Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
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A58095
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A rational method of daily religion consisting of four new offices of ordinary devotion; and a practical directory concerning the reasonableness and use of them. By a Divine of the Church of England.
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Divine of the Church of England.
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1697
(1697)
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Wing R305; ESTC R220657
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34,136
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144
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Grace that I have not to my Knowledge boldly provok'd thee in any respect this day for to thy Grace alone is this Honour due I know nothing of my self yet am I not hereby justify'd 'T is thy Sentence must make or undo me for ever O God thou art greater than our Hearts and knowest all things if therefore my State is still dangerous if any pestilential Habit still cleaves to my Soul if any Mortal Act or Word or Thought hath escap'd my Memory in my Examination enlighten me I beseech thee and suggest it to my remembrance that I may mingle my Tears with thy Mercy and Christ his Blood before I dare to slumber O suffer me not to lean on a delusive Peace But if it be otherwise praised be thy Goodness as for all thy Mercies so especially for this Gift of Innocence Keep me from being high-minded on this or any other account and give me true Sobriety of Mind that I may not through Giddiness and future Neglects fall after all from Favour 3. Glory be to thy Grace and the Merits of Christ that those many latent Deficiencies from thy Law which cleave even to the sanctified in this state will not shut me out of thy Kingdom may by degrees be lessen'd more and more here and will be wholly remov'd hereafter O cleanse me from all my secret Faults be they blotted out by the Blood of thy Son and grant that by great Advances in Grace an entrance may be vouchsaf'd me into the glorious Kingdom of God 4. With this comfortable Faith I rely this Night on thy Providence for convenient Repose and Defence both of Mind and Body In the Name of Christ I beseech thee do thou accept this imperfect Sacrifice of Prayer and Praise in his comprehensive Form I also crave pardon for the Wandrings and Imperfections thereof and do testifie my Charity to thy Creation Our Father c. THE Midnight Office OF ABSTRACTION 1. O My Soul now thou art secret unto Men but thou art not so unto God nor for all that thou knowest unto many good and bad Angels who often behold thee as well as thy Creator when thou neither seest nor thinkest of them Now therefore that thy Eyes are bound by the Darkness of the Night let thy Mind also be turn'd inwards by the profound silence of thy internal Powers that the Darkness of external Sense may encrease the Vigour of my intellectual Sight 2. Commune now with thine own Spirit O search and see whether it be fit for Communion with God which may be easily known if thou know'st whether Light or Darkness be the predominant Principle therein Call to remembrance thy Sins call to remembrance the Mercies of God dive deep into thy self and then say if thou canst that there is not something in the centre of thy Frame which is not perishable like the Efforts of thy Blood Do not be like the captive Multitude of Sense who thro' neglect of Abstraction are a secret to themselves Turn thy Nature over and over in thy Thoughts and especially view the better part thereof and observe wherein thou hast defac'd or improv'd it 3. Think 'till thou art thoroughly convinc'd and when thou art so do thou frequently consider that thou carry'st Immortality in Embrio always within thee 'T is true the Soul rather believes than sees whilst 't is thus imprison'd in the Womb. But when its Mortal Part is ripe for the Grave which may be long before even the Autumn of Man's life 't will make its entrance upon the immortal Stage 4. Think therefore of thy great Change in time before thou art forc'd to launch into the Ocean of Eternity lest the unexpected and unprepar'd-for sight of the invisible World surprize thee with another-guess Dread than that which the Faithful do find then Remember that the State of Man here on Earth is like the old Probationary State of Fallen Angels before they degenerated into Devils and like the State which all the Impenitent who are gone before thee once enjoy'd a State of Time and Opportunity a State of Work and Preparation for that State which is unalterable But the State of Saints and Fiends the State of Loyal and Apostate Angels the State of Angels and Men who have been acquitted and condemn'd before the last Tribunal is a State of exact Judgment Reward and Eternity 5. Then be thy Recompence Glory or Vengeance it will never expire there will be no escape from the one or loss of the other it will indeed have a beginning but its end will never be found Since therefore Eternity will find and keep thee such as Time leaves thee and Eternity is inestimable how canst thou value Time at too high a Rate Let the Time past suffice thee to have serv'd Pride Envy and Concupiscence Now be thou entirely a Servant of Christ and a Subject of Divine Zeal and Charity that an ample Prospect of Heaven may ennoble and enlarge thee 6. Make the Agonies of the Tormented in Hell and the Joys of the Bless'd above familiar to the Mind by Meditation that it may supplant the inchanting intimacy which sense will otherwise find in thy Soul as it does mostly in the Souls of the MANY Fancy thy Spirit to be taking leave of this Cottage of Flesh for this Custom tends greatly to the purgation of the Heart and the weaning of thy Affections from all its darling Idols It makes bare the Vanity of the World stabs the Love of an Earthly Life to the Heart and cherishes divine Love in the Soul Awake therefore O my Soul strive to be cloath'd with new Strength and to regain Paradise Meditate and abstract thy self whilst Sense is tame and quiet and does not hinder the orderly Peace of the Mind check every wanton Sally of Imagination be-aw'd with a sense of the Divine Omnipresence prostrate thy Thoughts of thy self and consider and say Great was the Rebellion and the Overthrow of the Apostate Inhabitants of Heaven Great was and is their Envy against us and the Fall of all Mankind in Adam Great is the Mercy of our affronted God and the Redemption that is tender'd by the Lord Jesus Great is our Blindness and Obstinacy deep and strong are our ill Habits mighty indeed are our Ghostly Enemies Mightier and more are the Angels that are for us wonderful is the Courtesie powerful are the strivings of the supreme Spirit with Man Sharp is the Edge of Conscience even sharper than a Two edged Sword and so great is the Peace of a good Man that it alone might satisfie and every one but himself is a stranger to his Joy Amazingly great is the change of Death so terrible also is the Day of the Lord and the Universal Judgment of Angels and Men. Who can dwell in Everlasting Burnings Are we stronger than God Who can conceive the Pleasures of Heaven What Mortal hath ever feasted upon God 7. And cannot all this provoke that aspiring Principle within me which was made
for the Enjoyment of a God to discipline its Thoughts To be choice in the Motions of my Will To make the Body know its original distance from the Soul To resist the Faction of Hell To be always on its Guard when it converses with its frail and treacherous Fellow-creatures To be a wise Steward of Time To have a mean Opinion of my self and this flowing State To keep close and constant correspondence with Heaven by frequent Prayer and Praise and holy Hungrings and Thirstings after the Beatifick Vision And in a word to use its utmost skill and all possible care to file and burnish and enrobe my Soul with all those beauteous Fruits of the Spirit which are the ground-work of the Happiness of a Man That so it may be conquer'd throughout endless Ages by the Brightness and Love of God and obtain a Place among the innumerable the eternal and inconceivably glorious Conquerors and Kings and Priests of God With this Hope return to thy Rest O my Soul The Lord guide the Lord strengthen thee and bring thee to the Haven where thou would'st be Amen for Christ his Sake A Practical Directory CHAP. I. Modestly defending clearly explaining and affectionately pressing the regular use of this New Method of Daily Devotion IT being very fitting that the Reasonableness of a Daily Method of Devotion which professes to be entirely new after so many Volumes of this Nature should be demonstrated It being likewise as fitting that those who mean well tho' they know little should not only be furnished with suitable helps to Devotion but also with a clear Explanation of pious helps by any person who offers them such Assistance that they may not pray only with Chearfulness and Affection but also with that clear Understanding which is a valuable Gift of the Spirit and recommendation of our Addresses to God as well as the other two And lastly it being very fitting that the faint hands and hearts should be animated and lifted up which the best dispos'd persons may sometimes stand in need of I have thought fit by the Adviee of some good Christians and my own Commiseration of the Ignorance of some illiterate and mine own and others Sluggishness now I have by God's Blessing finished this small part of a large Body of Devotions to add a practical Directory wherein by God's help I shall I. Give a short and clear Account concerning daily growth in Grace II. I shall consider how Closet-Devotion contributes to it III. What Method of daily Closet-Devotion contributes most liberally to it therein shewing the Reasonableness of this new Method of Devotion in general IV. I shall lay open the Structure of each particular Office and the Reasonableness of it V. I shall add two or three necessary Cautions VI. I shall conlude with some suitable Practical Exhortations CHAP. II. Of Daily Growth in Grace SInce the Real Christian 's daily Religion of the end is to grow in Grace 't is necessary in the first place to speak something concerning Growth in Grace I will therefore first shew what Growth in Grace is and secondly how a Man may know whether he grows in Grace Grace is any Degree of Beauty and Strength of Soul which is more than natural There are Degrees of Knowledge and Liberty of Will which we enjoy by Nature and are essential to the bare existence of a Nature which is partly spiritual These Degrees are the Gift of God and such as our Souls cannot lose unless they cease to be In short they are such Degrees of Light and Liberty which are consistent with a spiritual Nature's being in a state of Vncreatur'dness tho' not of Vncreatedness Now the Death of Adam and Devils not consisting in a cessation from being but a deprivation of so much Light and vigorous Rectitude of Will as is necessary to make a spiritual Creature happy Man may be and is born with certain Portions of Light and Vigour of Will which we call natural and are the issue of God's bare willing our Existence and yet nevertheless be in a state of Damnation Consequently this being consistent with the Enmity of God who will'd by an eternal Decree whether we will or no our Existence and the Existence of all spiritual Natures to be eternal but not to be eternally happy by an unconditional Decree of the same extent that which is eminently call'd the Grace of God is his Tender to us by and thro' Christ of that more than natural Degree of Light and Rectitude of Will whereby a Man is plac'd in a state of Evangelical Fitness for the eternal Complacency of God in the said Nature improv'd This Complacency of God in the said Nature improv'd arising from the said Degrees of Knowledge and Rectitude of Will is that real Immortality which Lucifer lost in Heaven and Adam forfeited in Paradise Hence 't is that both the General Capableness of human Nature's receiving this degree of Light and Liberty by Christ and also the more wise and industrious individual Partakers of the said redeemable Nature their Acquisition thereof are both call'd Grace because 't is extraordinary Compassion and Gift a greater than the Gift of a Creator only the Gift of such a degree of Light is call'd Illumination because the former degree of Light is Darkness in comparison with this and the latter degree of Scope of Will is call'd the Liberty of the Sons of God because the narrow degree of its natural Scope is a Prison when compar'd with supernatural Scope For a Devil and a meer natural Man have both of them some degrees of Knowledge and Scope and consequently of Light and Liberty otherwise they would cease to be susceptible of a Hell for 't is Heaven discern'd in themselves according to their primitive Capacity that causes that Anguish and Envy which arises from their Reflection on their foolish and ungrateful abuse of Opportunity So then a state of Grace as 't is us'd in the New Testament is a state of supernatural Light in the Soul of Man together with at least as much Rectitude of Will as is necessary to recover the Favour of God Now growth in this Grace is as essential to the flourishing Condition of the Divine supernatural Life of a Christian Soul during its continuance here it being an Human Soul's state of Adolescence as growth in heighth and bulk of Body is essential to the thriving Condition of the Animal Life till the Body has commenc'd Manhood And this growth in Grace is the Soul 's encreasing in Faith Magnanimity Heavenly-mindedness Humility Purity Charity and all such-like Divine Principles and internal Habits that are proper to regenerate Souls and are exerted in the external Exercises of forgiving Injuries prudent Provision for our Bodies and Dependents oral Prayer and Praise and the like external Subjects of the Gospel-Precepts From this account of Growth in Grace we may easily know secondly when we grow in Grace For since Grace is a state of universal Rectitude of Soul