of God the benefit of whose prayers you partake consecration of the place c. 2. In such publick service applying the general praise petition c. to your own particular necessities benefits received c. Intercessions to those to whom you have more relation And in confession of sin and some other actions changing universals us our c. into me I which experience will shew you to make your prayers more affectionate and attentive excepting to those who have attained more perfection §. 132. 2. From holy places 2. 2. From holy places Choosing rather as oft as opportunity permits to offer up also your private prayers in a place that is holy and consecrated to God's name and appointed to be the house of prayer Matt. 21.13 And this not only because this place sequestred from transaction of worldly affairs hinders us from many secular disturbances and the reverence thereof makes us more considerate in our behaviour and fervent in our devotions and breeds in us as being his own house a much stronger imagination of God's presence whilst we pray But also because these places seem to have more peculiar promise of his extraordinary presence there and giving audience to our prayers and granting our requests See Exod. 20.24 2. Chron. 7.15 16. Which promises why should they not remain still in force since under the times of the Gospel the publick places of God's worship are not demolished but only multiplied And so of the presence of his Ministers the Holy Angels who are his ordinary train and attendants See 1. Cor. 11.10 Gen. 28.17.19 Psal 139.1 Gen. 4.12.14.16 Therefore hath it been the venerable custome of all Antiquity to repair to Churches to the Memorials of Martyrs and to recommend to God rather there also even their private devotions See Act. 3.1 Luk. 24.53 Act. 22.17 Luk. 18.10 §. 133. 3. From holy times 3. 3. From holy times In laying aside all your own both business and pleasures Isa 58.3.13 Using oftner and longer private devotions and begging some more special favour on those days than at other times 1. On the Lord's day the Christians Sabbath Being a type and pledge of that day to come of eternal rest and praising God in his Temple which is promised us See Heb. 4.9.10 and this seventh portion of our time being the tribute thereof which God hath set apart as for our more solemn service of him and prayers He having as a house so a day of Prayer so for a time when God gives as it were a more special audience unto them and dispenseth greater blessings 2. On the other Festivals of our Saviour Then always meditating for some little time on the action and mystery of the day When also you may advance your devotion by using imaginary composition of place and imaginary senses as if you were present at such action with such persons as in the feast of the Epiphany prostrating your self before Jesus with the wise men embracing him with Simeon c. and saw and heard the several passages thereof and imaginary addresses to our Saviour in such and such a posture saying to him what your heart will pour out As it is a day of his suffering or triumph so tuning your Soul to it in Suspirations or Hosanna's Elegies or Doxologies Using such Psalms c as were chiefly penned for these times as for the one viz. time of sorrow Psal 22. 69. 35. 38. Esa 53. altered to a speaking of them to our Saviour as Psal 22.1 Thy God thy God why hath he forsaken thee c. For the other time of joy Psal 45. 39. 72. c. Preferring to God some special petition with respect to the day See an Example in the Collects of these days 3. On the Festivals of the Saints the former leaders of our faith See Heb. 13.7 12.1 Performing the duty of an honourable Commemoration of that Saint to whose memory the day is dedicated See Luk. 1.48 Matt. 16.13 And saying and doing something in honor of them remembring the intimate communion and spiritual consanguinity you have with them so as you would do for one of near relation to you in the flesh and this not as to them dead but now living in Glory with Christ and as to those by the uncessant and most compassionate prayers of whom our fellow-members triumphant we receive continually great advantages whilst we are yet in the fight where if Dives remembred his brethren much more do they Meditating on the Life of that Saint and proposing some one thing therein for your imitation In that day beging of God some one of those graces and virtues which God had more eminently bestowed upon him See Examples in the Collects §. 134. Digr That those who more honour the Saints those friends of God that laid down their lives c. for him are by God made more partakers of the benefits of their prayers As in ancient time frequent experience hath shewed these our respects to them being only for their faithful service to him and this honouring of the servant finally redounding to the Master Matt. 10.40.42 and God not suffering as not any charity so not any honour done to his to go unrewarded 4. From holy 4 and consecrated persons presenting your Prayers to God 4. From holy persons Digr Of the Reverence to be had to Times Places Things Persons Consecrated §. 135. II. Concerning Meditation 1. Often using Meditation the greatest nourishment of Piety and Devotion And this upon some one particular subject At some set time And that time the space of an hour that you may attain some fervour in it or not less than half an hour And this time rather in the morning when your Spirits are most fresh and clear and undiscomposed This Meditation to be used then as you please as part or out of Prayer the greatest part of Meditation always being Prayers in any posture walking sitting or in bed where there is more privacy so it be toward the morning when you are free from all drowsiness 2. To make you more exact and experienced in all the particular heads of Devotion 't is recommendable to change dayly or often the subject of your Prayers imploying the most of your Prayer time upon some selected points of some one head of Meditation such as those following pag. 3. Concerning your Subject of Meditation always having some chief points upon it some for your reason others for your affections to work on whether composed by your self or borrowed from another See Introduct to a Devout Life and written down that your memory may not be burthened passing in your exercise in order from one of these to another as your thoughts multiply less or more upon them The more you collect and the fewer at one time you insist on the better And if also each point be grounded on or confirmed with some sentences of Scripture you shall find these much more to move you as being God's words than the wisest dictates of
bottome of our hearts to assist us in this our difficult and dangerous Combat which we weak and infirm creatures are to wage with the same enemy that we may manfully resist and happily overcome him thro Jesus our Lord. Amen The LITANY of all Saints O God the Father of Heaven Have mercy on us O God the Son Redeemer of the World Have c. O God the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son Have mercy on us O Sacred Trinity one God Have mercy on us Holy Mary chosen to be the Mother of God blessed among Women who art called Blessed to all Generations Pray for us O all ye holy Angels who always stand in the presence of God ready to praise and obey him and to minister for the good of men Pray for us O all ye holy Patriarchs and Prophets friends of God and lovers of Justice who with ardent desires and sighings expected the coming of the Messias and prefigured it by several Types and Prophecies Pray for us St. John Baptist the Fore-runner of the Messias and grand Exemplar of Penance Pray for us St. Joseph Husband to the Mother of God and Foster-Father of Christ Pray for us O all ye holy Apostles Evangelists and Disciples of our Lord who left all to follow him and abode with him in all temptations who were witnesses of all his actions and admitted to all his secrets Pray for us Who spread over all the earth the sound of the Gospel who were sent forth as Lambs in the midst of Wolves and being infirm and ignorant and base according to the flesh confounded the power and wisdome of the world Pray for us Who endued with power from above and strengthened by the Holy Ghost boldly professed Christ and shed your blood for him Pray for us Who rejoyced in that you were counted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus and who shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel Pray for us St. Peter Prince of the Apostles who lovedst our Saviour more than the rest and to whom our Lord at his departure committed the feeding of his Sheep Pray for us St. Paul a chosen vessel Doctor of the Gentiles who labouredst more than them all Pray for us St. N. whose holy Memory and Festival we this day commemorate Pray for us St. John the Disciple beloved above the rest to whom our Saviour at his death commended his Mother who didst vindicate the Divinity of Christ and to whom were revealed things to come even to the end of the world Pray for us O all ye holy Martyrs who living godly in this world suffered Persecution and rejoyced in the Cross of our Lord who hated your own Souls in this world and preserved them to eternal life who suffered reproached and whippings bonds and imprisonments were stoned cut in peices and sundry ways tried Pray for us Who came out of great Tribulation and washed your garments in the blood of the Lamb and serve in his Temple day and night Pray for us Who neither thirst nor hunger any more neither doth any heat light upon you who follow the Lamb wheresoever he goeth who leadeth you to the fountains of living water and hath wiped all tears from your eyes Pray for us St. Stephen the first Martyr of Christ whom full of the Holy Ghost thine enemies could not resist who prayedst for thy Persecutors Pray for us All holy Popes Bishops Priests Doctors and Confessors who being Souldiers for God did not intangle your selves with things of this world who were set over the Church of God by his Spirit Pray for us Who bore the heat and burthen of the day in the Vineyard of our Lord who watched over your flocks as those that were to give an account for their Souls who enlightened many in righteousness and now shine as lights in the Firmament and as stars in all Eternity Pray for us All holy Monks and Hermites who taking up your Cross followed Christ who not thinking that you had comprehended pressed on to that which was before you who bore chearfully the light burthen and easy yoke of our Lord Pray for us Who made your selves Eunuchs for the Kingdome of God who chastised your bodies and brought them into subjection who being dead to the world led a hidden life with Christ in God and who having put your hands to the Plow looked not back Pray for us All holy Virgins who imitating here the Purity of Angels now rejoyce in the perpetual enjoyment of your heavenly Bridegroom Pray for us All holy Virgins and Widows who with a constant purpose of Continency and Chastity offered up your bodies a living Sacrifice to God and now celebrate perpetual Nuptials with the Bridegroom Pray for us All holy Saints of God who strove to enter in at the strait gate which leadeth to life and took the Kingdome of Heaven by violence Pray for us Who thro many Tribulations and Persecutions have entred into the kingdome of heaven who first sought the Kingdome of God and its Justice who counted all things loss that ye might gain Christ Pray for us Who used this world as tho you used it not who being poor in Spirit merited the possession of the Kingdome of heaven who being meek and patient under injuries possess now the land of the living who hungred and thirsted after righteousness and are now satisfied with the pleasures of heaven who shewing mercy to your Neighbours have obtained abundant mercy who being clean in heart do see God Pray for us Who loving peace rejoyce now in the name and inheritance of the Sons of God who loved your enemies and did good to those that hated you who could do all things thro him that strengthened you Pray for us Who continued unto the end and therefore were saved who were inebriated with the plenty of God's house and satisfied with the torrent of his pleasure who dwell in the house of God and praise him for ever and ever who being secure of your own Salvation with abundant charity are solicitous for ours Pray for us JESU King of the Patriarchs and Light of the Prophets Master of the Apostles and Fortitude of the Martyrs The Sanctity of the Confessors and Purity of Virgins Pray for us Be merciful and spare us O Lord. Be merciful and hear us O Lord. From all evil Deliver us O Lord. By all thy Saints and Elect people Deliver us O Lord. By thy faithful servants who continually stand in thy presence by thy dearly beloved and friends who reign with thee in heaven Deliver us O Lord. By the holiness and intercession of all thine Elect by the death of thy Saints precious in thy sight Deliver us O Lord. We sinners beseech Thee to hear us O Lord. That thou wouldst make us partakers of the fellowship with all those that fear thee and keep thy commandments that we together with thy Saints may strive to enter in at the strait gate that beholding the conversation of
Heaven see Gal. 5.19 Eph. 5.3 Col. 3.5 2. Cor. 12.21 Some kinds of this Vncleanness being advanced above any other Sin except that in Spiritum Sanctum See 2. Pet. 2.10 Rom. 1.24 Eph. 4.18 19. Rev. 22.15 Or thirdly into morose delectation somenting first and heating our selves by it before we put it out see 1. Cor. 7.9 ver expounded by the seeond In respect of which Virginal Continency in several persons is less or more pure This Power I say seems attainable by all using the means From 1. Tim 5.11 12 Where the Apostle could not justly have blamed the Widows when some of them young for re-marrying whose Marriage he saith was out of wantonness and that they had damnation for having cast off their first faith and promise i. e. of living single and attending wholly to those charitable duties c which they had made to Christ and the Church But if God had not given them the power of observing their Vow the Apostle should have allowed their re-marrying and blamed their vowing who ordered also for the future that such young women should no more be admitted to such Vows or Duties for publick service of the Church not because they could not but ordinarily would not abstain From Matt. 19.12 where our Lord would not have recommended the like resolution and attempt in those who he saith made themselves Eunuches for the Kingdome of Heaven if he would not also be assistant to them with his Grace as he approved their purpose and design to which also they were allured by his Encomiums of that happier condition Nor would he have and that in general commended those who leave the Pleasures of Marriage for the Kingdome of God's sake that is for the better serving God in any way See 1. Cor. 7.34 35. Or those who have left their wives i. e. by mutual consent 1. Cor. 7.4 5. From 1. Cor. 7.37 where the Apostle placeth the exercise of Continency in a stedfast purpose and mastering so far their own Will Again From the Churches perpetual practice of Vows in this matter of Continency for either Sex that undertakes a Monastick life and from the ancient Churches both Oriental and Occidental their prohibiting tho not that no married Person might be admitted to Sacred Orders or that every one upon these received must separate from his Wife yet that none when single at his entring into Holy Orders I mean of Priesthood might afterwards marry Which shews the perswasion of Antiquity to be either that Continency was denied to none using the means or else that it being a special Gift only to some every one before his taking of Orders or making a Vow might certainly know not only whether he had the Gift for the present but whether he might also persevere therein to his Death for as much as concerned the Grace of God the Doner thereof its enabling him But here it is unintelligible how such assurance can arise only to some particular persons nor can any direct how such a special Gift not only for the present but the future also may be discerned Again If we consider how many both before in and after Marriage are obliged without enjoying the relief of the conjugal bed to live continently it must needs be granted that this is a Gift if not universally yet very commonly attainable and such as for some time at least may be possessed by every one For this is certain that where-ever Marriage or the Use of it is unavoidably hindred or by God himself also prohibited there also is given by Him the Power to contain Now this happens in very many Instances Before In and After Marriage §. 17. n. 3. 1. For First before Marriage there being many Ceremonies to be observed in it many surprisals of Lust seize upon Youth that are more liable to it in an unripe Age of 12 13 14. years old perhaps which for the present that way cannot be remedied who many times may not marry without the Licence of their Superiors as it happens to Youth yet under the power of their Parents to whom the Apostle allows a power in disposing them 1. Cor. 7.36 c. And it is there to be noted that he considers much more the Fathers inclination toward her single life or marriage than the Virgins And to Servants not yet made free from their Masters Besides that many other causes of delaying Marriage may intervene As when it is not permitted to any at certain times of the year set aside for Humiliation So when external impediments occurr as being in a Journy or Imprisoned or upon the Sea c. and in many other cases and these happening mostwhat in the Age too wherein Concupiscence is in its greatest strength Here if some have not the Power of Continency nor yet of the remedy Marriage how will Incontinency become a Guilt 2. Again In the State of Marriage there is a necessary power of Continency always required in respect of Concupiscence toward any Person whatsoever notwithstanding the many Temptations the World presents saving one i. e. his Wife and toward all absolutely when any sickness happens to that one Party to which we are confined or when any casual debility tho never recoverable So also in all necessary absence about worldly Affairs in Journies in being taken Captive by the Turks or others we must allow this Gift Else how can Husbands when busied abroad by Imployments Embassies Warfare c be secure of the honesty of their Wives Or how can the State which many times permits not their Wives to follow them lawfully make such a separation by which they shall necessitate them to Sin So when the Woman is menstruous or after Child-birth before she is Churched at least to those that were under Moses's Law See Lev. 18 19. 20.18 Ezech. 18.6 Which abstinence in the Birth of a Maid-child was enjoined for Eighty days almost a quarter of the year See Lev. 12.5 c. 3. And so after Marriage dissolved we must allow this Gift to all that are justly or unjustly divorced who are prohibited under pain of Adultery a second Contract all or most of them We must allow it also to the Bishops and to the Widows forenamed Add to this that of those that marry few if we examine things well do it because they want the Power of Continency but for other reasons as apears in many forbearing Marriage as long as their places or other secular respects consist not with it and presently when quit of these engaging in it And in most persons wedding after the Heat and Concupiscence of their Youth is already in the wane and declination And when we see so many without marrying at length reclaimed from former vicious Courses and becoming in a singular manner Continent we have reason to presume that God was not wanting to them in affording the like Power to them before but they rather wanting to the Grace of God and to themselves 4. Lastly Since many that certainly
change of Opinions upon the mutation and a contrary influence of the Civil State the new Opinions after a while being as universally asserted as before the other were and that amongst the Learned 3. Of the confidence and resolution that any one who since hath changed his Tenents may remember he had once in his former before the discovery of his error All which is said not as if all Opinions are equally probable and tenible or that error in most men proceeds not from a faulty ignorance and so is answerable-for as also is truth it self when taken up only on the same Grounds as others do their Errors But upon our Liability to guilt in our misperswasions therefore to excite a perpetual care and jealousy of secular Concerns and Prejudices their not corrupting our Judgment 8. Not depending on your own Judgment commonly mixed with much self-interest tho unperceived in the sence of Scriptures many times not well studied and compared by men who are of other ordinary employments since we see those who have them most common in their not submitting to Ecclesiastical Authority and direction to run into most diversity and absurdities of Opinions Often meditating therefore on these following Propositions for keeping you more steady in your obedience 1. That tho the exercise of private mens judgments in all things be allowed Yet is not its erring hereby excused in their not informing it aright or in their not performing a submission thereof to whom such submission is enjoined And that the charging Christians in general to beware of false Prophets Seducers and blind Guides doth still bind them more closely to obedience of their true Guides so long as they have sufficient evidence left them who are so Of which See n. 6. 2. That it is necessary to follow the judgment of the Church i. e. of the Ministers thereof delegated by our Lord and having his promise of perpetual assistance where universally agreeing in any thing tho this thing be contrary to your own Judgment or Reason concerning it 3. That in Churches divided 't is more safe to follow the judgment of any Church than your own opposite to all For the Contrary to these two seems a too great Presumption 4. That as it is lawful to appeal from one Teacher to another from the Inferior to the Superior so never from all after you have proposed and they disallowed your reasons to the Scriptures as you alone or with an inconsiderable party in respect of the whole do interpret them 5. That you have a charge not to contend or dispute with but to obey and submit your self to those who have the spiritual rule over you who watch for your soul and who must give account for it thus far That they have declared unto you all the Counsel of God Hos 4.4 Heb. 13.17 Act. 20.20.27.26 who were given by Christ that we should not by the slight of men be carried about with every wind of Doctrines Eph. 4.11 comp 14. who have more ability to judge and more assistance promised not to mistake To submit unto these I say as unto Christ himself See 2. Cor. 2.10 Eph. 5.22 6.7 which holds a minori ad majus whom absent they represent to you 2. Cor. 5.19 20. Knowing that the greatest difficulty of Salvation lies not in discerning whether they rightly direct but in doing what they direct you to 6. That in any disagreement of these our Ecclesiastical Superiors such our Obedience and Submission of judgment is due to those who among them have the greater and higher authority our Lord for this reason having instituted them not equipotential or independent one of another but in a due Subordination and Super-intendency that their Subjects in any their clashing may know both as to single Persons and Councils to whom they ought to adhere And they are much to be avoided who would induce an Equality and a Parity into the Clergy which inferrs a Confusion of Doctrines and Opinions And it is the same among them level'd to obey whom of them we please as to be tied to obey none at all 7. That tho all true Faith is grounded on or ultimately resolved into something which is infallible i. e. God's word whether written or not yet it is not required to a true and saving Faith that every one should know and be able to prove infallibly that that which he believeth perhaps taught him only by his Pastor or Parents who may lye is God's word The greatest Proof of which viz. that the object of his Faith is God's Word is universal Tradition which universal Tradition if it also be supposed infallible yet cannot every one be infallibly certain that the Tradition concerning the matter of his Faith hath been Vniversal which Tradition all true Believers cannot or have not leisure to examine That therefore a true and saving Faith requires not this condition that one be infallibly certain of or can demonstrate it That if it did one is no way nearer to a certainty of Truth and Faith by using his own fallible reason to find it out than by relying on a more learned man to shew it to him who perhaps may give him a much clearer evidence thereof than he himself can discover And if the fallibility in another hinders that you cannot safely rely on his Judgment the same fallibility in your self exacts that you do not rely on your own And whatever evidences whether from Divine Revelation Reason or Sense your self hath for not erring the same your spiritual Superior hath or also more 8. That the believing or practising a thing against our own Reason or Judgment abstractively taken concerning the thing i. e. when all our own Reasons concerning it tend to perswade us that such a thing is erroneous or unlawful cannot be going against our judgment or conscience absolutely or this being taken for that Reason or Judgment which is of two contrary the more prevalent in us and so long as we have some other Reason concerning the credibility of some person who declares such Doctrine not erroneous or Practice unlawful which sways us against those former Reasons we had concerning the erroneousness or unlawfulness of the thing namely this Reason that we ought upon some weighty considerations rather to follow an anothers Reason or Judgment concerning such thing than our own For here the relinquishing our Judgment in one sense is in another sense following it And he would offend against his Conscience or Judgment who judging or being perswaded that he ought to submit his Judgment to another should notwithstanding practice contrary And such perswasion also is ordinary when we know others either more wise or experienced than our selves or also such who are authorized in such matters to direct and guide us 9. That supposing only such an infallibility promised to or instated by our Lord on his Church or on our Superiors I mean those declared such n. 6. as that it shall not err in necessaries and that Salvation
may always be had in it this seems abundantly sufficient for establishing an absolute obedience unto it in all its Decisions Because in submitting to all these for which submission we have good reason so long as we ought to think these our Superiors more wise learned and holy than our selves we are secured not to err in necessaries nor to be such blind followers of the blind as that both shall fall into the ditch But in our non-submission we may err in necessaries so long as our selves can make no certain distinction between things that are or are not so And again in such non-submission where Submission is due tho we happen to retain all truths still necessary to salvation yet here in dissenting and departing from the Church or such Superiors we shall stand guilty of Schisme and Breach of her Vnity or Communion and so on this account miscarry in our Salvation 10. That if the Church succeeding the Apostles had any Authority as to stating matters of Controversy it hath in all times an equal and which lays an equal Obligation on its Subjects And that several Controversies also are such as must be decided not by the former but the present Church As this Controversy What former Counsels are to be accounted General Legal Obligatory Or What is in any point debated the Sense of Antiquity c. 11. That all the Church's new Determinations or Injunctions in what ever time passed are never done but for some seeming to-her-cogent Reason or necessity thereof Viz. Upon some error and opposition to Doctrines or Practices formerly received or to some by-her-deemed necessary consequents thereof which error permitted against the latter must by the Sequel ruine the former And thus came justly the Athanasian Creed to be larger than the Apostles And the same authority hath the Church of later Ages to add more Articles to this Creed as the Church of that age had to add these to the Apostles Creed And here note concerning such necessary Consequents That if any Article of Faith is contained in Scripture so are all the necessary Consequents thereof And then that these also when known by us to be such are all necessary to be believed tho it is not necessary that also we know them to be such Nor necessary in assenting to all things which we know the Church hath determined or decreed that we know all her Decrees or that we may not inculpably hold something otherwise than the Church doth till we know what she holds therein 12. That our Obedience to our spiritual Superiors for any decisive authority in Controversies of Religion committed and delegated to them by our Lord is not duly performed so long as done with these limitations viz. Obeying and assenting to them so far as we think or judge their Decisions agreeing with God's Word Or so far as agreeing with right i.e. with our own Reason for only what seems to us right Reason we call so For indeed he that will first judge concerning these where they judge aright and only obey for so much submits not at all to theirs but his own judgment Qui obediunt propter judicium proprium sibi non aliis obediunt Nor herein do we more observe or conform to theirs than we would do to the advice of a Friend or Servant viz. Where we think these say right Some of these precedent Propositions well digested may stand you in some stead For fixing your obedience to Spiritual Superiors and in it practising Christian Humility and a Denial in what is most your self and preventing Disputation and Scepticism in things established and lastly for enjoying much quietness of mind §. 58. 5. Industry and a Vocation 5. Industry in some Vocation i. e. 1. Serving God and being instrumental to his providence in some Imployment for supplying those necessities Spiritual Civil or Natural which God hath ordained to be conveyed to men only by the ministry of men 2. Following it without digressions into other curious or needless imployments or desire to be aliquis in omnibus And if it may be having a design of some particular good accrewing to your self or your neighbor in your labour by it to sanctify your work and excite your diligence 3. Entertaining no imployment that excludes a sufficient vacancy for your Devotions 4. Ordering still before-hand and where it is much setting down in writing your business which strengthens the performance and prevents divertisements 5. Keeping a certain and constant order in your dayly imployments as far as they are capable thereof Qui bene ordinat diem bene ordinat vitam life being only a collection and total summe of so many days 6. Taking special care of the beginning of your imployments in the morning and after meals which then begun well are easily continued but ill and vainly are not so easily changed 7. Using your recreations not before but after your imployments because you will experience that to get most of your time which is taken in hand first 8. Not doing business hastily or passionately or many at once for all these much hinder the acts of reason and judgment in the managing of them but dispatching things allway successively rather and in a certain order with a reposed Spirit and without excessive thought 9. Avoiding in all things taedium mentis for 't is some delight that keeps a man in his work nor will he persevere without it the chief remedy whereof is an admixture of some variety variety both of our imployments and in the same imployment of the postures of the body as sitting walking lying c. and of the accidental and by-entertainments of the senses as several roomes prospects being in the House in the Field in a Church c. by which the intention of the mind is much recreated and better thus to afford some content to nature than which is worse quite to desist from an holy or otherwise profitable exercise out of irksomeness 10. Keeping a strict account of your expence of two things your Time being that in which you are now to purchase Salvation in eternity And your Money or Goods all the spare thereof being the Portion of the poor and this in order to your Salvation also see Luk. 16.9 those eternal houses in this sense being also to be bought with money Often accounts for what is past helps much to prevent mis-expence for the future Edicat quid absumpserit ita fiet ut non absumat quod pudeat dicere 11. Doing all your temporal business in the name of Christ Col. 3.17.23 to the glory of God 1. Cor. 10.31 whereby all your secular actions may become as it were consecrated religious and holy duties 12. Never neglecting your vocation and duty to cover an infirmity or avoid obloquy c. But glorifying and so increasing your reward with God in serving him in your appointed station through the impotency of your nature dishonor and infamy from men Digr Neglect of publick duty not excused and made amends
more easily repair to and content himself with the second 5. In the prosecution of your designs assuredly lawful where there is no special interest of Piety going on chearfully in two cases especially 1. Where you find any strong inclinations of your will and a way much facilitated and as it were offering it self unto you For that our heart and way is thus prepared we have reason to presume in things lawful is from God 2. Where you find though against your inclination a course that is as it were necessitated to you Suppose from the power others have over you or from the indigence of your fortunes For our wills may also take counsel of the flesh and the necessity we find thwarting our desires we have reason to presume is from the ordination of God 6. Being as ready to desist especially in two cases 1. Where a thing being suggested by others yet no necessity presseth you and after having also recommended it in your Prayers there remains an aversion of your will to it 2. When there being no aversion of your will yet your desires find in the prosecution much impediment and also difficulty For this or no way Revelations being extraordinary God declares his pleasure unto you i. e. either in averting internally your will or in externally opposing your endeavors 7. Practising content and indifferency and submitting to God's appointments in any little displeasures that happen to you Not thinking any small thing below the exercise of this virtue for by this often imploying of your quietness of mind upon quotidian inconveniences it will grow stronger for greater occasions 8. Fortifying your self against discontent more especially in the beginning and newness of a misfortune or change of your condition Time and a little accustomance to a new tho worse state of life being a certain cure of all inquietude Chiefly endeavouring to acquire this indifferency also for short and long life the thing wherein we use to be the least resigned A conformity to the Divine Will being a much more acceptable Sacrifice to God where more difficulty and reluctance of Nature Which indifferency is more easily acquired by frequent cogitations and discourses of Death and converse with the sick rendring it less terrible to us being a thing more strange and surprizing because all avoid the fore-thinking of it 9. In the discontents also melancholies sadness aridities barrenness morosities disgusts desolations of the soul which in the with-drawings and absence of the Spirit the Comforter will sometimes happen to the best of men happen I say from some greater deprivation of present secular contents from the length of their sufferings and the remoteness of their reward or release but most commonly from an indisposition of the body when the Spirits after much industry are spent and grow heavy and dull or when some cold humors more abound from whence these dejections are observed to be more frequently towards the Evening these desolations being a more special time of temptations from the Evil Spirit First Not resolving or executing any thing and refusing your own counsel till such a fit be past Well considering the Cause and so neglecting and not heeding your present thoughts calling to mind former consolation and that your mind was not long since and e're long will be again of another complexion Forcing your self to pray St. James's his Advice c. 5.13 though you can little mind it Exercising some act of praise and loving God in expressions opposite to your present thinkings as Cant. 1.3 2.16 Rom. 8.35.37 the 23d 25th or some other Psalm recited Meditating on the joys to come On our Saviour and the Saints persevering in God's Service in the greatest wants of all worldly contents and joying in these wants because of a so much greater reward to come Singing some spiritual Hymn or Sonnet which singing will excite your spirits Taking up and reading the Scripture or some pious Book Repeating the Beatitudes Matt. 5. together with the woes Luk. 6. Imploying the mind about any other thing save minding it self or that which it is then doing as in some external occupations or honest recreations any way refreshing and heating your Spirits Melancholy being of a cold and dry temper Only taking heed of not turning aside to remedy it to any intemperance or other unlawful sensual delight Emptying the Soul of some parts of its sadness by communicating it to a spiritual friend who also may infuse into you some of his Comforts After such remedies used the evil not expelled patiently as always entertaining it for God's and your sins sake and making of it to contemplate your own natural we akness §. 61. Digr Of the viciousness and malignancy of Envy and that no good man is liable to this passion for he that envies another's temporal good is not yet himself weaned from the world Or spiritual doth not truly love God and the advancement every way of his glory For such will say with Moses Numb 11.29 Would God c. §. 62. 2. To your Neighbour II. Duties to our Neighbour 1. All Duties to our Neighbour more carefully to be performed amongst them to the Godly and the Members of our Saviour First JUSTICE 1. In doing no Wrong 1. Not defrauding Mark 10.19 Not detracting and defaming c. Not flattering c. 2. Such things done making restitution satisfaction c. 3. Asking forgiveness of and suing for peace to the injur'd §. 63. 2. In doing all Right 1. To those who are set over you whether Ecclesiastical or the Civil or your Domestick Governors as Parents or Masters dutiful obedience in all things Col. 3.20.22 as unto the Lord Jesus believing most certainly that it is he that governs and commands you by them Eph. 5.22 6 7. without resisting Rom. 13.2 Especially to Parents to our Spiritual Fathers our Pastors and to our Spiritual Mother the Church See p. 2. To those you are set over especially to your Family and in it as well to Servants as Children careful government provision c. as being to them in the place of the Lord Deut. 1.77 2. Chron. 19.6 Rom. 13.4 with all gravity 1. Tim. 3 4. but without rigor c. See Gentleness recommended to Superiors Levit. 25.43 Eph. 6.4.9 Col. 3.21 Sparing in Commands but diligently exacting obedience So Princes to make Laws sparingly rigidly to execute them 3. To all that you deal with honest negotiation §. 64. 1. In this 1 Not speaking an untruth 2 Not speaking a truth to deceive 3 Not concealing a truth to deceive 4 Not taking advantage of the necessities or ignorance the richness or conveniences of the Contractor 5 And to the poor shewing some indulgence Using veracity and Christian Simplicity avoiding in all things dissimulation and Hypocrisy using fidelity in not telling tales especially in not betraying secrets Ecclesiasticus 27.21.24 En la boca del discreto lo publico es secreto 2. Keeping religiously all covenants and not altered according to after accidents §. 65. Digr 1.
light as we beg it from him Digr That the abilities of the understanding and will to any good are infused from God and bestowed upon Prayer 4. Sanctifying the use of every creature to you by Prayer and by the imploring of his benediction 5. Observing in all temporal Petitions much moderation and indifferency §. 80. 4. Praise 4. 1. Praise and Confession unto him abstracted from our own particular obligations and relations to him of his excellencies 2. Contemplating praising glorifying admiring the infinite treasures of his purest holiness wisdome goodness and the rest of his attributes and benefits general to all his Creatures Mankind Christians and his Church 3. Yielding a distinct Doxology to God the Father to the Lord Jesus To the Holy Spirit running over their several benefits and offices 4. Giving always this part of Praise and Thanksgiving a due share in your devotions Knowing that God is much more delighted in our praising than in our praying unto him this being done for his glory the other for our benefit And that you have many more blessings considering your unworthiness for which to praise and thank him than wants not considering your lusts for which to petition him And that careless thanksgivings make successless requests Lastly knowing that this part of your devotions especially conduceth to the begetting and nourishing the love of God i. e. the utmost top of man's perfection in you §. 81. 5. Acts of love aspirations oblations union c. 5. Resolutions of serving him better in those duties wherein you find in your self the most and the last defects and Resignation Consecration devotement of your self and all yours eternally to his service and the making an oblation to him of all your i. e. his gifts Christian acts or sufferings of your Saviour and his sufferings and merits performed for you uniting and annihilating your self wholly into his will rejoycing wholly in him and in the joys to come with him §. 82. 6. Intercession 1. For others 6. 1. Intercession Thanksgiving c. Ps 119.136.139.158 35.13 2. Cor. 1.11 Especially for our fellow members the Saints Act. 12.5.12 2. Intercession in publick Prayers is the more effectually and also the more zealously performed if it be not only general but particular 2. Tim. 1.3 namely for such a person friend family applying the General intercessions in such publick Prayers unto them 3. Using intercessions for others not only in a short remembrance but in the same length and importunity and form of prayers as we use for our selves In them either changing me into us intending and including such a one particularly together with your self or changing me into him praying for him singly Either by saying the Lord's Prayer for him or any other As forgive him his trespasses Lead him not into temptation And it is a singular Charity not to desist from such Intercessions tho these unasked so long as we know such person hath need of them Jam. 5.16 Digr 1. Of the benefit of other men's prayers for us and that they are very much to be desired Even those of inferiors Especially those of Saints and those of the poor who are in many respects nearer allyed to God Digr 2. Of God's hearing the Prayers of some other men more holy for us when he will not hear our own and his directing sinners sometimes to procure some others to pray for them that he may grant their requests Gen. 24.7.17 Job 42.8 9. Digr 3. Of God's frequently blessing sinners for other mens sakes who are righteous Digr 4. Of the benefit of intercession to the Interceders Besides God's returning our good wishes for others upon our selves Matt. 10 11.13 Psal 30.13 This mentioning of them and their necessities before God rendring us also more tender-hearted and ready to help them for with what face can we beg of God to be good to them when we can and do refuse to be so our selves The Benefits of Prayer §. 84. The benefits of Prayer 1. The great power of Prayer with God and the rich promises made to it in Scriptures even in temporal requests and these the smallest 1. The great power of prayer with God 1. God's Spirit especially assisting Us in Prayer 2. God's extraordinary favours illuminations visitations usually either in or presently upon the time of Prayer 3. The fruit and effect of Prayer many times not sudden but after many days and long petitioning Eccl. 11.1 Jer. 42.4.7 Act. 12.5.6 where the Church's Prayers not answered till the night before St. Peter's execution 1. Pet. 5.6 Eccl. 7.8 And St. Monica's Prayers for her Son St. Austine were not answered till first many years spent in them Not hapning that way or by that means we expect it And often hapening with great intertextures and artifices of second causes which hide to the inobservant the agency of the first Tho in which the less his power and force appeareth the more doth appear his divine and wonderful and secret contrivance and wisdome 4. Upon the requests of your prayers comming to pass by the agency of second and ordinary causes taking heed of conceiting these rewards of Prayers to be the effects of the ordinary Providence and of translating your thanks from God upon his instruments and unless he work singly of thinking he worketh not at all But especially acknowledging his more immediate hand in four cases 1. When his visitations and answers tho by second causes happen upon the instant of your Prayers 2. Or in the very point and exigent of your necessity 3. When you find beyond your expectation an extreme facility in the prosecution of your desires 4. Or a continual victory in the midst of many difficulties and oppositions 'T is a safe error if any dares call it so in attaining things known certainly to be good to impute too much rather than too little to God's hand in it by which you give him the more praise and in gratitude bring forth more obedience 5. Upon the requests of your prayers and those long and earnest successless taking heed especially then of the surrepency of some degree of unbelief As the imagining that God hears not minds not Prayers or not yours a Sinner or that he hath made o're all our affairs to the contrivance of humane wisdome and the ordinary course of second causes c. But most assuredly assuring your self that his Majesty himself hath heard and also hath rejected your request in this either because he intends to give it you better in some other way or because it is some way hurtful and inconvenient for you or because you are yet unworthy offending him to receive it or because he hath absolutely otherwise decreed to dispose of things and this is one of those his purposes wherein he is not to be swayed by Prayer as especially for not sending temporal crosses here to those whom he means to glorify hereafter therefore we find some requests denyed even to the greatest Saints tho importunately begging them To Moses Deut.
O Holy Spirit the Comforter in all afflictions and sufferings giving ability to bear them internal peace and spiritual joy in them and who art the author of a constant lively hope and confidence in God Have mercy on us O Holy Spirit who distributest and dividest thy gifts and graces variously to every one according to thy good pleasure Have mercy on us The Spirit of wisdome and understanding the Spirit of knowledge and truth the Spirit of counsel and fortitude Have mercy on us The Spirit of sobriety chastity and temperance the Spirit of modesty patience and prayer Have mercy on us The Spirit of humility benignity and meekness the Spirit of compunction sanctification and the fear of God the Spirit of peace and love Have mercy on us O Holy Spirit the discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart and reproving the World of sin of justice and of judgment Have mercy on us Be merciful and spare us O Holy Spirit Be merciful and hear us O Holy Spirit From all temptations and deceits of the Devil from all sin and every evil Spirit Deliver us O Holy Spirit From all filthiness and uncleanness of soul and body from the Spirit of fornication from the Spirit of anger strife contention and envy and all uncharitableness Deliver us O holy Spirit From all presumption and despair from opposing the known truth from hardness of heart and final impenitency Deliver us O holy Spirit By thy eternal procession from the Father and the Son by the miraculous conception of the Son of God by thy operation by thy descent upon our Saviour at his Baptisme and by thy sitting upon his Apostles Deliver us O holy Spirit In the day of Judgment Deliver us O holy Spirit We Sinners beseech Thee to hear us O holy Spirit That thou would'st spare us That thou wouldst keep us from blaspheming thee O Holy Ghost and from doing any contumely to the Spirit of Grace We sinners beseech Thee c. That we may never quench grieve or neglect this Holy Spirit but may prepare our hearts for thy holy inspirations and may diligently hearken to discover and obey thy godly motions which lead us to all perfection We sinners beseech Thee c. That remembring how we are the Temples of the Holy Ghost we may take heed of violating them and that as we live by the Spirit we may walk in the Spirit and fulfil no more the lusts of the flesh but by the Spirit mortify the deeds thereof so that sowing in the Spirit we may of the Spirit reap life eternal We sinners beseech Thee c. That thou wouldst vouchsafe to stir up and cherish in us poverty of Spirit and enkindle in us a hunger and thirst after Justice that we may be peaceable and worthy to be called the Sons of God We sinners beseech Thee c. That thou wouldest infuse into us perfect charity and mercy and that we may constantly and manfully endure persecution for Justice sake We sinners beseech Thee c. That thou would'st vouchasafe us to continue unto the end in faith hope and charity and that we may be careful to keep the unity of the Spirit that is in all thy servants in the bond of peace We sinners beseech Thee c. O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world Pour on us the holy Spirit O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world Send us the promised Spirit from the Father O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world Grant us the Spirit of Peace Our Father which art Heaven c. Create in us clean hearts O God And renew right Spirits in our Bowels Cast us not away from thy face O Lord And take not thy holy Spirit from us Restore unto us the joy of thy Salvation And confirm us with thy principal Spirit The Grace of thy Holy Spirit Enlighten our senses and hearts O Lord hear our Prayers And let our cry come unto thee Let us pray O Holy Ghost the Comforter we commend to thee our souls and bodies the beginning and the end of our lives give us grace to be heartily sorry for our sins for the love of God and to do true penance for them that we may be perfectly purified from them before we depart hence out of this mortal body Of our selves O Lord we are corrupt and blind in our affections and desires if we rely on our own judgments easily seduced into error easily overcome by temptation Wherefore to thee O Holy Spirit we wholly offer and commit the guidance of our Souls defend and keep us thy servants from all evil teach and illuminate our minds strengthen our weak Spirits against inordinate pusillanimity and superfluous scruples of conscience and keep us humble that we fall not into presumption Give us a right faith unmovable hope and perfect charity that we may sweetly delight in thee and every-where fulfil thy will and pleasure who livest and reignest with the Father and Son one God world without end Amen O Eternal God who didst send thy Holy Spirit upon thy Church and didst promise that he should abide with it for ever let the same Spirit lead us to all truth defend us from all sin enrich us with his gifts refresh us with his comforts and rule in our hearts for ever And grant O bountiful Lord the Doner of every good and perfect gift that we may prepare our hearts for his holy inspirations may diligently hearken to clearly discover believe and obey his godly motions may never quench never grieve this Holy Spirit but living in him may by him be sealed to the day of redemption through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord who liveth and reigneth world without end Amen O Blessed Spirit the Almighty Paraclete the communication bond and union of the Father and Son the conduit conveying to us all that we receive from the Father and the Son The dear pledge and token of our absent Lord until his blessed return by whose power all things are enlivened which do truly live and whose delight is to reside and converse in the hearts of the simple which thou vouchsafest to consecrate as Temples to thy self Come gracious Spirit have mercy upon us descend from heaven into our hearts waiting for thy comfort and so fit us for thine own self that through the multitude of thy compassions our meanness may be accepted of thy greatness and our weakness of thy strength Sanctify the temples of our bodies and consecrate them for thy own habitation Make glad with thy presence our Souls that long after thee make ready a mansion fit for thy self adorn thy bride-chamber furnish thy resting place with the variety of thy own gifts and graces drive out from thence whatsoever is old and fading renew in us thy own workman-ship with beauty incorruptible for ever convey into us heavenly light heat and motion that having tasted of the heavenly gift and the powers of the
Adam after his fall to the acknowledgment of his fault and who upon Moses's Prayer forgavest the transgressions of thy people against thee From thy great wrath good Lord deliver us Who frequently restoredst the Israelites after they had sinned when turning unto thee being penitent out of the hands of their enemies From thy great wrath c. Who puttedst away David's sin confessing and doing penance in sackcloth and fasting who sparedst Ahab humbling himself and doing penance From thy great wrath good Lord deliver us Who heardst Manasses repenting and restoredst him to his Kingdome who heardst Jonah crying unto thee out of the belly of the Whale after he had run away from thee who pardonedst the Ninevites doing penance in fasting sackcloth and ashes From thy great wrath c. JESU Son of the living God who camest into this world to save sinners the good Shepherd who camest to seek and to save that which was lost From thy great wrath good Lord deliver us Who being to redeem the world sent'st John the Baptist the Preacher of Penance and gavest him to be a wonderful pattern thereof in the severity of his diet and raiment From thy great wrath good Lord deliver us JESU who tho thou knewest no sin yet was frequent in fastings watchings and other acts of Penance From thy great wrath good Lord deliver us Who declaredst the Publican acknowledging his guilt with sorrow and humbly beating his breast to be justified who calledst the Publicans and Sinners and not the Just to repentance and broughtest Salvation to the houses of Matthew and Zacheus being penitent From thy great wrath good Lord deliver us Who deliveredst those that were afflicted with diseases by Satan first forgiving their sins who by the example of the Prodigal Son returning to his Father hast given poor sinners great hopes of pardon and forgiveness From thy great wrath good Lord deliver us Who mercifully absolvedst the Woman taken in Adultery and who forgavest much to Mary Magdalen a Sinner because she loved much From thy great wrath c. Who by graciously looking upon Peter after he had denied thee thrice broughtst him to confession of his Sin and bitter tears of Penitence and who miraculously calledst St. Paul when a great Persecutor and making havock of thy Church From thy great wrath c. Who didst bear our sins in thy Body upon the Cross and wast made a propitiation for us From thy great c. We confess unto thee O Lord our transgressions and the transgressions of our fore-fathers by which we with them have offended thee and walked contrary to thy commandments Be merciful and spare us O Lord. Behold we were conceived in sin and in iniquity did our Mothers bring us forth and as we have multiplied our days so have we multiplied the number of our transgressions Be merciful and spare us O Lord We have sinned by our vain thoughts and the unlawful desires of our hearts the idle and wicked words of our lips by our wicked works and our whole life spent unprofitably Be merciful and spare us O Lord. We have sinned against thee by unthankfulness for thy benefits by impatience under thy chastisements and our care to fulfil our own sinful lusts more than thy holy commandments Be merciful and spare us O Lord. We have sinned against our brethren not doing to others as we would have them do to us Be merciful c. We have sinned against our selves by preferring the profits of this present world before our eternal happiness Be merciful and spare us O Lord. We have sinned by deferring our Conversion and putting off our good purposes of amending our lives by exposing our weak nature to new temptations by neglecting many opportunities of doing good and even our best endeavours have been full of imperfections Be merciful and spare us O Lord. We have sinned by not improving those talents thou hast bestowed upon us by loosing our precious time and neglecting the means thou hast afforded us for the promoting of our Salvation Be merciful and spare us O Lord. Our iniquities have multiplied over our heads and our transgressions have grown up to the heavens to thee O Lord belongeth mercy and forgiveness but unto us shame and confusion of face Be merciful and spare us c. Just art thou O Lord in all the evils that have befallen us for thou hast dealt righteously with us but we have done wickedly and our destruction is from our selves Be merciful and spare us O Lord. Be merciful and spare us O Lord. From all Evil Deliver us O Lord. From all Sin Deliver us O Lord. From all profaness and contempt of Sacred things from all Superstition and Hypocrisy from Idolatry and worshiping of thee according to our own fancy from rash swearing perjury and cursing Deliver us O Lord. From neglect in coming to and irreverence in celebrating thy holy service Deliver us O Lord. From disobedience to our Superiors and doing injuries to our Neighbour from anger and contention from cousining and fraud from lying and back-biting Deliver us O Lord. From all wicked desires from wanton thoughts filthy concupiscences and uncleanness from lust of the flesh and lust of the eyes Deliver us O Lord. From pride covetousness and luxury from envy anger and gluttony from sloth in things concerning our eternal Salvation and all other mortal sin Deliver us c. From all impatience and murmuring against the righteous Dispensations of thy Divine Providence Deliver c. From all Schism and Heresy from presuming on our own judgments from all seducing of others into sin Deliver us O Lord. From relapsing into those sins of which we have once repented from hardness of heart and security of an evil conscience Deliver us O Lord. From the sight of the angry Judge from being placed at thy left hand and hearing that fearful sentence Deliver us O Lord. From the worm that dies not and the fire that is unquenchable from the bitter pains of eternal death from the gates of hell and power of darkness Deliver us c. By the paternal bowels of God the Father by the bloody wounds of God the Son by the ineffable goodness of God the Holy Ghost Deliver us O Lord. By that Name besides which there is no other given under heaven by which we can be saved by the blood of the New Testament and propitiation for the whole world Deliver us O Lord. We sinners beseech Thee to hear us O Lord. That thou wouldst vouchsafe to bring us to true Penance and that we may always bear in memory in the bitterness of our Souls the ill spent years of our forepast life We sinners beseech Thee to hear us That thou wouldst be pleased to enlighten our minds to the finding out of our secret sins and of such as formerly known are now forgotten by us We sinners c. That we may duly perform the penances enjoyned us by our Ghostly Fathers and that we may judge our selves and so escape thy