the Night shineth as the Day The Darkness and the Night are both alike to Thee And forasmuch as the closing of our Eyes to Rest so nearly resembles Death and our Beds are but models of our Graves out of which we must one Day be called by the sound of the last Trump to Arise and come to Judgment Let this and every Evening and every Morning of our Lives put us in mind of our dying Hours And let no worldly Affairs hinder us from being always in a readiness for our last and final Conflict with the Prince and Powers of Darkness who knowing their time is but short will be sure to make their fiercest Assaults upon Departing-Souls when they find them struggling with Bodily pains and sharp Diseases and drawing nigh to their last Agonies And sometimes to terrify them with frightful Dreams and Visions to make them if possible utterly to despair of God's Mercies and to let go their hold and quit their Hopes of Eternal Life and Happiness Make us therefore sensible how highly it concerns us while we have Health of Body and soundness of Mind to arm our selves like good Souldiers with Christian Courage and Resolution for those Death-bed Combats and critical Hours Minutes and Moments of our Lives And because we are to wrestle with invisible Enemies of mighty Power and wonderful Knowledge great Subtilty and long Experience who know too well our Tempers Inclinations and Infirmities and where and how to set upon us with the greatest Advantage Be pleased to send thy blessed Angels and Ministring-Spirits to comfort and assist us in all those siery Tryals and Temptations That so Death which is to so many others the King of Terrors may be to us a kind Friend and a welcome Guest and we may with all cheerfulness quit these Houses of Clay and fleshy Tabernacles and exchange the Troubles and Sorrows of a painful Pilgrimage in a Valley of Tears for the Joys of Heaven and Everlasting Happiness with blessed Saints and Angels in the highest Heavens All which with whatever else Thou knowest to be needful either for us or for any of ours or for any of Thine we humbly beg in the Name and for the sake of the blessed Jesus who in compassion to our Infirmities has taught us thus to pray Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy NAME thy Kingdom come thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this Day our daily Bread and forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that Trespass against us and lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from Evil for thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen A MORNING-PRAYER FOR Sundays Fasts and Festivals LET us now fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker Most Holy Blessed Glorious and incomprehensible Triniry Father Son and Holy Ghost Three Persons and One God Almighty Maker of all Things and Judge of all Men Have mercy upon us miserable Sinners who are by Nature Children of Disobedience and by our actual Sins every Day and Hour of our Lives liable to Divine Wrath and Vengeance Remember not O Lord the many Follies and Vanities of our Child-hood and Youth nor the innumerable Transgressions of our riper Years and how we have always erred and strayed from the Ways of Truth and Righteousness and trod in forbidden Paths through the several Stages of our Lives leaving undone those things which thou hast absolutely commanded and doing those things which thou hast exprelly forbidden and many times drawing upon our selves the guilt of other Men's Sins by our Encouragement Connivance or ill Examples breaking the solemn Vows and Promises either made for us by others in Baptism or by our selves in Times of Danger or Sickness unthankful for Mercies and incorrigible under Judgments rejecting the Motiors of thy blessed Spirit and following the Devices Desires and vain Imaginations of our own Hearts and so running the hazard of losing our precious and immortal Souls for the enjoyment of a few sinful and short-liv'd Pleasures Blessed LORD we cannot but confess and acknowledge with shame and confusion of face that it is a wonder of thy patience and forbearance that we are yet alive and that thou hast not cut us of in the midst of our Sins and Doom'd us to dwell with everlasting Burnings among damned Souls and Spirits But this is our hope and humble confidence that we have to do with the God and Father of Mercies who takes no delight in the death of Sinners but is slow to Anger and ready to forgive all those who sincerely repent and truely believe in our blessed Lord and Saviour CHRIST JESUS for whose coming into the world to save lost Sinners and to open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers with Angels and Arch-Angels and all the Company of Heaven we laud and magnify thy great and holy NAME as we likewise do for thy other Mercies and Favours daily and hourly bestowed upon us We bless and praise Thee for giving us a Being in the World for that admirable Frame and Structure of our Bodies while we lay inclosed in our Mother's Wombs for breathing into us the Breath of Life and enduing us with reasonable Souls after thine own Image and Likeness for being Born where the Gospel of thy SON is openly preached and professed and not among Heathens Turks or Infidels For the unparallel'd Pattern of all Goodness in the Life of the holy JESUS and for the pious Examples of the blessed Patriarchs Prophets Apostâ—â—s and Martyrs who are gone before us and with their own Blood have traced out for us the true Way to Life and Happiness beseeching thee that we following their good Examples may with them be made partakers of Everlasting Life in the World to come We thank Thee LORD of Heaven and Earth for the wonderful Works of the Creation of which we all enjoy our shares and proportions for the Sun that shines by Day and for the Moon and Stars That rule by Night and by their regular Motions and sweet Influences serve for Signs and Seasons Days and Years for the Clouds that give Rain and drop Fatness upon our Fields and Pastures and for the Springs that go up by the Mountains and run down among the Vallies for reserving to us the appointed Times of Harvest and giving us the kindly Fruits of the Earth in their due and proper Seasons for our Food and Raiment and all the good things of this Life and our manifold preservations from sundry Dâ—â—â—â— and Dangers ever since we hung upon our Mother's Breasts for protecting us this last Night from many calamitous Accidents which in a Night might have befallen us and bringing us safely to the light of another Day and so giving us a longer time and space for Repentance and Amendment of our Lives most humbly beseeching Thee to continue these thy Mercies and Favours to us and to keep us the remainder of this Day and of our Lives from
Repentance with a stedfast and firm Resolution to reform and amend our Lives Bless us in our going out and our coming in when we are upon the Way when we lay us down and when we rise up When we are in our private Closets lend an Ear to our Prayers and answer the Desires of our Souls When we are employed about our Lawful Callings give success to our honest Labours and Endeavours When we are conversing with others let us behave our selves with all humility and meekness in all our Words and Actions esteeming others better than our selves and doing to others what we would be willing they should do unto us Being patient gentle and easy to be entreated slow to wrath and ready to forgive all those who have trespassed against us until seventy seven times Loving our Enemies doing good and shewing kindness as we have opportunities to those who hate persecute and despitefully use us Living in humble Obedience to and heartily praying for Him who hath the supreme Power over us together with all those who are related to Him or who are in Authority under Him Being no Busy-bodies in other Men's Matters no Whisperers Tale-bearers Slanderers or Back-biters No Deceivers or Covenant-breakers but sincere and upright in all our Dealings and Transactions No lovers of Earthly Treasure no Worshippers of Gold or Silver or greedy of filthy Lucre. With all chearfulness and alacrity dealing our Bread to the Hungry giving Drink to the Thirsty Clothing the Naked visiting the Sick relieving Prisoners redeeming Captives helping the Fatherless and Widows comforting and assisting the Desolate and Oppressed and never shutting up the Bowels of our Compassion from any who want our Help or Assistance And forasmuch as we are here but Strangers and Pilgrims let thy good Spirit guide and conduct us in our Way to our long Homes through the vast and wide Wilderness of this sinful World where there are so many Turnings and Windings Cross-ways and By-paths Thorns and Briars Pits and Precipices Traps and Snares laid for us by the Devil and his Emissaries to entice us to Sin and Wickedness and then to plunge us into endless Woe and Miseries Where there is no true content or Satisfaction to be found and where the most refined of Human Pleasures and Delights are allayed with the mixture of Cares and Troubles Fears and Jealousies Sicknesses and Diseases Crosses and Disappointments where Love and Kindness is often repaid with Hatred and Malice and the most bountiful Actions with ungrateful Returns Where the Poor are oppressed by Men of Power and innocent Lambs made a prey to ravenous Wolves where our Eyes are too often entertained with doleful Spectacles and our Ears filled with Sighs and Groans and bitter Lamentations And therefore Gracious FATHER be thou pleased to give us such a measure of Faith Hope and Patience as may bear us up in all the Changes and Chances of this Mortal Life and enable us in whatever State or Condition we are therewith to be content as well to be abased as to be exalted to want as to abound to have nothing as to possess all things And though the Fig-tree should be withered and no Fruit be found on the Vine the labour of the Olive fail and the Field yield no increase though there should be no Sheep in the Fold or Herd in the Stall no Cattel in the pasture or Stores in the Garner no Water in the Bottle or Oil in the Cruce yet still to trust in that GOD who feeds the Ravens and the young Lions when they call upon him who can make Rivers to flow out of hard Rocks and furnish a Table in the Wilderness With whom the very Hairs of our heads are all numbred and in whom none ever trusted and were confounded That so having finished our Course and run our Race and lived the Life of the Righteous our last END may be like unto his And whenever these Houses of Clay shall be dissolved our Souls may be safely conveyed by some blessed Guardian Angels to the place appointed for the Spirits of GOD's Elect there to wait with patience for a joyful Re-union with their respective Bodies at the Resurrection and second coming of CHRIST in Glory with all his holy Angels in whose Name and Words we farther desire to call upon Thee Saying Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy NAME thy Kingdom come thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this Day our daily Bread and forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that Trespass against us and lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from Evil for thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen AN EVENING-PRAYER FOR Every Day in the Week MOST Glorious LORD GOD and merciful Father in Christ Jesus who inhabitest the highest Heavens and yet art pleased to dwell in the lowest Hearts and hast graciously promised That where-ever Two or Three are gathered together in thy Name and Fear Thou wilt be there in the midst of them Look down in mercy upon us who are now before Thee and dare not give sleep to our Eyes or slumber to our Eye-lids till we have renewed our Covenant with the GOD and FATHER of Mercies and have humbly offered unto Him our Selves our Souls and Bodies as a reasonable service Be therefore pleased O Lord to forgive all the Sins of our past Lives particularly the Omissions and Commissions of this Day for which alone shouldst Thou enter into Judgment with us Thou mightst justly condemn us to the lowest Hell and give ns our portion with Hypocrites in utter Darkness Blessed LORD we desire from the bottom of our Hearts to be sensible of our manifold Frailties and Infirmities and of that Law in our Members that is always Warring against the Law of our Minds so that whenever we would do Good Evil is present with us and intermingles with our very Prayers and disturbs our most religious Duties and Performances And therefore it is that utterly renouncing our own Righteousness as Dung â—nd Dross we fly to Him who is our Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous to wash away our Sins with his own precious Blood and to present us unto Thee our GOD pure and spotless And for his sake we humbly beseech Thee O LORD to lighten our Darkness and by thy great mercy to defend us from all perils and dangers this Night giving us a moderate and refreshing Rest free from frightful Dreams and sinful Imaginations which are the evil Effects of our corrupt Natures When we awake let our Souls be filled with heavenly Thoughts and pious Meditations always remembring That we are in the presence of a God who knows our down-sitting and our up-rising who understands our Thoughts a farr off and is acquainted with all our ways If we should be so vain and foolish to believe that the Darkness would cover us the Night shall be light about us the Darkness hideth not from Thee but
to the Horizontal Line or 90 Degrees which Experiment being exactly performed gives great light to young Practitioners in the Mechanicks Lastly I know by Experience that an Engineer standing on the top of a Tower may by the help of Ropes and Pullies with a small force heave up a Tun weight or more to the perpendicular height of 10 or 20 Foot provided there be proportionable time given him for that Operation and also that he has a sufficient Fulcrum or place to which he may fasten one of his Blocks I can likewise imagine the Soul of a Man whilst his Body stands bolt up right to be a spiritual Engineer and to be seated in the Brain as in its Watch-Tower and there to make use of each hand and arm to lift up a ponderous Weight to the perpendicular height of 6 or 12 Inches But I must at the same time ingeniously acknowledge that I do not at all apprehend neither have I any Idea or Imagination by what secret power the Soul contracts or dilates the Muscles how it elaborates and sends forth the Animal Spirits or how it makes use of any of the ten pair of Nerves whose Origin is derived from the Medulla substance of the Brain which is in a manner as soft as Butter And I leave to the Contemplation of the most skilful and subtil Mechanick or Philosopher in the World the innumerable Difficulties that will arise from all the following Instances 1. Of a Porter taking up great and ponderous Burthens from off the ground and heaving them on his shoulders 2. Of a Waterman who upon a Wager pulls in his Oars with both his Arms towards his body and at the same time thrusts from him with his Thighs and Legs in which Motion viz. that of his Arms and Hands he works with a Quintiple disadvantage according to the Doctrine of Staticks because the Muscle of the Humerus is fastned but to a 6th part of the Cubitus or Radius as I my self have measured upon a dead Man's bones 3. Of a Seaman working at a Drum-Capstan a Contrivance I presented to the late King Charles the Second many years ago to weight up the ponderous Anchors of great Ships which has since saved great Numbers of English Sea-men's lives 4. Of one who distorts all the Parts Members and Joints of his Body so as to make it appear in many different Figures and strange Shapes Such a one I have seen at Paris and such a one there was not long since in the City of London who went by the Name of Posture John 5. Of one who jumps wrestles throws the Bar runs a Race or fights a Prize 6. Of one who performs strange Feats of Activity Vaults and cuts Capers in the Air to a great height as he is dancing on the Stage or on the Ropes 7. A skilful and active Musician the different Motions of whose Fingers are of incredible swiftness Ejaculation O Almighty GOD Maker of all things Visible and Invisible How wonderful and unsearchable are all thy Works How deep are all thy Thoughts and thy Ways past finding out by us poor Mortals or indeed by any finite Creatures All that I shall add to what has been already mentioned upon this Subject shall be only this That if there are so many insuperable Difficulties about Bodily Operations as to Motion and Sense how much greater must of necessity be the Difficulties of the Souls Operations which are wholly abstracted from and have no Correspondence at all with Bodies or Sense Of this Sort as I think is a late learned Philosopher's Cogito though I understand not at all his Inference of Ergo sum But whatever he intends my meaning is the Soul 's drawing necessary Conclusions from undoubted Premises and so forming within it self Syllogisms As likewise its Apprehensions of a Supreme Diety or an Almighty MAKER of all Things who is from Everlasting to Everlasting and depends upon none And its Reflections of Conscience either Accusing or Excusing Moral Actions Forgive me Courteous Reader I am already lost in a Labyrinth of Thoughts and my Soul is over-whelmed with a Deluge of Imaginations and can make no further progress At the Resurrection you and I shall know more and be much wiser than we now are When this Mortal shall put on Immortality When our Understandings shall be more illuminated and when the Eyes of our Souls shall be no longer forced to look or peep through such thick Humors muddy Waters dull Tunicks and horny Spectacles The Second Question THE Second Question Q. Where hast thou been Answer Alas I do not well know where Nor how Nor when Nor what I have been doing Of my Infant-days I have no Knowledge or Remembrance but admire God's infinite Goodness who I verily believe sends his blessed Angels to watch over young Babes and tender Infants who of all other living Creatures are the least able to help themselves Ejaculation Thou O Lord art he who took'st me from the Womb And thou hast been my hope ever since I hung upon my Mothers Breasts In the Morning of my Life for several Hours I stood idle in the Market-place with others of my Companions pleasing my self with childish Toys and youthful Vanities In my more mature Age though I had frequent Calls and Invitations to labour in God's Vineyard yet nevertheless I rather chose to gratify my own roving Fancy and satisfy my vain Curiosity in ranging Abroad and making enquiry into the Customs and Manners of foreign Countries and then to enter into the secret Intregues and mysterious Transactions of my own where I had opportunity to hear see and observe many things which must be buried in Oblivion And here I must acknowledge I met with no small variety of Cares and Troubles Fears and Jealousies Crosses and Disappointments and found my self at the brink of many a deep pit and steep precipice and in great danger to have perished without a wonderful preservation and deliverance Besides all this I leave it to Men of greater Wisdom and Experience to consider how hard and difficult a thing it is to be entangled with the Cross-purposes of publick Affairs and yet have leisure to mind that one Thing necessary The Salvation of our Souls with which all the Riches Honours and Pleasures which this World affords are not worthy to be laid in the Ballance Ejaculation Remember not O Lord the unaccountable Follies and Vanities of my Childhood and Touth nor the innumerable Transgressions of my riper Tears Blot out of thy Remembrance the many Breaches of solemn Vows and Promises by me made in Times of Danger and Sickness or any prevarications with the God and Father of Mercies and the hazarding my Soul's Eternal Welfare and Happiness for the sake of a few sinful and short-liv'd Pleasures Methinks this World does not unfitly resemble a Theatre or Stage whereon every Man presents himself Acts his Part and so makes his Exit But in all the various Passages of his Life and frequent
watchful and diligent was that old Serpent to wait for the coming of another King whom he might incense and so bring the Isratlites under Slavery and Bondage When Moses was deputed immediately by God for their Deliverance what diabolical Artifices did he use to help the Magicians to counterfeit some of his Miracles and so to harden the heart of Pharaoh and the hearts of all his Servants When the distressed Israelites were got out of that King's Dominions How ready was he upon all occasions to improve to the utmost the sullen Nature and unthankful Disposition of that People so as to provoke God in the Wilderness by their frequent Murmurings and Complaints for the space of forty Years When they had got possession of the Promised Land How quickly did he bring them acquainted with Baal and Ashtaroth and the rest of the false Gods of the Nations round about them whom Joshua had not yet extirpated And thus they continued their Rebellion and brought upon themselves many severe Judgments and were very often subject to the Will and Pleasure of their Enemies till at last a great part of them were carried away Captive to Babylon with their Wives and Children and others of them expos'd to the Sword Pestilence and Famine When our Saviour was born in Bethlehem How subtilly and maliciously did he prompt that cruel Tyrant Herod in his Rage and Anger to murther for his sake all the Male-Children in those parts from two years old and under Reflection But here I must entreat the Reader 's patience to permit me a while to make a pause For certainly had that Enemy of throughly understood the Mysteries of Man's Redemption by the coming of the blessed JESUS he had neither incensed Herod to make so cruel a Slaughter in Bethlehem or inspired the Jews with such vehement Rage and Passion to urge Pilate against his own Inclination to give Sentence for his Crucifixion which must of necessity prove so fatal to himself and his Kingdom of Darkness When the blessed Jesus was gone to Heaven and had given Commission to his Apostles to act in their several Provinces and to disperse the Gospel throughout all Nations How did the Devil animate and enrage the Heathen Idolaters and Savage Barbarians to treat them with all manner of Cruelties And it s almost incredible how many Thousands or rather Millions suffer'd Martyrdom for the sake of the Gospel during the Reign of Nero Domitian Trajan and the rest of the persecuting Emperors no less than thirty three Roman Bishops successively are said to have been put to Death with great Cruelties Now in all those Proceedings both of the Jews and Heathens against the Christians the Devil's Malice was sufficiently evident and notorious But I must needs confess that his great Master-piece of Malice and Revenge was shown in After-ages in sowing Discords and Divisions in the Church of Christ and in animating Christians against Christians of which to this very day we have sad and woful Experience I am loth to mention any Particulars for fear of giving Offence to the several and respective Parties but leave every good Man to his own Observations and Reflections and to his private Prayers to the God and Father of Mercies for Unity Peace and Concord in his holy Catholick and Apostolick Church and for the blessed Communion of all his Saints and chosen Servants during their Pilgrimage in this Valley of Tears and that he will be graciously pleas'd in his due time to purge out of his Church all manner of Sin and Wickedness which now rules and reigns amongst us What are those Follies and Vanities nay What are those gross and enormous Impieties which are not at this day to be found within the Pale of the Church and amongst those who name the Name and are in outward appearance Professors of the Gospel of Christ Jesus Here dwell Atheism Infidelity Pride and Vain-glory Dissimulation and Hypocrisy with Hatred Malice and Envy Here you you may find the Poor oppressed by Men of Might and innocent Lambs made a Prey to ravenous Wolves Here we have too often presented to our Eyes most doleful and lamentable Objects and have one Ear filled with Slanders Reproaches Calumnies Oaths Blasphemies and horrid Curses and the other with deep Sighs sorrowful Groans mournful Complaints and bitter Lamentations Here we may observe Men of almost all Ranks and Degrees instead of seeking first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and that one thing necessary The Salvation of their Souls build themselves stately Houses upon sandy Foundations and propose to themselves that which is never to be had in this World true Content and Happiness but still make gross Mistakes and never accomplish their Designs Not unlike Arches of greater and lesser Circles all which seem to eneline some more some less towards a straight Line but none of them can truly agree or ever be co-incident with any part of it Here we may find ambitious Men climbing and twisting themselves up by a Spiral Line to the top of Honour and suddenly falling headlong down by a Perpendicular Here likewise we may observe the Covetous Man whom the Lord abhors hoarding up Gold and Silver in his rusty Coffer that so he may lay Field to Field Arable to Pasture and Tenement to Lordship till he be left alone within a vast circumference of which his Purse was the Diameter and his contracted and shrunk-up Soul the Center and it sometimes happens that our Saviour's Item Thou Fool this night c. becomes his Doom and he leaves behind him that Wealth which he never truly enjoyed to purchase an Equipage for some dissolute and prodigal Heir to ride post to Hell A friendly Caution to those who study the Perpetual-Motion THE young Mechanick has no sooner learned the plain Operations of Arithmetick and galloped over the first six Books of Euclid had the sight of a Pendulum-Clock wrought a few strokes with his own hand at a Pump or forcing Engine and seen how a Water-wheel turns about the Lantern-wheel of a Corn-mill but the very first thing he sets upon is the Perpetual-Motion not at all doubting but in a short time to triumph over the old Rules of Staticks and Ordinances of Hydrostaticks by making one Pound weight descending six foot perpendicularly in the space of a Minute to raise up the weight of two pound to as great or greater perpendicular height in the same space of time and with the strength of a Child of 8 or 10 years old to force up 4 or 500 Tun of Water in an hours space to any given height above its own Superficies and by this means to drain or drown whole Countries To erect Corn-mills in all standing Pools with many such Projects and thereby to gain to himself immortal Fame and a princely Fortune till at last having spent his Patrimony and wasted his precious time he unfortunately meets with an Ordinance of the Almighty Maker called an Equilibrium which pronounces the poor
dies where the Fire that burns is never to be quenched nor the Body that is burning never consumed THE Third Question Q. What art thou now doing Answer I hope through God's great Goodness and Mercy That one Thing necessary For having wandred up and down and made many weary steps in the wide Wilderness of a vain and sinfull World I was at last very desirous to return home to my self but must freely confess some Truths which to my Readers at first sight may seem Paradoxes or Riddles viz. I could never truly get into my self before I was got out of and had wholly left my self My wavering Mind was never rightly composed till it was extreamly disturbed I had no ease till I was in pain nor Peace and quietness till I was in trouble and distress I could enjoy nothing till I was dispossest of all things I was unable to stand up till I was fallen down to make the least progress till I was struck with Lameness or to see my Way till I had lost both my Eyes Ejaculation and Prayer Father of Mercies I do sincerely and with all my Soul bless and praise Thee for all the Changes and Chances the Disgrace and Misfortunes the Crosses and Disappointments and the bodily pains and Torments that have followed one another like Job's messengers and so closely attended this last Scene of my Life and Evening of my Days As really believing that they were all Marks and Tokens of thy favour and loving Kindness and that the great Physician of Soul and Body never does administer those bitter Pills to his Sick Patients but for blessed Ends and Purposes Lord I believe all this help my unbelief and graciously grant that thy poor distressed Servant may at last come out of the Furnace of Affliction and Troubles like Gold and Silver that has been tried in the fire and purified seven times Let others imbarque and hazard their immortal Souls in what false Bottoms they please Let the Ambitious-Man glory in his Honors and Preferments Let the Covetous Man's trust and confidence be his worldly Wealth and Mammon of Unrighteousness Let the Voluptuous Man's Paradise be his Dalilahs and sensual Pleasures But Christian Reader let you and I in this our Day and while we have Time and Opportunity make Provision for Eternity In order to this there are some things which we either do or may know by the Light of Nature and those Principles which we brought into the World with us the visible things of the Creation naturally leading us to the knowledge of one God Almighty Maker and Governor of all things and the Law of Nature that is written in our hearts prompting us to worship that God to be just in our Dealings to honour our Parents and the like And when on the one hand we faithfully perform or on the other hand do any thing contrary to what the Light of Nature dictates to us we have Consciences within us that do either accuse or else excuse our Actions and Behaviours and thus far go the Heathens But now there are other things which more nearly concern us Christians and these are revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures which Scriptures we are to esteem and reverence as undoubted and unquestionable Truths both as to the historical part of them and also the Precepts Promises and Threats contained in them and that for the Reasons alledged in a foregoing part of this Treatise 1. In these Scriptures we are taught and commanded to acknowledge the Holy Blessed and Glorious Trinity Three Persons and one God who is an infinitely glorious Spirit that was from Everlasting without Beginning and shall be to Everlasting without End That he is no bodily Substance such as our Eyes behold but Spiritual and Invisible whom no Man hath seen or can see who comprehends all things and is only Immense not to be comprehended by any who can never be defined by any Words nor conceived by the Mind That He is infinitely Great and Excellent beyond all that we can possibly imagine That He has received his Being from none and gives Being to all things 2. To acknowledge His Divine excellencies and glorious Attributes as namely His All-sufficiency and admirable Providence in Disposing Governing and preserving all things his Omnipotence Omniscience and Omnipresence his Eternal Truth and Justice his transcendent Purity and Holiness and his infinite Mercy and Goodness 3. To love this God with all our Hearts and Souls as He is the Fountain of all Goodness and Excellency in himself and as He is infinitely kind and merciful towards us both in respect of our Souls and Bodies in giving us a Being in the World in forming and framing us wonderfully in our Mother's wombs in breathing into us the Breath of Life and enduing us with reasonable Souls after his own Image and Likeness in giving us our Birth within the Pale of the Church and not among Heathens Turks or Infidels in leaving us so many pious Examples of the blessed Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and Martyrs who are gone before us and with their own Blood have traced out for us the true way to Life and Happiness But above all that unparallell'd Pattern of Piety and Goodness in the Life of the Holy Jesus who so freely gave up himself as an Offering to save lost Sinners and to open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers in giving us Food and Rayment and all the good Things of this Life and preserving us from sudden Deaths and Dangers ever since we hung upon our Mother's breasts To answer all which Love and Kindness of God to us we must express our Love to him by our hearty and honest Endeavours to please him in all things which we can never do without a sincere Repentance and a firm Resolution to amend our Lives and never to harbour in our Bosoms any secret Lust or live in any known Sin or Sins as likewise by taking all Opportunities of conversing with him as well in our private Closets as in the publick Assemblies by Prayer Fasting and Meditation by reading and hearing his Word and receiving the blessed Sacrament and lastly by our earnest and longing Desire whenever we shall put off these fleshly Tabernacles to enjoy him by Beatifick Vision amongst blessed Saints and Angels in the highest Heavens 4. To fear him not only with an awful fear from the consideration of his Power and Justice he being a God of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity and also when provoked by our Impieties able to cast both Body and Soul into everlasting Flames which is infinitely more than either Men or Devils can do against us but also with a Filial fear as an obedient and dutiful Child truly fears to offend or displease a loving and tender Father 5. To trust in Him and to depend upon Him at all times and in all Conditions as well in regard of our Spiritual as our Temporal Concerns If we are assaulted by Temptations we are to rely upon him either
Musick-meetings publick Shows or other vain and sinful Pastimes I have been present at either to please my self or to gratify others On the contrary What would I now give or rather What would I not give to have spent the greatest part of those precious Hours in private Prayer and Meditation And the expence of all in casting my Bread upon the Waters and administring to the Necessities of the Poor the Widow and the Fatherless As for Stage-plays not to mention other vain and unnecessary Divertisements I am inclined to believe that the Original intent of them was to applaud Vertuous Actions and to discountenance Vitious Livers But I appeal to all sober Persons whether the Practice of this last Age has not produced contrary effects And I crave leave to ask one short Question of young Gentlemen and Ladies and their Inferiours of both Sexes What satisfaction they hope to have when they come to lie on their sick or Death-beds none of them knowing how soon they may receive the fatal Summons for having been the Auditors and Spectators of so many Prophane and and Obscene Plays Or to have read so many vain and idle Romances where they learn little else than to make or receive unlawful Courtships or to gain such a kind of Knowledge as their Mother Eve got by eating the Forbidden Fruit or to be instructed in those Intregues which otherwise its possible they had never known or thought of all their lives I would also demand of the Authors and Actors of some certain Plays with what face they can ask of God from day to day a Blessing upon their Labours and Endeavours Or what Account they will one day give at the Bar of his Tribunal for having been the unhappy Instruments of corrupting and debauching so many hopeful Persons of both Sexes who otherwise might have been eminent Examples of Piety and Godliness in their several Generations Prayer And I beseech God Almighty of His infinite Goodness and Mercy to incline the Hearts of all those Writers and Readers Authors and Actors Auditors and Spectators while they have Time and Opportunities to make suitable and seasonable Reflections I am going But O blessed Redeemer How shall I ever find the way or get to my Journeys end with safety unless Thou be pleased to send some Guardian Angel as well to lead and guide as to aid and assist me When I stumble in rugged and uneven Ways to hold me up in his Arms. When I turn aside into crooked and by-paths to pull me back by force When I am near a Pit or Precipice to give me a friendly Item and timely notice When I am dull and heavy and grow slothful in the performance of my Duty to stir up and awaken me When I am Hungry and Thirsty as Travellers are led by their Guides into their Oberges for a Viaticum and there refresh themselves to conduct me to thine House and holy Place there to sit down at thine own Table and be fed with the true Bread which came down from Heaven and to drink of the Fruit of the true Vine and the Water of Life of which whoever once drinks shall never thirst again Parlate Parlate i cadaveri sepolti When I am assaulted with Enemies from without or from within whether they be my own private Lusts and Passions or whether they be Principalities or Powers the Rulers of the Darkness of this World and spiritual Wickednesses in high Places those invisible Enemies of mighty Power and perfect knowledge of wonderful Subtilty and long Experience then gracious Father let me be furnished with all sorts of spiritual Armour the Breast-plate of Righteousness the Shield of Faith the Helmet of Salvation and the Sword of the Spirit That so as a valiant Souldier I may sight under thy Banner and be able to resist all the Wiles Assaults and fiery Darts of the Devil and all his Infernal Spirits and to subdue and bring under my own unruly Lusts and Passions When I meet with Troubles and Afflictions Crosses and Disappointments Wrongs and Injuries let me be armed with such a measure of Humility Meekness Long-suffering Patience and Equanimity as may bear me up through all the Changes and Chances of this Mortal Life and during my earthly Pilgrimage When I fall into Fainting-Fits through Age and Bodily Distempers let thy blessed Spirit administer to me such comfortable Cordials as may support my drooping Spirits Reflection Why then art thou cast down so often O my Soul And why for the Trifles of Mortality art thou so disquieted within me Trust still in God who will never leave nor forsake thee For sure I am that I shall yet praise Him for His loving Kindness and tender Mercies to me the least and meanest of all his Servants When I draw nigh to my last Agonies then blessed Lord O then be pleased of thy infinite Mercy and Goodness to chain up that great Enemy of Souls and Prince of Darkness with all his Infernal Legions who always make their most furious and fierce Assaults upon poor departing Souls that so neither Height nor Depth nor Things present nor Things to come may ever be able to separate me from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord or make me let go my hold or quit my hope of Eternal Life and Happiness In the last and critical Moment of my departure out of this troublesome World let my Soul be safely conveyed by some Guardian Angel to the place appointed for the Spirits of God's Elect there to rest with chearfulness and to wait with patience for a joyful Re-union with this Body of mine at the Resurrection when it shall be raised out of the Dust with Immortality and Incorruption And then let both Soul and Body thus united be received into that Coelestial Paradise where being very far from imitating the rebuked Ambition of Zebedee's two Children to be the meanest and lowest of all the Redeemed and happy Individuals of Human Race is the height of my Ambition and the utmost of my Desires A MORNING-PRAYER FOR Ordinary Week-Days LET now the Words of our Mouths and the Meditations of our Hearts find Grace and Favour with Thee O LORD our Strength and our Redeemer Almighty GOD and most merciful FATHER who of thy wonted Goodness and Mercy hast protected and preserved us this last Night from many calamitous Accidents which otherwise might have befallen us and safely brought us to the Light of another Day defend us we pray Thee in the same with thy mighty Power and so prevent us with thy gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our Works begun continued and ended in Thee we may ever seek thy HONOUR and GLORY and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through JESUS CHRIST our blessed LORD and SAVIOUR For whose SAKE We humbly pray Thee to blot out of thy Remembrance all our past Sins and Provocations and to work in our Hearts a godly Sorrow and a sincere