what thy wants are and if thou beest proud be most instant in praying for humility if lustful for chastity and so for all other graces according as thou findest thy needs And in all these things that concern thy Soul be very earnest and importunate take no denial from God nor give over though thou do not presently obtain what thou suest for But if thou hast never so long prayed for a grace and yet findest it not do not grow weary of praying but rather search what the cause may be which makes thy prayer so ineffectual see if thou do not thy self hinder them perhaps thou prayest to God to enable thee to conquer some sin and yet never goest about to fight against it never makest any resistance but yeâ—ldest to it as oft as it comes nay puttest thy self in its way in the road of all temptations If it be thus no wonder though thy prayers avail not for thou wilt not let them Therefore amend this and set to the doing of thy part sincerely and then thou needest not fear but God will do his 4. Secondly We are to petition also for our bodies That is we are to ask of God such necessaries of life as are needful to us while we live here But these onely in such a degree and measure as his wisdom sees best for us we must not presume to be our own câ—rvers and pray for all that wealth or greatness which our own vain hearts may perhaps desire but onely â—or such a condition in respect of outward things as he sees may most tend to those great ends of our living here the glorifying him and the saving of our own Souls 5. A third part of prayer is Deprecation that is when we pray to God to turn away some evil from us Now this evil may be either the evil of sin or the evil of punishment The evil of sin is that we are especially to pray against most earnestly begging of God that he will by the power of his grace preserve us from falling into sin And whatever sins they are to which thou knowest thy self most inclined there be particularly earnest with God to preserve thee from them This is to be done daily but then more especially when we are under any present temptation in danger of falling into any sin In which case we have reason to cry out as St. Peter did when he found himself sinking save Lord or I perish humbly beseeching him either to withdraw the temptation or strengthen us to withstand it neither of which we can do for our selves 6. Secondly We are likewise to pray against the evil of punishment but principally against spiritual punishments as the anger of God the withdrawing of his grace and eternal damnation Against these we can never pray with too much earnestness but we may also pray against temporal punishments that is any outward affliction but this with submission to Gods will according to the example of Christ Mat. 26. 39. Not as I will but as thou wilt 7. A fourth part of prayer is intercession that is praying for others This in general we are to do for all mankind as well strangers as acquaintance but more particularly those to whom we have any especial relation either publick as our Governours both in Church and State or private as Parents Husband Wife Children Friends c. We are also to pray for all that are in affliction and such particular persons as we discern especially to be so Yea we are to pray for those that have done injury those that despightfully use us and persecute us for it is expresly the command of Christ Mat. 5. 44. and that whereof he hath likewise given us the highest example in praying even for his very crucifiers Luc. 23. 34. Father forgive them For all these sorts of persons we are to pray and that for the very same good things we beg of God for our selves that God would give them in their several places and callings all spiritual and temporal blessings which he sees wanting to them and turn away from them all evil whether of sin or punishment 8. The fifth part of prayer is thanksgiving That is the praising and blessing God for all his mercies whether to our own persons and those that immediatly relate to us or to the Church and Nation whereof we are members or yet more general to all mankind And this for all his mercies both spiritual and temporal In the spiritual first for those wherein we are all in common concerned as the giving of his Son the sending of his Spirit and all those means he hath used to bring sinful men unto himself Then secondly for those mercies we have in our own particulars received such are the having been born within the pale of the Church and so brought up in Christian Religion by which we have been partakers of those precious advantages of the word and Sacraments and so have had without any care or pains of ours the means of eternal life put into our hands But besides these there is none of us but have received other spiritual means from God 9. As first Gods patience and long-suffering waiting for our repentance and not cutting us off in our sins Secondly his calls and invitations of us to that repentance not only outward in the ministry of the word but also inward by the motions of his Spirit But then if thou be one that hath by the help of Gods grace been wrought upon by these calls and brought from a prophane or worldly to a Christian course of life thou art surely in the highest degree tyed to magnifie and praise his goodness as having received from him the greatest of mercies 10. We are likewise to give thanks for temporal blessings whether such as concern the publick as the prosperity of the Church or Nation and all remarkable deliverances offered to either or else such as concern our particulars such are all the good things of this life which we enjoy as health friends food rayment and the like also for those minuitly preservations whereby we are by Gods gracious providence kept from danger and the especial deliverances which God hath given us in time of greatest perils It will be impossible to set down the several mercies which everyman receives from God because they
against the one when the other is allowed But above all it is to be considered that even these lower degrees are such as make men very odious in Gods eyes who seeth the heart and loves none that are not pure there 20. The loveliness of this vertue of chastity needs no other way of describing then by considering the loathsomness and mischiefs of the contrary sin which is first very brutish those desires are but the same that the beasts have and then how far are they sunk below the nature of man that can boast of their sins of that kind as of their special excellency When if that be the measure a goat is the more excellent creature But indeed they that eagerly pursue this part of bestiality do often leave themselves little besides their humane shape to difference them from beasts this sin so clouds the understanding and defaceth the reasonable Soul Therefore Solomon very well describes the young man that was going to the harlots house Pro. 7. 22. He goeth after her as an Ox goeth to thâ— slaughter 21 Nor secondly are the effects of it better to the body then to the mind The many foul and filtâ—y besides painful diseases which ofteâ— follow this sin are sufficient witnesses how mischievous it is to the body And alas how many are there that have thus made themselves the Devils martyrs Suffered such torments in the pursuit of this sin as would exceed the invention of the greatest tyrant Surely they that pay thus dear for damnation very well deserve to enjoy the purchase 22. But thirdly Besides the natural fruits of this sin it is attended with very great and heavy Judgments from God the most extra ordinary and miraculous Judgment that ever befel any place Fire and Brimstone from Heaven upon Sodome and Gomorrah was for this sin of uncleanness And many examples likewise of Gods vengeance may be observed on particular persons for this sin The incest of Amnon cost him his life as you may read 2 Sam. 13. Zimrie and Cozhi were slain in the very act Num. 25. 8. And no person that commits the like hath any assurance it shall not be his own case For how secretly soever it be committed it cannot be hid from God who is the sure avenger of all such wickedness Nay God hath very particularly threatned this sin 1 Cor. 3. 17. If any man defile the Temple of God him shall God destroy This sin of uncleanness is a kind of sacriledge a polluting those bodies which God hath chosen for his Temples and therefore no wonder if it be thus heavily punished 23. Lastly This sin shuts us out from the Kingdom of Heaven wherein no impure thing can enter And we never find any list of those sins which bar men thence but this of uncleanness hath a special place in it Thus it is Gal. 5. 19. and so again 1 Cor. 6. 9. If we will thus pollute our selves we are fit company onely for those black spirits the Devil and his Angels and therefore with them we must expect our portion where our flames of lust shall end in flames of fire 24. All this layed together may surely recommend the vertue of chastity to us for the preserving of which we must be very careful first to check the beginnings of the temptation to cast away the very first fancy of lust with indignation for if you once fall to parley talk with it it gains still more upon you and then it will be harder to resist therefore your way in this temptation is to flye rather then fight with it This is very necessary not onely that we may avoid the danger of proceeding to act the sin but also in respect of the present fault of entertaining such fancies which of it self though it should never proceed further is as hath been shewed a great abomination before God Secondly have a special care to flye idleness which is the proper soil for these filthy weeds to grow in And keep thy self alwayes busied in some innocent or vertuous employment for then these fancies will be less apt to offer themselves Thirdly never suffer thy self to recall any unclean passages of thy former life with delight for that is to act over the sin again and will be so reckoned by God nay perhaps thus deliberately to think of it may be a greater guilt then a rash acting of it For this both shews thy heart to be set upon filthiness and is also a preparation to more acts of it Fourthly forbear the company of such light and wanton persons as either by the filthiness of their discourse or any other means may be a snare to thee Fifthly pray earnestly that God would give thee the spirit of purity especially at the time of any present temptation Bring the unclean Devil to Christ to be cast out as did the man in the Gospel And if it will not be cast out with prayer alone add fasting to it but be sure thou do not keep up the flame by any high or immoderate feeding The last remedy when the former prove vain is marriage which becomes a duty to him that cannot live innocently without it But even here there must be care taken lest this which should be for his good become not to him an occasion of falling for want of sobriety in the use of marriage But this I have toucht on already and therefore need add no more but an earnest intreaty that men would consider seriously of the foulness and danger of this sin of uncleanness and not let the commonness of it lessen their hatred of it but rather make them abhor that shamelesse impudence of the world that can make liâ—ht of this sin against which God hath pronounced such heavy curses Whoremongers and adulterers God will Iudge Heb. 13. 4. and so he will certainly do all sorts of unclean persons whatsoever 25. The second vertue that concerns our bodies is temperance And the exercises of that are divers As first temperance in eating secondly in drinking thirdly in sleep fourthly in recreation fifthly in apparel I shall speak of them severally and first of temperance in eating This temperance is observed when our eating is agreeable to those ends to which eating are by God and nature designed those are first the being secondly the well being of our bodies 26. Man is of such a frame that eating becomes necessary to him for the preserving his life hunger being a natural disease which will prove deadly if not prevented and the onely Physick for it is eating which is therefore become a necessary means of keeping us alive And that is the first end of eating and as men use not to take Physick for pleasure but remedy so neither should they eat 27. But secondly God hath been so bountiful as to provide not onely for the being but the well being of our bodies and therefore we are not tyed to such strictness that we may
eat no more then will just keep us from starving but we may also eat whatsoever either for kind or quantity most tends to the health and welfare of them Now that eating which is agreeable to these ends is within the bounds of temperance as on the contrary whatsoever is contrary to them is a transgression against it He therefore that sets up to himself other ends of eating as either the pleasing of his taste or what is yet worse the pampering of his body that he may the better serve his lust he directly thwarts and crosses these ends of Gods for he that hath those aimes doth that which is very contrary to health yea and to life it self as appears by the many diseases and untimely deaths which surfetting and uncleanness daily bring on men 28. He therefore that will practice this vertue of temperance must neither eat so much nor of any such sorts of meat provided â—he can have other as may be hurtful to his health what the sorts or quantities shall be is impossible to set down for that differs according to the several constitutions of men some men may with temperance eat a great deal because their stomacks require it when another may be guilty of intemperance in eating but half so much because it is more then is useful to him And so also for the sort of meat it may be niceness and luxury for some to be curious in them when yet some degree of it may be necessary to the infirmities of a weak stomack which not out of wantonness but disease cannot eate the courser meats But I think it may in general be said that to healthful bodies the plainest meats are generally the most wholsome but every man must in this be left to judg for himself and that he may do it aright he must be careful that he never suffer himself to be enslaved to his palate for that will be sure tâ— satisfie its self whatever becomes of health or life 29. To secure him the better let him consider First How unreasonable a thing it is that the whole body should be subjected to this one sense of tasting that it must run all hazards only to please that But it is yet much more so that the diviner part the soul should also be thus enslaved and yet thus it is in an intemperate person his very soul must be sacrificed to this brutish appetite for the sin of intemperance though it be acted by the body yet the soul must share in the eternal punishment of it Secondly Consider how extreme short and vanishing this pleasure is it is gone in a moment but the pains that attend the excess of it are much more durable and then surely it agrees not with that common reason wherewith as men we are indued to set our hearts upon it But then in the third place it agrees yet worse with the temper of a Christian who should have his heart so purified and refined with the expectation of those higher and spiritual joyes he looks for in another world that he should very much despise these gross and brutish pleasures which beasts are as capable of as we and to them we may well be content to leave them it being the highest their natures can reach to but for us who have so much more excellent hopes it is an intolerable shame that we should account them as any part of our happiness Lastly the sin of Gluttony is so great and dangerous that Christ thought fit to give an especial warning against it take heed to your selves that your hearts be not overcharged with surfetting c. Luke 21. 34. And you know what was the end of the rich glutton Luke 16. He that had fared deliciously every day at last wants a drop of water to coole his tongue So much for that first sort of temperance that of eating PARTITION VIII Of Temperance in DRINKING False Ends of Drinking viz. Good Fellow-ship Putting away cares c. § 1. THe second is temperance in drinking and the ends of eating and drinking being much the same I can give no other direct rules in this then what were given in the former to wit that we drink neither of such sorts of liquor nor in such quantities as may not agree with the right ends of drinking the preserving of our lives and healths Only in this there will be need of putting in one caution for our understandings being in more danger to be hurt by drink then meat we must take care to keep that safe and rather not drink what we might safely in respect of our healths if it be in danger to distemper our reason This I say because it is possible some mens brains may be so weak that their heads cannot bear that ordinary quantity of drink which would do theâ—r bodies no harm And whoever is of this temper must strictly abstaâ—n from that degree of drink or that sort of it which he finds hath that effect yea though it do in other respects appear not only safe but useful to his health For though we are to preserve our healths yet we are not to do it by a sin as drunkenness most certainly is 2. But alas of those multitudes of drunkards we have in the world this is the case but of very few most of them going farr beyond what their health requires yea or can bear even to the utter destruction thereof And therefore it is plain men have set up to themselves some other ends of drinking then those allowable ones forementioned it may not be amisse a little to examine what they are and withal to shew the unreasonableness of them 3. The first and most owned is that which they call good fellowship One man drinks to keep another company at it But I would ask such a one whether if that man were drinking rank poison he would pledg him for company If he say he would not I must tell him that by the very same nay far greater reason he is not to do this For immoderate drinking is that very poison perhaps it doth not always work death immediately yet there want not many instances of its having done even that very many having died in their drunken fit but that the custome of it does usually bring men to their ends is past doubt and therefore though the poison work slowly yet it is still poison But however it doth at the present work that which a wise man would more abhor then death it works madness and frenzy turns the man into a beast by drowning that reason which should difference him from one Certainly the effects of drink are such that had being drunk been first enjoyned as a punishment we should have thought him a more then ordinary Tyrant that had invented it 4. A second end of drinking is said to be the maintaining of friendship and kindness amongst men But this is strangely unreasonable that men should do that towards the maintaining of friendship
from the great offence guard thee warily from all such inlets those steps and approaches towards it 18. But although murder be the greatest yet it is not the onely injury that may be done to the body of our neighbour there are others which are also of a very high nature the next in degree to this is maiming him depriving him of any member or at least of the use of it and this is a very great wrong and mischief to him as we may discern by the Judgment of God himself in the case of the bond-servant who should by his Masters means loose a member Ex. 21. 26. the freedom of his whole life was thought but a reasonable recompence for it He shall let him go free saith the text for his eye Nay though it were a less considerable part if it were but a tooth which of all other may be lost with the least damage yet the same amends was to be made him ver 27. 19. But we need no other way of measuring this injury then the judgement of every man in his own case how much does every man dread the loss of a limbe so that if he be by any accident or disease in danger of it he thinks no pains or cost too much to preserve it And then how great an injustice how contrary to that great rule of doing as we would be done to is it for a man to do that to another which he so unwillingly suffers himself But if the person be poor one that must labour for his living the injury is yet greater it is such as may in effect amount to the former sin of murder for as the wise man sayes Ecclesiasticus 24. 21. The poor mans bread is his life and he that deprives them thereof is a blood-shedder And therefore he that deprives him of the means of getting his bread by disabling him from labour is surely no less guilty In the law it was permitted that to every man that had sustained such a damage by his neighbour to require the Majestrate to inflict the like on him eye for eye tooth for tooth as it is Exod. 21. 24. 20. And though unprofitable revenge be not now allowed to us Christians yet sure it is the part of every one who hath done this injury to make what satisfaction lyes in his power 't is true he cannot restore a limbe again which by the way should make men wary how they do those mischiefs which it is so impossible for them to repair but yet he may satisfie for some of the ill effects of that losse If that have brought the man to want and penury he may nay he must if he have but the least ability relieve and support him yea though it be by his own extraordinary labour for if it be a duty of us all to be eyes to the blind and feet to the lame as Job speaks much more must we be so to them whom our selves have made blind and laâ—e Therefore who ever has done this injury to any of his poor brethren let him know he is bound to do all that is possible towards the repairing of it if he do not every new suffering that the poor mans wants bring upon him becomes a new charge and accusation against him at the tribunal of the just Iudge 21. There are yet other degrees of injury to the body of our neighbour I shall mention onely two more wounds and stripes A man may wound another which though it finally cause loss neither of life nor limb is yet an endangering of both and the like may be said of stripes both of which however are very painful at the present nay perhaps very long after and pain of all temporal evils is to be accounted the greatest for it is not onely an evil in it self but it is such a one that permits us not whilest we are under it to enjoy any other good A man in pain having no taste of any the greatest delights If any man despise these as light injuries let him again ask himself how he would like it to have his own body slasht or bruised and put to pass under those painful means of cure which are many times necessary in such cases I presume there is no man would willingly undergo this from another and why then should thou offer it to him 22. The truth is this strange cruelty to others is the effect of a great pride and haughtiness of heart we look upon others with such contempt that we think it no matter how they are used we think they must bear blowes from us when in the mean time we are so tender of our selves that we cannot hear the least word of disparagement but we are all on a flame The provocations to these injuries are commonly so slight that did not this inward pride dispose us to such an angriness of humour that we take fire of every thing it were impossible we should be moved by them Nay some are advanced to such a wantonness of cruelty that without any provocation at all in coole blood as they say they can thus wrong their poor brethren and make it part of their pastime and recreation to cause pain to others Thus some tyrannous humours take such a pleasure in tormenting those under their power that they are glad when they can but find a pretence to punish them and then do it without all moderation and others will set men together by the ears only that they may have the sport of seeing the scuffle like the old Romans that made it one of their publick sports to see men kill one anoâ—her and sure we have as little Christianity as they if we can take delight in such spectacles 23. This savageness and cruelty of mind is so unbecoming the nature of a man that he is not a lowed to use it even to his beast how intollerable is it then towards those that are of the same nature and which is more are heires of the same eternal hopes with us They that shall thus transgreâ—s against their neighbours in any of the foregoing particulars or what ever else is hurtfnl to the body are unjust persons want even this lowest sort of justice the negative to their neighbours in respect of their bodies 24. Neither can any man excuse himself by saying what he has done was onely in return of some injury offered him by the other for suppose it be so that he have indeed received some considerable wrong yet cannot he be his own revenger without injury to that man who is not by being thine enemy become thy vassal or slave to do with what thou list thou hast never the more right of dominion over him because he hath done thee wrong and therefore if thou hadst no power over his body before 't is certain thou hast none now and therefore thou art not onely uncharitable which yet were sin enough to damn thee but unjust in every act of violence thou
that the God of all purity should vouchsafe to unite himself to so polluted a wretch O my God suffer me no more I beseech thee to turn thy grace into wantonness to make thy mercy an occasion of security but let this unspeakable love of thine constrain me to obedience that since my blessed Lord hath died for me I may no longer live unto my self but to him O Lord I know there is no concord between Christ and Belial therefore since he hath now been pleased to enter my heart O let me never permit any lust to chace him thence but let him that hath so dearly bought me still keep possession of me and let nothing ever take me out of his hand To this end be thou graciously pleased to watch over me and defend me from all assaults of my spiritual enemies but especially deliver me from my self from the treachery of my own heart which is too willing to yield it self a prey And where thou seest I am either by nature or custome most weak there do thou I beseech thee magnify thy power in my preservation Here name thy most dangerous temptations And Lord let my Saviours sufferings for my sins and the vowes I have now made against them never depart from my mind but let the remembrance of the one enable me to perform the other that I may never make truce with those lusts which nailed his hands pierced his side and made his Soul heavy to the death But that having now a new listed my self under his banner I may fight manfully and follow the Captain of my Salvation even through a Sea of blood Lord lift up my hands that hang down and my feeble knees that I faint not in this warfare O be thou my strength who am not able of my self to struggle with the slightest temptations How often have I turned my back in the day of battel How many of these sacramental vowes have I violated And Lord I have still the saâ—e unconstant deceitful heart to betray me to the breach of this O thou who art Yea and Amen in whom there is no shadow of change communicate to me I beseech thee such a stability of mind that I may no more thus start aside like a broken bow but that having my heart whole with thee I may continue stedfast in thy Covenant That not one good purpose which thy Spirit hath raised in me this day may vanish as so many have formerly done but that they may bring fâ—rth fruit unto life eternal Grant this O merciful Father through the merits and Mediation of my Crucified Saviour A Prayer of Intercession to be used either before or after the receiving of the Sacrament O MOST Gracious Lord who so tenderly lovedst mankind as to give thy dear Son out of thy bosom to become a propitiation for the sins of the whole world grant that the effect of this Redemption may be as Universal as the design of it that it may be to the Salvation of all O let no person by impenitence and wilful sin forfeit his part in it but by the power of thy grace bring all even the most obstinate sinners to Repentance Inlighten all that sit in darkness all Jewes Turks Infidels and Hereticks take from them all blindness hardness of heart and contempt of thy Word and so fetch them home blessed Lord unto thy fold that they may be saved among the number of the true Israelites And for all those upon whom the Name of thy Son is called grant O Lord that their conversations may be such as becometh the Gospel of Christ that his Name be no longer Blasphemed among the Heathen through us O blessed Lord how long shall Christendom continue the vilest part of the world a sink of all those abominable pollutions which even Barbarians detest O let not our profession and our practice be alwayes at so wide a distance Let not the Disciples of the Holy and Immaculate Jesus be of all others the most profane and impure Let not the subjects of the Prince of Peace be of all others the most contentious and bloody but make us Christians indeed as well as in name that we may walk worthy of that Holy Vocation wherewith we are called and may all with one mind and one mouth glorify thee the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Have mercy on this languishing Church look down from Heaven the Habitation of thy Holiness and of thy glory where is thy Zeal and thy strength the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies towards us Are they restrained Be not wroth very sore O Lord neither remember iniquity for ever but though our backslidings are many and we have grievously rebelled yet according to all thy goodness let thy anger thy sury be turned away cause thy face to shine upon thy Sanctuary which is desolate for the Lords sake and so separate between us and our sins that they may no longer separate between us our God Save and defend all Christian Kings Princes Governours especially those to whom we owe subjection plead thou their cause O Lord against those that strive with them and fight thou against those that fight against them and so guide and assist them in the discharge of that office whereunto thou hast appointed them that under them we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty Bless them that wait at thine Altar open thou their lips that their mouth may shew forth thy praise O let not the lights of the world be put under bushels but place them in their candlesticks that they may give light to all that are in the house Let not Jeroboams Priests profane thy service but let the seed of Aaron still minister before thee And O thou Father of mercies and God of all comfort succour and relieve all that are in affliction deliver the out-cast and poor help them to right that suffer wrong let the sorrowful sighing of the prisoners come before thee and according to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to dye grant ease to those that are in pain supplies to those that suffer want give to all presumptuous sinners a sense of their sins and to all dispaâ—ring a sight of thy mercies and do thou O Lord for every one abundantly above what they can ask or think Forgive my enemies persecutors and slanderers and turn their hearts Powre down thy blessings on all my friends and benefactors all who have commended themselves to my Prayer Here thou maist name particular persons And grant O merciful father that through this blood of the crosse we may all be presented pure and unblameable and unreprovable in thy sight That so we may be admitted into that place of purity where no unclean thing can enter there to sing eternal praises to Father Son and holy Ghost for ever A Prayer in times of common Persecution O BLESSED Saviour who hast made the crosse the badg of thy Disciples