prepossessed with the Word of Christ dwelling riâ—hly in you in all wisdom that is not only richly but rightly and in the true sense and meaning of it there may be no room for the contradictions of subtile and seducing men but such a resolute retaining of the Truth of God as may render you capable however it go with us in this Land or in this World of that heart-securing promise Because thou hast kept the Word of my patience I will keep thee from the hour of tentation that is either from being in it or from being hurt by it unto which I add that which followeth Behold I come quickly hold that fast which thou hast that no man take thy Crown Revel 3.10 11. Finally Remember that the Word of God is the food wherewith all Saints are fed both Men and Angels for even the Angels desire and stoop low to look into it 1 Pet. 1.12 and a Table is as it were spread for them in the Church by which the manifold wisdom of God is known unto them Take therefore every day some part of this heavenly Manna this Angels food to support you in the Wilderness of this World till you come to eat it new as our Saviour saith of the Sacrament that is in a new and glorious manner to partake in the life that is held out in it in the heavenly Canaan CHAP. II. Instructions for a profitable Receiving of the Lords Supper I Now come to the second thing that is Plain Instructions for a reverent and profitable receiving of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper It may perhaps seem much to some that I should be so sollicitous about this Ordinance and therefore for their satisfaction and the confirmation of the duty of Sacrament-preparation I shall give account of it in the ensuing reasons First Preparation to the Lords Supper is to be stood upon because it is very needful and suitable to the care of the Church of God in ancient and purer times that they who have not at all as yet received that Sacrament should give an account of their knowledge and faith before they receive it for though a necessary fundamental and more remote right thereunto be presupposed in their Baptism yet because they themselves were then uncapable of making any promise and profession in their own persons therefore their clear full and next right to partake in the Lords Supper ariseth from their declaration with their own mouths of their knowledge of consent unto and true purpose to perform what their Baptism bindeth them unto or was then promised by others in their behalf Without this though I grant it may be in several wayes required and performed how shall their fitness for this Ordinance we speak of be discerned or the Church whereof they are Members and with which they are to communicate be so well satisfied But in this it being learnedly and largely spoken to by others I shall not need to move any further This only I add that for the help of the weaker sort of those of whom I here speak to give a reason of their faith and fitness for the Lord Table I have composed these ensuing Directions Secondly Another reason may be taken from the weight that the Scripture lays on this work of Sacrament-preparation in 1 Cor. 11.27 28 29 30. Where may be noted first a precise Precept for Examination Let a man examine and so and not otherwise let him eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup which shews that a special distinct Preparation is required for that Bread and that Cup that is that distinct Ordinance Secondly This command is charged upon the Conscience by laying before the Unworthy Communicant two heart-affecting and affrighting things 1. On the one side the greatest sin and the most horrible guilt For whosoever shall eat this Bread and drink this Cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the Body and Bloud of the Lord. How high is that Lord How dreadful therefore is that Guilt 2. On the other side there 's the greatest danger and saddest doom For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself not discerning the Lords Body that is eternal damnation without repentance and temporal judgement though that be prevented For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep Thus is that great Precept of Examination before Sacrament-participation environed as it were on both hands that it may be more effectually guarded against all gain-sayers urged on all Communicants and observed by all Christians to strike into their hearts a reverence of that Ordinance Here I do not deny but there are the same things for substance set before us in regard of the hearing of the Word whilest it is said He that believeth not shall be damned Mar. 16.16 and he that heareth and lets it slip shall not escape Heb. 2.1 2 3. and therefore People had need not only to hear but to take heed how they hear and prepare for it Eccles 5.1 But yet I do not find that so much is spoken all at once and so fully spoken and so fearfully spoken concerning mis-hearing only as concerning this mis-receiving the reason whereof may be as I humbly conceive because in unworthy partaking of the Lords Supper there is a cumulative abuse or a double sin that is not only the Sacrament is abused but that Word of God also is contemned which makes it a Sacrament as also because the Body and Bloud of Christ though offered also in the Word yet are not in such a manner presented as in the Lords Supper as will further appear in the next reason Mean while to close up this Christians may consider that when God is pleas'd to speak more plainly precisely distinctly more fully and dreadfully then he justly expects that what he saith should affect us more and be of more effect with us Read Jer. 25.30 Amos 3.6.8 Deut. 1.42 43. with Numb 14.41 to the end Thirdly A serious Preparation proper to the Sacrament of the Body and Bloud of our Lord Jesus Christ is the rather urged because the same thing that is Christ with all his benefits is offered unto us in a different way in the Word and Sacrament which makes it a distinct Ordinance and so imposeth a peculiar preparation for it which I do not at all speak to set one Ordinance of God against another or to lessen the reverence of the Word Preached which is that great Ordinance of God whereby men are converted and sayed or to give way to an unprepared coming to the Word which I fear is the fault of many who seem to come with high reverence to the Sacrament but what I say is only to put Christians in mind that every distinct Ordinance of God is to have its due and distinct respect and therefore that there is some other and further good frame of heart to be endeavoured when the Sacrament is to
of God with power and so that person in and by whom that which God had promised before in the holy Scripture was fulfilled and that 's it which makes the mercies of David sure mercies We find also a yea rather put upon the Resurrection Christ being thereby a Conquerour and our Justifier Rom. 4.25 when as if Christ were not risen we were yet in our sins 1 Cor. 15.17 All this may shew of how great weight the Resurrection is in the work of our Redempâ—ion and therefore how worthy it is to have a day set a part for the rememberance of it and therein for the remembrance of the Redemption it self and of our glorious Redeemer And that it was for that reason so set apart the testimony of St. Augustine is clear who thus witnesseth The Lords-day was declared to Christians or declared to be the Christians day by the Resurrection of our Lord and from that time it began to have its Festivity or to be the Christians Festival 2. We find A divine name or denomination The first day of the week being generally agreed upon to be that day which is called the Lords-day Rev. 1.10 If we would know why it is called the Lords-day the like name given to the Sacrament of the Body and Bloud of Christ may inform us It s true it may be said to be the Lords-day because our Lord rose on it and so the Eucharist the Lords Supper because our Lord is remembred in it But besides this As we know the Sacrament to be the Lords Supper because he instituted it for the remembrance of his Passion So we have great cause to think that the first day of the week is called the Lords-day because our Lord appointed and took order to have it set apart for the remembrance of his Resurrection and our Redemption for the Lords-day doth not only imply an acting on it but an owning of it for his use even as the old Sabbath day being said to be the Sabbath day of the Lord Exod. 20.8 10. was so called because God did appropriate it to himself as the special time of his service And this is the more confirmed because the Service of God was already used among the Christians on that day instead of the Sabbath as all the ancients Doctors witness and is to be gathered besides from Act. 20.7 1 Cor. 16.2 in which places we find Christians assembling together and provision made for Collections for the Poor as on the day already known to be consecrated to God for such uses yea it is very probably conceived that since John could not be in his banishment present in body in the publick Congregation he therefore set himself to holy meditations that he might be present with them in spirit and whilest he was thus intent on Soliloquies with God as he was most fit for so he was suddenly taken with that divine rapture wherein those heavenly Revelations that the Scripture records were communicated to him In brief Nothing hath this Title Dominical in Scripture but either Christs day or Supper to shew that is taken alike in both saith a Bishop of great note Now we know that being applyed to the Supper it implies an Institution and why it should not do so also being applyed to the Day we know not 3. We find as hath been touched in that next before a divine Practice and Observation for it was observed as the noted day for Christian Assemblies and Exercises by the Apostolical Churches Act. 20.7 1 Cor. 16.2 and therefore it was ordained to be so by the Apostles for who else guided those Churches I have given order saith the Apostles for those Collections that were on that day because their meetings were on that day for publike woâ—ks of Piety and Charity Now if it were ordained by the Apostles then was it ordained by the infallible Spirit of Christ for what else guided the Apostles in their Church-constitutions I add lastly that if the Apostles directed the Churches to this day as being guided by that extraordinary and un-erring Spirit that they had then it was ordained and appointed by Christ himself for of that guiding Spirit it is that our Saviour saith He shall not speak of himself that is not of himself only without the Father and the Son but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak And again He shall receive of mine take oâ— mine and shew it unto you Joh. 16.13.14 15. So that Athanasius that excellent light in the Church of God is like to be found as right as resolute in pronouncing roundly and plainly that the Lord translated the Sabbath into the Lords-day For the confirming of which that the translation of the Sabbath from the Jewish day to the first day of the week was by the Lord himself or divine Authority I thus argue The seventh-day Sabbath from the Creation was expresly commanded the people of God in the Old-Testament therefore the people of God in the New-Testament could not desist from the Observation of that day making it a working-day and take up a new day and make it of a working-day a perpetual holy day and that in all the Churches as this day hath been still continued in the Church-Catholick I say this could not be done unless by a new command of like authority either formal or virtual that is either in express words or collected by necessary and convincing arguments and evidences And this appears because every Law bindeth till it be repealed and repealed it cannot be but by an Authority equal to that by which it was first made especially with taking another day into its place and priviledge Who could so change the Sabbath but Christ himself the Lord of the Sabbath Unto this I add for further confirmation of the divine authority of the Christian Sabbath the constant observation of the Lords-day unto this day by the Christian Church which Christian Church if it have not observed a right day that is a day appointed of God for his Sabbath every week then hath it neglected in all this time and stands guilty of not observing the fourth Commandement for that Commandement requireth as hath been proved a weekly day of Gods appointment to the end of the world That which remaineth for the closing up of this necessary part of Christianity is An Exhortation to the reverent Estimation and Observation of the Christian Sabbath From 1. The Necessity 2. The Commodity 3. The Commendation of it 4. The Threats and Judgements of God denounced and executed on profaners of the Sabbath 5. The Promises Priviledges and Blessings assured to the reverent Observers thereof 1. The Necessity of a Sabbath Wherein it might suffice to say that the only wise God who never did any thing whereof there was no need instituted in the beginning of the World and afterwards prescribed in the Law written with his own finger in full force to
hearing of thy Word heedfully the receiving of thy holy Sacrament preparedly the keeping of thy Sabbath conscionably praying to thy Majesty often and earnestly together with conversing with good company as there shall be liberty and occasion and a gaining of time to commune with our own hearts and so to think on our wayes as that we may turn our feet to Gods testimonies Thus and every other good way O our God lead us by thy good Spirit into the land of uprightness and into a state of blessedness And because it is our duty to pray for thy Church whereof we are members as wâ—ll as for our selveâ— yea and our honour also who art but dust and ashes to be admitted so to do therefore we beseech thee Do well in thy good pleasure unto Sion build thou the wals of Jerusalem Make it the study of those that are thy people to be an holy people as thou their God art an holy God Where thy Church hath rest make them careful to walk before thee in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost that so their peace may be continued or they prepared for trouble if their quiet state be altered Where thy Church is in trouble make them mindful of and able for that truly penitent humbling themselves before thee and faithful seeking unto thee whereby their peace and prosperity may be restored Strengthen in all parts their hearts and hands that stand in the just defence of Religion and Right In special manner we beseech thee to have a gracious respect to this sinful Nation with the adjoyned Dominions Enable with all eminent gifts and especially sanctifie moâ—e and more with saving grace the Kings most Excellent Majesty our Supreme and most gracious Governour and so pour forth thy Spirit upon all in higher Authority that they may with all wisdom diligence faithfulness and good success manage the great affairs of State Be pleas'd to establish and ever to preserve and stand by the two great Ordinances of Magistracy and Ministry that by the preaching of the one the power of the other and thy blessing on both Errour and Ungodliness may be restrained truth and holiness may be promoted and in that way all outward good things may be ministred Bless we humbly pray thee outwardly as thou seest meet but especially spiritually all that fear thy Name yea have mercy on them call them and put thy fear into them that yet fear thee not In special we desire thy favour in behalf of those to whom we have any relation and whom we are desired or ought to pray for more particularly this Family In singular mercy vouchsafe thy grace to any in it that yet want it and encrease thy grace in those that have it Extend thy compassion O thou that art the Father of mercy to those that be any way afflicted with sickness pain poverty injustice reproach restraint And more especially to those that suffer either in Conscience or for Conscience Give them all wisdom to see what thou intendest grace to give thee what thou expectest strength to bear what thou inflictest and in thine own way and time make them glorious by deliverance And now O Lord we return humble thanks unto thy Majesty for the mercies of this day in regard of our souls and bodies and businesses desiring that we may still make a good use of all our crosses And so craving pardon in Jesus Christ for the sins of this day for which we are here before thee to judge our selves we resign up our persons and all we have into thy gracious hands beseeching thee so to watch over us this night as that our souls may be kept from sin our bodies from sickness our goods from loss and those decreasings that we deserve And withal so to bless our Rest unto us that we may awake with cheerfulness in the morning well enabled for thy Service and the duties of our Callings the day following And all this for Jesus Christs sake in whom we beseech thee to accept these our poor and weak Prayers which we conclude with his absolutely perfect Prayer saying as he hath taught us Our Father which art in Heaven c. A shorter Prayer for the Morning MOst gracious God we do here humbly present our selves before thee to offer unto thee the Sacrifice of praise that is the fruit of our lips and to give thanks unto thy Name for the rest of the night past and the mercies of this morning We confess thou mightest justly have awakened us out of our sleep at mid-night as thou didst the Egyptians with a great cry or else have made our sleep as when thou smotest their first-born the sleep of death but we have lien down in peace and slept because thou Lord only makest us dwell in safety Truly the light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is to the eyes to behold the Sun but How excellent is thy loving kindness in causing the Sun of Righteousness to arise unto us with healing in his wings Blessed be thy Name for giving the Lord Jesus to be a light to lighten us Gentiles as well as to be the glory of thy people Israel And that we have together with him and not without him all things also We praise thee for the health of our bodies the peace of our mindes for our understanding and all the powers of our Souls for our sight and hearing and all the parts of our bodies for the liberty of our Persons the blessings of our Estate and all the comfort we enjoy in our Friends and Relations Yea for all those fatherly Corrections whereby thou hast sought to drive our foolishness far from us and to make us mend our pace in the wayes of Wisdom In special we thank thee for any well-grounded hopes we have of a better life and that Inheritance which is incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us and for which also we are preserved O Lord We are less then the least of all thy mercies and if thou lay upon us the heavyest of thy judgements we have no right to complain being men of death and such as have deserved everlasting condemnation For we brought into the world with us a corrupt nature wherein is the seed of all sin and by reason whereof in the whole course of our lives we have neglected or done negligently what thou requirest and have moreover too too carelesly rusht into those evils both in thought word and deed which thou forbiddest But since thou art a God that delightest in mercy and that hast been pleas'd out of thine infinite love to mankind to lay upon thine only Son the iniquity of us all We that are the sheep that have gone so far astray come boldly unto the Throne of Grace in his Name intreating thy Majesty that by that Lamb of
afterwards being grown up and come to discover their dispositions reading Scripture hath been laid aside Catechising shaken off Noting Sermons neglected the vain fashions of the world followed and so the upshot and conclusion is the living of a dull worldly life with little sense of Religion and losing that acquaintance with God which they seemed to have or which it was hoped they would have had The Lord open the eyes of such and Blessed be God there are divers young ones that are not such After all this I shall say and may truly say with the Apostle I write not these things to shame you or as if I thought there were not the like or greater cause of complaint in other places but I write them as to my beloved Sons and Daughters to warn you and to stir up both my self and you that it may be yet better by our making the best use we can of the little and uncertain remainder of time of our being together as Pastor and People I gladly pass from this which is displeasing to me but I thought needful for you to affect you with your estate that you might never rest till you be in a good estate And come now to the third and more comfortable thing which is matter of Praising God whereof there is much and that Not only because I hope and know that the great God without whom Ministers can do nothing are nothing hath been pleas'd to make my Ministry profitable to divers neighbouring Parishes at my first coming hither less provided for but especially for the good effect of it among you of this Congregation The same Lord of the Harvest that hath brought I may say laborious preaching into this place where there was so little so long time before hath blessed it here also so far as that I doubt not divers are gone to Heaven that have enjoyed it and are going thither who now enjoy it Not so many God knows as were to be wished but so many as that it sufficiently appeareth that God had a gracious work to do when he sent his Word hither upon the souls of poor people in this place I shall not here forget that which may confirm what I have said and be a sign of the hearty entertainment of the Gospel which is That you did so generally lovingly and earnestly desire my return unto you after I had been for some longer time absent and when I was much desired otherwhere This new Invitation I took as a second Call and a new encouragement to settle with you and therefore forsaking all other I have kept my self or rather God hath kept me only unto you to spend and be spent for you Here also I do with comfort remember your greater respect to the Lords-day more knowledge of and preparation for the Lords-Supper then is to be found in every place where the Word hath been together with some more reverence of the presence and service of God in the publike Assembly you do not use to over-run the blessing as divers that make it a common but it is a very profane custom to go away before the Blessing be pronounced but abide the whole time of divine Service Jacob said I will not let thee go from me They do well that say and resolve Lord I will not go from thee before thou blesse me But amongst and above divers other things there is great cause of blessing God for your constancy in attending Gods Word and Ordinances in the late Erroneous and Congregation-scattering times wherein so many Christians have lamentably and fearfully faln from the truth and wayes of God from whom I know you have not wanted tentations to depart with them upon the pretence of greater light and more holiness from that written Word of God which they that leave or cross and contemn have no morning-light in them and with a reverend and unfained respect whereunto the greatest godliness and holiness is ever-joyned for it is a doctrine according to godliness that is which requires true godliness and stirs up and brings men thereunto But by such tentations many have departed To that God be glory who is able to keep you and hath kept you from so falling Jude v. 24 25. I have little more to say O that I could take off some of that which I have said that is all former Complaints by seeing that done at last which hath not been done at first I mean by seeing those that have lien in ignorance become at length knowing Christians those that have been worldly minded spiritual Christians those that have been loose and given to drinking sober Christians and those who have been only sober truly godly Christians O that they that are old too like Nicodemus that dreamed of entring into his Mothers womb again might be so far awakened and enlightened as to enter as it were into the womb of the Church and know experimentally what the great mystery of Regeneration means by having Christ through the travail of the Ministery formed in them to the glory of God the sealing of the Ministry and the salvation of their pretious Souls in the day of Jesus Christ unto which they do so much hasten and for which they must prepare now or perish then And to speak yet again O that you that are younger would make conscience of remembring your Creator in the dayes of your youth and make it your business to grow in grace as you grow in years not being ever the elder the lower but the taller Christian It 's a miserable thing when a young man grows in nothing but in height or in hair O how that grows in these dissolute dayes or in strength or in wit without having the wit to grow in the knowledge and fear of God I say this is a miserable and most dangerous thing for young men may die as well as old if the Tower of Siloe fall it kills the youngest on whom it falls as well as the oldest In those lead-mines wherein many of you labour how many younger and stronger men have perished on a sudden Now if they that dye whether they be old or young do not live in Jesus while they live how shall they die in Jesus when they die and then how shall they live with him when they are dead And Is it your mind that the Lord Jesus should be in one place and you when you are dead and may die to morrow in another and that a contrary place He in glory and you in torment and that for evermore Beloved I am perswaded better things of you and pray for better things in you even things that accompany Salvation though because I would have you to hear I thus speak I shall speak but once more and I hope they that hear worst will hear me Are you sure there is an Heaven Do you believe there is an Hell Do you know the Soul is Immortal and never dieth as the
Body doth And are you further perswaded that where this never-dying Soul lodgeth and lyeth the first night after your death wheâ—her it be in Heaven or in Hell there it and you must lodge for ever I say Do you think all these things to be true Let me then beseech you to shew your selves Christians or to shew your selves Men and live not securely in that loose course walk not stubbornly in that wide way which will certainly bring to the worse place but on the contrary Strive to enter in at the straight-gate and go in that narrow way though it be against the hair I mean your own corrupt and undoing hearts by walking wherein you shall assuredly come at last to the better place and possess that everlasting life which is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. For this purpose I have written these following Directions and Admonitions as not knowing what Guides or Goads you will have unto that which is good when I am gone but the better you observe these and all other godly Instructions the more hope you may have to have more of them mean-while I leave these with you which if you have not other helps will be the more needful and if you have other helps will make them the more useful That I might be more profitable to you I have endeavoured plainness yet I confess there is not so much of it as I intended or desired for all men have not that gift of making known their mind to others in a plain and familiar way And besides that something must be yielded to more ripe Readers and in divers things the matter hath carryed me above the capacity of many of you but the better use you make of that which you do understand the sooner you will understand the rest and you being acquainted so long with my way of teaching and manner of speaking may know and find out better then others what my meaning is To conclude Remember that what our Saviour long since said to prove himself the Messiah is fulfilled to you which is this The poor have the Gospel preached to them or they are the persons that are Gospel-lized that is the Gospel is theirs with all the comforts of it but know also that this is not meant of the poor in state only but which a poor state oft is and ever should be an help unto of those that are poor in spirit that though they have lived honestly among their neighbours see themselves undone without a Saviour and therefore when they have little or nothing else or whether they have or no make sure to have Him labour you to be in the number of those that are thus spiritually poor as by the providence of God many of you are outwardly low It 's a lamentable thing when they that have little in this world shall have nothing in the world to come not so much as a drop of water to cool their tongue in that place of torment That it may not be so with you Let me beseech you to study your Souls to esteem the words of Gods mouth whether you read them or hear them more then your necessary food to account one thing necessary which is to sit at Jesus feet and hear his Word from those whom he sends to speak to you This will not hinder you from labouring for your living for the Word of Christ binds you to it but it 's necessary to know there is a more necessary labour that is to know what God would have done first and to do it after For your assistance wherein I desire you to make conscience of the holy Exercises of Religion which are here commended unto you that so you may be furnished for bringing forth the fruits of godliness in your whole conversation Consider what I have said and the Lord give you understanding in all things and so bless unto you these and all other Instructions that you may thrive in knowledge grow in grace and persevere in faith and obedience that I may rejoyce in you and you in me in the day of the Lord Jesus Unto whom I commend you and to the Word of his Grace which is able to build you up and to give you an Inheritance among all them that are sanctified And so remain Your intirely-well-wishing Pastor willing to spend and be spent and now almost spent with and for you William Thomas The EPISTLE TO THE CHRISTIAN READER Dear Christians ALbeit the ensuing Instructions were purposely framed for my own Charge yet finding them to grow under my hand to a more full Treatise then was at first in my thoughts and that now they are like to come into many hands I conceive it needful to say something by way of Preface that what I have written may be more useful to any that shall think fit to read it That which I have to say concerneth the matter handled and the manner of writing The matter is wholly practical save that necessity hath compelled me for the establishing of practical Truths to mixe here and there that which is something controversal All as you may see is referred unto two heads that is Christian and Family-duties Of each sort there are four I shall before-hand give you a tast of them all The first of the first sort is the reading of the Scriptures which may well be put in the first place because the written Word is not only the Foundation of our Faith and the well-spring of saving wisdom but also the ground of Godliness the guide of Practise and a divine Directory for the performance of every good duty whereby not only the Minister and Man of God but the People of God the Sons and Daughters of the Lord God Almighty are educated unto and throughly furnished for every good work For the Scriptures are composed not as the writings of Heathens for vain-glory but for mens Salvation and the Spirit of God hath written them in a plain language that all may easily see what is said at least as far as sufficeth for the guiding of their faith and carriage and the safety of their souls and that no simple men as Chrysostom speaks might make this excuse that the Scriptures are hard for though there be difficulties therein to take down mens pride yet there is enough so plain that not only Gods workman that is the Minister but any workman may see the way to Heaven if he have eyes to see it for to see requires sight as well as light In the next place there is more particular Instructions given concerning the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and that not without need For where Salvation lies at the one end and Damnation at the other there 's great need of Direction that where we seek for the better of these we may not find the worse In the handling of this Subject I have been constrained unto a
moment upon Ecclesiastical constitution I wonder what company of men may or will assume so much to themselves as to appoint a day in their own devised distance and impose it to be observed on the whole Community of Christians And if there be not in all the Christian world the same set day how will the honour of God be diminished which by the meeting of all the people of God together to do homage to him at one and the same time is so remarkably heightened 3. If there must be a weekly day of Gods own Institution whether there be any other day of the week that can lay so good a claim to that sacred Institution and that hath such a divine Character put upon it as the first day of the week on which our Saviour rested from all his work and compleated the Redemption of Man-kind in his glorious Resurrection on which our great Lord hath set his own Name and that recorded in Scripture wherein also the holy Observation thereof is presented in Christian meetings and such acts and exercises as suit with the solemn time of Christians assembling themselves together And which is generally confest to be an Apostolical Ptescription and so amounts to a divine Institution 4. This day being divinely instituted whether God will not be that day better served and the spiritual profit of Christians better provided for by making it an intire day of Rest holy to the Lord and to spiritual uses or by mixing our work with Gods and Play with Piety Such things as these and more weighty communications of better Writers being seriously considered will I doubt not work on those who desire to walk with God willingly and thankfully to sequester themselves from all other things to enjoy a blessed communion with their Lord every Lords-day and one day in seaven to be as it were in Heaven Thus of the first part of this little Tractate and of the Christian duties therein contained The Second part treateth of Family-duties I begin with Family-Catechising an exercise exceeding needful useful that they that are young may be acquainted with God betimes and thereby if they die sooner may be fitter for his Kingdom and fitter for his service if they live longer God would have all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth but as blind Pastors and People so blind Housholders and Housholds fill hell And mean-while make the World much worse then else it would be For Families are the original of all other greater Societies and want of Religious Education there is the cause why there are so few good servants for how shal an ignorant Son or Daughter that hath no knowledge or conscience be a good Servant And why there are so few good Wives and Husbands for how shall they be good together that were never bred up to be good asunder Yea is it not from hence that there are so many less sound or less godly Ministers namely because they have not been so trained up as young Timothy was who from a child had known the holy Scriptures It s true that sometimes Religion is in the house and yet not in the heart at least of most in the House but if it be in the heart I am sure it will be in the house Yea as there shall be occasion in every house for the grace that is in a sincere and right heart is like the oyntment of ones right hand which bewrayeth it self being ever un-satisfied unless it disperse and send abroad the sweet savour of the knowledge of Christ in every place especially the Vicinity but most of all the Family I proceed from this to the thing I principally aimed at and indeed only intended when I first set upon this work namely to set forward the Duty of Family-Prayer For though God will do much for the house of Israel and for every house in Israel yet his Will is to be sought that he may do it for them Heaven is a rich storehouse and we have a Joseph there that is willing to nourish us lest we and our houshold and all that we have come to poverty yet it s necessary for us to go thither with our suits and supplications as the sons of Jacob went into Egypt with their sacks that so opening our mouths wide the Lord Jesus may fill them Ther 's treasure enough in God's House for us and for our houses but when God hath put a Key into our hand that is Prayer to open the door we must either turn the Key or not expect the Treasure men lust and have not labour and have not fight and scramble for the world and yet they have not or have not in mercy Hos. 13.11 because they ask not Now because some weak Christians may say with Jeremy Behold I cannot speak I cannot pray for I am a child therefore I thought it would be profitable for their help and education as it were to the duty of Prayer to put some Prayers into their hands though it be God only that must put a spirit of Prayer into their hearts This is a course that heretofore hath found acceptance but now it needs an Apology considering that in late times Forms have been so much out of request that God's external Ordinances and holy Institutions of one kind and another have passed and suffered reproach and that with divers of better report heretofore but None but God knows who are his under the contemptible name of Forms of Religion too low for Christians of the upper Form Now if any yet there be that count themselves above Ordinances I must leave them as far above my persuasions But as for modest Christians who howsoever they may be somewhat doubtful about the use of Forms of Prayer yet are teachable and capable of satisfaction I shall endevour to give it them And therefore I willingly acknowledg and would have both those of my own Charge and other Christians to know that such Forms are not so properly intended for grown and exercised Christians albeit they being humble will know they may receive help and improvement from them but they are composed for young Beginners and for them also not to tie them up but to train them up as they use to do little Children to go first by a Form that leaving the form which was a great help at first they may go at length on their own legs without leaning on such Supports Blessed Bradford that high and humble Martyr when he was in Prison wrote a prayer for his Mother that she might learn how to pray for him and desired her to get it by heart and to say it dayly and he wrote another for all her house to make use of in their Evening Prayer Unto which I add that although poor and low yea the lowest Christians may and should take more liberty in private between God and themselves and not be
another place If thou wouldest know how great advantage ariseth from divine Scripture then diligently examine what a vast difference there is in thy heart and soul when thou standest in the Church and when thou art at a Play or standest in the Theatre It s the same soul and yet hâ—w well is it affected in the one place and how much corrupted in the other I am the more willing to recite these things that Christians may see in these sad dayes wherein so many slight Scriptures what a reverent and honourable account there was of them yea and of the reading of them by the most eminent men in ancient times Fourthly The examples of Gods servants recorded and recommended in Scripture is a reason of reading Scripture for we may read their piety in the reading of it the Eunuch a man of so great authority under the Queen of Aethiopia and that had the charge of all her treasure yet had another treasure for sitting in his Charet he read the Prophet I saith something no doubt he understood and read that he might understand more The noble Beroeans are commended for searching the Scriptures and how shall Christians when they have heard a Sermon search the Scriptures best but by taking a Bible into their hands and reading them there How shall a thing be searched that is not viewed Unto which we may add the example of Timothy from a chila saith Paul thou hast known the holy Scriptures which knowing was in all probability by Reading as one special means Still the Scripture hath been dear to Gods dear children as being accounted better then gold or silver though never so much better then thousands Psal. 119.72 Sweeter then Honey though never so good and which drops of it self from the Honey-comb Psal. 19.10 more valuable then their food yea then their necessary food Job 23.12 See what a Reader Joshua was though a Prince Josh. 8.34 35. And amongst us Christians heretofore though now that first love be lamentably lost were inquisitive how much they should read every day that so the Scriptures might be read over in a year which shewed they were in the way to be truly good because the Scriptures make wise to Salvation and if they did read them with reverence and delight that shewed them to be good already 〈◊〉 being used as a good reason to prove the Scriptures are the Word of God because there was never any Book that had wisdom in it but natural wise men liked it unless it were Gods Book or Books framed out of that which shews that none can like the Word of God but by the Spirit 〈…〉 and that they that like it have that Spirit yea 〈…〉 it a clearer sign of grace to delight in reading 〈…〉 in hearing Sermons viz. in this respect 〈…〉 â—ermons there is a mixture of humane sufficiency and 〈◊〉 it is not so easily discerned whether that which draws the ear and heart of the Hearer be Gods Word or mans wit but to read and to be satisfied as it were with marrow and fatness with the pure Word of God who though he condescends to Readers weakness yet never condescends to their wantonness this shews a man or woman to be much after Gods heart Fifthly The efficacy of Scripture read is an effectual argument for the reading of Scripture Famous is the story of Austin whose conversion was wrought or at least compleated in this way for he on a time full of grief and lifting up his heart to God saying How long Lord How long wilt thou be angry with me Why shall not this hour put an end to my fâ—lthiness at length he heard a voyce as from Heaven calling to him in these words Take up and read take up and read Thereupon he took the Book opened it and read in thâ—t Chapter which he first cast his eye upon these words Not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to satisfie the lusts thereof and then read no further nor was there saith he any need for as he had made an end of reading that sentence all his doubts and darknesse did as by a light cast into and clearing up his heart suddenly vanish away Upon this occasion he remembred and relates the story of Antonius who happening to read some part of the Gospel was admonished that what he read was spoken to him and it was this Go sell that thou hast and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come and follow me and upon this he was forthwith converted Aug. confess lib. 8. cap. 12 But we need not go further then Scripture to be perswaded of the power of Scripture being reverently read Upon the reading of the Law by Shaphan the Scribe Josiah rent his clothes and his tender heart was much humbled for his ear affected his heart and so may their eyes that read it themselves Yea in so bad a time as that was wherein Jeremiah lived yet the Princes hearing the words of the Lord read by Baruck were afraid both one and other And after they were come out of the captivity we find that all the people wept when they heard the words of the Law It 's true the sense was given and they were made to understand the reading but that hinders not the business in hand but sheweth the power of the Word when it is read with understanding and that the better it is understood the more powerful it is Now if the Word so work upon the heart when it is read by others why may not the same effect be wrought when a man reads it himself yea rather then because he may read it over and over again and hath more time to ponder upon it Hereunto we may add that when Christians heard that read which the Apostles decreed for the Churches resolution they rejoyced for the consolation And O how many in our dayes dwelling in the dust and in a most dejected condition have found themselves strangely revived by reading some place of Scripture which the hand of Providence hath directed them unto And what did the Martyrs in Queen Maries dayes for their mutual comfort but write over and over in their Letters those Scriptures that made most for consolation and constancy that by the reading of them they might hold up and hold out in their honourable but hard condition Sixthly It makes much for reading and studying Scripture that it is Gods way to blessedness for Blessed is he whose delight is in the Law of God and that doth meditate in his Law day and night Yea Blessed is he that readeth It 's true it is not only said Blessed is he that readeth but also they that hear and keep the words of that Prophesie but yet the reading is named and hath a part in the
be received then when the Word only is to be heard and that because that I may come to the matter I intend Christ with all his benefits is offered in the Sacrament very particularly or singularly and very plainly and sensibly First There is a peculiar particularity or particular dealing and distribution in Sacrament-administration In preaching we speak generally yet comprehending particular persons but not singling them out whereas in the Sacrament Christ is offered personally that is to particular persons and is put as it were Sacramentally into every ones hand Now when God deals with particular persons hand to hand offering them so great a gift as Christ is there is therefore more reason of reverence and of care that such a gift from such a giver be not taken with unwashen hands and hearts We find that when Joseph and Esther were to appear personally before Kings he shaved himself and changed his rayment and she put on her royal Apparel And shall we make our personal approach to God without some special testimony of the low thoughts we have of our selves and the high thoughts we have of Him Well may it then be said Offer it now to thy Governour When that poor woman that was heal'd of her bloudy issue was hid amongst a great company it was well enough but when she saw she was not hid but singled out to look Jesus Christ in the face then she came trembling and falling down before him Much cause have we to do the like considering what we are and what Christ is from whose hands as it were though by the Ministry of mean men we come each of us to take into our own hands things of so high a nature Secondly In the Sacrament Christ is offered more plainly and sensibly then in the Word though in the substance both Ordinances agree Indeed in the sound of the Gospel Christ appears and is set forth to the sense of hearing by faithful Teachers very evidently and as it were to the eye but not properly to the eye as in the Sacrament for when Paul tels the Galatians that Christ was set forth before their eyes his meaning is only this that Jesus Christ was clearly held forth to them by his Preaching as that is which is set before mens eyes which shews that things exposed to the eye are most evident and most operative for it is the eye that in a more special manner affects the heart Whence it is that Moses makes this a great argument to move the people to obedience that he did not speak to them that had not seen but to such as had seen the great acts of the Lord Deut. 11.2.7 Now God offering himself to us in the Sacrament in a more plain and familiar way setting us as it were at his Table and setting before our eyes all the good things of his House this ministreth an argument of more abundant reverence for Whence was it that Moses and Joshua were commanded to put off their shoos from off their feet Exod. 3.5 Josh. 5.15 but only because God shewed himself and set himself before their eyes in a more plain and perceptible manner then at other times Unto which may be added that other command given to Moses when the Law was to be delivered Go unto the People and sanctifie them to day and to morrow and let them wash their clothes for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the People Exod 19 10 11. See 2 Chron. 7.3 When they saw the fire they bowed themselves c. But before I let this pass I have two things to subjoin that I may not be mis-understood First When I say that Christ doth in a special manner appear in the Sacrament to our senses so that we may be said in a sort to see him touch him and taste him and that therefore he expects from us an answerable preparation I do not here separate the Word and the Sacrament but take in the Word with it and the Sacrament as an appendix and an additional Ordinance to it and that such an Ordinance as hath its dignity working and being in and from the Word of Institution and Promise For what 's the Seal without the Writing But as affixed to it it is of much value The pressing therefore of special Sacrament-preparation no way derogates from the Word but rather heightens the estimation of it inasmuch as the Sacrament is founded on it And yet this dependance of the Sacrament on the Word hinders not the truth of that which Calvin affirms and confirms out of Austin which is that the Sacraments have this peculiar to them above the Word that they do represent unto us to the life the promises of God even as if they were pictured in a Table before our eyes Secondly When I plead for Sacrament-reverence I am far from allowing any thing which sheltering it self under the head of an high estimation of this Ordinance ariseth from or tendeth to Superstition or any way countenanceth or cometh near unto the idolatrous worship of the Papists wherewith they deifie and defile the Sacrament All that I move for is a reverent carriage of the body an aweful frame of heart and a knowing and affectionate preparation suited and fitted to this Ordinance Fourthly The judgment of the Church of God in all ages perswades to a special care and consideration about this Ordinance scarce any Christian Church in the world in any age since Christ as a learned man observes that hath not impaled it In the ancient Church there was much strictness used and such sent away when the Communion was to be administred who had committed notorious sins and not sufficiently testified their repentance And when the Minister was about to reach out the Sacrament of the Lords Supper to the people he cryed with a lowd voyce Holy things to holy persons Accordingly our own Church ever since the Reformation hath provided that open and notorious livers should not presume to come to the Lords Table till their open declaring of their true repentance and amendment And if malice and hatred were perceived to reign betwixt any persons they were not to be suffered to partake of the Lords Table till it was known they were reconciled Thus it was formerly and of late further care hath been taken for the preventing of Sacrament-profanation and that Jesus Christ might have wise and holy Guests at his Table though Satan the Arch-Enemy of Reformation hath used all his art to pervert or frustrate such endeavours whom we hope God will out-work in his good time Now howsoever the prescripts and practise of the most eminent men in the Church of God be not a Rule to any man yet they shew what the judgment of discretion was about this Ordinance in their time which it is reasonably expected should so far prevail as to impose a modesty upon others that differ from
wisely considering gives this account of it Even ignorant and profane till convicted and excommunicate not only de jure but de facto have a right for that not keeping company with fornicators covetous c. 1 Cor. 5.11 is intended no otherwise but upon a sentence and judgement fore-going afore which they might for its unreasonable a punishment should be inflicted before a judgment Thus he 3. Neither is he that hath committed a notorious act before the Sacrament excommunicate de jure for it is not just to put him under so dreadful a sentence before tryal be made whether he will obstinately persist in his sin or no which there is no time for supposing the crime to be committed but a little before the Sacrament Now if this be not justly fastened upon scandalous offenders that they are presently excommunciate de jure then so much is yielded as that some Church-members may be secluded at this or that time from the Sacrament of the Lords Supper which serves to confirm what I intended to shew which is that it is agreed upon on all hands that there may be a restraint in Sacrament-admission notwithstanding Church-membership in case of gross ignorance and notorious scandal And that 's all I aim at it being not in my thoughts to press such a strictness as will hinder access to the Sacrament in its just extent but only to repress such profuse concessions as tend to the abuse of that Ordinance and the danger and discomfort both of Receivers and Admitters I have enlarged thus far much beyond my first purpose partly to clear my way to that which followeth and partly to make tryal being necessitated thereunto by the process of this discourse whether my weak thoughts might contribute any thing to a right sense in this much-debated argument It 's high time now to mind my intended business which is to apply my self to those that are babes in Christ unto whom I shall offer in the most plain way that is in a way of Catechism some Sacrament-instructions And therein shall speak something more generally to acquaint them with the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ and then proceed to such things as do more particularly and immediately concern the Sacrament of the Lords Supper General Questions and Answers for the acquainting of the unlearned with the Foundations of Religion 1. Question What is the first thing in Religion needful to be known by every Christian and especially by every Commmunicant Answer That the holy Scriptures contained in the Old and New Testament are the Word of God and a perfect rule of faith and life necessary to be known and believed of all that will be saved 1 Tim. 2.4 Joh. 5.39 20.31 2. Quest. What do the Scriptures principally teach us as more neerly concerning our Salvation Answ. Something concerning God and something concerning our selves 3. Quest. What are we to know concerning God Answ. That there is one only true and everliving God who hath made and doth govern all things in heaven and in earth 4. Quest. Is there nothing else necessary to be known concerning God Answ. Yes we are to know also that though there be but one God yet in this one God-head there are three distinct Persons the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost each of which is God and yet they are not three Gods but one God of one Substance Power and Eternity 5. Quest. What are we to know concerning our selves Answ. Something is to be known concerning our condition whilest we live in this present world and something concerning our state after death 6. Quest. Concerning our state here and namely the estate of our souls What is there more especially to be observed Answ. We should especially know and consider of our good creation miserable fall and gracious redemption 7. Quest. How was man at first created Answ. Very good for he was made after the Image of God in knowledge righteousness and true holiness 8. Quest. How comes it to pass then that men are so bad now or Whence ariseth our miserable fall Answ. From Adam's disobedience in eating the forbidden fruit whereby he cast himself and all his posterity into a state of sin and death both temporal and eternal inasmuch as in him all men sinned 9. Quest. How could they that were un-born and far from any being when Adam sinned be guilty of his sin and fall with him into so sad a state Answ. Even as Levi is said to pay Tithes in Abraham to Melchisedeâ—k though he were not born when Abraham paid them but long after because he was in the loyns of Abraham when Melchisedeck met him so may all man-kind be said to sin in Adam because they were all in his loyns when he sinned 10. Quest. But what reason can be given why it should be so Answ. Because the Covenant which God made with Adam was made with him as a common person and so it bound not him alone but took in all his posterity who being rooted and reckoned in him did therefore fall in and with him 1 Cor. 15.21 22. with Rom. 5.12 11. Quest. Man being thus faln Shew now what is to be known concerning his Redempâ—ion and restoring Answ. That when in regard of thâ— frailty of faln man Life could not be obtained by the righteousness of Works God did not leave him to perish but entred into a new Covenant of Grace for the restoring of him into an estate of righteousness and salvation by a Redeemer Rom. 3.23 24. 12. Quest. Who is the Redeemer Answ. The Lord Jesus Christ God and Man in one Person Isa. 59 20 21. Luk. 1.35 1 Tim. 2.5 3.16 13. Quest. Why must Christ our Redeemer and Mediator be Man Answ. That he might in the nature of man that had offended being himself without sin do and suffer whatsoever was necessary for the satisfaction of Gods justice and the salvation of sinful and lost man 14. Quest. Why must he be God Answ. That he might stand under the infinite wrath of God overcome death with all other enemies of our salvation and that he might give worth and efficacy to his satisfaction and obedience for the perfect purchasing and redeeming of us to himself 15. Quest. What is more particularly to be known concerning Jesus Christ our Redeemer Answ. We are to know that for the performance of the work of our Redemption he was in the fulness of time conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary that he dyed for our sins rose again for our justification that he ascended into heaven and there sitteth at the right hand of God to make intercession for us from whence he shall come at the day appointed of God to judge both the quick and the dead 16. Quest. Are all men made partakers of the saving
benefits of this Redeemer Answ. Not so because Christ and his saving benefits are applyed and received only by faith which all have not but the elect only and which they that want are condemned already because they believe not in the Name of the only begotten Son of God 17. Quest. Is there not something also to be known and believed concerning the Church Answ. Yes we are to believe that there is an holy Catholick that is Universal Church or Congregation gathered out of all quarters of the world wherein forgiveness of sin in the Name of Christ is preached communion of Saints exercised and eternal life obtained 18. Quest. Is nothing required in Christians but faith Answ. Yes we are to know also that we are bound to lead a godly life that is a life ordered according to the Word of God in righteousness and holiness without which none shall see the Lord 19. Quest. But in many things we offend all What are we therefore to mind further in regard of our sin and manifold disobedience Answ. In regard of our sinful estate naturally and our fâ—ilings continually we are further to know that Repentance is necessarily required for without that we must perish And is to be still renewed for in that way we must look for pardon and yet ever come to Christ for procuring life Joh. 5.40 Mat. 11.28 20. Quest. What are we to know concerning our estate after death Answ. That the souls of the faithful do immediately after death live with Christ in blessedness but the souls of the wicked go immediately into Hell-torments 21. Quest. And what shall become of the bodies of both Answ. There shall be a resurrection of the bodies of the just and the unjust at the last day at which time all shall appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ in their own persons to receive the things done in their bodies according to that they have done whether it be good or bad 22. Quest. What doth the Scripture declare concerning the last and everlasting disposal of the persons of men at that day Answ. As they are and as they die so they shall be disposed of hereafter The wicked therefore and such as would do nothing for Christ shall go away into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life eternal Having spoken thus far concerning the General Doctrine of Scripture and the Main Points of Religion the knowledge whereof is more necessary to Salvation I shall now proceed to speak more particularly of the Sacraments and in special of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper of which I should have made mention and inserted them in the fore-going general Instructions but that I purposely reserved them to a peculiar and larger Explication in the now ensuing Questions and Answers An help for unlearned Christians that they may not be unworthy Receivers 1. Quest. What is mans chiefest happiness and only blessedness Answ. To approach unto God in and through Jesus Christ and to partake in a near acquaintance and fellowship with him Job 22.21 2. Quest. Why should all happiness be summ'd up in the enjoyment of God Answ. If they were blessed who continually stood before Solomon how much more they who enjoy the only wise God with Jesus Christ his Son and together with him all things also which are laid up in him which we shall have here as is needful from him and shall have for ever hereafter in all fulness with him 3. Quest. Who are they that are partakers of this blessedness Answ. They whom God is pleased to choose and to take into Covenant with himself not only as persons called but as persons chosen 4. Quest. What are the means whereby we are partakers of the benefit of the Covenant of Grace for our everlasting blessedness Answ. This is done by the Ordinance of God and more especially by the Word and the Sacraments 5. Quest. What difference is there between these two Ordinances Answ. The Word is the Writing reporting and declaring and the Sacraments are the Seals confirming and assuring the benefits of the Covenant unto us 6. Quest. Shew more fully what a Sacrament is Answ. It is a special Ordinance of God signifying and setting before our eyes sealing unto our hearts and conveying into our souls through the Spirit the singular and saving benefits of the Covenant of Grace 7. Quest. What be the parts of a Sacrament Answ. The outward sign which we see and the inward grace which we do not see unless by the eye of faith As in our bodily sustenance there is the food upon the Table which we see but the strength and life which that food gives us we see not but yet feel and find it afterward 8. Quest. How many Sacraments be there Answ. No more then Christ hath appointed for Sacraments that is to say Two only Baptism and the Lords Supper 9. Quest. What is the difference between these two Answ. By Baptism there is an ingrafting into Jesus Christ and a right solemnly manifested unto the Covenant and so the whole benefit thereof is in Gods good time enjoyed by every Infant that belongs to Him and by all them that keep the vow of their Baptism By the Sacrament of the Lords Supper the same Covenant is renewed and the good things thereof are more abundantly afforded to all that are by Baptism received into Christ and his Church for their spiritual nourishment and increasing with the increases of God 10. Quest. Since there is so much good continually coming in by the Sacrament of the Lords Supper What course is to be taken that we may enjoy it Answ. The course which God hath prescribed and which therefore shall certainly be blessed to make this Sacrament beneficial to us is this Let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup 1 Cor. 11.28 11. Quest. What are the things belonging to this Examination Answ. We are to be taught and to learn these two things especially What we are to receive and how we are to receive it And then to examine whether those things be in us that are in worthy Receivers of so great mysteries 12. Quest. What is it that we do receive in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Answ. We receive Bread and Wine as the outward signs and together with them if we receive as we ought the Body and Bloud of Christ as the thing signified 13. Quest. Since Christ's natural Body and Bloud are not to be looked for in the Sacrament shew more plainly what is meant when it is said We receive his Body and Bloud Answ. The meaning is that every worthy Communicant receiveth Jesus Christ with all his benefits He receiveth not only the benefits but
It 's an honor to have Patients and Clients and hearers 1 King 4.34 10.3 This address to Ministers may be 1. for counsel instruction and resolution because Gâ—d gives Pastors to feed with knowledge and understanding and people should seek the Law at their mouth Thus did the woman of Samaria when she perceived Christ was a Prophet Joh. 4.19 20. Thus were the Apostles sought when Châ—istians dissenâ—ed Act. 15.2 And thus Paul was written unto by the Corinthians 1 Cor. 7.1 2. For comfort so did the Elders of Samaria come to Elisha his house when the famine was so extream in Samaria and sate with him no doubt to hear what comfort he could give them And this is an honour to be looked upon as one of a thousand Job 33.23 as one that hath the tongue of the learned to know how to speak a word in season to the weary soul Isai. 50.4 3. For Prayer Jam. 5.15 as they did to Isaiah that he might midwife them as it were when they knew not what in the world to do nor was there any strength to bring forth This is an honour to be esteemed Masters of requests such as Ministers are or ought to be Gen. 20.7 Isa 62.6 7. Ezek. 14.14 4. In yielding obedience and being subject to them in the Lord This God expresly requireth Heb. 13.7 1 Cor. 16.16 And not to hear obediently is to despise He that despiseth you saith Christ to wit in not hearing despiseth me If Ministers speak not according to the Word nor they nor an Angel from Heaven is to be esteemed and obeyed but if they give commandements by the Lord Jesus then he that despiseth despiseth not man but God It was a great Kings great unhappiness and sin that he humbled not hâ—mself before Jeremiah the Prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord How much better did they that so obeyed the words of the Lord delivered by a man of God even when they had gathered an Army of an hundred and fourscore thousand chosen men and that to regain a Kingdom as utterly to desist fâ—om that design I grant such Messages were extraordinary but Gods Word is Gods Word still 5. In incouraging and câ—mforting them as Hezekiah did the Levites 2 Chron. 30.22 And godly men Paul Col. 4.11 This is done more particularly 1. By a Christian receiving and entertaining of them as there is occasion with gladness such receiving and holding in reputation go together Phil. 2.20 so it is said of Timothy See he be with you without fear and then let no man despise him 2. In looking to them especially in their low estate as Obadiah hid and fed the Lords Prophets 3. In standing by them when they are in suffering condition for the Church of God which when some did not Paul prayes for a pardon for it was a great sin but when Onesiphorus did it he prayes for a reward for it was a great duty and honour to Paul 6. In giving them maintenance which is expressed in Scripture by the name of Honour To honour Father and Mother is to do for them to relieve and maintain them Mar. 7.10 11 12. This ought to be an encouraging maintenance that they may be encouraged as Hezekiah speaks in the Law of the Lord i. e. in doing their duty To with-hold dues is but to be peny-wise for it makes God to shut up windows even the windows of Heaven yea it raiseth a cry which reacheth to Heaven for sure The hire of the labourer which reapeth down the Lords fields if it be kept back by fraud cryeth and the cry entreth into the eâ—rs of the Lord of Sabboth Jam. 5.4 And the return from Heaven is Ye are cursed with a curse for ye have robbed me Mal. 3.9 Here 's no room to dispute whether Tithes be due by divine right an incouraging maintenance is due by divine right and Tithes with us are that maintenance and that may suffice 7. In not receiving lightly and hastily any accusation against them 1 Tim. 5.19 They should rather be pleaded for as Michaiah was by Jehosapâ—at when a King spake against him and in that way Christians should save Ministers and ought to discharge them of a more unhandsome pleading for themselves 2 Cor. 12.11 8. In shewing a regard and doing honour to those that have deserved well of the Church of God even after their death as they buryed Jâ—hâ—iada in the City of David among the Kings because he had done good to Israel both towards God and towards his house 2 Chron. 24.16 So the old worse Prophet laid the carcass of the young better Prophet in his own grave with mourning and lamentation and gave order that himself might be buryed in the same Sepulchre concerning whom also Josiah of whom he prophesied gave this charge Let no man move his bones A convincement of this may be observed in the hypocritical honour that the Scribes and Pharisees did the dead Prophets in garnishing their Sepulchres And in others like them who commenâ—â—â—me faithful Ministers when they are dead that they may save their credit whilest they hate those like them being yet alive If any think much that so much is spoken of this argument and Ministerial advancement they may please to remember whose words they are that are recorded written in this Text Are they the words of God or are they not And withall to consider that howsoever the Lords labourers know it to be their lot to be made the filth of the world and the off-scouring of all things and therefore prepare for and submit to such a condition yet Christians Edification and Salvation is laid up in Ministers Estimation for Who will be advised by him that he thinks to be a fool or ruled by him whom he takes to be a Tyrant or one that loves to take upon him or be admonished by him whom he accounts one that affects to be a fault-finder Now if the counsel and instructions of Ministers be not reverenced nor their directions obeyed nor their admonitions regarded how shall people be edified or saved I proceed now to the next thing viz. 2. The nature and quality of this Estimation It must be in love That general precept may be applyed to this purpose Let all your things be done with charity but that in Titus comes nearer Greet them that do not only prize us but love us in the faith so did they that wept sore over Paul and kissed him both signs of love Not is it without cause that love is put in as an ingredient into the estimation of Ministers for there may be a great estimation without a gracious affection For it may arise 1. From convincement to wit of the respect due unto them in their places especially if they be men above others dignified Or 2. From contentment and satisfaction in regard of their greater
over-do their fault was to give over when they received Paul as an Angel of God even as Christ Jesus Gal. 4.14 O how far short do Ministers now come of Paul which makes us tremble to speak of these high things but yet the Gospel-Ministry being for substance common to them and him let none think it arrogance in us to mention them nor themselves discharg'd of imitating them More particularly that I may go on with the Text look on Ministers 1. As Labourers Do not think their Calling an idle Calling They are Husbandmen whose work is never ended yea Harvest-Labourers whose work is never easie yea such as labour for your souls a work of all other the hardest if it be done well and the happiest if it succeed well and to you the unhappiest if through your fault it succeed ill 2 Cor. 2.16 2. As those over you in the Lord Not as triumphing in their superiority but as trembling at their charge and rejoycing in the lowest condescentions to take you up and win you to Jesus Christ They are such as preach not themselves but Jesus Christ the Lord and themselves your servants for Jesus sake He spake reason that said There is but one servant in an house and that 's the Master for he must take care for all and take pains for all that every one may have what is fit and what is due so there is but one servant in the Congregation and that 's the Pastor who upon peril of his soul is to guard and guide the sheep and according to their several and various necessities to provide for them a painful and careful work I would Christians knew what conflicts conscientious and zealous Pastors have for their charge and how our God humbles us among them while we stand higher on our Watch-Toweâ— in beholding those horrible evils of one sort and another which we know not how to reform 2 Cor. 12.20 21. 3. As Admonishers of you and therefore suffer the words of exhâ—rtation make conscience of receiving and obeying admonition Remember that better is a poor and wise child then an old and foolish King that will no more be admonished and forget not what an high place an admonishing Abigail had in Davids heart 1 Sam. 25.32 See Prov 5.11 12 13. 29.1 In all these regards hold faithful Ministers in reputation Phil. 2.29 And that for their works sake wherein observe that he that honours any Minister for his work will honour every Minister that doth that work well though of poor parentage and presence though of meaner gifts and parts Great difference between Paul and Timothy yet he worketh the work of the Lord as I also do saith Paul therein we agree Let no man therefore despise him yea lastly though there be some failings and personal infirmities That great Luther had his faults and some of Gods servants suffered by his vehemency yet I often use to say saith Calvin Though Luther should call me Devil yet I shall give him that honour to account him an eminent servant of God It 's a great Antidote against faction to esteem Ministers for the right and proper reason that is for their works sake not for their wits sake That I may draw to a conclusion of this discourse Think not beloved Christians that it is out of an affectation of self-advancement that this estimation is thus urged we desire to speak the Apostles words with the Apostles spirit It is not that we should appear approved but that ye should do that which is honest though we be as Reprobates that is in mens account for otherwise I trust that ye shall know that we are not Reprobates It is not for our selves we plead as men and poor earthen vessels but for our Calling as Officers and that for your sakes We beseech you therefore again esteem Ministers very highly for you are concerned in it very deeply If you regard them not Remember how far the disesteem reacheth for our Saviour saith He that dâ—spiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that hath sent me He that offereth an affront to an Officer discharging his Office according to law offers an indignity to the King in whose name he executes his office and from whom he hath it And so they that offer abuse unto and put sleights upon Ministers discharging their Office according to the Gospel they offer a dishonour to him that is the Prince of the Kings of the Earth and that goes very high How is it that ye are not afraid For so far is Christ from suffering this to go unpunished that disestimation and contempt of the Ministry ends without repentance in deprivation desolation damnation 1. It is for this that people are deprived of the Gospel The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you saith our Saviour and to make that good Lo saith Paul we turn to the Gentiles And it 's a sad thing to them that know what it is to see Pauls face no more Act. 20.38 2. This ends in desolation mocking Gods Messengers dispising his words misusing his Prophets was the immediate fore-runner and reason of the Jews dismal destruction by the Chaldaeans And for the same reason worse came upon them after and is on them to this day even wrath to the utmost 1 Thess. 2.15 16. 3. This ends in that which ends not even in Damnation for How can a generation of Vipers escape the damnation of hell Mat. 23.33 yea How shall we escape though we be not such Vipers if we neglect so great salvation to wit as it is offered in the Gospel-Ministry Heb 2.3 O fear you that live under the droppings of Gods Ordinances lest by not caring for them as dispensed in Gods way the Heavens over you become Brass by taking away those over you whose doctrine drops as the rain and then the earth will be Iron your hearts will be Iron-hearts What hope of fruit without rain without husbandry or of heaven without fruit Luk. 3.8 9. But on the contrary If Ministers be esteemed for their work and for Him that sets them awork Then 1. God will be pleased for it is Christ himself that is received Luk. 10.16 and it must needs please the Father well that the Son is honoured Joh. 5.23 2. The Gospel will be continued for as the loss of first love causeth the Candlestick to be removed so where there is an estimation in love more light is vouchsafed When Philip was reverenced in Samaria Peter and John were sent after him And Christ himself went from those that were weary of him to those that waited for him the Salvation of God is sent to the Gentiles for they will hear it Act. 28.28 O ye Parents rob not your children of the light of the Gospel by your light account of it Mat. 22.5 3. As when Gods Kingdom is sleighted outward comforts are removed
blessing and sanctification was at first fixed on the seventh from the Creation because that was the day set a part to be the Lords Sabbath for that first age of the world I grant also that Gods resting is brought in as a reason of the Commandement But then the question is Wherein the force of that reason lyeth To which I say that it is not brought in as a reason of resting on that individual and precise day wherein God rested save only under this notion and consideration that it was the day at that time and for that first world appointed of God to be his Sabbath For it is not a cogent or inforcing argument We must rest one day in every week and never work more then six because God rested the last day of the week but this is a strong and convincing reasoning We must rest one day in seven perpetually and work but six because God our great Lord and Maker did only work six dayes and make the remaining day which was then the seventh in order a Sabbath holding forth that his example for our imitation I shall say this over again in some other words more fully to open my mind and the matter in hand and therefore express it thus The argument drawn from Gods Example is not for the same day that is for that very seventh wherein He rested determinately as if it reached and extended it self to no other day in the week but it is for a seventh or for the day wherein God rested as a seventh comparatively that is in relation to his six working dayes and therefore they are compared together both in the body of the Commandement where it is said Six dayes shalt thou labour but the seventh is the Sabbath and in the conclusion wherein it is not barely said God rested the seventh day but it is brought in with this In six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth that is ended his work and rested the seventh Sanctifying that day as his Sabbath for those times and therein any other seventh which Himself should appoint for his Sabbath in after-times for any other day of the week may be called the seventh day as it is set against six working dayes To conclude the reason is not for that peculiar portion of time wherein God rested as if God meant no more but to reason men into the observation of that seventh day for then the fourth Commandement is gone or else the Saturday-Sabbath is to be observed still but it is for the proportion of time that is for a weekly day or one day in a week and for the portion and particular day only according to Gods appointment which appointed time to the Jews was Saturday to us now it is the Lords day Of the Christian Sabbath-day or the Lords-day HAving spoken thus far of the Sabbath in general and in its common nature or of the Christian Sabbath as a Sabbath I come now to speak of that particular day which we call the Christian Sabbath that is the first day of the week about which this great Question ariseth Why should this day be so much stood upon when we find not in Scripture when we find not in all the New-Testament any divine Institution of it In answer unto this I shall be brief both because I have been so large already and because others have written so largely and so convincingly concerning the Lords-day and the divine Institution thereof with a full answer to the Objections made to the contrary yet it being needful to say something and other Books not coming to the hands of all I shall endeavour to give some satisfaction to Christians as to the former Proposal in the ensuing particulars Answ. 1. It hath been declared before that the proportion of time that is the observing of a Sabbath weekly or one day in seven is required of God in the fourth Commandement wherein also hath been shewed the manner how it is to be observed and that we are not to spend it as we do the six working-days in our ordinary and earthly imployments but in religious Exercises as a day of holy rest to the Lord. I mention this though it be not so proper to the question yet as pertinent to it for if it be once granted that by the Commandement of God himself one day in a week must be kept as a Sabbath it will quickly be found that the Lords-day will make the best plea for that priviledge But I go on Answ. 2. As to the portion of time and the particular day about which the question is moved to that I answer That a thing may be said to be commanded of God two wayes 1. In express words as if it should be said I require all men to observe in the time of the New-Testament the first day of the week for my Sabbath We do not say that the Lords-day is thus commanded to be observed as a Sabbath 2. By necessary collection or collation and comparing one Scripture with another and so a divine Command and Institution is divers wayes gathered and by strong arguments and consequences concluded as our Saviour proves the Resurrection and as it is proved that there was a Precept for Sacrifices before the Law and before any such Precept is found because God accepted the Sacrifice offered by Abel which shews it was not Will-worship but Word-worship that is guided by a word known to them though not revealed to us After this manner and by sound reasoning from things revealed in Scripture the divine Institution of the first day of the week for the Christian Sabbath sundry wayes appeareth Namely by these ensuing Evidences 1. A divine ground and foundation of setting apart that day in special and above all other dayes for that use and that is the divine work of raiâ—ing up the Lord Jesus from the dead As the first Sabbath had its rise from the work of Creation and Gods resting on that day as the fourth Commandement declareth so hath the New-Testament-Sabbath its rise from the work of Redemption and our Saviours rising and resting when that work was finished wherein we may be the more confirmed because the Scripture so highly extolleth our Saviours Resurrection that being the great thing which the Apostles in their Preaching were to stand upon Act. 1.22 and did stand upon and stand for Act 3 4 as that without which all Preaching and Faith is vain and the Apostles would be found false Witnesses who made it their business to publish and testifie it Declaring the promise to the Fathers to be fulfill'd in raising up Jesus again as it is written in the second Psalm Thou aâ—t my Son this day have I begotten thee that is That was the great day like the day when the Crown was set on David's head wherein notwithstanding all his humiliation in his life and death He that was made of the seed of David before was declared to be the Son
of worship on that day 2. It is more attended because a Sabbath is a day of rest and receding from worldly works that we may better apply our selves to divine Worship And though there be a necessary use of natural supports yet the fear of God wâ—ites Holiness to the Lord upon them and takes care they be so used that the Service of God may be better attended 3. It is more intended or performed with more power and vigour because our minds are or should be discharged of all those creature-cares and cogitations wherewith on other dayes on which though we leave the world a little yet we do not so take leave of it as on the Lords day our hearts use to be and that in the Worship of God encumbred and weakened yea besides this the private religious Exercises of that day both before and after the publike Service namely Meditation and Prayer make us come with better affections to it lay an ingagement upon us to stir up the grace of God in us when we are about it draw from God vertue in it and a blessing of Heaven upon it Of the third Commandement Because the Sabbath is a day appointed for the honour of God and the greatning of his Name in the publike Ordinances God is greatly to be feared in the Assembly of his Saints and to be had in reverence of all that are about him Hence it is that on the day of publik and solemn Assemblies that is on the Sabbath now the Lords day the Name of God 〈◊〉 most set up because by most and among most In the multitude of people is the Kings honour and then the multitude go to the House of God to the Temple to the Congregation wherein every one speaks of his glory Thus doth the fourth Commandement assist for the performance of the first Table 2. Of the Second Table To speak to every Commandement thereof would be too long It may suffice to say what all men may see and hear That is that on the weekly Lords day all sorts of persons are acquainted with their duty towards men by the instructions then especially delivered and are also stirred up thereunto by the Exhortations added And are or may be much furthered therein by the Repetition of Meditation and Prayer for a blessing upon such Instructions and Exhortation The fourth Commandement standeth in the middle as it were between the two Tables to be a Bond of Perfection and to link together Piety towards God and Charity towards men What is said of the Magistrate may be truly also said of the Sabbath He is and It is the Keeper of both the Tables Thus of the Commodity of the Christian Sabbath 3. The Commendation The Sabbath hath a preheminence above other dayes in regard of Gods Institution of it for each Sabbath is the Sabbath of the Lord our God and that makes it glorious in it self and hath the blessing of God annexed and assured to the observers of it And that as it maketh also for the advancement of it in it self so it giveth a reason why it should be precious to us yea the very largeness of the Law of the Sabbath and the Lords using so many words about it may shew as our weakness who need it so the weight of that Law and worth of that Day in asmuch as in a Law of Ten Words so much is said of this one Word and particular Precept It is observed out of the Hebrew Doctors That the Sabbath and the Precept against Idolatry each of these two is as weighty as all other the Commandements of the Law for confirmation whereof they add this The Sabbath is a sign between God and us for ever and that other place of Isaiah Blessed is the man that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it Aynsworth Exod. 31.13 And sure that weekly day of our solemn appearing before our God ought to be honourable in our account That is a sign and assurance that we are Gods Covenant-people and peculiar treasure for therein lies our safety our glory and our felicity Who is it that desires not to be known by his attendants that he is Kings the Servant Well may we say also that 's a blessed and glorious day that makes the observers thereof blessed yea if by keeping the Sabbath from polluting it be insinuated or described a respect to all Religion even that also makes greatly for the honour of the Sabbath that godliness in the generaâ—ity is thereby set forth because thereby so much set forward It 's very observable that Gods people reckoning up in their miseries Gods mercies do mention as the chief thereof Gods Commandements and among those Laws and Commandements single out the Sabbath speaking thus honourably of it in reference to their Fathers And madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath as if there were an eminency in that above other Laws as indeed there is in this regard because as on Fairs and Markets men are furnished with commodities of all sorts so on this day principally all spiritual good things are offered with an invitation to the buying and for the enjoying of them and that good knowledge of God is more aboundantly dispensed whereby all other Commandements are better performed O How little is God known to them to whom no Sabbath is made known or that will not be made to know any Sabbath The reason whereof is because on that day of Rest and Religion there is an opportunity offered of the freest fullest and highest Communion with God without those interruptions that we have on other days by the crowding in of our earthly occasions yea and that into the inner chamber and closet of our hearts which is the retiring room wherein God is pleased to communicate himself abundantly to the faithful soul when all worldly things and thoughts are had out and dismissed for that day yea charged and as it were conjured not to disturb the intimate society of the Lord Jesus with the soul that hath found him and fastened on him Thus of the Sabbath in general As to the Christian Sabbath a great glory is put upon it in the Scripture-title it being called the Lords day and that name and title being continued and applyed unto it to this day The Lord Jesus hath put his own Name and stamp upon it It is the day of that Lord who is the Prince of the Kings of the Earth Rev. 1.5 Of the Jews Sabbath and of our Lords day there is as St. Austin speaks one and the same Lord but now is the Lords-day prefer'd before that Sabbath as the same Father speaks by the faith of the Resurrection Unto this Resurrection day is that honour given to have this said of it Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Act. 13.33 For by his Resurrection on that day he was manifestly and mightily declared to be the only-begotten Son of God
Morning FAther of Mercies and God of all Comfort All thy works praise thee and thy Saints bless thee of that number we that are here before thee desire to be and therefore come into thy presence to acknowledge that all the good we have cometh from thee and therefore that all our praises are due unto thee Help us we beseech thee in an acceptable manner to pay this debt and to perform this duty of Thanksgiving wherein in the first place we wonder at the riches of thy free grace whereby thou hast been pleased from all Eternity to elect and choose a company of the sons and daughters of men for thine own portion fore-ordaining and appointing them to Grace here and to everlasting Glory in Heaven And we bless thee exceedingly for any testimony we have that we are in the number not only of the called which are many but of the chosen which are few We praise thee also for creating us after thine own Image and giving us life and breath for How could we have had an everlasting well-being hereafter if we had not had a being here But amongst and above all we give thee all possible thanks for that great and admirable work of Redemption wrought by the Lord Jesus Christ for the Salvation of Mankind utterly lost and undone in and by the sin of our first Parents whereupon it is come to pass that whereas at first we were made righteous now there is none righteous no not one but our Understandings are full of darkness our Consciences of deadness and defilement our Wills of perversness our Affections of distemper our Conversation of disorder yea every way we carry about with us naturally abundant matter of condemnation nor can Men or Angels help us but blessed be thy Name O God that thou hast been so pitiful and of so tender mercy as to lay help upon One that is mighty and that is able to save to the uttermost those that come unto God by him O How many be there that neither have nor hear of this mercy Great is thy goodness therefore which we do with all our hearts acknowledge that we live in thy Church and therein enjoy those lively Oracles and Ordinances wherein as all other truths necessary to Salvation are made known unto us so more especially the Doctrine and benefit of the great work of Redemption is fully revealed and freely offered and that with all powerful motives to perswade our hearts to accept of that gracious offer for our own good yet considering how many there are in the Church unto whom the Lord Jesus may say I would and ye would not we cannot but reckon it a singular favour that any grace is bestowed on any of us by the means of grace vouchsafed unto us and for any gratious change which thou hast wrought in us for it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure But besides all these our hearts are glad our glory rejoyceth and our tongues that should be our glory by setting forth thy glory do with all our hearts praise thee for the unconceiveable glory and happiness reserved in Heaven for all those who through the abundant mercy of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ are begotten again unto a lively hope through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead which assureth us that all is done and suffered which was necessary to keep us from being undone and to recover us unto a state of perfect blessedness Meanwhile we confess unto thy praise O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel how good thou art unto us even in this present evil world in that we have the benefit of our Understandings Senses and Members which divers want and of Health Liberty credit maintenance success in business recovery from sickness vouchsafed to us above many other of thy dear Servants We bless thee for preserving us in so many dangers for removing so many of our fears for granting so many of our desires and for not granting what we have desired amiss We praise thee for watching over us by thy good Providence from time to time in particular for the late mercy of the night past and the new mercy of the present morning for we are less then all thy mercies then a nights rest or a mornings refreshing yea our sin and unworthy walking before thee is such which here we freely confess unto thee as that it were just with thee that all thy favours should be turned into frowns and that thou shouldest do us hurt and consume us after thou hast done us good But with thee there is mercy that thou mayest be feared Let us have occasion to fear thee reverence thee and admire thee and to say Who is a God like unto thee how incomparably good is our God by pardoning the transgressions and continuing the comforts of such sinful and worthless creatures as we are Let it ever repent us O Lord of our ill dealing with thee but let it never repent thee of thy gratious dealing with us This day in special let thy goodness towards us appear in keeping us from any evil thing to which we shall be more inclined or more tempted and in making us ready to and able for every good word and work to which of our selves we shall be more unable indisposed and unprepared or wherein by tentation we shall be more hindred Guide us O Lord in the right way and therein Guard us let us undertake no business but what thou approvest and in that do thou bless and prosper us especially we humbly crave thy protection all the day in those works and wayes wherein there are more dangers and hazards Preserve us we beseech thee from vile and vain thoughts when we are alone from idle words when we are in company and from an empty carriage and unprofitable expence of time whether we be alone or in company And since thou hast appointed man to labour and the day to labour in Keep us we pray thee from idleness and neglect of our Callings from infidelity and depending on our labour and industry from discontent if we live hardly by it and from intemperance state-pride covetousness and worldly confidence if we thrive and prosper in it Let all our dealings through thy grace O God that art the God of all grace be just and equal without over-reaching and as there shall be occasion let us be charitable according to our ability without grudging And be pleased to set and keep our hearts in so good a frame that notwithstanding our worldly occasions We may be watchful to do and ready to receive any spiritual good and let our desire be to be in that company that will give occasion of both with the shunning not only of wicked but unprofitable Society Enable us we humbly pray thee to adorn our Profession by
providing for honest things not only in the sight of the Lord but in the sight of men Let thy fear O God who art great and terrible be upon our hearts and before our eyes all the day long that so we may presume to do nothing which it will or should grieve us to think upon at night Let there be cause rather to bless thee in the Evening as for thy goodness toward us so for some goodness in us and that the day hath not passed without using our Talents so as to bring in some advantage to our great Lord mean-while being here before thee to confess how good thou art every way unto us we would not go out of thy presence without praising thee our most merciful God for ordaining such peace for us as that we may with safety both abide at home and go abroad about all our occasions It is of thy great goodness that we are not forced to go in by-ways for fear of violent men but the high-wayes are freely occupyed and we have cause to rehearse the righteous acts of the Lord towards the Inhabitants of his Villages who now dwell without fear in such undefenced places In special we bless thee our gracious God for that Government whereby we enjoy this peace and liberty humbly beseeching thee to settle still amongst us and ever to preserve over us a religious and righteous and rightful Magistracy for our present tranquillity and felicity And ever to establish amongst us an able and faithful Ministry for the saving of our souls and our everlasting happiness in the day of the Lord Jesus for whom we bless thee in whom we enjoy and joy in thee and to whom with thee O Father and the Holy Spirit we acknowledged to be due and desire from our souls to give all Glory Majesty Dominion and Power now and evermore Amen A Family-Prayer for the Evening O Most holy and most glorious Lord God we poor and polluted creatures acknowledge our selves altogether unworthy to be admitted into thy presence so much as to confess our sins yet since thou art pleased to offer thy self unto us in Jesus Christ under the name of a Father assuring us that If we confess our sins thou art faithful and just to forgive us our sins we are therefore bold in him to come before thee confessing O Father that whereas at first we were made very good and very like God Now through our own fault and fall every one of us is shapen in Iniquity and in sin did our mother conceive us And besides this corruption of nature enough of it self to condemn us Against Thee Against thee only for there is but one Law-giver have we sinned in the whole course of our lives Justly O Lord mayest thou draw up an heavy charge against us for our sins of omission upon which our Saviour will pass his last Sentence for we cannot but acknowledge that we have left made light of and like leaking vessels let slip many Sermons Our fruits after much seed sowen have been so few that we deserve our stripes should be many unto which this other evil is added that we have often sleighted the Lords Supper either by not caring to receive it or by neglecting to prepare for it We have idled away also or profaned many Sabbaths at least we have gone heavily under the service of that day which we should call a delight And whereas heart-searching is exceeding needful for the well-ordering of our hearts and lives we confess that many examinations of our hearts and wayes for which thou hast hearkened we have neglected yea though this duty of Prayer by our selves and in our Families be so needful so beneficial and such an al-sanctifying service yet for a long time either we have been very careless and mindless of it or else careless and heartless in it But besides all these omissions and neglects of duty we do further confess that we have committed much evil and been guilty of much Rebellion against thy Majesty yielding ordinarily unto Satans temptations who never ceaseth to put fair colours upon the forbidden fruit rushing often into evil company and partaking with them in the unfruitful works of darkness and when we have been alone sadly and securely satisfying the lusts of our evil and distempered hearts especially in the evils more pleasing and sutable to our sinful natures In regard of all which and all other our many and great transgressions we deserve O most just God to be deprived of all thy blessings and to be laden with thy judgements as we have laden thee with our sins But whilest we are displeased with our selves for them and it is in our hearts desire not only to confess them but forsake them and turn to thee from them We beseech thee O Father of Mercies in the Name and for the merits of Jesus Christ to be merciful to us sinners laying every one of our sins for we are not able our selves to bear the least of them upon that Lamb of God on whom the Lord hath laid the Iniquity of us all freeing us also of thy free grace from all those evils which are either on us or due unto us for the same And that we may be hereof assured Give us we pray thee that most excellent grace of Faith without which the Word of Promise and of Pardon cannot profit that thereby receiving the forgiveness of our sins our spirits may rejoyce in God our Saviour which since we cannot do but in the Publicans way who said God be merciful to me a sinner that is in a way of repentance therefore do thou O Lord work and if any thing of godly sorrow be already wrought do thou more and more work so upon our ever too-hard-hearts as that we may remember our former evil wayes and doings that have not been good and lothe our selves in our own sight for all our iniquities Nor let us lothe our sins only and our selves for them but leave them also and settle it in our hearts after thou hast spoken peace to us not to turn again to folly And because our own resolutions are soon altered and by our own strength we cannot prevail therefore we beg of thee our God to whom power belongeth so much strength as that though sin while we aâ—e here dwell within us yet it may not have dominion over us especially let us be strong in the Lord and the power of his might for the subduing of our special sins and those Goliahs that seem to set at defiance the whole Army of the Graces of God in us Neither let it suffice us to depart from evil unless also we do good and live soberly righteously and godly in this present world And that this may be better done Good Lord make us mindful of the use of all good means of a godly life such as are the
God that hath taken away the sins of the World our many and great sins our day-sins and our night-sins may be so taken away that if they be sought they may not be found being removed from us as far as the East is from the West that so in all the sorrows of this world we may joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the atonement Make us able we pray thee by thy grace to prove that our sins are forgiven because they are forsaken and that we have right to the promises of the Tree of Life because we do thy Commandements and walk sincerely in the duties of Christianity and of our particular Callings that thereby though we cannot procure yet we may assure our happiness and in that way of thine may come to be possessed of it That we may the better perform the duties belonging to us in our several places Help us we beseech thee to take heed both of Idleness and ill Company that are Enemies to Imployment And if we do labour diligently let us shew the power of godliness in not aiming at our own advantage and self-ends Set our hearts O God in so good a frame as that we may follow our business day by day in obedience to thy Word with respect to thy glory and to the doing of good to those that we live amongst and ought to be helpful unto For these ends and purposes we beg of thee as of a God Al-sufficient to preserve us from danger by thy Providence to enable us for what we are to do by thy power and to make all we do to thrive and prosper by thy blessing without which it is in vain to rise up early to sit up late and to eat the bread of sorrows Have a gracious respect we humbly pray thee unto all thine and ours according to all thy wisdom and goodness and according to all their need and occasions Be pleas'd to look with special favour upon the Churches of the Saints in all places especially in this and the neighbour-Nations Herein Pour forth thy choysest blessings on the head and thy choisest graces into the heart of the Kings Majesty with the rest of the Royal Family Furnish those with ability and fidelity that are in Authority in the State and that watch over the souls of thy people in the Church As for our selves and all that are under authority make us ever ready to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto God the things that are Gods Let thy fear O Lord be upon our hearts all the day long that walking conscionably as in thy presence we may present our selves comfortably before thee in the Evening with the sense and feeling of thy grace in us and goodness towards us in Jesus Christ through whom we glory in thee and to whom with thee O Father and the Eternal Spirit we acknowledge to be due and desire to give all honour and glory now and evermore Amen A shorter Prayer for the Evening MOst glorious God and in Jesus Christ our most loving Fatâ—er It is of thy great mercy that we have been preserved and followed with many fatherly favours this day and that we are in so good a condition before thee to offer up this Evening Sacrifice unto thee We must needs confess and we come unto thee to confess that thy gracious dealing with us is altogether undeserved and that any evil that is or shall come upon us in this world is far less then we deserve For if we look to our beginnings we that at first were made good and like our God have by our sin in our first Parents forfeited and lost that holiness in which and that happiness unto which we were created so that thou mayest justly call us transgressors from the womb we having procured this unto our selves that we are every one of us shapen in iniquity and in sin did our mother conceive us And this corruption that over-spreads our natures so declareth and disperseth it self also in our whole carriage that as there is no day of our life wherein we do not many wayes partake in thy mercy so no day passeth over our heads wherein we do not in many things provoke thy justice In regard whereof we do not more need our daily bread for our bodies and being then a daily pardon of sin for our souls and for our well-being And blessed be thy Name O gracious God wâ—o art so far from leaving us without hope of a pardon that thou callest us unto thee and teachest us to seek it from thee as from our heavenly Father Unto thee therefore we come acknowledging O Father that we have sinned against Heaven and against Thee so that we are not worthy to be called thy children But though we forget to be towardly children yet do not thou forget to be a compassionate Father but be pleased to come forth and meet us and kiss us with the kisses of thy love Declare thy self in Jesus Christ a God reconciled unto us and that our sins and iniquities thou wilt remember no more So shall we remember thy Loves more then Wine and thou shalt put gladness into our hearts more then can possibly be had from all worldly enjoyments Nor do thou kiss us only but clothe us Take away our filthy garments which by our prodigality we have brought our selves unto and clothe us with change of rayment for as our great desire is that the righteousness of Christ which is the righteousness of God may be put upon us to shelter us from thy justice so we beg also for the clothing of the new Man that we may be meet to partake in thy mercy and may walk worthy of thee our Lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good work Give us we beseech thee that Knowledge which is the Light of the Soul that Faith which is the Life of the Soul that Love which is the Heat and holy Fire of the Soul that Holiness and Meekness which is the Beauty and Ornament of the Soul and that Hope which is the Anchor of the Soul And thus prepare us for that glorious place whither our Fore-runner is for us entred and who hath given us assurance that where He is there shall also his servant be Nor do we pray for our selves only but as in duty we are bound for thy whole Church Thy Church is thy Treasure Lord where thy peculiar treasure is there let thine heart and peculiar favour be also Cast thine Eye of compassion on those therein that are under any special affliction Yea Look O thou All-seeing and All-pitying God into all corners of the World and shew thy self the God that comforteth those that are cast down In special manner Let the Eyes of the Lord our God be alwayes on this Land and
the adjoyning Kingdoms from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year Make our gracious King a glorious Defender of the Faith Worship Wayes and Servants of Jesus Christ Let the Spirit of wisdom and the fear of the Lord rest on those Eminent Persons of his Majesties Privy Council ennoble with grace the whole Nobility Give a Spirit of Government and of Godliness to all in Authority that under his Majesty and his Magistracy we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty Let thy Ministers O Lord be clothed with righteousness and so let thy Saints shout for joy As for our selves and others that live under the light Give us grace we beseech thee to live as lights in the world holding forth the Word of Life in our life that so thy faithful Labourers may rejoyce in the day of Christ that they have not run in vain nor laboured in vain Bless we pray thee all our Friends and all we ought to pray for whether Friends or Enemies especially bless those belonging to us with spiritual blessings in heavenly things yea minister to them and us and all thine all those good things of any kind which we have or should have asked either for our selves or them And now O Lord with humble thanks for the mercies of this day we commend our selves and all we have into thy gracious hands intreating thee to preserve us from the sins and sorrows of the night and to grant us that safe and quiet rest whereby our bodies may be restored and our spirits revived for the service of the day following And that for Christs sake thine only Son and our alone Mediator and Advocate In whose Name therefore and in the confidence of whose Intercession we come unto thee and to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost three Persons and one God we render as is most due all Honour Obedience and Thanksgiving now and evermore Amen I shall only add two short Prayers for Children whereby they may be trained up to this necessary duty that so they may get much acquaintance with God by beginning betimes if they live longer and may not be without all acquaintance with God and Godliness if they die sooner A Prayer for Children for the Morning MOst high and holy God who hast set thy glory above the Heavens and yet out of the mouths of little Children yea of Sucklings hast ordained strong and powerful praise I bless and magnifie thy Name which is so excellent for that out of thine unspeakable love thou hast given to thy children and to their children Jesus Christ and together with him all things that I am born in thy Church that thou hast so provided for my bringing up that I may know of a child the holy Scriptures which are able to make me wise unto Salvation that by thee I have been holden up from the womb who have been no way able to look to my self And in particular for that thou hast kept me in safety this last night and raised me up comfortably this morning O Lord I confess I am a transgressor from the womb for who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one And though I have lived but a while in the world yet I have sinned much so that it were just with thee suddenly to seize upon me and to take me out of this world before I am prepared for a better But Lord look upon me not as I am in my self but in Jesus Christ and in and through him pardon me who am so sinful Teach me who am so ignorant Sanctifie me who am so corrupt Make me to remember thee my Creator in the dayes of my youth Help me to hide thy Word in mine heart that I may not sin against thee but may thereby even while I am young clense and amend my wayes Order my steps in thy Word that no iniquity may have dominion over me And that I may not be wanting in any duty that thou requirest of me Grant me thy grace O God that I may be subject and obedient to my Parents and Governours tractable to my Teachers diligent in my business humble and gentle in my behaviour fearful to learn of any that which is evil and careful to learn of all that which is good Be pleased O Lord to strengthen and perfect my natural parts but especially vouchsafe that as I grow in years so I may grow in grace Protect and bless me I beseech thee this day throughout that in the evening I may praise thee for thy great goodness in Christ Jesus To whom with thee O Father and God the Holy Ghost be rendred all Glory Dominion and Service now and evermore Amen A Prayer for Children for the Evening O Most wise and gracious God I acknowledge my self a simple and sinful Creature I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my Mother conceive me That foolishness which is bound in the heart of a child is fast bound in mine and that corruption which abides in all abounds in me which sadly shews it self in my backwardness and unwillingness in better things and my self-will and earnestness to walk in the wayes of mine heart and in the sight of mine eyes though for all such things thou wilt bring me to judgement Notwithstanding all this Be pleas'd O blessed Father to look upon me in thy Christ as thy child Unto me and into me let every good and saving gift come down from the Father of lights Give me so much understanding as to know my sin and judge my self for it so much repentance as to feel my sin and abhor my self for it and so much faith as to flie to Christ for pardon and power against it Lord Refuse not to give me that pardon Lord deny not to give me that power Give me grace to know thee the God of my Fathers and to serve thee with a perfect heart and a willing mind for the Lord searcheth all hearts and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts If I seek him he will be found of me but if I forsake him he will cast me off for ever Bless O God all thy people especially those whom thou hast made neer unto me more especially my Parents and those that have the care of me Make them wise and willing to do me good and me humble and careful to receive it I praise thee O thou that art the Keeper of Israel for keeping me this day Be pleas'd O Lord who doest neither slumber nor sleep this night to watch over me and to raise me with health and strength to do thee service the day following And all this for Jesus Christs sake thine only Son and my alone Saviour in whose Name I call upon thee as he hath taught me Our Father which art in Heaven c. FINIS Some Books printed