him do what seemeth him good 1 Sam. 3. 18. The fifth is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God 600 times used in the New Testament and of prophane Wriâ—ers commonly It is derived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he runs thorow and compasseth all things or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to burn and kindle for God is Light and the Author both of Heat Light and Life in all Creatures either immediately of himself or mediately by secondary causes This name iâ— used either improperly or properly Improperly when it is given either figuratively to Magistrates or falsely to Idols But when it is properly and absolutely taken it signifieth the Eternal Essence of God being above all things and through all things giving life and light to all creatures and preserving and governing them in their wonderful frame and order God seeth all in all places Let us therefore every where take heed what we do in his sight Thus far of the names which signifie God's Essence The name which signifieth the Persons in the Essence is chiefly one Elohim Elohim signifieth the mighty Judges it is a name of the plural number to express the Trinity of Persons in Vnity of Essence And to this purpose the holy Ghost beginneth the holy Bible with this plural Name of God joyned with a Verb of the singular number as Elohim Bara Dii creavit The mighty Gods or all the three Persons in the God-head created The Jews also note in the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bara consisting of three Letters the mystery of the Trinity by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beth Ben the Son by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Resh Ruach the Spirit by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aleph Ab the Father But this holy mystery is more clearly taught by Moses Gen. 3. 23 And Jehovah Elohim said Behold the Man is become as one of us And Gen. 19. 24. Jehovah rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrha bâ—imstone and fire from Jehovah out of Heaven that is God the Son from God the Father who hath committed all judgment unto the Son John 5. 22. See Psal. 33. 6. Isa. 6. 8 9 10. The singular number of Elohim is Eloah derived of Alah he swore because that in all weighty causes when necessity requireth an Oath to decide the Truth we are only to swear by the Name of God which is the great and righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth This Name Eloah is but seldom used as Hab. 3. 3. Job 4. 9. Job 12. 4. and 15. 8. 36. 2. Psal. 18. 32. Psal. 114. 7. Once it hath a Noun plural joyned to it Job 35. 10. None saith Where is Eloah Gosai the Almighty my Maker to note the mystery of the eternal Trinity Many times also Elohim the plural number is joyned with a Verb singular to express more emphatically this Mystery Gen. 35. 7. 2. Sam. 7. 23. Josh. 24. 19. Jer. 10. 10. Elohim is also sometime Tropically given to Magistrates because they are God's Vice-gerents as to Moses Exod. 7. 1. Jehovah said unto Moses I have made thee Elohim to Pharoah that is I have appointed thee an Ambassador to represent the person of the true three one God and to deliver his message and will unto Pharoah As oft therefore as we read or hear this name Elohim it should put us in mind to consider that in one divine Essence there are three distinct Persons and that God is Jehovah Elohim Now follow the Names which signifie God's Essential Works which are these five especially 1. EL which is as much as the strong God and reacheth us that God is not only most strong and fortitude it self in his own Essence but also that it is he that giveth all strength and power to all other Creatures Therefore Christ is called Isai. 9. 6. El Gibbor The strong most mighty God Let not God's Children fear the power of enemies for El our God is more strong than they 2. Shaddai That is Omnipotent By this Name God usually stiled himself to the Patriarchs I am El Shaddai the strong God Almighty Because he is perfectly able to defend his servants from all evil to bless them with all spiritual and temporal blessings and to perform all his promises which he hath made unto them for this life and that which is to come This name belongeth only to the Godhead and to no creature no not to the humanity of Christ. This may teach us with the Patriarchs to put our whole confidence in God and not to doubt of the true performance of his promises 3. Adonâ—i My Lord. This name as the Masorets note is found 134 times in the Old Testament Analogically it is given to Creatures but properly it belongeth to God alone It is used Malach. 1. 6. in the plural number to note the mystery of the holy Trinity If I be Adonim Lords where is my fear Adoni the singular Adonim the plural number This Name is given to Christ Dan 9. 16. Cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate for Adoni the Lord Christ his sake The hearing of this Holy Mame may teach every Man to obey God's Commandments to fear him alone to suffer none besides him to reign in his Conscience to lay hold by a particular hand of faith upon his Word and Promise and to challenge God in Christ to be his God that he may say with Thomas Thou art my Lord and my God 4. Helion that is most high Psal. 9. 2. Psal 91. 9. and 92. 9. Dan. 4. 17 24 25 34. Act 7. 48. This Name Gabriel giveth unto God telling the virgin Mary that the child which should be born of her should be the Son of the most High Luke 1. 32. This teacheth that God in his Essence and glory exceedeth infinitely all creatures in Heaven and Earth Secondly that no Man should be proud of any earthly honour or greatness Thirdly if we desire true dignity to labour to have communion with God in grace and glory 5. Abba a Syriack Name signifying Father Rom. 8. 15. This is sometimes used Essentially as in the Lord's Prayer Secondly Personally as Mat. 11. 25. For God is Christ's Father by Nature and Christians by Adoption and Grace Christ is called the everlasting Father Isa. 9. 6. because he regenerates us under the New Testament God is also called the Father of lights Jam. 1. 17. because God dwelleth in inaccessible light 1 Tim. 6. 16. and is the Author not only of the Son 's light but also of all the light both of natural reason and supernatural grace Which lighteneth every Man that cometh into the World This name teacheth us that all the gifts which we receive from God proceed from his mere Fatherly Love Secondly that we should love him again as dear Children Thirdly That we may in all our needs and troubles be bold to call upon him as a Father for his help and succour Thus should we not hear
unto the Sabbath Christ at his Death rested in the Grave all the Jewish Sabbath day and by that rest fulfilled all those Ceremonial Accessaries Now as the ceasing of the Ceremonies annexed to the 1 5 and 6 Commandments and to Marriage did not abolish those Commandments and Marriage nor cause them to cease from being the perpetual Rules of God's worship and man's righteousness no more did the abrogating of the Ceremonies annexed to the Sabbath abolish the morality of the Commandment of the Sabbath so that though the Ceremonies be abolished by the access of the Substance and the Shadow over-shadowed by the Body which is Christ yet the holy rest which was commanded and kept before either the Jews were a people or those Ceremonies annexed to the Sabbath still continueth as God's perpetual Law whereby all the Posterity of Adam are bound to rest from their ordinary business that they may wholly spend every seventh day in the solemn Worship and only Service of GOD their Creator and Redeemer but in the substance of the fourth Commandment there is not found one word of any Ceremony The chief Objections against the Morality of the Sabbath are Three 1. That of Paul to the Galatians Ye observe days and months and times and years c. But there the Apostle condemns not the moral Sabbath which we call the Lord's day and which he himself ordained according to Christ's Commandment in the same Churches of Galatia and Corinth and kept himself in other Churches but he speaks of the Jewish days and times and years and the keeping of the Sabbath on the seventh day from the Creation which he termeth shadows of things to come abolished now by Christ the body and in the Law are called Sabbaths but distinguished from the moral Sabbaths 2. That of Paul to the Colossians Let no man therefore condemn you in meat or drink or in respect of an holy-day or of the new-moon or of the Sabbath-days But here the Apostle meaneth the Jewish ceremonial Sabbaths not the Christians Lord's day as before 3. That of the same Apostle to the Romans This man esteemeth one day above another day and another counteth every day alike c. But S. Paul makes no such account For the question there is not between Jews and Gentiles but between the stronger and weaker Christians The stronger esteemed one day above another as appears in that there was a day both commanded and received in the Church every where known and honoured by the name of the Lord's day And therefore Paul saith here that he that observeth this day observeth it unto the Lord. The observation whereof because of the change of the Jewish seventh day some weak Christians as many now adays thought not so necessary so that if men because the Jewish day is abrogated will not honour and keep holy the Lord's day but count it like other days it is an Argument saith the Apostle of their weakness whose infirmity must be born till they have time to be further instructed and perswaded Other objections are frivolous and not worth the answering The true manner of keeping holy the Lord's Day NOW the sanctifying of the Sabbath consists in two things First In resting from all servile and common business pertaining to our natural life Secondly In consecrating that rest wholly to the Service of God and the use of those holy means which belong to our spiritual life For the first 1. The servile and common works from which we are to cease are generally all civil works from the least to the greatest More particularly First from all the works of our Calling though it were reaping in the time of harvest Secondly from carrying burthens as Carriers do or riding abroad for profit or for pleasure God hath commanded that the beasts should rest on the Sabbath day because all occasions of travelling or labouring with them should be cut off from man God gives them that day a rest and he that without necessity deprives them of their rest on the Lord's day the groans of the poor tyr'd Beasts shall in the day of the Lord rise up in judgment against him Likewise such as spend the greatest part of this day in trimming painting and painpering of themselves like Jezabels doing the devil's work upon God's day Thirdly from keeping of Fairs or Markets which for the most part God punisheth with Pestilence Fire and strange Floods Fourthly from studying any Books of Science but the holy Scriptures and Divinity For our study must be to be ravished in spirit upon the Lord's day In a word thou must on that day cease in thy calling to do thy work that the Lord by his Calling may do his work in thee For whatsoever is gotten by common working on this day shall never be blessed of the Lord but it will prove like Achan's Gold which being got contrary to the Lord's Commandment brought the fire of God's curse upon all the rest which he had lawfully gotten And if Christ scourged them out as thieves who bought and sold in his Temple which was but a Ceremony shortly to be abrogated is it to be thought that he will ever suffer those to escape unpunished who contrary to his Commandment buy and sell on the Sabbath day which is his perpetual Law Christ calleth such sacrilegious Thieves and as well may they steal the Communion Cup from the Lord's Table as steal from God the chiefest part of the Lord's day to consume it in their own lusts Such shall one day find the judgments of God heavier than the opinions of Men. Fifthly from all recreations and sports which at other times are lawful for if lawful works be forbidden on this day much more lawful sports which do more steal away our affections from the contemplation of heavenly things than any bodily work or Labour Neither can there be unto a man that delighteth in the Lord any greater delight or recreation than the sanctifying of the Lord's day For can there be any greater joy for a person condemned than to come to his Prince his house to have his Pardon sealed for one that is deadly sick to come to a Physician that can cure him or for a prodigal child that fed on the husks of swine to be admitted to eat the bread of life at his father's table or for him who fears for sin the tidings of death to come to hear from God the assurance of eternal life If thou wilt allow thy self or thy servant recreation allow it in the six days which are thine not on the Lord's day which is neither thine nor theirs No bodily recreation therefore is to be used on this day but so far as it may help the soul to do more chearfully the service of God Sixthly from gross feeding liberal drinking of Wine or strong Drink which may make us either drowsie or unapt to serve God with our hearts and minds Seventhly From
terrible pains and cruel torments the Apostles and Martyrs have voluntarily suffered for the Defence of Christ's Faith when they might have lived by dissembling or denying him how much more wilâ—ing should'st thou be to depart in the â—aith of Christ having 〈◊〉 pains to torment thee and â—ere 〈◊〉 to comfort thee The spiritual sigh upon the seventh Thought O Lord my sins have deserved the pains of Hell and eternal death much more these fatherly corrections wherewith thou dost afflict me But O blessed Lamb of God which takest away the sins of the world have mercy upon me and wash away all my filthy sins with thy most precious blood and receive my soul into thy heavenly Kingdom for into thy hands O Father I commend my spirit and thou hast redeemed me O Lord thou God of truth The sick Person ought now to send for some godly and religious Pastor IN any wise remember if conveniently it may be to send for some godly and religious Pastor not only to pray for thee at thy death for God in such a caâ—e hath promised to hear the prayers of the righteous Prophets and Elders of the Church but also upon thy confession and unfeigned Repentance to absolve thee of thy sins For as Christ hath given him a calling to baptize thee unto repentance for the remission of thy sins so hath he likewise given him a calling and power and authority upon repentance to absolve thee from the sins I will give thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven And again Verily I say unto you whatsoever ye bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye lâ—ose on earth shall be loosed in heaven And again Receive ye the holy Ghost whose soevever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained This Doctrine was as ancient in the Church of God as Job for Elihu tells him That when God strikes a man with malâ—dy on his bed so that his soul draweth near the grace and his life to the burieâ—â— if there be any messenger with him or an interpreter one of a thousand to declare unto man his righteousness then will â—e have mercy upon him c. and answerable hereunto saith St. James if the sick have committed sins upon his repentance and the Prayers of the Elders they shall be forgiven him These have power to shut Heaven and to deliver the scandalous impenitent sinner to Satan For the weapons of their warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to cast down c. and to have vengeance in readiness against all disobedience They have the key of loosing therefore the power of absolving The Bishops and Pastors of the Church do not forgive sin by any absolute power of their own for so only Christ theâ—r Master forgive 〈◊〉 but ministerially as the seâ—vants of Christ and Stâ—wards to whose fidelity their Lord and Master â—ath committed his Keys and that is when they do declare and pronounce either publickly or privately by the Word of God what bindeth what looseth and the meâ—cieâ—â— of God to penitent sinners or his Judgments to impenitent and obstinate persons and so do apply the general promises or threatnings to the penitent or impenitent For Christ from Heaven doth by them as by his Ministers on Earth declare whom he remitteth and bindeth and to whom he will open the gates of heaven and against whom he will shut them And therefore it is not said Whose sins ye signifie to be remitted but whose sins ye remit They then do remit sins because Christ by their Ministry remitteth sins as Christ by his Disciples loosed Lazarâ—s Joh. 11. 44. And as no water could wash away Naaman's Leprosie but the waters of Jordan tho' other Rivers were as clear because the promise was annexed unto the water of Jordan and not of other Rivers so tho' another Man may pronounce the same words yet have they not the like efficacy and power to work on the conscience as when they are pronounced from the Mouth of Christ's Ministers because the promise is annexed to the Word of God in their mouths for them hath he chosen separated and sâ—t apart for this work and to them he hath committed the ministry and word of reconciliation by their holy calling and ordination they have received the holy Ghost and the ministerial power of binding and loosing They are sent forth of the holy Ghost for this work whereunto he hath called them And Christ gives his Ministers power to forgive sins to the penitent in the same words that he teacheth us in the Lord's Prayer to desire God to forgive us our sins to assure all penitent sinners that God by his Minister's absolution doth fully through the merits of Christ's Blood forgive them all their sins So that what Christ decreeth in heaven in â—oro ju â—icii the same he declareth on earth by his reconciling Ministers in foro poenitentie so â—hat as God hath reconciled the world to himself by Jesus Christ so hath he saith the Apostle given unto us the ministry of this reconciliation He that sent them to baptize saying Go and teach all nations baptizing them c. sent them also to remit sins saying As my Father sent me so send I you whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them c. As therefore none can baptize tho' he use the same water and words but only the lawful Minister which Christ hath called and authorized to this Divine and Ministerial Function so tho' others may comfort with good words yet none can absolve from sin but only those to whom Christ â—ath committed the holy Ministry and Word of reconciliation and of their absolution Christ speaketh He that heareth you heareth me In a doubtful Title thou wilt ask the Counsel of a skilful Lawyer In peril of sickness thou wilt know the Advice of the learned Physician and is there no danger in dread of damnation for a sinner to be his own Judge Judicious Calvin teacheth this point of Doctrine most plainly Etsi omnes mutuo â—â—s debeamus consolari c. Altho saith he â—e ought to comfort and confirm one another â—n the confidence of God's Mercy yet we see that the Ministers are appointed as witnesses and sureties to ascertain our Consciences of the â—emission of sins insomuch as they are said tyremit sins and to loose souls Let every faithful man therefore remember that it is his duty if inwardly he be vexed and afflicted with the sense of his sins not to neglect that remedy which is offered unto him by the Lord to wit that for the easing of his conscience he make private confession of
THE PRACTICE OF PIETY Directing a Christian how to walk that he may please God Amplified by the Author Piety hath the Promise 1 Tim. 4. 8. London Printed for Edward Brewster 1695. Lately Printed a very usefull Book To be sold by Edward Brewster at the Crane in St. Paul's Church-Yard viz. THE Mirror of Martyrs First and Second Part lively Expressing in a short view the force of their Faith the fervency of their Love the wisdom of their Sayings the patience of their Sufferings c. with their Prayers and Preparation for their last farewell As also Exercitations and Meditations c. wherein the chief Duties of the Christian Religion are opened and apply'd By Samuel Tompson M. A. late of Magdalen-Hall Oxon. TO THE High and Mighty Prince CHARLES Prince of WALES CHrist Jesus the Prince of Princes bless your Highness with length of Days and an increase of all Graces which may make you truly prosperous in this life and eternally happy in that which is to come Jonathan shot three Arrows to drive David further off from Saul 's fury And this is the third Epistle which I have written to draw your Highness nearer to God's favour by directing your heart to begin like Josiah in your youth to seek after the God David and of Jacob your Father Not but that I know that your Highness doth this without mine admonition but because I would with the Apostle have you to abound in every grace in faith and knowledge and in all diligence and in your love to Gods Service and true Religion Never was there more need of plain and unfeigned admonition for the Comick in that saying seems but to have prophesied of our times Obsequium amicos veritas odium parit And no marvel seeing that we are fallen into the dregs of Time which being the last must needs be the worst days And how can there be worse seeing Vanity knows not how to be vainer nor Wickedness how to be more wicked And whereas heretofore those have been counted most holy who have shewed themselves most zealous in their Religion they are now reputed most discreet who can make the least profession of their Faith And that these are the last days appears evidently because the security of mens eternal state hath so overwhelmed as Christ foretold it should all sorts that most who now live are become lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God and of those who pretend to love God O God! what sanctified heart can but bleed to behold how seldom they come to prayers how irreverently they hear God's Word what strangers they are at the Lord's Table what assiduous spectators they are at Stage-plays where being Christians they can sport themselves to hear the Vassals of the Devil scoffing religion and blasphemously abusing Phrases of holy Scripture on their Stages as familiarly as they use their Tobacco-pipes in their bibing-houses So that he who would now â—days seek in most Christians for the power shall scarce almost find the very shew of godliness Never was there more sinning never less remorse for sin Never was the Judge nearer to come never was there so little preparation for his coming And if the Bridegroom should now come how many who think them selves wise enough and full of all knowledge would be found foolish Virgins without one drop of the Oil of saving Faith in their Lamps For the greatest Wisdom of most Men in this Age consists in being wise first to deceive others and in the end to deceive themselves And if sometimes some good Book haps into their hands or some good motion cometh into their heads whereby they are put in mind to consider the uncertainty of this life present or how weak assurance they have of eternal life if this were ended and how they have some secret sins for which they must needs repent here or be punished for them in Hell hereafter Security then forthwith whispers the Hypocrite in the Ear that though it be fit to think of these things yet It is not yet time and that he is yet young enough though he cannot but know that many millions as young as himself are already in Hell for want of timely repentance Presumption warranteth him in the other Ear that he may have time hereafter at his leisure to repent and that howsoever others die yet he is far enough from death and therefore may boldly take yet a longer time to enjoy his sweet pleasures and to encrease his wealth and greatness And hereupon like Solomon's sluggard he yields himself to a little more sleep a little more slumber a little more folding of the hands to sleep in his former sins till at last Despair Security's ugly hand maid comes in unlooked for and shews him his Hour-glass dolefully telling him that his time is past and that nothing now remains but to die and â—e damned Let not this seem strange to any for too many have found it too true and more with out more grace are like to be thus sooth'd to their end and in the end snared to their endless perdition In my desire therefore of the common salvation but especially of your Highness's everlasting welfare I have endeavoured to extract out of the chaos of endless controversies the old Practice of true Piety which flourished before these Controversies were hatched which my poor labours in a short while come now forth again the 42. time under the gracious protection of your Highness's favour and by their entertainment seem not to be altogether unwelcome to the Church of Christ. If to be pious hath in all ages been held the truest honour how much more honourable is it in so impious an age to be the true Patron and Pattern of Piety Piety made David Solomon Jehoshaphat Ezechias Josias Zerubbabel Constantine Theodosius Edward the VI. Queen Elizabeth Prince Henry and other religious Princes to be so honoured that their Names since their deaths smell in the Church of God like a precious oynment and their remembrances sweet as honey in all mouths and as Musick at a Banquet of Wine when as the lips of others who have been godless and irreligious Princes do â—ot and stink in the memory of God's People And what honour is it for great Men to have great Titles on Earth when God counts their names unworthy to be written in his Book of life in Heaven It is Piety that embalms a Prince his good name and makes his face to shine before Men and glorifies his soul among Angels For as Moses his face by often talking with God shined in the eyes of the People so by frequent praying which is our talking with God and hearing the Word which is God's speaking unto us we shall be changed from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord to the Image of the Lord. And seeing this life is uncertain to all especially to Princes what argument is more fit
both for Princes and People to study than that which â—eacheth sinful man to deny himself by mortifying his corruption â—hat he may enjoy Christ the Author of his salvation to renounce these false and momentary pleasures of the world that he may attain to the true and eternal joys of heaven And to make them truly honourable before God in Piety who are now only honourable before Men in vanity What charges soever we spend in earthly vanities for the most part they either die before us or we shortly die after them But what we spend like Mary in the Practice of Piety shall remain our true memorial for ever For Piety hath the promise of this life and of that which shall never end But without Piety there is no internal comfort to be found in Conscience noâ— external Peace to be looked for in the World nor any eternal happiness to be hoped for in Heaven How can Piety but promise to her self 〈◊〉 zealous Patron of your Highness being the sole Son and Heir of 〈◊〉 gracious and great a Monarch who is not only the Defender of the Faith by title but also a Defendeâ— of the Faith in truth as the Christian World hath taken notice by hiâ— learned confuting of Bellarmine ever spreading Heresies and his suppressing in the blade of Vorstius ' s Athean blasphemies and â—ow easie is it for your Highness to equal if not exceed all that were before you in Grace and Greatness if you do but set your heart to seek and to serve God considering how religiously your Highness hath been educated by godly and vertuous Governours and Tutors as also that you live in such a time wherein God's Providence and the King 's Religious Care have placed over this Church to the unspeakable comfort thereof another venerable Jehoiada that doth good in our Israel both towards God and towards his House of whom your Highness at all times in all doubts may learn the sincerity of Religion for the Salvation of your inward Soul and the wisest counsel for the direction of your outward state And to excite you the rather to the zealoâ—s Practice of divine Piety often suppose with your self that your Highness hears your Religious Father James speaking unto you as sometimes holy David spake to his Son Solomon And thou Charles my Son know thou the God of thy Father and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind for the Lord searcheth all hearts and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts iâ— thou seek him he will be found of thee but if thou forsake him he will cast thee off for ever To help you the better to seek and serve this God Almighty who must be your chief Protector in life and only comfort in death I here once again on my bended knees offer my old Mite new stampt into your Highness'sâ— hands daily for your Highness offering up unto the most High my humblest prayers that as you grow in age and stature so you may like your Master Christ increase in wisdom and favour with God and all good men This suit will I never cease in all other matters I will ever rest Your Highness humble Servant during life to be commanded LEWES BAILY AD CAROLUM PRINCIPEM Tolle Malos extolle Pious cognosce Teipsum Sacra tene Paci consule disce pati ADVERTISEMENT This Book being now exactly Corrected and purged from many Thousand Faults which have escaped former Impressions is now also printed in a fair large Roman Character for the Use and Benefit of Aged Persons and to be sold by Edward Brewster at the Crane in St. Paul's Church-yard 1695. The 42. Edition TO THE Devout Reader I Had not purposed to enlarge the last Edition save that the importunity of many devoutly disposed prevailed with me to add some points and to amplifie others To satisfie whose godly requests I have done my best endeavour and withal finished all that I intend in this argument If thou shalt hereby reap any more profit give God the more praise And remember him in thy Prayers who hath vowed both his life and his labours to further thy Salvation as his own Farewell in the Lord JESUS THE CHIEF CONTENTS Of this Book 1. A Plain description of God in respect of his Essence Persons and Attributes so far as every Christian should competently endeavour to learn and know with sundry sweet Observations and Meditations thereupon Page 4 2. Meditations setting forth the miseries of man in his life and death that is not reconciled to God in Christ. 37 3. Meditations of the blessed state both in life and death of a man that is reconciled to God in Christ Wherein thou shalt find not a few things worthy the reading and observation 63 4. Meditations on seven hindrances which keep back a sinner from the Practice of Piety necessary to be read of all but especially of carnal Gospellers in these times 104 5. How to begin the Morning with pious Meditations and Prayers 138 6. How to read the Bible with profit and ease once over every year 143 7. A Morning Prayer 217 Another shorter Prayer for the Morning 157 Another brief Morning Prayer 161 8. Meditations how to walk with God all the day 162 Especially how to guide thy Thoughts ibid Thy Words 168 Thy Actions 173 9. Meditations for the Evening 185 10. An Evening Prayer 189 Another shorter Evening Prayer 195 11. Things to be meditated upon as thou art going to bed 198 12. Meditations for a godly Housholder 200 13. A Morning Prayer for a Family 203 14. Holy Meditations and Graces before and after dinner and supper 209 15. Rules to be observed in singing of Psalms 215 16. An Evening Prayer for a Family 217 17. A Religious Discourse of the Sabbath Day wherein is proved that the Sabbath was altered from the seventh to the first day of the week not by humane ordinance but by Christ himself and his Apostles that the fourth Commandment is perpetual and moral under the New Testament as well as under the old And the true manner of sanctifying the Sabbath Day is described out of the Word of God 222 18. A Morning Prayer for the Sabbath Day 267 19. An Evening Prayer for the Sabbath Day 282 20. Meditations of the true manner of Fasting and giving of Alms out of the Word of God 287 21. The right manner of holy Feasting 303 22. Holy and devout Meditations of the worthy and reverent receiving of the Lord's Supper 305 23. An humble Confession of sins before the holy Communion 330 24. A sweet Soliloquy to be said a little before the receiving of the holy Sacrament 345 25. A Prayer to be said after the receiving of the holy Sacrament 353 26. Meditations how to behave thy self in the time of sickness 363 27. A Prayer when one begins to be sick 365 28. Directions for making thy Will and setting thy House in order 371 29. A Prayer before the taking of
by which God doth indeed whatsoever he will and hindreth whatsoever he will not have done Psal. 115. 3. 5. Majesty is that by which God of his own absolute and free authority reigneth and ruleth as Lord and King over all Creatures visible and invisible having both the right and propriety in all things as from whom and for whom are all things as also such a plenitude of Power that he can pardon the offences of all whom he will have spared and subdue all his Enemies whom he will have plagued and destroyed without being bound to render to any Creature a reason of his doing but making his own most holy and just Will his only most perfect and eternal Law From all these Attributes ariseth one which is God's soveraign blessedness or perfection Blessedness is that perfect and unmeasurable possession of joy and glory which God hath in himself for ever and is the cause of all the bliss and perfection that every creature enjoys in its measure There are other Attributes figuratively and improperly ascribed unto God in the Holy Scriptures as by an Anthropomorphosis the members of a man eyes ears Nostrils mouth hands feet c. or the senses and actions of man as seeing hearing smelling working walking striking c. By an Antropopatheia the affections and passions of a man as gladness grief joy sorrow love hatred c. or by an Analogie as when he is named a Lyon a Rock a Tower a Buckler c. Whose signification every Commentary will express Of all these Attributes we must hold these general Rules NO Attribute can sufficiently express the Essence of God because it is infinite and ineffable Whatsoever therefore is spoken of GOD is not GOD but serveth rather to help â—ur weak Understanding to conceive in â—uâ— Reason and to utter in our Speech â—he Majesty of his Divine Nature so far as â—e hath vouchsafed to reveal himself unto â—s in his Word 2. All the Attributes of God belong to very of the three Persons as well as to the Essence it self with the limitations of a â—ersonal propriety As the mercy of the Father is mercy begetting the mercy of the â—on is mercy begotten the mercy of the H. â—host is mercy proceeding and so of the rest 3. The Essential Attributes of God difâ—er not from his Essence because they are â—o in the Essence that they are the very Essence it self In God therefore there â—s nothing which is not either his Essence â—r Person 4. The Essential Attributes of God difâ—er not Essentially or Really one from anoâ—her because whatsoever is in God is â—ne most simple Essence and one admits no â—ivision but only in our reason and underâ—â—anding which being not able to know â—arthly things by one simple Act without â—he help of many distinct Acts must of â—ecessity have the help of many distinct Acts to know the incomprehensible GOD. Therefore to speak properly there are â—ot in God many Attributes but one only which is nothing else but the Divine Esâ—ence it self by what Attributes soever you all it But in respect of our reason they â—re said to be so many different Attributes for â—ur understanding conceives by the name of mercy a thing differing from that which is called justice The Essential Attributes of God are not therefore reallâ— separate 5. The Essential Attributes of God are no parts or qualities of the Divine Essence nor Accidents in the Essence nor a Subject but the very whole and entire Essence of God So that every such Attribute is no aliud aliud another and another thing but one and the same thing There are therefore no Quantities in God by which he may be said to be so much and so much nor Qualities by which he may be said to be such and such but whatsoever God is He is such and the same by his Essence By his Essence he is wise and therefore Wisdom it self By his Essence he is good and therefore Goodness it self by his Essence he is merciful and therefore Mercy it self By his Essence he is just and therefore Justice it self c. In a word God is greaâ— without quantity good true and just without quality merciful without passion aâ— act without motion every where present without sight without time the fiâ—st and the last the Lord of all Creatures from whom all receive themselves and aâ— the good they have yet neither needed nor receiveth he any increase of goodnesâ— or happiness from any other This is the plain description of God so far as he hath revealed himself to us in his Word This Doctrine of all other every true Practitioner of Piety must competently know and necessarily believe for four special uses 1. That we may discernour true and only God from all false Gods and Idols for the Description of God is properly known only to his Church in whom he hath thus graciously manifested himself 2. To possess our hearts with a greater awe of his Majesty whilst we admire him â—or his simpleness and infiniteness adore him for his unmeasurableness unchangeableness and Eternity seek wisdom from his underâ—tanding and knowledge submit our selves to his blessed will and pleasure love him for his â—ove mercy goodness and patience trust to his word because of his truth fear him for his Power Justice and Anger reverence him â—or his Holiness and praise him for his Blesâ—edness and to depend all our life on him who is the only Author of our Life Being â—nd all the good things we have 3. To stir us up to imitate the Divine â—pirit in his holy Attributes and to bear in some measure the image of his Wisâ—om Love Goodness Justice Mercy Truth â—atience Zeal and Anger against sin that â—e may be wise loving just merciful true â—atient and zealous as our God is 4. Lastly That we may in our Prayers â—nd Meditations conceive aright of his Diâ—â—ne Majesty and not according to those â—â—oss and blasphemous imaginations which naturally arise in Mens Brains as wheâ— they conceive God to be like an old Man sitting in a Chair and the blessed Trinity to bâ— like that tripartite Idol which Papists havâ— painted in their Church-Windows When therefore thou art to pray untâ— God let thine Heart speak unto him as tâ— that Eternal Infinite Almighty Holy Wise Just Merciful Spirit and moâ— Perfect indivisible Essence of three severâ—â— Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost wâ— being present in all places ruleth Heaveâ— and Earth understandeth all mens heart knoweth all mens miseries and is only able bestow on us all graces which we want and deliver all penitent sinners who with faithfâ— hearts seek for Christ's sake his help out all their afflictions and troubles whatsoever The ignorance of this true knowledgâ— of God maketh many to make an Idol the True God and is the only cause wâ—â— so
many do profess all other parts of God Worship and Religion with so much irrverence and hypocrisie whereas if they dâ— truly know God they durst not but coâ—â— to his holy Service and coming serve hiâ— with fear and reverence for so far do a Man fear God as he knows him aâ— then doth a Man truly know God whâ— he joyns practice to speculation And thâ— is First When a Man doth so acknowled and celebrate God's Majesty as he 〈◊〉 revealed himself in his Word Secondly When from the true and liâ—â— sense of God's Attributes there is bred in â— Man 's heart a love awe and confidence in God for saith God himself If I be a Father where is my honour If I be a Lord where is my fear O taste and see that the Lord is good saith David He that hath not by experience tasted his goodness knoweth not how good he is He saith John that saith he knoweth God and keepeth not his Commandments is a lyar and the truth is not â—n him So far therefore as we imitate 〈◊〉 in his Goodness Love Justice Mercy Patience and other Attributes so far do we know him Thirdly When with inward groans and â—he serious desires of our hearts we long â—o attain to the perfect and plenary knowâ—edge of his Majesty in the life which is to come Lastly This discovers how few there â—re who do truly know God for no Man knoweth God but he that loveth him and how can a Man chuse but love him being the sovereign good if he know him seeing the Nature of God is to enamour with â—he Love of his Goodness And whosoever â—oveth any thing more than God is not worthy of God and such is every one who â—ettles the love and rest of his heart upon â—ny thing besides God If therefore thou â—â—ost believe that God is Almights why â—â—ost thou fear Devils and Enemies and not confidently trust in God and crave his help in all thy troubles and dangers If â—hou believest that God is Infinite how darest thou provoke him to Anger If thou believest that God is simple with what Heart canst thou dissemble and play the Hypocrite If thou believest that God is the sovereign Good why is not thy heart more settled upon him than on all worldly good If thou dost indeed believe that God is a just Judge how darest thou live so securely in sin without Repentance If thou dost truly believe that God is most wise why dost thou not referr the Events of Crosses and Disgraces unto him 〈◊〉 knows how to turn all things to the best unto them that love him If thou art perswaded that God is true why dost thou doubt of his promises And if thou believest that God is Beauty and perfection it self why dost not thou make him alone the chief end of all thy Affections and Desires For if thou lovest Beauty He is most fair if thou desirest Riches he is most wealthy if thou seekest Wisdom He is most wise Whatsoever excellency thou hast seen in any Creature it is nothing but a sparkle of that which is in infinite Perfection in God And when in Heaven we shall have an immediate Communion with God we shall have them all perfectly in him communicated unto us Briefly in all goodness he is all in all Love that one good God and thou shalt love him in whom all the good of goodness consisteth He that would therefore attain to the saving knowledge of God must learn to know him by love For God is Love and the knowledge of the Love of God passeth all knowledge For all knowledge besides to know how to love God and to serve him only is nothing upon Solomon's credit but vanity of vanities and vexation of spirit Kindle therefore O my Lady nay rather O my Lord Charity the love of thy self in my Soul especially seeing it was thy good pleasure that being reconciled by the blood of Christ I should be brought by the knowledge of thy grace to the Communion of thy glory wherein only consists my soveraign good and happiness for ever Thus by the light of his own word we have seen the back parts of JEHOVAH Elohim the eternal Trinity whom to believe is saving faith and verity and unto whom from all Creatures in Heaven and Earth be all Praise Dominion and Glory for ever Amen Thus far of the Knowledge of God now of the Knowledge of a Man's self And first of the state of his misery and corruption without renovation by Christ. Meditations of the misery of a man not reconciled to God in Christ. O Wretched man where shall I begin to describe thine endless misery who art condemned as soon as conceived and adjudged to eternal Death before thou wast born to a temporal Lifeâ— A beginning Indeed I find but no end of thy miseries For when Adam and Eve beiâ—g created after God's own Image and placed in Paradise that they and their Posterity might live in a blessed state of Life Immortal having dominion over all earthly Creatures and only restrained from the Fruit of one Tree as a sign of their subjection to the Almighty Creator tho' God forbad them this one small thing under the penalty of eternal Death yet they believed the Devil's Word before the Word of God making God as much as in them lay a Lyar. And so being unthankful for all the benefits which God bestowed on them they became male-content with their present state as if God had dealt enviously or niggardly with them and believed that the Devil would make them pertakers of far more glorious things than ever God had bestowed upon them and in their pride they fell into High Treason against the most High and disdaining to be God's Subjects they affected blasphemously to be Gods themselves Equals unto God Hence till they repented losing God's Image they became like unto the Devil and so all their posterity as a traiterous brood whilst they remain impenitent like thee are subject in this life to all cursed miseries and in the life to come to the everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Lay the aside for a while thy doting vanities and take the view with me of thy doleful miseries which duly survey'd I doubt not but that thou wilt conclude that it is far better never to have Natures Being than not to be by Grace a Practitioner of Religious Piety Consider therefore thy misery 1. In thy Life 2. In thy Death 3. After Death in thy Life 1. The miseries accompanying thy Body 2. the miseries which deform thy Soul In thy Death The miseries which shall oppress thy Body and Soul After Death The miseries which overwhelm both Body and Soul together in Hell And first let us take a view of those miseries which accompany the Body according to the four Ages of thy Life 1. Infancy 2. Youth 3. Manhood 4. Old Age. Meditations of the Miseries of
Whereunto as thou shalt be thrust there shall be such weeping woes and wailing that the cry of the company of Korah Dathan and Abiram when the earth swallowed them up was nothing comparable to this howling nay it will seem unto thee an Hell before thou goest into Hell but to hear it Into which bottomless lake after that thou art once plunged thou shalt ever be falling down and never meet a bottom and in it thou shalt ever lament and none shall pity thee thou shalt always weep for pain of the Fire and yet gnash thy Teeth for the extremity of Cold thou shalt weep to think that thy miseries are past remedy thou shalt weep to think that to repent is to no purpose thou shalt weep to think how for the shadows of short pleasures thou hast incurred these sorrows of eternal pains thou shalt weep to see how that weeping it self can nothing prevail yea in weeping thou shalt weep more tears than there is water in the Sea for the water of the Sea is finite but the weeping of a Reprobate shall be infinite There thy lascivious Eyes shall be afflicted with sights of ghastly Spirits thy curious Ears shall be affrighted with hideous noise of howling Devils and the gnashing Teeth of damned Reprobates thy dainty Nose shall be cloyed with noisom stench of Sulphur thy delicate Taste shall be pined with intolerable hunger thy drunken Throat shall be parched with unquenchable thirst thy Mind shall be tormented to think how for the love of abortive pleasures which perished ere they budded thou so foolishly lost Heaven's Joys and incurredst Hellish Pains which last beyond Eternity Thy Conscience shall ever sting thee like an Adder when thou thinkest how often Christ by his Preachers offered the Remission of Sins and the Kingdom of Heaven freely unto thee if thou wouldest but Believe and Repent and how easily thou mightest have obtained mercy in those days how near thou wast many times to have repented and yet didst suffer the Devil and the World to keep thee still in impenitency and how the day of mercy is now past and will never dawn again How shall thy understanding be racked to consider how for momentany Riches thou hast lost eternal Treasure and changed Heaven's felicity for Hell's misery where every part of thy Body without intermission of pain shall be continually tormented alike In these Hellish Torments thou shalt be for ever deprived of the beatifical sight of GOD wherein consisteth the sovereign good and life of the Soul Thou shalt never see Light nor the least sight of Joy but lie in a perpetual Prison of utter Darkness where shall be no Order but Horrour no Voice but of Blasphemers and Howlers no Noise but of Torturers and tortured no Society but of the Devil and his Angels who being tormented themselves shall have no other ease but to wreak their Fury in tormenting thee Where shall be punishment without Pity misery without mercy sorrow without succour crying without comfort mischief without measure torment without ease where the Worm dieth not and the Fire is never quenched where the Wrath of God shall seize upon the Soul and Body as the flame of fire doth on the lump of Pitch or Brimstone In which flame thou shalt ever be burning and never consumed ever dying and never dead ever roaring in the pangs of Death and never rid of those pangs nor knowing end of thy pains So that after thou hast endured them so many thousand years as there are Grass on the Earth or Sands on the Sea-shore thou art no nearer to have an end of thy torments than thou wast the first day that thou wast cast into them yea so far are they from ending that they are ever but beginning But if after a thousand times so many thousand years thy damned Soul could but conceive a hope that those her torments should have an end this would be some Comfort to think that at length an end will come But as oft as the Mind thinketh of this word Never it is as another Hell in the midst of Hell This thought shall force the damned to cry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as much as if they should say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Lord not ever not ever torment us thus But their Consciences shall answer them as an Echo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ever ever Hence shall arise their doleful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wo and alas for evermore This is that second Death the general perfect fulness of all cursedness and misery which every damned Reprobate must suffer so long as GOD and his Saints shall enjoy bliss and felicity in Heaven for evermore Thus far of the misery of Man in his state of corruption unless he be renewed by Grace in Christ. Now followeth the knowledge of Man's self in respect of his state of Regeneration by Christ. Meditations of the State of a Christian reconciled to God in Christ. NOw let us see how happy a Godly man is in his state of renovation being reconciled to God in Christ. The godly Man whose corrupt Nature is renewed by grace in Christ and become a new creature is blessed in a threefold respect First in his Life Secondly in his Death Thirdly after Death 1. His blessedness during his Life is but in part and that consists in seven things 1. Because he is conceived of the Spirit in the womb of his Mother the Church and is born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God who in Christ is his Father So that the Image of God his Father is renewed in him every day more and more 2. He hath for the Merits of Christ's Sufferings all his sins original and actual with the guilt and punishment belonging to them freely and fully forgiven unto him And all the righteousness of Christ as freely and fully imputed unto him and so God is reconciled unto him and approveth him as righteous in his sight and account 3. He is freed from Satan's bondage and â—s made a brother of Christ a fellow-heir of his Heavenly Kingdom and a spiritual King and Priest to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God by Jesus Christ. 4. God spareth him as a Man spareth his own Son that serveth him And this sparing consists In 1. Not taking notice of every fault but bearing with his infirmities Exod. 34. Verse 6 7. A loving Father will not cast his Child out of doors in his Sickness 2. Noâ— making his punishment when he is chastned as great as his deserts Psal. 103. 10. 3. Chastning him moderately when he seeth that he will not by any other means be reclaimed 2 Samuel 7. Verse 14 15. 1 Cor. 11. 32. 4. Graciously accepting his Endeavours notwithstanding the imperfection of his obedience and so preferring the willingness of his mind before the worthiness of his work 2 Cor. 8. 12. 5.
every true Mordecai who mourned under the Sackeloth of this corrupt Flesh shall be arrayed with the King 's Royal Apparel and have the Crown Royal set upon his Head that all the World may see how it shall be done to him whom the King of Kings delighteth to honour If now the rising of one Sun makes the morning so glorious how glorious shall that Day be when innumerable Millions of Millions of Bodies of Saints and Angels shall appear more glorious than the brightness of the Sun the Body of Christ in glory surpassing all 4. In Agility whereby our bodies shall be able to ascend and meet the Lord at his glorious coming in the Air as Eagles flying unto their Blessed Carcass To this Agility of the Saints glorious Bodies the Prophet alludes saying They shall renew their strength They shall mount up with wings as Eagles They shall run and not be weary They shall walk and not faint And to this state may that saying of Wisdom be referred In the time of their Vision they shall shine and run to and fro as sparks amongst the stubble And in respect of these four Qualities Paul calleth the raised bodies of the Elect Spiritual for they shall be spiritual in qualities but the same still in substance And howsoever sin and corruption make a Man in this state of Mortality lower than Angels yet surely when God shall thus crown him with glory and honour I cannot see how Man shall be any thing inferiour to Angels For are they Spirits so is Man also in respect of his Soul yea more than this they shall have also a spiritual body fashioned like unto the glorious body of the Lord Jesus Christ in whom Man's Nature is exalted by a personal Vnion into the Glory of the Godhead and individual Society of the Blessed Trinity an Honour which he never vouchsafed Angels And in this respect Man hath a Prerogative above them Nay they are but Spirits appointed to be Ministers unto the Elect and as many of them who at the first disdained this Office and would not keep their first standing were for their pride hurried into Hell This lesseneth not the Dignity of Angels but extols the greatness of God's love to Mankind But as for all the Elect who at that second and sudden coming of Christ shall be found quick and living the fire that shall burn up the corruption of the world and the works therein shall in a moment in the twinkling of an Eye overtake them as it finds them either grinding in the Mill of Provision or walking in the Fields of pleasure or lying in the bed of ease and so burning up their dross and corruption of Mortal make them Immortal Bodies and this change shall be unto them instead of Death Then shall the Soul with joyfulness greet her Body saying O well met again my dear Sister How sweet is thy Voice How comely is thy countenance having lain hid so long in the Clefts of the Rocks and in the secret places of the grave thou art indeed an habitation fit not only for me to dwell in but such as the H. Ghost thinks meet to reside in as his Temple for ever The Winter of our affliction is now past the storm of our misery is blown over and gone The Bodies of our Elect Brethren appear more glorious than the Lily-flowers on the Earth the time of singing Hallelujahs is come and the voice of the Trumpet is heard in the Land Thou hast been my Yoke-fellow in the Lord's labours and companion in persecutions and wrongs for Christ and his Gospel sake now shall we enter together into our Master's Joy As thou hast born with me the Cross so shalt thou now wear with me the Crown As thou hast with me sowed plenteously in tears so shalt thou reap with me abundantly in joy O blessed ay blessed be that God! who when yonder Reprobates spent their whole time in Pride fleshly Lusts eating drinking and prophane Vanities gave us grace to join together in watching fasting praying reading the Scriptures keeping his Sabbaths hearing Sermons receiving the holy Communion relieving the Poor exercising in all humility the works of Piety to God and walking conscionably in the Duties of our calling towards Men. Thou shalt anon hear no mention of thy sins for they are remitted and covered but every good work which thou hast done for the Lord's sake shall be rehearsed and rewarded Chear up thy heart for thy Judge is flesh of thy flesh and bone of thy bone Lift up thy head behold these glorious Angels like so many Gabriels flying towards us to tell us That the day of our Redemption is come and to convey us in the Clouds to meet our Redeemer in the Air. Lo they are at hand Arise therefore my Dove my Love my fair One and come away And so like Roes or young Harts they run with Angels towards Christ over the trembling Mountains of Bether 6. Both quick and dead being thus revived and gloâ—â—fied shall forthwith by the ministry of God's holy Angels be gathered from all the quarters and parts of the world and caught up together in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air and so shall come with him as a part of his glorious Train to judge the Reprobates and evil Angels The twelve Apostles shall sit upon twelve thrones next Christ to judge the twelve Tribes who refused to hear the Gospel preached by their Ministry and all the Saints inâ— honour and order shall stand next unto them as Judges also to judge the evil Angels and earthly-minded Men. And as every of them received grace in this life to be more zealous of his glory and more faithful in his service than others so shall their glory and reward be greater than others in that Day The place whither they shall be gathered unto Christ and where Christ shall sit in judgment shall be in the Air over the Valley of Jehoshaphat by Mount Olivet near unto Jerusalem Eastward from the Temple as it is probable for four reasons 1. Because the holy Scripture seeâ—s to intimate so much in plain words I wiâ— gather all Nations into the valley of Jehoshaâ—phat and plead with them there Cause thy mighty one to come down O Lord let the heathen be wakened and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat for there will I sit to judge aâ— the heathen round about Jehoshaphat signifieth the Lord will judge And this Valley was so called from the great victory which the Lord gave Jehoshaphat and his people over the Ammonites Moabites and inhabitants of Mount Seir. Which victory was a type of the final victory which Christ â—he supream Judge shall give his Elect over â—ll their enemies in that place at the last â—ay as all the Jews interpret it See Zech. â— 4 5. Psalm 51. 1 2 c. all agreeing
Vertues as to call drunken carousing drinking of healths spilling innocent blood Valour Gluttony Hospitality Covetousness Thriftiness Whoredom loving a Mistress Simony Gratuity Pride Gracefulness Dissembling Complement Children of Belial Good Fellows Wrath Hastiness Ribaldry Mirth So on the other side to call Sobriety in words and actions Hypocrisie Alms-deeds Vain-glory Devotion Superstition Zeal in Religion Puritanism Humility Crouching scruple of Conscience Preciseness c. And whilst thus we call evil good and good evil true Piety is much hindred in her progress And thus much of the first hindrance of Piety by mistaking the true sence of some special places of Scripture and grounds of Christian Religion The second hindrance of Piety 2. The evil example of great Persons The practice of whose prophane lives they preferr for their imitation before the Precepts of God's holy Word So that when they see the greatest Men in the State and many chief Gentlemen in their Country to make neither care nor Conscience to hear Sermons to receive the Communion nor to sanctifie the Lord's Sabbath c. but to be Swearers Adulterers Carousers Oppressors c. Then they think that the using of these holy Ordinances are not matters of so great moment for if they were such great and wise Men would not set so little by them Hereupon they think that Religion is not a matter of necessity And therefore where they should like Christians row against the stream of impiety towards Heaven they suffer themselves to be carried with the multitude down right into Hell thinking it impossiâ—le that God will suffer so many to be damned Whereas if the good of this world had not blinded the eyes of their minds the Holy Scriptures would teach them that Not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called c. but that for the most part the poor receive the Gospel and that few rich men shall be saved And that howsoever many are called yet the chosen are but few Neither did the multitude ever save any from damnation As God hath advanced men in greatness above others so doth God expect that they in Religion and Piety should go before others otherwise greatness abused in the time of their Stewardship shall turn to their greater condemnation in the day of their accounts At what time sinful great and mighty men as well as the poorest slaves and bond-men shall wish that the Rocks and Mountains may fall upon them and hide them from the presence of the Judge and from his just deserved wrath It will prove but a miserable solace to have a great company of great Men partakers with thee of thine eternal torments The multitude of sinners doth not extenuate but aggravate sin as in Sodom Better it is therefore with a few to be saved in the Ark than with the whole world to be drowned in the flood Walk with the few godly in the Scriptures narrow path to Heaven but crownd not with the godless multitude in the broad way to Hell Let not the examples of irreligious great men hinder thy repentance for their greatness cannot at that day exempt themselves from their own most grievous punishment The third hindrance of Piety 3. The long escape of diserved punishment in this life Because sentance saith Solomon is not speedily executed against an evil worker therefore the hearts of the children of men are fully set in them to do evil not knowing that the bouâ—tifulness of God leadeth them to repentance But when his patience is abused and man's sins are ripened his Justice will at once both begin and make an end of the sinner and he will recompence the slowness of his delay with the grievousness of his punishment Though they were suffered to run on the score all the days of their life yet they shall be sure to pay the utmost farthing at the day of their death And whilst they suppose themselves to be free from Judgment they are already smitten with the Heaviest of God's Judgments a heart that cannot repent The stone in the reins or bladder is a grievous pain that kills many a man's body but there is no disease to the stone in the heart whereof Nabal died and which killeth millions of Souls They refuse the trial of Christ and his Cross but they are stoned by Hell's Executioner to eternal death Because many Nobles and Gentlemen are not smitten with present judgment for their outrageous Swearing Adultery Drunkenness Oppression prophaning of the Sabbath and disgraceful neglect of God's Worship and Service they begin to doubt of Divine Providence and Justice Both which two Eyes they would as willingly put out in God as the Philistines bored out the eyes of Sampson It is greatly therefore to be feared lest they will provoke the Lord to cry out against them as Sampson against the Philistines By neglecting the Law and walking after their own hearts they put out as much as in them lieth the eyes of my Providence and Justice Lead me therefore to these chief Pillars whereupon the Realm standeth that I may pull the Realm upon their heads and be at once avenged on them for my two eyes Let not God's patience hinder thy repentance but because he is so patient therefore do thou the rather repent The fourth hindrance of Piety 4. The presumption of God's mercy For when Men are justly convinced of their sins forthwith they betake themselves to this Shield Christ is merciful so that every sinner makes Christ the Patron of his sin as though he had come into the world to bolster sin and not to destroy the works of the Devil Hereupon the carnal Christian presumeth that though he continueth a while longer in his sin God will not shorten his days But what is this but to be an implicite Atheist Doubting that either God seeth not his sins or if he doth that he is not just for if he believeth that God is just how can he think that God who for sin so severely punisheth others can love him who still loveth to continue in sin True it is Christ is merciful but to whom only to them that repent and turn from iniquity in Jacob. But if any man bless himself in his heart saying I shall have peace although I walk according to the stubbornness of mine own heart thus adding drunkenness to thirst the Lord will not be merciful unto him c. O mad Men who dare bless themselves when God pronounceth them accursed Look therefore how far thou art from finding repentance in thy self so far art thou from any assurance of finding mercy in Christ. Let therefore the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous his own imaginations and return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he is very ready to forgive Despair is nothing so dangerous as presumption For we read not in all
and receiving of the Sacrament to the knowledge of thy saving grace and obedience of thy blessed will for that thou hast bought and redeemed me with the blood of thine only begotten Son from the torments of Hell amd thrall of Satan for that thou hast by faith in Christ freely justified me who am by nature the Child of wrath for that thou hast in good measure sanctified me by thy holy Spirit and given me so large a time to repent together with the means of repentance I thank thee likewise good Lord for my life health wealth food raiment peace prosperity and plenty and for that thou hast preserved me this night from all perils and dangers of body and soul and hast brought me lafe to the beginning of this day And as thou hast now wakned my body from sleep so I beseech thee waken my soul from sin and carnal security and as thou hast caused the light of the day to shine in my bodily eyes so good Lord cause the light of thy Word and holy Spirit to illuminate my heart and give me grace as one of thy children of light to walk in all holy obedience before thy face this day and that I may endeavour to keep faith and a clear conscience towards thee and towards all men in all my thoughts words and dealings And so good Lord bless all my studies and actions which I shall take in hand this day as that they may tend to thy glory the good of others and the comfort of mine own Soul and Conscience in that day when I shall make my final accounts unto thee for them Oh my God keep thy servant that I do no evil unto any man this day and let it be thy blessed will not to suffer the Devil nor his wicked Angels nor any of his evil Members or any malicious enemies to have any power to do me any hurt or violence But let the eye of thy holy providence watch over me for good and not for evil and command thy holy Angels to pitch their Tents round about me for my defence and safety in me going out and coming in as thou hast promised they should do about them that fear thy Name For into thy hands O Father I do here commend my soul and body my actions and all that ever I have to be guided defended and protected by thee being assured that whatsoever thou takest into thy custody cannot perish nor suffer any hurt or harm And if I at any time this day shall through frailty forget thee yet Lord I beseech thee do thou in mercy remember me And I pray not unto thee O Father for my self alone but I beseech thee also be merciful unto thy whole Church and chosen people wheresoever they live upon the face of the earth Defend them from the Rage and Tyranny of the Devil the World and Antichrist Give thy Gospel a free and a joyful passage through the world for the conversion of those who belong to thine Election and Kingdom Bless the Churches and Kingdoms wherein we live with the continuance of Peace Justice and true Religion Defend the King's Majesty from all his Enemies and grant him a long life in health and all happiness to reign over us Bless our gracious Queen Mary Prince Charles the Lady Mary the Lady Elizabeth and her Princely Issue Increase in them all heroical gifts and spiritual graces which may make them fit for those places for which thou hast ordained them Direct all the Nobility Bishops Ministers and Magistrates of this Church and Common-wealth to govern the Commons in true religion justice obedience and tranquility Be merciful unto all the Brethren which fear thee and call upon thy name and comfort as many among them as are sick and comfortless in body or mind especially be favourable to all such as suffer any trouble or persecution for the testimony of thy truth and holy Gospel And give them a gracious deliverance out of all their troubles which way it shall seem best to thy Wisdom for the glory of thy Name the further enlarging of the truth and the more ample increase of their own Comfort and Consolation Hasten thy coming O blessed Saviour and end these sinful days And give me grace that like a wife Virgin I may be prepared with oil in my Lamp to meet thee the sweet Bridegroom of my Soul at thy coming whether it be by the day of Death or of Judgment and then Lord Jesus come when thou wilt even Lord Jesus come quickly These and all other graces which thou knowest needful and necessary for me this day and evermore I humbly beg and crave at thy hands O Father giving thee thy glory in that form of Prayer which Christ himself hath taught me to say unto thee Our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy Name c. Meditations to stir us up to Morning Prayer IF when thou art about to pray Satan shall suggest that thy Prayers are too long and that therefore it were better either to omit Prayers or else to cut them shorter meditate that Prayer is thy spiritual sacrifice wherewith God is well pleased and therefore it is so displeasing to the Devil and so irksome to thy Flesh. Bend therefore thy Affections will they nill thy to so holy an exercise assuring thy self that it doth by so much the more please God by how much the more it is unpleasing to thy flesh 2. Forget not how the Holy Ghost puts at down as a special note of reprobates they call not upon the Lord they call not upon God And when Eliphaz supposed that Job had cast off the fear of God and tha◠God had cast Job out of his favour he chargeth him that he restrained prayer 〈◊〉 God making that a sure none of the 〈◊〉 and a sufficient cause of the other On the other side that God hath promised that whosoever shall call on his name shall be saved It is certain that he who maketh no conscience of the duty of Prayer hath no grace of the holy Spirit in him For the spirit of grace and of prayer are one And therefore Grace and Prayer go together But he that can from a penitent heart morning and evening pray unto God it is sure that he hath his measure of grace in this world and he shall have his portion of glory in the life which is to come 3. Remember that as loathing of meat and painfulness of speaking are two symptoms of a sick body So irkesomness of praying when thou talkest with God and carelesness in hearing when God by his Word speaks unto thee are two sure signs of a sick Soul 4. Call to mind the zealous devotions of the Christians in the Primitive Church who spent many whole nights and vigils in watching and praying for the forgiveness of
be so careful before thou goest abroad to drink to fence thy body from ill airs how much more careful shouldest thou be to pray to preserve thy soul from evil temptations 4. That the time spent in prayer never hindreth but furthereth and prospereth a Man's journey and business 5. That in going abroad into the world thou goest into a Forest full of unknown dangers where thou shalt meet many briars to tear thy good name many snares to crap thy life and my hunters to devour thy Soul It is a Field of pleasant Grass but full of poisonous Serpents Adventure not therefore to go naked amongst these briars till thou hast prayed Christ to clothe thee with his righteousness nor to pass thorow these snares and ambushments till thou hast prayed for God's providence to be thy guide nor to walk barefoot through this snaky field till having thy feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace thou hast prayed to have still the brazen Serpent in the eyes of thy faith that so if thou comest not home holier thou maist be sure not to return worser than when thou wentest out of door Therefore tho' thy haste be never so much or thy business never so great yet go not about it nor out of thy doors till thou hast at least used this or the like short Prayer A brief Prayer for the Morning O Merciful Father for Jesus Christ his sake I beseech thee forgive me all my known and secret sins which in thought word or deed I have committed against thy Divine Majesty and deliver me from all those judgments which are due unto me for them and sanctifie my heart with thy holy Spirit that I may henceforth lead a more godly and religious life And hear O Lord I praise thy holy name for that thou hast refreshed me this night with moderate sleep and rest I beseech thee likewise defend mâ— this day from all perils and dangers of body and soul. And to this end I commend my self and all my actions unâ—o thy blessed protection and government beseeching thee that whether I live or die I may live and die to thy glory and the salvation of my poor soul which thou hast bought with thy precious Blood Bless me therefore O Lord in my going out and coming in and grant that whatsoever I shall think speak or take in hand this day may tend to the glory of thy name the good of others and the comfort of mine own conscience when I shall come to make before thee my last accounts Grant this O heavenly Father for Jesus Christ thy Son's sake In whose blessed Name I give thee thy glory and beg at thy hands all other graces which thou seest to be needful for me this day and ever in that prayer which Christ himself hath taught me saying Our Father c. Meditations directing a Christian how he may walk all the day with God like Enoch HAving thus begun keep all the day after as diligent a watch as thou canst over all thy thoughts words and actions which thou maiest easily do by craving the assistance of God's holy Spirit and observing these few rules First for thy thoughts 1. BE careful to suppress every sin in the first motion Dash Babylon's children whilst they are young against the stones Tread Betimes the Cockatrice's egg lest it break out into a Serpent Let sin be to thy heart a stranger not a home-dweller Take heed of falling oft into the same sin lest the custom of sinning take away the conscience of sin and then shalt thou was so impudently wicked that thou wilt neither fear God nor reverence Man 2. Suffer not thy mind to feed it self upon any imagination which is either impossible for thee to do or unprofitable if it be done but rather think of the world's vanity to contemn it of death to expect it of judgment to avoid it of Hell to escape it and of Heaven to desire it 3. Desire not to fulfil thy mind in all things but learn to deny thy self those desires tho' never so pleasing to thy nature which being attained will draw either scandal on thy Religion or hatred to thy Person Consider in every thing the end before thou attempt the Action 4. Labour daily more and more to see thine own miseri through unbelief self-love and wilful Breaches of God's Law and the necessity of God's mercy through the merits of Christ's Passion to be such that if thou wert demanded What is the vilest creature upon earth Thy Conscience may answer Mine own self by reason of my great sins and that if on the other side thou wert asked What thou esteemest to be the mâ—st precious thing in the world thy heart might answer One drop of Christ's blood to wash away my sins And as thou tenderest the salvation of thy soul live not in any wilful filthiness For true faith and the purpose of sinning can never stand together 5. Approve thy self to be a true servant of Christ not only in thy general Calling as in the frequent use of the Word and Sacraments but also in thy particular in making conscience to eschew every known sin and to obey God in every one of his Commandments like Josias who turned to God with all his heart according to all the law of Moses and Zachary and Elizabeth who walked in all the Commandments of God without reproof But if at any time through frailty thou slippest into any sin lie not in it but speedily rise out of it by unfeigned repentance praying for pardoâ— till thy conscience be pacified thy hatred of sin encreased and thy purpose of amendment confirmed 6. Beware of affecting Popularity by adulation the end never proves good and though attained by due deserts yet manage it wisely lest it prove more dangerous than contempt For States desire but to keep down whom they contemn for their unworthiness but to cut off whom they envy for their greatness He therefore is truly prudent who considering the premises neither affecteth nor neglecteth popularity But in any wise take heed of harbouring a discontented mind for it may work thee more woe than thou art aware of It is a special mercy in the multitude of so many blessings as thou dost enjoy to have some crosses God gives thee many blessings lest through want being his child thou shouldst despair and he sends thee some crosses lest by too much prosperity playing the fool thou shouldst presume Many who have mounted to great dignities would have contented themselves with meaner had they known their great dangers affect therefore competency rather than eminency And in all thy will have ever an eye to God's will lest thy self-action turn to thine own destruction Happy the Man who in this short life is least known of the World so that he doth truly know God and himself whatsoever cross therefore thou hast to discontent thee remember that it is less than
day 5. Praying for rest and protection that night 6. Remembering the state of the Church the King and the Royal Posterity our Ministers and Magistrates and all our Brethren visited or persecuted 7. Lastly commending thy self and all thine to his gracious custody All which thou maist do in these or the like words A Prayer for the Evening O Most gracious God and loving Father who art about my bed and knowest my down-lying and mine up-rising and art near unto all that call upon thee in truth and sincerity I wretched sinner do beseech thee to look upon me with the eyes of thy mercy and not to behold me as I am in my self For then thou shalt see but an unclean and defiled creature conceived in sin and living in iniquity so that I am ashamed to lift up mine eyes to heaven knowing how grievously I have sinned against heaven and before thee For O Lord I have transgressed all thy Commandments and righteous Laws not only through negligence and infirmity but oftentimes through willful presumption contrary to my knowledge yea contrary to the motions of thy Holy spirit reclaiming me from them so that I have wounded my conscience and grieved thy Holy Spirit by whom thou hast sealed me to the day of redemption Thou hast consecrated my soul and body to be the temples of the Holy Ghost I wretched sinner have defiled both with all manner of pollution and uncleanness My eyes in taking pleasure to behold vanity mine ears in hearing impure and unchaste speeches my tongue in leasing and evil speaking my hands are so full of impurity that I am ashamed to lift them up unto thee and my feet have carried me after mine own ways my understanding and reasoning which are so quick in all earthly matters are only blind and stupid when I come to meditate or discourse of spiritual and heavenly things my memory which should be the treasury of all goodness is not so apt to remember any thing as those things which are vile and vain Yea Lord by woful experience I find that naturally all the imaginations of the thoughts of mine heart are only evil continually And these my sins are more in number than the hairs upon mine head and they have grown over me like a loathsom leprosie that from the Crown of my head to the sole of my feet there remains no part which they have not infected They make me seem vile in mine own eyes how much more abominable must I then appear in thy sight And the custom of sinning hath almost taken away the conscience of sin and pulled upon me such dullness of sense and hardness of heart that thy judgments denounced against my sins by the faithful Preachers of thy Word do not terrifie me to return unto thee by unfeigned repentance for them And if thou Lord shouldest but deal with me according to thy justice and my desert I should utterly be confounded and condemned But seeing that of thine infinite mercy thou hast spared me so long and still waitest for my repentance I humbly beseech thee for the bitter death and bloody passion sake which Jesus Christ hath suffered for me that thou wouldest pardon and forgive unto me all my sins and offences and open unto me that ever streaming fountain of the blood of Christ which thou hast promised to open under the New Testament to the penitent of the house of David that all my sins and uncleanness may be so bathed in his blood buried in his death and hid in his wounds that they may never be more seen to shame me in this life or to condemn me before thy Judgment-seat in the World which is to come And for as much O Lord as thou know'st that it is not in man to turn his own heart unless thou dost first give him grace to convert and seeing that it is as easie with thee to make me righteous and holy as to bid me to be such O my God give me grace to do what thou commandest and then command what thou wilt and thou shalt find me willing to do thy blessed will And to this end give unto me thine Holy Spirit which thou hast promised to give to the world's end unto all thine Elect people And let the same thy holy Spirit purge my heart heal my corruption sanctifie my nature and consecrate my soul and body that they may become the temples of the Holy Ghost to serve thee in righteousness and holiness all the days of my life that when by the direction and assistance of thy holy Spirit I shall finish my course in this short and transitory life I may chearfully leave this world and resign my soul into thy Fatherly hands in the assured confidence of enjoying everlasting life with thee in thine heavenly Kingdom which thou hast prepared for thine elect Saints who love the Lord Jesus and expect his appearing In the mean while O Father I beseech thee let thy holy Spirit work in me such a serious repentance as that I may with tears lament my sins past with grief of heart be humble for my sins present and with all mine endeavour resist the like filthy sins in time to come And let the same thy holy Spirit likewise keep me in the Vnity of thy Church lead me in the truth of thy Word and preserve me that I never swerve from the same to Popery nor any other errour or false worship And let thy Spirit open mine eyes more and more to see the wondrous things of thy Law and open my lips that my mouth may daily defend thy truth and set forth thy praise Increase in me those good gifts which of thy mercy thou hast already bestowed upon me and give unto me a patient spirit a chast heart a contented mind pure affections wise behaviour and all other graces which thou feest to be necessary for me to govern my heart in thy fear and to guide all my life in thy favour that whether I live or die I may live and die unto thee who art my God and my Redeemer And here O Lord according as I am bound I render unto thee from the Altar of my humblest heart all possible thanks for all those blessings and benefits which so graciously and plentuously thou hast bestowed upon my soul and body for this life and for that which is to come namely for mine Election Creation Redemption Vocation Justification Sanctification and Preservation from my child-hood until this present day and hour and for the firm hope which thou hast given me of my Glorification Likewise for my health wealth food raiment and prosperity and more especially for that thou hast defended me this day now past from all perils and dangers both of body and soul furnishing me with all necessary good things that I stand in need of And as thou hast ordained the day for
this second and sudden coming in glory Grant this good Father for Christ Jesus sake my only Saviour and Mediator in whose blessed Name and in whose own words I call upon thee as he hath taught me Our Father which art c. Afterwards say Thy Grace O Lord Jesus Christ thy love O heavenly Father thy comfort and consolation O holy and blessed Spirit be with me and dwell in my heart this night and evermore Amen Then rising up in a holy Reverence meditate as thou art putting off thy Clothes Things to be meditated upon as thou art putting off thy Clothes 1. THat the day is coming when thou must be as barely unstript of alâ— that thou hast in the World as thou arâ— now of thy Clothes thou hast therefore here but the use of all things as a Steward for a time and that upon accounts Whilst therefore thou art trusted with thiâ— Stewardship be wise and faithful 2. When thou seest thy Bed let it puâ— thee in mind of thy grave which is now the bed of Christ for Christ by laying hiâ— holy body to rest three days and three nights in the grave hath sanctified anâ— as it were warmed it for the bodies oâ— his Saints to rest and sleep in till thâ— morning of the Resurrection so that now unto the faithful death is but a sweet sleep and the grave is but Christ's bed where their bodies rest and sleep in peace until the joyful morning of the Resurrection-day shall dawn unto them Let therefore thy Bed-clothes represent unto thee the mould of the Earth that shall cover thee thy sheets thy winding sheet thy sleep thy death thy waking thy resurrection And being laid down in thy bed when thou perceivest sleep to approach say I will lay me down and sleep in peace for thou Lord only makest me dwell in safety Thus religiously opening every Morning thy heart and shutting it up again every Evening with the Word of God and Prayer as it were with a Lock and Key and so beginning the day with God's Worship continuing it in his fear and ending it in his favour thou shalt be sure to find the blessing of God upon all thy days labours and good endeavours and at night thou maist assure thy self thou shalt sleep safely and sweetly in the arms of thy heavenly Father's providence Thus far of the Piety which every Christian in private ought to practise every day Now followeth that which he being an Housholder must practise publickly with his Family Meditations for Houshold Piety 1. IF thou beest called to the government of a Family thou must not hold it sufficient to serve God and live uprightly in thine own person unless thou causest all under thy charge to do the same with thee For the performance of this duty God was so well pleased with Abraham that he would not hide from him his counsel For saith God I know him that he will command his sons and his houshold after him that they keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and judgment that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that he hath spoken unto him And Abraham had 318 Men servants which were thus born and catechized in his house With whose help he rescued also his Nephew Lot from the captivity of his Enemies And religiously valiant Joshua protesteth before all the people That if they all would fall away from the true Worship of God yet that he and his house would serve the Lord. And God himself gives a special charge to all Housholders that they do instruct their Family in his Word and train them up in his fear and service These words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart and thou shalt whet them continually upon thy Children and shalt talk of them when thou tarriest in thine house and as thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up c. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him David according to this Law had so ordered his Family That no deceitful person should dwell in his house but such as would serve God and walk in his way and religious Esther had taught her Maids to serve God in fasting and prayer And the more to further thy family in the zeal of religion settle ever thy chiefest affection on those whom thou shalt perceive to be best addicted to true Religion This also will turn to thine own advantage in a double respect First God will the rather bless and prosper the labour and handy-work of such godly servants For Laban perceived that God blessed him for Jacob's sake And Potiphar saw that the Lord made all that Jeseph did to prosper in his hand yea when innocent Joseph was cast into prison his keeper saw that whatsoever he did the Lord made it to prosper and therefore the keeper committed all the charge of the Prisoners into Joseph's hand 2. The trulier a man doth serve God the faithfullier he will serve thee 2. If every Houshoulder were thus careful according to his duty to bring up his Children and Family in the service and fear of God in his own house then the house of God would be better filled and the Lord's Table more frequented every Sabbath day and the Pastor's publick preaching and labour would take more effect than it doth The streets of Towns and Cities would not abound with so many drunkards swearers whore-mongers and prophane scorners of true Piety and Religion Westminister-Hall would not be so full of contentions wrangling suits and unchristian debates and the prisons would not be every Sessions so full of Thieves Robbers Traitors and Murtherers But alas most Housholders make no other use of their Servants than they do of their Beasts Whilst they may have their Bodies to do their service they care not if their Souls serve the Devil Yet the common complaint is that faithful and good servants are scarce to be found True but the reason is because there are so many prophane and irreligious Masters for the example and instruction of a Godly and Religious Master will make a good and a faithful servant as may witness the examples of Abraham Joshua David Cornelius c. who had good servants because they were religious Masters such as were careful to make their servants God's servants It is the chief labour and care of most men to raise and to advance their house yet let them rise up early and lie down late and eat the bread of carefulness all will be but in vain for except the Lord build an house that is raise up a Family they labour in vain For God hath sealed this as an irrevocable decree That he will pour his wrath upon the Families that call not upon his name yea God will take the wicked and pluck him out of his tabernacle and root him out of the land c. Yea when his
iniquities are full he will make the land to spue out every Canaanite Religion then and the Service of God in a Family is the best building and surest entailing of House and Land to a Man and his Posterity for the righteous Man shall inherit the Land and dwell therein for ever As therefore thou desirest to have the blessing of God upon thy self and upon thy family either before or after thy own private devotions call every morning all thy family to some convenient room and first either read thy self unto them a Chapter in the Word of God or cause it to be read distinctly by some other If leisure serve thou maist admonish them of some remarkable notes and then kneeling down with them in reverent sort as is before described pray with them in this manner Morning Prayer for a Family O Lord our God and heavenly Father who art the only Creator and Governour of heaven and earth and all things therein contained we confess that we are unworthy to appear in thy sight and presence considering our manifold sins which we have committed against heaven and before thee and how that we have been born in sin and do daily break thy holy Laws and Commandments contrary to our knowledge and consciences albeit that we know that thou art our Creator who hast made us our Redeemer who hast bought us with the blood of thine only begotten Son and our Comforter who bestowest upon us all the good and holy graces which we enjoy in our souls and bodies And if thou should'st but deal with us as our wickedness and unthankfulness have deserved what other thing might we O Lord expect from thee but shame and confusion in this life and in the World to come wrath and everlasting condemnation Yet O Lord in the obedience of thy Commandment and in the confidence which we have in thy unspeakable and endless mercy in thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ we thy poor servants appealing from thy Throne of Justice where we are justly lost and condemned to thy Throne of grace where mercy reigneth to pardon abounding sin do from the bottom of our hearts most humbly beseech thee to remit and forgive unto us all our offences and misdeeds that by the virtue of the precious blood of Jesus Christ thine innocent Lamb which he so abundantly shed to take away the sins of the world all our sins both original and actual may be so cleansed and washed from us as that they may never be laid to our charge nor ever have power to rise up in judgment against us And we beseech thee good Fatherâ— for Christ his death and passions sake thaâ— thou wilt not suffer to fall upon us thaâ— fearful curse and vengeance which thy laâ—â— hath threatned and our sins have justly deserved And for as much O Lord as we arâ— taught by thy word that Idolaters Adulterrers covetous Men contentious Persons Drunkards Gluttons and such like inordinate livers shall not inherit the kingdom of God pour the grace of thy Holy Spirit into our hearts whereby we may be enlightned to see the filthiness of our sins to abhor them and may be more and more stirred up to live in newness of life and love of thy Majesty so that we may daily increase in the obedience of thy Word and in a conscionable care of keeping thy Commandments And now O Lord we render unto thee most hearty thanks for that thou hast elected created redeemed called justified and sanctified us in good measure in this life and given us an assured hope that thou wilt glorifie us in thy heavenly kingdom when this mortal life is ended Likewise we thank thee for our life health wealth liberty prosperity and peace especially O Lord for the continuance of thy holy Gospel among us and for sparing us so long and granting us so gracious a time of repentance Also we praise thee for all other thy mercies bestowed upon us more especially for preserving us this night past from all dangers that might have befaln our souls or bodies And seeing thou hast now brought us safe to the beginning of this day we beseech thee protect and direct us in the same Bless and defend us in our going out and coming in this day and evermore Shield us O Lord from the temptations of the Devil and grant us the custody of thy holy Angels to defend and direct us in all our ways And to this end we recommend our selves and all those that belong unto us and are abroad from us into thy hands and Almighty tuition Lord defend them from all evil prosper them in all graces and fill them with thy goodness Preserve us likewise this day from falling into any gross sin especially those whereunto our Natures are most prone Set a watch before the door of our lips that we offend not thy Majesty by any rash or false Oaths or by any lewd or lying Speeches give unto us patient Minds pure and chaste Hearts and all other graces of thy Spirit which thou knowest to be needful for us that we may the better be enabled to serve thee in holiness and righteousness And seeing that all Man's labour without thy blessing is in vain bless every one of us in our several places and callings direct thou the work of our hands upon us even prosper thou our handy-work for except thou guide us with thy grace our endeavours can have no good success And provide for us all things which thou O Father knowest to be needful for every one of us in our Souls and Bodies this day And grant that we may so pass through the pilgrimage of this short life that our hearts being not setled upon any transitory things which we meet with in the way our Souls may every day be more and more ravished with the love of our home and thine everlasting Kingdom Defend likewise O Lord thy universal Church and every particular Member thereof especially we beseech thee to continue the peace and prosperity of these Churches and Kingdoms wherein we live Preserve and defend from all evils and dangers our gracious King Charles Queen Mary the noble and hopeful Prince Charles with the rest of the Royal Progeny the Lady Elizabeth the King 's only Sister and her Princely Issue Multiply their days in bliss and felicity and afterwards crown them with everlasting Joy and Glory Bless all our Ministers and Magistrates with all graces needful for their places and govern thou them that they may govern us in peace and godliness and of thy mercy O Lord comfort all our brethren that are distressed sick or any way comfortless especially those who are afflicted either with an evil conscience because they have sinned against thy Word or for a good conscience because they will not sin against thy truth Make the first to know that not one drop of the blood of Christ was a drop of vengeance but all drops of grace powerful to procure pardon upon repentance for
and eyes unto the great Creator and Feeder of all Creatures and before Meat pray unto him thus Grace before Meat O Most gracious God and loving Father who feedest all creatures living which depend upon thy divine providence we beseech the sanctifie these creatures which thou hast ordained for us give them virtue to nourish our bodies in life and health and give us grace to receive them soberly and thankfully as from thy hands that so in the strength of these and other thy blessings we may walk in the uprightness of our hearts before thy face this day and all the days of our lives through Jesus Christ our Lord and only Saviour Amen Or thus MOst gracious God and merciful Father we beseech thee sanctifie these Creatures to our use make them healthful for our nourishment and us thankful for all thy blessings through Christ our Lord and only Saviour Amen Another Grace before Meat O Eternal God in whom we live move and have our being we beseech thee bless unto thy Servants these Creatures that in the strength of them we may live to the setting forth of thy praise and glory through Jesus Christ our Lord and only Saviour Amen After every meal be careful of thy self and family as Job was for himself and his Children Job 1. 4. lest that in the chearfulness of eating and drinking some speech hath slipped out which might be either offensive to God or injurious to man and therefore with the like comely gâ—sture and reverence give thanks unto God and pâ—ay in this manner BLessed be thy holy Name O Lord our God for these thy good benefits wherewith thou hast so plentifully at this time refreshed our bodies O Lord vouchsafe likewise to feed our souls with the spiritual food of thy holy Word and Spirit unto life everlasting Lord defend and save thy whole Church our gracious King Charles Queen Mary the noble and hopeful Prince Charles with the rest of the royal progeny the Lady Elizabeth the Kings only Sister and her Princely issue Forgive us our sins and unthankfulness pass by our manifold infirmities make us all mindful of our last end and of the reckoning that we are to make to thee therein and in the mean while grant unto us health peace and truth in Jesus Christ our Lord and only Saviour Amen Or thus BLessed be thy Holy name O Lord for these thy good benefits wherewith thou hast refreshed us at this time Lord forgive us all our sins and frailties save and defend thy whole Church our King and his Royal posterity and grant us health peace and truth in Christ our only Saviour Amen Or thus WE give thee thanks O heavenly Father for feeding our bodies so graciously with thy good creatures to this temporal life beseeching thee likewise to feed our souls with thy holy Word unto life everlasting Defend O Lord thine universal Church the King and his royal Posterity and grant us continuance of thy grace and mercy in Christ our only Saviour Amen The Practice of Piety at Evening At Evening when the due time of repairing to rest approacheth call together again all thy Family Read a Chapter in the same manner that was prescribed in the morning Then in holy imitation of our Lord and his Disciples sing a Psalm But in singing of Psalms either after Supper or at any other time observe these rules Rules to be observed in singing of Psalm 1. BEware of singing divine Psalms for an ordinary recreation as do men of impure Spirits who sing holy Psalms intermingled with prophane Ballads They are God's Word take them not in thy mouth in vain 2 Remember to sing David's Psalms with David's Spirit 3. Practise Saint Paul's rule I will sing with the spirit but I will sing with the understanding also 4. As you sing uncover your heads and behave your selves in comely reverence as in the sight of God singing to God in God's own words but be sure that the matter make more melody in your hearts than the Musick in your ear for the singing with grace in our hearts is that which the Lord is delighted withal according to that old verse Non vox sed votum non musica cordula sed cor Non clamans sed amans psallit in aure Dei 'T is not the voice but vow Sound heart not sounding string True zeal not outward show That in God's ear doth ring 5. Thou maiest if thou thinkest good sing all the Psalms over in order for all are most divine and comfortable But if thou wilt chuse some special Psalms as more fit for some times and purposes and such as by the oft usage thy people may the easilier commit to memory Then sing In the Morning Psal. 3. 5. 16. 22. 144. In the Evening Psal. 4. 127. 141. For mercy after a sin committed Psal 51. 103. In sickness or heaviness Psal. 6. 13. 89. 90. 91. 137. 146. When thou art recovered Psal. 30. 32. On the Sabbath day Psal. 19. 92. 95. In time of joy Psal. 80. 98. 107. 136. 145. Before Sermon Psal. 1. 12. 147. the 1. and 5. Part of the 119. After Sermon any Psalm which concerneth the chief argument of the Sermon At the Communion Psal. 22. 23. 103. 111. 116. For spiritual solace Psal. 15. 19. 25. 46. 67. 112. 116. After wrong and disgrace received Psal. 42. 69. 70. 140. 144. After the Psalm all kneeling down in reverent manner as is before described let the Father of the Family or the chiefest in his absence pray thus Evening Prayer for a Family O Eternal God and most gracious Father we thine unworthy Servants here assembled do cast down our selves at the footstool of thy grace acknowledging that we have inherited our Fathers corruption and actually in thought word and deed transgressed all thy holy Commandments so that in us naturally there dwelleth nothing that is good for our hearts are full of secret pride anger impatience dissembling lying lust vanity prophanâ—ness distruâ—â— too much love of our selves and the World too little love of thee and thy Kingdom but empty and void of faith love patience and every spiritual grace If thou therefore shouldst but enter into judgment with us and search out our natural corruption and observe all the cursed fruits and effects that we have derived from thence Satan might justly challenge us for his own and we could noâ— expect any thing from thy Majesty but thy wrath and our condemnation which we have long ago deserved But good Father for Jesus Christ thy dear Son's sake in whom only thou art well pleased and for the merits of that bitter death and bloody passion which we believe that he hath suffered for us have mercy upon us pardon and forgive us all our sins and free us from the shame and confusion which are due unto us for them that they may never seize upon us to our confusion in this life nor to our condemnation in the world
it self commands us to hear did alter it from that seventh day to this first day of the Week whereon we keep the Sabbath For the holy Evangelist notes that our Lord came into the midst of the holy Assembly on the two first days of the two Weeks immediately following his Resurrection and then blessed the Church breathed on the Apostles the Holy Ghost and gave them the ministerial keys and power of binding and remitting sins And so it is most probable he did in a solemn manner every first-day of the week during the forty days he continued on earth between his Resurrection and Ascension for the fiftieth day after being the first day of the week the Apostles were assembled during which time he gave Commandments unto the Apostles and spake unto them those things which appertain to the Kingdom of God that is instructed them how they should throughout the Churches which were to be converted change the Sabbath to the Lord's-Day the bodily sacrifices of beasts to the spiritual sacrifices of Praise Prayer and contrite Hearts the Levitical Priesthood of the Law to the Christian Ministery of the Gospel the Jewish Temples and Synagogues to Churches and Oratories the Old Sacraments of Circumcision and Passover to Baptism and the Lord's Supper c. as may appear by the like Phrase Acts 19. 8. and Acts 28. 23. Col. 4. 11. put for the whole sum of Paul's Doctrine by which were wrought all these changes where it took effect So that as Christ was forty days instructing Moses in Sinai what he should teach and how he should rule the Church under the Law so he continued forty days teaching his Disciples in Sion what they should preach and how they should govern the Church under the Gospel And seeing it is manifest that within those forty days Christ appointed what Ministers should teach and how they should govern his Church to the world's end it is not to be doubted but that within those forty days he likewise ordained on what day they should keep their Sabbath and ordinarily to the works of their Ministery especially seeing that under the Old Testament God shewed himself as careful both by his Moral and Ceremonial Law to prescribe the time as well as the matter of his Worship Neither is it a thing to be omitted that the Lord who hath times and seasons in his own power appointed this first day of the week to be the very day wherein he sent down from Heaven the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles so that upon that day they first began and ever after continued the publick exercising of their Ministery in the preaching of the Word the administration of the Sacraments and the loosing of the sins of penitent sinners Upon these and the like grounds Athanasius plainly affirmeth that the Sabbath day was changed by the Lord himself As therefore our Communion is termed the Lord's Supper because it was instituted of the Lord for the remembrance of his death so the Christian Sabbath is called of the Lord's day because it was ordained of the Lord for the memorial of his Resurrection And as the Name of the Lord honoureth the one so doth it the other and as the Lord of the Sabbath by his royal Prerogative and transcendent authority could so he had also reason to change the Holy Sabbath from the seventh day to this whereon we keep it For as concerning the seventh day which followed the six days wherein God finished the Creation there was no such precise institution or necessity of sanctifying it perpetually but such as by the same authority or upon greater reason and occasion it might very well be changed and altered unto some other seventh day For the Commandment doth not say Remember to keep hnly the seventh day next following the sixth day of the Creation or this or that seventh day but indefinitely Remember that thou keep holy a seventh day And to speak properly as we take a day for the distinction of time called either a day natural consisting of 24 hours or a day artificial consisting of 12 hours from Sun-rising to Sun-setting and withal consider the Sun standing still at noon in Joshuah's time the space of a whole day and the Sun going back ten degrees viz. five hours almost half an artificial day in Ezekiah's time the Jews themselves could not keep their Sabbath upon that precise and just distinction of time called at the first the seventh day from the Creation Add hereunto that in respect of the diversity of Meridians and the unequal rising and setting of the Sun every day varieth in some places a quarter in some half in others a whole day Therefore the Jewish seventh day cannot precisely be kept at the same instant of time every where in the World Now our Lord Jesus having authority as Lord over the Sabbath had likewise now far greater reason and occasion to translate the Sabbath from the Jewish seventh day unto the seventh day whereon Christians do keep the Sabbath 1. Because that by his Resurrection from the dead there is wrought a new spiritual Creation of the World without which all the Sons of Adam had been turned to everlasting destruction and all the works of the first creation had ministred no consolation unto us 2. And in respect of this new spiritual Creation the Scripture saith that Old things are passed away and all things are become new new Creatures new People new men new knowledge new Testament new commandment new names new way new song new garment new wine new vessels new Jerusalem new Heaven and a new earth And therefore of necessity there must be instead of the old a new Sabbath day to honour and praise our Redeemer and to meditate upon the work of our redemption and to shew the new change of the old Testament 3. Because that on this day Christ rested from all the sufferings of his Passion and finished the glorious work of our Redemption If therefore the finishing of the work of the first Creation whereby God mightily manifested himself unto his creatures deserved a Sabbath for to solemnize the memorial of so great a work to the honour of the worker and therefore calls it mine holy-day much more doth the new Creatition of the world effected by the resurrection of Christ whereby he mightly declared himself to be the Son of God deserve a Sabbath for the perpetual commemoration thereof to the honour of Christ and therefore worthily called the Lord's day For as the deliverance out of the Captivity of Babylon being greater took away the name from the deliverance out of the Bondage of Egypt so the day whereon Christ finished the redemption of the world did more justly deserve to have the Sabbath kept on it than on that day whereon God ceased from creating the world As therefore in
thou hast and a supply of those which thou wantest But especially pray that thou maist have Grace to hear the word of God read and preached with profit and that thou maist receive the holy Sacrament with comfort if it be Communion day that God by his Holy Spirit would assist the Preacher to speak something that may kill thy sin and comfort thy soul which thou maist do in this or the like sort A morning Prayer for the Sabbath-day O Lord most high O God eternal all whose works are glorious and whose thoughts are very deep there can be no better thing than to praise thy Name and to declare thy loving kindness in the morning on thy holy and blessed Sabbath day For it is thy Will and Commandment that we should sanctiâ—ie this day in thy service and praise and in the thankful remembrance as of the creation of the world by the power of thy Word so of the redemption of Mankind by the death of thy Son Thine O Lord I confess is greatness and power and glory and victory and praise for all that is in heaven and earth is thine Thine is the Kingdom O Lord and thou excellest as head over all Both riches and honour come of thee and thou reignest over all and in thine hand is power and strength and in thine hand it is to make great and to give grace unto all Now therefore O my God I praise thy glorious Name that whereas I a wretched sinner having so many ways provoked thy Majesty to anger and displeasure thou notwithstanding of thy favour and goodness passing by my prophaneness and infirmities hast vouchsafed to add this Sabbath again unto the number of my days And vouchsafe O heavenly Father for the merits of Jesus Christ thy Son whose glorious resurrection thy whole Church celebrateth this day to pardon and forgive me all my sins and misdeeds Especially O Lord cleanse my soul from those filthy sins with the blood of thy most pure and undefiled Lamb which taketh away the sins of the world And let thy Holy Spirit more and more subdue my corruptions that I may be renewed after thine own Image to serve thee in newness of life and holiness of conversation And as of thy mercy thou hast brought me to the beginning of this blessed day so I do beseech thee make it a day of Reconciliation betwixt my sinful Soul and thy Divine Majesty Give me grace to make it a day of Repentance unto thee that thy goodness may seal iâ— to be a day of pardon unto me and that I may remember that the keeping holy of this day is a Commandment which thine own finger hath written That on this day I might meditate on thy glorious works of our Creation and Redemption and learn how to know and to keep all the rest of thy holy Laws and Commandments And when anon I shall with the rest of the holy Assembly appear before thy Presence in thy House to offer unto thee our Morning Sacrifice of praise and Prayer and to hear what thy Spirit by the preaching of thy Word shall speak unto thy servant Oh let not my sins stand as a Cloud to stop my Prayers from ascending unto thee or to keep back thy grace from descending by thy Word into my heart I know O Lord and tremble to think that three parts of the good seed falls upon bad ground O let not my heart be like the high-way which through hardness and want of true understanding receives not the seed till the evil one cometh and catcheth it away nor like to the stony ground which heareth with joy for a time but falleth away as soon as persecution ariseth for the Gospel's sake nor like the thorny ground which by the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choaketh the Word which it heareth and makes it altogether unfruitful but thâ—t like unto the good ground I may hear thy Word with an honest and good heart understand it and keep it and bring forth fruit with patience in that measure that thy Wisdom shall think meet for thy glory and mine everlasting comfort Open likewise I beseech thee O Lord the door of utterance unto thy faithful servant whom thou hast sent unto us to open our Eyes that we may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that we may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in Christ. And give me grace to submit my self unto his Ministery as well when he terriâ—ieth me with judgments as when he comforteth me with thy Mercies And that I may have him in singular love for his works sake because he watcheth for my soul as he that must give an account for the same unto his Master And give me grace to behave my self in the holy Congregation with comeliness and reverence as in thy presence and in the sight of thy holy Angels Keep me from drowsiness and sleeping and from all wandring thoughts and worldly imaginations sanctifie my Memory that it may be apt to receive and firm to remember those good and profitable doctrines which shall be taught unto us out of thy Word And that through the assistance of thy holy Spirit I may put the same Lessons in practice for my direction in Prosperity for my consolation in Misery for the amendment of my Life and the glory of thy Name And that this day which godless and prophane Persons spend in their own Lusts and Pleasures I as one of thy obedient Servants may make my chief delight to consecrate to thy glory and honour not doing mine own ways nor seeking mine own will nor speaking a vain word but that ceasing from the works of sin as well as from the works of mine ordinary calling I may through thy blessing feel in my heart the beginning of that eternal Sabbath which in unspeakable joy and glory I shall celebrate with Saints and Angels to thy praise and worship in thy heavenly Kingdom for evermore All which I humbly crave at thy hands in the name and mediation of my Lord Jesus in that form of Prayer which he hath taught me Our Father which art in Heaven c. Having thus in private prepared thine own soul if thou hasâ— the charge of a Family call all thy Houshold together read a Chapter and pray as in the week-days but remember so to dispatch these private preparations and duties as that thou and thy family may be in the Church before the beginning of Prayers Else your private exercises are rather an hindranâ—e than a preparation And as thou and thy Houshold do go in all reverence towards the Church let every one meditate thus with himself Things to be meditated as thou goest to the Church 1. That thou art going to the Court of the Lord and to speak with the great God by prayer and to hear his Majesty speak unto
thee by his Word and to receive his blessing on thy soul and thy honest labour in the six days last past 2. Say with thy self by the way As the Hart brayeth for the rivers of water so panteth my soul after thee O God My soul thirstest for God even for the living God when shall I come and appear before the presence of God for a day in thy courts is better than a thousand other where I had rather be a door-keeper in the House of my God than to dwell in the Tabernacles of wickedness Therefore I will come into thy House in the multitude of thy mercies and in thy fear will I worship toward thine holy Temple 3. As thou enterest into the Church say How fearful is this place this is none other but the house of God this is the gate of Heaven Surely the Lord is in this place God is in this people indeed And prostrating with thy face downward being come to thy place say O Lord I have loved the habitation of thy house and the place where thy Honour dwelleth One thing therefore have I desired of thee that I will require even that I may dwell in thy house all the days of my life to behold thy beauty and to visit thy Temple Therefore will I offer in thy Tabernacle sacrifices of joy I will sing and praise of the Lord. Harken unto my voice O Lord when I cry have mercy also upon me and hear me Doubtless kindness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall remain a long season in the house of the Lord. And this is that preparation or looking to our feet whereto Solomon adviseth us before we enter into the House of God The second sort of Duties which are to be performed at the time of the holy Assembly WHen Prayers begin lay aside thine own private meditations and let thine heart joyn with the Minister and the whole Church as being one body of Christ and because that God is the God of order he will have all things to be done in the Church with one heart and accord and the exercises of the Church are common and publick It is therefore an ignorant pride for a man to think his own private prayers more effectual than the publick prayers of the whole Church Solomon therefore adviseth a man not to be rash to utter a thing in the Church before God Pray therefore when the Church prayeth siâ—g when they sing and in the action of kneeling standiâ—g sitting and such indifferent ceremonies for the avoiding of scandal the continuance of Charity and in testimony of thine obedience conform thy self to the manner of the Church wherein thou livest Whilest the Preacher is expounding and applying the Word of the Lord look upon him for it is a great help to stir up thine attention and to keep thee from wandering thoughts so the Eyes of all that were in the Synagogues are said to be fastened on Christ whilst he preached and that all the people hanged upon him when they heard him Remember that thou art there as one of Christ's Disciples to learn the knowledge of Salvation by the remission of sins through the tender mercy of God Luke 1. ver 77. Be not therefore in the School of Christ like an idle boy in a Grammar School that often heareth but never learneth his lesson and still goeth to School but proâ—iteth nothing Thou hatest it in a child Christ detesteth it in thee To the end therefore that thou maist the better profit by hearing mark 1. The Coherence and Explication of the Text. 2. The chief Sum or Scope of the Holy Ghost in that Text. 3. The division or parts of the Text. 4. The doctrines and in every doctrine the proofs the reasons and the uses thereof A method of all others easiest for the people being accustomed thereto to help them to remember the Sermon and therefore much wished to be put in practice of all faithful Pastors who desire to edifie their people in the knowledge of God and his true Religion If the Preacher's method be too curious or confused then labour to remember 1. How many things he taught which thou knewest not before and be thankful 2. What sins he reproved whereof thy conscience tells thee that thou art guilty and therefore must be amended 3. What Vertues he exhorteth unto which are not so perfect in thee and therefore endeavour to practice them with more zeal and diligence But in hearing apply every speech as spoken to thy self rather by God than by Man and labour not so much to hear the words of the Preacher sounding in thine ear as to feel the opperation of the Spirit working in thy heart Therefore it is said so often Let him that hath an ear hear what the Spirit speaks to the Church And Did not our hearts burn within as whilst he opened unto us the Scriptures And thus to hear the Word hath a blessing promised thereto It is the acceptablest sacrificing of our selves unto God It is the surest note of Christ's Saints the truest mark of Christ's sheep the apparentest sign of God's Elect the very blood as it were which uniteth us to be the spiritual kindred brethren and sisters of the Son of God This is the best art of Memory for a good hearer When the Sermon is ended 1. Beware thou depart not like the nine lepers till that for thine instruction to saving health thou hast returned thanks and praise to God by an after-prayer and singing of a Psalm And when the blessing is pronounced stand up to receive thy part therein and hear it as if Christ himself whose Minister he is did pronounce the same unto thee for in this case it is true He that heareth you heareth me and the Sabbath-day is blessed because God hath appointed it to be the day wherein by the Mouth of his Ministers he will bless his people which hear his word and glorifie his Name For tho' the Sabbath-day in it self be no more blessed than the other six days yet because the Lord hath appointed it to holy uses above others it doth as far excel the other days of the week as the consecrated bread which we receive at the Lord's Table doth the common bread which we eat at our own Table 2. If it be a Communion-day draw near to the Lord's Table in the Wedding-Garment of a faithful and penitent heart to be partaker of so holy a banquet And when Baptism is to be administred stay and behold it with all reverent attention that so thou maist First shew thy reverence to God's Ordinance Secondly that thou maist the better consider thine own ingrafting into the visible body of Christ's Church and how thou performest the vows of the new Covenant Thirdly that thou maist repay thy debts in praying for the infant which
in the state of Corruption no man living can sanctifie a Sabbath in that spiritual manner that he should but that he commits many breaches thereof in his Thoughts Words and Deeds humbly crave pardon for thy defects and reconcile thy self unto God with this or the like Evening Sacrifice A Private Evening Prayer for the Lord's-day O Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabbath suffer me who am but dust and ashes to speak unto thy most glorious Majâ—sty I know that thou art a consuming â—ire I acknowledge that I am but withered stubble My sins are in thy sight and Satan stands at my right-hand to accuse me for them I come not to excuse but to judg my self worthy of all those judgments which thy Justice might most justly inflict upon me a wretched Creature for my sins and transgressions The Number of them is so great the Nature of them is so grievous that they make me seem vile in mine own eyes how much more loathsome in thy sight I confess they make me so far from being worthy to be called thy Son that I am altogether unworthy to have the Name of thy meanest Servant And if thou shouldest but recompence me according to my desert the Earth as weary of such a sinful burthen should open her mouth and swallow me up like one of Dathan's Family into the bettomless pit of Hell For if thou didst not spare the natural branches those Angels of glorious Excellency but hurldst them down from the heavenly Habitations into the pains of hellish darkness to be kept unto damnation when they sinned but once against thy Majesty and didst expel our first Parents out of Paradise when they did but transgress one of thy Laws alas what vengeance may I expect who have not offended in one sin only heaping daily un upon sin without any true repentance drinking iniquity as it were water ever pouring in but never pouring out any filthyness and have transgressed not one but all thy holy laws and commandments Yea this present day which thou hast straitly commanded me to keep holy to thy praise and worship I have not so religiously kept and observed nor prepared my soul in that holiness and chastity of heart as was fit to meeâ— thy blessed Majesty in the holy assembly of the Saints I have not attended to the preaching of thy Word nor to the administration of thy Sacraments with that humility reverence and devotion that I should For tho' I was present at those holy exercises in my body yet Lord I was overtaken with much drowsiness And when I was awake my mind was so distracted and carried away with vain and worldly thoughts that my â—oul seemed to be absent and oâ—â— of the Church I have not so duly as I should meditated with my self nor conferred with my Family upon those good instruâ—ctions which we have heard and received out of thy holy Word by the publick Ministry For default whereof Satan hath stoln the most part of those instructions out of my heart and I wretched creature have forgotten them as though they had never been heard And my family doth not thrive in knowledge and sanctification under my government as they should Though I know where many of my poor brethren live in want and necessity and some in pain and comfortless yet I have not remembred to relieve the one with my Alms nor the other with Consolations but I have feasted my self and satisfied mine own Lusts. I have spent the most part of the day in idle talk vain sports and exercises Yea Lord I have c. And for all these my sins my Conscience cries guilty thy Law condemns me and I am in thy hand to receive the sentence and curse that is due to the wilful breach of so holy a Commandment But what if I am by thy Law condemned Yet Lord thy Gospel assures me that thy mercy is above all thy works that thy grace transcends thy Law and thy goodness delighteth there to reign where sins do most abound In the multitude therefore of thy Mercies and for the Merits of Jesus Christ my Saviour I beseech thee O Lord who despiseth not the sighings of a contrite heart nor desirest the death of a penitent sinner to pardon and forgive me all those my sins and all the errors of this day and of my whole life and free my soul from that curse and Judgment which is due unto me for them Thou that didst justifie the contrite Publican for Four Words of confession and received'st the Prodigal Child when he had spent all the stock of thy grace into favour upon his repentance pardon my sins likewise O Lord and suffer me not to perish for my transgressions O spare me and receive me into thy favour again Wilâ— thou O Lord reject me who hast received all Publicans Harlots and Sinners that upon repentance sued to thee for grace Shall I alone be excluded from thy mercy Far be it from me to think so for thou art the same God of mercy unto me that thou wast unto them and thy compassions never fail Wherefore O Lord deal not with me after my merits but according to thy great mercy Execute â—ot thy severe Justice against me a sinner but exercise thy long-sufferance in forbearing thine own creature I have nothing to present unto thee for a satisfaction but only those Bloody Wounds bitter Death and Passion which thy blessed Son my only Saviour hath suffered for me Him in whom only thou art well pleased I offer unto thee for all my sins wherewith thou art displeased Him my Mediator the Request of whose Blood speaking better things than that of Abel thy mercy can never gain-say Illuminate my understanding and sanctifie my heart with thy holy Spirit that it may bring to my remembrance all those good and profitable lessons which this day and at other times have been taught me out of thy holy Word that I may remember thy Commandments to keep them thy Judgments to avoid them aâ—d thy sweet Promises to rely upon them in time of misery and distress And now O Lord I resign my self to thy most holy Will O receive me into thy favour and so draw me by thy grace unto thy self that I may as well be thine by love and imitation as by calling and creation and give me grace so to keep holy thy Sabbaths in this life as that when this life is ended I may with all thy Saints and Angels celebrate an eternal Sabbath of joys and praise to the honour of thy most glorious Name in thy heavenly Kingdom for evermore Amen And then calling thy Family together shut up the Sabbath with the Meditations and Prayers before prescribed for thy Family And the Lord will give thee 〈◊〉 Night a more sweet and quiet rest than ordinary and prosper thee the better in all the labours of the week following Thus far of the ordinary
Blood And by the frequent use of this Communion Paul will have us to make a shew of the Lord's death till he come from Heaven and till we as Eagles shall be caught up into the air to meet him who is the blessed Carkase and Life of our Souls Thirdly The spiritual Graces are likewise two the Body of Christ as it was with the feeling of God's anger due to us crucified and his blood as it was in the like sort shed for the remission of their sins They are also in number two but in use one viz. whole Christ with all his benefits offered to all and given indeed to the faithful These are the Three integral parts of this blessed Sacrament the Sign the Word and the Grace The Sign without the Word or the Word without the Sign can do nothing and both conjoyned are unprofitable without the Grace signified but all Three concurring make an effectual Sacrament to a worthy Receiver Some receive the outward Sign without the spiritual Grace as Judas who as Austin saith received the bread of the Lord but not the bread which was the Lord. Some receive the spiritual Grace without the outward Sign as the Saint-Thief on the Cross and innumerable of the faithful who dying desire it but cannot receive it through some external impediments but the worthy Receivers to their comfort receive both in the Lord's-Supper Christ chose Bread and Wine rather than any other Elements to be the outward Signs in this blessed Sacrament first because they are easiest for all sorts to attain unto Secondly to teach us that as man's temporal life is chiefly nourished by bread and cherished by wine so are our Souls by his body and blood sustained and quickned unto eternal Life Christ appointed Wine with the Bread to be the outward Signs in this Sacrament to teach us first that as the perfect nourishment of Man's Body consists both of meat and drink so Christ is unto our Souls not in part but in perfection both salvation and nourishment Secondly that by seeing the Sacramental Wine apart from the Bread we should remember how all his precious blood was spilt out of his blessed body for the remission of our sins The outward signs the Pastor gives in the Church and thou dost eat with the mouth of thy body the spiritual grace Christ reacheth from Heaven and thou must eat it with the mouth of thy Faith 3. Of the Ends for which this holy Sacrament was ordained The excellent and admirable Ends or Fruits for which this blessed Sacrament was ordained are seven Of the first End of the Lord's-Supper 1. To keep Christians in a continual remembrance of that propitiatory sacrifice which Christ once for all offered by his death upon the Cross to reconcile us unto God Do this saith Christ in remembrance of me And saith the Apostle As oft as ye shall eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew the Lord's death till he come And he saith that by this Sacrament and the Preaching of the Word Jesus Christ was so evidently set forth before the eyes of the Galatians as if he had been crucified among them for the whole action representeth Christ's death the breaking of the bread blessed the crucifying of his blessed body and the pouring forth of the sanctifyed wine the shedding of his holy blood Christ was once in himself really offered but as oft as the Sacrament is celebrated so oft is he spiritually offered by the faithful Hence the Lord's Supper is called a propitiatory Sacrifice not properly or really but figuratively because it is a memorial of that propitiatory Sacrifice which Christ offered upon the Cross. And to distinguish it from that real Sacrifice the Fathers call it the * unbloody Sacrifice It is also called the Eucharist because that the Church in this Action offereth unto God the Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving for her Redemption effected by the true and only expiatory Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross. If the sight of Moab's King sacrificing on his walls his own son to move his Gods to rescue his 2 King 3. 27. moved the assailing Kings to such pity that they ceas'd the assault and raised their siege how should the spiritual sight of God the Father sacrificing on the Cross his only begotten Son to save thy soul move thee to love God thy Redeemer and to leave sin that could not in justice be expiated by any meaner ransom Of the second end of the Lord's Supper 2. To confirm our Faith For God by this Sacrament doth signifie and seal unto us from Heaven that according to the promise and new covenant which he hath made in Christ he will truly receive into his grace and mercy all penitent believers who duly receive this holy Sacrament and that for the merits of the death and passion of Christ he will as verily forgive them all their sins as they are made partakers of this Sacrament In this respect the holy Sacrament is called The seal of the new Covenant and remission of sins In our greatest doubts we may therefore receiving this Sacrament undoubtedly say with Samson's Mother If the Lord would kill us he would not have received a burnt-offering and a meat-offering at our hands neither would he have shewed us all these things nor would at this time have told us such things as these Of the third end of the Lord's Supper 3. To be a pledge and symbol of the most near and effectual communion which Christians have with Christ. the Cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ the bread which we break is it not the Communion of the body of Christ that is a most effectual sign and pledge of our Communion with Christ This union is called abiding in us joyning to the Lord dwelling in our hearts and set forth in the holy Scriptures by divers Similes 1. Of the Vine and branches 2. Of the head and body 3. Of the foundation and building 4. Of one Loaf confected of many Grains 5. Of the matrimonial union 'twixt Man and Wife and such like And it is threefold betwixt Christ and Christians The first is natural betwixt our Humane Nature and Christ's Divine Nature in the Person of the Word The second is mystical betwixt our Persons absent from the Lord and the Person of Christ God and Man in one mystical Body The third is celestial betwixt our Persons present with the Lord and the Person of Christ in a body glorified These three Conjunctions depend each upon other For had not our Nature been first Hypostatically united to the Nature of God in the second Person we could never have been united to Christ in a Mystical Body And if we be not in this life though absent united to Christ by a Mystical Union we shall never have Communion of glory with him in his
believe life everlasting but also Edo vitam eternam I eat life everlasting And indeed this is the true Tree of life which God hath planted in the midst of the Paradise of the Church And whereof he hath promised to give every one that overcometh to eat And this Tree of life by infinite degrees excelleth the Tree of life that grew in the Paradise of Eden for that had his root in the Earth this from Heaven that gave buâ— life to the Body this to the Soul that did but preserve the life of the living this restoreth life to the dead The leaves of this tree heal the nations of believers and it yields every month a new manner of fruit which nourisheth them to life everlasting Oh blessed are they who often eat of this Sacrament at least once every month taste anew of this renewing fruit which Christ hath prepared for us at his Table to heal our infirmities and to confirm our belief of life everlasting Of the seventh end of the Lord's-Supper 7. To bind all Christians as it were by an oath of fidelity to serve the one only true God and to admit no other propitiatony sacrifice for sins but that one real sacrifice which by his death Christ once offered and by which he finishâ—d the sacrifices of the Law and effected eternal Redemption and Righteousness for all believers And so to remain for ever a publick mark of profession to distinguish Christians from all Sects and false Religions And seeing that in the Mâ—ss there is a strange Christ adored not he that was born of the Virgin Mary but one that is made of a Wafer Cake and that the offering up of this breaden god is thrust upon the Church as a Propitiatory Sâ—crifice for the quick and the dead all true Christians upon the danger of wilful perjury before the Lord Chief Justice of heaven and earth are to detest the Mass as the Idol of Indignation which is most derogatory to the all-sufficient world-saving merits of Christ's Death and Passion For by receiving the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper we all swear that all real Sacrifices are ended by our Lord's death and that his body and blood once crucified and shed is the perpetual food and nourishment of our Souls 2. How to consider thine own unworthiness A Man shall best perceive his own unworthiness by examining his life according to the Ten Commandments of Almighty God Search therefore what duties thou hast omitted and what vices thou hast committed contrary to every one of the Commandments remembring that without repentance and God's mercy in Christ the Curse of God containing all the miseries of this life and everlasting torments in hell fire when this is ended is due to the breach of the least of God's Commandments And having taken a due survey both of thy sins and miseries retire to some secret place and there putting thy self in the sight of the Judge as a guilty malefactor standing at the Bar to receive his Sentence bowing thy knees to the earth smiting thy breast with thy fists and â—edewing thy cheeks with thy tears confess thy sins and humbly ask him mercy and forgiveness in these or the like words An humble confession of sins to be made unto God before the receiving of the holy Communion O God and heavenly Father when I consider the goodness which thou hast ever shewed unto me and the wickedness which I have committed against heaven and against thee I am ashamed of my self and confusion seems to cover my face as a veil for which of thy Commandments have I not transgressed O Lord I stand here guilty of the breach of all thy holy Laws For the love of my heart hath not so intirely cleaved unto thy * Majesty as to vain and earthly things I have not feared thy judgments to deterr me from sins nor trusted to thy promises to keep me from doubting of my temporal or from despairing of mine eternal state I have made the rule of thy divine worship to be what my mind thought fit not what thy Word prescribed finding my heart more prone to remember my blessed Saviour in a painted Picture of Man's device rather than to be behold him crucified in his Word and Sacraments after his own ordinance Where I should never use thy Name whereat all knees do bow but with religious reverence nor any part of thy worship without due preparation and zeal I have blasphemously abused thy holy Name to rash and customary oaths yea I have used oaths by thy sacred name as false covers of my filthy sins And I have been present at thy Service oft-times more for ceremony than conscience and to please Men more than to please thee my gracious God Where I should sanctifie thy Sabbath-day by being present at the publick exercises of the Church and by meditating privately on the word and works of God and by visiting the sick and relieving of my poor brethren alas I have thought those holy Exercises a burden because they hindred my vain sports yea I have spent many of thy Sabbaths in my own prophane Pleasures without being present at any part of thy divine worship Where I should have given all due reverence to my Natural Ecclesiastical and Politick Parents I have not shewed that measure of duty and affection to my Parents which their care and kindness hath deserved I have not had thy Ministers in such singular love for their works sake as I ought but I have taunted at their zeal and hated them because they reproved me justly And I have carried my self contemptuously against thy Mâ—gistrates and Ministers though I knew that it is 〈◊〉 ordinance that I should be obedient unto them Where I should be slâ—w to wrath and ready to forgive offences and not 〈◊〉 the Sun to go down upon my wrath but to 〈◊〉 good for evil loving my very enemies for thy sake I alas for one sorry word have burst out into open rage and harbouring thoughts of mischief in my heart I have preferred to feed on mine own malice rather than to eat of thy holy Supper Where I should keep my Mind from all filthy lusts and my Body from all uncleanness O Lord I have defiled both and made my Heart a Cage of all impure thoughts and my Mind a very stâ—e of the unclean Spirit Yea the remedy which thou Lord hast ordained for incontinency could not contain me within the bounds of Chastity for by doting on beauty whose grounds is but dust Satan hath bewitched my flesh to lust after strange flesh Where I should have lived in uprightness givâ—ng every Man his due being contented with mine own Estate and living consâ—ionably in my lawful Calling should be ready according to mine Ability to lend and give unto the Poor O Lord I have by oppression extortion bribes cavillation and other indirect dealings under
fearful estate of those Pastors who minister unto them without Catechising 2. Of sincere Faith required to make a worthy Communicant Sincere Faith is not a bare knowledge of the Scriptures and first grounds of Religion for that Devils and Reprobate have in an excellent measure and do believe it and tremble but a true persuasion as of all those things whatsoever the Lord hath revealed in his Word so also a particural applications unto a man 's own soul of all the promises of mercy which God hath made in Christ to all believing sinners And consequently the Christ and all his merits do belong unto him as well as to any other For first if we have not the righteousness of Faith the Sacrament seals nothing unto us and every man in the Lord's Supper receiveth so much as he believeth Secondly because that without Faith we communicating on earth cannot apprehend Christ in Heaven For as he dwelleth in us by Faith so by faith we must likewise eat him Thirdly because that without faith we cannot be perswaded in our consciences that our receiving is acceptable unto God 3. Of unfeigned Repentance requisite a for true Communicant True Repentance is a holy change of the mind when upon the feeling sight of God's mercy and of a man 's own misery he turneth from all his known and secret sins to serve God in holiness and righteousness all the rest of his days For as he that is glutted with meat is not apt to eat bread so he that is stuffed with sins is not sit to receive Christ. And a conscience defiled with wilful filthiness makes the use of all holy things unholy unto us Our sacrificed spotless Passover cannot be eaten with the sowre leaven of malice and wickedness saith Paul 1 Cor. 5. 8. Neither can the old Bottles of our corrupt and impure Consciences retain the new Wine of Christ's precious Blood as our Saviour saith Mar. 2. 22. We must therefore truly repent if we will be worthy partakers 4. The duty to be performed in respect of our Neighbour is Charity Charity is a hearty forgiving of others who have offended us and after reconciliation an outward unfeigned testifying of the inward affections of our hearts by gestures words and deeds as oft as we meet and occasion is offered For first without love to our Neighbour no Sacrifice is acceptable unto God Secondly because one chief end wherefore the Lord's Supper was ordained is to confirm Christians love one towards another Thirdly no man can assure himself that his own sins are forgiven of God if his heart cannot yield to forgive the faults of men that have offended him Thus far of the first sort of Duties which we are to perform before we come to the Lord's Table called Preparation 2. Of the Second sort of Duties which a worthy Communicant is to perform at the receiving of the Lord's Supper called Meditation THis Exercise of spiritual Meditation consist in divers Points First when the Sermon is ended and the Banquet of the Lord's Supper begins to be celebrated meditate with thy self how thou art invited by Christ to be a Guest at his Holy Table and how lovingly he inviteth thee Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters of life c. Come buy wine and milk without money and without price eat ye that which is good let your soul delight it self in fatness Take ye eat ye This is my body which was broken for you drink ye all of this for this is my blood which was shed for the remission of your sins What greater honour can be vouchsafed than to be admitted to sit at the Lordâ— own Table What better fare can be afforded than to feed on the Lord 's own Body and Blood If David thought it to be the greatest favour that he could shew unto good Barzillai for all the kindness that he shewed unto him in his Troubles to offer him that he should feed with him at his own Table in Jerusalem how much greater favour ought we to account it When Christ doth indeed feed us in the Church at his own Table and that with his own most holy Body and Blood Secondly As Abraham when he went up to the mount to sacrifice Isaac his Son left his Servants beneath in the Valley so when thou comest to the spiritual sacrifice of the Lord's Supper lay aside all earthly thoughts and cogitations that thou maiest wholly contemplate of Christ and offer up thy Soul unto him who sacrificed both his Soul and Body for thee Thirdly Meditate with thy self how precious and venerable is the Body and Blood of the Son of God who is the Ruler of Heaven and Earth the Lord at whose beck the Angels tremble and by whom both the quick and dead shall be judged at the last day and thou among the â—est And how that it is he who having been crucified for thy sins offereth now to be received by faith into thy sâ—ul On the other side consider how sinful a Creature thou art how altogether unworthy of so holy a Guest how ill deserving to taste of such sacred food having been conceived in filthiness and wallowing ever since in the mire of iniquity bearing the Name of a Christian but doing the works of the Devil adoring Christ with an Ave Rex in thy mouth but spitting Oaths in his face and crucifying him anew with thy graceless actions Fourthly Ponder then with what face darest thou offer to touch so holy a Body with such defiled hands or to drink such precious blood with so lewd and lying a mouth or to lodge so blessed a Guest in so uncle an a stable For if the Bethshemites were slain for but looking irreverently into the Ark of the old Testament what Judgment maist thou justly expect who with such impure Eyes and Heart art come to see and receive the Ark of the New Testament in which dwelleth all the fulness of the God-head bodily If Vzzah for but touching though not without zeal the Ark of the Covenant was stricken with sudden death what stroke of divine Judgment mayst thou not fear that so rudely with unclean hands dost presume to handle the Ark of the Eternal Testament wherein are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge If John Baptist the holiest man that was born of a Woman thought himself unworthy to bear his shooes O Lord how unworthy is such a Prophane Wretch as thou art to eat his holy Flesh and to drink his precious Blood If the blessed Apostle Saint Peter seeing but a glimpse of Christ's Almighty Power thought himself unworthy to stand in the same Boat with him how unworthy art thou to sit with Christ at the same Table where thou mayest behold the infiniteness of his Grace and Mercy displayed If the Centurion thought that the roof of his house was not worthy to harbour so Divine a Guest what room
can there be fit under thy ribs for Christ's holiness to dwell in If the Blood-issued sick Woman feared to touch the hem of his garment how should'st thou tremble to eat his flesh and to drink his all-healing Blood Yet if thou comest humbly in Faith Repentance and Charity abhorring thy sins past and purposing unfeignedly to amend thy life henceforth let not thy former sins affright thee for they shall never be laid unto thy charge and this Sacrament shall seal unto thy Soul that all thy sins and the Judgments due unto them are fully pardoned aâ—d clean washed away by the Blood of Christ. For this Sacrament was not ordained for them who are perfect but to help penitent sinners unto perfection Christ came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance And he saith that the whole need not the Physician but they that are sick Those hath Christ called and when they came them hath he ever helped Witness the whole Gospel which testifieth that not one Sinner who came to Christ for mercy went ever away without his errand Bathe thou likewise thy sick Soul in this fountain of Christ's Blood and doubtless according to his promise Zach. 13. 1. thou shalt be healed of thy sins and uncleanness Not Sinners therefore but they who are unwilling to repent of their sins are debarred this Sacrament Fifthly Meditate that Christ left this Sacrament unto us as the chief token and pledge of his love not when we would have made him a King John 6. 15 which might have seemed a requital of kindness but when Judas and the High-Priests were conspiring his Death therefore wholly of his mere favour When Nathan would shew David how intirely the poor man loved his sheep that was killed by the rich man He gave her saith he to eat of his own Morsels and of his own Cup to drink 2 Sam. 12. 3. and must not then the love of Christ to his Church be unspeakable when he gives her his own flesh to eat and his own blood to drink for her spiritual and eternal nourishment If then there be any love in thine heart take the Cup of Salvation into thy hand and pledge his love with love again Psal. 116. 11. Sixthly when the Minister beginneth the holy Consecration of the Sacrament then lay aside all praying reading and all other cogitations whatsoever and settle thy Meditations only upon those holy actions and rites which according to Christ's institution are used in and about the holy Sacrament For it hath pleased God considering our weakness to appoint those rites as means the better to lift up our Minds to the serious contemplation of his Heavenly Graces When therefore thou seest the Minister putting apart Bread and Wine on the Lord's-Table and consecrating them by Prayers and the rehearsal of Christ's Institution to be a holy Sacrament of the blessed Body and Blood of Christ then meditate how God the Father of his mere love to Mankind set apart and sealed his only begotten Son to be the all-sufficient means and only Mediator to redeem us from sin and to reconcile us to his grace and to bring us to his glory When thou seest the Minister break the Bread being blessed thou must meditate that Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God was put to death and his blessed Soul and Body with the sense of God's anger broken asunder for thy sins as verily as thou now seest the holy Sacrament to be broken before thine eyes And withal call to mind the heinousness of thy sins and the greatness of God's hatred against the same seeing God's Justice could not be satisfied but by such a Sacrifice When the Minister hath blessed and broken the Sacrament and is addressing himself to distribute it then meditate That the King who is the Master of the Feast stands at the Table to see his guests and looketh upon thee whether thou hast on thee thy Wedding-Garment Think also that all the holy Aâ—gels that attend upon the Elect in the Church and do desire to behold the celebration of these holâ— mysteries do observe thy reverence and behaviour Let thy soul therefore whilst the Minister bringeth the Sacrament unto thee offer this or the like short Soliloquy unto Christ. A sweet Soliloquy to be said betwixt the consecration and receiving of the Sacrament IS it true indeed that God will dwell on earth Behold the heaven and the heaven of heavens are not able to contain thee how much more unable iâ— the soul of â—uch a sinful Caitiff as I am to receive thee But seeing it is thy blessed pleasure to come thus to sup with me and to dwell in me I cannot for joy but burst out and say What is man that thou art so mindful of him and the son of man that thou so regardest him What favour soever thou vouchsafest me in the abundance of thy Grace I will freely confess what I am in the wretchedness of my Nature I am in a word a carnal Creature whose very soul is sold under sin a wretched man compassed about with a body of Death Yet Lord seeing thou callest here I come and seeing thou callest sinners I have thrust my self in among the rest and seeing thou callest all with their heaviest loads I see no reason why I should stay behind O Lord I am sick and whither should I go but unto thee the Physician of my Soul Thou hast cured many but never didst thou meet with a more miserable Patient for I am more leprous than Gehazi more unclean than Magdalen more blind in Soul than Bartimeus was in Body for I have lived all this while and never seen the true light of thy Word my soul runs with a greater flux of sin than was the Hemorrhoise Issue of blood Mephibosheth was not more lame to go than my Soul is to walk after thee in love Jeroboam's Arm was not more withered to strike the Prophet than my Hand is maimed to relieve the Poor Cure me O Lord and thou shalt do as great a work as in curing them all And though I have all their Sins and Sores yet Lord so abundant is thy grace so great is thy skill that if thou wilt thou canst with a word forgive the one and heal the other and why should I doubt of thy good will when to save me will cost thee now but one loving smile who didst shew thy self so willing to redeem me though it should cost thee all thy heart-blood and now offerest so graciously unto me the assured pledge of my Redemption by thy blood Who am I O Lord God and what is my merit that thou hast bought me with so dear a price It is merely thy mercy and I O Lord am not worthy the least of all thy mercies much less to be partaker of this holy Sacrament the greatest pledge of the greatest mercy that ever thou didst bestow upon those sons of men whom thou lovest
How might I in respect of mine own unworthiness cry out for fear at the sight of thy holy Sacrament as the Philistines did when they saw the Ark of God come into the Assembly Wo now unto me a sinner but that thy Angel doth comfort me as he did the woman Fear thou not for I know that thou seekest Jesus which was crucified It is thou indeed that my soul seeketh after And here thou offerest thy self unto me in thy blessed Sacrament If therefore Elizabeth thought her self so much honoured at thy presence in the Womb of thy blessed Mother that the babe sprang in her belly for joy how should my soul leap within me for joy now that thou comest by the holy Sacrament to dwell in my heart for ever Oh what an honour is this not that the Mother of my Lord but my Lord himself should come thus to visit me Indeed Lord I confess with the faithful Centurion that I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof and that if thou didst but speak the word only my soul should be saved yet seeing it hath pleased the riches of thy grace for the better strengthning of my weakness to seal thy mercy unto me by thy visible sign as well as by thy visible word in all thankful humility my soul speaks unto thee with the blessed Virgin Behold the handmaid of the Lord be it unto me according to thy Word Knock thou Lord by thy Word and Sacraments at the door of my heart and I will like the Publican with both my fists knock at my breast as fast as I can that thou mayest enter in and if the door will not open fast enough break it open O Lord by thine Almighty Power and then enter in and dwell there for ever that I may have cause with Zaccheus to acknowledge that this day salvation is come into mine house And cast out of me whatsoever shall be offensive unto thee for I resign the whole Possession of my heart unto thy sacred Majesty intreating that I may not live henceforth but that thou mayst live in me speak 〈◊〉 me walk in me and so govern me by thy Spirit that nothing may be pleasing unto me but that which is acceptable unto thee That finishing my course in the life of grace I may afterwards live with thee for ever in the Kingdom of Glory Grant this O Lord Jesus for the merits of thy death and blood shedding Amen When the Minister bringeth towards thee the bread thus blessed and broken and offering it unto thee bids thee Take eat c. then meditate that Christ himself cometh unto thee and both offereth and giveth indeed unto thy faith his very Body and Blood with all the merits of his death and passion to feed thy Soul unto eternal life as surely as the Minister offereth and giveth the outward signs that feed thy Body unto this temporal life The Bread of the Lord is given by the Minister but the Bread which is the Lord is given by Christ himself When thou takest the Bread at the Ministers hand to eat it then rouze up thy Soul to apprehend Christ by faith and to apply his merits to heal thy miseries Embrace him as sweetly with thy faith in the Sacrament as ever Simeon hugged him with his arms in his swadling clouts As thou eatest the Bread imagine that thou seest Christ hanging upon tâ—â— Cross and by his unspeakable tormenâ—â— fully satisfying God's Justice for thy sins and strive to be as verily partaker of the spiritual grace as of the Elemental signs For the truth is not absent from the sign neither doth Christ deceive when he saith This is my Body but he giveth himself indeed to every Soul that spiritually receives him by Faith For as ours is the same Supper which Christ administâ—red so is the same Christ verily present at his own Supper not by any Papal Transubstantiation but by a Sacramental Participiation whereby he doth truly feed the faithful unto eternal life not by coming down out of Heaven unto thee but by lifting thee up from the Earth unto him According to that old saying Sursum corda lift up your hearts And where the carcase is thither will the Eagles resort Matth. 24. When thou seest the Wine brought unto thee apart from the Bread then remember that the Blood of Jesus Christ was as verily separated from his Body upon the Cross for the remission of thy sins And that this is the seal of the new Covenant which God hath made to forgive all the sins of all penitent sinners that believe in the merits of his blood shedding For the Wine is not a Sacrament of Christ's Blood contained in his Veins but as it was shed out of his Body upon the cross for the remission of the sins of all that believe in him As thou drinkest the Wine and pourest it out of the Cup into thy Stomach meditate and believe that by the merits of that Blood which Christ shed upon the Cross all thy sins are as verily forgiven as thou hast now drunk this Sacramental Wine and hast it in thy stomach And in the instant of drinking settle thy meditation upon Christ as he hanged upon the Cross as if like Mary and John thou didst see him nailed and his Blood running down his blessed side out of that gastly wound which the Spear made in his innocent heart wishing thy mouth closed to his side that thou mightest receive that precious Blood before it fell to the dusty Earth And yet the actual drinking of that real Blood with thy mouth would be nothing so effectual as this Sacramental drinking of that blood spiritually by Faith For one of the Souldiers might have drunk that and been still a reprobate but whosoever drinketh it spiritually by Faith in the Sacrament shall surely have the Remission of his sins and life everlasting As thou feelest the Sacramental Wine which thou hast drunk warming thy cold stomach so endeavour to feel the Holy Ghost cherishing thy Soul in the joyful assurance of the forgiveness of all thy sins by the merit of the blood of Christ. And to this end God giveth every faithful Soul together with the Sacramental Blood the Holy Ghost to drink We are all made to drink into one Spirit And so lift up thy mind from the contemplation of Christ as he was crucified upon the Cross to consider how he now sits in glory at the right hand of his Father making intercession for thee by presenting to his Father the unvaluable merits of his death which he once suffered for thee to appease his Justice for the sins which thou dost daily commit against him After thou hast eaten and drunk both the Bread and Wine labour that as those Sacramental Signs do turn to the nourishment of thy body and by the digestion of heat become one with thy substance so by the operation of Faith and the Holy
Journey towards God 2. If thou hast Children give to every one of them a Portion according to thy ability in thy life-time that thy life may seem an ease and not a yoak unto them yet so give as that thy Children may still be beholden unto thee and noâ— thou unto them But if thou keep all iâ— thy hands whilst thou livest they may thank Death and not thee for the portion that thou leavest them If thou hast nâ— Children and the Lord hath blest theâ— with a great portion of the goods of thiâ— World and if thou meanest to bestow them upon any charitable or pious uses put not over that good work to the trusâ— of others seeing thou seest how most oâ— other mens Executors prove almost Exeâ—cutioners And if Friends be so unfaithfuâ—â— in a man's life how much greater causâ— hast thou to distrust their fidelity afteâ— thy death Lamentable experience sheweth how many dead men's Wills have of laâ— either been quite concealed utterly overthrown or by cavils and quirks of Law frustrated or altered whereas by the Law of God the will of the dead should not be violated but all his godly intentions conscionably performed and fulfilled as in the sight of God who in the Day of the Resurrection will be just Judge both of the quick and dead And if any thing should hap in his Will to be ambiguous or doubtful it should be construed as it might come nearest to the Honour of God and the honest Intention of the Testator But let the vengeance due to such unchristian Deeds light on the Actors that do them not on the Kingdom wherein they are suffered to be done And let other rich Men be warned by such wretched examples not so to marry their Minds to their Money as that they will do no good with their Goods till Death divorceth them Considering therefore the shortness of thine own life and the uncertainty of others just dealing after thy death in these unjust days let me advise thee whom God hath blessed with ability and an intent to do good to become in thy life time thine own Administrator make thine own Hands thine Executors and thine own Eyes thy Over-seers cause thy Lanthorn to give her light before thee and not behind thee give God the Glory and thou shalt receive of him in due time the reward which of his grace and mercy he hath promised to thy good works 4. Having thus set thy House and Soul in order if the determined number of thy days be not expired God will either have mercy upon thee and say Spare him O killing Malady that he go not down into the pit for I have received a reconciliation Or else his Fatherly providence will direct thee to such a Physician and to such means as that by his blessing upon their endeavours thou shalt recover and be restored to thy former Health again But in any wise take heed that thou nor none for thee send unto Sorcerers Wizards Charmers or Inchanters for help for this were to leave the God of Israel and to go to Baal-zebub the God of Ekron for help as did wicked Ahaziah and to break thy Vow which thou hast made with the blessed Trinity in thy Baptism and be sure that God will never give a Blessing by those means which he hath accursed but if he permit Satan to cure thy Body fear lest it tend to the damnation of thy Soul Thou art tried beware 5. When thou hast sent for the Physician take heed that thou put not thy trust rather in the Physician than in the Lord as Asa did of whom it is said that he sought not to the Lord in his Disease but to the Physician which is a kind of Idolatry that will increase the Lord's anger and make the Physick received uneffectual Use therefore the Physician as God's Instrument and Physick as God's Means And seeing it is not lawful without Prayer to use ordinary food 1 Tim. 4. 4. much less extraordinary Physick whose good effect depends upon the blessing of God before thou takest thy Physick pray therefore heartily unto God to bless it unto thy use in these or the like words A Prayer before taking of Physick O Merciful Father who art the Lord of health and of sickness of life and of death who killest and makest alive who bringest down to the grave and raisest up again I come unto thee as to the only Physician who canst cure my Soul from sin and my Body from sickness I desire neither life nor death but refer my self to thy most holy Will For tho' we must needs die and being dead our lives are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gather'd up again yet hath thy gracious Providence whilst liâ—â— remaineth appointed means which thou wilt have thy Children to use and by the lawful use thereof to expect thy blessing upon thine own means to the curing of their sickness and restitution of their health Aâ—d now O Lord in this my necessity I have according to thine Ordinance seâ—t for thy Servant the Physician who hath prepared for me this Physick which I receive as means sent from thy fatherly hand I beseech thee therefore that as by thy blessing on a lâ—â—p of dry Figs thou didst heal Hezekiah's sore that he recovered and by seven times washing in the river of Jordan didst cleanse Naaman the Syrian of his Leprosie and didst restore the Man that was blind from his birth by anointing his Eyes with Clay and Spittle and sending him to wash in the Pool of Siloam and by touching the hand of Peter's Wife's Mother didst cure her of her Fever and didst restore the Woman that touched the hem of thy Garment from her bloody Issue So it would please thee of thine infinite goodness and mercy to sanctifie this Physick to my use and to give such a blessing unto it that it may if it be thy Will and Pleasure remove this my sickness and â—ain and restore me to health and strength again But if the number of those days which thou hast appointed for me to live in this Vale of misery be at an end and that thou hast sent this sickness as thy Messenger to call me out of this mortal life then Lord let thy blessed will be done for I submit my will to thy most holy Pleasure Only I beseech thee increase my faith and patience and let thy grace and mercy be never wanting unto me but in the midst of all extremities assist me with thy Holy Spirit that I may willingly and chearfully resign up my Soul the price of thine own Blood into thy most gracious hands and custody Grant this O Father for Jesus Christ his sake to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory both now and evermore Amen Meditations for the sick WHilst thy sickness remaineth use often for thy comfort these
few Meditations taken from the ends wherefore God sendeth afflictions to his Children Those are ten 1. That by afflictions God may not only correct our sins past but also work in us a deeper loathing of our natural corruption and so prevent us from falling into many other sins which otherwise we would commit like a good Father who suffereth his tender Babe to scorch his finger in a candle that he may the rather learn to beware of falling into a greater fire Soâ— that the Child of God may say with David It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I may learn thy statutes for before I was afflicted I went astray but now I keep thy word And indeed saith St. Paul We are chastened of the Lord because we should not be condemned with the World With one Cross God maketh two Cures the chastisement of sins past and the prevention of sin to come For though the eternal punishment of sin as it proceedeth from Justice is fully pardoned in the Sacrifice of Christ yet we are not without serious judging of our selves exempted from the temporal chastisement of sin for this proceedeth only from the love of God for our good And this is the reason that when Nathan told David from the Lord that his sins were forgiven yet that the Sword of Chastisement should not depart from his house and that his Child should surely die For God like a skilful Physician seeing the Soul to be porsoned with the setling of sin and knowing that the reigning of the flesh will prove the ruine of the Spirit ministereth the bitter Pill of affliction whereby the reliques of sin are purged and the Soul â—ore soundly cured the Flesh is subdued and the Spirit is sanctified Oh the odiousness of sin which causeth God to chasten so severely his Children whom otherwise he loveth so dearly 2. God sendeth affliction to seal unto us our Adoption for every child whom God loveth he correcteth And he is a Bastard that is not corrected Yea it is a sure note that where God seeth sin and sinites not there he detests and loves not Therefore it is said that he suffered the wicked sons of Ely to continue in their sins without correction because the Lord would stay them Oâ— the other side there is no surer token of God's fatherly love and care than to be corrected with some Cross as oft as we commit any sinful crime Affliction therefore is a seal of Adoption no sign of Reprobation For the purest Corn is cleanest â—anned the finest Gold is ofâ—est tryed and the sweetest Grape is hardest pressed and the truest Christian heaviest crossed 3. God sendeth affliction to wean our hearts from too much loving this world and wordly vanities and to cause us the more earnestly to desire and long for Eternal Life For as the Children of Israel had they not been ill intreated in Egypâ— would never have been so willing to go towards Canaan so were it not for the crosses and afflictions of this life God's Children would not so heartily long and willingly desire for the Kingdom of Heaven For we see many Epicures that would be content to forego Heaven on condition that they might still enjoy their earthly Pleasures and having never tasted the joys of a better how loth are they to depart this life Whereas the Apostle that saw Heavens gloryâ— tells us that there is no more comparison betwixt the joys of eternal life and the Pleasâ—res of this world than there is betwixt the filthiest dung and the pleasantest meat or betwixt the stinkingest Dunghill and the fairest Bed Chamber As therefore a loving Nurse puts 〈◊〉 or Mustard on the Breast to make the Child the rather to forsake the 〈◊〉 so God mixeth sometimes â— affliction with the pleasures and prosperity of 〈…〉 lest like the Children of this 〈◊〉 ration they should forgâ—â— God and fall into too much love of this 〈◊〉 sent evil World and so by Riches grow proud by Fame insolent 〈◊〉 â—iberty wanton and 〈…〉 against the Lord when they 〈◊〉 For if God's Children love the World so well when like a curst Step-mother she misâ—seth and strikes us how should we love this Harlot if she smiled upon us and stroaked us as she doth her own worldly Brats Thus doth God like a wise and loving Father embitter with crosses the pleasures of this life to his Children that finding in this earthly state no true and permanent joys they might sigh and long for eternal life where firm and everlasting joys are only to be found 4. By affliction and sickness God exerciseth his Children and the Graces which he bestoweth upon them He refineth and tryeth their faith as the Goldsmith doth his Gold in the Furnace to make it shine more glistering and bright he stirreth us up to pray more diligently and zealously and proveth what patience we have learned all this while in his School The like Experience he maketh of our Hope Love and all the rest of our Christian Vertues which without this Trial would rust like Iron unexercised or corrupt like standing Waters that either have no current or else are not poured from Vessel to Vessel whose taste remaineth and whose scent is not changed And rather than a Man should keep still the scent of his corrupt Nature to damnation who would not wish to be changed from state to state by crosses and sickness to salvation For as the Camomile which is tâ—odden groweth best and smelleth most fragrant and as the Fish is sweetest that lives in the saltest Waters so those Souls are most precious unto Christ who are most exercised and afflicted with his Cross. 5. God sendeth afflictions to demonstrate unto the world the trueness of his Childrens love and service Every Hypocrite will serve God whilst he prospereth and blesseth him as the Devil falsly accuseth Job to have done but who save his loving Child will love and serve him in adversity when God seemeth to be angry and displeased with him yea and cleave unto him most inseparably when he seemeth with the greatest frown and disgrace to reject a Man and to cast him out of his favour yea when he seemeth to wound and kill as an enemy yea then to say with Job Though thou Lord kill me yet will I put my trust in thee The loving and the serving of God and trusting in his mercy in the time of our correction and misery is the truest note of an unfeigned Child and Servant of the Lord. 9. Sanctified affliction is a singular help to further our true Conversion and to drive us home by Repentance to our heavenly Father In their affliction saith the Lord they will seek me diligently Egypts burthens made Israel cry unto God David's troubles made him pray Hezekiah's sickness made him to weep and misery drove the prodigal Child to return and sue for his Father's
day of affliction in the time of health think on sickness in the time of sickness make my self ready for death and when death approacheth prepare my self for Judgment Let my whole life be an expressing thankfulness unto thee for thy Grace and Mercy And therefore O Lord I do here from the very bottom of my heart together with the thousand thousands of Angels the four Beasts and twentâ— four Elders and all the creatures in heaveâ— and on the earth acknowledge to be due untâ— thee O Father which sittest upon the Throneâ— and to the Lamb thy Son who sitteth at thâ— right hand and to the Holy Spirit which proceedeth from both the holy Trinity 〈◊〉 Persons in unity of substance all praisâ— honour glory and power from this timâ— forth and for evermore Amen Meditations for one that is like to die IF thy Sickness be like to encrease unto Death then meditate on Three thingsâ— First how graciously God dealeth with theeâ— Secondly from what evils Death will freâ— thee Thirdly what good Death will brinâ— unto thee First Concerning God's favourable dealing with thee 1. Meditate That God useth this chastisement of thy Body but as a Medicine to cure thy Soul by drawing thee who arâ— sick in Sin to come by Repentance unto Christ thy Physician to have thy Soâ—â— healed 2. That the sorest Sickness or painfulleâ—â— Disease which thou canst endure is nâ—â—thing if it be compared to those dolours and pains which Jesus Christ thy Saviour hath suffered for thee when in a bloody sweat he endured the wrath of God the pains of hell and a cursed death which was due to thy sins Justly therefore may I use those words of Jeremy Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce wrath Hath the Son of God endured so much for thy redemption and wilt not thou a sinful man endure a little sickness for his pleasure especially when it is for thy good 3. That when thy sickness and disease is at the extreamest yet it is less and easier than thy sins have deserved Let thine own Conscience judge whether thou hast not deserved worse than all that thou dost suffer Murmur not therefore but considering thy manifold and grievous sins thank God that thou art not plagued with far more grievous punishments Think how willingly the damned in Hell would endure the extreamest pains a thousand years on condition that they had but the hope to be saved and after so many years to be eased of their eternal torments And seeing that it is his mercy that thou art not rather consumed than corrected how canst thou but bear patiently his temporal correction seeing the end is to save thee from eternal damnation 4. That nothing cometh to pass in this case unto thee but such as ordinarily befell to others thy Brethren who being the beloved and undoubted servants of God when they lived on earth are now most blessed and glorious Saints with Christ in Heaven as Job David Lazarus c. They groaned for a time as thou dost under the like burthen but they are now delivered from all their miseries troubles and calamities And so likewise ere long if thou wilt patiently tarry the Lord's leisure thou shalt also be delivered from thy sickness and pain either by restitution to thy former health with Job or which is far better by being received to heavenly rest with Lazarus 5. Lastly that God hath not given thee over into the hand of thine Enemy to be punished and disgraced but being thy loving Father he correcteth thee with his own merciful hand When David had his wish to chuse his own chastisement he chose rather to be corrected by the hand of God than by any other means Let us fall into the hand of the Lord for his mercies are great and let me not fall into the hand of man Who will not take any affliction in good part when it cometh from the hand of God from whom though no Affliction seemeth joyous for the present we know nothing cometh but what is good The confideration hereof made David to endure Shimei's cursed railing with greater patience and to correct himself another time for his impatiency I should not have opened my mouth because thou didst it and Job to reprove the unadvised speech of his Wife Thou speakest like a foolish Woman What shall we receive good at the hand of God and not receive evil And though the Cup of God's wrath due to our sins was such a horror to our Saviour's humane nature that he earnestly prayed that it might pass from him yet when he considered that it was reached unto him by the hand and will of his Father he willingly submitted himself to drink it to the very dregs thereof Nothing will more arm thee with Patience in thy sickness than to see that it cometh from the hand of thy heavenly Father who would never send it but that he sees it to be unto thee both needful and profitable The second sort of Meditations are to consider from what evils death will free thee IT freeth thee from a corruptible Body which was conceived in the weakness of flesh the heat of lust the stain of sin and born in the blood of filthiness a liviâ—g Prison of thy Soul a lively instrument of â—in a very sack of stinking dung the exâ—â—ements of whose Nostrils Ears Pores and â—ther passages duly considered will seem more loathsome than the uncleanest sink â—r vault Insomuch that whereas Trees and Plants bring forth Leaves Flowers Fruits â—nd sweet smells man's body brings forth â—â—turally nothing but Lice Worms Rottenâ—ss and filthy stinks His affections are alâ—ogether corrupted and the imaginations 〈◊〉 heart are only evil continually Hence 〈◊〉 is that the ungodly is not satisfied with prophaneness nor the voluptuous with pleasures nor the ambitious with perferments nor the curious with preciseness nor the malicious with revenge nor the leacherous with uncleanness nor the covetous with gain nor the drunkard with drinking New passions and fashions do daily grow new Fears and Afflictions do still arise here Wrath lies in wait there Vain-glory vexeth here pride lifts up there disgrace casts down and every one waiteth who shalâ— arise in the ruine of another Now a Maâ— is privily stung with Back-biters like fiery Serpents anon he is in danger to be openly devoured of his enemies like Daniel's Lionsâ— And a godly man where ere he liveth shall ever be vexed like Lot with Sodom's uncleanness 2. Death brings unto the godly an end of sinning and of all the miseries which arâ— due unto sin so that after Death there shaâ—â— be no more sorrow nor crying neither shalâ— there be any more pain for God shall wipe aâ— way all tears from their eyes Yea by death we are separated from
the company of wickâ—ed Men and God taketh away merciful 〈◊〉 righteous men from the evil to come So 〈◊〉 dealt with Josiah I will gather thee to thâ— Fathers and thou shalt be put into thy grâ—â— in peace and thine eyes shall not see all the 〈◊〉 which I will bring upon this place And Goâ— hides them for a while in the grave untill 〈◊〉 indignation pass over So that as Paradise 〈◊〉 the Heaven of the soul's joy so the Graâ—â— may be term'd the Heaven of the bodies 〈◊〉 3. Whereas this wicked Body lives in a world of wickedness so that the poor Soul cannot look out at the Eye and not be infected nor hear by the Ear and not be distracted nor smell at the Nostrils and not be tainted nor taste with the Tongue and not be allured nor touch by the Hand and not be defiled and every sense upon every temptation is ready to betray the Soul by death the Soul shall be delivered from this Thraldom and this corruptible body shall put on incorruption and this mortal immortality 1 Cor. 15. 53. O blessed thrice blessed be that Death in the Lord which delivers us out of so evil a World and freeth us from such a body of bondage and corruption The third sort of Meditations are to consider what good Death will bring unto thee 1. DEATH bringeth the godly Man's Soul to enjoy an immediate Communion with the blessed Trinity in everlastâ—ng bliss and glory 2. It translates the Soul from the Miseâ—ies of this world the contagion of sin and â—â—ciety of Sinners to the City of the living â—ed the Celestial Jerusalem and the comâ—any of innumerable Angels and to the assemâ—ly and congregation of the first-born which 〈◊〉 written in Heaven and to God the Judge 〈◊〉 all and to the Souls of just Men made perâ—ect and to Jesus the Mediator of the new â—ovenant 3. Death putteth the Soul into the aactual and full possession of all the inheritance and happiness which Christ hath either promised unto thee in his Word or purchased for thee by his blood This is the good and happiness whereunto a blessed death will bring thee And what truly Religious Christian that is young would not wish himself old that his appointed time might the sooner approach to enter into this celestial Paradise where thou maist exchange thy Brass for Gold thy Vanity for Felicity thy Vileness for Honour thy Bondage for Freedom thy Lease for an Inheritance and thy mortal State for an immortal Life He that doth not daily desire this blessedness above all things of all others he is less worthy to enjoy it If Cato Vticensis and Cleombrotus two Heathen-men reading Plato's Book oâ— the Immortality of the Soul did voluntarily the one break his Neck the other run upon his Sword that they might thâ— sooner as they thought have enjoyed those joys what a shame is it for Christianâ— knowing those things in a more excellent measure and manner out of God's owâ— Book not to be willing to enter into these heavenly Joys especially when their Master calls for them thither If thereforâ— there be in thee any love of God or desirâ— of thine own happiness or salvation wheâ— the time of thy departing draweth nearâ— that time I say and manner of Death which God in his unchangeable Counsel hath appointed and determined beâ—fore thou wast born yield and surrender up willingly and chearfully thy Soul into the merciful hands of Jesus Christ thy Saviour And to this end when the time is come as the Angel in the â—ight of Manoah and his Wife ascended from the Altar up to heaven in the flame of the sacrifice so endeavour thou that thy spirit in the sight of thy friends may from the altar of a contrite heart ascend up to Heaven in the sweet perfume of this or the like spiritual Sacrifice of Prayer A Prayer for a sick Man when he is told that he is not a Man for this World but must prepare himself to go unto God O Heavenly Father who art the Lord God of the spirits of all flesh and hast made us these souls and hâ—st appointed us the time as to come into this World so having finished our course to go out of the same the number of my days which thou hast determined are now expired and I am come to the utmost bounds which thou hast appointed beyond which I cannot pass I know O Lord that if thou enterest into judgment no flesh can be justified in thy sight And I O Lord of all others should appear most impure and unjust for I have not fought that good â—ight for the defence of thy Faith and Religion with that zeal and constancy that I should but for fear of displeasing the World I have given way unto sins and errours and for desire to please my flesh I have broken all thy Commandments in thought word and deed so that my sins have taken such hold on me that I am not able to look up and they are more in number than the hairs on my head If thou wilt straitly mark mine iniquities O Lord where shall I stand if thou weighest me in the balance I shall be found too light For I am void of all righteousness that might merit thy mercy and loaden with all iniquities that most justly deserve thy heaviest wrath Buâ— O my Lord and my God for Jesus Christ thy Son's sake in whom only thou art well pleased with all penitent and believing sinners take pity and compassion upon me who am the chief of sinners Blot out all my sins out of thy remembrance and wash away all my transgressions out of thy sight with the precious blood of thy Son which I believe that he as an undefiled Lamb hath shed for the cleansing of my sins In this faith I lived in this faith I die believing that Jesus Christ died for my sins and rose again for my justification And seeing that he hath endured that Death and born the burthen of that Judgment which was due unto my sins O Father for his Death and Passion 's sake now that I am coming to appear before thy Judgment-seat acquit and deliver me from that fearful Judgment which my sins have justly deserved And perform unto me that gracious and comfortable Promise which thou hast made in thy Gospel That whosoever believeth in thee hath everlasting life and shall not come into Judgment but shall pass from death unto life Strengthen O Christ my Faith that I may put the whole confidence of my salvation in the merits of thy obedience and Blood Encrease O holy Spirit my patience lay no more upon me than I am able to bear and enable me to bear so much as shall stand with thy blessed will and pleasure O blessed Trinity in Unity my Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier vouchsafe that as my
away without his errand If mercy he asked mercy he found were his sin never so great were his Disease never so grievous Nay he offered and gave his mercy to many that never asked it being moved only with the Bowels of his own compassion and the sight of their misery as to the woman of Samaria the widow of Naim and to the sick man that lay at the Pool of Bethesda who had been 38 years sick If he thus willingly gave his mercy to them that did not ask it and was found of them as the Prophet saith that sought him not will he deny mercy unto thee who dost so earnestly pray for it with Tears and dost like the poor Publican so heartily knock for it with penitent fists upon a bruised and broken heart Especially when thou prayest to thy Father in the name and mediation of Christ for whose sake he hath promised to grant whatsoever we shall ask of him as sure as God is true he will not Though Nineve's sins had provoked the Lord to send out his sentence against them yet upon their repentance he recalled it again and spared the City how much more if thou likewise repentest will he spare thee seeing his sentence is not yet gone forth against thee if he deferred the judgments all Ahab's days for the external shew only which he made of humiliation how much more will he clean turn away his vengeance if thou wilt unfeignedly repent of thy sin and return unto him for grace and mercy He offered his mercy unto Cain who murthered his innocent Brother If thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted As if he should have said if thou wilt leave thy envy and malice and offer unto me from a faithful and contrite heart both thou and thine Oblation also shall be acceptable unto me And to Judas that so treacherously betray'd him in calling him friend a sweet appellation of love and when Judas offered he willingly consented with that mouth wherein never was found guile to kiss those dissembling lips under which lurked the poyson of Asps. Had Judas apprehended this word friend out of the mouth of Christ as Benhadad did the word Brother from the mouth of Ahab doubtless Judas should have found the God of Israel more merciful than Benhadad found the King of Israel But God was more displeased with Cain for despairing of his mercy than for murthering his Brother and with Judas for hanging himself than for betraying his Master in that they would make the sins of mortal men greater than â—he Infinite mercy of the eternal God or as if they could be more sinful than God was merciful Whereas the least drop of Christ's Blood is of more merit to procure God's mercy for thy salvation than all the sins that thou hast committed can be of force to provoke his wrath to thy damnation If Satan shall suggest that all this is true of God's mercy but that it doth not belong unto thee because thy sins are greater than other mens as being sins of knowledge and of many years continuance and such as whereby others have been undone and all for the most part â—ommitted wilfully and presumptuously against God and thy Conscience And therefore though he will be merciful unto others yet he will not be merciful unto thee Meditate 1. That many who are now in Heaven most blessed and glorious Saints committed in the same kind when they lived on earth as great and greater sins then ever thou hast committed and continued before they repented in those sins as long as ever thou hast done As therefore all their sins and the continuance in them could not hinder God's mercy upon their repentance from forgiving their sins and receiving them into favour no more shall thy sins and continuance therein hinder him from being merciful unto thee if thou dost repent as they did yea upon thy Repentance every one of their examples is a pledge that he will do the same unto thee that he did unto them For as the least sin in God's Justice without repentance is damnable so the greatest sin upon repentance is in his mercy pardonable Thy greatest and inveteratest sins are but the sins of a man but the least of his Mercies is the mercy of God Because thou knowest thine own sins thou doubtest whether they shall be pardoned Mark how this doubtful case is resolved by Good himself Many in Isaiah's days thought as thou dost that they had continued so long in sin that it was too late for them now to seek to return unto God for Grace and Mercy But God answereth them Seek ye the Lord whilst he may be found call ye upon him whilst he is near As if he had said whilst life lasteth and my Word is preached I am near to be found of all that seek me and pray unto me The People reply But we O Lord are grievous sinners and therefore dare not presume to call upon thy Name or to come near thine Holiness To this the Lord answereth Let the wicked forsake his way and the man of iniquity his thoughts and let him return unto me and I will have mercy upon him and to his God and I will pardon him abundantly But we would think say the people that if our sins were but ordinary sins this promise of Mercy might belong unto us But because our sins are so great and of such long continuance therefore we fear lest when we appear before God he will reject us To this God answereth again My thoughts of mercy are not your thoughts neither are your ways of pardoning my ways for as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts If therefore every sinner in the world were a world of such sinners as thou art do thou but yet what God bids thee repent and believe and the Blood of Jesus Christ being the Blood of God will cleanse both thee and them from all your sins 2. That as God did foresee all the sins which the world should commit and yet all those could not hinder him from loving the world so that he gave his only begotten Son to death to save as many of the world as would believe and repent much less shall thy sins being the sins of the least member of the world be able to hinder God from loving thy soul and forgiving thy sins if thou dost repent and believe 3. That if he loved thee so dearly when thou wast his Enemy that he payed for thee so dear a price as the spilling of his heart blood how can he now but be gracious unto thee when to save thee will cost him but the casting of a gracious look upon thee Look nor thou therefore to the greatness of thy sins but to the infiniteness of his mercy which is so surpassing great that if thou puttest all thine own grievous sins
the power of Satan and in the fire of Faith and perfume of Prayer ascend up with Angels victoriously into Heaven An Admonition to them who come to visit the sick THey who come to visit the sick must have a special care not to stand dumb and staring in the sick person's face to disquiet him nor yet to speak idly and to ask unprofitable questions as most do If they see therefore that the sick party is like to die let them not dissemble but lovingly and discreetly admonish him of his weakness and to prepare for eternal life One hour well spent when a man's life is almost out-spent may gain a man the assurance of eternal life Sooth him not with the vain hope of this life lest thou betray his Soul to eternal death Admonish him plainly of his estate and ask him briefly these or the like Questions Questions to be asked of a sick Man that is like to die DOst thou believe that Almighty God the Trinity of Persons in Unity of Essence hath by his Power made Heaven and Earth and all things therein and that he doth still by his Divine Providence govern the same So that nothing comes to pass in the world nor to thy self but what his divine hand and counsel had determined before to be done 2. Dost thou confess that thou hast transgressed and broken the holy Commandments of Almighty God in thought word and deed and hast deserved for breaking his holy Laws the Curse of God which containeth all the miseries of this life and everlasting torments in Hell fire when this life is ended if so be that God should deal with thee according to thy deserts 3. Art thou not sorry in thy heart that thou hast so broken his Laws and neglected his Service and Worship and so much followed the world and thine own vain pleasures And would'st thou not lead a holier life if thou wert to begin again 4. Dost thou not from thy heart desire to be reconciled unto God in Jesus Christ his blessed Son thy Mediator who is at the right hand of God in heaven now appearing for thee in the sight of God and making request unto him for thy Soul 5. Dost thou renounce all confidence in all other Mediators or Intercessors Saints or Angels believing that Jesus Christ the only Mediator of the New Testament is able perfectly to save them that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them And wilt thou with David say unto Christ whom have I in heaven but thee And there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee 6. Dost thou confidently believe and hope to be saved by the only merits of that bloody death and passion which thy Saviour Jesus Christ hath suffered for thee not putting any hope of Salvation in thine own Merits nor in any other means or Creatures being assuredly perswaded that there is no salvation in any other and that there is none other name under Heaven whereby thou must be saved 7. Dost thou heartily forgive all wrongs and offences done or offered unto thee by any manner of Person whatsoever And dost thou as willingly from thy heart ask forgiveness of them whom thou hast grievously wronged in word or deed And dost thou cast out of thy heart all malice and hatred which thou hast born to any body that thou mayest appear before the Face oâ— Christ the Prince of Peace in perfect love and charity 8. Doth thy Conscience tell thee of any thing which thou hast wrongfully taken and dost still withhold from any widow or fatherless Children or from any other persons whomsoever Be assured that unless thou shalt restore like Zaccheus those goods and lands if thou be'st able thou canst not truly repent and without true Repentance thou canst not be saved nor look Christ in the face when thou shalt appear before his Judgment-seat 9. Dost thou firmly believe that thy body shall be raised up out of the Grave at the sound of the last Trumpet and that thy Body and Soul shall be united together again in the Resurrection Day to appear before the Lord Jesus Christ and thence to go with him into the Kingdom of Heaven to live in everlasting bliss and glory If the sick party shall answer to all these questions like a faithful Christian then let all who are present joyn together and pray for him in these or the like words A Prayer to be said for the sick by them who visit him O Merciful Father who art the Lord and giver of life and to whom belong the issues of Death we thy Children here assembled do acknowledge that in respect of our manifold sins we are not worthy to ask any blessing for our selves at thy hands much less to become suiters unto thy Majesty in the behalf of others yet because thou hast commanded us to pray one for another especially for the sick and hast promised that the Prayers of the righteous shall avail much with thee in obedience therefore to thy Commandment and confidence of thy gracious Promise we are bold to become humble Suiters to thy Divine Majesty in the behalf of this our dear Brother or Sister whom thou hast hast visited with the Chastisement of thine own fatherly hand We could gladly wish the Restitution of his health and a longer continuance of his life and Christian â—ellowship amongst us but forasmuch as it â—ppeareth as far as we can discern that â—hou hast appointed by this visitation to â—â—ll for him out of this mortal life we subâ—it our wills to thy blessed will and humâ—ly intreat for Jesus Christ his sake and â—e merits of his bitter death and passion which he hath suffered for him that â—ou would'st pardon and forgive unto â—im all his sins as well that wherein he â—as conceived and born as also all the offenâ—es and transgressions which ever since to â—his day and hour he hath committed in â—hought word and deed against thy Divine â—ajesty Cast them behind thy back reâ—ive them as far from thy presence as the East â— from the West Blot them out of thy reâ—embrance lay them not to his charge â—ash them away with the Blood of Christ â—hat they may no more be seen and deliâ—er him from all the Judgments which are â—ue unto him for his sins that they may â—ever trouble his conscience nor rise in â—udgment against his Soul and impute unâ—o him the righteousness of Jesus Christ whereby he may appear righteous in thy â—â—ght And in his extremity at this time we â—eseech the look down from heaven upâ—n him with those eyes of grace and comâ—assion wherewith thou art wont to look â—pon thy children in their affliction and misery Pity thy wounded Servant like â—he good Samaritan for here is a sick soul â—hat needeth the help of such a heavenâ—â— Physician O Lord increase his Faith that he may believe that Christ died for him and that his blood
cleansâ—th him from all his sins and either asswage his pain or else increase his patience to endure thy blessed will and pleasure And good Lord lay no more upon him than thou shalt enable him to bear Heave him up unto thy self with those sighs aâ—d groans which cannot be expressed Make him now to feel what is the hope of his Calling and what is the exceeding greatness of thy Mercy and Power towards them that believe in thee And in his weakness O Lord shew thou thy strength Defend him against the suggestions and temptations of Satan who as he hath all his life time will now in his weakness especially seek to assail him and to devour him O save his Soul and reprove Satan and command thy holy Angels to be about him to aid him and to chase away all evil and malignant Spirits far from him Make him more and more to loath this world and to desire to be loosed and to be with Christ. And when that good hour and time shall come wherein thou hast determined to call for him out of this present life give him grace peacefully and joyfully to yield up his soul into thy merciful hands and do thou receive her into thy mercy and let thy blessed Angels carry her into thy kingdom Make his last hour his best hour his last words his best words and his last thoughts his best thoughts And when the sight of his eyes is gone and his tongue shall fail to do its office grant O Lord that his Soul may with Stephen behold Jesus Christ in Heaven ready to receive him and that thy Spirit within him may make request for him with sighs which cannot be expressed Teach us in him to read and see our own end and mortality and therefore to be careful to prepare our selves for our last ends and put our selves in a readiness against the time that thou shalt call for us in the like manner Thus Lord we recommend this our dear Brother or Sister thy sick servant unto thy eternal Grace and Mercy in that Prayer which Christ our Saviour hath taught us saying Our Father which art in heaven c. Thy grace O Lord Jesus Christ thy love O heavenly Father thy comfort and consolation O holy Spirit be with us all and especially with this thy sick servant to the end and in the end Amen Let them read often unto the sick some special Chapters of the holy Scripture as The three first Chapters of the Book of Job The 14. and 19. Chapters of Job The 34. Chapter of Deuteronomy The two last Chapters of Joshua The 17. Chapter of the first of Kings The 2 4 and 12. Chapters of the Second of Kings The 38 40 and 65. Chapters of Isaiah The History of the Passion of Christ. The 8. Chapter of the Romans The 15. Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians The fourth of the first Epistle to the Thessalonians The fifth Chapter of the second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians The first and last Chapters of St. James The 11 and 12 to the Hebrews The first Epistle of Peter The three first and the three last Chapters of the Revelations or some of these And so exhorting the sick party to wait upon God by faith and patience till he send for him and praying the Lord to send them a joyful meeting in the Kingdom of Heaven and a blessed Resurrection at the last day they may depart at their pleasure in the Peace of God Consolations against impatience in sickness IF in thy sickness by extremity of pain thou be driven to impatience meditate 1. That thy sins have deserved the pains of hell therefore thou maist with greater patience endure these fatherly Corrections 2. That these are the scourges of thy heavenly Father and the rod is in his hand If thou didst suffer with reverence being a child the correction of thy earthly Parents how much rather should'st thou now subject thy self being the Child of God to â—he chastisâ—ment of thy heavenly Father seeing it is for thine eternal good 3. That Christ suffered in his soul and body far grievo ser pains for thee therefore thou must more willingly suffer his blessed pleasure for thine own good Therefore saith Peter Christ suffered for you leaving you an example that ye should follow hiâ— steps And Let us saith S. Pauâ— run with joy the race that is set before us looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross c. 4. That these afflictions which now you suffer are none other but such as are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world as witnesseth Peter Yea Job's afflictions were far more grievous There is not one of the Saints which now are at rest in heavenly joys but endured as much as you do before they went thither yea â—â—ny of them willingly suffered all the torments that Tyrants could inflict upon them that they might come to those heavenly 〈◊〉 whereunto you are now called And you have a promise that the God of aâ—l grace after that you have suffered a while will make you perfect stablish strengthen and settle you And that God of his fidelity will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it 5. That God hath determined the time when thy affliction shall end as well as the time when it began 38 years were appointed the sick man at Beâ—hesda's Pool Twelve Years to the Woman with the bloody Issueâ— Three months to Moses Ten days tribulation to the Angel of the Church of Smyrna Three days plague to David Yea the number of the godly man's tears are registred in God's book and the quantity kept in his bottle The time of our trouble saith Christ is but a Modicum God's Anger lasts but a moment saith David A little season saith the Lord and therefore calls all the time of our pain but the hour of sorrow Daâ—id for the swiftness thereof compares our present trouble to a Book and Aâ—â—anasius to a Shower Compare the longest misery that Man endures in this 〈◊〉 to the eternity of heavenly joys and they will appear to be nothing And as the sight of a Son safe born makes the Mâ—ther forget all her former deadly pain so the sight of Christ in Heaven who was born for thee will make all these pangs of death to be quite forgotten as if they had never been like Stephen who as soon as he saw Christ forgat his own wounds with the horror of the grave and terror of the stones and sweetly yielded his soul into the hands of his Saviour Forget thine own pain think of Christ's wounds Be faithful unto the death and he will give thee the Crown of eternal life 6. That you are
Israelites to convey them to Canaan's possession so death to the wicked is a sink to hell and condemnation but to the godly the gate to everlasting life and salvation And one day of a blessed death will make amends for all the sorrows of a bitter life When therefore thou perceivest thy soul departing from thy body pray with thy Tongue if thou canst else pray in thy heart and mind these words fixing the eyes of thy soul upon Jesus Christ thy Saviour A Prayer at the yielding up of the Ghost O Lamb of God which by thy blood hast taken away the sins of the world have mercy upon me a sinner Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Amen When the sick party is departing let the faithful that are present kneel down and commend his soul to God in these or the like words O Gracious God and merciful Father who art our refuge and strength and a very present help in trouble lift up the light of thy favourable countenance at this Instant upon thy servant that now cometh to appear in thy presence wash away good Lord all his sins by the merits of Christ Jesus's blood that they may never be laid to his charge Increase his faith preserve and keep safe his soul from the danger of the Devil and his Wicked Angels Comfort him with thy Holy Spirit cause him now to feel that thou art his loving Father and that he is thy child by Adoption and Grace Save O Christ the price of thine own blood and suffer him not to be lost whom thou hast bought so dearly Receive his soul as thou didst the penitent thief into thy heavenly Paradise Let thy blessed Angels conduct him thither as they carried the soul of Laâ—arus and grant unto him a joyful resurrection at the last day O Father hear us for him and hear thine own Son our only Mediator that sits at thy right hand for him and us all even for the merits of that bitter death and passion which he hath suffered for us In confidence whereof we now recommend his soul into thy fatherly hands in that blessed Prayer which our Saviour hath taught us in all times of our troubles to say unto thee Our Father c. Thus far of the Practice of Piety in dying in the Lord. Now followeth the Practice of Piety in dying for the Lord. THE Practice of Piety in dying for the Lord is termed Martyrdom Martyrdom is the testimony which a Christian beareth to the Doctrine of the Gospel by enduring any kind of death to invite many and to confirm all to embrace the truth thereof To this kind of death Christ hath promised a Crown Be thou faithful unto the death and I will give thee the Crown of life Which promise the Church so firmly believed that they termed martyrdom it self a Crown And God to animate Christians to this excellent prize would by a prediction that Stephen the first Christian Martyr should have his name of a Crown Of Martyrdom there are Three kinds 1. Solâ voluntate in will only as John the Evangelist who being boiled in a Cauldron of Oil came out rather annointed than sod and died of old age at Ephesus 2. Solo opere in deed only as the Innocents of Bethlehem 3. Voluntate opere both in will and deed as in the Primitive Church Stephen Polycarpus Ignatius Laurentius Romanus Antiochianus and thousands And in our days Cranmer Latimer Hooper Ridley Farrar Bradford Philpot Sanders Glover Taylor and others innumerable whose fiery zeal to God's Truth brought them to the flames of Martyrdom to seal Christ's Faith It is not the cruelty of the death but the innocency and holiness of the cause that maketh a Martyr Neither is an erroneous Conscience a sufficient warrant to suffer Martyrdom because Science in God's Word must direct Conscience in man's heart For they who killed the Apostles in their erroneous Consciences thought they did God good service and Paul of zeal breathed out slaughters against the Lord's Saints Now whether the cause of our Seminary Priests and Jesuits be so holy true and innocent as that it may warrant their Conscience to suffer death and to hazard their eternal salvation thereon let Paul's Epistle written to the ancient Christian Romans but against our new Antichristian Romans be judge And it will plainly appear that the Doctrine which St. Paul taught to the ancient Church of Rome is ex diametro opposite in 26 fundamental points of true Religion to that which the new Church of Rome teacheth and maintaineth For St. Paul taught the Primitive Church of Rome 1. That our Election is of God's free Grace and not ex operibus praevisis Rom. 9. 11. Rom. 11. 5 6. 2. That we are justified before God by faith only without good works Rom. 3. 20 28. Rom. 4. 2 c. Rom. 1. 17. 3. That the good works of the regenerate are not of their own condignity meritorious nor such as can deserve Heaven Rom. 8. 18. Rom. 11. 6. Rom. 6. 23. 4. That these Books only are God's Oracles and Canonical Scripture which were committed to the custody and credit of the Jews Rom. 3. 2. Rom. 1. 2. Rom. 16. 26. such were never the Apocrypha 5. That the Holy Scriptures have God's authority Rom. 9. 17. Rom. 3. 4. Rom. 11. 32. conferred with Gal. 3. 22. Therefore above the authority of the Church 6. That all as well Laity as Clergy that will be saved must familiarly read or know the Holy Scripture Rom. 15. 4. Rom. 10. 1 2 8. Rom. 16. 26. 7. That all Images made of the true God are very Idols R. 1. 23. R. 2. 22. conferr'd 8. That to bow the knee religiously to an Image or to worship any Creature is meer Idolatry R. 11. 4. and a lying service R. 1. 25. 9. That we must not pray unto any but to God only in whom we believe Rom. 10. 13 14. Rom. 8. 15 27. therefore not to Saints and Angels 10. That Christ is our only intercessor in Heaven Rom. 8. 34 Rom. 5. 2 Rom. 16. 27. 11. That the only Sacrifice of Christians is nothing but the spiritual Sacrificing of their souls and bodies to serve God in holiness and righteousness R. 12. 1 R. 15. 16. therefore no real sacrificing of Christ in the Mass. 12. That the religious worship called dulia as well as latria belongeth to God alone Rom. 1. 9. Rom. 12. 11. R. 16. 18. conferr'd 13. That all Christians are to pray unto God in their own native language R. 14. 11. 14. That we have not of our selves in the state of corruption free will unto good Rom. 7. 18 c. Rom. 9. 16. 15. That Concupiscence in the regenerate is sin Rom. 7. 7 8 10. 16. That the Sacraments do not confer grace ex opere operato but sign and seal that â—t is conferred already unto us Rom. 4. 11 12. Rom. 2. 28 29. 17. That every
true believing Christian may in this life be assured of his salvation Rom. 8. 9 16 35 c. 18. That no man in this life since Adam's fall can perfectly fulfil the Commandments of God Rom. 7. 10 c. Rom. 3. 19 c. Rom. 11. 32. 19. That to place Religion in the difference of meats and days is superstition Rom. 14. 3. 5 6 17 23. 20. That the imputed righteousness of Christ is that only that makes us just before God Rom. 4. 9 17 23. 21. That Christ's flesh was made of the Seed of David by Incaâ—nation not of a Wafer Cake by Transubstantiation Rom. 1. 3. 22. That all true Christians are Saints and not those whom the Pope only doth Canonize Rom. 1. 7. Rom 8. 27. Rom. 15. 31. Rom. 16. 2. and 15. Rom. 15. 25. 23. That Ipse Christ the God of Peace and not Ipsa the Woman should bruise the Serpent's Head Rom. 16. 20. 24. That every soul must of conscience be subject and pay Tribute to the higher powers that is the magistrates which bear the Sword Rom. 13. 1 2. c. and therefore the Pope and all Prelates must be subject to their Emperors Kings and Magistrates unless they will bring damnation upon their souls as Traitors that resist God and his Ordinance Rom. 13. 2. 25. That Paul not Peter was ordained by the grace of God to be the chief Apostle of the Gentiles and consequently of Rome the chief City of the Gentiles Rom. 15. 15 16 19 20 c. Rom 11. 14. Rom. 16. 4. 26. That the Church of Rome may err and fall away from the true Faith as well as the Church of Jerusalem or any other particular Church Rom. 11. 20 21 22. And seeing the new upstart Church of Rome teacheth in all these and in innumerable other points clean contrary to that which the Apostle taught the Primitive Romans let God and this Epistle judge betwixt them and us whether of us both stands in the true ancient Catholick Faith which the Apostle taught the old Romans And whether we have not done well to depart from them so far as they have departed from the Apostles Doctrine And whether it be not better to return to St. Paul's Truth than still to continue in Rome's Error And if this be true then let Jesuites and Seminary Priests take heed and fear lest it be not faith but faction not truth but treason not Religion but Rebellion beginning at Tiber and ending at Tyburn which is the cause of their deaths And being sent from a troublesome Apostatical See rather than from a peaceable Apostolical Seat because they cannot be suffered to perswade Subjects to break their Oaths and to withdraw their Allegiance from their Sovereign to raise Rebellion to move Invasion to stab and poison Queens to kill and murther Kings to blow up whole States with Gun powder they desperately cast away their own bodies to be hanged quartered and their souls saved if they belong to God I wish such honour to all his Saints that sends them And I have just cause to fear that the miracles of Lipsius's Two Ladies Blunstone's Boy Garnet's Straw and the Maid's fiery Apron will not suffice to clear that these men are not Murtherers of themselves rather than Martyrs of Christ. And with what conscience can any Papist count Garnet a Martyr when his own conscience forced him to conâ—ess that it was for Treason and not for Religion that he died But if the Priests of such a Gunpowder Gospel be Martyrs I marvel who are Murtherers if they be Saints who are Scythians who are Canibals if they be Catholicks But leaving these if they will be filthy to their filthiness still let us to whose fidelity the Lord hath committed his true faith as a precious depositum pray unto God that we 〈◊〉 lead a holy life answerable to our holy faith in piety to Christ and obedience to oâ—r King that if our Saviour shall ever count us worthy that honour to suffer Martyrdom for his Gospel's sake be it by open burning at the stake as in Q. Mary's days or by secret murthering as in the Inquisition-house or by outragious massacring as in the Parisians Mattens in being blown up with Gun-powder as was intended in the Parliament-House we may have grace to pray for the assistance of his holy Spirit so to strengthen our frailty and to defend his cause as that we may seal with our deaths the evangelical truth which we have professed in our lives That in the days of our lives we may be blessed by his word in the day of Death be blessed in the Lord and in the day of judgment be the blessed of his Father Even so grant Lord Jesus Amen A Divine Colloquy betwixt the Soul and her Saviour concerning the effectual merits of his dolorous Passion Soul LOrd wherefore didst thou wash thy Disciples feet Christ To teach thee how thou shouldest prepare thy self to come to my Supper S. Lord why would'st thou wash them thy self C. To teach thee humility if thou wilt be my Disciple S. Lord wherefore didst thou before thy death institute thy last Supper C. That thou mightest the better remember my death and be assured that all the merits thereof are thine S. Lord wherefore would'st thou go to such a place where Judas knew to find thee C. That thou mightest know that I went as willingly to suffer for thy sin as ever thou wentest to any place to commit a sin S. Lord wherefore would'st thou begin thy passion in a Garden C. Because that in a Garden thy sin took first beginning S. Lord wherefore did thy three select Disciples fall so fast asleep when thou beganst to fall into thy agony C. To shew that I alone wrought the work of thy Redemption S. Lord why were there so many plots and snares laid for thee C. That I might make thee to escape all the snares of thy Ghostly Hunter S. Lord why would'st thou suffer Judas betraying thee to kiss thee C. That by enduring the words of dissembling Lips I might there begin to expiate sin where 〈◊〉 find brought it into the world S. Lord why would'st thee be sold for thiâ—ty pieces of Silver C. That I might free thee from perpetual bondage S. Lord why didst thou pray with such strâ—ng crying and tears C. That I might 〈◊〉 the fury of God's Justice which was so fiercely kindled against thee S. Lord why wast thou so afraid and cast â—nto such an Aâ—â—ny C. That 〈◊〉 the â—rath due to thy sins thou mightest be more secure in thy deâ—â—h and 〈◊〉 more comfort in thy crosse S. Lord wherâ—fâ—re 〈…〉 and so earnestly 〈…〉 〈◊〉 thee C. That 〈…〉 the horrour of that curseâ—◠〈…〉 being due to thy sin I was 〈…〉 and endure for thee S. Lord wherefore didst thou after 〈◊〉 wish submit thy will unto
the wi◠〈…〉 C. To teach thee what thou 〈…〉 do in all thy afflictions and how willingly thou should'st yield to bear with 〈◊〉 that Cross which thou seest to come from the just hand of thy heavenly Father S. Lord wherefore dist thou 〈…〉 drops of water and blood C. That I might cleanse thee from thy stains and 〈…〉 S. Lord why would'st thou be taken 〈◊〉 thou mightest have escaped thine Enemies C. That thy spiritual enemies should not take thee and cast thee into the prison of utter darkness S. Lord wherefore would'st thou be forsaken of all thy Disciples C. That I might reconcile thee unto God of whom thou wast forsaken for thy sins S. Lord wherefore wouldst thou stand to be apprehended alone C. To shew thee that my love of thy salvation was more than the love of all my Disciples S. Lord wherefore was the young man caught by the soldiers and unstrip'd of his linen who came out of his bed hearing the stir at thy apprehension and leading to the high Priest C. To shew their outrage in apprehending me and my power in preserving out of their outragious hands all my Disciples who otherwise had been worse handled by them than was that young man S. Lord wherefore would'st thou be bound C. That I might loose the Cords of thine iniquities S. Lord why wast thou denied of Peter C. that I might confess thee before my Father and thou mightest learn that there is no trust in man and that salvation proceeds of my meer mercy S. Lord wherefore would'st thou bring Peter to repentance by the crowing of a Cock C. That none should despise the means which God hath appointed for their conversion tho' they seem never so mean S. Lord wherefore didst thou at the Cock-crowing turn and look upon Peter C. Because thou might'st know that without the help of my grace no means can turn a sinner unto God when he is once fallen from him S. Lord wherefore wast thou cover'd with a purple robe C. That thou might'st perceive that it was I that did away thy scarlet sins S. Lord wherefore would'st thou be crown'd with thorns C. That by wearing thorns the first fruits of the Curse it might appear that it is I which take away the sins and curse of the world and crown thee with the Crown of life and glory S. Lord why was a reed put into thy hand C. That it might appear that I came not to break the bruised reed S. Lord wherefore wast thou mock'd of the Jews C. That thou mightest insult over Devils who otherwise would have mocked thee as the Philistines did Samson S. Lord wherefore would'st thou have thy blessed face defiled with spittle C. That I might cleanse thy face from the shame of sin S. Wherefore Lord were thine eyes hood-winkt with a veil C. That thy spiritual blindness being removed thou mightest behold the face of my Father in heaven S. Lord wherefore did they buffet thee with fists and beat thee with slaves C. That thou mightest be freed from the stroaks and tearings of infernal fiends S. Lord wherefore would'st thou be reviled C. That God might speak peace unto thee by his Word and Spirit S. Lord wherefore was thy face disfigur'd with blows and blood C. That thy face might shine glorious as the Angels in heaven S. Lord wherefore would'st thou be so â—â—â—elly scâ—urged C. That thou mightest be freed from the sting of Conscience and whips of everlasting torments S. Lord wherefore would'st thou be arraigned at Pilate's Bar C. That thou mightest at the last day be acquitted before my Judgment-seat S. Lord wherefore would'st thou be falsly accused C. That thou should'st not be justly condemned S. Lord where wast thou turned over to be condemned by a strange Judge C. That thou being redeemed from the capâ—ivity of a hellish Tyrant mightest be restored to God whose own thou art by right S. Wherefore O Christ didst thou acknowledge that Pilate had power over thee from above C. That Antichrist under pretence of being my Vicar should not exalt himself above all Principalities and Powers S. Lord why would'st thou suffer thy Passion under Pontius Pilate being a Roman President to Caesar of Rome C. To shew that the Caesarian and Pontifician Polity of Rome should chiefly persecute my Church and crucifie me in my members S. But why Lord would'st thou be condemn'd C. That the Law being condemned in me thou mightest not be condemned by it S. But why wast thou condemned seeing nothing could be proved against thee C. That thou might'st know that it was not for my faults but for thine that I suffered S. Lord wherefore wast thou led to suffer out of the city C. That I might bring thee to rest in the heavenly City S. Lord why did the Jews compel Simon of Cyrene coming out of the field to carry thy Cross C. To shew the weakness whereunto the burden of thy sins brought me and what must be every Christians case which goeth out of the field of this world toward the heavenly Jerusalem S. Lord why wast thou unstripped of thy garments C. That thou mightest see how I forsook all to redeem thee S. Lord wherefore would'st thou be liâ—t up upon a Cross C. That I might lift thee up with me to Heaven S. Lord wherefore didst thou hang upon a cursed tree C. That I might satisfie for thy sin committed in eatiâ—g the forbidden fruit of a Tree S. Lord wherefore would'st thou hang between two thieves C. That thou my dear Soul might'st have place in the midst of heavenly Angels S. Lord wherefore were thy hands and feet nailed to the Cross C. To enlarge thy hands to do the works of righteousness and to set thy feet at liberty to walk in the ways of Peace S. Lord wherefore did they crucifie thee in Golgoâ—ha the place of dead mens sculls C. To assure thee that my death is life unto the dead S. Lord why did not the Soldiers divide thy seamless coat C. To shew that my Church is one without rent or schism S. Lord wherefore didst thou taste Vinegar and Gall C. That thou mightest eat the bread of Angels and drink the water of life S. Lord why saidst thou upon the Cross It is finished C. That thou mightest know that by my death the Law was fulfilled and thy Redemption effected S. Lord why didst thou cry out upon the Cross My God my God why hast thou forsaken me C. Lest thou being forsaken of God shouldst have been driven to cry in the pains of Hell Wo and alas for evermore S. Lord wherefore was there such a general darkness when thou didst suffer and cry out on the Cross C. That thou mightest see an Image of those
hellish pains which I suffered to deliver thee from the endless pains of Hell and everlasting chains of darkness S. Lord why would'st thou have thine arms nailed abroad C. That I might embrace thee more lovingly my sweet Soul S. Lord why did the Thief that never wrought good before obtain Paradise upon so short repentance C. That thou maist see the power of my death to forgive them that repent that no sinner needs despair S. Lord why did not the other Thief which hanged as near thee obtain the like mercy C. because I leave whom I will to harden themselves in their lewdness to destruction that all should fear and none presume S. Lord wherefore didst thou cry with such a loud and strong voice in yielding up the ghost C. That it might appear that no man took my life from me but that I said it down of my self S. Lord wherefore didst thou commend thy soul into thy Father's hands C. To teach thee what thou should'st do being to depart this life S. Lord wherefore did the veil of the Temple rent in twain at thy death C. To shew that the Levitical Law should be no longer a partition-wall between Jews and Gentiles and that the way to Heaven is now open to all believers S. Lord wherefore did the earth quake and the Stones cleave at thy Death C. For horror to bear her Lord dying and to upbraid the cruel hardness of sinners hearts S. Lord wherefore did not the Soldiers break thy Legs as they did the thieves who hanged at thy right and left hand C. That thou mightest know that they had not power to do any more unto me than the Scripture had foretold that they should do and I should suffer to save thee S. Lord wherefore was thy side opened with a Spear C. That thou mightest have a way to come nearer unto my heart S. Lord wherefore ran there out of thy precious side blood and water C. To assure thee that I was slain indeed seeing my heart-blood gushed out and the water which compassed my heart flowed forth after it which once spilt man must needs die S. Lord wherefore ran the blood first by it self and the water afterwards by it self out of thy blessed wound C. To assure thee of two things 1. That by my blood-shedding Justification and Sanctification were effected to save thee Secondly that my Spirit by the conscionable use of the water in Baptism and blood in the Eucharist will effect in thee righteousness and holiness by which thou shalt glorifie me S. Lord wherefore did the graves open at thy death C. To signifie that Death by my death had now received his death's-wound and was overcome S. Lord wherefore woud'st thou be buried C. That thy sins might never rise up to Judgment against thee S Lord wherefore woud'st thou be buried by two such honourable Senators as Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea C. That the Truth of my Death the Cause of thy life might more evidently appear unto all S. Lord wherefore wast thou buried in a new Sepulchre wherein was never laid man before C. That it might appear that I and not another arose and that by my own power not by another's vertue like him who reviv'd at the touching of Elisha's Bones S. Lord wherefore didst thou raise up thy body again C. That thou mayst be assured that thy sins are discharged and that thou art justified S. Lord wherefore did so many bodies of thy Saints which slept arise at thy Resurrection C. To give an assurance that all the Saints shall arise by the virtue of my Resurrection at the last day S. Lord what shall I render unto thee for all these benefits C. Love thy Creator and become a new creature The Soul's Soliloquy ravished in contemplation of the Passion of our Lord. WHat hadst thou done O my sweet Saviour and ever blessed Redeemer that thou wast thus betrayed of Judas sold of the Jews apprehended as a Malefactor and led bound as a Lamb to the slaughter What evil hadst thou committed that thou shouldest be thus openly arraigned accused falsly and unjustly condemned before Annas and Caiaphas the Jewish Priests at the judgment-seat of Pilate the Roman President What was thine offence or to whom didst thou ever wrong that thou shouldest be thus pitifully scourged with whips crowned with thorns scoffed with flouts reviled with words buffeted with fists and beaten with staves O Lord what didst thou deserve to have thy blessed face spit upon and covered as it were with shame to have thy Garments parted thy hands and feet nailed to the Cross To be lifted up upon the cursed Tree to be crucified among Thieves and made to taste Gall and Vinegar and in thy deadly extremity to endure such a Sea of God's wrath that made thee to cry out as if thou hadst been forsaken of God thy Father yea to have thy innocent heart pierced with a cruel spear and thy precious blood to be spilt before thy blessed mothers eyes Sweet Saviour how much wast thou tormented to endure all this seeing I am so much amazed but to think upon it I enquire for thine offence but I can find none in thee no not so much as guile to have-been found in thy mouth Thy enemies are challenged and none of them dare rebuke thee of sin thy accusers that are suborn'd agree not in their witness the Judg that condemns thee openly cleareth thy innocency his wife sends him word she was warned in a dream that thou wast a just Man and therefore should take heed of doing injustice unto thee The Centurion that executed thee confessed thee of a truth to be both a just man and the very Son of God The thief that hanged with thee justifieth thee that thou hast done nothing amiss What is the cause then O Lord of this thy cruel ignominy passion and death I O Lord I am the cause of these thy sorrows my sins wrought thy shame my iniquities are the occasion of thy injuries I have committed the fault and thou art plagued for the offence I am guilty and thou art arraigned I committed the sin and thou suffer'st the death I have done the crime thou hangedst on the Cross Oh the deepness of God's love Oh the wonderful disposition of heavenly grace Oh the unmeasurable measure of divine mercy the wicked transgresseth the just is punished the guilty is let escape and the innocent is arraigned the malefactor is acquitted and the harmless condemned what the evil man deserveth the good man suffereth the servant doth the fault the master endures the strokes What shall I say Man sinneth and God dieth O Son of God! who can sufficiently express thy love or commend thy pity or extol thy praise I was proud thou art humbled I was disobedient and thou becam'st obedient I did eat the forbidden
fruit thou didst hang on the cursed tree I plaid the glutton and thou didst fast evil concupiscence drew me to eat the pleasaâ—â— apple and perfect charity led thee to drink of the bitter cup I assayed the sweetness of the fruit and thou didst taste the bitterness of the gall Foolish Eve smiled when I laughed but blessed Mary wept when thy heart bled died O my God here I see thy goodness and my badness thy justice and my injustice the impiety of my flesh and the piety of thy nature And now O blessed Lord thou hast endured all this for my sake what shall I render unto thee for all thy benefits bestowed upon me a sinful soul Indeed Lord I acknowledge that I owe thee already for my creation more than I am able to pay for I am in that respect bound with all my powers and affections to love and adore thee If I owed my self unto thee for giving me my self in my creation what shall I now render to thee for giving thy self for me to so cruel a death to procure my Redemption Great was the benefit that thou wouldest create me of nothing but what tongue can express the greatness of this grace that thou didst redeem me with so dear a price when I was worse than nothing Surely Lord if I cannot pay the thanks I owe thee and who can pay thee who bestowest thy graces without respect of merit or regard of measure it is the abundance of thy blessings that makes me such a bankrupt that I am so far unable to pay the principal that I cannot possibly pay so much as the interest of thy love But O my Lord thou knowest that since the loss of thine Image by the fall of my first unhappy Parents I cannot love thee with all my might and mind as I should therefore as thou didst first cast thy love upon me when I was a child of wrath and a lump of the lost and condemned world so now I beseech thee shed abroad thy love by thy Spirit through all my faculties and affections that though I can never pay thee in that measure of love which thou hast deserved yet I may endeavour to repay thee in such a manner as thou vouchsafest to accept in mercy that I may in truth of heart love my neighbour for thy sake and love thee above all for thine own sake Let nothing be pleasant unto me but that which is pleasing unto thee And sweet Saviour suffer me never to be lost or cast away whom thou hast bought so dearly with thine own most precious blood O Lord let me never forget thine infinite love and this unspeakable benefit of my Redemption without which it had been better for me never to have been than to have any being And seeing that thou hast vouchsafed me the assistance of thy holy Spirit suffer me O heavenly Father who art the Father of Spirits in the meditation of thy Son to speak a few words in the ears of my Lord. If thou O Father despisest me for mine iniquities as I have deserved yet be merciful unto me for the merits of thy Son who so much for me hath suffered What if thou seest nothing in me but misery which might move anger and passion Yet behold the merits of thy Son and thou shalt see enough to move thee to mercy and compassion Behold the mystery of his incarnation and remit the misery of my transgression And as oft as the wounds of thy Son appear in thy sight O let the woes of my sins be hid from thy presence As oft as the redness of his blood glisters in thine eyes O let the guiltiness of my sins be blotted out of thy Book The wantonness of my flesh provoked thee unto wrath O let the chastity of his flesh perswade thee to mercy that as my flesh seduced me to sin so his flesh may reduce me unto thy favour My disobedience hath deserved a great revenge but his obedience merits a greater weight of mercy for what can man deserve to suffer which God made man cannot merit to have forgiven When I consider the greatness of thy passion then do I see the trueness of that saying That Christ came into the world to save the chiefest sinners Dâ—rest thou O Cain say that thy sins are greater than may be forgiven Thou lâ—est like a murtherer the mercies of one Christ are able to forgive a world of Cains if they 'll believe repent The sins of all sinners are finite the mercies of God are infinite Therefore O Father for the death and passions sake which thy Son Jesu Christ hath suffer'd for me I have now remembred to thee pardon and forgive thou unto me all my sins deliver me from the curse vengeance which they have justly deserved through his merits make me O Lord a partaker of thy mercy It is thy mercy that I so earnestly knock for neither shall mine importunity cease to call and knock with the man that would borrow the loaves until thou arise and open unto me thy gates of grace And if thou wilt not bestow on me thy loaves yet O Lord deny me not the crums of thy mercy and those shall suffice thy hungry hand-mind And seeing thou reqâ—i est nothing for thy benefits but that I love thee in the truth of my inward heart whereof a new creature is the truest outward testimony and that it is as easie for thee to make me a new creature as to bid me to be such create in me O Christ a new heart and renew in me a right spirit and then thou shalt see how mortifying old Adam and his corrupt lust I will serve thee as thy new creature in a new life after a new way with a new tongue and new manners with new words and new works to the glory of thy Name and the winning other sinful souls unto thy Faith by my devout example Keep me for ever O my Saviour from the torments of hell and tyranny of the Devil And when I am to depart this life send thy holy Angels to carry me as they did the soul of Lazarus into thy Kingdom Receive me into that joyful Paradise which thou didst promise to thâ— penitent thief which at his last gasp upon the Cross so devoutly begg'd thy mercy and admission into thy Kingdom Grant this O Christ for thy own Name 's sake to whom as is most due I ascribe all glory and honour praise and dominion both now and for ever Amen FINIS * 1 Tim. 6. 15. Rev. 12. 13. †1 Sam. 20. 20. * 2 Chron. 34. 3. * Qui monet ut facias quod jam facis ipse moneâ— do Laudat hortatu comprobat acta suo 2 Cor. 8. 7. Matth. 15. 1. 2. Tim. 2. 4. * Exemplum accidit mulieris Domino teste quae Theatrum adiit inde cum daemonio â—â—diit Itaque in exorcismo cùm oneraretur immundus spiritus quod ausus est fidelem aggredi
and the Son by proceeding These are incommunicable Actions and â—o make not an essential accidental or â—ational but a real distinction betwixt the â—hree persons So that he who is the Father â—n the Trinity is not the Son He who â—s the Son in the Trinity is not the Faâ—her He who is the holy Ghost in the Triâ—ity is neither the Son nor the Father â—ut the Spirit proceeding from both â—hough there is but one and the same Essence common to all three As thereâ—ore we believe that the Father is God he Son is God and the Holy Ghost is God â—o we likewise believe that God is the Faâ—her God is the Son and God is the Holy Ghost But by reason of this real distinction the Person of the one is not nor ever can be the Person of the other The three Persons therefore of the Godhead do not differ from the Essence but formally but they differ really one from another aâ—d so are distinguished by their hypostatical proprieties As the Father is God begetting God the Son the Son is God begotten of God the Father and the holy Ghost is God proceeding from both God the Father and God the Son Hence it is that the Scriptures use the name of God two manner of ways Either Essentially and then it signifieth the three Persons conjointly or Personally and then by a Synecdoche it signifieth but one of the three Persons in the God-head As the Father 1 Tim. 2. 5. or the Son Act. 20. 28. 1 Tim. 3. 16. or the holy Ghost Acts 5. 4. 2 Cor. 6. 16. And because the Divine Essence common to all the three Persons is but one we call the same Vnity But because there be three distinct Persons in this one indivisible Essence we call the same Trinity So that this Vnity in Trinity and Trinity in Vnity is a holy Mystery rather to be religiously adored by faith than curiously searched by reason further than God hath revealed in his Word Thus far of the diverse manner of being in the Divine Essence now of the Attributes thereof ATtributes are certain descriptions of the Divine Essence delivered in the Scriptures according to the weakness of of our capacity to help us the better to understand the nature of God's Essence and to discern it from all other Essences The Attributes of God are of two sorts either nominal or real The Nominal Attributes are of Three sorts 1. Those which signifie God's Essence 2. The Persons in the Essence 3. Those which signifie his Essential works Of the first sort is the Name Jehovah or rather Jehueh which signifieth eternal being of himself in whom being without all beginning and end all other beings both begin and end Isa. 42 8. Psal 83. 18. God tells Moses Exod. 6. 3. That he was not known to Abraham Isaac and Jacob by his Name Jehovah Not but that they knew this to be the Name of God for they used it in all their Prayers but because they lived not to see God effecting indeed that which he promised them in graciously delivering their â—eed out of Egypt and in giving them the real possession of Canaan's Land and so to be not only God Almighty by whom all things were made but also performing indeed to the Children that which he promised in his word to the Fathers which this Name Jehovah especially signifieth And for this cause Moses calls God first Jehovah when the universal creation had its absolute being Gen. 2. 4. And this Admirable Name is graven on the Decalogues forehead which was pronounced upon the Israelites deliverance to be the Rule of Righteousness after which they should serve their Deliverer in the promised Land This Name is so full of Divine Mysteries that the Jews hold it a sin to pronounce it but if it be no sin to write it why should it be unlawful to pronounce it This holy Name of God teacheth us First What God is in himself namely an eternal being of himself Secondly How he is unto others because that from him all other Creatures have received their being Thirdly That we may confidently believe his promises for he is named Jehovah not only in respect of being and causing all things to be but especially in respect of his gracious promises which without fail he will fulfil in his appointed time and so cause that to be which was not before And so this Name is a golden pledge unto us that because he hath promised he will surely upon our repentance forgive us all our sins at the time oâ— death receive our Souls and in the resurrection raise up our Bodies in glory to life everlasting The second Name denoting God's Essence is Ehejeh but once read Exod. 3. 14 of the same root that JEHOVAH is and signifieth I AM or I WILL BE for when Moses asked God by what Name he should call him God then named himself Ehejeh Asher Ehejeh I am thaâ— I am or I will be that I will be signifying that he is an eternal unchangeable Being for seeing every Creature is temporary and mutable no Creature can say Ero qui ero I will be that I will be This name in the New Testament is given to our Lord Christ when he is called Alpha and Omega The beginning and the ending which is which was and which is to come The Almighty Apoc. 1. 8. For all time past and to come is aye present before God And to this name Christ himself alludeth Joh 8. 58. Before Abraham was I AM. This Name should teach us likewise to have always present in our minds our first Creation present Corruption and future Glorification and not content our selves with I was good or I will be good but to be good presently that when ever God sends for us he may find us prepared for him The third name is Jah which as it comes of the same root so is it the contract of Jehovah and signifieth Lord because he is the beginning and Being of Beings It is a name for the most part ascribed unto God when some notable deliverance or benefit comes to pass according to his former promise and therefore all Creatures in Heaven and Earth are commanded to celebrate and praise God in this Name Jah The fourth is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord used often in the New Testament for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth I am Hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth the first Essence of a thing or authority when it is absolutely given to God it answereth to the Hebrew name Jehovah and is so translated by the seventy Interpreters for God is so a Lord that he is of himself Lord of all This Name should always put us in remembrance to obey his Commandments and to fear his Judgments and submit our selves to his blessed Will and Pleasure saying with Eli It is the Lord let
the Creation the first day wherein it was finished was consecrated for a Sabbath so in the time of Redemption the first day wherein it was perfected must be dedicated to a holy rest but still a seventh day kept according to God's moral Commandment The Jews kept the last day of the week beginning their Sabbath with the night when God rested but Christians honour the Lord better on the first day of the week beginning the Sabbath with the day when the Lord arose They kept their Sabbath in remembrance of the World's Creation but Christians celebrate it in memorial of the World's Redemption yea the Lord's-day being the first of the Creation and Redemption puts us in mind both of the making of the old and redeeming of the new World As therefore under the old Testament God by the glory consisting of seven Lamps seven Branches c. put them in remembrance of the Creation Light and Sabbath's â—est So under the New Testament Christ the true light of the world appeareth in the midst of the 7 lampâ— and seven golden candle-sticks to put us in minâ— to honour our Redeemer in in the light of the Gospel of the Lord's seventh day of rest And seeing the Redemption both for might and mercy so fâ—r exceedeth the Câ—cation it stood with great reason thee the greater work should carry the honour of the day Neither doth he honourable title of the Lord's-day diminish the glory of the Sabbath but rather being added augments the dignity thereof as the name of Israel added unto Jacob made the Patriarch the more renowned The reason taken from the example of God's resting from the work of the Creation of the World continued in force till the Son of God ceased from the work of the Redemption of the World and then the former gave place to the latter 4. Because it was foretold in the Old Testament that the Sabbath should be kept under the New Testament on the first-day of the week For first in the 110 Psalm which is a Prophecy of Christ and his Kingdom it is plainly foretold that there should be a solemn day of assembling wherein all Christ's people should willingly come together in the beauty of holiness Insomuch that no rain of peace shall be upon those Families that in the feast will not go up to Jerusalem the Church to worship the King the Lord of hosts Now on what day this holy Feast and Assembly should be kept David sheweth plainly in Psal. 118 which was a prophecy of Christ as appears Mat. 21. 42 Acts 4. 11. Ephes. 2. 20. as also by the consent of all the Jews as Jerom witnesseth For shewing how Christ by his ignominious death should be as a stone rejected of the Builders or chief Rulers of Judea and yet by his glorious Resurrection should become the chief stâ—ne of the Corner he wisheth the whole Church to keep holy that day whereupon Christ should effect this wonderful work saying This is the day which the Lord hath made let us rejoyce and be glad in it And seeing that upon this day that which Peter saith of Christ appeareth to be true That God made him both Lord and Christ Acts 2. 36. therefore the whole Church under the New Testament must celebrate the day of Christ's Resurrection Rabby Bachay also saw by the fall of Adam on the sixth day that on the same day the Messias should finish the work of man's redemption And alluding to the speech of Boaz to Ruth sleep unto the Morning that Messias should rest in his grave all their Sabbath-day And he gathereth from that speech Gen. 1. on the first day Let their be light that the Messias should rise on the first day of the week from death to life and cause the spiritual light of the Gospel to enlighten the World that lay in the shadow of darkness and death The Hebrew Author of the Book called Sedar Olam Rabbi cap. 7. recordeth many memorable things which were done upon the first day of the week as so many Types that the chief worship of God should under the New Testament be celebrated upon this day As that on this day the cloud of God's Majesty first sate upon his people Aaron and his Children first executed their Priesthood God first solemnly blessed his people The Princes of his people first offered publickly unto God The first day wherein fire descended from heaven The first day of the World of the Year of the Month of the week c. All shadowing that it should be the first and chief holy-day of the New Testament St. Augustine proveth by divers places and reasons out of the holy Scripture that the Fathers and all the holy Prophets under the Old Testament did foresee and know that our Lord's-day was shadowed by their eighth day of Circumcision And that the Sabbath should be changed from the seventh day to the eighth or first day of the week And Junius out of Cyprian saith that Circumcision was commanded on the eighth day as a Sacrament of the eighth day when Christ should arise from the dead The Council Foro-Juliense affirms That Esay prophesied of the keeping of the Sabbath upon the first day of the week If this Mystery was so clearly seen by the Fathers under the shadows of the Old Testament sure the God of this World hath deeply blinded their minds who cannot see the Truth thereof under the shining light of the Gospel Therefore this change of the Sabbath-day under the New was nothing but a fulfilling of that which was prefigured and fore-prophesied under the Old Testament 5. According to their Lord's Mind and Commandment and the direction of the Holy Ghost which alway assisted them in their Ministerial Office the Apostles in all the Christian Churches which they planted ordained that the Christians should keep the holy Sabbath upon that seventh Day which is the first Day of the week Concerning the gathering for the Saints as I have ordained in the Churches of Galatia so do ye also Every first-day of the week c. When ye come together in the Church being the Lord's-day to eat the Lord's-Supper to remember and shew the Lord's death till he come c. In which words note 1. That the Apostle ordained this Day to be kept holy therefore a divine Institution 2. That the Day is named the first-day of the week therefore not the Jewish seventh or any other 3. Every first-day of the week which sheweth a perpetuity 4. That it was ordained in the Churches of Galatia as well as of Corinth and he settled one uniform order in all the Churches of the Saints therefore it was universal 5. That the exercises of this day were Collections for the poor which appears by Acts 2. 42. and Justin Martyr's testimony Apolog. 2. which were gathered in the holy Assembly after Prayer preaching of the Word and Administration of the Sacraments therefore it
was spiritual 6. That he will have the Collection tho' necessity removed against his coming lest it should hinder his preaching but not their holy meeting on the Lord's-day for it was the time ordained for the publick worship of the Lord which argueth a necessity And in the same Epistle St. Paul protesteth that he dâ—livered them none other Ordinance or Doctrine but what he had received of the Lord. Insomuch that he chaâ—geth them that if any man think himself to be a prophet or Spiritual let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. But he wrote unto them and ordained among them to keep their Sabbath on the first day of the Week therefore to keep the Sabbath on that day is the very commandment of the Lord. And how can he be either a true Prophet or have any grace of God's Spirit in his heart who seeing so clearly the Lord's day to have been iâ—â—â—â—tuted and ordained by the Apostles will not acknowledge the keeping holy of the Lord's day to be a Commendment of the Lord The Jews confess this change of the Sabbath to have been made by the Apostles Peter Alphon. in Dialog contra Judaeâ—s tit 12. They are therefore more blind and sottish than the Jews who prophanely deny it Aâ— Troas likewise St. Paul together with seven of the Chief Evangellâ—â—s of the Church Sosipater Aristarchus Secundus Gaius Timotheus Tychicus and Trophimus and all the Christians that were there kept the holy Sabbath on the first day of the week in praying preaching and receiving the Lord's-Supper And it is a thing to be noted That Luke saith not that the Disciples were sent to hear Paul preach but the Disciples being come together to break bread upon the first day of the week that is to be partakers of the holy Communion at what time the Lord's death was by the preaching of the Word shewed 1 Cor. 11. 26. Paul preached unto them c. And that none kept those meetings but Christians who only are called Disciples Act. 11. 26. But at Philippi whereas yet there were no Disciples Paul is said to go on their Sabbath day to the place where the Jews and their Proselytes were wont to pray and there preached unto them Acts 16. 12 13. so that it is as clear as the Sun that it was the Christians usual manner to pass over the Jewish seventh day and to keep the Sabbath and their holy meetings on the first day of the week And why doth S. John call this the Lord's day but because it was a day known to be generally kept holy to the honour of the Lord Jesus who rose from death to life upon that day throughout all the Churches which the Apostles planted Which S. John called the Lord's day the rather to stir up Christians to a thankful remembrance of their Redemption by Christ his Resurrection from the dead And with the day the blessing of the Sabbath is likewise translated to the Lord's day because that all the sanctification belonging to this new world is in Christ and from him conveyed to Christians And because there cannot come a greater authority than that of Christ and his Apostles nor the like cause as the new Creation of the world therefore the Sabbath can never be altered from this day to any other whilst this world lasteth Add hereunto how the Scripture noteth that in the first planting and setling of the Church nothing was done but by the special order and direction of the Apostles 1 Cor. 11. 34. 1 Cor. 14. 36 37. Tit. 1. 5. Act. 15. 6 24. and the Apostles did nothing but what they had warrant for from Christ 1 Cor. 11. 23. To sanctifie then the Sabbath on the seventh Day is not a ceremonial Law abrogated but the moral and perpetual law of God perfected So that the same perpetual Commandment which bound the Jews to keep the Sabbath on that seventh day to celebrate the World's Creation binds Christians to solemnize the Subbath on this seventh day in memorial of the World's Redemption for the fourth Commandment being a Moral Law requireth a seventh day to be kept holy for ever And the Morality of this as of the rest of the Commandments is more religiously to be kept of us under the Gospel than of the Jews under the Law by how much we in Baptism have made a more special Covenant with God to keep his Commandments and God hath covenanted with us to free us from the curse and to assist us with his Spirit to keep his Laws And that this Commandment of the Sabbath as well as the other nine is Moral and perpetual may plainly appear by these reasons Ten reasons demonstrating the Commandment of the Sabbath to be Moral 1. BEcause all the reasons of this Commandment are moral and perpetual And God hath bound us to the obedience of this Commandment with more forcible reasons than to any of the rest First because he did foresee that irreligious men would either more carelesly neglect or more boldly break this Commandment than any other Secondly because that in the practice of this Commandment the keeping of all the other consisteth which makes God so often complain that all his worship is neglected or overthrown when the Sabbath is either neglected or transgressed It would make a man amazed saith Mr. Calvin to consider how oft and with what zeal and protestation God requireth all that will be his people to sanctifie the seventh day yea how the God of Mercy mercilesly punisheth the breach of this Commandment with cruel death as though it were the sum of his whole honour and service And it is certain that he who makes no conscience to break the Sabbath will not to serve his turn make any Conscience to break any of the other Commandments so he may do it without discredit of his reputation or danger of Man's Law Therefore God placed this Commandment in the midst of the Two Tables because the keeping of it is the best help to the keeping of all the rest The conscionable keeping of the Sabbath is the Mother of all religion and good discipline in the Church Take away the Sabbath and let every man serve God when he listeth and what will shortly become of Religion and that peace and order which God will have to be kept in his Church the Sabbath day is God's Market-day for the weeks provision wherein He will have us to come unto him and buy of him without silver or money the Bread of Angels and Water of Life the Wine of the Sacrament and Milk of the Word to feed our souls tryed gold to enrich our faith precious Eâ—e-salve â—o heal our spiritual blindness and the white raiment of Christ's righteousness to cover our silchy nakedness He is not far from true Piety who makes conscience to keep the Sabbath day but he who can disâ—ence with his conscience to break